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"Oriental Networks explores forms of interconnectedness between Western and Eastern hemispheres during the long eighteenth century, a period of improving transportation technology, expansion of intercultural contacts, and the emergence of a global economy. In eight case studies and a substantial introduction, the volume examines relationships between individuals and institutions, precursors to modern networks that engaged in forms of intercultural exchange. Addressing the exchange of cultural commodities (plants, animals, and artifacts), cultural practices and ideas, the roles of ambassadors and interlopers, and the literary and artistic representation of networks, networkers, and networking, contributors discuss the effects on people previously separated by vast geographical and cultural distance. Rather than idealizing networks as inherently superior to other forms of organization, Oriental Networks also considers Enlightenment expressions of resistance to networking that inform modern skepticism toward the concept of the global network and its politics. In doing so the volume contributes to the increasingly global understanding of culture and communication. Published by Bucknell University Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press"-- Provided by publisher.

• 1. Ritual during periods of decline, collapse, and transformation in ancient states
• Joanne M. A. Murphy
• 2. Old deities for new men: religious practices and societal transformation during the Late Bronze Age/ Early Iron Age transitional period on Crete
• Florence Gaignerot-Driessen
• 3. Rituals and tombs during the radical transformation of the Pylian state
• Joanne M. A. Murphy
• 4. The legacy of Byzantine Christianity in the southern Mani Peninsula, Greece, after imperial collapse
• Rebecca M. Seifried
• 5. As Wari weakened: ritual transitions in the Terminal Middle Horizon of Moquegua, Peru
• Donna J. Nash and Patrick Ryan Williams
• 6. Ritual resilience and adaptation in the wake of political transformation at Dainzu, Oaxaca, Mexico
• Ronald K. Faulseit, Dante Garcia, Jeremias Pink, Gabrielle Alma Lopez, and Carlos Rojas
• 7. Rejecting, reinventing, resituating: a diachronic perspective on ritual in the aftermath of Tiwanaku state collapse
• Nicola Sharratt
• 8. Contextualizing the ritual phase in the evolution of eastern and southern African chiefdoms and states
• Chapurukha M. Kusimba
• 9. Flux and continuity in monument-building traditions in south India
• Srikumar M. Menon
• 10. Merit-making at ancient Bagan, Myanmar: the role of socio-spiritual and political-cultural entanglements in the rise and fall of a classical Southeast Asian state
• Gyles Iannone and Michael Aung-Thwin
• 11. Scales and pathways of human politico-economic affiliation: the roles of ritual
• Gary M. Feinman.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Rituals, Collapse, and Radical Transformation in Archaic States explores the role of ritual in a variety of archaic states and generates discussion on how the decline in a state's ability to continue in its current form affected the practices of ritual and how ritual as a culture-forming dynamic affected decline, collapse, and regeneration of the state. Chapters examine ritual in collapsing and regenerating archaic states from diverse locations, time periods, and societies including Crete, Mycenean and Byzantine Greece, Mesopotamia, India, Africa, Mexico, and Peru. Underscoring similarities in a variety of archaic states in the role of ritual during periods of threat, collapse, and transformation, the volume shows how ritual can be used as a stabilizing or divisive force or a connecting medium between the present to the past in an empowering way. It also highlights the diversity of ritual roles and location in similar situations and illustrates how states in close proximity and sharing many cultural similarities can respond differently through ritual to stress and contrast the different response in rural and urban settings. Through detailed, cultural specific studies, the book provides a nuanced understanding of the diverse roles of ritual in the decline, collapse, and regeneration of societies and will be important for all archaeologists involved in the important notions of state "collapse" and "regeneration".
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• List of Maps List of Figures Introduction: The Organic Whole of Human Existence and the Quality of Life
• 1. The Life Cycle of Cultures: Trajectories of Interaction Between Human Beings and Their Environment Arbitrators of socio-cultural change: The challenge of changing environmental conditions for adaptive skills Climate-induced changes in human ecology: The origins of the Black Sea Environmental ecology and how human beings adapt to local conditions of existence The role of older cultural patterns in the formation process of advanced cultures
• 2. Timeline: The Ancient Civilizations in Light of a Differential Model of Cultural Advancement The Mesopotamian bias and the Greek myth of the German romantics in the early 19th century The significance of the incubation stage for the emergence of advanced cultures
• 3. Early Achievements: Elementary Innovations as the Driving Force of Progress in Technological Domains Prototypes of the plough Pyrotechnology for the production of ceramic ware and prototypes of the potter's wheel Furnaces and metal-working The ancient traditions of shipbuilding and seafaring
• 4. The Wheel, the Wagon and the Chariot: Dynamics of Technological Transfer in Antiquity The significance of the wheel The impact of steppe people on transport technology and the origins of Indo-European terminology The input of ancient European technology in the context of collaboration with Indo-European pastoralists The advent of wheel and wagon in Mesopotamia The chariot: Technological breakthrough in the Eurasian steppes The absence of the wheel as a practical device in pre-Columbian civilization: A mysterious case of a "missing link"
• 5. The Economic Foundations: Trade Routes, Centers and Networks Trade routes, centers and networks in the commonwealth of Old Europe The movement of trade goods, technological know-how and ideas between Old Europe and Mesopotamia The early network of Middle Eastern trade routes: Sumerian cities interconnected with Dilmun and the Indus Civilization Gift exchange to build trust among trading partners and enhance harmony in social relations Early trading networks in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica: The proliferation of Olmec goods and ideas
• 6. Settlement Planning: From Villages to Urban Agglomerations The model of urbanization evolving from egalitarian villages The model of urbanization in a milieu of stratified society
• 7. Architecture: Houses, Workshops and Temples Houses and forms of accommodation in agrarian communities83 Sacral architecture Famous temple monuments of antiquity vis-a-vis cultural memory: Between oblivion and iconicity
• 8. Social Networking: Models of Community Life, the Fabric of the Common Good The oecumene model of ancient civilization-The archaeological record The rise of the state model of civilization, associated with social hierarchy and stratified society Socioeconomic models of ancient civilizations in a comparative view
• 9. Religion and Worldview: Anthropomorphic and Zoomorphic Images of the Divine, Sanctuaries and Holy Precincts Archaic forms of spirituality From spirit to female divinity Divinities relating to plant cultivation The personification of individual divine agents and the origins of monumental statuary The emergence of divinities in the context of pre-Columbian civilization Figurines as a lingua franca of ritual life
• 10. Human Activity Between Life and Afterlife: The Intergenerational Chain in Light of Cultural Memory The world of public entertainment: Did the ancient Greeks invent theater? Fashion and dress-codes: Between social constraints and individual choice The place of the dead in cultural memory Connecting with the ancestors in the world of shamanism
• 11. Specialized Systems for Communication: Writing Numbers The beginnings of numerical and calendrical notation Writing numbers in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica and South America Writing numbers in pre-Columbian South America The interrelation of numerical notation and writing: The special case of the Sumerians
• 12. Specialized Systems for Communication: The Visual Recording of Ideas and Writing Language Writing technology and its significance for the construction of civilization Writing systems in the ancient civilizations Writing systems of the Old World Writing systems of the New World (pre-Columbian): The Olmec script (ca. 1500-600 bce) Writing technology as a vehicle of progress
• 13. Intellectual Domains: What Was the Driving Force for Science and How Did Philosophy Originate? Pre-Socratic philosophers as the first to reflect on cosmology and the natural world Picking up the threads: The rope model of repetitive continuity of ideas Philosophy as a tool for rationalizing mythic truths and for organizing community life
• 14. Art and Aesthetics: Artistic Genres in Their Cultural Context The cultural meaning of sculptures in the Old European, Native American and Mesopotamian context Classical Greek philosophy and art: Plato's concept of aesthetics Ancient civilizations as inspirational sources of modern art Epilogue: Cultural Memory Bibliography Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Traditional scholarship on how ancient civilizations emerged is outmoded and new insights call for revision. According to the well-established paradigm, Mesopotamia is considered the cradle of civilization. Following the cliche of ex oriente lux ("light from the East") all major achievements of humankind spread from the Middle East. Modern archaeology, cultural science and historical linguistics indicate civilizations did not originate from a single prototype. Several models produced divergent patterns of advanced culture, developing both hierarchical and egalitarian societies. This study outlines a panorama of ancient civilizations, including the still little-known Danube civilization, now identified as the oldest advanced culture in Europe. In a comparative view, a new paradigm of research and a new cultural chronology of civilizations in the Old and New Worlds emerges, with climate change shown to be a continual influence on human lifeways.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Anthropocenic Turn?-An Introduction
• Gabriele Durbeck and Philip Hupkes
• Section 1: Creating Knowledge in the Anthropocene
• Chapter 1
• The "Material Turn" and the "Anthropocenic Turn" from a History of Science Perspective Hans-Joerg Rheinberger
• Chapter 2
• The Anthropocene and the History of Science
• Jurgen Renn
• Chapter 3
• The Dirty Metaphysics of Fossil Freedom
• Franz Mauelshagen
• Chapter 4
• Oriental Wisdom for the Planet? Thoughts on Asia and the Anthropocene, with Special Emphasis on China
• Hannes Bergthaller
• Section 2: Narrating the Anthropocene
• Chapter 5
• Safe Conduct: The Anthropocene and the Tragic
• Bernhard Malkmus
• Chapter 6
• Scaling, Modelling, Teaching: The Anthropocene from a Literature Pedagogy Perspective
• Roman Bartosch
• Chapter 7
• Dating the Anthropocene: Why Deciding on a Start Date for the Most Recent Geological Epoch Matters
• Philipp Pattberg and Michael Davies-Venn
• Chapter 8
• When Humans Become Nature
• Bernd Scherer
• Section 3: Sensing the Anthropocene
• Chapter 9
• Latency, Entanglement, Scale. Challenges for an Aesthetics of the Anthropocene
• Eva Horn
• Chapter 10
• The Urgency of a New Humanities: Sensing the Anthropocene as a State of Exception
• Gregers Andersen and Stefan Gaarsmand Jacobsen
• Chapter 11
• Filming through the Milieu. Becoming Extinct and the Anthropocene
• Julia Bee
• Chapter 12
• Seeds-Boundary Objects of the Anthropocene
• Alexandra R. Toland
• Chapter 13
• The Garden and the Cloud: Art, Media, and the Dilemmas of the Anthropocene
• Serenella Iovino.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

This interdisciplinary volume discusses whether the increasing salience of the Anthropocene concept in the humanities and the social sciences constitutes an "Anthropocenic turn." The Anthropocene discourse creates novel conceptual configurations and enables scholars to re-negotiate and re-contextualize long-established paradigms, premises, theories and methodologies. These innovative constellations stimulate fresh research in many areas of thought and practice. The contributors to this volume respond to the proposition of an "Anthropocene turn" from the perspective of diverse research fields, including history of science, philosophy, environmental humanities and political science as well as literary, art and media studies. Altogether, the collection reveals to which extent the Anthropocene concept challenges deep-seated assumptions across disciplines. It invites readers to explore the wealth of scholarly perspectives on the Anthropocene as well as unexpected inter- and transdisciplinary connections.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

Believing in Bits advances the idea that religious beliefs and practices have become inextricably linked to the functioning of digital media. How did we come to associate things such as mindreading and spirit communications with the functioning of digital technologies? How does the internets capacity to facilitate the proliferation of beliefs blur the boundaries between what is considered fiction and fact? Addressing these and similar questions, the volume challenges and redefines established understandings of digital media and culture by employing the notions of belief, religion, and the supernatural.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Black lives matter
• Black futures
• Power
• Joy
• Justice
• Ownership
• Memory
• Outlook
• Black is (still) beautiful
• Legacy.

"Black Futures is a collection of work--art, photos, essays, memes, dialogues, recipes, tweets, poetry, and more--that tells the story of the radical, imaginative, bold, and beautiful world that black artists, high and low, are producing today. The book presents a succession of brilliant and provocative pieces--from both emerging and renowned creators of all kinds--that generates an entrancing rhythm: Readers will go from conversations with hackers and street artists to memes and Instagram posts, from powerful prose to dazzling paintings and insightful infographics. A generational document that captures this fast-moving generation in its own dynamic and expansive language. While shaped in the tradition of other generational statements, from The New Negro to Black Fire to Toni Morrison's landmark The Black Book, Black Futures does not have a retrospective air. It showcases the present, but points to the future. We live at a time when black culture--whether it's created by Ava DuVernay or Donald Glover, Kendrick Lamar or Cardi B, meme-makers or YouTubers--is opening our imaginations and offering new paths forward, a multi-voiced, utopian alternative to a world of walls and white nationalism. Black Futures captures this expansive vision and energy and makes it available to any reader, of any color, who wants to explore this exciting cultural moment and see the next one coming"-- Provided by publisher.

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Why Natural History?
• PART I: LIFE: WHERE WE CAME FROM
• 1. Cooperative Life
• 2. Life in the Food Chain
• 3. Taming Nature
• PART II: CIVILIZATION: WHO WE ARE
• 4. The Triumph and Curse of Civilization
• 5. Resource Exploitation
• 6. Famine and Disease
• 7. Domination versus Cooperation
• PART III: FATE: WHERE WE ARE GOING
• 8. Our Ethnocentric, Entheogenic Universe
• 9. Preserving Food and Improving Health
• 10. Civilization on Fire
• 11. Unnatural Nature

• Epilogue: The Natural History of Civilizations
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Illustration Credits
• Index
• A
• B
• C
• D
• E
• F
• G
• H
• I
• J
• K
• L
• M
• N
• O
• P
• Q
• R
• S
• T
• U
• V
• W
• Y
• Z

A compelling evolutionary narrative that reveals how human civilization follows the same ecological rules that shape all life on Earth Offering a bold new understanding of who we are, where we came from, and where we are going, noted ecologist Mark Bertness argues that human beings and their civilization are the products of the same self-organization, evolutionary adaptation, and natural selection processes that have created all other life on Earth. Bertness follows the evolutionary process from the primordial soup of two billion years ago through today, exploring the ways opposing forces of competition and cooperation have led to current assemblages of people, animals, and plants. Bertness's thoughtful examination of human history from the perspective of natural history provides new insights about why and how civilization developed as it has and explores how humans, as a species, might have to consciously overrule our evolutionary drivers to survive future challenges.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• .Introduction: General vs. singular causation
• The space of reasons and the space of causes
• Singular causation
• Social robots
• The mind-body problem

A renowned philosopher argues that singular causation in the mind is not grounded in general patterns of causation, a claim on behalf of human distinctiveness, which has implications for the future of social robots. A blab droid is a robot with a body shaped like a pizza box, a pair of treads, and a smiley face. Guided by an onboard video camera, it roams hotel lobbies and conference centers, asking questions in the voice of a seven-year-old. "Can you help me?" "What is the worst thing you've ever done?" "Who in the world do you love most?" People pour their hearts out in response. This droid prompts the question of what we can hope from social robots. Might they provide humanlike friendship? Philosopher John Campbell doesn't think so. He argues that, while a social robot can remember the details of a person's history better than some spouses can, it cannot empathize with the human mind, because it lacks the faculty for thinking in terms of singular causation. Causation in Psychology makes the case that singular causation is essential and unique to the human species. From the point of view of practical action, knowledge of what generally causes what is often all one needs. But humans are capable of more. We have a capacity to imagine singular causation. Unlike robots and nonhuman animals, we don't have to rely on axioms about pain to know how ongoing suffering is affecting someone's ability to make decisions, for example, and this knowledge is not a derivative of general rules. The capacity to imagine singular causation, Campbell contends, is a core element of human freedom and of the ability to empathize with human thoughts and feelings.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• .Introduction: General vs. singular causation
• The space of reasons and the space of causes
• Singular causation
• Social robots
• The mind-body problem

A renowned philosopher argues that singular causation in the mind is not grounded in general patterns of causation, a claim on behalf of human distinctiveness, which has implications for the future of social robots. A blab droid is a robot with a body shaped like a pizza box, a pair of treads, and a smiley face. Guided by an onboard video camera, it roams hotel lobbies and conference centers, asking questions in the voice of a seven-year-old. "Can you help me?" "What is the worst thing you've ever done?" "Who in the world do you love most?" People pour their hearts out in response. This droid prompts the question of what we can hope from social robots. Might they provide humanlike friendship? Philosopher John Campbell doesn't think so. He argues that, while a social robot can remember the details of a person's history better than some spouses can, it cannot empathize with the human mind, because it lacks the faculty for thinking in terms of singular causation. Causation in Psychology makes the case that singular causation is essential and unique to the human species. From the point of view of practical action, knowledge of what generally causes what is often all one needs. But humans are capable of more. We have a capacity to imagine singular causation. Unlike robots and nonhuman animals, we don't have to rely on axioms about pain to know how ongoing suffering is affecting someone's ability to make decisions, for example, and this knowledge is not a derivative of general rules. The capacity to imagine singular causation, Campbell contends, is a core element of human freedom and of the ability to empathize with human thoughts and feelings.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

Introducing a largely neglected area of existing interactions between Greco-Roman antiquity and media theory, this volume addresses the question of why interactions in this area matter and how they might be developed further. It aims not only to promote awareness of the presence of the classics in media theory but also to encourage more media attentiveness among scholars of Greece and Rome. By bringing together an international team of scholars with interdisciplinary expertise in areas ranging from classical literature and classical reception studies to art history, media theory and media history, film studies, philosophy, and cultural studies, the volume as a whole engages with numerous aspects of 'classical' Greece and Rome revolving around issues of philosophy, cultural history, literature, aesthetics, and epistemology. Each chapter provides its own definition of what constitutes mediality and how it operates, constructs different genealogies of the concept of the medium, and engages with emergent fields within media studies that range from cultural techniques to media archaeology, diagrammatology, and intermediality. By seeking to foreground the persistency of Greco-Roman paradigms across the different strands of media theory the volume persuasively calls for a closer consideration of the conceptual underpinnings of the cultural practices around the transformation of ancient Greece and Rome into 'classics.'.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Introduction, ERIK HERMANS REGIONS
• 1. East Africa, MARK HORTON
• 2. South Asia, KENNETH R. HALL
• 3. Southeast Asia, JOHN K. WHITMORE
• 4. Oceania, GLENN R. SUMMERHAYES
• 5. Japan, ROSS BENDER
• 6. Korea, RICHARD D. McBRIDE II
• 7. China, TINEKE D'HAESELEER
• 8. Tibet, LEWIS DONEY
• 9. Inner Asia, MICHAEL R. DROMPP
• 10. West Asia, KHODADAD REZAKHANI
• 11. Byzantium, MICHAEL J. DECKER
• 12. Northeast Africa, GEORGE HATKE
• 13. Sahara and West Africa, SONJA MAGNAVITA
• 14. Western Europe, JENNIFER R. DAVIS
• 15. Mesoamerica, HEATHER McKILLOP PROCESSES
• 16. Trade and Commerce, RICHARD L. SMITH
• 17. Migration, JOHANNES PREISER-KAPELLER
• 18. Climate and Disease, PETER SARRIS
• 19. Intellectual Connectivity, ERIK HERMANS Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

This companion introduces the connections between early medieval societies that have previously been studied in isolation. By bringing together nineteen experts on different regions across the globe, from Oceania to Europe and beyond, it transcends conventional disciplinary boundaries and synthesizes parallel historiographical narratives. The period 600-900 CE witnessed important historical developments, such as the establishment of a Southeast Asian thalassocracy by the Shailendra dynasty and the expansion of the Frankish polity under Charlemagne on the far ends of Eurasia and the consolidation of the Abbasid and Tang empires in between. A Companion to the Global Early Middle Ages integrates these contemporaneous processes and presents new insights into a neglected phase of world history.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Chapter I. The End of the Renaissance,
• 1480.
• Chapter II. Reformation Culture, 1520-1559.
• Chapter III. Culture in Peril: The Religious Wars, 1560-1599.
• Chapter IV. Baroque Culture in a Disordered Europe, 1600-1649.
• Chapter V. Classical Culture, 1650-1699.
• Chapter VI. The Culture of the Rococo and the Enlightenment, 1700-1739.
• Chapter VII. The Culture of the Age of Reason, 1740-1784.
• Chapter VIII. The Culture of Revolution and War, 1785-1820.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

A Cultural History of Early Modern Europe examines the relationships that developed in cities from the time of the late Renaissance through to the Napoleonic period, exploring culture in the broadest sense by selecting a variety of sources not commonly used in history books, such as plays, popular songs, sketches, and documents created by ordinary people. Extending from 1480 to 1820, the book traces the flourishing cultural life of key European cities and the opportunities that emerged for ordinary people to engage with new forms of creative expression, such as literature, theatre, music, and dance. Arranged chronologically, each chapter in the volume begins with an overview of the period being discussed and an introduction to the key figures. Cultural issues in political, religious, and social life are addressed in each section, providing an insight into life in the cities most important to the creative developments of the time. Throughout the book, narrative history is balanced with primary sources and illustrations allowing the reader to grasp the cultural changes of the period and their effect on public and private life. A Cultural History of Early Modern Europe is ideal for students of early modern European cultural history and early modern Europe.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Introduction: The closing of the frontier
• The Four Horsemen. Stagnation ; Sterility ; Sclerosis ; Repetition
• Sustainable decadence. Comfortably numb ; A kindly despotism ; Waiting for the barbarians ; Giving decadence its due
• The deaths of decadence. Catastrophe ; Renaissance ; Providence

A powerful portrait of how our turbulent age is defined by dark forces seemingly beyond our control from the New York Times columnist and bestselling author of Bad Religion. The Decadent Society explains what happens when a rich and powerful society ceases advancing-how the combination of wealth and technological proficiency with economic stagnation, political stalemates, cultural exhaustion, and demographic decline creates a strange kind of "sustainable decadence, " a civilizational malaise that could endure for longer than we think. Ranging from the chaos of Trump-era Washington to the gridlock of the European Union; from our empty cradles to our lonely pathways through middle and old age; from the lost promise of the Space Age and early internet to today's earthbound surveillance state; from the recycling of Baby Boomer pop culture to the Brave New World we're making with drugs and virtual reality escapes, Douthat provides an enlightening diagnosis of the modern condition - how we got here, how long our malaise might last, and how, whether in renaissance or catastrophe, our decadence might ultimately end.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Introduction: The closing of the frontier
• The Four Horsemen. Stagnation ; Sterility ; Sclerosis ; Repetition
• Sustainable decadence. Comfortably numb ; A kindly despotism ; Waiting for the barbarians ; Giving decadence its due
• The deaths of decadence. Catastrophe ; Renaissance ; Providence

A powerful portrait of how our turbulent age is defined by dark forces seemingly beyond our control from the New York Times columnist and bestselling author of Bad Religion. The Decadent Society explains what happens when a rich and powerful society ceases advancing-how the combination of wealth and technological proficiency with economic stagnation, political stalemates, cultural exhaustion, and demographic decline creates a strange kind of "sustainable decadence, " a civilizational malaise that could endure for longer than we think. Ranging from the chaos of Trump-era Washington to the gridlock of the European Union; from our empty cradles to our lonely pathways through middle and old age; from the lost promise of the Space Age and early internet to today's earthbound surveillance state; from the recycling of Baby Boomer pop culture to the Brave New World we're making with drugs and virtual reality escapes, Douthat provides an enlightening diagnosis of the modern condition - how we got here, how long our malaise might last, and how, whether in renaissance or catastrophe, our decadence might ultimately end.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)
From the New York Times columnist and bestselling author of Bad Religion, a powerful portrait of how our turbulent age is defined by dark forces seemingly beyond our control Today the Western world seems to be in crisis. But beneath our social media frenzy and reality television politics, the deeper reality is one of drift, repetition, and dead ends. The Decadent Society explains what happens when a rich and powerful society ceases advancing-how the combination of wealth and technological proficiency with economic stagnation, political stalemates, cultural exhaustion, and demographic decline creates a strange kind of "sustainable decadence, " a civilizational languor that could endure for longer than we think. Ranging from our grounded space shuttles to our Silicon Valley villains, from our blandly recycled film and television-a new Star Wars saga, another Star Trek series, the fifth Terminator sequel-to the escapism we're furiously chasing through drug use and virtual reality, Ross Douthat argues that many of today's discontents and derangements reflect a sense of futility and disappointment-a feeling that the future was not what was promised, that the frontiers have all been closed, and that the paths forward lead only to the grave. In this environment we fear catastrophe, but in a certain way we also pine for it-because the alternative is to accept that we are permanently decadent: aging, comfortable and stuck, cut off from the past and no longer confident in the future, spurning both memory and ambition while we wait for some saving innovation or revelations, growing old unhappily together in the glowing light of tiny screens. Correcting both optimists who insist that we're just growing richer and happier with every passing year and pessimists who expect collapse any moment, Douthat provides an enlightening diagnosis of the modern condition-how we got here, how long our age of frustration might last, and how, whether in renaissance or catastrophe, our decadence might ultimately end.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Frontmatter
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• 1. Introduction: Dreamworlds of Race
• 2. The Dreamer of Dreams: Andrew Carnegie and the Reunion of the Race
• 3. Americanizing the World: W. T. Stead and Cecil J. Rhodes
• 4. Artists in Reality: H. G. Wells and the New Republic
• 5. Machine Dreams: The Angloworld as Science Fiction
• 6. Beyond the Sovereign State: Isopolitan Citizenship and Race Patriotism
• 7. A Messenger of Peace to the World: Racial Utopianism and the Abolition of War
• 8. Conclusion: Unveiling the Sphinx
• Bibliography
• Index

• Introduction: Dreamworlds of race
• The dreamer of dreams: Andrew Carnegie and the reunion of the race
• Americanizing the world: W.T. Stead and Cecil J. Rhodes
• Artists in reality: H.G. Wells and the New Republic
• Machine dreams: the Angloworld as science fiction
• Beyond the sovereign state: isopolitan citizenship and race patriotism
• A messenger of peace to the world: racial utopianism and the abolition of war
• Conclusion: Unveiling the Sphinx.

"Between the late nineteenth century and the outbreak of the First World War, many prominent thinkers in Britain and the United States elaborated a vision for the unification of the English-speaking world into a single political entity. The basis for this utopian thinking was a shared assumption about the racial and cultural exceptionalism of the Anglo-Saxon peoples. This book by Duncan Bell is the first study of the wide range of figures - prominent scholars, journalists, novelists, politicians and businessmen - who pushed for closer co-operation and integration between the two transatlantic anglophone powers and even for the eventual creation of an 'Angloworld' which would extend to the British settler colonies in North America and the Pacific. Such ideas were given added impetus by geopolitical crises, including the Venezuela boundary disputes of the mid-1890s and the imperial wars in South Africa and the Philippines. The author takes up the ideas of dozens of thinkers on both sides of the Atlantic, from the celebrated to the obscure, though central to the book is a quartet of noteworthy figures: Andrew Carnegie, W.T. Stead, Cecil J. Rhodes, and H.G. Wells. Campaigning groups were established; transatlantic networks were formed; articles, pamphlets, books and speeches were written and disseminated - all with the aim of emphasising unity. Proposals for institutionalising transatlantic links ranged from the modest to the extraordinarily bold. The former included strengthening defence co-operation, deepening economic connections, and co-ordinating imperial strategy, while the latter encompassed plans for the creation of novel forms of political community, even a single transatlantic state. And much of the thinking was underpinned by ideas about race and a shared Anglo-Saxon cultural inheritance. Although the popularity of this vision began to wane in the mid-Edwardian era, versions of it reverberated through the twentieth century, and echo now into the present"--‡cProvided by publisher.