Isaac Newton was indisputably one of the greatest scientists in history. An abridged version of Richard Westfall's magisterial study Never at Rest, this concise biography is now published for the fir
Erwin Schrodinger was a brilliant and charming Austrian, and one of the greatest scientists of the twentieth century. This abridgement of Walter Moore's magisterial Schrodinger: Life and Thought offer
Nobel laureate Erwin Schrodinger's lectures on the history and philosophy of science are legendary. Here the text of some of his most famous lectures are made available for the first time in many year
By what criteria should we judge whether we are alone in the cosmos, and how should we set about detecting extraterrestrials? Jean Heidmann answers these questions in this engaging discussion of extra
The English Stage tells the story of drama through its many changes in style and convention from medieval times to the present day. With a wide sweep of coverage, John Styan analyses the key features of staging, including early street theatre and public performance, the evolution of the playhouse and the private space, and the pairing of theory and stagecraft in the works of modern dramatists. He focuses on the conventions by which a playwright, actors and their audience create the phenomenon of theatre and the way such conventions have changed over time. Styan can be considered among a small number of influential scholars who have helped to develop theatre history from its origins in literary studies into an independent and respected field. From the vantage point of a lifetime's study he examines and illustrates the multitude of factors which have brought and continue to bring plays to life.
Japan's economic reconstruction after total defeat in the Second World War has been an extraordinary phenomenon. In Japan's Capitalism, Shigetu Tsuru, one of Japan's most eminent economists gives a comprehensive account of the recovery process, and a unique interpretation of the post-war Japanese economy. He analyses the significance of Japan's money-oriented affluence and the emergence of a distinctive 'corporate capitalism'. His conclusion is that Japan's inspired creative response to defeat has itself led to a new set of intractable problems.
John Dunn's Western Political Theory in the Face of the Future demonstrates that the major traditions of thought from which the political values of the modern West have emerged are all, in the light of recent world history, in crucial respects incoherent or flawed. This second edition underlines the drastic changes in the challenges which face the world, in the wake of the Soviet Union's collapse and the end of the Cold War, stressing the ever tighter linking of the global economy with the ecology in which we live, and the problems which this poses for the survival of civilisation.
This collection – published here in English for the first time – brings together a number of political, personal and literary pieces by Israel's most celebrated novelist and littérateur. Topics covered include: an examination of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a dispute between 'right and right'; reflections on the character of Zionism, on the concept of 'homeland', and on the nature of the kibbutz; the meaning of socialism in the Israeli context; and portraits of several Jewish writers and thinkers whose ideas and themes in one way or another have proved influential or determinative for Amos Oz himself. These essays, which put a unique perspective on the author's own experiences and development, reveal a complex and humane figure of practical political influence as well as of significant literary stature. They will win for Oz new readers, while delighting those who will recognise here the qualities evident in his other writings.
In The Meanings of Death, John Bowker offers a major contribution to debates about the value of death and its place in both Western and Eastern religions. Examining the themes of friendship and sacrifice in the world's major religions, Bowker argues that there are points of vital contact with secular understandings of death, and that religious and secular attitudes can support and reinforce one another. An affirmative recovery of the value of death is important in our response to bereavement, and in the treatment of the terminally ill. By indicating how value can be maintained at the limit of life, without a search for illusory compensation in an afterlife beyond it, Bowker enriches our experience and understanding of the 'final question' in a way which is always sensitive and often moving.
The Magus, a legendary magician of superhuman powers, is an archetype central to myth and religion across many cultures. Identifying its anthropological origins in ancient rituals performed by a shaman or wizard to ensure the prosperity of his tribe, E. M. Butler goes on to trace its subsequent development in pre-Christian religious and mystic philosophers, in medieval sorcerers and alchemists, and finally in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century occult revival. From Zoroaster to Solomon, Merlin to Faust, Cagliostro to Rasputin, legends of the Magus are explored and where possible compared with the historical record in this fascinating account, first published in 1948, of one of the major figures in religious and occult mythology.
Captain Bligh and the mutiny on the Bounty have become proverbial in their capacity to evoke the extravagant and violent abuse of power. But William Bligh was one of the least violent disciplinarians in the British navy. It is this paradox which inspired Greg Dening to ask why the mutiny took place. His book explores the theatrical nature of what was enacted in the power-play on deck, on the beaches at Tahiti and in the murderous settlement at Pitcairn, on the altar stones and temples of sacrifice, and on the catheads from which men were hanged. Part of the key lies in the curious puzzle of Mr Bligh's bad language.
The Yanomami Indians, living in the depths of the Venezuelan forest, are one of the most interesting of the world's tribal peoples. Jacques Lizot lived among them for over fifteen years and has written an account which allows them to speak for themselves, in stories told by Yanomami individuals. The tales are revealing in the insights they provide into the Indians' daily experience; their shamanism, magic and sorcery; and conflict and alliance with other villages. The result is a richly evocative and intimate account - illustrated with revealing photographs of the Yanomami's own perceptions of their world - recreating in detail the atmosphere, speech, noises, smells and images of life in the Amazon forest.
Igor Novikov has been hailed as 'Russia's answer to Stephen Hawking'. In this popular account of the cosmic importance of black holes, he explores the properties and significance of these mysterious phenomena, which represent the most condensed state of matter in the Universe. Black holes are formed by the force of gravity, warping space and time, crushing stars and perhaps galaxies until they fall in on themselves. Novikov's fascinating account, illustrated with a series of inspired cartoon drawings, illuminates this most enigmatic feature of our Universe with exemplary clarity.
Human understanding of time and space has been developing since the most primitive societies began to record an awareness of their history and environment. Grahame Clark, a distinguished prehistorian, describes that process and its extension with the emergence of technology, social organisation and the capacity for abstract thought. Moving from preliterate to civilised societies, he charts the various phases of transition, marked most notably by the growth of geographical discovery culminating in the circumnavigation of the earth, and the growth of a deeper, more critical view of human history. Our own period takes this fascinating account into the exploration of outer space and the search for an understanding of man's place in the cosmos.
Nancy Mitford once observed that some of the most bitter personal clashes of all time have been 'between the Manor and the Vicarage'. Owen Chadwick's Victorian Miniature paints a detailed cameo of nineteenth-century English rural life, in the extraordinary battle of wills between squire and parson in a Norfolk village. Both the evangelical clergyman and the squire, proudly conscious of his Huguenot ancestry, were passionate diarists, and their two journals open up a fascinating double perspective on the events which exposed their clash of personalities. The result is a narrative that is at once deeply informative about Victorian class distinctions, rural customs and festivities, and richly entertaining in a manner worthy of Trollope.
The Paston letters have long exercised a tremendous fascination for their capacity to recreate in vivid detail the lives of an ordinary well-to-do fifteenth-century family. H. S. Bennett's classic study recreates beautifully their historical context and offers the additional perspectives provided by the letters of their correspondents: bishops and serving men, prisoners and dukes, priests and ribald companions. Among the intriguing areas of late medieval life which are explored are marriage, women's lives, education, travelling, the law and lawlessness, the clergy and the changing face of the English countryside. This account of the Pastons' England reveals an age of historical transition as it was played out in the daily challenges of individual lives.
What purpose, if any, do pets really serve? Are they simply an outlet for misplaced love? Or four-legged friends who help us to satisfy vital emotional needs? Whatever they are, when we elevate pets to the status of social companions, we undermine the distinction between human and non-human. In other words, pets force us to confront the moral contradictions inherent in our treatment of animals in general. Pursuing this idea to its logical conclusion, the author uncovers a fascinating and disturbing trail of myths, evasions and double standards which humans have used since earliest times to justify their subjugation of nature and other life forms. Through an exploration of the phenomenon of pet-keeping across history and between cultures, this thought-provoking study reassesses our relationships with animals and the natural world. This new edition of In the Company of Animals has been substantially revised and updated to take into account developments in research since the first editio
This concise study of Disraeli, aimed at the general reader as much as at the student, stands in contrast to the many full-length studies which continue to appear. It focuses on the substantial reassessment of Disraeli's career and personality which is currently taking place. Particular reference is made to the role played in Disraeli's conception of life and politics by his Jewishness and his romanticism. The book also seeks to understand Disraeli in a European as well as a British frame of thought.
