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A Mind So Rare Many scientists have denied any evolutionary significance to human consciousness, dismissing it as illusory smoke dancing above the fire of real neurochemistry. But Donald sees in consciousness the very key to understanding how humankind developed. After assaulting (with great panache) the arguments commonly deployed to remove it from the research agenda, Donald presents a natural history for consciousness, focusing particularly on its astonishing and clearly unique complexity among human beings-- Why does the human brain so closely resemble those of other primates yet so dramatically outstrip them in capacity? How does the mind endow the ego center with autonomy and a narrative autobiography? In his sophisticated conception of a multilayered consciousness drawing much of its power from its cultural matrix, Donald bids fair to reset the terms for evolutionary psychology.
The Russian Debutante's Handbook Vladimir Girshkin, a likeable Russian immigrant, searches for love, a decent job, and a credible self-identity in Gary Shteyngart's debut novel, The Russian Debutante's Handbook. With a doctor-father of questionable ethics and a manic, banker mother, Vladimir avoids his suburban parents and their desire that he pursue the almighty dollar as proof of success. Vladimir gets by as an immigration clerk, eking out a living in a cruddy New York City apartment while accumulating an array of quirky acquaintances, from a wealthy but disheveled old man (who claims his electric fan speaks to him) desperate for citizenship to Challa, a portly S/M queen. As a love interest, Challa is replaced by Francesca, a graduate student whose friends welcome Vladimir for the status he brings their bohemian clique, and whose parents encourage them to shack up (she lives at home) as visible proof she can maintain a steady relationship. The Russian Debutante's Handbook is a quirky amalgam of dead-on American absurdities, albeit with somewhat stereotypical characters.
The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson Only eleven of Emily Dickinson's poems were published prior to her death in 1886; the startling originality of her work doomed it to obscurity in her lifetime. Early posthumously published collections, some of them featuring liberally "edited" versions of the poems, did not fully and accurately represent Dickinson's bold experiments in prosody, her tragic vision, and the range of her intellectual and emotional explorations. Not until the 1955 publication of The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, a three-volume critical edition compiled by Thomas H. Johnson, were readers able for the first time to assess, understand, and appreciate the whole of Dickinson's extraordinary poetic genius. This book, a distillation of the three-volume Complete Poems, brings together the original texts of all 1,775 poems that Emily Dickinson wrote.
Oxford Dictionary of British History Based on the highly successful Oxford Companion to British History, the Dictionary of British History is an invaluable source of information covering the history of Britain over the past two millennia. Whether you want to discover what happened at the Battle of Mynydd Carn, look up the date of the Peterloo massacre, or find out what the 'Intolerable Acts' were all about, this book contains all the facts you need to know.
The Battle of Britain: The Myth and the Reality June 1940: France has fallen to German forces in a mere six weeks, joining eight other European states in German occupation. In July Hitler orders his armed forces to begin preparations for an invasion England. Hitler's plan was to establish German control of the skies over southern England, thereby forcing Britain to the peace table or preparing the way for "Operation Sealion," the invasion of England. Through the summer of 1940 the German Air Force waged an assault on Fighter Command, attacking its forces in the air and on the ground, bombing airfields and cities. In September Hitler announced that the German Air Force would concentrate the attack on British cities, especially London. From September 7, bombs fell on London day and night, but the Blitz was the turning point. The German leadership realized that there would be no knockout blow, no early settlement with Britain. In his brilliant, concise account, Richard Overy shrewdly analyzes every element of the battle on both sides, from the men and machines who fought ant the tactics they employed to the leadership and their strategies. With penetrating insight he clarifies the significance of this pivotal moment for Britain and the world.
The Long Week-End: A Social History of Great Britain “The long week-end" is Robert Graves's and Alan Hodge's evocative phrase for the period in Great Britain's social history between the twin devastations of the Great War and World War II. With brilliant wit and trenchant judgements they offer a scintillating survey of seemingly everything that went on of any consequence (or inconsequence) in those years in politics, business, science, religion, art, literature, fashion, education, popular amusements, domestic life, sexual relations, and much else. From a postwar period of prosperity and frivolity defined by the high jinks of the Bright Young Things through the ever-darkening decade of the thirties punctuated by spiraling economic and political crises and shadowed by the inevitable conflagration to come, The Long Week-End deftly and movingly preserves the details and captures the spirit of the time. It is social history the way it is meant to be written, a classic of its kind. |
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How to Read and Why "Information is endlessly available to us; where shall wisdom be found?" is the crucial question with which renowned literary critic Harold Bloom commences this impassioned book on the pleasures and benefits of reading well. For more than forty y ears, Bloom has transformed college students into lifelong readers with his unrivaled love for literature. Now, at a time when faster and easier electronic media threaten to eclipse the practice of reading, Bloom draws on his experience as critic, teacher, and prolific reader to plumb the great books for their sustaining wisdom. His ultimate faith in the restorative power of literature resonates on every page of this infinitely rewarding and important book.
Dinosaur in a Haystack: Reflections in Natural History Evolutionary biologist and paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould has perfected the art of the essay in this brilliant new collection. These thirty-four essays, most originally published in Natural History magazine, exemplify the keen insight with which Dr. Gould observes the natural world and convey the infectious enthusiasm for fossils and evolutionary theory that has made his books award-winning, national best-sellers. In his latest musings on evolution and other natural phenomena, Gould reveals the uncanny interconnections among distinctly human creations, museums, literature, music, politics, and culture, encompassing a delightfully wide range of topics, from giant fossils, fads, and fungus, to baseball, and beeswax, from a humanistic look at Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Erasmus Darwin's poetry to the fallacies of eugenics and creationism and the moral imperatives of thinking people to meet the ethical challenges that pseudo-science presents.
The Borderlands of Science As author of the bestselling Why People Believe Weird Things and How We Believe, and Editor-in-Chief of Skeptic magazine, Michael Shermer has emerged as the nation's number one scourge of superstition and bad science. Now, in The Borderlands of Science, he takes us to the place where real science (such as the big bang theory), borderland science (superstring theory), and just plain nonsense (Big Foot) collide with one another. Michael Shermer's enlightening volume will be a valuable aid to anyone bewildered by the many scientific theories swirling about. It will help us stay grounded in common sense as we try to evaluate everything from SETI and acupuncture to hypnosis and cloning.
Miracle Fair: Selected Poems of Wislawa Szymborska In awarding her the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1996, the Swedish Academy praised Wislawa Szymborska for her breadth of inspiration and stylistic grace. Here, in this long-awaited volume of selected poems, translator Joanna Trzeciak samples the full range of Szmborska's major themes: the ironies of love, history lessons unlearned, our parochial human perspective and the admirable desire to transcend it, the wonders of nature's beauty and bounty, the place of humanity in the cosmos, and the illusory character of art. Szymborska's voice emerges as that of a gentle subversive, of a humanitarian attuned to human flaws and flourishes in equal measure, self-deprecating in its wit, yet graced with the gift for coaxing the extraordinary out of the ordinary both in life and in language.
A Drifting Boat: Chinese Zen Poetry This anthology gathers over 1500 years of Chinese Zen (Ch'an) poetry, from the earliest writing, including the Hsin Hsin Ming written by the Third Patriarch, to the poetry of monks living in this century. Drawn together by the Zen thread, this ragged line of poet-hermits forms a profound lineage for many contemporary poets.
Last Words: The Final Journals of William S. Burroughs Last Words: The Final Journals of William S. Burroughs is the most intimate work Burroughs ever wrote, a complex portrait of Burroughs at the end of his life, coming to terms with aging and death. Culled from journal entries of the last nine months of his life, Last Words spans the realms of cultural criticism, personal memoir, and fiction. Classic Burroughs concerns, rants on U.S. drug policy, contempt of the state of the human race, his love for his cats, permeate the book. Most significantly, Last Words reveals the most open and vulnerable Burroughs we have ever seen. His reflections on the deaths of his friends Allen Ginsberg and Timothy Leary provide a window on the preparations Burroughs was making for his own death, a quest for absolution marked by a profound sense of guilt and loss. Last Words is unlike anything else in the oeuvre of William S. Burroughs. It is the purest, most personal work ever presented by this writer, and a poignant portrait of the man, his life, and his creative process. |
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