Overview
- Provides an intellectual biography of television and radio broadcaster Peter von Zahn in the mid-twentieth century
- Examines the strengths and weaknesses of American government, society, and culture in the 1950s
- Analyses significant debates to help explain the transformation of postwar West Germany
Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in the History of the Media (PSHM)
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About this book
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.
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Keywords
Table of contents (13 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Propaganda and Journalism
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Front Matter
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Networks and Contexts
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Front Matter
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Peter von Zahn’s America
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Front Matter
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Receptions
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Reviews
“Eli Nathans’s Peter von Zahn’s Cold War Broadcasts to West Germany: Assessing America is still the first book that analyzes the life and work of Zahn as an influential intermediary between America and West Germany. … The merit of this book is a case study of an outstanding journalist.” (Frank Bösch, The American Historical Review, Vol. 124 (4), October, 2019)
“It is convincing to interpret Zahn as an intermediary between the U.S. and West Germany—and between elitist intellectuals and a mass audience—who picked up conservative perceptions about America and tried to undermine stereotypes. What is missing, however, is closer comparative view on other journalists and discourses about the United States in postwar Europe. The merit of this book is a case study of an outstanding journalist.” (Frank Bösch, University of Potsdam, Germany)
“With his portrait of Peter von Zahn, Nathans presents us with a picture of the postwar period of the Federal Republic that was determined neither by consensus on political subjects nor by a society primarily focused on consumer goods. Instead, he illustrates the processes of Westernization and liberalization of Germans through the example of an early and critical foreign correspondent. The book is worth reading” (Peter Hoeres, Institut für Geschichte, Austria)Authors and Affiliations
About the author
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.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Peter von Zahn's Cold War Broadcasts to West Germany
Book Subtitle: Assessing America
Authors: Eli Nathans
Series Title: Palgrave Studies in the History of the Media
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50615-9
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: History, History (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-50614-2Published: 17 August 2017
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-84443-5Published: 03 August 2018
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-50615-9Published: 08 August 2017
Series ISSN: 2634-6575
Series E-ISSN: 2634-6583
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XXI, 334
Number of Illustrations: 3 b/w illustrations
Topics: History of Germany and Central Europe, Cultural History, Journalism, History of World War II and the Holocaust, US History