Bookshop Barnies are nothing less than a reinvention of the book launch format. These salon type discussions challenge the author to justify their work in front of an invited audience of specialists and critics. Unlike most book lauches where the most challenging task for the author is to sign so many autographs, Bookshop Barnies force them to take a stand for their ideas. Bookshop Barnies are also invite only.
Susan Neiman on 'Moral Clarity: A Guide for Grown-Up Idealists'.
Against a background of books that have sought to call a halt to the very idea of the left, Neiman argues for a commitment to a more just world that is rationally grounded, implacable and insatiable.
In her commitment to reason and the facts of the world, in her readings of the Western canon, and above all in her fierce commitment to politics as a moral endeavour, Neiman makes it possible to believe that the Enlightenment is not yet exhausted and that we are free to join it if we wish.
In association with:
The
London Centre, University of Notre Dame in England
and Newham Bookshop 
E:mail Bookshop Barnies here if you'd like to come
Mike Hulme on 'Why We Disagree About Climate Change: Understanding Controversy, Inaction and Opportunity'.
Tim O’Riordan, Emeritus Professor of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia says: 'In a crowded and noisy world of climate change publications, this will stand tall. Mike Hulme speaks with the calm yet authoritative voice of the integrationist. He sees climate change as both a scientific and a moral issue, challenging our presumed right to be 'human' to our offspring and to the pulsating web of life that sustains habitability for all living beings. As a peculiar species we have the power do create intolerable conditions for the majority of our descendents. Yet we also have the scientific knowledge, the economic strength, and the political capacity to change direction and put a stop to avoidable calamity. This readable book provides us with the necessary argument and strategy to follow the latter course.’
E:mail Bookshop Barnies here if you'd like to come
Tristram
Hunt on 'The Frock-coated Communist: The Revolutionary Life
of Fredrich Engels'
Hunt, one of the best known historians in the UK, has produced a
bodice-ripper!
"Set against the backdrop of revolutionary Europe and industrializing England – of Manchester mills, Paris barricades, and East End strikes – it is a story of devoted friendship, class compromise, ideological struggle, and family betrayal."
Richard
Reeves presented an inspirational overview of 'John Stuart Mill: Victorian Firebrand'
JS Mills' 'On Liberty' is rightly famous for having been the winner of the first ever Bookshop Barnie Balloon debate. Author Richard Reeves, director of the leading think-tank Demos has produced a fascinating and critical - in the best sense of the word - assessment of Mill's life and work.
As Mill himself said: "Wrong opinions and practices gradually yield to fact and argument: but fact and arguments, to produce any effect on the mind, must be brought before it." A useful descripton of the Bookshop Barnie!
Listen to a webcast (.mp3 format) of the event:
1. General scene setting (4.8MB)
2. RICHARD REEVES' INTRODUCTION
& BARNIE QUESTIONS (6.6MB)
3. Audience Q&A (poor sound
quality on questions) (16MB)
Nandan
Nilekani presented a feisty defence of 'Imagining India: Ideas for the New Century'
Nilekani, named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by TIME magazine in 2006 and Forbes' 'Business Leader of the Year' in the same year, has produced a book that shows how India's huge population 'has now become her greatest strength'.
This
Barnie was held in conjunction with British Council India
Cosmo
Landesman on 'Starstruck: Fame, Failure, My Family and Me'
Combining personal anecdotes about his eccentric family relations with four decades of social history, he writes: 'The Nineties are important for one reason: they mark the time when ordinary people were invited to join that exclusive club called celebrity... what was far less discussed was the cult of the ordinary... as far as television was concerned, real people - that is ordinary people - became all the rage."
Each contestant has just two and a half minutes to defend their favourite book:
Winner!
Stella Duffy, novelist, playwright, performer defending "The King James' Bible"
Particpants included:
Ian McMillan (poet, northerner defending Malcolm Lowry's "Under the Volcano"); Peter Curran (journo, documentary-maker & presenter, Radio 4's 'Saturday Live' on "London A-Z"); Rob Lyons (deputy editor, Spiked-Online defending Douglas Adams' "Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy"); Jo-Anne Nadler, (political journalist and William Hague's biographer) defending Philip Roth's "I married a Communist"; David Jones (professor of Bioethics defending EF Schumacher's "Small is Beautiful"); Tony Curzon Price (Editor-in-Chief of openDemocracy on Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness"); and Tristan Quinn, producer, "Panorama" defending Jean Baudrillard's "America"
'The
First London Olympics 1908', by Rebecca Jenkins
The 1908 London Olympics formed a stage for a clash of empires. In the White City stadium the Edwardian English sporting gentlemen met the vigor of the "scientifically trained" Americans... and lost.
David Goldlatt, writing in The Times notes that 'Beijing 2008 is quite obviously the sporting herald of a rising global power. The first London Olympics briefly illuminated the twilight years of a superpower’s declining rule.' And in 1908, far from engendering goodwill among nations, the Games caused international uproar.
Buy the book from Amazon.co.uk
'The
Thin Blue Line: How Humanitarianism Went to War', by Conor
Foley
"Humanitarian NGOs," argues Conor Foley, "are becoming increasingly dependent on western government donors, who comprise the only constituency that can hold them accountable".
So should there be more regulation holding them to account; or does it mean that NGOs should be encouraged to be more independent of so-called donor 'interest groups'? Will either be a good thing for the people that NGOs purport to defend? Or should we be more critical of any form of intervention in the national sovereignty of other countries?
Buy the book from Amazon.co.uk
'The
Best Book on the Market: How to Stop Worrying and Love the Free
Economy', by Eamonn Butler, director of the Adam Smith Institute
The book itself has been endorsed by the former Prime Minister of Estonia, The President of the Czech Republic, and the former Finance Minister of New Zealand... as well as Geoffrey Howe, John Major, Nigel Lawson and Andrew Neil.... but didn't put anyone off. .
Buy the book from Amazon.co.uk
'An
Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming' by Nigel
Lawson
The Observer's Robin McKie calls this book 'breathtaking arrogance', which seems to reinforce Lord Lawson's claim that simply by putting forward an alternative perspective on global warming is nowadays seen to be a sign of emotional dysfunction. The Literary Review, on the other hand, applauds him for having the courage of his convictions, an increasingly rare virtue in today's excessively consensual age'. See also Enemies of Progress
This Barnie was itself somewhat heated and a video will soon be available, at which future generations may marvel.
Buy the book from Amazon.co.uk
'The Dragon and the Elephant: China, India and the New World Order' by David Smith, Economics' editor, Sunday Times (just out in paperback)
Sir Digby Jones says that `This book... stimulates and nourishes the mind whilst adding to the wake-up call that the Dragon and the Elephant present to the developed world.'
Buy the book from Amazon.co.uk
ril 2008Julian Baggini, philosopher and broadcaster, explains the background to his latest book, 'Welcome to Everytown: A Journey into the English Mind.' (it'll just be out in paperback):
Baggini parachuted into Rotherham for this anthropological study. Partly an exploration of his own fears and prejudices, this is an entertaining exploration of what real people really think.
Insightful? Patronising? Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough.
Buy the book from Amazon.co.uk
Paul Mason, BBC Newsnight's business and industrial editor, will discuss the intracacies of his latest book, 'Live Working or Die Fighting' (just out in paperback):
On the 40th anniversary of '68, Mason will be discussing his thoughts on the new globalised working class. Greg Palast says: 'If you haven't read Mason's book, you know nothing'. Barnie attendees will not usually have read the book... come and test your intelligence.
Buy the book from Amazon.co.uk
WINNER:
George Brock (Saturday editor, The Times) on Dickens'
"Our Mutual Friend"
Fellow combatants included:
James Delingpole (author, journalist) on Tolstoy's
"War and Peace";
Peter Whittle (director, New Culture Forum) on J N
Neale's "Elizabeth I";
Michael Owens (head of Regeneration, London Borough
of Merton) on Jane Jacob's "The Death and Life of the
Great American City";
George Brock (Saturday editor, The Times) on Dickens'
"Our Mutual Friend";
Lesley Katon (film producer, Channel 4) on W G Sebald's
"The Rings of Saturn"; and
Tom Dunmore (editor-in-chief, Stuff magazine) on
Hunter S Thompson's "Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas",
We would like to thank all of the contestants for their strenuous and entertaining efforts and would like to wish them - as well as our Barnie-goers who have attended over the year - a very Merry Christmas and we hope to see you in the New Year!
What they say of the Bookshop Barnies:
"Engagingly spikey!"
Geoff Mulgan, director, Young Foundation
"A fantastic event. Intellectually stimulating, enjoyable
and I met a lot of very interesting people."
Claire Fox, director, Institute of Ideas
"What fun... I felt like I learned a lot."
Alain de Botton, philosopher
"I really did enjoy the Barnie… very combative."
John Ralston Saul, philosopher, author "The Collapse
Of Globalism"
"A fascinating evening."
Timothy Hornsby, Chairman Designate, Horniman Museum
"It was great fun"
Martin Wolf, associate editor and chief economics commentator,
Financial Times
"I've been thinking about some of the comments and questions
from the audience ever since"
Francis Wheen, author, journalist and broadcaster
Read testimonials for
Bookshop Barnies
Nicolette Jones on The Plimsoll Sensation: The great campaign to save lives at sea
Buy the book from Amazon.co.uk
The Barnie explored whether Samual Plimsoll had other motives; whether he was the progenitor of intrusive modern health and safety measures; and also explored the rise of creative non-fiction (a style that Jones rejects!)
Please email Austin Williams for further details.
Thomas
Homer-Dixon talked about his book:
The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, creativity and the renewal
of civilisation
Thomas's introduction
Questions to Thomas Homer-Dixon
Questions and points from the audience
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Carne Ross defended his book An Independent Diplomat
After being disillusioned with the government's policies in Iraq, Ross resigned his FO position and is currently advising the government of Kosovo and has been chosen by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust as one of its seven "visionaries for a just and peaceful world".
Michael Gove
MP introduced his new book Celsius 7/7
James
Delingpole introduced his new book How To Be Right
James Delingpole's introduction
Audience questions and discussion
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Guardian columnist and author Francis Wheen talked about his book 'Marx's Das Kapital'
As one of Atlantic's 'Books that Shook the World' series, author Francis Wheen says of Das Kapital: 'The book can be read as a vast Gothic novel whose heroes are enslaved and consumed by the monster they created... or as a Victorian melodrama; or as a black farce...There has been nothing remotely like it before or since - which is probably why it has been so consistently neglected or misconstrued. Marx was indeed one of the great tormented giants.'
Francis Wheen's introduction
Questions to Francis Wheen
Questions and points from the audience
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A
conversation with Canadian essayist and philosopher John Ralston
Saul and his new book 'The Collapse of Globalism and the Reinvention
of the World'.
"The Collapse of Globalism follows globalization from its promising beginnings in the 1970s through to the increasing deregulation in industry, and into the 1990s, when regional economic collapses and concern for the environment and for the rights of workers led to widespread protest and disillusionment. In the wake of globalism's collapse, nationalism of the best and worst sort, Saul demonstrates, shows signs of making a remarkable, unexpected recovery."
