book project

Chip Berlet cberlet at igc.org
Tue Jul 2 07:41:38 PDT 2002


Hi,

The book Report from Iron Mountain was a hoax. No one should cite it as evidence of anything. It was written by Leonard C. Lewin, and Victor Navasky was part of the plan to promote the book as real rather than a hoax. The hoax was later revealed in an article explaining why the hoax was perpetrated. It was meant as a critique of the Cold War.


>From Right Woos Left:

= = = In at least one case, Hulet moves beyond conspiracism into elevating a satire to documentary status. Hulet labels as fact material from the book Report from Iron Mountain. Hulet refers to the work as if it were a secret government document. Actually, Report from Iron Mountain is an allegorical critique of the pro-militarist lobby and a well-known example of political satire.

While an excellent philosophical discussion of the errors of the Cold War, it should be noted that it was produced by Leonard C. Lewin, described on the book jacket as a “critic and satirist” who was editor of A Treasury of American Political Humor. Apparently Hulet didn't get the joke. Even the Institute for Historical Review, which sells Report from Iron Mountain, says in its current “Noontide Press” catalog: “was it the actual text of a secret report...or a brilliant satire? Judge for yourself.”

Footnote:

Report from Iron Mountain is to a large degree a veiled attack on Herman Kahn and the school of geo-political strategy that developed around him at the Hudson Institute, an ultra-conservative think tank. Several of the footnotes refer to Kahn and Hudson Institute studies i.e. Kahn: Section 1, footnote 4 (p. 103), Section 5, footnote 10 (p. 105), Section 8, footnote 1, (p. 108); and Hudson Institute: Section 8, footnote 3, (p. 109). Moreover, the overall philosophy adopted in the book is consistent with Hudson Institute study papers and Kahn's writings. (See Kahn's On Escalation and Thinking About the Unthinkable. Also of interest is the book by two former Hudson Institute analysts, Edmund Stillman and William Pfaff who later rejected that school of thought and wrote The Politics of Hysteria.

= = =

In 1996 the Free Press issued a new edition of the book with a new preface and several appendices that discussed how the hoax was perpetrated and included some of the early responses to its publication

The hoax was concocted by a group of writers that included Lewin, Navasky, E. L. Doctorow, Richard Lingeman, and Marvin Kitman.

-Chip


> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> [mailto:owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com]On Behalf Of Patrick Bond
> Sent: Tuesday, July 02, 2002 12:17 AM
> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> Subject: Re: book project
>
>
> Chip, is there anything easily available at this stage on
> Iron Mountain? Was
> Galbraith the author? Does the document really project the
> environment as a
> site for enhanced state social surveillance and control?
>
> Those of us prepping for the World Summit on Sustainable
> Development need to
> go beyond conspiracy theories on this and find the roots of
> some similar
> political traditions...
>
> Cheers,
> Patrick
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Chip Berlet" <cberlet at igc.org>
> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, July 02, 2002 1:49 AM
> Subject: RE: book project
>
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > A delightful project.
> >
> > I am contributing short essays on Apocalypticism, and
> Report from Iron
> > Mountain by Lewin.
> >
> > -Chip Berlet
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> > > [mailto:owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com]On Behalf Of Doug Henwood
> > > Sent: Monday, July 01, 2002 6:59 PM
> > > To: lbo-talk
> > > Subject: book project
> > >
> > >
> > > <http://www.art.man.ac.uk/ENGLISH/staff/pk/research/Encycloped
> > > ia/outline.html>
> > >
> > > The Encyclopedia of American Conspiracy Theories is a two-volume,
> > > 500,000-word illustrated reference work to be published
> by ABC-CLIO
> > > in 2004. The encyclopedia is a scholarly survey of the history and
> > > present of political conspiracy theories in the USA [...]
> >
> >
>



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