“Wide-ranging yet brilliantly astute. . . . Davies is a wild and surprising thinker who also happens to be an elegant writer.” ― Jennifer Szalai, New York Times 
Hailed as a “masterpiece” (Mark Green, New York Times Book Review), Nervous States offers an astute diagnosis for why our politics has become so fractious and warlike. In this bold and far- reaching book, political economist William Davies argues that our increasing reliance on feeling over fact has transformed democracies. The spread of media technology and the intrusion of mass shootings and terrorist attacks into everyday life has reduced a world of logic and fact into one driven by fear and anxiety. As emotions supplant facts in our politics, we lose the basis for consensus among people who otherwise have little in common. Nervous States “sits at the intersection of ongoing debates about post-truth, the assault on reason, the privileging of personal feelings and the rise of populism” (Financial Times) and provides an essential guide to the turbulent times in which we now live. 
“An insightful and well- written book that explores the deep roots of the current crisis of expertise.” ― Yuval Noah Harari, New York Times best-selling author of Sapiens

Nervous States: Democracy and the Decline of Reason

Business & Money

DAVIES, William

Economics

W.W.Norton&Company

In this age of intense political conflict, we sense objective fact is growing less important. Experts are attacked as partisan, statistics and scientific findings are decried as propaganda, and public debate devolves into personal assaults. How did we get here, and what can we do about it?
In this sweeping and provocative work, political economist William Davies draws on a four-hundred-year history of ideas to reframe our understanding of the contemporary world. He argues that global trends decades and even centuries in the making have reduced a world of logic and fact into one driven by emotions―particularly fear and anxiety. This has ushered in an age of “nervous states,” both in our individual bodies and our body politic.
Eloquently tracing the history of accounting, statistics, science, and human anatomy from the Enlightenment to the present, Davies shows how we invented expertise in the seventeenth century to calm the violent disputes―over God and the nature of reality―that ravaged Europe. By separating truth from emotion, scientific, testable facts paved a way out of constant warfare and established a basis for consensus, which became the bedrock of modern politics, business, and democracy.
Informed by research on psychology and economics, Davies reveals how widespread feelings of fear, vulnerability, physical and psychological pain, and growing inequality reshaped our politics, upending these centuries-old ideals of how we understand the world and organize society. Yet Davies suggests that the rise of emotion may open new possibilities for confronting humanity’s greatest challenges. Ambitious and compelling, Nervous States is a perceptive and enduring account of our turbulent times.

Step-by-step guides to self-improvement that introduce the methods of the highly regarded cognitive behavioral therapy technique to help readers conquer a broad range of disabling conditions-from worry to body image problems to obsessive compulsive disorder and more. The accessible, straightforward, and practical books in the Overcoming series treat disorders by changing unhelpful patterns of behavior and thought. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) was developed by psychiatrist Aaron T. Beck and is now internationally favored as a practical means of overcoming longstanding and disabling conditions, both psychological and physical. CBT insists that our thoughts cause our feelings and behaviors. Even when our situation does not change, if we change the self-defeating ways we think, we can make ourselves feel better. This positive, pragmatic approach is popular with therapists and patients alike.Books in the Overcoming Series: highlight the history and background of the disorder, who is likely to be affected, and what the main symptoms are provide a structure ideal for personal use or in a program using guided self-help techniques include diagnostic questionnaires, case studies, and workbook-style interactive exercises explore step-by-step techniques such as diary- and record-keeping, problem-solving, and managing symptoms include overviews of all treatment options offer authoritative, commonsense solutions to pervasive, difficult emotional problems are highly recommended by experts around the world and offer readers an affordable and easy-to-follow treatment plan

Overcoming Anger and Irritability: A Self-Help Guide Using Cognitive Behavioral Techniques

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Mental Health

Basic Books

Songs of a Wayfarer

History

BiblioBazaar

Overcoming Anger and Irritability is a self-help manual for those who find that they are harming the quality of their lives and the lives of those around them with recurring irritability and flashes of anger. It has been writen to help the reader to understand why bouts of anger occur and what can be done to overcome them. The guide takes a positive approach for which the long-term goal is lasting "good temper," and also provides methods for best handling taxing situations.
-Contains a complete self-help program and work sheets -Is based on clinically proven techniques of cognitive therapy

Overcoming Anger and Irritability

Psychology & Counseling

NYU Press

Letters of James Smetham, with an Introductory Memoir

Smetham, James

Smetham, Sarah

BiblioLife

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Books by DAVIES, William