Uncertainty about what is truly going on makes it simpler to hold to irrational views.' From the man who wrote more about his country than anybody, razor-sharp thoughts on patriotism, bigotry, and power. Penguin Modern is a collection of fifty new books that celebrate the legendary Penguin Modern Classics series' pioneering spirit, with each giving a concentrated dosage of the series' contemporary, worldwide flavour. From Kathy Acker to James Baldwin, Truman Capote to Stanislaw Lem, and George Orwell to Shirley Jackson, here are essays that are both radical and inspiring, poems that are both moving and disturbing, and stories that are both surreal and fantastic, taking us from the deep South to modern Japan, New York's underground scene to the farthest reaches of space.

This book reassesses the contribution to international thought of some of the most important thinkers of the inter-war period. It takes as its starting point E. H. Carr's famous critique which, more than any other work, established the reputation of the period as the `utopian' or `idealist' phase of international relations theorizing. This characterization of inter-war thought is scrutinized through ten detailed studies of such writers as Norman Angell, J. A. Hobson, J. M. Keynes, David Mitrany, and Alfred Zimmern. The studies demonstrate the diversity of perspectives within `idealism' and call into question the descriptive and analytical value of the entire notion. It is concluded that `idealism' is an overly general term, useful for scoring debating points rather than providing a helpful category for analysis.

Now published with a new preface explaining why The Great Deception is of the utmost importance today as it was when it was first published and to coincide with Great Britain's EU referendum in 2016, this book suggests that the United States of Europe and its edict of 'ever closer union' have been based on a colossal confidence trick. The Great Deception tells for the first time the inside story of the most audacious political project of modern times: the plan to unite Europe under a single 'supranational' government. From the 1920s, when the blueprint for the European Union was first conceived by a British civil servant, this meticulously documented account takes the story right up to the moves to give Europe a political constitution, already planned 60 years ago to be the 'crowning dream' of the whole project. The book shows how the gradual assembling of a European government has amounted to a 'slow motion coup d'etat', based on a strategy of deliberate deception, into which Britain's leaders, Macmillan and Heath, were consciously drawn. Drawing on a wealth of new evidence, scarcely an episode of the story does not emerge in startling new light, from the real reasons why de Gaulle kept Britain out in the 1960s to the fall of Mrs Thatcher. The book chillingly shows how Britain's politicians, not least Tony Blair, were consistently outplayed in a game the rules of which they never understood. But it ends by asking whether, from the euro to enlargement, the 'project' has now overreached itself, as a gamble doomed to fail. Since their collaboration began in 1992, Christopher Booker, a Sunday Telegraph columnist, and Richard North, who worked for four years in Brussels and Strasbourg as a senior researcher, have won a unique reputation for their expertise on Britain's relationship to the European Union. Their previous publications included The Mad Officials (1994) and The Castle of Lies (1996). But they regard The Great Deception as the book they had been waiting to write for ten years. Christopher Booker's preface now adds up-to-date detail for the current era as Britain heads inexorably towards a possible 'Brexit'.

In his book, 'Building the Kingdom of God on Earth', Dr. Erdmann deals primarily with John Foster Dulles' participation in the ecumenical movement from 1919 to 1945. Dulles' role in shaping the religious, economic, and political policies of the Federal Council of Churches in its support of world order and peace, especially in his function as chairman of the Commission on a Just and Durable Peace, was crowned with success in the founding of the United Nations Organisation in 1945. His personal friends Philip Kerr (Lord Lothian) and Lionel Curtis, the principal leaders of the Round Table Group, come into the pictures at various times. By and large they pursued the same objectives as those of Dulles. The book shows the detailed influence of the Round Table Group and its affiliated organisations - such as the Royal Institute of International Affairs (London) and the Council for Foreign Relations (New York City) - on the ecumenical movement, using it successfully for their purpose of creating an international community of nations.