Historia & samhälle

A Christian pathway into mindfulness, using the gospels, poetry and storytelling

Do we work to live, or live to work?

The new book from Pete Greig - his first since 2007 - which continues the story of 24-7, the global prayer movement he founded, as begun in Red Moon Rising.

To Save Everything, Click Here, the new book by the acclaimed author of The Net Delusion, Evgeny Morozov, is a penetrating look at the shape of society in the digital age, of the direction in which the 21st Century may take us, and of the alternate paths we can still chooseOur society is at a crossroads. Smart technology is transforming our world, making many aspects of our lives more convenient, efficient and - in some cases - fun. Better and cheaper sensors can now be embedded in almost everything, and technologies can log the products we buy and the way we use them. But, argues Evgeny Morozov, technology is having a more profound effect on us: it is changing the way we understand human society.In the very near future, technological systems will allow us to make large-scale and sophisticated interventions into many more areas of public life. These are the discourses by which we have always defined our civilisation: politics, culture, public debate, morality, humanism. But how will these discourses be affected when we delegate much of the responsibility for them to technology? The temptation of the digital age is to fix everything - from crime to corruption to pollution to obesity - by digitally quantifying, tracking, or gamifiying behaviour. Yet when we change the motivations for our moral, ethical and civic behaviour, do we also change the very nature of that behaviour? Technology, Morozov proposes, can be a force for improvement - but only if we abandon the idea that it is necessarily revolutionary and instead genuinely interrogate why and how we are using it.From urging us to drop outdated ideas of the internet to showing how to design more humane and democratic technological solutions, To Save Everything, Click Here is about why we should always question the way we use technology.'A devastating expos of cyber-utopianism by the world's most far-seeing Internet guru' John Gray, author of Straw Dogs'Evgeny Morozov is the most challenging - and best-informed - critic of the Techno-Utopianism surrounding the Internet. If you've ever had the niggling feeling, as you spoon down your google, that there's no such thing as a free lunch, Morozov's book will tell you how you might end up paying for it' Brian Eno'This hard-hitting book argues people have become enslaved to the machines they use to communicate. It is incisive and beautifully written; whether you agree with Morozov or not, he will make you think hard' Richard Sennett, author of TogetherPraise for The Net Delusion:'Gleefully iconoclastic . . . not just unfailingly readable: it is also a provocative, enlightening and welcome riposte to the cyberutopian worldview' Economist'A passionate and heavily researched account of the case against the cyberutopians . . . only by becoming "e;cyberrealists"e; can we hope to make humane and effective policy' Bryan Appleyard, New Statesman'Piercing . . . convincing . . . timely' Financial TimesEvgeny Morozov is the author of The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom (which was the winner of the 2012 Goldsmith Book Prize) and a contributing editor for The New Republic. Previously, he was a visiting scholar at Stanford University, a Scwhartz fellow at the New America Foundation, a Yahoo fellow at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown, and a fellow at the Open Society Foundations. His monthly column on technology comes out in Slate, Corriere della Sera, El Pais, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and several other newspapers. He's also written for the New York Times, The Economist, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times and the London Review of Books.

A new field of counter-investigation across journalism, human rights, art and law

A radical new history of a dangerous idea

A rich and fascinating cultural history of the Mediterranean's enigmatic heart

"The Grand Grimoire is a foundational book of magic from the 19th century. This translation is the most accurate ever, and is presented with parallel French & English text. A comprehensive introduction covers the development of magic, the history of the grimoire, the witch trials & the Inquisition, the themes & key insights, and much more. The complete translation of a contemporary novel that provides relevant social context to the grimoire is also included. The foreword is by noted author and occultist Baal Kadmon."--Publisher's description.

A war between China and the US would be catastrophic, deadly, and destructive. Unfortunately, it is no longer unthinkable.

Packed with more than 200 full-colour artworks and photographs of American, British, Canadian, Australian, French, Polish and other Western Allied nations tanks with exhaustive specifications, World War II Tanks: Western Allies 1939-45 is a key reference guide for military modellers and World War II enthusiasts.

THE ARTIST'S WAY for writing, with a Zen twist and a dash of BIG MAGIC.

A major new history of the six-hundred-year dynasty that connected East to West as never before.

The first book to explore the meaningful dreams and visions that bring comfort as death nears

A fascinating, beautifully illustrated study of the daring war in East Africa waged by German colonial forces under Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck against the wide array of colonial and expeditionary forces of the Allied Powers.The East African Campaign in World War I comprised a series of battles and guerrilla actions which began in German East Africa in 1914 and spread to portions of Portuguese Mozambique, northern Rhodesia, British East Africa, the Uganda Protectorate, and the Belgian Congo. German colonial forces under Lieutenant-Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck attempt to divert Allied forces from the Western Front. Despite the efforts of the Allied forces, Lettow-Vorbeck's troops remained undefeated at the end of the war.In this fascinating work, David Smith documents how a wide array of British, Indian, South African, Belgian, Portuguese and local native forces invaded German East Africa and slowly ousted the German forces, a process made tortuous by Lettow-Vorbeck's masterful management of the campaign. Among the events covered in this work are the Battle of Tanga, the scuttling of the Königsberg, the German railway campaign, and the battles at Salaita Hill, Kondoa-Irangi, Mahenge, Mahiwa and Namacurra. Colourful period and specially commissioned illustrations bring to life a wide-ranging and eventful campaign in which a high price was extracted for every inch of ground given up.

The future of both humanity and the planet depends on the shape of human population growth, the only aspect of our future that be confidently predicted. In ten thought-provoking chapters, Paul Morland explores ten illuminating trends that will determine that shape, from the fertility rate of Singapore to the aging of the Japanese.

From the internationally bestselling and prize-winning author of THE SONG OF ACHILLES and CIRCE, an enchanting short story that boldly reimagines the myth of Galatea.'Mythology's bold new voice' i**A giftable hardback edition featuring a new foreword by Madeline Miller**In Ancient Greece, a skilled marble sculptor has been blessed by a goddess who has given his masterpiece - the most beautiful woman the town has ever seen - the gift of life. Now his wife, he expects Galatea to please him, to be obedience and humility personified. But she has desires of her own, and yearns for independence. In a desperate bid by her obsessive husband to keep her under control, she is locked away under the constant supervision of doctors and nurses. But with a daughter to rescue, she is determined to break free, whatever the cost..._________________________Praise for CIRCE'A thrilling tour de force of imagination' Mail on Sunday'A bold and subversive retelling' New York Times 'A novel to be gobbled greedily in one sitting' Observer'A remarkable achievement' Sunday Times

The Cold War was not just a contest of power. It was also about ideas, in the broadest sense - economic and political, artistic and personal.