The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth
By Jonathan Rauch
Why this book?
The best books on rationality and why it matters
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Browse the best books on fake news as recommended by authors, experts, and creators. Along with notes on why they recommend those books.
Coming Fall 2022: The ability to sort this list by genre (signup here to follow our story as we build a better way to discover books).
By Jonathan Rauch
The best books on rationality and why it matters
When you buy a book we may earn a small commission.
By Priceonomics, Alex Mayyasi, Rohin Dhar, Zachary Crockett, Dan Abramson, David Raether
I found Everything is Bullshit to be so interesting that I wasn’t able to put it down once discovered in a random, one-off, used bookstore. This book is a sleeping beauty. It opened my eyes to all the scams that big companies use and how they have the money and power to keep getting away with them. The explanations for why many of our society’s most cherished traditions are actually based on bullshit reasoning are well-researched and compelling. The book helped me understand why diamond engagement rings are so expensive, why wine is so expensive, how art becomes “art”,…
The best books on thinking about and detecting bullshit, misinformation, and fake news
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By The Onion
I discovered The Onion late in life as well, and also through their website. Which, yes, I have bookmarked as well—I love most just their headlines. And discovered, again, they'd actually published a book of headlines! 'Nuff said.
The best books of funny bits to make you laugh out loud
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By Henry Hemming
I have a vivid memory of opening the file on Britain’s efforts to bring America into the war, declassified only recently, and being astonished at the things that had gone on. Hemming’s book tells this amazing story and raises the ethical question of whether Britain’s end – defeating Hitler – was justified by its means – spreading fake news in the US and even interfering in its politics.
The best books on secret wartime histories around WW2
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By James E. Alcock
James Alcock is the only social psychologist I know who could write a clear, accessible, and comprehensive volume on the psychology of belief—particularly how our thoughts and feelings, actions and reactions, respond not to the world as it actually is but to the world as we believe it to be. No matter how much you think you know about beliefs, and no matter what you actually believe, any reader will find surprises in Alcock’s treatise, such as why so many people cling to beliefs that are foolish, self-destructive, and wrong, believing them to be wise, self-protective, and right. Belief convinced…
The best books on thinking about and detecting bullshit, misinformation, and fake news
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By Kurt Andersen
The co-creator of SPY magazine, Kurt Andersen was my hero in high school. He’s been an NPR radio host, a novelist, a magazine editor, and a co-author with Alec Baldwin on their Trump book. But this book feels like all the thinking he’s done in those places put in one place. It’s a textbook of American history from the Puritans until today, through the lens of our special predilection for conspiracy, con artists, and fabulists, both on the left and the right, and how it all culminates in the 1960s. So smart, so funny, so jealous.
The best books on saving democracy from populism
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