Status Anxiety
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Status Anxiety by Alain De Botton
Anyone 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 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. Every adult life could be said to be defined by two great love stories. The first--the story of our quest for sexual love--is well known and well charted.The second--the story of our quest for love from the world--is a more secret and shameful tale. And yet this second love story is no less intense than the first. This is a book about an almost universal anxiety that is rarely mentioned: an anxiety about what others think of us, about whether we're judged a success or a failure, a winner or a loser. This is a book about status anxiety. Bestselling author Alain de Botton asks--with lucidity and charm--where our worries about status come from and what, if anything, we can do to surmount them. With the help of philosophers, artists, and writers, he examines the origins of status anxiety before revealing ingenious ways in which people have been able to overcome their worries in the search for happiness. We learn about sandal-less philosophers and topless bohemians, about the benefits of putting skulls on our sideboards, and about looking at ancient ruins. The result is a book that is not only highly entertaining and thought-provoking but genuinely wise and helpful, too.
Alain de Botton has published six non-fiction books: The Architecture of Happiness, Essays in Love, Status Anxiety, The Art of Travel, How Proust Can Change Your Life, and The Consolations of Philosophy, three of which were made into TV documentaries. He has also published two novels: The Romantic Movement and Kiss and Tell. In 2004, Status Anxiety was awarded the prize for the Economics Book of the Year by the Financial Times, Germany. Cambridge-educated, de Botton is a frequent contributor to numerous newspapers, journals, and magazines. His work is published in twenty-five countries.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780375725357 |
| ISBN 10 | 0375725350 |
| Title | Status Anxiety |
| Author | Alain De Botton |
| Series | Vintage International |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Random House USA Inc |
| Year published | 2005-05-10 |
| Number of pages | 320 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |