By Milan Terlunen / Public Humanities Postdoctoral Fellow
Political misinformation may feel newly urgent right now, but it has a long history. While digital and social media are now major technologies through which information warfare takes place, during World War II it was radio that had this new function, sending voices across borders from one side to the other. While the UK’s national broadcaster, the BBC, tried to remain respectable, a rogue propagandist named Sefton Delmer took the low road, producing scandalous and even obscene pirate radio that infuriated the Nazis but that ordinary Germans actually listened to. What lessons does this history have for problems of political misinformation we face today?
On Monday, October 28th, 2024, the latest installment of Humanities in the Village took place at the Bird in Hand bookstore to celebrate How to Win an Information War: The Propagandist Who Outwitted Hitler, the new book by Peter Pomerantsev (JHU SNF Agora Institute). Peter was joined in discussion by investigative reporter and podcaster Dave Troy.
Peter and Dave discussed Sefton Delmer’s astonishing anti-Nazi propaganda campaign, the process of researching the book, and present-day political misinformation campaigns coming from countries like Russia (where Peter lived in his 20s while working on, of all things, a reality TV show). Afterward, members of the audience broadened the conversation to include political misinformation campaigns within the United States, the role of the tech industry today, and even one attendee’s teenage experiences as an online right-wing troll.
If you’re curious to know more, Dave has released a recording of the conversation as an episode of his podcast.
We thank Peter and Dave, the Bird in Hand team, and everyone who joined us for this great conversation! Join us again beginning in December for the next Humanities in the Village gathering.
Peter Pomerantsev and Dave Troy’s recommended reading list:
– Anne Applebaum, Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World
– Gareth Gore, Opus: The Cult of Dark Money, Human Trafficking, and Right-Wing Conspiracy Inside the Catholic Church
– Craig Unger, Den of Spies: Reagan, Carter, and the Secret History of the Treason That Stole the White House
– Elizabeth Neumann, Kingdom of Rage: The Rise of Christian Extremism and the Path Back to Peace
– Thomas Rid, Active Measures: The Secret History of Disinformation and Political Warfare