TIM WU is an author, policy advocate, and professor at Columbia University, best known for coining the term "net neutrality." In 2006, Scientific American named him one of 50 leaders in science and technology; in 2007, 01238 magazine listed him as one of Harvard's 100 most influential graduates; in 2013, National Law Journal included him in "America's 100 Most Influential Lawyers"; and in 2014 and 2015, he was named to the "Politico 50." He formerly wrote for Slate, where he won the Lowell Thomas Gold medal for Travel Journalism, and is a contributing writer for The New Yorker. In 2015, he was appointed to the Executive Staff of the Office of New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman as a senior enforcement counsel and special adviser.
“Comprehensive and conscientious…Wu writes with elegance and
clarity…[his] chapters about the early days of advertising are some
of this book’s most enjoyable, easily serving as a reader’s
companion to “Mad Men.” Mr. Wu concludes his book with a cri de
coeur, imploring us to regain custody of our attention, written so
rousingly that it just may make you reconsider your priorities.”
–Jennifer Senior, The New York Times
“Compelling…sharp…Wu [is] a skilled thinker…he applies the thesis
of a business cycle to explain the development of the advertising
market and the ways in which it has adapted to avoid our natural
inclination to ignore it…Wu dramatizes this push and pull to great
effect…a “Hidden Persuaders” for the 21st century, just as we stand
squarely on the threshold of a post-broadcast world where the
algorithmic nano-targeting of electronic media knows our desires
and impulses before we know them ourselves.”
–Emily Bell, The New York Times Book Review
“A startling and sweeping examination of the increasingly
ubiquitous commercial effort to capture and commodify our
attention…We’ve become the consumers, the producers, and the
content. We are selling ourselves to ourselves.”
—Tom Vanderbilt, The New Republic
“Illuminating.”
–Jacob Weisberg, The New York Review of Books
“Lively…An engrossing study of what we hate about commercial
media…Vigorous and amusing, filled with details of colorful
hucksterism and cunning attention-grabbing ploys along with
revealing insights into the behavioral quirks they instill in
us.”
—Publisher’s Weekly
“Part history and part social wake up call, this book is for
everyone.”
—Library Journal
“Forget subliminal seduction: every day, we are openly bought and
sold, as this provocative book shows.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Tim Wu has written a profoundly important book on a problem that
doesn’t get enough— well, attention. Attention itself has
become the currency of the information age, and, as Wu meticulously
and eloquently demonstrates, we allow it to be bought and sold at
our peril.”
–James Gleick, author of Time Travel: A History
“I couldn’t put this fascinating book down. Gripping from page one
with its insight, vivid writing, and panoramic sweep, The Attention
Merchants is also a book of urgent importance, revealing how our
preeminent industries work to fleece our consciousness rather than
help us cultivate it.”
–Amy Chua, Yale law professor and author of Battle Hymn of the
Tiger Mother and The Triple Package
“Television entranced the masses. Digital media, more insidiously,
mesmerizes each of us individually. In this revelatory book, Tim Wu
tells the story of how advertisers and programmers came to seize
control of our eyes and minds. The Attention Merchants deserves
everyone’s attention.”
–Nicholas Carr, author of Utopia Is Creepy and The Shallows
“The question of how to get people to care about something
important to you is central to religion, government, commerce, and
the arts. For more than a century, America has experimented with
buying and selling this attention, and Wu’s history of that
experiment is nothing less than a history of the human condition
and its discontents.”
–Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing
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