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Books > Reference & Interdisciplinary > Controversial knowledge
"This book names the most powerful forces in Europe which organized
the Fascist and Nazi parties and movement, the powerful American
forces which own, control and subsidize native Fascism, and the
spokesmen, radio orators, writers and other agents of reaction in
America." Facts and Fascism is the definitive account and source
book on Fascism in the United States after the First World War and
on into the Second. No doubt every subsequent work on this
explosive topic owes a great debt to this original research. By
crusading investigative journalist George Seldes, the book is in
three parts: 1) The Big Money and Big Profits in Fascism, 2) Native
Fascist Forces, and 3) Our Press as a Fascist Force. The first part
reveals the backing of U.S. and British big business behind the
rise of Fascism and militarism, with chapters on Germany, Italy,
Japan, and Spain, the Nazi cartels and the National Association of
Manufacturers. The author was a reporter in Italy in the early 20's
as Fascism got its start, and wrote a full-length, critical
portrait of Mussolini. In "Native Fascist Forces," Seldes first
tells the story of the botched putsch by J. P. Morgan and the
American Legion against FDR in 1934 - surely one of the most
hushed-up episodes in US history. Next Seldes dissects the Ford
empire's support for Nazism and its repressive, even murderous
labor practices, and Nazi apologists like Lindbergh, Father
Coughlin and the Reader's Digest. The third part explores and
deplores acts of treason by war-profiteering heavy industry and by
the major newspaper chains. He exposes their habit of faking news
for their political agenda, going back to the 1850's in support of
black slavery, and white servitude - that is, with attacks on labor
and social justice. The last chapter discusses profiteering from a
different form of slavery, the tobacco addiction. Among the
appendices is one on the definition of Fascism, and data on Who
Owns America - thirteen plutocratic families.
"The Verdict of the VERSAILLES TREATY that Germany and her allies
were responsible for the War, in view of the evidence now
available, is historically unsound. It should therefore be
revised." These are the words of Sidney Bradshaw Fay, noted
revisionist historian, on the concluding page of his magisterial
Origins of the World War, published in 1928. We now know more about
the Great War than merely its origins. We now know that Great
Britain's first act of war on 4 August 1914 was to cut the two
trans-Atlantic cables that connected Berlin to New York City. We
now know that America's professed neutrality in the early years of
the conflict was a hoax. We now know that the Cunard passenger
liner RMS Lusitania doubled as a munitions ship, and purposefully
steamed into harm's way in May 1915. We now know that the alleged
atrocities by the German army in Belgium were all lies. We now know
that the British organized a massive, covert propaganda apparatus
with the goal of dragging America into the war on the side of the
Allies. And we now also know that America's involvement in 1917 as
a belligerent in Europe was a tragic misstep by anglophile Woodrow
Wilson, that had profound implications not only for the United
States but for Europe as well, ensuring an even more catastrophic
reprise in 1939. Wilson himself declared, "We all know that this
was a commercial war," in September 1919. In April 1937, on the
20th anniversary of America's entry into the war, a Gallup Poll
found that 70 percent of respondents thought "it was a mistake for
the United States to have entered the Great War." Dr. George Gallup
himself declared that "this conviction has been the great master
principle of the post-war period in the United States". The lesson
is forgotten, propaganda for war repeats, and history repeats. The
majorities supporting an invasion of Iraq in 2003 turned two years
later to 60 percent opposition to the war...a lesson learned too
late again.
Costume design is a crucial, but frequently overlooked, aspect of
film that fosters an appreciation of the diverse ways in which film
and fashion enrich each other. These influential industries offer
representations of ideas, values, and beliefs that shape and
construct cultural identities. In Fashioning Spanish Cinema, Jorge
Perez analyses the use of clothing and fashion as costumes within
Spanish cinema, paying particular attention to the significance of
those costumes in relation to the visual styles and the narratives
of the films. The author examines the links between costume
analysis and other fields and theoretical frameworks such as
fashion studies, the history of dress, celebrity studies, and
gender and feminist studies. Fashioning Spanish Cinema looks at
instances in which costumes are essential to shaping the public
image of stars, such as Conchita Montenegro, Sara Montiel, Victoria
Abril, and Penelope Cruz. Focusing on examples in which costumes
have discursive autonomy, it explores how costumes engage with
broader issues of identity and, relatedly, how costumes impact
everyday practices and fashion trends beyond cinema. Drawing on
case studies from multiple periods, films by contemporary directors
and genres, and red-carpet events such as the Oscars and Goya
Awards, Fashioning Spanish Cinema contributes a pivotal Spanish
perspective to expanding interdisciplinary work on the
intersections between film and fashion.
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