scholarly journals Legislative Investigations into Propaganda Activities (1919–1941)

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-77
Author(s):  
Dario Migliucci

The present work analyzes the complex relationship that was established during the interwar period between the American press and the legislative committees which investigated the propaganda activities of subversive movements and large private corporations during those years. The investigation is the result of the examination of journalistic sources and documentary evidence recently collected from various US federal and state archives. The main hypothesis is that the struggle against propaganda by both the press and the legislative committees became a new form of manipulation of public opinion, enabling politicians and reporters to exploit people’s aversion to the new persuasion techniques in order to satisfy their own personal interests and ideological purposes.

2014 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 268-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver Jens Schmitt

Abstract This paper follows “Balkan Vienna”, a media phenomenon as well as a media construct created both by the Viennese press and from the perspective of the Balkans themselves. The decline of the once brilliant capital of the great empire into a hotbed of revolutionaries and terrorists was recorded in Belgrade with scorn and fear. In Vienna, the press addressed these events in terms that sought to distance the capital from the southeast. However, at the same time the Viennese press admired the political activists from the Balkans, exoticising them as heroes. Thus, the press externalised Austrian domestic contradictions through their discussions of Balkan politics. By reporting scandal and sleaze, the press perpetuated the image of Vienna as a refuge for revolutionary activities and “typical Balkan” violence. “Balkan Vienna” is thus a social and political place, one of local, national, transnational, Balkanic and European linkages. As such, it is part of a new discourse, which relocates the internal and external view of Vienna and Austria on the mental map of Europe.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 192-196
Author(s):  
Margarita Igorevna Tulusakova

The paper studies the problem of the American press reaction to an attempted coup in Germany in 1923. The reasons for the Beer Hall Putsch from the point of view of the press were studied. The author shows the process of information accumulation about the putsch, the role and attitude of various representatives of the US press to it, and the international reaction to the Nazism. The role of Hitler in the coup attempt is analyzed. The author proves that there was direct influence of large American newspapers chief editors opinions on the information about the coup in Germany. The analysis of the US press reaction to the Beer Hall Putsch shows that American newspapers during the first days of the events observed these events closely. Moreover, the trends typical for the central press (coverage of international events, desire for analytics and forecasts) were also characteristic of small local periodicals. The Beer Putsch information support shows that in 1923 the US press was clearly divided in assessments about the most important issue: to support the rebels or to condemn them. The paper shows how the image of the Beer Hall Putsch influenced the policy of aggressors pacification in the future.


2021 ◽  
pp. 121-138
Author(s):  
Vasily Zh. Tsvetkov ◽  

The publication of documentary materials reflects the history of the organization and conducting of the retreat of the units of Admiral A.V. Kolchak’s Eastern Front and the evacuation of civilian refugees from Omsk and other cities in Siberia in November 1919 – January 1920. The article considers the issues of the technical condition and operation of the TRANSSiberian railway and, in particular, the functioning of the rolling stock. Those aspects for the history of the Civil War in the East of Russia to this day remain poorly studied. Evidence is provided on the state of the military, refugee and civil trains, and about the situation of passengers. Consistently and with the involvement of documentary material, the stages of the preparation and implementation of evacuation measures are described, and the reasons for the failure of planned decisions are analyzed. The article presents evidence on the consequences of full-scale disaster with the railway accident that became part of the Civil War history in Siberia. The materials from the State Archives of the Russian Federation that have not been widely used in scientific research and have not been published yet, as well as some previously published documentary evidence, were used. The study of that aspect of the Civil War history in Siberia allows to get an idea of not only the military, but also of the political importance that the TRANS-Siberian railway played in the absence of developed transport communications in the East of Russia.


Just Property ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 108-137
Author(s):  
Christopher Pierson

This chapter begins with a brief discussion of what we mean by social democracy. I explore the origins of a distinctively social democratic view in mid-nineteenth century Europe, above all through the work of Louis Blanc and Ferdinand Lassalle. I plot its further development, above all in the context of German social democracy and the work of Bernstein, Kautsky, Luxemburg, and Jaurès. I turn to the British case to consider the further development of these ideas in the interwar period, above all in changing views of nationalization, planning, taxation, and ‘functional property’. Key thinkers in this process include Tawney, Jay, and Keynes. The earliest social democrats had very clear views about the need to socialize the ownership of property. Later social democrats, under the press of a politics that was electorally feasible, sought to fudge the hard questions on property.


PMLA ◽  
1956 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
pp. 414-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jefferson Rea Spell

The Promulgation, in 1812, of the Constitution of Cadiz provoked throughout Spain and her domains a bitter controversy between the opponents and the partisans of that liberal and innovative body of legislation. Among the supporters in Mexico City was José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi (1776–1827), who, as soon as the Constitution went into effect there, established a sheet, El Pensador Mexicano (1812–14), with the avowed purpose of defending the new form of government and of praising its liberal provisions, particularly those granting freedom of the press and abolishing the Inquisition. His first article began with an exlamation: “¡Gracias a Dios y la nueva Constitutión que ya nos vamos desimpresionando de algunos errores que nos tenían enterrados nuestros antepasados!” But, in spite of the freedom of the press, the Viceroy ordered his arrest, and some months in jail dampened his enthusiasm; he continued, however, his periodical as well as its successor, the Alacena de Frioleras (1815), with articles of a less controversial nature, until the end of that year. Continually in difficulty with the censors after 1814, when the Constitution was abrogated by Ferdinand VII, he finally limited himself to the writing of fiction until the reestablishment of the Constitution in 1820. During this period he produced four novels, one of which, El Periquillo Sarniento (1816), is his masterpiece. While the characters and setting of this novel are definitely Mexican, with certain autobiographical elements, the mold in which it is cast is that of the Spanish picaresque. Like its prototype in general, the Periquillo is concerned with matters of a purely ethical nature; but this aspect of the novel is less impressive—in contrast, for example, with Alemán's Guzmán de Alfarache or the novels of Francisco Santos—than the wealth of ideas in regard to definite reforms that the author believes would contribute to the general welfare. These ideas, interwoven with incidents in the life of a picaro, did not originate with the author but reflect wide reading in many fields. To point out the sources of these ideas, and thereby fathom the intellectual background of Lizardi, is the object of this article.


2005 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helena Pycior

AbstractThis paper traces the history of the cultural icon of the "First Dog" of the United States back to the administration of President Warren G. Harding (1921-1923). It briefly explores technological and socio-cultural factors—including the early-twentieth-century cult of human and nonhuman celebrities—that laid a basis for the acceptance of Laddie Boy, Harding's Airedale terrier, as the third member of the First Family and a celebrity in his own right. Following Laddie Boy, First Dogs would greet and entertain visitors to the White House, pose for the press, make public appearances, and "talk." While recognizing that Laddie Boy's personality was essential to his success at the White House, the paper also documents the steps taken by President Harding, his wife Florence Kling Harding, and the American press to establish Laddie Boy as the First Dog of the land. The paper argues that the construction of the cultural icon of the First Dog was not simply a political ploy to humanize the President but more a calculated attempt by President Harding to further animal welfare.


2014 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver Jens Schmitt

AbstractThis paper follows “Balkan Vienna”, a media phenomenon as well as a media construct created both by the Viennese press and from the perspective of the Balkans themselves. The decline of the once brilliant capital of the great empire into a hotbed of revolutionaries and terrorists was recorded in Belgrade with scorn and fear. In Vienna, the press addressed these events in terms that sought to distance the capital from the southeast. However, at the same time the Viennese press admired the political activists from the Balkans, exoticising them as heroes. Thus, the press externalised Austrian domestic contradictions through their discussions of Balkan politics. By reporting scandal and sleaze, the press perpetuated the image of Vienna as a refuge for revolutionary activities and “typical Balkan” violence. “Balkan Vienna” is thus a social and political place, one of local, national, transnational, Balkanic and European linkages. As such, it is part of a new discourse, which relocates the internal and external view of Vienna and Austria on the mental map of Europe.


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