Search results for ""liverpool university press""

A concise and authoritative field guide to an exceptional natural laboratory, this title in the Classic Geology in Europe series is an essential companion for those visiting Iceland to observe the Earth in action. Rifting of the crust, volcanic eruptions and glacial activity are among a host of processes and features to be observed in this fascinating land. Nowhere else on Earth is the volcanic and tectonic architecture of seafloor rifts better exposed. Large icecaps and extensive river systems grind down the volcanic pile at rapid rates, dispersing and forming thick sequences of sediments. These formations are further modified by the pounding waves of the North Atlantic causing intriguing landforms that exhibit an intricate balance between the construction and erosion of land. Iceland is the only part of the North Atlantic Large Igneous Province that is still active and the only place on Earth where the construction of such provinces can be observed directly. As such, it is a window into the formation of proto-continents early in the Earth’s history. For the past seven million years Iceland has been situated at the boundary of major air and ocean masses and has consequently been exposed to extreme climate changes. The effects of the climate on the rock-forming processes are clearly illustrated by diverse sedimentary and volcanic successions and by the wide range of volcanic landforms formed in sub-aqueous to sub-aerial environments; each succession reflecting the characteristics of internal and external processes.Icelandic culture cannot be fully comprehended without understanding its geology. Thus the book will interest not only student, amateur and professional geologists but also others attracted by the natural environment and seeking a deeper understanding of what makes Iceland the unique place that it is.

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Over the many millennia that the human race has inhabited our planet, a use has been found for almost everything that is to be found on it. However, since the Industrial Revolution, many of the resources that we have come to rely on are being depleted, some at an alarming rate. Misuse of others, such as fossil fuels, is causing such damage to the environment that measures are being taken at an international level to restrict their useIntroducing Natural Resources explains how the natural resources of the Earth originated, by outlining the astronomical and geological evolution of the planet in the early period of its existence. The genesis, mode of occurrence, and abundance of the various non-renewable mineral resources are described, together with the methods of extraction, extent of reserves, and any environmental problems. The use of renewable resources, such as solar energy, air, and water, are then discussed, together with plant and animal life, which are renewable resources only if properly managed. The book concludes with a summary of future issues in resource management.Copiously illustrated, this book is intended for those whose interest in natural resources has been stimulated, perhaps by media coverage of declining resources or environmental pollution, and who want to better understand the issues involved. Technical terms are kept to a minimum and are explained in a glossary.

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The Symposium that Xenophon wrote has lived in the shadow of the more famous one by Plato, so much so that it has not received a full commentary in English for well over a hundred years. Yet it is a work as useful for its Greek as it is precious for its content. Socrates is the hero of each Symposium, but most of our understanding of him is usually owed to Plato; we risk assuming that his portrait of Socrates is right. Xenophon saw the man differently: his picture is independent and it is the only significant surviving alternative view. Moreover, the scene that Xenophon paints in his Symposium has a vigour and wit of its own. The work is a document of prime importance for the classical Greek society which we study most and know best: it is set at the male heart of it. Thirdly, Xenophon’s Greek is lucid and unforced. The editor has been using the text for a number of years to help students bridge the gap between what they learn from their beginners’ courses and the richer Greek of more fashionable texts. Hence an unprecedented amount of help with the language, and a large vocabulary, as well as the notes usual in this series on the content. Greek text with facing-page English translation, introduction and commentary.

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Lysistrata is the third and last of Aristophanes' peace plays. It is a dream of peace, of how the women could help to achieve an honourable settlement, conceived when Athens was going through its blackest, most desperate crisis since the Persian War. Though in modern times this is perhaps the most popular of his works, it has never before had an English translation that aims to be reliable in detail and that is fully annotated. The Greek text is based on a fuller body of evidence than any previous edition. It is astonishing to think that this play was first performed over 2,400 years ago, because of all Aristophanes’ great comedies, Lysistrata seems to speak most clearly to our own age. It could perhaps be described as the world's first, and indeed still the world’s greatest feminist drama. This second edition was published in 1998, and revised with addenda and updated bibliography in 2007. [Text with facing translation, commentary and notes.]

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A ghost summoned with bizarre rituals from the underworld, the elaborate protocol of the Persian court, desperate lamentation, self-mutilation, and a thrilling eye-witness account of the battle of Salamis – these are some of the features of Aeschylus’ Persians which make it one of the most exciting examples of ancient theatre. As the earliest surviving European drama it is of incalculable interest to students of ancient literature: as the only extended account of the Persian wars by an author who fought in them, it is a unique document of the Athenian historical imagination. In this, the first English language edition of the text with a commentary for thirty-five years, the particular focus is on the visual and aural effects Aeschylus created, his extraordinarily rich imagery, and the play’s unique contribution to Athenian democratic ideology. [Greek text with facing-page translation, commentary and notes. This edition was reprinted in 2007. Although it was not substantially revised or updated, a short bibliographic update describing important contributions to scholarship on Persians has been included.]

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From the perspective of the Hispano-Romans, the Visigoths who invaded Spain in the mid-fifth century were heretical barbarians. But Leovigild’s military success and Reccared’s conversion to Catholic Christianity led to more positive assessments of the Gothic role in Iberian history. John of Biclaro (c.590) and Isidore of Seville (c.625) authored histories that projected the Gothic achievements back on to their uncertain beginnings, transforming them from antagonists of the Roman Empire to protagonists of a new, independent Chistianity in Spain.

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Recounting his 1897-98 Klondike Gold Rush experience Jack London stated: “It was in the Klondike I found myself. There nobody talks. Everybody thinks. There you get your perspective. I got mine.” This study explores how London’s Northland odyssey - along with an insatiable intellectual curiosity, a hardscrabble youth in the San Francisco Bay Area, and an acute craving for social justice - launched the literary career of one of America’s most dynamic 20th-century writers. The major Northland works - including The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and “To Build a Fire”- are considered in connection with the motifs of literary Naturalism, as well as in relation to complicated issues involving imperialism, race, and gender. London’s key subjects—the frontier, the struggle for survival, and economic mobility—are examined in conjunction with how he developed the underlying themes of his work to engage and challenge the social, political, and philosophical revolutions of his era that were initiated by Darwin, Marx, Nietzsche, and others.

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Although Jews were at the centre of commercial activity in medievalEurope, a talmudic ban on any wine touched by a Gentile prevented them fromengaging in the lucrative wine trade.

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Stonehenge is one of the most famous ancient monuments in the world and its solar alignment is one of its most important features. Yet although archaeologists have learned a huge amount about this iconic monument and its development, a sense of mystery continues about its purpose. This helps fuel numerous theories and common misconceptions, particularly concerning its relationship to the sky and the heavenly bodies. A desire to cut through this confusion was the inspiration for this book, and it fills a gaping hole in the existing literature. The book provides both an introduction to Stonehenge and its landscape and an introduction to archaeoastronomythe study of how ancient peoples understood phenomena in the sky, and what role the sky played in their cultures. Archaeoastronomy is a specialism critical to explaining the relationship of Stonehenge and nearby monuments to the heavens, but interpreting archaeoastronomical evidence has often proved highly controversial in the past. Sto

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Gene Wolfe is one of the most important American writers to emerge in the latter half of the twentieth century. The fact that he publishes in the field of fantastic literature (which includes horror, science and speculative fiction) has meant that his significance has been largely unacknowledged beyond and, at times, even within the genre. Nevertheless, he remains the author of some of the most stylistically distinct, structurally complex, and intellectually invigorating imaginative fiction of recent years. This collection of interviews and essays places under one cover an amazing selection of difficult-to-find resources for the avid Gene Wolfe reader and scholar. Essays concern the nature of writing, including character, structure and the profession of the writer. Also included are a series of interviews with Wolfe and the holy grail of ‘New Sun’ aficionados: Books in the Book of the New Sun, previously only available in a rare small-press volume. This collection will inspire fans and scholars alike to commit themselves to debating new interpretations of Wolfe’s fiction.

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This book is essential reading for all those involved in the Psychology of the Child.

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An in-depth and multifaceted investigation of how Polish Jews, Polish Zionism, and Polish culture influenced Israel’s cultural and political development, as well as of how the Zionist project influenced Jewish life in Poland. From its inception as a political movement, Zionism had as its main goal the creation of a ‘New Jew’ who could contribute to building a Jewish state, preferably in the historic homeland of the Jewish people, where Jews would free themselves from the negative characteristics which, in the view of the ideologues of Zionism, had developed in the diaspora. Yet, inevitably, those who settled in Palestine brought with them considerable cultural baggage. A substantial proportion of them came from the Polish lands, and their presence significantly affected the political and cultural life of the Yishuv, and later the State of Israel. In this volume, scholars from Israel, Poland and elsewhere in Europe, and North America explore different aspects of this influence, as well as the continuing relationship between Israel and Poland, up to the present day.

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Directed by Richard Donner and written by David Seltzer, The Omen (1976) is perhaps the best in the devil-child cycle of movies that followed in the wake of Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist. Released to a highly suggestible public, The Omen became a major commercial success, in no small part due to an elaborate pre-sell campaign that played and preyed on apocalyptic fears and a renewed belief in the Devil and the supernatural. Since polarising critics and religious groups upon its release, The Omen has earned its place in the horror film canon. It’s a film that works on different levels, is imbued with nuance, ambiguity and subtext, and is open to opposing interpretations. Reflecting the film’s cultural impact and legacy, the name ‘Damien’ has since become a pop culture byword for an evil child. Adrian Schober’s Devil’s Advocate entry covers the genesis, authorship, production history, marketing and reception of The Omen, before going on to examine the overarching theme of paranoia that drives the narrative: paranoia about the 'end times'; paranoia about government and conspiracy; paranoia about child rearing (especially, if one strips away the layer of Satanism); and paranoia about imagined threats to the right-wing Establishment from liberal and post-countercultural forces of the 1970s.

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The wellspring of Thomas Hardy and Religion is the recognition that Thomas Hardy's two late great novels, Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure, are dominated, respectively, by two religious traditions of nineteenth-century Anglicanism: Evangelicalism and Anglo-Catholicism. Placing those movements in their historical context alongside other Victorian religious traditions, the author explores the development of Hardy's religious beliefs and ideas up till the 1880s. Evangelicalism in Tess is discussed through an analysis of the principal characters, Angel Clare and his father, Parson Clare, Alec d'Urberville and Tess herself, leading to a consideration of why this form of Christianity looms so large in that novel. Not unexpectedly, the reasons for this are linked to Hardy's personal and intellectual biography, especially his religious upbringing and experience of and involvement in these religious traditions. This applies to both novels. The sources of Jude the Obscure in Hardy's life and thought, and their links to Anglo-Catholicism, are revealed in the context of the influence of that tradition on the narrative and characters, in particular Jude's sense of vocation, the importance of the university town of Christminster and issues associated with marriage, divorce and sexuality. Throughout his analysis of both novels the author demonstrates how Hardy lambasts the way in which these religious traditions and the conventional Victorian morality they bolstered undermine human flourishing. Thomas Hardy and Religion concludes by considering the place these two novels have in the continuing trajectory of Hardy's theological ideas, underlining the critical importance of understanding his religious concerns and reflecting on the way in which his critique of religion is important to people of faith.

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This collection of interviews is a diamond, remarkable in the way that it assembles so many of the major strains of Glissant’s thought, and stunning in the expansive erudition at work in the composition of that thought. Two structuring experiences inform the writer’s reflections on language and poetic engagement. On the one hand, there is the acculturation of his French intellectual ancestry, begun in the Martinican colonial system and continued in his mature student years in Paris, with the achievement of a Doctorate at the Sorbonne in 1980. On the other, there is his genetic heritage as an Antillean, nurtured in the Creole language of a people whose nearly forgotten history he will take pains to redeem. A lifelong interrogation of these two vital experiences of language are crucial to Glissant’s concept of Relation, viewed as a transformative and vital process intrinsic to the project of poetics. Relation reverberates throughout Glissant’s consideration of the many topics broached in this volume: medieval Europe and the creation of nation-states, the evolution of the epic and its global iterations, decolonization, creolization, landscapes and cultures, political engagement vs. the task of the writer, globality, questions of identity and Being. Absolutely the best introduction to Glissant’s thought.

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This exciting, challenging book covers a wide range of subject matter, but all linked together through the key ideas of diversity and ‘Relation’. It sees our modern world, shaped by immigration and the aftermath of colonization, as a multiplicity of different communities interacting and evolving together, and argues passionately against all political and philosophical attempts to impose uniformity, universal or absolute values. This is the ‘Whole-World’, which includes not only these objective phenomena but also our consciousness of them. Our personal identities are not fixed and self-sufficient but formed in ‘Relation’ through our contacts with others. Glissant constantly stresses the unpredictable, ‘chaotic’ nature of the world, which, he claims, we must adapt to and not attempt to limit or control. ‘Creolization’ is not restricted to the Creole societies of the Caribbean but describes all societies in which different cultures with equal status interact to produce new configurations. This perspective produces brilliant new insights into the politicization of culture, but also language, poetry, our relationship to place and to landscapes, globalization, history, and other topics. The book is not written in the style conventionally associated with essays, but is a mixture of argument, proclamation, and poetic evocations of landscapes, lifestyles and people.

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Stanislaw Lem: Philosopher of the Future brings a welter of unknown elements of Lem’s life, career, and literary legacy to light. Part One traces the context of his cultural influence, telling the story of one of the greatest writers and thinkers of the century. It includes a comprehensive critical overview of Lem’s literary and philosophical oeuvre which comprises not only the classics like Solaris, but his untranslated first novels, realistic prose, experimental works, volumes of nonfiction, latter-day metafiction, as well as the final twenty years of polemics and essays. The critical and interpretive Part Two examines a range of Lem’s novels with a view to examining the intellectual vistas they open up before us. It focuses on several of Lem’s major but less studied books. “Game, Set, Lem” uses game theory to shed light on his arguably most surreal novel, the Kafkaesque and claustrophobic Memoirs Found in a Bathtub (1961). “Betrization Is the Worst Solution… Except for All Others” takes a close look at the quasi-utopia of Return From the Stars (1961) and at the concept of ethical cleansing and mandatory de-aggression. “Errare Humanum Est” focuses on the popular science thriller The Invincible (1964) in the context of evolution. “A Beachbook for Intellectuals” is a critical fugue on Lem’s medical thriller cum crime mystery, The Chain of Chance (1976). Stanislaw Lem: Philosopher of the Future closes with a two-part coda. “Fiasco” recapitulates and reflects on the literary and cognitive themes of Lem’s farewell novel, and “Happy End of the World!” reviews The Blink of an Eye, Lem’s farewell book of analyses and prognoses from the cusp of our millennium.

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This book aims to bring together all the evidence relevant for understanding Plato’s Atlantis Story, providing the Greek text of the relevant Platonic texts (the start of Plato’s Timaeus and the incomplete Critias), together with a commentary on language and content, and a full vocabulary of Greek words. This essential work also offers a new translation of these texts and a full introduction. The book has two special objectives. The introduction offers a full-scale interpretative reading of the Atlantis story, focused on the philosophical meaning of the story and the significance of Plato’s presentation, and responding to recent scholarly discussion of these questions. In conjunction with the new translation, this introduction provides a point of entry to a fascinating story for a wide range of readers. The introduction also discusses the question whether the story had a factual basis, and assesses possible links with Minoan Crete. Secondly, the Greek text (the Oxford Classical text) and commentary are juxtaposed and presented in ‘bite-size’ chunks making it easy to use and helpful especially for students using the book to improve their Greek. The notes provide full grammatical and linguistic help as well as pointers on the philosophical content and presentation, supported by the translation and complete vocabulary of Greek terms. The book is a second edition of one published in 1980. This edition has a new translation, a much fuller introduction, revised and updated notes and a new commentary format.

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In many parts of the world the weather forms a daily topic of conversation, In others it hardly changes from one week to the next. However, human life is governed by the weather which affects much of our activity, from farming to fishing and from shopping to holiday-making. Introducing Meteorology has been written to provide a succinct overview of the science of the weather for students and for interested amateurs wanting a topical guide to this complex science. The initial chapters describe the development of the science, the atmosphere and the forces which govern the weather. The author then discusses weather influences at global and local scales before describing the science of weather forecasting. Copiously illustrated, this book is intended for those whose interest in meteorology has been stimulated, perhaps by media coverage of dramatic weather events, and who want to know more. Technical terms are kept to a minimum and are explained in a glossary.

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Over the past 25 years, Rwanda has undergone remarkable shifts and transitions: culturally, economically, and educationally the country has gone from strength to strength. While much scholarship has understandably been retrospective, seeking to understand, document and commemorate the Genocide against the Tutsi, this volume gathers diverse perspectives on the changing social and cultural fabric of Rwanda since 1994. Rwanda Since 1994 considers the context of these changes, particularly in relation to the ongoing importance of remembering and in wider developments in the Great Lakes and East Africa regions. Equally it explores what stories of change are emerging from Rwanda: creative writing and testimonies, as well as national, regional, and international political narratives. The contributors interrogate which frameworks and narratives might be most useful for understanding different kinds of change, what new directions are emerging, and how Rwanda’s trajectory is shaped by other global factors.The international set of contributors includes creative writers, practitioners, activists, and scholars from African studies, history, anthropology, education, international relations, modern languages, law and politics. As well as delving into the shifting dynamics of religion and gender in Rwanda today, the book brings to light the experiences of lesser-discussed groups of people such as the Twa and the children of perpetrators.

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Geophysics is a term that might discourage any but the most inquisitive Earth Scientist but, simply put, it is the study of the Physics of the Earth. As the Earth is very large and relatively slow-moving it is described by the classical Physics disciplines such as heat, gravity, magnetism, electricity, vibrations and waves. Everything we know about the deep Earth, apart from the superficial pinpricks provided by boreholes, we have learned from geophysics. In this approachable and well-illustrated introduction to the many multi-disciplinary facets of geophysics, Peter Styles has kept mathematics to a bare minimum. The composition of the Earth, its geothermal heat flow and the forces which drive Plate Tectonics and which make the Earth a dynamic system are discussed, as is the application of seismology which allows us to ‘see’ the complex structures which are hidden deep below the surface of our planet. The Earth’s magnetic field and its variations over time are described and we learn how these changes are recorded in sedimentary rocks and the ocean crust, allowing us to chart tectonic plate motions. Earth’s electrical properties and its gravity and the role these play in understanding the deep Earth and its evolution are explained clearly. A key aspect of the book, as befits a scientist whose working life has been devoted to Applied Geophysics, is a clear detailing of the application of Geophysics to practical matters. While geophysics plays a crucial role in surveying for hydrocarbon and mineral resources; it is also a fundamental environmental tool to look for hidden dangers beneath the surface, such as caves and old mine workings; for managing pollution and environmental hazards; and, most recently, for looking for and monitoring safe and secure places to store our manifold wastes, such as Carbon Dioxide and spent nuclear material. Readers will soon appreciate that the popular perceptions of practical geophysics as used in archaeology or forensics is merely a glimmer of the many crucial applications of this science to all our lives.

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River Planet introduces readers to the epic geological history of the world’s rivers, from the first drop of rain on the Earth to the modern environmental crisis. The river journey begins with the first evidence of flowing water four billion years ago and continues with enormous rivers on the first supercontinents, after which terrestrial vegetation engineered new river forms in the Devonian period. The dramatic breakup of Pangea some 200 million years ago led to our familiar modern rivers as continents drifted and collided, mountains rose, and plains tilted. Among many remarkable cases, the book explores the rapid carving of the Grand Canyon, the reversal of the Amazon, and the lost rivers of Antarctica. There are gigantic meltwater floods from the Ice Age, which may be linked to accounts of the Deluge, and river systems drowned by rising sea level as the ice melted. Early human civilizations sought to control rivers through agriculture and irrigation, leading in the nineteenth century to hydraulic mining, the rise of big dams, and the burial of rivers below cities such as London. Rivers are now endangered worldwide, and the book celebrates people who preserve rivers around the world, bringing hope to river ecosystems and communities. River Planet is designed to be accessible for a general audience ranging from advanced high-school students to mature readers. The book will also interest professional scientists and students of geology, geography, and environmental science.

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There are many books on palaeontology, aimed at amateurs, undergraduates and aspiring academics. Perhaps commonest amongst these are guides to fossil identification, from the general (basic texts on fossil variety and morphology) to the specific (field guides to specific groups, localities or horizons). Many of these are readable, comprehensive and provide good advice. This is not such a book - there is more to the subject than just putting a name on a specimen, however important that may be.As the book’s title states, this is a practical manual covering the many aspects of palaeontology. It is organised in fifty-three chapters; each chapter focusses on one aspect of palaeontology as viewed with a geologist’s trained eye. It can be read from cover-to-cover or dipped into when an answer to a specific question is needed. The aim is to help the developing palaeontologist move their skills on to the next level.It is aimed, primarily, at the beginner in the broadest sense, both amateur and undergraduate. Palaeontologists and geologists are encouraged to use the book as much as a reference as a reader, dipping in to the chapters that contain relevant tips, hints and comments to enable them to improve their understanding of their current interest. It is informative, readable and, most of all, of practical application for all palaeontologists.

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One of the best loved of Shakespeare’s ‘middle comedies’, As You Like It has rarely been out of the theatrical repertoire. Centring on the cross-dressed figure of Rosalind, the play both celebrates and questions the state of being in love. Recent scholarship has, however, located darker currents in the play, which have in turn influenced aspects of the play – its awareness of issues that have been elided in subsequent, simply ‘romantic’ readings. Using an innovative theory of the significance of the Globe’s stage space, Penny Gay examines the play’s presentation of issues of power, sexuality, gender and genre. The famous line, ‘All the world’s a stage’ is an indicator of the play’s striking self-consciousness, a clue to its interest in performance and performativity, and to the radical potential of theatre to destabilize the conventions with which it operates. The book concludes with an analysis of some recent productions which take up these themes.

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This new research in English on the work of the Mozambican writer Mia Couto provides a comprehensive introduction to the critical terrain of Couto's literary thought. Already well-established in the Lusophone world, Mia Couto is increasingly acknowledged as a major voice in World literature. Winner of the Camões Prize for Literature in 2013, the most prestigious literary prize honouring Lusophone writers, he was awarded the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 2014, and in 2015 was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize. Yet, despite this high profile there are very few full-length critical studiesin English about his writing. Mia Couto is known for his imaginative re-working of Portuguese, making it distinctively Mozambican in character. This book brings together some of the key scholars of his work such as Phillip Rothwell, Luís Madureira, and his long-time English translator David Brookshaw. Contributors examine not only his early works, which were written in the context of the 16-year post-independence civil war in Mozambique, but alsothe wide span of Couto's contemporary writing as a novelist, short story writer, poet and essayist. There are contributions on his work in ecology, theatre and journalism, as well as on translation and Mozambican nationalist politics. Most importantly the contributors engage with the significance of Couto's writing to contemporary discussions of African literature, Lusophone studies and World literature. Grant Hamilton is Associate Professor of English literature at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is the editor of Reading Marechera (James Currey, 2013). David Huddart is Associate Professor of English literature at the Chinese University of Hong Kongand is author of Involuntary Associations: World Englishes and Postcolonial Studies (Liverpool University Press, 2014]

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