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 84
Page
... intellectual bêtes noires are here too, and the same division might apply. Everyone has heard of Sartre, Brecht ... intellectuals who truckled to power—were not always without a spark of.
... intellectual bêtes noires are here too, and the same division might apply. Everyone has heard of Sartre, Brecht ... intellectuals who truckled to power—were not always without a spark of.
Page
... intellectual community scattering to the world. It had happened before, in the German cities in 1933, and it happened before that, in Poland under Russian persecution, and in Russia both before and after the Revolution. In each case ...
... intellectual community scattering to the world. It had happened before, in the German cities in 1933, and it happened before that, in Poland under Russian persecution, and in Russia both before and after the Revolution. In each case ...
Page
... intellectuals had in common was that they knew Peter Altenberg, who by their standards hardly achieved anything at all. Altenberg was a bum, and I place him near the beginning of this book—preceded only by Anna Akhmatova, whom he ...
... intellectuals had in common was that they knew Peter Altenberg, who by their standards hardly achieved anything at all. Altenberg was a bum, and I place him near the beginning of this book—preceded only by Anna Akhmatova, whom he ...
Page
... intellectual qualities in their most accessible form. The danger of American cultural imperialism is that it gives Americans a plausible reason for thinking that they can do without the world. But the world helped to make them what they ...
... intellectual qualities in their most accessible form. The danger of American cultural imperialism is that it gives Americans a plausible reason for thinking that they can do without the world. But the world helped to make them what they ...
Page
... intellectual Nina Berberova, left the Soviet Union in 1921, the very year that Gumilev was shot and Akhmatova was proscribed. Written in her last years, Berberova's delightful book about her life in the Russian emigration, The Italics ...
... intellectual Nina Berberova, left the Soviet Union in 1921, the very year that Gumilev was shot and Akhmatova was proscribed. Written in her last years, Berberova's delightful book about her life in the Russian emigration, The Italics ...
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