“In my work counseling cult members, I always make sure to
teach about the Milgram obedience studies, along with the Asch conformity
and Zimbardo prison studies. When current and former members watch
videos of Milgram's experiment–and see how ordinary people
can do terrible things when influenced by authority figures–they
often feel as though a weight has been lifted. It helps alleviate
tremendous guilt that they feel about some of their cult activities.
I have come to rely on Milgram's work to help them understand some
of the social psychological forces exerted on them from the moment
they enter the group and through what can be many years of slavish
obedience to a guru or prophet.
So it was with great interest that I read Thomas Blass's book,
The Man Who Shocked the World: The Life and Legacy of Stanley Milgram.
I am happy to say, I could not put it down. It is thoroughly researched
and well written. It successfully captures the man, his work, the
time in which he lived as well as key moments in the evolution of
social psychology.
Though Milgram’s obedience study created a lot of controversy,
he provided a much need window into the unethical experiments done
every day by modern cult leaders as well as well known figures of
the past like Charles Manson, Jim Jones, David Koresh, Herff Applewhite
(Heaven's Gate leader), Shoko Asahara (Aum Shinrikyo, the sarin
gas cult) and others. I am grateful to Milgram and to Blass for
giving us an unforgettable portrait of this great psychologist.
I heartily recommend this book!”
Steven Alan Hassan M.Ed, LMHC, NCC
Author of Combatting Cult Mind Control: The #1 Best-selling Guide
to Protection, Rescue, and Recovery from Destructive Cults (1988)
and Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves
(2000).
Director of Freedomofmind.com
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About the book, from its book jacket:
Title: The Man Who Shocked the World: The Life and Legacy of Stanley
Milgram
Creator of the Obedience Experiments and Father of Six Degrees
Author: Thomas Blass
ISBN 0-7382-0399-8
Subject: Biography / Psychology Price: $26.00 US
$40.00 CANADA
Front Flap:
The creator of the famous “Obedience Experiments,” carried
out at Yale in the 1960s, and originator of the “six degrees
of separation” concept, Stanley Milgram was one of the most
innovative scientists of our time. In this sparkling biography—the
first in-depth portrait of Milgram—Thomas Blass captures the
colorful personality and pioneering work of a man who profoundly
altered the way we think about human nature.
Born in the Bronx in 1933, Stanley Milgram was the son of Eastern
European Jews, and his powerful Obedience Experiments had obvious
intellectual roots in the Holocaust. The experiments, which confirmed
that “normal” people would readily inflict pain on innocent
victims at the behest of an authority figure, generated a firestorm
of public interest and outrage—proving, as they did, that
moral beliefs were far more malleable than previously thought?and
ultimately served as the scientific underpinning for Hannah Arendt’s
“banality of evil” perspective.
As a social psychologist, Milgram was a strong believer in the
power of immediate situations to affect a person’s behavior.
But what made his research so original, and so important, was his
ability to transcend the obvious forces at work in any given situation
to unveil the invisible features: the intangible, unspoken rules
that ultimately determine social interactions.
In this groundbreaking book, Blass offers fresh insight into Milgram’s
classic obedience experiments, while introducing readers to the
rest of Milgram’s fascinating work. From information overload
and television violence to the notion of the familiar stranger and
small world, Milgram’s curiosity led him to expand the boundaries
of experimental psychology. Whether it was taking his graduate students
on the New York City subway to observe the behavior of passengers
or accidentally “losing” letters addressed to different
political parties and seeing how many were returned by innocent
passersby, Milgram’s imagination was astonishing. But this
same compulsive creativity also led him to take risks that sometimes
cost him, both personally and professionally.
Although Milgram died at the height of his career, his work continues
to shape the way we live and think today. The obedience experiments
have been discussed in fields as wide-ranging as law, business,
the military, and medicine, and have stirred the dramatic imagination
as well, resulting in movies, plays, and novels. From the Kevin
Bacon game to the new science of networks, Milgram’s legacy
is both far-reaching and profound.
A sweeping look at the rise of social psychology as an immensely
influential field of modern science, The Man Who Shocked the World
is a brilliant and long overdue portrait of an eccentric visionary
who revealed the inner workings of our very social world.
Back flap:
Thomas Blass, Ph.D., a professor of social psychology at the University
of Maryland Baltimore County, is the undisputed expert on Milgram’s
life and work. He has authored more than 40 papers and lectures
on Milgram and lives in Baltimore, Maryland.
Jacket back: Praise for The Man Who Shocked the World:
“Blass’s intimate biography of Stanley Milgram is a
tour de force. We come to understand the reasoning behind his classic
obedience research as well as many of his other vital contributions
to our understanding of the human condition. And we get to know
the man behind the legend in a more personal and informed way. This
is a biography destined to become a classic reading on psychology
and its contributions to probing the nature of the social animal.”
?Philip G. Zimbardo, author of Shyness, and former president, American
Psychological Association
“Like Pavlov’s dogs, ‘the Milgram experiments’
are familiar to educated people everywhere. Thomas Blass, the world’s
leading expert on Milgram, takes us behind the scenes of these and
other Milgram explorations. With literary flair reminiscent of Milgram
himself, Blass marries scholarship and journalism in his intimate
portrayal of the man and his creative mind. This is a major work
that will help define and preserve the Milgram legacy.” ?David
G. Myers, Hope College, author, Social Psychology
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