Stationery and miscellaneous items

Book SynopsisDistinguished literary biographer Robert Zaretsky upends our thinking on Simone Weil, bringing us a woman and a philosopher who is complicated and challenging, while remaining incredibly relevant.Trade Review"Simone Weil was merciless (not least on herself), sometimes alarming, always compelling, and unavoidably significant. This is a beautifully sharp and thoughtful account of her life and work--a fascinating read."--Sarah Bakewell, author of At the Existentialist Cafe Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails with Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Others;"Zaretsky's work is unfailingly eloquent, fascinating, and relevant. In treating both her life and her writings, The Subversive Simone Weil displays a subject who, by going too far toward goodness, reminds so many of us that we have not gone far enough. In Zaretsky's hands, her courage stands as a complicated but necessary lesson for us all." --Todd May, author of A Decent Life: Morality for the Rest of Us;"Reading Zaretsky's absorbing and tender intellectual portrait of Simone Weil, I was reminded on every page of her astonishing relevance to our own times. With her demanding vision of the life well lived, in her extreme judgments and through her punishing empathy, Weil emerges here as a figurehead for the intellectual and ethical challenges of the current moment. As he has done so beautifully in his books on Camus, Zaretsky has opened Weil's life and work to our understanding. For readers familiar with Weil's, The Subversive Simone Weil is a valuable synthesis; for those coming to her for the first time, an inspiring primer."--Alice Kaplan, author of Looking for "The Stranger" Albert Camus and the Life of a Literary ClassicTable of ContentsPreface Introduction Chapter One The Force of Affliction Chapter Two Paying Attention Chapter Three The Varieties of Resistance Chapter Four Finding Roots Chapter Five The Good, the Bad, and the Godly Epilogue Acknowledgments Notes Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisBrilliantly uniting the personal and the critical, French Lessons is a powerful autobiographical experiment. It tells the story of an American woman escaping into the French language and of a scholar and teacher coming to grips with her history of learning.Trade Review"Alice Kaplan beautifully describes the intricate mixture of lust and embarrassment and voyeurism and submission and pride involved in immersing oneself in another language. . . . This girl's own story---of a daughter, a spy in the house of French, a teacher and scholar-is imbued with a sense of the multiplicity of identity, and it gracefully tells us what Kaplan says French has taught her: 'There is more than one way to speak.' "--Lisa Cohen "Voice Literary Supplement " "An uncommonly forthright and concise piece of autobiography. Kaplan has shown that university professors, too, can have a past worth telling, that the subjects they teach may mean far more to them than any student could begin to guess."--John Sturrock "London Review of Books " "This original, artful, engaging book belongs to an evolving genre of postmodern intellectual autobiography. Telling her story about a girl from the midwest who learned to speak perfect French, a student of deconstruction who became intrigued by fascism, Alice Kaplan writes insightfully also about language, memory, politics, and writing. Kaplan's father was a lawyer at the Nuremberg trials who died when she was only seven: she recalls the frightening photographs of concentration camp victims she found among his papers. The glamour of otherness and the allure of evil-as well as the characters of various mentors, meals, lovers, and students- are the subjects of this witty and insightful memoir."--Rachel M. Brownstein, author of Becoming a Heroine "Born a Jewish daughter of the American Midwest, Alice Kaplan became a professor of French and an expert on the literature of French fascism. French Lessons is the story of her cultural odyssey, a brave attempt to articulate the compulsions that drove her to embrace foreignness in order to become truly herself. . . . Told in a 'staccato Midwestern style, ' her story of becoming French is arrestingly all-American."--Arthur Goldhammer "Washington Post Book World " "Alice Kaplan has written a wonderful book, as accessible as light fiction and as polished and layered as poetry. . . . The precision and intensity of Kaplan's presentation of self in everyday life makes for an extraordinary literary achievement."--Graham Fraser "Toronto Globe and Mail " "A lovely book. . . . From the childhood learning of words from her siblings, to her professorship at Duke, she has catalogued her desire to speak a foreign language and thereby to become something foreign and alluring herself."--Fred Turner "Boston Phoenix " "French Lessons captures the excitement Kaplan experienced as she fell into the French language: mastering the difficulties of French pronunciation, the forms of the French verb, the forms of French politeness."--Thomas McGonigle "Chicago Tribune " "This is the most engaging new bildungsroman I have read in years-and especially because the bildung in question, the learning of French by a young American woman, brings with it such an amazing range of personal drama of modern and contemporary political and cultural history."--R. W. B. Lewis

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn this book, distinguished philosopher Stephen R. L. Clark shows that they form a vital set of spiritual exercises by which individuals can achieve one of Plotinus's most important goals: self-transformation through contemplation. Clark examines a variety of Plotinus's myths and metaphors within the cultural and philosophical context of his time.Trade Review"[Clark] produces a picture of Plotinus's intellectual and spiritual world that is not only strikingly attractive and convincing, but in many respects quite unlike the conventional pictures of Neoplatonism that recur with dreary predictability in countless works of philosophy, theology, and intellectual history."--David Bentley Hart"First Things" (01/01/2017) "Students of Plotinus and those interested in the broader Platonic tradition must read it."--Gerard O'Daly"Bryn Mawr Classical Review" (01/21/2017) "Clark engages with Plotinus as an imaginative and creative philosopher and a trenchant religious thinker. The psychological and spiritual power of Plotinus is uniquely illuminated by Clark's outstanding monograph: we have a first-rate contemporary philosopher reflecting upon one of the seminal minds of the occidental tradition."--Douglas Hedley, University of Cambridge "This is a remarkable book. Clark is a distinguished philosopher who has been engaged for some time in putting Greek philosophy in its wider Mediterranean setting, and this work continues that project with the rich works of Plotinus. Clark takes various aspects of Plotinus's philosophical oeuvre and sets them against their larger backdrop, not only philosophical but also literary and sociological, in order to bring out the full implications of Plotinus's positions. In this way, he convincingly shows the philosophical and religious importance of Plotinus's extraordinary use of metaphor, which so many other scholars have overlooked as merely literary. The result is wide ranging, sound, and highly original scholarship."--John Dillon, Trinity College Dublin

Read more less

Book SynopsisAcross early modern Europe, men and women from all ranks gathered medical, culinary, and food preservation recipes from family and friends, experts and practitioners, and a wide array of printed materials. Recipes were tested, assessed, and modified by teams of householders, including masters and servants, husbands and wives, mothers and daughters, and fathers and sons. This much-sought know-how was written into notebooks of various shapes and sizes forming treasuries for health, each personalized to suit the whims and needs of individual communities. In Recipes and Everyday Knowledge, Elaine Leong situates recipe knowledge and practices among larger questions of gender and cultural history, the history of the printed word, and the history of science, medicine, and technology. The production of recipes and recipe books, she argues, were at the heart of quotidian investigations of the natural world or household science. She shows how English homes acted as vibrant spaces for knowled

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"The Ruins Lesson makes one point above all: there was no single dominant way of observing ancient ruins and portraying what remained. Jessica Maier’s The Eternal City: A History of Rome in Maps provides a rich complementary account. . . . For centuries, as she shows, mapmakers and miniaturists, antiquarians and cartographers set out to do exactly what he thought impossible: to represent at least in part not only the city of Rome, but some of the ways in which it had changed over time." * London Review of Books *“No other city has maintained the story of its past in its present quite like Rome, creating an intentional palimpsest through incessant acts of preservation, reconstruction, and cartographic visualization. Maier’s lively, imaginatively organized, and accessible book displays how centuries of maps not only tell stories about the city’s physical development but also show how Rome’s narratives of itself—conflating eras, resituating buildings, compressing waterways—unfurled in self-mapping from antiquity to the Metro.” * Evelyn Lincoln, Brown University *"Jessica Maier’s The Eternal City: A History of Rome in Maps is a luxurious volume, elegantly and enthusiastically written, and richly illustrated with 140 well-curated color images of artwork, including maps of Rome across the ages. Maier’s primary aim is to explore the history of Rome through its cartography, and she contextualizes the maps within their historical, socio-cultural, religious, and political backdrops. . . . her volume invites the reader on an imaginary journey through the complex topographical, monumental, and historical layers of the Eternal City." * The Portolan *"Beautifully produced." * The Classical Review *“The history of Rome comes to life in this erudite, beautifully written book. Organized chronologically from Rome’s early beginnings to the present, this richly detailed history of Rome is focused through the lens of maps and cartographic images. Maier has written a fascinating account for both armchair and actual travelers. The Eternal City also has much to offer to seasoned scholars who will appreciate its coherent and fluid synthesis.” * Pamela O. Long, author of Engineering the Eternal City *“The Eternal City offers the reader a vivid panorama of Rome’s changing form and image over the course of more than two millennia. A rich selection of city plans and views reveals crucial shifts in representational strategies, function, and symbolic intent. The dynamic tension between Rome’s complex, three-dimensional urban reality and the city’s image as projected by successive generations of artists and cartographers is certain to engage a wide audience.” * John Pinto, emeritus, Princeton University *"The Eternal City is a brilliant history of Rome, focusing on how we have responded to and represented this ever-changing city. Digging down into both Rome's history and our own desires for this city, Maier has written a fascinating book that has changed the way I consider maps and history." * A Universe in Words blog *"Each chapter combines history, urban development, and the history of mapping to assess in each period how the city changed and how contemporaries represented it—demonstrating how Rome has been constantly reimagined, reconstructed, and represented over the course of the past three millennia, both on the ground and on paper (or other media)... Highly Recommended." * Choice *"Done very well, both in the selection and discussion of visual images and in [Maier's] considerate and humane prose style. A delight of a book." * New York Military Affairs Symposium Review *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Rome as Idea and Reality Further Reading Chapter One: Rome Takes Shape Rome before Rome A Walled City Urban Districting Further Reading Chapter Two: Rome of the Caesars Destination Rome An Incomplete Puzzle Making Sense of the Shattered Past Filling in the Gaps A Model City Further Reading Chapter Three: Rome of the Popes Sacred Buildings and Secular Symbols The Medieval Cityscape Pathos and Wonder Further Reading Chapter Four: Rome Reborn A City Ready for Its Close-Up The City Seen through a Wide-Angle Lens The City Measured A Panoramic View of Urban Revitalization Further Reading Chapter Five: Rome of the Scholars Archaeology in Its Infancy An Ancient Roman Theme Park A Ghostly Fantasy Further Reading Chapter Six: Rome of the Saints and Pilgrims The Way of the Faithful Scenes from a Pilgrimage A Pilgrimage Map for the Modern Era Further Reading Chapter Seven: Rome of the Grand Tourists Rome as Theater The Origins of the Tourist Plan Rome Surveyed A Panoramic Vision Further Reading Chapter Eight: Rome of the Mass Tourists The Guidebook Impresario’s Rome Rome for a Rather Important Woman Traveler Rome in Your Pocket Rome for Italian Tourists Further Reading Chapter Nine: Rome Enters the Modern Age 2,500 Years in, a Master Plan for Rome When Trams Ruled Rome An Olympic City, and a New Beginning Further Reading Chapter Ten: Rome Past, Present, and Future Rapid Transit for a Rapidly Changing City A Master Plan for the Third Millennium: (Un)sustainable Rome Further Reading Acknowledgments Index

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisAdvances in artificial intelligence (AI) highlight the potential of this technology to affect productivity, growth, inequality, market power, innovation, and employment. This volume seeks to set the agenda for economic research on the impact of AI. It covers four broad themes: AI as a general purpose technology; the relationships between AI, growth, jobs, and inequality; regulatory responses to changes brought on by AI; and the effects of AI on the way economic research is conducted. It explores the economic influence of machine learning, the branch of computational statistics that has driven much of the recent excitement around AI, as well as the economic impact of robotics and automation and the potential economic consequences of a still-hypothetical artificial general intelligence. The volume provides frameworks for understanding the economic impact of AI and identifies a number of open research questions. Contributors: Daron Acemoglu, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Philippe Aghion, Collège de France Ajay Agrawal, University of Toronto Susan Athey, Stanford University James Bessen, Boston University School of Law Erik Brynjolfsson, MIT Sloan School of Management Colin F. Camerer, California Institute of Technology Judith Chevalier, Yale School of Management Iain M. Cockburn, Boston University Tyler Cowen, George Mason University Jason Furman, Harvard Kennedy School Patrick Francois, University of British Columbia Alberto Galasso, University of Toronto Joshua Gans, University of Toronto Avi Goldfarb, University of Toronto Austan Goolsbee, University of Chicago Booth School of Business Rebecca Henderson, Harvard Business School Ginger Zhe Jin, University of Maryland Benjamin F. Jones, Northwestern University Charles I. Jones, Stanford University Daniel Kahneman, Princeton University Anton Korinek, Johns Hopkins University Mara Lederman, University of Toronto Hong Luo, Harvard Business School John McHale, National University of Ireland Paul R. Milgrom, Stanford University Matthew Mitchell, University of Toronto Alexander Oettl, Georgia Institute of Technology Andrea Prat, Columbia Business School Manav Raj, New York University Pascual Restrepo, Boston University Daniel Rock, MIT Sloan School of Management Jeffrey D. Sachs, Columbia University Robert Seamans, New York University Scott Stern, MIT Sloan School of Management Betsey Stevenson, University of Michigan Joseph E. Stiglitz. Columbia University Chad Syverson, University of Chicago Booth School of Business Matt Taddy, University of Chicago Booth School of Business Steven Tadelis, University of California, Berkeley Manuel Trajtenberg, Tel Aviv University Daniel Trefler, University of Toronto Catherine Tucker, MIT Sloan School of Management Hal Varian, University of California, Berkeley

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"The sage of Walden Pond is himself in the mix with The Daily Henry David Thoreau, a quote-a-day compendium from Thoreau biographer Laura Dassow Walls of some of his best observations. In a pandemic year touched by window-gazing among homebound Americans, readers might especially respond to this musing from Christmas Eve, 1841: 'Will it not be employment enough to watch the progress of the seasons?'" * Wall Street Journal *

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"It is a classic which remains relevant largely because it poses questions still unresolved."--praise for previous edition "Choice " "One is still impressed by the relevance of certain chapters, particularly the way in which urban problems are descriptively yet perceptively presented, a relevance that applies to the problems as much as their academic study."--praise for previous edition "Urban Studies " "[The City] is decidedly more than a description of the objective features of city life. It is a scientific analysis of the forces and elements that go to produce our urban civilization. . . . Park and Burgess have rendered an exceedingly valuable service."--praise for previous edition "Social Forces "

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn 1922 Robert Allertondescribed by the Chicago Tribune as the richest bachelor in Chicagomet a twenty-two-year-old University of Illinois architecture student named John Gregg, who was twenty-six years his junior. Virtually inseparable from then on, they began publicly referring to one another as father and son within a couple years of meeting. In 1960, after nearly four decades together, and with Robert Allerton nearing ninety, they embarked on a daringly nonconformist move: Allerton legally adopted the sixty-year-old Gregg as his son, the first such adoption of an adult in Illinois history. An Open Secret tells the striking story of these two iconoclasts, locating them among their queer contemporaries and exploring why becoming father and son made a surprising kind of sense for a twentieth-century couple who had every monetary advantage but one glaring problem: they wanted to be together publicly in a society that did not tolerate their love. Deftly exploring the nature of their design, domestic, and philanthropic projects, Nicholas L. Syrett illuminates how viewing the Allertons as both a same-sex couple and an adopted family is crucial to understanding their relationship's profound queerness. By digging deep into the lives of two men who operated largely as ciphers in their own time, he opens up provocative new lanes to consider the diversity of kinship ties in modern US history.Trade Review"The first lines of Nicholas Syrett’s third book, An Open Secret: The Family Story of Robert and John Gregg Allerton, had me hooked. . . [Syrett] takes us into the world of an Illinois couple—one born into a rich family with ties to the founding of the Union Stock Yards and the First National Bank of Chicago; the other an orphan in his early twenties, attending the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for architecture with a part-time job and inheritance money." * Chicago Tribune *“The book brings a critical view to the gay intergenerational relationship. It reveals how same-sex love was transformed into familial ties but also into an open secret where the boundary between knowingness and unknowingness was always in suspension.” * DNA Magazine *"An intriguing, complicated, and critical account of a queer affair and one that demonstrates the difficulty of applying contemporary terminologies, practices, and values to past relationships, especially those with limited and latent evidence of queerness. . . . Highly recommended." * Choice *“Syrett’s expert portrait shakes up modern assumptions about queer coupledom. His richly nuanced interpretation reveals that the kinship claim of these men was not merely a front to hide their sexuality, but a deeply meaningful structure for their emotional and physical intimacy. Not quite the story of a same-sex marriage, An Open Secret shows that the history of male same-sex companionship is much queerer indeed.” * Rachel Hope Cleves, author of Unspeakable: A Life beyond Sexual Morality *“Syrett escorts us into a world of wealth and privilege and creatively examines the decades-long intimacy of Allerton and Gregg. Filled with surprising revelations, Syrett’s account offers a new angle on the forms that queer life and love has taken in the past.” * John D’Emilio, author of Queer Legacies: Stories from Chicago’s LGBTQ Archives *“Syrett has crafted an eye-opening and engaging narrative, making a provocative contribution to queer history in his assertion that Allerton and Gregg may have had a relationship akin to bothmarriage and father to son—and that the two are not mutually exclusive. The story of this moneyed conservative couple disturbingly reveals how the privileged found community and refuge in open and secretive ways during a time of heightened homophobia.” * Amy Sueyoshi, author of Queer Compulsions: Race, Nation, and Sexuality in the Affairs of Yone Noguchi *“An Open Secret is a beautifully written, powerful account of queer domesticity, sympathetically humane but never simplistically celebratory of its subjects. Syrett deftly situates his biography in a broader history of twentieth-century LGBTQ communities and culture, offering a hot new take on the expansive queerness that defined some same-sex relationships before the emergence of the modern LGBTQ rights movement.” * Jen Manion, author of Female Husbands: A Trans History *"With previous books on the history of white college fraternities and the history of child marriage in the United States, Nicholas Syrett has a reputation for selecting fresh topics and conducting sound research and analysis. Adept with context, he has an impressive way of seeing topics, situations, and individuals in their singularity and as a means of exploring broad cultural themes. An Open Secret continues Syrett’s tradition of originality, attention to context, and rigorous analysis. The book is rich in ideas gracefully expressed." * Journal of the History of Sexuality *"Syrett’s portrait of Allerton and Gregg is a masterful intervention into both family history and the history of queerness." * Journal of American History *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Introduction 1 Allerton Roots 2 Robert Allerton’s Queer Aesthetic 3 Travel and Itinerant Homosexuality 4 Becoming Father and Son 5 Lord of a Hawaiian Island 6 Queer Domesticity in Illinois and Hawai‘i 7 Legally Father and Son Conclusion: John Wyatt Gregg Allerton Acknowledgments Notes Index

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisShe fought a lonely and almost single-handed fight, with the single-mindedness of a crusader, long before men or women of any race entered the arena; and the measure of success she achieved goes far beyond the credit she has been given in the history of the country.Alfreda M. Duster Ida B. Wells is an American icon of truth telling. Born to slaves, she was a pioneer of investigative journalism, a crusader against lynching, and a tireless advocate for suffrage, both for women and for African Americans. She co-founded the NAACP, started the Alpha Suffrage Club in Chicago, and was a leader in the early civil rights movement, working alongside W. E. B. Du Bois, Madam C. J. Walker, Mary Church Terrell, Frederick Douglass, and Susan B. Anthony. This engaging memoir, originally published 1970, relates Wells's private life as a mother as well as her public activities as a teacher, lecturer, and journalist in her fight for equality and justice. This updated edition includes a new foreword

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"The questions he poses about the relationship between technical change and political power are pressing ones that can no longer be ignored, and identifying them is perhaps the most a nascent 'philosophy of technology' can expect to achieve at the present time."--New York Times Book Review "[Winner's] thoughtful, stylishly expressed essays . . . . are designed to wake people up to the semantic games policy-makers play; to goad people into thinking responsibly and contributing to decision making. In this he succeeds very well."--Kirkus Reviews "With educated wit, home-grown insight, and even a bit of gallows humor, Winner strives to awaken us from our technological sleepwalking."--David F. Noble, author of America by Design "The Whale and the Reactor is the philosopher's equivalent of superb public history. In its pages an analytically trained mind confronts some of the most pressing political issues of our day."--Isis

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review“Anthropologists (and those in allied disciplines) know Taussig as a stylistic innovator.”—Times Literary Supplement “Above all, he is interested in individual stories and experiences, unique tales that cannot be reduced to rational explanation or bland report. . . . At the center of Taussig’s method is the anthropologist’s desire to bear witness to what he cannot understand.”—Los Angeles Review of Books “One of the most accomplished writers that anthropology has produced.”—Choice “Iconoclastic, experimental, and poetic, refusing ‘theory’ even as he makes it do his work.”—Hugh Raffles, The New School “[This is] what anthropology is for: the art or science that shows fish the water. Taussig is renowned as one of its dizziest dialectical conjurors.”—Times Higher Education “ [Taussig’s] late career unfolds with vitality, ingenuity, and surprises—with the storytelling voice, finally, of a Marlowe.”—George Marcus, University of California, Irvine * Praise for Michael Taussig *"In the nineteen chapters that make up the book, Taussig reflects on a world on the brink of collapse; a world which is based on a “new normal” marked by the 'fantastic power of catastrophe' and the non-existence of the ordinary... Taussig’s book helps one consider new paths for understanding our contemporary world and the various forms of violence, dominance and destruction that haunt us." * Anthropology Book Forum *

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"Yellowstone Wolves summarizes over two decades of hard work, involving dozens of dedicated scientists and advocates, to bring these wolves back to Yellowstone. . . . Their voices are skillfully combined to tell the many-faceted narratives in this marvelous book. . . . The overall success of this long-term effort provides information that will be of inestimable value to other restoration projects, sharing methods that can help wolves and humans coexist in a changing world and an example of what can happen if people unite to give Mother Nature a chance."--Jane Goodall, from the forewordTable of ContentsStudy Area Map A Note on Accompanying Video Robert K. Landis Foreword Jane Goodall Preface Douglas W. Smith, Daniel R. Stahler, and Daniel R. MacNultyPart 1 History and Reintroduction 1 Historical and Ecological Context for Wolf Recovery Douglas W. Smith, Daniel R. Stahler, Daniel R. MacNulty, and Lee H. Whittlesey Box 1.1 Wolf History and Surveys in Yellowstone National Park John Weaver 2 How Wolves Returned to Yellowstone Steven H. Fritts, Rebecca J. Watters, Edward E. Bangs, Douglas W. Smith, and Michael K. Phillips Box 2.1 To Reintroduce or Not to Reintroduce, That Is the Question Diane Boyd Guest Essay: Why Are Yellowstone Wolves Important? L. David MechPart 2 Behavioral and Population Ecology 3 Essential Biology of the Wolf: Foundations and Advances Daniel R. MacNulty, Daniel R. Stahler, Tim Coulson, and Douglas W. Smith 4 Ecology of Family Dynamics in Yellowstone Wolf Packs Daniel R. Stahler, Douglas W. Smith, Kira A. Cassidy, Erin E. Stahler, Matthew C. Metz, Rick McIntyre, and Daniel R. MacNulty Box 4.1 Naming Wolf Packs Daniel R. Stahler 5 Territoriality and Competition between Wolf Packs Kira A. Cassidy, Douglas W. Smith, Daniel R. Stahler, Daniel R. MacNulty, Erin E. Stahler, and Matthew C. Metz Box 5.1 Auditory Profile: The Howl of the Wolf John B. Theberge and Mary T. Theberge 6 Population Dynamics and Demography Douglas W. Smith, Kira A. Cassidy, Daniel R. Stahler, Daniel R. MacNulty, Quinn Harrison, Ben Balmford, Erin E. Stahler, Ellen E. Brandell, and Tim Coulson Guest Essay: Yellowstone Wolves Are Important Because They Changed Science Rolf O. Peterson and Trevor S. PetersonPart 3 Genetics and Disease 7 Yellowstone Wolves at the Frontiers of Genetic Research Daniel R. Stahler, Bridgett M. vonHoldt, Elizabeth Heppenheimer, and Robert K. Wayne 8 The K Locus: Rise of the Black Wolf Rena M. Schweizer, Daniel R. Stahler, Daniel R. MacNulty, Tim Coulson, Phil Hedrick, Rachel Johnston, Kira A. Cassidy, Bridgett M. vonHoldt, and Robert K. Wayne 9 Infectious Diseases in Yellowstone’s Wolves Ellen E. Brandell, Emily S. Almberg, Paul C. Cross, Andrew P. Dobson, Douglas W. Smith, and Peter J. Hudson Guest Essay: Why Are Yellowstone Wolves Important? A European Perspective Olof LibergPart 4 Wolf-Prey Relationships 10 How We Study Wolf-Prey Relationships Douglas W. Smith, Matthew C. Metz, Daniel R. Stahler, and Daniel R. MacNulty Box 10.1 Nine-Three-Alpha Douglas W. Smith Box 10.2 The Bone Collectors Ky Koitzsch and Lisa Koitzsch 11 Limits to Wolf Predatory Performance Daniel R. MacNulty, Daniel R. Stahler, and Douglas W. Smith Box 11.1 Tougher Times for Yellowstone Wolves Reflected in Tooth Wear and Fracture Blaire Van Valkenburgh 12 What Wolves Eat and Why Matthew C. Metz, Mark Hebblewhite, Douglas W. Smith, Daniel R. Stahler, Daniel R. MacNulty, Aimee Tallian, and John A. Vucetich Box 12.1 Bison in Wood Buffalo National Park L. N. Carbyn 13 Wolf Predation on Elk in a Multi-Prey Environment Matthew C. Metz, Douglas W. Smith, Daniel R. Stahler, Daniel R. MacNulty, and Mark Hebblewhite Box 13.1 Generalizing Wolf-Prey Dynamics across Systems: Yellowstone, Banff, and Isle Royale Mark Hebblewhite Box 13.2 The Predator’s Perspective: Biomass of Prey Matthew C. Metz Box 13.3 Lessons from Denali National Park: Stability in Predator-Prey Dynamics Is a Pause on the Way to Somewhere Else Layne Adams 14 Population Dynamics of Northern Yellowstone Elk after Wolf Reintroduction Daniel R. MacNulty, Daniel R. Stahler, Travis Wyman, Joel Ruprecht, Lacy M. Smith, Michel T. Kohl, and Douglas W. Smith Box 14.1 Wolves and Elk in the Madison Headwaters Robert A. Garrott, P. J. White, Claire Gower, Matthew S. Becker, Shana Drimal, Ken L. Hamlin, and Fred G. R. Watson Box 14.2 Ecology of Fear Daniel R. Stahler and Daniel R. MacNulty Guest Essay: The Value of Yellowstone’s Wolves? The Power of Choice Michael K. PhillipsPart 5 Ecosystem Effects and Species Interactions 15 Indirect Effects of Carnivore Restoration on Vegetation Rolf O. Peterson, Robert L. Beschta, David J. Cooper, N. Thompson Hobbs, Danielle Bilyeu Johnston, Eric J. Larsen, Kristin N. Marshall, Luke E. Painter, William J. Ripple, Joshua R. Rose, Douglas W. Smith, and Evan C. Wolf Box 15.1 Long-Term Trends in Beaver, Moose, and Willow Status in the Southern Portion of the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness Daniel B. Tyers 16 Competition and Coexistence among Yellowstone’s Meat Eaters Daniel R. Stahler, Christopher C. Wilmers, Aimee Tallian, Colby B. Anton, Matthew C. Metz, Toni K. Ruth, Douglas W. Smith, Kerry A. Gunther, and Daniel R. MacNulty Guest Essay: Old Dogs Taught Old Lessons Paul C. PaquetPart 6 Conservation, Management, and the Human Experience 17 Wolves and Humans in Yellowstone Douglas W. Smith, Daniel R. Stahler, Rick McIntyre, Erin E. Stahler, and Kira A. Cassidy 18 The Wolf Watchers Nathan Varley, Rick McIntyre, and James Halfpenny Box 18.1 Bob Landis’s Yellowstone Wolves Documentaries 000 Box 18.2 Seeing Wolves Robert Hayes 19 Conservation and Management: A Way Forward Douglas W. Smith, P. J. White, Daniel R. Stahler, Rebecca J. Watters, Kira A. Cassidy, Adrian Wydeven, Jim Hammill, and David E. Hallac Guest Essay: Making Better Sense of Wolves Susan G. Clark Afterword Rebecca J. Watters, Douglas W. Smith, Daniel R. Stahler, and Daniel R. MacNulty Acknowledgments Appendix: Species Names Used in the Text Literature Cited List of Contributors Author Index Subject Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Teaching Archive shows us a series of major literary thinkers in a place we seldom remember them inhabiting: the classroom. Rachel Sagner Buurma and Laura Heffernan open up the teaching archivethe syllabuses, course descriptions, lecture notes, and class assignmentsof critics and scholars including T. S. Eliot, Caroline Spurgeon, I. A. Richards, Edith Rickert, J. Saunders Redding, Edmund Wilson, Cleanth Brooks, Josephine Miles, and Simon J. Ortiz. This new history of English rewrites what we know about the discipline by showing how students helped write foundational works of literary criticism and how English classes at community colleges and HBCUs pioneered the reading methods and expanded canons that came only belatedly to the Ivy League. It reminds us that research and teaching, which institutions often imagine as separate, have always been intertwined in practice. In a contemporary moment of humanities defunding, the casualization of teaching, and the privatization of pedagogy,Trade Review"The Teaching Archive is an exemplary piece of collaborative research and a timely tribute—in both its well-written form and material content—to the work teachers do and to the classroom as a space in which groundbreaking humanist research happens. As a book that will be read in the aftermath of 2020, it can only grow in significance. The case for the classroom as somewhere that ideas and texts are made rather than delivered seems destined to become more interesting as we stop taking that material space for granted." -- Christina Lupton * Public Books *"Rachel Sagner Buurma and Laura Heffernan present The Teaching Archive as a commentary on the teaching materials of nine different figures. . . . Yet the book is more than a teacher’s guide or a collection of scattered observations about what has worked in a classroom. It is a history of literary study pitched against the accounts of literary professionalism that have given us the sense that we should guide our thinking about literature by doctrinal statements." -- Frances Ferguson * Critical Inquiry *"The Teaching Archive raises profound questions about the relation between teaching and research [in literary studies], questions that consistently fail to be addressed by the discipline’s system of professional rewards, its de facto demotion of teaching to a practice of lesser value than scholarship. . . . If the literary professoriate has sometimes forgotten what happens in the classroom, it is the great contribution of this book to remind us that without collaboration, there is no teaching, and that without teaching, the discipline has no history." -- John Guillory * Los Angeles Review of Books *"The Teaching Archive aims to correct the longstanding underestimation of teaching as a major part of the intellectual life of the professor. At the same time, it upends binaries between formalism and historicism, teaching and research, and scholars and critics that have long dominated our accounts of how the discipline of literary studies has evolved. Buurma and Heffernan succeed admirably in disproving the schematic that pits scholars against critics and formalists against historicists while reducing most classroom teachers to mere handmaids of some greater intellect’s brilliant theory. . . . Through this series of case studies, they argue that scholars of literature and historians of literary studies alike have largely ignored teaching as a site of practice and innovation, and, crucially, that a more accurate assessment of how professors have taught literature across the full scope of institutions of higher education may help point the way forward for a discipline in crisis." -- Dennis M. Hogan * The Baffler *“The Teaching Archive proposes a new disciplinary history of English studies through the teaching practices of some of its most storied scholars. . . . Tracing how methodological debates have played out in practice—not as manifestoes but as pragmatic, provisional solutions to the question of how to read, and how to learn—Buurma and Heffernan suggest that such attention might allow scholars 'to evade the deadening impasse of disciplinary autocritique.'” -- Victoria Baena * Boston Review *“This book makes a fascinating and radical claim: that the English and American literary tradition was forged not by scholarly books and articles but by classroom discussion. Thus, the belief that scholars at elite institutions publish monographs so that knowledge 'trickles down' to students and to non-elite institutions is false, and the opposite is true: the knowledge produced by the selection of course texts and rich classroom discussions of literature, particularly at non-elite institutions, 'trickles up' to inform scholarship.” * Choice *“The Teaching Archive shows us what we should always have known: the history of English is not the history of big books of criticism talking to other big books of criticism. Instead it is the history of students and teachers talking to each other in the classroom, where what goes on has often been quite different from what conventional histories of the discipline have assumed. Buurma and Heffernan reanimate the twentieth-century classroom, and in the process they reanimate our understanding of the profession.” * Louis Menand, author of 'The Marketplace of Ideas: Reform and Resistance in the American University' *“This remarkably well-researched, beautifully written, wise, and moving study offers the discipline of English literary studies a new account of its twentieth-century history. What would happen if we understood disciplinary history as unfolding in classrooms where literary critics worked as instructors, as well as through the field-changing books they authored? What would happen if we saw those books as themselves shaped by the everyday life of teaching? The Teaching Archive makes untenable much of the received wisdom about twentieth-century English studies; it makes silenced classroom voices audible once more.” * Deidre Shauna Lynch, author of 'Loving Literature: A Cultural History' *“How was literature actually taught in the classroom? Historians of literary studies have scarcely touched this centrally important question. But Buurma and Heffernan explore it in depth and detail, shifting our attention away from prestigious academic critics, and refocusing on syllabi, course notes, and student papers. And they show that, outside the elite universities, literary education could be much more inclusive, experimental, offbeat, and student-centered than we imagined.” * Jonathan Rose, author of 'The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes' *"The distinction between teaching and research is a key organizing principle of academia, and the hierarchy implicit in that distinction affects the rankings of universities, the careers of professors, and the public perception of higher education. The revisionist history of literary study offered by Buurma and Heffernan brilliantly explodes this false dichotomy, showing that the college classroom provided a dynamic laboratory that was fundamental to the development of the twentieth century’s most influential modes of critical theory. With the materials of classroom practice as archival evidence, Buurma and Heffernan restore a lost history of intellectual experimentation in which professors and students of all levels collaborated in the creation of the field of literary criticism. At the same time, they offer a compelling defense of the humanities as an active, integrated, and broadly accessible mode of education." * Alison R. Byerly, President, Lafayette College *Table of ContentsList of Figures A Note on Authorship Introduction: A New Syllabus Chapter 1 Caroline Spurgeon, The Art of Reading (1913) Chapter 2 T. S. Eliot, Modern English Literature (1916–19) Chapter 3 I. A. Richards, Practical Criticism (1925), and Edith Rickert, Scientific Analysis of Style (1926) Chapter 4 J. Saunders Redding, The Negro in American Literature (1944) and American Biographical Literature (1976) Chapter 5 Cleanth Brooks, Modern Poetry (1963), and Edmund Wilson, Literature of the Civil War (1959) Chapter 6 Josephine Miles, English 1A (1940–55) Chapter 7 Simon J. Ortiz, Native American Arts (1978) Conclusion: The Past We Need Now Acknowledgments Appendix: Archives and Collections Consulted Notes Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"Stimulating and informative. This is an excellent evolutionary view of a unique, significant subject. . . . Highly Recommended." * Choice *“Johann N. Neem enjoys a sharp historical analysis of why the humanities always seem to be overpromising on what they can do.” * Times Higher Education *Permanent Crisis is a significant and stimulating book. It offers an account of the philosophical dilemmas of the modern humanities that anyone concerned with the history of humanistic reason will want to contend with. It is filled with provocative readings of both well-known and forgotten figures. * Los Angeles Review of Books *"Today, we often hear, the humanities are in a new crisis, threatened by the dual forces of capitalist modernity and the expanding sciences. Yet this notion, argue Reitter and Wellmon, is as old as the research university itself, whose origins they place in 19th-century Germany... The authors’ style is decidedly scholarly, but with tidbits thrown in for more distractable readers, including some amusing academic repartee." * Public Books *"Paul Reitter and Chad Wellmon . . . suggest that today’s preoccupation with crisis in the humanities is historically and conceptually overdetermined, less a response to current material realities than baked into the modern humanities’ self-conception." * Chronicle of Higher Education *"Anyone considering writing an essay or op-ed on ‘the crisis of the humanities’ ought to read this book first." -- Suzanne L. Marchand, Louisiana State University"Permanent Crisis is a magisterial tour-de-force of historical scholarship in the service of a powerful and timely intervention in an issue of widespread contemporary concern and deep significance. It has the potential to alter the debate over the place of the humanities in the modern university." -- Warren G. Breckman, University of Pennsylvania"Reitter and Wellmon masterfully elucidate what they argue is the signature way humanistic inquiry has participated in the modern research university: through a discourse of crisis and decline, from which it paradoxically derives its purpose and direction. The authors provide an intellectual genealogy for contentious issues in US higher education—professionalization, academic freedom, workplace inclusivity, exploitation of adjunct labor, and much more. A truly instructive study!” -- Rey Chow, author of A Face Drawn in Sand: Humanistic Inquiry and Foucault in the PresentTable of ContentsIntroduction 1.The Modern University and the Dream of Intellectual Unity 2. The Lament of the Melancholy Mandarins 3. Philology and Modernity: Nietzsche on Education 4. The Mandarins of the Lab: The Humanities in “the Age of the Natural Sciences” 5. The Consolation of the Modern Humanities 6. Max Weber, Scholarship, and Modern Asceticism 7. Crisis, Democracy, and the Humanities in America Conclusion Acknowledgments Notes Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"No one knows rural China better than Scott Rozelle. In this brilliant, original, thought-provoking, and important study, Rozelle and Natalie Hell not only make China's potential human capital crisis visible, but provide actionable solutions based on rigorous research."--Hongbin Li, James Liang Director of the China Program, Stanford University "Professor Rozelle is a renowned economist specializing in early childhood education and rural development, and his book on rural China is a culmination of over twenty years of research on rural China, which has generated intense interest among policymakers and philanthropists. He convincingly argues that intervention into early childhood education is the most effective way of reducing the inequality that is a problem not only in rural China but in many parts of the world." --James Liang, chairman and cofounder of Ctrip "This is the most readable and compelling economics book of the year, and probably the most important. From the opening pages, a clear and compelling argument unfolds: China faces a labor quality crisis, as hundreds of millions of young rural workers lack the education and robust health they need to participate in China's emerging high tech economy. Nobody who cares about China can afford to ignore Invisible China."--From Subject Received Size Categories Barry Naughton Blurb for Rozelle & Hell/Invisible China Wed 5:51 PM 92 KBTable of ContentsAuthor’s Note Introduction 1. The Middle-Income Trap 2. China’s Looming Transition 3. The Worst-Case Scenario 4. How China Got Here 5. A Shaky Foundation 6. Invisible Barriers 7. Behind Before They Start Conclusion Acknowledgments Appendix: The REAP Team Notes Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn The Powers of Ten by Charles and Ray Eames, a view of two people enjoying a picnic zooms up and away to show their surroundings, moving progressively farther into space, then zooms back in for a close-up of the hand of the picnicker, travelling deep into the microscopic realm. This is one of the most iconic examples of the cosmic zoom, a trope that has influenced countless media forms over the past seventy years. Horton uses the cosmic zoom as a starting point to develop a cross-disciplinary theory of scale as mediated difference. He considers the origins of our notions of scale, how scalar mediation functions differently in analog and digital modes, and how cosmic zoom media has influenced scientific and popular views of the world. Analyzing literature, film, digital media, and database history, Horton establishes a much-needed framework for thinking about scale across multiple domains and disciplines.Trade Review"The upshot of this granular media history is an urgent theoretical insight into how humans have handled differences in scale and how they might do so differently, urgent because the mishandling of the question threatens to impose an early end to our existence and that of many other species. The books, films, and digital media that Horton studies are a powerful scaffolding for this argument, but the real material he wants us to consider are the theoretical armatures themselves, the ones that our various media and our accommodations in the world are built on." * The Brooklyn Rail *“Scales are musical things to practice, metric things to weigh with, ladders to ascend the heavens, and climaxes of our stories. Horton shows that scale is a matter of shape as much as size, of quality as much as quantity in this cosmic journey through postwar cultural forms that comment on the human, and more-than-human, condition. There are seismic implications here, for not only media studies, but any discipline, or reader, in need of a philosophy of scale.” -- John Durham Peters, Yale University“In this illuminating and well-researched book, Horton takes us on a journey through different scales of the universe. Rather than entice us with the prospect of a godlike glide across a cosmic zipline, he exhorts us to take responsibility for scalar relations. Through its variously enfolded media ecologies, The Cosmic Zoom thus ends up performing an ethics of mediation for our troubled world.” -- Joanna Zylinska, author of Nonhuman Photography“Down the rabbit hole, and up again, across mediated universes and powers of ten, resolution to resolution, The Cosmic Zoom is an outstanding scale-hopping piece of scholarship. Horton brings to focus both why scales are crucial to how we understand disciplinary knowledge and how scalar difference is a core part of the transformational powers that define contemporary aesthetic and epistemic cultures.” -- Jussi Parikka, author of Insect Media and A Geology of MediaTable of Contents1 Scale Theory 2 Surfaces of Mediation: Cosmic View as Drama of Resolution 3 An Analog Universe: Mediating Scalar Temporality in the Eameses’ Toy Films 4 Shaping Scale: Powers of Ten and the Politics of Trans-Scalar Constellation 5 Scale and Difference: Toward a New Ecology 6 A Digital Universe? Database, Scale, and Recursive Identity Coda Dwelling in the Scalar Spectrum Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review“Wise, practical, and smart, Wordcraft is an exceptional book, offering advice with good humor and great insight. Hart’s approach to the writing process will engage you while you’re learning, console you when you’re stuck, and, best of all, inspire you to be a better writer.” -- Susan Orlean, Author of The Orchid Thief and The Library Book“I consider this a foundational book about strong, clear, purposeful writing—along with Zinsser, Strunk and White, and Roy Peter Clark’s Writing Tools. The update keeps pace with the times and makes it useful across platforms and experience levels.” -- Jacqui Banaszynski, Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter, writer, editor, and teacher “A landmark book. Wordcraft gets behind the mystique and shows how the successful writer thinks his or her way through stories.” -- Jon Franklin, two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist“Hart is one of the country’s foremost writing coaches. The lessons he teaches are about storytelling, structuring, pacing, tension, and conflict. These lessons are perhaps even more important now in a digital age that sometimes forgets that—without a story to tell—words, videos, graphs, graphics, emails, alerts, and news bulletins are just so much noise.” -- Amanda Bennett, Pulitzer Prize–winning author, investigative journalist, and editorTable of ContentsPreface Introduction 1 Method 2 Process 3 Structure 4 Force 5 Brevity 6 Clarity 7 Rhythm 8 Humanity 9 Color 10 Voice 11 Mechanics 12 Mastery Acknowledgments Selected Resources for Writers Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review“A much-needed, comprehensive, and accessible overview of the interrelationship among these languages. . . . Throughout the book, Sanders makes a convincing argument about how languages, their perception, and even their definitions are simultaneously bound to multiple factors. Leaving out any one aspect from analysis—be it cultural or historical context, linguistic properties, the geographic or genealogical vicinity, or the mutual intelligibility between languages—would give a falsely simplified picture of the whole. . . . The Languages of Scandinavia is a welcome contribution. . . . Its strength lies in its inclusivity, and Sanders sees and describes contacts and encounters, whereas the scholarship has often focused on boundaries.” -- Ilmari Ivaska, University of Bologna * Scandinavian Studies *“This book is structured in seven chapters that tell concurrently the individual and shared histories of the titular sister languages: the five Germanic Scandinavian languages (Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Icelandic, and Faroese) and the two Finno-Ugric Scandinavian languages (Finnish and Sami). Though Sanders refers to the latter group as stepsisters, the blended family analogy—maintained throughout the narrative—enhances the presentation and sharpens the dramatic impact of the storytelling. The author’s perspective is unique in that she does not separate the Germanic languages from the Finno-Ugric languages despite their originating and modern-day differences; instead she considers moments of intersection and co-development as essential to all the stories. . . . Of particular interest are the discussions of the effect of the black death on Norwegian, the parallel and divergent paths in the development of Faroese and Icelandic, Sami variants as languages or dialects, and immigrants and ‘multiethnolects’ in modern-day Scandinavia. Recommended.” * Choice *“This book focuses on contacts, colonialism, conflicts and causes of friction, and the resulting language developments from a macro perspective, investigating the Scandinavian languages from the point of view of their contacts rather than as static entities. This makes for a refreshing and pleasant read. It furthermore supplies a well-written introduction to the phonology, orthography, grammar, and linguistic varieties of each of the seven languages. It is especially laudable that Sámi and Faroese are included here, and that all ‘seven sisters’ appear on an equal footing. An extremely valuable and long-overdue overview of all the major languages spoken in Scandinavia.” -- Verena Höfig, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign“Languages are constantly in flux, but it takes a rather long view to show just what a contingent and transitory thing a language can be at any point in time. Sanders takes just such a view. . . . Her biography ranges widely over not just linguistics, but also over archaeology and genetic history to tell the story of these prolific Indo-Europeans and their languages . . . . It is an ingenious telling of just how German emerged from the primordial Germanic soup, and how many other ways it could have been. . . . This is an enjoyable yet still-scholarly read for the historian, linguist, and Germanophile alike. It would be a fine thing to have more such brief histories, made easily readable to the non-specialist, of the major world languages.” * Economist, on Sanders's "German: Biography of a Language" *"In understanding linguistic history to respond to as well as shape historical and cultural change, Sanders rightly emphasizes that the history of a language cannot be divorced from the history of its speakers and that language is embedded in a social context. What is more, linguistic history is rescued from the dusty libraries of philology and comes beautifully alive in the book when it is paired with stories of everyday life and material culture." -- Kerstin Hoge, University of Oxford * Times Literary Supplement, on Sanders's "German: Biography of a Language" *“An approachable overview of the evolution of the German language and a history of its speakers.” * eLanguage, on Sanders's "German: Biography of a Language" *“This is a book remarkable in numerous respects; remarkable not only because of the vast time frame of some 6,000 years selected for this ‘narrative,’ and not only because of the skillful and pervasively interesting manner in which the abundance of pertinent data is handled, but also because of the certainly unusual, yet all the same refreshingly captivating style which Sanders employs.” * German Politics and Society, on Sanders's "German: Biography of a Language" *"For linguists and nonlinguists alike, The Languages of Scandinavia: Seven Sisters of the North...presents an engaging overview of language development, contact, and change in Scandinavian languages." -- Lara Schwarz * Journal of Germanic Linguistics *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations List of Tables Introduction • Dead Man Talking 1 • Prologue to History 2 • Gemini, the Twins: Faroese and Icelandic 3 • East Is East: Heralding the Birth of Danish and Swedish 4 • The Ties That Bind: Finnish Is Visited by Swedish 5 • The Black Death Comes for Norwegian: Danish Makes a House Call 6 • Faroese Emerges 7 • Sámi, Language of the Far North: Encounters with Norwegian, Swedish, and Finnish Epilogue • The Seven Sisters Now and in the Future Acknowledgments References Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisWas Hobbes the first great architect of modern political philosophy? Highly critical of the classical tradition in philosophy, particularly Aristotle, Hobbes thought that he had established a new science of morality and politics. Devin Stauffer here delves into Hobbes's critique of the classical tradition, making this oft-neglected aspect of the philosopher's thought the basis of a new, comprehensive interpretation of his political philosophy. In Hobbes's Kingdom of Light, Stauffer argues that Hobbes was engaged in a struggle on multiple fronts against forces, both philosophic and religious, that he thought had long distorted philosophy and destroyed the prospects of a lasting peace in politics. By exploring the twists and turns of Hobbes's arguments, not only in his famous Leviathan but throughout his corpus, Stauffer uncovers the details of Hobbes's critique of an older outlook, rooted in classical philosophy and Christian theology, and reveals the complexity of Hobbes's war againTrade Review“A brilliant and sustained reflection on Hobbes’s philosophic, theological, and political-philosophic attempt to dispel the ‘Kingdom of Darkness.’ Stauffer clarifies and assesses the arguments that led Hobbes to his extraordinary and highly influential attempt to establish human society on a radically new, ‘enlightened,’ secular basis. This is a vitally important book, not only for those who wish to understand the true relation between Hobbes’s natural science and his political science but for anyone who wishes to understand the modern world.” -- Timothy Burns, Baylor University“The book's provocative and welcome conceit is that when we study the endlessly fascinating intricacies of Hobbes's seventeenth-century arguments, we are doing more than diving into a particular historical moment or following the back and forth of a particular language game; we are evaluating the justifications for our way of life.” -- Bryan Garsten * The Review of Politics *“Stauffer offers a brilliant and controversial esoteric interpretation of Hobbes’s attack on religion, and relates it to Hobbes’s metaphysics, natural philosophy, and politics/ethics. . . . Stauffer’s book should be read by Hobbes scholars and by early modern specialists more generally, as well as anyone interested in history of philosophy in relation to metaphysics, religion, science, politics and ethics.” -- Adrian Blau * Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *"For scholars of Hobbes looking for a serious argument that he is best seen as the patron saint of secular enlightenment, this is the book to read." * Hobbes Studies *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Editions and AbbreviationsIntroduction Chapter One. “Of Darkness from Vain Philosophy” Chapter Two. Hobbes’s Natural Philosophy Chapter Three. Religion and Theology I: “Of Religion” Chapter Four. Religion and Theology II: Hobbes’s Natural Theology Chapter Five. Religion and Theology III: Hobbes’s Confrontation with the Bible Chapter Six. Hobbes’s Political Philosophy I: Man and Morality Chapter Seven. Hobbes’s Political Philosophy II: The Hobbesian CommonwealthAppendix. The Engraved Title Page of Leviathan Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisA behind-the-scenes stories and insights into how guitars are made, where the much-cherished guitar timbers ultimately come from, and the people and skills that craft those timbers along the way.Trade Review"The Guitar has everything necessary to become a classic in more than one discipline... of interest to those who want to know what a continuous hunger for six strings demands from nature and how it promotes certain supply chains worldwide." * popcultureshelf.com *“How old is a guitar? Did its life begin in the hands of the player, in the workshop or the factory, in the sourcing of its wood, or in the forests from which it came, with their majestic, centuries-old trees? In an exhilarating round-the-world journey, Gibson and Warren follow the trail of this most eloquent of instruments to its arboreal roots. Full of colorful characters, it’s a story that will keep you on edge of your seat.” -- Tim Ingold, University of Aberdeen“The book integrates cultural practices and environmental issues of profound importance. It will have a vast appeal to those who, like myself, buy, use, and love guitars. Beautifully written, jargon-free, clear, and vivid. Brilliant!” -- Doug Harper, Duquesne University“At a time when our world faces increasing global crises, Gibson and Warren trace guitars back to their trees to offer the first sustained example of how to rethink commodity chains as chains of care. Through rich, multisited ethnographic research, they show how people across the Global North and Global South attempt to sustain each other and their skilled handcraft industry by caring for the trees and the forests, by caring for one another along with everyone in the chain, and by caring for trees they will never, as individuals, live to see become guitars—in order that someone else someday can. Richly researched and compellingly crafted, this book stands as a model for the creative soul of geographical scholarship.” -- Dydia DeLyser, California State University, Fullerton“Every guitar maker, and player, should read it.” -- Miles Jackson, CEO of Cole Clark"How old is a guitar? Did its life begin in the hands of the player, in the workshop or the factory, in the sourcing of its wood, or in the forests from which it came with their majestic, centuries-old trees? In an exhilarating, round-the-world journey, Gibson and Warren follow the trail of this most eloquent of instruments to its arboreal roots. Full of colourful characters, it’s a story that will keep you on edge of your seat.” -- Tim Ingold, University of Aberdeen“At a time when our world faces increasing global crises Gibson and Warren trace guitars back to their trees to offer the first sustained example of how to rethink commodity chains as chains of care. Through rich, multi-sited ethnographic research Gibson and Warren show how people across the Global North and Global South attempt to sustain each other and their skilled handcraft industry by caring for the trees and the forests, by caring for one other along with everyone in the chain, and by caring for trees they will never, as individuals, live to see become guitars—in order that someone else someday can. Richly researched and compellingly crafted, this book stands as a model for the creative soul of geographical scholarship.” -- Dydia DeLyser, California State University, Fullerton“The book integrates cultural practices and environmental issues of profound importance. It will have a vast appeal to those who, like myself, buy, use, and love guitars. Beautifully written, jargon-free, clear, and vivid. Brilliant!” -- Doug Harper, Duquesne University

Read more less

Book SynopsisTeachersof literature make judgments about value.Theytelltheirstudentswhichworks are powerful, beautiful, surprising, strange,orinsightfuland thus,whichare more worthy oftime and attention than others. Yetthe field of literary studieshaslargely disavowed judgments of artistic value on the grounds that they are inevitablyrootedin prejudice or entangled in problems of social status.For several decades now, professors havecalledtheirwork value-neutral,simplya means for students to gain cultural, political, or historical knowledge. ?Michael W. Clune's provocative book challenges these objections to judgment and offers a positive account of literary studies as an institution of aesthetic education.It is impossible, Clune argues, toseparatejudgments about literary value from the practices of interpretation and analysis that constitute any viable model of literary expertise.Clune envisions a progressive politics freed from the strictures of dogmatic equality and enlivened by education in aesthetic judgment,transcendingconsumer culture and market preferences.Drawing on psychological and philosophical theories ofknowledge andperception,Cluneadvocates forthe cultivation of whatJohnKeats called negative capability, the capacity to place existing criteria in doubtand to discover new concepts and new values in artworks.Moving from theory to practice, Clune takes up works byKeats,Emily Dickinson, Gwendolyn Brooks, Samuel Beckett, and Thomas Bernhard, showing how close readingthe profession's traditional key skillharnesses judgment to open new modes of perception.Trade Review"Clune's A Defense of Judgment [attempts] to revivify a version of what Northrop Frye called 'literary experience' as the basis on which judgments of value can be made. His timing is propitious: the scholarly landscape is more favorable to the aesthetic than it has been in decades. . . . In a way that much academic criticism is not, [A Defense of Judgment] is refreshingly alive to the necessity of helping people learn how to appreciate works of art." -- V. Joshua Adams * Chicago Review *"We need to admit—embrace—that our role as literary critics, and educators, is to provide expert judgment; Clune argues that it’s what most of us are already doing anyway." -- Kasia Bartoszynska * Critical Inquiry * “What makes A Defense of Judgment surprising and sometimes even thrilling is how Clune relates his critique to a progressive, anti-capitalist politics.” -- Nate Klug * Commonweal *“This work should be taken seriously by anyone who thinks that criticism matters, whether it’s conducted in an online forum, a publication, or in a classroom.” -- Brice Ezell * PopMatters *"Clune’s A Defense of Judgment is a forceful polemic calling for English professors to defend themselves as experts. . . . Clune’s theory of literary appreciation does justice to the specificity of literary experience." -- Patrick Fessenbecker * Public Books *"An ambitious attempt to justify the work of judging 'value' in humanistic study. Clune’s frame of reference is specific—he writes as a scholar of literature—but his arguments have broad implications for the humanities." -- Matthew Mutter * Hedgehog Review *"Clune argues that everyone can learn how to make better artistic judgments—judgments typically based on one's own aesthetics, class, biases, education, and background. . . . Clune wants to convince the reader that making up one's mind about the worth of a play, a painting, or a book requires understanding the country in which one lives, for example, a country dived by race, class, and religion—not one nation under God, but many different peoples. Since people bring to art their own personal and collective histories, education is needed; people come from their own artistic country and thus need to learn how to see and hear well to make good judgments." * Choice *“A Defense of Judgment is a characteristically brilliant, strongly argued, intellectually accessible attempt to provide a template for rethinking the role of value judgments in teaching and writing (and thinking) about literature, and by implication the arts generally. Clune’s discussion is continually illuminating, as are the exemplary readings he offers of works by Dickinson, Brooks, and Thomas Bernhard.” * Michael Fried, Johns Hopkins University *“A Defense of Judgment mounts a lucid and compelling argument for the centrality of judgment, and a polemical critique of the disciplinary pieties that assume questions of value can be bracketed off from our core business of engaging critically with texts. Clune takes on the difficult theoretical and political consequences of defending a practice of judgment grounded in expertise, in particular by developing a rigorous critique of the principle of equality.” * John Frow, University of Sydney *“Clune’s scholarship is positively entertaining. He never fails to produce surprises, particularly as he discovers connections between the question of aesthetic judgment and a constellation of seemingly far-flung topics, including neoclassical economic theories, contemporary philosophy, poetry and death, and contemporary race relations. A Defense of Judgment is remarkable for its acuity and its clarity. It takes on a question central to the future of literary studies and offers a forceful and persuasive answer, one that is likely to spark a lot of debate and almost certainly some controversy.” * Timothy Aubry, Baruch College, City University of New York *"Why study literature? What do humanities professors teach? In taking on these and other topics, A Defense of Judgment presents the clearest and most forceful account of literary studies that has yet to emerge from our moment of constant disciplinary self-reflection, justification, and reinvention. It's exhilarating to be in Clune's intellectual company. Even if you disagree (and many readers will disagree), you will find your thinking sharpened by engaging with his argument." * Genre *Table of ContentsIntroduction Part 1. The Theory of Judgment 1. Judgment and Equality 2. Judgment and Commercial Culture 3. Judgment and Expertise I: Attention and Incorporation 4. Judgment and Expertise II: Concepts and Criteria Part 2. The Practice of Judgment 5. How Poems Know What It’s Like to Die 6. Bernhard’s Way 7. Race Makes Class Visible Conclusion Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisParker robs a rock concert, but the heist goes sour, and he finds himself - and his woman, Claire - menaced by a pair of sadistic, drug-crazed hippies. Slayground turns the hunter into prey, as Parker gets trapped in a shuttered amusement park, besieged by a bevy of local mobsters.Trade Review"Parker... lumbers through the pages of Richard Stark's noir novels scattering dead bodies like peanut shells.... In a complex world he makes things simple." - William Grimes, New York Times "Richard Stark's Parker novels... are among the most poised and polished fictions of their time and, in fact, of any time." - John Banville, Bookforum "The Parkers read with the speed of pulp while unfolding with an almost Nabokovian wit and flair." - Richard Rayner, Los Angeles Times "Parker is refreshingly amoral, a thief who always gets away with the swag." - Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly "Whatever Stark writes, I read." - Elmore Leonard"

Read more less

Book SynopsisParker robs a rock concert, but the heist goes sour, and he finds himself - and his woman, Claire - menaced by a pair of sadistic, drug-crazed hippies. Slayground turns the hunter into prey, as Parker gets trapped in a shuttered amusement park, besieged by a bevy of local mobsters.Trade Review"Parker... lumbers through the pages of Richard Stark's noir novels scattering dead bodies like peanut shells.... In a complex world he makes things simple." - William Grimes, New York Times "Richard Stark's Parker novels... are among the most poised and polished fictions of their time and, in fact, of any time." - John Banville, Bookforum "The Parkers read with the speed of pulp while unfolding with an almost Nabokovian wit and flair." - Richard Rayner, Los Angeles Times "Parker is refreshingly amoral, a thief who always gets away with the swag." - Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly "Whatever Stark writes, I read." - Elmore Leonard"

Read more less

Book SynopsisKnocking over a lucrative religious revival show, Parker reminds us that not all criminals don ski masks - some prefer to hide behind the wings of fallen angels. Backflash followed soon after, and it found Parker checking out the scene on a Hudson River gambling boat.Trade Review"Parker has not lost his touch - or his nerve." (Marilyn Stasio, New York Times) "Parker at his best.... If you haven't read Stark, Backflash is the place to start your PhD in crime." (Stephen King) "Whatever Stark writes, I read." (Elmore Leonard)"

Read more less

Book SynopsisParker is enlisted by the mob to knock off an island casino guarded by speed-boats and heavies, forty miles from the Texas coast.Trade Review"Parker... lumbers through the pages of Richard Stark's noir novels scattering dead bodies like peanut shells.... In a complex world he makes things simple." - William Grimes, New York Times "Whatever Stark writes, I read. He's a stylist, a pro, and I thoroughly enjoy his attitude." - Elmore Leonard "Donald Westlake's Parker novels are among the small number of books I read over and over. Forget all that crap you've been telling yourself about War and Peace and Proust - these are the books you'll want on that desert island." - Lawrence Block "The Parkers read with the speed of pulp while unfolding with an almost Nabokovian wit and flair." - Richard Rayner, Los Angeles Times "Parker is refreshingly amoral, a thief who always gets away with the swag." - Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly"

Read more less

Book SynopsisA selection of Seneca’s most significant letters that illuminate his philosophical and personal life.Trade Review"The letters’ intimate voice, their accessibility, and their focus on everyday challenges make the letters relevant for readers of all ages and academic levels. In addition, explanatory notes at the end of the book add depth and offer clarification for readers unfamiliar with Seneca or Stoic philosophy. A good representative sample of Seneca’s letters, Fifty Letters is an approachable text and a good introduction to Roman Stoicism. . . . Recommended." * Choice *"In 2015 Chicago did the great service of publishing G. and L.’s magisterial translation and commentary on all 124 surviving letters to Lucilius (Seneca: Letters on Ethics to Lucilius)... With this volume, G. and L. have now produced a very reasonably priced soft covered selection of slightly under half of the full corpus of Letters to Lucilius." * Classics for All *Table of ContentsPreface Introduction Margaret Graver and A. A. Long Fifty Letters 1 Taking charge of your time 2 A beneficial reading program 3 Trusting one’s friends 6 Intimacy within friendship 7 Avoiding the crowd 8 Writing as a form of service 9 Friendship and self-sufficiency 11 Blushing 12 Visiting a childhood home 14 Safety in a dangerous world 15 Exercises for the body and the voice 16 Daily study and practice 18 The Saturnalia festival 20 Consistency 21 How reading can make you famous 23 Real joy is a serious matter 30 An Epicurean on his deathbed 31 Our mind’s godlike potential 33 The use of philosophical maxims 38 Fewer words achieve more 40 Oratory and the philosopher 41 God dwells within us 46 A book by Lucilius 47 The evils of slavery 49 Remembering old times 53 A bad experience at sea 54 A near-fatal asthma attack 56 Noisy lodgings above a bathhouse 57 A dark tunnel 58 A conversation about Plato 63 Consolation for the death of a friend 65 Some analyses of causation 70 Ending one’s own life 75 What it means to make progress 76 Only the honorable is good 79 A trip around Sicily brings thoughts of glory 83 Heavy drinking 84 The writer’s craft 86 The rustic villa of Scipio Africanus 90 The beginnings of civilization 91 A terrible fire at Lyon 97 A trial in the time of Cicero 104 Why travel cannot set you free 108 Vegetarianism and the use of literature 112 A difficult pupil 113 Is a virtue an animate creature? 116 The Stoic view of emotion 121 Self-awareness in animate creatures 123 Resisting external influences 124 The criterion for the human good Notes Textual Notes Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"Balakian understands the bewildered music of our times, and No Sign, more than any other contemporary book of poetry, teaches us about the properties of time; we are inside the speech that is addressing time and opposing it, witnessing it, and walking two steps ahead. This 'time-sense' is explored with depth in the brilliant title poem. Balakian is able to praise the world though he knows its 'bitter history.' And praise he does! The lyricism here is of utter beauty. No Sign is a splendid, necessary book." -- Ilya Kaminsky, author of Deaf Republic "Balakian has been writing intellectually challenging poems of 'bright unbearable reality' that are part of an ongoing conversation in American poetry for some time. They have the horizontal continuum of history, like Walcott and Heaney, but they also have verticality which arrests time and connects with the demonic and divine. He masterfully does the thing nobody else does which is to derange history into poetry, to make poetry painting, to make painting culture, to make culture living, and with a historical depth that finds the right experience in language." -- Bruce Smith, author of Spill "In No Sign, Balakian embraces the claims of immediacy as well as the encompassing historical perspective. His images and sharp syncopations locate the pulse of our times and give it a prophetic reverberation. Here is a voice of witness which also makes room for an irrepressible sensory imagination." -- Sven Birkerts, author of Changing the Subject: Art and Attention in the Internet AgeTable of ContentsAcknowledgments ix ONE History, Bitterness Tung Lai Shun Ode to the Douduk Waiting for a Number Summer Ode Yellow Lilies Outside Arshile Gorky's Studio Revenant Love Watching the Tulips Die Purple Irises Shadow Grid Grasses of Unknowing How Much I Love You TWO Eggplant Quince Bulgur Pomegranate Matza Fig Walnut Apricot Grape Leaves Tomatoes Okra Zucchini THREE No Sign FOUR Stalled in Traffic Head of Anahit/British Museum Coming to Istanbul Leaving the Big City Walking the Ruined City Notes

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"Sociological research and theories on creativity assume that creativity is based on collective processes, social evaluations and judgments, and the result of social networks, interactions, and shared beliefs. Hannah Wohl’s book Bound by Creativity: How Contemporary Art Is Created and Judged addresses this sociological assumption by providing in-depth insights that she has gathered from a long-term ethnography within the contemporary art world in New York." * American Journal of Sociology *"Wohl's intriguing book explores the mystery of creativity, the whatever-it-is that informs artists’ visions as they shape successful and moving works of art and finds its explanation in the shared and socially supported understanding of the idea of creative vision. An original and profound contribution to the sociology of art." -- Howard S. Becker"Bound by Creativity escorts us into a world of radical uncertainty--the contemporary art market in New York City. Wohl brings us with her as she witnesses artists engaging with their publics, explaining their worth, and struggling against misinterpretations, or worse. What should count and why? And what to do when the counting goes wrong? These questions animate the creative process where genius emerges or fails to emerge. Artists, art critics, humanists, and social scientists will long debate this book and its findings. And those who care only about the creative process, no matter its field of application, will benefit from the clarity with which that process is described and acted upon. Powerful and evocative, this work shows how creative genius is generated and why it sometimes survives assaults on its worth." -- Frederick F. Wherry, Princeton UniversityTable of Contents1 Introduction: Aesthetic Judgment in the Contemporary Art World 2 The Eccentric Artist: Negotiating Creative Autonomy in the Art World 3 Experimentation and Emotion: Developing Distinctive Creative Visions 4 Interpretive Guides: Exhibiting Work and Shaping Meaning 5 Eyes and Ears: Collecting Work and Maintaining Connoisseurship 6 Producing Creative Visions: Presenting Evolving Trajectories over Careers 7 Conclusion: Aesthetic Judgment in the Creative Process Acknowledgments Methodological Appendix Notes References Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisBy the end of the eighteenth century, politicians in America and France were invoking the natural rights of man to wrest sovereignty away from kings and lay down universal basic entitlements. Exactly how and when did rights come to justify such measures? InOn the Spirit of Rights, Dan Edelstein answers this question by examining the complex genealogy of the rights that regimes enshrined in the American and French Revolutions. With a lively attention to detail, he surveys a sprawling series of debates among rulers, jurists, philosophers, political reformers, writers, and others who were all engaged in laying the groundwork for our contemporary systems of constitutional governance. Every seemingly new claim about rights turns out to be a variation on a theme, as late medieval notions were subtly repeated and refined to yield the talk of rights we recognize today. From the Wars of Religion to the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen to the 1948 Universal DeclarationTrade Review"A superb, erudite piece of intellectual excavation. . . . Edelstein’s skill as an intellectual historian lies especially in his ability to situate ideas in their broadest cultural and political setting." * New York Review of Books *"Provocative and timely." * Times Higher Education *"Edelstein explores how natural rights translated into human rights in his sweeping survey, which canvasses the archaeology of human rights from the Wars of Religion through the Age of Revolution to 1948. [He] provides a helpful new framework for understanding the evolution of human rights in Western society. Highly recommended." * CHOICE *“Rarely has an existing debate been as authoritatively and breathtakingly taken to a new plane as in Edelstein’s sophisticated new story of how ‘rights’ entered European and transatlantic politics in the age of revolution. Clear, erudite, and urbane, Edelstein has shown once again why he is so highly regarded a historian of the eighteenth century’s place in Western intellectual history.” * Samuel Moyn, Yale University *“The Spirit of Rights is an erudite, wide-ranging, and powerful reevaluation of the history of human rights in the West. Rather than viewing either (or both) the U.S. Declaration of Independence or the French Declaration of the Rights of Man as constituting a foundational moment of political modernity, Edelstein sees them as marking a moment in a lively and contentious conversation over rights that can be traced back to the sixteenth century and then through to our own day. The consequent expansion of the historical canvas on which rights have been inscribed explodes conventional teleologies. Written with verve and conviction, The Spirit of Rights is a tour de force: compelling, brilliant, and excitingly thought-provoking.” * Colin Jones, Queen Mary University of London *"The author shows tremendous erudition both in relation to the sources and to the relevant literature. The argumentation is impressively clear and the presentation is extremely legible." * Historische Zeitschrift (translated from German) *Table of ContentsI How to Think about Rights in Early Modern Europe 1. Introduction 2. Tectonic Shifts and Tectonic Plates: Two Models for the Transformation of Culture 3. A Revolution in Natural Law? From Objective to Subjective Right (and Back Again) 4. Rights and Sovereignty: Beyond the State 5. Inalienability vs. the Alienation of Rights 6. Roman Law, the Lex Regia, and the Genealogy of Rights Regimes 7. Writing Intellectual History in a Digital Age Part I: Early Modern Rights Regimes II When Did Rights Become “Rights”? From the Wars of Religion to the Dawn of Enlightenment 1. Monarchomachs and Tyrannicides: Natural Rights in the French Wars of Religion 2. English Liberties and Natural Rights: Leveller Arguments in the English Civil War 3. Abridging Natural Rights: Hobbes and the High Church Divines 4. Entrust, but Verify? The Transfer Regime from Spinoza to Locke5. Into the Enlightenment: “Cato” and Hutcheson III From Liberalism to Liberty: Natural Rights in the French Enlightenment 1. Sources for Natural Law Theory in France, 1700–1750 2. Physiocracy and the Dangerous Ignorance of Natural Rights 3. Natural Rights Talk in the Late Enlightenment: The Philosophes Carry the Torch 4. The (Meek) Conservative Reaction 5. Resisting Despotism: National Rights and Constitutionalism Part II: Social Naturalism in Early Modern France IV The Laws of Nature in Neo-Stoicism and Science 1. The Many Receptions of Stoicism 2. Laws of the Natural World: The New Science V Roman Law and Order: From Free-Market Ideology to Abolitionism 1. The Jansenist Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism: Jean Domat, the Natural Order, and the Origins of Free-Market Ideology 2. “All Men Are Originally Born Free”: Slavery, Empathy, and the Extension of Human Rights 3. Conclusion Part III: Rights and Revolutions VI Natural Constitutionalism and American Rights 1. Boston, Locke, and Natural Rights (1715–64) 2. Blackstone and English Common Law 3. Natural Rights and Revolution 4. Declaring Rights: From Natural Law Back to English Common Law VII From Nature to Nation: French Revolutionary Rights 1. Whose Rights Are They, Anyway? Rights Talk in the Cahiers de Doléances 2. Debating Rights at the National Assembly 3. The Legal Spirit of the French Declaration of Rights 4. The Revenge of National Rights 5. Conclusion VIII Conclusion: A Stand-in for the Universal Declaration: 1789–1948 1. The Catholic Church, Natural Law, and Human Rights 2. From National Constitutions to an International Declaration 3. The Archaeology of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights Acknowledgments Notes Selected Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisEngages with one of the oldest philosophical problems—the relationship between thought and being—and offers a fresh perspective with which to approach the long history of this puzzle.Trade Review"This book will be useful to specialists working at the intersection of epistemology and metaphysics. Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty." * Choice *“With characteristic clarity and breadth, Rockmore traces the history of the great struggle between idealism and realism from its origins in Parmenides onwards and his fateful claim that thought and being are the same. The reader cannot fail to be gripped by the debates laid out for us here and impressed by the erudition on display.” * Robert A. Stern, University of Sheffield *“Rockmore offers a thought-provoking thesis based on the Parmenidean roots of the philosophical enterprise. The ‘Dream of Philosophy’ boils down to two options: the Sisyphean pursuit of the real per se and a more promising alternative of constructivism and idealism. Constructivism no longer serves as the bogeyman of epistemology. Rockmore presents a convincing vindication, moving it from the philosophical fringe to the center. Elegantly and lucidly written, After Parmenides is highly recommended for philosophers and scholars across the humanities and the social sciences.” * Josef Mitterer, University of Klagenfurt, Austria *"The overall aim of Rockmore’s book, announced on the first page, is to defend 'epistemic constructivism.' . . . as alternative to what Rockmore calls the 'standard approach,' [that] . . . remains “dominant” in Western philosophy since Parmenides, in whose claims he suggests it originates. If Parmenides’ original claims . . . could be vindicated, 'this would at long last demonstrate the approach to cognition as knowing the real.' But, Rockmore argues, they cannot, leaving us with the only alternatives that he sees as remaining: either an overarching skepticism, to be rejected, or the constructivist alternative he favors." * Review of Metaphysics *

Read more less

Book SynopsisInspired by Virgil’s Georgics, this study conceptualizes Renaissance poetry as a domestic labor.Trade Review"As Katie Kadue points out in Domestic Georgic: Labors of Preservation from Rabelais to Milton, a wonderful book on early modern writers and the kitchen arts, Eve’s independent forays into drying and preserving the fruits of Eden yield a counterintuitive understanding of perfection itself, not as a fixed state from which one must not swerve but as a dynamic process of trial, innocent error, and gradual improvement." -- Catherine Nicholson * New York Review of Books *"Kadue's analyses of Milton’s metaphors unveil a domestic analogy that has always coexisted with the grandeur of the imagined Miltonic library of vital books and discerning readers. This is one of the many local readings in Domestic Georgic that illuminate overlooked aspects of household work in familiar sixteenth- and seventeenth-century texts. Now that I see the link between the library and the kitchen storeroom in Milton’s tract, I cannot unsee it, and I experienced this delightful sensation many times while reading this book. Kadue’s style, casual but erudite, also makes this book an unusually engaging read." * Modern Language Quarterly *In an elegantly organized and beautifully written book of five chapters plus an introduction and conclusion, Kadue ranges confidently across time, terrain, and language, moving from Rabelais (in the mid-sixteenth century) to Milton in the mid- and late seventeenth century and concluding with a discussion of two poems by women, one eighteenth century and one twenty-first century. Balancing a sharp eye for detail against a robust overarching argument, she offers both new insights into familiar authors and works and a new rubric one might use to discuss other texts and authors as well. * Genre *"Katie Kadue’s book makes an important contribution, defining domestic georgic, and how selected authors from Rabelais to Milton labor to preserve a kind of poetic housekeeping or daily literary chores." * Renaissance and Reformation *“This is a book of luminous intelligence. At once impeccably erudite and highly readable, textually focused and imaginatively wide-ranging, it opens up new ways of understanding not only the early modern texts that are central to Kadue’s argument, but any form of writing where labor is distributed, symbolically or literally, across a gender divide.” * Terence Cave, St John’s College, University of Oxford *“Where earlier feminist scholars have shown that women’s domestic labor facilitated men’s literary work, here Kadue argues that the method of men’s literary work itself drew on women’s domestic labor. Kadue shows how practices of pickling, fermenting, and preserving make up a surprising pantry of skilled literary techniques. This is work that gives us a recipe to reread the Renaissance.” * Katherine Ibbett, Trinity College, University of Oxford *“Kadue teaches her reader to pay attention to metaphors of pickling, maceration, sweeping, tinkering, mending; to quiet the din of warfare and the choir of resurrection, and listen to the burble of cookery and of the hungry body, in their daily rivalry with time. . . . Domestic Georgic will teach scholars and students alike to read in a different register, and its pages are lucid, lively, and shrewd, at once sophisticated and unpretentious.” * Jeff Dolven, Princeton University *Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Private Labors of Public Men 1: Rabelais in a Pickle: Fixing Flux in Le Quart Livre 2: Spenser’s Secret Recipes: Life Support in The Faerie Queene 3: Correcting Montaigne: Agitation and Care in the Essais 4: Marvell in the Meantime: Preserving Patriarchy in Upon Appleton House 5: Milton’s Storehouses: Tempering Futures in Areopagitica, Paradise Lost, and Paradise Regain’d Conclusion: A Woman’s Work Is Never Done Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review“With Sounds Beyond, Kevin C. Karnes gifts us a book that moves between archive and ethnography with imagination and care to profoundly reshape our understanding of the sonic, spiritual, and social worlds of the Soviet underground. Karnes is an accomplished storyteller who inhabits—and brings us into—the fecund, anxious scenes of Baltic musical life in the late 1970s that have had an outsized impact over the past five decades. Sounds Beyond locates the intonations of that time squarely in the lives of Arvo and Nora Pärt, Hardijs Lediņš, Gidon Kremer, Andres Mustonen, Alexei Lubimov, and many others to forever alter our hearing of their music and knowledge of artistic networks in the Soviet underground.” * Jeffers Engelhardt, Amherst College *“This remarkable book presents a compelling account of collaboration, experimentation, and ingenuity at the margins of Soviet musical life. Through painstaking scholarship and profound empathy, Karnes makes the sounds of the Soviet underground come alive.” * Lisa Jakelski, Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester *“In this sensitive, richly detailed portrait of the 1970s Soviet contexts for Arvo Pärt’s early tintinnabuli music, Karnes provides a fascinating glimpse of a lost time and place. Covering an eclectic range of genres and styles, from progressive rock to liturgical music (and beyond), Karnes’s book fundamentally alters our hearing of Pärt’s compositions and vastly expands our understanding of the subcultures in which they first flourished.” * Peter J. Schmelz, Arizona State University *"In the crowded field of Pärt studies, Kevin Karnes cleverly limits his scope in Sounds Beyond to the years 1976-78. . . . For Pärt fans or music theorists, the revelations that Karnes gleans from Pärt's compositional diaries will be the highlight here." -- Matthew Blackwell * The Wire *“Karnes shows the extent to which the experimental scenes of the USSR and the West were in dialogue and shared a number of common goals, despite the ironclad isolation to which the socialist regime kept the Soviet population... Crucially, the book situates Pärt just at the moment when he abandons his retirement from composition – the result of his disenchantment with serialism – and creates his characteristic tintinnabuli style.” * minimalismore *"Karnes’s attentive text is vital to the studies of Arvo Pärt, his contemporaries, and Soviet music and culture in the 1970s." * Notes *"Karnes is an engaging writer, and Sounds Beyond reads almost like a novel—people and their motivations come to life and events unfold in a surprisingly suspenseful manner. This is an enjoyable and enriching book for all those interested in late socialist music, art, and culture." -- Maria Cizmic * The Russian Review *Table of ContentsNote on Translations, Transliteration, and Pronunciation Note on Recordings List of Musical Examples and Figures 1. Spaces Beyond: An Introduction 2. A Beginning: The Riga Polytechnic Disco, 1974–76 3. Tintinnabuli and the Sacred 4. Ritual Moments: The RPI Festivals, 1976–77 5. Tallinn 1978 6. Aftersounds: Bolderāja, Sergiyev Posad, and a Train to Brest-Litovsk Acknowledgments Appendix: Key Premieres and Early Performances of Pärt’s Tintinnabuli-Style Works, 1976–78 Notes Sources Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review“Sing and Sing On tells the powerful story of the role musicians have played in safeguarding Ethiopian identity and growing its cultural influence in the decades since the revolution. This is a compelling story that deserves to be told.” -- Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye“Shelemay’s deeply researched and sensitive survey of Ethiopia’s ‘sentinel musicians’ reveals the power and presence of music across time and space by profiling activist artists over continents and decades. This is a major contribution to mobility and diaspora studies as well as an eloquent guide to how resilient musicians can shape a scattered society through sound and purpose.” -- Mark Slobin, author of Folk Music: A Very Short Introduction“When a senior ethnomusicologist writes about work that has extended over the course of a whole career, it is a gift since ethnography doesn’t often offer such historical depth. When this work has been in both a homeland and a diaspora with citizens of a country/region that has been particularly under duress, it is an even greater gift since it enables us to see how the role of musical performance responds and shapes social conditions across difficult times and multiple places.” -- Beverley Diamond, Memorial University of Newfoundland

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review“Django Generations offers a profound analysis of how Manouche Romanies navigate French denials of race and racism through what Siv B. Lie calls ‘ambivalent essentialism’—the set of incompatible qualities ascribed by and to this ethnicized and racialized group whose most famous ancestor is the guitarist Django Reinhardt. Drawing on deep ethnographic and historical research, Lie brilliantly develops a semiotic framework that both explicates the development and negotiation of local identities in jazz manouche and their connection to much broader processes of managing marginalization and the exigencies of capitalism.”” -- Ingrid Monson, Quincy Jones Professor of African American Music, Harvard University“A necessary addition for ethnomusicologists and scholars of Romani music, Django Generations is aptly named because it gives voice to groups of Romani musicians who are forging contemporary identities in modern contexts while acknowledging past histories and cultural roots.” -- Adriana Helbig, University of Pittsburgh“In this book, Siv B. Lie explores the paradoxes of jazz manouche’s history and its relationship to the Manouche community without taking sides in the complex debates between musicians, institutions, and the industry. Django Generations is a work of considerable intellectual sophistication.” -- Andy Fry, King’s College LondonTable of ContentsNotes on Terminology List of Figures Introduction Chapter One: Making Jazz Manouche Chapter Two: Cultural Activism’s Living Legacies Chapter Three: Generic Ontologies and the Stakes of Refusal Chapter Four: The Sound of Feeling Chapter Five: Heritage Stories Conclusion Acknowledgments Appendix 1: Glossary Appendix 2: List of Formal Interviews Notes References Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisA deep dive into the history and philosophy of isonomy, a system of equal rights for all, as an alternative to the concept of democracy.Trade Review“Stourzh revives the half-forgotten word ‘isonomy’ as rival to ‘democracy’ from its start in Herodotus, its development through regimes with ‘gradations’ of hierarchy, and its modern flowering in ‘equalizations’ and ‘democracy with adjectives.’ In brief compass he supplies a wonderful variety of thoughtful descriptions from the many sources of his remarkable learning.” -- Harvey Mansfield, Harvard University“The eminent historian Gerald Stourzh has drawn on a lifetime of engagement in the development of law, constitutions, and citizens’ rights in Austria, the United States, and internationally to offer this learned essay on the concept of equality before the law, what the ancient Greeks were first to call isonomy. Writing with wisdom, directness, and strong conviction, Stourzh deftly traces the evolution of isonomy over the centuries and assesses its realization and vulnerabilities in the contemporary world.” -- Gary B. Cohen, University of Minnesota, Twin CitiesTable of ContentsPreface Introduction 1 Isonomy in Greek Antiquity 2 Gradations: Hierarchy in This World and the Other World 3 Equalizations: Ways toward Modern Isonomy in America and in France 4 Democracy with Adjectives 5 The Six Components of Modern Isonomy General Legal Capacity: From Slavery to Freedom Equality before the Law The Liberation of Peasants Tolerance and Equalization of Religious Groups Jewish Emancipation and Renewed Deprivation of Rights On the Equal Rights of Women Indigenous Persons Citizens and Foreigners Positive Discrimination (Affirmative Action) The Evolution of Fundamental Rights The Protection of Fundamental Rights as Part of Constitutional Justice The Internationalization of Fundamental Rights as Human Rights Democracy Conclusion: The Two Focal Points of Modern Isonomy Bibliography Index of Names

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"The Digital Factory is an important contribution to the discussion of digital labor. But it also makes clear that researchers must now address the next task at hand: how to turn these bad jobs into good jobs." * Science *"Altenried's insights into the rapidly changing relationship between technological change, digitization and global work are breathtaking. The Digital Factory develops a deeper knowledge of the terrain, both social and physical, on which present and future labor disputes willy-nilly have to be fought. Continuing, expanding and diversifying this endeavor is and will remain an enormous undertaking. Books of similar intellectual thoroughness and comparable political depth are badly needed." * Kritisch-Lesen *"In this extensively researched volume, Altenreid uses interviews with workers in this complex digital economy to deftly link the hidden human labor behind automation and algorithms to the Taylorist factories of the Industrial Age. Covering everything from the complex interactions between humans and automation at Amazon’s distribution centers to World of Warcraft gold farmers in China and the unseen human labor behind Facebook and Google algorithms, The Digital Factory gives readers who may not be as familiar with Taylorism and its relationship to the complex landscape of the digital factory age a solid foundation on the topic." * Choice *"Altenried takes readers on an amazing tour into the contemporary mutations of what Marx famously called 'the hidden abode of production.' What looms behind the magic of algorithms, artificial intelligence, and automation is a world of heterogeneous labor regimes, exploitation, and struggles. The Digital Factory is a landmark contribution to the study of contemporary capitalism, a must-read for scholars and activists." -- Sandro Mezzadra, University of Bologna"From the warehouse to the multiplayer game, content moderation to people-as-a-service, Altenried unearths the shifting stakes, geographies, and experiences of digital labor. The Digital Factory offers no solace to purveyors of data and automation fantasies. By exposing how the power of machines entangles living knowledge, intelligence and subjectivity, this remarkable book offers resources for changing the worlds of work and technology alike." -- Brett Neilson, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sidney University"In this ground-breaking book, Altenried shows us that, far from marking the end of the factory era the digital age is spreading the factory model of centralized control of vulnerable labor beyond its walls, extending into every corner of the global economy. Drawing on vivid first-hand observations, he spotlights the experiences of workers carrying out the hidden tasks that keep the information economy going, from the hidden housework of the Internet to the delivery of parcels under the panoptic surveillance of the algorithm." -- Ursula Huws, University of HertfordshireTable of ContentsOne Workers Leaving the Factory: Introduction Two The Global Factory: Logistics Three The Factory of Play: Gaming Four The Distributed Factory: Crowdwork Five The Hidden Factory: Social Media Six The Platform as Factory: Conclusion Seven The Contagious Factory: Epilogue Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review“This is a fascinating book. Truly kick-ass. It is high time that something astounding be done with Greek comedy. Democratic Swarms bursts with original readings, approaching familiar plays with incantations that tease out a possible world that has remained just beyond reach. DuBois nails the key concerns of today’s society and demonstrates how the afterlife of Greek comedy has seeded a wide range of modern discourses, providing a framework that can liberate comedy from the fetters that have been holding it down.” -- David Roselli, Scripps College“DuBois’s brilliant Democratic Swarms resists the long-standing dominance of tragedy in the analysis of ancient drama, reorienting us toward the comic chorus in order to rethink ancient literary production and politics both past and present. DuBois revisits assumptions about the centrality of character and dramatic plot—which privilege the individual—instead bringing much-needed attention to the ‘swarms’ of different creatures, the force of the animal and hybrid figures, and the collective in producing spectacle, laughter, ‘free’ speech, and action. She shows how ancient choruses and comic utopias can stir conversations on identity, democracy, voting, violence, power.” -- Andromache Karanika, University of California, Irvine“This book made me stand up and cheer. Beautifully written and full of insightful readings, Democratic Swarms finds duBois still raising the flag of freedom, like Marianne, and trampling on the shackles of Aristotelian poetics. She shows what comedy and its swarming choruses did that Greek tragedy did not do: mock the powerful, spread visions of the equal distribution of wealth, and present Athens whole, as a polyvocal buzz of conflicting voices. Democratic Swarms upholds the pertinence of comedy for today, enabling a politics that goes beyond the tragic individual. DuBois’s critique eviscerates current antidemocratic rhetoric and sees the swarm rise again in Occupy and Black Lives Matter.” -- Amy Richlin, University of California, Los AngelesTable of ContentsPreface Introduction Chapter 1: The Tragic Individual: The Tyranny of Oedipus and Antigone Chapter 2: The Swarm Chapter 3: Chorus Chapter 4: Utopias Chapter 5: Parrhesia: Saying It All Chapter 6: Democracy, Communalism, Communism Chapter 7: Epilogue: The Politics of the Present Acknowledgments Notes Selected Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisMichael Lucey offers a linguistic anthropological analysis of Proust's In Search of Lost Time. What happens when we talk? This deceptively simple question is central to Marcel Proust's monumental novel In Search of Lost Time. Both Proust's narrator and the novel that houses him devote considerable energy to investigating not just what people are saying or doing when they talk, but also what happens socioculturally through their use of language. Proust, in other words, is interested in what linguistic anthropologists call language-in-use. Michael Lucey elucidates Proust's approach to language-in-use in a number of ways: principally in relation to linguistic anthropology, but also in relation to speech act theory, and to Pierre Bourdieu's sociology. The book also includes an interlude after each of its chapters that contextualizes Proust's social-scientific practice of novel writing in relation to that of a number of other novelists, earlier and later, and from several different tTrade Review“What Proust Heard is the work of a scholar at the peak of his powers. Lucey offers an entirely new reading of Proust. This book helps us understand what novels—particularly Proust’s extraordinary novel of novels—can do to register and create social worlds. The result is a new genre of literary criticism that helps us understand how and why we experience reading (of all things) as a conversation outside our own heads.” * Virginia Jackson, University of California, Irvine *“Michael Lucey, an essayist esteemed for ground-breaking work on Balzac, Gide, Proust, and Colette, has opened up the world of literary criticism once again, this time through a rigorous investigation of the field of linguistic anthropology. That in itself is news. But the real achievement here is the way his synthesis of the two fields enables him to analyze the use of conversation in fiction, in authors with very different styles and intentions: Proust, Sarraute, and brilliantly, Rachel Cusk. I’ll never read or hear any of them the same way again.” * Alice Kaplan, Yale University *“From the formal patterns of Vinteuil’s musical compositions to the cries of the Paris street traders, what Proust heard and what with him the reader of A la recherche du temps perdu encounters, is one of the richest sound worlds of fiction since Rabelais. Above all there are the multiple registers of human speech, to the analysis of which Michel Lucey brings the conceptual tools of sociology and anthropology in the elaboration of what he calls an ‘ethnography of talk’. His account is a veritable tour de force in its mix of theoretical sophistication and close-up auditory attentiveness. It is a major contribution to our understanding of Proust’s great novel and more generally of the functioning of the novel as a literary genre. It is, in short, indispensable listening matter.” * Christopher Prendergast, University of Cambridge *"It is this Proust—the listener more than the dreamer—who interests Michael Lucey. The Proust Lucey evokes in What Proust Heard is a certain type of listener, someone who attends not only to words but also to how words function in particular interactions — what Lucey calls 'language-in-use.'" * Los Angeles Review of Books *"Readers of What Proust Heard will not only learn many fine-grained, incisive ways of speaking about speaking - social indexicality, meta-pragmatics, register shibboleths, footing - but stand to reconceive what it means to speak - 'the work that talk does' - both in novels and in the world." * L'Esprit Créateur *Table of ContentsOn Citations Introduction 1 Proust the Linguistic Anthropologist Interlude: Talk in Balzac and Eliot 2 Idiotic Speech (Acts?) and the Form of In Search of Lost Time Interlude: Harmonizing Habitus in Woolf 3 Proust and Bourdieu: Distinction and Form Interlude: Indexical Force in Sarraute and Cusk Conclusion: Animation and Statistics Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

Read more less