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An Analysis of G.W.F. Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit

An Analysis of G.W.F. Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit

Hegel’s 1807 Phenomenology of Spirit is renowned for being one of the most challenging and important books in Western philosophy. Above all it is famous for laying out a new approach to reasoning and philosophical argument an approach that has been credited with influencing Karl Marx Jean-Paul Sartre and many other key modern philosophers. That approach is the so-called “Hegelian dialectic” – an open-ended sequence of reasoning and argument in which contradictory concepts generate and are incorporated into a third more sophisticated concept. While the Phenomenology does not always clearly use this dialectical method – and it is famously one of the most difficult works of philosophy ever written – the Hegelian dialectic provides a perfect template for critical thinking reasoning skills. A hallmark of good reasoning in the construction of an argument and the searching out of answers must necessarily consider contradictory viewpoints or evidence. For Hegel contradiction is key: it is precisely what allows reasoning to progress. Only by incorporating and overcoming contradictions according to his method is it possible for thought to progress at all. While writing like Hegel might not be advisable thinking like him can help take your reasoning to the next level. | An Analysis of G. W. F. Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit

GBP 6.50
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An Analysis of Theodore Levitt's Marketing Myopia

An Analysis of Theodore Levitt's Marketing Myopia

Theodore Levitt’s 1960 article “Marketing Myopia” is a business classic that earned its author the nickname “the father of modern marketing”. It is also a beautiful demonstration of the problem solving skills that are crucial in so many areas of life – in business and beyond. The problem facing Levitt was the same problem that has confronted business after business for hundreds of years: how best to deal with slowing growth and eventual decline. Levitt studied many business empires – the railroads for instance – that at a certain point simply shrivelled up and shrank to almost nothing. How he asked could businesses avoid such failures? His approach and his solution comprise a concise demonstration of high-level problem solving at its best. Good problem solvers first identify what the problem is then isolate the best methodology for solving it. And as Levitt showed a dose of creative thinking also helps. Levitt’s insight was that falling sales are all about marketing and marketing is about knowing your real business. The railroads misunderstood their real market: they weren’t selling rail they were selling transport. If they had understood that they could have successfully taken advantage of new growth areas – truck haulage for instance – rather than futilely scrabbling to sell rail to a saturated market. | An Analysis of Theodore Levitt's Marketing Myopia

GBP 6.50
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An Analysis of Ernest Gellner's Nations and Nationalism

An Analysis of Ernest Gellner's Nations and Nationalism

To the dismay of many commentators – who had hoped the world was evolving into a more tolerant and multicultural community of nations united under the umbrellas of supranational movements like the European Union – the nationalism that was such a potent force in the history of the 20th-century has made a comeback in recent years. Now more than ever it seems important to understand what it is how it works and why it is so attractive to so many people. A fine place to start any such exploration is with Ernest Gellner's seminal Nations and Nationalism a ground-breaking study that was the first to flesh out the counter-intuitive – but enormously influential – thesis that modern nationalism has little if anything in common with old-fashioned patriotism or loyalty to one's homeland. Gellner's intensely creative thesis is that the nationalism we know today is actually the product of the 19th-century industrial revolution which radically reshaped ancient communities encouraging emigration to cities at the same time as it improved literacy rates and introduced mass education. Gellner connected these three elements in an entirely new way contrasting developments to the structures of pre-industrial agrarian economies to show why the new nationalism could not have been born in such communities. He was also successful in generating a typology of nationalisms in an attempt to explain why some forms flourished while others fizzled out. His remarkable ability to produce novel explanations for existing evidence marks out Nations and Nationalism as one of the most radical stimulating – and enduringly influential – works of its day. | An Analysis of Ernest Gellner's Nations and Nationalism

GBP 6.50
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An Analysis of Antonio Gramsci's Prison Notebooks

An Analysis of Antonio Gramsci's Prison Notebooks

Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks is a remarkable work not only because it was written in jail as the Italian Marxist thinker fell victim to political oppression in his home country but also because it shows his impressive analytical ability. First published in 1948 11 years after Gramsci’s death Prison Notebooks ably demonstrates that the writer has an innate ability to understand the relationship between different parts of an argument. This is how Gramsci manages to analyze such wide-ranging topics – capitalism economics and culture – to explain historical developments. He introduces the idea of “hegemony ” the means by which ruling classes in a society gain keep hold of and manage their power and by carefully looking at how society operates he reveals the manner in which the powerful deploy a combination of force and manipulation to convince most people that the existing social arrangement is logical and in their best interests ­– even when it isn’t. Gramsci shows exactly how the ruling class maintains power by influencing both political institutions like the courts and the police and civil institutions such as churches family and schools. His powerful analysis led him to the conclusion that change can only take place in two ways either through revolution or through a slow but constant struggle to transform the belief system of the ruling classes. | An Analysis of Antonio Gramsci's Prison Notebooks

GBP 6.50
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An Analysis of Abraham H. Maslow's A Theory of Human Motivation

An Analysis of Abraham H. Maslow's A Theory of Human Motivation

US psychologist Abraham H. Maslow’s A Theory of Human Motivation is a classic of psychological research that helped change the field for good. Like many field-changing thinkers Maslow was not just a talented researcher he was also a creative thinker – able to see things from a new perspective and show them in a different light. At a time when psychology was dominated by two major schools of thought Maslow was able to forge a new third paradigm that remains influential today. Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis had developed the idea of understanding the mind through dialogue between patient and analyst. The behaviorism of Ivan Pavlov and John Watson had focused on comprehending the mind through behaviors that could be measured trained and changed. Maslow however generated new ideas forging what he called “positive” or “humanistic psychology”. His argument was that humans are psychologically motivated by a series of hierarchical needs starting with the most essential first. Maslow thought it important for the advancement of psychology to identify group and rank these needs in terms of priority. His belief in the value of this third way was important in leading those who studied psychology to redefine the discipline and so see it in new ways. | An Analysis of Abraham H. Maslow's A Theory of Human Motivation

GBP 6.50
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August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone

August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone

Herald Loomis you shining! You shining like new money! - Bynum Walker August Wilson considered Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (1984) to be his favourite play of the ten in his award-winning Pittsburgh Cycle. It is a drama that truly examines the roots crossroads and intersections of African American and African American culture. Its characters and choral griots interweave the intricate tropes of migration from the south to the north the effects of slavery black feminism and masculinity and Wilson's theme of finding one's song or identity. This book gives readers an overview of the work from its inception on through its revisions and stagings in regional theatres and on Broadway exploring its use of African American vernacular genres—blues music folk songs folk tales and dance—and nineteenth-century southern post-Reconstruction history. Ladrica Menson-Furr presents Joe Turner's Come and Gone as a historical drama a blues drama an American drama a Great Migration drama and the finest example of Wilson's gift for relocating the African American experience in urban southern cities at the beginning and not the end of the African American experience. | August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone

GBP 7.99
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An Analysis of Soren Kierkegaard's The Sickness Unto Death

An Analysis of Soren Kierkegaard's The Sickness Unto Death

Søren Kierkegaard’s The Sickness unto Death is widely recognized as one of the most significant and influential works of Christian philosophy written in the nineteenth century. One of the cornerstones of Kierkegaard’s reputation as a writer and thinker the book is also a masterclass in the art of interpretation. In critical thinking interpretation is all about defining and clarifying terms – making sure that everyone is on the same page. But it can also be about redefining terms: showing old concepts in a new light by interpreting them in a certain way. This skill is at the heart of The Sickness unto Death. Kierkegaard’s book focuses on the meaning of “despair” – the sickness named in the title. For Kierkegaard the key problem of existence was an individual’s relationship with God and he defines true despair as equating to the idea of sin – something that separates people from God or from the idea of a higher standard beyond ourselves. Kierkegaard’s interpretative journey into the ideas of despair sin and death is a Christian exploration of the place of the individual in the world. But its interpretative skills inspired generations of philosophers of all stripes – including notorious atheists like Jean-Paul Sartre. | An Analysis of Soren Kierkegaard's The Sickness Unto Death

GBP 6.50
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An Analysis of Frantz Fanon's Black Skin White Masks

An Analysis of Frantz Fanon's Black Skin White Masks

Frantz Fanon’s explosive Black Skin White Masks is a merciless exposé of the psychological damage done by colonial rule across the world. Using Fanon’s incisive analytical abilities to expose the consequences of colonialism on the psyches of colonized peoples it is both a crucial text in post-colonial theory and a lesson in the power of analytical skills to reveal the realities that hide beneath the surface of things. Fanon was himself part of a colonized nation – Martinique – and grew up with the values and beliefs of French culture imposed upon him while remaining relegated to an inferior status in society. Qualifying as a psychiatrist in France before working in Algeria (a French colony subject to brutal repression) his own experiences granted him a sharp insight into the psychological problems associated with colonial rule. Like any good analytical thinker Fanon’s particular skill was in breaking things down and joining dots. His analysis of colonial rule exposed its implicit assumptions – and how they were replicated in colonised populations – allowing Fanon to unpick the hidden reasons behind his own conflicted psychological make up and those of his patients. Unflinchingly clear-sighted in doing so Black Skin White Masks remains a shocking read today. | An Analysis of Frantz Fanon's Black Skin White Masks

GBP 6.50
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An Analysis of Hanna Batatu's The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq

An Analysis of Hanna Batatu's The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq

How do you solve a problem like understanding Iraq? For Hanna Batatu the solution to this conundrum lay in generating alternative possibilities that effectively side-stepped the conventional wisdom of the time. Historians had long held that Iraq – like other artificial creations of ex-colonial European powers who drew lines onto the world map that ignored longstanding tribal ethnic and religious ties – was best understood by delving into its political and religious history. Batatu used the problem solving skills of asking productive questions and generating alternative possibilities to argue that Iraq’s history was better understood through the lens of a Marxist analysis focused on socio-economic history. The Old Social Classes concludes that the divisions present in Iraq – and exposed by the revolutionary movements of the 1950s – are those characterized by the struggle for control over property and the means of production. Additionally Batatu sought to establish that the most important political movements of the time notably the nationalist Ba'athists and the pan-Arab Free Officers Movement had their origins in a homegrown communist ideology inspired by local conditions and local inequality. By posing new questions – and by undertaking a vast amount of research in primary sources a rarity in the history of this region – Batatu was able to produce a strong new solution to a longstanding historiographical puzzle. | An Analysis of Hanna Batatu's The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq

GBP 6.50
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An Analysis of Homi K. Bhabha's The Location of Culture

An Analysis of Homi K. Bhabha's The Location of Culture

Homi K. Bhabha’s 1994 The Location of Culture is one of the founding texts of the branch of literary theory called postcolonialism. While postcolonialism has many strands at its heart lies the question of interpreting and understanding encounters between the western colonial powers and the nations across the globe that they colonized. Colonization was not just an economic military or political process but one that radically affected culture and identity across the world. It is a field in which interpretation comes to the fore and much of its force depends on addressing the complex legacy of colonial encounters by careful sustained attention to the meaning of the traces that they left on colonized cultures. What Bhabha’s writing like so much postcolonial thought shows is that the arts of clarification and definition that underpin good interpretation are rarely the same as simplification. Indeed good interpretative clarification is often about pointing out and dividing the different kinds of complexity at play in a single process or term. For Bhabha the object is identity itself as expressed in the ideas colonial powers had about themselves. In his interpretation what at first seems to be the coherent set of ideas behind colonialism soon breaks down into a complex mass of shifting stances – yielding something much closer to postcolonial thought than a first glance at his sometimes dauntingly complex suggests. | An Analysis of Homi K. Bhabha's The Location of Culture

GBP 6.50
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An Analysis of Marcus Aurelius's Meditations

An Analysis of Marcus Aurelius's Meditations

Despite being written between 170 and 180 Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations often resonates with modern readers because of its remarkable resemblance to a self-help book. Written as a series of personal notes in the last decade of his reign as Roman emperor the meditations were never intended for circulation. But they remain today among the classics of stoic philosophy – and as exquisite examples of problem-solving. Meditations sees a great leader engaged in solving one of the central problems of all philosophy: how to live a good life. Marcus Aurelius is quick to ask questions and generate solutions all of which lead him to a greater understanding of what a good life really is. He makes the decision that philosophy is an important tool we can use every day to help us understand and deal with the world. The best way to get to the bottom of a problem he records is to analyze its different aspects with care – this will help to ‘dissolve’ the issue. To keep our minds well balanced it is vital to keep our desire for the material and the sensual in check to avoid falling prey to negative behaviors like jealousy quarrelling and indulgence. Philosophy the Meditations show can also help us to understand other people’s problems and difficulties – acting as a continual spur to the consideration and resolution of problems wherever they arise. | An Analysis of Marcus Aurelius's Meditations

GBP 6.50
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An Analysis of Paul Kennedy's The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers Ecomonic Change and Military Conflict from 1500-2000

An Analysis of Paul Kennedy's The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers Ecomonic Change and Military Conflict from 1500-2000

Paul Kennedy owes a great deal to the editor who persuaded him to add a final chapter to this study of the factors that contributed to the rise and fall of European powers since the age of Spain’s Philip II. This tailpiece indulged in what was for an historian a most unusual activity: it looked into the future. Pondering whether the United States would ultimately suffer the same decline as every imperium that preceded it it was this chapter that made The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers a dinner party talking point in Washington government circles. In so doing it elevated Kennedy to the ranks of public intellectuals whose opinions were canvassed on matters of state policy. From a strictly academic point of view the virtues of Kennedy's work lie elsewhere and specifically in his flair for asking the sort of productive questions that characterize a great problem-solver. Kennedy's work is an example of an increasingly rare genre – a work of comparative history that transcends the narrow confines of state– and era–specific studies to identify the common factors that underpin the successes and failures of highly disparate states. Kennedy's prime contribution is the now-famous concept of ‘imperial overstretch ’ the idea that empires fall largely because the military commitments they acquire during the period of their rise ultimately become too much to sustain once they lose the economic competitive edge that had projected them to dominance in the first place. Earlier historians may have glimpsed this central truth and even applied it in studies of specific polities but it took a problem-solver of Kennedy's ability to extend the analysis convincingly across half a millennium. | An Analysis of Paul Kennedy's The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers Ecomonic Change and Military Conflict from 1500-2000

GBP 6.50
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An Analysis of Frederick Jackson Turner's The Significance of the Frontier in American History

An Analysis of Frederick Jackson Turner's The Significance of the Frontier in American History

Frederick Jackson Turner's 1893 essay on the history of the United States remains one of the most famous and influential works in the American canon. That is a testament to Turner's powers of creative synthesis; in a few short pages he succeeded in redefining the way in which whole generations of Americans understood the manner in which their country was shaped and their own character moulded by the frontier experience. It is largely thanks to Turner's influence that the idea of America as the home of a sturdily independent people – one prepared ultimately to obtain justice for themselves if they could not find it elsewhere – was born. The impact of these ideas can still be felt today: in many Americans' suspicion of big government in their attachment to guns – even in Star Trek's vision of space as the final frontier. Turner's thesis may now be criticised as limited (in its exclusion of women) and over-stated (in its focus on the western frontier). That it redefined an issue in a highly impactful way – and that it did so exceptionally eloquently – cannot be doubted. | An Analysis of Frederick Jackson Turner's The Significance of the Frontier in American History

GBP 6.50
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An Analysis of Keith Thomas's Religion and the Decline of Magic

An Analysis of Keith Thomas's Religion and the Decline of Magic

Keith Thomas's classic study of all forms of popular belief has been influential for so long now that it is difficult to remember how revolutionary it seemed when it first appeared. By publishing Religion and the Decline of Magic Thomas became the first serious scholar to attempt to synthesize the full range of popular thought about the occult and the supernatural studying its influence across Europe over several centuries. At root his book can be seen as a superb exercise in problem-solving: one that actually established magic as a historical problem worthy of investigation. Thomas asked productive questions not least challenging the prevailing assumption that folk belief was unworthy of serious scholarly attention and his work usefully reframed the existing debate in much broader terms allowing for more extensive exploration of correlations not only between different sorts of popular belief but also between popular belief and state religion. It was this that allowed Thomas to reach his famous conclusion that the advent of Protestantism – which drove out much of the superstition that characterised the Catholicism of the period – created a vacuum filled by other forms of belief; for example Catholic priests had once blessed their crops but Protestants refused to do so. That left farmers looking for other ways of ensuring a good harvest. It was this Thomas argues that explains the survival of what we now think of as magic at a time such beliefs might have been expected to decline – at least until science arose to offer alternative paradigms. | An Analysis of Keith Thomas's Religion and the Decline of Magic

GBP 6.50
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An Analysis of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's Epistemology of the Closet

An Analysis of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's Epistemology of the Closet

In this book Sedgwick examines texts from Europe and America such as Wilde Nietzsche and Proust and considers the historical moment when sexual orientation came to be as important a signifier of personhood as gender had been for centuries. In doing this Sedgwick provides a history of sexuality that contends that the dualistic homo/heterosexual model is as much a basis for modern culture as it is an outcome of it. Thus Sedgwick laid the foundations of Queer Theory contributing to the contemporary debates regarding the relationship between desire and normative structures of power the question of empirical sexuality and the intricacies of the relationship between sexuality and gender. | An Analysis of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's Epistemology of the Closet

GBP 6.50
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An Analysis of Edward Said's Orientalism

An Analysis of Edward Said's Orientalism

Edward Said’s Orientalism is a masterclass in the art of interpretation wedded to close analysis. Interpretation is characterized by close attention to the meanings of terms by clarifying questioning definitions and positing clear definitions. Combined with one of the main sub-skills of analysis drawing inferences and finding implicit reasons and assumptions in arguments interpretation becomes a powerful tool for critical thought. In Orientalism the theorist critic and cultural historian Edward Said uses interpretation and analysis to closely examine Western representations of the “Orient” and ask what they are really doing and why. One of his central arguments is that Western representations of the East and Middle East persistently define it as “other” setting it up in opposition to the West. Through careful analysis of a range of texts and other materials Said shows that implicit assumptions about the “Orient’s” otherness underlie much Western thought and writing about it. Clarifying consistently the differences between the real-world East and the constructed ideas of the “Orient” Said’s interpretative skills power his analysis and provide the basis for an argument that has proven hugely influential in literary criticism philosophy and even politics. | An Analysis of Edward Said's Orientalism

GBP 6.50
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An Analysis of Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

An Analysis of Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions can be seen without exaggeration as a landmark text in intellectual history. In his analysis of shifts in scientific thinking Kuhn questioned the prevailing view that science was an unbroken progression towards the truth. Progress was actually made he argued via paradigm shifts meaning that evidence that existing scientific models are flawed slowly accumulates – in the face at first of opposition and doubt – until it finally results in a crisis that forces the development of a new model. This development in turn produces a period of rapid change – extraordinary science Kuhn terms it – before an eventual return to normal science begins the process whereby the whole cycle eventually repeats itself. This portrayal of science as the product of successive revolutions was the product of rigorous but imaginative critical thinking. It was at odds with science’s self-image as a set of disciplines that constantly evolve and progress via the process of building on existing knowledge. Kuhn’s highly creative re-imagining of that image has proved enduringly influential – and is the direct product of the author’s ability to produce a novel explanation for existing evidence and to redefine issues so as to see them in new ways. | An Analysis of Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

GBP 6.50
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An Analysis of Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth

An Analysis of Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth

Frantz Fanon is one of the most important figures in the history of what is now known as postcolonial studies – the field that examines the meaning and impacts of European colonialism across the world. Born in the French colony of Martinique Fanon worked as a psychiatrist in Algeria another French colony that saw brutal violence during its revolution against French rule. His experiences power the searing indictment of colonialism that is his final book 1961’s The Wretched of the Earth. Fanon’s account of the physical and psychological violence of colonialism forms the basis of a passionate closely reasoned call to arms – a call for violent revolution. Incendiary even today it was more so in its time; the book first being published during the brutal conflict caused by the Algerian Revolution. Viewed as a profoundly dangerous work by the colonial powers of the world Fanon’s book helped to inspire liberation struggles across the globe. Though it has flaws The Wretched of the Earth is above all a testament to the power of passionately sustained and closely reasoned argument: Fanon’s presentation of his evidence combines with his passion to produce an argument that it is almost impossible not to be swayed by. | An Analysis of Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth

GBP 6.50
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An Analysis of Carole Hillenbrand's The Crusades Islamic Perspectives

An Analysis of Carole Hillenbrand's The Crusades Islamic Perspectives

For many centuries the history of the crusades as written by Western historians was based solidly on Western sources. Evidence from the Islamic societies that the crusaders attacked was used only sparingly – in part because it was hard for most westerners to read and in part because much of it was inaccessible even for historians who did speak Arabic. Carole Hillenbrand set out to re-evaluate the sources for the crusading period not only looking with fresh eyes at known accounts but also locating and utilizing new sources that had previously been overlooked. Her work involved her in conducting extensive evaluations of the new sources assessing their arguments their evidence and their reasoning in order to assess their value and (using the critical thinking skill of analysis a powerful method for understanding how arguments are built) to place them correctly in the context of crusade studies as a whole. The result is not only a history that is more balanced better argued and more adequate than most that have gone before it but also a work with relevance for today. At a time when crusading imagery and mentions of the current War on Terror as a ‘crusade’ help to fuel political narrative Hillenbrand's evaluative work acts as an important corrective to oversimplification and misrepresentation. | An Analysis of Carole Hillenbrand's The Crusades Islamic Perspectives

GBP 6.50
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An Analysis of Carlo Ginzburg's The Night Battles Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

An Analysis of Carlo Ginzburg's The Night Battles Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

In The Night Battles Carlo Ginzburg does more than introduce his readers to a novel group of supposed witches – the Benandanti from the northern Italian province of Friulia. He also invents and deploys new and creative ways of tackling his source material that allow him to move beyond their limitations. Witchcraft documents are notoriously tricky sources – produced by elites with fixed views they are products of questioning designed to prove or disprove guilt rather than understand the subtleties of belief and are very often the products of torture. Ginzburg placed great stress on variations in the evidence of the Benandanti over time to reveal changing patterns of belief and also focused on the concept of ‘reading against the text’ – essentially looking as much at what is absent from the record as at what is present in it and attempting to understand what the absences mean. His work not only pioneered the creation of a new school of historical study – ‘microhistory’ – it is also a great example of the creative thinking skills of connecting things together in an original way producing novel explanations for existing evidence and redefining an issue so as to see it in a new light. | An Analysis of Carlo Ginzburg's The Night Battles Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

GBP 6.50
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An Analysis of Franz Boas's Race Language and Culture

An Analysis of Franz Boas's Race Language and Culture

Franz Boas’s 1940 Race Language and Culture is a monumentally important text in the history of its discipline collecting the articles and essays that helped make Boas known as the ‘father of American anthropology. ’ An encapsulation of a career dedicated to fighting against the false theories of so-called ‘scientific racism’ that abounded in the first half of the 20th-century Race Language and Culture is one of the most historically significant texts in its field – and central to its arguments and impact are Boas’s formidable interpretative skills. It could be said indeed that Race Language and Culture is all about the centrality of interpretation in questioning our assumptions about the world. In critical thinking interpretation is the ability to clarify and posit definitions for the terms and ideas that make up an argument. Boas’s work demonstrates the importance of another vital element: context. For Boas who argued passionately for ‘cultural relativism ’ it was vital to interpret individual cultures by their own standards and context – not by ours. Only through comparing and contrasting the two can we reach he suggested a better understanding of humankind. Though our own questions might be smaller it is always worth considering the crucial element Boas brought to interpretation: how does context change definition? | An Analysis of Franz Boas's Race Language and Culture

GBP 6.50
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Transformation of Economy as a Real Process An Insider's Perspective

Transformation of Economy as a Real Process An Insider's Perspective

First published in 1998 this volume is a contribution to the economic analysis of post-communist transformation in an evolutionary-institutionalist approach. The author shows convincingly the role of path dependency of the ways history matters for the success of otherwise sound policies and highlights structural hindrances to fast and successful transformation. Thence emerges the key concept of strain. The book addresses the question of how to create conditions for sustainable development in societies where these are lacking and stresses the importance of institutional change. It also emphasises the role of sound banking institutions and proper regulations the crucial issue of financial vulnerability and fragility the role of reputation means to fight non-payments limit to optimal policies etc. The author covers a broad international literature and relates it to his insights as a local observer which delivers an interesting reading. | Transformation of Economy as a Real Process An Insider's Perspective

GBP 4.99
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An Analysis of Eugene Genovese's Roll Jordan Roll The World the Slaves Made

An Analysis of Eugene Genovese's Roll Jordan Roll The World the Slaves Made

Most studies of slavery are underpinned by ideology and idealism. Eugene Genovese's ground-breaking book takes a stand against both these influences arguing not only that all ideological history is bad history – a remarkable statement coming from a self-professed Marxist – but also that slavery itself can only be understood if master and slave are studied together rather than separately. Genovese's most important insight which makes this book a fine example of the critical thinking skill of problem-solving is that the best way to view the institution of American slavery is to understand why exactly it was structured as it was. He saw slavery as a process of continual renegotiation of power balances as masters strove to extract the maximum work from their slaves while slaves aimed to obtain acknowledgement of their humanity and the ability to shape elements of the world that they were forced to live in. Genovese's thesis is not wholly original; he adapts Gramsci's notion of hegemony to re-interpret the master-slave relationship – but it is an important example of the benefits of asking productive new questions about topics that seem superficially at least to be entirely obvious. By focusing on slave culture rather than producing another study of economic determinism this massive study succeeds in reconceptualising an institution in an exciting new way. | An Analysis of Eugene Genovese's Roll Jordan Roll The World the Slaves Made

GBP 6.50
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An Analysis of Steven Pinker's The Better Angels of Our Nature Why Violence has Declined

An Analysis of Steven Pinker's The Better Angels of Our Nature Why Violence has Declined

Reasoning is the critical thinking skill concerned with the production of arguments: making them coherent consistent and well-supported; and responding to opposing positions where necessary. The Better Angels of Our Nature offers a step-by-step class in precisely these skills. Author Steven Pinker's central thesis is simple: mankind has become increasingly less violent over the centuries and will continue to do so. Pinker is aware though that many people instinctively believe the opposite and Better Angels is devoted to marshalling data to support and illustrate this central argument as well as a series of secondary arguments about how and why humanity has become less violent. Pinker's interpretative skills – understanding the meaning of the complex evidence from history – are also on display throughout as he tackles the ambiguities of his data the problems it presents and the viable inferences one can draw from it. | An Analysis of Steven Pinker's The Better Angels of Our Nature Why Violence has Declined

GBP 6.50
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An Analysis of Christopher R. Browning's Ordinary Men Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland

An Analysis of Christopher R. Browning's Ordinary Men Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland

Of all the controversies facing historians today few are more divisive or more important than the question of how the Holocaust was possible. What led thousands of Germans – many of them middle-aged reservists with apparently little Nazi zeal – to willingly commit acts of genocide? Was it ideology? Was there something rotten in the German soul? Or was it – as Christopher Browning argues in this highly influential book – more a matter of conformity a response to intolerable social and psychological pressure? Ordinary Men is a microhistory the detailed study of a single unit in the Nazi killing machine. Browning evaluates a wide range of evidence to seek to explain the actions of the ordinary men who made up reserve Police Battalion 101 taking advantage of the wide range of resources prepared in the early 1960s for a proposed war crimes trial. He concludes that his subjects were not evil; rather their actions are best explained by a desire to be part of a team not to shirk responsibility that would otherwise fall on the shoulders of comrades and a willingness to obey authority. Browning's ability to explore the strengths and weaknesses of arguments – both the survivors' and other historians' – is what sets his work apart from other studies that have attempted to get to the root of the motivations for the Holocaust and it is also what marks Ordinary Men as one of the most important works of its generation. | An Analysis of Christopher R. Browning's Ordinary Men Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland

GBP 6.50
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