Status AnxietyAnyone who’s ever lost sleep over an unreturned phone call or the neighbor’s Lexus had better read Alain de Botton’s irresistibly clear-headed new book, immediately. For in its pages, a master explicator of our civilization and its discontents turns his attention to the insatiable quest for status, a quest that has less to do with material comfort than with love. To demonstrate his thesis, de Botton ranges through Western history and thought from St. Augustine to Andrew Carnegie and Machiavelli to Anthony Robbins. Whether it’s assessing the class-consciousness of Christianity or the convulsions of consumer capitalism, dueling or home-furnishing, Status Anxiety is infallibly entertaining. And when it examines the virtues of informed misanthropy, art appreciation, or walking a lobster on a leash, it is not only wise but helpful. |
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LibraryThing Review
User Review - michaelm42071 - LibraryThingDe Botton begins well enough by presenting our desire for “the love of the world” and affirmation from others as a parallel for our desire for sexual love. Incredible material progress since the ... Read full review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - otterley - LibraryThingNothing particularly earth shattering or revelatory here (in fact you're likely to spend your time questioning and challenging quite a lot of the rather bold historical assertions here) - but it's ... Read full review
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Bibliographic information
| Title | Status Anxiety Vintage International |
| Author | Alain De Botton |
| Publisher | Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2008 |
| ISBN | 0307491331, 9780307491336 |
| Length | 320 pages |
| Subjects | › › Philosophy / History & Surveys / General Philosophy / Movements / Pragmatism Self-Help / Personal Growth / Happiness |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |