We Have Met the Enemy: self-control in an age of excess - Couverture souple

Akst, Daniel

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1922247359 ISBN 13 : 9781922247353

Editeur : Scribe Publications, 2014

Synopsis

**A witty and wide-ranging investigation of the central problem of our time: how to save ourselves from what we want.** Freedom is dangerous. Half of all deaths in America, for instance, come from overeating, smoking, drinking too much, failing to exercise, and other deadly behaviours that we indulge in against our own better judgement. Why are we on a campaign of slow-motion suicide? While temptations have multiplied like fast-food outlets in suburbia, crucial social constraints have eroded. Tradition, family, church, and ideology have lost much of their capacity to circumscribe behaviour, while financial limits, once a ready substitute for thrift, were swept away by surging affluence and the remarkable open-handedness of lenders (a confluence that recently ended in tears). The result is a world that puts more pressure than ever on the 'self ' in self-control, sorely testing the limits of human willpower._We Have Met the Enemy_ is a brilliant and irreverent search for answers that delves into overeating, overspending, procrastination, anger, addiction, wayward sexual attraction, and most of the other homely transgressions that bedevil us daily in a world of freedom, prosperity, and technological empowerment. Using self-control as a lens rather than a cudgel, Akst draws a vivid picture of the many-sided problem of desire - and delivers a blueprint for how we can steer shrewdly toward the wants we most want for ourselves.

A propos du livre

Revue de presse :

"You wouldn't be able to stop yourself from reading this book! Daniel Akst is among the sharpest, most perceptive writers of his generation, and he is in fine form in We Have Met the Enemy."
-Gregg Easterbrook, author of Sonic Boom

"This book entertains even as it pokes at our most sensitive spots. Daniel Akst handles the touchiest heretical ideas with charm, humor and painless scholarship. With no ax to grind, no cause to serve but reason he opens up the foregone conclusions by which we live and leaves a reader with new and alternate views of ourselves and others. Like the finest essayists Akst makes the deepest ideas fascinating and fun to read."
-Nicholas von Hoffman

"The more a society progresses, the bigger a problem self-control turns out to be. If you wish to be ahead of the curve for understanding America's problems, Dan Akst's excellent and informative book is the place to start."
-Tyler Cowen, Professor of Economics, George Mason University, and co-creator of the blog The Marginal Revolution

Biographie de l'auteur :

Daniel Akst has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, Slate, and many other publications. His previous books include Wonder Boy, which chronicled the wondrous financial fraud he had a hand in exposing, and the novels St Burl's Obituary (a PEN/Faulkner finalist) and The Webster Chronicle. He lives with his wife and sons in New York's bucolic Hudson Valley, generally a good place to hide from temptation.

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Scribe Publications
• Date d'édition: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1922247359
• ISBN 13: 9781922247353
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 320