Age of Propaganda by Anthony Pratkanis, Elliot Aronson, 0805074031, Lowest Book Price Finder

Customer Reviews:

Almost a textbook ...... but still readable

Given that we are all exposed to some form of propaganda from the moment of birth to the moment of death, I find it amazing that there are not more books on the topic out there. The table of contents made me think to myself, "hey, I want to know about that also!", and the short chapters make for good bedtime reading, even if you only have 10 minutes to spare before doing something 'more interesting'.

I found the book to be somewhat "textbook'ish" at times, which could chase away the more lighthearted readers, but nevertheless enjoyed the examples and explanations given and found it possible to quickly skip sections when they appeared laboured. Structurally, the book is sliced into short and definite sections which attack specific issues and explain to the reader the relevant ways to avoid/recognise/use propoganda in their favour rather than to their detriment. If your like me and read bits at a time, then this is perfect as you wont end up reading the same sentences 12 times over.

As for the content, almost all of the material is essentially common sense and is the type of stuff that we all know, but never take the time to sensibly organise in our minds or take opinion on. This is actually the most exciting reason for reading this book, because we can all relate to it in one way or another.

If the author could have cut out about 75 pages (by avoiding the extreme number of references and explanations of various scientific studies, including his own), then this would definitely be a 5* read. It was just my slight irritation with needing to skip certain laborious sections that stops this one from being great.

In cricket terms, its not quite a 6, but definitely a one bouncer for 4. Get it now ... you wont be dissapointed.

A fine book for US psychology students

This book is full of insight about persuasion, but it suffers two flaws that prevent me from using it as a textbook. One is that almost every point is supported by an experiment described in the main text. This is rigorous, it is also tedious. Leave the data in an appendix next time please! And the resulting book will be much easier to read. The second is that it assumes an exclusively US audience (frequent references such as "our nation", meaning the USA). It is plain rude of the authors not to consider the possibility that someone from out side the USA might read their book. My students would not get many of the cultural and political references, which are all drawn from the US.

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