CC withdrew to an enclosed world in her mid-20s, to emerge a decade later. This memoir of her private struggles and of tension within the institution is both moving and unexpectedly gripping... read more
An investigation of Jesus' messianic contemporaries and the reasons for Christianity's success. From the author of the highly regarded The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Cla... read more
The C10th synthesis of Greek thought in Central Asi. Starr's magnificent book is a cultural and intellectual history of the Islamic Enlightenment and its two chief proponents - Ibn Sina and ... read more
This rich historical analysis argues that the Enlightenment was a failure on its own terms. Terror, revolution, corruption, gross commercial excess and Empire prevailed instead of Reason.
The first English translation of this often overlooked French intellectual's last lecture, in which Aron emphasises the importance of liberal democracy during the tumultuous years of the Col... read more
Yes, this is a book on how to read the first Book of the Bible - from one of the world's truly luminous novelists, the Calvinist author of Gilead, Home, Lila and Jack.
From the emergence of tyranny to the malaise of ennui, LS surveys how Hannah Arendt's life and work can help us confront the perils of contemporary post-truth politics.
Orme is back with another piece of medieval social history. Here he traces the development of 62 English cathedrals and describes the life and activities that occurred within their walls.
Robert Byron's account of his travels and lingerings on Mount Athos in 1927, aged twenty-five year. A wonderful re-issue by Eland of his first book, super-abundant with joy, wit and intellig... read more
A paragon of self-publishing: short and attractive, with blue endpapers, good paper, well laid-out. While this description could pass itself off as a literary lonely heart, it is in fact a p... read more
Ursula le Guin's interpretation of the classic Taoist text. Wrought from decades of textual consideration but without the grounding in Classical Chinese, this is a fascinating piece for thos... read more
'Drawing from such diverse sources as Newton's Principia, military manuals, eighteenth-century games, and cookbooks among others, Lorraine Daston seeks to define the role rules have played i... read more
A keen look at contemporary history through the eyes of Hobbes. Gray suggests that the philosopher would not be at all confident that our cheerful liberalism will dissolve the horrors and ha... read more
800 years of cave paintings, from the C2nd BC to the C6th CE: a revised edition with digitally restored images, and a new introduction by Dalrymple who has been researching the history of Bu... read more
Breathtaking photographs of desolate and mostly ruinous buildings in vast, often snow-dusted landscapes. Published earlier this year in Germany with the text in English, this is a rare treas... read more
His last book Time of the Magicians was a group biography of Benjamin, Wittgenstein, Heidegger and Cassirer. Here, he looks at four women who created new ways of thinking in the aftermath of... read more
Although never the language of a state or ethnic group, Syriac remains widely used across the globe and is regarded as the third language of Christianity. It even reached China, thanks to th... read more
This is a bewitching and sympathetic account of a deliciously odd, brilliantly clever man. He was prone to headstands, toothbrushing and - like Lord Lundy - to tears.
The philosophical innovations of Sappho, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Xenophanes, Homer and others. The first time since The Mighty Dead: Why Homer Matters that this excellent writer has turned t... read more
Any book from SB is always eagerly awaited, this one no less than its marvellous predecessors How to Live: A Life of Montaigne and At The Existentialist Caf?.
A new translation of the fundamental text of Daoism, much more dynamic than the comfortably gnomic ones of the past. Ziporyn restores its strangeness and philosophical challenges.
The tricky business of merging the inner world with the outer - a balancing act that the generous Iyer has been practising for decades now, in Tibet, Japan, Korea, Iran and elsewhere.
Looks at the lives of Ryle, Austin, Anscombe and Murdoch and how they transformed moral philosophy in C20th Britain. No rose-tinted specs here, just the plainest tortoise-shell frames...
Indian folk rituals and rites, customs and celebrations, presented through a sequence of photographic portraits. With contributions by Anuradha Roy, Catherine Clement and Kuha Kopariha.
A selection of the Venerable Blythe's columns, with contributions by Rowan Williams, Richard Mabey, Julia Blackburn, Ian Collins et al. Inquisitive, gentle and modest, but surprising and fun... read more
Ostensibly about the life of the Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras, this beautifully illustrated volume examines the idea that harmony and beauty are not only inherent in the wo... read more
Translation and interpretation are not straightforward, and never were... With matchless scholarship and sensitivity, Dr Barton compares multiple readings to reveal their ambiguities and int... read more
Siena's medieval golden age was brought to a grisly end by an appalling visitation of the plague in 1348. Nevertheless, the republic of Siena lasted for four hundred years, from the C12th un... read more
A new translation of Seneca's 'On The Shortness of Life', with the Latin on facing pages and an introduction. One of three niftily pocket-sized classical guides to life.
Fortitude and patience: Cicero's text in Latin and in English translation, with a commentary. One of three niftily pocket-sized philosophical guides from Princeton.
Selections from the man who threatened to bite scoundrels; with the Greek on facing pages and an introduction. One of three niftily pocket-sized classical guides to life from Princeton.
The first-person recollections of a foot soldier in the Austrian Army, fresh from his student days at Cambridge, grappling with the stirrings of a forbidden sexuality and the formation of a ... read more
LB could turn straw into gold. Here she describes chancing across the writings of a rather obscure Greek philosopher, and the wonders and illuminations that followed. Transformative.
A human rights lawyer charts both the history of how the powerful have tried to get inside our heads and also provides a framework to understand how our agency is undermined nowadays.
First edition, first printing. The book remains unread and is in fine condition. The dust jacket has a small 1cm tear on the bottom right corner of the spine and some shelf wear at the top e... read more
Elizabeth Anscombe, Mary Midgley, Iris Murdoch & Philippa Foot: they got to know one another as Oxford students during WW2, and went on to have huge influence on subsequent decades.
While some parish churches still form the centre of their communities, many others are in terminal decline. RM, who grew up in a parsonage before becoming an archeologist, combines personal ... read more
A fascinating history of Christianity told through the tumultuous and sometimes contested tales of twenty different churches and chapels scattered across Britain and Ireland.
The buildings that are falling into disuse and ruin all around the UK were once essential in their communities. This study - from the Anglo-Saxons to the mid-C16th shows how they worked.
A learned study of the history of the altarpiece in Renaissance Italy from the 13th to 17th century. Accompanied with beautiful images, DE discusses the development and narrative categories ... read more
Another mighty slab of wisdom from ACG. Not just about what we know, but also about what we don't know... Grayling is a master of conjuring sense and meaning out of the most abstract and dis... read more