This Is Not Propaganda

Winner of the Gordon Burn Prize

“Insightful . . . Diagnoses our fact-distorting age with understanding and acuity.” —The New York Times

“[Pomerantsev] describes in detail how social media have been weaponized by the bad guys. . . . The contrast between the tight regulation of information by repressive regimes in the 20th century, and the free-for-all of today’s media environment, gives the book its disconcerting force.” —The Economist

“Groundbreaking . . . Every Democratic candidate should have a plan for how to counter disinformation and misinformation in American politics. Pomerantsev’s book should be required reading for each of them.” —CNN.com

“Vivid and chilling reports from the frontlines of the disinformation wars.” —Foreign Affairs

“In this moving, unusual, and carefully reported book, Peter Pomerantsev reminds us that propaganda is not just a political tool: it can also shape individuals, their relationships with their children, their friendships, their marriages. Far more than just another take on today’s chaotic information wars, this book argues that we will have to understand how propaganda seeks to shape our deepest thoughts and feelings before we can confront it.” —Anne Applebaum, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Gulag

“The truth was supposed to set us free. But Peter Pomerantsev’s brilliant This Is Not Propaganda shows how the very idea of truth has been weaponized by dictators and other enemies of liberty. These techniques, first used against us in Russia, have spread around the globe like a toxic cloud. Taking us from the Philippines to Ukraine to MAGA-land, Pomerantsev is an unparalleled tour guide of our post-truth world-and what we all must learn to survive in it.” —Garry Kasparov, author of Winter Is Coming