The Art of Fairness: The Power of Decency in a World Turned Mean

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Bridge Street Press, 2020 - Biography & Autobiography - 336 pages

'David Bodanis is an enthralling storyteller. Prepare to be taken on a surprising, wide-ranging and ultimately inspiring journey to explore what makes us human' Tim Harford

Can you succeed without being a terrible person? We often think not: recognising that, as the old saying has it, 'nice guys finish last'. But does that mean you have to go to the other extreme, and be a bully or Machiavellian to get anything done?


In THE ART OF FAIRNESS, David Bodanis uses thrilling historical case studies to show there's a better path, leading neatly in between. He reveals how it was fairness, applied with skill, that led the Empire State Building to be constructed in barely a year - and how the same techniques brought a quiet English debutante to become an acclaimed jungle guerrilla fighter. In ten vivid profiles - featuring pilots, presidents, and even the producer of Game of Thrones - we see that the path to greatness doesn't require crushing displays of power or tyrannical ego. Simple fair decency can prevail.


With surprising insights from across history - including the downfall of the very man who popularised the phrase 'nice guys finish last' - THE ART OF FAIRNESS charts a refreshing and sustainable new approach to cultivating integrity and influence.

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About the author (2020)

David Bodanis studied mathematics and history at the University of Chicago, and for many years taught the 'Intellectual Toolkit' course at Oxford University. He is the author of many books including the New York Times bestseller E=mc2, which was adapted into the PBS documentary Einstein's Big Idea. He has been a popular speaker at the World Economic Forum in Davos and at many multinational companies including Google, Goldman Sachs, Unilever and Shell, where he worked at length with their standard-setting scenario team. Bodanis' work has been published in the Financial Times, Guardian and New York Times.

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