About a year ago I read Alain de Botton's Religion for Atheists. The take away was that the power and attraction of religion, even in an age when we flee from organized religion, is the architecture it provides to our lives--the structure of our days, our years, our views, our aesthetics. But in an age of disbelief, the old structures no longer satisfy. Rather than disregarding the need, the better approach is to use the tools at our disposal to fill it. That may mean looking to biology, philosophy, or psychology for clues to the art of living. The thing that attracted me to this book when I bought it a year ago was that it seemed unique in using history to accomplish the same goals, and its author was a founder with de Botton of The School of Life. Krznaric investigates topics like empathy, travel, work, money, love, and family and casts a critical eye on the present with the wisdom of history. How did we get here, essentially. But the problem with a history book that ranges so broadly over the history of art of living is that it can ring too simplistic. Were there really only two major developments in art after the middle ages: perspective and cubism? ( )

A lifestyle philosopher's compendium of lessons from history on how to live. Krznaric brings out the connections between the past and the present that can help us develop nurturing relationships, learn to give more to others, discover the amazing world around us, reduce the role of money in our lives yet have an abundance. This is a good book to read "piecemeal" and to ponder. I kept it by my bedside and read a chapter or two before sleeping. ( )