ARGONAUT BOOKS

In the twenty-first century, our defining celebrities have crafted public personae that walk the tightrope between authenticity and artificiality. Ordinary people have followed suit: lovingly tending our 'personal brands'. But today's self-creators are hardly new. Rather, the ruling idea that we not only can - but should - 'make' our own selves, curate our own image and shape our own destiny, is an inextricable part of the post-Enlightenment world: where the power of aristocracy and religion gave way to the triumph of the individual and the myth of the self-made man. From the Renaissance geniu...Read More