Description
Book SynopsisThe 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 importantparticularly in this era of explosive development in mass communicationsto unders
Trade ReviewRumors 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
Table of ContentsContents 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
