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The Authenticity Hoax: Why the "Real" Things We Seek Don't Make Us Happy Paperback – May 3, 2011

by Andrew Potter (Author)

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“A totally real, genuine, authentic book about why you shouldn’t believe any of those words. And it’s genuinely good.”
— Gregg Easterbrook, author of Sonic Boom

Exploring a number of trends in our popular culture—from Sarah Palin to Antiques Roadshow, organic food to the indignation over James Frey’s memoir—Andrew Potter follows his successful Nation of Rebels with a new book that argues that our pursuit of the authentic is fraught with irony and self-defeat. Readers of The Paradox of Choice or Bowling Alone will find many enlightening insights in The Authenticity Hoax, which is, in the words of Tom de Zengotita (Mediated), “the kind of criticism that changes minds.”

The Authenticity Hoax: Why the "Real" Things We Seek Don't Make Us Happy

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Product Details

Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Harper Perennial; Reprint edition (May 3, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0061251356
ISBN-13: 978-0061251351
Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.7 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #568,153 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #376 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Philosophy > Social Philosophy
- #2626 in Books > Science & Math > Evolution
- #2997 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Pop Culture > General

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3.4 out of 5 stars

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Top Customer Reviews

"Culture? That is something we do for tourists."

By Kevin Currie-Knight VINE VOICE on May 11, 2010

Format: Hardcover

The above quote is from this book's seventh chapter. Not only are we all multiculturalists now, but the idea of being 'authentic' is simply part of our every day vocabulary. Bestsellers like The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment, Dilbert and The Office lampoon the inauthentic desk job, and a robust consumer market of 'authentic' everything (from jeans to organic produce) grows by the year.

So, why challenge it? Andrew Potter gives us several good reasons. First, he suggests that seeking for authenticity is as self-defeating as it is phony. It is self-defeating because when one quests for the authentic, one tends to get lost in the search (which is the opposite of focusing on any 'true self'). It is phony because, all too often, seeking the authentic - buying organic food, appreciating different cultural artifacts, etc - is every bit as much about appearing to be authentic to others as it is achieving authenticity for the self. The first several chapters (minus the first, which explores the emergence of authenticity as an ideal, explore these themes).

Next we come to some chapters that question the very distinction between authentic and inauthentic, on epistemic and ontological grounds. Ontologically, it is simply arbitrary to call x natural and y authentic when, in reality, they may be both made from the same stuff. What makes, say, an original painting authentic and a reproduction inauthentic? Now we get to the shaky epistemology. The original painting is real, says Potter, not because of anything about the painting, but EVERYTHING about our expectations of the painting.Read more ›

2 Comments 26 of 28 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...

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Full of stuff, but missing stuff

By J. Miller on August 28, 2010

Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase

The Bad: Several of Potter's personal positions go unexamined throughout the writing. The writing itself often feels undirected (and unrelated to the core thesis) from chapter to chapter. And Potter often spends so much time explaining previous findings and other arguments that his actual point gets lost.

The Good: There's a huge amount of stuff in here linking a wide range of philosophers to particular societal behavioral patterns that have played out over the years. I suspect that this book would be more valuable for people than most 100-level philosophy college courses. Really, I loved how much large portions of this book shifted my perspectives so that I could think about things in different ways.

The Ugly: Potter seems to run the entire book without tapping either existentialism or absurdism, which is a bit of a problem as they're directly concerned with answering to what is real about humanity, starting with the basic premise that Existence Precedes Essence (a.k.a. You are as you do, not as you think) and, as Sartre wrote "Hell is other people" not because they don't get the real you, but because maybe they do. Also, Erich Fromm might have been mentioned in passing for his work in Escape From Freedom, but not nearly enough to appropriately reflect his body of work on this topic.

2 Comments 17 of 19 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...

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Authenticity Hoax Is Provocative and Lucid Yet Heavily Flawed

By M. JEFFREY MCMAHON TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on December 28, 2011

Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase

The Authenticity Hoax is worthy buying for the first 60 pages alone, a concise, exhilarating explanation of the birth of modernity: industrialization, individualism, consumerism and how these elements result in alienation. Some people, Potter point, try to reject modernity and find a romantic and nostalgic solution: reject the modern world and search for authenticity. He points to Rousseau whose works have been misinterpreted to this end.

The problem with Potter's argument is that he lumps all critics of modernity under the same label: "declinists." These are in Potter's mind crackpots. But fringe extremists should not be lumped with political leaders, such as Al Gore and others, under the declinist banner so that Potter can propel his conservative polemic.

I find this gross over simplification and faulty comparison both illogical and insidious propaganda lacking the intellectual rigor for serious debate. And I find it ironic that this kind of intellectual dishonesty (from a writer who knows better) is behind a book that purports to be interested in uncovering a "hoax."

My other criticism is that Potter has not clearly defined "authenticity." He uses the word in so many ways that it almost becomes meaningless; worse, a lot of the chapters have no logical connection to the other as the "authenticity" as a reaction to modernity has no relation to the "authenticity" between art and creativity as discussed in Chapter 3.

As a primer for the birth of modernity, this book is worth getting. But as a polemic that lumps all critics of modernity as charlatans and crackpots, this book fails. A far superior book on the subject of the quest of false authenticity (not even mentioned in Potter's polemic) is David Brooks' satirical Bobos in Paradise.Read more ›

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Challenges assumptions.

By M. Mazza on July 8, 2010

Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase

This was a pleasure to read. To me, the author's aim is to help us question the assumptions that we either take for granted or otherwise cling to as though they were unshakable truths.

Enter "authenticity," a term that most of us define by describing what "it is not." This contrastive definition is a start, but it makes us come up short when it comes time to actually identify what "authenticity" really is, or at least what we mean by it. The truth is, there is no consensus; "authenticity" is subject to personal bias and psychological "framing," a term that describes the application of our preconceptions to the matter at hand.

Essentially, Potter shows us that to define "authenticity" is to negate it. With several examples, he shows how the "authenticity" we end up settling for is a branded product, courtesy of a consumer culture long tweaked to our psychological needs.

What we are really after, according to the author, is distinction--status disguised and marketed as "authenticity." It's sold to us because we want it--and perhaps even need it in such a fashion, so it is not entirely fair to lay the blame on the corporations that are experts at fulfilling our whims.

To me, the search for "authenticity" also masks a search for the self--and identity is a fragile thing. We might get "lost finding ourselves," but I'm not so sure we know what we're looking for to begin with.

In his chapter about politics, for instance, Potter poses one of the best questions of the book: do we genuinely want honesty? I don't think so. I'm reminded of two observations, one by George Carlin made long ago: "If honesty were introduced into politics, the entire system would collapse.Read more ›

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

somewhat amusing, but gets lost skewering easy targets

At best it's an intellectual academic version of “stuff white people like”, skewering a certain type of liberal hipster with philosophical, literary, and cultural history along the... Read more

Published 5 months ago by ACJ

Potter's conclusion is disappointing

It really doesn't matter what Potter thinks about authenticity, when he
concludes that we must continue to embrace the market economy. Read more

Published 11 months ago by Donald G. Davis

Good book....interesting points

I felt thoroughly entertained by all of Potters connections between things like recognition, authenticity, the market economy, and jihadist. I would recommend it

Published 13 months ago by Alan

The artifice is life

The title of this book was certainly provocative to me because when I first saw it, it planted the seed of doubt in my mind about the meaning of a common word that I had once taken... Read more

Published 15 months ago by Kev Minh Allen

TL;DR: People are often full of crap, have self motivating interest......

TL;DR: People are often full of crap, have self motivating interest... Including the author. Thats really all I have to say.

Published on August 26, 2013 by S. Hicks

Brilliant and Insightful

One of the best books that I have ever read without question. If you are one of those people that really enjoyed Class by Paul Fussell, then you will absolutely love Potter's take... Read more

Published on June 28, 2013 by Alicia M. Webster

Loved it

Potter's book examines this quest for authenticity in our lives as we live in an increasingly fake world of commercials, staged PR events, etc, Because of our genetic makeup, we... Read more

Published on June 13, 2013 by G. Wickersham

Puzzled by his thesis

Glad to hear that others got something worthwhile out of the book because I did not. For those of us in the history, law, or science businesses, "authenticity" is hardly a... Read more

Published on August 6, 2012 by Cynthia M. Vanness

Amazing

AMAZING work of satire that can only be comprehended as a meta-ironic inauthentic hoax of a book.

It rivals the previous Canadian artistic high point of meta-irony:... Read more

Published on May 12, 2012 by Badger

Excellent take on modern life.

I loved this book and found it very readable. Potter's critique of contemporary Western culture certainly rings true to me. Read more

Published on April 25, 2012 by Amazon Customer

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