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24 books with the same feel
Hide books by the same authorOn the Natural History of Destruction
W.G. Sebald · 202 pages
This book is acclaimed German novelist Sebald's investigation of one of the least examined "silences" of our time. He examines the devastation of German cities by Allied bombardment, and the reasons for the astonishing absence of this unprecedented trauma from German history and culture. This void is in part a repression of things--such as the death by fire of the city of Hamburg at the hands of t
Confronting the Classics: Traditions, Adventures and Innovations
Mary Beard · 320 pages
The Souls of Black Folk
W.E.B. Du Bois · 192 pages
Du Bois' 1903 collection of essays is a thoughtful, articulate exploration of the moral and intellectual issues surrounding the perception of blacks within American society.
The Paranoid Style in American Politics
Richard Hofstadter · 322 pages
Acclaimed historian Richard Hofstadter's classic work on the fringe groups that influence American electoral politics offers an invaluable perspective on contemporary domestic affairs. Hofstadter examines the competing forces in American political discourse and how fringe groups can influence--and derail--the larger agendas of a political party. He investigates the politics of the irrational, shed
Russian Thinkers
Isaiah Berlin, Jason Ferrell · 312 pages
Few, if any, English-language critics have written as perceptively as Isaiah Berlin about Russian thought and culture. Russian Thinkers is his unique meditation on the impact that Russia's outstanding writers and philosophers had on its culture. In addition to Tolstoy's philosophy of history, which he addresses in his most famous essay, 'The Hedgehog and the Fox,' Berlin considers the social and p
The Library at Night
Alberto Manguel · 381 pages
Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories from History and the Arts
Clive James · 896 pages
Echoing Edward Said's belief that "Western humanism is not enough, we need a universal humanism," renowned critic Clive James presents here his life's work. Containing over one hundred original essays, organized by quotations from A to Z, this book illuminates, rescues, or occasionally destroys the careers of many of the greatest thinkers, humanists, musicians, artists, and philosophers of the twe
The Lost Art of Walking: The History, Science, and Literature of Pedestrianism
Geoff Nicholson · 282 pages
A fascinating, definitive, and very personal rumination on the history, science, philosophy, art, and literature of walking, by a skilled cultural commentator. Geoff Nicholson, author of Bleeding London and Sex Collectors, turns his eye to the intellectual and cultural history of that most common of activities — walking. This simple, omnipresent activity has inspired numerous subcultures, literary
A Room of One's Own
Virginia Woolf · 129 pages
A Room of One's Own is an extended essay by Virginia Woolf. First published on 24 October 1929, the essay was based on a series of lectures she delivered at Newnham College and Girton College, two women's colleges at Cambridge University in October 1928. While this extended essay in fact employs a fictional narrator and narrative to explore women both as writers of and characters in fiction, the m
Messages from a Lost World: Europe on the Brink
Stefan Zweig · 216 pages
'Darkness must fall before we are aware of the majesty of the stars above our heads. It was necessary for this dark hour to fall, perhaps the darkest in history, to make us realize that freedom is as vital to our soul as breathing to our body.' As Europe faced its darkest days, Stefan Zweig was a passionate voice for tolerance, peace and a world without borders. In these moving, ardent essays, spe
The Frontier in American History
Frederick Jackson Turner · 375 pages
In this series of essays first published in 1920, the noted historian presents his ideas on the role of the frontier in shaping the American experience. The Frontier in American History examines the importance of the unsettled West as both idea and physical reality. Turner's essays explore the changing frontier as it moved progressively westward and discuss the contributions of the pioneers in eac
Eminent Victorians
Lytton Strachey · 319 pages
“He has chosen for the subjects of his full-length portraits, not artists nor men of original genius, but three men, and one woman, of action—Cardinal Manning, Florence Nightingale, Dr Arnold, and General Gordon. But with these full-length portraits he gives smaller sketches of many of their contemporaries—of Gladstone. Sidney Herbert, Lord Hartington, Lord Acton and Lord Cromer; of Keble and Clou
What I Saw: Reports from Berlin 1920-1933
Joseph Roth · 236 pages
"... Roth's essays record the violent social and political paroxysms that threatened to undo the precarious democracy that was the Weimar Republic."--Dust jacket.
In Search of Duende
Federico Garcia Lorca, Norman Thomas di Giovanni · 99 pages
Gumption: Relighting the Torch of Freedom with America's Gutsiest Troublemakers
Nick Offerman · 399 pages
The star of Parks and Recreation and author of the best-selling Paddle Your Own Canoe pays tribute to inspiring mischief makers, from George Washington to Willie Nelson, while expounding on such topics as religion, handcrafting and meat.
Nothing to Do but Stay: My Pioneer Mother
Carrie Young · 122 pages
This collection of essays details the author's mother's experiences during her 1904 trek to North Dakota, and her life as a landowner, wife and mother.
American Sketches: Great Leaders, Creative Thinkers, and Heroes of a Hurricane
Walter Isaacson · 285 pages
What are the roots of creativity? What makes for great leadership? How do influential people end up rippling the surface of history? In this collection of essays, the author reflects on the lessons to be learned from Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, Henry Kissinger, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton, and various other interesting characters he has
And the Pursuit of Happiness
Maira Kalman · 471 pages
Filled with original art and photographs by the author who is also an illustrator and designer, each chapter represents a month of Kalman's yearlong travel across the U.S. and her reflections on democracy. She starts with a celebration of Barack Obama's Presidential inauguration in Washington, D.C., continues with the month of February and Abraham Lincoln, and explores democracy and the pursuit o
Dancing in Cambodia, at Large in Burma
Amitav Ghosh · 114 pages
From Bauhaus to Our House
Tom Wolfe · 128 pages
A lamentation on the state of modernist, international style architecture. In this long-form architectural screed in essay form, Wolfe takes aim at celebrated figures in the modernist movement—most notably Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, and Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius—and examines the reasons for their rise and continuing acclaim.
Reappraisals: Reflections on the Forgotten Twentieth Century
Tony Judt · 464 pages
From one of our greatest historians and public intellectuals, reflections on a twentieth century that is turning into ancient history, when it's not being displaced by myth or forgotten entirely, with unprecedented speed and at great cost The accelerating changes of the past generation have been accompanied by a comparably accelerated amnesia. The twentieth century has become "history" at an unpre
Écrits
Jacques Lacan · 878 pages
Presents an English translation of Jacques Lacan's most famous work, with translations of all the papers featured in the original French edition.