If you thought disinformation was a phenomenon of social media, you will be transfixed by how Hitler used ‘propaganda’ (‘disinformation, by another name) to rise to power, and the Allies used it to help bring him down.  The story is told through a biograpahy of an idiosyncratic man named Sefton Delmer,  who as a young journalist insinuated himself into Hitler’s inner circle, listening to his fiery speeches as he rose to power. This isn’t a ‘Trump book’ — the author’s target is Putin — but it is hard not to draw parallels to the Trump universe. “The role of facts . . . was secondary,’ Pomerantsev writes about Nazi propaganda. (“Alternative facts,” a Trump press spokeswoman called them.) The humiliation the Germans suffered by their defeat, and the peace imposed, in WWII, and the need for revenge and restoration of German pride were common Hitler themes. (Trump anyone?) Having learned from Goebbels, Delmer went to work for the Allies broadcasting lies and disinformation into Germany from a secret location in Britain. Captivating. Complelling. Alarming . . .then and now!

– Ray