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Common Sense
by Ian JacksonThomas Paine’s 1776 Common Sense has secured an unshakeable place as one of history’s most explosive and revolutionary books. A slim pamphlet published at the beginning of the American Revolution, it was so widely read that it remains the all-time best selling book in US history. An impassioned argument for American independence and for democratic government, Common Sense can claim to have helped change the face of the world more than almost any other book. But Paine’s pamphlet is also a masterclass in critical thinking, demonstrating how the reasoned construction of arguments can be reinforced by literary skill and passion. Paine is perhaps more famous as a stylist than as a constructor of arguments, but Common Sense marries the best elements of good reasoning to its polemic. Moving systematically from the origins of government, through a criticism of monarchy, and on to the possibilities for future democratic government in an independent America, Paine neatly lays out a series of persuasive reasons to fight for independence and a new form of government. Indeed, as the pamphlet’s title suggested, to do so was nothing more than ‘common sense.’
Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa And The Legacy Of Late Colonialism
by Meike De GoedeMahmood Mamdani’s 1996 Citizen and Subject is a powerful work of analysis that lays bare the sources of the problems that plagued, and often still plague, African governments. Analysis is one of the broadest and most fundamental critical thinking skills, and involves understanding the structure and features of arguments. Mamdani’s strong analytical skills form the basis of an original investigation of the problems faced by the independent African governments in the wake of the collapse of the colonial regimes imposed by European powers such has Great Britain and France. It had long been clear that these newly-independent governments faced many problems – corruption, the imposition of anti-democratic rule, and many basic failures of day-to-day governance. They also tended to replicate many of the racially and ethnically prejudiced structures that were part of colonial rule. Mamdani analyses the many arguments about the sources of these problems, drawing out their hidden implications and assumptions in order to clear the way for his own creative new vision of the way to overcome the obstacles to democratization in Africa. A dense and brilliant analysis of the true nature of colonialism’s legacy in Africa, Mamdani’s book remains influential to this day.
Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin
by Helen RocheA flagbearer for the increasingly fashionable genre of "transnational history," Timothy Snyder's Bloodlands is, first and foremost, a stunning example of the critical thinking skill of evaluation. Snyder's linguistic precocity allows him to cite evidence in 10 languages, putting fresh twists on the familiar story of World War II fighting on the Eastern Front from 1941-45. In doing so, he works to humanize the estimated 14 million people who lost their lives as their lands were fought over repeatedly by the Nazis and their Soviet opponents. Snyder also works to link more closely the atrocities committed by Hitler and Stalin, which he insists are far too often viewed in isolation. He focuses heavily on the adequacy and relevance of his evidence, but he also uses the materials he has culled from so many different archives as fuel for an exemplary work of reasoning, forcing readers to confront the grim realities that lie behind terms such as ‘cannibalism’ and ‘liquidation.’ In consequence, Bloodlands has emerged, only a few years after its publication, as one of the seminal works of its era, one that is key to Holocaust studies, genocide studies and area studies, and to sociology as well as to history. A masterly work of literature as well as of history, Bloodlands will continue to be read for decades.
Before European Hegemony: The World System A.D. 1250 - 1350
by William R DayThe modern vision of the world as one dominated by one or more superpowers begs the question of how best to understand the world-system that existed before the rise of the first modern powers. Janet Abu-Lughod's solution to this problem, in this highly influential work, is that Before European Hegemony, a predominantly insular, agrarian world was dominated by groups of mercantile city-states that traded with one another on equal terms across a series of interlocking areas of influence. In this reading of history, China and Japan, the kingdoms of India, Muslim caliphates, the Byzantine Empire and European maritime republics alike enjoyed no absolute dominance over their neighbours and commercial partners – and the egalitarian international trading network that they built endured until European advances in weaponry and ship types introduced radical instability to the system. Abu-Lughod's portrait of a more balanced world is a masterpiece of synthesis driven by one highly creative idea: her world system of interlocking spheres of influence quite literally connected masses of evidence together in new ways. A triumph of fine critical thinking.
An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness
by Clare Clarke Lindsay Scorgie-PorterFew works of scholarship have so comprehensively recast an existing debate as Chinua Achebe’s essay on Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Achebe – a highly distinguished Nigerian novelist and university teacher – looked with fresh eyes at a novel that was set in Africa, but in which Africans appear only as onlookers or as indistinguishable "savages". Dismissing the prevailing portrayal of Joseph Conrad as a liberal hero whose anti-imperialist views insulated him from significant criticism, Achebe re-cast the Polish author as a "bloody racist" in an analysis so cogent it changed the way in which his discipline looked not only at Conrad, but also at all works with settings indicative of racial conflict. The creative contribution of Achebe’s essay lies in delving far beneath the surface of Conrad’s novel; he not only generated new and highly influential hypotheses about the author's modes of thought and motivations, but also redefined the entire debate over Heart of Darkness. Just because the novel had been accepted into the "canon", and now falls into the class of “permanent literature”, Achebe says, does not mean we should not question it closely – or criticize its author.
A Disquisition on Government
by Etienne Stockland Jason XidiasNineteenth-century American politician John C. Calhoun occupies a paradoxical place in the history of political thought – and of critical thinking. On one hand, he is remembered as a committed advocate of slavery, consistently espousing views that are now considered indefensible and abhorrent. On the other, the political theories that Calhoun used to defend the social injustice of slavery have become the basis of the very systems by which modern democracies defend minority rights. Despite being crafted in defence of a system as unjust as slavery, the arguments that Calhoun expressed about minority rights in democracies in A Disquisition On Government remain an excellent example of how problem solving skills and reasoning can come together. The problem, for Calhoun, was both specific and general. As matters stood in the late 1840s, the majority of American states were anti-slavery, with only the minority, Southern states remaining pro-slavery. This boiled down to a crucial issue with democracy: the US government should not, Calhoun argued, only respect the wishes of the majority. Instead, democratic government must aim to harmonize diverse groups and their interests – governing, in so far as possible, for everyone. His analysis of how the Southern states could protect what he saw as their right to keep slaves led Calhoun to formulate solutions to the problem of ‘the tyranny of the majority’ that have since helped defend far worthier minority views.
Revival: 1600-1935 (Routledge Revivals #5)
by Arthur Berriedale KeithThis book, first published in 1926, provides a comprehensive description and analysis of every constitutional aspect of British rule in India from 1600 to 1936. Beginning with a description of the East India Company before Plassey, its constitution, administration of settlements, and relation to the Indian states, the book closes with an account of the reforms of the 1930s, the events leading up to the White Paper and an analysis and elucidation of the Government of India Act 1935.
Revival: A historical sketch (Routledge Revivals)
by Rhys DavidsThis book discusses what is now called "Buddhism". It started as an effort to strengthen a weak point in that "immanence" which had become the accepted religious teaching in the valley of the Ganges, by showing that the "God/in/man" was realizable, not by gnosis and ritual, but in conduct. Conduct needed to be brought into relgion, into the relation between man and his eternal destiny. Man’s being is more truly becoming; and only in and by becoming a More, will he attain to an actual, not potential Most. In teaching a More worth in conduction, Buddhism brought in a teaching of the man himself as Less.
Revival: Travel Scenes and Reflections (Routledge Revivals)
by Heinrich HackmannIn 1910., Dr Hackmann started on a lengthy tour throughout Mongolia, China, Japan, Cambodia, Siam, and India, studying Buddhism and other Eastern Religions, Shintoism and Taoism. He returned to London in the spring of 1911, and published this book.
Revival: The Great Renewal 1543 - 1687 (Routledge Revivals)
by Preserved SmithThe best excuse for writing the history of anything is the intrinsic interest of the subject. Most men of past generations have thought, and many men still think, of politics as the warp and woof of social life. History for a long time therefore treated chiefly politics. Then came the economists to arouse the interest of scholars and of the public in the production and distribution of wealth. Economic history rightly absorbs much attention, for it illumines, with its new searchlight, many a dark corner of the past, and explains many features of present-day society. But to many men today the most interesting thing about society is its culture; just as the most interesting thing about an individual is his thought. Indeed, it has begun to be suspected that even politics and economics, each sometimes worshipped as a First Cause, are but secondary effects of somthing still deeper, namely, of the progress of man's intellectual life. The present volume aims to exhibit, as a unified whole, thestate and progress of modern culture.
Revival: The Enlightenment 1687 - 1776 (Routledge Revivals)
by Preserved SmithThe understanding of history can be advanced only by the combination or alternation, of analysis and synthesis. Detailed research and generalizing survey are not antiethical but complementary. For a long time, however, the specialist has reigned supreme in our schools. The need is now, surely, for a return to synoptic writing. The present work was undertaken to supply the need of a synthesis. It is a map of a large region, not a geological chart of a square mile or the plan of a single city. Its value, if any, lies in its view of the interrelations of large tracts of social and intellectual life, not in the intensive investigation of narrow fields.
Revival: A History Of Spanish Literature (1930) (Routledge Revivals)
by Ernest MerimeeThe present English version, authorized by the publishers and heirs of M. Merimee, is based on the third French Edition. New material of two sorts has been added, however. First, the translator has been allowed to utlize an annotated, interleaved copy of the Precis, 1922, in which the author, and after his death his son Henri, himself a distinguished Hispanist, had set down material for the next revision. This accounts for many inserted names and phrases, and some paragraphs. Second, the translator has rewritten and added with some freedom.
Revival: A History of the Art of War in the Sixteenth Century (Routledge Revivals)
by Charles, Sir. OmanIn the beginning of the time period concerned, we are still in the Middle Ages – Flodden Field or Novara might almost have been fought in the fifteenth century. At the end a formal battle like Nieuport might almost have been fought in the Thirty Years War. This volume is the result of an attempt to sum up the fundamental alterations in the Art of War between 1494 and 1600, and is intended to serve as an outline of military theory and practice between those dates.
Routledge Revivals: India and The Pacific (Routledge Revivals)
by C.F. AndrewsFirst published in 1937, this book examines the changes in working conditions and vast improvements on sugar plantations in 20th century Fiji. By the 1930s, the sugar industry had become economically stronger through the substitution of the small tenant farm for the large plantation. Andrews examines how this led to a moral and social transformation in Fijian society. He also highlights many unsolved problems, and is aware that dependence on a single crop supported by imperial preference is too narrow a basis for progress in Fijian society. In the latter chapters Andrews reviews the position of Indian dispersion in the pacific, and reviews the relation of India itself to the pacific countries and Europe at a time when the British Empire was experiencing a great fall in prestige. There are also chapters that contain matters of specific interest to Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.
World Peace Through Law: Replacing War with the Global Rule of Law
by James Taylor RanneyThis book deals with the history and future of the concept of ‘world peace through law’ (WPTL), which advocates replacing the use of international force with the global rule of law. WPTL calls for replacing war with the global rule of law by arms reductions, including the abolition of nuclear weapons, global alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, and various enforcement mechanisms. This book sets forth a three-part proposal: 1) arms reductions – primarily the abolition of nuclear weapons, with necessarily concomitant reductions in conventional forces; 2) a four-stage system of global alternative dispute resolution (ADR), utilizing both law and equity; 3) adequate enforcement mechanisms, including a UN Peace Force. The core of this proposal is alternative dispute resolution mechanisms—international ADR. International ADR would consist of a four-stage process of compulsory negotiation, compulsory mediation, compulsory arbitration., and compulsory adjudication by the World Court. The fundamental proposition of this book is that the use of alternatives to war, global ADR, is the ultimate solution to the problem of peace. The full implementation of WPTL will entail a vast array of progressive initiatives on many fronts, including abolition of nuclear weapons, with the global rule of law being the capstone to all of these developments. This book will be of great interest to students of peace studies, arms control, international law, and world politics.
Art, Awakening, and Modernity in the Middle East: The Arab Nude (Routledge Research in Art History)
by Octavian EsanuThis edited scholarly volume offers a perspective on the history of the genre of the nude in the Middle East and includes contributions written by scholars from several disciplines (art history, history, anthropology). Each chapter provides a distinct perspective on the early days of the fine arts genre of the nude, as its author studies a particular aspect through analysis of artworks and historical documents from the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-centuries. The volume examines a rich body of reproductions of both primary documents and of works of art made by Lebanese, Egyptian, Syrian artists or of anonymous book illustrations from the nineteenth century Ottoman erotic literature.
A Short History of British Colonial Policy (Routledge Revivals)
by Hugh Edward EgertonThis volume discusses a short history of British Colonial policy. With all its faults the book represents much reading and some thought. In writing what is, to some extent, a history of opinion, it has been impossible altogether to suppress my own individual opinions. I trust, however that I have not seemed to attach importance to them. In dealing with the later periods, I remembered Sir Walter Raleigh's remark on the fate which awaits the treatment of contemporary history; but obscurity may claim its compensations, and atleast I am not conscious of having written under the bias of personal or party prejudice.
Revival: An Introduction to Yoga (Routledge Revivals)
by Claude BragdonAccount of the origins, history and practice of Yoga from the viewpoint of someone who is learned, but is not himself a practicioner.
Revival: Stories of one of the first settlers in Petach Tikva (Routledge Revivals)
by Hannah TragerMrs Trager's book, while containing all these questions in embryonic shape, for the stimulation of the thinker, is yet written with a simplicity and charm that should make it a favourite reading-book: a genre of literature of which the Anglo-Jewish community possesses as yet only the Apples and honey of Mrs Redcliffe Salaman. Christians should be equally entranced by this picture of the latest development of the people whom they first met in the Bible. The present book needs to be supplemented by one giving a comprehensive survey of things as they are to-day in Palestine.
Revival: Its Art and Archaeology (Routledge Revivals)
by Stanley CassonMr. Casson's book is designed to show that the prehistoric and Hellenic sites in the island deserve much more notice than they have received. Mr. Casson emphasises the peculiarities of Cypriote art and usage; the Greeks evidently had reason to regard the Cypriote " character " or style as exceptional. Mr. Casson's illustrations of sculptures at Nicosia and in London show that his tempered praise of Cypriote art is justified.
Revival: Anglo Russian Relations 1689-1943 (Routledge Revivals)
by John Arthur MarriottThis book has been written by an exile deprived by a German bomb of access to all but a fragment of his own library, and to practically the whole of his carefully collected memoranda, and is also denied by circumstances the use of any great library. The book still aims to discuss Anglo Russian Relations between 1689 and 1943.
Palmyra: A History (Cities of the Ancient World)
by Michael SommerPalmyra: A History examines Palmyra, the city in the Syrian oasis of Tadmur, from its beginnings in the Bronze Age, through the classical period and its discovery and excavation, to the present day. It aims at reconstructing Palmyra’s past from literary accounts – classical and post-classical – as well as material evidence of all kinds: inscriptions, coins, art and of course the remains of Palmyra’s monumental architecture. After exploring the earliest inhabitation of Tadmur, the volume moves through the Persian and Hellenistic periods, to the city’s zenith. Under the Romans, Palmyra was unique among the cities of the empire because it became a political factor in its own right in the third century AD, when the Roman military was overpowered by Sassanian invaders and Palmyrene troops stepped in. Sommer’s assessment of Palmyra under Rome therefore considers how Palmyra achieved such an exceptional role in the Roman Near East, before its demise under the Umayyad Empire. The volume also examines the century-long history of archaeological and historical research at Palmyra, from its beginnings under Ottoman rule and the French mandate in the 1920s to the recent satellite based prospection carried out by German archaeologists. A closing chapter examines the occupation of the site by ISIS during the Syrian conflict, and the implications of the destruction there on the ruins, the archaeological finds and future investigations, and heritage in Syria more broadly. Palmyra offers academics, students and the interested reader alike the first full treatment in English of this fascinating site, providing a comprehensive account of the city’s origins, rise and fall.
Revival: A General Outline of Prehistory (Routledge Revivals)
by Jacques De MorganThe subject of the present volume, in essence is the hand and hand's extensions. We cannot insist too strongly that in the evolution of life the "decisive moment" arrived when a living being – who became man – adopted the erect attitude, thus freeing his hands, and when the industrious activity was inauguarted which this freedom made possible. In the use of the hand as an instrument, we have the manifestation of an important physical progress and the promise of further progress.
Revival: Austrian Foreign Policy 1908-18 (Routledge Revivals)
by Alfred Francis PribamThe following account of Austrian Foreign Policy and its directors during the decade 1908-18 coincides in part with that contained in the articles contributed by me in 1921 to the new volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica (12th edition, 1922).
Revival: Autobiography of Friedrich Froebel (Routledge Revivals)
by Friedrich FroebelOriginally published in 1915, the Autobiography of Fredrich Froebel provides a detailed overview of the life of the eminent German educator Fredrich Froebel, it charts his life and looks at his significant contribution to the field of education, including his Idealist philosophy of early childhood education, and his establishment of the kindergarten, a school for four-and five-year-old children that is found worldwide. The book also looks at the community surrounding Froebel and includes a chapter by Madame Louise Froebel’s providing a reminiscence of her husband’s life.