The Fall of Public Man - Softcover

Sennett, Richard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141007575 ISBN 13: 9780141007571

Publisher: Penguin, 2003

Synopsis

Richard Sennett's The Fall of Public Man examines the growing imbalance between private and public experience, and asks what can bring us to reconnect with our communities.

Are we now so self-absorbed that we take little interest in the world beyond our own lives? Or has public life left no place for individuals to participate?

Tracing the changing nature of urban society from the eighteenth century to the world we now live in, and the decline of involvement in political life in recent decades, Richard Sennett discusses the causes of our social withdrawal. His landmark study of the imbalance of modern civilization provides a fascinating perspective on the relationship between public life and the cult of the individual.

'Brilliant ... One admires the breadth of Professor Sennett's erudition, the reach of his historical imagination, the doggedness of his analysis ... Buy this book and read it. Ironically, it may provide a key to happiness'
  Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times

'A powerful argument for a more formal public culture and a swipe against the rise of a self-indulgent counter-culture'
  Melissa Benn, Guardian

'A provocative book ... Sennett brings us to an undeniably recognizable place, the contemporary urban scene'
  Richard Todd, Atlantic Monthly

Richard Sennett's previous books include The Fall of Public Man, The Corrosion of Character, Flesh and Stone and Respect. He was founder director of the New York Institute for the Humanities, and is now University Professor at New York University and Academic Governor and Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics.

About this title

Review

One of the most stimulating and challenging books to be written in years. . . . A major attempt . . . to re-examine the assumptions and objectives of the 1960s and transcend them without compromising their ideals. One admires the breadth of Professor Sennett's erudition, the reach of his historical imagination. . . . By all means buy this book and read it. --Christopher Lehmann-Haupt

Synopsis

Here, Richard Sennett writes first of the tension between the public and private realms in which we live, arguing that different types of behaviour and activity are appropriate in each. He believes that the barrier between these different realms has been eroded, through capitalism and the secularization of society, and that this breakdown is so profound that public man has been left with no certain idea of his role in society. Sennett sees the development of the city as the single most important element of the social change he describes, and puts his argument in its historical perspective through an analysis of the changes in our built environment from the 18th century to the present day.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0141007575
• ISBN 13: 9780141007571
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 416