Steve Mason – författare

‘Pretty marvellous. A fabulous autobiography’ Irvine Welsh‘Full of beautiful, mad stories’ Huw Stephens, BBC Radio 6The long awaited autobiography from the musical maverick, polymath and Beta Band front man.‘Self-destructive pop saboteurs who did it all wrong in all the right ways. Utterly brilliant’ —NMESteve Mason is a Scottish singer songwriter and founding member of the Beta Band. Formed in 1996 the band were quickly embraced in the media as The Next Big Thing and hailed by famous fans from Radiohead to Noel Gallagher. They were an idiosyncratic, self-contained, Dadaist counterpoint to the bloated Britpop corpse as it metastasized in the late ‘90s.The band split in 2004, owing their record label £1.2m. Since 2004, front man and songwriter Steve Mason has forged a singular, highly lauded solo career, releasing 5 albums under his own name and in April this year the Beta Band reformed to announce their first shows and the UK and U.S in over twenty years.‘I see this book as a picture of someone who was lost, with zero confidence and had no idea what he was supposed to do to with his life. But through music, he found something approaching belief in himself which carried him over the next 30 years into all manner of success, failure and adventure. All the while battling the demons on constant patrol in his mind until, after they nearly finished him off, he focused his full attention on purging them from of aspect of his life. It’s a story of youth culture, failure, success, sadness and redemption’ Steve Mason, Brighton, August 2025

Flavian Rome has most often been studied without serious attention to its most prolific extant author, Titus Flavius Josephus. Josephus, in turn, has usually been studied for what he is writing about (mainly, events in Judaea) rather than for the context in which he wrote: Flavian Rome. For the first time, this book brings these two phenomena into critical engagement, so that Josephus may illuminate Flavian Rome, and Flavian Rome, Josephus. Who were his likelyaudiences or patrons in Rome? How did the context in which he wrote affect his writing? What do his narratives say or imply about that context? This book brings together contributions from leading international scholars of Josephus and Flavian-Roman history and literature.

Flavian Rome has most often been studied without serious attention to its most prolific extant author, Titus Flavius Josephus. Josephus, in turn, has usually been studied for what he is writing about (mainly, events in Judaea) rather than for the context in which he wrote: Flavian Rome. For the first time, this book brings these two phenomena into critical engagement, so that Josephus may illuminate Flavian Rome, and Flavian Rome, Josephus. Who were his likely audiences or patrons in Rome? How did the context in which he wrote affect his writing? What do his narratives say or imply about that context? This book brings together contributions from leading international scholars of Josephus and Flavian-Roman history and literature.

By analyzing Flavius Josephus' portrayal of the Pharisees, this study clarifies some of the crucial evidence that is necessary for scholars to evaluate anew the history of the Pharisees. Included in the discussion is Josephus' writings about the group in three of his four extant works.Please note that Flavius Josephus on the Pharisees was previously published by Brill in hardback (ISBN 90 04 09181 5, no longer available).

A conflict that erupted between Roman legions and some Judaeans in late AD 66 had an incalculable impact on Rome's physical appearance and imperial governance; on ancient Jews bereft of their mother-city and temple; and on early Christian fortunes. Historical scholarship and cinema alike tend to see the conflict as the culmination of long Jewish resistance to Roman oppression. In this volume, Steven Mason re-examines the war in all relevant contexts (such as the Parthian dimension, and Judaea's place in Roman Syria) and phases, from the Hasmoneans to the fall of Masada. Mason approaches each topic as a historical investigation, clarifying problems that need to be solved, understanding the available evidence, and considering scenarios that might explain the evidence. The simplest reconstructions make the conflict more humanly intelligible while casting doubt on received knowledge.

A conflict that erupted between Roman legions and some Judaeans in late AD 66 had an incalculable impact on Rome's physical appearance and imperial governance; on ancient Jews bereft of their mother-city and temple; and on early Christian fortunes. Historical scholarship and cinema alike tend to see the conflict as the culmination of long Jewish resistance to Roman oppression. In this volume, Steven Mason re-examines the war in all relevant contexts (such as the Parthian dimension, and Judaea's place in Roman Syria) and phases, from the Hasmoneans to the fall of Masada. Mason approaches each topic as a historical investigation, clarifying problems that need to be solved, understanding the available evidence, and considering scenarios that might explain the evidence. The simplest reconstructions make the conflict more humanly intelligible while casting doubt on received knowledge.

A conflict that erupted between Roman legions and some Judaeans in late AD 66 had an incalculable impact on Rome''s physical appearance and imperial governance; on ancient Jews bereft of their mother-city and temple; and on early Christian fortunes. Historical scholarship and cinema alike tend to see the conflict as the culmination of long Jewish resistance to Roman oppression. In this volume, Steven Mason re-examines the war in all relevant contexts (such as the Parthian dimension, and Judaea''s place in Roman Syria) and phases, from the Hasmoneans to the fall of Masada. Mason approaches each topic as a historical investigation, clarifying problems that need to be solved, understanding the available evidence, and considering scenarios that might explain the evidence. The simplest reconstructions make the conflict more humanly intelligible while casting doubt on received knowledge.

A conflict that erupted between Roman legions and some Judaeans in late AD 66 had an incalculable impact on Rome''s physical appearance and imperial governance; on ancient Jews bereft of their mother-city and temple; and on early Christian fortunes. Historical scholarship and cinema alike tend to see the conflict as the culmination of long Jewish resistance to Roman oppression. In this volume, Steven Mason re-examines the war in all relevant contexts (such as the Parthian dimension, and Judaea''s place in Roman Syria) and phases, from the Hasmoneans to the fall of Masada. Mason approaches each topic as a historical investigation, clarifying problems that need to be solved, understanding the available evidence, and considering scenarios that might explain the evidence. The simplest reconstructions make the conflict more humanly intelligible while casting doubt on received knowledge.

No field of study is livelier than the history of Roman-era Judaea (ca. 200 BC to AD 400). Bold reinterpretations of texts and new archaeological discoveries prompt us constantly to rethink assumptions. What kind of religion was Judaism? How did Jews--and Christians--relate to Roman imperial power? Should we speak of Judaism or Judaisms? How should the finds at Qumran affect our understanding? Did Paul and other early Christians remain within Judaism? Should we translate Ioudaioi as "Jews" or "Judaeans"?These debates can leave students perplexed, this book argues, because the participants share only a topic. They are actually investigating different questions using disparate criteria. In the hope of facilitating communication and preparing advanced students, this book explores two basic but neglected problems: What does it mean to do history (if history is what we wish to do)? And how did the ancients understand and describe their world? It is not a history, then, but an orientation to the history of Roman Judaea.Rather than trying to specify which questions are good ones or what one should think about them, the book offers new perspectives to help unleash the historical imagination while reckoning squarely with the nature of our evidence.

In the past two decades, scholars have called for a new, critical history of the Pharisees. Required is a careful analysis of each source's evidence as a prior condition of historical judgements. By analyzing Flavius Josephus' portrayal of the group, this study clarifies some of the crucial evidence that any hypothesis must explain.Josephus writes about the Pharisees in three of his four extant works, describing their actions under the Hashmoneans, Herod the Great, and during his own tenure as Galilean commander of the revolt against Rome. This study tries to show how his discussions of the Pharisees contribute to his literary aims. With the help of K.H. Rengstorf's new concordance, the author explores the ten pertinent passages in their contexts, supplying also introductory chapters on the Jewish War, the Jewish Antiquities, and the Life. This analysis yields the conclusion that, although the Pharisees were the most popular party in first-century Judaism, Josephus was consistently hostile toward them for reasons peculiar to his own situation.

Roman Judaea, Christian origins, and Roman-Judaean-Christian relations are flourishing fields of endless fascination. Amid the flurry of new research, however, which uses ever new methods in the humanities and social sciences, basic questions about what happened and how people then understood events are easily obscured. This book argues that a simple but consistent historical method can throw new light – and challenge entrenched views – on such familiar topics as Roman provincial governance, the Jewish War, Flavian politics, Judaea after King Herod, Jewish and Christian historiography, Pharisees and Essenes, John the Baptist, the apostle Paul, and Luke-Acts.

Roman Judaea, Christian origins, and Roman-Judaean-Christian relations are flourishing fields of endless fascination. Amid the flurry of new research, however, which uses ever new methods in the humanities and social sciences, basic questions about what happened and how people then understood events are easily obscured. This book argues that a simple but consistent historical method can throw new light - and challenge entrenched views - on such familiar topics as Roman provincial governance, the Jewish War, Flavian politics, Judaea after King Herod, Jewish and Christian historiography, Pharisees and Essenes, John the Baptist, the apostle Paul, and Luke-Acts.