The Battle for Trust - by David Ryback (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

I Applaud The Work You Are Doing On the Vital Subject of Trust--The Thread That Holds Everything Together. -SCOTT PELLEY, 60 MINUTES REPORTER, CBS

Need and Purpose of The Battle for Trust:
Why It's Unique
The decisions to trust--or not--are pervasive throughout our everyday lives. Whether or not we trust others, for example, depends on many factors, and they all have a history.

The battle to trust or mistrust, as experienced at the personal, political and cultural levels, are revealed in this well-documented story. This book illuminates the nature of trust, a deeply abstract and critically important concept. The purpose here is to reveal to you what trust is as a psychological, political, and cultural phenomenon and how its deep roots, within each of us, guide our feelings toward how we experience it in our daily lives.

What is so unique about this book? Here are five solid answers. This book:

1. Begins by exploring the evolutionary origins of trust, its psychological and neuroscientific aspects. This is a brand new focus for a history of trust, backed up, later in the book, by deep research on how early primates dealt with conspiracies.
2. Offers a fresh perspective of trust. It takes the development of language, from written to printed to digital, as a framework for understanding the history of the battle for trust over the ages.
3. Offers a new analysis of trust with its various dimensions, from interpersonal, institutional, political, conspiratorial and tribal, to name a few.
4. Deals with the scary times that come with the current issue of trust. The political climate is very uncertain. The overriding question is whether democracy will survive, not only in the US but across the globe as well. At home, we are facing resentment and violence in our political scene as never before. This book provides a framework to face the challenges of gossip, misinformation and conspiracy theories squarely and directly.
5. Explores the advent of generative AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, GPT-4o, DeepSeek and Gemini which further complicate the issue of trust, especially with the abuse of deepfakes. This history takes a hard look at the substantial effect of the Age of Mistrust in our social media culture.

Review Quotes

If you want some answers you can trust about the loss of trust in our culture, take a long breath and read this luminous volume on the crisis of fear and trust. You will find a comprehensive and historical perspective on how trust was eroded, but this is not an analysis without offering a solution. You will find some deep and operational proposals on how trust can be restored. - Harville Hendrix, PhD, and Helen LaKelly Hunt, PhD, coauthors of Getting the Love You Want: A Guide for Couples

What an intriguing and captivating piece of work! Very well written and deeply thought-provoking. I enjoyed the book and some of the segments so viscerally. Spot on for those wrestling with "trust" as a concept. Bottom line, I reread much of the writing because I wanted to ponder and savor it. I also reread the last part about deterring nuclear conflict because the ramifications are so crucial to our survival. I love that it caused me to stop and ponder the deep-rooted quest for trust.- Dr. Shirley Garrett, author, A Tap Water Girl in a Bottled Water World

How to find trust in a world of fear and alternate realities--it's a mighty question--and fortunately, the author has the answers. His years of experience and keen understanding of human nature make him uniquely qualified to tackle all aspects of this monumental subject. And his skills as a writer ensure that his conclusions are presented to you in an engaging, engrossing, and empathic fashion. Required reading for anyone struggling with issues of trust--or its absence. - Matt R. Lohr, award-winning screenwriter, essayist, and critic, coauthor of Dan O'Bannon's Guide to Screenplay Structure

A remarkable exploration of the layers of trust throughout history. The author's exceptional research and attention to detail engagingly connect the importance of trust in our everyday lives, opening up discussions on so many areas, such as the future of chatbots and AI, and introducing new perspectives that have not been thought about before. In the age of growing mistrust, this work serves as a timely reminder, urging us to stay vigilant. It couldn't have arrived at a more crucial moment for understanding and navigating the complexities of trust in our modern world. I think this is terrific. - Pardis Sabeti, MD, Harvard professor and author, Outbreak Culture. TIME magazine Person of the Year, 2014