1. Anthropology
  2. Archaeology
  3. Architecture
  4. Art and Design
  5. Autobiography and Memoirs
  6. Biography
  7. Children's Books
  8. Diaries and Letters
  9. Drama
  10. Economics
  11. Feminism
  12. Fiction
  13. Crime Fiction and Thrillers
  14. Novels
  15. Science Fiction
  16. Short Stories
  17. Film
  18. Food and Drink
  19. Geography and the Environment
  20. History
  21. American History
  22. Ancient History
  23. Asian, African and Middle Eastern History
  24. British History
  25. European History
  26. Latin American History
  27. World History
  28. Home and Garden
  29. Humour
  30. Literary Criticism
  31. Mathematics. Science and Technology
  32. Media
  33. Medicine and Psychiatry
  34. Music
  35. Mythology
  36. Natural History
  37. Occult and Paranormal
  38. Philosophy
  39. Poetry
  40. Politics
  41. Psychology
  42. Reference
  43. Religion
  44. Sex and Love
  45. Sociology
  46. Travel and Exploration
  47. Index

Introduction

The intention of this book is to furnish an -imaginary library" of some three thousand volumes in which a reasonably literate person can hope to find both instruction and inspiration, art and amusement. It was Andre Malraux who first coined the term "muse'e imaginaire" to describe the choice of the world's art which a man might make to furnish his own private museum. Modern printing, Malraux proceeded to argue, has actually made such a collection a practical possibility. Masterpieces which men of the eighteenth century and before had to travel to see are now within the reach of all who can afford a postcard or a newspaper supplement. Mechanical reproduction has removed art from the hands of the few and made it accessible to all. Printing has done the same for books: the paperback is scarcely more expensive than the fine art print.Our problem is no longer one of access; it is more likely to be one of choice. How are we to choose among the thousands of available titles? To enter a library is immediately to be seized by a kind of panic; one risks starving among such plenty. The confession that one does not know what to read next, or where to begin in an unfamiliar subject, is shameful in a society in which nobody wishes to be a beginner and where naivete is likely to earn the scorn accorded to all newcomers. This book seeks to be a kind of reader's ticket to that immense library which man (dedicated or venal, brilliant or dogged, wise or witty) has put together ever since he first began to leave a written record of his experiences and his opinions.

Our first notion was to supply lists of unadorned titles in each of the standard library categories. But to give no information about the books proposed would be to leave the reader in the bemused condition of a guest at a crowded party to whom the host has nothing more to say than "You know everybody here, of course". So we decided that it was essential to give a brief account of each recommended book, however laughable or superficial an authority might find it. We have tried to be as specific as possible in the information conveyed, in order to avoid the kind of Shorter Notice which once said of Ezra Pound's Cantos that some were good and some were bad.

The method we adopted, in order to make our cull, was to ask our collaborators (for whose generosity and learning we cannot say enough) to make lists in the categories in which they were expert. (The categories began as standard Dewey headings, but gradually shifted and changed to accommodate a wider range both of interests and of books. They are now perhaps arbitrary, but, we hope, comfortably commodious.) We limited our collaborators to a given number of books, though we recognized that this limitation, like giving only so many visas to a huge concourse of worthy people, was bound to lead to unhappy exclusions. Many good things found no place in our narrow lifeboat. In particular, we have excluded technical books accessible only to specialists: a necessary restriction, reflecting the inevitable distinction between a menu and a list of all available forms of nutriment. We then circulated the lists among friends and those who were willing to lend us their time, so that no single person was, in the end, exclusively responsible in any given department. (The editorial decision was, however, final. Acknowledgements our collaborators deserve; the blame is ours.) Mavericks and texts of perhaps marginal value thus scrambled their way aboard, sometimes at the expense of worthy work which more blandly covered similar ground. It is, therefore, no scandal not to find your favourite (or your own) book in these pages: we are not judging, though we have been obliged to choose.

This is in short, an imaginary library, not the imaginary library.

It can, and should, be supplemented by further reading and broader research. (We have indicated, wherever possible, books with informative bibliographies: often these will provide an ancillary or alternative list, the part thus standing for the whole.) If first publication leads to a sort of informed common pursuit whereby new volumes are proposed for future editions, something more interesting, more exciting, may well be on the way. As for how The List of Books can best be read, we propose no prescription. One may browse; one may plough. We have made the index a straightforward author index, trying to imagine who a frustrated reader might be looking for, rather than merely supplying a dutiful rehash of earlier material, in alphabetical and inverted order, Purists, For the satisfaction of. (For those who relish indexes, the wittiest we know is in C. D. Broad's Five Types of Ethical Theory.)

"They said it couldn't be done — and it couldn't" is a joke at least as old as George Jean Nathan. The last man who knew everything died at the end of the eighteenth century: he will never be replaced. The Tower of Babel is an example that should be enough to deter anyone who seeks to make a self-importantly impertinent edifice of human intelligence — but there is no evidence that the suburbs of Babel, with their rows of modest bungalows whose occupants are too timid to attempt a second floor, are man's happiest environment. In fact, the collation of these lists has been enough to pull down most people's vanity, and certainly ours; for the more one looks at what is available in an unfamiliar field, the more urgent the desire one feels to abandon the affectations of the editor and assume the modesty of the student. We hope to revise The List of Books every second year, and we shall be vigilant for new titles to add to it. The next edition will carry a section devoted to important additions, in each category, and we welcome (though we cannot promise always to acknowledge) suggestions — perhaps in the form of short reviews — for additions to these imaginary shelves.

F.R.; K.M.; London, 1980

Acknowledgements

The Editors and the Publishers would like to thank the following people without whose witty, wise and erudite contributions (ranging from suggestions and advice to complete reviews) this book would never have reached its present form.

Valerie Alderson; Brian Aldiss; John Alexander; Roger Baker; Georgina Battiscombe; Robert Benewick; Ruth Binney; Nikolaus Boulting; William Boyd; Michael Broadbent; Henry Brougham; R. Allen Brown; Sandy Carr; Jeremy Catto; John Clark; W. Owen Cole; Leo Cooper; Jane Cousins; Nona Coxhead; Sarah Culshaw; Marcus Cunliffe; D. C. Earl; G. R. Elton; Barry Fantoni; Antony Flew; Anthony Fothergill; Christopher Hale; Ragnhild Hatton; Tim Heald; Roger Hearn; Christopher Hill: Christopher Hird; Richard Hollis; Richard Holmes; Antony Hopkins; Philip Howard; Joel Hurstfield; Tom Hutchinson; Angela Jeffs; Emrys Jones; H. R. F. Keating; Brian Klug; Alan Knight; Eric Laithwaite; Peter Levi; Sir Bernard Lovell; John Lynch; Rosemary McLeish; Valerie McLeish; Sir Philip Magnus; Stephen Mennell; Peggy Miller; Patrick Moore; Michael Morris; Raymond Mortimer; John Nicholson; Robert Nye; John Paterson; Stewart Perowne; David Robinson; John Robinson; Sheila Rowbotham; Martin Sherwood; Maurice Shock; Paul Sidey; Tony Smith; Vernon Sproxton; John Stevenson; Brian Street; Jonathan Sumption; John Russell Taylor; Ion Trewin; J. C. Trewin; Lord Vaizey; Gwynne Vevers; Jonathan Walters; Colin Wilson

Books of the Decade: 1970 — 80

These lists cream the crop: one was compiled by the editors, the other by our American colleagues. By and large they represent some of the best, the most influential or most significant books published in each of our categories since 1970. Where books appear in both lists. we have left them there: duplication is an indication of one kind of specialness, at least.

British Choice

American Choice

Editors' Choice

Each editor was asked, independently, which twenty-five books he would pack for a desert island holiday. This list is the combined result. Several books were common choices; apart from them, each editor was surprised by several of the books on the other's list.

Getting to grips with the twentieth century

If books reflect historical, sociological and cultural growth, the ones recommended here may, we hope, help to account for or explain some of the directions human existence has taken in our century. Some of these books are dated, many are infuriating or partial; all are landmarks.

Home Reference Books

There is a place in most home libraries for a small collection of general reference books. We provide two basic lists, by no means mutually exclusive; one British and one American.

British

Every collection should contain a dictionary, such as The Concise Oxford English Dictionary or Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary, plus/or Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (P. Proctor) and The Complete Plain Words (Ernest Gowers).

Many people will also find a constant use for The Concise Dictionary of 26 Languages (compiled by Peter M. Bergman). Still concerned with words, the collection should contain The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations or The Penguin Dictionary of Quotations.

There should be an atlas, such as The Times Atlas of the World: Concise Edition or New Concise Atlas of the Earth, the indexes of which can be used as a world gazetteer. For annually updated information on world affairs get The Statesman's Year Book, Europa Year Book or Whitaker's Almanack.

For biographical information consult Who Did What (historical and international) and Who's Who (contemporary and British); much international coverage is provided by a good one-volume encyclopaedia such as Columbia Encyclopaedia or Hutchinson's New 20th Century Encyclopaedia. The historical aspect of recent developments is summarized in Chronology of the Modern World.

Finally, two useful books on general medical and legal matters: Reader's Digest Family Health Guide and Know Your Rights (neither, of course, is meant to supplement professional advice). In any case, every home should have a book on first aid, such as The Pocket Medical and First Aid Guide (Dr James Bevan).

American

Every collection should contain a dictionary, such as Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary (the second edition is the recommended unabridged version; the seventh is the desk edition) or The Random House College Dictionary.

The collection might also contain Roget's Thesaurus of Synonyms and Antonyms and Bartlett's Familiar Quotations.

There should be an atlas. Two good ones are The New York Times Atlas of the World and the Rand McNally New International Atlas, the indexes of which can be used as a world gazetteer. Annually updated information on world affairs is contained in The World Almanac and Book of Facts.

For biographical information consult Who's Who in America and Who's Who in the World. There is also a Who's Who for each state.

Two reliable encyclopaedias for home use are Encyclopaedia Britannica and The World Book Encyclopedia. An excellent one-volume encyclopaedia is The New Columbia Encyclopaedia.

Every home should have a book on first aid, such as Basic First Aid or Standard First and Personal Safety, both published by the American National Red Cross.

Also useful: Know Your Rights: A Guide to Everyday Law, by Ronald Irving and Charles Anthony.

Anthropology

Anthropology was born as a formal discipline in the 19th century, when a previously haphazard interest in the cultural and social behaviour of remote peoples was supplied with a theoretical basis and scientific procedures. At first it was very closely linked with its sister-subject sociology; both were concerned with man the organizer, with the forces and movements which mould human society. Gradually, however, the disciplines began to grow apart: sociology became ever more political (and analytically "scientific"), anthropology more historical (and descriptively "artistic"). The books in this list follow the bias towards study of the cultures of "primitive" peoples; but there are also representatives of a more modern trend towards treating man as a single phenomenon (with local and historical variants) and extrapolating from the techniques and discoveries of "primitive" anthropology a series of proposed solutions to the self-destructive energy of technological man. Once again the wheel has come full circle: sociology and anthropology go hand in hand, and their concern is social change. their scenario nothing less than the future of the human race itself.

See AUTOBIOGRAPHY (Mead); GEOGRAPHY (Forde, Sauer); HISTORY/AMERICAN (Josephy); HISTORY/BRITISH (Thomas); MATHEMATICS (Bronowski): MYTHOLOGY (Frazer. Kirk, Huxley, Levi-Strauss); RELIGION (Castaneda)

Archaeology

Modern archaeology was born in 1708, with the first excavations at Pompeii. At first it was informal and irresponsible, little more than an aristocratic upgrading of the treasure-hunting and tomb-robbing characteristic of any historical period. In the 19th century it became badged with more serious, systematic study, the archaeologists seeking for information about ancient cultures as eagerly as for their glittering artefacts. The great names of 19th-century archaeology — Schliemann. Evans, Petrie — made their subject a true sibling of anthropology and cultural history, the passion of the polymath, and it is mainly their enthusiastic work which led to our century's obsession with the minutiae of ancient life. Archaeology continued as a genial, gentlemanly pursuit for inspired individualists until World War H. Since then, it has evolved (or declined) from an art to a science. The exactitudes of statistics, aerial photography (itself a legacy of 20th-century warfare), chemical analysis and other scientific disciplines are applied, and the results are, first, that archaeology now has areas as arcane and specialized as nuclear physics or X-ray crystallography, and second, that as our view of the distant past comes into ever sharper focus, we find it extraordinarily like our own: the notion of what -civilization" is travels further backwards in time, and wider in geography, with every newly published paper. Art or science? Amateur or specialist? The list covers books in both areas — and shades (like archaeology itself, one of the most humane of disciplines) into history and cultural anthropology too.

See ANTHROPOLOGY (Geipel); ART (Frankfort); CHILDREN'S BOOKS (Brothwell): GEOGRAPHY (Sauer); HISTORY/ANCIENT (Grant, Lehmann)

Architecture

Architecture is, in a real sense, the measure of man's unnaturalness. Ever since he adapted the cave for his convenience, he has rebelled against the kind of shelter which unshaped nature provides. Thus the history of architecture is that of man against nature, however naturally he has sought to harmonize his antagonism with the materials and environment he finds on earth. The story of architecture is told (and lived) principally by urban man. for whom buildings become the reflection of society, its organization and its myths. This means that the debate on architectural aesthetics is also about morals. politics, religion: hence its intense importance, its furious partialities. ("You say," said Nietzsche, "that there can be no argument about matters of taste? All life is an argument about matters of taste.") The architect makes his artistic and concrete statement — in obstinately durable form — and then moves on, sometimes with giant strides, sometimes on feet of clay, rarely leaving satisfactory explanation or justification. Vitruvius and Le Corbusier, in the following list, are distinguished exceptions (and prove, perhaps, the dangers of universalizing assertions. however impressive the credentials of the dogmatists). The majority of books cited here are by critics and scholars, though the true critic of the building is often and decisively the man who uses it. In the present century, however, the architectural critic has become an influential and creative force. Architecture is three-dimensional thought: hence the significance of the "philosophers" who are its critics and proponents.

See ART (Frankfort, Giedion, Pevsner, Stedman): CHILDREN'S BOOKS (Macaulay); GEOGRAPHY (Hall, Jacobs, Morgan, Pahl. Scientific American, Tunnard): HISTORY/BRITISH (Brown)

Laurie D. Olin

Laurie Olin is a professor of landscape architecture at Harvard's Graduate School of Design. He teaches a landscape-design studio and lectures on the history and evolution of landscapes. He has received Guggenheim and Rome Prize Fellowships for study in landscape architecture; which he has taught at the University of Washington, the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard. He is a founding partner of Hanna/Olin Ltd., a landscape-architectural firm located in Philadelphia.
These books should dispel either of two notions: the first that the world and our society are fixed or complete, and the second that any particular current trend is destiny. Things can and must change, but to a surprising degree such change can be shaped by dreams and design just as it can by chance or the forces currently at work in society.

Moshe Safdie

Moshe Safdie is an internationally known architect and urban designer with a practice in Montreal, Cambridge, Massachusetts and Jerusalem. He has been director of Harvard's Urban Design Program of the Graduate School of Design and is the Ian Woodner Professor of Architecture and Urban Design. He has written three books: Beyond Habitat, For Everyone a Garden and Form and Purpose. In addition to lecturing frequently at conferences and on campuses, his current projects range from the Montilla business district in Jerusalem to the Montreal waterfront, a Hebrew school in Mexico City, housing in the Republic of Singapore, the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa and Columbus Circle in New York City.

By definition, an architect's principal source of inspiration and learning is the study of the visual environment, cities and buildings, observed in reality and in reproductions of drawings and photographs. The architect's eye is a greater scanner sorting out relevancies, perceived and hidden orders, organization and patterns. The written word coexists as stimulation with the image.

I have chosen three books. The impact of the first has been to place my consciousness within an ethical and moral framework. The second is a book of science that connects the body theory of design to a greater universal context. The third is a book specifically about architecture and cities, to give particular emphasis to the significance of one set of images and experiences over others.

Anne Whiston Spirn

Anne Whiston Spirn is associate professor of landscape architecture at Harvard's Graduate School of Design. Her research and publications grow out of her work on theories of nature and city design, best illustrated in her recent award-winning book The Granite Garden: Urban Nature and Human Design. She was a fellow of the Bunting Institute at Radcliffe in 1978 and a Noyes fellow in 1985. She holds a B.A. from Radcliffe College and a M.L.A. from the University of Pennsylvania.

It was only after writing these notes that I realized that all five of the books are in one way or another a product of Harvard. Eliot was an undergraduate at Harvard College, McHarg and Alexander studied at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and John Dewey delivered Art as Experience as a Harvard lecture series founded in memory of William James.

Architecture - Introduction

Joe Staines

Architecture is unique among the arts, in as much as it is impossible to avoid. From birth to death, the spaces that surround us are largely defined by structures — walls, doors, windows, corridors — that have been consciously designed and built, albeit with varying degrees of finesse. The very ubiquity of architecture leads most people to take it for granted. It usually enters our awareness only for the most negative reasons: the destruction of something familiar and well loved, or the arrival of something else that seems incongruous or out of scale. The experience of architecture can be much more rewarding than this, and the following books have been chosen because all the authors, in their varying ways, have the ability to make the act of looking at the build environment seem like an active and creative process, an act of interpretation as much as one of contemplation.

All find architectural values are human values, else not valuable. —Frank Lloyd Wright

Gothic Architecture

Joe Staines

The rebuilding of the east end of the abbey church of St Denis, just north of Paris, was begun in 1140. It took just four years and is widely regarded as the first consistent manifestation of Gothic architecture. It was rapidly followed by similar building and rebuilding programmes across the Isle de France, then in England, and eventually throughout Europe. The vital elements of Gothic building - the pointed arch, the rib vault, and the flying buttress - all enabled the medieval master builder to replace the solid but earthbound architecture of the Romanesque with something more dynamic and transcendent. Walls, no longer load-bearing, could be filled with windows of coloured glass, creating - as at Chartres - a jewel-like glow within the often vast interiors. The Gothic cathedral dominated the surrounding landscape and the lives of those within it, so it is hardly surprising that subsequent architectural history has concentrated on ecclesiastical buildings almost entirely at the expense of secular ones.

Gothic is not only the best, but the only rational architecture, as being that which can fit itself most easily to all services, vulgar or noble ... it can shrink into a turret, expand into a hall, coil into a staircase, or spring into a spire, with undegraded grace and unexhausted energy. —John Ruskin

Renaissance and Baroque Architecture

Francesca M. Speight

The study of architecture reflects, perhaps more than any other art form, the prevailing aesthetic tastes of a period. The Renaissance is no exception, the rebirth of Classical ideas on form, proportion, and decoration, as found in the remains of ancient Greece and Rome, providing inspirarion for such major architectural masters as Leon Battista Alberti, Filippo Brunelleschi, and Michelangelo. Baroque architecture, however, reflects the penchant of the time towards lavish decorative schemes on a grand scale, the simplicity and clarity of the Classical giving way to the love of complexity and dramatic effects.

He departed not a little from the work regulated by measure, order and rule which other men did according to a common use and after Vitruvius and the antiquities, to which he would not conform ... —Giorgio Vasari on the Architecture of Michelangelo

Western Architecture 1750-1900

Rosamund Diamond

From the middle of the 18th century, as much as the other aspects of culture, architecture was affected by ideas of the Enlightenment and significant changes that were taking place in the political structures of certain nations, the most significant of these being the French and American Revolutions. Architecture became influenced by contemporary philosophy, in its ideas about nature and society, and the conflict between empiricism and rationalism. Change in conceptions of history, and archaeological expeditions to cultivate the examination of Roman and Greek architecture, led to the questioning of Vitruvius' Classical precepts and the singular route presented by Renaissance and Baroque. It also resulted in the development of Neo-Classicism.

In the 19th century, the Industrial Revolution presented architecture with new approaches to development, as a result of both mass increases in production and technological innovation. Enlarged urban development and, in the densely occupied cities, the need to install comprehensive servicing systems, such as the provision of drainage and water, as well as advances in mobility and communication, led to strategic planning, which produced both structured urban designs and, in the latter part of the century, suburbanization. The rise of the new bourgeois classes in cities generated places of leisure and consumption: new parks marked the urbanization of landscape, and technological advancement made possible the construction of the arcade.
Technical innovation from the middle of the 18th century, which included the development of iron as a structural material and the birth of the steam engine, encouraged a division in the roles of the engineer and the architect. The new materials and techniques of construction presented multiple rather than singular solutions to design projects. This presaged 20th-century diversity. Advances in the production of power, leading, for example, to the invention of the lift and the electric light, resulted not only in more ambitious constructions, but in architecture as a more sophisticated means of tempering the environment, which might respond to individual need while expressing changes in society.

Unremittingly science enriches itself and life with newly discovered useful
materials and natural powers that work miracles, with new methods and
techniques, with new tools and machines. It is already evident that inventions
no longer are, as they had been in earlier times, means for warding off want
and for helping consumption; instead, want and consumption are the means
to market the inventions. The order of things has been reversed. —Gottfried Semper

20th-Century Architecture

Rosamund Diamond

The history of modem architecture could be described as a history of ideas, in which the apparent divergence of approaches, and the number of movements, in contrast to previous centuries, resulted from the wide range of possibilities made available by new technologies. This not only made architects address different methods of construction, but also the social effects of their buildings, individually and collectively, in shaping and reflecting the way people live in the modem age. Architects such as Le Corbusier projected visions of whole conurbations and environments to support the new social structures that they envisioned.

It is hard to be precise in attempting to trace the start of modem architecture when one considers both its technological and its visionary characteristics.

In one sense its origin may be found in the origins of the Industrial Revolution, but in another it lies as much in the development of ideas in the middle of the 18th century. The individual's place in an increasingly mechanized field of production is often questioned in the debates of 20th-century architecture, and this growing dilemma is expressed in the late century's divergence of stylistic approaches.
The machinery of society, profoundly out of gear, oscillates between an
amelioration, of historial importance, and a catastrophe. The primordial instinct of
every human being is to assure himself of shelter. The various classes of workers in
society today no longer have dwellings adapted to their needs; neither the artisan
nor the intellectual. It is a question of building which is at the root of the social
unrest of today; architecture or revolution. —Le Corbusier

Art and Design

At first sight, it might seem that there are too many art books: too much reading goes on, and not enough looking. But for most people, art books are a personal gallery to the majority of the world's great pictures, the only possible ticket to the contents of far-flung galleries. For this reason, art books are recommended here for quality of pictures, standard of reproduction, first; second comes authority or accessibility of text. We have, however, chosen not so much picture books about individual artists, as books about trends, about art itself. Where art becomes a practical as well as an aesthetic matter, and particularly in the new, prescriptive discipline of design, things are a little different. Here theory and philosophy are crucial matters, and elegance of text bulks large. The best books of all — and it is interesting to see how many of them are by artists themselves — are those which combine experience, vision and articulacy of style. They are the cream of a rich and nourishing list.

See ANTHROPOLOGY (Agee, Kroeber, Turner): ARCHAEOLOGY (Sandars); ARCHITECTURE (Banham, Clark. Kouwenhoven, Lancaster, Lawrence, Newman, Soper); AUTOBIOGRAPHY (Cellini, Clark); BIOGRAPHY (Freud, Grigson, Hudson, Lindsay, Renoir, Thompson); DIARIES (Dali, Van Gogh); GEOGRAPHY (Tunnard); HISTORY/AMERICAN (Josephy, Jones); HISTORY/ ASIAN (Basham); HISTORY/BRITISH (Burn, Burton, Dillon, George, Strong); HOME (Conran, Jeffs, Johnson, Kron); HUMOUR (Hollowood, Larry, New Yorker, Searle, Schulz, Steadman, Steinberg); LITERARY CRITICISM (Benjamin); MATHEMATICS (Hofstadter); MEDIA (Evans. Maclean); MEDICINE (Trevor-Roper); MUSIC (Hoffnung); NATURAL HISTORY (Audubon, Be-wick, Holden)

On Painting
L. Alberti
Principles in Art The Four Books of Architecture
A. Palladio
Principles in Art Patrons and Painters
F. Haskell
Principles in Art The Greek Revival
J. Mordant Crook
Principles in Art

James Ackerman

James Ackerman is the Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Fine Arts. His essays and articles are on the history of architecture. critical and historical theory, and the interaction of art and science. His books focus on his long-held fascination with Rome: The Architecture of Michelangelo, Palladio and Palladio's Villas. Recently he has expanded his artistic interests to film: Looking for Renaissance Rome (1976) and Palladio the Architect and His Influence in America (1980).
I'm not sure that any of these books (except possibly for Barthes) would have the same impact today that they did when published: they are still worth reading, but they were written in and for another milieu. If all important books retained their value permanently we wouldn't need to produce any new ones.

Oleg Grabar

Oleg Grabar is the Aga Khan Professor of Islamic Art at Harvard with a long-standing interest in Islamic art, architecture and archaeology. His responsibilities on the steering committee of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture take him throughout the world. This year marks the fiftieth and fifty-first Ph.D. theses he has supervised. The Formation of Islamic Art and Alhambra are his best-known books and he is currently completing two more general books on Islamic architecture.

Painting and Sculpture: Classical Art

Graham Ley

It is inevitable that the lavishly illustrated coffee-table book will attract most attention in this as in other artistic subjects, and most libraries have a good stock of volumes of this sort. But in this extremely short reading list I have also included more modest books which provide a clear discussion of the artefacts, and offer helpful critical guidelines on an introductory level. So readers are advised to 'move about' between the different books for illustrations and commentary, and to be aware that each particular selection of objects or pictures is always (and inevitably) going to give a rather limited impression of what is available. The more recent books can take advantage of any discoveries that have been made, and most contain suggestions for further reading.

Yet Greek art is not only the first entirely self-conscious art that we know of,- it stands apart from all other traditions in its almost exclusive search for beauty, and in particular the beauty of the human form ... —ROGER FRY

Medieval Art

Chris Murray

A very elastic term, 'medieval' changes its scope according to context. Here it is being used in its widest sense: the period from the end of the Roman Empire (4th century AD) to the beginning of the Renaissance (15th century). This vast stretch of time, far from being an artistic Dark Age - first barbaric and then dominated by monkish virtues, stern and life-denying - was a period of extraordinary variety and richness. In varying degrees, the styles of the collapsed Roman civilization blended with those of such 'barbaric' peoples as the Celts and the Anglo-Saxons to produce styles expressing the complex and dynamic character of a new civilization - Christendom. In Byzantium in particular, where the Roman legacy was strongest, the need to express a spiritual sense of the world produced a style of great grandeur and power. The masterpieces of medieval art include stained glass, metalwork, manuscript illumination, sculpture (in stone, metal, wood, and ivory), frescoes, and panel paintings. The main artistic divisions are: early Christian, Byzantine, Romanesque, and Gothic.

The contrast between suffering and joy, between adversity and
happiness, appeared more striking. All experience had yet to the minds of
men the directness and absoluteness of the pleasure and pain of child-life.
Every event, every action, was still embodied in expressive and solemn
forms, which raised them to the dignity of a ritual. —Johan Huizinga

Renaissance and Baroque

Francesca M Speight

The Renaissance (French for 'rebirth') was a relatively brief but vital period in the history of Western European culture in which inspiration came from the antique remains of ancient Greece and Rome. It reflects both the continuation of the Christian beliefs found in the preceding Middle Ages and the revival of humanist thought, resulting in an increasing emphasis on the individual and on secular concerns. The Renaissance, which is usually seen as extending approximately from 1400 to 1600, includes the approach known as Mannerist, which was subsequently viewed as a falling-away of the achievements of the High Renaissance period, but is now recognized as a valid and important style in its own right.

With the commencement of the 17th century, the dominant style was that of Baroque, which echoed a time of renewed Catholic fervour and confidence in the church, and this is clearly seen in the dramatic and turbulent approach which incorporates illusionism on a grand scale combined with sumptuous decoration and the merging of all three art forms - painting, sculpture, and architecture. Interiors were especially lavishly conceived, with decorated ceilings particularly revered at this time. The Baroque in Germany and eastern Europe became even more lavish and exuberant; in France and England, on the other hand, it was tempered by a preference for Classical restraint.

The deity which invests the science of the painter functions in such a
way that the mind of the painter is transformed into a copy of the divine
mind, since it operates freely in creating many kinds of animals, plants,
fruits, landscapes, countrysides, ruins, and awe-inspiring places. —Leonardo Da Vinci

Neo-Classicism and Romanticism

Francesca M Speight

Neo-Classicism was a style of the late 18th and early 19th centuries strongly influenced by Classical an from the ancient Greek and Roman empires - even to the point of some painters and sculptors taking their subject matter from ancient history and the antique. This is seen especially in the works of the French artist Jacques Louis David. Neo-Classicism places great emphasis on draughtsmanship, on pure, clean con-tours, on idealized and noble subjects treated in a solid, three-dimensional way. David's The Death of Socrates is a key example.

The Romantic style of the 19th century arose as a direct reaction against the intellectual conceptions of the Neo-Classicists. The clearly defined forms and cool tones of Neo-Classicism gives way to indefinite shapes, warm tones, and atmospheric effects. In the French school of Romanticism, led by Eugene Delacroix, a love of the Oriental and exotic is seen; J M W Turner and William Blake are considered to be the leading English Romantics.

How awful is the silence of the waste, / Where nature lifts her
mountains to the sky. / Majestic solitude, behold the tower /
Where hopeless Owen, long imprisoned, pined /
And wrung his hands for liberty, in vain. —JMW Turner

Impressionism to Post-Impressionism

Francesca M Speight

This period includes the school of Realism, headed by the French artist Gustave Courbet, which turned its back on the ennobling subject matter beloved by the official Academy, and focused instead on everyday contemporary scenes depicted in an accurate manner rather than idealized or transformed into 'picturesque' works. Another form of Realism is found in the French Impressionist movement's output, but they saw their motifs in terms of the analysis of light, which produced a new way of observing reality and has earned them the accolade of 'the first modern movement' in the history of art.
Working through Impressionism and developing their own distinctive individuality where the Post-Impressionists, including Georges Seurat (Neo-Impressionism), Paul Gauguin (a form of Symbolism), Vincent van Gogh (early Expressionism), and Paul Cezanne (combining Realism and Classicism).
This period also includes the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, an English group of idealistic young men drawn to medieval legends and romantic literary sources as subject matter, but using a technique of microscopically detailed analysis, in which truth to nature was uncompromisingly observed.

Show me an angel and I'll paint one. —Gustave Courbet

20th-Century Art

Francesca M Speight

This period commences with Cubism, a movement considered to be the source of all subsequent abstract an. Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque were the leading exponents of this new, intellectual approach to perception. Cubism produced many offshoots, including such styles as Neo-Plasticism, represented by Piet Mondrian, and also the geometric reliefs of Britain's Ben Nicholson. Concurrently a representational and intensely romantic stance in art continued alongside abstraction, as seen in Fauvism in France and Expressionism in Germany.

Other major movements to emerge in the 20th century include Surrealism, with Salvador Dali and Rene Matte perhaps the best-known exponents; American Abstract Expressionism exemplified by such artists as Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning; and Pop an, which began in England but was taken up on a bigger and brasher scale by such Americans as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. Subsequent developments include Land art, Conceptual art, Installation an, Op an, and many variations on past styles. The enfant terrible and darling of the art world at present is Damien Hirst, with his installations of animal corpses displayed in tanks of formaldehyde. The shock element has always been associated with the avant-garde since Courbet produced his unidealized peasant scenes, and it seems destined to stay.

Sometimes I think that extreme beauty must be absolutely humourless. But then I think of Marilyn Monroe and she had the best fun lines. —Andy Warhol

Photography

Susan Sontag

To write about photography, as I discovered when I was writing my own essays on the subject, is nothing less than to write about the world. There is no activity that is distinctively modem which so evidently touches on and obliges us to confront the principal issues of modernity - political, moral, and aesthetic. We all take photographs or think we could or should. More important, we all understand a great deal of the world - indeed, reality itself - through the medium of, and by the standards set by, photographed images. Resisting the temptation to use my allotment of recommendations to cite some contemporary favourite books of photographs, from The Americans (1958) by Robert Frank to The Silence (1995) by Gilles Peress, I've chosen instead to list a number of books which can give the curious reader a complex sense of the history of photography and the rich debate about the many issues raised by its imperious scope.

Earlier much futile thought had been devoted to the question of whether photography is an an. The primary question - whether the very invention of photography had not transformed the entire nature of an - was not raised. —Walter Benjamin

Fashion: History of Fashion

Jacueline Herald

The first histories of dress were published in the 19th century. They focused on period costume and were used as a visual reference source for theatre designers and artists depicting historical themes. In the early 20th century, more radical texts on fashion considered the psychological dimension of dress and identity. More recently, books on historic and contemporary fashion have fallen into four main categories: manuals on cut and construction of historic garments; glossy descriptive books about haute couturiers, emphasizing style, texture of fabrics, and ingenious decorative details; educational books with line drawings, presenting a chronology of dress and how it reflects the lifestyle of a particular period; and socio-anthropological studies of dress as cultural system of signs, denoting distinctions of gender, class, and attitude, both individually and collectively.

Common sense and most historians of costume have assumed that the
demands of either utility, status or sex must have been responsible for
the invention of clothing. However ... scholars have recently informed
us that the original purpose of clothing was magical. —Alison I. Ctrie

20th-Century Fashion and Style

Jacqueline Herald

The study of dress style is currently in vogue. In the last decade or so more books dedicated to fashion designers and looks have been published than ever before. Some are glossy picture books on the creations of a particular couturier; others are fun visual references to the story of a particular garment or cult accessory (the Hawaiian shirt, the necktie, the handkerchief). Other books concentrate on the means of creating a particular image, through fashion photography or illustration. There are also the more flippant manuals or style, taken seriously by some dedicated followers of fashion, which guide the reader about what to wear, where to buy, either for a particular social occasion or an effect - Madonna look-alike, for example. Other, more serious studies include reference dictionaries on design and designers and more discursive texts on the meaning of style among different class, age, and cultural groups.

A style does not go out of style as long as it adapts itself to its period.
When there is an incompatibility between the style and a certain state
of mind, it is never the style that triumphs. —Coco Chanel

Craft and Design: History of Crafts

Jacqueline Herald

There are numerous books on the crafts, which fall into distinct categories. Potted histories can be found in dictionaries of decorative arts, which are useful for general reference: more detailed and often generously illustrated books on craft are devoted either to a particular craft discipline or the types of objects most closely associated with it (such as textiles, ceramics, jewellery), or to a particular country or culture. In an industrial or postindustrial world, the crafts are often viewed with nostalgia, being perceived as traditional and handmade from natural materials, even though contemporary craft practice incorporates machines, computers, and synthetic media. A very large proportion of the books available are of the 'how to do it' type, extremely instructive but sometimes lacking in imagination.

The story of craft is not only the story of man's increasing skill with materials
and increasing power over the natural environment; it provides in addition,
evidence of the way in which society itself has developed. Men often define
themselves through the skills they acquire, and the uses to which they put them. —Edward Lucie-Smith

Design

Guy Julier

Since its inception as a professional activity in the late 19th century, design has been a haphazard activity. In bridging the gap between the conception and execution of objects, designers have invariably moved between the creative and the formulaic, the intellectual and the manual, the cultural and the commercial. Its lack of 'rules' or professional norms is mirrored in the breadth of design writing. In its early form, design publications sought professional legitimacy by drawing on traditional modes of architectural and art criticism and history. Design was explained as the result of the work of individual 'hero' designers. However, in recent years, with the development of design history and criticism as a separate academic discipline, design writing has taken in a broader range of perspectives. On the one hand writers have sought explanations for the look or existence of artefacts in terms of their production, taking into account such aspects as technology, materials, the organization of labour, and distribution systems. Consumption has also been taken into account: thus design has begun to be read from the point of view of the user's experience. This may range from the very scientific approach within ergonomics to the more theoretical readings of the role of desire and fantasy in consumerism, informed by a psychoanalytical approach. It remains clear, however, that with the growing professionalization of design practice and its ascendant academic status, the historical gap between its practice and criticism is narrowing.

Design has a twofold relation, having in the first place, a strict reference to utility
in the thing designed; and secondarily, to the beautifying or ornamenting that utility. The word design, however, with the many has become identified rather
with its secondary than with its whole signification - with ornament, as apart from, and often even as opposed to, utility. From thus confounding that which is in itself but an addition, with that which is essential, has arisen many of those
great errors in taste which are observable in the works of modern designers. —Henry Cole, 1849

Autobiography and Memoirs

The opportunity to make a recension of one's own life is clearly difficult to resist — and results, more often than not, in mayfly publishing, a few hours' dance in the sun followed by oblivion. Our choice (a selective one) is based first on excellence (of perception or style), and second on relevance (a person of lasting interest or an age defined). Particularly interesting are memoirs which can be checked for bias. and those of writers whose main work is in other fields. The selection of material from one's own life is a critical act, sometimes as revealing as the incidents of that life themselves. If Beethoven had written an autobiography, would it have been about earache or symphonies?

See ART (Haydon); BIOGRAPHY (Trelawny); CHILDREN'S BOOKS (Durrell); DRAMA (Cibber); FILM (Brown. Fields, Griffith, Love, Montagu, Niven, Parrish); HISTORY/BRITISH (Burnet); HUMOUR (Milligan); MATHEMATICS (Heisenberg, Watson); MEDIA (Higham, Knopf); MEDICINE (Copeland); MUSIC (Berlioz, Kirkpatrick, Stravinsky, Varese); NATURAL HISTORY (Bewick, Burton, Durrell, Maxwell, Waterton); OCCULT (Bennett, J. B., Lethbridge); RELIGION (Newman, Phillips); TRAVEL (Genet, Lawrence. Schultz, Twain)

Biography

Modern biography combines the skills of historian, essayist, psycho-analyst, critic and (biographers like to think) novelist. The books in this list are chosen, like those in Autobiography and Memoirs, for the importance or interest of the subject and for evocation of period or character. They fall into two categories: objective, where historian and critic predominate, and subjective, where memoirist and analyst tend to take over (and where what a writer says about his subject is often deeply revealing of himself). One or two cases (for example Sartre on Genet and Troyat on Tolstoy) stray delightfully (or scandalously) into fiction. Whether biography is an art or not — and despite the documentary fetish which has led to renewed prolixity in recent times (for example in Michael Holroyd, after all the slimming work of Lytton Strachey) — it is nearly always metaphorical or allegorical: for a life can never be written: it must be lived.

See ART (Smith, Vasari); DRAMA (Fitzsimons); HISTORY/ AMERICAN (Aaron. Morgan, Woodward); HISTORY/ANCIENT (Selzer); HISTORY/ASIAN (Suyin); HISTORY/BRITISH (Hibbert, Longford, Magnus, Neale, Plumb, Scarisbrick, Willson); HISTORY/EUROPEAN (Geyl, Grey, Massie, Origo, Tyler); FILM (McCabe. Septon, Taylor); LITERARY CRITICISM (Hazlitt); MATHEMATICS (Davis, Moszkowski. Reid); MEDIA (Berg); MUSIC (Einstein, Nichols, Nolan, White); NATURAL HISTORY (Adams, Blunt); PSYCHOLOGY (Watson); RELIGION (Wat, Wendel); TRAVEL (Ronay)

Biography

Claire Tomalin

Biographies are on the whole ephemeral. Nothing seems so old-fashioned as the biographies of the 1920s, gathering dust on library shelves. The exceptions are those that are fired by passion and understanding of their subject and period, and writ-ten with as much an as good fiction. A biography cannot put you inside someone else's skin, as fiction tries to, but it can (and should) immerse you in another world. The biographer draws on many disciplines - history, geography, sociology, medicine, psychology, an history among them - and has to be a scholarly jackdaw, picking up bits of information wherever they can be found. There may also be an intention to establish or restore a reputation, reveal a social problem, or do justice where it has not hitherto been done. Among the earliest English-language biographies are William Roper's of his father-in-law Thomas More (1626) and Izaac Walton's of the poet John Donne (1641); biography has been much more popular with the English and the Americans than with other nations.

A true delineation of the smallest man, and his scene of pilgrimage through life, is
capable of interesting the greatest man; ... all men are to an unspeakable degree
brothers, each man's life a strange emblem of every man's; and ... Human
Portraits, faithfully drawn, are of all pictures the welcomest on human walls. —THOMAS CARLYLE

Children's Books

Any list of children's books should make nostalgic browsing for adults; but it should also include the sort of books children actually still read. This list is a choice of classics (all recommend-ably readable, and read) and good contemporary books, potentially of classic status too.

See DIARIES (Frank); FICTION/NOVELS (Swift, Twain): FICTION/SHORT STORIES (Grimm): HUMOUR (Schulz); REFERENCE (Merit, New Arthur Mee, Opie); RELIGION (Bible)

Children's Literature

Alison Lurie

Until about 20 years ago children's literature was the Cinderella of literary studies. Everyone read fairy tales and books like Tom Sawyer, The Wizard of Oz, and Winnie-the-Pooh when they were young, but almost no one thought about them seriously later. This meant that some of the most original and influential works of all time were overlooked by critics and scholars. Today the situation is much improved. Many universities in America now offer courses in children's literature, and there are several first-rate periodicals in the field, including Children's Literature, Children's Literature Quarterly, and The Lion and the Unicorn. And good books about the subject, including those listed below, continue to appear.

Nothing you do for children is ever wasted. They seem not to notice us, hovering, averting our eyes, and they seldom offer thanks, but what we do for them is never wasted. —GARRISON KEILLOR

Diaries and Letters

For the reader, diaries and letters offer the voyeur's pleasure of a peep into other people's (more or less) unguarded lives; for the writer, anticipating this reaction, they are often a carefully contrived and artfully autobiographical form. The books on this list are of three kinds: those written from the start with publication in mind; those arranged, more or less cosmetically, for publication by the writers themselves; and (a rare few) intimate, personal documents intended for the writers' use alone.

See ART (Delacroix, Haydon, Pisarro); DRAMA (Redfield); FEMINISM (Rosen); HISTORY/ASIAN (Preble); HUMOUR (Gros-smith); LITERARY CRITICISM (Keats); MEDIA (King, Nowell-Smith); NATURAL HISTORY (Banks, Douglas-
Hamilton, Holden, White); OCCULT (Reyner); RELIGION (Bonhoeffer, Weil); TRAVEL (Cook, Lewis)

Drama

A selective list, covering a huge and varied field. Crucial playwrights, with typical (or best introductory) works: standard guides and works of criticism, especially those that explain or define a vital area: a few biographies and memoirs for fun. The interested reader will want to explore the heights (and crevasses) for himself — this list provides a base camp and a survival kit.

See DIARIES (Warren); HISTORY/BRITISH (Strong); HUMOUR (Green); LITERARY CRITICISM (Bradley, Johnson, Stendhal)

William Alfred

William Alfred is the Abbott Laurence Lowell Professor of the Humanities at Harvard. A native of New York City, he is a noted playwright (Hogan's Goat), translator (Modern Library Beowulf) and teacher. Besides his achievements in the classroom, he continues to produce screenplays and scripts for television and the theater.

These books might prepare their readers for the challenges of the twenty-first century by prompting them to ask questions of the fictions they indulge themselves in, along these lines:
1. Since changes inevitably alter life and our way of dealing with it, so threatening any fixed order we may aspire to that we grow desperate or enraged, can no way be found to assess the perils of that desperation and rage by assessing the fictions in which those feelings are expressed?
2. Does private rage avalanche into international catastrophe?
If that be the case, can no means be found to divert that rage from racist, religious, national or political objects to those elements in our nature which in the nobly furious words of Conor Cruse O'Brien "make us more eager to die for the good of mankind than to live and work for it"?

Robert Brustein

Robert Brustein is artistic director of the acclaimed American Repertory Theater company in Cambridge, director of the Loeb Drama Center and professor of English at Harvard University. As one of the leaden of the American resident theater movement, he is known for his enormous support of innovative work and his ability to galvanize other creative people. He is theater critic for the New Republic.

Theatre: World Theatre

Graham Ley

Study and appreciation of the theatre have expanded in recent decades from close attention to scripts and plays to a consideration of performance. In this reading list I have concentrated on introductions with that emphasis, accepting that readers may wish to 'travel' in their interests outside Britain and Europe, and back from the present to the past. Illustrations are undoubtedly important in any appreciation of performance, and, with some specific exceptions, the books listed here are helpful in that respect.

By whatever means it is accomplished, the prime business of the play is to arouse
the passions of the audience so that by the route of passions may be opened up new
relationships between a man and men, and between men and Man. —Arthur Miller

Shakespeare

Derek Parker

One of Dr Johnson's chief regrets at being mortal was the thought of leaving this world for one in which Shakespeare's works were no longer available. I am on his side. A good edition of the Complete Works is an essential: probably in the celebrated Arden edition, though there are plenty of handy individual paperbacks of the plays and poems. Shakespeare is quite simply inexhaustible: and if the time comes when you think you have exhausted him, there is a long line of critics and biographers to remind you that far from touching bottom, you are still splashing in the shallows. My favourite biography is Samuel Schoenbaum's wonderful Shakespeare: A Documentary Life, which came out in 1975 and reproduced every contemporary document remotely connected with the poet.

This is sadly long out of print, but is well worth seeking out; and happily, Professor Schoenbaum has followed it up with a simpler edition, William Shakespeare: A Compact Documentary Life (1977). As for the rest, we shall never be able to put our hand on Shakespeare's shoulder, but through the plays, the criticism, the biographies, we can make an effort to clutch at his sleeve - and sometimes seem to feel it flutter in our grasp, across four centuries.

Shakespeare's writing was a magic circle in which he himself could only tread ... He invented a work which was peculiar to himself, and not to be compared with the productions of any writer of any nation - in which he had no follower nor second.
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama

Derek Parker

The best option is, of course, to read about the plays and then see them in performance. However, the best dramas can well bear reading as well as seeing, and there is beauty in Marlowe, fun in Ben Jonson, darkness and honor in John Webster and Thomas Middleton which delight and intrigue almost as much on the page as on the boards. If the Elizabethans had an unequalled way with language, the harsher, more astringent tragedies of the Jacobeans can be as exciting - and in the absence of novels, bring their period alive with quite extraordinary brilliance.

Great drama is the souvenir of the adventures of a master among the pieces of his own soul. —George Jean Nathan

English Drama 1700-1900

Derek Parker

Really excellent dramatists were thin on the ground between the end of the Restoration period and the years of the solid, safe Victorian theatre - where nevertheless a number of anti-Victorian dramatists beavered away subversively - Wilde, Shaw, Arthur Pinero, T W Robertson, Henry Arthur Jones managing to entertain but also shock and educate audiences.

We do not go to the theatre like our ancestors to escape from the pressure of reality, so much as to confirm our experience of it. —Charles Lamb

British Drama 1900 to the Present

Derek Parker

World War I changed the theatre just as it changed everything else; soon came Coward, ready to show the 1920s their own face in The Vortex 1924, putting drugs on stage for the first time. There was a brief flirtation with poetic drama, led by T S Eliot and Christopher Fry, with W H Auden and Christopher Isherwood in the wings; Terence Rattigan, with elegant, mannered comedies, bridged the period between the 1930s and the 1950s, when came the new generation - Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, Arnold Wesker, John Arden followed by Tom Stoppard, Edward Bond, David Storey, David Hare - and the most fruitful period of English drama for 400 years.

We do not think that a play can be worth acting and not worth reading. —W B YEATS

American Drama

T J Lustig

"There are no dramatic subjects in a country which has witnessed no great political catastrophes and in which love invariably leads by a straight and easy road to matrimony" - Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (1835). Right about so much else, de Tocqueville was signally wrong in this, for the political and emotional problems of 20th-century American democracy have produced a rich body of dramatic work. The tradition has been a predominantly realist one, though it has often strained that overstretched word well beyond its breaking point. But within its characteristic concentration on the relation between the (mainly middle-class) individual and society. American drama has told the story of the nation from the period of colonial expansion to that of imperial domination. It has dramatized the political in the personal in its treatment of the individual and the family. And it has staged the personal in the political in its analysis of the American dream and its spiritual evacuation. Often concerned with property, violence, truth, and the presence of the past, 20th-century American drama has seen itself both as weapon and as cure.

American drama stages a nation thinking (or not thinking) in front of itself. —Matthew Roudane

Economics

Watching economists tear at one another's throats, and reflecting on the holes in his own pockets, the layman might be forgiven for wondering, cynically, just how relevant this subject is to human life. The books in this list (an unpolemical, undogmatic selection) may go some way to providing an answer, or answers. "You pays your money…

See ANTHROPOLOGY (Dalton); MEDICINE (Fuchs); PHILOSOPHY (Ortega y Gasset); POLITICS (Schumpeter); SOCIOLOGY (Weber)

Kenneth Andrews

Kenneth Andrews is the Donald K. David Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School and until recently was editor and publisher of the Harvard Business Review. His field is business policy and his principal book is The Concept of Corporate Strategy.

The classics I have identified will be as relevant to the recurring problems of achieving results in organizations and of making leadership effective that will characterize the twenty-first century as they are to those of the present day. The ideas are timeless; their power and application are virtually unlimited.

Alfred D. Chandler

Alfred Chandler is the Straus Professor of Business History at the Harvard Business School. He is the author of numerous works, including Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the History of the American Industrial Enterprise (1962) and The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in Modern Business (1977). For many, he is considered to be the dean of the organizational school of historians. His forthcoming work, a cross-national study, is tentatively titled Scale and Scope.

C. Roland Christensen

C Roland Christensen is Harvard's Robert Walmsley University Professor. He is the first member of the Harvard Business School faculty to receive this honor. At the Business School he is known by peers and students as the father of the case method, although he attributes the distinction to the ancient Greeks. He is well known for his association with boards of directors as a member, as a course topic and as a field of research. He has a passionate interest in business policy.

Here are the books — all old, dog-eared, reread and reread, little (no big fat volumes), most committed to memory — of my five-inch bookshelf. But they miss the greatest influence on this educator — Miss Adams, a seventh-grade teacher in Iowa City, Iowa. She introduced me to poetry, where the ultimate wisdom — the philosophy of life — is found. The first step in the development of an anthology was our study of "Miniver Cheevey" by Edwin Arlington Robinson.- It is still exciting fifty-four years after that original encounter.

Richard N. Cooper

Richard Cooper is the Boas Professor of International Econom ics at Harvard's Graduate School ofArts and Sciences. From 1963 to 1977, he was professor of economics and provost at Yale University. He served as undersecretary of state for economic affairs from 1977 to 1981.

The accumulated wisdom of others can give direction to action, provide tools for analysis and thought, and warn of dangers to a productive, tolerant and humane society. These books help in that.

These four books impressed on me the danger to civilized society of persons with an intolerance of dissent from their own agenda for society, and the importance of continued vigilance to keep them from gaining and exercising power. Schlesinger's book addresses the dangers of political extremism both on the right and on the left; Hoffer describes the psychology of what he calls a true believer; Popper traces the philosophical history of political authoritarianism since Plato; and Wheeler-Bennett offers a detailed history of how Adolf Hitler out-maneuvered the senior German Officer Corps in his successful pursuit of absolute power.

These two books indicate as well as any that history is much more than kings and generals. Famine and disease have played a much greater role in mankind's misery, and reducing the prevalence of both is a worthy, even noble, vocation.

These two books suggested to me that economics is a subject worth studying.

I have identified books that were formative to my own thinking, so most of them were read long ago. They are still worth reading, though some of them will sound dated to younger minds. I read fewer books now, and more articles, which get more rapidly to the point. For instance, I benefited greatly from John Rawls's A Theory of Justice (1971), but I benefited even more from Kenneth Arrow's sympathetic yet critical review of it in the Journal of Philosophy. The core argument of Robert Axelrod's important book The Evolution of Cooperation (1984) can be found more succinctly stated in a 1981 article in the American Political Science Review.

Hugh Heclo

Hugh Heclo was born in Marion, Ohio, studied and taught at several British universities and received a Ph.D. in political science from Yale University in 1970. He is now a professor of government at Harvard. A former senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., Professor Heclo is also a part-time tree farmer and author of three award-winning books in public policy and American politics.

The challenge of the future is always one of trying to make sense of oneself and one's times. Books, even great books, can help only a little bit by showing how other persons in other times have made that effort. Those forearmed in this way may be somewhat less foolish and prideful as they write the novels, plays and social-science interpretations of the next century.

Duncan Kennedy

Duncan Kennedy is a professor of law at the Harvard Law School. He teaches contracts, torts, property, the history of legal thought and housing law and policy. Two of his works are Legal Education and the Reproduction of Hierarchy (1983) and The Structure of Blackstone's Commentaries (1979). He is a founding member of the Conference on Critical Legal Studies.

What attracts me to these books may be the effort to come to grips with large, frightening facts of inequality, oppression, alienation, while at the same time exploring the slippery, self-contradictory nature of the self as it tangles and disentangles itself in the world of others, without giving up on survival by speculation. collective struggle and self-doubt.

Jeffrey Sachs

Jeffrey Sachs is a professor of economics at Harvard College and a former junior fellow in Harvard's Society of Fellows. An adviser to many Latin American governments. Professor Sachs has also been a consultant to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. He is a member of the Brookings Panel of Economists and a contributor to newspapers and magazines in the United States and Japan.

These studies make clear that economic processes can only be understood in conjunction with politics and other social forces. The world's economic problems cannot be solved through any simple fix of technical economics, but only through the broadest understanding of the role of economics in the larger social order.

Bruce Scott

Bruce Scott first joined the Harvard Business School as an M.B.A. student in 1954. Since then he has become widely respected for his international research and course development in national economic strategies. In 1973 he was appointed the first Paul Whiten Cherington Professor of Business Administration.

These readings should raise a question of the adequacy of the role and direction of current economic theory as it affects business policy and public policy in the United States and Europe.

Alfred D. Chandler, Jr.

Two prize-winning books showing how senior managers of large corporations broke away from the static notions of microeconomics to fashion strategies based in part on internalizing market forces rather than remaining dependent upon them.

Three views on how and why Japan has become more competitive than any of the older industrial countries. Shinohara explains Japan's departure from Western economic theory to create a growth-oriented economic strategy. Johnson explains how it was conceived, by whom, and how it has been implemented. Vogel explains why Japan is not and does not wish to become a consumer-oriented welfare state.

Wack explains the value of scenarios as alternative theories of the case. Kuhn explains revolutionary changes in the sciences as occurring only when one theory replaces another.

The Great Transformation
K. Polanyi
Trade Trade and Economy in the Early Empires K. Polanyi
Trade The Kula
"J.W. Leach, E. Leach"
Trade Symbols of Excellence
J.G.D. Clark
Trade Ulysses' Sail
M.W. Helms
Trade Das Kapital
K. Marx
Capitalism Capitalism and Freedom
M. Friedman
Capitalism The Third Way
A. Giddens
Capitalism The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
M. Weber
Capitalism Civilizations
F. Fernandez-Armesto
Capitalism John Maynard Keynes
R. Skidelsky
Welfare Economics The Age of Keynes
R. Lekachman
Welfare Economics The Age of Uncertainty
J.K. Galbraith
Welfare Economics "Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy"
J.A. Schumpeter
Welfare Economics The Wealth of Nations
A. Smith
Free Market Principles of Political Economy and Taxation
D. Ricardo
Labor Theory of Value The Legacy of Ricardo
G.A. Caravale
Labor Theory of Value The Economics of David Ricardo
S. Hollander
Labor Theory of Value Capital
K. Marx
Labor Theory of Value The School of Salamanca
M. Grice-Hutchinson
Monetary Theory Monetary Theory: 1601-1758
A.E. Murphy
Monetary Theory The Great Wave
D.H. Fischer
Monetary Theory Mercantilism
L. Magnusson
Mercantilism The Modern World-System (Vol. 2)
I. Wallerstein
Mercantilism Civilization and Capitalism
F. Braudel
Mercantilism Population: Contemporary Responses to Thomas Malthus
A. Pyle
Overpopulation
The Economics of Robert Malthus
S. Hollander
Overpopulation
A Concise History of World Population
M.L. Bacci
Overpopulation

Economics

Alain Anderton

Modern economics is often said to date from the publication of Adam Smith's book The Wealth of Nations. Adam Smith was the first writer to describe a market economy as we might recognize it today. Since 1776, economic thought has developed considerably against a backdrop of ever more complex economies. David Ricardo, an economist working in the early 19th century, predicted that eventually economies would cease to grow and that workers' wages would settle down at a subsistence level while landowners and capitalists would reap huge rewards. His prediction led to economics being dubbed 'the dismal science'. We know today that Ricardo's thinking was flawed and that workers in the rich industrialized countries of the world enjoy a prosperity undreamed of in Ricardo's time. However, economics has always been controversial because it is used by individuals, businesses, and governments to make decisions. Economic agents all too often look around for an economic theory that confirms their prejudices rather than accepting that our understanding of how a system as complex as a market economy works is often imperfect. The ever changing nature of economics and the potential for entering a debate about causes, effects, and policy implications are just some of the factors that make economics so fascinating.

The theory of economics does not furnish a body of settled conclusions immediately applicable to policy. It is a method rather than a doctrine, an apparatus of the mind, a technique for thinking, which helps its possessor draw correct conclusions. —John Maynard Keynes

Business

Alain Anderton

The study of business is relatively young. It is also changing so fast that what seems important today is of only historical interest in the business climate of tomorrow. As John Harvey Smith writes in an introduction to the Penguin edition of Igor Ansoff's Corporate Strategy: "Despite the fact that the world of business prides itself on its self-analytical and ordered approach to things, businessmen are no less prone than the next man to fashion and crazes. As the ground of what constitutes business success is ploughed over again and again 'new discoveries' are made, new methodology is produced and new panaceas for success are recommended, and as eagerly sought."

Any airport bookshop will contain a wide selection of the latest books from today's fashionable gurus, testament to the ephemeral nature of the subject. Nevertheless, there are some classics in the field and the very fact that business is so changeable makes it one of the most compelling and exciting areas for reading today.

The best class of scientific mind is the same as the best class of business mind. The
great desideratum in either case is to know how much evidence is enough to
warrant action. It is as unbusiness-like to want too much evidence before buying
and selling as to be content with too little. —Samuel Butler

Education

Jeanne S. Chall

Jeanne S. Chall is professor of education and director of the Harvard Reading Laboratory. Her most widely known books include: Learning to Read: The Great Debate; the Dale-Chall Formula for Predicting Readability; and Stages of Reading Development. A fellow of the American Psychological Association and a member of the National Academy of Education, she has served on the board of directors of the National Society for the Study of Education and the International Reading Association. and has been president of the Reading Hall of Fame. She is regarded as Harvard's "expert on reading."

The first three works influenced directly my choice of career and early research and scholarship. The next two influenced, broadly. my approach to analysis of issues. And the last two represent more recent influences on my thinking.

Nathan Glazer

Nathan Glazer is professor of education and social structure at Harvard's Graduate School of Education. His courses focus on issues in education, ethnicity and American social problems. He is coeditor of The Public Interest and has been on the editorial staff of Commentary. His most notable works include Ethnic Dilemmas 1964-1982, (1983); Ethnicity: Theory and Experience, coedited with Daniel Patrick Moynihan (1975); and Beyond the Melting Pot, on which Daniel Patrick Moynihan also collaborated.

Francis Keppel

Francis Keppel is a senior lecturer on education at Harvard's Graduate School of Education. He was dean of the Education School from 1948 to 1962 and U.S. Commissioner of Education from 1962 to 1966. He later served as chairman of the General Learning Corporation (1966-74) and is now chairman of Appropriate Technology International. His teaching focuses on state and federal policies affecting education, with special interest in federal programs in compensatory education, student financial aid and desegregation and educational boards, including the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York.

These books may help the reader to avoid being surprised, and surprise often leads to bad judgment.

Contemporary Issues In Education

Maureen O'Connor

Education in most countries today finds itself in the front line of the war between ideologies. A utilitarian view conflicts with the liberal notion of education for self-fulfilment more fiercely than ever. The introduction of competition and market forces is resisted by those who hold education as a right which should be equally available to all. Education is variously regarded as a means to social and political liberation and as a weapon in the international battle for economic hegemony. The books I have chosen provide an introduction to these conflicts without necessarily offering solutions because one thing at least is clear: the great education debate will continue.

Education costs money, but then so does ignorance. —Claus Moser

Essays

David M. Livingston

David Livingston is a professor of medicine at the Harvard Medical School — molecular biology is his field. He teaches, runs a laboratory and does active clinical medicine. His special interest is oncko genes, their products and how the latter function. He wrote an op-ed piece for the New York Times on the irksome vacuous noise broadcast over airplane loudspeakers. Additional op-ed pieces he writes may follow.

Feminism

Feminist literature dates back to the 18th century, but there have been intervals of quiescence, during which writers devoted their energies more to the novel and to social reform. The earliest examples of the genre tended to formal rectitude, despite the vigour of the political argument. More recently, the tone has become personal, at times violently polemical. The American women's movement has been especially vociferous. However. a comparison of, say, Mary Wollstonecraft with Germaine Greer suggests that women's grievances remain much the same, as do basic attitudes on both sides of the sexual divide. Natural history or indoctrination? It remains true that despite the considerable economic and social changes in Western society. the repression of women has had and continues to have ugly effects all round. We have limited ourselves to books worth reading for their originality and vigour as well as for their socio-historical importance. We hope that this list may soon be scrapped — for the battle will have been won at last.

See ANTHROPOLOGY (Kitzinger): AUTOBIOGRAPHY (Brittain, Mead): BIOGRAPHY (Tomalin): HISTORY/AMERICAN (Krantor); MEDICINE (Boston Women's Collective); MYTHOLOGY (Slater); RELIGION (Warner): SEX (Hite); SOCIOLOGY (Mead)

Vindication of the Rights of Woman
M. Wollstonecraft
Feminism "Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman"
M. Wollstonecraft
Feminism
Rights of Woman
O. de Gouges
Feminism
The Cambridge Companion to Mary Wollstonecraft
C.L. Johnson
Feminism

Feminism

Gloria Steinem

Feminism, women's liberation, the women's movement, women's rights, woman-ism, and feminisms in the plural - all these and more are terms to describe the current transformative movement for female equality as human beings. This wave follows the 19th- and early-20th-century wave known as suffrage or female emancipation, in which women succeeded in winning an identity. Previously they had been chattels with a legal status that provided the model for slavery. Indeed, there have been successive waves of rebellion in every pan of the world, in public and in private, for the last few thousand years since patriarchy replaced ways of life in which power seems to have been more balanced.

By now, the feminist argument for equal status for females of all races, classes, ages, ethnicities, abilities, and sexualities has begun to sound reasonable and to have majority support in public opinion polls, but it is still opposed by forces that range from religious fundamentalists to multinational companies, from right-wing patriarchs to left-wing nationalists. After all, equal pay and equal access to land, credit, and inheritance would constitute a massive redistribution of wealth; women's sexual and reproductive freedom would take away control of the means of reproduction from family, religion, and state; redefining and revaluing work to include the unpaid or underpaid production and reproduction now done by 'women who don't work', whether homemakers in overdeveloped countries or food producers in underdeveloped ones, would eliminate the world's largest source of cheap labour; challenging the division of human nature into 'masculine' and 'feminine' would uproot the passive/dominant paradigm on which race, class, and other hierarchies are based; shifting from religions in which God looks like the ruling class to spiritualities in which god is present in women and all living things would delegitimize man's domination of women and nature; and nurturing the full range of human qualities in both males and females would eliminate the violence implicit in having to prove 'masculinity', and transform our ideas about human nature itself.

Whether we are working towards each person's empowerment in ways large or small, we are part of the feminist movement.

Most of these books come from North America and Europe, but many include references to movements on other continents. In general, each book will lead you to many more.

I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is. I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat. —Rebecca West

For men - all of the above, plus: Against the Tide: Pro feminist Men in the United States, 1776-1990, a Documentary History (1992) edited by Michael S Kimmel and Thomas E Mosmiller.

Women and Literature

Kadiatu Kanneh

Women's literature has become a wide and varied field, with the range of texts, collections of essays, and criticism about women's literature reflecting this. The following, necessarily truncated list provides an introduction to the range of writing that women's literature represents, writing from a variety of cultures, countries, historical periods. The following provide an overview of different feminist perspectives on the literature, different contextualizing strategies, and often conflicting arguments.

To be a woman and a writer is / double mischief, for / the world will
slight her who slights 'the servile house,' and who would rather / make
odes than beds. —Dilys Laing

Fiction

The story. it has been argued, is finally all that men can contrive to leave behind them. their only personal immortality. Their riches are perishable (unless they become the stuff of museums or vaults), but a man's story is his true legacy, the ghost through which we see him forever. But man is not only a speaking and a writing animal: he is unique in being a lying animal as well. His fictions are made of the same stuff as truth and if truth is stranger than fiction, fiction is sometimes truer. Thus though common sense may assert that the novel is merely a narrative form and that "creative writing" is but entertainment, we have a persistent feeling that novelists have more to tell us about life than all the psychoanalysts and sociologists. When all has been said and done, there is one more thing to say and do: write and tell stories, read and recommend and pass them on.

The books recommended here are chosen not only to entertain, but also to give a cross-section — including a fair proportion of masterworks — of a form of literature in which everyone will have his own taste. Some great books have, no doubt, been omitted (especially if they are not in English), sometimes because (as in the case of. say. Doeblin's Alexanderplatz) no reliable translation yet exists. Classics have tended to prevail over contemporary work, not least because it would have been ridiculous to leave them out. Only a Cretan would claim that all the best novels and short fictions are contained here, and Cretans, as we all know, are renowned for telling stories.

See CHILDREN'S BOOKS (Buchan, Haggard, Stevenson)

Crime Fiction and Thrillers

Crime Fiction

Colin Dexter

More people read crime and detection novels than any other form of fiction. It cuts across differences of age, culture, gender, and class, combining the fascination of crime with the reassurance of order restored, a mystery solved. It began in the 19th century with the works of Wilkie Collins and Edgar Allan Poe, and soon became a genre with many (very different) forms - such as the very English 'murder in the vicarage' of Agatha Christie, the hardboiled American writing of Hammett and Chandler, the psychological analysis of Patricia Highsmith. It can be pulp fiction, sophisticated entertainment, and (in the hands of writers such as Jorge Luis Borges and Umberto Eco) philosophical speculation. One of the best introductions to crime and detection fiction is Julian Symons's Bloody Murder (1972), a history of the genre. The following list includes representative works from each of the main genres ('whodunnit', 'whydunnit', 'howdunnit', 'thriller', 'spy story', 'historical reconstruction').

Tremendous enjoyment underlies the superficially tragic subject-matter of most crime fiction. —Diogenes Small

Novels

See CHILDREN'S BOOKS (Tolkien, White, Williamson); HUMOUR (Chevalier, Dennis, Frayn, Jerome, Loos, Petronius, Queneau, Smith, Tinniswood, Twain, De Vries, Westlake, Wodehouse); MYTHOLOGY (Mitchison): SEX (Cleland, Genet, Haddon, Laclos, Miller, Nin, Reage, Sade, Southern)

English Literature: Introduction

Brenda Richardson

What are the defining boundaries of English literature? Can we use Milton's assertion to distinguish 'literature' from 'writing', suggesting that 'literature' contains some essence of the writer, 'treasured up on purpose' for the use of posterity? Even if we do there remains the problem of defining 'English'. Is it a matter of location or language? Simply to define English literature as British literature in English is too arbitrary. Should Northern Irish or all Anglo-Irish writing be included? Is literature writ-ten in English in Wales or Scotland part of a Wales-wide or Scotland-wide Welsh or Scottish literature regardless of medium? If we include the work of resident black or Asian writers in English are we denying their distinctiveness or recognizing their Britishness? What is English? Are dialect or patois poems in English? I would like to include all interesting writing in English in Britain or Ireland under this heading, but readers will find that many of the books suggested are more conservative.

A good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit: embalmed
and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.
JOHN MILTON The Oxford Companion to English Literature (1985) edited by Margaret Drabble. A comprehensive guide to facts and dates, with good cross- referencing. The Oxford Literary Guide to the British Isles (1977) edited by Dorothy Eagle and Hilary Carnell. English literature from the other end: look up Dorchester and find out about its literary connections beyond Thomas Hardy. The Oxford Book of Literary Anecdotes (1975) edited by James Sutherland. A rich mine of bits and pieces of literary information and sidelights on literary figures, giving a flavour of literary life in different ages, in different regions, for both sexes and all classes.
Literary Theory: An Introduction (1983) by Terry Eagleton. Lucid, entertaining, comprehensive, a good way in to the sophisticated way of talking about literature in the 1990s. A History of English Literature: Forms and Kinds from the Middle Ages to the Present Day (1987) by Alistair Fowler. The most accessible of the current one-volume histories: clear and concise but rather conservative in its scope. The Short Oxford History of English Literature (1994) by Andrew Sanders. This may seem a bit stodgy but it is the history most aware of the problems of creating a canon of English literature in 1994. The result is a survey generously revisionist where women's writing is concerned, and offering pointers to the possibilities for multiculturalism in the English literature of recent decades. The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (1953) edited by Angela Partington. With generous samplings of major authors and titillating glimpses of lesser-known ones, this offers a conspectus of a wide range of writing in English, literary, philosophical, and historical. The New Pelican Guide to English Literature: A Guide for Readers (1991) edited by Boris Ford. A compendious and regularly updated guide that will enable the reader to find more information about almost any aspect of the field desired.

The British Novel

Brenda Richardson

This entry involves problems of both definition and ideology. Down to about 1970 there is no perceived problem. Studies of the English novel' abound, and a selection is offered in the reading list below. But after this the scope for alternative definitions widens as Anglo-Irish novels become arguably a separate genre and practitioners of Indian or Caribbean origin reside wholly or partly in England and produce novels from their own distinctive cultural matrices. At the same time concepts of gender or racial identity become prominent, and it becomes tendentious to appropriate either feminist or Afro-Caribbean writing to a genre that is seen in some quarters as a part of Victorian and post-Victorian cultural imperialism, reinforcing gender stereotypes and imposing white, middle-class, male-centred narrative patterns. So the list also includes a couple of collections of essays which explore these problems of racial, national, and gender identity, and their relation to narrative fiction, whether or not we call the result a novel.

'Oh! it is only a novel!' replies the young lady:... 'It is only Cecilia, or Camilla or
Belinda' or in short, only some work in which the most thorough knowledge of
human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit
and humour are conveyed to the world in the best chosen language.
JANE AUSTEN

The Rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson and Fielding (1957) by Ian Watt. The classic study of the origins of the novel conceived as a product of middle-class economic individualism. The English Novel: Form and Function (1953) by Dorothy Van Ghent. Contains a mixture of studies in the interpretation of a wide range of individual works and studies of problems of form. The Rhetoric of Fiction (1983) by Wayne C Booth. A classic American study dealing with British and other fiction. Here we see the rise of literary theory: concepts of the meaning of form, the importance of point of view, of reader-theory. Mothers of the Novel: 100 Good Women Writers before Jane Austen (1986) by Dale Spender. A corrective to Ian Watt and other less carefully nuanced versions of the great male line of English novelists from Defoe to Dickens and Conrad. Dare a feminist say that the definition of 'good' may seem to need a bit of stretching? The Modern British Novel (1993) by Malcolm Bradbury. All studies date quickly at the recent end of their period. This very new and comprehensive book covers the wide range of subgenres and cultural subsets into which the novel tradition may be seen to have fragmented as well as doing a good job on the 'mainstreams'. The Bloomsbury Guide to English Literature: The Novel: A Guide to the Novel from its Origins to the Present Day (1993) edited by Andrew Michael Roberts. A work of reference in which authors, genres, and technical terms can alike be checked.
Reading Women: Essays in Feminist Criticism (1986) by Mary Jacobus. This collection has a European and international focus, indicating this aspect as well as the gender aspect of the shifting focus of literary and especially novelistic criticism in Britain. Nation and Narration (1990) edited by H K Bhabha. Essays on various aspects of cultural identity and cultural imperialism, some more and some less relevant to the particular matter of the British novel, but indicating by its very existence the way in which the study of the novel has been problematized and politicized in the present decade.

English Prose

Brenda Richardson

The selection, it will be seen, contains no identified writer more recent than Lytton Strachey, though the letters and diaries come down well into the present century. Where more formal writing is concerned the defining examples do belong in earlier periods. Nonfictional prose is not one genre but many. There are essays, biographies, history, criticism, topography, humour, satire, pastoral, some separable, some not or barely so. The examples are chosen partly for style, partly for content, partly to give a taste of different periods and different contexts. The pleasures_are many and diverse, and virtually impossible to summarize.
Prose can never be too truthful or too wise.
WILI.IA vi WATSON Essays (1597-1625; several recent editions) by Francis Bacon. Like Hamlet they turn out to be full of quotations! They also provide a good sense of what life was like under Elizabeth I and James I and an illustration of the terse and plain style of writing. The Compleat Angler (1653; several recent editions) by Izaak Walton. A favourite of mine, and a lovely example of a very minor genre, the pastoral idyll in English. Should you wish to cook pike, it can also serve as a recipe book! Selections from the Tatler and Spectator (1988) edited by Angus Ross. 18th-century fashionable journalism, well selected, and offering a range of interests to do with both the style and diction and the content. Addison, Joseph and Richard Steele, English and Irish-English, 1672-1719 and 1672-1729. Spectator. Rec: Bloom Lubbock The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne (1789; several recent editions) by Gilbert White. An evocation of rural life and an example of scientific and descriptive and yet eminently readable prose. Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790; several recent editions) by Edmund Burke. An elegiac celebration of traditional aristocratic society incorporated in vigorous counter-revolutionary propaganda. The Life of Charlotte Bronte (1857; several recent editions) by Elizabeth Gaskell. The life of a woman by a woman from a very paternalistic age. It offers social history and detail of the distinctive character of the West Riding of Yorkshire, as well as chronicling Bronte's struggle to achieve self-expression and self-fulfilment. Studies in the History of the Renaissance (1873) by Walter Pater. Romantically impressionistic essays in art history which encouraged subjective responses to beauty. Eminent Victorians (1918) by Lytton Strachey. Funny, irreverent, often desperately unfair, these studies offer a debunking, ironic corrective to uncritical treatments of Victorian piety and heroism. The Englishwoman's Diary: An Anthology (1992) edited by Harriet Blodgett. A wide-ranging sampling of the regional, domestic, and personal writing which is characteristic of the female writer and fills in the blanks around the public life featured in the formal essays of London male culture.
The Oxford Book of Letters (1995) edited by Frank and Alice Kermode. An anthology stretching from the 16th to the 20th century, offering an insight into the life of different periods and the function of the letter in each.

The 18th-Century British Novel

Chris Murray

It was during the 18th century that the prose tale underwent the subtle and profound transformation into the novel, for many the supreme literary form of the modern world. Its origins were modest. Though novels were soon to acquire the social graces of the drawing room, the earliest were redolent of the tavern, the brothel, and the debtors' prison, their language spiced with the racy vernacular of pimps, harlots, drunks, thugs, cardsharps, cutthroats, penniless fops, corrupt politicians, and scheming lawyers. In other words, early novels (strongly influenced by such writers as Cervantes) were essentially picaresques, a form for which the burgeoning ranks of the urban middle classes had a huge appetite. Young heroes and heroines, beset by seemingly endless series of farcical trials and tribulations, finally, often by a totally unexpected twist of fate, achieve wealth and happiness. The following includes a few precursors of the true novel.
The novel is practically a Protestant form of art; it is a product
of the free mind, of the autonomous individual
GEORGE ORWELL Oroonoko (about 1688) by Aphra Behn. A remarkable woman whose eventful life included working as a spy for Charles II, a spell in a debtors' prison, and a busy career as a translator, dramatist, and novelist - she was probably the first Englishwoman to earn her living by writing. A long prose romance influenced by continental writers, Oroonoko, with its attack on the slave trade, anticipates the much later concept of the 'noble savage'.
Behn, Aphra, English, 1640-1689. Oroonoko. Rec: Smiley "The Fair Jilt". Rec: Smiley Robinson Crusoe (1719) by Daniel Defoe. Tradesman turned literary jack of all trades and polemicist who was thrown into prison several times, Defoe, freely combining fiction and fact, brought a new imaginative scope and vigour to storytelling. Robinson is his masterpiece, though his vividness of characterization, sure sense of everyday reality, and his narrative drive make Moll Flanders (1722) and The journal of the Plague Year (1722) highly readable. Gulliver's Travels (1726) by Jonathan Swift. Not a novel, quite, but a bitter, and at times obscene, satire in prose (the satires of John Dryden and Alexander Pope had set a very high standard in verse). By curious irony that might well have given its author a good deal of sardonic pleasure, Gulliver's Travels became a children's classic (parts of it, at least). Pamela: Or Virtue Rewarded (1740-42) by Samuel Richardson. Generally considered to be the first English novel. Told in a long, long series of letters, it recounts the seduction of a young woman who, virtuous and true, brings about the moral transformation of her vile seducer, though both of them die in the process. A successful printer by trade, Richardson had a shrewd sense of what people wanted: a good story that ended with 'an useful moral'. His sensitivity to the psychology of his characters had a huge impact on the development of the novel, and in his lifetime he was feted throughout Europe: Dr Johnson as well as the French philosopher Rousseau wept for Pamela. Tom Jones (1749) by Henry Fielding. A long picaresque romp through 18th-century England, probably the greatest novel of its age. Fielding detested what he regarded as the prissy and hypocritical morality of Richardson (he wrote a parody called Shame), and his own novels combine a shrewd intelligence and an earthy frankness about human nature (the character Tom Jones is far from being a model of snowy- white virtue). His work as a dramatist gave his novels a sureness of structure absent in many works of the period. Essential reading. The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker (1771) by Tobias Smollett. An account of a family on their travels through England and Scotland, told in a series of letters by each member of the family, this is probably Smollett's finest work. Smollett hasn't Fielding's sense of form, but the countless comic escapades of his vividly drawn characters show him to be ceaselessly inventive, his satire on human folly relentless, though just a little mellower here than in earlier works.
The Vicar of Wakefield (1766) by Oliver Goldsmith. A vicar and his family fall on hard times: he loses his position and is finally thrown into debtors' prison, his daughter elopes with a scoundrel. But it all turns out happily in the end. A neglected work (a little tame perhaps after Fielding and Smollett) which deserves more attention. The German poet Goethe, who dubbed it a 'prose idyll', was deeply moved. The Life and Opinions of Tristam Shandy (1760) by Laurence Sterne. A unique work, this is one of the strangest books of the century. To use modern jargon, it 'deconstructs' the novel form, and far more amusingly than many 20th-century attempts. It has long mock-philosophical authorial asides, blank pages, a few squiggles to illustrate the rambling and inconsequential narrative, a mixture of styles high and (very) low, including stream-of-consciousness, and a gallery of colourful eccentrics - like one of its more recent relatives, James Joyce's Ulysses, it is either a sheer delight or an insufferable irritation. Despite its oddity it was extremely popular in his own day. The Castle of Otranto (1764) by Horace Walpole. This is another queer fish. Disdaining the 'vulgar' realistic novels of his day, Walpole turned to medieval stories of chivalry and high romance. The result was a surrealistic novel of the supernatural - statues that bleed, ghosts, a giant helmet that falls from the sky killing a man, murder, rattling chains, and ruined castles. A rejection of the down-to-earth good sense of much 18th-century fiction, The Castle of Otranto, the first 'Gothic novel', is one of the earliest expressions of Romanticism and the ancestor of the modern horror novel.

The 19th-Century British Novel

Roz Kaveney

There is a tendency on the part of critics of the novel to talk as if Romanticism was something that only happened in poetry, or abroad. In fact, the 19th-century British novel crucially concerns itself with key issues of Romanticism - the conflict between the individual striving to be entirely themselves and the community that has rights and in which the individual has to some extent to live. Often this conflict is posed in terms of a struggle between shadow selves or with a landscape; often also multiple narrative strands make possible the exploration of more than one point of view, more than one possible way of existing.
Dead, your Majesty. Dead, my lords and gentlemen. Dead, Right Reverends and
Wrong Reverends of every order. Dead, men and women, born with Heavenly
Compassion in your hearts. And dying thus around us every day.
CHARLES DICKENS Emma (1816) by Jane Austen. Has the poise and elegant malice that we expect of Austen, but is surprisingly perceptive about the dangers of intelligence and talent. Emma makes mischief and manipulates almost everybody around her; she has a novelist's instincts and puts them to work in real life. The Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824) by James Hogg. Brilliantly originates a whole school of psychological horror stories. Its hero, persuaded of his elect status as one of the saved, comes to believe he can dispose of everyone in his way and serve God thereby; is his companion and adviser a delusion, the incognito Russian tsar, or the Prince of Lies? A Christmas Carol (1843) by Charles Dickens. A moral lecture on charity that escapes mere preachiness because of the fertility of Dickens' fantastic imagination. It denounces not only miserliness and politics which stifles humanity in the affluent by denying it to an underclass; in the process, it crystallizes the manners of a particular time as the authentic way of celebrating Christmas. Mythopoeia is an underrated function of the novel and the tale. Vanity Fair (1847) by William Makepeace Thackeray. Has a heart of unforgiving flint beneath the flip cynicism and sentimentality of its surface. Thackeray does not let even his virtuous characters get away with anything - by the time worthy Dobbin wins the widowed, dim Amelia, he has seen how little she is worth. Becky Sharp starts with our sympathy - she has, after all, her way to make in a cruel world - but forfeits it by gratuitous acts of petty cruelty. Wuthering Heights (1847) by Emily Bronte. The most Romantic of great British novels, with its blasted landscapes and hopeless love. Based as it is on some crudely conceived dualisms like the opposition of calm and storm in the make-up of its characters, there is considerable subtlety in its execution; the distanced narrative turns up the heat on the emotional material by pretending to recollect it in tranquillity.
Bleak House (1852-53) by Charles Dickens. Perhaps his most comprehensive denunciation of a society in which the letter of the law is allowed to kill the spirit. The Chancery case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce becomes indistinguishable from the London fog; spontaneous combustion, smallpox, madness, and murder strike indiscriminately and the orphan Esther, the illiterate crossing sweeper Jo, and the snobbish Lady Deadlock have more to do with each other than we can imagine. The Ring and the Book (1869) by Robert Browning. A great poem now most usefully read as if a novel; verse is its means of expression, rather than its soul. A classic Roman murder case is retold time after time from different viewpoints, becoming a meditation on truth and how truth is used within a society, and a touchstone for our perception of the characters who discuss it. Daniel Deronda (1876) by George Eliot. Demonstrates that the 19th-century novel could be about ideas as well as plots and emotional extremes; the critic F R Leavis disapproved of the subplots about Zionism and music and wanted to edit it down to the story of Gwendolen Harlech, which demonstrates how little F R Leavis understood about story. The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886) by Thomas Hardy. Reminds us usefully that the England of the 19th century started off as a rural economy, but that things changed ... Turned sober after selling his wife at a fair, Henchard becomes a model of Victorian energy, but secrets will out, and the assistant he fostered becomes his rival. Hardy at his best combined a sense of society as a whole with the most complete tragic sense of the century. The Master of Ballantrae (1889) by Robert Louis Stevenson. Uses the last British civil war, the Jacobite rebellion of 1745, and its conflicts of loyalty to dramatize the clash of the two sorts of man. Observed by a narrator alienated from both, two brothers struggle for estate, wife, and ascendancy; often underrated as a children's adventure story, Stevenson's best book is endlessly inventive and emotionally subtle.

20th-Century British Fiction

Roz Kaveney

The 20th-century British novel hardly exists as a single concept - nor is this just a result of nearness in time and failures of perspective. For one thing, there was no longer any one idea of Great Britain to which to assent or dissent; a sense of marginalization was common not only to those who had been marginalized, but also to many writers whom most would see as at the centre of things as they were. Society is an antagonist in most of the good novels of the century, not a medium through which protagonists move. Exploration of technique was another crucial factor, of course, but looks less of one at century's end than it seemed in the middle; technical innovation was consistently recruited back into the mainstream so that James Joyce's Ulysses, for example, looks greater than ever, but far less radical a departure.
Yes - oh dear, yes - the novel tells a story.
E M FoRSTER The Secret Agent (1907) by Joseph Conrad. Conrad brought a European sophisticadon about motive and the political cast of mind to the British novel. This tale about the domesticity of the suburbs, the idiot games of high politics, and the tragedy of the mundane was a farsighted view of how the century was going to work. at also characterizes, perhaps, the 20th-century British novel is a sense of the weirdness of life which derives from Dickens and makes for real quirkiness; if the British novel of the second half of the century is for the most part distinctly minor, it is because there are in it so many goodish writers who wrote strange books. The Good Soldier (1915) by Ford Madox Ford. This is, as the book's opening tells us, the saddest story ever told, largely because its quite trivial story of adultery, deceit, suicide, and madness is made to stand for a whole dying world of middle-class security. What seemed sensible arrangements had bad faith at the roots and destroyed everyone - the narrator gradually !cams all that had been kept from him: Ford finished the book, and then went off to the war that the book never mentions, directly. Mrs Dalloway (1925) by Virginia Woolf. Woolf despised Joyce's work for its grubby realism, but successfully appropriated the stream of consciousness in several of her books. Clarissa Dalloway is a social parasite, but she has a set of tasks to get through in a day and becomes admirable for doing them in spite of the endless distractions of her thoughts and senses. This is a slight book in many ways, but achieves grandeur through its sense of human solidarity. Brighton Rock (1938) by Graham Greene. Greene's decision to divide his work into serious novels and 'entertainments' cost us, for the most part, a sense of him as a whole writer. This novel of gangsterism and damnation combines a nasty wit with a real sense of the complexity of quite ordinary lives; it is one of the best of thrillers because it is perhaps the best novel about criminals and their power struggles. Nemesis comes in the shape of a barmaid with a grievance and the worst horror of all is a short-play record.
Brideshead Revisited (1945) by Evelyn Waugh. This great, rich, purple convolvulus of a book was Waugh's reactionary farewell to the sweetness of life as he believed it to have been lived by a Catholic aristocracy he turned into myth as he worked. It is one of the great novels of regret partly because it is so clearly set in the imagination; it is also full of great comic moments and brilliant observation of a social climbing that was part of the artificial paradise that Waugh thought was dying. Anglo-Saxon Attitudes (1956) by Angus Wilson. If tragedy is the nonfulfilment of promise, then this is one of the best and most pregnant tragic works of the century; Wilson's sense of Englishness is quietly unhappy, and full of chickens coming home to roost. A complicated affair of intellectual fraud and misunderstanding comes back to haunt Gerald and triggers every booby trap his bad faith has created. The Fountain Overflows (1956) by Rebecca West. It is perhaps the sheer difficulty of her personality, and her longevity, that has led to the underrating of West as anovelist. This novel of an Edwardian childhood, the only completed volume of a trilogy, is one of the best descriptions of a child's fierce loyalties and incomplete under-standing of the world; the heroine's personally unreliable gallant crusader of a father is a subtly conceived feminist comment on politics as Boys' Game still worth playing. The Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) by Jean Rhys. Jean Rhys's early novels dealt with her rackety life and affairs with Ford Madox Ford and others with a slightly masochistic wit and sense of the randomness of life that makes them starkly depressing. Even more bracingly bleak, paradoxically, because of the richness of its prose is this late book, the story of a mad wife in Charlotte Bronte's lane Eyre; Rhys made Woman as Victim the subject of great prose poetry. When My Girl Comes Home (1961) and The Camberwell Beauty (1974) by V S Pritchett; both in Collected Stories (1982-
83). The novella is a form often left out of the accounting and Pritchett, probably the greatest short story writer in the language his century, wrote two great novellas and no novels of real importance. These two tales show us private worlds and the way that privacy skews a sense of the real world or of ordinary morality; they are at the same time quietly nightmarish and hysterically funny. The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman (1972) by Angela Carter. There had to be a great British surreal novel and the only odd thing about it is that it took until the 1970s. Carter's journey from rationality to a dream landscape and betrayals that leave ambiguities in the mouth is perhaps the most satisfactory fore-shadowing of our ambivalence to their legacy. Ulysses (1922) by James Joyce. Much prosecuted, much damned, much discussed, this is a novel about a day in the life of three Dubliners in 1905. The battery of technical devices - stream of consciousness, parody, abstracted musicalized dialogue - are not there to replace realism, but to enhance it; even the underlying and determining structure, the analogies between each episode and a book of the Odyssey, is a creation of limits in which the representation of the real can be pressurized. It is the most universal and the most particular of novels; it lets you know a time and a place and some people better than almost any other. And it includes within it a great meditation on mortality - proscribed and atheist, nonetheless Joyce is a Catholic writer. At Swim-Two-Birds (1939) by Flann O'Brien. One of the other great 20th-century novels by an Irishman, this combines a sense of shabby-genteel debauchery with end-less recursions into a world of cowboy novellas, heroic myths, and doggerel about stout_ There are few books as funny - but the underlying sense of sadness comes out time and time again in the bleak side stories. A joke is a tragedy that happened to someone else. Daniel Aaron
Daniel Aaron is the Victor S. Thomas Professor of English and American Literature and Language Emeritus at Harvard University and has recently edited The Inman Diary. He is also president of the Library of America, dedicated to preserving the works of American writers. Professor Aaron has had a lifelong interest in encouraging reading.
Most of us read promiscuously. Our response to a particular book depends a good deal on when we intersect with it and under what circumstances. In my own case, the books I was required to read usually meant less to me than those whose titles I came across in the pages of other writers or accidentally discovered on my own. Some of the books that deeply engaged me during my adolescence were "trash" to my mentors. It seems too pompous to say that any of the following books played "an important role" in my life. They were important to me for personal reasons. Edmund Wilson. Axel's Castle: A Study in the Imaginative Literature of 1870-1930 (1931). New York: W. W. Norton, 1984. (Pb) This book was very liberating. It was my first extended exposure to the symbolist movement and drew me to Yeats's later poetry, to Joyce's Ulysses. to Gertrude Stein's Three Lives, and of course to Wilson's collected reviews and essays. Eventually I read everything he wrote, and I still regard him as America's foremost modern man of letters. James Gibbons Huneker. Egoists, a Book of Supermen (1909). New York: AMS Press, 1975.
. Iconoclasts. a Book of Dramatists (1905). Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1969.
. Ivory, Apes and Peacocks (1915). Philadelphia: Richard West, 1973.
. Unicorns (1917). New York: AMS Press, 1976.
I came across Huneker's essays in 1929. By that time he was considered a relic of the fin de si¨cle and was hardly referred to, but to me he was a revelation. He introduced me at a susceptible age to the "poisoned honey" of the continent, to his "soul-
wreckers." Thanks to him, I found Nietzsche, Huysmans, Strindberg, Baudelaire, Flaubert. He was more enthusiastic than critical, but I read him at the right time. George Henry Borrow. Lavengro. 3 vols. London: J. Murray, 1851.
I read this novel, a fictionalized autobiography, in my late teens. It tells of a young wanderer-scholar who has mastered the Romany tongue and is befriended by a company of English gypsies. Borrow's racy earthy style and amusing irreverence appealed to me very much. His fascination with languages ("Lavengro" is the gypsy word for "philology") matched my own. Kenneth Burke. Permanence and Change (1935). Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill. 1965.
Almost more than any work I can think of, this one helped me to clarify the relation between literature and society, criticism and life. Through Burke I discovered Thorstein Veblen. His discussions of "perspectives by incongruity" and "symbolic action" made me see the uses of history, psychology, sociology, and philosophy in the interpretation of literature. Thereafter Burke became for me our American Coleridge. Stendhal [Marie Henri Beyle]. The Red and the Black (1830). Lloyd C. Parks, trans. New York: New American Library, 1970. (Pb)
I suppose this is my favorite novel along with Anna Karenina. I've read it more times than any other novel for reasons never exactly clear to me except that I take undiminished delight in its wit, audacity and stylistic brilliance and its psychological insights. To me, at least, the novel has the perfect plot. John Kenneth Galbraith
John Kenneth Galbraith is the Paul M. Walburg Professor of Economics Emeritus. Galbraith has enjoyed a celebrated life of teaching, public service, writing and thinking. President Truman awarded him the Medal of Freedom. He served as President Kennedy's ambassador to India from 1961 to 1963. A former editor of Fortune magazine. he has written many books including The Affluent Society, The New Industrial State and The Age of Uncertainty. His friends say he can frequently be found striding the streets of Cambridge, on his way to the pool.
I do not urge economics: others will do that. Instead I urge the enjoyments and enlightenment to which the well-seasoned economist and citizen of the future are entitled and which have brought both pleasure and reward to me in the past. Anthony Trollope.
Barchester Towers (1857). New York: Penguin, 1983. (Pb) The Last Chronicles of Barset (1867). New York: Penguin, 1981. (Pb)
The Warden (1855). New York: Penguin, 1984. (Pb) Evelyn Waugh.
Decline and Fall (1928). Boston: Little, Brown, 1977. (Pb) Scoop (1938). Boston: Little, Brown, 1977. (Pb) W. Somerset Maugham.
Of Human Bondage (1915). New York: Penguin, 1978. (Pb)
Christmas Holiday (1939). New York: Penguin, 1977. (Pb) Ring Lardner. Gullible's Travels (1917). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965.
Ernest Hemingway. A Farewell to Arms (1929). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1982. (Pb)
Norman Mailer. The Naked and the Dead (1948). New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1980. (Pb) Paul Scott. The Raj Quartet.
The Jewel in the Crown (1966). New York: Avon, 1979. (Pb)
The Day of the Scorpion (1968). New York: Avon, 1979. (Pb)
The Towers of Silence (1971). New York: Avon, 1979. (Pb) The Division of the Spoils (1975). New York: Avon, 1979. (Pb) Robertson Davies. The Deptford Trilogy. (Pb)
Fifth Business (1970). New York: Penguin, 1977. (Pb) The Manticore (1972). New York: Penguin, 1977. (Pb) World of Wonders (1975). New York: Viking, 1977. (Pb)

Richard J. Herrenstein

R. J. Herrenstein is the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, where he has primarily done research on human and animal motivational and learning processes. His books include Psychology, I.Q. in the Meritocracy and Crime and Human Nature.
These books were important to me — at a particular time and a particular point in my life. They may not be suitable for other times or other people. Leo Tolstoy. War and Peace (1865-69). Louise Maude and Aylmer Maude, trans. George Gibian, ed. New York: W. W. Norton, 1966.
First read when I was about seventeen. Probably the first "great book" I truly enjoyed. It shaped certain views about history. Charles Darwin. The Origin of Species (1859). New York: Penguin, 1982. (Pb)
Important for the obvious reason, plus my own fascination with the way it dealt with the subject of instinct. John Steinbeck. The Grapes of Wrath (1939). New York: Penguin, 1976. (Pb)
I doubt that this would have the impact now that it did when I read it in the 1940s sometime, but it filled me then with a sense of outrage over social and economic injustice. Franz Kafka. The Castle (1926). Willa Muir and Edwin Muir, trans. New York: Random House, 1974. (Pb)
. The Trial (1937). Willa Muir and Edwin Muir, trans. New York: Penguin, 1953. (Pb)
. Amerika (1938). Edwin Muir, trans. New York: New Directions, 1946. (Pb)
These, too, have lost their punch for me, but at the time I read them, they captured the lunacy and futility of individuals struggling with bureaucracies. Winston S. Churchill. The Second World War (1948-53). 6 vols. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1983,
This account — especially the early volumes — counteracted to some extent Tolstoy's view of history. John B. Bury. The Idea of Progress: An Inquiry into Its Origin and Growth (1920). Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1982.
Edmund Wilson. To the Finland Station (1940). New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1972. (Pb)
Wonderful books that tell a good story, and that set a standard for writing on intellectual history. Matina Homer
Matina Horner has been president of Radcliffe College since 1972. Prior to assuming that position, she taught in Harvard's Department of Psychology and Social Relations. In addition to her leadership responsibilities as a college president, she teaches as an associate professor. One of her continuing research interests is the psychology of women.
This is a very tough question — to consider books that have shaped my thinking. I guess the first would have to be the collected works of Emily Dickinson, which I began to read in junior high school.
Emily Dickinson. The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson (mid-nineteenth century). Thomas H. Johnson, ed. Boston: Little, Brown, 1960.
It was the complete poems of Emily Dickinson that made a difference, rather than any one poem, except perhaps for the one that begins "I dwell in possibility." The idea of focusing on possibilities is important to me and I often return to the poem to make this and other points. Pearl S. Buck. The Good Earth (1931). New York: Washington Square Press, 1983. (Pb)
During a recent trip to China, I was reminded of another book from my younger days that also made a lasting impression on me, Pearl Buck's The Good Earth, It had a very strong impact on me then which has persisted. Its powerful presentation of some basic cultural differences was a valuable way to be introduced to the importance of seeing and respecting different cultures and values, of accepting cultural differences and of acknowledging the value of other perspectives. Now, back from China, I am tempted to reread it. Sojourner [Olive Gilbert] Truth. Narrative of Sojourner Truth (1878). Salem, N.1-I.: Ayer, 1968.
Later on, Sojourner Truth's autobiography also made a lasting impression on me. I first read it during the 1960s — as we were beginning to think about women's roles in new ways and feminist views and ideas were being publicly debated. My thinking on these issues began within the supportive environment of a college where expectations for and about women were very high. Sojourner Truth's compelling phrase, "and ain't I a woman," which she used after each description of an activity she did that challenged basic assumptions about women's strength and skills, powerfully captured for me the kind of change being sought in expectations about women, then and now. Sigmund Freud. The Interpretation of Dreams (1900). New York: Avon, 1980. (Pb)
Edward C. Tolman. Purposive Behavior in Animals and Man (1967). New York: Irvington, 1967.
Professionally, Freud's collected works, especially his Interpretation of Dreams, the first of his works that I read, and Tolman's Purposive Behavior in Animals and Man, were very important to the development of my thinking. Both challenged previous assumptions about human and animal motivation and behavior. Freud's depiction of the role of unconscious instincts and impulses in human behavior and Tolman's convincing examples of the ability of animals to learn "what leads to what" and thus to "think" were critical not only to my thinking but to the history of psychology. Dr. Seuss [Theodor Seuss Geisel]. The Sneetches, and Other Stories. New York: Random House, 1961.
I can't resist including Dr. Seuss's Sneetches, that wonderful children's book that powerfully shows the foolishness of our basic need or tendency to divide ourselves into "we" and "they" and our inability to grasp our fundamental interdependence. Not only have I enjoyed reading it to my children but I have used it in college classes to make some key points. Elizabeth McKinsey
Elizabeth McKinsey is both an associate professor of English and American literature at Harvard and the director of the Mary Ingraham Bunting Institute at Radcliffe College. She is the author of The Western Experiment: New England Transcendentalists in the Ohio Valley and Niagara Falls: Icon of the American Sublime.
Central to American literature, all these books enrich our understanding of our cultural and psychic heritage — our myths, assumptions, preoccupations and conflicts. By broadening our historic imagination and sympathy, they can help us face squarely the issues of human and political relations — between the sexes, among racial and ethnic groups, and among nations — that will continue to be critical as we move into the twenty-first century. Perry Miller, ed. Margaret Fuller: American Romantic. A Selection from Her Writing and Correspondence (1963). Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith, Pubs., 1969.
When I first read Margaret Fuller (transcendentalist; friend of Emerson, Thoreau, and Hawthorne: one of this country's first and most accomplished literary critics) in college, I kept coming back to her. It took several years to realize why: a brilliant, powerful, passionate, sensitive person, she embodied the split between intellect and femininity that I had been socialized to feel. As a powerful expressive spirit, her works provide both a window on nineteenth-century American culture and a mirror of our own attitudes toward gender, society and achievement. Herman Melville. Moby Dick (1851). Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983. (Pb)
Unquestionably the "biggest" book in American literature, Moby Dick wrestles with all the huge metaphysical questions — religious, epistemological, ontological, aesthetic — at the same time that it depicts in minute detail the U.S. whaling industry and through it examines questions of democracy and leadership. All its layers of meaning cohere in Melville's powerfully written masterpiece. Mark Twain. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884). New York: Harper & Row, 1984. (Pb)
When Hemingway contended that all modern literature began with Huck Finn, he was thinking of its vernacular language, its antiromantic realism and episodic structure. The language is wonderful — and funny — and very evocative historically. Perhaps I especially like this one because I'm from Missouri. William Faulkner. Absalom! Absalom! (1936). New York: Random House, 1972. (Pb)
Faulkner is arguably our greatest American writer, and this is his magnum opus. The saga of Sutpen and his family, and Quentin Compson's attempt to come to terms with it, embody all the tensions in Southern and indeed American history — race, sex, regionalism, the individual and community, etc. — as well as basic epistemological questions. A powerful, epic work. Eudora Welty. Thirteen Stories. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1965. (Pb)
These perfect gems evoke a particular Southern rural culture — the "sense of place" that Welty has said is so important to her work — at the same time that they reveal mythic, universal human themes and longings. Welty's mastery of language, storytelling, power and form is infused with an extraordinary warmth and humor. Here is a shrewd and realistic but affirmative vision. Zora Neale Hurston. Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937). Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978.
Janice's self-knowledge, tenacity and humor, as well as her story, make her one of the more memorable characters in American fiction. A window on a very particular time and place and social segment of American culture — the rural black South in the 1920s and 1930s — Their Eyes is also beautifully written. In its zest for life and love and its iconoclasm it is an earlier version of (and direct source for) Alice Walker's The Color Purple.

American Literature: Introduction

Malcolm Bradbury

American literature really emerged from the sheer novelty of the New World. The wonders of landscape, the vast tracts of the continent, the ancient settlements, civilizations, and myths that were mistakenly thought of as 'Indian', the mythological expectations that were then brought over the Atlantic by settlers from Europe, and the new lives and experiences they encountered - all these combined to make the narratives told on the continent very different from those elsewhere. Then, in the 20th century, America became a world emblem of the spirit of modernity itself, and this too became part of the great American myth. American writing became dominant. American writers became world-famous, and American stories and narratives became pan of the experience of people right across the globe. Though the phrase 'American literature' generally applies to the writings of the USA, it could and should, in these multicultural times, fairly include the 'other' American literatures. That means Canadian and Latin American literature, Native American literature, and African-American literature. Here is a list of some of the most useful, informative, and classic general studies.
Two bodies of modern literature seem to me to come to the real verge: the Russian
and the American ... The furtherest frenzies of French modernism or futurism have
not yet reached the pitch of extreme consciousness that Poe, Melville, Hawthorne,
Whitman reached. The Europeans were all trying to be extreme. The great
Americans I mentioned just were it.
D H LAWRENCE The Literature of the United States (1954) by Marcus Cunliffe. A straightforward and excellently told narrative history for the general reader, with a strong sense of the historical importance of American experience and culture, written for Penguin books by a leading British historian and critic. The Continuity of American Poetry (1961) by Roy Harvey. Pearce Outstanding analysis of the development of American verse from the Puritan poets through to the era of Wallace Stevens, Ezra Pound, and the 'Beat' movement. Frontier: American Literature and the American West (1965) by Edwin Fussell. A powerful study reminding us how central the American West was to the formation of the classic American literary imagination.
Modern Latin American Literature (1973) by D P Gallagher. A fine general survey of literature in Latin America, with special emphasis on the writers of the 20th century, when Latin American writing was seen to be of world importance. A Homemade World: The American Modernist Writers (1975) by Hugh Kenner. A lively and idiosyncratic portrait of the power of the Modern movement in American literature, including the work of Gertrude Stein, Pound, Stevens, Faulkner, and Hemingway, by an enthusiastic and deeply informed American critic. Harvard Guide to Contemporary American Writing (1979) edited by Daniel Hoffman. Essays by leading critics on American literature from the end of World War II to the end of the 1970s, showing the wide variety of trends and movements in fiction, poetry, and drama. The Cambridge Handbook of American Literature (1986) by Jack Salzman. An invaluable reference work on American literature, with detailed and informative entries. Columbia Literary History of the United States (1988) edited by Emory Elliott. A collection of modem and up-to-date essays by many expert contributors, following the history of American literature from the prehistoric cave narratives to the literary trends and movements of the present. Literature in America: An Illustrated History (1989) by Peter Conn. A lively and learned history of American literature from early days to the present, told in narrative form, with good social background and plentiful illustrations. From Puritanism to Postmodernism: A History of American Literature (1991) by Richard Ruland and Malcolm Bradbury. An up-to-date narrative history, in Penguin paperback, of American literature from the 17th century to the immediate present, co-written by an American and a British critic. Including detailed study of many major texts, it shows the ways American literature has always been seen as distinctively 'modem', and also sees it in the context of world literature.

The American Novel

Malcolm Bradbury

Though the novel started off late in America (the Puritans disapproved of it), it began to flourish after the American Revolution, and became one of the most powerful forms of American narrative. To this day its nature seems shaped by its early subject matter: the encounter with nature, the wilderness, and the vast scale of the American continent; the meeting of cultures and races; the ever-shifting nature of society and civilization; the Gothic strangeness of American experience. In the 19th century, writers like James Fenimore Cooper, Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, and Nathaniel Hawthorne established the distinctive flavour of American fiction. Henry James, Mark Twain, Stephen Crane, Theodore Dreiser, and Edith Wharton followed. By the 20th century, the American novel was to enter a major period, and play a dominant part in the future of fiction, under the influence of Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, John Dos Passos, and many more. Today, among the novelists who have won the Nobel Prize for Literature, the dominant number are Americans, and include Saul Bellow and Toni Morrison. These are some of the basic studies dealing with the history and development of American fiction.
Between the novel and America there are peculiar and intimate connections.
A new literary form and a new society, their beginnings coincide with the
beginnings of the modern era and, indeed, help to define it. We are living not
only in the Age of America but also in the Age of the Novel, at a moment
when the literature of a country without a first-rate epic or a memorable verse
tragedy has become the model of half the world.
LESLIE FIEDLER The American Novel and Its Tradition (1957) by Richard Chase. This is a classic study, establishing the difference between the traditions of the European 'novel' and the American 'romance', and giving some excellent readings of major authors from Cooper through to Faulkner.
Love and Death in the American Novel (1960) by Leslie Fiedler. Brilliant, very thorough study of the rise and development of the novel in North America, from its beginnings after the Revolution through to the period after World War H. It distils the distinctive themes and 'Gothic' qualities that made it so different from European writing.
On Native Grounds: A Study of American Prose Literature from 1890 to the Present (1942) by Alfred Kazin. This is another classic (and very influential) study, a little dated now, looking at the development of the realistic and social aspects of American fiction and its treatment of American life 'on native grounds'. Radical Innocence: Studies in the Contemporary American Novel (1971) by Ihab Hassan. An important, analytical interpretation of the development of American fiction after World War II, emphasizing its concern with innocence and extremity, and its sense of experiment. By a noted critic. City of Words: American Fiction 1935-1970 (1971) by Tony Tanner. A wonderful study of the experiments, in form and language, of American fiction in one of its most exciting and innovative periods, by a British critic who has been a major interpreter of American literature. In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens (1983) by Alice Walker. This strongly personal book - by the author of The Color Purple - emphasizes and explores her double inheritance, black and female, as a novelist, and shows the importance of both traditions to the contemporary American novel. American Fiction, 1865-1940 (1987) by Brian Lee. A fine general survey of the overall development of American fiction by a British critic, writing with a strong sense of the social developments taking place at the time. Columbia History of the American Novel (1991) edited by Emory Elliott. A thorough, large-scale historical study of American fiction from the beginnings to the present by various experts with a contemporary standpoint. Oddfobs: Essays and Criticism (1992) by John Updike. Not all these highly read-able essays - 160 of them, by a major writer who is also a warm and wonderful critic - are about American fiction. But the many that are illuminate it with a vivid humanity and understanding. The Modern American Novel (1995) by Malcolm Bradbury. An extended survey of the American novel from the time of Henry James, Mark Twain, and William Dean Howells through to the immediate present, covering the many movements and trends - including modernism, postmodernism, 'dirty realism', and black and feminist fiction. Extensive bibliography.

The 19th-Century American Novel

Malcolm Bradbury

Nineteenth-century American fiction followed a very different course from that of the novel in Europe at the same time. The wonder of American nature, the drama of exploring and settling the great continent, and the fascination of recent American history took its writers into new and original materials. And then, between 1861 and 1865, came the Civil War, which threatened to break up the Union. American fought American in a period of national agony, changing the nature of American culture. After 1865, the USA set out on a period of massive modernization - partly helped by the industrialization the war had required. Its railroads spanned the continent, its cities rose high, and immigration multiplied. By the end of the century America was no longer a 'virgin land' but a great modem industrial power. American fiction changed to respond to these new conditions: romance and stories of history and nature gave way to a new spirit of reportage and literary naturalism. This is the story that lies behind some of the great American novels of the 19th century; here are my ten favourites - five from each half of America's divided century.
Our civilization is still in a middle stage, scarcely beast, in that it is no
longer wholly guided by instinct, scarcely human, in that it is not yet
wholly guided by reason.
THEODORE DREISER The Prairie (1827) by James Fenimore Cooper. Cooper was the first real novelist of the American wilderness, and in The Prairie he takes his famous hero of the five novels of the Leatherstocking saga, Natty Bumppo, to the flat prairies west of the Mississippi River. He's now an old man, and America is quickly expanding west, away from the New York frontier where Leatherstocking started his adventures. Again he meets Indians, and makes his final peace with nature. A classic work of the American imagination.
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (1837) by Edgar Allan Poe. This is Poe's one novel (most of his work was in short story and poetry), and shows his famous, Gothic extremity of imagination. It's about a shipboard mutiny which ends in a formidable journey to the Antarctic, and the blank whiteness of experience, and is written with all Poe's sense of poetry - and horror. The Scarlet Letter (1850) by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Set in Puritan Boston in the 1650s, this is the story of a woman, Hester Prynne, who affronts the 'iron law' of church and state by committing adultery with a minister. She is forced to wear a badge of shame, the scarlet letter A, but insists on the 'natural' law of her actions. Hawthorne called the novel a 'romance', meaning not just that it is a story of adulterous love but of the conflict between the claims of fact and imagination. Moby Dick, or The Whale (1851) by Herman Melville. Melville said he wrote this book 'in the name of the devil', and it is a classic tragedy, the story of the obsessed Captain Ahab, who, sailing on the whaler Pequod, determines to avenge himself against the 'diabolic' white whale that has injured him. The book, filled with learning and parody, is a vivid. moving seaborne adventure, but also a profound work of modern experiment. Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe. For the 19th century, this was America's most famous novel, a world best seller. Abraham Lincoln once suggested it started the Civil War. Sentimentally written, it still remains nonetheless a remarkable portrait of slave experience, portraying the cruelties and sufferings inflicted on the black slaves on the Southern plantations, and their basic humanity. The Portrait of a Lady (1881) by Henry James. It's hard to have a preference among the novels of James; not only do his novels mark the refinement of the modem art of fiction, but they change and develop decade by decade, through to the great last works of the early 20th century. But this is his fast great novel, displaying his mature art. And the story of Isabel Archer, the strong, free, young American girl come to her 'wondrous' Europe to encounter experience, and finding it grimly in her unhappy marriage to Gilbert Osmond, is one of the most remarkable character portrayals James ever achieved. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) by Mark Twain. This was the book with which, Ernest Hemingway said, all American literature began. And if James is the novelist of modern fictional artistry, Twain was the novelist of the modem vernacular voice. Huck Finn, the poor boy from Hannibal, Mississippi, who sets out on a raft down a great river with his black friend, Nigger Jim, each of them looking for freedom, tells his own story, with childish truth, innocence, and clarity. Like the river, the book seemed to take charge of Twain as he wrote it, producing his most profound as well as vivid novel. The Red Badge of Courage (1895) by Stephen Crane. This shoe novel about a young man, Henry Fleming, as he goes into battle during the American Civil War, was a tour de force. Crane was too young to have known the Civil War; he said he imagined it from the football field. at makes the book so remarkable is that it is a portrait of instantaneous consciousness. We are not concerned with why the war is fought, or how Henry got there, just with every moment of experience in the line or in flight from it. Henry wants to win his red badge of courage, and in the end he does so, in one of the great stories of initiation. McTeague, A Story of San Francisco (1899) by Frank Norris. Later filmed as Greed, Norris's remarkable story of an untrained, brutish San Francisco dentist who lives for his beer and his concertina until he falls in love with Trina, the greedy Swiss girl whom he finally murders, is a classic work of naturalism and the bete humaine, the human animal. Norris brilliantly, and fatalistically, captures the urban atmosphere of San Francisco and its ordinary lives, and contrasts it with the life in nature and the desert beyond.
Norris, Frank. American, 1870-1902. The Octopus. Rec: Bloom Sister Carrie (1900) by Theodore Dreiser. By the end of the 19th century, America was becoming an urban society, and the typical 'shock-city' was Chicago, which had turned from village to second city in 50 years, its skyscrapers, stockyards and department stores typifying modem America. Carrie Meeber, the poor girl who goes to Chicago and becomes rich by any means to hand, shocked the first readers, just as Dreiser's method - naturalism again - dismayed them by its apparent lack of morality. But Dreiser, a writer from German immigrant stock, brought raw new America to the page, and told its story unsparingly.

The 20th-Century American Novel

Malcolm Bradbury

At the start of the 20th century. American fiction was still thought of as a provincial relation of European, especially British fiction. By the 1930s the balance was changing, thanks to the emergence of novelists like Ernest Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, and Sinclair Lewis. And by the 1950s it had become clear that the American writers of the next generation - Saul Bellow, Norman Mailer, John Updike, and many more - were among the leading novelists of the world. The change came from many things: the vast development of the nation, in its industrial capacity, economic strength, and influence; the powerful energies of modernity, which changed American lives and made them seem among the most advanced in the world; the American fascination with style and personal consciousness; and eventually the emergence of America, after World War II, as a global superpower, affecting the lives and shaping the cultural experience of people right across the world. But it also came from the cultural complexity of American experience. American writers came from many places - from recent European immigrant stock, and from the established American tradition; from great sky-scraper cities and distant regions; from varied ethnic mixtures and origins. Jewish-American fiction, African- American fiction, Native American fiction, and feminist fiction all added to the cultural variety and the scale of the drama that unfolded in the American novel. With such riches, choice is almost impossible, and major omissions inevitable. But here are my ten favourite works of modem American fiction.
How does one in the novel (the novel which is a work of an and not a disguised
piece of sociology) persuade the American reader to identify that which is basic in
man beyond all differences of class, race, wealth, or formal education?
RALPH ELLISON The Custom of the Country (1913) by Edith Wharton. Wharton was very much a social novelist, who lived much of her life in Paris. Her novels possess a vigorous irony about the collapse of social relations, and none is more ironic than this. The 'custom' in question is the American habit of social self-advancement through divorce. The book's heroine, Undine Spragg, is essentially an opportunist who uses sexuality for advantage, and both succeeds and morally fails in the end. The Great Gatsby (1925) by F Scott Fitzgerald. Not all Fitzgerald's books are care-fully written, but The Great Gatsby is the masterpiece, a classic modern American novel. Jay Gatz, the poor boy who becomes rich and is known as the 'great Gatsby', still retains an American innocence amid the glitter, corruption and waste of the 1920s. His love for Daisy Buchanan leads to disaster, but it remains a version of the American dream - carefully observed by the narrator Nick Carraway. The Sound and the Fury (1929) by William Faulkner. Faulkner is the great novelist of the American South, and with this book he broke loose from the form of historical fiction to try a complex experiment with history, time, and language. The book contains four stories and several time-schemes; part of the story is indeed a tale of sound and fury, told by an 'idiot'. The book's theme is the stained, incestuous, corrupted world of the American South, and the agony of its modem survivors. Hard to read, it's worth it, as a work of cunning modernism. A Farewell to Arms (1929) by Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway had been wounded on the Italian front in World War I, and this story of Lt Frederic Henry, who is similarly wounded while serving with the Italian forces, and falls in love with the English nurse, Catherine Barkley, who looks after him, has a strong autobiographical quality. But this is a classic tragedy of wartime experience. Henry leaves the war to make a 'separate peace', and tries to create a life of his own with Catherine. But she dies in childbirth, and the sense of a universal modern tragedy pervades the book, told in Hemingway's tight, tough, economical style. Invisible Man (1952) by Ralph Ellison. One of the founding novels of African-American fiction, this work about a black man rendered invisible by his colour in the chaos and white exclusiveness of American life is a story of mental and then actual revolt. It's a serious exploration of the moral price that is paid when identity is revoked, and hence a work of great existential power. Lolita (1955) by Vladimir Nabokov. Nabokov was an emigre for most of his life, displaced from Russia by the Bolshevik Revolution. This is his one true American novel, the story of another emigre, Humbert Humbert, whose sexual taste is for 'nymphets', young girls on the cusp of puberty. The erotic aspects of the book made it sensational at the time; but it is fundamentally a myth about the supposedly 'experienced' European observing the supposedly 'innocent' America, and finding the tables constantly turned: an ironic love affair with America and with the English language, which in Nabokov's hands turns into a formidable instrument. Catch-22 (1961) by Joseph Heller. If A Farewell to Arms was the decisive war novel to emerge from World War I, Catch-22 was the book that captured for its generation the ironic and bitter implications of World War II. Set among flyers on the Italian front, it's an epic of extreme absurdity. The military machine is a system of illogical orders; so is the disaster that is being created for humanity. A work of black humour, a g eat modern comic classic, the novel also evidently applied to Heller's contemporary America, as it developed ever more absurd systems of human management and new forms of Cold War fever.
V (1963) by Thomas Pynchon. Perhaps the ultimate work of what became known at the time as 'postmodern fiction' or 'metafiction', V is the wonderfully elaborate story of a quest into history conducted in a time of late modem chaos, where no order falls into place and information is in excess of human comprehension. Herbert Stencil is engaged in a quest for a mysterious figure, V, who seems to have some significant role in the making of modem history, though her story dissolves each time it's approached. Meantime a contemporary figure, Benny Profane, is seen attempting to surf the mod-em chaos. A work of dense historical research as well as technical cunning, it's no easy read, but is of undoubted importance. Herzog (1964) by Saul Bellow. Bellow, a Jewish-American writer, has been the con-science and consciousness of much in American fiction after World War II, as was acknowledged when he won the Nobel prize in 1976. Moses Herzog, a 'suffering joker', is an intellectual who attempts to come to terms with the heritage of romantic expectation in modem life, addressing letters to the illustrious dead of modem thought; at the same time he has great trouble in living one. As in other Bellow novels, it's the mixture of high intellectual energy with superb social observation of life in modem Chicago and New York that makes this a work of formidable wit and power. Beloved (1987) by Toni Morrison. By another Nobel prizewinner, the African-American author of Song of Solomon 1977 and Tar Baby 1981. Beloved is about an escaped former slave who has killed her baby girl in the age of slavery, to protect it from being returned to the plantation, and then is haunted by its ghost in the time of freedom after the Civil War. A powerful and poetic myth, written in a lyrical prose, it is a work both of haunting realism and strange fantasy, revealing the current strength of African-American fiction.

American Prose (Nonfiction)

Ian F A Bell

While American poetry and prose have been acknowledged and celebrated as arguably the most innovative and experimental of all Western cultures (the mod-ern novel begins with Henry James, while modern poetry derives its impetus from Ezra Pound), American nonfiction has tended to remain in the shadow of these more glamorous colleagues. To leave it thus is to lose out on a remarkable body of donatively energetic writing. Founded by a declaration of opposition to British colonial rule, the American nation has found in the voices of its essayists a persistent polemical strain which maintains the world as open to debate: founded on invention, the nation has held true to a discourse of change where constructivity and alterability are the key notes. Openness, a resistance to closure, a constant interrogation of the seeming given of things - these are the hallmarks of a tradition of writing from the 18th century onwards which refuses settlement and finish of all kinds and which testifies to existence itself, both national and personal, as a process of becoming, never merely the stasis of being.
Existing likes and powers are to be treated as possibilities, as starting points, that
are absolutely necessary for any healthy development. But development involves a
point towards which as well as one from which; it involves constant movement in
a given direction. Then when the point that is for the time being the goal and end
is reached, it is in its turn but the starting-point for further reconstruction.
JOHN DEWEY The Adams-Jefferson Letters (1959) edited by Lester J Cappon. A marvellously wide-ranging discussion of politics, culture, and science between two of the leading formers of the early republic. As Ezra Pound acknowledged in the 20th century, 'nothing surpasses the evidence that CIVILISATION WAS in America, than the series of letters exchanged between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams'. Selected Writings of Emerson (1981) edited by Donald McQuade. Ralph Waldo Emerson was the major American thinker of the 19th century whose essays on just about everything not only had a profound influence upon contemporaries such as Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman, but also remained a vital imaginative resource for the cultural activities of the 20th century, ranging from the architect Frank Lloyd Wright to the poetry of the Beat Generation. Abraham Lincoln, Speeches and Letters (1993) edited by Peter Parish. Unlike the prose of Jefferson or Adams, coloured and structured by great learning, that of Lincoln is relatively untutored and stands as a wonderful example of the kind of voice always applauded in America - straight, simple, uncluttered, and direct.
The Gentle Art of Making Enemies (1890) by James McNeill Whistler. Witty, iconoclastic, and abrasive, Whistler here inaugurates Modernism in painting and diagnoses the responsibilities and fate of an in a commercial and philistine age. The Education of Henry Adams (1973) by Henry Adams. First published privately in 1906, and subtitled A Study of Twentieth-Century Multiplicity, this remarkable cojoining of genres (part history, part autobiography, and taking as its models the Confessions of St Augustine and Jean-Jacques Rousseau) attempts to work through the crisis of preparing for life in the new century•. The Theory of the Leisure Class (1970) by Thorstein Veblen. Written at the turn of the century, Veblen's brilliant analysis of America's new bourgeoisie presents an encyclopedia of the signs whereby status Was to be measured, most notably through the tokens of what he called 'conspicuous consumption'. Look at Me Now and Here I Am - Writings and Lectures 1911-45 (1967) by Gertrude Stein. 'Why don't you read the way I write?' was a question posed by this most radical of modern linguistic experimenters, and her efforts to teach new freshness and new ways of reading are more appropriately found in this diverse collection on diverse subjects than in the more familiar single-lensed projects such as The Making of Americans (1906-08) and The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas (1932). Guide to Kulchur (1938) by Ezra Pound. Analogous to the project of his epic poem The Cantos, Pound's 'Guide' offers an inflammatory curriculum for civilization at midcentury: eccentric, wise, foolish, and eclectic, his Baedeker to cultural mores achieves the true pedagogical aim of annoyance into action. Advertisements for Myself (1961) by Norman Mailer. How to be hip while not writing the Great American Novel. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968) by Tom Wolfe. How to be cool while attempting to go further.

Third World Literature: Fiction

Kadiatu Kanneh

The rubric 'Third World literature' immediately ushers in a range of difficulties. To designate the field already involves a range of political questions around the term 'Third World'. Other alternatives are 'postcolonial' or 'black'. To write an introduction to this vast field is necessarily limiting and will involve a biased and individual choice. I include here texts that allow for insights into major preoccupations of the 'field' (such as colonialism, nationalism, racial identities, feminist issues, and independence). The texts chosen have great literary and imaginative value, and can be seen as classics.
He had done nothing shameful, it was the way they had forced him to live, forced all of them to live, which was shameful. Their intrigues and hatreds and vengeful acquisitiveness had forced even simple virtues into tokens of exchange and barter.
ABDULRAZAK GURNAH Things Fall Apart (1958) by Chinua Achebe. A classic of African literatures, depicting the advent of colonialism on a Nigerian Ibo community. Its analysis of the transforming and traumatizing effects of colonialism, as well as its moving portrayal of family relationships, honour, love, and death, make it an enduring and often witty novel. Petals of Blood (1977) by Ngugi wa Thiong'o. A novel from independent Kenya, again depicting the transformation of a community. Its weaving together of lives, narratives, and histories into a geography of modem African sensibility make it an illuminating and unforgettable novel. Our Sister Killjoy (1977) by Ama Ata Aidoo. A novel which beautifully satirizes Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Set in Ghana and Europe, the novel blends narrative with poetry, confronting the choices available to African women, and dealing with histories of racism and oppression. Idu (1970) by Flora Nwapa. A novel set in Ghana and centred on the life of one woman. The narrative is about love, fertility, communal life, and joy. A Bend in the River (1979) by V S Naipaul. This novel is set in postcolonial central Africa (Zaire), written by an Indo-
Caribbean author, and narrated by an East Indian African. A fascinating evocation of Conrad's Heart of Darkness, revealing the complexities of racial and national identity, the constant insurgence of history, and the problems of cultural dialogue.
Love in the Time of Cholera (1985) by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. A novel set in Latin America using magic realist techniques. It engages with the powers of time, memory, love, and pain and uses language as a poetic tool. Translated from Spanish. The Arrivants (1973) by Edward Kamau Brathwaite. Set in Afitica, the Caribbean, Europe, and the USA, this trilogy of poetic volumes traces a modem understanding of black migrant identities. Written by a Barbadian poet, this collection of powerfully connected poems covers an imagining of black consciousness and histories to create a poem of the diaspora. Song of Lawino (1966) and Song of Ocol (1967) by Okot p'Bitek. Written by a Ugandan poet, these two long poems represent a dialogue between a traditional African woman and a man with modern, western tastes. Brilliantly witty and metaphoric poetry, pitting the values of traditional and modern Africa against each other, with female anger winning the day. Season of Migration to the North (1969) by Tayeb Salih. Translated from the Arabic, this novel, set in Sudan, Cairo, and England, presents a humorous, traumatic, and complex illustration of inter-racial sexual desire, exploring the psychopathology of colonialism and migration. Nervous Conditions (1988) by Tsitsi Dangarembga. This novel, set in Zimbabwe, discusses the effects of language loss, exile, and cultural dislocation on the body and psyche of a young African woman.

Science Fiction

Adams, Douglas, English, 1952-2001. A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Rec: Harvard Radcliffe Aldiss, Brian Hothouse (1962)
Interesting dramatization of major science fiction theme; what happens when elements that man takes for granted are turned topsy-turvy. In this case the earth's atmosphere becomes overheated and mankind has to sweat it out. Also: Billion Year Spree (history of the genre); Frankenstein Unbound; The Malacia Tapestry, etc Asimov, Isaac The Foundation Trilogy (1951)
Asimov is one of the great names in modern science fiction; his enormous output tends to slapdash chatter in later books, but here he was at full stretch. Also: Nightfall and Other Stories; The Gods Themselves; The Caves of Steel, etc. See
MATHEMATICS Ballard, J. G. The Terminal Beach (1964)
These stories, by Britain's master of SF alienation and disaster, have the clarity of obsession which is more diluted in his other work. Also: The Atrocity Exhibition; The Drowned World; Vermilion Sands, etc Ballard, J. G., English, 1930- . The Unlimited Dream Company. Rec: Burgess Bester, Alfred Tiger! Tiger! (1957)
Also known as The Stars My Destination. One of the cult books of the field. Lurid adventures and vengeance of Gully Foyle, bane of the 24th century. Ingenious, surrealist fun. Also: The Demolished Man Blish, James A Case of Conscience (1958)
Sense of morality perfectly matches SF ideas: Blish invents an alien race with no sense of good or evil and therefore considered "in a state of sin" by religious zealot, very disturbing. Also: And All the Stars a Stage; The Day after Judgement; Cities in Flight, etc Bradbury, Ray The Martian Chronicles (1950)
Although Bradbury's prose sometimes seems empurpled, his consistent sense of the poetry of man's search for new frontiers, both inside and outside himself, has attracted many who might not consider themselves SF readers. Also: Fahrenheit 451; The Golden Apples of the Sun; The Illustrated Man, etc Bradbury, Ray. American, 1920- . Fahrenheit 451. Rec: NYPL Clarke, Arthur C. Childhood's End (1953)
Clarke's vision of humanity eventually becoming godlike reached its ultimate in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. But Childhood's End expresses this view with even more coherence; it is remarkable for its compassion. Also: Imperial Earth; Rendezvous with Rama; Fountains of Paradise, etc. See MATHEMATICS Dick, Philip K. The Man in the High Castle ( 1962)
Beautifully organized novel postulating an alternative world in which the Axis powers won World War II. One of modern SF's great books. Also: The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch; Martian Time-slip; A Scanner Darkly, etc Clarke, Arthur C., English, 1917- . 2001: A Space Odyssey. Rec: Boston PL Crowley, John. American, 1942- . Little, Big. Rec: Bloom Aegypt. Rec: Bloom Love and Sleep. Rec: Bloom Delany, Samuel R.. American, 1942- . Babel 17. Rec: Harvard (sci fi) Dick, Philip K.. American, 1928-1982. Ubik. Rec: Time Gibson, William, Canadian, 1948- . Neuromancer. Rec: Time Harrison, Harry Make Room! Make Room! (1966)
Prolific (and variable) author's best if not funniest novel, later filmed as Soylent Green. Set in a teeming New York, where people, regardless of the pressure of space, will not stop reproducing. Also: Bill: The Galactic Hero: The Technicolor Time Machine; The Stainless Steel Rat. etc Heinlein, Robert A. Stranger in a Strange Land (1961)
Heinlein is the guru of SF conservatism, yet this book (preaching what appeared to be free-choice and free-love) was adopted by the hippies of the 1960s, even becoming a "bible" for killer Charles Manson and his family. The message, though, was much more rigorous than they thought. Also: Starship Troopers, etc Herbert, Frank Dune (1965)
Dune is a planet in a far off time and a far off system on the extreme edge of aridity — water is more precious than diamonds; an entire culture is based on water scarcity rather than on water plenty. Technically superb in its details, the book is also a masterful thriller. Heinlein, Robert. American, 1907-1988. Stranger in a Strange Land. Rec: LAT NYPL Le Guin, Ursula K. The Left Hand of Darkness (1969)
a Le Guin has a poetic sensibility; this study of a world called "Winter" and the sexual life of its inhabitants is a stunning creation. Also: The Lathe of Heaven; Planet of Exile; The Dispossessed. See CHILDREN'S BOOKS Lem, Stanislaw Solaris (1971)
a Story of a planet which is a sentient creature, capable of creating duplicates from the memories of the earth people who visit it; made into a haunting film. Also: The Cyberiad; The Invincible
Lem, Stanislaw, Polish, 1921- . The Investigation. Rec: Bloom Solaris. Rec: Bloom Good Reading Lewis, C. S. Out of the Silent Planet(1938)
One of Lewis's attempts to charge SF ideas with Christian principles. Not always liked by SF buffs, its popularity has nevertheless brought many readers into the fold (of the genre). Also: Perelandra; ThatHideous Strength. See CHILDREN'S BOOKS; RELIGION
Lindsay, David, English, 1876-1945. A Voyage to Arcturus. Rec: Bloom Miller, Walter M., Jr. A Canticle for Leibowitz (1960)
Awesome account of post-apocalypse world and the Second Coming, immaculately conceived in SF terms; postulates the Church as a repository of technological secrets from a past civilization now regarded as sacred writings. Also: Conditionally Human Moorcock, Michael The Final Programme (1968)
The "wild man" of British science fiction, claims that the apocalypse is now. One of many novels starring Moorcock's anti-hero Jerry Cornelius. Also: The English Assassin; A Cure for Cancer; Gloriana, etc Pohl, F. and Kornbluth, C. M. The Space Merchants (1953) The authors were exercised about how consumers are manipulated by conglomerates. In this novel, Venus is being carved up by advertising agents. Madison Avenue lives — out there! Also: Slave Ship; Drunkard's Walk; Gateway (all by Pohl) Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, English, 1797-1851. Frankenstein. Rec: Bloom Smiley Stapledon, Olaf Last and First Men (1930) * Stapledon had vast ideas; this account of the human species swings through millennia as though they were skittles. Also: Sirius: Odd John; Star Maker. etc Stephenson, Neal. American, 1959- . Snow Crash. Rec: Time Stoker, Bram, Irish, 1847-1912. Dracula. Rec: Bloom Harvard NYPL Smiley Tolkien, J. R. R., English, 1892-1973. The Lord of the Rings (Trilogy). Rec: Harvard Radcliffe Time The Hobbit. Rec: NYPL Van Vogt, A. E. The Voyage of the Space Beagle (1950)
Van Vogt's apocalyptic prose is easily parodied; but his ideas, as in this episodic story of a space ship threading through space, are fascinating. Also: The Weapon Shops of Isher, The World of Null-A Verne, Jules Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1864)
One of the great precursors of modern SF takes one of the great precursory themes, despatching his explorers on a trip which includes Atlantis, Iceland, prehistory and a packet of lecturing. Also: From the Earth to the Moon; 20,000 Leagues under the Sea; Around the World in Eighty Days Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr. The Sirens of Titan (1959)
Cascade of elegantly loony invention, set on more than one heavenly body. Cynical explanations for just about everything (including Stonehenge and the Great Wall of China) well-wrapped in a neat plot. Hellishly funny — Vonnegut before he was taken up by everyone and went soft. Also: Player Piano; Cat's Cradle; Slaughterhouse 5, etc Wells, H. G. The Time Machine (1895)
This marvellous story contains much of Wells' genius; science made plausible and shaped to the needs of mankind. Also: The Invisible Man; The Shape of Things to Come; The First Men in the Moon. See FICTION/NOVELS; HISTORY/WORLD Wells, H. G., English, 1866-1946. The Time Machine. Rec: NYPL Works. Rec: Rexmo Science Fiction Novels. Rec: Bloom The War of the Worlds. Rec: Radcliffe Wrede, Patricia C.. American, 1953- . Dealing with Dragons. Rec: Harvard Wyndham, John The Day of the Triffids (1951)
Through mankind's negligence — not to mention sudden world-wide blindness — large perambulating hunks of vegetation take over the British Isles. Fine example of the English Cosy Catastrophe School. Also: The Kraken Wakes; The Midwich Cuckoos; The Crysalids

Fred R. Whipple

Fred R. Whipple arrived at Harvard in 1931 "with his bright and shining Ph.D. and a position of observer at the observatory." In the ensuing fifty-five years, he has brought more than distinction to Harvard's astronomy reputation. He was responsible for the Smithsonian astrophysical observatory's coming to Harvard. The Collected Contribution of Fred R. Whipple (2 vols.) describes much of his work. The Phillips Professor of Astronomy Emeritus, he retired from teaching in the late 1970s and continues research and prolific writing. He will spend much of 1986 observing Halley's Comet from Paris, Moscow and West Germany.
When I think of books that have influenced me, I can only think of those books I selected so eagerly from the library in Red Oak, Iowa as a very young man. I was a very independent only child. I read much more than other children — I read much more than my parents, who spent most of their lives working very hard, too tired to read. Alexandre Dumas. The Count of Monte Cristo (1844-45). New York: Bantam. 1981. (Pb)
. The Three Musketeers (1844). New York: Penguin, 1982. (Pb) Sir H. Rider Haggard. She (1887). New York: Airmont, n.d. (Pb)
The first books I picked out of the library were fairy tales in all the different colors. I remember the Thousand and One Nights
— the expurgated version for a nice Presbyterian boy. After reading everything that amused me. I moved on to Greek legends. I considered them mediocre, second-rate fairy tales. It wasn't until college that I realized that Greek legends had a value far beyond fairy tales.
My next pursuit was science fiction — which continued for years. I read by author, not title. All of H. G. Wells, Edgar Allan Poe, Sir H. Rider Haggard. Everyone should remember She. Science-fiction magazines allowed me to live in another world with visual circumstances so different from mine. Hugh Germsbach's Electrical Experimenter and, later, Amazing Stories were particular favorite magazines. So was my friend Isaac Asimov's science fiction.
I perfected my French with amusing French novels. The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers stick in my mind. My parents' only suggestion to this reading were Zane Grey and Edgar A. Guest. I think I must have read them all. I found Mark Twain on my own and know I read all of his wonderful work.

Science Fiction

Brian Aldiss

Since the days of Jules Verne and H G Wells, whose books have been translated into most of the languages on Earth, science fiction has been perennially popular. Its zenith of popularity may have been reached in the 1960s and early 1970s, when investigation of alternative lifestyles was at its height. As the blithe 19th-century belief in Progress with a capital P has dwindled, so sections of science fiction have appeared to merge at least temporarily with fantasy, essentially a more conservative mode of fiction. This shift can be seen in movies, computer games, and similar, as well as in the written word. An invaluable reference work to the entire field is The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1979, revised 1993) edited by John Clute and Peter Nicholls.
Almost any novel set in the future is classifiable as science fiction. Tomorrow is the
plimsoll line between science fiction and the ordinary novel.
MARTIN SEYMOUR-SMITH
The Foundation Trilogy (1951-53) by Isaac Asimov. Despite wafer-thin characterization, this trilogy remains the most enduring of the popular SF works. Its theory of 'psychohistory', worked out against a panorama of a long galactic future, remains compelling. Later 'Foundation' novels have less to recommend them. The Drowned World (1962) by J G Ballard. This was the first of Ballard's apocalyptic novels, depicting London under flood, and a hero who finds disaster not unwelcome, in an elegant holistic prose. Published in the early 1960s, when London was under the flood of New Wave SF, The Drowned World established Ballard as a major stylist, and contained many themes to which he was later to revert. Blood Music (1985) by Greg Bear. A startling example of hard SF by a writer who rose to eminence in the mid-1980s. His central character creates microchip computers from biological material and, in smuggling them from the laboratory in his body, creates conditions in which the new intelligences overwhelm the world. A strongly poetic legend. Mission of Gravity (1954) by Hal Clement. This wonderful story, dating from the 1950s, is archetypal SF, set on a radically strange world. Human explorers, landing on the planet Mesklin, must cooperate with the local centipede-like inhabitants to effect a rescue. Mesklin is a heavy-gravity world with a rapid rotation. Physical details well worked out, characters engaging, scenery compulsive. Martian Time-Slip (1964) by Philip K Dick. Dick is a kind of model Californian SF writer, into the 1960s drug culture, mentally strange, dying fairly young. Martian Time-Slip, set on a desolate world occupied by the United Nations, contains anguishing flaws of consciousness involving several characters, including an autistic boy. As in many of Dick's excellently eccentric novels, the real and unreal are confused. Neuromancer (1984) by William Gibson. When this book appeared Gibson was hailed as the apostle of cyberpunk. Fast action accounts in part for its wide popularity, and for the young computer generation it was irresistible; all longed to negotiate Gibson's grey, nonphysical cyberspace, despite its perils. Grim but amusing. Mythago Wood (1981) by Robert Holdstock. This remarkable novel, together with its sequel, Lavondyss, forms a unique saga of great beauty and darkness, poised between fantasy and SF. A rich prose style informs a tale of an ancient English wood wherein archetypes or 'mythagoes' exist, acting out primordial roles upon those who venture into their thickets. That rare thing: new subject matter, highly metaphorical and - as the well-wrought prose reveals - deeply felt. Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus (1818) by Mary Shelley. This pro-found novel has been badly treated as mere horror by the movie industry. It is a penetrating study of pained human relationships, transfused by wonder and melancholy. Written by a young woman still in her teens, it is the first novel to employ the theme of man usurping nature by scientific means, and thus may be regarded as the first - and in many ways most famous - SF novel. Star Maker (1937) by Olaf Stapledon. Of all SF novels, this is the grandest and most austere. A human soul ventures out into the galaxy and eventually meets the Supreme Being, conjuror of universes. Philosophical in intent - Stapledon was a philosopher - Star Maker is full of poetry and wonder. Its sheer scale outclasses even Stapledon's earlier and better known Last and First Men The Time Machine (1895) by H G Wells. 'The Great General of Dreamland', as Wells styled himself, wrote many famous scientific romances, but none more grand and enduring than this, his first. The time traveller ventures into a near future, the world of Eloi and Morlocks, and then into the distant future, where the Sun has cooled and Earth is empty of all life. Evolutionary; and astronomical theories fuel a mood which is mainly of tender regret.

Horror

Roz Kaveney

The great precursors of the modern horror genre are mythopoeic novels of the 19th century, whose principal direct influence on culture was to be through Hollywood. There is a sense in which Boris Karloff's Monster or Bela Lugosi's Dracula are far more the thing conceived than any passage in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or Bram Stoker's Dracula ever manages quite to be. The genre horror fiction that came to fruition in the last two decades deals in the first place with sheer sensation and surprise; the best honor also deals, usually, in human emotion, not least, but not only, because we have been made to care who gets eaten. Horror fiction speaks to our condition, which is a worrying statement about the state we are in; there has been a tendency to underrate good writing in the genre as a way of avoiding noticing that that writing tells us some uncomfortable truths about ourselves.
Every body is a book of blood. Wherever you open us, we're red. CLNE BARKER The Collected Ghost Stories of M R James (1931) by Montague Rhodes James. A Warning to the Curious, the tide of one of the earlier collections of these tales, might serve as a useful summary for all of them; James specialized in the antiquarian back story that lends authority to his horrors. Later genre horror learned from him the art of explanation, which is not the same thing as explaining away. The Outsiders and Others (1939) by H P Lovecraft. Lovecraft is a special case, a recluse obsessed with maggoty theories of racial degeneration and class hatred, who created, most =seriously, an elaborate mythos of sinister gods and other beings to whom humanity were no more than prey. The intermittent awfulness of his overwriting should not blind us to the sheer passion of his best work and its sense of the abysses of deep time that surround our fragile lives; Jorge Luis Borges admired him. The Shining (1977) by Stephen King. King's sense of the small-town life and perpetual empathy with children are the light side of what has made him the richest horror writer in history; his empathy with men on the brink of madness, led by their own faults and a little supernatural prompting, into acts unforgivable even by themselves is what makes him, at his best, remarkable. The Shining has perhaps the best of these damned-viewpoint characters and, in the Overlook Hotel, one of the most concretely imagined Bad Places in fiction. The Land of Laughs (1980) by Jonathan Carroll. Carroil's gloomy tales of prayers answered in ways not dreamed of find their most typical example in his first ingenious book. at could be more innocent than the desire to write a biography of one's favourite children's author? The odd metamorphosis of the dead writer's fellow towns-people into the phantasmagoric creatures he based on them is surely just an illusion, not a cause for concern? And so it goes, on to hell through good intentions, to perhaps the best last-line logical plot twist in modern fiction. The Arabian Nightmare (1983) by Robert Irwin. There are few good, and many bad, books about dreams and dreamers, and Irwin's endless chamber of mirrored horrors is one of the very best. An expert on The Thousand and One Nights and author of the best study of it in English, he takes medieval Cairo and turns it into a hell of repetition from which his protagonist is trying to awake; he also, in passing, makes some elegant comments on the myth of Orientalism and the bad faith in which the West has dreamed it. The Books of Blood (1984-85) by Clive Barker. These six slim volumes of short stories kick started a whole approach to the job of tenor and disgust; they finished for ever the convention that you don't show the monster or the blood, but rely on delicate suggestions. Barker's strong visual sense dictated that fiction was a stepping stone from his paintings to his films and his novels have been disappointing; the imagery of the body and its vulnerability to distortion and destruction which pervades these books haunts the mind like a stain. Hawksmoor (1985) by Peter Ackroyd. Biographer and novelist Ackroyd wrote by far his best novel under the joint influence of James and Lovecraft, as well as of the poems of Ian Sinclair and various strange theories about the occult geography of London. An architect and occultist of the early 18th century creates towers and crypts which write the script for murders in the late 20th century; the investigating detective comes to feel merely a puppet. This is one of the most atmospheric of books about London's near East End, a gloomily splendid recreation of a real place as a malign geography. Koko (1988) by Peter Straub. A cultural obsession with serial killers and child abuse and Vietnam found one of its headier results in this dreamlike thriller from Straub, author of several of the most poetic of horror and ghost novels, but here perhaps at his best. The honor here is partly the horror of atrocity, but partly too an almost Calvinist sense of consequences - those to whom evil is done, do things in return that it is almost impossible to imagine. The Stress of Her Regard (1989) by Tim Powers. Powers is obsessed with fantasies of history, with explanations; here we learn why the Romantic poets were obsessed with mountains and vampires and why Keats and Shelley died young. His doctor hero, on the run after his wife dies horribly on their wedding night, finds out more than he wishes to know and suffers for his knowledge; his sister-in-law nemesis is dragged into madness and self mutilation and out the other side. This is an inventive book full of the shabbiness in which the horrid manifests itself. Use of Weapons (1990) by Ian M Banks. Banks, in his pseudonymous space-operatic mode, managed to combine a technical tour de force of narrative structure, a galaxy-spanning tale of intrigue and mayhem, and perhaps one of the grimmest studies of brutality and guilt in recent fiction. Some books are genre honor by endless playing with its tropes; this belongs to a list because it works so insidiously to the awful revelation at the heart of darkness. Lost Souls (1992) by Poppy Z Brite. The absence of women from this list partly reflects the boys in the dark obsessions of the genre, partly the extent to which women writers tended to be off at a tangent to genre horror, writing Gothic romances in which vampires were the ultimately good, or the ultimately dangerous, version of male sexuality. For Brite, whose interest in male subjects is so all consuming as to leave women out of her books almost altogether, vampires are cool and hip and deadly, and a threat to her nice young male lovers in peril; this is tosh, in a sense, but tosh with a generational sensibility that makes it a key text of 1990s subcultures.
S¼skind, Patrick, German, 1949- . Perfume. Rec: Harvard (horror)

Fantasy

Roz Kaveney

Strictly speaking, of course, fantasy is a term that includes both horror and science fiction in that both are ultimately non-
realistic genres whose refusal of more than surface mimesis is a conscious choice. There is a large body of work, most of it overtly generic, which falls into neither category; much of it is set in a medieval-cum-archaiccum-Oriental Fantasyland with diction to match; some of it is set in our own time and place into which incursions are made from Outside. Some of it deals with cures for the world's pain, or the reconciliation of the mundane and faerie, or with ultimate apocalypses of good versus evil - but some of it is just about people making their way in trying circumstances. As with other genre literature, any list has to include forgotten works from the mainstream that only the genre has kept alive and works which only devotees have read, to the loss of the average reader.
Fairy stories may invent monsters that fly the air or dwell in the deep, but at least
they do not try to escape from heaven or the sea.
J R R TOLx1EN Jurgen (1919) by James Branch Cabell. This almost forgotten satire on human aspiration was, in its time, both frighteningly hip and the subject of a major obscenity trial. Its mild bawdy has not dated well, but its sense of the absurd and its touches of the wildly romantic have lasted better. Jurgen, poet turns pawnbroker, searches for his lost youth, and the women of his ideals and finds neither Elysium, Hell, nor the Heaven of his grandmother remotely to his satisfaction. Lud-in-the-Mist (1926) by Hope Mirrlees. A small bourgeois town which has sat comprehensively on its dark history of mad dukes and wild rebellion find that what goes out one door will come in at another; the world of faerie finds that intervention in human affairs has its consequences in the bringing of human law. This neglected, warm, humane book is perhaps still the best fantasy of fmding balance. The Lord of the Rings (1954-55) by J R R Tolkien. The one genre fantasy that most people have actually read, this created most of the preconceptions that dominate readers and writers of fantasy. To read it again, forget all that has followed on from it, and think of it as a book about Tolkien's experiences in World War I or about the needs for limits as a creator of ethical context; it is a book of real invention, high romance, grimness, wit, and charm, and what more needs be said for anything? The Swords of Lankhmar (1968) by Fritz Leiber. There was always a pulp genre of capers and mayhem in Fantasyland, much of which can be forgotten. Leiber's template series about the sensitive barbarian hunk Fafhrd and the streetwise vain urchin Gray Mouser ran for decades, and brought wit and sophistication and irony to the whole enterprise. One of its culminations was this novel of conspiracy, urban depravity, and sword-wielding rats, which demonstrated that Leiber could not only write action adventure, he could also write sexually charged farce. A Wizard of Earthsea (1968) by Ursula K LeGuin. This first of the trilogy, later expanded into a quartet, which made LeGuin a children's cult as well as the writer of SF and fantasy for people who don't usually like that sort of thing, is still one of the most intellectually satisfying of explorations of magic. Ged, apprenticed as a wizard, tests limits and nearly destroys himself and those around him; this is a book about the getting of wisdom, and, appropriately, is itself wise. Peace (1975) by Gene Wolfe. An early novel by the trickster writer of The Book of the New Sun, this is complicatedly not what it seems. An old man muses on mortality and his family history and on stories, none of which ever quite manages to reach completion ... This is a novel, but it is also a riddle to which there are no wholly satisfactory answers; it is a book which stretches form and comprehension to breaking point without ever raising its voice or doing anything radical with prose. Little, Big (1981) by John Crowley. This and two other novels by Crowley are the only genre fantasies to make it into Harold Bloom's Canon. Little, Big, a novel where even the comma in the title is important, takes the sleeper under the hill, the conditions imposed on a lover, the animal adviser, the quest for a lost love, and the place that is bigger than it seems, and mixes them into a story of change and transfiguration, where what seemed twee becomes almost unbearably moving with a change of perspective. The Anubis Gates (1983) by Tim Powers .Brendan Doyle, a widower and Coleridge expert, this he knows about the Regency London in which he is marooned. He knows only rumours, though, about the body- jumping werewolf, the Egyptian magicians, and the malignant clown, and vivisectionist Horrabin ... Powers is remorselessly inventive here, but Doyle's predicament, and those of the lives he touches, is emotionally real even when the events surrounding it are at their most bizarre. Rats and Gargoyles (1990) by Mary Gentle. A city where anything is possible, particularly the nastier things; a city sustained by the imagination of its gods, yet constantly undermined by memories of its past incarnations - Mary Gentle took ideas from Gnosticism and elsewhere in the mystical tradition and made of them an adventure playground. Swashbuckling and metaphysics go oddly well together here - and a problem is solved according to the rules in whose language it has been set. Waking the Moon (1994) by Elizabeth Hand. We almost think we know where we are here, as crabbed old patriarchal conspirators use magic to blast out of life a feminist archaeologist and a young disciple takes up her work ... Restoring the rule of the Goddess is not a task without its own moral implications, though, and this vividly peopled book turns a lot of cliches on their head as its central characters find themselves rejecting the human consequences of things to which in abstract they might assent. Fantasy is never allegory, at its best, but it is often a device for representing, in heightened phantasmagorical form, genuine moral choices.

Romantic Fiction

Marina Oliver

Almost any novel that contains a strong love story and has a happy or optimistic ending can be described as a romantic novel. That encompasses a lot, from Jane Austen to the Brontes, the present-day short genre romance, through historical settings including fictionalized biographies and rip-roaring adventure, the popular family sagas, Aga sagas, glitz, modem problem novels, and literary prizewinners. Serious critical analysis is meagre, and what there is tends to be American. The TwentietCentury Romance and Historical Writers (third edition 1994) is the most comprehensive reference book for details of writers, lists of their books, and a critical view of each author's work.
As the world becomes increasingly ugly, callous and materialistic, it needs to be
reminded that the old fairy stories are rooted in truth, that imagination is of value,
that happy endings do, in fact, occur, and that the blue spring mist that can make
an ugly street look beautiful is just as real a thing as the street itself.
ELIZABETH GOUDGE Advances (1992) by Anita Burgh. This is a wickedly funny look at the world of publishing, by a writer with the ability to carry along her readers by the sheer power of her storytelling, whether set in the present day or past times. The Lymond Series (1961-75) by Dorothy Dunnett. Six huge books with an attractive hero and an unlikely heroine, set against a masterly, vast panorama of 16th-century Europe. These books are full of detailed knowledge, totally absorbing, intense, and brilliant. The Unknown Ajax (1959) by Georgette Heyer. The Regency novel was 'invented' by Georgette Heyer, and the deliciously frothy, eminently easy-to-read style conceals formidable research and superb technical skill. This title has a serious theme of smuggling, combined with wit, humour, and deep emotion. A Better World than This (1986) by Marie Joseph. The heroine is searching for a dream, away from the tedium of a Lancashire mill to. This heartwarming novel won the Major Award of the Romantic Novelists' Association in 1987.
The Suffolk Trilogy (1959-62) by Norah Lofts. Set, like many of her novels, in East Anglia, these books feature one house through several centuries. She can convey time and place impeccably, and her characters are intensely real. The Chatelaine (1981) by Claire Lorrimer. A family novel, set in the 1900s, it is a powerful story of a girl's early love, disillusionment, and final triumph over adversity. It is superbly plotted and compelling. Mango Walk (1981) by Rhona Martin. She won the first Georgette Heyer Prize with Gallows Wedding, a historical novel, but this is set in the 20th century, equally uncompromising and powerful, the story of an unlikely love that endures despite almost unbearable pressures. Csardas (1975) by Diane Pearson. Both editor and author, Pearson is president of the Romantic Novelists' Association. She achieved immense acclaim with this epic story of Hungary during half a century of travail. Nine Coaches Waiting (1958) by Mary Stewart. This book can be called a Gothic novel or a suspense novel, but is above all a compelling story involving hard decisions and firm values. The Native Air (1990) by Sarah Woodhouse. The author can take unlikely characters and charm her readers into utter fascination. This is the last in a trilogy set around 1800, where love eventually triumphs. The writing is delightful, almost fey, but conveys with a sure touch the sometimes bleak realities of Norfolk life.
Hong Sheng (Hung Sheng), Chinese, 1646-1704. Palace of Eternal Youth. Rec: Ward (romance)

Short Stories

See HUMOUR (Daudet, Lardner, O'Brien, Runyon): MUSIC (Wagner); MYTHOLOGY (Feldman. Gantz, Hatto, Malory, Sandars, Thomas); SEX (Boccaccio, Nefzawi) Aesop Fables (6th century Esc)
Aesop was a slave on the Greek island of Samos; either as moral metaphors or as "absurdities" his fables are unsurpassed. Aesop, Greek, 620-560 BCE. Fables. Rec: Bloom Good Reading Agnon, S. Y. The Bridal Canopy (1922)
Bleak, dark visions: purgation of emotions by pity and despair. Nonetheless, fine, springing prose. Also: Two Tales; And the Crooked Shall Be Made Straight, In the Heart of the Seas, etc Agnon, S. Y., Israeli, 1888-1970. Nobel Laureate In the Heart of the Seas. Rec: Bloom Twenty-One Stories. Rec: Bloom Akutagawa Ryunosuke, Japanese, 1892-1927. Rashomon, and Other Stories. Rec: Ward Anderson, Sherwood Winesburg. Ohio (1919)
Anderson, one-time manager of an Ohio paint factory, knew his material inside out. These 23 stories present, in straightforward, intense style, moments in the lives of inhabitants of the kind of small town in which he grew up. Also: Poor White; Death in the Woods; The Memoirs of Sherwood Anderson Anderson, Sherwood. American, 1876-1941. Winesburg, Ohio. Rec: Bloom Hungry Mind ML Novels Death in the Woods and Other Stories. Rec: Bloom Andreyev, Leonid, Russian, 1871-1919. Selected Tales. Rec: Bloom
Ansky, S., Russian writing in Yiddish, 1863-1920. The Dybbuk. Rec: Bloom
The title work, for example, evokes the mystical underpinnings of shtetl life, with its rituals of possession and exorcism.
Arreola, Juan Jose, Mexican, 1918- . Confabulario and Other Inventions. Rec: Ward Babel, Isaak Collected Stories (1957)
Babel, born in the Odessa ghetto, died in one of Stalin's concentration camps. His stories are brief and vivid, his viewpoint that of a Jew "with spectacles on his nose and autumn in his heart". Babel, Isaac Emmanuelovich, Russian, 1894-ca. 1940 . Collected Stories. Rec: Bloom Ward Barthelme, Donald. American, 1931-1989. Forty Stories. Rec: Bloom Beckett, Samuel More Pricks than Kicks (1934)
Beckett's first work of fiction consists of ten stories. Most are laboriously overwritten, as early work by important writers often is, but Dante and the Lobsteris brilliant, and there is grim humour in several of the others. See DRAMA; FICTION/NOVELS; LITERARY CRITICISM Beerbohm, Max, English, 1872-1956. Seven Men and Two Others. Rec: Bloom Bierce, Ambrose Tales of Soldiers and Civilians (1891)
Bierce disappeared into Mexico in 1913 — in search, he said, of "the good, kind darkness". Reasons for such a wish can be found here: sardonic wit barely conceals despair. Also: Can Such Things Be? Bierce, Ambrose. American, 1842-1914? . Collected Writings. Rec: Bloom Borges, Jorge Luis Fictions (1944) 9 *
Terse, teasing, sometimes intriguing jeux d'esprit by a writer whose favourite joke is the reader. Also: Labyrinths; Dreamtigers; Selected Poems, 1923-1967 Borges, Jorge Luis, Argentinian, 1899-1986. A Personal Anthology. Rec: Bloom Collected Fictions. Rec: Meaningful Other Inquisitions. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Ficciones (Fictions). Rec: Bloom Harvard NYPL Ward Labyrinths. Rec: Bloom Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 Good Reading Ward The Aleph and Other Stories. Rec: Bloom Ward Dreamtigers. Rec: Bloom Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 Bowles, John Collected Short Stories (1980)
Unnerving, mannered but savagely effective tales of violence at the boundary between civilization and its discontented neighbours. The interface of love and lust, impotence and insolence, exhaustion and delirium is charted with a terrible relish and conviction.
Brodkey, Harold. American, 1930-1996. Stories in an Almost Classical Mode. Rec: Bloom Bunin, Ivan, Russian, 1870-1953. Nobel Laureate Selected Stories. Rec: Bloom Carver, Raymond. American, 1938-1988. Cathedral. Rec: Hungry Mind Where I'm Calling From. Rec: Bloom Cheever, John The Stories of John Cheever (1978)
Evocative stories about quietly desperate New York commuters: wives meeting the train with a double Martini in the hand; children, all-knowing, concocting fiendish plots. Somehow the stories have coloured everyone's concept of the suburban life of all America, even though most Americans don't live that way. Cheever, John. American, 1912-1982. The Stories. Rec: Bloom Hungry Mind Bullet Park. Rec: Bloom The Wapshot Chronicles. Rec: BOMC ML Novels Falconer. Rec: Time Chekhov, Anton The Schoolmistress and Other Stories (1894)0
Chekhov wrote over 1,000 stories. Mood, atmosphere, "the unforgettable flash of life in its perpetual flow" — no short story writer ever caught these things better. See DRAMA Chekhov, Anton, Russian, 1860-1904. Plays. Rec: Good Reading Rex Ward Major Plays. Rec: Bloom Uncle Vanya. Rec: Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 GBWW Three Sisters. Rec: Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 NYPL The Cherry Orchard. Rec: Boston PL Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 Selected Short Stories, Tales. Rec: Bloom Fadiman 4 Good Reading Meaningful Chesnutt, Charles W.. American, 1858-1932. Short Fiction. Rec: Bloom Chesterton, G. K. The Father Brown Stories (1947)
Chesterton's Father Brown stories are outstanding in an uneven oeuvre — his one escape from being what Wyndham Lewis (justly) called him, "the dogmatic Toby-jug". Also: The Man Who Was Thursday Chesterton, G. K., English, 1874-1936. The Innocence of Father Brown. Rec: NYPL The Everlasting Man. Rec: National Review Orthodoxy. Rec: National Review Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom Father Brown Stories. Rec: Ward The Man Who Was Thursday. Rec: Bloom Conrad, Joseph The Heart of Darkness (1902)
Conrad's most compelling short story, flawed by melodramatic adjectives but still alive and horrifying. See FICTION/NOVELS Crane, Stephen. American, 1871-1900. The Red Badge of Courage. Rec: Bloom Stories. Rec: Bloom Poems. Rec: Bloom Davenport, Guy. American, 1927- . Tatlin!. Rec: Bloom Dinesen, Isak Seven Gothic Tales (1934)
Sophisticated entertainments, with appealing irony implicit in deliberately old-fashioned narrative method. Also: Out of Africa; Winter's Tales; The Angelic Avengers, etc Faulkner, William Collected Stories (1950) *
There is a story that Sherwood Anderson, having read some would-be sophisticated dialogue in one of Faulkner's earliest novels, told him to forget all that smart stuff and concentrate on cultivating his own garden, the little patch of Mississippi he knew to the bone. The result was the major novels, and the best stories in this book, The Bearand The Barn Burning. See FICTION/NOVELS Fitzgerald, F. Scott The Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald (1951)
Fitzgerald himself once commented (looking sideways at his friend and rival, Hemingway): "I talk with the authority of failure." He wrote good stories all his life — along with many bad ones for magazines, to pay debts. Among lesser-known stories, Outside the Cabinet-Maker's is well worth seeking out. See BIOGRAPHY (Milford); DIARIES; FICTION/NOVELS; FILM (Latham) Flaubert, Gustave Three Tales (1877)
a
Twenty years after Madame Bovary, Flaubert published these stories. The Legend of St Julian Hospitator is the most remarkable — an exploration of the medieval mind, inspired by a stained-glass window in Rouen Cathedral. See DIARIES (Flaubert, Goncourt); FICTION/NOVELS
Gordimer, Nadine, South African, 1923- . Nobel Laureate Collected Stories. Rec: Bloom The Late Bourgeois World. Rec: Burgess Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm Household Tales (1812-15)
*
The brothers Grimm were a well-matched pair; from their two heads came the right balance to make sense of something in the German character that takes in The Bremen Town Musicians, The Twelve Dancing Princesses and the glorious ghastly death of Rumpelstiltskin. Best collection for adults: Penguin Classics. Best for children: The Juniper Tree and Other Tales (Segal and Sendak, 1973). Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm, German, 1785-1863 and 1786-1859. Fairy Tales. Rec: Bloom Hawthorne, Nathaniel Twice-told Tales (1837)
a Thirty-nine early stories, some mannered and boring, but the best — The Ambitious Guest and Howe's Masquerade — foreshadowing The Scarlet Letter in their preoccupation with guilt and secrecy and in their obsession with the effects of New England Puritanism. Also: House of the Seven Gables; Tanglewood Tales, etc. See FICTION/NOVELS Hemingway, Ernest In Our Time (1925)
Hemingway's first book — fifteen stories with linking vignettes. The stories describe life in the American Middle West; vignettes describe war in Europe and bullfights. Hemingway before the rot set in. Also: Men without Women; Winner Takes Nothing, etc. See BIOGRAPHY (Baker); FICTION/NOVELS Henry, O. Cabbages and Kings (1904)
O. Henry started writing the "trick" stories for which he is famous while in prison on a charge of embezzlement.His characters are simple; his plots always depend on surprise endings; but within his range he is skilled at ringing the changes. Also: O. Henry Encore; The Four Million, etc Hoffmann, Ernst Theodor Wilhelm The Serapion Brethren (1819-21)
The best of his supernatural stories. Urbane, Gallic Poetry. Also: The Devil's Elixir Various Authors, Hungarian, 19th-20th C. Hungarian Short Stories. Rec: Ward Irving, Washington. American, 1783-1859. The Sketch Book. Rec: Bloom Isherwood, Christopher Goodbye to Berlin (1939) * Herr Issyvoo in his best "I am a camera" phase: decay of a civilization (Germany under the Nazis) in the form of seemingly casual sketches of Berlin life. Also: All the Conspirators: Mr Norris Changes Trains, etc. See DRAMA (Auden)
Isherwood, Christopher, English, 1904-1986. The Berlin Stories. Rec: Bloom Time A Single Man. Rec: Burgess James, Henry The Turn of the Screw (1898)
One of the finest ghost stories in English, all the better for containing no explicit ghosts. See BIOGRAPHY (Edel, James); DIARIES; FICTION/NOVELS; LITERARY CRITICISM James, M. R. Collected Ghost Stories (1931) dl Elegant, civilized shudders — not the melodramas of Poe (qv), but reality showing tiny, devastating cracks. Best read by candlelight, wind nibbling at the windows. Jewett, Sarah Orne. American, 1849-1909. The Country of the Pointed Firs and Other Stories. Rec: Bloom NYPL Joyce, James Dubliners (1914)
One story, The Dead, is a masterpiece. The rest would perhaps not seem so interesting now, had Joyce not gone on to write Ulysses and Finnegan's Wake. All the same, a remarkable dissection of turn-of-the-century Irish life. See BIOGRAPHY (Ellmann); DIARIES; FICTION/NOVELS Kafka, Franz Metamorphosis (1916)
Kafka's most haunting story, in which he found a perfect image for his pervasive sense of alienation. Also: In the Penal Colony, etc. See DIARIES; FICTION/NOVELS Kafka, Franz, Czech writing in German, 1883-1924. Collected Works. Rec: Ward The Trial. Rec: Adler Bloom Boston PL Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 Meaningful Rexmo Seymour-Smith Smiley The Castle. Rec: Adler Bloom Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 Meaningful TLS Metamorphosis. Rec: GBWW NYPL SJC Penal Colony. Rec: SJC Short Stories. Rec: Bloom Fadiman 3 (Selections) Fadiman 4 (Selections) Meaningful Amerika. Rec: Bloom The Blue Octavo Notebook. Rec: Bloom Diaries. Rec: Bloom Parables, Fragments, Aphorisms. Rec: Bloom Kipling, Rudyard Limits and Renewals (1932)
The Kipling to value — estranged, embittered and burnt-out. This last collection of stories contains his most complex, self-
gnawing work. See CHILDREN'S BOOKS; POETRY
Kleist, Heinrich von, German, 1777-1811. Stories. Rec: Bloom Landolfi, Tommaso, Italian, 1908-1979. Gogol's Wife and Other Stories. Rec: Bloom Lardner, Ring Collected Short Stories(1941)
Edmund Wilson once said, "What bell might not Lardner ring if he set out to give us the works?" Lardner did give us the works. In the vernacular. There must have been something wrong with Wilson's bell. See HUMOUR Lawrence, D. H. Tales (1934)
Lawrence at his finest. Odour of Chrysanthemums and The Rocking-Horse Winnerare the most memorable; but all are interesting, surprisingly relaxed, even amusing. See DIARIES; FICTION/NOVELS; HISTORY/EUROPEAN; LITERARY CRITICISM; POETRY; TRAVEL London, Jack The Star Rover (1914)
How to define London's gift? "The passing thing done in the eternal way" was his own (not bad) definition of it. Also: The Call of the Wild; White Fang. See TRAVEL Lowry, Malcolm Hear Us O Lord from Heaven Thy Dwelling Place (1961)
Lowry's gift was for loading every rift with ore, or at least tequila; this posthumously published collection contains two stories
— Through the Panama and The Forest Path to the Spring. See FICTION/NOVELS
Lu Xun (Lu Hs¼n), Chinese, 1881-1936. Diary of a Madman and Other Stories. Rec: Meaningful Collected Short Stories. Rec: Fadiman 4 MW Asian Ward Mann, Thomas Death in Venice ( 1911)
1' Masterly novella of a civilized artist at the end of his genteel tether. Also: Stories of a Lifetime. See FICTION/NOVELS Mansfield, Katherine Collected Stories (1945)
Mansfield's best stories, many about her childhood in New Zealand. See DIARIES Mansfield, Katherine, New Zealander, 1888-1923. The Short Stories. Rec: Bloom Marguerite de Navarre, French, 1492-1549. Heptameron. Rec: Bloom Smiley The Heptameron is a collection of 72 short stories written in French by Marguerite of Navarre (1492-1549). Maugham, W. Somerset Complete Stories (1951)
Maugham is the nearest thing to an English Maupassant (qv). Man-of-the-world stuff, cynical and anecdotal. Edmund Wilson compared his stories to oysters (for the ease with which they slip down). See AUTOBIOGRAPHY; DRAMA; FICTION/CRIME; FICTION/NOVELS Maupassant, Guy de Boule de Suif (1880)
Maupassant contributed this masterly story while still unknown to the Soirees de Medan, a collection of short stories by such as Zola and Huysmans. It made his reputation overnight. He is, with Chekhov (qv) and Singer (qv) one of the supreme masters in the genre. Also: Mademoiselle Fifi; A Woman's Life; Bel-A etc Maupassant, Guy de, French, 1850-1893. Short Stories. Rec: Bloom Ward Mitchell, Joseph. American, 1908-1996. Up in the Old Hotel. Rec: Bloom National Review (stories) Moore, George Celibate Lives (1924)
Five stories, one of which, Albert Nobbs, a study of transvestism, was recently ranked "in the first dozen short stories of world literature". This overstates the case, but then Moore is an undervalued writer. Also: Heloise and Abelard; Evelyn Jones; The Brook Kerith, etc Murasaki-Shildbu, Lady The Tale of Genji (c. 1004)
This collection of stories is sometimes spoken of as a novel, but is nearer to The Arabian Nights than to War and Peace. Prince Genji is the character; the country, Japan. Delicate, obliquely civilised; a masterpiece. Murasaki Shikibu, Japanese, ca. 976-1015. Tale of Genji. Rec: App Fadiman 4 Meaningful MW Asian Oriental Rex Smiley StJE Utne Ward O'Brien, Edna, Irish, 1932- . A Fanatic Heart. Rec: Bloom O'Connor, Flannery. American, 1925-1964. Everything That Rises Must Converge. Rec: SJC The Complete Stories. Rec: Bloom Harvard The Violent Bear It Away. Rec: Bloom Wise Blood. Rec: Bloom Burgess A Good Man is Hard to Find. Rec: Aquinas Hungry Mind Radcliffe The Enduring Chill. Rec: Aquinas O'Connor, Frank, Irish, 1903-1966. Collected Stories. Rec: Bloom O'Hara, John The Hat on the Bed (1964)
O'Hara's stories are legion, and despite the flaws and cheapness, provide a panoramic view of East Coast American society which is proving more and more truthful as the lid comes off the USA. Ephemera, possibly; compelling, certainly. See FICTION/NOVELS O'Hara, John. American, 1905-1970. Collected Stories. Rec: Bloom Appointment in Samarra. Rec: Bloom BOMC ML Novels Time The Lockwood Concern. Rec: Burgess Paley, Grace. American, 1922- . The Little Disturbances of Man. Rec: Bloom Enormous Changes at the Last Minute: Stories. Rec: Harvard LAT Collected Stories. Rec: Hungry Mind Peretz, I. L., Pole writing in Yiddish, 1851-1915. Selected Stories. Rec: Bloom Pirandello, Luigi Better Think Twice about It (1933)
Pirandello was once called "the greatest short-story writer of the century". If his plays did not exist, we might value his stories more highly, for their worth is considerable. See DRAMA Poe, Edgar Allan Tales of the Grotesque and Macabre (1840) Twenty-five tales include The Fall of the House of Usher, William Wilson, Ligeia, Berenice and Manuscript Found in a Bottle. Also: The Narrative of ArthurGordon Pym of Nantucket; Poems; Eureka, etc. See FICTION/CRIME Poe, Edgar Allan. American, 1809-1849. Complete Tales. Rec: Good Reading Meaningful Stories and Poems. Rec: Bloom Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 Harvard Ward Essays and Reviews. Rec: Bloom Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym. Rec: Bloom Eureka. Rec: Bloom Porter, Katherine Anne. American, 1890-1980. Collected Stories. Rec: Bloom Flowering Judas and Other Stories. Rec: Hungry Mind Premchand, Indian writing in Urdu and Hindi, 1880-1936. Gift of a Cow. Rec: Ward Short Stories. Rec: MW Asian Ward Pritchett, V. S., English, 1900-1997. Collected Stories. Rec: Harvard Prose, Francine. American, 1947- . Guided Tours of Hell. Rec: Smiley Pu Songling (P'u Sung-Ling), Chinese, 1640-1715. Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio. Rec: Ward Runyon, Damon Guys and Dolls (1932)
it Runyon perfected the use of a certain kind of invented slang in these stories about New York hoods, their mommas and their molls. His stories seem slight and forgettable, but aren't. Also: Take It Easy; My Wife Ethel; Runyon d la Carte. See HUMOUR Saki The Best of Saki (1976) it H. H. Munro called himself "Saki" after a South African monkey characterized by a long bushy tail, delicacy and silence. His stories send up everything in sight. Bushy tales? Also: The Unbearable Bassington Saki (H. H. Munro), Scottish, 1870-1916. The Short Stories. Rec: Bloom Saroyan, William The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze (1934)
it Saroyan's first book, an astonishing outpouring by a young man in love with life and language.
Schnitzler, Arthur, Austrian, 1862-1931. Plays and Stories. Rec: Bloom Sciascia, Leonardo, Italian, 1921- . Day of the Owl. Rec: Bloom Equal Danger. Rec: Bloom The Wine-Dark Sea: Thirteen Stories. Rec: Bloom Sholem Aleichem, Russian-American writing in Yiddish, 1859-1916. Tevye the Dairyman and The Railroad Stories. Rec: Bloom The Nightingale. Rec: Bloom Singer, Isaac Bashevis Gimpel the Fool (1957)
Marvellous, timeless blend of medieval and modern imagination: the human condition defined and described by a master story-
teller, delighted by the teeming detail which makes up a moment. Also: A Crown of Feathers; A Friend of Kafka, etc. See FICTION/NOVELS Singer, Isaac Bashevis, Polish-American writing in Yiddish, 1904-1980. Nobel Laureate Collected Stories. Rec: Bloom Hungry Mind In My Father's Court. Rec: Bloom The Manor and The Estate. Rec: Bloom Family Moskat. Rec: Bloom Ward Satan in Goray. Rec: Bloom S¶derberg, Hjalmar, Swedish, 1869-1941. Doctor Glas. Rec: Ward Selected Short Stories. Rec: Ward Stein, Gertrude Three Lives (1908)
9 In Melanctha, about a black woman, Stein showed for the first (and last?) time just how well she could write fiction. Her prose rhythms admirably follow the movements of Melanctha's mind. After this, Stein concentrated on the movement of her own mind — and turned into Old Mother Hubbard. Stein, Gertrude. American, 1874-1946. Three Lives. Rec: Bloom Stevenson, Robert Louis The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886)
Stevenson's wife Fanny read this tale in draft and complained that he had sensationalized a good allegory. Stevenson enraged, stormed out; then he returned, said she was right and set to work to produce this classic story of split personality. See CHILDREN'S BOOKS
Stifter, Adalbert, Austrian, 1805-1868. Indian Summer. Rec: Bloom Tales. Rec: Bloom Swift, Jonathan, Irish, 1667-1745. Gulliver's Travels. Rec: Adler Aquinas Bloom Col37 Col61 Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 GBWW Good Reading Lubbock Meaningful Rexmo SJC Ward A Modest Proposal. Rec: Adler Fadiman 3 Meditations Upon a Broomstick. Rec: Fadiman 3 Resolutions When I Come to Be Old. Rec: Fadiman 3 A Tale of a Tub. Rec: Adler Bloom Journal to Stella. Rec: Adler Shorter Prose Works. Rec: Bloom Poems. Rec: Bloom Anonymous, Arab, ca. 1500. The Thousand and One Nights. Rec: Bloom Fadiman 4 Good Reading Lubbock Meaningful Oriental Ward Toomer, Jean. American, 1894-1967. Cane. Rec: Bloom Hungry Mind Turgenev, Ivan Sergeyevich A Sportsman's Sketches (1852) Sketches of 19th-century Russian peasant life characterized by what V. S. Pritchett called "their simple feeling and transparency". Also: The House of Gentlefolk; On the Eve; Virgin Soil, etc Turgenev, Ivan Sergeyevich, Russian, 1818-1883. A Sportsman's Notebook. Rec: Bloom A Month in the Country. Rec: Bloom Fathers and Sons. Rec: Bloom Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 Rexmo Smiley Ward On the Eve. Rec: Bloom First Love. Rec: Bloom Tutuola, Amos, Nigerian writing in English, 1920- . Palm-Wine Drinkard. Rec: Bloom Ward "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" and "The Palm Wine Drinkard" are African tales in their pure unadulterated form. And they're not something you'd want to hear before bedtime! Amos Tutuola writes an English which lends the narration a wide-eyed, almost childlike voice--yet in the face of wild, horrific imagery (eg. armies of dead babies) the words are unflinching. (amazon) Twain, Mark The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and Other Sketches (1865)
Interesting mostly for the way it foreshadows Twain's superb use of the vernacular in The Adventures of Tom Sa wyerand The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Title piece, based on an old Californian folk tale, still has charm. See FICTION/NOVELS; HISTORY/AMERICAN; HUMOUR; TRAVEL
Ueda Akinari, Japanese, 1734-1809. Ugetsu Monogatari (Tales of Moonlight and Rain). Rec: Ward Verga, Giovanni, Italian, 1840-1922. The House by the Medlar Tree. Rec: Bloom Ward Little Novels of Sicily. Rec: Bloom Ward Mastro Don Gesualdo. Rec: Bloom Ward The She-Wolf and Other Stories. Rec: Bloom Vesaas, Tarjei, Norwegian, 1897-1970. Boat in the Evening. Rec: Ward Walser, Robert, German, 1927- . Selected Stories. Rec: Bloom Welty, Eudora. American, 1909-2001. Collected Stories. Rec: Bloom Delta Wedding. Rec: Bloom BOMC The Robber Bridegroom. Rec: Bloom The Ponder Heart. Rec: Bloom Wilson, Angus Such Darling Dodos (1950)
Splendid trifles of 1940s-1950s British life. The world of the sensitive middle class and genteel England were never the same again. Nor was Wilson, to our loss. Zoshchenko, Mikhail Scenes from the Bathhouse (1961)
Zoshchenko was the (unofficial) satirist-in-chief to the court of the second most terrible utopia in history. This collection of stories is a grin full of teeth. Zoshchenko, Mikhail, Russian, 1895-1958. Nervous People and Other Satires. Rec: Bloom

D. Quinn Mills

D. Quinn Mills is the principal faculty member at the • Harvard Business School keeping the study of labor relations alive. The impact of economic and managerial systems on people has been his continuing professional interest. He is noted for maintaining a strong emphasis on the general management aspects of people relationships, tying case research and discussion to the problems of operating-line executives, and avoiding the functional perspectives and responsibilities of personnel managers.
A member of the Harvard Business School faculty since 1976, he is the author of ten books and was appointed the Albert J. Weatherhead Professor of Business Administration in 1978. Winston S. Churchill. The Second World War, Volume I: The Gathering Storm (1948). Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1983.
I was twelve years old and living in Houston, Texas when an aunt gave me a copy of the first volume of Winston Churchill's six-volume history of the Second World War, entitled The Gathering Storm. I read the book and found it fascinating. It opened to me the wide world of nonfiction literature. It permitted me to learn about great events as they were viewed by participants, including authors like Churchill who possessed insightful and powerful personalities. Reading Churchill also gave me a respect for our language and for rhetoric — cadences, the crashing thunder of strong words, the rhythmic sequence of sentences. In a short time I had read the remaining five volumes of the series and went on to histories composed by other authors. William Faulkner. Intruder in the Dust (1948). New York: Random House, 1967. (Pb)
. The Sound and the Fury (1929). New York: Random House, 1967. (Pb)
During high school I lived in Memphis, Tennessee. Perhaps because I had moved to Memphis and found the attitudes and opinions of my classmates somewhat different from my own, I began to read in search of explanations of what it meant to be a person from the deep South in the United States. William Faulkner's writings revealed to me the complexity of the Southern tradition — of guilt, revenge and repentance. The most powerful of the books was The Sound and the Fury, but the line I most remember came from a less well-known novel entitled Intruder in the Dust. "Some things you must always be unable to bear," Faulkner wrote; "injustice, prejudice, and despair ... not for kudos and not for cash, just refuse to bear them."
Another Southern writer taught me a lesson I've benefited from enormously over my lifetime, a lesson about tolerance. "Nothing human disgusts me," wrote Tennessee Williams in Night of the Iguana, "unless it is unkind or violent." William James. The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902). New York: Penguin, 1982. (Pb)
College was for me as for many young people a time of questioning and doubts. I had been raised in a Protestant church but during college became profoundly uncertain about the significance of religious faith. Was religion a positive or a negative influence in mankind's experience?
At this time I happened upon William James's The Varieties of Religious Experience. From James's book I learned how hazardous it is to generalize about something as complex as religion. This insight reopened to me the search for a religious faith with which I was comfortable. But James also helped me to avoid easy generalizations and conclusions in other complex areas of human life. The Bible.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The Cost of Discipleship (1948). R. H. Fuller, trans. Magnolia, Mass.: Peter Smith, 1983.
In the years since I have read widely in Eastern religious works, and in the writings of the ancient Western world. Marcus Aurelius particularly impressed me. I recall one of his observations about self-restraint: "be careful that you do not feel toward the inhuman as they feel toward men." I also read extensively in the mainstream of Christian writings. I was particularly influenced by Dietrich Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship, since the author later gave his life in the struggle within Germany against the Hitler regime.
I have also nibbled at the Bible continually for many years, especially enjoying comparing different translations. The Bible remains the central form of transmission of the Western heritage, and is the foundation of our moral standards — to my mind far more important than laws. The biblical text that returns most often to my mind is from the Book of Micah: "He has showed you, oh man, what is good — and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God?" I have over many years rendered many decisions in arbitration hearings, and these words have never been far from my thoughts as I pondered what decision to make. Milovan Djilas. The New Class: An Analysis of the Communist System (1957). San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1982.
George Orwell. 1984 (1949). New York: Signet, 1984. (Pb)
In graduate school I studied economics and political science. There is implicit, and sometimes explicit for that matter, criticism of our economic and political systems in much that is written in those disciplines. Two books that definitely shaped my perspective were Milovan Djilas's study of Stalinist communism, The New Class, and George Orwell's 1984. The two books constituted a vision of a totalitarian hell, created in this century by people who spoke publicly of their commitment to the improvement of human life. These books helped me to preserve a deep appreciation for our own society, without, I hope, causing me intentionally to ignore its limitations. In particular, I recognized again the value of individual human freedom which Western society affords its members. Isaac Bashevis Singer. Stories for Children. New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1984.
Years later I became a parent. One of the greatest joys parenting offers is to try to see the world as children see it. I_ read the classics of children's literature, and enjoyed them more than I did the first time. Also I discovered Isaac Bashevis Singer's Stories for Children. It was helpful to me in my own writing to see that simplicity of theme and treatment could contain great depth of understanding of the human character and of human institutions. In particular I was influenced by Singer's comment at the end of Stories that today the only serious literature is that written for children. Popular adult literature is lost in sensationalism and the effort to shock. Margaret Murie and Olaus Murie. Wapiti Wilderness: The Life of Olaus and Margaret Murie in Jackson Hole, Wyoming (1966). Jackson Hole, Wyo.: Teton Bookshop, n.d. (Pb)
Now in middle age, I think about what things are of great value in life, and what I should try to experience in the time left to me. I am more aware than ever before of the natural richness of this continent. Recently I have been much impressed by the account that Margaret and Olaus Murie left of their years working for the Forest Service in the Tetons (Wapiti Wilderness). Olaus was a founder of the Wilderness Society, which today attempts to preserve what remains of the American wilderness from unreasonable development. Partly under the influence of their book I am putting aside more of my time for trips into the natural wilderness. This is also, I think, an important spiritual dimension in life.

Martha Minow

Martha Minow is a professor of law at Harvard Law School. A former law clerk to Justice Thurgood Marshall, Professor Minow is also a member of the faculty of the Doing Justice Program at Brandeis University and a member of the board of directors of the American Bar Foundation. Her primary interests and her best-known courses are "Children and the Law" and "Family Law."
I asked myself, what books on my shelf are so worn from rereading — or missing from the shelf altogether because I keep insisting that someone else read them? The list is too long, but here are some that come immediately to mind. Robert M. Cover. Justice Accused: Antislavery and the Judicial Process (1975). New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984. (Pb)
It asks, why did judges who opposed slavery nonetheless enforce the laws governing slavery before the Civil War? Its answers move through debates about whether law is natural or socially constructed, through biography and analyses of the interplay between personality and social role, into psychology and the persistent human desire to avoid personal choice and responsibility, and through the power of language in expressing and shaping what people think is possible. Isaac Bashevis Singer. In My Father's Court (1966). New York: Fawcett, 1979. (Pb)
A memoir of the author's childhood days in the home where his father, as rabbi, heard disputes and struggled for resolutions amid the daily lives of his community in Warsaw. The disputes become windows into the virtues and vices of individuals, the traumas solved by arbitrary rules, and the traumas created by them. Adrienne Rich. The Dream of a Common Language: Poems. New York: W. W. Norton, 1978. (Pb)
A collection of poems that explore the difficulties of speaking about women's experiences and, in so doing, create the possibility of saying things that haven't before been said. Hester Eisenstein and Alice Jardine, eds. The Future of Difference (1980). New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1985. (Pb)
A collection of essays that connects the contemporary women's movement with scholarly work. In these connections, breathtaking precision in analysis and careful explosions of disciplinary boundaries appear and reappear. The sustained offering of insights uses and at the same time challenges psychoanalytic thought about the formation of the self and gender identity, epistemological debates over the impossibility of objectivity, and current inquiries into literary analysis and political theory. Andre Lorde's essay, "Poetry Is Not a Luxury," shows so powerfully how there are only new ways of making old ideas, and yet the future of our words, and ourselves, depends on our "need to dream, to move our spirits most deeply and directly and through promise." Ludwig Wittgenstein. Philosophische Untersuchungen (Philosophical Investigations, 1953). G. E. Anscome, trans. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1967.
How amazing to find out that a philosopher could have a voice, a playful, personal voice; that reading philosophy could feel like a fun and puzzling conversation; and that things look differently after reading? listening? arguing? with this book. Norton Juster. The Phantom Tollbooth. New York: Epstein & Carroll, 1961. (Pb)
A children's book about the meaning of life, it takes puns seriously so that language and experience both become fresh, and it reminds us that we might well be able to do things that people say could never be done. Sarah Lawrence Lightfoot. Worlds Apart: Relationships Between Families and Schools. New York: Basic Books, 1978. (Pb)
Subtle, vivid depictions of the lives of children, teachers and families that mutually implicate each other even through their separations, boundaries and conflicts. The book gently incorporates insights from social theory while exposing the workings of power, cultural and racial differences, and personal hopes and pain. It makes possible knowledge about what we don't see by exposing what others don't see about us in the gaps between classrooms and homes, and, indeed, the gaps between all the places we may dwell.

Avis C. Vidal

Avis Vidal is an associate professor of city and regional planning at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government and specializes in urban economic development, housing and urban policy. Her current research focuses on the effectiveness of public—private partnerships formed to promote urban development by supporting the activities of community-based organizations. J. D. Salinger. Franny and Zooey: Two Novellas (1961). New York: Bantam, 1969. (Pb)
Buddy's letter to Zooey is the best and most enduring reminder I have had of the importance of discovering the things that really matter to you, and then doing them with zest because that's the way they deserve to be done. Chaim Potok. My Name Is Asher Lev (1972). New York: Fawcett, 1978. (Pb)
A powerful exploration of the clarity of purpose that a natural gift or calling makes possible, and of the anguish that comes with being forced to choose between two highly valued claims on one's identity. Anthony Lewis. Gideon's Trumpet. New York: Random House, 1964. (Pb)
Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong. The Brethren (1979). New York: Avon, 1980. (Pb)
Two very different accounts of the wonder and power of the law and the people who make it work — when it works. Charlotte Bront«. Jane Eyre (1847). New York: Putnam, 1982.
My former husband and I read this book aloud. When we finished I asked him whether he liked it. "It's good . . . okay. . . but it gets a little tiresome because it's all from her point of view." Chaim Potok. The Book of Lights. New York: Fawcett, 1981. (Pb)
A book that illustrates the potential power of religious and cultural tradition in helping one come to terms with the inescapable presence of death and evil. Willa Cather. My Antonia (1918). Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1926. (Pb)
The only thing I ever read that helped me understand why people like the Midwest.

Film

From the start, cinema established itself as not just another medium, but as one of the great popular art forms, as wide-ranging as literature, music or painting themselves. Like those arts, it contains masterpieces and rubbish, timeless works and ephemera
— and a huge range of good-quality journeyman work, popular entertainment which can, at its best, transcend its own modest aspirations. Nowadays, thanks to television showings, films (of all qualities) are accessible as never before, and there is a wide popular knowledge of film styles and techniques; television has not, however, resulted (as was predicted) in the death of creativity, but in a remarkable upsurge of new styles, new talents, new excellence. This list avoids the more arcane areas of film criticism (addicts writing in code for addicts) and also the more fleeting of fan-journalism. We have chosen good serious guides to the medium and to the industry, and biographies, studies and reminiscences of some of the most enjoyable (not to say enjoyably literate) practitioners of film.

See AUTOBIOGRAPHY (Chaplin): BIOGRAPHY (Mailer); DRAMA (McCrindle); HUMOUR (Allen)

Armes, Roy A Critical History of the British Cinema (1978) 10 Detailed and informative, if at times rather conventional and opinionated. Avoids chauvinism; covers important ground. Barnouw, Erik Documentary: A History of Nonfiction Film (1974) 9 Standard work for students, fans and creators of documentary films. Historycum-theory-cum-criticism adds up to an extremely useful compendium. Bawden, Liz-Anne (ed) The Oxford Companion to Film (1976) 10 * Authoritative entries, alphabetically arranged, on every aspect of film from "AA certificate" to "Zvoboda, Andre". Articles on national styles particularly good (Italy and Japan outstanding). Not as jolly or personal as Halliwell (qv), but far more reliable. Bayer, William The Great Movies (1973)
Thoughtful critical assessments of sixty films which in Bayer's view represent the medium at its best and most characteristic. Covers "trash masterpieces" (eg Gone with the Wind; Singin' in the Rain) as well as films with grander pretensions (La Grande Illusion; Citizen Kane).
Bazin, Andre, French, 1918-1958. Orson Welles: A Critical View. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Brown, Karl Adventures with D. W. Griffith (1974)
As a young man of immense technical ingenuity, Brown contributed much to D. W. Griffith's revolutionary discoveries. Interesting to read in conjunction with Mrs D. W. Griffith's (qv) When the Movies were Young. Brownlow, Kevin The Parade's Gone By (1968)
10a*.f Riveting, classic collection of interview portraits of surviving Hollywood pioneers. Bu±uel. Luis, Spanish, 1900-1983. My Last Sigh. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Burch, Noel To a Distant Observer(1939)
91/ Japanese film: outstanding study of a "national cinema". Emphasis is on "formal" differences with Western cinema, but shows a strong sense of the political and cultural history that determined these differences. Also: Theory of Film Practice Clarens, Carlos Horror Movies (1968)
Useful survey of a uniquely fascinating genre. Durgnat, Raymond A Mirror for England (1971)
Eccentric, sometimes brilliant historical/sociological work on British cinema. Eames, John D. The MGM Story (1975)
Sumptuously produced account of every film (1,705 of them) made by this major studio. Eisenstein, Sergei The Film Sense (1942) 011_, Chiefly important for theories behind Eisenstein's own films — long section on Alexander Nevsky — but has profound implications for cinema as a whole. Also: Film Form. See Montagu; Septon. Eisenstein, Sergei, Russian, 1898-1948. Film Form. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Eisner, Lotte The Haunted Screen(1969)
Classic exploration of German Expressionist cinema, before and after The Cabinet of DrCaligari (1919). Fields, W. C. W. C. Fields by Himself: His Intended Autobiography (1973)
Letters; articles; notes towards an autobiography: beguiling chronicle of an often troubled human being, a dedicated professional and a wonderfully caustic writer, particularly on censors, studio bosses, babies, complaining wives or other health hazards. See Taylor. Griffith, Mrs D. W. When the Movies Were Young (1925)
A wide-eyed, wickedly scandalous account of movie-making in the 1910s. Rubbish? Fun. See Brown. Halliday, Jon Sirk on Sirk (1972)
Important journeyman director interviewed at length. Fascinating insights into studio production conditions in Hollywood. Halliwell, Leslie The Filmgoer's Companion (1965) a a ic./
Cheerful reference book (regularly updated), unreliable in details but readier with information on personalities and such questions as who was the first Tarzan than any other source. Kael, Pauline I Lost It at the Movies (1966)
Useful collection of reviews and articles by one of America's most effective, not to say raucous, film critics. Kael is challenging, abrasive and personal — a welcome antidote to stuffiness or picayune blandness. (But avoid The Citizen Kane Book: a piece of nonsense claiming that Welles didn't create Kane, subsequently discredited by Peter Bogdanovitch among others.) These pieces show her at her perceptive/irritating best. Kael, Pauline. American, 1919-2001. For Keeps. Rec: Counterpunch NF Knight, Arthur The Liveliest Art (1957)
This informal history of the movies. with emphasis on the early days in Hollywood, is a splendid introduction to the subject. Easy reading, lots of fun. Latham, Aaron Crazy Sundays: F. Scott Fitzgerald in Hollywood (1972)
Terrible case history of Hollywood's ability to humiliate a creative artist (compare with Tom Dardis: Some Time in the Sun). See BIOGRAPHY (Milford); DIARIES (Fitzgerald); FICTION/NOVELS (Fitzgerald, West); FICTION/SHORT STORIES (Fitzgerald) Leyda, Jay Kino: A History of the Russian and Soviet Film (1960) Pi' Excellent, comprehensive record of the troubled history of cinema in the Soviet Union. Essential background reading to Eisenstein (qv); the story continues in Liehm (qv). Liehm, A. J. and M. The Most Important Art: East European Cinema after 1945(1977) 9J'
The only account of the — often Orwellian — mechanisms of film industries in the Sovietist east. Also: The Milos Forman Stories (1976) Love, Bessie From Hollywood with Love (1977)
Funny, unpretentious memoirs of 65 years in movies. Love is reliable, and sharp: she remembers, for example, how the orthodox Jews who played in Intolerance found their box lunches full of ham sandwiches. McCabe, John Charlie Chaplin (1978)
Writings on Chaplin are legion; this is one of the few (and first) objective, critical biographies. Also: Laurel and Hardy(1975), a sumptuous picture book, with stills from every film. See Mast; AUTOBIOGRAPHY (Chaplin) Mast, Gerald The Comic Mind (1973)
41110*./
Accessible, outstanding study of creativity in comic films. Fine contribution to a neglected field. Bonus for readers is the lively, enthusiastic style: Mast blends description with analysis, relives each scene, each routine, as he discusses it. Mellen, Joan Big Bad Wolves: Masculinity in the American Film (1977)
0
Serious — but hugely entertaining — study of the Hollywood myth-machine at work on great romantic male stars, and on the sometimes limp reality behind the macho mask. A model of how to make a movie book: it's well researched, well written, and beautifully salts gossip with objective criticism.
Milne, Tom (ed) Godard on Godard (1972) 9 Collection of French director Jean Luc Godard's important reviews and articles from the 1950s and 1960s. Monaco, J. F. The New Wave: Truffaut, Chabrol, Rohmer, Rivette (1976)
Also: How to Read a Film Montagu, Ivor With Eisenstein in Hollywood (1963) Montagu — film-maker, zoologist, world class table-tennis player, self-
publicizing raconteur — accompanied Eisenstein and his Soviet colleagues during their often comically disastrous sojourn in Hollywood. A self-regarding, funny book: Ninotchka, in a way, starts here. See Eisenstein; Septon. Niven, David The Moon's a Balloon (1971)
By and large, Hollywood memoirs are little more than pimples on the bottom of literature. Of late, however, the form has perked up considerably: the memoirs of Bogarde, Bacall, Maclaine and Love (qv) — and above all those of the urbanely scurrilous Niven — should easily counter the (directors') view that actors are a species of cattle. Dinner-table anecdote, it's true
— but served as the driest of dry white wine. Also: Bring on the Empty Horses Parrish, Robert Growing Up in Hollywood (1976)
Good, direct account of working in Hollywood by film editor and later director. Excellent on John Ford, in particular. Gossip, but superior brand. Perkins, V. F. Film as Film: Understanding and Judging Movies (1972) Pickard, Roy The Hollywood Studios (1978)
Well, here it is, folks, Hollywood with the lid off and rarin' to go. It's a large, expensive and gossipy "history", full of names, titles, apocryphal sayings and even the occasional fact. Fun for fans. Also: The Oscar Movies Pudovkin, V. I. Film Technique and Film Acting(1958)
A classic study of the aesthetics of film (by one of the great Russian directors), somewhat more accessible than Eisenstein (qv). Pye, M. and Myles, L. The Movie Generation: How the Film Generation Took Over Hollywood (1979)
The coup d'etatwhen young men with beards and passion for movies moved in on Hollywood. But for how long will Coppola (Apocalypse Now), Spielberg (Jaws), Lucas (Star Wars) et alresist becoming their own establishment? Watch for sequels: coming soon. Ramsaye, Terry A Million and One Nights (1926)
Partial and overcoloured, but still the best, most readable history of early American cinema. Reisz, K. and Millar, G. The Technique of Film Editing (1953)
Standard work on this key facet of film making. Some sort of editing is important in all arts, but in none so crucial as cinema, where the editor — often the director — can make the difference between nonsense and genius. Difficult; but for the committed layman, a revelation. Rhode, Eric A History of the Cinema (1976)
Rosenbaum, Jonathan. American, 1943- . Movie Wars. Rec: Harvard Rotha, P. and Griffith, R. The Film Till Now (1930) 0 An early classic of film scholarship; still worth reading. Regularly updated. Also: Documentary Film (Rotha) Sarris, Andrew The American Cinema: Directors and Directions 1929-68(1968)
In this book Sarris presents an eloquent case for the so-called "auteur" theory, holding that the director and/or screen writer are the true creators of the final product and that actors, even if stars, are decidedly secondary. (More recent studies by others have tended to seek a mean between this theory and the earlier one that the star makes the movie.) Scheuer, Steven (ed) Movies on TV(1958) 0 a *
Reliable critical guide (regularly updated) to 10,000 English-language films. Septon, Marie Sergei M. Eisenstein (1952)
Fat, authoritative biography (revised 1978). See Eisenstein; Montagu. Shavelson, Melville How to Make a Jewish Movie (1971)
A
A very funny book: the story of the making of Cast a Giant Shadow on location in Israel. Biopic of General "Mickey" Marcus, who helped to win the 1948 war, starring those well-known Jewish actors Frank Sinatra, Yul Brynner and John Wayne — plus the entire population of Israel. Hollywood jokes, Jewish jokes, Israeli jokes — what a time they had. Sklar, Robert Movie-made America: A Cultural History of American Movies (1975)
Engagingly written history attempts to show — what is only partly true — that just as America has shaped its movies, so movies have shaped America. An interesting thesis, and relevant by extension to other nations and cultures as well. Taylor, Robert Lewis W. C. Fields: His Follies and Fortunes (1950) Funny book about a funny man. Should be taken with a ton of salt and read in conjunction with W. C. Fields by Himself(qv). Thomson, David, English, 1941- . A Biographical Dictionary of Film. Rec: Counterpunch NF Truffaut, Francois, French, 1932-1984. The Films in My Life. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Walker, Alexander The Shattered Silents (1978)
& Blow-by-blow account of the coming of talkies, 1926-29. Exemplary use of first-hand sources; a mine of information and a lively read. Also: Rudolph Valentino; Double Takes; Notes and Afterthoughts on the Movies Wesimore, F. and Davidson, M. The Westmores of Hollywood(1976) Who works quietly and unobtrusively behind every Hollywood scene, sees everything, hears everything, says nothing — till now? The makeup man. There have been seven Westmores (father and six sons), each heading the makeup department of a major studio. And what tales they have to tell! Delicious gossip — and the makeup details are fascinating too. Wolf, W. and L. Landmark Films (1979)
Brilliant critical analyses of thirty-four films (from The Birth of a Nation, 1915, to Seven Beauties, 1975), placing them in historical and social context (eg Modern Times and the Depression; Deep Throatand the permissive 70s). Choice of films is excellent; critical tone is serious but not ponderous; the book is challenging on film as a programmatic 20th-century art form. Ziebold, Norman The Hollywood Tycoons (1969)
Amiably tart look at the men who made the movies: Mayer, Laemmle, Goldwyn, Selznick, Cohn, and a dozen more. If this was fiction, who'd believe it?

Cinema

Stanley Kauffmann

Film books in the English language were relatively scarce until around 1960 when the so-called Film Generation burst forth. To accommodate this phenomenon, publishers began pouring out books. That generation's energy has decreased some-what as serious consideration of film became less of a novelty and assumed a place in our lives more or less like that accorded older arts. With that settling-down, publication of film books has also declined. The great wave of the 1960s and 1970s produced predictably many inferior books, some of them catchpenny even in their arty pretentiousness, but some valuable works appeared. Now that the very idea of a film literature is established, we can anticipate a steady flow of books - biographies, histories, and criticism, which will always include the theoretical vogue of the moment. Since the cultivated person no longer ignores the treasury of film that is part of our artistic legacy, such a person can increase his or her appreciation of that treasury by judicious reading. Here are some primary suggestions.
On the screen man is no longer the focus of the drama, but will become eventually the centre of the universe.
Ai rn E BAZ1N What is Cinema? (1967) by Andre Bazin and others. Exceptional perception and exceptional commitment to the artistic and spiritual possibilities of film.
Bergman on Bergman (1973) by Stig Bjorkman, Torsten Manus, and Jonas Sima. Three Swedish film critics interview Ingmar Bergman on his entire career to date. The result is more than a director's biography, it is the summation of a life in an. Notes on Cinematography (1977) by Robert Bresson. A great director's wisdom, enlightening and, quite often, thrilling.
Film Form and Film Sense (1957) by Sergei Eisenstein. These two books, here in one volume, are cornerstone works in any serious study of the subject. The Movies as Medium (1970) edited by Lewis Jacobs. A highly useful conspectus of practical and aesthetic problems.
The Film Encyclopedia (1994) by Ephraim Katz. By far the best one-volume job. Imperfect, like all one-volume encyclopedias on any subject, but still inexhaustibly useful. American Film Criticism: From the Beginnings to Citizen Kane (1972) edited by Stanley Kauffmann and Bruce Henstell. Reviews of significant American and foreign films at the time of their first appearance in the USA. A chronicle and a commentary. The Phantom Empire (1993) by Geoffrey O'Brien. A poetic exploration of our conscious and unconscious, our waking lives and our dreams, after the first 100 years of film's existence. Film History: An Introduction (1994) by Kristin Thompson and David Bordwell. The best one-volume world history. See my comments on Katz. Stage to Screen (1949) by A Nicholas Vardac. A vivid account of the growth of the cinematic impulse through the 19th-century popular theatre until the flowering of the film itself.

Food and Drink

The literature of food and drink is extensive, often excellent, and notable for its relaxed, unflurried tone: the rhythms of the kitchen, the maturing pace of the cellar, blended in prose. This list includes technical manuals, historical and sociological monographs, works of philosophy and even ethics — but all of them (perhaps because their subject is of universal interest, universal experience) have an openhanded accessibility not present in the specialist literature of other subjects. Food and drink may be complex matters; but they are also, these books tell us, first and foremost fun. Censors beware! Even Plato approved of the "drinking-bout" as a social lubricant.

See HOME (Grieve)

Geography and the Environment

Geography is a definitive and descriptive discipline, with procedures as precise and objective as those of any other science, and a specialist literature to match. But it is also, in its critical and speculative form, of crucial relevance to our whole view of the world around us — a wide subject, shading into anthropology, history, politics and sociology. This aspect (concern for our world and what we make of it) is of urgent interest today — and this list, therefore, includes books on the "new" geography as well as those reflecting the older, more segmented scientific discipline.

See ARCHITECTURE (Clifton-Taylor, Giedion, Le Corbusier, Gropius, Mumford, Newman, Venturi); MATHEMATICS (Moore, R., Pough); NATURAL HISTORY (Dorst, Huth, Sears); OCCULT (Jenkins); SOCIOLOGY (Raban, Willmott)

Abrams, C. Man's Struggle for Shelter in an Urbanizing World (1964) Searching examination of housing problems in the Third World; pulls no punches. Arvill, R. Man and Environment: Crisis and the Strategy of Choice (1967) Baker, J. N. L. A History of Geographical Discovery and Exploration (1937)
Essential work for anyone interested in the geographical ideas of people of other ages. This excellent book can replace many more specialized tomes; its bibliography points to some of them. Banfield, Edward C.. American, 1916-1999. The Unheavenly City. Rec: National Review Banham, Reyner, English, 1922-1988. Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies. Rec: Counterpunch NF Barry, R. G. and Chorley, R. J. Atmosphere, Weather and Climate (1972) Berry. B. J. L. The Human Consequences of Urbanization (1973) Global survey, highlighting the contrast in experience between Western and Third Worlds. See ARCHITECTURE (Mumford) Burton, I. The Environment as Hazard(1978)
The environment is often no kinder to man than man to the environment, and its dangers and threats must be analysed in terms of our perception of them: that is, they must be monitored and forecast, if we are to plan relief and reconstruction. Difficult but important book. Carson, Rachel Silent Spring (1962)
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One of the first and most influential works written on the pollution of the natural landscape by man's activities ("DDT equals RIP"); the basic thesis is still of crucial relevance. For up-to-date assessment, see F. Graham: Since Silent Spring (1970). See NATURAL HISTORY (Durst) Carson, Rachel. American, 1907-1964. Silent Spring. Rec: Boston PL LAT ML Nonfiction National Review NYPL Utne Chisholm, Michael Human Geography: Evolution or Revolution? (1975)
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Concise summary: population, settlement and the use of natural resources. Chorley, R. J. and Haggett, P. Models in Geography (1967) Cole, J. P. A Geography of World Affairs (1979) Oa World "political geography" showing the distributional aspects of man's political activity and the constraints of location and environment. Cronon, William. American, 1954- . Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West. Rec: Counterpunch NF Davies, W. K. D. The Conceptual Revolution in Geography (1972) a Excellent essays on new directions in geography. Dillard, Annie. American, 1945- . Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Rec: ML Nonfiction Fisher, C. A. South East Asia (1964) Forde, C. Daryll Habitat, Economy and Society (1934)
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Classic account of the interplay of environmental and social factors in simple cultures — those of food gatherers and hunters, herdsmen and farmers. Freeman, T. W. A Hundred Years of Geography (1961)
✓
Readable account of the main contributions and contributors in the field. Fuller, R. Buckminster. American, 1895-1983. Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth. Rec: LAT Guttman, Jean Megalopolis: The Urbanized Northeastern Seaboard of the United States (1961)
Classic study helped to popularize a new word as well as a new idea — that it was, or shortly would be, but one city all the way from Portland, Maine, to Newport News, Virginia. See Tunnard. Gould, P. and White, R. Mental Maps (1974)
P./
Landmark study in geography-by-perception, argues that what we think is there is often more significant than what actually is. Haggett, Peter Geography: A Modern Synthesis (1972)
P
Comprehensive coverage of the new ideas of the 1960s. Hall, Peter Urban and Regional Planning(1974)
Systematic account, with historical introduction, of planning, particularly in Britain and America. Also: World Cities Hartshorne, Richard Perspective on the Nature of Geography (1959) Concise and readable account of the classical idiographic and regional approach (temporarily?) set aside by contemporary ideas. Highly recommended. Harvey, David Explanation in Geography (1969)
1$
One of the first and still the best account of the positivist approach to human geography. Also: Social Justice and the City (influential, self-conscious account of his personal swing to the academic left) Hoskins, W. G. The Making of the English Landscape (1955) A a!
Fascinating account of how man's activities over the centuries have created the English landscape of today. Later publication English Landscapes (1975) is more profusely illustrated, but this book has more meat. Thomas (qv) provides a wider view of the same subject. Jacobs, Jane The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) Non-statistical, common-sense approach to urban problems and planning; the author believes that living in cities should be fun — and can be again, given the right approach. See Morgan; ARCHITECTURE (Banham) James, E. Preston All Possible Worlds: A History of Geographical Ideas (1972) P Jordan, Terry The European Culture Area (1973)
Systematic approach to the human geography of Western Europe; emphasis on demographic, economic and cultural elements. Kasperson, R. K. and Minghi, J. V. (eds) The Structure of Political Geography (1970) OP 4
Storehouse of many of the most important contributions to political geography since classical times. Updated second edition needed: but indispensable. King, L. C. Morphology of the Earth (1967)
It is probably an impossible task to write a concise survey of the land features of the entire earth, but King's valiant attempt makes a worthy start.
Leavitt, Helen. American, 1932- . Superhighway-Super Hoax. Rec: NYPL (geography)
Written in 1970, this book is about how the interstate highway system grew out of all proportion to its original purpose and is strangling the country with concrete and traffic jams.
Leopold, Aldo. American, 1913-1983. A Sand County Almanac. Rec: NYPL It is considered to be a landmark book in the conservation movement, describing the lands around Leopold's home in Sauk County, Wisconsin, and his thoughts on developing a 'Land Ethic'. Manners, Gerald The Geography of Energy (1971)
Excellent, short survey of the whole field of energy and policy-making. Morgan, Elaine Falling Apart: The Rise and Decline of Urban Civilization (1976)
English equivalent of Jacobs (qv); but more entertaining and of wider scope. N¦ss, Arne, Norwegian, 1912- . Ecology, Community and Lifestyle: Outline of an Ecosophy. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Nicholson, Max The Environmental Revolution (1969)
Important text heralded new concern with quality of environment; couched in general terms, but nevertheless acute. Pahl, R. E. Patterns of Urban Life (1970)
Lively discussion of some of the basic problems of urban geography and sociology. Paterson, J. H. North America (1979) Patmore, J. A. Land and Leisure (1977)
Looks at the demands being made on environmental resources by increasing leisure.
Reisner, Marc. American, 1948-2000. Cadillac Desert: the American West and its Disappearing Water. Rec: ML Nonfiction Sauer, Carl O. Agricultural Origins and Dispersals: The Domestication of Animals and Foodstuffs (1.952)
Lively, challenging book, worldwide in scope, on the overlap of geology with anthropology, history and archaeology. Scientific American Cities: Their Origin, Growth and Human Impact (1973)
Succinct essays on city origins, health, transport, squatting, etc. Simmons, I. G. The Ecology of Natural Resources (1974)
Comprehensive look at all the resources in the environment. Deals not only with the ecological implications of use, but also with the way in which resources are regarded by society. Stamp, Dudley Britain's Structure and Scenery (1946)
The way in which the geological structure of the country has contributed to the landscape. A fascinating complement to Hoskins' (qv) account of human influence on the environment. Stein, Gertrude. American, 1874-1946. The Geographical History of America. Rec: Bloom The Geographical History of America is a culminating work... the stylized presentation of the process of meditation itself, with many critical asides. It demonstrates far more than it proves, and although it is in no sense a volume of philosophy (Gertrude Stein never 'argues' anything), it is, philosophically, the most important of her texts." -- William H. Gass Thomas, W. L. (ed) Man's Role in Changing the Face of the Earth (1956)
Essays on the interaction of culture and environment. Book covers immense historical and regional field. See Hoskins. Tunnard, C. and Pnshkarev, B. Man-Made America: Chaos or Control (1963)
Apprehensive lest America (and then the world) becomes nothing more than one sprawling uncontrollable megalopolis, the authors suggest controlled design of the artefacts with which man shapes his environment — from suburbs, commercial and recreation areas to historic sites and the roads and freeways which link them all. See Gottman. Ward, Barbara The Home of Man (1976)
Comprehensive look at the problems of human settlements in an over-populated world. Also: Spaceship Earth
Watts, David Principles of Biogeography (1971)
if
This book, already a standard text, supersedes the great old (1936) Plan t and Animal Geography of M. I. Newbigin. Williams, Terry Tempest. American, 1955- . Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place. Rec: Counterpunch NF

Geography

Simon Ross

Geography is all around us, whether it be the built world of cities, motorways, and industry or the natural world of deserts, beaches, and tropical forests. With the recent growth of the environmental movement and concerns about global poverty and famine, natural disasters and climate change, geography has become much more issue-based than it used to be, although it still retains the important qualities of inquisitiveness, sensitivity, and sheer wonder and excitement which are at the heart of geographical study. The Earth is a fascinating, diverse, yet very vulnerable and fragile place and only through the careful understanding and management of its peoples and resources will it retain its character and support the generations to come. This is the very essence of geography and it therefore comes as no surprise that the subject has witnessed a tremendous boom in popularity and status in both school and university.
My journey around the world gave me a sense of global scale, of the size and
variety of this great planet, and of the relation of one country and one culture to
another which few people experience and many ought to.
MICHAEL PALIN The Gaia Atlas of Planet Management (1985; new edition 1994) by Norman Myers. There are many atlases and reference books on the market today but there are few that are as informative and lavishly illustrated as this. It is intelligent and thought-
provoking and there are many excellent thematic maps and colour photographs. It is divided into several sections including the land, the oceans, the elements, evolution, and civilization. I strongly recommend this book for all those with an interest and concern for the issues affecting the future of our planet. Around the World in 80 Days (1989) by Michael Palin. An extremely readable, amusing, and, in places, poignant account of the author's attempt to follow in the foot-steps of Phileas Fogg. Superbly illustrated and divided into bite-size pieces, it makes an excellent escapist's bedtime read for dark winter nights. Quest for Adventure (1981) by Chris Bonington. This wonderful book, dedicated to some of the world's greatest adventurers, is superbly written and well illustrated. It trans-ports the reader into territories that the ordinary person can only dream about and sets the imagination racing. Among the adventures described are the Kon-Tiki voyage, the flight of Apollo 11, the scaling of Mount Everest, and the crossing of Antarctica. Maps and Map-Makers (1987) by R V Tooley. Maps have always been at the heart of geography and they are also extremely collectable antiques, being attractive to look at and holding their value well. This book forms an excellent introduction to maps and the cartographers that painstakingly produced them and it will probably whet the appetite for seeking out some originals in second-hand bookshops. How to Shit in the Woods (1989) by Kathleen Meyer, This is an extremely amusing paperback which will bring a wry smile to all those who have been camping or back-packing in the bush. There is, however, a serious side to this American book: 'No longer can we drink even a drop [of mountain water] before purifying it without running the risk of getting sick.' Restless Earth (1972) by Nigel Calder. This book represented something of a land-mark in being one of the fast general readers (it accompanied a television series) to examine the role of the newly forming concept of plate tectonics in accounting for the major physical features of the Earth's surface. It is superbly illustrated and is still highly regarded today. Human Geography: Evolution or Revolution? (1975) by Michael Chisholm. In the 1960s and 1970s there were a number of important developments and innovations in the nature of geography and Professor Michael Chisholm attempted to make some sense of the changes. 'The primary purpose in writing is to convey an account of the direction and purpose of recent changes in human geography as conceived by some-one fairly close to the scene.' Chisholm's book is a fascinating read for it traces the history of the subject to the mid-1970s and attempts to look ahead into what was then regarded as a very uncertain future. Discovering Landscape (1985) by Andrew Goudie and Rita Gardner. This book aims to 'discover and try to explain some of the most appealing features of the natural landscape'. It is a splendid book for all those with an inquisitive mind who want to know a bit more about the history and geology of well-known British sites such as Helvellyn, Lulworth Cove, and Cheddar Gorge. Disasters (1980) by John Whittow. This fascinating book looks at the causes and effects of the major natural hazards such as earthquakes, landslides, and floods, writ-ten by a very well-respected author. It contains some amazing and often chilling eye-
witness accounts. Geology and Scenery in England and Wales (1971) by A E Trueman. For those with an interest in the geological development of particular landscapes in England and Wales such as the West Country moors, the Cotswolds, or the Lake District, this is a must for it is both informative and highly readable. Inside the Third World (1979) by Paul Harrison. This powerful and thought-provoking book is highly recommended for all those who have an interest in the Third World. As a freelance journalist Paul Harrison travelled extensively, particularly in Africa, and this book describes his many experiences in the general field of development. It contains some marvellous and often highly moving descriptive passages of landscapes and people.

History

History is an important branch of belles lettres, offering a writer the combined attractions of freedom of interpretation and a supposedly factual armature. When the balance between these elements is right, the results for the reader can be thrilling and compelling — for by taking in the parcelled past we take in something of ourselves as well. History cannot teach us prescriptive lessons about action, since each conjunction of character and circumstance is unique; its function is rather a moral one, offering us a mirror in which to see ourselves. To do this, we need a clear presentation of the facts combined with a critical overview which takes account of the writer's and reader's present as well as of the delineated past. The books in this list (a necessarily brief selection with no attempt at chronological completeness) have been chosen for just these qualities — and because, in many cases, they offer the pleasures of wit and style as well. Bloch, Marc, French, 1886-1944. The Historian's Craft. Rec: TLS Febvre, Lucien, French, 1878-1956. The Struggle for History. Rec: TLS (history)

American History

There are two notable characteristics of these books — perhaps they reflect characteristics of the American nation at large. The first is an urgent, philosophical, ideological approach to the creation of a just society; the second is a powerful antithesis between town and country, with its corollary, a species of romantic nostalgia for rural innocence.

See ANTHROPOLOGY (Agee); ARCHAEOLOGY (Hume); AUTOBIOGRAPHY (Adams, Franklin. Grant, Malcolm X, Miller): BIOGRAPHY (Flexner, Freeman, Parkman, Sandburg, Van Doren, Wall); DIARIES (Lincoln); FEMINISM (Flexner); HISTORY/ASIAN (Fitzgerald); POLITICS (Acheson. Piven. Woodward. B.. Woodward, C. Vann): SOCIOLOGY (Lewis, Lynd, Riesman)
Aaron, Daniel Men of Good Hope: A Story of American Progressives (1950)
Graceful biographical essays on assorted radicals, reformers and utopians (Henry George, Thorstein Veblen, Teddy Roosevelt, etc) by a literary historian with no discernible axe to erind. Also: Writers on the Left: Episodes in American Literary Communism; The Unwritten War: American Writers and the Civil War

Adams, Henry History of the United States during the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison (4 vols, 1889-
91)
Comparable in every respect to Macaulay's great Whig history of England in the later 17th century, this is possibly the best single work by an American historian. Its vast scope is too much for many people; the fascinating first six chapters of volume I are separately collected in The United States in 1800. Also: The Degradation of the Democratic Dogma. See AUTOBIOGRAPHY; HISTORY/BRITISH (Macaulay); RELIGION Aztecs, Aztecs (Mexico), 12th-15th C. Works on the Aztecs. (See also Broken Spears) Rec: Ward Bailyn, Bernard Ideological Origins of the American Revolution (1967)
Stresses the role of ideas — about constitutionalism and corruptions thereof — in both Britain and pre-Revolutionary America. Also: New England Merchants in the Seventeenth Century; The Origins of American Politics, etc Beard. C., M. and W. The Beards' New Basic History of the United States (1960)
it a Beards'-eye view of North American history, from the arrival of the Norsemen in the 11th century to the launching of the first US spy satellite in 1960. Quick-moving, sometimes glib (and a settlers' view: indigenous Americans systematically ignored); but a useful general perspective of the flow of events. Berger, Raoul Impeachment: The Constitutional Problems (1973) To many observers, the events culminating in the impeachment of Richard M. Nixon are some of the most crucial in American post-war constitutional history. This book (date of publication uncannily apt) is a judicious examination of the historical and legal issues. Also: Executive Privilege: A Constitutional Myth Black Elk, Native American, 1863-1950. Black Elk Speaks (With William G. Neihardt (1881-1973)). Rec: Counterpunch Trans Hungry Mind Utne (history)
Boorstin, Daniel J. The Americans (3 vols, 1958- 73)
This trilogy ( The Colonial Experience; The National Experience; The Democratic Experience) has little in common with the usual plodding textbook. Boorstin celebrates American vitality, adaptability and know-how. Lively, affectionate tribute to the American dream made flesh. Also: The Lost World of Thomas Jefferson; The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-events in America Boorstin, Daniel. American, 1914-2004. The Image, or What Happened to the American Dream. Rec: LAT Bridenbaugh, Carl The Beginnings of the American People: Vexed and Troubled Englishmen. 1590- 1642(1968)
Brilliant portraits of life in late Tudor and Stuart England, with emphasis on the reasons — economic, religious, political — why emigration to North America became a powerfully attractive prospect. Also: Mitre and Sceptre, etc
Brown, Dee Alexander. American, 1908-2002. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West. Rec: NYPL (history) Various authors, Aztecs (Mexico), 1519 ff.. Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico (Ed. by Miguel Le³n-Portillo). Rec: Counterpunch Trans Brown, Dee Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (1971)
* The near-annihilation of the American Indian. A shaming book: white behaviour depicted as almost uniformly dark. Also: Hear That Lonesome Whistle Blow Cash, W. J. The Mind of the South (1941)
Earnest revealing study by a Southern newspaperman of the narrow, twisted mind (as he saw it) of his beloved region. The South Cash described is now largely gone, but many still remember it — with more pain than pleasure. Catton, Bruce This Hallowed Ground (1956)
American Civil War from the North (Union) side. Style sometimes purplish; interpretations sometimes superficial; but steeped in period, readable, often memorable. See Wilson for literary images from the Civil War. Also: The Coming Fury; Terrible Swift Sword: Never Call Retreat
Chernow, Ron. American, 1949- . The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Finance. Rec: ML Nonfiction
Cockburn, Andrew. American, 1947- . The Threat: Inside the Soviet Military Machine. Rec: Counterpunch NF Coleman, Terry Passage to America (1972)
In the second half of the 19th century, over two million ordinary British people embarked on a journey as terrifying and unpredictable as any traveller's to Cathay or Arabia Deserta: from the slums and famine of Ireland and northern England they took ship for America. Swindled, robbed, plundered by diseases, insulted and terrorized, they eventually arrived. This book describes their incredible journey, mainly in the words of contemporary documents. Commager, Henry Steele Britain through American Eyes (1974) i * Acerbic anthology of American reactions to the mother country from 1778 to 1948. What an arrogant, stuffy lot the British were! Also: The American Mind Demos, John A Little Commonwealth: Family Life in Plymouth Colony (1970)
17th-century Puritans, the history of the family. De Voto, Bernard Across the Wide Missouri (1947)
De Voto was a popular historian of many facets of American life, but especially good about the West. Also: The Course of Empire Dewey, John Democracy and Education (1916)
Dewey was one of America's most respected philosophers; this book was perhaps his most influential. Richly thought-
provoking, it enunciates propositions that have since become dogmas. See PHILOSOPHY Douglass, Frederick. American, ca. 1817-1895 . My Bondage and My Freedom. Rec: Good Reading Selected Essays. Rec: SJC Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Rec: Bloom Rexmo The Constitution and Slavery. Rec: SJC Fischer, David H. Growing Old in America (1977)
The young country is growing old. Ingenious, personal and polemical theories on the transition from gerontocracy, via filiocracy to senility. No solutions. Also: The Revolution of American Conservatism; Historians' Fallacies Foote, Shelby. American, 1916- . The Civil War. Rec: ML Nonfiction National Review Fredrickson, George M. The Black Image in the White Mind (1971) White attitudes — callous, condescending, sometimes philanthropic, occasionally admirable — to black Americans, 1814-1917. Written in excellent clean prose. See Genovese; Jordan. Genovese, Eugene Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made (1975)
1$ Huge, imaginative study not of what was done for or to slaves but of their own efforts to preserve sanity and dignity, and of slaveowners who were not always monsters. Also: The World the Slaveholders Made. See Fredrickson; Jordan. Genovese, Eugene D.. American, 1930- . Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made. Rec: National Review George, Henry Progress and Poverty (1879)
A fine book about the perennial conflict between rich and poor, this famous work proposed a method of resolving all economic problems — so-called "single tax" — and led to Single Tax candidates all over the country for a generation. See Aaron. Halberstam, D. The Best and the Brightest (1972)
Power in America: how the best and brightest brains were called to be knights in JFK's Camelot, and how their light sputtered out in the mud and slime of the Vietnam War. Halberstam's scalpel prose and clear-eyed conscience (especially on US involvement in Asia) make him one of the most readable, as well as one of the sharpest, commentators on US affairs. See MEDIA Haley, Alex. American, 1921-1992. (See also X, Malcolm) Roots. Rec: Boston PL Hungry Mind Handlin, Oscar The Uprooted (1951)
Excellent book on the American immigrant, that maker of a civilization who has latterly come in for so much study. Handlin is a sympathetic and dependable observer; his story is compelling. See Coleman. Hartz, Louis The Liberal Tradition in America (1955)
Ingenious development of an appealingly simple thesis: that the US, being a post-feudal creation, has lacked both the pain and the profundity of older, European nations. Also: The Founding of New Societies Higham, John Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism, 1860- 1925 (1955)
Dispassionate analysis of the resentments and misgivings of native-born Americans in the face of large-scale immigration. Hofstadter, Richard The Age of Reform from Bryan to F.D.R. (1955)
Hofstadter was one of the most gifted American historians of the
century — elegant in style, broad in scope, able to borrow from other disciplines without going overboard. This book, an analysis of Populists and Progressives up to New Dealers, is characteristically clear and crisp. Also: The American Political Tradition; Anti-Intellectualism in American Life; The Progressive Historians: Turner, Beard, Parrington, etc Howe, Irving The Immigrant Jews of New York, 1880-1922 (1976)
Also: The American Communist Party (with Lewis Coser); Steady Work; World of Our Fathers. See Handlin.
Jones, Howard Mmnford 0 Strange New World: American Culture, the Formative Years (1964)
0 Wide-ranging, rambling, stimulating discussion of the New World's image, or images, from Columbus to the early 19th century. Also: The Age of Energy: Varieties of American Experience, 1865 — 1915
Jones, Maldwyn Destination America (1976)
Concise, expert account of "push and pull" factors that induced so many millions to leave their own land and come to the US. Also: American Immigration. See Bridenbaugh; Coleman; Handlin. Jordan, Winthrop D. White over Black (1968)
0 P How Americans, absorbing some of the assumptions of Europe, came to visualize black peoples of the past as — variously — innocent and depraved, docile and dangerous, human and subhuman, in need of civilizing yet incapable of passing beyond savagery. An erudite, perceptive book. (Compare Fiedler: Life and Death in the American Novel.) See Fredrickson; Genovese. Josephy, Alvin M., Jr. The Indian Heritage of America (1968) * 1 f Comprehensive survey of the Indian cultures of North and South America; brief, savage final chapters on the arrival of the whites. Essential background to Brown (qv). See MYTHOLOGY (Burland) Kammen, Michael People of Paradox: An Inquiry Concerning the Origins of American Civilization (1972)* f Kammen, a colonial historian, argues that from the outset the Americans were confronted with dual systems of authority and belief — those of the Old World and the New. He carries the theme toward our own time, maintaining that Americans have become addicted to dualisms. Witty, resourceful and provocative. Also: A Rope of Sand: The Colonial Agents, British Politics and the American Revolution; A Season of Youth: The American Revolution and the Historical Imagination
Kennedy, John F.. American, 1917-1963. Profiles in Courage. Rec: LAT King, Martin Luther, Jr.. American, 1929-1968. Why We Can't Wait. Rec: ML Nonfiction Kofsky, Frank. American, 1935-1997. Harry Truman and the War Scare of 1948. Rec: Counterpunch NF Kolko, Gabriel Main Currents in Modern American History (1976) 9* Occasionally doctrinaire, but very good on class, economic structure and foreign policy since about 1870. Also: The Triumph of Conservatism. 1900-1916; Railroads and Regulation, 1877-1916 Kraditor, Aileen S. The Ideas of the Women's Suffrage Movement, 1890- 1920(1965)
Also: Up from the Pedestal: Selected Writings in the History of American Feminism. See FEMINISM (Flexner) Lasch, Christopher The New Radicalism in America, 1889-1963 (1965)
Opinionated assessments of various opinionated Americans, from Jane Addams and Randolph Bourne to Norman Mailer. Also: The Agony of the American Left; Haven in a Heartless World: The Family Besieged
Le Sueur, Meridel. American, 1900-1996. North Star Country (history of Minnesota). Rec: Counterpunch NF
McCullough, David. American, 1933- . The Great Bridge. Rec: ML Nonfiction (history) McNaught, K. The History of Canada (1970) McPherson, James M.. American, 1936- . Battle Cry of Freedom. Rec: ML Nonfiction National Review Mencken, H. L. The American Language (1936)
Serious, thorough study by the enfant terrible of US journalism of the language that he loved and studied all his life. Nothing escaped his quick eye and ear and all of it is here. Mencken, H. L.. American, 1880-1956. The American Language. Rec: ML Nonfiction Meyers, Marvin The Jacksonian Persuasion: Politics and Belief (1957) Political rhetoric, economic and reformist ideas, Tocqueville, the social novels of James Fenimore Cooper — out of such materials Meyers evokes the mood of mid-19th-century USA. Miller, Perry The New England Mind: From Colony to Province (1953)
0 9* Miller did as much as anyone to rescue Puritanism from the caricatures of Mencken and others. A historian of ideas, he revealed the power and profundity of Puritan theology — and in this book, the retreat of the Church (up to about 1730) in the face of New England secularism. Also: The New England Mind: The Seventeenth Century; Errand into the Wilderness: The Life of the Mind in America, from the Revolution to the Civil War, etc Morgan, Edmund S. The Puritan Dilemma: The Story of John Winthrop (1958)
Economical, vivid biography of the Suffolk gentleman-lawyer and Puritan churchman who sailed for the New World in 1630 to become the first Governor of the Massachusetts Bay colony. Also: The Stamp Act Crisis; The Puritan Family Morison, S. E. Oxford History of the American People (1965) Controversial, idiosyncratic, fascinating history of America by the dean of New England historians. One of the two or three best single-volume histories — much more fun than Beard's (qv) for example. See BIOGRAPHY; TRAVEL Morison, Samuel Eliot. American, 1887-1976. The Oxford History of the American People. Rec: Fadiman 3 Morris, Edmund. American, 1940- . The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt. Rec: ML Nonfiction New York Times (publisher). American, Pub. 1971. The Pentagon Papers (Investigative reporting by Neil Sheehan et al.). Rec: LAT Parkman, Francis The Oregon Trail (1847)
Parkman, a frail Harvard graduate, followed the track of Lewis and Clark and in the process became a man — and a great historian. Also: The Conspiracy of Pontiac, etc. See BIOGRAPHY; TRAVEL (Lewis) Parkman, Francis. American, 1823-1893. France and England in North America. Rec: Bloom Rexmo The California and Oregon Trail. Rec: Bloom Parrington, Vernon Louis. American, 1871-1929. Main Currents in American Thought: An Interpretation of American Literature from the Beginnings to 1920. Rec: National Review Peterson, Merrill The Jefferson Image in the American Mind (1960) This book traces the ups and downs of the great man's reputation since his death in 1826.
Philby, Kim, English, 1912-1988. My Silent War. Rec: Counterpunch NF (history — cia) Washington Post (publisher). American, Pub. 1974. The Presidential Transcripts (Ed. By Carl Bernstein, et al.). Rec: LAT Schlesinger, Arthur M., Jr. The Imperial Presidency (1973) 9 Tends to blame Republican incumbents for creating the "runaway" presidency, and to be kinder to Democrats. Yet abundantly documented, lucid and incisive. Also: The Age of Jackson; The Age of Roosevelt; Robert Kennedy and His Times Schlesinger, Arthur M., Jr.. American, 1917- . A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House. Rec: LAT The Age of Jackson. Rec: ML Nonfiction Sheehan, Neil. American, 1936- . A Bright Shining Lie. Rec: ML Nonfiction (history — Vietnam) Sinclair, Andrew Prohibition: The Era of Excess (1962)
_I/
High-spirited, boldly argued social history held together by a clear thesis: that rural and small-town America has kept on fighting last-ditch battles against the city slickers. Also: The Betted-fait The Emancipation of American Women Slotkin, Richard Regeneration through Violence: The Mythology of the American Frontier, 1600— 1860 (1973)
The rich and complex function of the American wilderness in the European and then the American imagination: solitude, savagery (noble and ignoble), Davy Crocketts and Daniel Boones. Eloquent, analytical follow-up to the work of Turner (qv); especially interesting to read in conjunction with Thoreau's Walden. See Smith. Smith, Henry Nash Virgin Land: The American West as Symbol and Myth (1950)
*
Still one of the best attempts to portray America, and the West in particular, as a state of mind or set of ideas (a passage to India, a desert, a land for farmers, a back-drop for dime-novel heroics). Excellent use of imaginative literature. See Slotkin; Turner.
Smith, Page. American, 1917- . A People's History of the United States. Rec: Fadiman 3 (history)
Tarbell, Ida. American, 1857-1944. The History of the Standard Oil Company. Rec: Boston PL Counterpunch NF Thompson, Hunter S.. American, 1937-2005. Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72. Rec: LAT Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Rec: Counterpunch NF Turner, Frederick Jackson The Frontier in American History (1920) 4*
The key essay in this collection, "The Significance of the Frontier", dates back to 1893. It brought fame to Turner and started off decades of argument as to whether — Turner's argument — American democracy was truly and wholly a product of the frontier West. See Slotkin; Smith.
Turner, Frederick Jackson. American, 1861-1932. The Frontier in American History. Rec: ML Nonfiction Twain, Mark Life on the Mississippi (1883)*
There are those, not a few, who feel this was Twain's greatest book. Trenchant, uproarious revelations of the American character — a wise and marvellous book. See FICTION/NOVELS; FICTION/SHORT STORIES; HUMOUR; TRAVEL
Valentine, Douglas. American, 1949- . The Phoenix Program. Rec: Counterpunch NF (history — Vietnam)
Vo Nguyen Giap, Vietnamese, 1912- . How We Won the War. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Williams, William Appleman. American, 1921-1990. The Contours of American History. Rec: ML Nonfiction Wilson, Edmund Patriotic Gore (1962)
dti *
Literary history in Wilson's special vein: relaxed, ruminative; good on personality as well as on style and social context. Essays, beginning with "Uncle Tom's Cabin", on North-South antagonism, the Civil War and its aftermath. Also: The Triple Thinkers; The Shock of Recognition; The American Earthquake, etc. See DIARIES; LITERARY CRITICISM; POLITICS Woodward, C. Vann Tom Watson, Agrarian Rebel (1938)
Watson was a Georgia demagogue, veering between sincere radicalism and the politics of resentment. Splendid introduction to the Dixie mentality. Also: Reunion and Reaction; The Compromise of 1877. See POLITICS Worster, Donald. American, 1941- . Rivers of Empire: Water, Aridity, and the Growth of the American West. Rec: Counterpunch NF Zinn, Howard. American, 1922- . A People's History of the United States. Rec: Harvard Utne

Bernard Bailyn

Bernard Bailyn, whose historical work centers on the history of the colonies, the American Revolution and the Anglo-
American world in the preindustrial era, is the Adams University Professor at Harvard University and director of the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History. He has written extensively in his field and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1968 for The Ideological Origin of the American Revolution. He has taught at Harvard since 1949.
Wonderful books to read: David Thomson. Woodbrook (1974). New York: Irish Book Center, 1981. (Pb)
A profoundly moving memoir of a young English historian's love affair with Ireland and with his young Irish tutee. It is a perfect merging of personal experience and historical awareness, beautifully written. It explains the Anglo-Irish tragedy better than any book I know, and shows history to be a living force. Thomas Mann. Doctor Faustus: The Life of the German Composer, Adrian Leverkahn, as Told by a Friend (1947).
H. T. Lowe-Porter, trans. New York: Random House, 1971.
A brilliant commentary, in fictional form, on German culture — its great achievements and deadly disease. Beyond all the learning and speculation in the book, it is wonderfully inventive, simply as fiction. Ernest Jones. The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud (1953-57). 3 vols. New York: Basic Books, 1961. (Pb)
I read this as something of a morality tale of the heroic achievements of one of the most creative minds in the history of Western culture. It is told as a triumph of sheer genius and creativity over all sorts of adversity. And it happens to be true. William Faulkner. Absalom! Absalom! (1936). New York: Random House, 1972. (Pb)
This dark, multigenerational saga of Southern life, woven in an elaborate narrative structure, swept me along by its wildly imaginative storytelling. And then I discovered that there are real historical models for most of the major figures, especially the mysterious Colonel Sutpen. It is soaring fiction and weirdly perceptive history at the same time. William Trevor. The Stories of William Trevor. New York: Penguin, 1983. (Pb)
These are the best contemporary short stories I know: deadly bullets, all of them, piercing some sensitive area of common experience. Trevor, William, Irish, 1928- . The Love Department. Rec: Ward The Children of Dynmouth. Rec: Ward Virginia Woolf. The Letters of Virginia Woolf. Nigel Nicolson, ed. 6 vols. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 197580.
The sheer verbal skill in these dashed-off letters is superb — and they are marvelously perceptive and penetrating. So are her Diaries.

Alan Brinkley

Alan Brinkley is the Dunwalke Associate Professor of American History at Harvard, specializing in twentieth-century American history. His attention focuses on the Depression, the Neu) Deal, and the American South, His work Voices of Protest: Huey Long, Father Coughlin, and the Great Depression won the American Book Award in 1982. He will soon publish The Transformation of New Deal Liberalism. William Faulkner. Absalom! Absalom! (1936). New York: Random House, 1972. (Pb)
When I try to think of books that have given me particular pleasure and that have affected me in particularly important ways, I think first of William Faulkner's Absalom! Absalom! (1936), which I have always considered one of the greatest of all American novels, a work I've read and reread with constantly increasing admiration. Long before I became a historian, I loved this book for its remarkable depth and complexity and its enormous passion and excitement. Eventually, however, I came to see in this novel some compelling justifications for my own interest in the past. It succeeds better than any work I know in revealing how history can operate as a living force in the lives of men and women. Robert Penn Warren. All the King's Men (1946). New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1982.
For many of the same reasons, I'm greatly attached to Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men. It's a novel principally concerned with individuals and their pasts; and it too reveals how history defines (and often burdens) us in dealing with the present. But it's also a novel about politics, and few works of literature convey as clearly the elemental forces that politics can at times unleash. Mark Twain. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884). New York: Harper & Row, 1984. (Pb)
For somewhat different reasons, I think of Huckleberry Finn, the greatest of Twain's works and in my opinion the greatest American literary achievement of its, and perhaps any, era. Huckleberry Finn reveals more about nineteenth-century America than any work I know. And yet it also displays a moral sensibility that resonates clearly with the values and beliefs of our own era. George F. Kennan. Memoirs (1967). 2 vols. New York: Pantheon, 1983.
George Kennan's Memoirs, especially the first volume (1925-1950), have always seemed to me a work of special importance. It's an account of an indisputably important public life, and yet it reveals as well the private world of a man of enormous sensitivity and reflectiveness. I know of few pictures of the public world so deftly and contemplatively drawn. Richard Hofstadter. The Age of Reform; From Bryan to F.D.R. New York: Knopf, 1955.
Richard Hofstadter's The Age of Reform is a work with which I for the most part profoundly disagree. But it has also always been a model to me of literate, bold, and imaginative historical inquiry. It's a reminder to professional historians of how scholarship can move beyond the narrow, specialized bounds we impose on ourselves and make itself of interest and importance to a larger world. Graham Swift. Waterland: A Novel (1983). New York: Simon & Schuster, 1984.
Among very recent works, I'm particularly fond of Waterland, a novel by a young English writer named Graham Swift. Like Absalom! Absalom! and All the King's Men, Waterland is not only a "story," but a "history," an exploration of how families struggle with the burdens of their own pasts. It's also a wonderfully entertaining and absorbing mystery of great sophistication and complexity.

John R. Stilgoe

Author of Common Landscape of America, 1580 to 1845, Metropolitan Corridor: Railroads and the American Scene and a forthcoming book on American suburbs, John R. Stilgoe teaches the analysis of landscapes at Harvard's Graduate School of Design. He farms as an avocation.
These five books introduce five scales of space — from the Mediterranean basin to an obscure New England farm — and offer a feast of perceptual biases and techniques: whatever the challenges of the next century, the delight that so often accompanies disciplined scrutiny of the physical environment will continue to hearten alert travelers and readers, and perhaps make the challenges less daunting. Fernand Braudel. The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II (1949). Sian Reynolds, trans. New York: Harper & Row, 1976. (Pb)
One of the few genuinely masterful works of modern geographical-historical writing, Braudel's fourteen-hundred-page Mediterranean defines a region ecologically (from the southern limits of the date palm to the northern limits of the olive tree) and culturally (from the Arab east and south to the Catholic north and west), demonstrating in intricate detail the complex and fragile interaction of physical environment and human effort in one moment of time past. No recent work better displays the sumptuous richness of meanings implicit in the word region. Henry James. The American Scene (1907). Leon Edel, ed. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1968. (Pb)
Written after a self-imposed absence of some two decades, The American Scene is James's nonfiction account of stupendous change in the landscape and life of the eastern United States, change best designated as "modernization" perhaps, but certainly change that no participant — and no foreign visitor — perceived so crisply. James left an essentially agricultural nation and returned to one urban, industrialized, and ensnared in mechanized haste; high-speed trains, rural trolley cars and motorcars had changed forever the traveler's perception of landscape, foreshortening distances, twisting angles of vision and blurring detail, making the whole visual environment a sort of scene. Timothy Dwight. Travels in New England and New-York (1821-22). 4 vols.. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1969.
At the close of the eighteenth century, the president of Yale College began riding horseback (and later by chaise) through the northeastern part of the new Republic. His Travels details not only thousands of landscape constituents — everything from the texture of soil to the shape of bridges to the color of meetinghouses — along his winding routes, but interprets the landscape emerging from wilderness as the emblem of distinctly American virtues — order, simplicity, individualism, self-reliance. His volumes offer a glimpse of slow, self-paced, methodical wandering and a wealth of insight into the cultural baggage any observer of landscape and customs brings to a region, and particularly to his own. Henry David Thoreau. Cape Cod (1865). New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1972. (Pb)
As Thoreau walked the edge of the land, he found real wilderness, a spray-soaked zone of eroding sand, shipwreck, packs of wild dogs, sharks and people inured to assaults by wind, tide and surf, a zone that disconcerted the lover of Concord woodlots and fields. Cape Cod grapples with the concept of the margin, the amorphous zone neither wholly landscape nor wholly sea. There Thoreau encountered the edge of fear, the awesome recognition that tiny Cape Cod thrusts into an alien element, an element so powerful that it shapes not only Cape Cod landscape, but Cape Cod life, Cape Cod unmasks the Thoreau disguised in Walden, reveals the incredible fragility of a small land continuously besieged, and rams home the terrible intimacy of the walker exploring alien space. Donald Hall. String Too Short to Be Saved (1961). Boston: David R. Godine, 1979. (Pb)
A New Hampshire hill farm in the Depression and the early years of World War II forms the setting for autobiographical memory. But more than memory suffuses this brilliant book. Hall inquires deeply into the love of a farmer for his farm and its neighborhood, the love for individual rocks and blueberry plantings, for old cellar holes and hay fields, for neighbors as individuals; and he scrutinizes the survival of nineteenth-century (and earlier) agricultural techniques and attitudes into the twentieth century. On the slopes of Ragged Mountain endure an earlier landscape and an earlier way of living almost wholly isolated from the world-shaking events far off in cities, in Europe, in the Pacific. Stewardship. simplicity, forbearance, compassion — such are the virtues manifested in the fields and buildings city folk scorn as scrubby, rundown, or old-fashioned as their automobiles race past.
The Worlds of Christopher Columbus
W.D. and C.R. Phillips
Small Earth
Columbus
F. Fernandez-Armesto
Small Earth
The Invention of America E. O'Gorman
Small Earth
The Columbian Exchange A.W. Crosby
Small Earth

Ancient History

The predominance of Greek and especially Roman topics reflects, perhaps, a consistent Western preoccupation with cultural and social origins. But there are good representative books on the other principal ancient civilizations too.

See ARCHAEOLOGY (Chadwick, Clark, Cottrell, Hume. Mackendrick); ARCHITECTURE (Boethius, Lawrence, Vitruvius); AUTOBIOGRAPHY (Caesar); BIOGRAPHY (Plutarch); DIARIES (Cicero, Pliny, Seneca); FEMINISM (Pomeroy); FOOD (Apicius): HISTORY/ASIAN (Barham, Eberhard, Hall. Hambly); HISTORY/LATIN AMERICAN (Katz); LITERARY CRITICISM (High-et); MATHEMATICS (Lindsay); MYTHOLOGY (Harrison, Kirk); POLITICS (Aristotle, Plato); TRAVEL (Pausanias)

Arrian, Greek, ca. 100-180 CE. Anabasis. Rec: Ward Georg Gerster, The Past from Above Rec: cooltools
2005, 415 pages
$41 Gibbon, Edward Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-88)
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Certainly the wittiest and possibly the greatest of all European historical works; should be read in its "damned thick" entirety — but for the faint-hearted there is D. M. Low's excellent one-volume abridgement. Gibbon, Edward, English, 1737-1794. Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Rec: Adler Aquinas Bloom GBWW Good Reading Lubbock Rex Rexmo Seymour-
Smith Ward Autobiography. Rec: Adler Grant, Michael The Ancient Mediterranean(1969)
Grant is one of the great modern popularizers of ancient history. He takes short cuts, makes quick assessments; but he is persuasive and generally reliable. This book discusses the interplay between all the civilizations round the Mediterranean — a vast amount of disparate erudition encapsulated in 300 readable pages. Also: A History of Rome; Nero. etc Various Authors, Greek, 7th C BCE-10th C CE. Greek Anthology. Rec: Rex Grote, George, English, 1794-1871. A History of Greece. Rec: Lubbock Herodotus Histories (5th century ac)
The "father of history" ranges far and wide to analyse and describe the confrontation between East and West with which the 5th century BC began. Discursive, anecdotal, personal: one of the most enjoyable books of the ancient world. Herodotus, Greek, ca. 484-425 BCE. The Histories. Rec: Adler Aquinas Bloom Col37 Col61 Collh91 Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 GBWW Lubbock Rex Seymour-Smith SJC (Selections) Ward Heyden, A. A. M. and Scullard, H. II. Atlas of the Ancient World (1955)
a*J
Not just maps, but hundreds of splendid photographs and a well-written, informative text. Introduces classical history and culture as well as geography. Huart, C. Ancient Persia and Iranian Civilization (1972)
Crisp, clear and informative on the culture, society and military achievements of the ancient Medes and Persians. See HISTORY/ASIAN (Irving) Johnson, P. The Civilization of Ancient Egypt (1978)
For the beginner, a useful guide: enthusiastic, well-written (in attractively breathless style), reasonably accurate. Readers whose interest Johnson whets will go elsewhere for more objective, authoritative views (his bibliography points the way); but there is no better starting-point than here. Jones, A. H. M. The Later Roman Empire, 284-602(1964)
"This book is not a history of the later Roman empire. It is a social, economic and administrative survey of the empire, historically treated" — and all you are ever likely to want to know about it can be found herein. Also: The Greek City; The Cities of the Eastern Roman Provinces Josephus A History of the Jewish War (AD 75-79)
Jewish history, until Masada, recounted in choice vocabulary and high literary style by ex-combatant Jewish turncoat. Of particular interest to those who seek illumination on the Jewish character (or characters) at the time of Christ. Also: Jewish Antiquities Lehmann, J. The Hittites (1977)
If you can stomach its relentlessly jolly, journalistic style, this book sheds fascinating light on a very dark corner of Old Testament history. Lempriere, Jean Bibliotheca Classica (1788)
Oa*
Also called Classical Dictionary; an absorbing alphabetical account of personalities, themes and structures of classical works, as quirky and personal as Dr Johnson's Dictionary. Avoid all modern editions, which soften the delights in favour of academic accuracy. Lewis, N. and Reinhold, M. Roman Civilization: A Sourcebook (2 vols, 1955) 111
Anthology of translated extracts covering all aspects of Roman life: volume I the republic, volume li the empire. Authors range from the grandest of historical figures to humble soldiers writing home from barracks far overseas; translations are excellent, notes, bibliography and index are unobtrusive, helpful. Livy History (1st century AD)
Oa*
The remains of Livy's vast history of Rome (originally in 142 volumes, now reduced to something like 700 pages) have, more than any other works, formed later views of the Roman character. Moralistic historiography in its finest flowering. Livy, Roman, 59 BCE-17 CE . History of Rome. Rec: Adler Aquinas Lubbock Early Rome. Rec: Rex Mellersh, H. E. L. Chronology of the Ancient World (1976) Magnificently simple: chronology of events from 10,000 BC to AD 799. Covers every available area of civilization; endlessly fascinating cross-parallels. Procopius The History of the Wars (c. 565)
The reign of Justinian and the achievements of Belisarius (about whom Robert Graves wrote a famous novel), recorded by a contemporary. The A necdota (Secret History) forms an appendix not to be missed by those whose taste is (in the author's words) for "wanton crime and shameless debauchery, intrigue and scandal". Good English translation: Loeb Library. See FICTION/NOVELS (Graves) Procopius, Byzantine Greek, ca. 498-ca. 560 . Works. Rec: Ward Radice, Betty Who's Who in the Ancient World (1971)
a
Pocket reference to Greece and Rome. Mythological and historical characters presented with essential details and useful reference to their place in later art, music and literature. Good introduction on the classical tradition in the Western world, and its relevance today. See LITERARY CRITICISM (Highet) Rostovtzeff, M. The Social and Economic History of the Hellenistic World (1941)
Planned originally as a "short survey", this monumental work is the classic treatment of one of the most important periods of Greek history. Also: Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire Saggs, H. W. F. The Greatness That Was Babylon (1962)
A thick book (560 pages) on a neglected subject. Comprehensive; accessible. Sallust The Conspiracy of Catiline (c. 35 BC)
Analysis of the decline and fall of the Roman republic by a perverse, morose but not unintelligent contemporary. Vivid, stylized portrait of Catiline as a species of half-mad revolutionary mobster; much information on political and social conditions and attitudes as the republic rocked towards its end. Selzer, M. Caesar, Politician and Statesman (1968)
Standard scholarly biography of the "bald-headed adulterer" (as his soldiers, marching behind his triumph, sang of him). For a cooler, less authoritative view, see Michael Grant's (qv) Julius Caesar, for a fictional gloss, see Rex Warner's Young Caesar. See AUTOBIOGRAPHY (Caesar); DIARIES (Cicero) Suetonius Lives of the Twelve Caesars (c. 121)
i a
Suetonius was the arch gossip columnist of the Roman world: his book is full of scurrilous gossip, damaging innuendo, distortion and over-emphasis. Hugely entertaining. Good English translation by Graves (who also plundered Suetonius for many of the juicier details in his I Claudius and Claudius the God). See FICTION/NOVELS (Graves) Suetonius, Roman, ca. 69-ca. 150 CE. Twelve Caesars. Rec: Ward Syme, R. The Roman Revolution (1939)
The modern classic work in ancient history. The subject is the establishment of the imperial autocracy by Augustus; the style is wilful and self-pleasing, demanding several readings; the rewards are great. Tacitus, Roman, ca. 55-ca. 117 CE . Annals. Rec: Adler Aquinas GBWW Seymour-Smith SJC (Selections) Ward Histories. Rec: Adler GBWW Rex Ward Agricola. Rec: Adler Germania. Rec: Adler Lubbock Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War (5th century BC) Thucydides' work (perhaps the first-ever "scientific history") is idiosyncratic in its selection and treatment of material, and in style. Fascinating chiefly for intelligent discussion of some of the philosophical problems thrown up by history: the purpose of historiography itself, the sources of political power, the problems of empire, and the reasons for decline and defeat. Good translation: Crawley. Thucydides, Greek, 470/460-ca.400 BCE. History of the Peloponnesian War. Rec: Adler Aquinas Bloom Col37 Col61 Colcc91 Collh91 Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 GBWW Good Reading Harvard Lubbock Rex Seymour-Smith SJC Utne Ward Toynbee, A. J. Hannibal's Legacy (2 vols, 1965)
Exhaustive and perhaps the best account of the effects of Hannibal on Italy and the Mediterranean world. See HISTORY/WORLD
Veyne, Paul, French, 1930- . The Roman Empire. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Xenophon Anabasis (4th century Bc)
it
Fascinating memoir of the extrication of 10,000 Greek mercenaries from Persia by the general who led them. Xenophon's appeal is largely in his relaxed unaffected style. Without literary aspirations, he has an interesting, human tale to tell, and tells it well. Also: Hellenica: Memorabilia Xenophon, Greek, ca. 429-ca. 354 BCE. Cyropaedia. Rec: Ward Memorabilia. Rec: Lubbock Anabasis. Rec: Lubbock

Franklin Ford

Franklin Ford is Harvard's McLean Professor of Ancient and Modern History, respected for his work in modern French and German history. His research interest in the history of murder and tyrannicide culminated in the recent book Political Murder. He is a former dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
My selection, as you will see, is highly personal. They are all favorites of mine, in part because each of them has helped me to think in the present, about the past, with some hope of making more sense of the rest of the time continuum: the part that still stretches ahead.
A fuller understanding of humanity, including its gropings and errors, but also its achievements and flashes of greatness, is what I take to be one of the historian's primary goals. It must also be a goal of anyone who thinks seriously about dangers and opportunities, some of which are already urgent realities while others require imagination to discern even as serious possibilities. My choice of works that seem "historical" in the best, because extended, sense will no doubt surprise some readers; but so may the contents of the works themselves, when seen in that light. Garrett Mattingly. The Armada (1959). Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1984. (Pb)
Mark Twain. The Comic Mark Twain Reader. Charles Neider, ed. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1977.
George Otto Trevelyan. The Early History of Charles James Fox (1880). New York: AMS Press, 1971.
Max Weber. From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (1946). H. H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills, eds. and trans. New York: Oxford University Press, 1979. (Pb)
Anatole France. The Gods Will Have Blood (Les dieux ont soy) (1912). Frederick Davies, trans. New York: Penguin, 1979. (Pb)
Karl Polanyi. The Great Transformation (1944). Boston: Beacon, 1985.
Michael Shaara. The Killer Angels (1974). New York: Ballantine, 1975. (Pb)
Sybille Bedford. A Legacy (1956). New York: Echo Press, 1976. (Pb)
Felix Gilbert. Machiavelli and Guicciardini (1965). New York: W. W. Norton, 1984. (Pb)
T. H. White. The Once and Future King (1958). New York: Putnam, 1958.
Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War (ca. 431-404 B.C.). Richard Livingstone, ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1960. (Pb)
Robert Nisbet. Prejudices: A Philosophical Dictionary (1982). Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1983.

Classical Literature

Graham Ley

Classical literature now commands greater attention than ever before, with good-quality translations of a large number of ancient authors prompting a wide readership to explore the origins of a European tradition. Recent approaches to epic, drama, lyric poetry, the novel, and the prose genres of historiography and rhetoric have drawn on developments in contemporary literary criticism and theory, and have tended to integrate social with purely formal considerations. Partly as a result of this expansion in interest, it is now easier to find accessible works on individual authors than the kind of broad introduction that was popular a generation or so ago. But most translations now include an up-to-date introduction and some useful suggestions for further, critical reading.
A poet is a light, winged, holy creature, and cannot compose until he is possessed
and out of his mind, and his reason is no longer in him; no man can
compose or prophesy so long as he has his reason.
PLATO ION The Cambridge History of Classical Literature (1983) edited by E J Kenney and. W V Clauseh. A series of introductions by literary specialists to the full range of Greek and Latin literature in antiquity. Available in sections devoted to particular genres and subjects. The Oxford History of the Classical World (1988) edited by John Boardman. An illustrated compendium of introductions to ancient literature, an, history, and culture by specialist authors, with each chapter carrying suggestions for further reading. The Pelican History of Greek Literature (1985) by Peter Levi. A good general introduction by a Greek scholar who is also a poet.
A Short History of Greek Literature (1985) by Jacqueline de Romilly. A translation of an introduction by one of the most sensitive critics of Greek tragedy. Ancient Greek Literature (1981) edited by Kenneth Dover. A selection of helpful introductions to major genres and authors. Roman Literature and Society (1980) by Robert Ogilvie. A good, contextual introduction for the student or general reader. The Latin Love Poets from Catullus to Ovid (1980) by R Lyne. An outstanding study of a major tradition in Latin poetry of the later republic and early principate. Virgil (1986) by Jasper Griffin. An accessible introduction to the leading national and ideological poet of the Augustan era.
The series of translations in Penguin Classics offers many of the ancient authors in separate volumes. Two anthologies of translated selections, Greek Literature (1977) and Latin Literature (1979), both prepared by Michael Grant, may be helpful in providing an impression of the range available.

Asian, African and Middle Eastern History

Many areas of the world are sparsely represented on library shelves — West Africa and Australasia, for example, offer few satisfactory comprehensive histories. Other areas, especially in the Third World, are evolving so quickly that modern histories are obsolete before they even reach the shelves. The books suggested here, therefore, are a very broad sweep: without claims to comprehensive or final coverage, they make at least a start.

See AUTOBIOGRAPHY (Gandhi); BIOGRAPHY (Howarth); DIARIES (Stanley); ECONOMICS (Myrdal); POLITICS (Cabral, Hinton); RELIGION (Guillaume); TRAVEL (Kingsley, Lawrence, T. E., Maclean, Polo, Ronay, Roy)

Ajayi, J. F. Ade A Thousand Years of West African History (1966) MI Serious, dependable synoptic history of Africa; important and eye-opening. Allen, Charles (ed) Plain Tales from the Raj (1975)
Book originated in a series of radio interviews with fifty surviving administrators of colonial India. Extraordinary detail of extraordinary daily lives: coping with high collars, rigid etiquette, recalcitrant natives, the Edwardian British at their dotty, pragmatic best.
Anene, J. C. and Brown, G. (eds) Africa in the 19th and 20th Centuries (1966)
Collection of research findings and other scholarly writings; bitty and unsystematic; but individual papers are illuminating, authoritative. See Ajayi; Thompson. Basham, A. L. The Wonder That Was India (1954)
it a* Catchpenny title; magnificent book. Fat (600 pages), comprehensive, badged in every sentence with the author's zest for his subject. Covers the ancient history of India from 3000 BC to the coming of Muslims in AD 1565. Particularly strong on culture and social life. Usefully read in connection with Nehru (qv). Batatu, Hanna, Palestinian writing in English, 1926-2000. The Egyptian, Syrian, and Iraqi Revolutions. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Beasley, W. G. The Modern History of Japan (1963) 0 Excellent volume in recommended Asia-Africa series. Traces Japanese affairs from its opening to the West in the mid 19th century to the amazing first fruits of the economic boom after World War II. Annotated bibliography particularly useful. Also: Great Britain and the Opening of Japan. See Bergamini. Bergamini, David Japan's Imperial Conspiracy (1971)
Compendious political indictment of Hirohito and his faction; disputable interpretations, but a readable, extraordinary book. See Beasley. Boulnois, L. The Silk Road (1963)
Brilliant history of the silk trade, from Roman times to the Boxer Rebellion. Caroe, Olaf The Pathans, 550 BC-AD 1957(1958)
Northwest frontiersmen withstood Greeks, Arabs, Moguls, British Raj, and (more recently) Russian tanks. Exhaustive, illuminating study. Eberhard, W. A History of China (1948)
Admirable introductory survey. Use fourth English edition and supplement (for the 20th century) with McAleavy (qv) and especially Suyin (qv). See ARCHAEOLOGY (Chang) Edwardes, M. The Last Years of British India (1963)
Sympathetic historical study, seeking to place politics in a wider perspective. Objectivity at times leads to opaqueness; but is otherwise admirable. See Nehru. Elvin, Mark The Pattern of the Chinese Past (1973) Ji
Outstanding examination of technological and social forces in pre-modern China; essential analysis of causes and effects in Chinese imperial history. Particularly good on agriculture and printing — and on the reasons for China's technological stagnation after 1350.
Farrell, J. G., English, 1935-1979. The Siege of Krishnapur. Rec: Bloom Fitzgerald, C. P. A Concise History of East Asia (1966)
✓
Divided into three sections (China; Japan and Korea; South-East Asia); outstanding for style, precision of information, clear-
sightedness of historical judgement.
FitzGerald, Frances Fire in the Lake( 1972)
First-hand journalistic analysis of the modern history of Vietnam, a tragi-comedy (if you can't see the blood or smell the corpses) of East-West misunderstanding and mismanagement. Definitive answer to those who believe "we" were right to be in Vietnam. Gabrielli, Francesco The Arabs: A Compact History (1963) a -1
Also published as A Short History of the Arabs. Compared to Glubb (qv) a sparrow beside an eagle; but ideal for those who want a brief, clear survey of the facts. Particularly good on the early spread of Islam. Glubb, John The Course of Empire (1965) * I .1
Third volume of a monumental, recommended history of the Arabs. Offers, among other pleasures, a unique study of the First Crusade and Moorish Spain from the Arabian point of view. Hall, D. G. E. A History of South East Asia (1965)
0 a * .1
Marvellous 1000-page survey. Modern section has been updated to 1968 (3rd edition), but the volatility of the area outstrips even Hall's dexterous pen. For the first 10,000 years, however, a prescriptive read. Hambly, Gavin (ed) Central Asia (1969)
Historical survey from 500 BC to the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1950. Excellent on the Mongols, Uzbeks and Turks; a grim overview of a ruthless colonizing process, continuously bloody, from all directions, over 2500 years. Also: Cities of Mughal India
Hersey, John. American, 1914-1993. The Wall. Rec: BOMC Hiroshima. Rec: NYPL (history) Hibbed, Christopher The Dragon Wakes (1970)
Excellent popular account of China's relations with the West between 1793 and 1911. The section on the Boxers is particularly good. Also: The Great Mutiny, etc. See HISTORY/BRITISH
Various authors, Japanese, Pub. 1986. Hibakusha: Survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Trans. by Gaynor Sekimori). Rec: Counterpunch Trans (history)
Hinton, William. American, 1919-2004. Fanshen: A Documentary of Revolution in a Chinese Village. Rec: Counterpunch NF (sociology) Ibn Khaldun, 'Abd Ar-Rahman bin Muhammad, Arab, 1332-1406. Prolegomena (Muqaddimah). Rec: App Oriental Ward Ingham, K. A History of East Africa (1962) 01 J Inglis, Brian The Opium War( 1976)
fi 1 3
Opium trade between British India and the Chinese — urbane account of one of the most bizarre 19th-century encounters between inscrutable East and imperious West. Also: Roger Casement; The Forbidden Game Irving, Clive Crossroads of Civilization (1979) a ./ Journalistic survey of Persian history from earliest times to 1939. Continuing, blood-soaked saga of modern Iran starts here. See HISTORY/ANCIENT (Huart)
James, C. L. R., Trinidadian, 1901-1989. The Black Jacobins. Rec: Bloom Counterpunch NF (Jamaica)
The Future in the Present. Rec: Bloom Judd, Denis The Boer War (1977) di a *
Good use of first-hand documents. Popular historiography at its best. Also: Someone Has Blundered: Calamities of the British Army in the Victorian Age
Kapuscinski, Ryszard, Polish, 1932- . The Emperor. Rec: NYPL (history of africa)
Kinross, Lord Ataturk: The Rebirth of a Nation (1964)
9 ✓
Breakup of the Ottoman Empire during World War I seen as the starting-point for the modern Middle East and its problems. Lockhart, J. G. and Woodhouse, C. M. Rhodes (1963)
Access to Cecil Rhodes' private papers makes this a definitive biography of the seminal figure for 19th- and 20th-century southern Africa. Ludowyk, E. F. C. The Story of Ceylon (1962)
46 1
Discursive; informative; better on events after the Portuguese arrival in the 16th century than on earlier history. Second edition (1967) best. Usefully read in conjunction with Silva (qv). McAleavy, Henry The Modern History of China (1967)
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19th- and 20th-century China, set forthwith sense and style. In conjunction with Elvin (qv) and Suyin (qv), will supply all the necessary basic information. McCoy, Wilfred W. The Politics of Heroin in South-East Asia (1972) Fully documented account of the unsung anti-heroes of the whole Indo-Chinese adventure between 1945 and 1972 — the poppy-growers and their customers, including the governments of South Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, etc, who pushed narcotics in order to finance the cause of freedom, and turned the US army in Vietnam on to a nearly 10 per cent addiction to hard drugs. The fine print of history, blown up. McEwan, P. 3. M. and Sutcliffe, R. B. (eds) The Story of Africa (1965)
Comprehensive account of social, economic and political issues in modern Africa, linked to historical causes.
Morris, Donald R. The Washing of the Spears(1965) * Rise and fall of the Zulu nation. Unblinking, objective, devastating account of bravery, repression and genocide. Nehru, Jawaharlal The Discovery of India (1951) * Passionate, partisan, personal; "history" of India written "in Ahmadnagar Fort prison during the five months April to September 1944". History as advertising copy: the nation pulses with life before your eyes. Those who prefer a more objective view — and those whom Nehru excites to read further — are referred to Basham (qv). Phillips, Wendell Unknown Oman (1966) 4' _I
South-eastern tip of the Arabian peninsula, explored by the first Western historian and archaeologist to make a systematic study. Some of the book is an account of his travels; but the second half is a valuable historical survey. Also: Quataban and Sheba Preble, George H. The Opening of Japan (1962)
s _1
Preble was a US naval lieutenant in the fleet of Commodore Perry, which first opened Japan to Western commerce in 1853. This diary of the voyage (ed Szczesniak) is witty, detailed, and full of delightfully wide-eyed accounts of the wonders and customs of the fabled East. Interesting, too, for sidelights on 19th-century naval life. See TRAVEL (Dana) Ransforcl, Oliver The Great Trek (1972)
History outstrips legend. Well told, thoroughly documented account of one of the great epic stories of the whites in Africa. Also: The Rulers of Rhodesia; The Battle of Spion Kop Sadler, A. H. L. A Short History of Japan (1963) a Earliest times to 1951; the flow of events is charted with brisk clarity. Usefully read in conjunction with Beasley (qv).
Salih, Tayeb, Sudanese writing in Arabic, 1929- . A Season of Migration to the North. Rec: Meaningful NYPL Severin, Timothy The African Adventure (1973)
di a 3
Popular account of 400 years of African exploration. Standard names like Stanley are given good coverage; but the book is chiefly interesting for lesser-known Portuguese and Belgian figures. Illustrated from contemporary drawings, many by the explorers themselves. Silva, K. M. da (ed) Sri Lanka: A Survey (1977)
Pa
Geography, history, politics, culture. Comprehensive; objective. See Ludowyk. Sima Qian (Ssu-ma Ch'ien), Chinese, 145-86 BCE. Records of the Grand Historian. Rec: Fadiman 4 MW Asian Rexmo StJE Ward Sinuhe, Egyptian, Ancient, ca. 2000 BCE. The Story of Sinuhe. Rec: Ward Snow, Edgar Red Star over China (1937)
Influential account of the Chinese Revolution based on Snow's encounters with Mao Tse-tung, Chou En-lai and others on the 1936 Long March. See Suyin. Spence, Jonathan, English, 1936- . The Death of Woman Wang. Rec: Bloom The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci. Rec: Bloom The Gate of Heavenly Peace. Rec: ML Nonfiction Stanley, R. and Neame, A. (eds) The Exploration Diaries of H. M. Stanley (1961)
4*f Suyin, Han The Morning Deluge (1972): The Wind in the Tower (1976)
Massive two-volume biography of Mao; subtitle (Mao Tse Tung and the Chinese Revolution, 1893 - 1975) tells all. See Snow. Thompson, E. B. Africa, Past and Present(1966)
a -If
An attempt, for the general reader, to set modern Africa in its historical context. At its best when discussing the multifarious Western exploitation of Africa — a sordid, riveting tale. Vatlidotis, P. J. The Modern History of Egypt (1969) .1 _I
Egyptian history, 1800-1969. Good on political and ideological struggles between independence in 1922 and the establishment of the republic in 1956. Wilson, M. and Thompson, L. (eds) The Oxford History of South Africa (2 vols, 1969-71)
P
Exhaustive account, particularly good on indigenous cultures. Donnish objectivity is a welcome corrective to the partisan approach of many writers on this subject.

Books On Third World Literature

Kadiatu Kanneh

This collection of texts problematizes and engages with the category of 'Third World' writing, allowing for an informed critical focus. The texts vary from a direct analysis of a range of Third World literatures to a more theoretical or political discussion of prevalent themes, issues, histories. The texts examine debates around language, history, gender, often exploring how issues of self-determination and independence affect the analyses of literary criticism.
Night after night my mother would talk-story until we fell asleep. I
couldn't tell where the stories left off and the dreams began, her voice
the voice of the heroines in my sleep.
MAXINE HONG KINGSTON Myth, Literature and the African World (1976) by Wole Soyinka. This text interrogates the definition, both of African literature and of Africa, engaging directly with a range of literary texts from Africa and contextualizing their meanings and aesthetic value within a conception of Africa as a distinct mythic and philosophical whole. Decolonising the Mind (1986) by Ngugi wa Thiong'o. This text presents a polemic against colonial domination and the prevalence of colonial languages in African literatures. A major touchstone for political readings of African literatures. The Empire Writes Back (1989) by Ashcroft, Griffiths, and Tiffin. This text defines the field of 'Third World literature' as 'postcolonial', and presents a survey of the major issues and complexities which currently dominate literary critical analysis in this area.
The Wretched of the Earth (1961; translated 1963) by Frantz Fanon. This French text is rightly called an enduring classic. Dealing with the effects of colonialism on the identity and economics of the Third World, Fanon's argument insists on the relevance of political resistance to literature and its criticism. African Literature and African Critics (1988) by Rand Bishop. This text discusses a history of African literary criticism, dealing with contested issues of cultural appropriation, linguistic determination, and literary value. Chinua Achebe (1990) by C L Inns. This careful analysis of Achebe's novels and their significance usefully contextualizes his work and provides thorough readings of the narratives. Reading the African Novel (1987) by Simon Gikandi. A very useful reading of African literatures, both anglophone and francophone, with close analysis, comparative work, and insightful argument. Manichean Aesthetics (1983) by Abdul R Janmohamed. A well-argued and interesting polemic on the theory and analysis of African literatures, examining a range of African literatures and literatures about Africa. Motherlands (1991) edited by Nasta Susheila. A collection of essays on women's writing from the Caribbean, Africa, and S Asia. Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory (1993) edited by Patrick Williams and Laura Chrismas. This collection of critical essays designates the field as 'post-colonial'. The introduction addresses the politics of this designation, and the text provides a very useful collection of major essays. Resistance and Caribbean Literature (1980) by Selwyn R Cudjoe. A critical survey of Caribbean novels, drawing from the English-, French-, and Spanish-speaking traditions in the Caribbean.

British History

Books about breeding and taste, not least in royal circles, stud this list — and tell us, some will say, something of the British character itself. There is marked insularity too: often, it seems, the British went out into the world only to conquer, to govern or to disapprove.

See ARCHAEOLOGY (Frere); ART (Conrad); AUTOBIOGRAPHY (Bamford. Brittain, Graves, Hervey, Macmillan): BIOGRAPHY (Cecil, Donaldson, Longford, Nicolson, WoodhamSmith); DIARIES (Carlyle, Chesterfield, Evelyn. Greville, Montagu, Pepys): FEMINISM (Hiley, Norris): HISTORY/AMERICAN (Bridenbaugh); POLITICS (Bagehot, Clarke, Cowling); SOCIOLOGY (Chesney, Reeves, Roberts): TRAVEL (London)

Bacon, Francis Essays (1597) 0 Pungent observations on his own changing world, on man and society, on politics, ambition, marriage, youth and age, education: all the major issues which concern Bacon as much as they do us. Bede The Ecclesiastical History of England (731)
King Alfred thought this one of the books "most necessary for all men to know", and it's still fascinating. The history of Britain from the landing of St Augustine in 597 to the year 731, discussed in elegant, quiet prose. Blythe, Ronald The Age of Illusion (1963) ti „1
Emotive, with essays on the England of the 1920s-1930s: covers such topics as the General Strike. the Jarrow March. and Munich. Also: The Aspirin Age Blythe, Ronald Aketzfield(1969) First-hand accounts of life in a Suffolk village at the beginning of the 20th century. Pastoral idyll in parts — but poverty, accident and illness are there as well. People talking about their own lives: the red meat of history. Also: The View in Winter(on old age). See Bragg; Thompson; SOCIOLOGY (Terkel) Bragg, Melvyn Speak for England (1976) &If Oral history of the author's home town of Wigton, Cumbria, in the 20th century. Vivid recollections by ordinary people of their lives and experiences. Parallel to Thompson (qv). See Blythe; Briggs. Briggs, Asa (ed) They Saw It Happen, 1897-1940(1960)
a
Last of four volumes (all recommended) covering British history 55 BC—AD 1940. Anthology of first-hand documents, thematically arranged. The series strongly reinforces the view that history is collective memory, is people not events. Also: Victorian People; Victorian Cities, etc. See MEDIA Brown, R. Allen English Castles (1954)
1t J
Castles, the most emblematic of medieval buildings, are an essential study for anyone hoping to understand feudal society; this book (preferably use the 3rd edition) is the most comprehensive account in English. Also: The Normans and the Norman Conquest; The Origins of English Feudalism; The Origins of Modern Europe Burn, W. L. The Age of Equipoise (1964)
Admirable general introduction to the Victorian era; covers social and artistic matters as well as historical events. Burnet, Gilbert A History of My Own Titne (1723)
Cocky, garrulous, unpopular Scot, who went into exile under James II, came back with William of Orange, ended up Bishop of Salisbury. Pungent style, excellent information, shrewd insights, obviously prejudiced. An invaluable eye-witness account of the Civil Wars, the Commonwealth and their turbulent aftermath. Burton, Elizabeth The Georgians at Home, 1714-1830(1966) & Daily life in Georgian England: homes and gardens, furniture and artefacts, food, medicine, diversions and amusements. Also: The Elizabethans at Home; The Jacobeans at Home Cruickshanks, Eveline Political Untouchables: The Tories and the '45 (1979)
The author tackles the subject of England at the time of the 1745 Jacobite rebellion with aplomb, makes full use of the French archive material without which the story makes no sense. For specialists, essential; for those interested in the politics of rebellion, fascinating.
Dillon. M. and Chadwick, N. The Celtic Realms (1967)
DTI
Useful study of pre-Norman British society, essential for understanding the independent cultures of Ireland, Scotland and Wales, as well as the Celtic underlay of later English culture. Particularly good on religion, literature and art. The History of Civilization series (from which this comes) is patchy; this volume is excellent. Elton, G. R. Studies in Tudor and Stuart Politics and Government (2 vols, 1974)
Important collection of articles, mainly on the government of Tudor England, by an influential British historian. Also: The Tudor Constitution, etc Ensor, R. C. K. England, 1870— 1914(1936) 10 By far the best of the volumes on modern history in the Oxford History of England series. Detailed, accurate, sensible. Feiling, Keith A History of England (1966) A a-1
Basic one-volume history from pre-Roman times to World War II. Clear, readable text gives a swift but not unreliable view of the flow of events. Superb index; helpful bibliography; useful maps and charts. A model, in short, of what such a book should be. Also: The Life of Neville Chamberlain; The Second Tory Party, 1714-1832 Fitzgibbon, Constantine Red Hand: The Ulster Colony (1971) Good historical survey of the relations between Ireland and (particularly) England from the time of Elizabeth Ito the troubled end of the 1960s. Clear-eyed, dismaying read. Also: Out of the Lion's Paw: Ireland Wins Her Freedom. See Woodham-Smith. George, M. Dorothy English Political Caricature (2 vols, 1959) A IS Historians ignore political caricature at their peril; the general reader will be amused as well as informed by this excellent two-
volume survey of the great age of caricature, 1700-1832. No subject is sacred: ministers, taxation, the loss of the American colonies, the French Revolution, Napoleon — all are here. Glover, Janet R. The Story of Scotland (1960)
Revised 2nd edition best. Series, The Story of . . , generally recommended: crisp, authoritative, concise.
Green, John Richard, English, 1837-1883. A Short History of the English People. Rec: Lubbock Harrisson, Tom Living through the Blitz (1975)
The London Blitz, recorded through the war-time reports of Mass Observation. Fascinating record of civilian morale, the hardships of the home front, and hopes for a better future. (Compare C. Perry: Boy in the Blitz.) Hibbert, Christopher George IV (2 vols, 1972 - 73)
Fascinating; satisfying. Plumb's dictum on George IV, "never, never a dull moment", is fully justified. Also: The Court at Windsor, The Grand Tour, London: The Biography of a City. See Plumb; HISTORY/ASIAN Hill, Christopher The World Turned Upside Down (1972)
it *
Study of radical groups (scientific, religious, political, sexual) during the English Revolution. Essential reading for anyone who believes that England during the 1640s and 1650s was "Puritan". Also: The Century of Revolution, 1603 - 1714; Milton and the English Revolution; The Intellectual Origins of the English Revolution Laslett, Peter The World We Have Lost (1965)
A grass roots — or rather parish register — enquiry in depth into the lives of the ordinary people of 16th- and 17th-century England. Does for Britain what Demos did for 17th-century America. See HISTORY/AMERICAN (Demos) Longford, Elizabeth Victoria R. L (1964) A Easy to read, well researched biography, in a different class to Lytton Strachey's Queen Victoria, which is for those who are looking for imaginative literature, not history. See BIOGRAPHY Macaulay, T. B. The History of England (4 vols. 1848— 55)
A Old hat, of course; the quintessential Whig historian. Make allowance for his prejudices, and — pace T. S. Eliot — enjoy the superb narrative style. Famous, long Chapter 3 still gives an unrivalled picture of 17th-century English society. Also: The Lays of Ancient Rome. See LITERARY CRITICISM Magnus, Philip King Edward the Seventh (1964)
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Workmanlike combination of essential facts with a reasonable ration of titbits. Biographies of Edward VII are a crowded field; this is one of the very best. Also: Kitchener, William Ewart Gladstone, etc Mathew, Gervase The Court of Richard II(1968)
A *If
Mathew's study of the literature, art and way of life of Richard and his courtiers uncovers the origins of Renaissance court culture and of the cult of sensibility. Also: Byzantine Aesthetics Mattingly, Garrett The Defeat of the Spanish Armada (1959) a Absorbing account based entirely on contemporary record; more exciting than any fiction. Also: Catherine of Aragon; Renaissance Diplomacy More, Thomas Utopia (1516)
*RA
Ironic commentary on early Tudor England; the wit and wisdom of the "man for all seasons" and his vision of a new society won him admirers as diverse as High Tory Anglicans and Russian Leninists. More, St./Sir Thomas, English writing in Latin, ca. 1477-1535. Utopia. Rec: Adler Bloom Good Reading Rex Ward Morgan, Robin, See Sisterhood is Powerful Neale, J. E. Queen Elizabeth (1934) A _1 Brilliant mingling of scholarship with humane and compassionate understanding of a woman in high politics. Its only weakness is the somewhat pervasive view that the queen could do no wrong. Also: The Elizabethan House of Cornrnons; Elizabeth I and Her Parliaments. See Read: Rowse. Orwell, George The Road to Wigan Pier (1937)
a*
Perceptive, harrowing account of "life on the dole" in the 1930s; helped influence a generation's attitude to the spectre of mass unemployment. See FICTION/NOVELS; LITERARY CRITICISM; POLITICS Plumb, J. H. The First Four Georges (1956) *1/ Plumb was the first scholar to stress the complexity of George I; here he surveys the following three Georges with a similarly unjaundiced eye. Compulsive. Also: Sir Robert Walpole; The Growth of Political Stability, 1675 — 1725; Chatham, etc. See Hibbert. Power, Eileen The Wool Trade in English Medieval History (1941) Unlikely-sounding subject; but fascinating and of far more than parochial interest. Economic history at its elegant best. Priestley, J. B. English Journey (1934)
Sensitive evocation of England during the early 1930s by famous author and broadcaster. Read, Conyers Mr Secretary Walsingham and the Policy of Queen Elizabeth (1925)
M., jor study of Elizabethan foreign policy and elucidation of the intelligence system built up and operated by the spiritual ancestor of MI5 and the CIA. Also: Mr Secretary Cecil and Queen Elizabeth; Lord Burghley and Queen Elizabeth. See Neale; Rowse. Rowse, A. L. The England of Elizabeth (1950)
a*
First and best of a series of studies of the Elizabethan age. Better on aristocrats than on what he calls "the idiot people", especially the Puritans. Furious fun. See Neale: Read. Rude, George Hanoverian London, 1714— 1808(1971)
3
Marvellous evocation of Georgian London; when and why the churches were built and the squares laid out; shows how the 1715 rebellion affected the capital with its Jacobite versus Hanoverian protagonists. Also: Wilkes and Liberty; A Social Study of 1763-1774 Scarisbrick, J. J. Henry VIII(1968)
Scarisbrick sees Henry's reign as fractured by the break with the papacy, and portrays the king as a complex, Renaissance ruler, cruel and cultivated, foolishly intent on war with France, against all reason. Authoritative, accessible. Stenton, F. M. Anglo-Saxon England (1943)
111
Master-work on the subject; another outstanding volume from the Oxford History of England series. Also: The First Century of English Feudalism Strong, Roy Splendour at Court: Renaissance Spectacle and Illusion (1973)
The politics of spectacle. Fascinating illustrations.
Tawney, R. H. Religion and the Rise of Capitalism (1926)
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Classic which finally destroyed the concept of "the Puritan Revolution" by showing the connections between Puritanism and the needs of developing capitalism. Also: History and Society; Equality, etc Taylor, A. J. P. English History, 1914- 1945 (1965) *
Invigorating survey of 20th-century Britain. Taylor's occasionally idiosyncratic evaluations of people and events only add to the liveliness of the narrative. Also: The Origins of the Second World War, The Struggle for Mastery in Europe, 1848-1918; The Habsburg Monarchy, 1815 - 1918. etc. See BIOGRAPHY Thomas, Keith Religion and the Decline of Magic (1971)
Anthropological and sociological techniques uncover the life and thought of ordinary people in 17th-century England. Book that transformed its subject: essential reading. Thomas, Keith, Welsh, 1933- . Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century England. Rec: Counterpunch NF TLS Thompson, E. P. The Making of the English Working Class (1963) Superb book by one of this century's leading British historians. Also: Protest and Survive (crucial polemic on need for disarmament). See BIOGRAPHY Thompson, E. P., English, 1924-1993. The Making of the English Working Class. Rec: Counterpunch NF ML Nonfiction TLS Thompson, Paul The Edwardians: The Remaking of British Society (1975)
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Based largely on interview material; vividly conveys the texture of grass-roots Edwardian society. Trevelyan, G. M. England under Queen Anne (1930-34)
di II
Charts the rise, through war and peace, of England as mistress of the seas, an equal of France on land and the cradle of the Golden Age. Fluent, authoritative style. Also: England under the Stuarts; English Social History British History in the Nineteenth Century, etc Wilson, David Harris King James VI arid /(1956)
Fascinating account of the baffling character who united the crowns of England and Scotland and who was a combinationof wit and pedantry, learning and folly. Woodham-Smith, Cecil The Great Hunger: Ireland, 1845 — 49 (1962)
111 One of the best books on Irish history. If you are English it should make you blush with shame. Also: The Reason Why; Queen Victoria, etc. See Fitzgibbon; BIOGRAPHY

European History

This list concentrates, in the main, on the most useful and accessible surveys of this vast subject (the history, in part, of the whole modern civilization of the West). A few books on specific topics are included (usually where the subject is neglected or the treatment unique); but for the multitude of specific topics we recommend browsing in the bibliographies of Cantor (qv). Fisher (qv) and Lichtheim (qv).

See ARCHAEOLOGY (Piggott, Sandars); ARCHITECTURE (Clark, Conant. Harvey, Murray); AUTOBIOGRAPHY (Kropotkin, Saint Simon, Speer); BIOGRAPHY (Bainton. Bullock, Huizinga, Lachouque, Taylor); DIARIES (Frank); FEMINISM (Porter, Thomas); MATHEMATICS (Irving, Mendelssohn); MEDICINE (McNeill); POLITICS (Carr, Orwell, Stern, Trotsky); RELIGION (Deanesly); SOCIOLOGY (Blok, Elias); TRAVEL (Ley, Michener, Polo)

Barraclough, Geoffrey The Medieval Papacy (1968)
Fine study of what many regard as the single most important institution in the history of Western Europe. Brisk; short; complete. See HISTORY/WORLD Bloch, Marc, French, 1886-1944. Feudal Society. Rec: Counterpunch Trans TLS Strange Defeat. Rec: National Review Boussard, Jacques The Civilization of Charlemagne ( 1968) _I
Good account of the first unifier of Europe — salutary reading for those illiterati who try to use history as an argument against European solidarity. If it worked for Charlemagne ... Braudel, Fernand The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip 11(1973) *
Dextrously interweaves public with private affairs; makes more sense out of the tangled events of this turbulent time than might have been thought possible. Braudel, Fernand, French, 1902-1985. The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Fadiman 3 TLS Civilization and Capitalism 15th-18th Century. Rec: Fadiman 3 Calmette, Joseph The Golden Age of Burgundy (1949) Cantor, Norman F. Medieval History (1963) a ✓ Accessible, authoritative study of Europe in the 2nd-15th centuries. Particularly good on Church and State; Carolingian section outstanding. Chandler, David The Campaigns of Napoleon (1967)
II a *
Outstanding; essential companion to the biography by Lachouque. Also: The Art of Warfare in the Age of Marlborough, etc. See Geyl; BIOGRAPHY (Lachouque) Churchill, Winston, English, 1874-1965. Nobel Laureate The Second World War. Rec: ML Nonfiction National Review TLS The Gathering Storm (Volume 1 of The Second World War). Rec: NYPL Cohn, Norman Europe's Inner Demons (1975)
0
Scathing, scholarly attack on supposed Devil-worship leading to the witch hunts of the Middle Ages and later. Also: Warrant for Genocide; The Pursuit of the Millennium
Cohn, Norman, English, 1915- . The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages. Rec: National Review TLS Conquest, Robert, English, 1917- . The Great Terror. Rec: National Review (history) Derry, T. K. A History of Scandinavia (1979)
II ✓
Fawtier, Robert The Capetian Kings of France (1960)
* Fisher, H. A. L. A History of Europe (1936) a ✓
If European history can be covered at all in 1200 pages this book does so. Froissart, Jean, French, ca. 1337-ca. 1410. Chronicles. Rec: Bloom Fussell, Paul. American, 1924- . The Great War and Modern Memory. Rec: LAT ML Nonfiction Geyl, Pieter Napoleon. For and Against (1965)
*
Exactly what the title says: the arguments lucidly and elegantly marshalled. Gilmore, Myron P. The World of Humanism, 1453-1517(1952) a Characteristic volume from (recommended) The Rise of Modern Europe series. Grey, Ian Catherine the Great (1961)
it a Grierson, Edward The Fatal Inheritance (1969)
✓
Urbane account of bloodthirsty, terrible events: Philip II and the revolt of the Spanish Netherlands. Slips down as easily as milk
— but what an aftertaste! See Braudel.
Guicciardini, Francesco, Italian, 1483-1540. History of Italy. Rec: Ward Hale, J., Highfield, R. and Smalley, B. (eds) Europe in the Late Middle Ages (1970) Hart, Basil Liddell History of the First World War(1935)
at a
Authoritative one-volume history of the "war to end wars". Also: History of the Second World War; The Other Side of the Hill. See AUTOBIOGRAPHY Haskins, Charles H. The Normans in European History (1915) There were few more formative influences on Europe than the Normans. This unpretentious, well-written survey of their manifold achievements is the best introduction. Also: Norman Institutions; The Twelfth-century Renaissance Hole, Edwyn Andalus: Spain under the Muslims (1958)
MI a _I
Readable, popular treatment of an important subject. Fascinating to compare with the Arabian view in Glubb (HISTORY/ASIAN). Huizinga, Johan Men and Ideas (1969)
*
Luminous essays by a leading 20th-century scholar and humanist. "The Task of Cultural History-; "Patriotism and Nationalism"; "Chivalric Ideals"; biographical studies of John of Salisbury, Abelard, St Joan, Erasmus and Grotius. Contains famous, influential pieces on "The Problem of the Renaissance" and "Renaissance and Realism". See BIOGRAPHY
Huizinga, Johan, Dutch, 1872-1945. The Waning of the Middle Ages. Rec: Counterpunch Trans GBWW National Review TLS Jones, Gwyn A History of the Vikings (1969)
&Oaf Keegan, John The Face of Battle (1976)
*4
The uncharted (perhaps unpalatable) face of much history: an anatomy of the soldiers who stood in line, who did the work. Their conditions, feelings, reactions. Disturbing, unforgettable book, despite weak conclusions. See Middlebrook.
Keegan, John, English, 1934- . The Face of Battle. Rec: ML Nonfiction The Second World War. Rec: National Review Ladurie, E. le Roy Montaillou(1975)
P *
Pyrenean village, 1294-1324, caught between Albigensian heretics and the Inquisition, brilliantly reconstructed from contemporary documents. Ordinary community is laid bare as authentically as in a novel. Also: Carnival, etc
Le Roy Ladurie, Emmanuel, French, 1929- . Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error. Rec: Counterpunch Trans The Peasants of Languedoc. Rec: TLS (history) Larkin, Maurice Gathering Pace (1969)
a Excellent textbook on continental Europe, 1870-1945. Readable, objective. Lawrence, D. H. Movements in European History (1921)
Conceived as a school textbook, for money, this "series of vivid sketches of movements and people" encapsulates some of Lawrence's most idiosyncratic views of the historical process, leadership, political morality. 1971 edition (recommended) includes later Epilogue on fascism, Russian communism and British democracy post-1918. Rare, fascinating oddity. See DIARIES; FICTION/NOVELS ; FICTION/SHORT STORIES; LITERARY CRITICISM ; POETRY ; TRAVEL
Lefebvre, Georges, French, 1874-1959. The Coming of the French Revolution. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Lewis, Peter Later Medieval France (1968) Lichtheim, George Europe in the 20th Century (1972)
; Cultural survey, seeking to place political, social and artistic movements in philosophical/historical context. Good on the decline of bourgeois liberalism, and on the effect of supra-national organizations on the nation state. Macartney, C. A. and Palrner, A. W. Independent Eastern Europe (1962)
P ✓
Authors believe that Eastern Europe between 1919 and 1939 presented a unity, posing an identity of problems and playing a single crucial role in the development of subsequent political attitudes. This view, persuasively argued, underlies a good general survey of the area and the period. Massie, Robert K. Nicholas and Alexandra (1968) it a * ✓ _I
Dispassionate account of moving, tragic events, often more like Dostoyevsky than real life. Good use of diaries, letters and other first-hand evidence. Maurois, Andre A History of France (1949) it Is a *
Personal, discursive, engrossing — a great polymath in full control. Third edition (1960) revised (and extended to cover the rise of de Gaulle). Middlebrook, Martin The First Day on the Sorrune (1971)
a *
Compilation based on hundreds of first-hand accounts. Like Keegan (qv) essential reading for anyone who believes in the glory and nobility of war. Fine maps and appendices. Also: The Kaiser's Battle; Battleship, etc Moss, H. L. B. The Birth of the Middle Ages, 395— 814(1935)
Finely written account of the decline of the Roman empire, barbarian settlements in the West, Byzantium, Muslim conquests, the history of the Franks to Charlemagne, and the early history of the papacy. No Dark Ages here: a luminous, exciting book. Mundy, J. H. Europe in the High Middle Ages, 1150- 1309(1973) 0 Nelson, W. H. The Soldier Kings (1970)
The house of Hohenzollern, from its shabby 15th-century origins to the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II after World War I. Best read with the pinch of salt provided by E. J. Feuchtwangler in Prussia, Myth and Reality (1970). Origo, Iris The Merchant of Prato (1957)
*
Evocative study of the archives of the Datini family, makes it possible to revive an individual 14th-century merchant in all facets of his commercial and social life. Pares, Bernard A History of Russia (1926)
Marvellous account to the Revolution, and good on the politics of the succeeding Bolshevik years. Second edition (1947) extends the story to include Russia under Stalin, by an old man out of sympathy with communism. This dying fall should not obscure the book's general objectivity and excellence.
Pemoud, G. and Flaissier, S. The French Revolution (1959)
*
Story of aristocrats and ordinary people, told entirely in eye-witness accounts. Psellus, Michael Fourteen Byzantine Rulers (1063-75)
r4 *
Contemporary statesman on emperors and empresses of the Byzantine golden age. Extravagant lives; extravagant, splendid telling. Runchnan, Steven A History of the Crusades (3 vols. 1951 -54)
* One of the best, most thrilling historical books of the 20th century, engrossing for specialists, accessible for all. Also: The Sicilian Vespers; The Fall of Constantinople; The Last Byzantine Renaissance Ryder, A. J. Twentieth-century Germany: From Bismarck to Brandt (1973)
a -1
Snorri Sturluson, Icelandic, 1178-1241. Egil's Saga. Rec: Smiley Heimskringla. Rec: Ward Prose Edda. Rec: Bloom Solzhenitsyn, A. I. The Gulag Archipelago (1973)
*
Extraordinary, heart-rending report on the lives — and deaths — of the victims of Stalin's repression. The Gulag was the system of prison camps through which millions of Russians passed in the years before and after World War II. Solzhenitsyn's account is fervently biased — but how could it be otherwise? As a writer, he has here found his great theme; beside this book his fiction (worthy enough but grossly overpraised — political rawness is no guarantee of literary quality) pales into its proper subordinate place. Southern, R. W. The Making of the Middle Ages (1953)
a*.f
Begins more or less where Moss (qv) leaves off, and ends in 1200. This is the period of the founding of our civilization, and the author, steeped in every aspect of it, writes quite beyond the range of most historians. Simply outstanding. Also: Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages
Sukhanov, N. N., Russian, 1882-1940. The Russian Revolution, 1917. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Taylor, A. J. P., English, 1906-1990. The Struggle for Mastery in Europe. Rec: TLS Thompson, David Europe since Napoleon (1957)
1$ Fat (800 pages), comprehensive, smoothly written. Weaker on culture than on politics and military history; notably good on 19th-century colonialism. Tuchman, Barbara The Guns of August (1962)
*
To be compared with Middlebrook (qv), Tuchman's book reminds us again that never in human history was so much folly manifested by so many as in World War 1 — the "Great War", as we ironically call it. Also: A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century; The Proud Tower Tuchman, Barbara. American, 1912-1989. The Guns of August. Rec: ML Nonfiction Tyng, Sewell. American, 1895-1946. The Campaign of the Marne, 1914. Rec: National Review Tyler, Royall The Emperor Charles the Fifth (1956) 01 -If Wilmot, Chester The Struggle for Europe (1952)
Outstanding first-hand account of World War II. Wilmot, Chester, Australian, 1911-1954. The Struggle for Europe. Rec: National Review Yates, Frances, English, 1899-1981. The Art of Memory. Rec: Counterpunch NF ML Nonfiction This book "drew attention to the key role played by magic in early modern science and philosophy" (Wikipedia)

Walter Jackson Bate

Walter Jackson Bate is the Kingsley Porter University Professor at Harvard and a distinguished scholar of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century English literature. Among his many books are From Classic to Romantic (1946). The Burden of the Past (1969) and two biographies, John Keats (1964) and Samuel Johnson (1977), each of which won the Pulitzer Prize for biography.
Great books are the most valuable means of deepening us as "experiencing natures"; and it is only as experiencing natures that we can prepare for new challenges. Benjamin P. Thomas. Abraham Lincoln (1952). New York: Knopf, 1974. (Pb)
The most succinct of the many biographies of one of humanity's greatest heroes. The Bible. King James version (1611).
Often called the "noblest monument of English prose," the King James version is interwoven with the texture of our speech, and remains a supreme beacon for the spiritual and moral life of mankind. James Boswell. The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791). New York: Random House, 1964. (Pb)
The most fascinating of all biographies, and one of universal appeal because its subject shared so deeply almost every aspect of the experience we all share. Werner W. Jaeger. Paideia: The Ideals of Greek Culture (1934). Gilbert Highet, trans. New York: Oxford University Press, 1965. (Pb)
A profound study of what permitted a small people to create the basis of Western culture. Alfred North Whitehead. Science and the Modern World (1925). New York: Free Press, 1967. (Pb)
Unrivaled in showing what, from the ancient world to the twentieth century, permitted and encouraged the giant adventures of the mind that have formed our world. William Shakespeare. Shakespeare: Complete Works (1592-1611). Alfred Harbage, ed. Baltimore: Penguin, 1969.
The most searching example in literature of the interplay of human action presented in language no other writer has equaled.

Stanley Hoffmann

Stanley Hoffmann is a professor of government and the C. Douglas Dillon Professor of the Civilization of France at Harvard University. Professor Hoffmann has been teaching and writing both about international affairs and about France for thirty years. Educated in France, he came to Harvard as a teacher in 1955.
All of these books (1) deal with the most fundamental choices — often tragic — individuals are called upon to make, particularly as citizens, and (2) are works of art and not merely of instruction. Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Social Contract (1762). Maurice Cranston, trans. New York: Penguin, 1968. (Pb)
The most powerful attempt to reconcile freedom and authority, self-fulfillment and community. It fails, I think — but what an impressive and instructive failure. Leo Tolstoy. War and Peace (1865-69). Louise Maude and Aylmer Maude, trans. George Gibian, ed. New York: W. W. Norton, 1966.
The greatest novel ever written and the most probing attempt to show the effects of war on a diverse group of individuals. Jean-Baptiste Racine. Andromaque (1667). John Cairncross, trans. New York: Penguin, 1976. (Pb)
Love, revenge, lust, motherhood and the aftermath of the Trojan War, in the perfect poetic mix of passion and formality that is Racine's genius.
Roger Martin du Gard. Les Thibault (1922-40). New York: Larousse, n.d. (Pb)
Even longer than, albeit not as rich as War and Peace, this is another fresco about individuals and war (the First World War) and a humane, wise, compassionate and deeply pessimistic study of lives. Charles de Gaulle. The Complete War Memoirs of Charles de Gaulle (1954-59). J. Griffin and R. Howard, trans. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1964.
The epic story of France's fall and liberation, written by the chief actor in the drama, a leader of genius who was also a magnificent writer. Raymond Aron. Peace and War: A Theory of International Relations (1962). Richard Howard and Annette Baker Fox, trans. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1966.
The most comprehensive study of international politics, which tells us both about the limits and about the possibilities of empirical theory and explores the dilemma of ethical action in world affairs.

John V. Kelleher

John Kelleher is about to retire as professor of Irish studies at Harvard University. where he is acting chairman of the Celtic Department. His connection with Harvard began in 1940 as a member of the Society of Fellows — in his words, "to paraphrase an old joke: the first in the field and the first to leave it.-
I wrote sketches for recommended readings several times, but they were in lame prose and besides I was put off by the realization that it wasn't particular books but individual authors that had significantly influenced me. I hope the resulting compromises may be of use. Sean O'Faolain. The Finest Stories. Boston: Little, Brown, 1957.
I put down this title because I must record my debt to O'Faolain and because he is best known here for his short stories, but I could as properly cite his biographies of Irish figures, or his editorials in The Bell (1939-45), or his many studies of the Irish people and the nation they have been creating. He is supremely the writer as citizen. I know of none so sensitively perceptive and sane. James Joyce. Ulysses (1918-20). New York: Random House, 1976. (Pb)
For years I wondered why the book continued to appeal despite the steadily rising barrier of interpretation that surrounds it. Finally it dawned on me that Ulysses is about the only upbeat masterpiece of this century — and immensely funny too. In its own artfully tangled way it records the heartening adventures of people of quiet courage. John Millington Synge. The Playboy of the Western World (1907). New York: Barnes & Noble, 1968.
I think Synge was the greatest of all modern Irish writers. His work is all of a piece, rammed with vitality, and, for all of Synge's own iron reserve, it has extraordinary emotional range. In this play he also shows that he is a wonderful comic writer — probably the more so for his basic sense of tragedy. Eoin MacNeill. Celtic Ireland (1921). Dublin: University Press of Ireland, 1981.
Again one title to indicate my debt to a man's entire work. MacNeill would be happy to know that much of what he wrote is now outdated. He was that rare type, a great innovative scholar quite without vanity. Almost alone he transformed the study of early Irish history from apology or polemic to true historiography, and did that happily. Maria Edgeworth. Castle Rackrent (1800). New York: Oxford University Press, 1982. (Pb)
An extraordinarily seminal work by a woman of genius. It is not only the first true Irish novel, but the first regional novel, immensely admired in its day and imitated everywhere. Raised in England, brought to Ireland as a young girl, she somehow learned more about Ireland, present and past, than I am sure she was aware of knowing. The result is a work of vivid realism. William Butler Yeats. The Poems of W B. Yeats (1887-1939). Richard Finneran, ed. New York: Macmillan, 1962. (Pb)
I cite the latest and most complete edition. Yeats parlayed the damnedest combination of natural gifts, spasmodic learning, native shrewdness, indomitable dedication, some willful half-beliefs, and a few deep insights — parlayed these into memorable, powerful poetry. Useful poetry, too, that sticks to the ribs.
Europe: the Emergence of an Idea D. Hay Europe
Europe: a HistoryN. Davies
Europe
The Times Illustrated History of Europe
F. Fernandez-Armesto
Europe

Latin American History

These books catalogue the (continuing) collisions between the Old World and the New, and, less obviously, the progress of one of the last and bloodiest confrontations between Christianity and ordered pagan civilization. The ideological conflicts of the wider world are galvanized by technological overkill; but they yield nothing in violent dogma, dogmatic violence, to the death-
throes of the old.

See ARCHAEOLOGY (Deuel); BIOGRAPHY (Madariaga, Morison); MEDICINE (McNeill): MYTHOLOGY (Burland); SOCIOLOGY (Lewis): TRAVEL (Chadwick)

Boxer, C. R. The Portuguese Seaborne Empire, 1415 - 1825
(1969) Oaf
Portuguese expansion in Asia and in the Americas; stylish general his ,ory of colonial Brazil. Useful background to Freyre (qv) and Hemming (qv). Also: The Golden Age of Brazil, 1695 - 1750; The Dutch Seaborne Empire, 1600- 1800 Collier, Simon From Cortes to Castro (1974)
a
General history of Latin America to 1973, combined with chapters of social, economic and political analysis. Also: Ideas and Politics of Chilean Independence, 1808-33
Cunha, Euclides da, Brazilian, 1866-1909. Rebellion in the Backlands. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Freyre, Gilberto The Masters and the Slaves (1933) P* *
According to one critic (Tannenbaum), the creation of national identity and pride, which in Mexico required "a bloody revolution, untold suffering and the loss of a million lives", was achieved in Brazil "by this one man and this one book". Also: The Mansions and the Shanties-, Order and Progress Gerbi, Antonello The Dispute of the New World: The History of a Polemic, 1750- 1900 (1973)
p
Masterpiece of intellectual history traces in witty, learned style the origins and development of the great debate on the alleged inferiority of both man and environment in the Americas. Gibson, Charles The Aztecs underSpanish Rule (1964)
0 P History of Mexico from the Spanish conquest to 19th-century independence, reconstructed with scholarly care and told with sympathy and objectivity. Also: The Inca Concept of Sovereignty and the Spanish Administration in Pent; Spain in America Hennaing, J. Red Gold: The Conquest of the Brazilian Indians, 1500 - 1800(1976)
Well-researched, readable corrective to Freyre's (qv) somewhat roseate view of Brazilian racial integration; powerful case study of this central, if grim, theme in Latin American history. Also: The Conquest of the Incas Hennessy, Alistair The Frontier in Latin American History (1978)
9
Something of a misnomer. Sees the frontier (political, military, economic, racial) as a central theme of Latin American history from the Conquest to the present; this allows coverage of a wealth of topics (some neglected in conventional narrative histories). Difficult, but worthwhile. Katz, Friederich The Ancient American Civilizations (1972) ita-1 Stimulating analysis of pre-Columbian civilizations, particularly good on social and economic structures (less so on art and literature); usefully points the way to further reading. Also: a major study of Pancho Villa and the Mexican Revolution, in preparation and should be worth waiting for. Lynch, John The Spanish American Revolutions, 1808 —26 (1973) Good general study of the independence movements which liberated Latin America from Spanish colonial rule, concentrates on Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia and Mexico. Also: Spain under the Habsburgs Meyer, Jean A. The Cristero Rebellion: The Mexican People between Church and State, 1926-29(1976)
Pa./
A brilliant account by French historian of the "alternative" Mexican Revolution, focusing on the Catholic peasant revolt of the 1920s but illuminating wider aspects of religion and politics in modern Mexico. Also: The A merican Revolution, 1910-40 Parry, J. H. The Spanish Seaborne Empire (1966)
&a/
Probably the best general account in English of the Spanish empire in the New World. Also: The Age of Reconnaissance; Europe and a Wider World Prescott, William H. History of the Conquest of Mexico (1843)
109
One of those monumental narrative histories which (rightly or wrongly) historians seldom now attempt; describes Cortés's conquest of the Aztec empire in grandiloquent style and with immense local detail — even though Prescott never once himself set foot in Mexico. Also: History of the Conquest of Peru Thomas, Hugh Cuba: The Pursuit of Freedom (1971)
Pa J
Comprehensive history of Cuba from the Spanish conquest to Castro (concentrating attention on the modern period). Prolix, chaotic. Also: The Spanish Civil War Wachtel, Nathan The Vision of the Vanquished: The Spanish Conquest of Peru through Indian Eyes, 1530-1570(1976)
Poignant contrast to Prescott's (qv) account; draws on Indian sources to give Indian perspective. Womack, John Zapata and the Mexican Revolution (1968)
Pedants cavil at the book's colloquial style, and the social scientists at its dearth of sociological analysis; it remains the best work in English on the Mexican Revolution.
World History
A convincing, definitive synthesis of world history remains to be written. For future master-masons, these books may offer guidelines; for the rest of us, interested visitors to the quarry. they are intriguing, rough-hewn blocks announcing a potential they cannot yet fulfil. Barnes, Harry Elmer. American, 1889-1968. A History of Historical Writing. Rec: Ward Barraclough, Geoffrey The Times Atlas of World History (1978) v * Geographical, historical, cultural and military information clearly and concisely displayed. Essential reference book, and a model of its kind. See HISTORY/EUROPEAN Bowra, M. et al Golden Ages of the Great Cities (1952)
Athens, Rome, Constantinople, Paris, Venice, Vienna, London, New York — each described at a moment of cultural or historical supremacy by one of a galaxy of respected historians. Cambridge Modern History (1957)
Fourteen-volume standard history of the world since the Renaissance. Essential work of reference, flawed only by excessive concentration on Europe. Carr, E. H., English, 1892-1982. What is History?. Rec: Counterpunch NF Collingwood, R. G., English, 1889-1943. The Idea of History. Rec: National Review TLS Durant, Will The Story of Civilization (1935) &RI Multi-volume one-man's view of human history and achievement. Durant's style is lucid and elegant. His judgements can seem selective and glib; but this remains a monumental work, at once stimulating and unique. Durant, Will and Ariel. American, 1885-1981 and 1898-1981. The Story of Philosophy. Rec: Good Reading The Story of Civilization. Rec: Fadiman 3 Fukuyama, Francis. American, 1952- . The End of History and the Last Man. Rec: National Review Grenville, J. A. S. A World History, 1900— 1945 (1979) 09 Wide-ranging, authoritative study by a leading scholar. Also: Lord Salisbury and Foreign Policy; Europe Reshaped, 1848 -1878 Grun, B. The Timetables of History: A Chronology of World Events (1975)
Fascinating compendium of dates and events. Herzl, Theodor, Austrian, 1860-1904. The Jewish State. Rec: NYPL Johnson, Paul, English, 1928- . Modern Times. Rec: National Review (history)
Kennedy, Paul, English, 1945- . The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers. Rec: TLS Roberts, J. M. The Hutchinson History of the World (1976) a * /
Ambitious attempt at a full history of the world from earliest times to the present day. Compression; judgement — an impressive achievement. Also: Europe, 1880-1945; The Mythology of the Secret Societies Spengler, Oswald, German, 1880-1936. The Decline of the West. Rec: Boston PL Toynbee, A. J. Cities of Destiny ( 1967)
Magnificent history of the city — its origins, development and ultimate domination of the civilized world. See HISTORY/ANCIENT Toynbee, Arnold, English, 1889-1975. Armenian Atrocities: The Murder of a Nation. Rec: NYPL A Study of History. Rec: Adler ML Nonfiction TLS Civilization on Trial. Rec: Adler Vico, Giovanni Battista, Italian, 1668-1744. New Science of Giambattista Vico. Rec: Aquinas Bloom Seymour-Smith Ward Wells, H. G. A Short History of the World (1922)
Still the most accessible brief world history. Displays many of Wells' prejudices, but is coherent and perceptive. See FICTION/NOVELS; FICTION/SF

Ernest R. May

Ernest May is a Texan, educated in California, who has been a professor of history at Harvard since the 1950s. A former dean of Harvard College, he is currently the Charles Warren Professor of History and teaches at the Kennedy School of Government. He is author, coauthor and editor of works on the history of the United States, modern international relations and the uses of history for decision nicking.
My choices offer the reader the opportunity to extend his own range of experience five hundred years back and across a variety of political systems. William H. Prescott. History of the Conquest of Mexico (1839). Abridgment, Gardiner C. Harvey, ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1966. (Pb)
Prescott's account of Cortez' expedition is the first history I read that held me as much in thrall as any novel. He made me see that almost incredible adventure. Harold G. Nicolson. Peacemaking 1919 (1933). New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1965.
Part reminiscence, part history, part spleen, part analysis, this is the best case study of an international conference ever written in English. It still helps me understand better how outcomes in negotiation can be affected by factors of personality, temperament, age, comparative fatigue, staging, and the like, which do not necessarily surface in documentary records. Eckart Kehr. Schlachtflottenbau and Partei-Politik 1894-1901. Berlin: E. Ebering, 1930.
This monograph on the German naval building program of 1898-1902 is justifiably renowned among historians of Germany and of international relations. It is a finely crafted analysis of how domestic parliamentary politics influenced a national policy supposedly "above politics." I read it as a graduate student, and it has continuously influenced my own research and teaching — much of which has dealt with the same theme, played in a number of other settings. Paul F. Lazarsfeld and Elihu Katz. Personal Influence: The Part Played by People in the Flow of Mass Communications (1955). New York: Free Press, 1964. (Pb)
This pioneering study of the ways "opinion leaders" shape public opinion was to me enormously enlightening. No other book has helped me so much to understand democratic processes. Richard E. Neustadt. Alliance Politics. New York: Columbia University Press, 1970. (Pb)
For my mind, this study of the Suez and "Skybolt" crises of 1956 and 1962 plays counterpoint to Eckart Kehr's. It explores the ways court and organizational politics influence outcomes consciously (and conscientiously) designed to be "nonpolitical."
Bernard Bailyn. The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution (1965). Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1967. (Pb)
This book argues compellingly that Americans and Englishmen of the 1770s saw issues differently in part because they had different histories in their heads. They read differently the lessons of the English seventeenth-century revolution which was their common heritage, and they respected different authorities and traditions. As so graphically developed by Bailyn, the example of the American Revolution has helped to keep in my own mind — I hope — awareness not only of the varieties of perception possible among seemingly similar individuals but also of what a German philosopher labeled (with uncharacteris-
tic elegance) the Gleichzeitigkeit der Ungleichzeitigkeiten — the contemporaneous existence of things noncontemporaneous.

Richard Pipes

Richard Pipes is the Frank B. Baird, Jr. Professor of History at Harvard and has been a member of the Harvard faculty since 1950. From 1981 to 1982, Professor Pipes was director of Eastern European and Soviet affairs on the National Security Council. His many works include: Survival Is Not Enough (1984): U.S.-Soviet Relations in the Era of Détente (1981): and Formation of the Soviet Union (1954).
I did not provide a list of the most important books but only of those which have had a strong personal influence on me. They may do nothing for others. Friedrich Nietzsche. The Basic Writings of Nietzsche (1872-95). Walter Kaufman, ed. and trans. New York: Modern Library, 1968.
The first author to make a great impression on me was Friedrich Nietzsche, whom I "discovered" at the age of fifteen. I devoured all he wrote (in the original German). He suited well my adolescent sense of rebellion. Once I reached seventeen I found him less and less palatable, and I have not been able to read him since. Rainer Maria Rilke. Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke (1897-1923). Stephen Mitchell, ed. New York: Random House, 1982.
The poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke I first read at the age of nineteen or twenty. Its profound lyricism, its serenity have affected me more than any other poetry and do so to this day. Francois P. Guizot. The History of Civilization in Europe (1828). William Hazlitt, trans. Darby, Penn.: Arden Library, 1983.
I discovered this book while I was a soldier and it showed me that history can be a form of philosophy and literature. It persuaded me to become a professional historian. The Bible (so-called "Old Testament").
I first read it late, at the age of twenty-eight or so, in connection with tutoring in history and literature, where it was obligatory. I was overwhelmed by nearly all of it, but especially the Book of Job and the Psalms. Michel de Montaigne. Selections from the Essays (1595). Donald M. Frame, ed. and trans. Arlington Heights, III.: Harlan Davidson, 1973. (Pb)
I tried to read the Essays (in the Florio translation) at the age of twenty-five but it bored me. Then I read it again at the age of forty-seven and found it the wisest book ever written. I never fail to be impressed and influenced by Montaigne's outlook. Sir Max Beerbohm. Works and More (1930). St. Clair Shores, Mich.: Scholarly Press, 1969.
Max Beerbohm has had a much smaller influence on me and yet I love reading him: his quiet elegance, detachment, serenity appeal to me greatly, as does his exquisite humor. I first read him when I was fifty or so.

Thomas C. Schelling

Thomas Schelling is the Lucius N. Littauer Professor of Political Economy at Harvard's John F Kennedy School of Government and a professor in the Department of Economics. He is the author of numerous works including The Strategy of Conflict (1961), Arms and Influence (1966), Micromotives and Macrobehavior (1978), and Choice and Consequence (1984). In addition to teaching at Harvard since 1958, he is director of Harvard's Institute for the Study of Smoking Behavior and Policy, which fulfills his research interest in addictive and habitual behaviors and other issues in self-management. His other research interests include national security and climate changes.
These books give readers a taste of the best in natural science, social science, classical and modern history and literary style. Charles Darwin. The Origin of Species (1859). New York: Penguin, 1982. (Pb)
I have had a fascination with evolutionary biology, provoked by such beautiful books as George Gaylord Simpson's This View of Life, but had never picked up a copy of Darwin's original work until ten years ago. I have rarely had such pleasure and excitement in reading a sustained piece of scientific reasoning and presentation of evidence. It is technically accessible to any intelligent reader. It is a genuinely participatory experience. Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War (ca. 431-404 B.C.). Richard Livingstone, ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1960.
I knew that classical Greece produced people at least as smart as people anywhere today, but until I read this I had no idea how modern they were in their thinking. Nothing written in this century can touch Thucydides (or the people he quotes) for subtlety of political and diplomatic discourse and strategy. I like Rex Warner's translation in the Penguin edition, but some readers may need large print. If you like it go on to Herodotus and Xenophon. Erving Goffman. Interaction Ritual: Essays in Face-to-Face Behavior (1967). New York: Pantheon, 1982. (Pb)
I was hooked on Goffman from the time I read "On Face Work," the first essay in this collection. If you like this try "Stigma," "Forms of Talk," and "Asylums." He looks at the same people we look at doing the same things we see them doing, and he sees things we can't see without his help. He once pointed out to me that a woman can be naked with her husband without embarrassment, naked with her sister without embarrassment, but not naked without embarrassment in the presence of both. Laurence Sterne. Tristram Shandy (1759-67). New York: Oxford University Press, 1983. (Pb)
I bought a copy in 1943 because it fit in my pocket and I was vaguely aware that it was a classic. I read it for an hour on a streetcar and was captivated by the story, the style and the purported author. It is an endlessly digressive autobiography that begins with his conception and barely gets up to his birth. Sterne writes a lovely, leisurely sentence that can wind on for three hundred words and you never lose your way or have to look back. John Keegan. The Face of Battle (1976). New York: Penguin, 1983. (Pb)
I have a book on baseball that says fear is the fundamental factor in hitting, and hitting with the bat is the fundamental act of baseball. For John Keegan, a distinguished military historian, fear is the fundamental factor in exposing oneself to enemy weapons, and exposing oneself is the fundamental act of corn-bat, as he vividly describes, at the level of the individual soldier, the battles of Agincourt, Waterloo and the Somme. A superbly thoughtful history of military combat. Lloyd Weinreb
Lloyd Weinreb has been a professor of law at the Harvard Law School since 1965. His specialties are criminal law and legal philosophy. In addition to his textbook, Leading Constitutional Cases on Criminal Justice, he has published Denial of Justice and Law of Criminal Investigation. Homer. The Iliad (ca. 800 B.C.). Robert Fitzgerald, trans. New York: Doubleday, 1975. (Pb)
The great epic, full of the grandeur and pain of the human condition. Sophocles. The Three Theban Plays: Antigone, Oedipus the King, and Oedipus at Colon us (ca. 441-401 B.c.). New York: Penguin, 1984. (Pb)
The unlimited tragic vision. The meaning of human freedom is laid bare. William Shakespeare. King Lear (1605). New York: Penguin, 1984. (Pb)
Everyone must choose which of Shakespeare's plays is closest to him. In this end, I return most often to Lear. The Tempest is a close second. Michel de Montaigne. Selections from the Essays (1595). Donald M. Frame, ed. and trans. Arlington Heights, Harlan Davidson, 1973. (Pb)
Montaigne is a wise, compassionate friend to accompany one throughout life, ready to converse about every important subject, whatever one's mood. James Joyce. Dubliners (1914). New York: Penguin, 1976. (Pb)
Small lives seen closely enough to disclose eternal truths. Ulysses is as good for the same reason.
William H. McNeill. The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community (1963). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970. (Pb)
Truly great history. McNeill, William H.. American, 1917- . The Rise of the West. Rec: Fadiman 3 ML Nonfiction

History: Introduction

John Stewart

The study of the past is something that has fascinated human societies from at least the time of the ancient Greeks and Romans, and before this in certain eastern cultures. This does not mean, however, that those who study the human past in a scholarly way, that is professional historians, can necessarily agree on the usefulness or otherwise of such a pursuit. For some, history can provide a guide, albeit an imprecise one, to an understanding of the present and, more problematically, the future. Others see this as an unrealistic or pretentious claim for history, arguing instead that its virtues lie in such matters as evaluating evidence and in beginning to understand the complexities of human existence. The latter group tend to be 'conservative' in their historical practice, and are unhappy about any alliances between history and other disciplines such as sociology. Such debates go to the heart of what we mean by 'history', and the books listed below provide an introduction to these debates from a number of different standpoints.
Not to know what took place before you were born is to remain for ever a child.
MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO History and Social Theory (1992) by Peter Burke. This work argues for a closer relationship between history and the social sciences, and for the use of appropriate'theory' in historical study. A number of case studies are also provided suggesting how such a relationship might work in practice. Burke is a distinguished historian in this field, and his arguments therefore come right from the heart of the debate. What is History? (1961) by E H Carr. A controversial figure, Carr claimed a 'scientific' basis to historical study, while acknowledging, in a famous phrase, that history was an 'unending dialogue between past and present'. Of particular concern to his critics, however, was his definition of historical 'facts'. Although difficult to defend nowadays as a whole, this work was significant not least in provoking other historians to try and describe and analyse exactly what it was they did when undertaking research and writing. The Practice of History (1967) by Geoffrey Elton. The late Geoffrey Elton was one of the most articulate exponents of the more 'traditional' approach to history. In this work he reveals, clearly and lucidly, the kind of painstaking procedures a historian has to go through in order to produce a useful piece of historical research. Elton also makes clear his scepticism about any predictive or 'scientific' qualities which might, mistakenly, be attributed to history. In part, this work is a response to Carr. Return to Essentials (1991) by Geoffrey Elton. In a sense, the title says it all. Elton attacks those who would distort history by seeking to force historical evidence into pre-determined theoretical patterns. Instead, Elton seeks to emphasize the traditional historical practices of which he himself was such an admirable exponent. This book is worth reading alongside Marwick, Tosh, and, especially, Burke. What Is History Today? (1988) edited by Juliet Gardiner. This is a collection of essays on the different branches of history - political history, economic history, and so on - by experts in the various fields. Clearly written and with a useful introduction, this work brings out both the diversity of historical study and the range of opinions about its value. The Nature of History (1989) Arthur Marwick. Writing in a witty and provocative style, Marwick seeks to show the 'necessity of history', by which he means the need for societies to study and attempt to understand the past in order to be able to make sense of present-day society. The book also deals with such topics as the development of historical studies and the problematic nature of primary sources. Introduction to History (1986) by the Open University. Designed for an Open University distance-learning course, and written by Arthur Marwick, this is one of the best places for any newcomer interested in the nature of historical study to start. Marwick carefully takes readers through various meanings of the word 'history', and again argues the case for the necessity of society's understanding its historical origins. There are a number of video recordings also associated with this course which, if access can be gained to them, further illustrate the points being made. The Pursuit of History (1991) by John Tosh. Like Marwick, Tosh sees a necessity for historical study. His work is particularly useful in alerting readers to some of the main types of historical study, and to recent developments such as the use of quantitative methods.

Ancient Egyptian History

Geraldine Pinch

The birth of Egyptology is usually dated to Jean Francois Champollion's decipherment of the Egyptian hieroglyphic script in 1822. Egyptologists are concerned with every aspect of the civilization of ancient Egypt; not just with those topics, such as pyramids and mummies, that have caught the popular imagination. Egypt is important in the history of humanity as the first large state to be ruled by a central government. The 'pharaonic' culture created in the late 4th millennium BC lasted for over 3,000 years and produced some of the world's most impressive art and architecture. In spite of the huge quantity of surviving remains, and frequent new discoveries, many aspects of life in ancient Egypt remain mysterious.
I now proceed to give a more particular account of Egypt; it possesses
more wonders than any other country, and exhibits works greater than
can be described, in comparison with all other regions; therefore more must
be said about it. The Egyptians, besides having a climate peculiar to themselves,
and a river differing in its nature from all other rivers, have adopted customs
and usages in almost every respect different from the rest of mankind.
HERODOTUS Ancient Egypt: A Cultural Atlas (1980) by John Baines and Jaromir Malek. A reliable introduction to ancient Egyptian history and culture. It includes a guide to all the main ancient sites with many excellent maps and plans. Ancient Egypt: The Land and Its Legacy (1988) by T G H James. A journey through Egypt describing the surviving towns, temples, and tombs. A beautifully illustrated book that combines impeccable scholarship with sensitivity to the atmosphere of ancient sites. Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization (1989) by Barry J Kemp. A thought-provoking study of the political, social, and economic life of the ancient Egyptians written by a leading archaeologist. Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt (1982) by Erik Hornung (translated by John Baines). A challenging book for anyone seriously interested in understanding the complex world of ancient Egyptian religion. Building in Egypt: Pharaonic Stone Masonry (1991) by Dieter Arnold. A detailed, technical book that answers every conceivable question about how the pyramids, and all the other great monuments, were built. Egyptian Painting and Relief (1986) by Gay Robins. An essential, brief guide to understanding and enjoying Egyptian paintings and sculptured reliefs. It explains the materials, methods, and unique conventions of ancient Egyptian art. Egyptian Hieroglyphs (1987) by W V Davies. The best short introduction to the languages and scripts of ancient Egypt.
Ancient Egyptian Literature volumes 1-3 (1973, 1976, 1980) by Miriam Lichtheim. These books allow the ancient Egyptians to speak for themselves. They include translations of stories, love poems, royal inscriptions, and passages from the famous Book of the Dead
Akhenaten, King of Egypt (1988) by Cyril Aldred. A comprehensive study of a ruler who has been called 'the first individual in history'. It explores the religious reforms of the 'heretic pharaoh' and his wife Nefertiti, and the troubled history of the controversial Amarna period. The Complete Tutankhamun (1990) by Nicholas Reeves. A full, and magnificently illustrated, account of the reign of the boy pharaoh Tutankhamen, and of the astounding contents of his tomb.

Greek and Roman History

Graham Ley

There is an abundance of general histories of both Greece and Rome, which vary from the lavishly illustrated to detailed studies of the available archaeological and literary evidence about events and personalities. I have included in this list primarily books that provide a reliable overview of extensive periods, and that incorporate in an accessible form the results of continuing scholarship. The Greek and Roman historians, of whom the most important for general study are Herodotus and Thucydides (for classical Greece) and Livy and Tacitus (for republican Rome and the early Roman Empire), have been translated in the Penguin Classics series. Also fascinating, for their suggestive portraits of individuals, are the biographies written by Plutarch (of Greek and Roman military and political leaders) and by Suetonius (of the early Roman emperors).
It will be enough for me if these words of mine are judged useful by
those who want to understand clearly the events which happened in the
past and which (human nature being what it is) will, at some time or
other and in much the same ways, be repeated in the future.
THUCYDIDES The Routledge Atlas of Classical History (1971; revised edition 1994) by Michael Grant. A graphic presentation of the major historical events and eras. The Historians of Greece and Rome (1969) by S Usher. An informative and accessible introduction to the major ancient writers themselves. The Fontana History of the Ancient World (1976 onwards) by various authors. A comprehensive and accessible multivolume account by specialists, which pays attention to social and cultural history as well as to economics, military affairs, and politics. The volumes are: Early Greece by O Murray, Democracy and Classical Greece by J Davies, The Hellenistic World by F Wallbank, Early Rome and the Etruscans by R Ogilvie, The Roman Republic by M Crawford, The Roman Empire by C Wells, The Later Roman Empire by A Cameron. The Early Greeks (1976) by R J Hopper. A clear and interesting survey of Greek history from the Minoan period to the emergence of the classical Greek city-state. The Greek World 479-323 BC (1983) by Simon Hornblower. Probably the best short survey of a crucial period in Greek history, which saw the rise and decline of classical Athens. The Miracle That Was Macedonia (1991) by N Hammond. A recent account of the growth and apogee of Macedonian power under Philip and his son Alexander the Great by a leading historian. Alexander to Actium: The Historical Evolution of the Hellenistic Age (1990) by Peter Green. A detailed picture of the changing historical and cultural relations in the Mediterranean in the period of the gradual decline of Greek power, and of the growth of Rome. A History of the Roman World 753-144 BC (1980) by H Scullard. A continually revised, authoritative history of the first six centuries of the Roman republic. The Roman Revolution (1939) by Ronald Syme. The classic study of the transformation of the Roman republic into a principate under Augustus. For up-to-date studies of the Roman Empire, in its earlier and later periods, I should recommend the books by Wells and Cameron in the Fontana series.
Three other books deal with areas that may be of particular interest to readers: The Roman Invasion of Britain (1980) by Graham Webster;
Greeks, Romans and Barbarians (1988) by Barry Cunliffe; The Ancient Economy (1984) by M Finley.

Ancient Middle Eastern History

Stephanie Dailey

The civilizations that once flourished in the Middle East have been uncovered gradually during the past 150 years. Their numerous and varied writings on stone and clay are still being excavated and are mostly deciphered, so that we can reconstruct very ancient life and literature in astonishing detail. Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Hittites, Canaanites, Elamites, and Persians are all linked together by their use of cuneiform (wedge-shaped) writing, by trade and empire, and by splendid cities. They made extraordinary progress in are, architecture, astronomy, and technology, and we are only just beginning to appreciate the true extent of their achievements.
It is indeed one of the most remarkable facts in history, that the
records of an empire, so renowned for its power and civilisation, should have
been entirely lost; and that the site of a city (Nineveh) as eminent for its extent
as its splendour, should for ages have been a matter of doubt; it is not perhaps
less curious that an accidental discovery should suddenly lead us to hope that
these records may be recovered, and this site satisfactorily identified.
AUSTEN HENRY LAYARD Ancient Iraq (1980) by George Roux. A beautifully constructed account which introduces Mesopotamian history and culture to the nonspecialist. The Greatness That Was Babylon: A Survey of the Ancient Civilization of the Tigris-Euphrates Valley (1988) by Harry W F Saggs. An excellent overview showing clearly why this civilization ranks among the foremost in world history. Mesopotamia (1991) by Julian Reade. A brief, elegant account containing brilliant illustrations taken mainly from the superb collections in the British Museum. Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East (1990) by Michael Roof. This fine book gives an overview of the whole subject, beginning with the remarkable prehistoric cultures. It is lavishly illustrated throughout the text. Ancient Near Eastern Art (1995) by Dominique Collon. If you ever got the impression that the Egyptians and Greeks invented fine architecture or freestanding statues, carving in very hard stone or narrative sculpture with lifelike scenes to take your breath away, read this and think again. Myths from Mesopotamia (1991) by Stephanie Dailey. Even earlier than the Iliad, the Odyssey and the Mahabharata, the ancient Mesopotamians were writing epics and myths that still have power to compel modern man. These translations are eminently readable, and show how scholars have pieced together the oldest stories in the world. Early Mesopotamia: Society and Economy at the Dawn of History (1992) by J Nicholas Postgate. An original and fascinating book which combines archaeology and texts to give new insights into the development of ancient civilization. Beautifully illustrated too. From the Omens of Babylon: Astrology and Ancient Mesopotamia (1994) by Michael Baigent_ This remarkable book, by a nonspecialist who has taken great care with the scholarly material to write an account that is highly readable, is the envy of specialists. It shows that Chaldaean astrologers did not become famous worldwide without good cause, and how their learning contributed to humanism in the Renaissance. The Hittites (1990) by Oliver R Gurney. This remains one of the best books to describe the ancient Indo-European people of Anatolia who took over much of the learning of Mesopotamia and helped to transmit it to Hebrews and Greeks.
The Bible and Recent Archaeology (1987) by P Roger and S Moorey. An extensive revision of Kathleen Kenyon's book of 1978. It relates with great clarity and fine photographs how the tricky linkage between archaeology and the Bible continues to excite furious debate.

Medieval European History

Simon Hall

Since World War II, medieval historians have pioneered alternatives to the traditional, event-based study of history. Today, most medievalists attempt either to present a snapshot recreation of medieval culture as a whole - intellectual, economic, and material - from as wide as possible a selection of its surviving records, or to trace long-term changes in the ideas, economic trends, technology, demography, and even environment of the medieval world. The following selection offers an introduction to both traditional and new medieval history.
These may seem small things ... but taken together they build up a complicated sense of the past, which must always be made up of small things vividly perceived.
R W SOUTHERN The Oxford Illustrated History of Medieval Europe (1992) edited by George Holmes. A superbly illustrated, modern, thematic introduction which combines both traditional and new approaches. Cambridge Medieval History 8 volumes (1923-36) by various authors. A multi-volume series offering the most authoritative traditional account of the Middle Ages. Feudal Society (1965) by Marc Bloch. A ground-breaking analysis by an extraordinary historian and Resistance hero that helped to create the new approach to history. The Making of the Middle Ages (1953) by R W Southern. The best short introduction to the medieval world, transcending the division between traditional and new history, by possibly the greatest British medievalist of all. The World of Late Antiquity (1971) by Peter Brown. An outstanding short, illustrated introduction to the early medieval period, from AD 200 to about 800, packed with thematic insights. The Three Orders: Feudal Society Imagined (1978) by Georges Duby. The most influential book by the most celebrated modern French medievalist, tracing the emergence, importance, and disappearance of a concept fundamental to medieval social thought. Reason and Society in the Middle Ages (1978) by Alexander Murray. An exploration of all aspects of the interaction between the mental and real worlds of medieval Europe. Medieval Monasticism (1984) by C H Lawrence. A straightforward factual introduction to one of the most complex and important features of medieval culture, and one of the most alien to modem readers. Medieval Civilization (1988) by Jacques Le Goff. A unique combination of narrative history with an analysis of time and space, material culture, Christian society, and mentalities, sensibilities, and attitudes in medieval Europe.

The Renaissance

Martyn Rady

The Renaissance is commonly considered to extend from the 14th to the 16th century. The Renaissance was a cultural movement which sought to restore the forms of classical Roman and Greek civilization which had been lost during the period of the Middle Ages. This restoration involved not only an, architecture, and sculpture, but also a renewal of interest in Latin and Greek texts, poetry, and drama. The Renaissance had its place of birth in Italy, in particular in the courts of the north Italian princes who acted as patrons of the arts. Italy was also the home of the earliest humanists, so called because of their interest in 'human letters' (hierae hurnaniores): poetry, literature, and history. The humanists edited classical works, the original texts of which had been corrupted during the Middle Ages, and sought to perfect the Latin and Greek languages used in their own day. The Renaissance spread out from its Italian birthplace during the 15th century and affected an, architecture, and literature across most of Europe.
The 16th century ... runs from Columbus to Copernicus, from
Copernicus to Galileo, from the discovery of the earth to the discovery
of the heavens. That as when man found himself.
JULES MICHELET Cultural Atlas of the Renaissance (1993) by C F Black and others. A very well-illustrated volume which covers the principal trends of the period. The Art of the Renaissance (1963) by Peter Murray and Linda Murray. Another well-illustrated book which concentrates primarily on developments in an and architecture in Italy. The Italian Renaissance in its Historical Background (1961) by Denys Hay. The author investigates not only the values and meaning of the Renaissance in Italy but also its political background and subsequent dissemination north of the Alps. The Renaissance in National Context (1992) edited by Roy Porter and Mikulas Teich. Although the volume includes several chapters on the Renaissance in Italy, the bulk of the work is devoted to the Renaissance in northern Europe. It thus provides a valuable counterweight to the 'Italianocentric' approach of most books on the Renaissance. The Impact of Humanism on Western Europe (1990) by Anthony Goodman and Angus MacKay. Provides a thorough survey of the humanist 'programme' and includes discussion of the relations between humanism and the Reformation, court patronage, and magic. Renaissance Europe 1480-1520 (1971) by J R Hale. Provides valuable and entertaining social, religious, economic, and cultural background.
Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects (1550; several translations) by Giorgio Vasari. Vasari records the biographies of the leading Italian artists from Cimabue and Giotto in the late 13th century to Leonardo and Michelangelo in his own day. The Prince (1513) by Niccolo Machiavelli. By separating politics and government from theology and ethics, The Prince may be considered one of the first works of political science.

Protestant Reformation

Martyn Rady

The Protestant Reformation began as a reaction to the theology and practices of the Catholic church. It is frequently considered to have commenced in 1517 when the German monk Martin Luther launched a public attack on the Catholic practice of selling indulgences, which were documents absolving the purchaser from sin. Luther's protest and his desire to 'purify' and reform the church won him immediate and wide-spread support in Germany. The success of Protestantism in Germany owed much, however, to the backing of the princes who protected Luther and established churches of their own independent of the pope. The movement of religious protest and renewal begun by Luther was given clarity and coherence by the Swiss reformer John Calvin, who composed his seminal theological text The Institutes of the Christian Religion in Geneva during the 1530s. By the middle years of the 16th century, Germany, Scandinavia, England, Scotland, the Low Countries, and large parts of France and central and eastern Europe had been won over to the Protestant Reformation. The reaction of the Catholic church (known as the Counter-Reformation) was to define its theology more closely, to eliminate abuses, and to urge the persecution of Protestants.
All the strength, all the weakness of the German character was
reflected and magnified in his [Luther's] passionate temperament, its
tenderness and violence, its coarseness in vituperation and old-fashioned
Biblical piety ... its conviviality and asceticism, its homely common sense and
morbid self-scrutiny, its paroxysms of contrition and heady self confidence.
H A L FIsR
Reformation Europe 1517-1559 (1963) by G R Elton. Provides a thorough historical account of the origins and early development of the Reformation in Europe. Reformation and Society (1966) by A G Dickens. A well-illustrated text which covers the principal themes of the period. The author explains the popular appeal of the Reformation with reference to the social conditions of the period and the role of the printing press in the dissemination of ideas. Luther: His Life and Work (1963) by Gerhard Ritter. A leading German scholar explains not only the life and theology but also the popular appeal of Martin Luther. Martin Luther: Selections from his Writings (1961) edited by John Dillenberger. Luther's writings still retain, even in translation, a strong and emotive power. John Calvin (1975) by T H L Parker. An introduction to Calvin's life and work which explains his theology in simple and straightforward terms. Popular Culture and Popular Movements in Reformation Germany (1987) by R W Scribner. A collection of essays which analyse the progress and impact of the Reformation from the point of view of popular belief, hierarchy, and social anthropology. The Catholic Reformation (1971) by Pierre Janelle. A Catholic scholar traces the history of the Catholic or Counter-
Reformation and discerns its origins in a movement for reform within the Catholic church which actually predates Protestantism. The Dutch Revolt (1977) by Geoffrey Parker. From the middle of the 16th century onwards, the conflict between Protestantism and the revived Catholicism of the Counter-Reformation led to military contests in Germany, France, and the Low Countries. This book traces the history of the most violent of these confrontations.

Modern European History

Glyn Redworth

The transformation of Europe between the Reformation and the 20th century is impossible to contain in one list. The period is characterized by the growth of powerful nation-states, whose antagonism had bloody consequences. It is also the age when capitalism came of age, and was too often unrestrained by notions of the common good. The democratic liberties championed during the French Revolution were not to be matched by economic and social liberties until this century.
And which is the first of these rights? That of existence. The first
social law is, therefore, that which assures every member of society of
the means of existence; all other laws are subordinate to it.
MAXIMILIEN ROBESPIERRE The Perspective of the World (1979) by F Braudel. The third volume of this monumental work deals with the 15th to 18th centuries, and is no means confined to Europe. A masterpiece, it sets the scene for the economic and global setting of the rise of modern Europe. The Thirty Years' War (1987) by Geoffrey Parker. Well illustrated, especially with maps, this gives an account of a conflict which still can claim to herald the beginning of a new phase in European politics. After 1648, wars are fought for secular rather than religious reasons. The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age (1987) by Simon Schama. A breathtaking essay on an and representation in the first affluent culture of modem Europe. Origins of the French Revolution (1980) by William Doyle. Recognized as the best introduction to the epoch of liberty, fraternity, and equality.
Spain: 1808-1975 (1982) by Raymond Can. More wide-ranging than it appears. Liberalism was invented in early-19th-century Spain, and this account is an excellent introduction to efforts, in vain in Spain's case, to face the challenge of modernization.
The Russian Empire 1801-1917 (1967) by H Seton-Watson. A classic account of Russia's expansion of influence both in the Balkans and, territorially, into Asia. Its readability and authority make it a classic. The Habsburg Empire, 1790-1918 (1969) by C A Macartney This period is examined in detail, though the poignancy of the Dual Monarchy is nowhere more vividly brought alive than in the novels of Joseph Roth. Selected Writings of Karl Marx (1977) edited by David McLellan. This makes the works of the father of communism accessible. After all, Harold Wilson claimed he could never get beyond the first page of Das Kapital. A close study of Marx's own works reveals a more humane and sympathetic figure than the pronouncements of latter followers might suggest.

20th-Century Europe

M R D Foot

By the beginning of this century, Europe was the world's dominating continent; by the end of it, it had been displaced by North America, of which the predominance in turn was under threat from east Asia. Two European civil wars each spread into a world war, in 1914-18 and 1939-45, with catastrophic effects within Europe and out-side it. From World War II, the part-
European colossus of the USSR emerged strengthened, till its own internal contradictions destroyed it later in the century. At the western end of the continent, the French and the Germans, long opposed as enemies, formed the core of a European common market of which the principal aim was to prevent any more major European civil wars. Minor national differences can still make fierce trouble, as the current crisis in Bosnia shows: the catastrophe of 1914 began at Sarajevo, and it is unclear whether more such catastrophes can ever be stopped. At least European powers no longer own many colonies.
Other regions' claims to displace Europe in the centre of our world picture are impressive. Africa, despised and disordered, boasts antiquity of human settlement; Asia encloses mature civilizations; North America is commercial by its economic might, South America by its rapid development; the Pacific rim by economic promise and achievement alike. All this competition has shrunk
Europe's share of the map but has also forced Europeans into an increased dependence on each other and an enhanced European solidarity. They can no longer afford the internecine squabbles of the era of European world hegemony.
FELIPE FERNANDEZ-ARMESTO Millenium (1995) by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto. Explains how Europe secured its temporary predominance over the other continents; it ranges far back in history - so much the better. The Rise and Fall of Great Powers (1988) by Paul Kennedy. Also goes back, though only half as far as Fernandez-Armesto, before the 20th century; more diplomatic and less cultural in its coverage. Europe 1880-1945 (1967) by John Roberts. An unusually lucid account of the diplomatic and political wrangles that attended the turn of the century and the two world wars. The Myriad Faces of War (1986) by Trevor Wilson. Outstanding among the shelves-full of books that cover the Great War of 1914-18, which brought down four European empires and precipitated two revolutions in Russia. A History of the Modern World (1983) by Paul Johnson. Begins with Lenin's revolution in Russia, and runs on into the early 1980s: Europe in these years cannot be considered in isolation from the rest of the world. Lenin: Life and Legacy (1994) by Dmitri Volkogonov. Turns three generations of belief and misbelief upside down: a masterpiece of revisionist history. The Oxford Companion to the Second World War (1995) edited by I C B Dear. Presents current scholarship on its formative subject. The Age of Terrorism (1987) by Walter Laqueur. May well make its readers' hair stand on end: perils remain around us. The Century of Warfare (1995) by Charles Messenger. Not confined to Europe, this is nevertheless Eurocentric.

The Holocaust

David Cesarani

The Holocaust was the first and only time that a state set out to annihilate every man, woman, and child of a designated group, wherever they lived, and however long it took. No other genocide has approached the intensity of the genocide against the Jews. Yet Nazi racial thinking had terrible consequences for other groups, too. There are varying explanations of why it happened, and why the Jews and the free world responded as they did. These are issues that haunt us today since genocide is clearly not a thing of the past. The Holocaust also lives on in the experiences of the survivors and has become a subject for artists, filmmakers, and novelists.
I could understand the desire to dissect history, the strong urge to close in
on the past and the forces shaping it; nothing is more natural. No question is
more important for our generation which is the generation of Auschwitz,
or of Hiroshima, tomorrow's Hiroshima. The future frightens us, the past fills
us with shame: and these two feelings, like those two events, are closely linked,
like cause to effect. It is Auschwitz that will produce Hiroshima, and if
the human race should perish by the nuclear bomb, this will be the punishment
for Auschwitz, where, in the ashes, the hope of man was extinguished.
ELIE WIESEL The Racial State - Germany, 1939-1945 (1991) by Michael Burleigh and Wolfgang Wipperman. A superb dissection of Nazi racial policy and practice, revealing how Jews, black people, Gypsies, gays, as well as other German men, women, and youth, were all adversely affected by Nazi race-thinking. The Holocaust. The Fate of European Jewry (1990) by Leni Yahil. The most comprehensive one-volume account. Rich in detail, yet easy to read. The Holocaust in History (1989) by Michael Marcus. A concise work that effortlessly blends an outline of the Holocaust with a discussion of how the study of the subject has evolved, including accounts of the main controversies. Atlas of the Holocaust (1988) by Martin Gilbert. A valuable work of reference which, like his epic chronicle The Holocaust (1987), draws on survivor testimony to give a shocking blow-by-blow record of the catastrophe. The Terrible Secret (1982) by Walter Laqueur. A precise and damning examination of how much the free world knew about the 'final solution' and how politicians, the press, and public opinion responded to the news. The War Against the Jews (1975) by Lucy Dawidowicz. Although the account of Nazi policy is dated, this classic short history sympathetically explained Jewish responses for the first time and has hardly been bettered. Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp (1994) edited by Yisrael Gutman and Michael Berenbaum. The latest scholarship gathered together to unravel the complex history of the largest concentration camp and killing centre which has come to symbolize the Holocaust. Out of the Whirlwind - A Reader of Holocaust Literature (1976) edited by Albert Friedlander. A fine collection of stories, extracts from novels, memoirs, and poetry by survivors that takes us as close as possible to the 'heart of darkness'. It includes extracts from the writing of Primo Levi and Elie Wiesel. One by One by One. Facing the Holocaust (1990) by Judith Miller. For the survivors the Holocaust did not end in 1945: it echoed on in their lives, touching their children, too. Every country involved in World War H had to confront its role in the 'final solution', a much delayed and painful process that is explored in perceptive essays on six different countries.

France

M R D Foot

France emerged gradually from the wreck of Charlemagne's empire. It was threatened by the Viking dukes of Normandy, who became lungs of England, and at one stage of the Hundred Years' War owned about half of France's present territory, but were expelled by force of arms. Another threat came from the dukes of Burgundy, with whom the French crown eventually secured a marriage alliance. Religious wars in the 16th century were succeeded by a strong monarchy, run in turn by Cardinal Richelieu, Jules Mazarin, and Jean-Baptiste Colbert; which, late in the 18th century, ran out of cash. Revolution followed; so did terror; resolved by Napoleon Bonaparte's empire, which died of military overextension in 1814-15. The 19th century saw seven different regimes in France; for the last quarter of it, the Third Republic was relatively stable, as industrial development began. An immense historical literature, most of it in French.
The Princess [Mathilde] was a portly little lady, with a startling
resemblance to her uncle Napoleon. 'If it weren't for him, I'd rather be
selling oranges in the streets of Ajaccio,' she would say, in the gruff,
plebeian voice of the Bonapartes. She sat, wearing a string of black pearls,
in a humble armchair to which her presence somehow gave the air of a
throne. She liked to feel that she was no stickler for etiquette, and would
allow the ladies only to begin the movements of a curtsey before pulling
them up by main force for an embrace; while the gentlemen, once they had
shown their intention of kissing her hand, would receive an informal handshake.
GEORGE D PAINTER The Earliest Times (1927) by F Funck-Brentano (translated by E F Buckley). Provides an old-fashioned medievalist's guide. The Middle Ages (1922) by F Funck-Brentano (translated by E O'Neill). Does the same. France, Mediaeval and Modern (1918) by Arthur Hassell. Also has an old-fashioned ring today. The Ancien Regime and the Revolution (1856, several recent translations) by Alexis de Tocqueville. Though much older, has a much more modem ring - the author fore-saw the growth and the perils of democracy - and is still well worth reading. France (1898) by J E C Bodley. Long the standard work. Begins at the revolution of 1789. France (1969) by Douglas Johnson. A much more modem treatment, but also deals mainly with events since 1789. Marcel Proust (1959) by George D Painter. Though it runs over from the 19th century to the next, this is one of the best of biographies, and gives a splendidly complete picture of the society of its day. The Development of Modern France 1874-1959 (1940; revised edition 1967) by D W Brogan_ Remains much the best account of its subject; affectionate, sometimes wayward, always interesting. Grandeur and Misery of Victory (1930) by Georges Clemenceau. Covers the virtual dictatorship that saved France from Germany in 1917-18. De Gaulle (1992) by Jean Lacouture. In two volumes, a life of France's saviour in the following world war. GERMANY Bob Moore
The study of 19th-century German history really began to flourish in the 1970s and 1980s when historians began to look for the origins of the country's turbulence in the 20th century. The amount of literature is enormous and the choices inevitably highly selective, but the following do represent a cross-section of the best standard works in the period and its leading personalities.
Germany is a queer country: one can't regard it dispassionately. I alternate
between hating it thoroughly, stick stock and stone, and yearning for it fit to break
my heart. I can't help feeling it a young and adorable country - adolescent - with
the faults of adolescence.
D H LAWRENCE German History 1770-1866 (1989) by James Sheehan. On the history of Germany before unification, one cannot do better than this book which surveys the development of the Germanic states through the final years of the Holy Roman Empire and through the Napoleonic period into the 19th century, charting both the successes and the failures. Essential if one is to understand the federal nature of the post-1871 German Empire and the role of Prussia within it. A History of Germany 1815-1985 (1987) by William Carr; Germany 1866-1945 (1981) by Gordon Craig. Overlapping or adjoining the previous book are two other survey histories. Both have long timespans and have their own particular strengths. Again, one of these two should be considered essential reading. Origins of the Wars of German Unification (1991) by William Can. Provides a comprehensive account of the political and military circumstances which brought the German Empire into being. It includes all the debates, including the role of Otto von Bismarck and the fiendishly complex Schleswig-Holstein question which so bedevilled statesmen of the period. Imperial Germany 1871-1914: Economy, Society, Culture and Politics (1994) by Volker Berghahn. This is exactly what the title suggests, namely an all-embracing survey of the 'Second Empire'. Bismarck: The White Revolutionary (1990) by Lothar Gall. No reading list on 19th-century Germany would be complete without a biography of its leading statesman, Otto von Bismarck. There are many available, but the outstanding one of the present era is undoubtedly Gall's. Similarly one cannot ignore the Emperor Wilhelm II. As one of the key figures in late-19th-
century Germany, both his life and times demand attention. The following two titles are recommended: The Kaiser and His Times (1964) by Michael Balfour, and The Kaiser and his Court (1994) by John Rohl. The Peculiarities of German History (1984) by David Blackbourn and Geoff Eley. This gives a more detailed insight into the debates on late-19th-century German history and beyond. ITALY Glyn Redworth
The geographical or cultural idea of Italy has existed since classical times, but it was only at the end of the 19th century that Italy became a political reality as well. Italian history is a series of invasions and betrayals, and it is perhaps little wonder that Italy gave birth to Machiavellianism.
There is, in fact, no law or government at all,
and it is wonderful how well things go on without them.
LORD BYRON Italy and her Invaders ten volumes (I880s) by T Hodgkin. This work has not been superseded as an enthralling account of the various barbarian invasions which followed the decline of Rome. History of the Popes (1886-89; translated 1891) by Ludwig Pastor. Another 19th-century masterpiece. Not easy to find, but a good library will be able to help. This work cannot fail to be readable owing to the colourful lives of many of the Roman pontiffs.
Kingdom of the Sun (1970) by John Julius Norwich. A lovingly penned account of some of Italy's less well-known invaders, the Normans, whose empire based on Sicily was one of the most fascinating of medieval societies. The Prince (1513; translation by G BW1 1970) by Niccolo Machiavelli. Available in Penguin, as well as many other editions. His Discourses (1531) on Roman history are possibly even more shocking to the 20th-century moralist, but it is worth remembering that Machiavelli himself was a remarkably unconventional civil servant who was chastised by his superiors for being long-winded. The Bourbons of Naples (1956) by Harold Acton. A fascinating account of one of Europe's most hedonistic dynasties. Italy in the Age of the Risorgimento 1790-1870 (1983) by Harry Hearder. Deals with the period in which Italian nationalism led to the creation of a united and independent state.
Mussolini (1981) by Denis Mack Smith. A well-written life of II Duce by Britain's leading historian of modern Italy. A Political History of Italy: The Post-War Years (1983) by N Kogan. Bravely tackles the almost impossible. RUSSIA TO THE END OF THE 19TH CENTURY
Martyn Rady
A Russian principality, with its capital in Kiev, reached during the early Middle Ages from the Baltic Sea almost to the Black Sea. Kievan Russia was destroyed. how-ever, by the Mongol-Tatars in the 13th century. In the 15th century, petty princelings from Moscow (Muscovy) began to extend their power across northern and central Russia, defeating other Russian princes and eventually overcoming the Mongol-Tatars themselves. Ivan III (1462-1505) is commonly considered the fast ruler of Muscovy to have assumed the title of tsar, or emperor. During the 16th and 17th centuries, the tsardom of Muscovy extended its territory across Siberia and into the Ukraine. It was not until Peter the Great (1682-1725), however, that Muscovite Russia became a European power. Peter not only engaged in substantial military and diplomatic activity across Europe but sought to reform the Russian state to make it akin to the states of western Europe. Although Peter built a new, Western looking capital in St Petersburg and obliged the nobles to shave their beards and dress in European fashions, he did not abolish the institution of serfdom. Nor did he establish any representative organs which might limit the autocratic powers of the tsar. Despite its major role in the defeat of Napoleon, Russia remained until the end of the 19th century economically backward and with a despotic system of government.
I have begun to sense what Russian writers have long revealed: that
this is a place where the human spirit is made to struggle, thereby
becoming fuller as well as more repressed.
GEORGE FEIFER A History of Russia (1993) by Nicholas V Riasanovsky. A comprehensive account of Russian history which includes chapters on Russian culture, economy, and society. Russia under the Old Regime (1974) by Richard Pipes. A thematic treatment of Russian history which seeks to explain the origins of Russian autocracy, serfdom, and economic backwardness. Pipes, Richard. American, 1923- . The Russian Revolution. Rec: National Review The Russian Chronicles: A Thousand Years that Changed the World (1990) edited by Tessa Clark; more than 30 contributors. A survey of Russian history from the earliest times which is supported by extracts from contemporary documents and by illustrations. Medieval Russia: A Source Book, 850-1700 (1991) by Basil Dmytryshyn. Provides useful extracts from Russian law codes and chronicles as well as descriptions given by contemporary visitors. Prince A M Kurbsky's History of Ivan IV (1965) edited by J L I Fennell. A con-temporary account of the life of Ivan IV (1533-84), reputedly the most brutal and ruthless of the tsars of Muscovy. Peter the Great: His Life and World (1981) by Robert K Massie. A vivid and comprehensive biography by a leading popular historian.
The Cossacks (1969) by Philip Longworth. A history of the Cossacks of the steppeland and of the Ukraine, whose freebooting way of life fell victim to Russian expansion in the 17th and 18th centuries. Journey for Our Time: The Journals of the Marquis de Custine (1953) by P P Kohler A French account of a journey to Russia in 1839 with some very telling observations on the nature of the Russian state and society.
Reed, John. American, 1887-1920. Ten Days That Shook the World. Rec: Boston PL NYPL
SPAIN AND PORTUGAL Simon Baskett
The two countries that now make up the Iberian peninsula have experienced a turbulent history, at time overlapping and intertwining, at others completely separate. The physical diversity of the peninsula has contributed to a many-stranded history, and its geographical location in Europe has led to an almost unique intermingling of cultures from Europe itself, Africa, and the Mediterranean. From the time of the first settlers arriving from N France in the early Stone Age, the peninsula has been exposed to the influence of a whole host of different peoples, from the Greeks and Romans to the Visigoths and the Moors, each leaving behind a distinct legacy.
In particular the Moorish conquest and subsequent Reconquista left an indelible imprint upon the whole peninsula. Both countries have experienced imperial grandeur followed by rapid decline, both have laboured under long-lasting dictatorships in the 20th century, and both have had to undergo the traumatic transition to democracy. The imperial past of the two countries has meant that they have been a shaping force in the histories of five continents: Africa, North and South America, Asia, and, of course, Europe. There is little doubt that the subject of Portuguese history has been relatively neglected in terms of English-
language books and this is reflected in the book list.
A dry, barren, impoverished land. A peninsula separated from the continent of Europe by the mountain barrier of the Pyrenees - isolated and remote. A country divided within itself, broken by a high central table-land that stretches
from the Pyrenees to the southern coast. No natural centre, no easy
routes. Fragmented, disparate, a complex of different races, languages,
and civilizations - this was, and is, Spain.
J H ELL1oTT
For a century and a half, from the mid-15th to the late 16th century,
Portugal was the supreme power across the oceans of the earth. Its wealth,
from its dominions and monopolies across the globe, was dazzling, the
grandiose effect of the grandest of causes: discovery.
MARION KAPLAN The Quest for El Cid (1989) by Richard Fletcher. An illuminating study of the 11th-century nobleman and soldier-genius. It provides an essential background to Moorish Spain and paints a vivid picture of Spain at this time. Islamic Spain 1250-1500 (1992) by L P Harvey. A richly detailed account of this pivotal period in Spain's history from the fall of Seville to the Reconquista. It covers matters political, social, diplomatic, and cultural. Scholarly and comprehensive. Spain 1469-1714: A Society of Conflict (1991) by Henry Kamen. An extremely thorough and up-to-date survey of Spanish history between these dates. It deals with the rise and fall of the imperial greatness of Spain. Kamen highlights the problems and tensions within Spanish society, and manages to create a fully integrated picture of all aspects of Spain at this time. Imperial Spain: 1469-1714 (1990) by J H Elliott. The standard work on the Spanish Golden Age. It is elegantly written, highly readable, and is characterized by thorough research throughout. Philip II (1995 3rd revised edition) by Geoffrey Parker. Entertaining, accurate, and revealing portrait of the most powerful man of his age, based upon Philip's personal papers and memoranda. Philip is brought to life in this compelling biography. The Golden Age of Spain (1971) by Antonio Dominguez Ortiz. Interesting back-ground on the literature, the arts, religion, economy, and society as well as the politics of Golden Age Spain. The Spanish Armada (1988) by Colin Martin and Geoffrey Parker. A fascinating and impressive book vividly recreating the story behind the Armada. It makes use of the latest research and lays some of the old myths to rest. Well illustrated and a thoroughly good read. The Portuguese Seaborne Empire (1991) by C R Boxer. An entertaining account of the deeds of the pioneers of maritime expansion, and the missionaries, soldiers, colonists, and merchants involved in the whole enterprise. Alternatively, A World mi the Move: The Portuguese in Africa, Asia and America 1415-1808 by A J R Russell-Wood provides an equally fascinating study of the first and one of the greatest colonial empires.
A Concise History of Portugal (1993) by David Birmingham. Highly accessible and true to its title - concise; running through Portuguese history up to the 1990s. Includes sections on Brazilian wealth, the wine trade, ties with England, and membership of the European Community, as well as the more obvious political history of topics such as the era of the liberal monarchy and the Antonio Salazar dictatorship. They Went to Portugal Too (1990) by Rose Macaulay. An enduring account of Portugal as it once was; it deals with British travellers to Portugal, combining some excellent stories and entertaining anecdotes interwoven with the history of the country. THE LOW COUNTRIES (NETHERLANDS AND BELGIUM) Bob Moore
The history of the Low Countries has not generally been well served by books in the English language. For many years, there was no great publishing tradition among Dutch academics and even when books did start to appear, publishers seldom saw the need to produce English editions. As a result, many of the key texts listed here have been written by 'foreigners', with English and North American authors leading the way. Another distortion has been the immense interest in the Golden Age of the 17th century and the relative neglect of more recent periods. Obtaining a balance does mean that some of the cited works have been available for a long time, but this does not detract from their importance or readability.
I know some Persons of good sense and even of Quality that have no
clearer notion of 'em tho' they are next door to us, than they have
of the Mandarins in China; and what u worse, think themselves no
more obliged to know the one than the other ...
BERNARD MANDMI.LE The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness and Fall 1477-1806 (1995) by Jonathan Israel. A volume from the Oxford History of Early Modern Europe. A comprehensive history which incorporates the latest scholarship but with a lightness of touch. An ideal, if not essential, starting point. Rise of the Dutch Republic (1856) by John Lothrop Motley. A great book, not so much for the analysis which has been undermined by subsequent scholarship, but for its descriptions. His account of the siege of Leiden is a real classic. No recent edition but its early popularity means that copies can still be found in libraries and second-hand bookshops. The Dutch Revolt (1979) by Geoffrey Parker. Just to set the record straight. The best recent scholarship on this colourful and turbulent period. The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age (1988) by Simon Schama. How does one begin to provide reading on the Golden Age? Schama has his own inimitable style and a particular way of examining his subject which is always entertaining and often thought-provoking. Culture and Society in the Dutch Republic During the 17th Century (1974) by J L Price. A more straightforward analysis of the period but a work which has stood the test of time. Daily Life in Rembrandt's Holland (1962) by Paul Zumthor. Delivers some solid detail on everyday Dutch society in the Golden Age.
Plain Lives in a Golden Age (1990) by Adriaan van Duersen. A more recent work covering some of the same ground, and widely recommended by specialist historians and art historians of the period. The Dutch Seaborne Empire (1965) by C R Boxer. A series of essays on maritime expansion, which was an essential element in the history of the Dutch republic. The Low Countries 1780-1940 (1978) by E H Kossman. By far the best example of a common approach used by many Dutch and Flemish historians of the 19th and 20th centuries to combine the history of both the Netherlands and Belgium. The Politics of Accommodation: Pluralism and Democracy in the Netherlands (1968) by Paul R Waibel. A work of political science, but one which provides an under-standing of how contemporary Dutch politics and society are organized.
Literature of the Low Countries: A Short History of Dutch Literature in the Netherlands and Belgium (1971) by Reinder P Meijer. Perhaps the only general survey on Dutch and Flemish literature. EAST-CENTRAL EUROPE (TO THE END OF THE 19TH CENTURY) Martyn Rady
East-Central Europe is the term frequently used nowadays to refer to the lands lying between Germany and the historic Russian (later Soviet) frontier. It thus includes modem Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and the Balkans. East-Central Europe is mainly Slavonic-speaking, but it also has large pockets of German, Hungarian, Romanian, and Albanian speakers, as well as Jews and Gypsies (Roma). Although during the Middle Ages, the territory of East-Central Europe included a number of independent kingdoms, it was dominated from the 14th century onwards by the empires. The Ottoman Turkish empire occupied the Balkans, while modern-day Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia, and parts of Romania and Serbia were ruled by the Austrian Habsburgs. At the end of the 18th century, the independent Polish state was partitioned between Prussia, Russia, and Habsburg Austria. During the 19th century, the peoples of East-Central Europe were strongly affected by the ideology of nationalism and sought to establish their own independent nation-states. Nationalism led to several abortive uprisings in the region, most notably in 1848. Several independent states were established in the Balkans during the late 19th century, but the rule of empires persisted in most of East-Central Europe until the end of World War I. Historical Atlas of East Central Europe (1993) by Paul Robert Magocsi. Contains not only maps and tables but brief explanations of the principal historical developments in the region. East Central Europe in the Middle Ages (1994) by Jean Sedlar. A thorough, thematically arranged survey of the region during the medieval period. A History of the Habsburg Empire 1273-1700 (1994) by Jean Berenger. Traces the origins and growth of the Austrian Habsburg monarchy in East-Central Europe. Eastern Europe, 1740-1985: Feudalism to Communism (1986) by Robin Okey. A valuable and comprehensive introduction to the more recent history of the region. The Fall of the House of Habsburg (1963) by Edward Crankshaw. Traces the history of the Habsburg monarchy in the 19th century with particular reference to the fortune and fate of the ruling dynasty. Hungary: A Short History (1962) by C A Macartney. A thorough account of Hungarian history from the earliest times.
Czechoslovakia at the Crossroads of European History (1990) by Jaroslav Krejci. Written before the split-up of Czechoslovakia, this remains the first substantial English-language history of the country to be written since World War II. God's Playground: A History of Poland (1981) by Norman Davies. A masterful and entertaining account of Polish history. Arranged chronologically, the volumes are divided by the late-18th-century partition. History of the Balkans: Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (1983) by Barbara Jelavich. Despite its title, this work provides substantial historical material on the medieval and early modern periods. The bulk of the text is devoted to the wars of national liberation fought against the Ottoman Turks in the 19th century. Danube (1989) by Claudio Magris. A travelogue which by its historical and cultural references yields a mine of observations and insights into the region. A History of the Gypsies of Eastern Europe and Russia (1995) by David Crowe. Provides the first detailed history of one of East-Central Europe's largest and most neglected minorities. The Everyman Companion to East European Literature (1993) by R B Pynsent and S I Kanikova. Gives biographies of East-Central European authors, and guides to the major literary trends in the region.
The Bridge on the Drina (1959) by No Andric. A historical novel about a bridge in Bosnia, set between the 15th and the 20th centuries. BRITAIN: CELTIC HISTORY Martin Henig
The three lists on early British history (Celtic, Roman, and Anglo-Saxon to Norman) cover a period approximately from the 7th century BC until the 12th century AD. Nevertheless they cannot be entirely chronological. Celtic languages and an survived the Iron Age and Celtic culture reached its apogee in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales in the early Middle Ages. Although the traditional date for the end of Roman Britain is around AD 410, the provincial population can still be recognized, especially in western England, long afterwards, and besides traces of political continuity the Christian church seems to have had some Romano-British roots. The Normans - Vikings who had been settled in northern France for little more than a century - failed to extirpate the distinctive language and an of the Anglo-Saxons. The books selected here are ones I have found exciting to read and consult or, in two cases, to write. If there is a bias it is towards the cultural aspects (art, language, and literature) which define the 'souls' of these heterogeneous peoples.
Although people speaking Celtic languages had probably been present in Britain at least from the beginning of the 1st millennium BC, it is only with the arrival of the La Tene art style in the 5th century with its characteristic and familiar S-
scrolls, and with brief notices by Romans and Greeks from the 1st century BC onwards, especially Julius Caesar, Tacitus, and Dio Cassius, that they can be said to enter the light of history. Caesar shows us that Britain was fragmented into tribes often at war with one another and the position had not changed a century later. Nevertheless, despite their bloodthirsty ways and a religion which included human sacrifice, the abstract art of British smiths had reached a high level of virtuosity and beginnings had been made in introducing a monetary economy and in founding oppida, the precursors of Roman cities, at such places as Camulodunum (Colchester), Verulamium (by modem St Albans), and Calleva (Silchester).
All the Bretons dye their bodies with woad, which produces a blue colour, and this gives them a more terrifying appearance in battle. They wear their hair long, and shave the whole of their bodies except the head and the upper lip.
JULIUS CAESAR Iron Age Communities in Britain (1974) by Barry Cunliffe. This is the standard work on the subject, especially good on settlement and the economy. Iron Age Britain (1995) by Barry Cunliffe. A more concise and accessible version of Professor Cunliffe's views, even better illustrated. The Celtic World (1995) edited by Miranda J Green. This is a massive compendium by numerous authors discussing all aspects of the Celts, but very properly with an insular bias. It is, perhaps, an encyclopedia for library use rather than for the general book buyer but it will be consulted with profit for years ahead. Exploring the World of the Celts (1993) by Simon James. Although the production is sometimes irritatingly trendy, this is the best general book on the Celts in all their aspects in Britain and beyond. The Pagan Celts (1986) by Anne Ross. Dr Ross is a passionate enthusiast for all things Celtic, with a wide knowledge of later insular literature. Her wide learning is very apparent in this book, originally published in 1970 with the more accurate title of Everyday Life of the Pagan Celts. Pagan Celtic Ireland. The Enigma of the Irish Iron Age (1994) by Barry Raftery. Although 'Irish' and 'Celtic' sometimes seem to be the same thing today, La Tene culture was evidently an imported phenomenon, confined to the northern half of the island. Whatever the language of Ireland previously, culture and for the most part the population shows strong continuity from the Bronze Age past. This is a very important book showing that invasion is not necessary for cultural change. The Druids (1968) by Stuart Piggott. Here is the classic study of the well-known priestly caste and its place in Iron Age society, together with the story of the reinvention of the Druids by romantics and mystics in much more recent times. Celtic Art from Its Beginnings to the Book of Kells (1989) by Ruth Megaw and Vincent Megaw. This is the best book on Celtic art in general, including insular art. It is superbly illustrated.
'The Work of Angels': Masterpieces of Celtic Metalwork 6th-9th Centuries AD (1989) edited by Susan Youngs. This is the catalogue of one of a series of exhibitions which really brought the past alive. No better proof is needed than this one that the greatest achievements of the Celts lay in post-Roman times. Included are works of art produced by the Picts of Scotland, Britons in western England and Wales, and of course Irish artists. The Roman Conquest of Britain (1993) by Graham Webster. This is a classic trilogy to compare, for example, with that by Steven Runciman on the Crusades. Dr Webster explores through archaeology and historical sources the epic clash between Celts and Romans. It comprises revised editions of The Roman Invasion of Britain 1980, Rome against Carataeus 1981, and Boudica 1978. ROMAN BRITAIN Martin Henig
The Roman period begins with the invasion of four legions of the Roman army at the behest of the emperor Claudius, but quite quickly the leaders of native society were led to see the benefits of being incorporated into an empire which was generous in granting citizenship and political rights and encouraged the amenities of civilized life, including baths and banquets. With the exception of a serious outbreak of revolt among the Iceni tribe led by their ferocious queen Boudicca, aimed as much against other Britons as the Romans themselves, there was little trouble except in the frontier regions. Archaeology has revealed the prosperity of town and country, the flourishing of the arts, and a vibrant intermixture of Roman and native religion. In the 2nd century and beyond, virtually everyone thought of him- or herself as a Roman. When, from a combination of external circumstances, the Roman Empire disintegrated in the early 5th century, the Britons were one of the fragments that considered themselves heirs to the empire.
They create a desolation and call it peace.
PUBLIUS CORNELIUS TACITUS The Oxford Illustrated History of Roman Britain (1993) by Peter Salway. This is the revised and illustrated edition of a book first published in 1981. This is the fullest and most readable overview of the subject, with many photographs in black and white and colour, although regrettably these lack scales. Roman Britain (1995) by Martin Millett. Dr Millett is less concerned with the traditional version of Roman Britain centred on the doings of the army and more interested in the more subtle processes of cultural change. The book is both thoughtful and accessible. Agricola (AD 97) by Cornelius Tacitus (translated 1970 as The Agricola and the Germania). One of the great classics of Latin literature. Tacitus' encomium on his father-in-law offers a near-contemporary account of one of Roman Britain's most influential governors. Hadrian's Wall (1987) by David J Breeze and Brian Dobson. This is a lively account of Britain's most famous Roman monument. It deals with life on the Wall as well as military topics and should be in the luggage of any visitor. The Towns of Roman Britain (1974) by John Wacher. Towns were the most characteristic institutions of the Roman Empire. This book has proved its worth over the years by bringing together all the evidence from place names, topography, inscriptions, and archaeology. The People of Roman Britain (1988) by Anthony Birley. By means of a skilled use of inscriptions and other written sources, Professor Birley introduces us haltingly and fleetingly to the actual inhabitants of the province. This book gives a surprising insight into social history. Religion in Roman Britain (1995) by Martin Henig. In this book I have tried to show that Roman tolerance towards and encouragement of religion was a profound agent of cultural change. Religion reflects both popular beliefs and profound faiths, some of which struck root in Britain. Christianity in Roman Britain to AD 500 (1981) by Charles Thomas. In this very important work Charles Thomas assembles the evidence for Christianity in the province and makes an unassailable case for continuity into the so-called Dark Ages.
The Art of Roman Britain (1995) by Martin Henig. Until recently most scholars were content to disparage or at least ignore the an of Roman Britain. I have attempted to show that it has the same dynamism and originality as Celtic and Anglo-Saxon an and that it is one of the best indicators of the pagan, literary culture of the 4th-century British gentry. The Age of Arthur (1973) by John Morris. Ever since it was published this book has been controversial. The story he tells is of the resistance of the Britons to the barbarians which crystallized around 'Arthur', and kept alive something of the spirit of Rome. ANGLO-SAXON TO NORMAN HISTORY
Martin Henig
The coming of the English was not a single organized act. Groups of settlers from NW Europe (Netherlands to south Scandinavia) arrived in the 5th century, generally settling in deserted lands but sometimes involved in conflict with Britons or other Saxon groups_ While large parts of western Britain, including Cumbria, Wales, and Cornwall, remained British-speaking, culturally England became Anglo-Saxon; however, the church may have kept Latin alive and it was certainly augmented (if not reintroduced) with the Augustinian mission of AD 597. Thereafter the Anglo-Saxons became highly cultivated, themselves sending missionaries to convert the heathen. In the late Saxon period there were constant problems of Viking raiding, conquest, and settlement.
In some respects the Norman Conquest of 1066 may be regarded as the final act of this drama. However, despite the ruthless suppression of English political freedom, which was made possible through the Norman military and fiscal regimes, Englishness continued to be apparent in art and ultimately the English language would supplant Norman French.
When we compare the present life of man with that of which we have no
knowledge, it seems to me like the swift flight of a lone sparrow through the hall ...
This sparrow flies swiftly in through one door, and out through another.
BEDE Civitas to Kingdom: British Political Continuity 300-800 (1994) by K R Dark. Like John Morris's book, this deals with the Roman inheritance of western Britain and shows the extent to which the Britons of the early Middle Ages were legatees of Rome. The Origins of Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms (1989) edited by Steven Bassett. Diverse essays by different authors showing that not all kingdoms had the same origin, and showing the part played by indigenous elements as well as the Germanic newcomers. A History of the English Church and People (731; 1955) by Bede (revised 1990 as The Ecclesiastical History of the English People). Bede, born about AD 673, less than a century after the mission of St Augustine, demonstrates how quickly the Anglo-
Saxons became civilized. This is a warm and moving account of politics and religious conversion by a great and highly readable historian. The Making of England. Anglo-Saxon Art and Culture AD 600-900 (1991) edited by Leslie Webster and Janet Backhouse. Here, in a catalogue to a British Museum exhibition, is all the visual evidence for Bede's world and beyond, down to the reign of Alfred. There are excellent introductory essays. The Golden Age of Anglo-Saxon Art 966-1066 (1984) by Janet Backhouse, D H Turner, and Leslie Webster. Although the late Saxon period was troubled, its cultural achievements, partly the legacy of King Alfred, were stupendous. This is another very important offering from the British Museum. Anglo-Saxon Art: A New Perspective (1982) by C R Dodwell. This book looks at what the Anglo-Saxons achieved in its European context. It is one of those books that make one marvel at how those barbarian settlers in 5th-century Britain became (like the Irish) standard-bearers of culture, expressed in the most refined art. The Anglo-Saxons (1982) by James Campbell, Eric John, and Patrick Wormald. This is a fine, illustrated general study of the Anglo-Saxons written by three of the leading authorities on the subject. Alfred the Great. Asser's Lsfe and Other Contemporary Sources (1983) by Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge. This is a collection of texts, the most important of which is Asser's Life of Alfred. Here is the story of a king who is unique in being called 'Great' because his subjects loved him, because he fought off military catastrophe rather than because he undertook vast conquests, and because he educated his countrymen. Very Anglo-Saxon. Viking Age England (1991) by Julian D Richards. A concise and well-written account of the Northmen who harried and invaded but also settled and traded in England. Recent excavation notably at York has very much brought them to life. William the Conqueror (1964) by David C Douglas. This is the classic account of the Conqueror, a great warrior and administrator who changed the face of England. English Romanesque Art 1066-1200 (1984) by George Zamecki, Janet Holt, and Tristram Holland. This is the catalogue of an exhibition held at the Hayward Gallery, London, and still the most succinct account of the Norman artistic achievement. Introductory essays include one on architecture by Richard Gem, a worthy summary of one of the most obvious Norman contributions to the face of England. MEDIEVAL BRITISH HISTORY Simon Hall
The major questions in conventional British medieval history remain similar today to those which exercised 19th-century medievalists: whether the Saxon invasion of Britain was peaceful or violent, whether the Norman conquest introduced a new social order, whether the loss of the Angevin territories in France was a blessing or a disaster, how far the Hundred Years' War isolated England from the culture of late medieval Europe, how far the Scots, Irish, and Welsh managed to preserve their distinct identities. Progress, however, has been great, both from the cross-fertilization of history and archaeology and from the impact of new historical methods.
Here I am destitute of all help; I feel the palpable darkness of ignorance,
and I have no lantern of an earlier history to guide my footsteps.
Wn.t iAnA OF MALMESBURY The Oxford History of England: The English Settlement (1985) by J N L Myres;
The Oxford History of England: Anglo-Saxon England (1971) by Frank Stenton;
The Oxford History of England: From Domesday Book to Magna Carta (1955) by A L Poole;
The Oxford History of England: The Thirteenth Century (1962) by Maurice Powicke;
The Oxford History of England: The Fourteenth Century (1959) by May McKisack;
The Oxford History of England: The Fifteenth Century (1961) by E F Jacob. The standard, large-scale, conventional guide to the whole field of English medieval history. English Historical Documents volumes 1-5 (1953-75) edited by David C Douglas et al. A monumental, accessible and always fascinating collection of the major (and some minor) primary sources. The Anglo-Saxons (1982) by James Campbell. A sumptuously illustrated introduction to all aspects of Anglo-Saxon England, filled with new ideas and insights. The Norman Empire (1976) by John Le Patourel. The magisterial culmination of the career of the greatest modern authority on the world of the Normans. From Memory to Written Record (1979) by M T Clanchy. An analysis of the development of literacy and a literate mentality which demonstrates that the most exciting new approaches to medieval history are not necessarily French. Henry II (1973) by W L Warren. An outstanding biography of one of the most important medieval kings of England. An Age of Ambition (1970) by F R H DuBoulay. An excellent thematic approach to later medieval England. Domination and Conquest: The Experience of Ireland, Scotland and Wales 1100-1300 (1990) by Rees Davies. A good starting point for the history of the non-English kingdoms of medieval Britain.
TUDOR AND EARLY STUART ENGLAND
Glyn Redworth
England from the accession of the Tudors in 1485 to the early 17th century witnessed remarkable changes. Not only was unity in religion broken with the Reformation, but with the doubling of population in the space of 100 years, the stresses and strains of early modem society grew increasingly evident. Political disharmony went hand in hand with ideological diversity. The turbulence of the age is reflected in the writing of history. Older books stress the power of the state, especially over the spread of Protestantism, but more recent 'revisionist' work has stressed the importance of grass-roots movements.
This Realm of England is an Empire, and so hath been accepted in
the world, governed by one supreme head and king, having the dignity
and royal estate of the Imperial crown of the same.
ACT OF APPEALS 1533 England Under the Tudors (1974) by Geoffrey Elton. This classic textbook first appeared in the 1950s and portrays a Tudor state which is effectively ruled by, in the main, exceptionally strong monarchs. Tudor England (1990) by John Guy. Incorporates the latest research and gives a greater insight into the mechanics of Tudor government.
Peace, Print, and Protestantism (1977) by C S L Davies. A wonderfully succinct account of English history from the Wars of the Roses to the mid-16th century, which reveals how early Tudor history is best studied with an understanding of the Middle Ages. The Crisis of Parliaments (1971) by Conrad Russell. Also takes a less than usual overview of the period, and tackles developments in English life from the Reformation to the Civil War. Bosworth Field and the Wars of the Roses (1966) by A L Rowse. A thoroughly well-written account of how, by fair means and foul, the Tudors seized the English throne. The English Reformations (1993) by C A Haigh. A so-called revisionist account of the Reformation not as an event but as a series of processes. This work encapsulates the new consensus. The Court of Henry VIII (1985) by David Starkey. A well-illustrated and vividly written account of the behind-the-scenes history of the king's reign. By emphasizing faction and not policy, Starkey brings alive the cut and thrust of the age. Thomas More (1985) by Richard Marius. A highly controversial account of the martyr's life. Seeing him as much as sinner as saint, this is one of the more engaging of psychobiographies. The Causes of the English Civil War (1990) by Conrad Russell. A forensic account of early Stuart history, where this son of the philosopher Bertrand Russell dissects what we mean by causes. THE ENGLISH CIVIL WAR
Glyn Redworth
England's great civil war of the mid-17th century continues to divide modem historians just as much as it did contemporary observers. Did it have long-term causes, or was it really the result of Charles's political incompetence? Even the Marxist interpretations of the 1960s were foreshadowed by 17th-century writers, some of whom felt that the transference of land and power to the gentry after the Dissolution of the Monasteries left the crown at the mercy of its enemies. In the past 20 years, revisionists have eschewed deep-seated reasons for the conflict, but in recent years a return to old-fashioned 'telling the story' has reasserted the notion of constitutional conflict between the crown and Parliament.
Having by our late labours and hazards made it appear to the world at how high a cost we value our just freedom, and God having so far owned our caused as to deliver the enemies thereof into our hands, we do hold ourselves bound in mutual duty to each other to take the best care we can for the future, to avoid both the danger of returning into a slavish condition and the disagreable remedy of war.
THE AGREEMENT OF THE PEOPLE, 1647 History of England from the Accession of James 1 to the Outbreak of the Civil War (1880s) by S R Gardiner. These ten volumes remain the best (and best-written) account of the lead-up to the Civil War. Gardiner's stock rises and falls, but successive generations of historians can never quite escape from his shadow. Not easy to find, but a good library will be able to help. The Fall of the British Monarchies 1637-1642 (1991) by Conrad Russell. A bold attempt to use narrative detail to explain the Civil War partly as a short-term failure but also to show how difficult it was for Charles I to rule together an Anglican England, a Presbyterian Scotland, and a largely Catholic Ireland. The Reign of King Pyre (1941) by J A Hexter. Remains a powerful account of one of Charles I's most brilliant opponents. Despite its age, it reveals the complexities of the age. Charles I and the Popish Plot (1983) by Caroline Hibbard. Details not only the fears of antipopery in England, but also Charles's somewhat naive attempts to have a diplomatic rapprochement with Rome. Oliver Cromwell (1991) by B Coward. The most fair-minded and unsensational account of a character who still arouses much controversy.
The Rise of the New Model Army (1979) by Mark Kishlansky. This is the new military history at its best, explaining how military studies cannot be divorced from a wider understanding of politics and society. The English Bible and the Seventeenth Century Revolution (1994) by Christopher Hill. A subtle study of the role of ideology by the greatest Marxist historian of the 1960s. The Menial World of Stuart Women (1987) by Sara Heller Mendelson. Though not strictly speaking on the Civil War, this does help us understand how, in any time of historical crisis, women come to the fore in society. Charles I on Horseback (1972) by Roy Strong. A fascinating account of the image of a king.
Divine Right and Democracy (1986) edited by D Wooton. A comprehensive selection of writings, ranging from James I's views on kingship to the radical thoughts of the interregnum. RESTORATION TO HANOVERIAN HISTORY
Glyn Redworth
The period after the return of Charles lI to the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837 saw England finally transformed from a rural monarchy to an industrialized democracy. The foundations were laid for the Industrial Revolution as well as for a worldwide empire overseas. A new national identity was painstakingly, and not wholly successfully, created as the notion of Britishness' evolved.
In every party there are two sorts of men, the Rigid and the Supple. The
Rigel are an intractable race of mortals, who act upon principle. These are
persons of a stubborn, unpliant morality. The Supple, who pay their homage
to places, are as ready to change their conduct as their fashion.
ABRIDGED FROM THE TATTLER, 1710 Court and Country 1658-1714 (1978) by J R Jones. An excellent introduction to the politics and culture of the age. The Restoration (1987) by Ron Hutton. A highly intelligent account of the return of the House of Stuart. Queen Anne (1984) by Edward Gregg. Deals with a much neglected monarch, in whose reign the relative decline of the monarchy is particularly apparent. George L Elector and King (1978) by Ragnhild Hatton. Probes how a Hanoverian monarch came to occupy the British throne and how his distance from the minutiae of English politics was a fillip to the growth of parliamentary government.
Jacobitism and the English People (1989) by P K Monod. Analyses the role of those who never quite came to terms with the Glorious Revolution and also casts much light on Scotland's absorption into the British kingdom. English Politics and the American Revolution (1976) by John Derry. Deals with the loss of the American colonies and the divisions in England which precipitated it. The Transformation of England (1979) by Peter Mathias. Remains the best introduction into the problems behind the notion of an industrial revolution. A Polite and Commercial Society (1989) by P Langford. This has become almost an instant classic, as he deals with the social transformation of England. Selections from the Tatler and the Spectator (1982) edited by A Ross. The liveliness of journalistic commentary in its first, golden, age is apparent on every page of these short extracts from the two leading journals of the 18th century. 19TH-CENTURY BRITISH HISTORY
Peter Martland
Nineteenth-century British history has something of a 'bad' reputation, partly because too much of the work achieved by historians has concentrated on the political aspects of the period. As a result they have succeeded in producing rather dry and complex accounts. That the 19th century holds considerable interest is clear in the continued popularity of its great writers - Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, Thomas Hardy - and good history can only further this. The books that follow are intended to represent this, providing readable coverage of all facets of a remarkable century of innovation and change.
The history of the Victorian Age will never be written: we know too
much about it. For ignorance is the first requisite of the historian -
ignorance, which simplifies and clarifies, which selects and omits, with
a placed perfection unattainable by the highest art.
LYTTON STRACHEY British History 181.-1906 (1991) by N McCord. Another superb work from the exemplary Short Oxford History of the Modern World series. The frequent use of headings and subheadings makes the narrative very easy to follow and absorb; couple this with a comprehensive bibliography and useful appendices and one gets the ideal introduction to 19th-century British history. The Age of Improvement 1783-1867 (1959) by Asa Briggs. Standing the test of time, this seminal work is still 'total history' at its most accessible. Starting from the premise that the Industrial Revolution initiated an age of progress, Professor Briggs writes in what can only be described as an optimistic style, touching on fields as diverse as science and literature to produce a comprehensive overview of the period. The Crisis of Imperialism 1865-1915 (1974) by Richard T Shannon. A lucid rendering of a period full of imperial confrontations and complicated diplomacy, helped by a very useful chronology and biographical notes on the major figures in foreign affairs. In spanning the centuries Shannon is able to show the failure of those involved to adapt their strategies to the changing situation, thus turning the great game of imperialism into one with consequences as catastrophic as World War I. Aristocracy and People 1815-65 (1979) by Norman Gash. A very readable account of British political history, going beyond the major characters to produce a fascinating insight into the working of a political system. Particularly strong on the author's specialities in this period, notably popular unrest and Robert Peel. Portrait of an Age: Victorian England (1953) by G M Young. When a historical work begins with 'A boy bom in 1810 ...' one knows that one is in for a treat and Young does not disappoint. Written from an insider's point of view, it charts the rapid developments in all spheres of life during the Victorian era, creating in the reader's mind a mental picture which only the greatest of writers can produce. The Origins of Modern British Society I780-1880 (1969) by Harold Perkin. Thoroughly researched and convincingly argued, this is an engaging approach to social history and its bearings on political events. Stating that an industrial revolution initiated a concomitant social one, Perkin expounds the theory that just as technology is one step ahead of industry, so was society ahead of political action in the 19th century. Gladstone 1809-74 (1986) by H C G Matthew .Towering like a leviathan over the second half of the century, Gladstone provided in his copious diaries rich pickings for the biographer. The merit of Matthew's account is his ability to make a complex man understandable without ever divorcing him from his age. The Making of Victorian England (1962) by G Kitson Clark. Distilled from a course of lectures, this series of essays retains the rhetorical flair that made Kitson Clark such a sought-after speaker. At times overscholarly, this is still a stimulating book, although not one to be tackled without some knowledge of the period. 20TH-CENTURY BRITISH HISTORY
Peter Martland
Historians faced with assessing Britain in the 20th century are liable to be over-come by the wealth of evidence they have to work with and the plethora of approaches open to them. It is undoubtedly a challenge but one well worth con-fronting, offering insight into the current state of Britain and even welcoming prediction. Working so close to one's own time does carry the pitfall of partiality, but in the recommended reading that follows, the emphasis is very much on history and not on current affairs. It is too early to draw up a definitive list of topics that have shaped Britain in this all too unstable century, but attention should be directed away from the 'high' areas of parliamentary politics towards the growing power of society.
Great Britain has lost an empire and has not yet found a role.
DEAN ACHESON Empire, Welfare, Europe: English History 1906-1992 (1993) by T 0 Lloyd. A well-structured book covering the predominant historical themes in chronological order. Ideal as an introduction, with a comprehensive bibliography and a very useful set of factual appendices. English History 1914-1945 (1976) by A J P Taylor. Taylor's outstanding answer to his critics' accusations of 'popularism', a book to be savoured rather than dismissed. The erudition shines through without ever obscuring a fascinating story of rapid political change, told in Taylor's always readable style. The People's Peace: British History 1945-1990 (1992) by K 0 Morgan. A rare example of recent events being treated as historical occurrences rather than current affairs. Morgan's objectivity never wavers, producing a lucid and entertaining account of Britain after World War II. The Development of the British Economy 1914-1980 (1993) by Sidney Pollard. A book which makes economics understandable without recourse to complicated theories. Very strong on economic data, at times distractingly so, it charts the relative decline of Britain's economy in all too vivid detail. Churchill: A Life (1991) by Martin Gilbert. To produce a multivolume biography of Churchill was a labour of love; to mm it into a comprehensive single edition must rank as a magisterial work of revision. This elegant account throws light both on Britain's most eminent politician of the century and on the overseas affairs in which he made his reputation. British Society since 1945 (1982) by Arthur Marwick. A stimulating analysis of Britain's fluctuating social structure, charting the erosion of social class in the face of economic segregation. The Eclipse of a Great Power: Modern Britain 1870-1975 (1983) by Keith Robbins. An excellent account of the demise of the British Empire and the various positions Britain adopted in an attempt to keep its place on the world stage. Major involvements are described in clear terminology, making the interests of Britain clear at all times. State and Society: British Political and Social History 1870-1992 (1994) by Martin Pugh. An interesting work which places the main streams of political and social thought into a chronological framework. A sense of Britai 's inexorable decline pervades the book, leading to assertions which can best be described as debatable.
USA: FROM THE 17TH CENTURY TO THE CIVIL WAR
Peter Martland
Understanding American history before the dawn of the modem era is fraught with difficulties. The colonial period (between 1607 and 1776) can be seen as a chronicle of settlement, expansion, and exploitation of the eastern hinterland of what became the USA. Against a background of social and economic development, the great cities of colonial America - Williamsburg, Philadelphia, and New York - were created, as were the institutions, like the slave trade, that dominated and eventually consumed the southern USA. Cutting across these developments were political moves - based on an ideology of reason and enlightenment - that led eventually to independence in 1776. The enduring interest in the Revolution, the founding fathers, and the first formative decades of the Union continues to inspire historians to research and produce books of both scholarly and general appeal. Those listed below reflect a tiny proportion of the most interesting, readable, and enjoyable.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that
among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
THOMAS JEFFERSON (DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 1776) Colonial British America (1984) edited by J Greene and J Pole. A comprehensive set of essays covering both the issues and the contrasting approaches to them. The editors' introduction and conclusion gives the work a structure often lacking in collections of essays, while a useful index provides summaries of the major texts cited. Red, White and Black: The Peoples of Early America (1974) by Gary B Nash. An outstanding work in the field of indigenous culture which has so dominated American history in the last few decades. As the title suggests, this book deals with issues concerning Native Americans, settlers, and blacks and their all too antagonistic relations without ever resorting to generalizations or dogma. The Economy of Colonial America (1980) by Edwin J Perkins. By comparing the English and American economies, Perkins is able to provide arresting angles on economic development which would be lacking from a more orthodox history of the economy. America at 1750 (1971) by Richard Hofstadter. Limiting oneself to a fixed date can often be disastrous in historical analysis but Hofstadter carries it off with aplomb, catching the American Zeitgeist through a heady mix of primary sources and anecdotal evidence. Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England (1982) by J Demos. Combining biographical, psychological, sociological, and historical approaches, this work weaves an inescapable spell, the lure of speculation having been avoided through concentrated original research. The Urban Crucible (1979) by Gary B Nash. Good history is often achieved through novel approaches. This is certainly true in this book. For Nash, by eschewing the agricultural base of early America and concentrating on the significant growth in the mercantile sector, brilliantly succeeds in presenting detailed argument without losing the reader's attention. At times overtly Marxist in interpretation, it is nevertheless a work which demands at the very least recognition and partial acceptance from Al quarters. The Glorious Cause (1982) by Robert Middlekauff. A superb narrative of the complicated events which together form one of the most fascinating areas of American historical research: the Revolution. The extraordinary detail within this book never impinges on the story being told, this asset most apparent in Middlekauff's descriptions of the military encounters. An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States (1913) by Charles Beard. This timeless seminal work emphasizes the weight given by the founding fathers to economic interests as forces in politics and in the formation of laws and constitutions. The Era of Good Feelings (1963) by George Dangerfield. Covering the period from Thomas Jefferson to Andrew Jackson, this is a very well-written account, highlighting the change in both policies and personalities that occurred between their presidencies.
Liberty and Slavery: Southern Politics to 1860 (1983) by W J Cooper. Concentrating on the area of 'high' politics in the Southern states, Cooper's account conveys the sense of an enclosed world, a feeling that is instrumental to understanding the Civil War. Journey to America (1833; 1959) by Alexis de Tocqueville. This celebrated early 19th century account of American political and social institutions has successfully weathered the passage of time. It is as relevant to our understanding the America of today as it is to understanding the times in which it was set. FROM THE CIVIL WAR TO 1945
Peter Martland
In the 80 years between the outbreak of the US Civil War in 1861 and the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 (which brought the USA into World War II), the nature of the country underwent a fundamental transformation, changing it from a predominantly rural society with an economy based largely on agriculture, into a mainly urban society underpinned by what had by 1941 become the world's most powerful manufacturing and financial base. These dramatic changes were set against the back-ground of the Civil War and its aftermath, the opening up of the West and the influx of more than 25 million European immigrants seeking a better life. In an attempt to under-stand this extraordinary period of dynamic change, historians have over the years produced a wide array of books aimed at both the academic and general reader. The list below provides merely a small sample of recent and classic texts of this time.
Speak softly and carry a big stick.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT, ON THE ART OF DIPLOMACY. The Origins of America's Civil War (1981) by Bruce Collins. Although designed primarily as a guide for students, this is an instructive work, covering both events and issues in a concise style which never strays into patronizing the general reader. As well as very helpful biographical notes and chronologies, it also sports a comprehensive reading list. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Era of the Civil War (1988) by J M McPherson. This is an example of that rare kind of history which transports one back to the age it is describing, so vivid is the picture which McPherson paints. It is 'total' history at its best, covering numerous fields and achieving an almost seamless mix of popular and scholarly style. Why The South Lost the Civil War (1986) by Richard E Beringer, Herman Hathaway, Archer Jones, and William N Still. This work demonstrates the relationship between military success, morale, and will and the weakness of Confederate national-
ism when undermined by battlefield defeat. The Age of Reform (1955) by Richard Hofstadter. This Pulitzer-prizewinning account covers the period from 1880 to 1940 and it makes compulsive reading. Hofstadter's premise is that the prominent political ideology during this half-century of dramatic change remained a constant one of conservative individualism, a bold statement but one that puts a new perspective on much of American policy. Invisible Immigrants (1972) by Charlotte Erickson. The act of emigration led many ordinary working people to record their actions and attitudes. Charlotte Erickson's meticulous - though highly accessible - scholarship reveals a host of insights into the greatest movement of people the world has ever seen. The United States Since 1865 (1960) by John A Krout. This standard college text has inspired two generations of students to know and understand their country. Structured as a survey of the period between the end of the Civil War and the end of World War II, this work is highly readable by either students or the general reader. Theodore Roosevelt: Culture, Diplomacy and Expansion (1985) by Richard H Collins. In this book Collins attempts to re-
evaluate the presidency of America's first larger-than-life imperial president: Theodore Roosevelt. Specifically, the creation of an American empire to reposition the USA internationally. Collins also chronicles Roosevelt's domestic legacy, from the creation of the National Park Service to trust-busting. The Origins of the Second World War: American Foreign Policy and World Politics 1917-f1 (1975) by Arnold A Offner. A brave book which confronts the widely held view that American foreign policy was isolationist and self-interested. Through a close analysis of America's relationship with the other world powers, it shows that even the prewar world was a close-knit one in which America was unable to stand as alone as perhaps it would have liked or tried to make it seem. The Great Depression: America, 1929-41 (1985) by R S McElvaine. The strength of this work is its appreciation of the effects that abstract economic concepts have on the lives of all those who work for a living. It manages to transfer figures into feelings and provides a sobering read without ever straying into wild accusation. FROM WORLD WAR II TO THE PRESENT
Peter Martland
It seems almost as if the USA, during the past 60 years, has been on a fast-moving roller coaster. It began with the triumph of World War II, continued through an age of boundless self-confidence which collapsed in the agonies of the fight for civil rights, political assassinations, the searing trauma of the war in Vietnam, the political scandal of Watergate and the politics of Ronald Reagan and beyond. To encapsulate this period of dramatic events and other equally rapid changes in American society is enough to tax the skills of even the greatest of historians. Below are some of the best and most readable works of this period. As a bibliography it is designed primarily to stimulate the reader into looking anew at the nation which more than any other defines the society we live in today.
Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what
you can do for your country.
JOHN F KENNEDY In the Shadow of FDR: From Harry Truman to Ronald Reagan (1983) by William E Leuchtenburg. Although he died in 1945, the legacy Franklin Delano Roosevelt left behind has dominated the American political landscape. In this highly readable book, William Leuchtenburg assesses and analyses that legacy in terms of Roosevelt's successors. Since 1900: A History of the United States in Our Times (1959) by Oscar Theodore Barch Jr and Nelson Manfred Blake. By describing America's political, economic, social, diplomatic, and military history, this narrative succeeds in explaining the American experience of the first six decades of the 20th century. The Rise and Fall of the New Deal Order America 1930-1980 (1991) edited by Steve Fraser and Gary Gersthe. In the wake of Ronald Reagan's watershed triumph in 1980, Fraser and Gersthe intended this work as an historical autopsy. In fact they attempt to identify and account for two generations of political thought and activity in the USA. However, in the end, the focus of the work has to be the decline and fall of the New Deal order. A History of Our Time: Readings in Post War America (1983) edited by William H Chafe and Harvard Sitkoff. Arguing that contemporary America arose as a result ofchanges that have taken place since the beginning of World War II, the contributors of this scholarly work chronicle and interpret various aspects of modern American history. The themes evaluated include the sources of the Cold War, McCarthyism, the civil-rights movement, and the politics of the 1960s and 1970s. The Unfinished Journey: America since World War II (1986) by William H Chafe. Set against the background of the _USA's emergence as the world superpower at the end of World War II, Chafe's book charts in a highly distinctive manner the radical changes in American society after 1945, the Cold War, the movement towards civil rights, and the agony of Vietnam. American High: The Year of Confidence: 1945-1960 (1986) by William L O'Neill. By using the novel - though controversial - device of juxtapositioning US national policy with social developments between 1945 and 1960, O'Neill succeeds in reinterpreting American history and placing it in a fresh perspective. The Struggle for Black Equality: 1954-1980 (1980) by Harvard Sitkoff. This book is concerned with one of the most significant developments in American history: the struggle for racial equality and justice waged between 1954 and 1980. A highly read-able narrative, placing as it does the civil-rights movement into a clear perspective. An excellent bibliographical essay at the end of the book provides a helpful jumping-off point for further reading.
AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND
David Lowe and Ruth Brown
Histories of Australia and New Zealand after the white settlement have in common the themes of British peoples exploring, landing, carrying out ever-expanding economic activity, and developing political systems, and all this with consequences for the respective indigenous populations. For a short time late in the 19th century, when New Zealanders took part in discussions leading to the federation of Australia's separate states, it seemed that their destinies would be more closely entwined, but New Zealand did not, in the end, join. In the 20th century the two countries have had very different experiences of immigration, of indigene-white relations, and relations with other states within the Asica-Pacific region.
AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND
IN THE 19TH CENTURY
How funny it'll seem to come out among the people that walk with
their heads downwards! The Antipathies, I think ... Please, Ma'am,
is this New Zealand or Australia?
LEWIS CARROLL Pastiche I: Reflections on Nineteenth-Century Australia (1994) edited by Penny Russell and Richard White. An excellent collection of essays on early Aboriginal-colonial, social, cultural, political, and economic history of Australia, which also delves deep into the whole exercise of constructing histories of this period. A Land Half Won (1980) by Geoffrey Blainey. A classic and influential account of the expansion and (imitations of Australain capitalist endeavour, especially in the 19th century. The Australian Colonists: An Exploration of Social History 1788-1870 (1974) by K S Inglis. A very good, readable survey of Australian social history in the 19th century, charting the development of the colonies and the changes to white Australian society after its convict origins. The Australian Legend (1958) by Russel Ward. The classic and much debated account of the bush-worker inspired egalitarianism and mateship in Australian society, the legacy of which remains today. The Oxford History of Australia volume 2 1770-1860: Possessions (1992) by Jan Kocumbas. The first volume in the Oxford series after white settlement is a good introduction to a thematic but integrated account of Australia's convicts' and colonizers' founding years and directions of expansion. The Oxford History of Australia volume 3 1860-1900: Glad, Confident Morning (1992) by Beverly Kingston. Kingston sees the second half of the century as one of the most creative periods for the building of Australian institutions and beliefs. Her chapters on beliefs and the nature of politics are especially good. Frontier: Aborigines, Settlers and Land (1981) by Henry Reynolds. A pioneering attempt to reconstruct the Aboriginal perspective of Aboriginal-European contact. Reynolds has also written on other dimensions of this contact, and is the most influential historian in this field. Old New Zealand (1863) by F E Manning. A personal account by a timber trader who lived among the Maoris in the early days of white settlement, who wrote with an affection for the time and the people with whom he lived. The Long White Cloud (1898) by W P Reeves. A highly readable account by a prominent politician and historian who wrote with classical 19th-century Whiggish optimism. New Zealand is proclaimed to be God's Own Country and a working man's paradise.
The New Zealand Wars and the Victorian Interpretation of Racial Conflict (1986) by James Belich. In lively style, Belich dismantles the Victorian conviction that Britain always won its battles against 'savages' in the Maori wars. He shows that only overwhelming numbers enabled the British to defeat the tactically superior Maoris. AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND IN THE 20TH CENTURY
Australia is not very exclusive ... On the visa application they still
cask if you've been convicted of a felony - although they are willing to
give you a visa even if you haven't been.
P J O'RouRttE.
When I was there, it seemed to be shut. CLEMENT FREUD ON NEW ZEALAND A Nation at Last? The Changing Character of Australian Nationalism 1888-1988 (1988) by S Alomes. A readable romp through the meanings and experiments of Australian nationalists who, for most of this century, had to contend with the formidable norm of the independent Australian Briton'. Alomes finds, perhaps harshly, that much so-called nationalism left a lot to be desired, or was stifled by Australian imperial cronies. Australia in Peace and War (1991) by T B Millar. A very digestible history of Australia's overseas relations, including involvement in both world wars, Korea, and Vietnam. The balance is even, if mildly conservative, and this book serves as an excel-lent introduction for those wishing to explore further in this field. A Nation for a Continent (1977) by Russel Ward. Three-quarters of 20th-century Australia through the eyes of a nationalist historian, concerned especially with politics and economics. Immigration (1991) by James Jupp. The best introduction to one of the greatest themes in 20th-century Australia's history. This is a well-rounded account, not avoiding the 'white Australia' policy nor other hard questions that immigration has posed, but convincingly optimistic about the consequences of immigration for Australia. After Mabo: Interpreting Indigenous Traditions (1993) by Tim Rowse. A very important interpretation of the consequences of the Australian High Court's recent ruling on the validity of Aboriginal legal title to areas of land. Aboriginality, politics, land, and even sovereignty are discussed. The Oxford History of Australia volume 4 1901-1942: The Succeeding Age (1986) by S Macintyre. One of the best volumes in the Oxford history series. Macintyre is especially strong on social and economic themes between federation and the early years of World War IT. The Oxford History of Australia volume 5 1942-1988: The Middle Way (1990) by G Bolton. The final instalment in the Oxford series is very good on expansion and prosperity after World War H, and on the periodization of modem Australian history. The End of Certainty: The Story of the 1980s (1992) by Paul Kelly. An account of how Australia's certainties, such as a huge social welfare net, a 'white' immigration policy, protection for local industry, and high fixed wages, were dismantled during the political-economic revolution of the 1980s. Kelly's 'certainty' that the new deregulated direction is the only path for the future is also challenging. The Bone People (1984) by Keri Hulme. Winner of the Booker Prize in 1986, and probably the most famous New Zealand novel. It is a rich mixture of colloquial and mandarin styles, of unreal magic and harrowing violence, but most of all it is imbued with Maori spirituality. To the Is-Land (1982) by Janet Frame. The first of a three-part autobiography, this is an evocative and often very funny account of growing up in New Zealand between the world wars, capturing especially the school fare of Romantic poetry and empire worship in that period. HISTORY OF AFRICA
David M Anderson
Since its birth as an academic subject in the early 1960s, the field of African history has blazed pioneering trails in historical method and inquiry. New sources are constantly being found, unearthed in archaeological excavations, collected as oral literature and histories, and recovered from libraries and archives, which deepen our knowledge of the African past and raise yet new questions to be answered. The scope and variety of research and writing is simply breathtaking, as many of the following titles indicate.
The heroism of African history is to be found not in the deeds of kings but in the struggles of ordinary people against the forces of nature and the cruelty of men.
JOHN ILIFFE History of Africa (1989) by Kevin Shillington. A very readable general introduction to the African past. A good starting point. African Civilisations: Precolonial Cities and States in Tropical Africa (1987) by Graham Connah. A lucid synthesis of the many complex societies of precolonial Africa, with plenty of illustrations and good maps. Paths in the Rainforest (1993) by Jan Vansina. A classic work from one of the founding fathers of the academic study of African history, which reconstructs the history of political traditions across the vastness of equatorial Africa. The African Poor: A History (1987) by John Iliffe. This wonderfully engaging book spans medieval to modem Africa to argue that the nature of poverty has been gradually changing as demographic patterns adjust the balance between land and labour. Way of Death (1989) by Joseph C Miller. The best account of the Atlantic slave trade, richly textured and beautifully written. It deals with the history of the trade from Angola. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (1972) by Walter Rodney. This polemical account of European economic pillage remains essential to any discussion of the impact of colonialism. The Making of Contemporary Africa (1984) by Bill Freund. A succinct history of Africa since 1800, thematically organized to emphasize the social changes brought about by colonialism. Magomero: Portrait of an African Village (1987) by Landeg White. A microhistory of the village where David Livingstone set up the ill-fated mission to central Africa, this beautifully crafted book brings the experience of Africans to life. The Scramble for Africa (1991) by Thomas Pakenham. This big, stylishly written book provides a colourful account of the European conquest of Africa at the end of the 19th century. Studies in the Economic and Social History of the Witwatersrand 1886-1914 (1982) by Charles van Onselen. Essays on the astonishingly rapid transformations thatshook the Witwatersrand after the discovery of gold. The author is South Africa's leading historian. 20TH-CENTURY AFRICA David M Anderson
There is hardly a country in Africa that has not been beset by immense civil traumas of one kind or another in the final quarter of the 20th century. Among Africans themselves, and in the writings of those in the Western world, it is not surprising that the search for the causes and the cures of these crises should dominate all else. But alongside the image of modern Africa as a continent of famine, war, and suffering are other images too: images of rich cultural diversity, of artistic creativity, of innovation, of astonishing endurance, and of personal and collective dignity.
The question is not whether there is a crisis in rural Africa,
but what its nature really is.
MICHAEL MORT1MORE Africa (1995) edited by Phyllis Martin and Dan O'Meara. These essays offer an excel-lent introduction to the history and contemporary society of the African continent. The Invention of Africa (1989) by V Y Mudimbe. Africa's best-known philosopher here discusses the multiple layers that form the foundation of contemporary African society. A thoughtful, erudite, and at times very surprising book.
In My Father's House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture (1992) by K Antony Appian. Another study which ranges widely through Africa's historical experience and sociological heritage to present an interpretation of the distinctiveness of African culture. Siaya (1989) by Atieno Odhiambo and David W Cohen. This highly original book takes cameos of life in a rural district of western Kenya to reflect upon the wider sociology, politics, and culture of modem Africa. The State in Africa: The Politics of the Belly (translated 1993) by jean-Francois Bayart. Originally published in French, this brilliant and challenging work analyses the dynamics of political culture in modern Africa. Africa in Crisis: The Causes and Cures of Environmental Bankruptcy (1985) by Lloyd Timberlake. Hard-hitting populist polemic, published by the pressure group Earthscan, advocating a wholesale reappraisal of economic and environmental policies in Africa. More People, Less Erosion: Environmental Recovery in Kenya (1994) by Mary Tiffen, Michael Mortimore, and Francis Gichuki. An important book which presents significant evidence of innovation in African agriculture to counter the pervasive view of decay and productive decline. Conservation in Africa: People, Policies, Practice (1987) edited by David Anderson and Richard Grove. These essays, mostly written by social scientists, deal with aspects of the conflicts between the conservation of wildlife and habitat and economic development. The Anti-Politics Machine (1990) by James Ferguson. This influential and very readable critique of the development process takes projects in Lesotho as its focus. Twentieth-Century South Africa (1995) by William Beinart. The best available account of modem South Africa, telling the story of segregation, apartheid, and liberation struggle up to the elections of 1994. HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE EAST
Edward Fox
When we speak of the history of the Middle East, we are almost certainly speaking of the history of Islam, which emerged in Arabia in the 7th century AD and rapidly expanded through military-political conquest and conversion for the next two centuries. It is easy to see Islamic history in the form of a tree, which grew from a single stem and then branched out into the separate histories of the states that emerged as central authority in the Islamic empire weakened, particularly in Turkey and Iran. Although it is a common error nowadays to speak of Islam as a single thing, like 'Christendom', because of its huge cultural variety, the Islamic tradition and its history give a unity to the Middle East, north and Saharan Africa, Central Asia, and parts of the Indian subcontinent. To understand the Islamic religion, it is important to have a familiarity with its early history, and its early political and doctrinal splits.
History is a discipline cultivated widely among nations and races. It is
eagerly sought after. The men in the street, the ordinary people, aspire to
know it. Kings and leaders vie for it. Both the learned and the ignorant are
able to understand it. For on the surface history is no more than information
about political events, dynasties, and occurrences of the remote past, elegantly
presented and spiced with proverbs ... The inner meaning of history, on the
other hand, involves speculation and an attempt to get at the truth.
IBN KHALDOUN Muhammad (1971) by Maxime Rodinson. Stimulating work by a French Marxist on the Prophet's life and the founding of the original Islamic state. The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civilization three volumes (The Classical Age of Islam, The Expansion of Islam in the Middle Period, The Gunpowder Empire and Modern Times) by Marshall G S Hodgson. A penetrative and detailed interpretive history of Islamic civilization, from the time of Muhammad to the Ottoman era.
A History of Medieval Islam (1965) by J J Saunders. Gives a good sweep of the development of Islamic civilization covering the time of the Prophet, the 'rightly guided Caliphs' who succeeded him, the empires of the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphs, the Fatimid anticaliphate, the Seljuk Turks, the Crusades, and the Mongol invasions, which culminated in the Muslim defeat in the sack of Baghdad in 1258. The Crusades through Arab Eyes (1984) by in Maalouf. One of Lebanon's best living writers compiled this account from contemporary Arabic sources. The Assassins: A Radical Sect in Islam (1967) by Bernard Lewis. The best avail-able book on Hassan Sabah, the 'Old Man of the Mountain', and his faction of the Ismaili sect. The Ottoman Centuries (1977) by Lord Kinross. A good one-volume history of the Ottoman Empire. Mystical Dimensions of Islam (1975) by Annemarie Schimmel. The best single-volume account of Sufism, the mystical tradition of Islam. A History of Islamic Philosophy (1983) by Majid Fakhry. A detailed historical survey which discusses the legalism, rationalism, and mysticism of Islamic thought. An Anthology of Islamic Literature: From the Rise of Islam to Modern Times (1964) edited by James Kritzeck. An anthology representing a wide range of literary traditions. THE MIDDLE EAST IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Edward Barratt
Following the collapse and carving up of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, and the abolition of the caliphate - the symbol of Muslim unity - by Mustafa Kemal Atatiirk, the Arab world was left destabilized. British and French suzerainty between the World Wars was replaced by Cold War rivalry, with the USA supporting Israel and the USSR the Arab nations. Ethnic conflict flared between Arabs and Israelis in 1948119 after Israel's foundation as a state in Palestine, and erupted again in 1967 (the Six Days War) and 1973 (the Yom Kippur War). The economic power of Arab states was demonstrated in the world-wide oil crisis precipitated after the 1973 war, and Pan-Arabism and Islamic fundamentalism were touted as genuine Arab alter-natives to the Western-style national structures created after World War I. However, the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980's and the contribution of most Arab nations to the defeat of Saddam Hussein in the Gulf War of 1990-91 demonstrated these ideas' limited practical usefulness. Whether the 1993 PLO-Israeli peace agreement demonstrated a new realism remains to be seen.
The tormenting dilemma of the Middle East is this: either
we have one people too many, or one state too few.
AFIF SAFIEH (PLO REPRESENTATIVE) The Near East Since the First World War (1991) by M E Yapp. Clear narrative account focussing on individual national histories and their relation to the international and economic dimensions.
The Longman Companion to the Middle East Since 1914 (1987) by Ritchie Overdale. Short introduction to the major topics and a comprehensive reference section dealing with economic and social statistics, religion, and politics. In-depth guide to further reading. Politics in the Middle East (1992) by Elie Kedourie. Analysis of the different ideological bases of Middle Eastern attitudes. A Peace to End All Peace: Creating the Modern Middle East, 1914-22 (1989) by David Fromkin. Account of the creation of the modern states system after World War I. Into the Labyrinth: The US and the Middle East 1945-1992 (1995) by H W Brands. Examines the role played by US interest in oil, antipathy towards the USSR, and support for Zionism in influencing events in the Middle East. The Gulf Conflict 1990-91 (1993) by Lawrence Freedman and Efraim Karsh. Definitive account of the Gulf War, covering its origins, course, aftermath, and implications.
Visions and Marriages: The Middle East in a New Era (1995) by John Roberts. Discusses the prospects for peace following the 1993 Israeli-PLO peace agreement; also looks at individual nations with assessments of the wider ideological and economic situation. The Israel-Arab Reader: A Documentary History of the Middle East Conflict (1985) edited by Walter Laquer and Barry Rubin. Gathers together all the principal documents of the Israeli-Arab conflict, in the framework of a clear and concise narrative. INDIAN HISTORY Burjor Avari
The earliest records of Indian history date back to the Indus Valley culture, about 5000 BC to 1500 BC. India's oldest religion, Hinduism, originated during that period; but the finest of the Hindu religious literature dates after 1500 BC. A glorious and enriching Hindu-Buddhist Jain civilization flourished in India between about 500 BC and AD 1000, and it exercised a major cultural and intellectual influence upon its immediate and distant neighbours. Islamic influences became more marked after AD 1000, and Islamic political power reached its apogee under the great Moguls between 1526 and 1707. The British followed the Moguls and, through the instrument of their Raj, Western civilization impacted upon India. The modern republics of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal are therefore heirs to a long and brilliant Asian civilization.
Not by wars and conquest has India influenced the outside world, but in the
subtler and deeper realms of imagination and thought.
PERCNAL SPEAR The Penguin History of India (1990) by Romila Thapar and Percival Spear. These two short volumes are a useful introduction for the beginner. Elegantly written by two of the greatest historians of India in the 20th century, they provide a concise narrative of the entire span of Indian history. The Wonder That Was India (1954; 1985) by A L Basham. A book that should be compulsory reading for all who are obsessed with the superiority of European culture. With the help of a rich array of sources, the author explores the social, cultural, andintellectual history of pre-Islamic India and provides evidence of the depth and width of Indian cultural influence in the world at that time. The Arts of India (1981) edited by Basil Gray. A comprehensive survey of the art styles of India, covering sculptures, temples, and paintings from the earliest period of the Indus Valley culture to the late 20th century. The book examines the richness of the native tradition and the skill with which foreign influences are blended in that tradition. Al-Hind: The making of the Indo-Islamic World volume 1 (1990) by Andre Wink. Examines the first encounter of Islam with India. This fascinating first volume looks at the four centuries between the 7th and the 11th centuries, the period before the rise of Islamic military and political power in India but during which the commercial and cultural connections were already beginning to draw India into the Islamic sphere of influence. The Great Moghuls (1971) by Bamber Gascoigne. A sensitive study of the first six rulers of India's premier Muslim dynasty, their pride and vanity, wealth and pomp, wisdom and justice, but, above all, their sophisticated culture and horrendous cruel-
ties. Anyone planning a tour of Mogul Indian sites will be well advised to read this book. There is also a TV series in six parts. The Raj: India and the British 1600-I947 (1990) edited by C A Bayly. Contains valuable essays on a variety of social, cultural, and intellectual themes that highlight the British presence in India. More than 500 illustrations of paintings, photographs, furnishings, textiles, and artefacts further help to deepen our understanding of the British connection over nearly 350 years. The Splendours of the Raj: British Architecture in India 1660 to 1947 (1985) by Philip Davies. The remarkable architectural achievement of British India, in the shape of monuments and buildings, bridges and railway stations, military headquarters and hill stations, gateways and gravestones, is brought to life in this book. The vision and motivation, style and design, functions and usage, which guided the architects and builders are explained, with the help of numerous original photographs.
Hobson fobson: a glossary of colloquial Anglo-Indian words and phrases and of kindred terms, etymological, historical, geographical and discursive (1886) by Henry Yule and A C Burnell. Republished 1994 with a brilliant historical perspective by Nirad Chaudhuri, the highly iconoclastic Indian writer of modern times. This volume of 1,000 pages is a mine of information on how words of Indian and Oriental origin crept into English and how English words acquired new meanings in the Indian context. Divide and it (1964) by Penderel Moon. A first-hand description, by a member of the imperial Indian civil service, of the tragic catastrophe that engulfed millions of people when British India was partitioned in 1947. A book to be read if we are to understand the background of hostility between India and Pakistan. Gandhi: The Traditional Roots of Charisma (1983) by Susanne Rudolph and Lloyd Rudolph. There is a vast literature on the life and works of Mahatma Gandhi, the most influential Indian leader of this century. This slim but thought- provoking volume argues that through the force of his ideas on courage, self-control, sacrifice, and morality Gandhi not only bequeathed to his people a sense of worth about themselves but also helped to modernize them. 20TH-CENTURY INDIA Mark Tully
India is the home of one of world's oldest civilizations, a civilization which still survives. It is the cradle of an ancient family of religions. It has produced some of the greatest religious thinkers of all times, from the Buddha to Mahatma Gandhi. Its thought is regarded by many scholars as deeper than European religion and philosophy. India has always been an important trading centre. It has never been isolated, and has shoum a remarkable ability to absorb the thought of other parts of the world with-out surrendering its own originality. It has been conquered but its civilization has never been overcome. It is one of the few countries to emerge from colonization a stable democracy. With their education to freedom of speech and of thought, their achievements in science and technology, their skills as traders, and their new- found freedom from bureaucratic socialism, Indians are set to make their nation one of the great economic powers of the 21st century.
India has, more fully than any civilization on earth, past or present, explored, embodied the highest, the most all-embracing realization of our human scope.
KATHLEEN RAINS The Wonder That Was India (1954; many editions) by A L Basham. Still the best introduction to the foundations of Indian civilization. The Hindu View of We (1927; many editions) by Radhakrishnan. A concise and readable summary of the religion which is so difficult to understand for those brought up in the tradition of Semitic religions. The Ramayana (1982) and The Mahabharata (1978) by R K Narayan. Easily accessible retellings of the two great Hindu epics. Indian Muslims (1985) by M Mujeeb. A scholarly book on one of the world's largest Muslim communities and its interaction with Indian thought. The Men Who Ruled India (1985) by Philip Mason. A sympathetic history of British rule in India by a Briton who served in the Indian civil service. The Penguin History of India (1990) by Romila Thapar and Percival Spear. A concise history. Jawaharlal Nehru (1975 onwards) by Sarvepalli Gopal. A biography in three volumes. Essential for understanding the conflict that dominated the independence movement between the Indian thought of Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru's Western ideologies. Essential also for understanding why Nehru's dream of an India modernized by European thought, political structures, and technology failed.
Raag Darbari (1992) by Shrilal Shukla. A satirical novel written originally in Hindi, about the rural Hindi heartland and the flaws in the political and administrative systems of independent India as they work in practice. Cynical but with the ring of truth. Stories about the Partition of India three volmnes (1994) edited by Bhalla Alok. This anthology of writing by Indian and Pakistani authors looks at the event which still affects the politics of S Asia and the lives of millions of citizens nearly 50 years after it took place. Gandhi, Prisoner of Hope (1989) by Judith M Brown. A scholarly biography of one of the outstanding figures of the 20th century. A useful compendium of Gandhi's thoughts on many subjects is The Mind of Mahatma Gandhi (1967), compiled and edited by R K Prabhu and U R Rao. CHINA L B Lewis
European fascination with China began in the 13th century, when the Venetian Marco Polo visited the Far East. Interest is even more intense today as we watch the developments of the world's most populous country - what will happen as China's octogenarian leadership dies off, and when Hong Kong is returned to Chinese control in 1997? As a huge land with one of the oldest continuous cultures in the world, China has much to see and much to understand. Reading Chinese history can become a numbing procession of dates and dynastic changes, and the political and social chronology of the last 100 years is as complex as that of any preceding period. Fortunately, it is much better documented. Recent events such as the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) and the massacre of Chinese students in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, in 1989 provoke heated opinions which colour most of the contemporary writing about China. Less controversial, Chinese art and literature (chiefly poetry), both dating back more than 2,000 years, have attracted many Western admirers. Because of the differences between Chinese and European languages, translation is particularly difficult. The words may be rendered more or less faithfu11y, but the distinctive style of an author or a genre is often lost, and the economy of expression built into the Chinese language tends to make prose sound simplified, like children's literature. Poetry may be more rewarding for the reader in translation.
Mao, the emperor, fitted one of the patterns of Chinese history: the leader of a
nationwide peasant uprising who swept away a rotten dynasty and became a
we new emperor exercising absolute authority. ,.. He enabled the Chinese
to feel great and superior again, by blinding them to the world outside.
JUl~'G CHANG Riding the Iron Rooster: By Train Through China (1988) by Paul Theroux. There are two types of writing about travel in China: the first cannot praise enough, and the second cannot damn enough. If one travels alone by train in the midst of ordinary Chinese - as did the author - one is less insulated from sources of complaint than the pampered package tourist. Theroux complains a great deal without giving the impression of hating every minute. He travelled for a whole year, over tens of thou-
sands of kilometres, when China was in a period of particularly rapid and baffling transition - when mobile phones, discos, and other trappings of Western commercial culture were just beginning to flood the country. He had the advantage of having made a previous trip, in 1980, against which to measure change. This comparison blends with his superb general knowledge of Chinese culture and history in a dryly funny, unsentimental, unsparing narrative, letting readers share the experience of seeing China with an exceptionally observant and amusing guide. Ancestors (1988) by Frank Ching. For the Chinese, there is nothing more important than family - not merely the relatives alive in the present, but also the history of those who lived long in the past. Chinese-American journalist Frank Ching, whose family fled China when he was five, experienced profound isolation growing up away from his native land and unacquainted with a large family he had only heard about. In August 1973, as an adult, he entered China in search of his roots. Aided by priceless family documents, he soon found the grave of his clan's founder, the famous Song dynasty poet Qin Guan, who had lived 34 generations earlier. The story follows the Qin family through 1,000 years of Chinese history and tells the life stories of more than a dozen of its major figures of different generations. Chinese Encounters (1979) by Arthur Miller, photographs by Inge Morath. The Pulitzer prizewinning American playwright and his wife visited China in 1978, when the country was just beginning to open up to the West. In addition to taking official guided tours, they were able to meet and talk quite freely with Chinese writers, actors, and artists. Thus they were among the first to publish the bitter feelings of educated Chinese about the years of repression under Mao Zedong's communist regime (culminating in the Cultural Revolution of 1966-76 and its wide-scale persecutions), and their hopes for the future. The text is a stately and sympathetic accompaniment to the photographs, many of them protracts in black and white, which are intimate and moving. Dragon Lady (1992) by Sterling Seagraves. The Dowager Empress Ci Xi was long believed in the West to have been the real power behind the Chinese throne at the end of the last century. She died in 1908, leaving her two-year-old nephew P'u-i, the last Chinese emperor, in the hands of his weak regent father and a powerful clique of advisers. Within three years the empire was overthrown and a republic established. Ci Xi has commonly been portrayed as lewd, corrupt, and ruthless, to the extent of murdering P'u-i's predecessor, her adopted son; she was said to have bankrupted the Chinese navy to build herself a marble pleasure boat, at a time when the navy desperately needed funds to fight the encroaching Western powers and internal rebels. Sterling Seagraves presents a very credible and entertaining case in Ci M's defence - including the motives of various parties for slandering her - while giving a clear account of the power struggles in the disintegrating 2,000-year-old empire that led to civil war. Red Star over China (1937; revised edition 1968) by Edgar Snow. The classic con-temporary account of the progress of the Chinese revolution by an 'old China hand' who personally knew many of its leading figures: Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, General Zhu De. In the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989, it is easy to dismiss the Chinese communist regime as merely bloodthirsty and totalitarian. To understand the faith placed by the Chinese people in the Party - and the extent of the betrayal at Tiananmen - it is necessary to know something about how the communists came to be in power, and the hope they offered in the early part of this century, when starvation, extortion by landlords, and terror at the hands of bandits were the daily lot of China's ordinary people. Wild Swans (1991) by Jung Chang. The best-selling story of three generations of Chinese women, encompassing all the upheavals of the 20th century, from the chaotic early days of the new Chinese republic, through civil war and the long years of Mao Zedong's rule, to economic reform and the Tiananmen Square tragedy. The author was the first mainland Chinese to be awarded a doctorate at a British university. Plum Blossom: Poems of Li Qingzhao (1980) translated by James Cryer. Li Qcngzhao (1084-c. 1150) was China's greatest woman poet and belonged to one of the oldest literary traditions in the world. Her speciality was a form based on old songs, retaining therhyme, tone, and line length but adding new words. Most classical Chinese poetry was inspired by nature; Li Qingzhao's poems are also filled with images from the natural world, but she was one of the few poets who wrote what is clearly love poetry. The delicacy and vividness of her work is captured in this translation. A glossary explains some of the literary allusions that occur throughout the poems and are unfamiliar to Western readers. The Private Life of Chairman Mao (1994) by Li Zhisui. As personal physician to the chairman of China's Communist Party for several decades, Dr Li Zhisui was closer to Mao Zedong than almost anyone else. He knew not only the Great Leader at the centre of a volatile personality cult, whose portrait decorated millions of Chinese homes from 1950 to 1976; he was also intimately acquainted with Mao's physical and emotional make-up, his strengths and weaknesses - and the illnesses that these factors exposed him to. It is to be expected that Li's position - the modem equivalent of court physician to an absolute monarch - was an uncomfortable one, and that this book could not be written until the cult of Mao worship was truly disbanded. JAPAN Toshio Watanabe
Japan is a fascinating but not an enigmatic country. The easiest way to get to know modem Japan is to find a Japanese and build up a friendly relationship involving the family. In order to get more general or specific information on Japan there are excel-lent encyclopedias on Japan, such as the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Japan (1993) edited by R Bowring and P Kornicki, which also has an annotated list of further reading. The following list is a personal one which aims to stimulate the reader.
It is hard to avoid the cliches about Japan, because both Japanese
and foreigners seem to feel most comfortable with them.
IAN BURUMA
The Japanese Achievement (1990) by Hugh Cortazzi. A wide-ranging and lucid account of the history of Japan from Bronze Age to the present day. The author looks at all aspects of Japanese life, in particular the arts, literature, and religion. A good starting point. Zen in the Art of Archery (1953) by Eugen Herrigel. The best introduction to what satori, the enlightenment', in Zen means. It has been criticized as hopelessly romantic, but he tries to be concise and avoids the usual abundance of florid adjectives employed by Western writers. For further exploration of Zen, Daisetsu Suzuki and Alan Watts are the best guides. Unbeaten Tracks in Japan (1880; 1984) by Isabella Bird. This book tells the story of an incredible journey to northern Japan by an Englishwoman. It also shows Japan on the verge of modernization and gives a vivid insight into the lack of material comfort in the Japanese hinterland which was eventually overcome in the 20th century. Barefoot Gen (1987) and Barefoot Gen: The Day After (1988) by Keiji Nakazawa. Anybody concerned with nuclear weapons should read this graphic novel depicting how the life of a very lively boy, Gen, is affected by the Hiroshima atom bomb. The scenes depicted are appalling and not for the squeamish, but it is also an intensely humane story. Anybody still in doubt should read the novel Black Rain by Masuji Ibuse. A Japanese Mirror: Heroes and Villains of Japanese Culture (1984) by Ian Buruma. There are (too) many Western books trying to explain contemporary Japanese culture, but this one is stimulating, brilliant, and most readable. This is a must for anybody going to Japan. Japan, Inc.: An Introduction toJapanese Economy (1988) by Shoaro Ishinomori. A graphic novel full of intrigues and even love stories, but it gently gives information relating to complex economic jargon and explains specific economic situations. Business people should find this book interesting. It represents an establishment view of Japan. Underground in Japan (1992) by Ray Ventura. This is a real-life story of a Filipino illegal immigrant worker in Yokohama. It shows the darker side of Japan, but is not a negative book. I particularly recommend this book to Japanese readers. Kitchen (1993) by Banana Yoshimoto. Among the most accessible of the contemporary writers in Japan. As in the film Tampopo, food and sexuality are intimately related in this novella. Those interested in the 'modem classics' should read any available works by Yasunari Kawabata, Yukio Mishima, Jun'ichiro Tanizaki., Kobo Abe, Shusaku Endo, or Kenzaburo Oe.
Oe, Kenzaburo, Japanese, 1935- . Nobel Laureate Hiroshima Notes. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Points and Lines (1970) by Seicho Matsumoto. Japan has a flourishing crime and detective-story industry, though unfortunately only a very few are translated into English. Perhaps the most senior figure is Seicho Matsumoto, who combines a meticulous plot with social critique. SOUTH AND CENTRAL AMERICA: PRE-COLUMBIAN CIVILIZATIONS Colin McEwan
The last 30 years have witnessed remarkable breaktroughs in our understanding of the origins and accomplishments of pre-
Columbian civilizations in the Americas. The great riverine networks of the tropical forest lowlands are now known to have fostered the beginnings of agriculture, settled village life, and ceramic an as early as the 4th millennium BC. Archaeologists, art historians, epigraphists, anethnohistorians have combined to make inroads into the interpretation of Classic Maya and other Central American writing systems, documenting fierce dynastic rivalries and the rise and fall of city-states. In South America, independent cultures evolved successful adaptations to the harsh Andean environment, culminating in the Inca empire with its distinctive calendar, cosmology, and agricultural know-how from which we still have much to learn today.
There I saw the things brought to the Emperor from the new land of gold ...
and I have never seen anything in my whole life that has cheered my
heart as much as these objects. In them I found wonderful artistic work
and admired the subtle genius of the men from these strange lands.
ALBRECHT DURER, EXAMINING THE OBJECTS SENT BY HERN.4N CORTES FROM
MEXICO TO HOLY ROMAN EMPEROR CHARLES V
General: The Ancient Americas: Art from Sacred Landscapes (1992) edited by Richard F Townsend. A fascinating and beautifully illustrated collection of essays ranging from the southwestern USA to Bolivia, addressing the ways in which pre-Columbian art mediates between man and nature.
Central America: The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya (1993) by Mary Miller and Karl Taube. The beginner's ABC guide to the Mesoamerican pantheon. This illustrated dictionary is packed full of up-to-date information and makes it easy to cross-
reference subjects and themes. The Blood of Kings: Dynasty and Ritual in Maya Art (1986) by Linda Schele and Mary Ellen Miller. Documents the breakthroughs made by Mayan epigraphers in interpreting the significance of ritual bloodletting performed to celebrate dynastic accession. Not for the faint-hearted! Maya Cosmos: Three Thousand Years on the Shaman's Path (1993) by David Friedel, Linda Schele, and Joy Parker. An exuberant synthesis of new thinking on many aspects of Maya cosmology and creation myths. Scribes, Warriors and Kings: The City of Copan and the Ancient Maya (1991) by William L Fash. Summarizes recent archaeological work at the site of one of the most powerful Classic Maya cities. Teotihuacan: City of the Gods (1993) edited by Kathleen Berrin and Esther Pasztory. A well-illustrated, scholarly but readable introduction to the singular nature of this great highland metropolis - one of the six largest cities in the world in its hey-day during the early centuries AD.
South America: The Incas and Their Ancestors (1992) by Michael E Moseley. The best recent introductory survey of the Andean cultures of Peru for the general reader. Chan and the Origins of Andean Civilization (1992) by Richard L Burger. A meticulous study of Chavin culture, the first widespread art style in the Andes, focusing on one of the principal cult centres - Chavin de Huant:ar. Ceramics of Ancient Peru (1992) by Christopher B Donnan. An attractive and accessible visual guide to the vibrant pottery styles and technology of the best-known Andean cultures. Inca Civilization in Cuzco (1990) by R Tom Zuidema. A demanding but rewarding concise guide to fundamental aspects of Inca social organization. The Tiwanaku: Portrait of an Andean Civilization (1993) by an L Kolata. An overview of the capital and ceremonial centre lying at the heart of the pre-Inca Tiwanaku Empire, spectacularly located at an altitude of 3,600 m/12,000 ft on the Bolivian Altiplano. LATIN AMERICA UNTIL INDEPENDENCE
Joseph Harrison
The 'discovery' and conquest of the New World by Spain and Portugal, followed by the destruction of the great pre-Columbian civilizations of the Aztecs and the Incas, has attracted a considerable amount of scholarship. There is a good deal of literature also on the administration of the two empires and the attempts at 'enlightened' reform at the end of the 18th century, as well as on the nature of the various independence movements. Above all, in recent years The Cambridge History of Latin America (1984), volumes 1 and 2 edited by Leslie Bethell, offers unrivalled coverage of such topics as the Spanish and Portuguese conquests of Latin America, the effect of con-quest upon Indian society, Africans in Spanish-American colonial society, economic organizations, political organization, the church, population, intellectual and cultural life.
I and my companions suffer from a disease of the heart
that can be cured only by gold.
HERNAN CORTES The European Discovery of America (1971,1974) two volumes by Samuel Elliot Morrison. Contains enormous detail on the early voyages of discovery, ships, crews, methods of navigation, and life at sea. The work is thoroughly researched by a naval authority. The Spanish Conquistadores (1963) by F A Kirkpatrick. Provides an excellent overall view of the conquest of Spanish America. The Vision of the Vanquished (1976) by Nathan Wachtal. A brilliant polemical account which analyses the ideological impact of the conquest of Peru and the destruction of Inca society by the Spaniards. Early Latin America: A History of Colonial Spanish America and Brazil (1983) by James Lockhart and Stuart B Schwartz. An excellent outline account which concentrates on social factors and ethnic relations in the New World. The Spanish Empire in America (1947) by C H Haring. Remains an invaluable survey of governmental institutions in Spanish America. The Colonial Background of Modern Brazil (1967) by Caio Prado Jr. A fascinating survey by a distinguished Marxist historian.
Masters and Slaves: A Study in the Development of Brazilian Civilization (1956) by Gilberto Freyre. A classic work which looks at the multiracial origins of Brazilian society and the role of slavery. The Independence of Latin America (1987) edited by Leslie Bethell. Analyses the breakdown and overthrow of Spanish and Portuguese colonial rule during the first quarter of the 19th century. There are individual chapters on the origins of Spanish American independence, the independence of Mexico and Central America, the independence of Brazil and international politics and Latin American independence. The Spanish-American Revolutions, 1808-26 (1973) by John Lynch. Remains the best outline survey of the various phases of the independence movement in Spanish America. LATIN AMERICA SINCE INDEPENDENCE Joseph Harrison
There is an extensive literature on the history of the subcontinent since its independence from Spain and Portugal during the early 19th century. Above all readers are referred to the invaluable multivolume Cambridge History of Latin America (1984) edited by Leslie Bethell. These volumes contain many excellent essays by specialist scholars. The series has now been reissued in paperback form with volumes on specific countries. The region has acquired great fame for its revolutionary upheavals, military strongmen, and repressive regimes. US involvement in the subcontinent, particularly since the end of the 19th century, has also left a bitter legacy of anti-Americanism in many countries, not least in Central America and Cuba.
A people that loves freedom will in the end be free.
SIMON BOLIVAR Modern Latin America (1992) by Thomas E Smith and Peter E Skidmore. A comprehensive and tidily written volume, strong on interpretation, aimed mainly at the American undergraduate market. Dependency and Development in Latin America (1969; translated 1979) by Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Enzo Faletto. The classic formulation of dependency analysis which has dominated much of the writing on the subcontinent in recent times. Spanish America after Independence c. 1820-c 1870 (1987) edited by Leslie Bethell. Offers general surveys on economy, society, politics and ideology in Spanish America during the half-century after independence, followed by a series of case studies on individual countries.
Latin America: Economy and Society, 1870-1930 (1989) edited by Leslie Bethell. Outlines the Golden Age of export-led growth during the period 1870-1914, the arrival of the Great Depression in 1929, population growth, the rise of mass immigration, especially in Argentina and Brazil, the impact of capitalist penetration in the countryside, urbanization, the evolution of political and social ideas, and the role of the Catholic church. Brazil: Empire and Republic, 1822-1930 (1989) edited by Leslie Bethell. Includes five chapters on the economic, social and political history of Brazil from independence in 1822 down to the revolution of 1930. The persistence of slavery until the end of the 1880s receives ample treatment. Argentina Since Independence (1993) edited by Leslie Bethell. Deals with the economic, social, and political history of that country in the period since independence from Spain. Peronismo and the Falklands War of 1982 are well covered. Mexico Since Independence (1991) edited by Leslie Bethell. Contains six chapters on the economic, social, and political history of the country, including works on the Porfiriato (1867-1910), the Mexican revolution (1910-20) and the rise and fall of Cardenismo (1930-46). Chile Since Independence (1993) edited by Leslie Bethell. Offers four chapters covering the economic, social, and political history of Chile after 1830. The Allende regime (1970-73) and the military dictatorship of General Pinochet which followed are nicely set in context. Central America Since Independence (1991) edited by Leslie Bethell. Provides general chapters on the region covering the periods 1821-70, 1870-1930, and 1930 to present, followed by chapters on each of the five Central American republics - Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. Cuba: A Short History (1993) edited by Leslie Bethell. Outlines the history of the island since the mid-18th century. It deals with the persistence of slavery until the end of the 1880s, independence from Spain after the Spanish-American War of 1898, the growing political and economic dependency of Cuba on the USA, the corrupt Batista regime, and the impact of the Castroite revolution of 1959.

Home and Garden

Many animals, many insects. make beautiful homes; but there is no evidence that any man derive aesthetic pleasure as well as practical benefit from home-making, however fine. Despite Bacon's remark "Homes are built to be lived in, not to be looked at" man is a voracious observer — we smile or shudder at other people's homes as well as at our own; we envy, we aspire, we imitate. The books on this list, therefore, as well as giving practical advice, offer basking pleasure too: whether they prescribe or reflect, their subject is comfort, and their tone (almost unique in the lists in this book) is uniformly relaxed and positive.

See ARCHITECTURE (Clifton-Taylor, Lancaster); FOOD (Beeton, Conran, Tannahill)

Berral, Julia J. An Illustrated Guide to the Garden (1966)
Authoritative accessible study of gardens through the ages, from that known as "Eden" to those being designed today for garden lovers of tomorrow. Also: History of Flower Arrangement. See Crowe. Bowles, E. A. My Garden in Spring (1914)
Winning combination of light, often funny, writing and botanical scholarship. Also: My Garden in Summer, etc Bray, Lys de The Wild Garden (1978) a*.f Illustrated guide to weeds, of immense interest. After all, a weed is only a plant in the wrong place at the wrong time — acceptability has as much to do with fashion as anything else. Brittain' , J. (ed) Good Housekeeping's Step-by-step Encyclopaedia of Needlecraft (1979)
alcf
Sepia line drawings of stitches and techniques for embroidery, needlepoint, patchwork, crochet, macrame, weaving, sewing and knitting. The "makes" are lively, colourful, well designed and up-to-date. Bryd-Gnaf, Alfred Exotic Plant Manual (1974)
0 _I
Straightforward reference book of greenhouse and indoor plants. Coats. Alice M. The Quest for Plants (1969)
Beguiling account of the lives of explorer-botanists of all ages and classes. Also: The Book ofFlowers Conran, Terence The House Book (1974) 1a9 -I
Lavishly illustrated tome explains and displays Conran's own particular style of interior design as applied to every room in the house. British orientation, but will enthuse and stimulate US readers too. Full of ideas to suit every type of budget. Also: The Bed and Bathroom Book; The Kitchen Book. See FOOD Crowe, Sylvia Garden Design (1958)
* J
Concise, thoughtful and beautifully written summary of the whole range and history of garden design. See Berral. Dixon, Margaret The Wool Book (1979)
Guide to spinning, dyeing and knitting. Readable text; attractive illustrations. Editors of Apartment Life Magazine The Apartment Book (1979) Useful, helpful information about creating a living space to suit your lifestyle and your purse, presented with hundreds of photographs, illustrations and step-by-step instructions. Encyclopaedia of Organic Gardening (1978)
af
Weighty, dependable, ingenious reference book compiled by the editors of Organic Gardeningmagazine. Everything is here, presented in clear pictures and text. Valuable. Free, Montague All about House Plants (1946)
0 Frewing, Nicholas J. (ed) The Reader's Digest Repair Manual (1972) 0 _I
Step-by-step diagrams for house repairs, decorating, restoring and renovating around the house and garden. Grieve, Maude A Modern Herbal (1931)
Medicinal, culinary, cosmetic and economic properties, cultivation and folklore of grasses, herbs, fungi, shrubs and trees. Hay, R. and Beckett, K. A. (eds) Reader's Digest Encyclopedia of Garden Plants and Flowers (1964)
Hay, R., McQuown, F. R. and Beckett, G. and K. The Dictionary of Indoor Plants in Colour (1974) Hellyer, Arthur The Shell Guide to Gardens (1977)
Concise historical account and guide to the gardens of Britain and Ireland. Hessayon. D. G. and I. P. The Garden Book of Europe (1973)
1t e
Comparative facts and figures about European gardens, gardening styles. Hillier, Harold Hillier's Manual of Trees and Shrubs (1971) Innes, Jocasta The Pauper's Homemaking Book (1976)
a
Good drawings; hundreds of lively ideas for making the most of what you have. Jeffs, Angela (ed) Creative Crafts (1977)
Compendium of over 40 crafts ranging from embroidery to pottery, origami to metalwork and glass blowing. Stimulating; full of sound advice. Also: Rugs from Rags; Wild Knitting
Itoh, Teiji, Japanese, 1922- . The Gardens of Japan. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Jekyll, Gertrude Wood and Garden (1899)
The first and best of Jekyll's revolutionary books. She looked at plants with a painter's eye, recognized beauty in many new forms and moulded the thinking of many of the best gardeners of the 20th century.
Jekyll, Gertrude, English, 1843-1932. Home and Garden. Rec: Counterpunch NF Johnson, Hugh The Principles of Gardening (1979) a * Described as "the science, practice and history of the gardener's art", a superb book in every way. Also: The International Book of Trees, etc. See FOOD Kron, J. and Slezin, S. High-Tech: The Industrial Style and Sourcebook for the Home (1978)
American best seller introduces the concept of high-tech interior design, using industrial products to domestic ends, tells where to get materials and how to use them to the required effect — visual as well as practical. Martensson, Aff The Book of Furniture Making(1979)
The author being of Swedish extraction, all the projects in this basically "practical" book show a distinct Scandinavian influence — clean lines, plain wood or bright clear colours. Designs for every room in the house; emphasis on storage; sturdy toys; complete guide to tools and how to use them. Also: Making Plywood Furniture; The Woodworker's Bible
Morse, Edward S.. American, 1838-1925. Japanese Homes and Their Surroundings. Rec: Counterpunch NF Page, Russell The Education of a Gardener(1962)
Fine book on the philosophy of gardeningby one of the best garden designers of our time. Phillips, C. E. Lucas The Small Garden (1952)
Wide learning and experience worn with ease and delivered with wit. Phillips, Derek Planning Your Lighting (1976)
One of a range of publications (all DesignCentre, UK; all recommended) about interior design and how to plan your home. Also in series: Planning Your Kitchen; Rooms for Living; Children about the Home, etc Reader's Digest Book of Sewing (1978) 0 *.., 528 pages of advice, information and guidance on all aspects of home sewing and dressmaking. Reader's Digest Practical Guide to Home Landscaping (1972) *..4'* Beautiful, useful, topically organized volume on every kind of landscaping in every kind of climate and circumstance — from narrow city backyards to expansive suburban acres, from the bleak north-east (US) to the desert southwest. An essential source. Robinson, Julian The Penguin Book of Sewing(1973) a Good basic reference book for the not-too-creative. Subjects range from toys and tailoring to upholstery; anyone with the least practical bent will find it invaluable. Royal Horticultural Society The Vegetable Garden Displayed (1941) Yale
Useful and popular easy guide to growingvegetables in Britain; regularly updated. Also: The Fruit Garden Displayed; Dictionary of Gardening Salisbury, E. J. The Living Garden (1935)
The background biology of gardening humanely examined by a Director of Kew Gardens, London. Seymour, John The Complete Book of Self Sufficiency (1976)
II a .1
Seymour and his wife have proved that self-sufficiency can and does work, writing with authority and sensitivity about their experiences and how their example can be followed. Beautifully illustrated. If you are interested in the countryside, rural life, growing things and craft skills, an engrossing book. Also: The Gardener's Delight, etc Sunset Magazine New Western Garden Book (1979) a _Pot Although intended for Californian gardeners, this is such a good reference book with so much useful background information that it is well worth using, with due allowance for the different climate, anywhere farther east.
Sunset Books. American, First pub. 1933. Sunset Western Garden Book (By the Editors of Sunset Books and Sunset Magazine). Rec: Counterpunch NF Thomas, Graham Stuart Perennial Garden Plants (1976)
A model of observation, conciseness and practical helpfulness. Wilson, Erica Erica Wilson's Embroidery Book (1973)
a *_11
Also: The Craft of Crewel Embroidery; Erica Wilson's Quilts of America; More Needleplay, etc Wright, Michael (ed) The Complete Indoor Gardener(1974) a f
If you are an aspiring urban gardener with no garden but potentially green fingers, this will guide you to success of jungle-like proportions. Cacti, window boxes, house plants all excellently covered; good section on growing your own food without access to the usual basic plot.

Humour

These are all funny books: classics whose funniness has weathered time, more recent books whose excellence seems set to override topicality. Not a long list; but a merry one.

See ART (Adburgham); ARCHITECTURE (Lancaster); DRAMA (Aristophanes, Coward, Travers, Wilde); FICTION/NOVELS (Amis, Beerbohm. Firbank, Gogol, Higek, Heller, Jarrell, Peacock, Rabelais, Waugh); FICTION/SHORT STORIES (Runyon, Saki); FILM (Fields, Mast): HISTORY/BRITISH (George); MEDIA (Fisher); MUSIC (Hoffnung); SEX (Southern); SOCIOLOGY (Rourke); TRAVEL (Wilson)

Allen, Woody Without Feathers (1972) * Allen's saturnine wit works marvellously on the page, uncluttered by the physical slapstick which weakens some of his early films. Many of these pieces are from the New Yorker, the book also contains two plays (Death and God), characteristically neat and sharp. Also: Getting Even Benchley, Robert The Benchley Roundup (1956)
Benchley was a favourite 1940s actor and after-dinner speaker, a dry, bumbling wit in a long American line (Mark Twain, Will Rogers, even Thurber). He writes with dry urbanity, and has a wonderful line in domestic fantasy. Bissell, Richard Say, Darling (1957)
Bissell, secretary and stylist for a Chicago clothes company, wrote The Pajama Game. This book is an account of how it became a hit Broadway musical. Backstage showbusiness, urbanely sliced. Bruce, Lenny The Essential Lenny Bruce (1975)
Collection from Bruce's scabrous solo stage performances. Horrid, bilious humour, picking the scabs of Western decadence. Chevalier, Gabriel Clochemerle (1936)
Saga of village pissoir in the Beaujolais avoids archness by precise characterization (especially of French officialdom), and fast-moving plot. Subsequent volumes far less good: this one has staying power. Daudet, Alphonse Lettres de Mon Moulin (1866)
Delightful stories of rural cunning and innocence, in barbed, poetic style. Resists translation; for full flavour, best read in French. Also: Tartarin of Tarascon; Contes du Lundi, etc Dennis, Patrick Auntie Mame (1955)
Interesting example of a splendid creation engulfed by its own success. Forget film, stage musical, turgid sequels: this novel of an unprincipled, elegant dame d'affaires sends up WASP society brilliantly, affectionately. De Vries, Peter Reuben, Reuben (1956)
De Vries has written wittily and well for the New Yorker (collection No, But I Saw the Movie, 1952); but his enduring fame will rest on a series of fine novels outlining the comic desperation of Long Island Commuter Man. Elegant stories of the ordinary aches of life, often (e.g. on crackerbarrel philosophy, picayune journalism and small-town politics) rising to Juvenalian, galvanic wit. Also: The Mackerel Plaza; Comfort Me with Apples, etc Frayn, Michael Towards the End of the Morning(1967)
Newspaper Man, Northwest London Man, Almost Middle-aged Man, deftly, sharply characterized. Frayn is a kind of intellectual's Wodehouse (qv). In his best novel, The Russian Interpreter, he finds depth by writing about real people in a real love affair. Also: The Tin Men; A Very Private Life
G³mez de la Serna, Ram³n, Spanish, 1888-1963. Greguer­as. Rec: Ward Ram³n G³mez de la Serna was especially known for "Greguer­as" - a short form of poetry that roughly corresponds to the one-
liner in comedy. The Gregueria is especially able to grant a new and often humorous perspective. Green, Michael The Art of Coarse Acting (1964) _I Documentary study of the problems and triumphs of Thespian life, subtitled How to Wreck an Amateur Dramatic Society. The book causes strong men to break up on public transport: a painful read. Also: The Art of Coarse Rugby, etc
Grossmith, G. and W. The Diary of a Nobody (1892)
* Fictional diary of humourless, aspiring Pooter, clerk in would-
be-genteel Victorian London. The disasters and humiliations of everyday life (bootscraper; red bath; son Lupin's romance with Daisy Mutlar) all risen above with sublime unsinkable dignity. Hollowood, Bernard Pont (1969)
In 1930s Punch Pont captured the Britishness of the British in a set of drawings called "The British Character". Heavy-going text should be ignored; selection of drawings is excellent. Jerome, Jerome K. Three Men in a Boat (1889)
Three young men (to say nothing of the dog) take a boating-trip up the Victorian Thames. Quintessentially English humour? Only if Leacock (qv) is parochially Canadian, Runyon (qv) parochially American. A marvellous, universal book. Also: Three Men on the Bummel Juvenal, Roman, ca. 60-ca. 140 CE. Satires. Rec: Bloom Ward Langley, Noel There's a Porpoise Close Behind Us (1936)
Gently whimsical story of two innocents on 1930s London stage. Will they lose their dewy eyes, their fresh faces, their ideals? They will, they will. Also: Cage Me a Peacock (urbane mythological satire); Land of Green G inger (acerbic fantasy) Lardner, Ring Roundup (1920)
*
Lardner's bitter-sweet comedy — finally more bitter than sweet — verges on pungent social satire — a fact largely hidden by his linguistic jokes. A great comic writer; a useful collection. See FICTION/SHORT STORIES Larry Larry's Art Collection(1977)
Larry (Terence Parks) was one of the funniest British cartoonists of the 1970s. This tour of the art world is a superbly drawn, side-splitting collection on a single theme. Leacock, Stephen Nonsense Novels (1911)
Collection of pieces on dystopian Canadian life, when everything was raw, new and terrifying. Leac.ock's little men are the ancestors of Thurber's (qv): a special, delightful view of life. Loos, Anita Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1925)
Memoirs of a wide-eyed flapper, the Girl Like I who knows just one thing for sure, that Diaminds are a Goil's Best Friend. Milligan, Spike Rommel? Gunner Who ?(1974)
Sendup war memoirs. Ur-goon Milligan was one of the seminal British humorists of the 1950s and 60s: surreal, slapstick, self-
deflating. These memoirs are a kind of British Catch 22. See CHILDREN'S BOOKS Morton, J. B. The Best of Beachcomber (1974) *tit, Morton was one of the best-ever British parodists, one of the few daily journalists whose pieces look better between hard covers. The naming of names, Mr Justice Cocklecarrot and red-bearded dwarves start here. New Yorker Album of Drawings (1975)
Superb. Sample: two men in a bar (stock pose); one says, "Look, Nixon's no dope. If people really wanted moral leadership, he'd give them moral leadership." Put in whatever name you like, it's funny. O'Brien, Flann The Best of Myles Na Gopaleen (1968)
Irish whimsy, retailed with flint-eyed, diamond wit. Perelman, S. J. The Most of S. J. Perelman (1979)
*
Perelman wrote some of Marx Brothers' funniest lines, went on to become the world's most complete humorist, a seminal influence on every comic writer since. He is his own anti-hero; his subject is the Hostility of Things, and none have done it better. Also: Vinegar Puss; Eastward Ha!, etc Persius, Roman, 34-62 CE. Satires. Rec: Bloom Petronius The Satyricon ( 1 st century AD) *
Marvellous sendup of Homer's Odyssey: Petronius' heroes search hard and unavailingly for sexual utopias in the tumbling, raucous underworld of Nero's Rome. Good translation: Arrowsmith. Petronius, Roman, d. 65 CE. Satyricon. Rec: Bloom Rex Ward Potter, Stephen Oneupmanship (1952)
Trouble starts in Yeovil, England, when Potter sets up a school for people who want to win life's race without actually cheating. Also: Lifemanship; Gamesmanship, etc
Powell, Dawn. American, 1896-1965. The Wicked Pavilion. Rec: Harvard Two late novels show Powell's interest in the New York art world of the 1950s: The Wicked Pavilion (1954), an ensemble portrait of the characters orbiting around the Cafe Julien (a fictionalized Hotel Brevoort) and a vanished or deceased painter named Marius; and The Golden Spur (1962) Queneau, Raymond Zazie dans le Metro (1959)
Coruscating "experimental" novel, about a wise-cracking, self-willed little girl and the luscious and ludicrous adults who look after her. Monsieur Hulot stirred with the Dead End Kids. Best read in French (as puns and wordplay resist translation); but Bray's translation (Zazie, 1960) very nearly comes off. Rosten, Leo The Education of Hyman Kaplan (1937) rft
New York night-school teacher copes with unusual student. Fractured English is the joke; knowing Middle-European wisdom the staying quality. Also: The Return of Hyman Kaplan; The Joys of Yiddish Runyon, Damon The Best of Damon Runyon (1938) *
Hoods, marks, punks, guys and dolls swagger and fret in a fantasy New York. Like Chandler's, Runyon's invented world seems to create, not reflect, reality. Don't the British think that allNew Yorkers behave and talk like this? See FICTION/SHORT STORIES Schulz, Charles Snoopy and It Was a Dark and Stormy Night (1971) One of the many cartoon collections about the lovable beagle Snoopy, Charlie Brown and other friends. Searle, Ronald The Penguin Ronald Searle (1960)
Searle is world-famous for one of his lesser works: St Trinians. This collection of drawings shows his true standing — satiric stance, elegant draughtsmanship. "The Rake's Progress" (in this book) is an outstanding updating of Hogarth. Saar, W. C. and Yeatman, R. J. 1066 and All That (1930)
Ina
Wonderful, English-schoolboy, Punchview of British history. The combination of Mrs Malaprop and Mr Chips works well. One joke, endlessly varied; but a funny read, not to say a Good Thing. Smith, Thorne The Bishop's Jaegers (1934)
The novel as Marx Brothers film. Surreal. priapic adventures in a fantasy New York filled with wandering underpants, bishops. nudists, ferries and fog: Hellzapoppin' captured on the page. Also: Topper Takes a Trip; The Night Life of the Gods, etc Steadman, Ralph America (1974)
Steadman is regarded by some as a modern Gillray: dyspeptic, spattered anatomies of modern life, writhing figures tortured with satiric, emblematic force. Grosz, too, comes to mind: but he's not so funny. Also: Alice in Wonderland, etc Steinberg, Saul Passport (1954)
Endless originality of theme and style, perfect draughtsmanship, humour that is both warm and acerbic. Few cartoonists under 45 are uninfluenced by Steinberg. This early collection shows his work at its most fertile and energetic. Also: All in a Line, etc Thurber, James My World and Welcome to It (1942)• In The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Thurber's typical henpecked hero daydreams as he dances attendance on his wife, finally refusing a blindfold to face a firing squad. "Erect and motionless, proud and disdainful, Walter Mitty, the undefeated, inscrutable to the last." Thurber is timeless, uniquely lateral — prose poems of the indignity of man. Also: My Life and Hard Times; Men, Women and Dogs, etc Thurber, James. American, 1894-1961. A Thurber Carnival. Rec: Hungry Mind Tinniswood, Peter A Touch of Daniel (1969)
At first glance, parochial and opaque: glum working-class household in the north of England, flat caps, pork pies and mushy peas, racing pigeons, temperance bar and trams. But Tinniswood is up to something else: the human condition, no less. It works. Also: I Didn't Know You Cared; Except You're a Bird, etc Trudeau, Gary Call Me When You Find America (1973)
Perpetual 60s student attempts to deal with the establishment, and fails. All human life (US) is here. Twain, Mark Extract from Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven (1903)* Relatively little known but one of Mark Twain's funniest books. Takeoff of religious pretensions and, in fact, all pretensions — Captain Stormfield discovers a heaven that makes so much sense it could never be sold to the faithful. Also: Innocents Abroad, etc. See FICTION/NOVELS; FICTION/SHORT STORIES; HISTORY/AMERICAN; TRAVEL Westlake, Donald A New York Dance (1978)
Caper comedies: bungling, endearing crooks (often lower-echelon Mafia) outfaced by traffic, supermarkets, unopenable biscuits, the whole never-never-land of daily life. Slick as movie scripts, as pleasurable as ice cream. Also: Up Your Banners; The Busy Body, etc White, E. B. and K. S. (eds) A Subtreasury of American Humor
(1941) a Still the best collection of American humour, and a book it is almost impossible to put down. See CHILDREN'S BOOKS; DIARIES (Garnett, White); REFERENCE (Strunk) Wodehouse, P. G. The Inimitable Jeeves (1924)
* Whether you enter his world with Jeeves, Psmith, Mulliner or the Earl of Blandings, the self-styled Performing Flea of English letters will charm and delight. Also: Leave It to Psmith; Summer Lightning, etc Wodehouse, P. G., English, 1881-1975. The Inimitable Jeeves. Rec: NYPL The Return of Jeeves. Rec: Smiley Bertie Wooster Sees It Through. Rec: Smiley Spring Fever. Rec: Smiley The Butler Did It. Rec: Smiley The Most of P. G. Wodehouse. Rec: Good Reading

Literary Criticism

Literary critics fulfil two main offices: those of commentator and guide. In the first place, they tell us what we have just read, and what it meant: in the second, they tell us what we ought to read, and why. At his best (and it is for their excellence that books are listed here) the literary critic has a brave, prescriptive and dynamic role to play, both in our reading of literature and (often) in its writing. By explaining the recipe, he may just enhance our enjoyment of the dish.

See ANTHROPOLOGY (Dodds, Street); BIOGRAPHY (Bate, Coleridge, Edel, Green, Johnson, Nabokov, Starkie, Troyat); DRAMA (Artaud, Braun, Brook, Esslin, Grotowski, Masefield, Roberts, Van Doren, Williams); FEMINISM (Millet); FILM (Mast): HISTORY/AMERICAN (Wilson)

Abram, David. American, 1957- . The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World. Rec: Utne Abrams, M. H.. American, 1912- . The Mirror and the Lamp: Romantic Theory and the Critical Tradition. Rec: ML Nonfiction Our way of looking at art in the year 2000 is steeped in the Romantic mentality. The idea of the true poet as lone inspired genius, starving in a garret, creating to express his (and it generally was 'his' in those days) inner turmoil or vision is so ingrained that there almost seems no other possible standard. Yet as M.H. Abrahms points out in this scholarly, yet readable work on Romantic poetry and theory, this view of art and the artist is only as old as the age of Coleridge and Wordsworth…
(amazon) Adler, Mortimer J. and Charles Van Doren. American, 1902-2001 and 1926- . How to Read a Book. Rec: Fadiman 3 Aristotle Poetics (4th century BC) 09a*
One of the most influential of all works of criticism, especially for its unique eliciting of principles from particular instances (for example, the principles of tragedy from Sophocles' King Oedipus). All thinking about mimesis (imitation) and about catharsis (the purging effect of tragedy) starts from here; yet essentially a modest and undogma tic set of notes. See PHILOSOPHY; POLITICS Arnold, Matthew On Translating Homer (1861)
al P
Penetratingly lucid about the principles of translation, with deft examples and comparisons. Written in "a prose such as we would all gladly use if only we knew how" (Arnold elsewhere on Dryden). Not just for translators; of importance to all interested in verbal nuance and resonance, in any literature. Also: Culture and Anarchy. See POETRY (Arnold, Homer)
Artaud, Antonin, French, 1896-1948. Theater and Its Double. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Selected Writings. Rec: Bloom Auden, W. H. The Dyer's Hand (1963)
a
Auden always had, in strict and sententious eyes, a reputation for technical genius and dubious seriousness; his literary essays bring his expertise intelligently and practically to bear on other poets, from Shakespeare to Cavafy, and allow his unschematic wit to play ingeniously and informatively among the great and the fugitive. Also: Forewords and Afterwords. See DRAMA; POETRY Auerbach, Erich Mimesis (1953)
Subtitled The Representation of Reality in Western Literature (no less), of massive range (from Homer and the Old Testament to Virginia Woolf), and masterly presentation. Moves with assured ease from close stylistic analysis to generalizations on literary and cultural history.
Auerbach, Erich, German, 1892-1957. Mimesis: Representation of Reality in Western Literature. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Barthes, Roland Writing Degree Zero (1953)
9* *
With Gallic urbanity — and to the outrage of some Anglo-American critics — Barthes offers a brusque dismissal of traditional concepts of criticism: of discovering "the truth" or "meaning" of a work, of the evaluative function of the critic. He was an influential and eloquent defender of experimental modern literature. Also: S/Z; Mythologies Barthes, Roland, French, 1915-1980. Mythologies. Rec: Counterpunch Trans TLS Beckett, Samuel Proust (1931)
Indispensable to the study not of Proust, but of Beckett himself. 24-year-old Beckett is haughty, affected, unignorable. See BIOGRAPHY (Painter, Pickering); DRAMA (Beckett, Johnson); FICTION/NOVELS (Beckett. Proust); FICTION/SHORT STORIES (Beckett) Benjamin, Walter Illuminations (1970)
P *
Perceptive, enigmatic thoughts on literature (Proust, Baudelaire, Kafka), philosophy and the social context of art from one of the greatest, most humane writers of the century. Also: One-Way Street, Charles Baudelaire; The Origin of German Tragic Drama
Benjamin, Walter, German, 1892-1940. Illuminations. Rec: Bloom Counterpunch Trans Bloom, Harold. American, 1930- . The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry. Rec: LAT Boileau-Despréaux, Nicolas, French, 1636-1711. Art of Poetry. Rec: Bloom Lutrin. Rec: Bloom Bradley, A. C. Shakespearian Tragedy (1904)
m 10 a *
Best single book on Shakespeare's tragedies; written with clarity and passion and by no means limited to its central belief: that Shakespeare's characters are a supreme aspect of his genius. Also: Oxford Lectures on Poetry. See Johnson; Knight; Stendhal; DRAMA (Granville-Barker, Masefield, Shakespeare, Van Doren); POETRY (Shakespeare) Brooks, Cleanth The Well-Wrought Urn ( 1947)
One of the best of the American New Critics, Brooks in this book gathered his finest pieces, several of which are small classics that will endure as long as metaphysical poetry is read. Burke, Kenneth A Grammar of Motives (1945)
P
Complex, ingenious "new" critic, Marxist maverick whose capacity to see what is going on in a work of literature is enthralling and revealing; his manner is mannered, but the realization of the interplay between character and "scene" is valuable and stimulating.
Burke, Kenneth. American, 1897-1993. Counter-statement. Rec: Bloom A Rhetoric of Motives. Rec: Bloom (linguistics) Carlyle, Thomas English and Other Critical Essays (1915)
Acerbic essays (1830-50) by the great Scots critic who seems so far from our life
nowadays — to our loss? See BIOGRAPHY (Froude); DIARIES Crane, R. S. The Languages of Criticism and the Structure of Poetry (1953)
9
The dean of the so-called "Chicago school" in his best known work. The odour of the study is always present, but the book is accessible to perseverance — and the views are stimulating. Dryden, John Of Dramatic Poesy and Other Critical Essays (c. 1668) OP
"The father of English criticism" (according to Johnson) offers here the first sustained critical writing in English, continually illuminated by Dryden's own humane and fluent art. See POETRY Eliot, T. S. Selected Essays, 1917-32(1932) P9, a* *
Most of the best criticism by a great poet-critic. Radical in its sense of the value of a living tradition; varied (Hamlet, Baudelaire, Marvell, Dante) and with "the intellect at the tips of the senses". Also: After Strange Gods; The Sacred Wood; The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism. See Gardner; DRAMA; POETRY Empson, William Seven Types of Ambiguity (1930) ! 0 9
Work of genius by student in his mid-20s; brilliant for choice of instances and wealth of speculation, all held together by a fervour for the way in which words can valuably mean many things at once. It changed the course of 20th-century criticism in English; and profoundly affected the teaching of literature. See POETRY Empson, William, English, 1906-1984. Seven Types of Ambiguity. Rec: Counterpunch NF Fadiman, Clifton Any Number Can Play (1960)
Collection of graceful, highly readable essays by one of the most urbane of modern critics. Towards the end he verges on despair at our civilization's future — as well he might. Forster, E. M., English, 1879-1970. Aspects of the Novel. Rec: ML Nonfiction Frye, Northrop, Canadian, 1912-1991. Fables of Identity. Rec: Bloom Anatomy of Criticism. Rec: Counterpunch NF Gardner, Helen The Composition of the Four Quartets (1978)
Unique treatment of the wealth and detail of Eliot's manuscript revisions; a fully documented study of the growth of a great poem. See Eliot; POETRY (Eliot, Gardner) Greenberg, Clement. American, 1909-1994. Art and Culture: Critical Essays. Rec: Boston PL Guillén, Jorge, Spanish, 1893-1984. Guillén on Guillén: The Poetry and the Poet. Rec: Bloom Hazlitt, William The Spirit of the Age (1825)
Twenty essays about the great influencers of the early 19th century: from philosophers (Bentham), politicians (Canning) and economists (Malthus) to writers (Coleridge, Scott, Byron, Wordsworth, Cobbett, Crabbe, Lamb, etc). Also: Lectures Chiefly on the Dramatic Literature of the Age of Elizabeth; Lectures on English Poets Highet, Gilbert The Classical Tradition (1949)
P *
Magnificent study of Greek and Roman influence on Western literature. Exhaustive, erudite, endlessly fascinating: a previously neglected topic, definitively done. Also: Poets in a Landscape Horace The Art of Poetry (1st century BC) £ Storehouse of admonitions to writers and readers, vastly influential, especially in the Renaissance. You'll never follow his precepts yourself, but they'll illuminate the many great poets who did. See POETRY Horace, Roman, 65-8 BCE. On the Art of Poetry (in Classical Literary Criticism). Rec: Ward James, Henry Selected Literary Criticism (1865 —1914)
Superb on words and novelists: weighty and witty; reviews from Dickens (1865) to Conrad and Lawrence (1914); central sanity about Balzac, Flaubert, Hawthorne and Zola. Significant for its influence upon thinking about fiction and Cie narrative. Also: The Art of the Novel; The House of Fiction, etc. See
BIOGRAPHY (Edel, James); DIARIES; FICTION/NOVELS; FICTION/SHORT STORIES Jarrell, Randall Poetry and the Age (1953) *
Fine book on American poetry. Lucid, intelligently unpretentious, and quite without envy. A model, in manner and manners, of humane criticism. See FICTION/NOVELS; POETRY
Johnson, Samuel Johnson on Shakespeare (1795)
The scholarship in this monumental edition is less than one might have expected but the preface and the notes to the various plays are masterly. These were collected soon after their original publication and have appeared in numerous editions down the years. See Bradley; Knight; Stendhal; BIOGRAPHY (Bate, Boswell, Johnson, Krutch); DRAMA (Granville-Barker, Masefield,
Shakespeare, Van Doren); POETRY (Shakespeare); REFERENCE; TRAVEL Johnson, Samuel, English, 1709-1784. Works. Rec: Bloom Vanity of Human Wishes. Rec: Adler Dictionary. Rec: Adler Seymour-Smith Rasselas. Rec: Adler Lives of the Poets. Rec: Adler (Selections) Rambler, Adventurer, and Idler Essays. Rec: Utne Kazin, Alfred On Native Grounds (1942)
a
An American critic writing of American writers with an intensity few bring to the task. Also: Bright Book of Life; New York Jew, etc Keats, John Letters of John Keats (1816-20) Ilia* Teems with creative critical excitement; ranges from specific to speculative; has a magnanimity which can engage with Shakespeare, Milton and Wordsworth, and a comedy of perception shot through with the tragedy of Keats's life. One of the greatest letter-writers in English. Best edition by Robert Gittings (1970). See BIOGRAPHY (Bate, Gittings); POETRY
Kermode, Frank, English, 1919- . The Sense of an Ending. Rec: Bloom Knight, G. Wilson The Wheel of Fire (1930)
II
One of the seminal books on Shakespeare, and the truest in scale since Bradley (qv). Has had huge influence on criticism — and on production — through its imaginative sense of Shakespearian imagery and of how plays are also poems. Also: The Imperial Theme; The Shakespearian Tempest, Lord Byron's Marriage, etc. See Bradley; Johnson; Stendhal; DRAMA (Granville-Barker, Masefield. Shakespeare, Van Doren); POETRY (Shakespeare)
Knight, George Wilson, English, 1897-1985. The Wheel of Fire, Interpretations of Shakespearian Tragedy. Rec: Bloom The Burning Oracle, Studies in the Poetry of Action. Rec: Bloom Kott, Jan, Polish, 1914-2001. Shakespeare Our Contemporary. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Lawrence, D. H. Selected Literary Criticism (1955) i 9 Raised crucial questions, particularly about great American writers and the state of the novel. Least cloistered, most directly engaged, of critics, particularly in his principled hostility to academia, to philosophizing, to professionalizing. Also: Studies in Classic American Literature. See DIARIES: FICTION/NOVELS; FICTION/SHORT STORIES; HISTORY/EUROPEAN ; POETRY; TRAVEL Leavis, F. R. Re valuation(1936)
9 * *
Sub-titled Tradition and Development in English Poetry, a magnificent piece of cartography, indebted to Eliot's (qv) pioneering work but not slavish to him — or to anyone. Argues with lucidity and passion for a particular view of the clarifies and strengths of English poetry. Also: The Common Pursuit; The Great Tradition Macaulay, T. B. Critical and Historical Essays (1843)
Often reprinted — although not so often now as formerly — essays by the great critic-historian who reviewed some of the great books when they first came out (eg Boswell's Life of Johnson). See HISTORY/BRITISH
Leavis, F. R., English, 1895-1978. Scrutiny. Rec: National Review Lessing, Gotthold, German, 1729-1781. Laoco¶n: An Essay on the Limits of Painting and Poetry. Rec: Bloom Manzoni, Alessandro, Italian, 1785-1873. I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed). Rec: Bloom Ward On the Historical Novel. Rec: Bloom Marx, Leo. American, 1919- . The Machine in the Garden. Rec: Counterpunch NF Morgann, Maurice, English, 1726-1802. An Essay on the Dramatic Character of Sir John Falstaff. Rec: Bloom Orwell, George The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell, 1920 — 50 (1968)
A*
Orwell never separates literature from life; responds to everything, from comic postcards to Tolstoy, from Swift to Dickens. Empson called him, with affectionate gruffness, "the eagle-eye with the flat feet". See FICTION/NOVELS; HISTORY/BRITISH ; POLITICS
Parry, Milman. American, 1902-1935. The Making of Homeric Verse. Rec: National Review Pater, Walter, English, 1839-1894. Studies in the History of the Renaissance. Rec: Bloom Appreciations. Rec: Bloom Imaginary Portraits. Rec: Bloom Marius the Epicurean. Rec: Bloom Pope, Alexander An Essay on Criticism ( 1711)
No a *
The great English poem on criticism and the art of poetry; sympathetic yet divergent re-creation of Horace (qv). Sly, funny, endlessly quotable and memorable; a monument of Neo-classicism in England. See POETRY Pound, Ezra ABC of Reading(1934)
1111
Spoof text-book, in deadly witty earnest; creative anthology with trenchant, poignant comments. Lives up to its own dictum: "literature is news that stays news". See POETRY
Propp, V. I., Russian, 1895-1970. Morphology of the Folktale. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Ruskin, John Ruskin as Literary Critic (1928)
10 Art, social, economic and literary criticism — all seen as independent but interdependent. Ruskin was one of the great Victorian sages imbued with moral fervour, deep interest (even in things which horrified him), and an extraordinary range of knowledge. See ARCHITECTURE Saussure, Ferdinand de, Swiss writing in French, 1857-1913. Course in General Linguistics. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Schiller, Friedrich von, German, 1759-1805. On the Na¯ve and Sentimental in Literature. Rec: Bloom Schlegel, Friedrich, German, 1772-1829. Criticism and Aphorisms. Rec: Bloom Shelley, Percy Bysshe The Defence of Poetry (1821) 9
Quivers with indignation at the slights done to poetry; speculative about imagination in general as well as about poetry; grand but not grandiose paean to the whole poetic enterprise. See B IOGRAPHY (Holmes); POETRY Steiner, George After Babel (1975)
Masterly, sometimes maddening study of translation in all its aspects. "The 'elements' of language are not elementary in the mathematical sense. We do not come to them new, from outside, or by postulate. Behind the very concept of the elementary in language lie pragmatic manoeuvres of problematic and changing authority. I shall return to this point." He does, too — a superb, obsessed, heterodox critic, serious in a vital and rare way. See Arnold. Stendhal Racine et Shakespeare (1823)
I/ Intelligent comparison of French literature with English. No cramping or warping, and all in Stendhal's incomparable transparency of style (the French, that is: we know of no translation). See Bradley; Johnson; Knight; DRAMA (Granville-
Barker, Masefield, Racine, Shakespeare. Van Doren); FICTION/NOVELS; POETRY (Shakespeare) Strunk, William and E. B. White. American, 1869-1946 and 1899-1985. (See also White, E. B.) The Elements of Style. Rec: ML Nonfiction National Review Theophrastus, Greek, ca. 372-ca. 287 BCE. Characters. Rec: Ward Tolstoy, Leo What is Art?( 1898)
Breaks taboos, not only about discussion of whether certain kinds of "high art" are truly valuable but also about particular great artists: Baudelaire, Monet, Beethoven. Nothing is sacred except the search for the deepest truth, and that means the truth accessible to millions, not the refinements that coddle the chosen few. See BIOGRAPHY (Troyat); FICTION/NOVELS Trilling, Lionel The Liberal Imagination( 1950)
Intense, thought-provoking essays mostlyon English novels — and the English novel — by one of America's finest critics. Though Trilling sometimes stumbles, at his (frequent) best he soars. Also: Beyond Culture, etc. See FICTION/NOVELS Trilling, Lionel. American, 1905-1975. The Liberal Imagination. Rec: ML Nonfiction National Review Wilde, Oscar, Irish, 1854-1900. Works. Rec: Ward Plays. Rec: Bloom Picture of Dorian Gray. Rec: Bloom Smiley The Artist as Critic. Rec: Bloom Letters. Rec: Bloom Wilson, Edmund Classics and Commercials (1950) 11 !I/ *
Hugely entertaining, informative bumper bundle of articles on contemporary (1920s onwards) literature; puffs and polemics, always lively and well-argued, in quick succession. Also: Red Black Blond and Olive; etc. See DIARIES; HISTORY/AMERICAN; POLITICS Writing Systems G. Sampson
Writing Writing Systems of the World
F. Coulmas
Writing Of Grammatology
J. Derrida
Writing Derrida, Jacques, French, 1930-2004. Of Grammatology. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Knowledge of Language N. Chomsky
Innate Language The Chomsky Reader
J. Peck Innate Language The Language Instinct
S. Pinker
Innate Language ENGLISH LANGUAGE David Crystal
The unprecedented growth in the English language since the 1960s presents authors with a new agenda, if they are to provide a balanced account of the subject. With over a thousand million people using English to native or near-native levels of fluency, distributed throughout the world, the traditional accounts of the language - focusing just on Britain or on America - are no longer persuasive. Alongside the books dealing with traditional topics of interest, therefore - pronunciation, spelling, grammar, and vocabulary - there is increasing attention being paid to the diversity of uses which can be encountered within the English-speaking communities around the world, and to the speed at which the language is changing as it spreads. Each region presents fresh trends and norms. And even within one country, there is unprecedented variety and change, especially in relation to the media and electronic communication. How we cope with this diversity, so that we can preserve standards of mutual intelligibility without losing our local identity, in both spoken and written English, is one of the more intriguing questions which many authors are now attempting to answer.
Words will not lie down. Even if we left them alone, they would not, for
vocabulary grows, changes, and dies without anyone being in charge. There is no
Minister for the Lexicon, and in countries which do have an Academy with
responsibility for the language, vocabulary rules with a bland disregard for the
pronouncements of academics, politicians, and pedants. It is the most anarchic
area of language. But we do not leave words alone. We do not even let them rest
in peace. There are linguistic resurrectionists, who try to revive words that have
been dead for centuries - such as the Anglo-Saxon enthusiasts. There are
reincarnationists, who recall the previous existence of a word, and let it influence
their lives. There are revolutionaries, who are trying to change the lexical world
today, and even that is too late. There are resuscitators, who assail the letter-
columns of publications with pleas to preserve past usage; redeemers, who believe
that all words can be saved; and retributionists, who believe that, for some words,
hanging's too good for
A few, well-intentioned souls think that the
government should legalize lexical euthanasia.
DAVID CRYSTAL English in Use (1990) by Randolph Quirk and Gabriele Stein. This is the book which replaces The Use of English, Quirk's introductory account of English variety and style that motivated students of the language over 25 years. The new book provides some-what greater depth in its approach to contemporary issues of structure and usage. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language (1995) by David Crystal. A full-colour, illustrated guide to the history, structure, and range of uses of the language, with particular reference to the regional variety of English around the world. Words in Time: A Social History of the English Vocabulary (1988) by Geoffrey Hughes. An account of the way words have changed their meaning in association with the changes which have taken place in society, in such fields as economics, journalism, politics, and advertising. Detailed word-histories are provided, using the files of the Oxford English Dictionary. Rhetoric: The Wit of Persuasion (1989) by Walter Nash. A book which shows that this ancient and most respected of subjects has just as much relevance today as it had to Classical authors. Rhetoric is seen as a framework for argument and as a technique for presenting point of view, important as much for the study of everyday conversation as for the study of literature. The Dialects of England (1990) by Peter Trudgill. An account of the history and geography of the chief regional dialects of England, including their pronunciation as well as their grammar and vocabulary. Lots of local examples are presented in a friendly transcription. The Oxford Guide to Word Games (1984) by Tony Augarde. An account of the extraordinary things that people do to English (and other languages) when they begin to play with it. The many topics include anagrams, crosswords, alphabet games, tongue-
twisters, puns, consequences, and spoonerisms. LINGUISTICS Frederick J Newmeyer
Linguistics is a field that bridges the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social I !sciences. Studies of metrical patterning in Old English verse, of the physics of speech sounds, and of turn-taking conventions in conversation all fall within its domain. Today, the dominant - and most productive - orientation of the field focuses on the cognitive aspects of language; that is, on the properties of linguistic representations in the mind and on the degree to which these properties point to an innately specified language faculty.
There are several reasons why language has been and will continue to be of
particular significance for the study of human nature. One is that language
appears to be a true species property, unique to the human species in its essentials
and a common part of our shared biological endowment. Furthermore, language
enters in a crucial way into thought, action, and social relations. Finally, language
is relatively accessible to study. In this respect the topic is quite different from others
that we would hope to address: problem solving, artistic creativity, and other
aspects of human life and activity.
NOAM CHOMSKY The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language (1994) by Steven Pinker. A brilliantly elegant and readable book that introduces the concerns and results of modem linguistics to the lay reader. This should be everybody's introduction to the field. Patterns in the Mind: Language and Human Nature (1994) by Ray Jackendoff. Another good introduction to linguistics, this one focusing especially on the relationship between the language faculty and other cognitive faculties. The Chomsky Update: Linguistics and Politics (1990) by Raphael Salkie. The next best thing to reading Chomsky himself- the latter a task not for the faint of heart. Chomsky's approach to language is explained in clear detail as well as, for those who are interested, how his linguistic theories relate to his radical politics. Language and Problems of Knowledge: The Managua Lectures (1988) by Noam Chomsky. This is probably Chomsky's most accessible recent book. It records his lectures on the fundamentals of linguistic theory to students and teachers in Nicaragua. The transcription of the discussion session at the end is especially useful. The Politics of Linguistics (1986) by Frederick J Newmeyer. A nontechnical history of the past two centuries of linguistic theorizing. Special attention is given to the ways in which the social context has influenced the directions that the field has taken. The Linguistics Wars (1993) by Randy Allen Harris. A rollicking account of the debates among theoretical linguists in the 1970s over the analysis of the interaction of form and meaning. A little technical in places, but it gives one a feel for how linguists go about the formal analysis of language. Language and Society: An Introduction to Sociolinguistics (1994) by Suzanne Romaine. A very readable introduction to those aspects of language study that fall under the social sciences. Endangered Languages (1991) edited by R H Robins and E M Uhlenbeck. The sad account of the threat of extinction to more than half of the languages in the world. The contributors spell out in detail both the human and the scientific cost of minority languages giving way to socially dominant ones. You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation (1990) by Deborah Tannen. On how and why men and women have difficulty communicating with each other. Lots of references to more technical work in the subfield of conversation analysis. Language (1921) by Edward Sapir. The fact that this book is still in print after three quarters of a century testifies to its timelessness. Written by one of the greatest linguist-anthropologists of history, this was the first introduction to the scientific study of language for several generations of scholars. Fun to read as well. AMERICAN ENGLISH Bill Bryson
If you park a car, fly off the handle, stay put, paint the town red or even keep a stiff upper lip, you are using an Americanism. America has played a more vital and central role in the growth and development of the English language in the last three centuries than most people, inside or outside America, realize. Because it is such a neglected and finite topic, not all of the following are expressly about American words, but all shed considerable light on American speech and culture.
The American was good natured, generous, hospitable and sociable, and he reversed
the whole history of language to make the term stranger one of welcome.
HENRY STEELS COMMAGER The American Language: An Inquiry into the Development of English in the United States (1989) by H L Mencken. This is the classic and still definitive work. Originally issued in three volumes, it has been condensed into a single volume with the addition of much new and updated material, but Mencken's crusty and endearingly irascible tone still shines through. The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology (1988) by Robert K Bamhart. First of a series of a surprisingly fascinating and browsable books on new words and where they come from. The Americans: The Colonial Experience, The Americans: The Democratic Experience, The Americans: The National Experience (1974) by Daniel Boorstin. Outstanding and accessible social history of the USA, full of interesting sidelights on the stories behind American inventions and the words they spawned. The American Mind: An Interpretation of American Thought and Character Since the 1880s (1950) by Henry Steele Commager. Only indirectly pertaining to American speech, this is none the less an essential work for anyone wishing to understand the American character. Our Own Words (1974) by Mary Helen Dohan. An engaging and always readable survey of the development of American speech over three centuries. Democratic Eloquence: The Fight over Popular Speech in Nineteenth Century America (1990) by Kenneth Cmiel. Earnest but comprehensive look at American speech during a century that saw the USA go from being an agrarian nation on the periphery of world affairs to an economic and military colossus.

Mathematics, Science and Technology

This list gathers together books on a vast area of human experience normally splintered into a dozen exclusive, specialist disciplines. Specialist volumes, in technical language, have been excluded (as they have from music. say, or from literary criticism). The books chosen introduce and discuss their subjects, often at considerable depth, in terms accessible to everyone
— it is, after all, possible to appreciate and benefit from the study of radio astronomy (or fugues, or Russian literature) without needing expertise in physics (or counterpoint, or Russian grammar). Above all, they offer a synthesis, they link the various aspects of man's study of his world to each other, and to his whole perception of himself. They are passionate and absorbed, exactly because science is a species of empirical philosophy. The subject is man the measurer, and the messenger himself is a central part of the report he brings.

See AUTOBIOGRAPHY (Hahn): BIOGRAPHY (Rolt); MEDIA (Berry, Steinberg); MEDICINE (Gray, Thomas); PSYCHOLOGY (Luria); RELIGION (Barbour)

American Chemical Society Chemistry in the Economy (1973)
-./
600 pages, covering all aspects of the use of chemicals. As well as dealing with what everyone thinks of as "chemicals", it also goes into areas such as food processing. Important "fact" book, for reference as much as reading. Amp¨re, André Marie, French, 1775-1836. Papers. Rec: Aquinas Apollonius of Perga, Greek, fl. 247-205 BCE. On Conic Sections. Rec: Adler Aquinas Rexmo SJC (Selections) Apollonius Rhodius, Greek, fl. 220 BCE. Argonautica. Rec: Ward Asimov, Isaac The Collapsing Universe (1977)
a*
Clear discussion of particles and forces, stellar evolution, neutron stars, black holes, cosmology in general. Asimov, a noted writer of science fiction, also writes readably, reliably, about every kind of science fact. Also: Asimov on Chemistry; The New Intelligent Man's Guide to Science, etc. See FICTION/SF Asimov, Isaac. American, 1920-1992. Asimov on Numbers. Rec: Good Reading Archimedes, Greek, ca. 287-212 BCE. Works. Rec: Adler (Selections) GBWW Rexmo On Floating Bodies. Rec: Aquinas On Conoids and Spheroids. Rec: Aquinas Quadrature of the Parabola. Rec: Aquinas Avogadro, Amadeo, Italian, 1776-1856. Masses and Proportions of Elementary Molecules. Rec: Aquinas Barnett, Lincoln The Universe and Dr Einstein (1947)
a
This book was a response to the enormous curiosity about modern physical theory evoked by the atomic bomb. Barnett was a science writer for Life magazine but this is far more than a Time-Life book; in fact it immediately became a classic of its kind and is still regarded (although events have overtaken many of its facts) as a model of popular science writing. Behe, Michael J.. American, 1952- . Darwin's Black Box. Rec: National Review (evolution)
Michael J. Behe, a biochemist at Lehigh University, presents here a scientific argument for the existence of God. Bell, E. T. The Development of Mathematics (1945) 0
Standard history of mathematics by a distinguished scholar and president of Cal Tech. Can be read with pleasure by laymen but if you know any mathematics, so much the better. Bernal, J. D. The Extension of Man (1972) L a
Compact, anecdotal history of pre-modern physics. Gives a splendid feeling of the great scientists (Archimedes, Galileo. Franklin) as people with human foibles as well as superhuman abilities. Also: Science in History; Marx and Science Bernard, Claude Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine (1865)
Bernard's thesis (that life consists in the maintaining of an interior milieu) helped to revolutionize not only the teaching of medicine but medicine itself; he was a great theoretician in a field largely dominated by practitioners. An essential work for anyone interested in the history of the subject. Bohr, Niels, Danish, 1885-1962. Atomic Theory and the Description of Nature. Rec: GBWW (Selections) Discussion with Einstein on Epistemological Problems in Atomic Physics. Rec: GBWW Bronowski, Jacob The Ascent of Man (1973)
&a*/ -47
Popular history of man's inventive and conceptual genius from early times to the present day. Bronowski has never heard of the two cultures; his easy synthesis of all human knowledge and experience irritates some, enthuses others. The book brilliantly analyses the problems faced by human ingenuity; the answers are explained in occasionally glib terms. But the zest for experiment and discovery, the sense of the oneness of human endeavour, have seldom been better communicated. Also: The Western Intellectual Tradition; Nature and Knowledge Brown, Hanbury Man and the Stars (1978) La Effects of celestial bodies on mankind: calendar, navigation, time — and the views we take about the stars. Bunn, Charles Crystals (1964)
Readable introduction to crystallography. Technical matters successfully explained in non-technical language; admirable mixture of history, geology and chemistry. Calvin, Melvin Chemical Evolution (1969) P How life may have arisen on earth through ordinary chemical processes. Able summary of key research to time of publication. Chapman, J. M. Basic Electricity (1959)
a d
Ideal for older-than-school person seeking to educate himself. Illustrations say more than thousands of words. Clark, Ronald W. The Scientific Breakthrough ( 1974) 9 The "breakthrough" is not simply E= mc2(or any particular topic), so much as the breakthrough along the entire frontier of knowledge. For readers with at least some scientific background, though not aimed at specialists. Also: Einstein: The Life and Times Clarke, A. C. Profiles of the Future (1963)
One of the best books of prophecy ever published. Clarke is the dean of living SF writers, and something of a scientist in his own right. In this work he forecasts events and discoveries of the next 200 or 300 years. Many have already come true; the rest are now seen to be likely. Also: Interplanetary Flight; The Exploration of Space. See Rosen; FICTION/SF Copernicus, Polish writing in Latin, 1473-1543. On the Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres. Rec: Adler Aquinas GBWW Seymour-Smith SJC (Selections) Cottrell, T. L. Chemistry (1963)
Covers "difficult" ground in a relatively easy way. Eschews mathematics, but explains the essentials of chemistry as a science. Interesting chapter on the methodology of scientific research. Curie, Marie, Polish-French, 1867-1934. Treatise on Radioactivity. Rec: NYPL Courant, R. H. What Is Mathernatics?(1941)
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This book has withstood the test of time: one of the really great popular expositions of mathematics. Dainseth, John (ed) A Dictionary of Physical Science (1976) Dalton, John, English, 1766-1844. Proportion of Gases in the Atmosphere. Rec: Aquinas Darwin, Charles, English, 1809-1882. Selected Works. Rec: Colcc91 (Selections) The Voyage of the Beagle (A Naturalist's Voyage. Rec: Fadiman 4 Lubbock The Origin of Species. Rec: Adler Aquinas Fadiman 4 GBWW Good Reading Lubbock Seymour-Smith SJC Ward The Descent of Man. Rec: Adler GBWW Autobiography. Rec: Adler Davis, Nuel Pharr Lawrence and Oppenheimer(1968)
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Fascinating account of the meeting (and eventual clash) of representative American and European scientific traditions (that is, inventor-extraordinary and theoretician), sparked and fuelled by World War II and the development of the atomic bomb. Provokes a sombre question: what is in charge, man's will, or the progress of events? Well-written, stimulating biography; case study for the apocalypse? Dedekind, Richard, German, 1831-1916. Essay on the Theory of Numbers. Rec: Aquinas SJC Dobzhansky, Theodosius, Russian-American writing in English, 1900-1975. Genetics and the Origin of Species. Rec: Boston PL GBWW Dunn, P. D. Technology with a Human Face(1 978) Ai J
Assumes no prior technical knowledge; full of informed opinion and of facts concerning the state of the world, natural resources, health, education, economics, etc; eschews the panic writing of the popular press. Eddington, Sir Arthur Stanley, English, 1882-1944. Th Expanding Universe. Rec: GBWW Various Authors, Indians writing in Tamil, 1st C BCE-3rd C CE. Eight Anthologies. (See also Kuruntokai, Tamil Poetry) Rec: MW Asian Einstein, Albert, German-Swiss-American, 1879-1955. The Meaning of Relativity. Rec: Adler Good Reading NYPL On the Meaning of Theoretical Physics. Rec: Adler Evolution of Physics. Rec: Adler Relativity: The Special and the General Theory. Rec: Aquinas Boston PL GBWW National Review Seymour-Smith Selected Papers. Rec: SJC Euclid, Greek, fl. ca. 300 BCE. Elements. Rec: Adler Aquinas GBWW Rexmo Seymour-Smith SJC Faraday, Michael The Chemical History of a Candle (1860) &a
As director of the Royal Institution in London, Faraday gave popular lectures each year at Christmas, the most famous of which is the above. The chemical history of a candle took Faraday and his audience — and still takes the modern reader — through the entire gamut of the chemical and physical sciences of his day; most of what he said then is still true. A delightful book. Faraday, Michael, English, 1791-1867. Chemical History of a Candle. Rec: Adler Experimental Researches in Electricity. Rec: Adler GBWW Fishlock, David The New Scientists (1978)
The author is a science journalist of wide experience; the book describes the lives and achievements of many great 20th-
century scientists. Excitingly readable and stimulating. Feynman, Richard. American, 1918-1988. Six Easy Pieces. Rec: ML Nonfiction The Feynman Lectures on Physics. Rec: National Review Fourier, Jean Baptiste Joseph, French, 1768-1830. Analytical Theory of Heat. Rec: Adler Frisch, Karl von, Austrian, 1886-1982. The Dancing Bees: An Account of the Life and Senses of the Honey Bee. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Galileo Galilei, Italian, 1574-1642. Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems. Rec: Adler Fadiman 4 Seymour-Smith Starry Messenger. Rec: Adler Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences. Rec: Aquinas GBWW SJC Discoveries and Opinions. Rec: Colcc91 Gardner, Martin The Ambidextrous Universe (1964)
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Physics with the lid off. Appraises the work of modern physics with sideswipes where needed and an approach fresh as new-
baked bread. Even better than his Mathematical Puzzles and Diversions (herewith recommended). Attractive style; profound matters clearly explained in simple, non-technical language. Also: The Annotated Alice Gay-Lussac, Joseph Louis, French, 1778-1850. Combination of Gaseous Substances. Rec: Aquinas Gilbert, William, English, 1540-1603. On the Loadstone and Magnetic Bodies. Rec: Adler Aquinas GBWW Gleick, James. American, 1954- . Chaos. Rec: Utne Gordon, J. E. Structures, or Why Things Don't Fall Down (1978) a..1 Written in plain language, takes the mystery out of an aspect of technology which affects the lives of everyone. Subjects range from buildings to balloons, even into physiology. Gould, Stephen Jay. American, 1941-2002. The Mismeasure of Man. Rec: Counterpunch NF ML Nonfiction Ever Since Darwin: Reflections in Natural History. Rec: Good Reading Griffin, Frank Loxley. American, 1881-1969. Mathematical Analysis. Rec: Aquinas Hardy, G. H., English, 1877-1947. A Mathematician's Apology. Rec: GBWW ML Nonfiction Harvey, William, English writing in Latin, 1578-1657. On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals. Rec: Adler Aquinas GBWW SJC On the Circulation of the Blood. Rec: Adler GBWW On the Generation of Animals. Rec: Adler Aquinas GBWW Hawking, Stephen, English, 1942- . A Brief History of Time. Rec: TLS Heisenberg, Werner Physics and Beyond (1971)
Remarkable "scientific autobiography" by Nobel Prize-winning physicist who remained in Germany during Hitler's regime and fought to keep German science sane during the war years. Thoughtful, penetrating, revealing of the man, also important for its insights into the history of physics in the 20th century. Also: Physics and Philosophy Heisenberg, Werner, German, 1901-1976. Uncertainty Principle. Rec: Boston PL Physics and Philosophy. Rec: GBWW Hey, J. S. The Evolution of Radio Astronomy (1973)
Historical survey of the subject, from its beginnings just before World War II to the present day. Written by one of the great pioneers. Hofstadter, Douglas Goedel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (1979)
Exciting book by a computer scientist, tying together mathematics with the creative work of painter M. C. Escher and composer J. S. Bach and the theorems of logician Kurt Goedel. An intellectual gallop — requires concentration, and some mathematics (no matter how far in the dim past) will help. Hogben, Lancelot Mathematics for the Million ( 1936)
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What mathematics is, and how to do it, explained in clear, masterly prose. Follow the calculations if you can; even if you can't, the explanations and historical survey offer a good general introduction. Revised and updated edition (1967) essential. Also: Science for the Citizen Hoyle, Fred Ten Faces of the Universe (1977)
The enfant terrible of British astrophysics and the leading light of the "Cambridge school" has published many books including several excellent SF novels. This book is an interesting attempt to reveal the image of the universe as it appears to physicists, chemists, biochemists, and other scientific specialists. Also: From Stonehenge to Modern Cosmology Huygens, Christiaan, Dutch writing in French, 1629-1695. Treatise on Light. Rec: Adler Aquinas GBWW SJC (Selections) On the Movement of Bodies by Impact. Rec: SJC Georges Ifrah , The Universal History of Numbers, From Prehistory to the Invention of the Computer, 2000, 633 pages
$16 (rec: cooltools) Irving, David The Virus House (1967)
Fully documented account of Germany's atomic research just prior to and during World War H, and of Allied intelligence operations and counter-measures. Both scientific and political aspects are complicated, but clearly explained. See Davis; AUTOBIOGRAPHY (Hahn) Jeans, James The Universe around Us (1944)
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Jeans was a distinguished scientist who hoped to acquaint the general reading public with some idea of how contemporary astronomers viewed the universe. He succeeded. See Hoyle. Kaner, P. and Langdon, N. It Figures (1979)
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Takes the mystery out of mathematics and all related concepts; approximation, fractions, decimals, percentages, statistics — test questions (and answers) supplied. For the uninitiated, for the bewildered, an essential and useful book. Kasner, E. and Newman, J. Mathematics and the Imagination (1940) What is a googolplex? What is a klein bottle? These and hundreds of other aspects of mathematics are described in over 300 pages of easy text and clear diagrams. Puzzles; some history; optical illusions; speculation and fantasy. Education without tears. Kaufmann, William Exploration of the Solar System (1977)
First-class survey of all aspects of the solar system. For reading and for reference. Also: Astronomy: The Structure of the Universe; Black Holes and Warped Space Time Kepler, Johannes, German writing in Latin, 1571-1630. Astronomia Nova. Rec: Aquinas Epitome of Copernican Astronomy. Rec: Adler Aquinas GBWW SJC (Selections) Concerning the Harmonies of the World. Rec: Adler GBWW Seymour-Smith Koestler, Arthur The Sleepwalkers (1959) aha
From earliest times, scientific speculation (particularly about the heavens) has embraced both observation of natural events and a kind of conceptualizing "philosophy". We are defined by what we think about what we see. Koestler examines the interplay between empirical and theoretical work, relating the achievements of many great past scientists to the response of their
contemporaries. Usefully read in conjunction with McGlashan (qv) and Stableford (qv), who bring the discussion into the modern age, and with Ziman (qv), whose approach is more rigorously science-oriented. See
FICTION/NOVELS; NATURAL HISTORY; OCCULT Kuhn, Thomas The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962)
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Revolutionary study of the character of scientific revolutions in thought and theory, suggesting that science generally is not entirely inductive and that waves of opinion deeply affect its development.
Kuhn, Thomas. American, 1922-1996. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Rec: Boston PL Fadiman 4 ML Nonfiction National Review Seymour-Smith TLS Utne Laithwaite, E. R. Exciting Electrical Machines (1973)
Guide for undergraduate students; including special electricity and magnetism projects, but simply written and requiring no higher mathematics. Describes and explains the action of all types of electric motors from electric clocks to rolling mill motors. Also: Propulsion with Wheels; Engineer in Wonderland; Why Does a Glow-worm Glow? Larkin, S. and Bernbaum, L. (eds) The Penguin Book of the Physical World (1976)
Good short encyclopaedia covers natural phenomena and also landmarks of man's technological and scientific progress. Notably clear style: for children (and adults) who want to know what heat is, how atoms are split, why an engine works as it does, etc. Also: The Penguin Book of the Natural World Lewis, John E. (ed) Teaching School Physics (1972)
Despite the narrowing title, this is one of the best books on elementary physics for non-scientists, non-pupils and non-teachers alike. The start of Chapter 5 is essential reading, for anyone. Lietzmann, W. Visual Topology (1965)
Mazes, ancient wall-drawings, mysticism, knots, string games, etc, all treated with strict logic but without the awesome formulae found in more formal maths books. Lindsay, Jack Blast Power and Ballistics (1974)
Notably lucid account of ancient applied physics: describes how observation of lightning and earthquakes led to ballistics, catapults, and other war machines. Lindsay is a marvellous exponent of the ancient world, particularly its more arcane areas; this book is one of his best. Also: The Origins of Alchemy in Graeco-Roman Egypt(splendid study, despite title, of ancient scientific theories and methods); The Origins of Astrology. See BIOGRAPHY Linnaeus, Carolus, Swedish writing in Latin, 1707-1778. Systema Naturae. Rec: Aquinas Lobachevsky, Nikolai Ivanovich, Russian, 1792-1856. Geometrical Researches on the Theory of Parallels. Rec: Aquinas SJC Lovell, Bernard In the Centre of Immensities (1979)
Survey of the development of man's knowledge of the universe and of the earth's status in it. Discusses the origin of the universe, and includes a thoughtful section on the potentially destructive activities of mankind. Also: Out of the Zenith; The Story of Jodrell Bank; Emerging Cosmology Lyell, Charles, English, 1797-1875. Principles of Geology. Rec: Adler McGlashan, Alan Gravity and Levity (1976)
Unique, witty polemic: the discoveries of modern physics treated as a kind of liberating mythology, a conceptual platform for man's new understanding of himself and the forces which play upon his world. Logic and causality are dead: unconscious processes are at work, and we lock into them to unlock ourselves. Science? Debatable. Worth reading? Certainly. Maeterlinck, Maurice, Belgian, 1862-1949. Nobel Laureate The Life of the Bee. Rec: NYPL Margulis, Lynn and Dorion Sagan. American, 1938- and 1959-. What is Life?. Rec: Utne Maxwell, James Clerk, Scottish, 1831-1879. Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism. Rec: Aquinas Seymour-Smith Mendel, Gregor, Austrian, 1822-1884. Experiments in Plant Hybridization. Rec: Aquinas Seymour-Smith SJC Mendelssohn, Kurt Science and Western Domination (1976)
Why, in the Middle Ages and subsequently, did Western civilization expand so fast? Mendelssohn's answer is that it had unique keys: scientific thought and technological ingenuity. Stimulating personal view of science and of history, in witty, non-technical prose. Also: The Riddle of the Pyramids. For an interesting parallel view of China's technological stagnation at same time, see HISTORY/ASIAN (Elvin). Millikan, Robert. American, 1868-1953. The Electron. Rec: SJC (Selections) Milton, J. and S. Discovering Astronomy (1979)
Ideal introduction. Also: (for more advanced readers) Astronomy: An Introduction Moore, Patrick Concise Atlas of the Universe (1970)
Lavishly produced introduction to all branches of astronomical science. Non-mathematical. Also: The Atlas of Mercury; The Astronomy of Birr Castle, etc Moore, Ruth The Earth We Live On (1956)
Distinguished history of man's study of the earth: rocks, seas, volcanoes, mountains and deserts. Well-documented, readable. Avoids scientific jargon: for that see Robson. Also: Man, Time and Fossils; Charles Darwin Morgan, Thomas Hunt. American, 1866-1945. A Critique of the Theory of Evolution. Rec: Boston PL Moszkowski, Alexander Conversations with Einstein (1970)
Einstein tends to slip out of biographers' grasp: this book comes nearer than most to his essential self. His views (aged 40) on education, literature, scientific creativity, physics, his great predecessors, even the occult, are here shared with a notably wise, cosmopolitan and cultured man (a Berlin journalist and music critic, 30 years his senior). Among other things, Einstein clearly explains the Special Theory of Relativity in a single page; it is worth buying the book for that alone. Murphy, Patrick Applied Mathematics Mode Simple (1971) Needham, Joseph, English, 1900-1995. Science and Civilization in China. Rec: ML Nonfiction Neihardt, William G., See Black Elk Newton, Sir Isaac, English writing in English and Latin, 1642-1727. Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (Prinicipia Mathematica). Rec: Adler Aquinas GBWW Seymour-Smith SJC Optics. Rec: Adler Aquinas GBWW Nicholson, Iain The Road to the Stars (1978)
Survey of all the possibilities for interstellar travel. Various ideas are scientifically examined; a hand-book for the now voyager. Also: Simple Astronomy; Astronomy; Black Holes in Space Nicomachus of Gerasa, Greek, fl. ca. 100 CE. Introduction to Arithmetic. Rec: Adler GBWW SJC (Selections) Norton, A. P. Star Atlas and Reference Handbook (1910)
Standard, essential reference work, regularly updated. Pannell, J. P. M. An Illustrated History of Engineering (1964) a a -I
Brief, brisk text; well-chosen pictures. Roads; rivers and canals; railways; docks and harbours; water supply and public health; bridges — all in 250 pages. You may want to go deeper and further, but this is an excellent start. Partington, J. R. A Short History of Chemistry (1937)
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Not "history" as a historian might recognize it, more a compilation of facts, "what happened in chemistry", from prehistoric times to the present day. Regularly updated. Pascal, Blaise, French, 1623-1662. Generation of Conic Sections. Rec: Aquinas SJC Scientific Treatises. Rec: Adler GBWW On the Equilibrium of Liquids. Rec: Aquinas Treatise on the Weight of the Mass of Air. Rec: Aquinas Pauling, L. and P. Chemistry (1975) 09 Basic text for first-year college students for more than a generation; an excellent basic book for those with some scientific background. 1975 edition supersedes all others. Planck, Max, German, 1858-1947. Origin and Development of Quantum Theory. Rec: Adler Where is Science Going?. Rec: Adler Scientific Autobiography. Rec: Adler GBWW Other Papers. Rec: GBWW Poincare, Henri The Foundations of Science (1913)
Collection of fundamental essays by the great French mathematician/scientist on mathematics and its relation to the physical world. Poincaré, Jules Henri, French, 1854-1912. Science and Hypothesis. Rec: Adler GBWW Science and Method. Rec: Adler Popper, Karl, Austrian-English writing in English, 1902-1994. The Logic of Scientific Discovery. Rec: Seymour-Smith TLS Pough, Frederick H. A Field Guide to Rocks and Minerals (1953) P Excellent handbook, regularly updated, ideal for the professional and amateur geologist alike. The technical descriptions and illustrations are a model of their kind. Pyke, Magnus About Chemistry (1959)
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Each brand of the subject is clearly and enthusiastically explained, for absolute beginners. Ideal for the teenager who wants to know what chemistry is — and many adults will be grateful for Pyke's unassuming, unpatronizing style. Reid, Robert Marie Curie (1974)
Biography of one of world's best-known chemists, gives a clear picture of how chemical research used to be carried out. Curie's personal life is included as well as her scientific life; but the book avoids the hero-worship of most other biographies. Rhodes, Richard. American, 1937- . The Making of the Atomic Bomb. Rec: ML Nonfiction Ridley, B. K. Time, Space and Things (1976)
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Book begins: "There are some splendidly bizarre ideas in physics, and it seems a pity to keep them locked up in narrow boxes, available only to a small esoteric crowd of keyholders" — and lives up to this opening. Non-mathematical. Robson, D. A. The Science of Geology (1968)
Good introduction to the scientific aspects of geology. Necessary balance to Moore's (qv) more general, historical account. Rosen, Steven Future Facts( 1976)
Lively piece of futurology, discussing where present trends will lead in the next generation. Not fantasy: these speculations are rooted in present facts. Imagine the scepticism with which such a book would have been read in 1880s — then read on. For a comparable view, see Clarke. Rossotti, Hazel Introducing Chemistry (1975)
More advanced than Pyke (qv), less difficult than Pauling (qv). Some scientific background required to make full use of it. Sagan, Carl. American, 1934-1996. Intelligent Life in the Universe. Rec: Boston PL Schrodinger, Erwin Nature and the Greeks (1954)
Fascinating short book by Nobel physics laureate: its thesis, that science is nothing more nor less than the habit of "looking at the world in the Greek way." Provocative; not difficult. Also: What Is Life? See Koestler
Schr¶dinger, Erwin, Austrian, 1887-1961. What is Life?. Rec: GBWW Sheldrake, Rupert, English, 1942- . Seven Experiments That Could Change the World: A Do-It-Yourself Guide to Revolutionary Science (2nd Edition with Update on Results). Rec: Utne Sherwood, Martin New Worlds in Chemistry (1974) P Developments in chemistry since World War II. Leans heavily towards the applications of chemistry in "glamorous" research areas (such as studies of the origin of life and molecular biology). Non-technical. but requires concentration. Sperling, A. and Stuart, M. Mathematics Made Simple (1967) What can be said about most books in this Made Simple series is that they do live up to their titles. For adult education, for reference, for pleasure. See Murphy. Singer, Charles, English, 1876-1960. A Short History of Scientific Ideas to 1900. Rec: Ward Snow, C. P., English, 1905-1980. The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution. Rec: TLS Stableford, Brian M. The Mysteries of Modern Science (1977) & a Sensible survey of the history, content and philosophy of science. How scientists mould, and are moulded by, their world; the need for "conceptual leaps" akin to the leap of religious faith. For the baffled layman, useful and stimulating; for the scientist, an essential re-establishment of parameters. Taylor, Dennis Introduction to Radar (1966)
From World War H to radio astronomy. Some mathematics are included, but can be skipped. Taylor, James M.. American, 1843-1930. Elements of the Differential and Integral Calculus. Rec: Aquinas Taylor, Stuart Ross Lunar Science: A Post-Apollo View (1975)
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Concise summary of the present state of our knowledge about the moon. For reading and for reference. Thomas, Lewis. American, 1913-1993. The Lives of a Cell. Rec: ML Nonfiction Thompson, D'Arcy Wentworth On Growth and Form (1917)
Cuts across all disciplines, deals with the growth of living and nonliving things (for example, bank accounts under compound interest), and the forms of plants and animals, mountains, anthills, galaxies — all affected by the bell curve of normal distribution. Unique, stimulating. Revised edition (1961) recommended. Thompson, D'Arcy, Scottish, 1860-1948. On Growth and Form. Rec: ML Nonfiction Velikovsky, Immanuel, Russian-American writing in English, 1895-1979. Worlds in Collision. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Viete, Francois, French writing in Latin, 1540-1603. Introduction to the Analytical Art. Rec: Aquinas SJC Standard Enumeration of Geometric Results. Rec: Aquinas Waddams, A. L. Chemicals from Petroleum (1962)
Thorough, regularly-updated introduction to the way in which chemical products are made from crude oil. Fairly technical, but accessible to the perseverant layman. Because the industry is still changing, avoid any but the latest edition. Watson, James D. The Double Helix (1968)fait
Subtitled "A personal account of the discovery of the structure of DNA", this book upset some scientists because its highly personal account implied that, even when doing research, they behave like human beings, occasionally even losing their tempers or thinking about sex. Watson, James D.. American, 1928- . The Double Helix. Rec: Boston PL ML Nonfiction National Review NYPL Whitehead, A. N. An Introduction to Mathematics (1920)
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Whitehead is one of the great mathematician/philosophers of the 20th century; his most famous (although it's almost unreadable) book being Principia Mathematica, written with his young Cambridge colleague, Bertrand Russell. Whitehead came to America before World War I and wrote more popular books, notably this one which is exactly what its title says. Also: Science and the Modern World Whitehead, Alfred North, English, 1861-1947. (See also Whitehead, Alfred North and Russell, Bertrand) Science and the Modern World. Rec: Adler Fadiman 3 GBWW An Introduction to Mathematics. Rec: Adler Fadiman 3 GBWW The Aims of Education and Other Essays. Rec: Adler Adventures of Ideas. Rec: Adler Whitehead, Alfred North and Bertrand Russell, English, 1861-1947 and 1872-1970. (See also Whitehead, Alfred North and Russell, Bertrand) Principia Mathematica. Rec: ML Nonfiction Wiener, Norbert. American, 1894-1964. Cybernetics. Rec: Boston PL Seymour-Smith Wright, Lawrence Clockwork Man (1968)
Comprehensive account of man's attempts to tell the time and to order the hours, days and months. Calendars, clocks, sextants, compasses, from primitive times to the digital present day. Also: Warm and Snug: The History of the Bed, etc Ziman, John The Force of Knowledge (1976)
$ a The author is a professor of physics, but his book is more philosophical than physical. He paints the history of physics delightfully, and shows how indebted we are to the great thinkers. Same subject as Koestler (qv), but usefully viewed here from the scientist's "side". Nicolaas Bloembergen
Nicolaas Bloembergen is professor of physics in the Applied Sciences Division and Harvard's Gerhard Gade University Professor. He was born and educated in the Netherlands and joined the Harvard faculty in 1949. In 1981, Professor Bloembergen received the Nobel Prize in Physics. Albert Einstein and Leopold Infeld. Physik als Abenteuer der Erkenntnis (The Evolution of Physics, 1938). Simon & Schuster, 1967. (Pb)
This book I read at the age of eighteen. It convinced me that the study of physics poses some of the most challenging questions to the human mind. I have not been disappointed in pursuing physics as a lifetime career. The book was published at the same time in the English language with the less informative title The Evolution of Physics. Philip Morrison, Phylis Morrison, Charles Eames, and Ray Eames. Powers of Ten. New York: W. H. Freeman, 1982.
Nowadays, there are many excellent books introducing the high school and college student to the human quest in science and technology. If I had been born fifty years later, I am sure this charmingly illustrated book would have alerted my mind to the challenges of science. This book is the first in the series of the Scientific American Library. Many of these volumes could be recommended. Erich Maria Remarque. All Quiet on the Western Front (1928). New York: Fawcett Book Group, 1979. (Pb)
In the 1930s this book opened my eyes to the senselessness of trench warfare in World War I, and the accompanying degradation of the human spirit. The same theme can, of course, be found in many other more recent books, including Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead, based on episodes from World War II. It is a sad commentary on the human condition, that each generation produces books of this nature. William Bossert
William Bossert is an esteemed population biologist with current research interests in computer applications in medicine, the management of marine fisheries and evolutionary biology. He is the David B. Arnold Professor of Science at Harvard and was formerly a junior fellow in the Society of Fellows. Former students and his peers praise his pioneering efforts on behalf of Harvard students to bring the University into the computer age. He is also consistently described as an excellent teacher. Albert G. Ingalls, ed. Amateur Telescope Making (1926). 3 vols. New York: Munn, 1945. Shikubu Murasaki. The Tale of Genji (ca. A.D. 1000). Edward G. Seidensticker, trans. New York: Random House, 1985. (Pb) The Scientific American.
An illness kept me in bed and away from school most of one year when I was very young. I read voraciously, since I could do little else. My diet included all of the classics in English literature from Shakespeare to Damon Runyon. The result of this overdose was not entirely positive. I have read very little fiction since then, except for a few works forced on me by their popularity in dinner conversation or required during my undergraduate education. Most everything in these two categories proved very unsatisfying, with a few exceptions such as The Lord of the Rings in the former category and one remarkable work in the latter. That work was The Tale of Genji by Lady Murasaki, which I read in the fine translation by Arthur Waley. Despite its age, nearly a thousand years, this work is as fresh as a well-written novella from Brazilian television. I had always longed for the day that I would have sufficient fluency in a foreign language to be able to think in that language. The Tale of Genji achieved something greater than that for me. It lead me to fantasize in a foreign culture. After reading the book I daydreamed of piercing through the court intrigue and scheming to glimpse at the harem that Lady Murasaki so vividly portrayed. Because of it I can never feel distant from another culture despite superficial barriers of language, custom and manner.
Most of the nonfiction I read now is of a technical nature and not likely of interest to a general audience. I would like to mention, however, a regular reading experience that is important to me and should be more widely read in this country. That is the monthly journal Scientific American. The journal contains articles on every branch of science, with special concern for the latest developments in molecular biology and particle physics. Since its beginning over a hundred years ago, Scientific American has kept its readers abreast of the latest science in articles prepared in a first-rate tutorial style. The publishers have always been concerned to make the societal implications of scientific developments clear to the reader. For example, the regular articles on military technology since World War II have been the best available information on that subject. The question of the accessibility of Scientific American articles to a general audience has been debated. I concede that if a new reader to the journal attacked a recent article on grand unification theories in modern physics without the preparation of reading previous articles on this subject in the journal in recent years, not much would be learned. If the general question of accessibility of Scientific American, however, is correctly answered in the negative then I am very disappointed in the intellectual state of our society. There are few societal decisions that I would willingly trust to leaders who could not read Scientific American.
Finally, I must add that I am very fond of the Amateur Telescope Making handbook in three volumes, which was spawned in the pages of Scientific American. I don't believe that there is any group of hobbyists as fond of talking and writing about their hobby as amateur telescope-makers. The prose of these volumes, which is often Victorian in style, conveys a sense of the importance of this hobby in the lives of the authors that is quite seductive. If anyone is looking for a hobby I recommend that they read these volumes, and they will, as did I. start grinding pieces of glass together. Paul M. Doty
Paul M. Doty is Mallinckrodt Professor of Biochemistry. In addition to his work on nucleic acids and gene structure, Mr. Doty has had a long-time interest in arms control, science policy and international affairs. Director emeritus of the Center for Science and International Affairs, he has been a presidential adviser on arms control. He was an early participant in the Pugwash Conferences on World and Scientific Affairs, which first brought U.S. and Soviet scientists together informally to discuss the problems of arms control.
Molecular biology: Erwin Schrodinger. What Is Life? (1946). New York: Cambridge University Press, 1967.
James D. Watson. The Double Helix (1968). New York: New American Library, 1969. (Pb)
Bruce Alberts et al. Molecular Biology of the Cell. New York: Garland, 1983.
In a very slim volume Schroedinger, a theoretical physicist, focused with remarkable foresight on what the genetic material had to be like. Watson describes his discovery with Crick and Wilkins of the detailed structure of the genetic material, DNA, by recounting his view of it as it occurred in his early twenties. Alberts and five other authors, including Watson, put together an integrated, detailed picture of the molecular basis of life that has flowed from the discovery of the structure of DNA.
The atom, the Russians and ourselves: Herbert F. York. Race to Oblivion. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1970.
Andrei D. Sakharov. Progress, Coexistence, and Intellectual Freedom (1968). New York: W. W. Norton, 1970.
Hedrick Smith. The Russians (1976). New York: New York Times, 1983.
Strobe Talbott. Endgame: The Inside Story of SALT II. New York: Harper & Row, 1979.
In a small volume York captures the insider's view of the way the nuclear arms race developed and reached the "ultimate absurdity" with which we now grapple. Sakharov at an early stage analyzes the dangers inherent in the race and the basis for hopeful outcome. By presenting so clearly the nature of the Russian system Smith shows the difficulties that the two very different societies of the East and the West face in resolving the dilemma they have created. Talbott dissects a major act in this unfolding drama in a way that mirrors the complex interactions of politics and technology so as to convey the essence of the challenge to maintain the chain of human continuity and achievement.
Reaction to challenge: Leo Tolstoy. War and Peace (1865-69). Louise Maude and Aylmer Maude, trans. George Gibian, ed. New York: W. W. Norton, 1966.
Winston S. Churchill. The Second World War (1948-53). 6 vols. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1983.
Michael Collins. Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut's Journeys. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1974.
In quite different ways each book displays on a broad canvas three great human adventures. To share in these even vicariously from the safety of an armchair nevertheless enlarges the spirit and the sense of belonging to a tough, resourceful and courageous species. Howard Hiatt
Howard Hiatt is the former dean of Harvard's School of Public Health and now a professor of medicine at the Harvard Medical School. Earlier in his career he worked on the molecular biology of cancer and was the Department of Medicine chairman at Boston's Beth Israel Hospital. As a professor he now spends his teaching time trying to bring together in the training of physicians some of the public-health issues he worked on while at the School of Public Health.
It is misleading to suggest that the books I mention are crucial — they made a difference. If they had been read at a different time in life they likely would have had a correspondingly different effect. Paul H. DeKruif. Microbe Hunters (1926). New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1966. (Pb)
I read this early in high school, and it whetted my appetite for medicine and science. In retrospect, it is an outrageously romanticized description of important distinguished scientists, written in a familiar style for young and impressionable high-
school students. For me it was an important book in my decision to go into medicine as well as in my considering research within medicine. Hans Zinsser. Rats, Lice and History: The Biography of Bacillus (1935). New York: Little, 1984. (Pb)
I read this the summer before college. By then I had settled on a career in medicine. It reinforced my interest in a career in science. It portrayed in a more scholarly fashion the attraction of medical research. More importantly, it made clear that one could combine a deep commitment to medicine and science with a continuing interest in arts, in literature. I was an English major, bound for medical school. That was not too common then, nor is it now. John Hersey. Hiroshima (1946). New York: Bantam, n.d. (Pb)
This book led me to question more than had the irrationality of the nuclear arms race. Six years ago I was asked by a former student who organized it to speak at the first meeting on the medical consequences of nuclear war. It happened while candidates for president in this country were talking about winning a nuclear war. I accepted the invitation to open the meeting after re-reading Hiroshima, Those who were talking about fighting and winning nuclear war clearly had not read Hersey. They were thinking in preatomic terms. A sustained portion of my time since has been devoted to efforts to portray what the effects of nuclear war would be in medical terms. Gerald Holton
Gerald Holton is the Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and a professor of the history of science. He has enlivened physics classes at Harvard for forty years. In addition to his well-deserved reputation as a physicist, he is known for his interest and work in arms control and Soviet-American relations. Among his works are Thematic Origins of Scientific Thought (1973), The Scientific Imagination (1978), and The Advancement of Science and Its Burdens (1986). Homer. The Iliad (ca. 800 B.C.). Robert Fitzgerald, trans. New York: Doubleday, 1975. (Pb)
As for many schoolboys in the classical Gymnasium in Vienna — and I can mention here only books from those early years — this was for me the most terrible and unforgettable encounter. It foretold what writing can be at its best, and mankind at its worst. After our forced marches through Caesar's wars, the Nibelungenlied, Xenophon's Anabasis, the Eddas, and post-
Versailles diatribes in our history courses, it became clear that a chief purpose of education was the preparation for war. History would be written by unthinking ate and thumos, with rarely a moment of rational drawing back, as when Achilles, facing Agamemnon, is made by Athena to sheathe his sword at the last moment. Mark Twain. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876). Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983. (Pb)
Even in German, this and large parts of Huckleberry Finn were indestructible, and I read them avidly, as if they showed the way to an escape hatch into an innocent world. A curious view of America emerged from reading Twain, James Fenimore Cooper (Franz Schubert's wish, as he was dying, was for one of his volumes), Karl May's stories of trappers and Indians, and practically all of Zane Grey (during a bout with diphtheria).
Of course there were also the American films with those magnetic heroes, Clark Gable, Paul Robeson, James Stewart... . William Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet (1595). T. J. Spencer, ed. New York: Penguin, 1981. (Pb)
Finally learning English as the last language at sixteen, I came upon a minor production of Romeo and Juliet, and have never forgotten the thrill of being transfixed by the poetry of the English language. Perhaps having to recite lines learned by heart from Goethe, Schiller, Heine and MOrike had spoiled those for me. Let's put volumes of poetry on our children's shelves! Ernst Mach. The Science of Mechanics (1883). T. J. McCormack. trans. 6th ed. LaSalle, Ill.: Open Court, 1960. (Pb)
Here at last was a book that carefully examined scientific concepts, their historical origins, and their philosophical underpinnings, often showing that these foundations were badly in need of improvement. So science was not closed after all. Like so many who had been made to believe in textbook science, and in Immanuel Kant's "Thing in Itself," I found here the antidote. I did not know then that Einstein would echo the memory of thousands when he wrote that Mach's "incorruptible skepticism and independence" exerted a profound influence on him as a student.
An encyclopedia.
A big, illustrated, honest, multi-volume encyclopedia. Father kept it in his office, but of course that did nothing to stop me from reading and rereading it, almost volume by volume. So that was how the world was made, what was in it, and how things might work! These "truths" seemed even more fantastic than the inventions of Wilhelm Busch, Grimm's Tales, and all the treasured adventure stories of Defoe, Jules Verne and Sven Hedin. Howard Raiffa
Howard Raiffa has a joint appointment to Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government and the Harvard Business School, where he is the Frank P. Ramsey Professor of Managerial Economics. He is the first director of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Vienna. He has a worldwide reputation as an applied mathematician, statistician, game theorist, decision analyst and negotiation analyst.
My thesis is that some rather straightforward, simple, systematic, nonesoteric analysis of complex decisions can make a net positive difference in society. These books collectively contribute to this noble quest. Kenneth J. Arrow. Social Choice and Individual Values (1951). New Haven: Yale University Press, 1970. (Pb)
This book profoundly influenced my research agenda. In controversial arenas where one has to choose an alternative and there are conflicting principles of fairness or of rationality, it is helpful to articulate desiderata of a "good" solution and to investigate the compatibility and implications of these desiderata (or axioms). Arrow was a pathfinder and deserved his Nobel Prize for this work. John G. Kemeny et al. Introduction to Finite Mathematics (1957). Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1974.
One of the earliest books written by mathematicians to expose social scientists to the power and beauty of mathematical thinking in a truly accessible way. John Von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern. Theory of Games and Economic Behavior (1944). Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980. (Pb)
A mathematical tour de force. The first really profound mathematical treatise written about a subject at the crossroads of economics, sociology and psychology. Von Neumann, John. American, 1903-1957. Theory of Games and Economic Behavior. Rec: Boston PL Thomas C. Schelling. The Strategy of Conflict. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1960. (Pb)
One of the first books to exploit game-theoretic thinking, but it breaks away from the overly rigid structures of formal game theory. Profound and insightful ... and a delight to read. Robert Schlaifer. Analysis of Decision Under Uncertainty (1965). Huntington, N.Y.: Krieger, 1978,
A first-rate pedagogical contribution that uses exclusively case analysis for instructional purposes. The book is written in a heavy style that does not appeal to students, but subsequent authors have written follow-on versions that make the subject matter more enjoyable. The Schlaifer book was the pioneering effort in the teaching of quantitative techniques by the case method. David Lax and James Schenius. The Manager as Negotiator. New York: Free Press, 1986.
Though written by mathematically oriented authors, this book should be readily accessible to managers. It should be required reading for students in public policy and business. Myron B. Fiering
Myron Fiering is the Gordon McKay Professor of Engineering and Applied Mathematics at Harvard University. A "survivor of the New York public school system," Professor Fiering has taught water resources and decision theory in the Division of Applied Sciences since 1961. He has part-time appointments at the Harvard Medical School and the School of Public Health to continue his research in the fluid mechanics problems associated with burn treatment and his interest in water-borne disease. He occasionally builds model trains.
I listed books that have been most useful in forming my views and biases — in providing the special set of filters through which I view the world. They are neither the most useful professional texts nor the books I have enjoyed the most. John Von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern. Theory of Games and Economic Behavior (1944). Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980. (Pb)
Theory of Gaines and Economic Behavior taught me always to analyze situations, confficts, negotiations — whateverwithin a probabilistic framework. A classic, it survives today because of its insights into the ways people perceive and respond to risk, and it has profoundly influenced my personal and professional lives. Percy W. Bridgman. Reflections of a Physicist (1950). Bernard I. Cohen, ed. Salem, N.H.: Ayer, 1980.
Richard Von Mises. Probability, Statistics, and Truth (1928). Hilda Geiringer, trans. New York: Dover, 1981.
Reflections of a Physicist and Probability. Statistics, and Truth had much the same effect as von Neumann's work — they shaped a lifelong viewpoint not by inculcation of formulas but by gentle nudging. Anne Frank. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl (1947). New York: Doubleday, 1967. (Pb)
Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War (ca. 431-404 B.C.). Richard Livingstone, ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1960. (Pb)
The Diary of Anne Frank helped to teach me who I am and whence I come; Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War helped to teach me who we all are and whence we all come, as well as that history need not be dull. Mark Twain. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876). Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983. (Pb)
Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850). New York: Crown, 1977.
Twain's Tom Sawyer and Browning's Sonnets are simply too beautiful for words other than their own; they taught me how fragile are the great works of the mind of man — the Pieta, the Mona Lisa, the Moonlight Sonata, even a great university under siege. Erskine Caldwell. God's Little Acre (1933). New York: New American Library, n.d. (Pb)
D. H. Lawrence. Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928). Lawrence Durrell, ed. New York: Bantam, 1983.
Finally, to an adolescent growing through a tightly constrained world, Erskine Caldwell's God's Little Acre and Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover, my first erotic books, gave the first hints of the joys of love and supplemented street talk as the main source of information to satisfy my growing curiosity about feeling, loving and sharing. C. Peter Timmer
C. Peter Timmer is the John D. Black Professor of Agriculture and Business at the Harvard Business School and has an appointment in the Department of Economics. In addition, he is a faculty fellow at the Harvard Institute for International Development. He grew up on a farm near Tipp City, Ohio, which his family still operates. An interest in food systems, he writes, combines his agricultural background with his training as an economist; the major applications are in food policy for developing countries. Food Policy Analysis is his best-known book.
All of these books deal directly or indirectly with the dynamics of complex systems and the message that intuitive understanding will provide a richer guide to the future than formal economic models. Alexander Gerschenkron. Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1962.
Important for its understanding of the way governments respond to the challenge of underdevelopment as presented by more developed neighbors and political rivals. Shows clearly that "market forces" were not the driving mechanism in the development of the latecomers to industrial modernization and provides a powerful sense of the dynamics of economic change which cannot be captured in simple economic-growth models. Albert O. Hirschman. Development Projects Observed. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1967. (Pb)
Develops the principle of the "hiding hand,- which argues that the difficulties of actually implementing a complex project are "hidden" from the designers, who then overlook them. But in compensation, the creativity of project managers is often greater than designers anticipated, so many projects are successful because the two effects offset each other. The book provides, above all, a sobering picture of the limits of planning and the power of learning by doing. George L. Clarke. Elements of Ecology (1954). New York: Wiley, 1965.
A comprehensive introduction to the principles of ecology, which provide an essential framework of linkages among biological systems. Ecology has many parallels with economics, especially the need to explain the functioning of entire systems of relationships as well as of individual behavior. Much of my own effort to understand the links between the micro- and macro-
levels of economic systems stems from my early training in ecology.
Clifford Geertz. Agricultural Involution: The Processes of Ecological Change in Indonesia. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1963. (Pb)
This is perhaps the most influential attempt to incorporate ecological factors into an explanation of social change (in rice cultivation on Java) by one of the world's foremost anthropologists. Although much of Geertz's historical interpretation has been challenged by recent scholars, the paradigm of interacting social and ecological forces remains.
John K. Fairbank. Chinabound: A Fifty-Year Memoir. New York: Harper & Row, 1983. (Pb)
This is a favorite book for highly personal reasons, as it traces the career of a Midwesterner at Harvard. Fairbank's efforts to create a new academic field in the form of East Asian Studies has parallels to my own efforts to create a field in food-policy analysis. The difficulties in crossing academic disciplines and departments, and his eventual success, provide both a model and a mystery quality to the book. Yujiro Hayami and Vernon W. Ruttan. Agricultural Development: An International Perspective (1971). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985. (Pb)
Without a doubt the most influential and comprehensive analysis of agricultural development. The model of "induced innovation" removes technological change from the "manna from heaven" category and places it firmly in the hands of societies and market forces. Because technological change is the primary force driving economic development, an understanding of its origins and impact is crucial indeed to our efforts to speed the process in the poorer countries. Edward O. Wilson
Edward Wilson is the Frank B. Baird, Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard and curator of entomology at the university's Museum of Comparative Zoology. One of the nation's leading biologists, Professor Wilson received the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction in 1979 for his work entitled On Human Nature. One of the most entrenched biological predispositions Wilson finds among human beings is biophilia — the love for other forms of life such as plants and animals — which is also the title of his most recent book (Biophilia, 1984).
I was an adolescent, from fifteen to eighteen years of age, when I encountered the books that were to have the most profound and lasting influence on my life. Thereafter I read thousands of books, many of equal or superior quality, and put most to good use; but I have to confess that individually they have had a steadily declining effect on my world view, style and ambition. Hence I can only offer you works that might, either literally or as examples of a genre, influence a certain kind of young person to take up a career as a biologist and naturalist. More I cannot promise. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Lost World (1912). New York: Random House, 1959.
Even as a small child I dreamed of going on faraway expeditions to collect insects and other animals. This book set my imagination on fire, and I was thereafter a nesiophile, a lover of islands, the concrete symbols of new worlds awaiting exploration. The compulsion was one of the mental factors that led me in later years to develop (with Robert H. MacArthur) the theory of island biogeography, which has become an influential part of ecology. Trofim D. Lysenko. Heredity and Its Variability (1943). Moscow: Foreign Languages, 1954.
Although I was later to see Lysenkoism for what it was, false in conception, political in aim, and very nearly the death of Soviet genetics, I was enchanted by this little book when I encountered it at the age of sixteen. It appealed to my mood of rebelliousness. It seemed to me that Lysenko was offering a radical and effective challenge to conventional science, and that even the callow and inexperienced might have a chance to proceed directly to new realms of discovery. Philip Wylie. An Essay on Morals (1947). Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1978.
. Generation of Vipers (1942). Marietta, Ga.: Larlin, 1979.
When I was a seventeen-year-old college student, these Menckenesque essays broke me out of the fundamentalist Protestant faith in which I had been raised and moved me toward the secular humanism with which I increasingly identify today. I still find Wylie a delightful read. Sinclair Lewis. Arrowsmith (1925). New York: New American Library, 1982. (Pb)
The perfect young man's book: a vision of a pure life devoted to the search for scientific truth, above money grubbing and hypocrisy. How I longed to be like Arrowsmith, to find my mentor in a real Gottlieb. The feeling was intensified when I discovered Jack London's Martin Eden shortly afterward. Erwin Schrodinger. What Is Life? (1946). New York: Cambridge University Press, 1967.
This taut little book, which I encountered as a college freshman, invited biologists to think of life in more purely physical terms. SchrOdinger was right of course, as witness the rise of molecular biology soon afterward. For me his arguments suggested delicious mysteries and great challenges. (Later, I was especially pleased when a reviewer likened my own book Genes, Mind, and Culture, published with C. J. Lumsden in 1981, to What Is Life? saying that it offered a comparable challenge from biology to the social sciences.) Ernst Mayr. Systematics and the Origin of Species from the Viewpoint of a Zoologist (1942). New York: Columbia University Press, 1982. (Pb)
By defining the biological species in strong, vital language and connecting the process of species formation to genetics, Mayr opened a large part of natural history to a more scientific form of analysis. This is an example of a very heuristic work, which invited young scientists to join an exciting quest in field research. More than forty years after its publication, I am still wholly involved in this effort. Marcus Aurelius. Meditations (ca. A.D. 160). G. M. A. Grube, ed. and trans. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1984. (Pb)
I hope that I have not missed the editors' purpose entirely by listing books that affected one rather rebellious adolescent in the 1940s, but I was quite surprised myself when I came up with this list after careful reflection. Let me make partial amends by citing the work that I pull off the shelf most often, and gives me the greatest pleasure, now that I am in my fifties: Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius. For this work reflects the point to which I have come, in company with such a magnificent spirit who "bears in mind that all that is rational is akin, and that it is in man's nature to care for all men, and that we should not embrace the opinion of all, but of those alone who live in conscious agreement with Nature." The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication C. Darwin
Agriculture Man Makes Himself
V.G. Childe
Agriculture Crops and Man
J.R. Harlan
Agriculture The Origins of Agriculture
D. Rindos
Agriculture Food: A History
F. Fernandez-Armesto
Agriculture Time's Arrow
S.J. Gould
Linear Time The Story of Time
K. Lippincot
Linear Time Time in History
G.J. Whitrow
Linear Time Time's Arrow
M. Amis
Linear Time Lore and Science in Early Pythagoreanism
W. Burkert
Realism of Numbers Philosophy of Mathematics
"P. Benacerraf, H. Putnam"
Realism of Numbers The Reality of Numbers J. Bigelow
Realism of Numbers A History of Formal Logic
I. Bochenski
Logical Proof Aristotle
W.H.C. Guthrie Logical Proof Aristotle's Syllogistic
J. Lukasievic
Logical Proof Science and Civilization in China (Vol. 7) C. Habsmeier
Logical Proof The Sociology of Philosophies
R. Collins
Logical Proof The East in the West
J. Goody
Logical Proof Styles of Scientific Thinking
A. Crombie
Science Science and Civilization in China J. Needham
Science The Turn of the Screw
H. James
Science The Double Helix
J.D. Watson
Code of Life Rosalind Franklin
B. Maddox
Code of Life As the Future Captures You
J. Enriquez CabotCode of Life Sociobiology
E.O. Wilson
Genetic Determinism The Bell Curve "R.J. Herrnstein, C. Murray"
Genetic Determinism Inequality
C. Jencks
Genetic Determinism Chaos: Making a New Science
J. GleickUnpredictability Strange Beauty G. Johnson
Unpredictability The End of Science
J. Horgan
Unpredictability Arcadia T. Stoppard
Unpredictability Relativity Visualized
L.C. Epstein
Relativity
Spacetime and Electromagnetism "J.R. Lucas, P.E. Hodgson"
Relativity Flatland
E.A. Abbott
Relativity "Godel, Escher, Bach"
D.R. Hofstadter Artificial Intelligence Where Wizards Stay Up Late
"K. Hafner, M. Lyon"
Artificial Intelligence The Mathematical Work of Charles Babbage
J.M. Dubbey
Artificial Intelligence
Penrose, Roger, English, 1931- . The Emperor's New Mind: Concering Computers, Minds, and the Laws of Physics. Rec: TLS (artificial intelligence) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
T. Kuhn Implicated Observer Niels Bohr's Times
A. Pais Implicated Observer The Dancing Wu Li Masters
G. Zukav
Implicated Observer New York Trilogy
P. AusterImplicated Observer The Life of Isaac NewtonR. Westfall
Engineered Universe The Last Sorcerer
M. White
Engineered Universe Gravity: The Glue of the Universe
"H. Gilbert, D. Gilbert"
Engineered Universe The History of Science in the Eighteenth Century "R. Spangenburg, D. Moser"
Harnessing Nature Antoine Lavoisier
A. Donovan
Harnessing Nature The Enlightenment of Joseph Priestley
R.E. Schofield
Harnessing Nature The Beginnings of Western Science
D.C. Lindberg
Anti-Science Robert Grossteste
A. Crombie
Anti-Science The Name of the Rose
U. Eco Anti-Science Novelties in the Heavens J.M. Dietz
Heliocentrism The Sleepwalkers
A. Koestler
Heliocentrism The Copernican Revolution
T. Kuhn Heliocentrism The New Organon
F. BaconInductive Method Hostage to Fortune
"L. Jardine, A. Stewart"
Inductive Method Francis Bacon and the Transformation of Early Modern Philosophy
S. Gaukroger
Inductive Method Discourse on Method
R. Descartes
Verifiability of Existence Working Without a Net R. Foley Verifiability of Existence
Descartes' System of Natural Philosophy S. Gaukroger
Verifiability of Existence Microbes and Men
R.W. Reid
Microscopic Life Man and Microbes
A. Karlen
Microscopic Life The Coming Plague
L. Garrett
Microscopic Life On the Origin of Species C. Darwin
Natural Selection The Descent of Man
C. Darwin
Natural Selection Time Frames
N. Eldredge
Natural Selection Darwin A. Desmond
Natural Selection Charles Darwin J. Brown
Natural Selection
SCIENCE: GENERAL REFERENCE SCIENCE: GENERAL REFERENCE BOOKS Derek Gjertsen
In 1704 John Harris, a mathematician and cleric, published his Lexicon Technicum, a Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, the first comprehensive technical dictionary to be published in Britain. Since then the need for such works has grown enormously. The literature of science has become so vast, and sometimes so technical and unfamiliar, that general readers and experts alike frequently need to consult a reference work of some kind. While each individual science will have its own corpus of detailed reference works, there is also a large class of works covering the whole of science, some of the more important of which are listed below.
The largest encyclopedia which has been at our constant disposition
has been the Thu Shu Chi Chheng, that magnificent collection
produced by imperial order in 1726, consisting of 32 sections, 6,109
subsections, and 10,000 chapters ... in some 1,700 volumes.
JOSEPH NEEDHAM McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology (1994) edited by Sybil P Parker. 20 volumes with 7,500 alphabetically sequenced entries and 50,000 cross-references, McGraw-Hill is the most comprehensive work available. Profusely illustrated, it contains both long technical articles and many shorter, more accessible entries. Chambers Science and Technology Dictionary (1988) edited by Peter M B Walker. A widely available 1,300-page single volume. Chambers can be recommended for its comprehensiveness. It also contains a number of useful tables. Penguin Dictionary of Science (1993) by E B Uvaroa and Alan Isaacs. Although less comprehensive than the Chambers dictionary, the Penguin text is easier for the nonscientist. Dictionary of the History of Science (1983) by W F Bynum, E J Browne and Roy Porter. Contains more than 700 entries explaining the origins, meaning, and significance of many of the main ideas of science and medicine. Companion to the History of Modern Science (1989) by R C Olby, G N Cantor. J R Christie and M J S Hodge. An extensive and authoritative survey consisting of 67 essays covering the period 1500-1900. Also discussed are a number of related themes including science and literature, marginal science, science and war, and science and imperialism. Dictionary of Scientific Biography (1975) edited by Charles C McGraw-Gillispie. 13 volumes, published by Simon and Schuster. The most comprehensive and authoritative dictionary available, though it is only likely to be found in large libraries. Because it excludes living scientists, it is now in need of a major revision. Biographical Encyclopedia of Scientists (1994) by J Daintith, S Mitchell, E Toothill and D Gjertsen. More accessible and up to date than the Simon and Schuster, this is also the most comprehensive of the currently available dictionaries of scientific biography. It contains accounts of the life and work of over 2,000 scientists from the earliest times to the winners of the 1993 Nobel prizes. Breakthroughs: A Chronology of Great Achievements in Science and Mathematics (1985) by Claire L Parkinson. The work lists on a year-by-year basis many of the major breakthroughs in science from antiquity until recent times. GENERAL TEXTS Derek Gjertsen
Science has come to exercise such a profound influence over modern society that its presence can be felt in almost every area of life. One effect of this has been the production of an enormous number of popular works attempting to present science to the general reader. And few in this field have improved upon the mature work of Isaac Asimov. Today there is scarcely an aspect of science, however recondite and technical it might be, that cannot be approached through some popular introduction. At the same time, scholars from what were previously thought to be unrelated fields such as sociology and literature have realized that their own work is incomplete without some understanding of science and its history.
Some 80 or 90 per cent of all scientists that have ever been, are alive now.
DEREK DE Sow PRICE Great Scientific Experiments (1981) by Rom Harre. Harre describes with great lucidity and with numerous illustrations '20 experiments that changed the world'. The experiments discussed include J J Thomson's discovery of the electron, Louis Pasteur's work on artificial vaccines, and Stephen Hales's demonstration that sap circulates in plants.
Science Good, Bad and Bogus (1983) by Martin Gardner. A superb and entertaining defence of science against the attacks and claims of pseudoscientists. The collection includes essays on Uri Geller, the psychic surgery of Arigo, the biorhythms of Fliess, and the claim that quantum theory can justify belief in ESP. The Two Cultures and a Second Look (1993) by C P Snow. In 1959 C P Snow first argued that many highly educated people had as much familiarity with the Tibetan language as with some of the basic principles of science. His critique of mod-em education and society, and his argument that the 'two cultures' - the arts and the sciences- need to be brought together, are srill relevant. The Sociology of Science (1973) by Robert Merton. Recent times have seen the creation of the discipline of the sociology of science. The modem founding father of the discipline in Robert Merton, whose writings in this collection of his more important papers show a wit, style, imagination, and judgement rarely found in his followers. Asimov's Guide to Science (1973) by Isaac Asimov. Dealing with both the physical and the biological sciences, and the basic principles of science as well as the results of the latest researches, Asimov writes with a lucidity and enthusiasm few have ever equalled. Science and Change 1500-1700 (1972) by Hugh Keamey; Science and Social Change 1700-1900 by Colin Russell. These two works, though written about different periods and in different styles, show how developments in science have produced changes not only in such obvious fields as warfare and navigation, but in the structures of society itself and in the ways in which we see the world around us and our place within it. Darwin's Plots (1983) by Gillian Beer. Beer was one of the first scholars to show how much the imaginative literature of a period can be deeply influenced by the science of the day. The work of George Eliot and Thomas Hardy in particular, she argues, pursue explicitly Darwinian themes. The Art of the Soluble (1967) by Peter Medawar. A collection of essays in which Medawar argues that if politics is the art of the possible, then science is the art of the soluble. The collection also contains Medawar's ruthless destruction of the theories of Teilhard de Chardin.
Medawar, Peter B., English, 1915-1987. The Art of the Soluble. Rec: ML Nonfiction Popper (1973) by Brian Magee. A brief and clear introductory account of the work of Karl Popper, one of the most influential philosophers of science. Little Science, Big Science (1963) by Derek de Solla Price. A pioneering and entertaining attempt to show how the growth, value, and productivity of science can be objectively measured. HISTORY OF SCIENCE Derek Gjertsen
In the past historians have tended to see in science an uninterrupted advance to ever more and deeper truths about ever more aspects of nature. In the process, it was thought, poverty, disease, and superstition would simply disappear from the face of the Earth. But it is only too apparent that superstition, disease, and poverty are as entrenched as ever, while many previously lauded scientific truths have turned out to be simple errors. Consequently, contemporary historians of science are more concerned with understanding how science changes - what factors, for example, have influenced the acceptance and rejection of particular theories. They are further concerned to understand the supposed uniqueness of the scientific revolution and why this crucial process seems to have occurred in the West alone.
New systems of nature were but new fashions, which would vary in every age; and even those who pretended to demonstrate them from mathematical principles would flourish but a short time, and be out of vogue when that was determined.
JONATHAN SWIFT
The Rise of Scientific Europe 1500-1800 (1991) by David Goodman and Colin A Russell. This richly illustrated text is probably the best single-volume general work for the period in question. It is of particular interest in dealing with science in such so-called 'fringe' areas as Sweden and the Iberian peninsula, countries usually ignored in most earlier histories of science. The Cambridge Illustrated History of the World's Science (1983) by Colin Ronan. A more comprehensive work that the Goodman and Russell text, Ronan's history covers the period from the origin of science in antiquity to recent times. Most unusually, it also has separate chapters on Chinese science, Arabian science, and Indian science. The Revolution in Science 1500-1750 (1983) by A Rupert Hall. Historians have long tried to understand the nature and origin of the apparently unique scientific revolution. Hall provides a classic survey of the problem and explores the extent to which the revolution can be derived from the structure of European society. He concludes that no particular reason can be singled out since 'every feature of European civilization was a contributing factor'. The Classics of Science (1984) by Derek Gjertsen. The work deals with 12 classic scientific texts ranging in time from the Elements of Euclid to Darwin's Origin of Species. The contents of the 12 works are analysed and described, placed in their historical context and their subsequent publishing history recounted. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962) by T S Kuhn. One of the most important and influential work on the history and philosophy of science published this century. Kuhn's book argued that science alternated between periods of 'normal' science, when scientists work within the confines of a particular paradigm, and 'revolutionary' periods, when the old paradigm is overthrown and replaced by a new model. Science and Religion (1991) by John Hedley Brooke. An authoritative discussion of the interaction between science and religion from Galileo to the 1980s. Brooke shows that the boundaries between religion and science have frequently shifted and that past attempts to see nothing but conflict in their relationship are merely partisan. The Fontana History of Science. The following four volumes on this ongoing series had been published by 1995: Chemistry (1992) by William Brock; The Environmental Sciences (1992) by Peter Bowler; Technology (1994) by Donald Cardwell; Astronomy and Cosmology (1994) by John North. Further volumes on mathematics, physics, biology, and medicine wi11 appear in due course. The volumes published so far, while incorporating the results of much recent scholarly research, have remained admirably readable. Augustine to Galileo: Science in the Middle Ages (1952) by A C Crombie. Crombie's work is still the most easily available and accessible account of medieval science. It covers the period from the 5th to the 17th century and is most notable for displaying long-ignored continuities between medieval and 17th-century science. The Shorter Science and Civilisation of China (1978- ) by Colin Ronan. Four volumes, covering mathematics, astronomy, physics, and engineering have already appeared of this abridgement of Joseph Needham's Science and Civilisation in China. It provides in a readable form an account of the development of science in China and argues that science was not the exclusive invention of Western scholars. MATHEMATICS: INTRODUCTION Ian Stewart
The big problem with school mathematics, apart from the way it puts most people off the subject for life, is that it gives the impression that there are no problems left to solve. Real mathematics is far broader, and more vigorous, than most of us ever imagine. The difficulty is to make contact with genuine mathematics without getting submerged in technical details. All these books manage to achieve just that.
Only an elephant or a whale gives birth to a creature whose weight is
70 kilograms or more. The President's weight is 75 kilograms. Therefore
the President's mother was either an elephant or a whale.
STEFAN THEMERSON The Mathematical Experience (1981) by Philip J Davis and Reuben Hersh. Best-selling book about what it is like to be a mathematician, for people who aren't.
3.1416 and All That (1985) by Philip J Davis and William G Chinn. A witty collection of short, simple items on all aspects of mathematics. Mathematics, the Science of Patterns (1994) by Keith Devlin. Highly illustrated, in the Scientific American Library series. Gives an overview that is strong on both ancient and recent history. For All Practical Purposes (1994) edited by Solomon Garfunkel. The book of a US TV series that brought real mathematics to the people. Highly illustrated and very up to date. Mathematics, a Human Endeavour (1994) by Harold R Jacobs. Subtitled 'A book for those who think they don't like the subject', it has sold over a million copies because it is. Invitation to Mathematics (1992) by Konrad Jacobs. Based on a course called 'Mathematics for Philosophers' at Erlanger-
Nuremberg University: it assumes no more than high-school mathematics. e, The Story of a Number (1994) by Eli Maor. The only book I know whose hero is a number other than pi - and a fascinating historical tour through large chunks of the mathematical scenery. Innumeracy (1988) by John Allen Paulos. The surprise New York Times best seller that sharpens your mathematical grip on the everyday world. The Most Beautiful Mathematical Formulas (1992) by Lionel Salem, Frederic Testard, and Coralie Salem. Tackles formula-
aversion head on by making formulas the focus of the story: accessible, strewn with cartoons. Concepts of Modern Mathematics (1975, 1995) by Ian Stewart. I wrote this 20 years ago when 'modern mathematics' was just coming into schools: it's just been reissued. NUMBERS Ian Stewart
The most fundamental concept in mathematics is number. Ignore logicians and philosophers who try to tell you otherwise and start waffling about sets and propositions - numbers are where it all started. And numbers lead on to higher things, among them combinatorics (sophisticated counting) and algebra (general properties of numbers and other numberlike entities). All are represented here, but good old-fashioned numbers are in the majority.
I once had a conversation with a doctor who, within approximately
20 minutes, stated that a certain procedure he was contemplating
(a) had a one-chance-in-a million risk associated with it; (b) was
99 per cent safe; and (c) usually went quite well.
JOHN ALLEN PAULOS A History of Mathematics (1968) by Carl B Boyer. An extremely well-written account of the history of mathematical thought, offering many insights into numbers. Descartes' Dream (1986) by Philip J Davis and Reuben Hersh. How numbers behind the scenes rule our world, and whether that is a Good Thing. A First Course in Abstract Algebra (1989) by John B Fraleigh. Algebra from the modern abstract viewpoint, for those who want to know what's involved. Concrete Mathematics (1994) by Ronald L Graham, Donald E Knuth, and Oren Patashnik. Combinatorics - the art of counting - from the viewpoint of computer science. Worth reading for the students' marginal notes alone. Number (1991) by John McLeish. An often idiosyncratic but highly readable account of the origins and developments of the number concept.
Beyond Numeracy (1991) by John Allen Paulos. How numbers feed into more general mathematical ideas, presented as a series of quick bites at a variety of simple topics. Elementary Number Theory (1988) by Kenneth H Rosen. An undergraduate-level text that can be read by anybody interested in the deeper properties of numbers. Galois Theory (1989) by Ian Stewart. Galois was a colourful character who proved that the equation of the fifth degree cannot be solved and was killed in a duel over a woman. Read it for its history and the pictures. Galois' Theory of Algebraic Equations (1988) byJean-Pierre Tignol. An accessible discussion of what led up to Galois' epic work on equations of the fifth degree and higher. The Penguin Dictionary of Curious and Interesting Numbers (1986) by David Wells. Arranged in numerical order from -1 to Graham's Number; a collection of curious facts about every interesting number in existence - and also the first uninteresting one. GEOMETRY Ian Stewart
Once upon a time geometry was easy, because there was only one of it - the one laid down in great logical detail by Euclid. Then we began to discover alternatives - spherical geometry, non-Euclidean geometry, finite geometries ... even topology, a mod-em arrival that focuses on concepts such as 'inside' or 'knotted' that remain unchanged when a shape is stretched, bent, or twisted. at do all these disparate geometries have in common? The visual element, humanity's most powerful mental tool.
Mad Mathesis alone was unconfined /Too mad for mere material chains to birul, / Now to pure space lifts her ecstatic stare, /Now running round the circle, finds it square.
ALEXANDER POPE Introduction to Geometry (1969) by H S M Coxeter. An elegant survey of virtually every area of geometry. Demanding, but worth it. A Budget of Trisections (1987) by Underwood Dudley. Why angles cannot be trisected with ruler and compasses, and hundreds of attempts to do it despite that. After all, what do mathematicians know about it? Ideas of Space (1989) by Jeremy Gray. Historical introduction to Euclidean, non- Euclidean, and relativistic models for the shape of the universe. Euclidean and Non-Euclidean Geometries (1993) by Martin Jay Greenberg. There are more geometries than we usually imagine, and parallel Lines need not behave the way we usually think. Geometry in Nature (1993) by Vagn Lundsgaard Hansen. How geometry sheds light on form in the natural world. Knot Theory (1993) by Charles Livingston. An excellent introduction to a major area of topology, the geometry of continuous transformations. How to prove that a knot can't be untied. Poetry of the Universe (1995) by Robert Osserman. The contribution of mathematics to our understanding of the shape of the universe and the physics that goes with it, from Flat Earth to Big Bang. Fearful Symmetry: Is God a Geometer? (1992) by Ian Stewart and Martin Golubitsky. How the geometrical concept of symmetry is deeply involved in the creation of nature's patterns. Journey into Geometries (1991) by Marta Sved_ Alice in Geometryland. The Shape of Space (1985) by Jeffrey R Weeks. Exotic geometries stimulated by speculations about the nature of space and time.
FOUNDATIONS OF MATHEMATICS Ian Stewart
Numbers are fundamental to the historical development of mathematics and to the way human beings learn it and think about it. But you can dig down underneath the number concept and turn up ideas upon which it logically rests. The ideas include the notion of a set, and the various disciplines of mathematical logic. These books cover a variety of topics in the philosophy and foundations of mathematics.
And new Philosophy calls all in doubt, / The Element of fire is quite
put out, / The Sun is lost, and th'earth, and no mans wit / Can well
direct him, where to looke for it.
JOHN DONNE Founders of Modern Mathematics (1982) by F Gareth Ashurst. Historical account of where modern mathematics came from, and who did it. Algorithmic Information Theory (1987) by Gregory J Chaitin. What do we really mean by 'random'? One of the great original minds of recent decades provides some surprising answers. What Is Mathematical Logic (1990) by J N Crossley, C J Ash, C J Brickhill, J C Stillwell, and N H Williams. Technical, readable, and brief account of the basic ideas of mathematical logic and foundations. Logic and Information (1991) by Keith Devlin. What mathematical logic can tell us
about intelligence, knowledge, and the communication of information. Abraham Robinson (1995) by Joseph Warren Dauben. Extensive biography of one of the founders of modern mathematical logic. Berkeley's Philosophy of Mathematics (1993) by Douglas M Jesseph. History of one of the great controversialists in the foundations of mathematics, and why he was worried about them. The Nature of Mathematical Knowledge (1984) by Philip Kitcher. Philosophical analysis of the meaning and significance of mathematics, and the development of its own internal view of what it's all about. Mathematics and the Search for Knowledge (1985) by Morri Kline. at has mathematical thinking done for humanity, and how has it changed our view of what it means to 'know' something? Introduction to Mathematical Logic (1964) by Elliott Mendelson. This one is technical; but it's a brilliant description of the nuts and bolts of logic and set theory which to my mind has never been bettered. Sets, an Introduction (1990) by Michael D Potter. Undergraduate textbook providing an unusually accessible introduction to the foundational concepts of set theory. Don't be put off by the apparent level of difficulty. APPLIED MATHEMATICS Ian Stewart
Today's mathematics is general and abstract, littered with curious ideas invented for their own sakes. Yet it pays its way through applications that range across the whole spectrum of science, and into the humanities, business and medicine ... No corner of human culture is untouched by mathematics. These books mostly describe new and exciting applications of new and exciting mathematics, but a few of the more orthodox applications are represented too.
One factor that has remained constant throughout all the twists and turns of the history of physical science is the decisive importance of mathematical imagination.
FREEMAN DYSON Fractals Everywhere (1993) by Michael F Barnsley. The intricacies of fractals, a new and beautiful type of geometrical object, and their uses in image compression. Reality Rules (1992) by John L Casti. How to build mathematical models of the world, solve them, and gain insight into how the universe works. Symmetry in Chaos (1992) by Michael Field and Martin Golubitsky. Glorious technicolour picturebook of some novel applications of exotic mathematics. Order and chaos combined in a nutshell. Let Newton Be! (1988) edited by, John Fauvel, Raymond Flood, Michael Shortland, and Robin Wilson. Multi-author volume on the life, works, and influences of Isaac Newton. Introduction to Physical Mathematics (1985) by P G Harper and D L Weaire. Basic mathematical concepts that prove useful in physics, with plenty of physical motivation. Complexity (1992) by Roger Lewin. The recent creation of the mathematics of complex adaptive systems, and its implications for evolution, history, economics, and the kitchen sink ... Fractals, Chaos, Power Laws (1991) by Manfred Schroeder. Some of nature's deepest symmetries are related to changes of scale. This simple insight leads to beautiful and powerful new mathematical theories. Games of Life (1993) by Karl Sigmund. Applications of mathematics to the games that living creatures play in order to survive, reproduce, and evolve. Nature's Numbers (1995) by Ian Stewart. The role of mathematics in understanding the world. In the widely praised Science Masters series. The Geometry of Biological Time (1990) by A T Winfree. How a visual approach to dynamics sheds light on the biological world. FRONTIERS OF MATHEMATICS Ian Stewart
How can you do research on mathematics? Haven't all the numbers been discovered? Well, no, but that's not really the point. Research mathematics is no more about studying bigger numbers than biology is about making a bigger elephant. It's what you do with the numbers that matters. These books will open your eyes to the enormous breadth, variety, and vigour of mathematics on the front line.
Aelius Donates (4th century) is quoted by his student St Jerome
as saying Pereant qui ante nos nostra dixerum, freely translated as
'Damn the guys who published our stuff first'.
RALPH P BOAS JR The Collapse of Chaos (1993) by Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart. at is the relation between simplicity and complexity in science? The new mathematics of complexity theory, intermingled with biology, physics, and evolution. Mathematics: The New Golden Age (1988) by Keith Devlin. When was the Golden Age of mathematics? Now! Mathematics and the Unexpected (1988) by Ivar Ekeland. An elegant little book about modem theories of change and their connections with chance and prediction. Bridges to Infinity (1984) by Michael Guillen. A friendly, formula-free trip through the human side of mathematical research.
Fuzzy Thinking (1993) by Bart Kosko. How to think precisely about vagueness. If there were a Society of Fuzzy Logicians you would be able to be a 37% member, paying 37% fees and receiving 37% benefits. Understanding the Infinite (1994) by Shaughan Lavine. The best discussion I know of the philosophy of mathematical theories of the infte. Tough going in places, but worth the effort. The Mathematical Tourist (1988) by Ivars Peterson. An extremely readable survey of a variety of areas of frontier research in the mathematical sciences. Islands of Truth (1990) by Ivars Peterson. Sequel to The Mathematical Tourist. More of the same, as you'd expect. Does God Play Dice? (1989) by Ian Stewart. Best-selling introduction to chaos theory which cuts out the he and explains the mathematics. The Problems of Mathematics (1992) by Ian Stewart. A sweeping survey of today's mathematical frontiers, originally aimed at undergraduates. Soon to be reincarnated as From Here to Infinity, aimed at everybody. PHYSICS: INTRODUCTION Brian Pippard
Until the last years of the 19th century, the principal aim of physics was to find the basic rules governing the movement of bodies, and to use them in solving a wide variety of problems, including the practical problems of engineering. Isaac Newton's laws of motion and his discovery of universal gravitation form the heart of this venture, and were followed after a century by the exact description of electric and magnetic processes which culminated in James Clerk Maxwell's linking of light to electromagnetic waves.
The resulting, very nearly consistent, picture of the general behaviour of matter (as distinct from chemistry and other studies of particular forms) is now known as classical physics. It was found to be seriously incomplete with the discovery, between 1895 and 1900, of X-rays, radioactivity, the electron, and the quantum; in 1905 Albert Einstein formulated the relativity principle. From those remarkable ten years has sprung the whole of modem physics, which in no way relegates classical physics to the scrapheap, but delineates its limits of applicability. To grasp the ideas of modem physics and its vast range, from the human scale downwards to atoms and their constituents, and upwards to the very bounds of the cosmos, one must first appreciate how classical physicists discovered what they knew and how they made sense of it.
Although mathematics is the most powerful and convenient language with which to develop the logical consequences of the fundamental laws, one does not need mathematical facility to obtain a good feeling for how success has been achieved.
It behoves us to remember that in physics it has taken great men to
discover simple things. They are very great names indeed which we coupk
with the explanation of the path of a stone, the droop of a chain,
the tints of a bubble, the shadows in a cup.
D'ARCY WENTWORTH THOMPSON
General principles of physics: Physics for the Inquiring Mind (1960) by E M Rogers. An introduction to the general ideas of physics, with much historical detail, aimed at the nonspecialist reader by an outstanding and innovating teacher; copious line drawings by the author. The Laws of Nature (1955) by R E Peierls. Similar to the above but on a smaller scale, and with more emphasis on relativity and particle physics. The Character of Physical Law (1965) by R P Feynman. Based on a television series by a great physicist and brilliant expositor. Concentrates on basic concepts such as conservation, symmetry, the concept of time, and probability in quantum physics. From Falling Bodies to Radio Waves (1984) by E Segre. A historically based account of classical physics through the achievements of such as Galileo, Isaac Newton, Michael Faraday, Rudolf Clausius, James Clerk Maxwell, and Josiah Gibbs.
The transition from classical to modem physics: The Evolution of Physics (1938) by Albert Einstein and L Infeld. The greatest of modem physicists describes the developments he pioneered - relativity and quantum physics - as the outcome of earlier achievements. Order, Chaos, Order (1994) by P Stehle. A largely nontechnical account, with more detailed appendices, of the complex early years of the 20th century during which the perceived weaknesses of classical physics were resolved through the invention of quantum mechanics.
Thermal physics: The Refrigerator and the Universe (1993) by M and I F Goldstein. Energy and entropy in physics, chemistry•, and cosmology (including the greenhouse effect). The Quest for Absolute Zero: Meaning of Low Temperature Physics (1977) by K Mendelssohn. A nonmathematical account of how very low temperatures are produced, and the phenomena, such as superconductivity and superfluidity, that occur at these extreme conditions.
Matter in all its forms: The Cambridge Guide to the Material World (1985) by R Cotterill. An extraordinarily wide and copiously illustrated survey of the varieties of matter from fundamental panicles to the constituents of plants and animals, taking in crystals, Liquids, glasses, polymers, and many others.
Social and political aspects of physics: The Making of the Atomic Bomb (1986) by R Rhodes. A very full account of the physics, technology, and organization involved in one of the greatest of all industrial ventures, and its appalling outcome.
Biographies of great physicists:
It is hard to make a choice, but the following deserve serious consideration for their breadth of coverage: Energy and Empire (1989) by C Smith and M N Wise on William Thomson Kelvin; Rutherford (1983) by D Wilson;
Subtle Is the Lord (1982) by A Pais on Einstein; Niels Bohr's Times (1991) by A Pais;
Uncertainty (1992) by D C Cassidy on Werner Heisenberg;
The Life of Isaac Newton (1993) by R Westfall. A shorter version of his magisterial Never at Rest (1980). PARTICLE PHYSICS Christine Sutton
Particle physics is the study of the basic building blocks of matter and the forces that l act upon them. Over the past 50 years research in this field has shown that the matter we observe is built from only a few elementary particles called quarks and leptons, and that only four fundamental forces operate on these particles to yield the great diversity of the universe. More recently, discovering how these particles and forces evolved in the very early universe has forged intimate links between particle physics, cosmology, and astrophysics, and yielded a remarkable synthesis of ideas.
We now know that in the maelstrom of high density and temperature that existed in the early moments of the universe, only the most primordial objects could exist; any transient combinations, such as pmtons, let alone molecules, would decompose more quickly than a butterfly in the core of a volcano. It is for this reason that the search for what is elementary
underlies both particle physics and the cosmology of the early universe.
LEON LEDERMAN AND DAVID SCHRAMM The Discovery of Subatomic Particles (1983) by Steven Weinberg. An intriguing discussion of the early history of particle physics. It covers in particular the discoveries of the electron and the atomic nucleus by introducing a number of basic physical principles and emphasizing how they underlie our ability to 'see' within the atom.
Quarks: The Stuff of Matter (1984) by Harald Fritsch. A straightforward account of the peculiar world of quarks and the strong force that binds them together, never to let them appear alone. The Cosmic Onion: Quarks and the Nature of the Universe (1983) by Frank Close. A first guide to particle physics by a gifted and inspirational lecturer, who presented the Royal Institution's Christmas lectures 1993-94. The many illustrations include photographs, diagrams, and the author's own cartoon quarks. The Particle Explosion (1987) by Frank Close, Michael Marten, and Christine Sutton. A highly illustrated, loosely historical account describing the different particles and how they were discovered. At the same time it reveals how the field has developed with advances in experimental techniques for making particles and tracking them down. The Forces of Nature (1986) by Paul Davies. A valuable companion to any of the books that are mainly about quarks, 'building blocks' of matter, thus concentrates on the 'mortar'. It provides an introduction to how modem deals with forces at a quantum level. Particles and Forces: At the Heart of the Matter (1990) edited by Richard Carrigan and Peter Trower. A collection of articles from Scientific American, mainly from the 1980s, which brings particle physics into the 1990s. All are good, some are classics. From Quarks to the Cosmos: Tools of Discovery (1989) by Leon Lederman and David Schramm. An experimental particle physicist and a theoretical astrophysicist team up to show how the physics of the very small has become inextricably linked with our understanding of the universe on cosmic scales. Well illustrated. The emphasis is on what we know through experiment. Dreams of a Final Theory (1993) by Steven Weinberg. The most eloquent of particle physicists, and a Nobel prizewinner, presents the case for research in particle physics, and in particular the ill-fated Superconducting Supercollider. That this was later cancelled does nothing to detract from the unfolding arguments, but adds poignancy to a tale well told. The Particle Garden (1994) by Gordon Kane. A fascinating, up-to-date introduction to particle physics, which also presents a personal view of the field as it heads towards the 21st century. It places the present state of understanding in better context than many other books and articles. QUANTUM THEORY AND RELATIVITY
Stephen Webster
Quantum physics give an atom's-eye view of the world; relativity theory makes the link between space and time, gravity and motion. Both theories are 20th-century deve opments and both have revolutionized physics. The books listed here reveal some of the peculiarities that these days dominate the working life of a physicist.
When I first came across quantum mechanics I rang my mum and
told her: This is it - I'm going to be a physicist.
FROM THE HANDBOOK CAREERS IN PHYSICS No Ordinary Genius (1994) edited by Christopher Sykes. An amply illustrated tribute to Richard Feynman, Nobel prizewinner and pioneer in the understanding of quantum mechanics, who died in 1988. Genius: Richard Feynman and Modern Physics (1992) by James Gleick. Full-scale biography of the attractive and brilliant Richard Feynman. The Quantum Self (1990) by Danah Zohar. An encouraging book which attempts to make the Is between our understanding of atomic behaviour and our understanding of ourselves. The Quantum Society (1994) by Danah Zohar and Ian Marshall. This sequel to The Quantum Self carries the argument further, making links between the quantum idea and a new and better society.
Schrodinger's Kittens (1995) by John Gribbin. The well-known science writer takes a look at the behaviour of light, and searches for quantum and relativistic interpretations. Einstein for Beginners (1993) by Joseph Schwartz and Michael McGuinness. A cartoon treatment of the great physicist and his ideas which no one can fully understand. This book will at least get you started, and relatively painlessly. Relativity for the Layman (1969) by James A Coleman. One of the great classics of popular science, in spite of the sexist title. Written with a sure economy of words, this is a book of great clarity and elegance. Einstein's Universe (1979) by Nigel Calder. A full account of the history of relativity theory and its implications for the way we understand the universe. Included is enough material about Einstein for the reader to get an idea of what the man was like. CHEMISTRY: GENERAL Julian Rowe
Getting familiar with what chemistry is all about is more important now, at the end of a century, than at the beginning, when this science was comparatively primitive. Now we need to know why the ozone layer is under chemical attack, why book and magazine printers now choose to use water-based inks, and what the analysis on every packet of food means. Increasingly, the boundaries between different scientific disciplines are blurred: the subtle mixture of chemistry and physics that underlies the manufacture of the microchip means that we are dealing with physics, chemistry, and electronics simultaneously. These books provide a firm basis for pursuing such questions further.
The more we know, the more we feel our ignorance; the more we feel how much
remains unknown; and in philosophy, the sentiment of the Macedonian hero can
never apply - there are always new worlds to conquer.
HUMPHRY DAVY A Short History of Chemistry (1937) by J R Parton. A prolific author of text-books on chemistry and author of a multivolume history. This is a clear and authoritative account of the history of chemistry. It draws on many original sources and although it starts with alchemy and ends with radioactivity and the transmutation of the elements, this excellent and concise book concentrates on the foundation of modem chemistry and the great scientists who lead the way. Asimov on Chemistry (1975) by Isaac Asimov. In 17 wide-ranging essays this experienced science popularizer effectively covers the entire field of chemistry in an accessible manner. Everything from the chemistry of the planet Earth, inorganic, organic, and nuclear chemistry are entertainingly treated, and there is an essay on the Nobel prizewinners at the end. The Nature of the Chemical Bond (1940) by Linus Pauling. A double Nobel prizewinner_ A classic, perhaps ambitiously included in a general reading list, but showing how real advances in understanding are made as a result of modem chemical research. The Chemical History of the Candle (1861) by Michael Faraday. Often acknowledged as one of the greatest scientists of all time, during the Christmas holiday (1860-61) Michael Faraday gave a series of talks on physics and chemistry to an audience of young people in London. He engaged their imagination and made them feel the challenges and delights of science. The Chemical History of a Candle is clearly one of the best and covers the chemistry of combustion in an original and astonishingly comprehensive way. These talks became an institution and have been given ever since by distinguished scientists over the Christmas period at the Royal Institution, London. Success in Chemistry (1982) by Jean Macqueen, series editor. One of the brilliant Success Studybooks - really aimed at pre A-
level students, but giving an excellent basic, nontrivial coverage of the subject. The Penguin Dictionary of Chemistry (1990) by D W A Sharp. Useful, updated compendium of definitions of chemical terms. Not just examination fodder. The Alchemists (1976) by F Sherwood Taylor. The author is a former director of the Science Museum, London. No reading list on chemistry would be complete without a look at the alchemists. Widely misunderstood, much of their pioneering work under-
lay the astonishing expansion of chemistry from the 17th century onwards.
The Dorling Kindersley Science Encyclopedia (1994) by Heather Couper and Nigel Henbest (consultants). Covers many topics in chemistry and applied chemistry-in a highly illustrated and informative way.
Lavoisier, Antoine Laurent, French, 1743-1794. Elements of Chemistry. Rec: Adler Aquinas GBWW SJC (Selections) ORGANIC AND INORGANIC CHEMISTRY
Julian Rowe
Inorganic chemistry is probably what most people regard as chemistry - memories of school laboratories, smells, flashes, and bangs. The laboratory scenes beloved by movie directors that show an antiquated distillation apparatus, smoke and bubbling, coloured solutions belong rightly to popular mythology. This reading list should redress the balance.
So it happens, therefore, that every element says something to someone (something
different to each) like the mountain valleys or beaches visited in youth.
PRIMO LEVI The Consumer's Good Chemical Guide (1994) by John Emsley. A good guide, thoroughly dippable - just what its title implies.
Structure and Change - An Introduction to Chemical Reactions (1981) by R A Richardson, A C Blizzard, and D Humphreys. A high-school text that successfully blends a factual and theoretical approach to chemistry. It succeeds in giving an appreciation of the vital role of chemistry in the world. Usborne Introduction to Chemistry (1983) by Jane Chisolm and Mary Johnson. A highly illustrated and simple introduction to chemistry that covers an amazing amount of ground. Chemistry in the Service of Man (1925) by Alexander Findlay. A wonderful text from what now seems like a bygone era. Nonetheless it is a substantial introduction to chemistry, very readable, and the chapter on radioactivity and atomic structure, written in the prenuclear age, is particularly absorbing. Men and Molecules (1960) by Carl R Theiler. What chemistry is and what it does. The author takes the reader through the transformation of first ideas into reality - the building up of mighty industries and the production of astonishing new materials. The reader grows familiar with chemical formulae and their strange names in this well-illustrated book which has a very good glossary. BIOCHEMISTRY Julian Rowe
To understand what the life sciences are about, some biochemistry is a necessary requirement. Modern biology has travelled a great distance from the observational stance of the naturalist, without, it is necessary to say, in any way invalidating it. The route was certainly via biochemistry. To understand genetics, to understand the molecular sciences or molecular basis of life, start with biochemistry. This list is in part informative, in part a march of progress.
When you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers,
your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind.
WILLLgM THOMSON KELVIN A Guide-Book to Biochemistry (1959) by Kenneth Harrison. Many standard books on biochemistry are very thick, 500-1,000 pages. This excellent book is a deliberate exception and provides a good guide that is brief and to the point. The Physical Basis of Life (1951) by J D Bernal. Based on a prescient lecture delivered to the Physical Society, this speculative survey discussed the conditions under which life may have emerged from an inorganic world - biochemistry in action.
Readings in Molecular Biology by W B Gratzer. Selected from Nature by W B Gratzer, these short essays in journalism were aimed at the working scientist and chart the progress of the then emergent branch of science - molecular biology. Principles of Biochemistry (1993) by A L Lehninger. A comprehensive American undergraduate text, written with masterly clarity. The author properly declares that biochemistry is now the lingua franca of the life sciences, and no one consulting this introductory text should be the poorer for having done so. Dynamic Aspects of Biochemistry (1967) by E Baldwin. A book that first high-lighted the fact that biochemistry is an interesting and a quite different discipline from chemistry. Many thousands of undergraduates must have cut their novice teeth on this particular book and were probably grateful. APPLIED CHEMISTRY Julian Rowe
There are few products around us at home or at work that do not owe their existence to the ever more sophisticated application of chemistry. From prescribed drugs to paints, better petrol or food analysis, crime detection or perfume - all have at base an understanding of chemistry. These books are selective, but they cover the ground. The general reference works noted in this section are also, of course, equally useful for any inquiry into a subdivision of chemistry.
They leave such things alone and busy themselves with their fires and learning the
steps of alchemy, which are distillation, solution, putrefaction, extraction,
calcination, reverberation, sublimation, fixation, separation, reduction,
coagulation, tinction, and the like.
PARACELSUS The Life Savers (1961) by Richie Calder. The cover blurb says: the enthralling story of today's revolution in medicine - the discovery and development of the life-saving drugs'. Butter Side Up or The Delights of Science (1978) by Magnus Pyke. Reviewed by the Evening Standard: 'An opencast mine of unexpected information that can be understood even by someone who cannot tell a Bunsen burner from a laser beam.' Chemistry: The Conquest of Materials (1957) by Kenneth Hutton. A good account, by a teacher and author, of the scope of modem chemistry, telling a clear story from the elements to modem drugs. On the way fuels, modem materials such as plastics, pesticides, and explosives are dealt with at a usefully informed level. Metals in the Service of Man (1972) by W Alexander and A Street. How metals are obtained and worked and the part they play in modem life. An ideal introduction for the general reader. Plastics in the Service of Man (1956) by E A Cousins and V E Yarsley. A description of the structure. manufacture, properties and the contemporary use of plastics. Science and Technology (1993) by Open University Press. A good work of reference which covers just what its ride implies and includes applied chemistry. Well illustrated and up to date, it is a good volume for browsing.
The following encyclopedias provide sound, accessible articles on a wide range of chemistry topics:
Junior Britannica Surprisingly readable articles on any aspect of science chemistry and applications thereof covered adequately.
The World Book Covers the ground more than adequately. ASTRONOMY: COSMOLOGY John Gribbin
Where do we come from? Cosmology deals with the big questions, the origin and evolution of the entire universe, and its ultimate fate. This means that it also deals with our own origins, giving the subject the same fascination for many people as religion or philosophy. And yet, cosmology is one of the youngest sciences. Until the 1920s, no astronomer seriously doubted that the universe was eternal and unchanging. That cosy assumption was overturned by the discovery of universal expansion, leading to the idea of a definite origin in the Big Bang, some 15 billion years ago. Today, cosmologists are even prepared to tackle the question of what happened before the Big Bang. The books mentioned below will give you the opportunity to peer over their shoulders at this work in progress, and to see how these ultimate questions are being tackled, even if the ultimate answers are not yet in.
Credit must be given to observation rather than theories, and to theories
only in so far as they are confirmed by the observed facts.
ARISTOTLE The Anthropic Cosmological Principle (1986) by John Barrow and Frank Tipler. An exhaustive overview of the cosmos and humankind's place in it, daunting in parts but quite readable if you skip the technical stuff. Afterglow of Creation (1993) by Marcus Chown. The best book about the 'cosmic background radiation' that fills all of space and is a remnant of the Big Bang itself. The Creation of the Universe (1952) by George Gamow. Fascinating (if slightly dated) 'horse's mouth' account from one of the pioneers of the Big Bang theory. In Search of the Big Bang (1986) by John Gribbin. Historical account of the development of cosmology in the 20th century, from the expanding universe to the theory of inflation. The Stuff of the Universe (1990) by John Gribbin and Marlin Rees. The Astronomer Royal, Martin Rees, joins forces with science writer John Gribbin to describe the 'dark matter' that makes up 99% of the universe. Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos (1991) by Dennis Overbye. The story of the quest for the secret of the origin of the universe, told in terms of the personalities involved. Gives a real flavour of how cosmologists work and think. Time Machines (1993) by Paul Nahin. Goes beyond the black hole, mixing science fiction and science fact to discuss the extraordinary implication of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, that time travel may not be impossible. Was Einstein Right? (1986) by Clifford Will. The answer, of course, is yes. The most accessible guide to Einstein's theories for the nonscientist. HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY Derek Gjertsen
More than most exact sciences, astronomy lends itself to historical treatment. For one thing, along with mathematics, it was the first science to establish itself in antiquity and therefore has a longer and more fully documented history than most other sciences. Furthermore, the records of ancient astronomers contain data still valuable to the astronomers of today. But also, as much of modern astronomy changes so rapidly with books becoming out of date within a decade, the only way to estimate the value of any theory or observation is to see it within some kind of historical context. Consequently it is no accident that almost every work on modern cosmology, popular or scholarly, will begin with the structure of the universe pro-posed by Copernicus in the 16th century and lead via Galileo, Johannes Kepler, and Isaac Newton to the Big Bang.
People give ear to an upstart astrologer who strove to show that the Earth revolves,
not the heavens. This fool wishes us to reverse the entire science of astronomy; but
sacred scripture commanded the Sun to stand still, and not the Earth.
MARTIN LUTHER ON COPERNICUS Astronomy and Cosmology (1994) by John North. A new, authoritative, and read-able history (part of the excellent Fontana History of Science series), this book covers astronomy from prehistory to Stephen Hawking.
The Sleepwalkers (1960) by Arthur Koestler. Mainly an account of how Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo battled to show that it was the Sun and not the Earth that lay at the centre of the universe. Despite bias against Galileo and some inept theorizing, Koestler's work remains - at the narrative and biographical level - an extraordinarily exciting book. In Search of Ancient Astronomies (1979) edited by E C Krupp. An account of the astronomical knowledge, techniques, and monuments of neolithic Europe, North and Meso-America, and Egypt. Megaliths, Myths and Men: An Introduction to Astro Archaeology (1976) by Peter Lancaster Brown. A critical and expert survey of the supposed astronomical background of Stonehenge, the Pyramids, and several other ancient remains. Lancaster Brown manages to dispose of some of the more outlandish claims commonly made about ancient astronomy. The Expanding Universe 1900-31 (1982) by Robert Smith. A scholarly but read-able account of the theoretical arguments and observational evidence that enabled such astronomers as Edwin Hubble to conclude that the universe is expanding. The same period and argument is covered in the more popular and lavishly illustrated Man Discovers the Galaxies (1976) by R Berendzen, R Hart, and Daniel Seeley. The Great Copernicus Chase and Other Adventures in Astronomical History (1992) by Owen Gingerich. An engrossing collection of 36 short essays ranging from 'Egyptian Sky Magic' to 'The Great Comet of 1965'. The Astronomical Scrapbook (1984) by John Ashbrook. A fascinating collection of 91 short articles, mainly gleaned from the more curious byways of the history of astronomy, which originally appeared in the popular magazine Sky and Telescope. History of the Telescope (1955) by Henry King. The standard history of the telescope from the earliest times to the 1950s. The Story of Jodrell Bank (1968) by Bernard Lovell. The story of Lovell's attempts to design, finance, and build a huge steerable parabolic radio telescope. Against all the odds, it was opened in 1957. More detail about the various telescopes built by Lovell can be found in The Jodrell Bank Telescopes (1985). Halley and the Comet (1985) by Peter Lancaster Brown. Probably the best of the many popular works written to commemorate the return of Halley's comet in 1986. It contains historical, biographical, and astronomical material. A History of Japanese Astronomy (1969) by Shigeru Nakayama. There are, of course, non-Western astronomical traditions. Nakayama provides a sound account of the development of astronomy in Japan. A comparable account for China can be found in The Shorter Science and Civilisation in China (1978-94) by Colin Ronan. PLANETS AND THE SOLAR SYSTEM
Derek Gjertsen
Until the 1960s, books on the Solar System could do little more than describe such grosser features of the planets as their size, mass, and distance from Earth. But with the launch of the Orbiter, Apollo, Mariner, Voyager, and other planetary probes, astronomers could at last speak significantly about the geology, meteorology and history of the planets. They also had access to many stunning colour photographs of planetary surfaces and such remarkable phenomena as the rings of Saturn. As a result, cur-rent books on the Solar System are much more plentiful, detailed, and colourful than those produced only a few years before.
It is most beautiful and pleasing to look upon the lunar body distant from us by about 60 terrestrial diameters as if it were distant by only two of these measures. Anyone will then understand that the Moon is by no means endowed with a smooth and polished surface but is rough and uneven crowded everywhere with deep chasms and convolutions.
GAIILEO GALILEI IN 1610 ON FIRST SEEING
THE MOON THROUGH A TELESCOPE. Orbiting the Sun: Planets and Satellites of the Solar System (1981) by Fred Whipple. A comprehensive account of the solar system incorporating satellite data and photos from the various Viking missions. Patrick Moore's New Guide to the Planets (1993) covers much the same ground at a less technical level.
Guide to the Sun (1992) by Kenneth Phillips. Though somewhat technical in pans, this book provides a readable account of the chromosphere, photosphere, corona, and interior of the Sun, and how best it can be observed. Times Atlas of the Moon (1969) by H A Lewis. A detailed 110-page map of the Moon. Less detailed and with more general information about the Moon - its origin, orbit etc - is Patrick Moore's The Moon (1985). Comets: Readings from Scientific American (1981) edited by John C Brandt. A collection of authoritative articles covering such topics as the tails, spin, and nature of comets. A simpler account can be found in Guide to Comets (1977) by Patrick Moore. Solar System: Readings from Scientific American (1975) by W H Freeman. A useful and readable collection of articles on the Solar System including individual papers on the planets, their origin, and interplanetary fields. The Discovery of Neptune (1979) by Morton Grosser. A fascinating account of the discovery in 1846 of the existence of a previously unknown planet. Nemesis (1988) by Richard Muller. The exciting story of the search by astrophysicists in the 1980s for the 'killer star' Nemesis. Nemesis is thought to be orbiting the Sun and - as it approaches the Earth every 26 million years - causing such catastrophes as the extinction of the dinosaurs. We Are Not Alone (1970) by Walter Sullivan. A sensible but interesting discussion of whether or not life exists on worlds outside our Solar System. STARS AND GALAXIES Derek Gjertsen
Until relatively recent times the only books on stars were concerned with the mythic origin of their names. Nothing more was known about stars than that they were numerous, twinkled, and were very far away. In the 19th century things changed radically when it was shown that detailed knowledge of a star's composition, temperature, density, and much more besides could be derived by analysing the light it emitted. The Milky Way was still, however, assumed to represent the whole of creation, and it was not until the 1920s that it became apparent that a profusion of other galaxies could be found beyond the Milky Way. They have been studied intensively ever since.
I was contemplating the stars in a clear sky when I noticed a new and
unusual star shining almost directly above my head where there had never been
any star in that place in the shy. Unable to accept the evidence of my eyes 1
called upon my servants and a passing peasant to verify my observations.
TYCHO BRAHE ON THE SUPERNOVA OBSERVED IN 1572 The Milky Way (1973) by S L Jaki. A historical account of the growth of our knowledge of the Milky Way from the speculations of Aristotle to the observations in the 1920s of Edwin Hubble. The Guide to the Galaxy (1994) by Nigel Henbest and Heather Couper. A lavishly illustrated, popular but detailed work on the Milky Way. It has chapters on the discovery of the Milky Way, its geography, its centre, and the Perseus, Orion, and Sagittarius arms. Supernovae (1985) by Paul Murdin and Lesley Murdin. The Murdins begin their popular work with descriptions of the supernovae of 1066, 1572, and 1604 and go on to show how supernovae are related to pulsars, black holes, neutron stars, and the creation of the elements. End in Fire (1990) by Paul Murdin describes the discovery in 1990 of SN1987A, the first supernova to be visible to the unaided eye since 1604. Murdin traces the development of the supernova and shows its connection to theory. Frontiers in Astronomy: Readings from Scientific American (1970) edited by Owen Gingerich; The Universe of Galaxies: Readings from Scientific American (1984) edited by Paul W Hodge. The two works are valuable collections of articles on such topics as quasars, dark matter, the Milky Way, the red shift, and exploding galaxies.
The X-Ray Universe (1985) by Wallace Tucker and Riccardo Giacconi. X-ray stars were first observed in 1962. The authors describe the discovery and the resulting research which led to the launch of the two X-ray telescopes UHURU in 1970 and EINSTEIN in 1978 and the results gathered. Observing the Universe (1984) by Nigel Henbest. A collection of short articles from New Scientist dealing with research into X-ray astronomy, ultraviolet astronomy, the gamma ray sky, cosmic rays, the infrared sky, and optical and radio astronomy. The Cosmic Perspective (1990) by M Zeilik and J Gauttard. A major 800-page-plus single-volume textbook dealing with the evolution of the stars and the galaxies. Although technical in pans, much of the text remains within the competence of the general reader. Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning (1899; republished 1995) by Richard Allen. A standard and comprehensive survey of the meaning of star names in English, Greek, Arabic, and other languages. AMATEUR ASTRONOMY
Patrick Moore
Many books on astronomy have been published in recent years. Many of them are specialized; in my list I have included only books which give a general picture - and which do not include complex mathematical formulas. You may note that some of my choices appeared in 1990 or 1991, but I have selected them because of their excellence and because the material in them has not become outdated.
Astronomy is perhaps the science whose discoveries owe least to chance,
in which human understanding appears in its whole magnittule, and
through which man can best learn how small he is.
G C LICHTENBERG Heavenly Bodies: Beginner's Guide to Astronomy (1995) by Iain Nicolson. A simple outline, based on the recent BBC television series of the same name. The Natural History of the Universe (1994) by C A Ronan. A well- written, beautifully illustrated general survey of modern astronomy; it has been widely acclaimed. Concise Dictionary of Astronomy (1991) by Jacqueline Mitton. A very clear, well organized 'A to Z', which includes a tremendous amount of information and is very easy to digest. Images of the Universe (1991) edited by Carol Stott. Mainly an observer's book; each chapter is written by an expert in his particular field. Most of the authors are closely linked with the British Astronomical Association. The Hidden Universe (1991) by Roger Tayler. A very clear account of some of the problems of modern cosmology - problems which are no nearer solution in 1995 than they were in 1991! PRACTICAL ASTRONOMY Derek Gjertsen
Astronomy is probably the only exact science in which amateurs can play a significant role and operate, just like their professional colleagues, in their own scaled-down observatories with their own, much smaller telescopes. To this end they need a large number of practical aids, ranging from catalogues and dictionaries to books on how to make and use a telescope. The first published star catalogue, compiled by Ptolemy in about 150 AD, listed 1,022 stars in 48 constellations. In contrast, the Bonn Catalogue compiled by Friedrich Argelander in 1863 listed 324,198 stars from the northern hemisphere alone.
In order to the finding out of the longitude of places and perfecting
navigation and astronomy, we have resolved to build a small observatory
within our park at Greenwich.
WARRANT OF CHARLES II, 1675 Exploring the Night Sky with Binoculars (1986) by Patrick Moore. A book for beginners. After offering advice on choosing binoculars, Moore writes about the planets, comets, and the Moon. Half the book is devoted to charts of the constellations. Astronomy with a Small Telescope (1985) by James Muirden. Introductory chapters describe the various telescopes and their mounting and are followed by advice on how to observe the Sun, Moon, planets, meterorites, comets, constellations, and galaxies. There is also a chapter on photography. Telescope Making for Beginners (1974) by Roy Worrill. For those prepared to make their own telescope Worrill offers a simple guide. More detailed advice and information can be found in Handbook for Telescope Making (1962) by M E Howard. Norton's 2000 (1989) by Arthur Philip Norton. Norton 's Atlas first appeared in 1910: the latest edition (18th) is calculated for the year 2000. A similar approach can be found in the Cambridge Star Atlas 2000 (1991) by Will Trion. Sundials (1969) by Frank Cooper. A standard work giving instruction on how to construct horizontal, vertical, polar, and equatorial sundials.
Both the Penguin Dictionary of Astronomy (1993) by Jacqueline Milton and the Macmillan Dictionary of Astronomy (1988) by Valerie Illingworth are excellent concise guides for the amateur. Dictionary of Space (1986) by Malcolm Plant. An essential aid for those who can-not remember whether Apollo 7 went to Mars or the Moon or which rocket first landed on Venus. The Guinness Book of Astronomy (1992) by Patrick Moore. A familiar and informative guide to the Solar System and the stars with a 90-page star catalogue, and brief sections on the history of astronomy. Ptolemy, Alexandrian Greek, ca. 100-170. Almagest. Rec: Adler Aquinas GBWW SJC (Selections) NAVIGATION, CALENDARS, AND HOROSCOPES
Derek Gjertsen
Astronomy has always been an abstract and speculative science as well as a practical and precise discipline. The first signs of specialized astronomical skills become apparent in the lengths of the year and the month. This was no simple matter and it was not until the 16th century, for example, that a reasonably reliable calendar was introduced into Europe. The data compiled in this way could be and from early times was used by astrologers to forecast horoscopes. Practical and technical skills were needed to navigate successfully over the oceans and, eventually, to guide missiles and planes through the skies. For this reason astronomy was one of the first sciences to receive substantial government support and under the broad umbrella of the 'space race' has continued to receive huge financial assistance.
The Calendar was so out of joint that Caesar placed between the months of
November and December two intercalary months of 67 days, having already
intercalated 23 days in February, which gave 445 days to that year.
CENSORINUS ON 46 BC, THE SO-CALLED YEAR OF CONFUSION The Haven Finding Art. A History of Navigation from Odysseus to Captain Cook (1971) by E G R Taylor. An account of how sailors have navigated first by wind rose and stars, then by compass and chart, next by instruments and tables, and finally, with the introduction of the chronometer in the 18th century, with the full accuracy provided by being able to find a precise longitude. From Sails to Satellites (1992) by J E D Williams. Covering with less historical detail but with more illustrations much of Taylor's ground, Williams also extends the story to recent times to include the use of radio and radar in navigation. Greenwich Time and the Discovery of Longitude (1980) by Derek Howse. The first part of the book deals with the discovery of longitude and the role of Greenwich Observatory in the solution. Howse also relates how Greenwich came to be accepted as the prime meridian and the role of Greenwich time in the world.
The Voyaging Stars (1978) by David Lewis. An account of how throughout Oceania islanders in traditional canoes navigate from one small island to an equally small but distant island. Time and the Calendars (1975) by W M O'Neil. Details are provided of the Egyptian, Roman, Babylonian, Indian, Chinese, and Meso-American calendars and the extent to which they rely upon astronomical investigation. Gregorian Reform of the Calendar (1983) edited by M Hoskins and 0 Pedersen. A full and fascinating account of the historical and astronomical problems of introducing the Gregorian calendar into Europe. A History of Western Astrology (1987) by Jim Tester. A detailed and scholarly history of Western astrology from the 5th century BC to the 17th century. Astrology: Science or Superstition (1984) by H J Eysenck and K B Nais; The Truth about Astrology (1984) by Michel Gauquelin. Two works in which the traditional claims of astrology are tested against a variety of empirical evidence. EARTH SCIENCE: GEOLOGY Dougal Dixon
Geology is a very wide subject. It contains so many subdisciplines - such as mineralogy, petrology, geophysics, geochemistry, palaeontology, sedimentology - that it is almost impossible to produce a list that covers them all. The following, however, should give the interested reader a good start.
These rocks, these bones, these fossil ferns and shells, / Shall yet be touched
with beauty, and reveal / The secrets of the book of earth to man.
ALFRED NOYES Rocks, Minerals and Fossils of the World (1990) by Chris Pellant. It is normally not a good idea to base mineral identification on photographs - the diagnostic properties do not show. However, the photographs in this book are particularly good. The Practical Geologist (1992) by Dougal Dixon. A useful coverage of the various aspects of geology and the techniques used to study them. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences (1982) edited by David G Smith. Rather academic treatment of all the physical earth sciences (of which geology is a part), but well illustrated. The Principles of Physical Geology (1965) by Arthur Holmes. The standard university textbook that deals principally with landscape formation. Earth and Life Through Time (1986) by Steven M Stanley. The whole panoply of Earth's history, with the different types of rocks formed at different times, and the different animals and plants found preserved in them. Understanding the Earth (1992) by G A Brown and others. The updated version of the Open University's textbook on earth science, bringing the original 1972 classic completely up to date.
Natural History Museum, Earth Galleries booklets:
The Age of the Earth (1980) by John Mac ay. An excellent rundown on the techniques used to work out geological time.
Britain Before Man (1978) by F W Dunning and others. Covers the development of the British Isles and so includes sedimentary rock formation, plate tectonics, fossils, and the concept of geological time. PALAEONTOLOGY Brian Rosen
Palaeontology, the study of fossil remains of former life, lurks benignly in its quiet backwater - surely, little to do with the real world. Children reel off the tongue-twisting names of dinosaurs as though they were playground friends, though no one has ever seen a live one. Anybody can go out at weekends fossil-hunting, and they don't have to be professional palaeontologists to make discoveries. Appearances, however, are misleading. Every so often, the subject rears up and bares its intellectual teeth. It had a critical role in giving us the very concept of geological time, and hence the great age of the Earth, ideas that were shocking in their time and later became vital in dating the past and discovering natural resources. Palaeontology is dragged from its lair and into the witness box for the perennial battle between creationists and evolutionists, and has startled the world with the awe-inspiring notion that large slices of life on our planet are wiped out almost instantly in mass extinction events, some say on a regular basis every 26 million years in response to Earth collisions by extraterrestrial bodies. Palaeontology gave us 'deep time', 'macroevolution', and Jurassic Park, and is, quite simply, the only direct evidence we have for over 3,000 million years of life on our planet before we humans arrived here ourselves. And if you want to know what global change has in store for us, and for the rest of life, ask the palaeontologists, for much of the future has already been written in the past. at is this science that contemplates strange and beautiful organic objects found in the rocks, and yet can shake the Earth by studying them?
We [palaeontologists] try to discover as many facts as possible that might be
connected, the more the better. We let the problem become complicated. We want to
know all the factors that must be taken into account, so we let the difficulties
accumulate. We get a great kick out of this...
L B HALSTf:AD Before the Deluge (1968; translated 1970) by Herbert Wendt. The history of palaeontology, its issues and its personalities, rich in narrative and with a balanced international perspective. The Meaning of Fossils (1972) by Martin Rudwick. Widely regarded as the standard scholarly reference to the historical scientific issues and intellectual questions posed by palaeontology. The Message of Fossils (1991; translated 1993) by Pascal Tassy. An easy-going essay focused on the interface between palaeontology and evolution, which includes its more recent controversies. Fossils (1960) by H H Swinnerton. A notable contribution to the classic New Naturalist series, this inevitably has a very homely British bias. No matter - the range of fossil-bearing rocks in Britain is a good enough sample of the fossil record, which Swinnerton sets out with charm, enjoyment, and enthusiasm. Earth and Life Through Time (1986) by S M Stanley. Earth and life and the meaning of nearly everything. This is the American college solution to everything you wanted to know about fossils, evolution, and geology. Don't worry about the self-
assessment questions unless you are a student - this book is here on its encyclopedic merit. History of Life (radically expanded edition 1990) by Richard Cowen. A delightfully individual and good-humoured account, complete with arcane limericks and other incidental entertainment, which highlight the science without distracting from it. Good on invertebrates. The Book of Life (1993) edited by Stephen Jay Gould. The thinking person's palaeontological coffee-table book (and why not? See Gould's panegyric on the significance of coffee tables and their books). First-class illustrations and chapters by an impressive cast list of other distinguished specialists with emphasis on vertebrates, including humans. The Natural History Museum Book of Dinosaurs (1995) by Angela Milner. No book list in this subject can be without something on dinosaurs. This is an up-to-date look at their biology - what we can deduce about their lifestyles from modem research and new finds - together with the history and practice of dinosaur studies, from bones in the rock to a restoration of the whole animal. The Nemesis Affair. A Story of the Death of Dinosaurs and Ways of Science (1986) by David Raup. Treats extinction generally, ad discusses controversial collisions between extraterrestrial bodies and Earth, between organisms and their physical world, and between scientists and mass culture. Wonderful Life (1989) by Stephen Jay Gould. Gould is palaeontology's most virtuoso narrator and interpreter. Here he brings to life in epic style the famously mysterious, and miraculously preserved, animals of the Burgess Shale, and the personalities who have studied them, using them as the raw material for expounding his ideas about the significance of chance.
Fossils: The Key to the Past (1991) by Richard Fortey. Bringing fossils to life and applying this knowledge to geology and biology. An effortless browse through all the branches of the subject, introducing all the main fossil organisms at the same time. EARTHQUAKES, VOLCANOES, AND TECTONICS
Dougal Dixon
When it comes to volcanoes the reading public is not well served by books at a popular level. Beware, particularly, of the block diagram showing a cone of a volcano cut in half, fed by a red thread of liquid cutting through the rocks below, exiting through side vents as well as the main crater. There never was a volcano like that, and the oversimplification is misleading. That said, however, the following are probably the best books available.
It is useful to be assured that the heavings of the earth are not the work of
angry deities. These phenomena have causes of their own.
LUCIUS ANNUS SENECA The Natural History Museum's Earth Galleries (formerly the Geological Museum) produce a series of booklets covering a range of earth sciences. All are published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office. Earthquakes (1983) by Susanna van Rose. Describes the various phenomena associated with an earthquake, covers the known causes, and gives some case histories. The Story of the Earth (1981) by F W Dunning and others. Gives an overview of the concept of plate tectonics and shows how volcanoes and earthquakes fit into the grand scheme. Dorling Kindersley Eyewitness Guides: Volcano (1992) by Susanna van Rose. An elegantly illustrated book with photographs and artwork showing all sorts of phenomena associated with volcanic activity. The Dorling Kindersley Science Encyclopaedia (1993) edited by Heather Couper and Nigel Henbest. Has good sections on earthquakes and volcanoes. Mountains of Fire: The Nature of Volcanoes (1991) by R W and B B Decker. A well-illustrated introduction to volcanoes, their rock types, and their effects. Natural Disasters: Volcanoes (1991) by Jacqueline Dineen. A good, simple book, but beware the block diagrams! METEOROLOGY Chris Pellant
The swirling, circulating atmospheric systems that control the Earth's daily weather and seasonal climate are driven by the principles of physics, especially those relating to how fluids heat up, cool down, and move. Meteorology is concerned with understanding these processes and the events they cause, and because of man's dependence on his atmospheric surroundings, the prediction of changes in weather and climate is a very important part of the science. Today, possibly as much as at any time in the past, the atmosphere is changing and being changed. Temperatures are rising, new gases are appearing and established ones are changing in quantity; circulation is being altered. The effects of these, often man-induced, changes is a new area to tax the skills of meteorologists.
Yesterday it thundered, last night it lightened. I have a leech in a bottle,
my dear, that foretells all these prodigies and convulsions of nature.
WILLIAM COWPER The Restless Atmosphere (1953-67; various reprints) by F Kenneth Hare. A very readable account this, covering physics and related science in easily understood language. The section on the depressions of middle latitudes even hints at the effects these cyclonic air masses have on the humans who continually suffer from them, by reference to 'cyclonic man'.
Climate and the British Scene (1975) by Gordon Manley. Originally one of the now collectable Collins New Naturalist series, this classic account opens with a fascinating history of meteorological recording and, after detailed coverage of the climate of Britain, finishes with the impact of weather and climate on man. Atmosphere, Weather and Climate (1992) by Roger G Barry and Richard J Chorley. A heavyweight volume for the dedicated reader. Everything is here from the gas content of the sky to the causes of climatic change. The Weather Book (1982) by Ralph Hardy, Peter Wright, John Gribbin, and John Kirtgton. A book to fascinate anyone with an interest in meteorology. Packed with colour pictures and amazing facts. The Weather Machine (1974) by Nigel Calder. A very readable account of meteorological phenomena and events, by an expert in putting science into everyday language. Ice Age Earth (1992) by Alastair Dawson. A detailed account of the meteorological and geological evidence for the changes in the climate during the ice age. at we know about the current changes in the world's climate is in great measure reliant on what we know about past climatic change. The Ice Age changes in climate were not man-made. Today, in addition to man's interference with the climate, there are still many natural causes of global warming and cooling. BIOLOGY: INTRODUCTION
Stephen Webster
The job of biology is to look at life: where it came from, how it works, and what it is made of. Yet, surprisingly, even biologists find it hard to define what is meant by 'life'. An elephant, of course, is a living thing, but what about a virus, or a length of DNA? Or a glucose molecule? The books below show how broad a subject biology has become in its attempt to make scientific sense of the living world.
Tyger.! Tygerl burning bright / In the forests of the night, / What immortal
hand or eye / Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
WILLIAM BLAKE Pedigree: Words from Nature (1973) by Stephen Potter and Laurens Sargent. A wonderful collection of revelations about the origins of the names we give to plants and animals. From where, for example, does the porcupine get its name? And did you know that the collective noun for the starling is a murmuration? The Double Helix (1968) by James D Watson. A terrific read about arguably the greatest scientific breakthrough of our age - the discovery of the structure of DNA by the two young Cambridge scholars James Watson and Francis Crick. If you think that scientists are remote and cold, this book will quickly change your mind. Life on Earth (1979) by David Attenborough. One of the best-written introductions to the variety of life on Earth - and beautifully illustrated too. Based on his award-winning TV series of the same name. Attenborough takes you through the whole 'story of evolution', beginning with the primeval soup and ending up with us. The Panda's Thumb (1980) by Stephen Jay Gould. A collection of essays by a master science writer able to breathe life into facts both general and particular. Here, Gould reflects on the evolution of the panda, investigates Charles Darwin, and wonders whether 'dinosaurs were dumb'. Fine bedtime reading. What Is Life? (1944) by Erwin Schrodinger. This is one of the great science classics of the 20th century, elegantly written by an eminent physicist. His theoretical approach to the question of life involved an analysis of how genes must work, an analysis that set the agenda for the new study of molecular biology. Why Big Fierce Animals Are Rare (1980) by Paul Colinvaux. A good introduction to the science of ecology. Each chapter looks at a feature of the complex and fascinating set of relations that exist between plant animals and environment. If you want to read about how animals and plants get on with their normal day-to-day life, undisturbed by people and pollution, this book would be a good start. CELLULAR BIOLOGY Stephen Webster
All living things are made of cells - you could almost call cells the atoms of life. Yet these tiny things are themselves immeasurably complicated and the subject of constant research. Inside the cell lie the genes and an intricate series of mechanisms for making proteins and other substances. The books below show that cells are fundamental to biology - yet are still only partially understood.
Let's begin this way, then: there is a cell, and this cell is a unicellular
organism, and this unicellular organism is me, and I know it, and
I'm pleased about it. Nothing special so far.
ITALO CALVINO The Chemistry of Life (1991) by Steven Rose. This is an up-to-date and authoritative survey of the chemical goings-on inside a cell. Rose is a professor at the Open University and here makes a technical subject pretty approachable. Immunology (1991) edited by Paul William. Authoritative papers from the Scientific American, covering the fascinating science of immunology. Difficult in parts but a wonderful book for conveying how clever cells can be. The Science of Aids: Readings from Scientific American (1989) .by various authors. More papers from Scientific American, this time on how the HIV virus mounts an attack on the cellular immune system. The Doctrine of DNA (1991) by Richard Lewontin. Lectures originally given on Canadian radio. A sustained attack on the idea that DNA controls people - or even cells. The Red Queen Hypothesis (1993) by Matt Ridley. Highly readable account of the way the genes inside our cells have organized life in favour of sex. Cell Biology (1986) edited by Barry King. Different contributors give their account of some of the most interesting aspects of cell biology, including evolution, motility, and protein synthesis. Time and the Hunter (1967) by halo Calvin. Short stories inspired by science. Several of the stories spring from the wonders of cell division, and have their own kind of truth. The Growth of Biological Thought (1982) by Ernst Mayr. Included in this great book is a fascinating account of the 19th-
century delvings by biologists interested in the mysterious world of the cell. DNA Stephen Webster
It is easy to think that with so much talk about genes, the question of how DNA works must be resolved by now. Not true. We may know the genetic code and the positions of some genes, but precisely how they work remains a riddle. Furthermore, as the books below show, there is no agreement about the extent of the power genes have in the daily life of an organism.
I, ________, being a natural born human being, do hereby forever copyright my unique genetic code, however it may be scientifically determined, described or otherwise empirically expressed ...
PT OF A 'CERTIFICATE' OFFERED BY THE US
CONCEPTUAL ARTIST LARRY MILLER
Perilous Knowledge (1993) by Tom Wilkie. Useful account of the Human Genome Project - the mapping and decoding of each and every one of our genes. Wilkie is a science journalist and so well placed to understand and express public concerns over the moral consequences of molecular biology. Blueprints (1989) by Maitland A Edey and Donald C Johanson. A brilliantly written and exciting account that shows just how much has been achieved by the geneticists. The history of science made vivid. Not in Our Genes (1984) by Steven Rose, on Kamin, and Richard Lewontin. Political as well as biological, these essays are an argument against the so-called reductionist ideas that suggest genes are in charge. The Language of the Genes (1993) by Steve Jones. Entertaining yet restrained, the celebrated geneticist gives a reliable account of what we do and don't know about our genes. The DNA Mystique (1995) by Dorothy Nelkin and M Susan Lindee. Two American authors give fascinating insights into the way the gene has invaded popular culture, turning up in comics, pop songs, and soap commercials. The Science and Politics of IQ (1974) by Leon Kamin. More than 20 years old, this is a passionate and compelling study of the dubious idea that intelligence is determined by genetics. The Mismeasure of Man (1981) by Stephen Jay Gould. The Harvard scientist and science writer turns his skills to examining the history of attempts to link intelligence to genetics. EVOLUTION Richard Dawkins
All living creatures, though superficially diverse, are cousins of each other and all give the illusion of being superbly designed for the purpose of continuing the genetic instructions that built them. Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection is the unifying theory of life and it explains everything that we know about living things, their diversity, and their appearance of design. With the addition of Mendelian genetics, Darwinism became neo-Darwinism. Neo-Darwinism today goes from strength to strength, and it is itself still in a rapidly evolving phase, as many of the following books show.
Let me lay my cards on the table. If I were to give an award for the
single best idea anyone has ever had, I'd give it to Darwin, ahead of
Newton and Einstein and everyone the. In a single stroke, the idea of
evolution by natural selection unifies the realm of life, meaning and purpose
with the realm of space and time, cause and effect, mechanism and physical
law. But it is not just a wonderful scientific idea. It is a dangerous idea.
DANIEL DENNETT The Origin of Species (1859) by Charles Darwin. Easier to read than many people imagine. In addition to the brilliant theory itself, Darwin has astonishingly wise and far-sighted things to say about a great variety of related topics, from ecology to biogeography. The only thing he got badly wrong (along with all his contemporaries except Mendel) was genetics. The Theory of Evolution (1958) by John Maynard Smith. Clear, authoritative, and readable account of the modem neo-
Darwinian theory. Adaptation and Natural Selection (1966) by George C Williams. A seminal work which succeeds in combining inspiration with tough-minded correction of error. The book has exerted an increasing influence in the decades since it was written, and Williams is now respected as perhaps the dominant figure among American Darwinians. Darwinism Defended (1982) by Michael Ruse. Darwinism hardly needs defending, but this worthwhile book includes a rip-
roaring attack on creationism. The Blind Watchmaker (1986) by Richard Dawkins. Argues that Darwinian natural selection is the only known theory that could, in principle, explain adaptive complexity.
The Problems of Evolution (1986) by Mark Ridley. Witty and cultivated essays on particular topics of controversy, or of lively discussion, in the field of evolution. The Ant and the Peacock (1991) by Helena Cronin. A beautifully written account of two important evolutionary topics, altruism and sexual selection, tracing them from their origins in the writings of Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace to the sophisticated theories of modem times. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Evolution (1992) edited by Steve Jones. Edited by a team led by Steve Jones, the well-known geneticist. A comprehensive and up-to-date survey of all aspects of human evolution, with some fascinating information. The Origin of Humankind (1994) by Richard Leakey. A brief and readable personal view of human fossils by today's leading authority on them. Darwin's Dangerous Idea (1995) by Daniel Dennett. The penetrating view of a philosopher with a deep understanding of modem Darwinism, showing the importance of Darwinism for all aspects of human thought. Filled with fascinating and original insights. HUMAN EVOLUTION Chris Stringer
Interest in our origins was a human characteristic long before the biblical version in the Book of Genesis was written. New evidence from fossils and archaeology show that the 5-million-year history of human evolution was not a simple ladder of inevitable progress, but a complex bush of radiating lineages, with ours as the sole survivor.
We are all Africans under the skin.
CHRIS STRINGER Links (1988) by John Reader. A very readable introduction to the history of fossil discoveries and the personalities involved. Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind (1981) by Don Johanson and Matt Edey. A very popularly written insider's view of palaeoanthropology. Human Evolution: An Illustrated Guide (1993) by Roger Lewin. An excellent general review of the topic. The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Human Evolution (1992) edited by Steve Jones, Robert Martin, and David Pilbeam. Good general coverage of primates, fossils, archaeology, and recent human variation. Encyclopaedia of Human Evolution and Prehistory (1988) edited by Ian Tattersall and others. An alphabetically arranged in-depth coverage of palaeoanthropology, although not so strong on the behavioural side. The Origin of Modern Humans (1993) by Roger Lewin. An up-to-date review of this controversial topic. In Search of the Neanderthals (1993) by Chris Stringer and Clive Gamble. All aspects of these fascinating extinct people are covered here by Chris Stringer and an archaeologist coauthor. REPRODUCTION Peter Tallack
All living things can generate new individuals of the same species. But sex is not absolutely necessary. With asexual reproduction, individuals are derived from one parent - by division or budding, for instance - and no special reproductive structures are involved. But although simple and direct, this method produces offspring that are genetically identical to the parent. Sexual reproduction, on the other hand, involves specialized reproductive cells of two parents - typically male and female - that fuse to produce a new individual with a different genetic make-up. This mode of reproduction apparently has great advantages, as most complex plants and animals have adopted it. Even many bacteria and other organisms that normally reproduce asexually engage in occasional bouts of sexual reproduction. But just why sex evolved and what benefits it brings are two of the biggest unsolved problems in biology. And with the advent of new medical technologies, we are now faced with the difficult question of deciding when it is right to interfere with our own reproductive futures. Reproductive biology is a fast-moving field, and most books on the subject rapidly become out of date. Those listed below look set to stand the test of time.
If you want to know, life is the principle of self-renewal, it is constantly renewing
and remaking and changing and transfiguring itself
BORIS PASTERNAK Reproduction (1977) by Jack Cohen. A standard, well-illustrated introduction that collects together information on all aspects of biological reproduction. Reproduction in Mammals (1982) edited by C R Austin and R V Short. A scholarly, comprehensive, and authoritative reference series justly famous for its clear and interesting presentation of up-to-date data and theory. Early volumes cover germ cells and fertilization, hormones in reproduction, embryonic and fetal development, reproductive patterns, and the manipulation of reproduction. Peacemaking Among Primates (1989) by Frans de Waal. The author draws on detailed observations by himself and other leading experts to describe primate reproductive behaviour in captivity and in the wild. A stimulating tale of relationships, rivalries, and reconciliations. Sperm Wars (1996) by Robin Baker. Since the 1970s, biologists have been fascinated by the biological and evolutionary implications of sperm from different males competing for fertilization of the egg in the female reproductive tract. This is the first popular book on the phenomenon in humans. It summarizes an immense amount of information, all carefully documented. Iconoclastic and provocative. The Triumph of the Embryo (1991) by Lewis Wolpert. A limpid and engaging account of embryology and development - the coordinated process leading from a fertilized egg to an adult that is itself capable of becoming a parent. The Red Queen Hypothesis (1993) by Matt Ridley. A wide-ranging and erudite examination of the scientific debates over the hows and whys of sex and the unending evolutionary battle between males and females that results once it gets going. Up to date, provocative, and stylish. Life Cycles (1993) by John Tyler Bonner. Art evolutionary biologist who has devoted his life to the study of slime moulds. Writing with clarity and humour, he sets reproduction in the context of the life cycle - a linkage of evolution, development, and the complex activities of adult organisms. Filled with wonderful insights and interesting examples. The Pill (1995) by Bernard Asbell. The development of the oral contraceptive pill and its liberating impact on the lives of millions of women is a remarkable tale of scientific discovery, fortuitous discovery, dogged persistence, and moral dilemmas over reproductive choices. The story is told in this riveting book, a skilful combination of history, biography, science, and public policy. The Human Body Shop (1993) by Andrew Kimbrell. The author reviews the technological and commercial controls of human reproduction, arguing that our current legal and technical framework is inadequate to deal with advances in biotechnology. A Question of We (1984) by Mary Warnock. The author is a British philosopher who has had enormous influence on the issue of what it is permissible to do with embryos. Intended for a broad general readership, this is a clear and balanced report of a committee she chaired that looked into human fertilization, embryology, and the ethics of assisted reproduction. EMBRYOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT
Stephen Webster
All living things grow and change, yet usually in quite predictable ways. For example, as children get older we expect them to get bigger. And a lettuce seed, planted in the ground, will quite soon become a leafy vegetable. How? at controls development? The books below will start you on one of the greatest puzzles of biology.
But other [seed] fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit,
some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.
THE BIBLE, MATTHEW 13:8 Ontogeny and Phylogeny (1977) by Stephen Jay Gould. This account of the 19th-century idea of recapitulation - that individual development mirrors evolutionary development - is a fascinating piece of research into the history of biology. When Did I Begin? (1988) by Norman D Ford. In-depth analysis of an important ethical problem: when, exactly, does a human embryo become an individual? The Triumph of the Embryo (1991) by Lewis Wolpert. A straightforward and informative account of the development of the vertebrate embryo. This is Wolpert's own research field, and he writes with verve. How the Leopard Changed Its Spots (1994) by Brian Goodwin. As an outspoken critic of those biological models that see the gene as all-powerful, Goodwin here presents his own ideas about the nature of development. Richard Owen: Victorian Naturalist (1994) by Nicholaas Rupke. A contemporary of Charles Darwin and an opponent of the theory of natural selection, Owen is more or less forgotten today. This biography gives sympathetic treatment to Owen's 'romantic' views of biological change. On Growth and Form (1917) by D'Arcy Thompson. This scientific classic lays out in fabulous detail the different forms we see in living things - and attempts a theory of unification. The Engineer in the Garden (1993) by Colin "fudge. Sometimes disturbing account of how animals and plants may grow up to be different - thanks to genetic engineering. MEDICINE: HISTORY OF MEDICINE Roy Porter
Aside from medicine proper, interest is growing today in the historical, cultural, and social dimensions of medicine. These are the aspects dealt with in the books I have chosen, which set out to explain why we have the medicine we have. They look at such central issues as the way medicine relates to other features of a culture, such as science and technology, religion and mythology, and the question of whether modem medicine really serves the interests of patients or the medical profession.
Formerly, when religion was strong and science weak, men
mistook magic for medicine; now, when science is strong and
religion weak, men mistake medicine for magic.
THOMAS SZASZ A Short History of Medicine (1968) by Erwin H Ackerknecht. Probably the best short history, it provides an ideal introduction to the subject. Limits to Medicine: The Expropriation of Health (1977) by Ivan Illich. A stimulating book that argues that modem medicine serves the profession and not the patient. The Role of Medicine: Dream, Mirage or Nemesis? (1979) by T McKeown. A thoughtful book, it questions how far medicine is really responsible for today's revolution in health. The Body in Question (1978) by Jonathan Miller. A fascinating exploration of the functioning of our bodies and our experience of them. The book is based on a popular television series.
The Illustrated History of Medicine (1992) by Jean-Charles Sournia. Superbly illustrated, this book is particularly strong on its coverage of contemporary medicine. The Western Medical Tradition: 800 BC to AD 1800 (1995) by Lawrence Conrad, Michael Neve, Vivian Nutton, and Roy Porter. An up-to-date scholarly survey. Companion Encyclopedia of the History of Medicine (1993) by W F Bynum and Roy Porter. The most up-to-date work of reference dealing with the history of all the world's medical cultures. MEDICAL BIOGRAPHY AND PRACTICE lames Le Fanu
Medicine may be a science but, though it may be a truism to say so, it is primarily about people - the personalities of the doctors who practice it and the patients who seek their attention. This humanistic side of medicine is a source of end-less fascination. More than any other profession, medicine provides opportunities for a vast range of talents from those content with the humdrum life of everyday general practice to the white-coated scientist in his laboratory, from the missionary doctor to the sophisticated teaching-hospital specialist. Few leave a permanent record of their lives, so medical biographies and autobiographies are a particularly useful means of understanding the real nature of medical life. They are complemented by two collections of medical anecdotes from the British Medical journal and the Lancet which focus on the particularity of medicine, its idiosyncrasy and humour.
It was wonderful to see the Vietcong flag raised on Berkeley campus,
but it felt even better when the staff and workers at Bethnal Green
Hospital voted to occupy against its threatened closure.
DAVID WIDGERY Talking Sense (1972) by Richard Asher. This series of essays by the late Dr Asher exemplifies better than anything else I know the humane common sense that is the hallmark of good medical practice. It contains such gems as the Seven Sins of Medicine (obscurity, cruelty, bad manners, overspecialization, love of the rare, common stupidity, and sloth), the Dangers of Going to Bed and the first description of Miinchhausen's syndrome. Soundings (1992) edited by Ruth Holland. The best of contemporary medical writing are the contributions by a series of eight doctors and journalists to be found at the back of the British Medical journal each week. This is a collection of their mini-
essays, 800 words each, covering every aspect of modern medical practice. The Lancet: In England Now (1989) For many years, but regrettably no longer, the Lancet ran a column, In England Now, consisting of anonymous anecdotes sent in by readers describing the idiosyncratic, perverse, and unusual events of everyday medical practice. Weary, the Life of Sir Edward Dunlop (1994) by Sue Ebury. The most sustained instance of the dedication and ingenuity of doctors was exhibited by those working on the Burma-Thailand railway during World War H. Of these the most remarkable was Edward Weary' Dunlop. By his example, 'he held this body of men from moral decay in bitter circumstances which they could only meet with emotion rather than reason'. A Doctor's Life (1989) by David Selboum. These are the diaries covering the years 1960-63 of Hugh Selboum, consultant physician, edited by his son. They provide a fascinating insight into the everyday life of a busy provincial doctor with three grid references to the political and cultural events of the time. Churchill's Doctor: A Biography of Lord Moran (1992) by Richard Lovell. Moran is most famous for being Churchill's doctor who was much criticized for the inclusion in his autobiography of the details of the great man's illnesses. This biography places Moran's achievements in a wider context as well as illustrating the son of wide-ranging intelligence with which leaders of the profession guided and shaped the emergence of the National Health Service. The Fibre Man, the Life Story of Dr Denis Burkitt (1985) by Brian Kellock. Burkitt is best known for his espousal of the role of dietary fibre in preventing disease but his most remarkable achievement was the discovery of the cause of Burkitt's lymphoma we working as a physician in Uganda and the introduction of effective treatment. This biography illustrates the at scope offered by medicine for the enterprising doctor in the years after World War R. Pain: The Gift Nobody Wants (1993) by Paul Brand and Philip Yancey. Paul Brand is an inspirational orthopaedic surgeon who was the first person to understand the cause of leprosy's characteristic disfigurement and developed both methods for its prevention and surgical repair. His subsequent research into the mechanisms of pain transformed medical approach to this serious problem. Some Lives! A GP's East End (1991) by David Widgery. David Widgery was a general practitioner in London's East End for 20 years and this is a highly personal account of one man's fight against the medical and social consequences of prolonged unemployment, homelessness, and poverty. MEDICAL RESEARCH lames Le Fanu
Research is central to the intellectual life of medicine and the application of the scientific method has repaid enormous rewards. There are regrettably few good descriptions of the practice of medical research but the examples noted here give a flavour of what is involved. The story of the world's first test-tube baby emphasizes the reality of the frustrations and false avenues that can so frequently hinder the resolution of an apparently quite straightforward problem. The saga of self-experimentation catches the fanaticism and urgency which lies behind the onward march of medical progress.
So the substance and the ways of the living are broken down,
and from the bits and pieces tomes are gathered in encyclopaedic
summary; what is known of a cell, or part of a cell, may fill a volume.
EDRED CORNER The Youngest Science: Notes of a Medicine Watcher (1984) by Lewis Thomas. Lewis Thomas's medical career saw the beginning of the transformation of medicine into a science-based discipline throughout the 1950s and 1960s. This book captures the enormous excitement of these thrilling decades. A Matter of Life: The Sensational Story of the World's First Test Tube Baby (1981) by Robert Edwards and Patrick Steptoe. This is much more than the description of a heartening medical success story as it describes in fascinating detail the enormous frustrations encountered when developing pioneering techniques and the tenacious force of character which is necessary to see them through. Who Goes First: The Story of Self-Experimentation in Medicine (1988) by Lawrence K Altman. This is the remarkable story of many medical self-experimenters who deliberately acted as human guinea pigs in the furtherance of their research. Its main theme might be characterized as obsessionalism - the determination of those involved in medical research to get at the truth no matter what the cost. The Encyclopaedia of Medical Ignorance (1984) by R Duncan and M Weston-Smith. As its title suggests, this fascinating volume describes not what is known but rather what is not known. This is interesting not only in itself but as a useful antidote to the claims of omniscience of the medical profession, particularly the belief that medicine has all the answers. Rather, medicine's great achievement has been the application of technological solutions to diseases whose causes for the most part remain unknown. CRITIQUE OF MODERN MEDICINE AND MEDICAL ETHICS lames Le Fanu
The two great projects of modern medicine have been the prevention and treatment of disease. The achievements of prevention stretch from the great sanitary reforms of the 19th century to the elimination by vaccination of life-threatening infectious diseases. By contrast, a completely different intellectual approach, mostly empirical and technical, has produced a cornucopia of new drugs and operations for the chronic degenerative diseases which are not amenable to prevention but rather a necessary consequence of the marked general increase in life expectancy. Though apparently complementary, in fact the philosophies of prevention and treatment have been in constant conflict over the last 50 years. Many diseases, it is argued, are caused by an unhealthy lifestyle and so resources should be directed towards preventing rather than curing them. Contrariwise the claims of the preventability of such diseases, it is alleged, are based on faulty science and a desire to medicalize all aspects of society. This conflict of perception lies at the heart of understanding the role of medicine in contemporary society and the diversity of the arguments are well presented in the following books.
It is silliness to live when to live is torment; /And then have we a
prescription to die / When death is our physician.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Limits to Medicine, Medical Nemesis - the Expropriation of Health (1976) by Ivan Illich. This was much the most influential book in encouraging the steady disillusionment with technologically based medicine that occurred from the 1970s onwards. Illich focused on the adverse features of medicalization - the robbing of personal autonomy, medicine's inhumanity, and the high price patients paid in terms of medical complications. (There is an interesting reply to Illich by David Horrobin called Medical Hubris - A Reply to Ivan Illich 1977). The Role of Medicine (1979) by Thomas McKeown. McKeown was very influential in the 1960s by challenging the belief that medicine could take the credit for improvements in life expectancy and disease control which he claimed were almost entirely attributable to social factors such as improvements in the standard of living, better housing and nutrition. It formed the basis for the rise of what has been called the 'new public health', an idea, particularly favoured by the government, that prevention is bet-ter than cure and that resources are better spent on such things as health education and health promotion than on curative medicine. The Death of Human Medicine (1994) by Peter Skrabanek. Skrabanek's position is almost directly opposed to that of McKeown. He contrasts the traditional human medicine with doctors caring for individual patients who seek their aid, with the false pretensions of prevention - what he calls 'healthism' - the propagation of health promotion, screening to encourage ordinary people into adopting a 'healthy' lifestyle. Preventionitis: the Exaggerated Claims of Health Promotion (1994) edited by James Le Fanu. This collection of essays has a similar position to that of Skrabanek and focuses in particular on the weaknesses in the scientific evidence concerning the preventability of disease. Philosophical Medical Ethics (1986) by Raanan Gillon. This is the best general introduction to medical ethics from a British perspective and covers all the main issues concerning autonomy, paternalism, and justice in the practice of medicine. Life's Dominion: An Argument about Abortion and Euthanasia (1993) by Ronald Dworkins. This is a masterful elucidation of the arguments around the two most important ethical issues of abortion and euthanasia. Dworkins writes so well and seductively that even those totally opposed to these practices might almost be convinced.
Dworkin, Ronald. American, 1931- . Taking Rights Seriously. Rec: TLS PSYCHIATRY Anthony Clare
Psychiatry is the branch of medicine that applies knowledge from the biological and social sciences, including genetics, pharmacology, physiology, psychology, and epidemiology, to the care and treatment of patients suffering from disorders of mental activity and behaviour. Psychiatry's emergence in the 18th century as a separate speciality coincided with the splitting of medicine into an increasingly triumphalist biological science and a geographically isolated, stigmatized, and neglected psychological domain. Over the past two decades, the growing interest in and understanding of brain function has resulted in an explosion of interest in the biological basis of many psychiatric disorders and a growing reintegration of psychological and physical approaches to health and disease.
Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas'd, / Pluck from the
memory a rooted sorrow, / Raze out the written troubles of the brain, /
And with some sweet oblivious antidote / Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of
that perilous stuff / Which weighs upon the heart?
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE The Discovery of the Unconscious (1970) by Henri Ellenberger. A brilliant account of the historical development of the study of mind and the birth, evolution, and vicissitudes of dynamic psychiatry and psychotherapy. It includes a detailed assessment of the dynamic systems associated with the names of Pierre Janet, Alfred Adler, Sigmund Freud, and C G Jung, and traces the origins of modem dynamic psychotherapy back to the healing practices of primitive peoples, to the role of the shaman and the practices of exorcism, magnetism, and hypnotism. General Psychopathology (1946) by Karl Jaspers. This book, the first edition of which appeared in 1913, the seventh and last in 1959, is a monumental examination of psychopathology which comprises the study of causal connections and general laws underpinning mental events and so-called empathetic understanding involving empirical experiment and free existential achievement. The Foundations of Psychoanalysis (1984) by Adolf Grunbaum. This constitutes the most intellectually formidable and devastating critique of the claims and achievements of psychoanalysis. The need to provide adequate supportive evidence for psychoanalytical principles before their application to other fields is underscored but the book itself reveals just how far psychoanalytical theories outstrip the scientific evidence available to support them. Darkness Visible (1991) by William Styron. An intimate personal account by a gifted writer of his tortured descent to the edge of self-destruction into what he terms the 'inexplicable agony' of severe depression. Psychiatry in Dissent (1980) by Anthony W Clare. A nontechnical account of the major controversial issues in modern psychiatry - including the nature of mental illness, the concept of schizophrenia, compulsory treatment, and ECT - placed within the context of psychiatry as it is currently practised. Manic-Depressive Illness (1990) by Frederick K Goodwin and Kay Redfield Jamison. A substantial analysis of the nature and extent of manic depression, its cyclical course, and contemporary treatment. Vividly portrays the complexity of this particular form of psychiatric disorder and the intermingling roles of biology, personality, and environment in its genesis, impact, and outcome. Schizophrenia and Related Syndromes (1994) by P J McKenna. A lucid account of the most baffling psychiatric disorder comprehensible to lay and professional reader alike. The Faber Book of Madness (1991) edited by Roy Porter. A diverting and informative anthology on the subject of madness, including a rich selection of the writings of those who have themselves suffered serious mental instability. The Oxford Textbook of Psychiatry (1989) edited by Michael Gelder, Dennis Gath, and Richard Mayou. The most comprehensive yet manageable textbook of psychiatry currently available. PSYCHOANALYSIS Anthony Storr
Freud ranks with Charles Darwin and Karl Marx as one of the three pioneers who most altered man's vision of himself in the 20th century. Darwin demonstrated man's kinship with other animals, Marx postulated that history was governed by economic forces over which the majority of human beings have no direct influence. Freud laid siege to Victorian notions of rationality, and claimed that men were much more governed by unconscious forces and emotional drives than they were by reason. Although Freud's psychoanalytic theories have been sharply criticized in recent years, psychoanalysis has had such a powerful influence on our thinking about ourselves that it cannot simply be dismissed because it does not fulfil the criteria of science. Even if every idea that Freud put forward could be proved wrong, we should still be greatly in his debt.
Analysis does not set out to make pathological reactions impossible,
but to give the patient's ego the freedom to decide one way or the other.
SIGMUND FREUD
The Discovery of the Unconscious (1970) by Henri F Ellenberger. Subtitled 'The History and Evolution of Dynamic Psychiatry', this is an invaluable source book which has won worldwide acclaim. Freud: A Life for Our Time (1988) by Peter Gay. The best and most recent biography of Freud by an American historian who is also trained in psychoanalysis.
Gay, Peter. American, 1923- . Freud. Rec: Good Reading The Unconscious before Freud (1962) by Lancelot Law Whyte. An irreplaceable account of how the idea of unconscious mental function and events gradually developed over several centuries to culminate in Freudian theory. The Psychoanalytic Movement (1985) by Ernest Gellner. A witty, irreverent account of how psychoanalysis developed from being a theory of neurosis in a widespread movement which conquered the Western world. Anxiety and Neurosis (1968) by Charles Rycroft. A penetrating account of how the psychoanalytic method can be used to treat neurotic symptoms, which relates psychoanalytic theory to biological principles. Freud and His Followers (1975) by Paul Roazen. Based on interviews with some 70 people who had known Freud personally, this is a readable, scholarly, sometimes scandalous account of the history of psychoanalysis. Freud (1989) by Anthony Storr. A brief account of Freud's life and thought which may be found useful as an introductory text.
Freud: Biologist of the Mind (1979) by Frank J Sulloway. An outstanding contribution to Freudian studies which is still indispensable reading for anyone interested in psychoanalysis and its founder. PSYCHOLOGY Hans Eysenck
Psychology is the scientific study of human (and animal) behaviour. It has its classics, of course, but for nonprofessional readers general overviews of recent research are probably to be preferred - science constantly advances, and the latest research, and the most recent theories, build on what was done before and advance it further. For most readers interest will probably centre, not so much on purely technical issues, but on topics relevant to the human condition. Psychology has made important contributions to our understanding of crime, neurosis, personality, intelligence, and many other important topics; it has also pioneered methods of curing neuroses, rehabilitating criminals, and generally improving the quality of life. There has in recent years been a recognition that human beings are bisocial animals, and hence the old-fashioned disregard of genetics and biology in general has given way to a more inclusive theory taking into account both social and biological factors.
Everything that exists exists in some quantity, and can therefore be measured. E L THOl~rrnlKE Conditional Reflexes (1927) by I P Pavlov. Pavlov's book is a classic, and worth reading in spite of its age. Many people have built on this secure foundation, and any-one wanting to see how a science of behaviour is possible can do no better than read this monumental contribution. The experiments are mainly done on dogs, but the general principles have been found to apply equally to humans. Personality and Individual Differences: A Natural Science Approach (1985) by H J Eysenck and M Eysenck. Personality is of central importance in modern psychology, and many important advances have been made in the experimental study of personality and in the social importance of these advances. This book gives a brief overview of where we are now. Handbook of Effective Psychotherapy (1993) by T R Giles. In the last 12 years or so behaviour therapy, based on the principles of conditioning and learning, has been shown to be much more effective in curing neurotic disorders than the psychotherapies based on Freudian speculations. This book discusses methods and evidence in detail. Biological Approaches to the Study of Human Intelligence (1993) by P A Vernon. The study of intelligence has been transformed in recent years by successful attempts to look at the brain processes underlying cognitive functioning, and the psychophysiological differences between high- and low-IQ people. This book gives a good summary of what has been achieved.
The Psychopathology of Crime (1993) by A Raine. Raine has summarized a great deal of recent work demonstrating that high criminality (and antisocial behaviour generally) has a strong genetic basis, so that we can identify the hormonal influences and the neural transmitters mediating these effects. These findings have important consequences for our thinking about crime. Biological Psychology (1994) by F J McGuigan. McGuigan explains the biological basis underlying our emotions, memory, learning, social behaviour, and so on. It is a successful attempt to show the close links between psychology and biology, and to get beyond the simplistic, purely social approach hitherto prevalent. Perspectives on Bias in Mental Testing (1984) by C R Reynolds and R Brown. Reynolds and Brown deal in detail with the problems raised by bias in mental testing, and in particular the arguments about the influence (if any) of race in this connection. They give an unprejudiced account of the problem, and tell the reader what factual knowledge is available. Nature and Nurture in Psychology (1993) by R Plomin and G McCleam. Plomin and McClearn give a detailed account of the present status of the age-old nature-nurture controversy, covering the personality and intelligence, attitudes and other topics. This is an easy-to- read but very up-to-date account written by leading experts. ANIMALS: THE LIVES OF ANIMALS Stephen Webster
Life for an animal has its simple priorities, feeding and reproduction being just two. However, actually finding out how an animal lives, and where, is an often uncomfortable experience requiring patience and diligence. Any of the books below might inspire you to go out into the wild and take a look for yourself.
Sing a song of sixpence / A pocket full of rye, / Four and twenty blackbirds, /
Baked in a pie; / When the pie was opened, / The birds began to sing; /
Was not that a dainty dish / To set before the king?
TRADITIONAL NURSERY RHYME We of the Bee (1901) by Maurice Maeterlink. A beautiful account of one man's study of the bees in his care. The author is almost poetic in his descriptions of the efforts of the bees, working to look after hive and queen. Still an apicultural classic. The Goshawk (1951) by T S White. A gripping account, suitable for younger readers too, of the author's attempt to train a hawk. The story shows how profound can be the relationship between animal and owner. One of the best books on the an of falconry ever written. Life at the Edge (1989) edited by James Gould and Carol Grant Gould. This book is a series of articles from Scientific American and is a detailed scientific account of how animals live in even the strangest and fiercest places - in the Antarctic or inside volcanoes, for example. Quite technical and challenging but with a little effort this book makes an excellent read. The Formation of Vegetable Mould, through the Action of Worms, with Observation on Their Habits (1881; new edition 1985) by Charles Darwin. As an old man Darwin chose the common earthworm as the final object of his curiosity, and wrote this splendid book on its habits and its intelligence. Last Animals at the Zoo (1991) by Colin Tudge. An inquiry into the places most of us must visit if we want to see elephants ad rhinos, lions and tigers. An interesting and thought-provoking description of how, through captive-breeding programmes, zoos can assist endangered species. Primate Visions (1992) by Donna Haraway. A detailed survey of the nature of primate research, looking especially at how issues of gender and race have influenced the scientists' work. LIFE IN THE SEA Gordon L J Paterson
Sea covers much of our planet. Hidden beneath the waves lives a rich diversity of plants and animals, appearing to us as bizarre, fantastic, and intriguing. The oceans and their inhabitants represent the last great frontier on the planet. It is significant that we know more about processes on other planets than our marine ecosystems. Even now startling discoveries are made. New habitats, such as the hot vents, and huge animals like megamouth sharks have been found in the last 20 years, reminding us how little we really know about our planet. Marine biology and oceanography are the branches of science that study life in the sea.
Every living thing is descended from marine life. Indeed, we carry the
ancient sea inside us, for the isotonic composition of the blood of
vertebrates on land bears an unmistakable resemblance to seawater ...
Eu.Iorr A NORSE The Open Sea - Its Natural History, Part I. The World of the Plankton (1972) by Alister Hardy. This is a classic text, wonderfully written, which will serve as a good introduction to the open sea and the intriguing creatures that live in it. Slightly dated now but nevertheless a fascinating account. Deep-Sea Biology - A Natural History of Organisms at the Deep-Sea Floor (1992) by J D Gage and P A Tyler. The deep sea is one of the largest ecosystems, covering some 50% of the planet. This scholarly work introduces the reader to how oceanographers study the animals and their ecology in this alien world, where the temperature is only just above freezing and the pressure reaches several tonnes per square centimetre. Global Marine Biological Diversity (1993) edited by Elliott A Norse. It is often forgotten that the sea represents one of the most diverse systems on the planet. This book explains the problems facing, conserving, and sustaining biodiversity in the marine environment. It provides a readable account of the current debate about biodiversity and how and why we should try to sustain it. Reader's Digest Book of the Great Barrier Reef (1984). The Great Barrier Reef is without doubt one of the great natural phenomena of the world. But even more amazing are the plants and animals that live on, in, and around this coral wonderland. The book beautifully illustrates the vast diversity of life to be found. The Greenpeace Book of Coral Reefs (1992) by Sue Wells and Nick Hanna. The main thrust of this book is explaining the coral ecosystem and the complex cycles of life that are increasingly under threat by human activities. Oceans - A Mitchell Beazley World Conservation Atlas (1991) edited by Danny Elder and John Pernatta. This atlas gives useful background to conservation problems in the marine environment. Water Baby (1992) by Victoria A Kaharl. This is a fascinating account of the building and development of the research submersible Alvin. It is one of a handful of vehicles that take scientists down into the depths to glimpse this alien realm. Alvin has been the platform from which researchers have made many startling discoveries. It is the oceanographic equivalent of the space shuttle. Sharks in Question - The Smithsonian Institution Answer Book (1989) by Victor G Springer and Joy P Gold. No book list on marine life would be complete without something on sharks. Our fascination with this group of top marine predators is mirrored by the format of the book, which is based on the most frequently asked questions. The book is a mine of useful information. Guardians of the Whales - The Quest to Study Whales in the Wild (1992) by Bruce Obee and Graeme Ellis. Much of what we know about the behaviour and ecology of whales comes from dedicated bands of scientists studying whales from boats - a kind of professional whale-watching. This beautifully photographed book recounts the people and the methods they use to study whales in the NE Pacific.
There are numerous field guides to help those interested in marine life identify the plants and animals they encounter on shores and while diving. Collins, Hamlyn ,and the Marine Conservation Society produce general guides to marine life and fish for Europe and further afield. The Audubon Society and Peterson guides cover the North American coasts.
The Hutchinson University Library series provided a range of books about various groups of marine animal and although these are aimed at students they contain a wealth of biological detail. Examples of volumes in the series are: Marine Mammals, Annelids, Molluscs, Sponges.
FISHES Darrell J Siebert
Ichthyology is the study of fishes, in all their aspects. This includes trying to figure out the evolutionary relationships among them (their history) and attempting to understand their ecology (how they live). The history of fishes provides insight into panevolutionary theories of how life and Earth have evolved together. Fish ecology will be the key to the sustainable development of an important food source worldwide. Fishes also give great pleasure to many people as pets. A well thought-
out and maintained aquarium is a beautiful sight. The diversity of modem fishes is bewildering. If there is among vertebrates a biodiversity crisis of species it is the fishes: perhaps only half of all living fishes are known. They deserve better.
Fishes are a necessary part of our environment. During the past couple of decades millions of people have come to realize that our planet is in danger and have dedicated their energies to protecting and improving the world we live in. I am reminded of a dialogue in an old Pogo comic strip which starts when one of the characters says that 'everyone is talking about it'. 'I'm not talking about it.' 'You're not everyone."No, but without me, no one is everyone.' This is the way it is with our environment: nothing in it is really expendable.
C LAVETT SMTTH Fish of the World: A Collection of 19th-Century Paintings (1990) by Hiroshi Aramata. A beautifully compiled work of the amazing artwork of illustrators from the 19th century. Dr Axelrod's Atlas of Freshwater Aquarium Fishes (1985) by Herbert R Axelrod, Warren E Burgess, Neal Pronek, and Jerry G Walls. A huge work of colour photographs for which there is as yet no substitute. Arranged by region of the world with information on husbandry. Fishes: Expedition Field Techniques (1993; 2nd edition 1995) by Brian W Coad. An excellent introduction to ichtyhological fieldwork, for the amateur and professional alike. The Fishes of Tennessee (1993) by David A Envier and Wayne C Starness. As good an example of an American 'state' book as there is, lavishly illustrated with colour photographs, some of which show the amazing world of fish colours. The Rise of Fishes: 500 Million Years of Evolution (1995) by John A Long. A surprising introduction to fossil vertebrates (fishes). An academic work but so well illustrated it will be of interest in the popular literature. Fishes of the World (1976; 3rd edition 1994) by Joseph S Nelson. The only real introduction into the realm of fish classification. Now in its 3rd edition, it has improved with time. Encyclopedia of Fishes (1994) edited by John R Paxton and William N Eschmeyer. Arranged systematically, this is the best of the compendia written for the layman. Fish Watching: An Outdoor Guide to Freshwater Fishes (1994) by C Lovett Smith. A delightful introduction to fish watching in nature, by a dedicated fish watcher. You can learn to do it yourself from this book. Sharks in Question (1989) by Victor G Springer and Joy P Gold. Simply the best, most informative shark book on the market. The Aquarist's Encyclopaedia (1983) by Gunther Sterba. One of the hobbyist volumes, but filled with biological information. Trout (1991) edited by Judith Stoltz and Judith Snell. A wonderful, well-illustrated compilation of information on the world's most important freshwater game fishes. Fishes of the World: An Illustrated Dictionary (1975) by Alwyne Wheeler. A dictionary of fishes and fish terms. Most of what you want to know can be found here. INSECTS Paul Eggleton
The study of insects is known as entomology, and covers a very broad range of disciplines from behaviour to molecular biology. Insect biology is one of the most important areas of biology, and one of the least well-known, given that of the 5 million probable insect species perhaps only 1 million have been formally described. Of those 1 million, perhaps 100,000 have their biologies known in any detail, and at the present rate of habitat destruction, many species will go extinct before anything at all is discovered about them. The enormous number of insect species has recently led entomologists to become concerned with insect biodiversity as an area of research in itself, and especially with insect conservation and the effect of human disturbance on insect diversity.
I feel like an old warhorse at the sound of the trumpet when I read about the capturing of rare beetles ... It really makes me long to begin collecting again.
CHARLES DARWIN Bugs in the System: Insects and Their impact on Human Affairs (1995) by May R Berenbaum. A simple and readable introduction to insects, their classification, biology, and effects on people. It gives a good overview of the extraordinary diversity of the insect world. Life on a Little-Known Planet (1993) by Howard Ensign Evans. Covers similar ground to the first book, but might be considered either more poetic or more pretentious, according to taste. Throughout, however, the author's love of his subject shines through. A Field Guide to the Insects of Britain and Northern Europe (1982) by Michael Chinery. An excellent introduction to the natural history of British insects, with identification keys and good illustrations. Insects of Australia (1991) edited by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization. In contrast to the Chinery book, this deals in detail with a tropical fauna which is much richer and more varied than the European one. It also has useful chapters on insect systematics, morphology, and biogeography. Insect Conservation Biology (1994) by M J Samways. A good introductory book dealing with the problems and principles of insect conservation, a topic that has been neglected compared with the conservation biology of larger vertebrate animals. The Ants (1990) by B Holidobler and E 0 Wilson. A Pulitzer prizewinning book dealing with a group of animals with one of the most complex and interesting social systems of any organism. A unique contribution to biology. The same authors' Journey to the Ants (1994) is shorter and more accessible, intended for the general reader. Insect Phylogeny (1981) by W Hennig. Although out of date and in places difficult to read, this still remains a seminal work by the great German entomologist Willi Hennig. It was one of the first works to apply the principles of cladistics to estimating evolutionary relationships between organisms, and many of its conclusions are still accepted today. Imm's General Textbook of Entomology (1957; 10th edition 1977) volume 2 by O W Richards and R G Davies. An excellent textbook introduction to insect diversity, dealing with each group in detail. A good primer for those interested in the whole range of insect forms. The Insects: Structure and Function (1982) by R F Chapman. A textbook that emphasizes a functional approach to the study of insects. Readable and highly informative. BIRDS Robert Prys-Jones
Birds fascinate people. Colourful, vocal, and accessible, they provide an avenue through which we can begin to obtain understanding of the selective forces moulding the living world to which we belong. Partly as a result, the breadth of knowledge available on birds is unrivalled for other animal groups. This knowledge, combined with the affection with which most are held, has placed birds at the forefront of efforts by conservation organizations worldwide to maintain natural environments in the face of overwhelming and ever accelerating human-induced change. Birds thus demand our attention, not only for the amazing creatures they are, but also for the role they can play as a shield for the great unknown world that is vanishing around us.
The pleasure of studying birds and the pleasure of finding out new things can be combined at small cost in money, though more in time, by anyone so inclined.
DAVID LACK The Life of the Robin (1943) by David Lack. A classic, highly readable account of the life of a bird species, written by one of the century's pre-eminent ornithologists. Finches (1972) by Ian Newton. Written with enthusiasm from great personal experience, this is a model of how to write a comparative account of the behaviour and ecology of a bird family. The Web of Adaptation (1976) by David Snow. A strangely little-known but compellingly readable account of the behaviour of fruit-eating birds in the American tropics. The Age of Birds (1980) by Alan Feduccia. The evolutionary history of birds is a topic of great current research, but this remains the best introduction to the subject. Bird Migration (1983) by Chris Mead. A wide-ranging, well-illustrated overview of a subject that holds a particular fascination for many bird-watchers. Save the Birds (1987) by Anthony Diamond. Produced in a number of languages and national editions, this book provides authoritative and beautifully illustrated insight into the problems that endanger a depressingly large number of bird species worldwide. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Ornithology (1991) edited by Michael Brooke and Tim Birkhead. Undoubtedly the place to begin pursuing an interest in almost any aspect of ornithology. Well arranged and illustrated, and clearly written by an impressive team of contributors. Dunnock Behaviour and Social Evolution (1992) by Nicholas Davies. Fifty years on from Lack's Life of the Robin, this is a brilliantly written account of the insights that arise from combining detailed fieldwork on a species with modern evolutionary theory. Handbook of the Birds of the World (1992, continuing) edited by Josep del Hoyo, Andrew Elliott, and Jordi Sargatal. With two of a proposed 12 volumes now published, it is impossible to praise this work too highly. Immensely ambitious and astonishingly illustrated, it combines exceptionally readable family-level reviews with brief but comprehensive species accounts and distribution maps for every bird species. The Beak of the Finch (1994) by Jonathan Weiner. Written by a journalist, this books succeeds well in conveying the fascination inherent in the profoundly important, long-term studies by Peter Grant and his co-workers into the action of natural selection on Galapagos finch populations.
Peterson, Roger Tory. American, 1908-1996. A Field Guide to the Birds. Rec: Counterpunch NF NYPL ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR Peter Tallack
In order to survive and reproduce successfully, animals have evolved clever ways of finding food, shelter, and mates, avoiding predators, caring for their young, and so on. Ethology - the study of animal behaviour - views animals as machines with fascinating mechanics, as organisms with complex life histories, and as the end products of natural selection that have evolved from ancestors who themselves lived and behaved and were successful in producing offspring. The subject ranges from microscopic investigations of genetic mechanisms and nervous systems, through experimental work of the behaviour of whole organisms, to long-term studies on groups of animals in forests, fields, and oceans. There are four underlying questions of animal behaviour - what are the mechanisms that control it? why or how are they useful? how did they develop? what is their evolutionary history? - and a vast array of splendid books that attempt to provide answers.
We are survival machines - robot vehicles blindly programmed
to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes. This is a truth
that still fills me with astonishment.
RICHARD DAWKINS The Oxford Companion to Animal Behaviour (1981) edited by David McFarland. A standard handbook that anyone interested in animals can enjoy. Contains more than 200 articles, each written by a specialist, on a wide range of topics. King Solomon's Ring (1952) by Konrad Lorenz. A gripping introduction to mod-em animal behaviour by one of its founders, an advocate of the view that most animal behaviour is genetically fixed or innate. Full of original insights and a pleasure to read. The Study of Instinct (1951) by Niko Tinbergen. A systematic discussion of the beginning of ethology written with brilliant clarity by the pioneer of the biological study of animal behaviour under natural or near-natural conditions. Important and influential. The Dance Language and Orientation of Bees (1967) by Karl von Frisch. A definitive account of von Frisch's marvellous observations and experiments on the waggle dance and other forms of honeybee communication behaviour. The culmination of more than 50 years of research, this is a genuine classic. In the Shadow of Man (1983) by Jane Goodall. Goodall's work with the chimpanzees of Gombe is one of the great scientific achievements of the 20th century. Her detailed revelations of their behaviour first appeared in this lyrical book, written with sympathy and understanding. Sociobiology (1975) by Edward 0 Wilson. This groundbreaking study of the biological basis of all social behaviour on social animals was the subject of much controversy when it first appeared, principally because of the final chapter focusing on humans. Authoritative, encyclopedic, and readable. Wilson, Edward O.. American, 1929- . (See also Hoelldobler, Bert and Edward O. Wilson) Sociobiology. Rec: LAT National Review The Diversity of Life. Rec: NYPL The Selfish Gene (1976) by Richard Dawkins. The author's first book and still his most famous. An engrossing look at evolution and behaviour from a gene's-eye perspective, expounded with clarity, wit, and verve. Forceful and persuasive. How Monkeys See the World (1990) by Dorothy L Cheney and Robert M Seyfarth. The authors describe their superb study of signalling in vervet monkeys. The enthralling ideas and lucid presentation combine to make this the best exploration so far of what goes on inside the mind of another species. The Red Queen (1993) by Matt Ridley. A brilliant look at the evolution of sex and its implications for behaviour, providing a rich collection of insights into the private lives of a whole host of creatures. The Tangled Wing (1982) by Melvin Konner. A poetic and masterly survey of the biological constraints on human nature, including what animal behaviour can and cannot tell us about ourselves. ANIMAL RIGHTS Andrew Linzey
The moral status of animals has emerged as a new field of study in its own right. In the area of philosophy alone, within the last 20 years contemporary moral philosophers have written more on the topic of human responsibility to other animals than their predecessors had written during the previous 2,000 years. In fact, ethical concern for animals is not new. Although Western culture has generally accorded animals a low status, almost every thinker from Pythagoras to Schweitzer has at least considered the question of duties to animals. at is new is a major shift in ethical sensitivity. The old idea that animals are simply resources, machines, tools, things here for our use, is slowly but surely giving way to another perception that sentient beings have value in themselves, inherent dignity, and rights. This revolution of sensibility has been facilitated by a number of pioneering works in the field of ethics, philosophy, and religion. Listed here are some of the major works that have been significant during the modern period.
The time is coming, however, when people will be astonished that mankind needed so
long a time to learn to regard thoughtless injury to life as incompatible with ethics.
ALBERT SCHWEITZER Civilization and Ethics (1923) by Albert Schweitzer. Although Schweitzer was not the first to embrace the humane treatment of animals, his doctrine of 'reverence for life' has been widely influential. Civilization and Ethics is the second volume of his wide-ranging critique of Western philosophy. According to Schweitzer, reverence for life is the 'basic principle of the moral'. 'It is good to maintain and encourage life; it is bad to destroy life or to obstruct it.' Although Schweitzerian doctrine - in its original form at least - has few followers today, it is difficult not to be impressed by the sheer profundity of this thought. Readable and very challenging. Animal Rights (1976) by Andrew Linzey. This slim volume effectively heralded the modem animal rights movement. It argues that sentiency (the ability to experience pain and suffering) rather than 'personhood', 'soulfulness', or 'rationality' should be the criterion for rights; and examines our current use of animals as food, for science, and for sport. Criticizes the Judaeo-Christian tradition for its theological insensitivity to animals. Limey's later works, Christianity and the Rights of Animals 1987 and Animal Theology 1994, develop his theological critique of Western religious attitudes. Animal Liberation (1976) by Peter Singer. Following on the heels of Animal Rights, Singer's work is a philosophical defence of the sentiency criterion for moral consider-ability. If a being suffers, there can be no good reason why that suffering should not be taken into consideration. Argues that many contemporary practices are 'speciesist'; that is, the result of an arbitrary and unjustifiable prejudice against animals. Hugely popular and readable book, still in print. The Moral Status of Animals (1977) by Stephen R L Clark. Another heavyweight philosophical defence of animals. It argues that the humanitarian tradition against cruelty within Western culture should compel us to rethink our attitudes to animals and become vegetarians. Not an easy read but frill of challenging insights. Man and the Natural World: Changing Attitudes in England 1500-1800 (1983) by Keith Thomas. Consummately impressive history of the origins of modern sensibility to animals. Charts with great skill the movement of ideas from medieval views of human supremacy to the emergence of Victorian philanthropy. Especially good on the religious aspects and the role of theology for and against animal welfare. Thomas is a celebrated historian and a very fine writer. The Case for Animal Rights (1983) by Tom Regan. Yet another heavyweight philosophical book. Argues that all animals are 'subjects of a life' and have intrinsic value, and therefore rights. Maintains that only a theory of rights can do justice to our moral obligations to animals. A significant philosophical contribution, nicely textured writing, but no easy read. The Unheeded Cry: Animal Consciousness, Animal Pain and Science (1989) by Bernard E Rollin. Rollin is one of the few animal-rights theorists equally versed in physiology, philosophy, and bioethics. This is a powerful critique of the view that animals do not have a mental life and cannot suffer, especially critical of experimental scientists who work with animals. Rollin developed the world's first course in veterinary ethics and animal rights at Colorado State University. Political Theory and Animal Rights (1990) edited by P A B Clarke and Andrew Limey. A major anthology comprising 60 extracts from political theorists, philosophers, and theologians including Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Rene Descartes, David Hume, John Locke, George Berkeley, Thomas Hobbes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Gottfried Leibniz, Montaigne, Richard Hooker, Karl Marx, Albert Schweitzer, and Bertrand Russell. The anthology shows how various concerns about animals form part of a long historical tradition and details the major shifts of thinking about the status of animals. Indispensable to understanding the emergence of the modem animal-rights movement. Created from the Animals: The Moral Implications of Darwinism (1991) by James Rachels. A powerful defence of Darwin, arguing that, correctly understood, Darwinism provides a strong theoretical basis for animal rights. Maintains that Darwin, in holding that humans are 'created from the animals', laid the foundations for a new inclusivist ethic. Chapter 5 on 'Morality without the idea that humans are special' is provocative and challenging. Written in an accessible style with wit and elegance. The Heretic's Feast: A History of Vegetarianism (1993) by Colin Spencer. The first major history of vegetarianism from early humanoids to the ethical vegetarianism of the 1990s. Spencer's conclusion echoes the words of Henry Beston: 'We need another and wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals ... They are not brethren; they are not underlings; they are other nations caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth.' A fascinating volume, remarkable for its breadth and lucidity. PLANTS: INTRODUCTION Sandra Knapp and Bob Press
Plants are the basis for all life on Earth. Their ability to convert the Sun's energy into a usable form places them at the base of the pyramid of life. Plants range from simple to highly complex organisms and occupy a bewildering variety of niches in the natural world. They can be parasites, carnivores, mimics, and are often equal partners with animals in intricate associations. The science of botany comprises the study of plants, their diversity of form and function, their distribution, and their uses.
I indulged the fancy once upon a time that a botanist was one who
distinguished plants by sight: but I observe that, unless scent, taste and
touch come in and that very obviously, a botanist is of no account.
CARL VON LINNE The Compleat Naturalist (1971) by Wilfred Blunt is a lively and beautifully illustrated biography of the world's most influential botanist, Carl von Linne (otherwise known as Carolus Linnaeus). In the 18th century he devised not only the first adequate system for classifying plants - the then notorious sexual system - but also the binomial system of Latin plant names which remains the universal currency among botanists. The Life of Plants (1964; revised 1981) by E J H Corner is a successful solution to the problem of writing a 'small book about plants in toto' and an enthusiastic counter to previous 'thoroughly dull and dully thorough' works on the subject. The Plant Book (1990) by David Mabberly follows in the footsteps of classic works by J C Willis, A Cronquist, and others. It is as complete a reference to the vascular plants as it is possible to have, with entries for evey currently accepted family and genus. Brief text gives information on interrelationships, morphological characteristics, distributions, numbers of species, and uses. Plant Taxonomy (1990) by Tod Stuessy is a heavyweight text by one of the most authoritative taxonomists around. Slightly daunting but comprehensive and thought-provoking. Biology of Plants (5th edition 1992) by Peter Raven, Ray Evert, and Susan Eichorn. As well as explaining form and function, the authors address the themes of heredity, evolutionary relationships, and ecology, providing a rounded picture of plant biology. The New Royal Horticultural Society Dictionary of Gardening (1992) edited by A Huxley is a comprehensive work covering most plants ever cultivated. It is liberally sprinkled with explanations of gardening terms and techniques as well as describing numerous cultivars, hybrids, and cultivated plants of both wild and purely garden origin. The Plant Finder (1994-95 edition) published by the Hardy Plant Society is the ultimate plant catalogue, listing 55,000 different plants and where to obtain them in the UK. This is where to find those little-known species you have always wanted to cultivate. The Private Life of Plants (1995) by David Attenborough is an eminently readable and lavishly illustrated account of different aspects of the lives of plants, from dispersal, growth, and nutrition to plant-animal interactions and survival strategies. Based on his television series for the BBC.
Ayensu, Edward S. and Robert A. DeFilipps, Ghanaian-American and American, 1935- and 1939-. Endangered and Threatened Plants of the United States. Rec: LAT PLANT VARIETIES Sandra Knapp and Bob Press
There are in excess of 250,000 species of vascular plants alone in the world and species new to science are discovered and described almost daily, especially from tropical regions where the biodiversity is still nowhere near being adequately quantified. Gardeners and horticulturalists have added enormously to this natural variety by producing cultivars of purely garden origin. The limits and defining characteristics of taxa are constantly under review, changing with the increase in our understanding of the plants involved. Two common methods of getting to grips with this wealth of life are taxonomy and floristics. Taxonomy is the describing, naming, and classifying of organisms - in this case plants. Floristics focuses on the whole flora of a geographical region.
Locality often makes plants a little different, but it has never changed one species into another, not even in the brain of any sane botanist.
CARL. VON LINK$ Carnivorous Plants (1979) by Adrian Slack is still probably the best book describing a fascinatingly macabre and diverse group of plants which are linked by their unique method of supplementary nutrition. Palms (1982) by Alec Blombery and Tony Rodd. A good example of a study of a single group of plants, this book deals with the cultivation, care, and economic importance of palms as well as describing the world's species. A World of Ferns (1991) by Josephine Camus, Clive Jermy, and Barry Thomas is a general introduction to the subject of ferns, organized by habitat. The beautiful photographs show the diversity of the group. Crucifers of Great Britain and Ireland (1991) by Tim Rich. Number six in a series of seven BSBI Handbooks by various authors, pitched at the more committed botanist. The series covers difficult and taxonomically challenging groups of plants in the British Isles flora, including sedges, umbellifers, docks, willows, and roses. All are written and illustrated to the highest standards. Field Guide to the Trees of Britain and Europe (1992) by Bob Press is typical of the New Holland Field Guides. The books in this series, by various authors, epitomize the most common style of photographic guides to identifying plants, and reflect the increasing tendency to include all species in Europe rather than a limited selection of them. Guide to Flowering Plant Families (1994) by Wendy Zomlefer is a synoptic treatment of the flowering-plant families that occur in the USA. Despite this apparent geographical limitation, it is useful almost anywhere and has the added bonus of lucid, easily assimilated sections on modern taxonomic methods, cladistics in taxonomy, and botanical terminology. STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION Sandra Knapp and Bob Press
Living things are complex and a first step in their study is to know how and why they are constructed as they are. Structure and function are indivisible; to study one without the other is to understand only half the story. The basic principles of different functions are similar throughout the plant kingdom but the means by which they may be achieved and, therefore, the range and type of structures required, are much more varied. Habitat, too, is highly influential on plant structure. Plants occur in a wide range of habitats, from boiling springs to ice-bound tundra and from sea beds to mountaintops; their structural diversity is equally broad. Within this diversity of form there are also examples of superficial similarity between unrelated groups of plants; for example, the cactuses of North and Central America and succulent Euphorbias from the deserts of the Old World. Different organs may be modified to meet the same environmental demands, and homology, the principle of comparing like with like, is especially important when dealing with morphological features of plants where a 'leaf may be a true leaf, a leaf stalk, a stipule, or a stem, and a 'bulb' may derive from a root, a stem, a leaf base, or a bud.
A biologist, regardless of his specialty, cannot afford to lose sight of the whole
organism if his goal is the understanding of the organic world.
KATHERINE ESAU Anatomy of Flowering Plants: An Introduction to Structure and Development (1987) by Paula Rudall is a concise but comprehensive description of plant anatomy and its pre-eminent role in plant taxonomy. Stunningly illustrated.
Plant Form. An Illustrated Gude to Flowering Plant Morphology (1991) by Adrian Bell is a rapid-reference guide to the architecture and construction of plants, giving concise explanations of the derivation and interpretation of morphological features. Suitable for users of varying abilities. Bark: The Formation, Characteristics and Uses of Bark Around the World (1993) by Ghillean and Anne Prance. Bark is one of the defming tissues of woody plants_ This work uses photographs to explain its variety of form, function, and use worldwide. THE LIVES OF PLANTS Stephen Webster
Plants are the producers of our planet. They are the organisms that absorb the Sun's light and manufacture the food on which animals depend. The waste product of that process we also need rather a lot: oxygen. As these books show, plants are every bit as fascinating and important as animals.
The thirsty earth sucks up the rain, / And drinks, and gapes for drink again. / The plants suck in the earth, and are / With constant drinking fresh and fair.
ABRAHAM COWI.EY The Fate of the Forest (1989) by Susanna Hecht and Alexander Cockburn. A measured account of the destruction of the Amazonian tropical rainforest. Filled with interesting details on the flora of Amazonia. The Pollination of Plants (1973) by Michael Proctor and Peter Yeo. A rich source of information on the many and varied ways plants have found of getting pollen from one to another. The Private Life of Plants (1994) by David Attenborough. Beautifully illustrated account of the lifestyles of plants, combined with detailed text and the traditional Attenborough enthusiasm. The Day of the Triffids (1951) by John Wyndham. Fiction, but still a compelling story of the worst nightmare - the day the plants turned against mankind. Quite a lot of interesting botanical detail too. A Passion for Plants (1995) by Clive Langmead. The subject of the book is as much Ghillean Prance as it is plants. For Prance is director of Kew Gardens and is a man in love - with things botanical. Essential reading for someone who thinks plants are dull. Mushrooms (1990) by Roger Phillips. Strictly speaking, mushrooms are fungi, not plants, but we eat them and tread on them as though they were plants. This book will open up a completely new world for you - and help you distinguish between the safe and the dangerous. Vegetables (1995) by Roger Phillips and Martin Rix. A survey of the edibles we normally see in the greengrocery or down at the allotment, plus some oddities. Fascinating, scientific, and well illustrated. AGRICULTURE AND MEDICINAL PLANTS
Sandra Knapp and Bob Press
Agriculture played no part in the earliest human societies but once the first plant domestications took place, crops became a major factor in shaping our civilization. In its broadest sense, modern agriculture encompasses such aspects as gene
manipulation and conservation of wild progenitors as well as the more prosaic planting, growing, and harvesting of crops. Medicinal usage of plants almost certainly dates from man's earliest history. Initially there was probably little or no difference between plants as healthful foods and plants as curatives in the crudest sense. When these roles diverged, medicinal use gradually became entwined with folklore, mysticism, and other philosophical accoutrements, often to the point of entirely obscuring the original purpose of the plant. Synthetic drugs and chemicals have largely replaced herbal reme-
dies in the industrialized world, but extracts derived from plants maintain an important role in modern medicine and for many peoples traditional drugs remain their only available source of treatment. The renewed interest in natural plant extracts is a
reminder that, once upon a time, we were all similarly reliant on herbs and herbal lore.
I have oft-times declared, how by the outward shapes and qualities
of things we may know their inward virtues.
PARACELSUS Nightshades, the Paradoxical Plants (1969) by Charles Heiser successfully uses a 'let's tell' style to convey the importance of an intriguing group of medicinal plants. Medical Botany - Plants Affecting Man's Health (1977) by Walter Lewis and Memory Elvin-Lewis. A reference work with the information organized both by plant and by the conditions treated. The coverage is worldwide and the data easily accessible. Seed to Civilization (1981) by Charles Heiser covers the origins and evolution of agriculture in a readable style by focusing on the major food species. The New Age Herbalist (1988) by Richard Mabey is an up-to-date herbal in the European tradition. Mabey uses modem interpretation and relevant medical research to explain and justify the use of traditional remedies. Field Guide to the Crops of Britain and Europe (1989) by G de Rougemont is a useful tool for identifying the numerous crop plants grown in the region. Plants and People (1990) by Anna Lewington is a book of the uses of plants by people for agriculture and medicine. Beautiful coffee-table style disguises a highly authoritative work. Earthly Goods (1994) by Christopher Joyce tackles the complex relationships between medicinal plant hunters, local peoples, conservationists, and pharmaceutical companies, as well as emotive issues including 'ownership' of biodiversity. The book is leavened with descriptions of eccentric scientists, the author's navels, and examples of useful plants. A Dictionary of Folklore (1995) by Roy Vickery is a source of information on plants in folklore and ethnobotany in the British Isles, including superstitions and customs, legends, folk medicine, and other uses. Unusually for the subject matter, Vickery emphasizes present-day practices and beliefs (those current during 1975-94) as well as dealing with older traditions. ENVIRONMENT: BIODIVERSITY
Nigel Dudley
Biodiversity, or biological diversity, refers to the richness and variety of life, measured by the number of species of plants and animals, their genetic variety, and the ways they interact in ecosystems. Ten years ago 'biodiversity' did not even appear in dictionaries, yet in 1992 it received international attention through agreement of the Convention on Biological Diversity at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. The concept marks an increasing sophistication in our understanding of ecology. Plants and animals need a working ecosystem. Variety within a species may be as important, from an evolutionary standpoint, as several different species. Preservation of nothing but a relic population may not be much better than complete extinction. Yet at the moment, biodiversity is disappearing faster than at any time in the Earth's history, due to habitat destruction, overexploitation and pollution. Biodiversity already commands an impressive library of books. The titles listed below help show how the idea is developing, give a range of viewpoints about the importance of biodiversity, and outline some options for management of biodiversity in the future.
Ecosystems are not only more complex than we think, but more
complex than we can think.
FRANK EGLER The Sinking Ark (1979) by Norman Myers. Argues that we face a massive loss of species, particularly through tropical deforestation, and that conservation efforts are manifestly failing to counter this trend. In this book he also puts the practical case for preserving species, in terms of their use as genetic resources for foodstuffs, medicines, and so on; a theme which he has continued to developed in a number of further titles, including The Primary Source.
Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth (1979) by James Lovelock. Proposes the still heretical theory that the planet itself is, biologically speaking, a self-regulating mechanism. Whether you agree with Lovelock or not, he presents a sober and well-
argued case, and his book helped focus attention on the role that different components play in the ecology of the planet, thus paving the way for discussion on biodiversity. Biodiversity (1988) edited by Edward 0 Wilson. The first book to crystallize the debate about biodiversity, which also brought the word itself to public attention. A fascinating array of articles, papers, and even poems about biological diversity around the world. Still the best single introduction to the subject. See also The Diversity of Life by Wilson himself for a readable introduction to the subject. Conserving the World's Biological Diversity (1990) by Jeffrey A McNeely, Kenton R Miller, Walter V Reid, Russell A Mittermeir, and Timothy B Werner. The most comprehensive attempt so far to set an agenda for international conservation of biodiversity. Much of the thinking was later incorporated into proposals for the Convention on Biological Diversity. The Threatened Gene: Food, Politics and the Loss of Genetic Diversity (1990) by Cary Fowler and Pat Mooney. Biodiversity loss does not only affect natural systems; during the 20th century we have lost hundreds of traditional crop strains and livestock breeds. This meticulously researched and readable book looks at what has happened, how genetic diversity has been lost in food production, and why it matters. Biodiversity: Social and Ecological Consequences (1992) by Vandana Shiva. Proposes that biodiversity conservation has to be tackled by first addressing problems of intensive farming and North-South relations. It is one of a series of books by a noted Indian scientist and feminist; her Staying Alive looks at women's issues in more detail. Global Biodiversity: The Status of the Earth's Living Resources (1992) edited by Brian Groombridge. A massive review of biodiversity around the world, looking at the status of key ecosystems, the human uses of plants and animals, rates of change in natural systems, and so on. Saving Nature's Legacy (1994) by Reed F Noss and Allen Y Cooperrider. Guidelines on practical biodiversiry conservation at a landscape level. ECOLOGY Nigel Dudley
Ecology has become one of the fastest-growing scientific disciplines of the latter 20th century, and the serious student can refer to a seemingly endless stream of textbooks, monographs, journals, and conference proceedings. The following list has a more modest aim: to introduce some basic and accessible books for the general reader that will outline some of the key ideas for the nonspecialist. As such, it includes two historical titles from people who started to focus attention on issues of ecology, and looks at some accessible modem interpretations.
I wish to speak a word for Nature, for absolute freedom and wildness, as contrasted with a freedom and culture merely civil - to regard man as an inhabitant, or a pan and parcel of Nature, rather than a member of society.
HENRY THOREAU The Natural History of Selborne (1789; several recent editions) by Gilbert White. Why should a series of letters about natural history, written by an obscure parson living near the English South Downs, become a perennial bestseller? Perhaps because White was one of the first to seek the interrelationships in nature, and to look beyond simple classification of biology. Still fascinating, even if White did make a few mistakes, perhaps most famously that swallows and martins overwintered by hibernating in burrows rather than by migrating. The Portable Thoreau (1980) edited by Carl Bode. An excellent introduction to one of the best nature writers of all time, including the complete text of Walden (1854), Thoreau's account of living in a remote house in the Maine woods and of the surrounding nature, along with selections from his journals, The Maine Woods, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, and other works.
History of the Countryside (1990) by Oliver Rackham. For much of the world, ecology is now intimately tied up with human history, and with the changes that farming, forestry, industry, and migration patterns have made on the landscape. Rackham's book, which concentrates particularly on England, shows how ecology and history can be matched to explain the current landscape and ecology. Fascinating and provocative. Ecology (1990) by M Begon, J L Harper, and C R Townsend. One of the more read-able of a series of textbooks on ecology, looking at relationships within populations and communities. Ecological Imperialism (1993) by Alfred W Crosby. Looks at the biological expansion of Europe over 1,000 years, with particular emphasis on the colonial period, and argues that displacement of native peoples by Europeans in most temperate regions was driven as much by ecology as by military conquest. Interesting for its perspectives linking ecology with historical movements. Global Marine Biological Diversity (1993) edited by Elliott A Norse. Looks at the ecology of marine systems and at steps to address current problems facing the world's seas and oceans. The Private Life of Plants (1995) by David Attenborough. A stimulating introduction to plants and the way that they function, by one of the world's best-known natural-history filmmakers and writers. Important because plant ecology is so often ignored by anyone but the professional academics. Attenborough has written many fascinating books; watch out also for Life on Earth, which starts from a more general ecological perspective. ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS Nigel Dudley
Environmental awareness did not suddenly emerge, fully fledged, some time during the 1980s. A concern about environmental impact of human society can be traced back for hundreds of years and, for example, the first pamphlet on air pollution, Fumifugion: or the smoake of London dissipated, was published by John Evelyn in London in 1666. Since then, ideas have developed gradually, and have been refined and some-times revised as our understanding of the environment has become more sophisticated. The list below gives some of the milestone publications of the 'modern' environmental movement. A few of the earlier titles may now sometimes seem a little simplistic, or their ideas have been so incorporated into mainstream thinking that they hardly seem radical any more. All of them have played important roles in shaping, and often changing, people's thinking about our relationship to the planet.
Pollution has a long history. The creation of wastes has been one of the distinguishing characteristics of every human society.
CLIVE PONTING Silent Spring (1962) by Rachel Carson. Probably the one book that, more than any other, kick-started today's environmental movement. Rachel Carson was a marine biologist, who drafted this passionate expose about the impact of pesticides on the environment when she was already seriously ill. The book caused a furore and Carson spent her last months being bitterly attacked by industry representatives. She helped change the outlook of a generation. Beautifully written and cogently argued, still fresh after 35 years. Small Is Beautiful (1973) by E P Schumacher. The title of the book, which delighted or infuriated readers during a period when technology and transnational business practices were increasingly being challenged, was actually suggested by the publisher. The essays give a theoretical background to such developments as intermediate technology. The best, such as 'Buddhist economics', remain pertinent and readable today. The Limits to Growth (1975) by Donella L and Dennis L Meadows, Jorgen Randers, and William W Behrens III. An early and influential attempt to map the likely impacts of resource depletion using computer modelling. Coming immediately after the 1973 oil crisis, the book helped create new attitudes towards nonrenewable resources. The predictions have proved to be overly pessimistic in terms of time scale, although the central argument remains valid, and the team produced a new analysis, Beyond the Limits, almost 20 years later. How the Other Half Dies - The Real Reasons for World Hunger (1976) by Susan George. It is commonly argued that 'overpopulation' is the greatest threat facing the human race, and the major cause of hunger and famine. Susan George elegantly and comprehensively demolishes these claims, showing that access to food has more to do with the priorities of international agribusiness and the ways that development aid is used and abused. Soft Energy Paths: Towards a Durable Peace (1977) by Amory Lovins. At a time when solar and wind power were regarded as little more than utopian dreams, Lovins turned the argument around and boldly claimed that, using established technologies, renewable sources will supply all our energy in the future. Part research paper and part polemic, it provided much of the inspiration for current developments of wind farms, solar villages and small-scale hydropower projects. 'Soft energy' became synonymous with post-oil energy sources. The Nuclear Barons (1981) by Peter Pringle and James Spiegelman. The other half of the energy debate: a detailed and readable analysis of the rise of nuclear power, from early weapons-testing through to then current debates about energy. Written in advance of the major US nuclear accident at Harrisburg and the disaster at Chernobyl in the Ukraine, the book sounds prophetic warnings about the dangers of nuclear energy and remains the best one-volume history of the first 40 years of nuclear development. In the Rainforest (1984) by Catherine Caufield. Repeated opinion surveys show that tropical deforestation is the single environmental issue that causes the most concern around the world. This book, written by an American journalist, is the account of a personal investigation into causes and effects of tropical forest loss that covered Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Brundtland Report: Our Common Future (1987) by World Commission on Environment and Development, chaired by Gro Harlem Brundtland. The most comprehensive official international attempt to define 'sustainable development' and to harmonize the needs of people and environment, coordinated by the then prime minister of Norway. Like most such efforts at consensus, it contains contradictions and compromises. Important because of its influence on many governmental and United Nations initiatives. The Green History of the World (1991) by Clive Ponting. A history of the world from an environmental standpoint, packed with information but also presenting a sustained argument about the links between ecology and human activities, and linking in the influence of religious thought and political philosophy. An excellent one-volume introduction. How Much is Enough? (1992) by an Thein Durning. Addressing the issue that will increasingly dominate the debate about the environment in the next few years; how the rapidly increasing levels of consumption - of raw materials, energy and other resources - by the rich fifth of the population can be reconciled with the needs of the environment and of the poorer human majority. CONSERVATION
Peter Tallack
Round the globe, biological communities that took millions of years to develop are being devastated by human action. at is bad for biological diversity will almost certainly be bad for the human population, because we too are dependent on the natural environment. Conservation biology is the scientific discipline born of this crisis. Its aim is to study and prevent the loss of biological diversity: specifically, the extinction of species, the loss of genetic variation, and the destruction of biological communities. It brings together people and knowledge from many different fields.
When the last individual of a race of living things breathes no more, another
heaven and another earth must pass before such a one can be again.
Wrr mivt BEEBE The Diversity of Life (1992) by Edward 0 Wilson. An outstanding overview of the biodiversity crisis, as well as basic concepts such as evolutionary change, extinction, and speciation, written for the general public. The all-encompassing range, the compelling case for conservation, and the delightful natural history are virtues enough to recommend this book. Why Big Fierce Animals Are Rare (1980) by Paul Colinvaux. An excellent read-able guide to how the living world works.
The Theory of Island Biogeography (1967) by Robert MacArthur and Edward 0 Wilson. This seminal text presents and explores the relationship between the number of species on an island and its size, distance from the mainland, and biogeographical history. The book has stimulated more research in conservation than any other work and remains controversial.
Nature's Keepers (1995) by Stephen Budiansky. An environmental journalist explains in simple terms the new science of mathematical ecology, which is providing tools for effective environmental management by revealing how ecosystems really work and interact. Reflections of Eden (1995) by Birute M F Galdikas. A pioneering primatologist and world leader in conservation tells the enthralling story of her 25-year study of the orangutans of the Borneo rainforests. A powerful advertisement for the preservation of these great apes and their habitat. The Last Panda (1992) by George D Schaller. A fascinating account of the author's efforts to study and save the giant panda. He successfully mixes natural history with the politics of conservation: the expose of the countless cover-ups and fatal mistakes of zoos, governments, and international wildlife groups makes for gripping and often depressing reading. Last Chance to See (1990) by Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine. Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, teams up with a zoologist in this lively but poignant tour of the imminent threat of extinction facing many well-known species. Gerald Durrell's Army (1992) by Edward Whitley. Gerald Durrell - the world's most intrepid animal collector, who died in 1995 - was also the 'commander of an army of local people trained to save their own wildlife. This is a first--hand globetrotting account of their trials and tribulations. Noah's Choice (1995) by Charles C Mann and Mark L Plummer. Explores the politics of endangered species with some good reporting on what goes on inside he US Fish and Wildlife Service. Last Animals at the Zoo (1991) by Colin Tudge. A look behind the scenes at the difficulties and successes of captive breeding. The author convincingly argues that zoos are now an essential part of modem conservation strategy. ANTHROPOLOGY: BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY Helen M MacBeth
Biological anthropology arose out of physical anthropology, which involved measuring and comparing, on the one hand, living peoples worldwide and, on the other hand, the fossilized bones of early humans or their even earlier ancestors. The study of this prehistory is also called palaeoanthropology. The aspects to study about living humans mushroomed with the increase in biochemical and molecular science, to include genetics, protein analysis, nutrition, parasites, diseases, and all aspects of human physiology and biochemistry. Anthropology means the science of humans, but the subject matter is usually concentrated on humans in groups.
Interest in the evolution, past and ongoing, of human biology is central to the subject. So a closely related discipline is the study of our closest relatives, the monkeys and apes. Although humans are clearly biological organisms like other animals, they are distinctive because of the extent of their thought processes and social organization. Whereas some biological anthropologists are specialists in genetics, biochemistry, nutrition, and so on, the contribution of others is much more generalist as they integrate social processes into their perception of biological outcomes. Biological anthropology is a subject for everyone with or without background education in biology, for it is only human to be interested in ourselves.
The extent of human variability is enormous, so large that no two individuals who have ever lived or will ever live can ever be exactly the same. The fundamental causes for this variability lie in ... the genes inherited from our parents, and the infinity of environments which act upon and within individuals from conception to death.
G AINSWORTH HARRISON
Introduction to Physical Anthropology (6th edition 1994) by R Jurmain and H Nelson. An excellent first reader for the layman or new student. Human Biology: an introduction to human evolution, variation, growth and ecology (3rd edition 1988) by G A Harrison, J M Tanner, D R Pilbeam, and P T Baker. More difficult, but probably the central textbook for the discipline. Human Variation, Races, Types and Ethnic Groups (3rd edition 1992) by Stephen Molnar. Intermediate between the above two books; gives useful insight into that politically sensitive topic commonly known as 'race'.
Human Populations: Diversity and Adaptation (1995) edited by A J Boyce and V Reynolds. A very recent collection of research papers on a wide spectrum of biological anthropological topics, collated in honour of the retirement of Professor G A Harrison, who for over a generation has been a central figure in the discipline. Humankind Emerging (1976) by B G Campbell. Now rather dated but a well-illustrated book for those who like a Time-Life approach to understanding human evolution. The Book of Man, the Quest to Discover Our Genetic Heritage (1994) by W F Bodmer and R McKie. A clear and simple book with an emphasis on the understanding of genetics for understanding ourselves. The Language of the Genes, Biology, History and the Evolutionary Future (1993) by Steve Jones. A fascinating and painless way into understanding genetics by the Reith lecturer. Human Biology and Ecology (1977) by A Damon was written for the layman or first-year student and despite its date gives useful insight. SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY Chris Holdsworth
Who are we? The answer to this question, more than any other, inspires anthropology. We are all fundamentally alike, yet we live in an amazing diversity of cultures. By participating in and observing everyday life in other cultures, anthropologists hope to obtain an understanding of how others experience life. At the heart of anthropology is ethnography: a written description of the culture of another society and an account of the anthropologist's experience within that culture. It is through the comparative study of other cultures that anthropologists hope to understand who we are. But anthropology is a discipline in turmoil. It consists of a multiplicity of theoretical approaches and areas of concern, is a uniquely Western development, and the ethnography is now recognized as essentially autobiographical. In recent years this has led many anthropologists to question the validity of their methods, epistemology, and some of their most basic concepts such as culture, society, the self, rationality, and human nature.
In anthropology we study ourselves, precisely because it requires us to
change our conception of who 'we' are, from an exclusive, Western 'we'
to an inclusive, global one. To adopt an anthropological attitude is to
drop the pretence of our belonging to a select association of Westerners,
uniquely privileged to look in upon the inhabitants of 'other cultures',
and to recognize that along with the others whose company we share (albeit
temporarily), we are all fellow travellers in the same world. By comparing
experience - 'sharing notes' - we can reach a better understanding of what such
journeying entails, where we have come from, and where we are going.
TIM INGOLD Argonauts of the Western Pacific (1922) by Bronislaw Malinowski. A classic account of the interrelationship between magic and the ceremonial exchange of valuables in the South Seas by one of the founders of modern anthropology. Malinowski's methodological introduction established the standard for future anthropological fieldwork. Return to Laughter (1954) by Elenore Smith Bowen (pseudonym of Laura Bohannan). A vivid and moving description of life and death in a Nigerian village as it copes with a smallpox epidemic. The book was one of the first to provide an introspective account of the fieldwork experience. Witchcraft, Magic and Oracles among the Azande (1937; abridged edition 1976) by Edward Evans-Pritchard. A description of Azande beliefs about witchcraft, magic, and sorcery. Evans-Pritchard's theoretical insights about the nature of human rationality have been very influential, the book being quoted as much by philosophers as anthropologists. Yanomamo: The Fierce People (1968) by Napoleon Chagnon. A compelling study of the well-known Amazonian be, whose traditional violent way of life is now under threat from deforestation and the activities of gold miners. Chagnon argues that their social organization is a dynamic process controlling their chronic warfare.
The Interpretation of Culture (1973) by Clifford Geertz. A collection of essays by America's leading anthropologist examining the concept of culture, its role in society, and how it should be studied. Anthropology and Anthropologists: The Modern British School (1973) by Adam Kuper. Anthropology is perhaps best understood through its history. Kuper's well-written account of the theories and characters involved in the development of British social anthropology is the best there is. Orientalism (1978) by Edward Said. A controversial critique of the West's interpretation of 'the Orient that questions some of our most basic assumptions about ourselves as Westerners. Time and the Other: How Anthropology Makes its Object (1983) by Johannes Fabian. A fascinating discussion of how anthropology uses time to define the relation ship between the self and the other. The Gender of the Gift (1988) by Marilyn Strathem. A spirited critique of cross-cultural comparisons that examines initiation rites and ceremonial exchange in a Melanesian society where male-female relations are based on gift exchange. Companion Encyclopedia of Anthropology: Humanity, Culture and Society (1994) edited by Tim Ingold. Consisting of 38 essays on a diversity of topics, it is a comprehensive and readable overview of current thinking in the subject. ARCHAEOLOGY: INTRODUCTION
Paul Bahn
Archaeology is the study of the human past - from the earliest tools to yesterday's garbage - through its material remains. It developed over the course of centuries from a natural curiosity about the past into antiquarianism and eventually the unique blend of science and art that characterizes archaeology today. It covers a vast array of topics, from the Stone Age to recent times, and encompasses many specialities, such as Egyptology and underwater archaeology. Although it is associated in most people's minds with excavation, this is in fact only one of the many ways that information can be obtained about the past; and archaeology now calls on specialists from many other subjects, and especially from the sciences, to extract an ever increasing range of evidence in order to team more about, to understand, and to explain the form and behaviour of past societies.
The archaeological excavator is not digging up things, he is digging up people ...
the life of the past and the present are diverse but indivisible ... Archaeology, in so
far as it is a science, is a science which must be extended into the living and must
indeed itself be lived if it is to partake of a proper vitality.
MORTIMER WHEELER Archaeology from the Earth (1954) by Mortimer Wheeler. A classic text by one of modem archaeology's greatest pioneers and practitioners. The Archaeologist's Handbook (1986) by Jane McIntosh. A useful and readable survey of how we know what we know about the past. Past Worlds: The Times Atlas of Archaeology (1988) edited by Chris Scare. A major encyclopedic survey of past cultures by a battery of specialists. Archaeology: Theories, Methods and Practice (1991) by Colin Renfrew and Paul B. A leading textbook that explains, with examples from all over the world, how archaeologists obtain the evidence to answer the wide range of questions that interest them. The Collins Dictionary of Archaeology (1992) edited by Paul B. The most up-to-date reference book offering definitions of sites, cultures, artefacts, technical and theoretical terms. Understanding Archaeological Excavation (1993) by Philip Barker. The best available introduction to archaeology's traditional methods of extracting information from the ground.
Time Detectives (1995) by Brian Fagan. A collection of essays comprising a wide variety of case studies that show how archaeology uses modem science to obtain information about the past. The Cambridge Illustrated History of Archaeology (1995) edited by Paul Bahn. A fully illustrated survey of archaeology's history, from its beginnings to the present, in all parts of the world. The Story of Archaeology (1995) by Paul B. A beautifully illustrated collection of 100 spreads - 'archaeology's greatest discoveries' - that display the subject's tremendous range. INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY Anthony Burton
This is a new subject: the term 'industrial archaeology' appeared in print for the first time in 1955. It can be loosely defined as the recordings and investigation of the remains of industrial buildings and structures. At first, the work was largely limited to the period of the Industrial Revolution and that was generally taken as being centred on the vast range of developments that took place in Great Britain in the 18th and early 19th centuries. A feature of the early years was that much of the investigation was left to amateurs doing work on local cities. Over the years the subject (and its literature) has developed, so that it has become worldwide and extended to cover the recording and, where appropriate, conservation of industrial sites from any period. There has also been a movement to place the sites in their human and social as well as a technological context.
It is difficult to carry our minds back to a time when buildings of such
overwhelming presence were not familiar objects, and to understand the impact: their
first appearance must have made. They belonged to a whole new range of man-
made objects of superhuman scale, by means of which the transformation of
England from an agricultural to an industrial country, and later from a largely
rural to an urban one, was given physical form.
J .M RICHARDs The Functional Tradition (1958) by J M Richards. A seminal work that showed industrial buildings were worthy of study, and through Eric de Mare's superb photographs disclosed they could even be beautiful. Industrial Archaeology (1972) by Arthur Raistrick. One of the first, and one of the best, attempts to show how the subject could be treated in a logical and scholarly fashion. Remains of a Revolution (1974) by Anthony Burton. A study of the classic period of the British Industrial Revolution, which combines a study of the physical remains with their human history. Industrial Archaeology (1975) by Neil Cossons. A standard work which deals systematically with the different branches of the subject, and an ideal starting point for beginners. Industrial Archaeology (1976) by Theodore Anton Sanck. This is an introduction to American industrial history, based on a detailed look at a number of key sites. Monuments of Industry (1986) by Geoffrey D Hay and Geoffrey P Stell. Although it is limited to Scotland, it is a model of how sites should be recorded in words, photographs, and drawings. Civil Engineering 1839-1889 (1991) by Mike Chrimes. One of the few books to look at engineering structures on a worldwide basis. TECHNOLOGY: INTRODUCTION Trevor I Williams
Today, technology is generally regarded as the application of science for practical purposes, but it must be remembered that many technologies - such as the smelting and working of metals and the processing and weaving of fibres - were well developed before science as it is now understood existed at all. Others, such as plastics, have emerged almost within living memory. The term 'technology' (as the German technologie) was coined in 1777 by Johann Beckmann of Gottingen.
The most important and urgent problems of the technology of today are no
longer the satisfaction of the primary needs or archetypal wishes, but the
reparation of the evils and damages wrought by the technology of yesteryear.
DENNIS GABOR A History of Technology: The Twentieth Century c. 1900 - 1950 volumes 6 and 7 (1978) edited by Charles Singer, E J Holmyard, A R Hall, and Trevor I Williams. This is the recognized comprehensive work on the history of technology, from the dawn of civilization to the mid-20th century. It deals primarily with the Middle East, Egypt, Europe, and North America. Science and Civilisation in China (1954) edited by Joseph Needham. This multi-volume work, internationally acclaimed - commenced in 1954 and still appearing - complements the above with its penetrating and largely original study of the history of technology in China, relating this to the Middle East and Europe. This is available in an abridged form: The Shorter Science and Civilisation in China (1978-97; continuing) by Colin A Ronan. An Encyclopaedia of the History of Technology (1990) edited by Ian McNeil. A team of 20 acknowledged experts cover the history of technology from the Stone Age to the Space Age. Oxford Illustrated Encyclopedia of Invention and Technology (1992) edited by Monty Finniston. One of eight volumes of the comprehensive Oxford Illustrated Encyclopedia. Chambers Science and Technology Dictionary (1988) edited by P Walker. The latest version of Chambers Technical Dictionary, which first appeared some 50 years ago. A comprehensive and reliable guide to many thousands of technical terms. The Power of the Machine (1992) by R A Buchanan. Reviews the social implications of technological revolution, worldwide, and finds it to be very uneven. The Materials Revolution (1988) edited by T Forester. A collection of reprinted articles from a variety of sources, intended for the general reader. The Uses of Life: A History of Biotechnology (1993) by R Bud. Although biotechnology has been practised for millennia - as in brewing - it has become an important industrial force only in comparatively recent years. This book is the first authoritative review of its history. MATERIALS
Trevor I Williams
The term 'material' covers a range of substances from which things can be made. While some fall into broad categories - such as metals and plastics - others have little in common except their utility. Such, for example, are ceramics and glass, wood and leather, all used from the dawn of civilization but now appearing in increasingly sophisticated forms.
Today, plastics generally denote some kind of synthetic material - such as polythene or nylon - but it must be remembered that similar materials abound in nature and have long been in common use. Such, for example, are rubber and shellac. The first important artificial product to be developed commercially was celluloid (originally Parkesine), a form of cellulose nitrite plasticized with camphor, invented by Alexander Parkes in 1865.
Metals have played so important a role in the history of civilization that they have been used to designate whole epochs. The Stone Age was followed by the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, and - since roughly the mid-19th century - the Steel Age. For the greater part of human history no more than eight metals were in common use - gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, zinc, tin, and mercury. Platinum was introduced in the early 19th century and only more recently have aluminium, magnesium, and titanium been used in substantial quantities. Others, such as tungsten, vanadium, chromium, molybdenum, and nickel are used in relatively small quantities for special purposes such as making alloys or electroplating.
The whole of our present material civilization depends on the efficient
harnessing of power, but the control of this power is made possible only by
the use of many varieties of metals and alloys. Without metals no railway,
aeroplane, motorcar, electric motor, or turbine could operate.
W A ALEXANDER AND A STREET Artifice and Artifacts: 100 Essays in Materials Science (1992) by Robert W C. A compilation of articles written over a span of 25 years by an acknowledged expert in the field. Engineering Materials: An Introduction to their Properties and Application (1980) by M F Ashby and D R H Jones. A guide to the choice of materials for particular purposes. Advancing Materials Research (1987) by Peter A Psaras and A Dale Langford. A review of recent progress in materials-
science research. Physical Metallurgy (1974; 3rd revised edition 1993) edited by Robert W Cahn and Peter Haasen. Generally rated the most authoritative and up-to-date book in this field. Metals in the Service of Man (1972) by William Alexander and Arthur Street. A short, reliable guide for the general reader. A Hundred Years of Metallurgy (1963) by W H Dennis. A good general account of developments in metallurgy from roughly the middle of the 19th century. Metals, Ceramics, and Polymers (1974) by 0 Wyatt and D Dew-Hughes. A comprehensive review of three major fields, effectively linking engineering and science. Pioneers in Polymer Science (1989) edited by Raymond B Seymour. Basically a biographical study, but contains much background information. The First Century of Plastics (1963) by M Kaufman. A comprehensive review, published under the imprint of the Plastics Institute. NONRENEWABLE ENERGY
Alan Williams
The majority of the country's energy, with one or two exceptions, is produced by fossil fuels or a combination of fossil and biofuels. This is reflected in a considerable number of publications directed towards combustion but, because of the importance of the subject, these are generally specialized books in science and engineering. Most general energy books are preoccupied with the fact that fossil fuels are finite and consequently look very much to the future and to alternative energy sources such as renewable energy suppliers or, indeed, nuclear energy.
The meek shall inherit the earth, but not the mineral rights.
PAUL GETTY The Energy Question (1992) by Gerald Foley. This is a well-known book which deals with systems and resources - including coal, petroleum, natural gas, and the tar sands and oil shales. It also deals with energy flows and storage, which is a necessary pan of combustion in a world where climate warming and pollution are pre-eminent in one source. The last pan deals with the future, including energy forecasting and conservation. Energy Around the World: An Introduction to Energy Studies. Global Resources, Needs, Utilization (1984) by J C McVeigh. This book covers such sources as petroleum, natural gas, hydro power, and biomass, and then moves into future energy sources. Again, this is a very general book. The major energy sources, such as coal and petroleum, are treated at approximately the same level as solar energy, geothermal energy, and so on. Energy (1984) by Joseph Priest. A good general coverage of energy and just enough on combustion. Energy and the Atmosphere: A Physical-Chemical Approach (1986) by Ian M Campbell. An interesting analysis of atmospheric pollution, including a useful introduction to combustion.
An Introduction to Combustion (1993) by Warren C Strahle. A detailed scientific analysis of all aspects of combustion. Not for the beginner. Combustion and Pollution Control in Heating Systems (1994) by V I Hanby. An interesting book detailing the principle of combustion and pollution control in the context of heating systems. Combustion of Liquid Fuel Sprays (1990) by Alan Williams. A good coverage of liquid-fuel sprays and, more importantly, the key aspects of combustion pollution control applicable to almost any fuel. Coal: Resources, Properties, Utilization, Pollution (1995) edited by Orhan Kural. A useful contemporary survey of all aspects of coal. Fire: Technology, Symbolism, Ecology, Science, Hazard (1993) by Hazel Rossotti. Combustion can have adverse consequences and fire is a classic case. Well illustrated. Dictionary of Energy Technology (1979) by Alan Gilpin and Alan Williams. A last resort if the words are unfamiliar. RENEWABLE ENERGY
Mary Cobbett
The natural world has many complex processes for maintaining its own survival. If we want to survive into the future - and have a relatively smooth ride - our best bet lies with understanding and working with those natural processes, rather than trying to 'conquer' nature. Technologies that support rather than harm the environment exist in the form of obtaining power from wind, the sun, and rain. Utilizing methods of environment-conscious building and sewage systems and generally being aware of the conservation of energy that we use every day are all positive ways of assisting the Earth in coping with the pressures we lay upon it. Through a combination of cost-effective energy-efficient improvements and low-impact renewable energy; technologies it may be possible to cut the use of fossil fuels by half. In many pans of the world fossil fuels have never been a viable option, whereas the abundance of sun and wind in some areas are infinite resources waiting to be tapped.
It's only when we put our energies into what we're for, rather than
what we're against, that we can really change things.
PAUL ALLEN Energy Without End (1991) by Michael Flood. Shows how the UK can start to meet the challenge of switching to less polluting, renewable energy resources. Positive and comprehensive, recommended reading for anyone concerned about the future of energy use and the environment. The Future of Energy Use (1994) by Robert Hill and others. Introduction to the uses of different kinds of energy and their social and environmental impacts through-out the world. Power Surge (1994) by Christopher Flavin, and Nicholas Lenssen. The world is being pushed towards more efficient, decentralized, and cleaner energy systems, and this clearly outlines the massive changes ahead in transport, the home, and society. The Solar Electric House (1993) by Steven Strong. This will tell you everything you need to know to decide whether photovoltaics are for you, including system options and economics; how to determine your electricity requirements; stand-
alone and interactive systems; designing a solar house; and descriptions of all key components. Real Goods Solar Living Resource Book (8th edition 1994) by John Schaeffer. A guide to all aspects of solar, wind, water, and other sustainable resources: solar panels, water pumps, batteries, and so on. Chapters on home safety, ecology, food growing, and how to make a living that doesn't compromise your values. It has become the bible of the US alternative-energy world. Despite being aimed at the US market, it is also a treasure trove for UK readers.
Windfarm Location and Environmental Impact (1988) by Alexi Clarke. Increasingly becoming a very topical subject, this is an important assessment of a hitherto relatively unexplored field. Also looks at other siting constraints such as conflicting land uses, public attitudes, and planning permission.
Wind Power for Home and Business (1993) by Paul Gipe. A comprehensive reference book covering all aspects of modem wind-energy machines - the new wind machines are efficient, powerful, and inexpensive in the long run. Contains lists of manufacturers, test centres, and so on in many countries, including the UK, the USA, and continental Europe. Micro Hydro Design Manual (1993) by Adam Harvey and Andy Brown. Examines every stage of planning and installation of a small-scale system. Worked examples with illustrations and notes to help with all the practical aspects of the project, with detailed sections on turbines, governing, drive systems, electrical power, and maintenance. Micro-Hydro Electric Power (1986) by Ray Holland. Concise, reliable introduction to the technology of small-scale water power. Micro-Hydro Power (1991) by Peter Fraenkel and others. Essential for those involved in designing, implementing, or operating microhydropower schemes in developed and developing countries. Covers civil works, economics, turbines, electrical power, and more. APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY
Colin Garden
Technology usually implies engineering and machinery but these are only part of what has become known as appropriate technology or AT. Advocates of appropriate technology aim to provide solutions to the problems resulting from poverty and mass unemployment in developing countries and they are concerned as much with the social appropriateness of the technologies they use as they are with techniques. They aim to benefit all members of a community, not just the well-educated and the wealthy, and to support, rather than replace, local strategies. As the books listed will show, AT is about a self-help, community-based approach to development and making the most economical use of available resources and skills.
If that which has been shaped by technology, and continues to be so shaped, looks
sick, it might be wise to have a look at technology itself. If technology is felt to be
becoming more and more inhuman, we might do well to consider whether it is
possible to have something better - a technology with a human face.
E F SCHUMACHER Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics as if People Mattered (1973) by E F Schumacher. Introduces the concepts of 'intermediate' and 'appropriate' technology. Schumacher argues that the pursuit of profit and unlimited economic growth will not provide solutions to the problems of the modern world. The AT Reader: Theory and Practice in Appropriate Technology (1985) by Marilyn Carr. The standard introduction to AT. Explains the origins of the idea and demonstrates its application in a wide range of contexts. Appropriate Technology: Technology with a Human Face (1978) by P Dunn. Written by an engineer; covers the actual practice of appropriate technology in a clear, simple style. The Third World Tomorrow (1980) by Paul Harrison. First-hand reports on projects in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Shows how the concepts of appropriate technology, people's participation, self help, and small-scale enterprise are put into practice. The Economies of Small: Appropriate Technology in a Changing World (1990) by Raphael Kaplinsky. A study of the economics of AT. Gives a good overview of the development of the AT movement and its concern with environmental, social, and economic issues. Moves from case studies of AT in developing countries to considering the relevance of an AT approach in industrially advanced countries. Tinker, Tiller, Technical Change: Technologies from the People (1990) edited by Matthew Gamser, Helen Appleton, and Nicola Carter. Emphasizes the need for 'experts' to recognize local innovation when offering technical assistance to poor communities. Seventeen case studies of locally developed technologies.
The Critical Villager (1993) by Eric Dudley. A look at the cultural aspect of appropriate technology. The author argues that, if technical aid is to be effective, development workers must give due consideration to local culture and conditions. HISTORY OF COMPUTING
Doron Swade
The electronic digital computer has emerged as one of the most significant features of late-20th-century technology. The word 'computer' is now universally associated with electronic digital devices of which the desktop personal computer is perhaps the most common example. But as recently as the 1950s computers were not machines but people who performed calculations. Some of the finest minds of past centuries have attempted to build calculating devices to relieve humans from the tedium and difficulty of calculation. An account of these attempts and the development of machines for arithmetic calculation into the versatile modern electronic computer is a rich and fascinating tale. The following selection captures the major features of the history and prehistory of computing from the different standpoints of a variety of authors.
Who can foresee the consequences of such an invention?
LUIGI MENABREA, 1842 Computing before Computers (1990) edited by William. Aspray An authoritative compilation of book chapters covering the prehistory of computing by five leading computer historians. An accessible account of calculating devices from mechanical contrivances starting with the abacus and ending with the early electronic calculating machines of the 1950s. Passages from the Life of a Philosopher (1864) by Charles Babbage. Less about computing than about the views and recollections of the so-called first pioneer of computing. A highly readable and delightfully mischievous book, autobiographical in nature, by the beleaguered, controversial designer of vast mechanical calculating engines in the 19th century. Irascible Genius: A We of Charles Babbage, Inventor (1964) by Maboth Moseley. Energetic biography of Charles Babbage. Provides a vivid portrait of Babbage's life and his ultimately doomed efforts to construct mechanical calculating machines. Charles Babbage and his Calculating Machines (1991) by Doron Swade. Short, nontechnical, and well-illustrated book written to accompany the Babbage bicentennial exhibition at the Science Museum, London. Bit by Bit: An Illustrated History of Computers (1985) by Stan Augarten. Arguably the best single-volume history of computing, starting with the earliest mechanical devices and ending with the early days of the personal-computer revolution. The Dream Machine: Exploring the Computer Age (1991) by Jon Palfreman and Doron Swade. Popular account of computing written to accompany a BBC TV series. History and prehistory is used as a context for the modem computer, especially the personal computer and its emerging multifunctional role. A Computer Perspective: Background to the Computer Age (1990) by Charles Eames and Ray Eames. Superbly illustrated time-line history of computing. Essentially a captioned visual history starting with the electromechanical census devices of the 1890s and ending with the electronic devices of the 1940s. Early British Computers: The Story of Vintage Computers and the People That Built Them (1980) by Simon Lavington. A short, invaluable account of British pioneering developments in electronic computing during the crucial three decades from the 1930s to the 1950s. The Origins of Digital Computing (1982) by Brian Randell. Seminal collection of original historic papers in the history of computing from the mechanical devices of the 19th century to the electronic machines of the 1940s. Some material is inevitably technical. An essential reference source. COMPUTING Jack Schofield
In one sense, computing is just part of the electronics industry. The boom in computers has been produced by the availability of low-cost integrated circuits - silicon chips - which powered earlier booms in pocket calculators, video-games consoles, and other consumer products. (That's why it's called Silicon Valley, not Computer Valley.) In another sense, computing is special because a computer is a tool for processing information. No one finds it threatening that binoculars and telescopes allow us to see further, or that wheeled and winged vehicles enable us to travel faster. However, the idea that computer 'brains' can store more data and process it faster and more accurately produces all sorts of phobias. But computers are not mysterious. They are machines, designed by men and manufactured for profit. Understanding the process and its context will help remove any such fears. That's important, because computing is one of today's biggest industries, and the one on which many of our futures depend.
The best way to predict the future is to invent it.
ALAN KAY Microchip: The Story of a Revolution and the Men who Made It (1985) by T R Reid. The power of the chip industry is based on one big idea, the Monolithic Idea that you could combine different kinds of components on an integrated circuit. In the late 1950s, this idea came separately to two men, Robert Noyce and Jack Kilby. Its application launched the Information Revolution. The Soul of a New Machine (1982) by Tracy Kidder. A novelistic account of how a new we of computer came together out of the efforts of hardware designers and software writers. If Kidder had been lucky, the machine would have been a huge success. As it wasn't, the story now has little historical interest, though it's still the only computer book to have won its author a Pulitzer Prize. Father, Son & Co: My Life at IBM and Beyond (1990) by Thomas J Watson Jr and Peter Petre. IBM is by far the world's largest computer company, and dominated the business for 25 years from 1964. Tom Watson Jr, son of the company's founder, was the man most responsible. Innovating for Failure: Government Policy and the Early British Computer Industry (1989) by John Hendry. In the 1940s and 1950s, the British computer industry was at least level with the Americans and miles ahead of the Japanese. at went wrong? Computer Lib (1987) by Ted Nelson. Nelson understood the microcomputer industry and self-published a book about it in 1974 - which is impressive when you remember the microcomputer wasn't even invented until 1975. At the time it was a mixture of handbook and religious tract for the freaks and hackers who got the industry rolling. It's still a cult classic. West of Eden: The End of Innocence at Apple Computer (1989) by Frank Rose. One of the ideas that drives the computer industry is that a couple of young hackers can start a company in their garage and develop it into a multibillion dollar international corporation. The two Steves, Jobs and Wosniak, did that at Apple, before losing control of their company ... Gates (1993) by Stephen Manes and Paul Andrews. In 20 years, Bill Gates went from college dropout to the world's richest individual: according to Fortune magazine, his personal net worth is about $12.9 billion. The success of Microsoft, Gates's company, was bound up with the huge success of the personal computer, particularly the IBM PC-compatible, for which Microsoft supplies most software. The Cuckoo's Egg (1990) by Clifford Stoll. at starts as an attempt to account for a few cents turns into a hunt for a mystery hacker and then into international espionage. It sounds like a techno-thriller but it's nothing more than the truth. The book thus provides more insight into the world of hacking than the many more sensationalized accounts. Virtual Reality (1988) by Howard Rheingold. A pioneering account of the origins of cyberspace, and where it might take us.
Mind Children: The Future of Robot and Human Intelligence (1988) by Hans Moravec. Moravec, a leading roboticist, thinks that we may be moving from the biological to the postbiological world, and that our true children may not be flesh and blood but self-replicating machines. CYBERSPACE Wendy M Grossman
Cyberspace is one of the hot topics these days. Most of the books on the market that talk about it are geared towards telling people how to get on-line and what to do when they get there. Those books are useful, but they're not much fun to read, and they're not much use as an introduction for people who don't want to go on-line themselves but just want to know what's happening out there. The books on this list are geared towards the latter type of reader.
It is a region without physical shape or form. It exists, like a standing wave,
in the vast web of our electronic communication systems. It consists of electron
states, microwaves, magnetic fields, light pulses and thought itself
MITCH KAPOR AND JOHN PERRY BARLOW Surfing on the Internet (1995) by J C Herz. The ultimate travel guide to cyberspace, whether you want to go there or not. Hen samples Al sorts of different Internet offerings and reports back with a lot of humour. The Media Lab (1987) by Stewart Brand. The Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was set up in 1985 to bring together artists and computer scientists to invent the future of technology. Brand's reporting on the many projects and thinkers at the lab introduces many of the concepts behind today's new developments. Cyberia: Life in the Trenches of Hyperspace (1994) by Douglas Rushkoff. The youth culture of today: acid-house rock, virtual reality, on-line communities, and cyberpunks. Virtual Reality: Through the New Looking Glass (1993) by Ken Pimentel and Kevin Teixeira. An introduction to the technology behind virtual reality and what can be done with it. Great Mambo Chicken and the Transhuman Condition: Science Slightly Over the Edge (1990) by Ed Regis. Not specifically about cyberspace, but in its entertaining Tom Wolfe style recounting of the further reaches of science it wanders into the related areas of artificial intelligence and artificial life. The Hacker Crackdown (1992) by Bruce Sterling. Sterling is best known as a science-fiction writer, but a series of raids in the US inspired him to write this non-fiction book to explore the extension of law and civil liberties to what he and many others like to call the Electronic Frontier. The Cuckoo's Egg (1989) by Clifford Stoll. The more we depend on computer net-works, the more vital it is that they have adequate security. This is the story of an astronomer turned computer-security specialist who set out to solve the small accounting problem of a $0.75 discrepancy and wound up helping to trap an international hacker. Neuromancer (1984) by William Gibson. This science-fiction novel, Gibson's first, is the book that invented the word 'cyberspace'. The story of a data thief and the development of artificial intelligence inside a computer matrix, this book is somewhat difficult to read; it launched a new type of science fiction, known as 'cyberpunk'. PARANORMAL Wendy M Grossman
Every year a great tidal wave of books is published that defies everything we know about science on subjects like UFOs, psychics, faith healing, ghosts, alternative medical treatments, spontaneous human combustion, creationism, astrology, and even angels. If that weren't bad enough, more books promote pseudoscientific myths that have little basis in fact. The books below attempt to redress the balance and go a long way to show that truth, in many cases, really is stranger than fiction.
No more things should be presumed to exist than are absolutely necessary.
WILLIAM OCCAM Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences (1988) by John Allen Paulos. One reason pseudoscience and paranormal claims seem so convincing is that most people are so innumerate they can't evaluate their likelihood. Paulos shows you how. Psychic Investigator (1991) by James Randi. Randi turns his experience of 35 years' worth of paranormal investigation to explaining psychic phenomena like dowsing, psychometry, and spiritualism. Based on a 1990 television series.
Science: Good, Bad, and Bogus (1981) by Martin Gardner. Martin Gardner was for many years the mathematical-games columnist for Scientific American; his second passion is debunking improbable claims and bad science. Sorry, You've Been Duped! (1986) by Melvin Harris. A historian ferrets out the truth behind well-known mysteries such as the Amityville honor and the Bloxham tapes. The Mask of Nostradamus (1990) by James Randi. This sceptical biography of the world's most famous prophet unearths some of the background to his most often quoted prophecies. The Prevalence of Nonsense (1967) by Ashley Montagu and Edward Darling. An enjoyable and authoritative debunking of myths and common fallacies. Pseudoscience and the Paranormal: A Critical Examination of the Evidence (1988) by Terence Hines. A lively and thoroughly researched introduction to all areas of pseudoscience, in which category Hines includes psychoanalysis. The Mismeasure of Woman (1992) by Carol Tavris. A brilliant re-analysis of many of the most prevalent myths about women, many of them due to bad science. Subtitled Why women are not the other sex, the inferior sex, or the opposite sex'. The Mismeasure of Man (1981) by Stephen Jay Gould. Intelligence testing pervades our education systems and thinking. Gould investigates the shameful history of intelligence research and its abuse. High Weirdness by Mail (1988) by Ivan Stang. A book that proves there's nothing so weird that you can't find people who believe it. A directory of the world's most bizarre mailing lists, with samples of their output.

Media

The products of the media, apparently ephemeral, in fact lodge themselves in the mind. They are. in part, what everybody knows: they help significantly to form popular consciousness, popular knowledge and belief. Even ten. twenty years later we can clearly remember, in detail, radio sequences, television images, newspaper cartoons and commentaries. Books, too, are talismans, though of a slightly different kind. As our punchdrunk century staggers on, they seem to promise reliable solidity; they are a doorway to the certainties and apparently clearer visions of the past and a guarantee, in the present, that someone else is with us (an expert, an authoritative voice), that we are not alone. The books on this list discuss the ethics of media communication, its methods and its power. They concern us all — for we are all listeners, viewers, readers, the validating figures in the communicative act.

See DIARIES (Fitzgerald); POLITICS (Woodward. B.)

Appelbaum, J. and Evans, N. How to Get Happily Published
(1978) *✓ Delightfully fresh American approach to the publishing jungle: author's-eye view makes an intriguing contrast with that of Unwin (qv). Everything from how to write a book proposal, to how to cope with success. A splendid, and very helpful, read. Bailey, Herbert Smith The Art and Science of Book Publishing (1971) it
Excellent American book on the why and how of publishing. Berg, A. Scott Max Perkins: Editor of Genius (1978)
Breathless biography of the great editor who discovered and nursed such authors as Wolfe, Fitzgerald and Hemingway. Perkins was himself a better writer than Berg, for evidence of which see Editor to Author: The Letters of Maxwell E. Perkins. See DIARIES (Fitzgerald) Berry, W. T. and Poole, H. E. (eds) Annals of Printing (1966) 0 a
Chronological encyclopaedia of printing and publishing, from Gutenberg to 1966. Exhaustive, competent, engrossing.
Briggs, Asa A History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom (3 vols, 1961-70) P Authoritative survey. Essential background to the more personal accounts of Curran (qv) and Goldie (qv). Also: Essays in the History of Publishing; Communications and Culture, 1823 -1973. See HISTORY/BRITISH Curran, Charles A Seamless Robe (1979)
Ex-director of the BBC examines what he calls its "competent integrity". How philosophy (liberal, utopian, sometimes paternalistic) is translated into practice. Urbane antidote to the sharpness and concision of H. Greene: The Third Floor Front (herewith recommended). Dessauer, John P. Book Publishing: What It Is, What It Does
(1974) 0 lk Authoritative study of the publishing business in America. No sentiment: the text concentrates on real problems of real publishers — royalty-rates, production schedules, fulfilment mix-ups, the problems and the joys. Regularly updated. Evans, Harold Pictures on a Page (1978) it Ill* One of a remarkable series of manuals on newspaper production and design, but of general relevance because of its discussion of the effect of design on meaning. Presentation of news — or manipulation? The argument begins here. Fascinating commentary on some of the most famous news photographs of the century. Fisher, John Funny Way to be a Hero (1973)
*Iv Marvellous evocations of British radio comedians of the last 50 years, the last great flowering of the music-hall tradition. Routines and gags lovingly reconstructed, but criticism is sharp as well. Also: Call Them Irreplaceable (on international stars of the century) Goldie, Grace W. Facing the Nation (1977)
The author was a founder-member of the team that made BBC television the best in the world. This book is an account of its development from 1936 to the present, and particularly of its handling of politics and current affairs (the author's own special field). Hackett, A. P. and Burke, H. J. 80 Years of Best Sellers (1977)
A book of records, a chronicle of American times and tastes and a fascinating account of book sales and reading habits. For literary criticism along similar lines see Claud Cockburn: Best Sellers.
Halberstam, David The Powers That Be (1979)
rk
In-depth journalism about journalists — Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Time magazine and CBS television — recreates newsroom tensions, anxieties, with all the verve of moves like The Front Page or All the President's Men. Packed with incident, thin on comment and analysis. A riveting, but finally tabloid book. (Compare with Talese: The Kingdom and the Power, on the New York Times.) See HISTORY/AMERICAN; POLITICS (Woodward, B.) Higham, David Literary Gent (1978)
Witty autobiography of a leading London literary agent from the 1920s-1970s. Good on publishers, music, jacks-in-office of all kinds; sensitive account of service in the two World Wars. Hoggart, Richard The Uses of Literacy (1957)
Seminal study of 1950s British working-class culture, as expressed in and influenced by publications and entertainments. We may think our attitudes have changed since 1957, just as our entertainments have moved on: re-reading Hoggart may make us revise that view. (See also Hall and Whannell: The Popular Arts; 1. D. Halloran: The Effects of Mass Communication.) Also: Speaking to Each Other(vol I, About Society; vol II, About Literature) King, Cecil The Cecil King Diary, 1965 -1974 (2 vols, 1972-75) *Ite British press baron (he controlled four of the major national tabloids) walks like a cat amid contemporary great affairs, reflects cattily on personalities and issues. Endearing as the memoirs of an influential crank; enduring as a picture of the interrelation between politics and the popular press. Should be read with the memoirs of his (equally forthright) editor-in-chief, Hugh Cudlipp: Publish and Be Damned, and with Richard Boston: The Press We Deserve. Knopf, Alfred A. Publishing Then and Now, 1912-64(1964) Reminiscences by the dean of American publishers. McLean, Muni Magazine Design (1969)
Massive volume; contains reproductions of covers of famous magazines of America, Britain and many European countries. A feast for the eyes, but also full of useful information. McLuhan, Marshall The Medium and the Massage (1967)
In the 1960s, guru NtcLuhan's terrifying vision of an existential, all-engulfing trash culture (electronic media replacing books) seemed as self-fulfilling a prophecy as Orwell's Newspeak. It remains (just) an unfulfilled prediction, but no less scary for all that. Useful critical analysis by Rebecca West in McLuhan and the Future of Literature (1969). Also: The Gutenberg Galaxy; Understanding Media, etc Merrill, J. C., Bryan, C. R. and Alisky, M. Foreign Press: A Survey of the World's Journalism (1970)
Excellent concise survey of the newspaper publishing industry all over the world. Some knowledge of the American press is assumed, but the book is so valuable that this should not deter serious students. Nowell-Smith, Simon (ed) Letters to Macmillan (1967)
Who wrote to Macmillan (the famous British publisher)? Tennyson, Gladstone, Lewis Carroll, Churchill, Yeats, all the Sitwells, Shaw, Joyce, Housman — to say nothing of Hugh Walpole and Ethel M. Dell. The Macmillan replies are splendid, too. See AUTOBIOGRAPHY (Macmillan) Packard, Vance The Hidden Persuaders (1957)
Twenty-five years ago, in an age of innocence, this book on the processes and ethics of mass advertising was greeted with shock, horror and (on the advertisers' part) self-righteous disengagement. Nowadays advertising uses exactly the same methods, we have all digested Packard's words — and still we allow ourselves to be persuaded. Failure of communication? Or of moral standards? The conman's mark often willingly cooperates in being conned. Compare with Inglis: The Imagery of Power (1972) Peterson, Theodore Magazines in the Twentieth Century (1964) Scholarly survey not only of many noted magazines per se but also of the social scene that saw their birth. Sober, but important and useful. Steinberg, S. H. Five Hundred Years of Printing(1955)
0
Standard history of printing methods and achievements. Dry, concise narrative (no analysis or comment), dull illustrations, but the ground is ably covered.
Wilk, Max The Golden Age of Television (1976)
*Mk
Affectionate survey of the first 30 years of American TV. Do you find today's programmes junk, look back with longing to Studio One, Mr Peepers, Jack Benny, Art Carney, Dave Garroway et al? Should you? Williams, Raymond Communications (1962)
Founding-father textbook, laid the basis for systematic British study of the subject. Analysis, criticism and proposals for the future of all forms of mass communication. Details and examples are dated and entirely UK-oriented, but the general conclusions are still stimulating and essential. 1969 edition recommended. Also: Culture and Society, 1780-1950; The Long Revolution; Television, Technology and Cultural Fonn. See DRAMA

Medicine and Psychiatry

Owners' manuals for laymen on body and mind vary in tone from arcane to simplistic. from the mysterious to the plumber's guide. The prime qualities of the books on this list are authority, accessibility, and a feeling (elusive to some medical writers, and to some surgeons and doctors too) that humanity is common to the owner of the body and to the mechanic who maintains it.

See BIOGRAPHY (Jones, Pickering, Woodham-Smith); DIARIES (Hall); MATHEMATICS (Bernard); PSYCHOLOGY (Burton); SEX (Breecher. Kinsey. Masters, Peel); SOCIOLOGY (Goff-man, Jacoby)

Belleveau, F. and Richter, L. Understanding Human Sexual Inadequacy (1971)
Shorter, more readable version of Masters and Johnson. Recommended reading, before visiting a sex or marriage counsellor, for those convinced that they — or their partners — will never make it sexually again. See Kaplan; SEX (Masters) Bernard, Claude, French, 1813-1878. Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine. Rec: Adler Boston Women's Health Collective Our Bodies, Ourselves (1972) * Clever, helpful health-guide. Describes symptoms and treatments in straightforward style; aimed principally at women, but helpful to men. Particularly lucid on childbirth and on sexuality. Unfrightening: a good book to have in a household with young teenagers. Boston Women's Health Book Collective. American, Pub. 1973. Our Bodies, Ourselves. Rec: Boston PL Copeland, James For the Love of Ann (1973)
The story of an autistic child and of how she and her family coped, taken from her father's diaries. Moving and readable. Dubos, Rene Mirage of Health: Utopias, Progress and Biological Change (1959)
Discusses the social, cultural and environmental factors that have guided humanity's search for health. Lively, sometimes shocking, look at past and future, makes the point that perfect health and happiness are an unhealthy illusion; unhappily, they are outside the realm of possibility. Freud, Sigmund New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis (1963) LS*?
Like other profound thinkers, Freud writes with enviable clarity and simplicity. He is also often extremely funny. Many of his ideas have fallen into disrepute or into the wrong hands, but he is still the single most influential figure in this field. These lectures are an ideal key for newcomers to his work. But see Timpanaro, The Freudian Slip, for a Marxist critique. Also: The Psychopathology of Everyday Life; The Interpretation of Dreams; Civilization and Its Discontents, etc Fuchs, V. R. Who Shall Live? Health, Economics and Social Choice (1975)
**
Economist's view of the overwhelming problems facing the American system of health services. Equal access to medical care does not exist; heredity, environment, money and personal lifestyles influence the quality of care citizens receive. Challenging; readable; ends with specific recommendations for change. Galen, Greek, ca. 130-200. On the Natural Faculties. Rec: Adler Aquinas GBWW Gray, Henry Gray's Anatomy (1901)
Detail, structure and anatomy of the human body in all its gory glory: a must for doctors, students, artists and the medically curious. Naming of parts starts here. Isted, Charles R. Learning to Speak Again . . After a Stroke (1979) Author suffered a stroke; the book details his experiences, and the exercises and therapies which helped him recover. Of particular value for stroke victims and their families. Hippocrates, Greek, ca. 460-ca. 377 BCE. Medical Writings. Rec: Adler GBWW Seymour-Smith Kaplan, Helen Singer The New Sex Therapy (1974)
Though clinical in language, a fairly rousing study of male/female dysfunction. Concentrates, helpfully and sympathetically, on methods of treatment. See Belleveau; SEX (Masters) Kovel, J. A Complete Guide to Therapy (1976)
Reliable account and evaluation of most forms of psychotherapy on offer in Britain and the USA. Laing, R. D. The Divided Self (1960)
Laing has a guru status which annoys and repels many, but does not totally invalidate what he has to say (the classic double bind!). His work is programmatic as well as analytical: what we can do about what we are, the creative use of self. Also: The Politics of Experience; Sanity, Madness and the Family (with Esterson) Lehrer, Steven Explorers of the Body (1979)
a
Fascinating anecdotes about some of the dramatic events that shaped modern medicine; many important discoveries, it seems, were flukes. Stories about glamorous heroes — Pasteur, Jenner, Curie, Salk — as well as about backroom researchers who never made it to the front. McNeill, William H. Plagues and Peoples (1977) * Eye-opening account of the importance of disease in explaining many puzzling events in human history — the conquest of the Aztecs by smallpox not Spaniards, the decline of the Roman Empire explained by measles. Miner, Jonathan The Body in Question (1978)
*
The body, Miller says, sends us signals about itself, and our response to them, our view about pain, location of organs, ease and dis-ease, largely governs whether we feel well or ill. The book also includes a useful account of the history of medicine. Tough style in parts, but generally a vivid study of a neglected subject. Parish, Peter Medicines: A Guide for Everybody (1976)
Useful if prosaic reference book giving details of commonly-used prescriptions and over-the-counter drugs, their side effects and their selection. Potts, M., Diggory, P. and Peel, J. Abortion (1977)
Comprehensive account of the history of abortion, its sociological, biological and legal aspects. Stuffed with statistics, a welcome counterblast to opinionated tracts. Sacks, Oliver Awakenings (1973)
Sacks was in charge of a colony of elderly patients totally incapacitated as children by the 1920s world epidemic of encephalitis lethargica. In the late 1960s treatment became possible for these people; their awakening is the subject of this tremendous book. Sacks, Oliver. American, 1933- . The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. Rec: Good Reading Selye, Hans The Stress of Life (1976)
Classic study: how the human body responds to a huge variety of nonspecific stresses, and how many diseases are totally or partially the result of life's pressures. Don't worry though: it also outlines programmes for minimizing stress. Singer, C. and Underwood, E. A. A Short History of Medicine (1928) a *
Still in print 50 years after its first appearance; regularly updated; outstanding. Also: A Short History of Anatomy from the Greeks to Harvey Smith, Anthony The Body (1968) * Clear, comprehensive: "your body made easy". Smith makes statistics come to life. Also: The Human Pedigree; Blind White Fish in Persia Sontag, Susan Illness as a Metaphor (1978)
How tuberculosis and cancer have been "encumbered by the trappings of metaphor" to the detriment of the patient. Many of Sontag's elegant examples are from literature, including Kafka, Dickens, Joyce, Auden. Illuminating reading. See Miller. Stodard, Sandol The Hospice Movement (1979)
The hospice movement is revolutionizing — some say civilizing — the care of the dying, particularly those dying of cancer. This attractive, if emotionally written. account will bring solace and comfort to many.
Sutherland, S. Breakdown (1976)
Experimental psychologist's account of his own mental breakdown, in which he evaluates the alternative forms of treatment available, from a scientific point of view but with his own experience in mind. An honest, disturbing book. Szasz., Thomas The Second Sin (1973)
Szasz is the leader of the anti-psychiatrists, who believe that mental illness is a convenient label applied by society to non-
conformist elements; his polemically argued view that mental illness is a myth has been widely adopted by critics of orthodox psychiatry. Also: The Myth of Mental Illness; Psychiatric Slavery; Law. Liberty and Psychiatry. See Wing. Szasz, Thomas. American, 1920- . The Myth of Mental Illness. Rec: Counterpunch NF Thomas, Lewis The Lives of a Cell (1975)
Thomas was puffed by the New Yorkeras one of the "few scientists who can make his work intelligible to a non-scientific reader". Here he looks at the workings of cells and the way that our knowledge of them is used in the conquest of disease. Also: The Medusa and the Snail: More Notes of a Biology Watcher Trevor-Roper, Patrick The World through Blunted Sight (1970) This "inquiry into the influence of defective vision on art and character", by a leading London opthalmologist, is beautifully written and handsomely illustrated. The author's selection of great artists is discriminating and his language is non-technical. Veut, Ilza (trans) Huang Ti Nei Ching Suwen (c. 2600 BC)
The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine is the origin of both the concepts of yin and yang and of the science of acupuncture. Its elegance and imagery make reading it a pleasure: no risk of pins and needles here. Veut's translation is clear and readable. Wing, J. K. Reasoning about Madness (1978)
So much nonsense has been written about mental illness that Wing's account of orthodox psychiatry is especially valuable because he destroys the arguments of the anti-psychiatrists with impeccable logic. He also gives a clear account of the difference between Western and Russian psychiatry. Also: Institutionalism and Schizophrenia: A Comparative Study of Three Mental Hospitals. See Laing; Szasz. S. James Adelstein
S. James Adelstein prepared himself for his career by studying science at M.I.T. and medicine at Harvard. His profession has developed both educational pursuits, with clinical research in nuclear medicine and scientific research in radiation biophysics. He has been a member of the Harvard Medical Faculty since 1960 in the Departments of Anatomy, Medicine and Radiology. Currently, he serves as dean of Academic Programs.
Despite doubters, reading has been a good way to prepare for the last five centuries. Claude Bernard. An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine (1865). H. C. Greene, trans. New York: Dover, 1957. (Pb)
For the general reader it marks a watershed in the intellectual history of medicine from an empirical, somewhat mystical vocation to a profession based on scientific reality and experimentally verifiable phenomena. Personally it provided me with the conviction, on historical grounds, that medicine is an exciting field for scientific inquiry. Hans Zinsser. As I Remember Him: The Biography of R. S. Boston: Little, Brown, 1940.
Most embryonic physicians are caught up in the crusades against infectious disease at one time or another (Sinclair Lewis must have known it when he wrote Arrowsrnith). What a delight to have a sprightly and irreverent biography that deals not only with an important life in bacteriology and epidemiology but with a broader academic world as well. When I entered Harvard Medical School, I thought all professors would have the wit of Dr. Zinsser; some did not. J. Robert Oppenheimer. Science and the Common Understanding. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1954.
The discoveries and applications of physical science have had a profound effect on thought and action in the twentieth century, but those of us not educated in modern physics have had to rely on others to convey the essence of this intellectual revolution. Oppenheimer does it very well in this series of Reith Lectures given in 1953: to his explanation he adds considerable philosophic reflection, of the kind that has made him one of the more enigmatic scientists of our time. A year after these lectures were published, I temporarily broke off the study of medicine to learn more physics. Norbert Wiener. The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society (1950). New York: Avon, 1967.
Computers and robotics are now so commonplace that we think of them as standard household and factory items. Along with technical developments that made them possible there developed a profound theory on information and control. This book is a milestone in the documentation and translation of that theory for the educated but nonspecialized reader. Professor Wiener was my instructor in one undergraduate course on mathematics. He made me understand something about mathematical insight: his book is insightful too. Eve Curie. Madame Curie (1937). Vincent Sheean, trans. New York: Doubleday, Doran, 1938.
A true scientific heroine. Mme. Curie's struggles, tragedies and triumphs are well known. Her daughter, Eve. tells the story with sensitivity and the proper attention to detail. From this book I learned much about scientific tutelage, the promise of radioactivity in the service of medicine and the struggle of women for equality and recognition. Howard Frazier
For over twenty-five years, Howard Frazier has educated and enthused medical students at the Harvard Medical School. His subjects include internal medicine and nephrology. In addition, he pursues research issues in personal health care as the director of the Institute for Health Research at the Harvard School of Public Health. His personal health-care routine includes canoeing and camping.
Books both reflect and influence how I look at the world; for that reason I have considered a group of books from early in my life — the decade from age twelve to age twenty-two, when I think I was more open than I am now. I have organized my comments without going back to these books and astonishing myself with my poor memory. To modify Cromwell: "What you have is a portrait of me, painted with warts and all." The decade includes my transition from sheltered suburban Chicago, to enrollment at the University of Chicago at age sixteen, to the South Pacific as an enlisted man in World War II. Fyodor Dostoevsky. The Brothers Karamazov (1915). Andrew MacAndrew, trans. New York: Bantam, 1981. (Pb)
The Brothers Karamazov was my introduction to rationality gone mad. The Grand Inquisitor and Ivan were characters of a rational age and were "rational" men. They set my idea of freedom on its head. I remember being impressed with the cleverness of the Grand Inquisitor's questions, with such plausible arguments for social control. And then, having been led along the argument to the advantages of not being free, how repugnant I found the conclusion. The Grand Inquisitor led me down to a stream from which I couldn't drink. But the conclusions I couldn't accept introduced me to the notion that books were something more than engrossing plots. Thinking sometimes was uncomfortable. Percy W. Bridgman. The Logic of Modern Physics (1927), New York: AMS Press, 1980.
Bridgman's Logic of Modern Physics whacked me over the head and knocked out many of my preconceptions about science. Bridgman makes the point that established, codified science depends on well-defined concepts like mass, time and length. But at its edge, science has concepts that are fuzzy and unreliable, and that to avoid ambiguity and make progress at frontiers, science must make use of operational definitions. It was my first exposure to the process of science: the gummy, artistic business of inspired hunches that it really is. He made me more critical of the science I was reading about, more willing to ask questions for which there weren't any pat answers. The notion that Bridgman's physics — the queen of the empirical sciences — proceeded by fits and starts, fumbling, making mistakes, backing up, was a very liberating one when I became a laboratory scientist. Ruth F. Benedict. Patterns of Culture (1934). Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1961.
Just after I left the affluent, suburban monoculture and moved on to the prideful, turbulent University of Chicago. I read Ruth Benedict's Patterns of Culture. That there could be worlds so different from any I knew, that they could even exist, made me a wild cultural relativist. She suggested to me that things that seemed utterly different might, in some sense, be equivalent, and forced me to think about which were better and which were worse, or what meaning "better" and "worse" had. What was the relation between the Grand Inquisitor's case for social control and the variety of Benedict's illustrations of systems that work? How could I choose?
Sophocles. Antigone (ca. 440 B.c.). Michael Townsend, trans. New York: Harper & Row, 1962. (Pb)
In my sea bag in the Pacific I made room for two books, a copy of the Greek tragedies and the paperback version of The Pocket Book of Verse. In Antigone I had my first introduction to the notion that good people, serving legitimate ends, might come into irretrievable conflict with the state, and that they might be destroyed as a result. After the Grand Inquisitor and Benedict, I could see better that events might be set in motion by an individual, basically good, who could then be struck down by a society that had its own imperatives. It took me beyond good guys and bad guys to the importance and the price of standing against the established order. Morris Edmund Speare, ed. The Pocket Book of Verse (1940). New York: Pocket, 1940.
For an enlisted man, The Pocket Book of Verse ideally suited a life that was full of distractions and interruptions. It exposed me, in small doses, to language. It opened up the power of words other than expletives. It went beyond mere direction to the discipline of making language express something exactly. It was The Pocket Book that led me to Shakespeare and the Bible, to language that was lovely, carefully crafted, condensed, precise, masterful. Henry David Thoreau. Walden (1854). New York: Penguin, 1983. (Pb)
Walden I read later, as I observed my contemporaries rising to what I saw as wealth. It has been important to me. Its message was to simplify my life, to resist the attractiveness of the dominant cultural objective of pursuing goods, to resist a narrow definition of fortune. It gave me the courage to do other things and to accept the consequences. The first time, 1 read Walden against a background of a zillion other books. The second time, I was older, an academic running around with a stethoscope in my pocket, part of the pack. Now I occasionally urge it on others with the hope it will help to reduce the distractions in their lives, that it will convince them their lives won't end if they don't own it all. Thoreau, Henry David. American, 1817-1862. Walden. Rec: Adler Bloom Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 Good Reading Utne Ward Civil Disobedience. Rec: Adler Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 Seymour-Smith Essays. Rec: Bloom Emanuel A. Friedman
Emanuel Friedman is Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Harvard Medical School and a practicing physician at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. Professor Friedman "rose from humble beginnings," he writes, "in the depression of the 1930s as the son of an impoverished Brooklyn rabbi who sanctioned spirit over ritual, learning for its own sake, and every man's essential role in providing for his less fortunate neighbor."
Nil sine inagno labore: This erstwhile motto of Brooklyn College, my alma mater, admonishes that we should try to optimize our natural gifts for personal achievement as well as for the greater good of mankind by applying ourselves with full effort and enthusiasm. John F. Fulton. Harvey Cushing: A Biography (1946). Salem, N.H.: Ayer, 1980.
A convincing biography of one of the fathers of modern medical and surgical precepts who strove for perfection in all he did; his success illustrated the merits of combining focused perseverance with eclectic interests, an example for us all to try to emulate. Victor Hugo. Les Miserables (1862). New York: Penguin, 1982. (Pb)
While this thrilling story gripped me in my formative years with its suspense and adventure, it served to convince me that a worthy cause merited the struggle, win or lose and regardless of the odds. Charles Darwin. The Origin of Species (1859). New York: Penguin, 1982. (Pb)
Reading this, I first began to appreciate that great visions could be derived from fresh perceptions and perspectives about commonplace and properly detailed observations. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield (1850). New York: Advent, 1983. (Pb)
No other book read in my youth gave me the kind of keen insights into the plight of mankind; the pathos of Dickensian London first awakened my social conscience and the idealistic need to contribute and share. Isaac H. Flack. Eternal Eve (1950). London: Hutchinson, 1960.
The compellingly graphic representations of suffering womankind painted here sensitized me in the prefeminist era and motivated my unflagging lifetime interest in obstetrics. William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White. The Elements of Style (1959). New York: Macmillan, 1979. (Pb)
This fabled little guide has served me for decades as an unfailing template for clear communication in both writing and speech, emphasizing the importance of simplicity and directness. Stephen J. Gould
Stephen J. Gould is a paleontologist and educator. For seventeen years he has taught geology, biology and the history of science at Harvard, now as the Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology. His popular books and monthly column, "This View of Life" in Natural History magazine have drawn a new generation to science.
As a kid growing up in New York City, I played stickball and poker instead of doing a lot of reading. I wasn't a nonreader — I read at an average age and an average rate. The passion for reading came later in college. Charles Darwin. The Origin of Species (1859). New York: Penguin, 1982. (Pb) George G. Simpson. The Meaning of Evolution (1949). New Haven: Yale University Press, 1967. (Pb) Joe Di Maggio. Lucky to Be a Yankee (1946). New York: Grosset & Dunlop, 1951. George Eliot. Daniel Deronda (1876). New York: New American Library, 1979. (Pb) The Bible. King James version (1611). Book of Job. Colin McArdle
Colin McArdle is an assistant professor of radiology at the Harvard Medical School and practices medicine at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. He was educated in Britain and maintains that he "came over for a year and stayed." He writes that his education was in no way superior but his accent seems to help in this country.
There is a distinct danger that with every year devoted to the medical profession, a doctor will become less and less literate. Charles Dickens. Bleak House (1853). New York: Bantam, 1983. (Pb)
I was forced to read this book at the age of fourteen and have never read another Dickens novel since. This is a warning to overzealous teachers. Fortunately, I was not forced to read Austen or Eliot at this time. Thomas Pynchon. The Crying of Lot 49 (1966). New York: Bantam, 1968. (Pb)
I was encouraged to read this book by a somewhat pedantic English scholar. It was, he attested, a significant work, a masterpiece. I struggled through a mishmash of pretentious symbolism and concluded that it was a load of nonsense. It was the literary equivalent of the emperor's new clothes. At that point, I experienced a great sense of freedom, for previously I had stood in awe and silence before all those incomprehensible books and films that seemed to flourish in the 1960s and beyond. Now I was liberated.
P.S. Included in this group are Godard, Resnais, Fowles and many others. P. G. Wodehouse. Leave It to Psmith (1923). New York: Random House, 1975, (Pb)
The first of many Wodehouse books I read. The earliest books are his best. His somewhat wry and incongruous descriptions are continuously amusing. I have consciously tried to adapt his techniques to the lectures I give. I am not as successful as he but I get the occasional laugh.
George Eliot. Middlemarch (1871-72). New York: Bantam, 1985. (Pb)
A magnificent monumental novel — the greatest in the English language. I remember the reluctance with which I put the book down and the apprehension I felt as I picked it up again as I anticipated some further disaster befalling one of my favored characters. It may not have altered my life but it certainly enriched it. George Eliot. The Mill on the Floss (1860). New York: Penguin, 1980. (Pb)
Actually it was a dead heat between this book, the Radiology Journal and Sports Illustrated. The radiology journals I read because I need to know what is happening in my chosen profession. They consist of usually rather dull treatises which can be loosely divided into fiction, nonfiction and loosely based on fact. Occasionally, something really exciting appears. A knowledge of Sports Illustrated allows one to communicate endlessly with other males (except Harvard professors). It is regarded as trash by most women. The Mill on the Floss gets the nod because of the first book describing Maggie Tulliver's childhood. Pure magic. Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice (1813). Tony Tanner, ed. New York: Penguin, 1972. (Pb)
Any book I have read over seven times must have had some influence, though I am at a loss to think how exactly this has occurred. It is the most perfectly written book in the English language that I know and Elizabeth Bennet the most perfect woman against whom all others pale.

Music

Of all the arts, music is one of the most elusive of description. Its "product" is intangible; our response is personal and sensuous; objectivity (for example, analysis) can hinder as much as enhance our pleasure. All this makes music a challenge for writers: to express the inexpressible, define the indefinable, distil an essence, is to make the blueprint for a butterfly. Prose-
poetic ramblings have been excluded from this list: the few "aesthetics" books left are outstanding for objective sense, and for the insight they offer into the creative process. Other, easier areas (history, memoirs, analysis) offer wider choice, and our selection is based on the interest of a subject, the excellence of its treatment, or usually (and happily) on both.

See AUTOBIOGRAPHY (Shostakovich); DIARIES (Anderson, Wagner); MATHEMATICS (Hofstadter)

Austin, William Music in the 20th Century (1966)
0 1) ✓
Excellent survey of music many listeners find inaccessible. Copious musical examples; consistently illuminating. See Whittall.
Balanchine, G. and M. F. Balanchinels Festival of Ballet (1977) di af History of ballet; scene-by-scene guides to over 400 ballets; commentaries by leading choreographers, composers and critics. Does the same service for ballet as Kobbe (qv) does for opera. Barzun, Jacques Berlioz and the Romantic Century (1950)
An important critic of 19th-century art in all its forms here concentrates on one of the great enigmatic composers of the last century. Also: Darwin, Marx, Wagner, The House of Intellect Berlioz, Hector Memoirs (1870)
Berlioz, one of the great showmen of 19th-century musical life, was a wit and a fine writer. For amateurs of the 1840s artistic scene, a book not to be missed. Good translation: Cairns (1969). Bernstein, Leonard The Joy of Music (1960)
it a
Conductors shouldn't be allowed to write this well. A book explaining music for the layman: simple, clear language — and the same energy and sense of enjoyment as Bernstein provides when conducting or composing. Blesh, Rudi Shining Trumpets: The History of Jazz (1948)
a./
Comprehensive introduction to the history and aesthetics of jazz. Controversial, as no two musicians agree about what jazz was, or is. Written in breathless Hollywoodese, but sound.
Bowra, Sir Cecil Maurice, English, 1898-1971. Primitive Song. Rec: Ward Charters, Samuel. American, 1929- . The Country Blues. Rec: Counterpunch NF Collier, James L. The Making of Jazz (1978)
Oa
Refreshingly non-partisan, affectionate history of jazz up to and including the 1970s. Its innovative and accurate explanations of what actually happens musically in a jazz performance are perhaps its greatest value. Cooke, Deryck The Language of Music (1959)
VP
A book on the ability of music to express emotional, non-musical ideas. Fine treatment of a neglected area of aesthetic philosophy. You'll need to read music to get the most from it. Cross, M. and Ewen, D. The Milton Cross Encyclopedia of the Great Composers and their Music (1969)
Programme notes on most of the greatest works of classical music. Handy; readable; stimulating. See Tovey. David, H. and Mendel, A. The Bach Reader (1945)
Delightful collation of documents, letters, etc, germane to Bach and his life. Einstein, Alfred Mozart (1946)
Ma*
Affection and scholarship combined; deals with both life and works; has never yet been bettered. See DIARIES (Anderson)
Fischer-Dieskau, Dietrich The Fischer-Dieskau Book of Lieder(1976) Enjoyment of lieder partly depends on appreciation of the subtle marriage of words and music. This book, with German texts and English translations (by Bird and Stokes), provides a basis — and is also a splendid anthology of German lyric poetry. Frith, Simon The Sociology of Rock (1978)
Full of information on how the music business operates and why it plays such a large part in the lives of young people. Dense, sociological style makes the book a tough but rewarding read. Green, Benny The Reluctant Art (1962)
Subtitled "Five Studies in the Growth of Jazz": penetrating critical essays on Biz Beiderbecke, Benny Goodman, Lester Young, Billie Holiday and Charlie Parker. Move on to this after Lee (qv) and in conjunction with Collier (qv) and Wilmer (qv). Green, Stanley The World of Musical Comedy (1968)
di _I
Backstage showbiz glitter-chat on some of the greatest shows of the century. Irresistible. Greenfield, Edward (ed) The Penguin Stereo Record Guide (annual) Reviews, alphabetically by composer, of available stereo recordings. Rosettes indicate quality. Invaluable for record collectors — and engrossing for other music-lovers too.
Gustin, Molly. American, 1923- . Tonality. Rec: Aquinas (music) Hadley. Benjamin (ed) Britannica Book of Music (1980)
Oa
Excellent encyclopaedia, in one volume rather than Grove's (Sadie, qv) twenty. See Hindley. Harman, A., Metiers, W. and Milner, A. Man and His Music (1969) Good, standard history of music, accessible to the layman but with sound scholarly pretensions. See Mellers; Robertson.
Heilbut, Anthony. American, 1938?. The Gospel Sound. Rec: Counterpunch NF Hindley, Geoffrey (ed) Larousse Encyclopaedia of Music (1971.) * Superb. Magnificent pictures; well-researched, readable, thorough text (one volume, too). Steak meal where many encyclopaedias offer only soup. Hoffnung, Gerard The Hoffnung Symphony Orchestra (1955) Inspired, zany cartoons. If music was never like this, it's music's loss. Also: The Maestro; The Hoffnung Companion to Music Hopkins, Antony Understanding Music (1979)
dl _1
Informative survey of the processes and "meaning" of music, with a fresh, stimulating approach to the pleasures of listening. You'll need to read music to get the utmost benefit from it, alas. Also: Talking about Musk; The Nine Symphonies of Beethoven, etc Hutchings, Arthur The Invention and Composition of Music (1958) P Textbook of harmony, counterpoint and other compositional techniques. For beginners, one of the clearest and best. Jacobs, A. and Sadie, S. (eds) The Pan Book of Opera (1969)
Shorter than Kobbe (qv) but covers similar ground. Short articles about opera composers, synopses of principal works. If Kobbe is for dedicated opera-lovers, this is for the rest of us. See Sadie. Kirkpatrick, John (ed) Charles E. Ives: Memos (1972)
Ives the man was as quirky and mind-stretching as his music. A pleasure — and not just for fans.
Jones, LeRoi (Amiri Baraka). American, 1934- . Blues People: Negro Music in White America. Rec: Counterpunch NF Hungry Mind (music) Knapp, J. Merrill The Magic of Opera (1972)
Excellent layman's introduction to this most sumptuous of forms. Sections on the function of each of the basic components (libretto, aria, chorus, singers, staging) are followed by chapters on conventions, aesthetics and outstanding achievements in the medium. A thoughtful book, by an enthusiast who is never besotted. Not technical.
Kohl* Gustav The Complete Opera Book (1918)
Summaries of great operas, listed alphabetically by composer. Especially recommended to those who find plots of most operas arcane, simplistic or ridiculous — here are the facts to support this opinion. Updated edition (ed Hallwood) recommended. See Jacobs. Lee, Edward Jazz: An Introduction (1972) a Logan, N. and Woffinden, B. (eds) The Illustrated New Musical Express Encyclopaedia of Rock (1976)
fJ a ..1/
Useful collection of rock data. Thoroughly researched information on rock artists; subjective assessment of their work; informative and entertaining. Updated annually. Marsh, Dave. American, 1950- . The Heart of Rock and Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made. Rec: Counterpunch NF Mellers, Wilfrid Music in a New Found Land (1964)
Important study of American music, from its European and folk roots in the 19th century onwards. Very good on jazz; for concert music, supplement with Austin (qv). See Harman. Morgenstern, Samuel (ed) Composers on Music (1956)
Selection of composers' writings, from 1500 to the present day. Serious in tone; contains many fascinating, important documents. Munrow, David Instruments of the Middle Ages and Renaissance (1976)
a _I
Dry title conceals scholarly work of delightful freshness and zest. A passionate man discussing his passion. Superb. Newman, Ernest Wagner Nights (1949)
Definitive work on the Wagner operas; detailed analyses of the plot and music of each opera. See Wagner; DIARIES (Wagner) Nichols, Roger Ravel (1977)
Example of the Master Musiciansseries at its best. Each book clearly, briefly discusses a composer's life and works. For the layman in search of fairly deep biographical detail, excellent value. Nolan, Frederick The Sound of Their Music (1978)
Gloriously glossy showbiz biography of Rodgers and Hammerstein, cunningly blended with a cool critical appreciation. A book for fans — and also for those intrigued by why, as well as how, the musical evolved the way it did.
Oliver, Paul, English, 1927- . Blues Fell This Morning. Rec: Counterpunch NF Osborne, Charles (ed) The Dictionary of Composers (1977)
Short critical biographies, alphabetically arranged, of 200 great composers. Entries reliable, often detailed; critical judgements fresh and lively.
Palmer, Robert. American, 1945-1997. Deep Blues. Rec: Counterpunch NF Rauchhaupt, Ursula von (ed) The Symphony (1972) * Coffee-table book (size and weight of the average coffee-table). Pictures superb; text precise and meaty. Robertson, A. and Stevens, D. (eds) The Pelican History of Music (3 vols. 1962-68)
a
Short books with necessarily compressed judgements, and the usual shortcomings of an over-general approach. Covers earliest times to 1920 in 600 pages. Rosen, Charles The Classical Style (1973) M P*
Study of (mainly) Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven: how they wrote, how their style developed, their aesthetic ideals and technical means. Magnificent. You need to be able to read music — and it's worth learning, if this is the reward. Also: Schoenberg
Sadie, Stanley (ed) New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1980)
10a*-1 Musicians' and musicologists' bible; necessitates long shelves and a limitless purse. Musical equivalent of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. This, 6th, edition is completely revised and recast — but earlier editions make fascinating browsing, the cobwebby attics of the past. See Hadley; Hindley. Simon, George The Big Bands (1967)
The great days of swing recalled in breathless prose with interminable, fascinating detail. Who played third trombone with Tommy Dorsey in 1938, and what did he think of the caviar? This book will tell you, for sure. Simpson, Robert The Symphony (1966)
10 a *
Analyses of many great symphonies, historically by composer, from Haydn to the present day. You get most from it if you can read music, but nevertheless an essential book. Slonimsky, Nicolas Lexicon of Musical Invective (1969)
Great critics of the past and how wrong they were: the worst reviews ever written. Read it to confirm your prejudices — about music you hate, or the art of criticism. Stravinsky, I. and Craft, R. Conversations with Igor Stravinsky (1959)
One of the 20th century's leading composers, Stravinsky was also wit, raconteur, caustic and irreverent commentator on everything around him. This selection concentrates mainly on matters musical. Also: An Autobiography; The Poetics of Music. See White. Tovey, D. F. Essays in Musical Analysis (1936)
lia
Stimulating analyses of standard classics; originally programme notes, but enduringly valuable for perception and indeed wit. Also: Essays and Lectures on Music: Beethoven; Musical Textures. See Cross. Varese, Louise Varese: A Looking-glass Diary (1972)
What is the quest for new sounds all about — and why is it so hard for the modern creator to reach an audience? These chatty memoirs of a thorny, uncompromising creator (perhaps even a genius) suggest some answers. Wagner, Richard Stories and Essays (c. 1880)
Wagner's stories inhabit the same world as his operas; his essays are often outrageous, always stimulating. See Newman. White, Eric W. Stravinsky: The Composer and His Works (1966) 0* -f Admirable clarity; exhaustive thoroughness; elegant, clear style. Superb. Also: Benjamin Britten: His Life and Operas. See Stravinsky. Whittall, Arnold Music since the First World War(1977)
Study of 20th-century music, shorter and less comprehensive than Austin (qv), but outstanding for aesthetic criticism — a rare quality in books on this subject. Wilder, Alec American Popular Song (1972)10*
Huge critical survey of Kern, Berlin, Gershwin, Rodgers, Porter, Arlen and a dozen other equally distinguished men. Technical (musical examples crucial); useful glossaries and lists. For anybody interested in the popular music of this century, essential. Wilmer, Valerie As Serious as Your Life (1977)
What has jars been doing since 1960? This survey covers some of the trends (musical and sociological) and provides a critical introduction to the work of John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor and over 100 other luminaries. An enthusiast's book, ideal for reference — but its eager tone could breed enthusiasm, too. Also: Jazz People; The Face of Black Music; The Jazz Scene (with Charles Fox) CLASSICAL MUSIC
EARLY MUSIC - David Fallows
Broadly speaking, the notion of 'early music' has two quite separate meanings. The first is the history of Western music before Bach and Handel (both bom in 1685), an enormous repertory that goes back to Gregorian chant (reputedly assembled by Pope Gregory the Great around 600 AD) and includes a large number of major composers, among them Perotinus (c. 1200), Guillaume de Machaut (c. 1300-1377), Guillaume Dufay (c. 1400-1474), Josquin des Prez (c. 1450-1521), Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1425-1594), William Byrd (1543-1623), Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643), Arcangelo Corelli (1665-1713), and Henry Purcell (1659-1695). The second meaning is the application of historical performing techniques to any music before about World War H: there have been many changes in the construction of instruments, in the way performers react to music on the page, in the way they phrase the music, in aesthetic attitudes.
The 18th-century musician was taught to see the whole of musical history
as a hill rising gently and undulatingly out of the darkness, with the
music of his own time standing on the sunlit summit: the modern
musician is encouraged to view it as a rather alarming slope, studded like
Easter Island with titanic heads, far larger than life. And he may even
have an uneasy suspicion that the slope is a downward one.
THURSTON DART A Dictionary of Early Music (1981) by Jerome Roche and Elizabeth Roche. Thumbnail information on all the main composers, repertories, instruments and concepts in music down to the time of Monteverdi. This is an excellent and authoritative summary. Western Plainchant: A Handbook (1993) by David Hiley. A comprehensive orientation to the state of research on the melodies of the Catholic church, a repertory that formed the basic musical training of all composers before the Reformation and continued to have a massive impact on composers until the 19th century. Music in Medieval Europe (1989) by Jeremy Yudkin. Takes the story up to about 1400 with clear and engaging explanations and copious musical examples.
Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Music (1950) by Manfred F Bukofzer. This remains one of the most gripping books for the general reader who wants a glimpse at how a musical historian goes to work on early materials. Mainly concerned with the 15th century. The Rise of European Music, 1380-1500 (1993) by Reinhard Strohm. An extended panoramic view of how these central years are seen today, bursting with original and controversial insights. Music in the Renaissance (1976) by Howard Mayer Brown. An elegant bird's-eye summary of music from 1420 to 1600, with its focus on the main composers and their work. Music in the Seventeenth Century (1987) by Lorenzo Bianconi. Perhaps the clearest and most incisive recent survey of music in the years from the beginnings of opera to the time of Corelli. The Interpretation of Music (1954) by Thurston Dart .Though old and occasion-ally eccentric, this is a glitteringly brilliant introduction to the performer's problem in music down to the Baroque era. Authenticity in Early Music (1988) edited by Nicholas Kenyon. Essays that explore the problems of historical performance as seen today. After its publication nobody dared use the word 'authenticity' again, and performers were much more cautious in their claims of historical correctness. Early Recordings and Musical Style (1992) by Robert Philip. By exploring the earliest recorded performances, Philip draws attention to the many aesthetic changes within the last century, to musical styles that would not now be acceptable in any circumstances, and to how difficult it would be to reconstruct the sounds of the early 20th century if no recordings had survived. It is a solemn lesson to those attempting to recover the sounds of the 18th century and earlier. BAROQUE MUSIC David Maw
The word 'baroque' comes from the Portuguese barroco for a pearl of irregular or bulbous shape. It found its way into critical writing during the middle part of the 18th century, when it was used with a pejorative connotation; thus 'A baroque music is that in which the harmony is confused, charged with modulations and dissonances, the melody is harsh and little natural, the intonation difficult, and the movement constrained' (Jean Jacques Rousseau, Dictionnaire de musique). In modem times, the word has been used to refer to music of the period 1600-1750, irrespective of its ornateness or frowardness; what the general characteristics of the style are is still an open question. During the period, important developments were made in opera and instrumental music (the virtuosity attained in violin and keyboard repertories being noteworthy); and elaborate theories were formulated about the conveyance of the affections through music.
Music hath two ends, first to please the sense, and that is done by the pure
dulcor of harmony ... and secondly to move the affections or excite passion. And that is done with measures of time joined with the former. And it must be granted that pure impulse artificially acted and continued hath great power to excite men to act but not to think ... The melody is only to add to the diversion.
ROGER NORTH Music in the Baroque Era (1947) by Manfred Bukofzer. Though now old, this stately tome is still the best account of the developments in musical style during the period. Source Readings in Music History: The Baroque Era (1950) selected and annotated by Oliver Strunk. A selection of passages from contemporary writers is here presented in excellent translations. The topics covered are: the stile rappresentativo, musical practice, operatic rivalries and criticism, and developments in musical theory. Monteverdi (1962) by Denis Arnold. This is a vivaciously written account of the composer's life and work. Denis Arnold was the foremost scholar of 16th- and 17th-century Venetian music, and in this book he used his extensive knowledge to good effect in explaining Monteverdi's pivotal position between Renaissance and Baroque styles. The Purcell Companion (1995) edited by Michael Burden. An excellent collection of essays concerning many different aspects of the composer and his music, published to coincide with the tercentenary of his death. Couperin (1982) by David Turley. A brief and intelligent study of the most eminent composer of the French Baroque. Vivaldi (1978) by Michael Talbot. Vivaldi deserves to be better known for pieces other than the Four Seasons: Michael Talbot's book explains why. Rameau (1968) by Cuthbert Girdlestone. This is the classic work on one of the most characteristic and controversial musicians working in 18th-century France. In addition to his major contributions to musical theory, Rameau was a composer of considerable accomplishment. Scarlatti (1953) by Ralph Kirkpatrick. This elegantly written book covers every aspect of Scarlatti's life and work and also contains much interesting information about the performance of his 555 keyboard sonatas. Handel (1994) by Donald Burrows. Handel's was a varied life, often very much at the heart of society. Donald Burrows presents a balanced picture of the man, his context and work, righting the lopsided impressions that have arisen. Bach (1983) by Malcolm Boyd. This is a remarkable book, conveying a considerable breadth and depth of insight within relatively few pages. Of course, the subject matter warrants nothing less. CLASSICAL MUSIC David Maw
There is more general acceptance for the notion of a classical style in music - being that of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, according to Rosen's contention - than for a classical period. In so far as the latter has any validity, then it is to designate the years 1750-1820; but really the phenomenon is more localized than a simple temporal segment would suggest. The style is characterized by the formal conventions of the 'sonata principle', which are the stock in trade of sonatas, symphonies, concertos, string quartets, and operatic set pieces; these being the genres principally cultivated. The term 'classical' is justified both by the universality of these formal characteristics, and on account of the balance that they effect between the various elements of music; it has nothing at all to do with a recrudescence of antique values.
Nevertheless, the passions, whether violent or not, should never be so expressed as
to reach the point of causing disgust; and music, even in situations of the greatest
horror, should never be painful to the ear but should flatter and charm it, and
thereby always remain music.
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART The Classical Style (1976) by Charles Rosen. The definitive exposition of this subject. Source Readings in Music History: The Classic Era (1950) selected and annotated by Oliver Strunk. An anthology of passages from contemporary writers concerning changes in musical practice, operatic rivalry and criticism, and the musical life of Europe. The String Quartet (1983) by Paul Griffiths. The string quartet was one of the most significant developments of the 18th century. Paul Griffiths tells its story right up to the present day, cunningly structuring his book in the form of the music. The Piano: A History (1976) by Cyril Ehrlich. The invention and development of the piano had a more significant impact upon the nature of musical thought than did any other technological innovations before the production of sound by electronic means. Cyril Ehrlich is one of the most eminent socioeconomic historians of music, and his book a classic. C P E Bach Studies (1988) edited by Stephen L Clark. J S Bach's second son was one of the most unusual and influential of the composers who effected the transition between Baroque and classical modes of musical thought. This collection of essays (some rather technical) affords insights into many areas of a composer who merits greater attention. Haydn, his Life and Music (1988) by H C Robbins Landon and David Wyn Jones. This is an excellent survey of a long and productive life with much relevant back-ground material on the composer's artistic and cultural surroundings. The Mozart Companion (1956) edited by H C Robbins Landon and Donald Mitchell. For a composer as multifaceted and oft written about as Mozart, the best introduction is a collection of essays by various authors. The full range of his output is covered here by writers as distinguished as Friedrich Blume, Arthur Hutchings, Hans Keller, and the editors themselves. Beethoven (1985) by Denis Matthews. The author maintains an admirable distance on the life and the work, where these are elsewhere so often mythologized; but he conveys also the enthusiasm and awe that so monumental a subject requires. Schubert (1987) by John Reed. This is a good introduction to a composer who was caught between Classicism and Romanticism but properly belonged to neither. ROMANTIC MUSIC David Maw
The word Romantik entered the common currency of the German language after its use by E T A Hoffman in an essay on Beethoven's instrumental music, written in 1813. This owes more to Hoffman than to Beethoven, and it would be wrong to con-fuse the novel forms of Beethoven's later music, impelled by a complete fidelity to his material, with the formal vagaries of subsequent music, where expressive caprice was the guiding light. Romanticism can be dated, then, from around 1820; many of its traits lingered on well into the 20th century. While music was generally regarded in the 19th century as the highest art form, it frequently looked to literature and the fine arts for inspiration: symphonic poems, songs without words, nocturnes, evocations, fantasies, rhapsodies, and countless other pieces of a fanciful inclination were among the most experimental and typical genres cultivated. Yet, even where the form was ostensibly abstract - in symphonies, concertos, and sonatas - there was a strong suggestion that it was being narrated by the material, rather than emerging inexorably from it.
It is the art of music which most completely realizes this artistic ideal,
this perfect identification of matter and form. In its consummate moments,
the end is not distinct from the means, the form from the matter, the
subject from the expression; they inhere in and completely saturate
each other; and to it, therefore, to the condition of its perfect moments,
all the arts may be supposed constantly to tend and aspire.
WALTER PATER
Romantic Music (1984) by Leon Plantings. A highly readable introduction to the ideas and styles of music in the 19th century.
Source Readings in Music History, the Romantic Era (1950) selected and annotated by Oliver Strunk. This is an invaluable collection of excerptions presenting the literary background to romanticism and the writings of composer-critics of the period (Carl von Weber, Hector Berlioz, Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt, and Richard Waver). The Memoirs of Hector Berlioz (1969) translated and edited by David Cairns. Berlioz was no less significant as a literary figure than as a musical one. His memoirs are a compelling read, telling of his upbringing and education, literary and musical passions, amorous adventures, travels, life as a critic, and progress towards compositional success. David Cairn's translation is excellent. Berlioz (1982) by Hugh Macdonald. A considered appraisal of the man and his music by the most eminent scholar of the subject. The Cambridge Companion to Chopin (1992) edited by Jim Samson. It is a paradox that Chopin's music should be so classical in technique, given its highly romantic sound. This excellent collection of essays helps to explain why this is so, setting the music in the context of its influences, borrowed and bequeathed. One or two of the essays may be slightly too technical for the general reader; but most are quite approachable. Schumann and his World (1994) edited by R Larry Todd. Many minds come together here to consider the enigmatic work, elusive personality, and turbid milieu of one of the 19th century's most characteristic composers. Liszt (1990) by Derek Watson. Liszt's flamboyant personality and the legends that accrued around it have for a long time hindered evaluation of the compositional legacy. Derek Watson's excellent study rectifies this with a clear-sighted account of an oeuvre that is often masterly and frequently innovative. The Wagner Compendium, a Guide to Wagner's Life and Music (1992) edited by Barry Millington. To encompass Wagner in a single volume is an impossibility; I suspect that Barry Millington's compendium comes as close to achieving this unfeasible task as can be reached. Brahms (1990) by Malcolm Macdonald. Brahms rued his having been born 'too late'; the figure of Beethoven was a blessing and a bane to him. Malcolm Macdonald's is a careful study of a scrupulous and complicated artist. Tchaikovsky (1973) by Edward Garden. No account of Tchaikovsky could satisfactorily separate the life and the work; so Edward Garden integrated the two in a very sensitive evaluation. 20TH-CENTURY MUSIC Paul Griffiths
Two themes stand out in the history of Western music in the 20th century: change and accumulation. Instances of the first include, in the early part of the century, Schoenberg's break with tonal harmony and Stravinsky's renewal of rhythmic pulse; and the growing power of electronic technology, particularly since the World War II, has altered how music is composed, performed, and heard. at Western classical music has simultaneously accumulated has been a deeper awareness not only of its own past but of traditions outside itself, including especially the many musical cultures of Asia. Western composers in 1900 were working within a tradition that was essendally Germanic and that extended back no more than 150 years or so. Their colleagues now survey many centuries, and the world.
You cannot tell where music is going any more than you can tell
where people are going. Each time creates its own needs.
IGOR STRAVINSKY Modern Music: A Concise History (1994) by Paul Griffiths. A general introduction to the modern age in Western music, from Claude Debussy to the present. The next step would be to move to the following three volumes, which divide up the period, and which need some acquaintance with musical notation. Music in Transition (1977) by Jim Samson. A study of the first two decades of the century, and in particular of the breakdown of tonal harmony, as it occurred in the music of Arnold Schoenberg, Alexander Sabin, and others.
Music Since the First World War (1977) by Arnold Whittall. This is an excellent, companionable read; Whittall shows wide sympathies in considering how composers dealt with broadening musical possibilities. Modern Music and After (1995) by Paul Griffiths. This book works from the detonation of radical change that came in the late 1940s Gohn Cage, Pierre Boulez, electronic music) to the exuberant confusion of music in the 1990s. Stravinsky in Pictures and Documents (1978) by Vera Stravinsky and Robert Craft. From the time of The Firebird (1910) to his death (1971), Stravinsky was the dominant musical force by virtue of his influence and prestige, not to mention the variety and brilliance of his achievement. This compendium is full of tang, colour and insight, despite its other, quite un-Stravinskian, quality of disorder. The Music of Stravinsky (1988) by Stephen Walsh. For a more consistent view of Stravinsky's output - and also a lively one - this is the best choice. The author has been working on a major biography of the composer. Schoenberg (1975) by Charles Rosen. There should be more books like this: a concise introduction, steered, by the author's intelligence, between reverence and scepticism, and requiring from the reader nothing but curiosity. Silence (1961) by John Cage. A classic collection of essays by the man who persuaded us that music is not an art, still less a means of communication, but an attitude of mind, a way of being attuned, even to silence. JAZZ
Miles Kington
A year or two back I did a book for HarperCollins called The jazz Anthology which, if I did again now, I'd call A Jazz Anthology, but I wouldn't change a lot else; it's still quite a good sampler. In the introduction I see I wrote that most writing on jazz is not very good (including almost all the novels and poetry ever written on the subject) and I stick to that now. The best of it tends to be anecdotal, like the best conversation of jazz musicians, which explains this selection. The best musical history of jazz is not yet finished - Gunther Schuller has written the first two volumes and has got up to about 1940.
Most of the people who have any respect for jazz in this country
are those who can make a buck out of it.
BILLIE HOLIDAY We Called It Music (1992) by Eddie Condon. Condon embraced jazz, the guitar, and the bottle during the Prohibition years. He wasn't a great guitarist but he was a wonderful storyteller and this is the most funny, colourful, prejudiced account of jazz between the wars ever written. Sample phrase: 'I arrived at the club in a perfect state of equilibrium - half man, half whisky.' Raise Up Off Me (1979) by Hampton Hawes. Miles Davis's autobiography is commonly thought to be the toughest, frankest book by a modern black musician about drugs, racism, Charlie Parker, and so on. It isn't, though it's good. This is. The McJazz Manuscripts (1979) by Sandy Brown. Sandy Brown was a wonderful Scots clarinettist who learned to play at the sort of Edinburgh clubs where Sean Connery learned to be a teenage bouncer. He later became a genius of an acoustic architect and a damned good writer; this book contains all the writings he left behind, including an unfinished autobiography. Close Enough for Jazz (1983) by Mike Zwerin. Zwerin played trombone with Miles Davis in 1949 and never played with anyone as good again, but he did become the resident jazz writer on the International Herald Tribune (in Paris), where he still is, and, in my opinion, is the best jazz writer alive today. This is his odd, freewheeling life story, which takes in everything from playing on tours in Russia to inheriting a steel company he didn't want. (He has also translated a book by the wonderful French writer Boris Vim and written a sombre history of jazz under the Nazis.) Jazz Anecdotes (1993) edited by Bill Crow. The best collection of (genuine) jazz anecdotes ever printed. Bill Crow is a musician himself (very good bass player) and knows how to get, and tell, a story from other players. Mama Said There'd Be Days Like This (1991) by Val Wilmer. Val Wilmer is the complete opposite of the jazz stereotype. Typically, a jazz person is American, black, male, and heterosexual. Wilmer is English, white, female, and lesbian. She is also one of the best photographers and writers ever to fall in love with jazz, and has got closer inside black culture than most white people ever get. POP MUSIC
Charles Shaar Murray
Pop provides one of the broadest cultural umbrellas which the 20th century has to offer: sheltering beneath it can be found such wildly dissimilar flora and fauna as Bing Crosby and Howlin' Wolf, Gracie Fields and Madonna, Barry Manilow and Ice-. T, the Bay City Rollers and the Butthole Surfers. By the same token, pop books come in a bewildering variety of flavours and weights, as well as shapes and sizes. They range from potboiling biographies to train spotter's guides; from addled memoirs to academic tracts; from dryly fact-packed laundry listings to airily free-flying theory; from solemn social and cultural history to scabrously bawdy anecdote; from the most impenetrably parochial of subcultures to the most all-encompassingly ubiquitous manifestations of the international mass market. Pop means an infinite number of things to an infinite number of people, and the sheer diversity of the field has been well served by its equally diverse chroniclers.
Rock and roll is the most brutal, ugly, vicious form of expression - sly,
lewd, in plain fact, dirty ... rancid-smelling, aphrodisiac ... the
martial music of every delinquent on the face of the earth.
Fxalvx SINATxA The Faber Book of Pop (1995) by Hanif Kureishi and Jon Savage. With an 800-page celebration of precisely that diversity covering the full half-century and drawing on contributions from (among hundreds of others) Malcolm X, Angela Carter, Hunter S Thompson, Greil Marcus, Nik Cohn, Iggy Pop, Andy Warhol, Lester Bangs, Colin Machines, and Paul Johnson, Kureishi and Savage cater for every conceivable taste and interest, delivering as sumptuous a smorgasbord of pop-culch text bites as anyone has ever served up between a single pair of covers. AwopBopALooBop ALopBamBoom: Pop from the Beginning (1969) by Nik Cohn. Inaccurate, opinionated, shamelessly unfair, and unashamedly biased, this is the best and most influential book about pop music ever written by an Englishman. Barbecuing every sacred cow he could and - he was the first pop critic to damn the Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band as the emperor's psychedelic new clothes - Cohn wrote this book as a funeral oration for the corpse of pop at the end of the 1960s, a time when the Flash McTra., aesthetic he adored had been seemingly subsumed beneath a welter of solemnity and pretension. This eulogy for superpop is the most relentlessly quotable pop book ever written: Cohn's coining of the term 'boring old fart' is almost the least of his achievements. Mystery Train (1975) by Greil Marcus. Modem rock criticism starts here. Marcus was unravelling the subtexts of pop before most of his peers even knew what a subtext was, and these essays - on Robert Johnson, Sly Stone, Randy Newman, Elvis Presley, and the Band - address the expression, in popular music, of the classic themes of American literature, providing both cross-disciplinary continuity and a signpost towards new ways of listening. Hellfire: The Jerry Lee Lewis Story (1982) by Nick Tosches. The most audacious, imaginative, and unorthodox rock biography ever written: an intoxicating, magic-realist account of the life and times of a white 1950s rocker more radical and challenging than Presley could ever have dreamed of being, who straddled the implicit contradictions of who he was and what he did until they tore him apart. Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Music and the Sixties (1995) by Ian MacDonald. A virtuoso example of just how scholarly pop criticism can get, and also of how spectacularly this approach can pay off when it's done properly. MacDonald - the author, incidentally, of a rather good book about Shostakovich - analyses each and every Beatles song in order of recording and in doing so Links the band's rise and fall with that of the Sixties Dream. Psychotic Reactions and Carburettor Dung (1988) by Lester Bangs. The late Lester Bangs took the 1960s notion of 'new journalism' as far as anyone who ever wrote about popular music: he was pop's Tom Wolfe, Hunter Thompson, and Norman Mailer all stuffed into the same battered black leather jacket. This collection of a decade and a half's demented scribblings - on Kraftwerk, John Coltrane, the Clash, Elvis Presley, and his personal hero and bete noir, Lou Reed - is the most highly charged and deeply committed writing about pop available anywhere. For Bangs the music he wrote about was a matter of life and death, and it shows. Includes his famous essay James Taylor - Marked for Death.
The History of the Blues (1995) by Francis Davis. A huge story, intelligently told; Davis succeeds in his gargantuan task not least because he knows what to leave out. Witty, perceptive, compassionate, and incisive, this self-proclaimed 'pop critic's history of the blues' is the finest single-volume introduction to pop's primal root music that any general reader could desire. The Death of Rhythm and Blues (1988) by Nelson George. Whites - specifically, white males - have traditionally enjoyed a near monopoly on the analysis of popular music, even though the bulk of the music worth writing about has been black. Here Nelson George, the doyen of African-American pop commentators, redresses the balance (partially, anyway) and tells you what the white boys can't: that the great black music upon which modern notions of pop is founded thrived under segregation and lost much of its impetus and identity in the wake of the civil-rights movement, and that white patronage of the music and its makers has proved a far from unmixed blessing. The Ice Opinion (1994) by Ice-T and Heidi Siegmund. Rap is the most word-intensive form of pop since the mid-1960s heyday of Bob Dylan (whose 'Subterranean Homesick Blues' is itself one of rap's ancestor records), and therefore it's not surprising that rap's most prominent standard-bearer has a lot to say for himself, albeit with the aid of a ghostwriter. The chapters on race relations and the social origins of gang culture are fascinating and the chapters on sex rather less so, but the material on his famous conflict with Time Warner over his 'Cop Killer' song provides a unique account of a classic music-biz confrontation between a street hustler with a story to tell and a megacorporation with assets to protect. The Sex Revolts (1995) by Simon Reynolds and Joy Press. The best and most ambitious of the current crop of books dealing with pop's gender agenda, this transcends the narrow confines of the women-in-rock debate to examine what pop's treatment of sexuality is actually telling us. Sometimes irritatingly rock-centric (black music scarcely gets a look in), it's nevertheless challenging, well argued, and innovative. DANCE
Susanne Lahusen
Recent dance literature has expanded far beyond biography and technical manuals. Writers have looked at dance from all imaginable angles: dance as a form of communication, dance in its social, political, and cultural contexts, dance in education and therapy. The books here chosen range from general histories of both Western and non-Western traditions in stage and social drama, to biographical accounts and inspirational texts for the teacher and participant.
I would only believe in a God who knew how to dance.
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE The History of Dance (1981) by Mary Clarke and Clement Crisp. A comprehensive history, covering more than 2,000 years and crossing many cultural boundaries, that illustrates how dance has always played an important role in every society. Ballet and Modern Dance (1988) by Susan Au. A concise and lucid text, vividly describing the great performers and performances of the past, as well as exploring today's Western theatre dance. Time and the Dancing Image (1988) by Deborah Jowitt. A fascinating account of how European and American theatrical dance has evolved in its social and cultural settings during the last two centuries. Let's Dance: Social, Ballroom and Folk Dancing (1978) by Peter Buckman. Amusing anecdotes, lively descriptions, a useful glossary - a superbly illustrated compendium of social, ballroom and folk dancing. Rhythm in Joy: Classical Indian Dance Traditions (1987) by Leela Samson. An introduction to the variety and richness of five of India's classical dance forms. The Black Tradition in American Dance (1989) by Richard Long. A beautifully illustrated book which looks at the African-
American contribution to social and theatre dance from the early minstrels to the Dance Theatre of Harlem. The World of Diaghilev (1971) by John Percival. A book on the great impresario who had become the focal point for many leading artists of the early 20th century.
Martha, the Life and Work of Martha Graham (1991) by Agnes De Milk. Probably the most interesting of the numerous biographies of the famous modem dancer and choreographer, and an insider's view of the American modem-dance scene. In Touch with Dance (1993) by Marion Gough. A stimulating book encouraging teachers to make the dance lesson a dynamic and highly creative experience for young people.
Denby, Edwin. American, 1903-1983. Looking at Dance. Rec: Boston PL

Mythology

A major step in the evolution of rational from instinctive man is the development of myth, a "story- which enables him to give formal shape to his experience of the inexplicable and thus, if not to control it, at least to contain it within a framework of experience, of rationality, of precedent. Indeed, by altering and delimiting its myths, a society develops its relationship with the world beyond its reasoning. For the modern reader, myth thus offers a series of parables for his own experience, case studies as it were of the human mind grappling with religious, moral and ethical dilemmas. The study of myths is, at the objective level, a kind of philosophical anthropology; at a subjective level, it shades into philosophy itself. Thus the stories (often engrossing and delightful in themselves, not the least of their attractions) are charged with self-renewing relevance (compare Freud's use of Oedipus), with an urgency of meaning which both informs and universalizes their local particularity. The books on this list gather (and sometimes interpret) myths from many areas of the world; taken together, they give a picture of the developing consciousness of man at large.

See ANTHROPOLOGY (Dodds, Malinowski); CHILDREN'S BOOKS (Anderson, Kingsley, Lang, Lines, Perrault); DRAMA (Aeschylus, Euripides); FICTION/SHORT STORIES (Grimm); HISTORY/AMERICAN (Slotkin); POETRY (Homer); REFERENCE (Opie); RELIGION (Bible); SEX (Duffy)

Armah, Ayi K., Ghanaian writing in English, 1939- . The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born. Rec: Bloom Branston, Brian The Lost Gods of England (1957)
Examines the religious and moral beliefs of the unconverted pre-Norman British. Readable account of ancient myths associated (among others) with Wayland the Smith. See Raffel. Burland, C. The Gods of Mexico (1967)
Imposing but accessible study of ancient Mexican religion — an ethical system as self-contained and programmatic as Judaism. Excellent, clear interpretations of the myths, and of the symbolism of wall-paintings, stone carvings and temple decorations: the convincing answer (if one is needed) to von Daniken and all that nonsense. See HISTORY/LATIN AMERICAN (Katz) Burland, C., Nicholson, L. and Osborne, H. Mythology of the Americas (1968)
if a *
Comprehensive survey of Indian mythologies from North, Central and South America. Copious quotations; sensible interpretations; superb illustrations. See HISTORY/AMERICAN (Josephy); HISTORY/LATIN AMERICAN (Katz, Wachtel) Clark, Anne Beast and Bawdy (1975)
fi -if A lovely witty book on mythological beasts from the Middle Ages: dragons, hippogriffs, unicorns, hairy hippopotami, and "men whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders". What a Rabelaisian crew they were! Dasent, G. W. (trans) The Story of Burnt Njal (1861)
Probably the greatest of the Icelandic sagas; Dasent's version — the first in English — is compelling. Davidson, H. R. E. Gods and Myths of Northern Europe (1964)
Full account of the gods of Teutonic and Norse Europe who eventually gave way to Christianity. Some scholars dispute Davidson's conclusions; but these need not disturb those mainly interested in the narrative.
Detienne, Marcel, French, 1935- . The Gardens of Adonis: Spices in Greek Mythology. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Dowson, J. A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion (1878)
Easy to read, if prosaic; basic information about the principal characters of Hindu mythology. 11th edition (1968) recommended. See Dutt. Dutt, R. C. The Ramayana and Mahabharata (1920)
Poetic, rather Victorian version but conveys much of the flavour of these two famous epics of the Indian world. See Dowson. Eliade, Mircea Myths, Dreams and Mysteries (1968)
Eliade is an authority on the concepts and ideas underlying religions of the world. Here he expands the contention that "myths reveal the structure of reality, and the multiple modalities of being in the world." Also: From Primitives to Zen: An Anthology from the World's Religious Texts Eliade, Mircea, Romanian-French, 1907-1986. Images and Symbols. Rec: TLS The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Faits, S. L. and Spoerl, D. T. Beginnings (1958)
The authors communicate the fabulous richness and beauty of myth in a book likely to fascinate younger readers. Far-ranging anthology; sensitive style. Feldman, Susan (ed) African Myths and Tales (1963)
at a
Very little introductory or "academic" material in this book. Its fascinating stories will come as a surprise to readers brought up exclusively on Greece and Rome. Traditional, Hungarian. Folktales of Hungary. Rec: Ward Frazer, James The Golden Bough (1890— 1915)
di!Oa*?
Frazer's 12-volume study (also available in a one-volume condensation) of comparative myth, magic, religion, and belief was the foundation of modern, "Cambridge school" anthropology. Starting with the sacred kingship of the grove of Nemi near Rome, Frazer covers the world of myth and magic from China to Peru. Much detail out of date or plain wrong; but still a magic book. Also: Totemism and Exogamy; Aftermath Frazer, Sir James George, Scottish, 1854-1941. Golden Bough. Rec: Boston PL GBWW (Selections) Good Reading ML Nonfiction Gantz, Jeffrey (trans) The Mabinogion (1976)
Fairy tales of a world magically, recognizably Welsh, a Celtic world unadulterated by medieval chivalry. Gantz's modern translation supersedes all others. See Branston; Rees. Gardner, John (trans) The Complete Works of the Gawain Poet (1965) "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," "The Pearl" and other minor works of the poet known only as "the Gawain poet," in a fine modern translation. Geoffrey of Monmouth History of the Kings of Britain(c. 1130) Geoffrey purports to give an account of "the kings who dwelt in Britain before the incarnation of Christ" and especially of "Arthur and the many others who succeeded him after the incarnation". He was an unscrupulous liar and forger, but his accounts of the early myths of England, from its colonization by Brutus through Lear to Arthur, are charming and seminal. See Gardner; Malory; CHILDREN'S BOOKS (White) Graves, Robert The Greek Myths (1955)
0* *
Graves' two volumes recounting the stories of Greek gods and heroes include conclusions of modern archaeology and other branches of scholarship as well as his own hobbyhorses (notably that of the Moon Goddess). Immensely readable, though subject to academic sniffs: usefully read in conjunction with Kerenyi (qv). Also: The White Goddess. See AUTOBIOGRAPHY: FICTION/NOVELS; POETRY Gray, John Near Eastern Mythology (1969) 0 Useful illustrated survey. Avoids interpretation and is thin on quotation, but the facts are excellently covered. See Hooke. Harrison, Jane Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion (1903) 2* Now something of a curiosity, a great Cambridge scholar's imaginative reading of neglected data of pre-Olympian Greek religion and myth gave rise to a new approach, less pious and more generous, to the whole field of ancient studies. Also: Thetnis. See Kerenyi; Kirk; ANTHROPOLOGY (Dodds) Hatto, A. T. (trans) The Nibelungenlied (c. 1260)
13th-century epic develops from a chivalric fairy tale to the grim realities of treachery, revenge and desperate human courage in the face of inevitable doom. As well as for the Ringoperas of Wagner, this saga was an important source for Tolkien's Lord of the Rings (see CHILDREN'S BOOKS). Hesiod, Greek, 8th C BCE. Works and Days. Rec: Bloom Lubbock Utne Theogony. Rec: Bloom Lubbock Hooke, S. H. Middle Eastern Mythology (1963)
II * *
One of the few books to examine Bible myths, quite properly, in the context of Mesopotamian and Egyptian mythology. Includes narratives of the birth and resurrection of Jesus. See Gray; RELIGION (Bible) Huxley, Francis The Invisibles ( 1966)
Thorough, and thoroughly scary, study of the myths and rituals of the voodoo cult. Huxley is an anthropologist and this book combines scholarly detachment with personal enthusiasm for the island of Haiti and its people, if not for every one of their weird practices. Also: Affable Savages (praised anthropological study of Brazilian Indians) Ions, Veronica The World's Mythology in Colour(1974)
Sumptuously illustrated survey. Necessarily brief text (heavy on wonder, light on interpretation) will whet the appetite, and the bibliography points the way to more substantial diets.
Kamakau, Samuel Manaiakalani, Hawaiian, 1815-1876. The Works of the People of Old. Rec: Counterpunch Trans (mythology) Kerenyi, C. The Gods of the Greeks(195 1)
Somewhat flowery Jungian reading of Greek mythology, but lively with recherché variants; to be sipped, with a long spoon, for devilish pleasure. Also: The Heroes of the Greeks. See Graves; Harrison. Kirk, G. S. Myth: Its Meaning and Functions in Ancient and Other Cultures ( 1970)
LO P
Critical examination of the theories of Levi-Strauss (qv) in particular; though coloured by his views, an important and useful book for readers wishing to understand the anthropological sources of the myths of the ancient Near East and Greece. Also: The Nature of Greek Myths. See Harrison; Hooke; Slater; ANTHROPOLOGY (Dodds); PHILOSOPHY
Lame Deer (John Fire), Native American, 1903?-1976. Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions (With Richard Erdoes). Rec: Counterpunch NF (mythology)
Larousse (publisher) New Larousse Encyclopaedia of Mythology (1959)
tOa*
Abundantly illustrated, full of clearly presented information, with quotations from literature and reference to modern archaeological discoveries. Outstanding.
Anonymous, Hawaiian, First pub. 1891. A Legendary Tradition of Kamapua'a: The Hawaiian Pig-God (Ed. and trans. by Lilikala Kame'eleihiwa). Rec: Counterpunch Trans Levi-Strauss, Claude The Raw and the Cooked(1969)
0 9 *
Levi-Strauss founded the "structural" method of analysing cultures. His explanation of the "reality" behind the mythology of primitive cultures, especially those of South America, created a revolution in the study of myths. Also: Totemism; Tristes Tropiques. See ANTHROPOLOGY (Leach, Levi-Strauss) Lewis, Lloyd Myths after Lincoln (1929)
Lewis was a poet and scholar who became fascinated by the body of myth that built up about President Lincoln after his death, and that still endured in Lewis's time. (For example, most visitors to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, think that Lincoln is buried there: he is not — he is actually buried in Springfield, Illinois — and this gives him multiple sepulchres, one of the essential characteristics of the mythical heroes of old.) Absolutely fascinating: proof that mythologizing is by no means dead in our "scientific" world. See Raglan; Rank. Malory, Sir Thomas Le Morte d'Arthur (1485)
*161
Arthur and Guinevere, the Knights of the Round Table, the quest for the Holy Grail and the rest are the most potent of British myths, known in the Middle Ages as "the Matter of Britain". See Gardner; Geoffrey of Monmouth; CHILDREN'S BOOKS (White, T. H.)
Malory, Thomas, English, d. 1471. Le Morte d'Arthur. Rec: Bloom Good Reading Lubbock Rex Mitchison, Naomi The Corn King and the Spring Queen (1931)
An extraordinary novel about a ritual king and queen from the outer reaches of the Black Sea area who journey to Rome in the era of the Gracchi and become caught up in the "real" (as opposed to "mythical") events of Roman history. Narayan, R. K. Gods, Demons and Others (1964)
£ a *
Essential primer for those wishing to enter the world of Hindu culture. Also: Waiting for the Mahatma; The Guide; The Man Eater of Malgudi. See Dowson; Dutt; O'Flaherty. O'Flaherty, W. D. Hindu Myths (1975)
*
This does for Hinduism what Graves (qv) did for the Greeks, but is more accessible for the general reader. Ovid Metamorphoses (1st century AD)
a*P.
Not only a treasure-house of mythological stories, but also a source-book for all Western writers from the 12th century on — Chaucer, Dante, Shakespeare, Milton, etc — and for painters, sculptors and musicians. Good translation: Innes. Ovid, Roman, 43 BCE-17 CE . Works. Rec: Adler (Selections) Metamorphoses. Rec: Bloom Meaningful Ward Ars Amatoria (Art of Love). Rec: Bloom Ward Heroides. Rec: Bloom Raffel, Burton (trans) Beowulf (1963)
*
Good modern translation of "the oldest English epic". Still a great story and a fine, scary one to while away a winter's night. See Branston. Anonymous, English, 8th C. Beowulf. Rec: Bloom Rex Raglan, Lord The Hero (1952)
A remarkable study, by an amateur anthropologist and mythologist, of the characteristics of mythical heroes, showing how they are common to many cultures and eras — even shared by such a modern "hero" as Lincoln. Also: Jocasta's Crime. See Lewis; Rank. Rank, Otto The Myth of the Birth of the Hero (1952)
Fine discussion, by a noted psychoanalyst, of the unconscious elements in mythopoeic thought — with emphasis on the psychic backgrounds of the birth-stories of heroes. Rees, A. and B. Celtic Heritage (1961)
PP
Scholarly, detailed study of the myths of Ireland and Wales. First part considers the various cycles of tradition and their characteristics; second examines the cosmological framework; third discusses themes. Myths are narrated in each section. See Gantz. Sandars, Nancy The Epic of Gilgamesh (1960)
Famous, most important non-Biblical myth of the ancient Near East, deserves to be as well known as stories of ancient Greece. This book gives the full version, with useful introduction. See Gray; ARCHAEOLOGY Traditional, Native American. Shaking the Pumpkin: Traditional Poetry of the Indian North Americas (Compiled by Jerome Rothenberg). (See also Technicians of the Sacred) Rec: Ward Slater, Philip The Glory of Hera (1971)
Psychoanalytic account, never glib or ideological, of the roots (and branches) of Greek myths, especially of the tangled "life" of Herakles, but ranging through Oedipus, etc. See Kirk. Thomas, P. Epics, Myths and Legends of India (1942)
Si P a * J
Comprehensive reference book and anthology; exhaustively factual but readable. Essential background for Dutt (qv), Narayan (qv), O'Flaherty (qv); usefully read in conjunction with Dowson (qv). 13th edition (1973)
recommended. Also: Hindu Religion, Customs and Manners; Festivals and Holidays of India; Christians and Christianity in India and Pakistan
Villas Boas, Orlando and Claudio, Brazilian, 1914-2002 and 1916-1998. Xingu: The Indians, Their Myths. Rec: Ward Wasson, R. Gordon. American, 1898-1986. Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality. Rec: Counterpunch NF This book principally discusses the role of the hallucinogenic mushroom in the writings of the earliest Indo-Europeans (Aryans), in the Rg Veda (as Soma) and the Zend Avesta (of the Zoroastrians, as Haoma) (amazon) Weston, Jessie From Ritual to Romance (1920)
Study (by cultural historian) of the roots of medieval romances in earlier ritual religions. Fascinating; one of the sources of Eliot's The Waste Land (see POETRY, Eliot and LITERARY CRITICISM, Gardner). Prehistoric Antiquities of the Maltese Islands
J.D. Evans
Mother-Goddess When God was a Woman
M. Stone
Mother-Goddess The Civilization of the Goddess M. Gimbutas
Mother-Goddess The Once and Future Goddess
E.W. Gaddon
Mother-Goddess The Woman's Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects B.G. Walker
Mother-Goddess Alone of All her Sex
M. Warner
Mother-Goddess Ancient Egyptian Literature
M. Lichtheim
Ruler as God The Golden Bough
J.G. Frazer
Ruler as God Genesis as Myth E. LeachRuler as God MYTHOLOGY
Roy Willis
Although competing theories of myth abound, no single explanation has yet received unanimous scientific endorsement. Probably most of the theories have some truth in them, and the suggested readings represent some of the more significant recent attempts at solving the mystery of why ancient mythical tales continue to fascinate the modem mind.
The kind of logic used by mythical thought is as rigorous
as that of modern science.
CLAUDE LEVI-STRAUSS The Inner Reaches of Outer Space (1988) by Joseph Campbell. The best-known modern exponent of the meaning of myth argues for the relevance of mythology to the predicament of present-day humankind. The Sacred Narrative: Readings in the Theory of Myth (1984) edited by Alan Dundes. Wide-ranging survey of theories of myth by experts from different scholarly fields. The Golden Bough (1890-1915) by James George Frazer. There are several abridged editions of the classic study by the late-
Victorian scholar of the widely occur-ring theme of the Dying King and his ritual sacrifice. The Myth of the Eternal Return (1949) by Mircea Eliade. This persuasive study sees myths as windows to an underlying sacred and spiritual reality. Psychological Reflections (1953) by Carl Jung. A master of psychoanalysis explains the heroes and heroines of myth as embodiments of 'archetypes', or permanent under-lying features of the human mind. Myth and Meaning (1979) by Claude Levi-Strauss. A lucid summary of this famous French anthropologist's view of myth as embodying the basic processes of human thought. Magic, Science and Religion (1948) by Bronislaw Malinowski. Influential account of primitive myths as 'charters' for existing social orders, written by the founding father of modem anthropology.
MYTHOLOGIES Roy Willis
The 20th century has seen a growing scholarly and popular respect for the wisdom enshrined in the many and varied mythological traditions belonging to the human heritage worldwide. Some of these, like the brilliant mythologies of the eastern Mediterranean, sprang from civilizations long extinct; while others, including those studied by anthropologists working with tribal cultures in Africa, Australia, and the Americas, remain local sources of inspiration and guidance to this day. The following works exemplify something of the rich variety available.
There is a dream dreaming us.
BUSHMAN HUNTER OF THE KALAHARI DESERT
REPORTED BY LAURENS VAN DER POST. African Mythology (1963) by Geoffrey Parrinder. Readable, well-illustrated introduction to the main mythical themes of black Africa. Classical Hindu Mythology (1978) by Comelia Dimmitt and J A B van Buitenen. A selection of texts from one of the richest mythical traditions in the world. Art and Myth in Ancient Greece (1991) by T H Carpenter. Draws on ancient Greek an to add new meaning to some of the central stories of the classical tradition. Kingdoms of Jade, Kingdoms of Gold (1991) by Brian Fagan. Lively presentation of mythical themes from the complex civilizations of pre-Columbian Central America. Polynesian Mythology (1965) by George Grey. Ancient myths from the island peoples of the Pacific. Celtic Mythology (1970) by Proinsias MacCana. The vivid mythical imagination of the ancient Celts is brought to life in this scholarly and readable collection. Gods and Myths in Northern Europe (1964) by Hilda Davidson. The mythical tales of the Nordic peoples, replete with the doings and epic conflicts of gods, goddesses, and monsters. Middle Eastern Mythology (1963) by S H Hooke. An authoritative account of the mythical themes that arose in the great civilizations of the ancient Middle East.

Natural History

The science of life has always had wide general appeal. On the one hand it offers the observer examples of miraculous engineering, self-generating and evolving mechanisms of the rarest ingenuity and beauty. On the other, because it concerns the mysterious life-force itself, it leads to elaborate and intriguing philosophical speculation: far more than rocks or stars, the existence of animate nature raises questions about creation, evolution and the meaning of consciousness which each new theory or discovery, from the evolution of species to genetics, seems to open up to wider speculation rather than to answer. Observation and speculation are kept in balance in the books on this list — and they also offer passion, a sense of wonder, and not least the satisfying beauty of the subject matter: nowadays photography is as much a medium for the natural scientist as the written word.

See ARCHAEOLOGY (Ucko): AUTOBIOGRAPHY (Gosse); GEOGRAPHY (Carson); HOME (Bray, Grieve); MATHEMATICS (Bronowski, Calvin. Thompson, Watson); MEDICINE (Thomas): RELIGION (Teilhard de Chardin); TRAVEL (Muir)

Adams, Alexander B. The Eternal Quest (1969)
itd a-1 _I
Lives and discoveries of sixteen great naturalists (including Linnaeus, Lamarck, Darwin, Mendel), in readable, enthusiastic prose. Also: John James Audubon Aitchison, Jean The Articulate Mammal (1976)
"Are babies born with a blueprint for language in their brains? Do children all over the world acquire language in the same way? Can chimpanzees be taught to speak?" These and other equally intriguing questions on the phenomenon of speech lucidly and amusingly discussed.
Applewhite, James. American, 1935- . River Writing: An Eno Journal. Rec: Bloom Ardrey, Robert The Territorial Imperative (1967)
The territorial behaviour of animals analysed and applied to the human race. Caused controversy in its conclusion that the common cause for war lies in man's ignorance of his animal nature and that family loyalty lies in the joint attachment to territory. Also: African Genesis; Social Contract. See Lorenz. Attenborough, David Life on Earth (1979) a* ✓
Outstanding illustrations; lively, lucid text expounds the origins and development of all forms of life. Author's zest for and love of creation is informative, infectious. A beautiful book. Also: Zoo Quest in Paradise, etc Audubon, J. J. The Birds of America (1827 —38)
Unsurpassed illustrations; a model of how to deal with a specific group of animals.
Banks, Sir Joseph Sir Joseph Banks in Newfoundland and South America (1766)
Personal diaries of Captain Cook's companion on one of his voyages. Banks, a founder of modern botany, was instrumental in stocking London's botanical gardens at Kew with exotics and making it a place for scientific study. Bewick, Thomas A Memoir of Thomas Bewick Written by Himself (1862)
.1/t
Autobiography of one of the great Victorian wild life engravers. Bewick revived the ancient art of wood engraving; he illustrated the first edition of White's (qv) Natural History of Selbounze. Also: General History of Quadrupeds; History of British Birds
Bates, Henry Walter, English, 1825-1892. The Naturalist on the River Amazons. Rec: Ward (natural history) Blunt, Wilfred The Complete Naturalist (1971)
OA II
Biography of Linnaeus, the father of modern botanical classification. Lavish quotations from his diaries and letters; contemporary illustrations add to the 18th-century flavour. Useful appendix on scientific classification.
Buchsbaum, Ralph Animals without Backbones (1948) t a Step-by-step biology of all animals more lowly than fish; simply explains their anatomy and how they work. Burton, Sir Richard Wanderings in West Africa (1863)
Travel tales of one of the great 19th-century explorers, the discoverer of Lake Tanganyika. Not entirely devoted to natural history but excellent foundation material. See SEX (Boccaccio, Nefzawi, Vatsyayana); TRAVEL
Corner, E. J. H. The Life of Plants (1964)
Popular guide to the life and evolution of plants. Cousteau, Jacques The Silent World(1953)
The first in a series of best sellers by an extraordinary scientist-publicist who developed the method of skin-diving with the aqua-lung. Cousteau is a popularizer, but a brave and thoughtful man as well, and a capable writer. Darwin, Charles The Origin of Species (1859)
Created a huge outcry on first publication for its conclusion that man and apes have a common ancestor. Written twenty-one years after Darwin's epic voyage to the Galapagos Islands and South America (on which, see Moorehead). Lucid, readable prose, full of personality and enthusiasm. Also: The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals; Autobiography, etc. See Huxley; Lack; Smith; RELIGION (Barbour, Teilhard de Chardin) Desmond, Adrian J. The Hot-blooded Dinosaurs (1975)
A Were the dinosaurs cold-blooded, pea-brained lizards — or hot-
blooded protomammals? Revolutionary, influential and enjoyable study of a major new turn in palaeontology. De Wit, H. C. D. Plants of the World (3 vols, 1963)
One of the few surveys of the world's plants largely free of technical terms; interesting sidelights on their evolution and uses to man.
Dobie, J. Frank. American, 1888-1964. The Mustangs. Rec: LAT (natural history) Dorst, Jean Before Nature Dies (1965)
Useful European adjunct to Carson's Silent Spring: emphasis is on pollution and over-exploitation of the natural resources of land and sea; contains proposals for a radical revision of our attitudes. Also: Field Guide to the Larger Mammals of Africa. See GEOGRAPHY (Carson. Ward) Douglas-Hamilton, I. and 0. Among the Elephants (1975)
Diary of five years spent among the elephants of Tanzania, remarkable for the pioneering of radio-tracking animals and the discovery of "the elephants' graveyard". Durrell, Gerald The Bafut Beagles (1947)
Tales of animal collecting in the Cameroons, by the founder of the conservation-based Jersey Zoological Park. Delightful, humorous portraits of both animals and men. Also: The Overloaded Ark; A Zoo in My Luggage, etc. See CHILDREN'S BOOKS Elton, Charles Animal Ecology (1927)
09 On first appearance a pioneering work for zoology, then dominated by the study of anatomy. Explains why animals live where they do and describes their strategies for survival. Also: The Pattern of Animal Comm unities; The Ecology of Invasions by Animals and Plants Fabre, J. H. The Sacred Beetle and Others (1887)
Fabre did not accept the theory of evolution and therefore was (is) out of the main stream of naturalists of our time. But nobody was ever a better observer, as is evident from this small book. The title piece, on the dung beetle, is delightful. Fabre, Jean-Henri, French, 1823-1915. Souvenirs Entomologiques. Rec: Aquinas Frisch, Karl von The Dancing Bees (1954)
Greeted with amazement when first published: it seemed impossible that insects could devise such a sophisticated and complex means of communicating and finding food. Also: Bees: Their Vision, Chemical Senses and Language. Fry, C. H. and Flegg, J. (eds) World Atlas of Birds (1974)
i a Continent by continent catalogue of the world's natural aviary; excellently illustrated.
Galdikas, Biruté M. F., Canadian, 1946- . Reflections of Eden: My Years with the Orangutans of Borneo. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Good, Ronald The Geography of the Flowering Plants (1947) World atlas of plants not only catalogues what grows where but explains the reasons why. Not a book for complete beginners, because it gives only botanical names for plants; but it is invaluable once this hurdle has been passed. Goodall, Jane In the Shadow of Man (1971)
Fascinating first-hand account of life with the chimpanzees; lively text; excellent photographs (by Hugo van Lawick). Also: Innocent Killers Goodall, Jane, English, 1934- . In the Shadow of Man. Rec: Boston PL Gray, Sir James Animal Locomotion (1968) f Enlarged version of author's earlier How Animals Move; an elegant combination of physics and biology, in lucid, non-specialist terms. Grzimek, B. and M. Serengeti Shall Not Die (1960)
Pioneering study that led to the establishing of Crater in the Serengeti as a conservation area. Also: Among the Animals of Africa Hardy, Sir Alister The Open Sea (2 vols, 1956-59)
Biographies of who eats whom in the food-chains of the oceans. First volume devoted mainly to the eaten (plankton), second to the eaters (fish). Also: Great Waters
Hoelldobler, Bert and Edward O. Wilson, German and American, 1936- and 1929-. (See also Wilson, Edward O.) The Ants. Rec: ML Nonfiction Holden, Edith The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady (1977) i .1 Remarkable illustrated diary of Edith Holden, written in 1906 but not published until the 1970s. Like her 18th-century predecessor White (qv), she records the natural history of the seasons with eyes and ears alert to every change. Hubbard, C. E. Grasses (1968)
Beautifully illustrated catalogue; limited in scope to Europe, but a model of its kind. Hudson, W. H. Birds in Town and Village (1919)
P South-American-born poet-naturalist arrived in England in 1860 and revelled in all he saw around him. Book contains a bitter-sweet essay berating fashionable women for wearing bird feathers. Sensitive; unsentimental; fascinating. Also: Birds and Man; The Naturalist in La Plata. See AUTOBIOGRAPHY Huth, Hans Nature and the American: Three Centuries of Changing Attitudes (1957)
41:
Pioneer history of the conservation movement in America, highlighting the link between natural history and natural resources. Huxley, Thomas H. Evolution and Ethics (1893)
*
Application of Darwinian evolution to man's morality by one of Darwin's great champions. Knotty prose, but worth persevering — the arguments are still vital today. Also: The Crayfish; Manual of the Comparative Anatomy of Vertebrated Animals; Man's Place in Nature and Other Essays. See Darwin. Imms, A. D. Insect Natural History (1947) fi II a!
Types of insects and the way they live, as recorded by one of the great entomologists. Excellent, regularly updated introduction to entomology. Jefferies, Richard Nature near London (1885)
Observations of natural history in the days when the suburbs really were at the fringes of the countryside. Also: Wild Life in a Southern County; The Game-Keeper at Home; Hodge and His Master Koestler, Arthur The Case of the Midwife Toad (1971)
*
Riveting story of how the German scientist Paul Kammerer set out to prove Lamarck right by showing that toads could inherit acquired characteristics. Splendidly clear on the motivation and method of scientific research, and on the morality of science. See FICTION/NOVELS; MATHEMATICS; OCCULT Koninck, Charles de, Canadian, 1906-1965. "The Lifeless World of Biology". Rec: Aquinas Krutch, J. W. The Desert Year (1952)
Superb evocation of the life of the south-western American desert by a New Englander who moved there because he loved it more than anywhere else in the world. Krutch, a professor of literature turned naturalist, always wrote extraordinarily well. Also: The Twelve Seasons; Grand Canyon: Today and All Its Yesterdays, etc. See BIOGRAPHY Lack, D. Darwin's Finches (1947)
Accessible modern study of Darwin's famous finches. Fascinating detail on how each bird is suited to one particular life style. Also: Life of the Robin; Natural Regulation of Animal Numbers. See Darwin. Lorenz, Konrad On Aggression (1963)
!*
"Nature red in tooth and claw", or why aggression is a good thing (because the fighting instinct is the essence of survival, not destruction). Interesting parallels between behaviour of men and animals; hopeful conclusions. Also: King Solomon's Ring; Studies in Animal and Human Behaviour. See Ardrey. Maxwell, Gavin Ring of Bright Water (1960)
Life of the author and his otters Mijbil and Edal in the Highlands of Scotland. Good on local wildlife; Maxwell manfully resists the temptations of anthropomorphism. Also: The Rocks Remain; Raven Seek Thy Brother Medawar, P. B. and J. S. The Life Science (1977)
Useful summary of biological ideas and research since 1950. Technical language, but accessible with perseverance. Also: The Uniqueness of the Individual; The Art of the Soluble; The Hope of Progress, etc Moorehead, Alan Darwin and the Beagle (1969)
Travelogue of Darwin's famous voyage round the world. Illustrations include drawings and paintings by Darwin's fellow passengers. See Darwin; TRAVEL Mountfort, S. Wild Paradise: The Story of the Coto Donana Expeditions (1958)
Portrait of the unspoilt wilderness of southern Spain and its varied wildlife. Vivid descriptions of migratory wildfowl.
Perucho, Joan, Catalan, 1920- . Natural History. Rec: Bloom Peterson, Roger Tory Field Guide to the Birds (1934)
Oaf*
This is the first in an extraordinary series of field guides that are the most dependable such works for the student of North American flora and fauna. Wonderful text (with wry comments) and illustrations; convenient pocket size; indispensable companions of walkers and watchers everywhere in America. Revised edition (1942) recommended. Rhodes, F. H. T. Evolution of Life (1962)
Excellent guide to the history of life on earth, without an excess of technical language. Not the first book to read on the subject (see Attenborough); but invaluable follow-up material. Romer, Alfred Sherwood The Vertebrate Story (1959)
P
Authoritative account of the life and evolution of vertebrates, by one of America's foremost zoologists. Savory, T. H. The Spider's Web (1952)
_I
A hundred and one ways in which spiders say "come into my parlour". Details of spinning techniques and capture methods make creepy, fascinating reading. Scheffer, Victory B. The Year of the Whale (1870)
Chronicle of a 12-month period in a whale's life; delightful details of birth and suckling. Unpretentious charm; joyful style. Also: The Year of the Seal Sears, P. B. Deserts on the March (1935)
The science of the dust-bowl, and man's devastating effects on desert animals and plants. In the 1980s, rather a case of told you so." Also: The Ecology of Man Simpson, George Gaylord Horses (1951)
History of horse evolution over many millennia; guide to the biology of the modern horse. Splendid illustrations include T. H. Huxley's famous "Eohippus and Eohomo" cartoon.
Smith, John Maynard The Theory of Evolution (1958)
Confirms Darwin's conclusions on evolution and expands them in the light of modern knowledge. Hard going in parts, for the beginner, but worth the effort. See Darwin. Spinar, Z. V. Life before Man (1972)
£ a J
Glossy guide to the world of prehistory with detailed reconstructions of our planet as it once was. Sound introduction to dinosaurs. Tansley, Sir Arthur G. Britain's Green Mantle (1949)
Scientific study of plant communities, written with a rambler's enthusiasm. One of the first books to stress the importance of conservation. Tinbergen, Nikolaas The Herring-gull's World (1960)
Study of instinct in the life history of the herring-gull. Outstanding for its demarcation between "inherited" and "learned" behaviour; good introduction to the author's more advanced works. Also: The Study of Instinct, Social Behaviour in Animals; Animal Behaviour
Tinbergen, Niko, Dutch, 1907-1988. Curious Naturalists. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Tomlin, P. and Bird, C. The Secret Life of Plants (1973)
The supposed powers of plants to memorize, mindread and even commit murder propounded in highly entertaining style by two serious botanists. Also records how plants communicate, how they select classical music in preference to pop. Sceptically received by many; not to be missed.
Waddington, C. H., English, 1905-1975. The Nature of Life. Rec: GBWW Walker, E. P. Mammals of the World (1968) Walton, Izaak The Compleat Angler (1653) 13
A catch for any lucky reader. Walton, Izaak, English, 1593-1683. Compleat Angler. Rec: Bloom Rex Ward, Ritchie, R. The Living Clocks ( 1972)
Biorhythms, hibernation, celestial navigation — fascinating areas of biological research enthusiastically, accessibly discussed.
Waterton, Charles Wanderings in South America, the North-West of the United States and the Antilles (1825)
Vivacious, unconventional account of wildlife and adventures in the Americas. On his return Waterton turned his Yorkshire park into a miniature zoo. Highly entertaining. White, Gilbert The Natural History and Antiquities of Selbourne
(1789) 10a*10
Diary of a naturalist, records year-by-year changes in the author's curacy at Selbourne, Hampshire, in minute detail down to the first snowdrops of spring and the departure of summer's last swallow. White, Gilbert, English, 1720-1793. Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne. Rec: Lubbock Rexmo Young, J. Z. The Life of Vertebrates (1950)
A textbook, in technical language, but an outstanding one. Author's enthusiasm for his subject shines through the matter-of-fact presentation. Carries the student from prehistory to the present with lucidity and ease. Also: The Life of Mammals.

Occult and Paranormal

Are we alone? Whatever we may think of the underlying premises of this study, these books offer serious and intellectually responsible examinations of the "evidence". Treading delicately on the borderline between objective and subjective, fact and fiction, rarely letting "I wish it were" shade into "It must be so", they may not give definitive answers; but certainly (whether you regard the subject as an examination of actual phenomena or as a bypath of the human mind at its most darkly and fantastically ingenious) they leave the right questions posed, and poised.

See HISTORY/EUROPEAN (Cohn); MATHEMATICS (Lindsay); RELIGION (Hick)
Bennett, Ernest Apparitions and Haunted Houses (1939)
Classic study of the evidence for all kindsof ghosts and hauntings, plausibly authenticated.

Bennett, J. B. Witness (1974)
Autobiography of one of Gurdjieff's leading followers, and a remarkable man in his own right; fascinating, detailed account of Bennett's "search for the miraculous". See Reyner. Conway, David Magic: An Occult Primer (1972)
Most sensible people take it for granted that magic is basically nonsense. Yet there is now a widespread minority belief that it is not quite as absurd as we think. Sensible, balanced book by a man who claims actually to practise magic — a good introduction to a bewildering subject. Coxhead, Nona Mindpower (1976)
Balanced, readable account of "parascience and the study of consciousness" — telepathy, psychic healing, mystical experience, etc. Gauquelin, Michael Cosmic Influences on Human Behaviour (1973) Persuasive arguments for treating astrology as a science. Attempts objectivity, and assumes an open mind in the reader: win or lose, an interesting, well-argued book. Grant, Kenneth The Magical Revival (1972)
An underrated writer, Grant was an Aleister Crowley disciple, so writes with insight and authority of this century's revival of interest in magic and occultism. Also: Aleister Crowley and the Hidden God; Cults of Shadow; Nightside of Eden Gris, H. and Dick, W. The New Psychic Soviet Discoveries (1979) A crisis of scientific conscience exists in Russia about psychic phenomena, but nevertheless they are doing much more research than we in the West. This book is a thorough, intelligent account of recent work. Hansel, C. E. M. ESP: A Scientific Evaluation (1966)
Highly critical review of the experimental literature of the field. Interesting comparison with Rao (qv). Head, J. and Cranston, S. L. Reincarnation (1967) Jenkins, Stephen The Undiscovered Country (1977)
Good introduction to the mysterious subject of "ley lines", the lines of magnetic force around the earth, which may have had sacred significance for ancient man. Koestler, Arthur The Roots of Coincidence (1972)
Investigates the Rosenheim case in fascinating detail. See FICTION/NOVELS; MATHEMATICS; NATURAL HISTORY LeShan, Lawrence The Medium. the Mystic and the Physicist (1966) a*
LeShan is a scientist who began as a sceptic, but slowly became convinced of the reality of "paranormal phenomena" — and that they are related to the "underlying reality"• glimpsed by mystics. Outstanding, especially if approached with scepticism. Lethbridge, T. C. The Essential T. C. Lethbridge (1979)
tti a*
Lethbridge, a retired archaeologist, was one of the most remarkable "psychical researchers" of the 20th century, fascinated by dowsing, ghosts, extra-sensory perception and the mystery of time. His books are readable, eccentric, full of personal anecdote and experience. Myers, F. W. H. Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death (1903) Prince, Walter Franklin (ed) Noted Witnesses for Psychic Occurrences (1928) a*
Absorbing anthology of strange occurrences: ghosts, out-of-the-body experiences, premonitory dreams, telepathy and so on. The point of the title is that all the "witnesses" were "respected figures" — writers, politicians, lawyers, etc — a fact assumed to lend weight to what they claimed. Rao, K. R. Experimental Parapsychology (1966)
Sympathetic account by a scientist of the literature of the field of parapsychology. Gives most experiments described the benefit of the doubt, at least where there is doubt. Should be balanced by a reading of Hansel (qv). Reyner, J. H. The Diary of a Modem Alchemist (1974)
a
The "alchemy- Reyner writes about is more closely related to the ideas of Gurdjieff than to the alchemy of the Middle Ages. See Bennett, J. B. Rhine, J. B. and Pratt, J. G. Parapsychology: Frontier Science of the Mind (1957)
Rhine was one of the best known American experimenters in the field; he undertook studies with Zener cards at Duke University for many years. As with so much in parapsychology, the final verdict on his work is inconclusive. See Rao. Roll, William G. Poltergeists (1977)
HIP
Up-to-the-minute scientific study by an acknowledged expert. See Sitwell.
Sakoian, F. and Acker, S. The Astrologer's Handbook (1973) a Best single-volume introduction to astrology; comprehensive treatment, sensible and well written. Siggwick, D. et al Phantoms of the Living (1918)
9
Vast, diligent work on the subject of people who have been seen in one place while they were actually in another. Sitwell, Sacheverell Poltergeists (1940)
& a
Stylish account of the knockabout comedians of the spirit world, which we now believe to originate in our own unconscious minds. See Roll; AUTOBIOGRAPHY (Sitwell, 0.) Smith, Adam Powers of Mind (1975)
Written in gratingly "with-it" journalese; but a useful survey of modern research into the mysteries of the mind, bio-feedback, etc. Stevenson, Ian The Evidence for Survival from Claimed Memories of Former Incarnations (1961)
Valuable study, treated as scientific inquiry rather than speculation and theory. Steiger, Brad (ed) Project Blue Book: The Top Secret UFO Findings Revealed (1976)
Project Blue Book — the official reports assembled by the US Air Force up to 1969, when the project was discontinued. Steiger's book is a good account; repeats many of the "best" stories. Summers, Montague The History of Witchcraft and Demonology (1926) The "Reverend" Summers writes as a totally convinced believer in the reality of witches and powers of evil — demons, etc. Also: The Vampire; The Werewolf, The Geography of Witchcraft Targ, R. and Puthoff, H. Mind-Reach (1977)
9
Two scientists, both of whom worked with Uri Geller at the Stanford Research Institute, examine psychic ability with particular reference to "remote viewing". Tart, Charles (ed) Altered States of Consciousness (1969)
MI 9
Collection of papers on strange and hidden aspects of consciousness; necessary foundation for any study of the "paranormal". Thouless, R. H. From Anecdote to Experiment in Psychical Research (1972)
9
Thouless' detailed and comprehensive approach is essential for those who wish to attain real understanding of parapsychology as opposed to psychic anecdote. Tyrell, G. N. M. Science and Psychical Phenomena (1939)
a
This, together with Tyrell's Apparitions, is an excellent book on ghosts, extrasensory perception and telepathy. Vaughan, Alan Patterns of Prophecy (1973)
Vaughan, fascinated by the possibility of precognition, conducted exhaustive research of which this book is a readable, scientific account.
Vyvyan, John A Case against Jones (1966)
Sensible, balanced study of the whole field of psychical research. Ernest Jones, Freudian biographer, said that anyone who believes in the paranormal needs his head examined: hence this book. Watson, Lyall Lifetide (1979)
Watson achieved an overnight reputation with Supernature, an attempt to demonstrate that there is a sound scientific basis for many so called "supernatural phenomena". This book, his most important so far, bases its theories of the paranormal on Jung's idea of the collective unconscious. Also: The Romeo Error, Gifts of Unknown Things Webb, James The Flight from Reason (1971)
al a
Webb writes about "occultism" as a sceptic; his knowledge is immense, his approach entertaining. Also: The Occult Establishment Wilson, Colin The Occult (1971) Oa* Comprehensive summary of the whole field, from extra-sensory perception and second-
sight to vampires and the Kabbalah. Also: Mysteries "Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande"
E.E. Evans-Pritchard
Witchcraft Witchcraft
G. Parrinder
Witchcraft The World of the Witches
J.C. Baroja
Witchcraft Totemism
C. Levi-Strauss Totemism The Elementary Forms of Religious Life E. Durkheim
Totemism The Secret of the Totem A. Lang Totemism The I Ching
Oracles "Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic"E.E. Evans-Pritchard
Oracles Oracles and Divination "M. Loewe, C. Blacke"
Oracles Athletes and Oracles
C. Morgan
Oracles The Upanishads J. Mascaro
Illusion Encyclopedia of the Upanishads N.S. Subrahmanian
Illusion Alice in Wonderland
Lewis Carroll
Illusion Alice Through the Looking Glass Lewis Carroll
Illusion "Medicine, Philosophy and Religion in Ancient China"
N. Sivin Taoist Knowledge Science and Civilization in China J. Needham
Taoist Knowledge The Tao of Physics
F. Capra Taoist Knowledge Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition
F. Yates Magic as Science The Art of Memory
F. Yates Magic as Science The Memory Theatre of Matteo Ricci
J. Spence
Magic as Science Rudolf II
R.J.W. Evans
Magic as Science

Philosophy

What other subject ever aroused such passion in its devotees or such impatience among outsiders? "Why do you only talk of virtue?" someone asked Socrates (who proceeded, philosophically, to explain). Certain philosophers have themselves become so impatient with philosophical pretentiousness that they have advocated closing down the talking shop. But the philosophical standard — the attempt to argue honourably and reasonably — affects nearly all intellectual and aesthetic disciplines. It proposes an ideal for the conduct of all kinds of disputes; it asks us to be honest with ourselves; it refuses to go away. Mere words? "Words are loaded pistols," said Brice—Parrain. The picker and chooser of philosophical texts intrudes in a field where every corner claims that every other is swarming with impostors and trespassers. No single point of view has been allowed to prevail in this list: there are no definitive answers, but at least the questioning can be begun.

See DIARIES (Kierkegaard, Seneca, Teilhard de Chardin); ECONOMICS (Heilbroner. Robinson): MATHEMATICS (Koestler, Ziman); POLITICS (Mannheim, Niebuhr. Rowls): RELIGION (Buber, Pascal, Teilhard de Chardin. Tillich); SOCIOLOGY (Bottomore, Marcuse)

Adler, M. J. The Conditions of Philosophy (1965)
History of philosophy by a renowned — and controversial — philosopher who holds (hence the controversy) that most "modern" philosophy (ie post-Cartesian) is of little worth. Fascinating to see history through the wrong end of his telescope; it redresses the bias towards relentless modernity in other authors and critics. Also: The Common Sense of Politics; How to Think about God. See REFERENCE Adorno, Theodor, German, 1903-1969. Philosophy of Modern Music. Rec: Boston PL Minima Moralia: Reflections from Damaged Life. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Aquinas, Thomas Summa Theologica (1267-73)
Written, Saint Thomas said, to "instruct beginners," this extraordinary work — its numerous volumes dictated to a team of scribes because one alone could not keep up with the Master — is one of the unbending monuments of the human intellect. See Gilson. Thomas Aquinas, St., Italian writing in Latin, ca. 1225-1274 . Summa Theologica. Rec: Adler Aquinas (Selections) GBWW Rexmo Seymour-Smith SJC (Selections) Selected Writings. Rec: Aquinas Colcc91 Ward Proem to the Posterior Analytics. Rec: Aquinas On the Teacher. Rec: Aquinas Canon of the Mass. Rec: Aquinas On the Principles of Nature. Rec: Aquinas On the Combination of the Elements. Rec: Aquinas On Kingship. Rec: Aquinas The Division and Method of the Sciences. Rec: Aquinas On Being and Essence. Rec: Aquinas Arendt, Hannah. American, 1906-1975. On Violence. Rec: Colcc91 Origins of Totalitarianism. Rec: Colcc91 (Selections) National Review TLS Eichmann in Jerusalem. Rec: Counterpunch NF TLS The Life of the Mind. Rec: LAT Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics (4th century BC)
Aristotle ("the Master of those that know") treats human behaviour as natural history, not as a subject for dogmatic metaphysics. A far more open-minded and humane thinker than his stiff predecessor. Plato, he accepted the diversity of man, creation's paragon, the "reasonable animal". Also: Metaphysics; The Organon (collected logical treatises), etc. See LITERARY CRITICISM; POLITICS Aristotle, Greek, 384-322 BCE. Works. Rec: Adler (Selections) GBWW Seymour-Smith Ethics (Nicomachean). Rec: Aquinas Bloom Col37 Col61 Colcc91 Collh91 Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 Good Reading Lubbock SJC Ward Politics. Rec: Aquinas Colcc91 Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 Lubbock SJC (Selections) Ward Poetics. Rec: Aquinas Bloom Col37 Col61 Collh91 Fadiman 4 Rexmo SJC Ward Physics. Rec: Aquinas SJC (Selections) Metaphysics. Rec: Aquinas SJC (Selections) On Generation and Corruption. Rec: Aquinas SJC (Selections) Parts of Animals. Rec: Aquinas SJC (Selections) Generation of Animals. Rec: SJC (Selections) De Anima. Rec: Aquinas SJC On Interpretation. Rec: Aquinas SJC (Selections) Prior Analytics. Rec: Aquinas SJC (Selections) Categories. Rec: Aquinas SJC (Selections) Rhetoric. Rec: Aquinas Posterior Analytics. Rec: Aquinas Topics. Rec: Aquinas Austin, J. L. Sense and Sensibilia (1964)
Posthumously published dry-as-sneezing powder lectures assailing the hallowed traditions of the philosophy of perception, in particular as represented by Ayer's (qv) The Foundations of Empirical Knowledge. For Austin's own explanation of the methodological principles involved, see "A Plea for Excuses", in Philosophical Papers. Also: How to Do Things with Words Averroes (Ibn Rushd), Arab in Islamic Spain, 1126-1198. On the Harmony of Religion and Philosophy. Rec: Oriental Ayer, A. J. Language, Truth and Logic (1936)
d P
Concise, superb British restatement of the doctrines of the Vienna Circle of Logical Positivists. Ayer later said of it: "Being in every sense a young man's book, it was written with more passion than most philosophers allow themselves to show, at any rate in their published work." Also: The Foundations of Empirical Knowledge Bacon, Francis, English, 1561-1626. The Great Instauration. Rec: Aquinas Advancement of Learning. Rec: Adler GBWW Ward New Atlantis. Rec: Adler GBWW Ward Essays. Rec: Adler Bloom Good Reading Lubbock Ward Novum Organum. Rec: Adler Aquinas GBWW Lubbock Seymour-Smith SJC (Selections) Bentham, Jeremy, English, 1748-1832. Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation. Rec: Adler Ward Theory of Fictions. Rec: Adler Bergson, Henri, French, 1859-1941. Nobel Laureate Time and Free Will. Rec: Adler Matter and Memory. Rec: Adler Creative Evolution. Rec: Adler Two Sources of Morality and Religion. Rec: Adler An Introduction to Metaphysics. Rec: GBWW Berkeley, George Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge (1710)
A favourite target for professional philosophers, Berkeley's arguments are popularly associated with the view that "everything exists in the mind". Dr Johnson famously refuted him (or did he?) by kicking a stone, thus anticipating the commonsense prejudice of British philosophy. Crucial specialist text; for the layman, delightfully fresh, lucid, fun. Also: Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous; A lciphron, or The Minute Philosopher; Essay towards a New Theory of Vision Berkeley, George, Irish-English, 1685-1753. Principles of Human Knowledge. Rec: Adler Aquinas GBWW Lubbock Seymour-Smith SJC Bruno, Giordano, Italian, 1548-1600. The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast. Rec: Bloom Chomsky, Noam Language and Mind (1968) P Clear statement of Chomsky's influential philosophy of language, in the form of three lectures on linguistic contributions to the study of mind — past, present and future. Chomsky's official pigeon-hole is linguistics — but the implications of his thought have wider philosophical significance, eg on the tabula rasa idea of the mind. Also: Syntactic Structures; Cartesian Linguistics; Problems of Knowledge and Freedom Chomsky, Noam. American, 1928- . Syntactic Structures. Rec: Boston PL Seymour-Smith Comte, Auguste, French, 1798-1857. The Positive Philosophy. Rec: Adler Lubbock Seymour-Smith Confucius (Kong Fuzi), Chinese, 551-479 BCE. The Analects. Rec: Fadiman 4 Good Reading Lubbock Oriental Seymour-Smith StJE Ward Daxue (Ta Hsueh; The Great Learning, attributed). Rec: Oriental StJE Chang Yun (Doctrine of the Mean, attributed). Rec: Oriental StJE Croce, Benedetto, Italian, 1866-1952. Selected Works. Rec: Ward Debord, Guy, French, 1931-1994. Society of the Spectacle. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Harvard Descartes, Rene Meditations on First Philosophy (1641)
!P*P3
Classic whose influence has been profound and prolonged. In questioning scepticism Descartes shows a talent for lateral thinking: instead of direct confrontation, he chooses to allow the process of doubt to run its course until it arrives at an (allegedly) indubitable truth: "I think, therefore I am." Therefore, he concludes with more faith than reason, God undoubtedly exists and all's well with the world. Also: Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason; Principles of Philosophy; Passions of the Soul Descartes, René, French, 1596-1650. Discourse on Method. Rec: Adler Aquinas Colcc91 Collh91 Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 GBWW Good Reading Lubbock Seymour-
Smith SJC Ward Meditations on the First Philosophy. Rec: Adler Aquinas Collh91 GBWW SJC Objections Against the Meditations and Replies. Rec: GBWW Rules for the Direction of the Mind. Rec: Adler Aquinas GBWW SJC Geometry. Rec: Adler Aquinas GBWW SJC (Selections) The World. Rec: SJC (Selections) Principles of Philosophy. Rec: Aquinas Dewey, John Experience and Education (1938)
Deriving from the American "pragmatist" school, Dewey has been particularly influential as a philosopher of education. This little volume gives a concise summary of his theories; it was written twenty years after (and modifies) his Democracy and Education, in the light of experience with progressive schools. Also: Experience and Nature; Logic: The Science of Inquiry. See HISTORY/AMERICAN Dewey, John. American, 1859-1952. Philosophy and Civilization. Rec: ML Nonfiction The School and the Child. Rec: Boston PL How We Think. Rec: Adler Democracy and Education. Rec: Adler Experience and Nature. Rec: Adler Logic, the Theory of Inquiry. Rec: Adler Human Nature and Conduct. Rec: Fadiman 3 Experience and Education. Rec: GBWW Empedocles, See Pre-Socratic Philosophers Engels, Friedrich, German, 1820-1895. (See also Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels) "Quantity and Quality". Rec: Aquinas "Negation of the Negation". Rec: Aquinas Epictetus, Greek, ca. 55-135 CE . Discourses. Rec: Adler GBWW SJC Ward Encheiridion (Manual). Rec: Adler Aquinas SJC Works. Rec: Lubbock Epicurus, Greek, 341-270 BCE. Writings. Rec: Ward Letter to Herodotus. Rec: Adler Letter to Menoeceus. Rec: Adler Erasmus, Desiderius, Dutch writing in Latin, ca. 1469-1536 . Colloquies. Rec: Ward In Praise of Folly. Rec: Adler Bloom GBWW Seymour-Smith Ward Frege, Gottlob Logical Investigations (1977)
A "philosopher's philosopher", Frege had enormous influence on the philosophy of mathematics, logic and language — crucially on Russell (qv) and Wittgenstein (qv). Logical Investigationsis the title of an unfinished book for which the three articles in this volume (written in 1918 and 1923) were intended. Also: The Foundations of Arithmetic; The Basic Laws of Arithmetic; Philosophical Writings Gilson, Etienne The Christian Philosophy of St Thomas Aquinas (1924) Sympathetic critique by a leading Thomist. No modern philosopher writes with more grace than Gilson. But compare Henri-Georges Egouttier: Cuisses Blanches, Ides Noires (1980). See Aquinas; ART
Goytisolo, Juan de, Spanish, 1931- . Space in Motion. Rec: Bloom (philosophy) Habermas, J¼rgen, German, 1929- . Transformation of the Public Sphere. Rec: Colcc91 Hacking, Ian, Canadian, 1936- . The Taming of Chance. Rec: ML Nonfiction (philosophy) Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich The Phenomenology of Mind (1807)!I/C>
Massive; magnificent; metaphysical. Seminal influence (alas) on Marx, Sartre and many more. Also: The Philosophy of Mind; Science of Logic; The Philosophy of History,etc Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, German, 1770-1831. Selected Works. Rec: Ward Phenomenology of Spirit (Also known as Phenomenology of Mind). Rec: Adler Aquinas Colcc91 (Selections) Seymour-Smith SJC (Selections) Philosophy of Right. Rec: Adler Colcc91 GBWW Philosophy of History. Rec: Adler Aquinas Colcc91 (Selections) GBWW SJC (Selections) Logic. Rec: SJC Heidegger, Martin Being and Time (1927) li P
Classic of German existentialism; heavy on meaning (correction: meaninglessness) of life, authentic choice, conscience, freedom, nothingness, etc. Almost unreadable without assistance: Gelven's Commentary and Steiner's Heideggerare recommended introductions. Also: An Introduction to Metaphysics; The End of Philosophy; The Question Concerning Technology, etc Heidegger, Martin, German, 1889-1976. Being and Time. Rec: Boston PL Counterpunch Trans National Review TLS What is Metaphysics?. Rec: GBWW Hobbes, Thomas Leviathan (1651)!Co
Mainly read nowadays for Chapters 13-30, developing his political ideas; other chapters give the gist of the remainder of Hobbesian philosophy. (See, for instance, Chapter 46 for mischievous, mordantly deflationary comments on the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation.) Also: De Cive, de Corpore Politico; Questions Concerning Liberty, Necessity and Chance Hobbes, Thomas, English, 1588-1679. Leviathan. Rec: Adler Aquinas Bloom Colcc91 (Selections) Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 GBWW Seymour-Smith SJC Horkheimer, Max, and Theodor Adorno, German-American writing in German, 1895-1973 and 1903-1969. Dialectic of Enlightenment. Rec: Counterpunch Trans TLS Hume, David An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748) !0*
Easier-going than his earlier Treatise, the Enquiry encapsulates the central doctrines and themes of Hume's radically empiricist philosophy. Dr Johnson accused Hume of "writing French", but his language remains vintage Scotch. Also: A Treatise of Human Nature; An Enquiry into the Principles of Morals; Dialogues Concerning the Natural History of Religion, etc Hume, David, Scottish, 1711-1776. History of England. Rec: Lubbock Treatise of Human Nature. Rec: Adler Seymour-Smith SJC Essays Moral and Political. Rec: Adler Lubbock An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Rec: Adler Aquinas Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 GBWW An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals. Rec: Colcc91 Husserl, Edmund The Paris Lectures (1950)
These lectures by the founder of "phenomenology" (the correlation of subject and object in the act of perception) provide a concise introduction to his mature thought. Husserl was perhaps the most prominent of modern "continental" philosophers and his influence (not least as a progenitor of existentialism) is extensive. Also: Ideas; Cartesian Meditations; The Crisis of European Sciences Husserl, Edmund, German, 1859-1938. The Idea of Phenomenology. Rec: Aquinas James, William Pragmatism (1907)
9
James' dedication reads: "To the memory of John Stuart Mill from whom I first learned the pragmatic openness of mind and whom my fancy likes to picture as our leader were he alive today". These lectures seek to "unify the picture" of the pragmatic movement. See RELIGION James, William. American, 1842-1910. Pragmatism. Rec: Adler Bloom Boston PL Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 GBWW Seymour-Smith Four Essays from The Meaning of Truth. Rec: Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 The Varieties of Religious Experience. Rec: Adler Bloom Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 ML Nonfiction NYPL Essays in Radical Empiricism. Rec: Adler Jaspers, Karl Philosophy of Existence (1937)
P*
Together with Heidegger, Jaspers is the leading luminary of German existentialism. Although focusing on the "concrete human situation" he is a self-proclaimed apostle of reason — a poignant perspective in view of the fact that he delivered these lectures in Germany in 1937. soon after he had been dismissed from his university professorship by the Nazis. Also: Reason and Existence; Reason and Anti-Reason in Our Tinier. The Great Philosophers Jaspers, Karl, German, 1883-1969. The Perennial Scope of Philosophy. Rec: TLS Kant, Immanuel Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics (1783) ! In Prolegomena Kant sketches the cool outlines of his magnificent vision — a reconciliation of rationalism and empiricism — as an introduction to his Critique of Pure Reason (which is much longer, even more influential and — for the layman — almost inaccessibly hard). Also: Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals; Critique of Practical Reason. etc
Kant, Immanuel, German, 1724-1804. Critique of Pure Reason. Rec: Adler Aquinas GBWW Good Reading Seymour-Smith SJC (Selections) Ward Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals. Rec: Adler Aquinas Colcc91 SJC Critique of Practical Reason. Rec: Adler GBWW Science of Right. Rec: Adler Critique of Judgment. Rec: Adler GBWW SJC Perpetual Peace. Rec: Adler "What is Enlightenment?". Rec: Colcc91 Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics. Rec: Aquinas Kierkegaard, Soren The Concept of Dread (1844)
In this early study, published under the pseudonym of Vigilius Haufniensis (the Watchman of Copenhagen), Kierkegaard composes the theme (freedom, nothingness, anguish) on which existentialism has played so many variations. Also: Either/Or; Fear and Trembling; Concluding Unscientific Postscript, etc. See DIARIES Kierkegaard, S¸ren, Danish, 1813-1855. Either/Or. Rec: Seymour-Smith Ward Stages on Life's Way. Rec: Ward Philosophical Fragments. Rec: Aquinas SJC Fear and Trembling. Rec: Aquinas GBWW SJC Kirk, G. S. and Raven, J. E. The Pre-Socratic Philosophers (1957) 0 P In the beginning were Parmenides, Heraclitus and a host of other honourable names who appear on the roll-call of the First Philosophers — names already venerated (or vilified) by the time of Socrates and Plato. Invaluable collection of the earliest Greek philosophical fragments, with full commentary. See MYTHOLOGY
La Rochefoucauld, Fran§ois, duc de, French, 1613-1680. Maxims. Rec: Bloom SJC (Selections) Ward Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm von The Monadology (1714)
it 9*
If you've never thought of yourself as a monad, now's your chance. Each of us has a place in the marvellous metaphysical system of the mathematical genius of 17th-century rationalism, who exercised powerful influence — in philosophy, in mathematics, and in the world at large. Also: Discourse on Metaphysics; Theodicy; New Essays Concerning Human Understanding, etc Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm von, German, 1646-1716. Works. Rec: Seymour-Smith Discourse on Metaphysics. Rec: Adler Aquinas SJC New Essays Concerning Human Understanding. Rec: Adler Monadology. Rec: Adler SJC What is Nature?. Rec: SJC Essay on Dynamics. Rec: SJC Lewes, George Henry, English, 1817-1878. The History of Philosophy. Rec: Lubbock Lippmann, Walter. American, 1889-1974. A Preface to Morals. Rec: ML Nonfiction The Good Society. Rec: National Review Locke, John An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690)
WP *
Locke's forthright Essay pioneered the tradition of exploring, by empirical observation and analysis, the supposed limits of our understanding. Opens with the famous attack on the Cartesian doctrine of innate ideas. Also: Essays on the Law of Nature; Thoughts Concerning Education. See POLITICS Locke, John, English, 1632-1688. Of the Conduct of the Understanding. Rec: Lubbock Second Treatise on Government. Rec: Adler Aquinas Colcc91 Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 GBWW SJC Letter Concerning Toleration. Rec: Adler GBWW Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Rec: Adler Aquinas GBWW Good Reading Seymour-Smith Thoughts Concerning Education. Rec: Adler Longinus, Greek, 1st C CE. On the Sublime (in Classical Literary Criticism). Rec: Bloom Ward Lonergan, Bernard, Canadian, 1904-1984. Insight: A Study of Human Understanding. Rec: National Review (philosophy) Marcel, Gabriel Philosophy of Existence (1949)
V P
Marcel was articulating (Christian) existentialism in France at about the same time as Heidegger and Jaspers in Germany. This volume contains three papers, written in 1933 and 1946, plus an autobiographical essay. Of special interest is the second paper which is a critical survey of Sartre's (qv) philosophy. Also: Metaphysical Journal; Being and Having, Creative Fidelity, etc Marcuse, Herbert, German-American writing in English, 1898-1979. Eros and Civilization: A Philosophical Inquiry Into Freud. Rec: LAT Maritain, Jacques, French, 1882-1973. Art and Scholasticism. Rec: Adler The Degrees of Knowledge. Rec: Adler The Rights of Man and Natural Law. Rec: Adler True Humanism. Rec: Adler Martin of Dacia (a.k.a. Martin of Denmark), Danish writing in Latin, d. 1304. Tractus de Modis Significandi. Rec: Aquinas (philosophy) Mencius (Mengzi), Chinese, ca. 400-320 BCE. The Book of Mencius. Rec: App Fadiman 4 Oriental StJE Ward Merleau-Ponty, Maurice The Phenomenology of Perception (1945) P Here is a philosopher who talks about "body image". Very French and very sensuous. For the layman his preface gives a valuable short account of what he understands by "phenomenology". Also: Signs; Sense and Nonsense; The Structure of Behaviour, etc.
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, French, 1908-1961. Sense and Non-Sense. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Mill, John Stuart Utilitarianism (1861)
Valiant, stylish defence of Bentham's celebrated "greatest happiness" principle. Also: System of Logic. See ECONOMICS; FEMINISM; POLITICS Mill, John Stuart, English, 1806-1873. Principles of Political Economy. Rec: Lubbock Utilitarianism. Rec: Adler Aquinas GBWW Ward On Liberty. Rec: Adler Bloom Colcc91 Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 GBWW Seymour-Smith Ward The Subjection of Women. Rec: Adler Fadiman 4 Representative Government. Rec: Adler GBWW Ward Autobiography. Rec: Adler Bloom Ward A System of Logic. Rec: Adler Lubbock Maimonides, Jew in Islamic Spain and Egypt writing in Arabic and Hebrew, 1135-1204. Guide for the Perplexed. Rec: Seymour-Smith Ward Montaigne, Michel de Essays (1580)
411010*-0
Sceptical, humane and urbane, Montaigne wrote, in an age tormented by savage ideological conflict, essays not so much in technical philosophy as in a tolerant and civilized philosophy of life. Montaigne, Michel Eyquem de, French, 1533-1592. Essays. Rec: Adler Aquinas Bloom Col37 Col61 Collh91 Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 GBWW Good Reading Lubbock Meaningful Rex Seymour-Smith SJC (Selections) Ward Moore, G. E. Principia Ethica (1903)
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One of the major works of British philosophical ethics, written by the man who, together with Russell (qv), was a prominent mover in the contemporary British reaction against idealism. Source-book for the pretensions of the Bloomsbury Group. In Chapter 1 the phrase "naturalistic fallacy" begins its long and continuing career. Also: Philosophical Studies; Same Main Problems of Philosophy; Philosophical Papers Moore, G. E., English, 1873-1958. Principia Ethica. Rec: ML Nonfiction Mozi (Mo Tzu), Chinese, ca. 470-ca. 391 BCE. Basic Writings. Rec: Oriental StJE Ward Nietzsche, Friedrich Beyond Good and Evil ( 1886) alii*
Representative, thunderous work by the fallen angel of Western philosophy, about whom it is impossible to have a placid opinion. It is hard to doubt Nietzsche's statement, "I have at all times written my work with my whole body and my whole life". Also: Thus Spake Zarathustra: The Gay Science; Twilight of the Idols; The Origins of Tragedy, etc Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, German, 1844-1900. Use and Abuse of History. Rec: Aquinas Thus Spake Zarathustra. Rec: Adler Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 Seymour-Smith SJC (Selections) Ward The Birth of Tragedy. Rec: Bloom The Genealogy of Morals. Rec: Adler Bloom Colcc91 Fadiman 4 Beyond Good and Evil. Rec: Adler Aquinas Bloom Fadiman 4 GBWW SJC (Selections) The Will to Power. Rec: Adler Bloom Good Reading Other Works. Rec: Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 Ortega y Gasset, Jose The Revolt of the Masses (1929)
Powerful critique of modern man and modern democracy by a leading Spanish philosopher. Ortega, though not against democracy, is franker than most in assessing the consequences of runaway egalitarianism. Also: Towards a Universal History; The Idea of a University, etc Ortega y Gasset, José, Spanish, 1883-1955. Invertebrate Spain. Rec: Ward Revolt of the Masses. Rec: National Review TLS Ward Passmore, John A Hundred Years of Philosophy (1957)
a
Compressed account of main trends and major thinkers in philosophy — especially epistemology, logic and metaphysics — from the mid 19th century to the mid 20th. Second edition (1966) revised and updated. Readable style: accurate summaries — a difficult job well done. Also: Man's Responsibility for Nature; Philosophical Reasoning; The Perfectibility of Man Plato Phaedo (4th century BC)
gla • a *
Excellent introduction to Socrates' character, and to the thought and style of Plato. Centred on the question of the immortality of the soul, the dialogue includes a myth of the after-life, and ends with a touching account of Socrates' death. Plato's limpid style and firm (if to philosophers debatable) personal views make him especially attractive to the general reader. Also: The Symposium, etc. See POLITICS Plato, Greek, 428-348 BCE. Dialogues. Rec: Adler (Selections) Bloom GBWW Lubbock (Selections) Selected Works. Rec: Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 Ion. Rec: Aquinas Col37 Col61 Euthyphro. Rec: Rex Apology. Rec: Aquinas Col37 Col61 Collh91 Rex SJC Ward Crito. Rec: Aquinas Rex SJC Ward Phaedo. Rec: Aquinas Col61 Good Reading Rex SJC Ward Symposium. Rec: Aquinas Col61 Collh91 Good Reading SJC Republic. Rec: Aquinas Col37 Col61 Colcc91 Collh91 Good Reading Harvard Rex Seymour-Smith SJC Ward Meno. Rec: Aquinas SJC Gorgias. Rec: Aquinas SJC Parmenides. Rec: SJC Theatetus. Rec: SJC Sophist. Rec: SJC Timaeus. Rec: Aquinas SJC Phaedrus. Rec: Aquinas SJC Seventh Letter. Rec: GBWW Protagoras. Rec: Aquinas Plotinus, Greek, ca. 205-ca. 262. Enneads. Rec: Adler GBWW Seymour-Smith SJC (Selections) Ward Popper, Karl Conjectures and Refutations (1963) !P A bigger, better introduction to Popper's important and influential philosophy of science than The Logic of Scientific Discovery. Bryan Magee's Popper (1973) and Popper's own Unended Quest(1974) are also good sources of guidance. Also: Objective Knowledge. See POLITICS (Plato) Porphyry, Greek, 233-ca. 301. On the Predicaments. Rec: Aquinas Various Authors, Greek, 6th-5th C BCE. Presocratic Philosophers. Rec: Aquinas Bloom Ward Quine, Willard van Orman From a Logical Point of View (1953) p * Quine's name constantly recurs in current mainstream analytic philosophy. His controversial tenets are summed up in this selection of essays. Also: Word and Object, Methods of Logic; The Ways of Paradox and Other Essays, etc
Rorty, Richard. American, 1931- . Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. Rec: TLS Russell, Bertrand The Problems of Philosophy (1912)
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One of the first books commissioned for Home University Library, in which Russell outlines proposed solutions as well as problems. Platonism and empiricism are both anatomized. Lucid, honest, thoroughly engaging: excellent introduction to academic philosophy. Also: A History of Western Philosophy; Mysticism and Logic,etc. See MATHEMATICS (Whitehead) Russell, Bertrand, English, 1872-1970. Nobel Laureate (See also Whitehead, Alfred North and Bertrand Russell) Why I Am Not a Christian. Rec: NYPL Autobiography. Rec: Counterpunch NF History of Western Philosophy. Rec: Ward The Problems of Philosophy. Rec: Adler GBWW The Analysis of Mind. Rec: Adler An Inquiry Into Meaning and Truth. Rec: Adler Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits. Rec: Adler Ryle, Gilbert The Concept of Mind (1949)
Ryle attacks the Cartesian view of man as an incorporeal soul in the machine of the body. Acute, amusing analysis of mental concepts, the plausible upshot seeming to be a totally implausible behaviourism. Also: Dilemmas; Collected Papers; Plato's Progress Santayana, George, Spanish-American, 1863-1952. The Life of Reason. Rec: Adler Skepticism and Animal Faith. Rec: Adler Fadiman 3 Persons and Places. Rec: Adler Selected Other Works. Rec: Fadiman 3 Sartre, Jean-Paul Being and Nothingness (1943)
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Unofficial gospel of the Paris café, whose tidings are not exactly glad: "Man is a useless passion". Dense terminological thickets alternate with vivid insights and penetrating descriptions of human folly and foibles. Impassioned, atheistic existentialism. Also: Existentialism and Humanism; Critique of Dialectical Reason; Sketch fora Theory of the Emotions, etc. See BIOGRAPHY; DRAMA; FICTION/NOVELS
Sartre, Jean Paul, French, 1905-1980. Nobel Laureate Being and Nothingness. Rec: Adler Boston PL NYPL Seymour-Smith Existentialism and Humanism. Rec: TLS Schopenbaner, Arthur The World as Will and Idea( 1819)
Rare combination of Kant and Buddha underlies Schopenhauer's thought. Lively, lucid style, replete with entertaining and mordant chatter, especially about his hated Hegel. Discussion of human character and the unconscious anticipates Freud and psychoanalysis. Strong influence on Nietzsche (qv), also on Wittgenstein (qv). Also: The Fourfold Root, Parerga and Para lipornena; Essay on the Freedom of the Will Schopenhauer, Arthur, German, 1788-1860. The World as Will and Idea. Rec: Seymour-Smith Essays and Aphorisms. Rec: Ward Studies in Pessimism. Rec: Adler Sextus Empiricus Outlines of Pyrrhonism (c. 200)
p
Classic statement of philosophical scepticism. With Sextus's rediscovery in the 16th century, and his influence on such writers as Montaigne (qv), scepticism flourished in Europe. Thus indirectly, Sextus triggered Descartes (qv) in his crucial search for true knowledge by means of systematic doubt. Good translation: Loeb Library. Also: Against the Dogmatists; Against the Professors
Sextus Empiricus, Greek, fl. ca. 190. Outlines of Pyrrhonism. Rec: Seymour-Smith Sloterdijk, Peter, German, 1947- . Critique of Cynical Reason. Rec: Counterpunch Trans (philosophy)
Spheres Smith, Adam, Scottish, 1723-1790. Theory of Moral Sentiments. Rec: Adler Spencer, Herbert, English, 1820-1903. First Principles. Rec: Seymour-Smith Spinoza, Benedict Ethics (1677)
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Arguably the most perfect, most sublime metaphysical system of them all. Spinoza proceeds in a "geometrical" manner, commencing with definitions and axioms, from which he derives his propositions. Excommunicated by the Dutch Jewish community as an atheist, his entire system is a kind of intellectual panegyric to "God or Nature". Also: The Treatise on the Correction of the Understanding A Theologico-Political Treatise, etc Spinoza, Baruch, Dutch writing in Latin, 1632-1677. Ethics. Rec: Adler Col37 Col61 GBWW Good Reading Seymour-Smith Ward Tractatus Theologico-Politicus. Rec: Aquinas Lubbock SJC Strauss, Leo, German-American writing in English, 1899-1973. Natural Right and History. Rec: TLS (philosophy)
Stumpf, Samuel. American, 1918-1998. Socrates to Sartre: A History of Philosophy. Rec: Good Reading Unamuno, Miguel de, Spanish, 1864-1936. Tragic Sense of Life in Men and Nations. Rec: Ward Three Exemplary Novels. Rec: Bloom Our Lord Don Quixote. Rec: Bloom Wang Chong (Wang Ch'ung), Chinese, 27-ca. 97 CE. Lun Heng (Philosophical and Miscellaneous Essays). Rec: Ward Wang Yangming, Chinese, 1472-1529. Instructions for Practical Living, and Other Neo-Confucian Writings. Rec: Oriental StJE Ward Wittgenstein, Ludwig Philosophical Investigations (1953)kil*ro A series of observations, loosely collected into numbered paragraphs and short sections, in which the older Wittgenstein wrestles with his younger self of the Tractatus — and with the philosophical proclivities of generations of thinkers. Not so much a work, more a working out; less a handbook of thought than a model of how to think. Also: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus; The Blue and Brown Books; On Certainty, etc Wittgenstein, Ludwig, Austrian, 1889-1941. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Rec: National Review TLS Ward Philosophical Investigations. Rec: Counterpunch Trans GBWW Seymour-Smith TLS Xunzi (Hsun Tzu), Chinese, ca. 313-238 BCE. Selected Writings. Rec: Oriental StJE Harvey C. Mansfield, Jr.
Harvey Mansfield has been a professor of government at Harvard University for twenty-six years. His research area is political philosophy. His writings flow from Burke, to Machiavelli, to The Spirit of Liberalism. He is working on a study of executive power.
These five books reflect the central importance of politics in my life. Or else, one could say, they reflect the central importance of politics, recognized or not, in anyone's life. Whatever draws us away from politics — play, artistry, poetry, thought — at the same time draws on politics to supply the conditions of peace and harmony that such detachment requires. Plato. The Republic (370-360 B.c.). James Adam, ed. 2 vols. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1963.
This problem of attachment-detachment in politics is shown best and most beautifully in Plato's Republic, where the human condition is put in the image of prisoners in a cave. The cave is our politics, and the prisoners' chains represent enthrallment to the delusions by which we live. We can, some of us, some of the time, escape from them, but we always have to come back to them. Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics (ca. 350 B.C.). New York: Oxford University Press, 1980. (Pb)
Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics is the first book on moral virtue and still the best. Not a book on theories of morality, it describes the actual virtues of the moral person. Read today, it seems strangely familiar — we expect it to be obsolete and irrelevant, but do not find it so. Niccolo Machiavelli. The Prince (1513). Peter E. Bondanella and Mark Musa, trans. New York: Oxford University Press, 1984.
Machiavelli's Prince gives the clarion call that began the modern age. It tells us to take as our standard the way things actually are done, not the way we wish or profess them to be done. The Prince is the greatest book ever written on politics, when politics is understood as devoted solely to winning over an opponent. Leo Strauss. Natural Right and History (1950). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965. (Pb)
Leo Strauss's Natural Right and History makes the cause for reading these old books seriously — as if they might be true. He shows that the two grand obstacles to doing so, our beliefs in science and in history, lead us to the necessity that we recover philosophy in its original sense. Alexander I. Solzhenitsyn. The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956 (1973). Thomas P. Whitney, trans. New York: Harper & Row, 1985. (Pb)
Alexander Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago is the most powerful book of our time. Its accusation against the Soviet Union will outlast that regime and will dog it until its dying days. Its message of freedom sounds the call of honor and sacrifice that attends any notable effort on behalf of freedom, and that is largely missing in the peace-loving West today.
Robert Nozick
Robert Nozick is the author of Anarchy, State and Utopia (1974), which received a National Book Award, and Philosophical Explanations (1981), which received the Ralph Waldo Emerson Award of Phi Beta Kappa. He has recently been considering "the best things in life" in preparation for a book of the same name. This third book "examines what's important about life: happiness, the self, sexuality, love, intellectual creativity and wisdom." Previously chairman of the Harvard University Philosophy Department, he is now the Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Philosophy at Harvard.
The earliest very powerful impact of the printed word that I can remember was from the classic comics I read as a child. How I dwelled on Moby Dick, The Last of the Mohicans, Les Miserables, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and The Adventures of Robin Hood! If the dialogue and descriptive prose were skimpy, this was more than made up for by the narrative force and the vivid pictures. John Stuart Mill. On Liberty (1854). Elizabeth Rappaport, ed. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1978. (Pb)
To judge by the number of times I recall quoting it in high school, Mill's On Liberty impressed me greatly; it combined a position I found congenial, the careful marshaling of reasons and also great rhetorical force — hence the ease of quoting.
Plato. The Republic (370-360 B.C.). James Adam, ed. 2 vols. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1963.
I didn't fully recognize it at the time, I think, but Plato's Republic (along with some early dialogues), which I read as a freshman in Columbia's humanities course, presented me not only with a flurry of ideas and a way of investigating them and thinking them through but also with a figure, Socrates, vividly portrayed, who embodied these ideas and lived this inquiry. The issues and the figure have stayed with me. R. Duncan Luce and Howard Raiffa. Games and Decisions: Introduction and Critical Survey. New York: John Wiley, 1957.
Sometime late in college I stumbled across R. Duncan Luce and Howard Raiffa's Games and Decisions, a lucid and conceptually sophisticated presentation of utility theory and game theory. Its fitting of complicated aspects of human behavior into abstract mathematical structure intrigued me — and by a roundabout route I returned to this subject in doing a doctoral dissertation on decision theory. Friedrich August von Hayek. Individualism and Economic Order. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948.
Ludwig Von Mises. Socialism (orig. Die Gemeinwirtschaft, 1922). J. Kahane, trans. Indianapolis: Liberty-Classics, 1981. (Pb)
Friedrich August von Hayek. The Constitution of Liberty (1960). Chicago: Regnery, 1972.
While in graduate school I encountered the writings of Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig Von Mises, which shook me out of my then socialist beliefs. There was Hayek's book of essays, Individualism and Economic Order, and Mises's wide-ranging and unsettling Socialism, which showed me I had not thought through any details — economic, social or cultural — of how socialism would work. One of their arguments in particular, about the impossibility of rational economic calculation under socialism, dumbfounded me. Whether or not the argument was ultimately judged to be correct, it was amazing, something I never would have thought of in a million years. Soon afterward I read Hayek's then recently published and magisterial Constitution of Liberty, which impressed me with the depth of its thinking about society. William Shakespeare. Shakespeare: Complete Works (15921611). Alfred Harbage, ed. New York: Penguin, 1969.
The works I have listed affected, in different ways, my first book, a book of political philosophy. Since then my own thinking has not centered on the political or social realm. However, it is harder for me to pick out individual works since then that have had large impact. Perhaps the greater the weight of intellectual baggage we acquire as we grow older, the harder it is for one new thing to move us. But I cannot close without saying that back then and since then, there has been, always, presenting the world complete and not merely from one partial intense perspective, Shakespeare. Joseph S. Nye, Jr.
Joe Nye is a professor of government at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government and director of the Harvard Center for Science and International Affairs, Professor Nye graduated from Princeton, was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, and wrote his Harvard Ph.D. thesis in East Africa. His latest book is Nuclear Ethics (1986).
In a world of sovereign states and nuclear weapons, it is too dangerous to think one can know all the answers, but it is essential to be clear about the key questions and one's values. These books have helped me with both. They are listed chronologically. Leo Tolstoy. War and Peace (1865-69). Louise Maude and Aylmer Maude, trans. George Gibian, ed. New York: W. W. Norton, 1966.
Tolstoy introduced me to the complexity of history; to the enormous gap between what humans intend and what transpires; and to the importance of being clear about one's own core values. And what a good read! Joseph A. Schumpeter. Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy (1942). New York: Harper & Row, 1983. (Pb)
Schumpeter's celebration of the achievements of capitalism, and particularly the role of the entrepreneur and "creative destruction," is combined with a paradoxical prognosis of capitalism "killing itself by its successes." I wrote my undergraduate thesis about the question of whether that conclusion followed from his premise. I am still not sure that it does. This great book sets a great puzzle. Alfred J. Ayer. Language, Truth and Logic (1936). New York: Dover, 1952. (Pb)
While I would no longer subscribe to such a simple positivist epistemology, the experience of studying "Oxford philosophy" left me with a lifelong skeptical approach to tangled questions. Before trying to cut tall trees, start by clearing away the obstructing underbrush. Ayer set a high standard. Hans J. Morgenthau. Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace (1948). 5th ed. New York: Knopf, 1978.
A flawed book can have a great influence on one's life. This "Realist" text dominated the field when I began graduate study of international politics. It was too good to dismiss, but something was missing. My book (with Robert Keohane), Power and Interdependence, was in part a product of this wrestling match with Morgenthau. I am grateful for the great provocation. Elenore Smith Bowen [Laura Bohannan]. Return to Laughter (1954). New York: Doubleday, 1964.
This sensitive fictionalized account of an anthropologist's coming to terms with cultural relativism helped me to understand why I could admire so much of life in Uganda when I lived there in the early 1960s, yet still refuse to accept certain things I felt to be wrong. David J. Duncan. The River Why (1983). New York: Bantam, 1984. (Pb)
Long after I knew that I am often happiest when waist deep in a rushing river casting flies to rising trout, I read this book on an Alaskan float trip. Its droll portrayal of the fine line between fishing and philosophy allowed me both to laugh at myself and to feel justified in continuing as I would in any case. One can love books for many reasons. Orlando Patterson
Orlando Patterson was born in Jamaica. He was educated and has taught at the University of the West Indies and the London School of Economics before he came to Harvard in 1969. He is the author of three books on historical and comparative sociology and of three novels. He is presently completing a work on the historical sociology of freedom.
These works are as important for the way they approach their subjects as for the subjects they treat. By illuminating past and present in wholly new ways, they teach us how to understand the future when it becomes the present. Immanuel Kant. Groundwork on the Metaphysics of Morals (orig. Moral Law, 1797). H. J. Paton, trans. New York: Harper & Row, n.d. (Pb)
This is the greatest work of philosophy. Through it Kant became my intellectual father-figure. When I first read it as an undergraduate I was awed, but not scared by its great themes and insights. Under the forbidding Teutonic surface I soon discovered a very human, deeply compassionate presence. The Groundwork was my path to the serious study of philosophy. It taught me intellectual discipline and provided me with an inexhaustible philosophical foundation for any later thinking.
It has bvo windows: one looks out on the Enlightenment and all that's best in modern culture, the other looks back at ancient cultures and their greatest achievement, stoicism. The connections are not immediately obvious. Discovering them has been one of the abiding pleasures of my intellectual growth. Albert Camus. The Myth of Sisyphus (1942). Justin O'Brien, trans. New York: Random House, 1959. (Pb)
There are books such as the Groundwork which one grows with, and there are books one grows out of. Camus's The Myth of Sisyphus was one such work for me. I first came across it in high school, did not understand it, but was deeply drawn to it. I read it repeatedly through college. It is the perfect work for a young, searching mind concerned with the problems of identity and the meaning of existence. Absurdity and exile were just the themes I needed to explore as I came to terms with a decolonizing society (Jamaica) similar to the one in which Camus grew up (Algeria). Camus taught me intellectual nimbleness, the serious art of playing with ideas. And I learned confidence from him. When, finally, I came to understand him fully, I came to see not only that he was wrong but that I could think more creatively about the ideas to which he had introduced me. These ideas inspired my first novel, The Children of Sisyphus (1964). Karl R. Popper. The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945). Volume 1. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1966.
This great work was an eye-opener for me. It completely overturned my conventional views on ancient society and thought, especially that of Plato. It made me realize how it is possible for a whole tradition of scholarship to distort systematically the interpretation of a period. This work taught me the importance of interpreting the past and the classics for oneself. Eric E. Williams. Capitalism and Slavery: The Caribbean (1944). New York: Andre Deutsch. 1964. (Pb)
This masterful historical work showed me how a powerful mind can turn long-cherished views of history upside down. It was also important for all West Indian intellectuals growing up in the 1950s and 1960s — history as a political force. The work taught me two things: the importance of slavery in the rise of the modern West and the courage to take on big ideas and great themes. Karl Marx. Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 (1844). Dirk J. Struik, ed., Martin Milligan, trans. New York: International, 1964. (Pb)
This work, along with the Preface to the Critique of Political Economy, restored my respect for Marx after a long love affair with, and ultimate rejection of, Das Kapital during my early years of graduate school at the London School of Economics. This is the early, humanistic side of Marx. A profound critique of the central human problem of capitalism — alienation. From this work I could move back to Hegel and forward to Weber, Laski and other modern thinkers in the development of my own sociological thought. David Riesman, with Reuel Denny and Nathan Glazer. The Lonely Crowd (1950). New Haven: Yale University Press, 1973. (Pb)
One of the greatest works of modern interpretive sociology. This is the work that finally turned me on to sociology. It does for the interpretation of modern American society what Alexis de Tocqueville did for the first part of the nineteenth century. Like the latter's work, it transcends the deeper period to which it is addressed. The work brought me a deeper understanding of American society and a lasting fascination with it. More important, it became my model of informed macrosociological analysis; the interpretive sociological imagination at its best. Willard V. Quine
Willard Quine has retired from his teaching career at Harvard University, where he is the Edgar Pierce Professor of Philosophy Emeritus. His distinguished work as a mathematical logician and philosopher of language continues. Retirement allows him to produce such forthcoming works as Bits and Pieces (Harvard University Press). He is the subject of a volume in the "Library of Living Philosophers" series. Best known for writing Mathematical Logic and Word and Object, his autobiography, Time of My Life, was published in 1985. Bertrand Russell. Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy (1919). New York: Simon & Schuster, 1971. (Pb)
Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy was my introduction to the rigors of modern logic and the mysteries of infinite numbers. It brought new clarity to familiar old mathematical concepts as well, by reducing them to pure logic and set theory. The charms of the subject matter and of Russell's writing combined to launch me on a career of mathematical philosophy. Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell. Principia mathematica (1910-12). 3 vols. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1962. (Pb)
Written mostly in mathematical symbols, these volumes provided the solid fare for which Russell's book above had whetted my appetite. Here the derivation of classical mathematics from logic and set theory is carried through in strict formal detail. Sir Arthur S. Eddington. The Nature of the Physical World (1928). Folcroft, Penn.: Folcroft Library Editions, 1935.
This was perhaps the most memorable of several books of popular science that both fired and helped to gratify my curiosity about the basis, bounds and inner workings of physical reality. Bertrand Russell. Our Knowledge of the External World (1914). 2d ed. Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities Press, 1972.
The two philosophical interests noted above — the logicomathematical and the physical — are here brought into contact. A program is sketched for deriving our knowledge of nature from our sensory evidence with the help of modern logical techniques. Rudolf Carnap. Der logische Aufbau der Welt (1928). Hamburg: Meiner, 1974.
The program that Russell had thus sketched is here undertaken in earnest and explicit technical detail, bristling with logical symbols. It is a work of admirable vision and ingenuity, Rudolf Carnap. Logische Syntax der Sprache. Vienna: J. Springer, 1934.
This work, the writing of which I was privileged to witness for a while, brought logical positivism to full flower. It develops the philosophy of science as the logic and syntax of the language of science. Carnap and I diverged from it in opposite directions after a few years, but the book has influenced me deeply. Walter W. Skeat, ed. An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language (1879). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1924.
The foregoing six books sparked and nourished interrelated interests that took on professional proportions. But this book has been the faithful support for fifty-seven years of another and independent interest that I somehow acquired in my late teens: a consuming interest in the origins of words. The Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals
I. Kant Universal Morality A Short History of EthicsA. MacIntyre
Universal Morality "The Sea, the Sea"
I. Murdoch
Universal Morality Good and Evil R. Taylor
Divine Justice Before Philosophy
H. Frankfort
Divine Justice Origins of Evil in Hindu Mythology
W.D. O'Flaherty Divine Justice The Divine Comedy
Dante
Divine Justice Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt
J.H. Breasted
Fate Free Will and Predestination in Early Islam
W.M. Watt
Fate An Essay on Free Will
P. VanInwagen
Fate Metaphysics
D.W. Hamlyn
Monism A Source Book of Vedanta
"E. Deutsch, J.A.B. van Buitenen" Monism Holism: A Shopper's Guide
"J. Fodor, E. Lepore"
Monism A History of Greek Philosophy
W.H.C. Guthrie Reality Unknowable Science and Civilization in China J. Needham
Reality Unknowable Art and Illusion E.H. Gombrich Reality Unknowable The Art and Thought of Heraclitus
C.H. Kahn
Dynamic Universe Remembering HeraclitusR.G. Geldard
Dynamic Universe Studies in Heraclitus
R. Dilcher
Dynamic Universe Truth: a History F. Fernandez-Armesto
Universal Concepts The Sociology of Philosophies
R. Collins
Universal Concepts The East in the West
J. Goody
Universal Concepts Modern Philosophy
R. Scruton
Relativism "Objectivity, Realism and Truth"R. Rorty Relativism
In a Grove (Rashomon) R. Akutagawa
Relativism The Nature of Matter
G. Arnaldi
Materialism Sources of Indian Tradition
A.T. Embree
Materialism A Materialist Theory of the Mind D.M. Armstrong Materialism The Greek Cosmologists D.J. Furley
Atomism
The Epicurean Tradition H. Jones Atomism
The Magic Furnace
M. Chown
Atomism Late Medieval and Early Modern Corpuscular Matter Theories
C. LuthyAtomism Western Atheism: A Short History
J. Thrower
Purposeless World The Range of Reason
J. Maritain
Purposeless World Principles of the Philosophy of the Future L. Feuerbach
Purposeless World Sketch for…the Progress of the Human Mind
Marquis de Condorcet
Morality of Human Nature On Human Nature
E.O. Wilson
Morality of Human Nature After Virtue
A. MacIntyre
Morality of Human Nature Hellenistic Philosophy
A.A. Long
Practical Ethics The Modes of Scepticism "J. Annas, J. Barnes"
Practical Ethics Discourses
Epictetus
Practical Ethics Meditations
M. Aurelius
Practical Ethics Twentieth-Century French Thought
J. Chiari Existentialism The Cambridge Companion to Sartre
C. Howells
Existentialism Nausea J.P. Sartre
Existentialism The Outsider
A. Camus
Existentialism An American Dream
N. Mailer
Existentialism Collected Papers
C.S. Pierce
Pragmatism Pragmatism
W. James
Pragmatism Pragmatism from Pierce to Davidson
J.P. Murphy
Pragmatism William James G.W. Allen
Pragmatism Hard Times
C. Dickens
Pragmatism The World as Will and Idea
A. Schopenhauer Primacy of the Will The Will to Power
F. Nietzsche
Primacy of the Will The Philosophy of Schopenhauer B. Magee
Primacy of the Will Schopenhauer on the Character of the World
J.E. Atwell
Primacy of the Will The Films of Leni Riefenstahl
D.B. Hinton
Primacy of the Will Principles of Morals and Legislation
J. Bentham
Utilitarianism Bentham
G.J. Postema
Utilitarianism On Liberty
J.S. Mill Utilitarianism The Philosophy of John Stuart Mill
A. Ryan Utilitarianism Mill and Liberalism
M. Cowling
Utilitarianism The Growth of Philosophic Radicalism 1901-04
E. Halevy
Utilitarianism The Roots of Romanticism
I. Berlin Romanticism Romanticism and Art
W. Vaughan
Romanticism Companion to Romanticism
D. Wu Romanticism The Sorrows of Young Werther J. Goethe
Romanticism Abstract Objects
B. Hale Abstraction The Shock of the New
R. Hughes
Abstraction Complete Writings on Art
W. Kandinsky
Abstraction Abstraction and Empathy
W. Worringer
Abstraction Essay Concerning Human Understanding J. Locke Abstraction The Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous
G. Berkeley
Idealism Appearance and Reality F.H. Bradley
Idealism Idealism: Past and Present
G. VeseyIdealism Negation and Non-Being R.M. Gale
Nothing The Book of Nothing
J.D. Barrow
Nothing
The Nothing that Is
R. Kaplan
Nothing Thinking and Experience
H.H. Price
Creation by Thought On Thinking
G. Ryle Creation by Thought Ancient Egyptian Religion
S. Quirke
Creation by Thought Religion and Creation
K. Ward Creation by Thought The Idea of Progress
J.B. Bury
Progress History of the Idea of Progress
R. Nisbet
Progress Theodicy
G.W. Leibniz
Progress The Future Progress of the Human Mind J.M. de Condorcet
Progress Forrest Gump / Candide W. Groom
Progress WESTERN PHILOSOPHY: INTRODUCTION PAUL ROWNTREE
There is no agreed definition of philosophy. The question 'What is philosophy?' is itself a philosophical question. However, broadly speaking, philosophy is the systematic analysis of our concepts of - and the construction of theories about the nature of - mind, reality, language, logic, the self, free will, perception, causation, science, God, morality, rationality, time, space, and so on. Philosophy includes logic (the study of valid ference), epistemology (the theory of knowledge), and metaphysics (the study of the nature of existence), as well as ethics, aesthetics, political theory, the philosophy of science, and the philosophy of religion. General readers can begin the study of philosophy either with books about the history of philosophy or with books about certain topics within philosophy. They should then move on without delay to reading some of the works of the great philosophers.
Philosophy begins in wonder.
PLATO Philosophy Made Simple (1993) by Richard H Popkin and Avrum Stroll. Revised edition of a readable and very useful introduction to philosophy with chapters on ethics, political philosophy, metaphysics, philosophy of religion, the theory of knowledge, logic, and contemporary philosophy. Each chapter contains critical summaries of the theories of the great philosophers. Highly recommended for the beginner. A Dictionary of Philosophy (1990) by G Vesey and P Foulkes. A valuable dictionary of philosophical terms and theories. The major topic entries and the entries on individual philosophers can be read as an introduction to philosophy for the general reader. Modern Philosophy: An Introduction and Survey (1994) by Roger Scruton. A remarkably wide-ranging survey of contemporary developments in both European and Anglo-Saxon philosophy. Readable and stimulating, but some chapters are quite technical. Body, Mind and Death (1964) edited by Anthony Flew. A fascinating anthology of readings on the question 'What is consciousness?' Contains extracts from the works of Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Thomas Hobbes, Rene Descartes, Benedict Spinoza, Gottfried Leibniz, John Locke, David Hume, and many others. Free Will (1972) by D J O'Connor. The best introduction to this classic philosophical problem. Examines a selection of arguments for and against the view that some human actions are freely chosen. Short and lucid. A Short History of Ethics: A History of Moral Philosophy from the Homeric Age to the Twentieth Century (1966) by Alasdair Maclntyre. An early work by arguably the most original of contemporary moral philosophers. Here, he argues that moral concepts cannot be understood apart from their history. A challenging historical survey, covering many thinkers not usually regarded as moral philosophers. The Problems of Philosophy (1912) by Bertrand Russell. A short, classic introduction to philosophical analysis by one of this century's great philosophers. Topics covered include the nature and existence of matter, appearance and reality, and the value of philosophy.
Philosophy and the Meaning of Life (1971) by Karl Britton. Written for the general reader concerned about philosophical questions such as 'Why does the universe exist?' and 'Why do I exist?'. The author asks what these questions mean, what could count as answers, and what methods can be used to find answers. Highly recommended for the beginner. A History of Western Philosophy (1946) by Bertrand Russell. An entertaining history of philosophy in one volume. Weak on the medieval period and occasionally rather misleading, it nevertheless provides a useful historical survey for the beginner. ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY Paul Rowntree
Ancient philosophy covers a period of a thousand years - from about 650 BC to about AD 350. It helps to divide ancient philosophy into three subsidiary periods. 1. Pre-Socratic philosophy covers those speculative cosmologists (such as Democritus and Pythagoras) who flourished in the period c. 650-c. 450 BC. 2. Classical Greek philosophy begins with Socrates (469-399 BC), covers Plato (c. 428-347 BC), and ends with Aristotle (384-
322 BC). 3. Hellenistic philosophy covers the period from the death of Aristotle until the fall of the Roman Empire, and it includes Plotinus and the neo-Platonists, Epicurus, and the Stoics. The Hellenistic philosophers were influenced by Greek culture, but often lived outside Greece.
The history of Western philosophy is, after all, no more than a series of footnotes to Plato's philosophy.
A N WHITEHEAD Before and After Socrates (1932) by F M Cornford. A classic account of the pre-Socratics, Plato and Aristotle. Short and very readable. The Last Days of Socrates (4th century BC) by Plato (translated 1993 by Hugh Tredennick and Harold Tarrant). A collection of four of Plato's works in which he displayed the methods and teaching of Socrates. Contains the Apology (Socrates's speech at his trial) and the Phaedo (Plato's account of Socrates last conversation). Readable and short. Newcomers to Plato are recommended to start here. The Republic (4th century BC) by Plato (translated 1974 by Desmond Lee). Plato's philosophical and literary masterpiece in which he expounds his most important theories. Books VI and VII and particularly interesting. A fluent and elegant translation. The Nicomachean Ethics (4th century BC) by Aristotle (translated 1976 by J A K Thomson, revised by Hugh Tredennick, and introduced by Jonathan Barnes). Aristotle's Ethics is one of the most influential books in history, and a standard text in moral philosophy. Addresses the issue of how to live well, and is important as much for its analytical methods as for its conclusions. A book that will repay a lifetime's study. A readable translation. Aristotle (1982) by Jonathan Barnes. A short, elegant, and comprehensive introduction to Aristotle for the general reader by a leading philosopher and classical scholar. The Neo-Platonists (1991) translated by John Gregory. A useful anthology mainly devoted to Plotinus, but containing pieces by Porphyry, Iambilichus, and Proclus. Meditations (2nd century AD) by Marcus Aurelius (translated 1964 by Maxwell Staniforth). A classic statement of the stoic philosophy of life by a famous Roman emperor. A very influential and inspiring work by a sensitive and humble mind. Short and readable. Hellenistic Philosophy (1974) by A A Long. An excellent survey and general appraisal. The best introduction to the subject. Scholarly but still suitable for the general reader.
MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY IN EUROPE
Paul Rowntree
Historians will always dispute when the Middle Ages began and ended. The Renaissance and the Middle Ages overlapped; and much of the medieval philosophical outlook survived into the late 17th century and even later. For philosophical purposes, the Middle Ages can be divided into: 1. The early Middle Ages (5th-11th centuries), beginning with St Augustine of Hippo (AD 354-430) and Boethius (AD 480-
524) and ending with St Anselm (1033-1109). 2. The high Middle Ages (12th-13th centuries) in which scholastics such as St Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-1274) flourished. 3. The later Middle Ages (14th-15th centuries) in which the greatest philosopher was probably William of Occam (c. 1285-
1349). Undoubtedly, Aquinas has been the most influential of all medieval philosophers.
Examine carefully what has been said, and if possible, reconcile faith and reason.
ANICIUS MANILUS SEVERINUS BOETHIUS A History of Medieval Philosophy (1972) by F C Copleston. An interesting and useful survey of the entire period, including medieval Islamic and Jewish philosophy. The author draws attention to the similarities between particular medieval philosophers and philosophers of later periods. Contains good bibliographies. Medieval Thought: St Augustine to Ockham (1958) by Gordon Leff. A brisk, brilliant, and brief introduction by an historian. Contains plenty of short quotations from the works of the medieval philosophers. Renaissance Thought: The Classic, Scholastic and Humanist Strains (1961) by Paul 0 Kristeller. A short, brilliant account of philosophy in the transitional period of the 15th and 16th centuries. Suitable for the beginner and the expert alike. The Confessions of St Augustine (4th century) translated 1961 by R S Pine-Coffin. St Augustine's spiritual autobiography. Contains some notable philosophical reflections on the nature of time in Book XI, and communicates his highly influential out-
look as well. A readable translation of a masterpiece. The Consolation of Philosophy (524 AD) by Anicius Manilus Severinus Boethius (translated 1969 by V E Watts). A very beautiful and influential work in verse and prose, written while the author awaited execution. Boethius was a Christian philosopher who drew extensively on Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics. He and St Augustine shaped medieval philosophy. Contains his famous definitions of eternity and of Providence, which were adopted by Aquinas. A masterpiece. Boethius, Roman, ca. 480-524. Consolation of Philosophy. Rec: Aquinas On Music. Rec: Aquinas The Prayers and Meditations of St Anselm (11th century) translated 1973 by Sister Benedicta Ward. Mainly devotional, but the book contains the Prologion in which appears Anselm's brilliant version of the ontological argument for the existence of God. The ontological argument fascinates philosophers, and it has generated a vast literature. Summa Theologicae by St Thomas Aquinas: A Concise Translation (1989) edited by Timothy McDermott. The most readable translation of selections from Aquinas's great synthesis of St Augustine and Aristotle. Omits the conventions of medieval debate used in the original in favour of the modem format of continuous paragraphs. Therefore, to appreciate Aquinas's methods and style, it should be read in conjunction with another anthology of his writings. Aquinas (1955) by F C Copleston. Good introduction for those who have no previous knowledge of this great but difficult philosopher. The Five Ways (1969) by Anthony Kenny. A lucid philosophical analysis of Aquinas's five proofs of the existence of God by a former Roman Catholic priest turned agnostic Oxford philosopher. Quite technical in places, but very rewarding. A History of Political Thought: The Middle Ages (1965) by Walter Ullman. Valuable historical introduction to medieval political philosophy. Traces the emergence of the concepts of sovereignty, parliament, citizenship, the vile of law, and the state.
PHILOSOPHY IN 17TH-CENTURY EUROPE
Paul Rowntree
Philosophy in the 17th century was emerging from its subjection to theology; and the physical sciences began to separate from philosophy. Increasingly, the God of medieval philosophy was no longer seen as the guarantee and foundarion of all knowledge. Accordingly, some of the leading philosophers sought a foundation for knowledge in mathematical reasoning, while others sought a foundation for knowledge in the experience of the senses and the inductive reasoning of the physical senses. The former are known as rationalists - Rene Descartes (1596-1650), Benedict Spinoza (1632-1677), and Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716). The latter are known as empiricists - Francis Bacon (1561-1626), John Locke (1632-1704), and (arguably) Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679). Empiricism became the dominant trend in the next century, and it remains an important trend to this day.
As regards any subject we propose to investigate, we must inquire not what other
people have thought, or what we ourselves conjecture, but what we can clearly and
manifestly perceive by intuition or deduce with certainty. For there is no other way
of acquiring knowledge.
RENE DESCARTES Descartes: Philosophical Writings (1954) selected and translated by EIizabeth Anscombe and P T Geach. One of several very useful selections of the most important works. Includes The Meditations - one of the most readable (though deceptively simple) philosophical classics. Descartes: The Project of Pure Enquiry (1978) by Bernard Williams. Probably the best commentary by a leading modem philosopher. Quite a difficult book in places, but it repays the effort. Ethics (1677) by Benedict Spinoza (translated by A Boyle and revised by G H R Parkinson 1993). The best of the easily accessible translations. Fascinating, remarkable, and beautiful. This most impressive work of speculative metaphysics is modelled on Euclid's geometrical demonstrations. Read Spinoza's prefaces and notes before attempting the work as a whole. Demanding but highly recommended. Spinoza (1988) by Stuart Hampshire. Revised edition of the best of the basic introductions. Covers not only the monistic metaphysics but the political philosophy and biblical criticism as well. Lucid and concise. Leibniz: Philosophical Writings (1973) edited by G H R Parkinson and translated by Mary Morris and G H R Parkinson. The best selection of Leibniz's shorter works. Includes the very concise and readable Monadology. Leibniz (1954) by Ruth L Saw. Good introduction, which pieces together Leibniz's doctrines in metaphysics and formal logic. Avoids undue technicalities and is useful for anyone new to Leibniz. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690) by John Locke (edited by A S Pringle-Pattison 1924). One of several editions of this long but important work. Begin by reading only selected passages on substance, personal identity, and the distinction between primary and secondary qualities. Locke's conception of substance as a completely featureless substratum is important. John Locke (1952) by D J O'Connor. Covers Locke's highly influential political philosophy as well as his metaphysics and epistemology. A very readable introduction. Leviathan (1651) by Thomas Hobbes (edited by M Oakeshott 1946). One of many editions of Hobbes's masterpiece, written in his magnificently pithy style. Commentators still argue about this most important work of political theory. Was I-Iobbes an authoritarian pessimist and atheist, or not? Hobbes (1956) by R S Peters. A good introduction to a remarkably original, important, and rather neglected philosopher - the first great philosopher to write in English. Considers Hobbes's achievement as a whole, and not just the Leviathan. Very helpful. The Seventeenth-Century Background (1953) by Basil Willey. A masterly exercise in the history of ideas by a professor of English literature. Very readable and highly recommended.
PHILOSOPHY IN 18TH-CENTURY EUROPE
Paul Rowntree
In 18th-century philosophy, the dominant trend in metaphysics and epistemology was empiricism, while the dominant trend in political philosophy was liberal individual-ism. The Irish philosopher and bishop George Berkeley (1685-1753) devised a form of empiricism now known as subjective idealism. The Scottish philosopher David Hume (1711-1774) arrived at generally sceptical views about reason, causation, the self, and religion. The German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), claiming that He had woken him from his 'dogmatic slumbers', developed a synthesis of British empiricism and continental rationalism known as critical philosophy. In France, Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) argued for direct rather than representative democracy. In England, Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), the founder of utilitarianism, held that the essence of morality was 'the greatest happiness of the greatest number'.
If we take in our hand any volume; of divinity or school metaphysics, for
instance; let us ask, 'Does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning
quantity or number? No. Does it contain any experimental reasoning
concerning matter of fact and existence? No.' Commit it then to the flames:
for it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion.
DAVID HunlE Principles of Human Knowledge/Three Dialogues (1710-1734) by George Berkeley (edited by Roger Woolhouse 1988). For Berkeley, the existence of objects depends on their being perceived: objects have continuous existence only because God perceives them all the time. May sound bizarre, but highly influential. The Three Dialogues are short and entertaining. Berkeley (1953) by Geoffrey J Warnock. An excellent account of Berkeley's philosophy. Explains very clearly how Berkeley came to such extraordinary conclusions as a result of rejecting, in the name of common sense, Locke's conception of substance as a featureless substratum. Fifteen Sermons (1914) by Bishop Joseph Butler (edited by W R Matthews). Great, if underestimated, work of moral philosophy. Butler, the leading conscience theorist, holds that conscience governs and limits both our benevolence and our selfishness. Subtle in content, solemn in tone. Highly recommended. Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (1779) by David Hume (edited by Martin Bell 1990). Of all Hume's philosophical works, this is the shortest and most accessible to the general reader. A work by a master of English prose. Never a dull moment. A masterpiece. Hume (1980) by Alfred J Ayer. A short and stylish account of the main themes in Hume's philosophy by a modern empiricist. Tends to assume that Hume's philosophical intentions are not in dispute, but nevertheless very valuable. Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysics (1783) by Immanuel Kant (translated by P G Lucas 1953). The shortest and most accessible of the main works of one of the greatest and most difficult philosophers. Dense and technical, so read a general commentary on Kant first. The Philosophy of Kant (1968) by John Kemp. Kant is probably the most influential philosopher in the post-Enlightenment period. This is a classic account of Kant's critical philosophy. Lucid, short, and readable. Kant's Moral Philosophy (1970) by Harry B Acton. An excellent and very short account of Kant's ethics and the categorical imperative. Essential preparation for reading Kant's influential moral philosophy. Utilitarianism: For and Against (1975) by J J C Smart and Bernard Williams. Two essays on utilitarian ethics. J J C Smart refines Bentham's classical utilitarianism. Bernard Williams opposes this view. A good introduction to the ethics that influences so much social policy. Highly recommended. The Social Contract: Essays by Locke, Hume, and Rousseau (1946) introduced by Ernest Barker. Brings together three great works of political philosophy - Locke's Second Treatise on Government, Hume's Of the Original Contract, and Rousseau's Social Contract. A very valuable volume for anyone interested in contractarianism in political theory. Rousseau's work has been variously interpreted as a blueprint for totalitarian-ism and a defence of individual liberty. It is more important as a source of ideas than as a system of philosophical arguments. 19TH-CENTURY PHILOSOPHY
Robert C Solomon
The 19th century displayed a remarkably rich and exciting explosion of philosophical energy and talent, perhaps even comparable to the generation that gave birth to Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. The scale of the revolution set off in philosophy by Immanuel Kant was comparable, by Kant's own estimation, to the Copernican revolution that ended the Middle Ages. Following Kant were some of the most imaginative philosophers of modern times, including G W F Hegel and Arthur Schopenhauer as well as the philosophers he inspired in opposition to him, notably Soren Kierkegaard, Karl Marx, and Friedrich Nietzsche. Unfortunately, the 19th century on the European continent was not known for the clarity of its writing style, an unfortunate aspect of the Kantian inheritance. (One might compare the writing of John Stuart Mill and William James, their English and American contemporaries.) Hegel and Schopenhauer quite consciously employed a formidable Kansan jargon, although Schopenhauer's cutting wit often shines through. Kierkegaard used this same jargon ironically to mock Hegel. The later part of the century - which Virginia Woolf described as the passing of a dark cloud - showed a few signs of clearing. Although Marx's later economic writings are indeed difficult, his earlier philosophical writings are quite bold and accessible. Nietzsche's writing is among the best one can find in German, although his style is misleadingly facile, often hyperbolic and intentionally polemical. Easy (if sometimes offensive) to read, he is a master of subtlety and irony. My choice of books, accordingly, is confined to original texts (and collections of texts) that, nevertheless, are approachable by the intelligent general reader. More difficult texts are merely suggested.
It is not difficult to see that ours is a birth-time and a period of transition to a new era. Spirit has broken with the world it has hitherto inhabited and imagined, ... Spirit is never at rest but always engaged in moving forward. But just as the first breath drawn by a child after its long, quiet nourishment breaks the gradualness of merely quantitative growth, ... so likewise the Spirit in its formation matures slowly and quietly into its new shape, dissolving bit by bit the structure of its previous world.
G W F HEGEL Reason in History (1820s; 1953), The Philosophy of Right (1821; translated 1967), and The Phenomenology of Spirit (1807; translated 1977) by G W F Hegel. The first is actually the introduction to a series of lectures Hegel delivered to his students in Berlin. Although it is difficult, what clearly emerges is an optimistic vision of a rational, progressive view of history, in which individual freedom emerges from 'the slaughter bench of history' but whose significance is to be found not in individuals (even the 'greatest' individuals) but in the development of spiritual consciousness as a whole. The Phenomenology of Spirit is an earlier, much more detailed and ambitious work, in which Hegel develops the concept of an emerging world-
spirit. at is not unimportant that he wrote the book just as Napoleon was reaching the full extent of his European conquests, including the western German states.) The reading is enormously difficult, but I encourage courageous readers to ascertain the general movement - or 'dialectic' - of the text. The most famous (and readable) sections: on 'Master and Slave' (in part B) and his discussion of Antigone and the conflict between divine law and civil society (in part C). Parerga and Paralipomena (1851; translated 1974) and The World as Will and Idea (1818; translated 1948-50) by Arthur Schopenhauer. Although Schopenhauer certainly earned his self-styled reputation as the most 'pessimistic' of all modern philosophers, he is arguably one of the wittiest and most humorous of all modern philosophers as well. Despite the morbid message ('life is meaningless'), reading Schopenhauer is almost always an unexpected pleasure. Journals (1839; translated from Danish by A Dru 1938), Concluding Unscientific Postscript (1846; translated by D Swenson and W Lowrie 1944), Either/Or (1843; translated by D Swenson, W Lowrie, and H Johnston 1954) by Soren Kierkegaard. Kierkegaard was fundamentally a religious writer and the first 'existentialist' (often misunderstood as a purely atheist movement). He defended the personal, passionate existence and commitments of the individual (for example, against Hegel's global notion of world-spirit) and defended a view of Christianity - 'becoming a Christian' - which was first of all a passionate personal commitment, a 'leap of faith'. Early Writings (1843-4; translated and edited by Thomas Bottomore 1963) by Karl Marx; The Communist Manifesto (1848; edited by A Taylor 1967) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Karl Marx is best known as the economist and polemicist who inspired worldwide revolutions. He is less well known for his humanistic and philosophical writings.
The Gay Science (1881-82; translated by W Kaufmann 1974), Beyond Good and Evil (1886; translated by W Kaufmann 1966), The Viking Portable Nietzsche (translated and edited by W Kaufmann 1954), Thus Spake Zarathustra (1883-85), and Twilight of the Idols (1889; translated 1954) by Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche died in 1900, in many ways bringing to an end the philosophical idealism of the 19th century and anticipating the moral confusion and violence of the 20th. He rejected glib notions of 'objectivity', especially in philosophy. He was, above all, a moralist, who (in the name of 'immorality') attempted to reinvent a morality of nobility in place of what he perceived as the 'decadent' and decaying values of the Judaeo-
Christian tradition. 20TH-CENTURY PHILOSOPHY Richard Rorty
In the early decades of this century, philosophers thought a lot about the impact of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution on traditional conceptions of man's place in the universe. Bergson, James, and Dewey all tried to rearrange old philosophical notions so as to make room for evolutionary thought. Later on, philosophy split down the middle into the 'analytic' and the 'continental' schools. The analysts (Ayer, Danto, Dennett, Rawls) are mostly anglophone. They think of philosophy as argumentative problem-solving. The 'continentals' (Heidegger, Foucault, Jacques Derrida) typically view philosophy as reflection on our contemporary historical situation. These two philosophical schools rarely interact, but both have produced first-rate books. By now, they have so little in common that the use of the term 'philosophy' for both tells one little more than that both kinds of philosophers trace some of their concern back to Plato, Aristotle, David Hume, and Immanuel Kant.
When it is acknowledged that under disguise of dealing with ultimate reality,
philosophy has been occupied with the precious values embedded in social
traditions, that it has sprung from a clash of social ends and from a conflict of
inherited institutions with incompatible contemporary tendencies, it will be seen
that the task of future philosophy is to clarify men's ideas as to the social and
moral strifes of their own day.
JOHN DEWEY Introduction to Metaphysics (1903) by Henri Bergson. A short, lucid presentation of Bergson's central idea: that ultimate reality is an evolutionary flux, and that material objects and minds are merely abstractions from that flux. Pragmatism (1907) by William James. Argues that true ideas are ideas that get us what we want, that the search for truth is therefore part of the pursuit of happiness, and that the human mind is an organ for coping with reality rather than copying it. Reconstruction in Philosophy (1920) by John Dewey. Debunks the idea that philosophy gives you an understanding of the true nature of reality, or mind, or anything else. Dewey's alternative conception of philosophy is illustrated by the quotation above. Language, Truth and Logic (1936) by A J Ayer. A brilliantly clear and persuasive presentation of logical empiricism, the doctrine that all knowledge of the world is a matter of predicting the occurrence of sense experiences. Connections to the World: The Basic Concepts of Philosophy (1989) by Arthur C Danto. An introduction to philosophy by one of the leading contemporary analytic philosophers. Presupposes no previous acquaintance with the subject. Political Liberalism (1993) by John Rawls. A defence of the institutions of the liberal democracies, arguing that they do not need metaphysical or religious foundations, but only the informed consent of citizens to procedures for resolving conflicts. Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life (1995) by Daniel Dennett. A brilliant defence of the claim that the entire history of the universe, from the Big Bang to the primeval slime, and from there to us, can be explained as the chance product of the movements of matter. Basic Writings of Martin Heidegger (1993) edited by D F Krell. A good sampling from the writings of the most original of 20th-century philosophers. Heidegger was a Nazi, and is often denounced as an irrationalist obscurantist. But his influence has been enormous.
A Foucault Reader (1984) edited by Paul Rabinow. A selection from the work of Michel Foucault, a brilliant historian of ideas and political radical. His books have almost replaced Marx's as manuals for leftist intellectuals. A Derrida Reader: Between the Blinds (1991) edited by Peggy Kamuf. Selections from the voluminous works of the most original French thinker of his day, the inventor of 'deconstruction' and a philosopher who tries to bring Heidegger together with Sigmund Freud.

Poetry

Making lists of recommended poets is a subjective exercise. Poetry is of the senses before it is of the mind; to state a preference for this poem or that is to utter autobiography, not criticism. We have included poets of many ages and languages (though all are available in good English translations) — though this feature of the list is perhaps more real than apparent. A good poem often stands outside its locality and time, and speaks directly, now, at the moment of reading, of shared perception of human experience. This quality of timelessness was our main criterion, whether of individual poets or of the many "one-poem- writers listed in anthologies.

See LITERARY CRITICISM (Arnold, Brooks, Crane, Gardner, Horace, Jarrell, Pope, Shelley); MUSIC (Fischer-Dieskau); MYTHOLOGY (Ovid); SEX (Ovid)

Adams, Léonie. American, 1899-1988. Poems: A Selection. Rec: Bloom Adunis, Lebanese, 1930- . Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Akhrmatova, Anna Selected Poems (1959)
Style aims at sense rather than sound, clarity rather than vagueness — and is particularly susceptible to translation. Love poems, against vividly conjured Russian backgrounds, in the tradition of Pushkin (qv), and excellent. Good translation: McKane. Akhmatova, Anna, Russian, 1888-1966. Poems. Rec: Bloom Requiem. Rec: NYPL Aiken, Conrad. American, 1889-1973. Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom Alberti, Rafael, Spanish, 1902-1984. The Owl's Insomnia: Poems. Rec: Bloom Alcman, Greek, 7th C BCE. Poems. Rec: Bloom Aleixandre, Vicente, Spanish, 1898-1984. Nobel Laureate A Longing for the Light: Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Amichai, Yehuda, Israeli, 1934- . Selected Poetry. Rec: Bloom Travels. Rec: Bloom Ammons, A. R.. American, 1926- . Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom Selected Longer Poems. Rec: Bloom Sphere: The Form of a Motion. Rec: Bloom Andrade, Eugénio de, Portuguese, 1923- . Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Various Authors, Chinese, 8th C BCE-20th C. Anthology of Chinese Literature. Rec: Ward Various Authors writing in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, etc., Arabic, Persian, Turkish, etc., 7th-18th C. Anthology of Islamic Literature, From the Rise of Islam to Modern Times. Rec: Ward Various Authors, Japanese, 8th-19th C. Anthology of Japanese Literature to the Nineteenth Century. Rec: Ward Various Authors, Korean, 1st Millennium-20th C. Anthology of Korean Poetry, From the Earliest Era to the Present. Rec: Ward Various Authors, Sri Lankan, 6th-19th C. An Anthology of Sinhalese Literature up to 1815. Rec: Ward Anwar, Chairil, Indonesian, 1922-1949. Complete Poetry and Prose. Rec: Ward Anzaldua, Gloria. American, 1942-2004. Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. Rec: Hungry Mind Utne The US- Mexican border es una herida abierta where the Third World grates against the first and bleeds. And before a scab forms it hemorrhages again, the lifeblood of two worlds merging to form a third country, a border culture.
--Anzaldua Apollinaire, Guillaume Alco¶ls (1913)
Experimental, lyric poet of the early 20th century, in style somewhat akin to Owen (qv), though without the toughening process of the trenches. Short story writer, art critic (friend of Picasso and Cubists). Good translation: Bernard. Also: Le Poete A ssassine (a novel); Calligrammes, etc Apollinaire, Guillaume, French, 1880-1918. Selected Writings. Rec: Bloom Aragon, Louis, French, 1897-1982. Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Arnold, Matthew Collected Poems (1869)
Arnold's poems are at once more sensuous and more intellectual than Tennyson's (qv) and a few of them (The Scholar Gipsy, Dover Beach, Sohrab and Rustum) are unforgettable. See LITERARY CRITICISM Arnold, Matthew, English, 1822-1888. Poems. Rec: Bloom Essays. Rec: Bloom Archilochus, Greek, 7th C BCE. Poems. Rec: Bloom Ariosto, Ludovico, Italian, 1474-1533. Orlando Furioso. Rec: Bloom Ward Ashbery, John. American, 1927- . The Double Dream of Spring. Rec: Bloom Houseboat Days. Rec: Bloom Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Flow Chart. Rec: Bloom Hotel Lautréamont. Rec: Bloom And the Stars Were Shining. Rec: Bloom The Tennis Court Oath: A Book of Poems. Rec: LAT Auden, W. H. Collected Shorter Poems, 1927-1957(1966)
Early brilliance; exaggerated coolness and cleverness; emotional doldrums and quirky middle-aged philosophy — these things comprise but do not encompass the full attractiveness and the sheer size of Auden. A major figure. Also: Another Time; For the Time Being. See DRAMA : LITERARY CRITICISM Auden, W. H., English, 1907-1973. The Age of Anxiety: A Baroque Eclogue. Rec: NYPL Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom Fadiman 4 The Dyer's Hand. Rec: Bloom Bachmann, Ingeborg, Austrian, 1926-1973. In the Storm of Roses. Rec: Bloom (poetry) Bai Juyi (Po Ch¼-i), Chinese, 772-846. Poems. Rec: Ward Basho, Matsuo, Japanese, 1644-1694. Poetry and Prose. Rec: MW Asian Oriental The Narrow Road to the Deep North. Rec: App Fadiman 4 StJE Ward Baudelaire, Charles The Flowers of Evil (1857)
Classical in form, personal in outlook, Baudelaire's poetry has a weight and dignity in keeping with his themes of human suffering and the limits of love: and he evokes brilliantly the bustle and sleaziness of urban life. See Sartre's "psycho-
biography" of Baudelaire. See ART; BIOGRAPHY (Starkie); DIARIES Baudelaire, Charles, French, 1821-1867. Poems. Rec: Rex SJC Flowers of Evil. Rec: Bloom Paris Spleen. Rec: Bloom Bayatli, Yahya Kemal, Turkish, 1884-1958. Selected Poems. Rec: Ward Bécquer, Gustavo Adolpho, Spanish, 1836-1870. Poems. Rec: Bloom Beddoes, Thomas Lovell, English, 1803-1849. Death's Jest-Book. Rec: Bloom Poems. Rec: Bloom Belli, Giuseppe Gioachino, Italian, 1791-1863. Roman Sonnets. Rec: Bloom Ward (poetry) Ben Ezra, Moses ben Jacob, Jew in Islamic Spain writing in Hebrew, ca. 1055-1138. Selected Poems. Rec: Ward Benn, Gottfried, German, 1886-1956. Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Berryman, John Selected Poems, 1938-68(1972)
Berryman is one of the giants of modern American poetry and — since his poetry is so personal — of the American soul. Berryman, John. American, 1914-1972. Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom Bhartrhari, Indian writing in Sanskrit, 7th C. Poems. Rec: MW Asian Ward Bialik, Chaim Nachman, Ukrainian-Palestinian Jew writing in Hebrew, 1873-1934. Shirot Bialik: The Epic Poems. Rec: Bloom Selected Poems. Rec: Ward Bilhana, Indian writing in Sanskrit, ca. 1040-1095. Caurapa±casika (Phantasies of a Love-Thief). Rec: Ward (poetry) Various Authors, Arab, 8th-11th C. Birds Through a Ceiling of Alabaster: Three Abassid Poets. Rec: Ward Bishop, Elizabeth. American, 1911-1979. The Complete Poems. Rec: Bloom NYPL Blake, William Songs of Innocence (1789)
In his lyric poems and visionary drawings, and in his epigrams, Blake is the unlikeliest of all the products of late-18th-century London; infinitely complex, and intellectually more powerful, than at first he appears; from several points of view the greatest English poet after Shakespeare. Also: Songs of Experience Blake, William, English, 1757-1827. Poetry and Prose. Rec: Bloom Selected Works. Rec: Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 Rexmo Ward The Book of Urizen. Rec: Utne Bobrowski, Johannes, German, 1917-1965. Shadow Lands. Rec: Bloom The heart of his poetry is the writer's evocation of Sarmatia, an ancient name for an area including parts of East Prussia, Latvia, Poland and Russia. (amazon) Bogan, Louise. American, 1887-1970. The Blue Estuaries: Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Boiardo, Matteo Maria, Italian, 1441-1494. Orlando Innamorato. Rec: Bloom (poetry)
Bonnefoy, Yves, French, 1923- . Words in Stone. Rec: Bloom (poetry) Bossuet, Jacques-Bénigne, French, 1627-1704. Funerary Orations. Rec: Bloom Bowers, Edgar. American, 1924-2000. Living Together: New and Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Breton, André, French, 1896-1966. Poems. Rec: Bloom Manifestoes of Surrealism. Rec: Bloom Counterpunch Trans Bridges, Robert, English, 1844-1930. Poems. Rec: Bloom Brodsky, Joseph, Russian-American writing in English, 1940-1996. Nobel Laureate A Part of Speech: Poems. Rec: Bloom Browning, Robert Men and Women (1855) it A few poems (like The Grammarian 's Funeral) put Browning high among 19th-
century poets; although much of his work is mid-Victorian rubbish, startling, regular outbursts of genuine poetry make it worthwhile. Also: Dramatic Lyrics; Dramatic Romances. See DIARIES Browning, Robert, English, 1812-1849. Poems. Rec: Bloom Good Reading The Ring and the Book. Rec: Bloom Bryant, William Cullen. American, 1794-1878. Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom Bunting, Basil, English, 1900-1985. Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom Burns, Robert Poems. Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect(1786)
Those who know only Burns's often whimsical, sentimental popular poems will be surprised at the grandeur and reflectiveness of his other work: his is an individual, grainy and neglected voice. Burns, Robert, Scottish, 1759-1796. Poems. Rec: Bloom Good Reading Lubbock Rexmo Ward Butler, Samuel, English, 1613-1680. Hudibras. Rec: Bloom Byron, Lord Don Juan (1819)
it Byron, the most brilliant figure of his age, was sometimes a very good poet too. Don Juan is his wittiest, most sustained poem, surprisingly beautiful; Auden used to cite it as a book that most of the time one just can't read, at certain times one can read nothing else. Also: Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. See BIOGRAPHY (Marchand, Trelawny); DIARIES Byron, George Gordon, Lord, English, 1788-1824. Childe Harold. Rec: Lubbock Poems. Rec: Bloom Good Reading Don Juan. Rec: Adler Bloom Calimachus, Greek, ca. 310 BCE-?. Hymns and Epigrams. Rec: Bloom Camµes, Lu­s Vaz de, Portuguese, 1524-1580. Lusiads. Rec: Bloom Ward Campana, Dino, Italian, 1885-1932. Orphic Songs. Rec: Bloom Campanella, Tomasso, Italian, 1568-1639. Poems. Rec: Bloom The City of the Sun. Rec: Bloom Campion, Thomas Bookes of Ayres (1610 -12)
The best Elizabethan words are given a seductive, syncopated overtone by the best Elizabethan music. Campion, Thomas, English, 1567-1620. Songs. Rec: Bloom Anonymous, Spanish, ca. 1140. Cantar de Mio Cid (Poem of the Cid). Rec: Bloom Ward Carducci, Giosué, Italian, 1835-1907. Nobel Laureate Hymn to Satan. Rec: Bloom Barbarian Odes. Rec: Bloom Rhymes and Rhythms. Rec: Bloom Carew, Thomas, English, 1594-1640. Poems. Rec: Bloom Carmi, T., Israeli, 1925- . At the Stone of Losses. Rec: Bloom (poem) Catullus Poems (1st century BC) 0 Erotic, tender, witty and sentimental, Catullus is personal, intense, a poet of his own time and quintessentially for now. Good translation: Raphael and McLeish. Catullus, Roman, ca. 84-ca. 54 BCE. Poems. Rec: Rexmo Ward Attis and Other Poems. Rec: Bloom Cavafy, Constantinos Complete Poems(1963)
Greek-born but resident in Alexandria, Cavafy was a subtle poet of luxuriant decline, of poignant moments of love, dramatic and haunting. Good translation: Keeley and Sherrard. (Useful biography by R. Liddell.) Cavafy, C. P., Greek, 1863-1933. Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom Celan, Paul, Austrian-French writing in German, 1920-1970. Poems. Rec: Bloom Meaningful Ward Various Authors writing in Celtic languages, Celtic languages, 7th-19th C. Celtic Miscellany. Rec: Ward Cernuda, Luis, Spanish, 1902-1963. Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Cesaire, Aimª Return to My Native Land (1947)
Revolutionary Negro poetry of marvellous fineness and precision. Good translation: Berger. Césaire, Aimé, Martinican, 1913- . Collected Poetry. Rec: Bloom Chandidas, Indian writing in Bengali, 15th C. Love Songs of Chandidas. Rec: Ward Chapman, George, English, ca. 1559-1634. Comedies, Tragedies, Poems. Rec: Bloom Char, René, French, 1907-1988. Poems. Rec: Bloom Chaucer, Geoffrey Canterbury Tales (c. 1388)
Chaucer writes with a vigour, a vividness and a humanity which add up to a bracing reminder that the best work escapes the sanctions of time. Avoid "translations": the original transcends them all. Also: Troilus and Criseyde, etc Chaucer, Geoffrey, English, 1342-1400. Works. Rec: Adler (Selections) The Canterbury Tales. Rec: Aquinas Bloom Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 GBWW Good Reading Lubbock Meaningful Rex SJC (Selections) Ward Troilus and Criseyde. Rec: Bloom GBWW Various Authors, Chinese, 10th C BCE-20th C. Chinese Lyric Poetry. (See also Shijing, Chu Ci, Tao Qian, Tang Poetry, Wang Wei, Li Bai, Du Fu, Bai Juyi, Li He, Su Dongpo, Li Yu, Yuan Mei) Rec: Oriental StJE Chrétien de Troyes, French, fl. 1160-1190. Yvain: The Knight of the Lion. Rec: Bloom Various Authors, Chinese, 3rd C BCE-2nd C CE. Chu Ci (Ch'u Tz'u: The Songs of the South, by Qu Yuan [Ch'¼ Yuan] and others). Rec: Ward Clampitt, Amy. American, 1920-1994. Westward. Rec: Bloom Clare, John The Shepherd's Calendar (1827)
Best "peasant" poet in English, the last to remember the English countryside unenclosed, Clare lived, mostly in madhouses, in the 19th century; his formal strength and his "eye- are outstanding; the life he speaks of makes him unique. Also: Poems of Rural Life; The Village Minstrel
Clare, John, English, 1793-1864. Poems. Rec: Bloom Clark (-Bekederemo), John Pepper, Nigerian writing in English, 1935- . Casualties: Poems. Rec: Bloom Various Authors, Japanese, 8th-17th C. . Classic Japanese Poetry. Rec: Rex Clough, Arthur Hugh, English, 1819-1861. Poems. Rec: Bloom Coleridge, Samuel Taylor The Ancient Mariner (1797)
Coleridge made a permanent contribution in a very few sharply moving, resonant poems, notably Kubla Khan and The Ancient Mariner. He has a quality of mystery attained by no other of his romantic contemporaries. (See John Livingston Lowes' The Road to Xanadu for brilliant exegesis.) See BIOGRAPHY (Lefebure, Coleridge) Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, English, 1772-1834. Selected Works. Rec: Bloom Ward Poems. Rec: Adler (Selections) The Ancient Mariner. Rec: Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 Christabel. Rec: Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 Kubla Khan. Rec: Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 Biographia Literaria. Rec: Adler Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 Writings on Shakespeare. Rec: Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 Collins, William, English, 1721-1759. Poems. Rec: Bloom Various Authors, Indonesian, 20th C. Contemporary Indonesian Poetry. Rec: Ward Corbi¨re, Tristan, French, 1845-1875. Les Amours Jaunes. Rec: Bloom Corn, Alfred. American, 1943- . A Call in the Midst of the Crowd. Rec: Bloom Cowper, William, English, 1731-1800. Poetical Works. Rec: Bloom Crabbe, George, English, 1754-1832. Poetical Works. Rec: Bloom Crane, Hart. American, 1899-1932. Complete Poems and Selected Letters and Prose. Rec: Bloom Crashaw, Richard, English, 1612-1649. Poems. Rec: Bloom cummings, e. e.. American, 1894-1962. Complete Poems. Rec: Bloom Daniel, Samuel, English, 1563-1619. Poems. Rec: Bloom A Defence of Ryme. Rec: Bloom Dante The Divine Comedy (c. 1300)
Dante was one of the greatest medieval poets: worth learning Italian for. Best translation (alas): Sayers. See POLITICS Dante Alighieri, Italian, 1265-1321. Works. Rec: Adler (Selections) Divine Comedy. Rec: Aquinas Bloom Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 GBWW Good Reading Lubbock Meaningful Seymour-Smith SJC Ward Inferno. Rec: Col37 Col61 Collh91 The New Life. Rec: Bloom Ward D¡rio, Rubén, Nicaraguan, 1867-1916. Selected Poetry. Rec: Bloom Darley, George, Irish, 1795-1846. Nepenthe. Rec: Bloom Poems. Rec: Bloom Davidson, John, Scottish, 1857-1909. Ballads and Songs. Rec: Bloom Davie, Donald, English, 1922- . Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom De la Mare, Walter, English, 1873-1956. Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom Memoirs of a Midget. Rec: Bloom Dickinson, Emily Poems (1890)
The poems of this reclusive New England lady have the same kind of purity as those of Hopkins (qv); she is one of the most elegant, most honest American poets of the last century. Also: The Single Hound; Further Poems; Bolts of Melody Dickinson, Emily. American, 1830-1886. Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom Fadiman 4 Good Reading Ward Disch, Thomas M.. American, 1940- . On Wings of Song. Rec: Bloom Donne, John Collected Poems (1633)
0 Pure distillation of early-17th-century intelligence — troubled, multiple, leaping and swooping, raising self-love to the height of compassion. Donne, John, English, 1573-1631. Poems. Rec: Bloom Good Reading Sermons. Rec: Bloom Selected Works. Rec: Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 SJC Douglas, Keith, English, 1920-1944. The Complete Poems. Rec: Bloom Dove, Rita. American, 1952- . Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Dowson, Ernest, English, 1867-1900. Complete Poems. Rec: Bloom Drayton, Michael, English, 1563-1631. Poems. Rec: Bloom Drummond de Andrade, Carlos, Brazilian, 1902-1987. Travelling in the Family. Rec: Bloom Dryden, John Miscellany Poems (1684)
Between the organ-roar of Milton and the Mozartian subtlety of Pope, Dryden's verse at its best can hardly be bettered in English: it has the qualities of perfect prose, and so does his prose. Some of his translations, particularly of Virgil's Eclogues and Georgics and of Lucretius, are almost finer than his own work, but his serious public poems are passionate and magnificently dramatic. Also: MacFlecknoe. See LITERARY CRITICISM Dryden, John, English, 1631-1700. Poetry and Plays. Rec: Bloom Lubbock Critical Essays. Rec: Bloom Du Bellay, Joachim, French, 1522-1560. The Regrets. Rec: Bloom Du Fu (Tu Fu), Chinese, 712-770. Poems. Rec: Rex Utne Ward Dunbar, William, Scottish, ca. 1456-ca. 1513 . Poems. Rec: Bloom Duncan, Robert. American, 1919-1988. Bending the Bow. Rec: Bloom (poetry) Durrell, Lawrence Private Country (1943)
Dazzling and delightful. Durrell's poetry is among his best work, with a freshness, seriousness and discipline his longer writings sometimes lack. Also: Cities, Plains and People; On Seeming to Presume. See CHILDREN'S BOOKS (Durrell, G.);
DIARIES; FICTION/NOVELS; TRAVEL Various Authors, Irish (Celtic), 8th C. Early Irish Epic (including the Ulster Cycle). Rec: Rexmo Various Authors, German, 20th C. East German Poetry: An Anthology. Rec: Ward Eberhart, Richard. American, 1904- . Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom Eich, G¼nter, Austrian, 1907-1972. Moles. Rec: Bloom Ekel¶f, Gunnar, Swedish, 1907-1968. Guide to the Underworld. Rec: Bloom Poems. Rec: Ward Eliot, T. S. Collected Poems and Plays (1969)
Eliot is one of the greatest English-speaking poets of the modern age, a formidable intellect chastely exploring the sensuous dark. See DRAMA; LITERARY CRITICISM (Eliot, Gardner) Eliot, T. S., English, 1888-1965. Nobel Laureate Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 Good Reading Ward Selected Poems. Rec: SJC The Waste Land. Rec: Aquinas GBWW NYPL Collected Plays. Rec: Bloom Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 Good Reading Selected Essays. Rec: Bloom ML Nonfiction National Review "Ash Wednesday". Rec: Aquinas "Journey of the Magi". Rec: Aquinas Prufrock and Other Observations. Rec: Boston PL Elytis, Odysseas, Greek, 1911-1996. Nobel Laureate What I Love: Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Empson, William Poems (1935)
P Witty, difficult poems, full of dead-pan jokes and intellectual fireworks. See
LITERARY CRITICISM Empson, William, English, 1906-1984. Seven Types of Ambiguity. Rec: Counterpunch NF Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom Milton's God. Rec: Bloom Some Versions of Pastoral. Rec: Bloom Various Authors, English and Scottish, 15th-16th C. English and Scottish Popular Ballad. Rec: Rexmo Enzensberger, Hans Magnus, German, 1929- . Poems for People Who Don't Read Poems. Rec: Bloom Poems. Rec: Ward Espr­u, Salvador, Catalan, 1913-1985. La Pell de Brau: Poems. Rec: Bloom Ewart, Gavin, English, 1916- . Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Faiz, Faiz Ahmad, Pakistani writing in Urdu, 1911-1984. Poems. Rec: Ward Feinman, Alvin. American, 1929- . Poems. Rec: Bloom Fisher, M. F. K.. American, 1908-1992. How to Cook a Wolf. Rec: Counterpunch NF The Art of Eating. Rec: Hungry Mind Feldman, Irving. American, 1928- . New and Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Ferreira, Ant²nio, Portuguese, 1528-1569. Poetry. Rec: Bloom FitzGerald, Edward, English, 1809-1883. Rub¡iyat of Omar Khayyam. (See also Khayyam, Omar) Rec: Bloom Omar Khayyam, Persian, 1048-1123?. The Rubaiyat. (See also FitzGerald, Edward) Rec: Fadiman 4 Good Reading Fitzgerald, Robert. American, 1910-1985. Spring Shade: Poems. Rec: Bloom Foix, J. V., Catalan, 1894-1987. Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Follain, Jean, French, 1903-1971. Transparence of the World: Poems. Rec: Bloom Foscolo, Ugo, Italian, 1778-1827. On Sepulchres. Rec: Bloom Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis. Rec: Bloom Odes and The Graces. Rec: Bloom (poetry)
The mighty dead are summoned from their tombs, as ages before they had been in the masterpieces of Greek oratory, to fight again the battles of their country. Frost, Robert The Poetry (1969)
Frost's work has the sweetness, sharpness and freshness of an apple; he is the most accessible and readable great poet of this century. (See Alfred Kazin's New York Jew for testy portrait.) Frost, Robert. American, 1874-1963. The Poetry. Rec: Bloom Collected Poems. Rec: Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 Good Reading Fuller, Roy, English, 1912-1991. Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom Fuzuli, Mehmet bin S¼leyman, Turkish, ca. 1490-ca. 1556. Leyla and Mejnun. Rec: Ward (poetry) Garc­a Lorca, Federico, Spanish, 1898-1936. Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Ward Gardner, Helen (ed) Book of Religious Verse (1972)
Much of the best poetry in English is religious poetry by obscure poets; this is a perfect collection of a vital tradition. Also: New Oxford Book of English Verse,1250-1950. See LITERARY CRITICISM Garrigue, Jean. American, 1914-1972. Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Gascoyne, David Collected Poems (1965)
Gascoyne's is a lonely voice, grave and with long-drawn-out harmonies. He is a sound, admirable poet, whose effect comes more from his work as a whole than from a few show-pieces.
Gautier, Théophile, French, 1811-1872. Enamels and Cameos. Rec: Bloom George, Stefan, German, 1868-1933. Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Ghalib, Indian writing in Urdu, 1797-1869. Ghazals. (See also The Ghazal) Rec: Ward (poetry) Various Authors, Indians and Pakistanis writing in Urdu, 16th C-present. The Ghazal. (See also Ghalib) Rec: MW Asian Gibran, Khalil, Lebanese, 1883-1931. The Prophet. Rec: NYPL Anonymous, Mesopotamian, ca. 2000 BCE. Gilgamesh. Rec: Bloom Fadiman 4 Meaningful Rex Ward Gimferrer, Pere, Catalan, 1945- . Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Ginsberg, Allen. American, 1926-1997. Howl and Other Poems. Rec: Boston PL LAT Illuminated Poems (With Eric Drooker). Rec: Utne Gjellerup, Karl, Danish, 1857-1919. Nobel Laureate Works. Glatstein, Jacob, Polish-American writing in Yiddish, 1896-1971. Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von Poems (1812)
One of Goethe's major achievements, sometimes taken for granted because he was such a polymath, is his love and nature poetry of the Strasburg and Sesenheim periods. His intensity and his limpid use of a language sometimes thought by foreigners to be too harsh for lyricism represent a still prominent landmark. Resists translation, even so; best read in the original. See DRAMA Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, German, 1749-1832. Poems. Rec: Bloom Ward Roman Elegies. Rec: Bloom Venetian Epigrams. Rec: Bloom West-Eastern Divan. Rec: Bloom Hermann and Dorothea. Rec: Bloom G³ngora, Luis de, Spanish, 1561-1627. Sonnet. Rec: Bloom Soledades. Rec: Bloom Graves, Robert Collected Poems (1975)
Graves is a strong, spare, almost classical poet; sometimes over-brisk, always invigorating. His epigrams about love are marvellous. See AUTOBIOGRAPHY;
FICTION/NOVELS; MYTHOLOGY Graves, Robert, English, 1895-1985. Poems. Rec: Bloom Ward Gray, Thomas Poems (1747)
Gray's lyric gift makes him seem always fresh and crisp (though his Elegy has been compared to a Victorian glass dome). Early-18th-century urbanity at its most characteristic — and unhappiest? Gray, Thomas, English, 1716-1771. Poems. Rec: Bloom Lubbock Greville, Fulke, Lord Brooke, English, 1554-1628. Poems. Rec: Bloom Grossman, Allen. American, 1932- . The Ether Dome and Other Poems: New and Selected. Rec: Bloom Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun, French, ca. 1212-ca. 1237 and ca. 1237-ca. 1305. Le Roman de la Rose (Romance of the Rose). Rec: Ward The Roman de la Rose is a late medieval French poem styled as an allegorical dream vision. (wiki) Guillén, Nicol¡s, Cuban, 1902-1989. Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Gunn, Thom Fighting Terms (1953)
Intelligent, striking poetry: smooth and readable, intellectually elegant, morally sophisticated. 1962 revision spoils the line. Also: The Sense of Movement; Moly Gustafsson, Lars, Swedish, 1936- . Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Hafiz, Mohammed Shamsuddin, Persian, 1327-1390. Divan. Rec: Ward Ha-Levi, Judah, Jew in Islamic Spain writing in Hebrew, ca. 1075-after 1140. Selected Poems. Rec: Ward Hall, Donald. American, 1928- . The One Day. Rec: Bloom Old and New Poems. Rec: Bloom Halpern, Moshe-Leib, Polish-American writing in Yiddish, 1886-1932. Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Hamburger, Michael (ed) German Poetry. 1910— 1975 (1977) Bilingual anthology, with good introduction and notes, gives a first-class impression of the period it covers, fairly reflects the diversity of 20th-century German writing. Hardy, Thomas Complete Poems (1976)
In his rhythms, his truthfulness and honesty, his subtlety of tone and experience of life, Hardy is one of the most rewarding of English poets. See FICTION/NOVELS
Hart, Kevin, Australian, 1954- . Peniel and Other Poems. Rec: Bloom Hayden, Robert. American, 1913-1980. Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom H. D. (Hilda Doolittle). American, 1886-1961. Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Heaney, Seamus North (1975)
Fine poet from Northern Ireland talks about realities in a serious tone: his talent has strong roots; his poems will outlast their grim inspiration. Heaney, Seamus, Irish, 1939- . Nobel Laureate Selected Poems: 1969-1987. Rec: Bloom Field Work. Rec: Bloom Station Island. Rec: Bloom Hébert, Anne, Canadian writing in French, 1916- . Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Hecht, Anthony Millions of Strange Shadows (1977)
Urbane, discursive, elegant, Hecht's poems show a sense of ease and security rare in contemporary literature. He brings to American writing an essentially European temperament; his fluent celebration of life is a source of real pleasure. Hecht, Anthony. American, 1923- . Collected Earlier Poems. Rec: Bloom Heine, Heinrich Book of Song(1827)
A Jew among Germans, a seeker after a God his reason told him to dismiss, Heine is a poet of contradictions with an outstanding lyrical gift. Particularly good are his nature poems, the marvellous North Sea cycles (translated by Watkins, 1955) and the later Lazarus poems (translated by Elliot, 1979). Also: New Poems, etc Heine, Heinrich, German, 1797-1856. Complete Poems. Rec: Bloom Herbert, George The Temple (1633)
* Whatever was best in the English temperament and in the Church of England between the times of Elizabeth I and Cromwell is present in these strong and lovable poems. Herbert, Zbigniew, Polish, 1924- . Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Hern¡ndez, Miguel, Spanish, 1910-1942. Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Herrick, Robert Hesperides (1648)
et Herrick celebrates the fragility of life and love, and with the lightest of touches. His poems are notable for their rhythmic beauty and for their skilfully-worked grace. Also: Noble Numbers or Pious Pieces Herrick, Robert, English, 1591-1674. Poems. Rec: Bloom Hikmet, Nazim, Turkish, 1902-1963. Selected Poems. Rec: Ward Hill, Geoffrey, English, 1932- . Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom Hine, Daryl, Canadian, 1936- . Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Hofmannsthal, Hugo von, Austrian, 1874-1929. Selected Works. Rec: Ward Poems and Verse Plays. Rec: Bloom Selected Prose. Rec: Bloom H¶lderlin, Friedrich, German, 1770-1843. Poems and Fragments. Rec: Bloom Ward Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Hollander, John. American, 1929- . Reflections on Espionage. Rec: Bloom Selected Poetry. Rec: Bloom Tesserae. Rec: Bloom Holub, Miroslav, Czech, 1923- . The Fly. Rec: Bloom Homer Iliad; Odyssey (12th- 9th century BC)
Homer is easy and enthralling for readers, but a towering Everest for translators. Rieu's graceful prose Odyssey is readable, but misses the vigour and pounce of the verse; Graves' Iliad (The Angerof Achilles — see also his novel Homer's Daughter, about the writing of the Odyssey) is tight and sharp; Fitzgerald and Lattimore offer modern sprung verse, alternately excellent and dreadful. Perhaps Chapman and Pope are still the best; though Logue's Patrocleia gives a tantalizing glimpse of how it might be done, if he could sustain it over the remaining books. For a fascinating modern "sequel" to the Odyssey (by no means dwarfed by it) see Kazantzakis' The Odyssey (1938). See LITERARY CRITICISM (Arnold) Homer, Greek, ca. 800 BCE. The Iliad. Rec: Adler Aquinas Bloom Col37 Col61 Collh91 Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 GBWW Good Reading Harvard Lubbock Meaningful Rex Seymour-Smith SJC Ward The Odyssey. Rec: Adler Aquinas Bloom Collh91 Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 GBWW Good Reading Lubbock Meaningful Rex Seymour-Smith SJC Ward Anonymous, Greek, ca. 700 BCE. Homeric Hymns. Rec: Collh91 (poetry) Hood, Thomas, English, 1799-1845. Poems. Rec: Bloom Hope, A. D., Australian, 1907-2000. Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom Hopkins, Gerard Manley Poems (1918) * Hopkins was a Jesuit with a mind as intricate as unfolding leaves, a mystic in love with Christ in nature and in mankind. His poetry gives a marvellous sense of the world we hunger for but can never have again. This collection (edited by Robert Bridges) first published 30 years after Hopkins' death. Hopkins, Gerald Manley, English, 1844-1889. Poems. Rec: Bloom Ward Prose. Rec: Bloom Horace Odes (1st century Bc)
A poet's poet, Horace has been endlessly translated. To follow through the translations of a single ode in English is to learn much not only about the original but also about the history of our own verse. For the full flavour of Horace himself (elusive of translation, as it happens) the best translation is that of Michie. Also: Satires; Epistles. See LITERARY CRITICISM Horace, Roman, 65-8 BCE. Works. Rec: Adler (Selections) Lubbock Odes. Rec: Bloom Ward Epistles. Rec: Bloom Satires. Rec: Bloom Selected Works. Rec: Aquinas Housman, A. E., English, 1859-1936. Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom Howard, Richard. American, 1929- . Untitled Subjects. Rec: Bloom Findings. Rec: Bloom Hughes, Ted Selected Poems. 1957- 67 (1972)
A confident, craggy voice. It may be morally and philosophically depressing and it misses genuine rusticity; but the dark, Jacobean imagination of these poems does reflect our sombre age. See CHILDREN'S BOOKS Hughes, Langston. American, 1902-1967. Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom The Big Sea. Rec: Bloom I Wonder as I Wander. Rec: Bloom The Best of Simple. Rec: NYPL Ilango Adigal, Indian writing in Tamil, 2nd C CE. Shilappadikaram (The Ankle Bracelet). Rec: Ward Silappatikaram is one of the five great epics of ancient Tamil Literature. The poet prince Ilango Adigal, a Jain monk, is credited with this work, although no direct evidence to the identity of its author has been found so far.[2] As a literary work, it is held in high regard by the Tamils. Ines de la Cruz, Sister Juana, Mexican, ca. 1651-1695. Poems. Rec: Bloom Jab¨s, Edmond, French, 1912-1991. The Book of Questions. Rec: Bloom Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Jacob, Max, French, 1876-1944. Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Jacottet, Philippe, French, 1925- . Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Jami, Nur ad-Din 'Abd Ar-Rahman, Afghan writing in Persian, 1414-1492. Baharistan. Rec: Ward (poetry)
Various Authors, Japanese, 12th-13th C. [Japanese] Literature. Rec: Oriental Various Authors, Japanese, 9th-11th C. [Japanese] Poetry, Fiction, and Diaries. Rec: Oriental
Jarrell, Randall The Complete Poems (1969) * Jarrell was an exceptionally warm-hearted poet, who occupies by temperament the ground between Whitman (qv) and Dickinson (qv) — more like Whitman in form, but with Dickinson's sure touch in writing the perfectly natural line. See FICTION/NOVELS : LITERARY CRITICISM Jarrell, Randall. American, 1914-1965. Complete Poems. Rec: Bloom Poetry and the Age. Rec: National Review Jay, Peter (ed) The Greek Anthology (1973)* Translations by divers excellent hands of the great age — between the 7th century BC and the 6th century AD — of Greek Mediterranean culture; short, witty, touching and erotic; a scintillating world. Jeffers, Robinson. American, 1887-1962. Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Jennings, Elizabeth (ed) Anthology of Modern Verse, 1940-60(1961) Jennings is herself a good though uneven poet. Her anthology is marvellous; her taste sharp but generous. Jennings, Elizabeth, English, 1926- . Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Jiménez, Juan Ram³n, Spanish, 1881-1958. Nobel Laureate Platero and I. Rec: NYPL Invisible Reality: Poems. Rec: Bloom John of the Cross Poems (16th century)
Spanish poet of the soul's dark adventures into God, John of the Cross carries the reader high on unexpected wings. Good translation: Campbell. Johnson, Lionel, English, 1867-1902. Poems. Rec: Bloom Jones, David The Anathemata (1952)
P*
Jones is difficult, but immensely rewarding and moving; his gravity and beauty impressed Auden and Eliot, and will haunt the mind.
Jones, David, Welsh, 1895-1974. In Parenthesis. Rec: Bloom Ward Anathemata. Rec: Bloom Ward Jouve, Pierre-Jean, French, 1887-1976. Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom J³zsef, Attila, Hungarian, 1905-1937. Perched on Nothing's Branch. Rec: Bloom (poetry) Juhasz, Ferenc, Hungarian, 1928- . Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Justice, Donald. American, 1925- . Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Juvenal Satires (1st century AD)
These powerful poems are filled with the anger and bitterness of their author, who saw through everything and liked not what he saw. Like Horace, Juvenal has been translated by many noted English poets; dip here and dip there to feel the savage intensity of the man. Good translations: Johnson (Satires, 3 and 10); Peter Green (complete work). Keats, John Poems (1817)
Uneven and at times too obvious in his appeal to adolescence, Keats is one of the stereotypes, almost, of a Romantic poet. But the best of his poems, as well as many individual lines, are marvellous and memorable. See BIOGRAPHY (Bate, Gittings); LITERARY CRITICISM Keats, John, English, 1795-1821. Poems. Rec: Bloom Good Reading Ward Letters. Rec: Bloom Kees, Weldon. American, 1914-1955?. Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom Khlebnikov, Velimir, Russian, 1885-1922. The King of Time. Rec: Bloom (poetry)
Khushhal, Khan Khatak, Afghan writing in Pashto, 1613-1689. Divan. Rec: Ward Kinnell, Galway. American, 1927- . Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Kinsella, Thomas, Irish, 1928- . Peppercanister Poems. Rec: Bloom Kipling, Rudyard Collected Poems (1886)
Product, bard and victim of the British Empire, Kipling has a robustness that outweighs his occasional vulgarity or silliness. See CHILDREN'S BOOKS; FICTION/SHORT STORIES Kipling, Rudyard, Anglo-Indian, 1865-1936. Nobel Laureate Kim. Rec: Bloom ML Novels NYPL Radcliffe Collected Stories. Rec: Bloom Puck of Pook's Hill. Rec: Bloom Complete Verse. Rec: Bloom Koch, Kenneth. American, 1925- . Seasons on Earth. Rec: Bloom Various Authors, Japanese, 8th-10th C. Kokinshu. Rec: MW Asian (poetry) Kunze, Reiner, East German, 1933- . Poems. Rec: Ward Stories. Rec: Ward The Lovely Years. Rec: Ward Various Authors, Indians writing in Tamil, 1st-3rd C CE. Kuruntokai (Interior Landscape: Love Poems from a Classical Tamil Anthology). (See also Eight Anthologies and Ten Long Poems) Rec: Ward Kuzmin, Mikhail, Russian, 1872-1936. Alexandrian Songs. Rec: Bloom La Fontaine, Jean de, French, 1621-1695. Selected Fables Set in Verse. Rec: Bloom SJC (Selections) Ward Laforgue, Jules, French, 1860-1887. Selected Writings. Rec: Bloom (poetry) Landor, Walter Savage, English, 1775-1864. Poems. Rec: Bloom Imaginary Conversations. Rec: Bloom Lanier, Sidney. American, 1842-1881. Poems. Rec: Bloom Larkin, Philip Poems (1945)
Larkin's poetry is alive with convincing rhythms that take hold of you at once and never let go. He is the voice of the post-
Auden generation, in the provincial register. Larkin, Philip, English, 1922-1985. Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom Lawrence, D. H. Collected Poems (1922)
His animal poems are wonderful and liberating, and many others are convincing in their rhythms. To be read for his sense of beauty and his delight in creation. See DIARIES; FICTION/NOVELS; FICTION/SHORT STORIES;
HISTORY/EUROPEAN; LITERARY CRITICISM; TRAVEL Leib, Mani, Ukrainian-American writing in Yiddish, 1883-1953. Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Leino, Eino, Finnish, German, 1878-1926. Helkavirsi¤ (Whitsongs). Rec: Ward Leivick, H. (Leivick Halpern), Russian-American writing in Yiddish, 1888-1962. Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Leon, Fray Luis de, Spanish, ca. 1528-1591 . Poems. Rec: Bloom Leopardi, Giacomo Selected Prose and Poetry (1966)
Leopardi is the poet of despair — his own and that (by assumption) of the human race, which he considered to have no reason for hope in this world or the next. All of his poems are imbued with these feelings, but their grace and line make them irresistible. Worth struggling with the Italian; translations hardly capture him. Leopardi, Giacomo, Italian, 1798-1837. Poems. Rec: Bloom Meaningful Ward Essays and Dialogues. Rec: Bloom Moral Essays . Rec: Bloom Lermontov, Mikhail, Russian, 1814-1841. Narrative Poems. Rec: Bloom A Hero of Our Time. Rec: Bloom Smiley Levine, Philip Ashes (1979)
Levine is one of the best of the younger American poets. His short line and lapidary descriptions mask verse of deep seriousness and power. Levine, Philip. American, 1928- . Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Li Bai (Li Po), Chinese, 701-762. Poems. Rec: Ward Li He (Li Ho), Chinese, 791-817. Poems. Rec: Ward Various Authors, Byelorussian, 19th-20th C. Like Water, Like Fire: An Anthology of Byelorussian Poetry from 1828 to the Present. Rec: Ward Lindsay, Vachel. American, 1879-1931. Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom Li Yu, Chinese, 1125-1210. Poems. Rec: Ward Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. American, 1807-1882. Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom L¶nnrot, Elias, Finnish, 1802-1884. Kalevala: the National Epic of Finland. Rec: Rex Ward Lovelace, Richard, English, 1618-1657. Poems. Rec: Bloom Lowell, Robert Poems. 1938-1949 (1950)
Finely-wrought, haunting and graceful poems of love and loss. His translations are important, variable: Imitations is magnificent, Prometheus Bound and The Oresteia dreadful. Also : Life Studies; Notebook Lowell, Robert. American, 1917-1977. Poems. Rec: Bloom Ward Life Studies. Rec: LAT Lucan, Roman, 39-65 CE. Pharsalia. Rec: Bloom Ward Pharsalia (also known as the Bellum civile or Civil War) is a Roman epic poem by the poet Lucan, telling of the civil war between Julius Caesar and the forces of the Roman Senate led by Pompey the Great. Lucian, Syrian Greek, ca. 115-ca. 180 . Works. Rec: Adler (Selections) Ward Satires. Rec: Bloom Lucretius, Roman, ca. 100-ca. 50 BCE. Of the Nature of Things. Rec: Adler Aquinas Bloom Col37 Col61 Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 GBWW Good Reading Rex Seymour-
Smith SJC Ward Luis de Le³n, Fray, Spanish, ca. 1528-1591. Poems. Rec: Bloom Lysohorsky, Ondra, Czech writing in Lachian, 1905-1989. Selected Poems. Rec: Ward Various Authors, Welsh (Celtic), 14th C. Mabinogion. Rec: Ward MacDiarmid, Hugh, Scottish, 1892-1978. Complete Poems. Rec: Bloom Machado, Antonio, Spanish, 1875-1939. Juan de Mairena. Rec: Ward Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom MacLeish, Archibald Collected Poems (1952)
*
One of America's most eminent 20th-century men of letters, MacLeish was first and foremost a poet, and a fine one. Much influenced in the 20s by his life in Paris among the famous emigres, he later became an eloquent patriot and served in important governmental posts. Also a playwright — J.B. is his best known play — he wrote one of the finest lyrics in the language, "You Andrew Marvell." MacNeice, Louis Collected Poems(1966)
His finest poems were early and late; his work had honesty and sober intelligence; his reputation goes on increasing, and rightly. Fine translation of Aeschylus' Agamemnon. MacNeice, Louis, English, 1907-1963. Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom Macpherson, Jay, Canadian, 1931- . Poems Twice Told. Rec: Bloom Mallarmé, Stéphane, French, 1842-1898. Selected Poems and Prose. Rec: Bloom Mandelshtam, Osip Emilievich, Russian, 1891-1938. Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Poems. Rec: Ward Manrique, Jorge, Spanish, ca. 1440-ca. 1479. Coplas. Rec: Bloom (poetry)
Various Authors, Japanese, 7th-8th C. Manyoshu. Rec: MW Asian Oriental Ward the oldest existing, and most highly revered, collection of Japanese poetry Marlowe, Christopher Poems (c. 1590)
*
His Ovid, sometimes better than Ovid, had to circulate in private manuscript copies, since it gleefully and effectively introduced to the English a pagan view of sex. With him the technique of English verse begins to have a continuous history; his influence is immense, even on Shakespeare. See DRAMA Marlowe, Christopher, English, 1564-1593. Poems. Rec: Bloom Martial, Roman, ca. 42-ca. 102 CE. Epigrams. Rec: Bloom Marvell, Andrew Poems (1681)
The Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland is a thrilling, serious attempt at political poetry. Otherwise his poetry resembles a 17th-century formal garden, and is often about one. Marvell's verbal fireworks have perfect phrasing, intense visual resonance; he freshens and sharpens the senses. Marvell, Andrew, English, 1621-1678. Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom SJC Masters. E. L. Spoon River Anthology (1915)
Short, beautifully right inscriptions, modelled on the Greek Anthology — how did these exquisite little poems come out of the Illinois prairie where Masters was born and brought up? This book is one of the high points in the history of American verse, and not to be missed.
Masters, Edgar Lee. American, 1868-1950. Spoon River Anthology. Rec: Bloom Mayakovsky, Vladimir Vladimirovich, Russian, 1893-1930. The Bedbug and Selected Poetry. Rec: Bloom Poems. Rec: Ward McClatchy, J. D.. American, 1945- . The Rest of the Way. Rec: Bloom (poetry)
McClatchy is a deft practitioner of a highly literate formal verse, a master of the resonant detail: "three lines erased in the address book." A daring and unsettling collection, this book contains both "Fog Tropes," a subtle, moving poem about a dying friend, and "Kilim," an improbably successful crown of sonnets about a Middle Eastern terrorist.
Various Authors writing in Latin, Latin, 6th-13th C. Mediaeval Latin Lyrics (Ed. by Helen Waddell). Rec: Rex Ward
Various Authors, Various Nations, Various, 3rd-15th C. Medieval Literature in Translation. Rec: Ward Mello Breyner, Sophia de, Portuguese, 1919- . Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Meredith, George, English, 1828-1909. Poems. Rec: Bloom The Egoist. Rec: Bloom Merrill, James. American, 1926-1995. From the First Nine. Rec: Bloom The Changing Light at Sandover. Rec: Bloom (poetry) Merwin, W. S.. American, 1927- . Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom The Lice: Poems. Rec: LAT Michitsuna no Haha, Japanese, ca. 935-995. The Gossamer Years. Rec: MW Asian Mickiewicz, Adam Bernard, Polish, 1798-1855. Pan Tadeusz. Rec: Ward Millay, Edna St. Vincent. American, 1892-1950. Renascence and Other Poems. Rec: NYPL Milton, John Paradise Lost (1667) P
Early, shorter poems are enough to put him among the greatest English poets; long epics have many passages of penetrating harmony and beauty. Also: Paradise Regained; Comas; Samson Agonistes, etc Milosz, Czeslaw, Polish, 1911-2004. Nobel Laureate Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom The Captive Mind. Rec: TLS Milton, John, English, 1608-1674. Works. Rec: Adler (Selections) Poetical Works. Rec: Ward Paradise Lost. Rec: Aquinas Bloom Col37 Col61 Collh91 Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 GBWW Good Reading Harvard Lubbock SJC (Selections) Paradise Regained. Rec: Bloom Samson Agonistes. Rec: Bloom GBWW English minor Poems. Rec: Bloom GBWW Lubbock Lycidas. Rec: Bloom Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 Lubbock Comus. Rec: Bloom Lubbock On the Morning of Christ's Nativity. Rec: Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 Sonnets. Rec: Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 Areopagitica. Rec: Bloom Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 GBWW Ward Various Authors writing in Arabic, Arab, 20th C. Modern Arab Poets, 1950-1975. Rec: Ward Various Authors, Czech, 20th C. Modern Czech Poetry. Rec: Ward Various Authors, Hungarian, 20th C. Modern Hungarian Poetry. Rec: Ward Montague, John, Irish, 1929- . Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Montale, Eugenio, Italian, 1896-1971. Nobel Laureate The Storm and Other Things: Poems. Rec: Bloom The Occasions: Poems. Rec: Bloom Cuttlefish Bones: Poems. Rec: Bloom Otherwise: Last and First Poems. Rec: Bloom The Second Life of Art: Selected Essays. Rec: Bloom Moore, G. and Beier, U. (eds) Modern Poetry from Africa (1970) Fascinating guide to one of the growth areas of literature in European languages. Moore, Marianne. American, 1887-1972. Complete Poems. Rec: Bloom M¶rike, Eduard, German, 1804-1875. Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Mozart on His Way to Prague. Rec: Bloom Morris, William, English, 1834-1896. Early Romances. Rec: Bloom Poems. Rec: Bloom The Earthly Paradise. Rec: Bloom The Well at the World's End. Rec: Bloom News from Nowhere. Rec: Bloom Moss, Howard. American, 1922- . New Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Moss, Thylias. American, 1954- . Small Congregations: New and Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Muir, Edwin, Scottish, 1887-1959. Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom Muldoon, Paul, Irish, 1951- . Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Murray, Les A., Australian, 1938- . The Rabbiter's Bounty: Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom Musset, Alfred de, French, 1810-1857. Poems. Rec: Bloom Lorenzaccio. Rec: Bloom Mutanabbi, al-, Arab, 915-965. Poems. Rec: Ward Neruda, Pablo Selected Poems (1975)
Neruda, the foremost modern poet of Latin America, acknowledged the influence of Whitman — like him, he combines enormous range with a wonderful eye for the particular. This selection by Tarn recommended. Neruda, Pablo, Chilean, 1904-1973. Nobel Laureate Canto General. Rec: Bloom Utne Ward Residence on Earth. Rec: Bloom Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair. Rec: Bloom Fully Empowered. Rec: Bloom Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Nerval, Gérard de, French, 1808-1855. The Chimeras. Rec: Bloom Sylvie. Rec: Bloom (poetry) Various Authors. American, 17th-20th C. New Oxford Book of American Verse. Rec: Ward Anonymous, German, ca. 12th C. Nibelungenlied. Rec: Adler Bloom Lubbock Novalis (Friedrich von Hardenburg), German, 1772-1801. Hymns to the Night. Rec: Bloom Aphorisms. Rec: Bloom Anonymous, Icelandic, ca. 1280. Njal's Saga (also known as Saga of Burnt Njal). Rec: Adler Meaningful Rex Ward Various Authors, British and American, 20th C. Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry (Ed. by Richard Ellman and Robert O'Clair). Rec: Fadiman 3 Good Reading O'Hara, Frank. American, 1926-1966. Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom
Okigbo, Christopher, Nigerian writing in English, 1932- . Labyrinths, with Path of Thunder. Rec: Bloom Olds, Sharon. American, 1942- . The Dead and the Living. Rec: Utne Oliver, Mary. American, 1935- . New and Selected Poems. Rec: Utne Olson, Charles. American, 1910-1970. The Maximus Poems. Rec: Bloom LAT Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom Call Me Ishmael. Rec: Hungry Mind Otero, Blas de, Spanish, 1916-1979. Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Owen, Wilfred Poems (1920)
iti Stupendous sadness and despair, lightened by compassion. (See John Stalworthy's biography.) Owen, Wilfred, English, 1893-1918. Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom Rec: Counterpunch NF Pagis, Dan, Israeli, 1930- . Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Palgrave, F. T. (ed) The Golden Treasury (1861)
* Anthology chosen with the help of Tennyson; the best Victorian taste. Well worth considering: still marvellous. (Latest edition, 1973.) Pasolini, Pier Paolo, Italian, 1922-1975. Poems. Rec: Bloom Utne Pasternak, Boris, Russian, 1890-1960. Nobel Laureate Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Patmore, Coventry, English, 1823-1896. Odes. Rec: Bloom Pavese, Cesare, Italian, 1908-1950. Hard Labor: Poems. Rec: Bloom Dialogues with Leuc². Rec: Bloom Paz, Octavio, Mexican, 1914-1998. Nobel Laureate Labyrinth of Solitude. Rec: Bloom Ward Configurations. Rec: Ward The Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom
Péguy, Charles, French, 1873-1914. The Mystery of the Charity of Joan of Arc. Rec: Bloom Various Authors, French, 11th to 20th C. Penguin Book of French Verse. Rec: Ward Various Authors, German, 9th to 20th C. Penguin Book of German Verse. Rec: Ward Various Authors, Greek, 8th C BCEto 20th C. Penguin Book of Greek Verse. Rec: Ward Various Authors, Japanese, 3rd to 20th C. Penguin Book of Japanese Verse. Rec: Ward Various Authors writing in Latin, Latin, 3rd C BCE-20th C. Penguin Book of Latin Verse. Rec: Ward Various Authors writing in Spanish and Portuguese, Spanish and Portuguese, 19th-20th C. Penguin Book of Latin American Verse. Rec: Ward Various Authors, Russian, 12th-20th C. Penguin Book of Russian Verse. Rec: Ward Various Authors writing in Spanish, Spanish, 12th-20th C. Penguin Book of Spanish Verse. Rec: Ward Péret, Benjamin, French, 1899-1959. Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Perse, St.-John, French, 1887-1975. Nobel Laureate Poems. Rec: Ward Anabasis. Rec: Bloom Birds. Rec: Bloom Exile and Other Poems. Rec: Bloom Pessoa, Fernando, Portuguese, 1888-1935. The Keeper of Sheep. Rec: Bloom Poems. Rec: Bloom Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Ward Always Astonished: Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom The Book of Disquiet. Rec: Bloom Meaningful Pet¶fi, Sandor, Hungarian, 1823-1849. Poems. Rec: Ward Petrarch, Italian writing in Italian and Latin, 1304-1374. Poems. Rec: Bloom Ward Triumphs. Rec: Ward Latin Poetry. Rec: Ward Prose. Rec: Ward Letters from Petrarch. Rec: Ward Pindar, Greek, ca. 518-ca. 438 BCE. Odes. Rec: Bloom Ward Plath, Sylvia. American, 1932-1963. Ariel. Rec: Harvard LAT Poems. Rec: Ward The Bell Jar. Rec: BOMC Harvard Ward Various Authors, Various Nations, Various. Poem Into Poem: World Poetry in Modern Verse Translation. Rec: Ward Various Authors, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and German, 19th-20th C. The Poem Itself. Rec: Ward Various Authors, Indians writing in Sanskrit, 4th-10th C. Poems from the Sanskrit. Rec: Ward Various Authors, Africans writing in various languages, Africans (various languages), 20th C. Poems of Black Africa. Rec: Ward Various Authors, Icelandic, 9th-12th C. Poetic Edda (also known as the Elder Edda). Rec: Bloom Various Authors, British and American, 8th-20th C. Poetry in English: An Anthology (Ed. By M. L. Rosenthal, et al.). Rec: Good Reading Various Authors, Dutch, 12th-20th C. Poetry of the Netherlands in its European Context, 1170-1930. Rec: Ward Various Authors, British and American, Medieval to 20th C. Poets of the English Language (Ed. by W. H. Auden and Norman Holmes Pearson). Rec: Fadiman 3 Various Authors, Polish, 20th C. Polish Post-War Poetry. Rec: Ward Ponge, Francis, French, 1899-1988. Things: Selected Writings. Rec: Bloom In his most famous work, Le parti pris des choses (Often translated The Voice of Things), he meticulously described common things such as oranges, potatoes and cigarettes in a poetic voice, but with a personal style and paragraph form (prose poem) much like an essay. Popa, Vasko, Serbian, 1922-1991. Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Pope, Alexander Eloise to Abelard and Other Poems (1717) 0 Balanced on a razor's edge between sunlit rationalism and the emerging modern world, Pope is at once light and grave, supple and stinging. Also: The Rape of the Lock; The Dunciad, etc. See LITERARY CRITICISM Pope, Alexander, English, 1688-1744. Poems. Rec: Bloom Essay on Criticism. Rec: Adler Lubbock Rape of the Lock. Rec: Adler Lubbock Essay on Man. Rec: Adler Lubbock Porta, Antonio, Italian, 1935- . Kisses from Another Dream: Poems. Rec: Bloom Various Authors, Russian, 20th C. Post-War Russian Poetry. Rec: Ward Pound, Ezra The Cantos, I —84(1948)
He requires patience; start with his translations and the earliest Cantos, then move to the Pisan Cantos. Pound was a tragic (rather vile) figure and his best poetry is tragic. See DRAMA (Sophocles); Lit
ERARY CRITICISM Pound, Ezra. American, 1885-1972. ABC of Reading. Rec: Counterpunch NF National Review Cantos. Rec: Bloom Ward Personae: Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom Prévert, Jacques, French, 1900-1977. Paroles. Rec: Bloom (poetry)
Prévost, Antoine-Francois, l'Abbé, French, 1697-1763. Manon Lescaut. Rec: Bloom Ward Prince, F. T., English, 1912- . Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom Propertius, Roman, ca. 50-ca. 16 BCE. Poems. Rec: Ward Pushkin, Alexander Eugene Onegin (1833)
Pushkin is magnificent, moving; makes Byron look common and Tolstoy clodhopping. Good translation: Johnstone. (See Nabokov's critical edition and translation for a literary mausoleum contrived by a doting genius.) Pushkin, Alexanader Sergeyevich, Russian, 1799-1837. Complete Prose Tales. Rec: Bloom Complete Poetry. Rec: Bloom Eugene Onegin. Rec: Bloom Ward Narrative Poems. Rec: Bloom Boris Godunov. Rec: Bloom Captain's Daughter and Other Stories. Rec: Ward Quasimodo, Salvatore, Italian, 1901-1968. Nobel Laureate Selected Writings: Poems and Discourse on Poetry. Rec: Bloom Anonymous, French, ca. 1225. Queste del Saint Graal. Rec: Ward Ravikovitch, Dalia, Israeli, 1936-2005. A Dress of Fire. Rec: Bloom Read, Herbert, English, 1893-1968. The Green Child. Rec: Rexmo Ward Reverdy, Pierre, French, 1889-1960. Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Rilke, Rainer Maria Sonnets to Orpheus (1923)
Outstanding lyric poet, whose work has a difficult surface but a rewarding interior. Good translation: Leishman. Also: Duino Elegies (translated by Leishman and Spender). See DIARIES Raleigh, Sir Walter, English, ca. 1554-1618 . Poems. Rec: Bloom Ransom, John Crowe. American, 1888-1974. Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Rib¡, Carles, Catalan, 1893-1959. Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Rilke, Rainer Maria, German, 1875-1926. Duino Elegies. Rec: Utne Works. Rec: Ward Selected Poetry. Rec: Bloom Sonnets to Orpheus. Rec: Bloom Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge. Rec: Bloom New Poems: First Part and Other Part. Rec: Bloom Rimbaud, Arthur, French, 1854-1891. Poems. Rec: Bloom Rex SJC Ward Ritsos, Yannis, Greek, 1909-1990. Exile and Return. Rec: Bloom (poetry) Robinson, E. A. Collected Poems (1928)
Perhaps the best known American poet half a century ago, Robinson is now too much ignored, not to say forgotten. In fact, he was and is first rate, from his careful, jocular descriptions of the people of his birthplace in Maine (he called it Tilbury town) to the grand pessimistic dramas of his later years. Robinson, Edwin Arlington. American, 1869-1935. Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Rochester, John Wilmot, Earl of, English, 1647-1680. Poems. Rec: Bloom Roethke, Theodore Collected Poems (1968)
A loose, serious, late modern American style. His early poems are charming and interesting; his last rough and fine. Roethke, Theodore. American, 1908-1963. Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom Straw for the Fire. Rec: Bloom Various Authors, Romanian, 19th-20th C. Romanian Poems: A Bilingual Anthology. Rec: Ward Ronsard, Pierre de, French, ca. 1524-1585. Odes, Elegies, Sonnets. Rec: Bloom Rosenberg, Isaac Complete Works (1979)
Rosenberg, a painter as well as a poet, was killed in the World War I at the age of 27: and the loss was a great one. His work is remarkable for its exciting use of language and its imaginative intensity. Rosenberg, Isaac, English, 1890-1918. Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom Rossetti, Christina, English, 1830-1894. Poems. Rec: Bloom Rossetti, Dante Gabriel, English, 1828-1882. Poems and Translations. Rec: Bloom Ruiz, Juan (Archpriest of Hita), Spanish, ca. 1283-ca. 1350. Book of Good Love. Rec: Ward He is best known for his ribald, earthy poem, Libro de buen amor (The Book of Good Love). He was born either in Alcal¡ de Henares, or perhaps Alcal¡ de Real, a village of Granada, then part of al-Andalus, or Muslim Spain.
Rukeyser, Muriel. American, 1913-1980. A Muriel Rukeyser Reader. Rec: Utne (poetry)
Rustaveli, Shota, Georgian, fl. 1200. The Man in the Panther's Skin. Rec: Ward (poetry) Saba, Umberto, Italian, 1883-1957. Stories and Recollections. Rec: Bloom Poems. Rec: Bloom Salinas, Pedro, Spanish, 1891-1951. My Voice Because of You: Poems. Rec: Bloom Various Authors, Indians writing in Sanskrit, 12th C BCE-14th C CE. Sanskrit Lyric Poetry. Rec: Oriental Sappho, Greek, 7th C BCE. Poems. Rec: Bloom Collh91 Rex Sarduy, Severo, Cuban, 1937-1993. Maitreya. Rec: Bloom Scott, Sir Walter, Scottish, 1771-1832. Poems. Rec: Lubbock Seferis, George Collected Poems, 1932— 55 (1969)
The moral authority of the poems and the moral courage of Seferis as a man made him a towering national figure. He was also amusing and amused; his work is sensuous, eclectic (influenced by Eliot, qv) and intellectually curious. Seferis, George, Greek, 1900-1971. Nobel Laureate Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom Sei Shonagon, Japanese, ca. 965-1035. The Pillow Book. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Fadiman 4 MW Asian Oriental Rexmo StJE Ward In it she included lists of all kinds, personal thoughts, interesting events in court, poetry and some opinions on her contemporaries. While it is mostly a personal work, Shōnagon's writing and poetic skill makes it interesting as a work of literature, and it is valuable as an historical document. Shakespeare, William Sonnets (late 16th century)
This giant dominates our literature and our language; with Montaigne, he dominates the soul of Europe in his century. The universal poet, yet no one speaks with more crushing personal force. See DRAMA (Granville-Barker, Masefield, Shakespeare, Van Doren); LITERARY CRITICISM
(Bradley, Johnson, Knight, Stendhal) Shelley, Percy Bysshe Adonais (1821)
Shelley's delicate Muse is best seen, perhaps, in his short lyrics: To a Skylark, Ode to the West Wind, The Cloud, and the opium-scented Ozymandias. A donais, an elegy for Keats, shows a robuster and darker side, characteristic of his longer works. A brooding, private voice, shot through with a melancholic perception of the "tears of things". Also: Queen Mab ; Prometheus Unbound, etc. See BIOGRAPHY (Holmes); LITERARY CRITICISM Shelley, Percy Bysshe, English, 1792-1822. Poems. Rec: Bloom Good Reading Defence of Poetry. Rec: Bloom Various Authors, Chinese, 10th-8th C BCE. Shijing (Shih Ching; Book of Songs). Rec: Lubbock MW Asian Ward Sassoon, Siegfried, English, 1886-1967. The War Poems. Rec: NYPL Sc¨ve, Maurice, French, ca. 1510-ca. 1564. Délie. Rec: Bloom Schuyler, James. American, 1923-1991. Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom Schwartz, Delmore. American, 1913-1966. Selected Poems: Summer Knowledge. Rec: Bloom Seifert, Jaroslav, Czech, 1901-1986. Nobel Laureate Selected Poetry. Rec: Bloom Sena, Jorge de, Portuguese, 1919- . Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Senghor, Léopold S., Senegalese, 1906-2001. Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Various Authors, Arab, 6th C?. Seven Odes. Rec: Oriental Ward Sidney, Sir Philip, English, 1554-1586. Arcadia. Rec: Bloom Astrophel and Stella. Rec: Bloom An Apology for Poetry. Rec: Bloom Sikelianos, Angelos, Greek, 1884-1951. Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Simic, Charles. American, 1938- . Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Sisson, Charles In the Trojan Ditch (1974)
Haunted and haunting, Sisson's very English, very Church of England poetry takes a bleak but honest view of the world as it is. Sitwell, Edith (ed) The Atlantic Book of British and American Poetry (1959)
Magnificent anthology of the whole of English poetry. Sitwell had a sharp ear and a fine critical sense; her selection is full, generous, exciting. See AUTOBIOGRAPHY (Sitwell, 0.) Skelton, John, English, ca. 1460-1529 . Poems. Rec: Bloom Smart, Christopher, English, 1722-1771. Jubilate Agno. Rec: Bloom A Song to David. Rec: Bloom (poems) Smith, Stevie, English, 1902-1971. Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom Snyder, Gary. American, 1930- . No Nature: New and Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Song of Roland, See Chanson de Roland Anonymous, French, 11th C. La Chanson de Roland (Song of Roland). Rec: Adler Bloom Ward Various Authors, French, 12th C. Songs of the Provencal Troubadors. Rec: Ward Snyder, Gary Collected Poems (1966)
The poems are daring and solid, and as Thom Gunn remarked, "preserve experience in the process of formation". His version of Cold Mountain by Han-Shan is a thrilling version of one of the most thrilling Chinese poets (7th century AD). His own poems have some of the same spirit and atmosphere. Spender, Stephen Poems (1939)
Underestimated poet of the 1930s generation, he has gone on writing for 50 years and fits no category. He expresses liberal, intelligent sensibility and is its faithful witness, but he can also be a startling and liberating individual poet. Spenser, Edmund The Shephearde's Calendar(1579) * The odes of Spenser are the most successfully inventive metrical system in English. Indispensable. Also: The Faerie Queene, etc Spenser, Edmund, English, ca. 1552-1599 . Prothalamion. Rec: Adler Fa«rie Queen. Rec: Adler Aquinas Bloom Lubbock Minor Poems. Rec: Bloom Spicer, Jack. American, 1925-1965. The Collected Books of Jack Spicer (Ed. by Robin Blaser). Rec: LAT
Stampa, Gaspara, Italian, ca. 1523-1554. Sonnets and Madrigals. Rec: Bloom Stein, Gertrude. American, 1874-1946. Tender Buttons. Rec: Bloom NYPL Stevens, Wallace Selected Poerns (1953)
Stevens' poems are a splendid combination of the meditative and the sensual. His careful concern with style and vocabulary, together with a sense of rhythm and refrain reminiscent of Apollinaire (qv), make him one of the most satisfying writers of the "modern" movement. Stevens, Wallace. American, 1879-1955. Poems. Rec: SJC Ward Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom The Necessary Angel. Rec: Bloom Opus Posthumous. Rec: Bloom The Palm at the End of the Mind. Rec: Bloom Stickney, Trumbull. American, 1874-1904. Poems. Rec: Bloom Storm, Thedor, German, 1817-1868. Immensee. Rec: Bloom Poems. Rec: Bloom Strand, Mark. American, 1934- . Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom The Continuous Life. Rec: Bloom Dark Harbor. Rec: Bloom Su Dongpo (Su Tung-p'o; also known as Su Shih), Chinese, 1036-1101. Poems. Rec: Ward Sully Prudhomme, French, 1839-1907. Nobel Laureate Works. Surrey, Henry Howard, Earl of, English, ca. 1517-1547 . Poems. Rec: Bloom Swenson, May. American, 1919-1989. New & Selected Things Taking Place. Rec: Bloom In Other Words. Rec: Bloom Swinburne, Algernon Poems and Ballads (1866)
Late Victorian who thrilled the Edwardians with poetic wildness and intoxication. Reading Swinburne is like bathing in scented ass's milk: cheering, but a little goes a long way. Swinburne, Algernon Charles, English, 1837-1909. Poems. Rec: Bloom Letters. Rec: Bloom Szymborska, Wislawa, Polish, 1923- . Nobel Laureate Works. Tagore, Rabindranath, Indian writing in Bengali, 1861-1941. Nobel Laureate Poems and Stories. Rec: MW Asian Complete Poems and Plays. Rec: Oriental Ward Takeda Izumo, Japanese, ca. 1690-ca. 1749. Chushingura. (An earlier version is by Chikamatsu) Rec: Oriental Ward Various Authors, Indians writing in Tamil. Tamil Poetry. (See also Eight Anthologies, Ilango Adigal, Kuruntokai, Ten Long Poems) Recommended by: StJE Various Authors, Chinese, 618-907. Tang Poetry. (See also Wang Wei, Li Bai, Du Fu, Bai Juyi, Li He) Rec: App MW Asian Tao Qian (T'ao Ch'ien; also known as Tao Yuanming), Chinese, 365-427. Poems. Rec: MW Asian Ward Tasso, Torquato, Italian, 1544-1595. Gerusalemme Liberata. Rec: Bloom Ward Tate, Allen. American, 1899-1979. Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom Various Authors, Indians writing in Tamil, 1st C BCE-3rd C CE. Ten Long Poems. (See also Kuruntokai, Tamil Poetry) Rec: MW Asian Tennyson, Alfred Poems (1842)
* Tennyson can be moralizing, morbid, extravagantly decorative, sentimental: but his poems still give pleasure in a very different age. Victorian certainties offer comfort in our own, torn times. See BIOGRAPHY (Ricks) Tennyson, Alfred, Lord, English, 1809-1892. Idylls of the King. Rec: Lubbock Shorter Poems. Rec: Lubbock Poems. Rec: Bloom Theocritus, Greek, 3rd C BCE. Idylls. Rec: Bloom Thomas, Dylan Collected Poems (1952)
it Intense visions (especially of provincial Wales) and exuberant language make him easy to like or denounce; but he is serious, and, in about a dozen poems, a great poet. See DIARIES Thomas, Dylan, Welsh, 1914-1953. The Poems. Rec: Bloom Thomas, Edward Collected Poems (1920)
Sympathetic and private: an English Robert Frost (they were friends). Thomas, Edward, English, 1878-1917. Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom Thomas, R. S., Welsh, 1913-2000. Poems. Rec: Bloom Thompson, Francis, English, 1859-1907. Poems. Rec: Bloom Thomson, James (Bysshe Vanolis), Scottish, 1834-1882. City of the Dreadful Night. Rec: Bloom Thomson's poem is a deeply questioning and extremely dark vision of the City that we inhabit, but more than that it challenges the illusions that inhabit us. Thomson - athiest, alcoholic, anarchist and insomniac - speaks to us all frm the place where we live. Thoreau, Henry David. American, 1817-1862. Poems. Rec: Bloom Various Authors, Vietnamese, 11th-20th C. A Thousand Years of Vietnamese Poetry. Rec: Ward Tolson, M. B.. American, 1900-1966. Harlem Gallery. Rec: Bloom (poetry) Traherne, Thomas, English, 1637-1674. Centuries, Poems, and Thanksgivings. Rec: Bloom Trakl, Georg, Austrian, 1887-1914. Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Transtr¶mer, Tomas, Swedish, 1931- . Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Tsvetayeva, Marina Ivanova, Russian, 1892-1941. Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Ward Tuckerman, Frederick Goddard. American, 1821-1873. The Cricket and Other Poems. Rec: Bloom Ungaretti, Giuseppe, Italian, 1888-1970. Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom The Buried Harbour: Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Valéry, Paul, French, 1871-1945. Poems. Rec: Bloom SJC Manifestoes of Surrealism. Rec: Bloom Vallejo, César, Peruvian, 1892-1938. Poetry. Rec: Ward Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Spain, Take This Cup From Me. Rec: Bloom Vaughan, Henry, Welsh, 1621-1695. Poetry. Rec: Bloom Verlaine, Paul, French, 1844-1896. Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Very, Jones. American, 1813-1880. Essays and Poems. Rec: Bloom Vidyapati Thakur, Indian writing in Sanskrit and Bihari, 1352-ca. 1448. Love Songs. Rec: Ward Vigny, Alfred de, French, 1797-1863. Chatterton. Rec: Bloom Poems. Rec: Bloom Villon, Francois Le Grand Testament (1461)
A connoisseur of the dramatic incongruities of life, Villon displays an astonishing zest for it. He is one of the wittiest, most reflective poets of any age. Good translation: Dale. Villon, French, 1431-ca. 1462. Poems. Rec: Bloom Ward Virgil Georgics (1st century AD)
Dryden thought Georgics "the best poem of the best poet"; his own version shows why he thought so, and he makes a persuasive case. Good modern translations: Bovie; Day Lewis. Also: Eclogues; Aeneid Virgil, Roman, 70-19 BCE. Works. Rec: Adler Lubbock The Aeneid. Rec: Aquinas Bloom Col37 Col61 Collh91 Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 GBWW Good Reading Harvard Meaningful Rexmo Seymour-Smith SJC Ward Eclogues. Rec: Bloom GBWW Georgics. Rec: Bloom GBWW Wade, Thomas, English, 1805-1875. Poems. Rec: Bloom Wagner, Richard, German, 1813-1883. Ring of the Nibelung. Rec: Bloom Walcott, Derek, St. Lucian, 1930- . Nobel Laureate Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom Wang Wei, Chinese, ca. 699-ca. 761 . Poems. Rec: Ward Warren, Robert Penn. American, 1905-1989. Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Watson-Taylor, S. and Lucie-Smith, E. (eds) French Poetry Today (1971)
Excellent bilingual anthology of poems written and published since 1955. Wheelwright, John B.. American, 1897-1940. Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom Whitman, Walt Leaves of Grass (1855)
There is no better poet of 19th-century war or of democracy. The full height of his achievement is hardly recognized in Britain. His liberation and Yankee tone make Tennyson look provincial. His power and precision are amazing. Whitman, Walt. American, 1819-1892. Complete Poems. Rec: Bloom Leaves of Grass. Rec: Bloom Good Reading Meaningful Rex Ward Selected Poems. Rec: Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 Democratic Vistas. Rec: Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 Preface to the first issue of Leaves of Grass (1855). Rec: Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 A Backward Glance O'er Travelled Roads. Rec: Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 Specimen Days. Rec: Bloom "Song of Myself". Rec: Utne Whittier, John Greenleaf. American, 1807-1892. Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom Wilbur, Richard Poems, 1943 — 1956 (1956)
Like Hecht (qv), Wilbur writes with grace and confidence. Attractive, intelligent and accessible, his poetry is perfectly at ease
— and at its best, it is something more. Wilbur, Richard. American, 1921- . New and Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom Williams, William Carlos. American, 1883-1963. Poems. Rec: Rexmo Spring and All. Rec: Bloom Paterson. Rec: Bloom LAT Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom In the American Grain. Rec: Hungry Mind ML Nonfiction Wolfram von Eschenbach, German, ca. 1170-ca. 1220. Parzival. Rec: Bloom Wordsworth, William Poems (1807)
E!7! Born and brought up in the English Lake District, Wordsworth found in its landscapes the perfect raw material for his verse, even though it is often, as he said, "emotion recollected in tranquillity". As articulate as a diarist, he retains a sense of innocence which makes him inimitable and unforgettable. See DIARIES ; LITERARY CRITICISM (Coleridge) Wordsworth, William, English, 1770-1850. Poems. Rec: Adler (Selections) Bloom Good Reading Lubbock (Selections) The Prelude. Rec: Bloom Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 Selected Shorter Poems. Rec: Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 Preface to the Lyrical Ballads (1800). Rec: Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 Wright, Charles. American, 1935- . The World of the Ten Thousand Things. Rec: Bloom Wright, James. American, 1927-1980. Above the River: The Complete Poems. Rec: Bloom Wright, Jay. American, 1935- . Dimensions of History. Rec: Bloom The Double Invention of Komo. Rec: Bloom Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Elaine's Book. Rec: Bloom Boleros. Rec: Bloom Wright, Judith, Australian, 1915-2000. Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Wyatt, Sir Thomas, English, 1503-1542. Poems. Rec: Bloom Wylie, Elinor. American, 1885-1928. Last Poems. Rec: Bloom Xie Lingyun, Chinese, 385-433. Poems. Rec: MW Asian Yeats, W. B. Collected Poems(1933)
Yeats is one of our finest poets; his greatest poems were written late in life, but the development (from the 1890s onwards) is continuous and the quality extraordinary, despite its sometimes dotty rationale. See DRAMA Yeats, William Butler, Irish, 1865-1939. Nobel Laureate The Wild Swans at Coole. Rec: NYPL Collected Poems. Rec: Bloom Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 Good Reading Ward Selected Poems. Rec: SJC Collected Plays. Rec: Bloom Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 Rexmo A Vision. Rec: Bloom Mythologies. Rec: Bloom The Autobiography. Rec: Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 Autobiographies. Rec: ML Nonfiction Yuan Mei, Chinese, 1716-1798. Poems. Rec: Ward Zach, Nathan, Israeli, 1930- . Selected Poems. Rec: Bloom Zagajewski, Adam, Polish, 1945- . Tremor. Rec: Bloom Zanzotto, Andrea, Italian, 1921- . Selected Poetry. Rec: Bloom Zhu Xi, Chinese, 1130-1200. Reflections on Things at Hand: The Neo-Confucian Anthology. Rec: Oriental Ward Dante Della-Terza
Dante Della-Terza is the Irving Babbitt Professor of Comparative Literature at Harvard University. Professor Della-Terza was born in southern Italy, in a town destroyed by the earthquake of 1980. He studied in Pisa, Zurich and Paris and moved to the United States in 1959. He taught at UCLA from 1959 to 1963 and joined the Harvard faculty in 1963. Professor Della-Terza is currently writing about the disappearance of his home town in the earthquake of 1980 and the collective wound it caused.
Readers will identify in the books only the truths they have been able to conquer or preserve by their own efforts. Books say better on our behalf what life teaches us. They are in a sense ourselves. Dante Alighieri. The Divine Comedy (ca. 1307-21). New York: Penguin, 1984. (Pb)
I started reading the poem when I was in high school. Our teachers would ask us to memorize entire cantos. In a sense it was a felicitous coaction since Dante's journey became a part of myself. The lines I learned came to my rescue in time of perplexities by giving me a sense of direction, a certitude. Giovanni Boccaccio. The Decameron (ca. 1348). New York: New American Library, 1982. (Pb)
After the first gloomy pages of the book the reader reaches a landscape of rejuvenation, rebirth and revival. A spark of hope defeats darkness; the world becomes alive again with its doubts and certitudes, its tricks and heroisms, its comic fears and noble behaviors. It teaches the reader how loving and lovable the world can become. Ludovico Ariosto. Orlando Furioso (1532). New York: Oxford University Press, 1983. (Pb)
There is a way to escape relativity through evasive attitudes of selfishness, there is a way to absolve in our dreams the deep sense of our life. Dream becomes a metaphor for life. Ariosto tells with grace and irony a truth about ourselves which is far stronger than the historical setting that produces it. He has been able to fill poetic dreams with experience and wisdom, hope and determination. Michel de Montaigne. Selections from the Essays (1595). Donald M. Frame, ed. and trans. Arlington Heights, Ill.: Harlan Davidson, 1973. (Pb)
When besieged by endless traps man learns how to grasp values, how to outline intellectual and moral commitments which represent a frontier of self-preservation. Seldom has a book been written with such literary skill and such implacable lucidity. Giovanni Battista Vico. Autobiography (1725-28). M. Fisch and T. G. Bergin, trans. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1963. (Pb)
One learns by reading it how a man deprived of skills that could help him to become prominent in a competitive society can bravely construct an image of the self in which all the deep thoughts, all the world's dreams, are mirrored. Jeroslav Hasek. The Good Soldier Svejk and His Fortunes in War (1922). Cecil Parrott, trans. Cambridge, Mass.: Robert Bentley, 1980.
It is perhaps not a very great book. It gives me, however, a sense of comic relief when I am confronted with the arrogance of the powerful. I owe Hasek many good laughs in gloomy times. I am grateful for it. Albert Lord
Albert Lord is the Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Slavic and Comparative Literature, Emeritus and honorary curator of the Milman Parry Collection in the Harvard College Library. Though no longer a classroom teacher, he continues to research and contribute to his field. He devotes much of his time now to the study of Yugoslavian epic song.
I do not claim originality, only truth, in the first two, and possibly the third, but I expect I am unique in the fourth. The Bible. King James version (1611).
The book that had the most influence on me from my earliest years has been the Bible. I was brought up on it; as a boy and a young man I learned to quote many passages from it. The fact that many parts of the Bible originated in oral tradition also drew me to a study of the Bible from the point of view of oral literature and lore. William Shakespeare. Shakespeare: Complete Works (1592-1611). Alfred Hasbage, ed. Baltimore: Penguin, 1969.
When I was in high school I read several of Shakespeare's plays and was required to memorize many lines from them. Passages from Hamlet, Macbeth, Julius Caesar The Merchant of Venice, and As You Like It have stayed with me through the years, and together with the Bible have formed the backbone of my literary sensibilities. I audited Kittredge's last class in Shakespeare and added several passages from Othello to my repertory at that time. In my early teaching in the humanities I taught as well some of the history plays. Homer. The Iliad (ca. 800 B.C.). Robert Fitzgerald, trans. New York: Doubleday, 1975. (Pb)
. The Odyssey (ca. 800 B.c.). Robert Fitzgerald, trans. Franklin Center, Penn.: Franklin Library, 1976.
The Writings of Milman Parry.
If the first book, the Bible, belonged to my family period and the second came from high-school days, both lasting on into adult life, the third stems from my college years at Harvard in the early 1930s. It was here that my fascination for the Homeric poems began, and no books have had a more profound effect on my life than they. They have been at the heart of most of my scholarly activity. They are associated with the name of my primary teacher in Homer and oral-traditional literature, Mil-man Parry, and his writings have their place here together with the Iliad and the Odyssey.
Oral-traditional epic poetry.
Homer and Parry led to listening to epic singers in Yugoslavia and to reading a large body of oral-traditional epic poetry, mostly in Serbo-Croatian and Bulgarian. Although these are not "books" in the conventional sense, they are literary expressions and sometimes, like Homer, they find their way into book form. One in particular, "The Wedding of Smailagic Meho" by Avdo Medjedovic, which I translated into English and published, has had considerable influence on my life, not only in itself, but also in respect to all that it represents. It is in essence the initiatory experiences of a young hero, his marriage, and his succeeding to his father's station in life. Such Van Gennep tales from Rites of Passage, whatever form they may take, have been of importance to me in my own life. The Epic of Gilgamesh (seventh century B.c.). R. Campbell Thompson, ed. New York: AMS Press, 1981.
This holds true of the next book, the Epic of Gilgamesh, with its account of acceptance of mortality and its ultimate emphasis on the life of achievement and of family values. It, too, in my experience is also important as representative of several works from the ancient Near East, such as Enuma Elish and the Baal epic. These works are basically mythic and as such deal with fundamental problems of life. And with them, I seem to have returned to the place of my beginning. Helen Vendler
Helen Vendler is a professor of English at Harvard as well as poetry critic of The New Yorker. She is the author of books on Yeats, Stevens, Herbert and Keats as well as essays on modern American poetry, collected in Part of Nature, Part of Us. She is the editor of The Harvard Book of Contemporary American Poets.
The stuff of poetry, the life of the affections, the speculations of the mind and the contradictions of existence, are as alive in Homer as in us, for readers and writers alike. The patterning of language — present in every culture — seems likely to be with us 'til the end of time.
The poets who have "had a significant influence on thinking and life" for me might not be the right ones for anyone else. In poetry, affinities are strong and personal links of temperament and disposition. I think others should find for themselves, by skimming through anthologies, poets who will mean to them what Yeats, Stevens, Herbert, and Keats have meant to me. For one reader, it will be Whitman, for another, Marvell, for another, Dickinson. As Dickinson said, "The soul selects her own Society — Then — shuts the Door." AMERICAN POETRY Oliver Harris
All American poetry comes from one book by Walt Whitman called Leaves of Grass 1855. With this extraordinary, exuberant epic, America - the poem - found its first true poet; or rather, it was Whitman who answered the nation's call for an independent cultural voice. His work was made to match America in scale, energy, democracy, above all in its unlimited sense of possibility, both material and mystical, sensual and spiritual. His legacy has been twofold. On the one hand, national history betrayed his bright vision; from the Civil War onwards, the grand rhetoric of America and often the grim reality of it have moved ever further apart. On the other hand, rebuffed in his own day, considered too 'American' to be 'poetic', Whitman's time did eventually come, a century late: Richard Gray's American Poetry of the Twentieth Century (1990) has an entry three times longer for Whitman than for any other poet. Modernist American poetry, directed by the expatriates Ezra Pound and T S Eliot, and by the 'home-made' William Carlos Williams, did its 'carving' on, as well as with, language. Poetry demanded new, more active, more demanding, roles from its readers - and this tended to build on the experimentalism of Whitman, at the expense of his populism.
But is the revolutionary idea of America that has most inspired its poetry to inspire its people. When the 'Beat' poet Allen Ginsberg writes 'America, I'm putting my queer shoulder to the wheel', or the black feminist poet Nikki Giovanni writes 'i wish i knew how it would feel / to be free', you are listening to the poetic voice of America.
I make a pact with you, Walt Whitman - I have detested you long enough ... It
was you that broke the new wood, Now is a time for carving.
EZRA POUND Leaves of Grass (1855) by Walt Whitman. Includes his great Song of Myself, a unique work which shouts, whispers, sings, rants, and absolutely insists on being alive. The Complete Poems (1955) by Emily Dickinson. All but unpublished in her own lifetime, her poetry is remarkable for its consistent brevity and density. Utterly idiosyncratic, darkly witty. The Weary Blues (1926) by Langston Hughes. Best of the 1920s Harlem Renaissance poets, perhaps the first to make poetry sing with a black voice. Collected Poems (1963) by T S Eliot. Brilliant, yet hard to enjoy, especially given the too great influence of his heavily allusive poetic style and his conservative criticism. Collected Poems (1954) by Wallace Stevens. Lyrical, philosophical poetry, at times exquisitely simple, at others obscure, always wrestling with the imagination. Howl and Other Poems (1960) by Allen Ginsberg. Very uneven as a poet is credo the opposite of Eliot's craftsmanship), but always valuable for his provoking, radical energies. POETRY ANTHOLOGIES Anthony Thwaite
Some people affect to despise anthologies of poetry; but for readers just starting out they are a good way of sampling and sniffing and tasting. The first anthology I bought was Arthur Quiller-Couch's Oxford Book of English Verse. I was 15 and had just begun to read poems voluntarily, and to try to write them. Quiller-Couch published this book in 1900; and then in 1939, just before World War II, revised it. It was the revised edition I bought in 1945. The preface was weirdly old-fashioned ('it were profane to misdoubt the Nine as having forsaken these so long favoured islands'), and so were some of Quiller-Couch's choices; but the book still has a lot of undisputedly good things in it. However, I don't think I'd recommend it today. I list below a few anthologies I do recommend. The New Oxford Book of English Verse (1972) edited by Helen Gardner. This is a full, wide ranging, reliable collection, from medieval anonymous songs to Dylan Thomas. Six Centuries of Verse (1984) by Anthony Thwaite. This is a mixture of anthology and comment, historical and critical, which I put together as a companion to a Thames Television series I was asked to write. It can be read without any knowledge of the television programmes, and tries to be a sort of guided tour of poetry in English from Chaucer to Philip Larkin and Ted Hughes, including some Americans, from Poe to Robert Lowell and Sylvia Plath. The Rattle Bag (1982) edited by Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes. Intended for 'young people', this is a deliberate mix of old and new poems, arbitrary and jumbled, much as the title suggests. It 'is also for those who may feel they have missed their first chance with poetry and are ready to give it - and themselves - a second chance'. The Oxford Book of Comic Verse (1994) edited by John Gross. I think this is the best and funniest of the many anthologies of 'comic' (or sometimes 'light') verse, particularly brilliant on the 19th and 20th centuries, in which John Gross has found some little-known gems.
Poets of the English Language (1952) edited by W H Auden and Norman Holmes Pearson. If you ever see a second-hand set of this five-volume collection, snap it up. This is a majestic full-scale gathering, from Langland to Yeats, much the best overall anthology. I wish it was still in print.
As for anthologies of contemporary poetry, I don't think there is a single wholly satisfactory one. But it wouldn't be expensive to buy three Penguins (Contemporary Verse, edited by Kenneth Allott; British Poetry Since 1945, edited by Edward Lucie-
Smith; Contemporary British Poetry, edited by Blake Morrison and Andrew Motion), and then throw in a Bloodaxe paperback, The New Poetry (1993). These four benveen them pretty well cover the ground. INDIVIDUAL POETS Anthony Thwaite
My choice of 12 individual poets is personal without (I hope) being completely eccentric. People who read these lists will make their own discoveries in the anthologies I've recommended. I have omitted the great quartet (Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth), because I take it for granted that anyone who wants to read poems will have to tackle them some time. The editions I list are big ones, but all these poets are mostly easily available in a variety of selections as well.
The Poet takes note of nothing that he cannot feel emotionally. My opinion is that
a poet should express the emotion of all the ages and the thought of his own. To
find beauty in ugliness is the province of the poet.
THOMAS HARDY John Donne (1592-1631): The Complete English Poems (1982) edited by A J Smith Dramatic, immediate, sometimes difficult, Donne is full of ingenious arguments, whether he is writing about seducing a woman or about God, and he grabs your attention from the start with his opening words: 'Busy old fool, unruly Sun', 'Death, be not proud', ‘What if this present were the world's last night?' George Herbert (1593-1633): English Poems (1990) edited by C A Patrides. All the poems he wrote in his maturity, towards the end of his short life, are religious, specifically Christian. But one doesn't need to share his faith to find Herbert beautifully convincing in his plain strengths, his ability to think aloud with subtlety and delicacy. John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (1647-1680): The Complete Works (1994) edited by Frank H Ellis. This 'wicked' aristocrat was not only one of the most notorious libertines at Charles II's court but a passionate and witty writer of lyrics and satires. I don't recommend Rochester to those easily shocked. George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824): The Poems (1963) edited by G Pocock, revised by V de Sola Pinto. I much prefer the Byron of such poems as Don Juan and Beppo to the high Romantic of Childe Harold's Ptilgrimage: in other words, the cynical, exuberant, sardonic, mocking, and self-mocking poet. He was as famous for his life as for his works, and it's amazing how much of both he crowded into his 36 years. Robert Browning (1812-1889): The Poems (1982) edited by J Pettigrew and T J Collins. The ones to begin with are the dramatic monologues, such as those in Men and Women, which are like strangely self-contained incidents from lost plays. Poems like 'My Last Duchess' are as gripping as any short story, and at the same time a speaking likeness from the past come to life. Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892): The Poems (1989) edited by Christopher Ricks. There's so much variety in Tennyson that it's hard to know where to begin: the greatest extended elegy in English, In Memoriam; wonderfully musical lyrics (Tears, idle tears'); brooding monologues; epic Arthurian stuff; and those jaunty poems in Lincolnshire dialect. Emily Dickinson (1830-1886): The Complete Poems (1976) edited by Thomas H Johnson. The greatest woman poet writing in English, and in my opinion the greatest American writer. She had no success in her lifetime, but the thousands of tiny poems she left behind in a box in her New England home include some of the most extraordinary riddling masterpieces about death and immortality and eternity. The best of them take the top off your head. Thomas Hardy (1840-1928): Complete Poems (1995) edited by James Gibson. Though he earned his living as a novelist, and wrote some great novels, Hardy the poet is the writer I prefer. Often a storyteller in his verse, he was also someone who could catch a moment of truth, of vision, of regret, of lost love, preserving for ever some chilling revelation or one of 'life's little ironies'. A E Housman (1859-1936): Collected Poems (1939) edited by John Carter. He published only two slim volumes in his lifetime, and the whole of this collected volume isn't a large one. On the face of it, his poems are simple and repetitive - love is fleeting, lovers fickle, youth decays into age, death is final. What makes them utterly memorable is their seductive, instantly recognizable music: 'Tell me not here, it needs not saying', 'The troubles of our proud and angry dust', 'In valleys green and still'. T S Eliot (1888-1965): Complete Poems and Plays (1969) by T S Eliot. Eliot was the first 'modern' poet who really caught my attention, soon after I read that Quiller-Couch anthology (in which he does not appear). And it was The Waste Land that did it. I don't think that at 16 I understood anything about it - but it seemed to me the most intoxicating thing I had ever read. After 50 years, I can talk fairly learnedly about it; but what remains is the excitement, and indeed the memorable mystery. W H Auden (1907-1973): Collected Poems (1976, revised edition 1994) edited by Edward Mendelson.. Auden was the great virtuoso of our century, capable of writing every kind of poem from the intricate intellectual argument to the popular song ('Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone'). I admire that variety, and his energy, restlessness, verbal and rhythmical skills. Reading Auden often makes you want to write a poem yourself, because (you think for a wild moment) you can do it too. Philip Larkin (1922-1985): Collected Poems (1988) edited by A Thwaite. I became besotted with Larkin from the moment I first properly read him in 1955. Sad, observant, exact, funny, most of his poems work themselves into your memory as if, somehow, they had always been there - something that is seldom true of most poems at most times.

Politics

Books on "the art of the possible' are prospective or retrospective: programmatically confident about the future, scathing (or, less often, apologetic) about the past. Meanwhile, the present remains the meeting-point, the inhabited no-man's-land between philosophy and history, an enclave of contingent circumstance and compromise in which the layman, unfortified by the professional politician's theory or casuistry, actually has to live. Once or twice in human history (Periclean Athens? Medician Florence? Founding-fathers' America?) everything seemed (to some, at least) to come momentarily and thrillingly right: theory fitted circumstance and mood, no-man's land flowered into utopia, and the citizen was served, not ruled. by politics. Why that happened, and whether it could happen again is in part the subject of this list.

See ANTHROPOLOGY (Epstein); ART (Morison); AUTOBIOGRAPHY (Franklin, Kropotkin, Macmillan, Malcom X); DIARIES (Crossman, Lincoln, Wilson); ECONOMICS (Friedman, Galbraith, Gamble, Glynn, Harrison, Kidron, Marx); FEMINISM (Evans, Rowbotham, Norris); GEOGRAPHY (Cole); HISTORY/ AMERICAN (Bailyn, Berger, George, Halberstam, Schlesinger); HISTORY/ANCIENT (Sallust, Thucydides); HISTORY/BRITISH (More, Tawney): HISTORY/LATIN AMERICAN (Freyre); MEDIA (King); PHILOSOPHY (Hobbes, Mill. Ortega y Gasset); RELIGION (Hebblethwaite, Struve); SEX (Reich); SOCIOLOGY (Anderson, Bottomore, Marcuse. Wallerstein, Weber)

Acheson, Dean Present at the Creation (1967)
US foreign policy in the post-1945 golden age; perceptive account of the way Washington works, or worked. Acheson, Dean. American, 1893-1971. Present at the Creation. Rec: ML Nonfiction Adamic, Louis. American, 1899-1951. Dynamite: A Century of Class Violence in America, 1830-1930. Rec: Counterpunch NF Agee, Philip. American, 1935- . Inside the Company: CIA Diary. Rec: Counterpunch NF Arendt, Hannah Eichmann in Jerusalem (1963)
P*
Perhaps her most accessible and penetrating book: notions of the "banality of evil" and Eichmann as bureaucrat caused a furore at time of publication. Also: The Origins of Totalitarianism; The Human Condition; On Violence. See Stern; AUTOBIOGRAPHY (Speer); BIOGRAPHY (Bullock) Aristotle Politics (4th century BC)
Beginning of the practical study of politics as distinct from speculation. See LITERARY CRITICISM; PHILOSOPHY
Aron, Raymond, French, 1905-1983. The Opium of the Intellectuals. Rec: TLS Memoirs. Rec: TLS Written 40 years ago during the battle of ideas between communism and liberal democracy, "The Opium of the Intellectuals" provided profound insight into the mind of the communist intellectual. Aron, a renowned French historian and philosopher, wrote this devastating critique of French radicals (such as John Paul Sartre) during the height of the Cold War. Unlike Albert Camus in his famous book "The Rebel", Aron fires his guns without mercy and exposes these intellectuals' penchant for irrationalism and extremism.
Arrow, Kenneth. American, 1921- . Social Choice and Individual Values. Rec: TLS Babbitt, Irving. American, 1865-1933. Democracy and Leadership. Rec: National Review Bagehot, Walter The English Constitution (1867)
& *1'1
No other book on the British constitution begins to approach this in scope and elegance. Edition by Crossman (1963) recommended. Also: Physics and Politics Bell, Daniel. American, 1919- . End of Ideology. Rec: TLS The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism. Rec: TLS Berger, Peter. American, 1929- . The Capitalist Revolution: Fifty Propositions About Prosperity, Equality, and Liberty. Recommended by: TLS Bernays, Edward L.. American, 1891-1995. The Engineering of Consent. Rec: Boston PL Bloom, Allan. American, 1930-1992. The Closing of the American Mind. Rec: National Review Bobbio, Norberto, Italian, 1909-2004. The Future of Democracy. Rec: TLS Bracher, Karl Dietrich, German, 1922- . The Totalitarian Experience. Rec: TLS Burke, Edmund Reflections on the Revolution in France (1791)
Burke was the great English conservative politician. This book was a response to a liberal defence of the 1789 French Revolution. Burke's rhetoric is devastating and his style unforgettable. His speeches and letters make equally good reading: especially Letter to a Noble Lord; Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol; On American Taxation, etc Burke, Edmund, Irish, 1729-1797. Selected Works. Rec: Lubbock Sublime and Beautiful. Rec: Bloom Revolution in France. Rec: Bloom Seymour-Smith Burnham, James. American, 1905-1987. The Managerial Revolution. Rec: TLS The Machiavellians. Rec: National Review Cabral, Amacar Revolution in Guinea (1969)
Selection from writings, speeches and interviews of one of Africa's most powerful revolutionary thinkers. Also: Return to the Source Canetti, Elias, Austrian, 1905-1994. Nobel Laureate Crowds and Power. Rec: TLS Caro, Robert. American, 1935- . The Power Broker. Rec: ML Nonfiction Carr, E. H. The Russian Revolution from Lenin to Stalin, 1917-29 (1979)
One-volume distillation of a 14-volume history of Soviet Russia. Like the total work, masterly. Also: The New Society; The Twenty Years' Crisis, 1919-39; What is History?; The Romantic Exiles, etc
Castiglione, Baldassare, Italian, 1478-1529. The Courtier. Rec: Bloom Ward Castoriadis, Cornelius, French, 1922-1997. Political and Social Writings, 1961-1979: Recommencing the Revolution, from Socialism to the Autonomous Society. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Catt, Carrie Chapman. American, 1859-1947. Woman Suffrage and Politics: The Inner Story of the Suffrage Movement (With Nettie Rogers Shuler). Rec: NYPL
Chambers, Whittaker. American, 1901-1961. Witness. Rec: National Review Chase, Allan. American, 1913-1993. The Legacy of Malthus: The Social Costs of the New Scientific Racism. Rec: Counterpunch NF Chomsky, Noam. American, 1928- . Manufacturing Consent (With Edward Herman). Rec: Utne The Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel, and the Palestinians. Rec: Counterpunch NF Clarke, Peter Liberals and Social Democrats (1979) *Pa
Evolution, from 1880 onwards, of the politics of the middle way in Britain, from Whigs to Welfare State. The New Liberals emerge, convincingly if surprisingly, as the natural party of the working class. Also: Lancashire and the New Liberalism Claude, 1. L. Power and International Relations (1962)
Tough-minded, clear study of the relationship between sovereign states. Cowling, Maurice The Impact of Hitler (1977)
Starchy but stimulating analysis of the domestic British effects of the Hitlerian challenge.
Clausewitz, Karl von, German, 1780-1831. On War. Rec: Adler Seymour-Smith Croly, Herbert. American, 1869-1930. The Promise of American Life. Rec: ML Nonfiction Dahl, Robert. American, 1915- . Who Governs? Democracy and Power in an American City. Rec: TLS Dangerfield, George, English, 1904-1986. The Strange Death of Liberal England. Rec: ML Nonfiction (politics) Dante Of Monarchy (c. 1305)
Careful argument by a great poet in favour of world government approximately 650 years before anybody else thought of it. An extraordinarily little-known book. Dante's arguments still seem unanswerable. See POETRY
Davis, Mike. American, 1946- . Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster. Rec: Harvard de Gaulle, Charles, French, 1890-1970. The Edge of the Sword. Rec: National Review (history)
The introduction to this book, which is translated from English, is probably one of the most revealing and telling commentaries on the nature of man.
Deloria, Vine, Jr., Native American, 1933-2005. Custer Died for Your Sins: an Indian Manifesto. Rec: Counterpunch NF Hungry Mind Demosthenes, Greek, ca. 384-322 BCE. Philippics, Olynthiacs, and Minor Public Orations. Rec: Ward De Corona. Rec: Lubbock de Ste. Croix, G. E. M., English, 1910-2000. The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World. Rec: Counterpunch NF Djilas, Milovan, Yugoslavian, 1911-1995. The New Class: An Analysis of the Communist System. Rec: TLS Dumont, René, French, 1904-2001. Stranglehold on Africa. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Eisler, Riane, Austrian-American writing in English, 1931- . The Chalice and the Blade. Rec: Utne The Chalice and the Blade describes idyllic, Goddess-worshipping societies that Eisler believes existed several thousand years ago in eastern Europe and the eastern Mediterranean.
Eldersveld, S. J. Political Parties: A Behavioral Analysis (1964)
0 Itit The US constitution is a curious document in that it leaves out any mention of how (by what agency) government is to be organized. This task should in fact be left — said the Founding Fathers — to political parties, who have been at it ever since. Of many books on the history and workings of US political parties, this is one of the best. Compare Arnold Thurman: The Symbols of Government Fanon, Frantz The Wretched of the Earth (1961)
Fanon holds that imperialism injected violence into the fabric of the Third World. Does it follow that the resort to violence by Third World nations is neither surprising nor reprehensible? Dated, brilliant. Also: Black Skins, White Masks Hamilton, A., Jay, J. and Madison, J. The Federalist (1787-88) The birth of a nation; the Federalist papers are the best of all testimonies to the relationship between political theory and practice in the USA. Fanon, Frantz, Martinican, 1925-1961. Wretched of the Earth. Rec: Colcc91 Counterpunch Trans NYPL Gellner, Ernest, English, 1925-1995. Nations and Nationalism. Rec: TLS Giedion, Siegfried, Swiss writing in German, 1888-1968. Mechanization Takes Command: a Contribution to Anonymous History. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Various Authors, Various, 20th C. The God That Failed: Six Studies in Communism (Ed. By Arthur Koestler and Richard Crossman). (See also Koestler) Rec: TLS Godwin, William, English, 1756-1836. An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice. Rec: Seymour-Smith Gorz, André, French, 1924- . Capitalism, Socialism, Ecology. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Gramsci, Antonio, Italian, 1891-1937. The Modern Prince and Other Writings. Rec: Colcc91 Prison Notebooks. Rec: Counterpunch Trans TLS Utne Guevara, Ernesto "Che", Argentinian, 1928-1967. Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War, 1956-58. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Gutierrez, Gustavo, Peruvian, 1928- . A Theology of Liberation. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Halévy, Élie, French, 1870-1937. The Era of Tyrannies: Essays on Socialism and War. Rec: TLS Hamilton, Alexander, James Madison, and John Jay. American, 1757-1804; 1745-1829; 1751-1836. The Federalist Papers. (See also American State Papers) Rec: Adler Aquinas Colcc91 (Selections) Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 GBWW Good Reading SJC (Selections) Hart, H. L. A., English, 1907-1992. The Concept of Law. Rec: TLS Hayek, Friedrich von, Austrian, 1899-1992. The Constitution of Liberty. Rec: National Review TLS The Road to Serfdom. Rec: National Review NYPL Seymour-Smith Hill, Christopher, English, 1912-2003. The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English Revolution. Rec: Counterpunch NF Hinton, William Fanshen ( 1966)
A book of great humanity and intellectual vigour which, in dealing with the impact of China's revolution on the peasants of one village in 1948, takes us to the heart of what may have been the major world political event of our times. Fanshen means "to turn over".
Hofstadter, Richard. American, 1916-1970. The American Political Tradition. Rec: ML Nonfiction The Age of Reform. Rec: National Review Illich, Ivan, Austrian-American writing in English, 1926-2002. Tools for Conviviality. Rec: Utne (politics)
Jefferson, Thomas, and others. American, 18th C and following. American State Papers (Including: Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, Constitution of the United States). (See also Federalist Papers, United States Supreme Court, Pentagon Papers, Presidential Transcripts) Rec: Adler Aquinas GBWW SJC Selected Other Documents (Basic Documents in American History, ed. by Richard B. Morris, or other selection) . Rec: Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 Karp, Walter. American, 1934-1989. The Politics of War. Rec: Counterpunch NF Kautilya, Indian writing in Sanskrit, ca. late 4th C. Artha Shastra. Rec: StJE Ward (politics)
Kirk, Russell. American, 1918-1994. The Conservative Mind. Rec: National Review Klein, Naomi, Canadian, 1970- . No Logo. Rec: Harvard Kolakowski, Leszek, Polish, 1927- . Main Currents of Marxism. Rec: TLS (politics)
Kopkind, Andrew. American, 1935-1994. The Thirty Years' War: Dispatches and Diversions from a Radical Journalist. Rec: Counterpunch NF (politics)
Laqueur, Walter Terrorism (1977)
The politics of despair and paranoia coolly analysed. Also: A History of Zionism Lenin, Ivan Ilyich State and Revolution (1917)
Written on the eve of the October Revolution, a utopian prospectus at odds with Lenin's other books, it failed as prophecy but remains influential. Also: Imperialism; What is to be Done?
Leary, Timothy. American, 1920-1996. The Politics of Ecstasy. Rec: NYPL
Lefebvre, Henri, French, 1901-1991. Critique of Everyday Life. Rec: Counterpunch Trans (politics)
"The more needs a human being has, the more he exists," quips Lefebvre in a savage critique of consumerist society, first published in 1947. The French philosopher, historian and Marxist sociologist, who died this summer at age 90, meditates on the dehumanization and ugliness smuggled into daily life under cover of purity, utility, beauty. He deconstructs leisure as a form of social control, spanks surrealism for its turning away from reality, and attempts to get past the "mystification" inherent in bourgeois life by analyzing Chaplin's films, Brecht's epic theater, peasant festivals, daydreams, Rimbaud and the rhythms of work and relaxation.
Lehman, Godfrey. American, 1925?-. We the Jury: The Impact of Jurors on Our Basic Freedoms. Rec: Counterpunch NF (politics) Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich, Russian, 1870-1924. Selected Works. Rec: Ward The State and Revolution. Rec: Adler Colcc91 Counterpunch Trans What is to be Done?. Rec: Ward Imperialism. Rec: Colcc91 Lincoln, Abraham and Stephen Douglas. American, 1809-1865 and 1813-1861. (See also Lincoln, Abraham) Debates. Rec: Aquinas Lincoln, Abraham. American, 1809-1865. (See also Lincoln, Abraham and Stephen Douglas) Selected Speeches. Rec: SJC Locke, John Second Essay of Civil Government(1690)
This book, published two years after the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688, validated and justified it to English Whigs. The last section on the "right of revolution" was influential on Jefferson when he wrote the Declaration of Independence. See PHILOSOPHY
Luk¡cs, Georg, Hungarian writing in German, 1885-1971. History and Class Consciousness. Rec: Counterpunch Trans (politics) Machiavelli, Niccolo The Prince (1514)
! Handbook for enlightening despots stands as a classic analysis of the relationship between means and ends. Machiavelli, Niccol², Italian, 1469-1527. The Prince. Rec: Adler Aquinas Bloom Col37 Colcc91 Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 GBWW Good Reading Rex Seymour-Smith SJC Discourses on the First Ten Books of Livy. Rec: Adler Aquinas Colcc91 (Selections) SJC (Selections) Mandragola. Rec: Bloom Mackenzie, W. J. M. Politics and Social Science (1967)
What the academic study of politics is about. Also: Biological Ideas in Politics; Political Identity; Power, Violence, Decision
Malcolm, Janet. American, 1935?- . The Journalist and the Murderer. Rec: ML Nonfiction (journalism) Mannheim, Karl Ideology and Utopia (1929)
Flawed but noble attempt not only to comprehend the nature of ideology but also to analyse how far there could be an intellectual resolution of the schisms in European society. Also: Freedom, Power and Democratic Planning; Man and Society in an Age of Reconstruction; Essays on the Sociology of Knowledge Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung), Chinese, 1893-1976. Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung ("Little Red Book"). Rec: Boston PL NYPL Seymour-Smith On Guerrilla Warfare. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Selected Works. Rec: Ward Marcos, Subcomandante, Mexican, 1957- . Shadows of Tender Fury. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Utne Marx, K. and Engels, F. The Communist Manifesto (1848) !* 12,000 words, the liveliest and most influential in all their voluminous writings. though Marx's witty 18th Brumaire of Louis Napoleon runs it close. Also: German Ideology; The Condition of the Working Class in England, etc. See ECONOMICS; SOCIOLOGY (Bottomore. Marx) Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels, German, 1818-1883 and 1820-1895. (See also Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels) The Communist Manifesto. Rec: Adler Aquinas Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 GBWW Rex Seymour-Smith Selected Works. Rec: Colcc91 (Selections) German Ideology. Rec: Aquinas Matthiessen, Peter. American, 1927- . In the Spirit of Crazy Horse. Rec: Counterpunch NF (politics)
McCoy, Alfred. American, 1945- . The Politics of Heroin. Rec: Counterpunch NF McGinniss, Joe. American, 1942- . The Selling of the President 1968. Rec: LAT Michels, Robert Political Parties (1913)
The "iron law of oligarchy" book. Michels argued that all organizations, but particularly political parties and pressure groups, however democratic in origin and intent, succumb to oligarchic tendencies. See DIARIES (Crossman) Mill, John Stuart On Liberty (1859)
Mill's attempt to define the limits of individual behaviour and state interference is liberal thought at its rounded peak. See ECONOMICS; FEMINISM; PHILOSOPHY Montesquieu, Baron de The Spirit of Laws (1734-48)
Classic treatise by great political observer and thinker on the relationship between the spirit of a people and their laws. Analyses such apparently irrelevant matters as economic system, climate, history, morals and habits, sports and diversions. Montesquieu, Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de, French, 1689-1755. Spirit of the Laws. Rec: Adler GBWW Ward Persian Letters. Rec: Adler Moore, Barrington The Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy (1906)
Were the relationships between lords and peasants fundamental in shaping modern parliamentary democracy, communism and fascism? Excellent combination of social science and history. Also: Infustice; Political Power and Social Theory; Soviet Politics and the Dilemma of Power, etc
Namier, Lewis, English, 1888-1960. The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III. Rec: TLS Neumann, Franz, German-American writing in German, 1900-1954. Behemoth: The Structure and Practice of National Socialism. Rec: Counterpunch Trans TLS Niebuhr, Reinhold Moral and Immoral Society (1932)
r Seminal work of political philosophy, influential on many present-day European politicians and political movements. Niebuhr (a religious philosopher) analyses moral stances of individuals and groups, and holds that ethical standards appropriate to individuals are not necessarily appropriate to groups. Also: The Nature and Destiny of Man; Children of Light and Children of Darkness; An Interpretation of Christian Ethics
Niebuhr, Reinhold. American, 1892-1971. The Nature and Destiny of Man: A Christian Interpretation. Rec: ML Nonfiction
Nixon, Richard. American, 1913-1994. The Real War. Rec: LAT (politics)
Nizam al-Mulk, Hasan ibn Tusi, Persian, 1018-1092. The Book of Government, or Rules for Kings. Rec: Ward (politics) Oakeshott, Michael Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays (1962) Subtle, elegant essays by one of the outstanding British conservative political thinkers of the century. Also: Experience and Its Modes; On Human Conduct Oakeshott, Michael, English, 1901-1990. Rationalism in Politics. Rec: National Review Orwell, George Homage to Catalonia (1938)
Orwell's personal, devastating account of the Spanish Civil War, with an excellent chapter on trench warfare. Forerunner of 1984; Orwell encounters both the Soviet Union and rats. See FICTION/NOVELS; HISTORY/BRITISH; LITERARY CRITICISM
Owen., Robert A New View of Society and Other Writings (1813-21)
Owen was one of the greatest English utopian socialists — his kibbutz-like programme still merits consideration. His son went to America and established a socialist community at New Harmony, but discord soon set in. Piven, F. F. and Cloward, R. A. Poor People's Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail (1977)
A study of four movements in the US to delimit the possibilities of power for the poor in representative democracy. Challenging conclusion is that success comes through mass defiance rather than formal organization. Also: Regulating the Poor Plato The Republic (c. 380 BC)
Masterpiece of political philosophy argues for a hierarchical society in which everyone performs only the function for which he is fitted by nature and education. Very special pleading in the guise of a dispassionate intellectual exercise. (For provocative critique see Karl Popper: The Open Society and Its Enemies). Good translation: Cornford. See PHILOSOPHY Popper, Karl, Austrian-English writing in English, 1902-1994. The Open Society and Its Enemies. Rec: ML Nonfiction National Review TLS The Open Society and its Enemies
K.R. Popper
Historical Dialectic Marx: Selected Writings D. McLellan
Historical Dialectic Karl Marx
F. Wheen
Historical Dialectic Rawls, John A Theory of Justice (1971)
**
Key book in the argument among contemporary political theorists and moral philosophers concerning distributive justice. Rawls, John. American, 1921-2002. A Theory of Justice. Rec: Colcc91 LAT ML Nonfiction TLS Rich, Adrienne. American, 1929- . On Lies, Secrets and Silence. Rec: Hungry Mind Rousseau, Jean-Jacques The Social Contract (1762) i S
More attractive, challenging and puzzling than the other social contract theorists, Hobbes and Locke. Participatory democracy, socialism and modern despotism start here. Also: Emile. See AUTOBIOGRAPHY Rousseau, Jean Jacques, French, 1712-1778. On the Origin of Inequality. Rec: Adler Aquinas Colcc91 GBWW SJC On the Political Economy. Rec: Adler GBWW Émile. Rec: Adler Bloom Social Contract. Rec: Adler Aquinas Colcc91 GBWW Good Reading SJC Sa'adawi, Nawal el, Egyptian (Arabic), 1931- . Memoirs from the Women's Prison. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Said, Edward, Palestinian writing in English, 1935-2003. Culture and Imperialism. Rec: Utne Orientalism. Rec: Counterpunch NF Sartori, Giovanni Parties and Party Systems (1976) Schattschneider, E. E. The Semisovereign People (1960)
Major contribution to the debate about the pluralist nature of Western democracy. "The flaw in the pluralist heaven is that the heavenly chorus sings with a strong upperclass accent." Also: Politics, Pressures and the Tariff Schelling, Thomas. American, 1921- . The Strategy of Conflict. Rec: TLS Scheper-Hughes, Nancy. American, 1944- . Death Without Weeping: The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil. Rec: Counterpunch NF Schumpeter, Joseph Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy (1943) P Critique of classical democracy. Schumpeter reluctantly recognizes that if capitalism is to survive it must transform itself into a version of social democracy. He is best known, however, for his "minimal concept of democracy": that it provides at periodic elections, a choice between competing elites. Also: Business Cycles; Imperialism and Social Classes; History of EconomicAnalysis Simon, Herbert. American, 1916-2001. Models of Man, Social and Rational. Rec: TLS Situationist International, Various, 1957-1972. On the Passage of a Few People Through a Rather Brief Moment in Time: Situationist International 1957-1972. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Skinner, Quentin, English, 1940- . The Foundations of Modern Political Thought. Rec: TLS Smith, Anna Deveare. American, 1950- . Twilight, Los Angeles 1992. Rec: Utne Anna Deavere Smith's stunning new work of "documentary theater" in which she uses verbatim the words of people who experienced the Los Angeles riots to expose and explore the devastating human impact of that event. Sorel, Georges Reflections on Violence (1912)
*
"Violence is the only practical political method.- Sorel had no way of knowing how right — and wrong — he would be proved in the succeeding 60 years. See T. E. Hulme: Speculations (1924)
Sorel, Georges, French, 1847-1922. Reflections on Violence. Rec: Counterpunch Trans In this controversial text, Sorel, a noted revolutionary, voices his belief in class warfare as a means of effecting lasting social change.
Sowell, Thomas. American, 1930- . Ethnic America. Rec: National Review Starr, Kenneth W.. American, 1946- . The Starr Report. Rec: National Review Steffens, Lincoln. American, 1866-1936. Autobiography. Rec: NYPL The Shame of the Cities. Rec: Counterpunch NF Stern, J. P. Hitler: The Fuhrer and the People (1975)
Concise, brilliant book focuses on Hitler's use of language as a method of domination. Far more searching and penetrating than most "weightier" books about the Hitler phenomenon. Also: Thomas Mann; On Realism. See AUTOBIOGRAPHY (Speer); BIOGRAPHY (Bullock); HISTORY/EUROPEAN (Ryder)
Stern, Fritz. American, 1926- . The Politics of Cultural Despair. Rec: TLS Sun-tzu (Sunzi), Chinese, ca. 450-380 BCE. The Art of War. Rec: Fadiman 4 Talmon, J. T., Israeli, 1916-1980. The Origins of Totalitarian Democracy. Rec: TLS Tocquevllle, Alexis de Democracy in America (1835 -40)
Excellent as history and social science; but its enduring value is as political theory. Tocqueville's notion of the "tyranny of the majority" highlighted the dominance of beliefs and codes of behaviour that ensured conformity and stifled dissent. Also: L'Ancien Regime Tocqueville, Alexis de, French, 1805-1859. Democracy in America. Rec: Adler Aquinas Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 GBWW SJC (Selections) The Old Regime and the French Revolution. Rec: Aquinas Troeltsch, Ernst, German, 1865-1923. The Social Teaching of the Christian Churches. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Trotsky, Leon The History of the Russian Revolution (1932 -33) The revolution described and interpreted by one of its major participants. Partisan but never bigoted; patchy but compulsive. United Nations, Various, Pub. 1945. United Nations Charter. Rec: NYPL United States documents, See American State Papers United States Supreme Court. American, 1789- . Opinions. Rec: Colcc91 (Selections) SJC (Selections) Walzer, Michael. American, 1935- . Spheres of Justice. Rec: TLS Walzer's framework provides a powerful tool for non-philosophers to understand, and then speak-up directly and intelligently for equality and democracy. Weaver, Richard. American, 1910-1963. Ideas Have Consequences. Rec: National Review "In what has become a classic work, Richard M. Weaver unsparingly diagnoses the ills of our age and offers a realistic remedy. He asserts that the world is intelligible, and that man is free. The catastrophes of our age are the product not of necessity but of unintelligent choice. A cure, he submits, is possible. It lies in the right use of man's reason, in the renewed acceptance of an absolute reality, and in the recognition that ideas--like actions--have consequences." (amazon) White, Theodore H. The Making of the President, 1960 (1961)
A famous election brilliantly described and analysed. Exemplary political journalism. Also: The View from the Fortieth Floor, The Making of the President, 1968, etc White, Theodore H.. American, 1915-1986. The Making of the President 1960. Rec: LAT Wilson, Edmund To the Finland Station (1940)
Delightful, moving and literate study of the development of Western socialist thought. Also: Axers Castle; The Wound and the Bow; The Shores of Light See DIARIES; HISTORY/AMERICAN; LITERARY CRITICISM Wilson, Edmund. American, 1895-1972. The Shores of Light. Rec: Bloom Patriotic Gore. Rec: Bloom LAT ML Nonfiction To the Finland Station. Rec: Counterpunch NF Hungry Mind National Review Wittfogel, Karl, German-American writing in English, 1896-1988. Oriental Despotism: A Comparative Study of Total Power. Rec: Counterpunch Trans TLS Woodward, B. and Bernstein, C. All the President's Men (1974) Two reporters on the Washington Post uncover Watergate and win a Pulitzer Prize. A study of political corruption which will live as one of the greatest and most hyped scandals in politics. Also: The Final Days Woodward, C. Vann The Strange Career of Jim Crow (1955)
Best short account of the politics and history of segregation in the USA. Also: The Origins of the New South, 1877-1913. See HISTORY/AMERICAN Woodward, C. Vann. American, 1908-1999. The Strange Career of Jim Crow. Rec: ML Nonfiction Wright, Martin, English, 1930- . Power Politics. Rec: TLS Graham T. Allison
Graham T Allison is the dean of Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. He is also the Don K. Price Professor of Politics, having served as a professor at Harvard since 1972.
Professor Allison's teaching and research concentrate on political analysis. American foreign policy, and ethics and public policy. His works include Hawks, Doves, and Owls: An Agenda for Avoiding Nuclear War and Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis.
A North Carolinian educated at Harvard and Oxford, Dean Allison is a director of the Council on Foreign Relations, special adviser to Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, and a consultant to various government agencies. Raymond Aron. Peace and War: A Theory of International Relations (1962). Richard Howard and Annette Baker Fox, trans. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1966.
A magisterial overview of the stuff of international relations. Winston S. Churchill. History of the English-Speaking Peoples
(1956-58). 4 vols. New York: Dodd-Mead, 1983. (Pb)
A simple, stirring account of the progress of modern civilization spearheaded by "the English speaking peoples." Winston S. Churchill. The Second World War, Volume I: The Gathering Storm (1948). Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1983.
An insider's account of the West's failure to prevent the most avoidable world war. Thomas C. Schelling. The Strategy of Conflict. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1960. (Pb)
The heart of the logic of both conflict and conflict resolution. Frans De Waal. Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex Among Apes. Janet Milnes, trans. New York: Harper & Row, 1983. (Pb)
Insightful analysis of our closest relatives — with whom we share more genes than horses do with zebras. Hale Champion
Hale Champion continues his many-faceted Harvard career, now as executive dean of the John F Kennedy School of Government and faculty chairman of the Senior Executive Fellows Program. He began his career as a reporter. In 1958 he joined Governor Edmund Brown of California as press secretary and then became director of finance. He served as undersecretary of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare in Washington, D. C from 1977 to 1979.
The challenge of every century (and I hope the twenty-first will not be wholly different) is to keep humanity's ever-increasing capacity for self-destruction within bounds, and to shape political behavior and governance to that end. Our one best hope is to understand the human condition better and give it an appropriate politics. Anthony Powell. A Dance to the Music of Time (1962-75). 12 vols. Boston: Little, Brown, 1976.
This is the life of a modern man in urban society (London), his sensibility, his relationships, his experience and his reflections over most of the same decades in which I lived. It has, for me, all the values of comparative studies. It is also wonderful reading. James MacGregor Burns. Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox (1956). New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1963. (Pb)
This may not be the most scholarly Roosevelt (FDR) biography, but it came early and strongly shaped my sense of the intersections of politics and governing at a time that both became permanently part of my emotional life. Herman Melville. The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade (1857). Herschel Park, ed. New York: W. W. Norton, 1971. (Pb)
Most Melville authorities will tell you that this is one of his worst books; and, indeed, I suppose I would not miss Moby Dick for it. But its black humor is that of the spirit of American political life, outrageous, surrealistic, and full of promises, false and true, kept and unkept, often not even intended. It is the torturous truth about that side of the American political character that produced Andrew Jackson, Lyndon Johnson, Warren G. Harding, Ronald Reagan, and thousands of others. Leo Tolstoy. War and Peace (1865-69). Louise Maude and Aylmer Maude, trans. George Gibian, ed. New York: W. W. Norton, 1966.
In my view, the most memorable statement of the relationship between men and history, between individuals and events, in all fiction. This is passionate objectivity. Richard E. Neustadt. Presidential Power (1960). New York: Wiley, 1980. (Pb)
This is the revised version: the first edition was the first time political science ever really spoke to me with a sure sense of both large societal purpose and the nuances of institutional responses. Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison. The Federalist [Papers] (1788). Benjamin F. Wright, ed. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1961.
Most of our intergovernmental literature is a kind of shifting Sargasso Sea not worth ploughing through. There aren't better insights or more ingenious polemics anywhere than in these originals. John T. Dunlop
John Dunlop is the Lamont University Professor at Harvard University. A mediator and arbitrator in labor-management matters, Mr. Dunlop served as the secretary of labor from 1975 to 1976. He was director of the Cost of Living Council during 1973 and 1974, prior to which he was dean of Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
The books all deal, I believe, with persistent and continuing issues, with reflection and action, with reflection and expression, and with individual and group relations. Alfred North Whitehead. Science and the Modern World (1925). New York: Free Press, 1967. (Pb)
The lectures consider the aspects of Western culture that have been influenced by the development of modern science. "The mentality of an epoch springs from the view of the world which is, in fact, dominant in the educated sections of the communities.- I have often cited Whitehead's emphasis that "the new tinge to modern minds is a vehement and passionate interest in the relation of general principles to irreducible and stubborn facts.- Samuel Eliot Morison. Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus (1942). Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1983. (Pb)
The detailed account of Columbus's voyages of discovery are inherently interesting, but they also provide a suggestive counterpoint to the opportunities and the problems of other voyages of discovery — in the realm of the mind or in organizational building. The process of discovery is of consuming interest and importance. Talcott Parsons. The Structure of Social Action (1937). New York: Free Press, 1968. (Pb)
The relations of economics to other systems of social analysis and social behavior is a continuing problem of the first magnitude to anyone concerned with the economic aspects of behavior. The comparative study of the thought of Alfred Marshall, Vilfredo Pareto, Emile Durkheim and Max Weber is instructive to this continuing problem of the relations of economics to other social analysis. Modern economists too seldom consider these issues. Joyce Cary. Art and Reality: Ways of the Creative Process (1958). Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press, 1970.
This volume has helped me to understand and to appreciate the necessary gap between intuition and expression, between the privacy of creation and imagination and the attempt to express in concept and in language. This is a continuing problem of creativity of ideas or institutions. Roscoe Pound. Social Control Through Law (1942). Hamden, Conn.: Archon, 1968.
Irrespective of this analysis, the problem of social control of individual and group or organizational behavior is a continuing problem of tension in all societies and particularly in Western societies with their values. The secularization of control and its consequences is a persistent concern. Theodore Reik. Listening with the Third Ear (1948). Garden City, N.Y.: Garden City Books, 1951.
In the work of dispute resolution, as well as in common discourse, interpreting what parties say and what they really mean is of fundamental importance. Reflection on this process of distinguishing the two is of continuing significance to reflection and action. Christopher Edley
Professor Edley's primary areas of teaching and research at the Harvard Law School are administrative law and public policy. He is also actively involved in a number of projects related to racial justice and poverty. He served in the Carter administration as assistant director of the White House domestic policy staff responsible for income-maintenance and social-services policy. He joined the Harvard faculty in 1981, and hopes to spend much of his career in the public sector.
Of the genuinely uncertain questions facing the United States, the problem of color and social justice seems to me more urgent and demanding than any, except avoidance of nuclear and environmental catastrophe. Three of these books offer important insights on that problem. But instead of preaching a policy program, they teach a creative sensitivity. Justice Accused and Simple Justice do this while portraying law and lawyers in works that should be required reading for anyone remotely involved or interested in law. Robert M. Cover. Justice Accused. Antislavery and the Judicial Process (1975). New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984. (Pb)
The project and its execution are deeply important: the tension between the formal demands of the rule of law, and an individual's sense of truer justice. Cover's wonderful exploration of the judicial administration of slavery offers both moving accounts of individuals pressed to apply laws they abhorred, and an enlightening exploration of underlying themes concerning legal positivism, natural justice, and the failings of legal science. Justice Accused is only incidentally about a historical subject, because contradictions between law's stated commitment to justice and the realities of oppression are so familiar. Finally, Cover's powerful methodology can serve as a model for examination of contemporary legal and social questions. He has greatly influenced my own views about law and about scholarship. Richard Kluger. Simple Justice (1975). New York: Random House, 1977. (Pb)
This is what "a life in the law" is supposed to be about. Kluger gives a historical account of the litigation battles leading up to the Supreme Court's 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education, but it reads like a best-selling novel. It's a rich, instructive, and inspiring account of noble lawyering. For me as a black lawyer a generation and a half too young to have been in those battles, it's a compelling exploration of my professional and political roots. Just in telling a story and introducing some genuine heroes, Simple Justice speaks mountains of truth. Malcolm X. The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965). New York: Ballantine Books, 1977.
Even if I had not been a teenager, my first reading of Malcolm X would have served as something of a lightning rod, dramatically focusing a variety of impressions, frustrations, angers and hopes. I doubt that it actually had concrete effects on my sense of values or my life goals — too many other forces were at work to isolate any one or two books. But even if it did not change me, this book helped me to know myself and to appreciate better the conditions of Black America. Josef Maria Jauch. Foundations of Quantum Mechanics. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1968.
I offer this book not for itself, but for what it represents. As an undergraduate at Swarthmore College I majored in mathematics (though I always planned on law school). Jauch's was one of several books that brought me face to face with my intellectual limits. I worked for hours to understand half a page, and for weeks to understand just a handful of pages, feeling myself stretched to the maximum, yet often falling short. My well-worn excuses (too tired, too busy; unprepared, uncommitted) were unavailable. It was a pure test of a certain kind of ability. The experience of the testing, as much as the results, proved crucial in my constitution. I gained new stores of patience, humility and, strangely, confidence. Mathematics has a pure aesthetic, and is cruelly judgmental when your inadequacies are bared. It may be that not all fields offer such pure tests, but they should be sought out wherever available. Martin A. Linsky
Martin Linsky. a lecturer in public policy at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government and a former Massachusetts state representative and newspaper editor. specializes in teaching and research in the areas of the press and legislatures. His most recent work is Impact: How the Press Affects Federal Policy Making (1986).
Plato. The Republic (370-360 B.C.). James Adam, ed. 2 vols. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1963.
I read Plato's Republic in a seminar the second semester of my sophomore year at college. It taught me that there are some important questions to ask, that just because there are questions it doesn't mean that there are answers, and that even if there are. the questions and the questioning might be more important anyway. Walter Lippmann. Public Opinion (1922). New York: Free Press, 1965. (Pb)
No one before Walter Lippmann or since has understood as well the dilemmas in a free society which arise out of the complex relationships among the governors, the governed and the mass media. When I finished Public Opinion, I knew that somehow it would be with me the rest of my life, and so it has. James D. Barber. The Lawmakers: Recruitment and Adaptation to Legislative Life (1965). Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. 1980.
As a legislator, I was always frustrated by the gap between my own view of the integrity and inherent worth of the legislative process and what I perceived to be the conventional wisdom about how awful legislatures were. The Lawmakers, which Barber wrote originally as his Ph.D. thesis at Yale, was the first book I found that tried to understand legislators and legislatures on their own terms as they really are, rather than as they might be in some theoretical world conjured up by academics or good-
government types. Barber listened to what legislators had to say. Even though the book was published back in 1965, it still is unique in illuminating my favorite part of government. Henry Beetle Hough. Country Editor (1940). Greenwich, Conn.: Chatham, 1974. (Pb)
Country Editor made me realize that one could live an intense, engaged professional life and a calm, secure private life at the same time. I'm not sure that I really believed it was possible before, and the book has become a kind of guidepost for maintaining the balance. Richard Harris. Freedom Spent. Boston: Little, Brown, 1976 (out of print). Appeared in The New Yorker. 17 and 24
June 1974; 18 August 1975; 3, 10 and 17 November 1975; and 5, 12 and 19 April 1976.
Freedom Spent is important to me for two reasons: first, it is the most powerful reaffirmation of the values inherent in the Bill of Rights that I have ever read. Second, it is brilliant writing and reporting — my own model of great journalism, where the author drives you to the conclusion not by rhetoric or exhortation, but by the power of the reporting, the facts and the narrative. George C. Lodge
George Lodge has been a member of the Harvard Business School faculty since 1961, after service in the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations. He is the author of six books discussing labor unions, change in Latin America, ideology and social change and ideological transition. He continues to research, write about and teach issues regarding ideology and social change. His books include U.S. Competitiveness in the World Economy, edited with Bruce R. Scott, and a forthcoming work with Ezra Vogel on comparative ideology.
I have found these books especially useful in understanding both the obstacles to change in various communities and the means of overcoming those obstacles. Whatever the twenty-first century brings it will certainly include change. F. S. C. Northrop. The Meeting of East and West. New York: Oxbow, 1979. (Pb)
Northrop showed me how to perceive the effects of religious, scientific, philosophical and other traditions in the practices of nations. He was particularly helpful to me in my early efforts to develop the concept of ideology for the integrated study of national systems. Louis Hartz. The Liberal Tradition in America. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1962. (Pb)
From Hartz I learned of the pervasive influence of John Locke in the development of government and business in the United States. Samuel P. Huntington. Political Order in Changing Societies (1968). New Haven: Yale University Press, 1969. (Pb)
Here is a beautifully clear analysis of the historical roots of different nations and of how those roots flowered into various institutional forms and behavior.
Crawford B. MacPherson. The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism: Hobbes to Locke. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1962. (Pb)
This book was especially helpful in its analysis of how Locke overcame his original constraints on the rights to and the uses of property. It helps to explain contemporary arguments about the purposes of the corporation. Thomas S. Kuhn. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970. (Pb)
Kuhn's use of the notion of a "paradigm" helped me to develop a comparable one of ideology, and to explore its uses in understanding the environment of business. Karl Mannheim. Ideology and Utopia (1929). L. Wirth and G. Shils, trans. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985. (Pb)
This book gave me a definition of ideology and a way to use it in the systemic analysis of communities which has been most useful in my thinking and teaching about the roles and relationships of government, business and labor. Roderick MacFarquhar
Roderick MacFarquhar has been a print, radio and TV journalist (1955-67), editor of The China Quarterly (1959-68) and member of the British Parliament (197479). He is now professor of government in Harvard's Department of Government.
Some — but not all — of the following books are classics which will last. Each individual and generation has their own signposts. But taken together, my books underline the urgency of getting our act together so that we actually reach the twenty-
first century, while the Fairbank volume indicates the nature of a nation that will be increasingly important on the world scene after A.D. 2000. C. E. M. Joad. Introduction to Modern Political Theory (1924). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1953.
C. E. M. Joad's Introduction to Modern Political Theory was published by Oxford University Press in 1924 in "The World's Manuals" series. I borrowed it from my father when I was sixteen and found myself quickly persuaded of the virtues of socialism (and leaning toward guild socialism), which I suspect may have been Joad's objective. Although Britons were already beginning to complain at the shortages and the controls the Labour government had to introduce in the difficult postwar years, socialism simply seemed fairer than the prewar system, and more likely to free Britain of the shackles of the class system. I eventually joined the Labour party, became a Labour member of Parliament, and only left the party for the Social Democrats after its post-1979 swing toward the Marxist left. Emery Reyes. The Anatomy of Peace (1945). Magnolia, Mass.: Peter Smith, 1969.
I read Emery Reves's Anatomy of Peace when I was seventeen and became a lifelong convert to the ideal of world government as the only sure way to avert international warfare. It seemed to me that the Europeans, who had invented the modern nation-
state and used it as the vehicle of wars that had spread far outside their continent, had a special responsibility in striving to end the nation-state era. I became an activist in British organizations set up to persuade our countrymen to participate in the emerging European institutions, the ultimate objective of which was to prevent any further European wars. Arthur Koestler. Darkness at Noon (1940). Daphne Hardy, trans. New York: Bantam, 1970. (Pb)
Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon inoculated me and a whole generation of Oxford students (who had not lived through the Moscow purges of the 1930s) against any illusions about Soviet communism. W. Olaf Stapledon. Last and First Men (1930). Boston: Gregg, 1976.
Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Men. which was one of the first science-fiction works I read, predicted the first world state being formed after a Sino — American war and then collapsing in an energy crisis, leading to the disappearance of the "first men," us. It made me realize that if one thinks in a long enough perspective (in his case millions of years), the disappearance of civilization as we know it was far from unthinkable. William G. Golding. Lord of the Flies (1954). New York: Putnam, 1978.
Robert Jungk. Brighter Than a Thousand Suns (1954). James Cleugh, trans. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1970. (Pb)
I was reminded vividly of Stapledon's grim vision a decade later when reading Lord of the Flies by William Golding and Brighter Than a Thousand Suns by Robert Jungk, a sobering read for a summer holiday. Golding pointed to a darkness of the soul buried within us, Jungk to the human frailties of the scientists who are our guides in the nuclear era. These books underlined for me the urgency of seeking disarmament agreements between the superpowers. John K. Fairbank. The United States and China (1958). 4th ed. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1983. (Pb)
John Fairbank's United States and China was my first window on the magnificence of Chinese civilization and its modern fate. I think it remains the best short introduction to the subject for student and general reader alike. Thomas K. McCraw
Thomas McCraw was educated in Mississippi and Wisconsin. He taught history at the University of Texas from 1970 to 1976, then went to the Harvard Business School. There, he teaches courses in business-government relations and writes books and articles that take cross-disciplinary and cross-national approaches to this same broad subject. His most recent book, Prophets of Regulation, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1985.
Obviously, the list I have presented below is a very personal one. My advice to any student, of any age, is to read widely but selectively, discovering for yourself the books that resonate with your own experiences and aspirations. For the twenty-first century, some of these books obviously have not yet been written. Some actually may have to be done not by others but by you yourself. David E. Lilienthal. TVA: Democracy on the March (1954). Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1977.
Written by a New Deal technocrat, this book represented a wartime effort to demonstrate that American democracy could be as "efficient" as Fascism. For that reason, Lilienthal oversold his subject and drifted into the realm of propaganda. Even so, when I read the book, I realized for the first time that I myself had grown up in the midst of a genuine American epic. My father, an engineer with the Tennessee Valley Authority from 1933 until 1971, had been wholly dedicated to his many TVA projects and had become a master of the difficult art of managing giant construction works. He had done this at the personal cost of spending his life in an endless series of small towns in Appalachia — a cost shared by the rest of the family. Lilienthal's book, flawed though it is, made me understand that the sacrifices endured by our own family, and many like us, had been well worth the cost. When I became a historian, I wrote two small books on the TVA myself: partly to redress the imbalance created by Lilienthal's own volume, and partly to explore the complex subject of business — government relations in modern America. Richard Hofstadter. Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (1963). New York: Random House, 1966. (Pb)
Though not the best of Hofstadter's many influential books, this one helped me determine my own vocation. I read and reread it as a young naval officer contemplating careers in law, medicine or college teaching in history or literature. Hofstadter's approach in this book, though condescending and off-putting, demonstrated for me that one could be a historian without losing touch with literature: that, indeed, any such separation would be nothing less than stupid, because it would tend to separate ideas from behavior and individuals from historical movements. David M. Potter. People of Plenty: Economic Abundance and the American Character. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1954. (Pb)
In this brief, highly interpretive book, Potter attempts to synthesize the meaning of America around the theme of comparative affluence. Although his quantitative data are now obsolete, his book will endure, for several reasons. First, Potter insisted on a cross-disciplinary approach. He became one of the first important historians to draw systematically on other social sciences such as sociology and anthropology, in addition to economics and political science. Second, People of Plenty is an explicitly cross-national study. Potter broke the traditional mold of histories focused solely on the United States, and tried to place American culture in its broader world context. In the process, he drew brilliantly not only on other disciplines, but also on foreign commentaries concerning the American character, such as the great work of de Tocqueville. Overall, the book provides a model of open-minded wisdom and bold but unpretentious interpretation. Walker Percy. The Last Gentleman (1966). New York: Avon, 1978. (Pb)
. The Moviegoer (1961). New York: Avon, 1979. (Pb)
These two books, together with several subsequent ones by Percy, represent attempts to express modern philosophy through the literary form of the novel. Such a fusion, long a central aspect of European culture, has remained underdeveloped in the United States. Percy himself came to it only in middle age, after a noncareer as a dilettante and physician who declined to practice medicine. Influenced by Kierkegaard, Heidegger, and the French existentialists of the 1940s, Percy immersed himself simultaneously in an odd amalgam of European literature and American popular culture. For many years, he experimented with different literary forms, until finally he developed, through his novels, a poignant, powerfully affecting way of articulating the central paradoxes of modern life: that affluence, for those who have achieved it, does not necessarily lead to a more satisfying emotional condition; that the impact of science on humanistic values has proved of little help and considerable harm; and that the very nature and purpose of man remain as elusive and mysterious now as they were in premodern times.
Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. Strategy and Structure. Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T. Press, 1962. (Pb)
More than any other single work, this one shows how certain types of corporations grew to giant size, then diversified their product lines, all the while remaining under the control of a new class of salaried managers. The book is made up of four careful case studies, followed by a much larger sample, of which Chandler asks a series of simple but penetrating questions. In carrying off this ingenious inquiry, the author framed a model of comparative organizational evolution that, in turn, has profoundly influenced research and teaching in many disciplines: history, sociology, economics, and business administration.
Chandler himself is the greatest scholar with whom I have worked (for more than a decade now), and his influence continues to exert itself not only through the "organizational school" of historians, of which he is the dean, but equally in his own great books written after Strategy and Structure. These include The Visible Hand and a forthcoming cross-national study tentatively titled Scale and Scope. Robert H. Bork. The Antitrust Paradox: A Policy at War with Itself (1978). New York: Basic Books, 1980. (Pb)
Although I found myself offended by Bork's arrogant neoconservative viewpoint, his powerful argument jelled much of my thinking about the historical ironies of antitrust. As I have now begun to suggest in my own books, antitrust policy in America, though quite often as misguided as Bork asserts, frequently produced unintended but therapeutic effects that made American business more efficient: not through any replication of the Smithian model of perfect competition — the presumed theory behind antitrust — but instead by forcing American corporations to innovate organizationally, as a means of avoiding illegal car telization. In this way, antitrust actually helped to turn certain American companies into the world's most efficient economic organizations between 1880 and 1960. During and after the 1960s, the advent of global competition made the story a good deal more complex, and this is the focus of my own current work. Mark Moore
Mark Moore is the Guggenheim Professor of Criminal Justice Policy and Management. He is also faculty chairman of the Executive Programs at the Kennedy School of Government. His policy interests lie in the area of crime and the criminal justice system — the design of police strategies and the use of deceptive and coercive investigative methods. He is the author of Buy and Bust: The Effective Regulation of an Illicit Market in Heroin.
There are two kinds of people in the world: those who live off of institutions, and those who build the capacity of institutions to perform and develop the talents of other individuals. These books are designed to equip one to become the second kind of individual. Aristotle. The Politics (ca. 335 B.C.). Carnes Lord, trans. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984.
This is the classic statement of why men form institutions and the benefits they derive from them. It includes the heretical idea that one of the purposes of institutions is to encourage virtue among those who live within them. Thomas S. Kuhn. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970. (Pb)
This book establishes the social basis of all knowledge and understanding of the world. It pays tribute to scientific "revolutionaries" who insist on seeing the world differently and reveals the crushing power of "normal" science. But it reminds us that, in the end, even science is a social and political process. Robert M. Pirsig. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974). New York: Morrow, 1979. (Pb)
This book brilliantly evokes the intellectual and personal challenges of seeking to integrate "technical" and "aesthetic" intuitions in the pursuit of understanding what "quality" is all about. Richard E. Neustadt. Presidential Power (1960). New York: Wiley. 1980. (Pb)
This book is important primarily as a text in "public" management — as potentially useful to state welfare commissioners as to presidents. It is also a model of both method and style for all those who would write about public management. Richard E. Neustadt
Richard E. Neustadt is the Lucius N. Littauer Professor of Public Policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and formerly a professor of government at Columbia University. He is a foreinost scholar on the American presidency, having served on the White House staff under President Truman and as consultant to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson on various problems of organization and operation, both domestic and international. His writings include: The Epidemic that Never Was (with Harvey Fineberg), Alliance Politics, Presidential Power, and his most recent work, Thinking in Time, coauthored with Ernest May.
Whatever their relationship to governance, whether doing it or subjects of it, readers need to understand the essence of the thing as it has seemed to be up to their time. Nicollo Machiavelli. The Prince (1513). Peter E. Bondanella and Mark Musa, trans. New York: Oxford University Press, 1984.
A plea, in the form of a guide, for maximizing political power on sixteenth-century Tuscan terms by an Italian patriot out of office, wishing he were in, concerned for strength to rally the Italian city-states against the dangers of French domination. His realistic acceptance of the evil in political means and its inevitability, indeed indispensability, in striving for heroic ends has shocked critics of politics for five hundred years, yet gain the book its status as what Isaiah Berlin called the first work of modern political science. Max Weber. From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (1946). H. H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills, eds. and trans. New York: Oxford University Press, 1979. (Pb)
Particularly the essay on "Politics as a Vocation": a moving characterization of the ethical dilemma of the human being called to exercise political power over other humans . . a Machiavellian dilemma, the Prince being human too, not divine. Weber distinguishes "living for" politics, the calling, from living off it, a mere job. A commensurate "ethic of responsibility" is distinguished from ethics for private life; their ultimate convergence is portrayed with tragic feeling. Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison. The Federalist [Papers] (1788). Benjamin F. Wright, ed. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1961. (Pb)
Papers rationalizing and justifying the U.S. Constitution of 1787 (to influence debates over ratification), these constitute collectively a profound assessment of the nature, uses, needs for, dangers in, correctives to — and, by implication, ineradicable dilemmas of — human governance in secular societies legitimized by popular sovereignty. Henry Adams. The Education of Henry Adams (1907). Ernest Samuels, ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1973. (Pb)
A rich, knotty, idiosyncratic evocation of what time, as it speeds up with the industrial and scientific revolutions, does to values, attitudes, institutions and elites in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century America, and to the terms and conditions of employment on which political power can be held, and by whom — all from the standpoint of a specially invested historian, grandson of the sixth, great-grandson of the second U.S. president. David B. Truman. The Governmental Process (1951). New York: Knopf, 1968.
An indispensable clarification of the roles of potential and organized interests in American public life — and by extension in any political system — taking off from insights in "Federalist 10." Multiple membership in overlapping and competing interest groups, and attitudes amounting to rules of the game, keep citizens from splitting into wholly separate groups and groups from splitting into wholly separate governments. William Shakespeare. Henry IV, parts I and 2 and Henry V (1596-99). Arthur Quiller-Couch et al., eds. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1965. (Pb)
The terms and conditions of employment for kings and crown princes (whether monarchical or not) — pleasures and pains, uncertainties and fears, pains and frustrations included — couched in sixteenth-century terms but evocative of twentieth-century counterparts. Personal, intellectual, moral and managerial dilemmas associated with the wielding of supreme political authority, or waiting in the wings for it, are strikingly portrayed. Richard D. Parker
Richard Parker is a professor of constitutional law and criminal law at the Harvard Law School. He is well known to his colleagues for his eclectic interests and voracious reading. Before joining the Harvard Law faculty he practiced law in Paris and clerked for Justice Potter Stewart. Friedrich Nietzsche. The Birth of Tragedy (1872). Walter Kaufmann, trans. New York: Random House, 1967.
A "scholarly" discourse on Greek tragedy that boldly celebrates the passionate, the lyrical, the personal — as contrasted to the dryly rational, the "soundly" balanced, the impersonal "virtue" of mainstream scholarship.
Alan J. P. Taylor. English History, 1914-1945 (1965). New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.
Exemplifies a kinetic vision of politics and history expressed idiosyncratically and provocatively and joining detailed sensitivity to contingencies with insistence on simple, deep structural tendencies. Roberto M. Unger. Knowledge and Politics. New York: Free Press, 1975. (Pb)
An amazingly comprehensive, ambitious and mind-opening critique of liberalism combining (once again) systematics and bold, passionate commitment. Alexander M. Bickel. The Least Dangerous Branch: The Supreme Court at the Bar of Politics (1962). New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986.
The best book so far on American constitutional law, exploring — in a highly personal style — the politics at the heart of the law. James Agee and Walker Evans. Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941). New York: Ballantine, 1974. (Pb)
A cumulatively stunning expression and evocation of passionate, lyrical, personal idealism, embedded in a concrete description of the texture of sharecroppers' lives. Vladimir Nabokov. Lolita (1955). Berkeley, Calif.: Berkeley Press, 1984. (Pb)
A beautiful novel-of-authenticity, fusing romantic and empirical sensibilities in a way rather like the first two, otherwise dissimilar, books I have listed. Robert B. Reich
Robert B. Reich teaches political economy and management at Harvard's John E Kennedy School of Government. Mr. Reich is the author of numerous books and articles concerning the relationships among law, politics and economics. Among his most recent books are New Deals: The Chrysler Revival and the American System and The Next American Frontier. A former Rhodes Scholar, Professor Reich has served in Washington as assistant to the solicitor general and as director of policy planning for the Federal Trade Commission.
Whether the immediate problem is described as arms control, Soviet expansionism, economic growth and competitiveness or social justice to the poor and disadvantaged — the deeper issue is the same. That is, how should we define the border between "us" and "them"? Our overarching goal must be to expand the first realm ("us"), and contract the second ("them"). These books suggest how we might begin this formidable task. Fernand Braudel. Civilization and Capitalism, 15th-18th Century (1967, 1982-84). Sian Reynolds, trans. 3 vols. New York: Harper & Row, 1985, 1986. (Pb)
Braudel weaves detailed threads into stirring tapestries. These volumes reveal the fragility of our societies — their vulnerabilities to war, plague and human misery — but also, wondrously, their capacity to endure. Braudel is a master. Ellis W. Hawley. The New Deal and the Problem of Monopoly, 1934-1938 (1959). Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1966. (Pb)
Hawley unwraps politics and finds economics. He then unwraps economics and finds ideology. He peers through ideology and discovers our most basic hopes and fears for ourselves, our families and our nation. His insights explain much of our current condition. Joseph A. Schumpeter. Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy (1942). New York: Harper & Row, 1983. (Pb)
This rich inkblot of a book is many different things to many different people. But above all else it suggests that the political and economic universe we inhabit is in flux: it grows on itself, reaching outward in many directions at once, like organic matter. Instead of equilibrium, there is omnipresent disequilibrium. Instead of secured values, there is the constant danger that values we hold dear will be subsumed. Samuel P. Huntington. American Politics: The Promise of Disharmony (1981). Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1983. (Pb)
Huntington skillfully identifies the yearnings at the heart of American politics. As a nation, we are always "to be," we never are. We feel, alternatively, guilt, anxiety, anger and resolution about our ideals. But we are animated by myths that can never be fulfilled. A powerful and critically important book.
John Kenneth Galbraith. The Affluent Society (1958). New York: New American Library, 1978. (Pb)
As fresh and insightful today as it was thirty years ago. Galbraith reconfigures our way of thinking about a nation's economy and the society of which the economy is but a part. How do we define economic success? What do we want for ourselves, anyway? The influence of this book, and of the towering figure behind it, cannot be overstated. Mark Twain. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884). New York: Harper & Row, 1984. (Pb)
I have learned more about American society, and, not incidentally, human nature, from reading and rereading Huck's accounts of life on the Mississippi River than I have from any other single source. His knowledge always runs deep; his insights are on target; he can smell duplicity from a mile away. Michael J. Sandel
Michael J. Sandel is an associate professor of government at Harvard, where he teaches political philosophy. He is the author of Liberalism and the Limits of Justice. His course 'justice" consistently fills Sanders Theater, and he is regarded by undergraduates as one of Harvard's best lecturers.
These seem to be among the books that can help us reflect on the moral and political conditions of liberal democracy in contemporary America. Hannah Arendt. The Human Condition (1958). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970. (Pb)
Arendt offers the most compelling modern case for the ancient claim that politics is essential to the good life, not merely instrumental to the pursuit of private interests and ends. Sir Isaiah Berlin. Four Essays on Liberty (1969). New York: Oxford University Press, 1979. (Pb)
Berlin grounds liberalism in the idea that the human good is ultimately plural, that there is no single, overarching value that orders all the rest. To acknowledge the tragic possibility that inheres in moral and political life is to respect above all people's freedom to pursue their own ends, to negotiate their own moral circumstance. G. W. F. Hegel. Philosophy of Right (Grundlinien der Philosophic des Rechts, 1821). T. M. Knox, trans. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1965.
Hegel contrasts the idea of a civil society, where people cooperate to further their interests, with the idea of a political community as an ethical life that enlarges the self-knowledge of the participants. Fred Hirsch. Social Limits to Growth. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1976. (Pb)
Hirsch recasts economics as political economy, and political economy as moral economy. Cost-benefit analysis to the contrary, he shows that the market is not a neutral way of evaluating goods. Not all values can be translated without loss into commodity values, nor does all economic growth produce greater welfare. Michael J. Oakeshott. Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays (1962). New York and London: Methuen, 1981. (Pb)
Oakeshott's romantic conservatism contrasts powerfully (and eloquently) with more familiar libertarian versions. Against a philosophy of abstract principles and natural rights, he conceives politics "as the pursuit of intimations." John Rawls. A Theory of Justice (1971). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972.
Rawls provides the most important philosophical defense of liberalism in our time. Individual rights cannot be overridden by utilitarian considerations, he argues, and the principles of justice that specify our rights do not presuppose any particular conception of the good life. Samuel Thorne
Fifty-five years ago, Sam Thorne graduated from the Harvard Law School, where he now serves as the Charles Stebbins Fairchild Professor of Legal History Emeritus. He has lectured "to generations" on medieval legal history. He wonders if today's parents read to their children as his parents read Sir Walter Scott to him.
The books listed had a significant influence on me, sixty years ago, opening up a new field. They are superseded and out of date today, their place being taken by more recent studies.
H. A. L. Fisher. Frederic William Maitland, Downing Professor of the Laws of England: A Biographical Sketch. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1910.
A biography of the great legal historian, which awakened and then nurtured my interest in the field on which my life has been spent. Edward Pollock and Frederic W. Maitland. The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I (1895). 2 vols. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1968. (Pb)
A magnificent survey of the field, which may be understood by any literate layman, written in a style that is sure to enthuse the reader. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. The Common Law (1881). Boston: Little, Brown, 1964. (Pb)
A valuable account of some of the great formative ideas of English law. It was one of the eye-opening books on law; one that I read a number of times with the greatest interest. C. H. Mcllwain. The High Court of Parliament and Its Supremacy (1910). J. P. Mayer, ed. Salem, N.H.: Ayer, 1979.
A work which threw new light on the history of Parliament and set its history in a new frame. It provided a fresh point of departure and set the stage for much new and exciting work.
Heinrich Brunner. Die Entstehung der Schwurgerichte (1871). Aalan (Germany): Scientia Verlag. 1967.
An epoch-making treatise. For many years the best authority on the history of the jury which set the much-disputed question in a new light. James Q. Wilson
James Wilson is the Henry Lee Shattuck Professor of Government at Harvard University and professor of management at the University of California, Los Angeles. Prior to these appointments, Professor Wilson was chairman of Harvard's Task Force on the Core Curriculum from 1976 to 1977; chairman of the Department of Government from 1969 to 1973; and director of the Joint Center for Urban Studies of MIT. and Harvard from 1963 to 1966. An expert on crime and the penal system, Professor Wilson has served on numerous commissions and task forces including the attorney general's 1981 Task Force on Violent Crime and the 1967 White House Task Force on Crime. Aristotle. The Politics (ca. 335 B.c.). Carnes Lord, trans. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984.
The greatest statement of human nature and political life ever written. Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison. The Federalist [Papers] (1788). Benjamin F. Wright, ed. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1961. (Pb)
A brilliant subtle argument for a non-Aristotelian regime. Chester I. Barnard. The Functions of the Executive (1938). Thirtieth anniversary ed. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968. (Pb)
After nearly fifty years, it is still the best account of what it means to maintain cooperative human activity. Philip Selznick. Leadership in Administration: A Sociological Interpretation (1957). Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983. (Pb)
The runner-up to Barnard. James Boswell. The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791). New York: Random House, 1964. (Pb)
A brilliant account of how a man may sustain a powerful moral vision in an imperfect world. Fyodor Dostoevsky. The Brothers Karamazov (1915). Andrew MacAndrew, trans. New York: Bantam, 1981. (Pb)
An eerie foretelling of the notion of ideological fanaticism and totalitarianism.
Early Hydraulic Civilization in Egypt
"K. Butzer, L. Freeman"
The State The Sources of Social Power
M. Mann
The State Chiefdoms
T.K. Earle
The State Peoples and Empires
A. Pagden
One-World Government The Empire of the Steppes
R. Grousset
One-World Government Millennium
F. Fernandez-Armesto
One-World Government Hammurabi's Laws
M.E.J. Richardson
Law Codes The Babylonians
H.W.F. Sagg
Law Codes Babylon
J. Oates
Law Codes A Matter of Principle
R. Dworkin
Equality of Humans "Anarchy, State and Utopia"
R. Nozick
Equality of Humans The Book of Chuang Tzu
Chuang Tzu
Equality of Humans Why Do People Hate America?
"Z. Sardar, M. Wyn"
Anti-Americanism Granta 77: What We Think of America
Granta
Anti-Americanism The Paradox of American Power
J.S. Nye
Anti-Americanism Three Ways of Thought in Ancient China
A. Waley
Law and Order Masters of Chinese Political Thought
S. De Grazia
Law and Order The Chinese Machiavelli
"C. Ping, D. Bloodworth"
Law and Order The World of Thought in Ancient China
B.I. Schwartz
Law and Order Republicanism
P. Pettit
Republican Government Citizenship and Community
A. Oldfield
Republican Government Civic Virtues
R. Dagger
Republican Government William Beveridge
J. Harris
Universal Welfare The Evolution of the British Welfare State
D. Fraser
Universal Welfare The Welfare State Reader
"F.G. Castles, C. Pearson"
Universal Welfare Seeing the Stars
J.C. Scott
Universal Welfare Hayek and Modern Liberalism
C. Kukathas
Spontaneous Social Order Hayek's Social and Political Thought
R. Kley
Spontaneous Social Order Hayek on Liberty
J. Gray
Spontaneous Social Order The Economics of Friedrich Hayek
G.R. Steele
Spontaneous Social Order Little Red Book of Quotations
Mao
Maoist Communism Mao
J. Spence
Maoist Communism The Thought of Mao Tse-Tung
S. Schram
Maoist Communism Wild Swans
J. Chang
Maoist Communism Alfred Nobel
K. Fant
Nuclear Weapons The Making of the Atomic Bomb
R. Rhodes
Nuclear Weapons The Struggle Against the Bomb
L.S. Wittner
Nuclear Weapons Red Alert
P. George
Nuclear Weapons Dr. Strangelove
S. Kubrick
Nuclear Weapons Nietzsche's Ethics and His War on Morality
S. May
Might is Right "Nietzsche, Genealogy, Morality"
R. Schacht
Might is Right On the Genealogy of Morality
"K. Ansell, Nietzsche"
Might is Right On War C. von Clausewitz
Total War Reading Clausewitz
M. Howard
Total War The Shield of Achilles
P. Bobbitt
Total War
The Age of Terrorism
W. Laqueur
Terrorism The Guerrilla Reader
W. Laqueur
Terrorism The Terrorism Reader
W. Laqueur
Terrorism Political Terrorism
P. Wilkinson
Terrorism The Secret Agent
J. Conrad
Terrorism The Honorary Consul
G. Greene
Terrorism Nationalism
E. Gellner
Nationalism Imagined Communities B. Anderson
Nationalism The Invention of Tradition
"E. Hobsbawm, T. Ranger"
Nationalism "Romanticism, Nationalism and the Revolt aganst Theory"
D. Simpson
Nationalism La Cocarde Tricolore
H. Cogniard
Nationalism The Socialist Idea
"L. Kolakowski, S. Hampshire"
Socialism The Utopian Alternative
C.J. Guarnieri
Socialism Left Luggage
C. Northcote Parkinson
Socialism Reflections on the Revolution in France
E. Burke
Conservatism Melincourt
T.L. Peacock
Conservatism Rationalism in Politics
M. Oakeshott
Conservatism The Meaning of Conservatism
R. Scruton
Conservatism American Suffrage from Property to Democracy
C. Williamson
Representative Democracy Democracy in America
"H.C. Mansfield, D. Winthrop"
Representative Democracy The American Commonwealth
J. Bryce
Representative Democracy Utopia
T. More
Utopia The Faber Book of Utopia
J. Carey
Utopia The Origins of Inequality
J.-J. Rousseau
Utopia The Fourth Great Awakening
R.W. Fogel
Utopia Inequality Reexamined A. Sen Utopia The Republic
Plato
Rule by Elite The Open Society and its Enemies
K. Popper
Rule by Elite Philosopher-Kings
C.D.C. Reeve
Rule by Elite Saving the City M. Schofield
Rule by Elite Man and the State
J. Maritain
Separation of Church and State Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages
R.W. Southern
Separation of Church and State Hadrian VII
F.W. Rolfe
Separation of Church and State In the Shoes of the Fisherman
M. West Separation of Church and State The Divine Right of Kings
J.R. Figgis
Divine Right of Kings The Problem of Sovereignty in the Middle Ages
M. Wilks
Divine Right of Kings Foundations of Modern Political Thought Q. Skinner
Divine Right of Kings Renaissance Thought
P.O. Kristeller
Meritocracy Humanism and Education in Medieval and Renaissance Italy
R. BlackMeritocracy Essays M. de Montaigne Meritocracy The Social Contract
J.-J. Rousseau
General Will The General Will
A. Levine
General Will The General Will before Rousseau
P. Riley General Will Demanding the Impossible
D. Morland
Anarchism Kropotkin and the Rise of Revolutionary Anarchism
C. CahmAnarchism Memoirs of a Revolutionist
P. Kropotkin
Anarchism Mikhail Bakunin
A. Kelly Anarchism
Hegel's Theory of the Modern State
S. Avineri
Unchallengeable State Hegel and the State
E. Weil Unchallengeable State 1984
G. Orwell
Unchallengeable State One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
A. Solzhenitsyn
Unchallengeable State On the Duty of Civil Disobedience
H.D. Thoreau
Civil Disobedience A Testament of Hope
J.M. Washington
Civil Disobedience Gandhi and Civil Disobedience
J.M. Brown
Civil Disobedience The Rebel
A. Camus
Civil Disobedience The Sword and the Scepter
G. Ritter
War Improves Society Militarism
V.R. Bergahahn
War Improves Society The German Idea of Militarism
N. Stargardt
War Improves Society The Man on Horseback
S. Finer
War Improves Society Fascism and the Far Right in Europe
M. Blinkhorn
Fascism Three Faces of Fascism E. Nolte Fascism
Der Europaische Burgerkrieg
E. Nolte Fascism Mussolini
D. Mack Smith Fascism Hitler I. Kershaw
Fascism Goodbye to Berlin
C. Isherwood
Fascism The Machiavellian Moment
J.G.A. Pocock
Citizen-Warrior Conscription and Democracy
G.Q. Flynn
Citizen-Warrior Why the West Has Won
V. Davis Hanson
Citizen-Warrior Conciliarism and Papalism
"J.H. Burns, T. Izbicki"
Social Contract The Apostolic Conciliarism of Jean Gerson
J. Ryan
Social Contract Marsilius of Padua
A. Gerwith
Social Contract A Theory of JusticeJ. Rawls
Social Contract The Prince
"D. Wootton, Machiavelli"
State Interest Machiavelli's Virtue
H.C. Mansfield
State Interest "The Elements of Law, Natural and Politic"
J.C.A. Gaskin
State of Nature Nature and Politics
A. Rapaczynski State of Nature Lord of the Flies W. Golding
State of Nature Emile J.-J. Rousseau
Human Rights The Rights of Man
T. Paine Human Rights To Kill a Mockingbird
H. Lee Human Rights An American Dream
N. Mailer
Human Rights Paine, Thomas, English, 1737-1809. Rights of Man. Rec: Good Reading Ward Common Sense. Rec: Seymour-Smith Hugo Grotius and International Relations
H. Bull
International Order Vitoria: Political Writings
"J. Laurence, A. Pagden"
International Order Apologetica historia sumaria
B. de las Casas
Human Unity The Spanish Struggle for Justice in the New World
L. Hanke
Human Unity Melincourt
T.L. Peacock
Human Unity

Government and Politics: Theory

Denis Derbyshire

Whatever our views about the way we are governed and the people who occupy positions of power, the business of government is something we cannot avoid: it is all-pervading. Despite this, there is an alarming degree of ignorance and apathy about the institutions and workings of government and the political process itself. The teaching of government in schools is generally not well done, apart from some notable exceptions. The dilemma facing teachers and educational authorities is that of achieving impartiality and balance. They feel they must lean over backwards to avoid charges of political bias and yet, in truth, to try to understand government without considering the dynamic political process is like studying the human body by visiting a mortuary. There are many books about government in Britain and other individual countries but relatively few that attempt to cover a wider canvas. The dearth of books on politics as an activity is also evident.

I ... could not help reflecting in my way upon the singular ill-luck of this my dear
country, which, as long as I can ever remember it, and as far back as I have read,
has always been governed by the only two or three people, out of two or three
millions, totally incapable of governing, and unfit to be trusted. —4th Earl of Chesterfield

In Defence of Politics (1982) by Bernard Crick. The most perceptive, and readable, description of the political process. The Nature of Politics (1965) by J D B Miller. Covering much the same ground as Crick but less of a polemic, and hence, not quite as readable. The English Constitution (1867) by Walter Bagehot. The definitive account of the British system of government in the 19th century, which became the model for parliamentary democracy all over the world. The Fontana edition 1988 has a perceptive foreword by R H S Crossman. The Penguin Dictionary of Politics (1985) by David Robertson. A useful compilation of contemporary political ideas and institutions. World Political Systems: An Introduction to Comparative Government (1991) by J Denis Derbyshire and Ian Derbyshire. An assessment of the political systems and political ideologies of all the world's nation states, assuming no prior knowledge. Comparative Government and Politics: An Introduction (1987) by Rod Hague and Martin Harrop. A useful introduction to comparative government, again assuming little or no prior knowledge. Comparative Government (1986) by Roger Charlton. Another introduction to comparative government. Designed primarily for school sixth-formers or first-year non-specialist undergraduates, but also suitable for the general reader.

British Politics: 20th Century

Ian D Derbyshire

Unique in Western Europe in being free from invasion for more than 900 years and having escaped violent revolution during the last three centuries, Britain is unusual in having an unwritten constitution or external 'supreme court' watchdog, a hereditary monarch as head of state, an unelected, substantially hereditary, upper chamber, and a 'winner-takes- all' first-past-
the-post, rather than proportionally based, electoral system. As a consequence, the political executive, when backed by a clear party majority in the House of Commons, has unrestrained authority to make considerable changes to the direction of national life. This was seen in the cases of the Liberal administration 1906-14, the Attlee Labour government of 1945-51, and the Conservative Thatcher administration of 1979-90, which carried out sweeping pro-grammes of constitutional, social, and economic reforms. During other periods, although the Conservatives have dominated a predominantly two-party system, a largely centrist consensus had been adhered to.

I'm sure I was wrong on a number of occasions, but I cannot
think of anything immediately. —Margaret Thatcher

The British Polity (1994) by Philip Norton. An excellent, lucid, and accessible text on the institutions and processes of contemporary British politics, written by one of the country's foremost political scientists. Norton, in his coverage of the political culture, the constitution, Parliament, the monarchy, the electoral and party systems, and the roles of interest groups and the mass media, draws attention to elements of continuity and change, and makes insightful comparisons to the US political system. The British Prime Minister (1985) edited by Anthony King. An outstanding collection of essays by leading political scientists analysing the changing role of the key office in the British political system, that of prime minister. With the growing influence of the mass media and the development of a sophisticated 'Number Ten' private office, the position has become almost presidential, with power being notably concentrated by Margaret Thatcher. Britain since 1945: A Political History (1992) by David Childs. A popular, read-able, and reliable overview of political developments in Britain, covering the period from the election of Clement Attlee's Labour administration in the July 1945 postwar general election to the re-election of John Major's Conservative Parry in April 1992. Organized in chronological chapters, based around the 11 postwar administrations, the book also includes useful information on the changing social backcloth. Ruling Performance: British Government from Attlee to Thatcher (1987) edited by Peter Henessy and Anthony Seldon. This fine work contains eight separate chapters, written by distinguished political scientists and historians, analysing the records of the Labour and Conservative administrations that held office between 1945 and 1987, as well as two general background and overview chapters. Particular attention is given to differing cabinet styles, interministerial relations, the degree to which manifesto pledges were redeemed, and the treatment of public expenditure. Churchill (1993) edited by Robert Blake and William Roger Louis. This volume complements the multivolume official biography by Martin Gilbert of Britain's greatest 20th-century statesman, its outstanding war leader, and one of its most colourful politicians, who held ministerial office as first a liberal and then a Conservative. 29 chapters, contributed by leading political scienrists and historians, analyse various aspects of Churchill's career, ideology, and record. Labour in Power 1945-1951 (1985) by Kenneth 0 Morgan. An outstanding account of the achievements and failures of Clement Attlee 's Labour administration of 1945-51, which, with its welfare state and nationalization initiatives, set the agenda for the postwar era until a Thatcherite 'counter-revolution' was launched from 1979. Morgan provides expert analysis of the policies, programmes, and personalities of the administration. One of Us: A Biography of Margaret Thatcher (1991) by Hugo Young. A towering figure in the postwar political landscape, Margaret Thatcher, the century's longest-serving prime minister (1979-90), shattered the centrist 'Butskellite' consensus that had prevailed between the 1950s and 1970s and sought to impose a new free-market, individualist, and nationalistic right-of-
centre consensus. A controversial figure, Thatcher has been the subject of numerous biographies and has also written her own lengthy account, The Downing Street Years (1993), of her terms in office. This is the definitive biography. Conservative Century: the Conservative Party since 1900 (1994) edited by Anthony Seldon and Stuart Ball. Alone or in coalition, the Conservative Party has held power for almost two-thirds of the period since 1900, establishing itself as the 'dominant party' in a somewhat skewed two-and-a-half-party system. This edited volume provides a comprehensive analysis of the structure of the Conservative Party, its sup-port base, social and regional, its internal factional and ideological divisions, its public image, its leaders, and its record in power. A Short History of the Labour Party (1993) by Henry Pelling. An excellent, succinct account of the Labour Party, from its founding at its February 1900 conference to its defeat in the April 1992 general election and the appointment of John Smith as leader, heralding a revival in the party's fortunes. Pelling, a social historian, discusses the role of trade unions within the party, the relationship of the rank and file with the parliamentary leadership, the record of Labour administrations, and the ideological divisions that, periodically, have led to electorally crippling splits. A Short History of the Liberal Party 1900-92 (1993) by Chris Cook. An engaging analysis of the changing fortunes of the country's 'third force'. Up to the close of World War I, the Liberal Party, under the leadership of Asquith and Lloyd George, was the country's leading progressive, centre-left force and the predominant parry of government. Subsequently eclipsed by the rise of Labour, as the franchise was extended, the liberals regressed into third-parry oblivion until the 1962 by-election triumph in Orpington signalled something of a revival, and in the 1983 general election the liberal-led lib-SDP Alliance attracted a quarter of the national vote.
US POLITICS: 20TH CENTURY Ian D Derbyshire
The US political system, with its distinct separation of executive, legislative, and judicial powers and its strong federal system, has been copied by a number of newly emergent states, but remains in many ways unique. It is characterized by a classic two-
party system, but one in which parry discipline is notoriously weak, as is ideological cohesion. Instead, the political process is highly atomized, with politicians acting largely as 'freelances', raising their own finance to fight hugely expensive election contests and working in Congress to promote the interests of their own constituencies. At the apex of the political system stands the president, who, as both the constitutional head of state and the chief executive, provides unity, vision, and direction to the political process. Strong presidents, through force of personality and empathy with changing national sentiment, have been able to transform the direction of US politics. This was true of F D Roosevelt, who launched the New Deal during the 1930s, John F Kennedy and Lyndon B Johnson, who oversaw the Great Society reforms of the 1960s, and Ronald Reagan, who re-established the Republicans as the dominant force in the 1980s. At other times of weak presidential leadership, Congress has asserted itself, resulting in a gridlocked political process.
In the absence of institutions and education by which the environment
is so successfully reported that the realities of public life stand out very sharply
against self-centred opinion, the common interests very largely elude public
opinion entirely, and can be managed only by a specialized class whose
personal interests reach beyond the locality.
WALTER LIPPMANN The Government and Politics of the United States (1993) by Nigel Bowles. A broad-ranging textbook introduction to American political institutions and processes, set in their historical context. The particular focus is on the evolving constitutional framework and the federal government system. The Uncertain Power: A Political History of the United States since 1929 (1990) by Robert Garson and Christopher J Bailey. A succinct history of American political developments, economic social changes, and the country's role in international affairs between the Great Depression and the Bush presidency. Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents: The Politics of Leadership from Roosevelt to Reagan (1990) by Richard Elliott Neustadt. A classic, subtle study of the modem presidency. Neustadt, a Harvard professor, notes that the USA has a 'government of separated institutions sharing powers' and shows, consequently, president and Congress to be locked in a complex relationship of mutual dependence. The underlying theme of the work is presidential weakness - that is, the gap between what is expected of presidents and their capacity to deliver - and the attempts by such strong presidents as Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, and Reagan to bridge this gap through their personalities. The New American Political System (1990) edited by Anthony King. This excel-lent work, comprising analytical chapters written by leading American political scientists, explains the key changes which have taken place in the US political system during recent decades, in the post-Watergate era. There are chapters on the presidency, Congress, the Supreme Court of Warren Burger and William Rehnquist, political parties, the electorate, the media, interest groups, federalism, and ideology. The US Congress (1989) by Christopher J Bailey. A clear, analytical description of the organization and procedures of the US Senate and House of Representatives, which treats Congress as a dynamic institution whose structure has varied over time. Bailey focuses on membership and leadership of Congress, the role of parties, and the constitutional framework, and explains why the committee system is so powerful and how it works. The Power Game: How Washington Works (1988) by Hedrick Smith. A fascinating, vivid account which takes the reader deep into the corridors of power in Washington and shows how Washington really works, describing the pressures exerted by lobbyists, the 'constant campaign', the influence of money from political action committees, the emphasis on image and presentation, and the weakening of party discipline. Franklin D Roosevelt and the New Deal, 1932-1940 (1963) by William E Leuchtenburg. A classic account of the transformation brought about in American politics and society by the Democratic president F D Roosevelt, who responded to the challenge of the Great Depression by instituting an interventionist programme of federal government support for farmers, the unemployed, and the aged. In the process, Roosevelt achieved an electoral coalition that established the Democrats as the majority parry in the country for five decades. President Kennedy: Profile of Power (1993) by Richard Reeves. A detailed narrative account of the 'thousand days' presidency of the charismatic Democrat John F Kennedy between 1961 and 1963. Reeves reveals Kennedy, the first Roman Catholic to become president, to have been an enormously ambitious, charming, and risk-taking politician, but one who lacked a clear vision from the outset of what he sought to achieve during his administration. Nixon (1987-91) by Stephen E Ambrose. A definitive account in three volumes of the dramatic political career of the Republican professional politician Richard M Nixon, the only US president to be forced to resign from office. Volume 1 covers the period 1913-62, when Nixon's career seemed to have been finished by defeats in challenges for the US presidency and governorship of California. Volume 2, 1962-72, encompasses Nixon's two victories in the presidential elections of 1968 and 1972. Volume 3, 1973-90, covers the Watergate scandal, which brought about his fall from power, and his later recovery in the 1980s as an 'elder statesman' and a prolific writer. President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime (1991) by Lou Cannon. A detailed biographical account of the career and presidency of Ronald Reagan, the movie star turned politician, by a political correspondent for the Washington Post, who had earlier 'tracked' Reagan when he was governor of California. Cannon believes the major contribution of Reagan, the 'Great Communicator', to have been a revival of national confidence, but criticizes him for taking his role as president 'too lightly'. INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Ian D Derbyshire
International relations is a term used to cover all interactions between state-based actors across state boundaries. The subject is multidisciplinary, encompassing inter-national politics and history, military and strategic studies, transnational economic relationships, and international law. During recent centuries the focus has been on
Great Power relationships, the balance of power, and the an of diplomacy. Between 1945 and 1991, during what became known as the Cold War era, international relations were dominated by the global ideological, political, and military battle between communism and liberal democratic free-market capitalism. More recently, particularly following the collapse of the Soviet empire, the focus has shifted to international inter-dependencies, as regional economic and political power blocs have become more developed, and the attention of the 'developed world' has been redirected towards the policing of relatively localized national and ethnic conflicts within the periphery and semiperiphery.
There can be no greater error than to expect, or calculate, upon
real favours from nation to nation. It is an illusion which experience
must cure, which a just pride ought to discard.
GEORGE WASHINGTON An Introduction to International Relations (1994) by P A Reynolds. This popular text explores the nature and structure of international relations. Reynolds examines both 'microinternational relations' - that is, individual national objectives and motivations - and 'macrointernational relations', or international state systems and behavioural systems. The author emphasizes the increasing complexity of international relations as non-state actors, notably multinational corporations, have grown in imponance and interdependencies have developed. The Structure of International Society (1995) by Geoffrey Stern. An up-to-date multidisciplinary historical analysis of the origins, development, and early networks of international relations, and exposition of the diverse ways in which modem 'international society' has been defined and interpreted. Such key concepts as sovereignty, nationalism, balance of power, national interest, and interdependence are expertly addressed. Classic Readings of International Relations (1994) edited by Phil Williams, Donald M Goldstein, and Jay M Shafritz. A collection of extracts from classic books and articles by major political thinkers, statesmen, and academics. The 58 readings include pieces by Sun Tzu, written in the 4th century BC, Machiavelli from the early 16th century, von Clausewitz from the 18th century, Hobson and Lenin from the early 20th century, and Immanuel Wallerstein and Paul Kennedy in the late 20th century.
Diplomacy (1994) by Henry Kissinger. A magisterial overview of the history of diplomacy over the course of three centuries, from Cardinal Richelieu, the founder of the modem state system, to the contemporary 'New World Order', by one of the 20th century's greatest exponents of the an. Kissinger, secretary of state under the US Republican presidents Nixon and Ford and an adherent to pragmatic realpolitik, based on a hard headed analysis of the balance of regional and global power, argues that America, protected by its own idealistic streak, has, in other times, pursued a unique, transformatory foreign policy. The Struggle for Mastery in Europe (1954) by A J P Taylor. A classic account, by one of Britain's greatest historians, of Great Power rivalries in Europe between the failed revolutions of 1848 and the close of World War I, with the associated collapse of the Austrian Habsburg, Russian tsarist, and Turkish Ottoman ancien regimes. Taylor analyses the material, military, and ideological motivations behind the shifting alliances of this period, and sketches the characters of the leading personalities, notably Otto von Bismarck. The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000 (1988) by Paul Kennedy. A hugely popular and influential work which, based on an analysis of five centuries of world history, argues that the rise and fall of great military powers is ultimately determined by the material resources at their disposal. Seized upon at the time as a critique of the adverse economic consequences of 'imperial America's' high defence burden, it can be seen, in retrospect, as providing a compelling explanation for the sudden collapse of the Soviet empire between 1989 and 1991. The World that Came in from the Cold (1993) by Gabriel Pantos. A very readable account of the Cold War era, between 1945 and 1991, based on around 200 interviews for a BBC World Service radio series. The major themes and events of the decades after World War II are surveyed, encompassing the spread of the Soviet Union's global influence into Africa and W Asia to the late 1970s, the detente era and the disbanding of the Warsaw Pact in July 1991. Participants from both East and West tell their own stories. The Grand Failure: The Birth and Death of Communism in the Twentieth Century (1989) by Zbigniew Brzezinski. An influential and prophetic book by one of the USA's leading strategic thinkers, secretary of state during the Democrat Carter administration. Completed in 1988, this work anticipated the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union, as a result of its economic failures, and the dangerous resurgence of nationalism in Eastern Europe. Characterized as 'the twentieth century's most extraordinary political and intellectual aberration', communism has been one of the century's most influential ideologies, leading to an exaltation of the state and the division of the world into two contending blocs. International Politics: States, Power and Conflict since 1945 (1992) by G R Berridge. This introductory text focuses on states, the conflicts that divide them, the instruments they employ to pursue their ideals and secure their interests, and the system of rules and institutions through which conflicts are worked out. There are chapters on United Nations peacekeeping and welfare works, secret intelligence, propaganda, the world economy, and economic statecraft. World Conflicts: Why and Where They Are Happening (1992) by Patrick Brogan. A regionally arranged historical account of the genesis and development of international and ethnic conflicts in more than 40 states and disrupted territories in the world. The work includes coverage of the collapse of the Soviet empire 1989-91, the Gulf War of 1990-91, and the outbreak of civil war in 1991 in the former states of Yugoslavia. Valuable, informative, and readable. HUMAN RIGHTS
Nigel Wright
It is an impossibly difficult task to select the best books on human rights. I could have drawn up dozens of lists of 'must-read' books. From Martin Luther King to Gandhi and Mandela, prison has inspired some of the world's best minds to produce some of the world's best literature. It is an unfortunate fact that good literature, by its power, makes its authors a target of tyrannical regimes. With almost painful reluctance I was forced to discard some truly great works. Much of my inspiration for human-
rights work comes not only from accounts of the terrible ordeals that people suffer, but also from fiction that depicts the strength and individuality of human beings. My list includes the relatively obscure Hanging Tree, and a comic novel to help you get through some of the others. The dazzling flashes of humour from Sachs assured his inclusion, and Keenan's account of his ordeal as a hostage is simply among the best-written work to be produced in the 1990s.
Words like freedom', justice', 'democracy' are not common concepts;
on the contrary, they are rare. People are not born knowing what
these are. It takes enormous and, above all, individual effort to arrive
at the respect for other people that these words imply.
JAMES BAu wIN The Hanging Tree (1994) by Vic Gatrell. Compelling study which explodes the myth of the mob, revealing what the British people really thought about executions in the 18th and 19th centuries. I, Rigoberta Menchu: Indian Woman in Guatemala (1983) by Rigoberta Menchti. The riveting story of the Guatemalan Nobel Peace laureate. A Boy's Own Story (1982) by Edmund White. A beautifully written story of how a young boy tries to grow and develop in his own way and, as often happens, his family and society cannot cope with anything that is 'different'. The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs (1978) by Albie Sachs. A brilliant account of his ordeal in solitary confinement in South Africa. An Evil Cradling (1992) by Brian Keenan. The pick of the Lebanese hostage books. The Periodic Table (1975; translated 1984) by Primo Levi. Marvellously written novel from someone who experienced at first hand life and near death in a Nazi concentration camp. Darkness at Noon (1940) by Arthur Koestler. A grim, but compelling, account of how a totalitarian system is not satisfied with imprisoning or executing dissent, but tries to destroy an individual's will to live. The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984) by Milan Kundera. A novel that vividly portrays totalitarian society-. The Songlines (1991) by Bruce Chatwin. A moving description of a people and their culture and what happens when others, who do not understand them, persecute and try to destroy them instead. Brrm! Brrm! (1991) by Clive James. Not an obvious human-rights choice, but very funny. It shows how much can be misunderstood between different cultures. It also represents the author's desire to understand and appreciate a culture that has caused his family great suffering as a result of the war against Japan.

Psychology

Psychology, like sociology, has been a characteristic 20th-century study, with political, social and artistic implications beyond the horizons of formal science. At one extreme, it is a physical science, the study of the mechanisms of the brain. emotion and instinct. (The comparative study of animal behaviour is a branch held by many "human" psychologists to be irrelevant.) At the other extreme, it concerns the analytical observation of behaviour, particularly that of the individual in his relationships with himself and his environment. In the work of many psychologists (including some of the most controversial) science is inextricably blended with philosophy: observation of behaviour and response leads to programmatic theories. The books here collected reflect but can never comprise the whole spectrum from scientific detachment to prescriptive dogmatism: their style is accessible; their subject is nothing less than the wellsprings of man himself.

See BIOGRAPHY (Jones); MEDICINE (Freud, Laing, Kovel. Sutherland, Szasz, Wing); NATURAL HISTORY (Aitchison, Ardrey, Lorenz); PHILOSOPHY (Ryle, Schopenhauer); SOCIOLOGY (Jacoby, Mead, G. H.); RELIGION (James)

Adler, Alfred, Austrian, 1870-1937. Study of Organ Inferiority and Its Psychical Compensation. Rec: Boston PL Argyle, M. Bodily Communication (1975)
Soberly written, effective demonstration that social psychologists can help us to understand the unspoken messages our bodies send out whenever we are with other people. Also: Person to Person; Social Skills and Mental Health. See ANTHROPOLOGY (Hall)
Ari¨s, Philippe, French, 1914-1984. The Hour of Our Death. Rec: Counterpunch Trans This remarkable book--the fruit of almost two decades of study--traces in compelling fashion the changes in Western attitudes toward death and dying from the earliest Christian times to the present day. Aronson, Elliott The Social Animal (1976)
Social psychology is one of the fastest-growing (and most obviously practical) areas of psychology today. "Fun" text; delicious pictures (by Saul Steinberg). Serious science presented in a winning way. Baddeley, A. D. The Psychology of Memory ( l 976)
Comprehensive review of what experimental psychologists can tell us about the way our memories work. Not an easy read, but the practical nature of the subject makes it an important book. See also Francis A. Yates: The Art of Memory (1966) Berne, Eric Games People Play (1964)
This popular book by a prominent Californian psychiatrist is readable at two levels: for its amusing accounts of the games people really do play with one another (sometimes without being aware of it), and for its insights into typical human behaviour patterns. You'll certainly recognize your friends (if not yourself) in these pages. Bettelheim, Bruno, Austrian-American writing in English, 1903-1990. The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Imporantance of Fairy Tales. Rec: NYPL Birren, J. E. The Psychology of Ageing (1964)
Despite its own increasing age, still one of the best single sources of information about an area in which psychologists have made a vital contribution. Brown, Norman O.. American, 1913-2002. Love's Body. Rec: LAT Life Against Death: The Psychoanalytical Meaning of History. Rec: Counterpunch NF Brown, Roger Social Psychology (1965)
a Lucid treatment of some key topics in social psychology. Choice of themes is idiosyncratic, but the discussion is elegant and entertaining. Burton, Robert Anatomy of Melancholy (1621)
In this, one of the great and curious books of the English literary past, Burton undertook to analyse the symptoms, causes, and cure of "this atra bilis, this melancholy," which was one of the favourite medical concerns of his time. His book is filled with digressions and quirky asides on every subject, but its ideas are surprisingly up-to-date. Endorsed by Johnson. Sterne and Lamb. Burton, Robert, English, 1577-1640. The Anatomy of Melancholy. Rec: Bloom Clarke, A. M. and A. D. B. Early Experience: Myth and Evidence (1976)
Devastating attack on the idea that what happens to you in the first few years of life has a disproportionate influence on what sort of person you turn out to be. Difficult, challenging. Also: Mental Deficiency: The Changing Outlook Donaldson, Margaret Children's Minds (1978)
Clear account of how children's minds develop. Essential reading for all interested in education; style tempered to non-
specialists (parents?). Also: A Study of Children's Thinking Erikson, Erik Childhood and Society (1950)
An influential work: Erikson's calm common sense comes as a relief after some of the extravagances of the psychoanalysts. Eysenck, H. J. Psychology Is About People (1972) a Psychological angle on a number of controversial issues: pornography, politics, sex, the effectiveness of psychotherapy, etc. Excellent advertisement for the usefulness of the social scientific approach. Like all popularizers. Evsenck seems frivolous to some specialists, heterodox and simplistically propagandist to others. But he has a gift for clear exposition: a useful start. Also: Uses and Abuses of Psychology; Fact and Fiction in Psychology; Know Your Own IQ, etc Frankl, Victor, Austrian, 1905-1997. Man's Search for Meaning. Rec: Boston PL Freud, Sigmund, Austrian, 1856-1939. Selected Works. Rec: Colcc91 (Selections) The Case of Dora. Rec: Harvard The Psychopathology of Everyday Life. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Three Case Histories. Rec: National Review Major Works. Rec: GBWW The Interpretation of Dreams. Rec: Adler Boston PL Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 National Review NYPL Seymour-Smith Ward Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis (General Introduction to Psychoanalysis). Rec: Adler Aquinas Good Reading SJC Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Fadiman 4 Civilization and Its Discontents. Rec: Adler Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 TLS New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis. Rec: Adler Fromm, Erich, German-American writing in German, 1900-1980. Fear of Freedom (Also known as Escape from Freedom). Rec: TLS Goffman, Erving, Canadian, 1922-1982. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Rec: TLS Gray, John. American, 1951- . Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus. Rec: Boston PL Groddeck, Georg The Book of the It
Extraordinary book about the unconscious — what Groddeck calls the It — that was written independently, so the story goes, of Freud's work (Freud called It the Id). Funny, touching, undeniable. Hilgard, E. R. and Atkinson, R. C. Introduction to Psychology (1953) IPa
Comprehensive introductory textbook, used by a generation of first-year students. Regularly updated (7th edition, 1979, recommended); clearly written.
Hillman, James. American, 1926- . The Dream and the Underworld. Rec: LAT We've Had a Hundred Years of Psychotherapy--and the World's Getting Worse (With Michael Ventura). Rec: Utne
James, William. American, 1842-1910. The Principles of Psychology. Rec: Adler Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 GBWW Psychology, Briefer Course. Rec: SJC Jaynes, Julian. American, 1923- . The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. Rec: LAT Jones, Ernest, Welsh, 1879-1958. The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud. Rec: Counterpunch NF Jung, Carl Psychology and Religion: East and West (1958)
P *
Jung is the psychotherapist of our century who was most open to religion and to other subjective (non-scientific?) considerations. This volume shows the immense range of his sympathies, and includes such classics as his "Answer to Job" and "Aron". Also: Modern Man in Search of a Soul; Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious; Man and His Symbols, etc Jung, Carl Gustav, Swiss writing in German, 1875-1961. Memories, Dreams, Reflections. Rec: Counterpunch Trans TLS Psychological Types. Rec: Seymour-Smith Psychology of the Unconscious. Rec: Boston PL Analytical Psychology. Rec: Aquinas Kamin, L. J. The Science and Politics of 10 (1974)
Savage, influential attack on the idea that K2 is largely inherited. The subject is a major one for specialists: laymen will find this glimpse into the professional jungle riveting; they may find Eysenck (qv) a helpful guide.
K¼bler-Ross, Elisabeth, Swiss-American writing in English, 1926-2004. On Death and Dying. Rec: NYPL (psychology) Laing, R. D., Scottish, 1927-1989. The Divided Self. Rec: Counterpunch NF Lindsay, P. H. and Norman, D. A. Human Information Processing (1977)
d a
Standard textbook both on how we perceive and what we do with what we perceive. Scientific basis for psychology usefully, clearly explored. Should be read with Oatley (qv). Lorenz, Konrad, Austrian, 1903-1989. On Aggression. Rec: Boston PL TLS King Solomon's Ring: New Light on Animal Ways. Rec: NYPL Man Meets Dog. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Luria, A. The Working Brain (1973)
The physiology of the brain: essential background to all psychological study, clearly laid out. Neuropsychology is a vital area today; Luria is one of the leading and most lucid practitioners. McLeish, John Soviet Psychology (1975)
Straightforward account of some notably neglected and even vilified figures in the 20th-century history of psychology. Undogmatic, unpolitical and clear accounts of theories. Also: The Science of Behaviour Mandler, G. Mind and Emotion (1975)
Emotion is not precisely "sited" in the brain — so where or what is it7 Mandler, a well known cognitive psychologist, sets out the necessary clues, including the view that interpretation of emotion maybe the essential key to the understanding of the balance between heart and mind. Maslow, Abraham. American, 1908-1970. Motivation and Personality. Rec: Boston PL May, Rollo. American, 1909-1994. Love and Will. Rec: Hungry Mind Miller, G. A. and Buckhout, R. Psychology: the Science of Mental Life (1970) Pa*
Excellent general introduction; technical, but accessible with perseverance. Miller, Alice, Swiss writing in German, 1923- . The Drama of the Gifted Child. Rec: Utne Murphy, Gardner Historical Introduction to Modern Psychology (1972)
Psychology is one of the oldest studies of mankind although modern researchers often ignore or despise earlier discoveries, insights and concepts. This worthy account of the history of the subject is a good balance to other volumes on this list. Oatley, Keith Perceptions and Representations (1978)
Accessible, if demanding adjunct to Lindsay (qv). Pavlov, Ivan, Russian, 1849-1936. Conditioned Reflexes. Rec: Boston PL Piaget, Jean, Swiss writing in French, 1896-1980. Judgement and Reasoning in the Child. Rec: Boston PL Rogers, Carl R.. American, 1902-1987. On Becoming a Person. Rec: LAT Rutter, Michael Maternal Deprivation Reassessed (1972)
Effective debunking of the idea that young children will inevitably suffer unless brought up exclusively by their own mothers. Describes the quality of mothering a child requires to develop normally. Aggressive; dogmatic; stimulating. See ANTHROPOLOGY (Kitzinger) Skinner, B. F. Beyond Freedom and Dignity (1971) P*
Skinner is the controversial exponent of behaviourism (the doctrine which rejects assessment of subjective or introspective accounts of individual response in favour of exclusive concentration on theobjectively measurable). He treads ably and thrillingly the borderline between psychology and philosophy: a stimulating, heterodox figure. Also: Science and Human Behaviour, Walden Two (novel) Skinner, B. F.. American, 1904-1990. Walden Two. Rec: NYPL Beyond Freedom and Dignity. Rec: Boston PL LAT Seymour-Smith Walker, S. Learning and Reinforcement (1975)
a
Representative title from the Essential Psychology series (herewith recommended): short, crisp summary introductions to all aspects of the subject. Warr, P. and Wall, T. Work and Well-being(1975)
Sober, sensible discussion of research findings in an area of enormous significance as we consider the post-industrial age. Watson, John. American, 1878-1958. Behaviorism. Rec: Boston PL Watson, R. I. The Great Psychologists: From Aristotle to Freud (1971) a Zimbardo, P. G. and Ruch, F. L. Psychology and Life (1975) Mammoth review of the subject; not only describes what psychologists have discovered about human behaviour but also demonstrates the relevance of laboratory work to everyday life. Also: Shyness: What It Is, What to Do About It Robert Coles
Robert Coles is a research psychiatrist for the Harvard University Health Services, as well as professor of psychiatry and medical humanities at the Harvard Medical School. Since 1963, he has served as a consultant to the Southern Regional Council on "Psychiatric Aspects of Desegregation in the South." Among his thirty-five books are Children of Crisis (in five volumes) and Erik H. Erikson: The Growth of His Work. In May 1981, Dr. Coles received a grant from the John D. and Catherine MacArthur Foundation. He is now working in countries such as Northern Ireland and South Africa on the question of political socialization, studying the way children of various nations obtain their political convictions and moral values. The Bible.
I keep the Bible on my desk, and go back again and again to the Psalms, to certain passages in Isaiah and Jeremiah, to Matthew and Luke, to passages in St. Paul's letters — Corinthians, Romans. George Eliot. Middlemarch (1871-72). New York: Bantam, 1985. (Pb)
George Eliot's Middlemarch has been a companion since college days. I've read it three times — at different times in my life. I teach it at Harvard College and Harvard Medical School. Its moral power is compelling: it makes one stop and think about what this life's purposes ought to be. Walker Percy. The Moviegoer (1961). New York: Avon, 1979. (Pb)
Similarly with Walker Percy's The Moviegoer, a wonderfully comic yet intensely serious examination, in the tradition of Kierkegaard, of this "present age." I use The Moviegoer, too, in teaching undergraduates and medical students, and find it quite helpful in a course I teach at the Harvard Business School — an examination of ethical issues through certain novels and short stories. Georges Bernanos. The Diary of a Country Priest (1936). Pamela Morris, trans. New York: Carroll & Graf, 1984. (Pb)
Ignazio Silone. Bread and Wine (1937). Harvey Ferguson, Jr., trans. New York: New American Library, 1980. (Pb)
The Diary of a Country Priest by George Bernanos and Bread and Wine by Ignazio Silone are long-standing favorites of mine
— their evocation of the pastoral (as opposed to the prophetic), a constant help against certain occupational hazards that accompany writing and teaching. Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit (1857). Harvey P. Sucksmith, ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982. (Pb)
The later novels of Dickens mean a lot to me — especially Little Dorrit. I grew up hearing Dickens read aloud by my parents, and I still go back to him — even teaching certain novels of his which offer glimpses of lawyers and the law at Harvard Law School. His moral energy never fails to get us all going in class. Leo Tolstoy. The Death of Ivan Ilych (1886). Aylmer Maude,
trans. New York: New American Library, 1960. (Pb)
Finally, there is The Death of Ivan Ilych by Tolstoy — a powerfully wrought, ever-so-affecting reminder of what moral matters we had best try to settle before we take leave. Clare Dalton
Clare Dalton is an assistant professor of law at Harvard Law School, where she teaches contracts and legal history. Her special interests are legal and feminist theory. With her husband she is raising two sons for the future.
My initial response to this invitation was to think about reading that might help others toward the future world I like to imagine us living in. Then I considered the different possibility of reading that would be valuable to people of the future, whether or not they lived in that world. Finally, however, it seemed to me that the list, on either interpretation, should be the same. However those people of the future turn out, they would benefit from knowing what some of their forebears thought about, and aspired to, back in the latter part of the twentieth century.
The piece of my reading that I am taking this opportunity to share has to do with women — how some, by the 1980s, had begun to reconceive themselves, and bring themselves, reconceived, into a dialogue with men about how they should together conceive of the world. G. W. F. Hegel. "The Independence and Dependence of Self-Consciousness: Master and Slave." Chapter IV.A. of Die
Phiinomenologie des Geistes (The Phenomenology of Spirit, 1807). Hamburg: Felix Meiner, 1952; New York: Oxford University Press, 1977. (Pb)
This is Hegel's classic account of the individual's unavoidable dependence on others for recognition. From this perspective, independence or autonomy, usually understood as separation from others, is in fact achieved only through connection with others — through dependence. In our own time object-relations psychology, with its emphasis on "mirroring" as a key to identity formation, contains the same core insight. But the starkness of Hegel's account, and its reminder of our potential domination of those who depend on us for recognition, gives it added force. Margaret S. Mahler, Fred Pine, and Anni Bergman. The Psychological Birth of the Human Infant: Symbiosis and Individuation. New York: Basic Books, 1975.
Working within object-relations theory, Margaret Mahler describes children as struggling to reconcile their longing for independence and autonomy with an equally strong longing for fusion with and surrender to mother. She describes the child's tendency to grandiosity or omnipotence (denial of mother's otherness) and suggests that psychological wholeness depends on the child's developing an appropriate sense of mother as separate. Her work provides an account of the central struggle of childhood that is quite different from Freud's. It also suggests that the master / slave dynamic intuited by Hegel is in fact the very psychological dynamic through which our individual identities are forged. Dorothy Dinnerstein. The Mermaid and the Minotaur: Sexual Arrangements and Human Malaise. New York: Harper & Row, 1976. (Pb)
Dorothy Dinnerstein shares Margaret IVIahler's understanding that separation-from-mother is the key to later individual development. But she argues that our society systematically subverts that possibility, leaving men and women differently situated, but allied in a residual (subconscious) hatred and fear of mother, and of women. She suggests the consequences of this malaise for relations between men and women, and for the society at large. She urges a radical sharing of parenthood, which would present children with the same need to separate from father that they now experience only in relation to mother, as the road to human progress. Hester Eisenstein and Alice Jardine, eds. The Future of Difference (1980). New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1985. (Pb)
Hester Eisenstein and Alice Jardine's powerful collection of feminist writing begins in the same general territory as Dinnerstein's book — the psychological dynamics that differentiate women from men. The theme of difference is pursued in sections devoted to current French feminism (strongly influenced by the post-structuralism of such writers as Derrida and Lacan) and recent feminist literary criticism. Finally, the book projects the theme of difference out into the world, exploring its potential for social and political transformation. Suzette Haden Elgin. Native Tongue. New York: Donald A. Wollheim, 1984. (Pb)
Suzette Haden Elgin writes a science-fiction novel both grim and inspirational. The society in which it is set reflects a playing out of some of the most dehumanizing tendencies of our own, including the firm relegation of women to a subordinate status in the service of men. But the women, invisibly, are fighting back — through the development of their own language. In its dramatic portrayal of the negative potential of our cultural values, and its celebration of the positive potential of difference, this book makes a fitting postscript to my list of suggested reading for the future. Jerome Kagan
Jerome Kagan is a professor of psychology at Harvard's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Professor Kagan holds a Ph.D. from Yale University and has written many works, most notably Infancy; The Nature of the Child; and Birth to Maturity.
These books should generate a tolerance for others and appreciation of the power of historical contexts to create our deepest assumptions about human nature. Maurice H. Mandelbaum. History, Man, and Reason: A Study in Nineteenth-Century Thought. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1971.
Mandelbaum's analysis of the relation between the European conception of human nature and historical events in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries helped me to understand why American intellectuals, and especially twentieth-century social scientists, were so strongly committed, until recently, to a belief in the power of the environment and the malleability of human characteristics, as well as resistant to all sentimental arguments that did not rest firmly on reason. The basis for our idealistic view of perfectible children, sculpted by education in home and school to make rationally based moral decisions in times of conflict, becomes an almost inevitable outcome of the blend of egalitarianism, evolutionism, and material science that has dominated thought since the eighteenth century. Alasdair C. Maclntyre. After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory (1981). Notre Dame, Ind,: University of Notre Dame Press, 1982. (Pb)
After Virtue extends Mandelbaum's conclusions to the domain of ethics by arguing that historical conditions determine many of the moral premises of a society. Maclntyre points out, for example, that our acceptance of the naturalness of individual rights is not a universal, for there is no word or phrase in ancient or medieval languages that refers to an individual's right to a particular resource. This assumption is not made until the close of the Middle Ages. I learned from Maclntyre that a society's views of right and wrong are fragmented survivals of a series of economic and political events that lead the community to treat social facts as moral imperatives. Thus, the role of history is a common theme that unites the books by Maclntyre and Mandelbaum. Par Lagerqvist. The Eternal Smile (1934). Erik Mesterton et al., trans. New York: Hill and Wang, 1971.
A single sentence in this story by a Swedish novelist captures the idea that Maclntyre was trying to develop. After an interminably long search, a large group of dead people find God and the leader steps forward and asks him what purpose he had in creating human beings. God replies, "I only intended that you need never be content with nothing." After reading that line I saw the meaning of the tree-of-knowledge allegory in Genesis. Human beings are prepared by their nature to believe that there are right and wrong acts, but history and the nature of the society in which persons live will determine more exactly those categories of intention and action that will be treated as moral or immoral. Ernst E. Mayr. The Growth of Biological Thought (1982). Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1985. (Pb)
Mayr's history of biological thought over the past few centuries helped me see more clearly the relation between categories in biology and those in psychological development. Mayr notes that biology, unlike physics, deals more often with qualitative categories, rather than continua. Thus, biology is a unique science that is not easily reduced to physical concepts. Mayr understands that in biology the most useful categories are those that have been inductively derived from phenomena, rather than posited a priori. I believe that modern psychology is in a phase of development in which it can benefit from the inductive strategy that eighteenth- and nineteenth-century biologists used with such profit. Such a frame is present in Darwin's great insight that evolution should not be viewed as a series of variations on a set of ideal types, but rather as a series of transformations on ancestors. Jean L. Briggs. Never in Anger. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1970. (Pb)
The central message in this ethnography of the Eskimo of Hudson Bay is that despite the fact that this culture is characterized by a continual suppression of anger and aggression, none of the systems that are typically associated with denial of anger in Western society occurs among the Eskimo. Thus, this culture provides a refutation of the Freudian hypothesis that repression of anger must lead to symptomatology. The obvious implication is that the validity of the psychoanalytic hypothesis is restricted to certain cultures. It follows, then, that there are no universal outcomes of either the suppression or expression of anger, independent of the social context. Nicole LeDouarain. The Neural Crest. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
This monograph by a distinguished neuroembryologist describes the growth and transformation of the cells that begin as a small necklace around the embryo's spinal column and migrate to their final homes in the central nervous system of the newborn. The main point is that although all the cells are alike originally, they become transformed over their journey into structures that cannot be changed. The different transformations each type of cell undergoes is a function, in part, of the cells that are encountered on the way. This story of the migration of the neural crest cells furnishes a useful metaphor for the psychological growth of a human being, who is also transformed through the contacts he or she has in the life journey. A salient theme in the six books noted above is that absolutes are hard to find in nature; most laws are constrained by particular contexts. But there must be a small number of universal relations that trace their way back to biology. The final book supplies one of these mechanisms. Georg Von Bekesy. Sensory Inhibition (1965). Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967. (Pb)
This book, which I read as a young psychologist, is the one exception to the relativism contained in the first six volumes. One basic biological mechanism is that brain and mind are constructed to maximize contrasts and to improve the signal-to-noise ratio. The mind rebels against the ambiguity and relativity in nature and tries to create simple, prototypical conceptions. If one idea is a little more salient than another, the mind tends to exaggerate the former and minimize the latter. Hence, there is a biological basis for our attraction to stereotype and to single ideas that mute the gradations that are inherent in nature. As a result, we are seduced into believing in absolutes, when nature contains only families of relations among events. John E. Mack
John E. Mack, M.D. is a child and adult psychoanalyst and is a professor of psychiatry at The Cambridge Hospital, Harvard Medical School. He has been devoted to the development of community-based mental health services and to the application of psychoanalytic insights to biographical studies and to a variety of social and political issues, most recently in relation to the nuclear arms race and the U.S. — Soviet relationship. In 1977 he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his biography: A Prince of Our Disorder: The Life of T. E. Lawrence.
All of these books speak to the importance of self-awareness and the transformations that can follow from it. Survival, and the realization of our possibilities in the coming century, may depend on a new level of awareness and of responsibility for both the darker side and the loving and creative dimensions of the human spirit.
Childhood stories.
It is much later, if ever, that we discover why a particular story of childhood has had such a powerful impact. Carlo Lorenzini. Adventures of Pinocchio (1882-83). New York: Penguin, 1974. (Pb)
Pinocchio, in addition to being a spine-tingling adventure story, demonstrated that there was hope that an incorrigible small boy might, in the end, turn out all right and be properly appreciated by his parents. L. Frank Baum. The Wizard of Oz (1900). New York: Penguin, 1983. (Pb)
This story, which at first reading I experienced largely as the triumph of good over evil, contained, I learned much later, another important idea: it is unnecessary to look elsewhere for what we think we lack. The potential for courage, love and even intelligence ("brains") lies within ourselves. This proved to be a valuable message for someone who would one day be committed as a psychotherapist trying to enable other people to discover the possibilities within themselves. W. Somerset Maugham. Of Human Bondage (1915). New York: Penguin, 1978. (Pb)
This novel about the torments of misdirected love revealed to me how prone we are to form irrational attachments which hold us in their grip, even while we know that our sense of self — life itself — is being undermined. Sigmund Freud. The Interpretation of Dreams (1900). New York: Avon, 1980. (Pb)
The vast world of irrational behavior and unconscious impulse, feeling and motivation was opened up to me through Freud's writings. T. E. Lawrence. Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1919). New York: Penguin, 1976. (Pb)
I had not believed that a military leader would speak so frankly of the less attractive dimensions of his motivation. This gave me hope that we might some day understand and master the human proclivity to indulge in war making and war following. Fyodor Dostoevsky. Notes from Underground (1864). Jessie Coulson, ed. and trans. New York: Penguin, 1972. (Pb)
These obsessional ruminations of a prisoner impressed me with the extremes of self-doubt and their paralyzing effect. The world of inner conflict and its determining power were vividly revealed. Nadezhda Mandel'shtam. Hope Against Hope (1970). Max Hayward, trans. New York: Atheneum, 1976.
Written in the mid-1960s in the Soviet Union, this is the remarkable testimony of a Russian widow who has preserved the memory and the writings of her poet husband, Osip Mandershtam, one of Stalin's countless victims. Through the painful detail
— only everyday detail can really illuminate the monstrousness of totalitarian regimes — there emerges an optimistic voice of hope and possibility, evidence that a better human spirit may yet prevail in our blighted century. B. F. Skinner
B. F Skinner is the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology Emeritus at Harvard University. A pioneer in the field of operant behavior, Dr. Skinner began his work primarily with rats and pigeons, extending his techniques to the human organisms in the study of psychotic behavior, the analysis of verbal behavior. the design of instructional devices, the care of infants and the analysis of cultures. The author of more than eighteen books, he published volume three of his autobiography, Upon Further Reflection, in the summer of 1986. Sir Edwin Durning-Lawrence. Bacon is Shakespeare. London and New York: Gay & Hancock, 1910.
Asa Gray. How Plants Grow: A Simple Introduction to Structural Botany. 3d ed. New York: Ivison and Phinney; Chicago: Gregg, 1859.
Ivan P. Pavlov. Conditioned Reflexes: An Investigation of the Physiological Activity of the Cerebral Cortex. G. V.
Anrep, ed. and trans. London: Oxford University Press, 1927.
Bertrand Russell. The Problems of Philosophy (1911). New York: Oxford University Press, 1959. (Pb)
John B. Watson. Behaviorism (1925). New York: W. W. Norton, 1970. (Pb)
. Psychology, from the Standpoint of a Behaviorist (1919). 3d ed. Philadelphia and London: J. B. Lippincott, 1929.
The books that have been most important in leading me to my present position as a behaviorist are not books that I would recommend to anyone seeking to understand that position. They were important, not so much because of their content, but because of their bearing on my life at the time I read them. A mere accident sent me to Sir Edwin Durning-Lawrence's Bacon is Shakespeare, and that book sent me in turn to all I could find of, and about, Francis Bacon. I have acknowledged the role of three great Baconian principles in my life, but I would not send anyone to Durning-Lawrence to discover them. Gray's How Plants Grow, my high-school botany text, taught me, with the example of the radish, how living things pass on to the future the contributions they have received from the past. Later I found the same theme in Hervieu's "La Course du Flambeau," but I would not send anyone there for further instruction. I was greatly influenced by the first third of Bertrand Russell's Problems of Philosophy. According to his biographer it was "written at speed for the American market," and it certainly is not regarded as one of Russell's great books. Pavlov's Conditioned Reflexes taught me the importance of controlling laboratory conditions, but I soon departed from the Pavlovian paradigm. John B. Watson was important, of course, but I read only his Behaviorism, a book written for the general public. I am not sure I ever read his Psychology, from the Standpoint of a Behaviorist.
This is all perfectly reasonable, since, after all, if anything I have done is "creative," should we expect to find it in anything I have read? The Interpretation of Dreams
S. Freud The Unconscious Freud: A Life for Our Time
P. Gay The Unconscious The Assault on Truth
J.M. Masson
The Unconscious Despatches from the Freud Wars F. Forrester
The Unconscious The Child's Conception of Physical Causality
J. Piaget Child Development Piaget M. Boden
Child Development Perception and Understanding in Young Children P. Bryant
Child Development Alternatives to Piaget
L.S. Siegel and C.J. Brainerd
Child Development A History of Private Life (5 vols) "P. Aries, G. Duby"
Child Development The History of Childhood
L. de Mause
Child Development

Reference

We have elsewhere suggested lists of useful reference books for the British and American home. The books recommended here offer access to a larger body of knowledge — indeed, in a more or less compact form, they offer all knowledge. But this is by no means a comprehensive list; it is, rather, a personal choice. We have tried to offer a selection of available titles rather than settling for definitive works in each area; each of the books listed has specific attractions, which mark it out from the competent run of information books. Encyclopaedias and dictionaries of specific areas of knowledge (eg economics or music) will be found in the appropriate lists.

See ARCHAEOLOGY (Bray); ARCHITECTURE (Colvin, Fleming); ART (McGraw-Hill, Murray, Osborne); CHILDREN'S BOOKS (Uden); FILM (Bawden. Halliwell); FOOD (Johnson, Lichine, Montagne); HISTORY/ANCIENT (Heyden, Lempriere, Radice); HISTORY/WORLD (Barraclough, Grun); HOME (Brittain. Encyclopaedia, Frewing, Hay); MATHEMATICS (Larkin, Moore, Norton): MEDIA (Berry); MEDICINE (Gray. Parish); MUSIC (Cross, Greenfield, Hadley, Hindley, Logan, Osborne, Sadie); MYTHOLOGY (Dowson. Larousse); NATURAL. HISTORY (Fry); RELIGION (Crosse); SOCIOLOGY (International)

Adler, M. J. and Van Doren, C. Great Treasury of Western Thought * Massive collection of classic quotations from leading authors and thinkers of the Western tradition. See BIOGRAPHY (Van Doren); PHILOSOPHY (Adler) Atlante Internazionale del Touring Club Italian (1968)
One of the finest single-volume atlases, though this edition is dating fast. Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (1855)
Soon after its first publication this book became the standard American collection of quotations, chosen on the basis of familiarity. Useful; dependable. 13th edition (1955) recommended.
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1870)
Literally fabulous; an indispensable mine of information; even its cross-references entertain ("scrambled egg see brass hat"). But be warned: there is no such thing as a quick dip into this book. Its pool has only a deep end. Also: The Reader's Handbook of Allusion; Dictionary of Miracles
Britannica Atlas (1979)
A superb one-volume atlas, perhaps the most recommendable of them all. Bullock, A. and Stallybrass, O. The Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought (1977)
This book handily sets out to define, in as few clear words as possible, over 4,000 of the key terms in 20th-century thought (eg cybernetics, OECD, retro-rocket, turnpike theorem). It is, in part, a guide to jargon, immensely useful for the layman; but it is also wide enough and detailed enough in scope to act as a brief encyclopaedia of how our century thinks.
Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary (1901)
It is meant as a compliment to call this a straightforward, no-nonsense dictionary ("hello. Same as hallo"). Its main indulgence in the current edition is the inclusion of words normally only to be found in the vocabulary of crossword puzzle compilers and other lexical antiquarians. Craigie, W. A. and Hulbert, J. R. A Dictionary of American English on Historical Principles (1938-1944)
Thorough, scholarly treatment of the history of English in America up to the end of the 19th century, extending and supplementing The Oxford English Dictionary. Crowley, E. T. Acronyms, Initials and Abbreviations Dictionary (1960) Not a beautiful book, but a serviceable one. containing thousands of stunted word-forms. American, but includes British, European and other entries. Can never be completely up-to-
date, but regular supplements (latest 1978) ensure that it is never too far behind. Ekwall, E. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names (1936)
Scholar's handbook of English place-names, with no rivals in its class. 15,000 place-names painstakingly traced through early records back to their original meanings. Magisterial. Also: English River Names
Encyclopedia Americana
30 volumes, 27,000 pages, 53,500 articles, 353,000 entries, 31,141,000 words, 21,500 illustrations including 1,194 maps. Although, as its name implies, it is American in origin and written in American English, it is no more parochial in its coverage than Britannica. Lack of colour makes it look dull; but the articles on the whole are well researched and well written. More adult and comprehensive than World Book (qv), less specialized and easier to read than Britannica (qv). Alphabetically arranged; good index.
Encyclopaedia Britannica
33,000 pages, 106,500 articles, 25,200 illustrations including 1,100 maps. Authoritative work for educated adults; in two main parts, 19-volume Macropaedia containing long articles and 10-volume Micropaedia with short, quick reference articles; all volumes have A to Z arrangement of subjects. So-called index (the Micropaedia) is deficient and cumbersome. Latest edition (15th) essential. Various authors, Various writing in English, Pub. 1910. Enclop¦dia Britannica, 11th ed.. Rec: Counterpunch NF National Review Utne Fowler, H. W. A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926)
A model of persuasive prescriptivism notorious for its capacity to delight one reader and infuriate the next, yet universally acclaimed for its enlightening scholarship. Fowler's outspoken adherence to the rule of law in written English is tempered by the benign, firm authority of Sir Ernest Gowers in the 1965 revision. M. H. Nicholson produced its analogue, A Dictionary of Modern American Usage. Also: The King's English (Fowler); The Complete Plain Words(Gowers) Fowler, Henry Watson, English, 1858-1933. Modern English Usage. Rec: Counterpunch NF Fowler, H. W. and F. G. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English (1911)
Precision and reliability of a Swiss watch; more information per page than in any comparable dictionary. 1976 facelift has added a great deal of new vocabulary without greatly disturbing the important Fowlerian imprint on which the greatness of the book still (ultimately) depends.
Gran Atlas Aguilar (3 vols, 1969)
This magnificent Spanish work, the third volume of which is an incredibly thorough index, first appeared in 1969. A new edition has been announced for an undetermined date but the original is still enormously useful and beautiful. If your funds are unlimited, buy this and the Times (qv); if not, nag the local library — it's a gorgeous book. Johnson, Dr Samuel Dictionary of the English Language (1755) Not the first English dictionary, far less the first dictionary of a European language. Dr Johnson's definitions are often insular ("oats"), idiosyncratic ("lexicographer") and prejudiced ("patron"). But a work to be preserved and perused forever as the only English dictionary compiled by a writer of the first rank. See BIOGRAPHY (Bate, Boswell, Krutch, Johnson); LITERARY CRITICISM; TRAVEL Jones, Daniel English Pronouncing Dictionary (1917)
Guide to "Received Pronunciation", covering not only "dictionary" words but personal and place-names too. Foreign words are given both anglicized and "correct" pronunciation; alternative, rare, and old-fashioned pronunciations are shown. Quite technical: the reader must be prepared to learn the international phonetic alphabet. Kaye and Ward (publishers) Official Rules of Sports and Games (1980) Immensely useful, and fascinating for the amateur sportsman: clearly stated rules of everything from archery and athletics to volleyball and water polo. Regularly updated. Curnonsky, French, 1872-1956. Larousse Traditional French Cooking. Rec: Counterpunch Trans McWhirter, R. and N. (eds) The Guinness Book of Records (1963) Treasury of fascinating information on the largest, smallest, longest, fattest, most prodigious phenomena in nature. Records of every kind, from running the marathon to holding one's breath. Some of the information is bizarre, much of it useless — all of it riveting. Annually updated. Mathews, M. M. A Dictionary of Americanisms on Historical Principles (1951)
"Those words and meanings which came first into the English language in the United States" in 2 volumes: Adultery to Lincolnism and Lincolnite to Zwieback. "Americanisms" is more restrictively defined than in Craigie (qv), but 20th-century items and earlier illustrative examples are included.
Merit Students Encyclopedia (1980)
20 volumes, 12,000 pages, 22,000 articles, 20,700 illustrations including 1,500 maps. Written for the American school system; suitable for home use, though expensive.
Mitchell Beazley Encyclopaedia (Random House Encyclopaedia) (1977)
Subtitled The Joy of Knowledge: 10 volumes, 3,350 pages, 26,000 articles,
15,000 illustrations including 300 maps. A unique concept in encyclopaedias, this work successfully combines the thematic approach with an A to Z arrangement for quick reference. Eight volumes of Colourpaedia, arranged mainly as 2-page spreads devoted to one topic; 8th volume has countries of the world (A to Z) and an atlas. Two volumes of Fact Index have mainly short A to Z articles, illustrated and cross-referenced to each other and to the Colourpaedia. General volumes can be too diffuse, index volumes too brief in their entries.
Mitchell Beazley New Concise Atlas of the Earth (1973)
105 pages of maps, preceded by a preliminary "world encyclopaedia". Lavish, large and lovely, though cumbersome to use.
New Arthur Mee's Children's Encyclopaedia
20 slimmish volumes, 4,000 pages, 1,000 articles, 5,500 colour illustrations. Large type for easy reading. Aimed at 7- to 11-
year-olds; more ambitious (though less bulky) than many such works. Although it carries Arthur Mee's name and pedigree, it is a far cry from the original famous work. Subjects are handled thematically (with an adequate index), and an attempt is made to capture some of the Mee nostalgia by including nursery rhymes and fairy stories (well illustrated). But gone are the prejudices and blatant racism of its original creator. New Columbia Encyclopedia
1 volume, 3,000 pages, 650 illustrations including 250 maps. Written in American English, Columbia has hardly any illustrations and is pitched at an adult level, although it is still the best single-volume straight reference encyclopaedia; not for browsers. Suffers from lack of an index, in spite of A to Z arrangement, because cross-references are not as profuse as they might be. New edition badly needed, as last edition (1975) is rapidly becoming dated. Onions, C. T. The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology (1966) Advances the claims of etymology to be a science rather than a lexical sub-art or a branch of folklore. Anyone interested in the origins of words should not be put off by its austere scholarly presentation; these definitions are often fun. Also: The Oxford Shakespeare Glossary Opie, I. and P. The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (1951)
The nursery rhyme accorded full scholarly treatment — "detailed without being tedious", as the authors claim. Standard, authoritative work, delightfully and relevantly illustrated. Also: The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren; Children's Games in Street and Playground; Classic Fairy Tales, etc
Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English (1948)
A byword for lucidity and clarity of explanation, this book has served learners and foreign users of English everywhere from Calais to Krakatoa; even native speakers will occasionally admit to using it in preference to a conventional dictionary. Also: A Guide to Patterns and Usage in English
Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (1941)
Some of the most interesting quotations are, as you'd expect, anonymous, and these have a section that steals the day. Shakespeare as usual gets nearly half the book but he does deserve it; Shaw is, if anything, under-represented. A serviceable book: both this edition and the unsatisfactory 1979 updating are required.
Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (1884-1928) With Webster's (qv), a monument both to scholarship and to the richness, strangeness and sheer magnificence of our language. The history and meanings of each word are documented and fully illustrated by precisely dated quotations for literary and other works down the centuries. New supplements in progress. For home use, The Concise Oxford Dictionary is recommended. Various authors, Various writing in English, First ed. pub. 1884-1928. The Oxford English Dictionary (Edited by James A. H. Murray).
Oxford Home Atlas of the World (1960)
Excellent short atlas, of mainly physical and political maps.
Partridge, E. A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (1937) All-inclusive collection of English slang through the ages. Jargon, cant and obscenity dated and documented where possible, often in idiosyncratic ways: quotations from printed sources rarely have page references and dating can be based on a letter, a reminiscence, or the author's recollections of 50 years ago. Delightful, personal authority, a browser's joy. Also: Usage and Abusage; A Dictionary of Cliches; A Dictionary of Catch Phrases, etc Pascoe, L. C. (ed) Encyclopaedia of Dates and Events (1968)
Each double-spread is divided into four columns covering respectively History, Literature, the Arts and Science. The key events of each important year (5000 BC-AD 1970) are covered, with brief cross-references and a full index. Did you know when the Treaty of Aix was signed? When wallpaper was invented? What Thierry did? At one level, a quiz-addict's delight; at another, a serious and useful reference tool. Regularly updated: seek latest edition. Procter, P. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (1978) Stimulating, enterprising dictionary that lives up to its title and goes a step further than exemplification by including comments on usage of a kind that you will need if you don't know the difference between already and all ready.
Random House Dictionary of the English Language (1966)
Massive dictionary, the result of new lexical principles. A fine work which hardly ever fails the diligent searcher. Good small atlas included in unabridged edition. Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases(1952)
"A commodious succour to dissertators searching their pockets for the well-pitched locution" is how Roget could lead you to express it, but most of us would say that it is a useful aid to writers seeking the exact word in a forest of apparent synonyms. See Webster. Smith, W. G. and Heseltine, J. E. The Oxford Dictionary of English Proverbs (1935)
Thorough documentation of the history rather than the significance of everything in written English that can be regarded as proverbial. Weak points are inadequate standards of bibliographical citation, a poor grasp of the classical sources, and a shortage of quotations after about 1800. Stewart, G. R. American Place-names(1970)
Selective: only well-known, repeated, or unusual names are included. Explanations, each with a cameo of American history, are untechnical — look elsewhere for (eg) exact Indian etymologies. But names like Enough, Enola ("alone" backwards) and Cape Nome (a misreading of a query on a map) are of its essence. Strunk, William, Jr. and White, E. B. The Elements of Style(1935)
In 1919 Strunk was White's English professor at Cornell and his The Elements of Stylewas a required text known only to his students, Sixteen years later, White introduced to the general public Strunk's attempts to cut the vast tangle of English rhetoric down to size and write its rules and principles on the head of a pin. A must for students, the good professor's advice includes everything from "Words and Expressions Commonly Misused" to "Write with verbs and nouns not adjectives and adverbs." See CHILDREN'S BOOKS (White); DIARIES (Garnett, White); HUMOUR (White) Tilley, M. P. A Dictionary of the Proverbs in England in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (1950)
Full of wise saws and modern instances, with painstaking scholarship expended alike on the homely, the humorous, the bawdy, and the consoling ("there is a difference between staring and stark mad", etc). Concludes with detailed bibliography and index to proverbial uses in Shakespeare, some previously unsuspected.
Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World (1980)
Huge (240 maps); hugely expensive; worth every penny. For those with slim purses, its little brother The Times Concise Atlas of the World (143 maps) is an excellent alternative. Van Der Meer, Frederic Atlas of Western Civilization (1960)
Maps, profuse and spectacular photographs, informative text, superb index — the superlatives pile up. For ancient world equivalent, see HISTORY/ANCIENT (Heyden) Wallechinsky, D., Wallace I. and W. (eds) The Book of Lists (1977) This is one of those serendipitous ideas that, once thought of, seem so obvious and so obviously right. The editors have commissioned and compiled lists of every kind: 20 largest lakes in the world, 12 writers who ran unsuccessfully for public office, 8 cases of spontaneous combustion, Orson Welles' 12 best movies of all time ... Not a serious reference work — a delight. Should be on everyone's shelf — but keep a few spare copies if you have light-fingered visitors. It's irresistible.
Webster's New Collegiate Thesaurus(1976)
The first entirely new thesaurus since Roget. This one, based on a different principle, is in many situations simpler and more effective to use. There should be room for both this and Roget on any reasonable shelf of reference books. Webster's New Dictionary of Synonyms (1942)
Aimed at those who daren't admit they use Roget. Arranged alphabetically under key-words, with elaborate cross-referencing; scores by giving examples in use of many of the synonyms listed. Most quoted authors are American. Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language (1961)
One of the greatest of all reference works in (and on) English: only the Oxford English Dictionary (qv) has anything like the same authority. 1961 updating covers many 20th-century additions to the language, makes this an indispensable book for every library. For home use, Webster's Nov Collegiate Dictionary is recommended. Merriam Company. American, Pub. 1961. Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. Rec: LAT World Book Encyclopedia
26 volumes, 16,000 pages, 22,500 articles, 30.000 illustrations including 2,500 maps. Well-established American encyclopaedia with 2 British Isles volumes added on, this work uses A to Z arrangement but with copious cross-references. Level of the text is aimed at high school students; design and pictorial layout are old-fashioned by modern European standards. The only major encyclopaedia that is thoroughly revised each year. Yule, H. and Burnell, A. C. Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases (1886)
Sprawling and undisciplined repository of the priceless vocabulary (bundobast, gymkhana, shikaree, etc) that sprang from the association of English and Indian peoples down to the end of the 19th century. The curious title, for example, is an anglicization of Ya Kasen! Ya Husayn! ("0 Husan! 0 Husain!") chanted by Muslims as they beat their breasts in the Muharram procession. Mary V. Chatfield
Mary V. Chatfield has been the head librarian at the Baker Library of the Harvard Business School for eight years. Her association with the Harvard community began as an undergraduate at Radcliffe College. She earned her M.B.A. at the Business School while continuing her duties as head librarian. She tries to read one book a week.
God, democracy, and food should prepare anyone for any century. The Book of Common Prayer (1549), New York: Oxford University Press, 1928.
As a daily or occasional guide to behavior or as a source of comfort and guidance, it is without peer. The beauty of the language alone is sufficient reason for a nonbeliever to read it. Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison. The Federalist [Papers] (1788). Benjamin F. Wright, ed. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1961.
An ever-current and germane discussion of the rewards of a democratic form of government and the difficulties encountered in implementing it. H. H. Munro. The Short Stories of Saki (1894-1916). New York: Doubleday, 1976.
Reminds you that life is complex as are people. Justice is frequently meted out when it is least expected, and a sense of humor leavens almost all situations. Barbara Pym. Excellent Women (1952). New York: Harper & Row, 1980. (Pb)
. Quartet in Autumn (1977). New York: Harper & Row, 1980. (Pb)
The daily life of ordinary people is as rich and varied as that of any exotic tribe, but the discovery of this richness requires careful study.
Any good cookbook.
The most soothing of all reading. The rational is still achievable in the most chaotic of worlds. Judith Martin. Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior (1982). New York: Warner, 1983. (Pb)
For guidance, sustenance and correction.
John Williams Collins III
John Collins is the librarian of the Graduate School of Education at Harvard. His professional interests include bibliographic instruction, information access, and database searching.
Apart from individual titles in particular disciplines, books such as A Guide to Reference Books, 9th ed. (1976), which open the doors to information access and the printed word at large, will provide readers with the tools and skills necessary to find the information that will enable them to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century. Graham T. Allison. Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis. Boston: Little, Brown, 1971. (Pb)
For its insight into the decision-making process. Jack Kerouac. On the Road (1957). New York: Penguin, 1979. (Pb)
For its depiction of an era and a life-style. Percy Bysshe Shelley. The Complete Poetical Works (1813-21). New York: Oxford University Press, 1974.
For the beauty of the poems. Philip Gaskell. A New Introduction to Bibliography. New York: Oxford University Press, 1972.
Offers an opportunity to gain an understanding and appreciation of the books as a material object. Eugene Paul Sheehy. A Guide to Reference Books. 9th ed., 2d suppl. Chicago: American Library Association, 1982. (Pb)
Because it provides access to reference books basic to research. Sheldon Glashow
Sheldon Glashow is the Higgins Professor of Physics at Harvard. His research centers on building models for elementary particles. His Nobel Prize was for his work on the unification of weak and electromagnetic forces. In addition to his thoughtful writings and frequent public television appearances, his course "From Alchemy to Particle Physics" is well known on campus.
Americans love to be told what to do. "You are what you eat!" sells innumerable quack diet books, just as "You are what you read!" brought us the Great Books, the Five-Foot Shelf, and now this colossal act of hubris: the mind-shaping favorites of a hundred professors, annotated. See them astride Plato, Darwin and Freud. Read what they read and be what they be.
I have no list to submit. I care not for this cargo cult. Books are cheap and readily available. To read is the thing, voraciously and eclectically. No guide is needed. Was Moby Dick more important to me than the latest Len Deighton thriller, or is browsing through my Oxford English Dictionary even more significant? And who should care?
Scientists are often regarded as illiterate oafs, unable to write and unwilling to read, captives of their narrow expertise, deserving candidates for humanists' contempt. Yet, most of us are well-read and can hold our own with historians, literary critics and whatever. Humanists, on the other hand, are often (though not always) scientifically and mathematically inept and proudly so. Our conversations must turn on matters of their concern, not ours. We are disadvantaged because we are compelled by their ignorance to match wits on their territory.
Membership in the community of educated men and women demands competence in science and awareness of its history. Many would dispute this claim. Here, I say, lies one explanation for the decline of American intellectualism. We have strayed from the path set by Franklin and Jefferson, who both admired and appreciated Lavoisier as much as they did Shakespeare. Patricia Albjerg Graham
Patricia Albjerg Graham is dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Charles Warren Professor of the History of Education at Harvard University. She has served as dean of the Radcliffe Institute and vice-president of Radcliffe College. In 1977 she was appointed by President Carter as director of the National Institute of Education, the federal government's educational research agency. She resigned in 1979 to return to Harvard, to her teaching and research activities. Sigrid Undset. Kristin Lavransdatter (1920-22). C. Archer and J. S. Scott, trans. 3 vols. New York: Bantam, 1978. (Pb)
Sigrid Undset's Kristin Lavransdatter, which I first read as a young wife and mother, captured my imagination, my ancestry and my hopes for my own future. This long tale of a formidable medieval Norsewoman who fought for her ideals, embodied as they were in her family and political allegiances, enthralled me as I pondered what the twentieth-century equivalent of her life as an American woman would be. Gunnar Myrdal, with Richard Sterner and Arnold Rose. An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy (1944). 2 vols. New York: Harper & Row, 1969. (Pb)
I discovered Gunnar Myrdal's An American Dilemma some years after it was originally published. I read it while a graduate student in history of American education at Columbia University. As a resident of Manhattan's Upper West Side I was living for the first time in a racially mixed environment. I found two elements of Myrdal's book fascinating: the analysis of what he called "the Negro Problem" and the response of "modern democracy" to it, and the introduction of a new generation of black scholars and the legitimization of their research on black issues. Myrdal, Gunnar, Swedish, 1898-1987. An American Dilemma. Rec: ML Nonfiction National Review James Hodgson
James Hodgson has been associated with the Harvard library system for twenty years. Currently he is the head librarian at the Frances Loeb Library at Harvard's Graduate School of Design, committed to improving the quality and scope of the collection. Prior to joining the Graduate School of Design he managed acquisitions for the Fine Arts Library of Harvard's Fogg Museum.
I would likely recommend any book that enriches the human spirit . . . that is likely to help us keep jolly, sane and, in some way, safe from so many others who will recommend books that champion personal power and profit. Anthony Powell. A Dance to the Music of Time (1962-75). 12 vols. Boston: Little, Brown, 1976.
A roman fleuve in twelve parts. Suggests that a life of reflection and observation is to be prized as much as a life of action and that life's meaning is to be found in the accumulation of small events and triumphs (often only dimly perceived) rather than in high moments of bombast and tangible riches. Mark Twain. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884). New York: Harper & Row, 1984. (Pb)
The essential American novel. Bleaker explorations of the same, uniquely American spirit of risk, adventure and profit — i.e., entrepreneurship — can be found in lesser, but still good books such as The Godfather, by Mario Puzo, and Catch-22, by Joseph Heller. Julius Caesar. The Gallic Wars (ca. 40 a.c.). Boston: David R. Godine, 1980.
Read as a teenager (and just reread in a modern translation with maps, illustrations and notes published by David Godine) this book introduced me to the remarkable fact that history really did happen!
Richer books, read later and enjoyed more, that similarly reveal the spirit of their times: the journal of Eugene Delacroix; the daybooks of Edward Weston: Bound for Glory, by Woody Guthrie. Antoine de Saint Exupery. The Little Prince (1943). Katherine Woods, trans. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1982.
"Straight ahead of him, nobody can go very far. . . ." Gregory Bateson. Steps to an Ecology of Mind (1972). New York: Ballantine, 1975. (Pb) Kate Wilhelm. Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang (1976). New York: Pocket, 1981. (Pb) Walter M. Miller, Jr. A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959). New York: Bantam, 1976. (Pb)
Two very good science-fiction novels, which suggest that man is not on an inevitable path to perfectability.
Harold Howe II
Harold Howe is a senior lecturer in administration planning and social policy at Harvard's Graduate School of Education. He describes himself not as a professor but as a retired educator who has found a restful place at Harvard University. He has been a history teacher, a school principal, a school superintendent (in Scarsdale, New York), a state education planner (in North Carolina), US. Commissioner of Education, and a foundation official (vice-president of the Ford Foundation). He has served as a trustee of Yale, Vassar and the College Board and is now a trustee of Teachers College at Columbia University. He has written what he describes as "quite a lot of dull prose" about education affairs. A. E. Housman. The Collected Poems of A. E. Housman (18671936). New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1971. (Pb)
As the world gets more complicated, and it certainly has during my sixty-seven years, a new resolve is needed to deal with the unexpected. Housman conveys a somewhat pessimistic message, which I find sustaining. Gunnar Myrdal, with Richard Sterner and Arnold Rose. An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy (1944). 2 vols. New York: Harper & Row, 1969. (Pb)
For understanding the issue of race in the American experience, there is no book to equal this. It has influenced a generation of scholars and the Supreme Court of the United States, and through them it helped create the civil-rights movement of the twentieth century. Myrdal recognizes the moral aspects of the problem and weaves them together with the analysis of a social scientist to create a magnificent insight. Much of my time and effort have been spent on racial issues in education, both schools and colleges, and this book is the bedrock I return to on the subject. Myrdal's basic view is still relevant. "The American Negro problem is a problem in the heart of the American. It is there that the interracial tension has its focus. It is there that the decisive struggle goes on." Christopher Fry. The Lady's Not for Burning (1949). New York: Oxford University Press, 1977. (Pb)
A romantic drama in extravagant language, which I read at least once a year. It helps me to stay young at heart, and it's just plain fun in its combination of comic and serious themes of life and death and human foibles ranging from lust to moralistic bureaucracy. Who else but Christopher Fry would call the moon, "A circumambulating aphrodisiac divinely subsidized to provoke the world into a rising birthrate" (p. 67)? Mark Twain. The Writings of Mark Twain. Author's National Edition. 25 vols. New York: Harper, 1899-1918. (Also subsequently published letters and other writings by the same author.)
Twain will carry you from youth through adulthood with novels, stories, essays and social commentary. Quintessentially American, he opens our eyes to our peculiarities and to our ways of life. His warning against the dangers of staying in bed because so many people die there combines with deep insights into racial issues in Huckleberry Finn to provide an almost endless cafeteria of delightful reading. For Americans who want to know who they are and how they got that way, Twain is center stage. Rudyard Kipling. Collected Works (1886-1932). 22 vols. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page, 1927.
I started with the Just So Stories ("way down by the great, grey, green, greasy, Limpopo River"), The Jungle Book, Kim, and Stalky and Co.; progressed through The Barrack Room Ballads and other verse where I learned that "the sins that ye do by two and two, ye must pay for one by one"; and graduated to the endless tales of India, the empire, and British society. Most critics think an interest in Kipling is a sign of a juvenile mind. If so, I plead guilty. But if you haven't read "The Taking of Lungtungpen" (from Plain Tales from the Hills) or "The Strange Ride of Marrowbie Jukes" (from Under the Deodars), you're missing something. Omar Khayyam. Rubaiyat (early twelfth century). Edward Fitzgerald, trans. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, n.d. (Pb)
A slight strain of perversity in regard to my inheritance as the son of an educator and Presbyterian minister and the grandson of missionaries in nineteenth-century Hawaii probably leads me to the affection I hold for this delightful verse. It punctures pomposity, praises wine, women and song, and gently derides religion. I enjoy it. I have always felt the need to joke about the things I was most serious about. Hence my life spent in education is for me joyfully teased by Omar Khayyam. John D. Montgomery
John Montgomery is a professor of public administration at Harvard's John E Kennedy School of Government. Professor Montgomery is currently interested in research dealing with developing countries. their agricultural productivity, entrepreneurial behavior and central government support to urban development as well as U.S. foreign policies and international politics. P. G. Wodehouse. Money for Nothing (1928). London: Barrie & Jenkins, 1976.
Wodehouse demonstrates how to write. J. S. Bach. The Goldberg Variations (1747). R. K. Kirkpatrick, ed. New York: Schirmer, 1938.
Bach enriches the soul; Kirkpatrick develops the techniques for giving the soul expression. Thomas Mann. Joseph and His Brothers (1933-43). H. T. Lowe-Porter, trans. 4 vols. New York: Knopf, 1948.
Mann provides the philosophical insights into human experience in their most palatable form. Thorstein B. Veblen. Theory of the Leisure Class (1899). New York: Penguin, 1979. (Pb)
Veblen shows the outer reaches of hypocrisy. Samuel P. Huntington. Political Order in Changing Societies (1968). New Haven: Yale University Press, 1969. (Pb)
Huntington presents the most reasonably packaged definition of development. Reginald Phelps
Dr. Phelps attended public schools in western Massachusetts, received his A.B. in 1930 from Harvard and spent the following year in Europe, primarily in Germany. He has led a life of educational administration, teaching and scholarship chiefly at Harvard University. During the stresses of the 1930s, his early interest in German literature developed into the study of European and American history. His writings include many articles, largely on twentieth-century Germany. He has also written, with Jack Stein, a useful reading text entitled The German Heritage.
I don't know that these books prepared me for the challenges of the twentieth century, and I doubt that they would prepare our successors for those of the twenty-first century. What they did was to help me to understand the European and American past and present.
As introduction: any such list is subjective and temporary. The books are chosen from my present view of my experience, and are not necessarily the books I would have selected ten or thirty years ago. Mostly they have affected me by their literary qualities, not their "messages," since most philosophies and (quasi-)theologies sound equally persuasive if skillfully presented. These are books that have stayed with me for years, hence the absence of contemporary writing. William Shakespeare. King Lear (1605). New York: Penguin, 1984. (Pb)
Macbeth (1606). Maynard Mack and Robert E. Boynton, eds. New York: Random House, 1981. (Pb)
William Shakespeare's plays; specifically King Lear and Macbeth, both read in G. L. Kittredge's famous course. Close to them, Othello, Julius Caesar and The Tempest. Among these Lear seems greatest, perhaps because of seeing an overwhelming performance of it in London during the war. The Bible. King James version (1611).
The Bible, specifically the Psalms, in the King James version, as we heard and sometimes recited them in Massachusetts public schools from the first grade on; and in Luther's German translation. Why? The beauty of the words, and, I suppose, the religious Urerlebnis they express. And, like so many writings, musical associations enhance their effect — American, English, German hymns; Brahms's Requiem, with Toscanini conducting, heard in the Salzburg church fifty years ago.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Faust, part I (1770). John Prudhoe, trans. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1974. (Pb).
Goethe, Faust I (not Faust II) and many of his youthful lyric poems. A word artist who matches Shakespeare, and a drama that somehow symbolizes occidental man, with its theme of eternal striving; and a personal tragedy of such force that it might well, like Goethe's second major emotional creation, The Sorrows of Young Werther, have wrung tears from stones. Beside these, even young Schiller's splendid dramas, the artistic beauties of Stefan George and Rainer Maria Rilke, the rhetoric of German expressionist drama, and the arts and crafts of Thomas Mann, all of which once appealed very strongly, do not quite stand equal. John Dos Passos. Nineteen Nineteen (1932). New York: New American Library, n.d. (Pb)
Sidney B. Fay. The Origins of the World War (1928). 2 vols. New York: Macmillan, 1954.
Erich Maria Remarque. All Quiet on the Western Front (1928). New York: Fawcett, 1979. (Pb)
John Dos Passos's powerful novel Nineteen Nineteen came quite early in the wave of revisionism and disillusion with World War I that reached these shores well before the Depression. For the scholarly world, Sidney B. Fay's The Origins of the World War led to revisionism. For the general reader, such works as Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, and the magnificent film made from it, led to disillusion. If you want to know why my generation was so reluctant to go to war in the 1930s, these books will help you find out. Thomas Wolfe. Look Homeward. Angel (1929). New York: Scribner's, 1982. (Pb)
For my generation, perhaps the great American novel — its rooted/rootless hero, its ironic naturalism, its waves of stunning rhetoric; coming of age in this century m the small towns of eastern America. Less "literary" than Faulkner. A wider range than that almost perfect novel about Harvard, George Weller's Not to Eat, Not For Love. Not as universal, doubtless, as Herman Melville's Moby Dick but a clearer, more human, less strained presentation of such American themes as wandering, roots, grand visions. Immanuel Kant. Critique of Pure Reason (1781). New York: St. Martin's, 1969. (Pb)
. Critique of Practical Reason and Other Writings in Moral Philosophy (1788). Lewis Beck, trans. New York: Garland, 1977.
The philosopher who, like his medieval precursor Cardinal Nicholas Cusanus, defines and sets limits for human capacities and presents, one may hope, guidelines for ethics and behavior more satisfying than those provided by hubris and wills to power. David Riesman
David Rieman is a professor emeritus of sociology at Harvard University. One of the world's leading sociologists, his opinion is often sought on a wide range of topics, frequently the sociology of American higher education. His most notable works include The Lonely Crowd: A Study of the Changing American Character and Faces in the Crowd: Individual Studies in Character and Politics. He may well be the most prolific letter writer on Harvard's campus. The following comments are excerpted from Ries-man letters to the editors of this guide.
It seems to me that in many cases it is not a particular book, though often of course it is just that, but a particular author who opens new visions and impels new curiosities. Louis Auchincloss. The Rector of Justin (1964). Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1980. (Pb)
Niccolo Machiavelli. The Prince (1513). Peter E. Bondanella and Mark Musa, trans. New York: Oxford University Press, 1984.
Alexis de Tocqueville. Democracy in America (1835-40). G. Laurence, trans. New York: Random House, 1981. (Pb)
I was thinking about Louis Auchincloss the other day. He is an unduly deprecated author because, while a full-time practicing lawyer and responsible New York citizen, he has written a large number of novels dealing, as did much of Henry James and Edith Wharton, with the upper class, or at least the upper professional class, such as old Wall Street law firms. His novel The Rector of Justin is about a private-school headmaster of an earlier clay and, I think, a wonderful book. But it is perhaps less relevant to some than one of his books dealing with Wall Street life and its ethical problems, similar to those faced in other professional callings.
It is the author, not the particular book, to whom one would want to call the reader's attention. You will recall, of course, that the Bible is itself a collection of books, poetry, history and much else. There are of course salient books, whether Machiavelli's The Prince or de Tocqueville's Democracy in America, but in these cases it is the author whom one would want also to bring to the reader's attention.
Ihor Sevcenko
Ihor Sevcenko is a byzantinist in Harvard's Department of the Classics. His principal interest is Byzantine cultural history. The first entry in his own extensive bibliography — a translation into Polish of an excerpt from Voltaire — was written when Sevcenko was a sixteen-year-old student in Warsaw. His Harvard career as a professor of Byzantine history and literature has been spent in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C.; and as a visiting professor at colleges around the world. As an avid dreg trout fisherman those same travels permit his pursuit of the Arctic grayling.
The books by Souvarine and de Man will be forgotten. The others will continue yielding insights into the minds and feelings of men and into the behavior of groups with a depth and immediacy that cannot be gotten from treatises on psychology or sociology. St. Mark's Gospel will remain a concise message that helps explain the appeal of the most successful mass movement of our civilization to date.
Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War (ca. 431-404 B.C.). Richard Livingstone, ed. New York: Oxford University Press. 1960. (Pb)
The most difficult Greek prose author I had previously encountered. Absorbing the whole of Thucydides was painful, but the task, once accomplished, determined my choice of Greek texts as subject of study for the rest of my life. Reading Thucydides was a make-or-break enterprise. I never encountered a more difficult, more concise and more deeply thinking Greek author in my subsequent career as a classicist or a byzantinist. The Melian Dialogue and the passages devoted to Alcibiades' career stuck with me for the duration. The collected works of Fyodor Dostoevsky (1844-1880) (no standard collection in English).
Reading Dostoevsky is like going through an imaginary illness of late adolescence and early adulthood that, when overcome, increases the chances of survival for the rest of one's life. The novel that produced the greatest impact was The Demons. I looked at it (and most of my friends did the same) as a distorted but magic and prophetic mirror that revealed the doings of those who were to stage the Revolution of November 1917 and of those whom the Revolution was to topple. The quest after the meaning of human existence — a query to which I later chose a negative answer — first became an "accursed question" during the reading of Dostoevsky. Critics say that Dostoevsky's prose is drab. I did not feel it at all in this second of my massive immersions in Russian literary prose (the first was Gogol) and I was overawed by it. Rainer Maria Rilke. Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke (1897-1923). Stephen Mitchell, ed. New York: Random House, 1982.
Rilke has been my companion throughout my life. My preferred collection of poems include: Neue Gedichte (1907) and Neue Gedichte Anderer Teil (1908). They represnt my life's most intimate contact with poetry. As with all intimate contacts, it is difficult to put in words. Rilke led to my discovery of German as a language in which modern poetry can be written, admiration for subdued elegance of form and economy of linguistic means, and for the languid subtlety of the message. I translated some of Rilke's poems into Polish and Ukranian. All of it was lost in 1945. Boris Souvarine. Stalin: A Critical Survey of Bolshevism (1935). New York: Arno, 1972.
How could the Revolution have been betrayed and perverted? How could its "pure" message be discerned and preserved? These, along with the problem of right and might, were the preoccupying questions of my late adolescence. Souvarine's book gave a scholarly and, on the surface, dispassionate answer to those emotional questions, that both made sense of the past and satisfied the expectations for the future (expectations not borne out by events, of course). At the time, I did not know the extent of Souvarine's engagement in the Trotskyite movement. Still a book to read. James Joyce. Ulysses (1918-20), New York: Random House, 1976. (Pb)
This was the second major English prose classic I worked through in the original, Vanity Fair having been the first. Ulysses's role in my biography as a reader was analogous to the one Thucydides had played some ten years earlier: it was a make-or-
break affair. I had no conception of Dublin or its pubs, but was by my own makeup attuned to the stream of consciousness and went along with Joyce on his heroes' rounds. Result: a lasting admiration for the flexibility of English and for the author's own virtuoso play on that instrument (and on other languages as well: remember the list of ambassadors!). Mrs. Bloom's inner monologue, a model of empathy, will remain the kind of text I wish I were able to write. Gospel According to St. Mark. The Bible.
I chose the shortest among the Gospels, for I wanted to read one of them in Greek. Two insights resulted from the reading: realizing the power and universal appeal of the Christian message at a time when its ethical elements were questioned by word and deed all around me: understanding that there was more to antiquity, in terms of "lasting" values, than high classics. This was the starting point for my ultimately opting for the science of antiquity and its aftermath rather than pure classical philology. Hendrik de Man. The Psychology of Socialism (Die sozialistische Idee. 1933). Eden Paul and Cedar Paul, trans. New York: Arno, 1974.
At a time that seemingly "eternal" values were contradicted by reality, relativized, or made into constructs that expressed the social interest of those who propounded them, de Man offered reasoned and scholarly solutions to a young man's doubts: stress on the writings of young Marx; the concept of intellectuals as a "free-floating" stratum, not shackled in their perceptions by their social backgrounds; the relative autonomy of ideas; the relativization of Marxism; the derelativization of the notions of Truth, Beauty and Justice; viewing conscience as an instinct rather than as interiorized ideology. Sigmund Freud. Civilization and Its Discontents (1929). Joan Riviere, trans. London: Hogarth, 1930.
. The Future of an Illusion (1926). James Strachey, ed. and trans. New York: W.W. Norton, 1961.
. Psychopathology of Everyday Life (1901). A.A. Brill, ed. and trans. New York: Macmillan, n.d.
. Totem and Taboo (1913). James Strachey, ed. and trans. New York: W.W. Norton, 1962. Otto Immisch. Wie studiert man klassische Philologie? (1909). 2d ed. Stuttgart: W. Violet, 1920.
Plato. The Republic (370-360 B.c.). James Adam, ed. 2 vols. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1963.
If it were possible to enlarge to ten, I would add the following three names: (1) Sigmund Freud, whose writings influenced me more than several of the books I discussed in some detail above. I just did not think of him when I was taking down the names of "influential" books as they were spontaneously coming to mind; I wonder why. I record this Fehlleistung here as a tribute to his delightful Psychopathology of Everyday Life (1901). Other books by him that determined my intellectual climate for years were Totem and Taboo (1913) (even if based on assumptions no longer shared by anthropologists); The Future of an Illusion (1927); and Civilization and Its Discontents (1929). (2) Plato, Republic. Book 1 for its insights into the mechanisms of naked power. (3) Otto Immisch, Wie studiert man klassische Philologie?, merely for autobiographical reasons: this sensible small book confirmed me in the resolve to study the classics and helped map out the beginnings of my study program. Judith Shklar
Judith Shklar was born in Riga, Latvia. She describes herself as having attended, off and on, various useless schools, but was educated at McGill and Harvard Universities. She became interested in political theory as an undergraduate and has taught it at Harvard since 1954. She is the John Cowles Professor of Government. In 1984, she was a recipient of the MacArthur Award. Among her books are Men and Citizens: A Study of Rousseau's Social Theory and her most recent work, Ordinary Vices.
These books do not prepare anyone for anything in particular. They can only enhance our intellectual imagination and understanding. Plato. The Republic (370-360 B.c.). James Adam, ed. 2 vols. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1963.
The first book I read in my late adolescence which I had to recognize as both perfect and wholly alien. It set me off to asking the question that has preoccupied me as a political theorist since then: How are we to think about our personal lives and experiences in a world order that is entirely remote from us, but nevertheless impinges upon us constantly and often incomprehensibly? All the other books I list play upon this theme. St. Augustine. The City of God (A.D. 413-426). David Knowles, ed. New York: Penguin, 1984. (Pb)
Both as an account of what Christian religiosity implies and also as the most extreme vision of a moral and material order in which we must fail especially when we think that we are behaving well. Michel de Montaigne. Selections from the Essays (1595). Donald M. Frame, ed. and trans. Arlington Heights, Ill.: Harlan Davidson, 1973. (Pb)
The question of how a skeptic can live his life as a social and political agent is often asked, and here it is examined in "attempts," or thought experiments. Nothing is asserted and everything can he doubted without despair or destructiveness. For me it is the model of how to think. Leo Tolstoy. War and Peace (1865-69). Louise Maude and Aylmer Maude, trans. George Gibian, ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1966.
I read it when I was very young and have reread it many times. It is both a complete world in which one lives while one reads on and the most successful of all attempts to integrate public history and private lives. Thomas Mann. The Magic Mountain (1924). H.T. Lowe-Porter, trans. New York: Random House, 1969. (Pb)
The political novel achieves the same effect as War and Peace, but in a different way. It allows us to rush helplessly into the First World War, not knowing why but how the European world committed collective suicide.
In some indefinable way the mass of historical novels I read as a child turned me into a historian. Everything from Alexandre Dumas, Sir Walter Scott and Dickens's Tale of Two Cities to an endless number of far less distinguished romances, not least those of Rafael Sabatini, inspired an enduring passion for history. The mixture of this inbred taste for the past and the need to explain the events of my childhood, as a refugee in and out of the Europe of the Second World War, have structured my work as a political theorist from the first. Zeph Stewart
Zeph Stewart's career at Harvard began in the 1940s as a graduate student and later as a junior fellow in the Society of Fellows. He recently assumed a new position as director of Harvard's Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, D.C. He continues as the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities in the Classics Department. Throughout his professional life, he has written on the literature, philosophy and religion of the Greek and Roman world. His current pursuit focuses on religion of the Hellenistic period.
These works give one some understanding of the human condition, of man's place in the world and of the marvel of human creativity. Homer. The Iliad (ca. 800 B.c.). Robert Fitzgerald, trans. New York: Doubleday, 1975. (Pb).
My choice of career was partly influenced by a comparatively early reading of Homer's Iliad (probably in an abridged form). The cast of distinct and memorable characters, the essentially simple but deftly contrived plot, the sombre atmosphere of the opening and closing scenes, the wonderful balance of crowds in action and intimate detail, all picture a whole civilization and yet endure both as types and symbols and as a very human story. I felt in touch with the beginnings and grandeur of both the literature and the history of my own world. The Bible. Books of Genesis and Exodus.
Perhaps I felt some of the same appeal in these simply and beautifully crafted ideas and anecdotes from the earliest parts of the Bible as I found in Homer, but here the mystery of things unseen and of man's dependence on his faith (whatever it is) come through much more clearly. I was thrilled by the sense of motion and purpose in history, whereas change and motion in the Iliad are more personal and psychological. Thomas Mann. The Magic Mountain (1924). 11. T. Lowe-Porter, trans. New York: Random House, 1969. (Pb)
Having been brought up on traditional English and American nineteenth-century novels, I was gripped by the inner world and its outward reflections that seemed so modern and powerful in Mann's writing, even when it was most wordy. Such a tour de force as the entrapping snowstorm was frightening and full of meaning, giving character to the physical world and to exterior experience like that found in the post-Impressionists. It led me not only into more reading of Mann but also into an appreciation of much other contemporary literature and art. Cleanth Brooks. Modern Poetry and the Tradition. Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1970. (Pb)
This critical survey, now a little passé, opened a door for me just at the moment that I was looking for ways to appreciate the new poets (Yeats and Eliot in particular). I found in the New Criticism some of the same methods applied to modern poetry that were familiar in classical scholarship, and Brooks's analyses and connection-making brought me deeper appreciation, but also showed me the limitations of his method in his treatment of Frost. William Shakespeare. King Lear (1605). New York: Penguin, 1984. (Pb)
Many plays and films, from Aeschylus to the present, have moved me deeply, but perhaps none more than King Lear in the three superb performances that I have seen. The power of speech to evoke man's most subtle and contradictory insights, the interplay of good and evil in the world, the terror of the irrational and the unknown and the healing power of hope and love are all woven into a single drama.
In the course of my professional work I have of course occasionally read books that have had an enormous impact at the time on my thinking and understanding, but which could often not be recommended to a general audience, particularly an English-
reading one. I think of Erwin Rohde's Der griechische Roman, or E. R. Dodds's The Greeks and the Irrational (fine for a general audience), or of A. J. Festugiere's La revelation d'Hermes Trismegiste. To someone who is seeking to understand the thinking and literature of another people in another time such books can light up a whole cultural landscape. Sidney Verba
Sid Verba is the Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor and director of the Harvard University Library. He is also on the board of the Harvard University Press but, as a serious political scientist, reserves time to teach government at Harvard.
Mark Twain. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884). New York: Harper & Row, 1984. (Pb)
It taught me about being an American — about growing up, about whites and blacks, about escape, about big rivers.
Chaim Grade. Rabbis and Wives (1982). Harold Rabinowitz and I. H. Grade, trans. New York: Random House, 1983. (Pb)
It describes the world of the Eastern European sktetl — the world of my grandparents. Grade, like Dickens, gives the texture of life. Alexis de Tocqueville. Democracy in America (1835-40). G. Laurence, trans. New York: Random House, 1981. (Pb)
Probably still the greatest book about American society and politics.
William Shakespeare. Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2 (1596-97). Arthur Quiller-Couch et al., eds. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1965. (Pb)
. Richard II (1595). New York: Penguin, 1981. (Pb)
All the Histories — especially these two — are great treatises on politics, maturity and responsibility. V. O. Key, Jr. and Alexander Heard. Southern Politics in State and Nation (1949). Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1984. (Pb)
The first book that taught me to think like a social scientist. Still a classic account of a past political world. Luise Vosgerchian
Luise Vosgerchian is the Walter W Nautnburg Professor of Music at Harvard University. She has been a teacher and active contributor to the musical life at Harvard University for twenty-six years. In 1971 she became a professor of music, and was appointed to her present chair in 1974. She subsequently served for four years as chairman of the Music Department.
As a concert pianist, Luise Vosgerchian has appeared with major orchestras. including the New York Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, as well as with numerous chamber and ensemble groups in both the United States and Europe. Her recordings include nineteenth- and twentieth-century works by such coinposers as Brahms. Schumann, Debussy, Ives and Bartok.
I hope the spiritual and intellectual comprehension of the creative process so beautifully expressed in these books will fire young students to act against all that is now and will be potentially destructive.
The following books from my reading list have strongly influencecl my teaching from several points of view:
1. The importance of discovering.
2. Awakening the responsibility to the artistic conscience.
3. The importance of total commitment to learning.
4. Stimulating the creative use of knowledge. Alfred North Whitehead. The Aims of Education and Other Essays (1929). New York: Free Press, 1967. (Pb) Wendell Berry. Recollected Essays, 1965-1980. San Francisco: North Point Press, 1981. (Pb) Ben Shahn. The Shape of Content. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1957. (Pb) D. W. Prall. Aesthetic Analysis. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1936. Rainer Maria Rilke. Letters to a Young Poet (1929). M. D. Herter Norton. trans. New York: W. W. Norton, 1963. (Pb) D. H. Lawrence. Studies in Classic American Literature (1923). New York: Penguin, 1977. (Pb) Gordon R. Willey
Gordon Willey is the Bowditch Professor of Mexican and Central American Archaeology and Ethnology Emeritus and, currently, a senior professor in anthropology at Harvard University. He has long-time research interests in Mesoamerican archaeology, especially in Mayan studies, and has conducted fieldwork in Belize, Guatemala and Honduras. He has also had field experience in Nicaragua, Panama and Peru.
In selecting the following books I have tried to strike a balance between the impact they made upon me at first reading and the impressions they have left with me ever since. It is a very personalized list, most of it closer to me than to my profession. Indeed, only one of the six books is strictly archaeological, and four of the six are works of fiction. I shall take them up in the chronological order of my first reading them. Robert Louis Stevenson. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886). New York: Dodd, Mead, 1979.
My first reading of this was in 1922, when I was nine years old; since then I have reread it on several occasions. The magic of this fascinating fable of good and evil never fails. While as a youngster I was undoubtedly first captured by its "mystery and horror" aspects, I think even then I was aware of the moral tragedy Stevenson depicted so wonderfully. F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby (1925). New York: Scribner's, 1981.
I read this first at the right time — as an undergraduate in college — but it continues to be an old and dear favorite. Fitzgerald's lyric masterpiece tells us about the dreams, desires and heartbreaks that "float in the wake" (to use a good Fitzgeraldian phrase) of the search for money and power. The whole narrative is also pervaded by the ever-present concern for social class and status that lay — and still lies — just below the surface of American life. Oswald Spengler. The Decline of the West (1919-22), Charles Francis Atkinson, trans. 2 vols. New York: Knopf, 1975.
I was bowled over by this vast, absurd, learned, pretentious book when I read it in 1936.1 suppose it was the first "Big Book" I had ever read. I don't go back to it much now. As an archaeologist I am interested in many of the things Spengler has to say, though I think many of Spengler's ideas are wrongheaded and even bad. At the same time, the book has value. Vere Gordon Childe. The Danube in Prehistory (1929). New York: AMS Press, 1976.
This was read as part of my graduate professional education in 1939-40.1 select it as one of the finest professional and technical works of this greatest of modern archaeologists. In it Childe shows the way archaeological syntheses should be written. It made an initial and a lasting impression upon me and my career. Anthony Powell. A Dance to the Music of Time (1962-75). 12 vols. Boston: Little, Brown, 1976.
I read the twelve volumes of this splendid novel serially as they appeared, and since then I have reread the whole series twice, each time with new pleasure. I seem never to tire of it. Perhaps it is not up to Proust's Remembrance of Things Past, but I like it better. It is witty, sensitive, involved yet remote; my sense of empathy with Nicholas Jenkins, the narrator, seems always complete. Vladimir Nabokov. Pale Fire (1962). New York: Putnam,1980. (Pb)
This is a very strange book, and I do not really understand why I am so entranced by it. Many of Nabokov's other things I don't care for, but I have read this at least three times. One thing about it is that Nabokov is an extraordinarily visual writer. The imagery is superb; it is like dreaming in Color-Vision. The story is ridiculous, poignant, and enchanting, but it opens up a world of the imagination that becomes more real than the real world, SPORT
Andrew Ward
Sport is a worldwide phenomenon that bonds nations by its rules and yet provides a basis for competition. Major sporting events, such as Olympic Games and World Cups, attract record television audiences and generate enormous interest. But sport also gives people fun and friendship at the grass-roots level, and it is a great source of stories. This reading list concentrates on nonfiction books, but there is also a vast amount of fictional work that provides an emotional feel for sport; in particular, see the work of P G Wodehouse (golf), Bernard Malamud and W P Kinsella (baseball), Frederick Exley (American football), David Storey (rugby league), Jack London (boxing), and Dick Francis (horse racing). In recent years, as sport gains more credence as a subject of serious study, it has become a fertile ground for sociologists, philosophers, psychologists, and historians, who have all shown that sport can teach us a lot about society and relationships.
Sport may have to be explained in terms of things beyond itself
but it has also to be enjoyed for its own sake.
RICI TARO HOLT Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture (1938; translated from Dutch 1949) by Johan Huizinga. A classic study of the philosophy of play. The Football Man: Passions and People in Soccer (1968) by Arthur Hopcraft. Hopcraft provides a highly readable overview of the traditional roles of soccer people. Concentrating on Britain, where soccer has its roots, he captures what the game means to all participants, from players to spectators.
The Boys of Summer (1971) by Roger K. A journalist tells of his love affair with the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team of the 1950s. Kahn not only describes the players, interviewed 20 years on, but also explains how he was captivated by sport through his father's interest. Sports in America (1976) by James Michener. A sports enthusiast and best-selling novelist, Michener reviews the pains and pleasures of sport in the late 20th century. The Oxford Companion to Sports and Games (1976) edited by John Arlott_ A comprehensive paperback which documents the history of every sport and has entries on key people and venues. Sport and the British (1989) by Richard Holt. Holt's book examines sport as part of the general history of Britain. He describes the origins of fair play and amateurism, and traces the development of gambling and professionalism. Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times (1990) by Thomas Hauser. A wonderfully researched book which reconstructs the life of the world's greatest ever boxer in the words of those who knew him during his career. Information Sources in Sport and Leisure (1992) edited by Michele Shoebridge. A book for serious students researching specific aspects of sport. The Complete Book of the Olympics (1992) by David Wallechinsky. A massive compendium which gives the result of every Olympic final event since 1896 and documents the most fascinating stories of the Games.
Bouton, Jim. American, 1939- . Ball Four. Rec: Counterpunch NF NYPL Pelé, Brazilian, 1940- . My Life and the Beautiful Game. Rec: Counterpunch Trans

Religion

The Introduction to Occult and Paranormal could stand, unaltered, here. The fact that it does not — and that making it do so would seem both frivolous and provocative — is perhaps an indication of the abiding authority and strength of religious studies, if not of the claims of religion itself. Certainly, whatever follies and barbarities have been inherent in religious practice, its principle has often synthesized the best moral, ethical and philosophical thought (to say nothing of poetry and other arts) of which the human mind is capable. Hence, the bias of the books on this list is less towards the detail of specific religions (though some outstanding works of Christian apologetics are included) than towards discussion of those spiritual and philosophical dilemmas to which religious thinkers have notably and regularly addressed themselves. There are, in fact, very few recommendable books on the validity and transcendental potentiality of "paganism," or on systems of moral, philosophical and artistic life which exclude the religious initiative — and this lack focuses attention on two fundamental questions. Is religious belief an essential prerequisite of such matters, and are those who think they can manage without it therefore deluded? Or does the flaw in objectivity — crucial at least philosophically — tell us something about the exclusive nature of religious belief itself?

See ANTHROPOLOGY (Dodds, Lewis, Lienhardt, Radin); AUTOBIOGRAPHY (Augustine, Fox, Gosse); BIOGRAPHY (Bain-ton, Renan); DIARIES (Kierkegaard, Kilvert, Pope John, Teilhard de Chardin, Woodforde); DRAMA (Sayers); HISTORY/BRITISH (Bede, Tawney, Thomas); HISTORY/ EUROPEAN (Barraclo ugh, Cohn, Ladurie); MYTHOLOGY (Branston, Burland, Dowson. Eliade, Frazer, Harrison, Huxley, Weston); PHILOSOPHY (Aquinas, Gilson, Marcel. Spinoza); POETRY (Gardner); PSYCHOLOGY (Jung); SOCIOLOGY (Berger)

Abu Bakr Muhammad bin 'Abdulmalik ibn Tufail, Arab in Islamic Spain, ca. 1105-1185. Awakening of the Soul (Hayy ibn Yaqzan). Rec: Ward Adams, Henry Mont St Michel and Chartres (1904)
Extraordinary study of 13th-century Catholicism in France, its cathedrals and its Mariolatry. The book could also be recommended under Architecture; either way Adams is delicious (and malicious) on the Virgin and her worship. See Warner; AUTOBIOGRAPHY; HISTORY/AMERICAN Aletrino, N. Six World Religions (1968)
Brief sketch of the origin, growth and meaning of each of six great non-Christian religions of the world. Unpolemical; thorough; readable.
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Amar Chitra Katha, Publishers of Indian comic books Anselm, St., Italian-English writing in Latin, 1033-1109. Proslogium. Rec: Aquinas SJC Reply to Gaunilo. Rec: Aquinas Ashvaghosha, Indian writing in Sanskrit, 1st-2nd C CE. Buddha-charita. Rec: StJE Athanasius, St., Byzantine Greek, ca. 297-373. On the Incarnation. Rec: Aquinas Augustine, St., North African writing in Latin, 354-430. Works. Rec: Adler (Selections) Confessions. Rec: Aquinas Bloom Col37 Col61 Collh91 Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 GBWW Lubbock Seymour-Smith SJC Ward City of God. Rec: Aquinas Bloom Colcc91 (Selections) GBWW On Christian Doctrine. Rec: Aquinas GBWW On the Teacher. Rec: Aquinas On the Spirit and the Letter. Rec: Aquinas On Nature and Grace. Rec: Aquinas On the Gift of Perserverance. Rec: Aquinas On the Predestination of the Saints. Rec: Aquinas Anonymous, Indian (extant only in Chinese translation), 5th-6th C. Awakening of Faith in Mahayana. Rec: Oriental Barbour, Ian G. Issues in Science and Religion (1968)
Masterly contribution to the debate between science and religion; issues discussed with exemplary clarity and fairness. Also: Science and Religion. See MATHEMATICS (Koestler) Barth, Karl, Swiss writing in German, 1886-1968. The Word of God and the Word of Man. Rec: GBWW Credo. Rec: TLS Barthélemy St.-Hilaire, Jules, French, 1805-1895. The Buddha and His Religion. Rec: Lubbock Beck, Charlotte Joko. American, 1917?- . Everyday Zen. Rec: Utne Bernstein, Marmite Nuns (1976)
What are nuns? Why? How? Where? This book is jolly and journalistic in places, but also manages to document the need for solitude, celibacy and a life of worship in the contemporary West. No history; concentrates mainly on modern British and US convent life. Bettenson, Henry Documents of the Christian Church (1963)
Selection runs from the Neronian persecution (AD 64) to the revised constitution of the World Council of Churches (1961). Useful if you want to know exactly what Luther nailed to the door of Wittenberg Cathedral or what the Council of Trent said about original sin. Anonymous, Indian writing in Sanskrit, ca. 200 BCE. The Bhagavad Gita. (See also Vyasa. Mahabharata) Rec: Bloom Fadiman 4 Oriental Rexmo StJE Ward Bible
Those approaching the Bible as a central plank in their Christian faith and practice will probably use a modern translation; those approaching it as one of the seminal books of the Western literary tradition will be more familiar with the words of the Authorized Version (1611). There are no really good recensions for children, preserving both the poetry and the mystery: Edwards and Steen: A Child's Bible (1973) comes nearest. See Bultmann; MYTHOLOGY (Hooke) Various Authors, Jews writing in Hebrew, 13th-2nd C BCE. Bible. Hebrew Scriptures ("Old Testament"). (See also Apocrypha) Rec: Adler Aquinas Bloom Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 Good Reading Lubbock Seymour-Smith SJC (Selections) Ward Genesis. Rec: Col61 Colcc91 Collh91 Exodus. Rec: Colcc91 Isaiah. Rec: Colcc91 Utne Amos. Rec: Col61 Job. Rec: Col61 Collh91 Meaningful Rex Song of Songs. Rec: Rexmo Revised Standard Version. Rec: NYPL Various Authors, Jewish Christians writing in Greek, 1st C CE. Bible. New Testament. (See also New Testament Apocrypha) Rec: Adler Aquinas Bloom Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 Good Reading Lubbock Seymour-Smith SJC (Selections) Ward Gospels. Rec: Collh91 Matthew. Rec: Col61 Colcc91 John. Rec: Col61 Acts. Rec: Colcc91 Romans. Rec: Col61 Colcc91 James. Rec: Colcc91 Revelation. Rec: Colcc91 Revised Standard Version. Rec: NYPL Various Authors, Jews writing in Hebrew and Aramaic, 2nd C BCE-1st C CE. Apocrypha. Rec: Bloom Various Authors, Christians writing in Greek, 2nd C. New Testament Apocrypha. Gospel of Truth (Survives in Coptic translation). Rec: Seymour-Smith Bodhidharma (Daruma), Indian-Chinese, ca. 470-543 . Selected Writings. Rec: StJE Bonhoeffer, Dietrich Letters and Papers from Prison (1953)
Bonhoeffer, a martyr to the cause of Christian resistance to Hitler, propounded the idea of "religionless Christianity"; Letters and Papers is one of the most-quoted Christian documents from World War H. Also: Ethics; The Cost of Discipleship; Life Together, etc Anonymous, Egyptian, Ancient, 23rd-16th C BCE. Book of the Dead. Rec: Bloom Browne, Sir Thomas, English, 1605-1682. Religio Medici. Rec: Bloom Hydriotaphia, or Urne-Buriall. Rec: Bloom Garden of Cyrus. Rec: Bloom Buber, Martin I and Thou (1923)
The core of Buber's philosophy of religion, education, society and politics; concise and sensitive. Also: Between Man and Men; Good and Evil; Paths in Utopia Buber, Martin, Austrian, 1878-1965. I and Thou. Rec: Boston PL Seymour-Smith TLS Buckley, William F.. American, 1925- . God and Man at Yale. Rec: National Review Various Authors, writing in Pali and Sanskrit, Indians writing in Pali and Sanskrit, 100-400 CE. Buddhist Scriptures. Rec: Ward Bultmann, Rudolph Jesus Christ and Mythology (1960)
Bultmann is concerned to "demythologize" the Christian faith, to make it intelligible and relevant to those who can no longer take literally statements about a supernatural world. Also: Jesus and the Word; Primitive Christianity; Theology of the New Testament Bunyan, John, English, 1628-1688. Pilgrim's Progress. Rec: Bloom Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 Good Reading Lubbock Rex Seymour-Smith Burkert, Walter, German, 1931- . Homo Necans: The Anthropology of Ancient Greek Sacrificial Ritual and Myth. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Butler, Joseph, English, 1692-1752. The Analogy of Religion. Rec: Lubbock Butterfield, Herbert Christianity and History (1949)
Influential views on the meaning of history, and the relation of historical processes to Christian thinking; light in touch; graphic; provocative. Also: The Origins of Modern Science, etc Calvin, John, Swiss writing in Latin, 1509-1564. Institutes of the Christian Religion. Rec: Adler Colcc91 GBWW Seymour-Smith Castaneda, Carlos The Don Juan Trilogy (1969— 1972)
These three volumes — The Teachings of Don Juan; A Separate Reality; Journey to Ixtlan — by a young anthropologist who met a wise old Yaqui Indian in the New Mexico desert, created a sensation in the early 1970s and also some controversy: was the whole affair a complicated hoax? Anyway, the books are excellent and thought provoking — the religion of peyote, out of time out of place. Castaneda, Carlos. American, 1931-1998. The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge. Rec: LAT Chadwick, Henry The Early Church (1967)
A good account of the way in which the Christian church, having taken root in the cracks of the Roman Empire, came to tower over every aspect of life and culture. Also: Early Christian Thought and the Classical Tradition Various Authors, Chinese, 6th-10th C (with commentaries from the 16th-20th C). Ch'an and Zen Teaching. Rec: Ward (religion) Charvaka, Indian, ca. 600 BCE. Selected Writings. Rec: StJE (religion) Conze, Edward (trans) Buddhist Scriptures (1959)
Comprehensive selection, including many of the best-known Buddhist texts. Also: Buddhism. See Humphreys.
Crosse, F. L. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (1957) DI Everything from Original Sin to Last Judgement, lucidly and alphabetically explained. D'Annunzio, Gabriele, Italian, 1863-1938. Maia: In Praise of Life. Rec: Bloom Darwish, Mahmud, Palestinian (Arabic), 1942?-. The Music of Human Flesh. Rec: Bloom Davies, Horton Christian Deviations (1954)
Compassionate but hard look (from a position of inexorable orthodoxy) at such "fringe" movements as Spiritualism, Christian Science and Moral Rearmament. Also: Puritan Worship. See ANTHROPOLOGY (Lewis) Deanesly, Margaret The History of the Mediaeval Church, 590-1500 (1925)
Splendid guide to the medieval Christian church; particularly good on the more human (and less political) subjects like friars, hospitals and heretics. Also: The Lollard Bible Various Authors, Indians writing in Hindi, 15th-17th C. Devotional Poetry of North India. (See also Indian Devotional Poetry, Kabir) Rec: MW Asian Sayings of Gautama Buddha, Indian writing in Pali, ca. 300 BCE. Dhammapada. Rec: Oriental Seymour-Smith StJE Ward Anonymous, Indian writing in Sanskrit, 1st C CE (translated into Chinese ca. 400). Diamond Sutra. Rec: StJE Dodd, C. H. The Founder of Christianity (1971)
Award-winning book by British New Testament scholar who directed the translation of The New English Bible; result of a life-time's meditation on the text of the New Testament. Also: The Apostolic Preaching and Its Development; The Parables of the Kingdom; The A uthority of the Bible Dogen, Japanese, 1200-1253. Shobo-Genzo (Sermons). Rec: StJE Dunham, Barrows The Heretics (1961)
Fascinating study of heresy in the last 2000 years, concentrating on specific figures but addressing itself to the general proposition that heresy and persecutions are dynamic elements in the evolution of thought. Challenging and authoritative on what orthodoxy is and how it is made and remade. Dunham knows what he's talking about: he conceived this book when he was arraigned by Senator McCarthy. See HISTORY/EUROPEAN (Ladurie) Epstein, Isidore Judaism (1970)
This book does not deal exclusively with religion, but also covers political, social and economic issues. Provocative; authoritative. Ferraby, John All Things Made New (1957)
Comprehensive introduction to the history and teachings of the Baha'i faith, usefully incorporating many quotations from Baha'i holy writings.
Feuerbach, Ludwig, German, 1802-1874. Essence of Christianity. Rec: Aquinas Gaunilo, French writing in Latin, 11th C. On Behalf of the Fool. Rec: Aquinas (religion) Various Authors, Christians writing in Greek, 1st-2nd C. The Genuine Epistles of the Apostolical Fathers (Translated and published by William Wake (1657-1737)). Rec: Lubbock Ghazzali, Abu Hamid Muhammad al-, Arab, 1059-1111. Deliverer from Error. Rec: App Oriental Ward (Sufism) Guenon, Rene (personal rec) Guillaume, Alfred Islam (1954)
The resurgence of Islam as a world force makes a book for Westerners on the subject of great importance. This one is excellent: clear, thorough, unprejudiced. Gurdjieff, George Ivanovitch, Armenian, 1866-1949. Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson. Rec: Seymour-Smith Various Authors, Arab, 9th C. Hadith (Traditions of Islam). Rec: Ward Hakuin, Japanese, 1689-1769. Writings. Rec: Oriental Happold, F. C. Mysticism (1963)
Good introduction to, and anthology of, the writers and seers (of all spiritual traditions) who have sought to penetrate the heart of being, if it has one. Also: Religious Faith of Twentieth-century Man
Harrison, Jane E., English, 1850-1928. Themis: A Study of the Social Origins of Greek Religion. Rec: Counterpunch NF Anonymous, Indian writing in Sanskrit, 1st C CE? (translated into Chinese ca. 400). Heart Sutra. Rec: StJE Hebblethwaite, Peter The Christian-Marxist Dialogue and Beyond (1976)
A book of capital importance for those who want to understand some of the apparently odd ecclesiastico-political alignments in the Third World. Knotty contents; easy style. Also: Runaway Church
Various Authors, Chinese, ca. 1000. Hekigan Roku (Pi Yen Lu; Blue Cliff Record). Rec: Ward (religion) Hick, John Death and Eternal Life (1976)
Comprehensive examination of contemporary attitudes to death in literature, empirical "evidence" of survival, parapsychology, the doctrines and attitudes of religion. Christian bias does not unbalance a generally fascinating, eclectic book. Also: Evil and the God of Love; Faith and Knowledge
Hildegard of Bingen, German writing in Latin, 1098-1179. Scivias. Rec: Utne (religion)
Hirsch, Edward. American, 1950- . Earthly Measures. Rec: Bloom A collection of meditations on the manifestations of the divine in everyday life. Huineng, Chinese, 638-713. The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch. (See also Ch'an and Zen Teaching) Rec: App Fadiman 4 Oriental StJE Humphreys, Christmas Buddhism (1962) a Anonymous, Chinese, 12th C BCE?. I Ching (Yijing; Book of Changes). Rec: Counterpunch Trans Seymour-Smith StJE Inca and others, Peru, Pre-Columbian, 12th-15th C. . Rec: Ward Various Authors, Indian. Indian Devotional Poetry. Rec: Oriental Various Authors, Indian. Indo-Islamic Poetry. Rec: Oriental Isvarakrsna, Indian writing in Sanskrit, 4th C. Samkhyakarika. Rec: StJE Jacobus de Varagine, Italian writing in Latin, ca. 1227-1298. Golden Legend. Rec: Ward (religion)
A collection of lives of the saints that became a medieval bestseller. James, William The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902) There has been much new thought since this study of religious conversion first appeared; but it remains a classic in its field. Also: Psychology; The Will to Believe Jayadeva, Indian writing in Sanskrit, 12th C. Gitagovinda. Rec: MW Asian Oriental StJE Ward (religion) John Damascene, St., Syrian Greek, ca. 675-ca. 749. An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith. Rec: Aquinas John of the Cross, St. (Juan de la Cruz), Spanish, 1542-1591. Complete Poetry. Rec: Bloom Ward John Paul II (Pope), Latin, 1920-2005. On the hundredth anniversary of Rerum novarum: encyclical letter Centesimus annus. Rec: National Review John XXIII (Pope), Italian writing in Latin, 1881-1963. (See also Vatican II) Encyclicals of Pope John XXIII. Rec: Boston PL Jonas, Hans, German-American writing in German, 1903-1993. The Gnostic Religion. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Various Authors, Jews in Provence, Spain, and Palestine writing in Hebrew and Aramaic, 12th-16th C. Kabbalah (Includes the Zohar and many other books). (See also Zohar) Rec: Seymour-Smith Kabir, Indian writing in Hindi, ca. 1430-ca. 1518 . Poems. (See also Devotional Poetry of North India) Rec: Ward Kalidasa, Indian writing in Sanskrit, ca. 400 . The Cloud Messenger. Rec: Fadiman 4 MW Asian Sakuntala. Rec: App Fadiman 4 Lubbock Meaningful MW Asian Oriental StJE Birth of the War God. Rec: StJE Kanada, Indian writing in Sanskrit, 2nd C BCE. Vaisheshika-Sutra. Rec: StJE Kapleau, Philip The Three Pillars of Zen (1966)
The cult of Zen among the rootless young of the 1960s has tended to leave in our minds a barely understood, misguided and partial view of a serious and coherent religious philosophy. Zen is a mystic system (derived in Japan from the Ch'an Buddhist sect of China): its aim is personal tranquillity, and its methods are austerity and the encouragement of the fine arts and education. This book ignores Western hippy accretions and concentrates on the central pillars of the original philosophy.
Keble, John, English, 1792-1866. The Christian Year. Rec: Lubbock Kempis, Thomas a, German writing in Latin, 1380-1471. Imitation of Christ. Rec: Lubbock Kukai, Japanese, 774-835. Kukai and His Major Works. Rec: Oriental Ward (religion)
K¼ng, Hans, Swiss writing in German, 1928- . On Being a Christian. Rec: TLS La Barre, Weston. American, 1911-1996. The Ghost Dance: Origins of Religion. Rec: LAT Various Authors, Indians writing in Sanskrit, 5th C (Chinese translation). Lankavatara Sutra. Rec: Oriental Lao-tzu (Laozi), Chinese, ca. 604-ca. 531 BCE. Tao te Ching (Daodejing). (See also Texts of Taoism) Rec: App Good Reading Oriental Rexmo Seymour-Smith StJE Utne Leo XIII (Pope), Italian writing in Latin, 1810-1903. Aeterni Patris. Rec: Aquinas Rerum Novarum. Rec: Aquinas Lewis, C. S., English, 1898-1963. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Rec: NYPL Time The Abolition of Man. Rec: National Review Mere Christianity. Rec: National Review Anonymous, Indian writing in Sanskrit, ca. 255. Lotus Sutra (Saddharma-Pundarika Sutra, also known as Sutra of the Lotus of the True Law). Rec: App Oriental Ward Luther, Martin, German, 1483-1546. Table Talk. Rec: Adler Three Treatises. Rec: Adler Freedom of a Christian. Rec: SJC Secular Authority. Rec: SJC Commentary on Galatians. Rec: SJC (Selections) Sincere Admonition. Rec: SJC On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church. Rec: Seymour-Smith Various Authors, Indians writing in Pali, 480 BCEff. Mahaparinibbana Sutta. Rec: StJE Various Authors, Indians writing in Pali, 4th C BCE?. Mahasatipatthana Sutta. Rec: Oriental Manu, Indian writing in Sanskrit, 2nd Millennium BCE? . Institutes of Manu. Rec: StJE Marcus Aurelius Meditations (2nd century)
If there are any spiritually mature books on "paganism- (see introduction to this list), these calm, rigorous Stoic reflections head the list. This was the seedbed of Christian morality, too. Marcus Aurelius, Roman writing in Greek, 121-180. Meditations. Rec: Adler Col37 Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 GBWW Lubbock Rex Seymour-Smith Utne Ward Merton, Thomas. American, 1915-1968. The Seven Storey Mountain. Rec: Boston PL Hungry Mind National Review Milarepa, Tibetan, 1052-1135. Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa. Rec: Ward Anonymous, Indian writing in Pali, 2nd-1st C BCE. Milindapa±ha, . Rec: Oriental Ward Revealed to Muhammad, Arab, ca. 610-632. Qur'an. Rec: App Bloom Fadiman 4 Good Reading Lubbock (Selections) Oriental Seymour-Smith Ward Nagarjuna, Indian writing in Sanskrit, 2nd-3rd C. Vigrahavyvartani. Rec: StJE Newman, John Henry Apologia pro Vita Sua (1864)
Charles Kingsley had said that truth had never been a virtue of the Roman Catholic clergy. Newman replied by defending his own intellectual integrity and commenting, in splendid prose, on his spiritual history. Also: An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, etc. See BIOGRAPHY (Strachey) Newman, John Henry, English, 1801-1890. Apologia pro Vita Sua. Rec: Bloom Grammar of Assent. Rec: Bloom Idea of a University. Rec: Bloom Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine. Rec: Aquinas Nisargadatta, Maharaj, Indian writing in Marathi, 1897-1981. I Am That. Rec: Utne Oman, John Grace and Personality (1917) 9
Classic exploration of one of the most important of all theological problems, the relationship of divine grace and human free will. Also: Vision and Authority Padma Sambhava, Tibetan, c.717-c.762. Tibetan Book of the Dead. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Pagels, Elaine. American, 1943- . The Gnostic Gospels. Rec: ML Nonfiction Utne Various Authors, Indians writing in Sanskrit, 5th C. Panchatantra. Rec: Oriental Ward Pannenberg, Wolfhart, German, 1928- . Systematic Theology. Rec: National Review Pascal, Blaise Pensees (1669)
Pascal's luminous notes for an unfinished apology for Christianity which would confound the followers of Descartes. Also: Provincial Letters Pascal, Blaise, French, 1623-1662. Pensées (Thoughts). Rec: Adler Aquinas Bloom Fadiman 3 Fadiman 4 GBWW Lubbock Seymour-Smith SJC (Selections) Ward Provincial Letters. Rec: Adler GBWW Ward Pata±jali, Indian writing in Sanskrit, ca. 300 CE. Yogasutra. Rec: Oriental StJE War Pelikan, Jaroslav. American, 1923- . The Christian Tradition. Rec: National Review Phillips, Margaret Mann Erasmus on His Times (1967)
Shortened version of The Adages of Erasmus. The original bedside book, full of urbane wit and charm. See BIOGRAPHY (Huizinga) Philo Judaeus of Alexandria, Alexandrian Greek, ca. 20 BCE-ca. 50 CE. Allegorial Expositions of the Holy Laws. Rec: Seymour-Smith Pius X, St. (Pope), Italian writing in Latin, 1835-1914. Pascendi Dominici Gregis. Rec: Aquinas Pius XI (Pope), Italian writing in Latin, 1857-1939. Quadragesimo Anno. Rec: Aquinas Pius XII (Pope), Italian writing in Latin, 1876-1958. Humani Generis. Rec: Aquinas Pizan, Christine de, See Christine de Pizan Anonymous, Maya (Mexico and Central America), 1519 ff.. Popol Vuh. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Various Authors, Indians writing in Sanskrit, 1st C CE (translated into Chinese from 179). Prajnaparamita. Rec: Oriental Various Authors, Various, 16th C. Protestant Reformation (Ed. by Hans J. Hillerbrand). Rec: Colcc91 Various Authors, Various, 20th C. Reader in Comparative Religion: An Anthropological Approach (Ed. By William A. Lessa and Evon Z. Vogt). Rec: Good Reading Renan (personal rec) Various Authors, Indians writing in Sanskrit, 12th-8th C BCE. Rig Veda. (See also Vedas) Rec: StJE Rumi, Jalal ad-Din, Persian, 1207-1273. The Divan of Shams-i-Tabriz. Rec: Utne Mathnawi. Rec: Meaningful Oriental Ward Discourses. Rec: Ward Various Authors, Indians writing in Gurumukhi, 15th C. Sacred Writings of the Sikhs. Rec: Ward Schiffmann, Erich. American. Yoga: The Spirit and Practice of Moving Into Stillness. Rec: Utne Scholem, Gershom, Israeli, 1897-1982. The Messianic Idea in Judaism, and Other Essays on Jewish Spirituality. Rec: TLS Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Shantideva, Indian writing in Sanskrit, 7th/8th C. Bodhicaryavatara. Rec: Oriental Smart, Ninian The Phenomenon of Christianity (1979)
Fresh approach to Christianity as a religious phenomenon. The author slaps a "phenomenological grid" over it, and describes the many facets into which it is then broken up. Also: The Religious Experience of Mankind; Philosophers and Religious Truth
Smith, Margaret, English, 1884-1970. Rabia the Mystic & Her Fellow Saints in Islam. Rec: Utne (religion) Somadeva Bhatta, Indian writing in Sanskrit, 11th C. Kathasaritsagara. Rec: Ward Sogyal Rinpoche, Tibetan, 1946?. The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. Rec: Utne Various Authors, Chinese, 10th C BCE-20th C CE. Sources of Chinese Tradition. Rec: Ward Various Authors, Indian and Pakistani, 15th C BCE-20th C CE. Sources of Indian Tradition. Rec: Ward Various Authors, Indians writing in Sanskrit, 5th C (Chinese translation). Srimaladevisim-hanada Sutra. Rec: Oriental Struve, Nilcita Christians in Contemporary Russia (1963) Various Authors, Indians writing in Sanskrit, 2nd C CE (Chinese translation). Sukhavativyuha Sutra. Rec: Oriental Suzuki, D. T., Japanese, 1870-1966. Zen Buddhism. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Various Authors, Mesopotamian Jews writing in Hebrew and Aramaic, 2nd to 6th C. Talmud (Babylonian). Rec: Ward Sayings of the Fathers (Pirke Aboth). Rec: Bloom Taylor, Jeremy, English, 1613-1697. Holy Dying. Rec: Bloom Holy Living and Dying. Rec: Lubbock Traditional, Various, Earliest times-19th C. Technicians of the Sacred: A Range of Poetries from Africa, America, Asia, Europe and Oceania (Edited with commentaries by Jerome Rothenberg). (See also Shaking the Pumpkin) Rec: LAT Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre The Phenomenon of Man (1959) P*1.4
Published exactly 100 years after Darwin's The Origin of Species, this book Christianized evolution. Despite some theological and philosophical cavils, Teilhard's great and humane vision has attracted a multitude of followers, and some critical disdain. Also: The Future of Man, etc. See DIARIES: NATURAL HISTORY (Darwin, Huxley, Lack, Medawar, Smith) Teresa of Avila, St. (Teresa de Jesºs), Spanish, 1515-1582. Life of Saint Teresa. Rec: Ward Various Authors, Chinese, 6th C ff.. Texts of Chinese Buddhism. Rec: Oriental Various Authors, Japanese, 6th C ff.. Texts of Japanese Buddhism. Rec: Oriental Various Authors, Chinese, 6th-4th C BCE. Texts of Taoism. (Includes Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu) Rec: Ward Tillich, Paul The Boundaries of Our Being (1966)
Collection of addresses together with autobiographical sketch; theme is how the human predicament, seen against "divine reality", challenges man to become a new being. Also: The Courage to Be; The Shaking of the Foundations Tillich, Paul, German-American writing in English, 1886-1965. The Courage to Be. Rec: NYPL Various Authors, Indians writing in Pali, 5th C BCE. Tripitaka (Tipitaka). Rec: Oriental Various Authors, Indians writing in Sanskrit, ca. 1000-500 BCE. Upanishads. Rec: App Oriental Seymour-Smith StJE Ward Valmiki, Indian writing in Sanskrit, ca. 300 BCE. Ramayana. Rec: Bloom Fadiman 4 Lubbock (Selections) Meaningful MW Asian Oriental StJE Ward Various clerics convened by Popes John XXIII and Paul VI, Latin, Pub. 1962-1965. (See also John XXIII) Vatican II. "Lumen Gentium". Rec: Aquinas Anonymous (Badarayana?), Indian writing in Sanskrit, ca. 4th C BCE-2nd C CE. Vedanta Sutra (with the commentary of Shankara 788-820). Rec: Oriental StJE Various Authors, Indians writing in Sanskrit, 12th-8th C BCE. Vedas. (See also Rig Veda) Rec: Oriental Vidler, A. R. The Church in an Age of Revolution (1961)
Pithy, wide-ranging study of the Christian church as it faces the political, social and theological revolutions of our time. Also: A Variety of Catholic Modernists; 20th-Century Defenders of the Faith; Soundings Anonymous, Indian Buddhist writing in Sanskrit, 2nd C CE. Vimalakirti Sutra. Rec: App Oriental StJE Vyasa, Indian writing in Sanskrit, ca. 200 BCE. The Mahabharata. (See also Bhagavad Gita) Rec: App Bloom Fadiman 4 Lubbock (Selections) Meaningful MW Asian Oriental Rex StJE Utne Ward, Keith The Concept of God(1974)
Fresh, readable account of the philosophy of religion, holding that it is an integral part of human experience, the true focus of which must be some concept of God. Also: Ethics and Christianity Warner, Marina Alone of All Her Sex (1978)
Unshrill feminist history of Mariolatry — the Catholic Church's anti-female creation of the mother of God into a kind of unattainable and unsexing model for women. Wat, W. Montgomery Muhammad. Prophet and Statesman (1974) Well-researched biography; especially good on the sociological perspectives of the man and his ministry. Weil, Simone Waiting on God (1951)
Collection of letters and essays marking some of the stages in Weil's ascetic pilgrimage from revolutionary Marxism to the threshold of the Catholic Church, but no further. Also: Gateway to God; Gravity and Grace; The Need for Roots Wendel, Francoise Calvin (1963) a
Good introduction to the life and thought of a man who, apart from Augustine and Luther, had more influence than any other religious thinker on Western secular society. West, Cornel. American, 1953- . Prophesy Deliverance!. Rec: Colcc91 Race Matters. Rec: Utne Various Authors, Indians writing in Sanskrit, 6th C. . Yogachara writings. Rec: StJE Zaehner, R. C. Hinduism (1966)
Straightforward guide to the various epochs and styles of Hindu thought. Also: Hindu Scriptures; The Bhagavad-gita; The Koran. See MYTHOLOGY (Narayan, O'Flaherty) Various Authors, Parsis (Persian, later Indian) writing in Avestan, Parsis writing in Avestan, ca. 300 CE. Zend-Avesta. Rec: Seymour-Smith Ward Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu), Chinese, 369-286 BCE. Chuang Tzu. Rec: MW Asian Utne Inner Chapters. (See also Texts of Taoism) Rec: Oriental StJE Various authors probably including Moses de Leon (c. 1240-1305), Jews in Spain writing in Hebrew and Aramaic, 13th C. Zohar. (See also Kabbalah) Rec: Utne

Clarissa Atkinson

Clarissa Atkinson is Professor of the History of Christianity at the Harvard Divinity School. Her field is the history of the family as it intersects with the history of Christianity, particularly during late medieval and early modern Europe. Her next book will look back at the Christian ideology of motherhood. She has written Mystic and Pilgrim: The Book of the World of Margery Kempe (1983) and Immaculate and Powerful: The Female in Sacred Image and Social Reality (1985), coedited with Margaret Miles and Constance Hall Buchanan.

I hope these books will encourage people to think about the past in ways that are helpful in preparing for the future.

Margery Kempe. The Book of Margery Kempe. Hope Emily Allen and Sanford Brown Meech, eds. London: Oxford University Press, 1940.
Hope Emily Allen edited this fifteenth-century spiritual autobiography by a woman of King's Lynn who was a mystic, a housewife and a pilgrim. Margery Kempe's own story is wonderful, but when I first saw it with Allen's notes (written in the 1930s), what impressed me was Allen's sense of the existence of a women's history distinct from and connected to "history" (that is, to men's history). Allen was not able to finish the work on Margery Kempe, unfortunately, but she was a pioneer hi the perception of feminine experience. William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White. The Elements of Style (1959). New York: Macmillan, 1979. (Pb)
As far as I know, this is the only book on writing that can be read for pleasure, so that its wisdom is absorbed with delight. Strunk and White make you want to write well: to be verbose, or to use jargon, would be to disappoint your friends. What's more, E. B. White practiced what he preached, which fosters the comforting illusion that we can learn to write like him if we follow these "simple" rules.
Virginia Woolf. A Room of One's Own (1929). New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1981. (Pb)
In pointing to some of the connections between the poverty of women's institutions and the poverty of women's history, Woolf illuminates questions that we have not yet managed to resolve, and creates a new character — Shakespeare's sister — to live in our collective imagination. This brilliant, angry, inspiring work, despite (or perhaps because of) its blindness to the injustices of class, prompts us to look for our own blind spots. Edward H. Carr. What Is History? (1961). New York: Random House, 1967. (Pb)
I read this book at about the time that I started to prepare to be a professional historian — that is, when I entered graduate school. Carr's images of the historian's selection of "facts" were so vivid and persuasive that I finally grasped the point that there is no such thing as a history that is out there, waiting for us to discover it. National, class, ethnic and gender groups constructed their own visions of the past, and have always done so. This may no longer be news, but it was news to me then, and Carr's is still the best brief explanation of the subjectivity of historical interpretation. Joan Kelly. Women, History, and Theory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984.
Joan Kelly's reflections on the way in which women's history has changed "history" broke new ground for students of society and culture. I had known and worked with each of these individual essays, but their cumulative effect in book form is more than the sum of its parts: this is a body of interpretation that alters the ways in which we understand the past.

Constance H. Buchanan

Constance Buchanan is director of Women's Studies in Religion at the Harvard Divinity School. For the past decade, Constance Buchanan has been engaged in developing and directing a Harvard center for research on religion, gender and culture.
These books are about the normative dimension of human life and thought, and about diversity. They are, in particular, concerned with how we might be more self-conscious and self-critical, examining too often the unacknowledged values and assumptions that shape what we see and do. Geoffrey Chaucer. The Canterbury Tales (ca. 1390). New York: Penguin, 1951. (Pb)
The Canterbury Tales is like a verbal Brueghel — a huge canvas depicting medieval English society vividly and in rich detail. What appears to be a simple tale of religious pilgrimage is really a study of the human condition, particularly the meaning of goodness or holiness in human life. Both, Chaucer tells us, are seldom what or where human beings expect them to be. His stinging social criticism warns that human piety and claims for righteousness are often in individuals and institutions the occasion for human folly and corruption. Combining as it does a deep empathy for the foolishness as well as for the dignity of human beings, Chaucer's social criticism imparted to me at an early age the value of observing, respecting, criticizing, and always seeing the humor of our humanity. Michael Walzer. The Revolution of the Saints: A Study in the Origins of Radical Politics (1965). Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982. (Pb)
Walzer has a rare gift for understanding how individuals are oriented and motivated by religious ideas and how these ideas interact with social, economic and political realities. Whereas many scholars assume religion has to do with another world, Walzer understands it as a way of seeing and responding to this world. This study of the Puritan saints is a tremendously skillful exploration of how in seventeenth-century England religion provided the tools for reconceptualizing and reconstructing established social and political arrangements. All too often, modern biases against religion prevent us from seeing what is obviously true historically and around the modern world — religion is a powerful force in public life. Virginia Woolf. Three Guineas (1928). New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1963. (Pt))
In Three Guineas, Virginia Woolf deftly examined the relationship between gender and social values in education and the professions, and the implications of this relationship for both individuals and society as a whole. In doing so, she anticipated a central insight of contemporary analysis of gender, society and culture: that gender and value are deeply intertwined in a culture and in the social arrangements cultural patterns shape. She also saw that the historical exclusion of women from education and the professions — from public power — has given them "freedom from unreal loyalties" and a distinctive moral voice, This freedom and distinctive moral perspective, she argued, if women can self-consciously sustain both as they gain access to power, will be an important resource for transforming the basic value structure of contemporary society and the orientation of that structure toward war.
Margaret R. Miles. Image as Insight: Visual Understanding in Western Christianity and Secular Culture. Boston: Beacon, 1985.
This is one of those rare books that productively criticizes basic, too frequently unacknowledged assumptions in our ways of thinking about the past. Image as Insight lets us see that our approach to understanding historical and contemporary reality is fundamentally skewed by reliance on verbal texts. Arguing that the full task of historical understanding requires as well interpretation of visual images, and of images and texts in relation to one another, Miles proposes a hermeneutics for interpreting the visual as historical evidence. She demonstrates how this will alter our knowledge and conception of human reality. Both have been restricted by traditional methods of historical interpretation which have led us to reconstruct the past as the history largely of an unrepresentative, small elite of skilled, male language users and actors — as the history of the modern subjective consciousness. Diana Eck
Diana Eck is a professor of comparative religion and Indian studies at Harvard University. She is the moderator of the World Council of Churches program on "Dialogue with Proper Living Faiths." Her most recent book is Banaras, City of Light (1982), which followed Darsan: Seeing the Divine Image in India (1981). The Bhagavad Gita (ca. A.D. 1). Franklin Edgerton, trans. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1944.
The Bhagavad Gita is a basic resource for understanding the spiritual life of India. and in my reading and rereading of it through the years, it has become a resource for my own life as well. I first read it in the mid-1960s and was put off by the setting: a battlefield, where the warrior Arjuna recoils at the prospect of fighting his cousins, and throws down his weapons. His charioteer Krishna takes him to task for renouncing his duty to fight. It took me some time to see what Hindus have seen here — that this is not a treatise on war, but a treatise on the nature of responsible action. Krishna teaches the yoga, or discipline, of action: to act and be involved in the world, without personal or egotistical attachment to the fruits of those actions. It is a scripture that has challenged and engaged Hindus for many centuries and has given rise to generations of interpretation and commentary. Wilfred Cantwell Smith. The Meaning and End of Religion (1962). New York: Harper & Row, 1978. (Pb)
This book completely changed my understanding of "religion." Here Smith argues that the noun "religion," as it is used today in the West, has come to refer to a sphere of activities or beliefs that can somehow be circumscribed and distinguished from other spheres of life, such as politics, economics, or social life. Not only does this miss the point of what it means and has meant to be "religious" in the West, but it seriously misrepresents the nature of human religiousness in the Hindu, Buddhist, or Muslim traditions. In essence, Smith suggests that we drop the word "religion" as a noun, and use the adjective "religious," that quality which conditions all the activities of religious people. Of course there are objective facts to be studied in attempting to understand the great, ever-changing cumulative religious traditions of humankind. But as students of these traditions we are challenged, even further, to understand "faith," that is, the engagement and commitment of the people for whom they have been meaningful. In my own work, this has reminded me repeatedly that I am not trying to understand some abstract thing called "Hinduism," but I am trying to understand Hindus and the life, meaning and transcendence that they perceive. Ananda K. Coomaraswamy. Yakshas (1928-31). 2 vols. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1971.
I first read this book when I was doing fieldwork in Banaras. India in 1973. It opened my eyes to an entire ancient Indian world view that was not readily apparent from the study of classical Hindu texts. It had little to do with the renunciation of "this shore" for the "far shore" of liberation, moksha. It was focused, rather, on the vibrant life-force deities of "this shore" — the yakshas, associated primarily with the generativity of trees, and the ragas. associated with rivers and pools. The existence of these ancient deities could be intimated from the classical texts, since the Buddha, Shiva, and Krishna all conquered and subsumed them in their rise to popular prominence. The nature and history of these deities, however, was clearer from art-
historical sources. Coomaraswamy, a great cultural and art historian, helped me come to value the indispensable importance of art and image in the study of religious traditions, especially popular traditions which have been excluded in textual sources. Even more important, he helped me to see the persistence of the yaksha/naga deities even in the popular traditions of India today. M. K. Gandhi. Gandhi, an Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth (1927-29). Mahadev Desai, trans. 2 vols. New York: Dover, 1983. (Pb)
This was my first introduction to Gandhi, and I still think it is the best introduction. Gandhi was a prolific writer; his collected works fill over eighty volumes. Here Gandhi tells his own story, reflecting on his life as a man in his fifties, who had already spent twenty years in South Africa, had worked out his philosophy of nonviolent social change, and had been actively involved for ten years in the freedom struggle in India. Since it was written to be serialized in Gandhi's newspaper, Young India, this autobiography has something of a didactic and episodic quality. What I love about this book is that here one encounters a person, with all his foibles and faults, with his views on food and sewing machines, on social justice and political change. Gandhi reveals so much of himself that I can say I met Gandhi here. I argued and quarreled with him, but eventually he won my heart. Mary Daly. Beyond God the Father: Toward a Philosophy of Women's Liberation. Boston: Beacon, 1973.
This is a powerful and important book, not only in feminist theological thinking but in feminist analysis more generally. Daly looks clearly and critically at the patriarchal symbols that have shaped the thought and culture of the West. In this book, Daly begins to move beyond the Christian tradition into a post-Christian feminism. In a sense, she had already made this move when she preached at Harvard's Memorial Chapel in 1971, the first woman to preach at a Sunday service in 336 years. At the end of the sermon, she led a dramatic walkout, inviting the congregation to affirm its faith by "rising and walking out together.- Daly's work has had a tremendous impact on women and men, inside and outside the church, for whom the symbol of "God the Father" has been changed forever. When I first heard and read Daly, I had already spent time in India, and the sovereignty of my old familial notion of God the Father had already been questioned by the insights and critiques of Hindu friends and teachers. Daly helped me to see the same key issues of Christian patriarchy and chauvinism from a feminist perspective within my own culture. I too walked out in 1971, but walked back in almost immediately — into a church that, I think, needs to be challenged to a larger and more inclusive theological vision.

Carney Gavin

Carney Gavin, a priest in the archdiocese of Boston, has served as curator and associate director of the Harvard Semitic Museum since 1973. Trained in classics at Boston Latin School (founded a year before Harvard), he pursued classical archaeology at Oxford before philosophical and theological studies in the German and Austrian university systems. As a Syro-
Palestinian archaeologist, he has been involved in excavations in the Middle East since 1962.

The Bible. As both a priest and a Syro-Palestinian archaeologist, my involvement with the Bible renders it the paramount book in my life. Its basic message, fascinating puzzles, and its existential significance (as the artifact of our history) have permeated my adult studies and require daily rereadings, retranslations, and analytical explications for me to function usefully in liturgical as well as academic contexts.
Because the Bible actually provides the atmosphere from which I draw breath as well as the excitingly mysterious world which it is my job to explore professionally, the Bible has long ceased to seem to be "a book" for me.
Although my training (in languages, text criticism, and various exegetical disciplines) was largely directed toward reading the Bible, its day-by-day utility for me (in bringing good news to Brighton or curating Semitic Museum mummies) together with my life in Bible lands have transformed what I do with its pages (or what its pages do to me) from "reading" in any normal sense. . .
Beyond permitting time travel, personality encounters and sensory flashbacks, or providing illuminating clues and criteria (for judging present-day piety, wisdom, or pursuits of truth and goodness), "Bible reading" for me means passing back and forth through otherwise impenetrable barriers between the finite and the infinite.
Irrespective of any deference due to realms of mystical contemplation or theological speculation, Bible reading provides me practically with a very handy tool, a two-edged sword, for dealing simultaneously with the abstract and the concrete, the objective and the subjective, the ideal and the real, the immediate and the perennial. Kristina, Queen of the Swedes, the Goths, and the Vandals. The Works of Christina, Queen of Sweden (late seventeenth century). Anonymous English trans. London: Wilson and Durham, 1753.
Usually on my night table, this book never fails to provide a chuckle or to propose a neatly turned truism before I drift off to sleep. The Pensees of Queen Kristina of Sweden is an assemblage of over fifteen hundred short sayings, written during the last decade of her life amid Rome's baroque intrigues. Originally, because of Innsbruck's tiny Silver Chapel (hidden way up above the Hafkirche and almost always locked) where Kristina took her life's most decisive step (by becoming a Catholic and thereby relinquishing the Vasa throne), her Pensees intrigued me. I, too, had chosen the Silver Chapel for one of life's decisive moments
— to celebrate Mass for the first time after ordination. Just as I had no previous idea of that chapel's link with Kristina, I had no suspicion of how much mingled irony and hope, sardonic humor and simplicity of heart, stylistic pretense and true wisdom were to be found in her musings during her final years. G. K. Chesterton. The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1904). New York: Paulist Press, 1978. (Pb)
Tom Palmer. La grande compagnie de colonisation: Documents of a New Plan (1937). Worcester, Mass.: Clark University Press, 1981.
Two twentieth-century "Utopian" fantasies have helped my own struggles to make sense of phenomena and theories of Realpolitik as well as of economics. Chesterton's first novel, The Napoleon of Notting Hill, was addressed in 1904 to "the human race to which so many of my readers belong." Set in the London of 1984 (amid familiar scenery utterly contrasting with Orwell's projections for that same year) Chesterton's tale of brilliant banners, quixotic but bloody struggles, and bafflingly poetic dialogues focuses on the romance and potential dynamism of little neighborhoods.
This paean to localism — wherein micro-autonomy is proclaimed by each tiny region's glorious gonfalons and the small-group therapy of grassroots governance — was prompted by Chesterton's disgust at the Boer War and Cecil Rhodes's conviction that "the one thing of the future would be the British Empire." Rejecting both H. G. Wells's mechanistic predictions and Tolstoy's Humanitarian Return to Nature, Chesterton suggested that "eighty years after the present date, London is almost exactly like what it is now" except for the radical change that people "had lost faith in revolutions."
Tom Palmer is a pseudonym chosen in 1937 by an extraordinarily wise financial wizard, already then expert in the international metals industry, for La grande compagnie de colonisation is written as a scrapbook of the future, with various telegrams, memos, organizational charts, and short notes interspersed with newspaper clippings from Paris-Soir, La Stampa, the Atlantic Monthly, the Daily Telegraph, and the Luxemburger Zeitung, from the years 1938 to 1970.
La grande compagnie was written on the eve of World War IL by a foresighted Prussian who had already exiled himself in 1933 from a Germany going mad. In 1938, after recognizing that his appeal simultaneously to self-interest and to idealism was falling upon ears deafened by war drums, the author left Europe to launch five decades of international efforts that were eventually quite successfully parallel to some of La Grande Compagnie's projects.
From several points of view, each book's simple formulas contradict the other's: Palmer's far-flung development projects (however mutually advantageous for both developers and those areas being developed) starkly contrast with Chesterton's neighborhood chauvinism. Dynamically, the solutions represent humanity's centripetal versus centrifugal movements, yet each book gleams with more than a few gems of truth and beauty. John Kao
John Kao is a performing musician, psychiatrist, entrepreneur, and business school professor. The road toward these goals has taken many turns: the study of philosophy and social science in college, psychiatry in medical school, and general management in business school. Currently, he teaches and does research on the topics of entrepreneurship and corporate creativity at the Harvard Business School, and "is rewarded by the annual opportunity to teach these topics to M.B.A. students."
As our technological and social milieux change at an increasing rate, our thinking as a species must be anchored by a profound understanding of human behavior and values. Our success in addressing the challenges of the twenty-first century will be influenced by our wisdom and by our ability to blend human skills: intuition, a tolerance for ambiguity and a comfort with paradox combined with the deepest compassion. A. E. Van Vogt. The Voyage of the Space Beagle (1939). New York: Woodhill, 1977.
I first read this book at age eleven, and have reread it several times since. It is an enthralling science fiction, an outer-space version of Darwin's original journey. What particularly captured my attention was Van Vogt's creation of a new science of human behavior. Called "nexialism," it was a sophisticated blend of psychology, medicine and organizational politics which allowed the protagonist to help his parochial colleagues and save their mission from disaster. Seeds of an interest in human behavior, interdisciplinary studies, "underlying knowledge" and iconoclastic people were sown by this book. Carl G. Jung. Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1963). Aniela Jaffe, trans. New York: Random House, 1965. (Pb)
While all of Jung's work had a deep influence on me, I was particularly struck by this work, his autobiography. Jung writes with the excitement of a detective, the skill of an artist, and the flair of a mystic as he develops a new vision of human personality. I was particularly struck by his humanity as a clinician, which led me to follow his path into clinical psychiatry. Jung inspired me as someone who was not afraid to confront the mysteries of life, art, dreams and the unconscious through the "science" of human personality. Erich Neumann. The Origins and History of Consciousness (1949). R. F. C. Hall, trans. New York: Pantheon, 1954. (Pb)
Reading Neumann provided an important complement to my work with Jung. He extended Jungian psychology on a grand scale to show the beauty and logic inherent in a wide range of human experience: dreams, art, mythology, social organization, history, culture.
Joseph Needham, with Wang Ling. Science and Civilisation in China (1954). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
Joseph Needham is a particular hero of mine for his erudition and intellectual scope. Science and Civilization in China presents a vast panorama of the emergence of scientific and technological thinking in China over three millennia, no mean achievement by any standard. Needham approaches his subject as a historian, sinologist, natural scientist, sociologist, philosopher. The result is a delicious and enormous banquet. Lao Tsu. Tao Te Ching. Witter Bynner, trans. New York: Putnam, 1944.
Any work that can capture science, philosophy and human nature in eighty stanzas of verse deserves special comment. The Tao Te Ching has been a bedside companion of mine for many years. Its relevance is never-ending; always surprising. For example, when I studied psychology it was a valued text on human behavior. As an organizational specialist, I learned a great deal from it about politics and leadership. I use it as a favorite present to friends who are entrepreneurs and senior managers. The book says it all.

Gordon D. Kaufman

Gordon Kaufman is a professor of theology at the Harvard Divinity School. As a Mennonite conscientious objector in World War II, and thus as a member of a cognitive minority in a time of intense emotion, Professor Kaufman early became aware (a) of the relativity and plurality of all human convictions about right and truth, and (b) of the great power of religion in human affairs, and also its extremely problematic character. Most of his intellectual life, he writes, has been devoted to attempting to understand and address these issues, and the following books have been important in pursuing that quest.

These books explore fundamental questions about human nature and the nature of truth, about the role of religion in human affairs and the meaning that faith in God can have today; they have been particularly important to me in my struggle with the significance of modern cultural and religious pluralism, a problem that can only become increasingly urgent as we move into the twenty-first century.

Immanuel Kant. Critique of Pure Reason (1781). New York: St. Martin's, 1969. (Pb)
. Critique of Practical Reason (1788). Lewis Beck, trans. New York: Garland, 1977.
I read the first Critique in its entirety at age eighteen, and have done so probably about twelve times since. Kant's "Copernican revolution" taught me (a) that what we call "knowledge" is no simple matter of "external objects" leaving their imprint on the mind, but is rather a complex process of interaction between subject and object; and (b) that all intellect, morality and religion are grounded on the creativity and freedom of the human agent. These positions have helped to provide a philosophical basis for my views on the social and historical relativity of all knowledge and also on the function and importance of religious symbols. George H. Mead. Mind, Self and Society from the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist (1934). Charles W. Morris, ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1967. (Pb)
My understanding of the social and personal relativity of all human thought and practice was especially influenced by Mead's theory of selfhood and mind as social and linguistic through and through. rather than fundamentally individualistic and rationalistic. I first encountered Mead at about age twenty-three, and his ideas have provided a reference point for virtually all my subsequent reflection on human nature. Ludwig Feuerbach. The Essence of Christianity (1841). E. Graham Waring and F. W. Strothmann, eds. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1975. (Pb)
Feuerbach's claim that all theology is actually disguised anthropology, that all religion is really a projection of human subjectivity and feelings onto a cosmic screen, is the fountainhead of much modern interpretation of religion. This view has usually been understood as essentially destructive of religion and theology, but it has provided me with fundamental insights without which I would not have been able to develop my own reconception of theology as essentially "imaginative construction." H. Richard Niebuhr. The Meaning of Revelation (1941). New York: Macmillan, 1967. (Pb)
. Radical Monotheism and Western Culture. New York: Harper & Row, 1960. (Pb)
Niebuhr, through articulating a thoroughly sociohistorical conception of selfhood (influenced by Mead), showed that, precisely because all our experience and thinking is historically and culturally relative, both selves and societies need systems of value and meaning to orient themselves in the world; faith in God has special significance because of the sort of orientation it can provide. Niebuhr thus showed me both that theology is still important in our modern pluralistic world and how theology can best be done today. Of all my teachers he probably influenced me the most. R. G. Collingwood. The Idea of History (1946). T. M. Knox, ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1956. (Pb)
. An Essay on Metaphysics (1940). Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1984. (Pb)
I wrote my doctoral dissertation on "The Problem of Relativism and the Possibility of Metaphysics," and Collingwood (along with Wilhelm Dilthey and Paul Tillich) was a principal resource. Collingwood helped me to understand both that all our thinking is inescapably historical and that all history is the work of human imagination. With his conception of "absolute presuppositions" he helped me see what metaphysics and theology can be in a historicist world. Karl Barth. The Epistle to the Romans (1918). Edward C. Hoskyns, trans. 6th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1968. (Pb)
Barth's greatest book, powerfully showing how human religiousness — especially Christian religiousness — instead of relating to God in fact turns us away from God, showed me that the theological critique of religion is actually more profound and devastating than any secular critique, for it can take up into itself all the insights of a Feuerbach and a Marx, a Nietzsche and a Freud, and go beyond them. Theology, thus, has an autonomy and a unique significance of its own, and it need not be constrained by any specific commitments to religiosity.
Henry N. Wieman. The Source of Human Good (1946). Carbondale, Ill.: Southern Illinois University Press, 1964. (Pb)
This book, read for the first time shortly after its publication, enabled me to understand from very early on that the importance of the idea of God is to be seen principally in terms of the functions it performs in human life and thought (rather than in terms of its putative "meaning"); and those functions may well be more effectively performed in the contemporary world by a conception utilizing metaphors like "creative event" rather than the more traditional personalistic and political metaphors of "father," "lord." and "king." These insights of Wieman have become increasingly important for my recent work. Margaret R. Miles
Margaret Miles is a professor of historical theology at the Harvard Divinity School. She is the author of many works, most notably Augustine on the Body (1979); Fullness of Life: Historical Foundations for a New Asceticism (1981); Image as Insight: Visual Understanding in Western Christianity and Secular Culture (1985); and coeditor with Clarissa W Atkinson and Constance Hall Buchanan of Immaculate and Powerful: The Female in Sacred Image and Social Reality (1985).
The books I chose all challenge settled impressions of the "natural" inevitability of North American life-styles, assumptions, language and social practices. They expose the extent to which all of these are constructions requiring examination and reevaluation in the face of the issues of social injustice, the nuclear world and the crisis of meaning as we approach the twenty-
first century. St. Augustine. The Confessions (ca. A.D. 400). Rex Warner, trans. New York: Penguin, 1961. (Pb)
This book provided my first intimation of the massive conditioning of social, sexual and religious attitudes by the culture of one's birth. I also got from it both Augustine's sense that destructive aspects of one's conditioning can be changed, and his realistic respect for the difficulty of change — the stability of the social neuroses. Jonathan Schell. The Fate of the Earth. New York: Avon, 1982. (Pb)
Schell's description of the possibility and results of nuclear war emphasizes the necessity of rapid and fundamental social change if the attitudes and ideology that have brought us to the nuclear world are not to lead to the destruction of human Fife and of the planet that is our home. Mary Daly. Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism (1978). Boston: Beacon, 1979. (Pb)
Daly here gives a vivid analysis of sexism, using cross-cultural examples to demonstrate the victimization of women's bodies and psyches by patriarchal cultures. She also draws an alternative: women bonding in communities of support and empowerment. Daly, Mary. American, 1928- . Gyn/Ecology. Rec: Utne Nancy Chodorow. The Reproduction of Mothering: Psychoanalysis and the Sociology of Gender. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978.
Chodorow analyzes the complex conditioning for motherhood in Western culture, destroying the myth of biological naturalness. An important book for laying the foundation for egalitarian parenting. Michel Foucault. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of a Prison. New York: Random House, 1979. (Pb)
A powerful historical description of Foucault's thesis that it is not primarily submissive mentalities but docile bodies that social and political power seek to achieve; the book asks how bodies are subtly or unsubtly coerced, and for what/whose ends.
Roland Barthes. The Pleasure of the Text. Richard Miller, trans. New York: Hill & Wang, 1975. (Pb)
"Pleasure is a critical principle," writes Barthes, "interpretation is passion." This book has been inspirational to me in its insistence that the task of interpretation requires a dialectic between the passion of the interpreter and the pleasure of the text. Richard R. Niebuhr
Richard Niebuhr has been teaching theology and the history of modern religious thought at the Harvard Divinity School since 1956. Because of his strong interest in undergraduate education, he was named chairman of the Committee on Study of Religion when the undergraduate concentration was first established at Harvard in 1973-74. Besides his well-known book on Friedrich Schleiermacher he recently delivered and published a series of lectures in Japan on Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William James and Jonathan Edwards. He also enjoys photography, particularly in Wyoming.
I have been a teacher of theology at the Harvard Divinity School for thirty years. The list of books I have chosen today for this guide would likely have been different ten years ago and would probably be different five years hence. Some of the titles represent specific works that have affected my thinking deeply and some represent authors more than the contents of a single book. I believe these books assist in the one indispensable duty of obtaining self-knowledge. Benedict Spinoza. Ethics (1675). New York: Scribner's, 1930.
Benedict Spinoza's Ethics, which I laboriously read at eighteen or nineteen in a student edition, introduced me to philosophy as a way of living. Spinoza still defines for me "ethics" in its fullest and most proper sense. Jonathan Edwards. A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections (1746). New York: Baker, 1982. (Pb)
Stylistically, this is the finest of Edwards's works and probably of all American theology. In this and in many of his other writings I value his acuity in observation of the soul as well as of the natural world, his passionateness, lyricism, and rigor of thought. I first read Edwards at the age of twenty-three in a nineteenth-century edition and have been returning to him ever since. Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Aids to Reflection (1825). James Marsh and H. N. Coleridge, eds. Burlington: Chauncey Goodrich, 1840.
. Biographia literaria (1817). J. Shawcross, ed. London: Oxford University Press, 1962.
. The Poetical Works (1796-1819). New York: Oxford University Press, 1969.
Coleridge the poet, critic, philosopher and theologian taught me that words are "living powers- and that our duty is "self-
superintendence" — the attaining of distinctness of consciousness. In addition to his poetry, Coleridge's Biographia literaria and Aids to Reflection have been unfailing socratic interlocutors. William James. Pragmatism (1907). Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1975. (Ph)
Everything James wrote, from his Principles of Psychology to Radical Empiricism, remains fresh and provocative. James is my antidote to all forms of reductionism and dogmatism, Herman Melville. Moby Dick (1851). Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983. (Pb)
I can give no single reason for the abiding grasp this book, which I first read at the age of twenty-five, has on me. Ahab says, "Gifted with the high perception, I lack the low enjoying power; damned, most subtly and most malignantly! damned in the midst of Paradiser Melville is one of the few authors who has brought forth an authentic American myth. James Agee and Walker Evans. Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941), New York: Ballantine, 1974. (Pb)
This book is the only successful marriage of photographs and text I know and belongs to no genre. Its descriptive power (three tenant families in Alabama, 1936) is unsurpassed in exhibiting "the cruel radiance of what is."
The Battle for God
K. Armstrong
Religious Fundamentalism Fundamentalism Observed
"M.E. Marty, R.S. Appleby"
Religious Fundamentalism Fundamentalism and American Culture G.M. Marsden
Religious Fundamentalism The Satanic Verses
S. Rushdie
Religious Fundamentalism A Century of Social Catholicism A.R. Vidler
Christian Socialism Social Catholicism in Europe
P. Misner
Christian Socialism Leo XIII and the Rise of Socialism
L.P. Wallace
Christian Socialism Dorothy Day
W.D. Miller
Christian Socialism Christian Socialism
A. Wilkinson
Christian Socialism The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives
C. Hillenbrand
Sacred War Holy War
K. Armstrong
Sacred War Jihad
G. Keppel
Sacred War Sacred Word and Sacred Text
H. Coward
Holy Scriptures Sacred Writings G. Lanczkowski Holy Scriptures
World Scripture: A Comparative Anthology
A. Wilson
Holy Scriptures Man and his Destiny in the Great Religions
S.G.F. Brandon Reincarnation Reincarnation "J.Head, S.L. Cranston"
Reincarnation Karma and Rebirth in Classical Indian Traditions W. O'Flaherty
Reincarnation A History of God
K. Armstrong
Monotheism God: a Biography
J. Miles Monotheism God of Abraham
L.E. Goodman
Monotheism No Other Gods R.K. Gnuse
Monotheism The Origins of Biblical Monotheism
M.S. Smith
Monotheism The Unchanging God of Love
M.J. Dodds
Divine Love The Four Loves C.S. Lewis
Divine Love Basic Writings Mo Tzu Divine Love The Nature of Love
I. Singer Universal Love The Four Loves C.S. Lewis
Universal Love Motse: The Neglected Rival of Confucius Yi-Pao Mei
Universal Love Incarnation
G. O'Collins
Divine Incarnation Mystery of the Incarnation
B. Hume
Divine Incarnation The Trinity
S. Davis Divine Incarnation The Definitions of the Catholic Faith
W.H. Bright
The Trinity The Early Church
H. Chadwick
The Trinity History of the Early Christian Doctrine
J. Danoelou
The Trinity St. Paul M. Grant
Grace Paul the Convert
A.F. Segal
Grace The Power and the Glory
G. Greene
Grace The Light of the Mind
R.H. Nash
Illumination What is Mysticism?
D. Knowles
Illumination The Eucharist
J. Emminghaus Christian Church Real Presence
R. DuffyChristian Church Corpus Christi M. Rubin
Christian Church The Kuran: A Very Short Introduction
M.A. Cook
Religion as Law Islamic Law in the Modern World
J.N.D. Andeson Religion as Law
Taliban A. Rashid
Religion as Law The Satanic Verses
S. Rushdie
Religion as Law Buddhism
H. Dumoulin
Zen Zen Culture
T. Hoover
Zen Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
R. PirsigZen Painting the Soul
R. Cormack
Icons The Orthodox Church
T. Ware Icons Gates of Mystery
R. Grierson
Icons Anticlericalism in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe
"P. Dykema, H. Oberman" Anticlericalism Idol Temples and Crafty Priests S.J. Barnett
Anticlericalism The Enlightenment
P. Gay Anticlericalism The Life of Vivekananda and the Universal GospelR. Rolland
Religious Pluralism The Wider Ecumenism E. Hill Religious Pluralism
Inter-faith OrganizationsM. Braybrooke Religious Pluralism Beyond Worlds J. Bowker
Evil Creation Gnosticism
G. Filorano
Evil Creation The Body and Society
P. Brown
Evil Creation Western Sexuality
"P. Aries, A. Bejin"
Evil Creation A History of Christian Missions S. Neill Spiritual Conquest
The Spiritual Conquest of Mexico
R. Ricard
Spiritual Conquest Black Robe
B. Moore
Spiritual Conquest "God, Time, and Knowledge"
W. Hasker
Predestination "Predestination, Grace, and Free Will"
J. Farrelly
Predestination Divine Election G. Berkouwer
Predestination

Religion: Introduction To Religion

Elizabeth Breuilly (and members of ICOREC)

Whether we are aware of it or not, each of us builds our life and actions on belief and ritual, be they religious or secular. Much of the study of religion has been as psychology, philosophy, anthropology, or Christian theology. There are many works dealing with religion from these viewpoints, but this book list is intended to serve as an introduction to the study of religion in general, as well as giving reference information about the world's faiths, their beliefs, practices, and distribution. The study of religion as a human phenomenon is different from the study of any one particular religion, but each study feeds the other. The more we know of the details of how a religion is lived and celebrated, and how it colours and shapes the lives of its adherents, the more we can recognize similar dynamics at work in another faith. Conversely, the more we have studied how different religions approach a particular aspect of life (the problem of suffering, for example, or what happens at death), the greater insight we can have into the traditions of one particular faith.

In these our days it is almost impossible to speak of religion without giving
offence either on the right or on the left. With some, religion seems too
sacred a subject for scientific treatment; with others it stands on a level
with alchemy and astrology, as a mere tissue of errors or hallucinations,
far beneath the notice of the man of science.
F MAX MR

Sainsbury's Religions of the World (1993) by Elizabeth Breuilly and Martin Palmer. Although written for readers aged 10 upwards, this is of interest to anyone wanting a brief summary of the beliefs and practices of the major world religions. Fully illustrated.
From Primitives to Zen (1967) by Mircea Eliade. A fascinating thematic source-book of religious writings, compiled by a recognized pioneer of the systematic study of the world's religions. As the title implies, the material ranges from accounts of preliterate religions, through historic religions, to the major world faiths. However, Christianity and Judaism are omitted, since biblical material in English is readily avail-able elsewhere. Contemporary Religions: a World Guide (1992) edited by Ian Harris, Stuart Mews, Paul Morris, and John Shepherd. Part I contains essays on the history, beliefs, and current trends of five major religious traditions - Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism - and new religious movements, together with a general survey, 'Religions in the Contemporary World'. Pan II is an alphabetical dictionary of religious groups and movements, and Pan III is a country-by-country summary. A Handbook of Living Religions (1984) edited by John Hinnells. Detailed articles on the history, beliefs, and practices of religion worldwide, including indigenous faiths and new religious movements as well as established religions. Who's Who of World Religions (1991) edited by John Hinnells. An impressive and very readable A-Z reference to 1,500 religious figures, both contemporary and historical. The Study of Religions (1977) by Jean Holm. A clear and readable introduction to the whole field of religious studies, what it is, and what problems it presents, written for students. Themes in Religious Studies Series: Worship, Sacred Writings, Making Moral Decisions, Attitudes to Nature, Myth and History, Human Nature and Destiny, Picturing God, Rites of Passage, Women in Religion, Sacred Place (all 1994) edited by Jean Holm and John Bowker. Each book takes a central theme which touches on a wide range of religions, and has an introductory essay, followed by chapters from authorities on different religions. The State of Religion Atlas (1993) by Joanne O'Brien and Martin Palmer. Thirty-four maps with notes illustrate the history, distribution and present activities of world religions. The World's Religions: Old Traditions and Modern Transformations (1989) by Ninian Smart. A richly illustrated exploration of all the major religions of the world - their beliefs and practices, and how they have shaped the history of the world. The arrangement is by areas of the world, which gives a clearer picture than many books of the interaction and development of religions in varying contexts.

Buddhism

Michael Carrithers

Buddhism is a system of spiritual practice and thought which arose 2,500 years ago in N India. The founder of Buddhism is known as the Buddha, meaning 'awakened one', and this notion of awakening is central to Buddhism. It was a widely held understanding in the Buddha's India that the experience of ordinary life is shot through with unsatisfactoriness and suffering. The Buddha's solution to this problem stressed that a right understanding of human experience, combined with wisely guided behaviour and meditation, allows one to wake up to the real character of experience and, in awakening, to escape its painful character. By attending minutely to the nature of experience as it occurs moment by moment, the successful Buddhist meditator learns that the fruits of our desires are transient and hence painful - that is the bad news - but also that the ultimate subject of our desires, namely our self, is quite insubstantial and transient as well, and so is not pinned helplessly and eternally to a world of pain. That is the good news, and leads to the cessation of suffering and to release.

Although Buddhism may seem to be a matter of thought, its realizations are in fact based on practice and the transformation of oneself through practice. Buddhism now has a robust presence throughout the world and is making its way confidently in the West. In the two and a half millennia since the Buddha taught, Buddhism has shown itself to be adaptable to almost any cultural and social setting, and Buddhists have created a wealth of widely varying systems of thought and practice. Some Buddhists come close to a Christian style of spirituality in their stress on sin and salvation, whereas others have taken a more austerely intellectual path. The Buddha and many of his disciples down the ages were celibate monks, but Buddhists have also developed forms of behaviour consistent with ordinary life in the world. And though the Buddha's teaching seems to stress thought over feeling and contemplation over morality, in fact Buddhist ethics have proven to be a powerful and compelling feature of Buddhist life wherever it is found.

As a can wheel follows the step of the ox, so suffering follows
him who speaks or acts with a blemished mind. —FROM THE DHAMMAPADA

The World of Buddhism (1984) edited by Heinz Bechert and Richard Gombrich. This handsome volume contains articles by some of the world's leading scholars of Buddhism, and covers nearly every aspect of the religion, both in the past and present. The illustrations are excellent, conveying a vivid impression of the variety of Buddhist an, architecture, and practice. The Buddha (1983) by Michael Carrithers. This is a brief, clearly written, and accessible explanation of the Buddha, his times, and his thought and practice, which can easily be read in bed. The Forest Monks of Sri Lanka (1983) by Michael Carrithers. This is the most extensive and intimate account available concerning the meditating monks of S and SE Asia who represent the living tradition that is closest to the Buddha's original way of life. It has been used by Buddhists in the West as a basis for criticizing and commenting on their own practices. Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo (1988) by Richard Gombrich. This well-written book demonstrates one strand in the complex and sometimes ironic fate that awaited Buddhism as it developed into a widespread religion involved with ordinary affairs of the world. An Introduction to Buddhism: Teaching, History and Practices (1990) by Peter B Harvey. This is a wide-ranging introduction which includes an excellent list of further readings. The Heart of Buddhist Meditation (1962) by Thera Nyanaponika. This is a classical account of the nature of meditation, the central practice in Buddhism, from the perspective of southern Buddhism. The Buddha (1979) by M Pye. This biography of the Buddha is written from a very different viewpoint than that of Carrithers above. It shows how Buddhists themselves thought, and told stories, of the Buddha and how they preserved and expanded their sense of who he was. What the Buddha Thought (1967) by Walpola Rahula. This frequently reprinted volume conveys a sense of the Buddha's teaching by weaving together admirably plain writing with quotations from the original scriptures. The overall effect is very powerful. The Buddhist Handbook: A Complete Guide to Buddhist Teaching and Practice (1987) by John Snelling. This book is written by a committed British Buddhist who conveys a practical, no-nonsense flavour of Buddhism, both in the past and in the West today. It is full of useful advice for those becoming personally committed to Buddhist practice and thought. The Buddhist Religion: A Historical Introduction (1982) by Richard Robinson and Willard Johnson. This is a quite superb slender introduction to Buddhism, which can be recommended for its ability to convey in a graspable form some of the complexities of Buddhist history. Zen Training: Methods and Philosophy (1975) by Katsuki Sekida. Sekida conveys vividly and with unforgettable imagery the approach to Buddhist practice taken by the Zen school. Contrast this with Nyanaponika's work. The Practice of Chinese Buddhism 1900-1950 (1967) by Holmes Welch. This book could be read as a contrast to the book on Sri Lankan monks by Carrithers, above, since it presents an alternative development which grew out of Buddhism.

Christianity

Andrew Linzey

The Christian tradition is so multiform and so multifaceted that any attempt to represent it in a few volumes must appear partisan, even eccentric. Almost everything we experience in Western culture has been influenced - for good or ill - by its Judaeo-Christian roots. Despite the appearance of secularization, Christian forms of life still flourish and prosper in a wide variety of guises: in an, literature, sculpture, poetry; in all forms of music from classical to gospel rock; in visual communications, specifically Christian ideas and images still retain a powerful hold on our imagination, and in intellectual Life generally, especially the humanities: literature, philosophy, politics, and, of course, theology, specifically Christian notions of goodness, truth, and beauty still undergird and inform common notions even in their reactive anti-Christian forms. The truth is that even, and especially, in its pluralist forms, Christianity still remains the dominant ideology of the West. This does not mean, of course, that Christianity remains unchanged or immutable; precisely the reverse. One of the great strengths of the Christian tradition is the way in which it merges, collides, incorporates, sometimeseven wholly assimilates, elements or thoughts originally alien to itself. The line attributed to T S Eliot that Christianity is always adapting itself to what is credible is ever more true of contemporary Christianity. I have selected a handful of the major accessible works that describe some of the main features of this tradition and also some works that provide an insight into how this tradition is remoulding itself in the light of contemporary challenges.

Christianity is an anvil that has worn out many hammers. —Sydney Evans

A Dictionary of Judaism and Christianity (1991) edited by Dan Cohn-Sherbok. The first dictionary to explain and compare the key concepts, beliefs, and practices of both Judaism and Christianity. In a single volume the wealth of the Judaeo-Christian heritage is uncovered - and in direct and simple language. Specifically, it shows how Christianity is vastly indebted to Jewish ideas and how it made use of them. An invaluable guide for the general reader. Encyclopedia of Modern Christian Thought (1993) edited by Alister E McGrath. A wide-ranging 'state of the art' introduction to contemporary Christian thinking in its very diverse forms. Contains detailed consideration of main ideas and issues as well as brief introductions to key thinkers. All admirably concise and - for the most part - well written and accessible for the general reader. Dictionary of Ethics, Theology and Society (1995) edited by P A B Clarke and Andrew Linzey. It is often suggested that Western society has no coherent ideology left and that utter pluralism in faith and practice is now inevitable. But this view fails to recognize the continuing indebtedness of Western society to the Judaeo-Christian tradition and the resultant synthesis with political and social thought. This pioneering dictionary maps out the ethical, theological, and social influences which have formed Western society. More than 250 contributions explore theoretical and practical topics from abortion to worship. Appropriate for the student rather than the general reader, but indispensable as a work of reference. The Wound of Knowledge: Christian Spirituality from the New Testament to St John of the Cross (1979) by Rowan Williams. A much needed and much valued history of Christian spirituality. Takes the reader through the giants of the tradition: Paul, John, Ignatius, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Athanasius, Basil, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nazianzen, Augustine, Maximus, Eckhart, and finally to Luther and St John of the Cross. Impressively illustrates the coherence of Christian spirituality: 'Christianity is born out of struggle because it is born from men and women faced with the paradox of God's purpose made flesh in a dead and condemned man.' Not always an easy read, but compelling and inspiring. Perfect Fools: Folly for Christ's Sake in Catholic and Orthodox Spirituality (1980) by John Saward. In many ways the natural counterpart to Williams's book. Saward recounts and explains the long tradition of 'folly for Christ' found within Catholic and Orthodox spirituality. 'This is the story of those who have taken the Lord and his apostle [Paul] at their word and received from God the rare and terrible charism of holy folly.' The 'fools for Christ' described here range from the slightly dotty to the classable insane who speak words of prophetic insight against the 'wisdom of the age'. An audacious work on a very serious subject but written with an enviable lightness of touch. A delight to read. True God: An Exploration in Spiritual Theology (1985) by Kenneth Leech. The third in a series following his best-selling Soul Friend (1977) and True Prayer (1980). Leech's starting point is the spiritual deprivation and impoverishment of the West. This, according to Leech, is due to a false and inadequate picture of God as an intellectual abstraction unconcerned with, or uninvolved in, the affairs of the world. Leech argues that orthodox belief requires a God intimately involved in human suffering and determined to secure social justice. 'The message of the crucified God includes the amazing truth that God allows us to share in his passion and death. Made in his image, we are signed with his cross, healed by his wounds, set free by his strange work of love.' Breathtakingly impressive vision of Christian spirituality and its relevance to contemporary philosophy, politics, ecology, and feminism. A modem classic. The New Oxford Book of Christian Verse (1981) edited by Donald Davie. The notion of 'Christian' verse is problematical - not only because most of the major poets have been religious but also because 'good verse' is 'good verse' no matter how much - or how little - 'Christian' it may be. Nevertheless, Davie insists that the content of some verse is explicitly Christian in that it is concerned with the central narratives (creation, fall, incarnation, redemption) of the Christian faith. Davie assembles an astonishingly wide range of poets (including John Donne, John Bunyan, Thomas Traherne, Isaac Watts, Wesley, William Cowper, T S Eliot, Stevie Smith, W H Auden, and R S Thomas) who have made Christian themes their own and have done so in a way that harmonizes both Christian faith and poetic insight. The result is not just an inspiring collection but also one that introduces and illuminates the main Christian doctrines.
The Body and Society: Men, Women and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity (1988) by Peter Brown. A masterful and brilliant history of the development of Christian thinking about sexuality. Illustrates with unsparing detail the full depths and heights of Christian preoccupation with sexuality - from apparent promiscuity to a horror of carnality. 'If my book gives back to the Christian men and women of the first five centuries a little of the disturbing strangeness of their most central pre-
occupation, I will consider that I have achieved my purpose in writing it.' Indispensable to understanding the Augustinian legacy which has so damaged Christian attitudes to sexuality. A great work of historical scholarship: lucid, imaginative, and compassionate. Heaven: A History (1990) by Colleen McDannell and Bernard Lang. In case this may seem a rather unlikely subject for historical study, the authors explain: We study heaven because it reflects a deep and profound longing in Christianity to move beyond this life and to experience more fully the divine', and the 'ways in which people imagine heaven tells us how they understand themselves, their families, their society, and their God'. The result is an ambitious and fascinating social history which illustrates how the imagination of heaven has influenced art, politics, literature, and philosophy as well as Christian thinking throughout the ages. The book is copiously illustrated and easy to read. The Foolishness of God (1970) by John Austin Baker. One of the major works of contemporary apologetics offering a unified vision of the Christian faith. Baker argues that the case for Christianity is essentially a moral one - for or against love as the ruling principle in one's life. God creates a world which is truly contingent and free. The offering of sacrificial love is the moral heart of the universe and is revealed to be the very nature of God: 'The crucified Jesus is the only accurate picture of God the world has ever seen.' Its impressive biblical scholarship, wide.ranging sympathy and disarmingly simple style have made it a contemporary classic.

Hinduism

Veronica Voiels

The great variety of belief and practice expressed within Hinduism sometimes defies any attempts to reduce it to a simple formula. The distinguishing features of this great world religion are its great antiquity; its cyclic view of existence incorporating a belief in reincarnation not just of human beings but the whole created universe; its understanding of the nature of the ultimate reality as Brahman in the abstract symbol 'Om'; its acceptance of the manifestation of god in many different forms; its understanding of dharma as the moral law governing all aspects of social behaviour and cultural traditions. The depth and sophistication of its religious philosophy is as fascinating as its rich variety of symbolism, ritual, and mythology. So in order to appreciate fully the various dimensions of this religion it is necessary to explore its philosophy, history, anthropology, and sacred an and mythology.

Half the world moves on the independent foundations which Hinduism supplied.
China, japan, Tibet and Siam, Burma and Ceylon look to India as their spiritual
home. Its historic records date back for over four thousand years and even then it
has continued its unbroken, though at times slow and almost static course, until the
present day. It has stood the stress and strain of more than four or five millennia of
spiritual thought and experience. —RA.DHAKRISHNAN

The Hindu World (1982) by Patricia Bahree. A good introduction intended for the general reader and young people. It provides a very good insight and appreciation of the cultural context of Hinduism in India, with an easy-to-read text and wonderful colour photography. Teach Yourself Hinduism (1995) by Mel Thompson. This is suitable for the general reader as well as A-level and undergraduate studies. It is part of a series on Teach Yourself World Faiths which provide good reference books to promote understanding of world faiths in a multicultural society. The Sacred Thread: Hinduism in its Continuity and Diversity (1981) by J L Brockington. This is a historical approach to Hinduism and suitable for A-level and undergraduate study. It is a very readable text and very comprehensive and detailed in its treatment of various developments in Hinduism in relation to the circumstances of the time. The Upanishads (this edition 1989) translated by Alistair Shearer and Peter Russell (there are several other good translations available). Part of the Hindu sacred writings of the Vedas, the Upanishads contain some of the most profound insights into the ultimate questions of life. This edition selects various passages and presents them with some commentary and carefully selected photographs to contribute to the meaning of the text. A delightful experience to read. Hinduism: An Introduction (1989) by Shakunthala Jagannathan. A book intended for the general reader and written by a Hindu woman to communicate the central teachings of Hinduism to both Hindus and non-Hindus. It provides a good insight into Hinduism from a Hindu perspective, rather than a Western scholar's interpretation. The illustrations, photographs, and colour plates contribute to one's understanding of this intriguing religion. Hindus: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices (1994) by Julius J Lipner. This book provides a wealth of knowledge about both the philosophical traditions and popular religion. It approaches an understanding of Hinduism through some central themes, including scripture, tradition, experience, time, space, and eternity. The Camphor Flame: Popular Hinduism and Society in India (1992) by C J Fuller. An anthropological study which explores in considerable detail the various aspects of village Hinduism. It gives some fascinating insights into the practice of Hinduism in rural India, in the home and in the temples. It is very detailed in some of its accounts but unlike many anthropological studies it is accessible to the general reader. The Essential Teachings of Hinduism (1989) edited by Kerry Brown. This book collects together passages from various Hindu scriptures related to key concepts of Hinduism, such as Brahman, the self, consciousness, and yoga. This is a valuable resource for gaining an appreciation of Hindu teachings from their original source in scripture. The Hindu Vision: Forms of the Formless (1993) by Alistair Shearer. An attempt to appreciate Hinduism through its sacred an in the images of the deities and shrines and temples. The photography is splendid and provides a visual understanding of Hinduism and the text is readable and of special interest to those who regard the visual image as the best medium for understanding. Indian Mythology (1967) by Veronica Ions. It is impossible to appreciate the Hindu world-view without reading some of its mythology, and this book provides a good overview of the stories of the gods and the Mahabharata. It is well illustrated and easy to read.

Islam

Mawil Izzi-Dien

The following brief selection of books tries to reflect the broad diversity of Islamic thought and experience. Diversity in any religion can be one of the essences of the faith. In Islam, diversity is a key to understanding not only the books written about Islam but also the culture that stems from it. Islam, as the youngest divinely inspired religion, offered all cultures a firm ground from which they can present themselves without being lost within the main Arabic culture which was the original cradle of Islam. When Muhammad started the call for Islam, the notion of 'submitting to God' represented a new and effective ground upon which human life and society was to be established. Submitting to God took the place of race, wealth, or any other social underpinning. Yet, despite this ideal vision of life, the history of Islamic culture contains examples of how distant theory can be from practice. Muslims, like the rest of the human race, seem to have ignored Islamic instructions in many stages of history, raising the very interesting question of why man has always been a rebel, even against what he appears to believe in.

God is the Light of the heavens and the earth; the likeness of His Light is as a
niche wherein is a lamp (the lamp in a glass, the glass as it were a glittering star)
kindled from a Blessed Tree, an olive that is neither of the East nor of the West
whose oil wellnigh would shine, even if no fire touched it; Light upon Light (God
guides to His Light whom he will). —A J Arberry, Koran Translation

What Everyone Should Know About Islam and Muslims (1979) by S Haneef. A well-written quick reference to Islam. Written by an American Muslim, it is a comprehensive survey of the basic teaching of Islam for the Western reader with emphasis on the significance of Islam's central concept, faith, and submission to the divine. The author is active in the field of Islamic education and has travelled widely in the Muslim world.
Islam the Straight Path (1988) by John L Esposito. Combining the best of Western scholarship with an insider's understanding of the Muslim world, the author has produced a well-written introduction to Islam from its origin in the 7th century to the con-temporary resurgence. The book has the added advantage of a large number of excerpts from a wide range of original sources. The Legacy of Islam (1979) by Joseph Shacht and C E Bosworth. One of the classic analyses of the achievements of Islamic civilization. The relationship of Islam to the rest of the world is examined with accuracy and scholarship. This includes a large area of interests written by renounced Western scholars like the famous French scholar Maxim Rodenson, and the Indian Aziz Ahmad. Islamic Art (1989) by David Talbot Rice. A valuable book, describing and portraying Islamic an as a supreme triumph of pattern and colour. These qualities of Islamic art are colourfully and elegantly presented in an academic and historical manner that makes the book worthwhile reading. A Popular Dictionary of Islam (1992) by Ian R Netton. This work is a unique dictionary and glossary of Islamic terms. It provides a key general source on the popular area of Islam. A well-written, comprehensive, cross-referenced book intended for the student, scholar, and general reader, whether Muslim or non-Muslim. Islam: Its Meaning and Message (1976) by Khurshid Ahmad and others. A good general introductory book to Islam with a pinch of specialized flavour written by a reputable range of Muslim academics and modern scholars. The editor is an internationally established Islamic scholar who occupied academic ministerial posts in Pakistan and other parts of the Muslim world. The book is divided into four parts covering the Islamic outlook to life, the prophet and the Koran, the Islamic system, and Islam and the world. The Eternal Message of Muhammad (1979) by 'Abd ar-Rahman Azzam. This book discusses Islam through the life of the prophet of the faith. He also offers a good account of Islam as a social religion that does not recognize either nationalism or racism. The author was founder and first secretary general of the Arab League 1945-52. Morals and Manners in Islam (1986) by M I al-Kaysi. A concise account of the unique area of Islamic culture that is often unknown by the West. The book covers a large range of patterns of behaviour regulating Islamic conduct at personal, family, and social levels. The book contents are derived mainly from Islamic legal sources. The author is a Jordanian university professor and scholar who has travelled extensively in the Muslim world. Shari'ah: The Islamic Law (1984) by A R I Doi. One of the few comprehensive standard books on Islamic law available in English. Despite some topographical errors, the book offers an excellent detailed overview of Islamic law in general and in relation to family, crime and punishment, inheritance and disposal of property, economics and external relationships. An Introduction to Islamic Law (1964) by Joseph Shacht. This book is considered one of the best accounts of the history of Islamic law. A fascinating book with its accuracy and detailed knowledge. Although the book is described by the author as not intended for the specialists, many specialists find it extremely useful as a starting point within the complex phenomena of Islamic law. The author, who died in 1969, was professor of Arabic and Islamic studies at Columbia University, New York.

Judaism

Julia Neuberger

The books that follow are my absolute favourites. A complete reading list would have to include the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament), the main rabbinic works such as the Mishnah and Talmud, and a huge corpus of historical and philosophical works. So what follows is an idiosyncratic selection, which I hope will give the reader some of the flavour of what Judaism is, and what being Jewish might be like.

Being a Jew is like walking in the wind or swimming: you are touched at all points and conscious everywhere. —Lionel Trilling

A Rabbinic Anthology (1938) edited by C G Montefiore and H Loewe. A collection of writings from the rabbis, with a brilliant introduction. One of my favourites is from the Jerusalem Talmud: 'The Holy Spirit only rests on someone who has a joyous heart.' Atlas of the Jewish World (1984) by Nicholas de Lange. The best of the atlases of Jewish history and modern existence, by far. You get a feel for where Jews were, where they are, and why it is they moved from one country to another. World of our Fathers: The Journey of the East European Jews to America and the Life They Found and Made (1976) by Irving Howe. Just what it says it is, but brilliantly expressed as a journey from one world to another, with a great deal of the atmosphere of eastern Europe included. The Jewish People: Their History and Religion (1987) by David J Goldberg and John D Rayner. Clear, concise, helpful. A good one-volume treasury of information about who Jews are, what they practise, and what the varieties of Judaism are. The Holocaust: The Jewish Tragedy (1986) by Martin Gilbert. The authoritative book on the history of the Holocaust. Painful reading, but essential to understanding present-day Jews. Benevolence and Betrayal: Five Italian Jewish Families under Fascism (1991) by Alexander Stille. A strange choice, but it tells the tale so well of Italian Jews who had lived a peaceful life, very happily, utterly integrated into Italian life, and then were betrayed. It raises lots of questions, and is beautifully written. Konin: A Quest (1995) by Theo Richmond. Richmond researched and recreated in words the small town in Poland from which his family came, and where the Jews were completely destroyed during World War II. It is a remarkable achievement, and people long dead live again, as does a vanished world. If This Is a Man (1960) by Primo Levi. Records what it means to be a Jew, and to experience the concentration camps. Anything else by Levi is also recommended.
Spiegelman, Art. American, 1948- . Maus: A Survivor's Tale. Rec: NYPL

Sex and Love

The attempt to apply a criterion of literary merit has kept this list short. But if reading turns you on…

See BIOGRAPHY (Masters); MEDICINE (Belleveau, Boston Women's Collective, Kaplan)

Anand, Margot, French-American writing in English, 1943- . The Art of Sexual Ecstasy. Rec: Utne Bataille, Georges, French, 1897-1962. Visions of Excess. Rec: Harvard Erotism: Death and Sensuality (Eroticism). Rec: Counterpunch Trans Blue of Noon. Rec: Bloom Boccaccio The Decarneron (1471)
Rumbustious, thigh-slapping medieval sexuality, like Brueghel with dirty bits. Exhausting to swallow whole; sampling makes for appetite. Good translation: Burton. Boccaccio, Giovanni, Italian, 1313-1375. Decameron. Rec: Bloom Collh91 Good Reading Meaningful Smiley Ward Brecher, R. and E. An Analysis of Human Sexual Response (1967) If more people read this book there would be more happy
— and successful — lovers around. A layperson's guide to Masters and Johnson's (qv) Human Sexual Response. Also: The Sex Researchers Cleland, John Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1749) Has Westminster School ever recovered from producing the author of what the British Dictionary of National Biography once described as a "scandalously indecent book"? A "novel" but marvellously instructive in its lubricious vitality. Comfort, Alex (ed) The Joy of Sex (1974)
Sub-title A Gourmet Guide to Lovemaking might put off those who resist the "I-could-eat-you" school of modern practice; but this refreshingly shameless and practical manual can only increase the pleasures of sex. Also: More Joy of Sex Comfort, Alex, English, 1920-2000. The Joy of Sex. Rec: Boston PL Duffy, Maureen The Erotic World of Faery (1978)
So that's the appeal of all those folk tales about elves, goblins, toadstools and (if you'll pardon the expression) fairy rings! Serious, delightful book; human sexuality at its most unexpected. Ellis, Havelock, English, 1859-1939. Studies in the Psychology of Sex. Rec: Counterpunch NF NYPL Foucault, Michel The History of Sexuality (1979)
Polemic by a French philosopher against the idea that sexuality has been repressed and is now being liberated. He argues that our obsession with analysing, investigating and discussing sex constitutes yet another form of guilt. Foucault, Michel, French, 1926-1984. Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason. Rec: TLS The History of Sexuality. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Discipline and Punish. Rec: Colcc91 Counterpunch Trans Genet, Jean Our Lady of the Flowers (1943)
In Genet's super-masculine world a "male who fucks a male is a double male". This "novel", composed while Genet was in prison awaiting trial, describes an implacable society of homosexuality, crime, betrayal and oppression. See DRAMA (Esslin); BIOGRAPHY (Sartre); TRAVEL Haddon, Celia (ed) Venus Revealed(1977)
Too much pornography lacks wit, style, and an interest in anything but the sexual act. This book, a parody of Fanny Hill, supplies them all, and is sexy too. Hite, Shere The Hite Report (1977)
Based on a fairly wide, though allegedly unscientific, survey of American women, the results contribute to an understanding of female sexuality. Compulsory reading for all males of the "Wham, barn, thankyou ma'am" school — though (like other readers) they may find the rancorous, self-satisfied tone monotonous. Kinsey, Alfred C. et al Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male (1949); Sexual Behaviour in the Human Female (1953)
Although now a little outdated and attacked for his research methods, the peeking Dr Kinsey produced what was in its time a classic catalogue of the rich variations of human behaviour and a form of liberation through statistics from the secrecy and falsehood which prejudices morality. Kinsey, Alfred C.. American, 1894-1956. Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. Rec: Boston PL The Kinsey Reports on Human Sexual Behavior (Sexual Behavior in the Human Male and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female). Rec: Counterpunch NF Krafft-Ebing, Richard von, German, 1840-1902. Psychopathia Sexualis. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Laclos, Choderlos de Les Liaisons Dangereuses (1782)
For anyone who wants reassuring that sex is (a) pointless and (b) inevitable. A fine book on the corruption of innocence by unmotivated evil. The hero, Valmont, spends a large part of his life writing finely drafted but tedious letters to his girlfriend. Merteuil, about planning an expedition to climb yet another moos veneris just because it's there. Good translation: Baldick.
Laclos, Pierre Choderlos de, French, 1741-1803. Dangerous Liaisons. Rec: Bloom Rexmo Smiley Masters, W. H. and Johnson, V. E. Human Sexual Response (1966)
Detailed physiological and psychological facts, disproving fantasies, fallacies, myths and taboos which surround the subject of orgasmic response. Zero for style, full marks for content. Also: Human Sexual Inadequacy Masters, William H. and Virginia E. Johnson. American, 1915-2001 and 1925-. Human Sexual Response. Rec: LAT Meaker, Marijane. American, 1927- . Shockproof Sydney Skate. Rec: Harvard Sydney finds himself in a quandary when the girl he loves and his mother, a lesbian, develop crushes on each other. "Meaker has written a very funny novel about our current preoccupation with sex and what it is doing to us," remarked PW. Miller, Henry Tropic of Cancer(1931)
Miller was once described as "the first writer outside the Orient who has succeeded in writing naturally about sex on as large a scale as novelists ordinarily write about the dinner table or the battlefield." Could be that he was also a whoremongering, narcissistic bore. For excellent corrective to his scandalously chauvinistic hedonism, see Millet (FEMINISM). Also: Sexus; Plexus; Nexus. See DIARIES (Durrell) Miller, Henry. American, 1891-1980. Tropic of Cancer. Rec: Hungry Mind ML Novels Radcliffe Time The Air-Conditioned Nightmare. Rec: Counterpunch NF Nefzawi, Sheikh The Perfumed Garden (16th century)
What sheikhs used to get up to before they discovered oil. Thorough, if over-poetic. Good translation: Burton. Nin, Anais Delta of Venus (1978)
When Anais Nin started to write erotica for a dollar a page in the 1940s she was instructed "concentrate on sex. Leave out the poetry' . Luckily, she was incapable of doing so. Also: The Diary of Anal's Nill; Little Birds
Nin, Ana¯s. American, 1903-1977. Diary of Ana¯s Nin (7 vols.). Rec: LAT Delta of Venus. Rec: Harvard Utne Ovid The Art of Love (1st century BC)
One of the oldest and funniest handbooks of amorous siege tactics. Deals with sexual one-upmanship with cynical, timeless stylishness. Partridge, Burgo A History of Orgies (1964)
Serious study of an extraordinary, rather repellent phenomenon. Peel, J. and Potts, M. A Textbook of Contraceptive Practice (1969) J P Reage, Pauline The Story of O (1970)
Much speculation has been whipped up about who actually wrote The Story of O. The way in which a woman, O, achieves sexual gratification by voluntarily subjecting herself to male sadism convinces many people that a male imagination lurks behind the words. Highly erotic; highly literary; Graham Greene called it "a rare thing, a pornographic book well written and without a trace of obscenity". Rechy, John City of Night (1963)
A meaty book in every sense, about male hustlers in New York City. Just the book for people with strong stomachs who cannot imagine what drives homosexuals. Also: The Sexual Outlaw Reich, Wilhelm The Sexual Revolution (1930)
When a Marxist, Reich analysed the family as the key institution within capitalist society responsible for economic repression and sexual perversion. For his insistence on the political significance of sex he was expelled from the Freudian Psycho-
Analytical Association. He later became a committed anti-communist, finally dying in prison after being prosecuted by the American Food and Drug Administration for fraud. Thorny style; influential book. Also: The Itnposition of Sexual Morality Reich, Wilhelm, Austrian, 1897-1957. The Function of the Orgasm. Rec: Boston PL Character Analysis. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Sade, Marquis de Justine (1797)
Libertine, philosopher and pornographer extraordinary, the Marquis de Sade wrote books he expected to be banned. More read about than read; a curiously enervating author, for all his disturbing zest. Compare Angela Carter: The Sadeian Woman. Also: The Hundred and Twenty Days of Sodom; Philosophy in the Bedroom, etc Sade, Donatien Alphonse Fran§ois, Marquis de, French, 1740-1814. Justine. Rec: Smiley Letters from Prison. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Sanger, Margaret. American, 1879-1966. My Fight for Birth Control. Rec: NYPL Happiness in Marriage. Rec: Boston PL Silverstein, C. and White, E. The Joy of Gay Sex (1977)
Intimate alphabetical guide to the pleasures of gaiety, ranging from "androgyny" to "wrestling". Less serious (and less helpful and supportive) than the companion volume, The Joy of Lesbian Sex (1977) by Sisley and Harris. But is solemnity obligatory? Southern, Terry Blue Movie (1973)
Scintillating, Hollywood satire: frivolity laced with splendid, poker-faced sex. They'll film this — and completely miss the point. A funny, and a splendidly erotic, read. Also: Candy Tannahil, Reay Sex in History (1980)
Gorgeous scholarly survey of the place of sex (as opposed to love, family life, patriotism, honour, etc) in societies from ancient China and India (oh, those temple-carvings! What were they for? For fun, of course, says Tannahill) almost right up (but not, thank goodness, all the way) to the Home Life of Dear Queen Victoria. This really is everything you never dared to ask, about such matters as Greek homosexuality, those medieval girls and their unicorns, Victorian flagellation, even the rationale and methods of castration in the Middle East. Thorough scholarship; deadpan wit; a lovely book. See FOOD Vatsyayana The Kama Sutra (4th-6th century)
Classic Indian sex manual on the "art of love'; remarkable mixture of sophistication and urbanity. It might give you a headache trying to work out what goes where in some of the sex positions described, just as putting them into practice will almost certainly result in backache. Good translation: Burton. Vatsyayana, Indian writing in Sanskrit, ca. 4th C. Kama Sutra. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Ward Wolff, Charlotte Love between Women (1971)
Using a case history approach, Charlotte Wolff, a psychoanalyst, gives a good, lucid account of the nature of lesbian relationships. Also: An OlderLove (fiction)

Sociology

From its 19th-century beginnings, sociology has been an analytical rather than a dogmatic study: its role is to examine the beliefs, principles and processes which control social behaviour, to codify them where possible, and to draw conclusions. Increasingly, however, as the study develops, those conclusions are tending towards dogma, theories of social change becoming recipes, blueprints for vast upheavals of human behaviour and organization. Many of the books on this list show a proselytizing zeal for this or that political way; others, perhaps purer in sociological terms, take the detached stance of the observer. preserving that coolness of analysis of ideas in action which, at its best, makes sociology a true counterpart of philosophy.

See ANTHROPOLOGY (Dumont, Lloyd, Thrasher, Tiger); ARCHITECTURE (Newman); FILM (Durgnat); GEOGRAPHY (Pahl); HISTORY/BRITISH (Blythe, Bragg, Thomas, Thompson): MEDIA (Hoggart, McLuhan, Packard, Williams); MUSIC (Frith); POLITICS (Mackenzie, Mannheim. Mill, Moore, Niebuhr, Piven, Rousseau, Schumpeter); PSYCHOLOGY (Aronson, Erikson)

Daniel Bell

Daniel Bell is the Henry Ford II Professor of Social Science at Harvard. Besides writing articles and books in his field of sociology, he cofounded The Public Interest, is on the Board of Editors of Daedalus, and is a contributing editor of the Partisan Review. He is a trustee of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey and a member of the National Research Council's Board on Telecommunications and Computers. His most recent book is The Deficit: How Big? How Long? How Dangerous? written with Lester Thurow, to be followed by a book funded by the National Science Foundation on the new technology.

Mortimer J. Adler, ed. The Great Ideas: A Syntopicon of Great Books of the Western World (1952). Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1955. (Vols. 2 and 3 of Great Books of the Western World.) Alan L. Bullock, ed. The Harper Dictionary of Modern Thought. New York: Harper & Row, (1977)
My list would be constantly changing with new books being added all the time. Readers need to understand that no book stands by itself. It is part of a continuing dialogue with its predecessors. Each book is a part of a river of books. Books are embedded in a historical context; Aristotle's Metaphysics cannot be understood without an understanding of the pre-Socratics, for example. You need to lead from one book to another — maybe using Mortimer Adler's Syntopicon. You don't have to go back and read everyone that came before. Then you would be a part of an infinite regress. You have to start somewhere. The point is to be aware that reading and ideas do not arise de nova. There is an element of history behind all reading — that continuing dialogue again. Any intelligent reader has to keep in mind the question, What was it about previous answers and writings that was unsatisfactory and insufficient and gave rise to the new formulation?
In picking books you cannot be a magpie picking one Aristotle, one Shakespeare. First, the reader must ask, What are the relevant questions? and then, What books address themselves to those questions? If it's a question about the nature of justice then proceed from Aristotle to John Rawls. Readers should have a sense of purpose for reading and they need to know how to relate one book to another. Readers need to know ways of reading — how to trace out an idea by following its threads.
My own earliest reading was boy books — Nick Carter detectives. But they got me into the habit of reading. My own experience of life on the Lower East Side of New York drew on one thematic and problematic definition that shaped my entire life. My father died early and my mother was a factory worker. I was surrounded by slums, garbage scows, Hooverville. It was the "why" and the "does it have to be this way" that led me and my reading to the socialist movement, and on to my profession of sociology.
The answer to your question is more complex, rich and variegated than the notion that somewhere there is a set of books that impressed you. It is too simplistic an approach. Maybe we should be urging people toward favorite encyclopedias as a beginning point. A good one is Alan Bullock's Harper Dictionary of Modern Thought.

Archie C. Epps

Archie C. Epps, dean of students at Harvard College, is a native of Lake Charles, Louisiana. He came to Harvard as a graduate student in 1958 after he received his A.B. degree from Talladega College in Alabama. He was awarded an S.T.B. by the Harvard Divinity School in 1961. His main intellectual interests are sociology of religion and Afro-American literature and history. He edited the speeches of Malcolm X at Harvard, which were published by William Morrow in 1968 and which included an introductory essay entitled "The Paradoxes of Malcolm X." His forthcoming book, Coping with College: Issues Faced by Students in the 1980s, will be published in the winter of 1987.
Each of these books illuminates an area of human thought that seeks to project man beyond the everyday. They were important to me for the special vision of the future they contained. Robert N. Bellah. The Broken Covenant: American Civil Religion in a Time of Trial (1975). Minneapolis, Minn.: Winston Press, 1976. (Pb)
Robert Bellah's seminal work, The Broken Covenant, was published just before the bicentennial of this country. It portrays an American people who have interpreted their history as having a religious meaning. They saw themselves a chosen people. Bellah traces the myths that helped shape the American identity and underscores how they were being reexamined in light of the difficulties facing the nation. He shows the interplay between religion and secular myths. He achieves new perspectives on the constant struggle in the republic to reclaim values and a true sense of freedom. This book will whet your appetite for more Bellah, especially Beyond Belief and Habits of the Heart. Harry A. Wolfson. Religious Philosophy (1961). New York: Atheneum, 1965. (Pb)
These secular essays are vintage Wolfson. A scholar in the ancient tradition, his studies range from Judaism to the patristic Fathers and finally Islamic theology. His work lays the foundation for understanding the common threads and differences in the three religious traditions that arose in the Middle East. Wolfson wrote books on many of the subjects discussed in the essays. This book illuminates the whole corpus of his work and renders him somewhat more accessible to the nonspecialist.
I read Religious Philosophy because Professor Wolfson directed my attention to the last piece, a sermonette given in Appleton Chapel, 17 March 1955. It is called "The Professed Atheist and the Verbal Theist," and begins with a quotation from Psalms 14:1: "The fool bath said in his heart, there is no God." Lasting less than six minutes in delivery, Wolfson's sermon summarizes the history of religious philosophy and the misguided efforts to provide secular versions. W. E. B. DuBois. The Souls of Black Folk (1903). New York: New American Library, 1969. (Pb)
This small book introduced me in a detailed way to the richness of black life at the beginning of the twentieth century. Its marriage of a grasp of fact and soaring poetic prose makes it a tour de force that sweeps the reader along and immerses him in the Negro world. It encouraged me to read other books by DuBois who was one of our pioneer sociologists. He must have believed, as did F. R. Leavis, that scholarship should in part serve to produce an educated and informed public, because he wrote for general consumption. Ralph Ellison. Shadow and Act (1964). New York: Random House, 1964. (Pb)
If you want to understand the joy in black life despite suffering, this book will be an invaluable aid. This collection of essays by the author of Invisible Man has been my guidepost since it was published, in the midst of a debate between Ellison and Baldwin. Ellison stressed the particularity of black experience but also the way it embodied the universality of mankind. It contains an important review of Leroi James's Blues People and a discussion of the centrality of black life in the American experience. It held out the view that it is possible to live beyond race. Of course, Ellison is a superb craftsman, essayist and conversationalist of charm, intelligence and force.

Gerald E. Frug

Gerald Frug teaches contracts, property, administrative law and local government law at the Harvard Law School. He teaches all of them, he writes, in a way that demonstrates why the kinds of books he has mentioned here are essential to understanding law. He has spent almost as much of his professional life as a government administrator as he has as a law teacher. He believes that books of this kind are as important for government officials as they are for lawyers.

These are the six books that have most influenced my thinking.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Social Contract (1762). Maurice Cranston, trans. New York: Penguin, 1968. (Pb)
This book presents the most readable, passionate account I know of the promise and dangers of democracy, and it offers an essential critique of the narrow meaning we give to the concept of democracy in America today. Alexis de Tocqueville. Democracy in America (1835-40). G. Laurence, trans. New York: Random House, 1981. (Pb)
Like Rousseau, de Tocqueville makes the democratic ideal come alive; his eloquence and insights make the book thrilling to read. De Tocqueville's historical and sociological analysis, like Rousseau's political theory, help the reader get outside the commonplace understandings of democracy prevalent today. Karl Mannheim. Ideology and Utopia (1929). L. Wirth and G. Shils, trans. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985. (Pb)
Mannheim shows us that the way people think about the world is contingent rather than universally shared. He argues that thinking is not a way of getting at the truth about society from the outside; instead, ways of thinking are themselves products of society. The difficulty that Mannheim has in coming to terms with his own thesis at the end of his book adds to the excitement of reading it. David Shapiro. Neurotic Styles (1965). New York: Basic Books, 1965. (Pb)
Shapiro, like Mannheim, describes how different people can understand the world in radically different ways, but Shapiro relies on psychoanalytical rather than sociological insights in his account of the variable nature of thinking. His book makes learning about alternative ways of experiencing the world fun; classifying yourself and your friends in terms of the obsessive-
compulsive, hysterical, paranoid and impulsive styles is irresistible. Norbert Elias. The History of Manners (1978). Edmund Jephcott, trans. New York: Pantheon, 1982. (Pb)
Elias provides insight into the historically contingent nature of our own experience of the world through a historical analysis of some of our most mundane experiences: using a fork, blowing one's nose, spitting. Elias's book is not only a fascinating social history but it provides a valuable way to understand how our attitudes toward the world are formed. Jacques Derrida. Of Grammatology (1976). Gayatri C. Spivak, trans. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1977. (Pb)
The books listed above describe how not only democracy but also the normal routines of daily life can be lived in different ways; Derrida's book focuses on the experience of difference itself. Derrida's book is difficult and often puzzling, but he provokes his readers to think about their own ways of thinking in a powerful and insightful way.

Kenneth W. Haskins

Kenneth Haskins serves as both senior lecturer on education and codirector of the Principal's Center at Harvard's School of Education. A trained social worker, Mr. Haskins has had extensive experience in administration and program development in education. He has participated in the development of several national organizations and programs such as the National Black Child Development Institute, and serves on advisory boards of trustees of numerous local science and educational agencies.

W. E. B. DuBois. Black Reconstruction in America (1935). New York: Atheneum, 1969. (Pb)
This book describes the attempt to recast the political and economic structures of the United States in a manner that offered hope for a truly advanced society. It further depicts the events leading to the betrayal of the newly freed population's hopes. John Langston Gwaltney, ed. Drylongso: A Self-Portrait of Black America (1980). New York: Random House, 1981. (Pb)
This is a very sensitive presentation of the thinking of those the author considers "ordinary people." The wisdom and sensitivity of black America is demonstrated in what is essentially a political commentary on American race relations. William Hinton. Fanshen: A Documentary of Revolution in a Chinese Village. New York: Random House, 1968. (Pb)
The work of a people attempting to put into practice the dreams of a revolution is portrayed by examining a small village. The process of including the formerly excluded; the struggle to develop mutual respect and self-criticism; the substitution of cooperation for exploration all are sketched in ways that point out the extreme difficulty in transforming ideas into programs.
Albert Memmi. The Colonizer and the Colonized (1957). Howard Greenfield, trans. Boston: Beacon, 1966. (Pb)
This work provides a frame of reference for examining current relations between the "haves" and the "have nots." The roles of race and class are delineated as well as the recognition of everyone's contribution to the existence of these relationships. Milton S. Mayer. They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45 (1955). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1966. (Pb)
The title describes the major contributions of this book. An "advanced" nation, in which citizens enjoy their freedom often at the expense of the freedom of others, discovers that it too (or at least a portion of it) is subject to domination and exploitation. Although there are many other instances in our history, this one demonstrates the negative extremes of human behavior.

Winthrop Knowlton

Winthrop Knowlton is the director of the Center for Business and Government of Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, Mr. Knowlton, former chief executive officer of Harper & Row, Publishers, is the Henry R. Luce Professor of Ethics, Business and Public Policy at the Kennedy School.

The books I have selected deal with the nature of tyranny and freedom and with scientific and cultural change (how they come about and what they bring in their wake). None of them falls readily into a single category such as "economics" or "ethics."

Four of the six are about individuals. Their heroism provides insight into problems that endure across centuries and inspiration about how best to lead one's life in the face of those challenges.

Maria Dermout. The Ten Thousand Things (1958). E. M. Beekman, ed., Hans Koning, trans. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1983. Freeman J. Dyson. Disturbing the Universe: A Life in Science (1979). New York: Harper & Row, 1981. (Pb) Friedrich August von Hayek. The Constitution of Liberty (1960). Chicago: Regnery, 1972. Joseph A. Sehumpeter. Capitalism. Socialism, and Democracy (1942). New York: Harper & Row, 1983. Andre Schwarz-Bart. The Last of the Just (1959). Stephen Becker, trans. Cambridge, Mass.: Richard Bentley, 1981. Alexander I. Solzhenitsyn. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1962). Ralph Parker, trans. Alexandria, Va.: Time — Life Books, 1981.

Marc Roberts

Marc Roberts holds a joint appointment with Harvard's School of Public Health and the Kennedy School of Government as a professor of political economy and health policy. He has taught primarily in the fields of industrial organization, cost-benefit analyses, environmental economics and health economics. He is a consultant to public agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, and author of books that examine environmental and health challenges in modern society.

Ernest Hemingway. For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940). New York: Scribner's, 1982. (Pb)
I think almost everyone reads a novel when they are still young that first brings them face to face with the reality of life and death. I read this my freshman year and argued about it endlessly late at night sitting in cafeterias while the traffic lights glistened in the rain on the streets outside. Best of all, I liked the Spanish woman, Pilar, and years later felt vindicated in my preference when I discovered Hemingway had named his favorite boat after her. Thomas S. Kuhn. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970. (Pb)
I read this my first year in graduate school. For years I told people about the book, how much it had to say about all academic work and the ways in which we all think. For years it was an underground classic and I was an ardent devotee. Now it has received its well-deserved fame. Max Weber. On the Methodology of the Social Science (190417). Edward A. Shils and Henry A. Finch, trans. Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press, 1949.
I read this my last year in graduate school. Since reading Kuhn, I had been struggling with the question of how, if at all, social science was "different." What role should numerical measurements play in such work? How could I make sense of the tendency of economic models to oscillate from descriptive to prescriptive and back again? The translation was obscure, the ideas flashed across my mind like skyrockets. I now urge every graduate student to read the essay "Science as a Vocation."
John Rawls. A Theory of Justice (1971). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972. (Pb)
I have struggled with this book for the past ten years. It took two readings for me to figure out what it meant and one more to find out where and how I disagreed with it. The effort to define my reactions has been extraordinarily educational but it is not one for the faint-hearted nor a task to be undertaken lightly. John A. McPhee. Encounters with the Archdruid. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1971. (Pb)
Since I was introduced to McPhee five years ago, I have read almost everything. This is certainly one of the best. It is about both people as individuals and people as representatives of ideas and causes. It reminds us that those we like most may not be those we think are right and that there should be room in our lives for both kinds of regard. It reminded me why I used to belong to the Sierra Club and made me unembarrassed by that youthful enthusiasm.

Ezra F. Vogel

Ezra Vogel is a professor of sociology at Harvard and director of the US. Japan Program at Harvard's Center for International Affairs. He is well known in the United States and East Asia for his research and teaching on contemporary Chinese society, Japanese society and economy, and industrial East Asia. He is the author of Japan as Number One and, most recently, Comeback.

Talcott Parsons. The Social System (1951). Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press, 1964. (Pb)
Talcott Parsons did not always find the simplest, most concise way to express his views, but he was constantly thinking about the general characteristics of society, and his book The Social System was a powerful effort to think systematically about the linkages between different parts of society. I have found his framework an extraordinarily stimulating general perspective from which to think about all societies, present and future. It provides a broader framework for considering all the implications of policies than the narrower, more mechanical perspectives provided by economics, decision-making theory, law and the like. Daniel Bell. The Coming of Post-Industrial Society (1973). New York: Basic Books, 1976. (Pb)
Daniel Bell is one of the best-read social scientists anywhere, and his work on the year 2000, and his thoughts about the transition from an industrial society to a post-industrial society, though ten years old, still provide a powerful intellectual framework for thinking about changes in the future. Richard W. Bolling and John Bowles. America's Competitive Edge. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1982.
Dick Bolling for decades was one of the most knowledgeable and systematic thinkers in Congress, and his work with John Bowles represents a deep understanding of how our national politics work and presents a vision of what might be possible within our American system. George C. Lodge and Bruce R. Scott, eds. U.S. Competitiveness in the World Economy. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1985.
The work that George Lodge and associates have done at the Harvard Business School, more than that of any other group that I know, has charted the nature of the new competitive international economic climate in which we find ourselves, They have been thinking systematically about the changing nature of business and of the world's political and economic climate from a broad-gauged yet well-grounded perspective. These factors will have a far greater impact on the future than myopic Americans realize, and they provide a framework for thinking about these issues. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Industrial Policy of Japan. Paris: O.E.C.D., 1972.
No country has done more to chart a meaningful program for guiding national economies than Japan. When Japan was admitted to O.E.C.D. membership, they were asked to present a report to the O.E.C.D. explaining their industrial policy. This is the result, MITI's classic statement about how it approached questions of economic strategy.
I know of no good book in any language that charts the future developments in Japanese commerce and industry, but I am convinced that just as America in the 1960s and 1970s was the country to observe because it was at the cutting edge, so Japan is the country to observe in thinking about the future because it is replacing us at the cutting edge. I am amazed how provincial most American intellectuals are, how little they understand about the most dynamic part of the world and how blind they are to the impact East Asia will have on the United States. I find that the best way to think about the world's future is to visit Japan and know intimately the grassroots of Japanese research, industry, agriculture, business and government. Speaking the local language and visiting these places frequently, I now find this field work far more useful in thinking about the future than any book in Japanese or English.

Abraham Zaleznik

Abraham Zaleznik is the Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership at the Harvard Business School. He has taught at Harvard since 1947 and is known internationally for his research and teaching in the field of social psychology in the business setting, and for his investigations into the distinguishing characteristics of managers and leaders. A psychoanalyst, Professor Zaleznik maintains that he studied psychoanalysis because the way to advance in our understanding of people at work is first to understand people. His courses not only examine leadership within the business organization but also address issues such as the family, the individual's emotional life and the tension between career goals and personal aspirations. His works include: Human Dilemmas of Leadership (1966), Power and the Corporate Mind (1975) and The Managerial Mystique: The Changing Realities of Business Leadership (1985).

If you believe as I do that human beings change only microscopically in their biological and psychological structure, then you will believe that the books I have listed will probably have enduring value into the next century.

Sigmund Freud. The Complete Psychological Works: Standard Edition. James Strachey, ed. and trans. 25 vols. New York: W.W. Norton, 1976.
Sigmund Freud has had the most influence on my intellectual life. I cannot restrict myself to only one of his books. Among the most important, I would list his The Interpretation of Dreams, Three Essays on Sexuality, and his case studies, including Dora, Little Hans, The Rat Man, and The Wolf Man. For those who want to study Freud seriously, I would recommend that they read Ernest Jones's three-volume biography, The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud. F. J. Roethlisberger and William J. Dickson. Management and the Worker (1934). Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1946.
This book was my introduction to the study of human relations in business, and it opened my eyes to a field of study as it changed the way executives thought about their work and about themselves. Bronislaw Malinowski. Argonauts of the Western Pacific (1960). New York: Waveland Press, 1984. (Pb)
Alfred R. Radcliffe-Brown. The Andaman Islanders. New York: Free Press, 1964. (Pb)
Conrad M. Arensberg. The Irish Countryman. Garden City, N.Y.: Natural History Press, 1968. (Pb)
William F. Whyte. Street Corner Society (1943). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981. (Pb)
My third selection is a group of books. They were written by anthropologists and opened my eyes to the aesthetics of field work in the scientific examination of social organization. George C. Homans. The Human Group (1950). London: Rout-ledge and Kegan Paul, 1975.
. Social Behavior: Its Elementary Forms. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974.
George C. Homans wrote two books that taught me something about evidence and inference in social research. Saul Bellow. Humboldt's Gift (1975). New York: Avon, 1976. (Pb)
Saul Bellow's novels lifted the veil that hides the dilemmas of modern man; the intellectual, the artist and the humanist. Humboldt's Gift is a powerful book. Arthur Miller. Death of a Salesman (1966). New York: Penguin, 1977. (Pb)
. The Price (1967). New York: Penguin, 1985. (Pb)
. A View from the Bridge (1957). New York: Penguin, 1977. (Pb)
The plays of Arthur Miller taught me about survival in a world that is for some tragic heroes a very unfriendly place. Three of his plays are especially important to me: Death of a Salesman, The Price and A View from the Bridge. Reden an die Deutsche Nation
G. Fichte
German Superiority The Course of German History A.J.P. Taylor
German Superiority "Fichte, the Self and the Calling of Philosophy"
A.J. La Vopa
German Superiority History of England
T.B. Macaulay
British Superiority Rudyard Kipling
D. Gilmour
British Superiority The Isles
N. Davies
British Superiority The Brahmo Samaj and the Shaping of the Modern Indian Mind
D. Kopf
Indian Westernization Vidyasagar: a Reassessment
G. Haldar
Indian Westernization Renaissance and Reaction in Nineteenth-Century Bengal
M.K. Haldar
Indian Westernization Autobiography
F. Yukichi
Chinese Self-Strengthening The Rise of Modern China
I. Hsu
Chinese Self-Strengthening Transferring Technology to China
S.A. Leibo
Chinese Self-Strengthening Masters of Chinese Political Thought
S. De Grazia
Chinese Superiority Two Sons of Heaven
Jung-shen Tao
Chinese Superiority East Asia at the Center
W.I. Cohen
Chinese Superiority Cartography in the Traditional East and Southeast Asian Societies
"J. Harley, D. Woodward"
Chinese Superiority Sources of Chinese Tradition
"W.T. de Barry, R. Lufrano"
Chinese Popular Sovereignty History of Chinese Political Thought
Liang Chi-chao
Chinese Popular Sovereignty The Great Enterprise
F. Wakeman
Chinese Popular Sovereignty Hecker Studies: Essays on the Thought of Isaac Hecker
J. Farina
American Exceptionalism Keeping Faith
P. Gleason
American Exceptionalism The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald
American Exceptionalism The Right Stuff
T. Wolfe
American Exceptionalism Race and Manifest Destiny
R. Horsman
American Expansionism Under an Open Sky
W. Cronon
American Expansionism How the West was Won
L. L'Amour
American Expansionism Chivalry
M. Keen
Chivalry The Return to Camelot
M. Girouard
Chivalry Chivalry and Exploration
J. Goodman
Chivalry Don Quixote
M. Cervantes
Chivalry The Code of the Woosters
P.G. Wodehouse
Chivalry Of Heroes and Hero-Worship
T. Carlyle
Superman Thus Spake Zarathustra
F. Nietzsche
Superman The Secularization of the European Mind in the Nineteenth Century
O. Chadwick
Superman Anti-Semitism
D. Cohn-Sherbock
Anti-Semitism Europe's Inner Demons
N. Cohn
Anti-Semitism The Rise of Political Anti-Semitism in Germany and Austria
P. Pulzer
Anti-Semitism The Butcher's Tale
H. Walser Smith
Anti-Semitism The Diary of a Young Girl
A. Frank
Anti-Semitism The Inequality of Human Races
A. de Gobineau
Scientific Racism Victorian Attitudes to Race
C. Bolt
Scientific Racism "Race, Science and Society"
L.K. Uper
Scientific Racism Essays in Eugenics
F. Galton
Eugenics Population Politics in 20th-Century Europe
M.S. Quine
Eugenics The Race Gallery
M. Kohn
Eugenics Master Race
M. Leapman
Eugenics Brave New World
A. Huxley
Eugenics A Social History of the Fool
S. Billington
Over-Learning In Praise of Folly
D. Erasmus
Over-Learning Jesus the Holy Fool
E.-A. Stewart
Over-Learning Intellectuals
P. Johnson
Over-Learning A Short Cultural History of Japan
G.B. Sansom
Japanese Superiority The Chrysanthemum and the Sword
R. Benedict
Japanese Superiority Isles of Gold
H. Cortazzi
Japanese Superiority The Cambridge History of Japan

Japanese Superiority A History of Private Life (5 vols)
"P. Aries, G. Duby"
Marriage for Love Marriage and Society
R. Outhwaite
Marriage for Love Romeo and Juliet
W. Shakespeare
Marriage for Love Victorian Women
E.O. Hellerstein
Childhood and Womanhood The History of Childhood
L. de Mause
Childhood and Womanhood The Secret Garden
F.H. Burnett
Childhood and Womanhood Humanist Anthology
M. Knight
Humanism The Secularization of the European Mind in the Nineteenth Century
O. Chadwick
Humanism God's Funeral
A.N. Wilson
Humanism The Brothers Karamazov
F. Dostoevsky
Humanism Towards a Psychology of Being
A. Maslow
Humanism The Mind of Primitive Man
F. Boas
Cultural Relativism A Franz Boas Reader
G.W. Stocking
Cultural Relativism An Introduction to Social Anthropology
J. Hendry
Cultural Relativism A Framework for Understanding Poverty
Ruby K. Payne
Cultural Relativism

Development Studies

Deborah Eade

Strengthening people's capacity to determine their own values and priorities, and to organize themselves to act on these, is the basis of development. It is about women and men becoming empowered to bring about positive changes in their lives; about personal growth together with public action; about both the process and the outcome of challenging poverty, oppression, and discrimination; and about the realization of human potential through social and economic justice. Above all, it is about the process of transforming lives, and transforming societies.

The right to development is the right of individuals, groups, and peoples to
participate in, contribute to, and enjoy continuous economic, social, cultural,
and political development, in which all human rights and fundamental freedoms
can be fully realized ... Development is not only a fundamental right but a
basic human need, which fulfils the aspiration of all people to achieve the
greatest possible freedom and dignity both as individuals and as members of the
societies in which they live ... A development strategy that disregards or interferes
with human rights is the very negation of development. —United Nations

The Open Veins of Latin America (1971) by Eduardo Galeano. A compelling account of colonialism in Latin America, and its contemporary repercussions. Although the historical detail varies from one region to another, the legacy of deepening poverty and an ever-widening gap between rich and poor lives on today through-out Latin America, Africa, and Asia, and also distorts human development within the industrialized nations. Where There Is No Doctor (1977) by David Werner. First written in Spanish for peasant farmers in the mountains of Mexico, this influential manual is inspired by the belief that 'health care is not only everyone's right, but everyone's responsibility'. Its lasting message is that even the poorest and most oppressed people can take control of their lives when given the means to do so, and is a classic depiction of primary health care in practice. A Quiet Violence: View f om a Bangladesh Village (1983) by Betsy Hartmann and James Boyce. A powerful case study demonstrating how global, national, local, and household forces combine to consign millions to hunger and deprivation in a world of plenty. Written from a grass-roots perspective, this study shows that in the context of skewed power relations, aid may be part of the problem rather than part of the solution. Woman at Point Zero (1975) by Nawal El Saadawi. This novel explores the real human suffering caused by class and gender oppression. It is a terrible indictment of intolerance and the abuse of power as it affects all human development. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) by theUnited Nations. This comprehensive document remains touchstone against which to measure the distance separating humankind from development. Stressing the universal and indivisible nature of human rights, the Declaration underlines that all development is undermined as long as there is one woman, man, or child whose rights are not fully realized. Hunger and Public Action (1989) by Jean Dreze and Amartya Sen. A ground-breaking examination of the role of governments and of social actions by the public in eradicating famines and eliminating deprivations. It stresses how discrimination against women creates a 'sex bias in famine'. A free press is critical in ensuring that governments are exposed to public scrutiny; and may be 'the most effective early-warning system a famine-prone country can rely on'. Rising from the Ashes: Development Strategies in Times of Disaster (1989) by Mary B Anderson and Peter J Woodrow. Building on several case studies, this book shows that relief programmes are never neutral in their developmental impact. It presents a deceptively simple framework for understanding the dynamic relationship between different people's needs, vulnerabilities, and capacities. Criticizing most current relief practice, the authors show various ways in which it might be improved.
Women and Development Series (1989-95). Prepared under the direction of the UN liaison service for nongovernmental organizations. Consisting of ten volumes on topics including human rights, empowerment, employment, literacy, and refugees, the series provides a detailed overview of women's exclusion from development, and of ways in which women's and other organizations around the world, as well as the UN system itself, have attempted to 'mainstream' women's rights. Rural Development: Putting the Last First (1983) by Robert Chambers. A major work that has influenced recent development thinking and practice, contending that poor people are themselves the best sources of information about their poverty. 'Experts' have only a limited role to play, helping to articulate and give shape to the actions of the poor. The Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1973) by Paolo Freire. In this seminal book demonstrating the political nature of education, Freire explicitly links literacy to popular empowerment and social mobilization. His work in Brazil has had an irrevocable impact on adult education and social development work in Latin America and elsewhere.

Travel and Exploration

The catlike curiosity of the human race guarantees vivid interest in the people across the valley; the traveller, who turns that interest into action, is a kind of outsider, a privileged scapegoat who breaks through the barriers of the local, the familiar, and reports on what he sees. The more extraordinary his tales, the more matter-of-fact his narration — for he is not amazed, he is at home with himself wherever he goes — and the more wide-eyed our listening amazement. For those who wish to sample the new global village for themselves, a handful of standard guidebook series are recommended here (not Michelin, not Baedeker, for they go without saying, everywhere — and who reads them in any case?); from the other books on the list, armchair excitement is guaranteed.

See ANTHROPOLOGY (Greenway); AUTOBIOGRAPHY (Hudson); BIOGRAPHY (Morison. Parkman); HISTORY/AMERICAN (Coleman, Parkman); HISTORY/ASIAN (Severin. Stanley); NATURAL HISTORY (Banks, Burton. Cousteau_ Moorehead, Waterton)

Amundsen, Roald, Norwegian, 1872-1928. The South Pole. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Bartram, William Travels (1791)
The author travelled through territory that is now Georgia and northern Florida and described the fabulous — real but almost unbelievable — animals and plants that he saw. Deservedly a classic. Bryson, Bill. American, 1951- . Made in America. Rec: Utne The Lost Continent. Rec: Harvard Botting, Douglas One Chilly Siberian Morning (1965)
To most people Siberia is a vast, cold wilderness peopled by inscrutable peasants and dissident intellectuals. Botting sees it also as the seedbed for huge, dynamic change. Burton, Sir Richard A Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Mecca (1855)
Victorian traveller uses his knowledge of the languages and cultures of the Middle East to travel in disguise to Muslim holy cities in Arabia, forbidden to non-Muslims under pain of death. See NATURAL HISTORY; SEX (Boccaccio, Nefzawi, Vatsyayana) Burton, Sir Richard Francis, English, 1821-1890. Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah. Rec: Ward Byron, Robert, English, 1905-1941. The Road to Oxiana. Rec: Counterpunch NF Chadwick, Lee A Cuban Journey (1975)
Cuba since Castro: well-written, objective account of bow it seemed to one British traveller. Cherry-Garrard, Apsley The Worst Journey in the World (1922) *Ita Captain Scott's polar expeditions have, for the British, the perennial fascination of heroic failure. This classic account uses letters, diaries and personal reminiscence to build an amazing picture of doggedness and heroism in appalling conditions. Should be read in conjunction with two modern books, Elspeth Huxley: Scott of the Antarctic (1977) and R. Huntford: Scott and Amundsen (1979). Chitty, S. and Hinde, T. The Great Donkey Walk (1977)
The authors, with two small children, travelled from Spain to Greece by pilgrim roads and mule tracks. Lively, witty narrative, escapist reading par excellence. Cook, Captain James The Journals of Captain Cook in His Voyages of Discovery (4 vols, 1955)
Great accounts of the sea voyage par excellence. All these marvels really happened, Captain Cook really did discover Hawaii (the Sandwich Islands) and so forth. Engrossing armchair read. Dana, Richard H. Two Years before the Mast(1840)
Dana worked his way from Boston round Cape Horn to California and back on a wooden sailing-ship in 1834; this classic account of sailors' life compares interestingly with Newby's (qv) The Last Grain Race, on a modern sailing ship, and with Preble's The Opening of Japan (HISTORY/ASIAN), on US navy life in 1853. Dana, Richard Henry. American, 1815-1882. Two Years Before the Mast. Rec: Bloom Cook, James, English, 1728-1779. Journals (Voyages). Rec: Lubbock Ward David-Neel, Alexandra Tibetan Journey (1936)
Undauntable Frenchwoman's adventures in eastern Tibet. Reminiscent, for style and liveliness, of Kingsley (qv). Fascinating, too, to compare with Harrer's (qv) view of Tibet, at once more mystical and more pragmatic. Also: My Journey to Lhasa; Magic and Mystery in Tibet David-Neel, Alexandra, French, 1868-1969. My Journey to Lhasa. Rec: Counterpunch NF Durrell, Lawrence Reflections on a Marine Venus (1953)
Durrell's travel books (of which this is the best) are informed with a poet's stylish intensity and a quirky eye for idiosyncrasies of landscape or character. This book is a palimpsest of the history and manners of Rhodes. Prospero's Cell (about Corfu) and Bitter Lemons (about Cyprus, and notably good on the 1950s "troubles" there) are equally enjoyable: Durrell writing with rare power, discipline, clarity. See CHILDREN'S BOOKS (Durrell, G.); DIARIES; FICTION/NOVELS; POETRY Evliya Celebi, Turkish, ca. 1611-ca. 1684. Narrative of Travels in Europe, Asia and Africa. Rec: Ward Farre, Rowena The Beckoning Land (1969)
Oriental journey from Hong Kong to the Himalayas, in search of spiritual enlightenment. Unique combination of autobiography and travel diary, in lighthearted, entertaining style. Also: Seal Morning Fawcett, P. H. Exploration Fawcett(1953) * Great classic of jungle exploration in the Mato Grosso, Brazil. Fawcett is at once the epitome of British Grit and a true exemplar of explorer-as-mystic. Leeches, spiders and piranha fish play featured, lively roles — not a book to read in the Great Outdoors. Fermor, Patrick Leigh A Time of Gifts (1977)
18-year-old rebel in 1933 sets out to walk from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople — a modern Grand Tour crucial to his development, as unpredictable and as fascinating as any young sprig's of the 18th century. Also: Roume/i(travels in northern Greece); The Traveller's Tree (journey through the Caribbean islands), etc Fodor, E. and Curtis, W. (eds) Fodor's Guide to Islamic Asia
(1973) tila J./ Representative title (revised annually) from magnificent guidebook series; long on history and topography, clear thematic arrangement, helpful attention to the needs of the unfamiliar visitor. Gale, John Travels with a Son (1972)
Travels by jeep in Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Ghana. For those who like travel-as-
autobiography, a treat. Also: Clean Young Englishman (fine autobiography); The Family Man (novel) Genet, Jean The Thief's Journal (1949)
Fascinating account of Genet's life in the 1930s underworlds of several European countries, as beggar and thief. Wonderful incident when some French tourists discuss whether the beggars in Spain or Morocco are more picturesque, assuming that Genet can't understand what they're saying. See BIOGRAPHY (Sartre); DRAMA (Esslin); SEX Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, German, 1749-1832. Italian Journey. Rec: Bloom Greene, Graham Journey without Maps (1936)
Colourful, unusually genial account of an expedition journey upcountry in Liberia. See FICTION/NOVELS
Harrer, Heinrich Seven Years in Tibet (1953)
Austrian mountain-climber trapped in India by the outbreak of World War II escapes across the Himalayas into Tibet, lives in Lhasa, gives a vivid picture of pre-Chinese Tibetan life. See David-Nee. Heyerdahl, Thor The Kon-Tiki Expedition (1948)
*1' Six men sail across the Pacific from Peru on a raft of balsa wood, to prove it can be — and could have been — done. Also: Aku-Aku; The Ra Expeditions. etc. Heyerdahl, Thor, Norwegian, 1914-2002. Kon-Tiki. Rec: Counterpunch Trans Hillaby, John Journey through Britain (1968)
Author walked from Land's End to John O'Groats, taking footpaths wherever possible. Also: Journey through Europe; Journey to the Jade Sea
Humboldt, Alexander von, German, 1769-1859. Travels. Rec: Lubbock Ibn Batuta, Muhammad bin 'Abdullah, Arab, 1304-1369. Travels in Asia and Africa. Rec: Ward Johnson, Dr Samuel Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland (1775)
The fascinating encounter of a disciplined 18th-century mind with the alien, half-barbarian civilization of the Hebrides. See BIOGRAPHY (Bate, Boswell. Krutch, Johnson); LITERARY CRITICISM; REFERENCE Kinglake, A. W. Eothen (1844)
Light-hearted account of one Englishman's middle Eastern travels in the 1830s, in the course of which, among other adventures, he deliberately stayed in Cairo during an epidemic of plague. Kingsley, Mary Travels in West Africa (1897)
Intrepid Victorian lady travels extensively in West Africa, discovers vocation, writes engrossing, Jane Austenish account, a monument to unflappable competence and confidence. " 'Senora, you see more bare skin here than on a regiment of grenadiers!' I worried for a week at the awfulness of the pun." A perceptive, funny book. Lawrence, D. H. Sea and Sardinia (1921)
Another of Lawrence's potboilers — but this one a magical evocation of a beautiful place. Any reader will desire somehow, some time, to visit Sardinia, preferably (if they read Lawrence) during February, when the almond trees are in bloom. See DIARIES; FICTION/NOVELS; FICTION/SHORT STORIES; HISTORY/EUROPEAN; LITERARY CRITICISM; POETRY Lawrence, T. E. Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1926)
* Ostensibly a military chronicle, by an Englishman who took part in a revolt in Arabia against the Turks. In fact a tapestry of memoirs, philosophy, travel writing, anthropology and fiction. The opening of Chapter 121 tells all, about the style and about the Man: "Quiveringly a citizen awoke me, with word that Abd el Kadir was making rebellion. I sent over to Nun Said, glad the Algerian fool was digging his own pit ..." Also: The Mint. See BIOGRAPHY (Aldington) Lewis, M. and Clark, W. The Journals of Lewis and Clark (1964)
The quintessential American journey, across the continent, seeking the Pacific. Lewis and Clark were a remarkable pair, and their companions — Indians and white men — are no less interesting. These journals, read continuously, will take many winter evenings; a one-volume selection (ed De Voto) appeared in 1953. Ley, Charles David (ed) Portuguese Voyages, 1498— 1663 (1947)
Contemporary accounts of the great age of Portuguese discoveries in South America. Africa and Asia. See Morison; BIOGRAPHY (Morison) Lindbergh, Charles The Spirit of St Louis (1953)
Rewrite — more thoughtful, more detailed, more dramatic — of bestselling We which Lindbergh published shortly after his 1927 flight. This later book is absolutely unputdownable — until the end, when the plane, too, puts down, to a great sigh of relief. Liu E, Chinese, 1857-1909. Travels of Lao Can. Rec: MW Asian London, Jack The People of the Abyss (1903)
Horrifying picture of the poverty of most East End Londoners at the time; interesting comparisons between conditions in London and those in American cities. See AUTOBIOGRAPHY (Chaplin); FICTION/SHORT STORIES; SOCIOLOGY (Chesney, Roberts) Maclean, Fitzroy A Person front England (1958)
English visitors to Turkestan, Central Asia, in the heyday of the British Empire. Travellers, spies, merchants, adventurers — the factual stuff of every ripping yarn. For armchair travellers, a one-sitting book. Also: Eastern Approaches McPhee, John Coming into the Country (1977)
Extraordinary account of travels in Alaska since 1950 (ie since Statehood). McPhee is one of the great travel-writing stylists of our time, always interesting; his love for far Alaska irradiates this book. Also: The Crofter and the Laird; The Pine Barrens; The Survival of the Bark Canoe Magnusson, M. and Paisson, H. (trans) The Vinland Sagas: The Norse Discovery ofArnerica (1965) 9 Two medieval Icelandic accounts of the discovery by Norse seamen of Greenland and the land beyond. Matthiessen, Peter Snow Leopard (1979)
Impressive account of a search for the legendary inhabitants of the Himalayas. Grand landscapes and honourable self-analysis in the light of hardships and splendour. Rather a lot of Zen. Mendele Mokher Seforim, Russian writing in Yiddish, 1835-1917. The Travels and Adventures of Benjamin the Third. Rec: Bloom Meyer, Gordon The River and the People (1965)
An Etonian in Paraguay. Clear, dispassionate, fascinating; superb footnotes. Also: Summer at a High Akitude Michener, James A. Iberia (1968)
In part an account of the author's many Spanish journeys, since he first visited the country in 1932. But stuffed with history, topography, descriptions of literature and art — an aficionado's book, fat (800 pages) and enticing. Also: Tales of the South Pacific Moorehead, Alan Cooper's Creek (1963)
Burke and Wills expedition of 1860: first south-north crossing of Australia by white men, recounted in fine style, with excellent use of original documents. Also: The White Nile; The Blue Nile; The Fatal Impact (modern man and the South Sea islands). See NATURAL HISTORY Moorhouse, Geoffrey The Fearful Void (1974)
Moorhouse crossed the Sahara from west to east, partly by camel and partly on foot. This book brings to life the hunger and thirst, depression and fear that the author went through in the hostile desert universe. See Lawrence; Thesiger (for alternative views of desert life); Cherry-Garrard (for life in an implacable desert of a different kind) Morison, Samuel E. The Great Explorers (1978)
aboa*.1
Selected from two massive tomes, The European Discovery of America: The Northern Voyages, AD 500-1600 and The Southern Voyages, 1492-1616. Monumental record of voyages to the Americas; enthralling to read, scholarship at its effervescent best. See BIOGRAPHY; HISTORY/AMERICAN Morris, James The Great Port (1970)
One of Morris's lesser-known books, but filled with the same sharp perception and lucid style as all the others. Subtitled A Passage through New York, it offers an unrivalled world-traveller's view of the horrors and charms of megalopolis. Also: Venice; Oxford; Spain, etc. See AUTOBIOGRAPHY (Morris, Jan) Morton, H. V. A Traveller in Italy(1964)
*
A book preserved in its own amber; dated, personal, inaccurate and wholly pleasurable. Cosy 1930s style, but Italy springs to warm, enticing life. Also: Ghosts of London, etc Muir, John The Mountains of California (1894)
Imagine being the first white man to see the Valley of the Yosemite! Muir was a great walker and a fine writer; the combination is an exciting one, in a series of books of which this is the best. Excellent collection: The Wilderness of John Muir by Edwin Way Teale (whose works are also herewith recommended). Murphy, Dervla Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle (1965) Author pleasantly describes how she cycled across Europe and Asia, meeting mishaps and dangers with unassailable verve and courage. A touch of the blarney — and none the worse for that. Naipaul, V. S. An Area of Darkness (1964)
Author, West Indian of Indian origin, lived for a year in India; this book vividly, caustically, describes his experiences, his conclusions. Also: The Middle Passage; India: A Wounded Civilization, etc Neatby, Leslie H. The Search for Franklin (1970)
A -1 Franklin found the Northwest Passage and then got lost; the search for Franklin took another 11 years (1848-59). This book is a well-told narrative of outstanding bravery, large personalities, beautiful and hostile landscape. Also: In Quest of the Northwest Passage Newby, Eric A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush (1958)
Newby is a contemporary traveller in the splendid British eccentric tradition. Absorbing narrative in excellent Boy's-Own-
Paper style. What's it about? Exactly what the title says. Also: The Last Grain Race (account of six months before the mast on one of the last commercial square-rigged sailing ships) O'Sullivan, Firmin The Egnatian Way (1972)
The Egnatian Way was the first Roman road built outside Italy, a vital highway across the Balkans which has been in continuous use for over 2,000 years. Author sketches its history, offers guidance for those who wish to travel it now. Unusual, even for travel books; absorbing. Patterson, J. H. The Man-Eaters of Tsavo and Other East African Adventures (1907)
From the days of the British Empire, a gripping account of the hunt for man-eating lions preventing work on a railway in East Africa. Pausanias Guide to Greece (2nd century) P * Untiring antiquarian's tour of the ruins of classical civilization. Makes Baedeker seem casual; but full of delectable nuggets for the occasional hellenophile. Good translation: Levi. Pausanias, Greek, ca. 120-180. Description of Greece. Rec: Ward Polo, Marco The Travels (1298)
*
Vivid description of the marvels of Asia, by Venetian merchant who travelled overland to China, lived there for years, and came home via India. Fascinating to read in tandem with Ronay (qv). Polo, Marco, Italian, ca. 1254-1324. Travels of Marco Polo. Rec: Rex Ward Various Authors, Portuguese, 16th-17th C. Portuguese Voyages (1498-1663). Rec: Ward Powell, Dilys An Affair of the Heart(1957) A
Books on Greece are something of an industry: this is one of the most stylish, most evocative, a memoir of visits spread over several years to a small Peloponnesian village, and reflections on the changes brought about by politics, archaeology and the shifting patterns of a peasant community evolving into the 20th century. Ronay, Gabriel The Tartar Khan's Englishman (1978)
A -/ By the mid 13th century Tartar armies occupied half Europe, stood at the gates of Vienna. Their leader, Batu Khan (grandson of Genghis) depended on an English envoy, diplomat, adventurer, spy. This book is the story of his life, his incredible travels, and his role in the convulsive conflict between Christendom and the Mongol hordes. Roy, Jules Journey through China (1965)
Sensitive, detailed account of a journey across China meeting ordinary people, official and unofficial. Style belle-lettriste, full of aphorisms and general philosophical asides. At its worst, irritating; at its best, of the standard of Voltaire or Johnson (qv) themselves. Schultz, J. W. My Life as an Indian (1907)
Vivid autobiography of a 19th-century American trader in Montana who came to prefer the Blackfoot Indian way of life to that of the whites. Fascinating detail of a vanished everyday life; no movie Indians here. Slocum, Joshua The Voyages of Joshua Slocum (1958)
Slocum was the first man to sail, from Boston, alone around the world, in a small sailing vessel during the 1890s. At the time it seemed an impossible journey, Slocum a madman to his friends. His books were immediately and deservedly popular. Stark, Freya Riding to the Tigris (1959)
Valiant British lady traveller, of our time, has journeyed everywhere in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, and written wonderful books about her journeys. This one is especially good; The Journey's Echo (1964) is a useful collection of her writings, with an introduction by Lawrence Durrell. Also: Southern Gates of Arabia; Valleys of the Assassins; Dust in the Lion's Paw, etc
Stark, Freya, English, 1893-1993. The Journey's Echo. Rec: Utne Steinbeck, John Travels with Charley (1962)
Classic journey through the USA by distinguished author and undistinguished mutt. As vivid and personal (and as well written) as Stevenson's Travels with a Donkey (herewith recommended). Steinbeck's love of his country never rose-tints his dry, satirical vision of what is there, and why. See DIARIES: FICTION/NOVELS Sterne, Laurence A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy (1768)
18th-century tourist uses the incidents of his travels, as travellers will, to display sly, sardonic humour about the way of the world. See FICTION/ NOVELS Theroux, Paul The Great Railway Bazaar(1975)
Theroux set out to travel on as many trains in Asia as possible. The trains themselves are interesting (they include the trans-
Siberian Express, and the dismal Hue-Danang Express, across war-devastated Vietnam): but what makes the book is Theroux's quizzical, captious eye for fellow-passengers and the people he meets when the trains stop, and his own WASPish Massachusetts supercool. Also: The Grand Patagonia Express, etc Thesiger, Wilfred Arabian Sands (1959)
Thesiger crossed the Arabian deserts with Bedouin companions, and his book makes the reader feel both the hardships of the journey and the tension that builds up when there is nobody else around who shares one's background and ways of thought. Also: The Marsh Arabs (and see Gavin Maxwell: A Reed Shaken by the Wind for another version of the same events). See Lawrence, T. E. Tomlinson, H. M. The Sea and the Jungle (1912)
Tomlinson's first book is an account of a 2,000-mile journey up the Amazon in a small boat captained by his brother-in-law. He gives a sensitive account of the flora, fauna and people he saw; although he wrote many later books, none surpass this perennial favourite. Turnbull, Colin M. The Forest People (1961)
Elegant memoir of author's encounters with the pygmies of central Africa. Turnbull shares with Van Der Post (qv) an ability to enter the mind and spirit of the people he visits; but he avoids Van Der Post's arachnoid philosophizing. Also: The Mountain People; Man in Africa
Trench, Richard, English, 1949- . Forbidden Sands: A Search in the Sahara. Rec: Counterpunch NF Twain, Mark Roughing It (1873)
Mark Twain's life as a young man. vagabonding around the American West in the middle of the 19th century. Wise, sly prose, a one-sitting read. See Steinbeck (for modern equivalent); FICTION/NOVELS ; FICTION/SHORT STORIES; HISTORY/AMERICAN; HUMOUR Van Der Post, Laurens Journey into Russia (1964)
Author best known for books on the Bushmen of southern Africa: an eclectic mixture of travel-writing, anthropology and mysticism. This book is a robust account of several months in Russia, seeking the essence of its people in their daily lives. Its claims to open-mindedness are decidedly suspect (the style is a magnificent example of unvoiced bias); but the descriptions and indeed the scope of his journey are remarkable. Also: Venture into the Interior, Lost World of the Kalahari, etc Victory, Paul-Emile Man and the Conquest of the Poles (1962)
History of polar expeditions, from that of Pytheas the Greek (4th century BC) to the current voyages of American nuclear submarines. West, Rebecca, English, 1892-1983. Black Lamb and Gray Falcon. Rec: ML Nonfiction National Review "A 1,181-page classic of travel literature, largely pro-Serb in its point-of-view, giving an account of Balkan history and ethnography, and the significance of Nazism, structured about her trip to Yugoslavia in 1937." (wikipedia) Wilson, Sloan Away from It All (1969)
Best-selling American novelist takes off for the new life-style cruising through the Bahamas in his own boat. Fast, funny account of his trials and successes; he is a sort of wisecracking 20th-century Pooter. Splendid escapist fun. Winks, Robin W. An American's Guide to Britain (1977)
Despite what may seem a patronizing title, this is an outstandingly helpful and detailed guide, full of necessary information and unfussy advice. Concentrates on picturesque, "tourist" Britain (few satanic mills or stale canals in sight); ideal for first visit or brief, basic stay. Howard Green
Howard Green is a professor of cellular physiology and chairman of the Physiology and Biophysics Department at the Harvard Medical School. He is a medical doctor who is a scientist — an award-winning cell biologist — doing skin research as it relates to skin disorders, including burns. Hermann Alexander Keyserling. The Travel Diary of a Philosopher (1912). J. Holroyd Reece, trans. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1928.
On the eve of the world's transition to modern times (1912), an aristocrat looked at the declining great civilizations and attempted to extract the significance of what they had created. Hermann Alexander Keyserling. The Recovery of Truth (1927). Paul Fohr, trans. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1929.
In the late 1920s, the same aristocrat put the meaning and eternal problems of human existence (problems of the mind, problems of the soul) into a form assimilable by the thinking man of the twentieth century. Alexander I. Solzhenitsyn. The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956 (1973). Thomas P. Whitney, trans. New York: Harper & Row, 1985.
The greatest witness to life in the world's most powerful totalitarian state gives his testimony. As he himself wrote, anyone who reads and understands this book can no longer harbor illusions about communism. Henry James. The Bostonians (1886). New York: New American Library, 1984. (Pb)
Apart from its quality as a novel, this book was prophetic: the author foresaw the disappearance from the world of the masculine spirit and the sentiment of sex. Fu Shen. Chapters from a Floating Life (ca, 1800). Shirley M. Black, trans. New York: Oxford University Press, 1960.
A beautiful and moving story of conjugal love. EXPLORATION
Chris Murray
Exploration is an inevitable consequence of man's success as a species: as groups thrive, habitats are exhausted and new ones have to be sought: having spread from the savannas of Africa to exploit every inhabitable corner of the Earth, man is now on the point of exploring space. This need to explore is, consequently, a central theme in the early literature of most societies, the search for new lands and the fascination of the unknown acquiring a mythic dimension; Homer's Odyssey is one of the best-
known examples. Books on exploration can be roughly divided into those that aim to convey its adventure and those that seek to explain its social, economic, and cultural aspects.
…towards the North, as it were thick Cloudes, which did put us in some hope of Land; knowing how that part of the South Sea was utterly unknowne; and might have Islands, or Continents, that hitherto were not come to light.
FRANCIS BACON Travels (many editions) by Marco Polo. Recounting his travels (1260-95) across Asia and a 17-year stay in China as guest of the Mongol emperor Kublai Khan, this book remains one of the most colourful and fascinating accounts of exploration. It is all the more remarkable for being - unlike so many early accounts of travel - largely true and accurate. Polo's account stimulated an interest in the Far East that led eventually to the voyage of Columbus, and until the early 19th century it remained (astonishingly) Europe's prime source of information about the Far East. Mandeville's Travels (late 14th century; several modem editions available). The authorship of these travels is unclear; they have their origins in several 14th-century French books based on much misinterpreted reports of the Crusades. This is largely exploration in the mind, to worlds full of fantastical beasts; one of the ancestors of the Italian novelist Italo Calvin's Invisible Cities. Principal Navigation, Voyages and Discoveries of the English Nation (1589; several modem editions) by Richard Hakluyt. Brings together salty accounts of early English exploration by such contemporaries as Francis Drake, Walter Raleigh, Martin Frobisher, and Jacques Cartier. Exploration now goes hand in hand not only with trade, but also with piracy and colonization. Age of Reconnaissance (1970) by John Parry. The economic, political, and religious aspects of the 'Age of Exploration' are described in this scholarly but highly readable account of exploration, trade, and settlement beyond Europe from the 15th to the 17th century. The same period - the age of Ferdinand Magellan, Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Amerigo Vespucci, Francis Drake, Henry Hudson, Francisco Pizarro, and others - is covered in the lavishly illustrated Time-Life Age of Discovery (1966). Christopher Columbus: The Dream and the Obsession (1986) by Gianni Canzotto. The story of the discovery of the 'New World'. Canzotto gives a vivid account of Columbus's many adventures, concentrating on what drove him on against all odds. The True History of the Conquest of Spain (1632; several modem translations) by Bernal Diaz. An eye-witness account of the Spanish in South America by Diaz, who accompanied Cortes on his fateful and bloody journey through Mexico. In the Wake of Cook: Exploration, Science and Empire 1780-1801 (1985) by David Mackay. Looks at the broad context of 18th-century exploration and its close links with the rapid development of science, the growth of industry, and the economics of empire. Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa (1857; modem edition avail-able) by David Livingstone. A classic of African exploration. It is still fascinating both as a vivid first-hand account and (for the modern reader) as a revelation of 19th-
century cultural imperialism. Heart of Darkness (1902) by Joseph Conrad. The moral bankruptcy of the 'opening-up' of Africa is exposed in this short novel based on personal experience of the Congo. Here again exploration has taken on a mythic quality as exploration of the terra incognita of the modern psyche. Scott and Amundsen (1979) by Roland Huntford. A controversial account of Robert Falcon Scott's polar exploration, which deflates the heroic image built up by largely uncritical earlier biographies. The Myth of the Explorers (1993) by Beau Riffenburgh. The heroic role of 19th-century and early-20th-century explorers in popular culture is examined in this book.
For the armchair explorer who wants to sample a wide range of the literature, the best selection is the Oxford Book of Exploration (1993) edited by Robin Hanbury-Tenison.
For those who want a broad view of exploration, there is Discovery and Exploration: A Concise History (1982) by Alan Reid and The Discoverers: An Encyclopedia of Exploration (1980), edited by Hellen.
Misc
The Mind Map Book, Tony Buzan with Barry Buzan Rec: cooltools
1996, 320 pages
$17
The Complete Animation Course: The Principles, Practice, and Techniques of Successful Animation
Chris Patmore
2003, 160 pages
$15
The Animation Book: A Complete Guide to Animated Filmmaking -- from Flip-books to Sound Cartoons to 3-D Animation
Kit Laybourne
1998, 426 pages
$16
Instant Period Costumes
How to Make Classic Costumes from Cast-Off Clothing
Barb Rogers
2001, 87 pages
$14
How to Cook Everything:Simple Recipes for Great Food
Mark Bittman
1998, 944 pages
$22
Beyond Bullet Points
Using Microsoft PowerPoint to Create Presentations that Inform, Motivate, and Inspire
Cliff Atkinson
2005, 223 pages
$16
The Self-Publishing Manual
Dan Poynter
2002, 430 pages
$20
The Tarantula Keeper's Guide
Stanley A. Schultz, Marguerite J. Schultz
1998, 208 pages
$10
Brower, David. American, 1912-2000. For Earth's Sake. Rec: Counterpunch NF (geography) Carnegie, Dale. American, 1888-1955. How to Win Friends and Influence People. Rec: Boston PL NYPL Various Authors. American, First pub. 1959. Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening (By the staff of Organic Gardening). Rec: Counterpunch NF Hamilton, Alice. American, 1869-1970. Exploring the Dangerous Trades. Rec: Counterpunch NF Wheelock, Frederic M.. American, 1902-1987. Latin: An Introductory Course Based on Ancient Authors. Rec: Aquinas Cameron, Julia. American, 1948- . The Artist's Way. Rec: Utne Capra, Fritjof, Austrian-American writing in English, 1939- . The Web of Life. Rec: Utne Spock, Benjamin. American, 1903-1998. The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care. Rec: Boston PL LAT NYPL Surgeon General (U.S.). American, Pub. 1964 and 1979. Smoking and Health (The Surgeon General's Report) (Pub. 1964). Rec: NYPL Smoking and Health (Pub. 1979). Rec: Boston PL Smiles, Samuel, English, 1812-1904. Self-Help. Rec: Lubbock Bach, George R. and Herb Goldberg. American, 1914-1986 and 1937-. Creative Aggression. Rec: LAT Tzara, Tristan, French, 1896-1963. Seven Dada Manifestoes. Rec: Bloom McCloud, Scott. American, 1960- . Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. Rec: Counterpunch NF W., Bill (Bill Wilson). American, 1895-1971. Alcoholics Anonymous (AA Big Book). Rec: Boston PL
Miyamoto Musashi, Japanese, 1584-1645. Book of Five Rings. Rec: Counterpunch Trans StJE (martial arts)
Lamott, Anne. American, 1954- . Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year. Rec: ML Nonfiction Various Authors, Japanese, 1868-1912. Literature of the Meiji Period. Rec: Oriental Mirsky, D. S., Prince, Russian, 1890-1939. A History of Russian Literature: From Its Beginnings to 1900. Rec: Counterpunch Trans
Various Authors, Yugoslavian, 20th C. New Writing from Yugoslavia. Rec: Ward Stanislavski, Konstantin, Russian, 1863-1938. An Actor Prepares. Rec: Counterpunch Trans
Krol, Ed. American, 1937?- . The Whole Internet: User's Guide and Catalog. Rec: NYPL Leach, Bernard, English, 1887-1979. A Potter's Book. Rec: Counterpunch NF Ueland, Brenda. American, 1891-1985. If You Want to Write. Rec: Utne Various Authors. American. The Last Whole Earth Catalog (Ed. By Stewart Brand). Rec: LAT Anonymous, Icelandic, fl. 1245. Laxd¦la Saga (Saga of the People of Laxardal). Rec: Smiley Lissitzky, El, Russian writing in German, 1890-1941. Russia: An Architecture for World Revolution. Rec: Counterpunch Trans (politics)
Graphic novels
Pekar, Harvey. American, 1939- . New American Splendor Anthology. Rec: Utne
Moore, Terry. American, 1954- . Strangers in Paradise. Rec: Harvard (comic book)
Mack, David. American, 1972- . Kabuki, Circle of Blood (Edited by Connie Jiang). Rec: Harvard Nobel Laureates Deledda, Grazia, Italian, 1871-1936. Nobel Laureate Works. Eucken, Rudolf, German, 1846-1926. Nobel Laureate Works. Han Fei Zi (Han Fei Tzu), Chinese, ca. 280-233 BCE. Works. Rec: Oriental Ward Jarry, Alfred, French, 1873-1907. Selected Works. Rec: Bloom Jensen, Johannes V., Danish, 1873-1950. Nobel Laureate Works. Johnson, Eyvind, Swedish, 1900-1976. Nobel Laureate Works. Karlfeldt, Erik Axel, Swedish, 1864-1931. Nobel Laureate Works. Kertész, Imre, Hungarian, 1929- . Nobel Laureate Works. Martin Du Gard, Roger, French, 1881-1958. Nobel Laureate Works. Martinson, Harry, Swedish, 1904-1978. Nobel Laureate Works. Mistral, Frédéric, French, 1830-1914. Nobel Laureate Works. Mistral, Gabriela, Chilean, 1889-1957. Nobel Laureate Works. (poetry)
Mommsen, Theodor, German, 1817-1903. Nobel Laureate Works. Pontopiddan, Henrik, Danish, 1857-1943. Nobel Laureate Works. Reymont, Wladyslaw, Polish, 1867-1925. Nobel Laureate Works. Rolland, Romain, French, 1866-1944. Nobel Laureate Works. Sachs, Nelly, German-Swedish writing in German, 1891-1970. Nobel Laureate Works. Sienkiewicz, Henryk, Polish, 1846-1916. Nobel Laureate Works. Sillanpää, Frans Eemil, Finnish, 1888-1964. Nobel Laureate Works. Spitteler, Carl, Swiss writing in German, 1845-1924. Nobel Laureate Works. Unknown works
Curtius, Ernst Robert, German, 1886-1956. European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages. Rec: Ward Firdausi, Abolqasim Mansur bin Hasan, Persian, ca. 940-1020. Shah Nameh (Epic of Kings). Rec: Fadiman 4 Lubbock Ward (epic)
Gellhorn, Martha. American, 1908-1998. The Face of War. Rec: Counterpunch NF (journalism)
Ginzburg, Natalia, Italian, 1916-1991. Family. Rec: Bloom Hariri, Abu Muhammad al-Qasim al-, Arab, 1054-1122. Assemblies. Rec: Oriental Ward Herbert, George, English, 1593-1633. The Temple. Rec: Bloom Ibn Hazm, 'Ali Ahmad, Arab in Islamic Spain, 994-1064. Ring of the Dove. Rec: Oriental Ward Lord, Albert Bates. American, 1912-1991. The Singer of Tales. Rec: Counterpunch NF McCourt, James. American, 1941- . Time Remaining. Rec: Bloom McWilliams, Carey. American, 1905-1980. Factories in the Field. Rec: Counterpunch NF Michaux, Henri, French, 1899-1984. Selected Writings. Rec: Bloom Miyazawa, Kenji, Japanese, 1896-1933. Spring and Asura. Rec: Utne Nagai Kafu, Japanese, 1879-1959. Kafu the Scribbler. Rec: Ward Nakanoin Masatada no musume, Japanese, b. 1258. Confessions of Lady Nijo. Rec: MW Asian Németh, Laszlo, Hungarian, 1901-1975. Guilt. Rec: Bloom Nirala, Suryakant Tripathi, Indian writing in Hindi, 1898-1961. A Season on the Earth. Rec: Ward Anonymous, Japanese, ca. 1200. Okagami. Rec: Ward (history)
Sa'di, Musharrif ad-Din bin Muslih, Persian, ca. 1208-ca. 1292. Bostan. Rec: Meaningful Gulistan. Rec: Ward Anonymous, Armenian, 11th-12th C traditions (first pub. 1874). Sasuntsi Davith (Saga of Sassoun; Daredevils of Sassoun; Daredevils of Sassoun). Rec: Ward Shahar, David, Israeli, 1926- . The Palace of Shattered Vessels. Rec: Bloom Anonymous Authors, Arab, 1080-1400. Sirat 'Antar (Adventures of Antar). Rec: Ward Stafford, Jean. American, 1915-1979. The Mountain Lion. Rec: BOMC Tokutomi Kenjiro, Japanese, 1868-1927. Footsteps in the Snow. Rec: Ward URL: http://www.interleaves.org/~rteeter/grtalphaw.html
Others:
From Jorge Luis Borges
The Library of Babel
1. Jack London, The Concentric Deaths 2. Jorge Luis Borges, August 25 1983 3. Gustav Meyrink, Cardinal Napellus 4. Léon Bloy, Discourteous Tales 5. Giovanni Papini, The Escaping Mirror 6. Oscar Wilde, The Crime of Lord Arthur Savile 7. Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, The Guest at the Last Banquet 8. Pedro de Alarc³n, The Friend of Death 9. Herman Melville, Bartleby the Scrivener 10. William Beckford, Vathek 11. H. G. Wells, The Door in the Wall 12. P'u Sung-Ling, The Tiger Guest 13. Arthur Machen, The Shining Pyramid 14. Robert Louis Stevenson, The Island of the Voices 15. G. K. Chesterton, The Eye of Apollo 16. Jacques Cazotte, The Devil in Love 17. Franz Kafka, The Vulture 18. Edgar Allan Poe, The Purloined Letter 19. Leopoldo Lugones, The Statue of Salt 20. Rudyard Kipling, The House of Desires 21. The Thousand and One Nights, according to Galland 22. The Thousand and One Nights, according to Burton 23. Henry James, The Friends of Friends 24. Voltaire, Micromegas 25. Charles H.Hinton, Scientific Romances 26. Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Great Stone Face 27. Lord Dunsany, The Country of Yann 28. Saki, The Reticence of Lady Anne 29. Russian Tales 30. Argentine Tales 31. J. L. Borges & A. Bioy Casares, New Stories of Bustos Domecq 32. Jorge Luis Borges, The Book of Dreams 33. Jorge Luis Borges, Borges A/Z A Personal Library
1. Julio Cort¡zar, Stories 2. & 3. The Apocryphal Gospels 3. Franz Kafka, Amerika; Short Stories 4. G. K. Chesterton, The Blue Cross and Other Stories 5. & 7. Wilkie Collins, Moonstone 6. Maurice Maeterlink, The Intelligence of Flowers 7. Dino Buzzati, The Desert of the Tartars 8. Henrik Ibsen, Peer Gynt; Hedda Gabler 9. J. M. E§a de Queiroz, The Mandarin 10. Leopoldo Lugones, The Jesuit Empire 11. André Gide, The Counterfeiters 12. H. G. Wells, The Time Machine; The Invisible Man 13. Robert Graves, The Greek Myths 14. & 17. Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Demons 1. E. Kasner & J. Newman, Mathematics and the Imagination 2. Eugene O'Neill, The Great God Brown; Strange Interlude; Mourning Becomes Electra 3. Ariwara no Narihara, Tales of Ise 4. Herman Melville, Benito Cereno; Billy Budd; Bartleby the Scrivener 5. Giovanni Papini, The Tragic Everyday; The Blind Pilot; Words and Blood 6. Arthur Machen, The Three Imposters 7. Fray Luis de Le³n, tr., The Song of Songs 8. Fray Luis de Le³n, An Explanation of the Book of Job 9. Joseph Conrad, The End of the Tether; Heart of Darkness 10. Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 11. Oscar Wilde, Essays and Dialogues 12. Henri Michaux, A Barbarian in Asia 13. Hermann Hesse, The Bead Game 14. Arnold Bennett, Buried Alive 15. Claudius Elianus, On the Nature of Animals 16. Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class 17. Gustave Flaubert, The Temptation of St. Anthony 18. Marco Polo, Travels 19. Marcel Schwob, Imaginary Lives 20. George Bernard Shaw, Caesar and Cleopatra; Major Barbara; Candide 21. Francisco de Quevedo, Marcus Brutus; The Hour of All 22. Eden Phillpots, The Red Redmaynes 23. S¸ren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling 24. Gustav Meyrink, The Golem 25. Henry James, The Lesson of the Master; The Figure in the Carpet; The Private Life 26. & 44. Herodotus, The Nine Books of History 15. Juan Rulfo, Pedro P¡ramo 16. Rudyard Kipling, Tales 17. William Beckford, Vathek 18. Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders 19. Jean Cocteau, The Professional Secret and Other Texts 20. Thomas De Quincey, The Last Days of Emmanuel Kant and Other Stories 21. Ram³n G³mez de la Serna, Prologue to the Work of Silverio Lanza 22. The Thousand and One Nights 23. Robert Louis Stevenson, New Arabian Nights; Markheim 24. Léon Bloy, Salvation for the Jews; The Blood of the Poor; In the Darkness 25. The Bhagavad-Gita; The Epic of Gilgamesh 26. Juan José Arreola, Fantastic Stories 27. David Garnett, Lady Into Fox; A Man in the Zoo; The Sailor's Return 28. Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels 29. Paul Groussac, Literary Criticism 30. Manuel Mujica L¡inez, The Idols 31. Juan Ru­z, The Book of Good Love 32. William Blake, Complete Poetry 33. Hugh Walpole, Above the Dark Circus 34. Ezequiel Martinez Estrada, Poetical Works 35. Edgar Allan Poe, Tales 36. Virgil, The Aeneid 37. Voltaire, Stories 38. J. W. Dunne, An Experiment with Time 39. Atilio Momigliano, An Essay on Orlando Furioso 40. & 71. William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience; The Study of Human Nature 41. Snorri Sturluson, Egil's Saga 42. The Book of the Dead 43. & 75. J. Alexander Gunn, The Problem of Time