John Fennell – författare

The Emergence of Moscow: 1304-1359 provides a comprehensive political history of Moscow's rise to dominance over other northeast Russian principalities such as Tver', Suzdal', and Rostov. Focused on the period between 1304 and 1359, the study explores the political dynamics that led to Moscow's eventual supremacy, examining the death of Ivan II in 1359 as a pivotal moment signaling the decline of Tatar-dominated Suzdalian politics and the beginning of Muscovite consolidation. The author emphasizes the importance of primary sources, particularly chronicles, despite their challenges, including the fact that most were written long after the events they describe. By carefully analyzing these sources, the book sheds new light on the political struggles of the time and offers a fresh approach to understanding Moscow's rise.The book excludes social and economic history due to the lack of relevant sources for the period and instead concentrates on the available political documentation. It explores the ideological biases and the reliability of chronicles, often written with a tendency to idealize the figures they describe. The author refrains from assessing the personalities of key figures like Ivan Kalita and Ivan II, as there are no contemporary accounts offering detailed descriptions of their characters. Instead, the study focuses on political events and the power struggles that shaped Moscow's rise. The book includes genealogical tables, a glossary, and notes on the transliteration of Russian names, reflecting the author's careful attention to historical accuracy and the complexities of source material.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1968.

The Emergence of Moscow: 1304-1359 provides a comprehensive political history of Moscow's rise to dominance over other northeast Russian principalities such as Tver', Suzdal', and Rostov. Focused on the period between 1304 and 1359, the study explores the political dynamics that led to Moscow's eventual supremacy, examining the death of Ivan II in 1359 as a pivotal moment signaling the decline of Tatar-dominated Suzdalian politics and the beginning of Muscovite consolidation. The author emphasizes the importance of primary sources, particularly chronicles, despite their challenges, including the fact that most were written long after the events they describe. By carefully analyzing these sources, the book sheds new light on the political struggles of the time and offers a fresh approach to understanding Moscow's rise.The book excludes social and economic history due to the lack of relevant sources for the period and instead concentrates on the available political documentation. It explores the ideological biases and the reliability of chronicles, often written with a tendency to idealize the figures they describe. The author refrains from assessing the personalities of key figures like Ivan Kalita and Ivan II, as there are no contemporary accounts offering detailed descriptions of their characters. Instead, the study focuses on political events and the power struggles that shaped Moscow's rise. The book includes genealogical tables, a glossary, and notes on the transliteration of Russian names, reflecting the author's careful attention to historical accuracy and the complexities of source material.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1968.

John Fennell's history of thirteenth-century Russia is the only detailed study in English of the period, and is based on close investigation of the primary sources. His account concentrates on the turbulent politics of northern Russia, which was ultimately to become the tsardom of Muscovy, but he also gives detailed attention to the vast southern empire of Kiev before its eclipse under the Tatars. The resulting study is a major addition to medieval historiography: an essential acquisition for students of Russia itself, and a book which decisively fills a vast blank on the map of the European Middle Ages for medievalists generally.

A Critical Introduction to Philosophy of Language is a historically oriented introduction to the central themes in philosophy of language. Its narrative arc covers Locke’s ‘idea’ theory, Mill’s empiricist account of math and logic, Frege and Russell’s development of modern logic and its subsequent deployment in their pioneering program of ‘logical analysis’, Ayer and Carnap’s logical positivism, Quine’s critique of logical positivism and elaboration of a naturalist-behaviorist approach to meaning, and later-Wittgenstein’s ‘ordinary language philosophy’-inspired rejection of the project of logical analysis. Thus, it historically situates the two central programs in early twentieth-century English-speaking philosophy -- logical analysis and logical positivism -- and discusses the central critiques they face later in the century in the works of Quine and the later-Wittgenstein. Unlike other secondary studies in philosophy of language, A Critical Introduction to Philosophy of Language is not just a ‘greatest hits album’, i.e., a discontinuous compilation in which classics in the field are presented together with their standard criticisms one after the other. Instead, Fennell develops a particular, historical-thematic narrative in which the figures and ideas he treats are introduced in highly intentional ways. And by cross-referencing them throughout his discussions, he highlights the contributions they make to the narrative they comprise.

A Critical Introduction to Philosophy of Language is a historically oriented introduction to the central themes in philosophy of language. Its narrative arc covers Locke’s ‘idea’ theory, Mill’s empiricist account of math and logic, Frege and Russell’s development of modern logic and its subsequent deployment in their pioneering program of ‘logical analysis’, Ayer and Carnap’s logical positivism, Quine’s critique of logical positivism and elaboration of a naturalist-behaviorist approach to meaning, and later-Wittgenstein’s ‘ordinary language philosophy’-inspired rejection of the project of logical analysis. Thus, it historically situates the two central programs in early twentieth-century English-speaking philosophy -- logical analysis and logical positivism -- and discusses the central critiques they face later in the century in the works of Quine and the later-Wittgenstein. Unlike other secondary studies in philosophy of language, A Critical Introduction to Philosophy of Language is not just a ‘greatest hits album’, i.e., a discontinuous compilation in which classics in the field are presented together with their standard criticisms one after the other. Instead, Fennell develops a particular, historical-thematic narrative in which the figures and ideas he treats are introduced in highly intentional ways. And by cross-referencing them throughout his discussions, he highlights the contributions they make to the narrative they comprise.