What Would You Die For?: (Birthday Counterpoints S.)

Table of Contents:
Preface by Sir David Green; Introduction by Chris Rawlings; To die for by Roger Scruton; The meaning of death, or the death of meaning? - The decline in the public cemetary by Ken Warpole; Towards a political economy of life by Ghassan Hage

About the Author :
Roger Scruton was until 1990 Professor of Aesthetics at Birkbeck College, London, and subsequently Professor of Philosophy and University Professor at Boston University, Massachusetts. He is now honorary Professor of Philosophy at the University of Buckingham. Since 1994 he has lived in Wiltshire, where he and his wife run a postmodern farm and consultancy, specialising in inverted commas. He has published over 30 books, including works of philosophy, literature and fiction, and his writings have been translated into most major languages. His most recent books are a study of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, entitled Death-Devoted Heart (OUP) and an account of his postmodern farming, entitled News from Somewhere (Continuum). Ken Worpole is a freelance writer and researcher on urban architectural and landscape policy issues. He was a member of the UK government's Urban Green Spaces Task Force (2000-02) and is an adviser on parks and public spaces to the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment. He was recently awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Middlesex University for his contribution to cultural policy, particularly in London. He is the author of many influential books and studies, the most recent two being Here Comes the Sun: architecture and public space in 20th century European Culture (Reaktion Books, 2001), and Last landscapes: the architecture of the cemetery in the West (Reaktion Books, 2003). He is married to the photographer Larraine Worpole, and they have lived in Hackney, east London, for the past 35 years, where their children and grandchildren also live. He has his own website at www worpole.dircon.co.uk Ghassan Hage is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Sydney. His work is in the areas of nationalism, transnational migration and migrant cultures, multiculturalism and racism. He has been a visiting professor at many international institutions including the Centre de Sociologie Europeenne at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris, the Department of Behavioural Sciences at the American University of Beirut and the Institute of Anthropology at the University of Copenhagen. He is also a permanent affiliated researcher with the Centre de Recherche sur L'Immigration, l'Ethnicite et la Citoyennete, University of Quebec in Montreal, and the Centre for Behavioural Research at the American University of Beirut. His recent published works include White Nation; Fantasies of White Supremacy in a Multicultural Society (Routledge, NY, 2000), Arab-Australians (Melbourne University Press, 2002) and Against Paranoid Nationalism (Merlin Press, 2003) a winner of the prestigious 2004 NSW Premier's Literary Awards (Community Relations). Chris Rawlings has been the Director of the British Council in Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2003. He read Zoology and later Clinical Immunology and has worked in clinical research and then international insurance before joining the British Council in 1992. Since then he has taken up duties in East Africa and South-East Asia and was posted to New Delhi (1998-2000) before working as the Director-General's Senior Executive Assistant (2000-03). He is a keen jazz and classical musician, and has recorded and performed both styles of music.

Review :
Of 'Trust me I'm a Scientist', a book in te same series: 'A brilliant book that speaks well for the series' The Herald (Review), 04 December 2004