Books by Jaap van Ginneken

    SOME GENERAL CHARACTERIZATIONS

    2017, Kurt Baschwitz: ‘Major service to the study of mass communication … Helpsto correct Baschwitz’s omission from the story … Will eventually help to rediscover the originality of the great contributions of this pioneering scholar’.

    2003, Collective behavior and public opinion: ‘Courageous and perceptive … I love this book … A trail-blazing book … An educational achievement of some stature’.

    1998, Understanding global news: ‘Eminently readable, lively and critical … Systematic, clear, amply illustrated, and engaging … Wide-ranging, highly accessible and lucid’.

    1992, Crowds, psychology and politics: ‘A landmark study …Concise, lively, thoughtful, accurate and endlessly informative … Fascinating and superbly documented … The most complete and balanced account available … Succeeds in a masterful fashion’.

    2001, Shock wave: ‘Never a dull moment’.

    1993, Crazes and crashes: ‘Fascinating … A nice Christmas present … Skillfully elaborated and appealing examples … A funnier book on economics has yet to be written … Pleasant style … Suitable for a wider audience’.

    DETAILS, FOR SOME ACADEMIC TITLES

    2017: Kurt Baschwitz – Pioneer of Communication Studies and Social Psychology (Amsterdam University Press). Also in Dutch.

    • Willem Koops, distinguished professor, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands: ‘Presents the extraordinary life and scientific works of the brilliant European scientist Kurt Baschwitz, one of the founding fathers of the study of mass psychology and media studies in Europe. The book will eventually help to rediscover the originality of the great contributions of this pioneering scholar’. 

    • Necsus (European Network of Cinema and Media Studies, July 10, 2018): ‘Van Ginneken’s book helps to correct Baschwitz’s omission from the story of social, political and mass psychology, as well as mass communication and media studies’. (Geert Lovink, Institute of Network Cultures).

    • Journal of International Communication 2018 (Routledge, Vol. 24, No. 2, pp. 326-30).: ‘By rescuing Baschwitz from oblivion, Van Ginneken (e.g., 1998, 2007) has once again performed a major service to the study of mass communication. It is interesting to note the obvious similarities between the biographer and his subject … Scholars of mass communication would do well not only to remember Baschwitz, but also Van Ginneken’. (Tabe Bergman, Xi’an/ Liverpool University, Suzhou, PRC).   

    • De Volkskrant, Dutch quality daily: Selected among the 40 best books of the year, all categories confounded.

    2003: Collective behavior and public opinion (Erlbaum). Also in Dutch.
    • Preview, International Journal of Public Opinion Research: ‘This book intends to give academics and practitioners a new and refreshing insight … very readable for the general public’.
Netherlands edition: Brein-bevingen (Boom, 1999).
    • Professional monthly Comma: ‘This courageous and perceptive book … provides captivating, but also useful insights’.

    • Professional monthly Communicatie, Bookmarks (preferred books) section (March 2001): ‘I love this book, because it effectively relativizes the row of books next to it on the bookshelf. They are about planning and design, or about painstaking predictive research. Mind-quakes is an anti-planning book. It convinces through the great number of explanations, why things evolve differently from what you think. Once you finish it, you look around in a different way… 

    However contrarian this book is with regard to the current literature in the field of communication planning, it squares well with communication practice – with its chaotic agenda’s and the dousing of fires left and right … A good feel for the psycho-dynamics in public opinion is much more important than ‘solid audience research’ which must fix the situation. Whoever wants to develop this feel, should read Van Ginneken’. 

    • GVR Advertising Association: ‘A trail-blazing book’. 

    • Quarterly P&M (‘Psychology and society’, summer 2001): ‘There is no other possibility than that this book is meant to be a catalyst for a paradigm shift in the social sciences – although Van Ginneken is not so pretentious as to state this. In its integrative ambition it reminds us of The tears of  the crocodile by Piet Vroon [a best-seller of a few years ago about the triunal brain], but apparently Van Ginneken has imposed a stricter direction upon himself. 

The terse rhythm of the various chapters makes that he never goes off the road; and with its elegant architecture and accessible style the book is an educational achievement of some stature. Of course it cannot be excluded that the author has built a castle in the air - the future will tell. But it is truly a beautiful and engaging construction. And the book itself teaches us that castles in the air may indeed change reality …’.

    1998: Understanding global news (Sage). Also in Dutch.

    • Educational Media International: ‘An eminently readable, lively and critical introduction to news media’.

    • European Journal of Communication: ‘A relatively sophisticated and accessible introductory text … Van Ginneken has produced a valuable classroom text but, by itself, his book compels this reviewer to consider the importance of a complementary political-economic analysis’.

    • European Journal of Cultural Studies: ‘The book is an effective introduction to the world of critical media theory, full of references and paradox, familiarizing the reader with the rather specific difficulties of this theoretical field. It reads well, despite its leaning to vitriol, which is understandable considering the nature of modern media culture’.

    • Journal of Mass Media Ethics: ‘The news media have made us eyewitnesses to significant events whenever they have taken place. Or so it seems. Jaap van Ginneken … has written this textbook to show systematically just how misleading this impression is … Understanding global news is systematic, clear, amply illustrated, and engaging’.

    • Peter Dahlgren (Lund University, Sweden): ‘Wide-ranging, highly accessible and lucid; students in both professional and academic studies will find this book engaging and useful’.

    1992: Crowds, psychology and politics (Cambridge University Press).

    • American Historical Review: ‘A worthwhile contribution’ 

    • British Journal for the History of Science: ‘A fine example of an accessible and scholarly analysis’

    • Choice: ‘A landmark study’ 

    • Contemporary Psychology: ‘The most thorough study available in any language on the origins and character of European “crowd psychology” … a concise, lively, thoughtful, accurate, and endlessly informative history; it will undoubtedly become the key resource in the field’ 

    • History of European Ideas: ‘Meticulous research and well-marshalled arguments … a well-worked, detailed and critical study’ 

    • History of the Human Sciences: ‘A fascinating and superbly documented book’ 

    • Isis: ‘A balanced view … remarkably comprehensive’ 

    • Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences: ‘A work of careful and detailed scholarship … now certainly the most complete and balanced account of early crowd psychology available’

    • Nature: ‘Van Ginneken shows an easy mastery both of the literature and of previously unexploited primary sources’

    • Theory and psychology: ‘He succeeds in a masterful fashion … a rich and well-documented account’ 

    • Times Educational Supplement: ‘An informative and useful addition to the literature’.

DETAILS, FOR SOME POPULAR/ GENERAL AUDIENCE BOOKS, IN DUTCH

    2001: Schokgolf – Omgaan  met opiniedynamiek. (Boom). (‘Shock wave – Dealing with opinion dynamics’).

    • Professional monthly Communicatie: ‘Never a dull moment … ‘

    1993: Rages & crashes – Over de onvoorspelbaarheid van de economie. (Gottmer/ Aramith). (‘Crazes and crashes – About the unpredictability of the economy’). 

    • Algemeen Dagblad daily: Van Ginneken is fascinated by the dynamics underlying the unpredictable … ‘I have another nice recent example which might well have fitted into my book’, he says with gleaming eyes … ‘The Michael Jackson affair’. 

    • Beleggers Belangen (investor’s weekly): ‘The theme of Crazes and crashes is psychological epidemics … Van Ginneken describes numerous big successes and failures, the herd instinct of man, the reactions of people to stories about drugs in kid candy or earthworms in hamburgers’.

    • Beursplein 5 (stockmarket weekly): ‘A fascinating chapter about clock- and calender effects’.

    • Folia university weekly: ‘The book is a nice Santa Claus [Christmas] present for the aspiring entrepreneur … Don’t give the book to an aspiring scientist, who may burst into tears [in despair]. As it turns out the job [of measurement, prediction and control] is not always very easy’.

    • De Gelderlander a.o. (major regional dailies): ‘Billion dollar images with the strength of a soap bubble … A number of skillfully elaborated and appealing examples of failures but also of gigantic successes’.

    • Marktbericht, PWT (science information): ‘A funnier book on economics has yet to be written’.

    • Medium (communication studies): ‘The book is written in a pleasant style … The reading of Crazes and crashes has very much amused me personally. The book is recommended’.