An eye to India: The unmasking of a tyranny (Pelican books)

History

Selbourne, David

Asia

Penguin

Death Of The Dark Hero

Europe

RANDOM HOUSE UK

The First American edition of a British best-seller In The Principle of Duty

Principle of Duty: An Essay on the Foundations of the Civic Order

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

University of Notre Dame Press

The City of Light

Biographies & Memoirs

D'Ancona, Jacob

Historical

Kensington Pub. Corp

Against Socialist Illusion: A Radical Argument

Politics & Government

PALGRAVE~MACMILLAN

Describes the rehearsals and preparations for Peter Brook's notable 1970 Shakespeare production, and explains how Brook's treatment was developed

The Making of "A Midsummer Night's Dream": An eye-witness account of Peter Brook's production from first rehearsal to first night

Methuen Publishing, Ltd.

The Principle of Duty

Faber and Faber

This is an unusual and important book. As the sub-title records, it is 'an eye-witness account of Peter Brook's production from first rehearsal to first night.' The production in question was a famous one that had its opening night on 27 August 1970. Audiences loved it, as, indeed, did most critics, Clive Barnes of the New York Times going so far as to say, 'It is a magnificent production, the most important yet of the world's most imaginative and inventive director. If Peter Brook had done nothing else but this Dream, he would have deserved a place in theatre history.' All the more reason therefore to be grateful for this unique account of this production's gestation during its weeks of rehearsals. In a typically stimulating preface, David Selbourne concludes by saying, 'What follows, then, is not hindsight. It is, instead, an attempt to reinstate the true density of first impressions . . . as well as to recover fleeting moments in the posthumous life of Shakespeare's writing, in one of the very greatest of his plays.'Simon Trussler, in his introduction, judges it to be 'an important work, both in the critical portrait it offers of a leading director at work, and in its demonstration of the kinds of bluff, self-deception, and unhappy accident that can as much contribute to the making of a theatrical 'triumph' as our more orthodox expectations of creative struggle, fruitful improvisation, and dialectic discovery - present in full measure though these undoubtedly were. All the ingredients are there in the seven-week mix of rehearsals of which the detailed record now follows. ''An indispensable theatre book . . . It explains more than we could have hoped how the miracle was wrought.' John Barber, Daily Telegraph'The process of theatrical creation comes across with rare force, expressed in language - Mr Selbourne writes very well - of rare beauty.' Michael Coveney, Plays and Players

The Making of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'

Literature & Fiction

Dramas & Plays

In this comprehensive study of the Islamic revival from 1947 to the present, historian David Selbourne traces in detail the complex causes motivating the rise of Muslim fundamentalism in many countries and the West's largely uncomprehending response to it. He frankly describes the hostilities, cruelties, and errors of judgment on both sides.Writing neither from the "left" nor from the "right," Selbourne pieces together up-to-date information from more numerous sources than in any other work on the subject. He highlights the grotesque role that some sections of the Western media have played and seeks to do justice to the Islamist cause, demonstrating how many of the real issues of the Islamic revival have been evaded.Selbourne argues that whether the "reawakening" of the Islamic and Arab worlds has taken the political form of Arab nationalism, as under the leadership of Egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nasser in the 1950s, or the economic form of the OPEC oil embargo in 1973 and 1974, or the religious form of the Iranian revolution of 1989 and the present al-Qaeda suicide squads, in all its guises it is motivated by a sense of entitlement in Muslims to determine their own destiny free of Western subordination.Selbourne concludes with a warning against the illusions of the West about its superiority and ability to contain a force that is confident of its own moral superiority and certain of its ultimate triumph.Addressed both to general readers and to policy makers, academics, and journalists, The Losing Battle with Islam will stand for some time as one of the most impartial and authoritative accounts of a half century of Western conflict with Islam.

The Losing Battle With Islam

Religion & Spirituality

Islam

Prometheus

Described in a pre-publication review in the New York Times as "ambitious" and "exactly right to conclude that we need a practical renewal of the politics and ethics of the civic commonwealth," noted historian of ideas and political theorist David Selbourne takes his distance in The Free Society in Crisis from the routine thinking of right and left. Instead, he argues that free societies are under simultaneous threat from "market free choice" and "moral free choice", and sees them as two sides of the same coin. Market free choice gives free rein to market forces even when they create dangerous tensions between the haves and have-nots, and ride roughshod over communities and whole nations, while moral free choice privileges individual rights without any sense of civic responsibility and social consequence. The result of such individualism in economic and moral practice, whose history in recent decades Selbourne traces, is the malaise we find ourselves in today: a lost sense of place, identity and personal direction, as well as dismissiveness and ignorance of the lessons of the past. For today's liberty is not the freedom fought for in the French and American revolutions; it is instead the liberty of consumers and free-choosers. Reminding the reader of the aspirations and largely-forgotten writings of America's Founding Fathers, Selbourne shows how its first settlers' idea of a "true commonwealth" rested on "affections truly bent upon the common good". Today, as the democratic social order dissolves, and disapproval of the political class increases, he makes clear that liberty alone, however "progressive" it may be held to be, will not restore it, while there can be no "true commonwealth" where citizenship is seen as little more than a means of access to material benefits rather than a place of belonging. Moreover, if a civil society is to cohere, we must be citizens before we are Christians, Muslims, or Jews.

The Free Society in Crisis: A History of Our Times

Historical Study & Educational Resources

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