"In her late twenties, Cait Flanders found herself stuck in the consumerism cycle that grips so many of us: earn more, buy more, want more, rinse, repeat. Even after she worked her way out of nearly $30,000 of consumer debt, her old habits took hold again. When she realized that nothing she was doing or buying was making her happy--only keeping her from meeting her goals--she decided to set herself a challenge:she would not shop for an entire year....

One of today's most influential minimalist advocates, Joshua Becker used to spend his days accumulating more and more. But then he realized his possessions were not only failing to make him happy, they were actually keeping him from the very things that do. Instead of bringing fulfillment, they brought distraction. In The More of Less, Joshua helps you recognize the life-giving benefits of owning less; realize how all the stuff you own is keeping...

"Sam Dogen's Financial Samurai blog has helped over 70 million people achieve financial freedom. Now, he shares his no-nonsense playbook to build wealth and retire early through smarter spending. When it comes to our money, many of us believe that to acquire more we have to spend less. But the truth is that a mindset of skimping and frugality can lead you to miss opportunities for income growth and kill your dreams of early retirement. To live our...

Looks at the history of the growth of consumerism, exposing the international nature of its expansion through the last six hundred years, and the challenges it poses to the planet.

"95% of consumers are now making at least one lasting change to how they live, shop and work. Consumers are being forced to face their own consumption, causing many to reconsider their purchases accordingly. Consumers are planning to maintain increased connections with their communities, and some will actively purchase from brands that provide a sense of community. The consumer you thought you knew is no longer, and there is an urgent need to get...

In these essays, social satirist Rakoff journeys into the land of unchecked plenty that is contemporary America, skewering overconsumption, greed, vanity, selfishness, and vapidity. Somewhere along the line, our healthy self-regard has exploded into obliterating narcissism; our manic getting and spending have now become celebrated as moral virtues. Whether contrasting the elegance of one of the last flights of the supersonic Concorde with the good-times-and-chicken-wings...

The unlikely story of how Americans canonized Adam Smith as the patron saint of free markets Originally published in 1776, Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations was lauded by America's founders as a landmark work of Enlightenment thinking about national wealth, statecraft, and moral virtue. Today, Smith is one of the most influential icons of economic thought in America. Glory Liu traces how generations of Americans have read, reinterpreted, and weaponized...

"Taste is a core concept for the social sciences and an orienting notion in everyday practice. It is of equal relevance to academics and laypeople alike. Theorizations of taste are frequently multi- disciplinary, bringing an opportunity to cross-fertilize ideas and concepts. At the same time, a reader, challenged by the diverse body and dispersed nature of theories on taste, needs guidance navigating the literature and framing areas of interest. Until...

"Sandra Goldmark was a new mother, short on sleep and closet space, when her vacuum broke. And her toaster. And the strap on her backpack. Objects that were supposed to make her life easier instead piled up inside her family's small apartment, broken and collecting dust. Goldmark didn't want a new vacuum or toaster--she wanted the ones she had to work. But the reality is that the systems through which we obtain our stuff are vast and entrenched, with...

"Hope Jahren is an award-winning geobiologist, a brilliant writer, and one of the seven billion people with whom we share this earth. The Story of More is her impassioned open letter to humanity as we stand at the crossroads of survival and extinction. Jahren celebrates the long history of our enterprising spirit--which has tamed wild crops, cured diseases, and sent us to the moon--but also shows how that spirit has created excesses that are quickly...