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Shop nowThe Art of Self-Improvement
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Learn moreA brilliant distillation of the key ideas behind successful self-improvement practices throughout history, showing us how they remain relevant today
Self-help today is a multi-billion-dollar global industry, one often seen as a by-product of neoliberalism and capitalism. Far from being a recent phenomenon, however, the practice of self-improvement has a long and rich history, extending all the way back to ancient China. For millennia, philosophers, sages, and theologians have reflected on the good life and devised strategies on how to achieve it.
Focusing on ten core ideas of self-improvement that run through the world's advice literature, Anna Katharina Schaffner reveals the ways they have evolved across cultures and historical eras, and why they continue to resonate with us today. Reminding us that there is much to learn from looking at time-honed models, Schaffner also examines the ways that self-improvement practices provide powerful barometers of the values, anxieties, and aspirations that preoccupy us at particular moments in time and expose basic assumptions about our purpose and nature.
Anna Katharina Schaffner is professor of cultural history at the University of Kent. She is the author of Exhaustion: A History and the novel The Truth about Julia.
Rachael Beresford is a British classically trained actress and voice talent. With a precise, engaging, and entertaining voice, Rachael enjoys working with authors to convey their story and enhance their tale, breathe life into a character, and make the world of a narration come alive. As an audiobook narrator, she has recorded bestselling books, including titles nominated for the International Man Booker Prize and Waterstones Children's Book of the Year 2017. A member of Equity and The Voice Over Network, Rachael is a passionate believer in continuous professional development and consistently attends training courses and networking events. With two beautiful daughters and one handsome husband, Rachael lives in West Sussex, England. When she isn't reading a book out loud for work, she can be found reading one for pleasure.