Peter von Zahn's Cold War Broadcasts to West Germany

Assessing America
Softcover Nachdruck of the original 1. Auflage 2017
ISBN: 978-3-319-84443-5
Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Buch, Englisch, 334 Seiten, Paperback, Format (B × H): 148 mm x 210 mm, Gewicht: 4597 g

Reihe: Palgrave Studies in the History of the Media

This book examines the pioneering radio broadcasts and television documentaries about the United States made in the 1950s by the influential West German journalist Peter von Zahn. Part intellectual biography, part analysis of significant debates in West Germany, part study of an intensive encounter with the United States, the book helps explain the transformation of postwar West Germany. As a soldier in the Wehrmacht in World War II, Zahn held the militantly elitist views typical of young men in Germany’s educated middle class. He reconsidered these positions in his postwar broadcasts. At the same time he coldly assessed the capacity of the United States to win the Cold War. His broadcasts examined McCarthyism, the African-American civil rights movement, and numerous aspects of American culture and politics. Zahn’s broadcasts were one important voice in West German debates about the defects and virtues of modern democratic societies and especially of the United States, debates whose intensity reflected recent German experiences with the failure of the Weimar Republic and with Nazism. Zahn’s analyses of the United States remain startlingly relevant today.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Nathans, Eli

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein Biographien & Autobiographien: Historisch, Politisch, Militärisch
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Medienwissenschaften Journalismus & Presse
• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Kommunikationswissenschaften Kommunikation & Medien in der Politik
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Kultur Politische Propaganda & Kampagnen, Politik & Medien
• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Medienwissenschaften Mediengeschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Internationale Beziehungen Ost-West Beziehungen
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Deutsche Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Chapter 1. Introduction.- Part One: Propaganda and Journalism.- Chapter 2. Student and Soldier in the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany.- Chapter 3. Survival.- Chapter 4. Journalist at the Northwest German Radio Station.- Part Two: Networks and Contexts.- Chapter 5. Public Audiences and Official Networks.- Chapter 6. Critical Images of the United States in the Federal Republic.- Part Three: Peter von Zahn’s America.- Chapter 7. Tradition and Modernity in American Culture and Society.- Chapter 8. American Public Opinion: Optimistic but often Ignorant.- Chapter 9. A Weak Executive, an Irresponsible Congress, and a Courageous Judiciary.- Chapter 10. From Understanding to Indignation: Zahn on American Racism and the Civil Rights Movement.- Part Four: Receptions.- Chapter 11. Audience Responses.- Chapter 12. A Difficult Return to West Germany 1964-2001.- Chapter 13. Conclusion.- Index.

Über Autor(innen)

Eli Nathans is Associate Professor of European History at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada. He has previously published books on the history of German citizenship policies and the career of a senior official in the Nazi administration of justice.