- Jubilee offer: spend £10 or more on any product sold by Amazon.co.uk on or before June 6 and you can buy The Diamond Jubilee A Classical Celebration Album for just £2.50 Here's how (terms and conditions apply)
| |||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in Image (Vintage) for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Special Offers and Product Promotions
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
First published in 1962, this wonderfully provocative 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 essential resource for any reader who wants to distinguish the manifold deceptions of our culture from its few enduring truths.
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Never have I read a more honest and insightful evaluation of the weaknesses as well as strengths of American society. This book has changed the way I look at our world, and opened my eyes to the difference between what we are and what we pretend to be. No other book has made a larger impact on the enlightenment of my intellect in its striving to become aware of the difference between fact and truth.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I'm tempted to give this book 3*, because in my opinion any book worth its salt is efficient and readable, and something poorly written doesn't deserve 4*. However, the social commentary and insights are so brilliant and caustic that I have to give this 4*.
It provides excellent explanations for many of the phenomena so many complain about in modern society, and it is clear, accurate, and affecting. My gripe is that Boorstin makes some point in the first 3-4 pages of each chapter, then follows it with unnecessary examples. Unless you're obsesed with having everything restated and proved several times before you believe it, I advise you to read the first 4 pages of each chapter and then move on to the next-- literally. This book would be a lot shorter if it trusted itself a little-- the truths it reveals are intelligent and the reader identifies with them immediately, and the amount of proof and restatement provided is unnecessary.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Boorstin first published this prophetic book in 1962. What amazes me in particular is the accurate depiction of our current media and journalism. The truth is told (and most do not care much for that), that seems to warrant the degregation this book receives. Each of his points are well supported by fact and logic, not to mention appropiate historical events. This book is to me inspiring, a breath of fresh air. He doesn't blow wind in your face. Today history has turned into an anti-imperical nightmare of contradictions. With the slaughter of history by social theorists and humanitarians it is refreshing to read a bona fide historian again.
Thank you Daniel J Boorstin...for telling the truth.
Miss Courtney Payne
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Utter distaste
This book might be great because it discusesses the problems in AMerica, but it offers no solutions.
Published on 5 Jan 1999
Boorstin work a cogent cultural analysis of today's society
Boorstin's work is an excellent and highly insightful analysis of current American culture; although first puplished in 1960s, it resonates with a wit and wisdom which is even... Read more
Published on 16 Sep 1998
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
