(Eng) How Propaganda Works / Jason Stanley / Princeton University Press

Our democracy today is fraught with political campaigns, lobbyists, liberal media, and Fox News commentators, all using language to influence the way we think and reason about public issues. Even so, many of us believe that propaganda and manipulation aren’t problems for us—not in the way they were for the totalitarian societies of the mid-twentieth century. In How Propaganda Works, Jason Stanley demonstrates that more attention needs to be paid. He examines how propaganda operates subtly, how it undermines democracy—particularly the ideals of democratic deliberation and equality—and how it has damaged democracies of the past.

Focusing on the shortcomings of liberal democratic states, Stanley provides a historically grounded introduction to democratic political theory as a window into the misuse of democratic vocabulary for propaganda’s selfish purposes. He lays out historical examples, such as the restructuring of the US public school system at the turn of the twentieth century, to explore how the language of democracy is sometimes used to mask an undemocratic reality. Drawing from a range of sources, including feminist theory, critical race theory, epistemology, formal semantics, educational theory, and social and cognitive psychology, he explains how the manipulative and hypocritical declaration of flawed beliefs and ideologies arises from and perpetuates inequalities in society, such as the racial injustices that commonly occur in the United States.

How Propaganda Works shows that an understanding of propaganda and its mechanisms is essential for the preservation and protection of liberal democracies everywhere.

Jason Stanley is the Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy at Yale University. He is the author of Knowledge and Practical Interests, Language in Context, and Know How.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION: THE PROBLEM OF PROPAGANDA(pp. 1-26)
1 PROPAGANDA IN THE HISTORY OF POLITICAL THOUGHT(pp. 27-38)
2 PROPAGANDA DEFINED(pp. 39-80)
3 PROPAGANDA IN LIBERAL DEMOCRACY(pp. 81-124)
4 LANGUAGE AS A MECHANISM OF CONTROL(pp. 125-177)
5 IDEOLOGY(pp. 178-222)
6 POLITICAL IDEOLOGIES(pp. 223-268)
7 THE IDEOLOGY OF ELITES: A CASE STUDY(pp. 269-291)
CONCLUSION(pp. 292-294)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS(pp. 295-304)
NOTES(pp. 305-334)
BIBLIOGRAPHY(pp. 335-346)
INDEX(pp. 347-353)



"Provides valuable insights into an important and timely subject."—Michiko Kakutani, New York Times Book Review

"[T]he book crackles with brilliant insights and erudition, while also managing to explain the arcane preoccupations of analytic philosophy in a way that's accessible to a wider audience."—-, Bookforum

"How Propaganda Works deserves huge praise and should be read by anyone who cares about politics and language. Its trove of tools and insights is impossible to completely summarise here."—The National

"Brilliant and incisive."—Survival: Global Politics and Strategy

"[A] timely and important work that contributes a good deal of theoretical understanding to a crucial yet relatively neglected topic of inquiry."—Spinwatch

"A book uniquely suited to its time. . . . An example of political philosophy at its finest."—Voegelinview

"Stanley tracks propaganda's history across continents and through decades, illuminating its power to make people vote against their own best interests. And what he has found is [that] the words being used may be as important as the politics behind them."—Nick Osbourne, Boston Globe

"Citing examples ranging from historical racism in America to Citizens United, Stanley's critique of propaganda and ideology will only prove more influential as public and political opinion is further polarized. . . . [A] useful examination of propaganda's pervasiveness."—Kirkus Reviews

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How Propaganda Works
Jason Stanley
ISBN: 9780691173429
Pages: 376 Paperback
Size: 5.5 x 8.5 in.