Political languages in the age of extremes
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Political languages in the age of extremes
(Studies of the German Historical Institute London)
Oxford University Press, 2012
- : pbk
Available at 2 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
"First published 2011. First published in paperback 2012"--T.p. verso
"German Historical Institute London"--T.p. verso
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
The short twentieth century was an age of total wars and aggressive ideological struggles. It was also an age of growing linguistic awareness in the political sphere. Communist, fascist, and Liberal regimes fought each other with violence as well as words, and verbal warfare became increasingly sophisticated. The regimes were supported by propaganda experts and took advantage of new mass media which facilitated the interplay of words, images, and sounds. Leaders and
their propagandists used language to persuade followers, terrorize opponents, and annihilate enemies. Knowing how to adapt one's own use of language to changing political situations was of vital importance for everyone. In the Age of Extremes words could wield political power, but at another moment
even a whisper could endanger one's life.
This volume explores the ways in which language served to create, uphold, subvert, or deflect political power in the Age of Extremes. The book is unusual in encouraging its readers to compare totalitarian and democratic regimes under this aspect. Moving beyond propaganda studies the book opens up a variety of perspectives. While some authors take a look from above and show how those in power succeeded, or failed, in policing the boundaries of what could be said, others investigate the
strategies of those who attacked the rules of the powerful by promoting alternative concepts and counter-discourses. Finally, there are also essays on the experiences of those who simply tried to stay alive by presenting themselves in a flexible manner or preserving their own private languages in diaries,
poems, or secret conversations.
Table of Contents
- PART I. INTRODUCTION
- PART II. THE RISE OF THE DICTATORS AND THE SEMANTICS OF LEADERSHIP
- PART III. MIND YOUR WORDS! POLICING LINGUISTIC BOUNDARIES (1920S-40S)
- PART IV. THE GROWTH OF LINGUISTIC AWARENESS IN THE COLD WAR ERA
by "Nielsen BookData"