May 2016

zeppelin+rumour, daily, normalised, smoothed
1910s, Periodicals, Phantom airships, mystery aeroplanes, and other panics, Plots and tables, Tools and methods

The airship panic of 1915 — VI

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So I half-promised a final post in this series about the airship panic of 1915. There are a couple of methodological points I’d like to make. The first point is that this is an unusually well-attested panic. There are panics with more sources, but not with so many different kinds of sources. Here, there are

1910s, Grants, Periodicals, Phantom airships, mystery aeroplanes, and other panics, Publications, Rumours

On the utility of rumours in wartime

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Rumours have a bad reputation, especially in wartime. They are at best unreliable, at worst flat-out lies. They are distractions from the war effort, if not actually undermining it. They can create unreasoning suspicion and fear or equally unjustified hope and optimism. In short, nothing good comes from them. Unless you’re a historian, of course.

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