Culture as weapon: the art of influence in everyday life

"One of the country's leading activist curators explores how corporations and governments have used art and culture to mystify and manipulate us. The production of culture was once the domain of artists, but beginning in the early 1900s, the emerging fields of public relations, advertising and marketing transformed the way the powerful communicate with the rest of us. A century later, the tools are more sophisticated than ever, the onslaught more relentless. In Culture as Weapon, acclaimed curator and critic Nato Thompson reveals how institutions use art and culture to ensure profits and constrain dissent--and shows us that there are alternatives. An eye-opening account of the way advertising, media, and politics work today, Culture as Weapon offers a radically new way of looking at our world"--;The Real Culture War -- The Persuaders -- The Persuaders, Part II -- Fear Machines -- The Real Estate Show -- The Insurgents: Community-Based Practice as Military Methodology -- Sounding the Trumpet: Charity and the Image of Doing Good -- Corporate Sociability: IKEA, the Apple Store, Starbucks, and Other Corporate Annexes of the Civic -- The Ever-So-Personal Computer.