The Amateur

Name: The Amateur
Brand: Allen & Unwin
SKU: 9781786631077
Price: 22.99 NZD
Availability: InStock

The Pleasures of Doing What You Love

By Andy Merrifield

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3.37

( 221 ratings, 40 reviews)

Summary

In The Amateur, Andy Merrifield argues that modern life has been stifled by experts and professionals, leading to a loss of the amateur spirit. He explores how work, knowledge, cities, and politics have become dominated by rigid rules and conformity. Drawing on the ideas of independent thinkers and creatives like Charles Baudelaire, Dostoevsky, Edward Said, Guy Debord, Hannah Arendt, and Jane Jacobs, Merrifield celebrates the amateur who embraces risk, unorthodox thinking, and independence to challenge established norms and change the world.
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Format: Paperback / softback

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The Amateur

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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This book will appeal to readers interested in philosophy, psychology, urban theory, and cultural criticism, particularly those who question modern professionalisation and seek inspiration from independent, creative thinkers.

A passionate manifesto for the liberated life, one that questions authority and reclaims the non-team player as a radical hero of our times

A passionate call for independent thinking

Description

Modern life is being destroyed by experts and professionals. We have lost our amateur spirit and need to rediscover the radical and liberating pleasure of doing things we love.

In The Amateur, thinker Andy Merrifield shows us how the many spheres of our lives—work, knowledge, cities, politics—have fallen into the hands of box tickers, bean counters and rule followers. In response, he corrals a team of independent thinkers, wayward poets, dabblers and square pegs who challenge the accepted wisdom.

Such figures as Charles Baudelaire, Dostoevsky, Edward Said, Guy Debord, Hannah Arendt and Jane Jacobs show us the way. As we will see, the amateur takes risks, thinks the unthinkable and seeks independence—and changes the world.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Publishers Weekly praises the book as a satisfying celebration of a society free from unproductive cycles. The Idler highlights Merrifield's defence of amateurs as risk-takers who innovate by pursuing passion, while the Financial Times describes it as erudite, engaging, and refreshing. The writing combines wit and intellectual rigour, promoting amateurs as passionate individuals opposing the mechanised expertise of modern society.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781786631077

Publisher: Verso Books

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 29 May 2018

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Verso Books

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 18.0mm

Width: 140.0mm

Height: 210.0mm

Weight: 261g

Pages: 240

Collections

Andy Merrifield Mindset & Self Help New Year, New You Non-Fiction Personal Development Philosophy & Psychology Philosophy & Stoicism Self-Help & Personal Development

About the Author

Andy Merrifield is the author of nine books. His many articles, essays and reviews have appeared in the Nation, Harper’s, Adbusters, New Left Review, Dissent, the Brooklyn Rail, and Radical Philosophy. He has more than twenty-years’ experience teaching and writing about urbanism and social theory. He has also published three intellectual biographies on Henri Lefebvre, Guy Debord and John Berger, as well as a popular existential travelogue, The Wisdom of Donkeys. Merrifield is a contributing editor of Adbusters, an associate editor of CITY, and a regular speaker at scholarly, literary and political events on and off campus.