- Hardcover: 392 pages
- Publisher: Perseus Books; illustrated edition edition (25 Feb 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0738203998
- ISBN-13: 978-0738203997
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 16.3 x 3.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
844,499 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #76 in Books > History > Military History > War Crimes > The Holocaust
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Review
'Blass does a fine job of weaving together Milgram's life and science, revealing a portrait of a genius who, ironically enough, had real problems with authority.'
--BBC Focus Magazine, April 2009 --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
--BBC Focus Magazine, April 2009 --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Product Description
The sole and definitive biography of one of the 20th century's most influential and controversial psychologists. The creator of the famous "Obedience Experiments," carried out at Yale in the 1960s, and originator of the "six degrees of separation" concept, Stanley Milgram was one of the most innovative scientists of our time. In this sparkling biography-the first in-depth portrait of Milgram-Thomas Blass captures the colorful personality and pioneering work of a social psychologist who profoundly altered the way we think about human nature. Born in the Bronx in 1933, Stanley Milgram was the son of Eastern European Jews, and his powerful Obedience Experiments had obvious intellectual roots in the Holocaust. The experiments, which confirmed that "normal" people would readily inflict pain on innocent victims at the behest of an authority figure, generated a firestorm of public interest and outrage-proving, as they did, that moral beliefs were far more malleable than previously thought. But Milgram also explored other aspects of social psychology, from information overload to television violence to the notion that we live in a small world. Although he died suddenly at the height of his career, his work continues to shape the way we live and think today. Blass offers a brilliant portrait of an eccentric visionary scientist who revealed the hidden workings of our very social world.
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STANLEY MILGRAM WAS born in the Bronx on August 15, 1933, to Samuel and Adele Milgram, both Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
STANLEY MILGRAM WAS born in the Bronx on August 15, 1933, to Samuel and Adele Milgram, both Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A superb biography of a fascinating man,
By
This review is from: The Man Who Shocked the World: The Life and Legacy of Stanley Milgram (Hardcover)
Milgram is famous for his obediance experiments. This superb biography provides the background to Milgram's interest in thi work, some wonderful details of the series of experiments he did, and his subsequent work. The highlight is the carefully detailed description of the obedience experiments and reactions to them.
Milgram was a very creative sociologist and worked on many other topics, including the famous "six degrees of freedom" experiment where he had people post letters to strangers via folk they already knew. Few academics are as adventurous and creative as Milgram was. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book, as did my teeange sons who usually only read fiction.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Impressive biog of a key figure in 20th century psychology,
By
This review is from: The Man Who Shocked the World: The Life and Legacy of Stanley Milgram (Paperback)
(This review originally appeared in BBC Focus magazine)
In 1961, an advert appeared in a US newspaper asking for volunteers for a scientific study of memory. The study was not what it seemed, however. Those who responded found themselves in lab delivering increasingly strong electric shocks to a man whenever his memory failed him. And 65 per cent of the volunteers carried on increasing the shocks until the screams had been replaced by an ominous silence. Only once the experiment was over were the volunteers told the truth: the man had been acting throughout. But the experiment had proved its point: that ordinary people could be persuaded to abuse a complete stranger - if they believed they could pass responsibility on to those in authority. It also made its designer, the social psychologist Stanley Milgram, one of the most controversial scientists of the 20th century. Milgram's notorious study of obedience to authority forms the centrepiece of this outstanding biography - and rightly so, given its continued importance in understanding such horrors as the torture of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib. But as author Thomas Blass makes clear, Milgram pioneered other major areas of research, including the famous "Small World" effect, by which everyone is linked to everyone else by around six intermediaries. Blass does a fine job of weaving together Milgram's life and science, revealing a portrait of a genius who, ironically enough, had real problems with authority.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
When in doubt, experiment!,
By
This review is from: The Man Who Shocked the World: The Life and Legacy of Stanley Milgram (Hardcover)
Milgram seemed to share the showmanship of P.T. Barnum and ingenuity of reality show creator Mark Burnett. If Milgram were alive, he might have been a top reality show creator.
Milgram seems most notable not for the results of his experiments but for their conception and content. He hardly modified the approach used by Asch in his conformity experiments, which relied on deception, but he changed the subject to something considerably more striking. The result may have been significant, but think about it: any result would have attracted attention. Comparing the experimental situation with concentration camp situation is what first made the experiment newsworthy. If the result had been that no one or very few shocked, then news could have been generated of how much better behaved Americans are. Or if Germans also didn't shock much, it could have been claimed people nowadays are much better behaved than folks back in World War II. Given the catchy experiment, the results hardly mattered in the sense that the very description of what the experiment was doing would catch people's attention. Which isn't necessarily bad. Milgram brought social psychology out of relative obscurity. To a good extent, he bailed out psychology in general, whose reputation had been damaged by decades of speculations without much support. As a situationist, Milgram recognized that our social lives are quite complex. Rather than spend much time theorizing, he experimented. Don't know? Don't invent a reason, go gather facts. It's a measure of just how complex we are socially that even having gathered results, as with the "obedience" experiments, Milgram seemed at a lost to explain what was happening. Blass notes about Milgram's "Obedience to Authority book" that "Milgram's theorizing is the weakest part of the book". Milgram's feeble appeal to cybernetics contrasts sharply with his description of the experiment. Blass also notes that the kind of "obedience" Milgram studied doesn't seem at all sufficient to explain what happened during the Holocaust. Milgram shouldn't be faulted for the problems with his theorizing. How many psychologists can theorize well? There's still an enormous amount we don't know about ourselves and the way we interact. Milgram's gift seems to have been sensing that and instead finding novel ways to help us to learn about ourselves. Even if the content and results of his experiments are someday forgotten, the spirit of bold experimentation that Milgram brought to social psychology will be of great value. Blass communicates that. So I don't know if Blass is the "undisputed expert" but the book seems well-researched and quite readable.
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