The Art of Self-Improvement: Ten Timeless Truths
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A brilliant distillation of the key ideas behind successful self-improvement practices throughout history, showing us how they remain relevant today "Schaffner finds more in contemporary self-improvement literature to admire than criticize. . . . [A] revelatory book."--Kathryn Hughes, Times Literary Supplement Self-help today is a multi-billion-dollar global industry, one often seen as a by-product of neoliberalism and capitalism. Far from being a recent phenomenon, however, the practice of self-improvement has a long and rich history, extending all the way back to ancient China. For millennia, philosophers, sages, and theologians have reflected on the good life and devised strategies on how to achieve it. Focusing on ten core ideas of self-improvement that run through the world's advice literature, Anna Katharina Schaffner reveals the ways they have evolved across cultures and historical eras, and why they continue to resonate with us today. Reminding us that there is much to learn from looking at time-honed models, Schaffner also examines the ways that self-improvement practices provide powerful barometers of the values, anxieties, and aspirations that preoccupy us at particular moments in time and expose basic assumptions about our purpose and nature.
Format:Hardcover
Language:English
ISBN:0300247710
ISBN13:9780300247718
Release Date:September 2021
Publisher:Yale University Press
Length:280 Pages
Weight:1.25 lbs.
Dimensions:1.0" x 6.4" x 9.3"
Related Subjects
Philosophy Religion Religion & Spirituality Self Help Self-Help Self-Help & PsychologyCustomer Reviews
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