This book is thought provoking. For me, it’s best read slowly, every page pondered and savored; revisited when the time calls for it.

The author offers a interesting take on denial. It may not go in the direction you presume and it is worth the read as the author explores denial in public and in private.

Denial seemed like a coffee table version of an intro to sociology textbook specific to the subject. It was a refresher with just enough depth to interest me, but not overly technical to make it a difficult read. More recent events were covered, but it fell short on application and where things go from here. The pdf version was not reader friendly.

Thanks to NetGalley and NYU for an ARC.

Thank you for NetGalley and the editor for the e-arc of this book. I have to admit that there was a problem when I downloaded it on my e-reader so I couldn't read it entirely, but this is a good and interesting book. Like honestly I need to read it asap because it's good.
I liked the approach of the author about denial and how it's everywhere. Also, it's been so long since I've read an essay without feeling stupid.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC! This was an incredibly fascinating book, and I learned a lot. I really liked how this book was structured and the use of real world events to explain the concepts talked about in this book was really well done. I especially liked the last two chapters as they felt the most relevant to current society. I took a lot of notes while reading this book and I am so glad I did. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and I am so glad I got a chance to read this ARC.

A book called Denial has the potential to explain a lot of things, particularly about modern society, cancel culture, fake news and newspeak. Unfortunately, Jared Del Rosso’s book doesn’t so much explain as list. It is a disappointment.

There is a small corner of sociology where denial has carved out a space for itself. It is populated by a small cadre of academics who contribute to the cause, and quote each other. Del Rosso teaches denial at a university. He has a whole semester-long curriculum, including annual stunts like wearing his sweater inside out, or having bits of food on his face when he addresses the class. He is looking for reaction, and he gets it, but is it denial? Is politeness, the desire to have things move smoothly uninterrupted or disrupting the flow with pointless embarrassment “denial”? He thinks so.

The book is filled with examples, as Del Rosso scales up from the trivial to the significant. But it takes a good hundred pages before the reader will cave and think, okay, that’s really denial. But even then, the mere listing of examples signifies nothing. And it turns out that listing is all it really is.

This being his profession, Del Rosso has found several ways of looking at ordinary situations as if they were denials. But the more I read, the more I thought – only to him.

The stories he cites are often engrossing. Most of them were headliners in their time. The Kitty Genovese murder for example. This woman was murdered, and screamed for help all through it. The newspapers claimed there were 38 eyewitnesses in her Queens neighborhood that night, and no one helped or even called it in. It led to decades of research into the moral collapse of western urban civilization. The heartless urban dwellers, the inhumanity of cities, and so on.

But it wasn’t true. Numerous people called it in, so many that others couldn’t get through. One man screamed for the aggressor to stop. A neighbor in the common hallway cradled her until help finally came – far too late.

It’s a significant and remarkable story. But denial? Readers will be hardpressed to find it. The only real truth to come from it all is the new genus called urban bystander. When there are a lot of people around, some feel no need to help. They believe the situation is being addressed adequately by others. Is that denial?

There are stories of police killing Blacks, and of psychology grads running experiments on undergrads. But denial does not jump off the page at the reader. He even explores schoolyard excuses like He started it. But self-justification is not denial as I know it. Rapists say she was asking for it. George Zimmerman was acting in self-defense when he murdered Trayvon Martin. So did the police when they murdered Laquan MacDonald – and then lied about it until a judge forced them to release the dashcam footage. These are examples Del Rosso has collected of denial.

He can even slice denials into smaller buckets, like the aforementioned self-justification, or redirection, or any number of other aspects and flavors. But again, these amount to nothing more than lists, as Del Rosso seems unable to actually do anything with his categories.

He thinks that denial can be packaged neatly. He defines it this way: “Denial, then, takes two forms: attention-management strategies and rhetorical strategies. The former enables us to silence or hide troubling truths and inconvenient facts, keeping them from pressing into social life. The latter, meanwhile, help us to minimize those troubling truths and inconvenient facts when they intrude.” This he says, is the essence of his book. It is not enough. And it is wrong.

Yes (and obviously), it can be a way to strategically deflect accusations. That perpetrators are acting with malice aforethought, and they know it. That it is planned, even scripted. Denial is part of their scheme to be on the wrong side of decency. That certainly can be.

It also certainly can be that there is no strategy at all. That deniers actually believe what they are claiming. That this attitude or position has come to them honestly through generations of bigots, xenophobes, racists, con artists and horse thieves. That they consider their behaviors and attitudes standard and even righteous. So they are not scheming; they are sincere. But Del Rosso needs them to fit his little boxes, so these possibilities are sloughed off or avoided altogether. Ironically, he is unconsciously denying their possibility.

Where it is clearly true is in corporate malfeasance, the constant gaslighting of customers by Big Tobacco or Pharma or Chemicals or Ag: “Organizations also control knowledge by controlling the information that outsiders can access. When all else fails, they can produce junk science, partial truths and outright lies masquerading as facts, as tobacco, opioid and petroleum companies have done to obscure the dangers of their products. The strategies of attention management then, are not simply interactional; they also take uniquely organizational forms.” They deny as if their corporate life depended on it.

I think we all know that.

He extends it, quite naturally, to government, denying it employed torture in Iraq or Guantanamo. Claiming Ukraine bombed its own people to make Russia look bad. These are out and out lies. Is lying the flipside of denial? Is it necessary and sufficient for denial? Del Rosso does not say.

Late in the book, he hits on racial discrimination. It is the most satisfying chapter, and whites are clearly in denial. They make all kinds of excuses. They claim to be colorblind, or to not be responsible for what went on 300 years ago. All true, but so what? Del Rosso does not leverage any of it into a problem-solution scenario. There is no prescription for being caught up in it, getting out of it, or calling it out for what it really is. Del Rosso is an observer, nothing more.

So what can you do with all this newfound knowledge about denial? As far as he will go is this: “Naming denial, we foreground it. Foregrounding it, we denaturalize it, by which I mean we reveal its strategic use by people to explain away their transgressions. The denier no longer appears spontaneous and authentic in their efforts at defending themselves and protecting allies. Rather, their use of denial appears scripted, rehearsed, intentional and self-serving, as the use of denial usually is; the denier is acting and speaking in ways that most anyone in their position, accused of similar offenses, acts and speaks.”

This is just not enough for a booklong exposition of denial.

David Wineberg

I don’t normally read non fiction books but the description of this one really intrigued me, and I’m glad I read it. This book gave a very interesting and unique perspective on the denials of our society and how unaware we are of how present it is around us. Topics in this book included racism and how people deny their racist thoughts and privilege, public figures caught in a scandal and also how we all deceive ourselves. I would definitely recommend reading this.

Denial by Jared Del Rosso is an important and interesting read that offers a new, fresh perspective on denial. I would absolutely recommend this book to other people, as it is the perfect insight for someone who is completely new to this topic. It is however an acquired taste, you do have to have at least a slight interest in either politics or psychology to take something from this book.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and NYU for gifting me an advanced copy of this book.

A super interesting take on the topic of denial. This book offers a unique and fresh perspective about denial as a society. The book highlights how as individuals and society we are unaware of how present this concept is. It was an easy read for someone who is not a specialist. I have not read previous work by this author but will definitely look out for further works. I would recommend this to anyone who wants to learn about this topic further.

Thank you to NetGallery and NYU press for the advance copy of this book.

Giving this 5 stars out of fairness, but I was unable to read this due to the PDF format. I have a Kindle, which doesn't accept PDF. And when I tried to read this in the NetGalley app, I had to literally zoom in manually to read every sentence... No thanks lol.

This was a fantastic book and a fresh perspective on denial. I love reading books about self-deception, but some get repetitive. Jared Del Rosso took a variety of different angles when it comes to denial. Aside from topics about how we deceive ourselves, he also discusses what happens when public figures are caught and deny things due to a scandal. He then dives into issues such as racism and the various ways people deny racist views or privilege and what’s going on. This is a super interesting book, and I recommend it to anyone interested in the topic.

Thought provoking.
Intuitive.
Rare.
Marvellous.

From looking at someone with a zipper open to Harvey Weinstein. Catholic Churches to a basic denial of a crime. This book covers it all in a superb way. It looks at why we deny, how we deny. It shows us things we do as humans that make denial seem acceptable. The language of denial.
The author has researched incredibly well for this book. It’s written well and should be compulsory reading! It’s a human race reality check!
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Although I think Denial is an important subject, I just could not maintain an interest in this book. Since I read only a small part of the book, I feel I cannot fairly review it.

I read Denial just after reading Useful Delusions: The Power and Paradox of the Self-Deceiving by Shankar Vedantam and the two books were quite interesting in tandem - almost like reading two sides of the same coin. The role and pervasiveness of denial throughout society as presented in this book is really quite fascinating, if not a little depressing. This book really highlights the pernicious nature of denial, particularly when one is unaware of one's own ability to deny reality or one's own level of denial. I would definitely recommend this book.

Denial, an important aspect to taking in and absorbing information to fit the narrative you have written. This book would be useful for readers looking to be more critical of the information they take it and whether or not they are unconsciously internalizing the parts that fit their perceived narrative, thereby contributing to further denial in their world

Denial is a book where the authors demonstrate how the strategies of denial are used almost daily albeit subconsciously by everyone. Denial can be socially helpful to smooth out awkward situations and this is harmless. However, denial, is often used in institutions, like the army, or police force, or in organisations to ‘normalize’ unacceptable behaviour. This becomes very damaging.
The book makes the reader aware of the many faces and forms of denial and how present it is.
I found this book useful and I am now much more watchful about my own denials and denial strategies used in public discourse.

Unfortunately, I am unable to read this egalley as a download due to font/formatting and, therefore, cannot give meaningful feedback.