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Ideas: A History from Fire to Freud
by Watson, Peter
- Used
- Very Good
- Hardcover
- Condition
- Very Good/Very Good
- Seller
-
nr Canterbury, Kent, United Kingdom
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
London, UK: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2005. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. 4to - over 9¾ - 12" tall. xx, 822pp. Cream cloth-covered boards, black titles on spine. Illustrated endpapers. 4to. A large and heavy volume requiring an additional charge for overseas delivery. Rubbed spine heel. Internally neat, clean, bright and tight. Dust jacket spine sun-faded, has light shelf wear, chipping to edges, mirrors book damage, not price clipped.
Synopsis
In this hugely ambitious and stimulating book, Peter Watson describes the history of ideas, from deep antiquity to the present day, leading to a new way of understanding our world and ourselves.The narrative begins nearly two million years ago with the invention of hand-axes and explores how some of our most cherished notions might have originated before humans had language. Then, in a broad sweep, the book moves forward to consider not the battles and treaties of kings and prime ministers, emperors and generals, but the most important ideas we have evolved, by which we live and which separate us from other animals. Watson explores the first languages and the first words, the birth of the gods, the origins of art, the profound intellectual consequences of money. He describes the invention of writing, early ideas about law, why sacrifice and the soul have proved so enduring in religion. He explains how ideas about time evolved, how numbers were conceived, how science, medicine, sociology, economics, and capitalism came into being. He shows how the discovery of the New World changed forever the way that we think, and why Chinese creativity faded after the Middle Ages.In the course of this commanding narrative, Watson reveals the linkages down the ages in the ideas of many apparently disparate philosophers, astronomers, religious leaders, biologists, inventors, poets, jurists, and scores of others. Aristotle jostles with Aquinas, Ptolemy with Photius, Kalidasa with Zhu Xi, Beethoven with Strindberg, Jefferson with Freud. Ideas is a seminal work.
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Details
- Bookseller
- BookAddiction
(GB)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 020958
- Title
- Ideas: A History from Fire to Freud
- Author
- Watson, Peter
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Jacket Condition
- Very Good
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Publisher
- Weidenfeld & Nicolson
- Place of Publication
- London, UK
- Date Published
- 2005
- Size
- 4to - over 9¾ - 12"
- Weight
- 4.41 lbs
- Keywords
- Ideas, Innovation, Thinking, Philosophy
Terms of Sale
BookAddiction
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Dispatch
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About the Seller
BookAddiction
Biblio member since 2021
nr Canterbury, Kent
About BookAddiction
Based in the leafy hamlet of Chartham Hatch, just a few miles from the historic Cathedral city of Canterbury, BookAddiction offers beautiful, illustrated and collectible used books and a selection of unique works on paper.BookAddiction was established in 1999 (originally trading as The Virtual Bookshelf). We are members of the book-selling co-operation, Ibooknet, which extends the highest professional and ethical standards, and are in the process of joining the Provincial Booksellers' Fairs Association (PBFA).Follow our blog, on books and book collecting at www.bookaddictionuk.wordpress.uk or visit our website at www.bookaddiction.co.uk.We welcome inquiries about our books and endeavour to respond promptly. Please ask away, Offers always welcome.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Edges
- The collective of the top, fore and bottom edges of the text block of the book, being that part of the edges of the pages of a...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- Tight
- Used to mean that the binding of a book has not been overly loosened by frequent use.
- Heel
- The lower most portion of the spine when the book is standing vertically.
- Chipping
- A defect in which small pieces are missing from the edges; fraying or small pieces of paper missing the edge of a paperback, or...
- Shelf Wear
- Shelf wear (shelfwear) describes damage caused over time to a book by placing and removing a book from a shelf. This damage is...
- Price Clipped
- When a book is described as price-clipped, it indicates that the portion of the dust jacket flap that has the publisher's...
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