THE IMAGE (50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION)

First published in 1962 and then republished in 1987 as a special 25th anniversary edition and again in 2012 for its 50th anniversary, 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. In the current Trumpian era of sensationalized politics, this provocative book has never been more relevant.

In today's global political climate, there is a clear space for this prophetic book and an opportunity, as Douglas Rushkoff put it in his 2012 Afterword to the 50th Anniversary edition, that "by reckoning with this analysis of how we were lulled to sleep, we may finally stand a chance of rousing ourselves into consciousness."


Daniel J. Boorstin was the author of The Americans, a trilogy (The Colonial Experience; The National Experience, and The Democratic Experience) that won the Francis Parkman Prize, the Bancroft Prize, and the Pulitzer Prize. In 1989, he received the National Book Award for lifetime contribution to literature. He was the director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, and for twelve years served as the Librarian of Congress. He died in 2004.