The age of anxiety - Sarah Dunant

As we come to the end of the 20th century, the idea that the future equals progress has sustained a philosophic body blow from which it will not easily recover. As technology expands our choices, it also serves to diminish our sense of control. Mix that with the insecurity of global economics, the threat of family breakdown, increased fear of crime and violence and you have a population which finds it difficult to handle today, let alone contemplate tomorrow. But how justifiable is our anxiety? And how do we stop ourselves

being frightened of the millennium? Sarah Dunant and Roy Porter ask 10 prominent thinkers and writers to assess the general malaise that is settling over us. Not all the essayists are optimistic about life beyond the millennium, but they all think the world is a place worth fighting for. Thought-provoking yet accessible, THE AGE OF ANXIETY is an important book for our times.