Liberalism and democracy have long been assumed to exist in a complementary relationship, if not always an entirely easy one. This book scrupulously investigates the reason for this alliance and the sources of its tensions, providing a lucid and succinct introduction to some of the subject’s central concepts and concerns.

Product Description: This study of minorities involves the difficult issues of rights, justice, equality, dignity, identity, autonomy, political liberties, and cultural freedoms. The A-Z Encyclopedia presents the facts, arguments, and areas of contention in over 560 entries in a clear, objective manner...read more

This is an illuminating and thought provoking study of the various meanings of distance. Opening with a discussion of defamiliarisation, which traces the roots of the idea in classical and enlightenment culture, he moves in to fascinating explorations of the concepts of perspective, representation, imagery and myth.

Product Description: This volume offers a reasoned critical account of a wide range of travel writing about rural Ireland. The focus is on work by English travellers who visited Ireland for pleasure, from the ’scenic tourists’ of the post-Romantic period to Eric Newby in the 1980s...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Recreates the world of ancient Egypt, describes how the Library of Alexandria was created, and speculates on its destruction (view table of contents)