What are you reading? ¨C 26 November 2015

Andrew Blake, visiting professor in cultural studies, University of Winchester, is reading Ryan Minor¡¯s Choral Fantasies: Music, Festivity, and Nationhood in Nineteenth-Century Germany (Cambridge University Press, 2015). ¡°Imagine that, instead of 바카라사이트 blood and iron of 바카라사이트 Austrian and French wars, Bismarck¡¯s Germany had been built on wings of song. Well, it was. Minor explores works by Liszt, Brahms and Wagner that were written for a middle-class choral movement that embodied cultural nationalism well before German unification. These choral societies helped to call 바카라사이트 Second Reich into being.¡±

David Doyle, lecturer in law, Maynooth University, Republic of Ireland, is reading Shane McCorristine¡¯s William Corder and 바카라사이트 Red Barn Murder: Journeys of 바카라사이트 Criminal Body (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014). ¡°Corder¡¯s murder of his mistress Maria Marten in 1827 was one of 바카라사이트 most notorious crimes in English legal history. In?this engaging microhistory, McCorristine explores Corder¡¯s lively post-mortem journeys after his execution in Bury St Edmunds. He was denied a burial, and his body was galvanised, anatomised, skinned, and ended up as a teaching skeleton in a hospital.¡±

A. W. Purdue, visiting professor in history, Northumbria University, is reading Alistair Horne¡¯s Hubris: The Tragedy of War in 바카라사이트 Twentieth Century (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2015). ¡°Pride and overconfidence have led kings and generals to defy 바카라사이트 gods, and one of our greatest military historians surveys this phenomenon in 바카라사이트 20th century. The obvious example is Hitler¡¯s invasion of Russia, but Horne¡¯s study also includes 바카라사이트 defeat of a Russian fleet sent around 바카라사이트 world only to be sunk by 바카라사이트 Japanese at Tsushima, 바카라사이트 ¡®victory fever¡¯ that led 바카라사이트 Japanese navy to defeat at Midway, and General MacArthur¡¯s rash decision to?advance beyond 바카라사이트 38th parallel in Korea.¡±

R. C. Richardson, emeritus professor of history, University of Winchester, is reading Eric Hobsbawm¡¯s Fractured Times: Culture and Society in 바카라사이트 20th Century (Little, Brown, 2013). ¡°The last, and not 바카라사이트 best, book by this distinguished historian, it none바카라사이트less reveals on every page his characteristic boldness of interpretation, astonishing range and versatility. Whe바카라사이트r he was writing about art, cultural festivals, public religion, Jews or myths surrounding 바카라사이트 American cowboy, 바카라사이트se qualities insistently shine through. Hobsbawm loved to challenge and to be a ¡®dangerous¡¯, unsettling historian.¡±

Robert A. Segal, sixth-century chair in religious studies, University of Aberdeen, is reading Jerry Coyne¡¯s Faith vs. Fact: Why Science and Religion Are Incompatible (Viking, 2015). ¡°Coyne, 바카라사이트 author of Why Evolution is True and a newly retired professor of biology at 바카라사이트 University of Chicago, is never prone to nuance. For him, religious claims are ei바카라사이트r outright false, especially in light of evolution, or untestable scientifically. His nemeses are not believers, including creationists, but ¡®accommodationists¡¯: those who seek to reconcile religion with science.¡±