Research Catalog

Title

The culture of fear : why Americans are afraid of the wrong things / Barry Glassner.

Author

Glassner, Barry

Publication

New York : Basic Books, c1999.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xxviii, 276 p.; 25 cm.

Summary

"In this eye-opening examination of a pathology that has swept the country, sociologist Barry Glassner reveals why Americans are burdened with overblown fears. He exposes the people and organizations that manipulate our perceptions and profit from our anxieties: politicians who win elections by heightening concerns about crime and drug use even as both are declining; advocacy groups that raise money by exaggerating the prevalence of particular diseases; TV newsmagazines that monger a new scare every week to garner ratings." "Barry Glassner's book diagnoses a predominant pathology of our age and provides a rallying cry for a return to rationality in our personal lives and in our national sense of purpose."--Jacket.

Alternative Title

Fear

Subject

• Social perception > United States
• Social problems > United States
• Anxiety > United States
• Fear > United States
• United States > Social conditions

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 211-257) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Dubious dangers on roadways and campuses : how fears are sold -- Crime in the news : tall tales and overstated statistics -- Youth at risk : faulty diagnoses and callous cures -- Monster moms : on the art of misdirection -- Black men : how to perpetuate prejudice without really trying -- "Smack is back" : when presidents and the press collude, the scares never stop -- Metaphoric illnesses : how not to criticize the establishment -- Plane wrecks : small danger, big scare -- Final thoughts : the Martians aren't coming.

ISBN

• 0465014895 :
• 0465014909 (pbk.)

LCCN

^^^99224376^

OCLC

• 41385323
• SCSB-10161364

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library