How Propaganda Works

Reviews / Votes

"Provides valuable insights into an important and timely subject."---Michiko Kakutani, New York Times Book Review "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 Osborne, Boston Globe "The book crackles with brilliant insights and erudition." * 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."---Caleb Lauer, The National "As with other books that expose hidden patterns in American political life from a great height (those that come to mind are Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent and Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow), the lofty perspective of How Propaganda Works challenges researchers to fill in gaps with more detailed, particular explanations of how and why."---Stephen Siff, Journalism & Mass Communications Quarterly "A timely and important work that contributes a good deal of theoretical understanding to a crucial yet relatively neglected topic of inquiry."---Thomas Cawkwell, Spinwatch "A searching, eclectic, lively and personal book."---Matthew Festenstein, Political Theory "A powerful historical account of how propaganda was employed by totalitarian regimes in the past, but it reaches way beyond that. . . . Stanley provides an impressive, holistic view of what propaganda has been historically and how it mutates in the service of today's illiberals. As with every enemy, one needs to be able to recognise it first in order to resist it. And for that reason, it is worth reading Stanley's stellar work on propaganda."---Mateusz Mazzini, New Eastern Europe "This is a valuable, one might say indispensable, book in a time when demagogues are succeeding at a level the world has not seen since World War II. I recommend it highly."---Robert J. Sternberg, PsycCRITIQUES "[A] brilliant and incisive book." * Survival: Global Politics and Strategy * "The book's topic is fascinating, and Stanley's discussion of the relevance of theories of slurs for an analysis of large portions of public discourse and flawed ideology and its relation to the ideals of liberal democracy will hopefully bear on future research in this field."---Raphael van Riel, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice "Stanley has produced a highly stimulating book that brings the issue of propaganda to the attention of political philosophers and draws on an impressive range of philosophical and social scientific sources to illustrate his analysis and provide support for his claims. It is bound to be widely discussed and debated."---Jonathan Wolff, Analysis "A timely and insightful investigation into the mechanisms of language, social psychology and economic structure that allow propaganda to go largely unnoticed in a democratic context."---Fahad Y. Al-Sumait, Global Discourse "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 * "Rich and thoughtful. . . . The best way to fight propaganda is to become savvier about how it manipulates, how it actually works, as Stanley does in his work." * DeSmog Canada * "A book uniquely suited to its time. . . . An example of political philosophy at its finest." * Voegelinview *