Ignorance Unmasked: Essays in the New Science of Agnotology (1)

Synopsis

We live in an age of ignorance. This book offers a guide to how we got here—and how we might escape. From obfuscations of climate science to the myriad deceptions inhering in language, Ignorance Unmasked explores how agnotology—the study of ignorance—can help us better grasp: Why don't we know what we don't know? What are the obstacles to knowledge, and how might those be overcome? Ignorance has countless agents and authors; it gets deliberately manufactured and widely disseminated. In a provocative set of essays, this book engages climate change and public health, algorithmic amplification of misinformation, deep fakes and data obsolescence, the origins of free market fundamentalism and gun industry deceptions, along with the ignorance produced by military trauma, sugar and meat agnotology, environmental malfeasance, and the forgetting of the Nakba. It helps us better understand how and why knowledge gets erased, and how rectifying such ignorance can enlarge human liberties and planetary health. Contributors: Nadia Abu El-Haj, Daniel Akselrad, Erik M. Conway, John Donohue, Hany Farid, Benjamin Franta, Peter Galison, Jennifer Jacquet, Caroline A. Jones, Robert Lustig, Naomi Oreskes, Robert N. Proctor, Rosemary Sayigh, Londa Schiebinger, and Nanna Bonde Thylstrup

Copyright:

2025

Book Details

Book Quality:

Publisher Quality

Book Size:

302 Pages

ISBN-13:

9781503643963

Related ISBNs:

9781503643956, 9781503643406

Publisher:

Stanford University Press

Date of Addition:

09/16/25

Copyrighted By:

the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Jr. University.

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

History, Nonfiction, Science, Social Studies

Submitted By:

Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.

Edited by:

Robert N. Proctor

Edited by:

Londa Schiebinger