The Parallel Lives of Plutarch are cornerstones of Western literature & have exerted a profound influence on writers & statesmen since the Renaissance most notably Shakespeare This selection of ten biographies spans the period from the start of the fourth century BC to the early third & covers some of the most important figures in Greek history such as the orator Demosthenes & Alexander the Great as well as lesser known figures such as Plato&s pupil Dion of Syracuse Each Life is an important work of literature in itself but taken together they provide a vivid picture of the Greek world during a period that saw the collapse of Spartan power the rise of Macedonia the conquests of Alexander & the wars of his successors Timothy Duff&s revised version of Ian Scott-Kilvert&s translations is accompanied by a new general introduction & introductions & notes to each Life He has also added two Lives previously not included Artaxerxes I Great King of Persia from 405 to 359 BC & Eumenes of Cardia one of Alexander&s officers ...

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'A handsome six footer with a warm & engaging personality Davie Jones has all it takes to get to the show business heights including talent' David Bowie at 17 in May 1964 writing his own press biography Respected arts commentator Paul Morley one of the team who curated the highly successful retrospective exhibition for the Victoria & Albert Museum in London David Bowie Is constructs the definitive story of Bowie that explores how he worked played aged structured his ideas invented the future & entered history as someone who could & would never be forgotten Morley will capture the greatest moments of Bowie's career; from the recording studio with the likes of Brian Eno & Tony Visconti; to iconic live performances from the 1970s 80s & 90s as well as the various encounters & artistic relationships he developed with rock luminaries John Lennon Lou Reed & Iggy Pop & of course discuss in detail his much-heralded & critically-acclaimed comeback with the release of Black Star just days before his shocking death in New York Morley will offer a startling biographical critique of David Bowie's legacy showing how he never stayed still even when he withdrew from the spotlight how he always knew his own worth & released a dazzling plethora of mobile Bowies into the world with a bloody-minded determination & a voluptuous imagination to create something amazing that was not there before A thrilling hymn to a brilliant & beloved "song & dance man"' Observer ...

The first & best major treatment of the crucial years 1848-1875 a penetrating analysis of the rise of capitalism throught the world In the 1860s a new word entered the economic & political vocabulary of the world 'capitalism' The global triumph of capitalism is the major theme of history in the decades after 1848 It was the triumph of a society which believed that economic growth rests on competitive private enterprise on success in buying everything in the cheapest market (including labour) & selling it in the dearest An economy so based & therefore nestling naturally on the sound foundations of a bourgoisie composed of those whom energy merit & intelligence had raised to their position & kept there would
- it was believed
- not only create a world of suitably distributed material plenty but of ever-growing enlightenment reason & human opportunity an advance of the sciences & the arts in brief a world of continuous & accelerating material & moral progress

...

A riveting account of the pre-First World War years The Age of Decadence is an enormously impressive & enjoyable read' Dominic Sandbrook Sunday Times A magnificent account of a less than magnificent epoch' Jonathan Meades Literary Review The folk-memory of Britain in the years before the Great War is of a powerful contented orderly & thriving country She commanded a vast empire She bestrode international commerce Her citizens were living longer profiting from civil liberties their grandparents only dreamt of & enjoying an expanding range of comforts & pastimes The mood of pride & self-confidence is familiar from Elgar's Pomp & Circumstance marches newsreels of George V's coronation & the London's great Edwardian palaces Yet things were very different below the surface In The Age of Decadence Simon Heffer exposes the contradictions of late-Victorian & Edwardian Britain He explains how despite the nation's massive power a mismanaged war against the Boers in South Africa created profound doubts about her imperial destiny He shows how attempts to secure vital social reforms prompted the twentieth century's gravest constitutional crisis & coincided with the worst industrial unrest in British history He describes how politicians who conceded the vote to millions more men disregarded women so utterly that female suffragists' public protest bordered on terrorism He depicts a ruling class that fell prey to degeneracy & scandal He analyses a national psyche that embraced the motor-car the sensationalist press & the science fiction of H G Wells but also the Arts & Crafts of William Morris & the nostalgia of A E Housman & he concludes with the crisis that in the summer of 1914 threatened the existence of the United Kingdom
- a looming civil war in Ireland He lights up the era through vivid pen-portraits of the great men & women of the day
- including Gladstone Parnell Asquith & Churchill but also Mrs Pankhurst Beatrice Webb Baden-Powell Wilde & Shaw
- creating a richly detailed panorama of a great power that through both accident & arrogance was forced to face potentially fatal challenges A devastating critique of prewar Britain disturbingly relevant to the world in which we live' Gerard De Groot The Times You won't put it down A really riveting read' Rana Mitter BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking


...

The splendid finale to Eric Hobsbawm's study of the nineteenth century THE AGE OF EMPIRE covers the area of Western Imperialism & examines the forces that swept the world to the outbreak of World War One- & shaped modern society ...

What happened to the European mind between 1605 when an audience watching Macbeth at the Globe might believe that regicide was such an aberration of the natural order that ghosts could burst from the ground & 1649 when a large crowd perhaps including some who had seen Macbeth forty-four years earlier could stand & watch the execution of a king? Or consider the difference between a magus casting a star chart & the day in 1639 when Jonathan Horrock & William Crabtree watched the transit of Venus across the face of the sun from their attic successfully testing its course against Kepler's Tables of Planetary Motion in a classic case of confirming a scientific theory by empirical testing In this turbulent period science moved from the alchemy & astrology of John Dee to the painstaking observation & astronomy of Galileo from the classicism of Aristotle still favoured by the Church to the evidence-based collegiate investigation of Francis Bacon & if the old ways still lingered & affected the new mind set
- Descartes's dualism an attempt to square the new philosophy with religious belief; Newton the man who understood gravity & the laws of motion still fascinated to the end of his life by alchemy
- by the end of that tumultuous century the greatest ever change in the mental outlook of humanity' had irrevocably taken place

...

With heart-wrenching reporting & incisive analysis In These Times magazine has charted a staggering rise in inequality & the fall of the American middle class Here in a selection from four decades of articles by investigative reporters & progressive thinkers is the story of our age It is a tale of shockingly successful corporate takeovers stretching from Reagan to Trump but also of brave attempts to turn the tide from the Seattle global justice protests to Occupy to the Fight for 15 Featuring contributions from Michelle Chen Noam Chomsky Tom Geoghegan Juan Gonzalez David Moberg Salim Muwakkil Ralph Nader Frances Fox Piven Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor Slavoj Zizek & many others The Age of Inequality is the definitive account of a defining issue of our time ...

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY LIONEL SHRIVERNewland Archer & May Welland are the perfect couple He is a wealthy young lawyer & she is a lovely & sweet-natured girl All seems set for success until the arrival of May's unconventional cousin Ellen Olenska who returns from Europe without her husband & proceeds to shake up polite New York society To Newland she is a breath of fresh air & a free spirit but the bond that develops between them throws his values into confusion & threatens his relationship with May The Vintage Classics edition of The Age of Innocence is published to tie-in with the publication of the Vintage paperback of Hermione Lee's celebrated biography of Edith Wharton ...

The return of the beautiful Countess Olenska into the rigidly conventional society of New York sends reverberations throughout the upper reaches of society Newland Archer an eligible young man of the establishment is about to announce his engagement to May Welland a pretty ingenue when May's cousin Countess Olenska is introduced into their circle The Countess brings with her an aura of European sophistication & a hint of scandal having left her husband & claimed her independence Her sorrowful eyes her tragic worldliness & her air of unapproachability attract the sensitive Newland & almost against their will a passionate bond develops between them But Archer's life has no place for passion & with society on the side of May & all she stands for he finds himself drawn into a bitter conflict between love & duty ...

Widely regarded as one of Edith Wharton's greatest achievements The Age of Innocence is not only subtly satirical but also a sometimes dark & disturbing comedy of manners in its exploration of the 'eternal triangle' of love Set against the backdrop of upper-class New York society during the 1870s the author's combination of powerful prose combined with a thoroughly researched & meticulous evocation of the manners & style of the period has delighted readers since the novel's first publication in 1920 In 1921 The Age of Innocence achieved a double distinction
- it won the Pulitzer Prize & it was the first time this prestigious award had been won by a woman author
...