United Kingdom Books

If you are interested in the empirical implications of the philosophical literature on deliberative politics, then this book is worth buying. Why? Well, it is simply the first attempt to use Habermas' discourse ethics as a research framework to study parliamentary deliberation. This was done over several years in a cross-national basis (US, UK, Germany and Switzerland) by a team led by Prof. Jürg Steiner. Neatly organized, clear, and very convincing, this book should also be read as a source of inspiration for future research (see pp. 166-169), specially in the informal arenas of the public sphere that Habermas so highly praises.

This book, originally published in 1972, is a real pleasure. Its focus is on English fictions created about India during the Raj but it predates todays postcolonial theory and is therefore free of the latters penchant for rarefied jargon. Parry in her introduction to the new edition examines current trends in postcolonial theory and she finds them to have strayed away from the plain facts of history and become lost in a hybrid analysis of texts which places too much emphasis on discursive ambiguity and not enough on the plain fact of the economic exploitation which informs all colonizer/colonized encounters. You will only get this new essay if you get the new revised Verso edition(published 1997)which also includes an introductory essay by the always on the mark Michael Sprinker so beware the old editions on sale.
The lengthy first chapter offers a detailed account of the evolving nature of the colonizer/colonized relationship from initial conquest to independence struggle with many excellently chosen quotes from numerous diaries/travel logs/ memoirs/literary sources etc...Unlike Saids Orientalism which came later and owes a great debt to this book as do all of the postcolonial practitioners, Parry spends considerable time supporting her carefully stated views. She was writing at a time when the Raj revival was just about to reach its zenith and so this book was one assumes written at least in part as a counter to all the sentimental and fond accounts of the English for their empire. Parry gives the best account I have yet read of what the actual Anglo-Indian rulers were like in India though there are other valuable accounts including Indian accounts which I would also highly recommend(Indian Tales of the Raj). Parry deals with familiar names like Kipling and Forster but also with some unfamiliar names including female novelists and travel writers. Her views on Kipling broke new ground and have yet to be bettered though many have tried(Moore-Gilbert, Suleri).
I've read many related books including Suleri's Rhetoric of English India, & Moore-Gilberts Writing India & can easily say this is the best book of its kind. Amazingly insightful for 1972 or for 2002 and a real breath of common sense fresh air to the school of thinkers that came along in the 1987-1997 era and were so dominated by the influence of Derrida and Foucault and offered an ever diminishing amount of insight and an ever increasing amount of arcane verbiage. The re-publication of this frimly grounded work will perhaps assist in re-focusing postcolonial studies, one can only hope.
It is very interesting that in her introduction Parry mentions Said several times but quotes only from Culture and Imperialism, a book with a much firmer and more plainly spoken grasp of the relationship between empire and literature than its predecessor, the infinitely more famous Orientalism. Said in turn pays homage to Parry on the back cover acknowledging her influence and rightly so. Delusions and Discoveries really deserves to be the book given the credit for initiating the modern phase of postcolonial studies.

Jack and Adam Lively have managed to put together a throughly interesting and at the same time enjoyable reader on Democracy in Britian. The most notable feature is the range of texts included: there are texts by philiosophers (Hobbes, Locke...), Politicians (Disrael, Thatcher...) and from debates in parliament as well as Shakespeare, Auden and even Rushdi. Because the authors have NOT only included specialised texts by experts on the constitutions they manage to convey the picture of a living democracy whith all its problems, issues and controversies. I would argue that many of the questions that are dealt with are also important in other countries. In this sense, the book transgresses its original purpose.

Democracy's Privileged Few is a careful, well-documented, and important study of an underappreciated topic in constitutional law. The legislative privileges protected by our Constitution are rarely discussed in courts, but they represent some of the most fundamental requirements of democratic self-government. Spanning from modern bribery scandals to freedom of speech, the power of Congress to imprison ordinary citizens, and medieval conflicts between the King and Parliament, Democracy's Privileged Few is an excellently written account of how legislative privilege emerged in the British Constitution and survived (or evolved) in the U.S. Constitution. Anyone with an interest in the foundations of American government would do well to read this book.

In this excellent work we can better understand the problem of innovating the practice of politics and democracy. Using an eclectic approach readers will find models that will help them evaluate and classify what they are doing.

IN A NUTSHELL: VERY CONCISE & YET COMPREHENSIVE

At the end of World War 2, the 'Director of Naval Construction' had the teams involved with the design and development of England's wartime navy create a detailed chronicle of their wartime activities [1939-1945]. That chronicle has been drafted into this 3 volume text, with editorial footnotes, insights, and some line drawings from David Brown, a retired Deputy Chief Naval Architect. The result is this second of a 3 volume series which altogether equals a kind-of concise anatomy of the British Navy during World War 2.

IN A NUTSHELL: VERY CONCISE & YET COMPREHENSIVE

At the end of World War 2, the 'Director of Naval Construction' had the teams involved with the design and development of England's wartime navy create a detailed chronicle of their wartime activities [1939-1945]. That chronicle has been drafted into this 3 volume text, with editorial footnotes, insights, and some line drawings from David Brown, a retired Deputy Chief Naval Architect. The result is this first of a 3 volume series which altogether equals a kind-of concise anatomy of the British Navy during World War 2.

SO WHAT'S IN VOLUME 1?

Naturally, Volume 1, titled, 'MAJOR SURFACE VESSELS' is the book that grabs most peoples interest and probably is more in demand than the other two volumes. The reason is simply in 'The Table of Contents';

Chapter 1: Battleships and Battlecruisers,

Chapter 2: Monitors,

Chapter 3: Fleet Carriers,

Chapter 4: Light Fleet Carriers,

Chapter 5: Escort Cruisers,

Chapter 6: Cruisers,

Chapter 7: Fast Minelayers,

Chapter 8: Destroyers.

Quite a list of topics!

Design Culture In Liverpool 1880-1914: The Origins Of The Liverpool School Of Architecture by Christopher Crouch (Lecturer, School of Visual Arts, Edith Cowan University, Perth, Australia) surveys the development of an architectural design ideology unique to the British city of Liverpool that took its own distinctive directions quite apart from those commonly ensconced in both British and American architectural trends and developments. After an informative and extensive introduction, the text is nicely organized into seven chapters covering the styling and ideology of the arts and crafts in Liverpool; the university and cultural origins of the Liverpool School of Architecture and Applied Art; the inauguration and evolution of an Integrated Course within the university architectural curriculum; "Liverpool, the United States and the Beaux Arts Vision"; the influence of Charles Reilly; and the role and impact of the "Town Planning Review". Enhanced with a select bibliography and a quite useful index, Design Culture In Liverpool 1880-1914 is a welcome, scholarly, and much appreciated contribution to academic History of Architecture reference collections and architectural design study lists.

As a Graphic Artist/Designer I highly recommend this book to all designers out there! This book shows the best German aspects of design since 1860. Mainly the 1920's BAUHAUS school of thought/design that still exsists to this day.
The concept and thought of "functional design" began in Germany with Architecture, Furniture, Graphics, Product, Fashion, and of course, Automobiles! This book shows it all in an easy to read and find format.
To all designers out there, I highly recommend this compact book to be included in your library!
Stevan Sanger-Clawson

This book takes a meaningful look at one of the most important, yet incomprehensible (maybe aside from Patrick Geddes), figures of the planning and design of our built environment. While Ruskin's diatribes covered many a topic, one of his most important legacies is his influence on those that have shaped our built environment: from the Arts & Crafts movement to the present day New Urbanism. A vitally important book for students of planning or architecture.