Pankaj Mishra's provocative account of how China, India and the Muslim World are remaking the world in their own image - shortlisted for the Orwell Prize 2013
SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE 2013
Viewed in the West as a time of self-confident progress, the Victorian period was experienced by Asians as a catastrophe. As the British gunned down the last heirs to the Mughal Empire or burned down the Summer Palace in Beijing, it was clear that for Asia to recover a new way of thinking was needed. Pankaj Mishra re-tells the history of the past two centuries, showing how a remarkable, disparate group of thinkers, journalists, radicals and charismatics emerged from the ruins of empire to create an unstoppable Asian renaissance, one whose ideas lie behind everything from the Chinese Communist Party to the Muslim Brotherhood, and have made our world what it is today.
Reviews-
'Arrestingly original ... this penetrating and disquieting book should be on the reading list of anybody who wants to understand where we are today' John Gray, Independent

'A riveting account that makes new and illuminating connections ... deeply entertaining and deeply humane' Hisham Matar
'Fascinating ... a rich and genuinely thought-provoking book' Noel Malcolm, Sunday Telegraph
'Provocative, shaming and convincing' Michael Binyon, The Times

'Lively ... engaging ... retains the power to shock' Mark Mazower, Financial Times

'Subtle, erudite and entertaining' Economist, New Delhi
About the author-
Pankaj Mishra is the author of Butter Chicken in Ludiana, The Romantics, An End to Suffering and Temptations of the West. He writes principally for the Guardian, The New York Times, London Review of Books and New York Review of Books. He lives in London, Shimla and New York.

'The physicist transforming how we see the universe' (Financial Times)

'An utter joy' (Adam Rutherford)

'A hugely engaging book... Rovelli is a charming, thought-provoking tour guide' (Manjit Kumar Prospect)

Do space and time truly exist? What is reality made of? Can we understand its deep texture?
Scientist Carlo Rovelli has spent his whole life exploring these questions and pushing the boundaries of what we know. In this mind-expanding book, he shows how our understanding of reality has changed throughout centuries, from Democritus to loop quantum gravity. Taking us on a wondrous journey, he invites us to imagine a whole new world where black holes are waiting to explode, spacetime is made up of grains, and infinity does not exist -- a vast universe still largely undiscovered.

Translated by Simon Carnell and Erica Segre

Kritische analyse van de groeiende kloof tussen de Verenigde Staten en Europa, waarin de fundamenteel verschillende opvattingen over het gebruik van militair geweld en machtspolitiek (tot uiting komend in Kosovo en Irak) vanuit de naoorlogse geschiedenis worden verklaard.

Uitgangspunt van deze studie is de tegenstelling tussen George Eliots hoogst onorthodoxe privé-leven - in haar strijd om kennis en zelfstandigheid raakte ze haar geloof en familie kwijt - en de heldinnen uit haar werk, die uiteindelijk altijd voor een conventioneel leven kiezen.

This work tells the story of European integration from its modern origins in the 1940s to the challenges of the 21st century. A thematic introductory and concluding chapter draw out key issues and themes and provide the author's own distinctive interpretation.

Het boek geeft een uitvoerig portret van de legendarische Venetiaanse avonturier en schrijver Giacomo Casanova, waarin niet slechts zijn roem als verleider centraal staat, maar ook zijn intellectuele nieuwsgierigheid, zijn sociale netwerk en de tijdsgeest waarin hij leefde. We volgen zijn reizen door Europa, van padvinder in de salons tot vluchteling, van gokker tot vrijdenker, en krijgen inzicht in de maatschappij van de 18de eeuw, de salons, de macht van de adel, de rol van liefde en reputatie.

Biografie van de Nederlandse schilder (1853-1890) vanuit de these dat hij schilderde uit schuldbesef over een doodgeboren broertje.

Monografie over leven, werkwijze en werk van de Italiaanse componist (1792-1868). Dit boek is de beste introductie die men zich kan wensen tot het leven en werk van een componist die meer dan Wagner de komende jaren de gespeelde componist zal zijn. Het is aan de ene kant een perfecte en complete biografie en aan de andere kant een rehabilitatie van een muzikaal oevre.

Biografie van de Oostenrijkse componist Franz Peter Schubert (1797-1828)

Levensbeschrijving van de componist Wilhelm Richard Wagner (1813-1883). Op 13 februari 1983 was het honderd jaar geleden dat Richard Wagner stierf. 'De buikspreker van God' noemde Nietschze deze zeer omstreden figuur in de cultuurgeschiedenis. Een eeuw na zijn dood is hij nog steeds onderwerp van bijzonder felle polemieken.

Biografisch essay over de Nederlandse dichteres (1859-1941).

Dit is een praktische gids waarin allerlei bijzondere, maar ook alledaagse stadsplanten eenvoudig zijn op te zoeken aan de hand van kleur, soort en standplaats. In totaal passeren 700 soorten de revue en de gids is rijkelijk geïllustreerd met prachtige foto’s. In de inleiding ‘stadsflora onder de loep’ wordt duidelijk waarom de steden een zo eigen plantenleven kennen. Onder meer door het warme stadsklimaat is dit zo kenmerkend dat er mag worden gesproken van het Urbaan plantendistrict. Een bijzonder onderdeel in de gids is het deel ‘steden nader bekeken’. Dit gedeelte neemt je mee naar bijzondere plekken in steden verspreid over het hele land! Er zijn in deze veldgids achttien stadswandelingen opgenomen. De steden die speciaal worden belicht zijn: Amsterdam, Breda, Den Bosch, Den Haag, Deventer, Eindhoven, Enschede, Groningen, Haarlem, Hengelo, Leeuwarden, Maastricht, Middelburg, Nijmegen, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Tilburg en Zwolle.

In 'Rusland in oorlog deel 1 (september 2013 – juli 2014)' hebben we laten zien hoe president Vladimir Poetin binnen een jaar de gijzelaar werd van zijn eigen propagandamachine. De ambities van de president erkenning te zoeken voor de status van Rusland als wereldmacht heeft al vele duizenden doden geëist in wat hij noemt Novorossija, het nieuwe Rusland, en wat de wereld ziet als twee oostelijke provincies van de soevereine staat Oekraïne. De Russische burger leeft verder in een op hol geslagen staatsmachine die dagelijks een lawine van haat uitspuwt tegen het Westen. De Koude Oorlog Poetin-stijl heeft gevaarlijke warme trekjes gekregen kunnen we in dit deel 2 laten zien. Ondertussen wordt onderzocht wie het toestel van MH17 op 17 juli 2014 met 298 passagiers onder wie 196 Nederlanders met een Bukraket heeft neergehaald. Sterke vermoedens wijzen in de richting van de door Rusland gesteunde separatisten.

The Current Deep Economic Crisis Marks a Great Transition. The Chinese phrase for crisis consists of two words danger and opportunity. In Beyond the Crisis: The Future of Capitalism, renowned futurologist, Adjiedj Bakas, leads you through, and then out of, the New Great Depression of the 21st century. The current economic crisis marks the end of an era, and the start of a new one. It is the 5th major crisis in 200 years' time. All of them occurred at the transition from one era to the next. The 1930s may have been a time of deep economic crisis and mass unemployment, yet in those days the Kennedys made their fortunes, art deco was born and the radio, car, and telephone grew to be so much in demand that great new industries emerged out of the ashes of the crisis. During the major economic crisis of the 1980s the personal computer, mobile phone and Internet were born and developed into major new industries. During the current crisis we finally say goodbye to the 20th century and transit into the new, post-material economy with new economic pillars and the mixture with digital collaboration powered by "cloud computing," the next generation Internet. We say hello to a new era, with China as the new global powerhouse instead of the U.S., with globalization turning into slowbalization, with less wealth and more focus on the Economy of Happiness. "Bakas looks behind today¿s headlines and uses knowledge and wisdom from different fields: economics, technology, philosophy and spirituality, in order to grasp what is really going on in our world, and the real changes in our global economy. I truly recommend this book because it may change your future and that of your children." --Professor Jianmao Wang, Economist at the China Europe International Business School

Aan de hand van de correspondentie tussen een diplomaat, de heer van Amerongen, z?n vrouw en hun zoon, officier in het leger, wordt een beeld geschetst van alle facetten van het beruchte rampjaar 1672.

Memoires van de Italiaanse librettist en avonturier (1749-1838).

Few poets have excited such extremes of admiration and hostility as Dylan Thomas, the Welshman who was perhaps the greatest lyric poet of the 20th Century. This authoritative biography is based on a wealth of previously unpublished material (including 2 poems) gathered by the author in more than 200 interviews and extensive research in the UK & USA. With 25 b/w illustrations.

In this gripping account of the boyhood, marriage, and young professional life of Abraham Lincoln, award-winning writer Russell Freedman brings to life the presidential years, scholarly thoughts and reflections of the Civil War president. Winner of the 1988 Newbery Medal.



This 1988 Newbery Medal-winning biography of our Civil War president is warm, appealing, and illustrated with dozens of carefully chosen photographs and prints. Russell Freedman begins with a lively account of Abraham Lincoln's boyhood, his career as a country lawyer, and his courtship and marriage to Mary Todd. Then the author focuses on the presidential years (1861 to 1865), skillfully explaining the many complex issues Lincoln grappled with as he led a deeply divided nation through the Civil War. The book's final chapter is a moving account of that tragic evening in Ford's Theatre on April 14, 1865. Additional content includes a sampling of Lincoln's writings and a detailed list of Lincoln historical sites.

This volume includes full-color reproductions of drawings and woodblock prints by Japan's most beloved artist. These landscapes-including his famous views of Mount Fuji- portraits of lovers and kabuki actors, nature and animal illustrations, as well as scenes of daily life in eighteenth and nineteenth-century Japan reveal the artist's genius for rendering a wide variety of subjects. Matthi Forrer discusses in his essay Hokusai's life and lasting popularity while placing his work within the context of Japanese society and the work of his contemporaries.

Giordano Bruno is one of the great figures of early modern Europe, and one of the least understood. Ingrid D. Rowland’s pathbreaking life of Bruno establishes him once and for all as a peer of Erasmus, Shakespeare, and Galileo, a thinker whose vision of the world prefigures ours.

By the time Bruno was burned at the stake as a heretic in 1600 on Rome’s Campo dei Fiori, he had taught in Naples, Rome, Venice, Geneva, France, England, Germany, and the “magic Prague” of Emperor Rudolph II. His powers of memory and his provocative ideas about the infinity of the universe had attracted the attention of the pope, Queen Elizabeth—and the Inquisition, which condemned him to death in Rome as part of a yearlong jubilee.

Writing with great verve and sympathy for her protagonist, Rowland traces Bruno’s wanderings through a sixteenth-century Europe where every certainty of religion and philosophy had been called into question and shows him valiantly defending his ideas (and his right to maintain them) to the very end. An incisive, independent thinker just when natural philosophy was transformed into modern science, he was also a writer of sublime talent. His eloquence and his courage inspired thinkers across Europe, finding expression in the work of Shakespeare and Galileo.

Giordano Bruno allows us to encounter a legendary European figure as if for the first time.

A daring account of the philosophical development of the idea of a rational society and its consequences for the present

In the seventeenth century, a vision arose which was to captivate the Western imagination for the next three hundred years: the vision of Cosmopolis, a society as rationally ordered as the Newtonian view of nature. While fueling extraordinary advances in all fields of human endeavor, this vision perpetuated a hidden yet persistent agenda: the delusion that human nature and society could be fitted into precise and manageable rational categories. Stephen Toulmin confronts that agenda—its illusions and its consequences for our present and future world.

Grondbeginselen van de natuurkunde in historische context.

Onderzoek naar de identificatie van een schilderij dat de kunstenaar Jan Steen in 1655 schilderde.

Winner of the Society of American Historians' Francis Parkman Prize
Winner of the PEN / Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography
Best Biography of 2016, True West magazine
Winner of the Western Writers of America 2017 Spur Award, Best Western Biography
Finalist, National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography
Long-listed for the Cundill History Prize
One of the Best Books of 2016, The Boston Globe

The epic life story of the Native American holy man who has inspired millions around the world

Black Elk, the Native American holy man, is known to millions of readers around the world from his 1932 testimonial Black Elk Speaks. Adapted by the poet John G. Neihardt from a series of interviews with Black Elk and other elders at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, Black Elk Speaks is one of the most widely read and admired works of American Indian literature. Cryptic and deeply personal, it has been read as a spiritual guide, a philosophical manifesto, and a text to be deconstructed—while the historical Black Elk has faded from view.

In this sweeping book, Joe Jackson provides the definitive biographical account of a figure whose dramatic life converged with some of the most momentous events in the history of the American West. Born in an era of rising violence between the Sioux, white settlers, and U.S. government troops, Black Elk killed his first man at the Little Bighorn, witnessed the death of his second cousin Crazy Horse, and traveled to Europe with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show. Upon his return, he was swept up in the traditionalist Ghost Dance movement and shaken by the Massacre at Wounded Knee. But Black Elk was not a warrior, instead accepting the path of a healer and holy man, motivated by a powerful prophetic vision that he struggled to understand. Although Black Elk embraced Catholicism in his later years, he continued to practice the old ways clandestinely and never refrained from seeking meaning in the visions that both haunted and inspired him.

In Black Elk, Jackson has crafted a true American epic, restoring to its subject the richness of his times and gorgeously portraying a life of heroism and tragedy, adaptation and endurance, in an era of permanent crisis on the Great Plains.

The conversion of the pagan world that began in the obscurity of the Dark Ages was in no way inevitable. England did not embrace Christianity until 627, and while confessing communities existed from Greenland to China by the millennium, the last European conversion occurred late in the Middle Ages, in 1386. How did it all happen--and why? In a work of splid scholarship that often reads like a detective story and that owes as much to keen intuition as to the mastery of difficult sources, Richard Fletcher lays out the story of the Christianization of Europe. It is a very large story, for conversion was not merely a matter of religious belief. Christianity brought with it enormous cultural baggage. With it came Latin literacy--books; Roman notions of law, property, and government--even the concept of town life, and Mediterranean customs, including new tastes in food, drink, and dress. Whether from faith or by force, conversion had an immense impact that is with us even today, and it is Richard Fletcher's achievement to make that impact felt and understood.

We staan voor een ongekende maatschappelijke verandering. Om de mondiale opwarming te stoppen, moet de uitstoot van CO2 drastisch omlaag. Daarom sluiten we kolencentrales en draaien we zelfs de gaskraan dicht. Hoe komen we dan aan voldoende, duurzame energie? Kan het wel met windmolens, zonnepanelen en warmtepompen? Blijven we toch gewoon gas gebruiken? Of biedt kernenergie een onverwachte uitkomst? Hoe haalbaar en betaalbaar is een fossielvrije toekomst? 0Dit boek beschrijft wat de transitie inhoudt en schept helderheid in een verhit debat vol vooringenomenheid, onjuiste argumentatie en preken voor eigen parochie. De energietransitie is een onmisbare bijdrage aan het denken over een van de grootste vraagstukken van de 21e eeuw. 0.