Search results for ""debate""

Stanley Fish's Surprised by Sin, first published in 1967, set a new standard for Milton criticism and established its author as one of the world's preeminent Milton scholars. The lifelong engagement begun in that work culminates in this book, the magnum opus of a formidable critic and the definitive statement on Milton for our time.How Milton works "from the inside out" is the foremost concern of Fish's book, which explores the radical effect of Milton's theological convictions on his poetry and prose. For Milton the value of a poem or of any other production derives from the inner worth of its author and not from any external measure of excellence or heroism. Milton's aesthetic, says Fish, is an "aesthetic of testimony": every action, whether verbal or physical, is or should be the action of holding fast to a single saving commitment against the allure of plot, narrative, representation, signs, drama--anything that might be construed as an illegitimate supplement to divine truth. Much of the energy of Milton's writing, according to Fish, comes from the effort to maintain his faith against these temptations, temptations which in any other aesthetic would be seen as the very essence of poetic value.Encountering the great poet on his own terms, engaging his equally distinguished admirers and detractors, this book moves a 300-year debate about the significance of Milton's verse to a new level.

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The world's most revered and eloquent interpreter of evolutionary ideas offers here a work of explanatory force unprecedented in our time--a landmark publication, both for its historical sweep and for its scientific vision.With characteristic attention to detail, Stephen Jay Gould first describes the content and discusses the history and origins of the three core commitments of classical Darwinism: that natural selection works on organisms, not genes or species; that it is almost exclusively the mechanism of adaptive evolutionary change; and that these changes are incremental, not drastic. Next, he examines the three critiques that currently challenge this classic Darwinian edifice: that selection operates on multiple levels, from the gene to the group; that evolution proceeds by a variety of mechanisms, not just natural selection; and that causes operating at broader scales, including catastrophes, have figured prominently in the course of evolution.Then, in a stunning tour de force that will likely stimulate discussion and debate for decades, Gould proposes his own system for integrating these classical commitments and contemporary critiques into a new structure of evolutionary thought.In 2001 the Library of Congress named Stephen Jay Gould one of America's eighty-three Living Legends--people who embody the "quintessentially American ideal of individual creativity, conviction, dedication, and exuberance." Each of these qualities finds full expression in this peerless work, the likes of which the scientific world has not seen--and may not see again--for well over a century.

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The role of Religious Education within the primary school and how it should be implemented has been the subject of worldwide debate. Responding to the delivery of the non-statutory framework for RE and the recent emphasis on a creative primary curriculum Primary Religious Education - A New Approach models a much needed pedagogical framework, encouraging conceptual enquiry and linking theory to its implementation within the wider curriculum in schools.The book outlines this new conceptual approach to Religious Education and is based upon the Living Difference syllabus successfully implemented in Hampshire, Portsmouth, Southampton and Westminster. It demonstrates how to implement the requirements of the new QCDA curriculum and Ofsted criteria for effective RE and is rapidly gaining both national and international support. Through this approach, Religious Education is discussed within the larger context of primary education in the contemporary world. This book will help you to teach RE in a creative way in the primary classroom by providing: historical commentaries an overview of existing approaches case studies based upon developments in religious literacy connections to initiatives such as Every Child Matters and cross-curricular links to other areas of the curriculum, including PSHE. With an all-encompassing global context, this book provides tutors, students and practicing teachers with a firm basis for developing their thinking about the subject of RE, how it is placed in the primary curriculum and how it may be successfully implemented in schools.

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Flexibility has become a central concept in much policy and academic debate. Individuals, organizations and societies are all required to become more flexible so that they can participate in the ongoing processes of change involved in lifelong learning. This book explores how the notion of a learning society has developed over recent years: the changes that have given rise to the requirement for flexibility, and the changed discourses and practices that have emerged in the education and training of adults. With the growth in interest in adults as learners, (primarily to support economic competitiveness), the closed field of adult education has now been displaced by a more open discourse of lifelong learning. This involves not only changing practices such as moving towards open and distance-based learning, but also changing workplace identities. Learning settings are therefore changing places in a number of senses: they are places in which people change; they are subject to change; and they are changing to include the home and workplace as well as more formal settings. This book takes an unusually critical standpoint: it challenges contemporary trends, explores the uncertainties and ambivalences of the processes of change, and is suggestive of different forms of engagement with them. It will prove an important text for policy makers, workplace trainers and those working in the field of adult, further and higher education. Richard Edwards is currently a Senior Lecturer in post compulsory education at the Open University.

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Technē’s Paradox—a frequent theme in science fiction—is the commonplace belief that technology has both the potential to annihilate humanity and to preserve it. Advocating Weapons, War, and Terrorism looks at how this paradox applies to some of the most dangerous of technologies: population bombs, dynamite bombs, chemical weapons, nuclear weapons, and improvised explosive devices.Hill’s study analyzes the rhetoric used to promote such weapons in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. By examining Thomas R. Malthus’s Essay on the Principle of Population, the courtroom address of accused Haymarket bomber August Spies, the army textbook Chemical Warfare by Major General Amos A. Fries and Clarence J. West, the life and letters of Manhattan Project physicist Leo Szilard, and the writings of Ted “Unabomber” Kaczynski, Hill shows how contemporary societies are equipped with abundant rhetorical means to describe and debate the extreme capacities of weapons to both destroy and protect. The book takes a middle-way approach between language and materialism that combines traditional rhetorical criticism of texts with analyses of the persuasive force of weapons themselves, as objects, irrespective of human intervention. Advocating Weapons, War, and Terrorism is the first study of its kind, revealing how the combination of weapons and rhetoric facilitated the magnitude of killing in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and illuminating how humanity understands and acts upon its propensity for violence. This book will be invaluable for scholars of rhetoric, scholars of science and technology, and the study of warfare.

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At the heart of the University of Notre Dame’s campus sits the Main Building with its trademark golden dome. Flanking it on the west is the equally distinctive Sacred Heart Basilica, and on the east is the building known today as Washington Hall. Washington Hall at Notre Dame is the first history of this building—the university’s first performing arts center—and illuminates the ways in which Washington Hall has served as the prime venue of secular communal assembly for the university and surrounding communities since 1864. In addition to detailing the history of Washington Hall, Mark Pilkinton, a theatre historian, emphasizes the art form of theatre and its development at Notre Dame, but also discusses the contributions of music, debate, and lectures, as well as the introduction of the “new media” of film, radio, and television. Among many other fascinating stories, the author recounts the early commencements and “exhibitions” that included students’ orations in Latin and Greek, chronicles the history of the ghost of Washington Hall, and describes the contributions Knute Rockne made to the performing arts at the university, both as a student actor and as a faculty member. Lavishly illustrated with 50 halftones and 5 line drawings, Washington Hall at Notre Dame offers a fascinating history of Notre Dame through the prism of its first performing arts center and adds to our understanding of American Catholic higher education and American history in general.

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For scholars of medieval literature, confession, with its language of sin and contrition, has often provided the basis for our understanding of medieval selfhood and subjectivity. Confessional texts, whether penitential manuals or literary depictions of confession, suggest ways that people spoke about themselves and how they understood their interiority. In Confession and Resistance, Katherine C. Little cautions that medieval selfhood should not be understood merely in terms of confessional practice. She points to the controversy over confession and, more generally, lay instruction that was generated in late medieval England around the heresy known as Wycliffism (or Lollardy). This controversy, she maintains, reveals the contested nature of the language of medieval selfhood. Through her readings of Wycliffite sermons and polemical writings, Little argues that the Lollard resistance to confession should be understood as a debate over self-formation. For the Wycliffites, traditional confessional language had failed in its expected function—to define the self and to reveal the interior—and had to be replaced with new terms and new stories taken from the Bible. This new view of Wycliffism, as a crisis in the language of selfhood, allows the author to reevaluate the impact of Wycliffite ideas in Chaucer's Parson's Tale, Gower's Confessio Amantis, and Hoccleve's Regiment of Princes. Little finds in these texts, all of which include confession as a theme, a similar concern with the inadequacy of the traditional confessional mode.

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Can the way a word is used give legitimacy to a political movement? Feminism, Violence, and Representation in Modern Italy traces the use of the word "femminicidio" (or "femicide") as a tool to mobilize Italian feminists, particularly the Union of Women in Italy (UDI). Based on nearly two years of fieldwork among feminist activists, Giovanna Parmigiani takes a broad look at the many ways in which violence inflects the lives of women in Italy. From unchallenged gendered grammar rules to the representation of women as victims, Parmigiani examines the devaluing of women's contribution to their communities through the words and experiences of the women she interviews. She describes the first uses of the word "femminicidio" as a political term used by and within feminist circles and traces its spread to ultimate legitimization and national relevance. The word redefined women as a political subject by building an imagined community of potentially violated women. In doing so, it challenged Italians to consider the status of women in Italian society, and to make this status a matter of public debate. It also problematized the connection between women and tropes of women as objects of suffering and victimhood. Parmigiani considers this exchange within the context of Italian Catholic heritage, a precarious economy, and long-held notions of honor and shame. Parmigiani provides a careful and searing consideration of the ways in which representations of violence and the politics of this representation are shaping the future of women in Italy and beyond.

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Standing in stark contrast to the conservative churchmen of Victorian Britain, the Anglican clergyman Stewart Headlam was a passionately progressive reformer, a champion of the working poor--especially women --a defender of the music hall performers his colleagues attacked as licentious, and, in short, a man of God who remained firmly and controversially engaged with the society in which he lived and worked. This book, the first significant study of Headlam since 1928, paints a rich and complex picture of this larger-than-life man of the cloth, charting the trail he blazed across the social, political, and religious landscape of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Britain. Dissatisfied from an early age with his family’s Evangelical faith, Headlam became an Anglican curate, but his political views were increasingly radicalized as he befriended working-class atheists and trade union leaders. John Richard Orens details Headlam’s repeated conflicts with the establishment figures of his faith over his defense of music hall ballet performers’ right to reveal their legs, his role in the early years of the Fabian Society, his anti-puritanism, and his passionate socialism. Headlam was even instrumental in having Oscar Wilde bailed out of prison following the writer’s arrest for “homosexual offenses.” With this intellectual biography, Orens places Headlam’s life, beliefs, and actions in the context of the period, contributing to the ongoing debate about the proper relationship between Christianity, on the one hand, and society, sexuality, and the arts, on the other.

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Catastrophic climate change overshadows the present and the future. Wrenching economic transformations have devastated workers and hollowed out communities. However, those fighting for jobs and those fighting for the planet have often been at odds. Does the world face two separate crises, environmental and economic? The promise of the Green New Deal is to tackle the threat of climate change through the empowerment of working people and the strengthening of democracy. In this view, the crisis of nature and the crisis of work must be addressed together—or they will not be addressed at all.This book brings together leading experts to explore the possibilities of the Green New Deal, emphasizing the future of work. Together, they examine transformations that are already underway and put forth bold new proposals that can provide jobs while reducing carbon consumption—building a world that is sustainable both economically and ecologically. Contributors also debate urgent questions: What is the value of a federal jobs program, or even a jobs guarantee? How do we alleviate the miseries and precarity of work? In key economic sectors, including energy, transportation, housing, agriculture, and care work, what kind of work is needed today? How does the New Deal provide guidance in addressing these questions, and how can a Green New Deal revive democracy? Above all, this book shows, the Green New Deal offers hope for a better tomorrow—but only if it accounts for work’s past transformations and shapes its future.

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In the Tet Offensive of 1968, Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces launched a massive countrywide attack on South Vietnam. Though the Communists failed to achieve their tactical and operational objectives, James Willbanks claims Hanoi won a strategic victory. The offensive proved that America's progress was grossly overstated and caused many Americans and key presidential advisors to question the wisdom of prolonging combat. Willbanks also maintains that the Communists laid siege to a Marine combat base two weeks prior to the Tet Offensive-known as the Battle of Khe Sanh-to distract the United States. It is his belief that these two events are intimately linked, and in his concise and compelling history, he presents an engaging portrait of the conflicts and singles out key problems of interpretation. Willbanks divides his study into six sections, beginning with a historical overview of the events leading up to the offensive, the attack itself, and the consequent battles of Saigon, Hue, and Khe Sahn. He continues with a critical assessment of the main themes and issues surrounding the offensive, and concludes with excerpts from American and Vietnamese documents, maps and chronologies, an annotated list of resources, and a short encyclopedia of key people, places, and events. An experienced military historian and scholar of the Vietnam War, Willbanks has written a unique critical reference and guide that enlarges the debate surrounding this important turning point in America's longest war.

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Has black inclusion in the political process changed political institutions and led to more black influence in the governmental process? How do African American legislators balance racial interests with broader issues of government? And how is their effectiveness subjectively perceived and objectively evaluated? In one of the first book-length studies to analyze the behavior of African American state legislators in multiple legislative sessions across five states, Kerry Haynie has compiled a wealth of valuable data that reveals the dynamics and effectiveness of black participation in the legislative process. Owing to the increasing role of state government in administering what he defines as key "black issues"- education, healthcare, poverty/social welfare, civil rights, and children's issues-Haynie focuses on bills introduced in these categories in Arkansas, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, and North Carolina. The book reveals how responsive political institutions have been to the nation's largest minority group. It explores the question of how legislators deal with the "duality dilemma"-which requires them to be both responsible legislators and race representatives-and whether agendas should be "deracialized" in order to appeal to a broader constituency. Along with numerous statistical charts illustrating everything from representation on house standing committees to a ranking of the fifteen legislative sessions by quartiles of African American political incorporation, a useful and revealing portrait emerges-one that will fuel debate and inform future discussions of the role of African Americans in the political process.

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Who Owns Religion? focuses on a period—the late 1980s through the 1990s—when scholars of religion were accused of scandalizing or denigrating the very communities they had imagined themselves honoring through their work. While controversies involving scholarly claims about religion are nothing new, this period saw an increase in vitriol that remains with us today. Authors of seemingly arcane studies on subjects like the origins of the idea of Mother Earth or the sexual dynamics of mysticism have been targets of hate mail and book-banning campaigns. As a result, scholars of religion have struggled to describe their own work to their various publics, and even to themselves. Taking the reader through several compelling case studies, Patton identifies two trends of the ’80s and ’90s that fueled that rise: the growth of multicultural identity politics, which enabled a form of volatile public debate she terms “eruptive public space,” and the advent of the internet, which offered new ways for religious groups to read scholarship and respond publicly. These controversies, she shows, were also fundamentally about something new: the very rights of secular, Western scholarship to interpret religions at all. Patton’s book holds out hope that scholars can find a space for their work between the university and the communities they study. Scholars of religion, she argues, have multiple masters and must move between them while writing histories and speaking about realities that not everyone may be interested in hearing.

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Linguists in the past two centuries have, for the most part, approached language as an autonomous entity; their practice has been to study languages without considering the culture, society, or beliefs of the speakers. "Autonomous linguistics" has been attacked from both the left and the right. Critics on the left (in particular Marxists) argue that the separation of language from its societal context reinforces the status quo by downplaying the role of language as an instrument of ideology and social control. Critics on the right object to the value-free analyses of individual languages required by the autonomous approach and to the idea that all languages merit equal attention. The Politics of Linguistics surveys two centuries of debate over autonomy. The discussion includes the political implications of the birth of the modern field of linguistics in the Romantic movement, the views of Marx and Engels on language, the attack on structural linguistics by both Hitler and Stalin, the role of Christian missionary groups and the military in building the field in the United States, and the relation between Noam Chomsky's linguistic theories and his political views. Frederick J. Newmeyer demonstrates that external political demonstrates that external political currents have often influenced the relative popularity of the autonomous approach to language. He argues that autonomous linguistics, far from being inconsistent with progressive political goals, can be creatively applied to the fulfillment of such goals.

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Torture has lately become front page news, featured in popular movies and TV shows, and a topic of intense public debate. It grips our imagination, in part because torturing someone seems to be an unthinkable breach of humanity--theirs and ours. And yet, when confronted with horrendous events in war, or the prospect of catastrophic damage to one's own country, many come to wonder whether we can really afford to abstain entirely from torture. Before trying to tackle this dilemma, though, we need to see torture as a multifaceted problem with a long history and numerous ethical and legal aspects. Confronting Torture offers a multidisciplinary investigation of this wrenching topic. Editors Scott A. Anderson and Martha C. Nussbaum bring together a diversity of scholars to grapple with many of torture's complexities, including: How should we understand the impetus to use torture? Why does torture stand out as a particularly heinous means of war-fighting? Are there any sound justifications for the use of torture? How does torture affect the societies that employ it? And how can we develop ethical or political bulwarks to prevent its use? The essays here resist the temptation to oversimplify torture, drawing together work from scholars in psychology, history, sociology, law, and philosophy, deepening and broadening our grasp of the subject. Now, more than ever, torture is something we must think about; this important book offers a diversity of timely, constructive responses on this resurgent and controversial subject.

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In the view of many Christians, the teenage years are simultaneously the most dangerous and the most promising. At the very moment when teens are trying to establish a sense of identity and belonging, they are beset by temptation on all sides - from the pressure of their peers to the nihilism and materialism of popular culture. Add the specter of homosexuality to the mix, and you've got a situation ripe for worry, sermonizing, and exploitation. In "Recruiting Young Love", Mark D. Jordan explores more than a half century of American church debate about homosexuality to show that even as the main lesson - homosexuality is bad, teens are vulnerable - has remained constant, the arguments and assumptions have changed remarkably. At the time of the first Kinsey Report, in 1948, homosexuality was simultaneously condemned and little discussed - a teen struggling with same-sex desire would have found little specific guidance. Sixty years later, church rhetoric has undergone a radical shift, as silence has given way to frequent, public, detailed discussion of homosexuality and its perceived dangers. Along the way, churches have quietly adopted much of the language and ideas of modern sexology, psychiatry, and social reformers-deploying it, for example, to buttress the credentials of anti-gay 'deprogramming' centers and traditional gender roles. Jordan tells this story through a wide variety of sources, including oral histories, interviews, memoirs, and even pulp novels; the result is a fascinating window onto the never-ending battle for the teenage soul.

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Now that ICT has become ubiquitous and many technology related activities are sourced from outside companies, information managements identity has become the subject of much debate. Moreover, the interrelatedness of business, society and ICT adds to the management of information systems the need to understand what the true value of information is for managers, politicians, employees, customers, business partners and society at large. Hence, the focus of information management is shifting away from the management of ICT and sophisticated data production to superior information use. Setting the scene for tomorrow, this first volume in the new book series "Perspectives on Information Management" provides a highly needed vocabulary to discuss information management's present state and the need to develop a new identity that better fits current times.It presents an integrative framework for information management, it puts information management in an historical context, it critically examines the assumptions underlying information management, and delves deeply into four current and core issues in the field: ICT, strategy and identity; ICT (out)sourcing; customer oriented innovation; and designing information and organizations. Featuring seminal contributions to these topics from leading authorities in the field, this volume is targeted at information practitioners, academic researchers and higher education teachers. It is written by leading international scholars and industry experts. It presents cutting edge innovative research material on information management. It covers past, present and future trends and critically examines the assumptions underlying information management.

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China’s rise to power is one of the biggest questions in International Relations theory (IRT) and foreign policy circles. Although power has been a core concept of IRT for a long time, the faces and mechanisms of power as it relates to Chinese foreign policymaking has changed the contours of that debate. The rise of China and other powers across the global political arena sparks a new visibility for different kinds of encounters between states, particularly between China and other Global South states. These encounters are more visible to IR scholars because of the increasing influence that rising powers have in the international system. This book shows that foreign policy encounters between rising powers and Global South states do not necessarily exhibit the same logics, behaviors, or investment strategies of Euro-American hegemons. Instead, they have distinctive features that require new theoretical frameworks for analysis. Shaping the Future of Power probes the types of power mechanisms that build, diffuse, and project China’s power in Africa. One must take into account the processes of knowledge production, social capital formation, and skills transfers that Chinese foreign policy directs toward African states to fully understand China’s power-building mechanisms. The relational power framework requires these elements to capture both the material aspects and ideational people-centered aspects to power. By examining China’s investments in human resource development programs for Africa, the book reveals a vital, yet undertheorized, aspect of China’s foreign policy making.

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John Taylor Gatto's Weapons of Mass Instruction, now available in paperback, focuses on mechanisms of traditional education that cripple imagination, discourage critical thinking, and create a false view of learning as a byproduct of rote-memorization drills. Gatto's earlier book, Dumbing Us Down, introduced the now-famous expression of the title into the common vernacular. Weapons of Mass Instruction adds another chilling metaphor to the brief against conventional schooling. Gatto demonstrates that the harm school inflicts is rational and deliberate. The real function of pedagogy, he argues, is to render the common population manageable. To that end, young people must be conditioned to rely upon experts, to remain divided from natural alliances, and to accept disconnections from their own lived experiences. They must at all costs be discouraged from developing self-reliance and independence. Escaping this trap requires strategy Gatto calls "open source learning" which imposes no artificial divisions between learning and life. Through this alternative approach, our children can avoid being indoctrinated-only then that can they achieve self-knowledge, judgment, and courage. John Taylor Gatto is an internationally renowned speaker who lectures widely on school reform. He taught for thirty years in public schools before resigning on the op-ed pages of The Wall Street Journal during the year he was named New York's official "Teacher of the Year." On April 3, 2008, the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard credited Gatto with adding the expression "dumbing us down" to the school debate worldwide.

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For the hundred years since W. Wrede ( Paulus, 1904) made the provocative claim that Paul should rightly be regarded as 'the second founder of Christianity', scholars have debated vigorously on the relationship between Jesus and Paul. Past studies on the Jesus-Paul debate have largely been confined to either the literary or the theological level. This study looks at the issue afresh by combining the historical and the theological approaches. The discussion focuses on the issue of faith, paying special attention to two groups of Jesus' sayings ('Faith that can remove mountains' and 'Your Faith has healed/saved you') and Paul's use of Gen. 15:6 and Hab. 2:4.The distinctive methodology of this study is to compare Jesus and Paul against the backdrops of the Jewish biblical tradition and Hellenistic parallels. The picture of the Jesus-Paul relationship that emerges is a most complex one. To a great extent the similarity between Jesus and Paul is due to their common Jewish heritage. The early Church plays a part in influencing Paul's concept of faith and Paul himself reinterprets the Jewish Scriptures in an innovative manner. At the same time, Paul is found to be greatly indebted to Jesus for his concept of faith. The method of placing Jesus and Paul against the Jewish and Hellenistic backgrounds permits a fuller appreciation of the historical and theological continuities between Jesus and Paul than has hitherto been possible.

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The Christian Right never ceases to surprise professional observers of American politics. With the Christian coalition in disarray, many expected that the movement would play less of a role in the 2004 elections. But when exit polls reported that "moral values" were the most commonly cited reason for presidential vote choice, pundits immediately proclaimed the importance of the "values vote." Yet the role of the Christian Right, of statewide referenda on same-sex marriage, and of religious mobilization remained the subject of debate. "The Values Campaign? The Christian Right and the 2004 Elections" reaches well beyond the instant analyses of the post-election period to provide an assessment of the role of the religious right in 2004. The contributors to this volume are among the leading scholars of religion and politics in the United States, and many have contributed for over a decade to ongoing discussions of the role played by the religious right in national elections. The authors consider national mobilization and issues, and also explore the role of the Christian Right in specific states. Their evaluations contend that the "values campaign" was not an aberration but a consistent pattern of national politics, and that moral traditionalism will likely continue to be a significant factor in future elections. A timely study of the 2004 elections, this volume will appeal to scholars and observers of electoral politics, state politics, and religion and politics.

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The ""holy poor"" have long maintained an elite status within Christianity. Differing from the ""real"" poor, these clergymen, teachers, and ascetics have historically been viewed by their fellow Christians as persons who should receive material support in exchange for offering immeasurable immaterial benefits—teaching, preaching, and prayer. Supporting them—quite as much as supporting the real poor—has been a way to accumulate eventual treasure in heaven. Yet from the rise of Christian monasticism in Egypt and Syria to present day, Christians have argued fiercely about whether monks should work to support themselves.In Treasure in Heaven, renowned historian Peter Brown shifts attention from Western to Eastern Christianity, introducing us to this smoldering debate that took place across the entire Middle East from the Euphrates to the Nile. Seen against the backdrop of Asia, Christianity might have opted for a Buddhist model by which holy monks lived by begging alone. Instead, the monks of Egypt upheld an alternative model that linked the monk to humanity and the monastery to society through acceptance of the common, human bond of work. This model of Third World Christianity—a Christianity that we all too easily associate with the West—eventually became the basis for the monasticism of western Europe, as well as for modern Western attitudes to charity and labor. In Treasure in Heaven, Brown shows how and why we are still living—at times uncomfortably—with that choice.

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In this highly original book, Grandmaster Ipatov shares the chess philosophy that helped him become a top chess grandmaster. Contrary to the generally accepted norms that permeate the modern chess world, he argues that spending most of one's training time on studying opening theory and memorizing trending lines until move 30 is wrong. However, this is exactly how most beginners start learning chess nowadays. Some strong grandmasters also fall into this trap when they prioritize opening theory amongst other aspects of the game. This often leads to fundamental gaps in one's chess understanding which is really hard to fix, especially for young players. Ipatov's ideology lies in that one should work on enhancing his general chess understanding and take on a surprise-first approach when it comes to playing openings in order to avoid opponents' preparation in the mainstream theory and take them out of book in the early stage of the game. Most of the book is comprised of Alexander Ipatov's original analyses covering a variety of offbeat opening lines from both White and Black's perspective. His recent match against the 2018 US Chess Champion Sam Shankland, where Ipatov implemented a novelty on move two – something unheard of in the modern era with millions of games being played to date – serves as a good illustration that the philosophy deserves more attention and research than it currently has. This book serves to fill in this gap and welcome more debate on the subject.

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China Miéville's brilliant reading of the modern world's most controversial and enduring political document: The Communist Manifesto. 'It's thrilling to accompany Miéville... as he wrestles – in critical good faith and incandescent commitment – with a manifesto that still calls on us to build a new world' Naomi Klein 'Read this and be dazzled by its contemporaneity' Mike Davis 'A rich, luminous reflection of and on a light that never quite goes out' Andreas Malm 'Reading with [Miéville] today sharpens our senses to contemporary internationalist movements from below' Ruth Wilson Gilmore '[Written] with diligence and a ruthlessly critical eye worthy of Marx himself' Sarah Jaffe In 1848, a strange political tract was published by two German émigrés. Marx and Engles's apocalyptic vision of an insatiable system, which penetrates every corner of the globe, reduces every relationship to that of profit, and bursts asunder the old forms of production and of politics, remains a picture of our world. And the vampiric energy of that system is once again highly contentious. The Manifesto shows no sign of fading into antiquarian obscurity, and remains a key touchstone for modern political debate. China Miéville is not a writer hemmed in by conventions of disciplinary boundaries or genre, and this is a strikingly imaginative take on Marx and what his most haunting book has to say to us today. Like the Manifesto itself, this is a book haunted by ghosts, sorcery and creative destruction.

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Steven Spielberg is known as the most powerful man in New Hollywood and a pioneer of the contemporary blockbuster, America’s most successful export. His career began a new chapter in mass culture. At the same time, American post war liberalism was breaking down. This fascinating new book explains the complex relationship between film and politics through the prism of an iconic filmmaker. Spielberg’s early films were a triumphant emergence of the Sunbelt aesthetic that valued visceral kicks and basic emotions over the ambiguities of history. Such blockbusters have inspired much debate about their negative effect on politics and have been charged as being an expression of the corporatization of life. Here Frederick Wasser argues that the older Spielberg has not fully gone this way, suggesting that the filmmaker recycles the populist vision of older Hollywood because he sincerely believes in both big time moviemaking and liberal democracy. Nonetheless, his stories are burdened by his generation’s hostility to public life, and the book shows how he uses filmmaking tricks to keep his audience with him and to smooth over the ideological contradictions. His audiences have become more global, as his films engage history. This fresh and provocative take on Spielberg in the context of globalization, rampant market capitalism and the hardening socio-political landscape of the United States will be fascinating reading for students of film and for anyone interested in contemporary America and its culture.

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Throughout history, migrants have fueled the engine of human progress. Their movement has sparked innovation, spread ideas, relieved poverty, and laid the foundations for a global economy. In a world more interconnected than ever before, the number of people with the means and motivation to migrate will only increase. Exceptional People provides a long-term and global perspective on the implications and policy options for societies the world over. Challenging the received wisdom that a dramatic growth in migration is undesirable, the book proposes new approaches for governance that will embrace this international mobility. The authors explore the critical role of human migration since humans first departed Africa some fifty thousand years ago - how the circulation of ideas and technologies has benefited communities and how the movement of people across oceans and continents has fueled economies. They show that migrants in today's world connect markets, fill labor gaps, and enrich social diversity. Migration also allows individuals to escape destitution, human rights abuses, and repressive regimes. However, the authors indicate that most current migration policies are based on misconceptions and fears about migration's long-term contributions and social dynamics. Future policies, for good or ill, will dramatically determine whether societies can effectively reap migration's opportunities while managing the risks of the twenty-first century. A guide to vigorous debate and action, "Exceptional People" charts the past and present of international migration and makes practical recommendations that will allow everyone to benefit from its unstoppable future growth.

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The Armenian Genocide and the Nazi Holocaust are often thought to be separated by a large distance in time and space. But Stefan Ihrig shows that they were much more connected than previously thought. Bismarck and then Wilhelm II staked their foreign policy on close relations with a stable Ottoman Empire. To the extent that the Armenians were restless under Ottoman rule, they were a problem for Germany too. From the 1890s onward Germany became accustomed to excusing violence against Armenians, even accepting it as a foreign policy necessity. For many Germans, the Armenians represented an explicitly racial problem and despite the Armenians’ Christianity, Germans portrayed them as the “Jews of the Orient.”As Stefan Ihrig reveals in this first comprehensive study of the subject, many Germans before World War I sympathized with the Ottomans’ longstanding repression of the Armenians and would go on to defend vigorously the Turks’ wartime program of extermination. After the war, in what Ihrig terms the “great genocide debate,” German nationalists first denied and then justified genocide in sweeping terms. The Nazis too came to see genocide as justifiable: in their version of history, the Armenian Genocide had made possible the astonishing rise of the New Turkey.Ihrig is careful to note that this connection does not imply the Armenian Genocide somehow caused the Holocaust, nor does it make Germans any less culpable. But no history of the twentieth century should ignore the deep, direct, and disturbing connections between these two crimes.

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Tactics provides the game plan for defending your faith and artfully communicating the truths of Christianity with confidence and grace. This expanded anniversary edition of the classic book of Christian apologetics includes updates and expansions of existing tactics, as well as the addition of an all-new tactic and a chapter on Mini Tactics filled with simple maneuvers to aid in discussions.In a culture increasingly indifferent or even hostile to Christian truth, followers of Christ need to be equipped to communicate with those who do not speak their language or accept their source of authority.In Tactics, 10th Anniversary Edition, Gregory Koukl demonstrates how to artfully regain control of conversations, keeping them moving forward in constructive ways through thoughtful diplomacy. You'll learn how to: Meet challenges, questions, and provocations with poise and conviction. Effortlessly start your own evangelical conversations. Present the truth clearly, cleverly, and persuasively. Graciously and effectively expose faulty thinking and logical fallacies. Most important, you'll learn how to get people thinking seriously about Jesus. Drawing on extensive experience defending Christianity in the public square, Koukl will not only walk you through effective arguments to defend why you believe what you believe, but he'll teach you methods for engaging in meaningful dialogue and debate.Step-by-step, you'll learn the tactics of good persuasion and defense, how to identify the tactics of your opponent, and how to build your case, patiently and practically.

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Gendun Chopel is considered the most important Tibetan intellectual of the twentieth century. His life spanned the two defining moments in modern Tibetan history: the entries into Lhasa by British troops in 1904 and by Chinese troops in 1951. Recognized as an incarnate lama while he was a child, Gendun Chopel excelled in the traditional monastic curriculum and went on to become expert in fields as diverse as philosophy, history, linguistics, geography, and tantric Buddhism. Near the end of his life, before he was persecuted and imprisoned by the government of the young Dalai Lama, he would dictate the "Adornment for Nagarjuna's Thought", a work on Madhyamaka, or "Middle Way," philosophy. It sparked controversy immediately upon its publication and continues to do so today. "The Madman's Middle Way" presents the first English translation of this major work, accompanied by an essay on Gendun Chopel's life liberally interspersed with passages from his writings. Donald S. Lopez Jr. also provides a commentary that sheds light on the doctrinal context of the Adornment and summarizes its key arguments. Ultimately, Lopez examines the long-standing debate over whether Gendun Chopel in fact is the author of the "Adornment"; the heated critical response to the work by Tibetan monks of the Dalai Lama's sect; and what the "Adornment" tells us about Tibetan Buddhism's encounter with modernity. The result is an insightful glimpse into a provocative and enigmatic work that will intrigue anyone interested in Buddhism or Asian religions.

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The Directions series has been written with students in mind. The ideal guide as they approach the subject for the first time, EU Law Directions will help them: · Gain a complete understanding of the topic: just the right amount of detail conveyed clearly · Understand the law in context: with scene-setting introductions and highlighted case extracts, the practical importance of the law becomes clear · Identify when and how to critically evaluate the law: they'll be introduced to the key areas of debate and given the confidence to question the law · Deepen and test knowledge: visually engaging learning and self-testing features aid understanding and help students tackle assessments with confidence · Elevate their learning: with the ground-work in place your students can aspire to take their learning to the next level, with direction provided on how to go further Digital formats and resources The eighth edition is available for students and institutions to purchase in a variety of formats, and is supported by online resources. · The e-book offers a mobile experience and convenient access along with functionality tools, navigation features and links that offer extra learning support: www.oxfordtextbooks.co.uk/ebooks · The online resources include self-test questions with instant feedback to consolidate your learning, suggested approaches to end of chapter questions to help you perfect your technique, as well as a timeline of key moments in EU legal history to give you a contextual overview of the subject.

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Through their part in some huge controversies, conspiracy theorists are being branded the Number One Enemies of our times – the new heretics. They are seen to threaten the very fabric of modern society, spreading doubts and fears that result in Washington Capitol invasions, transmission mast burnings or the spread of anti-vaxx material. Yet the theorists prefer to call themselves "truth seekers" and see the mainstream establishment as the real disruptor, treating its increasingly harsh censorship as direct validation of their views. In truth, the new heretics, whose numbers are swelling, are symptoms of a wider polarization splitting apart much of the world in ideological divisions. Many have lost trust in politicians and the media, while nuanced debate is crushed and information overload and manipulation breeds uncertainty, civil unrest and mental health issues. How does the age old strategy of divide-and-rule play out in such an environment? Using his extensive experience of negotiating disputes between cynics and truth seekers, Andy Thomas explores the proliferation of conspiracy thinking, peeling back unhelpful layers of biased thinking on all sides to find more insightful ways to bridge the polarised divides and create a better way forward. The New Heretics scrutinises the future of freedom of expression in a censorious world which unwisely seeks to close down discussion of everything alternative, expanding into a truly thought-provoking and expansive treatise on our relationship to truth, technology, politics and the paranormal – and the future of humanity itself.

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In this companion volume to "Iconology", the author extends his investigation to pictures - the concrete, representational objects in which images appear. Although we have many words about pictures, Mitchell notes that we do not yet have a satisfactory theory of them. What we have is a variety of disciplines - semiotics, philosophical inquiries into representation, new departures in art history, studies in mass media - that attempt to converge on the problem of pictorial representation and visual culture. Identifying the problems inherent in the attempt to master visual representation with verbal discourse, Mitchell proposes instead to "picture theory." He looks at the way pictures function in theories about culture, consciousness, and representation, and at theory itself as a form of picturing. What precisely, he asks, are pictures (and theories about pictures) doing now , in the late 20th century, when the power of the visual is said to be greater than ever before, and the "pictorial turn" supplants the "linguistic turn" in the study of culture? Focusing on Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing", Oliver Stone's "JFK", and television coverage of the Gulf War, he examines the capacity of visual images to awaken or stifle public debate, collective emotion, and political violence. An "applied iconology," this volume by one of America's leading theorists of visual representation offers an account of the interplay between the visible and the readable across the culture, from literature to visual art to the mass media.

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'Philosophy is written in this great book which is continually open before our eyes - I mean the universe...' Galileo's astronomical discoveries changed the way we look at the world, and our place in the universe. Threatened by the Inquisition for daring to contradict the literal truth of the Bible, Galileo ignited a scientific revolution when he asserted that the Earth moves. This generous selection from his writings contains all the essential texts for a reader to appreciate his lasting significance. Mark Davie's new translation renders Galileo's vigorous Italian prose into clear modern English, while William R. Shea's version of the Latin Sidereal Message makes accessible the book that created a sensation in 1610 with its account of Galileo's observations using the newly invented telescope. All Galileo's contributions to the debate on science and religion are included, as well as key documents from his trial before the Inquisition in 1633. A lively introduction and clear notes give an overview of Galileo's career and explain the scientific and philosophical background to the texts. 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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A contrarian yet highly engaging account of the spread of illiberal and anti-democratic sentiment throughout our culture that places responsibility on the citizens themselves. Over the past three decades, citizens of democracies who claim to value freedom, tolerance, and the rule of law have increasingly embraced illiberal politicians and platforms. Democracy is in trouble—but who is really to blame? In Our Own Worst Enemy, Tom Nichols challenges the current depictions of the rise of illiberal and anti-democratic movements in the United States and elsewhere as the result of the deprivations of globalization or the malign decisions of elites. Rather, he places the blame for the rise of illiberalism on the people themselves. Nichols traces the illiberalism of the 21st century to the growth of unchecked narcissism, rising standards of living, global peace, and a resistance to change. Ordinary citizens, laden with grievances, have joined forces with political entrepreneurs who thrive on the creation of rage rather than on the encouragement of civic virtue and democratic cooperation. While it will be difficult, Nichols argues that we need to defend democracy by resurrecting the virtues of altruism, compromise, stoicism, and cooperation—and by recognizing how good we've actually had it in the modern world. Trenchant, contrarian, and highly engaging, Our Own Worst Enemy reframes the debate about how democracies have ended up in this dire state of affairs and what to do about it.

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From journalist Michelle Dean, winner of the National Book Critics Circle's 2016 Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing, Sharp combines biography, original research, and critical reading into a powerful portrait of ten writers who managed to make their voices heard amidst a climate of sexism and nepotism, from the 1920s to the 1990s.Dorothy Parker, Rebecca West, Mary McCarthy, Hannah Arendt, Susan Sontag, Joan Didion, Janet Malcolm, Renata Adler, Pauline Kael, and Nora Ephron-these are the main characters of Sharp. Their lives intertwine. They enable each other and feud, manufacture unique spaces and voices, and haunt each other. They form a group united in many ways, but especially by what Dean terms as 'sharpness', the ability to cut to the quick with precision of thought and wit, a claiming of power through writing rather than position. Sharp is a vibrant and rich depiction of the intellectual beau monde of New York, where gossip-filled parties at night gave out to literary slanging-matches in the pages of publications like the Partisan Review or the New York Review of Books, as well as a carefully considered portrayal of the rise of feminism and its interaction with the critical establishment.Sharp is for book lovers who want to read about their favorite writers, lovers of New Yorker lore, aspiring writers in New York, those interested in the history of ideas, and of the fray of 20th century debate-and it will satisfy them all.

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This book presents an invaluable contribution to the debate on the compatibility of Islam and modernity. It is full of arguments and examples showing how Islam can be understood in line with modern life, human rights, democracy, the rule of law, civil society and pluralism. The three authors come from different countries, represent different gender perspectives and have a Shia, a Sunni and a non-Muslim background respectively which makes the book a unique source of information and inspiration.'- Irmgard Marboe, University of Vienna, AustriaThis well-informed book explains, reflects on and analyzes Islamic law, not only in the classical legal tradition of Sharia, but also its modern, contemporary context.The book explores the role of Islamic law in secular Western nations and reflects on the legal system of Islam in its classical context as applied in its traditional homeland of the Middle East and also in South East Asia. Written by three leading scholars from three different backgrounds: a Muslim in the Sunni tradition, a Muslim in the Shia tradition, and a non-Muslim woman - the book is not only unique, but also enriched by differing insights into Islamic law.Sir William Blair provides the foreword to a book which acknowledges that Islam continues to play a vital role not just in the Middle East but across the wider world, the discussion on which the authors embark is a crucial one.The book starts with an analysis of the nature of Islamic law, its concepts, meaning and sources, as well as its development in different stages of Islamic history. This is followed by accounts of how Islamic law is being practised today. Key modern institutions are discussed, such as the parliament, judiciary, dar al-ifta, political parties, and other important organizations. It continues by analysing some key concepts in our modern times: nation-state, citizenship, ummah, dhimmah (recognition of the status of certain non-Muslims in Islamic states), and the rule of law. The book investigates how in recent times, more and more fatwas are issued collectively rather than emanating from an individual scholar. The authors then evaluate how Islamic law deals with family matters, economics, crime, property and alternative dispute resolution. Lastly, the book revisits certain contemporary issues of debate in Islamic law such as the burqa, halal food, riba (interest) and apostasy.Modern Perspectives on Islamic Law will become a standard scholarly text on Islamic law. Its wide-ranging coverage will appeal to researchers and students of Islamic law, or Islamic studies in general. Legal practitioners will also be interested in the comparative aspects of Islamic law presented in this book.Contents: Foreword by The Honorable Sir William Blair Preface Prologue 1. The Nature of Law, and its Relationship with Religion, in Islam 2. Islamic Law and Institutions 3. Seeing a Western Nation through Muslim Eyes: Citizenship and the Sharia in Modern Nation-states 4. Fatwa and Muftis 5. Islamic Family Law 6. Mediation, Arbitration and Islamic Alternative Dispute Resolution 7. Islamic Law and Economics 8. Property Rights, Inheritance Law and Trusts (waqf) 9. Islamic Criminal Law 10. Contemporary Debates On and Within Islam Epilogue Index

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China stands as a major "Red Swan" challenge to the social sciences. The political resilience of the Communist party-state, in combination with a rapidly expanding and internationally competitive economy, represents a significant deviant and unpredicted case with a huge potential impact not only on the global distribution of political and economic power but also on the global debate about models of development. China's exceptional development trajectory thus challenges conventional wisdom as well as conventional models of political change. The traditional approach to systemic classification is not helpful in understanding the dynamics in China, a system which is unexpectedly adaptable and versatile in many policy fields, particularly as regards economic and technology policy.To avoid the inherent limitations of typological approaches, this book uses analytical approaches drawn from policy studies. The focus is on the manner in which action programs in China's governmental system can be developed, formulated, implemented, adjusted, and revised. Policy making is therefore seen in this book as an open-ended process with an uncertain outcome, driven by conflicting interests, recurrent interactions, and continuous feedback—it is not seen as being determined by history, regime type, or institutions in a straight-forward way. Key to this are the political and administrative methodology as well as the capacity to deal with both existing and emerging challenges, the correction mechanisms when things go wrong and conflicts arise, and adaptive capabilities in a constantly changing economic or international context.

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Publius Ovid (43 BC-17/18 AD) describes in his Metamorphoses Niobe’s transformation into a weeping rock. Niobe’s transformation incorporates the form and matter of the medium of sculpture. According to the humanist paragone debate, painting and sculpture struggle to be the medium with the highest qualities of virtuosity. Aby Warburg (1866-1929) refers to the Niobe motif’s Nachleben in his Tafel 5: Beraubte Mutter. (Niobe, Flucht und Schrecken). This displays the images of both the bereaved mother (Niobe) and the murderous mother (Medea). The montage also introduces the theme of the descent to the underworld. It becomes clear how the cluster of motifs around the figure of Niobe - hybris, lamentatio and the chthonic substrate - functions as a direct entry to a bipolar hermeneutics of the visual medium: the ‘historical psychology of human expression’ that navigates between Apollo and Dionysus. The 'weeping rock' that according to legend still stands on Mount Sipylus in Turkey, draws upon deeper anthropological patterns. Petrification indicates inertia, frigidity and a Medusan psychosis of fear. In nature, stones and rocks have a 'slumbering insistence' that can be captivating. Stones are after all visible but impenetrable, they index an irrevocable absence in their presence, and ‘have abode’ in an otherworldly region of utter blindness and silence. From a psychoanalytical perspective, Niobe’s petrifaction symbolises the straitening of her life and the loss of anima within a culture divorced from authentic feeling, nature, and instinct. Here Niobe meets Echo.

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The Wisdom of Ben Sira and the Wisdom of Solomon are included in the Septuagint, but not in the Hebrew Bible. For a long time, these books were little read and studied. Today, however, there is a growing interest in them, stimulated not only by the discovery of Hebrew manuscripts of Ben Sira but also by the awareness that both books provide a privileged witness to the judaism in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Both books invite the reader to recognise that authentic wisdom consists in fear of the Lord and in loyality to the Torah. In addition to this common feature, both express different points of view in the debate in which the Jewish communities of Jerusalem (Wisdom of Ben Sira) and Alexandria (Wisdom of Solomon) were engaged in the face of the rise of Hellenistic culture. These books contain an essential key to the understanding of Judaism at the time and the beginning of Christianity. Professor Maurice Gilbert s.j. has devoted most of his scientific work, first, on the study of the Wisdom of Solomon and, later, on the Wisdom of Ben Sira. The present volume is dedicated to his honour on the occasion of his 65th birthday. It includes thirty-two studies by some of today's authorities on wisdom literature, and may be considered as a major contribution to the understanding of two important books of the Greek Bible.

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Using this edition, the reader may see at once how Shakespeare's manuscript of the play, upon which the second quarto (Q2) is based, was adapted for the Elizabethan stage by the author and/or his colleagues. Q1 is considerably shorter than Q2. While many long speeches are cut, abbreviated, or revised, the structure of the play remains essentially as Shakespeare originally conceived it. Q1 is thus quite different, for instance, from Q1 Hamlet, whose provenance is still open to debate. While both of these early quartos were once believed to be memorial reconstructions, and thus 'Bad' quartos, the theory of memorial reconstructions has now been seriously disputed. One of the essays appended to Halio's edition, 'Handy-Dandy: Q1/Q2 Romeo and Juliet,' discusses this issue and brings fresh evidence to bear to show that Q1 Romeo is not truly a 'Bad' quarto, as A. W. Pollard long maintained. In another essay, Halio offers a brief stage history of Romeo and Juliet. Many non-authorial changes in the texts of Shakespeare's play were common in the eighteenth century. For example, Garrick introduced Juliet's spectacular funeral procession at the end of act 4, along with many new songs. Later, the American actress Charlotte Cushman removed many of these interpolations and restored much of Shakespeare's original text. Modern-dress productions of the play have often been staged, which introduced a good deal of modern technology into the action.

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A critique of religious dogma historically provides the basis for rational inquiry into the physical and social world. "Critique of Intelligent Design" is a key to understanding the forces of irrationalism that seek to undermine the natural and social sciences. This book illuminates the historical evolution of the materialist critique - that is, explaining the world in terms of itself - from antiquity to the present through engaging the work of Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, Lucretius, Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton, David Hume, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, and Stephen Jay Gould among others.Proponents of "intelligent design" - creationism in its contemporary guise - have reignited an age-old war in which they claim to elevate their doctrine to empirical truth and thus incorporate it into science curricula. They attack the modern scientific view elevating both a pseudo-scientific and -cultural renewal in line with their theological orientation and what they perceive as a knowable moral order." Critique of Intelligent Design" is a compelling account of the debate between materialism and religion as well as an overview of the contemporary fight concerning nature, science, history, morality, and knowledge. The authors demonstrate how historical materialism is a crucial social foundation from which to confront intelligent design. They provide a fascinating account of the development of science in opposition to the proponents of "received wisdom." "Critique of Intelligent Design" offers empowering tools to understand and defend critical and scientific reasoning.

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The record of the American economy since 1945 offers an embarrassment of riches for the historian, and Wyatt Wells has brought them together in a compact and incisive history. His theme is how greatly many economic circumstances changed—and how many other features remained essentially the same. He shows how throughout the period the United States enjoyed not only the world's largest economy but by most measures its most diverse and sophisticated. The second half of the twentieth century witnessed extraordinary change: the development of entirely new industries, such as television and computers; the decline of established industries, such as steel and textiles; the impact of international trade and competition on growing numbers of Americans. As the boom of the 1950s and 1960s gave way to "stagflation" in the 1970s, the 1980s became a time of extensive reorganization, which in turn laid the foundation for another boom in the 1990s. Still, as Mr. Wells notes, industry remained in private hands; political debate consistently returned to the same issues involving the proper role of government in the economy; and the country remained committed to an open international economic system. American Capitalism examines the development of economic policy (government spending, taxes, regulation, and monetary policy), economic structure (companies, markets, technology, and labor), and ideas about both, explaining the complex interaction of these factors over the past half-century. The book offers an essential short course on American economic development over these years.

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In the third book of the popular Seaside Café Mysteries, Tide and Punishment, it's not all Christmas sweets, tinsel, and wrapping paper. Everly Swan will have to follow a string of clues before it's too late—because no one dreams of a killer Christmas...Hitting all the sweet-tea spots, this series is:A delightful Tea Shop and Café Culinary MysteryThe ideal cozy beach readPerfect for fans of Laura Childs and Kate CarlisleIt's Christmastime in Charm, North Carolina, and while Everly Swan would prefer to focus on decorating her iced tea shop and café for its first holiday season, Great-Aunt Fran has decided to run for mayor against her long-time nemesis. But when the other candidate turns up dead just before the first scheduled debate, all eyes turn to Fran as the suspect with the most obvious motive.As a rare blizzard threatens to bury all evidence, small-town holiday cheer turns to suspicion and the tension between Everly and the handsome Detective Grady Hays builds. Everly knows her sweet, elderly Aunt Fran couldn't have murdered anyone, but as she struggles to find the real killer, it begins to seem like this may be the last happy holiday her family will ever have. Can she tie this Christmas mystery up in a bow before it's too late? This next book in Bree Baker's cozy mysteries will keep you guessing right up to the end!INCLUDES DELICIOUS FOOD AND DRINK RECIPES

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The field of biomedical technology has experienced rapid growth in recent years. New technologies promise to diagnose, treat, and prevent human diseases. Increasingly, however, the ability of these technologies to "enhance" normal human functioning beyond what is necessary to restore or sustain health has raised considerable debate about the proper limits of biotechnology. Whereas the public-facing proponents of bioenhancements tend to come from privileged positions in society, Bioenhancement Technologies and the Vulnerable Body seeks to analyze the nuances of bioenhancement from the perspective of those who are often marginalized in bioethical discussions.Any moral assessment of technology must consider its effects on all people, principally those who have not benefited equally from technological advancements. From the premise that minority perspectives yield new insights into biomedical enhancements, this volume centers the bodies of persons who are vulnerable to health disparities--particularly persons with disabilities and persons of color. Contributors critically examine bioenhancement technologies with two key questions in mind: What does it mean to be human?, and What does it mean to be vulnerable? Each chapter uses distinct Christian theological methods and ontological suppositions to reflect on the distinctiveness of human creatureliness in relation to technology and what difference bioenhancement might make for our conceptions of vulnerability. Bioenhancement Technologies and the Vulnerable Body is aimed primarily at Christian scholars and graduate students already conversant in bioethics but will also appeal to contextual theologians and others not well-versed in these debates.

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Too small to be important, too different to be trusted. The New Testament's Catholic letters have suffered neglect when compared to the attention lavished upon Jesus, the Gospels, and Paul. Jude and 2 Peter, especially, have been ignored. Jörg Frey remedies this dearth with this full-scale commentary on Jude and 2 Peter. Frey's meticulous, sustained verse-by-verse interpretation highlights the theological achievements of the two canonical writings without sidestepping any of the open historical and literary questions plaguing these two pseudepigraphal letters. The Letter of Jude and the Second Letter of Peter investigates the historical location of the two writings, the literary context, the shape of their arguments, and the profile of the respective opponents that are the central concern of each epistle. The analysis also explores Jude and 2 Peter's use of biblical, Second Temple Jewish, and apocalyptic traditions, the long-recognized interrelation between the two letters, and the difficult text-critical issues that haunt both. Frey's careful interpretation points to the theological work each letter performs. Jude takes part in a critical debate within the Pauline and post-Pauline communities, while 2 Peter becomes a testimony to the theological discussions of the second century. Far from insignificant or irrelevant, the epistles provide invaluable insight into the growth and consolidation of early Christian tradition. With this groundbreaking commentary, Frey rightly draws our attention back to these texts' important role within the canon and early Christianity.

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This open access book analyses barriers and challenges associated with the financing of clean energy access in sub-Saharan Africa. By considering various economic, financial, political, environmental and social factors, it explores the consequences of energy poverty across the region and maps the real and perceived investment risks for potential capital providers, both domestic and international. Furthermore, it analyses risk mitigation strategies and innovative financing structures available to the public and private sectors, which are aimed at leveraging capital in the clean energy sector at scale and fostering the creation of an enabling business and investment environment.More specifically, the present book analyses how to (i) enhance capital allocation in projects and organisations that foster clean energy access in the region, (ii) mobilize private capital at scale and (iii) decrease the cost of financing through risk mitigation strategies. Going beyond traditional approaches, the book also considers socioeconomic and cultural aspects associated with investment barriers across the subcontinent. Moreover, it urges the public and private spheres to become more actively involved in tackling this pressing development issue, and provides policy recommendations for the public sector, including proposals for business model evolution at multilateral agencies and development institutions. It will appeal to a wide readership of both academics and professionals working in the energy industry, the financial sector and the political sphere, as well as to general readers interested in the ongoing debate about energy, sustainable development and finance.

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In recent decades, international research on Virgil has been marked, if not dominated, by the ideas of the 'Harvard school' and similar trends, according to which the poet was engaged in an elaborate work of subtle subversion, directed against the new ruler of the Roman world, Octavian-Augustus. Much of Virgil's oeuvre consists prima facie of eulogy of the ruler, and of emphatic prediction of his enduring success: this is explained by numerous modern critics as generic convention, or as studied ambiguity, or as irony.This paradoxical position, which runs against ancient - as well as much modern - interpretation of the poet, continues to create widespread unease. Stahl's new monograph is the most thorough study so far to question modern Virgilian criticism on philological grounds. He bases himself on the internal logic and rhetoric of the Aeneid, and considers also political, historical, archaeological and philosophical subjects addressed by the poem. He finds that the poet has so presented the morality of his central figure, Augustus' supposed ancestor Aeneas, and of those who (eventually) clash with him, Turnus and Dido, as to make it certain that Roman readers and hearers of the poem were meant to conclude in Aeneas' favour. Virgil's intention emerges from Stahl's thorough, ingenious and original argumentation as decisively pro-Augustan. Stahl's work, in short, will not only enliven debate on current critical hypotheses but for many will enduringly affect their credibility.

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Whatever the eventual outcome of the Brexit negotiations, the critical questions remain: what does the Referendum vote tell us about the sort of society we are? Why was the result a shock to so many? Did we not understand how divided we were? Old against young, provincial against metropolitan, Scotland and London against much of the rest of England and Wales. Instead we must look at how our failure over decades to invest properly in the country's societal future and the life chances of the young shaped the vote this summer. Economic growth allowed Britain to live beyond its means. The gap in the skills base was concealed by immigration. The shortsightedness and dishonesty of our political class can obscure the issue; criticising the policies and practices of the establishment - important though that is - allows us to ignore the uncomfortable truths about ourselves. In Brexit and the British Stephen Green argues that it is time to acknowledge that underlying all the sound and fury of the Brexit debate was a question - whether or not fully recognised - about our identity. Are we British different, special and capable of finding our own way in the world? Who are we, who call ourselves British? Is it too easy for Remain voters to blame Brexit on post-industrial decline in the Labour heartlands, scare-mongering and deluded Little Englanders? Or is our identity more complex, deep-rooted - and perhaps, in some sense, troubling - than those of other European nations?

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