Why doesn't self-help help? Millions of people turn to self-improvement when they find that their lives aren't working out quite as they had imagined. The market for self-improvement products-books, audiotapes, life-makeover seminars and regimens of all kinds-is exploding, and there seems to be no end in sight for this trend. In Self-Help, Inc.: Makeover Culture in American Life, cultural critic Micki McGee asks what our seemingly insatiable demand for self-help can tell us about ourselves at the outset of this new century. The answers are surprising. Rather than finding an America that is narcissistic or self-involved, as others have contended, McGee sees a nation relying on self-help culture for advice on how to cope in an increasingly volatile and competitive work world. For Americans today, a central component of working has become working on themselves. "Be all one can be," they are told. Build your own personal brand. As women have entered the paid labor force in growing numbers, the Protestant work ethic has been augmented by a Romantic imperative that one create a vision-a script-for one's life. More and more, Americans are compelled to regard themselves in effect as "human capital." No longer simply an enterprising or entrepreneurial individual, the new worker is the artist and the artwork, the "CEO of Me, Inc.," in Tom Peters' memorable phrase, and the central product line. Self-Help, Inc. reveals how makeover culture traps Americans in endless cycles of self-invention and overwork as they struggle to stay ahead of a rapidly restructuring economic order. A lucid and fascinating treatment of the modern obsession with work and self-improvement, this book will strike a chord with its diagnosis of the self-help trap and with its suggestions for how we can address the alienating conditions of modern work and family life.

Established by a pair of philanthropists who believed adamantly in the power of creativity, Yaddo has hosted some of the twentieth century's most renowned writers, composers, and visual artists, including Hannah Arendt, James Baldwin, Saul Bellow, Leonard Bernstein, Elizabeth Bishop, Truman Capote, Flannery O'Connor, Aaron Copland, Langston Hughes, Carson McCullers, Sylvia Plath, Philip Roth, and Clyfford Still.

Richly illustrated with photographs, prints, intimate letters, papers, and ephemera from archives and collections at both Yaddo and The New York Public Library-many of which have never before been seen by the public& mdash; "Yaddo" offers a window into the workings of this famously private institution and insight into the lives and circumstances of the artists who lived and worked there. It examines the relationship between the premier artists' colony and the ideals of democracy and individuality that inform an American vision. From Aaron Copland to Robert Lowell, from Agnes Smedley to Langston Hughes, the volume shares the stories of those who visited this haven and highlights the debates and controversies that threatened to break apart its tranquility. With essays by Marcelle Clements, David Gates, Allan Gurganus, Tim Page, Ruth Price, Barry Werth, Karl Emil Willers, and Helen Vendler, along with an overview by curator Micki McGee, "Yaddo" revisits the major moments of twentieth-century American culture and history.

Why doesn't self-help help? Cultural critic Micki McGee puts forward this paradoxical question as she looks at a world where the market for self-improvement products--books, audiotapes, and extreme makeovers--is exploding, and there seems to be no end in sight. Rather than seeing narcissism at the root of the self-help craze, as others have contended, McGee shows a nation relying on self-help culture for advice on how to cope in an increasingly volatile and competitive work world. Self-Help, Inc. reveals how makeover culture traps Americans in endless cycles of self-invention and overwork as they struggle to stay ahead of a rapidly restructuring economic order. A lucid and fascinating treatment of the modern obsession with work and self-improvement, this lively book will strike a chord with its acute diagnosis of the self-help trap and its sharp suggestions for how we can address the alienating conditions of modern work and family life.