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Neither Use Nor Ornament: A Cultural Biography of Clutter and Procrastination
Paperback
General World HistoryBritish History
ISBN13: 9781526194756
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Published: Jan 20 2026
Pages: 248
Weight: 0.87
Height: 0.51 Width: 6.69 Depth: 9.61
Language: English
Neither use nor ornament is a book about personal productivity, narrated from the perspective of its obstacles: clutter and procrastination. It offers a challenge to the self-help promise of a clutter-free life, lived in a permanent state of efficiency and flow.
The book reveals how contemporary projections of the good, productive life rely on images of failure. Riffing on the aphorism 'less is more' - a dominant refrain in present day productivity advice - it tells stories about streamlining, efficiency and tidiness over a time period of around 100 years. By focusing on the shadows of productivity advice, Neither use nor ornament seeks to unravel the moral narratives that hold individuals to account for their inefficiencies and muddles.1 different editions
Also available
Neither Use Nor Ornament: A Cultural Biography of Clutter and Procrastination
Potts, Tracey
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Potts, Tracey
Neither Use Nor Ornament: A Cultural Biography of Clutter and Procrastination
Potts, Tracey
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