Alamosa Public Library

Hitler, Stalin, and Mao ruled through violence, fear, and ideology. But in recent decades a new breed of media-savvy strongmen has been redesigning authoritarian rule for a more sophisticated, globally connected world. In place of overt, mass repression, rulers such as Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Viktor Orbán control their citizens by distorting information and simulating democratic procedures. Like spin doctors in democracies, they...

In Dec. 1941 America was forced into World War II by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The US government sponsored this series of films created by director Frank Capra to explain its official war policy. Narrated with classical music.

Noam Chomsky discusses corporate and governmental propaganda, known as public relations, and its use to alter perception, frame debate, and influence opinion.

Excerpt: "One of the minor peculiarities of this unprecedented war is the Tour of the Front. After some months of suppressed information-in which even the war correspondent was discouraged to the point of elimination-it was discovered on both sides that this was a struggle in which Opinion was playing a larger and more important part than it had ever done before. This wild spreading weed was perhaps of decisive importance; the Germans at any rate...

"Meet the Murdochs and the disastrously dysfunctional family of Fox News. Until recently, they formed the most powerful media and political force in the land, for better or worse. Now their empire is cracking up and crashing down. For almost three decades, Fox News has not only made political careers (see: President Donald J. Trump) but also fundamentally altered the political landscape of the United States. It is a truism: as Fox goes, so goes the...

"In BATTLING THE BIG LIE, bestselling author Dan Pfeiffer returns to lay out how the Right Wing built such a robust and successful disinformation machine, how they have used it to amass power despite representing a dwindling share of the country, and how readers can fight back against disinformation with step-by-step guides on spotting fake news, becoming their own fact checker, and talking to their conspiracy theory-obsessed relatives. Over the last...

During World War II, a group of Jewish-American guerilla soldiers, led by Lt. Aldo Raine, become known as "The Basterds." They are chosen specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis. The Basterds soon cross paths with a French -Jewish woman who runs a movie theater in Paris which is targeted by the soldiers. A plot is set in motion to kill the Nazis at the theater's movie premier, including Adolph...

"Propaganda art has been synonymous with life in the galaxy far, far away. Whether it's a poster of a Star Destroyer hovering over a planet in a display of Imperial domination; a symbol painted on a wall to deliver a message of hope on behalf of the Rebellion; or a mural depicting a line of stormtroopers to promote unity within the First Order, this type of art, as an instrument of persuasive fearmongering and impassioned idealism, captures the ever-changing...

Alan Dershowitz has spent years advocating for his "most challenging client"―the state of Israel―both publicly and in private meetings with high level international figures, including every US president and Israeli leader of the past 40 years. Replete with personal insights and unreported details, Defending Israel offers a comprehensive history of modern Israel from the perspective of one of the country's most important supporters. Readers are...