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

by Daniel J. Boorstin (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 277 ratings
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Daniel J. Boorstin’s prophetic vision of an America inundated by its own illusions is an essential resource for any reader who wants to distinguish the manifold deceptions of our culture from its few enduring truths.

"The book that best explains Trump’s dominance may well have been published in 1962. In The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America, the historian Daniel J. Boorstin described the image as a medium—a photograph, a movie, a representation of life, laid out on pulp or screen—that becomes, soon enough, a habit of mind." —The Atlantic

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

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.”
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  1. Print length
    336 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Vintage
  4. Publication date
    September 1, 1992
  5. Dimensions
    5.2 x 0.75 x 7.92 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0679741801
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0679741800
  8. See all details
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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
277 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book fascinating and influential. They appreciate its great insights and thought-provoking content. The pacing is described as slow and careful, though some readers find it relatively quick. The image quality is praised as good and a fresh view from an experienced author. Opinions differ on the value for money, with some finding it worth the Kindle price and worthwhile, while others consider it a waste of time.

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ReadabilityInsightPacingImage qualityValue for money
31 customers mention "Readability"29 positive2 negative

Customers find the book fascinating and prophetic. They appreciate the index and suggestions for further reading that are keyed to each chapter. The first section is brilliant and has resonance fifty years later. It presents the development of pseudo-events eloquently and chronologically, and was groundbreaking when it was written.

"...Boorstin's breezy, clear style is very readable, but there is a lot more redundancy than in The Americans." Read more

"...This book is a fascinating piece of insight, clarity, and honesty well worth the reading." Read more

"This was one of the most influential books I've ever read. It changed the way I see our world...." Read more

"A very insightful book that provides many cogent and contemporary comments on the state of media, politics and the American public....despite the..." Read more

15 customers mention "Insight"15 positive0 negative

Customers find the book's insights thought-provoking and unique. They appreciate the subject matter and its relevance today. Readers mention it's a seminal work on popular culture in America, with insights into media influence and the development of pseudo-events enabled by technological advancements.

"Great insights, many of which have become almost proverbial in the 50 years since initial publication...." Read more

"...This book is a fascinating piece of insight, clarity, and honesty well worth the reading." Read more

"The book is an interesting artifact from the beginning of consumerism. At the time, Boorstin’s ideas were probably revelatory and exciting...." Read more

"...criticizing authorship, but this one deserves five stars for uniqueness of premise and worthiness of its research/ anecdotes/ case studies...." Read more

4 customers mention "Pacing"4 positive0 negative

Customers find the book's pacing good. They say the slow and careful demystification is a gift wrapped in warning. The account of America's media is prescient, though somewhat long-winded. Overall, it's a relatively quick read.

"...So I'll stick to sharing my takeaway. The slow and careful demystification that Boorstin gives is a gift wrapped in warning...." Read more

"...A relatively quick read." Read more

"Boorstin's book, written almost 60 years ago, is extraordinarily prescient in the ways it depicts our media culture...." Read more

"Prescient and wise..." Read more

3 customers mention "Image quality"3 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's image quality. They find it a good introduction to the world of images and their ability to create and disseminate them.

"...Internet has exponentially accelerated our ability to create and disseminate images. Social networking has added a new dimension to it as well...." Read more

"Fresh view from an experienced book...." Read more

"Good introduction to the world of image..." Read more

7 customers mention "Value for money"3 positive4 negative

Customers have different views on the book's value for money. Some find it worth the Kindle price, while others consider it a waste of time and not profound enough.

"...It was interesting, I thought, but a little radical and not that profound. Silly me...." Read more

"...It is every bit worthy of the Kindle price." Read more

"...is a waste of time and a pseudo-event...." Read more

"great value" Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Martin Zook
    5.0 out of 5 stars 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.
    27 people found this helpful
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  • David
    5.0 out of 5 stars 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.
    14 people found this helpful
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  • J. M. Walker
    4.0 out of 5 stars Clear, brightly written, good insights
    Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    Great insights, many of which have become almost proverbial in the 50 years since initial publication. Boorstin's breezy, clear style is very readable, but there is a lot more redundancy than in The Americans.
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  • Marie L. Broch
    5.0 out of 5 stars 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
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  • Devan Traynor
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in Canada on December 1, 2016
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    A fantastic and profound relevance to our current paradigm ( yet written in 1961 )
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  • Biffo
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 1, 2014
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    One of the best books ever written on media and politics. A must read.
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  • Peter Simon Jones
    5.0 out of 5 stars Still Painfully Relevant
    Reviewed in Japan on October 17, 2013
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    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)
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  • Elvis
    4.0 out of 5 stars 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."
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