The Reputation Game: The Art of Changing How People See You David Waller (1981) and Rupert Young Oneworld, 2017
WTF: What have we done? Why did it happen? How do we take back control? Robert Peston (1979) Hodder and Stoughton, 2017
Arguing that reputation – for individuals, companies or countries – is more valuable than money, the authors analyse how reputation is formed and why it matters. They draw on academic research and interviews with high-profile people – LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, musician Jay-Z and Booker-prize winner Hilary Mantel among them – to show how the game works, including how reputation can be lost and regained, and to demonstrate winning strategies.
In the wake of recent political shocks, Robert Peston draws on his experience as a political, economics and business journalist to analyse what went wrong: what brought Corbyn, May and Trump to prominence, economic reasons for the Brexit vote, why immigration has come to dominate politics and much more. Addressing the challenges of the age and giving his views on how we might do things better in the future – for example, how it is possible to make a success of leaving the EU, lessons that can be learned from the Grenfell Tower fire, how to mend the fractures in society – he argues that at least some of what went wrong could be put right.
‘This interesting book places the issue in its rigorously argued context – an important matter for every senior executive in the public and private sectors.’ Lord Patten, Chancellor of Oxford University
‘Richly argued and brilliantly written … a deeply thoughtful analysis that should be mandatory reading for anyone seeking to understand where we have gone wrong.’ Financial Times
First Confession: A Sort of Memoir Chris Patten (1962, Chancellor of Oxford University) Allen Lane, 2017
Resolving Structural Conflicts: How Violent Systems Can Be Transformed Professor Richard Rubenstein (1959) Routledge, 2017
Setting out to explore ‘the relationship between politics and identity’, Chris Patten combines an account of the things that have shaped him in his life and career – as MP, cabinet member, last Governor of Hong Kong, European Commissioner, Chairman of the BBC, Chancellor of the University – with his opinions on what has happened in the world in his lifetime. How far Balliol made him – especially his tutors (‘a galaxy of brilliant and eccentric historians, all of them both clever and kind’) and his Pathfinder award (Balliol’s ‘equivalent of the lottery’) – is among his reflections.
This book analyses structural or systemgenerated conflicts and poses the fundamental question: ‘If there are social or political systems generating this conflict, how can they be changed?’ Showing how systems established to maintain order sometimes end by generating serious violence, the author (who is University Professor of Conflict Resolution and Public Affairs at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University) discusses how to envision and implement new methods of transforming violence-prone systems in order to create the conditions for positive peace.
The Turing Guide Professor Robin Wilson (1962), Jack Copeland, Jonathan Bowen and Mark Sprevak, eds OUP, 2017
Devouring Time: Nostalgia in Contemporary Shakespearean Screen Adaptations Philippa Sheppard (1989) McGill Queen’s University Press, 2017
This book brings together articles from experts on Alan Turing, to create a comprehensive guide to Turing that aims to serve as a useful resource for researchers in the area as well as the general reader. The book – which is extensively illustrated – covers aspects of Turing’s life and the full range of his intellectual activities, including mathematics, code-breaking, computer science, logic, artificial intelligence and mathematical biology, as well as his subsequent influence. Some of the 33 contributors worked at Bletchley and knew Turing personally.
Analysing 27 films based on Shakespeare’s works, from Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V to Justin Kurzel’s Macbeth, the author investigates the filmmakers’ nostalgia for the art of the past. Addressing a range of topics, including gender, ritual, music, setting, rhetoric, and editing, she argues that the directors’ choice to adapt these 400-old plays is an act of nostalgia, not only for the plays themselves, but also for the period in which they were written, the association of genius that accompanies them and the medium of theatre.
‘It is, I think, pretty much the last word on the subject.’ New Scientist FLOREAT DOMUS JUNE 2018
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