Home
/
Non-Fiction
/
The Playbook
The Playbook
Oct 22, 2024 3:15 PM

Author:Jennifer Jacquet

The Playbook

'This brilliantly subversive and witty book lays bare the techniques of manipulation and disinformation that keep the rich and powerful rich and powerful. . . A landmark book' Brian Eno

'Very funny, as satire should be, until you realise it's deadly serious' Adam Rutherford, BBC Radio 4 Start the Week

Knowledge is power. Which is why the rich and powerful don't want you to have it.

The Playbook is an exposé of the extraordinary lengths that corporations will go to in order to spread disinformation and deny the scientific facts - around climate change, public health risks and worker safety - when they don't suit their agenda.

Written in the form of a corporate handbook for tobacco, oil and pharmaceutical company executives, it is a litany of obfuscation techniques, denial, delays and outright lies, including: how to recruit an academic 'expert' who is willing to compromise their integrity (or is just short of cash), how to massage the statistics, how to use legal and even physical intimidation against reporters and activists, and how, just as in a casino, to keep your customers comfortable, unquestioning, unthinking and playing along for as long as possible.

Part satire, part social history, part guide to resistance, The Playbook is a charge sheet against the powerful. It shows us how, by understanding the methods and motives of disinformation campaigns, we may be able to outwit them.

Reviews

This brilliantly subversive and witty book lays bare the techniques of manipulation and disinformation that keep the rich and powerful rich and powerful. It's a handbook to show you all their tricks - with working examples. If you want to be a vile, greedy capitalist, this how-to book will be a great help. And if you want to identify vile greedy capitalists it will show you how to recognise them. It's a landmark book

—— Brian Eno

A training manual and fake guidebook for companies. . . very funny, as satire should be, until you realise it's deadly serious

—— Adam Rutherford , BBC Radio 4 Start the Week

Jacquet has found a brilliantly effective way of revealing just how extensive and systematic corporate strategies of doubt and denial are - by creating a Machiavellian secret guide for executives worried about what the latest science might mean for their business. Far more entertaining, but also far more disturbing than a more sober historical account or polemic would be

—— The Observer

If you feel exhausted from constantly taking the high road, The Playbook offers an enticing alternative . . . with Jacquet's dry humor suffusing each chapter, the book's tongue-in-cheek format is a chilling realization that the villains in The Playbook are extraordinarily banal. The tactics that enable their misconduct have been recycled across decades

—— Scientific American

This whip-smart and delightfully snarky exposé gives readers the tools to recognize and refute corporate deception . . . Fashioned as a strategy manual, Jacquet's satirical advice explains . . . how to challenge the existence of a problem, the integrity of those who raise it, and the need for policies to address it

—— Publishers Weekly

A savage satirical stab at corporate malfeasance draws blood. . . Jacquet takes an original approach to indicting the ethical vacuum that besets much of big business. . . A sharp warning to corporations that deep pockets and armies of accomplices won't stall a reckoning forever

—— Kirkus Reviews

An authoritative, gripping and finely detailed narrative that charts the decline of one of the great American companies...Robison homes in on crucial moments during the eight years it took to design, certify and produce the 737 Max, revealing how at each turn, a fixation on profits led Boeing employees to make a series of catastrophic choices.

—— New York Times

The long train of events that led to the tragedies - and the subsequent reputational and financial trashing of one of America's biggest companies - is expertly dissected in Flying Blind.... A 'bottom-line mindset' prevailed. In rich detail, Mr Robison chronicles the shortcomings of that approach at a firm where safety should be paramount.

—— The Economist

A startling investigation of the corporate blunders behind the tragedies that claimed the lives of 346 passengers.

—— The Times

A disturbing account that will return much-deserved scrutiny both to Boeing and to its regulator.

—— Wall Street Journal

Chilling...A vital and enraging portrait of an avoidable tragedy.

—— Publisher's Weekly (starred review)

A remarkable look at corporate culture's impact on consumer safety, Flying Blind is a captivating and unsettling portrait of Boeing and American business.

—— Booklist (starred review)

[A] revealing exposé...A damning, highly readable account of a once-great company brought to its knees by bad leadership.

—— Kirkus

A gripping tale...Robison's fast-paced account serves as an excellent case study of business mismanagement...and will have broad appeal as a story about the rise and fall of a historic business.

—— Library Journal (starred review)

easily the best account of that multi-faceted genius

—— A. N. Wilson , The Times

The indefatigable one-legged artist and abolitionist Josiah Wedgwood personified the optimism of Georgian Britain. Hunt brings him brilliantly to life.

—— Iona McLaren , Daily Telegraph Books of the Year

Josiah Wedgwood was "the Steve Jobs" of the 18th century, according to Tristram Hunt, the historian and V&A director. Wedgwood, of modest background but expansive inventive genius, turned a Staffordshire pottery firm into a global company, one that showed that Britain could make high-quality porcelain, a high-demand product in the new age of tea drinking. Not bad for a man who couldn't turn a wheel because childhood disease disabled one of his legs. He was nicknamed "Owd Wooden Leg" by his workers - and referred to the day he lost his limb as "Saint Amputation Day".

—— Robbie Millen , The Times Books of the Year

Tristram Hunt, in The Radical Potter, underlines brilliantly the consumerism and politics of the age in the character of Josiah Wedgwood, in whom we can see all the energy of the era - the campaign for abolition, the birth of international trade, the stirrings of the industrial revolution, the combination of mass production and aesthetic sense.

—— Catherine Ostler , Aspects of History Books of the Year

Barnabas Calder's excellent book makes the direct link between the evolution of architecture and society's access to energy. He shows that the ability to build, whether by grain fuelled humans, or fossil fuelled machinery, has determined the scale and nature of architecture across all cultures and all centuries. Within these insights into the past, lie the future solutions to building in a climate crisis. Architects designing for a zero carbon future should absorb these ideas

—— Simon Sturgis, Founder, Targeting Zero

Grand in scope... A splendid pause for thought

—— Alistair Fitchett , International Times

One of the most significant architectural publications in recent years... A fascinating history of architecture, a must-read for anyone interested in the relations between energy and architecture in history, and an important contribution to the discourse on energy in light of the climate emergency

—— The Drouth

Detailed and insightful

—— Nick Newman , RIBA Journal

Groundbreaking

—— Philip Kennicott , Washington Post

Using cutting edge enhancement techniques, Andy Saunders has created the highest quality Apollo photographs ever produced. He's also produced the first ever clear image of the first man on the Moon, Neil Armstrong. It's not surprising that his new book, Apollo Remastered has become a Sunday Times bestseller; showcasing photographs that are literally out of this world

—— ITV News

Read this book (praise for: The Sixth Extinction)

—— Independent

Elizabeth Kolbert's cautionary tale, The Sixth Extinction, offers us a cogent overview of a harrowing biological challenge. The reporting is exceptional, the contextualizing exemplary (praise for: The Sixth Extinction)

—— Barry Lopez, author of Arctic Dreams and Horizon

The Sixth Mass Extinction is the biggest story on Earth, period, and Elizabeth Kolbert tells it with imagination, rigor, deep reporting, and a capacious curiosity about all the wondrous creatures and ecosystems that exist, or have existed, on our planet. The result is an important book full of love and loss (praise for: The Sixth Extinction)

—— David Quammen, author of The Song of the Dodo and Spillover

Fascinating

—— Chris Fitch , Geographical

In Under a White Sky...Elizabeth Kolbert...[combines] curiosity with an acerbic wit to explore humanity's obsession with controlling nature... Kolbert's skill is in presenting compelling stories from the Anthropocene and letting us judge for ourselves

—— James Dacey , Physics World
Comments
Welcome to zzdbook comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Copyright 2023-2024 - www.zzdbook.com All Rights Reserved