How to Win an Information War

Peter Pomerantsev is a Senior Fellow at Johns Hopkins University where he studies contemporary propaganda and how to defeat it. His first book <i>Nothing is True and Everything is Possible</i> won the 2016 RSL Ondaatje Prize and was nominated for the <i>Guardian</i> First Book Award Pushkin Prize Baillie Gifford Prize and Gordon Burn Prize. His second <i>This is Not Propaganda</i> won the 2020 Gordon Burn Prize. His essay on authoritarian propaganda 'Memory in the Age of Impunity' won the 2022 European Press Prize. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. <b>From one of our leading experts on disinformation the incredible true story of the complex and largely forgotten WWII propagandist Sefton Delmer - and what we can learn from him today. </b> Both history and a rallying cry . . . <b>an illuminating guide to the nature and possibilities of propaganda.</b> Written with palpable urgency it cements the author's reputation as one of the leading experts in information warfare [...] it even manages to strike a tentative note of optimism [...] good can prevail of over evil once again. Only we must all muster our intelligence and creativity. Lively and elegant [...]This is Pomerantsev's third book about propaganda (after <i>Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible</i> and <i>This Is Not Propaganda</i>) all vividly reported well researched and crisply argued. <i>How to Win an Information War</i> succeeds brilliantly in shedding light on the first question that Pomerantsev sought to answer: namely what makes people susceptible to the blindness that propaganda can create? But the book's real importance lies in the fact that it ultimately fails to provide the answer to his second question: how might people be induced to break out of it? <i>How to Win an Information War </i>covers important topics not least Pomerantsev's reflections on the future of propaganda in a digital world and how the enduring aim of propaganda (to give a sense of belonging) are dark arts being exploited by Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in our own era. The author notes - just as the reader may do - structural similarities between Hitler's speeches and those made by Trump and Putin . . . Where does that leave us? Most controversially with a refutation of our usual liberal piety. So Pomerantsev asserts that we should not trust in a marketplace of ideas where the best information will somehow win out if we just publish it. Success means engaging people who are resistant to what we want to say. Brilliant [...] most timely [...] spare but gripping prose [...] This is a wonderful book whose appearance<br>could not be more timely nor its message more urgent. In elegant effortlessly readable prose Pomerantsev shines a revealing light on one of the darkest most urgent questions of our time - the role of propaganda - and he does it by rediscovering a hero both complex and compelling and a story full of daring adventure and outrageous nerve. The result is essential reading for the new dark age of disinformation. An original work of historical research and critical analysis written with a literary flourish. Pomerantsev digs deep into the past history of information warfare in order to help us understand how to fight charlatans and fear mongers in the present. An excellent work of history carefully researched and beautifully written; and at once a profound study of a central problem of our time. To be read by everyone seeking perspective on all the lies of war and all the wars of lies. Not only will this book excite you and entertain you it will profoundly unnerve you. Never again will you think about war truth and disinformation the same. This is history at its most urgent. A fascinating wartime biography that is also an inquiry into one of the most urgent issues in modern politics. Highly recommended. Pomerantsev is an unparalleled tour guide of our post-truth world. Pomerantsev is emerging as the pre-eminent war reporter of our time. The World's most powerful people are lying like never before and no one understands their lies like Peter Pomerantsev. <b>BY THE AUTHOR OF </b><i><b>NOTHING IS TRUE AND EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE</b></i><br><i></i><br><b>'Both history and a rallying cry . . . an illuminating guide to the nature and possibilities of propaganda.' <i>TLS</i></b><br><b></b><br><b>From one of our leading experts on disinformation the incredible true story of the complex and largely forgotten WWII propagandist Sefton Delmer - and what we can learn from him today. </b><br><br>In the summer of 1941 Hitler and his allies ruled Europe from the Atlantic to the Black Sea. Britain was struggling to combat the powerful Nazi propaganda machine which crowed victory and smeared its enemies.<br><br>However inside Germany there was one notable voice of dissent from the very heart of the military machine - Der Chef a German whose radio broadcasts skilfully questioned Nazi doctrine. He had access to high-ranking military secrets and spoke of internal rebellion. His listeners included German soldiers and citizens. But what these audiences didn't know was that Der Chef was a fiction a character created by the British propagandist Sefton Delmer just one player in his vast counter-propaganda cabaret a unique weapon in the war.<br><br>As author Peter Pomerantsev uncovers Delmer's story he is called into a wartime propaganda effort of his own: the global response to Putin's invasion of Ukraine. This book is the story of Delmer and his modern-day investigator as they each embark on their own quest to seduce and inspire the passions of supporters and enemies and to turn the tide of information wars.