The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things PDF
Preview The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things
Table of Contents Title Page Dedication Acknowledgements Introduction INTRODUCTION: WHY AMERICANS FEAR THE WRONG THINGS I - DUBIOUS DANGERS ON ROADWAYS AND CAMPUSES Scenarios Substitute for Facts Bad People Substitute for Bad Policies The Power of Calling Something “P.C.” Smoke Trumps Fire Success Doesn’t Come Cheap One Scare Supports Another Chapter 2 - CRIME IN THE NEWS Oops, Wrong Story Oops, Wrong Crisis Unhappy Halloween Kiddie Porn and Cyberpredators Raw Numbers and Pedophile Priests Strange and Sinister Men Stealth Weapons Blame It on the Tube True Causation Crimes Nouveaux: Granny Dumping Chapter 3 - YOUTH AT RISK Teen Gamblers Cybersmut Missing Children Making Money Making Scary Kids Stupid Policy Tricks Is Society Sick? Are Children Sick? Bad to the Bone: Crack Babies Chapter 4 - MONSTER MOMS Now You See It, Now You Don’t America’s Worst Social Problem Bearers of Illegitimate Children Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain Wicked Witches The Woman Next Door She Beats Her Old Man Too Chapter 5 - BLACK MEN Of Dogs and Men The Nation’s Foremost Anti-Semites Even the Best and Brightest Are Bigots Makers of the Nation’s Most Hazardous Music Just a Thug Chapter 6 - “SMACK IS BACK” A White House Tradition Drugs to Ease Collective Guilt Busting Boomers’ Chops This Is the Media on Drugs The Return of Heroin Good Numbers Gone Bad Poster Girl for the Drug Crisis The Roofie Myth Mickey Finn to the Rescue Chapter 7 - METAPHORIC ILLNESSES Battle Fatigue All for What? Circuitous Critique Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Hearing Voices Cashing In Bizarre Bedfellows A Shot at Sanity Keeping Doubt Alive Chapter 8 - PLANE WRECKS 1994: BEWARE USAir! STAY CLEAR OF SMALL PLANES! 1995: CAUTION! UNSAFE SAFETY AGENCY 1995-1996:WARNING! BOGUS PARTS 1996: UH-OH! DISCOUNT TICKETS Selling the Latest Air Scare Say Something Often Enough ... Neglect Something Long Enough ... Why Aviation? Chapter 9 - FINAL THOUGHTS Chapter 10 - NEW FEARS FOR A NEW CENTURY Plane Wrecks and Road Rage E-Fear Redux Missing Children, Missing Dollars More Risky Business: Teens Gone Wild Still Iffy After All These Years The March of Crimes 9/11 All the Time The Bush Administration’s Fear Machine Enter Barack Obama NOTES READER DISCUSSION GUIDE INDEX Copyright Page For Delaney, Megan, and Samantha Glassner, Sita Feinberg and Jan Haldipur, and Ben and Leah Rafferty ACKNOWLEDGMENTS During the many years in which I planned, researched, wrote, rewrote, and expanded this book, my wife, Betsy Amster, endured more than any spouse ought. She had to put up with weekends in which I scarcely left my study, abbreviated vacations, and newspapers and magazines cut up before she had a chance to read them. Yet whenever I completed a draft of a chapter Betsy took time away from her schedule to identify the flaws in my arguments and offer her expert editorial advice. I am also especially grateful to my agent, Geri Thoma, for her unfaltering friendship and support. Over time, editors and publishers at Basic Books both encouraged and supported me: Tim Bartlett, whose astute queries and suggestions improved the original book greatly, and John Sherer and Tim Sullivan, whose work was invaluable in bringing out this tenth anniversary edition. Early on, Wendy DeBoer, a doctoral student at the University of Southern California and primary research assistant on the project, helped me find and organize thousands of news stories, television transcripts, and research studies. Special thanks go as well to my friend Morty Schapiro, my faculty colleagues in the Department of Sociology at USC, and Provost C. L. Max Nikias. Conversations with numerous other friends, colleagues, and editors educated me and helped me sort out my positions on the topics discussed in these pages. In particular I would like to acknowledge Amy Aronson, Cynthia Fuchs Epstein, Howard Epstein, Steve Fraser, Jonathan Glassner, Judith Grant, Martha Harris, Rosanna Hertz, Sue Horton, Darnell Hunt, Michael Kimmel, Julia Loughlin, Tom Lutz, Morgan Lyons, Mauricio Mazon, Jonathan Moreno, Peter Nardi, Richard Popkin, Hank Rubin, Lillian Rubin, Hilary Schor, David Shaw, Arlene Skolnick, Jerry Skolnick, Gary Taubes, Barrie Thorne, and Alan Wolfe.
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