Living in the Number One Country: Reflections from a Critic of American Empire

Schiller Herbert I Schiller Herbert I.

ISBN 10: 1583220283 / ISBN 13: 9781583220283

Published by Seven Stories Press, 2000

About this Item

pp. 202.

Seller Inventory # 182025931

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Living in the Number One Country: Reflections from a Critic of American Empire
• Publisher: Seven Stories Press
• Publication Date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1583220283
• ISBN 13: 9781583220283
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Living in the Number One Country is Herbert I. Schiller's chronicle of the symbiotic relationship between post-WWII American Empire and the substance and technology of the communications businesses. Schiller traces how the State has supported corporatized information by pushing their products abroad both through phony pronouncements about "the free-flow of information," and by subsidizing research and development for new technologies. Schiller's refreshing account infuses elements of his own experience; growing up during the Great Depression in New York, as a bureaucrat in the civilian sector of the military occupation forces in Berlin after the war, and as a radical journalist and academic.
This intriguing book argues that the main pillar of today's U.S. economy—the ever-expanding communication sector—is also the most crucial element in keeping a 500-year social system, capitalism, alive. Capitalism's future relies not only on labor exploitation, but also on a steadily entertained, and hence diverted, populace. Therein lies the importance of challenging the overarching institutions of corporate information production.

About the Author

HERBERT I. SCHILLER, professor emeritus of Communication at the University of California at San Diego, is a leading scholar of the communications industries. His books include Information Inequality: The Deepening Social Crises in America and Culture Inc.: The Corporate Takeover of Public Expression.