Vance Packard

Vance Packard (May 22, 1914 - December 12, 1996) was an American journalist, social critic, and author. His million-selling book The Hidden Persuaders, about media manipulation of the populace in the 1950s was a forerunner of pop sociology: science-based thinking without the weight of detail or eloquence, geared for sale to the mass market.

Books

• 1946 How to Pick a Mate a guide co-authored with the head of the Penn State marriage counseling service
• 1950 Animal IQ a popular paperback on animal intelligence
• 1957 The Hidden Persuaders on the advertising industry - the first of a popular series of books on sociology topics
• 1959 The Status Seekers describing American social stratification and behavior
• 1960 The Waste Makers criticizes planned obsolescence describing the impact of American productivity, especially on the national character
• 1962 The Pyramid Climbers Describes the changing impact of American enterprise on managers, the structured lives of corporate executives and the conformity they need to advance in the hierarchy
• 1964 The Naked Society on the threats to privacy posed by new technologies such as computerized filing, modern surveillance techniques and methods for influencing human behavior
• 1968 The Sexual Wilderness on the sexual revolution of the 1960s and changes in male-female relationships
• 1972 A Nation of Strangers about the attrition of communal structure through frequent geographical transfers of corporate executives
• 1977 The People Shapers on the use of psychological & biological testing and experimentation to manipulate human behavior
• 1983 Our Endangered Children discusses growing up in a changing world, warning that American preoccupation with money, power, status, and sex, ignored the needs of future generations
• 1989 Ultra Rich: How Much Is Too Much? examined the lives of thirty American multimillionaires and their extravagances.