Career
His research specialties include cultural sociology, qualitative methods and media studies. Glassner has authored or co-authored nine books, including The Culture of Fear, which discussed the culture of fear phenomenon. He says that many of Americans" concerns and fears are largely unfounded.
An updated and enlarged tenth anniversary edition of The Culture of Fear was published by Basic Books in 2010.
In it, Glassner decries: "The use of poignant anecdotes in place of scientific evidence, the christening of isolated incidents as trends, depictions of entire categories of people as innately dangerous. "
Glassner"s scholarly articles have been published in journals including the American Sociological Review, Social Problems, American Journal of Psychiatry, and Journal of Health and Social Behavior.
Glassner argues in The Gospel of Food (released in hardcover in January 2007 and paperback in January 2008) that much of what Americans read and hear about food is inaccurate and unhelpful. He discussed this topic in depth in his interview on the Skeptics" Guide podcast.
Michael Moore interviewed him in the film Bowling for Columbine.
Some statistics cited by Moore and a story about President George West. Bush mentioned in the film are from Glassner"s writings. Barry Glassner was appointed executive vice provost at University of Southern California in June 2005. He served on University of Southern California"s Development Committee, Provost"s Advisory Committee and Budget Advisory Committee, among others
Glassner has published his research in journals in the social sciences and medicine and was chair of academic departments at Syracuse University and the University of Connecticut prior to arriving at University of Southern California, where he was recruited to become department chairman
