Maxims for a Fulfilling Life
A combination of adages, maxims, aphorisms and plain old common sense, this book embodies a host of life-long truisms. And while value of the quote depends on each individual person…
Tangled Paths: A Life of Aby Warburg
Review by Professor Marion Dolan Tangled Paths: A Life of Aby Warburg surveys the difficult and troubled story of Aby Warburg (1866-1929), a major figure in the area of intellectual…
THE EYES OF TEXAS: The Shocking truth
“I knew that the song was strangely creepy,” said University of Texas Austin Professor Alberto Martinez in his book talk at Livra Books this week. He was referring to the…
SIGNS OF VIRILE MASCULINITY: Peacocks and the Pope’s Beard
This fascinating historical study of representations of masculinity is edited by Konrad Eisenbichler, a professor in the department of Italian Studies at the University of Toronto. He has received numerous…
THE PRISM OF BEAUTY: Ancient Greeks and the Gods
Image: A Classical sculpture in Florence “It is beautiful; it has no meaning,” the French Nobel laureate André Gide remarked on Aristide Malliol’s sculpture The Mediterranean when it was shown…
The Truth about Machiavelli
This fascinating book represents the distillation of a lifetime of scholarly thought on Machiavelli. The author is Prof. Harvey C. Mansfield of Harvard University, the pre-eminent American political philosopher of…
Beautiful, Wonderful, Deep Mathematics
Image: Eratosthenes teaching in Alexandria “I would plead for more attention to the history of mathematics. It seems to me to be extremely desirable, if not actually indispensable, for entering…
When MONSTROSITY DEFINED HUMANITY
While this is a fine synthesis of the ancient Greek experience, it must be said that there is little ‘new’ in this book by Jennifer Roberts. The target audience is…
Natural Philosophy at Oxford University
Image: Sir John Ball, Sedleian Professor from 1996-2019 For the past 400 years, Oxford University has had an endowed chair of natural philosophy. It began in 1621, due to a…
Centennial of Britain’s First Labour Government
In 2024, Sir Keir Starmer became the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. As leader of the Labour party, he swept to power with 412 seats in Parliament. As…