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Munitions of the Mind Posts

Medicine in Exile after the Spanish Civil War: A Clinical Trial in a French Concentration Camp, 1939-1940

Published April 4, 2017


Auscultation of an internee at the Bram Concentration Camp (Aude, France, 1939).
Image courtesy of: ESPAÑA. MINISTERIO DE EDUCACIÓN, CULTURA Y DEPORTE, Centro Documental de la Memoria Histórica. Archivo Centelles. Foto.9380

Written by Àlvar Martínez-Vidal and Xavier García-Ferrandis.

In concentration camps organised in France to intern refugees who had fled Spain at the end of the Civil War (February 1939), a number of clinical trials were performed by Catalan doctors in order to provide health assistance to their compatriots in the most rational way possible.

This short paper focuses on one of these human experiments, which combined health care, clinical supervision and scientific research. It was not the only clinical trial of this kind performed in such strange circumstances, but it was the most significant.

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Considering Intangible Propaganda

Considering Intangible Propaganda

Published February 27, 2017

Written by Edward Corse. The study of propaganda is usually about the study of tangible objects and the message those objects are trying to convey to the intended audience. Films can be viewed, radio broadcasts can be listened to, and leaflets and newspapers can be read – multiple times if necessary – many years after they were originally deployed. Whilst the messages contained within the propaganda may take time to understand and interpret, there is…

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Close to the Enemy, Close to the Truth?

Close to the Enemy, Close to the Truth?

Published December 23, 2016

Written by Charlie Hall.   Close to the Enemy is a seven-part British TV drama series, penned by screenwriter Stephen Poliakoff (Dancing on the Edge, Capturing Mary), which aired on BBC2 throughout November and December 2016 (fear not, this is a spoiler-free article!). Set in Britain directly after the Second World War, Close to the Enemy explores many themes which were relevant to post-war British society, including the mental health struggles of returning servicemen, the…

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Land Reform Propaganda in Soviet Occupied Germany

Land Reform Propaganda in Soviet Occupied Germany

Published November 23, 2016

Written by Sean Brennan   Josef Stalin was ultimately more adept as an Imperial Architect than Adolf Hitler, if for no other reason than he had more of a methodological plan for doing so.  The creation of a Soviet Empire in Central and Eastern Europe was no accident, the Soviet dictator had always planned to do so once Nazi Germany had been crushed.  For decades historians and political scientists in the West debated whether Stalin wanted…

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Education and Detention: Halle (Saale) as an Example of ‘geschlossene Venerologische Stationen’ in East Germany

Education and Detention: Halle (Saale) as an Example of ‘geschlossene Venerologische Stationen’ in East Germany

Published November 4, 2016

Written by Florian Steger and Maximilian Schochow   After the Second World War, Russian officials introduced the Soviet healthcare system in the Soviet Occupation Zone (SOZ), which later became the GDR. Orders 25, 30, and 273 of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SMAD), while demanding “to fight people who belong to the German population and suffer from venereal diseases” (VDs), included measures designed to contain the spread of VDs, which were based on the…

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Centre for the Study of War, Propaganda and Society – New Research Event, 20 September 2016

Centre for the Study of War, Propaganda and Society – New Research Event, 20 September 2016

Published October 5, 2016

  On 20 September, in the week before the 2016-17 academic year proper began, the Centre for the Study of War, Propaganda and Society held an event to discuss new and ongoing research within the Centre and to welcome new members (primarily new first-year PhD students) to the community. The event began with an introduction from Centre director, Dr Stefan Goebel, which outlined the direction which the Centre will be taking over the next year…

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Dog Dirt, Disgust and 1970s British Health Propaganda

Dog Dirt, Disgust and 1970s British Health Propaganda

Published September 16, 2016

Written by Neil Pemberton. If anyone reading this blog has heard of the disease toxocariasis, it is most likely through anti-excrement campaigns run by local councils to remind dog owners to pick up after their dogs. Toxocariasis is a rare disease caused by accidentally swallowing the microscopic eggs of the canine-borne worm Toxocara canis shed in the faeces of infected dogs, causing – in some cases – blindness and asthma. An embedded ritual within the choreography…

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The “old society” and neighbourhood countries/regions — Creating the happy, superior new China through contrast in Chinese propaganda posters in the 1950s.

The “old society” and neighbourhood countries/regions — Creating the happy, superior new China through contrast in Chinese propaganda posters in the 1950s.

Published August 22, 2016

Written by Jia Zhen. To effectively motivate the people, propaganda posters of the People’s Republic of China published before 1976 paid much attention to providing a visual fantasy for the Chinese people. From the posters, what we can see not only includes the happy and healthy children, energetic workers, and devoted cadres of the Party, but fertile farms, advanced machinery and the grand view of a town. However, the Communist Party of China also considered…

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Xuanchuan in China: Propaganda as the Art of Governance

Xuanchuan in China: Propaganda as the Art of Governance

Published August 18, 2016

Written by Timothy Cheek. In August 2013 Xi Jinping declared a propaganda war on independent political criticism on China’s internet. He urged his colleagues in the Chinese Communist Party to ‘seize the ground of new media.’ In early 2016 he reminded official Chinese media that their job is to speak for the Party, and this summer he has shut down a popular journal of political history run by retired senior Party figures. The Party has…

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