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A study of English semantics during the Enlightenment. New words 1650–1800 reflect the new middle-class culture of sociability, commerce, and science. Old mostly obsolete words illuminate the realities of working-class life, exhausting labor, dirt, outrageous sexism, magic, horses, bizarre food.
The book will enable you to build excellent vocabulary. Youll never have a dull moment as each chapter offers you some exciting and tantalizing trivia to make you want to reach the next chapter and then the next and the next... Study the chapters, takethe progress tests and you will soon find that words really canwork wonders for you.
Tim Machan explores the nature of English present and past, and its role in shaping the identity of those who speak it. He pursues his object through episodes in its history around the globe, from Caxton to Churchill and from rural America to colonial Australia. This is a book for everyone interested in English and the role of language in society
The biggest challenge of the twenty-first century is to bring the effects of public life into relation with the intractable problem of global atmospheric change. Climate and the Picturesque in the American Tropics explains how we came to think of the climate as something abstract and remote rather than a force that actively shapes our existence. The book argues that this separation between climate and sensibility predates the rise of modern climatology and has deep roots in the era of colonial expansion, when the American tropics were transformed into the economic supplier for Euro-American empires. The book shows how the writings of American travellers in the Caribbean registered and pushed forward this new understanding of the climate in a pivotal period in modern history, roughly between 1770 and 1860, which was fraught with debates over slavery, environmental destruction, and colonialism. Offering novel readings of authors including J. Hector St. John de Crevecœur, Leonora Sansay, William Cullen Bryant, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Sophia Peabody, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and James McCune Smith in light of their engagements with the American tropics, this book shows that these authors drew on a climatic epistemology that fused science and sentiment in ways that citizen science is aspiring to do today. By suggesting a new genealogy of modern climate thinking, Climate and the Picturesque in the American Tropics thus highlights the urgency of revisiting received ideas of tropicality deeply ingrained in American culture that continue to inform current debates on climate debt and justice.
Sir Charles Bell (1774-1842), the Scottish anatomist-surgeon, was a true polymath. His original ideas on the nervous system have been likened to those of William Harvey on the circulation of blood, and his privately published pamphlet detailing his ideas about the brain has been called the Magna Carta of neurology. He described the separate functions of different parts of the nervous system, new nerves and muscles, and several previously unrecognized neurological disorders, and he characterized the features of the facial palsy and its associated features now named after him. His sketches and paintings of the wounded from the Napoleonic Wars and his essays on the anatomical basis of expression changed the way art students are taught and influenced British and European artists, particularly the Pre-Raphaelites. He was a renowned medical teacher who founded his own private medical school, took over the famous Hunterian school, and helped establish the University of London and the Middlesex Hospital Medical School. So how is it that a man of such influence is virtually unknown today by most neuroscientists, biologists, and clinicians? Sir Charles Bell: His Life, Art, Neurological Concepts, and Controversial Legacy discusses the work and teachings of this brilliant man. His reputation was tarnished by charges of intellectual dishonesty and fraud, but his work changed the way scientists and clinicians think about the nervous system and its operation in health and disease, led directly to the work of Charles Darwin on facial expressions, and influenced the way artists view the human body and depict illnesses and wounds. Masterfully written by Dr. Michael J. Aminoff in his signature approachable style, this is the perfect addition to any library of medical history.
Fifteen specially commissioned essays from distinguished authors explore the place of the writer, past and present, the value of critical thinking, and the power of the written word. Their work articulates 'brave new words' at the heart of battles against limitations on fundamental rights of citizenship, the closure of national borders, fake news, and an increasing reluctance to engage with critical democratic debate. Contributors include Eva Hoffman, Romesh Gunesekera, Githa Hariharan, James Kelman, Tabish Khair, Kei Miller, Blake Morrison, Mukoma wa Ngugi, Hsiao-Hung Pai, Olumide Popoola, Shivanee Ramlochan, Bina Shah, Raja Shehadeh and Marina Warner.
A leading intellectual historian explores some of the reigning assumptions and imperatives of our age. By looking closely at what "words do and perform", Martin Jay makes us aware of the extent to which the language we use mediates and shapes our experience. Elegantly written and richly insightful, this is a work of cultural criticism and intellectual analysis of the first order.
In 1714, king George I ushered in a remarkable 123-year period of energy that changed the face of Britain and ultimately had a profound effect on the modern era. The pioneers of modern capitalism, industry, democracy, literature, and even architecture flourished during this time and their innovations and influence spread throughout the British empire, including the United States. Now this rich cultural period in Britain is effectively surveyed and summarized for quick reference in a first-of-its-kind encyclopedia, which contains entries by British, Canadian, American, and Australian scholars specializing in everything from finance and the fine arts to politics and patent law. More than 380 illustrations, mostly rare engravings, enhance the coverage, which runs the whole gamut of political, economic, literary, intellectual, artistic, commercial, and social life, and spotlights some 600 prominent individuals and families.
