Overview

What is it that creates that pleasurable pang of desire--the feeling of ""if only""? If only I could wear those clothes, belong to that group, drive that car, live in that house, be (or be with) that person? Postrel identifies the three essential elements in all forms of glamour and explains how they work to create a distinctive sensation of projection and yearning. The Power of Glamour is the very first book to explain what glamour really is--not just style or a personal quality but a phenomenon that reveals our inner lives and shapes our decisions, large and small. By embodying the promise of a different and better self in different and better circumstances, glamour stokes ambition and nurtures hope, even as it fosters sometimes-dangerous illusions. From vacation brochures to military recruiting ads, from the Chrysler Building to the iPad, from political utopias to action heroines, Postrel argues that glamour is a seductive cultural force. Its magic stretches beyond the stereotypical spheres of fashion or film, influencing our decisions about what to buy, where to live, which careers to pursue, where to invest, and how to vote. The result is myth shattering: a revelatory theory that explains how glamour became a powerful form of nonverbal persuasion, one that taps into our most secret dreams and deepest yearnings to influence our everyday choices.

Full Product Details

9781416561125

Table of Contents

Reviews

THE POWER OF GLAMOUR is another reminder why Virginia Postrel is one of our keenest cultural observers and most important social thinkers. Using lively prose, fascinating images, and examples that range from Alexander the Great to Kate Moss, Postrel brings to life an elusive subject. This book is essential reading for people in advertising, marketing, politics, and entertainment -- as well as for anyone interested in seeing our culture with fresh eyes. --Daniel H. Pink, author of TO SELL IS HUMAN and A WHOLE NEW MIND [Postrel] offers a thoroughly researched, analytical, illustrated view on the characteristics, both keen and subtle, that qualify an object, person, event or location as glamorous...Postrel cites innumerable sources, weaving quotations and vignettes into each of her chapters, and the result is exhaustive and wholly entertaining. For those interested in the evolution of glamour over the ages, as well as readers with a stake in marketing, this is a must-read.--Kirkus [Postrel] offers a thoroughly researched, analytical, illustrated view on the characteristics, both keen and subtle, that qualify an object, person, event or location as glamorous...Postrel cites innumerable sources, weaving quotations and vignettes into each of her chapters, and the result is exhaustive and wholly entertaining. For those interested in the evolution of glamour over the ages, as well as readers with a stake in marketing, this is a must-read. --Kirkus Postrel's cleareyed and exhaustive analysis looks not only at the history of glamour, but at how it works...[Postrel] seems to be the kind of public intellectual for whom the TED Talk seems to have been invented. --The New York Times Book Review Postrel s cleareyed and exhaustive analysis looks not only at the history of glamour, but at how it works [Postrel] seems to be the kind of public intellectual for whom the TED Talk seems to have been invented. --The New York Times Book Review

Postrel s cleareyed and exhaustive analysis looks not only at the history of glamour, but at how it works [Postrel] seems to be the kind of public intellectual for whom the TED Talk seems to have been invented. --The New York Times Book Review

"Postrel s cleareyed and exhaustive analysis looks not only at the history of glamour, but at how it works [Postrel] seems to be the kind of public intellectual for whom the TED Talk seems to have been invented.""--The New York Times Book Review"" ""Postrel's cleareyed and exhaustive analysis looks not only at the history of glamour, but at how it works...[Postrel] seems to be the kind of public intellectual for whom the TED Talk seems to have been invented.""--The New York Times Book Review ""[Postrel] offers a thoroughly researched, analytical, illustrated view on the characteristics, both keen and subtle, that qualify an object, person, event or location as glamorous...Postrel cites innumerable sources, weaving quotations and vignettes into each of her chapters, and the result is exhaustive and wholly entertaining. For those interested in the evolution of glamour over the ages, as well as readers with a stake in marketing, this is a must-read.""--Kirkus [Postrel] offers a thoroughly researched, analytical, illustrated view on the characteristics, both keen and subtle, that qualify an object, person, event or location as glamorous...Postrel cites innumerable sources, weaving quotations and vignettes into each of her chapters, and the result is exhaustive and wholly entertaining. For those interested in the evolution of glamour over the ages, as well as readers with a stake in marketing, this is a must-read.--Kirkus ""THE POWER OF GLAMOUR is another reminder why Virginia Postrel is one of our keenest cultural observers and most important social thinkers. Using lively prose, fascinating images, and examples that range from Alexander the Great to Kate Moss, Postrel brings to life an elusive subject. This book is essential reading for people in advertising, marketing, politics, and entertainment -- as well as for anyone interested in seeing our culture with fresh eyes.""--Daniel H. Pink, author of TO SELL IS HUMAN and A WHOLE NEW MIND"

Author Information

Virginia Postrel is a columnist for Bloomberg View and has been a regular contributor to The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The New York Times, and Forbes. Formerly the editor of Reason magazine, she is the author of The Substance of Style and The Future and Its Enemies. She teaches a special seminar on glamour in the Branding program at the School of Visual Arts in New York. She lives in Los Angeles.

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