Empires in World History: Power and the Politics of Difference by Jane Burbank & Frederick Cooper

2011 World History Association Book Prize
CHOICE Magazine's 2010 Outstanding Academic Titles

Empires--vast states of territories and peoples united by force and ambition--have dominated the political landscape for more than two millennia. Empires in World History departs from conventional European and nation-centered perspectives to take a remarkable look at how empires relied on diversity to shape the global order. Beginning with ancient Rome and China and continuing across Asia, Europe, the Americas, and Africa, Jane Burbank and Frederick Cooper examine empires' conquests, rivalries, and strategies of domination--with an emphasis on how empires accommodated, created, and manipulated differences among populations.

Burbank and Cooper examine Rome and China from the third century BCE, empires that sustained state power for centuries. They delve into the militant monotheism of Byzantium, the Islamic Caliphates, and the short-lived Carolingians, as well as the pragmatically tolerant rule of the Mongols and Ottomans, who combined religious protection with the politics of loyalty. Burbank and Cooper discuss the influence of empire on capitalism and popular sovereignty, the limitations and instability of Europe's colonial projects, Russia's repertoire of exploitation and differentiation, as well as the "empire of liberty"--devised by American revolutionaries and later extended across a continent and beyond.

With its investigation into the relationship between diversity and imperial states, Empires in World History offers a fresh approach to understanding the impact of empires on the past and present.

Жили-были старик со старухой. Елена Катишонок

Короткий список «Русского Букера» 2009
"Ясная Поляна"- 2010, Номинация «XXI век»

Роман "Жили-были старик со старухой", по точному слову Майи Кучерской, - повествование о судьбе семьи староверов, заброшенных в начале прошлого века в Остзейский край, там осевших, переживших у синего моря войны, разорение, потери и все-таки выживших, спасенных собственной верностью самым простым, но главным ценностям.

"...Эта история захватывает с первой страницы и не отпускает до конца романа. Живые, порой комичные, порой трагические типажи, "вкусный" говор, забавные и точные "семейные словечки", трогательная любовь и великое русское терпение - все это сразу берет за душу. Прекрасный язык. Пронзительная ясность бытия. Непрерывность рода и памяти - все то, по чему тоскует сейчаjavascript:void(0)с настоящий читатель". Дина Рубина

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

Daniel Kahneman, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his seminal work in psychology that challenged the rational model of judgment and decision making, is one of our most important thinkers. His ideas have had a profound and widely regarded impact on many fields—including economics, medicine, and politics—but until now, he has never brought together his many years of research and thinking in one book.
In the highly anticipated Thinking, Fast and Slow, Kahneman takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. Kahneman exposes the extraordinary capabilities—and also the faults and biases—of fast thinking, and reveals the pervasive influence of intuitive impressions on our thoughts and behavior. The impact of loss aversion and overconfidence on corporate strategies, the difficulties of predicting what will make us happy in the future, the challenges of properly framing risks at work and at home, the profound effect of cognitive biases on everything from playing the stock market to planning the next vacation—each of these can be understood only by knowing how the two systems work together to shape our judgments and decisions.
“A major intellectual event . . . The work of Kahneman and Tversky was a crucial pivot point in the way we see ourselves.” —David Brooks, The New York Times
“The mind is a hilariously muddled compromise between incompatible modes of thought in this fascinating treatise by a giant in the field of decision research. Nobel-winning psychologist Kahneman (Attention and Effort) posits a brain governed by two clashing decision-making processes. The largely unconscious System 1, he contends, makes intuitive snap judgments based on emotion, memory, and hard-wired rules of thumb; the painfully conscious System 2 laboriously checks the facts and does the math, but is so "lazy" and distractible that it usually defers to System 1. Kahneman uses this scheme to frame a scintillating discussion of his findings in cognitive psychology and behavioral economics, and of the ingenious experiments that tease out the irrational, self-contradictory logics that underlie our choices. We learn why we mistake statistical noise for coherent patterns; why the stock-picking of well-paid investment advisers and the prognostications of pundits are worthless; why businessmen tend to be both absurdly overconfident and unwisely risk-averse; and why memory affects decision making in counterintuitive ways. Kahneman's primer adds to recent challenges to economic orthodoxies about rational actors and efficient markets; more than that, it's a lucid, marvelously readable guide to spotting--and correcting--our biased misunderstandings of the world.” —Publishers' Weekly (starred review)

Farrar, Straus and Giroux (October 25, 2011)
ISBN-13: 978-0374275631

Л. Пантелеев – Л. Чуковская. Переписка (1929–1987)

Переписка Алексея Ивановича Пантелеева (псевдоним Л.Пантелеев), автора "Часов", "Пакета", "Республики ШКИД" с Лидией Корнеевной Чуковской велась более пятидесяти лет (1929-1987). Они познакомились в 1929 году в редакции ленинградского Детиздата, где Лидия Корнеевна работала редактором и редактировала рассказ Пантелеева "Часы". Началась переписка, ставшая особенно интенсивной после войны. Лидия Корнеевна переехала в Москву, а Алексей Иванович остался в Ленинграде. Сохранилось более восьмисот писем обоих корреспондентов, из которых в книгу вошло около шестисот в сокращенном виде. Для печати отобраны страницы, представляющие интерес для истории отечественной литературы.

Письма изобилуют литературными событиями, содержат портреты многих современников - М.Зощенко, Е.Шварца, С.Маршака и отзываются на литературные дискуссии тех лет, одним словом, воссоздают картину литературных событий эпохи.

Издательство: Новое литературное обозрение

In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson

Erik Larson has been widely acclaimed as a master of narrative non-fiction, and in his new book, the bestselling author of Devil in the White City turns his hand to a remarkable story set during Hitler’s rise to power.

The time is 1933, the place, Berlin, when William E. Dodd becomes America’s first ambassador to Hitler’s Germany in a year that proved to be a turning point in history.

A mild-mannered professor from Chicago, Dodd brings along his wife, son, and flamboyant daughter, Martha. At first Martha is entranced by the parties and pomp, and the handsome young men of the Third Reich with their infectious enthusiasm for restoring Germany to a position of world prominence. Enamored of the “New Germany,” she has one affair after another, including with the suprisingly honorable first chief of the Gestapo, Rudolf Diels. But as evidence of Jewish persecution mounts, confirmed by chilling first-person testimony, her father telegraphs his concerns to a largely indifferent State Department back home. Dodd watches with alarm as Jews are attacked, the press is censored, and drafts of frightening new laws begin to circulate. As that first year unfolds and the shadows deepen, the Dodds experience days full of excitement, intrigue, romance--and ultimately, horror, when a climactic spasm of violence and murder reveals Hitler’s true character and ruthless ambition.

Suffused with the tense atmosphere of the period, and with unforgettable portraits of the bizarre Göring and the expectedly charming--yet wholly sinister--Goebbels, In the Garden of Beasts lends a stunning, eyewitness perspective on events as they unfold in real time, revealing an era of surprising nuance and complexity. The result is a dazzling, addictively readable work that speaks volumes about why the world did not recognize the grave threat posed by Hitler until Berlin, and Europe, were awash in blood and terror.

Amazon Best Books of the Month
"By far his best and most enthralling work of novelistic history….Powerful, poignant…a transportingly true story."--The New York Times
"Terrific."--Los Angeles Times
“A stunning work of history.”--Newsweek
“Larson has meticulously researched the Dodds’ intimate witness to Hitler’s ascendancy and created an edifying narrative of this historical byway that has all the pleasures of a political thriller….a fresh picture of these terrrible events.”--The New York Times Book Review

Все и Ничто. Символические фигуры в искусстве второй половины XX века. Екатерина Андреева

Книга представляет собой аналитическую историю узловых моментов в развитии современного искусства. Основанная на цикле лекций, прочитанных в начале 2000-х годов, книга вобрала в себя сравнительное описание и анализ творчества западных (Дж.Поллок, Энди Уорхол, Ив Кляйн) и российских, в частности, петербургских (К.Малевич, В.Стерлигов, Е.Михнов-Войтенко, Тимур Новиков) художников. Их биографии, истории художественных движений и новых технологий составляют основной сюжет исследования.

Вторая половина ХХ века в мировом искусстве – время личных амбиций художников: арт-объект создаётся из подручных материалов, а галерея открывается уже при жизни художника. Художник не обращается ни к городу, ни к миру: он знает, что его свидетельство услышат и увидят в аскетическом пространстве его галереи. Что при этом происходит с привычными формами? Развитие дизайна, обустройство публичного пространства – только одна сторона происходящего в искусстве второй половины века. Екатерина Андреева, анализируя творчество И. Кляйна, Э. Уорхола и других знаменитостей, говорит об этом искусстве как искусстве узнаваемом, которое ни с чем не спутаешь. Но эти «торговые марки» бунтуют против усреднённого рынка вещей, с его стандартизацией и влечением к комфорту, предмет искусства должен доставлять дискомфорт, и быть настолько нестандартным, чтобы его ценили вовсе не за рыночную стоимость. Нужно уметь увидеть консервную банку не просто как материал для искусства, а как экспонат для музея, фонды которого неотчуждаемы и на продажу не выставляются. Конечно, рынок, с почтением склоняющийся перед арт-объектом дюшановского типа – оптимистическая картина возвращения смысла в нашу повседневность. Но есть что-то очень печальное в таком подходе: потребительский рынок давно привык обходиться без искусства, а может ли современное искусство обойтись без рынка? И как провести границы между частным и общественно значимым заявлением в искусстве – неужели полагаясь только на собственный вкус и культурный опыт? – Русский журнал

Издательство: Издательство Ивана Лимбаха
ISBN 978-5-89059-159-3; 2011 г.

Спокойный хаос. Сандро Веронези

Знаменитый итальянский писатель Сандро Веронези в романе "Спокойный хаос" через сложные драматические коллизии основных героев выводит читателей к простой истине: человека надо принимать таким, какой он есть. Человеческая натура с ее обыкновенностью и героизмом, силой и слабостью, разумом и инстинктами является главным объектом исследования автора романа.
За эту работу писатель удостоился нескольких престижных литературных премий (в том числе - итальянская премия Стрега и французская премия Фемина) и одного религиозного скандала: у читателей-католиков вызвало негодование подробное описание акта содомии. В целом же С.Веронези предложил нам очень важное произведение, зрелость и глубина которого схватывают самую суть человеческих отношений.
Выход главного романа актуального итальянского писателя ‒ одно из основных литературных событий Года Италии в России - Openspace.ru

Москва глазами архитектора. Владимир Резвин

В книге "Москва глазами архитектора" автор раскрывает осо-бенности эмоционального восприятия московской архитектуры, об­разно и доходчиво объясняет ее специфику, показывает прекрасное там, где люди порой не замечают ничего особенного: каким мы ви­дим город, как формируются первые впечатления о нем, как они ме­няются по мере знакомства с эволюцией отдельных фрагментов го­рода во время неторопливых прогулок? Сегодня, когда новое строи­тельство в исторической части Москвы, как правило, вступает в про­тиворечие с сохранившимися памятниками, взгляд архитектора-про­фессионал а на эту непростую проблему особенно важен.

Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor

Mariinsky Concert Hall, St Petersburg, 12-16 September 2010.

Natalie Dessay (Lucia), Piotr Beczala (Edgardo), Vladislav Sulimsky (Enrico), Dmitry Voropaev (Arturo), Ilya Bannik (Raimondo), Zhanna Dombrovskaya (Alisa) & Sergei Skorokhodov (Normanno) Mariinsky Orchestra & Chorus, Valery Gergiev

The Mariinsky label’s opera recordings have garnered acclaim and awards from around the world, most recently for Valery Gergiev’s recording of Parsifal released in 2010. For the label’s fifth opera, Gergiev conducts Donizetti’s masterpiece with a magnificent cast led by Natalie Dessay. Natalie Dessay is one of the world’s most sought-after sopranos and an admired interpreter of lyric heroines. She is particularly renowned for her interpretation of the role of Lucia, which she has performed at the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House and the Mariinsky Theatre. Future engagements include Verdi’s La Traviata with the LSO at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in July and at the Vienna State Opera in October.

“Here’s a Valery Gergiev recording in which, for once, the febrile maestro isn’t centre stage. This is all about Natalie Dessay’s performance as poor deluded Lucy. And if you thrill to the French soprano’s hypercharged, histrionic and occasionally wayward delivery of Donizetti’s mad scene, you will forgive the ebullient but sometimes rough-edged playing of the Mariinsky Orchestra...Top singing from Vladislav Sulimsky as Enrico.” The Times
“there is something distinctively Russian about this Lammermoor. All those Italian melodies flow beautifully...But there is a sense of drive and purpose about this performance that seems, to me at least, distinctively Slavic...Dessay structures [the Mad Scene] well, always saving something in reserve for the build-ups and outbursts. Some excellent glass harmonica playing from Sascha Reckert...An intense but satisfying experience.” Classical Review

Gramophone disc of the month

Britten: Songs & Proverbs of William Blake

The unbeatable, multi-award-winning partnership of Gerald Finley and Julius Drake turn to the composer Benjamin Britten for their latest Hyperion release.
Although Britten is particularly celebrated for the substantial body of music he composed for the tenor voice, the composer also left an important legacy of music for baritone. Characteristically, Britten’s output for low voice was also inspired by the talents of specific performers with whom he was closely associated, among them Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and John Shirley-Quirk. In addition to song-cycles, individual songs and folksong arrangements, Britten wrote challenging baritone roles in operas as diverse as Billy Budd (1951), Owen Wingrave (1970) and Death in Venice (1972)—the title role of the second of these made very much Gerald Finley’s own in his magnificent interpretation in Margaret Williams’s 2001 television film of the opera.
This disc contains Britten’s two important song cycles for baritone: Tit for Tat, setting the poems of Walter de la Mare, and the more substantial and challenging Songs and Proverbs of William Blake. The latter was written for Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau; designed to showcase his unique blend of intense lyricism and dramatic characterization, qualities which are undoubtedly also exhibited by Gerald Finley.
Also included are some of Britten’s popular folksong settings, and a selection of later songs, which received exposure and publication only after the composer’s death in December 1976.

Gramophone Awards 2011. Best of Category - Solo Vocal
Hyperion: CDA67778

Жизнь за один день. Режиссеры: Кевин Макдональд, Наталья Андреадис.

Одна планета, 24 часа, 6 миллиардов точек зрения.



Летом 2010 года Youtube предложил пользователям заснять на видео свою жизнь в один конкретный день - 24 июля 2010 года. В результате было получено более 4,5 тысяч часов материала, из которых Кевин МакДональд и Ридли Скотт собрали грандиозную киномозаику, потрясающую величием замысла и высочайшим уровнем исполнения. В числе 60 стран, жители которых откликнулись на приглашение, оказались и кинолюбители из России - присланные ими сюжеты также вошли в общую картину мира, каким он был 24 июля прошлого года...

Engineering an Empire: Collector's Edition DVD Set

The Parthenon. Chichén Itzá. The Pyramids. Their scale, complexity, and sheer beauty stand as permanent reminders of the indomitable strength and ingenuity of the human spirit.
ENGINEERING AN EMPIRE: THE COLLECTOR S EDITION circles the globe to re-examine history s most magnificent civilizations by surveying the architectural and engineering triumphs they left behind. Beginning more than five-thousand years ago with the mind-boggling construction feats of the ancient Egyptians, the 14 documentaries--including two feature-length specials--in this collection revive the spectacular glory of the past, from the great temples of Greece to the majestic and mysterious Tenochtitlan. Cutting-edge CGI graphics and stunning location footage reanimate the ancient streets of such cities as Carthage and Rome, while expert interview trace the rise of each empire and the technological achievements that paved the way for their gravity-defying masterpieces.
Hosted by Peter Weller, ENGINEERING AN EMPIRE: THE COLLECTOR S EDITION unites each riveting moment of this critically-acclaimed and Emmy Award-winning series to reveal the innovation and infrastructure behind the world s most dazzling empires.
Engineering an Empire: Britain - Blood and Steel,
Engineering an Empire: Carthage,
Engineering an Empire: China,
Engineering an Empire: Da Vinci's World,
Engineering an Empire: Egypt,
Engineering an Empire: Greece,
Engineering an Empire: Greece - Age of Alexander,
Engineering an Empire: Napoleon - Steel Monster,
Engineering an Empire: Rome,
Engineering an Empire: Russia,
Engineering an Empire: The Aztecs,
Engineering an Empire: The Byzantines,
Engineering an Empire: The Maya - Death Empire,
Engineering an Empire: The Persians

SKU ID #70058

The Decades 20th Century DVD Collection by History Channel

Throughout history, every decade has its own unique identity, its touchstone moments - precise points in time that reside within history's collective memory. This unique series of DVD collections pulls together some of the finest programs in the HISTORY™ library to bring to life the most evocative and meaningful people and events of each decade in the 20th century. From disasters and technological marvels, to world-changing events and the personalities that caused them, the breadth of human experience is definitively and comprehensively presented as only HISTORY™ can.
1900 – 1909. The dawn of the 20th century brought with it stunning new technology - technology that would change the world - and public personalities that were larger than life. Relive the heady days at the birth of the Modern Age, and discover its more sobering moments, with this exceptional compilation of documentaries.
1910 – 1919. In the teens, a nation still recovering from its own growing pains was thrust onto the world stage and began its rise to the status of superpower. In THE DECADES COLLECTION: THE 1910s you will discover the genesis of World War I and the reality of life in the trenches; walk the decks of the "unsinkable" Titanic; witness the demise of a 300-year dynasty; and experience much more of this formative decade.
1920 – 1929. Following a decade of worldwide terror and deprivation, the Roaring Twenties were a swinging time of flappers, bathtub gin and high spirits. It was an exhilarating period when we could achieve anything, from flying across oceans, to discovering the mysteries of the past, to unlocking the secrets of life itself.
etc.