Daniel Akst’s “We Have Met the Enemy” is an intelligent and irreverent investigation into the age-old problem of self-control finds that, in the modern world, solving it is the most important thing we can do.
This conundrum of self-control has occupied thinkers since the time of Socrates. Philosophers, theologians, psychologists, and lately economists have wrestled with the question of how it is possible for us to act against our own best interest.
Using self-control as a lens rather than a cudgel, the book combines social insight with history, literature, psychology, and economics to alarm, teach, and empower us.