Showing results by author "Paul Strathern" in All Categories

The Borgia family have become a byword for evil. Corruption, incest, ruthless megalomania, avarice, and vicious cruelty - all have been associated with their name. And yet, paradoxically, this family lived when the Renaissance was coming into its full flowering in Italy. Examples of infamy flourished alongside some of the finest art produced in western history.           

A sweeping 400-year history of the Florentines who gave birth to the Renaissance, by the author of The Medici and The Borgias. Between the birth of Dante in 1265 and the death of Galileo in 1642 something happened which transformed the entire culture of western civilisation. Painting, sculpture...

Rise and Fall opens with the Akkadian Empire, which ruled over a vast expanse of the region of ancient Mesopotamia, then turns to the immense Roman Empire, where we trace back our Western and Eastern roots. Next Strathern describes how a great deal of Western classical culture was developed in the Abbasid and Umayyid Caliphates. Then, while Europe was beginning to emerge from a period of cultural stagnation, it almost fell to a whirlwind invasion from the East, at which point we meet the Emperors of the Mongol Empire....

Following on from the incredible online success of the ‘History In An Hour’ titles- now there’s a Philosophy series for busy people, on the go. Listen to a succinct account of the Philosophy of Sartre in just one hour. Here is a concise, expert account of Jean-Paul Sartre’s life and...

Philosophy for busy people. Listen to a succinct account of the philosophy of Neitzsche in just one hour. Philosophy has always been dangerous for philosophers; Friedrich Nietzsche made it dangerous for everyone. His ideas presaged a collective madness which was to ravage Europe throughout the...

Philosophy for busy people who are always on the go but have always wanted to read up on certain figures in history that have shaped the way we think and live. Listen to this succinct account of the philosophy of Heidegger in just one hour. One of the two major philosophical traditions of the...

Between the end of the Renaissance and the start of the Enlightenment, Europe lived through an era known as the Age of Reason. This was a period which saw advances in areas such as art, science, philosophy, political theory and economics. However, all this was achieved against a background of...

Great cities are complex, chaotic and colossal. These are cities that dominate the world stage and define eras; where ideas flourish, revolutions are born and history is made. Through ten unique cities, from the founding of ancient capitals to buzzing modern megacities, Paul Strathern explores...

Philosophy for busy people. Listen to a succinct account of the philosophy of Confucius in just one hour. This is the perfect audiobook for people who are on the go and don’t have time to read philosophy books but wish they knew more about certain people and how they influenced history. This...

It is generally accepted that the European Renaissance began in Italy. However, a historical transformation of similar magnitude also took place in northern Europe at the same time. This 'Other Renaissance' was initially centred on the city of Bruges in Flanders (modern Belgium), but its...

Philosophy for busy people. Read a succinct account of the philosophy of Spinoza in just one hour. Spinoza’s brilliant metaphysical system was derived neither from reality nor experience. Starting from basic axioms (assumptions), by means of a series of geometric proofs he built a universe...

Philosophy for busy people. Listen to a succinct account of the philosophy of Kierkegaard in just one hour. Although Kierkegaard was not a philosopher in the academic sense, he produced what many people expect of philosophy. He didn’t write about the world, he wrote about life – how we live...

Philosophy for busy people. Listen to this succinct account of the philosophy of Machiavelli in just one hour. Niccolò Machiavelli’s work remains misunderstood – synonymous with wicked scheming and underhand politics – nearly 350 years after his death. His philosophy of statecraft was...

Philosophy for busy people. Listen to a succinct account of the philosophy of Foucault in just one hour. The French philosopher Michel Foucault set about his task rather like a historian. After painstaking research, he concluded that knowledge and power were intimately related throughout history...

Philosophy for busy people. Listen to this succinct account of the philosophy of Socrates in just one hour. Socrates is widely renowned as one of the founders of Western philosophy, despite the fact that his ideas survive largely through the work of his pupil Plato. Socrates’ dialectic – a...

Philosophy for busy people. Listen to this succinct account of the philosophy of Locke in just one hour. Much of Locke’s thought we would now regard as common sense. One of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers; his philosophy was to lay the foundations of empiricism with its belief...

Locke gastó gran parte de su tiempo escribiendo largas cartas floridas a mujeres libres, pero nunca llegó a casarse y terminó viviendo en platónico ménage à trois con un miembro del Parlamento por Essex y su esposa. Locke ha sido el único gran filósofo en llegar a ministro, a pesar de...

Philosophy for busy people. Listen to a succinct account of the philosophy of Aquinas in just one hour. Thomas Aquinas remains the unacknowledged maestro of Scholasticism – the static, cumulative philosophy of the medieval period. More a method of learning than pure theology, Aquinas’...

Philosophy for busy people. Listen to a succinct account of the philosophy of Berkeley in just one hour. Berkeley’s philosophy denies the existence of matter. According to his work, there is no material world, only our own experience. So when you don’t see something, it isn’t there. Then...

Philosophy for busy people. Listen to this succinct account of the philosophy of Karl Marx in just one hour. Karl Marx's philosophical critique of capitalism and his solution of communism directly led to the formation of the communist state in the Soviet Union. Whilst this great venture has now...