- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Hamish Hamilton Ltd; illustrated edition edition (4 Mar 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0241142385
- ISBN-13: 978-0241142387
- Product Dimensions: 21 x 14 x 3.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 145,439 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Status Anxiety
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
For this study, de Botton asks where our worries about status come from and what, if anything, we can do to reduce them. He looks at how people have coped with these anxieties in the past with a range of unexpected examples and entertaining anecdotes.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
52 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Heal Me Mr De Boton,
By
This review is from: Status Anxiety (Hardcover)
Having loved Alain De Botton's previous books I approached Satatus Anxiety with some trepidation. Would it live up to it's author's own standards. The answer is a resounding yes. Status Anxiety is as well researched and as witty book as you could read. In fact Alain de Botton might be the greatest labour saving device since the personal computer. He's read all the books we know we should have, and with a cheeky anecdotal style he makes sense of our lives while leaving the sense of his sources un-diminished. In The Consolations of Philosophy, he digested and explained the great philosophers, giving us an executive summary for coping with our jealousies and the anxiety of being human. Status Anxiety, finds De Botton analysing the ox-coveting curtain-twitcher in all of us. Ours is an age where we spend it like Beckham even if we can't quite earn it, Status Anxiety goes some way to revealing why. Alain de Botton, every home should have one.
46 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Confirming and thought-provoking.,
By David (United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Status Anxiety (Paperback)
This is a feel-good book for anyone who thinks a bit about society and their place in it. Alain de Boton is like an incredibly well-read and eloquent participant in a discussion taking place in your head, confirming and developing so many thoughts and ideas that you've always had but are unlikely to have had the chance to ever analyse properly. Importantly, the book steers clear of direct instruction on how you should respond to society, and for me it was the regularly evoked chains of thought that provided the greatest moments of realisation and satisfaction. Taken at face value and read quickly, this book would still be a very interesting read, but it becomes a truly excellent one when used as an informed launch-pad for your own judgements, thoughts and ideas.
43 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Modern life and human nature,
By ejtooth (Glasgow United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Status Anxiety (Paperback)
This book is divided into two sections: the first defining the problem the second possible solutionsThe first section is a compelling analysis of the human condition and how our (modern) world plays upon our predisposition and fears. The second section, while equally well reasoned took me to where I could see dry land but left me stranded on a sand bar. It offers no new solutions but only the consolations of philosophy politics religion or non-conformity. In short de Botton concedes that we are captive to our often punishing assessment of ourselves as handed to us by society and faced with that, perhaps the best we can do is to change the way we consider that assessment - to change one value system for another more humane. Having said that, these solutions are solutions and certainly well worth considering, however I suspect that the type of person who buys this book may have covered much of this ground already. I don't wish to appear negative about a book that I valued and will certainly recommend and it is perhaps to his credit as a scholar, that he is honest enough not to peddle any simple solutions - but - part of me wished he had sold me something and not just set out the stall. I found the book clear well reasoned well written and understandable. It is also a good read - this was a book that I read in a couple of days. It is obvious that Alain de Botton has an enviable understanding of his subject and it was a pleasure for a lazy reader to be guided through such a wide tapestry of thinkers - I have in the past tried to read some of these authors but have been defeated by their verbiage. All in all a very good read and a valuable tool to make you assess the way you live your life and react to the world and other people
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