Manufacturing Dissent: American Modernism and the Science of Belief (Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture)

By: Stephanie Hawkins

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Synopsis: Manufacturing Dissent reveals how the early twentieth century's 'lost generation' of writers, artists, and intellectuals combatted disinformation and 'fake news.' Cultural historians, literary scholars, and those interested in the power of literature to encourage critical thought and promote democracy will find this book of particular value. The book is interdisciplinary, focusing on the rich literary and artistic period of American modernism as a new site for examining the psychology of public opinion and the role of cognition in the formation of beliefs. The emerging twentieth-century neuroscience of 'plasticity,' habit, and attention that Harvard psychologist William James helped pioneer becomes fertile ground for an experimental variety of literature that Stephanie L. Hawkins argues is 'mind science' in its own right. Writers as diverse as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Zora Neale Hurston, Ernest Hemingway, and Gertrude Stein sought a public-spirited critique of propaganda and disinformation that expresses their civic engagement in promoting democratic dissent.