Showing results for "peter coates"

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Peter Coates

Squirrel Nation is a history of Britain’s two species of squirrel over the past two hundred years. The red squirrel, although rare, is among the most cherished of native species. Grey squirrels, by contrast, are one of the most frequently seen wild creatures in our gardens, parks, towns and countryside, and many Britons consider it to be a foreign interloper, introduced from North America in the late nineteenth century. By examining this animal’s colonization of Britain, Peter Coa...

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Franz Kafka

Narrated by

Peter Coates

"A Hunger Artist" is a short story by Franz Kafka first published in Die neue Rundschau in 1922. The story was also included in the collection A Hunger Artist, the last book Kafka prepared for publication, which was printed by Verlag Die Schmiede shortly after his death. The protagonist, a hunger artist who experiences the decline in appreciation of his craft, is typically Kafkaesque: an individual marginalized and victimized by society at large. "A Hunger Artist" explores themes such as d...

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Peter Coates

Discover how the profound metaphysics of twelfth-century mystic Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi directly engages with modern philosophy, psychology, and contemporary epistemology.Ibn 'Arabi and Modern Thought: The History of Taking Metaphysics Seriously presents an open dialogue between classical Sufi wisdom and Western theoretical culture. Peter Coates examines how Ibn 'Arabi's central doctrine of wahdat al-wujud (the Oneness of Being) reframes foundational...

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Ralph Waldo Emerson

Narrated by

Peter Coates

Time does not hold history—people do. Emerson's History is not a chronicle of names and dates, not a reverence for the past, but a revelation: every life is a vessel of all that came before. The individual is not separate from history but its continuation, its living pulse.Emerson does not ask his readers to study history; he asks them to recognize themselves within it. Every triumph, every downfall, every flash of genius from ages past is not distant—it is ours, woven int...

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Jack London

Narrated by

Peter Coates

"The Law of Life" is a short story by the American naturalist writer Jack London. It was first published in McClure's Magazine, Vol.16, March, 1901. In 1902, it was published in a collection of Jack London's stories, The Children of Frost, by Macmillan Publishers.This short story covers the last 5 hours of the old and dying Inuit chief Koskoosh. His tribe needs to travel in search of clothing and shelter so he is left to die because of his age and inability to see properly. Even his...

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Peter Coates

Many of the world’s major cities sprang up on the banks of rivers. Used for water, food, irrigation, transportation and power, rivers sustain life and connect places and countries, but most of us think of them simply as waterways that must be crossed on the way to somewhere else. Relating the biographies of four European and two North American rivers, A Story of Six Rivers considers the place of rivers in our world and emphasizes the inextricable links between their history, cultu...

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Peter Coates

Series -

Themes in History

'Nature' is a deceptively simple and ahistorical term, suggesting intrinsic, unchanging reality. Yet nature has a history too, both in terms of human attitudes and human impacts. Coates outlines the major understandings of 'nature' in the western world since classical times, from nature as higher authority to its more recent meaning of threatened physical space and life forms.Unlike many others, this book places the history of attitudes to nature within the story of human-induced c...

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Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Narrated by

Peter Coates

"White Nights" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky is a poignant and introspective short story that delves into the complexities of human emotions and the transient nature of romantic connections. Set against the backdrop of St. Petersburg's nocturnal charm, the narrative follows the lonely protagonist through four consecutive white nights, where he encounters a mysterious young woman. As the two form a deep but ephemeral connection, Dostoyevsky explores themes of love, isolation, and the fleeting natur...

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Peter Coates, David Lowe

Authored by two highly respected experts in this specialist area, The Fundamentals of Radiation Thermometers is an essential resource for anyone intending to measure the temperature of an object using the radiated energy from that object. This readable, user-friendly book gives important background knowledge for anyone working in the field of non-contact thermometry.The book begins with an accessible account of how temperature scales are set up and defined, and ex...

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Stefan Zweig, Stefan Zweig

Narrated by

Peter Coates

Bored in a semi-deserted Italian hotel, the narrator of this short story spends his days observing the other residents. However, his routine changes when he finally finds a companion: a mysterious elderly gentleman who is willing to share an idea for an exciting novel...Throughout his writing career, Stefan Zweig showed great interest in psychology and, in particular, in the work of Sigmund Freud. This fascination with human nature led Zweig to create complex portraits of his charac...

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Franz Kafka

Narrated by

Peter Coates

"The Hunter Gracchus" is a short story by Franz Kafka. The story presents a boat carrying the long-dead Hunter Gracchus as it arrives at a port. The mayor of Riva meets Gracchus, who gives him an account of his death while hunting, and explains that he is destined to wander aimlessly and eternally over the seas. An additional fragment presents an extended dialogue between Gracchus and an unnamed interviewer, presumably the same mayor. Written in the first half of 1917, the story was publis...

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George Orwell

Narrated by

Peter Coates

In 1943, three years into World War II, Orwell wrote "Looking Back on the Spanish Civil War," a long meditation on his memories. Orwell reminisces about his experiences in the Spanish Civil War. He remembers the foul living conditions, the overflowing latrines, and the poor quality of the meager food. It is often necessary to fight wars to preserve one's life or the freedom of the nation, and war is necessarily evil and vile. Atrocities are perpetrated by all sides in nearly all wars - the...