ABSTRACT

Edward Thompson, one of the major British twentieth century historians and a leading thinker-activist of the 1980s, is quoted here since these passages and those to be analysed below, dating from one of the most gloomy and crazy moments of the 'Cold War', restate basic premises concerning the power of public discourse on which this book rests, and echo key elements of the Krausian perspective on the mass media, with its apocalyptic tone. They also indicate the importance and effectiveness of rejecting the kind of over-theorised determinism which leads to paralysis and pessimism, and of becoming involved in acts of cultural resistance and liberation.