Complaint: From Minor Moans to Principled Protests

By Julian Baggini

Book Overview

'Popular philosophy of the best kind' Financial Times All major social advances started with a complaint: Emmeline Pankhurst, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela each brought about change by protesting that the status quo was wrong and needed to be rethought. Complaint has revolutionised society - yet it is now associated primarily with trivial moans and frivolous litigation. Renowned popular philosopher Julian Baggini shows that in order to reclaim complaint as a positive force, we need to know what we wrongly complain about, and why. He explores every kind of complaint, from the contradictory to the paranoid and the Luddite, and presents a unique and revealing survey into whether Britons complain more than Americans, men more than women, the old more than the young. This fascinating, witty insight into an essential part of the human condition will help you find the best way to bridge the gap between how things are and how we think they ought to be.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1846680573
• ISBN13: 9781846680571
• Release Date: January 2010
• Publisher: Ips - Profile Books
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.4" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

My complaint review

I found this book both entertaining and imformative. It was interesting to me that more people complain about things over which they no (or little) control than over things which they have control. It was also interesting to find that even when people have control, they rarely exercise it. It seems we get more pleasure complaining than fixing the world.