Essays Social

Where do we go from here, and in practical terms, what must we do to get there? When the contributors to this volume were asked this question, their responses were immediate and impassioned. Leading women thinkers—psychologists, writers, futurists, environmentalists, business consultants, activists, and artists—representing the broadest spectrum of religion, philosophy, spirituality, and ethnicity surveyed the cultural landscape and offer their collective insight into how we can navigate these turbulent times.

Against the Written Word is the most important, most revolutionary book produced since the advent of the printing press; the book that will liberate readers from reading, writers from writing, and booksellers from peddling their despicable wares. This book ushers in a new era of freedom from reading and all its attendant bedfellows such as Enlightenment thinking and the mass alienation wrought by the phonetic alphabet. Against the Written Word will be a tremendous best seller and simultaneously the last book that anyone will listen to.

社会の姿は変われど人間の本質は変わらない。同じことを繰り返し、それが社会の循環をもたらしている。人間だけでなく万物に周期が存在する。

Clifford Geertz's first collection of essays, The Interpretation of Cultures (1973), made him a leading voice of anthropology's "symbolic" movement, which believed scholars should read the signs and symbols of a culture from the perspective of its natives. Geertz's approach helped anthropology reinvent itself as a scientific discipline that is still relevant today, making him - in the words of one critic - "a true giant of social and cultural theory."

Der wohl berühmteste und berüchtigtste Text von Thomas de Quincey beginnt mit einer historischen Analyse des Mordes in wissenschaftlichem Gewand, welche gleichermaßen als Parodie der herrschenden Bildungs- wie Religionsstrukturen verstanden werden darf. Im Verlauf der "fiktionalen Vorlesung" ändert das Werk plötzlich seine Richtung und offenbart in Form einer veränderten Stilistik die unterschiedlichen Interpretationsmöglichkeiten von redaktionell aufgearbeiteten Tatsachen, deren Inhalte nur zu leicht an entsprechendes Publikum ausgerichtet und angepasst werden können.

Martin Suter (Linda Zervakis) und Benjamin von Stuckrad-Barre (Caren Miosga) unterhalten sich über: Badehosen, Glitzer, Äähm, Hochzeiten, LSD, Teufel, Gott, Madonna, Arbeit, Ibiza, Kochen, Rechnungen, Siri, Fotos, Mundharmonika, Geldscheine, Verliebtheit, Wiedersehen. Den Schweizer Songtext im Kapitel "Arbeit" liest Stephan Eicher. Die Mundharmonika im Abspann spielt Martin Suter.

This 1910 collection of essays outlines Emma Goldman's anarchist views on various topics, most notably the oppression of women and perceived shortcomings of first-wave feminism. It also includes her views on prisons, political violence, sexuality, religion, nationalism, and art theory. Anarchism and Other Essays provides a fascinating look into revolutionary issues at the turn of the century, offering a prophetic view of the social and economic future.

Love, for Emerson, is neither simple nor sweet. It is a force—wild, untamable, and yet profoundly human. In Love, he explores the deep currents that pull us together and push us apart, not with the softness of romance, but with the clarity of a philosopher who sees love as a transformative, even unsettling, experience. It is not just an emotion, but a vital, unpredictable energy that shapes and redefines us. Emerson doesn't idealize love; he insists on its complexity.

Time does not hold history—people do. Emerson's History is not a chronicle of names and dates, not a reverence for the past, but a revelation: every life is a vessel of all that came before. The individual is not separate from history but its continuation, its living pulse. Emerson does not ask his readers to study history; he asks them to recognize themselves within it. Every triumph, every downfall, every flash of genius from ages past is not distant—it is ours, woven into the mind that thinks, the hand that writes, the heart that dares.

True heroism does not seek applause. It does not wear armor or demand recognition. It walks quietly, steady in its purpose, untouched by fear or flattery. In Heroism, Ralph Waldo Emerson strips away the illusions of grandeur and reveals the essence of courage: a quiet, unwavering commitment to one's own principles. This is not a celebration of warriors or conquerors but of those who face the world with integrity, who move through life unshaken by its storms.

Prudence is not timidity. It is not caution for its own sake. It is the art of knowing when to act and when to wait, when to follow reason and when to trust instinct. In Prudence, Ralph Waldo Emerson reclaims this often-misunderstood virtue, not as mere carefulness but as the wisdom of navigating life with both vision and restraint. For Emerson, prudence is not the enemy of boldness but its quiet architect. It does not stifle ambition but shapes it, guiding passion with clarity and purpose. A mind without prudence rushes blindly; a mind ruled by it never moves at all.

Nothing stands still. The moment we grasp an idea, it expands beyond us. The instant we define a boundary, a wider one emerges. Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay Circles is not about shapes on a page but about the shifting nature of thought, existence, and perception. Each insight is a stepping stone, each conclusion just another starting point. There is no final answer—only an ever-widening ring of understanding. Emerson writes with the quiet confidence of someone who has seen the world rearrange itself countless times. He does not dictate; he invites. He does not confine; he liberates.

This book is a culmination of thoughts and reflections triggered by the initial devastating wave of deaths from Covid-19, together with the mishandling of the responses and the manifestation of human fantasies, all of which were quite similar to what occurred during the Spanish flu pandemic at the time of World War I. Research on the history of plagues, wars, tyrants, and human behavior reinforced that there was "nothing new under the sun."

When Rupert Murdoch, executive chairman, News Corporation, blew up more than $870 million buying Star TV from Richard Li in the early 1990s, analysts were dismayed. Why on earth had Murdoch invested in a pan-Asian broadcaster that was neither fish nor fowl? More than 25 years later, with revenues of over $2 billion, Star India is one of the country's three largest media firms. Murdoch's instinct had done what a hundred investor summits could not: showcased the potential of the Indian media market to the world.

A searing, on-the-ground examination of the collapsing coal industry - and the communities left behind - in the midst of an economic and environmental crisis. The past few years have highlighted the paradox at the heart of coal country. Despite fueling a century of American progress, the people at the heart of coal country are being left behind, suffering from unemployment, the opioid epidemic, and environmental crises often at greater rates than anywhere else in the country. But what if Appalachia’s troubles are just a taste of what the future holds for all of us?

The Cold War was fought in every corner of society, including in the sport and entertainment industries. Recognizing the importance of culture in the battle for hearts and minds, the United States, like the Soviet Union, attempted to win the favor of citizens in nonaligned states through the soft power of sport. Athletes became de facto ambassadors of US interests, their wins and losses serving as emblems of broader efforts to shield American culture - both at home and abroad - against communism.

Politics of the Womb proves that there can be broken babies and breaking mothers; it rips away the romanticism around uterus transplants, warns of genetic theft and "designer babies", and points to the human element being sacrificed, as artificial reproduction uses, reuses, and recycles the woman. Pinki Virani combines investigation with analysis to question those who lead the worldwide onslaught on the woman’s womb in the name of babies, and squarely confronts what has become the business of baby-making by a chain of suppliers that manufactures on demand.

Featuring interviews by former NBA player Etan Thomas with over 50 athletes, executives, media figures, and more - and interwoven with essays and critiques by Thomas - We Matter shares the personal tales and opinions of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Russell, Dwyane Wade, Russell Westbrook, Steve Kerr, Oscar Robertson, Mark Cuban, Michael Bennett, Carmelo Anthony, Derrick Rose....

The slippery online ecosystem is the perfect breeding ground for identities: true, false, and in between. The Internet shorthand IRL - "in real life" - now seems naïve. We no longer question the reality of online experiences but the reality of selfhood in the digital age. In The Secret Life, the essayist and novelist Andrew O'Hagan issues three bulletins from the porous border between cyberspace and IRL.

America is broken. You don't need a fistful of statistics to know this. Visit any city, and evidence of our shattered social compact will present itself. From Appalachia to rural Texas, the gap between the wealthiest and the poorest stretches to unimaginable chasms. In Tales of Two Americas, some of the literary world's most exciting writers look beyond numbers and wages to convey what it feels like to live in this divided nation. Their extraordinarily powerful stories, essays, and poems demonstrate how boundaries break down when experiences are shared.