Michael Tanner: 20 books

The philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) was almost wholly neglected during his sane life, which came to an abrupt end in 1889. Since then he has been appropriated as an icon by an astonishingly diverse spectrum of people, whose interpretations of his thought range from the highly irrational...

Ryan's Daughter, winner of two Oscars, was a very successful film that lured Michael Tanner to the Dingle Peninsula. He researched this story by focusing on identifying locations and interviewing local people involved in the film's shoot. The result is an unvarnished account of the troubled shooting...

Richard Wagner remains, almost 130 years after his death, the most controversial composer in the history of music. Creator of huge and hugely ambitious operas, which have an immense immediate impact, as well as providing food for endless thought and discussion, Wagner has had an influence on many...

The finest jockey rider on the English turf during the nineteenth century was George Fordhamlauded throughout the sport as the Demon. Such was the judgment of his contemporaries from jockeys and trainers to owners and chroniclers. Yet history has not been kind to Fordham. Fate saw his career overshadowed...

Schopenhauer 1788 - 1860 Western philosophy's most profound and unrelenting pessimist, Schopenhauer hymned the miseries of human existence with a joylessness that was little short of lyrical. Yet he thrilled to the beauties of music and art. How did such deep bleakness and such sublime...

In 1920, a glittering Russian Orthodox monastery is dynamited by the Bolsheviks into piles of rubble. Years later, Nikolai Razkazov—Kolya—grows up in the shadow of the ruins. A veteran of the Soviet war in Afghanistan and the deadly Russian arms trade, Kolya learns that he and the old monastery share a special connection and that his life has a purpose, a dangerous purpose.

‘A fine, intellectually sparkling and always engaging little book – a welcome addition to any Wagner library’Hans Vaget, Opera Quarterly Whilst no one would dispute Wagner’s ranking among the most significant composers in the history of Western music, his works have been more fiercely attacked...

This is the story of how a boy from a disadvantaged background on the outskirts of Oxford overcame all obstacles through an alliance of self-belief and inspirational grammar school teachers to fight his way into Oxford University.

The Oxford Murder that gripped the country in 1931 would grace any episode of Inspector Morse. Yet it was horrifically real. Annie Kempson was a defenceless widow bludgeoned and stabbed to death in her own home for the sake of a few poundsa despicable crime for which the killer could expect no mercy....

What does it take to kill your fellow man? The horrors of World War One yield the answer for one troubled young man from Littlemore who finds himself at war on two fronts: at home and in the trenches where his enemies number comrades as well as Germans. His pursuit of inner peace leads to the...

The Family Legacy Journal is the journal that will build the family legacy parents dream of in just ten minutes each day. Most families are caught up in a whirlwind of busyness that leaves them feeling disconnected. Without a method to slow the pace of everyday life, families drift apart. The Family...

Britons watched the opening months of 1913 unfold with a sense of foreboding. On the continent, they saw a brutal conflict in the Balkans increase the prospect of a war engulfing the whole of Europe. On their doorstep, they observed the thorny issue of Irish home rule edge the island toward civil...

The Inclusive Economy: How to Bring Wealth to America’s Poor energetically challenges the conventional wisdom of both the right and the left that underlies much of the contemporary debate over poverty and welfare policy. Author and national public policy expert Michael Tanner takes to task conservative...

The Weimar Moment’s evocative assault on closure and political reaction, its offering of democracy against the politics of narrow self-interest cloaked in nationalist appeals to Volk and “community” – or, as would be the case in Nazi Germany, “race” – cannot but appeal to us today. This...