History of ideas Books

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Book SynopsisOrland Bishop is a remarkable man who has combined extensive study of medicine, naturopathy, psychology and indigenous cosmologies with a deep dedication to human rights, Founder of the ShadeTree foundation which works with at-risk young people in Los Angeles, Bishop's primary work is around supporting individuals to be open to the higher purpose of their lives.In this fascinating book he reveals the influences on his life and work, in particular the spiritual tradition of African Gnosis, and significant individuals from the history of the African experience in America.Drawing on anthroposophy and other spiritual traditions, he explores the nature of the soul journey, and the quest for community and prosperity.

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Book Synopsis'A welcome ally in the fight against fake history' Eleanor Janega, author of The Middle AgesFrom the fall of Rome to the rise of the Wild West, David Mountain brings colour and perspective to historical mythmaking.The stories we tell about our past matter. But those stories have been shaped by prejudice, hoaxes and misinterpretations that have whitewashed entire chapters of history, erased women and invented civilisations. Today history is often used to justify xenophobia, nationalism and inequality as we cling to grand origin stories and heroic tales of extraordinary men.Exploring myths, mysteries and misconceptions about the past - from the legacies of figures like Pythagoras and Christopher Columbus, to the realities of life in the gun-toting Wild West, to the archaeological digs that have upset our understanding of the birth of civilisation - David Mountain reveals how ongoing revolutions in history and archaeology are shedding light on the truth.Full of adventures, and based on detailed research and interviews, Past Mistakes will make you reconsider your understanding of history - and of the world today.'Past Mistakes takes what we think we remember from history class and sets the record straight! Definitely worth reading if you're ready to have your mind blown and then be filled with rage that you've been hoodwinked for this long.' The Tiny ActivistTrade ReviewWhether discussing Pythagoras' legacy, Athenian democracy, the myth of Progress, or the Wild West, Mountain quickly points out how the truth is more nuanced than-or completely different from-stories we may know. ... the work's main thrust is the conversation between present and past and how our view of the past influences current behavior-most clearly outlined in a chapter about the Wild West mythos shaping American gun culture to this day. -- BooklistPast Mistakes takes what we think we remember from history class and sets the record straight! Definitely worth reading if you're ready to have your mind blown and then be filled with rage that you've been hoodwinked for this long. -- The Tiny Activist'A welcome ally in the fight against fake history' -- Eleanor Janega, author of The Middle Ages

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Book SynopsisDemocracy today is widely regarded as an ideal form of government. Yet in practice it sometimes seems a sham, a political puppet show in which hidden elites pull all the strings. As trust in elected representatives around the world plunges, it is no wonder that democratic revolts have erupted – from Cairo to Kiev and beyond – in an effort to ‘take back control’. In this urgent and lively history, James Miller reminds us that democracy has always generated tensions and contradictions. Through philosophical debates and violent uprisings, it has been contested, corrupted, and refined. In different times and different places – from ancient Athens to revolutionary France to post-war America – its meaning has shifted in surprising ways. For over two thousand years, the world has experimented with democracy. But can it really work – especially in complex modern societies?Trade Review‘An attractively broad and accessible account of democracy from the Greeks to the present… Particularly timely.’ * New York Review of Books *‘What makes the book compelling is its focus on colorful thinkers, activists, and political leaders who lived and breathed the democratic moment throughout history… Miller shows that democracy’s ascent is best seen not as a gradual unfolding of a political principle driven by reason and moral destiny but rather as a grand roller coaster ride of struggle, revolution, and backlash. Today’s populist outbursts look quite ordinary alongside this history.’ * Foreign Affairs *‘In this smart, tremendously readable history, Miller tackles the paradox at the centre of the democratic dream… Both challenging and accessible, this title is highly recommended.’ * Booklist, starred review *‘The strength of this book lies…in the exquisite portraits it paints of characters who stand behind the immortalized Pericles, Robespierre, and Thomas Jefferson… [Miller] forces the reader to sit up and realize that history isn’t a definitive greyed parchment beyond reproach, but actually a living force constantly capable of new interpretation and meaning in our current world… Like the ekklesia in Athens, the constituent assembly in Versailles, and the soviet in Petrograd – Can Democracy Work? offers insightful context on how our own body politic will survive these turbulent times.’ * Christian Science Monitor *‘Distinguished historian of ideas James Miller’s short history of democracy and its different meanings is both compulsive and compulsory reading for our sometimes shockingly disenchanted times. Ever optimistic, Miller remains enamoured of his native United States’s striking experiment in cosmopolitan self-governance, and stands proudly and persuasively tall for liberal – and democratic – ideals.’ -- Paul Cartledge, author of Democracy: A Life‘This is a bold, eloquent, and utterly convincing history of what democracy has meant and should mean – from the Assembly of Ancient Greece to the anti-Trump resistance. James Miller has produced one of the wisest reflections on the glories and limits of popular rule I have ever read.’ -- Michael Kazin, author of War Against War: The American Fight for Peace, 1914–1918‘At the very moment of democracy’s apparent endangerment, one of its best friends offers up the most capacious and inspiring history of it ever composed. From the Greeks to the present, Miller’s light touch and profound insight join each other on every page to make this a truly indispensable work for the present crisis.’ -- Samuel Moyn, author of Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal World‘No one is better qualified to wrestle with the riddle of democracy than James Miller, which is why I have been eagerly awaiting this brilliant and necessary book. Can Democracy Work? is an eloquent, clear-eyed account of democracy’s myriad challenges. This concise and compelling history deserves to be read and debated by all of us who still dare to dream of a society of equals. These pages left me feeling better prepared and reinvigorated to work toward a more democratic future.’ -- Astra Taylor, director of What is Democracy? and author of The People’s Platform‘James Miller, who has illuminated democracy’s radical possibilities, now offers some sharp reflections on how those possibilities have fared over the centuries. At a moment when the very meaning of the word is up for grabs, Miller brings us back to philosophical essentials as forged by contingency, contradiction, and human folly. Refreshing and unsettling, here is some political intelligence in a dark and confusing time.’ -- Sean Wilentz, author of The Rise of American Democracy‘This sharp, spirited, engaged intellectual history of democracy, including its recent and often loose coupling with liberalism, combines an appraisal of both inherent and situational pitfalls with an appreciation of redemptive possibilities. If democracy is protean, what matters, this rich work teaches, is the quality of our normative choices and institutional imagination.’ -- Ira I. Katznelson, Ruggles Professor of Political Science and History, Columbia University

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Book SynopsisAs its title suggests, this collections of essays by one of the foremost theorists working today takes as its theme the edge or limit between language, time, history, and politics. These are essays that are all on the brink, about the edge, the very extreme at which one can no longer say where one is located, neither on the cliff, say, nor over the edge. To be on the brink, then, is to take up that extreme limit, the point of contamination or indetermination where language, time, history, and politics all converge upon one another.The book begins with a consideration of Kant’s treatment of time as representation, before moving toward more explicitly political themes as it engages political theology and messianism in Hegel and Hölderlin. The second section explores the questionof language in a variety of manifestations—from translation to complaint and greeting—and through a number of literary and cultural forms, from the work of Mallarmé to email. The volume concludes with an interview in which Hamacher offers a revealing overview of his work, beginning with an account of his early writings and moving up to his most recent essays.Table of Contents1. Ex Tempore: Time as Representation in Kant / 2. On Some Differences Between the History of Literary and the History of Phenomenal Events / 3. (The End of Art with the Mask) / 4. Contraductions / 5. Notes on Greeting / 6. Remarks on Complaint / 7. Uncalled: A Commentary on Kafka’s “The Test” / 8. Working Through Working / 9. Sketches Toward a Lecture on Democracy / 10. Amphora

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Book SynopsisInternationally acclaimed Israeli historian Shlomo Sand made his mark with books such as The Invention of the Jewish People and The Invention of the Land of Israel. Returning here to an early fascination, he turns his attention to the figure of the French intellectual. From his student years in Paris, Sand has repeatedly come up against the "great French thinkers." He has an intimate knowledge of the Parisian intellectual world and its little secrets, on which he draws to overturn certain myths attaching to the figure of the "intellectual" that France prides itself on having invented. Mixing reminiscence and analysis, he revisits a history that, from the Dreyfus Affair through to Charlie Hebdo, seems to him that of a long decline. As a long-time admirer of Zola, Sartre and Camus, Sand is staggered to see what the French intellectual has become today, in such characters as Michel Houellebecq, Eric Zemmour and Alain Finkielkraut. In a work that gives no quarter, and focuses particularly on the Judeophobia and Islamophobia of the elites, he casts on the French intellectual scene a gaze that is both disabused and mordant.Trade ReviewIn a book that is both scholarly and autobiographical, political and polemical, the historian Shlomo Sand traces a story of decline and fall. And yet, this son of a scarcely literate housewife and a Communist militant who failed to finish school had long sought to join the privileged band. As an adolescent, he even dreamed of becoming one of the 'mandarins' portrayed by Simone de Beauvoir. Their troubling reaction to Nazi occupation, their blindness towards Stalinism, and their emotional outpourings to Mao Zedong, have all caused the statue of the French intellectual to crumble. * Le Monde *Ever since his student years in Paris, Sand has regularly come up against the 'great French thinkers'. He has an intimate knowledge of the Parisian intellectual world and its little secrets, on which he draws to overturn certain myths attaching to the figure of the 'intellectual' that France prides itself on having invented. Mixing reminiscence and analysis, he revisits a history that, from the Dreyfus Affair through to Charlie Hebdo, seems to him that of a long decline. As a long-time admirer of Zola, Sartre and Camus,Sand is staggered to see what the French intellectual has become today, in such characters as Michel Houellebecq, Éric Zemmour and Alain Finkielkraut. In a work that gives no quarter, and focuses particularly on the Judeophobia and Islamophobia of the 'elites', he casts on the French intellectual scene a gaze that is both disabused and sarcastic. * Ouest France *This brilliant essay is not just another history of intellectuals in France. It is rather a critique of those figures 'caught in the torment of the twentieth century', following the models of Zola, Sartre or Camus whom Sand so admired in his youth, yet whose ambiguities he recalls here, from Zola's attacks on the Paris Commune to Sartre's lack of courage under the Occupation, or Camus's position during the Algerian war. Sand emphasizes how a large section of the dominant intellectuals during the Dreyfus Affair were not in fact Dreyfusards, but championed an ethno-biological conception of the nation, excluding all those whom they did not consider of 'French stock'. This enables him to draw up a detailed and rigorous charge-sheet against our contemporary media intellectuals, Finkielkraut, Houellebecq, Zemmour, Bruckner, Bernard-Henri Lévy and Philippe Val who, often with a past in Stalinism or Maoism, and having undergone a belated and easy anti-totalitarianism (long after Orwell, Souvarine or Castoriadis), invoke the old demons of xenophobia, in their case an Islamophobia that suits the spirit of the time and 'stabilizes the existing hierarchical order'. The very opposite of the function that intellectuals should perform in a democratic society thatis today in crisis. -- Olivier Doubre * Politis *Fourteen years after Daniel Lindenberg's pioneering essay, it is Shlomo Sand's turn to target this family of conservative and declinist thinkers or polemicists, running from Michel Houellebecq to Renaud Camus by way of Alain Finkielkraut and Éric Zemmour - the two latter both sons of Jewish immigrants (Polish in the first case, Berber in the second) yet who constantly champion French identity and roots, mythologizing a 'stable and homogeneous past that actually never existed'. -- Juliette Cerf * Télérama *Shlomo Sand has produced a stimulating book, combining erudition and historical perspective. Under the title 'The end of the French intellectual? From Zola to Houellebecq', this Israeli historian interrogates the figure of the intellectual in France. -- Hassina Mechaï * Mediapart *The title's question mark will not deceive anyone: the end of the French intellectual is proclaimed in a book that is not charitable towards everyone. But we can expect no less from Shlomo Sand, a committed historian who is highly critical and controversial in his own country, Israel. The first part of the book, and much the longest, runs from Zola (even if it refers back to Voltaire) to Sartre, Foucault and Bourdieu. This story has been told in many books and articles by other authors. But Sand usefully recalls how the notion of an intellectual by definition 'on the left' after the model of Zola is a myth, even for the Dreyfus Affair. Political lucidity was often far from meeting the challenges of the day. But this part is interesting above all for its reflections on French intellectual specificity and on theories of the role of intellectuals in relation to institutions (governments and parties), as well as to the 'people' whom they are supposed to enlighten. * Esprit *Shlomo Sand, a specialist on nationalism and a fine connoisseur of our French ideological scene, is well qualified to tackle the place of the 'intellectual' in our national history and promote a fresh approach. This promise is basically fulfilled. -- Marc Riglet * Lire *

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Book SynopsisDecades of violence and chaos have generated a political and intellectual hysteria-ranging from imperial atavism to paranoia about invading or hectically breeding Muslim hordes-that has affected even the most intelligent in Anglo-America. In Bland Fanatics, Pankaj Mishra examines this hysteria and its fantasists, taking on its arguments and the atmosphere in which it has festered and become influential. In essays that grapple with colonialism, human rights, and the doubling down of liberalism against a background of faltering economies and weakening Anglo-American hegemony, Mishra confronts writers from Jordan Peterson and Niall Ferguson to Salman Rushdie and Ayaan Hirsi Ali. With a newly written introduction, these essays provide a vantage point from which to look seriously at the current crisis.Trade Reviewliterary iconoclast [and] maverick political thinker-edgy, sly and idiosyncratic-weaving a kind of witchcraft with the wounded frankness of prose -- (praise for Pankaj Mishra) * Financial Express *Bracing ... The first essential read of the Trump Era -- (Praise for Age of Anger) * Vogue *This important, erudite book proves the deepest roots of our inflamed moment -- (in praise of Age of Anger) * New York Times *An original attempt to explain today's paranoid hatreds ... Insightful ... Iconoclastic ... Mishra shocks on many levels -- (Praise for Age of Anger) * The Economist *A searing attack on the assumption that modernity is synonymous with progress -- (Praise for Age of Anger) * Wall Street Journal *Urgently vigorous ... It is Age of Anger's singular ambition to give the world as we have it a past, a how-we-got-here, a where-the-mistakes-lie ... The book marks an important advance in our most urgent discourse -- (Praise for Age of Anger) * The National *A bowel-churning kick in the guts ... [Pankaj Mishra's] vision is unusually broad, accommodating and resistant to categorisation. It is the kind of vision the world needs right now -- (Praise for Age of Anger) * Financial Times *The ideal writer to diagnose our current moment * Los Angeles Review of Books *Bracing and illuminating ... Mishra writes with ... style, energy and incision ... [He] dwells in the realm of ideas and emotions, which get short shrift in most accounts of global politics ... A decent liberalism would read sharp critics like Mishra and learn. * New York Times Book Review *

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Book SynopsisOnce, nutmeg was worth its weight in gold. For much of human history, the tiny Banda Islands in Indonesia were the only source of this esteemed spice. From the age of the Silk Roads through to the mid-19th century partial shift of production to the Caribbean, covering battles between the Honourable East India Company and the Dutch Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, this book traces the story of nutmeg, revealing its extensive and often surprising influence over conflict, politics, social mores, and Western society. Beautiful antique silver, gold, enamel, bone, ivory, treen and Tunbridgeware graters and rasps demonstrate how much nutmeg was valued throughout history. This book gathers pictures of some of the finest examples world-wide, alongside mechanical and base metal graters and spice containers. It illustrates, and provides useful information on, the history of pomanders which were associated with nutmeg, as this spice was once thought to ward off pestilence and plague. Combining the social history of nutmeg with explanations of the spice production and transportation process, and illustrating in detail examples in international nutmeg grater collections and museums, this book is the essential reference work for collectors, antique dealers and auctioneers.Trade ReviewNutmeg: Graters, Pomanders and Spice Boxes: Luxury and utility from the 16th century to the present day is mentioned on the Antiques Radio Show podcast, broadcast in Australia on Sydney 2RPH. - Antiques Radio Show podcast

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Book SynopsisThe philosophical and political development that converted Georg Lukács from a distinguished representative of Central European aesthetic vitalism into a major Marxist theorist and Communist militant has long remained an enigma. In this this now classic study, Michael Löwy for the first time traced and explained the extraordinary mutation that occurred in Lukács's thought between 1909 and 1929. Utilizing many as yet unpublished sources, Löwy meticulously reconstructed the complex itinerary of Lukács's thinking as he gradually moved towards his decisive encounter with Bolshevism. The religious convictions of the early Lukács, the peculiar spell exercised on him and on Max Weber by Dostoyevskyan images of pre-revolutionary Russia, the nature of his friendships with Ernst Bloch and Thomas Mann, were amongst the discoveries of the book. Then, in a fascinating case-study in the sociology of ideas, Löwy showed how the same philosophical problematic of Lebensphilosophie dominated the intelligentsias of both Germany and Hungary in the pre-war period, yet how the different configurations of social forces in each country bent its political destiny into opposite directions. The famous works produced by Lukács during and after the Hungarian Commune-Tactics and Ethics, History and Class Consciousness and Lenin-were analysed and assessed. A concluding chapter discussed Lukács's eventual ambiguous settlement with Stalinism in the thirties, and its coda of renewed radicalism in the final years of his life.In this new edition, Löwy has added a substantial new introduction which reassess the nature of Lukacs's thought in the light of newly published texts and debates.Table of ContentsPreface to the New EditionAcknowledgementsIntroductionI Towards a Sociology of the Anti-Capitalist Intelligentsia1 Intellectuals as a Social Category2 The Anti-Capitalist Radicalization of Intellectuals3 The Anti-Capitalism of Intellectuals in Germany4 The Revolutionary Intelligentsia in Hungary II How an Intellectual Becomes a Revolutionary: Lukács 1909-191 Lukács's Anti-Capitalism and Tragic View of the World2 The Passage to CommunismIII Lukács's Leftist Period (1919-21)1 Ethical Ultra-Leftism: 19192 Political Leftism: 19203 Left Bolshevism: 19214 The Problematic of the Reign of FreedomIV 'History and Class Consciousness': 1923V Lukács and StalinismAppendix: Interview with Ernst BlochIndex

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Book SynopsisIn this fascinating book, Chris Abbott, a leading political analyst, takes a close look at 21 key speeches which have shaped the world today. He examines the power of the arguments embedded in these speeches to inspire people to achieve great things, or do great harm. Abbott draws upon his political expertise to explain how our current understanding of the world is rooted in pivotal moments of history. These moments are captured in the words of a range of influential speakers including: Emmeline Pankhurst, Martin Luther King, Jr, Enoch Powell, Napoleon Beazley, Kevin Rudd, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, Osama bin Laden, Margaret Beckett, Winston Churchill, Salvador Allende, Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, Tim Collins, Mohandas Gandhi, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Robin Cook and Barack Obama. The speeches in this book are arranged thematically, linked by concepts such as 'might is right', 'with us or against us' and 'give peace a chance'. Each transcript is accompanied by an insightful commentary that analyses how the words relate to our modern society. Fresh and relevant, this is a book that will make you stop in your tracks and think about what is really happening in the world today.Trade ReviewA fascinating gallery of speeches and turning points in recent history. * New Internationalist *A unique compilation of catalytic speeches...relevant to some of the biggest choices that face humanity in the 21st century. -- John Sloboda, Oxford Research GroupIlluminates many of the most important trends of our times. -- Paul Rogers, Professor of Peace Studies, University of BradfordChris Abbott has done a great service in reminding us of of these people and of their continuing relevance for today's world. -- Rosie Houldsworth, founder and director, TalkWorksAn interesting selection of speeches...Throughout, Abbott provides a thorough historical context and argues convincingly for the continuing relevance of the ideas expressed. * Financial Times *

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Book Synopsis'During the Tang dynasty, the Chinese artist Wu Tao-tzu was one day standing looking at a mural he had just completed. Suddenly, he clapped his hands and the temple gate opened. He went into his work and the gates closed behind him.' Thus begins Sven Lindqvist's profound meditation on art and its relationship with life, first published in 1967, and a classic in his home country - it has never been out of print. As a young man, Sven Lindqvist was fascinated by the myth of Wu Tao-tzu, and by the possibility of entering a work of art and making it a way of life. He was drawn to artists and writers who shared this vision, especially Hermann Hesse, in his novel Glass Bead Game. Partly inspired by Hesse's work, Lindqvist lived in China for two years, learning classical calligraphy from a master teacher. There he was drawn deeper into the idea of a life of artistic perfectionism and retreat from the world. But when he left China for India and then Afghanistan, and saw the grotesque effects of poverty and extreme inequality, Lindqvist suffered a crisis of confidence and started to question his ideas about complete immersion in art at the expense of a proper engagement with life. The Myth of Wu Tao-tzu takes us on a fascinating journey through a young man's moral awakening and his grappling with profound questions of aesthetics. It contains the bracing moral anger, and poetic, intensely atmospheric travel writing Lindqvist's readers have come to love.

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Book SynopsisIn the 1790s, Britain underwent what the politician Edmund Burke called 'the most important of all revolutions...a revolution in sentiments'. Inspired by the French Revolution, British radicals concocted new political worlds to enshrine healthier, more productive, human emotions and relationships. The Enlightenment's wildest hopes crested in the utopian projects of such optimists - including the young poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the philosophers William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, the physician Thomas Beddoes and the first photographer Thomas Wedgwood - who sought to reform sex, education, commerce, politics and medicine by freeing desire from repressive constraints. But by the middle of the decade, the wind had changed. The French Revolution descended into bloody Terror and the British government quashed radical political activities. In the space of one decade, feverish optimism gave way to bleak disappointment, and changed the way we think about human need and longing. A Revolution of Feeling is a vivid and absorbing account of the dramatic end of the Enlightenment, the beginning of an emotional landscape preoccupied by guilt, sin, failure, resignation and repression, and the origins of our contemporary approach to feeling and desire. Above all, it is the story of the human cost of political change, of men and women consigned to the 'wrong side of history'. But although their revolutionary proposals collapsed, that failure resulted in its own cultural revolution - a revolution of feeling - the aftershocks of which are felt to the present day.

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Book Synopsis**NOW A MAJOR NETFLIX FILM**Stamped from the Beginning is a redefining history of anti-Black racist ideas that dramatically changes our understanding of the causes and extent of racist thinking itself.Its deeply researched and fast-moving narrative chronicles the journey of racist ideas from fifteenth-century Europe to present-day America through the lives of five major intellectuals - Puritan minister Cotton Mather, President Thomas Jefferson, fiery abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, brilliant scholar W.E.B. Du Bois, and legendary anti-prison activist Angela Davis - showing how these ideas were developed, disseminated and eventually enshrined in American society.Contrary to popular conception, it reveals that racist ideas did not arise from ignorance or hatred. Instead, they were devised and honed by some of the most brilliant minds of each era, including anti-slavery and pro-civil rights advocates, who used their gifts and intelligence wittingly or otherwise to rationalize and justify existing racial disparities in everything from wealth to health.Seen in this piercing new light, racist ideas are shown to be the result, not the cause, of inequalities that stretch back over centuries, brought about ultimately through economic, political, and cultural self-interest.In forcing us to reconsider our most basic assumptions about racism and also about ourselves, Stamped from the Beginning leads us to a true understanding on which to build a real foundation for change.**INCLUDED IN BARACK OBAMA'S BLACK HISTORY MONTH READING LIST**Trade ReviewA staggering intellectual history * New Republic *Unusually original and groundbreaking ... Ibram X Kendi's brilliant book ... has disturbed some readers because of the author's fearless reappraisal of the words, actions and philosophies of some of the more revered heroes of American abolitionism and civil rights -- including African American heroes ... Kendi remains awake to nuance and complexity [yet] this is not a historian fearful of upsetting orthodoxies or questioning fixed reputations. He goes where the evidence takes him, which is not to where we or we might want it to go ... a compelling if discomfiting thesis ... persuasive and powerful -- David Olusoga * Observer *Absorbing… This is a powerful, thought-provoking book that features a dizzying array of characters, deftly navigates complex intellectual terrain and draws on a wealth of evidence -- Simon Hall * Literary Review *A deep (and often disturbing) chronicling of how anti-black thinking has entrenched itself in the fabric of American society * Atlantic *Upends many commonly held beliefs about how racism works * Boston Globe *

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis1. Introduction.- Part I. Revival Groups in Conflicts.- 2. Moscow Martinists as the Providers of the Rosicrucian Enlightenment in Russia: Enquires into the Emergence of the Hermetic Library.- 3. Of Culture and (Indian) Nation: The Mukti Revival in Colonial Discourse.- 4. To Be or Not To Be an Entrepreneur: Disputes about the Relationship between Church and Business in the Moravian Church.- Part II. Agents of Revivalism: Opportunities and Limits of Self-Empowerment.- 5. Clairvoyance and Commotion. The Making of a Lay Prophetess in the Era of the German Revival Movement.- 6. Between the Elite and the Masses or the Hardships of Being a Revivalist Colporteur in 19th Century Finland.- 7. He Teaches Me so I Can Teach.: Revivalism and Protestant Laywomen in 19th Century Italy.- 8. Conflict Area Evangelism. Controversies about Lay Preaching in the 19th Century from the Perspective of Male and Female Protagonists of the German Revival Movements.- Part III. Lay-Theology between High and Low Culture.- 9. Jung-Stilling's Afterlife Visions in their Interconfessional and Intercultural Context.- 10. Theological Journals between Professionalisation and Cooperation: Navigating the High-low Distinction between Editorial Boards and Non-academic Contributors in Germany, 18281870.- 11. Revelation Remix: Using Rapture Novels by Evangelical Movements in England and America in the Early 20th Century.

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Book SynopsisChapter 1:The pre-capitalist double-bind and its persistence.- Chapter 2:Nation-state formation and antisemitism: a history of duplicity.- Chapter 3:Purification and Paranoia: the legacy of early modern ethnic cleansing.- Chapter 4: Imperial legality versus its adventuring warlords.- Chapter 5:From the retrospective transition debate to the revolutionary transitional demand.

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Book SynopsisFor fans of Thinking, Fast and Slow and The Power of Habit, a groundbreaking new study of how disrupting our well-worn routines, both good and bad, can rejuvenate our days and reset our brains to allow us to live happier and more fulfilling lives.Have you ever noticed that what is thrilling on Monday tends to become boring on Friday? Even exciting relationships, stimulating jobs, and breathtaking works of art lose their sparkle after a while. People stop noticing what is most wonderful in their own lives. They also stop noticing what is terrible. They get used to dirty air. They stay in abusive relationships. People grow to accept authoritarianism and take foolish risks. They become unconcerned by their own misconduct, blind to inequality, and are more liable to believe misinformation than ever before.But what if we could find a way to see everything anew? What if you could regain sensitivity, not only to the great things in your life, but also t

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Book SynopsisImmanuel Kant’s philosophical system, Kojève argues, is haunted by the Thing-in-itself as the ultimate expression of ‘bourgeois hypocrisy’ and its internally divided reason, split between action and discourse. Making a case for the post-historical moral imperative to turn away from infinite progress and the practical justification of the ideas of God and the immortality of the soul, Kant outlines the material conditions of possibility for revolutionary action within the twin horizons of accomplished and recollected history.

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Book SynopsisTurning Freud's famous dictum around, Thomas Laqueur posits that destiny is anatomy. Sex, in other words, is an artifice; and Making Sex tells the astonishing story of sex in the West from the ancients to the moderns.Trade Review[Making Sex is] a brilliant documentation of difference between the one-sex and two-sex models…presenting a simple theme with broad and cascading implications… I didn’t need Laqueur to teach me that sex was interesting, but now I have a broader base for this greatest of certainties. -- Stephen Jay Gould * New York Review of Books *[Laqueur] gives us an excellent sense of how our predecessors, including physicians and scientists, thought about the anatomy that fascinates every schoolchild… No one can doubt, after reading this book, that our notions of masculinity or femininity have been imposed on what are supposed to be objective biological observations. -- Melvin Konner * New York Times Book Review *[In this] challenging analysis of our ideas on gender…Laqueur shows how radically our consciousness of ourselves, our bodies, our sex has changed over the centuries. The categories we think of as most basic turn out to be mutable… And in this transformation, Laqueur emphasises, social changes were as crucial as medical teachings. -- Roy Porter * The Independent *Table of Contents1. Of Language and the Flesh 2. Destiny Is Anatomy 3. New Science, One Flesh 4. Representing Sex 5. Discovery of the Sexes 6. Sex Socialized Notes Credits Index

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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

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Book SynopsisHow can societies be transformed in the interests of environmental sustainability from the ground up?Trade Review'A hugely important book, setting a radical agenda for societal transformation. Drawing on grassroots alternatives from across the world, the book offers a vital guide for both scholars and activists. Everyone committed to just transformations for sustainability should read this book now!' -- Ian Scoones, Professor, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex'A fantastic collection that illustrates that just transformations are already being imagined and implemented on the ground. The authors offer an important, creative example of genuine scholar-activism keenly focused issues of justice, power, and the transformative potential of EJ.' -- David Schlosberg, Professor of Environmental Politics and Director, Sydney Environment Institute, University of Sydney'A splendid collective book co-produced by an impressive international group of twenty-five socio-environmental academics and activists ... focusing both on the alternatives that are born from the resistance to extractivism or pollution, and on sustainable practices such as community textile production. Building on detailed knowledge of the local protagonists and issues, this optimistic, inspiring book jumps scales to national and international dimensions.' -- Joan Martinez-Alier, Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, Universitat Autnoma de Barcelona'This is an indispensable book that brings together the theory and practice of environmental justice. The contributions offer different ways for the concrete materialization of the changes needed for just transformations for alternative futures and make a rich account of methods for mutual learning between social movements and academia. A valuable resource for those committed to achieving environmental justice in the 21st century.' -- Gabriela Merlinsky, Instituto Gino Germani, Universidad de Buenos Aires, ArgentinaTable of ContentsIntroduction Part I: Our approaches and methods for engaging with transformations 1. Co-production of Knowledge for Environmental Justice: Key Lessons, Challenges and Approaches in the ACKnowl-EJ Project (by Lena Weber, Mariana Walter, Leah Temper and Iokiñe Rodríguez) 2. A Conversation on Radical Transformation Frameworks: From Conflicts to Alternatives (by Arpita Lulla, Iokiñe Rodríguez, Mirna Inturias and Ashish Kothari) Part I: Analysing transformations from and with environmental justice movements Section 1: Double Movements Against State and Market 3. 'Mirror, Mirror on the Wall': A Reflection on Engaged Just Transformations Research under Turkey's Authoritarian Populist Regime (by Begüm Özkaynak, Ethemcan Turhan, Cem İskender Aydın) 4. Games of Power in Conflicts over Extractivism in Canaima National Park, Venezuela (by Iokiñe Rodríguez and Vladimir Aguilar) 5. Lebanon and the ‘Trash Revolution’:- Constraints, Challenges, and Opportunities to Transformation: 2015 Onwards (by Rania Masri) Section 2: From Individual to Institutional Transformations 6. Free the Keelbeek from the Prison! A Deep Analysis of the Individual and Collective Empowerment Within the Resistance Movement against the Brussels Mega-prison Project (by Jérôme Pelenc) 7. Raika Women Speak. (by Meenal Tatpati and Shruti Ajit) 8. Transformative Environmental Conflicts:- The Case of Struggles against Large-scale Mining in Argentina (by Mariana Walter and Lucrecia Wagner) Section 3: Enacting Counter-hegemonic Alternative Politics, Economics and World views 9. The Monkoxi from Lomerío, Bolivia: On the Road to Freedom Through Nuxiaká Uxia Nosibóriki (by Mirna Inturias, Iokiñe Rodríguez, Miguel Aragón, Elmar Masay and Anacleto Peña) 10. On the Cusp:- Reframing Democracy and Well-Being in Korchi. (by Neema Pathak Broome, Shrishtee Bajpai and Mukesh Shende) 11. Transformative Strategies Forged on the Frontlines of Environmental Justice and Indigenous Land Defence Struggles in So-called Canada (by Jen Gobby and Leah Temper) 12. Sandhani: Transformation Among Handloom Weavers of Kachchh, India. (by Kalpavriksh and Khamir) Part III: Lessons from ground up transformations 13. Towards a Just Transformations Theory. (by Ashish Kothari, Leah Temper, Iokiñe Rodríguez, Mariana Walter, Begüm Özkaynak, Rania Masri, Mirna Inturias, Adrian Martin, Ethemcan Turhan, Neema Pathak Broome, Shrishtee Bajpai, Jen Gobby, Jérôme Pelenc, Meenal Tatpati and Shruti Ajit) 14. Take-Aways for Environmental Justice Movements. (by Leah Temper, Mariana Walter and Iokiñe Rodríguez) Notes on Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisPresents thirty novel terms that do not yet exist in English to envision ways of responding to the environmental challenges of our generation As the scale and gravity of climate change becomes undeniable, a cultural revolution must ultimately match progress in the realms of policy, infrastructure, and technology. Proceeding from the notion that dominant Western cultures lack the terms and concepts to describe or respond to our environmental crisis, An Ecotopian Lexicon is a collaborative volume of short, engaging essays that offer ecologically productive terms—drawn from other languages, science fiction, and subcultures of resistance—to envision and inspire responses and alternatives to fossil-fueled neoliberal capitalism. Each of the thirty suggested “loanwords” helps us imagine how to adapt and even flourish in the face of the socioecological adversity that characterizes the present moment and the future that awaits. From “Apocalypso” to “Qi,” “ ~*~ “ to “Total Liberation,” thirty authors from a range of disciplines and backgrounds assemble a grounded yet dizzying lexicon, expanding the limited European and North American conceptual lexicon that many activists, educators, scholars, students, and citizens have inherited. Fourteen artists from eleven countries respond to these chapters with original artwork that illustrates the contours of the possible better worlds and worldviews.Contributors: Sofia Ahlberg, Uppsala U; Randall Amster, Georgetown U; Cherice Bock, Antioch U; Charis Boke, Cornell U; Natasha Bowdoin, Rice U; Kira Bre Clingen, Harvard U; Caledonia Curry (SWOON); Lori Damiano, Pacific Northwest College of Art; Nicolás De Jesús; Jonathan Dyck; John Esposito, Chukyo U; Rebecca Evans, Winston-Salem State U; Allison Ford, U of Oregon; Carolyn Fornoff, U of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Michelle Kuen Suet Fung; Andrew Hageman, Luther College; Michael Horka, George Washington U; Yellena James; Andrew Alan Johnson, Princeton U; Jennifer Lee Johnson, Purdue U; Melody Jue, U of California, Santa Barbara; Jenny Kendler; Daehyun Kim (Moonassi); Yifei Li, NYU Shanghai; Nikki Lindt; Anthony Lioi, Juilliard School of New York; Maryanto; Janet Tamalik McGrath; Pierre-Héli Monot, Ludwig Maximilian U of Munich; Kari Marie Norgaard, U of Oregon; Karen O’Brien, U of Oslo, Norway; Evelyn O’Malley, U of Exeter; Robert Savino Oventile, Pasadena City College; Chris Pak; David N. Pellow, U of California, Santa Barbara; Andrew Pendakis, Brock U; Kimberly Skye Richards, U of California, Berkeley; Ann Kristin Schorre, U of Oslo, Norway; Malcolm Sen, U of Massachusetts Amherst; Kate Shaw; Sam Solnick, U of Liverpool; Rirkrit Tiravanija, Columbia U; Miriam Tola, Northeastern U; Sheena Wilson, U of Alberta; Daniel Worden, Rochester Institute of Technology.Trade Review"Part dream, part provocation ... (with) a wonky yet infectious hopefulness."—The New Yorker"We understand that an era is ending, but we do not know what will happen after it. Maybe changing words from 70 thousand years ago helps us cope with reality."—Vogue Poland"A fascinating collection of non-English or newly invented words that impart something of the complexities of everyday life in an era of warming skies and oceans, mass degradation, precarity, and insecurity, each of which also helps map a possible future."—Science Magazine"A perfect artifact of our complicated present."—Los Angeles Review of Books"The texts, which are written mostly by professorial types whose specialties include English literature, anthropology and environmental studies, range from the drearily academic to the gloriously weird. But the entries’ basic messages are: do not despair; be humble; get creative."—ArtReview Asia"An Ecotopian Lexicon is a fascinating, thought-provoking book. It’s worth a read."—The Weekly Anthropocene"How can we better locate, through a vocabulary no longer inspired by neoliberal capitalism, the escape route from the Anthropocene? The necessary words are in a book that is a utopia in the form of a dictionary: An Ecotopian Lexicon. The lexicon contains poetic, esoteric and exotic suggestions. The authors of the individual entries identify their ecological and ecopsychological potential... Do words like apocalypso, cibopathic, fotminne, blockadia, gyebale, sound strange? Of course, because they don't exist; but they could come in handy."—La Reppublica"The climate crisis provides opportunity and impetus for humans to make some of the changes, big and small, that we need to continue to progress. An Ecotopian Lexicon provides us with some of the creativity, language and concepts we need to make these very necessary changes."—Language & Ecology"The essays vary in their theoretical density, but the editors have curated what is, on the whole, a very approachable collection, and one that I can imagine being meaningful not just for scholars in the environmental humanities, but for environmentally conscious citizens outside the academy as well."—Ancillary Review of Books"With the look and feel of a small coffee table book—including original artwork, loanwords highlighted in sage green, and suggestive ‘paths’ at the end of each entry to chart a less linear browsing experience—it invites and rewards re-reading. . . . There is so much work to do, and this book reminds us to use all the creative resources at our disposal to do that work as joyfully as possible."—ISLE"An Ecotopian Lexicon offers a fresh mode of engaging."—Kenyon Review"This delightful dictionary of differences also represents what might just be the best method we have for mapping the gaps in our conceptual landscape. On that basis, I recommend it wholeheartedly."—Extrapolation "An Ecotopian Lexicon proves to be an endeavor both revolutionary and futuristic"—Utopian Studies"An Ecotopian Lexicon is a delightful book, conceived and executed with a rare combination of scholarly rigor and heartfelt commitment."—Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture

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Book SynopsisFor the first time in English, a key work of critical geography Originally published in 1978 in Portuguese, For a New Geography is a milestone in the history of critical geography, and it marked the emergence of its author, Milton Santos (1926–2001), as a major interpreter of geographical thought, a prominent Afro-Brazilian public intellectual, and one of the foremost global theorists of space.Published in the midst of a crisis in geographical thought, For a New Geography functioned as a bridge between geography’s past and its future. In advancing his vision of a geography of action and liberation, Santos begins by turning to the roots of modern geography and its colonial legacies. Moving from a critique of the shortcomings of geography from the field’s foundations as a modern science to the outline of a new field of critical geography, he sets forth both an ontology of space and a methodology for geography. In so doing, he introduces novel theoretical categories to the analysis of space. It is, in short, both a critique of the Northern, Anglo-centric discipline from within and a systematic critique of its flaws and assumptions from outside.Critical geography has developed in the past four decades into a heterogenous and creative field of enquiry. Though accruing a set of theoretical touchstones in the process, it has become detached from a longer and broader history of geographical thought. For a New Geography reconciles these divergent histories. Arriving in English at a time of renewed interest in alternative geographical traditions and the history of radical geography, it takes its place in the canonical works of critical geography. Trade Review"For a New Geography presents an incisive critique of twentieth-century geography rooted in an anti-colonial, Third-Worldist perspective, and makes the case for a new geography linked to global social justice. As the perceptive translator’s introduction makes clear, this volume is an important historical text that continues to hold significant insights for today."—Ruth Craggs, King’s College London"It is great to see this commented translation of a key work by Milton Santos, one of the most iconic radical geographers from the Global South. This book anticipated several critical approaches to the philosophy and history of geography and is now available thanks to the commitment of Archie Davies, who is at the same time a great scholar and a great translator, two qualities that it is rare to see combined in today’s Anglophone scholarship."—Federico Ferretti, University of BolognaTable of ContentsContentsTranslator’s Introduction: The Newness of Geography Archie DaviesIntroduction: From a Critique of Geography to a Critical GeographyPart I. The Critique of Geography1. The Founders: Scientific Pretensions2. Philosophical Inheritance3. Postwar Renovation: “A New Geography”4. Quantitative Geography5. Models and Systems: The Ecosystems6. The Geography of Perception and Behavior7. The Triumph of Formalism and Ideology8. The Balance of the Crisis: Geography, Widow of SpacePart II. Geography, Society, Space9. A New Interdisciplinarity 10. An Attempt to Define Space11. Space: Reflection of Society or Social Fact?12. Space: A Factor?13. Space as Social OrderPart III. For a Critical Geography14. In Search of a Paradigm15. Total Space in Our Time16. State and Space: The Nation-State as a Geographical Unit of Study 17. The Ideas of Totality and Social Formation and the Renovation of Geography18. The Idea of Time in Geographical Studies Conclusion: Geography and the Future of Man AcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisA groundbreaking look at Gaia theory’s intersections with neocybernetic systems theory Often seen as an outlier in science, Gaia has run a long and varied course since its formulation in the 1970s by atmospheric chemist James Lovelock and microbiologist Lynn Margulis. Gaian Systems is a pioneering exploration of the dynamic and complex evolution of Gaia’s many variants, with special attention to Margulis’s foundational role in these developments.Bruce Clarke assesses the different dialects of systems theory brought to bear on Gaia discourse. Focusing in particular on Margulis’s work—including multiple pieces of her unpublished Gaia correspondence—he shows how her research and that of Lovelock was concurrent and conceptually parallel with the new discourse of self-referential systems that emerged within neocybernetic systems theory. The recent Gaia writings of Donna Haraway, Isabelle Stengers, and Bruno Latour contest its cybernetic status. Clarke engages Latour on the issue of Gaia’s systems description and extends his own systems-theoretical synthesis under what he terms “metabiotic Gaia.” This study illuminates current issues in neighboring theoretical conversations—from biopolitics and the immunitary paradigm to NASA astrobiology and the Anthropocene. Along the way, he points to science fiction as a vehicle of Gaian thought. Delving into many issues not previously treated in accounts of Gaia, Gaian Systems describes the history of a theory that has the potential to help us survive an environmental crisis of our own making.Trade Review"Where William Blake found the world in a grain of sand, Gaia finds the planet in a bacterial cell. Bruce Clarke, eminent scholar of literature and science, leads us through the evolution and elaboration of the notion—where complex systems can easily get complicated and cybernetics loopy—with sustained precision and clarity. The necessity to understand is evident throughout."—Douglas Kahn, author of Earth Sound Earth Signal: Energies and Earth Magnitude in the Arts"Gaian Systems is a brilliant labor of love. Intellectual love for a major system of thought and for those who have built it, especially the towering figure of Lynn Margulis. But also profound love for our living planet as a whole, for the complexity and subtlety of the complex assemblages that compose it. Combining rigor with generosity, Bruce Clarke explores the genealogy, the key concepts, and the major implications of a symbiogenetic vision of our planetary system. Humble and yet visionary, this remarkable study instructs, illuminates, and gives us hope."—Rosi Braidotti, Utrecht UniversityTable of ContentsContentsIntroduction: An Epistemological TransitionPart I. Gaia Discourse1. A Paradigm Shift2. Thinkers of Gaia3. Neocybernetics of GaiaPart II. The Systems Counterculture4. The Whole Earth Network5. The Lindisfarne Connection6. Margulis and AutopoiesisPart III. Gaian Enquiries7. The Planetary Imaginary8. Planetary Immunity9. Astrobiology and the AnthropoceneAcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisIn volume 2 of this monumental work, Mircea Eliade continues his magisterial progress through the history of religous ideas. The religions of ancient China, Brahmanism and Hinduism, Buddha and his contemporaries, Roman religion, Celtic and German religion, Judaism, the Hellenistic period, the Iranian syntheses, and the birth of Christianity - all are encompassed in this volume.

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Book SynopsisThis book introduces students and professional historians to the main areas of concern in the history of emotions and its intersection with emotion research in other disciplines. It discusses how the emotions intersect with other lines of historical research relating to power, practice, society and morality. The revised and fully updated second edition of the book demonstrates the field’s centrality to historiographical practice, as well as the importance of this kind of historical work for general interdisciplinary understandings of the value and the meaning of human experience.Table of ContentsPreface to the second editionIntroduction1 Historians and emotions2 Words and concepts3 Communities, regimes and styles4 Power, politics and violence5 Practice and expression6 Experience, senses and the brain7 Spaces, places and objects8 MoralityConclusionIndex

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Book SynopsisDemocracy is either aspired to as a goal or cherished as a birthright by billions of people throughout the world today -- and has been been for over a century. But what does it mean? And how has its meaning changed since it was first coined in ancient Greece? Democracy: A Life is a biography of the concept, looking at its many different manifestations and showing how it has changed over its long life, from ancient times right through to the present. For instance, how did the ''people power'' of the Athenians emerge in the first place? Once it had emerged, what enabled it to survive? And how did the Athenian version of democracy differ from the many other forms that developed among the myriad cities of the Greek world? Paul Cartledge answers all these questions and more, following the development of ancient political thinking about democracy from the sixth century BC onwards, not least the many arguments that were advanced against it over the centuries. As Cartledge shows, after a golden age in the fourth century BC, there was a long, slow degradation of the original Greek conception and practice of democracy, from the Hellenistic era, through late Republican and early Imperial Rome, down to early Byzantium in the sixth century CE. For many centuries after that, from late Antiquity, through the Middle Ages, to the Renaissance, democracy was effectively eclipsed by other forms of government, in both theory and practice. But as we know, this was by no means the end of the story. For democracy was eventually to enjoy a re-florescence, over two thousand years after its first flowering in the ancient world: initially revived in seventeenth-century England, it was to undergo a further renaissance in the revolutionary climate of late-eighteenth-century North America and France -- and has been constantly reconstituted and reinvented ever since.Trade ReviewA fascinating read. * Jim Butcher, Winter reads 2018-19: the best books of the season, The Times Higher Education Supplement *Cartledge offers a compact, yet thoroughly compelling, biography on the forms of democracy from ancient to modern times. A valuable resource, this book grants every reader the timely opportunity to revaluate what they understand by the term democracy, and thus the chance to consider the implications of that understanding in a world whereby national politics can so readily be scrutinised by a global audience. Indeed, closing the final pages of his book, Cartledge's reader ought to question the very application of such a label to some societies and, more importantly, whether they can even claim to live in an actual democracy themselves. The Greeks may have invented democracy but is it now up to us to save it? * Kerry Phelan, Bryn Mawr Classical Review *The huge value of Cartledges book is the reminder that 2016 is merely a way-stop on a very long journey indeed. * Tom Holland, The Guardian *Thanks to Cartledge, Athenian democracy feels more vital than it has done for decades. It is a belter of a book. * Peter Thonemann, Books of the Year 2016, Times Literary Supplement *Paul Cartledge subtitles his new study Democracy (Oxford) A Life, and was right to do so ... The clarity and zest with which he pursues his Snark-like quarry, the breadth and variety of his reading, and his cheerful persistence against odds (matching that of his subject) combine to make this an unexpectedly enjoyable page-turner. * Peter Green, Books of the Year 2016, Times Literary Supplement *If you only ever buy one book on the history of democracy, make it this one. In this study, Paul Cartledge offers a thrilling account, based on his near legendarycourse of lectures at Cambridge, of why it matters more than ever to us today. * Edith Hall, History Today *No library should be without this wonderful book, in which Cartledge has abundantly shared his love and knowledge of ancient Greece with us. * Kirkus Reviews *A stimulating biography of democracy, both in theory and in all its practical manifestations ... also a thoughtful response to those scholars, such as Amartya Sen, who argue that democracy is not 'a quintessentially Western idea'. Cartledge's analysis suggests that it is just that. * Classics for All *a nuanced account of the meanings and meanderings of democracy. An expert in ancient history, Cartledge spends most of his time looking at the emergence of democratic ideas in Greece, but his studies of democracy's "demise" under the Roman and Byzantine empires and its "eclipse" in medieval Europe are equally well-wrought. * Catholic Herald *Cartledge provides this tour of ancient Greek democracy with the expertise that has made him an internationally recognized authority in classical history, and he does so with a literary grace that makes his presentation of classical and modern democracy inviting, engaging, and accessible. This is true for both the academic specialist, who will want this compact scholarly reference at their fingertips, and the broader public, especially those who are interested, in the words of one reader, in 'building a more democratic future.' * Bernard J. Dobski, Society *Indian secularists need to read Democracy: A Life, a delightful whistle-stop tour of ancient Greece, and ponder their position and arguments on the seperation of state and religion. * Parsa Venkateshwar Rao Jr, DNA India *Democracy: A Life is a magisterial and moving account of the fate of democracy, understood as the rule of the masses and political empowerment of the poor, on the basis of some workable definition of freedom and equality. In an easy, graceful style with flashes of revelatory personal expression, Paul Cartledge deploys his stunning mastery of several millennia of human history and deep knowledge of decades of scholarship to bring ancient democracy and its critics, modern as well as ancient, vividly to life. * Danielle Allen, author of Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality *Democracy: A Life is a splendid match of author and subject. Paul Cartledge has been thinking deeply about the history and meaning of democracy for most of his own life. The impressive result is a passionate and erudite biography of a revolutionary idea that became a way of life, tracing the story from democracys radical origins, to its early flourishing, multiple crises, many betrayals, and modern rebirth. Buoyed by Cartledges engaging style and complete mastery of his subject, the reader returns to our own troubled present with new appreciation for democracys deep history, and armed with fresh resources for building a more democratic future. * Josiah Ober, author of The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece *The fruit of a lifetimes learning, this passionately argued book reveals what made ancient Greek democracy so remarkable and so different from the tamer version we have today. By showing how far we have come from the ancient Greeks, Paul Cartledge reminds us how much we still have to learn from them. * David Runciman, author of The Confidence Trap: A History of Democracy in Crisis from World War I to the Present *Just what was ancient Greek democracy and why does it still matter? Scholarly giant Paul Cartledge answers those questions in this learned and readable book that glides gracefully from Aristotle and the stones of Athens to Rome, the Renaissance, the Age of Revolution, and todays era of globalization. * Barry Strauss, author of The Death of Caesar: The Story of Historys Most Famous Assassination *Table of ContentsPreface and Acknowledgements Timeline Prologue: Lost in Translation? ACT I 1: Sources, Ancient and Modern 2: The Emergence of the Polis, Politics, and the Political ACT II 3: The Emergence of Greek Democracy I: Archaic Greece 4: The Emergence of Greek Democracy II: Athens 508/7 5: The Emergence of Greek Democracy III: Athens 507-451/0 6: Greek Democratic Theory? 7: Athenian Democracy in Practice c. 450-335 8: Athenian Democracy: Culture and Society c. 450-335 9: Greek Democracy in Credit and Crisis I: The Fifth Century 10: Athenian Democracy in Court: The Trials of Demos, Socrates, and Ctesiphon ACT III 11: Greek Democracy in Credit and Crisis II: The Golden Age of Greek Democracy (c. 375-350) and Its Critics 12: Athenian Democracy at Work in the 'Age of Lycurgus' 13: The Strange Death of Classical Greek Democracy: A Retrospect ACT IV 14: Hellenistic Democracy? Democracy in Deficit c. 323-86 BCE 15: The Roman Republic: A sort of Democracy? 16: Democracy Denied: The Roman and Early Byzantine Empires 17: Democracy Eclipsed: Late Antiquity, the European Middle Ages, and the Renaissance ACT V 18: Democracy Revived: England in the Seventeenth Century and France in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries 19: Democracy Reinvented: The United States in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries and Tocqueville's America 20: Democracy Tamed: Nineteenth-Century Great Britain Epilogue: Democracy Now: Retrospect and Prospects Afterword Notes and References Bibliography and Further Reading Index

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Book Synopsis'A writer of genius' - William DalrympleCan anyone really own a culture? This magnificent account argues that the story of global civilisations is one of mixing, sharing, and borrowing.It shows how art forms have crisscrossed continents over centuries to produce masterpieces. From Nefertiti's lost city and the Islamic Golden Age to twentieth century Nigerian theatre and Modernist poetry, Martin Puchner explores how contact between different peoples has driven artistic innovation in every era - whilst cultural policing and purism have more often undermined the very societies they tried to protect.Travelling through Classical Greece, Ashoka's India, Tang dynasty China, and many other epochs, this triumphal new history reveals the crossing points which have not only inspired the humanities, but which have made us human.Trade Review'A writer of genius' -- William Dalrymple'Compellingly written' * Financial Times *'A breakneck, utterly captivating survey of threads of cultural transmission-how ideas, stories, and songs-survive, change, vanish, get borrowed, refined, coopted, and grafted through time ... I underlined sentences on every page.' -- Anthony Doerr'A remarkable book.' -- Kwame Anthony Appiah'Eminently readable ... The book's great strength lies in its ability to swoop deftly and lightly between things that may be familiar to us in themselves, but which we might be tempted to separate out in our attempts to form a picture of the world.' -- Edward Wilson-Lee * The Times Literary Supplement *'Martin Puchner has exceptional and invaluable gifts: intellectual fearlessness, dazzling erudition, trenchancy tempered by breadth of mind, and a humanist's eye for minute evidence that illumines huge problems.' -- Felipe Fernandez-Armesto'Fearless and exhilaratingly erudite, Martin Puchner's panoramic tour of human culture across the millennia is a riveting page-turner.' -- Amy Chua'A forceful rebuke to those who argue that culture can be owned by groups, nations, religions or races. . . . [by] an adept storyteller.' -- Ismail Muhammad * New York Times *'A Harvard professor goes wide in this study of the humanities and human creativity, looking at standout moments and what they can tell us about our past and future. As [Martin Puchner] guides readers along a Nefertiti to TikTok continuum, he shows how cultural exchange and innovation help societies address some of life's most existential questions' -- Joumana Khatib * New York Times *'Elegantly written and full of erudite lore, this vibrant history illuminates the inveterate human yearning for expression.' * Publishers Weekly *'A thoughtful, generous vision of human creativity across centuries of culture.' * Kirkus *'Fluent and engaging.' -- Boyd Tonkin * Wall Street Journal *'A mighty, polymathic work . . . [by] a master storyteller -- Chris Vognar * Boston Globe *'Jaunty and readable but never lacking in depth, Culture hops through countries and eras to deliver a resonant argument.' -- Lauren Puckett-Pope * Elle *'Cultures develop by sharing, borrowing, and collaborating--but also by conquest, appropriation, and theft. Martin Puchner's timely book takes us on a breathtaking tour of world history, reminding us that as we judge the past, one day we, too, will be judged, and that when we ignore or try to erase our cultural heritage, we are only impoverishing ourselves' -- Louis Menand * Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Metaphysical Club *'Puchner creates a perfectly balanced and incisively abridged version of the story of human culture. Ultimately, this is an examination of the making and transport of ideas, which is always an interaction between old and new. Each chapter builds a new layer, adding to the depth and complexity, while Puchner also provides a global who's who of cultural diffusion' * Booklist *'So many books these days are described as being 'sweeping histories'; Culture, which promises in its subtitle to take us from our most primitive artistic impulses all the way to the machinery of modern-day fandom. But what intrigues me most about Puchner's latest isn't its scope - it's its driving question: 'What good are the arts?' In my more hopeless moments, this question bubbles up inside me, and I'm chomping at the bit to hear Puchner's answer, grounded in history and informed by cultures around the world' -- Sophia Stewart'Well written, nuanced and light in style, spinning a series of historical narratives in an erudite and engaging way' -- Marguerite Johnson * The Conversation *

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Book SynopsisA collection of humanity’s most inspiring ideas throughout time, bringing perspective to the challenges and wonders of being alive. This is an unusual sort of history book: a history of ideas – and not just any old ideas, ideas from across time and space that are best suited to healing, enchanting and reviving us. Along the way, we travel around the world, from the very beginnings of our species right up to the modern age. We hear about the Ancient Greeks and Romans, we learn about Buddhism and Islam, we acquire ideas from Hinduism and the European Renaissance, the Enlightenment and Modernity. Deliberately eclectic, the book gives us a panoramic, 3,000-year view over the finest insights of a diversity of civilisations. Every idea hangs off an image – it could be a place, a document, a building or a work of art – that has something very specific to teach us. There are ideas here that will stick in our minds because they can help to answer the biggest puzzles we may have: about the direction of our lives, the issues of relationships, the meaning of existence. The book amounts to a feast for the intellect and the imagination – to make us into the best sorts of historians, those who know how to use the past to shed light on their own lives.

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Book SynopsisNevertheless comprises essays on Machiavelli and on Pascal. The ambivalent connection between the two parts is embodied by the comma (,) in the subtitle: Machiavelli, Pascal. Is this comma a conjunction or a disjunction? In fact, both. Ginzburg approaches Machiavelli's work from the perspective of casuistry, or case-based ethical reasoning. For as Machiavelli indicated through his repeated use of the adverb nondimanco ("nevertheless"), there is an exception to every rule. Such a perspective may seem to echo the traditional image of Machiavelli as a cynical, "machiavellian" thinker. But a close analysis of Machiavelli the reader, as well as of the ways in which some of Machiavelli's most perceptive readers read his work, throws a different light on Machiavelli the writer. The same hermeneutic strategy inspires the essays on the Provinciales, Pascal's ferocious attack against Jesuitical casuistry. Casuistry vs anti-casuistry; Machiavelli's secular attitude towards religion vs Pascal's deep religiosity. We are confronted, apparently, with two completely different worlds. But Pascal read Machiavelli, and reflected deeply upon his work. A belated, contemporary echo of this reading can unveil the complex relationship between Machiavelli and Pascal - their divergences as well as their unexpected convergences.Trade ReviewA dazzling example of the pleasure of research * Il Foglio *Ginzburg calls for an intricate reading of Machiavelli. He points out that the link between the author of The Prince and the author of the Provincial Letters is justified by the fact that both pertain to the broad constellation of political theology informed by the exception, the miracle, the unique case imposed on the norm * Il Manifesto *A treasure hunt in historical sources, forgeries and the reception of texts * Avvenire *One of world's premier historians. A born detective. * New York Times *Really quite brilliant -- Jan Machielsen * Times Literary Supplement (for Old Thiess, a Livonian Werewolf) *

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Book SynopsisEcology is the science of ecosystems, of habitats, of our world and its future. In the latest New Naturalist, ecologist David M. Wilkinson explains key ideas of this crucial branch of science, using Britain's ecosystems to illustrate each point.The science of ecology underlies most of the key issues facing humanity, from the loss of biodiversity to sustainable agriculture, to the effects of climate change and the spread of pandemics. In this accessible and timely addition to the New Naturalist series, ecologist David M. Wilkinson introduces some of the key ideas of this science, using examples from British natural history. Extensively illustrated with photographs of the species and habitats that can be seen in the British countryside, this book shows how the observations of field naturalists link into our wider understanding of the working of the natural world.Investigating ecosystems across the British Isles, from the Scottish and Welsh mountains to the woodlands of southern England aTrade Review‘All books in the New Naturalist series deal with ecology and natural history in one way or another, but this is the first to take ecology itself as the main theme. It provides a broad but comprehensive overview of the subject … The author has a pleasant ‘storytelling’ style, well suited to the task; this is a book that could, I think, be read and understood by anyone with a keen interest. I’ve bought plenty of books in this series over the years but this is the first for a while that I’ve been inspired to read through, cover to cover, within a few days.’ Ian Carter, British Birds ‘Gives a real feel of what ecologists actually have to do, and how their methods and conclusions are changing … Hasbeen done very well, combining the scientific knowledge intoan interesting story … An excellent book’ The Linnean Praise for David M. Wilkinson ‘Wilkinson offers answers as good as science currently can deliver’ Science ‘This is a fascinating book. Every ecologist will profit from reading it’ Basic and Applied Ecology ‘Extraordinarily readable and accessible … Examines some of the very basic questions underlying ecology in its widest sense’ British Ecological Society Bulletin Praise for the New Naturalist series ‘Taken either individually or as a whole, they are one of the proudest achievements of modern publishing’ The Sunday Times ‘The series is an amazing achievement’ The Times Literary Supplement

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Book SynopsisTrade Reviewsuperb ... Wooldridge, the political editor of The Economist, quite brilliantly evokes the values and manners of the pluto-meritocrats at the top of society ... They would do well to read Wooldridge's erudite, thoughtful and magnificently entertaining book. They will find many uncomfortable truths in it. -- James Marriott * The Times *Adrian Wooldridge's extraordinary and irresistible history of meritocracy, The Aristocracy of Talent, describes the repeated efforts over the centuries to persuade peoples all over the world to accept the principle and compel society to organize itself on lines where merit alone, not bloodlines or bank balances, decides who rules and gets top dollar. ... Throughout, Wooldridge never loses faith in the principle of meritocracy as the key driver of modernity ... The Aristocracy of Talent is a serious treat from first to last. Not the least of its pleasures are the possibilities of disagreement that it provokes. -- Ferdinand Mount * Times Literary Supplement *This is a blistering and provocative defence of meritocracy - the single word almost all democratic politicians swear by, but never debate. Wooldridge, the Economist's political editor, provides an erudite survey of many cultures over several centuries to remind us how meritocracy's core idea - that your place in society should be a reflect of talent and effort, not determined by birth - is both revolutionary and recent. He sees meritocracy as an organising ideal rather than something that has been satisfactorily achieved, and rails against the ability of the privileged to purchase educational advantage for their children. He deplores too, outbursts of arrogance from meritocracy's winners. -- Books of the Year * New Statesman *The Aristocracy of Talent is finely constructed: fluent insights include the importance of Plato's distrust of democracy, on the grounds that it tended to lead to tyranny, and his insistence on the need for a leadership of experts. -- John Lloyd * Financial Times *In The Aristocracy of Talent, the Economist writer Adrian Wooldridge defends the meritocratic ideal. The book offers a sweeping account of the history of meritocracy, from the elaborate exams required to join the Chinese civil service to the problems with our dysfunctional present version of meritocracy, which Wooldridge says might be better called "pluto-meritocracy". Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand one of the important problems facing rich nations. -- James Marriott * The Times Book of the Year *This masterly book offers a robust defence of meritocracy. -- Lord Willetts * Economist *hugely stimulating ... a spirited defence ... of meritocracy itself, made with cogent arguments ... a valuable, thought-provoking book -- Noel Malcolm * Daily Telegraph *a timely book that is a reminder that meritocracy, for all its flaws, may well be, like the democracy it has sometimes served, better than the alternatives ... told with a wealth of erudition in brisk and readable prose -- Darrin M McMahon * Literary Review *There are few terms whose origins are more misunderstood than "meritocracy". So Adrian Wooldridge has performed a public service with his latest book, The Aristocracy of Talent. -- Dominic Lawson * Sunday Times *Adrian Wooldridge sees meritocracy as a revolutionary idea worth improving, not abandoning. He ranges across two and a half thousand years of history, surveying many societies and cultures, to remind us that until relatively recently the talented were almost always a matter of no interest to the rulers - not only unrewarded but undiscovered ... [a] rich stew of a book. Alongside the philosophers are innumerable politicians, theologians, scientists, academics, authors and campaigners. He has dug up a priceless array of quotes from all perspectives on how to define the best people, how to seek them out, how to educate them, how to test them, how to give them power, even how they should behave. -- Mark Damazer * New Statesman *In this elegant historical and philosophical defence of the notion that people should advance according to talent rather than birth, Wooldridge argues that the idea that ruled the world by the late 20th century has become corrupted. This "golden ticket to prosperity" needs restoring in order to revive social mobility. -- Andrew Hill * Financial Times * an omniscient and impassioned polemic ... Some of us have been waiting a long time for someone to do what Wooldridge has done: nail the lie that there is something shameful about success honestly earned -- Daniel Johnson * The Critic *The Aristocracy of Talent is both an exhaustively researched history of an idea and a many-sided examination of the impacts of its imperfect execution. -- Mike Jakeman * Strategy + Business *A worthy successor to the 1958 classic The Rise of the Meritocracy, this sparkling study shows how much less meritocratic our society has become since then -- Vernon Bogdanor * Daily Telegraph Books of the Year *Wooldridge has written one of the great books of the decade. Here, meticulously researched and in arresting prose, are definitive accounts of Plato's authoritarian philosophy and the way later generations interpreted it, of China's mandarinate, of the rise of IQ tests and much else. -- Lord Hannan * Conservative Home *with its remorseless erudition ... in his new book, Adrian Wooldridge tries to salvage meritocracy from the ossified over-class that Aldous Huxley foresaw. -- Janan Ganesh * Financial Times *Adrian Wooldridge relabels the system "pluto-meritocracy" to expose its sham ideology -- Philip Aldrick * The Times *readable and wide-ranging...Wooldridge maintains that meritocracy is revolutionary and egalitarian -- Peter Mandler * BBC History Magazine *Every page, there's an intriguing nugget of information. -- Robbie Millenkudos to Adrian Wooldridge... for producing a full-throated defence of the principle -- Toby Young * Spectator *An elegant defence of talent. * The Week *

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Book SynopsisA timely history of the interplay between politics and military operations, ''Command is the history of our time'' (Guardian)Military command has been reconstructed and revolutionized since the Second World War by nuclear warfare, small-scale guerrilla land operations and cyber interference. Freedman takes a global perspective, systematically investigating its practice and politics since 1945 through a wide range of conflicts from the French Colonial Wars, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Bangladesh Liberation War to North Vietnam''s Easter Offensive of 1972, the Falklands War, the Iraq War and Russia''s wars in Chechnya and Ukraine. By highlighting the political nature of strategy, Freedman shows that military decision-making cannot be separated from civilian priorities and that commanders must now have the sensibility to navigate politics as well as warfare.Trade ReviewLawrence Freedman is the dominant academic authority in Britain and the English-speaking world on the way modern wars have been fought. Rational, liberal-minded, clear-sighted, he has drawn on a lifetime of experience for his new book. ... Command is the history of our time, told through war. It's a wonderful, idiosyncratic feat of storytelling as well as an essential account of how the modern world's wars have been fought, written by someone whose grasp of complex detail is as strong and effective as the clarity of his style. I shall read it again and again. -- John Simpson * The Guardian *superb study of high command and civil-military relations ... It is simply one of the finest books I have read in ages, and full of lessons for contemporary leaders. Highly recommended! -- Mick Ryanwise ... insightful ... masterly ... One suspects that this well-researched, well-written and thought-provoking book will soon be required reading for any Nato officer hoping to exercise high command -- Andrew Roberts * BBC History Magazine *Freedman offers excellent concise summaries of some of the world's main clashes since 1950 ... The author makes an encouraging point when he concludes this useful book: "The advantages of democratic systems lie not in their ability to avoid bad decisions, either by governments or commanders . . . The advantage lies in their ability to recognise these mistakes, learn and adapt. Closed systems, in which subordinates dare not ask awkward questions . . . will suffer operationally." -- Max Hastings * Sunday Times *Lawrence Freedman is one of our most distinguished military historians. In this thoughtful book, drawing on decades of study, he looks at the marriage of authorities that takes place in the running of wars since 1945: where political power meets military expertise, and who ends up having the final say. ... sumptuous ... this should be the standard text in staff colleges around the world, and for military-history studies. -- Simon Heffer * Daily Telegraph *It is incredibly insightful, occasionally moving and profoundly wise. -- Andrew Roberts * Times Literary Supplement Books of the Year *In this broad survey of command in war since 1945, Lawrence Freedman brings to bear his extensive knowledge to explain the many complexities commanders at the highest level must now face, from grasping new ways of warfare to managing military organisation and supply and, above all, coping with the mercurial behaviour of their political masters. If there is a theme to Freedman's book, which ranges from the Korean War to Putin's 'special military operation' in Ukraine, it is to be found in the tensions and conflicts between military leaders and the politicians who call the shots that he documents. How often must a supreme commander have wished he were free to do what he wanted? Usually, politics has to be factored in. ... One of the revelations of Freedman's detailed and well-informed book is how difficult the management of conflict has become ... [an] invaluable panorama of the challenges of modern command -- Richard Overy * Literary Review *Command is arguably his finest book - fluently written and convincingly argued - into which he distils a lifetime of study into the nature and practice of war. -- Saul David * The Times *Sir Lawrence Freedman, Britain's most distinguished scholar of war, surveys 15 different battles and campaigns ... The lesson is that good command looks both ways, sensitive to the politics raging above while remaining in touch with the war being fought below. * Economist *comfortably the book of the year. It is a reminder of the human factor as a central component of the so-called correlations of forces in war. -- John Bew * New Statesman Books of the Year *Freedman's mastery of the subject of civil and military leadership in time of war is peerless ... a fascinating study of the psychological and political characteristics that determine success or failure in leadership in war. -- Tom Clonan * The Irish Times *The most brilliant critique of the Ukraine war has just appeared in Command by veteran strategist Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman. The book is about the tangles of command, politicians playing soldiers and soldiers playing politician in nine wars of this century. -- Robert Fox * Evening Standard *Freedman's brilliant insights help us understand the dynamics of a modern military catastrophe. This is a "how to" book for politicians and generals alike. The Kremlin library deserves an urgent copy. -- Financial Times * George Robertson *admirable ... what really makes this study special is that he reminds us that command is about people, both politicians and military men, with all their fears and flaws, vanities and preconceptions. -- Barney White-Spunner * Aspects of History *this fascinating account of how wars are won - and lost - by overmighty and insubordinate generals in democracies and dictatorships alike. Ukraine, Chechnya, the Falklands, Lebanon and Suez are among the conflicts whose triumphs and disasters are laid bare in extensive detail - just don't expect Putin, Lawrence Freedman warns, to heed the lessons. -- Patrick Maguire * Times Books of the Year *Command, by Lawrence Freedman is a real page-turner, as various conflicts post-1945 are analysed from both a military and political standpoint. A must-read. -- Oliver Webb-Carter * Aspects of History Books of the Year *admirable ... what really makes this study special is that he reminds us that command is about people, both politicians and military men, with all their fears and flaws, vanities and preconceptions ... It is an important book - really first class - and timely. -- Barney White-Spunner * Aspects of History Books of the Year *In this historical and geographical tour de force, Freedman cogently examines the interplay of politics and command-the balance of decision-making by civilian leaders and their military counterparts. His account ranges from the end of World War II to the present, and across Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America assessing the record of a host of important civilian and military officials who were in positions of command during times of war and peace. One of the critical questions Freedman explores is what military officers should do when civilian leaders demand actions that are illegal or contradict core national or professional values-and, conversely, what civilian commanders should do when generals refuse to follow orders. During wartime, it is not just the contest of civil and military authorities that complicate command but also the clashing imperatives of politics, expertise, resources, and individual egos. Freedman's book is a must-read, and even more so today, as it sheds light on the dynamics of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which challenges the very core of the postwar international order. -- Monica Duffy Toft * Foreign Affairs *

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Book SynopsisOxford Studies in Medieval Philosophy showcases the best new scholarly work on philosophy from the end of antiquity into the Renaissance. OSMP combines historical scholarship with philosophical acuteness, and will be an essential resource for anyone working in the area.Table of ContentsArticles Christina Van Dyke: 'Lewd, Feeble, and Frail': Humility Formulae, Medieval Women, and Authority Daniel Davies and Alexander Lamprakis: Al-FārābĪ's Commentary on the Eighth Book of Aristotle's Topics in Ṭodros Ṭodrosi's Philosophical Anthology (Introduction, Edition of the Text, and Annotated Translation) Reginald Mary Chua: Aquinas, Analogy and the Trinity Can Laurens Löwe: Super-Causes, Super-Grounds, and the Flow of Powers: Three Medieval Views on Natural Kinds and Kind-Specific Powers John Morrison: Three Medieval Aristotelians on Numerical Identity and Time Boaz Faraday Schuman: Multiple Generality in Scholastic Logic Critical Notices Nicolas Faucher: A Review of David Piché, Épistémologie et psychologie de la foi dans la pensée scolastique (1250-1350) Sonja Schierbaum: A Dance with the Rebel Angels: Tobias Hoffmann's View on the Free Will Debate Briefly Noted

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Book SynopsisWhat if the American experiment is twofold, encompassing both democracy and tyranny? That is the question at the core of this book, which traces some of ways that Americans across the nineteenth century understood the perversions tyranny introduced into both their polity and society. While some informed their thinking with reference to classical texts, which comprehensively consider tyranny''s dangers, most drew on a more contemporary source--Napoleon Bonaparte, the century''s most famous man and its most notorious tyrant. Because Napoleon defined tyranny around the nineteenth-century Atlantic world--its features and emergence, its relationship to democratic institutions, its effects on persons and peoples--he provides a way for nineteenth-century Americans to explore the parameters of tyranny and their complicity in its cruelties. Napoleon helps us see the decidedly plural forms of tyranny in the US, bringing their fictions into focus. At the same time, however, there are distinctly American modes of tyranny. From the tyrannical style of the American imagination to the usurping potential of American individualism, Elizabeth Duquette shows that tyranny is as American as democracy.Trade ReviewElizabeth Duquette has written an ambitious, monumental book that proposes a fundamental reframing of the nineteenth century as the long age of Napoleon. Dislodging "democracy" as the nation's mythic political basis and putting "tyranny" in its place, Duquette amasses a substantial archive of America's obsession with Napoleon Bonaparte to develop a thoroughly convincing account of the multiple tyrannies that stand at the foundation of US political culture-from the actual oppression of slavery to those purported incursions on the liberty of aggrieved elites that form the "tyrannical style" of nineteenth-century political discourse. * Jennifer Greiman, Wake Forest University *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Dispatches Introduction: Seeing Tyranny 1: Tyranny in America, or David Walker 2: The Tyrannical Style of American Politics 3: Raking Imperial Muck 4: The Bedazzler 5: Napoleonic Codes 6: Séjour's Spectacles 7: Young Men From the Provinces Coda: Napoleon Complex, or Mad About Napoleon Bibliography Notes Index

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Book SynopsisWhat is temperature, and how can we measure it correctly? These may seem like simple questions, but the most renowned scientists struggled with them throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. In Inventing Temperature, Chang examines how scientists first created thermometers; how they measured temperature beyond the reach of standard thermometers; and how they managed to assess the reliability and accuracy of these instruments without a circular reliance on the instruments themselves. In a discussion that brings together the history of science with the philosophy of science, Chang presents the simple yet challenging epistemic and technical questions about these instruments, and the complex web of abstract philosophical issues surrounding them. Chang''s book shows that many items of knowledge that we take for granted now are in fact spectacular achievements, obtained only after a great deal of innovative thinking, painstaking experiments, bold conjectures, and controversy. Lurking behind these achievements are some very important philosophical questions about how and when people accept the authority of science.Trade Reviewthe most important book on this subject since Bridgman's classic work of 1927... Chang's book should become mandatory reading for anyone who wants to pursue the problem of measurement further. * Donald Gillies, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science *Table of Contents1. Keeping the Fixed Points Fixed ; 2. Spirit, Air, and Quicksilver ; 3. To Go Beyond ; 4. Theory, Measurement, and Absolute Temperature ; 5. Measurement, Justification, and Scientific Progress

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Book SynopsisIn The Inner Life of Catholic Reform, Ulrich Lehner offers a longue durée overview of the sentiments and spiritual ideas of the 250-year long time span following the Council of Trent, known as Catholic Reform. While there have been many studies of the so-called Counter-Reformation, the political side of Catholic Reform, and of its institutional and social history, the sentiments, motivations and religious practices of Catholic Reform--what Lehner calls the inner life--have been mostly neglected. Reform, Lehner argues, was not something that occurred merely through institutional changes, new laws, and social control. For early modern Catholics, church reform began with personal reform and attempts to live in a state of grace. Lehner seeks to take these religious commitments seriously and understand them on their own terms. The central question he asks is What did Catholics do to obtain salvation, to make themselves pleasing to God? Lehner examines how the spiritual ideas that emerged from attempts to wrestle with the question of the salvation of souls changed the Catholic view of the world.Drawing on a plethora of published and unpublished sources and a wide array of secondary literature--with an emphasis on Europe, but integrating material from Africa, America, and Asia--Lehner documents this transformative period in history, when Catholicism became a world religion.Trade ReviewUlrich Lehner's book is a masterpiece of sympathetic understanding of the religious aspirations of the Catholic Reform...His scholarship and sympathetic openness to the aspirations of the Reform, while recognising its limitations, equips him to give the reader a particularly helpful portrait of this period of Catholic history. * Robert Gascoigne, Journal of Religious History *Lehner's book successfully addresses the historiographical gaps of the Catholic Enlightenment from the lenses of theology and history. Due to its brevity, topics such as controversies that shook Catholicism as well as early modern authors and works, information about popes, and religious orders are left out. This gives readers space to simultaneously study Lehner's book with other scholarship on these topics. This book is ideal for undergraduate and graduate students of history, philosophy, and theology as well as those who are interested in learning more about the history of the Catholic Church during the early modern period. * Kyra Sanchez Clapper, World History Encyclopedia *This book is ideal for undergraduate and graduate students of history, philosophy, and theology as well as those who are interested in learning more about the history of the Catholic Church during the early modern period. * World History Encyclopedia *Ulrich Lehner unfolds a rich new vision of early modern Catholicism. Doctrine could not change, but practices could, and the Catholic Church devised effective ways, many of them new, to instruct and engage, frighten and console parishioners across the world. Most of the faithful were poor, many were illiterate, but through preaching and confession, prayer and catechism, the Church tried to reach them all. * Anthony Grafton, Henry Putnam University Professor of History, Princeton University *The Inner Life of Catholic Reform charts a history that is significant for ecumenical discussions of early modern period and insists, for then and now, that the reform of the church is about the care of souls. * Christine Helmer, Peter B. Ritzma Chair of Humanities, Professor of German and Religious Studies, Northwestern University *A distinguished authority on Catholic enlightenment and "outer reform," Ulrich Lehner focuses here on the much-neglected issue of "inner reform," namely those central practices that aimed not at correct belief but at the sanctification of the individual and community. The result is a brief, readable, and exceptionally rich account that uncovers an array of pious practices central to the self-understanding of Catholics in the early modern period—and that touch upon something abiding and central to Catholic identity to this day. * Kevin Madigan, Winn Professor of Ecclesiastical History, Harvard University *Although Roman Catholicism is known for its profuse material culture and visible institutional presence, Lehner demonstrates his nuanced mastery of its richly multifaceted interior life from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries. The pervasive emphasis on Catholics' inner reform animated the Church's exuberant external expressions and established its global footprint between the Middle Ages and the modern era. * Brad S. Gregory, author of The Unintended Reformation: How a Religious Revolution Secularized Society *Presenting a picture of reformed orthodoxy that reads remarkably like a manual, almost a catechism, for present-day Catholics, he (Lehner) has succeeded in recovering a way of living the faith that has been largely obscured by the conflicts of the Reformation era. * Victor Houliston, Heythrop Journal *The Inner Life of Catholic Reform: From the Council of Trent to the Enlightenment is a welcome and enlightening book...Lehner's work is a welcome addition to the field and should be required reading in courses on early modern Catholicism. * Christian D. Washburn, University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN, USA *This text would be useful for studying spirituality as well as the history of this largely unknown time period...Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; professionals; general readers. * Choice *Lehner's very readable book is a hybrid between a monograph and a textbook. * Moshe Sluhovsky, Church History *Ulrich Lehner's book presents a detailed description of early modern Catholic devotional theology and the various methods 'charismatic church reformers' advocated to support the spiritual renewal of individual believers...The book is thorough and deeply erudite while remaining clear and accessible. * Marc R.Forster, Journal of Ecclesiastical History *

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Book SynopsisOxford Studies in Medieval Philosophy showcases the best scholarly research in this flourishing field. The series covers all aspects of medieval philosophy, including the Latin, Arabic, and Hebrew traditions, and runs from the end of antiquity into the Renaissance. It publishes new work by leading scholars in the field, and combines historical scholarship with philosophical acuteness. The papers will address a wide range of topics, from political philosophy to ethics, and logic to metaphysics. OSMP is an essential resource for anyone working in the area.Table of ContentsCRITICAL NOTICE ; DISCUSSION

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Book SynopsisThis edition makes available an entirely new version of Hegel''s lectures on the development and scope of world history. Volume I presents Hegel''s surviving manuscripts of his introduction to the lectures and the full transcription of the first series of lectures (1822-23). These works treat the core of human history as the inexorable advance towards the establishment of a political state with just institutions-a state that consists of individuals with a free and fully-developed self-consciousness. Hegel interweaves major themes of spirit and culture-including social life, political systems, commerce, art and architecture, religion, and philosophy-with an historical account of peoples, dates, and events. Following spirit''s quest for self-realization, the lectures presented here offer an imaginative voyage around the world, from the paternalistic, static realm of China to the cultural traditions of India; the vast but flawed political organization of the Persian Empire to Egypt and thTrade ReviewIn this and earlier volumes Peter Hodgson and his collaborators have in many ways set new standards of clarity and consistency in the presentation and translation of Hegel's writings and lectures . . . the present edition provides an excellent starting point for the serious study of Hegel's unfolding concept of 'philosophical' history in his Berlin period. * Nicholas Walker, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *Table of ContentsPreface 1: Editorial Introduction 2: Manuscripts of the Introduction The Lectures of 1822-23 3: Introduction: The Concept of World History 4: The Oriental World 5: The Greek World 6: The Roman World 7: The Germanic World Glossary Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisOxford Studies in Medieval Philosophy showcases the best new scholarly work on philosophy from the end of antiquity into the Renaissance. OSMP combines historical scholarship with philosophical acuteness, and will be an essential resource for anyone working in the area.Table of ContentsARTICLES; CRITICAL NOTICE; DISCUSSION

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book Synopsis

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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