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Palaces for the People
Palaces for the People
Oct 19, 2024 2:37 AM

Author:Eric Klinenberg

Palaces for the People

How can we bring people together?

Sociologist and best-selling author Eric Klinenberg introduces a transformative and powerfully uplifting new idea for health, happiness, safety and healing our divided, unequal society.

'This wonderful book shows us how democracies thrive' Steven Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt, authors of How Democracies Die

Too often we take for granted and neglect our libraries, parks, markets, schools, playgrounds, gardens and communal spaces, but decades of research now shows that these places can have an extraordinary effect on our personal and collective wellbeing. Why? Because wherever people cross paths and linger, wherever we gather informally, strike up a conversation and get to know one another, relationships blossom and communities emerge – and where communities are strong, people are safer and healthier, crime drops and commerce thrives, and peace, tolerance and stability take root.

Through uplifting human stories and an illuminating tour through the science of social connection, Palaces for the People shows that properly designing and maintaining this ‘social infrastructure’ might be our single best strategy for a more equal and united society.

Reviews

This wonderful book shows us how democracies thrive

—— Steven Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt, authors of How Democracies Die

Fantastic ... both idealistic and, in its myriad examples, pragmatic, and delightfully readable

—— Rebecca Solnit, author of Men Explain Things to Me

This book is full of hope, which is all the more striking because Klinenberg is a realist. He is a major social thinker, and this is a beautifully written, major book

—— Richard Sennett, author of The Craftsman

An important book for our difficult age. In very unequal societies, where the social fabric has been torn apart, it is vitally important to bring people together. Eric Klinenberg shows us how this can be done

—— Kate Pickett, co-author of The Spirit Level and The Inner Level

Klinenberg’s observations hold as true for Brexit Britain as they do for Trump’s America ... In ripping out our social infrastructure, we are outraging a wisdom that goes back centuries and spans countries ... Our people deserve palaces" Aditya Chakrabortty

—— Aditya Chakrabortty

An essential book, about some of the most important aspects of modern living

—— Renzo Piano, architect of the Pompidou Centre and the Shard

A comprehensive, entertaining and compelling argument

—— Jon Stewart, former host of The Daily Show

Brilliant and important ... combines a Jane Jacobs-eye on city life with knowledge of the latest research and practical ideas to address the crucial issues of the day

—— Arlie Hochschild author of Strangers in Their Own Land

A calm, lucid exposition of a centuries-old idea, which is really a furious call to action

—— John Harris , New Statesman

Timely and important ... Klinenberg, an optimist, tells heartwarming stories ... No reasonable person could not want these things

—— Observer

Significant and engaging ... It’s easy to write about the importance of local social life. It’s harder to know what to do to support it ... Klinenberg’s argument has a powerful simplicity

—— Financial Times

A vision of the good city ... At the heart of the book is that idea of the library or park rather than the market as the place where urban life is lived at its best

—— Owen Hatherley , Guardian

An essential book for our times. How well we listen determines how we love, learn, and connect with one another, and in this moment when we need to hear and be heard more than ever, this thought-provoking and engaging book shows us how.

—— Lori Gottlieb , New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone

Wide ranging, deeply researched, readable and persuasive. Ms Murphy, we hear you!

—— Rose Shepherd , Saga Magazine, *Books to Look Our For in 2020*

Full of fascinating insights and advice on the art of listening... a deeply researched and thought-provoking read… [that] feels timely and necessary

—— Eastern Daily Press, *Book of the Week*

A thoroughly researched piece of long-form journalism… An interesting read.

—— Natalie Bowen , UK Press Syndication

Murphy offers a timely reminder of how we could enrich out lives and relationships if we redouble our efforts to listen to opposing views.

—— Lucy Popescu , Tablet

In an age when technology has made it easier than ever before to talk with each other, we've paradoxically become worse at listening. Fortunately, we have Kate Murphy to teach us how to reclaim this crucial skill. This book changed the way I think about communicating with the people who matter to me.

—— Cal Newport , New York Times bestselling author of Deep Work and Digital Minimalism

A timely intervention

—— Niki Seth-Smith , New Humanist

Warn, earnest, gently beseeching... Carefully read, Murphy's book might help us all pay more great compliments to the ones we love

—— M. M. Owen , Times Literary Supplement

Jaw-dropping… This book is a snapshot of the dangers of a world designed to fit a minority

—— Barbara Speed , i

Plain, detailed and almost overwhelming prose… There is no anger in Criado Perez's pages – she is too busy with evidence for that

—— Tanya Gold , UnHerd

Book that did most to change the way I thought? Caroline Criado Perez's Invisible Women... Perez has delivered a much needed correction: full of persuasive examples and analysis of areas from public policy, medicine, economics and elsewhere in which data have been gathered in such a way as to obscure or omit matters of most concern to women. I learned a lot

—— Tim Harford

Invisible Women… is a book that changes the way you see the world

—— Allan Massie , Sunday Times

The book’s force doesn’t derive from the power of its rhetoric – instead it’s the steady, unrelenting accumulation of evidence, the sheer weight of her argument’

—— Sophie McBain , New Statesman

Caroline Criado Perez brilliantly exposes the appalling gender bias that underpins the collection of data and how it’s used. From medical treatments that fail to take female biology into account, to car safety features that are designed for the male body, women are the invisible 51%. This deeply researched and passionate book is the most important contribution to gender equality in years.

—— Amanda Foreman

In Invisible Women…Caroline Criado Perez expounds the far-reaching consequences of the “default male” mode… She urges a realignment of priorities… [a] call to action

—— Mia Levitin , Times Literary Supplement

Ending the biases she [Perez] exposes wouldn’t just reduce inequality; it would, in some cases, save actual lives

—— The Week, *Book of the Week*

Invisible Women is an essential handbook in the fight to build a more equal world. It’s based on enough data to satisfy even the fussiest scientist and will make you look at the world in a new light. However, the style is light enough that it doesn’t feel like hard work. Read it for yourself, then lend it to all your friends, of any gender

—— Chemistry World

Perez’s analysis is wide-ranging and compelling… one of the most powerful takeaways from Perez’s book is the extent to which so much of this [gendered] bias is unconscious, such that we are all infected by it. Feminism is the process of unlearning this, but it’s an ongoing process, for all of us

—— Conversation

An impeccably researched, determined and passionate demand for change

—— Sian Norris , Prospect

The depth and scope of this book will shock you… Invisible Women is an essential handbook in the fight to build a more equal world… Read it for yourself, then lend it to all your friends, of any gender

—— Philippa Matthews , Chemistry World

An extraordinary book

—— Anthony Reuben , Big Issue

One of the most compelling books I’ve read in years

—— Josie Cox , Independent

[An] astounding book

—— Dominic Browne , Highways

A strong case for change

—— Sarah Shaffi , Stylist

Invisible Women makes excellent points about how biased data are hidden and have pervasive negative impacts on the lives of women and girls

—— Margaret McCartney , Lancet

Criado Perez’s devastating indictment is a worthy bestseller

—— Guardain, *Summer Reads of 2019*

This book is a wake-up call for us all

—— Church Times, *Summer Reads of 2019*

Overwhelmingly powerful

—— Kistina Rapacki , Disegno

Few books this year are as important as activist Criado-Perez’s data crunch into the inequalities between men and women. She finds something to engage and enrage on every page

—— Sarah Hughes , i, *Best books of 2019*

A fascinating look at the gender biases affecting our everyday lives

—— Women's Running

This book is comprehensive, well researched and thoroughly referenced with copious endnotes… [it] made me…shift my perspective

—— Toni Sekinah , DataIQ

Thought-provoking, eye-opening

—— Iona Grey , Heat

Not only a gripping but an important book… It’s funny when it’s not horrifying, deeply researched and done with real verve

—— Sam Leith , Spectator, *Books of the Year*

Few books really change the way you look at the world. Invisible Women is one of those rarities

—— Robbie Millen , The Times, *Books of the Year*

What makes Invisible Women so compelling is the mountain of data she draws on… a brilliant exposé

—— Ian Sample , Guardian, *Books of the Year*

Every man should read this book… [Invisible Women] chats, in page after steely, meticulous page, precisely how the world…is designed around men, and how this puts women at an impossible disadvantage

—— James McConnachie , Sunday Times, *Books of the Year*

Funny, exasperating and anger-inducing, there is something for everyone

—— Eleanor Parsons , New Scientist

The essential book of the year, mayhap the decade

—— Marina Vaizey , Tablet, *Books of the Year*

A staggering expose of design prejudice and an impassioned call to action

—— List

Perez takes the truism that ours is a world designed for men and backs it with evidence. Impressively collating vast amounts of research

—— Prospect, *Books of the Year*

A must-read for men and women alike

—— Hannah Beckerman , Sunday Express

This calm, dispassionate, hilarious, entertaining, maddening, infuriating narrative is a highly readable manifesto for real change

—— Marina Vaizey , The Arts Desk, *Books of the Year*

This well-researched book turns everything we accept as normal on its head…[Invisible Women] succeeds in making a powerful case for change in a non-preachy, educative style… It is not entertainment; it is a thesis – and a powerful one at that

—— Alison Herbert and Dr Phyl Hughes , Law Society Gazette

This incredibly well-researched and engaging book highlights how the lack of gender-focused data results in the needs of more than half of the population being ignored. The numerous examples cited by Criado-Perez – ranging from infrastructure to healthcare – are shocking and sobering… Invisible Women offers valuable insight into the transformative power of diversity and equality to drive better economic outcomes

—— Christie Guimond , Briefing

Such an insightful book and a good read for everyone

—— Julie Stewart , Business Times

Incredibly topical and relevant in a rapidly changing world, Criado Perez’s multi-award-winning exposé on data bias has seen her become an authority on modern day inequalities

—— Capacity

Invisible Women...is already a classic, but I can't recommend it enough

—— Sarah Pedersen , Times Higher Education

A powerful, insightful book

—— Tim Harford , Week

Compelling... revelatory... Criado Perez provides bountiful evidence of her thesis

—— Mariel McKone Leonard , London School of Economics

A huge eye-opener

—— Jojo de Noronha , Grocer

A witty, furious page-turner

—— Emma Donoghue , Week

Invisible Women is highly recommended to both men and women as an incredibly readable piece of journalism... Many of you will also find you cannot put down this passionate and informative book until you've finished it... illuminating and engaging

—— Platinum Business Magazine

Compelling

—— Dr Mariel McKone Leonard , London School of Economics

Filled with hair raising facts and figures, [Invisible Women] investigates the jarring matter of discrepancy and representation in our modern world... make no mistake, once you begin reading, it's hard to stop

—— Reilly Dufresne , Glasgow Guardian, *Christmas Gift Guide 2020*

A deeply important and useful book... Fast, funny, angry and vital... A proper game-changer.

—— Caitlin Moran , Foyles, *Author Picks for Christmas*

Criado Perez keeps the gobsmacking revelations flowing in a conversational manner, making the reader feel like she’s having lunch with a funny, knowledgeable and passionate friend

—— Science News
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