A chilling and spellbinding history of mind control, from prison camps to online algorithms.--Jill Lepore, author of If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future

Tracking moments of mind control from techniques of political conversion in war camps to the suasions of religious cult groups, the airwave appeals of mass influence to the emotional experiments of recent social media and the charms of astrological cryptocurrency communities, Rebecca Lemov reveals the tantalizing historical through line of brainwashing. Its truth always just out of reach, it nonetheless asserts itself over us and implicates us in its dynamics.--Natasha Dow Schüll, author of Addiction by Design

From the Korean War to Facebook, this riveting volume tracks the history of systems built to bend our wills and rewire our minds. Timely, frightening, and impossible to put down.--Fred Turner, Harry and Norman Chandler Professor of Communication, Stanford University

Provocative and illuminating.... Lemov's deeply researched exploration reveals how the persuasive power wielded by charismatic figures can answer, in a warped way, a person's yearning for self-reinvention and meaning.--Publishers Weekly, starred review

[Lemov] takes a different approach... Ways of making people believe things don't divide neatly into the persuasive and the coercive--the brainwashing model gives the lie to that distinction.--Nikhil Krishnan "The New Yorker"

One of those books whose mere title prompts a shudder... [Lemov] brilliantly chronicles chillingly true attempts to program other people's minds and control their actions.--Kate Tuttle "Boston Globe"

A superbly crafted analysis of a universally deplored but seemingly irresistible technique.--Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Pub date: 2025-03-25

Length: 464 pages