A Nation of Salesmen: The Tyranny of the Market and the Subversion of Culture [Paperback]

Earl Shorris (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1996

Ever since the snake tempted Eve with the apple in the Garden of Eden, selling has been an integral part of our culture. In this groundbreaking work on the nature and meaning of the sale, Earl Shorris skillfully blends philosophy, politics, psychology, economics and piercing observation to demonstrate how, from Bill Clinton to your local doctor, we are truly a nation of salesmen.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Shorris, a former ad executive and a contributing editor to Harper's, argues that selling has become the dominant activity in American life, creating a marketing mentality that has corroded our culture, language and values.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Imagine the serpent throwing off God's curse, eschewing his dust diet, and ascending to the corridors of power. Shorris, a former advertising executive, here chronicles the change in perception of salespeople, once considered cheats but now seen as cultural heroes. For society, argues Shorris, this change does not bode well. The United States has embraced the ways of the salesperson to such an extent that it poses a threat to individuality, creativity, and spirituality. Shorris's book is wonderfully written, challenging, and scholarly. Although it is a work of philosophy, each chapter opens with cautionary parables about refugees of our commercial culture. Shorris excels at warning the reader about the dictatorship of "Homo vendens" but unfortunately spends little time on what we should do to change it. Recommended for economics, political science, and philosophy collections.
Edward Buller, "Natural History," American Museum of Natural History, New York
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (January 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380726785
• ISBN-13: 978-0380726783
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,328,496 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Reminiscences of a veteran marketeer., October 14, 2001

By 

Brooser Bear (City of New York) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: A Nation of Salesmen: The Tyranny of the Market and the Subversion of Culture (Paperback)

In the tradiiton of shamans and tricksters of all ages, witchdoctors have lived with their feet in both worlds, one physical and one unseen, and Mr Shorris, the author of this book has also lived in two worlds, both equally esoteric. One was advertising, but more appropriately, a high level marketing consultancy and the other universe was literary, the apparently dull drawn out intellectualism of the journalistic writing a la Harper's and Atlantic Monthly. The book purports to evaluate the effects of market economy on culture, but this is not social science treatise, but rather a philosophical discourse in which the argument is the foregone conclusion. The book meanders from chapter to chapter, apparently without aim, but that is because it was packaged (no pun ntended) from a number of pieces written previously. One thing missing from this book is the point of reference that would show the prevalence of the marketing world vs all the people who are not working sales, but according to the latest Department f Labor stats the leading US blue collar job is truck driving while the leading white collar job is retail sales. So, the book on marketing is quite relevant. The book is dfressed up with epitaths for a post modern feel, but the glibness is too obvious to be stylish. The book's strength is a short Death of a Salesman fable that precedes each chapter. The stories are well written and illustrate different niches of marketing I wasn't even aware of. Mr Shorris definitely has a lot of experience, some of which he shares, but perhaps his talents are wasted on a philosophical treatise, when he could have put that wisdom and experience to better use writing a work of literary fiction.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Shorris highlights a basic trait of the American character., November 3, 1999

By 

James W. Chan ([e-mail]) (Philadelphia, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Nation of Salesmen: The Tyranny of the Market and the Subversion of Culture (Paperback)

I enjoyed reading the book. Earl Shorris has the courage and insight to expose the salesman in us all. I find his line on page 268--"To do this (selling) successfully the saleman has to follow the disciplines of his calling: Primarily, he cannot make judgements"--a key point in his book. Although I think it is too harsh to call a salesman a "serpent", I agree with the author that if all we do is just to sell without regard to how we truly feel about what it is that we are selling, we will be living a lonely and meaningless life.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Triolgy on the Death of the American Dream, November 29, 2011

By 

Alan H. Macdonald (Sanford, ME United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Nation of Salesmen: The Tyranny of the Market and the Subversion of Culture (Paperback)

For me Earl Shorris's "A Nation of Salesmen" is the mid-point of an unplanned, but enlightening, multi-author trilogy on the perversion of the American Dream caused by an insatiable 'hustling' and imperialist mind-set.

Coming as it does five and a half decades after the best American novel of the 20th century, Fitzgerald's "Gatsby", on the death of the American Dream, and three decades prescient of Morris Berman's concluding new non-fictional explanation of "Why America Failed", Shorris's "A Nation of Salesmen" weaves a narrative of fictional but 'teaching moment' vignettes headed with famous quotations examining the deceits of a market organized world, compared with the enlightenment of a new paradigm of human and humane thought.

Shorris, if he is still alive, would immediately recognize that the Wall Street financial looting of 2008, and the stealthy assassinations by drones have inexorably led to what Occupy could become.

Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine