Search results for ""pantheon""

All Future Plunges to the Past explores how Russian writers from the mid-1920s on have read and responded to Joyce's work. Through contextually rich close readings, José Vergara uncovers the many roles Joyce has occupied in Russia over the last century, demonstrating how the writers Yury Olesha, Vladimir Nabokov, Andrei Bitov, Sasha Sokolov, and Mikhail Shishkin draw from Joyce's texts, particularly Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, to address the volatile questions of lineages in their respective Soviet, émigré, and post-Soviet contexts. Interviews with contemporary Russian writers, critics, and readers of Joyce extend the conversation to the present day, showing how the debates regarding the Irish writer's place in the Russian pantheon are no less settled one hundred years after Ulysses. The creative reworkings, or "translations," of Joycean themes, ideas, characters, plots, and styles made by the five writers Vergara examines speak to shifting cultural norms, understandings of intertextuality, and the polarity between Russia and the West. Vergara illuminates how Russian writers have used Joyce's ideas as a critical lens to shape, prod, and constantly redefine their own place in literary history. All Future Plunges to the Past offers one overarching approach to the general narrative of Joyce's reception in Russian literature. While each of the writers examined responded to Joyce in an individual manner, the sum of their methods reveals common concerns. This subject raises the issue of cultural values and, more importantly, how they changed throughout the twentieth century in the Soviet Union, Russian emigration, and the post-Soviet Russian environment.

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In Please Please Tell Me Now, bestselling rock biographer Stephen Davis tells the story of Duran Duran, the quintessential band of the 1980s. Their pretty boy looks made them the stars of fledgling MTV, but it was their brilliant musicianship that led to a string of number one hits. By the end of the decade, they had sold 60 million albums; today, they've sold over 100 million albums-and counting.Davis traces their roots to the austere 1970s British malaise that spawned both the Sex Pistols and Duran Duran-two seemingly opposite music extremes. Handsome, British, and young, it was Duran Duran that headlined Live Aid, not Bob Dylan or Led Zeppelin. The band moved in the most glamorous circles: Nick Rhodes became close with Andy Warhol, Simon LeBon with Princess Diana, and John Taylor dated quintessential British bad girl Amanda De Cadanet. With timeless hits like "Hungry Like the Wolf," "Girls on Film," "Rio," "Save a Prayer," and the bestselling James Bond theme in the series' history, "A View to Kill," Duran Duran has cemented its legacy in the pop pantheon-and with a new album and a worldwide tour on the way, they show no signs of slowing down anytime soon.Featuring exclusive interviews with the band and never-before-published photos from personal archives, Please Please Tell Me Now offers a definitive account of one of the last untold sagas in rock and roll history-a treat for diehard fans, new admirers, and music lovers of any age.

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‘Someone called and said Kurt died. I just f*****g lost it.’ He has sold over 40 million albums. He’s been in bands that have changed popular music forever. He saw his best friend commit suicide. He starts supergroups. He’s the nicest guy in rock. From Nirvana to Foo Fighters, from brotherhood to bitter rivalry, from breathless highs to lifeless lows, Paul Brannigan gives an unparalleled, intimate and extraordinary account of the life and times of Dave Grohl. In 1990, little-known punk-metal upstarts Nirvana added a new drummer to the band. They were soon to become a global phenomenon – but as we all know, things went wrong. Dave's friend Kurt, frontman of Nirvana, took his own life, plunging the band and their future into chaos. His friends’ grief was mirrored by worldwide sorrow to an unprecedented degree. Defying expectations, a knack that was soon to become his trademark, Grohl refused to see it as the end. In 1995 his new band, the Foo Fighters, rose to join the pantheon of rock deities. The 'wonder years' were by no means calm. The spotlit existence imposed by his celebrity status, the bellowed vilification by his critics and his high-speed lifestyle proved a dangerous cocktail. With an account of Grohl’s life that is more personal than anything written before, more startling, more thrilling, more heart-rending and more inspiring, Paul Brannigan reveals Dave fully for the first time. This is the story of the man who changed music forever. And he’s not finished yet.

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In this lively treatment of one of antiquity’s most mysterious civilizations, whose history disappeared from the records over 3,000 years ago, Trevor Bryce sheds fresh light on Hittite warriors as well as on the Hittites’ social, religious and political culture and offers new solutions to many unsolved questions. Revealing them to have been masters of chariot warfare, who almost inflicted a disastrous defeat on Rameses II at the Battle of Qadesh (1274 BCE), he shows the Hittites also to have been devout worshippers of a pantheon of storm-gods and many other gods, and masters of a new diplomatic system which bolstered their authority for centuries. Drawing authoritatively both on texts and on ongoing archaeological discoveries, while at the same time offering imaginative reconstructions of the Hittite world, Bryce argues that while the development of a warrior culture was essential, not only for the Empire’s expansion but for its very survival, this by itself was not enough. The range of skills demanded of the Hittite ruling class went way beyond mere military prowess, while there was much more to the Hittites themselves than just skill in warfare. This engaging volume reveals the Hittites in their full complexity, including the festivals they celebrated; the temples and palaces they built; their customs and superstitions; the crimes they committed; their social hierarchy, from king to slave; and the marriages and pre-nuptial agreements they contracted. It takes the reader on a journey which combines epic grandeur, spectacle and pageantry with an understanding of the intimacies and idiosyncrasies of Hittite daily life.

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The Game Behind the Scenes continues and concludes Peter Morris's superb encyclopedia of the national pastime. The initial volume, The Game on the Field, was called by Library Journal "charming, densely packed, yet entirely accessible.... This is heaven for fans of the game and a required addition to all baseball collections." Endlessly fascinating, impeccably researched, and engagingly written, this treasure trove will surprise, delight, and educate even the most knowledgeable fan by dispelling cherished myths and revealing the source of many of baseball's features that we now take for granted. Together, both volumes of A Game of Inches contain nearly a thousand entries that illuminate the origins of items ranging from catchers' masks to hook slides to intentional walks to cork-center baseballs to the reserve clause of baseball's Basic Agreement. The volume on The Game Behind the Scenes concentrates on ballparks, fans, marketing, statistics, the building of teams, and other related aspects of the game—but this is much more than just a reference guide. Award-winning author Peter Morris explains the context that led each new item to emerge when it did, and chronicles the often surprising responses to these innovations. Of few books can it genuinely be said that once you start reading, it's hard to put it down, but A Game of Inches is one of them. It belongs in the pantheon of great baseball books, and will give any reader a deeper appreciation of why baseball matters so much to Americans. Praise for Peter Morris's Volume One: The Game on the Field

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Examines the ideology of sacrifice in Soviet and post-Soviet culture, analyzing a range of fictional and real-life figures who became part of a pantheon of "heroes" primarily because of their victimhood. In Making Martyrs: The Language of Sacrifice in Russian Culture from Stalin to Putin, Yuliya Minkova examines the language of canonization and vilification in Soviet and post-Soviet media, official literature, and popular culture. She argues that early Soviet narratives constructed stories of national heroes and villains alike as examples of uncovering a person's "true self." The official culture used such stories to encourage heroic self-fashioningamong Soviet youth and as a means of self-policing and censure. Later Soviet narratives maintained this sacrificial imagery in order to assert the continued hold of Soviet ideology on society, while post-Soviet discourses of victimhood appeal to nationalist nostalgia. Sacrificial mythology continues to maintain a persistent hold in contemporary culture, as evidenced most recently by the Russian intelligentsia's fascination with the former oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the Russian media coverage of the war in Ukraine, laws against US adoption of Russian children and against the alleged propaganda of homosexuality aimed at minors, renewed national pride in wartime heroes, and the current usage of the words "sacred victim" in public discourse. In examining these various cases, the book traces the trajectory of sacrificial language from individual identity construction to its later function of lending personality and authority to the Soviet and post-Soviet state. Yuliya Minkova is Assistant Professor of Russian at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

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I entered the church...It struck me suddenly that all this crowd of men and women standing all round, these priests chanting and moving about the altar, were dead... Vernon Lee was a polymath whose copious writings include deeply learned studies of art, music, literature, and history, but also a small but exquisitely crafted group of Gothic tales, most of which first appeared in fin de siècle periodicals including the iconic Yellow Book. In these stories of obsession and possession, transgressive desire reaches out from the past -- through a haunting portrait, a murdered poet's lock of hair, the uncanny voice of a diabolical castrato -- dragging Lee's protagonists to their doom. Among those haunted by Lee's 'spurious ghosts' was Henry James, who praised her 'gruesome, graceful...ingenious tales, full of imagination'. This new edition includes Lee's landmark 1890 collection Hauntings complete, along with six additional tales and the 1880 essay 'Faustus and Helena', in which Lee probes the elusive nature of the supernatural as a 'vital...fluctuating...potent' force that resists definite representation. Aaron Worth's contextual introduction, drawing upon Lee's newly published letters, reassesses her place in the pantheon of the fantastic. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

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Micro-stories of modern monsters and other horrors.This collection of twenty-six dark but often humorous short stories features a pantheon of disturbed and disturbing characters, human and otherwise. Many of the stories are modern takes on classic monsters crafted with twisted plots and Twilight Zone-esque endings. For example, ""Wolfman and Janice"" is about a werewolf who is doing the best he can under very trying circumstances, especially when confronted with eating his elderly neighbor's cat. There's an adolescent vampire-wannabe who is suffering badly: in love for the first time. ""Frankenstein and His Mother"" is a terrifying story of a grown man who wears a Frankenstein mask and lives with his mother watching TV and eating corn chips all day while being afraid of work. ""Dracula's Daughter"" turns a pretentious hippie into an honest ghost. And Bigfoot—lonely, sexually frustrated—tells all. Other stories feature characters who seem perfectly normal until they're alone. Phil, for instance, is never so happy as when he's with his inflatable girlfriend Vanessa—until she tells him the devastating truth about himself. Elderly Ellen is running out of patience with her dead husband George, who's turned prankish. ""Bob and Todd"" tells the story of a hitchhiking ride gone bad that will have readers squirming in their seats. More than just standard monster stories, the tales in But You Scared Me the Most reveal much more about about human nature and will appeal to a wide range of fans of smart, funny short fiction.

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Our knowledge of ancient Greece has been transformed in the last century by an increased understanding of the cultures of the Ancient Near East. This is particularly true of ancient religion. This book looks at the relationship between the religious systems of Ancient Greece and the Hittites, who controlled Turkey in the Late Bronze Age (1400-1200 BC). The cuneiform texts preserved in the Hittite archives provide a particularly rich source for religious practice, detailing festivals, purification rituals, oracle-consultations, prayers, and myths of the Hittite state, as well as documenting the religious practice of neighbouring Anatolian states in which the Hittites took an interest. Hittite religion is thus more comprehensively documented than any other ancient religious tradition in the Near East, even Egypt. The Hittites are also known to have been in contact with Mycenaean Greece, known to them as Ahhiyawa. The book first sets out the evidence and provides a methodological paradigm for using comparative data. It then explores cases where there may have been contact or influence, such as in the case of scapegoat rituals or the Kumarbi-Cycle. Finally, it considers key aspects of religious practices shared by both systems, such as the pantheon, rituals of war, festivals, and animal sacrifice. The aim of such a comparison is to discover clues that may further our understanding of the deep history of religious practices and, when used in conjunction with historical data, illuminate the differences between cultures and reveal what is distinctive about each of them.

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Paris Then and Now captures the changes that have taken place in the French capital from the heady days of the Belle Époque through to the 1940s. Matching classic archive images with the same viewpoint taken today the book provides a stunning visual history to Europe’s most beautiful and romantic city. Paris d’hier et d’aujourd’hui retrace les changements opérés dans la capitale entre les jours insouciants de la Belle Époque et les années 1940. Par la confrontation d’images photographiques d’archives avec des photos d’aujourd’hui prises sous le même angle de vue, ce livre propose une histoire visuelle de la plus belle et de la plus romantique des villes d’Europe. Inclus: Arc de Triomphe, Grand Palais, Champs Élysées, Place de la Concorde, Statue de Strasbourg, Ministère de la Marine, Cour du Louvre, Comédie Française, Rue de Rivoli, Place Vendôme, Église de la Madeleine, Opéra de Paris, Galeries Lafayette, Boulevard des Capucines, Gare St. Lazare, Fontaine des Innocents, Théâtre du Châtelet, Hôtel de Ville, Centre George Pompidou, Place de la Bastille, Pont Marie, Cathédrale Notre-Dame, Pont Neuf, Pont St. Michel, Rue de Bièvre, Shakespeare and Company, La Sorbonne, Station de Métro Odéon, Cour de Rohan, Carrefour de Buci, Rue de Constantine / Rue de Lutèce, Panthéon, Palais du Luxembourg, Café de Floré, Place Saint Médard, La Ruche, Usine Citroën / Parc André Citroën, Rue Berton, Tour Eiffel, Place du Trocadéro / Palais de Chaillot. Pont de L’Alma, Gare d’Orsay, Cimetière du Père Lachaise, Place de la République, Parc des Buttes Chaumont, Canal Saint-Martin, Gare de L’Est et Gare du Nord.

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Through a fascinating discussion of religion's role in the rhetoric of American civilizing empire, The Imperial Church undertakes an exploration of how Catholic mission histories served as a useful reference for Americans narrating US settler colonialism on the North American continent and seeking to extend military, political, and cultural power around the world. Katherine D. Moran traces historical celebrations of Catholic missionary histories in the upper Midwest, Southern California, and the US colonial Philippines to demonstrate the improbable centrality of the Catholic missions to ostensibly Protestant imperial endeavors. Moran shows that, as the United States built its continental and global dominion and an empire of production and commerce in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, Protestant and Catholic Americans began to celebrate Catholic imperial pasts. She demonstrates that American Protestants joined their Catholic compatriots in speaking with admiration about historical Catholic missionaries: the Jesuit Jacques Marquette in the Midwest, the Franciscan Junípero Serra in Southern California, and the Spanish friars in the Philippines. Comparing them favorably to the Puritans, Pilgrims, and the American Revolutionary generation, commemorators drew these missionaries into a cross-confessional pantheon of US national and imperial founding fathers. In the process, they cast Catholic missionaries as gentle and effective agents of conquest, uplift, and economic growth, arguing that they could serve as both origins and models for an American civilizing empire. The Imperial Church connects Catholic history and the history of US empire by demonstrating that the religious dimensions of American imperial rhetoric have been as cross-confessional as the imperial nation itself.

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Godly Heathens is the first book in H.E. Edgmon's YA contemporary fantasy duology The Ouroboros, in which a teen, Gem, finds out they're a reincarnated god from another world. Maybe I have always just been bad at being human because I'm not one. Gem Echols is a nonbinary Seminole teen living in the tiny town of Gracie, Georgia. Known for being their peers' queer awakening, Gem leans hard on charm to disguise the anxious mess they are beneath. The only person privy to their authentic self is another trans kid, Enzo, who's a thousand long, painful miles away in Brooklyn. But even Enzo doesn't know about Gem's dreams, haunting visions of magic and violence that have always felt too real. So how the hell does Willa Mae Hardy? The strange new girl in town acts like she and Gem are old companions, and seems to know things about them they've never told anyone else. When Gem is attacked by a stranger claiming to be the Goddess of Death, Willa Mae saves their life and finally offers some answers. She and Gem are reincarnated gods who've known and loved each other across lifetimes. But Gem - or at least who Gem used to be - hasn't always been the most benevolent deity. They've made a lot of enemies in the pantheon-enemies who, like the Goddess of Death, will keep coming. It's a good thing they've still got Enzo. But as worlds collide and the past catches up with the present, Gem will discover that everyone has something to hide.

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A mortally wounded magistrate faces his deadliest trial inside an ancient abbey where the monks are going mad and the gods themselves may be to blame!Estevar Borros, one of the legendary sword-fighting magistrates known as the Greatcoats and the king's personal investigator of the supernatural, is no stranger to tales of ghosts and demons. When the fractious monks of the abbey rumoured to be the birthplace of the gods begin warring over claims of a new pantheon arising, the frantic abbot summons him to settle the dispute.But Estevar has his own problems: a near-fatal sword wound from his last judicial duel, a sworn knight who claims he has proof the monks are consorting with demons, a diabolical inquisitor with no love for the Greatcoats, and a mysterious young woman claiming to be Estevar's ally but who may well be his deadliest enemy.Armed only with his famed investigative talents, his faltering skill with a blade and Imperious, his ornery mule, Estevar must root out the source of the madness lurking inside the once-sacred walls of Isola Sombra before its chaos spreads to the country he's sworn to protect.Investigate alongside Estevar and the most heroic mule ever to appear in print in this thrilling swashbuckling fantasy mystery by Sebastien de Castell, author of the Internationally acclaimed Greatcoats and Spellslinger series!Crucible of Chaos may be read as a stand-alone fantasy novel and as a prelude to Play of Shadows, the first official novel in the Court of Shadows series!

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From internationally bestselling author Katrine Engberg, the series that is a "gripping addition to the Scandinavian crime fiction pantheon" (Oprah Daily) comes to a stunning conclusion as Jeppe Kørner and Anette Werner rush to untangle a long-simmering mystery before a brutal killer strikes again.Jeppe Kørner, on leave from the police force and nursing a broken heart, has taken refuge on the island of Bornholm for the winter. Also on the island is Esther de Laurenti, a writer working on a biography on a female anthropologist with a mysterious past and coming to terms with her own crushing sense of loneliness in the wake of a dear friend's death. When Jeppe lends a helping hand at the island's local sawmill, he begins to realize that the island may not be the peaceful refuge it appears to be.Back in Copenhagen, Anette Werner is tasked with leading the investigation into a severed corpse discovered on a downtown playground. As she follows the strange trail of clues, they all seem to lead back to Bornholm. With an innocent offer to check out a lead, Jeppe unwittingly finds himself in the crosshairs of a sinister mystery rooted in the past, forcing him to team up with Anette and Esther to unravel the island's secrets before it's too late.With her signature "unforgettable characters and brilliant plot twists" (Kathy Reichs, #1 New York Times bestselling author), Katrine Engberg weaves a satisfying and white-knuckled finale to her Korner and Werner series that is a modern classic of Scandinavian noir.

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From internationally bestselling author Katrine Engberg, the series that is a "gripping addition to the Scandinavian crime fiction pantheon" (Oprah Daily) comes to a stunning conclusion as Jeppe Kørner and Anette Werner rush to untangle a long-simmering mystery before a brutal killer strikes again.Jeppe Kørner, on leave from the police force and nursing a broken heart, has taken refuge on the island of Bornholm for the winter. Also on the island is Esther de Laurenti, a writer working on a biography on a female anthropologist with a mysterious past and coming to terms with her own crushing sense of loneliness in the wake of a dear friend's death. When Jeppe lends a helping hand at the island's local sawmill, he begins to realize that the island may not be the peaceful refuge it appears to be.Back in Copenhagen, Anette Werner is tasked with leading the investigation into a severed corpse discovered on a downtown playground. As she follows the strange trail of clues, they all seem to lead back to Bornholm. With an innocent offer to check out a lead, Jeppe unwittingly finds himself in the crosshairs of a sinister mystery rooted in the past, forcing him to team up with Anette and Esther to unravel the island's secrets before it's too late.With her signature "unforgettable characters and brilliant plot twists" (Kathy Reichs, #1 New York Times bestselling author), Katrine Engberg weaves a satisfying and white-knuckled finale to her Korner and Werner series that is a modern classic of Scandinavian noir.

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'Uproarious and unflinching' Mail on Sunday'A truly incredible life story' The Sun'Most memorable . . . told in a voice as distinctive as his spoken one' Independent'Brims with his gift for genial anecdote' The Sunday TimesOne of 'the top 25 most compelling Hollywood autobiographies' -Guardian* * *From the author of the bestselling Blowing the Bloody Doors Off, the original, definitive autobiography of British screen icon and legend Sir Michael Caine. It's been a long journey for Maurice Micklewhite - born with rickets in London's poverty-stricken Elephant & Castle - to the bright lights of Hollywood. With a glittering career spanning more than five decades and starring roles which have earned him two Oscars, a knighthood, and an iconic place in the Hollywood pantheon, the man now known to us as Michael Caine looks back over it all. Funny, warm, honest, Caine brings us his insider's view of Hollywood (where there's neither holly nor woods). He recalls the films, the legendary stars, the off-screen moments with a gift for story-telling only equalled by David Niven. Hollywood has been his home and his playground. But England is where his heart lies. And where he blames the French for the abundance of snails in his garden. A plaque now celebrates him at the Elephant in London. His handprint is one of only 200 since 1927 to decorate the hallowed pavement outside that mecca of Hollywood stars, Grauman's Chinese Theatre. A very British star, The Elephant to Hollywood is the remarkable full circle of Michael Caine's life.

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Abraham Lincoln has long dominated the pantheon of American presidents. From his lavish memorial in Washington and immortalization on Mount Rushmore, one might assume he was a national hero rather than a controversial president who came close to losing his 1864 bid for reelection. Drawing on a wide array of materials - painting and sculpture, popular magazines and school textbooks, newspaper accounts and oratory - Barry Schwartz aims at this sort of contradiction in his study of the role Lincoln's reputation and memory has played in American life. Schwartz explains, for example, how dramatic funeral rites elevated Lincoln's reputation even while funeral eulogists questioned his presidential actions and how his reputation, over the next four decades, diminished and grew. Schwartz links the vagaries of Lincoln's image to broad transformations of the nation, arguing that Lincoln's life symbolized America's development from a rural republic to an industrial democracy and articulated the roles of economic and political reform, military power and nationalism in the country's self-conception. Lincoln's memory assumed a double aspect of "mirror" and "lamp", acting as a reflection of the nation's concerns and an illumination of its ideals, and Schwartz offers a fascinating view of these two functions as they were realized in the commemorative symbols of an ever-widening circle of ethnic, religious, political and regional communities. The first part of the study that will continue through the present, "Abraham Lincoln and the Forge of National Memory" is the story of how America has shaped its past selectivey and imaginatively, but around a real person whose character and achievements symbolized his country's ideals.

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In The Deaths of Henry King, the hapless Henry King, as advertised, dies. Not just once or even twice, but seven dozen times, each death making way for a new demise, moving from the comic to the grim to the absurd to the transcendent and back again. With text by Jesse Ball and Brian Evenson complimented by Lilli Carré’s macabre, gravestone-rubbing-style art, Henry King’s ends are brought to a vividly absurd life. Brian Evenson is the author of a dozen books of fiction, most recently the story collection Windeye and the novel Immobility (both finalists for a Shirley Jackson Award). His novel Last Days won the ALA’s RUSA award for Best Horror Novel of 2009. His novel The Open Curtain was a finalist for an Edgar Award and an International Horror Guild Award. He lives in Providence, RI, where he teaches in Brown University’s literary arts department. Jesse Ball is the author of five novels, including the forthcoming A Cure for Suicide (Pantheon, 2015), Silence Once Begun, and several others. He has received numerous awards, including a 2014 NEA Creative Writing Fellowship and the 2008 The Paris Review’s Plimpton Prize. He gives classes on lucid dreaming and lying in the SAIC’s MFA Writing program. Lilli Carré is an artist living in Chicago. She has created several books of comics, including Heads or Tails (Fantagraphics), and her first children’s book, Tippy and the Night Parade (Toon Books). Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Best American Comics.

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The window is one of the most essential components of architecture, yet it rarely receives the detailed examination that it deserves. This new study explores the development of the window, showing how it transformed human experience by increasing access to light and air, and simultaneously changed our perception of architectural space. Christopher Masters celebrates the multiple roles of the window in architecture through thematic chapters that allow for spectacular visual comparisons, juxtaposing images from different cultures and historical periods. He provides engaging commentaries on over 80 exceptional buildings of all types, both ancient and modern, ranging from the Pantheon in Rome, Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris and the Katsura Imperial Villa in Kyoto to Walter Gropius's Bauhaus in Dessau, Eero Saarinen's TWA Terminal in New York, Jean Nouvel's Louvre Abu Dhabi and Dorte Mandrup's Icefjord Centre in Greenland. Featuring more than 150 superb photographs, this is an intriguing and accessible survey of a formerly neglected subject in architectural history. AUTHOR: Christopher Masters is a London-based author specialising in art and architecture. SELLING POINTS: . A new survey of an integral but little-studied aspect of architecture across the centuries . With more than 80 buildings worldwide by architects from Palladio and Christopher Wren to Le Corbusier, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Santiago Calatrava, Rem Koolhaas and Zaha Hadid . A wide-ranging, informative text analyses the window as a central aesthetic and functional feature of architecture, and also considers key social and technological factors 150 colour illustrations

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A timely and up-to-date account of religion in Roman Britain. Two thousand years ago, the Romans sought to absorb into their Empire what they regarded as a remote, almost mythical island on the very edge of the known world – Britain. The expeditions of Julius Caesar and the Claudian invasion of AD 43, and the continuing Roman presence up to the 5th century AD, brought fundamental and lasting changes to the island. Not least among these was the introduction of a new pantheon of Classical deities and religious systems, along with a clutch of exotic Eastern cults including Christianity. But what of Britannia and her own home-grown deities? What cults and cosmologies did the Romans encounter, and how did they react to them? Under Roman rule, the old gods and their adherents were challenged, adopted, adapted, absorbed and reconfigured. In Britain no inscriptions predate the Roman period, apart from brief coin-legends, and the divine imagery that adorned temples in the Roman world was largely lacking. But with the Romans, religion becomes much more visible. In this fresh and innovative new account Miranda Aldhouse-Green balances literary, archaeological and iconographic evidence (and scrutinizes their shortcomings) to illuminate the complexity of religion and belief in Roman Britain, and the two-way traffic of cultural exchange and interplay between imported and indigenous cults. Despite the remoteness of this period, on the cusp between prehistory and history, many of the forces, tensions, ideologies and issues of identity at work are still relevant today, as Sacred Britannia skilfully reveals.

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For the Gods are the opening words or incipit of the first inscribed votive artefacts dedicated to the principal deities of the Sumerian pantheon. They commemorate the construction or renovation of cities, temples, rural sanctuaries, border steles, in sum all the symbolically charged features of archaic states belonging thus metaphorically to supernatural tutelary overlords. Girsu (present-day Tello) is one of the earliest known cities of the world together with Uruk, Eridu, and Ur, and was considered to be in the 3rd Millennium the sanctuary of the Sumerian heroic god Ningirsu who fought with the demons of the Kur (Mountain) and thus made possible the introduction of irrigation and agriculture in Sumer. Girsu was the sacred metropolis and central pole of a city-state that lay in the Southeasternmost part of the Mesopotamian floodplain. The pioneering explorations carried out between 1877 and 1933 at Tello and the early decipherment of the Girsu cuneiform tablets were ground-breaking because they revealed the principal catalytic elements of the Sumerian takeoff – that is, a multiplicity and coalescence of major innovations, such as the appearance of a city– countryside continuum, the emergence of literacy, of bronze manufacture, and the development of monumental art and architecture. Because of the richness of information related in particular to the city’s spatial organization and geographical setting, and thanks to the availability of recently declassified Cold War space imagery and especially the possibility to launch new explorations in Southern Iraq, Girsu stands out as a primary locale for re-analyzing through an interdisciplinary approach combining archaeological and textual evidence the origins of the Sumerian city-state.

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The making of a New Zealand coaching great Between the years 2012 and 2019, Sir Steve Hansen oversaw an era of such remarkable success that it would be almost impossible to repeat. His 15-year career in the All Blacks coaching team is the heaviest footprint in rugby history. Of the 210 tests he was involved with, his team lost just 25 times. Of the 107 tests he served as head coach, Sir Steve accumulated a record 4 World Rugby Coach of the Year awards and orchestrated 93 victories - a winning percentage of 87 per cent, the highest of any All Blacks coach.Steve Hansen: The Legacy delves into the highs and the lows that earned the New Zealand rugby knight a place in the pantheon of world rugby coaching greats. Revealing and perceptive, the book uncovers how Hansen dealt with the immeasurable pressure of leading the world's most famous rugby team; the tension created by being re-appointed specifically to win the Rugby World Cup; how he dealt with high-profile athletes and an exodus of New Zealand's all-time greats; the endless tug-of-war between commercialism and high performance; the increasing influence of referees on the game; the power battle between the northern and southern hemispheres; the Achilles heel that contributed to the All Blacks' 2019 Rugby World Cup loss; and how, during his career, he learnt to understand his weaknesses and use them to his advantage.Much more than a biography, in Steve Hansen: The Legacy, award-winning writer Gregor Paul tells the compelling story of the former policeman from Mosgiel, his quest for world rugby dominance and his journey to coaching greatness.

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'Making Darkness Light is an illumination' Adam Phillips'His sympathetic yet challenging account will undoubtedly win Milton new readers - and for that a chorus of Hallelujahs' SpectatorFor most of us John Milton has been consigned to the dusty pantheon of English literature, a grim puritan, sightlessly dictating his great work to an amanuensis, removed from the real world in his contemplation of higher things. But dig a little deeper and you find an extraordinary and complicated human being.Revolutionary and apologist for regicide, writer of propaganda for Cromwell's regime, defender of the English people and passionate European, scholar and lover of music and the arts - Milton was all of these things and more.Making Darkness Light shows how these complexities and contradictions played out in Milton's fascination with oppositions - Heaven and Hell, light and dark, self and other - most famously in his epic poem Paradise Lost. It explores the way such brutal contrasts define us and obscure who we really are, as the author grapples with his own sense of identity and complex relationship with Milton. Retracing Milton's footsteps through seventeenth century London, Tuscany and the Marches, he vividly brings Milton's world to life and takes a fresh look at his key works and ideas around the nature of creativity, time and freedom of expression. He also illustrates the profound influence of Milton's work on writers from William Blake to Virginia Woolf, James Joyce to Jorge Luis Borges.This is a book about Milton, that also speaks to why we read and what happens when we choose over time to let another's life and words enter our own. It will change the way you think about Milton forever.

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During their lifetimes, Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin shared credit and fame for the independent and near-simultaneous discovery of natural selection. Together, the two men spearheaded one of the greatest intellectual revolutions in modern history, and their rivalry, usually amicable but occasionally acrimonious, forged modern evolutionary theory. Yet today, few people today know much about Wallace. The Heretic in Darwin's Court explores the controversial life and scientific contributions of Alfred Russel Wallace-Victorian traveler, scientist, spiritualist, and co-discoverer with Charles Darwin of natural selection. After examining his early years, the biography turns to Wallace's twelve years of often harrowing travels in the western and eastern tropics, which place him in the pantheon of the greatest explorer-naturalists of the nineteenth century. Tracing step-by-step his discovery of natural selection-a piece of scientific detective work as revolutionary in its implications as the discovery of the structure of DNA-the book then follows the remaining fifty years of Wallace's eccentric and entertaining life. In addition to his divergence from Darwin on two fundamental issues-sexual selection and the origin of the human mind-he pursued topics that most scientific figures of his day conspicuously avoided, including spiritualism, phrenology, mesmerism, environmentalism, and life on Mars. Although there may be disagreement about his conclusions, Wallace's intellectual investigations into the origins of life, consciousness, and the universe itself remain some of the most inspired scientific accomplishments in history. This authoritative biography casts new light on the life and work of Alfred Russel Wallace and the importance of his twenty-five-year relationship with Charles Darwin.

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Thomi Keller’s place in rowing’s pantheon is beyond dispute. A talented oarsman whose hopes of winning an Olympic medal were dashed when Switzerland didn’t attend the 1956 Games, he went on to preside over FISA, the sport’s international federation, for more than thirty years. During a turbulent and fast-changing era marked by Cold War politics and sport’s incipient commercialisation, he substantially modernised both rowing and its governing body, resolutely putting the athlete first. Yet Keller’s influence extended far beyond his own sport. By convincing other sports leaders of the benefits of working together, he forged the international federations into a force that the International Olympic Committee – custodians of the world’s most diverse and spectacular sporting event – had no choice but to respect. At the height of his powers, in the late 1970s, he arguably wielded more influence among fellow sports leaders than the IOC president himself. Though ultimately outmaneuvered by the IOC’s Juan Antonio Samaranch, who identified and harnessed the Olympics’ commercial power, Keller remained a revered figure until his death in 1989, aged only sixty-four. Thirty years on he is still, as one obituarist put it, “the outstanding figure in the history of international rowing”. While the sporting world Keller inhabited has since been transformed by the cash that has gushed in from broadcasters and sponsors, his essential message – that fair competition and athlete wellbeing must come first – remains today as relevant as ever. Drawing on exclusive access to contemporary documents and the reminiscences of those who knew Keller, the award-winning sportswriter David Owen has written the first full-length biography of one of the most important and charismatic sports leaders of the twentieth century.

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'Making Darkness Light is an illumination' Adam Phillips'His sympathetic yet challenging account will undoubtedly win Milton new readers - and for that a chorus of Hallelujahs' SpectatorFor most of us John Milton has been consigned to the dusty pantheon of English literature, a grim puritan, sightlessly dictating his great work to an amanuensis, removed from the real world in his contemplation of higher things. But dig a little deeper and you find an extraordinary and complicated human being.Revolutionary and apologist for regicide, writer of propaganda for Cromwell's regime, defender of the English people and passionate European, scholar and lover of music and the arts - Milton was all of these things and more.Making Darkness Light shows how these complexities and contradictions played out in Milton's fascination with oppositions - Heaven and Hell, light and dark, self and other - most famously in his epic poem Paradise Lost. It explores the way such brutal contrasts define us and obscure who we really are, as the author grapples with his own sense of identity and complex relationship with Milton. Retracing Milton's footsteps through seventeenth century London, Tuscany and the Marches, he vividly brings Milton's world to life and takes a fresh look at his key works and ideas around the nature of creativity, time and freedom of expression. He also illustrates the profound influence of Milton's work on writers from William Blake to Virginia Woolf, James Joyce to Jorge Luis Borges.This is a book about Milton, that also speaks to why we read and what happens when we choose over time to let another's life and words enter our own. It will change the way you think about Milton forever.

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High adventure and epic storytelling combine in the final novel in Sunday Times bestselling author David Gemmell's bestselling Troy trilogy. Perfect for fans of Simon Scarrow, Bernard Cornwell and Conn Iggulden. 'In my pantheon of literary greats, David Gemmell stands alone . . . he put me on the path I still walk today' -- CONN IGGULDEN" [A] vivid, inspirational re-creation of the Troy myth." -- MANDA SCOTT"Gripping and fast-paced, intelligent and intensely readable...should appeal to anyone who enjoys an action-packed historical epic." -- JOANNE HARRIS"A splendid piece of work that traverses from hero fantasy into legendary and classic writing." -- ***** Reader review"Truly captivating" -- ***** Reader review**************************************Darkness falls on the Great Green, and the Ancient World is fiercely divided.On the killing fields outside the golden city of Troy, forces loyal to the Mykene King mass. Among them is Odysseus, fabled storyteller and reluctant ally to the Mykene, who knows that he must soon face his former friends in deadly combat.Within the city, the Trojan king waits. Ailing and bitter, his hope is pinned on two heroes: his favourite son Hektor, and the dread Helikaon who will wreak terrible vengeance for the death of his wife at Mykene hands.War has been declared.As enemies, who are also kinsmen, are filled with bloodlust, they know that many of them will die, and that some will become heroes: heroes who will live for ever in a story that will echo down the centuries.Have you read the previous two books in the series Troy: Lord of the Silver Bow and Troy: Shield of Thunder?

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The edge-of-your-seat, heart-in-mouth new Jack Reacher thriller for 2021 - his 25th adventure. No one's bigger than Jack Reacher.Jack Reacher hitches a ride to a sleepy no-name town outside Nashville, Tennessee. He plans to grab a cup of coffee and move right along.Not going to happen.The town has been shut down by a cyber attack. At the centre of it all, whetherhe likes it or not, is Rusty Rutherford. He's an average IT guy, but he knows more than he thinks.As the bad guys move in on Rusty, Reacher moves in on them . . .And now Rusty knows he's protected, he's never going to leave the big man's side.Reacher might just have to stick around and find out what the hell's gone wrong . . . and then put it right, like only he can.***'Jack Reacher is today's James Bond, a thriller hero we can't get enough of.' Ken Follett'If you haven't read any Jack Reacher, you have a treat in store . . . a hitchhiker without a phone, a one-man force for good.' - The Times'A contemporary version of the knight in shining armour . . . Reacher is a mythic figure.' Literary Review'Jack Reacher is a wonderfully epic hero; tough, taciturn, yet vulnerable... Irresistible.' People'Jack Reacher has long since earned his prominent place in the pantheon of cool, smart-talking American heroes.' New York Times_________Although the Jack Reacher novels can be read in any order, The Sentinel is the 25th in the series.And be sure not to miss Reacher's newest adventure, no.27, No Plan B! ***OUT NOW***

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See more than 350 of the world's greatest buildings come to life in the most spectacular way! A world of beauty and genius is unveiled in this comprehensive architecture book. Discover the world's most incredible buildings, from the ancient world to the present day.From the Louvre and the Colosseum to the Sydney Opera House and the Gherkin, this book offers a truly visual worldwide survey of global architecture. Bursting with breathtaking photography and informative entries on more than 350 of the world's most famous buildings, Architecture: A Visual History gives you an unspoilt view of their fascinating features. This accessible reference book will transport you to the most impressive and iconic buildings on earth: - 500 photographs and 13 CGI artworks that dissect magnificent buildings around the world- Clear explanations and cross-sections of each building, along with exquisite photography of specific details- Close-up, detailed photographic reference to the architectural "vocabulary" of the period Explore the Architectural Wonders of the WorldPage after page is dedicated to significant architectural movements, biographies of famous architects and in-depth examinations of their masterpieces. See how and why certain features were common during specific time periods and how these amazing buildings have stood the test of time. Unique specially-commissioned CGI artworks throughout the book showcase more than 10 specific buildings, including The Pantheon and the White House.This stunning guide gives you a closer look at contemporary global architecture as well as sustainable green buildings. It's the perfect gift for architecture students, practising architects, or anyone with an interest in architecture, design, engineering, or art.

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Different Times? Archaeological and environmental data from intra-site and off-site sequences brings together seven papers from Session II-8 of the XVIII UISPP Congress (Paris, 4-9 June 2018). The session questioned temporal correlations between intra-site and off-site data in archaeology-related contexts. The word ‘site’ describes here archaeological sites or groups of sites – usually settlements – that have undergone research in recent years and produced information on the duration and timing of human presence. Comparison with evidence from geomorphological and paleoenvironmental research conducted at various distances from settlements gives some interesting results, such as ‘missing’ occupation periods, distortions in human presence intensity through space as well as time, variability in explanations concerning the abandonment of settlements, etc. Examples presented here highlight: first, discrepancies between time records within built areas used for living and the surrounding lands used for other activities (cultivation, herding, travelling, etc); second, discrepancies produced by the use of different ‘time markers’ (ie. chronostratigraphy of archaeological layers or pottery evolution on the one hand, sedimentary or pollen sequences on the other hand). Although improving the resolution of individual data is essential, the authors argue that the joint and detailed examination of evidence produced together by human and natural scientists is more important for reaching a reliable reconstruction of past people’s activities. Both the session and the volume stem from the Working Group ‘Environmental and Social Changes in the Past’ (Changements environnementaux et sociétés dans le passé) in the research framework of the Cluster of Excellence ‘Dynamite’ (Territorial and Spatial Dynamics) of the University Paris 1-Panthéon-Sorbonne (ANR-11-LABX-0046, Investissements d’Avenir).

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This book by dynamic scholars James Whisker and John Coe examines the short life of the Nazi ideologist Alfred Rosenberg, one of the most overlooked individuals in the pantheon of leaders in the Third Reich. Born to German mercantile parents in the Baltic region of the Russian Empire, he was a student in Russia during the Bolshevik Revolution. Deeply influenced by the anti-Semitic forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a propaganda pamphlet distributed by the tsar’s secret police, he carried it to Germany, where he introduced it to Adolf Hitler.Rosenberg leaned heavily on heterodox Christian writings that challenged mainstream Christian thought. He revived interest in a variety of philosophies and individuals long forgotten, such as the cosmic dualistic Cathars and the mystic Master Eckart von Hochheim. Rosenberg came to view history from a perspective often called “Scientific Racism,” which held that the history of humankind had been marked by a struggle between the Aryan race and their supposed inferiors. Race was the newest subject for the application of cosmic dualism, which is the spiritual belief that two fundamental concepts exist. Rosenberg identified the Nazis’ task as creating a bulwark against Semitic influences from Europe generally and Germany in particular, and to do so by any means necessary. Rosenberg figured in a long anti-Jewish tradition in Germany, a tortured legacy that began with Martin Luther and continued through many of the prominent German figures of the nineteenth century. Indeed, Rosenberg considered his magnum opus, The Myth of the 20th Century, to be the logical successor work to Foundations of the 19th Century by the composer Richard Wagner’s son-in-law Houston Stewart Chamberlain.

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The Investment Trusts Handbook 2024 is the seventh edition of the highly regarded annual handbook for anyone interested in investment trusts – often referred to as the City’s best-kept secret, or the connoisseur’s choice among investment funds. It is expertly edited by well-known author and professional investor Jonathan Davis, founder and editor of the Money Makers newsletter and podcast. The Investment Trusts Handbook 2024 is an editorially independent educational publication, available through bookshops and extensively online. Described in the media as “truly the definitive guide to the sector”, more than 45,000 copies of the Handbook have been sold or downloaded since launch. With fascinating articles by more than 20 different authors, including analysts, fund managers and investment writers, plus more than 80 pages of detailed data and analysis, including performance figures, trust comings and goings and fund manager histories, the latest edition of the handbook is an indispensable companion for anyone looking to invest in the investment trust sector. Contributors this year include: John Baron, Alan Brierley, James Carthew, Richard Curling, Alex Davies, Simon Edelsten, Simon Elliott, Nick Greenwood, Peter Hewitt, Matt Hose, Max King, Ewan Lovett-Turner, Colette Ord, Peter Spiller, Richard Stone, Stuart Watson and many more. Topics in this year’s 280-page edition include: the impact of rising interest rates, tackling discounts, industry consolidation, the hunt for bargains, the role of boards, alternatives, VCTs, fundraising news, and the editor’s notes and model portfolios. The Investment Trusts Handbook 202 is supported by a number of organisations including abrdn, Asset Value Investors, Baillie Gifford, Columbia Threadneedle Investments, Fidelity International, Invesco, Ocean Dial Asset Management Ltd, Pantheon, Polar Capital, and Schroders.

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"Jeet Heer more thoroughly and widely understands comics history and the perplexing binomial life of the cartoonist better than anyone who's not one. As well-versed in literature as he is in comics, he always gets at the peculiar, poetical texture of his subject not only by what he writes, but how he writes it--clearly, mellifluously, and beautifully. Our humble discipline is singularly lucky to have him telling its story."--Chris Ware In a partnership spanning four decades, Francoise Mouly and Art Spiegelman have become the pre-eminent power couple of cutting-edge graphic art. Their landmark magazine Raw, which first published artists such as Ben Katchor, Chris Ware, and Charles Burns, brought an avant-garde sensibility to comics and, along with Spiegelman's legendary graphic novel Maus, completely revolutionized the form. As art editor of the New Yorker since 1993, Mouly has remade the face of that venerable magazine with covers that capture the political and social upheavals of the last two decades, such as the black-on-black cover after 9/11 and the infamous Barack Obama fist-bump cartoon. Based on exclusive interviews with Mouly, Spiegelman, and a pantheon of comics artists--including Dan Clowes, Barry Blitt, Anita Kunz, and Adrian Tomine--In Love with Art is both an intimate portrait of Mouly and a rare, behind-the-scenes look at some of today's most iconic images. Through the prism of an uncommonly successful relationship, the book tells the story of one of the most remarkable artistic transformations of our time. Jeet Heer's writing has appeared in the Guardian, Slate, Boston Globe, the American Prospect, and the Virginia Quarterly Review.

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From its inception in northeastern India in the first millennium BCE, the Buddhist tradition has advocated a range of ideas and practices that were said to ensure health and well-being. As the religion developed and spread to other parts of Asia, healing deities were added to its pantheon, monastic institutions became centers of medical learning, and healer-monks gained renown for their mastery of ritual and medicinal therapeutics. In China, imported Buddhist knowledge contended with a sophisticated, state-supported system of medicine that was able to retain its influence among the elite. Further afield in Japan, where Chinese Buddhism and Chinese medicine were introduced simultaneously as part of the country's adoption of civilization from the "Middle Kingdom," the two were reconciled by individuals who deemed them compatible. In East Asia, Buddhist healing would remain a site of intercultural tension and negotiation. While participating in transregional networks of circulation and exchange, Buddhist clerics practiced locally specific blends of Indian and indigenous therapies and occupied locally defined social positions as religious and medical specialists.In this diverse and compelling collection, an international group of scholars analyzes the historical connections between Buddhism and healing in medieval China and Japan. Contributors focus on the transnationally conveyed aspects of Buddhist healing traditions as they moved across geographic, cultural, and linguistic boundaries. Simultaneously, the chapters also investigate the local instantiations of these ideas and practices as they were reinvented, altered, and re-embedded in specific social and institutional contexts. Investigating the interplay between the macro and micro, the global and the local, this book demonstrates the richness of Buddhist healing as a way to explore the history of cross-cultural exchange.

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A visual treasury of the iconic Street & Smith pulp novel covers of the 1930s and 1940sPulp Power: The Shadow, Doc Savage, and the Street & Smith Universe gives fans a rare glimpse into the pre-war pulp novel decade of the 1930s, a period of bold action and adventure storytelling that ultimately led to the creation of the comic book and the superheroes we know and love today. This period, a pre-Batman, pre-Superman, golden era of American creativity and artistic excellence starred two main characters in leading roles: The Shadow and Doc Savage. In more than 500 novels written between 1930 and 1940, The Shadow, Doc Savage, and the Street & Smith universe of characters captivated a generation of Americans with their heroic exploits and inspired a new generation of writers to create a pantheon of comic book superheroes in their mold.Street & Smith, the renowned publisher of these novels, commissioned leading artists to provide bold and original cover artwork for their publications, and in Pulp Power, all 506 of these eye-catching covers are reproduced as a collection for the first time. Comics legend Dan DiDio provides narration and context for the cover illustrations alongside photographs and interviews with some of today’s leading entertainment figures discussing the influence of the Street & Smith superhero universe on their work, including George Lucas, Ryan Reynolds, Robert Downey Jr., Dwayne Johnson, Frank Miller, Howard Chaykin, Alex Ross, Jim Lee, and many more. The book also includes original line art illustrations from the volumes along with unique reproductions of Shadow ephemera. Pulp Power is the ultimate coffee table collectible book for all who love the world of superheroes.

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The first biography of a visionary biologist whose groundbreaking ideas regarding wildlife and science revolutionized national parks. When twenty-three-year-old George Meléndez Wright arrived in Yosemite National Park in 1927 to work as a ranger naturalist—the first Hispanic person to occupy any professional position in the National Park Service (NPS)—he had already visited every national park in the western United States, including McKinley (now Denali) in Alaska. Two years later, he would organize the first science-based wildlife survey of the western parks, forever changing how the NPS would manage wildlife and natural resources. At a time when national parks routinely fed bears garbage as part of “shows” and killed “bad” predators like wolves, mountain lions, and coyotes, Wright’s new ideas for conservation set the stage for the modern scientific management of parks and other public lands. Tragically, Wright died in a 1936 car accident while working to establish parks and wildlife refuges on the US-Mexico border. To this day, he remains a celebrated figure among conservationists, wildlife experts, and park managers. In this book, Jerry Emory, a conservationist and writer connected to Wright’s family, draws on hundreds of letters, field notes, archival research, interviews, and more to offer both a biography of Wright and a historical account of a crucial period in the evolution of US parks and the wilderness movement. With a foreword by former NPS director Jonathan B. Jarvis, George Meléndez Wright is a celebration of Wright’s unique upbringing, dynamism, and enduring vision that places him at last in the pantheon of the great American conservationists.

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Mbeki was a complex figure, full of contradictions and paradoxes: a rural child who became an urban sophisticate; a prophet of Africa's Renaissance who was also an anglophile; a committed young Marxist who, while in power, embraced conservative economic policies and protected white corporate interests; a rational and dispassionate thinker who was particularly sensitive to criticism and dissent; a champion of African self-reliance who relied excessively on foreign capital and promoted a continental economic plan - NEPAD - that was disproportionately dependent on foreign aid; and a thoughtful intellectual who supported policies on HIV/AIDS that withheld antiretroviral drugs from infected people, resulting in hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths. Thabo Mbeki is the most important African political figure of his generation and a dominant figure in South African politics for 14 years. A pan-African philosopher-king who spent two decades in exile, as president of Africa's most industrialised state, he set out a sweeping vision of an African Renaissance. As a key liberation leader in exile, Mbeki was instrumental in his party's anti-apartheid struggle. During the South African transition, he helped build one of the world's most respected constitutional democracies. As president, despite some successes, he was unable to overcome South Africa's inherited socioeconomic challenges, and his disastrous AIDS policies will remain a major blotch in his legacy. He will, however, be remembered more as a foreign policy president for his peacemaking efforts in Africa and in the building of continental institutions such as the African Union and NEPAD. This book seeks to rescue Mbeki from South African parochialism and to restore him to a pan-African pantheon.

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With this beautifully designed and accessible guide, learn the basics of Wicca and how to use it to manifest positive opportunities and events that enrich your life—includes a frameable poster. Connecting intimately with the cycles of nature, Wicca calls on a rich pantheon of ancient and modern deities, including the transcendent Triple Goddess, and its powerful rituals and spells allow you to channel their energy into your own. This book will show you, by working with the elements and focusing inward, how to create a more magical, powerful way of life, increasing your chances of discovering peace, creating abundance, making friends, and even finding love. Along the way, you’ll discover: the history of witchcraft different kinds of witches, their symbols, and tools how to work with the elements and observe the vital turning points of the year the power of candles and the moon how oils, incense, and herbs harness intentions the basics of spellcasting Included is an 18 × 24–inch wall poster covering the basics of wiccan magic such as altar arrangement, using candles, and the Wiccan Rede. Combining elegance and expertise, this is your essential modern guide to an ancient tradition. The In Focus series applies a modern approach to teaching the classic body, mind, and spirit subjects. Authored by experts in their respective fields, these beginner’s guides feature smartly designed visual material that clearly illustrates key topics within each subject. As a bonus, each book includes reference cards or a poster, held in an envelope inside the back cover, that give you a quick, go-to guide containing the most important information on the subject.

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The edge-of-your-seat, heart-in-mouth new Jack Reacher thriller for 2021 - his 25th adventure. No one's bigger than Jack Reacher.Jack Reacher hitches a ride to a sleepy no-name town outside Nashville, Tennessee. He plans to grab a cup of coffee and move right along.Not going to happen.The town has been shut down by a cyber attack. At the centre of it all, whetherhe likes it or not, is Rusty Rutherford. He's an average IT guy, but he knows more than he thinks.As the bad guys move in on Rusty, Reacher moves in on them . . .And now Rusty knows he's protected, he's never going to leave the big man's side.Reacher might just have to stick around and find out what the hell's gone wrong . . . and then put it right, like only he can.***'Jack Reacher is today's James Bond, a thriller hero we can't get enough of.' Ken Follett'If you haven't read any Jack Reacher, you have a treat in store . . . a hitchhiker without a phone, a one-man force for good.' - The Times'A contemporary version of the knight in shining armour . . . Reacher is a mythic figure.' Literary Review'Jack Reacher is a wonderfully epic hero; tough, taciturn, yet vulnerable... Irresistible.' People'Jack Reacher has long since earned his prominent place in the pantheon of cool, smart-talking American heroes.' New York Times_________Although the Jack Reacher novels can be read in any order, The Sentinel is the 25th in the series.And be sure not to miss Reacher's newest adventure, no.27, No Plan B! ***OUT NOW***

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A battle - charged and epic heroic fantasy by the Sunday Times bestselling author David Gemmell, perfect for fans of Joe Abercrombie, Duncan M. Hamilton and Conn Iggulden."In my pantheon of literary greats, David Gemmell stands alone . . . he put me on the path I still walk today" - Conn Iggulden"In the realm of people-driven fantasy fiction, Gemmell sets the standard" -- TIME OUT"Impressive story-telling...Compelling and pacey action...The best fantasy inspires genuine involvement. David Gemmell's novels do just that." -- INTERZONE"I have now read this book at least 10 times and every time I get lost in the intrigue..." -- ***** Reader review"Fast moving and emotionally charged, you just won't be able to put this down..." -- ***** Reader review**********************************************For centuries the tribes of the Nadir have suffered under the despotic tyranny of their Gothir overlords. Disunited and distrustful of one another they await the coming of a Messianic warlord, who will unite them against the oppressors.Into this swirling, chaotic landscape come three men who will change the fate of the continent: Talisman the Mysterious, enigmatic Nadir warrior, haunted by his past and filled with dreams of finding the Uniter; Sieben the Poet, searching for the mysteries of life and love; and Druss the Axeman, determined to find two mystic gems to heal a mortally wounded friend.Together they will journey across a war-torn land, and descend beyond the gates of Hell, where a long-dead king holds the key to a secret that will change the world.The Legend of Deathwalker continues the extraordinary tale of Druss among the Nadir started in Legend

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FULLY UPDATED AND REVISED, INCLUDING TWO NEW CHAPTERS TO BRING THE STORY UP TO DATE ‘Someone called and said Kurt died. I just f*****g lost it.’ He has sold over 50 million albums. He’s been in bands that have changed popular music forever. He saw his best friend commit suicide. He starts supergroups. He’s the nicest guy in rock. From Nirvana to Foo Fighters, from brotherhood to bitter rivalry, from breathless highs to lifeless lows, Paul Brannigan gives an unparalleled, intimate and extraordinary account of the life and times of Dave Grohl. In 1990, little-known punk-metal upstarts Nirvana added a new drummer to the band. They were soon to become a global phenomenon – but as we all know, things went wrong. Dave's friend Kurt, frontman of Nirvana, took his own life, plunging the band and their future into chaos. His friends’ grief was mirrored by worldwide sorrow to an unprecedented degree. Defying expectations, a knack that was soon to become his trademark, Grohl refused to see it as the end. In 1995 his new band, the Foo Fighters, rose to join the pantheon of rock deities. The 'wonder years' were by no means calm. The spotlit existence imposed by his celebrity status, the bellowed vilification by his critics and his high-speed lifestyle proved a dangerous cocktail. With an account of Grohl’s life that is more personal than anything written before, more startling, more thrilling, more heart-rending and more inspiring, Paul Brannigan reveals Dave fully for the first time. This is the story of the man who changed music forever. And he’s not finished yet.

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The 20th anniversary edition of the first novel in William Kent Krueger’s beloved and bestselling Cork O’Connor mystery series—includes an exclusive bonus short story! “A brilliant achievement, and one every crime reader and writer needs to celebrate.” —Louise Penny, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Glass Houses “A master craftsman [and] a series of books written with a grace and precision so stunning that you’d swear the stories were your own.” —Craig Johnson, author of the Walt Longmire series “Among thoughtful readers, William Kent Krueger holds a very special place in the pantheon.” —C.J. Box, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The DisappearedIn eighteen novels over twenty years, William Kent Krueger has enthralled readers with the adventures of P.I. Cork O’Connor, former sheriff of Aurora, Minnesota—selling more than 1.5 million copies of his books and winning the Edgar Award, Minnesota Book Award, Northeastern Minnesota Book Award, Dilys Award, Lovey Award, and Anthony Award along the way. Now, in this special anniversary edition, longtime fans and new readers alike can read the novel that first introduced Corcoran “Cork” O’Connor to the world. Part Irish, part Anishinaabe Indian, Cork is having difficulty dealing with the marital meltdown that has separated him from his children, getting by on heavy doses of caffeine, nicotine, and guilt. Once a cop on Chicago’s South Side, there’s not much that can shock him. But when the town’s judge is brutally murdered, and a young Eagle Scout is reported missing, Cork takes on this complicated and perplexing case of conspiracy, corruption, and a small-town secret that hits painfully close to home.

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For the Gods are the opening words or incipit of the first inscribed votive artefacts dedicated to the principal deities of the Sumerian pantheon. They commemorate the construction or renovation of cities, temples, rural sanctuaries, border steles, in sum all the symbolically charged features of archaic states belonging thus metaphorically to supernatural tutelary overlords. Girsu (present-day Tello) is one of the earliest known cities of the world together with Uruk, Eridu, and Ur, and was considered to be in the 3rd Millennium the sanctuary of the Sumerian heroic god Ningirsu who fought with the demons of the Kur (Mountain) and thus made possible the introduction of irrigation and agriculture in Sumer. Girsu was the sacred metropolis and central pole of a city-state that lay in the Southeasternmost part of the Mesopotamian floodplain. The pioneering explorations carried out between 1877 and 1933 at Tello and the early decipherment of the Girsu cuneiform tablets were ground-breaking because they revealed the principal catalytic elements of the Sumerian takeoff – that is, a multiplicity and coalescence of major innovations, such as the appearance of a city– countryside continuum, the emergence of literacy, of bronze manufacture, and the development of monumental art and architecture. Because of the richness of information related in particular to the city’s spatial organization and geographical setting, and thanks to the availability of recently declassified Cold War space imagery and especially the possibility to launch new explorations in Southern Iraq, Girsu stands out as a primary locale for re-analyzing through an interdisciplinary approach combining archaeological and textual evidence the origins of the Sumerian city-state.

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Breaking the mold of existing calculus textbooks, Calculus in Context draws students into the subject in two new ways. Part I develops the mathematical preliminaries (including geometry, trigonometry, algebra, and coordinate geometry) within the historical frame of the ancient Greeks and the heliocentric revolution in astronomy. Part II starts with comprehensive and modern treatments of the fundamentals of both differential and integral calculus, then turns to a wide-ranging discussion of applications. Students will learn that core ideas of calculus are central to concepts such as acceleration, force, momentum, torque, inertia, and the properties of lenses. Classroom-tested at Notre Dame University, this textbook is suitable for students of wide-ranging backgrounds because it engages its subject at several levels and offers ample and flexible problem set options for instructors. Parts I and II are both supplemented by expansive Problems and Projects segments. Topics covered in the book include: * the basics of geometry, trigonometry, algebra, and coordinate geometry and the historical, scientific agenda that drove their development* a brief, introductory calculus from the works of Newton and Leibniz* a modern development of the essentials of differential and integral calculus* the analysis of specific, relatable applications, such as the arc of the George Washington Bridge; the dome of the Pantheon; the optics of a telescope; the dynamics of a bullet; the geometry of the pseudosphere; the motion of a planet in orbit; and the momentum of an object in free fall. Calculus in Context is a compelling exploration-for students and instructors alike-of a discipline that is both rich in conceptual beauty and broad in its applied relevance.

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The first major career-spanning collection of the poems of Adonis, widely acknowledged as the most important poet working in Arabic today “Poetry for [Adonis] is not merely a genre or an art form but a way of thinking, something almost like mystical revelation.”—Charles McGrath, New York Times Born in Syria in 1930, Adonis is one of the most celebrated poets of the Arabic-speaking world. His poems have earned international acclaim, and his influence on Arabic literature has been likened to that of T. S. Eliot’s on English-language verse. This volume serves as the first comprehensive survey of Adonis’s work, allowing English readers to admire the arc of a remarkable literary career through the labors of the poet’s own handpicked translator, Khaled Mattawa. Daring in form and prophetic in tone, Adonis’s poetry sings of both the sweet promise of eros and the problems of the self. He writes of childhood (“Your childhood is a village. / You will never cross its boundaries / no matter how far you go”); of blood, bombs, and mutilation (“Murder has changed the city’s shape”); and of the anguish of exile (“‘I write poetry in the language of the country that sheltered me,’ said a young man who looked old”). Adonis demonstrates the poet’s affection for Arabic and European lyrical traditions even as his poems work to destabilize those sensibilities. This collection positions the work of Adonis within the pantheon of the great poets of exile, including César Vallejo, Joseph Brodsky, and Paul Celan, providing for English readers the most complete vision yet of the work of the man whom the cultural critic Edward Said called “today’s most daring and provocative Arab poet.”

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In this bracing collection of provocative essays, Michael Knox Beran examines the false benevolence that characterizes the power classes in contemporary America. Their enlightened pity for their fellow citizens, he charges, conceals an instinct for power rather than compassion. Mr. Beran argues that today's elites have come to rely on a social philosophy that reduces people to a mass of social groups and types, obscures their individual humanity, and makes them easier to manipulate. While they tragically conceive their desire for authority as a form of virtue, the elite classes have set about remaking schools, rewriting the U.S. Constitution, dehumanizing charity, and making war on tradition in the name of a crude form of Social Darwinism. Through readings of such inspired critics of the social imagination as Hannah Arendt, Isaiah Berlin, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Abraham Lincoln, Mr. Beran exposes the romance of dominion that underlies the philosophy of social benevolence, a philosophy that has steadily undermined the older and more valuable tradition that Edmund Burke associated with the moral imagination. In seeking to depose this moral impulse in the pantheon of culture, and enshrine the social imagination in its place, today's elites have weakened not only liberalism but also conservatism-indeed society as a whole. Where the moral imagination is not regularly and habitually cultivated, Mr. Beran observes, where it ceases to have a place in education and art, in schools and in the town square, it becomes more difficult even for the best-intentioned among us to resist the allure of a narrow and obtuse self-righteousness. Pathology of the Elites features a fresh voice of social criticism that is likely to raise hackles on both sides of the aisle.

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As befits a game traditionally passed from one generation to the next, baseball has always had a special reverence for origins. Claims of being first with any element of the game are disputed with fervor and passion. When the octogenarian Fred Goldsmith died in 1939, a headline proclaimed, 'Goldsmith Dies Insisting He Invented Curve Ball'; Fred Goldsmith understood the secret of immortality. Yet while countless thousands of words have been spilled on the subject of baseball “firsts,” there has been no definitive source for the settlement of disputes. Peter Morris's endlessly fascinating A Game of Inches has now arrived to fill the void. Impeccably researched and engagingly written, this treasure trove will surprise, delight, and educate even the most knowledgeable fan by dispelling cherished myths and revealing the source of many of baseball's features that we now take for granted. The scope of A Game of Inches is encyclopedic, with nearly a thousand entries that illuminate the origins of items ranging from catchers' masks to hook slides to intentional walks to cork-center baseballs. But this is much more than just a reference guide. Award-winning author Peter Morris explains the context that led each new item to emerge when it did, and chronicles the often surprising responses to these innovations. Of few books can it genuinely be said that once you start reading, it's hard to put it down—but A Game of Inches is one of them. It belongs in the pantheon of great baseball books, and will give any reader a deeper appreciation of why baseball matters so much to Americans. (A companion volume, A Game of Inches: The Game Behind the Scenes, was published in the fall of 2006.)

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This beautiful book brings you the very best of art throughout history – using a truly innovative timeline-led approach. Savour iconic paintings such as Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper and Monet's Waterlilies, and discover less well-known artists, styles, and movements the world over – from Indigenous Australian art to the works of Ming-era China. And explore recurring themes, such as love and religion, and important genres from Romanesque to Conceptual art, along the way. Timelines of Art provides detailed analysis of the works of key artists, showing details of their technique – such as Leonardo's use of light and shade. It tells the story of avant-garde works like Manet's Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe (Lunch on the Grass), which scandalized society, and it traces how certain artists, genres or movements informed the works of others – showing how the Impressionists were inspired by Gustave Courbet, for example, or how Van Gogh was influenced by Japanese prints.Comprehensive, accessible, and lavishly illustrated throughout, Timelines of Art is an essential guide to the pantheon of world art, so dive straight into discover: - An overview of each movement, including the social and cultural background of the period, grounds the works of art in the spirit of their times.- Turning-point paintings that triggered or epitomized each artistic movement are identified and explained, against a backdrop of influences – the technical advances, admired techniques of an earlier artist, and changes in society that enabled new directions in art.- Glossary of technical terms and comprehensive index help make this an indispensable work of reference for any art-lover.Timelines of Art is the perfect art history book for students of art and/or history, proving ideal for families, schools and libraries and doubling up as a great gift for the art lover in your life.

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