Sensory warfare in the global Cold War : partition, propaganda, covert operations / edited by Bodo Mrozek.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Mrozek, Bodo, 1968- editor.

Series:

Perspectives on sensory history.

Perspectives on Sensory History Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cold War--Social aspects.

Cold War.

Cold War--Psychological aspects.

Senses and sensation--History--20th century.

Senses and sensation.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 254 pages) : illustrations.

Place of Publication:

University Park, PA : The Pennsylvania State University Press, [2024]

Summary:

"The longest political conflict of the twentieth century, the Cold War, was carried out on the human senses—and through them. Largely conducted through nonlethal methods, it was a war of competing cultures, politics, and covert operations. While propaganda reached targets through vision and hearing, sensory warfare also exploited taste, touch, smell, and pain. This volume is the first to explore the sensory aspect of the Cold War and how this warfare changed contemporary perception of the war. The authors highlight the global dimension of sensory warfare, examining battlegrounds around the world and across different phases of the conflict, including “cold” and “hot” warfare—both covert and overt. Case studies highlight the role of taste in Western food deliveries to Eastern Europe; olfaction in Poland, at the Iron Curtain, and in the Vietnam War; sonic warfare in Berlin, in Romania, and at the China-Taiwan “aquatic frontier”; vision in the Maoist Cultural Revolution, Spain, and the Soviet-Afghan war; haptics in the German military; and drugs, pain, and sensory deprivation in intelligence operations in both Hungary and the United States. In its wide-ranging treatment, this volume offers an illuminating new perspective on the Cold War and deepens our understanding of the sensory aspects of current and future conflicts. Sensory Warfare in the Global Cold War will be of interest to students and scholars of sensory studies, Cold War studies, twentieth-century history, and military history. In addition to the editor, the contributors to this volume include Cyril Cordoba, Mark Fenemore, Walter E. Grunden, Dayton Lekner, José Manuel López Torán, Markus Mirschel, Victoria Phillips, Carsten Richter, Andreea Deciu Ritivoi, Christy Spackman, and Stephanie Weismann."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction : sensory warfare in the global Cold War / Bodo Mrozek

Chocolate paratroopers and Eisenhower packages for Eastern Europe : nourishing partition through color and taste / Victoria Phillips

Between soir de Paris and red Moscow : olfactory front lines in Polish perfumery / Stephanie Weissman

Beyond the bamboo curtain : sensing the Chinese cultural revolution / Cyril Cordoba

Sensual sirens : gendering Berlin's Cold War telephony / Mark Fenemore

Breaking the aquatic sound barrier : hearing yourself and your enemy across the Taiwan Strait / Dayton Lekner

Listening to the voices of exile : Radio Free Europe in Romania / Andreea Deciu Ritivoi

Hearing Korea, seeing Cuba : NO-DO as sonic and visual propaganda in Francoist Spain / José Manuel López Torán

The smell of the Berlin Wall : olfactory border management at the inner-European frontier / Bodo Mrozek

Hallucinated sensations : brainwashing and mind control in psychochemical CIA experiments / Walter E. Grunden

To inform and deceive : sensory approaches in the military propaganda of Cold War Germany / Carsten Richter

Sniffing the enemy : chemical detection during the Vietnam War / Christy Spackman

Heroes at the Hindu Kush : seeing the Afghan War through the Soviet lens / Markus Mirschel.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version: Mrozek, Bodo Sensory Warfare in the Global Cold War

ISBN:

9780271098616

OCLC:

1452468103