Stories Are Weapons

Psychological Warfare and the American Mind

Annalee Newitz

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Hardback

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English

WW Norton & Co
17 July 2024

Media studies; International relations; Digital lifestyle

In Stories Are Weapons, best-selling author Annalee Newitz traces the way disinformation, propaganda, and violent threats-the essential tool kit for psychological warfare-have evolved from military weapons deployed against foreign adversaries into tools in domestic culture wars. Newitz delves into America's deep-rooted history with psychological operations, beginning with Benjamin Franklin's Revolutionary War–era fake newspaper and reaching its apotheosis with misinformation during twenty-first-century elections. The nation's secret weapon has long been coercive storytelling, fashioned by operatives who drew on their experiences in the ad industry and as science fiction writers. Now, through a weapons-transfer program long unacknowledged, it has found its way into the hands of culture warriors, in conflicts from school board fights over LGBT students to campaigns against feminist viewpoints. Stories Are Weapons delivers a powerful counter-narrative, as Newitz highlights the process of psychological disarmament, speaking with Indigenous archivists preserving their histories in new ways, activist storytellers, and technology experts transforming social media.

By: Annalee Newitz
Imprint: WW Norton & Co
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 236mm, Width: 160mm, Spine: 25mm
Weight: 493g
ISBN: 9780393881516
ISBN 10: 0393881512
Pages: 272
Publication Date: 17 July 2024
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Annalee Newitz is a journalist and author of science fiction and nonfiction, including the national bestseller Four Lost Cities. They write for the New York Times and New Scientist and cohost the Hugo Award–winning podcast Our Opinions Are Correct.

Reviews for Stories Are Weapons: Psychological Warfare and the American Mind

A penetrating, passionately-reasoned analysis of how propaganda and disinformation have been used as tactics of both hard and soft wars, and how we continue to be manipulated today. This is a storyteller's account of the devastating force of storytelling.--Angela Saini, author of The Patriarchs and Superior Annalee Newitz always sees to the heart of complex systems and breaks them down with poetic ferocity.--N.K. Jemisin, author of the Broken Earth trilogy These days, we all feel besieged by divisive and destructive messages. As Annalee Newitz expertly shows, that's no accident. Illuminating and energizing, Stories Are Weapons can help us defuse the propaganda bombs going off all around us. It also shows how we can come together to tell different stories--stories to shed light in the darkness, make sense amid chaos, and forge hope and community instead of fear and isolation.--Astra Taylor, author of The Age of Insecurity and co-founder of The Debt Collective