HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are…
Loading...

The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things (original 2000; edition 2000)

by Barry Glassner

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
1,3121814,368 (3.69)17
The bestselling book revealing why Americans are so fearful, and why we fear the wrong things-now updated for the age of Trump In the age of Trump, our society is defined by fear. Indeed, three out of four Americans say they feel more fearful today than they did only a couple decades ago. But are we living in exceptionally perilous times? In his bestselling book The Culture of Fear, sociologist Barry Glassner demonstrates that it is our perception of danger that has increased, not the actual level of risk. Glassner exposes the people and organizations that manipulate our perceptions and profit from our fears: politicians who win elections by heightening concerns about crime and drug use even as rates for both are declining; advocacy groups that raise money by exaggerating the prevalence of particular diseases; TV shows that create a new scare every week to garner ratings. Glassner spells out the prices we pay for social panics: the huge sums of money that go to waste on unnecessary programs and products as well as time and energy spent worrying about our fears. All the while, we are distracted from the true threats, from climate change to worsening inequality. In this updated edition of a modern classic, Glassner examines the current panics over vaccination and "political correctness" and reveals why Donald Trump's fearmongering is so dangerously effective.… (more)
Member:LynBarTri
Title:The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things
Authors:Barry Glassner
Info:Basic Books (2000), Paperback, 312 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:
Tags:History

Work Information

The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things by Barry Glassner (2000)

  1. 20
    The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap by Stephanie Coontz (Othemts)
    Othemts: A lot of politics and punditry are based on mythology of how America used to be better and how its so bad today. Read "The Way We Never Were" and "The Culture of Fear" to help the scales fall from your eyes and see the truth behind these myths.
  2. 00
    Domestic Fortress: Fear and the new home front by Rowland Atkinson (bluepiano)
    bluepiano: Glassner writes about several overblown, currently entrenched fears prevalent in the US; Atkinson & Blandy examine how one of those fears has changed the idea of home and the building of houses in UK, US, and Australia.
  3. 00
    Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman (Othemts)
None
Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 17 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 18 (next | show all)
Barry wrote this book in 1999, so it a whole different social landscape of fear than we have now. However, one can see the parallels between our worlds and a somewhat belabored book could be summed up in a handful of points. Let me see if I can do this.

People begin to see the things that they fear. Perhaps, we are all hypochondriacs at some level.

I have laughed at myself at this weakness, but I think we all have it. When exposed enough to an idea (fear), we will believe it.

Trust but verify.

Sex sells but fear may sell even better.

Finally, I know so much less than I thought I did after reading this book. We all really do. ( )
  wellington299 | Feb 19, 2022 |
Started reading this as an ebook of the original edition from the Open Library, saw the new edition on my public library's shelves and grabbed it to read the updates. This is a terrifyingly clear look at the way news media (and the politicians who manipulate it) focuses our cultural fear onto the wrong things, thus preventing us from appropriately addressing the things that really are dangerous (namely driving, guns, poverty, guns, prejudice, and guns). ( )
  jen.e.moore | Apr 10, 2019 |
Not terribly useful if you have ever read anything else in a similar vein. The author switches topics rapidly, citing statistics and using anecdotes which are probably just as dubious as the ones he questions. He has a thesis of sorts; that these unreal fears are frequently proxies for the real problems people don't want to face. They tend to be simpler, and easier to think about; and consequently what people want to read about. This is probably why I ignore the news, because I get disgusted by these simple-minded, tear-jerking stories. ( )
  themulhern | Jun 19, 2016 |
A must read ( )
  jimifenway | Feb 2, 2016 |
Mostly a data-dump; emblematic of the failure of American discourse in the 1990s in that it's mostly an exercise in finger-pointing at people on the other side of the political aisle. It does not provide an analysis of deep reasons the politics work the way they do... the best word to describe it is trivial, in the sense of being made up of trivia. ( )
1 vote Inst | Oct 19, 2013 |
Showing 1-5 of 18 (next | show all)
no reviews | add a review
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Dedication
First words
Why are so many fears in the air, and so many of them unfounded? (Introduction)
"There is no terror in the band, only in the anticipation of it," said the ultimate master of terror, Alfred Hitchcock.
Quotations
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (3)

The bestselling book revealing why Americans are so fearful, and why we fear the wrong things-now updated for the age of Trump In the age of Trump, our society is defined by fear. Indeed, three out of four Americans say they feel more fearful today than they did only a couple decades ago. But are we living in exceptionally perilous times? In his bestselling book The Culture of Fear, sociologist Barry Glassner demonstrates that it is our perception of danger that has increased, not the actual level of risk. Glassner exposes the people and organizations that manipulate our perceptions and profit from our fears: politicians who win elections by heightening concerns about crime and drug use even as rates for both are declining; advocacy groups that raise money by exaggerating the prevalence of particular diseases; TV shows that create a new scare every week to garner ratings. Glassner spells out the prices we pay for social panics: the huge sums of money that go to waste on unnecessary programs and products as well as time and energy spent worrying about our fears. All the while, we are distracted from the true threats, from climate change to worsening inequality. In this updated edition of a modern classic, Glassner examines the current panics over vaccination and "political correctness" and reveals why Donald Trump's fearmongering is so dangerously effective.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Revised edition (tenth anniversary) , Jan 4, 2010
Paperback US $16.95
CAN $21.50
UK £9.99
ISBN: 9780465003365
ISBN-10: 0465003362
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (3.69)
0.5
1 4
1.5 2
2 17
2.5 2
3 46
3.5 18
4 85
4.5 9
5 37

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 203,243,350 books! | Top bar: Always visible