So You've Been Publicly Shamed

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.

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.

From Jon Ronson, the Sunday Time s top ten bestselling author of The Psychopath Test , this is a captivating and brilliant exploration of one of our world's most underappreciated forces: shame. 'It's about the terror, isn't it?' 'The terror of what?' I said. 'The terror of being found out.' Jon Ronson has travelled the world meeting recipients of high-profile public shamings. The shamed are people like us – people who, say, made a joke on social media that came out badly, or made a mistake at work. Once their transgression is revealed, collective outrage circles with the force of a hurricane and the next thing they know they're being torn apart by an angry mob, jeered at, demonized, sometimes even fired from their job. A great renaissance of public shaming is sweeping our land. Justice has been democratized. The silent majority are getting a voice. But what are we doing with our voice? We are mercilessly finding people's faults. We are defining the boundaries of normality by ruining the lives of those outside it. We are using shame as a form of social control. Simultaneously powerful and hilarious in the way only Jon Ronson can be, So You've Been Publicly Shamed is a deeply honest book about modern life, full of eye-opening truths about the escalating war on human flaws – and the very scary part we all play in it.