Daniel Kahneman: Background information when reading Thinking, Fast and Slow

Summary |  Excerpt |  Reviews |  Beyond the Book |  Read-Alikes |  Genres & Themes |  Author Bio

Thinking, Fast and Slow

by Daniel Kahneman

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman X
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
  • Critics' Opinion:

    Readers' Opinion:

     Not Yet Rated
  • First Published:
    Oct 2011, 512 pages

    Paperback:
    Apr 2013, 512 pages

    Genres

  • Rate this book


Book Reviewed by:
Beverly Melven
Buy This Book

About this Book

Daniel Kahneman

This article relates to Thinking, Fast and Slow

Print Review

Daniel Kahneman is a Nobel Prize-winning psychologist who, along with Amos Tversky, revolutionized economic theory in the 1970s and is widely regarded as one of the world's most influential living psychologist.

David KahnemanBorn in Tel Aviv in 1934 to Lithuanian Jewish parents, Kahneman grew up in Paris, during which time his father was taken by Nazis in one of the first "round ups" of Jewish prisoners. Though he was later released, Kahneman's family spent the rest of the war years ill at ease in their surroundings. In 1948, four years after his father passed away from diabetes, Kahneman and his family moved to Palestine (which, on May 14, 1948, would become Israel). While there, he experienced a period of great social growth and intellectual stimulation.

He studied psychology and mathematics in Israel, receiving his first degree from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and spent a portion of his required military service developing some of his first ideas regarding humans and their decision-making. By 1955 Kahneman had been given the task of conducting military officer candidate assessments for the Israel Defense Forces - a job that inspired his interests in cognitive behavior. In 1958 he and his wife, Irah, moved to San Francisco to begin work as graduate students at Berkeley. Years of learning, teaching, and researching later, he began his long-term collaboration with Amos Tversky (a fellow psychologist who died of cancer in 1996) in a period that Kahneman describes as his most rewarding professional association.

In addition to the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, Kahneman has won the Grawemeyer Award for Psychology (both jointly with Tversky), the American Psychological Association's Award for Outstanding Lifetime Achievement, and has made the Bloomberg 50 Most Influential People in Global Finance in 2011.

Kahneman is a senior scholar and faculty member emeritus at both Princeton University and Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, a fellow at Hebrew University and a Gallup Senior Scientist. He is now married to Anne Treisman, a fellow professor of psychology at Princeton.

For more information, watch the video below of Daniel Kahneman discussing "The Riddle of Experience vs. Memory" (based on material from Thinking, Fast and Slow) at a TED convention in February 2010.

Filed under Medicine, Science and Tech

Article by Beverly Melven

This "beyond the book article" relates to Thinking, Fast and Slow. It originally ran in January 2012 and has been updated for the April 2013 paperback edition. Go to magazine.

This review is available to non-members for a limited time. For full access become a member today.
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Become a Member

Join BookBrowse today to start discovering exceptional books!

Find out more


Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: After the Miracle
    After the Miracle
    by Max Wallace
    Many people have heard one particular story about Helen Keller—how the saintly teacher, Annie ...
  • Book Jacket: The Lost Wife
    The Lost Wife
    by Susanna Moore
    The Lost Wife is a hard-hitting novella based in part on a white settler named Sarah Wakefield's ...
  • Book Jacket
    Firekeeper's Daughter
    by Angeline Boulley
    Voted 2021 Best Young Adult Award Winner by BookBrowse Subscribers

    Angeline Boulley's young adult ...
  • Book Jacket: Hello Beautiful
    Hello Beautiful
    by Ann Napolitano
    Ann Napolitano's much-anticipated Hello Beautiful pulls the reader into a warm, loving familial ...

Book Club Discussion

Book Jacket
The First Conspiracy
by Brad Meltzer & Josh Mensch
A remarkable and previously untold piece of American history—the secret plot to kill George Washington

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Pieces of Blue
    by Holly Goldberg Sloan

    A hilarious and heartfelt novel for fans of Maria Semple and Emma Straub.

Win This Book
Win Girlfriend on Mars

30 Copies to Give Away!

A funny and poignant debut novel that skewers billionaire-funded space travel in a love story of interplanetary proportions.

Enter

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

S I F A R Day

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.