促使布鲁姆出面澄清文学经典的统一和美学价值的，是他对目前横行西方的文化多元主义以及克隆自法德的理论的不满，他将这些称之为“愤怒学派”（School of Resentment）对文学侮辱，还特别对所谓“文化资本”在文学研究中的滥用冷嘲热讽。布鲁姆便勇敢列举了自己反对的名单：艾略特的新批评、保罗·德·曼的解构主义、所谓的新左派和老右派，还有“愤怒学派”的六个分支：女性主义者，马克思主义者，拉康派，新历史主义者，解构主义者，符号学派等。它们都纷纷对文学经典指手划脚，要求拓展新经典的呼声越来越高。布鲁姆嘲笑这类文学研究者是“业余的社会政治家、半吊子社会学家、不胜任的人类学家、平庸的哲学家以及武断的文化史家”，无疑布鲁姆因此而树敌众多，但无论是他的敌人还是暗中的支持者都会钦佩他坚持己见的勇气。他不在乎别人的嘲笑，因为他认定“对经典性的预言需要作家死后两代人左...(展开全部)

We live in a world increasingly governed by technology―but to what end? Technology rules us as much as laws do. It shapes the legal, social, and ethical environments in which we act. Every time we cross a street, drive a car, or go to the doctor, we submit to the silent power of technology. Yet, much of the time, the influence of technology on our lives goes unchallenged by cit...(展开全部)

Jorge Luis Borges declared The Invention of Morel a masterpiece of plotting, comparable to The Turn of The Screw and Journey to the Center of the Earth. Set on a mysterious island, Bioy's novella is a story of suspense and exploration, as well as a wonderfully unlikely romance, in which every detail is at once crystal clear and deeply mysterious. Inspired by Bioy Casares's fas...(展开全部)

Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) is the great lost scientist: more things are named after him than anyone else. There are towns, rivers, mountain ranges, the ocean current that runs along the South American coast, there's a penguin, a giant squid - even the Mare Humboldtianum on the moon. His colourful adventures read like something out of a Boy's Own story: Humboldt explored...(展开全部)

In anthropology, a field that is known for its critical edge and intellectual agility, few books manage to maintain both historical value and contemporary relevance. Roy Wagner's The Invention of Culture, originally published in 1975, is one. Wagner breaks new ground by arguing that culture arises from the dialectic between the individual and the social world. Rooting his anal...(展开全部)

本书为公版书，为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品，供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。

In anthropology, a field that is known for its critical edge and intellectual agility, few books manage to maintain both historical value and contemporary relevance. Roy Wagner's The Invention of Culture, originally published in 1975, is one. Wagner breaks new ground by arguing that culture arises from the dialectic between the individual and the social world. Rooting his analy...(展开全部)

Many of the traditions which we think of as very ancient in their origins were not in fact sanctioned by long usage over the centuries, but were invented comparatively recently. This book explores examples of this process of invention - the creation of Welsh and Scottish ‘national culture’; the elaboration of British royal rituals in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries...(展开全部)

"One day there is life . . . and then, suddenly, it happens there is death". So begins THE INVENTION OF SOLITUDE, Paul Auster's moving and personal meditation on fatherhood. After the death of his own father, Auster discovers a 60-year-old family murder mystery that could account for the old man's elusive character. Later the book shifts from Auster's identity as son to his own...(展开全部)