Wherever you are in the world and whatever you’re interested in, our ‘Books of the month’ features a broad sample of different recent releases authored by University of Liverpool staff. From architecture to business, photography to tourism, there’s something for everyone.
The University of Liverpool Library has curated a reading list for Book of the Month which is available and searchable for University of Liverpool staff and students. The newest titles are added at the top of the list for visibility and further information can be found in the notes area.
If you are a member of UoL staff and would like your new or recent (2023, 2024 & 2025) publication to be featured, please email the details to the Research Communications Team at rescomms@liverpool.ac.uk.
Author: Michael Hauskeller
Published: 2025
In his latest monograph, Michael Hauskeller goes against the grain of the currently dominant philosophical view and develops and defends a subjectivist account of meaning in life, which holds that the only place that meaning can ever be found is in the way we experience the living of our lives. Most philosophers think that a life can only be meaningful if it meets certain objective standards. If you want your life to be meaningful, they insist, you need to make a difference and do something important with your life, something that is of value, and not just for yourself. The world needs to have some benefit from your existence, otherwise your life has no meaning. You need purposes that are truly worth pursuing, and the more ambitious the purpose and the more successful you are in pursuing it, the more meaningful your life is.
If you ask those philosophers, meaning is all about achievements, about being significant and having an impact, about leaving a lasting mark on the world. In contrast, Hauskeller argues that meaningfulness is not an objective quality of lives, nor is it in some way dependent on such a quality. We cannot feel our life to be meaningful, while in fact it is not, because meaning does not depend on the presence of certain features without which no life can be rightly considered meaningful. This is also why, contrary to what is suggested in the mainstream philosophical literature on meaning in life, meaningful lives are not the exception, but the rule. Many people live a meaningful life. Meaning is not the prerogative of an elite minority. We don’t even have to work hard to acquire meaning in life. It is not a measure of our accomplishments. Nor do we have to search long and hard to find it. In many cases, we just have to be careful not to lose it. Hauskeller explains and defends these views against common objections while providing a detailed discussion of alternative positions and what is problematic about them.
Michael Hauskeller is Professor of Philosophy and Head of the Department of Philosophy, School of the Arts, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Liverpool.
The Routledge History of Loneliness
Authors: Katie Barclay, Elaine Chalus, Deborah Simonton
Published: 2023
The Routledge History of Loneliness takes a multidisciplinary approach to the history of a modern emotion, exploring its form and development across cultures from the seventeenth century to the present.
Bringing together thirty scholars from various disciplines, including history, anthropology, philosophy, literature and art history, the volume considers how loneliness was represented in art and literature, conceptualised by philosophers and writers and described by people in their personal narratives. It considers loneliness as a feeling so often defined in contrast to sociability and affective connections, particularly attending to loneliness in relation to the family, household and community. Acknowledging that loneliness is a relatively novel term in English, the book explores its precedents in ideas about solitude, melancholy and nostalgia, as well as how it might be considered in cross-cultural perspectives.
With wide appeal to students and researchers in a variety of subjects, including the history of emotions, social sciences and literature, this volume brings a critical historical perspective to an emotion with contemporary significance.
Elaine Chalus is Professor of British History, in the School of Histories, Languages and Cultures, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at University of Liverpool.
Young People, Media and Politics in the Digital Age
Author: Vera Slavtcheva-Petkova
Published: 2024
The book explores the relationship among young people, politics and the media. It presents a novel multidimensional analytical framework – The Circle Line Media Model, which accounts for the importance of a range of processes, actors and social structures in the political socialisation process.
By defining political socialisation as a lifelong interactive process that develops civic cultures, collective identities and citizenship, underpinned by social structures, nationality and generational order, the author draws attention to its manifestation in acts of political participation and interactions with authoritative actors such as school/teachers, family, the media and friends/peers. The volume’s longitudinal study on young people, Europe and the media spanning 13 years of research in two very different countries also makes recommendations for more effectively engaging young people with politics and political media based on Generation Z’s own views about current deficiencies in their relationship with news media.
Shedding new light on the changing nature of young people’s engagement with politics, this book will be of interest to researchers, lecturers/professors and upper level undergraduate and postgraduate students in the fields of media studies, communication and journalism studies as well as politics and sociology.
Dr Vera Slavtcheva-Petkova is Associate Dean Global Engagement, School of the Arts, and Reader in Global Journalism and Media, Communication and Media, in Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Liverpool.