How to Win an Information War: The Propagandist Who Outwitted Hitler [Hardcover]

The riveting story of a World War II broadcasters campaign to counter Nazi propaganda, told alongside the authors own quest to confront the disinformation fueling Russias war on Ukraine

[An] addictive page-turner. Lawfare

ATimes(UK) Best Book of the Year

In the summer of 1941, Britain and its allies were struggling to combat Hitlers powerful propaganda machine, which boasted of his inevitable victory and smeared his enemies as liars. British claims to the contrary had little impactexcept for the broadcasts of Der Chef, a German who questioned the Nazi Party. Der Chef galvanized Hitlers opponents across the globe with damning intel on high-ranking Nazi officials and rumors of internal rebellion. Yet all the while, he was a fictional persona created by the British propagandist Sefton Tom Delmer.

As Peter Pomerantsev tells Delmers pulse-pounding story, he finds himself pulled into a wartime propaganda effort of his own. Following Russias invasion of his native Ukraine, Pomerantsev looks to Delmer to understand how to combat disinformation, manipulate the passions of supporters and enemies alike, and turn the tide of an information war.

Peter Pomerantsevis a senior fellow at the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University. He is the author ofThis Is Not PropagandaandNothing Is True and Everything Is Possible. He writes for publications includingGranta,The Atlantic,Financial Times,London Review of Books, andPolitico, among others.

ATimes Best Book of the Year“Pomerantsev writes in a lucid, ironical style that is a pleasure to read. . . . [How to Win an Information War] paints a memorable portrait of a communicator whose genius was not tied to a particular medium of communication. And the insights it contains have less to do with new-fangled technology than with old-fasl3.