The German Corpse Factory is one of the most famous and scandalous propaganda stories of the First World War. It has been repeated many times down to the present day as the prime example of the falsehood of British wartime propaganda. But despite all the attention paid to it, the full story has never been properly told. In Spring 1917, parts of the British press claimed that Germany was so short of essential fats and glycerine that the German Army was being forced to boil down the bodies of its own dead soldiers, causing a brief scandal of accusation and counter-accusation, including the claim that the story was the invention of the British official propaganda organisations. Behind the scenes, British propaganda experts opposed exploiting the story as it was obviously false, and contrary to their basic principles of never telling an obvious lie in an official statement. But at the time, the British government refused to deny that the 'German Corpse Factory' might really exist. In 1925 the scandal re-erupted in New York, when the former head of British military intelligence on the Western Front, in the United States on a speaking tour, was quoted in newspapers as having confessed to making the whole German Corpse Factory story up, a claim that he immediately denied. As a gesture of friendship on the occasion of the Locarno treaties, the British government now accepted the German government position that the story was a lie, but in fact neither government knew what had really happened in 1917. This book provides the answers to these questions according to the best historical evidence available. It uses the scandal of the 'German Corpse Factory' as a case-study to explore the true nature of British official propaganda and its organisations in the First World War, including the events of 1917 and who might really have been responsible for the story. It also shows how this brief episode was taken up by the German government after 1918, and by interest groups in Britain and the United States after 1925, to paint a false picture of British propaganda, with far-reaching consequences for the peace of Europe, and for our subsequent understanding of the First World War.

Questions of gender, race, class, and sexuality have largely been left unexamined in surveillance studies. The contributors to this field-defining collection take up these questions, and in so doing provide new directions for analyzing surveillance. They use feminist theory to expose the ways in which surveillance practices and technologies are tied to systemic forms of discrimination that serve to normalize whiteness, able-bodiedness, capitalism, and heterosexuality. The essays discuss the implications of, among others, patriarchal surveillance in colonial North America, surveillance aimed at curbing the trafficking of women and sex work, women presented as having agency in the creation of the images that display their bodies via social media, full-body airport scanners, and mainstream news media discussion of honor killings in Canada and the concomitant surveillance of Muslim bodies. Rather than rehashing arguments as to whether or not surveillance keeps the state safe, the contributors investigate what constitutes surveillance, who is scrutinized, why, and at what cost. The work fills a gap in feminist scholarship and shows that gender, race, class, and sexuality should be central to any study of surveillance. Contributors. Seantel Anais, Mark Andrejevic, Paisley Currah, Sayantani DasGupta, Shamita Das Dasgupta, Rachel E. Dubrofsky, Rachel Hall, Lisa Jean Moore, Yasmin Jiwani, Ummni Khan, Shoshana Amielle Magnet, Kelli Moore, Lisa Nakamura, Dorothy Roberts, Andrea Smith, Kevin Walby, Megan M. Wood, Laura Hyun Yi Kang

As widespread environmental degradation threatens the basic human rights of a large proportion of the world's population, we are also confronting the worst migration crisis in the modern era. Emerging Threats to Human Rights searches among the interrelated causes of these overlapping crises. The editor and contributors to this timely anthology assess how environmental resources, state violence, and the deprivation of nationality/citizenship are linked to gain a better understanding of how human rights abuses intersect with patterns of migration. As some refugees flee violence at home, they arrive in an asylum country only to experience violence at the hands of the native population. Likewise, those denied citizenship rights in their country become vulnerable to human traffickers and other rights violations when they flee. Bringing together scholars of resource dilemmas, violence, and citizenship as well as lawyers and human rights practitioners, Emerging Threats to Human Rights begins by identifying the core causes of human rights violations confronting our world today. Chapters also consider whether and to what extent these emerging threats to human rights serve as drivers of displacement.

Many people consider their reputations to be something worth valuing above life itself. Throughout history, there has been no shortage of individuals who have fought duels to the death over matters of honor. Quite a few nations have gone to war with others or annihilated entire segments of their population purportedly in defense of their national honor or that of their race.

Character assassination is an attempt to discredit a person's reputation. The intention is to have the individuals targeted by such campaigns isolated and rejected by his community. Every personal merit or contribution of the individual would be erased under a constant flow of slander. With the pass of time such acts are often difficult to reverse. The process is equivalent to the literal assassination of a human life. The damage sustained can last a lifetime or, for historical figures, for many years and even centuries after their death.

What are the implications of deliberately assassinating a person's character, or of ruining a social group's or institution's reputation? What might be the implications of such actions if they are occurring as a response to the initiatives of a government with sufficient resources to exercise this kind of state-sponsored terrorism? Ready, Aim, Fire Character Assassination in Cuba analyzes this topic through the lens of the Cuban experience over the last fifty years.

Facts are and must be the coin of the realm in a democracy, for government "of the people, by the people and for the people," requires and assumes to some extent an informed citizenry. Unfortunately, for citizens in the United States and throughout the world, distinguishing between fact and fiction has always been a formidable challenge, often with real life and death consequences. But now it is more difficult and confusing than ever. The Internet Age makes comment indistinguishable from fact, and erodes authority. It is liberating but annihilating at the same time.
For those wielding power, whether in the private or the public sector, the increasingly sophisticated control of information is regarded as utterly essential to achieving success. Internal information is severely limited, including calendars, memoranda, phone logs and emails. History is sculpted by its absence.
Often those in power strictly control the flow of information, corroding and corrupting its content, of course, using newspapers, radio, television and other mass means of communication to carefully consolidate their authority and cover their crimes in a thick veneer of fervent racialism or nationalism. And always with the specter of some kind of imminent public threat, what Hannah Arendt called 'objective enemies.'"
An epiphanic, public comment about the Bush "war on terror" years was made by an unidentified White House official revealing how information is managed and how the news media and the public itself are regarded by those in power: " You journalists live] "in what we call the reality-based community. But] that's not the way the world really works anymore. We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality . . . we're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do." And yet, as aggressive as the Republican Bush administration was in attempting to define reality, the subsequent, Democratic Obama administration may be more so.
Into the battle for truth steps Charles Lewis, a pioneer of journalistic objectivity. His book looks at the various ways in which truth can be manipulated and distorted by governments, corporations, even loan individuals. He shows how truth is often distorted or diminished by delay: truth "in time" can save terrible erroneous choices. In part a history of communication in America, a cri de coeur for the principles and practice of objective reporting, and a journey into several notably labyrinths of deception, "935 Lies" is a valorous search for honesty in an age of casual, sometimes malevolent distortion of the facts.

A Battle for Neutral Europe describes and analyses the forgotten story of the British government's cultural propaganda organization, the British Council, in its campaign to win the hearts and minds of people in neutral Europe during the Second World War. The book draws on a range of previously unused material from archives from across Europe and private memoirs to provide a unique insight into the work of the leading British artists, scientists, musicians and other cultural figures who travelled to Spain, Portugal, Sweden and Turkey at great personal risk to promote British life and thought in a time of war. Edward Corse shows how the British Council played a subtle but crucial role in Britain's war effort and draws together the lessons of the British Council experience to produce a new model of cultural propaganda.

The journey of Chinese art - from mass-produced propaganda in the Mao era to modern-day market darling - mirrors China’s own momentous changes like few other disciplines. Today, in both contemporary art and contemporary Chinese society, commerce and politics coexist in a delicate balance, which some call sensible and others, selling out.

By traveling to the studios of renowned Chinese artists, hearing their rags-to-riches tales and interviewing the critics, curators, and collectors that have been around since its idealistic beginnings, author Claire van den Heever paints a picture of Chinese art’s bumpy path to commercial and critical success, and uncovers the secrets it tried to keep along the way

In 1898, Gustave LeBon published The Crowd, in which he examined the underlying forces behind the many horrors of the French revolution. More than 100 years later, its premises may be traced to the rise of Hitler, Mussolini, Pol Pot, Mao Tse-Tung, and countless American and European leaders. Here is presented an expansion and update of his work, in the hopes that the mistakes of the past are not repeated. Within is a step-by-step manual for the acquisition of political power, as well as the defense against those who would use the knowledge for their own purposes.

In America, under the Constitution of the United States, we have the freedom of speech. This freedom allows us to say what we think and feel about any subject matter, regardless of how the listening ear receives the words being spoken. The mainstream media, such as talk radio, television, and Internet broadcasting, have millions upon millions of Americans tuned in each and every day. As a result, its influence is multitudinous and very powerful. What's being heard, right or wrong, good or bad, accurate or inaccurate, changes the way we think, feel, see, and even interact with one another. It changes the way we vote, thus changing America's leadership and eventually changing America. The Ugly Mouths of America is an insightful look at some of the most vociferous voices in media, such as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Dr. Laura Schlessinger, and Neal Boortz. It examines the modern origins of the ever-expanding conservative Tea Party movement and its challenges from the NAACP. It contemplates the question of how a message of hate and division changes the spirit of our society. Was America ready for the change promised by President Barack Obama? Would these changes be the beginning of the decline of America on a global scale? To get an inside look at current affairs, the leaders of conservatism, and America's future, before you cast your next vote, you must read The Ugly Mouths of America

A Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2022 China's Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) produced propaganda music that still stirs unease and, at times, evokes nostalgia. Lei X. Ouyang uses selections from revolutionary songbooks to untangle the complex interactions between memory, trauma, and generational imprinting among those who survived the period of extremes. Interviews combine with ethnographic fieldwork and surveys to explore both the Cultural Revolution's effect on those who lived through it as children and contemporary remembrance of the music created to serve the Maoist regime. As Ouyang shows, the weaponization of music served an ideological revolution but also revolutionized the senses. She examines essential questions raised by this phenomenon, including: What did the revolutionization look, sound, and feel like? What does it take for individuals and groups to engage with such music? And what is the impact of such an experience over time? Perceptive and provocative, Music as Mao's Weapon is an insightful look at the exploitation and manipulation of the arts under authoritarianism.

Gone is the era of Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite, when news programs fought to gain the trust and respect of a wide spectrum of American viewers. Today, the fastest-growing news programs and media platforms are fighting hard for increasingly narrow segments of the public and playing on old prejudices and deep-rooted fears, coloring the conversation in the blogosphere and the cable news chatter to distract from the true issues at stake. Using the same tactics once used to mobilize political parties and committed voters, they send their fans coded messages and demonize opposing groups, in the process securing valuable audience share and website traffic. Race-baiter is a term born out of this tumultuous climate, coined by the conservative media to describe a person who uses racial tensions to arouse the passion and ire of a particular demographic. Even as the election of the first black president forces us all to reevaluate how we think about race, gender, culture, and class lines, some areas of modern media are working hard to push the same old buttons of conflict and division for new purposes. In Race-Baiter, veteran journalist and media critic Eric Deggans dissects the powerful ways modern media feeds fears, prejudices, and hate, while also tracing the history of the word and its consequences, intended or otherwise.

How to Look Good in A War examines the methods used to depict, defend, and justify the use of state violence. Many books have shown how "truth is the first casualty of war" but this is the first to analyze exactly how pro-war narratives are constructed and normalized. Brian Rappert details the "upside-down" world of war in which revelation conceals, knowledge fosters uncertainty, and transparency obscures. He looks at government spin during recent wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya where officials maneuver between circulating and withholding information. Examining how organized violence is justified, How to Look Good in A War draws on experiences from recent controversy to consider how ignorance about the operation of war is produced and how concerned individuals and groups can intervene to make a difference.