Selfie

"Will Storr is a versatile, imaginative, committed long-form journalist with a populist touch... a talented, ambitious writer." - Independent

"Storr can open chapters like a stage conjurer, and his prose has an easy, laconic style embracing Jon Ronson's taste for the fabulously weird and Louis Theroux's ability to put his subjects at ease. He is a funny and companionable guide." - Guardian

"It's easy to look at Instagram and "selfie-sticks" and shake our heads at millennial narcissism. But Will Storr takes a longer view. He ignores the easy targets and instead tells the amazing 2,500-year story of how we've come to think about our selves. A top-notch journalist, historian, essayist, and sleuth, Storr has written an essential book for understanding, and coping with, the 21st century." - Nathan Hill, author of The Nix

"Moving, wise, compelling and timely, this brilliant and absorbing book investigates the faultline between our oldest human needs and the terrible pressures of technology." - Marcel Theroux

"Selfie also has shades of Jon Ronson in its subversive humour and investigative spirit... Selfie, without being remotely fluffy, just might be the ultimate in post-truth comfort reading." - Bookseller

"I've come to consider Will Storr the best writer out there in terms of writing about human experience and the concepts and complexities of psychology. I've never seen such a well-thought-through and well-argued piece of work as Selfie, really taking ideas around self-esteem back to their philosophical and historical origins - and pulling them all to pieces. I loved it." - Professor Sophie Scott, Deputy Director, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London

"You'll find yourself repeating entire sections of Selfie to your friends, and passing them off as your own." - Cosmopolitan

"So interesting I literally couldn't put it down." - Sunday Times

“In this fascinating psychological and social history ... exposing the cultural con that says we can be anyone we want to be, [Will Storr] invites to us to relax into our flawed, limited selves.” - The Washington Post

“Spoiler alert: Despite its trendy title, Selfie is not a frivolous book about taking photographs of oneself and littering social media with them, although this pastime is examined... Selfie: How We Became So Self-Obsessed and What It’s Doing to Us is an ambitious survey of the influences that make us who we are. In addition to his own experiences and insights, Storr draws on scholarly literature and interviews experts on the human personality. He ably synthesizes centuries of attitudes and beliefs about selfhood, primarily in western thought, from Aristotle, John Calvin and Freud, to Sartre, Ayn Rand and Steve Jobs. His straightforward prose and personal anecdotes make all of it eminently digestible.” - USA Today “Smartphones and social media are turning us into dreadful narcissists. Would anyone care to dispute this? Yes, actually. His name is Will Storr... We’re missing the point when we complain about technologically induced egotism... The root problem, [Selfie] contends, isn’t our devices or our social media sites. It’s us. Or rather, it’s the civilization we’ve built, a culture that for many decades has encouraged ever greater degrees of self-regard.” - The Daily Beast “This entertaining investigation is essentially a social history of the self, from earliest times (when we worked to increase our status within the tribe) to our current vainglorious self (hungry for likes and approbation on social media). Each of the seven chapters examines an aspect of self; for each of them, Storr, a lively, affable guide, introduces us to an exemplar, some familiar (Confucius, Ayn Rand, Donald Trump) and many more who are not. The final chapter offers Storr’s counsel on “How to Stay Alive in the Age of Perfectionism.” Step 1: try to set aside the current tribal propaganda and embrace your flawed and often unlikeable self.” - Toronto Star

“British journalist and novelist Storr takes on the ambitious subject of how people think of themselves.... The latest from the adroit, widely respected Storr.” - Booklist

“Storr continually delivers rich insights, historically grounded conclusions, and more contemporary deliberations on his subject’s relevance to the Trump campaign and how to stay hopeful living in a me-first world. Captivating, self-reflective research on our culture of rampant egocentricity.” - Kirkus Reviews

“An ambitious argument... Storr is an electrifying analyst of Internet culture.” - Financial Times

“An entertaining history of the self, from Narcissus to Trump.” - Observer

“Thoughtful and engaging . . . Storr’s cultural history is fascinating.” - Guardian