IHS Panel: Falsehood, Fury, and Subverting the Rule of Law: Four Perspectives on Recent Events

The violent takeover of the U.S. Capitol building on January 6 made clear that American society, like any other, is vulnerable to the dangers of a powerful demagogue skilled at manipulating reality. This panel brings together four scholars and four perspectives. With the events of January in mind, they will discuss two important aspects of this phenomenon (the political exploitation of popular emotions and the impact of the media) and two historical episodes (Nazism and McCarthyism).

Featuring:

"How Germany’s First Democracy Died: Hitler, Nazism and the Weimar Republic, 1919-1933"
David F. Crew
Professor, Department of History
University of Texas at Austin
https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/histor...

"Joseph McCarthy, the Big Lie, and Reality Television"
Jeremi Suri
Mack Brown Distinguished Chair for Leadership in Global Affairs, and
Professor of Public Affairs and History
University of Texas at Austin
https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/histor...
http://jeremisuri.net/

"Emotions and Anti-Democratic Attitudes in the 2020 Election"
Bethany Albertson
Associate Professor, Department of Government
University of Texas at Austin
https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/govern...
https://sites.utexas.edu/balberts/

"Mapping the Threats of Extremism and Disinformation on Social Media"
Samuel Christopher Woolley
Assistant Professor, School of Journalism and Media, and
Faculty Affiliate, School of Information
University of Texas at Austin
https://journalism.utexas.edu/faculty...
https://samwoolley.org/

Miriam Bodian, Moderator
Professor, Department of History, and
Director, Institute for Historical Studies
University of Texas at Austin
https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/histor...

Sponsored by:
Institute for Historical Studies in the Department of History, and Center for European Studies.

The views and opinions expressed in this article or video are those of the individual author(s) or presenter(s) and do not necessarily reflect the policy or views of the editors at Not Even Past, the UT Department of History, the University of Texas at Austin, or the UT System Board of Regents. Not Even Past is an online public history magazine rather than a peer-reviewed academic journal. While we make efforts to ensure that factual information in articles was obtained from reliable sources, Not Even Past is not responsible for any errors or omissions.