book pickings

a visual way to explore the brain pickings book archive :: otlet's shelf theme :: back to brain pickings

CREATIVITY :: DESIGN :: SCIENCE :: HISTORY :: PSYCHOLOGY :: ART

sociology

  1. 100 Ideas that Changed Art Michael Bird From cave paintings to the internet, or how art and cultural ideology shape one another.

    100 Ideas that Changed Art

    Michael Bird

    From cave paintings to the internet, or how art and cultural ideology shape one another.
  2. History of Reading Steven Roger Fischer “What music is to the spirit, reading is to the mind. Reading challenges, empowers, bewitches, enriches. We perceive little black marks on white paper or a PC screen and they move us to tears, open up our lives to new insights and understandings, inspire us, organize our existences and connect us with all creation. Surely there can be no greater wonder.” Steven Roger Fischer traces how we went from the dawn of symbols to electronic text, and in the process deconstructs what it actually means to read.

    History of Reading

    Steven Roger Fischer

    “What music is to the spirit, reading is to the mind. Reading challenges, empowers, bewitches, enriches. We perceive little black marks on white paper or a PC screen and they move us to tears, open up our lives to new insights and understandings, inspire us, organize our existences and connect us with all creation.

    Surely there can be no greater wonder.”

    Steven Roger Fischer traces how we went from the dawn of symbols to electronic text, and in the process deconstructs what it actually means to read.
  3. Eavesdropping: An Intimate History John L. Locke How the invention of walls gave rise to eavesdropping – a brief history of personal opacity and public space.

    Eavesdropping: An Intimate History

    John L. Locke

    How the invention of walls gave rise to eavesdropping – a brief history of personal opacity and public space.
  4. Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth, and Violence at the Edge of the 21st Century Alvin Toffler A visionary lens on how social, political, and economic power structures are changing at the dawn of the information age, presaging many of today’s cultural paradigms and touching on other timely topics like networked knowledge, the role of intuition, and the value of adding context.

    Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth, and Violence at the Edge of the 21st Century

    Alvin Toffler

    A visionary lens on how social, political, and economic power structures are changing at the dawn of the information age, presaging many of today’s cultural paradigms and touching on other timely topics like networked knowledge, the role of intuition, and the value of adding context.
  5. Boredom: A Lively History Peter Toohey “Boredom is, in the Darwinian sense, an adaptive emotion. Its purpose, that is, may be designed to help one flourish.” A fascinating history and anthropology of boredom from classics scholar Peter Toohey. From Madame Bovary to fMRI, he explores the roots, symptoms, and symbolism of boredom across art history, psychology, and neurochemistry to examine what it reveals about us both as individuals and as a culture.

    Boredom: A Lively History

    Peter Toohey

    “Boredom is, in the Darwinian sense, an adaptive emotion. Its purpose, that is, may be designed to help one flourish.”

    A fascinating history and anthropology of boredom from classics scholar Peter Toohey. From Madame Bovary to fMRI, he explores the roots, symptoms, and symbolism of boredom across art history, psychology, and neurochemistry to examine what it reveals about us both as individuals and as a culture.
  6. How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read Pierre Bayard “Non-reading is not just the absence of reading. It is a genuine activity, one that consists of adopting a stance in relation to the immense tide of books that protects you from drowning. On that basis, it deserves to be defended and even taught.”

    How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read

    Pierre Bayard

    “Non-reading is not just the absence of reading. It is a genuine activity, one that consists of adopting a stance in relation to the immense tide of books that protects you from drowning. On that basis, it deserves to be defended and even taught.”
  7. The Origins of Sex: A History of the First Sexual Revolution Faramerz Dabhoiwala A formidably research, absorbing, eloquent account of how, contrary to the modern mythology of the 1960s, today’s permissive sexual behavior first developed, seemingly suddenly, some three hundred years earlier, in 17th-century Western Europe. What emerges is a new lens for understanding the Enlightenment as a cultural phenomenon, by connecting this critical sexual transformation to the intellectual, political, and social forces that shaped the period.

    The Origins of Sex: A History of the First Sexual Revolution

    Faramerz Dabhoiwala

    A formidably research, absorbing, eloquent account of how, contrary to the modern mythology of the 1960s, today’s permissive sexual behavior first developed, seemingly suddenly, some three hundred years earlier, in 17th-century Western Europe. What emerges is a new lens for understanding the Enlightenment as a cultural phenomenon, by connecting this critical sexual transformation to the intellectual, political, and social forces that shaped the period.
  8. Sex and Punishment: Four Thousand Years of Judging Desire Eric Berkowitz Writer and lawyer Eric Berkowitz explores the millennia-long quest to regulate and mandate one of the strongest drivers of human behavior, and the tragic deformities that result from the dictatorship of external authority over the most intimate of inner realities. Tracing how we went from the male bonding ceremonies commonly performed in medieval Mediterranean churches to the lesbian executions in 18th-century Germany, along the entire spectrum of cultural attitudes towards mistresses, goat-lovers, prostitutes, medieval transvestites, adulterers, and other sexual norm nonconformists, Berkowitz brings an eye-opening lens to one the most mercilessly judged yet universal aspects of being human.

    Sex and Punishment: Four Thousand Years of Judging Desire

    Eric Berkowitz

    Writer and lawyer Eric Berkowitz explores the millennia-long quest to regulate and mandate one of the strongest drivers of human behavior, and the tragic deformities that result from the dictatorship of external authority over the most intimate of inner realities. Tracing how we went from the male bonding ceremonies commonly performed in medieval Mediterranean churches to the lesbian executions in 18th-century Germany, along the entire spectrum of cultural attitudes towards mistresses, goat-lovers, prostitutes, medieval transvestites, adulterers, and other sexual norm nonconformists, Berkowitz brings an eye-opening lens to one the most mercilessly judged yet universal aspects of being human.
  9. Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone Eric Klinenberg “Despite its prevalence, living alone is one of the least discussed and, consequently, most poorly understood issues of our time.”

    Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone

    Eric Klinenberg

    “Despite its prevalence, living alone is one of the least discussed and, consequently, most poorly understood issues of our time.”