How Should We Live?: Great Ideas from the Past for Everyday Life - Softcover

Krznaric, Roman

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1629190047 ISBN 13: 9781629190044

Publisher: BlueBridge, 2015

Synopsis

There are many ways to try to improve our lives we can turn to the wisdom of philosophers, the teachings of spiritual guides, or the latest experiments of psychologists. But we rarely look to history for inspiration and when we do, it can be surprisingly powerful. In How Should We Live? the cultural historian Roman Krznaric explores twelve universal topics including love, family, and empathy; work, time, and money by illuminating the past and revealing the wisdom we have been missing. There is much to be learned from the ancient Greeks about the different varieties of love, for example, from medieval and Renaissance Europeans about living with passion and facing the realities of death, from various indigenous cultures on bringing up our children, and from Japanese pilgrims on the art of travel. Whether it is the different uses of the senses or nature across time, or changing attitudes to belief and creativity, How Should We Live? is full of ideas and stories from the past. A wonderful work of practical history,” it sheds invaluable light on the decisions we make every day and shows what history can teach us about the art of living.

About this title

About the Author

ROMAN KRZNARIC is a cultural thinker, writer, and founding faculty member of The School of Life in London. He has taught sociology and politics at Cambridge University and City University, London, and advises organizations including Oxfam and the United Nations on using empathy and conversation to create social change. He has been named by The Observer as one of Britain’s leading lifestyle philosophers.

Review

“A fascinating rattlebag of intelligent, stimulating essays on everything from work to love, time to empathy . . . densely researched but readable, wise, and witty. By taking the long view to debunk some myths of modern life . . . Krznaric frees us from passing trends to answer the fundamental question: how should we live now?”  —Financial Times

“This modern guide to living a good life by nurturing relationships, giving more to others, and resisting the self-imposed tyrannies of work, time, ambition, and achievement, is entertaining and instructive.”  —Times

“An intriguing upmarket self-help guide. . . . The virtue of this book is that it takes a number of ideas that we might regard as givens of the natural order of things . . . and makes clear how historically contingent they are.”  —Guardian

“Human history provides examples of almost every possible lifestyle or philosophical position; Krznaric selects some of the most telling. . . . Our responsibility, he argues, is not just to take inspiration from the past; we also need to recognize where we have inherited damaging or limiting attitudes.”  —Independent

About this edition

• Publisher: BlueBridge
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1629190047
• ISBN 13: 9781629190044
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352