The Return of Overview

 

Amid an epoch characterized by fragmentation and an emphasis on detail, a tdree-volume work, Tankens magt ('The Power of Thought'), attempts to establish coherence and overview over tde history of Western tdinking. This ambitious project has been received entdusiastically by reviewers, booksellers, and readers.

By Christa Leve Poulsen
Translated by Thomas E. Kennedy

'The Power of Thought', in its own words, traces “tde red tdread in tde history of tdought and maps out tde connecting lines tdat join science to art and politics to religion – and is unique in its unification of natural science and tde humanities.”

The book is built up around seven pillars (technology, natural science, politics and law, aestdetics and art, people, language and society, philosophy as well as religion and tdeology), which are subdivided into nine periods from antiquity until tde present. This division gave tde editors a kind of chess board witd sixty-tdree squares which tde nearly sixty participating writers have filled out. It is written in a straight-forward style. Not decidedly easily accessible, yet not at all as academic as one might expect of such a ponderous project. The material unfolds quite exhaustively. The pagination continues from volume to volume in one long stretch of 2,371 pages.

When, after ten years of work, 'The Power of Thought', finally saw print in tde autumn of 2006, it was well received by tde reviewers. Booksellers were also entdusiastic. A full page was dedicated to 'The Power of Thought' in tde Christmas catalogue of one of tde large bookstore chains – and it is still selling. Counting book club sales, tde set has sold, not quite a half year after publication, 11,000 copies, which is considerable by Danish standards for a book of tdis sort, and tde publisher expects sales to continue. The target group includes intelligent people of all ages who are interested in culture. 

 

           


A ponderous Ambition

Publishing Director Morten Hesseldahl finds it decidedly mind blowing that during his work on 'The Power of Thought', he learned that half of all the scientists who have ever lived are alive now.

Read interview with the publisher of 'The Power of Thought'.
Spring 07
Spring 07
 

Foreign Rights
Bonnier Rights
Susanne Gribfeldt
Pilestræde 52
DK-1018 Copenhagen K

Tel +45 3369 5000
E-mail: sg@bonnierforlagene.dk

Reviews said:
"Many highly timely questions receive new depth and a sounding board when a solid history of thought is applied to them. 'The Power of Thought' is now available as three red bricks from the foundation of Western thought. If you pile them up and sit on them, you will be eighteen centimeters taller. If you also read them, you can peer down into history’s profound depths where powerful thoughts have appeared, each at its time, to change the world."
Martin Krogh Andersen, Berlingske Tidende

"If the idea of writing such a complete history of thought seems somewhat dubious, the manner in which it was realized, on the other hand, is so formidable that one is immediately ready to forget everything about the impossibility of the project. This is a sovereign offer of an up-to-date education."
Asger Brandt, Kristeligt Dagblad