Games with Shadows
Published on 31. January 2013
Book
Paperback/Softback
500 pages
978-1-4482-0638-4 (ISBN)
Description
Beautifully written, intelligent and provocative reflections on the world scene as Ascherson looks first at the painful business of being English in a period of decline marked by public nastiness and private confusion. He goes on to attack - in an important and original series of arguments -the politics of 'Stonehenge': the UK's archaic and undemocratic constitution, and finally examines the temptations of state power in Mrs Thatcher's decade.
Next, Ascherson takes us on a personal tour of Europe, 'the barbaric continent', exposing some ugly hatred and memories lurking beneath the cultured surface; he writes movingly about the courage and sacrifice that nations at their best can draw out. His meditations on Eastern Europe, 'Waltzing With Molotov', are exemplary for their critical sympathy.
In the book's final section, a vivid and memorable collection of sectarians, spies, traitors, heroes, monsters and victims reveals a lot about fear and hope in the closing years of this dangerous century.
Next, Ascherson takes us on a personal tour of Europe, 'the barbaric continent', exposing some ugly hatred and memories lurking beneath the cultured surface; he writes movingly about the courage and sacrifice that nations at their best can draw out. His meditations on Eastern Europe, 'Waltzing With Molotov', are exemplary for their critical sympathy.
In the book's final section, a vivid and memorable collection of sectarians, spies, traitors, heroes, monsters and victims reveals a lot about fear and hope in the closing years of this dangerous century.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Product notice
Paperback (UK-trade)
Dimensions
Height: 231 mm
Width: 151 mm
Thickness: 27 mm
Weight
712 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4482-0638-4 (9781448206384)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Neal Ascherson
Games with Shadows
E-Book
10/2011
1st Edition
Bloomsbury Reader
€16.49
Available for download
Person
Charles Neal Ascherson (born October 5, 1932) is a Scottish journalist and writer. He was born in Edinburgh and educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge, where he read history. He was described by the historian Eric Hobsbawm as "perhaps the most brilliant student I ever had. I didn't really teach him much, I just let him get on with it."
After graduating with a starred First, he declined offers to pursue an academic career. Instead, he chose a career in journalism, first at the Manchester Guardian and then at The Scotsman (1959-1960), The Observer (1960-1990) and the Independent on Sunday (1990-1998). He contributed scripts for the 1974 documentary series World at War and the 1998 series The Cold War. In recent years, he has also been a regular contributor to the London Review of Books.
After graduating with a starred First, he declined offers to pursue an academic career. Instead, he chose a career in journalism, first at the Manchester Guardian and then at The Scotsman (1959-1960), The Observer (1960-1990) and the Independent on Sunday (1990-1998). He contributed scripts for the 1974 documentary series World at War and the 1998 series The Cold War. In recent years, he has also been a regular contributor to the London Review of Books.
Content
I A Ruinous City
Chords of Identity in a Minor Key
The Nostalgia Game
'Tell the Children...'
The Lost World of Small-Town England
Dead Houses
Settlers and Natives
Caring Colonists
Intelligentsia Wanted
The English Bourgeoisie
The Spreading Slime
Dracula in Britain
Greater Privilege Hath No Man...
The English Riot
Enforcing 'Culture'
'Don't Be Afraid - and Don't Steal!'
Scottish Contradictions
Stonehenge and its Power Struggles
The Means of Grace, the Hope of Glory
Secret Passions of the British
II Druids: The Politics of Unreformed Britain
A Spectator Sport
Policing the Market-Place
Druids
Mr Gladstone the Land Raider
Gladstone's Defeat and Our Loss
Telling Sid
The Case for a Bill of Rights
The No-Go Area
A Dumb-Bell World
Thatcher's Dream
Last Leader
The Great Cash-In
Capital
The Land and the People
A Scottish Temple
Coals in the Bath, Sun on the Brain
Journalists Behind the Wire
Ancient Britons and the Republican Dream
III Europe: A Barbaric Continent
Tiring the Romans
Axel's Castles
The Cost of Bitburg
The 'Bildung' of Barbie
The Death Doctors
The Shadows Over France's Feast
Greek Civil War - Rambo-Style
The Strange Death of the Peasantry
Apartheid in Europe
Toads, Journalists, Cats and Policemen
Frontiers
IV Waltzing with Molotov: Eastern Europe
Gobachov's Gifts
Changing Partners
The Polish Ghosts
Pilsudski, or How to Ignore Defeat
1956: How Poland Got Away With It
Requiem for an Old Piano Banger
Invisible Men
The Berlin Wall as Holy Monster
Why Burning People is Always Wrong
'You Lose Freedom by Fighting for It'
Suffering Writing
The Unsung Heroes of Chernobyl
Russian Mist
Dream of Escape
Bad Dreams
V Consolations and Discontents
Picts
Brothers
Nations on Parade
F3080
Exiles
Terrorists
Alive and Well
Spies
Traitors
Witness
Critics
Diaries
Media Heroes
Tempers
Sex
Precision
Pity, Love and the Accident of Birth
The Good Soldier Schimek
Remember Them in Song
Sources
Chords of Identity in a Minor Key
The Nostalgia Game
'Tell the Children...'
The Lost World of Small-Town England
Dead Houses
Settlers and Natives
Caring Colonists
Intelligentsia Wanted
The English Bourgeoisie
The Spreading Slime
Dracula in Britain
Greater Privilege Hath No Man...
The English Riot
Enforcing 'Culture'
'Don't Be Afraid - and Don't Steal!'
Scottish Contradictions
Stonehenge and its Power Struggles
The Means of Grace, the Hope of Glory
Secret Passions of the British
II Druids: The Politics of Unreformed Britain
A Spectator Sport
Policing the Market-Place
Druids
Mr Gladstone the Land Raider
Gladstone's Defeat and Our Loss
Telling Sid
The Case for a Bill of Rights
The No-Go Area
A Dumb-Bell World
Thatcher's Dream
Last Leader
The Great Cash-In
Capital
The Land and the People
A Scottish Temple
Coals in the Bath, Sun on the Brain
Journalists Behind the Wire
Ancient Britons and the Republican Dream
III Europe: A Barbaric Continent
Tiring the Romans
Axel's Castles
The Cost of Bitburg
The 'Bildung' of Barbie
The Death Doctors
The Shadows Over France's Feast
Greek Civil War - Rambo-Style
The Strange Death of the Peasantry
Apartheid in Europe
Toads, Journalists, Cats and Policemen
Frontiers
IV Waltzing with Molotov: Eastern Europe
Gobachov's Gifts
Changing Partners
The Polish Ghosts
Pilsudski, or How to Ignore Defeat
1956: How Poland Got Away With It
Requiem for an Old Piano Banger
Invisible Men
The Berlin Wall as Holy Monster
Why Burning People is Always Wrong
'You Lose Freedom by Fighting for It'
Suffering Writing
The Unsung Heroes of Chernobyl
Russian Mist
Dream of Escape
Bad Dreams
V Consolations and Discontents
Picts
Brothers
Nations on Parade
F3080
Exiles
Terrorists
Alive and Well
Spies
Traitors
Witness
Critics
Diaries
Media Heroes
Tempers
Sex
Precision
Pity, Love and the Accident of Birth
The Good Soldier Schimek
Remember Them in Song
Sources