Sidelights on New London and Newer York and Other Essays


Book Description

CONTENTSA FIRST WORD 5PART I NEW LONDON 8I. ON BRIGHT OLD THINGS 8II. ON CALLING NAMES 14III. ON KEEPING YOUR HAIR ON 20IV. THE COWARDICE OF COCKTAILS 28V. GATES AND GATE-CRASHERS 37VI. THE UNPSYCHOLOGICAL AGE 46VII. THE TRUE VICTORIAN HYPOCRISY 53VIII. MARRIAGE AND THE MODERN MIND 60PART II NEWER YORK 67I. THE AMERICAN IDEAL 67II. A PLEA FOR PROHIBITION 74III. WHICH IS THE GOVERNMENT? 77IV A MONSTER: THE POLITICAL DRY 81V. BERNARD SHAW AND AMERICA 89VI. THE CASE AGAINST MAIN STREET 94VII. THE CASE FOR MAIN STREET 102VIII. THEY ARE ALL PURITANS 113IX. SKYSCRAPERS 121X. AND WHAT ABOUT THE QUAKERS? 125XI. ABRAHAM LINCOLN IN LONDON 130XII. UNKNOWN AMERICA 135XIII. WHAT OF THE REPUBLIC? 140XIV. RETURN TO THE VISION 150PART III OTHER ESSAYS 159I. THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE IN LITERATURE 159II. THE MIDDLEMAN IN POETRY 172III. SHAKESPEARE AND SHAW 181IV. BERNARD SHAW AND BREAKAGES 186V. THE POPULARITY OF DICKENS 191VI. MAGIC AND FANTASY IN FICTION 195




Observing America


Book Description

Beginning with Alexis de Tocqueville and Frances Trollope, visitors to America have written some of the most penetrating and, occasionally, scathing commentaries on U.S. politics and culture. Observing America focuses on four of the most insightful British commentators on America between 1890 and 1950. The colorful journalist W. T. Stead championed Anglo-American unity while plunging into reform efforts in Chicago. The versatile writer H. G. Wells fiercely criticized capitalist America but found reason for hope in the administrations of Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin Roosevelt. G. K. Chesterton, one of England’s great men of letters, urged Americans to preserve the vestiges of Jeffersonian democracy that he still discerned in the small towns of the heartland. And the influential political theorist and activist Harold Laski assailed the business ethos that he believed dominated the nation, especially after Franklin Roosevelt’s death. Robert Frankel examines the New World experiences of these commentators and the books they wrote about America. He also probes similar writings by other prominent observers from the British Isles, including Beatrice Webb, Rudyard Kipling, and George Bernard Shaw. The result is a book that offers keen insights into America’s national identity in a time of vast political and cultural change.







G. K. Chesterton


Book Description

G. K. Chesterton is remembered as a brilliant creator of nonsense and satirical verse, author of the Father Brown stories and the innovative novel, The Man who was Thursday, and yet today he is not counted among the major English novelists and poets. However, this major new biography argues that Chesterton should be seen as the successor of the great Victorian prose writers, Carlyle, Arnold, Ruskin, and above all Newman. Chesterton's achievement as one of the great English literary critics has not hitherto been fully recognized, perhaps because his best literary criticism is of prose rather than poetry. Ian Ker remedies this neglect, paying particular attention to Chesterton's writings on the Victorians, especially Dickens. As a social and political thinker, Chesterton is contrasted here with contemporary intellectuals like Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells in his championing of democracy and the masses. Pre-eminently a controversialist, as revealed in his prolific journalistic output, he became a formidable apologist for Christianity and Catholicism, as well as a powerful satirist of anti-Catholicism. This full-length life of G. K. Chesterton is the first comprehensive biography of both the man and the writer. It draws on many unpublished letters and papers to evoke Chesterton's joyful humour, his humility and affinity to the common man, and his love of the ordinary things of life.







Monthly Bulletin


Book Description




Twentieth Century Fiction


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A Bookman's Catalogue Vol. 1 A-L


Book Description

The Colbeck collection was formed over half a century ago by the Bournemouth bookseller Norman Colbeck. Focusing primarily on British essayists and poets of the nineteenth century from the Romantic Movement through the Edwardian era, the collection features nearly 500 authors and lists over 13,000 works. Entries are alphabetically arranged by author with copious notes on the condition and binding of each copy. Nine appendices provide listings of selected periodicals, series publications, anthologies, yearbooks, and topical works.




The Common Good


Book Description

The Catholic Social Teaching (CST) Rome Exchange: Advanced Training Experience (CREATE) is the new initiative of the Faculty of Social Science (FASS) at the Pontifical University Saint Thomas Aquinas – Angelicum in Rome. Currently focused on Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), it provides ways for students and experts in Catholic social teaching (CST) to access resources and training in Rome, so as to develop their knowledge and their capability in using CST for resolving problems faced in their local reality. Catholic social teaching Rome Exchange: Advanced Training Experience – starts from two basic ideas: (1) Catholic social thought is a powerful resource in the mission of the Church today, but often it needs to be more widely known and better operationalised in practical situations; (2) Rome is a centre for the development of Catholic social thought; by bringing students and experts to Rome for short or longer stays, we can help them to improve their knowledge of CST and practical skills in implementing it, while ensuring that they stay connected with their home region. CREATE is an integrated set of 5 activities: Expert Council [EC]: a network of professors and experts from different Catholic Higher Education Institutions (CHEIs) in the region meeting once a year in Rome; CREATE Prize [CP]: an annual competition starting in 2021, for an original essay by a young researcher/student from the CEE on some application of CST to society; Salamanca Process Scholarships [SP]: doctorate scholarship and post-doc scholarships for Dominican candidates (sisters and brothers) from Central and Eastern Europe, as part of the Salamanca Process of the Dominican Order; Laudato si’ Scholarships [LS]: doctorate and post-doc scholarships for young people from the CEE region to develop their research in their home countries and institutions, with support from FASS professors. Laudato si’ scholars will come in Rome regularly over a 2-3-year period, in order to take advantage of the resources provided by the FASS and the central Catholic institutions in Rome. CST Toolkit Scholarships [TX]: a semester-long programme of courses in CST (January to June, starting in 2022) for CEE students at the masters or doctorate level.