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beccaalina's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
fast-paced
4.25
Even though Boorstin first wrote this book in the 1960s, it is still very much prevalent today and sparks some thought provoking questions about society, politics and Media.
tigerkin310's review against another edition
4.0
The trajectory charted by Boorstin 50 years ago has been remarkably matched by reality. There is much food for thought.
hamroach's review against another edition
5.0
Boorstin introduces the idea of a "pseudo-event", the event created for the purpose of coverage. Interesting reflection on the dominance of imagery.
patrickwreed's review against another edition
4.0
This would likely have been a five star review, had the book remained focused on the first chapter's analysis of pseudo-events, or the recurrent theme of the role the "Graphic Revolution" played on reshaping our language and world-view. That first chapter, and the later analysis of advertising, I would consider essential reading that prefigures a deeper exploration of the same ideas in a vastly different context by Baudrillard and Debord.
Unfortunately, much of Boorstin's work on celebrity, movies and travel culture is more heavily influenced by his own social conservatism than by any of the phenomena he's purporting to explore, and veers dangerously close to snobbery on occasion, while his attacks on language often come across more as giving air to his own pet hates than any useful analysis. The final chapter, in particular, is far too coloured by a peculiarly mid-century American exceptionalism and the misguided view that American values and ideals were something that were both innate and objective, while also unique to the American experience.
Readers aware of Boorstin's prior work - or the facts of his biography - should bear that in mind when approaching this as an objective critique of American visual culture and the news cycle, but with those peccadillos aside it remains an extraordinarily insightful and forward-thinking work that becomes only more useful in understanding how the news cycle operates with every passing year.
Unfortunately, much of Boorstin's work on celebrity, movies and travel culture is more heavily influenced by his own social conservatism than by any of the phenomena he's purporting to explore, and veers dangerously close to snobbery on occasion, while his attacks on language often come across more as giving air to his own pet hates than any useful analysis. The final chapter, in particular, is far too coloured by a peculiarly mid-century American exceptionalism and the misguided view that American values and ideals were something that were both innate and objective, while also unique to the American experience.
Readers aware of Boorstin's prior work - or the facts of his biography - should bear that in mind when approaching this as an objective critique of American visual culture and the news cycle, but with those peccadillos aside it remains an extraordinarily insightful and forward-thinking work that becomes only more useful in understanding how the news cycle operates with every passing year.
tsharris's review against another edition
5.0
Worthy successor to Lippmann's Public Opinion and anticipator of post-modernism, an absolutely brilliant account of the "hollowing out" of American life. I hadn't even heard of it until recently, to my great shame. Deserves to be more widely known and read.
mdwsn27's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
alex_ellermann's review against another edition
1.0
I hated this book.
I'd call it pretentious, but late author Daniel J. Boorstin was a Librarian of Congress; a winner of the Pulitzer, Bancroft, Parkman, Dexter, and Watson Davis prizes; Director of the National Museum of American History of the Smithsonian Institution; Morton Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago; Harvard summa cum laude; Yale Ph.D.; and "double first" Rhodes Scholar at Balliol College, Oxford. It isn't pretension if you have the resume to back it up. So I'll just call it snobbish.
In this book, first published in 1961, Boorstin explores not just pseudo-events, but artifice in all its forms. I'm there for his elucidation of the concept of the pseudo-event (loosely defined as events such as news conferences and photo-ops: events designed to create news and shape perception, rather than reflect events already underway). However, he takes his book to places I can't follow; places that seem, loosely speaking, like an old man yelling at clouds.
Boorstin derides celebrity culture with all the venom of the distinguished academic who must cede the limelight to vacuous people with great hair. He derides then-modern travel with all the superiority of the man who could afford tickets on a luxury liner and despairs of having to rub shoulders with the hoi polloi while contemplating art in the Louvre. Speaking of art, he derides prints and reproductions with the snobbishness of the man who has seen the real thing. And don't get him started on music. Or film. Or books. Or, well, anything that seems to have come into vogue after he passed the age of thirty.
Well, up yours, pal. People have always been attracted to and interested in beautiful people. Get over it. Furthermore, I grew up much closer to the bottom of America's socioeconomic ladder than the top. There was no luxury liner in my future, but the democratization of travel (which the author derides) opened Europe to me, anyway. There were no art galleries or symphonies in the small town where I grew up, but I could conceive a love for art and music thanks to the prints and records Boorstin so casually derides as pale imitations of the real thing. And don't get me started on his opinion of those who would presume to read the works of the Greeks and Romans without first learning Greek and Latin. I'm staggered by this guy's elitism. I'm getting angry all over again, just thinking about this book.
To be fair, Boorstin's deconstruction of advertising and political theater is as relevant today as it was in 1961. However, those elements aren't enough to rescue this book. As a beneficiary of the democratization of travel, art, music, philosophy, and literature which Boorstin so abhors, allow me to put my M.A. with Highest Distinction to work by saying "Get bent, Daniel J. Boorstin. And take your book with you."
I'd call it pretentious, but late author Daniel J. Boorstin was a Librarian of Congress; a winner of the Pulitzer, Bancroft, Parkman, Dexter, and Watson Davis prizes; Director of the National Museum of American History of the Smithsonian Institution; Morton Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago; Harvard summa cum laude; Yale Ph.D.; and "double first" Rhodes Scholar at Balliol College, Oxford. It isn't pretension if you have the resume to back it up. So I'll just call it snobbish.
In this book, first published in 1961, Boorstin explores not just pseudo-events, but artifice in all its forms. I'm there for his elucidation of the concept of the pseudo-event (loosely defined as events such as news conferences and photo-ops: events designed to create news and shape perception, rather than reflect events already underway). However, he takes his book to places I can't follow; places that seem, loosely speaking, like an old man yelling at clouds.
Boorstin derides celebrity culture with all the venom of the distinguished academic who must cede the limelight to vacuous people with great hair. He derides then-modern travel with all the superiority of the man who could afford tickets on a luxury liner and despairs of having to rub shoulders with the hoi polloi while contemplating art in the Louvre. Speaking of art, he derides prints and reproductions with the snobbishness of the man who has seen the real thing. And don't get him started on music. Or film. Or books. Or, well, anything that seems to have come into vogue after he passed the age of thirty.
Well, up yours, pal. People have always been attracted to and interested in beautiful people. Get over it. Furthermore, I grew up much closer to the bottom of America's socioeconomic ladder than the top. There was no luxury liner in my future, but the democratization of travel (which the author derides) opened Europe to me, anyway. There were no art galleries or symphonies in the small town where I grew up, but I could conceive a love for art and music thanks to the prints and records Boorstin so casually derides as pale imitations of the real thing. And don't get me started on his opinion of those who would presume to read the works of the Greeks and Romans without first learning Greek and Latin. I'm staggered by this guy's elitism. I'm getting angry all over again, just thinking about this book.
To be fair, Boorstin's deconstruction of advertising and political theater is as relevant today as it was in 1961. However, those elements aren't enough to rescue this book. As a beneficiary of the democratization of travel, art, music, philosophy, and literature which Boorstin so abhors, allow me to put my M.A. with Highest Distinction to work by saying "Get bent, Daniel J. Boorstin. And take your book with you."