The Fall of Public Man

(Paperback)

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Here, Richard Sennett writes first of the tension between the public and private realms in which we live, arguing that different types of behaviour and activity are appropriate in each. He believes that the barrier between these different realms has been eroded, through capitalism and the secularization of society, 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.

Reviews

[...] 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
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 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
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

Author Bio

Richard Sennett now works at the LSE where he runs their Cities Programme. His previous publications include his best-seller THE CORROSION OF CHARACTER. His next book, RESPECT- THE FORMATION OF CHARACTER IN A WORLD OF INEQUALITY, will be publishedby Allen Lane in January 2003.