Politics, Philosophy & Society Books
W. W. Norton & Company The Art of Reasoning
Book Synopsis
£76.47
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC The Breakdown of Nations
Book SynopsisA fascinating manifesto, proposing that the world should be split into smaller regions to distribute power more evenly.Written by one of the most original political thinkers of the 20th century, in The Breakdown of Nations, Leopold Kohr shows that throughout history people living in small states are happier, more peaceful, more creative and more prosperous. He argues that virtually all our political and social problems would be greatly diminished if the world''s major countries were to dissolve back into the small states from which they sprang. Rather than making even larger political unions, in the mistaken belief that this will bring peace and security, we should minimise the aggregation of power by returning to a patchwork of small, relatively powerless states where leaders are accessible to and responsive to the people.Originally published in 1957, this new edition features forewords by Neal Ascherson and Richard Body. The material has been nTrade ReviewWe have now reached the point Kohr warned about... the point where 'instead of growth serving life, life must now serve growth, perverting the very purpose of existence'. Kohr's crisis of bigness is upon us * Paul Kingsnorth, The Guardian *This is the most important book written by the most original political thinker of the 20th century. * Neal Ascherson, from the foreword *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Preface to the 1986 Edition Foreword by Neal Ascherson Foreword by Richard Body Introduction The Philosophies of Misery The Power Theory of Aggression Disunion Now Tyranny in a Small-State World The Physics of Politics: The Philosophic Argument Individual and Average Man: The Political Argument The Glory of the Small: The Cultural Argument The Efficiency of the Small: The Economic Argument Union Through Division: The Administrative Argument The Elimination of Great Powers: Can It Be Done? But Will It Be Done? The American Empire Appendices: The Principle of Federation Presented in Maps Chapter Notes Bibliography Index
£14.99
New World Library Oriental Mythology: The Masks of God, Volume 2
Book Synopsis
£21.60
Row House Publishing The Humanity Archive
Book Synopsis
£16.14
North Atlantic Books,U.S. Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness
Book Synopsis
£13.29
Princeton University Press How to Talk about Love
Book Synopsis
£13.49
Batsford Ltd Treasury of Folklore – Seas and Rivers: Sirens,
Book SynopsisEnthralling tales of the sea, rivers and lakes from around the globe. Folklore of the seas and rivers has a resonance in cultures all over the world. Watery hopes, fears and dreams are shared by all peoples where rivers flow and waves crash. This fascinating book covers English sailor superstitions and shape-shifting pink dolphins of the Amazon, Scylla and Charybdis, the many guises of Mami Wata, the tale of the Yoruba River spirit, the water horses of the Scottish lochs, the infamous mystery of the Bermuda Triangle, and much more. Accompanied by stunning woodcut illustrations, popular authors Dee Dee Chainey and Willow Winsham explore the deep history and enduring significance of water folklore the world over, from mermaids, selkies and sirens to ghostly ships and the fountains of youth. With this book, Folklore Thursday aims to encourage a sense of belonging across all cultures by showing how much we all have in common.Trade Review‘From selkies and sirens to the mysterious monsters of Scottish lochs, there is much to enlighten and entertain in this splendid collection of watery folklore’ -- The Countryman'A broad-brush and culturally diverse overview of the many facets of watery folklore, this Treasury of Folklore is a welcome addition to the literature, and one that is sure to please and inform a wide audience’ -- Folklore‘Dee Dee Chainey and Willow Winsham prove their own deserved place within the folklore world with these enchanting books.' * Fortean Times *
£12.34
John Wiley and Sons Ltd Resonance: A Sociology of Our Relationship to the
Book SynopsisThe pace of modern life is undoubtedly speeding up, yet this acceleration does not seem to have made us any happier or more content. If acceleration is the problem, then the solution, argues Hartmut Rosa in this major new work, lies in “resonance.” The quality of a human life cannot be measured simply in terms of resources, options, and moments of happiness; instead, we must consider our relationship to, or resonance with, the world. Applying his theory of resonance to many domains of human activity, Rosa describes the full spectrum of ways in which we establish our relationship to the world, from the act of breathing to the adoption of culturally distinct worldviews. He then turns to the realms of concrete experience and action – family and politics, work and sports, religion and art – in which we as late modern subjects seek out resonance. This task is proving ever more difficult as modernity’s logic of escalation is both cause and consequence of a distorted relationship to the world, at individual and collective levels. As Rosa shows, all the great crises of modern society – the environmental crisis, the crisis of democracy, the psychological crisis – can also be understood and analyzed in terms of resonance and our broken relationship to the world around us. Building on his now classic work on acceleration, Rosa’s new book is a major new contribution to the theory of modernity, showing how our problematic relation to the world is at the crux of some of the most pressing issues we face today. This bold renewal of critical theory for our times will be of great interest to students and scholars across the social sciences and humanities.Trade Review"If in the rush to increase production and wealth, we ever pause to consider what a good life would be like, and whether we’re missing something essential, Rosa’s book Resonance would be a good place to start. This remarkable work combines systematic theory with a host of valuable insights into human fulfillments that we too easily forgo."—Charles Taylor, McGill University "Affirmation of ordinary life is a key feature of modernity, but alienation from the world is a persistent experience of modern men and women. In Resonance, Rosa offers sketches of an alternative relation to the world and thereby a foundation for a sociology of the good life. A very important text and highly recommended."—Miroslav Volf, Yale University "Hartmut Rosa is one of the leading and most distinctive voices in contemporary social theory. In Resonance he continues the important analysis of the very nature of modernity laid out in Social Acceleration, and offers a new approach to basic human relationships, both to other people and to the world. This is a truly important book."—Craig Calhoun, Arizona State UniversityTable of ContentsAcknowledgments xii In Lieu of a Foreword: Sociology and the Story of Anna and Hannah 1 I Introduction 17 PART ONE: THE BASIC ELEMENTS OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIP TO THE WORLD II Bodily Relationships to the world 47 III Appropriating World and Experiencing World 83 IV Emotional, Evaluative, abd Cognitive Relationships to the World 110 V Resonance and Alienation as Basic Categories of a Theory of Our Relationship to the World 145 PART TWO: SPHERES AND AXES OF RESONANCE VI Introduction: Spheres of Resonance, Recognition, and the Axes of Our Relationship to the World 195 VII Horizontal Axes of Resonance 202 VIII Diagonal Axes of Resonance 226 IX Vertical Axes of Resonance 258 PART THREE: FEAR OF THE MUTING OF THE WORLD: A RECONSTRUCTION OF MODERNITY IN TERMS OF RESONANCE THEORY X Modernity as the History of Catastrophe of Resonance 307 XI Modernity as the History of Increasing Sensitivity to Resonance 357 XII Deserts and Oases of Life: Modern Everyday Practices in Terms of Resonance Theory 367 PART FOUR: A CRITICAL THEORY OF OUR RELATIONSHIP TO THE WORLD XIII Social Conditions of Successful and Unsuccessful Relationships to the World 381 XIV Dynamic Stabilization: The Escalatory Logic of Modernity and Its Consequences 404 XV Late Modern Crises of Resonance and the Contours of a Post-Growth Society 425 In Lieu of an Afterword: Defending Resonance Theory against Its Critice -- and Optimism agaibst Skeptics 444 Notes 460 References 504 Index 529
£18.04
Atlantic Books And Yet...: Essays
Book SynopsisA Sunday Times bestsellerChristopher Hitchens was an unparalleled, prolific writer, who raised the polemical essay to a new art form, over a lifetime of thinking and debating the defining issues of our times. As an essayist he contributed to the New Statesman, Atlantic Monthly, London Review of Books, TLS and Vanity Fair. Any publication of a volume of Hitchens' essays was a major event on both sides of the Atlantic. Now comes a volume of Hitchens' previously uncollected essays, covering the themes that define Hitchens the thinker: literature, religion and politics. These essays remind us, once more, of the fierce, brilliant and trenchant voice of Christopher Hitchens.Trade ReviewThe range is remarkable... Literary criticism is often where he shines - the pieces on Orwell and Chesterton, in particular, are alert, nuanced and witty. * Financial Times *And yet... there are few journalists who can match the verve and panache of Hitchens's prose. He mixes the loquaciousness of the barfly with the fluency of the literary artist, and could not pen a dull sentence if he tried. * Guardian *What you will find in And Yet..., is a body of work that offers some of the most various, nutritious and amusing prose you are likely to encounter, and that stands as a testament to the consolations of a phrase he cherished: litera scripta manet - the written word remains. * Daily Telegraph *This final collection displays his startling ability to write so well about so much... The sense of loss at the subjects he will not write about is more than outweighed by the pleasure at those that he did. * New Statesman *Table of Contents1: Che Guevara: Goodbye to All That 2: Orwell's List 3: Orhan Pamuk: Mind the Gap 4: Bring on the Mud 5: Ohio's Odd Numbers 6: On Becoming American 7: Mikhail Lermontov: A Doomed Young Man 8: Salman Rushdie: Hobbes in the Himalayas 9: My Red-State Odyssey 10: The Turkey Has Landed 11: Bah, Humbug 12: A. N. Wilson: Downhill All the Way 13: Ian Fleming: Bottoms Up 14: Power Suits 15: Blood for No Oil! 16: How Uninviting 17: Look Who's Cutting and Running Now 18: Oriana Fallaci and the Art of the Interview 19: Imperial Follies 20: Clive James: The Omnivore 21: Gertrude Bell: The Woman Who Made Iraq 22: Physician, Heal Thyself 23: Edmund Wilson: Literary Companion On the Limits of Self-improvement, Part I: Of Vice and Men 24: On the Limits of Self-improvement, Part II: Vice and Versa 25: On the Limits of Self-improvement, Part III: Mission Accomplished 26: Ayaan Hirsi Ali: The Price of Freedom 27: Arthur Schlesinger: The Courtier 28: Paul Scott: Victoria's Secret 29: The Case against Hillary Clinton 30: The Tall Tale of Tuzla 31: V. S. Naipaul: Cruel and Unusual 32: No Regrets 33: Barack Obama: Cool Cat 34: The Lovely Stones 35: Edward M. Kennedy: Redemption Song 36: Engaging with Iran Is Like Having Sex with Someone Who Hates You 37: Colin Powell: Powell Valediction 38: Shut Up about Armenians or We'll Hurt Them Again 39: Hezbollah's Progress 40: The Politicians We Deserve 41: Rosa Luxemburg: Red Rosa 42: Joan Didion: Blue Nights 43: The True Spirit of Christmas 44: Charles Dickens's Inner Child 45: G. K. Chesterton: The Reactionary 46: The Importance of Being Orwell 47: What Is Patriotism?
£10.44
Atria Books Greedy: Notes from a Bisexual Who Wants Too Much
Book SynopsisNamed one of the Best Books of 2021 by Oprah Daily, Glamour, Shondaland, BuzzFeed, and more! A hilarious and whip-smart collection of essays, offering an intimate look at bisexuality, gender, and, of course, sex. Perfect for fans of Lindy West, Samantha Irby, and Rebecca Solnit—and anyone who wants, and deserves, to be seen. If Jen Winston knows one thing for sure, it’s that she’s bisexual. Or wait—maybe she isn’t? Actually, she definitely is. Unless…she’s not? Jen’s provocative, laugh-out-loud debut takes us inside her journey of self-discovery, leading us through stories of a childhood “girl crush,” an onerous quest to have a threesome, and an enduring fear of being bad at sex. Greedy follows Jen’s attempts to make sense of herself as she explores the role of the male gaze, what it means to be “queer enough,” and how to overcome bi stereotypes when you’re the posterchild for all of them: greedy, slutty, and constantly confused. With her clever voice and clear-eyed insight, Jen draws on personal experiences with sexism and biphobia to understand how we all can and must do better. She sheds light on the reasons women, queer people, and other marginalized groups tend to make ourselves smaller, provoking the question: What would happen if we suddenly stopped? Greedy shows us that being bisexual is about so much more than who you’re sleeping with—it’s about finding stability in a state of flux and defining yourself on your own terms. This book inspires us to rethink the world as we know it, reminding us that Greedy was a superpower all along.
£14.24
Seven Stories Press,U.S. Everybody Talks About The Weather...we Don't: The
Book Synopsis
£11.69
New Society Publishers Power
Book SynopsisImpeccably researched and masterfully written, this book explains how and why humanity is driving itself off the cliff. Dahr Jamail, author, The End of IceWeaving together findings from a wide range of disciplines, Power traces how four key elements developed to give humans extraordinary power: tool making ability, language, social complexity, and the ability to harness energy sources ? most significantly, fossil fuels. It asks whether we have, at this point, overpowered natural and social systems, and if we have, what we can do about it.Has Homo sapiens one species among millions become powerful enough to threaten a mass extinction and disrupt the Earth''s climate? Why have we developed so many ways of oppressing one another? Can we change our relationship with power to avert ecological catastrophe, reduce social inequality, and stave off collapse?These questions and their answers will determine our fate.Trade Review"Heinberg's Power is a searing, unflinching revelation of what has driven us to our current existential crisis: humanity's quest for power. Impeccably researched and masterfully written, this book explains how and why humanity is driving itself off the cliff. If there is any hope for us to continue, Heinberg shows why it must come from efforts to limit our own power." — Dahr Jamail, author, The End of Ice "Richard Heinberg's panoramic review of known forms of power is both sobering and inspiring. Given our species' habitual methods for getting its way, be these methods physical, mental, or social, the outlook for our future is bleak indeed. Yet, Heinberg allows for the slim but real possibility of exercising restraint. If we are so persuaded, by wisdom or love for beauty, the future even now remains open. Indeed, such restraint returns us to ancient, almost forgotten appetites and capacities." — Joanna Macy, author, World As Lover, World As Self "It may be a moral idea that hard work pays off but if we need proof that it counts, this latest from Richard Heinberg carries all the evidence we need. His encyclopedic treatment of power is brilliant. It is sure to pop up in courses and living rooms like toast." — Wes Jackson, founder, The Land Institute "Heinberg goes to the very heart of the issue. Using his immense knowledge of biology, science, history, psychology, and the politics of energy, he shows that the environmental and social crises we face today have in their origin the insatiable human pursuit, and often abuse, of power, in all its forms. In showing us the path forward, Heinberg guides us to achieve power-limiting behavior so that we cannot just survive but thrive on a healthy planet and in healthy balance with one another." — Maude Barlow, author, activist, and co-founder, The Blue Planet Project "Power reminds us that Richard Heinberg is one of the most important public intellectuals in the conversation about society's future. Eminently readable and engaging, Power is breathtaking in its scope and insight. Heinberg persuasively argues that we have reached evolutionary limits to concentrated social power and that empathy and beauty are key to averting ecological and social catastrophe." — Chuck Collins, Institute for Policy Studies, author, The Wealth Hoarders "Power is a must read and a call to action for those seeking a sustainable, balanced, human future in harmony with the Earth. No guarantees, of course, but harnessing the power of sentient action certainly beats the alternative; of continuing our blind stumble only soon to be swept aside, as have many creatures before us." — Peter C. Whybrow, author, The Well-Tuned BrainTable of ContentsList of Figures List of Sidebars Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Power in Nature: From Mitochondria to Emotion and Deception The Basis of Life's Power Power and Bodies Power and Behaviors Proto-Human Powers 2. Power in the Pleistocene: On Spears, Fires, Furs, Words, and Flutes — And Why Men Are Such Power-Hogs Hands and Stone The Fire Ape Skins From Grunts to Sentences Gender Power The Power of Art 3. Power in the Holocene: The Rise of Social Inequality Gerdening, Big Men, and Chiefs: Power from Food Production Plow and Plunder: Kings and the First States Herding Cattle, Flogging Slaves: Power from Domestication Stories of Our Ancestors: Religion and Power Tools for Wording: Communication Technologies Numbers on Money Pathologies of Power 4. Power in the Anthropocene: The Wonderful World of Fossil Fuels It's All Energy The Coal Train Oil, Cars, Airplanes, and the New Middle Class Oil-Age Wars and Weapons Electrifying! The Human Superorganism 5. Overpowered: The Fine Mess We've Gotten Ourselves Into Climate Chaos and Its Remedies Disappearance of Wild Nature Resource Depletion Soaring Economic Inequality Pollution Overpopulation and Overconsumption Global Debt Bubble Weapons of Mass Destruction 6. Optimum Power: Sustaining Our Power Over Time Involuntary Power Limits: Death, Extinction, Collapse Self-Limitation in Natural and Human-Engineered Systems Taboos, Souls, and Enlightenment Taxes, Regulations, Activism, and Rationing: Power Restraint in the Modern World Games, Disarmament, and Degrowth Denial, Optimism Bias, and Irrational Exuberance 7. The Future of Power: Learning to Live Happily Within Limits All Against All Trade-Offs Along the Path of Self-Restraint The Fate of the Superorganism Questioning Technology Learning to Live with Less Energy and Stuff Lessening Inequality Population: Lowering It and Keeping It Steady Fighting Power with Power Long-Term Power Through Beauty, Spirituality, and Happiness Notes Index About the Author About New Society Publishers
£17.09
HarperCollins Publishers Consent A Memoir of Stolen Adolescence
Book SynopsisThe devastating and powerful memoir from a French publisher who was abused by a famous writer from the age of thirteenDazzling' New York TimesA gut-punch of a memoir with prose that cuts like a knife' Kate Elizabeth Russell, author of My Dark VanessaThirty years ago, Vanessa Springora was the teenage muse of one of France's most celebrated writers, a footnote in the narrative of an influential man. At the end of 2019, as women around the world began to speak out, Springora, now in her forties and the director of one of France's leading publishing houses, decided to reclaim her own story.Consent recalls her stolen adolescence. Devastating in its honesty, Springora's painstaking memoir lays bare the cultural attitudes and circumstances that made it possible for a fourteen-year-old girl to become involved with a fifty-year-old man.Trade Review‘A Molotov cocktail flung at the face of the French establishment, a work of dazzling, highly controlled fury. A triumph’ New York Times ‘A memoir of lost adolescence … elegant, focused, fluidly translated’ Guardian ‘Rapier-sharp, written with restraint, elegance and brevity – and beautifully translated’ The Times ‘A gut-punch of a memoir with prose that cuts like a knife. Springora never loses sight of the teenage girl at the centre of her story even as she lays bare a culture’s hypocrisies and failures. Painful and powerful, Consent reads like a reckoning’ Kate Elizabeth Russell, author of My Dark Vanessa ‘Incisive and brave, Consent examines how society often fails to protect young women in the most dangerous of ways’ Louise O’Neill ‘[Vanessa Springova’s] account makes one of the strongest points yet in the French #MeToo debate’ Los Angeles Review of Books ‘Fierce and controlled … a searing indictment of an overly permissive era that has triggered a national reckoning in France’ Daily Mail ‘Her sentences gleam like metal; each chapter snaps shut with the clean brutality of a latch’ The New Yorker ‘[Consent] has something steely in its heart, and it departs from the typical American memoir of childhood abuse in exhilarating ways’ Slate
£9.49
John Wiley and Sons Ltd Being in Flux: A Post-Anthropocentric Ontology of
Book SynopsisReality exists independently of human observers, but does the same apply to its structure? Realist ontologies usually assume so: according to them, the world consists of objects, these have properties and enter into relations with each other, more or less as we are accustomed to think of them. Against this view, Rein Raud develops a radical process ontology that does not credit any vantage point, any scale or speed of being, any range of cognitive faculties with the privilege to judge how the world ‘really’ is. In his view, what we think of as objects are recast as fields of constitutive tensions, cross-sections of processes, never in complete balance but always striving for it and always reconfiguring themselves accordingly. The human self is also understood as a fluctuating field, not limited to the mind but distributed all over the body and reaching out into its environment, with different constituents of the process constantly vying for control. The need for such a process philosophy has often been voiced, but rarely has there been an effort to develop it in a systematic and rigourous manner that leads to original accounts of identity, continuity, time, change, causality, agency and other topics. Throughout his new book, Raud engages with an unusually broad range of philosophical schools and debates, from New Materialism and Object-Oriented Ontology to both phenomenological and analytical philosophy of mind, from feminist philosophy of science to neurophilosophy and social ontology. Being in Flux will be of interest to students and scholars in philosophy and the humanities generally and to anyone interested in current debates about realism, materialism and ontology.Trade Review“In this remarkable in-depth discussion of social process ontologies, Rein Raud enlists the resources, methods and intuitions of different philosophical traditions to present an original perspective. Adopting a cross-disciplinary approach, he defends a post-anthropocentric vision that honours the specificity of being human, but also decentres arrogant human exceptionalism. This brilliant and erudite book emphasizes the continuity between humans and nonhumans as the necessary premise to explain our ability to make sense of the world.”Rosi Braidotti, Utrecht University“Rein Raud’s position in this book is almost the polar opposite of my own. Nonetheless, he brings fresh insights and arguments to the process materialism camp, and his lasting contributions to the debate make this an important work. Both process- and object-oriented thinkers should read it immediately.”Graham Harman, Southern California Institute of ArchitectureTable of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1 Ontology: some of the story so far Chapter 2 An ontology of processes and fields Chapter 3 Me, myself and my brain Chapter 4 The self as an extended decision-making network Concluding remarks Notes References
£18.04
Profile Books Ltd The Concise 33 Strategies of War
Book SynopsisFrom bestselling author Robert Greene comes a new guide to the strategies of war that can help us gain mastery in the modern world. Spanning world civilisations, and synthesising dozens of political, philosophical, and religious texts, The Concise 33 Strategies of War is a guide to the subtle social game of everyday life. Based on profound and timeless lessons, it is abundantly illustrated with examples of the genius and folly of everyone from Napoleon to Margaret Thatcher and Hannibal to Ulysses S. Grant, as well as diplomats, captains of industry and Samurai swordsmen.Trade ReviewTranslatable to virtually every facet of daily life...a rich mine of ideas and information...readable and stimulating. * Scotland on Sunday *Very good...An enormous number of directed anecdotes from warfare, politics and the arts. * Independent on Sunday *
£9.49
Liverpool University Press Australian Settler Colonialism and the
Book SynopsisIn 1938, the anthropologist Norman Tindale gave a classroom of young Aboriginal children a set of crayons and asked them to draw. The children, residents of the government-run Aboriginal station Cummeragunja, mostly drew pictures of aspects of white civilization boats, houses and flowers. What now to make of their artwork? Were the children encouraged or pressured to draw non-Aboriginal scenes, or did they draw freely, appropriating the white culture they now lived within? Did their Aboriginality change the meaning of their art, as they sketched out this ubiquitous colonial imagery? Australian Settler Colonialism and the Cummeragunja Aboriginal Station traces Cummeragunja's history from its establishment in the 1880s to its mass walk-off in 1939 and finally, to the 1960s, when its residents regained greater control over the land. Taking in oral history traditions, the author reveals the competing interests of settler governments, scientific and religious organizations, and nearby settler communities. The nature of these interests has broad and important implications for understanding settler colonial history. This history shows white people set boundaries on Aboriginal behaviour and movement, through direct legislation and the provision of opportunities and acceptance. But Aboriginal people had agency within and, at times, beyond these limits. Aboriginal people appropriated aspects of white culture including the houses, the flowers and the boats that their children drew for Tindale - reshaping them into new tools for Aboriginal society, tools with which to build lives and futures in a changed environment.Trade Review"Fiona Davis, a non-Indigenous scholar who grew up in northern Victoria, has done a great service by adapting her doctoral thesis into this fine book. She has written a fascinating, thoughtful, and accessible history of Cummeragunja, tracing its story from its late nineteenth century origins in the nearby Maloga Mission, through to the stations official closure in 1953. Her experience as a journalist in northern Victoria is reflected in the engaging storytelling that is at the heart of her book." Samuel Furphy, Australian National University, Australian Historical Studies, Vol. 46, no 1, March 2015.
£30.00
Verso Books SCUM Manifesto
Book Synopsis"Life in this society being, at best, an utter bore and no aspect of society being at all relevant to women, there remains to civic-minded, responsible, thrill-seeking females only to overthrow the government, eliminate the money system, institute complete automation and destroy the male sex."Outrageous and violent, SCUM Manifesto was widely lambasted when it first appeared in 1968. Valerie Solanas, the woman who shot Andy Warhol, self-published the book just before she became a notorious household name and was confined to a mental institution. But for all its vitriol, it is impossible to dismiss as the mere rantings of a lesbian lunatic. In fact, the work has proved prescient, not only as a radical feminist analysis light years ahead of its time-predicting artificial insemination, ATMs, a feminist uprising against underrepresentation in the arts-but also as a stunning testament to the rage of an abused and destitute woman.In this edition, philosopher Avital Ronell's introduction reconsiders the evocative exuberance of this infamous text.Trade ReviewThe SCUM Manifesto is a document of profound vulnerability, written in a voice of profound empowerment. It's a brutal call to arms, written by a woman in a world of hurt. This tension between powerlessness and power makes it an enduring piece of writing. Never have the personal and the political been so mercilessly zipped together, like little steel teeth. -- Claire Dederer * Nation *Solanas is as relevant today as she was in the 1960s, because nothing much has changed for women. -- Julie Bindel * Spectator *You either happen to think this is a work of unadulterated genius, or you dismiss it as the ravings of a loony psycho-bitch, not understanding that this is exactly what makes it so compelling and so charged with insight. -- Suzanne Moore * New Statesman *Valerie Solanas wrote a very angry and very precise portrait of what she considered the male to be: something between a human and an ape; an unresponsive blob only concerned with physical sensation and without the capacity for empathy or self-knowledge or intimacy, and at the same time full of hatred and jealously and shame and guilt. Her description is beautiful and on some level, I think, entirely accurate. -- Nick CaveIts nihilism is a form of utopia for Solanas, a pre-punk aesthete who fearlessly tossed out ideas that people are just now beginning to raise . As a mixture of social philosophy and fine shtick, her work has the rare virtue of seeming at the same time totally insane and totally right. * Los Angeles Times *As Solanas reminds us, revolutionary ideas don't emerge quietly from the elite stratum of a society; they often bloom from its scum. * Dissent *Articulate, angry and funny. * Guardian *Gleefully incoherent, crackling with energy. * Bookslut *
£8.92
Collective Ink More Than Allegory – On religious myth, truth and
Book SynopsisThis book is a three-part journey into the rabbit hole we call the nature of reality. Its ultimate destination is a plausible, living validation of transcendence. Each of its three parts is like a turn of a spiral, exploring recurring ideas through the prisms of religious myth, truth and belief, respectively. With each turn, the book seeks to convey a more nuanced and complete understanding of the many facets of transcendence. Part I puts forward the controversial notion that many religious myths are actually true; and not just allegorically so. Part II argues that our own inner storytelling plays a surprising role in creating the seeming concreteness of things and the tangibility of history. Part III suggests, in the form of a myth, how deeply ingrained belief systems create the world we live in. The three themes, myth, truth and belief, flow into and interpenetrate each other throughout the book.
£12.34
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Eclipse of Reason
Book SynopsisIn his most important work, Max Horkheimer surveys and demonstrates the gradual ascendancy of Reason in Western philosophy, its eventual total application to all spheres of life, and what he considers its present reified domination. First published in 1947, Horkheimer here explores the ways in Nazism - that most irrational of political movements - had co-opted ideas of rationality for its own ends. Ultimately, the book is a warning of the ways this might happen again and, as such, this is a book that has never appeared more timely. Table of ContentsI. Means and Ends \ II. Conflicting Panaceas \ III. The Revolt of Nature \ IV. Rise and Decline of the Individual \ V. On the Concept of Philosophy \ Index.
£18.99
Stackpole Books Scalp Dance
Book Synopsis
£15.26
State University of New York Press The Living Classroom Teaching and Collective
Book Synopsis
£22.96
Primary Information Godzilla: Asian American Arts Network
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£20.90
MIT Press Design after Capitalism
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£22.50
Leete's Island Books,U.S. In Praise of Shadows
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Tanizaki captures in an amusing, flowing commentary on beauty, architecture, drama, food, feminine beauty, and many other aspects of Japanese life the uneasy mixing of two clashing esthetic traditions." --Edwin O. Reischauer, Harvard University
£9.45
Open University Press Clinical Governance Improving the quality of
Book SynopsisâœAn excellent book for multi-professional healthcare teams interested in quality in the context of clinical governance. Drawing on key theories related to quality in health care, the book provides an evidence-based, step by step guide, to all components of clinical governance. âœKathleen Malkin, Health and Professional Development, Faculty of Health and Life Science, Oxford Brookes University, UKâœIncluding in-depth coverage of the global context this new edition is a welcome extension of the excellent first edition. This is an accessible and valuable resource for students of clinical governance.âMuke Ferguson, Head of Department, Postgraduate Programmes, Anglia Ruskin University, UKThe new edition of this key text offers an accessible guide to clinical governance across a range of healthcare settings. Designed to help students, practitioners, and professionals deliver quality care to patients and to improve overTable of Contents1. Clinical governance: the context2. Quality: the key issues3. Exploring quality failings within clinical contexts4. Change management and implementing Quality Improvement Programmes5. Implementing clinical governance strategies through education and training6. How clinical governance can be supported through Evidence Based Practice7. Implementing clinical governance through risk and complaints management8. Evaluating quality care through audit
£31.34
Transworld Publishers Ltd Black Hawk Down
Book SynopsisAlready winning acclaim as one of the best accounts of combat ever written, Black Hawk Down is a minute-by-minute, heart-stopping account of the 1993 raid on Mogadishu, Somalia. Late in the afternoon of Sunday, October 3 1993, 140 elite US Soldiers abseiled from helicopters into a teeming market neighbourhood in the heart of the city. Their mission was to abduct two top lieutenants of a Somali warlord and return to base. It was supposed to take them about an hour.Instead, they were pinned down through a long and terrible night in a hostile city, fighting for their lives against thousands of heavily armed Somalis. Two of their high-tech helicopters were shot out of the sky. When the unit was rescued the following morning, eighteen American soldiers were dead and more than seventy badly injured. The Somali toll was far worse - more than five hundred killed and over a thousand injured.Authoritative, gripping, and insightful, Black Hawk Down is destined to become a classTrade Review'Rip-roaring stuff, with one of the most gruesome battlefield wound treatments ever committed to paper' * Maxim *A thrilling and visceral no-holds-barred classic of modern war'One of the most electrifying, immediate and detailed accounts of a single battle ever told...the whole 24-hour nightmare seems like it's happening to you' * Later *
£10.44
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC The Face of God
Book SynopsisRoger Scruton explores the place of God in a disenchanted world. His argument is a response to the atheist culture that is now growing around us, and also a defence of human uniqueness. He rebuts the claim that there is no meaning or purpose in the natural world, and argues that the sacred and the transcendental are ''real presences'', through which human beings come to know themselves and to find both their freedom and their redemption.In the human face we find a paradigm of meaning. And from this experience, Scruton argues, we both construct the face of the world, and address the face of God. We find in the face both the proof of our freedom and the mark of self-consciousness. One of the motivations of the atheist culture is to escape from the eye of judgement. You escape from the eye of judgement by blotting out the face: and this, Scruton argues, is the most disturbing aspect of the times in which we live. In his wide-ranging argument Scruton explains the growing sense oTrade ReviewRoger Scruton is one of our most interesting intellectuals... This is an important book, with a very wide cultural range. It is brave in pointing to a turning away from God as the fundamental plight of our times. * The Church Times *... if you want a handy pocket guide to humanity's perennial search for God, one that will take you safely round the edges of the current religious battlefield, this elegant and gracious book is one to buy. * New Statesman *... [Scruton's] sequence on the structure of the effable (buildings) is good, and the book contains many interesting and prettily phrased thoughts. * The Guardian *Scruton develops this account with illuminating attention to some classic artworks (the book has 20 illustrations), and the book's introduction and five chapters are consistently nontechnical and accessible. -- P.K. Moser, Loyola University Chicago * CHOICE *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. The View from Nowhere 2. The View from Somewhere 3. Where Am I? 4. The Face of the Person 5. The Face of God
£15.29
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC The Winner Effect
Book SynopsisWhat makes a winner? Why do some succeed both in life and in business, and others fail? The winner effect' is a term used in biology to describe how an animal that has won a few fights against weak opponents is much more likely to win later bouts against stronger contenders. As Ian Robertson reveals, it applies to humans, too. Success changes the chemistry of the brain, making you more focused, smarter, more confident and more aggressive. And the more you win, the more you will go on to win. But the downside is that winning can become physically addictive.By understanding what the mental and physical changes are that take place in the brain of a winner', how they happen, and why they affect some people more than others, Robertson explains what makes a winner or a loser and how we can use the answers to these questions to understand better the behaviour of our business colleagues, employees, family and friends.Trade ReviewCompelling stories combine with cutting-edge science to show why coming first is not the same as being a real winner - engrossing * Oliver James, author of Affluenza *A compelling, vivid and instructive story of how we are empowered and how we are disempowered and how we succeed and how we fail - I really enjoyed it - a must read * Raymond Tallis *Fascinating ... he also has an attractive anti-determinism in his approach, because of his belief that our basic behaviour patterns are eminently changeable, not just by events but also, if we try to understand, by ourselves: the approach one would expect from a clinical psychologist * Dominic Lawson, Sunday Times *His book engagingly relates the nuances of why and how we win, and the pitfalls of getting juiced up on dopamine in extreme success and hungering for adulation and worship * Irish Times *What does it take to be a winner; to be successful and achieve at an optimal level? Professor Robertson has masterfully synthesized cutting edge social, cognitive, and developmental psychology, as well ?as neuroscience with fascinating stories of notable people in the public eye to answer this question. Thoroughly researched and engagingly written by an international scholar, once you begin reading ?this book it will be difficult to put down. Whatever your profession, this remarkable book will most assuredly resonate with you * John B. Arden PhD, author of Rewire Your Brain *
£11.69
Simon & Schuster Ltd In the Blood
Book Synopsis**NOW AN AMAZON PRIME TV SERIES STARRING CHRIS PRATT**'Take my word for it, James Reece is one rowdy motherf***er. Get ready!' CHRIS PRATT A woman boards a plan in Burkina Faso having just completed a targeted assassination for the state of Israel. Two minutes after takeoff her plane is blown out of the sky. 6000 miles to the east, James Reece watches the names and pictures of the victims cross cable news. One face triggers a distant memory of a Mossad operative attached to the CIA years earlier in Iraq, a woman with ties to the intelligence services of two nations, a woman Reece thought he would never see again… In a global pursuit spanning four continents, James Reece will enlist the help of friends new and old to track down her killer and walk right into a trap set by a master sniper, a sniper who has enlisted help of his own…The 5th in the bestselling James Reece series
£9.49
The History Press Ltd Slaughter at Halbe
Book SynopsisOperation ''Berlin'', the Soviet offensive launched on 16 April, 1945, by Marshals Zhukov and Koniev, isolated the German Ninth Army and tens of thousands of refugees in the Spreewald ''pocket'', south-east of Berlin. Stalin ordered its encirclement and destruction and his subordinates, eager to win the race to the Reichstag, pushed General Busse''s 9th Army into a tiny area east of the village of Halbe. To escape the Spreewald pocket, the remnants of 9th Army had to pass through Halbe, where barricades constructed by both sides formed formidable obstacles and the converging Soviet forces subjected the area to heavy artillery fire. By the time 9th Army eventually escaped the Soviet pincers, it had suffered 40,000 killed and 60,000 taken prisoner. Teenaged refugees recount their experiences alongside Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS veterans attempting to maintain military discipline amid the chaos and carnage of headlong retreat. While army commanders strive to extricate their decimat
£13.49
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before
Book SynopsisOver 1 million copies sold worldwide!International Bestseller“Smart, insightful, and warm. Dr. Julie is both the expert and wise friend we all need.”—Lori Gottlieb, New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone and co-host of the Dear Therapists podcastDrawing on years of experience as a clinical psychologist, online sensation Dr Julie Smith provides the skills you need to navigate common life challenges and take charge of your emotional and mental health in her debut book.Filled with secrets from a therapist''s toolkit, Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before teaches you how to fortify and maintain your mental health, even in the most trying of times. Dr Julie Smith’s expert advice and powerful coping techniques will help you stay resilient, whether you want to manage anxiety, deal with criticism, cope with depression, build self-confidence, find motivation, or learn to forgive yourself. Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before tackles everyday issues and offers practical solutions in bite-sized, easy-to-digest entries which make it easy to quickly find specific information and guidance. Your mental well-being is just as important as your physical well-being. Packed with proven strategies, Dr. Julie’s empathetic guide offers a deeper understanding of how your mind works and gives you the insights and help you need to nurture your mental health every day. Wise and practical, Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before might just change your life.
£20.99
Allen & Unwin The Accidental Teacher: The joys, ambitions,
Book SynopsisWith his sharp wit and poet's eye, Tim Heath writes of a forty-year career, mostly in New Zealand but also in Samoa. He's worked in small country schools, in big city schools, at the Correspondence School, in primary schools and in secondary schools. He's been a principal and a deputy principal.Teaching wasn't his first choice, but once in the classroom he found his calling.Tim is a passionate advocate for children and their learning, and his educational philosophy is illustrated through touching anecdotes of children and their struggles and successes.Written against the backdrop of changing times in New Zealand, this memoir is a deep dive into education and its place in our world.
£15.29
Granta Books Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession
Book SynopsisThe process known as psychoanalysis is sometimes revered, sometimes derided, and most often misunderstood. What good does it do? Can it help anyone? What risks does it pose to both patient and analyst? None of these questions can be easily answered, but in Janet Malcolm's narrative, in which all her skills as a reporter and interviewer come into play, their complexity is limpidly revealed.Trade ReviewJanet Malcolm has managed somehow to peer into the reticent, reclusive world of psychoanalysis and to report to us, with remarkable fidelity, what she has seen. Her book is journalism become art -- Joseph Adelson * New York Times Book Review *Entertaining, readable and well-researched * London Review of Books *
£10.44
Princeton University Press Career and Family
Book SynopsisTrade Review"An Economist Book of the Year""A Behavioral Scientist's Notable Book""A Wall Street Journal Favorite Political Book of the Year""A FiveBooks Best Nonfiction Books of the Year""Winner of the Richard A. Lester Book Award, Industrial Relations Section Industrial Relations Section""Career and Family is a radical book. It is also brilliantly researched and argued."---Lily Meyer, New Republic"[Career and Family] looks at how women have struggled to balance work and home over the decades. Among its many takeaways is the notion that female participation in the workplace changes the very nature of work."---Rana Foroohar, Financial Times"Goldin weaves together complicated data sets that no one else thought to look at. . . . [She] brings such data to life."---Joan C. Williams, Times Literary Supplement"There are many reasons to read [Career and Family]. The main one being that [it is] excellent. . . . Goldin is a natural teacher, which comes across on the page. The book is also, in some ways, deeply personal."---Emily Oster, ParentData"Provocative and compelling." * The Economist *"[Career and Family] traces the history of work and family for college-educated women, and diagnoses what still troubles their careers today." * The Economist *"In this deeply researched, engagingly written, and surprisingly personal book, Goldin summarizes the history and current state of gender disparities in employment and pay, both in general and specifically for college-educated women."---Barry Eichengreen, Foreign Affairs"This is no ordinary book. . . . Goldin has written a chatty, readable sequel to [Betty] Friedan’s [The Feminine Mystique], destined itself to become a paperback best-seller—all the more persuasive because it is rooted in the work of hundreds of other labor economists and economic historians over the years."---David Warsh, Economic Principals"Combining diligent research with acute observations, accessible case studies, and practical solutions, this is a refreshing take on a pernicious social problem." * Publishers Weekly *"A must-read for those who care about gender gaps. . . . Goldin does a compelling job of running through the historical data, providing the surrounding cultural context, and explaining how technological and legal changes affected women over the years. . . . In Career and Family, Goldin expertly lays out the history of college-grad women’s advances in the work force, and she carefully dissects where the remaining gender gap originates."---Robert VerBruggen, Institute for Family Studies"This book is a must-read."---Melissa Davies, Society of Professional Economists"Goldin’s research carries important implications for addressing gender equality within the economics profession."---Leonora Risse, The Conversation, Australia & New Zealand"Why do women still tend to earn less than men? There is nobody better placed to answer that question than economic historian Claudia Goldin, the winner of the 2023 Nobel memorial prize in economics. Her answer tells us how to fight unfairness, but also how to create saner and more productive working lives for everybody." * Financial Times *
£19.80
HarperCollins Publishers Year 4 English Targeted Practice Workbook
Book SynopsisLevel: KS2Subject: EnglishTargeted practice for every topic taught at school!When it comes to getting the best results, practice really does bring progress! Matched to the National Curriculum, this Collins English Year 4 workbook is designed to target every English Year 4 topic in depth.Using a repeated practice method that is proven to work, this book improves performance in school, as well as in tests and assessments. Questions for each topic are organised into three levels of increasing difficulty while progress tests throughout check children's understanding along the way. Children can record their own results too, supporting awareness and boosting confidence. A handy pull-out answer section is also included to ensure every child can succeed in Year 4. We've got a Year 4 Maths Targeted Practice Workbook (9780008201708) available as well.
£7.48
Redleaf Press Theories of Childhood: An Introduction to Dewey,
Book SynopsisThis best-selling resource provides clear, straightforward introductions to the foundational theories of John Dewey, Maria Montessori, Erik Erikson, Jean Piaget, and Lev Vygotsky. Each chapter highlights a theorist's work and includes insight on how the theory impacts teaching young children today. Discussion questions and suggested readings are included to help you gain an understanding of what it means to apply each theory to your work with children.This book builds the bridge between theory and best practices in early childhood education, supports your genuine enjoyment with children by helping you understand more about the ways they grow and learn, includes new understandings of Vygotsky's work and applies the five theories to the realities of the twenty-first century.Trade ReviewCleverly conceived and written...It serves its purpose well as an initial foray into some of the leading figures in education theory." - Sandra Leaton Gray, Times Higher Education Textbook Guide, 7th November 2013
£24.71
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Panzer III
Book SynopsisThis highly illustrated title details the history of the Panzer III throughout World War II, from its early development in the pre-war years through its pivotal role in the Blitzkrieg campaigns in Poland and Western Europe and its eventual obsolescence on the Eastern Front.The Panzer III was the mainstay of the German armored force in the early years of World War II, and spearheaded the victories in Poland, Western Europe, and the Balkans. Designed and developed in the mid-1930s, it was originally equipped with a 3.7cm gun and with 30mm thick armor. Early combat in Poland and France saw the need for this to be upgraded, and later models were armed with a 5cm KwK L/42 gun and had the frontal armor reinforced to 60mm by adding extra plating. This later version proved to be particularly effective during the campaigns in the Balkans and against British armor in the North African desert campaign. However, in the first months of Operation Barbarossa -- the German invTrade ReviewA well written, well examined and thorough dive into an often-forgotten part of the German armoured machine. * Classic Military Vehicle *Well illustrated and superbly researched... this is a reference book with class and is sure to please anyone with an interest in WWII German tanks, from modeller to historian. * Gun Mart & Militaria Mart magazine *Table of ContentsBlitzkrieg Panzer 1. Development 2. Production Begins 3. Combat in Poland 4. Combat in France 5. Further Development 6. The Balkan Invasion 7. North Africa 8. The Invasion of Russia 9. Progress 10: In Africa 11. Russia–1942/43 12. Support Vehicles Index Acknowledgements
£29.75
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Tanks in the Battle of Germany 1945
Book SynopsisThe crossing of the river Rhine marked the beginning of the end of the Third Reich, but the Wehrmacht would fight ferociously on its home soil until the fall of Berlin. The Battle of Germany saw the most advanced tanks of the Allies pitted against the remnants of the once-formidable Panzerwaffe, now exhausted and lacking many of the essentials of armored warfare, but equipped with the biggest and most powerful tanks they would ever field. In these last months the Allies were now equipped with the most advanced Shermans such as the M4A3E8, as well as some of the types that would go on to have successful postwar careers such as the Pershing, Comet, and Chaffee. In contrast the Panzer forces had pinned their hopes on small numbers of monstrous types such as the Jagdtiger and Tiger II, as well as the workhorse Sturmgeschütz and Panzer IVs and Vs. But with German forces crumbling, the Panzerwaffe lacked trained crews, replacement vehicles and fuel, while the Allies' well-supported tTrade ReviewThis is a book that contains something for all military interests, from modellers and wargamers, to the general reader and the battlefield tourist. -- John Norris * Gun Mart & Militaria Mart magazine *Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION THE CAMPAIGN DOCTRINE AND ORGANIZATION -Wehrmacht -US Army -British/Canadian Armies TECHNICAL FACTORS -Wehrmacht -US Army -British/Canadian Armies BATTLE ANALYSIS FURTHER READING INDEX
£11.39
Green Candy The Cannabis Grow Bible: The Definitive Guide to
Book Synopsis
£36.09
Anness Publishing The Battleships World Encyclopedia of
Book Synopsis(new edition) The history and evolution of the battleship, an international directory of 150 ships, with specifications, and illustrated with 500 photographs.
£13.50
Dorling Kindersley Ltd Once Upon A Time... there was an Old Woman A Tale
Book SynopsisIntroduce your little one to fables and fairy tales from around the world with this spellbinding series of board books for children. Every day, an old woman fetches water from the river using two pots. One of the pots leaks, but the old woman sees the good that the leaking pot brings to the world. This charming re-telling of the Chinese tale is the perfect length for bedtime reading and Maja Andersen''s colourful illustrations bring the magic and wonder of the tale to life. It is sure to be a storybook that little ones will treasure forever.
£7.59
ISC Medical Get into Medical School - 1300 UCAT Practice Questions. Includes Full Mock Exam: (Previously UKCAT)
With 1300 UCAT practice questions (including a full mock exam), in-depth explanations, and comprehensive tips and techniques spanning over 800 pages, this book constitutes an ideal preparation tool for the UCAT exam, helping candidates save time, retain focus and optimise their score. Fully compliant with the new-style UCAT exam, the book shows how to approach each type of question (abstract, verbal and quantitative reasoning, decision making and situational judgement) and helps candidates familiarise themselves with all the potential traps that can be laid by the examiners. The overwhelming range of exercises that it contains will enable all UCAT candidates to refine and optimise their technique to answer questions under strict time constraints. This book replicates the breadth and depth of the different types of questions that can be asked in the live UCAT test and the spectrum of difficulties that it covers (from normal to stretching), which makes it an ideal preparation tool for all those who want to achieve a high score and maximise their chances of getting into the medical school of their choice. (Previously UKCAT)
£16.00
Thames & Hudson Ltd Stanley Donwood There Will Be No Quiet
Book SynopsisThe talent behind Radiohead's iconic artwork reveals in his own words and for the first time the creative process that has driven his career and earned him a cult reputation. A restless and prolific figure, Stanley Donwood is widely regarded as one of the most important visual artists of his generation. His influential work for Radiohead spans many practices and ever-evolving aesthetics over a 23-year period, from music packaging to installations to print-making. Here, for the very first time, he reveals his personal notebooks, photographs, sketches and abandoned routes to iconic Radiohead artworks. Arranged chronologically, chapters are each dedicated to a major work be it an album cover, promotional piece or a personal project presented as a step-by-step working case study, from speculative ideas and sketches right through to Photoshop experiments and the finished piece. Accompanying narratives by Donwood explain the inspirations and stories behind his creative process and what it is like to work with the band, told with his typical razor-sharp humour and generosity of spirit. Featuring a treasury of archive material, this is the first deep dive into Donwood's creative practice and the artistic freedom afforded to him by working for a major music act. There Will Be No Quiet is essential reading, and viewing, for fans of the band and anyone interested in the explosive mix of artistic accident, musical ingenuity and creative originality.Trade Review'A sprawling collection of anecdotes and insights that carry a wry wit and dark humour' - HERO'Explores [Donwood’s] diverse career, chronicling the progress from initial idea to finished piece' - Observer'A walk through Donwood’s cerebral playground' - Dazed'Reveals the creative process behind [Stanley Donwood’s] work' - The i Newspaper'Donwood is an impressively engaging writer' - Cellophaneland*'Intriguing stories by Donwood that explain the inspirations and ideas behind his work, all told with his typical razor-sharp humour and generosity of spirit' - Creative Boom'Profound and prophetic' - Elephant'A journey into not only Donwood’s life, but also his subconscious' - 10
£25.20
Pan Macmillan Christmas: A History
Book SynopsisChristmas has been all things to all people: a religious festival, a family celebration, a time of eating and drinking. Yet the origins of the customs which characterize the festive season are wreathed in myth.When did turkeys become the plat du jour? Is the commercialization of Christmas a recent phenomenon, or has the emphasis always been on spending? Just who is, or was, Santa Claus? And for how long have we been exchanging presents of underwear and socks?Food, drink and nostalgia for Christmases past seem to be almost as old as the holiday itself, far more central to the story of Christmas than religious worship. Thirty years after the first recorded Christmas, in the fourth century, the Archbishop of Constantinople was already warning that too many people were spending the day not in worship, but dancing and eating to excess. By 1616, the playwright Ben Jonson was nostalgically recalling the Christmases of yesteryear, confident that they had been better then. In Christmas: A History, acclaimed social historian and bestselling author Judith Flanders casts a sharp and revealing eye on the myths, legends and history of the season, from the origins of the holiday in the Roman empire to the emergence of Christmas trees in central Europe, to what might just possibly be the first appearance of Santa Claus – in Switzerland! – to draw a picture of the season as it has never been seen before.Trade ReviewFlanders covers every aspect of Christmas . . . [Christmas] is . . . a catalogue of colourful information, and as surprising an assortment of items as any you might find heaped up under a tree. -- Lucy Hughes-Hallett * Observer *A well-researched account. There are more footnotes here than there are presents under a Rockefeller Christmas tree. Indeed, the book is stuffed with facts – enough to satiate even the most ravenous postprandial taste for quizzing. * Sunday Times *[An] entertaining biography . . . Following the fine tradition of light entertainment Christmas books, Judith Flanders provides lots of trivia . . . However, there is much more to it than that. Flanders is a respected social historian, best known for studies on Victorian life, and the strength of this warm book lies in its quiet erudition. * The Times *If you do want to think about the actual meaning of Christmas, why it still matters to us so much, the book you need is Christmas by the cultural historian Judith Flanders . . . which traces its “strange hybrid growth” all the way back to its origins. -- David Sexton * Evening Standard *A definitive, myth-busting new book . . . [Christmas] tells the full history of the festival that owes it beginning to Roman celebrations of the winter solstice with some fascinating revelations along the way. * The Lady *Who could say bah-humbug to this sprawling-yet-accessible history, which examines traditions with all the trimmings. * Sunday Independent *A superabundance of information about holiday practices, drawn not just from Britain, North American, the Commonwealth and Continental Europe (especially Germany), but from wherever Christmas is celebrated – even, at its most secular and idiosyncratic, in Japan. * TLS *Little escapes Flanders’s notice, as she reflects on the film It’s a Wonderful Life, the nation-binding importance of Britain’s annual carol concert from King’s College, Cambridge, or the financial dependence of local ballet companies on performances of The Nutcracker. Throughout, too, her writing remains brisk and witty: She alludes to the seasonal tradition of reading ghost stories, “while the children break their new toys around you.” * Washington Post *Judith Flanders . . . likes Christmas (I think), but she loves reality and its awkward, amusing facts. (A previous book of hers, Inside the Victorian Home, is deep, bright and encompassing.) * New York Times *This informative and entertaining history is an absolute delight. * Woman & Home *
£11.69
Harvard University Press Not Thinking like a Liberal
Book SynopsisRaymond Geuss is a critic of liberalism, a politics so pervasive in the West that it goes unnoticed. His attention sharpened by his own unorthodox intellectual journey, Geuss locates what we fail to see in the status quo: its shallowness and futility. Rejecting both authoritarian horror and liberal complacency, Geuss looks to genuinely new ideas.Trade ReviewBy intertwining autobiography and conceptual critique, Geuss underlines the idea that in order to gain a critical perspective on liberalism, it is necessary to become almost bilingual: able to speak the language of liberalism while also becoming fluent in the vocabulary of its critique. -- George Hoare * Times Literary Supplement *Thought-provoking…Though he doesn’t propose an alternative to liberalism, Geuss lucidly analyzes its shortcomings and sheds valuable light on how the critical mind is formed. This probing intellectual memoir will appeal to those who believe philosophy can change the world. * Publishers Weekly *Fascinating…Not Thinking like a Liberal deserves to be a classic. It is at once relatable and profound, humane and auspicious. In his best moments, Geuss offers his own life as a challenge to readers to think differently and more imaginatively. -- Matt McManus * Jacobin *Geuss’s bleak philosophical anthropology, or his broad, skeptical account of human powers and interests that is aimed at challenging the hubris of abstract theorizers, is compelling. His account of the unusual formation of his own intellectual and political sensibility is both moving and illuminating. -- Richard Eldridge * Los Angeles Review of Books *Over the past few decades, Raymond Guess has cultivated a reputation as one of the left’s most iconoclastic and individual thinkers. As a result, Not Thinking like a Liberal provides a timely autobiographical account of Guess’ intellectual development, sketching out his discomfort with the idea of liberalism and how his history and his thinking have converged…It is the ideal introduction to Geuss’ thought. -- Theo Stone * Marx & Philosophy Review of Books *There are many who regard themselves as liberal when it comes to opposition to the usual dogmatic authorities but who can’t identify with the liberalism of either contemporary Western capitalism or a dominant trend in recent political philosophy. Raymond Geuss’s remarkable book will be a clarificatory opportunity. It’s no straightforward polemic against liberalism but rather a typically insightful and persuasive guide to the philosophical resources that have guided Geuss himself toward his very distinctive position. -- Brian O’Connor, University College DublinOver the past few years, Raymond Geuss has attained striking mastery in positioning himself within current political philosophy by reviewing autobiographically the stations of his own intellectual development. In this new book, the talent this sort of writing needs undoubtedly hits its peak: by recollecting his upbringing in a small Catholic boarding school and his encounters with a few ingenious philosophers, Geuss eloquently and pointedly sums up the canon of aversions he has developed over the years to prevent him from becoming a liberal and persevering instead with the viewpoint of an estranged participant. There is more to learn about ethics, politics, and philosophy from this acute, expertly paced and plotted book than from dozens of scholarly studies on the same themes. -- Axel Honneth, Columbia UniversityRaymond Geuss’s philosophical memoir is an instant classic—a profound and iconoclastic story of how his fascinating formation evades any form of liberalism or authoritarianism! Geuss is the last great figure of the second golden age of American philosophy, yet his Hungarian Catholic beginnings and his Adorno- and Celan-influenced philosophy put him in a class of his own. This book is an intellectual feast and an existential feat! -- Cornel West, Union Theological Seminary, New York City
£23.36
Regnery Publishing Inc Speechless: Controlling Words, Controlling Minds
Book SynopsisA #1 national bestseller in hardcover. The Daily Wire and Verdict conservative podcast titan takes the good fight to the evil and grammatically challenged woke intelligensia who engage in political blackballing, censorship, and the twisting of words to mean their exact opposite. A call to arms for sanity and liberty from decades of leftist brainwashing.“Every single American needs to read Michael Knowles’s Speechless. I don’t mean ‘read it eventually.’ I mean: stop what you’re doing and pick up this book.” —CANDACE OWENS "The most important book on free speech in decades—read it!” —SENATOR TED CRUZ A New Strategy: We Win, They Lose The Culture War is over, and the culture lost. The Left’s assault on liberty, virtue, decency, the Republic of the Founders, and Western civilization has succeeded. You can no longer keep your social media account—or your job—and acknowledge truths such as: Washington, Jefferson, and Columbus were great men. Schools and libraries should not coach children in sexual deviance. Men don’t have uteruses. How did we get to this point? Michael Knowles of The Daily Wire exposes and diagnosis the losing strategy we have fallen for and shows how we can change course—and start winning. In the groundbreaking Speechless: Controlling Words, Controlling Minds Knowles reveals: How the “free speech absolutists” gave away the store The First Amendment does not require a value-neutral public square How the Communists figured out that their revolution could never succeed as long as the common man was attached to his own culture Where political correctness came from How, comply or resist, political correctness is a win-win game for the bad guys Why taking our stand on “freedom of speech” helps put atheism, decadence, and nonsense on the same plane with faith, virtue, and reality The real question: Will we shut down drag queen story hour, or cancel Abraham Lincoln? For 170 years the First Amendment was compatible with prayer in public school How the atheists got the Warren Court to rule their way To this day, there’s a First Amendment exception for obscenity. What exactly is the argument that perverts’ teaching toddlers to twerk is not obscene? Read Speechless: Controlling Words, Controlling Minds if you want to learn how to take the fight to the enemy.
£12.34
Yale University Press The Lost Peace
Book SynopsisThe first account of the new Cold War—revealing how today’s renewed era of global great power competition could threaten us allTrade Review“The Lost Peace is a superb book. Sakwa explains in learned detail how the West – especially the United States – pursued policies after the first Cold War ended that tragically led to a second Cold War, which has no end in sight.”—John J. Mearsheimer, author of The Great Delusion “The Lost Peace offers a long-awaited nuanced analysis of the multilayered crisis in which the world finds itself. Sakwa's sharp and meticulous interpretation will help all those who look for solutions ahead.”—Marlene Laruelle, author of Is Russia Fascist? “A masterly account of the decisions that, over the last quarter century, have plunged the world into a new crisis. Must reading for concerned citizens in North America and Europe.”—Jack F. Matlock, Jr., Former U.S. Ambassador to the USSR and author of Superpower Illusions “Richard Sakwa offers a sophisticated and highly informative analysis of competing views of world order after the Cold War. Written by a foremost expert in the field The Lost Peace is a definitive treatment of great power politics.”—Andrei P. Tsygankov, author of Russia and the West from Alexander to Putin
£23.75
Stanford University Press Hamas Contained: The Rise and Pacification of
Book SynopsisHamas rules Gaza and the lives of the two million Palestinians who live there. Demonized in media and policy debates, various accusations and critical assumptions have been used to justify extreme military action against Hamas. The reality of Hamas is, of course, far more complex. Neither a democratic political party nor a terrorist group, Hamas is a multifaceted liberation organization, one rooted in the nationalist claims of the Palestinian people. Hamas Contained offers the first history of the group on its own terms. Drawing on interviews with organization leaders, as well as publications from the group, Tareq Baconi maps Hamas's thirty-year transition from fringe military resistance towards governance. He breaks new ground in questioning the conventional understanding of Hamas and shows how the movement's ideology ultimately threatens the Palestinian struggle and, inadvertently, its own legitimacy. Hamas's reliance on armed struggle as a means of liberation has failed in the face of a relentless occupation designed to fragment the Palestinian people. As Baconi argues, under Israel's approach of managing rather than resolving the conflict, Hamas's demand for Palestinian sovereignty has effectively been neutralized by its containment in Gaza. This dynamic has perpetuated a deadlock characterized by its brutality—and one that has made permissible the collective punishment of millions of Palestinian civilians. Trade Review"Groundbreaking, rigorously researched, and strikingly fair-minded, Hamas Contained is essential reading to understand Middle East politics today. Tareq Baconi weaves a counter-narrative, upending common assumptions about the controversial Islamic organization. He persuasively argues that there can be no solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict without diplomatic engagement with Hamas."—Avi Shlaim, author of The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World"Hamas Contained is by far the best book on this vital topic. Meticulous and deeply sourced, this is essential reading for anyone with a serious interest in Hamas, Palestine, Israel, or Islamist political movements anywhere in the Middle East."—Rashid Khalidi, author of Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East"Tareq Baconi has written a detailed and thoughtful book about the history of Hamas and its effect on the Palestinian national movement. Avoiding black and white simplifications, Baconi puts the story of Hamas within its proper context—the tragedy of an occupation."—Marwan Muasher, Vice President, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace"Judicious and impartial, this important work adds nuance to the portrait of one of the Middle East's most divisive players."—Publishers Weekly"[Hamas's] status as an important component of the Palestinian struggle against Israel is ably chronicled by Tareq Baconi in Hamas Contained: The Rise and Pacification of Palestinian Resistance... [It] is well worth reading even today because it is thorough and comprehensive in scale and scope."—Sheldon Kirshner, The Times of Israel"[Hamas Contained] probably gives the fullest background to the current situation in Gaza."—Duncan Bowie, ChartistTable of Contents1. The Rise of Islamic Palestinian Nationalism 2. Military Resistance Comes Undone 3. The Politics of Resistance 4. Strangling Hamas 5. Institutionalizing the Division 6. Regional Misfortunes Conclusion: Containment and Pacification
£17.59
