Is global emancipation a lost cause? Are universal values outdated relics of an earlier age? In this combative major new work philosophical sharpshooter Slavoj A i A ek takes on the reigning ideology with a plea that we should reappropriate several lost causes & looks for the kernel of truth in the totalitarian politics of the past. Examining Heidegger's seduction by fascism & Foucault's flirtation with the Iranian Revolution he suggests that these were the right steps in the wrong direction. Highlighting the revolutionary terror of Robespierre Mao & the Bolsheviks A i A ek argues that while these struggles ended in historic failure & monstrosity this is not the entire story. There was in fact a redemptive moment that gets lost in the outright liberal-democratic rejection of revolutionary authoritarianism & the valorization of soft consensual decentralized politics. A i A ek claims that particularly in the light of the forthcoming ecological crisis we should reinvent revolutionary terror & the dictatorship of the proletariat in the struggle for universal emancipation. We need to courageously accept the return to this cause
- even if we court the risk of a catastrophic disaster. In the words of Samuel Beckett: Try again. Fail again. Fail better.
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Dare she disobey the King? Kiara Fredrick is living an ordinary life until one whirlwind romance with Sheikh Azrin & the largest diamond ring in the Khatan desert later Kiara discovers that not only is she a princess but shes also become public property overnight. As Azrin stands to take the throne Kiara discovers that royal life might be enough to destroy their once strong marriage... But Kings of Khatan do not divorce
- & Queens of Khatan should know better than to ask... Can Kiara remain defiant in the face of a craving hotter than the scorching desert sands?
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Nora Roberts
- The World's Greatest Storyteller. IN DREAMS Drawn to a castle in the forests of Ireland a beautiful young woman
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A novel that fearlessly explores the line between principled defiance & blind fanaticism John Steinbecks In Dubious Battle" contains an introduction & notes by Warren French in " Penguin Modern Classics". This book is brutal. I wanted to be merely a recording consciousness Steinbeck said of " In Dubious Battle" which aroused immense controversy when first published in 1936. It follows the fortunes of Jim Nolan disenfranchised & alone his family destroyed by the system. Desperate to find his place in the world Jim joins the Communist Party & becomes entangled in a strike of migrant workers which spirals out of control unflinchingly detailing the apocalyptic violence that breaks out when the masses become the mob. This fast-paced compelling novel is at once a brilliant observation of social & political turmoil & a moving story of a young mans struggle for identity. " In Dubious Battle" explores & dramatises many of the ideas & themes key to Steinbecks writing. John Steinbeck (1902-68) winner of the Pulitzer Prize & the Nobel Prize for literature is remembered as one of the greatest & best-loved American writers of the twentieth century. During the Second World War Steinbeck served as a war correspondent his journalism later collected in " Once There Was a War" (1958) & he was awarded the Norwegian Cross of Freedom for his portrayal in " The Moon is Down" (1942) of Resistance efforts in northern Europe. His best-known works include the epics " The Grapes of Wrath" (1939) & " East of Eden" (1952) & his tragic novella " Of Mice & Men" (1937). John Steinbecks complete works are published in " Penguin Modern Classics". If you enjoyed " In Dubious Battle" you might also like Upton Sinclairs " The Jungle" also available in " Penguin Classics". " Sweeps along with the torrential impetus of a great natural fire impelled by a poetic energy". (" Guardian"). " Dramatically intense beautifully written. It is the real thing; it has a vigour of sheer storytelling that may sweep away many prejudices". (" New Republic")." ...

National Geographic Greatest Portraits tells the story of portrait photography through the eyes
- & words
- of five accomplished

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The tenth Richard Bolitho novel in Alexander Kents spectacularly successful series deals with Bolithos life as a young lieutenant aboard the Trojan an eighty-gun ship of the line. The year is 1777 when the revolution in America has erupted into a full-scale war. The navys main task is to prevent military supplies from reaching Washingtons armies & to destroy the fast-growing fleet of French & American privateers. As a junior officer Bolitho is often bewildered by swiftly changing events but in a ship of the line under a hard & determined captain he has little opportunity for uncertainty. At a time of shortages & sudden death even a lieutenant can find himself faced with tasks & decisions more suitably given to officers of greater experience
- & as the Trojan goes about her affairs the threat to Bolitho & his companions makes itself felt from New York to the Caribbean.
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This deeply engaging book introduces the reader to the creative chaos of the tiny Parisian studio of the great sculptor Alberto Giacometti from the moment he & his brother Diego arrived in 1927 with all their possessions in a wheelbarrow until Alberto's death in 1966. Michael Peppiatt relates how the artist first worked there as a member of the Surrealist movement & then how he gradually made his mark on Paris' artistic literary & intellectual worlds. After an enforced wartime exile in Geneva in a miserable hotel he returned to Paris & to the same broken-down little shed of a studio behind Montparnasse where he struggled to realize his pared-down vision of mankind & which became a magnet for many of the great artists & writers of the time (from Picasso & Braque to Balthus from Breton & Genet to Beckett). Peppiatt prefaces his story with a poignant personal narrative of how as a young man he arrived in Paris with an introduction from Francis Bacon to Giacometti; the encounter was forestalled by the artist's very recent death but Peppiatt instead got to know the key people in Giacometti's world. He explains how the studio now dismantled seems to be both Giacometti's most important artwork encompassing countless complete or unfinished works & the archive of years of struggle. With Giacometti's death it became his greatest achievement containing as it did the traces of a lifetime's search for truth. This vivid exploration of one of the most evocative & influential spaces in 20th-century art connects us with both a unique career & an entire outstanding moment in French culture. ...

Film is a communal dream in which our fears & fantasies are revealed. It has influenced our behaviour intertwined with our politics helped to forge national identity galvanise communities against a wartime enemy or warn of social upheaval. It has burrowed deep into our psyche changing perceptions of history & memory & even raised our romantic expectations. Despite decades of rapid change we are still hypnotised & seduced by the power of cinema; it remains our most persuasive mass entertainment. In this fascinating entertaining & illuminating book Francine Stock takes us on a personal journey through a glorious century of cinema from the Lumiere brothers flickering train to the 3D excesses of Avatar showing in vivid detail how film both reflects & remakes our world. ...

Denounced by the Vatican as 'fanciful & absurd' this classic of investigative reporting is now available in a new revised edition. Yallop's ground-breaking investigation into Pope John Paul I's death just 33 days after his election is a tale of intrigue murder & corruption. It reveals the dark heart of the Vatican via a trail of evidence that connects the papacy the masons Opus Dei & the mafia. ...

This ambitious interdisciplinary book seeks to explain the origins of religion using our knowledge of the evolution of cognition. A cognitive anthropologist & psychologist Scott Atran argues that religion is a by-product of human evolution just as the cognitive intervention cultural selection & historical survival of religion is an accommodation of certain existential & moral elements that have evolved in the human condition. ...