Empires of the atlantic world

Britain and Spain in America 1492-1830

This epic history compares the empires built by Spain and Britain in the Americas, from Columbus' arrival in the New World to the end of Spanish colonial rule in the early nineteenth century. J. H. Elliott, one of the most distinguished and versatile historians working ...

Writting on art

While the collected writings of many major 20th- century artists, including Barnett Newman, Robert Motherwell and Ad Reinhardt, have been published, Mark Rothko's writings have only recently come to light, beginning with the critically acclaimed "Artist's Reality: Philosophies of Art". Rothko's other ...

The artist's reality

philosophies of art

One of the most important artists of the twentieth century, Mark Rothko (1903-1970) created a new and impassioned form of abstract painting over the course of his career. Rothko also wrote a number of essays and critical reviews during his lifetime, adding his thoughtful, intelligent ...

Simón Bolivar

a life

Simon Bolivar was a revolutionary who freed six countries, an intellectual who argued the principles of national liberation, and a general who fought a cruel colonial war. His life, passions, battles and great victories became embedded in Spanish American culture almost as soon as they ...

1715

the great jacobite rebellion

Lacking the romantic imagery of the 1745 uprising of supporters of Bonnie Prince Charlie, the Jacobite rebellion of 1715 has received far less attention from scholars. Yet the '15, just eight years after the union of England and Scotland, was in fact a more significant ...

Palladio's Rome

Andrea Palladio (1508-1580), one of the most famous architects of all time, published two enormously popular guides to the churches and antiquities of Rome in 1554. Striving to be both scholarly and popular, Palladio invited his Renaissance readers to discover the charm of Rome's ...

Profit with honor

the new stage of market capitalism

This wise and optimistic book examines the rampant scandals that plague American corporations today and shows how companies can reverse the resulting climate of mistrust. By seizing the opportunity to address some of the nation's - and the world's - most serious problems, business can ...

The wealth of networks

how social production transforms markets and freedom

With the radical changes in information production that the Internet has introduced, we stand at an important moment of transition, says Yochai Benkler in this thought-provoking book. The phenomenon he describes as social production is reshaping markets, while at the same time offering new opportunities ...

The worst of evils

the fight against pain

This riveting book takes the reader around the globe and through the centuries to discover how different cultures have sought to combat and treat physical pain. With colourful stories and sometimes frightening anecdotes, Dr. Thomas Dormandy describes a chequered progression of breakthroughs, haphazard experiments, ignorant ...

June 1941

Hitler and Stalin

This brilliant new work by the author of the best-selling "Five Days in London May 1940", is an unparalleled drama of two great leaders confronting each other in June, 1941. It describes Hitler and Stalin's strange, calculating, and miscalculating relationship before the German invasion ...

Distributive justice and disability

utilitarianism against egalitarianism

Theories of distributive justice are most severely tested in the area of disability. Mark Stein argues that utilitarianism performs better than egalitarian theories in this area: egalitarian theories help the disabled either too little or too much, while utilitarianism achieves the proper balance by placing ...

The building of renaissance Venice

patrons, architects and builders c. 1430-1500

This book brings to life the story of the construction of some of the most outstanding early Renaissance buildings in Venice. Through a series of individual case studies, Richard J. Goy explores how and why great buildings came to be built during the years from ...

The sight of death

an experiment in art writing

Why do we find ourselves returning to certain pictures time and again? What is it we are looking for? How does our understanding of an image change over time? In his latest book T. J. Clark addresses these questions - and many more - in ways that ...

Medieval schools

from roman Britain to renaissance England

Children have gone to school in England since Roman times. By the end of the middle ages there were hundreds of schools, supporting a highly literate society. This book traces their history from the Romans to the Renaissance, showing how they developed, what they taught ...

Surrealism and the spanish Civil War

How might artistic practice offer unique insight into the cataclysmic debacle of war? "Surrealism and the Spanish Civil War" plumbs this provocative question through an ambitious account of a pivotal period in European cultural history. A new approach to the subject of artists' responses to ...

The renaissance hospital

healing the body and healing the soul

In this fascinating and richly illustrated book, John Henderson takes us into the Renaissance hospitals of Florence, recreating the enormous barn-like wards and exploring the lives of those who received and those who administered treatment there. Drawing on an exceptional range of visual and documentary ...

In China's shadow

the crisis of american entrepreneurship

This book begins with an eye-opening exploration of the rise of China's economy and an assessment of its potential for further rapid growth. The implications of China's new power are nothing short of profound, Reed Hundt contends, and he proceeds to paint a ...

Modernization and its political consequences

Weber, Mannheim and Schumpeter

People's capacity to give meaning and direction to social life is an essential dimension of political freedom. Yet many citizens of Western democracies believe that this freedom has become quite restricted. They feel they are at the mercy of anonymous structures and processes over ...

The myth of judicial activism

making sense of Supreme Court decisions

This carefully considered book is a welcome addition to the debate over 'judicial activism'. Constitutional scholar Kermit Roosevelt offers an elegantly simple way to resolve the heated discord between conservatives, who argue that the Constitution is immutable, and progressives, who insist it is a living ...

Not your usual Founding Father

selected readings from Benjamin Franklin

This engaging book reveals Benjamin Franklin's human side, his tastes and habits, his enthusiasms, and his devotion to democracy and the people of the United States. Three hundred years after his birth, we may remember Franklin's famous autobiography, or his status as framer ...