The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations - Softcover

"Cultural history at its best. . . . Provokes, startles, and keeps the reader arguing with himself as well as with the writer. . . . A book of fundamental importance." -- Bruce Mazlish, Massachusetts Institute of Technology "Christopher Lasch has gone to the heart of our culture. The insights into personality and its social context are stunning. This is a courageous, important book." -- Michael Rogin, University of California, Berkeley "His vigorous appraisal of contemporary American life is to be admired as much for the perspicacity of his observations as for the contancy of this argument and the scope of his supporting references. . . . Few write with his penetration, intelligence, and historical expertise." -- Kirkus Reviews "Formidable intellectual grasp and the kind of moral conviction rarely found in contemporary, value-neutral history and sociology. . . . Lasch is on to something quite real." -- Time "This is the big intellectual book of the season, the one for everyone to feel guilty about not reading." -- Henry Allen - Washington Post "Brilliantly on target [and] idiosyncratically compelling." -- Alan Wolfe - New Republic "Never has the case against narcissism been made with such an all-embracing sweep. . . . [Lasch] has brilliantly performed the first job of a social critic by prompting us to look at our reflection-shorn of vanity." -- Valerie Lloyd - Newsweek "Lasch took in a remarkable range of contemporary experience, making many observations that, if anything, ring more true today. . . . [Readers] may want to seek solace in Lasch's illuminations." -- Lee Siegel - The New York Times

The book quickly became a bestseller. This edition includes a new afterword, "The Culture of Narcissism Revisited."