Packaging Fear: America & the Art of Persuasion (2009): Los Angeles Times Festival of Books

The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books began in 1996 with a simple goal: to bring together the people who create books with the people who love to read them. The festival was an immediate success and has become the largest and most prestigious book festival in the country, attracting more than 130,000 book lovers each year.

Barry Glassner is the author of seven books on contemporary social issues including The Culture of Fear, which was voted a 2000 Best Book of the Year by the Los Angeles Times. His latest work is The Gospel of Food.

Kathryn S. Olmsted is a professor of history at UC Davis. She is the author of Challenging the Secret Government, Red Spy Queen and most recently Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War I to 9/11. Joshua Cooper Ramo is a managing director and a partner at Kissinger Associates, one of the world's leading strategic advisory firms. He has written The Age of the Unthinkable, in which he puts forth a new model for understanding the world.

Nancy Snow, a Huffington Post blogger and public diplomacy professor, is the author of The Arrogance of American Power and Information War. Her latest book is Persuader-in-Chief: Global Opinion and Public Diplomacy in the Age of Obama.