The Age of Choice (eBook)

A History of Freedom in Modern Life

Sophia Rosenfeld (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF | EPUB

2025
616 Seiten
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
9780691261621 (ISBN)

Infos

Finalist for the Cundill History PrizeA New York Times Notable Book of the YearA sweeping history of the rise of personal choice in the modern world and how it became equated with freedomChoice touches virtually every aspect of our lives, from what to buy and where to live to whom to love, what profession to practice, and even what to believe. But the option to choose in such matters was not something we always possessed or even aspired to. At the same time, we have been warned by everybody from marketing gurus to psychologists about the negative consequences stemming from our current obsession with choice. It turns out that not only are we not very good at realizing our personal desires, we are also overwhelmed with too many possibilities and anxious about what best to select. There are social costs too. How did all this happen? The Age of Choice tells the long history of the invention of choice as the defining feature of modern freedom.Taking readers from the seventeenth century to today, Sophia Rosenfeld describes how the early modern world witnessed the simultaneous rise of shopping as an activity and religious freedom as a matter of being able to pick one's convictions. Similarly, she traces the history of choice in romantic life, politics, and the ideals of human rights. Throughout, she pays particular attention to the lives of women, those often with the fewest choices, who have frequently been the drivers of this change. She concludes with an exploration of how reproductive rights have become a symbolic flashpoint in our contemporary struggles over the association of liberty with choice.Drawing on a wealth of sources ranging from novels and restaurant menus to the latest scientific findings about choice in psychology and economics, The Age of Choice urges us to rethink the meaning of choice and its promise and limitations in modern life.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 4.2.2025
• Zusatzinfo: 8-page color insert. 60 b/w illus.
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Neuzeit (bis 1918)
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Politische Theorie
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
• Schlagworte: Abortion • Abortion rights • Advertising Campaigns • albeit • Atlantic • Autonomy • ballot • Ballot boxes • Ballroom • buying habits • Capitalist democratic • Casting vote • Century novels • Century secret ballot • Century wore • Choice • choice architects • choosing • commercial culture • Commonplace books • commonplacing • Conscience • consumer choice • Consumer Culture • Consumer goods • consumer research • contrary • dance cards • Dance Floor • dance games • Dancing masters • Decision Making • Democracy • democratic • economicus • Economists • Eleanor Roosevelt • Election • Expression • feminine mystique • Feminism • feminist • formal rules • Frances Burney • freedom • Freedom expression • gender norms • Homo • Homo economicus • Human Rights • Independence • Isabel Archer • Jane Austen • Liberalism • Luxury Goods • Madame Bovary • menu of options • Neoliberalism • opposite sex • Paper ballot • parliamentary elections • Politics • Pontefract • popular sovereignty • Pro suffrage • Protestant • Psychology • Rational • Religious Freedom • Religious Liberty • Religious sphere • Right to Choose • Roe • Scale technologies • secret ballot • Secret voting • sexes • sexual • Shopping • shop windows • social dance • social dance/social dancing • social dancing • Sophia Rosenfeld • Suffrage • Supreme Court • The Choice Is Yours: A History of Freedom in Modern Life • Unfettered choice • Voting • Voting ballot • Voting booth
• ISBN-13: 9780691261621 / 9780691261621