P422 Penguin Catalog Great Ideas

Great Ideas Great Ideas Penguin Great Ideas: The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction J.A. Underwood, Walter Benjamin Benjamin's seminal essay on the work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction One of the most important works of cultural theory ever written, Walter Benjamin's groundbreaking essay explores how the age of mass media means audiences can listen to or see a work of art repeatedly – and what the troubling social and political implications of this are. Pub Date August 2008 ISBN 9780141036199 Price £4.99 Format A format pb Extent 128pp Illustrations No illustrations Territory 1BCKZ Penguin Great Ideas: Books v. Cigarettes George Orwell 'If our book consumption remains as low as it has been, at least let us admit that it is because reading is a less exciting pastime than going to the dogs, the pictures or the pub' George Orwell Beginning with a dilemma about whether he spends more money on reading or smoking, George Orwell's entertaining and uncompromising essays go on to explore everything from the perils of second­hand bookshops to the dubious profession of being a critic, from freedom of the press to what patriotism really means. Pub Date August 2008 ISBN 9780141036618 Price £4.99 Format A format pb Extent 144pp Territory 1BCKZ Penguin Great Ideas: The Fastidious Assassins Albert Camus 'I rebel - therefore we exist' Albert Camus A daring critique of communism and how it had gone wrong behind the Iron Curtain, Camus' essay examines the revolutions in France and Russia, and argues that since they were both guilty of producing tyranny and corruption, hope for the future lies only in revolt without revolution. Pub Date August 2008 ISBN 9780141036625 Price £4.99 Format A format pb Extent 128pp Territory 1BCKZ Great Ideas Penguin Great Ideas: Concerning Violence Frantz Fanon 'Violence is a cleansing force' Franz Fanon Angered by the racism he witnessed on Martinique during the Second World War, Fanon here examines the roles of class, culture and violence, and expresses his profound alienation from the idea of colonialism and its bloodshed. More than four decades on, Fanon's work still inspires liberation movements today. Pub Date August 2008 ISBN 9780141036632 Price £4.99 Format A format pb Extent 96pp Territory 1BCKZ Penguin Great Ideas: The Spectacle of the Scaffold Michel Foucault 'Justice pursues the body beyond all possible pain' Michel Foucault Foucault's writings on power and control in social institutions have made him one of the modern era's most influential thinkers. Here he argues that punishment has gone from being mere spectacle to becoming an instrument of systematic domination over individuals in society – not just of our bodies, but our souls. Pub Date August 2008 ISBN 9780141036649 Price £4.99 Format A format pb Extent 112pp Territory 1BCKZ Penguin Great Ideas: The Sickness Unto Death Soren Kierkegaard 'If you have lived in despair, then whatever else you won or lost, for you everything is lost' Søren Kirkegaard Influencing philosophers such as Sartre and Camus, and still strikingly modern in its psychological insights, Kierkegaard's The Sickness Unto Death explores the concept of 'despair' as a symptom of the human condition and describes man's struggle to fill the spiritual void. Pub Date August 2008 ISBN 9780141036656 Price £4.99 Format A format pb Extent 176pp Territory 1W Great Ideas Penguin Great Ideas: The Lamp of Memory John Ruskin 'All books are divisible into two classes, the books of the hour, and the books of all time' John Ruskin John Ruskin overturned Victorian society's ideas about art and architecture, arguing that ancient buildings must be conserved for their deep, mystical links with the past and that creative design is essential – not for financial gain, but to communicate eternal human truths. Pub Date August 2008 ISBN 9780141036670 Price £4.99 Format A format pb Extent 144pp Territory 1W Penguin Great Ideas: Man Alone with Himself Friedrich Nietzsche 'Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies' Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Nietzsche was one of the most revolutionary thinkers in Western philosophy. Here he sets out his subversive views in a series of aphorisms on subjects ranging from art to arrogance, boredom to passion, science to vanity, rejecting conventional notions of morality to celebrate the individual's 'will to power'. Pub Date August 2008 ISBN 9780141036687 Price £4.99 Format A format pb Extent 96pp Territory 1BCKZ Penguin Great Ideas: A Confession Leo Tolstoy 'Where there is life there is faith' Leo Tolstoy Describing Tolstoy's crisis of depression and estrangement from the world, A Confession is an autobiographical work of exceptional emotional honesty. It describes his search for 'a practical religion not promising future bliss but giving bliss on earth'. Although the Confession led to his excommunication, it also resulted in a large following of Tolstoyan Christians springing up throughout Russia and Europe. Pub Date August 2008 ISBN 9780141036694 Price £4.99 Format A format pb Extent 112pp Territory 1W Great Ideas Penguin Great Ideas: Useful Work v. Useless Toil William Morris 'If others can see it as I have seen it, then it may be a vision rather than a dream' William Morris Visionary English Socialist and pioneer of the Arts and Crafts movement, William Morris argued that all work should be a source of pride and satisfaction, and that everyone should be entitled to beautiful surroundings – no matter what their class. Pub Date August 2008 ISBN 9780141036700 Price £4.99 Format A format pb Extent 112pp Territory 1W Penguin Great Ideas: The Significance of the Frontier in American History Frederick Jackson Turner 'The wilderness masters the colonist. It finds him a European in dress, industries, tools, modes of travel, and thought. It takes him from the railroad car and puts him in the birch canoe. It strips off the garments of civilization and arrays him in the hunting shirt and the mocassin' Frederick Jackson Turner This hugely influential work marked a turning point in US history and culture, arguing that the nation's expansion into the Great West was directly linked to its unique spirit: a rugged individualism forged at the juncture between civilization and wilderness, which – for better or worse – lies at the heart of American identity today. Pub Date August 2008 ISBN 9780141036717 Price £4.99 Format A format pb Extent 128pp Territory 1W Penguin Great Ideas: Days of Reading John Sturrock, Marcel Proust 'Reading is merely the noblest of distractions' Marcel Proust In these inspiring essays about why we read, Proust explores all the pleasures and trials that we take from books, as well as explaining the beauty of Ruskin and his work, and the joys of losing yourself in literature as a child. Pub Date August 2008 ISBN 9780141036731 Price £4.99 Format A format pb Extent 128pp Territory 1W Great Ideas Penguin Great Ideas: An Appeal to the Toiling, Oppressed and Exhausted Peoples of Europe Leon Trotsky 'Away with imperialistic robbers! Long live a revolutionary labour government! Long live peace and the brotherhood of nations!' Leon Trotsky Whether calling for an end to the capitalist system, addressing the crowds after the Russian Revolution, or attacking Stalin during his years of exile, Trotsky's speeches give an extraordinary insight into a man whose words and actions determined the fates of millions. Pub Date August 2008 ISBN 9780141036755 Price £4.99 Format A format pb Extent 144pp Territory 1W Penguin Great Ideas: The Future of an Illusion Sigmund Freud 'Religion is the universal neurosis' Sigmund Freud This investigation of religion by greatest psychoanalyst of the twentieth­century explores the role faith can take in the life of man, what it can mean to us and why as a species we are inclined towards it. Pub Date August 2008 ISBN 9780141036762 Price £4.99 Format A format pb Extent 112pp Territory 1BCKZ Penguin Great Ideas: In Consolation to his Wife Plutarch 'We must not slump in dejection or shut ourselves away' Plutarch From an intimate and moving letter to his grieving wife on the death of their daughter, to elegant writings on morality, happiness and the avoidance of anger, Plutarch's powerful words of consolation and inspiration still offer timeless wisdom and guidance today. Pub Date August 2008 ISBN 9780141036779 Price £4.99 Format A format pb Extent 112pp Territory 1W Great Ideas Penguin Great Ideas: Some Anatomies of Melancholy Robert Burton 'These unhappy men are born to misery, past all hope of recovery, incurably sick, the longer they live the worse they are, and death alone must ease them' Robert Burton Not simply an investigation into melancholy, these unique essays form part of a panoramic celebration of human behaviour from the time of the ancients to the Renaissance. God, devils, old age, diet, drunkenness, love and beauty are each given equal consideration in this all­encompassing examination of the human condition. Pub Date August 2008 ISBN 9780141036786 Price £4.99 Format A format pb Extent 160pp Territory 1W Penguin Great Ideas: Human Happiness Blaise Pascal 'Evil is easy; it has countless forms, while good is almost unique' Blaise Pascal Created by the seventeenth­century philosopher and mathematician Pascal, the essays contained in Human Happiness are a curiously optimistic look at whether humans can ever find satisfaction and real joy in life – or whether a belief in God is a wise gamble at best. Pub Date August 2008 ISBN 9780141036793 Price £4.99 Format A format pb Extent 128pp Territory 1W Penguin Great Ideas: The Evils of Revolution Edmund Burke 'A revolution will be the very last resource of the thinking and the good' Edmund Burke Written at a time when most of Europe supported the French Revolution, Edmund Burke's prescient and, at the time, controversial denunciation of its mob rule predicted the Terror, began the modern conservative tradition and still serves as a warning to those who seek to reshape societies through violence. Pub Date August 2008 ISBN 9780141036809 Price £4.99 Format A format pb Extent 96pp Territory 1W Great Ideas Penguin Great Ideas: The Invisible Hand Adam Smith 'It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest' Adam Smith Adam Smith's landmark treatise on the free market paved the way for modern capitalism, arguing that competition is the engine of a productive society, and that self­interest will eventually come to enrich the whole community, as if by an 'invisible hand'. Pub Date August 2008 ISBN 9780141036816 Price £4.99 Format A format pb Extent 144pp Territory 1W Penguin Great Ideas: Nature Ralph Emerson 'In the woods is perpetual youth' Ralph Waldo Emerson Originally published anonymously, Nature was the first modern essay to recommend the appreciation of the outdoors as an all­encompassing positive force. Emerson's writings were recognized as uniquely American in style and content, and launched the idea of going for a walk as a new way of looking at the world. Pub Date August 2008 ISBN 9780141036823 Price £4.99 Format B format pb Extent 128pp Territory 1W