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 2026 we are delighted to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the Routledge Classics series with the publication of seven stellar new titles. All include new prefaces, forewords, introductions or postscripts as well as eye-catching cover designs, a hallmark of the series.
Stone Age Economics
1st Edition
By Marshall Sahlins
April 20, 2017
Since its first publication over forty years ago Marshall Sahlins's Stone Age Economics has established itself as a classic of modern anthropology and arguably one of the founding works of anthropological economics. Ambitiously tackling the nature of economic life and how to study it comparatively,...
The Singularity of Literature
1st Edition
By Derek Attridge
April 20, 2017
The Iliad and Beowulf provide rich sources of historical information. The novels of Henry Fielding and Henry James may be instructive in the art of moral living. Some go further and argue that Emile Zola and Harriet Beecher Stowe played a part in ameliorating the lives of those existing in harsh ...
The Causes of the English Revolution 1529-1642
1st Edition
By Lawrence Stone
April 19, 2017
Dividing the nation and causing massive political change, the English Civil War remains one of the most decisive and dramatic conflicts of English history. Lawrence Stone's account of the factors leading up to the deposition of Charles I in 1642 is widely regarded as a classic in the field. ...
Crime Control As Industry: Towards Gulags, Western Style
1st Edition
By Nils Christie
October 04, 2016
Crime Control As Industry, translated into many languages, is a modern classic of criminology and sociology. Nils Christie, one of the leading criminologists of his era, argues that crime control, rather than crime itself is the real danger for our future. Prison populations, especially in Russia ...
Sanity, Madness and the Family
1st Edition
By R.D Laing, Aaron Esterson
September 30, 2016
In the late 1950s the psychiatrist R.D.Laing and psychoanalyst Aaron Esterson spent five years interviewing eleven families of female patients diagnosed as 'schizophrenic'. Sanity, Madness and the Family is the result of their work. Eleven vivid case studies, often dramatic and disturbing, reveal ...
An Actor's Work
1st Edition
By Konstantin Stanislavski
September 29, 2016
Stanislavski’s ‘system’ has dominated actor-training in the West since his writings were first translated into English in the 1920s and 30s. His systematic attempt to outline a psycho-physical technique for acting single-handedly revolutionized standards of acting in the theatre. Until now, ...
Psychological Types
1st Edition
By Carl Jung
September 29, 2016
Psychological Types is one of Jung's most important and famous works. First published in English by Routledge in the early 1920s it appeared after Jung's so-called fallow period, during which he published little, and it is perhaps the first significant book to appear after his own confrontation ...
Aping Mankind
1st Edition
By Raymond Tallis
April 07, 2016
Neuroscience has made astounding progress in the understanding of the brain. What should we make of its claims to go beyond the brain and explain consciousness, behaviour and culture? Where should we draw the line? In this brilliant critique Raymond Tallis dismantles "Neuromania", arising out of ...
Can It Happen Again?: Essays on Instability and Finance
1st Edition
By Hyman Minsky
April 07, 2016
In the winter of 1933, the American financial and economic system collapsed. Since then economists, policy makers and financial analysts throughout the world have been haunted by the question of whether "It" can happen again. In 2008 "It" very nearly happened again as banks and mortgage lenders in ...
From Puritanism to Postmodernism: A History of American Literature
1st Edition
By Richard Ruland, Malcolm Bradbury
April 07, 2016
Widely acknowledged as a contemporary classic that has introduced thousands of readers to American literature, From Puritanism to Postmodernism: A History of American Literature brilliantly charts the fascinating story of American literature from the Puritan legacy to the advent of postmodernism. ...
Lines: A Brief History
1st Edition
By Tim Ingold
April 05, 2016
What do walking, weaving, observing, storytelling, singing, drawing and writing have in common? The answer is that they all proceed along lines. In this extraordinary book Tim Ingold imagines a world in which everyone and everything consists of interwoven or interconnected lines and lays the ...
The Impact of Science on Society
1st Edition
By Bertrand Russell
April 05, 2016
Many of the revolutionary effects of science and technology are obvious enough. Bertrand Russell saw in the 1950s that there are also many negative aspects of scientific innovation. Insightful and controversial in equal measure, Russell argues that science offers the world greater well-being than ...