The Bankers' New Clothes: What's Wrong with Banking and What to Do about It. Anat Admati & Martin Hellwig

What is wrong with today's banking system? The past few years have shown that risks in banking can impose significant costs on the economy. Many claim, however, that a safer banking system would require sacrificing lending and economic growth. The Bankers' New Clothes examines this claim and the narratives used by bankers, politicians, and regulators to rationalize the lack of reform, exposing them as invalid.

Admati and Hellwig argue we can have a safer and healthier banking system without sacrificing any of the benefits of the system, and at essentially no cost to society. They show that banks are as fragile as they are not because they must be, but because they want to be--and they get away with it. Whereas this situation benefits bankers, it distorts the economy and exposes the public to unnecessary risks. Weak regulation and ineffective enforcement allowed the buildup of risks that ushered in the financial crisis of 2007-2009. Much can be done to create a better system and prevent crises. Yet the lessons from the crisis have not been learned.

Bloomberg Businessweek Best Books of 2013,
Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2013
Financial Times (FT.com) Best Economics Books of 2013
Wall Street Journal's Best Nonfiction Books of 2013
Shortlisted for the 2013 Deutsche Wirtschaftsbuchpreis

The Battle of Bretton Woods: John Maynard Keynes, Harry Dexter White, and the Making of a New World Order. Benn Steil

When turmoil strikes world monetary and financial markets, leaders invariably call for 'a new Bretton Woods' to prevent catastrophic economic disorder and defuse political conflict. The name of the remote New Hampshire town where representatives of forty-four nations gathered in July 1944, in the midst of the century's second great war, has become shorthand for enlightened globalization. The actual story surrounding the historic Bretton Woods accords, however, is full of startling drama, intrigue, and rivalry, which are vividly brought to life in Benn Steil's epic account.

Upending the conventional wisdom that Bretton Woods was the product of an amiable Anglo-American collaboration, Steil shows that it was in reality part of a much more ambitious geopolitical agenda hatched within President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Treasury and aimed at eliminating Britain as an economic and political rival. At the heart of the drama were the antipodal characters of John Maynard Keynes, the renowned and revolutionary British economist, and Harry Dexter White, the dogged, self-made American technocrat. Bringing to bear new and striking archival evidence, Steil offers the most compelling portrait yet of the complex and controversial figure of White--the architect of the dollar's privileged place in the Bretton Woods monetary system, who also, very privately, admired Soviet economic planning and engaged in clandestine communications with Soviet intelligence officials and agents over many years.

Spear's Book Award in Financial History
Financial Times (FT.com) Best History Books of 2013
Bloomberg News' Top Business Books of 2013
Kirkus Reviews' Best Nonfiction Books of the Year
BloombergBusinessweek Best Books of 2013

The Armenian Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing in the Ottoman Empire. Taner Akçam

Introducing new evidence from more than 600 secret Ottoman documents, this book demonstrates in unprecedented detail that the Armenian Genocide and the expulsion of Greeks from the late Ottoman Empire resulted from an official effort to rid the empire of its Christian subjects. Presenting these previously inaccessible documents along with expert context and analysis, Taner Akçam's most authoritative work to date goes deep inside the bureaucratic machinery of Ottoman Turkey to show how a dying empire embraced genocide and ethnic cleansing.

Although the deportation and killing of Armenians was internationally condemned in 1915 as a "crime against humanity and civilization," the Ottoman government initiated a policy of denial that is still maintained by the Turkish Republic. The case for Turkey's "official history" rests on documents from the Ottoman imperial archives, to which access has been heavily restricted until recently. It is this very source that Akçam now uses to overturn the official narrative.

Taner Akçam, the first scholar of Turkish origin to publicly acknowledge the Armenian Genocide, holds the Kaloosdian and Mugar Chair in Armenian Genocide Studies at Clark University. His many books include A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility (Metropolitan Books).

Albert Hourani Book Award
ForeignAffairs.com's Best Books on the Middle East

This Explains Everything: Deep, Beautiful, and Elegant Theories of How the World Works. John Brockman

In This Explains Everything, John Brockman, founder and publisher of Edge.org, asked experts in numerous fields and disciplines to come up with their favorite explanations for everyday occurrences. Why do we recognize patterns? Is there such a thing as positive stress? Are we genetically programmed to be in conflict with each other? Those are just some of the 150 questions that the world's best scientific minds answer with elegant simplicity.

With contributions from Jared Diamond, Richard Dawkins, Nassim Taleb, Brian Eno, Steven Pinker, and more, everything is explained in fun, uncomplicated terms that make the most complex concepts easy to comprehend.

“Offers a rare chance to discover big ideas before they hit the mainstream.” New York Times Book Review

“Characteristically thought-provoking and reliably cross-disciplinary, This Explains Everything is a must-read in its entirety.” Brain Pickings

Industrial Sublime: Modernism and the Transformation of New York's Rivers, 1900-1940 (The Visitor in the Landscape). Kirsten M. Jensen

How a city of contrasts inspired a generation of artists.

When the Brooklyn Bridge opened in 1883, a cathedral thirteen years in the making permanently changed the riverscape of New York City. In a short period of time, three other major bridges would join it — the Williamsburg Bridge was begun in 1896, the Manhattan Bridge and the Queensboro Bridge in 1901. The waterway was now a river of canyons, and the city became a spectacular form of natural and manmade wonders. Industrial Sublime: Modernism and the Transformation of New York’s Rivers, 1900-1940 (public library), the book companion for the Hudson River Museum exhibition of the same title, reveals how in the first half of the twentieth century, these manmade marvels embracing New York’s river banks enthralled a generation of influential artists who had once turned to nature as their muse. Brain Pickings

Fordham University Press Co-published with the Hudson River Museum, Yonkers

On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes. Alexandra Horowitz

Alexandra Horowitz’s brilliant On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes shows us how to see the spectacle of the ordinary—to practice, as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle put it, “the observation of trifles.” On Looking is structured around a series of eleven walks the author takes, mostly in her Manhattan neighborhood, with experts on a diverse range of subjects, including an urban sociologist, the well-known artist Maira Kalman, a geologist, a physician, and a sound designer. She also walks with a child and a dog to see the world as they perceive it. What they see, how they see it, and why most of us do not see the same things reveal the startling power of human attention and the cognitive aspects of what it means to be an expert observer.

“It is undoubtedly one of the most stimulating books of the year, if not the decade, and the most enchanting thing I've read in ages. <...> Her approach is based on two osmotic human tendencies: our shared capacity to truly see what is in front of us, despite our conditioned concentration that obscures it, and the power of individual bias in perception — or what we call “expertise,” acquired by passion or training or both — in bringing attention to elements that elude the rest of us.” Brain Pickings

Save Our Science: How to Inspire a New Generation of Scientists. Ainissa Ramirez

In Save Our Science: How to Inspire a New Generation of Scientists, long time Yale professor Ainissa Ramirez makes an impassioned call for a recommitment to improve science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education in our schools and throughout our society. She describes what habits we need to change to make STEM fun again, as well as a plan for how to increase every child's participation in these disciplines. The 21st century requires a new kind of learner -- not someone who can simply churn out answers by rote, as has been done in the past, but a student who can think expansively and solve problems resourcefully. In order to solve the complex problems of tomorrow, the traditional academic skills of reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic must be replaced with creativity, curiosity, critical thinking, problem solving, and collaboration skills -- skills inherent in scientific research.

“ She writes in the introduction: The 21st century requires a new kind of learner — not someone who can simply churn out answers by rote, as has been done in the past, but a student who can think expansively and solve problems resourcefully.

To do that, she argues, we need to replace the traditional academic skills of “reading, ’riting, and ’rithmetic” with creativity, curiosity, critical-thinking, and problem-solving. (Though, as psychology has recently revealed, problem-finding might be the more valuable skill.)” Brain Pickings

The First Six Books of the Elements of Euclid. edited by Werner Oechslin

Almost a century before Mondrian made his iconic red, yellow, and blue geometric compositions, and around the time that Edward Livingston Youmans was creating his stunning chemistry diagrams, an eccentric 19th-century civil engineer and mathematician named Oliver Byrne produced a striking series of vibrant diagrams in primary colors for a 1847 edition of the legendary Greek mathematical treatise Euclid’s Elements. Byrne, a vehement opponent of pseudoscience with an especial distaste phrenology, was early to the insight that great design and graphic elegance can powerfully aid learning. He explained that in his edition of Euclid, “coloured diagrams and symbols are used instead of letters for the greater ease of learners.” The book, a masterpiece of Victorian printing and graphic design long before “graphic design” existed as a discipline, is celebrated as one of the most unusual and most beautiful books of the 19th century.

Now, the fine folks of Taschen — who have brought us such visual treasures as the best illustrations from 150 years of Hans Christian Andersen, the life and legacy of infographics godfather Fritz Kahn, and the visual history of magic — are resurrecting Byrne’s gem in the lavish tome The First Six Books of the Elements of Euclid (public library), edited by Swiss polymath Werner Oechslin.

Эволюция от кутюр: искусство и наука в эпоху постбиологии Под ред. Дмитрия Булатова

Часть I  «Практика»
Часть II «Теория»

В конце прошлого года в России вышла книга, освещающая художественную, эстетическую и философскую проблематику постбиологической эпохи, когда современные технологии начинают напрямую воздействовать на возможности и структурные особенности организма. Это второй том антологии «Эволюция от кутюр: искусство и наука в эпоху постбиологии». Издание является второй частью одноимённого международного исследования, посвященного анализу эволюционного потенциала, заложенного в основных технологических трендах XXI века – робототехнике, IT и биомедицине. Книга вышла под редакцией Дмитрия Булатова – художника, куратора Балтийского филиала Государственного центра современного искусства.

В работе над книгой приняли участие тридцать известных представителей современного искусства, философии, социологии и прикладных наук, среди которых: Энди Пикеринг (один из крупнейших историков современной науки, Великобритания), Борис Гройс (ведущий специалист по вопросам современного искусства, США), Стеларк (пионер технобиологического авангарда, Австралия), Йенс Хаузер (известный теоретик в области биоарта, Германия–Франция), Том Рэй (признанный специалист в области нейрохимии, США), Пьер-Луиджи Капуччи (эксперт в области science art, Италия), Эркки Хухтамо (один из ключевых исследователей археологии новых медиа, США), Дмитрий Галкин (исследователь и теоретик цифровой культуры, Россия), Рой Эскотт (один из пионеров электронного искусства, Великобритания), Стив Поттер (ведущий специалист в области нейрофизиологии, США) и многие другие. Все статьи были подготовлены авторами специально для этого издания.

Путь к великой цели. История одной экономической идеи. Сильвия Назар

Автор этой книги — американский журналист Сильвия Назар, написавшая прославленную биографию математика Джона Нэша, по которой был снят фильм “Игры разума”. “Великая цель” из названия книги — это процветание максимально возможного количества обитателей земного шара. “Путь к великой цели” начинается в середине XIX века, века королевы Виктории и ее всемогущей империи. Но уже очень скоро мир охватывает одна катастрофическая война, а за ней и другая. Правительства по всему миру — от коммунистических до самых что ни на есть капиталистических стран — играют все большую роль в экономической жизни.

Экономические теории на глазах становятся повседневной практикой, а некогда кабинетные ученые — Джон Мейнард Кейнс, Ирвинг Фишер, Йозеф Шумпетер — отчаянно спорят между собой и заставляют политиков считаться со своим мнением. “Путь к великой цели” — захватывающая панорама политической и интеллектуальной жизни людей, стран и континентов, от викторианской Англии до современной Америки и Индии, от Карла Маркса и Чарльза Диккенса до Милтона Фридмана и Амартии Сена.

“Sylvia Nasar’s ‘Grand Pursuit’ is an epic narrative excursion into the history of economic ideas and their proponents, from Marx to Milton Friedman. Timely and entertaining, this book deserves as wide a readership as possible.” The Wall Street Journal

История иллюзий. Легендарные места, земли и страны. Умберто Эко

Знаменитый писатель Умберто Эко продолжает свои увлекательнейшие исследования в области философии, культуры и искусства. Вслед за бестселлерами ИСТОРИЯ КРАСОТЫ, ИСТОРИЯ УРОДСТВА и Vertigo выходит книга ИСТОРИЯ ИЛЛЮЗИЙ. На этот раз объектом исследования стали места, земли и страны, с которыми связаны всякого рода утопии, иллюзии и легенды. Здесь и Атлантида, и Шамбала; библейские земли: Земной Рай и страна царицы Савской; реально существующие сегодня и окруженные множеством мифов: крепость Аламут, где витает тень легендарных ассасинов; есть аббатство Гластонбери, неразрывно связанное теперь с мифом о Граале; есть и знаменитая парижская церковь Сен-Сюльпис, к которой после "Кода да Винчи" Дэна Брауна стекаются толпы любителей тайн. Все эти места объединены одним: люди верили в их существование всегда, а порой продолжают верить и сегодня. Историю таких иллюзий и исследует Умберто Эко, а рассказ его, как всегда, дополняют литературная антология и множество иллюстраций

Pandora's promise. Robert Stones

Robert Stones directs this documentary exploring the past, present and future of nuclear energy. Though traditionally opposed by environmentalists, nuclear energy is increasingly gaining support as an alternative to fossil fuels. While many would prefer to see an increase in renewable energy sources, nuclear power is currently more efficient and some argue that the risks associated with the technology have been exaggerated.

Reactions to the film have been mixed, if not polarized. Economics professor, John Quiggin, comments that Pandora’s Promise presents the environmental rationale for nuclear power, but that reviving nuclear power debates is a distraction, and the main problem with the nuclear option is that it is not economically-viable. Quiggin says that we need more energy efficiency and more renewable energy commercialization

Sheffield Doc/Fest Green Award

BENJAMIN BRITTEN: PEACE AND CONFLICT. Tony Britten

Director drama documentary examines the acclaimed composer’s lifelong commitment to pacifism. Using a dramatic narrative to explore the development of Britten’s pacifist beliefs during the time he spent at the liberally progressive Gresham’s School in Norfolk between the years of 1928-1930, the film charts a time which marked a crucial period of the composer’s personal and musical development. Interwoven throughout are contemporary performances of the composer’s works and contributions from, amongst others, conductor and composer Joseph Horovitz, cellists Anita Lasker Wallfisch and Raphael Wallfisch, and Britten’s agent for many years, Sue Phipps.

Architectures. Frédéric Compain

23 episode documentary, each focusing on one distinguished building and its architect, from the 19th and 20th centuries.

The films comprise: 'The Dessau Bauhaus by Walter Gropius', 'The Siza School', 'Family Lodgings in Guise', 'Nemausus 1', 'The Georges Pompidou Centre', 'The Vienna Savings Bank', 'The Johnson Building By Frank Lloyd Wright', 'The Galleria Umberto I', 'Lyon Satolas TGV Station By Santiago Calatrava', 'The Stone Thermal Baths By Peter Zumthor', 'The Paris Fine Arts School By Felix Duban', 'The Jewish Museum Berlin By Daniel Libeskind', 'The Garnier Opera By Charles Garnier', 'The Convent of La Tourette By Le Courbusier', 'The Casa Mila By Antoni Gaudi', 'The Auditorium Building in Chicago By Louis Harris Sullivan', 'The Municipal Centre of Saynatsalo By Alvaar Alto', 'Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans By Claude Nicolas Ledoux', 'La Maison de Verre By Pierre Chareau', 'The Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao By Frank Gehry', 'Jean Prouve's House', 'Multimedia Library of Sendai By Toyo Ito', 'The Abbey Church of Sainte Foy at Conques', 'The Alhambra, Granada', 'The House of Sugimoto, Kyoto', 'The Reception and Congress Building in Rome By Adalberto Libera', 'The Yoyogi Olympic Gymnasiums By Kenzo Tange', 'The Villa Barbaro (Villa di Maser) By Andrea Palladio' and 'Phaeno Science Center in Wolfsburg By Zaha Hadid'

THE SHARD: THE TALLEST TOWER

Film looks at the construction of London’s tallest building, the Shard. The dream of property developer Irvine Sellar and architect Renzo Piano, the Shard dominates the London skyline and is also the tallest building in Western Europe. The documentary traces the four year process from the conception of the building to its completion.

AN AGE OF KINGS (1960)

Finally released on dvd after 50 years this BBC Shakespeare  epic histories cycle stages the eight plays from Richard II to Richard III as studio dramas in 15 parts of between 60 and 75 minutes each. With distinguished by many outstanding performances, including Robert Hardy, Judi Dench and Eileen Atkins

Adapted from the plays ‘Richard II’, ‘Henry IV: Parts 1 and 2′, ‘Henry V’, ‘Henry VI: Parts 1, 2 and 3′ and ‘Richard III’, the series includes performances by actors such as Frank Pettingell, Angela Baddeley, Robert Hardy, Eileen Atkins, Judi Dench and Sean Connery. The episodes are: ‘Richard II: The Hollow Crown’, ‘Richard II: The Deposing of a King’, ‘Henry IV: Rebellion from the North’, ‘Henry IV: The Road to Shrewsbury’, ‘Henry IV: The New Conspiracy’, ‘Henry IV: Uneasy Lies the Head’, ‘Henry V: Signs of War’, ‘Henry V: The Band of Brothers’, ‘Henry VI: The Red Rose and the White’, ‘Henry VI: The Fall of a Protector’, ‘Henry VI: The Rabble from Kent’, ‘Henry VI: The Morning’s War’, ‘Henry VI: The Sun in Splendour’, ‘Richard III: The Dangerous Brother’ and ‘Richard III: The Boar Hunt’.

HUBBLE: COLLECTION

Collection of Discovery Channel documentaries that explore the operation and importance of the giant space telescope Hubble. The programmes included are: ‘Hubble Live: The Final Mission’, ‘Hubble: Secrets from Space’, ‘Mission Critical: Hubble’, ‘The Ends of the Universe: Hubble’s Final Chapter’ and ‘Hubble and Beyond: Telescopes in Space’.

Angélique Kidjo. EVE

Angélique Kidjo, is a Grammy Award–winning Beninoise singer-songwriter and activist, noted for her diverse musical influences and creative music videos. Time Magazine has called her "Africa's premier diva". The BBC has included Kidjo in its list of the African continent's 50 most iconic figures. The Guardian has listed her as one of their Top 100 Most Inspiring Women in the World and Kidjo is the first woman to be listed among "The 40 Most Powerful Celebrities In Africa" by Forbes Magazine. The Daily Telegraph in London describes her as "The undisputed queen of African music" during the 2012 Olympic Games River of Music Festival. In March 2013 NPR, National Public Radio in America, calls her "Africa's greatest living diva". She is an occasional contributor to the New York Times.

Songlines Music Award

Life & Breath – Choral Works By René Clausen. Charles Bruffy, conductor

Clausen's music is freewheeling, tonal, slightly eclectic, and beautifully wedded to the texts he chooses…His melodies are exceptionally expressive while his harmonies perfectly support the communicative abilities of his intentions.

This well-selected collection highlights his career from early to more recent, including such stellar 'hits' as the opening All that Hath Life and Breath Praise ye the Lord. . .

Clausen has been especially successful in writing music according to the abilities of his ensembles, which makes The Tyger and The Lamb all the more exciting for their ability to conjure emotion while using the simplest of means. I found the Magnificat maybe the most melodically alluring while the more daring harmonics of O vos omnes are highly moving.

Grammy Award

Kurtág & Ligeti: Music For Viola. Kim Kashkashian

Kim Kashkashian has long been one of the most outstanding protagonists of modern composition and this bold and subtle account of solo music by the great Hungarian composers Kurtag and Ligeti is a landmark recording. Kurtags Signs Games and Messages (1989- in progress) in its nineteen aphoristic sections is as demanding as Ligetis Sonata for viola (1991-94), but Kashkashian surmounts the very different challenges of both works, and points towards the qualities that unite these composers. As ever, she gets to the heart of the music, and unravels its secrets.

György Kurtág (b. 1926) and György Ligeti (1923-2006) were friends, for more than sixty years. “For a long time, a lifetime, Ligeti led me onward,” said Kurtág. “I followed him—sometimes right behind him and other times years or even decades later. I call it my ‘Imitatio Christi’ syndrome. The first years of our friendship were marked not only by his intellectual leadership. I oriented my taste according to his example.”

Grammy Award

Victoria: Tenebrae Responsories. Tenebrae, Nigel Short

Tenebrae return to the sublime music of Tomás Luis de Victoria on Signum with this recording of his timeless Tenebrae Responsories. The works mix the words of the Gospels with other texts commenting on collective suffering written around the 4th century, and would traditionally have been performed as part of a moving service in which candles are slowly extinguished to mark the progress and suffering of Christ that forms the Passion story.

“this recording is the most nuanced and telling available. First there is the sheer sound of the ensemble: beautifully balanced and tuned with, at times (Caligaverunt oculi), an almost glassy perfection. Next there is an exceptional awareness of the different narrative voices...Finally there is the seamless, architectural line...This really is excellent.” BBC Music Magazine
 

Monteverdi: L'incoronazione di Poppea

Sonya Yoncheva (Poppée), Max Emanuel Cencic (Néron), Ann Hallenberg (Octavie), Tim Mead (Othon), Paul Whelan (Sénèque) & Amel Brahim-Djelloul (Drusilla)
Le Concert d'Astrée, Emmanuelle Haïm (conductor) & Jean-François Sivadier (stage director)
One Roman emperor is not enough for conductor Emmanuelle Haïm. After Julius Caesar in Handel’s opera –recorded for Virgin Classics DVD at Paris’ Palais Garnier with Lawrence Zazzo as Giulio Cesare and Natalie Dessay as Cleopatra – she now brings a ruler of less illustrious reputation: Nero (Nerone) in Monteverdi’s sensuous and cruel story of love, ambition and politics, L’incoronazione di Poppea.

This production, recorded in 2012 at the exquisite opera house in Lille, is by the French director Jean-François Sivadier; he was also responsible for La traviata in 2011 at Aix-en-Provence, a staging which starred Natalie Dessay.

As the French newspaper Les Échos wrote: “The excitement, the passions, the impulses and the hatred to be found in this Shakespearean story are all the more intense [for the sobriety of Sivadier’s approach]. Sonya Yoncheva has no trouble seducing both Nerone and the audience, thanks to her voluptuous roundness of voice and physique. A feline lover, she knows how to flash her claws when she wishes to depose her rival Ottavia, the unhappy woman who, in Ann Hallenberg, finds an interpreter as superb for the nobility of her singing as for her expressions of sorrow ... Max Emanuel Cencic portrays a Nerone who is in thrall to his senses while remaining the pitiless master of his court. Emmanuel Haïm takes the colours and dramatic nuances proffered by her ensemble, Le Concert d’Astrée, and distributes them to fine effect. She takes an active role in Monteverdi’s triumph.” Classica magazine, meanwhile, wrote that: “Emmanuelle Haïm and Le Concert d’Astrée, in fine form, breathe amorously hot and cold over Jean-François Sivadier’s intelligent production, which, typically, favours living beings over decor.”