An accessible and authoritative biography of Walter Benjamin that guides the reader through the complexity of his intellectual legacy and the turbulence of his time“A short, serene volume. . . . Gordon avoids treating his subject in allegorical terms, in part because Benjamin always resisted conscription into a story larger than his own.�—Anahid Nersessian, New YorkerWalter Benjamin (1892–1940) is widely co...

Long before London and New York rose to international prominence, a trading route was discovered between Spanish America and China that ushered in a new era of globalisation. The Ruta de la Plata or ’Silver Way’ catalysed economic and cultural exchange, built the foundations for the first global currency and led to the rise of the first ‘world city’. And yet, for all its importance, the Silver Way is too often neglected in conventional narratives on the birth of globalisation. Gor...

Three distinguished scholars draw on critical theory to address the causes and circumstances behind the rise of autocracies and oligarchies.Across the Euro-Atlantic world, political leaders have been mobilizing their bases with nativism, racism, xenophobia, and paeans to "traditional values," in brazen bids for electoral support. How are we to understand this move to the mainstream of political policies and platforms that lurked only on the far fringes through most ...

First published in 1974. Graham Balfour, in a lecture delivered in February 1921, first drew attention to the growing importance of the elementary school manager in the system of educational administration during the period with which this study is concerned: “Local administrators of education, other than trustees a hundred years ago, there were none. Indeed it is very curious how imperceptibly that important figure of the latter half of the nineteenth century, the School Manager, steals i...

From the beginning to the end of his career, the philosopher Theodor W. Adorno sustained an uneasy but enduring bond with existentialism. His attitude overall was that of unsparing criticism, verging on polemic. In Kierkegaard he saw an early paragon for the late flowering of bourgeois solipsism; in Heidegger, an impresario for a “jargon of authenticity” cloaking its idealism in an aura of pseudo-concreteness and neo-romantic kitsch. Even in the straitened rationalism of Husserl’s phenomen...

The essays in this volume analyze war, its strategic characterisitics and its political and social functions, over the past five centuries. The diversity of its themes and the broad perspectives applied to them make the book a work of general history as much as a history of the theory and practice of war from the Renaissance to the present. Makers of Modern Strategy from Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age takes the first part of its title from an earlier collection of essays, publishe...

People are naturally inclined to look for order in what seems like chaos. Sometimes order is emergent, meaning it reflects not an intentional design but the outcomes of many independent decisions or actions. There’s inevitably—also randomness and an element of chance. Thinkers such as Adam Smith and Charles Darwin are justly celebrated for identifying emergent orders in markets and nature. Perhaps less widely understood for her discovery of what she called the “intricate order” of cities i...

A strikingly original account of Theodor Adorno’s work as a critique animated by happiness**—now in paperback.**"Gordon’s confidently gripping and persistently subtle interpretation brings a new tone to the debate about Adorno’s negativism."—Jürgen HabermasTheodor Adorno is often portrayed as a totalizing negativist, a scowling contrarian who looked upon modern society with despair. Peter E. Gordon thinks we have this wrong: if Adorno is un...

From the beginning to the end of his career, the philosopher Theodor W. Adorno sustained an uneasy but enduring bond with existentialism. His attitude overall was that of unsparing criticism, verging on polemic. In Kierkegaard he saw an early paragon for the late flowering of bourgeois solipsism; in Heidegger, an impresario for a “jargon of authenticity” cloaking its idealism in an aura of pseudo-concreteness and neo-romantic kitsch. Even in the straitened rationalism of Husserl’s phenomen...

'Peter Gordon's food is the finest example of culinary magic.'Yotam OttolenghiUsing easily sourced ingredients and simple methods, the Godfather of fusion cooking Peter Gordon has created over 170 dishes that demonstrate his passion for innovative flavours and textures in an everyday setting.From Chorizo on Tomato-rubbed Toast with Soft-boiled Egg to start the day, via soups and pasta dishes such as ...

Louisa Mary, Lady Knightley of Fawnsley, was a woman of unusually wide interests, especially in the field of public affairs. In an age when few opportunities arose for women to make a contribution to political and feminist matters, Lady Knightley was an early pioneer of both causes. Denied the vote as a woman, she was a leading advocate of the campaign for constitutional, non-militant action to achieve the franchise, a cause which she continued to espouse until her death in 1913. Her later...

What defines a salad? Is it merely a few ingredients tossed together in a bowl with a dressing, or is it more complex than that? Acclaimed chef Peter Gordon shows us that salads are versatile and fun dishes that harmoniously combine a mixture of individually prepared ingredients, that when coming together, can either be very similar in texture and colour, or ones that oppose each other—such as crunch supporting smooth.Peter demonstrates how salads can be made to suit your mood; som...