Manipulative communication—from early twentieth-century propaganda to today’s online con artistry—examined through the lens of social engineering. The United States is awash in manipulated information about everything from election results to the effectiveness of medical treatments. Corporate social media is an especially good channel for manipulative communication, with Facebook a particularly willing vehicle for it. In Social Engineering, Robert Gehl and Sean Lawson show that online misinformation has its roots in earlier techniques: mass social engineering of the early twentieth century and interpersonal hacker social engineering of the 1970s, converging today into what they call “masspersonal social engineering.” As Gehl and Lawson trace contemporary manipulative communication back to earlier forms of social engineering, possibilities for amelioration become clearer. The authors show how specific manipulative communication practices are a mixture of information gathering, deception, and truth-indifferent statements, all with the instrumental goal of getting people to take actions the social engineer wants them to. Yet the term “fake news,” they claim, reduces everything to a true/false binary that fails to encompass the complexity of manipulative communication or to map onto many of its practices. They pay special attention to concepts and terms used by hacker social engineers, including the hacker concept of “bullshitting,” which the authors describe as a truth-indifferent mix of deception, accuracy, and sociability. They conclude with recommendations for how society can undermine masspersonal social engineering and move toward healthier democratic deliberation.

This important and comprehensive book represents a ground-breakingsocio-architectural study of pre-1939 public library buildings. It includes a study of what is happening to historic libraries now and proposes that knowledge of their origins and early development can help build an understanding of how best to handle their future.

Contains a historical survey and sketches of African Americans and African American life and society in Cincinnati, Ohio. The author, the son of a former slave, served as the first African American city paymaster and was the first president of the local chapter of the NAACP. Founder and editor of the Cincinnati newspapers "The Ohio enterprise" (1902-1907) and "The Union" (1907-1952), Dabney used these newspapers as a way to champion the cause of African Americans.

A collection of popular essays from security guru Bruce Schneier In his latest collection of essays, security expert Bruce Schneier tackles a range of cybersecurity, privacy, and real-world security issues ripped from the headlines. Essays cover the ever-expanding role of technology in national security, war, transportation, the Internet of Things, elections, and more. Throughout, he challenges the status quo with a call for leaders, voters, and consumers to make better security and privacy decisions and investments. Bruce's writing has previously appeared in some of the world's best-known and most-respected publications, including The Atlantic, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Wired, and many others. And now you can enjoy his essays in one place—at your own speed and convenience. Timely security and privacy topics The impact of security and privacy on our world Perfect for fans of Bruce's blog and newsletter Lower price than his previous essay collections The essays are written for anyone who cares about the future and implications of security and privacy for society.