Amusing Ourselves to Death Audiobook By Neil Postman cover art

Amusing Ourselves to Death

Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business

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Amusing Ourselves to Death

By: Neil Postman
Narrated by: Jeff Riggenbach
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In this eloquent and persuasive book, Neil Postman examines the deep and broad effects of television culture on the manner in which we conduct our public affairs, and how "entertainment values" have corrupted the very way we think.

As politics, news, religion, education, and commerce are given less and less expression in the form of the printed word, they are rapidly being reshaped to suit the requirements of television. And because television is a visual medium, whose images are most pleasurably apprehended when they are fast-moving and dynamic, discourse on television has little tolerance for argument, hypothesis, or explanation. Postman argues that public discourse, the advancing of arguments in logical order for the public good, once a hallmark of American culture, is being converted from exposition and explanation to entertainment.

©1985 Neil Postman (P)1994 Blackstone Audio Inc. Social Sciences Media Studies Politics & Government Thought-Provoking History & Criticism Entertainment Film & TV Entertainment & Performing Arts Funny Inspiring

Critic reviews

"A brilliant, powerful and important book.... This is a brutal indictment Postman has laid down and, so far as I can see, an irrefutable one." ( Washington Post Book World)
"[Postman] starts where Marshall McLuhan left off, constructing his arguments with the resources of a scholar and the wit of a raconteur." ( Christian Science Monitor)
"A sustained, withering and thought-provoking attack on television and what it is doing to us.... Postman goes further than other critics in demonstrating that television represents a hostile attack on literate culture." ( Publishers Weekly)
Prophetic Insights • Thought-provoking Analysis • Clear Pronunciation • Relevant Cultural Critique • Philosophical Depth

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What made the experience of listening to Amusing Ourselves to Death the most enjoyable?

Seriously negative reviewers, this book is so important for ANYONE and EVERYONE to be exposed to. Use the feature of Audible to slow down the reading speed of the book.

This book, along with books like The Influencing Machine and Republic Lost, are what are going to make difference in how hard or soft the USA falls from it's place as the super power in the world.

Reviewing based on the speed of the reading...you've GOT to be KIDDING ME.

JUST SLOW DOWN THE READING SPEED

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It must be remembered that this book is almost 30 years old, so it's inevitable that some of its arguments no longer quite work. But in most ways they do. Moreover, they often apply to our current internet generation as well.

A warning to the TV generation

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Unbelievably, though written in 1984 about television this book did more to help me understand how modern society has been impacted by the internet than anything else I have read. If you like Sapiens or The Righteous Mind and are interested in understanding who we are as a society, you will love it.

A mandatory read

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Absolutely brilliant book. If anything, it was far too short for this subject, even though it was written in the early days of cable television.

I can't wait to read more recent works by Neil Postman.

Should be mandatory reading in this era.

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Postman would have a freaking cow over what people do nowadays. can ya believe it?

Dated But, Forward thinking from a unique voice.

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