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The Hidden Persuaders |
Author: Vance Packard
Published: 2007-07-01 |
List price: $14.95
Our price: $10.17
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As of: November 23rd, 2008 01:31:45 PM
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Customer comments on this selection.
 Great book, poor presentation
The content of this book is excellent, and still amazingly relevant 50 years after it was written. I give the content a 4.5 star rating. However, the publisher of this book has done a great disservice to the author by releasing a manuscript that looks like it was never proofread. There are spelling and grammatical errors *everywhere*. I have yet to read a book with such a high frequency of misspellings and grammatical errors. They are pervasive, and at times actually distract you when you have to go back and read a sentence several times because it made no sense. I'm amazed that something like this could be published.
Additionally, the introduction is a thinly veiled misanthropic rant that adds little to nothing of value to the actual book. And, as you can already see, the cover is ugly as sin.
So, I would highly recommend purchasing the book, but *not* this publisher's version.
 You're right, they are controlling and manipulating you
Most of us realize that we are being influenced all the time. What most of us don't realize is just how much we are controlled and influenced. The Hidden Persuaders will describe to you the early efforts made to understand, control and influence people in the name of consumerism and control. This book should scare you, especially when you stop and think about how much more refined the methods are today.
A key point made by the book is the primary difference between manipulation and persuasion is intent. Even the most cursory look at history will tell you that when the tools exist, someone will use them to dominate and control others. In fact, they are being used right now and everyday to control us. The Matrix is alive and well and real.
Read this book.
 Eye-opener
What's really interesting about this book is how old the information is. The ideas Packard described are being presented to us today as relatively novel, as though our culture is just now waking up to the idea that consumerism is about hidden motivations, hypnosis, rationalization and social striving.
Take the example about how people want big cars but feel ashamed of buying them, and how you can help them justify it to themselves by talking about safety. This kind of information is being presented to us in the present as though it were news, but there it was, in 1959.
As for it being dated, well, in some ways it is. Still, a lot of the psychological information still represents our best information about human nature. It's interesting to see theories devised for healing psychological pathology employed for monetary gain, especially if you don't have a background in advertising and marketing.
If you are already an expert in those areas, it might make a fun history lesson.
A historical landmark
I met Vance Packard's (1914-1996) work with his The Pyramid Climbers, a pioneer study on American enterprise management developement. The Hidden Persuaders is about a very different subject, and it was also one of the first true considerations on how propaganda, or media manipulation, changes the way America behaves toward franchises, merchandising and, in the end, how it shapes the way we structure our goals and, to use Focualt's title, the order of things. It, of course, shows its age since it was first published in the 1950's. However it is in no way obsolete and thanks to Packard's excellent pen it is a breeze to read, and an excellent example of the so called Pop Sociology.
Essential
A really insightful and illuminating book about the introduction of psychological conditioning methods into product marketing and politics which I consider to be essential reading for anyone who would be aware at this time. What's all the more remarkable is the fact that this book was written at the advent of this development, and the author well understood what it portended. Time to wake up, Neo.
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