Search results for ""author andrew brown""

The work of Michel Houellebecq – one of the most widely read and controversial novelists of our time – is marked by the thought of Schopenhauer. When Houellebecq came across a copy of Schopenhauer's Aphorisms in a library in his mid-twenties, he was bowled over by it and he hunted down a copy of his major philosophical work, The World as Will and Representation. Houellebecq found in Schopenhauer – the radical pessimist, the chronicler of human suffering, the lonely misanthrope – a powerful conception of the human condition and of the future that awaits us, and when Houellebecq’s first writings appeared in the early 1990s, the influence of Schopenhauer was everywhere apparent. But it was only much later, in 2005, that Houellebecq began to translate and write a commentary on Schopenhauer’s work. He thought of turning it into a book but soon abandoned the idea and the text remained unpublished until 2017. Now available in English for the first time, In the Presence of Schopenhauer is the story of a remarkable encounter between a novelist and a philosopher and a testimony to the deep and enduring impact of Schopenhauer’s philosophy on one of France’s greatest living writers.

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Rebellion was in the air. Workers were on strike, students were demonstrating on campuses, discipline was breaking down. No relation of domination was left untouched – the relation between the sexes, the racial order, the hierarchies of class, relationships in families, workplaces and colleges. The upheavals of the late 1960s and early 1970s quickly spread through all sectors of social and economic life, threatening to make society ungovernable. This crisis was also the birthplace of the authoritarian liberalism which continues to cast its shadow across the world in which we now live. To ward off the threat, new arts of government were devised by elites in business-related circles, which included a war against the trade unions, the primacy of shareholder value and a dethroning of politics. The neoliberalism that thus began its triumphal march was not, however, determined by a simple ‘state phobia’ and a desire to free up the economy from government interference. On the contrary, the strategy for overcoming the crisis of governability consisted in an authoritarian liberalism in which the liberalization of society went hand-in-hand with new forms of power imposed from above: a ‘strong state’ for a ‘free economy’ became the new magic formula of our capitalist societies. The new arts of government devised by ruling elites are still with us today and we can understand their nature and lasting influence only by re-examining the history of the conflicts that brought them into being.

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We think that we live in democracies: in fact, we live in mediarchies. Our political regimes are based less on nations or citizens than on audiences shaped by the media. We assume that our social and political destinies are shaped by the will of the people without realizing that ‘the people’ are always produced, both as individuals and as aggregates, by the media: we are all embedded in mediated publics, ‘intra-structured’ by the apparatuses of communication that govern our interactions. In this major book, Yves Citton maps out the new regime of experience, media and power that he designates by the term ‘mediarchy’. To understand mediarchy, we need to look both at the effects that the media have on us and also at the new forms of being and experience that they induce in us. We can never entirely escape from the effects of the mediarchies that operate through us but by becoming more aware of their conditioning, we can develop the new forms of political analysis and practice which are essential if we are to rise to the unprecedented challenges of our time. This comprehensive and far-reaching book will be essential reading for students and scholars in media and communications, politics and sociology, and it will be of great interest to anyone concerned about the multiple and complex ways that the media – from newspapers and TV to social media and the internet – shape our social, political and personal lives today.

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From the forests of Yellowstone to the steppes of the Haut-Var, the French philosopher and environmentalist Baptiste Morizot invites us to develop a different relationship to nature: to become detectives of nature and to follow the footprints of the many wonderful and extraordinary animals with which we share the Earth. By deciphering and interpreting an animal’s footprints and other signs, we gradually discover not only which animal it is, but the animal’s motives too. Through this kind of ‘philosophical tracking’, we come to see the world from the animal’s point of view, to learn to live in this world from the perspective of another species. We begin to let go of our anthropocentric point of view and to recapture the kind of perspective that our ancestors once had when they had no choice but to adopt an animal point of view if they wanted to survive. In short, by following animal trails, we learn how to pay increased attention to the living world around us and how to cohabit this world with others, thereby enriching our understanding of other species, of the world we share with them and of ourselves.

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When the Basque dragoon Don José meets a Gypsy woman at the factory he is guarding, he is immediately ensnared by her wiles. After she is arrested for injuring a co-worker and he helps her to flee, he is imprisoned and demoted, but she repays him at their next meeting with a day of excess and a night of love. As Carmen continues to exert her spell, José is dragged further and further into a seedy world of smugglers, robbers, fiery passions and uncontrollable jealousy – one that he will find difficult to escape alive. Carmen, the archetype of the amoral femme fatale, is Prosper Mérimée’s highest creation, and a model for many subsequent literary heroines. First published in 1846, this story of crime and desire – here accompanied by another famous novella by Mérimée, The Venus of Ille – has been adapted into a number of dramatic works, including the famous 1875 opera of the same name by Georges Bizet.

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When Paul d'Aspremont travels to Naples to join Alicia Ward, his beautiful fiancee, he is surprised to see her grow pale under his gaze, and to discover that an Italian suitor, Count Altavilla, is trying to win her affections. Soon the strange gestures and whispers of the locals convince him - against his better judgement - that indeed he has the evil eye, and that he must resort to extreme measures if he wants to shield Alicia from its deadly effects. This 1856 novella from the master of fantasy and the supernatural, featuring one of the most hauntingly surreal denouements in nineteenth-century fiction, is a brilliant and witty examination of man's innermost fantasies and fears.

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The brooding, introverted Count von O— arrives in Venice during the carnival in order to escape from his duties and live incognito. But after encountering an enigmatic Armenian stranger who makes an uncanny pronouncement, a bizarre chain of events unfolds, involving a Jesuit secret society, a ghostly seance and a mysterious Sicilian magician – leading the Count to question his faith and morality. First serialized in 1787–89, this multilayered, fragmentary novel – which gave Friedrich Schiller a platform to expound his Enlightenment ideas on society and religion – has thrilled and engaged lovers of Gothic literature for over two centuries.

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Bruges was undoubtedly one of the most important cities in medieval Europe. Bringing together specialists from both archaeology and history, this 'total' history presents an integrated view of the city's history from its very beginnings, tracing its astonishing expansion through to its subsequent decline in the sixteenth century. The authors' analysis of its commercial growth, industrial production, socio-political changes, and cultural creativity is grounded in an understanding of the city's structure, its landscape and its built environment. More than just a biography of a city, this book places Bruges within a wider network of urban and rural development and its history in a comparative framework, thereby offering new insights into the nature of a metropolis.

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The unexpectedly entertaining story of how the Church of England lost its place at the centre of English public life - now updated with new material by the authors including comments on the book's controversial first publication. The Church of England still seemed an essential part of Englishness, and even of the British state, when Mrs Thatcher was elected in 1979. The decades which followed saw a seismic shift in the foundations of the C of E, leading to the loss of more than half its members and much of its influence. In England today ‘religion’ has become a toxic brand, and Anglicanism something done by other people. How did this happen? Is there any way back? This ‘relentlessly honest’ and surprisingly entertaining book tells the dramatic and contentious story of the disappearance of the Church of England from the centre of public life. The authors – religious correspondent Andrew Brown and academic Linda Woodhead – watched this closely, one from the inside and one from the outside. That Was the Church, That Was shows what happened and explains why.

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A carriage transporting ten passengers fleeing from Rouen is stopped at a village inn by Prussian soldiers, who decide to detain them until one of their party, the prostitute Boule de Suif, consents to sleep with their officer. When Boule de Suif refuses to do so on account of her principles and patriotic sentiments, the solidarity initially manifested by her fellow travellers becomes increasingly tested as the deadlock continues, and the strained relationship between her and her “respectable” counterparts gradually worsens. A scathing satire of bourgeois prejudice and hypocrisy and a compelling snapshot of France during the 1870 Franco-Prussian War, ‘Boule de Suif’ – here presented with five other major stories by the author of Bel Ami – was declared a masterpiece by Flaubert and is widely considered to be Maupassant’s finest short story.

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Roland Barthes (1915-1980) was a central figure in the thought of his time, but he was also something of an outsider. His father died in the First World War, he enjoyed his mother’s unfailing love, he spent long years in the sanatorium, and he was aware of his homosexuality from an early age: all this soon gave him a sense of his own difference. He experienced the great events of contemporary history from a distance. However, his life was caught up in the violent, intense sweep of the twentieth century, a century that he helped to make intelligible. This major new biography of Barthes, based on unpublished material never before explored (archives, journals and notebooks), sheds new light on his intellectual positions, his political commitments and his ideas, beliefs and desires. It details the many themes he discussed, the authors he defended, the myths he castigated, the polemics that made him famous and his acute ear for the languages of his day. It also underscores his remarkable ability to see which way the wind was blowing Ð and he is still a compelling author to read in part because his path-breaking explorations uncovered themes that continue to preoccupy us today. Barthes’s life story gives substance and cohesion to his career, which was guided by desire, perspicacity and an extreme sensitivity to the material from which the world is shaped Ð as well as a powerful refusal to accept any authoritarian discourse. By allowing thought to be based on imagination, he turned thinking into both an art and an adventure. This remarkable biography enables the reader to enter into Barthes’s life and grasp the shape of his existence, and thus understand the kind of writer he became and how he turned literature into life itself.

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Eureka: Rheumatology and Orthopaedics is an innovative book for medical students that fully integrates core science, clinical medicine and surgery. The book benefits from an engaging and authoritative text, written by specialists in the field, and has several key features to help you really understand the subject: an engaging and authoritative style – with everything you need in one place realistic clinical cases – these show how skilled clinicians work through a presentation, and put disease and biomedical principles into context extensive range of photographs – superb clinical photos show exactly how to demonstrate related clinical signs. chapter starter questions – stimulating questions and answers to test your knowledge and highlight the level of detail you need. Answers are provided at the end of the chapter. study boxes – these highlight tips, tricks and key learning points. self-assessment chapter – a final chapter of Single Best Answer questions to test your knowledge and understanding. The First Principles chapter clearly explains key concepts including anatomy and physiology, development of the musculoskeletal system and locomotion. The Clinical Essentials chapter describes how to take a history, examine the patient, investigations required and the management options available, including drug therapies, surgery, physiotherapy and lifestyle changes. A series of disease-based chapters then describe for each condition, epidemiology, clinical signs and symptoms, investigations and management. The musculoskeletal emergencies chapter covers a range of cases to illustrate the principles of immediate care in situations such as open fracture, acute musculoskeletal pain and septic arthritis. The book concludes with a series of multiple choice questions in clinical Single Best Answer format, to thoroughly test your understanding of the subject. The Eureka series of books are designed to be a 'one stop shop': they contain all the key information you need to know to succeed in your studies and pass your exams.

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- What are professional doctorates?- How do they change professional knowledge and improve practice? - How can universities organise doctoral programmes to facilitate professional learning and development? - What is the most appropriate relationship between professional and academic knowledge?This book examines the relationship between advanced study on higher education courses and professional practice. It explores contributions made by research on practice to professional development. The editors document and explain strategies that universities use:- in recruitment - aims and purposes of the degree- selection of content and focus- assessment procedures- curricular structures- pedagogy- teaching strategies- conditions for learning- support for professionals- relations with interested bodies and stakeholders. The book uses in-depth case studies of three professional doctorates: the doctorate in business administration (DBA), the engineering doctorate (DEng) and the education doctorate (EdD).Examining Professional Doctorates makes an important contribution to this neglected area of research. Essential reading for policy makers in higher education and anyone interested in professional doctoral study.

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Fractures of the Facial Skeleton, Second Edition gives a clear, concise and practical overview of the management of maxillofacial injuries. This new edition has been fully updated to include recent developments and improvements in facial trauma management, with expanded sections on emergency and early treatment, soft tissue injuries and major maxillofacial injuries. Written by an experienced author team, this text will appeal to trainees in all surgical specialities involved in facial trauma. Summary tables and colour illustrations throughout aid understanding, making this both an ideal introduction to the subject and a useful exam revision text. Key features include: New, updated edition of a well-respected text Easy-to-read, practical clinical handbook Covers aetiology and anatomy, emergency management of trauma, imaging, treatment of dentoalveolar, mandible and midfacial injuries, postoperative care, and complications Suitable for postgraduate students, trainees and practitioners in oral and maxillofacial surgery and practitioners of other medical disciplines involved in facial trauma

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"In A Voyage to the Moon, the narrator, after an attempt to reach the moon using vials of dewdrops, finally finds himself in what appears to be the Garden of Eden, surrounded by Biblical patriarchs. After falling foul of the prophet Elijah, he soon meets a race who walk on all fours and whose nourishment comes in the form of vapour. Published posthumously and intended mainly as a satire of its age, this imaginative and entertaining tale – here presented in a lively translation by Andrew Brown – is now considered one of the pioneering works of science fiction."

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This important book by two leading scholars of Africa examines a series of issues that are central to the question of the postcolonial. The postcolonial paradigm, and the more recent decolonial paradigm, raise the issue of the universal: is the postcolonial the first phase of a new universalism, one which would be truly universal because it would be fully inclusive, or is it on the contrary the denial of all universalism, the triumph of the particular and of fragmentation? In addressing this issue Diagne and Amselle also tackle many related themes, such as the concepts of race, culture and identity, the role of languages in philosophy as practised in different cultural areas, the various conceptions of Islam, especially in West Africa, and the outlines of an Africa which can be thought of at the same time as singular and as plural. Each thinker looks back at his writings on these themes, comparing and contrasting them with those of his interlocutor. While Amselle seeks to expose the essentialist and culturalist logics that might underlie postcolonial and decolonial thought, Diagne consistently refuses to adopt the trappings of the Afrocentrist and particularist thinker. He argues instead for a total decentring of all thought, one that rejects all ‘centrisms’ and highlights instead branchings and connections, transfers, analogies and reciprocal influences between cultural places and intellectual fields that may be distant but are not distinct in space and time. This volume is a timely contribution to current debates on the postcolonial question and its new decolonial form. It will be of great interest to students and scholars in a variety of fields, from African studies and Black studies to philosophy, anthropology, sociology and cultural studies, as well as to anyone interested in the debates around postcolonial studies and decolonial thought

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European economic and monetary union continues to be the subject of intense controversy, and the launch of a single currency in January 1999 served to concentrate this debate around one issue: is the euro in the interests of Europe? This pertinent book attempts to address this contentious question.The authors offer a sustained argument that the single currency as currently implemented does not promise to deliver prolonged growth. They contend that the economic impact of the euro, and its accompanying institutions, is likely to be destabilising and deflationary; that the political impact is profoundly undemocratic and that the social consequences are likely to be deleterious. They do not reject the concept of a single currency but are highly critical of policy arrangements such as the Stability and Growth Pact which govern the euro. The authors propose alternative policy and institutional arrangements within which the euro should be embedded. They demonstrate that these would have the benefits of a single currency whilst avoiding many of the potential costs identified by detractors. EMU will continue to cause huge changes in the social and economic sphere of Europe. This book does not attempt to polarise the debate by simply advocating for or against the euro, but instead puts the situation into context, identifies potential problems and proposes possible remedies. It will be required reading for economists, political scientists, politicians and policymakers.

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In the merciless arena of life, we are all subject to the law of the jungle, to ruthless competition and the survival of the fittest – such is the myth that has given rise to a society that has become toxic for our planet and for our and future generations. But today the lines are shifting. A growing number of new movements and thinkers are challenging this skewed view of the world and reviving words such as ‘altruism’, ‘cooperation’, ‘kindness’ and ‘solidarity’. A close look at the wide spectrum of living beings reveals that, at all times and in all places, animals, plants, microorganisms and human beings have practised different forms of mutual aid. And those which survive difficult conditions best are not necessarily the strongest, but those which help each other the most. Pablo Servigne and Gauthier Chapelle explore a vast, forgotten continent of mutual aid in order to discover the mechanisms of this ‘other law of the jungle’. In so doing, they provide a more rounded view of the world of living things and give us some of the conceptual tools we need to move beyond the vicious circle of competition and self-destruction that is leading our civilization to the verge of collapse.

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Political parties that once dominated Western democracies have been shaken to the core. Many have suffered electoral debacles, as in France, Italy and Greece, while mainstream political parties in the UK and the US have found themselves struggling to cope with outcomes – in the form of Brexit and the election of Trump – that were not anticipated. We are witnessing nothing less than the exhaustion of a century-old cleavage between traditional left and right parties due to their inability to perceive and tackle present-day challenges, such as declining social mobility, mounting environmental crises, rising geographic inequality, tensions over migration and multiculturalism, etc. The ‘populists’, from Salvini and Le Pen to Trump and Bolsonaro, were the first to understand this and supply an alternative. But contrary to what many observers now predict, we are not doomed to witness the replacement of the ancient political order by the populists’ rise to power. In France, Emmanuel Macron launched a new movement that stopped them. Though things have sometimes been tough, ‘En Marche!’ has successfully implemented an entirely new programme of reforms and has been given some comfort by recent election results. In this short book, David Amiel and Ismaël Emelien – two of Macron’s closest advisers and key architects of ‘En Marche!’ – build on this experiment and reflect on its successes and failures to define a new grassroots progressivism for Western countries based on three principles and ranging from public policies to electoral strategy, from ideology to party organization. This could form the bedrock for a wider counter-offensive against the populism of our times.

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What if our civilization were to collapse? Not many centuries into the future, but in our own lifetimes? Most people recognize that we face huge challenges today, from climate change and its potentially catastrophic consequences to a plethora of socio-political problems, but we find it hard to face up to the very real possibility that these crises could produce a collapse of our entire civilization. Yet we now have a great deal of evidence to suggest that we are up against growing systemic instabilities that pose a serious threat to the capacity of human populations to maintain themselves in a sustainable environment.In this important book, Pablo Servigne and Raphaël Stevens confront these issues head-on. They examine the scientific evidence and show how its findings, often presented in a detached and abstract way, are connected to people’s ordinary experiences – joining the dots, as it were, between the Anthropocene and our everyday lives. In so doing they provide a valuable guide that will help everyone make sense of the new and potentially catastrophic situation in which we now find ourselves. Today, utopia has changed sides: it is the utopians who believe that everything can continue as before, while realists put their energy into making a transition and building local resilience. Collapse is the horizon of our generation. But collapse is not the end – it’s the beginning of our future. We will reinvent new ways of living in the world and being attentive to ourselves, to other human beings and to all our fellow creatures.

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This important book by two leading scholars of Africa examines a series of issues that are central to the question of the postcolonial. The postcolonial paradigm, and the more recent decolonial paradigm, raise the issue of the universal: is the postcolonial the first phase of a new universalism, one which would be truly universal because it would be fully inclusive, or is it on the contrary the denial of all universalism, the triumph of the particular and of fragmentation? In addressing this issue Diagne and Amselle also tackle many related themes, such as the concepts of race, culture and identity, the role of languages in philosophy as practised in different cultural areas, the various conceptions of Islam, especially in West Africa, and the outlines of an Africa which can be thought of at the same time as singular and as plural. Each thinker looks back at his writings on these themes, comparing and contrasting them with those of his interlocutor. While Amselle seeks to expose the essentialist and culturalist logics that might underlie postcolonial and decolonial thought, Diagne consistently refuses to adopt the trappings of the Afrocentrist and particularist thinker. He argues instead for a total decentring of all thought, one that rejects all ‘centrisms’ and highlights instead branchings and connections, transfers, analogies and reciprocal influences between cultural places and intellectual fields that may be distant but are not distinct in space and time. This volume is a timely contribution to current debates on the postcolonial question and its new decolonial form. It will be of great interest to students and scholars in a variety of fields, from African studies and Black studies to philosophy, anthropology, sociology and cultural studies, as well as to anyone interested in the debates around postcolonial studies and decolonial thought

Read more less

In the merciless arena of life, we are all subject to the law of the jungle, to ruthless competition and the survival of the fittest – such is the myth that has given rise to a society that has become toxic for our planet and for our and future generations. But today the lines are shifting. A growing number of new movements and thinkers are challenging this skewed view of the world and reviving words such as ‘altruism’, ‘cooperation’, ‘kindness’ and ‘solidarity’. A close look at the wide spectrum of living beings reveals that, at all times and in all places, animals, plants, microorganisms and human beings have practised different forms of mutual aid. And those which survive difficult conditions best are not necessarily the strongest, but those which help each other the most. Pablo Servigne and Gauthier Chapelle explore a vast, forgotten continent of mutual aid in order to discover the mechanisms of this ‘other law of the jungle’. In so doing, they provide a more rounded view of the world of living things and give us some of the conceptual tools we need to move beyond the vicious circle of competition and self-destruction that is leading our civilization to the verge of collapse.

Read more less

Political parties that once dominated Western democracies have been shaken to the core. Many have suffered electoral debacles, as in France, Italy and Greece, while mainstream political parties in the UK and the US have found themselves struggling to cope with outcomes – in the form of Brexit and the election of Trump – that were not anticipated. We are witnessing nothing less than the exhaustion of a century-old cleavage between traditional left and right parties due to their inability to perceive and tackle present-day challenges, such as declining social mobility, mounting environmental crises, rising geographic inequality, tensions over migration and multiculturalism, etc. The ‘populists’, from Salvini and Le Pen to Trump and Bolsonaro, were the first to understand this and supply an alternative. But contrary to what many observers now predict, we are not doomed to witness the replacement of the ancient political order by the populists’ rise to power. In France, Emmanuel Macron launched a new movement that stopped them. Though things have sometimes been tough, ‘En Marche!’ has successfully implemented an entirely new programme of reforms and has been given some comfort by recent election results. In this short book, David Amiel and Ismaël Emelien – two of Macron’s closest advisers and key architects of ‘En Marche!’ – build on this experiment and reflect on its successes and failures to define a new grassroots progressivism for Western countries based on three principles and ranging from public policies to electoral strategy, from ideology to party organization. This could form the bedrock for a wider counter-offensive against the populism of our times.

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Finding himself locked in his room for six weeks, a young officer journeys around his room in his imagination, using the various objects it contains as inspiration for a delightful parody of contemporary travel-writing and an exercise in Sternean picaresque, and humorously demonstrating what one can explore without having set off to exotic locations. Accompanied in this volume by its equally superb sequel, ‘Nocturnal Expedition around my Room’, in which a similar voyage is made at night several years later, ‘A Journey around My Room’ is a masterly and innovative piece of writing, which was immensely popular in its time and would later influence Victor Hugo and Marcel Proust, among others.

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