Callum G. Brown

Postmodernism isn't some kind of optional plug-in for your world view. It is a powerful explanation of how ideas work. If you want to explore ideas with an informed perspective on how they function, you need to understand postmodernism. This primer by Callum G. Brown is an excellent starting point for anyone, not just historians and/or historiographers. Brown begins by explaining "the two core principles of postmodernism": i) reality is ultimately unrepresentable; ii) therefore, there can be no authoritative account---of anything. This presents particularly strong challenges for the the study of history. Brown then introduces the working concepts of signs, discourses, structures, the postmodern concept of a "text" (which entails more than letters and words), meta-narratives, and deconstruction. These include discussions of structuralism, post-structuralism, and post-colonial studies. Brown also provides enlightening examples of how these concepts are being used to interact with historical narratives and to reject the notion of historical authority in favor of a more nuanced understanding not of the past, but of the idea of the past. A final chapter summarizes some of the counter-criticisms to applying postmodern theory to history and historiography. Brown provides numerous resources for additional reading at the end of each topical chapter and the writing is accessible throughout. Participants in the Information Age would be well served to think more carefully and critically about contextualizing their relationship to information in a structured way. Every gadget, every widget, every post, every message exists within and contributes to discourses and meta-narratives whether you're aware of them or not.

This text challenges the generally held view that secularisation has been a long and gradual process beginning with the Industrial Revolution, and instead proposes that it has been a catastrophic short-term phenomenon starting with the 1960s.

"This deeply-researched book intervenes in post-war British history in new ways. Building on the author's previous works, it explains the resurgence of religiously conservative sexual morality in the 1940s and '50s by looking at moral vigilantism, licensing and broadcasting policies, before detailing the collapse of these structures in the 1960s and 1970s and the freedom given to the secular sexual revolution. The book complicates the jigsaw of moral change between 1945 and 1980 - from ending censorship to Mary Whitehouse, from prosecution of gays to anti-church campaigning, from banning of Humanist broadcasting to the flourishing of atheist scientists on TV. Examining a series of 'combative encounters', the book foregrounds the powerful Public Morality Council and BBC's Religious Advisory Committee, whilst case studies of London, Blackpool, Sheffield, Glasgow and Lewis decentre the metropolis from national narratives of the sixties sexual revolution. Including struggles between Anglican and Catholic leaders, and the Humanist contribution to the 'Liberal Hour' of the 1960s, the story of the battle over the nation's religious character is placed central to Britain's modern history"--

"The Western World is becoming atheist. In the space of three generations churchgoing and religious belief have become alien to millions. We are in the midst of one of humankind's great cultural changes. How has this happened? Becoming Atheist explores how people of the sixties' generation have come to live their lives as if there is no God. It tells the life narratives of those from Britain, Western Europe, the United States and Canada who came from Christian, Jewish and other backgrounds to be without faith. Based on interviews with 85 people born in 18 countries, Callum Brown shows how gender, ethnicity and childhood shape how individuals lose religion. This book moves from statistical and broad cultural analysis to use frank, humorous and sometimes harrowing personal testimony. Becoming Atheist exposes people's role in renegotiating their own identities, and fashioning a secular and humanist culture for the Western world."--Bloomsbury Publishing.