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The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things
Barry Glassner · back to the book
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24 books with the same feel
Include books by the same authorBad Feminist
Roxane Gay · 360 pages
A collection of essays spanning politics, criticism, and feminism from one of the most-watched young cultural observers of her generation, Roxane Gay. "Pink is my favorite color. I used to say my favorite color was black to be cool, but it is pink, all shades of pink. If I have an accessory, it is probably pink. I read Vogue, and I'm not doing it ironically, though it might seem that way. I once l
Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class
Owen Jones · 298 pages
"In this groundbreaking investigation, Owen Jones explores how the working class has gone from 'salt of the earth' to 'scum of the earth'. Moving through Westminster 's lobbies and working-class communities from Dagenham to Dewsbury Moor, Jones lays bare the ignorance and prejudice at the heart of the chav caricature, and reveals a far more complex reality: the increasing poverty and desperation o
True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society
Farhad Manjoo · 257 pages
Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
Neil Postman · 184 pages
Amusing Ourselves to Death is a prophetic look at what happens when politics, journalism, education, and even religion become subject to the demands of entertainment. It is also a blueprint for regaining control of our media, so that they can serve our highest goals.
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
The Age of American Unreason
Susan Jacoby · 357 pages
Combining historical analysis with contemporary observation, Susan Jacoby dissects a new American cultural phenomenon--one that is at odds with our heritage of Enlightenment reason and with modern, secular knowledge and science. With mordant wit, she surveys an anti-rationalist landscape extending from pop culture to a pseudo-intellectual universe of "junk thought." Disdain for logic and evidence
Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women
Susan Faludi · 592 pages
*Skillfully Probing the Attack on Women's Rights* "Opting-out," "security moms," "desperate housewives," "the new baby fever"--the trend stories of 2006 leave no doubt that American women are still being barraged by the same backlash messages that Susan Faludi brilliantly exposed in her 1991 bestselling book of revelations. Now, the book that reignited the feminist movement is back in a fi
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
The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America
Daniel J. Boorstin · 315 pages
First published in 1962, this book introduced the notion of “pseudo-events”—events such as press conferences and presidential debates, which are manufactured solely in order to be reported—and the contemporary definition of celebrity as “a person who is known for his well-knownness.” Since then Daniel J. Boorstin’s prophetic vision of an America inundated by its own illusions has become an essenti
Burn It Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood
Maureen Ryan · 348 pages
So You've Been Publicly Shamed
Jon Ronson · 313 pages
"From the internationally bestselling author of The Psychopath Test, a captivating and brilliant exploration of one of our world's most overlooked forces. For the past three years, Jon Ronson has been immersing himself in the world of modern-day public shaming-meeting famous shamees, shamers, and bystanders who have been impacted. This is the perfect time for a modern-day Scarlet Letter-a radicall
Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion
Jia Tolentino · 303 pages
The Panic Virus: A True Story of Medicine, Science, and Fear
Seth Mnookin · 429 pages
A searing account of how vaccine opponents have used the media to spread their message of panic, despite no scientific evidence to support them. In this searching exposé, the recent hysteria over childhood vaccinations and their alleged link to autism becomes a cautionary tale of bad science amplified by media sensationalism.
Columbine
Dave Cullen · 417 pages
On April 20, 1999, two boys left an indelible stamp on the American psyche. Their goal was simple: to blow up their school, Oklahoma-City style, and to leave "a lasting impression on the world." Their bombs failed, but the ensuing shooting defined a new era of school violence-irrevocably branding every subsequent shooting "another Columbine." When we think of Columbine, we think of the Trench Coat
The Filter Bubble: What the Internet is Hiding From You
Eli Pariser · 300 pages
The hidden rise of personalization on the Internet is controlling--and limiting--the information we consume. In 2009, Google began customizing its search results. Instead of giving you the most broadly popular result, Google now tries to predict what you are most likely to click on. According to MoveOn.org board president Eli Pariser, this change is symptomatic of the most significant shift to tak
Age of Propaganda: The Everyday Use and Abuse of Persuasion
Anthony Pratkanis, Elliot Aronson · 432 pages
Americans create 57% of the world's advertising while representing only 6% of its population; half of our waking hours are spent immersed in the mass media. Persuasion has always been integral to the democratic process, but increasingly, thoughtful discussion is being replaced with simplistic soundbites and manipulative messages. Drawing on the history of propaganda as well as on contemporary rese
Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News
Bernard Goldberg · 253 pages
>**From Goodreads:** In his nearly thirty years at CBS News, Emmy Award winner Bernard Goldberg earned a reputation as one of the preeminent reporters in the television news business. When he looked at his own industry, however, he saw that the media far too often ignored their primary mission: to provide objective, disinterested reporting. Again and again he saw that the news slanted to the left.
Drug Wars
Curtis Marez · 380 pages
Inaugurated in 1984, America's "War on Drugs" is just the most recent skirmish in a standoff between global drug trafficking and state power. From Britain's nineteenth-century Opium Wars in China to the activities of Colombia's drug cartels and their suppression by U.S.-backed military forces today, conflicts over narcotics have justified imperial expansion, global capitalism, and state violence,
Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right
Ann Coulter · 352 pages
The hottest and most controversial book of the year! Find out who really controls the media in America."[Ann Coulter] is never in doubt. And that, along with her bright writing, sense of irony and outrage, and her relish at finally hitting back at political opponents (especially in the media) is what makes Slander such refreshing and provocative reading."--Los Angeles Times"[Ann Coulter] is a flue
One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society
Herbert Marcuse · 282 pages
The Rebel Sell: Why the Culture Can't Be Jammed
Joseph Heath, Andrew Potter · 376 pages
All the Truth Is Out: The Week Politics Went Tabloid
Matt Bai · 263 pages
"The former chief political correspondent for The New York Times Magazine brilliantly revisits the Gary Hart affair and looks at how it changed forever the intersection of American media and politics. In 1987, Gary Hart--articulate, dashing, refreshingly progressive--seemed a shoo-in for the Democratic nomination for president and led George H.W. Bush comfortably in the polls. And then: rumors of