The Oxford Handbook of Propaganda Studies (Oxford Handbooks)

Derived from the word "to propagate," the idea and practice of propaganda concerns nothing less than the ways in which human beings communicate, particularly with respect to the creation and widespread dissemination of attitudes, images, and beliefs. Much larger than its pejorative connotations suggest, propaganda can more neutrally be understood as a central means of organizing and shaping thought and perception, a practice that has been a pervasive feature of the twentieth century and that touches on many fields. It has been seen as both a positive and negative force, although abuses under the Third Reich and during the Cold War have caused the term to stand in, most recently, as a synonym for untruth and brazen manipulation. Propaganda analysis of the 1950s to 1989 too often took the form of empirical studies about the efficacy of specific methods, with larger questions about the purposes and patterns of mass persuasion remaining unanswered. In the present moment where globalization and transnationality are arguably as important as older nation forms, when media enjoy near ubiquity throughout the globe, when various fundamentalisms are ascendant, and when debates rage about neoliberalism, it is urgent that we have an up-to-date resource that considers propaganda as a force of culture writ large. The handbook will include twenty-two essays by leading scholars from a variety of disciplines, divided into three sections. In addition to dealing with the thorny question of definition, the handbook will take up an expansive set of assumptions and a full range of approaches that move propaganda beyond political campaigns and warfare to examine a wide array of cultural contexts and practices. Cover PROPAGANDA STUDIES Copyright Contents Contributors Introduction: Th irteen Propositions about Propaganda PART I HISTORIES AND NATIONALITIES 1. The Invention of Propaganda: A Critical Commentary on and Translation of Inscrutabili Divinae Providentiae Arcano 2. Brazilian and North American Slavery Propagandas: Some Thoughts on Difference 3. A World to Win: Propaganda and African American Expressive Culture 4. Literacy or Legibility: The Trace of Subjectivity in Soviet Socialist Realism 5. Narrative and Mendacity: Anti-Semitic Propaganda in Nazi Germany 6. The “Hidden Tyrant”: Propaganda, Brainwashing, and Psycho-Politics in the Cold War Period 7. Roof for a House Divided: How U.S. Propaganda Evolved into Public Diplomacy 8. “Thought-Work” and Propaganda: Chinese Public Diplomacy and Public Relations after Tiananmen Square PART II INSTITUTIONS AND PRACTICES 9. Instruction, Indoctrination, Imposition: Conceptions of Propaganda in the Field of Education 10. Books in the Cold War: Beyond “Culture” and “Information” 11 . “The New Vehicle of Nationalism”: Radio Goes to War 12. Built on a Lie: Propaganda, Pedagogy, and the Origins of the Kuleshov Effect 13. Propagating Modernity: German Documentaries from the 1930s: Information, Instruction and Indoctrination 14. “Order Out of Chaos”: Freud, Fascism, and the Golden Age of American Advertising 15. Propaganda and Pleasure: From Kracauer to Joyce PART III THEORIES AND METHODOLOGIES 16. ‘The World’s Greatest Adventure in Advertising’: Walter Lippmann’s Critique of Censorship and Propaganda 17. Propaganda among the Ruins 18. Jacques Ellul’s Contribution to Propaganda Studies 19. The Ends of Misreading: Propaganda, Democracy, Literature 20. Propaganda vs. Education: A Case Study of Hate Radio in Rwanda 21. Dissent, Truthiness, and Skepticism in the Global Media Landscape: Twenty-First Century Propaganda in Times of War 22. Propaganda in Egypt and Syria's "Cyberwars": Contexts, Actors, Tools, and Tactics Index