superficial appearance of unity

A related campaign to “purify class ranks” between 1967 and 1969 killed even more, as political and family histories were scrutinized for political sins.

The greatest violence of the Cultural Revolution came not from Red Guard brutality but from Maoist suppression of spontaneous mass organizations

“to learn from the poor and lower middle peasants.”

Given the near universality of Red Guard participation, it is not surprising that they developed serious internal divisions.

Red Guard participation was a political act, but it was also a form of teen rebellion, opening possibilities for experiences that would otherwise have been forbidden.

As Mao Zedong’s power increased, his words, actions, and image became imbued with a cultlike sanctity. Even in 1963, the army’s production of the “Little Red Book”

Such theatricality had the practical purpose of disseminating broad political messages in a society with limited communications, and where Party-controlled mass media often seemed monotonous. Many of the best-staged events

The Cultural Revolution offers an encyclopedia of Chinese politics, including idealism, mob violence, conspiracy, social networks, bureaucratic routine, political prison, petitions, bribes, pork barrel, public theater, backroom deals, and military coups

labeling Chinese citizens according to their political status.

Mao turned also to a group of radical intellectuals, and increasingly, to his wife, Jiang Qing

veteran Communists who strayed from the Maoist path.

A fundamental principle of Chinese politics is that the political elite maintains an appearance of unity, even when disagreeing strongly.

Local leaders relaxed their Great Leap intolerance of profit-making peasant markets in order to stimulate food production. Supervision of cultural activities lightened, as the Party cultivated the intellectuals and experts whom it had recently punished.

vast famine as agricultural production collapsed in many provinces

Mao, one of the founders of the Communist Party in 1921,

bloodiest effort

Mao wanted a strong, modern China; some Cultural Revolution policies contributed to this goal, others were remarkably unhelpful but even so added to the distinctive direction followed by contemporary China

estern media

our-fifths of Chinese were peasants

focus mostly on what others (particularly prominentmedia figures such as celebrities) say and what is said on main-stream news media.

ampleroom for active discussions

resent cosmopolitan selve

licktivism(Halupka, 2014) as it involves activism by merely reacting topolitical content rather than by political action in the form of pro-longed engagement with particular political issues

Twitterusers present to others a self that can be seen as being involvedwith distant affairs without explicitly engaging with them

It does not show us howTwitter users themselves talk about this issue of imprisonment.

Again, it is a (reiterated) statement that involves Tolokonni-kova and Alyokhina’s prison experience and their views on soli-darity,

distant struggles gain attention only in the context ofa Western popular media logic

Twitter has proven to be animportant platform when it comes to the dissemination ofnewsworthy event

protesting artists achieve legitimacyin the political field when they are recognized and valued asrepresenting an underrepresented social grou

Pussy Riot’s confrontational perfor-mances have spawned fierce reactions from Russians in generaland Russian political institutions in particular

Bob Geldof organizing the Live Aidconcert to Hollywood actors like Angelina Jolie becomingUnited Nations ambassadors

9001 tweets through a thematic hashta

punk performanc

Win-the-War-Ballads: Musical Propaganda, Visual Propaganda, and the Importance of Context

What seems sinister in the modern day was merely a fact of life for children of the era. Although such harsh realities are hard to swallow, preventative measures such as blackouts, rationing, and keeping secrets allowed for America’s successes during the war.

In Win-the-War-Ballads, a similar phenomenon applies: due to its removal from the original context, the 21st century reader reacts to the music differently than its intended audience did.

As a result, the classic depiction of Rosie that is so well-loved today was not widely known of during the war and became better known almost three decades later, in the early- to mid-1980s.

Unlike her musical counterpart, the original poster of Rosie the Riveter did not attempt to motivate or empower female workers.

Win-the-War-Ballads and Visual Propaganda

Propaganda, though, hardly existed as a solely American phenomenon. Similar instances of propaganda appeared in every country involved in combat, garnering for support for the cause or, in some instances, attempting to dissuade it. For example, Germany attempted to discourage American efforts by dropping pamphlets in English that detailed how to fake illness to avoid combat – effectively attempting to diminish the size and scope of the United States’s fighting power (Szasz 530-531).

Regarding Win-the-War-Ballads, The New York Times described the pieces as “lively” and “catchy,”

When one considers the bubbly and innocent target audience–children–juxtaposed with war’s harsh realities,

In songs like “Blackout,”

Four Vagabonds proclaim that Rosie “can do more than a male can do”

Propaganda in Music

With its blend of musical and visual rhetoric,

During this time period, galvanizing the masses became an imperative for both the Allied and Axis forces, as psychological warfare in the form of propaganda played a huge role in the political culture of the era (Szasz 530)

three contributors: Beatrice Goldsmith, author of the lyrics; Richard Erdoes, the illustrator; and Sam Morgenstern, who composed the music.

colorful title page

Hoole Special Collections Library

subsequent involvement of America in World War II, artists produced a veritable flood of patriotic music in order to support the efforts both of the American soldiers and of the civilians