December 08, 2017

From The Economist:

To the modern mind, speculating about moral and philosophical questions is something people engage in individually. In most eras of history, and in many parts of the world today, such freedom would be inconceivable.

From The Economist:

[Religion] has generally been an activity, not a set of true-or-false propositions, and above all a collective activity in which the tribe or nation finds meaning.

From Harper's:

Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are strongly linked to a more acidic brain.

From The New Yorker:

“When I was first in Czechoslovakia,” Roth wrote in an often quoted line, “it occurred to me that I work in a society where as a writer everything goes and nothing matters, while for the Czech writers I met in Prague, nothing goes and everything matters.”

From The TLS (Richard Davenport-Hines on Books of the Year 2017):

Odd Arne Westad’s daring ambition, supra-nationalist intellect, polyglot sources, masterly scholarship and trenchant analysis make The Cold War: A world history (Allen Lane) a book of resounding importance for appraising our global future as well as understanding our past. Westad’s historical truth-telling is a godsend at a time when the organization Historians for Britain suggests that the UK is historically and politically privileged, and embroiders fantasies of English-speaking exceptionalism. The polymathic verve and spry wit of William Whyte’s Unlocking the Church: The lost secrets of Victorian space (Oxford) is an exemplary model of a short, comprehensible history covering diverse, delicate and complex themes. Whyte proves himself the Otto von Simson of Anglicanism as he explains the Victorian interaction of theology and aesthetics, new visual perceptions and expressions of spiritual ideas in stones, church fittings and space, and the design of buildings to arouse emotions. His index contains delightful mischief.