RACHEL'S PICK

Astra Taylor's Massey Lectures offer an elegant, straightforward, and highly insightful account of insecurity as a central feature of the capitalist social order. Beginning with the enclosure movement and the loss of the commons, they explore the fracturing effect of private accumulation and the way it forstalls a politics of solidarity. They also evoke new ways to conceive of our complex interrelations with earth, people, and our own spiritual wellbeing. To understand her argument is to be poised to participate in a necessary activism. Giftable and essential reading! -RG 

These days, everyone feels insecure. We are financially stressed and emotionally overwhelmed. The status quo isn’t working for anyone, even those who appear to have it all. What is going on?

In this urgent cultural diagnosis, author and activist Astra Taylor exposes how seemingly disparate crises—rising inequality and declining mental health, the ecological emergency, and the threat of authoritarianism—originate from a social order built on insecurity. From home ownership and education to the wellness industry and policing, many of the institutions and systems that promise to make us more secure actually undermine us.

Mixing social critique, memoir, history, political analysis, and philosophy, this genre-bending book rethinks both insecurity and security from the ground up. By facing our existential insecurity and embracing our vulnerability, Taylor argues, we can begin to develop more caring, inclusive, and sustainable forms of security to help us better weather the challenges ahead. The Age of Insecurity will transform how you understand yourself and society—while illuminating a path toward meaningful change.

Paperback | 352 pages | 5.00" x 8.00"