Nazi Wireless Propaganda: Lord Haw-Haw and British Public Opinion in the Second World War (International Communications) (Paperback)

This is the first academic study of Nazi radio propaganda broadcast to Britain in the Second World War. Making good use of the available British sources, particularly the various sound archives, Mass Observation, the Public Record Office, the Imperial War Museum and the Wiener Library, Martin Doherty has made a careful and judicious assessment of the purpose, nature and impact of Nazi broadcasts to Britain during the Second World War. Most valuable is the provision of a compact disk insert providing twenty-four broadcasts, particularly from Radio Hamburg and William Joyce, although there are good examples of other broadcasters such as John Amery, Edward Bowlby and Norman Baillie-Stewart ... an excellent study of both the broadcasters and the reactions of the British state and public opinion to the impact of Nazi propaganda. Nazi Wireless Propaganda should interest both college students and general readers Is to be welcomed as an important step towards our understanding of the power of Nazi radio propaganda towards overseas targets ... the book provokes all sorts of questions and and marks a major advance in the study of Nazi propaganda ... There is an excellent CD included ... These are an invaluable resource: for the reader they bring the subject alive, for the teacher they will be a godsend in persuading students that radio really has mattered as a political force, even though - perhaps even because - it is invisible. Invisible A careful, chronologically structured analysis of Germany's English-language stations. He sets out to challenge multiple myths: that 'Haw-Haw' is reducible to Joyce alone, and that Joyce's contribution to wartime propaganda, in turn, is reducible to shrill histrionics to which Britons listened only to alleviate wartime tedium, finding humour in his laughably patrician efforts on behalf of the Nazis. Extensive quotation from the broadcasts is supplemented by an hour-long CD, with selections from twenty-four transmissions taken from different phases of the war. An invaluable teaching tool, the CD permits the distinctive accents, styles, registers (and sexes) of the hydra-headed 'Haw-Haw' to be fully appreciated in a way that transcription alone could never accomplish -- Susan Carruthers, University of Aberystwyth The International History Review This is the first academic study of Nazi radio propaganda broadcast to Britain in the Second World War. Making good use of the available British sources, particularly the various sound archives, Mass Observation, the Public Record Office, the Imperial War Museum and the Wiener Library, Martin Doherty has made a careful and judicious assessment of the purpose, nature and impact of Nazi broadcasts to Britain during the Second World War. Most valuable is the provision of a compact disk insert providing twenty-four broadcasts, particularly from Radio Hamburg and William Joyce, although there are good examples of other broadcasters such as John Amery, Edward Bowlby and Norman Baillie-Stewart ... an excellent study of both the broadcasters and the reactions of the British state and public opinion to the impact of Nazi propaganda. Nazi Wireless Propaganda should interest both college students and general readers Is to be welcomed as an important step towards our understanding of the power of Nazi radio propaganda towards overseas targets ... the book provokes all sorts of questions and and marks a major advance in the study of Nazi propaganda ... There is an excellent CD included ... These are an invaluable resource: for the reader they bring the subject alive, for the teacher they will be a godsend in persuading students that radio really has mattered as a political force, even though - perhaps even because - it is invisible. A careful, chronologically structured analysis of Germany's English-language stations. He sets out to challenge multiple myths: that 'Haw-Haw' is reducible to Joyce alone, and that Joyce's contribution to wartime propaganda, in turn, is reducible to shrill histrionics to which Britons listened only to alleviate wartime tedium, finding humour in his laughably patrician efforts on behalf of the Nazis. Extensive quotation from the broadcasts is supplemented by an hour-long CD, with selections from twenty-four transmissions taken from different phases of the war. An invaluable teaching tool, the CD permits the distinctive accents, styles, registers (and sexes) of the hydra-headed 'Haw-Haw' to be fully appreciated in a way that transcription alone could never accomplish

This is the first book devoted exclusively to the analysis of the Nazis' radio effort against the United Kingdom during the Second World War. It traces the development of the German propaganda service and looks to erode the myth surrounding Lord Haw-Haw -the 'superpropagandist'. Propaganda is presented in context: the purposes behind it, the changing patterns, themes, styles, and techniques employed, and the impact upon the target audience and its morale. An analysis of the Nazi wireless broadcasts to Britain for the whole of the Second World War reveals a sophisticated and intelligent propaganda assault on the social and economic fabric of British society. In the end the British failed to succumb to the stupefying effects of Nazi propaganda and they traditionally congratulate themselves upon the national unity which immunised them against it. The author argues that this traditional view disguises a more complex, less appealing reality.Free CD Includes a CD of 24 German wartime broadcasts to Britain Key Features: *Exposition of organisational structure of Nazi wireless for the UK *Detailed analysis of style and content of propaganda broadcasts *Careful and critical re-appraisal of British domestic morale and national unity *CD insert of 24 recordings of Nazi broadcasters including William Joyce, John Amery, Edward Dietze, Norman Baillie-Stewart, Edward Bowlby and 'Black' propaganda broadcasts