The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America

Daniel J. Boorstin

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Sep 1, 1992 - Political Science - 336 pages

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.

Contents

• Extravagant Expectations: 3
• From News Gathering to News Making A Flood of PseudoEvents: 7
• From Hero to Celebrity The Human PseudoEvent: 45

About the 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.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America
• Author: Daniel J. Boorstin
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 1992
• ISBN: 0679741801, 9780679741800
• Length: 336 pages
• Subjects: Business & Economics / Industries / Media & Communications; Political Science / Political Process / Media & Internet; Social Science / Media Studies