Humiliation

How old codes of honor figure in the small discomforts of daily life is the subject of William Ian Miller's essays on humiliation and the emotions that keep people going as self-respecting social actors. He looks at homely and seemingly banal occasions: a friend who arrives with a holiday present when there is nothing to give back, the unwanted invitation to dinner, valentines swapped in grade school and the bridal registry, which he calls diabolically ingenious. In his view, everyday life is full of rituals of shame and humiliation, some merely uncomfortable and some hair-raising, along with the small maneuvers people use to avoid losing face. Cornell University Press published the collection in 1993.

It appears on neuroscientist Sam Harris's selection of 12 books everyone should read.