Status and Culture

How Our Desire for Social Rank Creates Taste, Identity, Art, Fashion, and Constant Change

By: W. David Marx

Narrated by: Daniel Henning

"Subtly altered how I see the world."—Michelle Goldberg, New York Times

“[Status and Culture] consistently posits theories I'd never previously considered that instantly feel obvious.”—Chuck Klosterman, author of The Nineties

“Why are you the way that you are? Status and Culture explains nearly everything about the things you choose to be—and how the society we live in takes shape in the process.”—B.J. Novak, writer and actor

Solving the long-standing mysteries of culture—from the origin of our tastes and identities, to the perpetual cycles of fashions and fads—through a careful exploration of the fundamental human desire for status

All humans share a need to secure their social standing, and this universal motivation structures our behavior, forms our tastes, determines how we live, and ultimately shapes who we are. We can use status, then, to explain why some things become “cool,” how stylistic innovations arise, and why there are constant changes in clothing, music, food, sports, slang, travel, hairstyles, and even dog breeds.

In Status and Culture, W. David Marx weaves together the wisdom from history, psychology, sociology, anthropology, economics, philosophy, linguistics, semiotics, cultural theory, literary theory, art history, media studies, and neuroscience to demonstrate exactly how individual status seeking creates our cultural ecosystem. Marx examines three fundamental questions: Why do individuals cluster around arbitrary behaviors and take deep meaning from them? How do distinct styles, conventions, and sensibilities emerge? Why do we change behaviors over time and why do some behaviors stick around? The answers then provide new perspectives for understanding the seeming “weightlessness” of internet culture.

Status and Culture is a book that will appeal to business people, students, creators, and anyone who has ever wondered why things become popular, why their own preferences change over time, and how identity plays out in contemporary society. Listeners of this book will walk away with deep and lasting knowledge of the often secret rules of how culture really works.

©2022 W. David Marx (P)2022 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“The best explanation I’ve read for our current cultural malaise comes at the end of W. David Marx’s forthcoming Status and Culture, a book. . . that subtly altered how I see the world.”—Michelle Goldberg, New York Times ("The Book That Explains Our Cultural Stagnation")

"Status and Culture is a valiant attempt at one of those grand cultural theories that academics don’t do so much anymore, one that argues that the internet is better at driving ephemeral fads than era-defining trends and explains why our collective vibe feels so stuck in time."—Vulture ("Books We Can't Wait to Read This Fall")

"Marx is engaging. . . . He’s done his homework, collating the zingers and wisdom of some of our best cultural critics, sociologists, and philosophers—from Chuck Klosterman and Glenn O’Brien to Mary Douglas and, naturally, Pierre Bourdieu."—The New York Times Book Review

An excellent book on status and the role it plays in culture

W. David Marx has quickly become one of my favorite authors. This was a very interesting read debunking status and the role it plays on our day to day lives.

Everything you always wanted to know about atatus but were afraid to ask

An entertaining and informative grand theory of how status and culture are interrelated. It synthesizes insights from a great many significant predecessors. I’ve only listened to it once, but thus far nothing has struck me as naive, inconsistent or downright wrong. I feel that for the foreseeable future returning to the book and trying to partly apply it, and partly attempt to identify its weaknesses will take me deeper into the topic than proceeding to read a lot of other authors on the same topic. I found his remarks on how the way in which one attempts to shape and present the self is largely governed by status seeking, particularly good and relevant to my philosophical interests.

Very interesting analysis

The author deploys a scholarly and nonjudgmental/apolitical tone to examine the impact of status on culture and personal taste. Enjoyable!

Superb

Absolutely amazing. Insightful. Eye opening, and engaging! I highly recommend this to anyone curious as to WHY our culture has shaped the way it has over the last hundred years.

Solidly researched and an enjoyable read.

Very interesting and very well read. The author also provides a nice list of additional books. I’ll listen more than once.

(Get Woke to) The Shapeshifting Power of Status

At one point, Marx unpacks the status signaling in a spring 1994 moment from MTV’s 120 Minutes that I watched (and videotaped) in real time. Sharp as the edges of a brand new pack of note cards. Even-handed. Mildly snarky but never mean-spirited. Well-performed. I feel like I learned something new.

Good info and interesting insight a bit lackluster storytelling though

I enjoyed a lot of the points the author pointed out and the narration was clear and concise. My only problem is with some of the examples chosen I felt they were a bit boring and some debatable on reasoning. Malcom gladwell does a similar style of half baked examples with good reasoning. Good book though worth a read.

Loved it

Great listen that pulls together philosophical insights with cultural examples to explore the underlying status seeking that drives us.

Outstanding and highly underrated

This is one of the books that feels like someone kicking open the door to your mind. It contains things you knew but didn't know you knew. It studies the fabric of the human motivation and you can see the results of its findings across all countries and time periods.

But maybe the best part of reading it for me was, paradoxically, I found myself able to somewhat leave the status game Marx says we are all bound to play. I recognize the substanceless status games in my world - trends, sneakers, pop culture - and focus on the things that really matter.

Less Interesting than I hoped

I chose this book after listening to an interview with the author. The book, however, seemed more obvious than his remarks in the interview. It could have been shorter and made its point, imo.