Secondhand History & Culture Bargain Book Box SP2798

Secondhand History & Culture Bargain Book Box SP2798

A well-stocked all-Pelican box with particular strength in the history of ideas, science, and the arts. J. Bronowski's Common Sense of Science, P.B. Medawar's Art of the Soluble, Martin Esslin's Theatre of the Absurd, Herbert Read's Meaning of Art, and John Allegro's Dead Sea Scrolls anchor the collection, alongside Erving Goffman's Stigma, Glyn Daniel on megalith builders, and H.J. Blackham's Humanism. Strong cover art throughout in the classic Pelican blue and white livery.

1. How Children Fail — John Holt — The influential American educator's critique of traditional schooling; Holt argues that schools cause children to fail by rewarding conformity and punishing genuine curiosity.
2. The Beginnings of English Society — Dorothy Whitelock — Volume 2 of the Pelican History of England; a scholarly and accessible account of Anglo-Saxon society, its institutions, laws, and culture.
3. The Common Sense of Science — J. Bronowski — The polymath scientist and humanist's argument that science is the most characteristic expression of the human imagination; one of the great popular science books of the 20th century.
4. The Age of Keynes: A Biographical Study — Robert Lekachman — A Pelican Original examining the life and ideas of John Maynard Keynes and the revolution in economic thought he produced.
5. The Dead Sea Scrolls — John Allegro — The controversial scholar's account of the discovery and significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls; Allegro's popular narrative brought the scrolls to wide public attention.
6. Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity — Erving Goffman — A landmark work of sociology; Goffman analyses how society labels and treats those it considers discredited, and how individuals manage a damaged identity.
7. Geography of the USSR — J.P. Cole — A comprehensive Pelican survey of Soviet geography, from the physical landscape to the economic and demographic patterns of the world's largest country.
8. The Meaning of Art — Herbert Read — The art historian's accessible introduction to aesthetics and the visual arts; with 64 plates, a standard Pelican guide to understanding and appreciating art.
9. Medieval People — Eileen Power — Six vivid portraits of medieval life drawn from historical records; Power brings to life a prioress, a Paris housewife, a peasant, a merchant, and others with remarkable immediacy.
10. Gladiators — Michael Grant — A scholarly yet accessible history of gladiatorial combat in ancient Rome; Grant examines the origins, organisation, and cultural meaning of the arena and its fighters.
11. The Megalith Builders of Western Europe — Glyn Daniel — A Pelican Original on the prehistoric stone monument builders; Daniel surveys the megalithic cultures from Brittany to Britain, examining who built them and why.
12. The Art of the Soluble — P.B. Medawar — Essays by the Nobel Prize-winning immunologist on the nature of scientific thought and discovery; Medawar is one of the finest prose stylists science has produced.
13. The Theatre of the Absurd — Martin Esslin — The definitive critical study of the theatrical movement; Esslin examines Beckett, Ionesco, Genet, Pinter, Adamov, Albee, and others in the most influential work of dramatic criticism of the postwar era.
14. Introducing Music — Otto Karolyi — A Pelican Original providing a clear and systematic introduction to the elements of music — melody, harmony, rhythm, form, and orchestration — for the general reader.
15. Tradition and Dream — Walter Allen — A critical survey of British and American fiction from the 1920s to the 1960s; Allen offers authoritative assessments of the major novelists of the modern era.
16. Prelude to Mathematics — W.W. Sawyer — An accessible and enthusiastic introduction to some of the most exciting areas of mathematics; Sawyer conveys the pleasures and patterns of mathematical thinking for the non-specialist.
17. Humanism — H.J. Blackham — A Pelican Original presenting the humanist case; Blackham argues for a secular, human-centred philosophy as the basis for ethics and public life in the modern world.
18. The Contemporary Cinema — Penelope Houston — A critical survey of world cinema in the postwar era by the longtime editor of Sight & Sound; authoritative on the New Waves and the emerging international art cinema.
19. The Grammar of Living — David Cooper — A Pelican Original from the anti-psychiatry movement; Cooper examines the structures of everyday life and proposes a radical rethinking of how we live and relate.
20. The Dialectics of Liberation — edited by David Cooper — The record of a landmark 1967 congress bringing together R.D. Laing, Herbert Marcuse, Stokely Carmichael, and Allen Ginsberg; a document of 1960s radical thought.