Humanly Possible

In this exhilarating handbook Sarah Bakewell explains that a humanist philosopher is one who puts the whole living person at the centre of things … Bakewell finishes this bracing book by urging us to draw inspiration from these earlier men and women as we try hard to live bravely and humanly in what sometimes seems like an aridly abstract and loveless world * Sunday Times *A story of spiritual and intellectual triumph… An epic, spine-tingling and persuasive work of history * Daily Telegraph *As in her previous books on Montaigne and the Existentialists, Bakewell manages to transform raw material into prose that is light and clear … she carefully selects only the most interesting and revealing details … Bakewell exemplifies the thirst for life and learning of humanism at its best * Literary Review *Engagingly written as well as richly informative … every thinker, every book, every movement is located lightly and precisely in relation to its past and its influence on the present day. I can’t imagine a better history of humanism, nor one that is so vividly persuasive. Bakewell is a wonderful writer * PHILIP PULLMAN *An expansive tour of European humanism… Bakewell brings out sharply how much contrarian courage it took to stand up for secularism… These dangers are not a thing of the past… Humanism is not just a hard-won victory, as Sarah Bakewell documents, but a fragile one, threatened by theocracy and neo-facism, by politicians for whom the point of education is entirely economic, and by movements that aspire to leave humanity behind – Kieran Setiya * Times Literary Supplement *I’ve long admired Sarah Bakewell’s extraordinary talent for breathing life into philosophy, making vivid the historical circumstances that give birth to new ideas. And this book is her best yet - a fascinating, moving, funny, sometimes harrowing and ultimately uplifting account of humanity’s struggle to understand and fully inhabit the state of being human * OLIVER BURKEMAN, author of Four Thousand Weeks *Humanly Possible skilfully combines philosophy, history and biography. She is scholarly yet accessible, and portrays people and ideas with vitality and without anachronism, making them affecting and alive – Jane O’Grady * Guardian *Impressively comprehensive… A highly engaging work – Hannah Beckerman * Observer *Bakewell has a contagious enthusiasm for many of these likeable figures … a jolly and readable skate through a large swathe of philosophical thought and practical endeavour – Philip Hensher * Spectator *As she romps through the centuries, readers will feel assured that they are in the company of a gifted guide * The Economist *

Sarah Bakewell had a wandering childhood, growing up on the “hippie trail” through Asia and in Australia. She studied philosophy at the University of Essex, and worked for many years as a curator of early printed books at the Wellcome Library, London, before becoming a full-time writer. Her books include How to Live- a life of Montaigne, which won the Duff Cooper Prize and the US National Book Critics Circle Prize, and At the Existentialist Cafe, a New York Times Ten Best Books of 2016. She was also among the winners of the 2018 Windham-Campbell Literature Prize. She still has a tendency to wander, but is mostly to be found either in London or in Italy with her wife and their family of dogs and chickens.