Jan Prokeš Books

Chtěli změnit umění a s ním i celou společnost. Umění změnili. Společnost ne… Velká říjnová revoluce, to nebyl jen razantní přelom v ruské politice. V očích revolucionářů se utvářela celá nová společnost, nový svět a nový člověk. Jedním z projevů této nové epochy lidských dějin mělo být i umění: to staré, buržoazní a tradiční bylo zavrženo ve jménu umění moderního a progresivního. V čele Sovětského svazu proto vedle bolševiků stanuli i avantgardní umělci. Dříve odmítaní tvůrci jako Kazimir Malevič, Marc Chagall, Vasilij Kandinskij nebo Vladimir Tatlin byli pověřeni úkolem provést socialistickou estetickou transformaci: reformovaly se pedagogické systémy, v zapadlých obcích se budovaly galerie, města zaplavilo avantgardní umění. Trvalo to však jen pár let, než tato umělecká svobodomyslnost začala být Sovětskému svazu, komunistickému politbyru a jeho regulím na obtíž. Triumf umění skončil lidskou tragédií. Avantgardisté jsou velkolepým příběhem několika umělců, kteří chtěli změnit svět, portrétem doby bolševické revoluce a teroru i strhujícím vyznáním modernímu umění.

Americký historik a novinář Stephen Kinzer ve své poutavé knize líčí život dvou mocných bratrů, Allena a Johna Fostera Dullese, kteří v letech studené války formovali zahraniční politiku USA. Allen Dulles byl šéfem CIA a John Foster Dulles ministrem zahraničí Eisenhowerovy vlády. Ačkoli byli povahově odlišní, tvořili silný tandem, který rozhodoval o osudech milionů lidí, aniž o tom většina Američanů věděla. Vyrůstali v přísné zbožnosti a s misionářským zápalem, snažili se přetvářet svět podle svých představ a v každém, kdo nebyl horlivým spojencem USA, viděli hrozbu. Dullesové byli architekty politiky, která vedla válku proti zemím usilujícím o nezávislost, zejména v třetím světě, kde USA ztrácely vliv. Kinzer popisuje klíčové události, jako puč v Guatemale, svržení íránského premiéra Mosaddeka, intervence v Indonésii a Kongu, a operace proti Kubě. Autor se však nezaměřuje pouze na události, ale zkoumá motivy bratrů, jejich názory a rodinné zázemí, a klade si otázku po příčinách amerického excepcionalismu a intervencionismu. Dullesové nebyli výjimeční jedinci, ale typičtí představitelé americké tradice, a jejich příběh je příběhem Ameriky. Kinzer odhaluje temnou stránku americké historie, která vyvolává kritiku a s níž se Amerika dosud nevyrovnala.

'Quite simply, one of the best books about geopolitics you could imagine: reading it is like having a light shone on your understanding' - Nicholas Lezard, Evening Standard, on Prisoners of Geography If you want to understand what's happening in the world, look at a map. Tim Marshall's global bestseller Prisoners of Geography showed how every nation's choices are limited by mountains, rivers, seas and concrete. Since then, the geography hasn't changed, but the world has. In this revelatory new book, Marshall takes us into ten regions that are set to shape global politics and power. Find out why the Earth's atmosphere is the world's next battleground; why the fight for the Pacific is just beginning; and why Europe's next refugee crisis is closer than it thinks. In ten chapters covering Australia, The Sahel, Greece, Turkey, the UK, Iran, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, Spain and Space, delivered with Marshall's trademark wit and insight, this is a lucid and gripping exploration of the power of geography to shape humanity's past, present - and future.

All leaders are constrained by geography. Their choices are limited by mountains, rivers, seas and concrete. Yes, to understand world events you need to understand people, ideas and movements...but if you dont know geography, youll never have the full picture.; To understand Putins actions, for example, it is essential to consider that, to be a ......

"For more than forty years, the United States has reached out to China, helping it develop a booming economy and take its place on the world stage, in the belief that there is little to fear--and everything to gain--from China's rise. But what if the Chinese have had a different plan all along? The Hundred-Year Marathon reveals China's secret strategy to supplant the United States as the world's dominant power, and to do so by 2049, the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic. Michael Pillsbury, who has served in senior national security positions in the U.S. government since the days of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, draws on Chinese documents, speeches, and books (many of them never translated into English) to reveal the roots of this strategy in traditional Chinese statecraft and track how the Chinese are putting it into practice today. Pillsbury shows how American policymakers have been willfully blind to these developments for decades--and he includes himself in that critique, as he was once a leading voice in favor of aiding China. He also calls for the United States to design a new, more competitive strategy toward China as it really is, and not as we might wish it to be. The Hundred-Year Marathon is a wakeup call for all Americans concerned about how we have misread the greatest national security challenge of the twenty-first century"--

Winner of the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award 2015

This book answers the question: 'What's next?' The Internet had a world-changing impact on businesses and the global community over the twenty years from 1994 to 2014. In the next ten years, change will happen even faster. As Hillary Clinton's Senior Advisor for Innovation, Alec Ross travelled nearly a million miles to forty-one countries, the equivalent of two round-trips to the moon. From refugee camps in the Congo and Syrian war zones, to visiting the world's most powerful people in business and government, Ross's travels amounted to a four-year masterclass in the changing nature of innovation. In The Industries of the Future, Ross distils his observations on the forces that are changing the world. He highlights the best opportunities for progress and explains how countries thrive or sputter. Ross examines the specific fields that will most shape our economic future over the next ten years, including robotics, artificial intelligence, the commercialization of genomics, cybercrime and the impact of digital technology. Blending storytelling and economic analysis, he answers questions on how we will need to adapt. Ross gives readers a vivid and informed perspective on how sweeping global trends are affecting the ways we live, now and tomorrow.

_______________ 'A fascinating exploration that challenges our basic assumptions of what work means' - Yuval Noah Harari 'There is eminently underlinable stuff on most pages ... Fascinating' - The Times 'One of those few books that will turn your customary ways of thinking upside down' - Susan Cain 'Illuminating' - New Statesman _______________ A revolutionary new history of humankind through the prism of work, from the origins of life on Earth to our ever more automated present The work we do brings us meaning, moulds our values, determines our social status and dictates how we spend most of our time. But this wasn't always the case: for 95% of our species' history, work held a radically different importance. How, then, did work become the central organisational principle of our societies? How did it transform our bodies, our environments, our views on equality and our sense of time? And why, in a time of material abundance, are we working more than ever before?