Overview

Jon Ronson's captivating and brilliant exploration of one of our world's most underappreciated forces: shame. A great renaissance of public shaming is sweeping our land. Through social media, justice has been democratized and the silent majority are getting a voice. But are we using our voice for good? Instead we are mercilessly finding people's faults and defining the boundaries of normality by ruining the lives of those who position themselves outside it. We are using shame as a form of social control. In this prescient, unnerving yet often hilarious book, Jon Ronson meets the victims of modern public shamings and, in doing so, plunges us deep into the heart of a very modern terror: the terror of being found out. Full of eye-opening truths about the escalating war on human flaws - and the very scary part we all play in it - this is Jon Ronson at his very best. A Sunday Times Book of the Year when first published, So You've Been Publicly Shamed is now part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the best of modern literature.

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9781035040070

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Reviews

He is such an exceptional writer . . . A perfect sense of comic timing throughout, but he manages to deal with profound subjects . . . Such a great book. We're buying it! -- Claudia Winkleman * The BBC Radio 2 Arts Show * A magnificent book, subtly argued, often painfully funny and yet deeply serious . . . I'm not sure I can recommend it highly enough. * Daily Mail * A work of original, inspired journalism, it considers the complex dynamics between those who shame and those who are shamed, both of whom can become the focus of social media's grotesque, disproportionate judgments. * Financial Times * Certainly, no reader could finish it without feeling a need to be gentler online, to defer judgment, not to press the retweet button, to resist that primal impulse to stoke the fires of shame. * The Times * Ronson is our current master of smarter-than-average pop nonfiction that combines social science, investigative journalism and no shortage of style. * Saturday Paper (Australia) * Ronson's finely attuned ear for dialogue and his skilfully deployed nebbishness ensure a pacy but discomfiting read. -- Gillian Terzis * The Australian * So You've Been Publicly Shamed is an interesting commentary on human behaviour and its consequences. * The Register * immensely readable. -- Will Dean * Independent * A brilliant, thought-provoking book - a fascinating examination of citizen justice, which has enjoyed a great renaissance since the advent of the internet. * Tatler * Amusing and thought-provoking. * Daily Telegraph * As in his previous books, Ronson's style is to take us with him wherever the story goes, curiosity his guide . . . Shamed is not a critique of those at the fringes of our society, it's about us - or at least the very many of us who take to Twitter to heap vitriol on those we feel deserve it. * Metro * Jon Ronson is one of the funniest writers we have. * Red * Hugely entertaining. * National * Engrossing and terrifying. * New Statesman * Ronson specialises in writing witty, wide-eyed, free-wheeling books . . . He is full of curiosity, and writes in a friendly, slightly faux-naif voice, but with strong moral antennae. -- Craig Brown * Mail on Sunday * Compulsively readable. -- Rachel Cooke * Observer * So You've Been Publicly Shamed is possibly [Ronson's] most ambitious project yet . . . a brilliantly articulated, sensitively rendered attempt to reform the world. -- Charlie Gilmour * Independent * Fascinating, insightful and amusing and should be read by everyone. * Women24 * Everyone who has any kind of online presence - including anonymous below-the-line commenters - will find this book gripping. -- India Knight * Spectator * [A] simultaneously lightweight and necessary book. * Esquire * I was mesmerized. And I was also disturbed. -- Cheryl Conner * Forbes * Gutsy and smart. . . Without losing any of the clever agility that makes his books so winning, he has taken on truly consequential material and risen to the challenge. -- Janet Maslin * The New York Times * Read this book. Then tell someone else about it. Make sure you leave it in a place where an unsuspecting teen is lingering, they too could benefit from these timely fables of the digital world. -- Elisabeth Marrow * Wairarapa Times * This is a book that will grip you and really make you think about 21st century society in a different way, definitely one to read, and one to read now. * New Zealand Library Blogspot * Ronson's facts are gathered first-hand, his experiences conveyed with sharp observations of scene and character, and his conclusions logical. As contemporary society becomes ever more connected, Ronson's lessons will become even more important. * Sunday Star Times * Witty . . . clever and thought-provoking. * Publishers Weekly * This book really needed to be written. * Salon * One of our most important modern day thinkers, Jon Ronson . . . has written one of the most therapeutic books imaginable. -- Howard Forman * US News & Word Report * I very much enjoyed Jon Ronson's salutary examination of what happens when the internet turns on you . . . One stupid picture, one misplaced joke, and your life can be completely trashed. The book examines a very dark corner of the times we live in but manages to be both entertaining and humane. -- Anthony Horowitz * Telegraph * The non-fiction book of the year - an alarming examination of victims and victimisers in the new social media sport of mob justice. -- Mark Lawson, Best Holiday Reads 2015 * The Guardian * Jon Ronson is unreal. So You've Been Publicly Shamed - everyone should read that book. He's one of my favourite human beings. -- Bill Hader A great book about the way the internet can gang up on people and shame them, when they deserve it, when they don't deserve it and it's great. -- Judd Apatow A chilling look at how social media encourages witch hunts. -- Helen Lewis An important start to a necessary conversation on internet hate mobs -- Naomi Alderman [Ronson] takes on one of the most egregious perils of life in the age of social media - the whopping magnification of some gaffe or misstep or downright lie - to the point that it achieves life-wrecking powe . . . there's a lot to learn from his funny, insightful look at this red-hot topic. * The New York Times, Top Books of 2015 * Yes, it's a breezy read at the sentence level, but Ronson's latest book evokes a sense of dread that lingers. * TimeOut, Best Books of 2015 * A fascinating exploration of modern media and public shaming. John Ronson has provided me so many dinner party conversation topics with this book. It's a great conversation starter. -- Reese Witherspoon It is difficult to read this book and not feel equal parts righteous (because we would never do the horrible things that the people in this book have done) and guilty (because we all have done the totally benign things that the people in this book have done), it's a terrifying and keen insight into a new form of misguided mass hysteria. -- Jesse Eisenberg Tackles serious topics with a sense of play and an appreciation for the absurd. -- Sarah Vowell

He is such an exceptional writer . . . an incredibly funny writer . . . a perfect sense of comic timing throughout, but he manages to deal with profound subjects . . . so enjoyable . . . you can be having a laugh while understanding a social phenomenon in a completely unique way; it's such a great book . . . We're buying it! -- Claudia Winkleman * The BBC Radio 2 Arts Show * A magnificent book, subtly argued, often painfully funny and yet deeply serious. . . I'm not sure I can recommend it highly enough. * Daily Mail * A work of original, inspired journalism, it considers the complex dynamics between those who shame and those who are shamed, both of whom can become the focus of social media's grotesque, disproportionate judgments. -- Laurence Scott * Financial Times * Superb and terrifying . . . relentlessly entertaining and thought-provoking. -- Steven Poole * Guardian * Ronson is our current master of smarter-than-average pop nonfiction that combines social science, investigative journalism and no shortage of style . . . Ronson and his subjects are strikingly candid about their fears, which is compelling if not always comfortable to read. But the book slowly turns out to be about something bigger than it seems: a survival guide to living with shame both public and private, an inevitable consequence of being human. * Saturday Paper (Australia) * Ronson's finely attuned ear for dialogue and his skilfully deployed nebbishness ensure a pacy but discomfiting read. -- Gillian Terzis * The Australian * Jon Ronson's great strength as a writer is his empathy with his subject, which seems to bring about trust and openness from his interviewees. Like all journalists, he is a voyeur, but he is sensitive with his material and self-analytical enough to realise his own part in the phenomenon. So You've Been Publicly Shamed is an interesting commentary on human behaviour and its consequences. * The Register * immensely readable. -- Will Dean * Independent * A brilliant, thought-provoking book - a fascinating examination of citizen justice, which has enjoyed a great renaissance since the advent of the internet. * Tatler * Amusing and thought-provoking. * Daily Telegraph * Certainly, no reader could finish it without feeling a need to be gentler online, to defer judgment, not to press the retweet button, to resist that primal impulse to stoke the fires of shame. * The Times * As in his previous books, Ronson's style is to take us with him wherever the story goes, curiosity his guide. But unlike bestsellers The Men Who Stare At Goats (US new age warfare), The Psychopath Test (the mental health 'industry') or Them (ideological extremism), Shamed is not a critique of those at the fringes of our society, it's about us - or at least the very many of us who take to Twitter to heap vitriol on those we feel deserve it. * Metro * Jon Ronson is one of the funniest writers we have. * Red * Hugely entertaining. * National * Engrossing and terrifying. * New Statesman * Ronson specialises in writing witty, wide-eyed, free-wheeling books . . . He is full of curiosity, and writes in a friendly, slightly faux-naif voice, but with strong moral antennae. -- Craig Brown * Mail on Sunday * Compulsively readable. -- Rachel Cooke * Observer * So You've Been Publicly Shamed is possibly [Ronson's] most ambitious project yet . . . a brilliantly articulated, sensitively rendered attempt to reform the world. -- Charlie Gilmour * Independent * Fascinating, insightful and amusing and should be read by everyone. * Women24 * Everyone who has any kind of online presence - including anonymous below-the-line commenters - will find this book gripping . . . Ronson remains one of our finest comic writers. -- India Knight * Spectator * [A] simultaneously lightweight and necessary book. * Esquire * I was mesmerized. And I was also disturbed. -- Cheryl Conner * Forbes * Gutsy and smart. . . Without losing any of the clever agility that makes his books so winning, he has taken on truly consequential material and risen to the challenge. -- Janet Maslin * The New York Times * Read this book. Then tell someone else about it. Make sure you leave it in a place where an unsuspecting teen is lingering, they too could benefit from these timely fables of the digital world. -- Elisabeth Marrow * Wairarapa Times * A gripping book, well written, articulate, honest and incredibly relevant in today's society. A book everyone with a twitter account should read . . . This is a book that will grip you and really make you think about 21st century society in a different way, definitely one to read, and one to read now. * New Zealand Library Blogspot * Ronson is adept at taking a topic and explaining it through a number of case studies . . . His facts are gathered first-hand, his experiences conveyed with sharp observations of scene and character, and his conclusions logical. As contemporary society becomes ever more connected, Ronson's lessons will become even more important. * Sunday Star Times * Witty . . . clever and thought-provoking. * Publishers Weekly * This book really needed to be written. * Salon * One of our most important modern day thinkers, Jon Ronson . . . has written one of the most therapeutic books imaginable. -- Howard Forman * US News & Word Report * I very much enjoyed Jon Ronson's salutary examination of what happens when the internet turns on you . . . One stupid picture, one misplaced joke, and your life can be completely trashed. The book examines a very dark corner of the times we live in but manages to be both entertaining and humane. -- Anthony Horowitz * Telegraph * The non-fiction book of the year - an alarming examination of victims and victimisers in the new social media sport of mob justice. -- Mark Lawson, Best Holiday Reads 2015 * The Guardian * Jon Ronson is unreal. So You've Been Publicly Shamed - everyone should read that book. He's one of my favourite human beings. -- Bill Hader A great book about the way the internet can gang up on people and shame them, when they deserve it, when they don't deserve it and it's great. -- Judd Apatow A chilling look at how social media encourages witch hunts. -- Helen Lewis An important start to a necessary conversation on internet hate mobs -- Naomi Alderman [Ronson] takes on one of the most egregious perils of life in the age of social media - the whopping magnification of some gaffe or misstep or downright lie - to the point that it achieves life-wrecking powe . . . there's a lot to learn from his funny, insightful look at this red-hot topic. * The New York Times, Top Books of 2015 * Yes, it's a breezy read at the sentence level, but Ronson's latest book evokes a sense of dread that lingers. * TimeOut, Best Books of 2015 * Simmering with humour, weirdness and pathos. * The Sunday Times, Books of the Year * A fascinating exploration of modern media and public shaming. John Ronson has provided me so many dinner party conversation topics with this book. It's a great conversation starter. -- Reese Witherspoon It is difficult to read this book and not feel equal parts righteous (because we wound never do the horrible things that the people in this book have done) and guilty (because we all have done the totally benign things that the people in this book have done), it's a terrifying and keen insight into a new form of misguided mass hysteria. -- Jesse Eisenberg Tackles serious topics with a sense of play and an appreciation for the absurd. -- Sarah Vowell

Author Information

Jon Ronson is an award-winning writer and documentary maker. He is the author of many bestselling books, including So You've Been Publicly Shamed, The Psychopath Test, Lost at Sea, The Men Who Stare at Goats and Them: Adventures with Extremists. His acclaimed podcasts include Things Fell Apart and The Butterfly Effect, and he co-wrote the screenplays for the movies Okja and Frank. He lives in New York.

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