Δοκίμιο & Πολιτισμός

In Polygamy: A Very Short Introduction, Sarah M. S. Pearsall explores what plural marriages reveal about the inner workings of marriage and describes the controversies surrounding it. The book emphasizes the diversity of historical polygamist societies, from the Shi'ite Muslims and Wendat men who practiced short-term marriages to the Mixteca, Maori, Inca, Algonquin, and Marta indigenous people of North America and the Pacific Islands, as well as medieval Irish kings, rulers of the Kingdom of Buganda in east Africa, and residents of the Ottoman Empire. Pearsall also explains the Old Testament origins of polygamy in the book of Genesis, making note of vocal Protestant defenders of the practice such as Martin Luther and John Milton, and the divides within Christianity that led to Joseph Smith's establishment of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormonism) and the Mormons' fight throughout the 19th-century under his successor Brigham Young's leadership to freely practice plural marriage.

In his final work, Richard Rorty provides the definitive statement of his political thought. Rorty equates pragmatism with anti-authoritarianism, arguing that because there is no authority we can rely on to ascertain truth, we can only do so intersubjectively. It follows that we must learn to think and care about what others think and care about.

This is the story of a group of women whose experiments in art and life set the tone for the rise of New York as the twentieth century’s capital of modern culture. Across the 1910s and '20s, through provocative creative acts, shocking fashion, political activism and dynamic social networks, these women reimagined modern life and fought for the chance to realize their visions. Taking the reader on a journey through the city's salons and bohemian hangouts, Radicals and Rogues celebrates the tastemakers, collectors, curators, artists and poets at the forefront of the early avant-garde scene. Focusing on the women trailblazers at the centre of artistic innovation, Lottie Whalen offers a lively new history of remarkable women in early twentieth-century New York City.

Reality Hunger is a manifesto for a burgeoning group of interrelated but unconnected artists who, living in an unbearably artificial world, are breaking ever larger chunks of 'reality' into their work. The questions Shields explores - the bending of form and genre, the lure and blur of the real - play out constantly around us, and Reality Hunger is a radical reframing of how we might think about this 'truthiness': about literary licence, quotation, and appropriation in television, film, performance art, rap, and graffiti, in lyric essays, prose poems, and collage novels. Drawing on myriad sources, Shields takes an audacious stance on issues that are being fought over now and will be fought over far into the future. Converts will see Reality Hunger as a call to arms; detractors will view it as an occasion to defend the status quo. It is certain to be one of the most controversial and talked about books of the season.

Ας μιλήσουμε στους αγγλόφωνους αλλά και σε όλους τους επισκέπτες της χώρας μας για το σπουδαίο ρεμπέτικο τραγούδι και για την παρακαταθήκη του στην ελληνική κοινωνία και στο σύγχρονο πολιτισμό μας. Μόλις κυκλοφόρησε από τις Εκδόσεις Αιώρα το βιβλίο Ρεμπέτικα: Τραγούδια του παλιού ελληνικού υποκόσμου. Το βιβλίο –το πρώτο που κυκλοφόρησε στα αγγλικά, λίγο μετά την πτώση της δικτατορίας και τώρα επανεκδίδεται– περιλαμβάνει κείμενα κορυφαίων προσωπικοτήτων και μελετητών: ο Ηλίας Πετρόπουλος, ο Μάρκος Δραγούμης, ο Τεντ Πετρίδης και ο Σάκης Παπαδημητρίου. Καλύπτει μια ποικιλία θεμάτων γύρω από τα ρεμπέτικα: την προέλευσή τους και την ιστορική εξέλιξη, τα κοινωνικά χαρακτηριστικά των τραγουδιών και των δημιουργών, την ιδιαίτερη μουσική, τους χορούς –το ζεϊμπέκικο, το χασάπικο κ.ά.–, και τέλος τα συγκρίνει με τα αμερικανικά μπλουζ. Συμπεριλαμβάνονται επιπλέον οι στίχοι 54 τραγουδιών, στα ελληνικά και στα αγγλικά, 8 μουσικές παρτιτούρες και γλωσσάρι, ενώ τα συνοδευτικά σχέδια είναι του Χρόνη Μπότσογλου. Η μουσική, οι στίχοι και ο χορός που συναπαρτίζουν το Ρεμπέτικο Τραγούδι είναι ο δυνατός κρίκος στην αλυσίδα του πολιτισμού μας: συνέχισε τη βυζαντινή και δημοτική παράδοση, ανέδειξε τον Ζορμπά, καθιέρωσε το μπουζούκι, αποκάλυψε άγνωστες πτυχές της νεότερης δημιουργίας, ταυτίστηκε με τις περιπέτειες του ελληνισμού στον πολυτάραχο 20ό αιώνα, εξαπλώθηκε και αγαπήθηκε από το μεγαλύτερο κομμάτι της κοινωνίας.

The book describes the period of Mr. Horton's services as a US Consul in the Kingdom of Greece. His service spans 31 years from 1893 to 1924 and describes these years representing the United States in Athens, Smyrna, Thessaloniki, Smyrna, and Budapest. Inside the pages of this book you can read about his love towards Hellenism starting with his first view of the Parthenon, from on board his arriving steamer. The Hellenic Electronic Center (HEC) re-published this book in 2007. The publication was funded by AHEPA-Athens HJ-1

In 1907, Princess Sophy ('Sofka') DolgorOuky was born in St Petersburg. Members of the Imperial family had attended her parents' wedding earlier that same year, and the child was born into a privileged world of nurses, private tutors and elegant tea parties. The Russian Revolution caused the princess to flee across Europe to England, but it was the Second World War that left the deepest marks on her adult life. During those years, she left her first husband and lost her second. Later, she was interned in a Nazi prison camp, where she discovered Communism and showed great bravery in defending the rights of the Jewish prisoners. It was her Communism which took her back to the Soviet Union as an improbable tour guide for British workers. And Communism, albeit indirectly, brought her the last love of her life, Jack, a working-class Londoner who had never been abroad. Sofka's colourful life also included a close friendship with Laurence Olivier, innumerable lovers, some serious, some quickly discarded, and an abiding love of reading and especially poetry. This affectionate portrait of the 'red princess' by her granddaughter and namesake uses letter, diaries and interviews to recreate a vanished world and also explore the author's own Russian roots.