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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political control & freedoms > Political control & influence > Propaganda
During the EOKA period of Greek Cypriot revolt against British
colonial rule, the Greek Cypriots and the British deployed
propaganda as a means of swaying allegiances, both within Cyprus
and on the international scene. Propaganda and the Cyprus Revolt
places new emphasis on the vital role propaganda played in turning
the tide against British colonial control over Cyprus. Examining
the increase of violence and coercion during this period of revolt,
this book examines how the opposing sides' mobilization of
propaganda offered two alternative visions for the future of Cyprus
that divided opinion, to the ultimate detriment of British
counterinsurgency efforts. Detailing the deployment of propaganda
by both parties across radio, television and print channels, the
book draws upon previously unpublished archival material in order
to paint a detailed picture of how the British Empire lost control
over the hearts and minds of the Greek Cypriot people. This study
shines new light on a crucial period of Cypriot history and
contributes to wider transnational debates around the use of
propaganda and the end of empire. This will be an essential read
for students of Cyprus history and British colonial history.
The War Artists' Advisory Committee (WAAC) were responsible for the
production of some of the most iconic images of the Second World
War. Despite its rich historical value, this collection has been
poorly utilised by historians and hasn't been subjected to the
levels of analysis afforded to other forms of wartime culture. This
innovative study addresses this gap by bringing official war art
into dialogue with the social, economic and military histories of
the Second World War. Rebecca Searle explores the tensions between
the documentarist and propagandistic roles of the WAAC in their
representation of aerial warfare in the battle for production, the
Battle of Britain, the Blitz and the bombing of Germany. Her
analyses demonstrate that whilst there was a strong correlation
between war art and propaganda, the WAAC depicted many aspects of
experience that were absent from wartime propaganda, such as class
divisions within the services, gendered hierarchies within
industries, civilian death and the true nature of the bombing of
Germany. In addition, she shows that propagandistic constructions
were not entirely separate from lived experience, but reflected
experience and shaped the way that individuals made sense of the
war. Accessibly written, highly illustrated and packed with
valuable examples of the use of war art as historical source, this
book will enhance our understanding of the social and cultural
history of Britain during the Second World War.
In 1958, Shepard Stone, then directing the Ford Foundation's
International Affairs program, suggested that his staff "measure"
America's cultural impact in Europe. He wanted to determine whether
efforts to improve opinions of American culture were yielding good
returns. Taking Stone's career as a point of departure and frequent
return, Volker Berghahn examines the triangular relationship
between the producers of ideas and ideologies, corporate America,
and Washington policymakers at a peculiar juncture of U.S. history.
He also looks across the Atlantic, at the Western European
intellectuals, politicians, and businessmen with whom these
Americans were in frequent contact. While shattered materially and
psychologically by World War II, educated Europeans did not shed
their opinions about the inferiority, vulgarity, and commercialism
of American culture. American elites--particularly the East Coast
establishment--deeply resented this condescension. They believed
that the United States had two culture wars to win: one against the
Soviet Bloc as part of the larger struggle against communism and
the other against deeply rooted negative views of America as a
civilization. To triumph, they spent large sums of money on overt
and covert activities, from tours of American orchestras to the
often secret funding of European publications and intellectual
congresses by the CIA.
At the center of these activities were the Ford Foundation, the
Congress for Cultural Freedom, and Washington's agents of cultural
diplomacy. This was a world of Ivy League academics and East Coast
intellectuals, of American philanthropic organizations and their
backers in big business, of U.S. government agencies and their
counterparts across the Atlantic. This book uses Shepard Stone as a
window to this world in which the European-American relationship
was hammered out in cultural terms--an arena where many of the
twentieth century's major intellectual trends and conflicts
unfolded.
""Thank You, Comrade Stalin" illuminates the story of the rise and
demise of official public culture in the Soviet Union. In lively
and provocative prose, Jeffrey Brooks examines the Soviet press to
show how Party leaders constructed a vision of national identity
through their tight control over the dissemination of information.
This powerful book will spark new debates about the Cold War, and
will fascinate anyone who ever longed for a peek behind the 'iron
curtain'."--Elaine Tyler May, University of Minnesota
"Jeffrey Brooks demonstrates in fascinating detail what the term
'logocracy'--the rule of words--meant in the Soviet Union.
Concentrating on the press but also covering literature and the
arts, he shows how the public culture promoted by the communist
authorities from Lenin to Stalin to the exclusion of all
independent thought created its own false reality. It sustained the
dictatorship but in the long run also contributed to its decay and
collapse. The book is an important contribution to the
understanding of a regime that exerted such baleful influence on
the twentieth century."--Richard Pipes, Harvard University
"Jeffrey Brooks has lifted the curtain on a great mystery: how
did the makers of the official Soviet state construct their world
view? Through a splendid examination of the Soviet Press, Brooks
reveals that the rise of the cult of Stalin, Soviet anti-Semitism
and the great 'Great Patriotic War' against Fascism provided the
foundational myths of the new regime. As he details the unfolding
of the Soviet view of the Cold War, no longer will it be possible
for scholars to study the Cold War as only a diplomatic response to
the Soviets or an internal affair focusedon anti-communist purges
in the United States. Rather we have to understand the two great
powers in dialogue with each other, and that political and cultural
history are two sides of the same coin."--Professor Lary May,
University of Minnesota
"Professor Jeffrey Brooks's "Thank You, Comrade Stalin!" is one
of the very best books in any language on the Soviet Union and
system."--Nicholas V. Riasanovsky, University of California,
Berkeley
"Through a meticulous and exhaustive analysis of the daily
Soviet Press, Brooks traces the development of the media vocabulary
that provided the basic ideological ground informing relationships
between the state and its citizens. The Stalin who stands at the
center of this web of deceit is not first and foremost a monster
nor an ideologue, but rather an omnipresent textual reality, the
ultimate spinmeister."--Andrew Wachtel, Northwestern University
"The twentieth century knew other terrorist regimes, but the
character and tone of Stalinist discourse was unique. Stalinist
verbiage took the place of real discussions about the issues facing
society, and Brooks gives us the most thorough, most intelligent
analysis of that verbiage."--Peter Kenez, University of California,
Santa Cruz
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