Rockport
History Book Club
The Quest for Truth in History:
How do we know it’s true?
Wednesday, April 28,
2021
"Labor makes us free!"--Really?
Wednesday, April
28, 2021. The Quest for Truth in History. How
do we know it’s true? We’ve just gone through a difficult time in our national
history, when what you may have believed may have been false, and what was
“false” depended upon your political orientation. Propaganda, deception, and
conspiracy theories have always been used by governments against the outside
world and for their own people. How can you figure out what is true and
what is false? Read any book about public information and propaganda in any
era, in any country. [Proposed by Sam Coulbourn]
Suggestions: Look for books that describe mind-twisting exploits of Goebbels in Nazi Germany, or Soviet propaganda, or even read a book like Orwell's "1984". We'll provide other examples, and if you have suggestions for others, please share!
A HISTORY OF PROPAGANDA
Taylor, Philip M., Munitions of the Mind: A history of
propaganda from the ancient world the present era. Third
Edition. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2003.
Philip
Taylor has painted the picture of propaganda from the very earliest days of
recorded history, because the idea of using words and images to shape the minds
of countrymen, enemies or allies has been around that long.
Propaganda
often conveys the idea of dirty tricks, or hidden persuaders or mind
manipulators…. Brain washing, or
Orwellian Big Brother.
Propaganda,
however, is not necessarily bad. It is
the intention behind it which needs scrutiny. Propaganda forces us to think and
do things we might not otherwise have done. It distorts our view of the world.
It thickens the fog of war. Propaganda
becomes the enemy of independent thought.
We
are all propagandists to a degree, just as we are all recipients of propaganda.
Taylor describes the picture of multifaceted images as “the glass onion.”
The
Vatican gave us the word propaganda in the 17th century, and it
simply means “propagation” in Latin.
Faced with Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation, the Roman
Catholic church established an organization “The
Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith”, or La Congregazione per la Propagazione della Fede.
I
just slipped through Taylor’s history up until World War II. It appears that propaganda, as a weapon of
warfare really came of age at this time.
Hitler and
Goering, 1939
Hitler
and the Nazis developed it to its lethal extreme. Hitler had learned the
importance of controlling the “truth” in war and peace. He mapped out his plans for this in Mein Kampf, and he learned well from his
failures in the 1920s, so when he finally rose to power in 1933 he was ready
for action.
In
Mein Kampf Hitler laid out his
plans. He hated the post-World War I
German Flag, so he designed his own black and red and white flag with the
hooked crosses or swastika at its center. He developed the “Heil Hitler” salute
as he created the concept of loyalty not only to the Reich, but to the Nazi
party and to its leader.
He
also stage managed huge parades and mass demonstrations, torchlight parades
with thousands marching precisely, and shouting party slogans—Blut und Boden (Blood and Soil).
Coupled
with all of this was to play on the fears and suspicions of the people. Knowing that many in Germany were suspicious
of Jews, he exploited this, and we all know how this ended with the
extermination of some 6,000,000 Jews.
Hitler
also knew how to lie and taught in his book how to tell a really big lie, and
keep telling it, relying upon the gullible masses to accept it. “The greater the lie, the more effective it is as a
weapon,” he wrote.
Hitler
avoided trying to convince the influential people and intellectuals. He aimed
his propaganda at the uneducated masses.
“Toward
whom must propaganda be directed?” he asked, “toward the scientific
intelligentsia or toward the uneducated masses?” His answer was, “It must
always and exclusively be directed toward the masses. The teachability of the
great masses is very limited, their understanding small, and their memory short.”
Hitler with Goebbels
Hitler’s
man for propaganda was Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945), and Goebbels was a master
orator and propagandist, expert in making Hitler larger than life to the German
people.
Goebbels
was equally expert in shaping “reality” for enemies and allies. He received
unlimited funds to carry out his work of stirring up hatred, distrust and fear.
He combined propaganda with terror, he used threats and bribes, arranging
kidnappings and beatings, as the Nazis prepared the ground in Austria and the
Sudetenland for Anschluss.
The
Nazis did the same in France, and all the other countries they conquered. They
coopted local leaders to become their visible enforcers. In Norway, their “man”
was Vidkun Quisling, and for the rest of time, “Quisling” will mean a collaborator
and traitor.
A few Londoners are drinking ale in their
neighborhood pub. The time is July 1940. The French have signed Hitler’s
armistice terms, but Britain is still holding out. The pub keeper turns the
dials of the tavern radio to tune in on “Lord Haw-Haw,” the Berlin broadcaster,
and the voice booms out:
“England
is ripe for invasion. ... You might as well expect help from an army of
mastodons as from the United States. ... You are on a doomed ship. ... Whether
or not the people of Britain want to see their fields turned into graveyards
and their cities into tombs is a matter for themselves and Mr. Churchill.
Perhaps if the British people could speak, they would ask for peace. But since
the official voice of England asks not for peace but for destruction, it is
destruction we must provide.”
And also: An American sits at home tinkering with his short-wave set and he picks
up an English-language broadcast beamed to North America from Germany.
“The
German government and the German people have only the friendliest of feelings
for the United States, the home of so. many American
citizens of German descent.” The words of the radio speaker are honeyed words.
“Let it be said for once and all,” the broadcaster continues, “that a German
victory in this war is no threat to English democracy—and certainly not to
American democracy.”
The
propaganda voice of appeasement. Here is the strategy of
attempting to hypnotize a people with an assertion of the “peaceful intentions”
of the Nazi war machine.
As for using propaganda, the leaders of the Soviet
Union were also expert at all aspects of this art. In totalitarian states, it’s
what you expect. Many years after World
War II (over 30) I experienced Soviet propaganda during my two-year tour of
duty in Moscow. I had been reading Pravda and other Soviet newspapers and
listening to Radio Moscow for years as I studied Russian, and I felt I had a
real appreciation for the stultifying effect of this on the Russian
people. Of course, for me, I always had
other sources of information available. It was interesting to see how many Soviet
citizens were able to read between the lines in their papers, and know they
were being lied to.
Great
Britain, of course, was not a totalitarian country, but Taylor describes the
expertise of the British at white and black propaganda, at censorship, and the
skill of leaders like Winston Churchill in their speeches, their writings, and all
the other methods they used to fight and win this war.
With
Britain at war with Nazi Germany, Churchill tried desperately to enlist the
United States of America on his side, but we had a strong vein of isolationism
in our country. President Franklin D. Roosevelt saw that we needed to assist
our European allies, but several powerful Republican Senators and many voters
were bitterly opposed to our intervention in Europe’s war. When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in December
1941, isolationism became unpopular, and our government leaped into action with
overt and covert propaganda, or as it was called, “information”.
When
we finally went to war, after Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Hollywood swung
into action, producing hundreds of documentaries, cartoons and feature-length
films that carried American propaganda themes, to rally Americans, and to shape
opinions of other viewers, wherever the films were shown.
Here
we are today with a daily torrent of information and misinformation sprayed at
us in television broadcasts, print media, on-line publications and social
media, all aimed at influencing us to buy this or vote for or against this plan
or that person.
We
think we have an understanding of the science of Global Warming, and but recently
the United States withdrew from a world-wide effort to take the first steps to
mollify the effects of it. It’s restored now, but we can not afford to lose
those years, if we truly can start to reverse an attack on nature that began
with the industrial revolution in the 19th century.
On Oct. 16, 1919, Adolf Hitler became a propagandist. It would be
his chief occupation for the rest of his life. Without propaganda, he could
never have become a public figure, let alone risen to power.
Our
former President called news reports about collusion from papers and television
networks that we have generally considered reliable as “fake news”. Hitler called it Lügenpresse, or “the
lying press”.
What
can we believe? How can we discern propaganda right in our face?
Quoting
again from "What Is Propaganda?" by Ralph D. Casey in 1944 is this
handy guide:
l. Is it really propaganda? Is some
individual or group consciously trying to influence opinion and action? Who?
For what purpose?
2. Is it
true? Does a comparison of independent reports show that the
facts are accurate? Does such a comparison show that the suggestions made are
soundly based?
There are other tests that can be
applied by the thinking citizen:
a. Which fact or set of facts in a
piece of promotion are important and relevant? Which are irrelevant?
b. If some individual or group is
trying to influence opinion and action, is the effort selfish or is it
unselfish?
c. Will action resulting from the
propaganda benefit the individual or group responsible for it?
d. Or will it benefit those who act
upon the suggestion given in the propaganda? Or will it benefit both?
e. What is likely to be the effect
of the action or of the opinion that the propaganda is trying to set in motion?
All
these points boil down to some very simple questions: What is the source of the
propaganda? What is its authority? What purposes prompted it? Whom will it
benefit? What does it really say?
-END-
HISTORY BOOK CLUB TOPICS FOR 2021
Wednesday, May 26, 2021. The Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has become a central, and
increasingly polarizing, institution in American politics. When Alexander
Hamilton floated the idea of a federal court system where judges would have
“lifetime tenure,” he assured naysayers that the judiciary would be “the least
dangerous” branch of government. However, the Supreme Court has become both a
pivotal and polarizing feature of American political and policy reform. The
Court played a key role in dismantling Jim Crow segregation, nationalizing
marriage equality and protecting our free press. Yet, they can be paralyzing.
Supreme Court doctrine delayed Congressional attempts to end slavery and
establish civil rights for Black Americans. Court actions have limited critical
elements of the Affordable Care Act. Perhaps because of its prominence in the
nation’s most vexing policy problems, decisions about the Court–- whom to
nominate, how to nominate, and what decisions it can make– have become a
location for the most visible forms of partisan rancor and discord. The most
volatile fights between Republicans and Democrats frequently fixate on
conflicts over the Court. Read any book about the Supreme Court, or about a
particular period or decision. [Proposed by Mary Beth Smith]
Andrew Jackson
Wednesday, June 30, 2021. History of U.S. Presidents. Suggest a review of the 46 Presidents of the
United States. Read biography of one or more Presidents. Possible topics for
discussion are the major policies, achievements, strengths, failures and
weaknesses relating to domestic policy, foreign policy, immigration, use of
military force. What are your thoughts? Are we creating a “more perfect union”?
Does history show U.S. presidential politics getting more or less venial today
than historically? [Proposed by Craig Cervo].
“Suffies” at the White House, 1918.
Wednesday, July 28, 2021. Influence of Women in American History. Wednesday, July 28, 2021. Influence of Women in American History. Women have been around as long as men, with and without a voice. How have women tried to influence America? Did they succeed or fail? Why? Pick a time or an issue that was important to women and explore it from the female perspective. Read about Seneca Falls, NY; Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth, Alice Paul; Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, ERA, Phyllis Schlafly, Gloria Steinem, Myra Bradwell; Domestic Violence; Reproductive Rights. [Proposed by Mary Beth Smith]
Arab Spring in Egypt
Wednesday, August 25, 2021. History of North Africa,
from Morocco to Egypt, and including Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Ethiopia,
Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan, Mauritania and more. Pick a nation or a group of
nations in the northern tier of Africa and learn how they interact, how they
came to be, what problems are they having, or had, that attracted world
attention in the past. Some examples: The Barbary Pirates and how
America’s President Jefferson took them on; The Italian Colonial history in
Abyssinia and Somaliland; World War II—Field Marshal Rommel in North Africa; “Carthago
delenda est!” The Punic War between Rome and Carthage; Tunisia and he Start
of Arab Spring. [Proposed by Sam Coulbourn]
Wednesday, September 29, 2021. The Fight for Civil Rights. America began with the fight for Civil Rights for colonists and the fight continues for groups of Americans. Pick a group – what are they fighting for, what’s their strategy, are they gaining or losing ground and why? [Proposed by Mary Beth Smith]
Karen women in Myanmar
Wednesday, October 27, 2021. Mass Refugee
movements in History. Movements of a large number from one nation to another can
and have changed the face of the earth. Read about any era on this topic or
read about the phenomenon as a whole. Consider the movement of Arab nationals
today into Europe, or the pre-historic migration of peoples from Siberia to
North America. Or perhaps Irish victims of the potato famine coming to America
and Canada in the 1840s. [Proposed by Sam Coulbourn]
Wednesday, December 1, 2021. [Moved back one week to avoid
conflict with Thanksgiving.] Reconstruction, 1865-? Abraham Lincoln had a clear picture of what
should be done after the end of the War Between the States, but his
assassination meant that Andrew Johnson, the Democrat who succeeded him, would
be President. Read about this dangerous, murderous time in our history as we
sought to regain the 11 Confederate States in the Union. Read about
the growth of white supremacist organizations, and the different ways that
America handled the end of slavery, and welcoming (?) millions of newly freed
Africans to America. [Proposed by Mary Beth Smith]
There will be no later meeting in December.
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