0
    • Elementary Secondary Higher Ed Common Reads
    0 0
    Download high-resolution image

    The Image

    A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America

    Author Daniel J. Boorstin
    Ebook
    Knopf | Vintage
    On sale May 09, 2012 | 336 Pages | 9780307819161
    Add to cart Add to list Exam Copies

    See Additional Formats
    Daniel J. Boorstin’s prophetic vision of an America inundated by its own illusions is an essential resource for any reader who wants to distinguish the manifold deceptions of our culture from its few enduring truths.

    "The book that best explains Trump’s dominance may well have been published in 1962. In The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America, the historian Daniel J. Boorstin described the image as a medium—a photograph, a movie, a representation of life, laid out on pulp or screen—that becomes, soon enough, a habit of mind." —The Atlantic

    “Boorstin’s book tells us how to see and listen, and how to think about what we see and hear.”—George Will

    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.”
    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. View titles by Daniel J. Boorstin

    Praise for Daniel J. Boorstin's The Image

    “A very informative and entertaining and chastising book.”
    —Harper’s 
     
    “A book that everyone in America should read every few years. Stunning in its prescience, it explains virtually every aspect of our mass media's evolution and seductiveness.”
    —Jennifer Egan, Pulitzer Prize winning author of A Visit From the Goon Squad 
     
    “An engrossing book—sensitive, thoughtful, damning, dead on target and in most respects unanswerable.”
    —Scientific American
     
    “Excellent. . . It is the book to end all books about ‘The American Image’—what it is, who projects it, what effect it has at home or abroad.”
    —The Observer 
     
    “A brilliant and original essay about the black arts and corrupting influences of advertising and public relations.”
    —The Guardian

    “Boorstin’s book tells us how to see and listen, and how to think about what we see and hear.”
    —George Will

    About

    Daniel J. Boorstin’s prophetic vision of an America inundated by its own illusions is an essential resource for any reader who wants to distinguish the manifold deceptions of our culture from its few enduring truths.

    "The book that best explains Trump’s dominance may well have been published in 1962. In The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America, the historian Daniel J. Boorstin described the image as a medium—a photograph, a movie, a representation of life, laid out on pulp or screen—that becomes, soon enough, a habit of mind." —The Atlantic

    “Boorstin’s book tells us how to see and listen, and how to think about what we see and hear.”—George Will

    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.”

    Author

    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. View titles by Daniel J. Boorstin

    Praise

    Praise for Daniel J. Boorstin's The Image

    “A very informative and entertaining and chastising book.”
    —Harper’s 
     
    “A book that everyone in America should read every few years. Stunning in its prescience, it explains virtually every aspect of our mass media's evolution and seductiveness.”
    —Jennifer Egan, Pulitzer Prize winning author of A Visit From the Goon Squad 
     
    “An engrossing book—sensitive, thoughtful, damning, dead on target and in most respects unanswerable.”
    —Scientific American
     
    “Excellent. . . It is the book to end all books about ‘The American Image’—what it is, who projects it, what effect it has at home or abroad.”
    —The Observer 
     
    “A brilliant and original essay about the black arts and corrupting influences of advertising and public relations.”
    —The Guardian

    “Boorstin’s book tells us how to see and listen, and how to think about what we see and hear.”
    —George Will

    Additional formats

    Other Books by this Author

    Related Articles

    Books for Women's History Month Book Covers: We the Women 9780593727027 NIGHT FLYER 9780593491188 Undaunted 9780525659143 DEAR MISS PERKINS 9780806543178
    General

    Books for Women’s History Month

    In honor of Women’s History Month in March, we are sharing books by women who have shaped history and have fought for their communities. Our list includes books about women who fought for racial justice, abortion rights, equality in the workplace, and ranges in topics from women in politics and prominent women in history to

    Read more

    Books for Women’s History Month

    General
    Subscribe

    Penguin Random House Higher Education

    © 2026 Penguin Random House

    Back to Top
    0
    Wish List (0)