Library:Bibliography of Bullshit

The Bibliography of Bullshit is Bullshitopedia's founding reading list: 91 books that document, analyze or practice deception. Each book has its own Library page with a summary and links into the taxonomy.

Books are marked by role: Analysis (studies deception) or Primary source (written by a practitioner). Some are also flagged as a Specimen, meaning the work or its author has its own documented credibility problem.

Browse by domain: Politics & Elections · Health & Medicine · Science & Environment · History · Business, Finance & Scams · Technology & Media · Crime & Public Safety · Culture, Religion & Society

#	Title	Author	Year	Role	Domains
1	On Bullshit	Harry G. Frankfurt	2005	Analysis	Culture, Religion & Society
2	Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World	Carl T. Bergstrom & Jevin D. West	2020	Analysis	Science & Environment, Technology & Media
3	How to Lie with Statistics	Darrell Huff	1954	Analysis · Specimen	Science & Environment
4	The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark	Carl Sagan	1995	Analysis	Science & Environment, Health & Medicine
5	Merchants of Doubt	Naomi Oreskes & Erik M. Conway	2010	Analysis	Science & Environment, Health & Medicine
6	Bad Science	Ben Goldacre	2008	Analysis	Health & Medicine
7	Bad Pharma	Ben Goldacre	2012	Analysis	Health & Medicine, Business, Finance & Scams
8	Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds	Charles Mackay	1841	Analysis · Specimen	History, Business, Finance & Scams
9	Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science	Martin Gardner	1952	Analysis	Science & Environment, Health & Medicine
10	Why People Believe Weird Things	Michael Shermer	1997	Analysis	Culture, Religion & Society, Science & Environment
11	Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media	Edward S. Herman & Noam Chomsky	1988	Analysis	Politics & Elections, Technology & Media
12	Propaganda	Edward Bernays	1928	Primary source	Business, Finance & Scams, Politics & Elections
13	Public Opinion	Walter Lippmann	1922	Analysis	Politics & Elections, Technology & Media
14	The Hidden Persuaders	Vance Packard	1957	Analysis · Specimen	Business, Finance & Scams, Technology & Media
15	Amusing Ourselves to Death	Neil Postman	1985	Analysis	Technology & Media, Politics & Elections
16	Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator	Ryan Holiday	2012	Primary source	Technology & Media
17	The Misinformation Age: How False Beliefs Spread	Cailin O'Connor & James Owen Weatherall	2019	Analysis	Science & Environment, Technology & Media
18	Active Measures: The Secret History of Disinformation and Political Warfare	Thomas Rid	2020	Analysis	Politics & Elections, History
19	This Is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality	Peter Pomerantsev	2019	Analysis	Politics & Elections, Technology & Media
20	Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible	Peter Pomerantsev	2014	Analysis	Politics & Elections, Technology & Media
21	Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup	John Carreyrou	2018	Analysis	Business, Finance & Scams, Health & Medicine
22	The Smartest Guys in the Room	Bethany McLean & Peter Elkind	2003	Analysis	Business, Finance & Scams
23	The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine	Michael Lewis	2010	Analysis	Business, Finance & Scams
24	Doubt Is Their Product	David Michaels	2008	Analysis	Health & Medicine, Science & Environment
25	Toxic Sludge Is Good for You!	John Stauber & Sheldon Rampton	1995	Analysis	Business, Finance & Scams, Technology & Media
26	The Death of Expertise	Tom Nichols	2017	Analysis	Culture, Religion & Society, Science & Environment
27	Post-Truth	Lee McIntyre	2018	Analysis	Politics & Elections, Culture, Religion & Society
28	Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals' Abuse of Science	Alan Sokal & Jean Bricmont	1998	Analysis	Science & Environment, Culture, Religion & Society
29	The Honest Truth About Dishonesty	Dan Ariely	2012	Analysis · Specimen	Business, Finance & Scams, Culture, Religion & Society
30	Trick or Treatment: Alternative Medicine on Trial	Simon Singh & Edzard Ernst	2008	Analysis	Health & Medicine
31	The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man	David W. Maurer	1940	Analysis	Crime & Public Safety, Business, Finance & Scams
32	The Confidence Game: Why We Fall for It … Every Time	Maria Konnikova	2016	Analysis	Crime & Public Safety, Business, Finance & Scams
33	Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory	Deborah E. Lipstadt	1993	Analysis	History
34	The Paranoid Style in American Politics	Richard Hofstadter	1965	Analysis	Politics & Elections, History
35	Voodoo Histories: The Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History	David Aaronovitch	2009	Analysis	History, Politics & Elections
36	Science Fictions: How Fraud, Bias, Negligence, and Hype Undermine the Search for Truth	Stuart Ritchie	2020	Analysis	Science & Environment, Health & Medicine
37	Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me)	Carol Tavris & Elliot Aronson	2007	Analysis	Culture, Religion & Society
38	Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions	James Randi	1980	Analysis	Culture, Religion & Society, Science & Environment
39	The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe	Steven Novella et al.	2018	Analysis	Science & Environment, Health & Medicine
40	Bullshit Jobs: A Theory	David Graeber	2018	Analysis	Business, Finance & Scams
41	A Field Guide to Lies: Critical Thinking in the Information Age	Daniel J. Levitin	2016	Analysis	Science & Environment, Technology & Media
42	Proofiness: How You're Being Fooled by the Numbers	Charles Seife	2010	Analysis	Politics & Elections, Science & Environment
43	The Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security	Kevin D. Mitnick & William L. Simon	2002	Primary source	Technology & Media, Crime & Public Safety
44	LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media	P. W. Singer & Emerson T. Brooking	2018	Analysis	Technology & Media, Politics & Elections
45	Network Propaganda	Yochai Benkler, Robert Faris & Hal Roberts	2018	Analysis	Politics & Elections, Technology & Media
46	The Hype Machine	Sinan Aral	2020	Analysis	Technology & Media
47	Truth Decay	Jennifer Kavanagh & Michael D. Rich	2018	Analysis	Politics & Elections, Technology & Media
48	The Cigarette Century	Allan M. Brandt	2007	Analysis	Health & Medicine, Business, Finance & Scams, History
49	Duped: Truth-Default Theory and the Social Science of Lying and Deception	Timothy R. Levine	2019	Analysis	Culture, Religion & Society
50	Liars: Falsehoods and Free Speech in an Age of Deception	Cass R. Sunstein	2021	Analysis	Politics & Elections, Technology & Media
51	The Life-Changing Science of Detecting Bullshit	John V. Petrocelli	2021	Analysis	Culture, Religion & Society, Business, Finance & Scams
52	Where Are the Customers' Yachts? Or, A Good Hard Look at Wall Street	Fred Schwed Jr.	1940	Analysis	Business, Finance & Scams
53	The Great Crash, 1929	John Kenneth Galbraith	1955	Analysis	Business, Finance & Scams, History
54	A Random Walk Down Wall Street	Burton G. Malkiel	1973	Analysis	Business, Finance & Scams
55	Catch Me If You Can	Frank W. Abagnale with Stan Redding	1980	Primary source	Business, Finance & Scams, Technology & Media
56	Liar's Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street	Michael Lewis	1989	Primary source	Business, Finance & Scams
57	Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco	Bryan Burrough & John Helyar	1990	Analysis	Business, Finance & Scams
58	Den of Thieves	James B. Stewart	1991	Analysis	Business, Finance & Scams, Crime & Public Safety
59	F.I.A.S.C.O.: Blood in the Water on Wall Street	Frank Partnoy	1997	Primary source	Business, Finance & Scams
60	Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation	Edward Chancellor	1999	Analysis	Business, Finance & Scams, History
61	When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management	Roger Lowenstein	2000	Analysis	Business, Finance & Scams
62	Fooled by Randomness	Nassim Nicholas Taleb	2001	Analysis	Business, Finance & Scams, Culture, Religion & Society
63	Ponzi's Scheme: The True Story of a Financial Legend	Mitchell Zuckoff	2005	Analysis	Business, Finance & Scams, History
64	The Wolf of Wall Street	Jordan Belfort	2007	Primary source	Business, Finance & Scams, Crime & Public Safety
65	Extraordinary Circumstances: The Journey of a Corporate Whistleblower	Cynthia Cooper	2008	Primary source	Business, Finance & Scams
66	No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller	Harry Markopolos	2010	Primary source	Business, Finance & Scams
67	All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis	Bethany McLean & Joe Nocera	2010	Analysis	Business, Finance & Scams
68	The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust	Diana B. Henriques	2011	Analysis	Business, Finance & Scams, Crime & Public Safety
69	The Spider Network	David Enrich	2017	Analysis	Business, Finance & Scams
70	Black Edge	Sheelah Kolhatkar	2017	Analysis	Business, Finance & Scams, Crime & Public Safety
71	Lying for Money: How Legendary Frauds Reveal the Workings of the World	Dan Davies	2018	Analysis	Business, Finance & Scams
72	Billion Dollar Whale	Tom Wright & Bradley Hope	2018	Analysis	Business, Finance & Scams, Politics & Elections
73	The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion	Eliot Brown & Maureen Farrell	2021	Analysis	Business, Finance & Scams
74	Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty	Patrick Radden Keefe	2021	Analysis	Business, Finance & Scams, Health & Medicine
75	Money Men: A Hot Startup, a Billion Dollar Fraud, a Fight for the Truth	Dan McCrum	2022	Analysis	Business, Finance & Scams
76	Number Go Up: Inside Crypto's Wild Rise and Staggering Fall	Zeke Faux	2023	Analysis	Business, Finance & Scams, Technology & Media
77	Flat Earth News: An Award-Winning Reporter Exposes Falsehood, Distortion and Propaganda in the Global Media	Nick Davies	2008	Analysis	Technology & Media, Politics & Elections
78	Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy	Cathy O'Neil	2016	Analysis	Technology & Media, Business, Finance & Scams
79	The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding from You	Eli Pariser	2011	Analysis	Technology & Media, Politics & Elections
80	Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects Our Minds and How to Build Immunity	Sander van der Linden	2023	Analysis	Technology & Media, Health & Medicine
81	Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies into Reality	Renée DiResta	2024	Analysis	Technology & Media, Politics & Elections
82	The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World	Max Fisher	2022	Analysis	Technology & Media, Politics & Elections
83	Deepfakes: The Coming Infocalypse	Nina Schick	2020	Analysis	Technology & Media, Politics & Elections
84	The Death of Truth: Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump	Michiko Kakutani	2018	Analysis	Politics & Elections, Technology & Media, Culture, Religion & Society
85	Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History	Kurt Andersen	2017	Analysis	Culture, Religion & Society, History
86	Galileo's Middle Finger: Heretics, Activists, and One Scholar's Search for Justice	Alice Dreger	2015	Analysis	Science & Environment, Culture, Religion & Society
87	Wrong: Why Experts Keep Failing Us—And How to Know When Not to Trust Them	David H. Freedman	2010	Analysis	Science & Environment, Health & Medicine, Business, Finance & Scams
88	Snake Oil Science: The Truth About Complementary and Alternative Medicine	R. Barker Bausell	2007	Analysis	Health & Medicine, Science & Environment
89	Conspiracy: Why the Rational Believe the Irrational	Michael Shermer	2022	Analysis	Culture, Religion & Society, Politics & Elections
90	On Disinformation: How to Fight for Truth and Protect Democracy	Lee McIntyre	2023	Analysis	Politics & Elections, Technology & Media
91	Bad Advice: Or Why Celebrities, Politicians, and Activists Aren't Your Best Source of Health Information	Paul A. Offit	2018	Analysis	Health & Medicine, Technology & Media