Книги, похожие на «Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination»

Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying to tell the time by watching the second hand of a clock. Ben HechtEvery day we are bombarded with far more information than we can possibly hope to absorb. We don't have the time, energy or patience to process it all and understand the root causes behind issues and their development. There might be areas of politics, business and international affairs which we know well, perhaps because our working lives directly involve them, but there is always so much besides which seems impenetrable, forbidding and rather scary as a result. Newspapers require a familiarity with acronyms and jargon in order to be comprehensible, not to mention considerable background knowledge.What on Earth is Going On? fills in some of this background in a clear but unpatronising style, taking the form of an alphabetical glossary which can be dipped into at convenient times. It is designed to be a gentle and amusing survival guide for people of all ages who wish they knew slightly more about what on earth is going on. This is a book for the bedside table, the morning commute or the downstairs loo, where it can be consulted by the confused dinner party guest who has taken refuge from the conversation going on next door. We hope that they will rejoin the table having flushed away some of their ignorance and feeling all the better for it.

From the 11th-century, when one commentator claimed the capital was being overrun with Moors, to the garage MCs and street poets of today – this book tells the story of life in London for black and Asian people from the 17th-century until today.‘London Calling’ tells the story of black and Asian literary London, tracing the escapades, fortune making, and self-expansion of these forgotten writers. It is a joyful and often rapturous work, a love letter to the capital, a teeming and complex mix of social and cultural history seen through the imagination and experience of great black and Asian writers. ‘London Calling’ gets to the heart of the immigration impulse, and evokes the dreams and adventures of those who have sought refuge and asylum in the cradle of Empire.The book is populated by runaway slaves, lotharios, imams, boxer-pimps, rajahs and colonial revolutionaries, and discusses writers as diverse in style and time as the 18th-century grocer-aesthete Ignatius Sancho right through to Rushdie, Kureishi and yardie chronicler Victor Headley. The result is an exciting work, brimming with life, as it spotlights a rich but neglected literary tradition, and brings to life a gaping void in the city’s history. Placing the multiculturalism of today’s capital in its historical context, Sukhdev Sandhu shows that it is no new phenomenon, and that just as London has been the making of many black writers, they too have been the making of London.

What secrets lie behind the mysterious order of the Freemasons? Published to coincide with Dan Brown's new novel, set in the enigmatic world of Freemasonry, Laurence Gardner's new book draws on his experience as a Freemason to create a compelling insider's account of the startling truth behind Masonic history and secret workings of Freemasonry.Did you know that every 37th man in the UK is a Freemason? Or that the design of Washington DC includes no fewer than 30 Masonic Zodiacs?The Shadow of Solomon is perfectly timed to coincide with publication of the forthcoming novel from Da Vinci Code author, Dan Brown – The Lost Symbol – which focuses on the Masonic principles that lie beneath the establishment of the United States and its constitution. But who are the Freemasons today and where did they they come from?In the Shadow of Solomon, Laurence Gardner, a Freemason himself for over 20 years, reveals the origins and hidden working of the world’s most powerful secret society, as well as their crucial influence in the history of the US.Gardner's in-depth research presents a fascinating historical detective trail that leads from the most ancient records of the fraternity to modern times. This is a truly adventurous saga stretching from Noah and Moses to the elite lodge of the Knights Templars, George Washington, spies, secret agents and clandestine cabals on both sides of the Atlantic.But Gardner goes further. Stories of the biblical King Solomon and his Jerusalem Temple reside at the heart of Freemasonry, and they are reckoned to be the guardians of ancient secrets connected to the Ark of the Covenant and the Philosopher's Stone – what are these secrets that have been lost to modern Freemasons for nearly three centuries?