Synopses & Reviews
A classic work, Munitions of the mind traces how propaganda has formed part of the fabric of conflict since the dawn of warfare, and how in its broadest definition it has also been part of a process of persuasion at the heart of human communication. Stone monuments, coins, broadsheets, paintings and pamphlets, posters, radio, film, television, computers and satellite communications - throughout history, propaganda has had access to ever more complex and versatile media.
This third edition has been revised and expanded to include a new preface, new chapters on the 1991 Gulf War, information age conflict in the post-Cold War era, and the world after the terrorist attacks of September 11. It also offers a new epilogue and a comprehensive bibliographical essay.
The extraordinary range of this book, as well as the original and cohesive analysis it offers, make it an ideal text for all international courses covering media and communications studies, cultural history, military history and politics. It will also prove fascinating and accessible to the general reader.
Synopsis
New edition of a classic work on the history of propaganda. Topical new chapters on the 1991 Gulf War, September 11 and terrorism. An ideal textbook for all international courses covering media and communication studies. Considers the history of propaganda and how it has become increasingly pervasive due to access to ever-complex and versatile media. Written in an accessible style and format, this book has proven its appeal to the general reader as the public becomes more and more cynical of the manipulations of the political sphere.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements * Preface to the Third Edition * Introduction: Looking through a Glass Onion: Propaganda, Psychological Warfare and Persuasion * P
art One: Propaganda in the Ancient World * In the Beginning... * Ancient Greece * The Glory That Was Rome *
Part Two: Propaganda in the Middle Ages * The 'Dark Ages' to 1066 * The Norman Conquest * The Chivalric Code * The Crusades * The Hundred Years War *
Part Three: Propaganda in the Age of Gunpowder and Printing * The Gutenburg Galaxy * Renaissance Warfare * The Reformation and the War of Religious Ideas * Tudor Propaganda * The Thirty Years Way (1618-48) * The English Civil War (1642-6) * Louis XIV (1661-1715) *
Part Four: Propaganda in the Age of Revolutionary Warfare * The Press As an Agent of Liberty * The American Revolution * The French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars * War and Public Opinion in the Nineteenth Century *
Part Five: Propaganda in the Age of Total War and Cold War * War and the Communications Revolution * The First World War * The Bolshevik Revolution and the War of Ideologies (1917-39) * The Second World War * Propaganda, Cold War and the Advent of the Television Age *
Part Six: The New World Information Disorder * The Gulf War of 1991 * Information Age Conflict in the Post-Cold War Era * The World after September 11th 2001 * Bibliographical Essay * Index