Neil Postman

With characteristic wit and candor, Neil Postman, our most astute and engaging cultural critic, launches a trenchant--and harrowing--warning against the tyranny of machines over man in the late twentieth century. We live in a time when physical well-being is determined by CAT scan results. Facts need the substantiation of statistical study. The human mind needs "deprogramming" while computers catch devastating "viruses." We live, then, in a Technopoly -- a self-justifying, self-perpetuating system wherein technology of every kind is cheerfully granted sovereignty over social institutions and national life. In this provocative work, the author of Amusing Ourselves to Death chronicles our transformation from a society that uses technology to one that is shaped by it, as he traces its effects upon what we mean by politics, intellect, religion, history--even privacy and truth. But if Technopoly is disturbing, it is also a passionate rallying cry filled with a humane rationalism as it asserts the manifold means by which technology, placed within the context of our larger human goals and social values, is an invaluable instrument for furthering the most worthy human endeavors. --Publisher

America is suffering from an information glut, and most Americans are no longer clear about what news is worth remembering or how any of it connects to anything else. Thus Americans are rapidly becoming the least knowledgeable people in the industrial world. For anyone who wants to control--not be controlled by--the powerful influence of television, How to Watch TV News shows you how to become a discerning viewer.

Amusing Ourselves to Death is a prophetic look at what happens when politics, journalism, education, and even religion become subject to the demands of entertainment. It is also a blueprint for regaining control of our media, so that they can serve our highest goals.

Argues that the intrusion of television into every home introduces children too early to adult concepts and activities and subverts their ability to think abstractly, and the very concept of childhood is being destroyed.

A guide to recognizing and correcting or eradicating confused, inappropriate, and inarticulate speech and unreasonable or maliciously intended speech, based on the non-Aristotelian orientation of 'general semantics.'

A no-holds-barred assault on outdated teaching methods--with dramatic and practical proposals on how education can be made relevant to today's world.From the Trade Paperback edition.

Theory and research on the processes of early social learning in children has indicated that television and television commercials play an important role in children's internalization of cultural meanings, interpretations, and values, whether or not the commercials children see are intended for or directed at them. Between the ages of 2 and 18, the period in which social learning is most intense, American children see approximately 100,000 television commercials for beer. This study examined the cultural myths and messages present in a sample of 40 commercials representing 15 brands of beer which were broadcast on network television during 22 weekend daytime and evening hours in February and March of 1987. The relationships among beer, masculinity, and driving represented in the commercials were analyzed. The results of these analyses suggest that beer commercials promote not only a particular stereotypical view of what it means to be a man, but they also promote an association between drinking and driving. This association reflects and propagates values and attitudes implicated in drunk driving. Based on the conclusions of this research, it is recommended that the policy permitting the televising of commercials for beer be revised to prohibit such commercials. (Author/NB).

In this brilliantly challenging response to the education crisis, Neil Postman returns to the subject that established his reputation as one of our most insightful social critics. Starting from his belief that schooling is now too often a trivial pursuit, a mechanical exercise, he argues with stunning clarity that we have lost sight of the inherent value and substance of learning, and sets out to restore it for our time. Postman begins by portraying the American education of an earlier part of this century, when we knew what schools were for - to create a coherent, stable, unified culture out of a people of diverse traditions, languages, and religions. Shifting his focus to contemporary education, Postman outlines the markedly different narratives, or "gods," that underlie our present conception of school, and shows how poorly they serve us. The new gods are economic utility (education only as a means to a good-paying job), consumership (the belief that you are what you accumulate), technology (a reliance on mechanical solutions, not critical judgment), and separatism ("multicultural" instincts that split groups off from a unifying cultural pluralism). In describing how education may reasonably and creatively respond to - or redefine - these problems of modernity, the author presents useful narratives to help schools recover a sense of purpose, tolerance, and respect for learning. These include the Spaceship Earth (preserving the earth as a unifying theme), the Fallen Angel (learning driven not by absolute answers but by an understanding that our knowledge is imperfect), the American Experiment (emphasizing the successes and the failures of our evolving nation), the Law of Diversity (exposure to all cultures in their strengths and their weaknesses), and Word Weavers (the fundamental importance of language in forging our common humanity). Postman's The End of Education heralds a new beginning. It seeks to provide solutions while provoking debate. Postman offers a redefinition of the end of education - the essential first step before we rethink and freshly determine the means.