Atrocity propaganda in the First World War

DEC 05 2014

Jo Fox examines atrocity stories as a distinct propaganda form, used to supply a moral reason for fighting by concentrating a whole war into a single alleged crime. The lecture shows why such stories travel: they are vivid, personal and hard to check, and their later exposure as exaggerated corroded public trust in official accounts for decades. Claims made by wartime propagandists are treated here as claims, not established facts.