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Cities, scripts, literature, the rule of law - all were born in
Iraq. That so many see this ancient land as nothing more than a
violent backwater steeped in chaos is a travesty. This is the place
where, for the first 5,000 years of human history, all innovations
of worth emerged. It was the cradle of civilization. In this
unrivalled study, John Robertson details the greatness and grandeur
of Iraq's achievements, the brutality and magnificence of its
ancient empires and its extraordinary contributions to the world.
The only work in the English language to explore the history of the
land of two rivers in its entirety, it takes readers from the
seminal advances of its Neolithic inhabitants to the aftermath of
the American and British-led invasion, the rise of Islamic State
and Iraq today. A fascinating and thought-provoking analysis, it is
sure to be greatly appreciated by historians, students and all
those with an interest in this diverse and enigmatic country. This
paperback edition features a new epilogue, bringing the work up to
date and looking ahead to Iraq's future.
When Istvan Hont died in 2013, the world lost a giant of
intellectual history. A leader of the Cambridge School of Political
Thought, Hont argued passionately for a global-historical approach
to political ideas. To better understand the development of
liberalism, he looked not only to the works of great thinkers but
also to their reception and use amid revolution and interstate
competition. His innovative program of study culminated in the
landmark 2005 book Jealousy of Trade, which explores the birth of
economic nationalism and other social effects of expanding
eighteenth-century markets. Markets, Morals, Politics brings
together a celebrated cast of Hont's contemporaries to assess his
influence, ideas, and methods. Richard Tuck, John Pocock, John
Dunn, Raymond Geuss, Gareth Stedman Jones, Michael Sonenscher, John
Robertson, Keith Tribe, Pasquale Pasquino, and Peter N. Miller
contribute original essays on themes Hont treated with penetrating
insight: the politics of commerce, debt, and luxury; the morality
of markets; and economic limits on state power. The authors delve
into questions about the relationship between states and markets,
politics and economics, through examinations of key Enlightenment
and pre-Enlightenment figures in context-Hobbes, Rousseau, Spinoza,
and many others. The contributors also add depth to Hont's
lifelong, if sometimes veiled, engagement with Marx. The result is
a work of interpretation that does justice to Hont's influence
while developing its own provocative and illuminating arguments.
Markets, Morals, Politics will be a valuable companion to readers
of Hont and anyone concerned with political economy and the history
of ideas.
John 'Robbo' Robertson is a Hearts legend and the club's all-time
record goalscorer in the league. He has a remarkable tally of 311
goals in 712 appearances for Heart of Midlothian FC. Capped 16
times for Scotland, Robbo is Hearts' most successful striker in the
modern era. His uncanny knack of being in the right place at the
right time and his sublime finishing touch have made him a
footballing icon. Now Robbo tells his own story in his own words.
He recalls how football became his passion as a youngster, how he
got his big break and why he didn't sign for Hibs - a particular
sore point for Hearts' arch-rivals every time the 'Hammer of Hibs'
scored one of his record 27 goals in an Edinburgh derby. Robbo's
recollections include brilliant insider stories about Brian Clough
and Wallace Mercer, plus the heartbreak of losing the league in the
season's closing minutes. He talks, too, about his family and how
his life changed forever when he lost his father to cancer at the
age of just fourteen. John Robertson's life is an extraordinary
one. His journey takes him from the parks and streets of Scotland's
capital to the history books as one of the greatest players ever to
pull on the Jambos' famous maroon jersey. ROBBO is a must-read for
anyone who loves Hearts and loves football.
On October 3, 1990 the future of both Europe and Germany became
powerfully and inexorably intertwined across a politically
broadened continent powering transformative social, political and
economic interactions. The thirty year mark after the then reigning
chancellor Helmut Kohl promised 'flourishing landscapes' in the
former GDR is more than just a new anniversary from which mandatory
reflections must follow. Arguably, it represents a temporal
boundary between the adjustments and reactions conditioned and
captivated by a sense of something new and uncertain, and that
point moving forward from which unification's legacy inescapably
tethers Germany's future to normal politics shaped by the issues of
the moment, and not politics gripped by the debates of unification
itself. That legacy is defined by an accumulation over thirty years
of adjustments, mutations, counter-adjustments and strategic
reactions which have now delivered through the many ripples of
change a Germany managing the course-trajectory which unification
has relentlessly plotted. The foreseeable future will certainly see
that legacy of unification tenaciously continue to project yet
shrouded within the background of Germany's routine politics. This
volume explores that legacy within the post-unification era and
reflects on the way forward into a near-term German future no
longer consumed with unification itself but with the reality of
politics it has steadily defined.
A collection of essays dealing with the history of the Scottish
Enlightenment, its connection with the European Enlightenment in
general, such major figures as Francis Hutcheson, Thomas Reid, and
David Hume, and the making of theScottish identity. A collection of
ten specially commissioned essays addressing five themes central to
any study of the Scottish Enlightenment: one, the place [both
physical and cognitive] of science and medicine in the Scottish
Enlightenment; two,the institutionalization of enlightenment in the
universities; three, the cultivation of the different branches of
"the science of man" in the Scottish Enlightenment; four, the
national and international contexts of enlightenmentthought in
Scotland; and five, the historiography of the Scottish
Enlightenment. Taking up these themes, the editor and contributors
explore facets of enlightened culture in Scotland which have not
been given their due in the literature, and reassess current
interpretations of various aspects of the Scottish Enlightenment
specifically and its relation to the European Enlightenment in
general. Special emphasis is given to such major Scottish
thinkersas Francis Hutcheson, George Campbell, Thomas Reid, and
David Hume.
A foundational moment in the history of modern European thought,
the Enlightenment continues to be a reference point for
philosophers, scholars and opinion-formers. To many it remains the
inspiration of our commitments to the betterment of the human
condition. To others, it represents the elevation of one set of
European values to the world, many of whose peoples have quite
different values. But what is the relationship between the
historical Enlightenment and the idea of 'Enlightenment', and can
these two understandings be reconciled? In this Very Short
Introduction, John Robertson offers a concise historical
introduction to the Enlightenment as an intellectual movement of
eighteenth-century Europe. Discussing its intellectual
achievements, he also explores how its supporters exploited new
ways of communicating their ideas to a wider public, creating a new
'public sphere' for critical discussion of the moral, economic and
political issues facing their societies. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very
Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains
hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized
books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly.
Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas,
and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly
readable.
The world is becoming a busy noisy place and it is good to find a
pastime that creates a different space, another dimension. Our
paintings mean a lot to us because they remind us of lovely places
we have visited and enable us to remember them in detail. It takes
time to study the colours and contours of a scene. It may be that
the drawing is an inadequate representation of the three
dimensional scene spread out before us, how can it be anything
else, but the process of trying to represent it on the two
dimensions of the blank page is intellectually rewarding. The
emerging picture is not just about the scene before you but also
about your response to it at the time.
Ecology and economics share a common root: the Greek word oikos,
meaning a house. Ecology is the way the natural world manages its
house. Economics is the way society manages its house. The
contentions of this book are that the natural world is the best
guide to our economic activities, that supply and demand are
insufficient determinants, that profit and loss are not
alternatives, that wealth cannot be created but can be lost.
Ecological economics is a term that has been coined to encapsulate
these ideas. We can stop throwing away food before and after it
gets to the table. We can learn to deal with our pollution. We can
stop wasting our resources. We must look again at our priorities.
We're in a race against time. Perhaps there's not time enough, but
it's in everyone's interest to try. If we keep our activities on a
human scale, maybe the passengers can regain control of the runaway
train.
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