Essays Social

"Was ist das Wesen des Lachens? Was steckt hinter dem Lächerlichen? Was haben die Grimasse eines Clowns, ein Wortspiel, eine Verwechslung in einem Schwank, eine geistvolle Lustspielszene miteinander gemeinsam?" Der französische Philosoph und Literaturnobelpreisträger (1927) Henri Bergson (1859 - 1941) ging dieser Frage in seinem Essay Le Rire (Das Lachen) aus dem Jahr 1900 nach. Das Werk ist nicht nur eine Theorie des Komischen, sondern auch gleichzeitig eine Hommage an künstlerische Kreativität.

Liberalism won the "sexual revolution." But the revolutionaries are miserable. Americans are not only delaying marriage and having fewer children, but also having less sex in general, as the radical left brings politics back into the bedroom. Ironically, sex has become a potential conservative cause. Conservatism can remind us that sex is fundamentally about happiness.

Spanning more than thirty five years of Lawrence Wright’s reporting for The New Yorker, Texas Monthly, Rolling Stone and other magazines, these pieces remind us what a brilliant observer Wright has been of institutions, of political maneuverings, and of people—dangerous, eccentric, or beloved.

The digital revolution has been corrupted. What began as a celebration of freedom has become a machine for monitoring and control. What began as history’s greatest dream of enlightenment has been twisted into an anti-intellectual nightmare of indoctrination. In 12 essays, several already well-known but newly revised in this volume, Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger stakes out a hard-headed position in favor of the ideals of the digital revolution.

Im Jahr 1849 schrieb Henry David Thoreau seinen weltberühmten Essay über die "Pflicht zum Ungehorsam gegen den Staat". In diesem stellte er sich außerhalb einer Gesellschaft, die, obwohl auf den Prinzipien der Freiheit und Gleichheit aller gegründet, nicht in der Lage war, die Sklaverei abzuschaffen. Neben "Walden" der wohl berühmteste Text des Eigenbrötlers aus den Wäldern von Massachusetts.

One of the most talented and creative authors working today, Neal Stephenson is renowned for his exceptional novels - works colossal in vision and mind-boggling in complexity. Exploring and blending a diversity of topics, including technology, economics, history, science, pop culture, and philosophy, his books are the products of a keen and adventurous intellect. Stephenson ponders a wealth of subjects, from movies and politics to David Foster Wallace and the Midwestern American College Town; and more.

Una colección de 35 ensayos y poemas audaces, importantes e innovadores de inmigrantes, refugiados y soñadores, incluidos escritores, artistas y activistas galardonados, que iluminan la experiencia de vivir sin documentos.

Daniel Wagner lived in China during COVID-19 while working at the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) as Senior Investment Officer for Guarantees and Syndications in Beijing and in Abu Dhabi as its first-ever secondee, to the COP28 Secretariat as Adaptation Finance Lead. The AIIB is a Chinese created, domiciled, and led multilateral development bank that remains enigmatic to the outside world. As one of the world's two newest MDBs (the other also based in China), the only people who really understand what the Bank is all about and how it functions are its past and present employees.

Imagine a world where technology understands the human condition - a world that values relationships more than diamonds - a place where people earn a living, not from selling, but from compassion. We stand on the threshold of such a world. The door is open.

This collection of essays suggests that the EU and US are both cases of modern federalism at the empire political-level and scale.

The Maria girls from Bastar practice sex as an institution before marriage, but with rules—one may not sleep with a partner more than three times; the Hallaki women from the Konkan coast sing throughout the day; the Kanjars have plundered, looted and killed generation after generation, and will show you how to roast a lizard when hungry. The original inhabitants of India, these Adivasis still live in forests and hills, with religious beliefs, traditions and rituals so far removed from the rest of the country that they represent an anthropological wealth of our heritage.

Hedwig Dohm (1831-1919) war eine deutsche Schriftstellerin, Frauenrechtlerin und eine der ersten feministischen Theoretikerinnen. Die Großmutter von Katia Mann, der Gattin Thomas Manns, war sie obendrein. Im Jahr 1903 veröffentlichte sie ihr Essay "Die Mütter", in dem sie auf vielfältige Weise unter anderem folgende Themen beleuchtet: das überladene Mutterideal; Einflüsse, die auf Kinder wirken; freie Berufswahl der Frau; Erziehungsfragen. Cover-Illustration von Lea Pfeiffer.

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.

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."

A collection of 36 extraordinary stories originally told on stage, featuring work by writers, entertainers, thinkers, and community leaders. Spanning comedy and tragedy, Alien Nation brilliantly illuminates what it’s like to be an immigrant in America.

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) had a profound influence on the shape of 19th-century thought and political discourse. His view of liberty justified the freedom of the individual in opposition to the unrestricted state. Mill favoured decentralised forms of socialism because he thought that a centralised model would discourage competition, neglect talent, and disregard freedom.

However she is remembered, revered or written about, Sita continues to exert a powerful influence on the collective Indian psyche. In Search of Sita presents essays, conversations, and commentaries that explore different aspects of her life.

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.

Iceland is home to only 330,000 people but more than 265 museums and public collections, ranging from the intensely physical, like the Icelandic Phallological Museum, which collects the penises of every mammal known to exist in Iceland, to the vaporously metaphysical, like the Museum of Icelandic Sorcery and Witchcraft, which poses a particularly Icelandic problem: how to display what can't be seen?

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?