Preface : truth, lies, and violence, then and now -- As seen at the League of Nations : global media, competing truths, and the allure of fascism -- Rebranding the world (picture) -- On true and false tongues -- Fabricating currencies : paper, gold, and other facsimiles -- Fiat lux? False news and hidden flesh -- The word and the sword revisited.
Summary:
"Confronted with the roiling changes of the post-WWI world--from growing stateless populations to the resurgence of right-wing movements--the League of Nations aimed to counteract dangerous conflicts between national interests and generate instead a transnational, cosmopolitan dialogue on truth and justice. Amid widespread anxiety over truth and falsehood, an army of League personnel produced streams of documents in the pursuit of "shaping global public opinion." Combining the tools of global intellectual history and cultural history, A Violent Peace explores the power and the vulnerability of information systems while laying bare "the anatomy of fascism" in the interwar period. Carolyn Biltoft reopens the archives of the League to show how its attempt to operationalize information science in support of the post-WWI order proved ultimately pyrrhic as informational power struggles devolved into violence. A meditation on instability in information systems, the allure of fascism, and the contradictions at the heart of a global and violent modernity, A Violent Peace paints a rich portrait of the emergence of the age of information--and all its attendant problems"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.