Author: Paul Dobraszczyk File Type: pdf Cities are imagined not just as utopias, but also as ruins. In literature, film, art and popular culture, urban landscapes have been submerged by floods, razed by alien invaders, abandoned by fearful inhabitants and consumed in fire. The Dead City unearths meanings from such depictions of ruination and decay, looking at representations of both thriving cities and ones which are struggling, abandoned or simply in transition. It reveals that ruination presents a complex opportunity to envision new futures for a city, whether that is by rewriting its past or throwing off old assumptions and proposing radical change. Seen in a certain light, for example, urban ruin and decay are a challenge to capitalist narratives of unbounded progress. They can equally imply that power structures thought to be deeply ingrained are temporary, contingent and even fragile. Examining ruins in Chernobyl, Detroit, London, Manchester and Varosha, this book demonstrates that how we discuss and depict urban decline is intimately connected to the histories, economic forces, power structures and communities of a given city, as well as to conflicting visions for its future. **Review `The Dead City is an elegantly argued and lacerating insight into our contemporary collective ruin lust. The book binds together stunning images and carefully crafted prose in an elegy to ruin aesthetics, moving adroitly between critical commentary to personal experience and propelling the reader into unexpected introspection. Bradley L. Garrett, University of Sydney About the Author Paul Dobraszczyk is a visiting lecturer at the Bartlett School of Architecture in London. His research focuses on visual culture and the built environment from the 19th century onwards, and he is co-editor of Global Undergrounds Exploring Cities Within (2016) and Function & Fantasy Iron Architecture in the Long Nineteenth Century (2016), as well as author of Iron, Ornament and Architecture in Victorian Britain (2014) and Londons Sewers (2014).

Author: Dorothy Coleman File Type: pdf David Humes Dialogues concerning Natural Religion, first published in 1779, is one of the most influential works in the philosophy of religion and the most artful instance of philosophical dialogue since the dialogues of Plato. It presents a fictional conversation between a sceptic, an orthodox Christian, and a Newtonian theist concerning evidence for the existence of an intelligent cause of nature based on observable features of the world. This new edition presents it together with several of Humes other, shorter writings about religion, and with brief selections from the work of Pierre Bayle, who influenced both Humes views on religion and the dialectical style of the Dialogues. The volume is completed by an introduction which sets the Dialogues in its philosophical and historical contexts.Book DescriptionThe Dialogues concerning Natural Religion, first published in 1779, is the one of the most influential works in the philosophy of religion and the most artful instance of philosophical dialogue since the dialogues of Plato. This new edition presents it together with several of Humes other, shorter writings about religion. About the AuthorDorothy Coleman is Adjunct Associate Professor of Philosophy at Northern Illinois University.