Illustrated guide to the crucial Italian philosopher and author of The Prince. 'Machiavellian' is a popular byword for treachery and opportunism. Machiavelli's classic book on statecraft, The Prince, published over 400 years ago, remains controversial to this day because of its electrifying frankness as a practical guide to power. Is it a how-to manual for dictators, a cynical philosophy of 'the end justifies the means', or a more complex and subtle analysis of successful government? Machi...

A spirited defence of Tolkien’s mythological creation and its increasing relevance for the real world.Acclaimed by the largest readers’ survey ever conducted as ‘the greatest book of the century’, J.R.R.Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings has cast the spell of its storytelling for over 40 years and continues to enthral new generations of readers. Yet it has also been widely labelled as reactionary and escapist by hostile critics.Patrick Curry’s book shows just how mistaken they...

Enchantment is a profound human experience. When we encounter wonder, awe or amazement, that is enchantment. Enchantment can reveal profound truths, lead to deep values and become central to a life well-lived.This unique book explores how enchantment plays out in a wide range of contexts -- in love, art, religion and learning, in food and drink, and perhaps most significantly in our relationship with the natural world.Patrick Curry argues that modernist attempts to undermin...

This book concerns the experience of enchantment in art. Considering the essential characteristics, dynamics and conditions of the experience of enchantment in relation to art, including liminality, it offers studies of different kinds of artistic experience and activity, including painting, music, fiction and poetry, before exploring the possibility of a life oriented to enchantment as the activity of art itself. With attention to the complex relationship between wonder in art and the pro...

Patrick Curry rediscovers the history of astrology in early modern England: he seeks to overturn the accepted view that astrology was a marginal pursuit that died out after the mid-seventeenth century. Curry demonstrates that in reality, astrology was a vital part of English cultural life, surviving in various forms and despite powerful opposition throughout the eighteenth century. Drawing on a wide range of unpublished primary sources, he examines the heyday of astrology, its practitioner...

Mainstream science has long dismissed astrology as a form of primitive superstition, despite or perhaps even because of its huge popular interest. From daily horoscopes to in-depth and personalized star forecasts, astrology, for many, plays a crucial role in the organization of everyday life. Present-day scholars and scientists remain baffled as to why this pseudo-science exercises such control over supposedly modern, rational and enlightened individuals, yet so far they have failed to pro...

Patrick Stewart discusses playing Prospero, in this ebook taken from Shakespeare On Stage: Thirteen Leading Actors in Thirteen Key Roles.In each volume of the Shakespeare On Stage series, a leading actor takes us behind the scenes, recreating in detail a memorable performance in one of Shakespeare's major roles. They discuss their character, working through the play scene by scene, with refreshing candour and in forensic detail. The result is a masterclass on play...

They called him: "the greatest all-around shooter".Do you want to learn more about the life of Stephen Curry while being inspired?One of today’s most sought-after NBA superstars was once a young boy who was perceived as weak. Despite this negative impression, he has managed to rise from his simple life in North Carolina into becoming one of the sharpest shooters in the history of the NBA. Stephen Curry’s journey to become one of the NBA’s legends has been tough and rocky. H...

From a Pulitzer Prize finalist, a devastating exploration of the racial disparities in violent death and injury in America and a blueprint for ending this fundamental social injusticeAbout 170,000 black Americans have died in homicides just since the year 2000. Violence takes more years of life from black men than cancer, stroke, and diabetes combined; a young black man in the United States has a fifteen times greater chance of dying from violence than his white co...

Patrick Stewart discusses playing Shylock in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, a role he has played many times, in this ebook taken from Shakespeare On Stage: Volume 2 - Twelve Leading Actors on Twelve Key Roles.In each volume of the Shakespeare On Stage series, a leading actor takes us behind the scenes of a landmark Shakespearean production, recreating in detail their memorable performance in a major role. They lead us through the choices they made ...

Powerful sermons from Washington National Cathedral that inspire and a foreword by John Meacham.Through their sermons, Cathedral clergy and guest preachers such as Jon Meacham, Kelly Brown Douglas, and Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry share inspiring words. Collectively, they offer lasting guidance for difficult times, reinforcing that even in the midst of loss and chaos, God is at work among us, lifting us up and giving us hope for the future.Topics inclu...

A selection of papers published in the Ecological Citizen journal; an independent, peer-reviewed, free-to-access journal that provides a forum for inspiring and mobilizing discussion with an Earth-centred perspective. Each paper offers a perspective on ecocentric approaches to life. What does it mean to be ecocentric? Deep green, or ecocentric, is feeling that it is wrong for humans to have an unreasonably large, negative impact on the natural world such as causing other species to go exti...