A Nation of Salesmen: The Tyranny of the Market and the Subversion of Culture

by Earl Shorris

Book Overview

In this groundbreaking book on the nature and meaning of the sale, Earl Shorris takes us on a journey that starts in Eden and comes at last to a consideration of where we are and what we have become... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393036723
• ISBN13: 9780393036725
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Shorris highlights a basic trait of the American character.

I enjoyed reading the book. Earl Shorris has the courage and insight to expose the salesman in us all. I find his line on page 268--"To do this (selling) successfully the saleman has to follow the disciplines of his calling: Primarily, he cannot make judgements"--a key point in his book. Although I think it is too harsh to call a salesman a "serpent", I agree with the author that if all we do is just to sell without regard to how we truly feel about what it is that we are selling, we will be living a lonely and meaningless life.

Thought Provoking

Written just before the Web was spun, this book is an apologia for a life in sales, arguing that our politics and culture is manipulated by salesmen for short term profit. Along the way there are many interesting insights you may disagree with, but you'll have to chew on.