In this lucid and lyrical exploration John Armstrong aims to deepen our response both to beauty and to happiness. As he shows, the ability to truly recognise the beauty that surrounds us in the everyday could enable us to deepen the enjoyment of our lives.

The Secret Power of Beauty: First Edition

Politics & Social Sciences

JOHN ARMSTRONG

Philosophy

Penguin Global

"A self-effacing, humane and unparanoid call to change our wealthy yet often barbaric world for the better." * In this provocative cri de coeur, the philosopher John Armstrong rescues the idea of civilization from irrelevance and connects it to our search for individual happiness. "Civilization" once referred to a society's technological prowess, its political development, or its cultural achievement. In the modern era, however, the word became burdened by the legacy of colonialism and connotations of elitism. For it to have value once again, according to Armstrong, we must understand that a society balances material prosperity with spiritual prosperity if it is to merit the term "civilized"―and currently we are impoverished. In Search of Civilization is his corrective. As he roams from anecdote to aesthetic appreciation―from the banality of an early job at an insurance company to the redemptive wonders of a seventeenth-century church spire visible out an office window, from Adam Smith's philosophy to the Japanese tea ceremony―Armstrong reminds us that culture lies within us and that its nourishment is essential to a flourishing society.

In Search Of Civilization

Penguin Books, Ltd.

How many of us have stopped before a famous painting or building only to realise, with quiet disappointment, that we can't quite see what the fuss is about? What do we have to do - beyond just staring - to get the most out of art? How do we come to develop an attachment to individual works and find them deeply fascinating? How do they come to matter to us? While many have diligently directed attention to questions in art history, theory or criticism, the author, in a powerful and original shift of focus, considers the roots of our personal engagement with art. perhaps this is both the most important and most neglected aspect of thinking about art. There is no access to art except in private - in looking, thinking and feeling in the presence of an individual work. In this book, the author describes the resources we each need to cultivate in order to enjoy painting and architecture; resources such as reverie, attention and the investment of emotion. Moving easily between the intimacies of personal experiences and lucid, accessible philosophical reflection, the author acts as a sensitive and persuasive guide.

The intimate philosophy of art

London: Allen Lane

“A gracefully argued and compassionate work. . . . Armstrong does for philosophy what Adam Phillips does for psychoanalysis: removes our fear of it: demonstrates its fascinations. Conditions of Love works like a loving conversation; the reader is attracted, amused, encouraged to respond, left fulfilled and eager for more.” ―Independent on Sunday ‘What is it to love another person?’ This is to raise one of the deepest, and most puzzling, questions we can put to ourselves. Love is a central theme in the autobiography we each write as we try to understand our lives; but we may feel that we become only more confused the more we reflect upon it. Love is closely connected with our vision of happiness; yet there is no one we are more likely to hurt, or be hurt by, than the person we love. If love is something we all want, why is it so hard to find and harder to keep? Love is one of humanity’s most persistent and most esteemed ideals, but it is hard to say exactly what this ideal is and how―if at all―it relates to real life.

The Conditions of Love: The Philosophy of Intimacy

Allen Lane.

18 Tailor-Made Model Railroad Track Plans (Model Railroad Handbook, 19)

Science & Math

Technology

Kalmbach Publishing

A ground-breaking work on the JFK assassination, showing through photographic evidence the existence of 2 Lee Harvey Oswalds. CD has high resolution photographs for researchers and historians to study.

Harvey and Lee

Quasar Books

How to Worry Less About Money: The School of Life by Armstrong, John, The School of Life (2012)

Macmillan

A MODERN DAY CINDERELLA STORY! Orphan Bella Barlow is a young girl with a great natural talent for gymnastics. Unfortunately her dreams and aspirations to be a world-class gymnast are being hindered by her legal guardians - uncle Jed and aunt Gertrude, who force and bully Bella to their own advantage. Can Bella escape a life of abuse and servitude? Will she finally realise her dreams of gymnastic stardom? The epic serial begins here!

Bella At The Bar

Comics & Graphic Novels

Jenny McDade

Primrose Cummings

Publishers

2000 AD Graphic Novels

CIBSE Concise Handbook

Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers

Li›es de Vida: Nietzsche

Zahar

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Books by JOHN ARMSTRONG