In this major new assessment of Zygmunt Bauman's work, Smith gives a clear introduction to this controversial and challenging sociologist.

Zygmunt Bauman is one of the most important contemporary social thinkers, influencing thought about the Holocaust, postmodernity, globalization, and more. This is the first book to discuss all of Bauman's work, from the first essays in post-Stalinist Poland, through his participation in 1960s Marxist revisionism, and up to the work for which he is well known in the West. Bauman...(展开全部)

A history of the postmodern, and the role of Fredric Jameson in shaping it. Where does the idea of the postmodern come from? Who first conceived, and who developed it? How have its meanings changed? What purposes do they serve? These are the questions addressed in The Origins of Postmodernity. The answers take us from Lima to Angkor, to Paris and Munich, to China and the stars....(展开全部)

Most people in the West know very little about the prophet Muhammad. The acclaimed religious writer Karen Armstrong has written a biography which will give us a more accurate and profound understanding of Islam and the people who adhere to it so strongly. Muhammad also offers challenging comparisons with the two religions most closely related to it - Judaism and Christianity. '...(展开全部)

Global thinker, public intellectual and world-famous theorist of ‘liquid modernity’, Zygmunt Bauman (1925-2017) was a scholar who, despite forced migration, built a very successful academic career and, after retirement, became a prolific and popular writer and an intellectual talisman for young people everywhere. He was one of those rare scholars who, grey-haired and in his eig...(展开全部)

As a young man Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) escaped from slavery in Baltimore, Maryland. He was fortunate to have been taught to read by his slave owner mistress, and he would go on to become one of the major literary figures of his time. His very existence gave the lie to slave owners: with dignity and great intelligence he bore witness to the brutality of slavery. Initially...(展开全部)

In a distant, timeless place, a mysterious prophet walks the sands. At the moment of his departure, he wishes to offer the people gifts but possesses nothing. The people gather round, each asks a question of the heart, and the man's wisdom is his gift. It is Gibran's gift to us, as well, for Gibran's prophet is rivaled in his wisdom only by the founders of the world's great rel...(展开全部)

WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 2023 WINNER OF THE 2024 DAYTON LITERARY PEACE PRIZE * SHORTLISTED FOR THE AN POST IRISH BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 * SHORTLISTED FOR THE STREGA EUROPEAN PRIZE * SHORTLISTED FOR THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER A NEW YORK TIMES EDITOR’S CHOICE AN AMAZON TOP 10 BOOK OF DECEMBER 2023 A Book of the Year for 2023 according to the Guardian, FT...(展开全部)

A fearless portrait of a society on the brink as a mother faces a terrible choice, from an internationally award-winning author On a dark, wet evening in Dublin, scientist and mother-of-four Eilish Stack answers her front door to find the GNSB on her step. Two officers from Ireland’s newly formed secret police are here to interrogate her husband, a trade unionist. Ireland is fa...(展开全部)