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  • Published: 15 March 2018
  • ISBN: 9781101970812
  • Imprint: Knopf US
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $38.00

Behaving Badly

The New Morality in Politics, Sex, and Business



Media executive and business consultant Eden Collinsworth investigates the surprisingly complex foundations of contemporary morality. From repentant murderers to corporate whistle-blowers, from the boardroom of Ashley Madison to famous ladies who lunch, Collinsworth leaves no stone unturned in her quest to understand the vagaries of the moral compass and to figure out whether fixed ethical positions still exist--if they ever did. Warm, wry, and witty, Collinsworth weaves together her own research--from ancient history to contemporary philosophy--with numerous interviews of people from all walks of life. And throughout is her unique brand of probing thought and reflection, tackling the Kardashians, contemporary American politics, and her personal experience raising a child largely on her own. Conversational, intelligent, and always entertaining, Behaving Badly is brimming with evidence of how little we really know about the moral principles that underlie our daily actions and decision-making.

A PopSugar Best Book of the Year

To call these unsettling times is an understatement: our political leaders are less and less respectable; in business, cheating, lying, and stealing are hazily defined; and in daily life, technology permits us to act in ways inconceivable without it. Yet somehow, people still draw lines between what is acceptable and what is not. In Behaving Badly, Eden Collinsworth speaks with a wide range of figures—from experts to everyday people—to parse out the parameters of modern morality.
 
In her quest, she squares off with, among others, a neuroscientist who explains why we’re not necessarily designed to be good; a CEO fired for blowing the whistle on his multinational corporation; and the cheerfully unrepen­tant founder of a website facilitating affairs for married people. Fearless, timely, and always thought-provoking, Behaving Badly takes us on an unforgettable journey through the treacherous territory of right and wrong.

  • Published: 15 March 2018
  • ISBN: 9781101970812
  • Imprint: Knopf US
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $38.00

About the author

Eden Collinsworth

EDEN COLLINSWORTH is a former media executive and business consultant. She launched the Los Angeles-based monthly lifestyle magazine, Buzz, after which she became VP & director of cross media business development at Hearst Corporation. In 2011 she launched Collinsworth & Associates, a Beijing-based consulting company, which specializes in intercultural communication. Her Chinese language book The Tao of Improving Your Likeability: A Personal Guide to Effective Business Etiquette in Today's Global World has become a major best seller in mainland China.

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Praise for Behaving Badly

  • "Very rarely does a voice cut through all the noise and deliver a brand-new take on the world as we know it, but Eden Collinsworth does just that, exploring all the in-between areas that exist in society in an extraordinarily unique way." --Newsweek
  • "Morality is a complicated subject, but Eden Collinsworth breaks it down in Behaving Badly.... Surprisingly light and fun." --Bustle
  • "Written with brio and great charm.... An implausibly entertaining romp through the ethical questions of our time, a kind of romantic engagement with morals that is never moralistic." --Andrew Solomon, author of Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity
  • "A wide-ranging, breezy journey through a series of ethical minefields.... Collinsworth is always a genial guide through the moral thicket, and her companions underscore the provocative spirit of her quest." --Kirkus Reviews
  • "Entertaining.... A study of ethical quagmires and moral gray areas in modern-day business, interpersonal, and military practices." --Publishers Weekly
  • "Collinsworth's goal is to make readers think, and she not only succeeds in doing that, but does so in an entertaining manner." --Booklist