Derek Nudd's Blog - Posts Tagged "propaganda"

How to Win an Information War: The Propagandist Who Outwitted Hitler by Peter Pomerantsev

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


What is the point of history?
This account describes Sefton Delmer's struggle to win the trust both of his sponsors in the WW2 Political Warfare Executive and of his listeners in Nazi Germany's civilian population and armed forces. It shows how Goebbels' control of the media had shifted many people's perception into an alternative universe where propaganda 'frontal assault' by facts and reason cannot penetrate. Delmer's genius lay in picking up the enemy's own message, sugaring it with news (often true) and music, and projecting it to the point of caricature. Listeners were thus tricked into thinking for themselves.
Returning to my first question, Pomerantsev repeatedly relates the mental imprisonment of the German population to the techniques used by today's tyrants and would-be tyrants. As a US resident of Ukrainian heritage we can guess at the examples that spring most readily to his mind. None of us is immune, though, from the real or imagined misfortune growing into a grievance and then into something much darker.
Here is perhaps the book's main weakness. It is lively and thought-provoking, but rooted in the moment of its publication. Goebbels stands as a cautionary tale down the ages but modern tyrants come and go - there will always be another one along in a minute.



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