Books in the Phoenix Books series

Offers an analysis of hundreds of gangs in Chicago in the early part of the twentieth century. This book looks specifically at the way in which urban geography shaped gangs, and posited the thesis that neighborhoods in flux were more likely to produce gangs.

In this critique Kant weaves his thoughts on practical reason into a unified argument. Lewis White Beck offers an examination of this argument and places it in the context of Kant's philosophy, and of the moral philosophy of the 18th century.

This work examines the problem of natural right and argues that there is a firm foundation in reality for the distinction between right and wrong in ethics and politics.

Cuneiform records made some three thousand years ago are the basis for this essay on the ideas of death and the afterlife and the story of the flood which were current among the ancient people of the Tigro-Euphrates Valley.

Soren Kierkegaard's influence has been felt in many areas of human thought from theology to psychology. Nearly 100 of his prayers are gathered here, illuminating his own life of prayer and speaking to the concerns of Christians today.

Here, adequately presented for the first time in English, is the fascinating story of a splendid culture that flourished thirty-five hundred years ago in the empire on the Nile: kings and conquests, gods and heroes, beautiful art, sculpture, poetry, architecture.

In this classic analysis, Leo Strauss pinpoints what is original and innovative in the political philosophy of Thomas Hobbes. He argues that Hobbes's ideas arose not from tradition or science but from his own deep knowledge and experience of human nature. Tracing the development of Hobbes's moral doctrine from his early writings to his major work "The Leviathan, " Strauss explains contradictions in the body of Hobbes's work and discovers startling connections between Hobbes and the thought of Plato, Thucydides, Aristotle, Descartes, Spinoza, and Hegel.

This volume describes Hassan Fathy's plan for building the village of New Gourna, near Luxor, Egypt, without the use of more modern and expensive materials such as steel and concrete.

This is the first volume of two, Harold C. Goddard takes the reader on a tour through the works of William Shakespeare, celebrating his plays and genius.