Stories Are Weapons

Psychological Warfare and the American Mind

Annalee Newitz

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English

WW Norton & Co
07 August 2025

Media studies; International relations; Political control & freedoms

In Stories Are Weapons, best-selling author Annalee Newitz traces the way disinformation, propaganda, and violent threats-the essential tool kit for psychological warfare-have evolved from military weapons deployed against foreign adversaries into tools in domestic culture wars. Newitz delves into America's deep-rooted history with psychological operations, beginning with Benjamin Franklin's Revolutionary War–era fake newspaper and nineteenth-century wars on Indigenous nations, and reaching its apotheosis with the Cold War and twenty-first-century influence campaigns online. America's secret weapon has long been coercive storytelling. And there's a reason for that: operatives who shaped modern psychological warfare drew on their experiences as science fiction writers and in the advertising industry.

Now, through a weapons-transfer program long unacknowledged, psyops have found their way into the hands of culture warriors, transforming democratic debates into toxic wars over American identity. Newitz zeroes in on conflicts over race and intelligence, school board fights over LGBT students, and campaigns against feminist viewpoints, revealing how, in each case, specific groups of Americans are singled out and treated as enemies of the state. Crucially, Newitz delivers a powerful counternarrative, speaking with the researchers and activists who are outlining a pathway to achieving psychological disarmament and cultural peace.

Incisive and essential, Stories are Weapons reveals how our minds have been turned into blood-soaked battlegrounds-and how we can put down our weapons to build something better.

By: Annalee Newitz
Imprint: WW Norton & Co
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 211mm, Width: 140mm, Spine: 18mm
Weight: 218g
ISBN: 9781324110460
ISBN 10: 1324110465
Pages: 272
Publication Date: 07 August 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Annalee Newitz is a journalist and author of the national bestseller Four Lost Cities. They write for the New York Times and New Scientist and co-host the Hugo Award–winning podcast Our Opinions Are Correct. They live in San Francisco.

Reviews for Stories Are Weapons: Psychological Warfare and the American Mind

""An exploration of our culture wars' roots in psychological warfare…Newitz is so skillful at elucidating such a tangled, morally contentious history that I never felt lost."" -- Jennifer Szalai - The New York Times ""Annalee Newitz always sees to the heart of complex systems and breaks them down with poetic ferocity."" -- N.K. Jemisin, author of the Broken Earth trilogy ""Annalee Newitz’s thoroughly researched and masterfully crafted book gives us something hopeful—a way to disarm the narratives that have been used against us and reclaim better ones."" -- Ed Yong, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of An Immense World ""A brilliant historical deep-dive into psyops, military covert influence operations, and the corporate attempts to conquer the mind. This will change the way you understand America."" -- Molly Crabapple, author of Drawing Blood ""A penetrating, passionately-reasoned analysis of how propaganda and disinformation have been used as tactics of both hard and soft wars, and how we continue to be manipulated today. This is a storyteller’s account of the devastating force of storytelling."" -- Angela Saini, author of The Patriarchs