The Challenge of Affluence: Self-Control and Well-Being in the United States and Britain since 1950 (Hardcover)

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London Review of Books, March 8, 2007
'...Powerful...[Offer's book] uses the tools of economics to illuminate the myopic lens through which economics views the world.'

Review
Offer has a profound knowledge and respect for the complex economic structures that have built our capitalist system. (Stephanie Dyer, The Journal of American History )

Avner Offer's latest sparkling and intellectually pugnacious contribution to his protean bibliography represents a tour de force of scholarship and provocative argument... this is an enormously rich and highly penetrating and stimulating study, based on vast and perceptive reading and research. It is also novel in its substance and approach. (Barry Supple, The English Historical Review )

An intriguing book...one of Britain's most subtle thinkers about how we live now. (Will Hutton, The Observer )

[A] powerful argument... This is a book that uses the tools of economics to illuminate the myopic lens through which economics views the world. (Barry Schwartz, London Review of Books )

Avner Offer has produced an intelligent, original, provocative, and moralistic book which should make historians think extremely seriously about important questions, even if they find themselves in disagreement with his approach. (M.J. Daunton, Economic History Review )

This insightful book provides a fresh and refreshing new look at life in the United States and Britain over the past half century ... provides invaluable insights. (John F Helliwell, EH.NET )

A brilliantly argued book. (William Skidelsky, Prospect )

always fascinating and thought provoking. Offer's range of reference is remarkably broad. He travels confidently across the social-science spectrum. (Howard Davies, THES )

In the 1960s and 1970s, economists started worrying about environmental and social limits to growth. Avner Offer has added a weighty new critique to this tradition. (The Economist )

The book is an invaluable source of information on changing attitudes and practices in the US and Britain since the end of the second world war. (Samuel Brittan, Financial Times )

an uncompromising work of scholarship (Martin Vander Weyer, The Spectator )

...diligently and readably exposes the extent to which the past 25 years have forced people in the English-speaking world to believe that there is no alternative to dual-income workaholic consumerism, the "hedonic treadmill". (Oliver James, The Guardian )

Sceptics who want some political muscle behind the diagnosis of our discontents will enjoy Avner Offer's account of why more means worse... (Boyd Tonkin and Christina Patterson, The Independent )

Offer makes many compelling and interesting arguments that are backed by a wealth of data and analysis. (Charles Kenny, Business History Review )

Offer's narrative of a complex and difficult topic is masterful. (Barnaby Marsh, Economic and Human Biology )

This is a wide, wise, and careful book. (Joy Parr, Journal of Economic History )

Offer's analysis of the complex relationship between economic markets and relationships and non-economic dynamics such as love, regard and esteem, and the impact of affluence on these interrelated systems, is superb. (Helen Laville, The Americas )

The experience of reading The Challenge of Affluence is suffused with a pervasive suspicion that this might just be one of the most important books you have read. (Tim Jackson, Social Policy and Administration )

a fascinating, ambitious, wide-ranging, freewheeling, and sometimes exasperating book about the perils of affluence. (Bruce G. Carruthers, American Journal of Sociology )

[This book] presents sustained, immensely learned, and richly suggestive reflections on questions that have troubled social scientists since the 1970s, and social critics and philosophers for even longer... [Avner Offer] offers lucid and wonderfully complex answers in three sections, each with four to five chapters, as well as through an over-arching interpretation. (Daniel Horowitz, International History Review )

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First Sentence
Affluence breeds impatience, and impatience undermines well-being. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index

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1 Review 5 star:    (0) 4 star:  (1) 3 star:    (0) 2 star:    (0) 1 star:    (0)           Average Customer Review 4.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)		Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   12 of 12 people found the following review helpful: 4.0 out of 5 stars Changes How You See The World, 2 April 2007 By  J. Goddard "Jim Goddard" (Shipley) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    Whilst it isn't perfect, this is a powerfully-argued and forensic analysis of changes in British and American societies in the past half-century and more. It is well-researched but never dull. Offer has the gift of writing in a way that doesn't dumb down his analysis but is nevertheless able to be followed by an intelligent lay audience. His central thesis is that Western capitalism's ability to innovate with new products and experiences has run well ahead of the ability of society in general and of many individuals to adjust to such change. This has highly negative consequences, as our short-term appetite for the new goods and services runs well ahead of collective and individual long-term interests. Offer's take on changing gender relations tends to be rather sexist and simplistic (perhaps it's the economist in him; the sociologist is much more sophisticated), but that apart I found it highly thought-provoking. Well worth anybody's time. His account of what's happening to our leisure time, food consumption and other key areas of life is unnerving but, importantly, this isn't a negative, one-sided rant. It is much more balanced, thoughtful and nuanced than that. Offer does suggest ways forward and sees hope in the ability we have to act individually and collectively, to learn from our experiences and to create solutions to present problems. This is an important book. I have been thinking about it since I finished it a couple of months ago and I now understand contemporary problems differently. Highly recommended. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this) Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review › See all customer reviews...		Ad feedback   Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews

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