First published in 1982, Images of Crisis explores the premise that literature and art exploit various images to present culturally prevalent ideas, and thus create their own form of iconology. George Landow shows how the tumultuous history of the past two hundred years has resulted in a plethora of metaphors associated with moments of human crisis. Avalanches and volcanoes emerge as focal images in an aesthetic that concerns itself increasingly with the vulnerability of humanity. However, it is in the transformation of traditional religious images that the ideas of the vacant universe are most dramatically presented. Associated with this central idea are ironic transformations of other images that formerly had been associated with Christianity as paradigms of belief: the journey of Odysseus, the rainbow of the Covenant and Robinson Crusoe. Combining close textual analysis with a theory of literary iconology, this fascinating reissue will be of particular value to students with an interest in literary images, and literary and cultural history.

This book, originally published in 1978, constitutes a genuinely comparative study of the world's only truly succesful democratic socialist parties: the Social Democraic Parties of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The measure of achievement is not merely political success, the fact that in Scandinavia the Social Democrats have become 'natural parties of goverment', for just as importantly, the author shows that a political success grounded on the symbiotic relationship between party and trade union movement has been the foundation for a higher level of welfare state provision and egalitarian striving than in virtually any other advanced Western nations. It is a book for friends and foes of democratic socialism alike; for the former to provide an understanding of the tasks ahead and for the latter to know the enemy better.

First published in 1975. How do men come to perceive and evaluate a world in which marked inequalities of class and status exist? This book considers the nature of class images and their underlying work and community structures. Beginning with the argument that the perception of society varies according to type of work and community milieux, it first considers the social imagery of working-class professions and their sources of variation, and then examines some of the methodological problems of the study of class imagery. The nature of proletarian traditionalism and radicalism in then contemporary Britain is discussed in conclusion. This title will be of interest to students of sociology.

Continuities, first published in 1968, is a collection of reviews by Frank Kermode that appeared from 1962 to 1967. Kermode discusses a variety of novelists, poets, and critics, including T. S. Eliot, Northrop Frye, Wallace Stevens, Edmund Wilson, and Wallace Stevens. History and politics are two important aspects that are discussed in regards to these writers. This book is ideal for students of English literature.

First published in 1990, Laws, Men and Machines is an original interpretation of the lasting influence that Newtonian mechanics has had on the design and operation of the American political system. The author argues that it is this mechanistic tradition that now instinctively shapes the way we conceive of, analyse, and evaluate American politics, and that the Newtonian conception of the world still finds expression in the 'checks and balances' of the American system.

First published in 1979, this is a very welcome reissue of Kathleen Raine's seminal study of William Blake - England’s only prophet. He challenged with extraordinary vigour the premises which now underline much of Western civilization, hitting hard at the ideas of a naive materialist philosophy which, even in his own day, was already eating at the roots of English national life. In his insistence that ‘mental things are alone real’, Blake was ahead of his time. Materialist views are now challenged from various quarters; the depth psychologies of Freud and Jung, the study of Far Easter religion and philosophy, the reappraisal of myth and folk lore, the wealth of psychical research have all prepared the way for an understanding of Blake’s thought. We are ready to acknowledge that in attacking ‘the sickness of Albion’ Blake penetrated to the inner worlds of man and explored them in a way that is quite unique. Dr Raine, who has made a long study of Blake’s sources, presents him as a lonely powerful genius who stands within the spiritual tradition of Sophia Perennis, ‘the Everlasting Gospel’. From the standpoint of this great human Norm, our immediate past described by W.B. Yeats as ‘the three provincial centuries’, is a tragic deviation; catastrophic, as Blake believed, in its spiritual and material consequences. Only now do we possess the necessary knowledge to understand William Blake and the ever-growing number of people who turn to him surely justifies his faith in the eternal truths he strove to communicate.

First published in 1989, this is the third of three volumes exploring the changing notions of patriotism in British life from the thirteenth century to the late twentieth century and constitutes an attempt to come to terms with the power of the national idea through a historically informed critique. This volume studies some of the leading figures of national myth, such as Britannia and John Bull. One group of essays looks at the idea of distinctively national landscape and the ways in which it corresponds to notions of social order. A chapter on the poetry of Edmund Spenser explores metaphorical representations of Britain as a walled garden, and the idea of an enchanted national space is taken up in a series of essays on literature, theatre and cinema. An introductory piece charts some of the startling changes in the image of national character, from the seventeenth-century notion of the English as the most melancholy people in Europe, to the more uncertain and conflicting images of today.

This book, first published in 1983, with a second edition in 1992, investigates the emergence of the sociology of knowledge in Germany in the critical period from 1918 to 1933. These years witnessed the development of distinctive paradigms centred on the works of Max Scheler, Georg Lukács and Karl Mannheim. Each theorist sought to confront the base-superstructure models of the relationship between knowledge and society, which originated in Orthodox Marxism. David Frisbsy illustrates how these and other themes in the sociology of knowledge were contested through a detailed account of the central sociological debates in Weimar Germany. This reissue of The Alienated Mind will be of particular interest to students and academics concerned with the development of an important tradition in the sociology of knowledge and culture, social theory and German history.

First published in 1991, this book evaluates and compares the problematic relationships that have sometimes existed between police and Afro-Caribbean people in Britain and in the United States of America. Contributors from both sides of the Atlantic assess conflicting claims from police and black communities, as to whether some police are racist or too brutal in their operations. Although this book was written in the early 90s, many of the issues discussed remain interesting and relevant to our society today.

The first two centuries of the Christian era were largely a period of consolidation for the Roman Empire. However, the history of the heyday of Roman imperium is far from dull, for Augustus’ successors ranged from capable administrators - Tiberius, Claudius and Hadrian - to near-madmen like Caligula and the amateur gladiator Commodus, who might have wrecked the system but for its inherent strength. Albino Garzetti’s classic From Tiberius to the Antonines, first published in 1960, presents a definitive account of this fascinating period, which combines a clear and readable narrative with a thorough discussion of the methodological problems and primary sources. Regarding difficult historical questions, it can be relied upon for careful and reasonable judgments based on a full mastery of an immense amount of material. Nearly three hundred pages of critical notes and a comprehensive bibliography complement the text, ensuring its continuing relevance for all students of Roman history.