The Image
A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America
Published on 9. May 2012
336 pages
978-0-307-81916-1 (ISBN)
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.
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Book
09/1992
Vintage Books
€17.50
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Person
Daniel J. Boorstin was the author of The Americans, a trilogy (The Colonial Experience; The National Experience, and The Democratic Experience) that won the Francis Parkman Prize, the Bancroft Prize, and the Pulitzer Prize. In 1989, he received the National Book Award for lifetime contribution to literature. He was the director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, and for twelve years served as the Librarian of Congress. He died in 2004.
Content
- Intro
- Other Books by This Author
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Foreword to the 25th Anniversary Edition
- Foreword to the First Edition
- Contents
- Introduction: Extravagant Expectations
- 1. From News Gathering to News Making: A Flood of Pseudo-Events
- 2. From Hero to Celebrity: The Human Pseudo-Event
- 3. From Traveler to Tourist: The Lost Art of Travel
- 4. From Shapes to Shadows: Dissolving Forms
- 5. From Ideal to Image: The Search for Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
- 6. From the American Dream to American Illusions? The Self-Deceiving Magic of Prestige
- Afterword by Douglas Rushkoff
- Suggestions for Further Reading (and Writing)
- Acknowledgments
