Books by Frank Rose

 

In a series of nonfiction books on a wide range of topics, Frank Rose shows how the way we humans view ourselves as individuals is changing in response to the shifting rules, expectations and power structures that govern our behavior. While his early books focus on specific subcultures and rivalries — in academia, in Silicon Valley, in Hollywood — in his later work he broadens the picture to demonstrate how these forces of disruption, whether cultural or technological, are fundamentally rewiring our sense of self and our perception of reality.

The Sea We Swim In

How Stories Work in a Data-Driven World
The Sea We Swim In

“It’s a zingier version, then, of the post-Aristotelian story-theory books beloved of screenwriters, with a rich range of reference that takes in the novels of Gustave Flaubert as well as the twists of ABC’s ‘Lost.’ But the analysis has a wider salience. . . . It’s critical thinking for an age of pervasive media.”

— Steven Poole, The Wall Street Journal

WE SWIM IN A SEA OF STORIES — stories that determine how we comprehend the world, that define our personal lives, our professional lives, our goals and ambitions and ideals. They can control us, or we can control them — if we know how they work. LEARN MORE…

The Art of Immersion

How the Digital Generation Is Changing Hollywood, Madison Avenue, and the Way We Tell Stories
The Art of Immersion

“An essential overview. . . . Applications in the academic world are clear (it is already on the syllabi for classes at USC and Columbia), but it also constitutes a prerequisite for those wishing to enter Hollywood, and marketers or PR professionals wishing to engage an increasingly fragmented audience.”

— International Journal of Advertising

NOT LONG AGO WE WERE passive consumers of mass media. Now we approach television, movies, even advertising as invitations to participate. We are witnessing the emergence of a new form of narrative that is native to the In­ternet. LEARN MORE…

The Agency

William Morris and The Hidden History of Show Business
The Agency

“A cram course on the modern entertainment business as seen not from the cus­tomary perspective of the talent, but from the point of view of the humble appa­ratchiks who doggedly tried to prevent the lunatics from wrecking their asylum.”

— Peter Bart, The New York Times Book Review

FOR DECADES, the Morris agency made deals that determined the fate of stars, studios, and television networks alike. But everything changed after the agency’s president dismissed his own best friend, the man who’d brought Barry Diller and Michael Ovitz out of the mailroom. A multi-generational saga of loyalty and betrayal in Hollywood. LEARN MORE…

West of Eden

The End of Innocence at Apple Computer
West of Eden

“Readers don’t need to worry that Mr. Rose was chewed up by Apple’s public relations machine. . . . He provides convincing proof that life at young California companies was anything but laid back.”

— Michael Moritz, The Wall Street Journal

IT SEEMS UNTHINKABLE TODAY—but forty years ago, when personal com­puters were still new and the World Wide Web had yet to be invented, Steve Jobs was cast out of Apple. And it wasn’t just Wall Street that applauded—it was most of Silicon Valley. LEARN MORE…

Into the Heart of the Mind

An American Quest For Artificial Intelligence
Into the Heart of the Mind

“A good, acces­sible re­port for the gen­eral reader on one of the most bizarre fas­cina­tions of mod­ern sci­ence.”

— Theo­dore Roszak, San Fran­cis­co Chron­icle

IN A CRAMPED LABORATORY at Berkeley, scientists are trying to teach a computer to think — to reason, remember and exhibit common sense. To make it work, they need to codify the entirety of human thought. But first they have to get their machine to put on a raincoat before going out in the rain. LEARN MORE…

Real Men

Sex and Style In An Uncertain Age
Real Men

“If ‘Real Men’ is an accurate survey of the current state of masculinity in America, then it’s doing just fine, thank you, without John Wayne. But even if ‘Real Men’ isn’t a representative sampling (and it doesn’t pretend to be), it’s valuable as a series of vivid, meticulous portraits—sharply written, insightfully photographed, enthralling as no myth can ever be but reality always is.”

— The Village Voice

THIS IS A BOOK ABOUT BEING MALE. About power and discipline, sex and violence, and the roles they play in the lives of American men. Think of it as a personal and idiosyncratic survey designed to produce not statistical data but individual answers to the question of what it means to be a man. LEARN MORE…