Born almost a hundred years ago in Vienna, Eric Hobsbawm, who was to become one of the most brilliant and original historians of our age, was uniquely placed to observe an era of titanic social and artistic change.
Acclaimed historian (and one of our earliest Supper Club speakers!) Michael Burleigh’s powerfully recounts the struggles following the collapse of Western colonial empires after the Second World War, whose bloody consequences haunt us still. He takes us on a historical journey from Palestine to Pakistan, from Cuba to Indo-China and reframes mid-20th century history by forcing us to look away from the Cold War to the hot wars that continue to afflict us.
The result is a dazzling work of history, which examines the death of colonialism with passion, insight and genuine understanding of what it feels like to be caught in the middle of realpolitik.
The Second World War is the nightmare that sits at the heart of the modern era – a total refutation of any notion of human progress and a conflict which still haunts us seventy years on. Norman Stone’s gripping new book aims to tell the narrative of the war in as brief a compass as possible, making a sometimes familiar story utterly fresh and arresting.
This is a beautifully written, clever and imaginative attempt to convey what can almost not be conveyed.
In his work as a practising psychoanalyst, Stephen Grosz has spent the last twenty-five years uncovering the hidden feelings behind our most baffling behaviour. This extraordinary book is about one ordinary process: talking, listening and understanding.
Its aphoristic and elegant stories teach us a new kind of attentiveness. They also unveil a delicate self-portrait of the analyst at work, and show how lessons learned in the consulting room can reveal as much to him as to the patient. These are stories about our everyday lives: they are about the people we love and the lies that we tell; the changes we bear, and the grief.
Ultimately, they show us not only how we lose ourselves but how we might find ourselves too.