"Martin Jay is one of the most influential intellectual historians in contemporary America, and here he shows once again a willingness to tackle the 'big issues' in the Western cultural tradition…. A remarkable history of ideas about the nature of human experience."—Lloyd Kramer, author of Threshold of a New World "A magisterial study of one of the most elusive, contested, and pervasively important concepts of the Western philosophical tradition. Ranging from epistemology and aesthetics to the philosophy of history, religion, and politics, Songs of Experience brilliantly traces the major lines of theory and debate. Insightful, rich, and masterfully narrated, Jay's book sings with that well-tempered voice of erudition, synthetic intelligence, and generous grace that has become his enviable trademark."—Richard Shusterman, author of Pragmatist Aesthetics "This illuminating, provocative volume consolidates Martin Jay's standing as our leading modern intellectual historian. Ranging sure-footedly from ancient to postmodern discourse, Jay offers finely balanced readings of thinkers who have wrestled with the elusive concept of experience. Because Jay respects—and presents so clearly and sympathetically—positions different from his own, Songs of Experience gives readers the resources necessary to embrace or resist his own bold interpretations of philosophers from Kant and Burke through Dilthey and Dewey to Foucault and Rorty. This book will prove as indispensable to intellectual historians as the idea of experience itself."—James T. Kloppenberg, author of The Virtues of Liberalism

Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul (first published in 1794), an expansion of Blake's first illuminated book Songs of Innocence. The poems and artwork were reproduced by copperplate engraving and colored with washes by hand. Blake republished Songs of Innocence and Experience several times, often changing the number and order of the plates. The spellings, punctuation and capitalizations are those of the original Blake manuscripts. William Blake (1757 – 1827) was a British poet, painter, visionary mystic, and engraver, who illustrated and printed his own books. Blake proclaimed the supremacy of the imagination over the rationalism and materialism of the 18th-century. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age.

The ultimate celebration of U2 for the band's fans--with two great books in one Cowritten by Brian Boyd, a leading music journalist and close associate of U2, and Niall Stokes, editor of Ireland's legendary Hot Press magazine, U2 Songs + Experience recounts the band's incredible career and analyzes the songs from all their studio albums. Along with a discussion of the influences, inspiration, and origins of U2's immensely popular music, this volume covers the group's rise from its roots in post-punk and its socially and politically conscious music. Iconic and rare photographs showcase posters, backstage passes, classic flyers, and other rock memorabilia. Material compiled from U2 Experience and U2: The Stories Behind the Songs.

"I always thought the job was to be as great as you could be." - Bono This is the story of U2, in their own words and pictures.

This hardcover gift edition comprises the complete contents of Songs of Innocence, in addition to nine poems from Songs of Experience. Seven color and numerous black-and-white line illustrations grace the text.

In his illuminated books,William Blake combined his handwritten text with his exuberant imagery on pages the like of which had not been seen since the great decorated books of the Middle Ages. To read such books as Jerusalem, America and Songs of Innocence and of Experience in cold letterpress bears no comparison to seeing and reading them as Blake conceived them, infused with his sublime and exhilarating colours. At times tiny figures and forms dance among the lines of the text, flames appear to burn up the page, and dense passages of Biblical-sounding text are brought to a jarring halt by startling images of death, destruction and liberation. This edition, produced together with The William Blake Trust, contains all the pages of Blakes twenty or so illuminated books reproduced in true size, an appendix with all Blakes text set in type and an introduction by the noted Blake scholar, David Bindman. They can at last become part of the lives of all lovers of art and poetry.