Engelska

<b>A passionate, highly accessible clarion call to a world dangerously threatened by irrational superstitions of all kinds.</b> 'Truly a book for our time' <b>Steven Pinker</b> 'In Sweden's public square, Christer Sturmark has done as much as anyone to uphold reason and humane critical thinking' <b>Richard Dawkins</b> 'As lucid and illuminating as it is warm and inspiring' <b>Rebecca Goldstein</b> In country after country, conspiracy theories and religious dogmas that once seemed to have been overtaken by enlightened thought are helping to lift authoritarian leaders into power. The effects are being felt by women, ethnic minorities, teachers, scientists and students - and by the environment, the ultimate victim of climate change denial. We need clear thinking now more than ever. Christer Sturmark is a crusading secular humanist as well as a Swedish publisher and entrepreneur, and <i>The Flame of Reason</i> is his manifesto for a better world. It provides a set of simple tools for clear thinking in the face of populist dogmas, anti-science attitudes and pseudo-philosophy, and suggestions for how we can move towards a new enlightenment. From truth to Quantum Physics, moral philosophy to the Myers-Briggs test, Sturmark offers a passionate defence of rational thought, science, tolerance and pluralism; a warm and engaging guide for anyone who wants to better navigate the modern world. <b>Translated by and co-written with Douglas Hofstadter, celebrated cognitive scientist, physicist and author of <i>Godel, Escher, Bach</i>.</b>

<p><i>The Chaos Machine</i> is an essential book for our times - <i>Ezra Klein</i><br/><i><br/>The Chaos Machine</i> is the story of how the world was driven mad by social media. The election of populists like Trump and Bolsonaro; strife and genocide in countries like Myanmar; the rampant spread of COVID-19 conspiracy theories as deadly as the pandemic itself; all of these are products of a breakdown in our social and political lives, a breakdown driven by the apps, companies and algorithms that compete constantly for our attention.<br/><br/>Max Fisher is a leading New York Times technology reporter whose work has covered the way that social media sites - driven increasingly by artificial intelligence rather than human ingenuity - push users towards more and more extreme positions, deepening the divisions in society in pursuit of greater engagement and profit. With extraordinary access to the most powerful players in Silicon Valley, and with testimonies from around the world of the havoc being wreaked by our online selves, <i>The Chaos Machine</i> shows us how we got to this uniquely perilous moment - and how we might get out of it.</p>

'A riveting trip down the corridors of Soviet deception' <b><i>Sunday Telegraph </i>(Five-Star Review)</b><p></p><p></p>'Philps' book vindicates the value of truth' <i><b>Washington Post</b></i><p></p><p></p>'Philps has an eye for detail and a heart for those left behind' <i><b>The Times</b></i><p></p><p></p>'A tale of intrigue and suppression' <b><i>The New York Times</i></b><p></p><p></p>'A compelling and often horrifying tale of moral degradation and occasional heroism superbly told' <b><i>The Economist</i></b><p></p><p></p><b>'An engaging and insightful account of foreign correspondents living in the Moscow landmark during the Second World War' <i><b>History Today</b></i></b><p></p><p></p><b><b>Reporters. Translators. Lovers. Spies. </b></b><p></p><b>In <b><i>THE RED</i></b><b><i> HOTEL: THE UNTOLD STORY OF STALIN'S DISINFORMATION WAR</i></b>, former <i>Daily Telegraph </i>Foreign Editor and Russia expert Alan Philps sets out the way Stalin created his own reality by constraining and muzzling the British and American reporters covering the Eastern front during the war and forcing them to reproduce Kremlin propaganda. War correspondents were both bullied and pampered in the gilded cage of the Metropol Hotel. They enjoyed lavish supplies of caviar and had their choice of young women to employ as translators and to share their beds.</b><p></p> <p></p><b>While some of these translators turned journalists into robotic conveyors of Kremlin propaganda, others were brave secret dissenters who whispered to reporters the reality of Soviet life and were punished with sentences in the Gulag. Through the use of British archives and Russian sources, the story of the role of the women of the Metropol Hotel and the foreign reporters they worked with is told for the first time. This revelatory story will finally lift the lid on Stalin's operation to muzzle and control what the Western allies' writers and foreign correspondents knew of his regime's policies to prosecute the war against Hitler's rampaging armies from June 1941 onwards.</b>