He reconstructs the extraordinary financial history of the dukes of Devonshire, narrates the story of the Cozens-Hardys, a Norfolk family who played a remarkably varied part in the life of their county, and offers a controversial reappraisal of the forebears, lives, work, and personalities of Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville-West - a portrait, notes Cannadine, of more than a marriage.

The Book of the Courtier meets Eckhart Tolle in this essential work of new consciousness literature. Jesus, Buddha, Baha-u'llah, Martin Luther King, Guru Nanek, Mohammed, Gandhi, Mother Theresa and others are widely considered the spiritual nobility of the world. In contrast to the ancient material nobility whose power is based upon material wealth acquired through force, the power of this spiritual nobility is based upon the true power of spiritual wealth and an endless capacity to give, love, and uplift humanity. This impulse to replicate the energetic signature of the spiritual nobility is arising spontaneously all around the world, a new love-based form of humanity dawning. When everyday people embark upon the path of their own personal self-ennoblement they are taking the most important journey any human being will take in their lifetime to become the change they desire to see in the world. This new form of humanity will be the basis for a 21st Century spiritual nobility, a new aristocracy, a leap in human development into fully realized human beings. True Blue Indigo's A Personal Aristrocracy encourages the exploration of beauty and graciousness that surpass the old forms by imbuing the best of the secular with spirit. Short, meditative chapters open with an illuminating epigraph and move on to consider such qualities as dignity, honor, reverence, truth, and forbearance, followed by sound strategies for integrating these traits into daily life.

During a modern age that saw the expansion of its democracy, the fading of its empire, and two world wars, Britain's hereditary aristocracy was pushed from the centre to the margins of the nation's affairs. Widely remarked on by commentators at the time, this radical redrawing of the social and political map provoked a newly intensified fascination with the aristocracy among modern writers. Undone by history, the British aristocracy and its Anglo-Irish cousins were remade by literary modernism. Modernism and the Aristocracy: Monsters of English Privilege is about the results of that remaking. The book traces the literary consequences of the modernist preoccupation with aristocracy in the works of Elizabeth Bowen, Ford Madox Ford, Aldous Huxley, D.H. Lawrence, Evelyn Waugh, Rebecca West, and others writing in Britain and Ireland in the first half of the twentieth century. Combining an historical focus on the decades between the two world wars with close attention to the verbal textures and formal structures of literary texts, Adam Parkes asks: What did the decline of the British aristocracy do for modernist writers? What imaginative and creative opportunities did the historical fate of the aristocracy precipitate in writers of the new democratic age? Exploring a range of feelings, affects, and attitudes that modernist authors associated with the aristocracy in the interwar period--from stupidity, boredom, and nostalgia to sophistication, cruelty, and kindness--the book also asks what impact this subject-matter has on the form and style of modernist texts, and why the results have appealed to readers then and now. In tackling such questions, Parkes argues for a reawakening of curiosity about connections between class, status, and literature in the modernist period.

In this tour de force essay, Hans-Hermann Hoppe turns the standard account of historical governmental progress on its head. While the state is an evil in all its forms, monarchy is, in many ways, far less pernicious than democracy. Hoppe shows the evolution of government away from aristocracy, through monarchy, and toward the corruption and irresponsibility of democracy to have been identical with the growth of the leviathan state. There is hope for liberty, as Hoppe explains, but it lies not in reversing these steps, but rather through secession and decentralization. This pocket-sized, eye-opening pamphlet is ideal for tabling, conferences, or sharing with friends. It can revolutionize the way a reader sees society and the state.

In this controversial and hotly discussed book, Sir Peregrine presents a reactionary and playful look at the origins, evolution and demise of the aristocracy.

Aristocracies or nobilities dominated the social, economic, and institutional history of all European counties until only a few generations ago. The relics of their power, in traditions and behaviour, in architecture and the arts, are still all around us. This short introduction shows how ideas of aristocracy originated in ancient times, were transformed in the middle ages, and have only fallen apart over the last two centuries. The myths in which aristocracies have always sought to shroud themselves are stripped away, but the true sources of their enduring power are also revealed. Their outlook and behaviour affected the rest of society in innumerable and sometimes surprising ways, but perhaps most surprising was the way in which a centuries-old aristocratic hegemony crumbled away over the last two hundred years. In this Very Short Introduction William Doyle considers why this happend and what remains today. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.