William Beckford, 1760-1844: An Eye for the Magnificent

Book Description

The British collector William Beckford helped to define many of the most significant parameters of nineteenth-century collecting, as he was unbound by conventional intellectual or aesthetic prejudice. He was among the first of the great connoisseurs to collect Asian and Islamic art while breaking with the taste of his contemporaries. He assembled an eclectic and luxurious collection that included ancient, medieval, and Renaissance art, as well as seventeenth-, eighteenth-, and early-nineteenth- century objects. His active participation in the design of various objects reveals a discriminating aesthetic sensibility that set him apart from his contemporaries. His influence also extended beyond his day; generations of renowned private collectors in Great Britain, on the Continent, and in the United States have reflected his interest in the art of many cultures and periods. This magnificent book describes Beckford's flamboyant personality and unconventional life. Authorities tell us that at an early age, Beckford was known as "England's wealthiest son," due to a prodigal income generated from Jamaican sugar plantations. As a youth, he traveled widely and made his mark as a novelist, composer of music, and impresario of design. His most ambitious project was his fantastic residence Fonthill Abbey; the construction and furnishing of this Gothic Revival edifice consumed nearly twenty-five years of Beckford's life and vast amounts of his fortune, branding him with a reputation as a recluse and eccentric. In addition to providing details about Beckford's life, the book discusses 175 of the finest works of art that once were part of Beckford's legendary collections and examines his travels and great building projects.

Derek E. Ostergard, ed. William Beckford, 1760-1844: an Eye for the Magnificent.(Book Review): An article from: Albion

Average customer rating:

Derek E. Ostergard, ed. William Beckford, 1760-1844: an Eye for the Magnificent.(Book Review): An article from: Albion
Kathleen Nicholson
Manufacturer: North American Conference on British Studies
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B0008E23FS
Release Date: 2005-07-31

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Albion, published by North American Conference on British Studies on June 22, 2003. The length of the article is 977 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Derek E. Ostergard, ed. William Beckford, 1760-1844: an Eye for the Magnificent.(Book Review)
Author: Kathleen Nicholson
Publication: Albion (Refereed)
Date: June 22, 2003
Publisher: North American Conference on British Studies
Volume: 35 Issue: 2 Page: 318(2)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Customer Reviews:

Authoritative, scholarly, and heavily illustrated.......2006-08-25

Those who know the Jane Ashelford did The Sixteenth Century (A Visual History of Costume) may be wondering how this differs. They are alike in that both rely on reproductions of contemporary illustrations, mostly in black-and-white.

As the title suggests, this focuses on the years 1558-1603. The first two chapters are somewhat similar to those years in her other book, being costumes of women and costumes of men, although of course these are covered in more depth. Ashelford has chosen to put the descriptions in the text, rather than in the standardized format of the Visual History series.

In this book, Ashelford goes considerably more in depth in the social significance of the clothing (see ProductWiki for Table of Contents). She considers its relationship to social status, examines the widespread use of allegory, looks at festive costumes and the fashion trade.

I am glad to say that she has not used any of her color pictures on representations of Elizabeth I, whose portraits are so widely reproduced, but has presented less familiar portraits. Some of the pictures have not reproduced well at all - the faces are rather ghostly.

I would say that for a person who is interested solely in Elizabethan fashion, the Visual History book would not add much to this. The person with a more general interest in Tudor fashion may want both.

Includes notes, a glossary, a select bibliography and an index.

Book Description

Like best friends who've been together year after year, through thick and thin, Cathy and her adoring public have created a solid and stable relationship. Faithful readers count on their cartoon heroine to tell it like it is, whether the subject's dating, shopping, or parental responsibilities. For more than two decades, Cathy and her fans have shared life and laughs in an amusing, endearing way. In Shoes: Chocolate for the Feet, the admiration continues. Women immediately comprehend this connection between two of Cathy's downfalls-food and shopping. Cathy continues to battle the bulge, constantly losing the tug-of-war between her thin clothes and a well-stocked refrigerator. She dates, reluctantly, but never finds Mr. Right. She's a successful career woman, but still feels like a little girl when she calls Mom for advice. For more than 20 years, millions of women have hilariously identified with Cathy's struggles with the four basic guilt groups: food, love, mother, and career.

Customer Reviews:

Cathy gets better and better!.......2007-04-09

I have read all of the "Cathy" books and have enjoyed them all. If you are already a Cathy fan you will not be disappointed when you read this book. Cathy is funny to us because most of us can relate to her situations. Enjoy!!

Why did Cathy go back to her company???.......2002-03-02

I read something on the Net that said: now that Cathy's been downsized, she should go back to college and train for a new field! I thought that was a great idea and so was disappointed when she went back to her company. I also think she should get Irving out of her life as he's obviously not going to change at all. As well, what happened to Andrea, Cathy's feminist friend? She used to be so cool and reasonable and now when we do see her she's this harassed mother with two monster kids and a boring job.

Shoes: Give Me A Good Pair To Kick This Book Away!.......2001-10-10

I am sooo tired of this strip that I could scream. Here we have one of the worst attempts to belittle all that is good in America. What was Cathy doing with her boss anyways? I thought we girls moved away from that years ago? And what about her "boyfreind" could he be just a little more dishabille? What was puzzling to me was the fact that Cathy gets away with her tirades and no one has the sense to stop her. Please bring the original "Cathy" back...

Shoes...better than chocolate.......2001-04-20

Oh, what can I say...I have always loved Cathy. I read a borrowed copy a short while ago and I'm getting my own copy now. I'm sure many of us are "Cathy" ourselves in many ways...our battles with diets, nagging moms, ex-boyfriends, etc. This is yet another wonderful collection and what better subject than "shoes". Men just don't understand how far a woman would go just to get that perfect pair to match a special outfit. As long as they look good on our feet, who cares how uncomfortable (or how costly) they are! The carzy shoe sales, the forever-same looking salesperson, the dog who loves eating shoes...all your favourites are definitely back to make you laugh...and to walk out the door right away to buy another new pair! Defiitely recommend it.

Book Description

If the bags under your eyes are larger than your shoes, if your wife has more hair on her face than you do on your head, if you both can sleep soundly and irritate the other drivers on the road. . . you need this book.

Customer Reviews:

Its' Just Fun to Read-Cover to Cover- A real page turner..........1998-09-29

Anyone who is about to become (or already is) "Older Than Dirt" should read this book. I enjoyed every page. Plus it gave me some usefull tips on how to deal with The IRS !!!!!

Now I am sure I want to be dead before I get old........1998-09-15

Grandpa was reading this book when he died...At least he went with a smile on his face. Some of my friends who read it weren't even offended. This will probably win a Pulitzer Prize, provided the Pulitzer people enjoy high quality booger humor. I am buying this book for all of my friends who are old and still having birthdays.

Book Description

India is home to Bollywood--and to the largest film industry in the world. Movie theaters are said to be the "temples of modern India," with Bombay/Mumbai, the center of Bollywood, producing some 200 of the 800 films per year that are viewed by roughly 11 million people per day. In Bollywood Cinema, Vijay Mishra argues that Indian film production and reception is shaped by the desire for national community and a pan-Indian popular culture. Seeking to understand Bollywood according to its own narrative and aesthetic principles and in relation to a global film industry, he views Indian cinema through the dual methodologies of postcolonial studies and film theory. Mishra discusses classics such as Mother India (1957) and Devdsa (1935) and recent films including Ram Lakhan (1989) and Khalnayak (1993), linking their form and content to broader issues of national identity, epic tradition, popular culture, history, and the implications of diaspora. Persuasively arguing for the centrality of movie-going in the construction of self and community, Bollywood Cinema is an indispensable guide to Indian cinema for both scholars and fans alike.

Customer Reviews:

For academics only.......2005-08-21

It's conceivable that some scholarly professor living in some dimly-lit library on some hermetically-sealed university campus will be able to decipher this jargon-filled tome. For the rest of us, this book is a virtually unreadable barrage of dry, dismal, academic slang without even a single moment of levity. It's two-hundred-plus pages of "crucial cultural intertexts" and "structural homology" and "strucural displacement" -- and those three phrases came from ONE SENTENCE on page four!

How is it possible to write a book about Bollywood that is so utterly devoid of color and joy? The author has accomplished exactly that. It could be that this book might contain a few tangible ideas or meaningful illuminations, but they're buried so deeply under the weight of such pompous verbage that they'll never see the light of day. Bollywood has never been so tediously presented!

Wholeheartedly Recommended........2003-07-17

When I started this book, I had not imagined that this is going to be such a detailed analysis of characters, scenes and the movies themselves from Indian Cinema. It is such a wonderful attempt at explaining Indian Cinema that I simply couldn't help praising Vijay Mishra, and thanking him at the same time for my broadened horizons and perspective.

But I may add, get this book only if you know about Bollywood in little detail. This is not a text introducing Indian Cinema to someone unfamiliar to it. If you are a hindi movie fan, its a must must read, and I am quite sure you will find it very interesting and informative as well. I personally wholeheartedly recommend this book to everyone who wants to know about Bollywood and understand its psychology.

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Notes, published by Music Library Association, Inc. on June 1, 1996. The length of the article is 722 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: English Musicians in the Age of Exploration.
Author: Andrew Ashbee
Publication: Notes (Refereed)
Date: June 1, 1996
Publisher: Music Library Association, Inc.
Volume: v52 Issue: n4 Page: p1164(2)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

200 extra-large sudoku puzzles for hours of extra-large fun!

The sudoku craze just got even bigger--these extra-large puzzles feature 16 x 16 and 25 x 25 grids for greater challenges and enjoyment. The rules are the same as regular sudoku, just on a larger scale. A grid of 16 rows by 16 columns is split into 16 boxes of 16 squares each. The numbers 1 through 16 must appear in every row, every column, and every box. The same rules apply to grids of 25 x 25, using the numbers 1 through 25. If that's not big enough, sudoku fanatics can try the ultimate challenge-- a "Super Extreme" 49 x 49 puzzle. Take sudoku to the next level with SUPER SUDOKU!

Customer Reviews:

Super Addicting!.......2007-01-18

I have been looking for larger scale suduko puzzles for awhile and every now and then I would find one or two in the back of a monthly publication. Finally, I have a whole HUGE book of challenging puzzles to play. I have hardly put this book down since Christmas and I am still only on the beginner 12 x 12 section. This makes the regular 9 x 9 puzzles seem so boring. I bought two of these books and gave one to my sis-in-law and she and my brother are both now hooked as well!

Giant-Sized Grids: 16X16 and Up!.......2006-10-21

If you find the standard 9X9 Sudoku grids getting a bit unchallenging, then this book might spark new interest in your number-placing skills. The book begins with 16X16 grids. But that is just the beginning. After the 16X16 grids there are 25X25 grids? For some reason the book skips 36X36 and jumps to a single 49X49 ultra challenge! Ouch!

Keeping track of your rows, columns and sub-grids takes on a whole new challenge in this one. If puzzles in the newspapers of puzzle magazines are not offering enough of a challenge then this book is a logical next step. These puzzles really do take more thought than the 9X9 variety. Check this one out if you really want a challenge.

Book Description

A Framework for Marketing Management is a concise paperback adapted from Philip Kotler's #1 selling book, Marketing Management. A four-part organization covers understanding marketing management, analyzing marketing opportunities, making marketing decisions, and managing and delivering marketing programs. Readers will be able to see how marketing managers have applied key principles in actual company situations, making explicit the connection between theory and implementation at leading firms such as eBay, NTT DoCoMo, Caterpillar, and Starbucks. For anyone interested in the field of marketing—and its relationship with the consumer.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent condition - textbook with library binding.......2005-09-18

The book arrived swiftly and in excellent condition. I did not know what to expect for the library binding, but I have been very happy so far. It is a plain hardcover with a piece (color) of the original softcover professionally glued to the front. The content is exactly as it should be. Much better durability and great quality. Smooth transaction process, no snags and no problems.

It's good, but the discribution of it should be more specific.......2005-09-06

Actually, it's an international version.
Therefore,the saler should mark this on his or her remarks.

A Framework for Marketing Management, Second Edition.......2005-07-07

I ordered this book over 1 month ago - I have NOT received it yet. I am wondering what happened.

Great!.......2005-07-07

As always, College Books Direct delivered quickly, with no problems. Keep up the good work! You will continue to have my business.
-J

A very good marketing book..........2004-03-20

This is a very good book for those that don't have a marketing background. It is relatively short and concise, which made it a quick read. I has most of what is in the larger book (the reference style book), but really does a good job of condensing the material. This is one that I will keep, as it acts like an 800 page reference book, just smaller.

Customer Reviews:

GREEK PREJUDICE REIGNS.......2006-03-06

I like Plutarch because the guy really knows how to call a spade a spade. He had the guts to admit when the record was less than straight, provided alternative views, sources and dialogues, and let the reader decide when the facts and interpretations got fuzzy. He was no ideologue. In that sense a lot of writers in our present century could learn from him.

There are many versions of Plutarch's "Lives" and the traditional versions (maybe the original?) render one Roman life in comparison with one Greek life evincing similar traits or historical characteristics. In this Penguin Series the tendency has been to divide the Greek and Roman lives into seperate works.

I loved his Roman lives unequivocally and I love this one as well, but Plutarch makes a better writer the more he moves from myth to factual lives. In this sense his early lives like Thesseus and Solon are less interesting than those of Nicias, Alcabiades, Lysander and Themistocoles. Plutarch is best when he is working with solid sources, not mythology.

But, to his credit, his early mythical lives reflects a very sceptical note, one as befits the subject matter. Later when he is citing Xenophon, and Plato, his lives are exciting in the extreme (I shall always remember the utter destruction of Nicias and his expeditionary force to Syracuse, by Gyllipus and his Syracusian allies). The corruption of Lysander by money, and the general message perhaps in this tome -- the danger of overextended wars in far flung lands not supported or understood by the people.

All in all this book puts the "C" in Classic.

A Timeless Classic By One Of The Best Biographers In History.......2005-08-10

Plutarch in his "Lives Of The Noble Grecians And Romans" written around 100 C.E., sheds new light on Greek and Roman history from their Bronze Age beginnings, shrouded in myth, down through Alexander and late Republican Rome. Plutarch is the lens that we use today to view the Greco-Roman past; his work has shaped our perceptions of that world for 2,000 years. Plutarch writes of the rise of Roman Empire while Gibbon uses his scholarship to advance the story to write about its decline. He was a proud Greek that was equally effected by Roman culture, a Delphic priest, a leading Platonist, a moralist, educator and philosopher with a deep commitment as a first rate writer. Being a Roman citizen, Plutarch was afforded the opportunity to become an intimate friend to prominent Roman citizens and a member of the literary elite in the court of Emperor Trajan.

Plutarch's influence and enormous popularity during and after the Renaissance is legendary among classicist. Plutarch's "Lives", served as the sourcebook for Shakespeare's Roman Plays "Julius Caesar", "Antony and Cleopatra" and "Coriolanus". By the way Plutarch is even the only contemporary source of all the biographical information on Cleopatra, whom he writes about in his biographies of Julius Caesar, Mark Antony and Octavian. Thomas Jefferson wrote to his nephew that there were three books every gentleman had to have familiarity with; Plutarch's "Lives", Livy's "History of Rome" and Virgil's Aeneid. In fact all the founding fathers of note had read Plutarch and learned much from his fifty biographies of noble men of Greece and Rome. When Hamilton, Jay and Madison write "The Federalist Papers" they use many examples of good and bad leadership traits that they read in Plutarch's work. His biographies are a great study in human character and what motivates leaders to decide and act the way they do, this masterpiece has proven to be still prescient today.

If you are truly interested in a classical education, put this book on the top of your list! I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in political philosophy, and history.

Plutarch on Athens.......2004-10-11

While categorized as more of a biographer than a historian, Plutarch is nevertheless one of the most often-cited scholars of antiquity. In Plutarch we gaze at history through the lens of the great avatars of history. This is actually preferable in many ways to Plutarch's original organization. As Plutarch's method was to teach on ethics via the lives of great men, he would write parallel lives of famous Greeks & Romans. Many times the similarities would be stretched and occasionally merely artifical.

Penguin Classics has broken up Plutarch's LIVES into several different books, each focused on a particular historical genre. The current one places its emphasis on Athens. The book covers 7 Athenians (Solon, Themistocles, Aristides, Cimon, Pericles, Nicias, Alcibiades), 1 mythological figure (Theseus) and 1 Spartan (Lysander).

The inclusion of Lysander is due to the fact that Lysander was the primary instrument by which the Spartans conquered the Athenians in 404BCE. Athens would never again be a major player on the world stage, so the section on Lysander's life is one of transitions.

All of the essays in this book are the standard by which contemporary historians write on the world of ancient Greece. That makes this book a must for persons who are even remotely interested in classical history. Even if you were to only read one book on the Greeks, this one might be the one to grab. The book is THAT influential.

Good translation weak commentary.......2002-09-21

Penguin Classics have gone up in price I see with this new copy -- ah, well, such is publishing it seems. Plutarch was writing in the Roman world so his view of the lives of nine important Athenians is a bit different than their comtempories. The lives examined inclue Theseus (perhaps more legend than history), Solon (also a tad more legend than history), Themistocles, Aristides, Cimon, Pericles, Nicias, Alcibiades, and Lysander. There are two descent maps -- one of the Aegean and one of mainland Greece. The book could really use an index and better footnotes or commentary frankly to be of great use to anyone not just reading it for a introductory level course dealing with Athens or the Archaic and Classical Greek world.

Good translation, good read........1998-02-25

I'm reading this translation for a class on 5th century BC Greece. I find Plutarch a fun writer with his emphasis on the moral behavior of his subjects, even when some of them (such as Themistocles) are not moral at all. This is also a very good translation, as Penguin is known for.

The rise and fall of Athens : nine Greek lives

Average customer rating:

The rise and fall of Athens : nine Greek lives
Plutarch
Manufacturer: PENGUIN BOOKS
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000X1T9H6

Average customer rating:

The Rise and Fall of Athens - Nine Greek Lives

Manufacturer: Penguin Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000HNNX2M

Average customer rating:

THE RISE AND FALL OF ATHENS: NINE GREEK LIVES.

Manufacturer: P/B
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000HFVFD4

Book Description

For the first time, Israeli and Arab authors collaborate in Israel and the Arabs (TV Books; November 2000), providing an unbiased account of one of the worlds' most complex and controversial situations from both sides of the firing line. Although the conflict between Jews and Arabs can be traced back over 2,000 years, the current conflict and its cycles of war, terrorism, negotiation, and hope can be dated back to the creation of Israel in 1948.

For more than four years, Ahron Bregman and Juhan El-Tahri interviewed heads of state, prime ministers, foreign ministers, defense ministers, intelligence chiefs, soldiers, guerrilla leaders, journalists and academics from sixteen countries to accumulate a wealth of new, rich, and surprising detail. Updated with a new afterword for this paperback edition, this definitive account of war and peace in the Middle East, explores Israel's earliest attempts to establish itself.

Israel and the Arabs includes a never-before-published transcript of a conversation between Jordan's late King Hussein and Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir taped ten days before the 1973 war, and an interview with Shams el-din Badran, Egypt's Minister of War in 1967, which provides new insights into the role of the Soviet Union in provoking the Six-Day War. The book it encompasses the Camp David Accords in 1978, the Lebanon War of 1982, the start of the Intifada in 1987, and the recent attempts to consolidate a shaky reconciliation.

Customer Reviews:

Superb account of history that you won't find on the news........2006-02-18

Israel and the zionists would have you believe they are poor little innocent children terrorized by the mean ol arabs for no reason. This is the party line of our imperial emperor, Herr Bush and co. However, it's a bunch of crap and proven wrong throughout history. The palestinan people have a legitimate beef and this book details in great detail the various players that created the invasion of israel's arab nation by the displaced jews from the holocaust.
It focuses on how europe and the USA used Israel as a chesspiece in a deadly game of cold war foolishness that has left a legacy of confusing hatred and murder for many more centruies to come.
Do you wonder why we are in Iraq and making up false stories to justify invading Iran and Syria next?
Well, the knowledge in this book will open your eyes to some of the ulterior motives of these global players.
It reads like a history book, but the details are not listed in any american news report so this is probably the only place you will get the straight scoop on how Israel was created and why there are so many problems with this artificial state thrust upon an indigenous population of arabs.

Pretty good introduction.......2005-06-16

I've read many, many books about Middle East politics and the players involved. This book was okay, but I found it very superficial in the treatment of the people involved. One reviewer asked about the USS Liberty incident. How about the Munich Massacre and Yasser Arafat's involvement? There's very little written about exactly who Mahmoud Abbas is and his involvement in the hijacking of a cruise ship and subsequent murders of the Jewish tourists. There is, in fact, very little written regarding sins on either side of the table.
Perhaps this book is good for people who have had no other introduction to Middle East politics, but is not so good for those of us who have been well versed in it. In order to fully understand every little niggling detail regarding Middle East politics and history, one must make a concerted effort to read lots of books regarding it. But this is an excellent beginning. If you do buy or read this book, please read many other books regarding this subject.

Masterfully Crafted.......2003-07-03

This book is fascinating and engulfing. Most importantly, however, it is extremely illuminating. The authors usually present both the Israeli and Arab viewpoints on every important issue and decision made over the past 56 years. They paint very human pictures of the sometimes larger-than-life personalities that have shaped recent Middle Eastern history, including Yasser Arafat, Anwar Sadat, David Ben-Gurion and Yitzhak Rabin. The book also includes glimpses into the vital role the Soviet Union and, especially, the United States have played in the formation of the present-day region. This book should be read by people who want to look beyond the sensational and provocative headlines the region creates and take a peek at the motives behind the actions. Although this book is fairly lengthy, it is definitely a page-turner that a voracious and interested reader may find easy to read in a single sitting.

The Best Objective Viewpoint on Palestinians and Israelis.......2002-08-26

If anyone wants to really discover the reasons for the conflict in the Middle East, they need to read this book. It's objective, well researched, and, most of all, finally provides a clear outlook from the Palestinian point of view as well as the Israeli. Written by an Israeli and an Egyptian, the book digs into the real issues dividing two people who were promised one land. The reader will finish reading the material and wonder why the BBC program wasn't touted in the US and understand why Americans are so ignorant of the facts surrounding the establishment of the state of Israel and the loss of the nation of Palestine.

Most truthful, balanced account I've read.......2002-01-15

Wonderful balanced description of the middle east. Very
authoritative and dispels many common errors and intentional
misstatements floating about. A single book that provides a
detailed description of the events in the middle east.

Overcoming adversity: fifty years of Israeli independence.: An article from: Harvard International Review

Average customer rating:

Overcoming adversity: fifty years of Israeli independence.: An article from: Harvard International Review
Bernhard Reich , and Gershon R. Kieval
Manufacturer: Harvard International Relations Council, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Israel | Middle East | History | Subjects | Books

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Harvard International Review, published by Harvard International Relations Council, Inc. on March 22, 1998. The length of the article is 4330 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Overcoming adversity: fifty years of Israeli independence.
Author: Bernhard Reich
Publication: Harvard International Review (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 1998
Publisher: Harvard International Relations Council, Inc.
Volume: 20 Issue: 2 Page: 46-51

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Average customer rating:

A must read for Political Literacy

A Classic

Lacks Serious Substance.

The Triumph of Technique

Fine collection, headed by a fine essay.

Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays
Michael Oakeshott
Manufacturer: Liberty Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
History & Theory | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Political Science | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Nonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

On History and Other Essays

The Politics of Faith and the Politics of Scepticism

Natural Right and History (Walgreen Foundation Lectures)

The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot

On Human Conduct (Clarendon Paperbacks)

ASIN: 0865970955

Customer Reviews:

A must read for Political Literacy.......2005-02-08

Originally written in 1947, this is still the most powerful and elegantly written and reasoned critique of modern political thought.

Oakeshott has long been well known in the UK (Andrew Sullivan did his Doctoral dissertation on Oakeshott), but his particularly British way of writing some Americans find difficult. Perhaps that accounts for his lack of popularity here, but I suspect something deeper.

In the title essay of this collection, Oakeshott builds a devastating critique of reason as an instructive mode of knowledge for governing political behavior. The argument he constructs equally calls into question the validity of the concept, indeed the very existence, of the particularly optimistic and American belief in progress. This is probably hard for us Yanks to stomach as we've been raised on a diet rich in unlimited optimism.

Recently, an essay was published in a UK newspaper which stated that Oakeshott's popularity was increasing in the academy and compared his rising intellectual reputation with Isaiah Berlin's diminishing one. While this may not be fair to Berlin (you decide), it certainly is overdue in regard to Oakeshott. He's influenced generations of opinion makers on both sides of the Atlantic.

"Rationalism in Politics" is a must read for anyone who wants to understand the limits of human knowledge but doesn't have the time and wherewithall to read Kant and Hume.

A Classic.......2004-01-26

It's always interesting how different readers can react so differently to the same book. Unlike some of the reviewers below, I found Rationalism in Politics to be gracefully written and vastly more learned and interesting than most political philosophy these days. It's a great book for a rainy afternoon, with essays that can be read (and reread) in any order, illuminating every subject they touch on, whether Hobbes, or poetry, or historiography. Oakeshott was pigeon-holed as a "conservative" during his life but his thought is too wide-ranging and nuanced to be shoved into simple categories. He was not as profound or influential as Isaiah Berlin, another great philosophical essayist -- but anyone who likes philosophical and political essays will enjoy and learn from this book.

Lacks Serious Substance........2003-03-02

Before this book, I'd only heard of Michael Oakeshott through name-dropping from conservative friends. No one but that small conservative circle ever mentioned him and after reading this, I can and can not see why.

As noted below, this is an expanded collection of essays ranging from Oakeshott's views of political rationalism's follies to exegesis of Hobbes. The common thread of all of these essays is Oakeshotts distaste for the rationalistic tendency of, not faith in reason, but overconfidence in it. Reason, Oakeshott reasons (ha-ha)is an instrument. Life is a collection of emotions, faiths, conquests, mistakes, and a vast array of experiences that may or may not have to do with reason at all. Thus, the mistake made in political thought is its overreliance on utopian, "I know better than you" reason. Oakeshott, with this as a springboard, makes his case for a conservative libertarianism.

Oakeshott hints that this rationalism is all the most relevant on the 'left'. I'm not sure this is quite accurate, after all, how could we explain John Dewey, Herbert Marcuse and Richard Rorty, but as I said, Oakeshott only hints. Scott Ryan brilliantly points out that someone like Ayn Rand and I'd suggest, Plato, give the 'right' a tainted legacy of rationalism as well. The problem with Oakeshotts essays in the section on rationalism in politics is that after he expounds his view that with rationalisms inadequacies, political philosophy becomes muddy, he spends 300 more pages on political philosophy. It's like a bad joke!!

What this book is good for is section 3 (on Hobbes) and section 4 (on conservatism and politics). As Oakeshott is more conservative that liberarian, this book is a great exposition of why conservatives (or those true to the label) are how they are preferring big government where social tradition is concerned but small government in economics. Why does conservatism put such high value on tradition? Why does it see welfare centralization with skepticism? Why the religious tendencies? All of these are, advertently or not, elucidated in section 3 and 4.

Beware, Oakeshott has a tendency to be wordy - not in the sense of content, but in the, "If I can say it effectively in 100 words, I'll tack on an extra 300 for kicks," kind of way. About the physical book; as noted below, "The Liberty Fund" makes a habit out of publishing inexpensive, impressively beautiful books. The print and binding quality are phenomenal and if this is available in "Liberty Fund" hardcover, spend the extra money - it's worth it!

The Triumph of Technique.......2001-01-29

Rationalism in Politics is a book of political philosophy. Those who have read philosophy know what to expect: defining and re-defining of terms, endless distinctions and debate, preference for the vague and abstract, dislike of plain language, and a near-perverse resistance to drawing useful conclusions. All of which suggest a degree of skepticism and compulsiveness which will frustrate the average reader, especially those engaged in the practical activity of making a living. I suspect that many readers find such books not worth the effort.

But for those patient few, and those, such as professors and students, who fill their time with abstract pursuits, Rationalism in Politics does have something to offer. I would argue that it does hold some valuable lessons, particularly about the limitations of politics and the impossibility of the quest for perfection.

This is a revision of the 1962 edition. The essays are arranged thematically rather than chronologically to show the consistency and continuity in Oakeshott's work. The early sections define rationalism, show how it has crept into politics, and examine how reason can be misused and misunderstood, both in politics and in the study of politics. The long middle section examines the work of Thomas Hobbes, while the latter parts deal with human conduct and poetical thinking.

The title essay, first published in 1947, probably has the most to offer the average reader, as its subject matter is ubiquitous and recognizable, both in and out of politics. Call it the triumph of technique. I believe what Oakeshott calls rationalism can also be called ideology, a preference for ideas and intellectual constructs over custom, habit, and tradition. Like the ideologue and the revolutionary, the rationalist thinks little or nothing has been done before his time. Skeptical and optimistic, he brings all issues before his intellect as though he is the first to have considered them, as though starting with a tabula rasa. The rationalist views the world more through the veil of ideas than with his five senses.

The persistent problem-solver, he is fully prepared to legislate for the whole world without ever leaving his armchair. From that isolation, the sort of ideas he has in mind are those which can be reduced to rational principles or formulae and set down in books. He fails to recognize any knowledge except technique; he believes technique leads to certainty and that making conduct self-conscious is always a gain - that what one discovers on one's own is always better than what one has inherited. He favors standardization over liberty, rules over experience, reason over tradition, uniformity over variety, and certainty over ambiguity.

Oakeshott wrote a complex, extended essay in definition, but I believe it is one in which many Americans will see aspects of their own lives, assuming they have the patience and the free time to dig into this heavy, sometimes difficult book.

Fine collection, headed by a fine essay........2000-05-05

This handsomely-bound expanded Liberty Fund edition of Michael Oakeshott's essays features some material not included in the earlier edition (notably, but not only, Oakeshott's introduction to Hobbes's _Leviathan_). But the greatest treat is still the title essay.

In "Rationalism in Politics," Oakeshott sets out to dissect the sort of modern "rationalism" that reduces reason to explicit technical knowledge and has no place for the sort of "traditional" knowledge we soak up through imitation. (Readers of F.A. Hayek will find a parallel here, though not an exact one, with Hayek's own view of implicit knowledge and its role in market processes.) His deft characterizations of such "rationalism" will no doubt remind many readers of many leading lights of the political left, but they also remind me -- perhaps surprisingly -- of someone else.

I have a friend who insists, with much justice, that Ayn Rand was essentially a "leftist" despite her defense of views that have generally belonged to the political right. In support of his claim, he cites a number of well-known features of Rand's thought, including (of relevance here) her utter rejection of tradition and religion, her deep distrust of "implicit" reasoning, and her almost messianic plans to "remake" the world in accordance with her own explicit conceptual scheme while riding roughshod over basic human realities that might interfere. (For more on this general topic, see Paul Johnson's _Intellectuals_. Though unfortunately he does not take Rand as one of his targets, his remarks on what happens when such "intellectuals" put their ideas into practice could practically have been written about the "Objectivist" movement.)

This thesis gains a great deal of plausibility from a reading of Oakeshott. Rand's hideously inadequate understanding of "reason" is remarkably consonant with the variety of "rationalism" which he skewers here, and which she more or less enshrined in her own feeble attempts at epistemology.

And as her journals and letters show, she deliberately pitched her philosophy of "Objectivism" toward left-liberals, presenting it as a non-Statist replacement for traditionalism and conservatism while basing it on essentially the same "radical" empiricist-nominalist-materialist-secularist worldview (up to and including a remarkably similar view of "reason") as Marx and Lenin. (Readers will find further discussion of this last point in John Robbins's imperfect but helpful _Without A Prayer: Ayn Rand and the Close of Her System_.)

Now, I certainly don't mean to suggest that the _only_ reason for reading Oakeshott is to disabuse oneself of Rand-worship! Far from it; all of Oakeshott's immensely learned essays sparkle with insights that will be of interest to political thinkers of all stripes. But I do think he will be of special interest to the growing number of conservative libertarians who wish to recover classical liberalism from the spell of one of its most dangerously bewitching "defenders."

The enemies of liberty on the political left are fairly obvious, and most classical liberals are unlikely to be taken in by them. The greater hazard is posed by those "friends" who borrow more or less classical-liberal _conclusions_ and try to place them on a foundation which will not hold them, indeed which leads to their very opposite if (unlike Rand) one starts from the allegedly foundational premises and works forward.

I also don't mean to imply my own complete agreement with Oakeshott. But those who wish to exorcise Rand's demonic influence from the politics of classical liberalism will have a hard time finding a more powerful antidote than the opening essay in this volume.

Average customer rating:
Rationalism in politics & other essays
MICHAEL OAKESHOTT
Manufacturer: Methuen
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NSZLTO

Average customer rating:
Rationalism in Politics & Other Essays

Manufacturer: Methuen
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000HJK702

Average customer rating:
Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays
Michael Oakeshott
Manufacturer: Methuen
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0000CLHY4

Average customer rating:
Reason, revolution and political theory: Notes on Oakeshott's Rationalism in politics
Randhir Singh
Manufacturer: Ajanta
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Political Science | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0007BNZ86

Average customer rating:
Avian Effects Assessment: A Framework for Contaminants Studies: The Report of a Setac Workshop on 'Harmonised Approaches to Avian Effects assessment (Setac (Society).)
Netherlands) SETAC Workshop on Harmonised Approaches to Avian Effects Assessment' (1999 : Woudschoten , Andy Hart , and SETAC (Society)
Manufacturer: Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemist
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Science | Subjects | Books
Birds | Field Guides | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
General | Birdwatching | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1880611481

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books