The fall of public man - Hardcover

Richard Sennett

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 039448715X ISBN 13: 9780394487151

Publisher: Random House USA Inc, 1988

Synopsis

"The Fall of Public Man" is a book in the great tradition of sociological scholarship. Sennett writes first of the tension between the public and private realms in which we live, arguing that different types of behavior and activity are appropriate in each. He argues that the barrier between these different realms has been eroded, 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 title

About the Author

Richard Sennett’s books include The Corrosion of Character, Flesh and Stone, and Respect. He was the founding director of the New York Institute for the Humanities and now teaches sociology at New York University and at the London School of Economics.

Review

A fascinating evocation of changing styles of personal and public expression. . . . Sennett is at once a historian, sociologist, student of psychoanalytic doctrine . . . and celebrant of city life. . . . Seldom have I read a serious work of social theory that explains as much contemporary experience as Sennett's does. -- Robert Lekachman

Sennett presses social theory and historical experience to his service in developing a provocative thesis: that the public world stage has been usurped by the private psychic scene to the detriment of both individual and society. Sennett's quest for the causes of the impoverishment of civil life in modern industrial society opens fascinating perspectives into the relationship between theater, politics, urban life, and the changing function of the family. --Carl Schorske, Princeton University"

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"

[...] Sennett is at once a historian, sociologist, student of psychoanalytic doctrine . . . and celebrant of city life. . . . Seldom have I read a serious work of social theory that explains as much contemporary experience as Sennett's does. --Robert Lekachman"

Edition details

• Publisher: Random House USA Inc
• Publication date: 1988
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 039448715X
• ISBN 13: 9780394487151
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 373