The Crooked Timber Of Humanity

The Crooked Timber Of Humanity PDF Author: Isaiah Berlin
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1446496961
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
Isaiah Berlin is regarded by many as one of the greatest historians of ideas of his time. In The Crooked Timber of Humanity, he argues passionately, eloquently, and subtly, that what he calls 'the Great Goods' of human aspiration - liberty, justice, equality - do not cohere and never can. Pluralism and variety of thought are not avoidable compromises, but the glory of civilisation. In an age of increasing ideological fundamentalism and intolerance we need to listen to Isaiah Berlin more carefully than ever before.

The Crooked Timber Of Humanity

The Crooked Timber Of Humanity PDF Author: Isaiah Berlin
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1446496961
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 290

Get Book Here

Book Description
Isaiah Berlin is regarded by many as one of the greatest historians of ideas of his time. In The Crooked Timber of Humanity, he argues passionately, eloquently, and subtly, that what he calls 'the Great Goods' of human aspiration - liberty, justice, equality - do not cohere and never can. Pluralism and variety of thought are not avoidable compromises, but the glory of civilisation. In an age of increasing ideological fundamentalism and intolerance we need to listen to Isaiah Berlin more carefully than ever before.

Insulin - the Crooked Timber

Insulin - the Crooked Timber PDF Author: Kersten T. Hall
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192855387
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 476

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Book Description
Before the discovery of insulin, a diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes was a death sentence. To mark the centenary of this landmark in medicine, this book charts the journey of how insulin was transformed from what one clinician called 'thick brown muck' into the very first drug to be produced using genetic engineering, and which earned the founders of US biotech company Genentech a small fortune. Taking the reader on a fascinating journey, starting with the discovery of insulin in the 1920s through to the present day, Insulin - The Crooked Timber reveals a story of monstrous egos, toxic career rivalries, and a few unsung heroes and heroines. It discusses in detail the circumstances of Canadian scientist Frederick Banting whose award of the 1923 Nobel Prize for this life-saving discovery proved to be both a blessing and a curse for him and explores how the human story behind this discovery still remains one of ongoing political and scientific controversy. The book is the result of the author's own shocking diagnosis with Type 1 diabetes and its story reminds us all of what technology can - and cannot do - for us. As the world struggles to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic and face future challenges such as climate change, the lessons that we can learn from the story of insulin have never been more important.

The Proper Study Of Mankind

The Proper Study Of Mankind PDF Author: Isaiah Berlin
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1446496953
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 706

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Book Description
‘He becomes everyman’s guide to everything exciting in the history of ideas’ New York Review of Books Isaiah Berlin was one of the leading thinkers of the twentieth century, and one of the finest writers. The Proper Study Of Mankind selects some of his best essays in which his insights both illuminate the past and offer a key to the burning issues of today. The full (and enormous) range of his work is represented here, from the exposition of his most distinctive doctrine - pluralism - to studies of Machiavelli, Tolstoy, Churchill and Roosevelt. In these pages he encapsulates the principal movements that characterise the modern age: romanticism, historicism, Fascism, relativism, irrationalism and nationalism. His ideas are always tied to the people who conceived them, so that abstractions are brought alive. EDITED BY HENRY HARDY AND ROGER HAUSHEER AND WITH A NEW FOREWORD BY ANDREW MARR

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell PDF Author: Susanna Clarke
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 160819535X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 1162

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Book Description
In the Hugo-award winning, epic New York Times Bestseller and basis for the BBC miniseries, two men change England's history when they bring magic back into the world. In the midst of the Napoleonic Wars in 1806, most people believe magic to have long since disappeared from England - until the reclusive Mr. Norrell reveals his powers and becomes an overnight celebrity. Another practicing magician then emerges: the young and daring Jonathan Strange. He becomes Norrell's pupil, and the two join forces in the war against France. But Strange is increasingly drawn to the wild, most perilous forms of magic, and he soon risks sacrificing his partnership with Norrell and everything else he holds dear. Susanna Clarke's brilliant first novel is an utterly compelling epic tale of nineteenth-century England and the two magicians who, first as teacher and pupil and then as rivals, emerge to change its history.

Seeing Like a State

Seeing Like a State PDF Author: James C. Scott
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300252986
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 462

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Book Description
“One of the most profound and illuminating studies of this century to have been published in recent decades.”—John Gray, New York Times Book Review Hailed as “a magisterial critique of top-down social planning” by the New York Times, this essential work analyzes disasters from Russia to Tanzania to uncover why states so often fail—sometimes catastrophically—in grand efforts to engineer their society or their environment, and uncovers the conditions common to all such planning disasters. “Beautifully written, this book calls into sharp relief the nature of the world we now inhabit.”—New Yorker “A tour de force.”— Charles Tilly, Columbia University

Kant's Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Aim

Kant's Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Aim PDF Author: Amélie Rorty
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521874637
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
The essays in this volume discuss the questions at the core of Kant's pioneering work in the philosophy of history.

The Wealth of Networks

The Wealth of Networks PDF Author: Yochai Benkler
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300125771
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 532

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Book Description
Describes how patterns of information, knowledge, and cultural production are changing. The author shows that the way information and knowledge are made available can either limit or enlarge the ways people create and express themselves. He describes the range of legal and policy choices that confront.

The Half-Made World

The Half-Made World PDF Author: Felix Gilman
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 1472112857
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 374

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Book Description
The world is still only half-made. Between the wild shores of uncreation, and the ancient lands of the East lies the vast expanse of the West---young, chaotic, magnificent, war-torn. Thirty years ago, the Red Republic fought to remake the West---fought gloriously, and failed. The world that now exists has been carved out amid a war between two rival factions: the Line, enslaving the world with industry, and the Gun, a cult of terror and violence. The Republic is now history, and the last of its generals sits forgotten and nameless in a madhouse on the edge of creation. But locked in his memories is a secret that could change the West forever, and the world’s warring powers would do anything to take it from him. Now Liv Alverhuysen, a doctor of the new science of psychology, travels west, hoping to heal the general’s shattered mind. John Creedmoor, reluctant Agent of the Gun and would-be gentleman of leisure, travels west, too, looking to steal the secret or die trying. And the servants of the Line are on the march.

Iron Council

Iron Council PDF Author: China Miéville
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
ISBN: 0330468251
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 577

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Book Description
Rebellion and war collide in Iron Council, the award-winning steampunk novel from acclaimed author China Miéville. New Crobuzon is being ripped apart from without and within. War with the shadowy city-state of Tesh and rioting on the streets at home are pushing this teeming metropolis to the brink. In the midst of the city's turmoil, a mysterious masked figure spurs an unconventional rebellion, while a small band of daring rebels escapes in the search for a lost legend. As New Crobuzon faces its darkest hour, there are whispers. It is the time of the Iron Council. . . Set in a desperate world on the brink of revolution, Iron Council is the third book in China Miéville's renowned Bas-Lag series, following the Locus and Arthur C. Clarke award-winning Perdido Street Station and The Scar.

Zombie Economics

Zombie Economics PDF Author: John Quiggin
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691154546
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
In the graveyard of economic ideology, dead ideas still stalk the land. The recent financial crisis laid bare many of the assumptions behind market liberalism—the theory that market-based solutions are always best, regardless of the problem. For decades, their advocates dominated mainstream economics, and their influence created a system where an unthinking faith in markets led many to view speculative investments as fundamentally safe. The crisis seemed to have killed off these ideas, but they still live on in the minds of many—members of the public, commentators, politicians, economists, and even those charged with cleaning up the mess. In Zombie Economics, John Quiggin explains how these dead ideas still walk among us—and why we must find a way to kill them once and for all if we are to avoid an even bigger financial crisis in the future. Zombie Economics takes the reader through the origins, consequences, and implosion of a system of ideas whose time has come and gone. These beliefs—that deregulation had conquered the financial cycle, that markets were always the best judge of value, that policies designed to benefit the rich made everyone better off—brought us to the brink of disaster once before, and their persistent hold on many threatens to do so again. Because these ideas will never die unless there is an alternative, Zombie Economics also looks ahead at what could replace market liberalism, arguing that a simple return to traditional Keynesian economics and the politics of the welfare state will not be enough—either to kill dead ideas, or prevent future crises. In a new chapter, Quiggin brings the book up to date with a discussion of the re-emergence of pre-Keynesian ideas about austerity and balanced budgets as a response to recession.