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Summary
Summary
The bestselling book revealing why Americans are so fearful, and why we fear the wrong things--now updated for the age of Trump
In the age of Trump, our society is defined by fear. Indeed, three out of four Americans say they feel more fearful today than they did only a couple decades ago. But are we living in exceptionally perilous times? In his bestselling book The Culture of Fear , sociologist Barry Glassner demonstrates that it is our perception of danger that has increased, not the actual level of risk. Glassner exposes the people and organizations that manipulate our perceptions and profit from our fears: politicians who win elections by heightening concerns about crime and drug use even as rates for both are declining; advocacy groups that raise money by exaggerating the prevalence of particular diseases; TV shows that create a new scare every week to garner ratings. Glassner spells out the prices we pay for social panics: the huge sums of money that go to waste on unnecessary programs and products as well as time and energy spent worrying about our fears.
All the while, we are distracted from the true threats, from climate change to worsening inequality. In this updated edition of a modern classic, Glassner examines the current panics over vaccination and "political correctness" and reveals why Donald Trump's fearmongering is so dangerously effective.
Author Notes
Barry Glassner is a professor of sociology at Lewis Clark College in Portland, Oregon. He lives in Los Angeles, California.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In this oddly comforting audiobook, Glassner (Derailing Democracy) deconstructs many commonly held beliefs about the threats of the modern world and aims to expose the media's role in keeping citizens fearful. Frightened citizens, he posits, make better consumers and more easily swayed voters. In a methodical fashion, he raises a series of public safety threats-the prevalence of road rage, middle-class heroin addiction and husband abuse, to name just a few-and then systematically tries to strike them down with statistics. More provocative are later chapters when he attempts to debunk such modern phenomena as Gulf War Syndrome and illnesses caused by breast implants. Glassner's delivery is serious but not emotionless; he keeps an even keel most of the time, but emotion does seep into his voice, most notably when talking about gun control. His reading style stands in sharp contrast to filmmaker Michael Moore, whose apparently improvised introduction is passionate and compelling; in fact, Glassner, who was featured in Moore's film Bowling for Columbine, sounds a bit dull coming right after Moore. But he is clearly a man on a mission, and even though many listeners might disregard some of his explanations as oversimplifications, virtually everyone will leave this book with a more realistic, guardedly optimistic world view. Based on the Basic Books hardcover. (Dec. 2003) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
A critical look at the baseless, harmful paranoia spread by our mass media. Glassner (Sociology/Univ. of Southern California; Career Crash, 1994, etc.) identifies the media as major villains in his eye-opening book, which depicts both periodical and TV journalists lusting for the audiences attracted by scare stories (following the dictum, ``if it bleeds, it leads''). Scare topics like political terrorism, child-care sadists, and fire on the operating table get major play, even though statistically speaking an American is far more likely to be killed by lightning than to experience these problems. Medical facts regarding conditions like Gulf War syndrome or breast-implant complications, for example, are too questionable, the author feels, to warrant the kind of simplistic reporting they receive. When Glassner searched for evidence behind the ``roofies rape'' scare (date-rapists supposedly fed victims the drug Rohypnol), he notes: ``I searched widely for sound studies of the true prevalence [of the drug's use] and found only one.'' Many so-called experts and studies cited as authoritative sources are exposed as phonies in this carefully annotated book. At a time when crime rates are plummeting, tough-on-crime pols get photo ops at boot camps for offenders, though such facilities have accomplished nothing, according to Glassner. Yet politicians are masters at pressing our fear buttons; the author quotes Richard Nixon remarking, ``People react to fear, not love. They don't teach that in Sunday school, but it's true.'' Sometimes national scares prevent us from correcting the true (if unpopular) cause of a problem'our failure to respond to violent crime with tougher gun laws, for instance. Glassner ascribes some irrational fear to millennial fever and alarm at rapid technological change, but he also reminds us that scare-mongering is economically as well as politically profitable. One of the most important sociological books you'll read this year, and certainly the most reassuring. (Author tour)
Choice Review
Why are many Americans afraid of crime, drug abuse, traffic fatalities, killer kids, monster moms, black men, cancer, AIDS, plane crashes, and terrorism? Based on extensive content analysis of the print and electronic media, Glassner shows how the news media bombard the public with sensational stories of isolated incidents and depicts them as dangerous trends. Although a string of incidents does not constitute a trend, as revealed by the recent decline in rates of homicide, drug use, and so forth, inflated fears caused by news reports lead to public spending of billions of dollars on police and prisons instead of dealing with problems of hunger, poverty, and inequality. Serious problems tend to be ignored because of a culture of fear created by journalists and politicians. The author explains why most Americans harbor misplaced fears. He identifies the vendors of these fears, their marketing methods, and incentives. Glassner argues that the use of poignant anecdotes in place of scientific evidence by the mass media has diverted attention from taking decisive action to deal with major social problems . A must read for journalists and politicians, this book is a valuable contribution to mass communication and culture studies as well as sociology. All levels. D. A. Chekki University of Winnipeg
Table of Contents
| Acknowledgments | p. ix |
| Introduction to the New Edition | p. xi |
| Introduction: Why Americans Fear the Wrong Things | p. xix |
| 1 Dubious Dangers on Roadways and Campuses How Fears Are Sold | p. 1 |
| 2 Crime in the News Tall Tales and Overstated Statistics | p. 21 |
| 3 Youth at Risk Faulty Diagnoses and Callous Cures | p. 51 |
| 4 Monster Moms On the Art of Misdirection | p. 85 |
| 5 Black Men How to Perpetuate Prejudice Without Really Trying | p. 107 |
| 6 "Smack Is Back" When President and the Press Collude the Scares Never Stop | p. 129 |
| 7 Metaphoric Illnesses How Not to Criticize the Establishment | p. 151 |
| 8 Plane Wrecks Small Danger, Big Scare | p. 181 |
| 9 Final Thoughts The Martians Aren't Coming | p. 203 |
| 10 New Fears for a New Century And Some Old Ones Updated | p. 211 |
| Epilogue The Fearmonger in Chief | p. 245 |
| Notes | p. 263 |
| Index | p. 323 |
