Books by Arthur Asa Berger

Written from the perspective of a key advisor to President Roosevelt who evolved into a strident critic of the President's wartime diplomacy, this comprehensive analysis of the Cold War shows how the US missed opportunities to block Soviet Union's geopolitical gains due to a fundamental misreading of the nature of the Soviet political system.

Originally published: New York: Braziller, 1970.

This text offers a methodology for the interpretation of a major popular phenomenon. Arthur Asa Berger explores the cultural significance of the expanding popularity and sophistication of video games, and considers the biological and psychoanalytic aspects of this phenomenon.

Originally published in 1969, Li'l Abner: A Study in American Satire was the first full-length book devoted to a single American comic strip. It has remained a model of how the comics, sometimes snubbed as "culture for the common man", can be given earnest and well deserved analytical attention.

This book offers a cultural studies approach to marketing and advertising and shows readers how scholars from different academic disciplines make sense of marketing's role in American culture and society. It is written in an accessible style and has numerous drawings by the author to give it more visual interest.

This book, written in an accessible style and illustrated with drawings by the author and with many other images, discusses the basic principles of discourse theory and applies them to various aspects of popular culture, media and everyday life.

In his latest book, Arthur Asa Berger offers a concise series of analyses on the transformative impact of digital devices on American society.

Arthur Asa Berger is back with the second edition of his popular, user-friendly guide for students who want to understand the social meanings of objects.

In concise entries, this dictionary analyses ideas and concepts about advertising and its social, economic, psychological and cultural significance.

A useful introduction to the study of tourism that applies semiotics and cultural theory to deal with some of our most iconic tourist destinations from the Taj Mahal to Las Vegas, and from the Eiffel Tower to Antarctica.

Written in Berger's friendly, personal style, he shows by example that academics can write good, readable prose in a variety of genres.

Just as a distinctive literary voice or style is marked by the ease with which it can be parodied, so too can specific aspects of humor be unique

What makes the 'self'? How is it created, defined, and transformed? Arthur Asa Berger's fascinating, educational whodunit novel unravels the mysteries of cultural studies theory, and more specifically, the complexities of postmodernism and identity.

Are Americans obsessed with shopping? Shop til You Drop is a lively look at our consumer culture and its role in our everyday lives and society. Arthur Asa Berger considers the sacred roots of consumer culture, the demographics of consumption, theories about competing cultures, and the semiotics of shopping.

Media and Society: A Critical Perspective is a lively, illustrated introduction to the role that the mass media play in our lives, our society, and American culture. Featuring updated examples and expanded material on media theories, ideology, and new technology, the third edition helps students understand their relationship with the media they encounter daily.

This brief, student-friendly introduction to the study of semiotics uses lively examples from 28 iconic locations in the United States, such as Coney Island, Las Vegas, the World Trade Center, and the Grand Canyon.

Presents concepts written by leading communication and cultural theorists, such as Saussure, LZvi-Strauss, de Certeau, McLuhan, Postman, and many others. This guide covers a range of important ideas from psychoanalysis and semiology to humor, otherness, and nonverbal communication, for anyone interested in how we communicate.

This book deals with tourism, popular culture and daily life in Japan. It is written in an accessible style and will be of interest to tourists considering visiting Japan, Japanophiles, social scientists and humanities scholars with interests in Japan, and students taking courses in tourism, Japanese culture, cultural studies and consumer culture.

Features over 300 quotations from the literature in cultural theory. This title gives you just the right snappy quote to help prepare that lecture, write that paper, fill that Power Point, or drop a few bon mots at a university reception. It is suitable for those wanting to distill cultural theory to its essence.

Looks into why people travel, examining travel and tourism as a cultural phenomenon through social, cultural, psychological, and economic forces. This book explores the role of travel in contemporary lives, from university travel-abroad programs to package tours and family vacations.

A sociology textbook/mystery novel, that allows students to join Sherlock Holmes and Watson as they discover a fresh area ripe for acrimony and intrigue: social theory.

`Solid and elegantly written introduction to its subject, up to speed with the current movements in the field, this is an excellent textbook for first-year students. The layout is well-conceived, and interspersed with Berger's own whimsical cartoons' - Sight and Sound

This brief, practical guide illustrates the most common kinds of business correspondence that a university professor is required to produce and offers useful advice to make these communications as effective as possible. The author also offers general suggestions on effective writing, including brainstorming and collaborating, persuasion, outlining and revising, and designing documents.

In this guide to cultural criticism, Arthur Asa Berger presents complex concepts in jargon-free language, making the book an ideal introductory text. It covers the key theorists, concepts and subject areas, from literary, sociological and psychoanalytical theories of semiotics and Marxism.

Ettore Gnocchi, the famed postmodern theorist, has been murdered at his own dinner party. To find out who killed Gnocchi, the detective Solomon Hunter must first explore postmodernism itself. What is it? Who are Baudrillard, Foucault, and Habermas, and what do they think? Why does any of this matter, anyway?