About this title: This engaging analysis examines how misinformation cycles through the media, transforms public opinion, and eventually leads to public policy changes. Uncovering the often hidden beneficiaries of these scare tactics, this cautionary tale encourages readers to decipher the reality behind media-fed "fear mongering" and to focus instead on the more complex roots of America's problems, including racism, homophobia, and poverty.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Basic Books
Date Published: 1999
ISBN-13:9780465014903ISBN:0465014909
Description: Good in fair dust jacket. edges worn; spine in great shape, mark on back covers, some interior pages have corner bends (less than 10 pages) Why Americans are afraid of the wrong things. Author publishes many examples of media hype read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Basic Books
Date Published: 2000
ISBN-13:9780465014903ISBN:0465014909
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. A few page corners have creases. Cover has a little wear. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 312 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Good. 0465014909 Fast Shipping. Book torn, creased, missing dust jacket or otherwise damaged. Customer Service is our #1 priority. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Acceptable. Former Library book. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Very Good. Former Library book. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Basic Books
Date Published: 2000-03-15
ISBN-13:9780465014903ISBN:0465014909
Description: Fair. A small amount of underlining and margin notes. Faint spotting on edge of book; spot on first page. Minor edge wear, a nice copy. NOT an ex-library book; no publisher's remainder marks. No spine creasing. Military (APO/FPO) orders are welcomed-Thank you for your service. read more
"This was an interesting read. The author's premise is that Americans fear many situations needlessly, as a result of how the media give us information. Some issues you should lose LESS sleep over: school shootings; flying in planes; Halloween candy tampering; cyberpredators; children being taken by strangers. The author posits that fears promulgated by the media take our attention away from issues we feel are beyond our control, and give us something more manageable to worry about. For example, we can make tougher laws at our schools to try to prevent shootings there. The bigger issue, the out-of-control number of guns in our country, seems impossible to do much about. The book ends on an up note, encouraging us to redirect time, money and effort(and elect those who will) to issues that affect large numbers of people, such as gun control and poverty."
"Did you know that there were never any razor blades in apples? I read this book a long time ago and just haven't gotten around to writing the review for awhile, however I find myself still thinking about the book a lot. While it's not perfect, I think it should be required reading, to educate individuals on how to analyze news shows, mass emails and newspapers. Tip #1: read the title of the "expert" or find the source of the information, ask what their qualifications really are and think about what be their motivation for making the statement. The author basically goes through things Americans are afraid of (such as tainted Halloween candy) and the things we should really fear (such as the poor quality of education). Have any of you read this? I'd love to discuss this with friends or family!"
"Glassner is a sociology professor who sets out trying to figure out why the richest, most secure nation in history is afraid of everything. He does a great job connecting things like our fear of cancer to overprotective mothering to our fear of airplane crashes. What's even more interesting is that he wrote this before 9/11, it was published in 1999. Unfortunately, though, his liberalism is pretty strong and he enjoys laying too much blame at the feet of conservatives. He also comes to the conclusion that a really big, genuine scare would essentially cause us all to hold hands and sing "We Are the World." It would be interesting to see what he thinks now, since 9/11 pretty much proved his conclusion to be false."
"When I saw this book on a used book rack, I recognized the title and thought I had seen an interview with the author. But when I started reading it, I realized it had been published in 1999. Hmm, maybe I was mistaken about that interview. Regardless, I still enjoyed it. Since it's a decade old, it's a little outdated. Obviously if this had been written post-9/11 there would be something about terrorism in it and this book is all about domestic fears. But other than that, what he discusses is (unfortunately) still very relevant today.
I've long felt that people are always worrying too much about stupid stuff, and stuff that has often been proven to be blatantly wrong. So he was preaching to the choir with me, but it was still good to read of all the examples he had. He touched on a lot of subjects, such as road rage, school and workplace shootings, poisoned Halloween candy (that's a personal favorite of mine, an urban legend that just won't die), fake illnesses like "Gulf War Syndrome" and "Multiple Chemical Sensitivity", plane crashes, etc. He shows how in many cases the media blew these things way out of proportion to the danger they actually pose (or in the case of fake illnesses, legitimized something that was outright non-existant).
I'm giving this 3 stars because for one, it just wasn't all that compelling of a read for some reason. Maybe like I said, it's because he was preaching to the choir here. But more importantly, he would often counterpoint these false fears with what Americans should be more concerned with, and what they should be more concerned with always seems to be a really liberal issue like gun control. As in, people are afraid of workplace shootings but they should be worried about how many guns there are. I get it, and not necessarily saying he's wrong on all these things, but it got a little much for me. He would imply for almost every fear that it's really because people don't want to address social ill X so they replace their fear with some other thing and I think he just took that too far sometimes. Mayyyybe, or maybe a cigar is just a cigar (to paraphrase Freud).
And as for that particular example, he wasn't even making much sense because he just got done saying that workplace shootings, school shootings, etc rarely happen so we shouldn't worry much about it, and then he says that we should be concerned about the prevalence of guns. But you just told us it rarely happens. And you really didn't show that less guns would lead to less violent crimes anyway. (The NRA argument would be that more "good" people, properly trained in firearms, would be a deterrent to criminals because they wouldn't know who was packing heat. Not saying I agree with this argument either, but I'm saying it's a more complicated issue than he gives credit for and he glosses over a lot of complexity.)
Anyway, those were minor issues I had with the book. Overall, I think it is a good book and I wholeheartedly agree with the main thrust of his argument."
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