February 2018

The Wealth and Poverty of Nations by David S. Landes

There are a number of measurements of wealth among nations. One standard is ‘Gross Domestic Product’ (GDP) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_domestic_product). Currently the UK lies 6th in a list of 191 nations (with the United States at the top and Tuvalu at the foot) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)). Scanning tables such as this convinces one what enormous disparities in material wealth […]

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The Future and Its Enemies by Virginia Postrel

It’s been 20 years since the first publication of Virginia Postrel’s (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Postrel) influential book ‘The Future and it’s Enemies’ in 1998. Much of the author’s analysis of contemporary global culture has been borne out. Postrel argued that the old political labels of ‘left’  and ‘right’ no longer carry much meaning, and that it’s better to

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Early Modernism by Christopher Butler

From the advent of Fauvism to the development of Dada, the early part of the twentieth century saw a series of avant-garde movements in European literature, music, and painting, which fundamentally re-examined the languages of the arts. The strength of Early Modernism by Christopher Butler is its treatment of the great movements of this period in

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Anger and Forgiveness by Martha Nussbaum

Today’s digital communication and social media make the cultivation of anger and resentment an easy hobby. The Internet is bursting with people full of rage, and also anxiously scanning the world for signs of their own ‘ego status’. In this book, derived from her 2014 Locke Lectures at Oxford University, Martha Nussbaum (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Nussbaum) argues that

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Life on a Young Planet

Australopithecine, dinosaur, and trilobite fossils conjure up images of lost worlds filled with vanished organisms. But in the full history of life, ancient animals, even the trilobites, form only the half-billion-year tip of a nearly four-billion-year iceberg. Andrew Knoll (https://eps.harvard.edu/people/andrew-h-knoll) explores the deep history of life from its origins on a young planet to the

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The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition

Michael Tomasello (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Tomasello) argues that the roots of the human capacity for symbol-based culture, and the kind of psychological development that takes place within it, are based in a cluster of uniquely human cognitive capacities that emerge early in human ontogeny. These include capacities for sharing attention with other persons; for understanding that others have

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European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages

Some works of scholarship are so monumental and have been so influential that they are worth reading 70 years after publication.     Published just after the Second World War in 1948, European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages (translated from German) is a sweeping exploration of the remarkable continuity of European literature across time and place.

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Meteorites

Should you wish to refresh your understanding of meteorites, this guide is to be recommended. Meteorite research shows us about the origin and early history of the Solar System. Robert Hutchison considers the mechanism and timing of core formation and basaltic volcanism on asteroids, and the effects of heating water-rich bodies. Results from meteorite research are

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Mortality by Christopher Hitchens

Christopher Hitchens (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Hitchens) died at the age of 62 on 15th December 2011. The cause of death was pneumonia brought on by esophageal cancer. He had been highly productive writer, polemicist and debater. He had also been a heavy smoker and drinker. This book includes the six elegant pieces he wrote for Vanity Fair chronicling his illness

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