Obedience to Authority - (Perennial Classics) by Stanley Milgram (Paperback)

About the Book

THE INSPIRATION FOR THE MAJOR MOTION PICTURE THE EXPERIMENTER

The classic account of the human tendency to follow orders, no matter who they hurt or what their consequences. Michael Dirda, Washington Post Book World

In the 1960s Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram famously carried out a series of experiments that forever changed our perceptions of morality and free will. The subjects or teachers were instructed to administer electroshocks to a human learner, with the shocks becoming progressively more powerful and painful. Controversial but now strongly vindicated by the scientific community, these experiments attempted to determine to what extent people will obey orders from authority figures regardless of consequences. Milgram s experiments on obedience have made us more aware of the dangers of uncritically accepting authority, wrote Peter Singer in the New York Times Book Review. Featuring a new introduction from Dr. Philip Zimbardo, who conducted the famous Stanford Prison Experiment, Obedience to Authority is Milgram s fascinating and troubling chronicle of his classic study and a vivid and persuasive explanation of his conclusions."

Book Synopsis

One of the most important books in social psychology of the last fifty years, "The classic account of the human tendency to follow orders, no matter who they hurt or what their consequences." (Washington Post Book World)

The landmark examination of humanity's susceptibility to authoritarianism, Stanley Milgram's classic speaks to the present with disturbing urgency. "Milgram's experiments on obedience have made us more aware of the dangers of uncritically accepting authority," observed Peter Singer in the New York Times Book Review.

In the 1960s, Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram famously carried out a series of experiments that forever changed our perceptions of morality and free will. The subjects--or "teachers"--were instructed to administer electroshocks to a human "learner," with the shocks becoming progressively more powerful and painful. Controversial but now strongly vindicated by the scientific community, these experiments attempted to determine to what extent people will obey orders from authority figures regardless of consequences. "The aim of this investigation was to find when and how people would defy authority in the face of a clear moral imperative."

With an introduction from Dr. Philip Zimbardo, who conducted the famous Stanford Prison Experiment, Obedience to Authority is Milgram's fascinating and troubling chronicle of his classic study and a vivid and persuasive explanation of his conclusions.

From the Back Cover

THE INSPIRATION FOR THE MAJOR MOTION PICTURE THE EXPERIMENTER

"The classic account of the human tendency to follow orders, no matter who they hurt or what their consequences." -- Michael Dirda, Washington Post Book World

In the 1960s Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram famously carried out a series of experiments that forever changed our perceptions of morality and free will. The subjects--or "teachers"--were instructed to administer electroshocks to a human "learner," with the shocks becoming progressively more powerful and painful. Controversial but now strongly vindicated by the scientific community, these experiments attempted to determine to what extent people will obey orders from authority figures regardless of consequences. "Milgram's experiments on obedience have made us more aware of the dangers of uncritically accepting authority," wrote Peter Singer in the New York Times Book Review. Featuring a new introduction from Dr. Philip Zimbardo, who conducted the famous Stanford Prison Experiment, Obedience to Authority is Milgram's fascinating and troubling chronicle of his classic study and a vivid and persuasive explanation of his conclusions.

Review Quotes

"Milgram's experiments on obedience have made us more aware of the dangers of uncritically accepting authority." -- Peter Singer, New York Times Book Review

"The classic account of the human tendency to follow orders, no matter who they hurt or what their consequences." -- Michael Dirda, Washington Post Book World

"Stanley Milgram's experiments on obedience to malevolent authority seemed to me to be the most important social psychological research done in this generation. . . . The quality of exposition in the book is so high that it qualifies as literature as well as science." -- Roger Brown, Harvard University

"This well-designed and brilliantly executed research study, reported in an unusually fascinating and very readable style, reveals the elusive and sometimes shocking conditions under which men obey authority regardless of the morality involved." -- Library Journal

"A major contribution to our knowledge of man's behavior. It establishes firmly in the front rank of social scientists in this generation." -- Jerome S. Brunner, Oxford University

"One of the most significant books I have read in more than two decades of reviewing." -- Robert Kirsch, Los Angeles Times

"Milgrim's experiment-based analysis is a model of systematic, sequential, patient pursuit of answers to a significant social problem. His investigations accomplish what we should expect of responsible social science: to inform the intellect without trivializing the phenomenon." -- Henry W. Reicken, Science