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Battling with the Truth
Ian Garden, Ma (Hons) French and German 19
‘Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play.’ – Joseph Goebbels, Reich Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. Dunkirk, Stalingrad, the Dieppe Raid: there were many bloody and gruesome conflicts fought during the Second World War, yet there was one vital and aggressive battle in which no blood was directly shed – that of the warring nations’ battle with the truth.
Battling with the Truth (a follow-up to The Third Reich’s Celluloid War) explores the ways by which both the Axis and Allies manipulated military and political facts for their own ends. By analysing key incidents and contemporary sources from both British and German perspectives, Ian Garden reveals how essential information was concealed from the public.
Asking how both sides could have believed they were fighting a just war, he exposes the extent to which their peoples were told downright lies or fed very carefully worded versions of the truth. Often these ‘versions’ gave completely false impressions of the success or failure of missions – even whole campaigns.
Ultimately, Battling with the Truth demonstrates that almost nothing about war is as clear-cut as the reporting at the time makes out. Analysis of history shows that there is little new under the sun and that exactly the same propaganda techniques were used during the Second World War as were employed by both sides in the EU referendum debate.
ISBN: 9780750956321
