James, Clive, 1939- <br/><br/>
Cultural amnesia  : necessary memories from history and the arts 
/ Clive James 
 - 1st ed 
 - New York  : W.W. Norton & Co.  , c2007. 
 - xxxii, 876 p.  : ports.  ; 25 cm. 
<br/><br/> Includes index. 
<br/><br/> On one hand, this work by British cultural and literary critic James can be seen as a simply an encyclopedic survey of figures important to the philosophy, history, politics, and arts of the 20th century (together with a small handful of non-20th century figures, such as the Roman historian Tacitus). It offers 116 separate profiles in which James offers his thoughts on such disparate individuals as Louis Armstrong, Jorge Luis Borges, Albert Camus, Dick Cavett, Charlie Chaplin, Miles Davis, Alfred Einsteni, W. C. Fields, Gustave Flaubert, Sigmund Freud, Edward Gibbon, Terry Gilliam, Adolf Hitler, Norman Mailer, Thomas Mann, Mao Zedong, Octavio Paz, Beatrix Potter, Rainier Maria Rilke, Edward Said, Jean-Paul Sartre, Margaret Thatcher, Leon Trotsky, and Ludwig Wittgenstein. Despite this seeming eclecticism, James has a unitary purpose, which is to defend the values of reason and liberal democracy against "ideologists" and authoritarianism. 
<br/><br/><label>ISBN: </label>9780393061161 
<br/><br/><label>LCCN: </label>2006036398 
<br/><br/><label>Nat. Bib. Agency Control No.: </label>013660630   Uk 
<br/><br/><label>Subjects--Topical Terms: </label><br/>Civilization, Western<br/>Intellectuals----Biography<br/>Artists----Biography<br/>Musicians----Biography<br/>Philosophers----Biography<br/>Intellectual life----History----20th century<br/>Humanism<br/>Memory----Social aspects
<br/><br/><label>LC Class. No.: </label>CB245  / .J338 2007 
<br/><br/><label>Dewey Class. No.: </label>909.0982 JAM