Anyone gripped by the thorny problems in philosophy of language will welcome this volume. The anthology of essays on the work of David Kaplan, a leading contemporary philosopher of language, sprang from a conference, ‘Themes from Kaplan’, organized by the Center for the Study of Language and Information at Stanford University. The book contains sixteen papers […]
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This is a classic study of an artist, first published 1970. Lawrence Gowing (http://www.nytimes.com/1991/02/07/obituaries/sir-lawrence-gowing-a-painter-writer-curator-and-teacher-72.html) explores the ways in which Johannes Vermeer (Johannes Vermeer – Dutch Baroque, Genre Paintings, Delft | Britannica) was similar to and different from his contemporaries – especially Vermeer’s early struggles with genre scenes and his solutions (solitary women lost in their
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For more than three decades, Svetlana Alexievich (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jul/21/svetlana-alexievich-interview) has been the memory and conscience of the twentieth century. When the Swedish Academy awarded her the Nobel Prize, it cited her invention of ‘a new kind of literary genre’. The quality of her work is seen in The Unwomanly Face of War, in which she chronicles the experiences
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I’d better declare – Isaiah Berlin (https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/berlin/) is right up there for me as a penetrating intellect and champion of liberalism. The Proper Study of Mankind brings together his most celebrated writing. In this volume the reader will find Berlin’s famous essay on Tolstoy, ‘The Hedgehog and the Fox’; his insightful portraits of contemporaries from Pasternak and
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Each of the brutal and repressive regimes that have ever existed have been brutal and repressive in their own uniquely interesting ways. The Soviet Union takes its place among these. Journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski (https://www.theguardian.com/media/2007/jan/25/pressandpublishing.booksobituaries) wandered across the Soviet Union from 1989 to 1991. His sharply observed travelogue illuminates the tragedy of 20th-century Soviet history and
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John Berger (5 November 1926 – 2 January 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/oct/30/john-berger-at-90-interview-storyteller) was an English art critic, novelist, painter and poet. His essay on art criticism, Ways of Seeing (1972), was written as an accompaniment to a BBC series intended as a response to the broadcast of ‘Civilisation’ by Kenneth Clark. It has been highly influential, and often prescribed
India often conjures up images of endemic poverty, superstition and entrenched social structures. A country doomed to perpetual backwardness. If so, think again. India is now a burgeoning economic and geopolitical giant. The country has the 21st century stamped on it more visibly than any other nation after China and the United States. India
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Bats are not everyone’s favourite beastie. For those who are fascinated by life on Earth, this volume comes highly recommended. From the African long-tongued fruit bat to the wrinkle-faced bat of Mexico and Central America, Walker’s Bats of the World offers a complete guide to this hugely varied order of mammals. The book includes scientific and
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Our primate relations on the tree of life go on raiding parties. (https://www.theguardian.com/science/2010/jun/21/chimpanzees-territory-killing-neighbours) They have a deep instinct to conquer and dominate, establishing rule over territory. So it is with us. None of the empires in human history (Roman, Chinese, Persian, Mongol, British) got established without violence, massacre and repression. And if one had to
