Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories from History and the Arts"I can't remember when I've learned as much from something I've read—or laughed as much while doing it." —Jacob Weisberg, Slate This international bestseller is an encyclopedic A-Z masterpiece—the perfect introduction to the very core of Western humanism. Clive James rescues, or occasionally destroys, the careers of many of the greatest thinkers, humanists, musicians, artists, and philosophers of the twentieth century. Soaring to Montaigne-like heights, Cultural Amnesia is precisely the book to burnish these memories of a Western civilization that James fears is nearly lost. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 83
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... was surrounded by the kind of people whose only ambition was to cut off the electricity. They were Nazis, and he was a Jew. On the day of the Anschluβ in 1938, Friedell saw the storm troopers marching down the street, on their way to the.
... was surrounded by the kind of people whose only ambition was to cut off the electricity. They were Nazis, and he was a Jew. On the day of the Anschluβ in 1938, Friedell saw the storm troopers marching down the street, on their way to the.
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... Jews had full civil rights until Hitler repealed them, there was a de facto quota system in academic life which made it hard for people of Jewish background to be appointed to the faculty, no matter how well qualified they were. (The ...
... Jews had full civil rights until Hitler repealed them, there was a de facto quota system in academic life which made it hard for people of Jewish background to be appointed to the faculty, no matter how well qualified they were. (The ...
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... Jews as the fragments of the shell's casing, the fragments that travelled furthest. These local disasters added up to a benefit for the world, so we need to change the metaphor, and think of an exploding seed-pod. In the reception of ...
... Jews as the fragments of the shell's casing, the fragments that travelled furthest. These local disasters added up to a benefit for the world, so we need to change the metaphor, and think of an exploding seed-pod. In the reception of ...
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... Jews had a right to feel they had been instrumental in creating; and the tragedy was that their feelings of safe assimilation were falsely based. The triumph might have continued; the Nazis might never have arrived; but they did arrive ...
... Jews had a right to feel they had been instrumental in creating; and the tragedy was that their feelings of safe assimilation were falsely based. The triumph might have continued; the Nazis might never have arrived; but they did arrive ...
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... Jews he was a Schnorrer: a borrower of money. He slept in flophouses and had no real address beyond his favourite café. But all the writers knew that he was carrying a treasure. He had an unrivalled capacity to pour a whole view of life ...
... Jews he was a Schnorrer: a borrower of money. He slept in flophouses and had no real address beyond his favourite café. But all the writers knew that he was carrying a treasure. He had an unrivalled capacity to pour a whole view of life ...
Common terms and phrases
admirers Alfred Polgar already American Aron artist Australian beautiful believe better café called career civilization Communist creative critic culture death democracy didn’t Egon Friedell English Ernesto Sabato Ernst Jünger essay everything exile famous film French German gift Goebbels Golo Golo Mann Gombrowicz happened hard Hitler human idea intellectual jazz Jean-François Revel Jews knew language later less liberal literary literature lived look Marcel Reich-Ranicki mental mind modern Montesquieu movie Nazis never novel philosopher play poem poet poetry Polgar political probably prose Proust Raymond Aron reason remember Revel Rilke Sartre Sartre’s Schnitzler sentence Shakespeare Sophie Scholl Soviet Union Stalin Stefan Zweig story student style Tacitus talent talk tango tell thing Thomas Mann thought torture totalitarian translated true truth Vienna wanted whole Witold Gombrowicz word write written wrote young Zweig