Shop Class as Soulcraft brings alive an experience that was once quite common but now seems to be receding from society — the experience of making and fixing things with our hands. Those of us who sit in an office often feel a lack ...

Alain de Botton turns his attention to the concept of status: what it is, why we need it, what we will do to get it. In his usual quirky and entertaining--but intelligent and provocative--fashion, de Botton finds insight in some unusu...