Exploring the vibrant world of boxing, the narrative follows Mike North, an amateur boxing official and wedding photographer, who finds his passion ignited by David, a retired British midshipman and journalist. Together, they delve into the exhilarating and gritty atmosphere of boxing's golden age, offering an insider's perspective on the lives of photographers, journalists, promoters, judges, and fighters. The story captures the raw energy and complexity of the sport, bringing readers ringside for an unforgettable experience.
"If art and science have one thing in common, it's a hunger for the new--new ideas and innovations, new ways of seeing and depicting the world. But that desire for novelty carries with it a fundamental philosophical problem: If everything has to come from something, how can anything truly new emerge? Is novelty even possible? In Novelty, Michael North takes us on a dazzling tour of more than two millennia of thinking about the problem of the new, from the puzzles of the pre-Socratics to the art world of the 1960s and '70s. The terms of the debate, North shows, were established before Plato, and have changed very little since: novelty, philosophers argued, could only arise from either recurrence or recombination. The former, found in nature's cycles of renewal, and the latter, seen most clearly in the workings of language, between them have accounted for nearly all the ways in which novelty has been conceived in Western history, taking in reformation, renaissance, invention, revolution, and even evolution. As he pursues this idea through centuries and across disciplines, North exhibits astonishing range, drawing on figures as diverse as Charles Darwin and Robert Smithson, Thomas Kuhn and Ezra Pound, Norbert Wiener and Andy Warhol, all of whom offer different ways of grappling with newness as such. Novelty, North demonstrates, remains a central problem of contemporary science and literature--an ever-receding target that, in its complexity and evasiveness, continues to inspire and propel the modern. A heady, ambitious intellectual feast, Novelty is rich with insight, a masterpiece of perceptive synthesis."--Jacket
Eighteenth-century Europe witnessed a commercialisation of culture as the marketing of culture became separated from its production and new cultural entrepreneurs entered the stage. Cultural consumption also played a substantial role in creating social identity. In this book, Michael North systematically explores this field for the first time in regard to the European Continent, and especially to eighteenth-century Germany. Chapters focus on the new forms of entertainment - concerts, theatre, opera, reading societies and traveling - on the one hand and on the new material culture - fashion, gardens, country houses and furniture - on the other.
Offering an introduction to the world's seas as a platform for global exchange and connection, Michael North offers an impressive world history of the seas over more than 3,000 years. Exploring the challenges and dangers of the oceans that humans have struggled with for centuries, he also shows the possibilities and opportunities they have provided from antiquity to the modern day. Written to demonstrate the global connectivity of the seas, but also to highlight regional maritime power during different eras, From Harbour to Horizon takes sailors, merchants and migrants as the protagonists of these histories and explores how their experiences and perceptions of the seas were consolidated through trade and cultural exchange. Bringing together the various maritime historiographies of the world and underlining their unity, this book shows how the ocean has been a vital and natural space of globalization. Carrying goods, creating alliances, linking continents and conveying culture, the history of the ocean played a central role in creating our modern globalized world.
The book delves into the remarkable achievements of the Netherlands during its seventeenth-century Golden Age, highlighting its economic prosperity, high literacy rates, and vibrant artistic culture. Michael North investigates the factors contributing to this success, such as trade, industry, and a structured social network, while emphasizing the transformative role of art in society. He examines the impact of commercialization on artistic production, the dynamics of art ownership, and the careers of notable artists like Vermeer and Rembrandt, offering a comprehensive view of this pivotal historical period.
A provocative new look at concepts of the present, their connection to ideas about time, and their effect on literature, art, and culture. The problem of the present-what it is and what it means-is one that has vexed generations of thinkers and artists. Because modernity places so much value on the present, many critics argue that people today spend far too much time in the here and now-but how can we tell without first knowing what the here and now actually is? What Is the Present? takes a provocative new look at this moment in time that remains a mystery even though it is always with us. Michael North tackles puzzles that have preoccupied philosophy, neuroscience, psychology, history, and aesthetic theory and examines the complex role of the present in painting, fiction, and film. He engages with a range of thinkers, from Aristotle and Augustine to William James and Henri Bergson. He draws illuminating examples from artists such as Fra Angelico and Richard McGuire, filmmakers like D.W. Griffith and Christopher Nolan, and novelists such as Elizabeth Bowen and Willa Cather. North offers a critical analysis of previous models of the present, from the experiential present to the historical period we call the contemporary. He argues that the present is not a cosmological or experiential fact but a metaphor, a figurative relationship with the whole of time. Presenting an entirely new conception of the temporal mystery Georg Lukacs called the "unexplained instant," What Is the Present? explores how the arts have traditionally represented the present-and also how artists have offered radical alternatives to that tradition
The narrative explores the political engagements of three influential writers, detailing their activism and the impact of their literary works on societal issues. It highlights how their political beliefs shaped their writing and the broader cultural landscape, offering insights into the intersection of literature and politics.
In this overview of the Baltic region from the Vikings to the European Union, Michael North presents the sea and the lands that surround it as a Nordic Mediterranean, a maritime zone of shared influence, with its own distinct patterns of trade, cultural exchange, and conflict. Covering over a thousand years in a part of the world where seas have been much more connective than land, The Baltic: A History transforms the way we think about a body of water too often ignored in studies of the world’s major waterways. The Baltic lands have been populated since prehistory by diverse linguistic groups: Balts, Slavs, Germans, and Finns. North traces how the various tribes, peoples, and states of the region have lived in peace and at war, as both global powers and pawns of foreign regimes, and as exceptionally creative interpreters of cultural movements from Christianity to Romanticism and Modernism. He examines the golden age of the Vikings, the Hanseatic League, Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, and Peter the Great, and looks at the hard choices people had to make in the twentieth century as fascists, communists, and liberal democrats played out their ambitions on the region’s doorstep. With its vigorous trade in furs, fish, timber, amber, and grain and its strategic position as a thruway for oil and natural gas, the Baltic has been—and remains—one of the great economic and cultural crossroads of the world.
Focusing on the principles and applications of stereochemistry, this text delves into the biological properties of stereoisomers and the methods for preparing and analyzing stereoisomerically pure compounds. It also explores the stereochemistry of both inorganic and organometallic compounds, providing a comprehensive understanding of how stereochemistry influences various chemical behaviors and properties.
The textbook delves into the transformative period of later medieval Europe, examining significant changes across various regions such as the Holy Roman Empire, East-Central Europe, Scandinavia, and Russia. It offers a comprehensive analysis of political history while also exploring economic, social, and cultural developments, including art, architecture, literature, and music. This multifaceted approach provides a well-rounded understanding of the era's complexities and regional variations.
