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Falsehood in Wartime: Propaganda Lies of the First World War

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Falsehood in Wartime: Propaganda Lies of the First World War

Classic debunking of the propaganda lies politicians and press manufactured about the enemy to stampede their own citizens into "the war to end all wars." British MP Ponsonby reveals how all the belligerents, but foremost his own country, faked documents, falsified photos, and invented horrifying atrocity stories. Authoritatively debunks numerous wartime hoaxes, including such durable tales as: the bayoneted Belgian babies, the German "corpse factory," "The Crucified Canadian," the martyrdom of Nurse Cavell, and the "passenger ship" Lusitania. In the publisher's foreword, historian Mark Weber points out fascinating parallels with World War II atrocity tales.

Aeschylus, Greek tragic dramatist (525 BC - 456 BC) wrote: "The first casualty when war comes is truth".
Never has it been so true as in our day and age,when Modern Media and Technological Advances have so often walked hand with crooked politicians, biased jornalists and writers, historians and the like.
Only God knows what befell upon Sir Arthur Ponsonby to speak up so blatantly and reaveal "The Tricks of the Trade". I'm inclined to think he was just an honest man, the kind you don't run into every other day.
He does a remarkable job at it, and believe me, what a read! You will not be able to put it down for lunch, and if you've ever thought of reading while you drive, don't take it with you.
The introduction by Mark Weber which one of the "reviewers" has objected to, is none less than brilliant.

What on earth can make us think that such lies as the ones exposed by Sir A. Ponsonby, were never recast in more credible ways in subsequent wars,and recent times, to serve their purpose?

There was a time in which we all believed the National Socialists had made "Human Soap" from Jewish people, and that myth certainly served its purpose at Nüremberg in 1945,1946 and 1947.

During the war against Milosevic's Yugoslavia we all heard on the BBC and the CNN how the head of the opposition party, Valentin Rugoba, had been forcefully abducted from his home and shot dead. Only to discover several days later he was elsewere and in perfect health.

We all sobbed when we heard that Kuwaiti nurse in court while giving testimony, with tears rolling down her cheeks, of how she had witnessed evil Iraqui soldiers disconnecting babies from their incubators. That is, only until we found out that the so called "nurse" was actually "an actress", and the story about the babies was, naturally, untrue.

The stories about "official" blatant lies and misinformation could go on forever.Governments, reporters, historians, misinform and turn real history up side down to serve their often twisted needs.
They know they might just get away with it. And if they don't, they sure know enough time will have passed and,6 months later the public will no longer be interested in it at all.

We should't be so foolish as to think that only those who we consider "Baddies" lie and misinform.

We shouldn't be so foolish to belive that we the "Goodies" are always on the open up, so legal up front square, and "they" the "Evil Ones" are not.

We shouldn't be so foolish, yet we are.

This is the basis for a number of recent good books on propaganda. It should be read in conjunction with Walter Karp's The Politics of War (1979) and Anne Morelli's Principes élementaires de propagande de guerre (2001). Although this edition has a good foreword by the publisher, it lacks an index of names. Also, with the passage of time, many of the incidents mentioned are obscure and could have benefited from some explanation by the publisher.

This is an interesting little book, originally written in the 1920's by an English Member of Parliament about the propoganda lies that were rampant during World War I. Unfortunately, there is also a rather frightening introduction from the current publisher, which is one of those holocaust denial organizations, who seem to follow the twisted logic that if one atrocity story is a lie, they all are. Ignore it. The atrocity stories from World War I were investigated and found to be lies. The atrocity stories from World War II were investigated and found to be true, as evidenced by millions of witnesses, survivors, etc.

It is my belief that Arthur Ponsonby's original work has been hijacked by delusional fascists bent on rewriting history to coincide with their distorted world view. The publisher "Historical Review" does not deserve to profit one iota from this blatant attempt at historical sabotage and should be shown as the Holocaust denying fools that they really are! Unfortunately for them I read with my eyes open.