Books by "John Tasker Howard"
7 books found
Winner of the Goldsmith Book Prize Winner of the AEJMC History Division Book Award Winner of the AJHA Book of the Year Winner of the Culbert Family Book Prize Manipulating the Masses tells the story of the enduring threat to American democracy that arose out of World War I: the establishment of pervasive, systematic propaganda as an instrument of the state. During the Great War, the federal government exercised unprecedented power to shape the views and attitudes of American citizens. Its agent for this was the Committee on Public Information (CPI), established by President Woodrow Wilson one week after the United States entered the war in April 1917. Driven by its fiery chief, George Creel, the CPI reached every crevice of the nation, every day, and extended widely abroad. It established the first national newspaper, made prepackaged news a quotidian aspect of governing, and pioneered the concept of public diplomacy. It spread the Wilson administration’s messages through articles, cartoons, books, and advertisements in newspapers and magazines; through feature films and volunteer Four Minute Men who spoke during intermission; through posters plastered on buildings and along highways; and through pamphlets distributed by the millions. It enlisted the nation’s leading progressive journalists, advertising executives, and artists. It harnessed American universities and their professors to create propaganda and add legitimacy to its mission. Even as Creel insisted that the CPI was a conduit for reliable, fact-based information, the office regularly sanitized news, distorted facts, and played on emotions. Creel extolled transparency but established front organizations. Overseas, the CPI secretly subsidized news organs and bribed journalists. At home, it challenged the loyalty of those who occasionally questioned its tactics. Working closely with federal intelligence agencies eager to sniff out subversives and stifle dissent, the CPI was an accomplice to the Wilson administration’s trampling of civil liberties. Until now, the full story of the CPI has never been told. John Maxwell Hamilton consulted over 150 archival collections in the United States and Europe to write this revealing history, which shows the shortcuts to open, honest debate that even well-meaning propagandists take to bend others to their views. Every element of contemporary government propaganda has antecedents in the CPI. It is the ideal vehicle for understanding the rise of propaganda, its methods of operation, and the threat it poses to democracy.
The New Winston Handbook of Necessary Information for Home, School, Shop and Office, Practically Arranged for Ready Reference
by Winston, John C., Company, William Henry Johnston
1923
The rich history of the acoustic guitar and its impact on the music world. In 2020, guitar expert John Stubbings released a limited-edition book on the American acoustic guitar that sold out in days. Now, The Devil Is in It returns with additional research and subject matter for a new generation of readers. Stubbings traveled the country and met with guitar makers, players, collectors, and historians to unravel the long and rich history of the acoustic guitar, its evolution, and the music it has made over the last hundred years. Starting with the eighteenth-century European classical guitar, luthiers altered the instrument, changing the way musicians played them, and in turn the music they made. This slow but steady transformation created the iconic American flat-top that became influential across genres and rooted itself in cultural significance. The guitar developed from an obscure instrument into a superstar of the musical world, rivaling then overshadowing its competition. Tied to artists from Gillian Welch and Tracy Chapman to Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran, the acoustic guitar maintains its eminence in American music and culture. The story of an alluring instrument that shaped the music of the twentieth century, The Devil Is in It is a must-read for lovers of the acoustic guitar and the music it has made.
The president of the United States traditionally serves as a symbol of power, virtue, ability, dominance, popularity, and patriarchy. In recent years, however, the high-profile candidacies of Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and Michelle Bachmann have provoked new interest in gendered popular culture and how it influences Americans' perceptions of the country's highest political office. In this timely volume, editors Justin S. Vaughn and Lilly J. Goren lead a team of scholars in examining how the president and the first lady exist as a function of public expectations and cultural gender roles. The authors investigate how the candidates' messages are conveyed, altered, and interpreted in "hard" and "soft" media forums, from the nightly news to daytime talk shows, and from tabloids to the blogosphere. They also address the portrayal of the presidency in film and television productions such as Kisses for My President (1964), Air Force One (1997), and Commander in Chief (2005). With its strong, multidisciplinary approach, Women and the White House commences a wider discussion about the possibility of a female president in the United States, the ways in which popular perceptions of gender will impact her leadership, and the cultural challenges she will face.
Featuring over 1,000 alphabetically arranged, biographical entries, Who's Who in World War One builds up a complete and vivid picture of the major figures of the Great War. The subjects are drawn not only from the political and military spheres of all thirty-two nations involved, but also from the social and cultural life of the period. This book's breadth of coverage makes it the definitive biographical guide to the First World War; * from the British air ace, Albert Ball, to the German foreign secretary, Richard von Kuhlmann * from David Lloyd George to Rasputin * from the British war poet Siegfried Sassoon to the Serbian assassin Trifko Grabez and the Emperor Wilhelm II. Each entry provides biographical data and basic factual information about its subject's role in the Great War, and in the case of major figures there is also an assessment of their reputation in the light of current scholarship. Maps, cross-referencing, a list of military ranks, a guide to further reading and a thorough introduction complete what is at once a comprehensive work of reference and a fascinating overview of a crucial period in twentieth century history.