A dazzlingly original analysis of our times by one of Britain's most exciting thinkers
William Davies teaches political economy and sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London. His work explores the history of ideas, especially the history of economics, and how this helps us understand the present. He is the author of The Happiness Industry and The Limits of Neoliberalism, and regularly writes for the Guardian and the London Review of Books.
"[An] interdisciplinary masterpiece."
*New York Times*
"If you read one book about contemporary politics this year, make
it this one. William Davies is as acute and accurate on the shifts
we are enduring as on the deep roots behind contemporary thinking
(or not thinking, I should add)."
*Scotland on Sunday*
"The roots of our current anxieties are traced in [Nervous States,]
an absorbing book fizzing with ideas… Davies is a wonderfully alert
and nimble guide and his absorbing and edgy book will help us feel
our way to a better future. "
*Observer*
"Wide-ranging yet brilliantly astute… Davies is a wild and
surprising thinker who also happens to be an elegant writer — a
wonderful and eminently readable combination. Nervous States covers
400 years of intellectual history, technological innovation and
economic development, seamlessly weaving in such disparate
intellects as Carl von Clausewitz, Friedrich von Hayek and Hannah
Arendt."
*New York Times*
"We should all read William Davies’s Nervous States, a concise,
penetrating exploration of the role played by negative emotions in
our recent politics and culture"
*Evening Standard, **Books of the Year***
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