The Nonverbal Communication Reader: Classic and Contemporary Readings, 3/

by Laura K. Guerrero and Michael L. Hecht (

A collection of 52 previously published articles designed to serve as a textbook of an undergraduate course in nonverbal communication. Primarily focusing on research in the field of communication, the contributions are organized into sections on beginning perspectives, kinesic clues, appearance and adornment cues, contact codes, vocalics (the use of sound and silence), time and place codes, expressing emotion and intimacy, power and persuasion, creating impressions and managing interaction, and contemporary theory. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Paperback

First published January 21, 1999

Reviews

[A Crawley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably the most overarching, clear, and simple academic book on NVC out there. There are others more advanced (Matsumoto et al., 2015), more actualized (Burgoon et al., 2022), or complex Hall & Kanpp, 2013). Nevertheless, this one gives a sufficiently comprehensive picture of the different functions, channels, and messages that NVC can accomplish with simple summaries of complex studies.

The structure is based on a collection of highly important academic articles with historical importance and important researchers and trailblazers in the field.

The most notable things are the very precise introduction, the great simplicity in explaining how research is conducted, and being able to read a lot of long articles as a summary of each one of them.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the uninitiated, this book is really boring and it seems like the writers are fishing for meaning where no meaning is usually attributed to. However, upon closer inspection and after years of reading other materials, I've only begun to understand the deep significance of this book. Definitely an interesting read that should be revisited every now and then.