Adam Hanft

Adam Hanft is a decoder of the consumer culture and our branded planet. He blogs for The Huffington Post and FastCompany.com, and has been published extensively, including in The Wall Street Journal, Slate, Civilization, Radar, and the back-page column for Inc. He has appeared on CNN, the Today show, and many other media outlets. He is also the co-author of Dictionary of the Future. Adam also decodes the culture as founder and CEO of the marketing and branding firm Hanft Raboy.

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Journalist and co-author of Dictionary of the Future

With all the palpable fear and panic in these parts, what's a masochist to do other than pick up Joanna Bourke's masterful Fear: A Cultural History. It's a sobering romp (that's no oxymoron) through decades of fear's grim manifestations. The chapters read like a cross between Kafka, Woody Allen, and FEMA: Death, Disasters, Nightmares, Phobias, Social Hysteria. As just one example of the enduring nature of fear, here's a tidbit from a sermon that was delivered by John Jefferson in the 1830s, although it is as fresh as today's cold sweat (particularly the last part) and tomorrow's headlines: "Difficulties the most anticipated and trials the most unexpected, continually arise. Health cannot be calculated upon for a moment; friends may suddenly be snatched from our embrace; riches 'make themselves wings and fly away.’"

7:51 am, Oct 31, 2008

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