Book

Amusing Ourselves to Death

Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business

Neil Postman

1985

Associated Ideas, People, and Places

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The 40-Year-Old Book That Predicted Our Dystopian Politics

Neil Postman's classic "Amusing Ourselves to Death" predicted a dystopian American future.

by Sam Collings-Wells via Made By History on September 10, 2025
Book Review

The One Book That Explains Our Current Era Was Written 40 Years Ago

NYT pundits and NBA writers alike can't stop recommending this four-decade-old book.

by Laura J. Miller via Slate on March 25, 2025
Comment

How Entertainment Mangled Public Discourse

Neil Postman’s jeremiad against TV seems rather quaint today—and not just because he was shouting into the wind and knew it.

by Katha Pollitt via The New Republic on November 20, 2024
Comment

Are We Having Too Much Fun?

In 1985, Neil Postman observed an America imprisoned by its own need for amusement. He was, it turns out, extremely prescient.

by Megan Garber via The Atlantic on April 27, 2017

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Trump through a television camera.

How TV Paved America’s Road to Trump

“A brand mascot that jumped off the cereal box”: a TV critic explains the multimedia character Trump created.

by Sean Illing, James Poniewozik via Vox on November 7, 2019

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