“A banquet for all the world”: democracy and consumerism in Disney’s Food Will Win the War

This essay considers Food Will Win the War, an animated short made early in World War II by Disney Studios for the United States Department of Agriculture. Through a fantastical catalogue of hyperbolic images, the film shows how the mass production of American agriculture becomes the first wave of a new American-style consumerism of plenty that will transform the social order. The analysis blends contemporary theories of affective politics to show Food Will Win the War as a threshold text, revealing the post-war economy at its formation. Using food as a symbolic field, this film ultimately links the endless expansion of consumer desire to national identity and global colonization.     

THE BERLIN NEWSPAPER DER PANZERBÄR,APRIL 1945

The Berlin newspaper Der Panzerbär, which functioned briefly in April 1945, is of historical interest to the study of propaganda, and that of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP) in particular. The newspaper's contents reveal the NSDAP propaganda machine functioning in circumstances of immediate violence and utter irrationality. The involvement of NSDAP propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels in the newspaper is documented, although it appears to have been peripheral. Its contents, which are consistent with what has been written about Goebbels’ late-war approaches, reveal the last stand of NSDAP propaganda mythology, as well as efforts to link the NSDAP cause to that of European civilization – all underscored by threats from both internal and external sources.     

“You Don't Play,You Volunteer”: Narrative Public Memory Construction in Medal of Honor: Rising Sun

Narrative and ludological analysis suggests that Electronic Arts’ Medal of Honor: Rising Sun constructs a narrative of World War II that selectively retells history and constructs an Orientalist representation of the Japanese Empire. The gaming environment exists as an interactive museum that immerses gamers into history so that they experience warfare in their homes. Combining newsreels, fictional letters from home, and interviews with veterans of the “Good War,” Medal of Honor: Rising Sun retells a history that omits details of Japanese internment or atomic weapons. The intertwined themes of personal revenge for the loss of a family member and historical revenge for the attack on Pearl Harbor guide gamers through an “educational” experience of the war. Finally, its failure to simulate violence means that Medal of Honor: Rising Sun invites a critical blindness to commemorating war.     

The battle for neutrality

Following the German invasion of the Netherlands in May 1940, a Dutch government in exile was set up in London. One of the most important activities of these exiles was to make propaganda against the Nazi’s and throughout the war they operated Radio Oranje (Radio Orange), a wireless station that broadcasted to the Netherlands using BBC-transmitters. Another part of the Dutch broadcasting outfit in England was a ‘listening service’ that made daily reports about Dutch-language radio broadcasts from Hilversum by the Nazi regime. This article draws from a complete, and previously unused, set of these monitoring reports to analyse the Dutch propaganda war in the ether. The source material reveals that notions of Dutch neutrality were central to the radio broadcasts at both sides of the North Sea. In addition, the reports show how the London broadcasters singled out and targeted specific Nazi propagandists whom they thought to be the most dangerous.     

Epideictic Rhetoric in the Service of War: George W. Bush on Iraq and the 60th Anniversary of the Victory over Japan

This essay explores the relationship between epideictic discourse and war through the analysis of George W. Bush's August 20, 2005, address at the Naval Air Station near San Diego, ostensibly to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Allied victory over Japan. The case also serves as an exemplar for how Bush routinely interwove epideictic appeals with collective memories of World War II in order to promote the Iraq war and deflect criticism of his policies there. Bush praised the greatest generation and linked it to the current generation; blamed and dehumanized enemies of the past and present; advocated for war based on “lessons” from the past; and reinforced a shared identity to instill both obligation and confidence.     

The Rhetoric of War and Remembrance: An Analysis of President Bill Clinton's 1994 D-Day Discourses

This close textual analysis of President Clinton's discourses in ceremonies commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of D-Day, held on June 6, 1994, considers the rhetorical context and discursive strategies of the president on an international stage. It argues that Clinton employed generational comparisons to emphasize the gifts bequeathed by an older generation and the obligation to advance the goals of democracy in a new era. The four speeches analyzed provide evidence of the force of prudential reasoning in commemorative situations.     

罗斯福数字图书馆项目——首个实现数字化的总统图书馆

富兰克林·德兰诺·罗斯福图书馆＆博物馆（以下简称罗斯福图书馆）是美国历史上第一个总统图书馆,以其为依托构建的罗斯福数字图书馆（TheFranklinD．Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum’s digital library project）起步于20世纪90年代,是美国历史上首个实现数字化的总统图书馆项目。它向大众提供罗斯福夫妇生活及工作的历史文献,内容丰富,组织科学,设计合理,在数字图书馆历史上具有举足轻重的作用。文章将介绍该项目的历史背景、信息资源组织状况,服务和技术特点,并对该项目进行客观的评价。     

From ‘poison’ to ‘seeder’: the gap between propaganda and xuanchuan is cultural*

Propaganda has been perceived as ‘poison’ in the field of communication study. Xuanchuan, propaganda’s counterpart in China with a master metaphor of ‘seeder,’ however, has different histories and traditions that do not fit into the ideology-charged theoretical framework. Drawing upon Chinese thought and scholarship on xuanchuan/propaganda, the author demonstrates a deep conceptual and perceptual gap, rooted in culture, between propaganda and xuanchuan. Revelation of the gap is of paramount importance for studying China’s propaganda, both theoretically and empirically.     

‘Listening Became Indispensable for Life … ’ Strategies and Goals of Radio Monitoring in the Warsaw Ghetto

In the beginning of the German occupation of Poland in 1939, press censorship and a strict ban on radio listening were imposed. Poles and ghettos-imprisoned Jews could obtain international information by reading German-controlled newspapers or, alternatively, by reading the clandestine press or listen to rumours. This article stresses the significance of information distributed by activists of Hashomer Hatzair, Zionist, leftist youth movement, who conducted radio monitoring and prepared daily news bulletins distributed in Warsaw ghetto. The article describes their monitoring practices and shows how news extracted from broadcasts was later used in the press. It also engages with the question as to why foreign news was so important to Jews struggling to survive in terrible conditions of the ghetto. It also identifies motivations for conducting radio monitoring during the Holocaust and compares it with those of people listening to foreign radio stations in other contexts and with different intentions.     

Flying in a V formation: themes of (in)equity,reality, and togetherness in adult siblings’ narrative explanations of shared parental caregiving

Guided by communicated narrative sense-making, the present study explored the themes that characterize adult siblings’ stories about their experiences with sharing care of aging parents. Interviews with 20 adult siblings revealed the varied and emotional nature of their shared parental caregiving stories. Adult siblings primarily constructed meaning of their caregiving experiences by drawing upon three overarching narratives: (1) the narrative of (in)equity, (2) the narrative of ideal versus real, and (3) the narrative of interconnectedness. These findings highlight the need for adult siblings providing care for their parents to work together as a team, exercise empathy in their interactions, and express gratitude for one another’s contributions. Several practical applications are discussed that can help siblings manage and overcome the relational challenges associated with caring for a parent.     

Soviet Photography in America: An Introduction to the New York Public Library’s Revolutionary and Post-Revolutionary Slavic,East European,and Baltic Collection

ABSTRACT

This article is an introduction to the New York Public Library’s revolutionary and post-revolutionary Soviet and East European photography holdings. It outlines the materials available to researchers from both the large and smaller collections, particularly those that are useful for studies of Revolutionary Russia and the History or World War II in Russia and Eastern Europe. Of particular note is the NYPL’s wealth of images documenting Poland during the Second World War and the Bessie Beatty album The Russian Revolution: An Album of Photographs.