'We're all now self-makers whether we like it or not - and this witty sceptical book is the
thought-provoking story of how we got here' GUARDIAN'This funny startling insightful story of
the selfie from Dürer to the Kardashians is a must read if you want to understand how we
reinvent ourselves every time we reveal ourselves' PETER POMERANTSEVToday's defining
celebrities have crafted public personae that walk the tightrope between authenticity and
artificiality. Ordinary people now follow suit: lovingly tending our 'personal brands' for
economic gain and self-expression alike.Instagram culture is part of a story that goes back
centuries. The vision that we not only can but should 'make' our own selves to shape our own
destiny is an inextricable part of the formation of the modern world.As traditional powers of
pre-modernity - church and throne - waned a new myth took their place: that of the 'self-made
man' whose unique powers of personality - or canny self-presentation - give him not just the
opportunity but the obligation to remake reality in the image of what he wants it to be.From
the Renaissance genius to the Regency dandy the American prophets of capitalism to the
aspirational übermensch of European fascism Hollywood's Golden Age to today's Silicon Valley
Self-Made takes us on a dazzling tour of modern history's most prominent self-makers
uncovering both self-making's liberatory power and the dangers this idea can unleash.'Both
revelatory and a warning about the ways that focus on the self distorts our individual lives
and the broader society' FRANCIS FUKUYAMA
