Constructing A Cult

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Creating the Cult of St. Joseph

Author : Charlene Villaseñor Black
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691096317
Total Pages : 268 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis Creating the Cult of St. Joseph by : Charlene Villaseñor Black

Download or read book Creating the Cult of St. Joseph written by Charlene Villaseñor Black and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2006-04-02 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: St. Joseph is mentioned only eight times in the New Testament Gospels. Prior to the late medieval period, Church doctrine rarely noticed him except in passing. But in 1555 this humble carpenter, earthly spouse of the Virgin Mary and foster father of Jesus, was made patron of the Conquest and conversion in Mexico. In 1672, King Charles II of Spain named St. Joseph patron of his kingdom, toppling St. James--traditional protector of the Iberian peninsula for over 800 years--from his honored position. Focusing on the changing manifestations of Holy Family and St. Joseph imagery in Spain and colonial Mexico from the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries, this book examines the genesis of a new saint's cult after centuries of obscurity. In so doing, it elucidates the role of the visual arts in creating gender discourses and deploying them in conquest, conversion, and colonization. Charlene Villaseñor Black examines numerous images and hundreds of primary sources in Spanish, Latin, Náhuatl, and Otomí. She finds that St. Joseph was not only the most frequently represented saint in Spanish Golden Age and Mexican colonial art, but also the most important. In Spain, St. Joseph was celebrated as a national icon and emblem of masculine authority in a society plagued by crisis and social disorder. In the Americas, the parental figure of the saint--model father, caring spouse, hardworking provider--became the perfect paradigm of Spanish colonial power. Creating the Cult of St. Joseph exposes the complex interactions among artists, the Catholic Church and Inquisition, the Spanish monarchy, and colonial authorities. One of the only sustained studies of masculinity in early modern Spain, it also constitutes a rare comparative study of Spain and the Americas.

Brimstone Angels

Author : Erin M. Evans
Publisher : Wizards of the Coast
ISBN 13 : 078695941X
Total Pages : 356 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (869 download)

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Book Synopsis Brimstone Angels by : Erin M. Evans

Download or read book Brimstone Angels written by Erin M. Evans and published by Wizards of the Coast. This book was released on 2011-11-01 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first in a series set in D&D’s Forgotten Realms, about twin tiefling sisters, an alluring yet unsettling half-demonic race of outcasts Rejected at birth and raised in a village of tiefling misfits, Farideh expects a life without friends, love, or control over her destiny. Then she makes a pact with a devil named Lorcan, and everything changes. Lorcan promises all she ever dreamed of and asks for nothing in return. Her twin sister Havilar urges Farideh to resist the devil’s sway. But Farideh’s not so sure. Lorcan may be dangerous but the power he offers is exhilarating. In the ruins of Neverwinter, Farideh’s doubts get tangled up in a devilish snare six layers deep. A succubus playing human pawns against an otherworldly foe sees the twins as obstacles in her path. And Lorcan’s monstrous sisters have their eyes on the city—and on Farideh. There’s no time to question her pact with Lorcan—it will take every ounce of Farideh’s newfound powers to get out of Neverwinter alive. Brimstone Angels is the first book in the Brimstone Angels series. Titles in Erin Evans’ Brimstone Angels Series Brimstone Angels Brimstone Angels: Lesser Evils The Adversary Fire in the Blood Ashes of the Tyrant The Devil You Know

Join Me

Author : Danny Wallace
Publisher : Random House
ISBN 13 : 1407062239
Total Pages : 48 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (7 download)

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Book Synopsis Join Me by : Danny Wallace

Download or read book Join Me written by Danny Wallace and published by Random House. This book was released on 2010-04-27 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Some men are born to lead. Others, not so much... Danny Wallace was bored. Just to see what would happen, he placed a whimsical ad in a local London paper. It said, simply, 'Join Me'. Within a month, he was receiving letters and emails from teachers, mechanics, sales reps, vicars, schoolchildren and pensioners - all pledging allegiance to his cause. But no one knew what his cause was. Soon he was proclaimed Leader. Increasingly obsessed and possibly power-crazed Danny risked losing his sanity and his loyal girlfriend. But who could deny the attraction of a global following of devoted joinees? A book about dreams, ambition and the responsibility that comes with power, Join Me is the true story of a man who created a cult by accident, and is proof that whilst some men were born to lead, others really haven't got a clue.

The Leader Cult in Communist Dictatorships

Author : B. Apor
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 0230518214
Total Pages : 301 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (35 download)

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Book Synopsis The Leader Cult in Communist Dictatorships by : B. Apor

Download or read book The Leader Cult in Communist Dictatorships written by B. Apor and published by Springer. This book was released on 2004-10-09 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first book to analyze the distinct leader cults that flourished in the era of 'High Stalinism' as an integral part of the system of dictatorial rule in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Fifteen studies explore the way in which these cults were established, their function and operation, their dissemination and reception, the place of the cults in art and literature, the exportation of the Stalin cult and its implantment in the communist states of Eastern Europe, and the impact which de-Stalinisation had on these cults.

Building Your Cult - Second Edition

Author : Dantalion Jones
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN 13 : 9781546457787
Total Pages : 134 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (577 download)

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Book Synopsis Building Your Cult - Second Edition by : Dantalion Jones

Download or read book Building Your Cult - Second Edition written by Dantalion Jones and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-05-05 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The second edition of this book has added content on leadership. Specifically, the leadership tactics of one of the worlds most powerful and dangerous cult leaders, Charles Manson. This book deals with the art and science of protecting and promoting your own interests. It is about reaching that pentacle of accomplishment where you have groups of people devoted to you, your goals and your ambitions. In other words, it is about the politics of life. It is about making your own cult. More often when someone talks about a sense of purpose or a feeling of destiny they are met with cynicism. People generally don't even have a language to understand the concept of purpose and destiny. If you have to wait to find your sense of purpose then it will likely never happen. Right NOW you are in the perfect place to choose your purpose. When you do, life gains a clearer perspective and you can do the ordinary and mundane acts of daily life with more vigor and joy because everything is connected by your sense of purpose and destiny. Yes, we have plans and goals and problems to solve and we work to solve those problems but there are few who can say they are driven by a sense of purpose. Those who are live like unstoppable forces of nature.

The Cult of Trump

Author : Steven Hassan
Publisher : Free Press
ISBN 13 : 1982127341
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (821 download)

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Book Synopsis The Cult of Trump by : Steven Hassan

Download or read book The Cult of Trump written by Steven Hassan and published by Free Press. This book was released on 2020-09-01 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A masterful and eye-opening examination of Trump and the coercive control tactics he uses to build a fanatical devotion in his supporters written by “an authority on breaking away from cults…an argument that…bears consideration as the next election cycle heats up” (Kirkus Reviews). Since the 2016 election, Donald Trump’s behavior has become both more disturbing and yet increasingly familiar. He relies on phrases like, “fake news,” “build the wall,” and continues to spread the divisive mentality of us-vs.-them. He lies constantly, has no conscience, never admits when he is wrong, and projects all of his shortcomings on to others. He has become more authoritarian, more outrageous, and yet many of his followers remain blindly devoted. Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert and a major Trump supporter, calls him one of the most persuasive people living. His need to squash alternate information and his insistence of constant ego stroking are all characteristics of other famous leaders—cult leaders. In The Cult of Trump, mind control and licensed mental health expert Steven Hassan draws parallels between our current president and people like Jim Jones, David Koresh, Ron Hubbard, and Sun Myung Moon, arguing that this presidency is in many ways like a destructive cult. He specifically details the ways in which people are influenced through an array of social psychology methods and how they become fiercely loyal and obedient. Hassan was a former “Moonie” himself, and he presents a “thoughtful and well-researched analysis of some of the most puzzling aspects of the current presidency, including the remarkable passivity of fellow Republicans [and] the gross pandering of many members of the press” (Thomas G. Gutheil, MD and professor of psychiatry, Harvard Medical School). The Cult of Trump is an accessible and in-depth analysis of the president, showing that under the right circumstances, even sane, rational, well-adjusted people can be persuaded to believe the most outrageous ideas. “This book is a must for anyone who wants to understand the current political climate” (Judith Stevens-Long, PhD and author of Living Well, Dying Well).

Cultish

Author : Amanda Montell
Publisher : HarperCollins
ISBN 13 : 0062993178
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (629 download)

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Book Synopsis Cultish by : Amanda Montell

Download or read book Cultish written by Amanda Montell and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-06-15 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author of the widely praised Wordslut analyzes the social science of cult influence: how cultish groups from Jonestown and Scientology to SoulCycle and social media gurus use language as the ultimate form of power. What makes “cults” so intriguing and frightening? What makes them powerful? The reason why so many of us binge Manson documentaries by the dozen and fall down rabbit holes researching suburban moms gone QAnon is because we’re looking for a satisfying explanation for what causes people to join—and more importantly, stay in—extreme groups. We secretly want to know: could it happen to me? Amanda Montell’s argument is that, on some level, it already has . . . Our culture tends to provide pretty flimsy answers to questions of cult influence, mostly having to do with vague talk of “brainwashing.” But the true answer has nothing to do with freaky mind-control wizardry or Kool-Aid. In Cultish, Montell argues that the key to manufacturing intense ideology, community, and us/them attitudes all comes down to language. In both positive ways and shadowy ones, cultish language is something we hear—and are influenced by—every single day. Through juicy storytelling and cutting original research, Montell exposes the verbal elements that make a wide spectrum of communities “cultish,” revealing how they affect followers of groups as notorious as Heaven’s Gate, but also how they pervade our modern start-ups, Peloton leaderboards, and Instagram feeds. Incisive and darkly funny, this enrapturing take on the curious social science of power and belief will make you hear the fanatical language of “cultish” everywhere.

Literature and the Cult of Personality

Author : Gregory Maertz
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 3838269810
Total Pages : 299 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (382 download)

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Book Synopsis Literature and the Cult of Personality by : Gregory Maertz

Download or read book Literature and the Cult of Personality written by Gregory Maertz and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2017-04-25 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The construction of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe as an Anglo-American sage and literary icon was the product of a cult of personality that lay at the center of nineteenth-century cultural politics. A reconstruction of the culture wars fought over Goethe’s authority, a previously hidden chapter in the intellectual history of the period ranging from the late eighteenth century to the threshold of Modernism, is the focus of Literature and the Cult of Personality. Marginal as well as canonical writers and critics figured prominently in this process, and Literature and the Cult of Personality offers insight into the mediation activities of Mary Wollstonecraft, Henry Crabb Robinson, the canonical Romantic poets, Thomas Carlyle, Margaret Fuller, George Eliot, Matthew Arnold, and others. For women writers and Jacobins, Scots, and Americans, translating Goethe served as an empowering cultural platform that challenges the myth of the self-sufficiency of British literature. Reviewing and translating German authors provided a means of gaining literary enfranchisement and offered a paradigm of literary development according to which 're-writers' become original writers through an apprenticeship of translation and reviewing. In the diverse and fascinating body of critical writing examined in this book, textual exegesis plays an unexpectedly minor role; in its place, a full-blown cult of personality emerges along with a blueprint for the ideology of hero-worship that is more fully mapped out in the cultural and political life of twentieth-century Europe.

Combatting Cult Mind Control

Author : Steven Hassan
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781855380257
Total Pages : 226 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (82 download)

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Book Synopsis Combatting Cult Mind Control by : Steven Hassan

Download or read book Combatting Cult Mind Control written by Steven Hassan and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Describes the psychological techniques cults use to indoctrinate their members and discusses deprogramming.

How to Be a Dictator

Author : Frank Dikötter
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1408891603
Total Pages : 377 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (88 download)

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Book Synopsis How to Be a Dictator by : Frank Dikötter

Download or read book How to Be a Dictator written by Frank Dikötter and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-09-05 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Brilliant' NEW STATESMAN, BOOKS OF THE YEAR 'Enlightening and a good read' SPECTATOR 'Moving and perceptive' NEW STATESMAN Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, Mao Zedong, Kim Il-sung, Ceausescu, Mengistu of Ethiopia and Duvalier of Haiti. No dictator can rule through fear and violence alone. Naked power can be grabbed and held temporarily, but it never suffices in the long term. A tyrant who can compel his own people to acclaim him will last longer. The paradox of the modern dictator is that he must create the illusion of popular support. Throughout the twentieth century, hundreds of millions of people were condemned to enthusiasm, obliged to hail their leaders even as they were herded down the road to serfdom. In How to Be a Dictator, Frank Dikötter returns to eight of the most chillingly effective personality cults of the twentieth century. From carefully choreographed parades to the deliberate cultivation of a shroud of mystery through iron censorship, these dictators ceaselessly worked on their own image and encouraged the population at large to glorify them. At a time when democracy is in retreat, are we seeing a revival of the same techniques among some of today's world leaders? This timely study, told with great narrative verve, examines how a cult takes hold, grows, and sustains itself. It places the cult of personality where it belongs, at the very heart of tyranny.

Bounded Choice

Author : Janja A. Lalich
Publisher : University of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520384024
Total Pages : 354 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (23 download)

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Book Synopsis Bounded Choice by : Janja A. Lalich

Download or read book Bounded Choice written by Janja A. Lalich and published by University of California Press. This book was released on 2020-11-30 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Heaven's Gate, a secretive group of celibate "monks" awaiting pickup by a UFO, captured intense public attention in 1997 when its members committed collective suicide. As a way of understanding such perplexing events, many have seen those who join cults as needy, lost souls, unable to think for themselves. This book, a compelling look at the cult phenomenon written for a wide audience, dispels such simple formulations by explaining how normal, intelligent people can give up years of their lives—and sometimes their very lives—to groups and beliefs that appear bizarre and irrational. Looking closely at Heaven's Gate and at the Democratic Workers Party, a radical political group of the 1970s and 1980s, Janja Lalich gives us a rare insider's look at these two cults and advances a new theoretical framework that will reshape our understanding of those who join such groups. Lalich's fascinating discussion includes her in-depth interviews with cult devotees as well as reflections gained from her own experience as a high-ranking member of the Democratic Workers Party. Incorporating classical sociological concepts such as "charisma" and "commitment" with more recent work on the social psychology of influence and control, she develops a new approach for understanding how charismatic cult leaders are able to dominate their devotees. She shows how members are led into a state of "bounded choice," in which they make seemingly irrational decisions within a context that makes perfect sense to them and is, in fact, consistent with their highest aspirations. In addition to illuminating the cult phenomenon in the United States and around the world, this important book also addresses our pressing need to know more about the mentality of those true believers who take extreme or violent measures in the name of a cause.

The Cult of Mithras in Late Antiquity

Author : David Walsh
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004383069
Total Pages : 158 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (43 download)

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Book Synopsis The Cult of Mithras in Late Antiquity by : David Walsh

Download or read book The Cult of Mithras in Late Antiquity written by David Walsh and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2018-11-29 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Cult of Mithras in Late Antiquity David Walsh examines how and why the cult of Mithras vanished from the Roman Empire by the early 5th century C.E.

The Cult of the Customer

Author : Shep Hyken
Publisher : Sound Wisdom
ISBN 13 : 1640951547
Total Pages : 184 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (49 download)

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Book Synopsis The Cult of the Customer by : Shep Hyken

Download or read book The Cult of the Customer written by Shep Hyken and published by Sound Wisdom. This book was released on 2020-03-17 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In today’s competitive business climate, you can’t just satisfy your customers. You have to be better than that, giving them experiences that they won’t forget. Author Shep Hyken has spent thirty years studying great companies and the evangelists they create. In The Cult of the Customer, Hyken shows how to design a strategy that leads both customers and employees through five distinct cultural phases – from "uncertainty" to "amazement." By presenting dozens of case studies that show how great companies made this journey, Hyken identifies the critical internal and external changes that allowed them to build a Cult of the Customer – and shows how you can do it too. Hyken’s message is both powerful and timely: the happier your customers and employees are, the more successful your company will be. The Cult of the Customer is your guide to creating a customer-focused culture that turns satisfied customers into customer evangelists.

The Stalin Cult in East Germany and the Making of the Postwar Soviet Empire, 1945–1961

Author : Alexey Tikhomirov
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1666911909
Total Pages : 385 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (669 download)

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Book Synopsis The Stalin Cult in East Germany and the Making of the Postwar Soviet Empire, 1945–1961 by : Alexey Tikhomirov

Download or read book The Stalin Cult in East Germany and the Making of the Postwar Soviet Empire, 1945–1961 written by Alexey Tikhomirov and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2022-03-28 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the construction, dissemination, and reception of the Stalin cult in East Germany from the end of World War II to the building of the Berlin Wall. By exporting Stalin’s cult to the Eastern bloc, Moscow aspired to symbolically unite the communist states in an imagined cult community pivoting around the Soviet leader. Based on Russian and German archives, this work analyzes the emergence of the Stalin cult’s transnational dimension. On one hand, it looks at how Soviet representations of power were transferred and adapted in the former “enemy’s” country. On the other hand, it reconstructs “spaces of agency” where different agents and generations interpreted, manipulated, and used the Stalin cult to negotiate social identities and everyday life. This study reveals both the dynamics of Stalinism as a political system after the Cold War began and the foundations of modern politics through mass mobilization, emotional bonding, and social engineering in Soviet-style societies. As an integral part of the global history of communism, this book opens up a comparative, entangled perspective on the ways in which veneration of Stalin and other nationalistic cults were established in socialist states across Europe and beyond.

The personality cult of Stalin in Soviet posters, 1929–1953

Author : Anita Pisch
Publisher : ANU Press
ISBN 13 : 176046063X
Total Pages : 538 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (64 download)

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Book Synopsis The personality cult of Stalin in Soviet posters, 1929–1953 by : Anita Pisch

Download or read book The personality cult of Stalin in Soviet posters, 1929–1953 written by Anita Pisch and published by ANU Press. This book was released on 2016-12-16 with total page 538 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From 1929 until 1953, Iosif Stalin’s image became a central symbol in Soviet propaganda. Touched up images of an omniscient Stalin appeared everywhere: emblazoned across buildings and lining the streets; carried in parades and woven into carpets; and saturating the media of socialist realist painting, statuary, monumental architecture, friezes, banners, and posters. From the beginning of the Soviet regime, posters were seen as a vitally important medium for communicating with the population of the vast territories of the USSR. Stalin’s image became a symbol of Bolshevik values and the personification of a revolutionary new type of society. The persona created for Stalin in propaganda posters reflects how the state saw itself or, at the very least, how it wished to appear in the eyes of the people. The ‘Stalin’ who was celebrated in posters bore but scant resemblance to the man Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, whose humble origins, criminal past, penchant for violent solutions and unprepossessing appearance made him an unlikely recipient of uncritical charismatic adulation. The Bolsheviks needed a wise, nurturing and authoritative figure to embody their revolutionary vision and to legitimate their hold on power. This leader would come to embody the sacred and archetypal qualities of the wise Teacher, the Father of the nation, the great Warrior and military strategist, and the Saviour of first the Russian land, and then the whole world. This book is the first dedicated study on the marketing of Stalin in Soviet propaganda posters. Drawing on the archives of libraries and museums throughout Russia, hundreds of previously unpublished posters are examined, with more than 130 reproduced in full colour. The personality cult of Stalin in Soviet posters, 1929–1953 is a unique and valuable contribution to the discourse in Stalinist studies across a number of disciplines.

The Invisible Shining

Author : Bal zs Apor
Publisher : Central European University Press
ISBN 13 : 9633861926
Total Pages : 418 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (338 download)

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Book Synopsis The Invisible Shining by : Bal zs Apor

Download or read book The Invisible Shining written by Bal zs Apor and published by Central European University Press. This book was released on 2018-02-01 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a detailed analysis of the construction, reception and eventual decline of the cult of the Hungarian Communist Party Secretary, M ty s R kosi, one of the most striking examples of orchestrated adulation in the Soviet bloc. While his cult never approached the magnitude of that of Stalin, R kosi?s ambition to outshine the other ?best disciples? and become the best of the best was manifest in his diligence in promoting a Soviet-type following in Hungary. The main argument of Bal zs Apor is that the cult of personality is not just a curious aspect of communist dictatorship, it is an essential element of it. The monograph is primarily concerned with techniques and methods of cult construction, as well as the role various institutions played in the creation of mythical representations of political fi gures. Separate chapters present visual and non-visual methods of cult construction. The author engages with a wider international literature on Stalinist cults in an impressive manner. Apor uses the case of R kosi to explore how personality cults are created, how such cults are perceived, and how they are eventually unmade. The book addresses the success?generally questionable?of such projects, as well as their uncomfortable legacies.

The Stalin Cult

Author : Jan Plamper
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300169523
Total Pages : 337 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (1 download)

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Book Synopsis The Stalin Cult by : Jan Plamper

Download or read book The Stalin Cult written by Jan Plamper and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2012-01-17 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between the late 1920s and the early 1950s, one of the most persuasive personality cults of all times saturated Soviet public space with images of Stalin. A torrent of portraits, posters, statues, films, plays, songs, and poems galvanized the Soviet population and inspired leftist activists around the world. In the first book to examine the cultural products and production methods of the Stalin cult, Jan Plamper reconstructs a hidden history linking artists, party patrons, state functionaries, and ultimately Stalin himself in the alchemical project that transformed a pock-marked Georgian into the embodiment of global communism. Departing from interpretations of the Stalin cult as an outgrowth of Russian mysticism or Stalin's psychopathology, Plamper establishes the cult's context within a broader international history of modern personality cults constructed around Napoleon III, Mussolini, Hitler, and Mao. Drawing upon evidence from previously inaccessible Russian archives, Plamper's lavishly illustrated and accessibly written study will appeal to anyone interested in twentieth-century history, visual studies, the politics of representation, dictator biography, socialist realism, and real socialism.