About the Author

Richard Sennett grew up in the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago, attended the Julliard School in New York and then studied social relations at Harvard. Over the last five decades, he has written about social life in cities, changes in labour and social theory. His books include The Hidden Injuries of Class, The Fall of Public Man, The Corrosion of Character, The Culture of the New Capitalism, The Craftsman and Building and Dwelling. Sennett has advised the United Nations on urban issues for the past thirty years and currently serves as member of the UN Committee on Urban Initiatives. He is Visiting Professor of Urban Studies at Harvard. Among other awards, he has received the Hegel Prize, the Spinoza Prize and the Centennial Medal from Harvard University.

Reviews

Urgent, penetrating, moving. Another masterwork from a master thinker
*Ian Bostridge, author of Song and Self: A Singer’s Reflections on Music and Performance*

A masterpiece from one of the most important cultural theorists of our time. The Performer is, at once, a memoir, an investigation, a sociological treatise, and a manifesto for rethinking humanity's next act
*Eric Klinenberg, Helen Gould Shepard Professor in the Social Sciences, New York University*

Richard Sennett calls on his vast knowledge of theater and performance to argue for the social uses of civility—and against the degradation of public social space brought by demagogues such as Donald Trump. This is a book that ranges widely while speaking forcefully to our current needs.
*Peter Brooks, Yale University*