Dilettante Scholar

In preceding chapters, Blumenberg had considered the function of myth in a hypothetical original situation (the "absolutism of reality...

Blumenberg sets out in this chapter to discuss, not the origins of myth (which he states is unknowable), but the history of the study of myt...

The first half of this chapter is an exercise in delightful erudition about naming, with the key theme being that names make the world famil...

Blumenberg sets out by focusing on the significance of prehistorical humanity's lack of mastery of reality. This is, he admits, not a si...

Neustadt starts this further reconsideration with the question, "is the presidency possible?" -- and then looks at some different ...

Tensions and paradoxes everywhere. Rousseau characterizes learning and eloquence as vices which hide true feelings and meanings, but his e...

Enlightenment defined: Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-incurred immaturity.  Immaturity is the inability to use one...

Gladstone recovered his balance in the opposition against Disraeli's minority Conservative government by late 1867 .  His foothold was I...

In the early 1860s, all the remaining Peelite luminaries other than Gladstone perished, leaving him with no political home but Liberalism.  ...

White Teeth impressed me above all for its marriage of the realistic and fantastic. From early on, we get a heavy dose of the fantastic: ...

In this chapter, written in 1976 (16 years after the original publication of his book), Neustadt reconsiders his account of presidential pow...

 After presenting his cricketing resume without false modesty or bravado, the opening paragraphs lay out a predicament: the young James had ...

James recollects the Puritan ethic that imbued his West Indian upbringing with special reference to the virtues of restraint and loyalty. H...

In this first supplementary chapter added to the original text, Neustadt tries to assess Kennedy's mastery of presidential power.  He ar...

Derby's Conservative government fell and Parliament was dissolved in the wake of Disraeli's failed attempt at a second reform bill i...

Gladstone was out of office for most of the 1850s, so his genuinely political activity was pretty scant. This gives Jenkins the opportunity...

Blumenberg begins by explaining the contrast he wants to draw between symbolism and metaphorics with reference to Fontenelle's critique ...