Gertrude Himmelfarb's elegant and wonderfully readable work, The Roads to Modernity, reclaims the Enlightenment from historians who have downgraded its importance and from scholars who have given preeminence to the Enlightenment in France over concurrent movements in England and in America.
The emphasis on practical experience over ideology is viewed by many historians as a profoundly American characteristic, one that provides a model for exploring the colonial challenge to European belief systems and the creation of a unique culture.
Inside "e;Paradise Lost"e; opens up new readings and ways of reading Milton's epic poem by mapping out the intricacies of its narrative and symbolic designs and by revealing and exploring the deeply allusive texture of its verse.
The emphasis on practical experience over ideology is viewed by many historians as a profoundly American characteristic, one that provides a model for exploring the colonial challenge to European belief systems and the creation of a unique culture.
This book provides a surprising answer to two puzzling questions that relate to the very "e;soul"e; of the professional study of economics in the late twentieth century.
The first book in English to examine Leon Battista Alberti's major literary works in Latin and Italian, which are often overshadowed by his achievements in architectureLeon Battista Alberti (14041472) was one of the most prolific and original writers of the Italian Renaissancea fact often eclipsed by his more celebrated achievements as an art theorist and architect, and by Jacob Burckhardt's mythologizing of Alberti as a Renaissance or Universal Man.
How Robespierre's career and legacy embody the dangerous contradictions of democracyMaximilien Robespierre (1758-1794) is arguably the most controversial and contradictory figure of the French Revolution, inspiring passionate debate like no other protagonist of those dramatic and violent events.
The controversial Jewish thinker whose tortured path led him into the heart of twentieth-century intellectual lifeScion of a distinguished line of Talmudic scholars, Jacob Taubes (19231987) was an intellectual impresario whose inner restlessness led him from prewar Vienna to Zurich, Israel, and Cold War Berlin.
A panoramic history of American individualism from its nineteenth-century origins to today's bitterly divided politicsIndividualism is a defining feature of American public life.
A bold reevaluation of Spinoza that reveals his powerful, inclusive vision of religion for the modern ageSpinoza is widely regarded as either a God-forsaking atheist or a God-intoxicated pantheist, but Clare Carlisle says that he was neither.
From sex and music to religion and politics, a history of irrationality and the ways in which it has always been with us-and always will beIn this sweeping account of irrationality from antiquity to the rise of Twitter mobs and the election of Donald Trump, Justin Smith argues that irrationality makes up the greater part of human life and history.
How the philosophers and polemicists of eighteenth-century Britain used ridicule in the service of religious toleration, abolition, and political justiceThe relaxing of censorship in Britain at the turn of the eighteenth century led to an explosion of satires, caricatures, and comic hoaxes.
The controversial Jewish thinker whose tortured path led him into the heart of twentieth-century intellectual lifeScion of a distinguished line of Talmudic scholars, Jacob Taubes (19231987) was an intellectual impresario whose inner restlessness led him from prewar Vienna to Zurich, Israel, and Cold War Berlin.
WINNER OF THE HWA NON-FICTION CROWNAN IRISH TIMES BOOK OF THE YEARA NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW NOTABLE BOOKA FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARDElizabeth Anscombe: defiantly brilliant, chain-smoking, trouser-wearing Catholic and (eventual) mother of seven.
**NOW A MAJOR NETFLIX FILM**Stamped from the Beginning is a redefining history of anti-Black racist ideas that dramatically changes our understanding of the causes and extent of racist thinking itself.
One of the most important works of the Enlightenmentin the first new, unabridged English translation in more than two centuriesPublished in four volumes between 1784 and 1791, Herder's Ideas for the Philosophy of the History of Mankind is one of the most important works of the Enlightenmenta bold, original, and encyclopedic synthesis of, and contribution to, the era's philosophical debates over nature, history, culture, and the very meaning of human experience.
An accessible and authoritative new history of French literature, written by a highly distinguished transatlantic group of scholarsThis book provides an engaging, accessible, and exciting new history of French literature from the Renaissance through the twentieth century, from Rabelais and Marguerite de Navarre to Samuel Beckett and Assia Djebar.
A photography book that is a vital accompaniment to the many fans of Hilary Mantel's bestselling Wolf Hall Trilogy, now a major TV series'At the very beginning of the twentieth century, Zola said, 'In my view you cannot claim to have really seen something till you have photographed it.
A timely exploration of intellectual dogmatism in politics, economics, religion, and literature-and what can be done to fight itPolarization may be pushing democracy to the breaking point.
The unlikely story of how Americans canonized Adam Smith as the patron saint of free marketsOriginally published in 1776, Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations was lauded by America's founders as a landmark work of Enlightenment thinking about national wealth, statecraft, and moral virtue.
A unique look at Thomas Mann's intellectual and political transformation during the crucial years of his exile in the United StatesIn September 1938, Thomas Mann, the Nobel Prize-winning author of Death in Venice and The Magic Mountain, fled Nazi Germany for the United States.
A timely defense of liberalism that draws vital lessons from its greatest midcentury proponentsToday, liberalism faces threats from across the political spectrum.
How the philosophers and polemicists of eighteenth-century Britain used ridicule in the service of religious toleration, abolition, and political justiceThe relaxing of censorship in Britain at the turn of the eighteenth century led to an explosion of satires, caricatures, and comic hoaxes.
A groundbreaking history of the political ideas that made modern IndiaViolent Fraternity is a major history of the political thought that laid the foundations of modern India.
A landmark history that traces the creation, management, and sharing of information through six centuriesThanks to modern technological advances, we now enjoy seemingly unlimited access to information.
The first book to address the historical failures of philosophy-and what we can learn from themPhilosophers are generally unaware of the failures of philosophy, recognizing only the failures of particular theories, which are then remedied with other theories.
A groundbreaking biography of Milton's formative years that provides a new account of the poet's political radicalizationJohn Milton (1608-1674) has a unique claim on literary and intellectual history as the author of both Paradise Lost, the greatest narrative poem in English, and prose defences of the execution of Charles I that influenced the French and American revolutions.
How transatlantic thinkers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries promoted the unification of Britain and the United StatesBetween the late nineteenth century and the First World War an ocean-spanning network of prominent individuals advocated the unification of Britain and the United States.
The racist legacy behind the Western idea of freedomThe era of the Enlightenment, which gave rise to our modern conceptions of freedom and democracy, was also the height of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
The first modern English edition of diverse Enlightenment-era writings by Prussian monarch Frederick the GreatFrederick II of Prussia (1712-1786), best known as Frederick the Great, was a prolific writer of philosophical discourses, poems, epics, satires, and more, while maintaining extensive correspondence with prominent intellectuals, Voltaire among them.
An enlightening account of the entwined histories of knowledge and nationhood in Latin America-and beyondThe rise of nation-states is a hallmark of the modern age, yet we are still untangling how the phenomenon unfolded across the globe.
'Compelling' Christopher Hart, The Sunday Times'A fascinating book' Daily Mail_______________________________________________________________We think of transplant surgery as one of the medical wonders of the modern world -- but it's a lot older than you think.
A spellbinding portrait of Queen Elizabeth's conjuror - the great philosopher, scientist and magician, Dr John Dee (1527-1608) and a history of Renaissance science that could well be the next 'Longitude'.
A tremendously vivid, page-turning and plausible novel that depicts the rise and fall of Anne Boleyn, the most spirited, independent and courageous of Henry's queens, as viewed from both the bedrooms and the kitchens of the Tudor court.
