Invisible Control

Reading surface

151 works

Every book, essay, lecture course and film the research document names, with the page that discusses it. 9 are marked contested or discredited, which is the whole point of listing them here rather than burying them in a paragraph.

  1. Adorno and HorkheimerDialectic of Enlightenment1944The culture industry
  2. Adorno, Theodor W.Scientific Experiences of a European Scholar in America1969His own account of the collision with audience research
  3. Agamben, GiorgioHomo Sacer1995
  4. Agamben, GiorgioRemnants of Auschwitz1998
  5. Agamben, GiorgioState of Exception2003
  6. Agamben, GiorgioWhat Is an Apparatus?2006
  7. Amadae, S. M.Rationalizing Capitalist Democracy2003
  8. Anderson, PerryThe Antinomies of Antonio Gramsci
  9. Anyon, JeanSocial Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work1980
  10. Arendt, HannahThe Origins of Totalitarianism
  11. Bateson, GregorySteps to an Ecology of Mind1972
  12. Benjamin, WalterCritique of Violence1921
  13. Bernays, EdwardCrystallizing Public Opinion1923
  14. Bernays, EdwardPropaganda1928
  15. Bourdieu and PasseronReproduction in Education, Society and Culture1970
  16. Bourdieu, PierreDistinction1979
  17. Bourdieu, PierreLanguage and Symbolic Power1991
  18. Bourdieu, PierreThe Forms of Capital1986The best short entry point
  19. Bourdieu, PierreThe Inheritors1964
  20. Bowker and StarSorting Things Out1999
  21. Bowles and GintisSchooling in Capitalist America1976The correspondence principle
  22. Brown, WendyUndoing the Demos2015
  23. Burgin, AngusThe Great Persuasion2012
  24. Burnham, JamesThe Machiavellians1943
  25. Burnham, JamesThe Managerial Revolution1941
  26. Butler, JudithPrecarious Life
  27. Chakhotin, SergeThe Rape of the Masses1939
  28. Cialdini, RobertInfluence1984
  29. Coleman, PeterThe Liberal Conspiracy1989
  30. Cover, RobertViolence and the Word
  31. Curtis, AdamCan't Get You Out of My HeadDocumentarySame caveat as above
  32. Curtis, AdamHyperNormalisationDocumentarySame caveat as above
  33. Curtis, AdamThe Century of the SelfDocumentary, on BernaysCriticized for implying causation through juxtaposition
  34. Debord, GuyThe Society of the Spectacle1967
  35. Deleuze, GillesPostscript on the Societies of Control1990Six pages, the highest-yield short text here
  36. Elias, NorbertThe Civilizing Process1939
  37. Ellsberg, DanielSecrets2002
  38. Ellsberg, DanielThe Doomsday Machine2017
  39. Ellul, JacquesPropaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes1962
  40. Erickson, Paul, and othersHow Reason Almost Lost Its Mind2013
  41. Eubanks, VirginiaAutomating Inequality2018
  42. Ewen, StuartCaptains of Consciousness1976
  43. Ewen, StuartPR! A Social History of Spin1996
  44. Fisher, MarkCapitalist Realism
  45. Flusser, VilémTowards a Philosophy of Photography1983
  46. Foucault, MichelDiscipline and Punish1975Start here. Part three is Panopticism
  47. Foucault, MichelMadness and Civilization1961
  48. Foucault, MichelSecurity, Territory, Population1978Lecture course
  49. Foucault, MichelThe Birth of Biopolitics1979Lecture course, where governmentality is worked out
  50. Foucault, MichelThe Birth of the Clinic1963
  51. Foucault, MichelThe History of Sexuality, Volume 11976
  52. Freire, PauloPedagogy of the Oppressed1968
  53. Gatto, John TaylorDumbing Us DownSame caveat as above
  54. Gatto, John TaylorThe Underground History of American EducationLoose sourcing. Provocation to verify, not a source
  55. Goffman, ErvingAsylums1961The total institution
  56. Goffman, ErvingStigma1963
  57. Goffman, ErvingThe Presentation of Self in Everyday Life1956
  58. Graeber, DavidBullshit Jobs2018
  59. Graeber, DavidDebt: The First 5,000 Years2011
  60. Graeber, DavidThe Utopia of Rules2015The iron law of liberalism
  61. Gramsci, AntonioSelections from the Prison Notebooks1971Hoare and Nowell-Smith, the standard English gateway
  62. Han, Byung-ChulPsychopolitics2014
  63. Han, Byung-ChulThe Burnout Society2010
  64. Havel, VáclavThe Power of the Powerless1978The greengrocer. Read this one first
  65. Heims, Steve JoshuaThe Cybernetics Group1991
  66. Herman and ChomskyManufacturing Consent1988The propaganda model and its five filters
  67. Illich, IvanDeschooling Society1971
  68. Illich, IvanDisabling Professions1977
  69. Illich, IvanEnergy and Equity1974
  70. Illich, IvanMedical Nemesis, published in Britain as Limits to Medicine1975
  71. Illich, IvanTools for Conviviality1973The design brief for anything built from this material
  72. Innis, HaroldEmpire and Communications1950
  73. Innis, HaroldThe Bias of Communication1951
  74. Jackson, PhilipLife in Classrooms1968Coined the hidden curriculum
  75. Jouvenel, Bertrand deOn Power1945
  76. Judt, TonyPostwar2005
  77. Kahn, HermanOn Thermonuclear War1960
  78. Katz and LazarsfeldPersonal Influence1955The two-step flow
  79. Kelsen, HansPure Theory of LawThe position Schmitt attacks. Read both
  80. Kittler, FriedrichDiscourse Networks 1800/1900
  81. Kittler, FriedrichGramophone, Film, Typewriter1986
  82. Kline, RonaldThe Cybernetics Moment2015
  83. Konrád and SzelényiThe Intellectuals on the Road to Class Power1979
  84. Krastev and HolmesThe Light That Failed2019
  85. La Boétie, Étienne deDiscourse on Voluntary Servitudec. 1548
  86. Lareau, AnnetteUnequal Childhoods2003
  87. Lazarsfeld, Berelson and GaudetThe People’s Choice1944
  88. Lazarsfeld, PaulRemarks on Administrative and Critical Communications Research1941Short, and the key document in this cluster
  89. Le Bon, GustaveThe Crowd1895Weak as science, included for its historical effect
  90. Lifton, Robert JayThought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism1961
  91. Lippmann, WalterPublic Opinion1922Coined the manufacture of consent
  92. MacLean, NancyDemocracy in Chains2017Vigorously contested. Use with the rebuttals
  93. Mann, MichaelThe Sources of Social Power1986 to 2012Four volumes
  94. Marcuse, HerbertOne-Dimensional Man1964
  95. Marks, JohnThe Search for the Manchurian Candidate1979
  96. Mbembe, AchilleNecropolitics2003
  97. Michels, RobertPolitical Parties1911The iron law of oligarchy
  98. Mills, C. WrightThe Power Elite1956
  99. Mills, C. WrightThe Sociological Imagination1959Chapter one is where this project starts
  100. Miłosz, CzesławThe Captive Mind1953Ketman
  101. Mirowski and PlehweThe Road from Mont Pèlerin2009The archival collection
  102. Mirowski, PhilipNever Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste2013
  103. Mitchell, TimothyCarbon Democracy2011
  104. Mitchell, TimothyRule of Experts2002
  105. Mosca, GaetanoThe Ruling Class1896
  106. Müller, Jan-WernerA Dangerous Mind
  107. Muller, JerryThe Tyranny of Metrics2018
  108. Mumford, LewisTechnics and Civilization1934
  109. Mumford, LewisThe Myth of the Machine1967 and 1970The megamachine
  110. Noble, SafiyaAlgorithms of Oppression2018
  111. O’Neil, CathyWeapons of Math Destruction2016
  112. Pareto, VilfredoThe Mind and Society1916
  113. Pasquale, FrankThe Black Box Society2015
  114. Perry, GinaBehind the Shock MachineThe archival work on Milgram
  115. Polanyi, KarlThe Great Transformation1944
  116. Postman, NeilAmusing Ourselves to Death1985
  117. Reimer, EverettSchool Is Dead
  118. Rose and MillerPolitical Power beyond the State1992The compact statement
  119. Rose, NikolasGoverning the Soul1989
  120. Rose, NikolasPowers of Freedom1999
  121. Schelling, ThomasThe Strategy of Conflict1960
  122. Schmitt, CarlPolitical Theology1922
  123. Schmitt, CarlThe Concept of the Political1932Friend and enemy
  124. Schmitt, CarlThe Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy1923
  125. Schumacher, E. F.Small Is Beautiful
  126. Scott, James C.Domination and the Arts of Resistance1990The hidden transcript
  127. Scott, James C.Seeing Like a State1998Legibility and mētis
  128. Simpson, ChristopherScience of Coercion1994Underread, and the key text on the funding of communication research
  129. Skinner, B. F.Beyond Freedom and Dignity1971
  130. Skinner, B. F.Walden Two1948
  131. Slobodian, QuinnGlobalists2018
  132. Stonor Saunders, FrancesThe Cultural Cold War, published in Britain as Who Paid the Piper?1999The standard account, disputed by participants
  133. Tarde, GabrielL’opinion et la foule1901
  134. Thaler and SunsteinNudge2008Read as a primary document of governing technique
  135. Tilly, CharlesCoercion, Capital, and European States1990
  136. Tilly, CharlesWar Making and State Making as Organized Crime1985
  137. VariousThe Corporation2003Documentary
  138. VariousThe Lives of Others2006Film, the Eastern surveillance state
  139. VariousVideocracy2009Documentary, on Berlusconi’s media hegemony
  140. Veblen, ThorsteinThe Engineers and the Price System1921
  141. Veblen, ThorsteinThe Theory of the Leisure Class1899
  142. Virilio, PaulSpeed and Politics1977
  143. Wiener, NorbertA Scientist Rebels1947The published refusal of military funding
  144. Wiener, NorbertCybernetics1948
  145. Wiener, NorbertThe Human Use of Human Beings1950, revised 1954Read both editions against each other
  146. Willis, PaulLearning to Labour1977
  147. Winner, LangdonDo Artifacts Have Politics?1980
  148. Wittfogel, KarlOriental Despotism1957The hydraulic-state thesis, largely rejected
  149. Young, MichaelThe Rise of the Meritocracy1958A satire, adopted as a compliment
  150. Zinoviev, AlexanderHomo Sovieticus1982
  151. Zuboff, ShoshanaThe Age of Surveillance Capitalism2019