Amusing Ourselves to Death

Table of Contents

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Title Page

Copyright Page

Introduction

Foreword

Part I.

Chapter 1. - The Medium Is the Metaphor

Chapter 2. - Media as Epistemology

Chapter 3. - Typographic America

Chapter 4. - The Typographic Mind

Chapter 5. - The Peek-a-Boo World

Part II.

Chapter 6. - The Age of Show Business

Chapter 7. - "Now ... This"

Chapter 8. - Shuffle Off to Bethlehem

Chapter 9. - Reach Out and Elect Someone

Chapter 10. - Teaching as an Amusing Activity

Chapter 11. - The Huxleyan Warning

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Acclaim for Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death

"As a fervent evangelist of the age of Hollywood, I publicly opposed Neil Postman's dark picture of our media-saturated future. But time has proved Postman right. He accurately foresaw that the young would inherit a frantically all-consuming media culture of glitz, gossip, and greed."

-Camille Paglia

"A brillant, powerful and important book. This is an indictment that Postman has laid down and, so far as I can see, an irrefutable one."

-Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post Book World

"He starts where Marshall McLuhan left off, constructing his arguments with the resources of a scholar and the wit of a raconteur."

- The Christian Science Monitor

"This comes along at exactly the right moment.... We must confront the challenge of his prophetic vision."

-Jonathan Kozol

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

For the last third of the twentieth century, Neil Postman was one of America's foremost social critics and education and communications theorists, and his ideas and accessibility won him an international following. An influential and revered teacher, he was professor for more than forty years at New York University, where he founded the renowned Media Ecology program. Blessed with an unusually far-reaching mind, he authored more than twenty books, producing major works on education (Teaching as a Subversive Activity, The

Introduction
Part I
1. The Medium Is the Metaphor
2. Media as Epistemology
3. Typographic America
4. The Typographic Mind
5. The Peek-a-Boo World
Part II
6. The Age of Show Business
7. "Now...This"
8. Shuffle Off to Bethlehem
9. Reach Out and Elect Someone
10. Teaching as an Amusing Activity
11. The Huxleyan Warning
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Neil Postman (1931–2003) was chairman of the Department of Communication Arts at New York University and founder of its Media Ecology program. He wrote more than twenty books.

I can t think of a more prophetic, more thoughtful, more necessary and yes, more entertaining book about media culture. Victor Navasky, National Book Award-winning author of The Art of Controversy

All I can say about Neil Postman s brilliant Amusing Ourselves to Death is: Guilty As Charged. Matt Groening, Creator of The Simpsons

As a fervent evangelist of the age of Hollywood, I publicly opposed Neil Postman s dark picture of our media-saturated future. But time has proved Postman right. He accurately foresaw that the young would inherit a frantically all-consuming media culture of glitz, gossip, and greed. Camille Paglia

A brilliant, powerful, and important book. This is an indictment that Postman has laid down and, so far as I can see, an irrefutable one. Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post Book World