Reveals the secret story of subliminal influence, showing how an obscure concept from experimental psychology became a mainstream belief about our vulnerability to manipulation in an age of media clutter. Chronicles the enduring popularity of the dubious claims about subliminal influence, tracking their migration from nineteenth-century hypnotism to twentieth-century front-page news. Expansive history of popular concern about subliminal messages shows how the notion of hidden persuaders became a vernacular media critique, one reflecting anxiety about a rapidly expanding media environment. Through a deep archive of eclectic examples, including educational technology in the American classroom, mind-control tropes in science fiction, Marshall McLuhan s media theories, and sensational claims in the late 1950s about subliminal advertising, establishes the subliminal as both a product of and a balm for information overload. From publisher description.