Neil MacGregor was Director of the National Gallery, London from 1987 to 2002 and of the British Museum from 2002 to 2015, and Chair of the Steering Committee of the Humboldt Forum in Berlin from 2015 to 2018. His previous books include A History of the World in 100 Objects, Shakespeare's Restless World and Germany: Memories of a Nation, all available in Penguin and now between them translated into more than a dozen languages. In 2010, he was made a member of the Order of Merit, the UK's highest civil honour. In 2015 he was awarded the Goethe Medal and the German National Prize. In 2018 the radio series Living with the Gods received the Sandford Saint Martin Award for Religious Broadcasting.

Neil MacGregor

Iain MacGregor

James MacGregor

When Army Officer Christopher MacGregor returned from Iraq in 2007, he began writing to help not only his own two children, but the children of others. Having commanded over 100 soldiers (with over 50 children between them) he noticed the beneficial effect of saying proper goodbyes and preparing families for Daddy’s absence - his first book, My Daddy’s Going Away is the heartwarming, helpful, and comforting response.

Christopher MacGregor

Neil Reed

Neil Shah

Neil Root

Neil Clark is a music-loving, star-gazing illustrator and author. His rural upbringing, in the Yorkshire Wolds, fuelled a playful imagination and a love of storytelling. This, combined with a degree in Illustration &amp; Animation, led to a successful career in design. After years of creating products for clients around the globe, Neil has found his happy place, writing and illustrating children's books.

Neil Clark

Neil Brand

Neil Fiore, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist, trainer, keynote speaker and the author of six books, including the best-seller, The Now Habit. He has appeared on nationally-broadcast radio and television. As a speaker, his clients include the leading Fortune 500 companies, educational and governmental institutions. He guides managers, executives, and their employees to new levels of peak performance. Drawing from his experience as a lieutenant with the 101st Airborne Division, a manager with Johnson &amp; Johnson, a statistical analyst for Shell Oil, and a psychologist and career counselor at the University of California, Berkeley, Fiore brings practical tools for life and work to his seminar participants. He holds a doctorate in psychology and a B.S. degree in economics.

Neil Fiore

Neil is the co-founder of Crazy Egg, Hello Bar and KISSmetrics. He teaches others about online marketing via his website, Quicksprout.com. He has helped numerous Fortune 500 companies in the US and was recognised as a Top 100 Entrepreneur under the age of 30 by President Obama.

Neil Patel

Neil Woods spent fourteen years (1993-2007) infiltrating drug gangs as an undercover police officer – befriending and gaining the trust of some of the most violent, unpredictable criminals in Britain. With the insight that can only come from having fought on its front lines, Neil came to see the true futility of the War on Drugs – that it demonises those who need help, and only empowers the very worst elements in society. Neil is on the board of LEAP (Law Enforcement Action Partnership) in the US and is the Chair of LEAP in the UK. LEAP is an organisation made up exclusively of law enforcement professionals, past and present, who campaign for drug law reforms. He has also starred in Channel 4 Drugs Live.

Neil Woods

Neil McKay

Neil Price holds the Chair of Archaeology at Uppsala University, Sweden, where he has also been appointed Distinguished Professor by the Swedish Research Council. A leading expert on the Viking Age, his fieldwork, teaching and research have taken him to more than forty countries. Neil is a Fellow of learned academies in Britain and Scandinavia, including Sweden's oldest, the Royal Society of Sciences; in 2017 it awarded him the Thuréus Prize for his lifetime achievements in Viking studies. His publications have appeared in sixteen languages, and he is a frequent consultant and contributor to television and film.

Neil Price

A major hit in every decade since the Sixties, Neil Young's music and songwriting span forty years, and his 38 studio albums are among the most enduring and popular in modern times. Born and raised in Canada, long resident in California, he has, uniquely, been inducted twice into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He is also well-known as a political activist, environmentalist and philanthropist, co-founding Farm Aid and The Bridge School for educationally impaired children.

Neil Young

Neil Smith is a French to English translator who lives in Montreal. His first book, the story collection Bang Crunch, was published around the world to critical acclaim and was chosen as one of the best books of the year by the Globe and Mail and the Washington Post. Boo is his first novel.

Neil Smith

Neil Turner

Neil Cotter is head of news at the Irish Sun.

Neil Cotter

Neil Shubin

Neil Mercer is Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of Cambridge, Director of Oracy Cambridge: the Hughes Hall Centre for Effective Spoken Communication, a Life Fellow at Hughes Hall and an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society. He has been a Visiting Fellow of the English Language Institute of Singapore, a judge of international speaking competitions for the English Speaking Union and was appointed as an Expert Advisor to the 2024 Independent Oracy Commission. 
 
In 2019 he was given the Oevre Award by the European Association for Research into Learning and Instruction and in 2021 awarded the John Nisbet Fellowship by the British Educational Research Association for outstanding contributions to educational research.

Neil Mercer

Neil Powell

Neil Myners, having studied music to degree and post-grad levels, has, since 1995, produced BBC Radio 2's coverage of Paul McCartney's return to the Cavern, The Brit Awards and the Ivor Novello Awards. He was both music programmer and producer on Richard Allinson's Sony-award winning late night show for the network and has been recognised for his work with Bob Harris and WBBC on the documentaries The Sandy Denny Story and The Day John Met Paul.

Neil Myners

Neil Arksey

Neil Oliver was born in Renfrew in Scotland. He studied archaeology at the University of Glasgow and worked as an archaeologist before training as a journalist. Since 2002 he has presented various TV series including Coast (in the UK and in the antipodes) A History of Ancient Britain, Vikings and Sacred Wonders of Britain. He is the author of several non-fiction books including the bestsellers The Story of Britain in 100 Places, The Story of the World in 100 Moments and Wisdom of the Ancients, and one novel. He lives in Stirling with his wife, three children and two Irish wolfhounds.

Neil Oliver

Neil is the chef behind Temper Soho and Temper City. Temper won best newcomer at the OFM Awards in 2017. Temper Soho is an open fire-pit restaurant serving up barbecue with a South American influence - tacos, tortillas and mezcal. Temper City serves up barbecue with an Indian influence - offering curry, tandoor and roti breads. 
 
Before opening Temper, Neil Rankin had cooked at Rhodes 24 and Chez Bruce, Barbecoa, Pitt Cue and John Salt. Neil opened Smokehouse in 2013 and a second Smokehouse in 2015 as well as Bad Egg, all in London. Neil is also a regular at Meatopia and part of London Union. 
 
Low and Slow is Neil Rankin's first book.

Neil Rankin

Neil Gaiman is the bestselling author of Coraline and Stardust, both of which are major motion films. Neil also co-wrote the script for Beowulf starring Anthony Hopkins and Angeline Jolie. He is the creator/writer of the award-winning Sandman comic series and has written several books for children.

Neil Gaiman

Neil Ansell

Neil Edmond

Neil Ridley

Neil Barrett

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Gregory Claeys

What does Marxism really mean? How did one man's ideas have such an influence on the world? Why should we read him today? 
 
Karl Marx remains the most influential and controversial political thinker in history. The movements associated with his name have lent hope to many victims of tyranny and aggression but have also proven disastrous in practice and resulted in the unnecessary deaths of millions. If after the collapse of the Soviet Union his reputation seemed utterly eclipsed, a new generation is reading and discovering Marx in the wake of the recurrent financial crises, growing social inequality and an increasing sense of the injustice and destructiveness of capitalism. Both his critique of capitalism and his vision of the future speak across the centuries to our times, even if the questions he poses are more difficult to answer than ever. 
 
In this wide-ranging account, Gregory Claeys, one of Britain's leading historians of socialism, considers Marx's ideas and their development through the Russian Revolution to the present, showing why Marx and Marxism still matter today.

Marx and Marxism

Kalwant Bhopal

Why is our education system unequal? 
How does race play a part? 
Is Britain still institutionally racist? 
 
Education remains the greatest indicator of life chances in Britain. What we study, where we study, and how long for shape all aspects of our lives. Our careers, our long-term health, our wealth and security are all moulded in the classroom. 
 
But who we are ultimately matters the most. 
 
In Race and Education, Professor Kalwant Bhopal shows how race still determines who gains the best education in Britain, and who falls by the wayside. Through case studies, original research and interviews with students, teachers and academics alike, she reveals how the construction of privilege starts at a young age: with Whiteness taking some students on a gilded path from cradle to career, while many still struggle to build the futures they deserve. 
 
This book highlights how classrooms and lecture halls are at the centre of perpetuating White privilege - and how racism continues to exist in Britain. 
 
'A timely and excellent book that makes clear the role racism continues to play in shaping education. A must read for teachers, school leaders, parents and politicians. We need more honest, crucial, refreshing and rigorous work like this.' - Kehinde Andrews

Race and Education

Reproducing White Supremacy in Britain

Melissa Lane

What is politics? 
What are the origins of political philosophy? 
What can we learn from the Greeks and Romans? 
 
In Greek and Roman Political Ideas, acclaimed classics scholar Melissa Lane introduces the reader to the foundations of Western political thought, from the Greeks, who invented democracy, to the Romans, who created a republic and then transformed it into an empire. Tracing the origins of political philosophy from Socrates to Cicero to Plutarch, Lane reminds us that the birth of politics was as much a story of individuals as ideas.

Greek and Roman Political Ideas

A Pelican Introduction

Guy Standing

Time has always been political. Throughout history, how we use our time has been defined and controlled by the powerful, and today is no exception. But we can reclaim control, and in this book, the pioneering economist Guy Standing shows us how. 
 
The ancient Greeks organized time into five categories: work, labour, recreation, leisure and contemplation. Labour was onerous, while the keys to a good life were self-chosen work and leisure (schole), which included participation in public life and lifelong education. Yet now our jobs are supposed to provide all meaning in life, our time outside labour is considered simply 'time off', and politicians prioritize jobs above all else. 
 
Today, we are experiencing the age of chronic uncertainty. Stress and mental illness are on the rise as more and more time is being stolen from us in myriad ways, particularly from the vulnerable and those in the precariat. 
 
But there is a way forward. We can create a new politics of time, one that liberates us and helps save the planet, through strengthening real leisure and working on shared endeavours through commoning. We can retake control of our time, but we must do it together.

The Politics of Time

Gaining Control in the Age of Uncertainty

Kevin O'Rourke

'Crisp, clear and quietly devastating' Guardian 
'Excellent, authoritative, highly readable' Irish Times 
 
A succinct, expert guide to how we got to Brexit 
 
After all the debates, manoeuvrings, recriminations and exaltations, Brexit is upon us. But, as Kevin O'Rourke writes, Brexit did not emerge out of nowhere: it is the culmination of events that have been under way for decades and have historical roots stretching back well beyond that. Brexit has a history. 
 
O'Rourke, one of the leading economic historians of his generation, explains not only how British attitudes to Europe have evolved, but also how the EU's history explains why it operates as it does today - and how that history has shaped the ways in which it has responded to Brexit. Why are the economics, the politics and the history so tightly woven together? Crucially, he also explains why the question of the Irish border is not just one of customs and trade, but for the EU goes to the heart of what it is about. The way in which British, Irish and European histories continue to interact with each other will shape the future of Brexit - and of the continent. 
 
Calm and lucid, A Short History of Brexit rises above the usual fray of discussions to provide fresh perspectives and understanding of the most momentous political and economic change in Britain and the EU for decades.

A Short History of Brexit

From Brentry to Backstop

Walter Sinnott-Armstrong

Our personal and political worlds are rife with arguments and disagreements, some of them petty and vitriolic. The inability to compromise and understand the other side is widespread today. What can we do to change this? In Think Again philosopher Walter Sinnott-Armstrong draws on a long tradition of logic to show why we should stop focusing on winning arguments and instead argue in a more constructive way. 
 
Based on a hugely popular online course with more than a million followers around the world, Think Again explains how to analyse, evaluate and make better arguments while also spotting bad reasoning and avoiding certain fallacies. Through lively, practical examples from everyday life, politics and popular culture, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong offers brilliantly straightforward, wise advice that we can all use at work, at home and online.

Think Again

How to Reason and Argue

Mike Savage

A fresh take on social class from the experts behind the BBC's 'Great British Class Survey'. 
 
Why does social class matter more than ever in Britain today? 
How has the meaning of class changed? 
What does this mean for social mobility and inequality? 
 
In this book Mike Savage and the team of sociologists responsible for the Great British Class Survey look beyond the labels to explore how and why our society is changing and what this means for the people who find themselves in the margins as well as in the centre. 
 
Their new conceptualization of class is based on the distribution of three kinds of capital - economic (inequalities in income and wealth), social (the different kinds of people we know) and cultural (the ways in which our leisure and cultural preferences are exclusive) - and provides incontrovertible evidence that class is as powerful and relevant today as it's ever been.

Social Class in the 21st Century

David Damrosch

Inspired by Jules Verne's hero Phileas Fogg, David Damrosch, chair of Harvard's department of Comparative Literature and founder of Harvard's Institute for World Literature, set out to counter a pandemic's restrictions on travel by exploring eighty exceptional books from around the globe. Following a literary itinerary from London to Venice, Tehran, and points beyond, and via authors from Woolf and Dante to Nobel prizewinners Orhan Pamuk, Wole Soyinka, Mo Yan, and Olga Tokarczuk, he explores how these works have shaped our idea of the world, and the ways the world bleeds into literature. 
 
To chart the expansive landscape of world literature today, Damrosch explores how writers live in two very different worlds: the world of their personal experience, and the world of books that have enabled great writers to give shape and meaning to their lives. In his literary cartography, Damrosch includes compelling contemporary works as well as perennial classics, hard-bitten crime fiction as well as haunting works of fantasy, and the formative tales that introduce us as children to the world we're entering. Taken together, these eighty titles offer us fresh perspective on perennial problems, from the social consequences of epidemics to the rising inequality that Thomas More designed Utopia to combat and the patriarchal structures within and against which many of these books' heroines have to struggle, from the work of Murasaki Shikibu a millennium ago to Margaret Atwood today. 
 
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BOOKS is a global invitation to look beyond ourselves and our surroundings, and to see our world and its literature in new ways.

Around the World in 80 Books

Jana Schaich Borg

Vincent Conitzer

Can computers understand morality? Can they respect privacy? What can we do to make AI safe and fair? 
 
The artificial intelligence revolution has begun. Today, there are self-driving cars on our streets, autonomous weapons in our armies, robot surgeons in our hospitals – and AI's presence in our lives will only increase. Some see this as the dawn of a new era in innovation and ease; others are alarmed by its destructive potential. But one thing is clear: this is a technology like no other, one that raises profound questions about the very definitions of human intelligence and morality. 
 
In Moral AI, world-renowned researchers in moral psychology, philosophy, and artificial intelligence – Jana Schaich Borg, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong and Vincent Conitzer – tackle these thorny issues head-on. Writing lucidly and calmly, they lay out the recent advances in this still nascent field, peeling away the exaggeration and misleading arguments. Instead, they offer clear examinations of the moral concerns at the heart of AI programs, from racial equity to personal privacy, fake news to autonomous weaponry. Ultimately, they argue that artificial intelligence can be built and used safely and ethically, but that its potential cannot be achieved without careful reflection on the values we wish to imbue it with. This is an essential primer for any thinking person.

Moral AI

And How We Get There

Does the education system make better people? Why are so many – teachers and students alike – stressed and dissatisfied? Do we need to revive real education? 
 
Ideally, education is about the pursuit of truth, beauty and morality. But in the last few decades, a perilous fixation with human capital – skills, knowledge and aptitudes required for the labour market – has trampled over curricula, schools and universities. Rather than learning how to think critically about the world, from cradle to grave students are trained to be more effective workers, to make more money, and to serve an hegemonic ideology. Teachers and researchers are pressed to serve those goals. 
 
In this concluding book in his series on the commons, Guy Standing shows us how education – intrinsically a common public good – has been enclosed, privatised, financialised and corrupted, turned into an instrument of societal control, not human emancipation, weakening democracy, not strengthening it. Human Capital charts how the education industry largely serves commercial interests, not its teachers and students, and considers how to revive its lost values, to save society for the common good.

Human Capital

The Tragedy of the Education Commons

Ruth Kinna

Often associated with chaos or disorder, anarchy defies definition and routinely gets a bad press. And yet from Occupy to Pussy Riot, Noam Chomsky to David Graeber, this philosophical and political movement is as relevant as ever. Contrary to popular perception, different strands of anarchism - from individualism to collectivism - do follow certain structures and a shared sense of purpose: a belief in freedom and working towards collective good without the interference of the state. 
 
In this masterful, sympathetic account, political theorist Ruth Kinna traces the tumultuous history of anarchism, starting with thinkers and activists such as Peter Kropotkin and Emma Goldman and through key events like the Paris Commune and the Haymarket affair. Skilfully introducing us to the nuanced theories of a range of anarchist groups from around the world, The Government of No One reveals what makes a supposedly chaotic movement particularly adaptable and effective over centuries.

The Government of No One

The Theory and Practice of Anarchism

Victoria Cooper

Heather Montgomery

Kieron Sheehy

Why is parenting so fraught and so difficult in today's society? There has never been a time when advice was so readily available, and yet there is also a prevailing sense that parents are getting it wrong. This book examines the arguments and counter-arguments supported by research on how best to parent children, from birth to twelve years. By taking an impartial approach to the evidence and, by discussing case studies from across the world and from a number of academic disciplines, this book is designed to show how good parenting comes in many shapes and forms.

Parenting the First Twelve Years

What the Evidence Tells Us

David Spiegelhalter

Anthony Masters

How many people have died because of COVID-19? Which countries have been hit hardest by the virus? What are the benefits and harms of different vaccines? How does COVID-19 compare to the Spanish flu? How have the lockdown measures affected the economy, mental health and crime? 
 
This year we have been bombarded by statistics - seven day rolling averages, rates of infection, excess deaths. Never have numbers been more central to our national conversation, and never has it been more important that we think about them clearly. In the media and in their Observer column, Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter and RSS Statistical Ambassador Anthony Masters have interpreted these statistics, offering a vital public service by giving us the tools we need to make sense of the virus for ourselves and holding the government to account. 
 
In Covid by Numbers, they crunch the data on a year like no other, exposing the leading misconceptions about the virus and the vaccine, and answering our essential questions. This timely, concise and approachable book offers a rare depth of insight into one of the greatest upheavals in history, and a trustworthy guide to these most uncertain of times.

Covid By Numbers

Making Sense of the Pandemic with Data

Melanie Mitchell

No recent scientific enterprise has been so alluring, terrifying, and filled with extravagant promise and frustrating setbacks as artificial intelligence. How intelligent are the best of today's AI programs? To what extent can we entrust them with decisions that affect our lives? How human-like do we expect them to become, and how soon do we need to worry about them surpassing us in most, if not all, human endeavours? 
 
From leading AI researcher and award-winning author Melanie Mitchell comes a knowledgeable and captivating account of modern-day artificial intelligence. Flavoured with personal stories and a twist of humour, Artificial Intelligence illuminates the workings of machines that mimic human learning, perception, language, creativity and common sense. Weaving together advances in AI with cognitive science and philosophy, Mitchell probes the extent to which today's 'smart' machines can actually think or understand, and whether AI requires such elusive human qualities in order to be reliable, trustworthy and beneficial. 
 
Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans provides readers with an accessible, entertaining and clear-eyed view of the AI landscape, what the field has actually accomplished, how much further it has to go and what it means for all of our futures.

Artificial Intelligence

A Guide for Thinking Humans

James Curran

Joanna Redden

Our lives are more mediated than ever before. Adults in economically advanced countries spend, on average, over eight hours per day interacting with the media. The news and entertainment industries are being transformed by the shift to digital platforms. But how much is really changing in terms of what shapes media content? What are the impacts on our public and imaginative life? And is the Internet a democratising tool of social protest, or of state and commercial manipulation? 
 
Drawing on decades of research to examine these and other questions, Understanding Media interrogates claims about the Internet, explores how representations in TV and film may influence perceptions of self, and traces overarching trends while attending to crucial local context, from the United States to China, Norway to Malaysia, and Brazil to Britain. Understanding Media is an accessible and essential guide to the world's most influential force - the contemporary media.

Understanding Media

Communication, Power and Social Change

Robin Dunbar

When did humans develop spiritual thought? What is religion's evolutionary purpose? And in our increasingly secular world, why has it endured? 
 
Every society in the history of humanity has lived with religion. In How Religion Evolved, evolutionary psychologist Professor Robin Dunbar tracks its origins back to what he terms the 'mystical stance' - the aspect of human psychology that predisposes us to believe in a transcendent world, and which makes an encounter with the spiritual possible. As he explores world religions and their many derivatives, as well as religions of experience practised by hunter-gatherer societies since time immemorial, Dunbar argues that this instinct is not a peculiar human quirk, an aberration on our otherwise efficient evolutionary journey. Rather, religion confers an advantage: it can benefit our individual health and wellbeing, but, more importantly, it fosters social bonding at large scale, helping hold fractious societies together. Dunbar suggests these dimensions might provide the basis for an overarching theory for why and how humans are religious, and so help unify the myriad strands that currently populate this field. 
 
Drawing on path-breaking research, clinical case studies and fieldwork from around the globe, as well as stories of charismatic cult leaders, mysterious sects and lost faiths, How Religion Evolved offers a fascinating and far-reaching analysis of this quintessentially human impulse - to believe.

How Religion Evolved

And Why It Endures

Hugh Kennedy

What is a caliphate? Who can be caliph? And how are contemporary ideologues such as ISIS reviving - and abusing - the term today? 
 
In the first modern account of a subject of critical importance today, acclaimed historian Hugh Kennedy answers these questions by chronicling the rich history of the caliphate, from the death of Muhammad to the present. At its height, the caliphate stretched from Spain to China and was the most powerful political entity in western Eurasia. In an era when Paris and London boasted a few thousand inhabitants, Baghdad and Cairo were sophisticated centres of trade and culture, and the Ummayad and Abbasid caliphates were distinguished by extraordinary advances in science, medicine and architecture. By ending with the recent re-emergence of caliphal ideology within fundamentalist Islam, The Caliphate underscores why it is crucial that we understand this form of Islamic government before groups such as ISIS distort its practice completely.

The Caliphate

Richard Jenkyns

Any list of the six greatest European poets would include Virgil, Aeschylus and Homer. A recent history of philosophy named Aristotle and Plato as two of the world's four greatest philosophers. The greatest historian of all is likely to be Thucydides. Why was Ancient Greek and Roman literature so great? 
 
Sweeping across a thousand years, acclaimed professor Richard Jenkyns provides a lucid and lively introduction to the foundation of all Western literature. As Jenkyns shows us, the Greeks were masters of invention - they pioneered nearly all the major literary forms, including epic poetry, tragedy, comedy, and history. The Romans, like us, already felt in the shadow of Greek literature, and, as Jenkyn puts it, they first invented imitation. 
 
In short, engaging chapters, Jenkyns illuminates the most enduring and influential works of the classical world, from the Homeric epics to the golden age of Latin poetry, and explores their unparalleled and continuing influence on Western literature.

Classical Literature

Mark Sedgwick

Traditionalism is founded on ancient teachings that, its followers argue, have been handed down from time immemorial, forming a basis of the sacred order that must be defended from modernity and the disorder it brings. It has been used to encourage respect for the environment, compose great music and reduce hostility between followers of different religions. King Charles is an avowed Traditionalist, and has used it as a framework to encourage protecting the rural landscape. 
 
But Traditionalism has also been used to support darker causes: from the election of Donald Trump to fascist movements and even terrorism. How has Traditionalism been so influential for so long, yet so little acknowledged and understood? Its followers have never aimed to reach the masses and have sought to affect the world quietly. In this book, the first of its kind for a wide audience, Traditionalism's history, ideas and profound impact are laid out, shining a light onto this shadowy world and the thought of its three founders, René Guénon, Julius Evola and Frithjof Schuon. Once you understand Traditionalism, you will see its influence everywhere.

Traditionalism

The Radical Project for Restoring Sacred Order

Barnabas Calder

Reducing energy use is the single biggest challenge facing architecture today. From the humblest prehistoric hut to the imposing monuments of Rome or Egypt to super-connected modern airports, buildings in every era and place have been shaped by the energy available for their construction and running. This original and compelling survey tells the story of our buildings from our hunter-gatherer origins to the age of fossil-fuel dependence, and shows how architecture has been influenced by designers, builders and societies adapting to changing energy contexts. 
 
Architecture is a fascinating celebration of human ingenuity and creativity, and a timely reminder of the scale of the task ahead in our search for truly sustainable architecture.

Architecture

From Prehistory to Climate Emergency

Bruce Hood

What makes us social animals? 
Why do we behave the way we do? 
How does the brain influence our behaviour? 
 
The brain may have initially evolved to cope with a threatening world of beasts, limited food and adverse weather, but we now use it to navigate an equally unpredictable social landscape. In The Domesticated Brain, renowned psychologist Bruce Hood explores the relationship between the brain and social behaviour, looking for clues as to origins and operations of the mechanisms that keep us bound together. How do our brains enable us to live together, to raise children, and to learn and pass on information and culture? Combining social psychology with neuroscience, Hood provides an essential introduction to the hidden operations of the brain, and explores what makes us who we are.

The Domesticated Brain

Lee Elliot Major

Stephen Machin

What are the effects of decreasing social mobility? 
 How does education help - and hinder - us in improving our life chances? 
 Why are so many of us stuck on the same social rung as our parents? 
 
 Apart from the USA, Britain has the lowest social mobility in the Western world. The lack of movement in who gets where in society - particularly when people are stuck at the bottom and the top - costs the nation dear, both in terms of the unfulfilled talents of those left behind and an increasingly detached elite, disinterested in improvements that benefit the rest of society. 
 
This book analyses cutting-edge research into how social mobility has changed in Britain over the years, the shifting role of schools and universities in creating a fairer future, and the key to what makes some countries and regions so much richer in opportunities, bringing a clearer understanding of what works and how we can better shape our future.

Social Mobility

And Its Enemies

Viorica Marian

Why should we learn more than one language? 
Can it change the way we think? 
Does it have the power to transform how we see the world? 
 
You may think you speak only one language. In fact, your mind is interpreting multiple codes of communication. Some people speak Spanish, some Mandarin. Some speak poetry, some are fluent in maths. Humans are built for multilingualism. 
 
Drawing on cutting-edge research and theory, delivered with wit and lucid insight, psycholinguist Viorica Marian explores the ways in which the mind uses multiple languages and how, in doing so, we can open the doors to unique forms of creativity, brain health and cognitive control. Every new language we speak - whether it is coding or musical notes, Hindi or Arabic - shapes how we extract and interpret information. It alters what we remember, how we perceive ourselves and those around us, how we feel, the insights we have, the decisions we make and the actions we take. 
 
The Power of Language lays bare how we use different linguistic codes to think about the world - and change our place within it. Empowering and practical, this is the perfect guide for anyone interested in how language really works.

The Power of Language

Multilingualism, Self and Society

What makes us human? 
How did we develop language, thought and culture? 
Why do we need them? 
 
The past 12,000 years represent the only time in the sweep of human history when there has been only one human species. How did this extraordinary proliferation of species come about - and then go extinct? And why did we emerge such intellectual giants? The tale of our origins has inevitably been told through the 'stones and bones' of the archaeological record, yet Robin Dunbar shows it was our social and cognitive changes rather than our physical development which truly made us distinct from other species.

Human Evolution

Tariq Ramadan

Hardly a day goes by without mention of Islam. And yet, for most people, and in much of the world, Islam remains a little-known religion. Whether the issue is violence, terrorism, women's rights or slavery, Muslims are today expected to provide answers and to justify what Islam is - or is not. But little opportunity exists, either in the media or in society as a whole, to describe Islam: precisely the question this short and extremely accessible book sets out to answer. In simple, direct language it will introduce readers to Islam, to its spirituality, its principles, its rituals, its diversity and its evolution.

Islam

The Essentials

Tim Lang

British food has changed remarkably in the last half century. As we have become wealthier and more discerning, our food has Europeanized (pizza is children's favourite food) and internationalized (we eat the world's cuisines), yet our food culture remains fragmented, a mix of mass 'ultra-processed' substances alongside food as varied and good as anywhere else on the planet. 
 
This is a book on the politics of food: where it comes from, what we eat, and its impact. It argues that the Brexit vote will force us to review our food system. Such an opportunity is sorely needed. After a brief frenzy of concern following the financial shock of 2008 and recent Covid-19 upheaval, the UK government has slumped once more into a vague hope that the food system will keep going on as before. Feeding Britain argues that this and other approaches are short-sighted, against the public interest, and possibly even strategic folly. Setting a new course for UK food is no easy task but it is a process, this book urges, that needs to begin now.

Feeding Britain

Our Food Problems and How to Fix Them

We are losing the commons. Austerity and neoliberal policies have depleted our shared wealth; our national utilities have been sold off to foreign conglomerates, social housing is almost non-existent, our parks are cordoned off for private events and our national art galleries are sponsored by banks and oil companies. This plunder deprives us all of our common rights, recognized as far back as the Magna Carta and the Charter of the Forest of 1217, to share fairly and equitably in our public wealth. 
 
Guy Standing leads us through a new appraisal of the commons, stemming from the medieval concept of common land reserved in ancient law from marauding barons, to his modern reappraisal of the resources we all hold in common - a brilliant new synthesis that crystallises quite how much public wealth has been redirected to the 1% in recent decades through the state-approved exploitation of everything from our land to our state housing, health and benefit systems, to our justice system, schools, newspapers and even the air we breathe. Plunder of the Commons proposes a charter for a new form of commoning, of remembering, guarding and sharing that which belongs to us all, to slash inequality and soothe our current political instability.

Plunder of the Commons

A Manifesto for Sharing Public Wealth

Nicholas Mirzoeff

Since the rise of the internet and personal computers, we have seen an exponential increase in the number of visual images around us. From YouTube to Instagram, video games to installation art, this dramatic visual transformation is liberating, confusing and worrying all at once. Nicholas Mirzoeff is a leading figure in the burgeoning field of visual culture, which aims to make sense of the images and artefacts all around us. In the first book to explain this fascinating and timely subject to the general reader, Mirzoeff draws on art history, theory and everyday experience to provide an engaging, approachable introduction to how visual materials shape our lives.

How to See the World

Richard Layard

George Ward

Most people now realize that economic growth, however desirable, will not solve all our problems. Instead, we need a philosophy and a science which encompasses a much fuller range of human need and experience. 
 
This book argues that the goal for a society must be the greatest possible all-round happiness, and shows how each of us can become more effective creators of happiness, both as citizens and in our own organizations. 
 
Written with Richard Layard's characteristic clarity, it provides hard evidence that increasing happiness is the right aim, and that it can be achieved. Its language is simple, its evidence impressive, its effect inspiring.

Can We Be Happier?

Evidence and Ethics

Jonathan Gershuny

Oriel Sullivan

Are we spending more time at work than we would have done fifty years ago? 
Are we sleeping less? 
How has the Internet affected the way we use our spare time? 
 
Everything we do happens in time and it feels like our lives are busier than ever before. Yet a detailed look at our daily activities reveals some surprising truths about the social and economic structure of the world we live in. This book delves into the unrivalled data collection and expertise of the Centre for Time Use Research to explore fifty-five years of change and what it means for us today.

What We Really Do All Day

Insights from the Centre for Time Use Research

Neil Gaiman Full-Cast Radio Adaptations

Meg and Mog

Ebb and Flo

Lucy and Tom

Ink and Iron

Topsy and Tim

Tuck and Tina

And Other Lies

Pizza and Taco

Emma and James

Sarah and Duck

Chaos and Flame

The Lost and Found

Jack and Millie

Anders Knutas

Charlie and Lola

From the bestselling novel I'm Travelling Alone, two dynamic characters are born. 
Police investigators Holger Munch and Mia Krüger work together to solve the most complex crimes in Oslo, catching serial killers before they strike again but their personal lives are not simple either. As people, they could not be more different but as they battle their own demons their unlikely pairing make Munch and Krüger the best kind of classic detective duo.

Munch and Krüger

Lizzie and Lucky

George and Flora

Gods and Warriors

Faith, Hope and Glory

Wizards and Robots

Noughts and Crosses

Malorie Blackman's ground-breaking, award winning series charts the lives and loves of generations as it takes on race and equality with breathtaking drama and heart wrenching sadness. Set in an alternate reality, where the inferior Noughts live as second class citizens in a world run by Crosses, the four books explore the violent politics of a unstable world, and the ordinary lives caught up in in its terror. Beginning with Noughts and Crosses - and the romance of Seph and Callum - and ending with Double Cross, it is a gripping sequence, and an important, relevant story for our time.

Noughts And Crosses

The Knight and Her Emperor

Swallows And Amazons

Key Words with Peter and Jane

Harry and the Dinosaurs

Peter Rabbit Slide-and-Seek

The Snowman flies again . . . In the middle of winter, a little boy's Snowman and Snowdog come to life and take him on a breathtaking and magical adventure.

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