Burrow, J. W. (John Wyon) 1935-2009

The limits of state action by Wilhelm von Humboldt( )

33 editions published between 1945 and 2015 in English and held by 1,531 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

The Limits of State Action, by "Germany's greatest philosopher of freedom," as F.A. Hayek called him, has an exuberance and attention to principle that makes it a valuable introduction to classical liberal political thought. Humboldt uniquely combines the ancient concern for human excellence and the modern concern for what has come to be known as negative liberty. Neither natural rights-based (as the term is usually understood) nor explicitly utilitarian, Humboldt's argument holds that individual self-development can flower to the maximum extent only when governmental activity is limited to providing security (i.e., preventing harm to others). He discusses criteria for permitting the state to limit individual actions and suggests ways of confining the state to its proper bounds. In a time when scholars throughout the world are reexamining the basis of political and social structure, Humboldt's arguments against state promotion of citizen welfare and state interference with private acts make this book especially relevant. -- from back cover

A history of histories : epics, chronicles, romances and inquiries from Herodotus and Thucydides to the twentieth century by J. W Burrow( Book )

43 editions published between 2007 and 2014 in 3 languages and held by 1,221 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

An analysis of the study of the past and its implications in the Western world, from ancient times to the present day, looks at the work of individual historians and how they presented the past in terms of their perspectives, beliefs, and historical periods

Evolution and society: a study in Victorian social theory by J. W Burrow( Book )

59 editions published between 1966 and 2010 in English and held by 1,174 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

The crisis of reason : European thought, 1848-1914 by J. W Burrow( Book )

25 editions published between 2000 and 2002 in 3 languages and held by 1,049 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Burrow examines the impact of science and social thought on European intellectual life prior to World War I. He considers ideas in physics, social evolution and social Darwinism, and anxieties about modernity and personal identity

Charles Darwin and the origin of species by Walter Karp( Book )

4 editions published between 1968 and 1969 in English and held by 906 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

A biography of the naturalist who presented the world with the theory of evolution by natural selection. Examines Darwin's voyage on the Beagle, the long years of work and illness, the principles of his theory, and the reception by the scientists and populace of nineteenth century England. Paintings, drawings, and photographs illustrate Darwin's personal life and professional studies

A liberal descent : Victorian historians and the English past by J. W Burrow( Book )

26 editions published between 1981 and 2011 in English and Undetermined and held by 785 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

The idea of a 'Whig interpretation' of English history incorporates the two fundamental notions of progress and continuity. The former made it possible to read English history as a 'success story', the latter endorsed a pragmatic, gradualist political style as the foundation of English freedom. Dr Burrow's book explore these ideas, and the tensions between them in studies of four major Victorian historians: Macaulay, Stubbs, Freeman and (as something of an anti type) Froude. It analyses their works in terms of their rhetorical suggestiveness as well as their explicit arguments, and attempts to place them in their cultural and historiographical context. In doing so, the book also seeks to establish the significance for the Victorians of three great crises of English history - the Norman conquest, the reformation and the revolution of the seventeenth century - and the nature and limits of the self-confidence they were able to derive from the national past. The book will interest students and teachers working on nineteenth-century English history, literature or social and political thought, the history of ideas, and legal and constitutional history. It will also be of value to the general reader interested in Victorian literature and cultural history

That noble science of politics : a study in nineteenth-century intellectual history by Stefan Collini( Book )

20 editions published between 1983 and 2010 in English and held by 628 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

"In this unusual and important work, three well-known historians of ideas examine the diverse forms taken in nineteenth-century Britain by the aspiration to develop what was then known as a 'science of politics'. This aspiration encompassed a more extensive and ambitious range of concerns than is implied by the modern term 'political science': in fact, as this book demonstrates, it remained the overarching category under which many nineteenth-century thinkers grouped their attempts to achieve systematic understanding of man's common life. As a result of both the over-concentration on closed abstract systems of thought and the intrusion of concerns which pervade much writing in the history of political theory and of the social sciences, these attempts have since been neglected or misrepresented. By deliberately avoiding such approaches, this book restores the subject to its centrality in the intellectual life and political culture of nineteenth-century Britain"--Publisher description

The history of England by Thomas Babington Macaulay Macaulay( )

6 editions published between 2009 and 2010 in English and held by 571 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

"Thomas Babington Macaulay's History of England from the Accession of James II was his masterwork and one of the great enduring classics of English historical writing. This volume contains the celebrated third chapter, which inherently contributed to the development of social history by presenting a highly contextually relevant extensive survey of English society in the year 1685, in terms of such things as population, cities, classes, and tastes." "Macaulay's approach to his subject, as John Burrow explains in his masterly introduction, was that of a definite advocate of "progress." He saw many real achievements in British and World history as resulting from policies pursued by Whig political interest."--Jacket

The origin of species by means of natural selection, or, The preservation of favored races in the struggle for life by Charles Darwin( Book )

24 editions published between 1962 and 1988 in English and held by 543 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

The publication of Darwin's The Origin of Species in 1859 marked a dramatic turning point in scientific thought. The volume had taken Darwin more than twenty years to publish, in part because he envisioned the storm of controversy it was certain to unleash. Indeed, selling out its first edition on its first day, The Origin of Species revolutionized science, philosophy, and theology. Darwin's reasoned, documented arguments carefully advance his theory of natural selection and assertion that species were not created all at once by a divine hand but started with a few simple forms that mutated and adapted over time. Whether commenting on his own ill health, discussing his experiments to test instinct in bees, or relating a conversation about a South American burrowing rodent, Darwin's monumental achievement is surprisingly personal and delightfully readable. Its ideas remain extremely profound even today, making it the most influential book in the natural sciences ever written -- a work not just important to its time, but to the history of humankind

Gibbon by J. W Burrow( Book )

14 editions published in 1985 in English and Undetermined and held by 541 WorldCat member libraries worldwide

Biografi om Edward Gibbon, forfatter til bl. a. "The decline and fall of the Roman Empire"