History of ideas Books
Cambridge University Press Hegels Century
Book SynopsisThe remarkable lectures that Hegel gave in Berlin in the 1820s generated an exciting intellectual atmosphere which lasted for decades. From the 1830s, many students flocked to Berlin to study with people who had studied with Hegel, and both his original students, such as Feuerbach and Bauer, and later arrivals including Kierkegaard, Engels, Bakunin, and Marx, evolved into leading nineteenth-century thinkers. Jon Stewart''s panoramic study of Hegel''s deep influence upon the nineteenth century in turn reveals what that century contributed to the wider history of philosophy. It shows how Hegel''s notions of ''alienation'' and ''recognition'' became the central motifs for the era''s thinking; how these concepts spilled over into other fields like religion, politics, literature, and drama; and how they created a cultural phenomenon so rich and pervasive that it can truly be called ''Hegel''s century.'' This book is required reading for historians of ideas as well as of philosophy.Trade Review'It is often thought that Hegel's philosophy fell into a rather deserved obsolescence by the middle of the nineteenth century. But Hegel's Century shows that even while Hegelianism waned, Hegel's concerns with alienation and recognition continued to set the agenda for European philosophy, both inside and outside the universities. It offers a magisterial yet accessible guide to those thinkers, mystics, and revolutionaries who appropriated these Hegelian themes for radically new purposes.' Mark Alznauer, Northwestern University'Among other things, this book is to be celebrated for its clarity and breadth of exposition. In an age of increasing academic specialization, Stewart shows great range in tackling such a broad theme from an intellectually active century. This work spans the fields of at least philosophy, theology, literature, and political theory, and displays a commanding knowledge of central texts from the period and the socio-historical context in which they appear.' Joshua Wretzel, International Journal of Philosophical Studies'… a good introduction for researchers who wish to familiarize themselves with the themes and debates of 19th century Hegelianism.' Ioanna Bartsidi, Archives de philosophie (translated from French)'Stewart's book is a worthy choice as the primary teaching manual for an advanced undergraduate course in the history of 19th-century thought.' Nahum Brown, The Philosophical QuarterlyTable of ContentsIntroduction; Part I. The Beginning: 1. Hegel's Account of Alienation in the Phenomenology of Spirit; 2. Hegel's Account of Christianity and its Origins in the Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion and Lectures on the Philosophy of History; Part II. The First Generation: 3. Heine, Alienation and Political Revolution; 4. Feuerbach's Doctrine of the Humanity of the Divine in The Essence of Christianity; 5. Bruno Bauer's Criticism of Christianity; Part III. The Second Generation: 6. Marx's View of Religious and Political Liberation; 7. Kierkegaard's Analysis of the Forms of Despair and Alienation; 8. Dostoevsky's Criticism of Modern Rationalism and Materialism; 9. Bakunin's Theory of Anarchy; 10. Engels' Criticism of Feuerbach and Classical German Philosophy; 11. Hegel's Long Shadow in the History of Nineteenth-Century Philosophy.
£34.99
Transworld Publishers Ltd Wisdom of the Ancients: Life lessons from our
Book SynopsisTHE PERFECT READ FOR TROUBLED TIMESFrom the bestselling author of The Story of the British Isles in 100 Places comes this inspiring and beautifully written meditation on the wisdom inherited from our ancestors.For all we have gained in the modern world, simple peace of mind is hard to find. In a time that is increasingly fraught with complexity and conflict, we are told that our wellbeing relies on remaining as present as possible. But what if the key to being present lies in the past? In Wisdom of the Ancients, Neil Oliver takes us back in time, to grab hold of the ideas buried in forgotten cultures and early civilizations. From Laetoli footprints in Tanzania to Keralan rituals, stone circles and cave paintings, Oliver takes us on a global journey through antiquity. A master storyteller, drawing on immense knowledge of our ancient past, he distils this wisdom into twelve messages that have endured the test of time, and invites us to consider how these might apply to our lives today. The result is powerful and inspirational, moving and profound.Trade ReviewReading Wisdom of the Ancients is like putting on the finest headphones ever made. Here, cutting out the background noise of a society fevered by consumption and sensation...is a book that really makes you think and offers up the excitement of discovering things that when you read them make you fizz like understanding a foreign language you never realised you knew. This book is the equivalent of diving into a cool sea on a baking hot day, you emerge smiley and refreshed. I wish I had written this. * Tim Smit *Neil Oliver writes beautifully - bringing the past to life and letting us see ourselves in a new light. * Alice Roberts *A fascinating fact-laden expedition through the ages. Oliver's erudition shines off every page. * Anna Pasternak *
£10.44
John Murray Press Free Speech: A Global History from Socrates to
Book SynopsisA global history of free speech, from the ancient world to today.Hailed as the "first freedom," free speech is the bedrock of democracy. But it is a challenging principle, subject to erosion in times of upheaval. Today, in democracies and authoritarian states around the world, it is on the retreat.In Free Speech, Jacob Mchangama traces the riveting legal, political, and cultural history of this idea. Through captivating stories of free speech's many defenders - from the ancient Athenian orator Demosthenes and the ninth-century freethinker al-Razi, to Mary Wollstonecraft, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and modern-day digital activists - Mchangama demonstrates how the free exchange of ideas underlies all intellectual achievement and has enabled the advancement of both freedom and equality worldwide. Yet the desire to restrict speech is also a constant, and he explores how even its champions can be led down this path when the rise of new and contrarian voices challenge power and privilege of all kinds.Meticulously researched, deeply humane and provocative, Free Speech challenges us all to recognise how much we have gained from this principle - and how much we stand to lose without it.Trade ReviewJacob Mchangama's history of the world's strangest, best idea is the definitive account we have been waiting for. It teems with valuable insights, lively characters, and the author's passion for the cause he has done so much to advance. Mchangama brings to life the ancient struggles which established free speech and also the modern dangers which embattle it. Free Speech is that rare book which will impress scholars as much as it entertains readers, all while telling the world's most improbable success story -- Jonathan Rauch, author of The Constitution of KnowledgeFreedom of speech has emerged as a major issue of this decade, but most of the discussion consists of outrages over speech or the repression of speech. Missing is the intellectual background: What does free speech really mean? What is its history? How has it played out in world events? Why should we defend it? Jacob Mchangama lays out this context with deep erudition, strong writing, and a light touch -- Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and the author of Enlightenment Now and RationalityThe best history of free speech ever written and the best defense of free speech ever made. Jacob Mchangama never loses sight of the trouble freedom causes but always keeps in mind that lack of freedom creates horrors -- P.J. O’RourkeIn Free Speech, Jacob Mchangama presents a compelling case for the unique, universal, enduring importance of free and equal speech for all people, regardless of their particular identities or ideologies. This fascinating account, of magisterial scope, demonstrates the constant liberating and equalizing force of free speech, throughout history and around the world. It also documents the constant censorial pressures, including many that reflect positive aims, and their inevitable suppression of full and equal human rights -- Nadine Strossen, Former National President, American Civil Liberties UnionA lot of people now claim that free speech is a danger to democracy or social inclusion. In this vital book, which is as entertaining as it is erudite, Jacob Mchangama shows why that is dead wrong. Drawing on both historical analysis and normative argument, he makes a compelling case for why anyone who cares about liberty or justice must defend free speech -- Yascha Mounk, author of The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure and associate professor at Johns Hopkins UniversityJacob Mchangama's panoramic exploration of the history of free speech offers a vivid, highly readable account of how today's most pitched battles over free speech reflect tensions and impulses that are as old as history itself. Mchangama persuasively dismantles the persistent claims, common to every era and technological evolution, that unprecedented new threats warrant expanded constraints on speech. This indispensable book is a must for both defenders of free speech and, even more so, for those entertaining the notion that free speech should or must be traded away in order to advance other public goods -- Suzanne Nossel, CEO of PEN America and author of Dare to Speak: Defending Free Speech for All (2020)Mchangama has written an insightful, nicely woven history that provides a coherent picture of how free speech has developed globally . . . With accessible and engaging writing, Mchangama's book is a highly recommended intellectual history -- Library Journal, Starred Review[Free Speech makes] a persuasive argument that free discourse is essential to democracy, breaking down systems of oppression, and challenging existing social hierarchies . . . Readers on both the right and the left seeking insights into modern day debates over free speech will welcome this evenhanded and wide ranging history -- Publishers WeeklyThis outstanding book gets it in one: free speech, as that right and privilege has been fought for and exercised as a key component of our always fragile democracies, is currently experiencing the greatest threat imaginable. To learn exactly how and why, and what we can do to eliminate or minimise this threat, everyone needs to read this deeply researched and powerfully written, truly global history covering everything from the face-to-face world of the ancient Greeks to our own, very different world of anonymous digital media -- Paul Cartledge, A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture, emeritus, University of CambridgeScholarly in its erudition, but also immensely readable . . . Free speech is not a fashionable value - often perceived in 2022 as an outright threat to modern notions of social justice. This superb book is a corrective to that intellectual and cultural wrong turn and, as such, deserves as wide a readership as possible -- Matt d’Ancona, Tortoise Media[Free Speech] is not only a broad and deep global history of free speech - from antiquity to the Reformation to our current social-media era - but an argument for its enduring power and necessity.The book shows just how old the current arguments over free speech are - and how often they have been made over the centuries -- Daniel Sharp, Areo MagazineFascinating and ultimately rewarding -- David Waywell, ReactionA soaring global account of free speech's origins and fortunes. Readers interested in the past and future of this embattled right should rush to purchase a copy . . . Among volumes dedicated to our 'first freedom,' it will not soon be surpassed -- National ReviewMchangama, a Danish lawyer, has been an important voice for liberty over the last decade . . . His book is an excellent guide for anyone who wants to know why free speech matters -- Reason[A] 500-page door-stopper, which combines a history of free speech with a persuasive case for its defence . . . [Mchangama] succeeds magnificently -- The SpectatorAn impressive book on a subject of vital importance -- Daniel Ben-Ami[Mchangama's] conclusions, presented in a crisp and confident march through Western history, are sobering -- The EconomistExcellent history of free speech here . . . principled, literate and deeply knowledgeable -- Ian Dunt, iNews
£13.49
The New York Review of Books, Inc The Crisis Of The European Mind
Book SynopsisPaul Hazard’s magisterial, widely influential, and beloved intellectual history offers an unforgettable account of the birth of the modern European mind in all its dynamic, inquiring, and uncertain glory. Beginning his story in the latter half of the seventeenth century, while also looking back to the Renaissance and forward to the future, Hazard traces the process by which new developmentsin the sciences, arts, philosophy, and philology came to undermine the stable foundations of the classical world, with its commitment to tradition, stability, proportion, and settled usage. Hazard shows how travelers’ tales and archaeological investigation widened European awareness and acceptance of cultural difference; how the radical rationalism of Spinoza and Richard Simon’s new historical exegesis of the Bible called into question the revealed truths of religion; how the Huguenot Pierre Bayle’s critical dictionary of ideas paved the way for Voltaire and the Enlightenment, even as the empiricism of Locke encouraged a new attention to sensory experience that led to Rousseau and romanticism. Hazard’s range of knowledge is vast, and whether the subject is operas, excavations, or scientific experiments his brilliant style and powers of description bring to life the thinkers who thought up the modern world.
£19.55
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC The History of Development: From Western Origins
Book SynopsisIn this landmark text, Gilbert Rist provides a comprehensive and compelling overview of what the idea of development has meant throughout history. He traces it from its origins in the Western view of history, through the early stages of the world system, the rise of US hegemony, and the supposed triumph of third-worldism, through to new concerns about the environment and globalization. Assessing possible postdevelopment models and considering the ecological dimensions of development, Rist contemplates the ways forward. Throughout, he argues persuasively that development has been no more than a collective delusion, which in reality has resulted only in widening market relations, whatever the intentions of its advocates. A classic development text written by one of the leaders of postdevelopment theory.Trade ReviewCompelling and exciting reading ... Rist's book, written with deliciously mild irony, is an account of the most crucial moments in which the rites of a belief embraced by millions were elaborated and canonized. * Praise for Previous Editions, European Journal of Development Research *This book does an outstanding job. * Praise for Previous Editions, Journal of Developing Areas *This book is one of the most astute of its genre available today... exact in its scholarship and profound in its clear account of the philosophies and consequences of the Western example. * Praise for Previous Editions, Rapport *If you want to understand the ideological forces that have shaped North-South relations for half a century, you need this remarkable book. * Praise for Previous Editions, Susan George *This is an impressive account of the rise and demise of the belief system that has pushed mankind to the brink of disaster. * Wolfgang Sachs, author of The Development Dictionary and Fair Future *A much needed corrective to the work of the cheerleaders of the newly globalized order?. This book does an outstanding job. * Jan Knippers Black, Journal of Developing Areas *At a time when globalization and humanitarian interventions are taking over from development, this book should help us understand why development has led so many well-intentioned people astray?. It presents complex debates with great clarity, provides an excellent opportunity to get acquainted with the literature and should prove essential reading for students and others interested, or involved, in development. * Marie-Dominique Perrot, IUED *Clear and well-written, there is no comparable book available in English. * Martin O'Connor *Compelling and exciting reading?. Rist's book, written with deliciously mild irony, is an account of the most crucial moments in which the rites of a belief embraced by millions were elaborated and canonized. * Olga Nieuwenhuys, European Journal of Development Research *An excellent and challenging book?. It should be required reading for all interested in development, and particularly the economists among them. * Peter de Valk, International Journal of African Historical Studies *There is no comparable book available in English. * Professor Martin O'Connor, economist *This book is one of the most astute of its genre available today?. [It] is exact in its scholarship and profound in its clear account of the philosophies and consequences of the Western example. * Rapport *If you want to understand the ideological forces that have shaped North-South relations for half a century, you need this remarkable book. * Susan George *If you want to understand the ideological forces that have shaped North-South relations for half a century, you need this remarkable book. * Susan George *Table of ContentsPreface to the Fourth Edition Preface to the Third Edition Preface to the Second Edition Introduction 1. Definitions of Development 2. Metamorphoses of a Western Myth 3. The Making of a World System 4. The Invention of Development 5. The International Doctrine and Institutions Take Root 6. Modernization Poised between History and Prophecy 7. The Periphery and the Understanding of History 8. Self-reliance: The Communal Past as a Model for the Future 9. The Triumph of Third-Worldism 10. The Environment, or the New Nature of 'Development' 11. A Mixture of Realism and Fine Sentiments 12. Globalization as a Simulacrum of 'Development' 13. From the Struggle against Poverty to the Millennium Development Goals 14. The Great Turnaround? 15. Beyond 'Development': From Downscaling to a Change in the Economic Paradigm Conclusion Bibliography Index
£21.84
Profile Books Ltd The Handover: How We Gave Control of Our Lives to
Book Synopsis'The Singularity' is what Silicon Valley calls the idea that, eventually, we will be overrun by machines that are able to take decisions and act for themselves. What no one says is that it happened before. A few hundred years ago, humans started building the robots that now rule our world. They are called states and corporations: immensely powerful artificial entities, with capacities that go far beyond what any individual can do, and which, unlike us, need never die. They have made us richer, safer and healthier than would have seemed possible even a few generations ago - and they may yet destroy us. The Handover distils over three hundred years of thinking about how to live with artificial agency.Trade ReviewPersuasive ... the ever-erudite host of the terrific Talking Politics podcast ... ranges far and wide, from hunter gatherers to Elon Musk, from the wisdom of juries to the (terrifying) implications of autonomous weapons systems -- Tim Adams * Guardian *Runciman's erudition is formidable ... a wide-ranging history of the modern state and an exploration of how AI technology may change the world [from] one of our leading public intellectuals -- Jason Cowley * Sunday Times *Compelling ... David Runciman makes salutary arguments [about] the most urgent problem we face -- Blake Smith * Literary Review *Quirky, meditational, disturbing ... original thinking -- Sherelle Jacobs * Telegraph *Praise for David Runciman: 'A clear and forceful writer * Financial Times *Runciman's flair for turning a pithy and pungent phrase is one of the things to admire about his writing ... That and [his] cogency, subtlety and style * Observer *Refreshingly free of received and rehearsed wisdoms, Runciman doesn't tiptoe around sacred cows and invites us to take part in that most adult way of thinking: to examine contradictory ideas in tandem and ponder what the dissonance amounts to * Australian *
£17.00
Verso Books The Verso Book of Feminism: Revolutionary Words
Book SynopsisThroughout written history and across the world, women have protested the restrictions of gender and the limitations placed on women's bodies and women's lives. People-of any and no gender-have protested and theorized, penned manifestos and written poetry and songs, testified and lobbied, gone on strike and fomented revolution, quietly demanded that there is an "I" and loudly proclaimed that there is a "we." The Book of Feminism chronicles this history of defiance and tracks it around the world as it develops into a multivocal and unabashed force.Global in scope, The Book of Feminism shows the breadth of feminist protest and of feminist thinking, moving through the female poets of China's Tang Dynasty to accounts of indigenous women in the Caribbean resisting Columbus's expedition, British suffragists militating for the vote to the revolutionary petroleuses of the 1848 Paris Commune, the first century Trung sisters who fought for the independence of Nam Viet to women in 1980s Botswana fighting for equal protection under the law, from the erotica of the 6th century and the 19th century to radical queer politics in the 20th and 21st.The Book of Feminism is a weapon, a force, a lyrical cry, and an ongoing threat to misogyny everywhere.Trade ReviewA perfect bedside book for feminists. A commonplace book that is anything but commonplace. -- Alix Kates Shulman
£10.44
Harbour Books (East) Ltd A Shoe Story: Van Gogh, the Philosophers and the
Book Synopsis
£12.60
Princeton University Press Arts and Minds
Book SynopsisTrade Review"One of Tyler Cowen's Best Non-Fiction Books of 2020""Lucid and scrupulously researched history."---Henry Hitchings, The Spectator"A comedy about preposterous or earnest characters at work in an essentially virtuous institution."---Matthew Sweet, History Today"I’ve greatly enjoyed reading Arts and Minds. . . . The book is clearly a labour of love, and is packed with interesting bits of information. . . . Anybody interested in the process of invention, diffusion and changing tastes will greatly enjoy reading this."---Diane Coyle, Enlightened Economist"[Arts and Minds] is simply a very good read. Anton avoids the trap of writing as if for a dissertation and laying on the jargon, and simply tells a rattling good story, full of eccentric characters and colourful detail."---Mike Paterson, London Historians' Blog"This enjoyable and interesting book tells the story of the Royal Society of Arts from its founding in 1754 to the present day. . . . Howes is to be thanked for a story so very well told."---Peter Stansky, Journal of Interdisciplinary History"[An] interesting, detailed history of the RSA, whose broad mission was and is hard to define. . . . Historians of different interests will find this book fascinating, and Benjamin Franklin, an early member, would be pleased by it." * Choice Reviews *"Well-researched. . . . a generally entertaining and illuminating story."---Susan Bennett, Journal of British Studies"[An] original and important contribution. It will inform any subsequent historiographical efforts to understand the precise ways in which liberal industrial capitalist values and practices came to achieve their hegemonic position within modern Britain’s wider social order."---Theodore Koditschek, Journal of Modern History"Howes is to be thanked for a story so very well told.—Peter Stanksy, Journal of Interdisciplinary History"
£22.50
Vintage Publishing The Passion Of The Western Mind: Understanding
Book SynopsisThe Passion of the Western Mind is a complete guide to Western civilisation and the philosophical ideas that have shaped our world view. From Plato to Hegel, from Augustine to Nietzsche, from Copernicus to Freud, Richard Tarnas described profound philosophical concepts simply, but without simplifying them.Ten years in the making, The Passion of the Western Mind was hailed as an instant classic on publication. In it, Tarnas provides a compelling account of the evolution of the Western mind and its changing conception of reality. Advances on several fronts - in philosophy, psychology, religous studies and the history of science - have shed new light on this remarkable evolution and Tarnas draws together these advances to set forth a new perspective for understanding out culture's intellectual and spiritual history. The result is a complete liberal education in a single volume.Trade ReviewI have never read a book about the ways in which we think that was clearer or more exciting -- John CleeseQuite brilliant * Guardian *[This] magnificent critical survey, with its inherent respect for both the 'West's mainstream high culture' and the 'radically changing world' of the 1990s, offers a new breakthrough for lay and scholarly readers alike... Allows readers to grasp the big picture of Western culture as if for the first time * San Francisco Chronicle *30,000 years of Western thought distilled into a powerful, enthralling narrative * Sydney Morning Herald *An extraordinary work of scholarship. It not only places the history of Western thought in perspective, but offers new insights concerning the evolution of our thinking and the future of the whole human enterprise -- John E. Mack, winner of the Pulitzer Prize
£17.00
Oxford University Press Radical Enlightenment
Book Synopsis"The Radical Enlightenment" was a set of ideas which helped lay the foundations of the modern world on the basis of equality, democracy, secularism, and universality. This study by cultural historian, Jonathan Israel, shows how Spinoza and his thought set the intellectual current towards the political revolutions of the later 18th century.Trade ReviewThe tributes which Israel has received for Radical Enlightenment are thoroughly merited; this book will become a modern classic upon the subject. * David J. Sturdy, Cultural and Social History 2004-2006 *Deserves to be widely read because it is an example of ground-breaking vastly well-informed and thoroughly new history * David Horspool, The Guardian *The scholarship is breathtaking. Israel has read everything, absorbed every nuance, followed up every byway ... Five years from now, our views of the Enlightenment will have been enormously influenced by Israel. * Peter Watson, New Statesman *There is much to praise in Israel's majestic account of the Enlightenment and his detective work in placing Spinoza at the heart of it. * A.C. Grayling, FT Weekend *Magnificent and magisterial, Radical Enlightenment will undoubtedly be one of truly great historical works of the decade. * John Adamson, Sunday Telegraph *We have gained a much more detailed and fine-grained view of the sheer diversity and intellectual creativity not just amongst those who may have been influenced by Spinoza, but also amongst their critics, and those who may be deemed part of either the moderate Enlightenment or even a Counter-Enlightenment. * Professor Thomas Munck, Reviews in History *Table of ContentsI. THE 'RADICAL ENLIGHTENMENT'; II. THE RISE OF PHILOSOPHICAL RADICALISM; III. EUROPE AND THE 'NEW' INTELLECTUAL CONTROVERSIES 1680-1720; IV. THE INTELLECTUAL COUNTER-OFFENSIVE; V. THE CLANDESTINE PROGRESS OF THE RADICAL ENLIGHTENMENT 1680-1750
£52.25
Princeton University Press Conservatism
Book SynopsisTrade Review"One of the Financial Times' Best Books of 2020: Politics""One of Kirkus Reviews Best Big-Picture History Books of 2020""A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice""A NRC Book of the Year""A truly magisterial survey of the thought and actions of conservatives in Britain, France, Germany and the United States. . . . It’s a tour de force of intellectual eclecticism, and a vital recognition that the war within conservatism matters."---Andrew Sullivan, New York Times Book Review"A valuable wide-lens perspective on currents that have been at play for decades if not centuries."---Greg Cowles, New York Times Book Review"Invaluable."---Paul Rosenberg, Salon"Enriching and worth reading."---Jacob Soll, New Republic"[An] epic history of conservatism."---John Prideaux, The Economist"This book is a stimulating read, benefiting from the author’s clarity of style, breadth of historical knowledge and decision to place conservative thinkers from each period of history alongside political practitioners."---William Hague, The Spectator"The chief virtue of Fawcett’s rich and wide-ranging account is to demonstrate how conservatism has repeatedly managed to renew itself, politically and intellectually. The conservative tradition is a remarkably fecund one. For both its supporters and opponents, that is a truth worth rescuing."---Nick Pearce, Financial Times"Members of both [liberalism and conservatism] thought-categories will find much to learn from both books, not least from the historical figures Mr. Fawcett brings into view."---William Anthony Hay, Wall Street Journal"[A] magisterial history. . . . Perhaps the most comprehensive view of ‘the conservative mind’ since Russell Kirk’s book (1953) of that title. . . . One of the fairest accounts of the conservative intellectual tradition to be published in recent years."---Gerald J. Russello, National Review"Fawcett, a veteran Economist journalist who describes himself as a left-wing liberal, seeks to understand conservatism as a historical phenomenon. He surveys political practice and political thought in Britain, the US, France and Germany since 1800, with authority and perspective."---Jonathan Parry, London Review of Books"An ambitious book with lucid accounts of a wide range of thinkers and some practitioners."---David Willetts, Prospect"The honest struggle of a thoughtful liberal to understand the enemy gives the book its strength, vitality and structure. . . . [A] compelling, lucid and learned work."---Richard Cockett, The Critic"The author of a much acclaimed history of liberalism turns his attention to another crucial branch of political philosophy."---Gideon Rachman, Financial Times"A sweeping new work of political history."---John Harris, The Guardian"The narrative is absorbing, the pace unflagging. The reader is carried along by the energy of the prose, by sharp insights and nice turns of phrase, and above all by the author’s evident engagement in politics and joy in ideas."---Jesse Norman, Catholic Herald"Readable and comprehensive. . . . An immensely stimulating canter though a major segment of Western political tradition." * Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review *"An astonishingly accomplished survey of the last two centuries of conservative thought."---Andrew Gimson, Conservative Home"Timely."---William Chislett, Real Instituto Elcano"In Fawcett’s analysis, the French Revolution in 1789 was both a founding moment and a false start. Fawcett rightly observes that conservatism was not “founded” with the publication of Burke’s critique of the Revolution, Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790): it wasn’t until the 1830s that the term gained currency as a political label."---Emily Jones, New Statesman"A compelling work of history."---John Harris, Guardian
£17.09
University of Minnesota Press The Dispossessed: Karl Marx’s Debates on Wood
Book SynopsisExcavating Marx’s early writings to rethink the rights of the poor and the idea of the commons in an era of unprecedented privatization The politics of dispossession are everywhere. Troubling developments in intellectual property, genomics, and biotechnology are undermining established concepts of property, while land appropriation and ecological crises reconfigure basic institutions of ownership. In The Dispossessed, Daniel Bensaïd examines Karl Marx’s early writings to establish a new framework for addressing the rights of the poor, the idea of the commons, and private property as a social institution.In his series of articles from 1842–43 about Rhineland parliamentary debates over the privatization of public lands and criminalization of poverty under the rubric of the “theft of wood,” Marx identified broader anxieties about customary law, property rights, and capitalist efforts to privatize the commons. Bensaïd studies these writings to interrogate how dispossession continues to function today as a key modality of power. Brilliantly tacking between past and present, The Dispossessed discloses continuity and rupture in our relationships to property and, through that, to one another.In addition to Bensaïd’s prescient work of political philosophy, The Dispossessed includes new translations of Marx’s original “theft of wood” articles and an introductory essay by Robert Nichols that lucidly contextualizes the essays.Trade Review"In 1842, the young Karl Marx analyzed the consequences of capitalist rural enclosures in Rhineland. Today, patent rights, biotechnologies, and different forms of intellectual property, Daniel Bensaïd convincingly argues, are means of dispossession of human beings exactly as the land enclosures of almost two centuries ago had been a crucial moment in the process of the accumulation of capital. Far from being ‘neutral’ or ‘natural,’ market society was—and still remains—built as a planned dispossession. This is a timely and highly original essay by a towering figure of French critical thought."—Enzo Traverso, author of Left-Wing Melancholia: Marxism, History, and Memory"Within a single volume, this book makes available to English-language readers for the first time not only fresh translations of Marx’s ‘wood theft articles’ but also Daniel Bensaïd’s lucid and incisive commentary on these pieces. Bensaïd’s short book brings the Marx articles alive for contemporary audiences and demonstrates their enduring relevance for longstanding debates about law, property, and rights."—Samuel A. Chambers, Johns Hopkins University"Bensaïd’s essay, as contextualized in this volume by Nichols, successfully pushes, especially those of a Marxist orientation, to make the idea of dispossession more central to their theoretical and practical work."—Marx & Philosophy Table of ContentsContentsCrisis and Kleptocracy: Bensaïd for Our TimesRobert NicholsNotes on TranslationThe Dispossessed: Karl Marx, the Wood Thieves, and the Right of the PoorI. The Law on the Theft of Wood and the Rights of the Poor“Rural Pauperism” and “Forest Malfeasance”—Hybrid and Uncertain Property—Market versus Popular EconomyII. A Social War of PropertiesThe Right of Necessity versus the Right of Property—“Property Is Theft!”—Possession and Property—Theft or ExploitationIII. The Customary Rights of the Poor to the Communal Goods of Humanity The Privatization of Knowledge—The Privatization of Life—The Common Good and the Freely Given—Inappropriable Goods—Individual and Private Property—The Age of Access?—Enforcing Rights (against Existence)—Who Will Win?Proceedings of the Sixth Rhine Province Assembly, Third Article: Debates on the Law Concerning the Theft of Wood Karl MarxSelected Works by Daniel BensaïdNotesIndex
£19.79
Penguin Books Ltd Man and the Natural World
Book Synopsis''Man and the Natural World, an encyclopaedic study of man''s relationship to animals and plants, is completely engrossing ... It explains everything - why we eat what we do, why we plant this and not that, why we keep pets, why we like some animals and not others, why we kill the things we kill and love the things we love ... It is often a funny book and one to read again and again'' Paul Theroux, Sunday Times ''The English historian Keith Thomas has revealed modes of thought and ways of life deeply strange to us'' Hilary Mantel, New York Review of Books''A treasury of unusual historical anecdote ... a delight to read and a pleasure to own'' Auberon Waugh, Sunday Telegraph''A dense and rich work ... the return to the grass roots of our own environmental convictions is made by the most enchantingly minor paths'' Ronald Blythe, GuardianTrade ReviewMan and the Natural World, an encyclopaedic study of man's relationship to animals and plants, is completely engrossing ... It explains everything - why we eat what we do, why we plant this and not that, why we keep pets, why we like some animals and not others, why we kill the things we kill and love the things we love ... It is often a funny book and one to read again and again. -- Paul Theroux * Sunday Times *The English historian Keith Thomas has revealed modes of thought and ways of life deeply strange to us -- Hilary Mantel * New York Review of Books *A treasury of unusual historical anecdote ... a delight to read and a pleasure to own -- Auberon Waugh * Sunday Telegraph *A dense and rich work ... the return to the grass roots of our own environmental convictions is made by the most enchantingly minor paths -- Ronald Blythe * Guardian *
£10.44
Oxford University Press Rousseau
Book SynopsisOne of the most profound thinkers of modern history, Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-78) was a central figure of the European Enlightenment. He was also its most formidable critic, condemning the political, economic, theological, and sexual trappings of civilization along lines that would excite the enthusiasm of romantic individualists and radical revolutionaries alike. In this study of Rousseau''s life and works Robert Wokler shows how his philosophy of history, his theories of music and politics, his fiction, educational and religious writings, and even his botany, were all inspired by visionary ideals of mankind''s self-realization in a condition of unfettered freedom. He explains how, in regressing to classical republicanism, ancient mythology, direct communion with God, and solitude, Rousseau anticipated some post-modernist rejections of the Enlightenment as well.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Table of Contents1. Life and times of a citizen of Geneva ; 2. Culture, music, and the Corruption of Morals ; 3. Human nature and civil society ; 4. Liberty, virtue and citizenship ; 5. Religion, education, and sexuality ; 6. Vagabond reverie ; Further reading, Index
£9.49
Oxford University Press Schopenhauerp
Book SynopsisSchopenhauer is the most readable of German philosophers. This book gives a succinct explanation of his metaphysical system, concentrating on the original aspects of his thought, which inspired many artists and thinkers including Nietzsche, Wagner, Freud, and Wittgenstein. Schopenhauer''s central notion is that of the will - a blind, irrational force that he uses to interpret both the human mind and the whole of nature. Seeing human behaviour as that of a natural organism governed by the will to life, Schopenhauer developed radical insights concerning the unconscious and sexuality which influenced both psychologists and philosophers.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Trade Reviewan excellent brief introduction to Schopenhauer's thought - well-written, concise, and pitched at just the right level. * Christopher Norris, University of Wales *Table of Contents1. Schopenhauer's life and works ; 2. Within and beyond appearance ; 3. The world as will and representation ; 4. Will, body, and the self ; 5. Character, sex, and the unconscious ; 6. Art and ideas ; 7. Ethics: seeing the world aright ; 8. Existence and pessimism ; 9. Schopenhauer's influence ; Further reading
£9.49
Oxford University Press Continental Philosophy
Book SynopsisSimon Critchley''s Very Short Introduction shows that Continental philosophy encompasses a distinct set of philosophical traditions and practices, with a compelling range of problems all too often ignored by the analytic tradition. He discusses the ideas and approaches of philosophers such as Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, Habermas, Foucault, and Derrida, and introduces key concepts such as existentialism, nihilism, and phenomenology by explaining their place in the Continental tradition.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Table of ContentsList of Illustrations ; Introduction ; 1. The gap between knowledge and wisdom ; 2. Origins of Continental Philosophy - How to get from Kant to German Idealism ; 3. Two Cultures in Philosophy - the need for both spectacles and eyes to see with ; 4. Can philosophy change the world? Critique, praxis, emancipation ; 5. What is to be done? How to respond to nihilism ; 6. A case study in misunderstanding: Heidegger and Carnap ; 7. Scientism versus obscurantism: avoiding the traditional predicament in philosophy ; 8. Sapere aude - the exhaustion of theory and the promise of philosophy ; Further Reading ; References ; Index
£9.49
Oxford University Press The Rise of Modern Philosophy
Book SynopsisSir Anthony Kenny''s engaging new history of Western philosophy now advances into the modern era. The Rise of Modern Philosophy is the fascinating story of the emergence, from the early sixteenth to the early nineteenth century, of great ideas and intellectual systems that shaped modern thought. Kenny introduces us to some of the world''s most original and influential thinkers, and shows us the way to an understanding of their famous works. The thinkers we meet include René Descartes, traditionally seen as the founder of modern philosophy; the great British philosophers Hobbes, Locke, and Hume; and the towering figure of Immanuel Kant, who perhaps more than any other made philosophy what it is today. In the first three chapters Kenny tells the story chronologically: his lively accessible narrative brings the philosophers to life and fills in the historical and intellectual background to their work. It is ideal as the first thing to read for someone new to the history of modern philosoTable of ContentsIntroduction ; 1. Sixteenth-Century Philosophy ; 2. Descartes to Berkeley ; 3. Hume to Hegel ; 4. Knowledge ; 5. Physics ; 6. Metaphysics ; 7. Mind and Soul ; 8. Ethics ; 9. Political Philosophy ; 10. God
£13.49
Oxford University Press Theodor W. Adorno A Very Short Introduction Very
Book SynopsisVery Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring T.W. Adorno (1903-69) was a German philosopher and social and cultural theorist. His work has come to be seen as increasingly relevant to understanding the pathologies of contemporary society evident in today''s climate emergency, the financial crash, the reappearance of fascism in many countries, and the growing instability of the world order. This Very Short Introduction covers Adorno''s work and life, explaining his key philosophical concepts and the philosophical background and historical context of Adorno''s thinking. Andrew Bowie shows how Adorno''s exploration of why human reason can have irrational consequences led him to rethink basic concepts like ''nature'', ''history'', and ''freedom'', offering alternatives to many ways of thinking about these concepts in contemporary philosophy. The book also examines Adorno''s social theory, as well as his highly critical assessments of jazz and modern culture, which he considered threatened by the effects of modern capitalism.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Table of Contents1: Life and times 2: The modern subject 3: Nature and history 4: History and freedom 5: The culture industry 6: Society 7: Art and philosophy 8: Doing justice to things References Further reading Index
£9.49
Palgrave MacMillan UK Class Individualization and Late Modernity In
Book SynopsisThis book puts to the test the prominent claim that social class has declined in importance in an era of affluence, choice and the waning of tradition. Arguing against this view, this study vividly uncovers the multiple ways in which class stubbornly persists.Table of ContentsIntroduction: From Affluence to Reflexivity PART I: THEORETICAL PRELIMINARIES Reflexivity and its Discontents Conceptualizing Class and Reconceptualizing Reflexivity PART II: SEARCHING FOR THE REFLEXIVE WORKER Educational Reproduction Today Topographical Trajectories Distinction and Denigration 'Class' as Discursive and Political Construct Conclusion: Rigid Relations through Shifting Substance Appendix: The Search Process
£40.49
Dorling Kindersley Ltd Simply Philosophy
Book Synopsis
£9.49
Taylor & Francis Ltd (Sales) Scientific Outlook
Book SynopsisAccording to Bertrand Russell, science is knowledge; that which seeks general laws connecting a number of particular facts. It is, he argues, far superior to art, where much of the knowledge is intangible and assumed. In The Scientific Outlook, Russell delivers one of his most important works, exploring the nature and scope of scientific knowledge, the increased power over nature that science affords and the changes in the lives of human beings that result from new forms of science. Insightful and accessible, this impressive work sees Russell at his very best. Table of ContentsPreface by David Papineau; Introduction Part 1: Scientific Knowledge 1. Examples of Scientific Method 2. Characteristics of Scientific Method 3. Limitations of Scientific Method 4. Scientific Metaphysics 5. Science and Religion Part 2: Scientific Technique 6. Beginnings of Scientific Technique 7. Technique in Inanimate Nature 8. Technique in Biology 9. Technique in Physiology 10. Technique in Psychology 11. Technique in Society Part 3: The Scientific Society 12. Artificially Created Societies 13. The Individual and the Whole 14. Scientific Government 15. Education in a Scientific Society 16. Scientific Reproduction 17. Science and Values Index
£14.99
Cambridge University Press Cicero On Duties Cambridge Texts in the History
Book SynopsisDe Officiis (On Duties) was Cicero's last philosophical work. In it he made use of Greek thought to formulate the political and ethical values of Roman Republican society as he saw them, revealing incidentally a great deal about actual practice. Writing at a time of political crisis after the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44BC, when it was not clear how much of the old Republican order would survive, Cicero here handed on the insights of an elder statesman, adept at political theory and practice, to his son, and through him, to the younger generation in general. De Officiis has often been treated merely as a key to the lost Greek works that Cicero used. This volume aims to render De Officiis, which was such an important influence on later masterpieces of Western political thought, more intelligible by explaining its relation to its own time and place. A wholly new translation is accompanied by a lucid introduction and all the standard features of Cambridge Texts in the History of PTable of ContentsEditors' note; Introduction; Principal dates; Plan of the Hellenistic schools; Summary of the Doctrines of the Hellenistic schools; Bibliography; Notes on translation; Synopsis; On Duties; Biographical notes; Index of persons and places; Index of subjects.
£25.99
Orion Publishing Co A Brief History of the Future
Book SynopsisThe only book that tells the whole story of the internet from its origins in the 1940s to the advent of the worldwide web at the dawn of the 21st centuryThe Internet is the most remarkable thing human beings have built since the Pyramids. John Naughton''s book intersperses wonderful personal stories with an authoritative account of where the Net actually came from, who invented it and why, and where it might be taking us. Most of us have no idea of how the Internet works or who created it. Even fewer have any idea of what it means for society and the future. In a cynical age, John Naughton has not lost his capacity for wonder. He examines the nature of his own enthusiasm for technology and traces its roots in his lonely childhood and in his relationship with his father. A Brief History of the Future is an intensely personal celebration of vision and altruism, ingenuity and determination and above all, of the power of ideas, passionately felt, to change the worl
£13.22
Hurtwood Press The Meaning of the Earth
Book SynopsisThe Meaning of the Earth offers a retrospective on the work and lives of the relentlessly controversial artists Gilbert & George, connecting their beginnings as Living Sculptures to their pictorial work of today. ---------- 'The Meaning of the Earth, Wolf Jahn's new book, explores the vision of our Art like no one has ever done before. Congratulations Wolf! Everyone loves this amazing and beautiful book. It is a masterpiece.' - Gilbert & George ---------- The Meaning of the Earth offers a retrospective on the lives and work of the relentlessly controversial artists Gilbert & George, placing them within the context of twentieth-century British culture. Wolf Jahn tells the story of how Gilbert & George found their identity in opposition to pervasive ideas around social conformity and religion after meeting in 1967. The artists staged an internal revolution, mining their psyches to create visionary and unwaveringly modern art. The two people but one artist' ask the questions that gnaw
£28.00
Cambridge University Press Understanding Race
Book SynopsisThe human species is very young, but in a short time it has acquired some striking, if biologically superficial, variations across the planet. As this book shows, however, none of those biological variations can be understood in terms of discrete races, which do not actually exist as definable entities. Starting with a consideration of evolution and the mechanisms of diversification in nature, this book moves to an examination of attitudes to human variation throughout history, showing that it was only with the advent of slavery that considerations of human variation became politicized. It then embarks on a consideration of how racial classifications have been applied to genomic studies, demonstrating how individualized genomics is a much more effective approach to clinical treatments. It also shows how racial stratification does nothing to help us understand the phenomenon of human variation, at either the genomic or physical levels.Trade Review'DeSalle and Tattersall provide a brilliant and comprehensive refutation of the folk concept of human races. Anyone who thinks that there are natural categories of people that correspond to zoological subspecies will have their worldview blown to bits!' Jonathan Marks, Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina at Charlotte'Understanding Race explains to the reader in accessible terms all the misconceptions that continue to plague both lay people and professionals concerning race. First, the authors establish for the reader the fundamental mechanisms of evolution that are responsible for the variation within all species; then they explain how people thought about variation before there was a science to correctly explain it. The book guides the reader through how racial thinking changed as our understanding of evolution, as well as the technology to understand genetic variation, improved. The authors end by drawing attention to ongoing misconceptions concerning biological variation and social definitions of race in a variety of arenas, including medicine. If you don't read my books, you should read theirs; and in the best of all worlds you should read both.' Joseph L. Graves, Jr, Professor of Biological Sciences, North Carolina A&T State UniversityTable of Contents1. The evolutionary background; 2. Race before evolutionary theory; 3. Race after Darwin; 4. Race in the era of genetics and genomics; 5. Variation in genomes, and how humans took over the world; 6. Clustering and treeing; 7. Race in medicine and complex phenotypic studies; 8. Human adaptations; 9. Race, science and pseudoscience.
£13.94
Cambridge University Press Orientation in European Romanticism
Book SynopsisExploring the experiments in individual and national self-consciousness conducted during the Romantic period, this essential comparative study of European literature, philosophy and politics makes original and often surprising connections and contrasts to reveal how personal and social identities were re-orientated and disorientated from the French Revolution onwards. Reviving a contested moment in the history of aesthetic theory, this study shows how the growing awareness of irresolution in Kant''s third Kritik allowed Romantic writers to put the aesthetic to radical uses not envisaged by its parent philosophy. It also recounts how they would go on to force philosophy to revise received notions of authority, empowering women and subordinated ethnic groups to re-orientate existing hierarchies. The sheer range and variety of writers covered is testament both to the breadth of writing that Kant''s philosophy so rashly legitimated and to the wider importance of philosophy to the understanding of Romantic literature.
£21.84
Cambridge University Press Leo XIII and the Rise of NeoThomism
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£20.43
Cambridge University Press Rethinking Liberty before Liberalism
Book SynopsisOpens up new histories of freedom and republicanism by building on Quentin Skinner''s ground-breaking Liberty before Liberalism nearly twenty five years after its initial publication. Leading historians and philosophers reveal the neo-Roman conception of liberty that Skinner unearthed as a normative and historical hermeneutic tool of enormous, ongoing power. The volume thinks with neo-Romanism to offer reinterpretations of individual thinkers, such as Montaigne, Grotius and Locke. It probes the role of neo-Roman liberty within hierarchies and structures beyond that of citizen and state namely, gender, slavery, and democracy. Finally, it reassesses the relationships between neo-Romanism and other languages in the history of political thought: liberalism, conservatism, socialism, and the human rights tradition. The volume concludes with a major reappraisal by Skinner himself.Trade Review'Rethinking Liberty Before Liberalism succeeds magnificently as a tribute to the achievement of Liberty Before Liberalism, as a substantive contribution to the history of political thought, and as an addition to the corpus of political philosophy itself.' David Armitage, University of Harvard'The internationally reputed scholars brought together in this volume both appraise and contribute to the extraordinarily fertile discussions that followed the publication of Quentin Skinner's text twenty years ago. An outstanding volume, beautifully curated and introduced by its editors, and likely to become a point of reference in the field.' Cécile Laborde, University of OxfordTable of ContentsIntroduction Hannah Dawson and Annelien de Dijn; Part I. Authors: 1. Freedom without republicanism: the case of Montaigne Felicity Green; 2. Hugo Grotius on freedom of will and self-government: Greek, patristic and roman legacies Martin van Gelderen; 3. Liberty before licence in Locke Hannah Dawson; Part II. Hierarchies: 4. Liberty and hierarchy in Milton's revolutionary prose Rachel Foxley; 5. Democratic republicanism in the early modern period Annelien de Dijn; 6. Gender, liberty, participation and virtue: what the eighteenth century can teach us about republicanism Sandrine Bergès; 7. Liberty, death, and slavery in the age of atlantic revolutions, 1770s-1790s René Koekkoek; Part III. Traditions: 8. Beyond the 'wretched subterfuge': liberalism, freedom, and responsibility Eric Nelson; 9. 'A just and true liberty': the idea of (neo-roman) freedom in francophone counter-revolutionary thought c. 1780-1800 Matthijs Lok; 10. Chains and invisible threads: liberty and domination in Marx's account of wage-slavery Bruno Leipold; 11. Republican liberty in the philosophy of human rights Lena Halldenius; Conclusion: on neo-roman liberty: a response and reassessment Quentin Skinner.
£23.99
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Eleanor Marx
Book SynopsisThe extraordinary and dramatic biography of the first modern feminist, who spent her entire life fighting for the principle of equality''Gripping ... Most lives would be overshadowed by such a melodramatic end. But Marx's life was so much more than a murder mystery, as Rachel Holmes's gripping and vividly told biography demonstrates'' Sunday Times''Superb ... The story of this remarkable life is so well told, with a rare combination of pace, verve and scholarship'' Jeanette Winterson, Daily TelegraphUnrestrained by convention, lion-hearted and free, Eleanor Marx (1855-98) was an exceptional woman. Hers was the first English translation of Flaubert's Mme Bovary. She pioneered the theatre of Henrik Ibsen. She was the first woman to lead the British dock workers'' and gas workers' trades unions. For years she worked tirelessly for her father, Karl Marx, as personal secretary and researcher. Later she edited many of his Trade ReviewSuperb ... The story of this remarkable life is so well told, with a rare combination of pace, verve and scholarship, that the reader is soon a daily visitor to the Marx household, with its soot, smoke, books, babies, dinner on the table via the pawnshop, three languages spoken in any combination, and the tiny Eleanor ... I doubt the reader will close this brilliant biography unmoved by this extraordinary woman’s life and untroubled by the inevitable questions it raises about global capitalism now * Jeanette Winterson, Daily Telegraph *Thanks to Holmes’ fresh and vital style – not to mention her endearing partisanship – Eleanor Marx: A Life reads less like a biography than a 19th century novel. Its close might indeed be modelled on Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, translated into English for the first time by Eleanor Marx in 1886 ... The life of one of Britain’s most celebrated intellectuals and activists of the late 19th century came abruptly to an end, to be all but forgotten. Thankfully, however, Holmes has given back to us an unforgettable Eleanor Marx * Lisa Jardine, Financial Times *It is the achievement of this biography . . . that it allows us so large and transcendent a view of its subject. [Holmes] succeeds very ably in highlighting the full reach and contemporary relevance of Eleanor Marx's political contribution to socialist and feminist thinking. -- Kate Soper, Professor Emerita of Philosophy, London Metropolitan University * Marx and Philosophy Review of Books *I got to the end of Rachel Holmes’s Eleanor Marx and wanted to start all over again ... At the centre of it all, the irrepressible daughter of Karl and Jenny Marx, the loving sister, passionate lover, actress, political organiser, fiery speaker, translator and intellect. A giant whose character in all its complexity steps off the page to inspire another generation * Susie Orbach *Gripping ... Most lives would be overshadowed by such a melodramatic end. But Marx’s life was so much more than a murder mystery, as Rachel Holmes’s gripping and vividly told biography demonstrates ... Sympathy for her subject is infectious ... Reading about this generous and far-seeing woman, it is hard not to wish that she had changed the world. How much better would the 20th century have been if it has been Eleanor’s views on the freedom of women that were adopted instead of her father’s communist doctrines * Sunday Times *Gripping ... The story of Eleanor Marx is shot through with the melodrama of the great Victorian novels – a tale of secrets, infidelities, lost letters and legacies, depression, deception and ultimate tragedy * Daily Mail *Rachel Holmes has produced a dazzling account of a woman and her family, an age and a movement, that grips from the first page to the last * Gillian Slovo *Eleanor Marx is both a challenging and a stimulating subject for a biographer. In this widely researched and passionately written book, Rachel Holmes has found an original way of presenting her. She balances Eleanor's political career, centred in the Reading Room of the British Museum among her Victorian Bloomsbury group colleagues, with her sobriquet, the emotional figure of “Tussy”, whose love for Edward Aveling ends in tragedy. It is as if the biographer is conducting string and wind instruments in an orchestra. The result, surprising at first, becomes profoundly satisfying * Michael Holroyd *What makes her a biographer’s dream is the style and passion with which she leaped over the barriers of convention ... How Aveling’s betrayals eventually destroyed Tussy provides a heart-rending finale to this enthralling biography. By then, I’d bet that every reader will be as unashamedly in love with Tussy as Rachel Holmes clearly is * Francis Wheen, Mail on Sunday *
£12.99
Manchester University Press People Power: Popular Sovereignty from
Book SynopsisPeople power explores the history of the theory and practice of popular power. Western thinking about politics has two fundamental features: 1) popular power in practice is problematic and 2) nothing confers political legitimacy except popular sovereignty. This book explains how we got to our current default position, in which rule of, for and by the people is simultaneously a practical problem and a received truth of politics. The book asks readers to think about how appreciating that history shapes the way we think about the people’s power in the present. Drawn from the disciplines of history and political theory, the contributors to this volume engage in a mutually informing conversation about popular power. They conclude that the problems that first gave rise to popular sovereignty remain simultaneously compelling, unresolved and worthy of further attention.Table of Contents1 People power – Christopher Barker and Robert G. Ingram 2 Machiavelli’s ‘moments’ – Catherine Zuckert 3 Death and taxes in Machiavelli’s Florentine state – Danielle Charette4 Taming the Parliament: John Locke on legislative limits, prerogative and popular sovereignty – Nathan Pinkoski 5 Montesquieu and the theory of limited sovereignty – William Selinger 6 The revolution for society: rethinking popular sovereignty, American independence and the Age of the Democratic Revolution – James M. Vaughn 7 Filippo Mazzei’s Atlantic revolutions: a new dawn for popular sovereignty or populism? – Anna Vincenzi 8 Popular sovereignty as populism in the early American republic – Joshua A. Lynn 9 Like a god on Earth: popular sovereignty in Tocqueville’s Democracy in America – Heather Pangle Wilford10 Plural voting and popular government in Victorian Britain – Greg Conti11 Modern representation and the popular will – Susan Shell and Paul T. Wilford12 Sovereignty, God and the historians – Robert G. Ingram 13 Conclusion: what is popular sovereignty? – Mark BlitzIndex
£67.50
John Murray Press What to Read Next: How to Make Books Part of Your
Book SynopsisFor a whole year on his train to work, Stig Abell read books from across genres and time periods. Then he wrote about them, and their impact on our culture and his own life.The result is a work of many things: a brisk guide to the canon of Western literature; an intimate engagement with writers from Shakespeare to JK Rowling, Marcel Proust to Zora Neale Hurston; a wise and funny celebration of the power of words; and a meditation on mental unrest and how to tackle it. It will help you discover new books to love, give you the confidence to give up on those that you don't, and remind you of ones that you already do.What to Read Next has been written for the reader in all of us.Trade ReviewBeyond splendid . . . a brilliant idea, beautifully realised * Bill Bryson *Far more than a guide, this is a book lover's companion, a wise friend's recommendations, an answer to the question "what to read next" and why. I wish I knew half as much about books as Stig Abell * Kit de Waal *A witty, warm and wonderfully wise celebration of the written word. A huge treat * Lucy Foley *It's like being a member of the best book club ever * Frank Skinner *Stig's books are must-haves. He educates, informs and entertains in equal measure * Dermot O'Leary *This is Abell at his best - frank, funny and fascinating. Did Clive James and Bill Bryson have a secret love child? * Lee Child *A thoroughly enjoyable saunter through some great, and not so great, works of literature * Times Literary Supplement *A book for Christmas and the fireside, but a book also for all days and weathers, even for a chilly morning commuter train - once commuting is back in fashion -- Allan Massie * Scotsman *It is always interesting when an intelligent reader comes fresh to books you have known for a long time . . . the whole book is a lucky dip: put in your thumb, pull out a plum, and relish it. * Yorkshire Post *
£10.44
Quercus Publishing 50 Big Ideas You Really Need to Know
In a series of 50 accessible essays, Ben Dupré introduces and explains the central ideas of politics, philosophy, religion, economics, science, and the arts that have engaged key thinkers and leaders, from Plato to the present day.From the Big Bang to romanticism, fate to democracy, 50 Big Ideas You Really Need to Know is a complete introduction to the most important concepts in history.
£9.49
Vintage Publishing The Crooked Timber Of Humanity
Book Synopsis'Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made.' Immanuel KantIsaiah Berlin was one of the most important philosophers of the twentieth century - an activist of the intellect who marshalled vast erudition and eloquence in defence of the endangered values of individual liberty and moral and political plurality. In The Crooked Timber of Humanity he exposes the links between the ideas of the past and the social and political cataclysms of our own time: between the Platonic belief in absolute truth and the lure of authoritarianism; between the eighteenth-century reactionary ideologue Joseph de Maistre and twentieth-century Fascism; between the romanticism of Schiller and Byron and the militant - and sometimes genocidal - nationalism that convulses the modern world. This new edition features a revised text, a new foreword in which award-winning novelist John Banville discusses Berlin's life and ideas, particularly his defence of pluralism, and a substantial new appendix that provides rich context, including letters and previously uncollected writings by Berlin, notably his virtuoso review of Bertrand Russell's A History of Western Philosophy.Trade ReviewBerlin restored the history of ideas to its true place as a key to unlock the past and explain the present. It was a notable achievement. This book sustains it. -- Raymond Carr * Spectator *To read Isaiah Berlin is above all to listen to a voice, effervescent, quizzical, often self-mocking, but always full of gaiety and amusement. -- John Dunn * Times Literary Supplement *To read Berlin is to sit at an unlit window and see the landscape of European thought illuminated by a spectacular display of fireworks. -- Ian McIntyre * Independent *A history of ideas that possesses all the drama of a novel, all the immediacy of headline news. -- Michiko Kakutani * New York Times *
£17.00
Unicorn Publishing Group Travels with Plotinus
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£15.29
Hatje Cantz Beate Söntgen & Julia Voss: Why Art Criticism? A
Book SynopsisHow is art criticism to be understood within an expanding artistic field? A look at its history and its manifestations within globalized conditions shows the variety of the genre, of the criteria and of the styles of writing. This reader is an attempt to bring a diverse range of art-critical voices and perspectives into conversation with each other, with texts from the 18th century to the present. The editors Beate Söntgen and Julia Voss have invited colleagues from various geographical and intellectual backgrounds to present and discuss the art critics of their choice, choosing one example from their respective bodies of work to comment upon. How have these writers approached art criticism? Which styles do they employ? What makes them extraordinary? What can we learn from their writings today, and why is it important in its contemporary context? Texts by: Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy, Denis Diderot, Takashi Kashima, Patrick Mudekereza, Annemarie Sauzeau-Boetti, Bertha Zuckerkandl and many more Comments by: Juli Carson, Yuriko Furuhata, Isabelle Graw, Angela Harutyunyan, Monica Juneja, Wolfgang Kemp, Florencia Malbran, Yvette Mutumba, Azu Nwagbogu, Sarah Wilson and many more
£23.80
Bloomsbury Academic Problems from Philosophy
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£48.60
Actes Sud Memoria: Tales of a different History
Book SynopsisMemoria: stories from another History is the idea of a collective memory made up of a myriad of stories, stories, questions and experiences scattered in our individual and personal memories. Revealed here, through the works of artists whose work refers to the (re) construction of a common whole, a universal whole, which renews our look at contemporary creation from Africa and its diasporas. Featuring fourteen artists who's work stand out for their desire to move the boundaries of art, to “bring together elsewhere” and to show the diversity of our common individual and ultimately collective histories. The selected works explore painting, textiles, sculpture, video and even performance. They make up a journey that echoes on the one hand a demystified reading of parts of history and commonly disclosed beliefs about the African continent, and on the other hand the way in which the devices of imaginary stories are still in the making. work, particularly in the economic and resource redistribution fields. Through this multiplicity of mediums, the works deliver their essence and show us artists with engaged practice, strong in their narrative power, anchored in their fluctuating geographies and in their time. By questioning our thought mechanisms, Memoria: stories from another History intends to open a discussion on our ability to renew our knowledge, to listen to different stories and to (re) question stereotypes and received ideas.
£25.50
Princeton University Press Knowledge Lost
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Fascinating."---David Lorimer, Paradigm Explorer"A book of great depth and insightfulness, Knowledge Lost is a must read for anyone interested in the Enlightenment."---Dr. Cliff Cunningham, Sun News Austin
£29.75
Zone Books Perspective as Symbolic Form
Book Synopsis
£22.50
Cambridge University Press Liberty as Independence
Book SynopsisWhat does liberty entail? How have concepts of liberty changed over time? And what are the global consequences? This book surveys the history of rival views of liberty from antiquity to modern times, exploring when and why the concept of liberty as independence was superseded by the view that liberty is absence of restraint.
£33.25
Plume Cosmos and Psyche
Book Synopsis
£17.09
Pan Macmillan Christmas: A History
Book SynopsisChristmas has been all things to all people: a religious festival, a family celebration, a time of eating and drinking. Yet the origins of the customs which characterize the festive season are wreathed in myth.When did turkeys become the plat du jour? Is the commercialization of Christmas a recent phenomenon, or has the emphasis always been on spending? Just who is, or was, Santa Claus? And for how long have we been exchanging presents of underwear and socks?Food, drink and nostalgia for Christmases past seem to be almost as old as the holiday itself, far more central to the story of Christmas than religious worship. Thirty years after the first recorded Christmas, in the fourth century, the Archbishop of Constantinople was already warning that too many people were spending the day not in worship, but dancing and eating to excess. By 1616, the playwright Ben Jonson was nostalgically recalling the Christmases of yesteryear, confident that they had been better then. In Christmas: A History, acclaimed social historian and bestselling author Judith Flanders casts a sharp and revealing eye on the myths, legends and history of the season, from the origins of the holiday in the Roman empire to the emergence of Christmas trees in central Europe, to what might just possibly be the first appearance of Santa Claus – in Switzerland! – to draw a picture of the season as it has never been seen before.Trade ReviewFlanders covers every aspect of Christmas . . . [Christmas] is . . . a catalogue of colourful information, and as surprising an assortment of items as any you might find heaped up under a tree. -- Lucy Hughes-Hallett * Observer *A well-researched account. There are more footnotes here than there are presents under a Rockefeller Christmas tree. Indeed, the book is stuffed with facts – enough to satiate even the most ravenous postprandial taste for quizzing. * Sunday Times *[An] entertaining biography . . . Following the fine tradition of light entertainment Christmas books, Judith Flanders provides lots of trivia . . . However, there is much more to it than that. Flanders is a respected social historian, best known for studies on Victorian life, and the strength of this warm book lies in its quiet erudition. * The Times *If you do want to think about the actual meaning of Christmas, why it still matters to us so much, the book you need is Christmas by the cultural historian Judith Flanders . . . which traces its “strange hybrid growth” all the way back to its origins. -- David Sexton * Evening Standard *A definitive, myth-busting new book . . . [Christmas] tells the full history of the festival that owes it beginning to Roman celebrations of the winter solstice with some fascinating revelations along the way. * The Lady *Who could say bah-humbug to this sprawling-yet-accessible history, which examines traditions with all the trimmings. * Sunday Independent *A superabundance of information about holiday practices, drawn not just from Britain, North American, the Commonwealth and Continental Europe (especially Germany), but from wherever Christmas is celebrated – even, at its most secular and idiosyncratic, in Japan. * TLS *Little escapes Flanders’s notice, as she reflects on the film It’s a Wonderful Life, the nation-binding importance of Britain’s annual carol concert from King’s College, Cambridge, or the financial dependence of local ballet companies on performances of The Nutcracker. Throughout, too, her writing remains brisk and witty: She alludes to the seasonal tradition of reading ghost stories, “while the children break their new toys around you.” * Washington Post *Judith Flanders . . . likes Christmas (I think), but she loves reality and its awkward, amusing facts. (A previous book of hers, Inside the Victorian Home, is deep, bright and encompassing.) * New York Times *This informative and entertaining history is an absolute delight. * Woman & Home *
£11.69
Oxford University Press Epictetus
Book SynopsisThe philosophy of Epictetus, a freed slave in the Roman Empire, has been profoundly influential on Western thought: it offers not only stimulating ideas but practical guidance in living one''s life. A. A. Long, a leading scholar of later ancient philosophy, gives the definitive presentation of the thought of Epictetus for a broad readership. Long''s fresh and vivid translations of a selection of the best of Epictetus'' discourses show that his ideas are as valuable and striking today as they were amost two thousand years ago. The translations are organized thematically within the framework of an authoritative introduction and commentary, which offer a way into this world for those new to it, and illuminating interpretations for those who already know it. Epictetus is known as one of the great Stoic thinkers. But he took the life and conversation of Socrates as his educational model. His Socratic allegiance, scarcely examined before, is a major theme of this ground-breaking book. Long shows how Epictetus offered his students a way of life premised on the values of personal autonomy and integrity. Never a sermonizer, Epictetus engages his students in brilliantly challenging dialogue; Long offers the first accessible study of his argumentative and rhetorical methods. This is a book for anyone interested in what we can learn from ancient philosophy about how to live our lives.Trade ReviewThis book is a tour de force, encapsulating a profound reading of a major source for Stoic ethics within the framework of a highly accessible introduction. The full significance of Long's powerful hypothesis about Socratic basis of Epictetus' version of the Stoic project and about the nature of Epictetus' originality will provide material for scholarly debate for many years. Long has also underlined how this work of Roman Stoic practical ethics can speak to our thought-world as powerfully as it has spoken to previous eras of Western culture. * Christopher Gill, Archiv fur Geschichte der Philosophie *Table of ContentsIntroduction ; 1. Epictetus in his Time and Place ; 2. The Discourses ; 3. The Socratic Paradigm ; 4. Philosophy and Pedagogy ; 5. Reading Epictetus ; 6. Natures: Divine, Human, Animal ; 7. From Theology to Ethics ; 8. Autonomy and Integrity ; 9. Appropriate Actions and Feelings ; Epilogue: The afterlife of Epictetus ; Glossary ; Who's Who: Stoics and Others ; Index of passages/general index
£31.49
HarperCollins India The Great Tech Game: Shaping Geopolitics and the
Book SynopsisTechnology is reshaping geopolitics, with winners and losers globally. "The Great Tech Game" highlights key drivers for nations to succeed, stressing strategic planning and new capabilities. It delves into managing state and non-state actors in the tech race and questions digital colonialism's inevitability.
£17.99
Oneworld Publications Out of Our Minds: What We Think and How We Came
Book Synopsis‘Immensely learned and ambitious…seam-bursting eclecticism and polymathic brio… This is by any standards a significant book and its author deserves high praise.’ Literary Review To imagine – to see that which is not there – is the startling ability that has fuelled human development and innovation through the centuries. As a species we stand alone in our remarkable capacity to refashion the world after the pictures in our minds. Traversing the realms of science, politics, religion, culture, philosophy and history, Felipe Fernández-Armesto reveals the thrilling and disquieting tales of our imaginative leaps. Through groundbreaking insights in cognitive science, he explores how and why we have ideas in the first place, providing a tantalising glimpse into who we are and what we might yet accomplish. Fernández-Armesto shows that bad ideas are often more influential than good ones; that the oldest recoverable thoughts include some of the best; that ideas of Western origin often issued from exchanges with the wider world; and that the pace of innovative thinking is under threat.Trade Review‘Immensely learned and ambitious…seam-bursting eclecticism and polymathic brio…This is by any standards a significant book and its author deserves high praise.’ * Literary Review *‘It is hard to do justice to the grand sweep of this book and the intriguing detail with which it abounds. If this is a book about ideas, there is one on every other page… brilliantly stimulating.’ * New Statesman *‘What we get here is an urbane and civilised observer, broad in his sympathies, mildly distrustful of religion, very distrustful of certainties and enthusiastic about pluralism. You may not always agree with him, but he’s very good company.’ * Evening Standard, Book of the Week *‘He is never less than stimulating. As a product himself of the liberal and sceptical decades of the later 20th century, there is a sense in his writing not of tenacious advocacy but a certain playfulness. All ideas – including his own – are stabs at understanding, part of the process that defines our species, the perennial urge to make sense of the world around us.’ * Spectator *‘A stimulating history of how the imagination interacted with its sibling psychological faculties – emotion, perception and reason – to shape the history of human mental life.’ * Wall Street Journal *‘Beginning with cognitive science, this global survey sweeps through leaps of thought from prehistory to today – a journey from unification to uncertainty, lit by minds such as China’s fourth-century-BC master of paradox Hui Shi and paradigm-smashing mathematician Henri Poincaré. Today, Fernández-Armesto argues, the trend is shifting as our homogenized “global culture” threatens the very exchanges that spark heroic ideas.’ * Barbara Kiser, Nature *‘[An] idiosyncratic, wide-ranging intellectual history…thought-provoking stuff.’ * BBC History Magazine *‘A bracing account of the central roles imagination, memory and language have played in human development around the world…Fernández-Armesto has the measure of just about everything…studded with pungent apophthegms and mordant aphorisms. Few pages go by without the reader smiling or, occasionally, laughing.’ * The Tablet *‘…a triumph. Preternaturally erudite, always intelligible, often witty, Out of Our Minds should be essential reading not just for historians of ideas, but for all readers interested in the human past.’ -- Niall Ferguson, Milbank Family Senior Fellow, the Hoover Institution, Stanford‘Brilliant and profound, Out of Our Minds is a masterly survey of humanity’s unique imaginative leaps, from hominid cannibalism to our current global convergence. Fernández-Armesto is the leading practitioner of big history, and here he takes on no less than the entire span of human history. Gone are the great men, replaced instead by the ideas – good and bad – that have made us human. Written with his trademark panache and wry humour, this book challenges every assumption you’ve ever had about who we are and where we came from.’ -- Jerry Brotton, Professor of Renaissance Studies, Queen Mary University of London, and author of A History of the World in 12 Maps‘A sparkling account of how imagination and ideas have shaped the strange history of Homo sapiens over more than two hundred thousand years.’ -- David Christian, author of Origin Story‘With its majestic sweep, this refreshing book covers a great many subjects with considerable authority. Felipe Fernández-Armesto is a gifted writer, guiding the reader through subtleties without failing to illustrate his complex ideas with a telling example.’ -- Daniel Lord Smail, Frank B. Baird, Jr. Professor of History, Harvard University
£11.69
Oxford University Press Ancient Philosophy
Book SynopsisSir Anthony Kenny tells the fascinating story of the birth of philosophy and its remarkable flourishing in the ancient Mediterranean world. This is the first of four volumes in which he unfolds a magisterial new history of Western philosophy. Specially written for a broad popular readership, but serious and deep enough to offer a genuine understanding of the great philosophers, Kenny''s lucid and stimulating history will become the definitive work for anyone interested in the people and ideas that shaped the course of Western thought.Trade ReviewBertrand Russell apparently wrote his History of Western Philosophy in a hurry to raise funds. Although this reamins a popular work, it is a patchy and unreliable source. By contrast, Kenny's history of philosophy is the product of a lifetime of scholarship and this is manifest on every page. The other celebrated history of philosophy is that of Frederick Copleston, which runs to twelve volumes. Although this contains a wealth of detail and remains a valuable resource, Kenny is by far the better philosopher and writer. * James Ladyman, Times Higher Education Supplement *Table of Contents1. Beginnings: From Pythagoras to Plato ; 2. Schools of Thought: From Aristotle to Augustine ; 3. Argument and Reason: Logic ; 4. Knowledge and its Limits ; 5. How Things Happen: Physics ; 6. What There Is: Metaphysics ; 7. Soul and Mind ; 8. How to Live: Ethics ; 9. God
£12.59
The University of Chicago Press History of Political Philosophy
Book SynopsisThis volume provides an unequaled introduction to the thought of chief contributors to the Western tradition of political philosophy from classical Greek antiquity to the twentieth century. Written by specialists on the various philosophers, this third edition has been expanded significantly to include both new and revised essays.
£29.45
