Search results for ""author rath"

With the simple instructions and large, full-color photos in STEAM Play & Learn, preschoolers will love tackling the 20 fun, easy-to-follow step-by-step projects as they learn about science, technology, engineering, arts, and math. The acronym STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math. At the preschool level, this doesn’t mean trying to teach your kids robotics and engineering, but rather presenting them with open-ended projects that allow them to problem-solve, make mistakes, get creative, and most of all, have fun. While most preschool-age children are not yet reading, STEAM Play & Learn is meant to be child-driven. The images, illustrations, and projects are meant to appeal to kids of their age and abilities. Let them be the guide as you explore the projects in this book. Topics include symmetry and how light bounces to create reflections with mirror mandalas, diffusion and capillary action with tie dye towels, structural framing and bracing with marshmallow structures, and electrical currents with salty circuits. Other projects include: Color Mixing Lab Frozen Goop Sound Tubes Citrus Volcanoes Paper Bag Blocks Egg Carton Geoboards Pool Noodle Marble Run Potions Lab Balance Scale Spin Art Tops Marble Mazes Tinkering Set Pattern Projectors Newton’s Cradle Art Machine Lime Light The projects in this book fall into three difficulty levels: Easy projects require parents and teachers to do nothing more than set out the materials and offer a challenge to children. A few of the easy projects will need parents to assemble components in advance of presenting them to kids. Medium projects will require some adult assistance while the project is underway. Children should be able to complete some of the tasks while stopping periodically for an adult to assist in a step. Difficult projects are meant to be adult-led. This is an opportunity for parents to encourage their child to offer problem-solving ideas along the way, giving children a chance to help and make suggestions. The cross-subject approach to learning in STEAM Play & Learn will prepare young children for the subjects they will soon learn in elementary school and beyond. These 20 projects will provide hours of fun education for both kids and parents!

Read more less

LOCKED DOORS DON'T KEEP SECRETS SAFELOCK YOUR DOORSCaitlin has been having an affair for nearly a year when the country enters lock down. Suddenly, seeing her lover, Daniel, without alerting her husband becomes almost impossible. When she does manage to sneak to his home, she finds him lying in a pool of his own blood, dead.STAY HOMEAli is a just-about-functioning alcoholic, recently let go, and feeling rather lonely. Each day she goes to her local shop to buy her permitted two bottles of wine, leaving food parcels for neighbours on her way home. While keeping an eye on what they are up to, of course.STAY SAFECaitlin can't tell a soul about what she has discovered for risk of losing her family. Little does she know that Ali has noticed her coming and going, and that she will be drawing her own conclusions.As Caitlin delves into the life of the man who said he loved her, she finds that maybe she didn't really know him at all. But if she wants to avoid suspicion, she needs to keep digging until they find Daniel's killer. Because the doors may be locked, but everyone's secrets are starting to leak out . . .Stay Home is a timely story of dark secrets - affairs, addictions, habits and horrors - which are bought to the surface by these unprecedented times we find ourselves in. It explores the dark parts of people's lives, while at the same time leading us on a breath-takingly twisty race to find a killer.What Netgalley Readers think of Stay Home:'An exciting thriller that is perfect for current times . . . Highly recommended!''A great book. It was a fast read because I couldn't put it down. So many twists and turns you will never see the end coming''A murder mystery set during the limitations of a pandemic lockdown is an intriguing idea and Ava Pierce has certainly delivered a book you won't want to put down. The characters, especially Ali, are well described and seem real. The story itself is very visual and would make a wonderful movie. 5 stars''The story is thrilling and you are kept turning the pages until the very end. The twists and turns are shocking and the characters interesting. Definitely worth a read''Wow, I read it in a couple of hours, lots of twists and turns'

Read more less

On Monday, 4 March 2019, Sergei Skripal and his 33-year-old daughter Yulia collapsed in the centre of Salisbury in Wiltshire. Both were suffering the effects of A-234, a third-generation Russian-manufactured military grade Novichok nerve agent. As three suspects, all GRU officers, were quickly identified, it was also established that the door handle to the Skripals' suburban home had been contaminated with the toxin. Whilst the Skripals had lived in the cathedral city for the past seven years, what Sergei's neighbours did not know was that he had once been a colonel in the Russian Federation's military intelligence service. Back in July 1996, he had been posted under diplomatic cover to Madrid where he was subsequently cultivated by Pablo Miller, an MI6 officer operating as a businessman under the alias Antonio Alvares de Idalgo. Sergei's recruitment by Miller was one of many successes achieved by Western agencies following the collapse of the Soviet Bloc. These counter-intelligence triumphs had their origins in a joint FBI/CIA project codenamed COURTSHIP which was based on the rather risky tactic of making an approach to almost any identified KGB or GRU officer, in almost any environment - a technique known as a 'cold pitch'. It soon yielded results; within five years COURTSHIP had netted about twenty assets. Codenamed FORTHWITH, Sergei was betrayed in December 2001\. Arrested in 2004, he was convicted of high treason in Russia, but was subsequently included in a prisoner swap in July 2010 and brought to the UK. The journey to the attempt on his life had begun. The Vienna spy swap was the culmination of a CIA plan to free a specific individual, Gennadi Vasilenko, who had been the Agency's key mole inside the KGB since March 1979\. To acquire the necessary leverage, the FBI swooped on a large network in the United States, bringing to an end a surveillance operation, codenamed GHOST STORIES, that lasted ten years. Anxious to avoid further embarrassment over the arrests, Vladimir Putin personally authorised an exchange, unaware of Vasilenko's true status. It was only after the transaction had been completed, and two further Russian spies were exfiltrated from Moscow, that the Kremlin learned of Vasilenko's value, and the scale of the deception. For the very first time, a Russian government had been persuaded to release four traitors and send them to the West. The humiliation was complete. As _Spy Swap_ reveals, Putin's retribution would manifest itself in a quiet Wiltshire market town.

Read more less

As a follow-up to COVID-19 in New York City: an Ecology of Race and Class Oppression, which showed that decades of discriminatory public policies shaped the Bronx into the epicenter of the first wave of COVID-19, this book examines the build up to the crest and subsequent ebbing of the second wave of COVID-19 across the 62 counties of New York State (NYS) and 152 ZIP Code areas of the four central boroughs of New York City (NYC). Like its predecessor, the sequel examines the vulnerabilities that give rise to spikes in infection rates that form epicenters. Unlike the first wave, NYC was not the epicenter of the second wave; high-incident counties just outside NYS formed an extended initial epicenter and exported COVID-19 to neighboring counties of NYS. Rural NYS counties differed significantly from urban ones socioeconomically and in infection rates during the cresting period. Before the crest, no socioeconomic factor was associated with county infection rates; rather, the major associating factor was political and cultural: percent of the 2020 vote garnered by Trump. Rural counties voted heavily for Trump. This association disappeared post-crest by mid-January 2021. In NYC, the Bronx again behaved like a single high-incidence entity, unlike the other three boroughs that had patches of high and low infection incidence. Among the topics covered: The Second COVID Wave Washes Over New York State The Second Wave Storm-Surges Across New York City Discussion of County Data from the Second Wave of COVID-19 Parsing Meaning From the 152 ZIP Code Data The book closes with a prescription for pandemic response planning based on empowered communities and workers interacting with health departments as equals. The Recurrence of COVID-19 in New York State and New York City is a valuable resource for social epidemiologists, public health researchers of health disparities, those in public service tasked with addressing these problems, and infectious disease scientists who focus on spread in human populations of new zoonotic diseases. The brief also will find readership among students in these fields, civil rights scholars, science writers, medical anthropologists and sociologists, medical and public health historians, public health economists, and public policy scientists.

Read more less

A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER‘We have lost touch with nature, rather foolishly as we are a part of it, not outside it. This will in time be over and then what? What have we learned?... The only real things in life are food and love, in that order, just like [for] our little dog Ruby... and the source of art is love. I love life.’ DAVID HOCKNEY Praise for Spring Cannot be Cancelled: 'This book is not so much a celebration of spring as a springboard for ideas about art, space, time and light. It is scholarly, thoughtful and provoking' The Times 'Lavishly illustrated… Gayford is a thoughtfully attentive critic with a capacious frame of reference' Guardian 'Hockney and Gayford’s exchanges are infused with their deep knowledge of the history of art … This is a charming book, and ideal for lockdown because it teaches you to look harder at the things around you’ Lynn Barber,The Spectator 'Designed to underscore [Hockney’s] original message of hope, and to further explore how art can gladden and invigorate ... meanders amiably from Rembrandt, to the pleasure principle, andouillette sausages and, naturally, to spring' Daily Telegraph On turning eighty, David Hockney sought out rustic tranquillity for the first time: a place to watch the sunset and the change of the seasons; a place to keep the madness of the world at bay. So when Covid-19 and lockdown struck, it made little difference to life at La Grande Cour, the centuries-old Normandy farmhouse where Hockney set up a studio a year before, in time to paint the arrival of spring. In fact, he relished the enforced isolation as an opportunity for even greater devotion to his art. Spring Cannot be Cancelled is an uplifting manifesto that affirms art’s capacity to divert and inspire. It is based on a wealth of new conversations and correspondence between Hockney and the art critic Martin Gayford, his long-time friend and collaborator. Their exchanges are illustrated by a selection of Hockney’s new, unpublished Normandy iPad drawings and paintings alongside works by van Gogh, Monet, Bruegel, and others. We see how Hockney is propelled ever forward by his infectious enthusiasms and sense of wonder. A lifelong contrarian, he has been in the public eye for sixty years, yet remains entirely unconcerned by the view of critics or even history. He is utterly absorbed by his four acres of northern France and by the themes that have fascinated him for decades: light, colour, space, perception, water, trees. He has much to teach us, not only about how to see... but about how to live. With 142 illustrations in colour

Read more less

Finding Mrs. Warnecke tells the inspiring story of Cindi Rigsbee, a three-time Teacher of the Year, and Barbara Warnecke, the first-grade teacher who had a profound and lasting impact on Cindi's life. Cindi, an insecure child who craved positive attention, started her first-grade year with a teacher who was emotionally abusive and played favorites in the classroom. Two months into the school year, her principal came into the classroom and announced that half the students were being moved to another classroom--a dank, windowless basement room, with a young and inexperienced teacher. This change turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to Cindi. Her new teacher, Mrs. Warnecke, made learning come alive for her students. She went overboard caring for each child, made her classroom "magical," and encouraged students to pursue their dreams. Although Cindi was reluctant to explore her creativity as a student, Mrs. Warnecke encouraged her to read and write poetry, which became a lifelong passion. The two kept in touch for several years but lost track of each other when Mrs. Warnecke moved out of state. Cindi spent many years trying to reconnect so she could thank Mrs. Warnecke for making such a difference in her life, but to no avail. Eventually Cindi became a teacher herself, and thirty years later she has taught more than 2,000 children and been named Teacher of the Year for her home state. She later came to realize that all those years she wasn't really trying to track down Barbara Warnecke, but rather, she was trying to "find Mrs. Warnecke" within herself. In Fall 2008 Cindi and Barbara were reunited on Good Morning America; the show's producers had tracked Barbara down and brought both women on-set for a tearful reunion. Barbara was floored at this attention--she had no idea she could have made such an impact on a former student's life. As Cindi travels around talking with new and veteran educators, she is always approached by audience members who are moved to tears and want to share the story of the "Mrs. Warnecke" in their own lives. Finding Mrs. Warnecke not only tells the story of this teacher who made a lifelong impact on her students, it illustrates the importance of the teacher/student relationship in the classroom, and offers principles for other teachers to follow to make a positive impact in their own classrooms.

Read more less

THIS BOOK WILL HELP YOU - to appreciate the significance of this particular school of Buddhism, famous for its focus on meditation and self-awakening - to understand the history of Zen and the 'Ways of Zen' - to discover how Zen is a way of life -- not a belief system - to avoid faux pas in conversation, in travelling and in personal relationships Zen (in Chinese, Ch'an) is the form of Buddhism which the great teacher Bodhidharma brought to China from India in the late fifth century. Today it is practised mainly in Japan and Korea, . Based upon the understanding that each of us has the potential for complete awakening, Zen is in fact a coalition of practical ways of stilling the mind in order to attain self-knowledge. Because the realization of the true nature of reality, including one's own, is not an intellectual pursuit but an experienced truth, Zen teachers transmit the truth (dharma) from mind to mind or heart to heart without the use of words, using different techniques to break through the limitations of the logical mind. This engaging book explains the essence of Zen in simple terms.. It traces its development and looks at its unique methods of teaching, such as meditation, koans -- startling paradoxes that stop the intellect -- the use of texts, ceremonies, poetry, and the martial arts. It describes life in monasteries and in the everyday world. Because Zen is rooted in Reality, its practitioners often experience a delightful sense of wonder in the commonplace. This democratic and liberating philosophy does not require us to give up our own traditions, but rather helps us to deepen our understanding of them, and continues to inspire growing numbers of followers in the West. ACCESS THE WORLD'S RELIGIONS Simple Guides: Religion is a series of concise, accessible introductions to the world's major religions. Written by experts in the field, they offer an engaging and sympathetic description of the key concepts, beliefs and practices of different faiths. Ideal for spiritual seekers and travellers alike, Simple Guides aims to open the doors of perception. Together the books provide a reliable compass to the world's great spiritual traditions, and a point of reference for further exploration and discovery. By offering essential insights into the core values, customs and beliefs of different societies, they also enable visitors to be aware of the cultural sensibilities of their hosts, and to behave in a way that fosters mutual respect and understanding.

Read more less

There is considerable pressure on Small Island Developing States globally to introduce or to strengthen intellectual property regimes. This pressure comes in a number of forms, including bilateral and multilateral Free Trade Agreement negotiations and development assistance programmes such as those of the World Intellectual Property Organisation. The aim of this book is to offer a competing model of intellectual property policy using the Pacific Islands as a case study. This competing model is one based on local conceptions of culture and indigenous understandings about use, knowledge and transfer of intangible property. Adopting such a base as a starting point will enable the weaving together of multiple regulatory strategies to facilitate the transfer of knowledge, stimulate and reward innovation and creativity, and protect rights over traditional knowledge in ways that have meaning and resonance for local populations. Elements of western intellectual property frameworks can also form important strands in intellectual property policies. However, these elements should be incorporated, and possibly reinterpreted, within the local framework.The approach advocated in this book opens up a number of different roads for intellectual property policy. First, it encourages the exploration of non-state regulatory mechanisms, such as customary norms and institutions, community protocols, and also membership of international NGOs, in regulating the use of intellectual property. In most Pacific Island countries there is little state capacity to implement and police intellectual property laws and so creative use should be made of the possibilities offered by non-state structures. Second, it suggests centralising culture and the protection of traditional knowledge at the heart of intellectual property policy, rather than treating it as a secondary issue to be dealt with by sui generis legislation. Here, traditional knowledge forms the basis of culture and development and cannot and should not be separated from modern or scientific notions of creativity and innovation. A pragmatic incremental approach to intellectual property policy development is also advocated, requiring countries to thoroughly assess the advantages and disadvantages of any new intellectual property law within their local context, to consider how to adaptively implement this in a way suited to the local context, as well as to realistically assess the state's capacity for enforcement. Finally, the book challenges a number of claims made about intellectual property law and development, demonstrating that a far more fine-grained analysis of the nexus between the two is required than currently offered by the WIPO Development Agenda.

Read more less

The simple, revolutionary 100 calorie system and cookbook that lets you enjoy all your delicious comfort food favorites! THE PERFECT PORTION COOKBOOK is the first of its kind, filled with 150 delicious comfort food classics that you can eat “guilt free,” because each recipe has been crafted in multiples of 100 calories. You can choose the perfect portion that is right for you. Why Do This? It’s easy…WE ALL LOVE FOOD! Especially homemade comfort food. But, it’s often hard to know how much we should be eating of the foods we love. And when there is no easy way to know how many calories we are really eating, it’s so easy to unknowingly overeat. Up until now there has been no easy way to create perfect personalized portion sizes, except for learning a complicated calorie-counting system. So here’s the idea: create a simple calorie-counting system that’s built right into every recipe—a system so easy that you can see the size and quantity of a 100-calorie portion. When you see the 100-calorie size, you can choose the number of units to include in your perfectly portioned meal or snack. So whether you want 100, 200, 300, 400 or 500 calories, you can build the perfect portions and meals that’s right for you. Knowledge is power, so the goal is to provide you with a guide that keeps you in “check” to still eat the foods you love, yet be aware of the perfect portion that’s right for you! The Goal? To be able for you to eat the foods you love, without feeling compromised! Inside this book you’ll find: Great-tasting recipes and based on one of 150 American favorite foods, each easily divisible into 100-calorie portions. Attention to portion sizes, making sure not to skimp, but rather enhance portions through healthful food swaps. Realistic recommendations for portion sizes, adjustable by meal. Breakfast or dinner might be a 300-, 400- or 500-calorie portion, depending on your eating preferences. WOW indulgent recipes, such as decadent desserts, in the 100- or 200-calorie range, so that you could satisfy your sweet tooth in a guilt-free way! Now you can “have your cake and eat it too”…. literally! Bon appétit!

Read more less

Some of the most stunning architectural structures in India are to be found below ground: these are its stepwells, ancient water stores. Stepwells are unique to India and from around the 3rd century CE were built throughout the country, particularly in the arid western regions. Excavated several stories underground in order to reach the water table, these cavernous spaces not only provided water all year long but also fulfilled other functions; they offered pilgrims and other travelers a respite from the heat, and became places in which villagers could socialize. Stepwell construction evolved so that, by the 11th century, the wells were amazingly complex feats of architecture and engineering.The journalist Victoria Lautman first encountered stepwells three decades ago and now, a seasoned traveller to India, she has devoted several years to documenting these fascinating but largely unknown edifices before they disappear. Of the thousands of stepwells that proliferated across India, most were abandoned as a result of modernization and the depletion of water tables. Often commissioned by royal or wealthy patrons, the wells vary greatly in scale, layout, materials and shape. Those in what is now Gujarat state also served as subterranean Hindu temples that featured columned pavilions and elaborate stone carvings of deities. Islamic wells were generally less flamboyant, but incorporated arched side niches. Today, few stepwells are in use. The majority have been left to silt up, fill with rubbish and crumble into disrepair. Gradually, however, the Indian government and heritage organizations have come to recognize the need to preserve these architectural wonders. In 2014 India's best-known stepwell, the Rani ki Vav in Patan, northern Gujarat, became a UNESCO World Heritage site.In her introduction, Lautman discusses why and where the stepwells were built. She reflects on the reasons they became derelict and considers how the appreciation of stepwells is changing with the work of organizations and individuals who aim to protect and restore them. The main part of the book is arranged in a broadly chronological order, with up to six pages devoted to each of c. 80 stepwells, every one unique in design and engineering. The name, location (including GPS coordinates) and approximate date of each well accompany color photographs and a concise commentary by Lautman on the history and architecture of the well and her experience of visiting it. While many of the stepwells are rather decrepit, their magnificent engineering and great beauty cannot fail to impress.

Read more less

The recent financial crisis brought to light many of the misunderstandings and misuses of exotic derivatives. With market participants on both the buy and sell-side having been found guilty of not understanding the products they were dealing with, never before has there been a greater need for clarification and explanation. Exotic Options and Hybrids is a practical guide to structuring, pricing and hedging complex exotic options and hybrid derivatives that will serve readers through the recent crisis, the road to recovery, the next bull market and beyond. Written by experienced practitioners, it focuses on the three main parts of a derivative’s life: the structuring of a product, its pricing and its hedging. Divided into four parts, the book covers a multitude of structures, encompassing many of the most up-to-date and promising products from exotic equity derivatives and structured notes to hybrid derivatives and dynamic strategies. Based on a realistic setting from the heart of the business, inside a derivatives operation, the practical and intuitive discussions of these aspects make these exotic concepts truly accessible. Adoptions of real trades are examined in detail, and all of the numerous examples are carefully selected so as to highlight interesting and significant aspects of the business. The introduction of payoff structures is accompanied by scenario analysis, diagrams and lifelike sample term sheets. Readers learn how to spot where the risks lie to pave the way for sound valuation and hedging of such products. There are also questions and accompanying discussions dispersed in the text, each exploited to illustrate one or more concepts from the context in which they are set. The applications, the strengths and the limitations of various models are highlighted, in relevance to the products and their risks, rather than the model implementations. Models are de-mystified in separately dedicated sections, but their implications are alluded to throughout the book in an intuitive and non-mathematical manner. By discussing exotic options and hybrids in a practical, non-mathematical and highly intuitive setting, this book will blast through the misunderstanding of exotic derivatives, enabling practitioners to fully understand and correctly structure, price and hedge theses products effectively, and stand strong as the only book in its class to make these “exotic” concepts truly accessible.

Read more less

Culturally powerful ideas of normalcy and deviation, individual responsibility, and what is medically feasible shape the ways in which we live with illness and disability. The essays in this volume show how illness narratives expressed in a variety of forms—biographical essays, fictional texts, cartoons, graphic novels, and comics—reflect on and grapple with the fact that these human experiences are socially embedded and culturally shaped. Works of fiction addressing the impact of an illness or disability; autobiographies and memoirs exploring an experience of medical treatment; and comics that portray illness or disability from the perspective of patient, family member, or caregiver: all of these narratives forge a specific aesthetic in order to communicate their understanding of the human condition. This collection demonstrates what can emerge when scholars and artists interested in fiction, life-writing, and comics collaborate to explore how various media portray illness, medical treatment, and disability. Rather than stopping at the limits of genre or medium, the essays talk across fields, exploring together how works in these different forms craft narratives and aesthetics to negotiate contention and build community around those experiences and to discover how the knowledge and experiences of illness and disability circulate within the realms of medicine, art, the personal, and the cultural. Ultimately, they demonstrate a common purpose: to examine the ways comics and literary texts build an audience and galvanize not just empathy but also action.In addition to the editors, the contributors to this volume include Einat Avrahami, Maureen Burdock, Elizabeth J. Donaldson, Ariela Freedman, Rieke Jordan, stef lenk, Leah Misemer, Tahneer Oksman, Nina Schmidt, and Helen Spandler.Chapter 7, “Crafting Psychiatric Contention Through Single-Panel Cartoons,” by Helen Spandler, is available as Open Access courtesy of a grant from the Wellcome Trust. A link to the OA version of this chapter is forthcoming.

Read more less

Alexander Hamilton is commonly seen as the standard-bearer of an ideology-turned-political party, the Federalists, engaged in a struggle for the soul of the young United States against the Anti-Federalists, and later, the Jeffersonian Republicans. Alexander Hamilton and the Development of American Law counters such conventional wisdom with a new, more nuanced view of Hamilton as a true federalist, rather than a one-dimensional nationalist, whose most important influence on the American founding is his legal legacy.In this analytical biography, Kate Elizabeth Brown recasts our understanding of Hamilton’s political career, his policy achievements, and his significant role in the American founding by considering him first and foremost as a preeminent lawyer who applied law and legal arguments to accomplish his statecraft. In particular, Brown shows how Hamilton used inherited English legal principles to accomplish his policy goals, and how state and federal jurists adapted these Hamiltonian principles into a distinct, republican jurisprudence throughout the nineteenth century. When writing his authoritative commentary on the nature of federal constitutional power in The Federalist, Hamilton juxtaposed the British constitution with the new American one he helped to create; when proposing commercial, monetary, banking, administrative, or foreign policy in Washington’s cabinet, he used legal arguments to justify his desired course of action. In short, lawyering, legal innovation, and common law permeated Alexander Hamilton’s professional career. Re-examining Hamilton’s post-war accomplishments through the lens of law, Brown demonstrates that Hamilton’s much-studied political career, as well as his contributions to republican political science, cannot be fully understood without recognizing and investigating how Hamilton used Anglo-American legal principles to achieve these ends. A critical re-evaluation of Hamilton’s legacy, as well as his place in the founding era, Brown’s work also enhances and refines our understanding of the nature and history of American jurisprudence.

Read more less

In Losing the News, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Alex S. Jones offers a probing look at the epochal changes sweeping the media, changes which are eroding the core news that has been the essential food supply of our democracy. At a time of dazzling technological innovation, Jones says that what stands to be lost is the fact-based reporting that serves as a watchdog over government, holds the powerful accountable, and gives citizens what they need. In a tumultuous new media era, with cutthroat competition and panic over profits, the commitment of the traditional news media to serious news is fading. Indeed, as digital technology shatters the old economic model, the news media is making a painful passage that is taking a toll on journalistic values and standards. Journalistic objectivity and ethics are under assault, as is the bastion of the First Amendment. Jones characterizes himself not as a pessimist about news, but a realist. The breathtaking possibilities that the web offers are undeniable, but at what cost? Pundits and talk show hosts have persuaded Americans that the crisis in news is bias and partisanship. Not so, says Jones. The real crisis is the erosion of the iron core of news, something that hurts Republicans and Democrats alike. Losing the News depicts an unsettling situation in which the American birthright of fact-based, reported news is in danger. But it is also a call to arms to fight to keep the core of news intact. Praise for the hardcover: "Thoughtful." --New York Times Book Review "An impassioned call to action to preserve the best of traditional newspaper journalism." --The San Francisco Chronicle "Must reading for all Americans who care about our country's present and future. Analysis, commentary, scholarship and excellent writing, with a strong, easy-to-follow narrative about why you should care, makes this a candidate for one of the best books of the year." --Dan Rather

Read more less

Does free will exist? The question has fueled heated debates spanning from philosophy to psychology and religion. The answer has major implications, and the stakes are high. To put it in the simple terms that have come to dominate these debates, if we are free to make our own decisions, we are accountable for what we do, and if we aren't free, we're off the hook. There are neuroscientists who claim that our decisions are made unconsciously and are therefore outside of our control and social psychologists who argue that myriad imperceptible factors influence even our minor decisions to the extent that there is no room for free will. According to philosopher Alfred R. Mele, what they point to as hard and fast evidence that free will cannot exist actually leaves much room for doubt. If we look more closely at the major experiments that free will deniers cite, we can see large gaps where the light of possibility shines through. In Free: Why Science Hasn't Disproved Free Will, Mele lays out his opponents' experiments simply and clearly, and proceeds to debunk their supposed findings, one by one, explaining how the experiments don't provide the solid evidence for which they have been touted. There is powerful evidence that conscious decisions play an important role in our lives, and knowledge about situational influences can allow people to respond to those influences rationally rather than with blind obedience. Mele also explores the meaning and ramifications of free will. What, exactly, does it mean to have free will -- is it a state of our soul, or an undefinable openness to alternative decisions? Is it something natural and practical that is closely tied to moral responsibility? Since evidence suggests that denying the existence of free will actually encourages bad behavior, we have a duty to give it a fair chance.

Read more less

In 2011, Egypt witnessed more protests than any other country in the world. Counter to the received narrative, Amy Austin Holmes argues that the ousting of Mubarak in 2011 did not represent the culmination of a revolution or the beginning of a transition period, but rather the beginning of a revolutionary process that would unfold in three waves, followed by two waves of counterrevolution. This book offers the first analysis of both the revolution and counterrevolution in Egypt from January 2011 until June 2018. The period of revolutionary upheaval played out in three uprisings against three distinct forms of authoritarian rule: the Mubarak regime and the police state that protected it, the unelected military junta known as the Supreme Council of Armed Forces, and the religious authoritarianism of the Muslim Brotherhood. The counterrevolution occurred over two periods: the first under Adly Mansour as interim president and the second after El Sisi was elected president. While the regime imprisoned or killed the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood and many secular activists during the first wave of the counterrevolution, it turned against civil society at large during the second: NGOs, charities, media, academia, and minority groups. In addition to providing new and unprecedented empirical data, Coups and Revolutions makes two theoretical contributions. First, it presents a new framework for analyzing the state apparatus in Egypt based on four pillars of regime support that can either prop up or press upon whoever is in power. These are the Egyptian military, the business elite, the United States, and the multi-headed opposition. Secondly, the book brings together the literature on bottom-up revolutionary movements and top-down military coups, and it introduces the concept of a coup from below in contrast to the revolution from above that took place under Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Read more less

This book describes the invariant nature of the relativistic quantum field theories utilizing the idea of interpolating the instant form dynamics and the light-front dynamics. While the light-front dynamics (LFD) based on the light-front time was proposed by Dirac in 1949, there has not yet been a salient review on the connection between the LFD and the instant form dynamics (IFD) based on the ordinary time. By reviewing the connection between LFD and IFD using the idea of interpolating the two different forms of the relativistic dynamics, one can learn the distinguished features of each form and how one may utilize those distinguished features in solving the complicated relativistic quantum field theoretic problems more effectively. With the ongoing 12-GeV Jefferson Lab experiments, the internal structures of the nucleon and nuclei are vigorously investigated in particular using the physical observables defined in the LFD rather than in the IFD. This book offers a clear demonstration on why and how the LFD is more advantageous than the IFD for the study of hadron physics, illustrating the differences and similarities between these two distinguished forms of the dynamics. It aims at presenting the basic first-hand knowledge of the relativistic quantum field theories, describing why and how the different forms of dynamics (e.g., IFD and LFD) can emerge in them, connecting the IFD and the LFD using the idea of the interpolation, and demonstrating explicit examples of the interpolation in quantum electrodynamics and other field theories. While the level of presentation is planned mainly for the advanced undergraduate students and the beginning graduate students, the topics of the interpolation between the IFD and the LFD are innovative enough for even the experts in the field to appreciate its usefulness.

Read more less

THE TOP 10 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S TOP BOOKS OF THE YEAR Shortlisted for The Orwell Prize 2020 Shortlisted for the FT Business Book of the Year Award 2019 'Easily the most important book to be published this century. I find it hard to take any young activist seriously who hasn't at least familarised themselves with Zuboff's central ideas.' - Zadie Smith, The Guardian The challenges to humanity posed by the digital future, the first detailed examination of the unprecedented form of power called "surveillance capitalism," and the quest by powerful corporations to predict and control us. The heady optimism of the Internet's early days is gone. Technologies that were meant to liberate us have deepened inequality and stoked divisions. Tech companies gather our information online and sell it to the highest bidder, whether government or retailer. Profits now depend not only on predicting our behaviour but modifying it too. How will this fusion of capitalism and the digital shape our values and define our future? Shoshana Zuboff shows that we are at a crossroads. We still have the power to decide what kind of world we want to live in, and what we decide now will shape the rest of the century. Our choices: allow technology to enrich the few and impoverish the many, or harness it and distribute its benefits. The Age of Surveillance Capitalism is a deeply-reasoned examination of the threat of unprecedented power free from democratic oversight. As it explores this new capitalism's impact on society, politics, business, and technology, it exposes the struggles that will decide both the next chapter of capitalism and the meaning of information civilization. Most critically, it shows how we can protect ourselves and our communities and ensure we are the masters of the digital rather than its slaves.

Read more less

The office isn't as essential as it used to be. Flexible working hours and distributed teams are replacing decades of on-site, open-plan office culture. Wherever you work from nowadays, your colleagues are likely to be somewhere else. No more whiteboards. No more water coolers. And certainly no Ping-Pong. So how can you organize yourself, ship software, communicate, and be impactful as part of a globally distributed workforce? We'll show you how. It's time to adopt a brand new mindset. Remote working is here to stay. Come and join us. Remote working is on the rise. Whether or not we are remote workers, it is likely we are all part of a global workforce. We need to learn to interact remotely, because we are all remote from someone in some way. Rather than simply simulating the way we'd usually work together via digital means, we have to learn new communication skills and adopt a different mindset in order to work remotely effectively, efficiently, and, most importantly, healthily. We'll start by getting you set up with the right equipment and habits. Then, we'll learn the mindset of treating everyone as remote, and conquer both synchronous and asynchronous communication. You'll learn how to produce amazing artifacts, how to communicate clearly, and how to manage yourself and your teams. Then we'll look at the bigger picture: from measuring the remote readiness of your workplace, to creating a handbook for your team, to exploring remote-first culture and tackling burnout and mental well-being. Fundamentally we'll see that adopting a remote-working mindset can do wonders for our organization, our effectiveness, and our impact in our careers. It can even create a more diverse and inclusive industry for us all to work in. So what are you waiting for? The remote future is now. Be a part of it. What You Need: There are no prerequisites to reading this book, other than having had some experience of working in the software industry and a healthy curiosity.

Read more less

Argues that anti-Muslim activity reveals how fear is corroding core American values In a 2018 national poll, over ninety percent of respondents reported that treating people equally is an essential American value. Almost eighty percent said accepting people of different racial backgrounds is very important. Yet about half of the general public reported that they doubt whether Muslims can truly dedicate themselves to American values and society. Why do many people who say they believe in equality and acceptance of those of different backgrounds also think that Muslims could be an exception to that rule? In Fear in Our Hearts, Caleb Iyer Elfenbein examines Islamophobia in the United States, positing that rather than simply being an outcome of the 9/11 attacks, anti-Muslim activity grows out of a fear of difference that has always characterized US public life. Elfenbein examines the effects of this fear on American Muslims, as well as describing how it works to shape and distort American society. Drawing on over 1,800 news reports documenting anti-Muslim activity, Elfenbein pinpoints trends, draws connections to the broader histories of immigration, identity, belonging, and citizenship in the US, and examines how Muslim communities have responded. In the face of public fear and hate, American Muslim communities have sought to develop connections with non-Muslims through unprecedented levels of community transparency, outreach, and public engagement efforts. Despite the hostile environment that has made these efforts necessary, American Muslims have faced down their own fears to offer a model for building communities and creating more welcoming conditions of public life for everyone. Arguing that anti-Muslim activity tells us as much about the state of core American values in general as it does about the particular experiences of American Muslims, this compelling look at Muslims in America offers practical ideas about how we can create a more welcoming public life for all in our everyday lives.

Read more less

Originally published in 1967. Jane Addams was one of the most creative thinkers and activists in the history of American social reform. She pioneered the settlement house movement. She was a leader in the attempt to relate education to the new urban environment for millions of Americans in the early twentieth century. She was a vocal advocate of the Progressive movement and active in the drive for women's rights. She was also an outstanding spokesman for international understanding and world peace. Although Jane Addams is well known as one of the originators of social work in the United States, as an early advocate of a "War on Poverty," and as the proponent of ideas that led to the creation of the modern welfare state, the convictions that motivated her prodigious energy had not, prior to Dr. Farrell's investigation, been carefully examined. He traces the relation between her philanthropic principles and her Progressive politics, her feminism, and her efforts to achieve world peace. He shows how her association with John Dewey and her acceptance of pragmatism changed her thinking and also how her later pacifism alienated her from many progressives of various persuasions. Before his sudden and untimely death at the age of thirty-two, John C. Farrell had just completed this study, based on his examination of virtually every important writing by and about Jane Addams. It is not a full-fledged biography but rather an intellectual history that seeks to explain the origins and relevance of Jane Addams' ideas and activities to the first half of the twentieth century. The manuscript for this book, complete but unrevised, was edited for publication by two of Farrell's colleagues who prefer to remain unidentified. Charles C. Barker, professor of history at Johns Hopkins University, wrote an introduction that places Beloved Lady in the context of scholarly literature on Jane Addams.

Read more less

As the United States withdraws its combat troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, politicians, foreign policy specialists, and the public are worrying about the consequences of leaving these two countries. Neither nation can be considered stable, and progress toward democracy in them - a principal aim of America and the West - is fragile at best. But, international relations scholar Mark N. Katz asks: Could ending both wars actually help the United States and its allies to overcome radical Islam in the long term? Drawing lessons from the Cold War, Katz makes the case that rather than signaling the decline of American power and influence, removing military forces from Afghanistan and Iraq puts the U.S. in a better position to counter the forces of radical Islam and ultimately win the war on terror. He explains that since both wars will likely remain intractable, for Washington to remain heavily involved in either is counter-productive. Katz argues that looking to its Cold War experience would help the U.S. find better strategies for employing America's scarce resources to deal with its adversaries now. This means that, although leaving Afghanistan and Iraq may well appear to be a victory for America's opponents in the short term-as was the case when the U.S. withdrew from Indochina-the larger battle with militant Islam can be won only by refocusing foreign and military policy away from these two quagmires. This sober, objective assessment of what went wrong in the U.S.-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the ways the West can disentangle itself and still move forward draws striking parallels with the Cold War. Anyone concerned with the future of the War on Terror will find Katz's argument highly thought provoking.

Read more less

Through speculative fiction, five interlocking novelettes explore the possible realities of our climate future. What is the future of our climate? Given that our summers now regularly feature Arctic heat waves and wildfire blood skies, polar vortex winters that reach all the way down to Texas, and “100-year” storms that hit every few months, it may seem that catastrophe is a done deal. As grim as things are, however, we still have options. Combining fiction and nonfiction and employing speculative tools for scholarly purposes, Our Shared Storm explores not just one potential climate future but five possible outcomes dependent upon our actions today. Written by speculative-fiction writer and sustainability researcher Andrew Dana Hudson, Our Shared Storm features five overlapping fictions to employ a futurist technique called “scenarios thinking.” Rather than try to predict how history will unfold—picking one out of many unpredictable and contingent branching paths—it instead creates a set of futures that represent major trends or counterposed possibilities, based on a set of climate-modeling scenarios known as the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs). The setting is the year 2054, during the Conference of the Parties global climate negotiations (a.k.a., The COP) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Each story features a common cast of characters, but with events unfolding differently for them—and human society—in each alternate universe. These five scenarios highlight the political, economic, and cultural possibilities of futures where investments in climate adaptation and mitigation promised today have been successfully completed, kicked down the road, or abandoned altogether. From harrowing to hopeful, these stories highlight the choices we must make to stabilize the planet. Our Shared Storm is an experiment in deploying practice-based research methods to explore the opportunities and challenges of using climate fiction to engage scientific and academic frameworks.

Read more less

Reified Life addresses the most pressing political question of the 21st century: what forms of life are free and what forms are perceived legally and economically as surplus or expendable, human and otherwise. The 2008 economic crisis solidified the dominion of neoliberal and financial capital to organize human societies much to the detriment of the world’s populations. Reified Life theorizes the dangerous social implications of a posthuman future, whereby human agency is secondary to algorithmic processes, digital protocols, speculative financial instruments, and nonhuman market and technological forces. Employing new readings of Deleuze, Guattari, Foucault, Marx, Vico, Gramsci, Berardi, and Gilbert Simondon, Narkunas contends that it is premature to speak of a posthuman or inhuman future, or employ an ‘ism, given how dynamic and contingent human practices and their material figurations can be. Over several chapters he diagnoses the rise of “market humans,” the instrumentalization of culture to decide the life worth living along utilitarian categories, and the varied ways human rights and humanitarianism actually throw members of the species like refugees outside the human order. To combat this, Reified Life argues against Reified Life calls to abandon the human and humanism, and instead proposes the ahuman to think alongside the human, what philosopher Gilbert Simondon calls the transindividuation of ontogentic processes rather than subjectivity. To aid the “figurating animal,” Reified Life elaborates speculative fictions as critical mechanisms for envisioning alternative futures and freedoms from the domineering forces of speculative capital, whose fictions have become our realities. Narkunas offers, to that end, a novel interpretation of the post-anthropocentric turn in the humanities by linking the diminished centrality of humanism to the waning dominion of nation-states over their populations and the intensification of financial capitalism, which reconfigures politics along economic categories of risk management.

Read more less

One of the youngest recipients of a MacArthur “genius” grant, Kara Walker, an African American artist, is best known for her iconic, often life-size, black-and-white silhouetted figures, arranged in unsettling scenes on gallery walls. These visually arresting narratives draw viewers into a dialogue about the dynamics of race, sexuality, and violence in both the antebellum South and contemporary culture. Walker’s work has been featured in exhibits around the world and in American museums including the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim, and the Whitney. At the same time, her ideologically provocative images have drawn vociferous criticism from several senior African American artists, and a number of her pieces have been pulled from exhibits amid protests against their disturbing representations. Seeing the Unspeakable provides a sustained consideration of the controversial art of Kara Walker.Examining Walker’s striking silhouettes, evocative gouache drawings, and dynamic prints, Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw analyzes the inspiration for and reception of four of Walker’s pieces: The End of Uncle Tom and the Grand Allegorical Tableau of Eva in Heaven, John Brown, A Means to an End, and Cut. She offers an overview of Walker’s life and career, and contextualizes her art within the history of African American visual culture and in relation to the work of contemporary artists including Faith Ringgold, Carrie Mae Weems, and Michael Ray Charles. Shaw describes how Walker deliberately challenges viewers’ sensibilities with radically de-sentimentalized images of slavery and racial stereotypes. This book reveals a powerful artist who is questioning, rather than accepting, the ideas and strategies of social responsibility that her parents’ generation fought to establish during the civil rights era. By exploiting the racist icons of the past, Walker forces viewers to see the unspeakable aspects of America’s racist past and conflicted present.

Read more less

Winner, Body and Embodiment Award presented by the American Sociological Association Imagine yourself without a face—the task seems impossible. The face is a core feature of our physical identity. Our face is how others identify us and how we think of our ‘self’. Yet, human faces are also functionally essential as mechanisms for communication and as a means of eating, breathing, and seeing. For these reasons, facial disfigurement can endanger our fundamental notions of self and identity or even be life threatening, at worse. Precisely because it is so difficult to conceal our faces, the disfigured face compromises appearance, status, and, perhaps, our very way of being in the world. In Saving Face, sociologist Heather Laine Talley examines the cultural meaning and social significance of interventions aimed at repairing faces defined as disfigured. Using ethnography, participant-observation, content analysis, interviews, and autoethnography, Talley explores four sites in which a range of faces are “repaired:” face transplantation, facial feminization surgery, the reality show Extreme Makeover, and the international charitable organization Operation Smile,. Throughout, she considers how efforts focused on repair sometimes intensify the stigma associated with disfigurement. Drawing upon experiences volunteering at a camp for children with severe burns, Talley also considers alternative interventions and everyday practices that both challenge stigma and help those seen as disfigured negotiate outsider status. Talley delves into the promise and limits of facial surgery, continually examining how we might understand appearance as a facet of privilege and a dimension of inequality. Ultimately, she argues that facial work is not simply a conglomeration of reconstructive techniques aimed at the human face, but rather, that appearance interventions are increasingly treated as lifesaving work. Especially at a time when aesthetic technologies carrying greater risk are emerging and when discrimination based on appearance is rampant, this important book challenges us to think critically about how we see the human face.

Read more less

Winner of the 2015 American Planning Association New York Metro Chapter Journalism Award The State of New York built one of the world’s longest, widest, and most expensive bridges—the new Tappan Zee Bridge—stretching more than three miles across the Hudson River, approximately thirteen miles north of New York City. In Politics Across the Hudson, urban planner Philip Plotch offers a behind-the-scenes look at three decades of contentious planning and politics centered around this bridge, recently renamed for Governor Mario M. Cuomo, the state's governor from 1983 to 1994. He reveals valuable lessons for those trying to tackle complex public policies while also confirming our worst fears about government dysfunction. Drawing on his extensive experience planning megaprojects, interviews with more than a hundred key figures—including governors, agency heads, engineers, civic advocates, and business leaders—and extraordinary access to internal government records, Plotch tells a compelling story of high-stakes battles between powerful players in the public, private, and civic sectors. He reveals how state officials abandoned viable options, squandered hundreds of millions of dollars, forfeited more than three billion dollars in federal funds, and missed out on important opportunities. Faced with the public’s unrealistic expectations, no one could identify a practical solution to a vexing problem, a dilemma that led three governors to study various alternatives rather than disappoint key constituencies. This revised and updated edition includes a new epilogue and more photographs, and continues where Robert Caro’s The Power Broker left off and illuminates the power struggles involved in building New York’s first major new bridge since the Robert Moses era. Plotch describes how one governor, Andrew Cuomo, shrewdly overcame the seemingly insurmountable obstacles of onerous environmental regulations, vehement community opposition, insufficient funding, interagency battles, and overly optimistic expectations...

Read more less

In this book, Nobel Prize-winning economist Edmund Phelps draws on a lifetime of thinking to make a sweeping new argument about what makes nations prosper--and why the sources of that prosperity are under threat today. Why did prosperity explode in some nations between the 1820s and 1960s, creating not just unprecedented material wealth but "flourishing"--meaningful work, self-expression, and personal growth for more people than ever before? Phelps makes the case that the wellspring of this flourishing was modern values such as the desire to create, explore, and meet challenges. These values fueled the grassroots dynamism that was necessary for widespread, indigenous innovation. Most innovation wasn't driven by a few isolated visionaries like Henry Ford and Steve Jobs; rather, it was driven by millions of people empowered to think of, develop, and market innumerable new products and processes, and improvements to existing ones. Mass flourishing--a combination of material well-being and the "good life" in a broader sense--was created by this mass innovation. Yet indigenous innovation and flourishing weakened decades ago. In America, evidence indicates that innovation and job satisfaction have decreased since the late 1960s, while postwar Europe has never recaptured its former dynamism. The reason, Phelps argues, is that the modern values underlying the modern economy are under threat by a resurgence of traditional, corporatist values that put the community and state over the individual. The ultimate fate of modern values is now the most pressing question for the West: will Western nations recommit themselves to modernity, grassroots dynamism, indigenous innovation, and widespread personal fulfillment, or will we go on with a narrowed innovation that limits flourishing to a few? A book of immense practical and intellectual importance, Mass Flourishing is essential reading for anyone who cares about the sources of prosperity and the future of the West.

Read more less

In this pioneering book, Irwin M. Wall unravels the intertwining threads of the protracted agony of France's war with Algeria, the American role in the fall of the Fourth Republic, the long shadow of Charles de Gaulle, and the decisive postwar power of the United States. At the heart of this study is an incisive analysis of how Washington helped bring de Gaulle to power and a penetrating revisionist account of his Algerian policy. Departing from widely held interpretations of the Algerian War, Wall approaches the conflict as an international diplomatic crisis whose outcome was primarily dependent on French relations with Washington, the NATO alliance, and the United Nations, rather than on military engagement. Wall makes extensive use of previously unexamined documents from the Department of State, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and heretofore secret files of the Archives of the French Army at Vincennes and the Colonial Ministry at Aix-en-Provence. He argues convincingly that de Gaulle always intended to keep Algeria French, in line with his goal to make France the center of a reorganized French union of autonomous but dependent African states and the heart of a Europe of cooperating states. Such a union, which the French called Eurafrica, would further France's chance to be an equal partner with Britain and the United States in a reordered 'Free World.' In recent years the Algerian War has reclaimed its place in popular memory in France. Its interpreters have continued to view the conflict as a national, internal drama and de Gaulle as the second-time savior who ended French participation in a ruinous colonial war. But by analyzing the conflict in terms of French foreign policy, Wall shows the pivotal role of the United States and counters certain political myths that portray de Gaulle as an emancipator of colonial people. Wall's interpretation of the Algerian conflict may well spark controversy and will open important new avenues of debate concerning postwar international affairs.

Read more less

This guide will help the contractor’s staff overcome some of the difficulties encountered on a typical international contract using FIDIC forms. The majority of FIDIC-based contracts use the Red Book (Conditions of Contract for Construction), so this book concentrates on the use of those particular forms. Supplementary comments are included in Appendix C for the Yellow Book (Plant & Design-Build) recommended for use where the contractor has a design responsibility. The Contractor is represented on site by the Contractor’s Representative who carries the overall responsibility for all the Contractor’s on-site activities. In order to provide guidance to the Contractor’s Representative and his staff, this book is divided into five sections: A summarized general review of the Red Book from the Contractor’s perspective. A review of the activities and duties of the Contractor’s Representative in the same clause sequencing as they appear in the Red Book. A summary of these activities and duties but arranged in order of their likely time sequence on site. This has the added intention of providing the Contractor’s Representative with a means of ensuring that documents are not only properly provided to the Employer and Engineer, but most importantly that they are provided within the time limits specified in the Contract. A selection of model letters is provided which make reference to the various clauses of the contract requiring the Contractor to make submissions to the Employer or Engineer. Various appendices. The guide is not intended to be a review of the legal aspects of FIDIC- based contracts; legal advice should be obtained as and when necessary, particularly if the Contractor has little or no knowledge of the local law. Armed on site with a copy of The Contractor and the FIDIC Contract, the Contractor’s Representative will be more able to avoid contractual problems rather than spend considerable time and energy resolving those problems once they have arisen.

Read more less

In the wake of Vladimir Lenin’s death in 1924, various protagonists grappled to become his successor, but it was not until 1928 that Joseph Stalin emerged as leader of the Russian Marxists’ Bolshevik wing. Surrounded by an increasingly hostile capitalist world, Stalin reasoned that Soviet Russia had to industrialize in order to survive and prosper. But domestic capital was scarce, so the country’s minerals, timber, and grain were sold abroad for hard currency for funding the development of heavy industry.Claiming total control of agricultural management and production, Stalin implemented the collectivization of farming, consolidating small peasant holdings into large collective farms and controlling their output. The program was economically successful, but it came at a high social cost as the state encountered intense resistance, and between 1928 and 1934 collectivization led to the deaths of at least ten million people from starvation and associated diseases. Hungry and Starving elicits the voices of both the culprits and the victims at the centre of this horrific process. Through primary accounts of collectivization as well as the eyewitness observations of ambassadors, reporters, tourists, fellow travellers, Russian emigrés, tsarist officials, aristocrats, scientists, and technical specialists, James Gibson engages the crucial notions and actors in the academic discourse of the period. He finds that the famine lasted longer than is commonly supposed, that it took place on a national rather than a regional scale, and that while the famine was entirely man-made – the result of the ruthless manner in which collectivization was executed and enforced – it was neither deliberate nor ethnically motivated, given that it was not in the Soviet state’s economic or political interest to engage in genocide.Highlighting the experiences of life and death under Stalin’s ruthless regime, Hungry and Starving offers a broader understanding of the Great Soviet Famine.

Read more less

New Orleans in the 1920s and '30s was a deadly place. In 1925, the city's homicide rate was six times that of New York City and twelve times that of Boston, despite having a fraction of the population. Jeffrey S. Adler has explored every homicide officially recorded in New Orleans between 1925 and 1940--over two thousand in all--scouring police and autopsy reports, old interviews, and crumbling newspapers. More than simply quantifying these cases, Adler places them in larger contexts--legal, political, cultural, and demographic--and emerges with a tale of racism, urban violence, and vicious policing that has startling relevance for today. Murder in New Orleans shows how whites were convicted of homicide at far higher rates than blacks leading up the mid-1920s. But by the end of the next decade, this pattern had reversed completely, despite an overall plummet in municipal crime rates. This sharp rise in arrests was compounded by the increasingly harsh treatment of black subjects by New Orleans police, marked by acts of extreme brutality. Adler also explores counter-intuitive trends in violence, particularly how murder soared during the flush times of the Roaring Twenties, how it plummeted during the Great Depression, and how the vicious response to African American crime occurred as such violence plunged in frequency, revealing that the city's cycle of racial policing and punishment was connected less to actual patterns of wrongdoing than to the national enshrinement of Jim Crow. Rather than some hyperviolent outlier, this Louisiana city was a harbinger of the endemic racism at the center of today's criminal justice state. Murder in New Orleans lays bare how decades-old crimes, and the racially motivated cruelty of the official response, once again have baleful resonance in the age of Black Lives Matter.

Read more less

Effectively overcome difficult diagnostic challenges with Breast Imaging and Pathologic Correlations: A Pattern-Based Approach . This atlas is based on the morphology of the BIRADS Lexicon and not the pathology entities. It illustrates the "how" and "why" of breast imaging, whether via mammography or ultrasound and uses a case-based approach to walk you through a wide range of common and uncommon findings and correlates imaging patterns to pathology, helping you build your pattern recognition skills so you can diagnose breast cases with complete confidence .Key Features Increase your pattern recognition skills thanks to an organization by categories of pathologic presentation (i.e. masses, calcifications, architectural distortion, and other, less common malignant features) rather than by final diagnosis. Learn to evaluate masses based on shapes and margins, calcifications based on morphology and distribution and not the pathology entities , and distinguish architectural distortion from overlapping tissues. See how to distinguish between benign and malignant possibilities for almost every feature. Master the methodical thought process used by the most experienced radiologists so you can navigate the most challenging imaging findings, avoid diagnostic pitfalls, and provide the early detection patients need to ensure the best outcomes. Navigate the table of contents with ease as it provides a differential diagnosis per morphology Now with the print edition, enjoy the bundled interactive eBook edition , offering tablet, smartphone, or online access to: Complete content with enhanced navigation A powerful search that pulls results from content in the book, your notes, and even the web Cross-linked pages , references, and more for easy navigation Highlighting tool for easier reference of key content throughout the text Ability to take and share notes with friends and colleagues Quick reference tabbing to save your favorite content for future use

Read more less

By 2015, four years after the dawn of the Arab Spring, the prospects of a unifying political reform narrative in the Arab World were noticeably dwindling. The unprecedented opportunity for a regional workshop of reform and state building had stalled, with Islamist movements more anxious about questions of identity and religious ethics, and with the old guards of the “deep state” establishments (mainly military or religious personnel) countering the revolutions, rather than being concerned with constitutionalism. Generally, both incoming governments and governments clinging to a single thread trying to fight the tides of change, have lapsed to reliance on police power to curtail protests, thus raising crucial questions, whether “orientalist” or otherwise intentionally regressive: Have post-revolution events proved that the Middle East is incompatible with democracy and international human rights standards? Would entrenching such concepts in the Middle East be doomed to fail?The book will examine these questions as they unfolded during the Arab Spring, which sparked in January 2011, first in Tunisia, and then to six other Arab countries, including the most populous one, Egypt. Human Rights and the Arab Spring will highlight, analyse, and contrast, from a “human rights law” perspective, the situation in Tunisia – the success model of the Arab Spring – before and after the “Jasmine Revolution,” and in Egypt, the Arab Spring’s most notable failure – before the 2011 revolution and after the subsequent “counter-revolution,” which was led by the military establishment. The book’s ultimate goal is to make a case for a contemporary Arabian Magna Carta, a durable legal document that can be used to hold people in power (whether monarchs or dynastic “monarchical presidencies”) to account, in order to build a legal foundation for the democratisation, liberalisation, and possibly the secularisation of the region, or at least greater respect for international human rights laws and standards.

Read more less

Every literary household in nineteenth-century Britain had a commonplace book, scrapbook, or album. Coleridge called his collection "Fly-Catchers", while George Eliot referred to one of her commonplace books as a "Quarry," and Michael Faraday kept quotations in his "Philosophical Miscellany." Nevertheless, the nineteenth-century commonplace book, along with associated traditions like the scrapbook and album, remain under-studied. This book tells the story of how technological and social changes altered methods for gathering, storing, and organizing information in nineteenth-century Britain. As the commonplace book moved out of the schoolroom and into the home, it took on elements of the friendship album. At the same time, the explosion of print allowed readers to cheaply cut-and-paste extractions rather than copying out quotations by hand. Built on the evidence of over 300 manuscripts, this volume unearths the composition practices of well-known writers such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Sir Walter Scott, George Eliot, and Alfred Lord Tennyson, and their less well-known contemporaries. Divided into two sections, the first half of the book contends that methods for organizing knowledge developed in line with the period's dominant epistemic frameworks, while the second half argues that commonplace books helped Romantics and Victorians organize people. Chapters focus on prominent organizational methods in nineteenth-century commonplacing, often attached to an associated epistemic virtue: diaristic forms and the imagination (Chapter Two); "real time" entries signalling objectivity (Chapter Three); antiquarian remnants, serving as empirical evidence for historical arguments (Chapter Four); communally produced commonplace books that attest to socially constructed knowledge (Chapter Five); and blank spaces in commonplace books of mourning (Chapter Six). Richly illustrated, this book brings an archive of commonplace books, scrapbooks, and albums to the reader.

Read more less

This is a study in the Christology of Jerome Zanchi (1516-90), a leading 16th century reformed scholastic theologian. The study as a whole is bound together by doctrinal topics, themes and trajectories important to the 16th century Christological debates as well as by philosophical issues and arguments. In the first chapter, Stefan Lindholm situates Zanchi in the contemporary research into reformed scholasticism. Lindholm gives an account of what he calls analytic Christology and why it is relevant to the present study. In the second chapter, he contextualizes Zanchis Christology, historically and theologically. He discusses the sources and context of Zanchis Christology and characterize it as catholic, scholastic and reformed.In the second part, on the hypostatic union, Lindholm evaluates Zanchis view of the virgin birth The process of hominization in the third chapter. In the fourth chapter, he analyses Zanchis uses of the part-whole and soul-body similes for the hypostatic union. What emerges is a rather ambiguous view of the hypostatic union. At the end of this chapter, Lindholm offers further correctives to Zanchis assumed metaphysical framework in order to better accommodate the sort of claims Zanchi wants to make about the hypostatic union. The central theme in the debate between the Lutherans and the reformed theologians, the communication of properties, is treated in the third part. Chapter five deals with Zanchis controversy with Martin Chemnitz notion of the majestic genus (genus maiestaticum). In the sixth chapter Lindholm discusses the most heated issue in the debate about the communication of properties: ubiquity. He shows that Zanchi tends to argue against a sort of generalized version of ubiquity but it is not clear that Chemnitz actually ascribed to that position which weakens the force of Zanchis arguments. Finally, Lindholm looks at two scholastic arguments found in Chemnitz for multi-location and reconstruct a possible Zanchian response to them. In a postscript, Lindholm suggests some trajectories for future research.

Read more less

For some, the Bible and literature are at odds. The Bible, it is argued, is not properly literature but a piece of outmoded fiction that ought not to be studied or taken seriously. However, the relationship of the Bible with literature as well as its continuing cultural impact cannot be overlooked. The Bible is an ever-fruitful source for creativity that has contributed to all the great achievements of Western thought, writing, and artistry for the last two millennia.With Scripture and Literature, David Jasper has compiled forty years of his writings on the relationship between the Bible, literature, and art. These writings are interdisciplinary in nature and are not the work of a specialist in biblical scholarship. Rather, while acknowledging the Bible as a sacred text in more than one religious tradition, they recognize the Bible as literature in conversation with other literary works and traditions as well as the visual arts. During the forty years which these essays span, enormous changes have taken place in our world. Postmodernism has come and gone; issues in feminism and gender are now acutely, and properly, with us; and the world has become much more of a global village, despite its many divisions. On the other hand, and at the same time, it is remarkable how little has changed, and the reader will find that some older pieces remain relevant and necessary today.Parts of the book deal broadly with questions of translation, rhetoric, war, and evil, while others focus on specific writers and artists, from J. M. W. Turner to the English novelist Jim Crace. Yet behind Scripture and Literature lies a lifetime of careful thought and teaching of the Bible and literature. In the end, Jasper synthesizes his work, offering some reflections on pedagogy and the changes that have occurred from the 1980s up to the present day.

Read more less

"The key to real and lasting change lies somewhere between what you know and what you do. It’s what you think." —Lisa OzBeing social creatures, we yearn for connection but often fall into bad habits that interfere with our ability to have rewarding relationships. We begin to see ourselves as alone, isolated, or at odds with the rest of the universe. How can we learn to live in relationship in a more enlightened way? In US: Transforming Ourselves and the Relationships That Matter Most, Lisa Oz, the bestselling coauthor of the YOU: The Owner’s Manual series, takes readers on a transformational journey as she explores the three relationships that matter most: with the self, with others, and with the Divine. Interrelated and inseparable, these fundamental relationships determine the quality and the measure of our emotional and spiritual lives. Drawing from ancient traditions, spiritual and holistic thinkers, and personal insights, Lisa Oz guides you on an engaging, thought-provoking, and ultimately inspirational path toward changing your self, your relationships, and your life. With remarkable candor and humor, Lisa offers personal anecdotes that highlight the truth and consequences of familiar interactions. She also includes imaginative exercises meant to help you gain new insight into old behavior patterns and to encourage you to be an active, empowered agent for positive change in your relationships. Lisa’s writing on topics such as personal well-being, identifying your authentic self, conscious parenting, marital bonding, and truly compassionate living are persuasive because they are suggestive rather than prescriptive. By holding a mirror to her relationships, Lisa hopes to inspire you to reflect on your own, observing that we are all works in progress, living in relationship together.Informative and transformative, US offers an enriched and fulfilling vision of friendship, marriage, family, and spiritual progress. In these pages, the evolution of YOU blossoms into the community of US.

Read more less

HONORED AS A NOTABLE 100 BOOK IN THE 2021 SHELF UNBOUND BEST INDIE BOOK COMPETITIONMort Crim has reported on major conflicts around the world for more than four decades and was a major inspiration for Will Ferrell's performance in the movie Anchorman. Crim's memoir takes readers behind the camera to show what life was like when the local anchorman was as revered as the professional athlete, and just as overpaid. It was a glamorous life, working alongside some of journalism's legends, like Walter Cronkite, David Brinkley, Dan Rather, and Ted Koppel.The son of an evangelical minister in a conservative church, Crim suffered his first crisis of faith at the age of 15. Despite nagging questions, Crim eventually followed his father's path into ministry. But the more he delved into the Bible, the more his faith was shaken. Unable to defend things he wasn't sure of from the pulpit, Crim left the ministry for a career in journalism, determined to pursue truth. After a four-year stint in the Air Force, he earned his master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University, and by the age of 30, had made it to New York—the epicenter of his profession.As a national correspondent for ABC, Crim anchored the network's top-rated morning radio show and covered America's newly-developing manned space program. When Neil Armstrong took that first step on the moon, it was Crim's voice that described the historic event for millions around the world.At the urging of Walter Cronkite, Crim moved from network radio into the heady world of television news. At KYW in Philadelphia, Mort Crim was paired with the late Jessica Savitch, and their anchor team spawned the idea for Will Ferrell's Anchorman movies. Crim's journey for truth will resonate with anyone raised in a cocoon of certainty that they felt compelled to question.

Read more less

Against the two dominant ethical paradigms of continental philosophy–Emmanuel Levinas’s ethics of the Other and Michel Foucault’s ethics of self-cultivation—The Self-Emptying Subject theorizes an ethics of self-emptying, or kenosis, that reveals the immanence of an impersonal and dispossessed life “without a why.” Rather than aligning immanence with the enclosures of the subject, The Self-Emptying Subject engages the history of Christian mystical theology, modern philosophy, and contemporary theories of the subject to rethink immanence as what precedes and exceeds the very difference between the (human) self and the (divine) other, between the subject and transcendence. By arguing that transcendence operates and subjects life in secular no less than in religious domains, this book challenges the dominant distribution of concepts in contemporary theoretical discourse, which insists on associating transcendence exclusively with religion and theology and immanence exclusively with modern secularity and philosophy. The Self-Emptying Subject argues that it is important to resist framing the relationship between medieval theology and modern philosophy as a transition from the affirmation of divine transcendence to the establishment of autonomous subjects. Through an engagement with Meister Eckhart, G.W.F. Hegel, and Georges Bataille, it uncovers a medieval theological discourse that rejects the primacy of pious subjects and the transcendence of God (Eckhart); retrieves a modern philosophical discourse that critiques the creation of self-standing subjects through a speculative re-writing of the concepts of Christian theology (Hegel); and explores a discursive site that demonstrates the subjecting effects of transcendence across theological and philosophical operations and archives (Bataille). Taken together, these interpretations suggest that if we suspend the antagonistic relationship between theological and philosophical discourses, and decenter our periodizing assumptions and practices, we might encounter a yet unmapped theoretical fecundity of self-emptying that frees life from transcendent powers that incessantly subject it for their own ends.

Read more less

"Precisely the dimension of our heritage that most needs to be recovered...I cannot imagine a more timely publishing venture." Huston Smith Thomas J. Watson Professor Religion & Adjunct Professor of Philosophy Syracuse University Jacob Boehme: The Way to Christ translation, introduction and notes by Peter Erb, preface by Winifred Zeller "For the source in light and the source in darkness is but a single source. Nevertheless they are one nature just as fire and light are one nature." Jacob Boehme, 1575-1624 Evelyn Underhill called the German Lutheran Mystic Jacob Boehme "one of the most astonishing cases in history of a natural genius for the transcendent," Nicolas Beryaev described Boehme as "Beyond a doubt...one of the greatest of Christian gnostics. I am using the word not in the sense of heresies...but to indicate a wisdom grounded in revelation and employing myths and symbols rather than concepts-a wisdom much more contemplative than discursive." Boehme was the son of a farmer who lived the first part of his life as a shepherd and later became a shoemaker. He claimed that his writings reflect only what he was taught through the direct experience of God. A truly giant figure in the spiritual tradition, he has greatly influenced Angelus Silesius, William Blake, John Milton, Isaac Newton, William Law and many others. As the editor of this volume, Peter Erb, says, "The Way to Christ provides the best introduction to his thought and spirituality. A collection of nine separate treatises, its parts were written late in his career and reflect his final theological position, a position established not aside from his earlier work, but on it...The book was intended to serve as a meditation guide. Boehme believed that his writing had come from the Spirit. It was intended to direct his fellow-believers back to the Spirit as he had been directed." †

Read more less

Andrés Canché became the cacique, or indigenous leader, of Cenotillo, Yucatán, in January 1834. By his retirement in 1864, he had become an expert politician, balancing powerful local alliances with his community's interests as early national Yucatán underwent major political and social shifts. In Maya Caciques in Early National Yucatán, Rajeshwari Dutt uses Canché's story as a compelling microhistory to open a new perspective on the role of the cacique in post-independence Yucatán. In most of the literature on Yucatán, caciques are seen as remnants of Spanish colonial rule, intermediaries whose importance declined over the early national period. Dutt instead shows that at the individual level, caciques became more politicized and, in some cases, gained power. Rather than focusing on the rebellion and violence that inform most scholarship on post-independence Yucatán, Dutt traces the more quotidian ways in which figures like Canché held onto power. In the process, she presents an alternative perspective on a tumultuous period in Yucatán's history, a view that emphasizes negotiation and alliance-making at the local level. At the same time, Dutt's exploration of the caciques' life stories reveals a larger narrative about the emergence, evolution, and normalization of particular forms of national political conduct in the decades following independence. Over time, caciques fashioned a new political repertoire, forming strategic local alliances with villagers, priests, Spanish and Creole officials, and other caciques. As state policies made political participation increasingly difficult, Maya caciques turned clientelism, or the use of patronage relationships, into the new modus operandi of local politics. Dutt's engaging exploration of the life and career of Andrés Canché, and of his fellow Maya caciques, illuminates the realities of politics in Yucatán, revealing that seemingly ordinary political relationships were carefully negotiated by indigenous leaders. Theirs is a story not of failure and decline, but of survival and empowerment.

Read more less

In the 1960s and 1970s, an insurgent attack on traditional liberalism took shape in America. It was built on new ideals of citizen advocacy and the public interest. Environmentalists, social critics, and consumer advocates like Rachel Carson, Jane Jacobs, and Ralph Nader crusaded against what they saw as a misguided and often corrupt government. Drawing energy from civil rights protests and opposition to the Vietnam War, the new citizens’ movement drew legions of followers and scored major victories. Citizen advocates disrupted government plans for urban highways and new hydroelectric dams and got Congress to pass tough legislation to protect clean air and clean water. They helped lead a revolution in safety that forced companies and governments to better protect consumers and workers from dangerous products and hazardous work conditions. And yet, in the process, citizen advocates also helped to undermine big government liberalism—the powerful alliance between government, business, and labor that dominated the United States politically in the decades following the New Deal and World War II. Public interest advocates exposed that alliance’s secret bargains and unintended consequences. They showed how government power often was used to advance private interests rather than restrain them. In the process of attacking government for its failings and its dangers, the public interest movement struggled to replace traditional liberalism with a new approach to governing. The citizen critique of government power instead helped clear the way for their antagonists: Reagan-era conservatives seeking to slash regulations and enrich corporations. Public Citizens traces the history of the public interest movement and explores its tangled legacy, showing the ways in which American liberalism has been at war with itself. The book forces us to reckon with the challenges of regaining our faith in government’s ability to advance the common good.

Read more less

Thematic and Chronological Approach to the Humanities Reality Through the Arts is a popular choice for professors because it provides both a topical and chronological approach to the humanities. Part I, “The Media of the Arts,” offers independent chapters on two dimensional art (drawing, painting, printmaking, and photography), sculpture, architecture, music, literature, theatre, cinema, and dance. Part II, “The Styles of the Arts,” is a chronological history of the arts of Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, organized by artistic discipline and focusing on styles rather than encyclopedic detail. This edition continues its uniquely flexible organization, allowing readers to cover individual art forms and historical context. In addition, the eighth edition is now available with MySearchLab, an online program that includes an interactive etext, assessment, and help with research and writing. A better teaching and learning experience This program will provide a better teaching and learning experience– for you and your students. Here’s how: Personalize Learning – The new MySearchLab delivers proven results in helping students succeed, provides engaging experiences that personalize learning, and comes from a trusted partner with educational expertise and a deep commitment to helping students and instructors achieve their goals. Improve Critical Thinking – Questions about specific issues appear at the end of each chapter, helping students develop their analytical skills. Engage Students – Human Reality features and vibrant illustrations throughout the book give students a further understanding of the artistic process. Support Instructors – New MySearchLab, Music for Humanities CD, Instructor’s Manual and Test Bank are available for this text. Note: MySearchLab with eText does not come automatically packaged with this text. To purchase MySearchLab with eText, please visit www.mysearchlab.com or you can purchase a ValuePack of the text + MySearchLab with eTExt (at no additional cost): ValuePack ISBN 10: 0205861148 / ValuePack ISBN-13: 9780205861149.

Read more less

How many times do you check something on the internet but find you are drifting aimlessly from one link to another? If you can't not answer the phone when it rings, and you spend hours a week on social media, and you read your texts instead of kissing your loved one goodnight, and you don't give your kids proper attention because you just have to prioritize new responses to your tweet...then this book is for you. The digital world is spreading like an inferno - a swirling, hot storm of change, possibility, addiction, passion, manipulation, creativity and abuse. It demands our attention and encourages us to be always on, with its constant updates and feedback. It is exciting, but it can also be overwhelming. And it's developing faster than our ability to deal with it. To adherents of digital living and working, any criticism is uncool, a sign of being out of touch. Refreshingly, Digital Inferno is neither simple indictment nor unqualified endorsement. Rather, it's about holding your own in the digital realm - adapting in a healthy way to the new reality. It offers a conscious path that allows you to derive the benefits you need but also to manage the dangers. Packed with a wealth of practical advice, Digital Inferno describes numerous methods to enable you to step back from constant digital activity and virtual living, and to pay more attention to the real world. You'll find exercises to overcome tiredness from digital contact and to develop skills to enable you to remain awake and aware. Crucially, you will be master of the digital realm: to abstain from contact when you need to, but also freely to immerse yourself when you choose to. We don't need to shun new technology, but we do need to be armed with an understanding of its challenges, problems and limitations. This book provides the tools you will need to meet the future consciously.

Read more less

Listen up! It’s time to change the way you manage your anxiety—by working with it rather than against it. This revolutionary guide provides the key to understanding the root cause of your anxiety, so you can break free from it's grip.Let’s face it: anxiety can interfere with every single aspect of your life, from work and family to relationships and finances. Left unchecked, the cycle of anxiety reinforces and perpetuates itself over time, and can leave you feeling paralyzed with fear. You’ve probably attempted to “get rid of” or “outrun” your anxiety, only to find your symptoms growing even stronger. What you need is a new way to deal with anxiety: one that emphasizes listening to what your anxiety is trying to tell you.In What Happened to Make You Anxious?, anxiety expert Jaime Castillo offers a whole new approach; one that focuses less on avoiding or extinguishing anxiety, and more toward understanding and working with it to create a fulfilling, meaningful life. You’ll learn how your anxiety is connected to what Castillo refers to as “little ‘t’ traumas”—seemingly small, unhealed traumas from your past that drive your fear and worry, so you can get to the root of your anxiety and start healing.Your anxiety works overtime communicating perceived threats; this book will show you how to listen to anxiety, discern which threats are real, which don’t fit the actual facts of the situation, and which are triggered by past events. Once you and your anxiety are on the same page, anxiety will loosen its grip—freeing you up to live with clarity, confidence, and serenity.You’ve tried managing it on your own. You may have even received treatment. If you’re at your wit’s end when it comes to your anxiety, this book will show you a new path toward lasting relief.

Read more less

A nuanced, story-driven narrative about the deeply intertwined business and cultural relationship between the United States and Mexico, and the need to tear down, rather than fortify, wallsA certain narrative about the relationship between the United States and Mexico has taken shape over the last twenty years. Many believe that our trade and immigration policies have undercut American labor, and that Mexico itself is a place where drugs and violence are rampant. They believe that these two countries, living side by side, are about as different as can be. But as Andrew Selee shows, the demographics, economics, politics, and culture of these two countries have more in common than meets the eye.Vanishing Frontiers is the story of the cultural and economic intertwining of these two countries. Beloved US brands like Sara Lee and Thomas' English Muffins are owned by Mexico City-based Grupo Bimbo. Forty percent of the manufactured goods that flow across the border with Mexico are products that US and Mexican firms assemble together in shared supply chains. As immigration from Mexico has reached an all-time low, a million Americans--retirees, job seekers, and more--live in Mexico, almost as many expats as live in all the countries of the European Union combined. Meanwhile, more than a tenth of all Americans now trace their heritage to Mexico, and they are among the fastest-growing consumer segments for everything from prime-time television programs to the Super Bowl.There has been a dramatic change in the way Mexico and the United States relate to each other, but few Americans have noticed the depth of this change. As Selee shows in this important and timely book, the US-Mexico border is a seam that weaves together the two economies and cultures, not a barrier between two radically different societies.

Read more less

Inspired by Latinx folklore, legends, and myths from the Iberian Peninsula and Central and South America, this “clever, funny, and entertaining” (Kirkus Reviews) third book in the Charlie Hernández series follows Charlie as he faces off against an army of the dead.After hitchhiking across Central and South America to rescue the Witch Queen and face off against La Mano Peluda, Charlie Hernández is pretty much grounded for life. But after all he’s been through, some quiet time at home with his parents might be nice. Though it would be better if he didn’t have to share his room with his obnoxiously perfect cousin Raúl, who’s staying with them. But quiet is hard to come by when you’re the fifth and final morphling, and it’s not long before death walks back into Charlie’s life. Or at least, the dead do, starting with a mysterious young calaca who corners him at school, dropping cryptic hints about trouble brewing in the 305. With the League of Shadows focused on repairing fractured alliances and tracking gathering armies, this one’s up to Charlie to solve. Following the clues only leads to more questions, and not even teenage investigative journalist extraordinaire Violet Rey can figure out how a sudden rooster infestation, earthquakes, missing persons, and a pet-napping gang of lizard-men—whom Charlie doesn’t recognize from any legend—are all connected. Most concerning of all is when they learn a map has been stolen that reveals the locations of the Golden Dooms, the twelve ancient calaca watchmen who form the magical barrier between the realms. To stop the impending invasion, Charlie and Violet must outwit an ancient evil and unravel the most sinister of schemes. That is, unless they’d rather watch the Land of the Living get overrun by the dead.

Read more less