Society of the Spectacle

by Guy Debord

Paperback, 124 pages

English language

Published Feb. 24, 2006 by AKPress.

ISBN:: 978-0-946061-12-9
OCLC Number:: 63760655

(27 reviews)

Few works of political and cultural theory have been as enduringly provocative as Guy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle. From its publication amid the social upheavals of the 1960s to the present, the volatile theses of this book have decisively transformed debates on the shape of modernity, capitalism, and everyday life in the late twentieth century. Now finally available in a superb English translation approved by the author, Debord’s text remains as crucial as ever for understanding the contemporary effects of power, which are increasingly inseparable from the new virtual worlds of our rapidly changing image / information culture.

15 editions

Fionnáin reviewed Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord

Review of 'Society of the Spectacle' on 'GoodReads'

3 stars

Debord's short book is a prescient and driven polemic about how the "spectacle" became normalised in capitalist society in the postwar west. Written in 1967, much of the book has stood the test of time but much of it seems like an unfinished chapter in a broader critique. It is written in a series of short arguments, many of which don't quite address the spectacle, but make a broader comment on Marxist theory. Some of the observations, on advertising and individualism, influenced a generation of thinking.

The strongest argument of this book is in the repeated assertions of the spectacle as a colonising action. This, repeated in each chapter, is emphasised and remains relevant in current dialogue about our colonised structures.

loppear reviewed The society of the spectacle by Guy Debord

Review of 'The society of the spectacle' on Goodreads

3 stars

First half clearly condemns capitalism's commodification and all-encompassing veneer of appearance, making very relatable critiques of celebrity, alienation, absorption of leisure time, and technological expansion of the service industry for the 60s. Second half theorizes on Marx & Hegel, on time and history and space. Presents worker's councils and active participation in history as counterforces to the spectacle.