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Rumors That Changed the World

A History of Violence and Discrimination

Eugen O. Chirovici

The aim of the book is to explore the social and cultural impact of rumor from Antiquity to the mid-1990s, examining it as one of the most important contributing factors to violence and discrimination. Usually defined as an unverified account that circulates from one person to another and refers to an object, event, or matter of public interest, rumor and its impact have largely been ignored by scholars and authors.

Eugen O. Chirovici has tried not only to describe a number of major historic events, but also to explain how the rumors that influenced them came into being and to account for the collective desires or fears that nurtured them. Merely to conclude that the human mind has always been vulnerable to rumors, sometimes with lethal consequences, is not enough; it is important to understand not only what happens, but also why it happens. For at least three reasons, Chirovici thinks that it is important—particularly in this era of explosive development in mass communications—to understand the complex mechanisms whereby rumors emerge and spread.

The first is that history has taught us that in certain circumstances rumors can be extremely dangerous, being employed as tools of manipulation, disinformation, and propaganda. The second relates to a deeper understanding of the way in which the most recent inventions—the Internet, social networks, digital landscape—affect and will go on affecting our lives; the virtual world is a historically unprecedented vehicle for the dissemination of rumors. And the third has to do with the wider and more nebulous idea of progress. In other words, are we less vulnerable to rumors today than we were, for example, in the Middle Ages?

Lexington Books

Pages: 192 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-1-4985-0083-8 • Hardback • December 2014 • $108.00 • (£83.00)

978-1-4985-0084-5 • eBook • December 2014 • $102.50 • (£79.00)

Subjects: History / Social History, History / Modern / 17th Century, History / Modern / 18th Century, History / Modern / 19th Century, History / Modern / 20th Century, History / Pre-Modern, History / Urban History

Rumors That Changed the World

A History of Violence and Discrimination

Hardback

eBook

Summary

The aim of the book is to explore the social and cultural impact of rumor from Antiquity to the mid-1990s, examining it as one of the most important contributing factors to violence and discrimination. Usually defined as an unverified account that circulates from one person to another and refers to an object, event, or matter of public interest, rumor and its impact have largely been ignored by scholars and authors.

Eugen O. Chirovici has tried not only to describe a number of major historic events, but also to explain how the rumors that influenced them came into being and to account for the collective desires or fears that nurtured them. Merely to conclude that the human mind has always been vulnerable to rumors, sometimes with lethal consequences, is not enough; it is important to understand not only what happens, but also why it happens. For at least three reasons, Chirovici thinks that it is important—particularly in this era of explosive development in mass communications—to understand the complex mechanisms whereby rumors emerge and spread.

The first is that history has taught us that in certain circumstances rumors can be extremely dangerous, being employed as tools of manipulation, disinformation, and propaganda. The second relates to a deeper understanding of the way in which the most recent inventions—the Internet, social networks, digital landscape—affect and will go on affecting our lives; the virtual world is a historically unprecedented vehicle for the dissemination of rumors. And the third has to do with the wider and more nebulous idea of progress. In other words, are we less vulnerable to rumors today than we were, for example, in the Middle Ages?

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 192 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-1-4985-0083-8 • Hardback • December 2014 • $108.00 • (£83.00)

978-1-4985-0084-5 • eBook • December 2014 • $102.50 • (£79.00)

Subjects: History / Social History, History / Modern / 17th Century, History / Modern / 18th Century, History / Modern / 19th Century, History / Modern / 20th Century, History / Pre-Modern, History / Urban History

Author

Eugen O. Chirovici holds honorary PhDs in economics, communication, and history and is a member of the Romanian Academy of Sciences.

Table of Contents

Contents
Argument
1. The Number of the Beast: Nero Did Not Play the Lyre While Rome Burned
2. The Bloody Road to Redemption: The Paupers’ Crusade
3. Bankruptcy and the Stake: The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ
4. Five Centuries of Rumors: The Witch Hunts
5. Violence and Fear: The St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre
6. A Rumor Brings a Kingdom to Ruin: The Mississippi Bubble
7. When Diamonds Are a Girl’s Worst Enemy: The Affair of the Necklace
8. Too Loud To Be True: The California Gold Rush
9. Jack the Ripper: A Real Person or Just a Bunch of Rumors?
10. Cannons and Rumors: The Curious Case of Noel Pemberton Billing
11. Hearing is not Believing: The Night When ‘They’ Attacked America
12. When Death of a Democracy is Greeted with Applause: The Reichstag Fire
13. The Birth of a Mythology: The Roswell Incident
14. The Dictator Who Didn’t Have Gold Taps: The End of Communism in Eastern Europe
15. Murderous Rumors: The Rwanda Genocide
16. A New Witch Hunt: The Satanic Ritual Abuse
Afterword
Bibliography

Reviews

Rumors That Changed the World: A History of Violence and Discrimination is an interesting, useful and well-structured book that aims to identify the way in which rumors, as a psycho-social phenomenon, have played a part in triggering and shaping various historical events.

— Andrei Kozma, Romanian Academy of Science

Rumors That Changed the World

A History of Violence and Discrimination

Eugen O. Chirovici

Rumors That Changed the World

A History of Violence and Discrimination

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