In retracing the history of the "Neue Zeitung", Gienow-Hecht focuses on the editors' conflicts with the U.S. War Department, charting the newspaper's political and philosophical changes over the course of a decade. She examines the publication's role in the larger context of occupation policy and psychological warfare, the growing Soviet resentment of the paper, the attempted shift of the "Neue Zeitung" from an information medium to a propaganda instrument, reactions to this change of editorial policy, and the unsuccessful effort of the U.S. officials to turn the paper into a mouthpiece of the U.S. military in Germany shortly before the ratification of the German Basic Law.

Jessica C. E. Gienow-Hecht is deputy director of the Center for U.S. Studies at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg in Germany.