Search results for ""author rath"

The essays in Object-Oriented Feminism explore OOF: a feminist intervention into recent philosophical discourses—like speculative realism, object-oriented ontology (OOO), and new materialism—that take objects, things, stuff, and matter as primary. Object-oriented feminism approaches all objects from the inside-out position of being an object too, with all of its accompanying political and ethical potentials. This volume places OOF thought in a long history of ongoing feminist work in multiple disciplines. In particular, object-oriented feminism foregrounds three significant aspects of feminist thinking in the philosophy of things: politics, engaging with histories of treating certain humans (women, people of color, and the poor) as objects; erotics, employing humor to foment unseemly entanglements between things; and ethics, refusing to make grand philosophical truth claims, instead staking a modest ethical position that arrives at being “in the right” by being “wrong.”Seeking not to define object-oriented feminism but rather to enact it, the volume is interdisciplinary in approach, with contributors from a variety of fields, including sociology, anthropology, English, art, and philosophy. Topics are frequently provocative, engaging a wide range of theorists from Heidegger and Levinas to Irigaray and Haraway, and an intriguing diverse array of objects, including the female body as fetish object in Lolita subculture; birds made queer by endocrine disruptors; and truth claims arising in material relations in indigenous fiction and film. Intentionally, each essay can be seen as an “object” in relation to others in this collection. Contributors: Irina Aristarkhova, University of Michigan; Karen Gregory, University of Edinburgh; Marina Gržinić, Slovenian Academy of Science and Arts; Frenchy Lunning, Minneapolis College of Art and Design; Timothy Morton, Rice University; Anne Pollock, Georgia Tech; Elizabeth A. Povinelli, Columbia University; R. Joshua Scannell, CUNY Graduate Center; Adam Zaretsky, VASTAL.

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A Next Big Idea Club "Must Read" for December 2023 As all aspects of our social and informational lives increasingly migrate online, the line between what is "real" and what is digitally fabricated grows ever thinner—and that fake content has undeniable real-world consequences. A History of Fake Things on the Internet takes the long view of how advances in technology brought us to the point where faked texts, images, and video content are nearly indistinguishable from what is authentic or true. Computer scientist Walter J. Scheirer takes a deep dive into the origins of fake news, conspiracy theories, reports of the paranormal, and other deviations from reality that have become part of mainstream culture, from image manipulation in the nineteenth-century darkroom to the literary stylings of large language models like ChatGPT. Scheirer investigates the origins of Internet fakes, from early hoaxes that traversed the globe via Bulletin Board Systems (BBSs), USENET, and a new messaging technology called email, to today's hyperrealistic, AI-generated Deepfakes. An expert in machine learning and recognition, Scheirer breaks down the technical advances that made new developments in digital deception possible, and shares behind-the-screens details of early Internet-era pranks that have become touchstones of hacker lore. His story introduces us to the visionaries and mischief-makers who first deployed digital fakery and continue to influence how digital manipulation works—and doesn't—today: computer hackers, digital artists, media forensics specialists, and AI researchers. Ultimately, Scheirer argues that problems associated with fake content are not intrinsic properties of the content itself, but rather stem from human behavior, demonstrating our capacity for both creativity and destruction.

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A rich set of feminist perspectives on the varied and often contradictory nature of state practices, structures, and ideologies Growing socio-economic inequality and exclusion are defining features of the twenty-first century. While debates on globalization, free trade, and economic development have been linked to the paradigm of “neo-liberalism,” it does not explain all the forms of social change that have been unfolding in comparative contexts. Feminists Rethink the Neoliberal State provides a timely intervention into discussions about the boundaries, practices, and nature of the post-liberalization state, suggesting that an understanding of economic policies, the corresponding rise of socio-economic inequality, and the possibilities for change requires an in-depth reconceptualization. Drawing on original field research both globally and within the United States, this volume brings together a rich set of perspectives on the varied and often contradictory nature of state practices, structures and ideologies in the post-liberalization era. The essays develop an interdisciplinary approach that treats an understanding of historically-specific forms of inequality—such as gender, race, caste, sexuality and class—as integral to, rather than as after-effects of, the policies and ideologies associated with the “neoliberal project.” The volume also tackles central questions on the restructuring of the state, the state’s power operations, the relationship between capital and the state, and its interactions with the institutions and organizational forms of civil society in the post-liberalization era. As such, Feminists Rethink the Neoliberal State examines both what is distinctive about this post-liberalization state and what must be contextualized as long-standing features of modern state power. A truly international and interdisciplinary volume, Feminists Rethink the Neoliberal State deepens our understanding of how policies of economic liberalization shape and produce various forms of inequality.

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A work of startling originality when it debuted in 1938, Thornton Wilder's Our Town evolved to be seen by some as a vintage slice of early 20th Century Americana, rather than being fully appreciated for its complex and eternal themes and its deceptively simple form. This unique and timely book shines a light on the play's continued impact in the 21st century and makes a case for the healing powers of Wilder's text to a world confronting multiple crises. Through extensive interviews with more than 100 artists about their own experience of the play and its impact on them professionally and personally – and including background on the play’s early years and its pervasiveness in American culture – Another Day’s Begun shows why this particular work remains so important, essential, and beloved. Every production of Our Town has a story to tell beyond Wilder’s own. One year after the tragedy of 9/11, Paul Newman, in his final stage appearance, played the Stage Manager in Our Town on Broadway. Director David Cromer’s 2008 Chicago interpretation would play in five more cities, ultimately becoming New York’s longest-running Our Town ever. In 2013, incarcerated men at Sing Sing Correctional Facility brought Grover’s Corners inside a maximum security prison. After the 2017 arena bombing in Manchester UK, the Royal Exchange Theatre chose Our Town as its offering to the stricken community. 80 years after it was written, more than 110 years after its actions take place, Our Town continues to assert itself as an essential play about how we must embrace and appreciate the value of life itself. Another Day's Begun explains how this American classic has the power to inspire, heal and endure in the modern day, onstage and beyond.

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Can ballet ever be reconciled with feminist ideals? 'Beautiful, difficult, and compelling.' VANITY FAIR 'Don’t think, dear,' said Balanchine. 'Just do.' For centuries, being a ballerina has been synonymous with being beautiful, thin, obedient and feminine. It is the crucible of womanhood, together with the harassment, physical abuse and eating disorders endemic at top schools. Can we abide this in a post #MeToo world? Weaving together her own time at America’s most elite ballet school with the lives of renowned ballerinas throughout history, Alice Robb interrogates what it means to perform ballet today. She confronts the all-consuming nature of the form: the obsessive and dangerous practices to perfect the body, the embrace of submission and the idealisation of suffering. Yet ballet also gifts its dancers ‘brains in their toes’, a way to fully inhabit their bodies and a sanctuary of control away from the pressures of the outside world. Perhaps it is time to reimagine its liberating potential. *** 'Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, the book weaves [Robb’s] early experiences as a dancer with those of her contemporaries, and of famous ballerinas… Don’t Think, Dear is powered by a fundamental love of the art form while exposing the toxic culture that runs through it.' GUARDIAN '[Robb’s] timely book is a critical yet personal examination of classical ballet – a performing art highly dependent on the talent of women – filtered through the lens of 21st-century feminism… she brings a welcome academic rigour to a subject clearly born of deeply held emotions.' THE TIMES 'A study of an obsession remarkable for its nuance and insight… It might be easy… to assume that Don’t Think, Dear is Robb’s litany of grievances about a demanding art form in which she failed to flourish. Rather, it is a book about love, even if that love is ultimately unrequited… fascinating.' TLS

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In these pages Jonathan Boyarin invites us to share the intimate life of the Stanton Street Shul, one of the last remaining Jewish congregations on New York’s historic Lower East Side. This narrow building, wedged into a lot designed for an old-law tenement, is full of clamorous voices—the generations of the dead, who somehow contrive to make their presence known, and the newer generation, keeping the building and its memories alive and making themselves Jews in the process. Through the eyes of Boyarin, at once a member of the congregation and a bemused anthropologist, the book follows this congregation of “year-round Jews” through the course of a summer during which its future must once again be decided. The Lower East Side, famous as the jumping off point for millions of Jewish and other immigrants to America, has recently become the hip playground of twenty-something immigrants to the city from elsewhere in America and from abroad. Few imagine that Jewish life there has stubbornly continued through this history of decline and regeneration. Coming inside with Boyarin, we see the congregation’s life as a combination of quiet heroism, ironic humor, disputes for the sake of Heaven and perhaps otherwise, and—above all—the ongoing search for ways to connect with Jewish ancestors while remaining true to oneself in the present. Mornings at the Stanton Street Shul illustrates in poignant and humorous ways the changes in a historic neighborhood facing the challenges of gentrification. It offers readers with no prior knowledge of Judaism and synagogue life a portrait that is at once intimate and intelligible. Most important, perhaps, it shows the congregation’s members to be anything but a monochromatic set of uniform “believers” but rather a gathering of vibrant, imperfect, indisputably down-to-earth individuals coming together to make a community.

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In Hybrid Constitutions, Vicki Hsueh contests the idea that early-modern colonial constitutions were part of a uniform process of modernization, conquest, and assimilation. Through detailed analyses of the founding of several seventeenth-century English proprietary colonies in North America, she reveals how diverse constitutional thought and practice were at the time, and how colonial ambitions were advanced through cruelty toward indigenous peoples as well as accommodation of them. Proprietary colonies were governed by individuals (or small groups of individuals) granted colonial charters by the Crown. These proprietors had quasi-sovereign status over their colonies; they were able to draw on and transform English legal and political instruments as they developed constitutions. Hsueh demonstrates that the proprietors cobbled together constitutions based on the terms of their charters and the needs of their settlements. The “hybrid constitutions” they created were often altered based on interactions among the English settlers, other European settlers, and indigenous peoples.Hsueh traces the historical development and theoretical implications of proprietary constitutionalism by examining the founding of the colonies of Maryland, Carolina, and Pennsylvania. She provides close readings of colonial proclamations, executive orders, and assembly statutes, as well as the charter granting Cecilius Calvert the colony of Maryland in 1632; the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina, adopted in 1669; and the treaties brokered by William Penn and various Lenni Lenape and Susquehannock tribes during the 1680s and 1690s. These founding documents were shaped by ambition, contingency, and limited resources; they reflected an ambiguous and unwieldy colonialism rather than a purposeful, uniform march to modernity. Hsueh concludes by reflecting on hybridity as a rubric for analyzing the historical origins of colonialism and reconsidering contemporary indigenous claims in former settler colonies such as Australia, New Zealand, and the United States.

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Bodily Matters explores the anti-vaccination movement that emerged in England in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth in response to government-mandated smallpox vaccination. By requiring a painful and sometimes dangerous medical procedure for all infants, the Compulsory Vaccination Act set an important precedent for state regulation of bodies. From its inception in 1853 until its demise in 1907, the compulsory smallpox vaccine was fiercely resisted, largely by members of the working class who interpreted it as an infringement of their rights as citizens and a violation of their children’s bodies. Nadja Durbach contends that the anti-vaccination movement is historically significant not only because it was arguably the largest medical resistance campaign ever mounted in Europe but also because it clearly articulated pervasive anxieties regarding the integrity of the body and the role of the modern state.Analyzing historical documents on both sides of the vaccination debate, Durbach focuses on the key events and rhetorical strategies of the resistance campaign. She shows that those for and against the vaccine had very different ideas about how human bodies worked and how best to safeguard them from disease. Individuals opposed to mandatory vaccination saw their own and their children’s bodies not as potentially contagious and thus dangerous to society but rather as highly vulnerable to contamination and violation. Bodily Matters challenges the notion that resistance to vaccination can best be understood, and thus easily dismissed, as the ravings of an unscientific “lunatic fringe.” It locates the anti-vaccination movement at the very center of broad public debates in Victorian England over medical developments, the politics of class, the extent of government intervention into the private lives of its citizens, and the values of a liberal society.

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Leveling the Playing Field tells the story of the African American members of the 1969–70 Syracuse University football team who petitioned for racial equality on their team. The petition had four demands: access to the same academic tutoring made available to their white teammates; better medical care for all team members; starting assignments based on merit rather than race; and a discernible effort to racially integrate the coaching staff, which had been all white since 1898. The players’ charges of racial disparity were fiercely contested by many of the white players on the team, and the debate spilled into the newspapers and drew protests from around the country. Mistakenly called the "Syracuse 8" by media reports in the 1970s, the nine players who signed the petition did not receive a response allowing or even acknowledging their demands. They boycotted the spring 1970 practice, and Coach Ben Schwartzwalder, a deeply beloved figure on campus and a Hall of Fame football coach nearing retirement, banned seven of the players from the team. As tensions escalated, white players staged a day-long walkout in support of the coaching staff, and an enhanced police presence was required at home games. Extensive interviews with each player offer a firsthand account of their decision to stand their ground while knowing it would jeopardize their professional football career. They discuss with candor the ways in which the boycott profoundly changed the course of their lives. In Leveling the Playing Field, Marc chronicles this contentious moment in Syracuse University’s history and tells the story through the eyes of the players who demanded change for themselves and for those who would follow them.

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Of all the cultural "revolutions" brought about by the development of printing technology during the sixteenth century, perhaps the most remarkable but least understood is the purported rise of European vernacular languages. It is generally accepted that the invention of printing constitutes an event in the history of language that has profoundly shaped modernity, and yet the exact nature of this transformation—the mechanics of the event—has remained curiously unexamined. In The Prosthetic Tongue, Katie Chenoweth explores the relationship between printing and the vernacular as it took shape in sixteenth-century France and charts the technological reinvention of French across a range of domains, from typography, orthography, and grammar to politics, pedagogy, and poetics. Under François I, the king known in his own time as the "Father of Letters," both printing and vernacular language emerged as major cultural and political forces. Beginning in 1529, French underwent a remarkable transformation, as printers and writers began to reimagine their mother tongue as mechanically reproducible. The first accent marks appeared in French texts, the first French grammar books and dictionaries were published, phonetic spelling reforms were debated, modern Roman typefaces replaced gothic scripts, and French was codified as a legal idiom. This was, Chenoweth argues, a veritable "new media" moment, in which the print medium served as the underlying material apparatus and conceptual framework for a revolutionary reinvention of the vernacular. Rather than tell the story of the origin of the modern French language, however, she seeks to destabilize this very notion of "origin" by situating the cultural formation of French in a scene of media technology and reproducibility. No less than the paper book issuing from sixteenth-century printing presses, the modern French language is a product of the age of mechanical reproduction.

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The Migration Age is still envisioned as an onrush of expansionary "Germans" pouring unwanted into the Roman Empire and subjecting it to pressures so great that its western parts collapsed under the weight. Further developing the themes set forth in his classic Barbarians and Romans, Walter Goffart dismantles this grand narrative, shaking the barbarians of late antiquity out of this "Germanic" setting and reimagining the role of foreigners in the Later Roman Empire. The Empire was not swamped by a migratory Germanic flood for the simple reason that there was no single ancient Germanic civilization to be transplanted onto ex-Roman soil. Since the sixteenth century, the belief that purposeful Germans existed in parallel with the Romans has been a fixed point in European history. Goffart uncovers the origins of this historical untruth and argues that any projection of a modern Germany out of an ancient one is illusory. Rather, the multiplicity of northern peoples once living on the edges of the Empire participated with the Romans in the larger stirrings of late antiquity. Most relevant among these was the long militarization that gripped late Roman society concurrently with its Christianization. If the fragmented foreign peoples with which the Empire dealt gave Rome an advantage in maintaining its ascendancy, the readiness to admit military talents of any social origin to positions of leadership opened the door of imperial service to immigrants from beyond its frontiers. Many barbarians were settled in the provinces without dislodging the Roman residents or destabilizing landownership; some were even incorporated into the ruling families of the Empire. The outcome of this process, Goffart argues, was a society headed by elites of soldiers and Christian clergy—one we have come to call medieval.

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A New York Times Book Review Editors’ ChoiceWhy the conventional wisdom about the Arab Spring is wrongThe Arab Spring promised to end dictatorship and bring self-government to people across the Middle East. Yet everywhere except Tunisia it led to either renewed dictatorship, civil war, extremist terror, or all three. In The Arab Winter, Noah Feldman argues that the Arab Spring was nevertheless not an unmitigated failure, much less an inevitable one. Rather, it was a noble, tragic series of events in which, for the first time in recent Middle Eastern history, Arabic-speaking peoples took free, collective political action as they sought to achieve self-determination.Focusing on the Egyptian revolution and counterrevolution, the Syrian civil war, the rise and fall of ISIS in Syria and Iraq, and the Tunisian struggle toward Islamic constitutionalism, Feldman provides an original account of the political consequences of the Arab Spring, including the reaffirmation of pan-Arab identity, the devastation of Arab nationalisms, and the death of political Islam with the collapse of ISIS. He also challenges commentators who say that the Arab Spring was never truly transformative, that Arab popular self-determination was a mirage, and even that Arabs or Muslims are less capable of democracy than other peoples.Above all, The Arab Winter shows that we must not let the tragic outcome of the Arab Spring disguise its inherent human worth. People whose political lives had been determined from the outside tried, and for a time succeeded, in making politics for themselves. That this did not result in constitutional democracy or a better life for most of those affected doesn't mean the effort didn't matter. To the contrary, it matters for history—and it matters for the future.

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A radical new approach to economic policy that addresses the symptoms and causes of inequality in Western society todayFueled by populism and the frustrations of the disenfranchised, the past few years have witnessed the widespread rejection of the economic and political order that Western countries built up after 1945. Political debates have turned into violent clashes between those who want to “take their country back” and those viewed as defending an elitist, broken, and unpatriotic social contract. There seems to be an increasing polarization of values. The Economics of Belonging argues that we should step back and take a fresh look at the root causes of our current challenges. In this original, engaging book, Martin Sandbu argues that economics remains at the heart of our widening inequality and it is only by focusing on the right policies that we can address it. He proposes a detailed, radical plan for creating a just economy where everyone can belong.Sandbu demonstrates that the rising numbers of the left behind are not due to globalization gone too far. Rather, technological change and flawed but avoidable domestic policies have eroded the foundations of an economy in which everyone can participate—and would have done so even with a much less globalized economy. Sandbu contends that we have to double down on economic openness while pursuing dramatic reforms involving productivity, regional development, support for small- and medium-sized businesses, and increased worker representation. He discusses how a more active macroeconomic policy, education for all, universal basic income, and better taxation of capital could work together for society’s benefit.Offering real answers, not invective, for facing our most serious political issues, The Economics of Belonging shows how a better economic system can work for all.

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Higher Education in America is a landmark work--a comprehensive and authoritative analysis of the current condition of our colleges and universities from former Harvard president Derek Bok, one of the nation's most respected education experts. Sweepingly ambitious in scope, this is a deeply informed and balanced assessment of the many strengths as well as the weaknesses of American higher education today. At a time when colleges and universities have never been more important to the lives and opportunities of students or to the progress and prosperity of the nation, Bok provides a thorough examination of the entire system, public and private, from community colleges and small liberal arts colleges to great universities with their research programs and their medical, law, and business schools. Drawing on the most reliable studies and data, he determines which criticisms of higher education are unfounded or exaggerated, which are issues of genuine concern, and what can be done to improve matters. Some of the subjects considered are long-standing, such as debates over the undergraduate curriculum and concerns over rising college costs. Others are more recent, such as the rise of for-profit institutions and massive open online courses (MOOCs). Additional topics include the quality of undergraduate education, the stagnating levels of college graduation, the problems of university governance, the strengths and weaknesses of graduate and professional education, the environment for research, and the benefits and drawbacks of the pervasive competition among American colleges and universities. Offering a rare survey and evaluation of American higher education as a whole, this book provides a solid basis for a fresh public discussion about what the system is doing right, what it needs to do better, and how the next quarter century could be made a period of progress rather than decline.

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Once you come to believe in a map, it is very difficult to change it, and, if your facts are wrong then you will be relying on a map that is wrong too. Too often 'mental maps' act like blinkers rather than guides - preventing us from acting effectively. Rafael Ramirez (from the Preface) The Value Net A Tool for Competitive Strategy Cinzia Parolini SDA Bocconi, School of Management, Milan, Italy Faced with a continuously changing, and an increasingly competitive, business environment, strategic analysts and senior managers are still reluctant to forsake the familiar and traditional tools and models which were conceived in the very different world of the 1970s and 1980s. However, these methods of analysis are less and less applicable to the blurred and shifting boundaries of today's business world. This book challenges the tools and models that we use when looking at how value is created, shaped and maintained and presents a new and completely viable methodology - the value net. This methodology provides the reader with a new way of dealing with value in the modern environment. Above all it can be used for the analysis of competitive systems that cannot adequately be analysed using established models. Supported by an impressive array of case studies from industries with which most people will be readily familiar - books, online trading, music, coffee etc. - the book argues that in order to remain competitive, strategists, planners and managers should not use yesterday's tools for today's decisions. This well-structured and highly readable book will help create a brand new perspective in strategic analysis and formulation and will interest managers, strategy consultants, MBA and Executive students in these areas. Business Strategy

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The dinner party is back! Chef and cooking show host Natasha Feldman shares the secrets to throwing fun and delicious no-stress gatherings. This modern manual offers 80+ recipes as well as menu ideas, sketches (like a flow chart for what to cook when you're lazy), and practical tips to ensure that everyone enjoys the party—especially the host!Making and eating dinner with your friends should be a blast—nothing tops getting people together, sharing good food, and laughing until you cry. The Dinner Party Project is here to revive and democratize the dinner party, to make it a fun, communal practice rather than a stressful solo performance by the host.Forget fussy recipes with ingredients lists that run a mile long. With sections on appetizers, main dishes, drinks, sides, and desserts, Feldman provides recipes for every mood and cooking comfort level (including pizza parties, taco nights, and permission to order takeout). Whimsical illustrations help demystify the cheese plate, offer store-bought dessert options, and guide you to your ideal dinner menu; tips within each recipe ensure great results and help you plan ahead and avoid last-minute scrambling.Recipes include: Crunchy Radishes Dipped in Honey Fennel Butter Peel ’n’ Eat Shrimp with Basil Dipping Magic Perfect Seared Ribeye with Pistachio Date Salsa Verde Party Pesto Very Adult Salad: Bitter Greens with Roasted Grapes and Pecorino Veggie Pot Pie with Black Pepper and Parm Phyllo Thin Mint Pudding Pie So go ahead: pick a date, plan a menu, and invite some friends over—after all, nothing brings people together like a good meal.

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In this singular cultural moment, mothers have unparalleled opportunities to succeed at work while continuing to face the same societal impediments that held back our mothers and grandmothers. We still encounter entrenched gender bias in the workplace and are expected to shoulder the lion's share of labor and burdens at home while being made to feel as if we're never doing enough. All the while we're told that the perfect work-life balance is possible, if only we try hard enough to achieve it.It's time to change the conversation-about work, life, and "balance." Work and life are inextricably, intimately intertwined. We need to celebrate what we do give our children-even and especially in moments of imbalance-rather than apologizing for what we don't. In this way, we can model for our children how we use our talents to help others and raise awareness about the issues closest to our hearts. We can embrace the personal fulfillment and financial independence that pursuing meaningful work can bring as a way of showing our children how to live happy, purpose-driven lives. Bazelon argues not only that we can but that we should. Being ambitious at work and being a good mother to our children are not at odds-these qualities mutually reinforce each other.Backed up by research and filled with personal stories from Bazelon's life, as well as that of her mother and the many other women she interviewed across the cultural and financial spectrum, Ambitious Like a Mother is an anthem, a beacon for all to recognize and celebrate the pioneering women who reject the false idols of the Selfless Mother and Work-Life Balance, and a call to embrace your own ambitions and model your multiplicities for your children.

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There is little argument that mass media news projects a particular point of view. The question is how that bias is formed. Most media critics look to the attitudes of reporters and editors, the covert news policy of a publisher, or the outside pressures of politicians and advertisers. Manufacturing the News takes a different tack. Mark Fishman’s research shows how the routine methods of gathering news, rather than any hidden manipulators, determine the ideological character of the product. News organizations cover the world mainly through “beats,” which tend to route reporters exclusively through governmental agencies and corporate bureaucracies in their search for news. Crime, for instance, is covered through the police and court bureaucracies; local politics through the meetings of the city council, county commissioners, and other official agencies. Reporters under daily deadlines come to depend upon these organizations for the predictable, steady flow of raw news material they provide. It is part of the function of such bureaucracies to transform complex happenings into procedurally defined “cases.” Thus the information they produce for newsworkers represents their own bureaucratic reality. Occurrences which are not part of some bureaucratic phase are simply ignored. Journalists participate in this system by publicizing bureaucratic reality as hard fact, while accounts from other sources are treated as unconfirmed reports which cannot be published without time-consuming investigation. Were journalists to employ different methods of news gathering, Fishman concludes, a different reality would emerge in the news—one that might challenge the legitimacy of prevailing political structures. But, under the traditional system, news reports will continue to support the interests of the status quo independently of the attitudes and intentions of reporters, editors, and news sources.

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The writings and life of Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964) have enjoyed considerable attention both from admirers of her work and from scholars. In this distinctive book, Susan Srigley charts new ground in revealing how O’Connor’s ethics are inextricably linked to her role as a storyteller, and how her moral vision is expressed through the dramatic narrative of her fiction. Srigley elucidates O'Connor's sacramental vision by showing how it is embodied morally within her fiction as an ethic of responsibility. In developing this argument Srigley offers a detailed analysis of the Thomistic sources for O’Connor’s understanding of theology and art. Srigley contends that O’Connor’s ethical vision of responsibility opens a fruitful path for understanding her religious ideas as they are expressed in the lives and loves of her fictional characters. O’Connor’s characters show that responsibility is a living moral action not an abstract code of behavior. For O’Connor, ethical choices are not dictated by religious doctrine, but rather are an engagement with and response to reality. Srigley further argues that O’Connor’s ethics are not systematic, formulaic, or prescriptive. As a storyteller, she explores the moral complexities of life in their most concrete and dramatic form. Behaviors that appear in her fiction such as racism, sexism, or nihilism are exposed as inherently irresponsible. Approaching O’Connor’s fiction from a moral perspective often better illuminates the dramatic struggle of a story, not because it offers a religious solution to a particular issue, but because the choices each character makes reveal a vision of reality that is either meaningful and sustainable or narrow and destructive. Flannery O'Connor's Sacramental Art reveals O’Connor’s role as a prophetic novelist whose moral questions speak to the modern world with rare force. It will be welcomed by anyone who appreciates the moral or religious dimensions of her writing.

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From an award-winning financial historian comes the gripping, character-driven story of venture capital and the world it madeInnovations rarely come from "experts." Jeff Bezos was not a bookseller; Elon Musk was not in the auto industry. When it comes to innovation, a legendary venture capitalist told Sebastian Mallaby, the future cannot be predicted, it can only be discovered. Most attempts at discovery fail, but a few succeed at such a scale that they more than make up for everything else. That extreme ratio of success and failure is the power law that drives venture capital, Silicon Valley, the tech sector, and, by extension, the world.Drawing on unprecedented access to the most celebrated venture capitalists of all time, award-winning financial historian Sebastian Mallaby tells the story of this strange tribe of financiers who have funded the world's most successful companies, from Google to SpaceX to Alibaba. With a riveting blend of storytelling and analysis, The Power Law makes sense of the seeming randomness of success in venture capital, an industry that relies, for good and ill, on gut instinct and personality rather than spreadsheets and data. We learn the unvarnished truth about some of the most iconic triumphs and infamous disasters in the history of tech, from the comedy of errors that was the birth of Apple to the venture funding that fostered hubris at WeWork and Uber to the industry's notorious lack of women and ethnic minorities.Now the power law echoes around the world: it has transformed China's digital economy beyond recognition, and London is one of the top cities for venture capital investment. By taking us so deeply into the VCs' game, The Power Law helps us think about our own future through their eyes.

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In Reframing Bodies, Roger Hallas illuminates the capacities of film and video to bear witness to the cultural, political, and psychological imperatives of the AIDS crisis. He explains how queer films and videos made in response to the AIDS epidemics in North America, Europe, Australia, and South Africa challenge longstanding assumptions about both historical trauma and the politics of gay visibility. Drawing on a wide range of works, including activist tapes, found footage films, autobiographical videos, documentary portraits, museum installations, and even film musicals, Hallas reveals how such “queer AIDS media” simultaneously express both immediacy and historical consciousness. Queer AIDS media are neither mere ideological critiques of the dominant media representation of homosexuality and AIDS nor corrective attempts to produce “positive images” of people living with HIV/AIDS. Rather, they perform complex, mediated acts of bearing witness to the individual and collective trauma of AIDS.Challenging the entrenched media politics of who gets to speak, how, and to whom, Hallas offers a bold reconsideration of the intersubjective relations that connect filmmakers, subjects, and viewers. He explains how queer testimony reframes AIDS witnesses and their speech through its striking combination of direct address and aesthetic experimentation. In addition, Hallas engages recent historical changes and media transformations that have not only displaced queer AIDS media from activism to the archive, but also created new witnessing dynamics through the logics of the database and the remix. Reframing Bodies provides new insight into the work of Gregg Bordowitz, John Greyson, Derek Jarman, Matthias Müller, and Marlon Riggs, and offers critical consideration of important but often overlooked filmmakers, including Jim Hubbard, Jack Lewis, and Stuart Marshall.

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As a part-time hospice volunteer, Eric Lindner provides companion care to dying strangers. They’re chatterboxes and recluses, religious and irreligious, battered by cancer, congestive heart failure, Alzheimer’s, old age. Some cling to life amazingly. Most pass as they expected. In telling his story, Lindner reveals the thoughts, fears, and lessons of those living the ends of their lives in the care of others, having exhausted their medical options or ceased treatment for their illnesses. In each chapter, Lindner not only reveals the lessons of lives explored in their final days, but zeroes in on how working for hospice can be incredibly fulfilling. As he’s not a doctor, nurse, or professional social worker, just a volunteer lending a hand, offering a respite for other care providers, his charges often reveal more, and in more detail, to him than they do to those with whom they spend the majority of their time. They impart what they feel are life lessons as they reflect on their own lives and the prospect of their last days. Lindner captures it all in his lively storytelling. Anyone who knows or loves someone working through end of life issues, living in hospice or other end of life facilities, or dealing with terminal or chronic illnesses, will find in these pages the wisdom of those who are working through their own end of life issues, tackling life’s big questions, and boiling them down into lessons for anyone as they age or face illness. And those who may feel compelled to volunteer to serve as companions will find motivation, inspiration, and encouragement. Rather than sink under the weight of depression, pity, or sorrow, Lindner celebrates the lives of those who choose to live even as they die.

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Current statistics suggest that between one in seven and one in eight women will develop breast cancer at some point in their lives. Being diagnosed with breast cancer can leave you feeling anxious and depressed, fearful of the treatment to come and concerned about your mortality. The treatment itself can have a significant impact on your wellbeing as you are faced with marked changes in your physical appearance, sense of self and energy levels. There is lots of information available regarding cancer and its treatment, but little to help you cope with the emotional fall out. There are some excellent support services available but access to high quality evidence-based psychological interventions to help you cope is limited. This self-help book is the first of its kind: written by a highly experienced clinical psychologist, who has herself gone through the devastating impact of breast cancer, drawing from the evidence-based Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) approach to provide you with essential coping skills. This book takes you through what your journey may look like through diagnosis, treatment and recovery, and explains the ACT skills that can help you to cope with the emotional impact of this disease and its treatment. The ACT approach enables you to respond differently to the painful thoughts and feelings that will arise during your cancer journey. Rather than fighting with them, the skills in this book help you to acknowledge and step back from your difficult thoughts and feelings so that you can focus on living your life in a way that will positively impact your physical and emotional wellbeing.

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More severe storms and rising seas will inexorably push the American coastline inland with profound impact on communities, infrastructure, and natural systems. In A New Coast, Jeffrey Peterson draws a comprehensive picture of how storms and rising seas will change the coast. Peterson offers a clear-eyed assessment of how governments can work with the private sector and citizens to be better prepared for the coming coastal inundation. Drawing on four decades of experience at the Environmental Protection Agency and the United States Senate, Peterson presents the science behind predictions for coastal impacts. He explains how current policies fall short of what is needed to effectively prepare for these changes and how the Trump Administration has significantly weakened these efforts. While describing how and why the current policies exist, he builds a strong case for a bold, new approach, tackling difficult topics including: how to revise flood insurance and disaster assistance programs; when to step back from the coast rather than build protection structures; how to steer new development away from at-risk areas; and how to finance the transition to a new coast. Key challenges, including how to protect critical infrastructure, ecosystems, and disadvantaged populations, are examined. Ultimately, Peterson offers hope in the form of a framework of new national policies and programs to support local and state governments. He calls for engagement from the private sector and local and national leaders in a "campaign for a new coast." A New Coast is a compelling assessment of the dramatic changes that are coming to America's coast. Peterson offers insights and strategies for policymakers, planners, and business leaders preparing for the intensifying impacts of climate change along the coast.

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A 2023 Firecracker Award FinalistAn Apple November 2022 Best Book of the Month“Birds are my almanac. They tune me into the seasons, and into myself.”So begins this lively collection of essays by acclaimed filmmaker and novelist Priyanka Kumar. Growing up at the feet of the Himalayas in northern India, Kumar took for granted her immersion in a lush natural world. After moving to North America as a teenager, she found herself increasingly distanced from more than human life and discouraged by the civilization she saw contributing to its destruction. It was only in her twenties, living in Los Angeles and working on films, that she began to rediscover her place in the landscape—and in the cosmos—by way of watching birds.Tracing her movements across the American West, this stirring collection of essays brings the avian world richly to life. Kumar’s perspective is not that of a list keeper, counting and cataloguing species. Rather, from the mango-colored western tanager that rescues her from a bout of altitude sickness in Sequoia National Park to ancient sandhill cranes in the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, and from the snowy plovers building shallow nests with bits of shell and grass to the white-breasted nuthatch that regularly visits the apricot tree behind her family’s casita in Santa Fe, for Kumar, birds “become a portal to a more vivid, enchanted world.”At a time when climate change, habitat loss, and the reckless use of pesticides are causing widespread extinction of species, Kumar’s reflections on these messengers from our distant past and harbingers of our future offer luminous evidence of her suggestion that “seeds of transformation lie dormant in all of our hearts. Sometimes it just takes the right bird to awaken us.”

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Understand the technical foundations, as well as the non-programming skills needed to be a successful full stack web developer. This book reveals the reasons why a truly successful full stack developer does more than write code. You will learn the principles of the topics needed to help a developer new to agile or full stack working—UX, project management, QA, product management, and more— all from the point of view of a developer. Covering these skills alongside the fundamentals and foundations of modern web development, rather than specifics of current technologies and frameworks (which can age quickly), all programming examples are given in the context of the web as it is in 2018. Although you need to feel comfortable working on code at the system, database, API, middleware or user interface level, depending on the task in hand, you also need to be able to deal with the big picture and the little details. The Full Stack Developer recognizes skills beyond the technical, and gives foundational knowledge of the wide set of skills needed in a modern software development team. What You'll Learn Plan your work including Agile vs Waterfall, tools, scrum, kanban and continuous delivery Translate UX into code: grids, component libraries and style guides Design systems and system architectures (microservices to monoliths) Review patterns for APIs (SOAP, AJAX, REST), defining API domains, patterns for REST APIs and more API goodness Study the various front-end design patterns you need to know Store data, what to consider for security, deployment, in production and more Who This Book Is For New graduates or junior developers who are transitioning to working as part of a larger team structure in a multi-disciplinary teams and developers previously focused on only front-end or back-end dev transitioning into full stack.

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Reviews of the first edition"This book must become the classic text for students of education, social and welfare policies. Sally Tomlinson, doyenne of policy-orientated education and social research, has written with commendable clarity and comprehensiveness a superb book on British education." – Journal of Social Policy“This book provides a context for understanding education policy which is currently missing from education and social policy courses. It should be compulsory reading." – Len Barton, Institute of Education, University of London"The persistence and reinforcement of class advantage through English education policy is a key theme... this book does a superb job of both highlighting the key social justice concerns and controversies over the last fifty years and providing an overview of education policy developments over the same period." – British Journal of Sociology of EducationHighly commended - S.E.S Book Prize 2002The acclaimed first edition of Education in a Post-Welfare Society provided a critical overview of education policy since 1945. It demonstrated how a relatively decentralised education system became a system in which funding, teaching and curriculum are centrally controlled and privatisation encouraged, with education becoming a prop for global market economy rather than a pillar of the welfare state. The second edition continues the policy story up to 2005, covering two terms of a New Labour government and their plans for a third term. It also continues an examination of the relationship of education policy to social class, race, gender and the economy, paying attention to the educational disadvantages of some ethnic groups and refugee children. The book includes chronologies of education acts, reports and initiatives and summaries of major legislation. This is an invaluable resource for all those concerned with social policy and education, including educational researchers, professionals and politicians.

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The Alps are Europe's highest mountain range; their broad arc stretches right across the centre of the continent, encompassing a wide range of traditions and cultures. In former times the mountains were feared as the realm of wild and dangerous beasts, and the few travellers who ventured over high passes such as the Simplon or the Great St. Bernard expected to encounter tempests and torments of hellish proportions. But over time the Alps became celebrated by writers for their beauty rather than their savagery. In the nineteenth century, inspired in part by the work of poets such as Byron and Shelley, tourists began flocking to the mountains, and with the development of winter sports a hundred years ago the fate of the Alps as one of the great tourist playgrounds of the world was sealed. Andrew Beattie explores the turbulent past and vibrant present of this landscape, where early pioneers of tourism, mountaineering and scientific research, along with the enduring legacies of historical regimes from the Romans to the Nazis, have all left their mark. Historical Figures: From Julius Caesar and Hannibal to Napoleon and William Tell, the position of the Alps at the heart of Europe has led to centuries of war and conflict. Folklore and Tradition: The wildness of the mountains has inspired a unique popular culture, from legendary tales of dragons flying among the peaks to performances of religious passion plays in valley towns. Writers, Artists and Film-Makers: From the Romantic poets to Charles Dickens and Mark Twain; from Turner and Ruskin to the film-maker Leni Riefenstahl; from James Bond to Heidi and The Sound of Music; the beautiful scenery of the Alps has provided the setting for dozens of books, poems, films and paintings through the centuries.

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Deborah Margolis is not on a Freud-bashing expedition, nor is she engaged in political idealization. Rather, she takes us on a journey guided by Freud's idea that our psychological complexes are sources of our weaknesses and our strengths. Although Freud actively sought to lead his biographers astray, Margolis's detailed knowledge of the terrain and her psychoanalytically trained perspective directs us to a fascinating exploration of 'Freud's preoedipal complexes which have so richly endowed our civilization. Margolis introduces us to mother Amalia as well as to her family of origin. We find ourselves in the home of Amalia and Jacob Freud, observing the family interactions. We become acquainted with Freud's wife, Martha - her background, their courtship and marriage, and her place in Freud's life. Margolis also explores the ofttimes passionate ebb and flow of Freud's relationships with significant persons. We are privy to an account of Breuer and his personal and professional relationship with Freud. Fliess also emerges as a primary player in Freud's development. Others, such as Jones, Schur, Zweig, and Freud's children, appear more as reporters than influencers. The significance of Margolis's work derives from her overall scholarship, especially the selection and use of primary sources: Freud's published works, personal correspondence, and firsthand accounts of persons close to Freud. She uses secondary sources only as a comparison or contrast to her own conclusions. Her modus operandi is to raise a question, provide relevant information in the form of quotes carefully culled from primary sources, and subtly invite the reader to draw inferences. Then she presents her conclusions. Who should read Freud and His Mother? Without question, all Freud scholars will scrutinize and evaluate the work for years to come. All psychoanalytic psychohistorians will be intrigued by Margolis's selection and presentation of data and her conclusions.

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Through an exploration of both practice and theory, this book investigates the relationship between listening and the theatrical encounter in the context of Western theatre and performance. Rather than looking to the stage for a politics or ethics of performance, Rajni Shah asks what work needs to happen in order for the stage itself to appear, exploring some of the factors that might allow or prevent a group of individuals to gather together as an ‘audience’. Shah proposes that the theatrical encounter is a structure that prioritises the attentive over the declarative; each of the five chapters is an exploration of this proposition. The first two chapters propose readings for the terms ‘listening’ and ‘audience’, drawing primarily on Gemma Corradi Fiumara’s writing about the philosophy of listening and Stanley Cavell’s writing about being-in-audience. The third chapter reflects on the work of Lying Fallow, the first of two practice elements which were part of this research, asking whether and how this project aligns with the modes of listening that I have proposed thus far, and introducing Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s writing about the preposition ‘beside’ in relation to being-in-audience. In the fourth chapter, I examine the role of invitation in setting up the parameters for being-in-audience, in relation to Sara Ahmed’s writing about arrival and encounter. And in the final chapter the second practice element, Experiments in Listening, operates to expand our thinking about where and how the work of being-in-audience takes place.Blending the boundaries of theoretical, creative and practice-based artistic work, this book is accompanied by a series of five zines. These describe an embodied experience of knowledge from a personal perspective, both playfully and seriously following a line of enquiry developed in each of the chapters.

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Stuffed toy crochet patterns like you've never seen before ; weird and wonderful creatures in crochet! Irene Strange is bored of bunnies and has had enough of elephants. It's not that they're not cute, but with the amazing biodiversity on our planet, isn't it time we started celebrating ; and crocheting ; some of life's more unusual creatures? In this extraordinary collection, crochet designer Irene Strange opens our eyes to the wonders of nature with amigurumi patterns for odd and unexpected animals that you won't find in other books. Think an aardvark can't be adorable? Think again! In this book you'll meet 16 rather curious creatures. You'll create furry tummies, spiky backs, scaly tails, and feathery necks. Some have long dangly legs, some have swirly tails, and some have features that baffle us all! But however strange, all the creatures included are surprisingly squishable when created in crochet. Remarkable Mammals ; Aardvark, Echidna, Slender Loris, Orangutan, Wombat Surreal Sea Life ; Puffer Fish, Lobster, Narwhal, Octopus, Leafy Sea Dragon Bizarre Birds and Irregular Reptiles ; Cassowary, Flamingo, Hoopoe, Chameleon, Crocodile, Mary River Turtle All of the projects in this book are made in amigurumi style, characterised by a smooth all-over single crochet texture, worked in a continuous spiral. You will learn how to crochet in the round and how to shape with increasing and decreasing, adding different effects through combination of yarns or stitches, and how combining materials and embellishments can bring out the personality in the strangest things. With easy crochet techniques and step-by-step instructions, this book will delight crocheters and animal lovers alike, and give you a fresh cohort of amazing crochet animals to hug.

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_______________ '[An] acutely observed collection of occasional pieces that pick at absurdist life and reveal him to be a quiz, a cultural critic gifted with precise comic timing' - The Times 'Yes, Jacobson is an entertainer ... And he does indeed entertain, but in a way that stimulates rather than simply amuses' - Sunday Telegraph 'Nobody does it better than Jacobson' - Observer _______________ It takes a particular kind of man to want an embroidered polo player astride his left nipple. Occasionally, when I am tired and emotional, or consumed with self-dislike, I try to imagine myself as someone else, a wearer of Yarmouth shirts and fleecy sweats, of windbreakers and rugged Tyler shorts, of baseball caps with polo players where the section of the brain that concerns itself with aesthetics is supposed to be. But the hour passes. Good men return from fighting Satan in the wilderness the stronger for their struggle, and so do I. The winner of the 2010 Man Booker Prize, Howard Jacobson, brims with life in this collection of his most acclaimed journalism. From the unusual disposal of his father-in-law's ashes and the cultural wasteland of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to the melancholy sensuality of Leonard Cohen and desolation of Wagner's tragedies, Jacobson writes with all the thunder and joy of a man possessed. Absurdity piles upon absurdity, and glorious sentences weave together to create a hilarious, heartbreaking and uniquely human collection. This book is not just a series of parts, but an irresistible, unputdownable sum which triumphantly out-Thurbers Thurber. _______________ 'The no-nonsense tone, coupled with a coherent defence of truth, even in uncomfortable circumstances, shows the essayist as a natural comedian' - Prospect 'Jacobson is one of the great sentence-builders of our time. I feel I have to raise my game, even just to praise ... In short, he is one of the great guardians of language and culture - all of it. Long may he flourish' - Nicholas Lezard, Guardian

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Leverage algorithms to take your investment approach to the next level Digital Wealth: An Automatic Way to Invest Successfully reveals core investment strategies that you can leverage to build long-term wealth. More than a simple review of traditional investment strategies, this innovative text proffers digital investment techniques that are driven not by people but by algorithms. Supported by asset allocation research, the secrets shared in this forward-thinking book have underpinned cutting-edge investment firms as they integrate algorithm-based strategies. In addition to presenting key concepts, this groundbreaking resource explains how these concepts can give you an edge over the professionals on Wall Street through details regarding achieving financial security and meeting financial goals rooted in a firm foundation in behavioral finance, portfolio tilts, and modern portfolio theory. Investment strategies have evolved from one generation to the next, and the ability to leverage new digital tools calls for another overhaul of traditional investment concepts. Investment techniques implemented by algorithm rather than by human monitoring can, in some cases, prove more successful. The key to a balanced portfolio is understanding what these algorithm-based strategies are, and how to best use them. Explore insights from multiple Nobel Prize winning academics that can give your investment strategy an edge Consider how technology can open up powerful techniques to mainstream investors, including tax-loss harvesting and automated rebalancing Discuss how cost minimization and a strategic tax approach can boost your portfolio's compound growth Identify strategies that support the long-term growth of your wealth Digital Wealth: An Automatic Way to Invest Successfully is an essential text for sophisticated individual investors and investment consultants alike who want to explore how digital tools can bolster financial success.

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A hilarious rhyming story for princesses who are definitely NOT princessy.When a truly terrifying sound wakes everyone up, clever Princess Daisy soon figures out the problem, but her father, the King, just won't listen - how can a princess defeat a dragon? Then when the knights who come to the rescue prove to be a big bunch of nincompoop scaredy-cats, things start to look rather bad. Until . . . hang on . . . who's that mystery knight in the dragon's den? Why, it's Plucky Princess Daisy . . . OF COURSE! A feminist bedtime picture book that's just perfect for princesses and princes who don't need rescuing.Steven Lenton is the illustrator of the hugely successful Shifty McGifty series by Tracey Corderoy, and also illustrates books by David Baddiel, Frank Cottrell-Boyce and Peter Bently. His books have won awards such as the Sainsbury's Children's Book Award and have been selected for the WHSmith Children's Book of the Year and Tom Fletcher Book Club.Every Nosy Crow paperback picture book comes with a free 'Stories Aloud' audio recording - just scan the QR code and listen along!Read all the Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam picture book adventures:Shifty McGifty and Slippery SamShifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: The Cat BurglarShifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: The Diamond ChaseShifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: The Missing MasterpieceHave you read Shifty and Sam's two-colour early readers?Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: Jingle Bells! Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: Up, Up and Away!Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: The Spooky SchoolShifty McGifty and Slippery Sam: The Aliens Are Coming!

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A provocative defense of a forgotten Chinese approach to identity and differenceHistorically, the Western encounter with difference has been catastrophic: the extermination and displacement of aboriginal populations, the transatlantic slave trade, and colonialism. China, however, took a different historical path. In Chinese Cosmopolitanism, Shuchen Xiang argues that the Chinese cultural tradition was, from its formative beginnings and throughout its imperial history, a cosmopolitan melting pot that synthesized the different cultures that came into its orbit. Unlike the West, which cast its collisions with different cultures in Manichean terms of the ontologically irreconcilable difference between civilization and barbarism, China was a dynamic identity created out of difference. The reasons for this, Xiang argues, are philosophical: Chinese philosophy has the conceptual resources for providing alternative ways to understand pluralism.Xiang explains that “Chinese” identity is not what the West understands as a racial identity; it is not a group of people related by common descent or heredity but rather a hybrid of coalescing cultures. To use the Western discourse of race to frame the Chinese view of non-Chinese, she argues, is a category error. Xiang shows that China was both internally cosmopolitan, embracing distinct peoples into a common identity, and externally cosmopolitan, having knowledge of faraway lands without an ideological need to subjugate them. Contrasting the Chinese understanding of efficacy—described as “harmony”—with the Western understanding of order, she argues that the Chinese sought to gain influence over others by having them spontaneously accept the virtue of one’s position. These ideas from Chinese philosophy, she contends, offer a new way to understand today’s multipolar world and can make a valuable contribution to contemporary discussions in the critical philosophy of race.

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Many in the United States and Israel believe that Hamas is nothing but a terrorist organization, and that its social sector serves merely to recruit new supporters for its violent agenda. Based on Sara Roy's extensive fieldwork in the Gaza Strip and West Bank during the critical period of the Oslo peace process, Hamas and Civil Society in Gaza shows how the social service activities sponsored by the Islamist group emphasized not political violence but rather community development and civic restoration. Roy demonstrates how Islamic social institutions in Gaza and the West Bank advocated a moderate approach to change that valued order and stability, not disorder and instability; were less dogmatically Islamic than is often assumed; and served people who had a range of political outlooks and no history of acting collectively in support of radical Islam. These institutions attempted to create civic communities, not religious congregations. They reflected a deep commitment to stimulate a social, cultural, and moral renewal of the Muslim community, one couched not only--or even primarily--in religious terms. Vividly illustrating Hamas's unrecognized potential for moderation, accommodation, and change, Hamas and Civil Society in Gaza also traces critical developments in Hamas's social and political sectors through the Second Intifada to today, and offers an assessment of the current, more adverse situation in the occupied territories. The Oslo period held great promise that has since been squandered. This book argues for more enlightened policies by the United States and Israel, ones that reflect Hamas's proven record of nonviolent community building. In a new afterword, Roy discusses how Hamas has been affected by changing regional dynamics and by recent economic and political events in Gaza, including failed attempts at reconciliation with Fatah.

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Nina Coltart’s classic work, How to Survive as a Psychotherapist, was written over a quarter of a century ago and yet still resonates today with sage advice for the aspiring and established psychotherapist. This reissue contains a new Foreword from celebrated psychoanalyst David E. Scharff and an updated Further Reading section. Not simply a “how to” manual, this compact book is an amalgam of down-to-earth practicality about assessment, the pleasures of psychotherapy as opposed to analysis, details of how to run a practice, vivid clinical stories which don’t necessarily turn out well, discussions of Buddhism, and an autobiographical finale on the balance between life and work, including Coltart’s choice to live alone. Written in deceptively simple language, it reads easily and encourages beginners, but its backbone is the accrued wisdom for a career containing “survival-with-enjoyment” that offers new perspectives to both mid-career and experienced therapists and teachers. The professional autobiographical quality of the book reveals a lot about Coltart: her love of psychotherapy over full analysis and the number of strictures in analysis that she feels bind rather than guide. She describes the first years, in training and beyond, as full of anxiety: trying to get things right whilst an inner critical voice and the judgement of supervisors and teachers hangs over it all. Slowly, as time goes by, the ability to relax into a career with confidence in one’s own voice, knowledge, and intuition leads to a capacity for enjoyment of what can seem to outsiders a grim profession dealing only with suffering. Coltart’s book celebrates psychotherapy and its practitioners, and is full of interesting and practical advice that both experienced and novice psychotherapists will find invaluable. This enduring classic has stood the test of time and should be a feature of every aficionado’s bookshelf.

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The Poverty of Ethics stands the usual moral-political dichotomy on its head. It argues that moral principles do not in fact underlie or inform political decisions. It is, rather, the conceptual primacy of political discourse that rescues ethics from its poverty. Our ethical convictions receive their substance from historical narratives, political analyses, empirical facts, literary-educational models, political activity and personal experience. Yet morality, essentially, doesn't leave room for relativity: not every ethos deserves to be titles 'moral'. Hence the book argues further, it is the left ethos, as it has evolved over years, which forms the basis for ethics: morality is left-wing! Clarifying and justifying this seemingly odd statement is the main purpose of this essay.Appealing to philosophical ideas on the essence of language, on meaning, on understanding and persuasion, this book scrutinizes the system of concepts and attitudes informing our common view of the relationship between the moral and the political. It argues that the traditional conception of morality is far too narrow to form a basis for political thought and political action. Its carefully unfolded argument concludes that none of the current philosophical accounts of morality can be translated into terms of political will, much less into direct political action. Being too general and elastic, neither abstract moral principles, ethical-aesthetic sensibilities, nor the ethical demand emanating from an Other, can fulfill these tasks. Instead, the false primacy of the ethical over the political and the infinite flexibility of vacuous moral discourse are often mobilized to launder wrongs and delegitimize radical left politics. Gratification of the moral high ground becomes an implement of de-politicization, and thus a powerful political instrument in the hands of those seeking to shore up the existing order.

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She was the face that launched a thousand ships, the fierce beauty at the heart of Olympus...and she was never ours to claim.*A scorchingly hot modern retelling of Helen of Troy, Achilles, and Patroclus that's as sinful as it is sweet.*In Olympus, you either have the power to rule...or you are ruled. Achilles Kallis may have been born with nothing, but as a child he vowed he would claw his way into the poisonous city's inner circle. Now that a coveted role has opened to anyone with the strength to claim it, he and his partner, Patroclus Fotos, plan to compete and double their odds of winning.Neither expect infamous beauty Helen Kasios to be part of the prize...or for the complicated fire that burns the moment she looks their way.Zeus may have decided Helen is his to give to away, but she has her own plans. She enters into the competition as a middle finger to the meddling Thirteen rulers, effectively vying for her own hand in marriage. Unfortunately, there are those who would rather see her dead than lead the city. The only people she can trust are the ones she can't keep her hands off-Achilles and Patroclus. But can she really believe they have her best interests at heart when every stolen kiss is a battlefield?"Deliciously inventive...Red-hot."-Publishers Weekly STARRED for Neon Gods"I get shivers just thinking of their interactions. SHIVERS."-Mimi Koehler for The Nerd Daily for Neon GodsThe World of Dark Olympus:Neon Gods (Hades & Persephone)Electric Idol (Eros & Psyche)Wicked Beauty (Achilles & Patroclus & Helen)Radiant Sin (Apollo & Cassandra)

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England, 1311. In the dark of the North the devil lies in wait... Paul Doherty's most popular series character returns in the gripping nineteenth mystery in the Hugh Corbett series.If you love the historical mysteries of C. J. Sansom, E. M. Powell and Bernard Cornwell you will love this.1296: King Edward I has led his army to Scotland, determined to take the country under his crown. But the fierce Scots have no intention of submitting to their oppressor and violent and bloody war breaks out. 1311: Sir Hugh Corbett, Keeper of the Secret Seal, finds himself back in Scotland and is revisited by the horrors he witnessed there fifteen years ago. An anonymous letter was delivered to the new king. It promised information about a fatal incident that could allow England to finally bow out of the war with the Scots. Tasked with finding out the truth about the murder, Corbett is forced to take risks he would rather avoid and put his faith in the words of strangers. But with an unknown traitor lurking in the shadows and danger around every corner, will Corbett be able to unravel the complex web of plots in time?What readers are saying about DEVIL'S WOLF:'Doherty evokes the Medieval world brilliantly...tense and suspenseful, the mystery keeps you guessing until near the end...an excellent and enjoyable read' Amazon reader, 5 stars'[A] well written rendition of our historical past...A joy to read' Amazon reader, 5 stars'Another well told story from a master storyteller...If you like historical adventures you will enjoy this vivid, well paced tale!' Amazon reader, 5 stars'Vivid and lively. Another Hugh Corbett, please!' Amazon reader, 5 stars

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FANS OF INDIA KNIGHT'S EXPERT BEAUTY ADVICE WILL NOT STOP THANKING YOU FOR THIS GIFT! 'India Knight is a LEGEND in the beauty industry. I am OBSESSED with her column because you can trust her to get it right every single time!' Charlotte TilburyWith beauty, as with so much else, knowledge is power.Here's all of mine. Why has my favourite eyeliner stopped looking flattering? What can I do about the skin on my neck? Am I too old for contour? What is contour? Every week, tens of thousands of women turn to India Knight's beauty column in the Sunday Times Style Magazine, to be directed to beauty products that really work by someone they can trust - and who understands how much this stuff matters.It matters because looking, and therefore feeling, like yourself at every stage of life is fundamental.In this brilliant, essential, reassuring book, India has distilled her beauty wisdom into practical advice for every part of the face and beyond: from tips for thinning lips and thinning hair, to the best skincare for older faces, to the make-up products that really make a difference, to demystifying the scientific jargon beloved by the beauty industry.If you would rather not use 35 products on your face every morning or watch how-to videos on TikTok, or if you have ever looked in the mirror and found yourself thinking 'Who is that?', then India Knight's Beauty Edit is the book you've been waiting for.It is a glorious and indispensable celebration of how to be old(er) with minimum fuss and a generous helping of grace, confidence and style.'Women shouldn't aim to look younger, they should aim to look better, and India Knight totally gets that. Her beauty advice is solid gold' Bobbi Brown'I love India's beauty advice' Victoria Beckham

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People from Eastern and Western cultures have differences in their perception and understanding of the world that are not well represented by a collectivist/individualist distinction. Differences in worldview are inscribed in personal relationships and the ways in which people try to understand the "other" in relation to themselves. When people from the East and West encounter one another, these differences are brought to the fore in jarring moments of culture clash. Such encounters, seen through a contextualized narrative lens can offer insights for deeper cross-cultural knowing. In Narrative and Cultural Humility Ruthellen Josselson recounts her time teaching group therapy to Chinese therapists over the course of ten years and illustrates her own profound experience of cultural dissonance. For example, many of her students regarded her as what they termed "a good witch" seeing her as a transformative healer purveying something magical rather than a teacher of psychotherapy with theories and techniques that could be learned. At the same time, she was often mystified by their learning styles and organizational processes which were so different from her own experiences. In these instances, along with others chronicled in the book, Josselson confronts the foundational (and often unconscious) assumptions embedded in cultural worldviews (on both sides) that are manifest in nearly every interaction. This re-telling underscores the need for cultural humility when narrating one's experiences and the experiences of different relational cultures. While narrative is always rooted in culture-bound worldviews, it can also be a way of bridging them. Narrative and Cultural Humility ultimately tells the story of what it means to recognize our own unspoken assumptions to better connect with people of another culture. It also highlights the values and needs that are universally human.

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"The American Dream" is one of the most familiar and resonant phrases in our national lexicon, so familiar that we seldom pause to ask its origin, its history, or what it actually means. In this fascinating short history, Jim Cullen explores the meaning of the American Dream, or rather the several American Dreams that have both reflected and shaped American identity from the Pilgrims to the present. Cullen begins by noting that the United States, unlike most other nations, defines itself not on the facts of blood, religion, language, geography, or shared history, but on a set of ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence and consolidated in the Constitution. At the core of these ideals lies the ambiguous but galvanizing concept of the American Dream, a concept that for better and worse has proven to be amazingly elastic and durable for hundreds of years and across racial, class, and other demographic lines. Cullen then traces a series of overlapping American dreams: the quest for of religious freedom that brought the Pilgrims to the "New World"; the political freedom promised in the Declaration; the dream of upward mobility, embodied most fully in the figure of Abraham Lincoln; the dream of home ownership, from homestead to suburb; the intensely idealistic-and largely unrealized-dream of equality articulated most vividly by Martin Luther King, Jr. The version of the American Dream that dominates our own time--what Cullen calls "the Dream of the Coast"--is one of personal fulfillment, of fame and fortune all the more alluring if achieved without obvious effort, which finds its most insidious expression in the culture of Hollywood. For anyone seeking to understand a shifting but central idea in American history, The American Dream is an interpretive tour de force.

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From September 2021, Jean-Michel Othoniel will be taking over the whole of the Petit Palais and its garden. It will be the biggest exhibition devoted to the artist in Paris since the My Way retrospective at the Centre Pompidou in 2011. The Petit Palais itself and its history will provide the running thread of the exhibition, the works entering into a dialogue with the architecture of the building and its garden. For the occasion, Othoniel has come up with the Narcissus Theorem focusing on the man of the beautiful flower who in his own reflection also reflects the world around him. Narcissism is not always a neurosis and can play a positive role in aesthetic creation. And sublimation is not always the negation of desire but can be a means of engaging with an ideal. Whereupon Narcissus no longer says ‘I love myself as I am’ but rather ‘I am as I love myself’. Featuring over 70 new works, the ‘Narcissus Theorem’ exhibition weaves the artist’s spell once again and explores the theory of reflections that he has been developing for nearly a decade in conjunction with the Mexican mathematician Aubin Arroyo, imbuing his recurring themes with a fresh and visionary meaning in the world of today. The exhibition welcomes us with a river of a thousand shimmering blue bricks flowing down the main staircase of the Petit Palais, indicating the start of the path that we will be following. Inspired by the sumptuous architectural flourishes of the Petit Palais and the flowers of its garden, the artist has installed some twenty new works: mirrored pieces that reflect the frescoes of the peristyle painted by Paul Baudoüin, monumental water lilies placed on the mirrors of the water basins with their blue mosaics, gold necklaces attached to the branches of trees from the Orient, and pearls niched in the peristyle. The Crown of the Night comes from a forest in northern Europe and for a long time this sculpture was hidden beneath the 300-year old oaks of a cathedral-like forest. And now, like a coloured glass spider, it majestically fills the dome of the palace’s northern staircase. Narcissus’s grotto awaits us at the foot of the staircase, where we find the whole universe of reflections so central to Othoniel’s art and astutely orchestrated by Aubin Arroyo, including the two-tone Precious Stonewall and monochrome triptychs. The wild knots created over the course of nearly a decade are like Borromean rings in which we discover our own reflections and which reflect themselves in an endless mise en abyme.

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The Strategic Survey is a journal of records that includes all relevant names and titles, chronologies and dates. But it is also much more: the hard facts are embossed in considered and nuanced analysis over 300 pages of text. The Strategic Survey opens with 'Perspectives', an assessment of the effect of major events and trends on the strategic landscape. Next, particular strategic policy issues, such as terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, missile defence and the future of peacekeeping, are examined in separate chapters. Another eighteen to twenty chapters of similar length, written along thematic rather than merely chronological lines, cover developments in particular regions or countries. The Strategic Survey concludes with 'Prospectives', an essay setting forth strategic priorities for the coming year. Also included are thirty-two pages of maps depicting strategically important activity and political change - such as piracy and Russia's new federal districts - globally, regionally and locally. The interplay of political developments and the actual or potential use of military force remains The Strategic Survey's chief concern. Nevertheless, since the end of the Cold War and of the first distinct post-Cold War period, the Institute has recognised that any survey of matters strategic needs to broaden its scope to embrace economic

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This book introduces students to the chief disciplines, methods and sources employed in 'doing' ancient history, as opposed to 'reading' it. The book: Encourages readers to engage with historical sources, rather than to be passive recipients of historical tales Gives readers a sense of the nature of evidence and its use in the reconstruction of the past Helps them to read a historical narrative with more critical appreciation Encourages them to consider the differences between their own experience of ancient sources, and the use of these objects within the everyday life of ancient society A concise bibliographical essay at the end of each chapter refers to introductions, indices, research tools and interpretations, and explains scholarly jargon Written clearly, concisely and concretely, invoking ancient illustrations and modern parallels as appropriate.

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With all the bells and whistles, this intriguing guide to all those everyday phrases really is the bees knees for anyone with a love of the English language.Let’s cut to the chase: clichés are a familiar part of the English language, but to be honest, many have been so over-used that they have become trite, meaningless and rather irritating. With this informative and humorous book, you are in a safe pair of hands as you learn about the origins and meanings of some of the most hackneyed phrases still used today.Avoid Them Like the Plague will keep you up to speed with clichés in their many forms – once useful but now overworked catchphrases (‘move the goal posts’), worn-out sayings (‘all hands on deck’), pointless phrases used to conceal a weak argument (‘to be perfectly honest’), technical terms used out of context (‘collateral damage’) and many others. This fun and witty book aims to expose the self-importance or laziness that frequently lie behind the worst examples of these phrases and sheds light on why it’s best to avoid them.Employing a combination of erudition, humour and occasional derision, Avoid Them Like the Plague thinks outside the box and really is the best thing since sliced bread for anyone who values good English and clear communication.

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What does it mean to be a hero? In The Heroic Heart, Tod Lindberg traces the quality of heroic greatness from its most distant origin in human prehistory to the present day. The designation of "hero" once conjured mainly the prowess of conquerors and kings slaying their enemies on the battlefield. Heroes in the modern world come in many varieties, from teachers and mentors making a lasting impression on others by giving of themselves, to firefighters no less willing than their ancient counterparts to risk life and limb. They don't do so to assert a claim of superiority over others, however. Rather, the modern heroic heart acts to serve others and save others. The spirit of modern heroism is generosity, what Lindberg calls "the caring will," a primal human trait that has flourished alongside the spread of freedom and equality. Through its intimate portraits of historical and literary figures and its subtle depiction of the most difficult problems of politics, The Heroic Heart offers a startlingly original account of the passage from the ancient to the modern world and the part the heroic type has played in it. Lindberg deftly combines social criticism and moral philosophy in a work that ranks with such classics as Thomas Carlyle's nineteenth-century On Heroes, Hero-Worship and the Heroic in History and Joseph Campbell's twentieth-century The Hero with a Thousand Faces.

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