"""There are lots of wonderful books to read this month, but the one I will pick up because it may contain some glimmer of sanity in it is United States of Distraction, Nolan Higdon and Mickey Huff's aptly titled analysis of why we have descended into information anarchy. How this state of crisis--about what is and isn't true, and how that gets played--has perpetuated the very things worth fighting against. They promise ideas and solutions, God I hope they're good.""--John Freeman, Literary Hub ""[Nolan Higdon and Mickey Huff] paint a dismal picture of contemporary journalism, arguing persuasively that the media has been co-opted by commercial interests and no longer serve to inform the public about issues crucial to democracy. . . . the authors call for 'critical media literacy education' that emphasizes civics, critical thinking skills, critical awareness of media, community engagement, and cultural competency (including the cultivation of empathy) as well as a broadening and deepening of news reporting.""--Kirkus Reviews ""In [United States of Distraction], the authors give the reader a road map of ways to counteract the negative effects of today's media--including an extensive appendix of resources. ... By following Higdon and Huff's prescription, it is possible that these bulwarks can be strengthened. They specifically rmend broader news framing, locally based investigative journalism, and educational news to 'arm the population with the necessary forms of civic agency and self-defense to continue to maintain public sovereignty.'""--The Progressive ""May all educators who hope to teach critical reasoning read United States of Distraction. It's full of good ideas. May a thousand Project Censored's arise to defeat the scourge of unreason and distraction that is so shamelessly cultivated by the oligarchs who own most all the media and use it to serve their own interests.""--Black Agenda Report ""Mickey Huff and Nolan Higdon and have long understood that the truth is a powerful weapon for making power accountable. They also understand that authoritarians, corporate CEOs, and other anti-democratic forces often view truth as unprofitable or dangerous. In their superb book, United States of Distraction, they echo Hannah Arendt's warning that during authoritarian times, critical thinking, truth-telling, and investigative journalism can be a high-risk activities. Higdon and Huff not only look at how corporate influence has comprised media and undermined democracy, but also how such influence has rendered society vulnerable to manipulation through disinformation, propaganda, and hyper-partisan divisiveness. A war of distraction is underway, media is the weapon, and our minds are the battlefield. Higdon and Huff have written a brilliant book of how we've gotten to this point, and how to educate ourselves to fight back and win.""--Henry A. Giroux, author of American Nightmare: Facing the Challenge of Fascism ""This vibrant and important book shows how propaganda and lies are flowing through corporate-controlled media, dividing and ruling. Mickey Huff and Nolan Higdon emphasize what we can do today to restore the power of facts, truth, and fair, inclusive journalism as tools for people to keep political and corporate power subordinate to the engaged citizenry and the common good. A timely and urgent demand re-asserting the central importance of civic pursuits--not commercialism--in U.S. media and society.""--Ralph Nader ""United States of Distraction by Mickey Huff and Nolan Higdon challenges our hegemon-media's ideological mind control and the occupation of human thought. Their message is clear that we are in an era of deliberate propaganda and lies that protect concentrated global capital. Corporate media incites confusion and distraction to insure ideological domination by the global power elite. Huff and Higdon correctly call for mass critical resistance through truth telling by free minds. Power to the people!""--Peter Phillips, author of Giants: The Global Power Elite ""Historians Mickey Huff and Nolan Higdon bring context to our current Trumpian post-truth moment. They retrace the largely untold history of the roots of neoliberalism and show the devastating effects of a half century of privatization, deregulation, and the all-out war on the New Deal and Great Society. They not only deconstruct and explain how we got to this moment in history, they prescribe ways we can wrestcontrol from a plutocracy that has co-opted the best elements of American idealism, cynically turning them on their head for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many. This book is a call to action at a moment when not heeding history's warnings, and not dramatically changing course, threatens not only the future of our republic but of global civilization itself.""--Peter Kuznick, professor of history at American University, author (with Oliver Stone) of The Untold History of the United States ""A thorough autopsy of our dying democracy in the"