“[Sennett] has ended up writing the best available contemporary defense of anarchism. . . . The issues [he] raises are fundamental and profound. His book is utopian in the best sense―it tries to define a radically different future and to show that it could be constructed from the materials at hand.” –Kenneth Keniston, New York Times Book Review The distinguished social critic Richard Sennett here shows how the excessively ordered community freezes adults―both the young idealists and their security-oriented parents―into rigid attitudes that stifle personal growth. He argues that the accepted ideal of order generates patterns of behavior among the urban middle classes that are stultifying, narrow, and violence-prone. And he proposes a functioning city that can incorporate anarchy, diversity, and creative disorder to bring into being adults who can openly respond to and deal with the challenges of life.

The Uses of Disorder: Personal Identity and City Life (Pelican)

Politics & Social Sciences

RICHARD SENNETT

Social Sciences

Penguin Books, Ltd.

Richard Sennett's "Respect: The Formation of Character in an Age of Equality" is a provocative and timely examination of the forces that erode respect in modern society. 'Unlike food, respect costs nothing. Why, then, should it be in short supply?' Respect can be attained by gaining success, by developing talents, through financial independence and by helping others. But, Sennett argues, many who are not able to achieve the demands of today's meritocracy lose the esteem that should be given to them. From his childhood in a poor Chicago housing project to the contrasting methods of care practised by a nun and a social worker, from the harmonious interaction of musicians to the welfare system, Sennett explores the ways in which mutual respect can forge bonds across the divide of inequality. "One of the boldest social thinkers of his generation...[Sennett] has a genius for revealing the roots of our discontents". (Boyd Tonkin, "Independent"). "Dazzling ...an elegant mix of interview, anecdote and wide research". (Jenny Turner, "Guardian"). "This is the voice of a prophet". (Scott McLemee, "Washington Post"). "Wise and humane...Sennett has set his sights on that most daring of missions: to make the world a better place". (Alain de Botton, "Daily Telegraph"). "Wholly engrossing...[Sennett] explores ways of preserving an equality of respect". (Alan Ryan, "New York Review of Books"). Richard Sennett's previous works include "The Fall of Public Man", "The Corrosion of Character", "Respect", "Flesh and Stone" and "The Craftsman". He taught for many years at the New York Institute of the Humanities and is now a Professor at the London School of Economics.

Respect: The Formation of Character in an Age of Inequality

Penguin Books, Limited (UK)

"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.

The Fall of Public Man

Penguin??Books

Shipped from UK, please allow 10 to 21 business days for arrival. A good, clean & sound copy, fore-edges a little dusty, & curl to bottom corner of front cover.

Flesh and Stone : The Body and the City in Western Civilization

History

Living with people who differ - racially, ethnically, religiously, or economically - is one of the most difficult challenges facing us today. Though our society is becoming ever more complicated materially, we tend to avoid engaging with people unlike ourselves. Modern politics emphasizes unity and similarity, encouraging the politics of the tribe rather than of complexity. Together: The Rituals, Pleasures and Politics of Co-operation explores why this has happened and what might be done about it. Sennett argues that living with people unlike ourselves requires more than goodwill: it requires skill. The foundations for skillful co-operation lie in learning to listen well and to discuss rather than debate. People who develop these capacities earn a reward: they can take pleasure in the company of others. Together traces the evolution of cooperative rituals in medieval churches and guilds, Renaissance workshops and courts, early modern laboratories and diplomatic embassies. In our lives today, it explains the trials and prospects of cooperation online, face-to-face in ethnic conflicts, among financial workers and community organizers. Exploring the nature of cooperation, why it has become weak, and how it could be strengthened, this visionary book offers a new way of seeing how humans can live together.

Together: The Rituals, Pleasures and Politics of Cooperation

Business & Money

Economics

Penguin

'Thank god for Richard Sennett ... essential reading for all students of the city' Anna Minton, Prospect'Constantly stimulating ideas from a veteran of urban thinking' Jonathan Meades, GuardianIn Building and Dwelling, Richard Sennett distils a lifetime's thinking and practical experience to explore the relationship between the good built environment and the good life. He argues for, and describes in rich detail, the idea of an open city, one in which people learn to manage complexity. He shows how the design of cities can enrich or diminish the everyday experience of those who dwell in them.The book ranges widely - from London, Paris and Barcelona to Shanghai, Mumbai and Medellin in Colombia - and draws on classic thinkers such as Tocqueville, Heidegger, Max Weber, and Walter Benjamin. It also draws on Sennett's many decades as a practical planner himself, testing what works, what doesn't, and why. He shows what works ethically is often the most practical solution for cities' problems. This is a humane and thrilling book, which allows us to think freshly about how we live in cities.'Sennett is my kind of urbanist. He sees the modern city. He reads its secrets as he walks down the street, kicking over the detritus of the past ... There is no alternative to the planner, but please a planner who has read Sennett's book' Simon Jenkins, Sunday Times

Building And Dwelling

The Craftsman

Craftsmanship, says Richard Sennett, names the basic human impulse to do a job well for its own sake, and good craftsmanship involves developing skills and focusing on the work rather than ourselves. The computer programmer, the doctor, the artist, and even the parent and citizen all engage in a craftsman’s work. In this thought-provoking book, Sennett explores the work of craftsmen past and present, identifies deep connections between material consciousness and ethical values, and challenges received ideas about what constitutes good work in today’s world. The Craftsman engages the many dimensions of skill—from the technical demands to the obsessive energy required to do good work. Craftsmanship leads Sennett across time and space, from ancient Roman brickmakers to Renaissance goldsmiths to the printing presses of Enlightenment Paris and the factories of industrial London; in the modern world he explores what experiences of good work are shared by computer programmers, nurses and doctors, musicians, glassblowers, and cooks. Unique in the scope of his thinking, Sennett expands previous notions of crafts and craftsmen and apprises us of the surprising extent to which we can learn about ourselves through the labor of making physical things.

World

Yale University Press

The author here attempts to show how an excessively ordered community freezes adults - both the young idealists and their security-oriented parents - into rigid attitudes that stifle personal growth.

The Uses of Disorder

Sociology

The Hidden Injuries of Class

In this intrepid, groundbreaking book, Richard Sennett and Jonathan Cobb uncover and define a new form of class conflict in America―an internal conflict in the heart and mind of the blue-collar worker who measures his own value against those lives and occupations to which our society gives a special premium. The authors conclude that in the games of hierarchical respect, no class can emerge the victor; and that true egalitarianism can be achieved only by rediscovering diverse concepts of human dignity. Examining personal feelings in terms of a totality of human relations, and looking beyond the struggle for economic survival, The Hidden Injuries of Class takes an important step forward in the sociological critique of everyday life.

Jonathan Cobb

KNOPF

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by RICHARD SENNETT. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by RICHARD SENNETT

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by RICHARD SENNETT. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Uses of Disorder: Personal Identity and City Life (Pelican)

Respect: The Formation of Character in an Age of Inequality

The Fall of Public Man

Flesh and Stone : The Body and the City in Western Civilization

Together: The Rituals, Pleasures and Politics of Cooperation

Building And Dwelling

The Craftsman

The Uses of Disorder

The Craftsman

The Hidden Injuries of Class