John Brewer – författare

Vad påverkar återhämtningen efter intensiv träning varför har jag svårt att hämta andan när jag slutat springa? Vad är mjölksyra och varför produceras det under aktivitet varför känns benen som gelé efter en spurt? Hur kan musklernas glykogendepåer optimeras ska jag ladda med kolhydrater för att bli en bra långdistanslöpare?

Löpning är en av de sporter där människans prestationsförmåga pressas till det yttersta, både i fråga om hastighet och uthållighet. I den här boken skildras den vetenskap som ligger till grund för denna så populära sport genom att förstå biomekaniken, näringsläran, psykologin, hälsoaspekterna och skadeförebyggande åtgärder, samt underlag och den tekniska utvecklingen bakom löparskor, kommer du att bli en bättre löpare.

How ungovernable were seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Englishmen? Certainly, the historical evidence attests to an unruly and contumacious populace: riot was widespread, such criminal activities as the counterfeiting of coin flourished, disorder pervaded even London’s gaols, and men at all levels of authority were often hard pressed to enforce the law. On the other hand, the ruling elite had a powerful instrument—the courts—for regulating not only crime but also numerous aspects of social and economic life. Moreover, belief in the value of ‘the rule of law’ was widespread, even among lawbreakers. Knowledge of the law extended far beyond the patrician class, and men from all classes had recourse to the courts.

First published in 1980, An Ungovernable People investigates these paradoxes. Each chapter focusses on a particular source of conflict—village regulation, the price and shipment of grain, the building of turnpike roads, the imprisonment of debtors, the circulation of counterfeit coin—to assess attitudes to ‘the law’ and to authority.

Particular emphasis is placed on the judicial process—how the legal system actually worked; on how often popular protest was an attempt to remind authority of its duties rather than to challenge its legitimacy; and on the way in which law-breaking frequently formed part of a negotiative process between rulers and ruled. These chapters contribute to our understanding of the conflicts that arose when popular notions of what was just or legitimate clashed with authority and the letter of law.

How ungovernable were seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Englishmen? Certainly, the historical evidence attests to an unruly and contumacious populace: riot was widespread, such criminal activities as the counterfeiting of coin flourished, disorder pervaded even London’s gaols, and men at all levels of authority were often hard pressed to enforce the law. On the other hand, the ruling elite had a powerful instrument—the courts—for regulating not only crime but also numerous aspects of social and economic life. Moreover, belief in the value of ‘the rule of law’ was widespread, even among lawbreakers. Knowledge of the law extended far beyond the patrician class, and men from all classes had recourse to the courts.

First published in 1980, An Ungovernable People investigates these paradoxes. Each chapter focusses on a particular source of conflict—village regulation, the price and shipment of grain, the building of turnpike roads, the imprisonment of debtors, the circulation of counterfeit coin—to assess attitudes to ‘the law’ and to authority.

Particular emphasis is placed on the judicial process—how the legal system actually worked; on how often popular protest was an attempt to remind authority of its duties rather than to challenge its legitimacy; and on the way in which law-breaking frequently formed part of a negotiative process between rulers and ruled. These chapters contribute to our understanding of the conflicts that arose when popular notions of what was just or legitimate clashed with authority and the letter of law.

The Pleasures of the Imagination examines the birth and development of English "high culture" in the eighteenth century. It charts the growth of a literary and artistic world fostered by publishers, theatrical and musical impresarios, picture dealers and auctioneers, and presented to th public in coffee-houses, concert halls, libraries, theatres and pleasure gardens. In 1660, there were few professional authors, musicians and painters, no public concert series, galleries, newspaper critics or reviews. By the dawn of the nineteenth century they were all aprt of the cultural life of the nation.

John Brewer''s enthralling book explains how this happened and recreates the world in which the great works of English eighteenth-century art were made. Its purpose is to show how literature, painting, music and the theatre were communicated to a public increasingly avid for them. It explores the alleys and garrets of Grub Street, rummages the shelves of bookshops and libraries, peers through printsellers'' shop windows and into artists'' studios, and slips behind the scenes at Drury Lane and Covent Garden. It takes us out of Gay and Boswell''s London to visit the debating clubs, poetry circles, ballrooms, concert halls, music festivals, theatres and assemblies that made the culture of English provincial towns, and shows us how the national landscape became one of Britain''s greatest cultural treasures. It reveals to us a picture of English artistic and literary life in the eighteenth century less familiar, but more suprising, more various and more convincing than any we have seen before.

The Pleasures of the Imagination examines the birth and development of English "high culture" in the eighteenth century. It charts the growth of a literary and artistic world fostered by publishers, theatrical and musical impresarios, picture dealers and auctioneers, and presented to th public in coffee-houses, concert halls, libraries, theatres and pleasure gardens. In 1660, there were few professional authors, musicians and painters, no public concert series, galleries, newspaper critics or reviews. By the dawn of the nineteenth century they were all aprt of the cultural life of the nation.

John Brewer''s enthralling book explains how this happened and recreates the world in which the great works of English eighteenth-century art were made. Its purpose is to show how literature, painting, music and the theatre were communicated to a public increasingly avid for them. It explores the alleys and garrets of Grub Street, rummages the shelves of bookshops and libraries, peers through printsellers'' shop windows and into artists'' studios, and slips behind the scenes at Drury Lane and Covent Garden. It takes us out of Gay and Boswell''s London to visit the debating clubs, poetry circles, ballrooms, concert halls, music festivals, theatres and assemblies that made the culture of English provincial towns, and shows us how the national landscape became one of Britain''s greatest cultural treasures. It reveals to us a picture of English artistic and literary life in the eighteenth century less familiar, but more suprising, more various and more convincing than any we have seen before.

The study of past society in terms of what it consumes rather than what it produces is - relatively speaking - a new development. The focus on consumption changes the whole emphasis and structure of historical enquiry. While human beings usually work within a single trade or industry as producers, as, say, farmers or industrial workers, as consumers they are active in many different markets or networks. And while history written from a production viewpoint has, by chance or design, largely been centred on the work of men, consumption history helps to restore women o the mainstream.The history of consumption demands a wide range of skills. It calls upon the methods and techniques of many other disciplines, including archaeology, sociology, social and economic history, anthropology and art criticism. But it is not simply a melting-pot of techniques and skills, brought to bear on a past epoch. Its objectives amount to a new description of a past culture in its totality, as perceived through its patterns of consumption in goods and services.Consumption and the World of Goods is the first of three volumes to examine history from this perspective, and is a unique collaboration between twenty-six leading subject specialists from Europe and North America. The outcome is a new interpretation of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, one that shapes a new historical landscape based on the consumption of goods and services.

The study of past society in terms of what it consumes rather than what it produces is - relatively speaking - a new development. The focus on consumption changes the whole emphasis and structure of historical enquiry. While human beings usually work within a single trade or industry as producers, as, say, farmers or industrial workers, as consumers they are active in many different markets or networks. And while history written from a production viewpoint has, by chance or design, largely been centred on the work of men, consumption history helps to restore women o the mainstream.The history of consumption demands a wide range of skills. It calls upon the methods and techniques of many other disciplines, including archaeology, sociology, social and economic history, anthropology and art criticism. But it is not simply a melting-pot of techniques and skills, brought to bear on a past epoch. Its objectives amount to a new description of a past culture in its totality, as perceived through its patterns of consumption in goods and services.Consumption and the World of Goods is the first of three volumes to examine history from this perspective, and is a unique collaboration between twenty-six leading subject specialists from Europe and North America. The outcome is a new interpretation of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, one that shapes a new historical landscape based on the consumption of goods and services.

Early Modern Conceptions of Property draws together distinguished academics from a variety of disciplines, including law, economics, politics, art history, social history and literature, in order to consider fundamental issues of property in the early modern period. Presenting diverse original historical and literary case studies in a sophisticated theoretical framework, it offers a challenge to conventional interpretations.

Early Modern Conceptions of Property draws together distinguished academics from a variety of disciplines, including law, economics, politics, art history, social history and literature, in order to consider fundamental issues of property in the early modern period. Presenting diverse original historical and literary case studies in a sophisticated theoretical framework, it offers a challenge to conventional interpretations.