Routledge Classics
About the Book Series
"Routledge Classics is more than just a collection of texts...it embodies and circulates challenging ideas and keeps vital debates current and alive." – Hilary Mantel
The Routledge Classics series, with titles by Bertrand Russell, Jean-Paul Sartre, Ludwig Wittgenstein and Mary Midgley, was launched in 2001. The series contains the very best of Routledge’s publishing over the past century or so, books that have, by popular consent, become established as classics in their field. Drawing on a fantastic heritage of innovative writing published by Routledge and its associated imprints, this series makes available in attractive, affordable form some of the most important works of modern times.
In 2021 we are delighted to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Routledge Classics series with the publication of fifteen stellar new titles. All include new forewords or introductions and eye-catching cover designs, a hallmark of the series.
The Stars Down to Earth
2nd Edition
By Theodor Adorno
November 21, 2001
The Stars Down to Earth shows us a stunningly prescient Adorno. Haunted by the ugly side of American culture industries he used the different angles provided by each of these three essays to showcase the dangers inherent in modern obsessions with consumption. He engages with some of his most ...
A Short History of Modern Philosophy: From Descartes to Wittgenstein
1st Edition
By Roger Scruton
November 09, 2001
Discover for yourself the pleasures of philosophy! Written both for the seasoned student of philosophy as well as the general reader, the renowned writer Roger Scruton provides a survey of modern philosophy. Always engaging, Scruton takes us on a fascinating tour of the subject, from founding ...
The Language and Thought of the Child
1st Edition
By Jean Piaget
November 09, 2001
This book is for anyone who has ever wondered how a child develops language, thought, and knowledge. Before this classic appeared, little was known of the way children think. In 1923, however, Jean Piaget, the most important developmental psychologist of the twentieth century, took the ...
The Need for Roots: Prelude to a Declaration of Duties Towards Mankind
2nd Edition
By Simone Weil
November 09, 2001
Hailed by Andre Gide as the patron saint of all outsiders, Simone Weil's short life was ample testimony to her beliefs. In 1942 she fled France along with her family, going firstly to America. She then moved back to London in order to work with de Gaulle. Published posthumously The Need for Roots ...
The Rosicrucian Enlightenment
2nd Edition
By Frances Yates
November 09, 2001
A history of the role that the occult has played in the formation of modern science and medicine, The Rosicrucian Enlightenment has had a tremendous impact on our understanding of the western esoteric tradition. Beautifully illustrated, it remains one of those rare works of scholarship which the ...
The Great War: 1914–1918
2nd Edition
By Marc Ferro
November 07, 2001
A landmark history of the war that firmly places the First World War in the context of imperialism and gives due weight to the role of non-Europeans in the conflict....
The Century of Revolution: 1603–1714
2nd Edition
By Christopher Hill
October 12, 2001
There is an immense range of books about the English Civil War, but one historian stands head and shoulders above all others for the quality of his work on the subject. In 1961 Christopher Hill first published what has come to be acknowledged as the best concise history of the period, Century of ...
The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age
1st Edition
By Frances Yates
July 02, 2001
It is hard to overestimate the importance of the contribution made by Dame Frances Yates to the serious study of esotericism and the occult sciences. To her work can be attributed the contemporary understanding of the occult origins of much of Western scientific thinking, indeed of Western ...
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
2nd Edition
By Ludwig Wittgenstein
June 26, 2001
Perhaps the most important work of philosophy written in the twentieth century, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus was the only philosophical work that Ludwig Wittgenstein published during his lifetime. Written in short, carefully numbered paragraphs of extreme brilliance, it captured the imagination ...
Wickedness
2nd Edition
By Mary Midgley, Mary Midgley
June 26, 2001
To look into the darkness of the human soul is a frightening venture. Here Mary Midgley does so, with her customary brilliance and clarity. Midgley's analysis proves that the capacity for real wickedness is an inevitable part of human nature. This is not however a blanket acceptance of evil. Out of...
The Culture Industry: Selected Essays on Mass Culture
2nd Edition
Edited
By J. M. Bernstein, Theodor W Adorno
May 30, 2001
The creation of the Frankfurt School of critical theory in the 1920s saw the birth of some of the most exciting and challenging writings of the twentieth century. It is out of this background that the great critic Theodor Adorno emerged. His finest essays are collected here, offering the reader ...
Relativity
2nd Edition
By Albert Einstein
May 29, 2001
Time's 'Man of the Century', Albert Einstein is the unquestioned founder of modern physics. His theory of relativity is the most important scientific idea of the modern era. In this short book Einstein explains, using the minimum of mathematical terms, the basic ideas and principles of the theory ...