Randall L. Bytwerk

I went to Northwestern University as a graduate student in 1971 expecting to do research on John Calvin's rhetoric, an interest I'd developed as an undergraduate at Calvin College. I quickly discovered that to do research on Calvin, I needed to know French and Latin. I knew German. Professor Robert D. Brooks, however, was looking for graduate students interested in propaganda, and I was the only one who knew enough German to be dangerous. He persuaded me to take up the subject, which has kept me occupied ever since.

After completing my Ph.D., I taught at Southern Illinois University from 1975-1985 and Calvin College from 1985-2014. I retired from Calvin College [now Calvin University] in 2014. For the fall 2015 and 2017 semesters I taught at LCC International University in Klaipėda, Lithuania.

With a few exceptions, my publications are on Nazi and East German political propaganda. A full list is available here:

https://www.bytwerk.com/Bytwerk%20Vita.pdf

Besides my books on the area, I maintain the German Propaganda Archive, a large and growing collection of translations and images from the Nazi and East German periods. It's worth a visit:

https://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/