Lesley Chamberlain

After 1945, Britain wanted to be a new country. The authority of state and church were giving way, the Empire was dismantled, and it was no longer clear who was leading whom in matters of morals. Individuals were left to reinvent their ethical lives anew. The lives and works of the philosophers discussed in this book were caught up this sea-change. Bernard Williams, Philippa Foot, Iris Murdoch, Richard Wollheim, Charles Taylor and Alasdair MacIntyre were all characters in search of a moral England, with a particular vision of the good society. From communitarianism to swinging Sixties’ individualism, and radical theories of art – which understood questions of ambiguity, error and forgiveness more than the state ever could – this is the story of their sometimes convergent but often discrepant ideas on ethical life in the second half of the twentieth century. Undoing the Moral Empire is a work of biography, social history and the history of ideas that masterfully reconstructs the shifting sentiments of the post-war era, reconfiguring enduringly relevant questions of freedom, virtue, and society.

After 1945, Britain wanted to be a new country. The authority of state and church were giving way, the Empire was dismantled, and it was no longer clear who was leading whom in matters of morals. Individuals were left to reinvent their ethical lives anew. The lives and works of the philosophers discussed in this book were caught up this sea-change. Bernard Williams, Philippa Foot, Iris Murdoch, Richard Wollheim, Charles Taylor and Alasdair MacIntyre were all characters in search of a moral England, with a particular vision of the good society. From communitarianism to swinging Sixties’ individualism, and radical theories of art – which understood questions of ambiguity, error and forgiveness more than the state ever could – this is the story of their sometimes convergent but often discrepant ideas on ethical life in the second half of the twentieth century. Undoing the Moral Empire is a work of biography, social history and the history of ideas that masterfully reconstructs the shifting sentiments of the post-war era, reconfiguring enduringly relevant questions of freedom, virtue, and society.

When Rilke died in 1926, his reputation as a great poet seemed secure. But as the tide of the critical avant-garde turned, he was increasingly dismissed as apolitical, too inward. In Rilke: The Last Inward Man, acclaimed critic Lesley Chamberlain uses this charge as the starting point from which to explore the expansiveness of the inner world Rilke created in his poetry. Weaving together searching insights on Rilke's life, work and reception, Chamberlain casts Rilke's inwardness as a profound response to a world that seemed ever more lacking in spirituality. In works of dazzling imagination and rich imagery, Rilke sought to restore spirit to Western materialism, encouraging not narrow introversion but a heightened awareness of how to live with the world as it is, of how to retain a sense of transcendence within a world of collapsed spiritual certainty.

When Rilke died in 1926, his reputation as a great poet seemed secure. But as the tide of the critical avant-garde turned, he was increasingly dismissed as apolitical, too inward. In Rilke: The Last Inward Man, acclaimed critic Lesley Chamberlain uses this charge as the starting point from which to explore the expansiveness of the inner world Rilke created in his poetry. Weaving together searching insights on Rilke's life, work and reception, Chamberlain casts Rilke's inwardness as a profound response to a world that seemed ever more lacking in spirituality. In works of dazzling imagination and rich imagery, Rilke sought to restore spirit to Western materialism, encouraging not narrow introversion but a heightened awareness of how to live with the world as it is, of how to retain a sense of transcendence within a world of collapsed spiritual certainty.

In 1888, philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche moved to Turin. This would be the year in which he wrote three of his greatest works: Twilight of the Idols, The Antichrist, and Ecce Homo; it would also be his last year of writing. He suffered a debilitating nervous breakdown in the first days of the following year. In this probing, elegant biography of that pivotal year, Lesley Chamberlain undoes popular clichés and misconceptions about Nietzsche by offering a deeply complex approach to his character and work. Focusing as much on Nietzsche's daily habits, anxieties and insecurities as on the development of his philosophy, Nietzsche in Turin offers a uniquely lively portrait of the great thinker, and of the furiously productive days that preceded his decline.

German philosophy, famed for its high-minded Idealism, was plunged into crisis when Germany became an urban and industrial society in the late nineteenth-century. The key figure was Immanuel Kant: seen for a century as the philosophical father of the nation, Kant seemed to lack crucial answers for violent and impersonal modern times. This book shows that the social and intellectual crisis that overturned Germany’s traditions – a sense of profound spiritual confusion over where modern society was headed – was the same as allowed Hitler to come to power. It also describes how German philosophers actively struggled to create a new kind of philosophy, in order to understand social incoherence and technology’s diminishing of the individual.

There is nothing new about the Russian conservatism Putin stands for, acclaimed writer Lesley Chamberlain argues. Rather, as Ministry of Darkness reveals, the roots of Russian conservatism can be traced back to the 19th century when Count Uvarov's notorious cry of 'Orthodoxy, Autocracy, Nationality!' rang through the streets of Russia. Sergei Uvarov was no straightforward conservative; indeed, this man was at once both the pioneering educational reformer who founded the Arzamas Writers’ Club to which Pushkin belonged, and the Minister who tyrannised and censored Russia’s literary scene. How, then, do we reconcile such extreme contradictions in one person? Through Chamberlain’s intimate examination of Uvarov’s life and skilled analysis of Russian conservatism, readers learn how the many paradoxes that dominated Uvarov’s personal and political life are those which, writ large, have forged the identity of conservative modern Russia and its relationship with the West. This fascinating book sheds new light on an often overlooked historical actor and offers a timely assessment of the 19th-century ‘Russian predicament’. In doing so, Chamberlain teases out the reasons why the country continues to baffle Western observers and policymakers, making this essential reading both students of Russian history and those who want to further understand Russia as it is today.

There is nothing new about the Russian conservatism Putin stands for, acclaimed writer Lesley Chamberlain argues. Rather, as Ministry of Darkness reveals, the roots of Russian conservatism can be traced back to the 19th century when Count Uvarov's notorious cry of 'Orthodoxy, Autocracy, Nationality!' rang through the streets of Russia. Sergei Uvarov was no straightforward conservative; indeed, this man was at once both the pioneering educational reformer who founded the Arzamas Writers’ Club to which Pushkin belonged, and the Minister who tyrannised and censored Russia’s literary scene. How, then, do we reconcile such extreme contradictions in one person? Through Chamberlain’s intimate examination of Uvarov’s life and skilled analysis of Russian conservatism, readers learn how the many paradoxes that dominated Uvarov’s personal and political life are those which, writ large, have forged the identity of conservative modern Russia and its relationship with the West. This fascinating book sheds new light on an often overlooked historical actor and offers a timely assessment of the 19th-century ‘Russian predicament’. In doing so, Chamberlain teases out the reasons why the country continues to baffle Western observers and policymakers, making this essential reading both students of Russian history and those who want to further understand Russia as it is today.

The French Revolution of 1789 had grand humanitarian aims that would one day inspire the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. Russians took the French revolutionary agenda and reinforced it with sturdy German philosophy to form a beautiful vision in which remnants of theology combined with the power of art as a force for change. The Arc of Utopia offers a fresh look at the German philosophical origins of the Russian Revolution. Lesley Chamberlain relates how the influential German philosophers Kant, Schiller and Hegel were dazzled by contemporary events in Paris, and how art and philosophy exploded on the streets of Russia, with a long-repressed people uniquely reinventing the principles of liberty, equality and fraternity. Some of the greatest names of nineteenth-century Russia, from Alexander Herzen to Mikhail Bakunin, Ivan Turgenev to Fyodor Dostoevsky, defined their visions for Russia in relation to the German enthusiasm for revolutionary France. Published to tie in with the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, The Arc of Utopia provides an original view of the Revolution that links the final upheaval of October 1917 with an astonishing period in art, street drama and poetry.

This exciting collection of Eastern European recipes includes all the culinary delights of a region that stretches from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south. There is Beef Stroganov from Russia, Babka from Ukraine, Pork Stew with Sauerkraut from Germany, Goulash from Hungary, and Rice Pudding from Bulgaria. There are also many mouthwatering cakes and pastries, such as Dobos Torta and Apple Strudel. Every recipe is described step by step, and there are over 750 wonderful photographs. Hearty, nourishing and brimming with taste and variety, the dishes in this volume will surprise and delight all who explore them.

This book features delicious, authentic, traditional dishes from an undiscovered cuisine, shown in 270 photographs. It includes more than 70 recipes revealing the cuisines of Romania, Bulgaria and the rest of the romantic Balkan region. All the classic Eastern European dishes are featured, such as Pork Schnitzel and Veal Escalopes, and tempting desserts and gateaux, from Boyer Cream to Torte Varazdin. Recipes include soups and appetizers, meat and poultry, fish, vegetables, grains and pasta, desserts and cakes. Step-by-step photographs guarantee good results. This wonderful volume on Eastern Europe cooking presents a selection of recipes from a fascinating culinary region. The fertile soil and temperate climate of the Balkans produces a rich harvest of ingredients, which combine with the influence of Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and European food to create a distinctive cuisine. An informative introduction, giving the background to the region's unique style, is followed by superb recipes for more than 70 dishes. The cuisine is full of surprises, from fiery chillies to delicate rose petals, offering unusual and inspiring menus for any occasion. This book will be an unexpected treasure in any cookbook collection.

In 1922, Vladimir Lenin personally drew up a list of some 160 "undesirable" intellectuals--mostly philosophers, academics, scientists, and journalists--to be deported from the new Soviet State. "We're going to cleanse Russia once and for all" he wrote to Stalin, whose job it was to oversee the deportation. Two ships sailed from Petrograd that autumn, taking Old Russia's eminent men and their families away to what would become permanent exile in Berlin, Prague, and Paris. Through journals, letters, memoirs, and personal accounts, Lesley Chamberlain creates a rich portrait of these banished thinkers and their families. She describes the world they left behind, the migr communities they were forced to join, and the enduring power of the works they produced in exile.

Lesley Chamberlain lived in Soviet Russia in 1978–79 and recorded her experiences in the form of two hundred recipes interwoven with details of Russian culture and history and her own practical advice. From blini to cabbage soup, and caviar eggs to "Russian salad," she reveals the continuity of Russian life, despite political repression, in which the bourgeois cooking of the nineteenth century coexisted with old dishes dictated by the church calendar and new inventions to "make do" with the frequent shortages of vital ingredients under the Soviets. First published in 1982, this fine collection of recipes and entertaining literary quotations has become a classic introduction to the rich culinary history of the region. This new Bison Books edition contains period illustrations and a new introduction by the author.

The Food and Cooking of Eastern Europe, first published in 1989 and a companion volume to Lesley Chamberlain’s acclaimed The Food and Cooking of Russia, surveys the rich and diverse food cultures that were known to few people in the West during the half century when Europe was divided. It contains more than two hundred recipes interwoven with historical background and notes from the author’s extensive experiences traveling through Central and Eastern Europe. When originally published this practical cookbook revealed how the world’s most delicious sausages, goulash and sauerkraut, fruit dumplings, cheesecake, and many other dishes tasted in their homelands. Now, in a quite different political world, this book is a vital resource for remembering life before the Iron Curtain was lifted. This Bison Books edition contains period illustrations and a new introduction by the author that describes how dramatically this region and its food have changed since the end of Central and Eastern Europe’s isolation in 1989.