The Story of British Propaganda Film
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Published:3rd Oct '24
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This book traces the history of British propaganda film, from documentaries about British sporting prowess to the influencing possibilities of recent and emerging applications and technologies such as YouTube and AI.
‘All art is propaganda,’ wrote George Orwell, ‘but not all propaganda is art.’ Moving from World War I to the ‘War on Terror’ and beyond, The Story of British Propaganda Film shows how the emergence of film as a global media phenomenon reshaped practices of propaganda, while new practices of propaganda in turn reshaped the use of the moving image. It explores classic examples of cinematic propaganda such as The Battle of the Somme (1916), Listen to Britain (1942) and Animal Farm (1954) alongside little-known newsreels, ‘telemagazines’ and digital media initiatives, in the process challenging our understanding of propaganda itself, and its many diverse manifestations.
Richly illustrated with unique material from the BFI National Archive, the book shows how central propaganda is to the development of British film, and how it has filtered our understanding of modern British history, from narratives of decolonisation to the celebration of pop culture and the meanings of the postwar consensus. In a contemporary moment so preoccupied with misinformation, malinformation and disinformation, Scott Anthony explains why the response to the ubiquity of the propaganda film has often turned out to be the production of ever more propaganda.
Fascinating and subversive * The Telegraph *
Deeply researched, smartly written, and admirably capacious, this engaging book spans a century without losing site of the fascinating people, films, and ideas that have shaped Britain’s view of itself and its place on the world stage. Scott Anthony brings both deep knowledge and a keen storyteller’s eye to this vital story of film’s enduring power to persuade. Let yourself be convinced that the history of British propaganda film is also an important history of Britain itself. -- Brian R. Jacobson, California Institute of Technology, USA, and author of The Cinema of Extractions and Studios Before the System: Architecture, Technology, and the Emergence of Cinematic Space
Scott Anthony deftly weaves together the deep and pressing histories of the British state’s use of media as a tool of governance shaping reality and conduct and affect against the backdrop of the political and economic transformation of that state and its place in the world. It is a brilliant expansive and readable and beautifully produced history of the deployment of mediated propaganda across time and space and amid too the radical transformations of the digital era. The Story of British Propaganda Film will be a very useful book. -- Lee Grieveson, Professor of Media History, University College London, UK
The Story of British Propaganda Film is well worth the price of admission for any British film aficionado or lover of cinematic history in general. Anthony writes with authority and incredible knowledge of his subject, and his book is a perfect introduction to this fascinating topic. * All About History *
ISBN: 9781839021350
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
192 pages