If Then : How Simulmatics Corporation... JILL LEPORE (2020) HD SIGNED

Alley Cat Books
(3177)
Seller's other items
Contact seller
US $45.00
or 4 interest-free payments of $11.25 available with
Condition:
Very Good
“SHELF WEAR”
2 available
Breathe easy. Returns accepted.
Shipping:
US $5.00 USPS Media MailTM.
Located in: Choctaw, Oklahoma, United States
Delivery:
Estimated between Wed, Jul 30 and Sat, Aug 2 to 94104
Delivery time is estimated using our proprietary method which is based on the buyer's proximity to the item location, the shipping service selected, the seller's shipping history, and other factors. Delivery times may vary, especially during peak periods.
Returns:
30 days returns. Buyer pays for return shipping. If you use an eBay shipping label, it will be deducted from your refund amount.
Payments:
       .
4 interest-free payments of $11.25 available with Klarna.
Earn up to 5x points when you use your eBay Mastercard®. Learn moreabout earning points with eBay Mastercard

Shop with confidence

eBay Money Back Guarantee
Get the item you ordered or your money back. Learn moreeBay Money Back Guarantee - opens new window or tab
Seller assumes all responsibility for this listing.
eBay item number:184896183816
Last updated on Jun 27, 2024 18:07:43 PDTView all revisionsView all revisions

Item specifics

Condition
Very Good
A book that does not look new and has been read but is in excellent condition. No obvious damage to the cover, with the dust jacket (if applicable) included for hard covers. No missing or damaged pages, no creases or tears, and no underlining/highlighting of text or writing in the margins. May be very minimal identifying marks on the inside cover. Very minimal wear and tear. See the seller’s listing for full details and description of any imperfections. See all condition definitionsopens in a new window or tab
Seller Notes
“SHELF WEAR”
Special Attributes
SIGNED
Signed
Yes
Narrative Type
Nonfiction
Features
SIGNED
ISBN
9781631496103
Book Title
If Then : How Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future
Publisher
Liveright Publishing Corporation
Item Length
9.5 in
Publication Year
2020
Format
Hardcover
Language
English
Illustrator
Yes
Item Height
1.3 in
Author
Jill Lepore
Genre
Mathematics, Political Science, Computers, Technology & Engineering, Biography & Autobiography, History
Topic
United States / 20th Century, Social Aspects, Privacy & Surveillance (See Also Social Science / Privacy & Surveillance), Algebra / General, History, Databases / Data Mining, Science & Technology
Item Weight
24.4 Oz
Item Width
6.3 in
Number of Pages
432 Pages
Category

About this product

Product Identifiers

Publisher
Liveright Publishing Corporation
ISBN-10
1631496107
ISBN-13
9781631496103
eBay Product ID (ePID)
14038432932

Product Key Features

Book Title
If Then : How Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future
Number of Pages
432 Pages
Language
English
Publication Year
2020
Topic
United States / 20th Century, Social Aspects, Privacy & Surveillance (See Also Social Science / Privacy & Surveillance), Algebra / General, History, Databases / Data Mining, Science & Technology
Illustrator
Yes
Genre
Mathematics, Political Science, Computers, Technology & Engineering, Biography & Autobiography, History
Author
Jill Lepore
Format
Hardcover

Dimensions

Item Height
1.3 in
Item Weight
24.4 Oz
Item Length
9.5 in
Item Width
6.3 in

Additional Product Features

Intended Audience
Trade
LCCN
2020-008058
Dewey Edition
23
Reviews
[Lepore] pulls no punches in criticizing the folly of trying to understand human behavior via algorithm, and the corrosive consequences of trying to hack democracy. The result is . . . a perceptive work of historically informed dissent., A person can't help but feel inspired by the riveting intelligence and joyful curiosity of Jill Lepore. Knowing that there is a mind like hers in the world is a hope-inducing thing., Timely.... Lepore weaves her narrative across continents and through time with engaging, conversational prose. Her characters' personalities, families, affairs, fights and constant gossiping come alive, thanks to extensive troves of family papers and interviews with those closest to them., A beautifully written and intellectually rigorous account of the origins of the science of predictive analytics and behavioral data science in the cold war era., A staff writer for the New Yorker and Harvard professor, Lepore knows how to spin out a winning historical study. Here, she dives deep into matters that have seldom attracted scholarly attention. . . As Lepore convincingly demonstrates, the work of Simulmatics paved the way for later manipulators of psychology and public opinion such as Facebook. . . . A fascinating, expertly guided exploration of a little-known corner of the recent past., In this page-turning, eye-opening history, Jill Lepore reveals the Cold War roots of the tech-saturated present, in a thrilling tale that moves from the campaigns of Eisenhower and Kennedy to ivied think tanks, Madison Avenue ad firms, and the hamlets of Vietnam. Told with verve, grace, and humanity, If Then is an essential, sobering story for understanding our times., Everything Jill Lepore writes is distinguished by intelligence, eloquence, and fresh insight. If Then is that, and even more: It's absolutely fascinating, excavating a piece of little-known American corporate history that reveals a huge amount about the way we live today and the companies that define the modern era., In If Then, Lepore skillfully argues that their use of technology brought us to this current political climate., ""A person can't help but feel inspired by the riveting intelligence and joyful curiosity of Jill Lepore. Knowing that there is a mind like hers in the world is a hope-inducing thing."", Jill Lepore reveals how this forgotten company invented the data-weapons of the future. If Then is simultaneously gripping and absolutely terrifying., "Lepore is a brilliant and prolific historian with an eye for unusual and revealing stories, and this one is a remarkable saga, sometimes comical, sometimes ominous: a "shadow history of the 1960s," as she writes.... Lepore finds in it a plausible untold origin story for our current panopticon: a world of constant surveillance, if not by the state then by megacorporations that make vast fortunes by predicting and manipulating our behavior--including, most insidiously, our behavior as voters.... It didn't have to be this way. That is Lepore's final message: history is not inevitable.", Lepore writes history like a poet. In If Then she yet again binds lyrical storytelling to meticulous archival research to tell a gigantic story from our past., In another fast-paced narrative, Jill Lepore brilliantly uncovers the history of the Simulmatics Corporation, which launched the volatile mix of computing, politics, and personal behavior that now divides our nation, feeds on private information, and weakens the strength of our democratic institutions., Fascinating.... Over the last decade, Lepore, a Harvard history professor and New Yorker staff writer, has repeatedly shown herself to be an uncommonly astute and insightful interpreter of American history, and one of her many strengths is the moral clarity that infuses her writing.... [with] a nimble fluency that can be exhilarating., [A] rich account. . . . Lepore's exceptional skill as storyteller and her sharp eye for seemingly quotidian details and small coincidences lend the Simulmatics world an intimate--and at times deliciously gossipy--feeling. . . . As Lepore notes, after the 1960 Kennedy election, the idea that politicians might use advertising, psychological tricks, or even new technology in order to sway elections in their favor was still shocking to the public. But 60 years later, it's such an accepted part of American political life that it takes a historian to excavate the moment in time where such notions began to cohere., Data science, Jill Lepore reminds us in this brilliant book, has a past, and she tells it through the engrossing story of Simulmatics, the tiny, long-forgotten company that helped invent our data-obsessed world, in which prediction is seemingly the only knowledge that matters. A captivating, deeply incisive work.
Dewey Decimal
303.483409
Synopsis
The Simulmatics Corporation, launched during the Cold War, mined data, targeted voters, manipulated consumers, destabilized politics, and disordered knowledge--decades before Facebook, Google, and Cambridge Analytica. Jill Lepore, best-selling author of These Truths , came across the company's papers in MIT's archives and set out to tell this forgotten history, the long-lost backstory to the methods, and the arrogance, of Silicon Valley. Founded in 1959 by some of the nation's leading social scientists--"the best and the brightest, fatally brilliant, Icaruses with wings of feathers and wax, flying to the sun"--Simulmatics proposed to predict and manipulate the future by way of the computer simulation of human behavior. In summers, with their wives and children in tow, the company's scientists met on the beach in Long Island under a geodesic, honeycombed dome, where they built a "People Machine" that aimed to model everything from buying a dishwasher to counterinsurgency to casting a vote. Deploying their "People Machine" from New York, Washington, Cambridge, and even Saigon, Simulmatics' clients included the John F. Kennedy presidential campaign, the New York Times, the Department of Defense, and dozens of major manufacturers: Simulmatics had a hand in everything from political races to the Vietnam War to the Johnson administration's ill-fated attempt to predict race riots. The company's collapse was almost as rapid as its ascent, a collapse that involved failed marriages, a suspicious death, and bankruptcy. Exposed for false claims, and even accused of war crimes, it closed its doors in 1970 and all but vanished. Until Lepore came across the records of its remains. The scientists of Simulmatics believed they had invented "the A-bomb of the social sciences." They did not predict that it would take decades to detonate, like a long-buried grenade. But, in the early years of the twenty-first century, that bomb did detonate, creating a world in which corporations collect data and model behavior and target messages about the most ordinary of decisions, leaving people all over the world, long before the global pandemic, crushed by feelings of helplessness. This history has a past; If Then is its cautionary tale., Longlisted * Financial Times & McKinsey Business Book of the YearA revelatory account of the Cold War origins of the data-mad, algorithmic twenty-first century, from the author of the acclaimed international bestseller These Truths., Longlisted * National Book Award (Nonfiction) Best Books of 2020 * Financial Times Best Books of Fall 2020: O, The Oprah Magazine, The Observer, Boston.com Most Anticipated Books of Fall 2020: TIME A revelatory account of the Cold War origins of the data-mad, algorithmic twenty-first century, from the author of the acclaimed international bestseller These Truths.
LC Classification Number
QA76.9.D343L47 2020

Item description from the seller

About this seller

Alley Cat Books

100% positive feedback•3.7K items sold

Joined Oct 2002
Usually responds within 24 hours
Welcome to Alley Cat Books! We are based in Choctaw, OK. We have a wide variety of books on our shelves, and, the occasional record (vinyl). Please check back frequently as we are constantly adding ...
See more
Visit storeContact

Detailed seller ratings

Average for the last 12 months
Accurate description
5.0
Reasonable shipping cost
5.0
Shipping speed
5.0
Communication
5.0

Popular categories from this store

See allcategories
Architecture ShelfArt & Photography ShelfAutobiography/Biography ShelfBeat Generation/60s ShelfChildren & Young Adult ShelfCollectibles ShelfCollections ShelfCooking ShelfFiction & Literature Shelf

Seller feedback (1,914)

All ratings
Positive
Neutral
Negative
  • t***n (981)- Feedback left by buyer.
    Past 6 months
    Verified purchase
    Excellent service very well packaged and exactly as described. They value is spot on and just what I needed with the shipping. Thank you, Thank you!!!
    Reply from: redjhogan- Feedback replied by seller redjhogan.- Feedback replied by seller redjhogan.
    You are so welcome! Thank you for your kind words! So glad you are happy with your purchase...that is what we love to hear, and strive for everyday!
    Flowers to Philanthropy : The Life of Herman Meinders Bob Burke SIGNED (#183747944265)
  • y***c (762)- Feedback left by buyer.
    Past 6 months
    Verified purchase
    great item, packaged safely, as described, shipped quickly! thanks so much, great value
    THE MOON AND SIXPENCE W.SOMERSET MAUGHAM HARDCOVER (#173845751130)
  • r***t (1385)- Feedback left by buyer.
    Past month
    Verified purchase
    Super fast delivery! Excellent communication. Highly recommended seller. Thanks!
    Reply from: redjhogan- Feedback replied by seller redjhogan.- Feedback replied by seller redjhogan.
    You are welcome! Enjoy the read! AC
    Signifying Rappers by David Foster Wallace and Mark Costello (2013, Paperback) (#183761710784)
See all feedback

More to explore :