Anthony Giddens has been in the forefront of developments in social theory for the past decade. In The Constitution of Society he outlines the distinctive position he has evolved during that period and offers a full statement of a major new perspective in social thought, a synthesis and elaboration of ideas touched on in previous works but described here for the first time in an integrated and comprehensive form. A particular feature is Giddensa s concern to connect abstract problems of theory to an interpretation of the nature of empirical method in the social sciences. In presenting his own ideas, Giddens mounts a critical attack on some of the more orthodox sociological views. The Constitution of Society is an invaluable reference book for all those concerned with the basic issues in contemporary social theory.

The Olympics is the world's biggest sporting event - and it moves centre stage for London 2012. Yet the sports the world is familiar with - football, cricket, rugby, baseball, motor sports - are either missing or have a token presence. In their place are games that most of us have not a clue how to play or to watch. Which is where this witty, insightful book comes into play, offering the back story behind each Olympics sport and, by means of fiendishly clever diagrams and prose, explaining the rules and finer points. Once you've read David Goldblatt and Johnny Acton's accounts, you'll be on tenterhooks to see whether the Danish or the Koreans triumph at handball, just what the Italian fencers are up to, and if Greco-Roman wrestling really is like a game of chess.

簡介 本書網羅有關英國的方方面面，不只是純文化的，也有政治的、經濟的、歷史的、宗教的、名利場的、生活的，乃至娛樂八卦的，其中既有人人耳熟能詳卻未能深知的大眾話題，又有英國以外的讀者從未聽聞的小眾八卦。作者以獨特的視角，透過生動的筆觸和有序的組織，將這個老牌帝國細密如蜘蛛網的文化體中最引領風尚的一面呈獻給讀者。讀畢此書，原本熱愛英國社會文化的讀者將更加迷戀這個國家，對英國只有膚淺認識的讀者將開始被這個國家吸引。 （简介摘自三联书店网页）

Systemtheorie, insbesondere diejenige Spielart, die Niklas Luhmann entwickelt hat, ist sehr abstrakt, labyrinthisch verfasst und so geartet, dass Leser/innen u. a. eine umfassende (leider nicht nur soziologische) Vorbildung haben müssen, um sie zu verstehen.Der Autor versucht, in diese 'widerborstige' Theorie einzuführen, ohne ihr Niveau fahrlässig zu unterschreiten. Dabei wird ein Trick benutzt: Die Theorie wird in einer Simulation von Kommunikation (von der sie ja handelt) entfaltet. Der Text realisiert, wovon er spricht, er ist sein eigenes Beispiel und darin tautologisch. Und weil er sich an Kommunikationen entwickelt, an denen sehr verschiedene Personen beteiligt sind, unterläuft er die Gefahr des Dogmatismus und verwirklicht - versuchsweise - ein Stück Wissenschaftsliteratur, das mit dem belehrenden Einführungscharakter ein spielerisches Moment verbindet, was wohl heißt: Offenheit für mögliche Anschlüsse.

Winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Non-Fiction Winner of the 2011 National Book Award for Non-Fiction One of the world's most celebrated scholars, Stephen Greenblatt has crafted both an innovative work of history and a thrilling story of discovery, in which one manuscript, plucked from a thousand years of neglect, changed the course of human thought and made possible the world as we know it. Nearly six hundred years ago, a short, genial, cannily alert man in his late thirties took a very old manuscript off a library shelf, saw with excitement what he had discovered, and ordered that it be copied. That book was the last surviving manuscript of an ancient Roman philosophical epic, On the Nature of Things , by Lucretius—a beautiful poem of the most dangerous ideas: that the universe functioned without the aid of gods, that religious fear was damaging to human life, and that matter was made up of very small particles in eternal motion, colliding and swerving in new directions. The copying and translation of this ancient book-the greatest discovery of the greatest book-hunter of his age-fueled the Renaissance, inspiring artists such as Botticelli and thinkers such as Giordano Bruno; shaped the thought of Galileo and Freud, Darwin and Einstein; and had a revolutionary influence on writers such as Montaigne and Shakespeare and even Thomas Jefferson. 16 pages full-color illustrations

本书共收录了艾略特在1919年至1936年期间18篇评论文章和演讲稿。凭借其深厚的文学蕴涵和冷静敏锐的洞察力，这名出色的批评家对英国文学史上具有时代重要性的代表诗人进行了承前启后的审视，同时也表达了自己对文学批评的意义和手法的独到见解。