A01=Annalee Newitz
american propaganda
Author_Annalee Newitz
Category=JBCT5
Category=JP
Category=JPS
Category=JPV
disinformation
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
fake news
history of propaganda
military history
political science books
power of rhetoric
rhetoric
us smart power
us soft power
weaponized storytelling
Product details
- ISBN 9781324110460
- Weight: 218g
- Dimensions: 140 x 211mm
- Publication Date: 03 Jun 2025
- Publisher: WW Norton & Co
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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In Stories Are Weapons, Annalee Newitz traces the way disinformation, propaganda and violent threats—the essential tool kit for psychological warfare—have evolved from military weapons deployed against foreign adversaries into tools in culture wars. Newitz delves into America’s deep-rooted history with psychological operations, beginning with Benjamin Franklin’s Revolutionary War–era fake newspaper and nineteenth-century wars on Indigenous nations, and reaching its apotheosis with the Cold War and twenty-first-century influence campaigns online. America’s secret weapon has long been coercive storytelling. And there’s a reason for that: operatives who shaped modern psychological warfare drew on their experiences as science fiction writers and in the advertising industry.
Now, through a weapons-transfer programme long unacknowledged, psyops have found their way into the hands of culture warriors, transforming democratic debates into toxic wars over American identity. Newitz zeroes in on conflicts over race and intelligence, school board fights over LGBT students and campaigns against feminist viewpoints, revealing how, in each case, specific groups of Americans are singled out and treated as enemies of the state. Crucially, Newitz delivers a powerful counter-narrative, speaking with the researchers and activists who are outlining a pathway to achieving psychological disarmament and cultural peace.
Incisive and essential, Stories are Weapons reveals how our minds have been turned into blood-soaked battlegrounds—and how we can put down our weapons to build something better.
Annalee Newitz is a journalist and author of the national bestseller Four Lost Cities. They write for the New York Times and New Scientist and co-host the Hugo Award–winning podcast Our Opinions Are Correct. They live in San Francisco.
