What three millennia of human history can tell us about how to live today
Roman Krznaric is a cultural historian and faculty member of Alain de Botton's School of Life. He has taught sociology and politics at Cambridge and City University, London and is an adviser to organisations including Oxfam, the Red Cross and the United Nations.
The Wonderbox is a cornucopia of delights. Completely fascinating,
beautifully written and brimming with insights that challenge our
entrenched and predictable ways of seeing and doing, it draws on an
amazing range of stories from the history of human culture to
explain how we can find true meaning in life. Every thinking home
should have one!
*Michael Wood, historian, film maker and author of The Story of
England*
The author's enthusiasm for direct solutions to modern dilemmas is
infectious.
*Sue Gerhardt, author of Why Love Matters and The Selfish
Society*
Think Alain de Botton meets Niall Ferguson ... a wonderful mix of
social history and good ideas for everyday living.
*Robert Kelsey, author of What’s Stopping You?*
A fascinating rattlebag of intelligent, stimulating essays. The
Wonderbox is very much in the mould of Alain de Botton's
bestsellers: densely researched but readable, wise and witty. By
taking the long view to debunk some myths of modern life (house
husbands are not such a new invention; family meals were never
golden times of civilised conversation), Krznaric frees us from
passing trends to answer the fundamental question: how should be
live now?
*Financial Times*
Taking one hefty theme per chapter - such as love, work or home -
Krznaric serves up a fascinating series of accounts of how we got
where we are now, sifting the valuable from the worthless with an
impressive indifference to current fashions. After reading The
Wonderbox, endlessly shopping for stuff you already have will seem
distinctly strange
*Reader's Digest*
Ranging from such lofty issues as love and death to the finer
points of carpentry, Krznaric offers a compendium of fascinating
and quirky anecdotes and character studies, refiguring them as
practical fables for everyday life. Though a pleasure to read
cover-to-cover, this book lends itself perfectly to the occasional
reader looking for workable solutions to any dilemma. The scope of
the stories and the versatility of Krznaric's interpretations are
at once fascinating and illuminating.
*We Love This Book*
This modern guide to living a good life by nurturing relationships,
giving more to others, and resisting the self-imposed tyrannies of
work, time, ambition and achievement, is entertaining and
instructive.
*The Times*
A guaranteed pick-me-up for the early days of January! And a book
I'm going to be returning to for years.
*BBC Radio Scotland Book Cafe*
An intriguing upmarket self-help guide.
*The Guardian*
Inspiration for bold experiments in living.
*The Oxford Times*
Roman Krznaric delves into the wonderbox of history...and reveals
how the past can prompt us to aim higher than we do.
Four star review
*Metro*
Brim-full of insights drawn not from philosophy, religious
teachings or psychology but drawing on the writing and lives of
great writers including Tolstoy, Thoreau and Orwell. Krznaric
weaves together a compelling, fresh argument about how we conduct
our relationships, make decisions about the life we lead and the
crucial importance of empathy.
*The Big Society Network*
The Wonderbox is a treasury of history and philosophy that manages
also to be truly, practically motivational
*John-Paul Flintoff, author of Sew Your Own*
Almost like an opera, it begins with love and ends with death. But
it isn't operatic in style. It is earthy and literate in an
old-fashioned style, iconoclastic and realistic. It throws light
into the world of personal fulfilment and issues a call to ethical
action on a global context.
*The Australian*
A truly visionary guide that is delightfully quirky and immensely
stimulating. Utterly indispensable.
*Good Book Guide*
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