How to Survive the Modern World: Making sense of, and finding calm in, unsteady times

by The School of Life, Alain de Botton (Editor)

Overview

A hopeful guide to living well in the 21st century.

The modern world has brought us a range of extraordinary benefits and joys, including technology, medicine, and transportation. But with these advances, it seems, we've also seen an increase in greed, despair, and agitation. 

How to Survive the Modern World is the ultimate guide to navigating our unusual times. The book tackles our relationship to the news, our identities, our careers, our relationship to the natural world, our admiration for science and technology, our belief in individualism and secularism - and our suspicion of quiet and solitude. 

This book helps us form a calmer, more authentic, more resilient, and more light-hearted relationship to the complexities of our age. If modern times can feel like a disease, this book is both the diagnosis and the soothing, hope-filled cure.

• IDENTIFIES THE SOURCE OF SHARED ANXIETY helps us identify the sources of our sorrows in the modern world.
• PRACTICAL ADVICE on dealing with the challenges presented by capitalism, advertising and the media.
• CHAPTERS INCLUDE Media, Materialism, Family, Love, Work, Sex, Science & Religion, Democracy and Nature.
• BEAUTIFULLY PRODUCED premium gift format.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781912891535
Publisher:	The School of Life
Publication date:	06/07/2022
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	520,102
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 8.70(h) x (d)

About the Author

The School of Life is a global organization helping people lead more fulfilled lives. Through our range of books, gifts and stationery we aim to prompt more thoughtful natures and help everyone to find fulfillment. 

The School of Life is a resource for exploring self-knowledge, relationships, work, socializing, finding calm, and enjoying culture through content, community, and conversation. You can find us online, in stores and in welcoming spaces around the world offering classes, events, and one-to-one therapy sessions.

The School of Life is a rapidly growing global brand, with over 7 million YouTube subscribers, 389,000 Facebook followers, 174,000 Instagram followers and 166,000 Twitter followers.

The School of Life Press brings together the thinking and ideas of the School of Life creative team under the direction of series editor, Alain de Botton. Their books share a coherent, curated message that speaks with one voice: calm, reassuring, and sane.

Read an Excerpt

Since the middle of the eighteenth century, beginning in Northern Europe and then spreading to every corner of the world, people have become aware of living in an age radically different from any other. With a mixture of awe and respect, trepidation and nostalgia, they have called this ‘the modern age’ or, more succinctly, ‘modernity’. We are now all inhabitants of modernity; every last hamlet and remote island has been touched by the outlook and ideology of a new era. The story of our emergence into the modern world can be traced in politics, religion, art, technology, fashion, science — all of which have contributed to an alteration in consciousness, to a change in the way we think and feel. Becoming modern has involved changes across many parts of our lives.

1. Secularisation

 
Perhaps the single greatest marker of modernity has been a loss of faith — the loss of a belief in the intervention of divine forces in earthly affairs. All other ages before our own held that our lives were at least half in the hands of gods or spirits, who could be influenced through prayer and sacrifice and who required complex forms of worship and obedience. But we have increasingly put our energies into understanding natural events through reason: there are no more omens or revelations, curses or prophecies; our futures will be worked out in laboratories, not temples. Even the nominally religious will demur to highly trained physicists and cancer specialists. God has died and modernity has killed Him.

2. Progress

 
Pre-modern societies envisaged history in cyclical terms: there was no forward dynamic to speak of; one imagined that things would always be as bad or as good as they had ever been. There was no more change in human affairs than there was in the seasons. Empires would wax and wane; periods of plenty would alternate with seasons of dearth, yet the fundamentals would remain. To be modern is to believe that we can continually surpass what has come before: national wealth, knowledge, technology, political arrangements and, most broadly, our capacity for fulfilment, seem capable of constant increase. We have severed the chains of repetitive suffering. Time is not a wheel of futility; it is an arrow pointing towards a perfectible future.

3. Science

 
We have replaced gods with equations. Science will give us mastery over ourselves, over the puzzles of nature, and ultimately over death. Dense calculations and the electrical spasms inside microscopic circuits will allow us to map and know the universe. It is only a matter of time before we work out how to be immortal.

4. Individualism

 
To be modern is to throw off the claims of history, precedent and community. We will fashion our own identities rather than being defined by families or tradition. We will choose who to marry, what job to pursue, what gender to identify as, where to live and how to think. We can be free and, at last, fully ‘ourselves’.

Table of Contents

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Consumer Capitalism
• 3. Advertising
• 4. Materialism
• 5. Media
• 6. Democracy
• 7. Family
• 8. Love
• 9. Sex
• 10. Loneliness
• 11. Work
• 12. Individualism
• 13. A Quiet Life
• 14. Busy-ness
• 15. Ugliness
• 16. Education
• 17. Perfectionism
• 18. Science and Religion
• 19. Nature
• 20. Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

***What readers are saying:***

"It sounds like we all need [this book]. A survival guide indeed." – Salma El-Wardany, BBC Radio London

"The book helps us to form a calmer, more authentic, more resilient, and sometimes more light-hearted relationship to the follies and obsessions of our age." – NetGalley review

"I found [this book] to be very insightful, practical, and helpful. It's a book that would make a fine addition to your library as it's one you'll want to refer to again and again as new situations arise in your life." – NetGalley review

"Lots of food for thought and philosophical concepts to mull over. A delight to read and will stay with you long after finishing." – NetGalley review

"This book definitely is one that puts your brain to work and makes you think about life! I feel like this is a wonderful guide for how to live in the modern world despite all of the various challenges and obstacles. Great read, would recommend!" – NetGalley review

"I'm a fan of The School of Life books. ... This particular one was fantastic. I really enjoyed a lot of the historical titbits that explain the comparison of history to the current modern world. Definitely worth a read." – NetGalley review

"A fantastic, thought-provoking look at the modern world. It covers areas I didn't expect such as sex and democracy and offers a calm, balanced viewpoint coupled with wonderful art images. It helped me to articulate my concerns about living in this time. By providing perspective, my thoughts were soothed, less emotional and I was able to reassess my views. I would read this again as it raises some interesting points and gave me a lot of comfort." – NetGalley review

"The books by The School of Life, as always, shift us to the right direction, to live more conscious, deliberate and meaningful lives. To think, rethink, stop and calm ourselves. ... Very helpful and insightful book." – NetGalley review

"Another fabulous read from The School of Life. I don't class these books as self-help, more an opportunity to ponder philosophically and not feel too overwhelmed by it all. The simplicity of the messages, and the calmest provided, made this the perfect Sunday afternoon read." – NetGalley review

"The chapters are well written, with plenty of both history and advice on how to make your life a little more adaptable." – NetGalley review

"Bite-sized but packed with valuable and thought-provoking ideas." - NetGalley review

"If you are looking for a thought-provoking book, this is it. It is of great service for any reader that might find it. – Goodreads review

From the Publisher