Kieron O Hara: 8 books

  The term "conservative," when employed today in reference to politicians and beliefs, can denote groups as diverse and incompatible as the religious right, libertarians, and opponents of large, centralized government. Yet the original conservative philosophy, first developed in...

Social machines are a type of network connected by interactive digital devices made possible by the ubiquitous adoption of technologies such as the Internet, the smartphone, social media and the read/write World Wide Web, connecting people at scale to document situations, cooperate on tasks, exchange...

Blamed for the disasters of the 20th century: Auschwitz, globalisation, Islamic terrorism; heralded as the harbinger of reason, equality, and the end of arbitrary rule, the Enlightenment has been nothing if not divisive. To this day historians disagree over when, where, and what it was (and sometimes,...

Author of Brave New World and The Doors of Perception, and inventor of the term ‘psychedelic’, Aldous Huxley was a global trend-setter ahead of his time. In this new biography Kieron O’Hara explores the life of this great visionary, charting his transformation from society satirist to Californian...

What do you know about the new surveillance state that has been created in the wake of pervasive computing – that is, the increasing use of very small and simple computers in all sorts of host – from your computer to your coat? Well, these little computers can communicate via the web and form powerful...

The internet may be a utopia for free expression, but it also harbours nihilistic groups and individuals spreading bizarre creeds, unhindered by the risk-averse gatekeepers of the mass media -- and not all are as harmless as the Virtual Church of the Blind Chihuahua or Sexastrianism. With few entry...

A lively and sharp critique of the role of the referendum in modern British politics. The 1975 vote on Europe is the lens to focus the subject, and the controversy over the referendum on the European constitution is also clearly in the author’s sights.

This book argues that the novelist Joseph Conrad’s work speaks directly to us in a way that none of his contemporaries can. Conrad’s scepticism, pessimism, emphasis on the importance and fragility of community, and the difficulties of escaping our history are important tools for understanding the...