Enjoy fast, FREE delivery, exclusive deals and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns

FREE delivery Friday, June 30 on orders shipped by Amazon over $25

Or fastest delivery Tuesday, June 27. Order within 15 hrs 30 mins

Select delivery location

In Stock

[{"displayPrice":"$18.00","priceAmount":18.00,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"18","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"00","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"tBVYNiDxNtqmmqDg4DBlF%2FVEcI10hNYndZfpxk0DT4R8K5uMEVcYswmvzgtQruyem19nOzvma8f5XhHMBSsOobzN8Q1w%2BhKho3bwLKvz2dN268Uw59qYGbWP5if4YEhfY8JdpRmriVw%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0},{"displayPrice":"$11.86","priceAmount":11.86,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"11","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"86","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"tBVYNiDxNtqmmqDg4DBlF%2FVEcI10hNYn9viniojYgxsd42w7PyJ7brw6%2BwPD46Vu9uODTmbFI%2FwW8wuLYPLuDCtMqHzNoPz52tAZOZijZrqSHywGJ17AmTdbGDdq9cCC6L1jRhhpFCBKuppD6yjQAGIqGp15vDm6uCVOOah0ag34pMKJLdhlHiERHYmBCWpH","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}]

$$18.00 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Payment

Secure transaction

Ships from

Amazon.com

Sold by

Amazon.com

Returns

Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt

Details

Payment

Secure transaction

We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more

Ships from

Amazon.com

Sold by

Amazon.com

Returns

Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt

This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.

Read full return policy

Add a gift receipt for easy returns

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime

FREE delivery July 15 - 19 on orders shipped by Amazon over $25

Or fastest delivery July 13 - 14

Select delivery location

Used: Good | Details

Sold by Prime 1 Books

Fulfilled by Amazon

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Have one to sell?

Sell on Amazon

Other Sellers on Amazon

Added

Not added

$11.24
+ $4.99 shipping

Sold by: ACORN BOOKS

Added

Not added

$14.44
+ $3.99 shipping

Sold by: allnewbooks

Added

Not added

$19.35
& FREE Shipping

Sold by: LESSPRICEBOOKS

Flip to back Flip to front

See this image

Follow the Author

Daniel J. Boorstin

The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America Paperback – September 1, 1992

by Daniel J. Boorstin (Author)

4.6 265 ratings

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$12.99

—

Audible Audiobook, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$0.00

$7.95 with discounted Audible membership

Paperback

"Please retry"

$18.00

$11.24

$6.98

Audio CD, Audiobook, MP3 Audio, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$19.46

—

Kindle
$12.99 Read with Our Free App
Audiobook
$0.00 Free with your 3-Month Audible trial
Paperback
$18.00

Other new, used and collectible from $6.98

51 Used from $6.98

26 New from $11.24

1 Collectible from $33.00
Audio CD
$19.46

Other new from $19.46

2 New from $19.46

Purchase options and add-ons

First published in 1962, this wonderfully provocative book introduced the notion of “pseudo-events”—events such as press conferences and presidential debates, which are manufactured solely in order to be reported—and the contemporary definition of celebrity as “a person who is known for his well-knownness.” Since then Daniel J. Boorstin’s prophetic vision of an America inundated by its own illusions has become an essential resource for any reader who wants to distinguish the manifold deceptions of our culture from its few enduring truths.

Print length

336 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Vintage
Publication date

September 1, 1992
Dimensions

5.2 x 0.7 x 8 inches
ISBN-10

0679741801
ISBN-13

978-0679741800
See all details

Frequently bought together

The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America

$18.00

Get it as soon as Friday, Jun 30

In Stock.

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

+

Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business

$9.99

Get it as soon as Friday, Jun 30

In Stock.

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

+

The Brass Check: A Study of American Journalism; Evidence and Reasons Behind the Media’s Corruption

$19.98

Get it as soon as Friday, Jun 30

In Stock.

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

Total price:

To see our price, add these items to your cart.

Try again!

Details

Added to Cart

Choose items to buy together.

Most purchased | Highest rated | Lowest Pricein this set of products
Marcus Aurelius
13,053
Paperback
in Greek & Roman Philosophy
$7.99
This item:
Daniel J. Boorstin
265
Paperback
$18.00
Neil Postman
3,225
Paperback
$9.99
Daniel J. Boorstin
550
Paperback
$22.00
Daniel J. Boorstin
186
Paperback
$15.49
Neal Gabler
71
Paperback
$16.95
Daniel J. Boorstin
132
Paperback
$18.00
Nicholas Carr
3,299
Paperback
$16.19
Bruno Maçães
119
Hardcover
$24.85
Walter Lippmann
94
Paperback
$8.99
Stephen King
12,356
Paperback
$11.51

Special offers and product promotions

90 days FREE of Amazon Music Unlimited. Offer included with purchase. Only for new subscribers who have not received offer in last 90 days. Renews automatically. You will receive an email to redeem. Terms apply. Offered by Amazon.com. Here's how (restrictions apply)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Daniel J. Boorstin's The Image

“A very informative and entertaining and chastising book.”
—Harper’s

“A book that everyone in America should read every few years. Stunning in its prescience, it explains virtually every aspect of our mass media's evolution and seductiveness.”
—Jennifer Egan, Pulitzer Prize winning author of A Visit From the Goon Squad

“An engrossing book—sensitive, thoughtful, damning, dead on target and in most respects unanswerable.”
—Scientific American

“Excellent. . . It is the book to end all books about ‘The American Image’—what it is, who projects it, what effect it has at home or abroad.”
—The Observer

“A brilliant and original essay about the black arts and corrupting influences of advertising and public relations.”
—The Guardian

“Boorstin’s book tells us how to see and listen, and how to think about what we see and hear.”
—George Will

From the Inside Flap

First Published In 1962, This Wonderfully Provocative Book Introduced The Notion Of "pseudo-events" -- Events Such As Press Conferences And Presidential Debates, Which Are Manufactured Solely In Order To Be Reported -- And The Contemporary Definition Of Celebrity As "a Person Who Is Known For His Well-knownness." Since Then Daniel J. Boorstin's Prophetic Vision Of An America Inundated By Its Own Illusions Has Become An Essential Resource For Any Reader Who Wants To Distinguish The Manifold Deceptions Of Our Culture From Its Few Enduring Truths.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage; 1st Vintage Books Ed edition (September 1, 1992)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0679741801
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0679741800
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.2 x 0.7 x 8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #67,905 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3 in Media & Communications Industry (Books)
- #132 in Communication & Media Studies
- #286 in Communication Skills

Customer Reviews:
4.6 265 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Daniel J. Boorstin

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5

265 global ratings

5 star
4 star
3 star
2 star
1 star

How customer reviews and ratings work

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Kindle Customer

A hard read but ultimately worth it, maybe

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 22, 2023

Verified Purchase

This is not an easy book to read. Much of it was intellectually way over my head, so to speak, but the author includes sufficient concrete examples of what he is talking about to enable the average reader to roughly grasp his thesis, which seems to be that we live in a world dominated by celebrity and imagery and that much of what we are told is significant and important is in fact not so but rather the product of pseudo-events designed and intended to mislead, fool and/or manipulate us. Maybe the author would say I missed his whole point entirely and in that case all I can do is apologize for trying to read something intended for more intelligent people and that I wish other readers better luck.

Helpful

David

Riveting and Mourn-inducing

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 15, 2017

Verified Purchase

There are plenty of summaries already available to unpack this book. So I'll stick to sharing my takeaway.

The slow and careful demystification that Boorstin gives is a gift wrapped in warning. This text is a totem for the American citizen, especially post-election 2016, to realize the deluge of illusion in which we have so surreptitiously been coaxed into abiding for over a half-century. Somewhere along the path of America's pursuit of prestige, we slipped into our own magic machine and ever so seamlessly believed we were always walking in the real world. In a phrase, we fabricated a national lie and therein fashioned a pantheon of larger and grander lies by which we have ballooning debt that we call wealth, sickness that we call health, propaganda that we call entertainment, and war crimes that we call American Exceptionalism. While Boorstin steered clear of the geopolitical, economic, and sheer existential consequences of the mass proliferation and commodification of pseudo-events themselves, I will say that we are living out all of the consequences of his warning, unheeded or unnoticed, to their logical end in the ultimate form of collective suicide on par with with David Applewhite's cult, Heaven's Gate. They believed in some great salvation on a spaceship hidden behind Hale Bop Comet. Applewhite's followers were warned and pleaded with, but were reticently unresponsive to the reality that they were on a path to destruction. The last and greatest illusion is that the United States is not imploding by virtue of belief that the very things we create to overcome our problems are not themselves contributing to our extinction. At best, this is Sparta, we are surrounded by illusions and we are going out in a blaze of inglorious bluster. Or, we can stop and course correct our hearts and love people and this earth with a better way of life in a culture of life as opposed to mass selfish consumerism.

All of our reaching for perpetual pleasure is built on one lie: that we can achieve greatness through infinite growth in a finite reality; that is, a world of limited resources. No one country can not should be so greedy as to plunder and colonize other nations to satisfy itself in the grounds of its self-proclaimed supremacy. Free-market capitalism is built on this lie. And all derivative "benefits" are merely temporary pleasures on the downside of a bell curve. At some point, some unfortunate generation of Lemmings--if not now--are going to be saddled with a bill that will come due. There will be no alternative planet or spatial salvation to thwart or defer what is fast becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy of manufactured apocalypse--a final and consequential pseudo-event.

We have been warned.

The mistake any reader can make is to read this book and only conclude that it was entertaining and to then simply walk away unchanged and, to borrow from Christianity, essentially unrepentant.

10 people found this helpful

Helpful

Martin Zook

Is it the information age we live in...or, the age of contrivance?

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 12, 2011

Verified Purchase

If much of what passes as news today strikes you as contrived, then this likely is the book for you. Although it was first published in 1962, it remains most relevant today as Boorstin's revelations are still at play half a century after he brought them to our attention, even after the newspaper industry has largely become outdated, as TV news has fallen by the wayside, and even more so as digital media flood every cranny on Spaceship Earth.

"In the twentieth century...we expect the papers to be full of news," Boorstin notes early on in the text. And, according to Boorstin, therein lies the root of the media's evil: it has to meet the bottomless pit of our demand for news, which helps explain why a local TV station in Washington this week devoted extensive air time to a 10-year-old kid who aspires to be a food writer and sponsored a grilled cheese sandwich tasting event at his home.

The electronic media had not driven a stake through the heart of newspapers, although p.m. papers were being trimmed by TV and radio when Boorstin first published The Image. But the emergence of electronic media has accelerated the trend of producing contrived news to meet the public's insatiable demand.

The pressure to create images of news events has resulted in the emergence of celebrity, Boorstin notes. We see that throughout the day with celebrities offering opinions on things of which they know little or noting, washed up movie stars hawking insurance to the elderly, and movie actors testifying in front of Congress. We have singing and dancing contests to birth the next celebrities in litters with a gestation period corresponding to the TV viewing season.

But where I think Boorstin missed the mark was in thinking that celebrity would supersede the hero. The hero - with an annual extravaganza on CNN, hosted by their star hard news reporter, has adopted quite nicely to the demand for heroes, whether on the battlefield, the home, or the playing field, by fastening on the cape of celebrity.

The ideals of American have been overshadowed by the contrivance of images of America that do not consider the consequences of their creation, according to Boorstin. No where have we proven this more than in our accumulation of wealth and consumption, which is contrived as a virtue.

The downside to the age of contrived images, Boorstin concludes, is that it belittles all that it attempts to exalt.

This is still an eye popping read. And, at less than 300 pages, it won't tear you away from the blogs on the Internet, or Twitter news' 150-character packets, for too long.

24 people found this helpful

Helpful

Replacement book came in excellent condition.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 29, 2023

Verified Purchase

When I returned the first copy due to actual physical damage, the replacement copy was a scheduled to arrive this Monday, Jan. 30. Instead, the replacement copy arrived today, roughly 36-48 hours ahead of schedule. I appreciate the prompt service, and the pristine condition of the book.

Helpful

David Strunk

Most of what is "news" is nothing but "pseudo" events. Boorsin was right.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 8, 2022

Verified Purchase

We live in a world of "pseudo-events' that is made worse by social media. The situation is worse today than it was when Boorstin wrote this book.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Skip Hoffenflaven

It’s Only Gotten Worse

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 3, 2022

Verified Purchase

The words on these pages are, unfortunately, nearly impossible to forget once you realize how much worse Americans, specifically, have allowed themselves to become over the last 60 years. I’ve been alive since ‘76 and can say that I have watched it all get worse. I picked up a copy of this book in 1996 from a library in Iowa and read the first two chapters. I couldn’t finish it then because I couldn’t believe how accurately it summed up what I had seen in the, then, past 20 years.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English

Daffy Bibliophile

The American Dream, Imagine That

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on March 9, 2011

Verified Purchase

Well, it's easy to see where Chris Hedges got his inspiration for "Empire of Illusion". Boorstin's book, "The Image", came out in 1962 and attempts to peal back the layers of illusion, self-deception and blurred reality that characterized the United States of fifty years ago and today. Touching on a diverse range of topics including the concept of a "celebrity", press conferences, the decline of travel and the rise of tourism, Boorstin set the standard for books which try to see what America really is, not what Americans think America is. Reading "The Image" is like sitting in a barber chair watching yourself in a mirror sitting in a barber chair watching yourself in a mirror, looking at yourself in a mirror, ad infinitum. Boorstin never does quite make it to the final mirror, but he made a very good effort and produced a very readable book, at least that's according to "Reader's Digest".

All in all, this is a very good look at modern America and its self-obsession and, despite advances in technology, is not at all dated. I would recommend reading Propaganda by Edward Bernays and Public Opinion by Walter Lippman to get a fuller understanding of public relations, advertising and the whole empire of illusions.

3 people found this helpful

Peter Jones

Still Painfully Relevant

Reviewed in Japan 🇯🇵 on October 17, 2013

Verified Purchase

The Image
Boorstin

As I have decided to do of late, rather than give my own opinion per se. I have chosen to extract some of my favourite ideas and quotations so that you can get an idea of what this text is about.

“Television allows us to be the actors we really are.” (p.28)

“The people must be informed! Most pleas for “more information” are therefore misguided. So long as we define information as a knowledge of pseudo-events, “more information” will simply multiply the symptoms without curing the disease.” (p.37) N.B. For Boorstin’s ‘pseudo-events’ we might substitute Baudrillard’s idea of ‘simulacral’

“Knowledge of pseudo-events - of what has been reported, or what has been staged, and how - becomes the test of being ‘informed’.” (p.40)

“The celebrity is usually nothing greater than a more-publicised version of us. In imitating him, in trying to dress like him, talk like him, look like him, think like him, we are simply imitating ourselves.” (p.74)

“The American tourist in Japan looks less for what is Japanese than what is Japanesesy. He wants to believe that geishas are only quaint oriental prostitutes; it is nearly impossible for him to imagine they can be anything else.” (p.106)
“Whether we seek models of greatness, or experience elsewhere on the earth, we look into the mirror instead of out a window, and we see only ourselves.” (p.117)

“If art and literature were to be made accessible to all, they had to be made intelligible (and inoffensive) to all.” (p. 119)

(on censorship) “The real tyrant is not the Hays Office or the local censorship, but the film form itself.” (p.148)

“Photography, as practiced by the millions of do-it-yourself photographers, is not, oddly enough, a way of producing images with a life of their own detached from their maker (which as T.S.Elliot observes, is a true characteristic of a work of art). Instead photography becomes a form of narcissism. “Have you seen my snapshots of the Mona Lisa?”” (p.170)

“(N)ot truth, but credibility, is the modern test ... For everybody, then, it is more important that a statement be believable than that it is true.” (p.227)

“I suspect we suffer abroad simply because people know America through images. While our enemies profit from the fact that they are known only, or primarily through their ideals.” (p.243)

“The Graphic Revolution (a key concept of this text) has offered us the means of making all experience a form of mental chewing-gum, which can be continually sweetened to give us the illusion that we are being nourished.” (p.258)

Devan Traynor

Five Stars

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on December 1, 2016

Verified Purchase

A fantastic and profound relevance to our current paradigm ( yet written in 1961 )

Elvis

Interesting observations that are still relevant today.

Reviewed in Germany 🇩🇪 on November 3, 2017

Verified Purchase

This book has very interesting ideas, the only downside that should put this book to 6/10 is that it is filled with a lot of irrelevant and uninteresting dates, names and facts. The author sometimes begins to list every city name in which some random company had an event.
What eventually transforms the rating 6/10 into 8/10 is the right assumption at the end of the book, the assumption that Walter Lippmann could not make in his book "Public Opinion", which is: "One of our grand illusions is the belief in a "cure". There is no cure. There is only the opportunity for discovery. For this the New World gave us a grand, unique beginning."

2 people found this helpful

Translate review to English

Marie L. Broch

Superb

Reviewed in India 🇮🇳 on April 13, 2021

Verified Purchase

Required reading if you don’t want to be fooled by our contemporary systems. And interesting and fun

See all reviews

Amazon Music Stream millions of songs	Amazon Advertising Find, attract, and engage customers	6pm Score deals on fashion brands	AbeBooks Books, art & collectibles	ACX Audiobook Publishing Made Easy	Sell on Amazon Start a Selling Account

Amazon Business Everything For Your Business	Amazon Fresh Groceries & More Right To Your Door	AmazonGlobal Ship Orders Internationally	Home Services Experienced Pros Happiness Guarantee	Amazon Ignite Sell your original Digital Educational Resources	Amazon Web Services Scalable Cloud Computing Services

Audible Listen to Books & Original Audio Performances	Book Depository Books With Free Delivery Worldwide	Box Office Mojo Find Movie Box Office Data	ComiXology Thousands of Digital Comics	DPReview Digital Photography	Fabric Sewing, Quilting & Knitting

Goodreads Book reviews & recommendations	IMDb Movies, TV & Celebrities	IMDbPro Get Info Entertainment Professionals Need	Kindle Direct Publishing Indie Digital & Print Publishing Made Easy	Amazon Photos Unlimited Photo Storage Free With Prime	Prime Video Direct Video Distribution Made Easy

Shopbop Designer Fashion Brands	Amazon Warehouse Great Deals on Quality Used Products	Whole Foods Market America’s Healthiest Grocery Store	Woot! Deals and Shenanigans	Zappos Shoes & Clothing	Ring Smart Home Security Systems

eero WiFi Stream 4K Video in Every Room	Blink Smart Security for Every Home	Neighbors App Real-Time Crime & Safety Alerts	Amazon Subscription Boxes Top subscription boxes – right to your door	PillPack Pharmacy Simplified	Amazon Renewed Like-new products you can trust

Other Sellers on Amazon

Follow the Author

The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America Paperback – September 1, 1992

Purchase options and add-ons

Frequently bought together

What do customers buy after viewing this item?

Special offers and product promotions

Editorial Reviews

Review

From the Inside Flap

From the Back Cover

About the Author

Product details

Videos

About the author

Daniel J. Boorstin

Customer reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries

Amazon Prime includes:

Buy new: $18.00$18.00 FREE delivery: Friday, June 30 on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon. Ships from: Amazon.com Sold by: Amazon.com

Buy used: $11.86

Other Sellers on Amazon

Follow the Author

The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America Paperback – September 1, 1992

Purchase options and add-ons

Frequently bought together

What do customers buy after viewing this item?

Special offers and product promotions

Editorial Reviews

Review

From the Inside Flap

From the Back Cover

About the Author

Product details

Videos

About the author

Daniel J. Boorstin

Customer reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries

Buy new:

$18.00

FREE delivery: Friday, June 30 on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon.

Ships from: Amazon.com

Sold by: Amazon.com

Buy used:

$11.86