The Hunger for More

This is an excellent book for those people who wonder why they work so hard, earn so much money, buy all the nicest toys, but feel empty and stressed out inside. Does that sound like you, and you don't know why? Then read this book! Although the book was published in the late 80's, every concept he covers is more applicable to Americans in 2008. Although he could have edited this book by 15-20%, I will admit that his text gives an in-depth defense of every one of his points without getting too wordy. I'll bet if he published an updated book, it would hit the NY Times best seller list.

In readable nonacademic prose, Shames traces America's hunger for more, our insatiable appetite for fame and money, to the frontier, the railway system, and the adolescent notion of boundless possibilities. Shames' thesis is that these corrupt notions of success have eaten away any kind of moral foundation for dealing with economic downfall. He uses amusing anecdotes of consumer addicts, philistines who can only define themselves by the the products they purchase. Even though much his material focuses on the greed of the 1980s, his criticisms are relevant today, so much that I'd love to see this book re-issued. For a modern companion piece, check out Morris Berman's Twilight of American Culture.

Now is the time to read The Hunger for More because it is possible to look back and reflect on Shames's thoughts and predictions. "Hunger" is one of the most readable accounts of the social and economic forces of the last few decades, how American life has been affected by affluence, and what it has done to Americans as individuals. "A sickness called success" may be the best chapter--how we as individuals make choices that eventually rebound on us as well as society. A little feedback goes a long way. Extremely readable, not a dry scholarly treatment of how we lost our values or why our society is fragmenting into dozens of class-based but culturally (read "racially") emphatic parts.