this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2023
42 points (88.9% liked)
Ask Lemmygrad
787 readers
6 users here now
A place to ask questions of Lemmygrad's best and brightest
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Blackshirts and the Reds (obvi), To Kill A Nation (recent history of the destruction of Yugoslavia, a lot of parallels to Ukraine), Inventing Realities (I’ve heard it’s like Manufacturing Consent, but better), and Against Empire. There are probably other good ones that I don’t know much about. I wasn’t much interested by The Assassination of Julius Ceasar, but if you’re into Roman history it’s probably good.
Inventing realities felt to me like 2 books in 1, with a very simple but well developed analysis of propaganda as part 1 and the last chapter with part 2 being the 200 pages of just gut wrenching examples of propaganda to support found between. I thought beforehand that it'd feel like there were many theses being developed, but it just hits hard then piles on support. Not a bad thing, but I found it interestingly written
Manufacturing consent is similar, but I’m sure Parenti is better than Chomsky.
Yeah I've read both and like parentis more. But I found Chomsky's a bit more "academic" is structure, while parentis felt that unique way I tried to describe. Might also come from the times I read them (Chomsky long ago as a young lib and parenti while I was already a communist)