Hammer and Tickle : A History of Communism Told Through Communist Jokes

The valiant and sardonic citizens of the former Communist countries - surrounded by an invisible network of secret police, threatened with arrest, imprisonment and forced labour, confronted by an economic system that left shops empty, and bombarded with ludicrous state propaganda - turned joke-telling into an art form.

They used jokes as a coded way of speaking the truth. 'Hammer and Tickle' takes us on a unique journey through the Communist era (1917-1989), and tells its real history through subversive jokes and joke-tellers, many of whom ended up in the gulags. It is also illustrated with a combination of rare and previously unpublished archive material, political cartoons, caricatures, photographs and state-sponsored propaganda.Humorous, culturally poignant and historically revealing, this is the story of a political system that was (almost) laughed out of existence.

13%

Details

SKU SKU6057

ISBN Number 9780297853541

Author Ben Lewis

List Price: £12.99

Our price: £11.30

Options

Quantity

Ask a question about this product

Send to friend
Customers also bought
Customer feedback

Your name:	*
Your email:	*
Recipient's email:	*
Add a personal message


Francis Bacon	Handcrafted CSS : More Bulletproof Web Design, Video Edition (with DVD)	The Politics of Switzerland : Continuity and Change in a Consensus Democracy
£38.50	£35.95	£15.99