Curtain of lies : the battle over truth in Stalinist Eastern Europe

Author/Creator:

Feinberg, Melissa, author

Publication/Creation:

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2017

Format:

Book

More Details

Additional/Related Title Information

Full Title:

Curtain of lies : the battle over truth in Stalinist Eastern Europe / Melissa Feinberg

Subjects/Genre

Genre:

Electronic books

Subjects:

Truth--Political aspects--Europe, Eastern--History--20th century
Political culture--Europe, Eastern--History--20th century
Radio broadcasting--Political aspects--Europe, Eastern--History--20th century
Communism--Social aspects--Europe, Eastern--History--20th century
Cold War--Political aspects--Europe, Eastern--History--20th century
Europe, Eastern--Politics and government--1945-1989
Europe, Eastern--Relations--Soviet Union
Soviet Union--Relations--Europe, Eastern
Europe, Eastern--Relations--Western countries
Western countries--Relations--Europe, Eastern

Description/Summary

Table of Contents:

Introduction: Two Camps, Two Truths -- Chapter 1: Telling Lies, Making Truth -- Chapter 2: The Battle for Peace -- Chapter 3: Battling the Big Lie -- Chapter 4: That Funny Feeling Creeping Down Your Back -- Chapter 5: Soporific Bombs and American Flying Discs -- Chapter 6: The Power of the Powerless.

Bibliography:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Summary:

"While the Cold War governments of Eastern Europe operated within the confines of the Soviet worldview, their peoples confronted the narratives of both East and West. From the Soviet Union and its satellites, they heard of a West dominated by imperialist warmongers and of the glorious future only Communism could bring. A competing discourse emanated from the West, claiming that Eastern Europe was a totalitarian land of captive slaves, powerless in the face of Soviet aggression. In Curtain of Lies, Melissa Feinberg conducts a timely examination into the nature of truth, using the political culture of Eastern Europe during the Cold War as her foundation. Focusing on the period between 1948 and 1956, she looks at how the 'truth' of Eastern Europe was delineated by actors on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Feinberg offers a fresh interpretation of the Cold War as a shared political environment, exploring the ways in which ordinary East Europeans interacted with these competing understandings of their homeland. She approaches this by looking at the relationship between the American-sponsored radio stations broadcast across the Iron Curtain and the East European émigrés they interviewed as sources on life under Communism. Feinberg's careful analysis reveals that these parties developed mutually reinforced assumptions about the meaning of Communism, helping to create the evidentiary foundation for totalitarian interpretations of Communist rule in Eastern Europe. In bridging the geopolitical and the individual, Curtain of Lies provides a perspective that is both innovative in its methodology and indispensable to its field"--Provided by publisher.

Language:

English

Physical Type/Description:

1 online resource (257 pages)

Local Note:

Available to current Emory students, faculty and staff.

Additional Identifiers

Catalog ID (MMSID):

9937795616502486

ISBN:

9780190644628
0190644621
9780190693527
0190693525

Other Identifiers:

Unspecified: 13884548
Unspecified: 40027526017