Venice and Florence - Papacy - Development of the individual - Classics - Humanists - Fall of the humanists - Society and festivals - Morality and religion.

The illegitimate and impoverished son of a dressmaker and a nobleman, Hyacinth Robinson has grown up with a strong sense of beauty that heightens his acute sympathy for the inequalities that surround him. Drawn into a secret circle of radical politics he makes a rash vow to commit a violent act of terrorism. But when the Princess Casamassima - beautiful, clever and bored - takes him up and introduces him to her own world of wealth and refinement,...

"A newly edited selection from the most famous, colorful, and vivid diarist in the English language--in the most accessible, uncensored, and clearly annotated edition available. Though he rose to become the most powerful administrator in King Charles II's navy, when Samuel Pepys began writing his secret journal in 1660 he was just a young clerk living in London. Over the next nine years, he became eyewitness to some of the most significant events...

"Written in political exile during the Second World War and first published in two volumes in 1945, Karl Popper's The Open Society and Its Enemies is one of the most influential books of the twentieth century. Hailed by Bertrand Russell as a 'vigorous and profound defence of democracy', its now legendary attack on the philosophies of Plato, Hegel and Marx exposed the dangers inherent in centrally planned political systems and through underground editions...

This early work by Henry James was originally published in 1890 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. Henry James was born in New York City in 1843. One of thirteen children, James had an unorthodox early education, switching between schools, private tutors and private reading.. James published his first story, 'A Tragedy of Error', in the Continental Monthly in 1864, when he was twenty years old. In 1876, he emigrated...

Condensed and reworked from James's monumental Principles of Psychology, this classic text examines habit; stream of consciousness; self and the sense of personal identity; discrimination and association; the sense of time; memory; perception; imagination; reasoning; emotions, instincts; the will and voluntary acts; and much more. This edition omits the outdated first nine chapters.

"The Confederate Nation has yet to be superseded as the standard title on the subject. " -Journal of Southern History, 2007 "Incisive and insightful…. As good a short history of the Southern war effort was we have." -T. Harry Williams, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Lincoln and His Generals Emory M. Thomas's critically acclaimed chronicle of the Confederacy remains widely recognized as the standard history of the South during the Civil War....

Bergson argues for free will by showing that the arguments against it come from a confusion of different conceptions of time. As opposed to physicists' idea of measurable time, life is perceived in human experience as a continuous and immeasurable flow rather than as a succession of marked-off states of consciousness.

This 1799 work is Schleiermacher's most important work on the philosophy of religion. By stripping away as many controversial or unpleasant aspects of Christian faith-including immortality and even God-he sought to bring the Christian religion more in line with the values of the Enlightenment thinkers.