Easily Led: History of Propaganda

by OliverThomson (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  1999

  $18.90

  Examines the variety of propaganda techniques employed in different periods and cultures and demonstrates the extent to which such techniques have influenced the course of events over the past 5000 years. Alexander the Great was one of the first rulers to have himself portrayed on his own coinage, where he appeared in the guise of a Greek god. Julius Caesar was a master of propaganda, endowing himself with many titles laden with significance in Roman eyes, while always avoiding the hated king ; carefully managed campaigns also deflected sleaze allegations concerning an affair with Clepatra. Nearer to our own time, Josef Goebels was the master of propaganda who helped to establish Nazi Germany and its ideals with spectacle, event management, advertising and every other means imaginable. In the 1990s Slobodan Milosevic used unemplpyed youngsters to form demo networks to stage impressive rallies in the cause of Serbian nationalism and the fostering of hatred for the Bosnians. No period of history or political regime has been without its propaganda, and it seems that no one has ever been completely immune to it. This history plots five millennia of the most powerful of all tools of persuasion.