Nigel Harris – författare

British society changed radically in the 21st century. Any political party dedicated to preserving the Britain of 1900 would have faced, over time, either major problems of adjustment or the possibility of its own destruction. The British Conservative party was just such a party, its character defined by its commitment to the defence of the British status quo. Yet it has also been one of the most successful political parties in the twentieth century. Not only was it able to adjust itself to the transformation of British society including two world wars and the most catastrophic slump – but it was able to win elections more consistently than any of its rivals. This book seeks to show how the Conservatives achieved such a metamorphosis, by identifying the main changes in the British economy and society, and the changing Conservative response.In practice, there was no single Conservative response to any particular change. The debate within the party revealed a surprisingly large number of responses; yet the range was limited. Indeed, with some simplification, one can see only two general political positions, from which flowed differing proposals on all detailed issues. In describing these two positions, the author suggests a new method of classifying dominant political beliefs in Britain and other Western countries.This study covers a wide field, bringing together contemporary Conservative politics, economic problems and economic history. The Conservatives were intimately related to the interests of what used to be called British capitalism, and their attitudes to the changes taking place in industry reveal most clearly the changing political priorities of the party. The book examines Conservative policy, proposals and attitudes to nationalization and the public sector, to the trade unions and labour, to private business and finally to the economic role of the State, between 1945 and 1964. For those wishing to gain an understanding of the British Conservatives, Nigel Harris’ detailed and stimulating material will make excellent reading and has been acclaimed since its first publication in 1972.

This concise undergraduate textbook brings together Earth and biological sciences to explore the co-evolution of the Earth and life over geological time. Written for a one-semester course, it explores the Earth system at and above the surface of the Earth by examining the interactions and feedback processes between the geosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere. It also explains how the Earth's surface environment involves a complex interplay between these systems. Through a wealth of features and student questioning, the book allows students to understand how physical controls make our planet hospitable for life, investigate the processes of global change that operate on a range of timescales, understand important cross-disciplinary connections and explore how the whole Earth system has evolved. Finally, it assesses how and why the climate of the Earth has varied over geological time, and considers whether life itself is passive or an active agent for change.

The contributors to this book, first published in 1971, analyse as International Socialists the economic and social issues of modern society. Their findings were controversial, as was the alternative they proposed – the overthrow of the British system and its replacement by a society based on workers’ control. A central theme of the book is the need for socialists to have a scientific view of the modern world – a socialist theory.

The contributors to this book, first published in 1971, analyse as International Socialists the economic and social issues of modern society. Their findings were controversial, as was the alternative they proposed – the overthrow of the British system and its replacement by a society based on workers’ control. A central theme of the book is the need for socialists to have a scientific view of the modern world – a socialist theory.

British society changed radically in the 21st century. Any political party dedicated to preserving the Britain of 1900 would have faced, over time, either major problems of adjustment or the possibility of its own destruction. The British Conservative party was just such a party, its character defined by its commitment to the defence of the British status quo. Yet it has also been one of the most successful political parties in the twentieth century. Not only was it able to adjust itself to the transformation of British society including two world wars and the most catastrophic slump – but it was able to win elections more consistently than any of its rivals. This book seeks to show how the Conservatives achieved such a metamorphosis, by identifying the main changes in the British economy and society, and the changing Conservative response.In practice, there was no single Conservative response to any particular change. The debate within the party revealed a surprisingly large number of responses; yet the range was limited. Indeed, with some simplification, one can see only two general political positions, from which flowed differing proposals on all detailed issues. In describing these two positions, the author suggests a new method of classifying dominant political beliefs in Britain and other Western countries.This study covers a wide field, bringing together contemporary Conservative politics, economic problems and economic history. The Conservatives were intimately related to the interests of what used to be called British capitalism, and their attitudes to the changes taking place in industry reveal most clearly the changing political priorities of the party. The book examines Conservative policy, proposals and attitudes to nationalization and the public sector, to the trade unions and labour, to private business and finally to the economic role of the State, between 1945 and 1964. For those wishing to gain an understanding of the British Conservatives, Nigel Harris’ detailed and stimulating material will make excellent reading and has been acclaimed since its first publication in 1972.

Nigel Harris's Selected Essays: From National Liberation to Globalisation presents an encompassing overview of the work of one of the most prolific and insightful Marxist economists of the second half of the twentieth century. The collected essays deal with topics ranging from imperialism and the state to the political economy of development and migration

This updated edition of Mandate of Heaven - with a new introduction by the author - discusses China's transformation from a poor country devastated by war into a major world power. How did this change come about? What are the real living conditions of the peasants and the workers? MANDATE OF HEAVEN seeks to answer these questions and more.

Errol Harris was a greatly respected and influential philosopher and public intellectual in North America, Britain and Europe in the 20th century.His autobiography provides insight into the influences that contributed to the shaping of his remarkable character and career. In these recollections Harris reveals a keen eye as he presents memories of growing up in several parts of South Africa in the early 20th century; childhood and youth in a close-knit but sometimes financially challenged Jewish family of fairly strict religious observance; an account of inspiring intellectual experiences as an undergraduate and graduate at Rhodes College, Grahamstown (1925-29); teaching black South African university undergraduates at Fort Hare in 1929-30; studying philosophy at Oxford (1931-33) with many of the most celebrated figures on the Oxford faculty from that period; teaching at British public schools in the mid-1930’s; a short, unhappy, but adventure-filled stint as secretary to the Minister of Mines for Southern Rhodesia; tales of his experiences as an Education Officer for the British Colonial Service, inspecting remote village schools on horseback in Basutoland and Zanzibar in the late 1930’s, just prior to the outbreak of the war. He also recounts the religious experiences over these years that eventually led him to join the Church of England.Over the course of his long life, Errol demonstrated a serious concern for the common weal, along with a strongly-developed social conscience. Confronted with a range of historic challenges, including some of the most acute evils arising in the course of the twentieth century, he met the most serious of them head-on with a direct, resolute, and public response, calling upon all to embark on a path of sanity and reason toward a goal of mutual well-being.The book also covers his research and his writing of his fully realized and comprehensive philosophical system on the concept of mind, or consciousness, and its relation to the world.Excerpted from the Introduction.

This book brings a novel focus to social history. It is a study of a "group family" -- an extended family closely structured though marriages that were either internal or with trusted associates. Its members strove cooperatively for their own mutual benefit. This kind of social entity evolved down the centuries, reaching its zenith in the early nineteenth century. The family portrayed, the Pennells, provides a supreme example of such a united body. John Wilson Croker, his two half-nieces and his best friend all married into it. The size of this "group family" gave ample scope for marriages between cousins. Most men in it gained prestigious appointments through Croker's patronage, but at the price of giving him their unswerving loyalty. From diaries, personal letters, newspaper articles, Chancery papers and Government documents, the book brings the character of family members to life and shows how they interacted. Their personalities are portrayed through a wealth of entertaining anecdotes recorded by their contemporaries. Discussion focuses on the family in the nineteenth century, but how it evolved is also described. With their varied occupations and far-flung travel, the people whose stories are narrated give insight into fascinating but little frequented byways of British social and colonial history, such as intelligence gathering in the seventeenth century and the Newfoundland cod trade in the eighteenth. Their direct participation in events included riding from Dorset to London to warn James II personally of the Duke of Monmouth's landing and rescuing Marie Antoinette's daughter from Napoleon. The book takes us on a meandering journey through British history brought to life by the experiences of one family over more than two centuries.

This book brings a novel focus to social history. It is a study of a "group family" -- an extended family closely structured though marriages that were either internal or with trusted associates. Its members strove cooperatively for their own mutual benefit. This kind of social entity evolved down the centuries, reaching its zenith in the early nineteenth century. The family portrayed, the Pennells, provides a supreme example of such a united body. John Wilson Croker, his two half-nieces and his best friend all married into it. The size of this "group family" gave ample scope for marriages between cousins. Most men in it gained prestigious appointments through Croker's patronage, but at the price of giving him their unswerving loyalty. From diaries, personal letters, newspaper articles, Chancery papers and Government documents, the book brings the character of family members to life and shows how they interacted. Their personalities are portrayed through a wealth of entertaining anecdotes recorded by their contemporaries. Discussion focuses on the family in the nineteenth century, but how it evolved is also described. With their varied occupations and far-flung travel, the people whose stories are narrated give insight into fascinating but little frequented byways of British social and colonial history, such as intelligence gathering in the seventeenth century and the Newfoundland cod trade in the eighteenth. Their direct participation in events included riding from Dorset to London to warn James II personally of the Duke of Monmouth's landing and rescuing Marie Antoinette's daughter from Napoleon. The book takes us on a meandering journey through British history brought to life by the experiences of one family over more than two centuries.

This work addresses the challenge faced in the management of major cities throughout the world as they adjust to economic reform and, in particular, to becoming more open to the processes operating in worldwide markets. Such processes have already had some dramatic effects on large cities in developed and developing countries - the rapid decline in manufacturing in older industrial cities and the emergence of the servicing city are but two of the more striking outcomes. Based on substantial case studies of cities in the developed and the developing world - Sheffield, Barcelona, Lille, Mexico City, Monterrey, Santiago de Chile, Bogota, Kingston Jamaica and Johannesburg - themes are drawn out, extending from structural economic change to policy reactions, new city initiatives, management, planning and finance.

The history of the 20th century was dominated by the state - nationalism, national economies, national wars. Professor Nigel Harris argues that such a global structure is unthinkable in the 21st century. Why? As the world opens up, and barriers between countries come crashing down, so the powers of nations, nationalisms and the state have begun to dissolve. He argues that the notion of national capital is becoming redundant as cities and their citizens, increasingly unaffected by borders and national boundaries, take centre stage in the economic world. Harris deconstructs this phenomenon and argues for the immense benefits it could and should have, not just for western wealth, but for economies worldwide, for international communication and for global democracy.

The Thirteenth-Century Animal Turn: Medieval and Twenty-First-Century Perspectives examines a wide range of texts to argue in favour of a thirteenth-century animal turn which not only generated a heightened scholarly awareness of animals but also had major implications for society more generally.

A companion to the 2007 volume The Light of the Soul, which features Ulrich Putsch’s massive German translation of the Lumen anime C, this book presents the texts of three shorter Latin works that are commonly attributed to Ulrich, a Swabian whose long and distinguished career in the Tyrol culminated in his appointment as Bishop of Brixen (Bressanone) in 1427. His Diarium is a lively, highly subjective and often lapidary account of his ten-year episcopate, and as such a fascinating example of late medieval autobiography. Ulrich’s Oraciones super missam, meanwhile, are a set of prayers designed for devotional use by congregants attending Mass, which will be of considerable interest to students of lay religious culture. Finally, his Manuale simplicium sacerdotum, a handbook for secular priests that is based on Durandus’s Racionale divinorum officiorum, constitutes a valuable potential resource for historians of the late medieval church. The volume also contains a German translation of the Oraciones that may very well have been completed by Ulrich himself, and an introduction that charts his varied career and discusses the contents, themes, manuscripts, and textual history of the works edited.

This Festschrift for Ronald Speirs, Professor of German at the University of Birmingham, contains twenty-four original essays by scholars from Great Britain, Germany, Austria, and Norway. Between them they encompass the entire modern period from the later eighteenth century onwards, and focus on a wide range of German-speaking environments. Several essays throw new light on authors to whom Professor Speirs himself has devoted particular attention (such as Brecht, Thomas Mann, Nietzsche, and Fontane), whilst others discuss writers such as Lenz, Büchner, Böhlau, C. F. Meyer, Keyserling, Jahnn, and Huch. Above all, however, the contributions address the complexities of writing in ideologically diverse contexts, including the Third Reich and the former German Democratic Republic. This interplay between text and context is the cornerstone which links all the essays, as it has consistently informed Ronald Speirs’s own work – which combines a scrupulous attention to textual detail with an acute awareness of the socio-political milieux and philosophical influences that shape creative literature.

Nigel Harris’s Selected Essays: From National Liberation to Globalisation presents an encompassing overview of the work of one of the most prolific and insightful Marxist economists of the second half of the twentieth century. It starts off with a new interview in which Harris reflects on the development of his thought over the more than half a century separating the death of Stalin from the latest developments in globalisation and capitalist restructuring. The collected essays deal with topics ranging from imperialism and the state to the political economy of development and migration, and offer an ample selection from Harris’s political journalism. Together the work constitutes at once a personal journey through the history of the British revolutionary left and a trenchant commentary on some of the most fundamental problems facing a renewed Marxist theory.

This is the first undergraduate textbook to fully integrate results from geophysics, geochemistry, and petrology to describe the structure, composition, and dynamic processes that operate throughout the solid Earth. It presents an Earth system science approach to studies of the Earth's interior and develops a global view of solid Earth cycles to explain geodynamic and plate tectonic processes. This book initially explores the formation and evolution of the early Earth, then considers the operative forces for plate tectonic movements at the Earth's surface, and finally discusses global cycles within the deep Earth and their effect on the surface environment. Interactions between the geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere, and their influence at and beneath the Earth's surface are examined in detail. This textbook thus provides a concise yet extensive coverage of the solid Earth. Written for intermediate undergraduates, it includes a wealth of features to support student learning at this level.

"The Third World" was invented in the 1950s to identify the third political alternative to that offered by the United States and its European allies on the one hand, and the Soviet system on the other. But it was also an economic alternative—a formula whereby the mass of poor countries of the world could use the mechanisms of the state to achieve a firmly based national independence, both political and economic. By the 1980s, however, much of this was under challenge. Some countries had achieved an astonishing pace of development. In others, the development of underdevelopment had reached appalling levels. The Third World alternative was becoming no alternative at all. What had gone wrong? What are the lessons for both the developed and developing worlds? The End of the Third World lays out the theories and matches them against what happened in practice. It assesses the development of the Asian "Gang of Four" (Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore) and the two largest Latin American countries (Mexico and Brazil) and examines the world trade performance of the developing world as a whole. Does national economic production based on an expanding state sector achieve either economic independence or economic development? Do exports reduce independence and produce fewer jobs? Does expansion of manufacturing in the less developed countries produce economic crisis—deindustrialization—in Europe and North America? Nigel Harris shows how both left and right were seriously mistaken in their view of the state and its role in economic development. He describes a newly emerging global economy that is superseding the old national state and the politics based upon it. But the issues raised by the concept of the Third World still remain, even if the Third World itself is disappearing.