Search results for ""Author MICHEL""

For the first time in English, the introductory volume in a major French philosopher’s groundbreaking series of poetic transdisciplinary works Michel Serres is recognized as one of the giants of postwar French philosophy of knowledge, along with Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, and Gilbert Simondon. His early five-volume series Hermes, which appeared in the 1960s and 1970s, was an intellectual supernova in its proposition that culture and science shared the same mythic and narrative structures. Hermes I: Communication marks the start of a major publishing endeavor to introduce this foundational series into English. Building on the figure of the Greek god Hermes, who presides over the realms of communication and interpretation, Hermes I embarks on a reflection concerning the history of mathematics via Descartes and Leibniz and culminates by way of a Bachelardian logoanalytic reading of Homer, Dumas, Molière, Verne, and the story of Cinderella. We observe a singular poetic philosopher seeking to bridge the gap between the liberal arts and the sciences through a profound mathematical and poetic fable regarding information theory, history, and art, establishing a new way to think about the production of knowledge during the late twentieth century. In these pages, students and scholars of philosophy will discover an extraordinary project of thought as vital to critical reflection today as it was fifty years ago.

Read more less

What is it about opera that can bring unashamed tears to the eyes of adoring fans? In this book, first published in French in 1986 and now available in English, Michel Poizat explains in a charming way the fascination of the interaction between music and words. Touching on a variety of historical musical events, operatic themes, specific works, and individual composers, Poizat borrows some methods from the field of psychoanalysis to satisfy his curiosity about the strange power of the human voice.

Read more less

From the acclaimed author of Blue, a beautifully illustrated history of yellow from antiquity to the presentIn this richly illustrated book, Michel Pastoureau—a renowned authority on the history of color and the author of celebrated volumes on blue, black, green, and red—now traces the visual, social, and cultural history of yellow. Focusing on European societies, with comparisons from East Asia, India, Africa, and South America, Yellow tells the intriguing story of the color’s evolving place in art, religion, fashion, literature, and science.In Europe today, yellow is a discreet color, little present in everyday life and rarely carrying great symbolism. This has not always been the case. In antiquity, yellow was almost sacred, a symbol of light, warmth, and prosperity. It became highly ambivalent in medieval Europe: greenish yellow came to signify demonic sulfur and bile, the color of forgers, lawless knights, Judas, and Lucifer—while warm yellow recalled honey and gold, serving as a sign of pleasure and abundance. In Asia, yellow has generally had a positive meaning. In ancient China, yellow clothing was reserved for the emperor, while in India the color is associated with happiness. Above all, yellow is the color of Buddhism, whose temple doors are marked with it.Throughout, Pastoureau illuminates the history of yellow with a wealth of captivating images. With its striking design and compelling text, Yellow is a feast for the eye and mind.

Read more less

The French New Wave: An Artistic School is a lively introduction to this critical moment in film history by one of the world's leading scholars on the New Wave. Provides a concise account of the French New Wave by one of the world's leading film scholars. Outlines the essential traits of the New Wave and defines it as a school that changed international film history forever. Includes a chronology of major political and cultural events of the New Wave, black-and-white images, and an extensive bibliography.

Read more less

Paul Cézanne – a solitary genius who overcame opposition from his family, friends and the official Salon – made painting the sole preoccupation of his life. He worked unceasingly to realize his vision of a 'harmony parallel to nature', investigating the logic of colours and re-creating space. Mocked by Parisian critics, he withdrew to Provence where he laboured quietly until a later generation hailed him as the father of a new art. Here is his story, told in his own words, in those of his friends, and in the accolades of great artists, philosophers and critics.

Read more less

Handbook of Evidence-Based Practice in Clinical Psychology, Volume 2 covers the evidence-based practices now identified for treating adults with a wide range of DSM disorders. Topics include fundamental issues, adult cognitive disorders, substance-related disorders, psychotic, mood, and anxiety disorders, and sexual disorders. Each chapter provides a comprehensive review of the evidence-based practice literature for each disorder and then covers several different treatment types for clinical implementation. Edited by the renowned Peter Sturmey and Michel Hersen and featuring contributions from experts in the field, this reference is ideal for academics, researchers, and libraries.

Read more less

Manichaeism, once the state religion of Persia and long a vigorous contender for converts throughout the ancient Near East, is best remembered for the simplicity of its teachings about divine power. For Manicheans, the universe was ruled by a Lord of Light and a Lord of Darkness, who fought continuously for supremacy. All that was good was a gift from the Lord of Light, and all that was evil was an affliction visited by the Lord of Darkness. This dualism extended to cosmogony and ethics, splitting the universe into a spiritual realm that acted on the goodness of the human soul and a material realm that abetted the evil of the human body. These stark oppositions mask a remarkable degree of doctrinal and liturgical complexity, the details of which have been obscured by centuries of suppression and persecution, first by the Christian church, then by Islam.One of the world's foremost experts on ancient religions, Michel Tardieu examines the fragmentary sources that have come down to us, pieces together the life and teachings of the prophet Mani (the itinerant Persian preacher and founder of this long lost faith), illuminates Manichaeism's ecclesiastical hierarchy and distinctive moral code, and investigates its ideas about the pre-life and afterlife. Manichaeism provides a brilliantly compact survey of what was once one of the world's great faiths, and then became one of its great heresies, surviving now only as a shadowy presence haunting the religions that superseded it.

Read more less

French critic and composer Michel Chion argues that watching movies is more than just a visual exercise--it enacts a process of audio-viewing. The audiovisual makes use of a wealth of tropes, devices, techniques, and effects that convert multiple sensations into image and sound, therefore rendering, instead of reproducing, the world through cinema. The first half of Film, a Sound Art considers developments in technology, aesthetic trends, and individual artistic style that recast the history of film as the evolution of a truly audiovisual language. The second half explores the intersection of auditory and visual realms. With restless inventiveness, Chion develops a rhetoric that describes the effects of audio-visual combinations, forcing us to rethink sound film. He claims, for example, that the silent era (which he terms "deaf cinema") did not end with the advent of sound technology but continues to function underneath and within later films. Expanding our appreciation of cinematic experiences ranging from Dolby multitrack in action films and the eerie tricycle of Stanley Kubrick's The Shining to the way actors from different nations use their voices and words, Film, a Sound Art showcases the vast knowledge and innovative thinking of a major theorist.

Read more less

The field of comparative constitutional law has grown immensely over the past couple of decades. Once a minor and obscure adjunct to the field of domestic constitutional law, comparative constitutional law has now moved front and centre. Driven by the global spread of democratic government and the expansion of international human rights law, the prominence and visibility of the field, among judges, politicians, and scholars has grown exponentially. Even in the United States, where domestic constitutional exclusivism has traditionally held a firm grip, use of comparative constitutional materials has become the subject of a lively and much publicized controversy among various justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. The trend towards harmonization and international borrowing has been controversial. Whereas it seems fair to assume that there ought to be great convergence among industrialized democracies over the uses and functions of commercial contracts, that seems far from the case in constitutional law. Can a parliamentary democracy be compared to a presidential one? A federal republic to a unitary one? Moreover, what about differences in ideology or national identity? Can constitutional rights deployed in a libertarian context be profitably compared to those at work in a social welfare context? Is it perilous to compare minority rights in a multi-ethnic state to those in its ethnically homogeneous counterparts? These controversies form the background to the field of comparative constitutional law, challenging not only legal scholars, but also those in other fields, such as philosophy and political theory. Providing the first single-volume, comprehensive reference resource, the 'Oxford Handbook of Comparative Constitutional Law' will be an essential road map to the field for all those working within it, or encountering it for the first time. Leading experts in the field examine the history and methodology of the discipline, the central concepts of constitutional law, constitutional processes, and institutions - from legislative reform to judicial interpretation, rights, and emerging trends.

Read more less

Kary H. Lasch (1914 - 1993) was a Czech-born photographer who moved to Sweden in 1939 and whose international model scouting network was based in Stockholm. His photographic career spanned the 1950s through the 1980s, and he attended the Cannes Film Festival consecutively for over 30 years. He travelled widely, and is well known for his iconic images of Picasso, Dalí, Fellini, Sofia Loren, and Brigitte Bardot. Lasch was known to do anything to get a scoop on the best photos. In a famous instance, when Sofia Loren was on her way to Stockholm by train from Copenhagen in 1955, Kary picked up the train she was on in Copenhagen, bribed the concierge, and photographed her while she was dressing in the train car. When they arrived in the Stockholm Central Station, the Swedish press were competing for the best position for a picture while Sofia and Kary were looking out of the train window. This 3-volume set (Vol. 1: Famous; Vol. 2: Cannes; Vol. 3: Humorous), brings together works from the extensive Kary Lasch Collection, which contains more than 600,000 images.

Read more less

'The thrill is that you're actually figuring it out on your own. You're engaging with another language, not just parroting it... It's an excellent way to start, and leaves the listener thinking, Hey, Ich kann do dis.' - New Yorker, David Sedaris, humorist and author, on learning German with the Michel Thomas MethodLooking for a convenient language course that fits your lifestyle and gets you speaking a new language in a matter of weeks, not years? The original no-books, no-homework, no-memorizing method is in tune with the way the brain prefers to receive, store and retrieve information. You'll stick with it because you'll love it.* Improve your Portuguese naturally and unforgettably without strain or stress* Learn from listening and speaking, without the pressure of writing or memorizing* Build up your Portuguese in manageable steps by thinking out answers for yourselfWHY IS THE METHOD SO SUCCESSFUL?'What you understand, you know; and what you know, you don't forget.' - Michel ThomasBefore there was machine learning, there was Michel Thomas. For over 50 years he worked on decoding languages by breaking them down into their most essential component parts. These 'building blocks' are introduced to the learner sequentially in such a way that you reconstruct the language for yourself - to form your own sentences, to say what you want, when you want. This unique method draws on the principles of instructional psychology and works with the way your brain prefers to receive, store and retrieve information. Knowledge is structured and organized so that you absorb the language easily and don't forget it. The method is designed to eliminate the stress which prevents you from relaxing and allowing the brain to work in the way which accepts learning in a seemingly painless, very exciting and highly motivating way.HOW DO THE COURSES WORK?'All stress inhibits true and effective learning' - Michel Thomas During the course, you will join Michel Thomas Method Teachers Virginia Catmur and two students in a live lesson, learning from both their successes and their mistakes to keep you motivated and involved throughout the course. You, as the learner, become the third student and participate actively in the class. Within the very first hour you will be able to construct complex phrases by listening and thinking out answers for yourself without the pressure of writing or stress of having to memorize. You will learn at your own pace, pausing and repeating where necessary, and complete the course in about 15-20 hours. By the end of the course, you will have a solid working knowledge of Portuguese and be able to express yourself confidently in a variety of situatio

Read more less

In June 2016, the people of the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union. As the EU’s chief negotiator, for four years Michel Barnier had a seat at the table as the two sides thrashed out what ‘Brexit’ would really mean. The result would change Britain and Europe forever. During the 1600 days of complex and often acrimonious negotiations, Michel Barnier kept a secret diary. He recorded his private hopes and fears, and gave a blow-by-blow account as the negotiations oscillated between consensus and disagreement, transparency and lies. From Brussels to London, from Dublin to Nicosia, Michel Barnier’s secret diary lifts the lid on what really happened behind the scenes of one of the most high-stakes negotiations in modern history. The result is a unique testimony from the ultimate insider on the hidden world of Brexit and those who made it happen.

Read more less

This Introduction to Manufacturing focuses students on the issues that matter to practicing industrial engineers and managers. It offers a systems perspective on designing, managing, and improving manufacturing operations. On each topic, it covers the key issues, with pointers on where to dig deeper.Unlike the many textbooks on operations management, supply chain management, and process technology, this book weaves together these threads as they interact in manufacturing. It has five parts: Getting to Know Manufacturing: Fundamental concepts of manufacturing as an economic activity, from manufacturing strategy to forecasting market demand Engineering the Factory: Physical design of factories and processes, the necessary infrastructure and technology for manufacturing Making Information Flow: The "central nervous system" that triggers and responds to events occurring in production Making Materials Flow: The logistics of manufacturing, from materials handling inside the factory via warehousing to supply chain management Enhancing Performance: Managing manufacturing performance and methods to maintain and improve it, both in times of normal operations and emergencies Supported with rich illustrations and teaching aids, Introduction to Manufacturing is essential reading for industrial engineering and management students – of all ages and backgrounds – engaged in the vital task of making the things we all use.

Read more less

Where do we find the world’s very first art? When, and why, did people begin experimenting with different materials, forms and colours? Were our once-cousins, the Neanderthals, also capable of creating art? Prehistorians have been asking these questions of our ancestors for decades, but only very recently, with the development of cutting-edge scientific and archaeological techniques, have we been able to piece together the first chapter in the story of art. Overturning the traditional Eurocentric vision of our artistic origins, which has focused almost exclusively on the Franco-Spanish cave art, Paul Bahn and Michel Lorblanchet take the reader on a search for the earliest art across the whole world. They show that our earliest ancestors were far from being the creatively impoverished primitives of past accounts, and Europe was by no means the only ‘cradle’ of art; the artistic impulse developed in the human mind wherever it travelled. The long universal history of art mirrors the development of humanity.

Read more less

This book considers various extensions of the topics treated in the first volume of this series, in relation to the class of models and the type of criterion for optimality. The regressors are supposed to belong to a generic finite dimensional Haar linear space, which substitutes for the classical polynomial case. The estimation pertains to a general linear form of the coefficients of the model, extending the interpolation and extrapolation framework; the errors in the model may be correlated, and the model may be heteroscedastic. Non-linear models, as well as multivariate ones, are briefly discussed. The book focuses to a large extent on criteria for optimality, and an entire chapter presents algorithms leading to optimal designs in multivariate models. Elfving’s theory and the theorem of equivalence are presented extensively. The volume presents an account of the theory of the approximation of real valued functions, which makes it self-consistent.

Read more less

'No other thriller writer can make you break into a sweat and break your heart at the same time' THE TIMESLeyli Maal is a beautiful Malian woman, mother of three, living in a tiny apartment on the outskirts of Marseille. Her quiet life as a well-integrated immigrant is suddenly shaken when her beautiful eldest daughter, Bamby, becomes the main suspect in two murders linked to a lethal illegal immigration racket.Is Bamby really involved? And why is everyone desperate to get their hands on Leyli's mysterious red notebook?

Read more less

Realising that his New Year is probably going to be a disaster, as usual, our narrator, on impulse, walks into a travel agency to book a week in the sun. Sensitive to his limited means and dislike of Muslim countries, the travel agent suggests an island full of 21st century hedonism, set in a bizarre lunar landscape - Lanzarote. On Lanzarote, one can meet some fascinating human specimens, notably Pam and Barbara - 'non-exclusive' German lesbians - who can give rise to some interesting combinations. Will they succeed in seducing Rudi, the police inspector from Luxembourg, currently living in exile in Brussels? Or will he join the 'Azraelian' sect, as they prepare for humanity to be regenerated by extra-terrestrials? As for our narrator, will he consider his week's holiday on the island a success?

Read more less

Half-brothers Michel and Bruno have a mother in common but little else. Michel is a molecular biologist, a thinker and idealist, a man with no erotic life to speak of and little in the way of human society. Bruno, by contrast, is a libertine, though more in theory than in practice, his endless lust is all too rarely reciprocated. Both are symptomatic members of our atomised society, where religion has given way to shallow 'new age' philosophies and love to meaningless sexual connections. Atomised tells the stories of the two brothers, but the real subject of the novel is the dismantling of contemporary society and its assumptions, its political incorrectness, and its caustic and penetrating asides on everything from anthropology to the problem pages of girls' magazines. A dissection of modern lives and loves. By turns funny, acid, infuriating, didactic, touching and visceral.

Read more less

A fresh analysis of the post-colonial war in Mozambique that contributes to debates about conflict, peacebuilding, development and nationalism and offers insights into the nature of contemporary politics and the current conflict. The 1976-1992 civil war which opposed the Government of Frelimo and the Renamo guerrillas (among other actors) is a central event in the history of Mozambique. Aiming to open up a new era of studies of the war, this book re-evaluates this period from a number of different local perspectives in an attempt to better understand the history, complexity and multiple dynamics of the armed conflict. Focusing at local level on either a province or a single village, the authors analyse the conflict as a "total social phenomena" involving all elements of society and impacting on every aspect of life across the country. The chapters examine Frelimo and Renamo as well as private, popular and state militias, the Catholic Church, NGOs and traders. Drawing on previously unexamined sources such as local and provincial state archives, religious archives, the guerrilla's own documentation and interviews, the authors uncoveralternative dimensions of the civil war. The book thus enables a deeper understanding of the conflict and its actors as well as offering an explanatory framework for understanding peacemaking, the nature of contemporary politics,and the current conflict in the country. Eric Morier-Genoud is a Lecturer in African history at Queen's University Belfast; Domingos Manuel do Rosário is Lecturer in electoral sociology and electoral governance at Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo, Mozambique; Michel Cahen is a Senior Researcher at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) at Bordeaux Political Studies Institute and at the Casa de Velázquez in Madrid.

Read more less

This book on energy physics and energy efficiency discusses two essential components of energy physics: the fundamentals and the criteria. It covers the historical basis of Carnot models, the thermostatic cycles of double-function heat pumps and the optimization of thermomechanical engines, and discusses the results of various investigations, bringing together a number of previous works. The latter half of this book introduces the concept of "Circular Thermoeconomics" and assesses the physical costs of recycling waste in increasingly complex industrial processes. It then goes on to present "Relative Free Energy", allowing us to create a new mathematical theory of thermodynamic costs in order to diagnose malfunctions in thermal systems. The book shows the progression of knowledge on the existence of successive energy, power and efficiency, and pairs this with the economic aspects, which are already becoming linked to growing environmental concerns.

Read more less

In the same way as there are many futures, not just one, there are many ways to conceive and practice foresight. The challenge of the great turning point of our civilization is to free ourselves from our prejudices in order to imagine and build desirable futures. The process is, by nature, ethical and prospective. In a complex, uncertain and geopolitically transforming world, we must be open to the diversity of cultures and the different perceptions of the future. This requires us to reflect on the purpose and means of our societies. Futures proposes different cultural and ethical views on civilizational transformation by offering a rare, transnational panorama of the visions of the future in a European, American and Chinese context. Through numerous examples, this book illustrates how foresight is practiced and what this can achieve in strategic terms.

Read more less

Michel de M'Uzan has derived several innovative notions from his clinical experience that are relevant not only for the psychoanalyst's status of identity, which is sometimes dramatically shaken by his or her patient's unconscious, but also for the artist who is deeply destabilized by his act of creation, as well as for the caring person who lets him/herself be caught in the nets, as it were, of someone who is dying.Such are the extreme examples of the precarious nature of the boundaries of being in which the author discerns, not necessarily a pathological disposition, but rather an opportunity for the mind to construct itself and achieve authenticity.Through this invigorating recognition of the unconscious with the emergence, at the heart of analysis, of 'paradoxical thoughts', the experience of 'blurred frontiers' characteristic of a vacillating sense of identity, the perception of an 'every man's land' in which the analytic treatment unfolds, and the elaboration of an 'original grammar' specific to the formulation of the intervention/interpretation of the analyst during the session, Michel de M'Uzan leads us along a path that is in keeping with the purist tradition of Freudian thought, that of 'the uncanny' and its creative powers. And in so doing, he opens the way to a 'permanent sense of disquiet': 'Where ego/I is, there id/it shall be'.

Read more less

This wide-ranging work confronts the complex question of nationalism in France in its various permutations—myths, obsessions, possibilities, and dangers. French nationalism has always been a double-edged sword, from its beginnings in the French Revolution through the two Napoleonic empires, Boulangism, the Dreyfus affair, the fascist groups of the 1930’s, Marshal Pétain’s National Revolution during World War II, and its latest contemporary incarnation in Jean-Marie Le Pen’s National Front. The author distinguishes between an “open” nationalism, based on the revolutionary values of liberty and equality for all, and “closed” nationalism, which is xenophobic—and, more particularly, antisemitic. He studies not only governments and political figures—Napoleon, Louis Napoleon, Marshal Pétain, and General de Gaulle—but also the myths associated with nationalism. These myths are captured in newspaper articles (the charity bazaar fire of 1897), in literature (Huysmans, Céline), and in the writings of insurgents (Edouard Drumont, Jules Guérin). The author pays particular attention to French “national socialism,” which wanted to transcend the categories of left and right in order to unite workers and owners under the banner of a providential leader, but which inevitably scapegoated the Jews. In tracing the history of closed nationalism and its need for a providential man, the author also sheds new light on the relation between socialism and fascism in France, most recently brought to the fore by the Mitterand government in the 1980’s. In the process of analyzing nationalism in France, the author draws on areas of study ranging from French anti-Americanism and Zeev Sternhell’s history of “unconscious” fascism in France to the mythical use of Joan of Arc in the service of antisemitism.

Read more less

In 2000, Ian McKay, a highly respected historian at Queen's University, published an article in the Canadian Historical Review entitled "The Liberal Order Framework: A Prospectus for a Reconnaissance of Canadian History." Written to address a crisis in Canadian history, this detailed, programmatic, and well-argued article had an immediate impact on the field. Proposing that Canadian history should be mapped through a process of reconnaisance, and that the Canadian state should be understood as a project of liberal rule in North America, the essay prompted debate immediately upon publication. Liberalism and Hegemony assembles some of Canada's finest historians to continue the debate sparked by McKay's essay. The essays collected here explore the possibilities and limits presented by "The Liberal Order Framework" for various segments of Canadian history, and within them, the paramount influence of liberalism throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is debated in the context of aboriginal history, environmental history, the history of the family, the development of political thought and ideas, and municipal governance. Like McKay's "The Liberal Order Framework," which is included in this volume with a response to recent criticism, Liberalism and Hegemony is a fascinating foray into current historical thought and provides the historical community with a book that will act both as a reference and a guide for future research.

Read more less

One in three French people suffer from sleep disturbances, making it a national concern. Undoubtedly, receiving too little sleep at night negatively impacts our mood and health. Would you like to know the good news? Regardless of the disturbances you suffer from, whether it be insomnia, waking up in the middle of the night, or waking up too early, it is possible to restore proper sleep with the application of good habits and without any drug usage.

Read more less

Handbook of Interventions for Structural Heart and Peripheral Vascular Disease is a comprehensive and highly illustrated resource for cardiologists, featuring the latest available treatment modalities and discussion on future developments. Divided into six sections, the book begins with a history of peripheral vascular interventions, with further sections on the evaluation of peripheral vascular disease, structural heart diseases, peripheral vascular interventions, aorta, and recent advances in the field. Topics covered across the book’s 35 chapters include clinical presentation, imaging required for planning surgical procedures, selection of equipment, various surgical techniques, intraoperative pitfalls and possible complications. Over 340 illustrations and tables, including 282 full colour images, enhance this essential resource for practising cardiologists wishing to remain up to date in the field of vascular intervention. Key Points Comprehensive, up to date resource for cardiologists Discussion on the latest available treatment modalities Anticipates future trends in vascular intervention 344 illustrations and tables (including 282 full colour images)

Read more less

In this incisive book, Michel de Certeau considers the uses to which social representation and modes of social behavior are put by individuals and groups, describing the tactics available to the common man for reclaiming his own autonomy from the all-pervasive forces of commerce, politics, and culture. In exploring the public meaning of ingeniously defended private meanings, de Certeau draws brilliantly on an immense theoretical literature to speak of an apposite use of imaginative literature.

Read more less

Photographer and African art collector Michel de Combes travelled extensively in West Africa over a period of fifteen years from the late 1980s, researching and documenting Bolon masks. He journeyed alone, staying in remote villages for up to five months of the year, capturing the masks and mask-making on film. His drive to understand the magic of the mask has resulted in this unique project; an unsurpassed collection of photographs of masks from one of the most remote areas of Africa. Together, the book and DVD present images never before published, giving a remarkable insight into a secret world of ritual performance.

Read more less

Discover how peace and tranquility have been tapped through the personal stories of ordinary people, ordinary gardens, and extraordinary spaces. As professional horticulturalists, as husband and wife, and now as authors, Michel and Judy Marcellot explore motivations to garden for peace, for balance, for relaxation, for contemplation, and to memorialize loved ones. Above all, they find joy expressed within and through gardening. Personal stories show how the simple act of gardening changed lives and individuals. The authors chronicle their own paths from naive and idealistic, back-to-the-earth entrepreneurs who wanted to "be of service to the planet, and have a good time doing it," to respected horticulturists and sought after speakers who still embody the same ideals as when they started out. Examples illustrate varied elements of sacred sites and suggest ways readers might create the sacred in their own gardens. Read on and see how ordinary gardeners can attain their own backyard bliss.

Read more less

In the euphoria that followed the departure of Haiti's hated dictator, Jean-Claude Duvalier, most Haitian and foreign analysts treated the regimes of the two Duvaliers, father and son, as a historical nightmare created by the malevolent minds of the leaders and their supporters. Yet the crisis, economic and political, that faces this small Caribbean nation did not begin with the dictatorship, and is far from being solved, despite its departure from the scene. In this fascinating study, Haitian-born Michel-Rolph Trouillot examines the mechanisms through which the Duvaliers ruthlessly won and then held onto power for twenty-nine years. Trouillot's theoretical discussion focuses on the contradictory nature of the peripheral state, analyzing its relative autonomy as a manifestation of the growing disjuncture between state and nation. He discusses in detail two key characteristics of such regimes: the need for a rhetoric of "national unity" coupled with unbridled violence. At the same time, he traces the current crisis from its roots in the nineteenth-century marginalization of the peasantry through the U.S. occupation from 1915 to 1934 and into the present. He ends with a discussion of the post-Duvalier period, which, far from seeing the restoration of civilian-led democracy, has been a period of increasing violence and economic decline.

Read more less

The life - and life behind the scenes - of one of Britain's best-known chefs.The Roux family is the most influential family associated with food in Britain. Through their various restaurants (Le Gavroche, Waterside Inn, Brasserie Roux) and catering services they have trained many of Britain's top chefs. Albert and Michel Sr brought French high cuisine to Britain in the sixties, much of the produce being brought twice weekly from France by Michel's mother in the family car. Michel grew up in an environment of respect for fine food and ingredients, of never settling for second best, and of traditional French family excursions to find wild food. He tells the story of what it was like to grow up as part of this close-knit family. He left school at 16 to start his first apprenticeship with Maitre Patissier Hellegourarche in Paris. He then worked with Alain Chapel at Mionnay before doing his mililtary service at the Elysee Palace cooking for Presidents Giscard d'Estaing and Francois Mitterand. After a stint cooking at the Mandarin Hotel in Hong Kong and catering in London, he took over the running of Le Gavroche in 1994.

Read more less