History of ideas Books

1862 products


  • Modern Times: Temporality in Art and Politics

    Verso Books Modern Times: Temporality in Art and Politics

    3 in stock

    Book SynopsisIn this book Jacques Rancière radicalises his critique of modernism and its postmodern appendix. He contrasts their unilinear and exclusive time with the interweaving of temporalities at play in modern processes of emancipation and artistic revolutions, showing how this plurality itself refers to the double dimension of time. Time is more than a line drawn from the past to the future. It is a form of life, marked by the ancient hierarchy between those who have time and those who do not. This hierarchy, continued in the Marxist notion of the vanguard and nakedly exhibited in Clement Greenberg's modernism, still governs a present which clings to the fable of historical necessity and its experts. In opposition to this, Rancière shows how the break with the hierarchical conception of time, formulated by Emerson in his vision of the new poet, implies a completely different idea of the modern. He sees the fulfilment of this in the two arts of movement, cinema and dance, which at the beginning of the twentieth century abolished the opposition between free and mechanical people, at the price of exposing the rift between the revolution of artists and that of strategists.Trade ReviewOne of our most stimulating thinkers * Paris Match *Ranciere's writings offer one of the few conceptualizations of how we are to continue to resist. -- Slavoj ZizekIt's clear that Jacques Rancière is relighting the flame that was extinguished for many-that is why he serves as such a signal reference today. -- Thomas HirschhornHis art lies in the rigor of his argument-its careful, precise unfolding -and at the same time not treating his reader, whether university professor or unemployed actress, as an imbecile. -- Kristin RossFrench philosopher Jacques Ranciere is a refreshing read for anyone concerned with what art has to do with politics and society. * Art Review *

    3 in stock

    £10.44

  • Leadership Shastras

    Penguin Random House India Leadership Shastras

    2 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    2 in stock

    £14.11

  • Oxford University Press, USA Eastern Religions and Western Thought Oxford India Paperbacks

    1 in stock

    1 in stock

    £19.31

  • Cambridge University Press The Invention of Market Freedom

    3 in stock

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

    3 in stock

    £25.99

  • Cambridge University Press The Cambridge History of Political Thought 14501700

    7 in stock

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

    7 in stock

    £133.00

  • Cambridge University Press Calvins Christology

    1 in stock

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

    1 in stock

    £81.00

  • Education and the State A Study in Political

    Liberty Fund Inc Education and the State A Study in Political

    3 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    3 in stock

    £10.40

  • Education and the Industrial Revolution

    Liberty Fund Inc Education and the Industrial Revolution

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisIn this work, E.G. West writes about an educational revolution during the Industrial Revolution, adding context to his "Education and the State". Taken together, the two books make a strong case for the separation of state and education, and the robustness of the market in providing education.Trade Review"The book. is notable for both the breadth of its approach to the subject and for the depth of its analysis. It is a very good book, both profitable and enjoyable in the reading..." -- Canadian Journal of Economics.

    1 in stock

    £17.05

  • Education  the Industrial Revolution 2nd Edition

    Liberty Fund Inc Education the Industrial Revolution 2nd Edition

    2 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    2 in stock

    £10.40

  • Cambridge University Press Free Trade and its Enemies in France 18141851

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisIn the aftermath of the French Revolution, advocates of protection against foreign competition prevailed in a fierce controversy over international trade. They succeeded by portraying free trade as a British ideology and French free traders as traitors. This groundbreaking study is the first to examine this 'protectionist turn' in full.Trade Review'Reading David Todd's excellent well-researched monograph, I found it simply impossible not to think of the astonishing parallels between Anglo-French debates on free trade in the early decades of the nineteenth century and today's increasingly pressing arguments about possible British exit from the EU and France's parlous recent economic performance … Todd's concluding remarks give us much to think about. Protectionism after 1870, he suggests, contributed to the enduring stability of the Third Republic and arguably remained a force of stability in French society until its abandonment in the 1980s. Todd's contribution to the 'intellectual history of globalization' makes us realize that these issues are not about to go away.' Jeremy Jennings, H-France Forum'This is not a book of economic history but rather a history of economic ideas and political economy, namely, the debates that took place in France on international trade between 1814 and 1851 … This book is important insofar it shows a return to political economy in historical context without the abstractions and a-historical analyses of mainstream economic history.' Alessandro Stanziani, H-France Forum'Using a wide range of archival and printed primary sources in English, French and German, Todd provides the reader with an exhaustive analysis of the economic debates within France and stresses their connection with the globalizing economy of the nineteenth century.' Christopher Guyver, European History QuarterlyTable of ContentsIntroduction; 1. The reactionary political economy of the Bourbon Restoration; 2. Economists, winegrowers and the dissemination of commercial liberalism; 3. Completing the revolution: political and commercial liberty after 1830; 4. Inventing economic nationalism; 5. The contours of the national economy; 6. The Englishness of free trade and the consolidation of protectionist dominance; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.

    1 in stock

    £78.85

  • Cambridge University Press Princely Education in Early Modern Britain

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis book shows how liberal education transformed the political and religious culture of early modern Britain. Rather than pursue vainglorious warfare, humanists taught monarchs, including Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, James VI, and Charles I, to wield their pens like swords to extend their imperial authority over church and state.Trade Review'This highly original and beautifully written book explores the liberal education received by royal children in Tudor and Stuart Britain … It succeeds admirably in demonstrating the wider significance of princes' education by drawing connections between childhood learning and royal policies in later life during a stormy and eventful period. This rich and deeply textured book is certain to provoke interest and debate for many years to come.' Judges, 2016 Whitfield Prize, Royal Historical SocietyTable of ContentsIntroduction; 1. 'Thys boke is myne': how humanism changed the English royal schoolroom, 1422–1509; 2. Chivalry, ambition, and bonae litterae, 1509–33; 3. Erasmus' Christian prince and Henry VIII's royal supremacy; 4. Educating Edward VI: from Erasmus and godly kingship to Machiavelli; 5. Fortune's wheel and the education of early modern British queens; 6. Education and royal resistance: George Buchanan and James VI and I; 7. Britain's lost Renaissance? The Stuart princes; Epilogue; Bibliography; Index.

    1 in stock

    £108.00

  • Cambridge University Press Anglican Enlightenment

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis is an original interpretation of the early European Enlightenment and the religious conflicts that rocked England and its empire under the later Stuarts. In a series of vignettes that move between Europe and North Africa, William J. Bulman shows that this period witnessed not a struggle for and against new ideas and greater freedoms, but a battle between several novel schemes for civil peace. Bulman considers anew the most apparently conservative force in post-Civil War English history: the conformist leadership of the Church of England. He demonstrates that the church''s historical scholarship, social science, pastoral care and political practice amounted not to a culturally backward spectacle of intolerance, but to a campaign for stability drawn from the frontiers of erudition and globalization. In seeking to sever the link between zeal and chaos, the church and its enemies were thus united in an Enlightenment project, but bitterly divided over what it meant in practice.Trade Review'… Bulman's achievement is positively 'Thompsonian': the rescuing of Anglican scholars and scholarship, pastors and political operatives from the enormous condescension of (whig and revisionist) posterity. As such, Anglican Enlightenment ranks amongst the most important interventions in late seventeenth-century studies in the last decade, if not longer.' David Magliocco, Reviews in History'Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.' Choice'In this engagingly written and impressively wide-ranging study, William J. Bulman goes much further than previous scholars to claim that Anglican clergy were early in the field in displaying the essential hallmarks of the Enlightenment. He powerfully argues that the Anglican Enlightenment was not simply a reactive Whig intervention of the 18th century, and that 'the Enlightenment' was created by leading Anglican divines of the late 17th century rather than by heterodox philosophers. … This is a highly distinguished contribution to our understanding of both the Anglican Church and the Enlightenment.' Jeremy Gregory, The Church Times'Bulman's analysis of 'enlightened' Anglicanism after the Restoration is a masterly result of exhaustive research. The Enlightenment is at last presented not as the all but exclusive prerogative of its most radical adherents, but as a widespread phenomenon, existing in countless variants forged by political circumstances.' Alastair Hamilton, The Times Literary Supplement 'The adept interpretation of neglected historical material is valuable enough. Its greater importance, however, lies in the subtle, but paradigm-altering move to look for enlightenment beyond the usual suspects, and to critically revisit received wisdom regarding the motivations which drove certain historical actors to globally reinterpret insularly European realities.' Samuel Nelson, Politics, Religion and Ideology'Bulman's book provides us with a powerful case for the persisting erudition and theological commitments of figures in the Church in England after the crisis of the English revolution … Too often historians have described what they observe in the histories, events, and texts of the period by adopting the perspectives of the sources they find most congenial … For too long historians of ideas in particular - and especially those that elevate the 'liberal' afterlife of the texts of Spinoza and John Locke and others as significant and foundational - have ignored the flexibility and adaptability of the clerical minds who lived and wrote in the same intellectual culture. After Bulman this will not be a plausible assumption.' Justin Champion, Erudition and the Republic of Letters'It is a book of great interpretive reach and is powered by enviable resources of erudition … An outstanding and unusually ambitious monograph … A genuinely pioneering and altogether revelatory study.' Brian Young, The Journal of Modern History'This is an important and thought-provoking book which deserves to be taken seriously by scholars … This book joins those by Grant Tapsell and Brent Sirota in making the case for the period as one which was marked by intellectual and religious vitality and cannot be ignored by scholars.' William Gibson, The English Historical ReviewTable of ContentsIntroduction: from learning to liberalism?; Part I. Foundations: 1. Literature and violence; 2. Empires, churches and republics of the globe; Part II. Culture: 3. Histories; 4. Universals; Part III. Religion: 5. The propagation of the faith; 6. The worship of God; Part IV. Politics: 7. Restoration; 8. Revolution; Conclusion: from pastor to spectator; Select bibliography; Index.

    2 in stock

    £62.70

  • Cambridge University Press The Invention of Sustainability

    3 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe issue of sustainability, and the idea that economic growth and development might destroy its own foundations, is one of the defining political problems of our era. This groundbreaking study traces the emergence of this idea, and demonstrates how sustainability was closely linked to hopes for growth, and the destiny of expanding European states, from the sixteenth century. Weaving together aspirations for power, for economic development and agricultural improvement, and ideas about forestry, climate, the sciences of the soil and of life itself, this book sets out how new knowledge and metrics led people to imagine both new horizons for progress, but also the possibility of collapse. In the nineteenth century, anxieties about sustainability, often driven by science, proliferated in debates about contemporary and historical empires and the American frontier. The fear of progress undoing itself confronted society with finding ways to live with and manage nature.Trade Review'This is an important book. A history of ideas that ranges widely over political economy, the state and the environment, The Invention of Sustainability is a great example of how to present a compelling argument while respecting complexity. Paul Warde brings together wonderfully rich evidence and makes his case lucidly. The result is a bold and very satisfying work.' David Blackbourn, author of The Conquest of Nature'In this readable, erudite, and sophisticated book, Paul Warde persuasively argues that, although the current articulation of concerns about sustainability are relatively new, the concerns themselves have deep historical roots. He deftly combines environmental, economic, and intellectual history to show that analogous concerns with scarcity and depletion characterized the practices of pre-industrial farmers and foresters, as well as the policies of those responsible for the management of organic and mineral resources and the theories on which those policies were based.' Harriet Ritvo, Massachusetts Institute of Technology'Paul Warde's impressive study of more than three centuries of ideas about economic growth and agricultural productivity draws out a more complex story. … scholarly and nuanced …' Clare Griffiths, Times Higher Education'Warde's book is perhaps the most important tract in the intellectual history of environmental ideas since Clarence Glacken's Traces on the Rhodian Shore … Historical geographers, environmental historians and historians more generally need to read this brilliant book.' Robert J. Mayhew, Journal of Historical Geography'… a beautifully written, deftly argued, and richly nuanced book … It is accessible for students, enlightening for scholars, and necessary reading for both.' Dagomar Degroot, MetascienceTable of Contents1. Living from the land, c.1500–1620; 2. Governing the woods, c.1500–1700; 3. Ambition and experiment, c.1590–1740; 4. Paths to sustained growth, c.1650–1760; 5. Nature translated, c.1670–1830; 6. Theories of circulation, c.1740–1800; 7. Political economies of nature, c.1760–1840; 8. History and destiny, c.1700–1870; Conclusion: ends and beginnings.

    3 in stock

    £42.74

  • Cambridge University Press Imperial Unknowns

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisIn this major study, the history of the French and British trading empires in the early modern Mediterranean is used as a setting to test a new approach to the history of ignorance: how can we understand the very act of ignoring - in political, economic, religious, cultural and scientific communication - as a fundamental trigger that sets knowledge in motion? Zwierlein explores whether the Scientific Revolution between 1650 and 1750 can be understood as just one of what were in fact many simultaneous epistemic movements and considers the role of the European empires in this phenomenon. Deconstructing central categories like the mercantilist ''national'', the exchange of ''confessions'' between Western and Eastern Christians and the bridging of cultural gaps between European and Ottoman subjects, Zwierlein argues that understanding what was not known by historical agents can be just as important as the history of knowledge itself.Trade Review'Imperial Unknowns is a thoroughly fascinating book. Zwierlein has succeeded in linking the history of mercantilism, religion, historical knowledge and science in the Mediterranean, and he has demonstrated convincingly that a study of what historical actors did not know is as important as the study of what they did know. … In addition, Imperial Unknowns represents an important contribution to Mediterranean historiography.' Dzavid Dzanic, Mediterranean Historical Review'Cornel Zwierlein's Imperial Unknowns is the first detailed study of British-French relations in the Mediterranean basin. … The book is lucid and carefully referenced: it is magisterial in its breadth. … it remains essential reading for every student of the early modern Mediterranean.' Nabil Matar, American Historical Review'This book is a highly ambitious, complex, challenging, and genuine attempt at engaging with interdisciplinary developments within the investigation of the 'history of ignorance(s) in late medieval and early modern times'.' Maria Fusaro, German Historical Institute London Bulletin'The approach to take the Mediterranean space as the starting point for a comparative French-British history of knowledge has many merits without doubt, the amount of findings is impressive.' Christian Windler, translated from Historische Zeitschrift'This study demonstrates in an impressive way and with a stupendous [or amazing] erudition [or scholarship] that the question for forms of ignorance and how men and women of the past were coping with the borders of their knowledge can lead to new research questions.' Mark Häberlein, translated from Zeitschrift für Historische ForschungTable of ContentsIntroduction; 1. Politics and economy: nationalizing economics; 2. Religion: empires ignoring, learning, forgetting religions; 3. History: how to cope with unconscious ignorance; 4. Science: Mediterranean empires and scientific unknowns; Conclusion; Bibliography.

    1 in stock

    £57.95

  • Cambridge University Press Conjuring Asia

    4 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe promise of magic has always commanded the human imagination, but the story of industrial modernity is usually seen as a process of disenchantment. Drawing on the writings and performances of the so-called ''Golden Age Magicians'' from the turn of the twentieth century, Chris Goto-Jones unveils the ways in which European and North American encounters with (and representations of) Asia - the fabled Mystic East - worked to re-enchant experiences of the modern world. Beginning with a reconceptualization of the meaning of ''modern magic'' itself - moving beyond conventional categories of ''real'' and ''fake'' magic - Goto-Jones'' acclaimed book guides us on a magical mystery tour around India, China, and Japan, showing us levitations and decapitations, magic duels and bullet catches, goldfish bowls and paper butterflies. In the end, this mesmerizing book reveals Orientalism as a kind of magic in itself, casting a spell over Western culture that leaves it transformed, even today.Trade Review'If magic is the art of accomplishing the impossible, Goto-Jones emerges as a scholar-magician: a wonder-full book!' Derren Brown, mentalist and illusionist'Goto-Jones opens with a surprise: far from killing magic, modern science made it better. But his main trick is to follow magicians on a cross-cultural chase to India, China and Japan; what began as a celebration of the Golden Age of Magic becomes a treatise on global modernity. This is performance research at its finest.' Martin Puchner, Harvard University, Massachusetts'A flying carpet of brilliant colors; a work of great originality and charm, dexterity, and verve. Not only concerned with magic per se, its deepest interest lies in the way that a focus on magic reveals the course of Western rationality and moderization.' Julia Adeney Thomas, University of Notre Dame, Indiana'Unpicking the role of Orientalism in the Western cultural imagination in a highly readable account that is ultimately a treatise on modernity, [Goto-Jones] argues that, far from killing magic, modern science made it better.' Karen Shook, Times Higher Education'The book Conjuring Asia explores four major themes in the development of what we call magic: white or black magic, and Oriental or Western magic. … This is not a how-to-do-magic book but a historical treatise. It is exceedingly well researched and footnoted, with the footnotes allowing for easy additional study. The book gives the reader a great fundamental understanding of what and why magic is what it is today.' Ralph Peterson, San Francisco Book Review'It is very rare that I read a book three times but this was one of those rare books. … Jones has gone to incredible length to do search out the top magical scholars and thinkers and piece together a modern view on magic. This is definitely a book written by a scholar and is an extremely intelligent and well written look at not just Asian magic but an educated look at modern magic. … The book is at the same time a history of magic in its Golden Age, an exploration of the imagination of the East and of our passion for exoticism, and a fair analysis of political issues connected with ethnicity, representation and perception and discrimination. … A Must Read for Every Single Magician.' Paul Romhany, Vanish Magazine'… thoroughly probes another largely neglected component of Orientalism - magic, especially with reference to India, China and Japan. …Moreover, it studies energetically and effectively various facets of Oriental(ist) magic. The author's presentation is strikingly fresh, rather captivating.' Abdur Raheem Kidway, The Muslim World Book Review'Modernity and magic are usually seen in opposition to one another, as in early modern Europe. In Chris Goto-Jones's extraordinary book, we see that they were in fact intricately intertwined as modern Asia came into being. By combining ideas about illusion and reality with the discourse of progress in China, Japan, and India, Goto-Jones gives us a wholly original, deeply thoughtful, and innovative approach to the history of colonial and semi-colonial Asia, as well as representations of Asia in the West.' Rana Mitter, University of Oxford'Conjuring Asia is a wonderful book - yes, full of wonders - at once erudite and entertaining, dazzling. It is full of marvelous material gleaned from hard-to-come-by and all-too-overlooked popular sources. This stupendous research has been judiciously organized into Goto-Jones' eloquent, articulate, insightful and engaging critical analysis of a historical and modern transnational culture of magic.' Lee Siegel, University of Hawaii'With Chris Goto-Jones's Conjuring Asia, the academic study of secular magic comes of age. Surprisingly enough, that is because the book itself is so formally inventive and such fun to read. For scholars, yes indeed. But for all magic fans too.' Simon During, University of Queensland'Modernity is often seen as superseding magic and the occult, but this survey of Orientalist stage magic seeks to show modernity was less opposed to enchantment than is generally thought, and that their intertwined existence was revitalized by the idea of the East as the source of wonders … Demonstrating Orientalism as 'a kind of magic itself', Goto-Jones's enthusiastic and generous book is an engaging performance.' Phil Baker, The Times Literary Supplement'What is magic? What is good magic? What is modern magic? In what ways is modern magic racist and chauvinistic? What is the role of magic in the history of knowledge? How does magic fit in the academic world? [These] are just some of the questions Conjuring Asia approaches … And if you are prepared to put some effort in, then I suspect you will finish reading provoked to think in new ways about a number of really fundamental questions about conjuring … the effort you put in with Chris Goto-Jones's work will be well rewarded.' Will Houstoun, The Magic Circular'If you have ever wondered about the performance magic of India, China or Japan this is the book to read. It is a thoroughly engaging study, with approachable scholarship and fascinating notes; it considers these 'Oriental' magics not only historically but also philosophically, culturally and politically. A truly wonderful book.' Eugene Burger, magician and authorTable of ContentsIntroduction: magic in the world; Part I: 1. Modern magic in history and theory; 2. A theory of modern magic; 3. Oriental(ist) magic; Part II: 4. Indian magic and magic in India; 5. Chinese magic and magic in China; 6. Japanese magic and magic in Japan; Conclusion: magic in the world.

    4 in stock

    £21.99

  • Cambridge University Press American Indians and the Trouble with Sovereignty

    7 in stock

    Book SynopsisWith tribes and individual Indians increasingly participating in American electoral politics, this study examines the ways in which tribes work together with state and local governments to overcome significant governance challenges. Much scholarship on tribal governance continues to rely on a concept of tribal sovereignty that does not allow for or help structure this type of governance activity. The resulting tension which emerges in both theory and practice from American Indian intergovernmental affairs is illuminated here and the limits of existing theory are confronted. Kessler-Mata presents an argument for tribal sovereignty to be normatively understood and pragmatically pursued through efforts aimed at interdependence, not autonomy. By turning toward theories of federalism and freedom in the republican tradition, the author provides an alternative framework for thinking about the goals and aspirations of tribal self-determination.Table of Contents1. The conceptual limits of tribal sovereignty; 2. Building the constitutive theory of tribal sovereignty; 3. A basis for equal footing? The politics of tribal-state relations; 4. Disabling arbitrary interference; 5. Political participation: a hallmark of participation; 6. The constitutive theory as a theory of freedom.

    7 in stock

    £87.39

  • The Moral Person of the State

    Cambridge University Press The Moral Person of the State

    5 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis is the first detailed study in any language of the single most influential theory of the modern state: Samuel von Pufendorf''s account of the state as a ''moral person''. Ben Holland reconstructs the theological and political contexts in and for which Pufendorf conceived of the state as being a person. Pufendorf took up an early Christian conception of personality and a medieval conception of freedom in order to fashion a theory of the state appropriate to continental Europe, and which could head off some of the absolutist implications of a rival theory of state personality, that of Hobbes. The book traces the fate of the concept in the hands of others - international lawyers, moral philosophers and revolutionaries - until the early twentieth century. It will be essential reading for historians of political thought and for those interested in the development of key ideas in theology, international law and international relations.Trade Review'In this fascinating book, Holland provides a refreshing reinterpretation of Pufendorf's notion of the state as a moral person, with profound implications for our understanding of the subsequent trajectory of this notion and its impact on posterity, both of which are not very well known. Highly original and persuasively written, this book should be of interest not only to students of political thought, but to anyone interested in the increasingly shaky foundations of modern political and legal order.' Jens Bartelson, Lunds Universitet, Sweden'The chapters flow seamlessly, the writing is clear and efficient, and the use of both primary and secondary literatures is wide-ranging, informed, and apt.' Michael J. Seidler, The Review of PoliticsTable of ContentsIntroduction. Body, souls, persons, states; Part I: 1. The constitution of the free person; 2. The constitution of the person of the state; Part II: 3. Continental appropriations: the moral person of the state and the law of nations; 4. Atlantic appropriations: breaking and making composite polities; 5. Anglo-German interpretations: the moral person of the state and the legal person of the state; Conclusion.

    5 in stock

    £79.80

  • Cambridge University Press Both Eastern and Western

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisSince the Iranian Revolution of 1979, many Western observers of Iran have seen the country caught between Eastern history and ''Western'' modernity, between religion and secularity. As a result, analysis of political philosophy preceding the Revolution has become subsumed by this narrative. Here, Afshin Matin-Asgari proposes a revisionist work of intellectual history, challenging many of the dominant paradigms in Iranian and Middle Eastern historiography and offering a new narration. In charting the intellectual construction of Iranian modernity during the twentieth century, Matin-Asgari focuses on broad patterns of influential ideas and their relation to each other. These intellectual trends are studied in a global historical context, leading to the assertion that Iranian modernity has been sustained by at least a century of intense intellectual interaction with global ideologies. Turning many prevailing narratives on their heads, the author concludes that modern Iran can be seen as, Trade Review'This unique book registers the many sources of influence, hitherto overlooked by the researchers in the field, that have shaped up modern Iran. Afshin Matin-asgari offers a meticulous and compelling account of the cosmopolitan character of modern Iranian intellectual, social, cultural, and political thought. A superb and authoritative reference for scholars and public alike.' Peyman Vahabzadeh, University of Victoria'Afshin Matin-Asgari has written a highly succinct, readable, and perceptive work on the major issue confronting intellectuals in Iran from the late nineteenth century up to the 1979 revolution: the issue of how to discuss, confront, and deal with the intellectual challenge coming from the West. This is also an important contribution to our understanding of the eventual downfall of the Shah.' Ervand Abrahamian, City University of New York'By focusing on the influence of the Ottoman and Russian models on Iranian intellectual thought, Both Eastern and Western offers an original and thought-provoking account of Iran's road toward 'modernity' in the twentieth century.' Rudi Matthee, University of Delaware'Afshin Matin-Asgari's Both Eastern and Western: An Intellectual History of Iranian Modernity is a master stroke - resonating with earlier groundworks that had prepared the stage for this bravura delivery. He restages the central significance of the adventure of ideas in the making of nations at a time when state-centered political history is dimming the wit of much contemporary historiography. Deeply informed, politically committed, morally imaginative, Matin-Asgari's own book is a towering achievement of the intellectual history he chronicles with impeccable precision.' Hamid Dabashi, Columbia University, New YorkTable of ContentsIntroduction: intellectual constructions of Iranian modernity; 1. Lineages of authoritarian modernity: the Russo-Ottoman model; 2. The Berlin Circle: crafting the worldview of Iranian nationalism; 3. Subverting constitutionalism: intellectuals as instruments of modern dictatorship; 4. Intellectual missing links: politicizing religion and translating modernity; 5. The mid-century moment of socialist hegemony; 6. Revolutionary monarchy, political Shi'ism, and Islamic Marxism; 7. Conclusion: aborted resurrection: an intellectual arena wide open to opposition.

    1 in stock

    £80.74

  • Cambridge University Press Automatism and Creative Acts in the Age of New Psychology

    7 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe late nineteenth century saw a re-examination of artistic creativity in response to questions surrounding the relation between human beings and automata. These questions arose from findings in the ''new psychology'', physiological research that diminished the primacy of mind and viewed human action as neurological and systemic. Concentrating on British and continental culture from 1870 to 1911, this unique study explores ways in which the idea of automatism helped shape ballet, art photography, literature, and professional writing. Drawing on documents including novels and travel essays, Linda M. Austin finds a link between efforts to establish standards of artistic practice and challenges to the idea of human exceptionalism. Austin presents each artistic discipline as an example of the same process: creation that should be intended, but involving actions that evade mental control. This study considers how late nineteenth-century literature and arts tackled the scientific question, ''Are we automata?''Table of ContentsIntroduction: the nineteenth-century debate over human automatisms; Part I. Automata-Phobia: 1. J. S. Mill: genius-automaton; 2. Automatic aesthetics and the shame of tourism; Part II. Technologies of the Automatic: Process and Movement: 3. Photography's automatisms; 4. Automatic writing and physiologies of creativity; 5. The automata ballets.

    7 in stock

    £85.50

  • Cambridge University Press Both Eastern and Western

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisSince the Iranian Revolution of 1979, many Western observers of Iran have seen the country caught between Eastern history and ''Western'' modernity, between religion and secularity. As a result, analysis of political philosophy preceding the Revolution has become subsumed by this narrative. Here, Afshin Matin-Asgari proposes a revisionist work of intellectual history, challenging many of the dominant paradigms in Iranian and Middle Eastern historiography and offering a new narration. In charting the intellectual construction of Iranian modernity during the twentieth century, Matin-Asgari focuses on broad patterns of influential ideas and their relation to each other. These intellectual trends are studied in a global historical context, leading to the assertion that Iranian modernity has been sustained by at least a century of intense intellectual interaction with global ideologies. Turning many prevailing narratives on their heads, the author concludes that modern Iran can be seen as, Trade Review'This unique book registers the many sources of influence, hitherto overlooked by the researchers in the field, that have shaped up modern Iran. Afshin Matin-asgari offers a meticulous and compelling account of the cosmopolitan character of modern Iranian intellectual, social, cultural, and political thought. A superb and authoritative reference for scholars and public alike.' Peyman Vahabzadeh, University of Victoria'Afshin Matin-Asgari has written a highly succinct, readable, and perceptive work on the major issue confronting intellectuals in Iran from the late nineteenth century up to the 1979 revolution: the issue of how to discuss, confront, and deal with the intellectual challenge coming from the West. This is also an important contribution to our understanding of the eventual downfall of the Shah.' Ervand Abrahamian, City University of New York'By focusing on the influence of the Ottoman and Russian models on Iranian intellectual thought, Both Eastern and Western offers an original and thought-provoking account of Iran's road toward 'modernity' in the twentieth century.' Rudi Matthee, University of Delaware'Afshin Matin-Asgari's Both Eastern and Western: An Intellectual History of Iranian Modernity is a master stroke - resonating with earlier groundworks that had prepared the stage for this bravura delivery. He restages the central significance of the adventure of ideas in the making of nations at a time when state-centered political history is dimming the wit of much contemporary historiography. Deeply informed, politically committed, morally imaginative, Matin-Asgari's own book is a towering achievement of the intellectual history he chronicles with impeccable precision.' Hamid Dabashi, Columbia University, New YorkTable of ContentsIntroduction: intellectual constructions of Iranian modernity; 1. Lineages of authoritarian modernity: the Russo-Ottoman model; 2. The Berlin Circle: crafting the worldview of Iranian nationalism; 3. Subverting constitutionalism: intellectuals as instruments of modern dictatorship; 4. Intellectual missing links: politicizing religion and translating modernity; 5. The mid-century moment of socialist hegemony; 6. Revolutionary monarchy, political Shi'ism, and Islamic Marxism; 7. Conclusion: aborted resurrection: an intellectual arena wide open to opposition.

    15 in stock

    £25.64

  • Cambridge University Press The History of the Arthasastra

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe Arthaśāstra is the foundational text of Indic political thought. By analyzing its early history, Mark McClish overturns prevailing beliefs that ancient India was governed by religion and shows that this text originally espoused a political philosophy characterized by empiricism and pragmatism, ignoring the sacred mandate of dharma altogether.Table of Contents1. Introduction; 2. Arthaśāstra historiography; 3. The resegmentation of the Arthaśāstra; 4. Citation and attribution; 5. The deep structure of the text; 6. The history of the Arthaśāstra; 7. The politics of the Daṇḍanīti; 8. Varṇadharma in the Arthaśāstra; 9. Statecraft, law, and religion in ancient India; Appendices.

    15 in stock

    £85.50

  • Cambridge University Press Sovereignty in Action

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisSovereignty originally denoted the power of the 'sovereign', and later became a more abstract idea: the power of the state, later of the people or 'popular sovereign'. Today sovereignty confronts challenges of globalization, privatization of power, and the rise of sub-state nationalism. An examination of key writers traces these challenges.Trade Review'A fascinating collection of essays that explores the systematic and historical dimensions of sovereignty, the concept which distills the polemical claim to unity of modern polities.' Hans Lindahl, Chair of Legal Philosophy, Tilburg University and Chair of Global Law, Queen Mary University of LondonTable of ContentsList of contributors; Preface; Introduction: sovereignty in action Bas Leijssenaar and Neil Walker; Part I. Theory in History: 1. Post-sovereignty? Dieter Grimm; 2. When sovereigns stir Neil Walker; 3. The people as popular manifestation Jason Frank; 4. Sovereignty, action, autonomy Raf Geenens; Part II. History of Theory: 5. Liberal governmentality and the political theology of constitutionalism Miguel Vatter; 6. Popular sovereignty: the people's two bodies Pasquale Pasquino; 7. Nations against the people. Whose sovereign power? Olga Bashkina; 8. A positive or negative conception of sovereignty? Marcel Gauchet, Benjamin Constant and liberal democracy Nora Timmermans; 9. Political idolatry: the relation of Schmitt's two claims in Political Theology Stephanie Frank; Index.

    15 in stock

    £95.00

  • Cambridge University Press The Early Medieval Origins of India

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisIndia is generally regarded as a civilization with a set of intrinsic attributes that emerged in the age of the Vedas or, better still, in the Harappan times. In recent decades, historical studies have moved away from rigid perspectives of singularity in origin and expansion; the emphasis now is on pluralities and long-term processes spanning centuries and millennia. There is also an influential school of thought which rejects antiquity claims such as these and holds that India is a construct of the colonial and nationalist imagination. In his radical reinterpretation of India's past, Manu V. Devadevan moves away from these reifying assessments to examine the evolution of institutions, ideas and identities that are characterized, typically, as Indian. In lieu of endorsing their Indianness, he traces their emergence to specific conditions that developed in India between 600 and 1200 CE, a period which historians now call the 'early medieval'.Table of ContentsList of tables; List of maps and figures; Acknowledgements; Introduction; Part I. Institutions: 1. State formation and its structural foundations; 2. From the cult of chivalry to the cult of personality: the seventh-century transformation in Pallava statecraft; 3. Changes in land relations and the changing fortunes of the Cēra state; 4. Temple and territory in the Puri Jagannātha imaginaire; Part II. Ideas: 5. Svayamòbuddha's predilections: the epistemologies of time and knowledge; 6. Bhāravi and the creation of a literary paradigm; 7. Knowing and being: the semantic universe of the Kūdòiyātòtòamò theatre; 8. The invention of zero and its intellectual legacy; Part III. Identities: 9. The evolution of vernacular languages: a case study of Kannada; 10. Religious identities in times of Indumaulòi's grief; 11. Caste, gender and the landed patriarchy; 12. The making of territorial self consciousness (with particular reference to Kaliṅga); Bibliography; Index.

    15 in stock

    £71.24

  • Cambridge University Press Progress Unchained

    3 in stock

    Book SynopsisProgress Unchained reinterprets the history of the idea of progress using parallels between evolutionary biology and changing views of human history. Early concepts of progress in both areas saw it as the ascent of a linear scale of development toward a final goal. The ''chain of being'' defined a hierarchy of living things with humans at the head, while social thinkers interpreted history as a development toward a final paradise or utopia. Darwinism reconfigured biological progress as a ''tree of life'' with multiple lines of advance not necessarily leading to humans, each driven by the rare innovations that generate entirely new functions. Popular writers such as H. G. Wells used a similar model to depict human progress, with competing technological innovations producing ever-more rapid changes in society. Bowler shows that as the idea of progress has become open-ended and unpredictable, a variety of alternative futures have been imagined.Trade Review'From the antique idea of a Chain of Being to the continually branching Tree of Life, Bowler brings a lifetime of learning to the intellectual history of progress. Few could show us with such precision and clarity how progress came to be 'unchained', and what this history might mean for our own visions of the future.' Alison Bashford, University of New South Wales'Evolutionary speculation has always been bound up with social ideas and hopes of progress. Peter Bowler argues that Charles Darwin altered the debate fundamentally, showing that evolution is no predetermined upward rise, but increasingly a function of human creativity. This wonderfully provocative book is as entertaining to read as its underlying erudition impresses. Highly recommended.' Michael Ruse, Professor Emeritus, University of Guelph'In this timely and wide-ranging survey, a leading historian of evolutionary theory explores the doctrine of progress and the fate during the nineteenth and earlier twentieth centuries of pictures of an attainable utopia. Peter Bowler's study of writings in public science and science fiction provides fascinating reading for anyone interested in how models of what is to come changed in history and may change again.' Simon Schaffer, University of Cambridge'… the book is well written and altogether thought provoking.' J. L. Hunt, CHOICETable of ContentsPreface; 1. Introduction: ladders and trees; Part I. The Ladder of Progress and the End of History: 2. From the chain of being to the ladder of creation; 3. The hierarchy of humanity; 4. Progress to paradise: Christianity, idealism and history; 5. Ascent to utopia: the quest for a perfect society; 6. End of an era?; Part II. Toward a World of Unlimited Possibilities: 7. Darwinian visions; 8. The uniqueness of humans; 9. Branching out: the evolution of civilizations; 10. Toward an uncertain future; 11. Epilogue: where did it all go wrong?; Bibliography.

    3 in stock

    £33.24

  • Cambridge University Press Understanding Race

    3 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe human species is very young, but in a short time it has acquired some striking, if biologically superficial, variations across the planet. As this book shows, however, none of those biological variations can be understood in terms of discrete races, which do not actually exist as definable entities. Starting with a consideration of evolution and the mechanisms of diversification in nature, this book moves to an examination of attitudes to human variation throughout history, showing that it was only with the advent of slavery that considerations of human variation became politicized. It then embarks on a consideration of how racial classifications have been applied to genomic studies, demonstrating how individualized genomics is a much more effective approach to clinical treatments. It also shows how racial stratification does nothing to help us understand the phenomenon of human variation, at either the genomic or physical levels.Trade Review'DeSalle and Tattersall provide a brilliant and comprehensive refutation of the folk concept of human races. Anyone who thinks that there are natural categories of people that correspond to zoological subspecies will have their worldview blown to bits!' Jonathan Marks, Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina at Charlotte'Understanding Race explains to the reader in accessible terms all the misconceptions that continue to plague both lay people and professionals concerning race. First, the authors establish for the reader the fundamental mechanisms of evolution that are responsible for the variation within all species; then they explain how people thought about variation before there was a science to correctly explain it. The book guides the reader through how racial thinking changed as our understanding of evolution, as well as the technology to understand genetic variation, improved. The authors end by drawing attention to ongoing misconceptions concerning biological variation and social definitions of race in a variety of arenas, including medicine. If you don't read my books, you should read theirs; and in the best of all worlds you should read both.' Joseph L. Graves, Jr, Professor of Biological Sciences, North Carolina A&T State UniversityTable of Contents1. The evolutionary background; 2. Race before evolutionary theory; 3. Race after Darwin; 4. Race in the era of genetics and genomics; 5. Variation in genomes, and how humans took over the world; 6. Clustering and treeing; 7. Race in medicine and complex phenotypic studies; 8. Human adaptations; 9. Race, science and pseudoscience.

    3 in stock

    £39.99

  • Brown Boy

    Simon & Schuster Ltd Brown Boy

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisA groundbreaking new memoir which charts the author's journey from growing up in a working-class, immigrant family on the outskirts of Toronto to becoming foreign policy advisor to Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau.

    1 in stock

    £15.29

  • Contemporary Perspectives on Early Modern

    Broadview Press Ltd Contemporary Perspectives on Early Modern

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisContemporary Perspectives on Early Modern Philosophy is a collection of essays dedicated to Vere Chappell, one of the most respected scholars in the field of early modern philosophy. Seventeen distinguished scholars have contributed essays to this collection on topics including dualism, identity and essence, causation, theodicy, free will, perception, abstraction, and the moral law.Trade Review“Original, incisive, probing essays on central topics in the history of modern philosophy by leaders in the field in honor of one of the masters in the discipline.” — R.C. Sleigh, Jr., University of Massachusetts, Amherst“This volume of eighteen well-crafted analytical essays on Descartes, Locke, Leibniz, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant is authored and edited by some of the best known historians of philosophy today. Ranging over issues in the philosophy of mind, metaphysics, moral philosophy, and the philosophy of science, it is a fitting tribute to a notable scholar.” — Catherine Wilson, City University of New York Graduate CenterTable of ContentsIntroduction Gary Matthews Descartes’s Fourth Meditation as Theodicy Lisa Shapiro “Turn My Will in Completely the Opposite Direction”: Radical Doubt and Descartes’s Account of Free Will Marleen Rozemond Descartes’s Ontology of the Eternal Truths Thomas M. Lennon The Significance of Descartes’s Objection of Objections Alison Simmons Guarding the Body: A Cartesian Phenomenology of Perception John Carriero Substance and Ends in Leibniz G.A.J. Rogers Locke and the Creation of the Essay Nicholas Jolley Lockean Abstractionism Versus Cartesian Nativism Edwin McCann Identity, Essentialism, and the Substance of Body in Locke Dan Kaufman The Resurrection of the Same Body and the Ontological Status of Organisms: What Locke Should Have (and Could Have) Told Stillingfleet Michael Jacovides Lockean Fluids Kenneth P. Winkler Locke’s Defense of Mathematical Physics Martha Brandt Bolton Intellectual Virtue and Moral Law in Locke’s Ethics Margaret Atherton What Have We Learned When We Learn to See?: Lessons Learned from the Theory of Vision Vindicated Janet Broughton Hume’s Explanation of Causal Inference Stephen Voss A Critique of Kantian Sensibility Paul Guyer Object, Self, and Cause: Kant’s Answers to Hume Index

    1 in stock

    £64.80

  • ESCH 2022   Ars Electronica: IN TRANSFER: A New

    Hatje Cantz ESCH 2022 Ars Electronica: IN TRANSFER: A New

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisFocussing on the potentials of creative and artistic thinking in scientific research as well as industrial production, the exhibition shows how collaborations between art and science can substantially support the creation of innovative, sustainable and ethical solutions to the struggles and issues of contemporary societies. Conceived in collaboration with Ars Electronica, international platform and eponymous festival pioneering in the development of strategies and competencies for the Digital Transformation, the exhibition is curated by Martin Honzik, chief curator at Ars Electronica and Laura Welzenbach, Head of Ars Electronica Export.

    1 in stock

    £22.40

  • Ideas in History: Journal of the Nordic Society

    Museum Tusculanum Press Ideas in History: Journal of the Nordic Society

    7 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis peer reviewed journal serves as a forum for diverse perspectives and approaches among historians of ideas and scholars of other disciplines who pursue research on topics in the history of ideas in the Nordic countries. At the same time, the journal wishes to provide a forum of exchange and dialogue between scholars from the Nordic countries and their non-Nordic colleagues and open up the English-speaking world to research from the Nordic community. This book is the result of collaborative efforts among nearly a dozen universities and colleges throughout the Nordic countries. The purpose of these initiatives is to further awareness of research, resources, and activities in the field of intellectual history in the Nordic countries as well as internationally. Ideas in History seeks a pluralism of methodological approaches to intellectual history: reflections on the field, historical contexts studied, subject matter for intellectual-historical investigation, critical understandings of relations between the intellectual past and present as well as the comprehension of culturally, politically and geographically diverse intellectual traditions.

    7 in stock

    £17.09

  • Philosophical Path for Paracelsian Medicine

    Museum Tusculanum Press Philosophical Path for Paracelsian Medicine

    1 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    1 in stock

    £58.05

  • 15 in stock

    £19.94

  • Oxford University Press Out of Time Music and the Making of Modernity

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisOut of Time explores a bold idea: that western art music of the last four hundred years is better understood through the idea of musical modernity than by the usual periodizations of music history.Trade ReviewIncluding many musical examples and a wealth of references to literature on modernity and music, this refreshing exploration of "modern music" goes backward and forward, and surrounds music in the present. * B. L. Eden, CHOICE *Table of ContentsIntroduction ; Mapping musical modernity ; 1. Being Late ; Looking back ; Brokenness ; Remembering ; 2. Being Early ; Pushing forwards ; The temporality of desire ; Sounding utopia ; 3. The Precarious Present ; Simultaneity ; Boredom ; Historicism as modernism ; 4. Being Everywhere ; The space of music ; Labyrinths ; Technologies of the musical body ; 5. Being Elsewhere ; Music as transport ; The metaphysics of restlessness ; Re-enchantment ; 6. Placing the Self ; Being nowhere ; Hypersubjectivity ; Staging the self ; 7. Like a Language ; Disclosure ; Discourse ; Music as self-critique ; 8. Le corps sonore ; The return of the repressed ; Bodies of sound ; The grammar of dreams ; Bibliography

    15 in stock

    £48.45

  • Oxford University Press Chosen Peoples

    15 in stock

    Book Synopsis''Unto thy seed I have given this land.'' From the moment of God''s covenant with Abraham in the Old Testament, the idea that a people are chosen by God has had a central role in shaping national identity. Chosen Peoples argues powerfully that sacred belief remains central to national identity, even in an increasingly secular, globalized modern world. In this important new study, Anthony D. Smith goes in search of the deep Judeo-Christian roots of the many manifestations of national identity.This rich and timely contribution to current debates about nationalism explains the complex historical reasons behind often violent modern conflicts around issues of land, culture, religion, and politics. Tracing the development of individual nations over many centuries, it offers fascinating insights into the religious and cultural foundations of countries such as Great Britain, the United States, Israel, France, and Germany. The argument draws on a wide range of examples from historic landscapes Trade ReviewOnce again, Anthony Smith has succeeded in thinking 'outside the box' of fashionable critical theory while, at the same time, engaging with it on its own terms. * Mary Anne Perkins, Journal of the American Academy of Religion *This book is like Jacob's coat of many colours: rich and varied in ideas and insights that should appeal to European historians and social scientists. * THES *a lucid and wide-ranging study * Karen Armstrong, The Independent Review *The range of the book is huge not only in its geographical, ethnic, and cultured sweep. It brings together political and religious history in the context of the history of ideas, exploring powerful traditions, sacred texts, paintings and monuments, myths and legends, and drawing on the writings of great literary figures. * Mary Anne Perkins, Journal of the American Academy of Religion *The book's content spans nationalist models and mythologies from Welsh to Siamese, and its chronological scope ranges from biblical times to the twentieth century. Yet the breadth is matched by depth, and the scholarship is never comprised. * Mary Anne Perkins, Journal of the Amercian Academy of Religion *Table of ContentsIntroduction ; 1. Nationalism and Religion ; 2. The Nation as a Sacred Communion ; 3. Election and Covenant ; 4. Peoples of the Covenant ; 5. Missionary Peoples ; 6. Sacred Homelands ; 7. Ethno history and the Golden Age ; 8. Nationalism and Golden Ages ; 9. The Glorious Dead ; Conclusion ; Notes ; Bibliography ; Index

    15 in stock

    £59.85

  • Oxford University Press Renaissance Philosophy

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe Renaissance has long been recognized as a brilliant moment in the development of Western civilization. However, little attention has been devoted to the distinct contributions of philosophy to Renaissance culture. This volume introduces the reader to the philosophy written, read, taught, and debated during the period traditionally credited with the `revival of learning''. The authors examine the relation of Renaissance philosophy to humanism and the universities, the impact of rediscovered ancient sources, the recovery of Plato and the Neoplatonists, and the evolving ascendancy of Aristotle. Renaissance Philosophy also explores the original contributions of major figures including Bruni, Valla, Ficino, Pico della Mirandola, Pomponazzi, Machiavelli, More, Vitoria, Montaigne, Bruno, and Campanella. Renaissance Philosophy demonstrates the uses of ancient and medieval philosophy by Renaissance thinkers, and throws light on the early modern origins of modern philosophy.Trade ReviewFor those, philosophers and historians of ideas alike, who wish to enlarge their understanding of these complex patterns of influence, Renaissance Philosophy provides a comprehensive and richly documented guide. * TLS *a brilliantly successful piece of work * Renaissance Philosophy *the wealth of information in this book is amazing * THES *Table of Contents1. The Historical Context of Renaissance Philosophy ; 2. Aristotelianism ; 3. Platonism ; 4. Stoics, Sceptics, Epicureans, and Other Innovators ; 5. Nature against Authority: Breaking Away from the Classics ; 6. Renaissance Philosophy and Modern Memory ; Bibliography; Index

    15 in stock

    £39.99

  • Oxford University Press Idols of Perversity

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisFully illustrated, this volume provides a provocative analysis of the unprecedented eruption of misogyny at the turn of the 20th century in the works of the key artists of the age.Trade Review'a fascinating and alarming study ... A staggering number of pictures are reproduced, many of them completely unfamiliar to scholars of the period. The overall thesis of Idols of Perversity is deadly serious, and its relevance for the world we live in is enormous' Review of English Studies'Dijkstra is exhilarating when he gets down to description and denunciation' Los Angeles Times Book Review'This is a superb and rewarding book.' Sunday Times'An astonishing and profusely illustrated encyclopaedia of misogyny, proving once more that men always love the thing they kill.' Observer'Dijkstra writes with verve and humour ... This is a deeply unsettling book, which no-one interested in the birthright of 20th-century social values should ignore.' Patricia Morison, Sunday Telegraph'Profusely illustrated' Books'provocative treasure-house of research' Oxford Times'An astonishing and profusely illustrated encyclopaedia of misogyny, proving once more that men always love the thing they kill.' Observer'Extensive scholarly and pictorial research makes this study of the causes and effects of virulent misogyny in fin-de-siecle art an important contribution to our understanding of modern sexuality and culture. This is a superb and rewarding book.' Sunday Times'A book of value not just to feminists but to sociologists and those interested in painting ... It is a fount of insight into humanity and art.' Day by Day''A provocative treasure-house of research' Oxford Times'a scholarly volume' The Times

    15 in stock

    £33.72

  • Oxford University Press The Female Thermometer

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe work of leading scholar Terry Castle, called by the New York Times always engaging...consistently fascinating, has helped to revolutionize thinking about lesbian studies and eighteenth-century literature. Reenvisioning the era as peculiarly alive with complexity, in which gender, sexuality, and culture are in constant flux, she offers provocative new theories on culture and sexual identity. This collection offers several of Castle''s liveliest essays on female identity from the eighteenth century to the early twentieth century. Throughout the book are woven themes which are constant in Castle''s work: fantasy, hallucination, travesty, transgression, and sexual ambiguity. Like the mythical thermometer of the title, which was purported to measure female lasciviousness, literature is filled with devices for quantifying elements of women''s nature and sexuality which are hard to define--or uncomfortable to confront. Looking at images that mask or mystify female nature, like the masquerTrade ReviewThe Female Thermometer is filled with incisive observations that make us re-examine the broad preconceptions we hold about the 18th century and reassess some of its specific cultural artifacts. * The New York Times *

    15 in stock

    £45.12

  • Oxford University Press Catching the Light

    15 in stock

    Book Synopsis`This is a most persuasive book on a most important subject. I recommend it highly.'' Saul Bellow With scholarship and clarity, Arthur Zajonc takes us on an epic journey into scientific history. Yet Catching the Light is not just about science; it is a book of ideas that blends science with literature, religion, philosophy, and morality and tries to answer the question that has mystified humanity from pre-history to the present day: what is light?Trade Review`a multi-levelled history about virtually everything that human beings have thought about light and seeing in the last three thousand years... ...I have not enjoyed a book so much for a long time. Oliver Sacks`a small gem of a book' James Gleik, Washington Post

    15 in stock

    £18.49

  • Oxford University Press Uncommon Sense

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisUncommon Sense is an innovative and lively examination of science and its historical development as an unnatural mode of thought. This book looks at why science developed in the West and what its implications have been for our society. This book will also challenge many assumptions about the nature and role of science in our world. Professor of Physics, Alan Cromer, examines not only the history of science and its unique mode of thought but also the way that science is taught and suggests ways of restructuring the curriculum.Uncommon Sense is an illuminating look at science, filled with provocative observations. Whether challenging Thomas Kuhn''s theory of scientific revolutions, or extolling the virtues of Euclid''s Elements, Alan Cromer is always insightful, outspoken, and refreshingly original.Trade Review... this book is a healthy antidote to all the deconstructing of the remarkable achievements of Western science that is going on in modern academic life. * Harold Morowitz, Nature *Table of ContentsAspects of Science; Mind and Magic; From Apes to Agriculture; Prophets and Poets; Theorems and Planets; Sages and Scholars; Towns and Gowns; Science and Nonsense; Are we Alone?; Education for an Age of Science; Appendix A: Hindu Trigonometry; Appendix B: An Integrated Science Course.

    15 in stock

    £36.09

  • Oxford University Press, USA Philosophy of Mathematics and Mathematical Practice in the Seventeenth Century

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisProvides an account of the relationship between mathematical advances of the 17th century and the philosophy of mathematics of the period. Starting with the Renaissance debates on the certainty of mathematics, the book explores the issues raised by the emergence of these mathematical techniques.Trade ReviewStudents of the history of mathematics and philosophers of mathematics will find this a valuable addition to the literature. * Choice *Mancosu's book shows philosophical acumen as well as high technical competence--and it makes good reading even as it explores abstruse notions or involved technicalities. For historians of early modern mathematics, it is essential reading. * Isis *Mancosu tells the story well and is good at bringing out significant points. * International Philosophical Quarterly *This is a very carefully researched and documented analysis of the rich relationship between philosophy of mathematics and mathematical practice during the 17th century. * Mathematical Reviews *Mancosu's scholarly book is very carefully researched, but it is also clearly written and fascinating to read. It is not to be missed by anyone with a serious interest in philosophy of mathematics. * Philosophia Mathematica *Table of Contents1. Philosophy of Mathematics and Mathematical Practice in the Early Seventeenth Century 1.1: The Quaestio de Certitudine Mathematicarum 1.2: The Quaestio in the Seventeenth Century 1.3: The Quaestio and Mathematical Practice 2. Cavalieri's Geometry of Indivisibles and Guldin's Centers of Gravity 2.1: Magnitudes, Ratios, and the Method of Exhaustion 2.2: Cavalieri's Two Methods of Indivisibles 2.3: Guldin's Objections to Cavalieri's Geometry of Indivisibles 2.4: Guldin's Centrobaryca and Cavalieri's Objections 3. Descartes' Géométrie 3.1: Descartes' Géométrie 3.2: The Algebraization of Mathematics 4. The Problem of Continuity 4.1: Motion and Genetic Definitions 4.2: The "Casual" Theories in Arnauld and Bolzano 4.3: Proofs by Contradiction from Kant to the Present 5. Paradoxes of the Infinite 5.1: Indivisibles and Infinitely Small Quantities 5.2: The Infinitely Large 6. Leibniz's Differential Calculus and Its Opponents 6.1: Leibniz's Nova Methodus and L'Hôpital's Alalyse des Infiniment Petits 6.2: Early Debates with Clüver and Nieuwentijt 6.3: The Foundational Debate in the Paris Academy of Sciences Appendix: Giuseppe Biancani's De Mathematicarum Natura, Translated by Gyula Klima Notes References Index

    15 in stock

    £32.29

  • Oxford University Press The White Image in the Black Mind

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisHistorical studies of white racial thought focus exclusively on white ideas about the Negroes. Bay''s study is the first to examine the reverse -- black ideas about whites, and, consequently, black understandings of race and racial categories. Bay examines African-American ideas about white racial character and destiny in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In examining black racial thought, this work also explores the extent to which black Americans accepted or rejected 19th century notions about innate racial characteristics.Trade ReviewThis is a meticulous and thought-provoking study of a hitherto neglected topic. It will deservedly take its place alongside the best recent scholarship on the enduring problem of race in American history * American Nineteenth Century History *An important and timely investigation of African American conceptions of race from the Revolutionary era to the 1920s ... Its scope is also considerably broader than just a consideration of African American ideas about whites, the author having much to say about white racism, self-conceptions of black identity, and race relations in general * American Nineteenth Century History *Table of ContentsIntroduction: 1. Desegregating American Racial Thought 2. Overview Part I: White People in Black Ethnology Chapter 1: "Of One Blood God Created All The Nations Of Men": African-Americans Respond to the Rise of Ideological Racism, 1789-1830 Chapter 2: The Redeemer Race and the Angry Saxon: Race, Gender, and White People in Antebellum Black Ethnology Chapter 3: "What Shall We Do With The White People?": Whites in Postbellum Black Thought Part II: The Racial Thought of the Slaves Introduction to Part II Chapter 4: "Us Is Human Flesh": The Racial Thought of the Slaves Chapter 5: "Devils and Good People Walking De Road At De Same Time": White People in Black Folk Thought Part III: New Negroes, New Whites: Black Racial Thought in the Twentieth Century Chapter 6: "A New Negro For A New Country": Black Racial Ideology, 1900-1925 Conclusion Notes Index

    15 in stock

    £37.99

  • Oxford University Press Inc Confucius and the Analects

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisConfucius is one of the most influential figures--as historical individual and as symbol--in world history; and the Analects, the sayings attributed to Confucius and his disciples, is a classic of world literature. Nonetheless, how to understand both figure and text is constantly under dispute. Surprisingly, this volume is the first and only anthology on these topics in English. Here, contributors apply a variety of different methodologies (including philosophical, philological, and religious) and address a number of important topics, from Confucius and Western virtue ethics to Confucius'' attitude toward women to the historical composition of the text of the Analects. Scholars will appreciate the rigor of these essays, while students and beginners will find them accessible and engaging.Trade ReviewProviding a collection of sophisticated new essays in various perspectives on the primal father of Chinese thought and values, Confucius and the Analects: New Essays is a highly anticipated and worthwhile contribution to Confucian studies. This text will remain a standard work in the field that belongs on the desk of every dedicated sinologist. At the same time, it manifests an opening sally, and one hopes that this text will stir others in the field to respond to the issues raised in the common quest for a more authentic understanding and deeper appreciation of Confucius and his thought. * Journal of the American Academy of Religion *... may be the most important of several books published in this field during the past few years. Bryan W. Van Norden's rich but concise introduction is one of the most important resources available in this anthology. * The Journal of Asian Studies *... this volume preserves unity without sacrificing diversity and introduces readers to central issues in the study of early Chinese thought without imposing a uniform or systematic interpretation. * The Journal of Asian Studies *

    15 in stock

    £43.69

  • Oxford University Press Strange Secret Peoples

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisTeeming with creatures, both real and imagined, this encyclopedic study in cultural history illuminates the hidden web of connections between the Victorian fascination with fairies and their lore and the dominant preoccupations of Victorian culture at large. Carole Silver here draws on sources ranging from the anthropological, folkloric, and occult to the legal, historical, and medical. She is the first to anatomize a world peopled by strange beings who have infiltrated both the literary and visual masterpieces and the minor works of the writers and painters of that era. Examining the period of 1798 to 1923, Strange and Secret Peoples focuses not only on such popular literary figures as Charles Dickens and William Butler Yeats, but on writers as diverse as Thomas Carlyle, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Charlotte Mew; on artists as varied as mad Richard Dadd, Aubrey Beardsley, and Sir Joseph Noel Paton; and on artifacts ranging from fossil skulls to photographs and vases. Silver demonstratesTrade Review"While Silver presents a mainly academic approach, it is highly readable and fascinating material to anyone who loves this literary period."--Michigan Alumnus Magazine"[A] fascinating account...Silver, a literature professor, provides a generally valuable service in integrating anthropological, linguistic, and folkloric materials into her discussion of Victorian conceptions of alternative worlds of existence. Recommended especially for Victorian specialists and sophisticated readers of fairy tales."--Choice"This is an entertaining and informative study of Victorian culture....Provides some of the most original reading on the subject we have."--The New York Times Book Review"Highly accessible....This is essential for academic libraries, and highly recommended for public libraries as well."--Library Journal"[Features] the choicest discoveries...Silver has culled from her vast reading in fairy lore and the Victorian folklorists....Handsomely illustrated."--Studies in English Literature"Silver's superb study of the Victorian fascination with fairylore and folklore reveals how pervasive and significant the belief in fairies was and still may be in British culture. Silver traces the evolution of fairy images throughout the nineteenth century and convincingly demonstrates how they provide important commentary on changing tastes and attitudes of the British, who took the fairies very seriously. Her book is filled with fascinating case studies of changelings, fairy brides, goblins, and banshei, transformed into representative figures of Victorian beliefs in discourses about utilitarianism, race, gender, and industrialism. Not only does she deal with the intertextuality of fairylore in society and literature, but she also discusses painting, music, ballet, theater, and folklore. This book is required reading--and delightful reading--for anyone interested in the 'secret people' who captivated the Victorians throughout the nineteenth century."--Jack Zipes, University of Minnesota"Strange and Secret Peoples is concerned not with eminent Victorians, but with the 'little people'--fairies, elves, mermaids and the like--in whom those eminent Victorians believed. With cogency, clarity, and learning, Carole Silver maps the intricacies of nineteenth-century faith in fairy lore, a faith perhaps more vital in British life than official, organized religion. [This book] is a scintillating work that will appeal to everyone interested in nineteenth-century England, in odd gods and folk beliefs, and, of course, to all readers who believe in fairies."--Nina Auerbach, University of Pennsylvania

    15 in stock

    £40.37

  • Oxford University Press Inc Inventing Temperature

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisIn Inventing Temperature, Chang takes a historical and philosophical approach to examine how scientists were able to use scientific method to test the reliability of thermometers; how they measured temperature beyond the reach of thermometers; and how they came to measure the reliability and accuracy of these instruments without a circular reliance on the instruments themselves. Chang discusses simple epistemic and technical questions about these instruments, which in turn lead to more complex issues about the solutions that were developed.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 *[A] fascinating study * David Knight, BJHS, Vol. 39/4 *Table of ContentsChronology: 1: 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

    15 in stock

    £137.50

  • Oxford University Press Oxford Group and the Emergence of Animal Rights An Intellectual History

    15 in stock

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

    15 in stock

    £57.95

  • Clarendon Press Printed CommonplaceBooks and the Structuring of Renaissance Thought

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis text looks at printed commonplace-books and the structuring of Renaissance thought. It should be of interest to scholars and students of Renaissance literature, cultural history, rhetoric, theology and philosophy.Trade Reviewhighly stimulating ... very welcome. ... Moss analyses and compares many books which have barely been mentioned by previous scholars. ... With extraordinary bibliographical thoroughness and exemplary clarity Moss has produced an indispensable survey of the theory and practice of the printed commonplace-book. ... embellished with precious scholarly insights * Peter Mack, University of Warwick, Renaissance Studies, Vol 15, No 1 *she has produced a lively and learned history of Renaissance Europe's primary text-processing tool * Times Literary Supplement *This book provides us at last with a meticulously detailed account of the origins, flowering, and decline of the commonplace-book in early modern Europe. Ann Moss is always sensitive to confessional or pedogogical differences ... Ann Moss offers a generous supply of materials and possible leads which one may follow up according to one's preferences and priorities as a reader of the early modern. Whatever one's perspective ... no one who is seriously interested in early modern culture, the history of pedagogy, or the history of ideas can afford to neglect this major contribution. * Terence Cave, Rhetoria 15.3 *Not just a study of commonplace books but of though (Latin locus, Greek topos, English commonplace), of testimony of quotation, this is a magisterial work. It is impossible to reduce Moss's detailed survey to generalizations. L.E. Maguire. The Yearbook of English Studies 1999.Ann Moss provides a learned historical account of the rise and fall of the Renaissance commonplace book ... Moss has read and analyzed a very large number of original sources from the Middle Ages through the seventeenth century ... this is an excellent book: it will become required reading for anyone interested in rhetoric, Latin education, and the broader intellectual world of northern Europe during the Renaissance. * Paul F. Grendler, Renaissance Quarterly *

    15 in stock

    £182.50

  • Oxford University Press Gervase of Tilbury Otia Imperialia

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisGervase of Tilbury's Otia Imperialia was written in the early thirteenth century for his patron, the Holy Roman Emperor Otto IV. This is the first English translation of this major medieval text which is both learned and entertaining, full of scientific and theological speculation and a wealth of accounts of folklore and popular belief.Trade Reviewa massive work of fine scholarship * A. D. Carr, Folk Life *S.E. Banks and J.W. Binns, with their bilingual edition, broad introduction, and excellent commentary, have fulfilled a demand long put forward in scholarship. This new edition does justice to Gervais of Tilbury, one of the intellectuals who was most well-read, versatile and open to the world at the turn of the twelfth century; without a doubt it will facilitate further research on this unusual personality and his very interesting work. ... eminently readable ... As a guide to the world view of an educated and well-travelled man of affairs at the beginning of the thirteenth century, this is a fascinating piece ... Whether it cheered up the Emperor Otto is not recorded, but it should certainly prove highly entertaining for any modern medievalist. * Medium Aevum *Not only have the editors provided a wholly readable translation, but also the annotation is extremely full and helpful, including a wide-ranging modern bibliography. * English Historical Review *Post-Classical Latin is now the great lost literature of Europe. Editions like this one bring it back to life. * Tom Shippey, Times Literary Supplement *... a complete and reliable text and translation. * Tom Shippey, Times Literary Supplement *Table of ContentsIntroduction ; List of Sigla ; Text and Translation ; Appendices ; Indexes

    15 in stock

    £395.00

  • Oxford University Press The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval Europe

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis is a study of magic in western Europe in the early Middle Ages. Valerie Flint explores its practice and belief in Christian society, and examines the problems raised by so-called `pagan survivals'' and superstition''. She unravels the complex processes at work in the early medieval Christian church to show how the rejection of non-Christian magic came to be tempered by a more accommodating attitude: confrontation was replaced by negotiation, and certain practices previously condemned were not merely accepted, but actively encouraged. The forms of magic which were retained, as well as those the church set out to obliterate, are carefully analysed. The `superstitions'' condemned at the Reformation are shown to be, in origin, rational and intelligent concessions intended to reconcile coexisting cultures.Dr Flint explores the sophisticated cultural and religious compromise achieved by the church in this period. This is a scholarly and challenging book, which makes a major contributionTrade ReviewFlint's thesis is both significant and provocative ... a big, beautifully written, and wonderfully learned book. * The Higher *Table of ContentsPART I. INTRODUCTION: THE SCOPE OF THE STUDY ; PART II. THE MAGIC OF THE HEAVENS ; PART III. THE MAGIC OF THE EARTH ; PART IV. THE MAGUS

    15 in stock

    £57.00

  • OUP Oxford The Oxford Handbook of the History of Ethics

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisPhilosophical ethics consists in the human endeavour to answer rationally the fundamental question of how we should live. The Oxford Handbook of the History of Ethics explores the history of philosophical ethics in the western tradition from Homer until the present day. It provides a broad overview of the views of many of the main thinkers, schools, and periods, and includes in addition essays on topics such as autonomy and impartiality. The authors are international leaders in their field, and use their expertise and specialist knowledge to illuminate the relevance of their work to discussions in contemporary ethics. The essays are specially written for this volume, and in each case introduce the reader to the main lines of interpretation and criticism that have arisen in the professional history of philosophy over the past two or three decades.Trade ReviewEssential * W. Simkulet, Choice *Table of ContentsPreface ; List of Contributors ; 1. Homeric Ethics ; 2. Plato's Ethics ; 3. Aristotle's Ethics ; 4. Epicurus: Freedom, Death, and Hedonism ; 5. Cynicism and Stoicism ; 6. Ancient Scepticism ; 7. Platonic Ethics in Later Antiquity ; 8. Thomism ; 9. The Franciscans ; 10. Later Christian Ethics ; 11. Nature, Law, and Natural Law ; 12. Seventeenth Century Moral Philosophy: Self-Help, Self-Knowledge, and the Devil's Mountain ; 13. Rousseau and Ethics ; 14. Utilitarianism: Bentham and Rashdall ; 15. Rationalism ; 16. Rational Intuitionism ; 17. Moral Sense and Sentimentalism ; 18. Butler's Ethics ; 19. Hume's Place in the History of Ethics ; 20. Adam Smith ; 21. Kant's Moral Philosophy ; 22. Kantian Ethics ; 23. Post-Kantianism ; 24. Hegel and Marx ; 25. J. S. Mill ; 26. Sidgwick ; 27. British Idealist Ethics ; 28. Ethics in the Analytic Tradition ; 29. Free Will ; 30. Emotion and the Emotions ; 31. Happiness, Suffering, and Death ; 32. Autonomy ; 33. Egoism, Partiality, and Impartiality ; 34. Conscience, Guilt, and Shame ; 35. Moral Psychology and Virtue ; 36. Justice, Equality, and Rights ; 37. Styles of Moral Relativism: A Critical Family Tree ; 38. Moral Metaphysics ; 39. Constructing Practical Ethics ; Index

    15 in stock

    £34.99

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