Vance Packard Knihy

A pioneering work from the 1960s about how the rapid growth of disposable consumer goods degraded the environmental, financial and spiritual character of western society. It exposed the increasing commercialisation of American life, when people bought things they didn't need or want. It also highlighted the concept of planned obsolescence, the 'death date' built into products. This prescient study predicted the rise of consumer culture and features an introduction by bestselling author Bill McKibben.

A discussion of how modern advertising attempts to control our thoughts and desires in order to make us buy the products it produces. Exploring the use of consumer motivational research and other psychological techniques, including subliminal tactics, this book shows how advertisers secretly manipulate mass desire for consumer goods and products. In addition, Packard also discusses advertising in politics, predicting the way image and personality rapidly came to overshadow real issues in the televised age.

Originally published in 1964, The Naked Society was the first book to discuss how then new technologies could be used to invade civil liberties. This represented a most flagrant of the many assaults upon individual rights. According to Packard, new technologies were eroding freedom, creating a world akin to something out of George Orwell's 1984. Timelier than ever in today's world, where civil liberties remain under constant threat from technology and the actions of government and business, this new edition features an introduction by historian Rick Perlstein.

Study of the informal class system in America and the characteristics of the individual social levels.