Books by Frank Rose


NOW AVAILABLE:

The Sea We Swim In Teaching Guide

Before it was a book, The Sea We Swim In was a study companion for participants in Frank’s executive education seminar in Strategic Storytelling at Columbia University. Now Norton has made his new, 23-page teaching guide available for free download to anyone who would like to use the book as a teaching resource. Included are discussion questions, suggested workshops and outside resources (including academic papers, online videos and magazine and newspaper articles) for every chapter, along with chapter summaries that explain the arc of the book and the nine key elements of story that Frank lays out in its pages.

“Frank Rose’s fascinating new book is an essential companion for our age — when narratives, no matter how incredible, produce real-world outcomes that defy all reason. ‘The Sea We Swim In’ takes us systematically through the elements that create compelling stories and offers a practical guide both to crafting powerful tales and to resisting the pull of the most dangerous.”

— Rita McGrath, Columbia Business School professor and author of “Seeing Around Corners”

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 about The Sea We Swim In …

“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 about The Art of Immersion …

“This juicy narrative reveals the shark tank at its most lethal and hilarious. The anecdotes come at us at assault-rifle speed, but it’s Rose’s deft use of show-biz vernacular that keeps the pages turning.”

— San Francisco Chronicle

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 about The Agency …

“Zesty, highly readable . . . ‘West of Eden’ delivers a bracing keyhole view of a swarm of rich, talented people frequently at each others’ throats. The author . . . has a sharp eye for the painful contradictions in people’s lives that make you glad he’s profiling somebody else.”

— San Francisco Chronicle

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 ore about West of Eden …

“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 in the Berkeley engineering school, scientists are trying to teach a computer to think—not just to shuffle data but to learn, reason, remember, understand English, and exhibit common sense. But first they have to get it to put on a raincoat before going out in the rain. Learn more about Into the Heart of the Mind …

“‘Real men’ are making a come­back. You know the kind I mean: The strut­ting, curly-haired guys whose pec­torals move more fre­quently than their mouths. . . . Isn’t any­one going to call these guys’ bluffs? A new book does.”

— Los Angeles Herald-Examiner

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 about Real Men…