万本电子书0元读

万本电子书0元读

Independent
Independent
Berry, Richard
¥63.67
Martin Bell, Ken Livingstone and Richard Taylor (the doctor who became an MP to save his local hospital) are the best known of a growing band of British politicians making their mark outside the traditional party system. Some (like Livingstone) have emerged from within the old political system that let them down, others (Bell, Taylor) have come into politics from outside in response to a crisis of some kind, often in defence of a perceived threat to their local town or district.Richard Berry traces this development by case studies and interviews to test the theory that these are not isolated cases, but part of a permanent trend in British politics,a shift away from the party system in favour of independent non-aligned representatives of the people.
Unlearning
Unlearning
Chokr, Nader N.
¥63.67
One view of education (appealing to the Latin root "e;educare"e; - "e;to train or mold"e;) aims to fill students' heads with knowledge and turn them into disciplined, normalized and potentially productive members of the workforce.An alternative (appealing to the Latin root "e;educere"e; - "e;to lead out or draw out"e;) wants to produce well-trained minds and create individuals capable of questioning, critical thinking, imagination, and self-reflective deliberation as engaged citizens.This book commends a third way, inspired by the Greek notion of "e;paideia"e;, which sees education as 'the process of educating person into their true form, the real and genuine human nature'.This education is not about learning a trade. It is a dynamic living thing in which the ability to UNlearn is essential for developing a good and capable citizen, trained for freedom, autonomy, and virtue.
Politics and Neo-Darwinism
Politics and Neo-Darwinism
Rubens, Tom
¥63.67
This collection of essays is eclectic, covering certain political, ethical, cultural, and philosophical topics. But running through all the material is the evolutionary-naturalistic perspective stated in the opening essay, which gives the book its title. Another emphatic feature is a focus on the Western cultural outlook, as the context in which the large number of topics is viewed. This focus is important as a way of re-affirming the distinctive character of Western intellectual and cultural history, at a time when that character is, arguably, not sufficiently recognised and appreciated. Authors referred to include Aristotle, Shakespeare, Voltaire, and Sartre.
Tokyo Cancelled
Tokyo Cancelled
Rana Dasgupta
¥63.67
A major international debut novel from a storyteller who couples a timelessly beguiling style with an energetically modern worldscape. Thirteen passengers are stranded at an airport. Tokyo, their destination, is covered in snow and all flights are cancelled. To pass the night they form a huddle by the silent baggage carousels and tell each other stories. Robert De Niro's lovechild explores the magical properties of a packet of Oreos; a Ukrainian merchant is led by a wingless bird back to a lost lover; a man who edits other people's memories has to confront his own past; a Chinese youth with amazing luck cuts men's hair and cleans their ears; an entrepreneur risks losing everything in his obsession with a doll; a mute Turkish girl is left all alone in the house of a German cartographer. Told by people on a journey, these are stories about lives in transit. Stories from the great cities – New York, Istanbul, Delhi, Lagos, Paris, Buenos Aires – that grow into a novel about the hopes and dreams and disappointments that connect people everywhere. Dasgupta's writing is utterly distinctive and fresh, so striking that it seems to come from the future and the past all at once, but in marrying a timeless mystery to an alert modernity, his cautionary tales manage to be reminiscent of both Ballard and Borges, depicting ordinary extraordinary individuals (some lost, some confused, some happy) in a world that remains ineffable, inexplicable, wonderful.
Study in Regret
Study in Regret
Daines, Claire
¥63.67
What if two had perished at Reichenbach Falls? One simple, disastrous error throws Sherlock Holmes from his intended Hiatus into a tortuous journey of sorrow and remorse. Far from home, broken in body and spirit, the haunted detective fights to survive the single most tragic failure of his career - a fight he cannot win alone. With old and new companions beside him, and a threat as deadly as Moriarty in pursuit, Holmes must find a way to live on without his greatest friend, while saving the rest of his beloved adopted family from a similar fate.
Art of Deduction
Art of Deduction
Rogers, Hannah
¥63.67
The Game is Afoot! A collection of art, poetry and writing from fans of the great detective Sherlock Holmes and his companion Doctor Watson. From the deadly Moriarty to domestic life of Holmes and Watson, The Art of Deduction showcases some of the greatest talent from arguably the oldest fan base in the world.
Sherlock Holmes and A Quantity of Debt
Sherlock Holmes and A Quantity of Debt
Marcum, David
¥63.67
Nothing that is secret can remain secret forever. But is it possible that some crimes are better left undiscovered? Join Holmes and Watson as they travel from London to storm-wracked Bedfordshire, where the Great Detective finds himself uncovering the grisly truth concerning a half-century old murder.
Sherlock's Home
Sherlock's Home
Emecz, Steve
¥63.67
Il 1903 vide L'avventura della casa vuota e Il ritorno di Sherlock Holmes al 221B di Baker Street in cui egli spiega l'inganno della propria morte alle Cascate del Reichenbach al suo fedele amico, il Dr. John Watson. Il 2012 vede il Crimine della Casa Vuota in cui Undershaw, un tempo casa di Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, si trova in degrado e a rischio di essere distrutta per sempre. Commissionata da Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stesso, Undershaw ha assistito alla creazione di molte delle sue opere piu famose, incluso Il mastino dei Baskerville e Il ritorno di Sherlock Holmes. E un edificio che merita di essere preservato, per la nazione Britannica, e per il mondo intero, per sempre. Purtroppo, al momento, l'edificio e minacciato dagli imprenditori edilizi, che intendono dividere la casa in tre unita separate e costruirne altre cinque. I permessi edilizi per i lavori sono gia stati approvati dal Waverley Borough Council. L'Undershaw Preservation Trust, (UPT), con Mark Gatiss (BBC Sherlock) come sostenitore, e un fondo che si occupa della conservazione e protezione di questo edificio di importanza culturale, e sta portando avanti una campagna per revocare questa decisione, affinche la casa possa essere riportata allo splendore originale, e vissuta come la dimora che Sir Arthur Conan Doyle aveva progettato. Questo libro e una raccolta di racconti brevi e poesie su Sherlock Holmes, scritti da fan di tutto il mondo a sostegno della campagna 'Save Undershaw', persino la copertina e stata ideata dai fan. I diritti d'autore del libro sono destinati all' UPT allo scopo di conservare questa meravigliosa abitazione per le future generazioni di fan di Doyle, appassionati di Sherlock Holmes, e amanti della letteratura di tutti i tipi.
La Demeure de Sherlock - La Maison Vide
La Demeure de Sherlock - La Maison Vide
Emecz, Steve
¥63.67
En 1903 paraissait 'La Maison Vide', qui decrivait le retour de Sherlock Holmes au 221B Baker Street. C'est dans ce livre que le detective explique a son fidele ami, le docteur John Watson, qu'il a simule sa mort aux chutes de Reichenbach. En 2012, une autre maison vide, Undershaw, l'ancienne demeure de Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, est laissee en etat de delabrement et en danger d'une destruction definitive. Sa construction avait ete commandee par Sir Arthur Conan Doyle lui-meme. Undershaw a ete le lieu d'ecriture de beaucoup de ses oeuvres les plus celebres, incluant 'Le chien des Baskervilles' et 'Le retour de Sherlock Holmes'. Ce batiment, qui fait partie du patrimoine britannique et meme mondial, merite d'etre preserve pour le futur. Malheureusement, le batiment est actuellement menace par des promoteurs immobiliers qui souhaitent diviser la maison en 3 logements separes, et en construire 5 autres sur le cote. Le permis de batir pour cette construction a deja ete fourni par le Waverley Borough Council. L'Undershaw Preservation Trust (UPT - le Fonds de Protection d'Undershaw), sous le parrainage de Mark Gatiss (createur de la serie de la BBC 'Sherlock'), est dedie a la preservation et a la protection de ce batiment important de la litterature et milite pour que la decision soit annulee, afin que la maison puisse etre restauree a sa gloire d'antan et appreciee comme la demeure unique que Sir Arthur Conan Doyle avait a l'esprit. Ce livre est un recueil de nouvelles et de poemes sur Sherlock Holmes, ecrits par des fans du monde entier en soutien a la campagne 'Save Undershaw' ('Sauvez Undershaw'), la couverture elle-meme ayant ete realisee par des passionnes. Les droits d'auteur de ce livre sont reverses a l'UPT pour preserver ce merveilleux patrimoine, pour les generations futures de Doyleens, les amateurs de Sherlock Holmes et les fans de litterature en tous genres.
Who's Afraid of a European Constitution?
Who's Afraid of a European Constitution?
MacCormick, Neil
¥63.67
In this short but authoritative book, the nature and purpose of the European Constitution are explained by someone involved in its preparation. The author discusses how it was drafted, and tackles some much debated questions: whether it promises any enhancement of democracy in the EU, whether it implies that the EU is becoming a superstate, and whether it will strengthen the principle of subsidiarity and the protection of human rights.
Democracy, Fascism and the New World Order
Democracy, Fascism and the New World Order
Mosley, Ivo
¥63.67
Democracy is not a universal good, it is a political system, and like all political systems it is open to corruption. The word 'democracy' means 'rule by the people', not rule by a simple majority. To achieve rule by all the people, it used to be accepted that as much of civil life should be kept out of party politics as possible. A mixed constitution was one way of achieving this. By absorbing into itself the institutions of civil society, the modern democratic state has become an ever more pervasive 'tyranny of the majority' accountable to the electorate only once every few years. The powers it has assumed, together with the powers of corporations, represent a 'new world order' that respects neither freedom, the individual, the vulnerable nor, in a true sense, the rule of law.
Joseph Conrad Today
Joseph Conrad Today
O'Hara, Kieron
¥63.67
This book argues that the novelist Joseph Conrad's work speaks directly to us in a way that none of his contemporaries can. Conrad's scepticism, pessimism, emphasis on the importance and fragility of community, and the difficulties of escaping our history are important tools for understanding the political world in which we live. He is prepared to face a future where progress is not inevitable, where actions have unintended consequences, and where we cannot know the contexts in which we act.Heart of Darkness uncovers the rotten core of the Eurocentric myth of imperialism as a way of bringing enlightenment to 'native peoples' - lessons which are relevant once more as the Iraq debacle has undermined the claims of liberal democracy to universal significance.The result can hardly be called a political programme, but Conrad's work is clearly suggestive of a sceptical conservatism of the sort described by the author in his 2005 book After Blair: Conservatism Beyond Thatcher. The difficult part of a Conradian philosophy is the profundity of his pessimism - far greater than Oakeshott, with whom Conrad does share some similarities (though closer to a conservative politician like Salisbury). Conrad's work poses the question of how far we as a society are prepared to face the consequences of our ignorance.
Premiership
Premiership
Blick, Andrew
¥63.67
The office of Prime Minister stands at the apex of the British political system. An undertsanding of this post is essential to all who are -- or aspire to be -- within government, or who observie it from outside.This book combines the methods of history and political science to produce theories of the development, nature and power of the premiership, and to explain the implications for present politicians and analysts. It is essential reading for for academics, students, journalists and all who are working in or intersted in politics.
Public Health and Globalisation
Public Health and Globalisation
Brassington, Iain
¥63.67
Claims that there are good arguments for a public health service that do not amount to arguments for a national health service, but for something that looks far more like a transnational health service.
Modernization Imperative
Modernization Imperative
Charlton, Bruce
¥63.67
This book argues that contemporary society in Western democracies is generally misunderstood to be a pyramidal hierarchy dominated either by government or the economy. Neither view is correct.We live in a fundamentally pluralistic society divided into numerous 'modular' social systems each performing different functions; these include politics, public administration, the armed forces, law, economics, religion, education, health and the mass media. Because each is specialized, none of these systems are dominant and there is no overall hierarchy of power. Modernizing societies are therefore structured more like a mosaic than a pyramid.Modernization is the tendency for growth in the adaptive complexity and efficiency of the social systems. Growth in complexity is shaped by selection processes which maintain the functionality of social systems. The best examples are the market economy, science and democratic politics.The process of modernization is both inevitable and, on the whole, desirable: this constitutes the modernization imperative. Therefore, the proper question should not be whether society should modernize, but how.
Great Abdication
Great Abdication
Deane, Alexander
¥63.67
The middle class provides British society with its stability and strength. According to Deane's contentious thesis, our middle class has abstained from its responsibility to uphold societal values, and the enormously damaging collapse of our society's norms and standards is largely a result of that abdication. The institutions of political and social governance provide a husk of functionality and mask these problems for those that do not wish to see, or do not care. To restore Britain to something resembling a substantively functioning country, the middle classes must reinstate themselves as arbiters of morality, be unafraid to judge their fellow men, and follow through with the condemnation that necessarily follows when individuals sin against common values.
Tony Blair and the Ideal Type
Tony Blair and the Ideal Type
Grainger, J.H.
¥63.67
The 'ideal type' is Max Weber's hypothetical leading democratic politician, whom the author finds realized in Tony Blair. He is a politician emerging from no obvious mould, treading no well-beaten path to high office, and having few affinities of tone, character or style with his predecessors. He is the Outsider or Intruder, not belonging to the 'given' of British politics and dedicated to its transformation. Here is a timely critique of Blair's political persona as he presents himself to the British people to be entrusted with a third term as Prime Minister.
Democracy and the Fall of the West
Democracy and the Fall of the West
Smith, Craig
¥63.67
Democracy is killing the West. That is the stunning conclusion of this book that tears apart the consensus underpinning modern political assumptions.Democracy is held to solve one of the oldest puzzles of human social life: how do we ensure that our rulers have a legitimate mandate and rule in the interests of the whole community? We are supposedly now guided by institutions whose democratic mandate ensures that they will govern in a benign manner in the interests of all.Democracy & the Fall of the West challenges that assumption by drawing on an alternative theory about the nature of modern democracy and its impact on Western society. It argues that the secret of the West's success is not Democracy, but Liberalism.Craig Smith and Tom Miers demonstrate that, since the introduction of democracy, the power of the state has re-grown at the expense of the liberty of the individual. Far from underpinning our freedoms, Democracy is in fact undermining them. It has unshackled the coercive power of the state, and will result in the inevitable decline of the West as we know it.
On Liberty and Peace - Part 1
On Liberty and Peace - Part 1
Edge, Matt
¥63.67
The author writes:In this project I set out to provide an answer to two fundamental questions of political philosophy. How can human beings (living, as we do now, in a globalised world) live together, in conditions of co-operation over time, enjoying what Immanuel Kant famously called 'perpetual peace'? And how much individual freedom can we expect to enjoy, and to what degree can we expect that individual freedom to be equal, whilst engaged in the enterprise described by the first question? These may be age-old questions, but I aim, in this project, to offer a new approach to answering them.In part one of this project, I aim to provide a groundwork upon which an answer to these questions can be built. I argue, contrary to much contemporary (and historical) political philosophy, that the answers to these questions should not be provided by our representatives, a monarch, the elite, or by a process of philosophical abstraction (or anything else) but, instead, by each of us. That is to say, by you, me and everyone else together. Part one argues not only why it should be each of us who are to be engaged in this enterprise, but it also argues on behalf of a number of changes which might support us in this ongoing, and doubtless difficult, human project. I begin by arguing that, if we are to attempt to provide a genuine (and free) answer to how much individual freedom we should each be alloted in human society over time, this means that we must begin with the concept of freedom itself which, in turn, means detaching it from the philosophical and epistemological baggage it tends to carry in everyday language.
On Liberty and Peace - Part 2
On Liberty and Peace - Part 2
Edge, Matt
¥63.67
The author writes:In this project I set out to provide an answer to two fundamental questions of political philosophy. How can human beings (living, as we do now, in a globalised world) live together, in conditions of co-operation over time, enjoying what Immanuel Kant famously called 'perpetual peace'? And how much individual freedom can we expect to enjoy, and to what degree can we expect that individual freedom to be equal, whilst engaged in the enterprise described by the first question? These may be age-old questions, but I aim, in this project, to offer a new approach to answering them.In part two of this project, I aim to actually provide my own answer to the two fundamental questions with which I began and according to the structure I outline in Liberty. Which is to say, this is the answer I provide to you (and everyone else) to judge regarding how successfully it answers those age old political questions. In short, I argue that these are the changes in actual, material, human conditions - the necessary set of 'alterable human practices' to borrow a phrase of Isaiah Berlin's - required to create an enduring, desirable and just 'perpetual peace' on earth. In other words, this is not, in Kant's phrase, a 'philosophical sketch' on how perpetual peace might be attained, but, by focusing on the everyday, material, relationships and conditions which create and foster conflict and injustice across the globe today, I hope to provide a 'material sketch' as to how human beings might live in successfully together in conditions of peaceful cooperation and freedom over time.
Sarkozy Phenomenon
Sarkozy Phenomenon
Hewlett, Nick
¥63.67
After his victory at the Presidential elections in May 2007, Nicolas Sarkozy quickly became both deeply controversial and intriguing. It was clear from the start that his rule was to be the most autocratic since Charles de Gaulle's; Prime Minister, government and parliament found themselves eclipsed by the ever-present, hyperactive President who sought to take many decisions on his own and to implement changes in numerous different domains, but with no obvious overall plan. His sweeping reform programme was inspired by a perceived need for rupture with the past, and bringing former Socialists into government seemed to confirm his insistence on the validity of some left-leaning points of reference as well as those on the right. To many, Sarkozy was both dangerous and unfathomable, like Napoleon. In this short book the author argues that the Sarkozy phenomenon is best explained by principal reference to the notion of Bonapartism, which of course has a long history in French politics. Bonapartism is an exceptional form of political rule which results from an unstable situation and where an authoritarian leader steps in and appeals to the electorate in populist fashion with promises of modernization and progress. But Sarkozy's authoritarian, populist rule is also influenced by the extreme right as well as by more conventional centre-right politics in which Sarkozy worked for many years. Yet Sarkozy is less out of step with trends in other liberal democratic states than it might seem; in other highly industrialized countries also a long-term decline of interest in politics has combined with the emergence of highly personalized, media-driven political leadership. The book is written in a clear, accessible way which assumes little prior acquaintance with French politics or history. Those with little knowledge of French politics will find it rewarding, as will as readers with greater familiarity with the field.