Age of Propaganda: The Everyday Use and Abuse of Persuasion

Toxic Sludge Is Good for You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry

John Stauber, Sheldon Rampton · 236 pages

Toxic sludge is good for you blows the lid off of today's multi-billion-dollar propaganda-for-hire PR industry, revealing how public relations wizards concoct and spin the news, organize phony "grassroots" front groups, spy on citizens and conspire with lobbyists and politicians. --Publisher.

Hit Makers: How Things Become Popular

Derek Thompson · 344 pages

Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia

Peter Pomerantsev · 272 pages

"Nothing Is True and Everything is Possible is a journey into the glittering, surreal heart of 21st century Russia: into the lives of oligarchs convinced they are messiahs, professional killers with the souls of artists, Bohemian theater directors turned Kremlin puppet-masters, supermodel sects, post-modern dictators, and playboy revolutionaries. This is a world erupting with new money and new pow

Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media

Noam Chomsky, Edward S. Herman · 412 pages

Discusses the ways in which the mass media are manipulated to present the news according to an underlying elite consenus which affects the manner in which similar events in different parts of the world are presented.

Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda

Noam Chomsky · 103 pages

"Chomsky's backpocket classic on wartime propaganda and opinion control has been updated and expanded into a two-section book, and redesigned following the acclaimed format of his Open Media anti-war bestseller, 9-11. The new edition of Media Control also includes 'The Journalist from Mars, ' Chomsky's 2002 talk on the media coverage of America's 'new war on terrorism.' Chomsky begins by asserting

No Logo

Naomi Klein · 512 pages

"What corporations fear most are consumers who ask questions. Naomi Klein offers us the arguments with which to take on the superbrands." Billy Bragg from the bookjacket.

Can't Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel

Jean Kilbourne · 368 pages

Brandwashed

Martin Lindstrom · 296 pages

From the bestselling author of Buyology comes a shocking insider's look at how today's global giants conspire to obscure the truth and manipulate our minds, all in service of persuading us to buy. Marketing visionary Martin Lindstrom has been on the front lines of the branding wars for over twenty years. Here, he turns the spotlight on his own industry, drawing on all he has witnessed behind close

Ways of Seeing

John Berger · 166 pages

How do we see the world around us? The Penguin on Design series includes the works of creative thinkers whose writings on art, design and the media have changed our vision forever."Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak.""But there is also another sense in which seeing comes before words. It is seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world; we e

Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior

Geoffrey Miller · 384 pages

The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things

Barry Glassner · 279 pages

In this eye-opening examination of a pathology that has swept the country, sociologist Barry Glassner reveals why Americans are burdened with overblown fears. He exposes the people and organizations that manipulate our perceptions and profit from our anxieties: politicians who win elections by heightening concerns about crime and drug use even as both are declining; advocacy groups that raise mon

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

Malcolm Gladwell · 288 pages

"New Yorker writer Malcolm Gladwell looks at why major changes in our society so often happen suddenly and unexpectedly. Ideas, behavior, messages, and products, he argues, often spread like outbreaks of infectious disease. Just as a single sick person can start an epidemic of the flu, so too can a few fare-beaters and graffiti artists fuel a subway crime wave, or a satisfied customer fill the emp

Born to Buy

Juliet B. Schor · 289 pages

Ads aimed at kids are virtually everywhere -- in classrooms and textbooks, on the Internet, even at slumber parties and the playground. Product placement and other innovations have introduced more subtle advertising to movies and television. Companies are enlisting children as guerrilla marketers, targeting their friends and families. Even trusted social institutions such as the Girl Scouts are te

The Science of Fear: Why We Fear the Things We Shouldn't--and Put Ourselves in Greater Danger

Dan Gardner · 351 pages

The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind

Gustave Le Bon · 208 pages

"Gustave LeBon's The Crowd is not only a classic, but one of the best-selling scientific books in social psychology and collective behavior ever written. Here, LeBon analyzes the nature of crowds and their role in political movements. He presents crowd behavior as a problem of science and power, a natural phenomenon with practical implications. Originally published in 1895, LeBon's book was the fi

The Art of Immersion: How the Digital Generation Is Remaking Hollywood, Madison Avenue, and the Way We Tell Stories

Frank Rose · 361 pages

Wired contributing editor Frank Rose introduces readers to the people who are reshaping media for a two-way world--people like Will Wright (The Sims), James Cameron (Avatar), Damon Lindelof (Lost), and dozens of others whose ideas are changing how we play, how we chill, and even how we think.

True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society

Farhad Manjoo · 257 pages

Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind

Al Ries, Jack Trout · 229 pages

"It shook up the world of marketing with all the force of a 20-megaton bomb, and now, two decades later, Positioning is still as fresh and, perhaps, even more relevant, for advertisers in the New Economy. To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the classic book that changed an industry, McGraw-Hill has reunited mavens of marketing Al Ries and Jack Trout to make available to another generation of ad

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

Robert B. Cialdini · 302 pages

Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive

Noah J. Goldstein, Robert B. Cialdini, Steve J. Martin · 273 pages

Most of us are only too aware that, whatever roles we have in today's fast-moving world, much of our success lies in getting others to say 'Yes' to our requests. What many people might not be aware of, though, is the vast amount of research that has been conducted on the influence process. What factors cause one person to say 'Yes' to the request of another? Yes! is full of practical tips based on

Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions

Dan Ariely · 352 pages

How do we think about money?What caused bankers to lose sight of the economy?What caused individuals to take on mortgages that were not within their means?What irrational forces guided our decisions?And how can we recover from an economic crisis? In this revised and expanded edition of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller Predictably Irrational, Duke University's behavioral econom

Devil's Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Storming of the Presidency

Joshua Green · 272 pages

The shocking elevation of Steve Bannon to head Trump's flagging presidential campaign on August 17, 2016, hit political Washington like a thunderclap and seemed to signal the meltdown of the Republican Party. Bannon was a bomb-throwing pugilist who'd never run a campaign and was despised by Democrats and Republicans alike. Yet Bannon's hard-edged ethno-nationalism and his elaborate, years-long plo

The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads

Tim Wu · 416 pages

"From Tim Wu, author of award-winning The Master Switch, and who coined the phrase "net neutrality"--a revelatory look at the rise of "attention harvesting," and its transformative effect on our society and our selves"--

Contagious: Why Things Catch On

Jonah Berger · 250 pages

In this book, Berger reveals the secret science behind word-of-mouth and social transmission. Discover how six basic principles drive all sorts of things to become contagious, from consumer products and policy initiatives to workplace rumors and YouTube videos. The book combines groundbreaking research with powerful stories. Learn how a luxury steakhouse found popularity through the lowly cheese-s