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Cultural Amnesia

Notes in the Margin of My Time

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Cultural Amnesia

By: Clive James
Narrated by: Clive James
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About this listen

Abridged for audio. Read by the author, Clive James.

With fascinating essays on towering figures from Anna Akhmatova to Stefan Zweig, via Charles de Gaulle, Hitler, Thomas Mann and Wittgenstein, Cultural Amnesia is one of the crowning achievements in Clive James's illustrious career as a critic.

'One stupendous starburst of wild brilliance' – Simon Schama, historian and author of The Power of Art

A comprehensive survey of modern culture, Cultural Amnesia is Clive James' unique take on the places and the faces that shaped the twentieth-century. From Anna Akhmatova to Stefan Zweig, via Charles de Gaulle, Hitler, Thomas Mann and Wittgenstein, this varied and unfailingly absorbing book is both story and history, both public memoir and personal record – and provides an essential field-guide to the vast movements of taste, intellect, politics and delusion that helped to prepare the times we live in now.

'Aphoristic and acutely provocative: a crash course in civilization' – J. M. Coetzee, author of Disgrace

©2008 Clive James; (P)2008 Macmillan Digital Audio 20th Century Art Essays Linguistics Modern Politics & Government Social Sciences United States World Nonfiction Thought-Provoking Imperialism Middle Ages Soviet Union Socialism War Russia Interwar Period

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Critic reviews

One stupendous starburst of wild brilliance (Simon Schama, author of The Power of Art)
Aphoristic and acutely provocative: a crash course in civilization (J. M. Coetzee, author of Disgrace)
Over the past forty years James has been scribbling notes in the margins of the books he has read . . . and this is the result. Clever, contentious and funny
Witty, insightful and unashamedly erudite, the book is a superb miscellany of 20th-century cultural and political subjects
This is a beautiful book. James proves himself not only to be in possession of a towering intellect, but a singular ability to communicate his passions
An eclectic journey through the 20th century, as Clive James explores the careers of luminaries such as Charles de Gaulle and Charlie Chaplin
[A] fabulously gifted, enviably well-read, generously inclusive, and always commonsensical writer (John Banville, author of The Sea)
Clive James is one of the most ingeniously stimulating literary critics. Cultural Amnesia, with its encyclopedic length and organization and the intense jostle of its ideas, is to be dipped into over weeks and months. If the dipper occasionally brings up exasperation, it brings up astonished delight far more often; and, best of all, exasperated astonished delight
All stars
Most relevant
Cultural Amnesia is a ?tour de force? in writing terms but more like a ?tour de France? when reading, especially if you try to do the thing in one go. Using Wikipedia as a study aid I felt like I was in the ring with Sonny Liston who by chapter three had me on the canvas. In one of his earlier books, Fame in the 20th century, Clive James gave an excellent outline of how the famous shaped our world. In Cultural Amnesia he has broadened and deepened these ideas. I found it is accessible only in that he uses words I understand but the concepts saw me using a whiteboard and ?post it? notes. His thoughts criss-cross time and space giving a glimpse of James?s lifetimes reading and reasoning. This can be disconcerting if like me you are thinly read and prone to prejudice. However it is so worth persevering as there is much to learn, many laughs and a constant striving for context. In ?Fame? James ends by making the point that we need these people as we need a map, to help find our way, yet all maps are an over simplification. I would argue that we need Clive himself to help us find our way as Cultural Amnesia changes that scale from glimpse to insight. I have listened to and read the book and am changed for the experience. Had there been a T Shirt I?d be wearing it.

Another great clearing in the jungle from CJ

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I loved this so much I instantly bought the hard copy book, just so as to have all that wonderful erudition more immediately to hand. The book is 850 pages or so, and would take at least twice as long to read - this audiobook is missing a lot. I would’ve thought that Audible would’ve made this abridgement much clearer before purchase. Oh well.

Not that any of that is Clive James’s fault. He says himself that he hasn’t read everything, but oh to have read half of his total. It’s his curiosity that shines through - he wants to know more about more subjects and thinkers and writers than I even really knew existed.

But don’t be intimidated: this book is exhilarating precisely BECAUSE he’s read so much. Every essay opens a new door, makes you want to be smarter.

Just, y’know. Read the actual book, rather than the half (or less) that’s here in audio form.

Wonderful, but heavily abridged

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Insightful, intelligent and erudite. The world is the poorer fir the passing if Clive James. The only thing not to like about thjs is that its a heavily abridged version of a much longer and mire comprehensive book.

Superb Clive James

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A fine collection of essays read by the author. Hearing James deliver his own distinctive sentences in his own distinctive voice brings an already wonderful book even more to life. It will probably be the most entertaining (and possibly the most erudite) book you will listen to all year.

Clive James is an international treasure

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A wonderful ramble through history and iconic people of the time, interwoven with a comic delivery. Very enjoyable.

Entertaining Ramble

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