Ray Pahl is a leading sociologist with an international reputation. He is the author of many books including Divisions of Labour, On Work, and After Success and has published numerous articles across a broad spectrum of sociological issues. Ray Pahl is Research Professor at the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex, and Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent at Canterbury.

'Outstanding ... the most clarifying work of sociology I've ever read ... essential.' Pat Kane, New Statesman and Society 'Stimulating analysis ... the great merit of Pahl's book is that his critique of post-modernist assumptions about the self and anxiety points up this misleading conflation of the soical and the psychological, and makes him aware of the misuses of 'tradition' and over-socialised conceptions of the individual.' Work, Employment and Society'A characteristically bold and provocative text ... extremely interesting.' Time and Society 'One of the most stimulating and relevant works I have read for a long time.' Sociology

• Preface. 1. Introduction: Mortality, the Individual and Society.2. Success in Shame Cultures and Guilt Cultures.3. Managing Without Success 1960-1990.4. Styles of Success in Business.5. The Neurosis of Success.6. Success-Led or Anxiety-Driven?.7. Working for Self Identity.8. From Hoccleve's Complaint to the Anxious Class.9. Seeking Balance.Appendix.Bibliography.Index.