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Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship (Princeton Classics #134)
by Johann Wolfgang von GoetheAn authoritative English translation of one of the most important works in the history of the novelWilhelm Meister&’s Apprenticeship (1795–1796), Goethe&’s second novel, is a foundational work in the history of the genre—perhaps the first Bildungsroman, a coming-of-age story focusing on the growth and self-realization of the main character. The story centers on Wilhelm, a young man living in the mid-1700s who strives to break free from the restrictive bourgeois world of his upbringing and seek fulfillment as an actor and playwright. Goethe&’s novel had a huge impact on the Romantics. Hegel, Schelling, Novalis, and Schopenhauer considered it one of the most important novels yet written. Schlegel famously called it one of the &“three tendencies of the age,&” along with the French Revolution and the philosophy of Fichte. And Beethoven, Schubert, and Schumann set poems from the novel to music. It also had a major influence on nineteenth-century British writers, including Thomas Carlyle, who was its first English translator, and George Eliot. Drawn from Princeton&’s authoritative collected works of Goethe, and featuring a new introduction by David Wellbery, this is the definitive English version of a landmark of world literature.
Global Discord: Values and Power in a Fractured World Order
by Paul TuckerHow to sustain an international system of cooperation in the midst of geopolitical struggleCan the international economic and legal system survive today’s fractured geopolitics? Democracies are facing a drawn-out contest with authoritarian states that is entangling much of public policy with global security issues. In Global Discord, Paul Tucker lays out principles for a sustainable system of international cooperation, showing how democracies can deal with China and other illiberal states without sacrificing their deepest political values. Drawing on three decades as a central banker and regulator, Tucker applies these principles to the international monetary order, including the role of the U.S. dollar, trade and investment regimes, and the financial system.Combining history, economics, and political and legal philosophy, Tucker offers a new account of international relations. Rejecting intellectual traditions that go back to Hobbes, Kant, and Grotius, and deploying instead ideas from David Hume, Bernard Williams, and modern mechanism-design economists, Tucker describes a new kind of political realism that emphasizes power and interests without sidelining morality. Incentives must be aligned with values if institutions are to endure. The connecting tissue for a system of international cooperation, he writes, should be legitimacy, creating a world of concentric circles in which we cooperate more with those with whom we share the most and whom we fear the least.
How the West Became Antisemitic: Jews and the Formation of Europe, 800–1500
by Ivan G. MarcusAn examination of how the Jews—real and imagined—so challenged the Christian majority in medieval Europe that it became a society that was religiously and culturally antisemitic in new ways In medieval Europe, Jews were not passive victims of the Christian community, as is often assumed, but rather were startlingly assertive, forming a Jewish civilization within Latin Christian society. Both Jews and Christians considered themselves to be God&’s chosen people. These dueling claims fueled the rise of both cultures as they became rivals for supremacy. In How the West Became Antisemitic, Ivan Marcus shows how Christian and Jewish competition in medieval Europe laid the foundation for modern antisemitism.Marcus explains that Jews accepted Christians as misguided practitioners of their ancestral customs, but regarded Christianity as idolatry. Christians, on the other hand, looked at Jews themselves—not Judaism—as despised. They directed their hatred at a real and imagined Jew: theoretically subordinate, but sometimes assertive, an implacable &“enemy within.&” In their view, Jews were permanently and physically Jewish—impossible to convert to Christianity. Thus Christians came to hate Jews first for religious reasons, and eventually for racial ones. Even when Jews no longer lived among them, medieval Christians could not forget their former neighbors. Modern antisemitism, based on the imagined Jew as powerful and world dominating, is a transformation of this medieval hatred.A sweeping and well-documented history of the rivalry between Jewish and Christian civilizations during the making of Europe, How the West Became Antisemitic is an ambitious new interpretation of the medieval world and its impact on modernity.
How the West Became Antisemitic: Jews and the Formation of Europe, 800–1500
by Ivan G. MarcusAn examination of how the Jews—real and imagined—so challenged the Christian majority in medieval Europe that it became a society that was religiously and culturally antisemitic in new ways In medieval Europe, Jews were not passive victims of the Christian community, as is often assumed, but rather were startlingly assertive, forming a Jewish civilization within Latin Christian society. Both Jews and Christians considered themselves to be God&’s chosen people. These dueling claims fueled the rise of both cultures as they became rivals for supremacy. In How the West Became Antisemitic, Ivan Marcus shows how Christian and Jewish competition in medieval Europe laid the foundation for modern antisemitism.Marcus explains that Jews accepted Christians as misguided practitioners of their ancestral customs, but regarded Christianity as idolatry. Christians, on the other hand, looked at Jews themselves—not Judaism—as despised. They directed their hatred at a real and imagined Jew: theoretically subordinate, but sometimes assertive, an implacable &“enemy within.&” In their view, Jews were permanently and physically Jewish—impossible to convert to Christianity. Thus Christians came to hate Jews first for religious reasons, and eventually for racial ones. Even when Jews no longer lived among them, medieval Christians could not forget their former neighbors. Modern antisemitism, based on the imagined Jew as powerful and world dominating, is a transformation of this medieval hatred.A sweeping and well-documented history of the rivalry between Jewish and Christian civilizations during the making of Europe, How the West Became Antisemitic is an ambitious new interpretation of the medieval world and its impact on modernity.
Artemisia Gentileschi and the Business of Art
by Christopher R. MarshallA new account of the renowned Baroque painter, revealing how her astute professional decisions shaped her career, style, and legacyArt has long been viewed as a calling—a quasi-religious vocation that drives artists to seek answers to humanity&’s deepest questions. Yet the art world is a risky, competitive business that requires artists to make strategic decisions, especially if the artist is a woman. In Artemisia Gentileschi and the Business of Art, Christopher Marshall presents a new account of the life, work, and legacy of the Italian Baroque painter, revealing how she built a successful four-decade career in a male-dominated field—and how her business acumen has even influenced the resurrection of her reputation today, when she has been transformed from a footnote of art history to a globally famous artist and feminist icon.Combining the most recent research with detailed analyses of newly attributed paintings, the book highlights the business considerations behind Gentileschi&’s development of a trademark style as she marketed herself to the public across a range of Italian artistic centers. The disguised self-portraits in her early Florentine paintings are reevaluated as an effort to make a celebrity brand of her own image. And, challenging the common perception that Gentileschi&’s only masterpieces are her early Caravaggesque paintings, the book emphasizes the importance of her neglected late Neapolitan works, which are reinterpreted as innovative responses to the conventional practices of Baroque workshops.Artemisia Gentileschi and the Business of Art shows that Gentileschi&’s remarkable success as a painter was due not only to her enormous talent but also to her ability to respond creatively to the continuously evolving trends and challenges of the Italian Baroque art world.
Artemisia Gentileschi and the Business of Art
by Christopher R. MarshallA new account of the renowned Baroque painter, revealing how her astute professional decisions shaped her career, style, and legacyArt has long been viewed as a calling—a quasi-religious vocation that drives artists to seek answers to humanity&’s deepest questions. Yet the art world is a risky, competitive business that requires artists to make strategic decisions, especially if the artist is a woman. In Artemisia Gentileschi and the Business of Art, Christopher Marshall presents a new account of the life, work, and legacy of the Italian Baroque painter, revealing how she built a successful four-decade career in a male-dominated field—and how her business acumen has even influenced the resurrection of her reputation today, when she has been transformed from a footnote of art history to a globally famous artist and feminist icon.Combining the most recent research with detailed analyses of newly attributed paintings, the book highlights the business considerations behind Gentileschi&’s development of a trademark style as she marketed herself to the public across a range of Italian artistic centers. The disguised self-portraits in her early Florentine paintings are reevaluated as an effort to make a celebrity brand of her own image. And, challenging the common perception that Gentileschi&’s only masterpieces are her early Caravaggesque paintings, the book emphasizes the importance of her neglected late Neapolitan works, which are reinterpreted as innovative responses to the conventional practices of Baroque workshops.Artemisia Gentileschi and the Business of Art shows that Gentileschi&’s remarkable success as a painter was due not only to her enormous talent but also to her ability to respond creatively to the continuously evolving trends and challenges of the Italian Baroque art world.
The Pocket Instructor: 50 Exercises for the College Classroom (Skills for Scholars #6)
by Amanda Irwin Wilkins and Keith ShawFifty easy-to-deploy active learning exercises for teaching academic writing in any fieldThe Pocket Instructor: Writing offers fifty practical exercises for teaching students the core elements of successful academic writing. The exercises—created by faculty from a broad range of disciplines and institutions—are organized along the arc of a writing project, from brainstorming and asking analytical questions to drafting, revising, and sharing work with audiences outside traditional academia. They present students with engaging intellectual challenges to work through together, arriving at generalizable lessons that transfer well across the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences.Students will learn to articulate a thoughtful question, develop a persuasive thesis, analyze complex evidence, and engage responsibly with sources. The Pocket Instructor: Writing offers teachers concrete ideas about how to cultivate habits of radical revision and create a classroom community with an ethos of trust where students learn to give meaningful feedback. Written for both novice and veteran instructors, this essential guide will benefit faculty in any field who hope to improve student writing in their courses.Key features:• Exercises by experienced faculty from a wide range of disciplines and institutions• Step-by-step instructions with instructor insights for each exercise• A &“Writing Lexicon&” for terms such as motive, thesis, analysis, evidence, and method• Guidance for avoiding plagiarism• Index and cross-references to aid in course planning
The Pocket Instructor: 50 Exercises for the College Classroom (Skills for Scholars #6)
by Keith Shaw Amanda Irwin WilkinsFifty easy-to-deploy active learning exercises for teaching academic writing in any fieldThe Pocket Instructor: Writing offers fifty practical exercises for teaching students the core elements of successful academic writing. The exercises—created by faculty from a broad range of disciplines and institutions—are organized along the arc of a writing project, from brainstorming and asking analytical questions to drafting, revising, and sharing work with audiences outside traditional academia. They present students with engaging intellectual challenges to work through together, arriving at generalizable lessons that transfer well across the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences.Students will learn to articulate a thoughtful question, develop a persuasive thesis, analyze complex evidence, and engage responsibly with sources. The Pocket Instructor: Writing offers teachers concrete ideas about how to cultivate habits of radical revision and create a classroom community with an ethos of trust where students learn to give meaningful feedback. Written for both novice and veteran instructors, this essential guide will benefit faculty in any field who hope to improve student writing in their courses.Key features:• Exercises by experienced faculty from a wide range of disciplines and institutions• Step-by-step instructions with instructor insights for each exercise• A &“Writing Lexicon&” for terms such as motive, thesis, analysis, evidence, and method• Guidance for avoiding plagiarism• Index and cross-references to aid in course planning
The Age of Reconstruction: How Lincoln’s New Birth of Freedom Remade the World (America in the World #59)
by Don H. DoyleA sweeping history of how Union victory in the American Civil War inspired democratic reforms, revolutions, and emancipation movements in Europe and the AmericasThe Age of Reconstruction looks beyond post–Civil War America to tell the story of how Union victory and Lincoln’s assassination set off a dramatic international reaction that drove European empires out of the Americas, hastened the end of slavery in Latin America, and ignited a host of democratic reforms in Europe.In this international history of Reconstruction, Don Doyle chronicles the world events inspired by the Civil War. Between 1865 and 1870, France withdrew from Mexico, Russia sold Alaska to the United States, and Britain proclaimed the new state of Canada. British workers demanded more voting rights, Spain toppled Queen Isabella II and ended slavery in its Caribbean colonies, Cubans rose against Spanish rule, France overthrew Napoleon III, and the kingdom of Pope Pius IX fell before the Italian Risorgimento. Some European liberals, including Victor Hugo and Giuseppe Mazzini, even called for a “United States of Europe.” Yet for all its achievements and optimism, this “new birth of freedom” was short-lived. By the 1890s, Reconstruction had been undone in the United States and abroad and America had become an exclusionary democracy based on white supremacy—and a very different kind of model to the world.At home and abroad, America’s Reconstruction was, as W.E.B. Du Bois wrote, “the greatest and most important step toward world democracy of all men of all races ever taken in the modern world.” The Age of Reconstruction is a bracing history of a remarkable period when democracy, having survived the great test of the Civil War, was ascendant around the Atlantic world.
The Age of Reconstruction: How Lincoln’s New Birth of Freedom Remade the World (America in the World #59)
by Don H. DoyleA sweeping history of how Union victory in the American Civil War inspired democratic reforms, revolutions, and emancipation movements in Europe and the AmericasThe Age of Reconstruction looks beyond post–Civil War America to tell the story of how Union victory and Lincoln’s assassination set off a dramatic international reaction that drove European empires out of the Americas, hastened the end of slavery in Latin America, and ignited a host of democratic reforms in Europe.In this international history of Reconstruction, Don Doyle chronicles the world events inspired by the Civil War. Between 1865 and 1870, France withdrew from Mexico, Russia sold Alaska to the United States, and Britain proclaimed the new state of Canada. British workers demanded more voting rights, Spain toppled Queen Isabella II and ended slavery in its Caribbean colonies, Cubans rose against Spanish rule, France overthrew Napoleon III, and the kingdom of Pope Pius IX fell before the Italian Risorgimento. Some European liberals, including Victor Hugo and Giuseppe Mazzini, even called for a “United States of Europe.” Yet for all its achievements and optimism, this “new birth of freedom” was short-lived. By the 1890s, Reconstruction had been undone in the United States and abroad and America had become an exclusionary democracy based on white supremacy—and a very different kind of model to the world.At home and abroad, America’s Reconstruction was, as W.E.B. Du Bois wrote, “the greatest and most important step toward world democracy of all men of all races ever taken in the modern world.” The Age of Reconstruction is a bracing history of a remarkable period when democracy, having survived the great test of the Civil War, was ascendant around the Atlantic world.
Drawing Nature: The Creative Process of an Artist, Illustrator, and Naturalist
by Linda Miller FeltnerA visually stunning exploration of the artistic process by an award-winning nature artistDrawing Nature presents the creative process of an acclaimed nature artist, guiding readers from field sketches to finished art and demonstrating how science and the close observation of nature can be integrated into the artist&’s work to create dynamic, meaningful images. With chapters that flow from drawing basics to more advanced methods and concepts, this beautifully illustrated book is like a look inside the artist&’s sketchbooks to discover their secrets.Linda Miller Feltner demonstrates how observation and recording are sparks to creativity. Her journey from loose sketches and drawings to a completed work begins with observing a natural process, object, or interaction between organisms. Her curiosity generates scientific inquiry that, when researched, helps her to answer a question or make broad, often surprising connections. Blending examples of her stunning artwork with invaluable insights into time-honored art techniques, Feltner illustrates how sketching, developing an image, and scientific accuracy are essential to her art and encourages each of us to cultivate our own powers of observation and discover anew the world around us.Drawing Nature enables us to look at nature through an artist&’s eyes, draw inspiration from a place or a moment, and give expression to its beauty.
A Field Guide to the Larger Mammals of South America (WILDGuides #26)
by Richard Webb Jeff BlincowThe definitive comprehensive photographic field guide to the larger mammals of continental South AmericaSouth America&’s wide range of habitats support a tremendous diversity of plants and animals, including more than 400 species of larger mammals—those the size of a guinea pig or bigger. Many are truly iconic: Jaguar, Puma, Ocelot and numerous other beautiful cats; the fantastic Maned Wolf; the incomparable Giant Anteater; and an incredible variety of extraordinary primates. This groundbreaking guide provides detailed coverage of these and many other wonderful mammals, including porcupines and peccaries; squirrels, sloths, skunks and seals; opossums, olingos and otters; armadillos, agoutis and Andean Bear; and viscachas and Vicuña—not to mention tapirs and river and estuarine dolphins.The species accounts include a description of key features and information on subspecies, comparisons with similar species that overlap in range, details of the habitats in which the species occurs, a summary of its distribution in South America and information on its conservation status. Each species is illustrated with carefully selected photos, or artwork where suitable photos were not available.Detailed coverage of 420 speciesShowcases over 550 stunning photos, many of rarely photographed speciesFeatures specially commissioned artwork for almost 100 species, including comparative plates of all marmosets and titi monkeysIncludes up-to-date distribution maps
The Lives of Bees: A Natural History of Our Planet's Bee Life (The Lives of the Natural World #9)
by Dr. Christina Grozinger Dr. Harland PatchA beautifully illustrated guide to the vibrant and richly diverse world of beesThe Lives of Bees provides a one-of-a-kind look at the life and natural history of bees. Blending stunning photographs and illustrations with illuminating profiles of selected species, this incisive guide takes readers inside the world of these marvelous insects, exploring their physiology, behavior, ecology, evolution, and much more. The Lives of Bees is essential reading for nature lovers everywhere.Features a wealth of stunning color imagesCovers everything from the social lives of bees to their conservationWritten by two leading experts in the fieldDiscusses the cultural, ecological, and economic interconnections between humans and beesHighlights strategies to support bee populations in backyards, farms, and natural areas
British and Irish Wild Flowers and Plants: A Pocket Guide (WILDGuides #117)
by Robert Still Chris Gibson Rachel HamiltonA highly illustrated and portable identification guide to the most common wild flowers and other plantsThis innovative photographic guide covers the most common wild flowers and other plants found in Britain and Ireland, as defined by the very latest distribution maps. It is designed so that anyone faced with an unfamiliar wild plant can confidently put a name to the species or recognise that it is a less common plant needing further investigation. The identification process is based on standard botanical features that are straightforwardly described, clearly illustrated and supported by a simple visual key to families. This book can be your springboard into the wider world of botanical identification, wherever you are, and of plants both common and rare.Covers the plants most likely to be seen, including those in coastal areasIncludes more than 3,800 colour photographs, with macro images of key features when neededFeatures a friendly, easy-to-use design and text written in plain English, with essential botanical terms described and illustrated
Democracy Erodes from the Top: Leaders, Citizens, and the Challenge of Populism in Europe (Princeton Studies in Political Behavior #40)
by Larry M. BartelsWhy leaders, not citizens, are the driving force in Europe&’s crisis of democracyAn apparent explosion of support for right-wing populist parties has triggered widespread fears that liberal democracy is facing its worst crisis since the 1930s. Democracy Erodes from the Top reveals that the real crisis stems not from an increasingly populist public but from political leaders who exploit or mismanage the chronic vulnerabilities of democracy.In this provocative book, Larry Bartels dismantles the pervasive myth of a populist wave in contemporary European public opinion. While there has always been a substantial reservoir of populist sentiment, Europeans are no less trusting of their politicians and parliaments than they were two decades ago, no less enthusiastic about European integration, and no less satisfied with the workings of democracy. Anti-immigrant sentiment has waned. Electoral support for right-wing populist parties has increased only modestly, reflecting the idiosyncratic successes of populist entrepreneurs, the failures of mainstream parties, and media hype. Europe&’s most sobering examples of democratic backsliding—in Hungary and Poland—occurred not because voters wanted authoritarianism but because conventional conservative parties, once elected, seized opportunities to entrench themselves in power.By demonstrating the inadequacy of conventional bottom-up interpretations of Europe&’s political crisis, Democracy Erodes from the Top turns our understanding of democratic politics upside down.
Strabo's Geography: A Translation for the Modern World
by StraboA lively new translation of Strabo&’s complete Geography—an encyclopedic guide to the ancient world of the first century CE—connecting it with the world of the twenty-first centuryStrabo&’s Geography is an encyclopedic description of the ancient world as it appeared to a contemporary observer in the early Roman empire. Information about taming elephants, collecting saffron, producing asphalt, and practicing yoga is found alongside accounts of prostitution, volcanic activity, religious festivals, and obscure eastern dynasties—all set against the shifting backdrop of political power in the first century CE. Traveling around the Mediterranean, Strabo gathered knowledge of places and people, supplementing his firsthand experiences with an immense amount of reading to create a sweeping chronicle that attempts to answer the implicit questions &“Who are we?&” and &“Where do we come from?&” Sarah Pothecary&’s new translation of Strabo&’s complete Geography makes this important work more accessible, relevant, and enjoyable than ever before.Conveying the informal, lively, and almost journalistic style of Strabo&’s Greek, this translation connects the ancient and modern worlds by providing modern names and maps for places mentioned in the text, a generous page layout, and marginal notes, allowing readers to appreciate Strabo&’s work directly and immediately. The result mimics what Strabo was doing two thousand years ago—relating the rapidly changing present of his original readers to their own ancient past.A remarkably modern translation of a revealing window on the ancient world, this is essential reading for anyone interested in how we look at both antiquity and the world today.
Privileging Place: How Second Homeowners Transform Communities and Themselves
by Meaghan StimanHow second homeowners strategically leverage their privilege across multiple spacesIn recent decades, Americans have purchased second homes at unprecedented rates. In Privileging Place, Meaghan Stiman examines the experiences of predominantly upper-middle-class suburbanites who bought second homes in the city or the country. Drawing on interviews with more than sixty owners of second homes and ethnographic data collected over the course of two years in Rangeley, Maine, and Boston, Massachusetts, Stiman uncovers the motivations of these homeowners and analyzes the local consequences of their actions. By doing so, she traces the contours of privilege across communities in the twenty-first century.Stiman argues that, for the upper-middle-class residents of suburbia who bought urban or rural second homes, the purchase functioned as a way to balance a desire for access to material resources in suburban communities with a longing for a more meaningful connection to place in the city or the country. The tension between these two contradictory aims explains why homeowners bought second homes, how they engaged with the communities around them, and why they ultimately remained in their suburban hometowns. The second home is a place-identity project—a way to gain a sense of place identity they don&’t find in their hometowns while still holding on to hometown resources. Stiman&’s account offers a cautionary tale of the layers of privilege within and across geographies in the twenty-first century.
Privileging Place: How Second Homeowners Transform Communities and Themselves
by Meaghan StimanHow second homeowners strategically leverage their privilege across multiple spacesIn recent decades, Americans have purchased second homes at unprecedented rates. In Privileging Place, Meaghan Stiman examines the experiences of predominantly upper-middle-class suburbanites who bought second homes in the city or the country. Drawing on interviews with more than sixty owners of second homes and ethnographic data collected over the course of two years in Rangeley, Maine, and Boston, Massachusetts, Stiman uncovers the motivations of these homeowners and analyzes the local consequences of their actions. By doing so, she traces the contours of privilege across communities in the twenty-first century.Stiman argues that, for the upper-middle-class residents of suburbia who bought urban or rural second homes, the purchase functioned as a way to balance a desire for access to material resources in suburban communities with a longing for a more meaningful connection to place in the city or the country. The tension between these two contradictory aims explains why homeowners bought second homes, how they engaged with the communities around them, and why they ultimately remained in their suburban hometowns. The second home is a place-identity project—a way to gain a sense of place identity they don&’t find in their hometowns while still holding on to hometown resources. Stiman&’s account offers a cautionary tale of the layers of privilege within and across geographies in the twenty-first century.
Aporophobia: Why We Reject the Poor Instead of Helping Them
by Professor Adela CortinaWhy “aporophobia”—rejection of the poor—is one of the most serious problems facing the world today, and how we can fight itIn this revelatory book, acclaimed political philosopher Adela Cortina makes an unprecedented assertion: the biggest problem facing the world today is the rejection of poor people. Because we can’t recognize something we can’t name, she proposes the term “aporophobia” for the pervasive exclusion, stigmatization, and humiliation of the poor, which cuts across xenophobia, racism, antisemitism, and other prejudices. Passionate and powerful, Aporophobia examines where this nearly invisible daily attack on poor people comes from, why it is so harmful, and how we can fight it.Aporophobia traces this universal prejudice’s neurological and social origins and its wide-ranging, pernicious consequences, from unnoticed hate crimes to aporophobia’s threat to democracy. It sheds new light on today’s rampant anti-immigrant feeling, which Cortina argues is better understood as aporophobia than xenophobia. We reject migrants not because of their origin, race, or ethnicity but because they seem to bring problems while offering nothing of value. And this is unforgivable in societies that enshrine economic exchange as the supreme value while forgetting that we can’t create communities worth living in without dignity, generosity, and compassion for all. Yet there is hope, and Cortina explains how we can overcome the moral, social, and political disaster of aporophobia through education and democratic institutions, and how poverty itself can be eradicated if we choose.In a world of migrant crises and economic inequality, Aporophobia is essential for understanding and confronting one of the most serious problems of the twenty-first century.
The Illusionist Brain: The Neuroscience of Magic
by Jordi Camí Luis M. MartínezHow magicians exploit the natural functioning of our brains to astonish and amaze usHow do magicians make us see the impossible? The Illusionist Brain takes you on an unforgettable journey through the inner workings of the human mind, revealing how magicians achieve their spectacular and seemingly impossible effects by interfering with your cognitive processes. Along the way, this lively and informative book provides a guided tour of modern neuroscience, using magic as a lens for understanding the unconscious and automatic functioning of our brains.We construct reality from the information stored in our memories and received through our senses, and our brains are remarkably adept at tricking us into believing that our experience is continuous. In fact, our minds create our perception of reality by elaborating meanings and continuities from incomplete information, and while this strategy carries clear benefits for survival, it comes with blind spots that magicians know how to exploit. Jordi Camí and Luis Martínez explore the many different ways illusionists manipulate our attention—making us look but not see—and take advantage of our individual predispositions and fragile memories.The Illusionist Brain draws on the latest findings in neuroscience to explain how magic deceives us, surprises us, and amazes us, and demonstrates how illusionists skillfully “hack” our brains to alter how we perceive things and influence what we imagine.
Election Day: How We Vote and What It Means for Democracy
by Emilee Booth ChapmanAn original defense of the unique value of voting in a democracyVoting is only one of the many ways that citizens can participate in public decision making, so why does it occupy such a central place in the democratic imagination? In Election Day, political theorist Emilee Booth Chapman provides an original answer to that question, showing precisely what is so special about how we vote in today’s democracies. By presenting a holistic account of popular voting practices and where they fit into complex democratic systems, she defends popular attitudes toward voting against radical critics and offers much-needed guidance for voting reform.Elections embody a distinctive constellation of democratic values and perform essential functions in democratic communities. Election day dramatizes the nature of democracy as a collective and individual undertaking, makes equal citizenship and individual dignity concrete and transparent, and socializes citizens into their roles as equal political agents. Chapman shows that fully realizing these ends depends not only on the widespread opportunity to vote but also on consistently high levels of actual turnout, and that citizens’ experiences of voting matters as much as the formal properties of a voting system. And these insights are also essential for crafting and evaluating electoral reform proposals.By rethinking what citizens experience when they go to the polls, Election Day recovers the full value of democratic voting today.
Capitalism: The Story behind the Word
by Michael SonenscherHow the history of a word sheds new light on capitalism and modern politicsWhat exactly is capitalism? How has the meaning of capitalism changed over time? And what&’s at stake in our understanding or misunderstanding of it? In Capitalism, Michael Sonenscher examines the history behind the concept and pieces together the range of subjects bound up with the word. Sonenscher shows that many of our received ideas fail to pick up the work that the idea of capitalism is doing for us, without us even realizing it.&“Capitalism&” was first coined in France in the early nineteenth century. It began as a fusion of two distinct sets of ideas. The first involved thinking about public debt and war finance. The second involved thinking about the division of labour. Sonenscher shows that thinking about the first has changed radically over time. Funding welfare has been added to funding warfare, bringing many new questions in its wake. Thinking about the second set of ideas has offered far less room for manoeuvre. The division of labour is still the division of labour and the debates and discussions that it once generated have now been largely forgotten. By exploring what lay behind the earlier distinction before it collapsed and was eroded by the passage of time, Sonenscher shows why the present range of received ideas limits our political options and the types of reform we might wish for.
The Economy of Promises: Trust, Power, and Credit in America
by Bruce G. CarruthersA comprehensive and illuminating account of the history of credit in America—and how it continues to divide the haves from the have-notsThe Economy of Promises is a far-reaching study of credit in nineteenth- and twentieth-century America. Synthesizing and surveying economic and social history, Bruce Carruthers examines how issues of trust stitch together the modern U.S. economy. In the case of credit, that trust involves a commitment by debtors to repay money they have borrowed from lenders. Each promise poses a fundamental question: why does the lender trust the borrower?The book tracks the dramatic shift from personal qualitative judgments to the impersonal quantitative measurements of credit scores and ratings, which make lending on a much greater scale possible. It discusses how lending is shaped by the shadow of failure, and the possibility that borrowers will break their promises and fail to repay their debts. It reveals how credit markets have been shaped by public policy, regulatory changes, and various political factors. And, crucially, it explains how credit interacts with economic inequality, contributing to vast and enduring racial and gender differences—which are only exacerbated by the widespread use of credit scores and ratings for “big data” and algorithmic decision-making.Bringing to life the complicated and abstract terrain of human interaction we call the economy, The Economy of Promises is an important study of the tangle of indebtedness that, for better or worse, shapes and defines American lives.
Robespierre: The Man Who Divides Us the Most
by Marcel GauchetHow Robespierre’s career and legacy embody the dangerous contradictions of democracyMaximilien Robespierre (1758–1794) is arguably the most controversial and contradictory figure of the French Revolution, inspiring passionate debate like no other protagonist of those dramatic and violent events. The fervor of those who defend Robespierre the “Incorruptible,” who championed the rights of the people, is met with revulsion by those who condemn him as the bloodthirsty tyrant who sent people to the guillotine. Marcel Gauchet argues that he was both, embodying the glorious achievement of liberty as well as the excesses that culminated in the Terror.In much the same way that 1789 and 1793 symbolize the two opposing faces of the French Revolution, Robespierre’s contradictions were the contradictions of the revolution itself. Robespierre was its purest incarnation, neither the defender of liberty who fell victim to the corrupting influence of power nor the tyrant who betrayed the principles of the revolution. Gauchet shows how Robespierre’s personal transition from opposition to governance was itself an expression of the tragedy inherent in a revolution whose own prophetic ideals were impossible to implement.This panoramic book tells the story of how the man most associated with the founding of modern French democracy was also the first tyrant of that democracy, and it offers vital lessons for all democracies about the perpetual danger of tyranny.
Who Really Wrote the Bible: The Story of the Scribes
by William M. SchniedewindA groundbreaking new account of the writing of the Hebrew BibleWho wrote the Bible? Its books have no bylines. Tradition long identified Moses as the author of the Pentateuch, with Ezra as editor. Ancient readers also suggested that David wrote the psalms and Solomon wrote Proverbs and Qohelet. Although the Hebrew Bible rarely speaks of its authors, people have been fascinated by the question of its authorship since ancient times. In Who Really Wrote the Bible, William Schniedewind offers a bold new answer: the Bible was not written by a single author, or by a series of single authors, but by communities of scribes. The Bible does not name its authors because authorship itself was an idea enshrined in a later era by the ancient Greeks. In the pre-Hellenistic world of ancient Near Eastern literature, books were produced, preserved, and passed on by scribal communities.Schniedewind draws on ancient inscriptions, archaeology, and anthropology, as well as a close reading of the biblical text itself, to trace the communal origin of biblical literature. Scribes were educated through apprenticeship rather than in schools. The prophet Isaiah, for example, has his &“disciples&”; Elisha has his &“apprentice.&” This mode of learning emphasized the need to pass along the traditions of a community of practice rather than to individuate and invent. Schniedewind shows that it is anachronistic to impose our ideas about individual authorship and authors on the writing of the Bible. Ancient Israelites didn&’t live in books, he writes, but along dusty highways and byways. Who Really Wrote the Bible describes how scribes and their apprentices actually worked in ancient Jerusalem and Judah.