Matthew Stewart – författare

Philosophy in the late seventeenth century was a dangerous business. No careerist could afford to know the reclusive philosopher known as the 'atheist Jew', Baruch de Spinoza. Yet the wildly ambitious young genius Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz became obsessed with Spinoza's writings, wrote him clandestine letters, and ultimately called on Spinoza in person at his home in The Hague. Both men were at the centre of the intense religious, political and personal battles that gave birth to the modern age. One was a hermit with many friends; the other, a socialite no one trusted. One believed in a God whom almost nobody thought divine; the other defended a God in whom he probably did not believe. Their characters and ways of life defined their philosophies. In this exquisitely written philosophical romance of attraction and repulsion, greed and virtue, religion and heresy, Matthew Stewart dramatises a titanic clash of beliefs that still continues today. 'A sprightly and enlightening biography ... this is an exhilaratingly epic canvas. Stewart's writing has huge panache ... It is philosophy exuberantly rooted in history, grabbing you by the lapels and making sure that you know why you are being dragged round the backstreets of The Hague and up the front of the Leineschloss in Hanover. You will not regret the visits.' Sir Diarmaid MacCulloch, 'The Guardian''Gripping ... the best current untechnical introduction to the lives and philosophies of the two men. Stewart does it in very agreeable prose, and what he says rests on a sound bottom of historical and philosophical scholarship, so lightly worn that one is not conscious of the skill that has gone into making the epoch and its seminal ideas accessible. The result is a thoroughly good book, hard to put down for anyone interested in the great story of the Western intellectual tradition.' A. C. Grayling, 'Literary Review''A compelling adventure' Nicholas Fearn, 'The Independent'' ... superbly elegant and intelligent prose.' Edward Skidelsky, 'The Saturday Telegraph'Matthew Stewart received his doctorate in philosophy from Oxford University. He sold his management consulting firm so as to devote his time to other thoughts. He lives in New York.

Erudite Thomas Jefferson, wily Benjamin Franklin, rough-hewn general Ethan Allen and Thomas Young (who instigated the Boston Tea Party)—the radicals who founded America set their sights on a revolution of the mind. Derided as "infidels" and "atheists" in their time, they wanted liberation from a king but also from supernatural religion. The ideas that inspired them were largely ancient, pagan and continental: the fecund universe of Lucretius; the potent natural divinity of Spinoza.From the meaning of "nature’s God" and "self-evident" in the Declaration of Independence to the sources of The United States’s success in science, medicine, the arts, religious tolerance and democratic governance, Matthew Stewart’s investigation surprises, challenges, enlightens and entertains as a philosophical detective story of the highest order.

America’s founders intended to liberate us not just from one king but from the ghostly tyranny of supernatural religion. Drawing deeply on the study of European philosophy, Matthew Stewart brilliantly tracks the ancient, pagan, and continental ideas from which America’s revolutionaries drew their inspiration. In the writings of Spinoza, Lucretius, and other great philosophers, Stewart recovers the true meanings of “Nature’s God,” “the pursuit of happiness,” and the radical political theory with which the American experiment in self-government began.

This is a story about a dangerous idea—that all men are created equal—which ignited revolutions in America, France and Haiti; burst across Europe in the revolutions of 1848; and returned to inflame a new generation of intellectuals to lead the abolition movement. Frederick Douglass’s unusual interest in radical German philosophers and Abraham Lincoln’s odd, buried allusions to the same rationalist, secularist, and essentially atheist thinkers are but a few of the clues that underlie this propulsive philosophical detective story. With fresh takes on forgotten thinkers like Theodore Parker (a minister too radical even for the Unitarians, whose work provided some of Lincoln’s most famous lines) and a feisty band of German refugees, Matthew Stewart’s vivid storytelling and piercing insights forge a significant revision in our understanding of the origins and meaning of the struggle over slavery in America—and offer a fresh perspective on struggles between democracy and elite power today.

This is a story about a dangerous idea—one which ignited revolutions in America, France and Haiti; burst across Europe in the revolutions of 1848; and returned to inflame a new generation of intellectuals to lead the abolition movement—the idea that all men are created equal.In their struggle against the slaveholding oligarchy of their time, America’s antislavery leaders found their way back to the rationalist, secularist and essentially atheist inspiration for the first American Revolution. Frederick Douglass’s unusual interest in radical German philosophers and Abraham Lincoln’s buried allusions to the same thinkers are but a few of the clues that underlie this propulsive philosophical detective story. With fresh takes on forgotten thinkers like Theodore Parker, the excommunicated Unitarian minister who is the original source of some of Lincoln’s most famous lines, and a feisty band of German refugees, philosopher and historian Matthew Stewart tells a vivid and piercing story of the battle between America’s philosophical radicals and the conservative counter-revolution that swept the American republic in the first decades of its existence and persists in new forms up to the present day. In exposing the role of Christian nationalism and the collusion between northern economic elites and slaveholding oligarchs, An Emancipation of the Mind demands a significant revision in our understanding of the origins and meaning of the struggle over slavery in America—and offers a fresh perspective on struggles between democracy and elite power today.

Why have so many philosophers risked their lives for their vocation? Why have reigning authoritarian rulers been so keen to silence them? This book frames the philosophical search for wisdom as part of the human quest for freedom. Matthew Stewart argues that philosophy is not a body of specialized expertise but an activity—like conversation, making music, or starting a revolution—open to everyone and capable of transforming the world.A sweeping new history of philosophy, the book rescues forgotten gems such as Giordano Bruno and Pierre Bayle, challenges our understanding of canonical figures such as Plato and Descartes, and weaves major Eastern and Western traditions into a single global story reaching back to prehistory. Along the way, it offers brisk interpretations of key philosophical subdisciplines such as metaphysics, philosophy of mind, epistemology, ethics, and political philosophy. Lively and accessible, it will be of interest to both novices and seasoned readers in philosophy.

A handbook to Hemingway's famous collection of short stories that emphasizes its status as a modernist masterwork.The volume of collected short stories and vignettes In Our Time was Ernest Hemingway's first commercial publication. Its appearance in 1925 launched the full-fledged literary career of this century's most famous American fiction writer. And while other later works of Hemingway have eclipsed In Our Time's fame, none of Hemingway's subsequent works would again carry the degree of experimentation found in this distinctly modernist masterwork. Modernism and Tradition in Ernest Hemingway's In Our Time: A Guide for Students and Readers is a well-paced, lucidly written handbook intended to guide university students and teaching faculty towards a better understanding of this complex work. It provides a reading of each story and vignette, while simultaneously stressing the status of In Our Time as a discrete volume. Included are discussions of the book's biographical and historical background, and considerations of Hemingway's prose style, theories of writing, formal achievements, his literary mentors and influences, and the relation between In Our Time and his later works.Matthew C. Stewart isAssociate Professor of Humanities and Rhetoric at Boston University.

A “brilliant” (The Washington Post), “clear-eyed and incisive” (The New Republic) analysis of how the wealthiest group in American society is making life miserable for everyone—including themselves.In 21st-century America, the top 0.1% of the wealth distribution have walked away with the big prizes even while the bottom 90% have lost ground. What’s left of the American Dream has taken refuge in the 9.9% that lies just below the tip of extreme wealth. Collectively, the members of this group control more than half of the wealth in the country—and they are doing whatever it takes to hang on to their piece of the action in an increasingly unjust system. They log insane hours at the office and then turn their leisure time into an excuse for more career-building, even as they rely on an underpaid servant class to power their economic success and satisfy their personal needs. They have segregated themselves into zip codes designed to exclude as many people as possible. They have made fitness a national obsession even as swaths of the population lose healthcare and grow sicker. They have created an unprecedented demand for admission to elite schools and helped to fuel the dramatic cost of higher education. They channel their political energy into symbolic conflicts over identity in order to avoid acknowledging the economic roots of their privilege. And they have created an ethos of “merit” to justify their advantages. They are all around us. In fact, they are us—or what we are supposed to want to be. In this “captivating account” (Robert D. Putnam, author of Bowling Alone), Matthew Stewart argues that a new aristocracy is emerging in American society and it is repeating the mistakes of history. It is entrenching inequality, warping our culture, eroding democracy, and transforming an abundant economy into a source of misery. He calls for a regrounding of American culture and politics on a foundation closer to the original promise of America.

Once upon a time, philosophy was a dangerous business—and for no one more so than for Baruch Spinoza, the seventeenth-century philosopher vilified by theologians and political authorities everywhere as “the atheist Jew.” As his inflammatory manuscripts circulated underground, Spinoza lived a humble existence in The Hague, grinding optical lenses to make ends meet. Meanwhile, in the glittering salons of Paris, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was climbing the ladder of courtly success. In between trips to the opera and groundbreaking work in mathematics, philosophy, and jurisprudence, he took every opportunity to denounce Spinoza, relishing his self-appointed role as “God’s attorney.”In this exquisitely written philosophical romance of attraction and repulsion, greed and virtue, religion and heresy, Matthew Stewart gives narrative form to an epic contest of ideas that shook the seventeenth century—and continues today.

Fresh from Oxford with a degree in philosophy and no particular interest in business, Matthew Stewart might not have seemed a likely candidate to become a consultant. But soon he was telling veteran managers how to run their companies.In narrating his own ill-fated (and often hilarious) odyssey at a top-tier firm, Stewart turns the consultant’s merciless, penetrating eye on the management industry itself. The Management Myth offers an insightful romp through the entire history of thinking about management, a withering critique of pseudoscience in management theory, and a clear explanation of why the MBA usually amounts to so much BS—leading us through the wilderness of American business thought.