Modernity was supposed to be the period in human history when thefears that pervaded social life in the past could be left behindand human beings could at last take control of their lives and tamethe uncontrolled forces of the social and natural worlds. And yet,at the dawn of the twenty-first century, we live again in a time offear. Whether its the fear of natural disasters, the fear ofenvironmental catastrophes or the fear of indiscriminate terroristattacks, we live today in a state of constant anxiety about thedangers that could strike unannounced and at any moment. Fear isthe name we give to our uncertainty in the face of the dangers thatcharacterize our liquid modern age, to our ignorance of what thethreat is and our incapacity to determine what can and can't bedone to counter it.This new book by Zygmunt Bauman one of the foremost social thinkersof our time is an inventory of liquid modern fears. It is also anattempt to uncover their common sources, to analyse the obstaclesthat pile up on the road to their discovery and to examine the waysof putting them out of action or rendering them harmless.Through his brilliant account of the fears and anxieties thatweigh on us today, Bauman alerts us to the scale of the task whichwe shall have to confront through most of the current century if wewish our fellow humans to emerge at its end feeling more secure andself-confident than we feel at its beginning.
