The intentional spread of falsehoods – and attendant attacks on minorities, press freedoms, and the rule of law – challenge the basic norms and values upon which institutional legitimacy and political stability depend. How did we get here? The Disinformation Age assembles a remarkable group of historians, political scientists, and communication scholars to examine the historical and political origins of the post-fact information era, focusing on the United States but with lessons for other democracies -- Amazon.

A brief history of the disinformation age : information wars and the decline of institutional authority --A political economy of the origins of asymmetric propaganda in American media -- The flooded zone : how we became more vulnerable to disinformation in the digital era -- How American businessmen made us believe that free enterprise was indivisible from American democracy : The National Association of Manufacturers' Propaganda Campaign 1935-1940 -- "Since We Are Greatly Outnumbered" : why and how the Koch network uses disinformation -- How digital disinformation turned dangerous -- Policy lessons from five historical patterns in information manipulation -- US public broadcasting : a bulwark against disinformation? -- The public media option : confronting policy failure in an age of misinformation -- The coordinated attack on authoritative institutions : defending democracy in the disinformation age.