This innovative essay collection explores the personal and civic function of humility from a range of popular and scholarly perspectives.
What does humility mean and why does it matter in an age of golden escalators and billionaire entrepreneurs? How can the cultivation of humility empower us to see success in failure, to fight against injustice, to stretch beyond our usual ways of thinking, and to foster a culture of listening in an age of digital shouting?
Edited by Rebekah Modrak and Jamie Vander Broek, Radical Humility: Essays on Ordinary Acts brings together contributions from scholars, psychologists, and artists to offer some answers to these questions. Contributions include:
- Charles M. Blow on Trump's arrogance
- Lynette Clemetson on doing good journalism in an age of the attention economy
- Tyler Denmead on whiteness's lack of humility
- Eranda Jayawickreme on learning how to admit what you don't know.
Having witnessed the personal and civic costs of narcissism and arrogance, these and other writers consider humility as a valuable process―a state of being―with the power to impact institutions, systems, families, and individuals, and give voice to the ways in which humility is practiced in many ordinary but extraordinary actions.
This groundbreaking collection deserves a place in the library of anyone seeking alternatives to a culture of self-aggrandizing excess.
About the Author: Rebekah Modrak is a writer and interventionist artist whose artworks resist consumer culture. Re Made Co. (remadeco.org) poses as an online "company" to recreate actual company Best Made Co., seller of $350 luxury hand-painted axes, by promoting ($350) artisanal toilet plungers. RETHINK SHINOLA (rethinkshinola.com) guides viewers through the Shinola company's past and present of marketing White supremacy. Hyperallergic, Core77, The Creators Project, Detroit MetroTimes, Design Observer, and other publications, have written about her work. She is a Professor in the Stamps School of Art & Design at the University of Michigan. Jamie Lausch Vander Broek is a Librarian for Art & Design at the University of Michigan. This summer, she bought a book made of cheese for her library. You can read about it on saveur.com. She holds a tailored Master's degree from the U-M School of Information in Art and Art Museum Librarianship, and received a B.A. in Art History with a minor in Italian Studies from Wellesley College. Since arriving in Ann Arbor, she has been active in the local art and book communities, and is currently on the board of the Ann Arbor District Library.
