Amusing Ourselves to Death

by Postman, Neil

• ISBN13: 9780143036531
• ISBN10: 014303653X
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-12-27
• Publisher: Penguin Group USA

Summary

Television has habituated us to visual entertainment measured out in spoonfuls of time. But what happens when we come to expect the same things from our politics and public discourse? What happens to journalism, education, and religion when they too become forms of show business? Twenty years ago, Neil Postman's lively polemic was the first book to consider the way that electronic media were reshaping our culture. Now, with TV joined by the Internet, cell phones, cable, and DVDs, Amusing Ourselves to Death carries even greater significance. Elegant, incisive, and terrifically readable, it's a compelling take on our addiction to entertainment. Book jacket.

Table of Contents

Introduction to the Twentieth Anniversary Edition	p. vii
In 1985 ...	p. xvii
Foreword	p. xix
The Medium Is the Metaphor	p. 3
Media as Epistemology	p. 16
Typographic America	p. 30
The Typographic Mind	p. 44
The Peek-a-Boo World	p. 64
The Age of Show Business	p. 83
"Now ... This"	p. 99
Shuffle Off to Bethlehem	p. 114
Reach Out and Elect Someone	p. 125
Teaching as an Amusing Activity	p. 142
The Huxleyan Warning	p. 155
Notes	p. 165
Bibliography	p. 173
Index	p. 177
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