Search results for ""Ideals""

This book presents an exciting and novel approach to explore the concept of the ‘ideal student’. Written in the context of higher education, the concept aims to promote a more transparent conversation about the explicit, implicit and idealistic expectations of university students. It would address concerns that implicit rules or unspoken practices can result in diverse but patterned student experiences, widening social inequalities.The concept of the ideal student can provide students, especially those less familiar or confident with higher education, with a better and clearer understanding of what is valued, expected and rewarded at university. With increasing student diversity, there is an urgent need for greater openness and awareness of the different expectations and ideals of students. The key questions explored include:•How is the ideal student imagined and envisioned?•To what extent are these constructions realistic and achievable? •Are certain students more likely to aspire, identify or embody these ideal characteristics? •Are there any features of the ideal student that are widely shared and recognised? •How do people from different social backgrounds construct their ideal student? •How can staff support students to develop desirable characteristics for university?A number of issues are unpacked as the book discusses the nuances of what it means to be a university student. The Ideal Student is written for a general audience and will be of particular interest to those working or studying in higher education, especially staff, students and senior leaders."This clearly written and engaging book will be of interest to HE practitioners, students and researchers who want to support more inclusive learning environments."Professor Louise Archer, Karl Mannheim Professor of Sociology of Education, UCL Institute of Education, UK"This is a rigorously informed and illuminating reconsideration of the notion of the Ideal Type of student in higher education."Professor Gill Crozier DPhil, FRSA, University of Roehampton, UK"Based on solid empirical work, combining qualitative and quantitative data, the book offers an insight into the perception of whom and what the ideal student is."Professor Lars Ulriksen, Department of Science Education, University of Copenhagen, Denmark"In their well-written and clearly structured volume Wong and Chiu summarise valuable data-driven research that sheds light on the important question of what characterises the ideal student."Stefan T. Siegel & Tobias Böttger, University of Augsburg, GermanyBilly Wong is an Associate Professor in Widening Participation at the Institute of Education, University of Reading.Tiffany Chiu is Senior Teaching Fellow in Educational Development at the Centre for Higher Education Research and Scholarship and Programme Director for the PG Cert in University Learning and Teaching at Imperial College London. She is a Senior Fellow of the HEA.

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Despite the global financial crisis in 2007-2008, neoliberalism has remained dominant and even informs the responses to the crisis. In his masterful analysis, Damien Cahill demonstrates that this resilience is due to neoliberalism being firmly embedded within wider class relations, institutions and ideological norms. And yet, as Cahill also argues, progressive change is possible provided it is based on large-scale political mobilisation. I most strongly recommend this book for reading.'- Andreas Bieler, Nottingham University, UK'Damien Cahill has emerged as one of the most penetrating social scientists on the politics of neoliberalism in the advanced capitalist societies. In his new book, he brings his many years of pouring over policy documents to examine neoliberalism in the new 'age of austerity'. The result is an impressive survey of the history and debates about neoliberal policies. But more powerful is Cahill's hard-headed analysis of why neoliberalism may not simply be in decline, despite the great social disasters it has produced: the 'Great Recession' of 2008 only being the most spectacular. Cahill insists on what many are only beginning to realize: that a new progressive political economy will not emerge as a result of the 'failure of neoliberal ideas', but only when an alternative vision of society fuses with new organized forms of social resistance.'- Greg Albo, York University, Toronto, CanadaWhen the global financial crisis hit in 2007, many commentators thought it heralded the end of neoliberalism. Several years later, neoliberalism continues to dominate policy making. This book sets out why such commentators got it so wrong, and why neoliberalism remains so durable in the face of crisis.This book is the first comprehensive critique of the dominant 'ideas-centered' approach to understanding neoliberalism. It offers an alternative view of neoliberalism as a policy regime that is embedded in institutions, class relations and ideological norms. Damien Cahill argues that the socially embedded nature of neoliberalism explains why policy makers continue to use neoliberal policies as forms of crisis response, even though the crisis itself resulted from several decades of neoliberal restructuring. It takes aim at dominant interpretations of neoliberalism, arguing that it is wrongly viewed as reflecting neoliberal free market ideals, or as resulting from the influence of fundamentalist neoliberal intellectuals. The book concludes with a prognosis of the future prospects for neoliberalism.The End of Laissez-Faire? is a compelling and insightful analysis of neoliberalism, which will appeal to scholars and students of public policy, political science, sociology, political economy, anthropology, human geography, industrial relations and economics-related studies.Contents: Introduction 1. The Idealist View of Neoliberalism 2. Actually Existing Neoliberalism 3. Did Neoliberal Ideas Create the Neoliberal State and Economy? 4. Always Embedded Neoliberalism 5. The Class Embedded Nature of Neoliberalism 6. Institutionally Embedded Neoliberalism 7. Ideologically Embedded Neoliberalism 8. The Global Financial Crisis and the Future of Embedded Neoliberalism Bibliography Index

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Civilization and War is an exceptionally erudite and timely meditation on the close relationship between civilization, progress and war in modern political thought and policy from the Enlightenment to the war on terror. It is a fitting complement to Dr. Bowden's path-breaking study, The Empire of Civilization (2009).'- James Tully, University of Victoria, Canada'Civilization and War addresses a concern of all thinking persons in elegant language with erudition to match. Bowden's readers will profit by stretching their minds, learn much to mull over and discuss with their friends.'- William H. McNeill, University of Chicago, US'A lucid, wide-ranging and fascinating discussion of how 'civilization' has given rise to ideals of peace and progress and is - perhaps inescapably - prone to technologically-advanced, destructive warfare.'- Andrew Linklater, Aberystwyth University, UK'Following his award-winning The Empire of Civilization, Brett Bowden's Civilization and War is a much-needed corrective to Kantian hopes for cosmopolitan governance. Short as it may be, this is an eminently readable book that rightfully poses uncomfortable questions with regard to the inextricable link between 'civilization' and 'barbarism.' It is also a reminder, however, to political realists to take the ethical questions of armed conflict more seriously. Such violence is overcome less by normative moral frameworks than by the actual practices of migration and cooperation as much as by exchanges of goods and ideas.'- Christian Emden, Rice University, USCivilization and war were born around the same time in roughly the same place they have effectively grown up together. This challenges the belief that the more civilized we become, the less likely the resort to war in order to resolve differences and disputes. The related assumption that civilized societies are more likely to abide by the rules of war is also in dispute. Where does terrorism fit into debates about civilized and savage war? What are we to make of talk about an impending 'clash of civilizations'? In a succinct yet wide ranging survey of history and of ideas that calls in to question a number of conventional wisdoms, Civilization and War explores these issues and more whilst outlining the two-way relationship between civilization and war.Providing an alternative perspective to conventional thinking, this book will appeal to a wide interdisciplinary audience across all regions of the globe. The material is both original and highly topical and is written in a sharp, snappy style that makes it accessible to a wide readership, including upper-level undergraduates, postgraduates, academic specialists and informed general readers. Civilization and War makes important contributions to the fields of international relations, peace and conflict studies, political theory and the history of ideas, and will be of interest to people with a curiosity about world history and current affairs.Contents: Preface 1. Introduction 2. Civilization and Peace 3. Civilization and War 4. Civilization and Savagery 5. Civilization, War, and Terror 6. Us and Them at War 7. Civilizations at War? Bibliography Index

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SHORT LISTED FOR THE 2021 CHRISTOPHER BLAND PRIZE'The Lost Homestead is a memoir of Wheeler's mother and her family, which turns out to be so much more than that... it takes the reader into the contested history of India and Pakistan in the 1940s, and explores the impact of partition and division (from the Punjab to Berlin) on the lives of individuals.' - MARY BEARD'Deeply touching.' - Daily Mail'A personal, sometimes harrowing history of partition... a writer well worth reading.' - The Times'A deeply personal story of identity and a highly relatable journey for many in the diaspora... Wheeler taps a rich vein of personal history... Evocative... Gripping.' - Financial Times'A timely read given the current reassessment of colonialism . . . a charming memoir that weaves the story of India independence and the tragedy of the partition with that of her mother's own escape from an unhappy marriage.' - Christina Lamb, Sunday Times'A personal, sometimes harrowing history of partition . . . by narrating partition with a focus on her mother's family, the Singhs, she has made the abstractions of history suddenly more real: they are given names, faces and feelings . . . offers valuable insights, especially since Gandhi and Jinnah were also products of London's inns of court . . . [Marina Wheeler is] a writer well worth reading.' - Tanjil Rashid, The Times'A family journey, a political drama, a historical legacy - magnificently portrayed with courage, humanity and a gentle power.' - Philippe Sands, author of East West Street and The Ratline'A wonderful memoir, gripping, elegant, warm and insightful - a triumph. An intimate and inspiring portrayal of how a woman made her own world as nations and empire were made and unmade.' - Dr Shruti Kapila, Lecturer in Modern History, University of Cambridge'This book is more than a family memoir - it is an insightful glimpse into the way small worlds are forever changed by the impersonal currents of history.' Shashi Tharoor, author of Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India***On 3 June 1947, as British India descended into chaos, its division into two states was announced. For months the violence and civil unrest escalated. With millions of others, Marina Wheeler's mother Dip Singh and her Sikh family were forced to flee their home in the Punjab, never to return. As an Anglo-Indian with roots in what is now Pakistan, Marina Wheeler weave's her mother's story of loss and new beginnings, personal and political freedom into the broader, still highly contested, history of the region. We follow Dip when she marries Marina's English father and leaves India for good, to Berlin, then a divided city, and to Washington DC where the fight for civil rights embraced the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi. The Lost Homestead touches on global themes that strongly resonate today: political change, religious extremism, migration, minorities, nationhood, identity and belonging. But above all it is about coming to terms with the past, and about the stories we choose to tell about ourselves.

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"Surprisingly readable and studded with nuggets of insight." —The Daily Yomiuri "This insightful, well-written, fascinating book offers new understandings, not only of Japan, but also of American culture. It is essential for those in anthropology, psychology, sociology, and psychiatry who are interested in culture, as well as those in law and the business community who deal with Japan." —Paul Ekman, Ph.D.,Director, Human Interaction Laboratory, Langley Porter Institute, University of California, San Francisco "[A] thoughtful cross-cultural study of development...His work can only enhance the still evolving psychoanalytic theory of preoedipal development as it is being derived mostly from psychoanalytic research on child-parent interaction in American families." —Calvin F. Settlage, M.D. "Johnson's ambitious and exhaustive synthesis of anthropological and psychological treatments of dependency raises interesting questions. . . Johnson alerts the reader to issues of universalism and relativity and leads us to ask, 'What would psychoanalysis be like, if it had originated in Japan?'" —Merry I. White, Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Harvard University ". . . Johnson's erudite and critical re-examination of human dependence succeeds to re-profile dependence meaningfully and revives our interest in this major aspect of human experience. Indeed, much food for thought for both psychoanalysts and anthropologists." —Henri Parens, M.D., Philadelphia Psychoanalytic Institute Western ideologies traditionally emphasize the concepts of individualism, privacy, freedom, and independence, while the prevailing ethos relegates dependency to a disparaged status. In Japanese society, the divergence from these western ideals can be found in the concept of amae (perhaps best translated as indulgent dependency) which is part of the Japanese social fiber and pervades their experience. For the Western reader, the concept of amae is somewhat alien and unfamiliar, but in order to understand the Japanese fully, it is essential to acquire a familiarity with the intensity that accompanies interdependent affiliations within their culture. To place amae in the proper context, Johnson critically examines the western attitudes toward dependency from the perspectives of psychoanalysis, psychiatry, developmental psychology, and anthropology. Johnson traces the development of the concept and uses of the term dependency in academic and developmental psychology in the West, including its recent eclipse by more operationally useful terms attachment and interdependency. This timely books makes use of the work of Japanese psychiatrist Takeo Doi, whose book The Anatomy of Dependence introduced the concept of amae to the West. Johnson goes on to illuminate the collective manner in which Japanese think and behave which is central to their socialization and educational practices, especially as seen in the stunning success of Japanese trading practices during the past twenty years. A major emphasis is placed upon the positive aspects of amae, which are compared and contrasted with attitudes toward dependency seen among other nationalities, cultures, and groups in both Western and Asian societies. Complete with a glossary of Japanese terms, Dependency and Japanese Socialization provides a comprehensive investigation into Japanese behavior.

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"Paul Strand is universally acclaimed as a master. His pictures rank highly among the most often reproduced masterworks of photography and have an honored place within the canon of modern art as such. People viewing his work for the first or the hundredth time find themselves captivated within a visual domain of extraordinary immediacy and freshness, not just in textures, shapes, and forms but in subtleties which make for resonating coherences within and among images."--Alan Trachtenberg, author of" Reading American Photographs: Images as History, Mathew Brady to Walker Evans," excerpted from the" Introduction" "In Strand's pictures, we find the work of a quiet but intense man who transmuted the real into the ideal, "the ordinary in man and the transitory in nature converted into eternal symbols.""--Estelle Jussim, author of "Slave to Beauty: The Eccentric Life and Controversial Career of F. Holland Day, Photographer, Publisher, Aesthete," from her essay A visionary artist of the twentieth century, Paul Strand was much more than a gifted imagemaker. Throughout his long and productive life which ended in 1976, Strand was a leading advocate of photography as a fine art and a political activist deeply committed to social issues. He was an innovative filmmaker and a pioneer in developing photography books that combined images with words. To celebrate the centenary of Paul Strand's birth, an international team of scholars and writers, many of whom knew or worked with Strand, has produced a volume of essays and meditations on his life and work. Alan Trachtenberg, professor of English and American Studies at Yale University, provides the insightful introduction. Gloria Naylor, Russell Banks, Jim Harrison, Carolyn Forché , Jerome Liebling, Charles Simic, and Reynolds Price respond, each uniquely, to individual photographs. Naomi Rosenblum, Jan-Christopher Horak, Robert Adams, Milton Brown, Richard Benson, Estelle Jussim, and Anne Tucker, among others, offer lively scholarship and comment. Jussim discusses Strand's aesthetic ideals; Horak contributes an evaluation of the motion picture "Manhatta," produced in 1921 by Paul Strand and Charles Sheeler; Benson writes from personal experience about Strand's darkroom practices; and internationally-regarded photographic-historian Naomi Rosenblum offers a fresh account of Strand's early development. Drawing on letters, journals, interviews, and previously unpublished writings, these thoughtful essays span Strands lifetime, from his remarkable debut in Alfred Stieglitz's periodical, "Camera Work," to his travels in the American Southwest and in Mexico, and his final years in Europe and Africa. These essays are an unsurpassed chronicle of artistic genius and a vital addition to the library of every serious photographer, Strand aficionado, cultural historian, and print collector. Published in the 100th anniversary of Paul Strand's birth. Robert Adams, William Alexander, Russell Banks, Richard Benson, Milton W. Brown, Basil Davidson, Edmundo Desnoes, Catherine Duncan, Carolyn Forché , Brewster Ghiselin, Jim Harrison, Jan-Christopher Horak, Estelle Jussim, Jerome Liebling, Gloria Naylor, Reynolds Price, Belinda Rathbone, John Rohrbach, Naomi Rosenblum, Walter Rosenblum, Charles Simic, Alan Trachtenberg, Anne Tucker, Katherine C. Ware, Mike Weaver, Steve Yates

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Through five colourful characters, three of them living out their very individual lives in an unnamed public park in Johannesburg, Zakes Mda explores the plight of women and children in a patriarchal and male-dominated twenty-first century world.Lord Stewart mourns his virginal companion (and regrets he didn’t try a little harder to change her state). He turns to another virgin, the eponymous Lady of Benoni, to help him find his lost love. Professor mourns the loss of his wife, Thabisile, humiliated and driven out of her community because she was believed not to have been a virgin before her marriage. MaDlomo mourns the fate of her child, raped as a three-month-old by a man seeking a cure for his HIV-positive state. And running in the background is the court case of a spiritual leader accused of rape and defended by the indomitable MaDlomo because of his support for the reintroduction of virginity testing.Stylistically adventurous and unafraid to deviate from conventionally accepted norms, Mda is iconoclastic in his handling of the ways in which attitudes to power, superstition, ethics and sex are constructed. The discourse of patriarchy and its ‘regime of truths’ that define female sexuality, its obligations and its custodianship, are the focus of the play.Zakes Mda’s satire is a kaleidoscopic display of the extremes to which men (and by implication women) are prepared to go in terms of valuing what is ‘virginal’. Mda presents us with the consequences of transgression: that which is seen as polluted and judged to be dangerous to the good health and purity of a group, a society, a culture. Taboos, superstition, customs and moral ethics become the subjects of inquiry and are, at times, subjected to ribald satire. This play cuts into a virtuoso style of theatre that can in no way be confused with the objectives and methods of conventional realism. Mda establishes a unique style and tone that is innovative, entertaining and challenging. It fuses satirical elements derived from classical poetry with a modernist sensibility that synthesises Brechtian and Absurdist features of theatricality, using characters as types and montage. Above all, in this work there is a profound exploration of what it means to operate in the politically charged landscape that defines post-apartheid South Africa with its cultural pluralities and differentials in access to resources and agency. Stylistically adventurous and unafraid to deviate from conventionally accepted norms, Mda is iconoclastic in his handling of the ways in which attitudes to power, superstition, ethics and sex are constructed. The cultural discourse of patriarchy and the ‘regime of truths’ regarding ideals and taboos defining female sexuality, its obligations, and its custodianship are the focus of this play.Written with ribald wit and trenchant satire, Our Lady of Benoni is suffused with laughter and pathos, leaving readers with much to ponder.

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A POWERFUL MEMOIR AND MANIFESTO CHALLENGING WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A BLACK MAN IN BRITAIN “A blisteringly honest take on contemporary Britishness that manages to be both nuanced and shocking. Highly recommended.” Afua Hirsch, author of Brit(ish) You’re a black man. Aggressive. Athletic. Feared. Fetishised. Policed. Politicised. It’s limiting. It’s tiring. And it’s not true. What makes a man in the 21st century? For generations ‘being a man’ has meant behaving in a very particular way. It has meant being strong, sexually assertive and overtly heterosexual. Assumptions around masculinity have been the root cause of countless problems which, to this day, continue to affect the whole of society. When the question of masculinity intersects with race, these assumptions too often mutate into pernicious prejudice in ways that are particularly damaging for the men themselves. In this groundbreaking and revealing book, actor, activist and writer Obioma Ugoala – a man of mixed Nigerian and Irish heritage – examines the ways in which his life has been affected by people failing to address their own prejudices about what they conceive a Black man to be. As well as talking about these – often shocking – experiences he take a broader cultural and historical view to challenge notions of race and masculinity that have over centuries become embedded in British society, poisoning the public discourse and blighting people’s lives. With unflinching honesty and deep humanity, this unique and important book challenges us all to face our personal failings while offering a vision of a more positive future if we dare to do better. When first published as The Problem with My Normal Penis the book met resistance from some who considered the title unnecessarily provocative. In this updated edition, Ugoala addresses the reception his book received and the light this shed on the very issues of race and masculinity that he was addressing. ‘Whipsmart and refreshingly vulnerable. In this book, Obioma Ugoala brilliantly exposes the systems and the individuals that have long perpetuated dangerous and irresponsible ideals around Blackness and masculinity.’ Candice Carty-Williams, author of Queenie "A valiant venture of a book that is somehow both tender memoir and unflinching excavation of the sociological blights that affect both self and society. Looking outward, inwards and forward, it lucidly explores complicated truths. Hopeful and honest, uncomfortable and encouraging, it is a book this country needs." Bolu Babalola, author of Love in Colour “An urgent, personal, compassionate book that never backs away from the difficulty of what we are facing but provides a forgiving mirror and a useable map so we can truly reflect & navigate. Obioma Ugoala’s treatise should be a set text for a world in crisis.” Deborah Frances White'In his enquiring memoir, he astutely explores where the expectations of his race and masculinity meet, unpicking and challenging his past experiences of prejudice. His personal stories are told in the context of the wider culture, and the book is a compassionate rallying cry to be more conscious.' Evening Standard

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Despite the global financial crisis in 2007-2008, neoliberalism has remained dominant and even informs the responses to the crisis. In his masterful analysis, Damien Cahill demonstrates that this resilience is due to neoliberalism being firmly embedded within wider class relations, institutions and ideological norms. And yet, as Cahill also argues, progressive change is possible provided it is based on large-scale political mobilisation. I most strongly recommend this book for reading.'- Andreas Bieler, Nottingham University, UK'Damien Cahill has emerged as one of the most penetrating social scientists on the politics of neoliberalism in the advanced capitalist societies. In his new book, he brings his many years of pouring over policy documents to examine neoliberalism in the new 'age of austerity'. The result is an impressive survey of the history and debates about neoliberal policies. But more powerful is Cahill's hard-headed analysis of why neoliberalism may not simply be in decline, despite the great social disasters it has produced: the 'Great Recession' of 2008 only being the most spectacular. Cahill insists on what many are only beginning to realize: that a new progressive political economy will not emerge as a result of the 'failure of neoliberal ideas', but only when an alternative vision of society fuses with new organized forms of social resistance.'- Greg Albo, York University, Toronto, CanadaWhen the global financial crisis hit in 2007, many commentators thought it heralded the end of neoliberalism. Several years later, neoliberalism continues to dominate policy making. This book sets out why such commentators got it so wrong, and why neoliberalism remains so durable in the face of crisis.This book is the first comprehensive critique of the dominant 'ideas-centered' approach to understanding neoliberalism. It offers an alternative view of neoliberalism as a policy regime that is embedded in institutions, class relations and ideological norms. Damien Cahill argues that the socially embedded nature of neoliberalism explains why policy makers continue to use neoliberal policies as forms of crisis response, even though the crisis itself resulted from several decades of neoliberal restructuring. It takes aim at dominant interpretations of neoliberalism, arguing that it is wrongly viewed as reflecting neoliberal free market ideals, or as resulting from the influence of fundamentalist neoliberal intellectuals. The book concludes with a prognosis of the future prospects for neoliberalism.The End of Laissez-Faire? is a compelling and insightful analysis of neoliberalism, which will appeal to scholars and students of public policy, political science, sociology, political economy, anthropology, human geography, industrial relations and economics-related studies.Contents: Introduction 1. The Idealist View of Neoliberalism 2. Actually Existing Neoliberalism 3. Did Neoliberal Ideas Create the Neoliberal State and Economy? 4. Always Embedded Neoliberalism 5. The Class Embedded Nature of Neoliberalism 6. Institutionally Embedded Neoliberalism 7. Ideologically Embedded Neoliberalism 8. The Global Financial Crisis and the Future of Embedded Neoliberalism Bibliography Index

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From leadership expert Dr. Jim Loehr, strengthen your moral and ethical character for outstanding leadership results with this must-have set. Leading with Character: 10 Minutes a Day to a Brilliant Legacy At the end of your life, how are you likely to be remembered? Chances are that people won’t be praising your money, power, and status. Instead, the people you’ve impacted will remember you for your compassion and personal strength—in short, your character. Unfortunately, many leaders are unaware of their character shortcomings and blind spots that hold so many of us back from building the lasting legacy we are capable of. With the right motivation, you can begin to strengthen your character and become a moral and ethical leader capable of creating lasting change. In Leading with Character: 10 Minutes a Day to a Brilliant Legacy, Dr. Jim Loehr, cofounder of the Johnson & Johnson Human Performance Institute, reveals 50 character competencies that you can practice daily to transform your life and work. This book will also guide you through the process of developing a Personal Credo that will serve as your decision-making mission statement. Most leaders never take the time to identify their own core values, instead defaulting to a reflexive form of decision making. Gain an awareness of the conscious and unconscious processes that guide what you do and why you do it, and take charge of your leadership legacy. Even good leaders are vulnerable to corruption. Read Leading with Character to learn how human evolution and contemporary culture can lead us astray without our even knowing it. As we work hard to get to the top, who are we becoming along the way? If we want to become heroes whose memories will long outlast us, we need to channel our energy into creating habits that will add up to a strong and meaningful character. The Personal Credo Journal: A Companion to Leading with Character We all want to become high impact leaders with a robust ethical and moral character, but getting there is a challenge. Dr. Jim Loehr’s Leading with Character offers a succinct plan for developing your character as a leader and building a meaningful legacy through your life’s work. The Personal Credo Journal is a day-by-day workbook that will guide you through the process of identifying your core values and crafting your Personal Credo—a statement of beliefs and values that will help you align every action and decision with your deepest held ideals. With these activities and exercises, you’ll spend just a few minutes each day reflecting on meaningful and thought-provoking prompts about your life story, your personal strengths and weaknesses, and your life goals. By the end of this life-altering, 150-day challenge, you will have gained a deep self-knowledge and a clear vision of your path forward as a leader. Take charge of the legacy you’ll leave behind, build character, and learn to use your Personal Credo to transform your life.

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Civilization and War is an exceptionally erudite and timely meditation on the close relationship between civilization, progress and war in modern political thought and policy from the Enlightenment to the war on terror. It is a fitting complement to Dr. Bowden's path-breaking study, The Empire of Civilization (2009).'- James Tully, University of Victoria, Canada'Civilization and War addresses a concern of all thinking persons in elegant language with erudition to match. Bowden's readers will profit by stretching their minds, learn much to mull over and discuss with their friends.'- William H. McNeill, University of Chicago, US'A lucid, wide-ranging and fascinating discussion of how 'civilization' has given rise to ideals of peace and progress and is - perhaps inescapably - prone to technologically-advanced, destructive warfare.'- Andrew Linklater, Aberystwyth University, UK'Following his award-winning The Empire of Civilization, Brett Bowden's Civilization and War is a much-needed corrective to Kantian hopes for cosmopolitan governance. Short as it may be, this is an eminently readable book that rightfully poses uncomfortable questions with regard to the inextricable link between 'civilization' and 'barbarism.' It is also a reminder, however, to political realists to take the ethical questions of armed conflict more seriously. Such violence is overcome less by normative moral frameworks than by the actual practices of migration and cooperation as much as by exchanges of goods and ideas.'- Christian Emden, Rice University, USCivilization and war were born around the same time in roughly the same place they have effectively grown up together. This challenges the belief that the more civilized we become, the less likely the resort to war in order to resolve differences and disputes. The related assumption that civilized societies are more likely to abide by the rules of war is also in dispute. Where does terrorism fit into debates about civilized and savage war? What are we to make of talk about an impending 'clash of civilizations'? In a succinct yet wide ranging survey of history and of ideas that calls in to question a number of conventional wisdoms, Civilization and War explores these issues and more whilst outlining the two-way relationship between civilization and war.Providing an alternative perspective to conventional thinking, this book will appeal to a wide interdisciplinary audience across all regions of the globe. The material is both original and highly topical and is written in a sharp, snappy style that makes it accessible to a wide readership, including upper-level undergraduates, postgraduates, academic specialists and informed general readers. Civilization and War makes important contributions to the fields of international relations, peace and conflict studies, political theory and the history of ideas, and will be of interest to people with a curiosity about world history and current affairs.Contents: Preface 1. Introduction 2. Civilization and Peace 3. Civilization and War 4. Civilization and Savagery 5. Civilization, War, and Terror 6. Us and Them at War 7. Civilizations at War? Bibliography Index

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Smart strategies for pragmatic, science-based growth and sustainable achievement. The Science of Intelligent Achievement teaches you the scientific process of finding success through your most valuable assets: · Selective focus – how selective are you with who and what you let into your life? · Creative ownership – how dependent are you on others for your happiness and success? · Pragmatic growth – how consistently and practically are you growing daily? First, this book will show you how to develop your focus by being very selective with where you spend your mental energy. If you've failed to reach an important goal because you were distracted, misinformed, or overcommitted, then you know the role focus and selectivity play in achievement. Second, you will learn how to stop allowing your happiness and success to be dependent on other people and instead, start taking ownership over your life through creative work. Finally, you will learn the art of changing your life through pragmatic decisions and actions. Self-improvement is not the result of dramatic changes. Instead, science has shown that personal and professional change is initiated and sustained by consistent, practical changes. To grow, you must leverage the power of micro-decisions, personality responsibility, and mini-habits. Your own biology will not let you improve your life in any other way. What do you currently value? What are working to attain? Have you been taught to value your job title or your relationship with some other person above all else? Have you been convinced that the most valuable things in life are your paycheck, the number of people who say 'hello' to you at the office, and the number of people who say 'I need you' at home? Or, have you become so passive in what you value that you let anyone and anything into your life, as long as whatever you let in allows you to stay disconnected from the cold hard truth that when things really go wrong in your life, the only person who will be able to fix it and the only person will be responsible for it is you. If so…welcome to fake success. Passivity, dependence, and the sacrifice of practical thinking and personal responsibility to fuzzy, grandiose ideals and temporary feelings — these are markers of fake success. Intelligent Achievement, on the other hand, is not a moving target. It's not empty either. Instead, it's sturdy, full, and immovable. It's not something that's just handed to you. It's not something you're nudged to chase or coerced into wanting. Intelligent Achievement comes from within you. It's a collection of values that are aligned with who you are—values you have to protect and nurture. These values do not increase your dependence on other people and things. Instead, they relieve you of dependence. This kind of achievement is something that you have a part in building from the ground up—you know what's in it—you chose it, someone else didn't choose it for you. Achieving real success means you must focus, create, and grow daily. The Science of Intelligent Achievement will show you how.

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Power, passion and a devastating fight for the crown - discover the gripping story of Oliver Cromwell's youngest daughter. Perfect for fans of Anne O'Brien, Alison Weir and Philippa Gregory 'A powerful and superbly researched historical novel' Andrew Taylor, author of The Last Protector1657. The youngest daughter of Oliver Cromwell, eighteen-year-old Frances is finding her place at England's new centre of power.Following the turmoil of Civil War, a fragile sense of stability has returned to the country. Her father has risen to the unprecedented position of Lord Protector of the Commonwealth, and Frances has found herself transported from her humble childhood home to the sumptuous palaces of Hampton Court and Whitehall, where she dreams of romance.But after an assassination attempt on the Cromwell family, Frances realises the precarious danger of her position - and when her father is officially offered the crown, Frances' fate becomes a matter of diplomatic and dynastic importance. Trapped in the web of court intrigue, Frances must make a choice. Allow herself to be a political pawn, or use her new status to take control - of her own future, and of her country's... ***Readers are swept away by The Puritan Princess:'There is much to enjoy in this evocation of a family whose lives are so upended by the convulsions of history' Antonia Senior, The Times'Totally gripping... grab it now. There's a new Cromwell on the shelves!' Minoo Dinshaw, author of Outlandish Knight'The Puritan Princess is a genuinely moving portrait of the tragedy of the Cromwells at the height of their power, and Miranda Malins handles the tumultuous drama of the last days of the Protectorate with incredible aplomb' S G MacLean, author of the Damian Seeker series'A beautifully written and captivating true story of personal love and loss enacted against the backdrop of an England dominated by Frances' father, Oliver Cromwell. Deeply knowledgeable about the politics and desires and ideals of the time, Malins nevertheless inhabits her characters and brings them convincingly to life' James Evans, author of EMIGRANTS'The extraordinary, revealing and moving relationship between Oliver Cromwell and his daughter Frances is brought to vivid life in this masterly historical novel' Paul Lay, author of Providence Lost'Miranda Malins is a real and fresh new talent. This is beautifully written, exciting fiction from a writer in full command of the history' Suzannah Lipscomb'A fine and compelling debut novel, giving a fresh slant on a period of British history still unfamiliar to many. Miranda Malins creates a cast of three-dimensional characters, vividly imagined against a deeply researched historical background. A joy to read' Rowan Williams 'This engaging novel brings one of the most momentous but least well known periods of English history vividly to life.' Carolyn Kirby, author of THE CONVICTION OF CORA BURNS'Miranda Malins has offered us a thrilling debut novel, packed with expert scene-setting and juicy details, bringing to life her characters with aplomb and as a result allowing readers to revel in 17th century England's epicentre of power.' Prof Michael Scott, University of Warwick

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'Superbly researched and vividly told' Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury'Affecting, action-packed' Carolyn Kirby'This is neither men's history nor women's history. It is good, gripping history, sharply and immediately told... A real treat' Aspects of HistoryA country torn apart by war. A woman fighting for her future...Ely, 1643. England is convulsed by Civil War, setting King against Parliament and neighbour against neighbour. As the turmoil reaches her family home in Ely, 19-year-old Bridget Cromwell finds herself at the heart of the conflict. With her father's star on the rise as a cavalry commander for the rebellious Parliament, Bridget has her own ambitions for a life beyond marriage and motherhood. And as fractures appear in her own family with the wilful, beautiful younger sister Betty, Bridget faces a choice: to follow her heart, or to marry for power and influence, and fight for a revolution that will change history...A gripping evocation of the Civil War, and the hidden stories of women at the heart of power... Perfect for fans of Philippa Gregory and Anne O'Brien***Praise for The Rebel Daughter 'A dramatic story of love, loss and duty, set against the backdrop of the turmoil of the Civil Wars' Linda Porter'Miranda Malins is a real and fresh new talent. This is beautifully written, exciting fiction.' Suzannah Lipscomb'Such familiar historical characters brought so colourfully and convincingly to new life; and the writing itself is of the finest' Ronald Hutton'This affecting, action-packed novel brings a momentous but often overlooked period of history vividly to life' Carolyn Kirby'Brilliantly captures ... a nuanced picture of a divided world' Leonora Nattrass'Utterly convincing' S.G. Maclean'Beautifully articulated ... a joy to read!' Michael ScottPraise for The Puritan Princess'There is much to enjoy in this evocation of a family whose lives are so upended by the convulsions of history' Antonia Senior, The Times'Totally gripping... grab it now. There's a new Cromwell on the shelves!' Minoo Dinshaw, author of Outlandish Knight'The Puritan Princess is a genuinely moving portrait of the tragedy of the Cromwells at the height of their power, and Miranda Malins handles the tumultuous drama of the last days of the Protectorate with incredible aplomb' S G MacLean, author of the Damian Seeker series'A beautifully written and captivating true story of personal love and loss enacted against the backdrop of an England dominated by Frances' father, Oliver Cromwell. Deeply knowledgeable about the politics and desires and ideals of the time, Malins nevertheless inhabits her characters and brings them convincingly to life' James Evans, author of EMIGRANTS'The extraordinary, revealing and moving relationship between Oliver Cromwell and his daughter Frances is brought to vivid life in this masterly historical novel' Paul Lay, author of Providence Lost'Miranda Malins is a real and fresh new talent. This is beautifully written, exciting fiction from a writer in full command of the history' Suzannah Lipscomb'This engaging novel brings one of the most momentous but least well known periods of English history vividly to life.' Carolyn Kirby, author of THE CONVICTION OF CORA BURNS

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This book takes a critical look at the influence of German educators. It is a publication that explores the history of pedagogical concepts of German-born professors of architecture at schools in the United States. The research and book publication are structured in three parts; it aims to make a significant contribution to the understanding of architectural education in the United States and its historical cross-fertilisation with German educational concepts at large, with research outcomes responding directly to current and future educational and societal challenges. The ideals of the Bauhaus school shaped more than just design and architecture around the world; these guiding principles and pedagogy also transformed teaching. The project examines the post-Bauhaus influence on these German-born educators today and how the Bauhaus model has evolved over the last 50 years. There are currently over 30 German-born educators, active in shaping architectural and design education in the US, influencing thousands of students as the next generation of future architects in this country. Compared to other professions, succeeding in studies of architecture is known as a long endeavor that requires a strong commitment and dedication from the student. The task for the educators is to shape the next generation of architects as well as possible and, at the same time, turn it into a positive experience and fun to be part of this demanding profession. The book features interviews (conversations) with selected professors and explores how the Bauhaus legacy of Gropius and Mies van der Rohe is still relevant for their educational strategies and design teaching today. The Bauhaus aimed to unite all creative arts through direct field and workshop experience in the crafts with a concentration on modern materials, industrial techniques and mass production. It was initially a school of design which included architecture, and not a school of architecture per se. Gropius resigned in 1928, and it was largely under the directorship of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe from 1930 to 1933 that the Bauhaus developed into a school of architecture with subsidiary art and workshop departments. The pedagogical experiments of the Bauhaus, imported by Gropius, Mies, Hilberseimer, Albers and others to the US system, challenged traditional Beaux-Arts thinking and played a crucial role in shaping modern architectural education. Historically, the German architectural training has always been different from the French tradition. These new interdisciplinary and technology-focused modes of teaching architecture and design had long-lasting impact, however, are now again transformed by the educators currently active in reshaping curricula. The conversations reveal the critical and independent thinking of this group and how they make a meaningful contribution to the discourse of architectural education appropriate to the 21st century. Authored by an internationally recognised scholar with personal insight into the topic, the six selected educators profiled in this volume render visible a broad array of discursive pedagogical strategies that partially build on the seminal educational model of the Bauhaus; they have transformed it to a new contemporary pedagogical model. The study provides insight into the ways in which these German-trained educators influence architectural and design education in the United States to this day.

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No idea is as absurd as the idea of progress, which together with its corollary notion of the superiority of modern civilization, has created its own “positive” alibis by falsifying history, by insinuating harmful myths in people’s minds, and by proclaiming itself sovereign at the crossroads of the plebeian ideology from which it originated. In order to understand both the spirit of Tradition and its antithesis, modern civilization, it is necessary to begin with the fundamental doctrine of the two natures. According to this doctrine there is a physical order of things and a metaphysical one; there is a mortal nature and an immortal one; there is the superior realm of “being” and the inferior realm of “becoming.” Generally speaking, there is a visible and tangible dimension and, prior to and beyond it, an invisible and intangible dimension that is the support, the source, and the true life of the former.--from chapter one. With unflinching gaze and uncompromising intensity Julius Evola analyzes the spiritual and cultural malaise at the heart of Western civilization and all that passes for progress in the modern world. As a gadfly, Evola spares no one and nothing in his survey of what we have lost and where we are headed. At turns prophetic and provocative, Revolt against the Modern Worldoutlines a profound metaphysics of history and demonstrates how and why we have lost contact with the transcendent dimension of being. The revolt advocated by Evola does not resemble the familiar protests of either liberals or conservatives. His criticisms are not limited to exposing the mindless nature of consumerism, the march of progress, the rise of technocracy, or the dominance of unalloyed individualism, although these and other subjects come under his scrutiny. Rather, he attempts to trace in space and time the remote causes and processes that have exercised corrosive influence on what he considers to be the higher values, ideals, beliefs, and codes of conduct--the world of Tradition--that are at the foundation of Western civilization and described in the myths and sacred literature of the Indo?Europeans. Agreeing with the Hindu philosophers that history is the movement of huge cycles and that we are now in the Kali Yuga, the age of dissolution and decadence, Evola finds revolt to be the only logical response for those who oppose the materialism and ritualized meaninglessness of life in the twentieth century. Through a sweeping study of the structures, myths, beliefs, and spiritual traditions of the major Western civilizations, the author compares the characteristics of the modern world with those of traditional societies. The domains explored include politics, law, the rise and fall of empires, the history of the Church, the doctrine of the two natures, life and death, social institutions and the caste system, the limits of racial theories, capitalism and communism, relations between the sexes, and the meaning of warriorhood. At every turn Evola challenges the reader’s most cherished assumptions about fundamental aspects of modern life. A controversial scholar, philosopher, and social thinker, JULIUS EVOLA (1898-1974) has only recently become known to more than a handful of English?speaking readers. An authority on the world’s esoteric traditions, Evola wrote extensively on ancient civilizations and the world of Tradition in both East and West. Other books by Evola published by Inner Traditions include Eros and the Mysteries of Love, The Yoga of Power, The Hermetic Tradition, and The Doctrine of Awakening.

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To Light the Flame of Reason is all about the art of clear thinking, an art that is needed now more than ever in the world we now live in. Written for anyone who wants to navigate better in this world filled with populist dogmas, anti-science attitudes, and pseudo-philosophy, authors Christer Sturmark and Douglas Hofstadter provide a set of simple tools for clear thinking, as well as a deeper understanding of science, truth, naturalism, and morality. It also offers insights into the rampant problems of extremism and fundamentalism – and suggestions for how the world can move towards a new enlightenment. The book argues that we need to reawaken the basic values and ideals that defined the original age of enlightenment. We need to accept the idea that the world we inhabit is part of nature, and that it has no trace of supernatural or magical forces. Ethical questions should be detached from religion. This doesn’t mean that the questions become any easier— just that ideas are tested and judged without being profoundly tainted and constrained by religious dogmas.Such a form of secular humanism builds on the power of free thought — the power to investigate and understand the natural world. Although not everything can be investigated or understood, the sincere quest for knowledge and understanding establishes a flexible, nondogmatic attitude toward the world. Curiosity and openness lie at the core of such an attitude. The scientific method of careful and open- minded testing, as well as science’s creative and reflective ways of thinking, provides key tools. What clear, science-inspired thinking helps us to understand, among many other things, is that a person can be good and can be motivated to carry out morally good actions without ever bowing to, or being limited by, supposedly divine forces.To Light the Flame of Reason will appeal to adults who are trying to figure out how to deal with the ever-increasing daily bombardment of conflicting messages about what is right, true, sensible, or good, and it should appeal even more to teenagers and university students who are struggling to find a believable and reliable philosophy of life that can help guide them in their choices of what and whom to trust, and how to act, both on the personal and the social level.Today, more people have greater access to information and knowledge than ever was dreamt of before, and more people are concerned about the world situation. More people have the chance, through their own actions, to make a difference.Each one of us, as an individual, matters. It is thus vitally important that each of us should choose, in a conscious and reflective manner, our own views of reality, of the world, and of humanity. And this means that it is crucial for us all to train ourselves in the art of thinking clearly.Christer Sturmark along with Pulizer Prize winning author Douglas Hofstdter argue that we must refocus our efforts on cultivting a secular society, and in doing so, we will rediscover the values and ethics that are so foreign in today’s society.

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"My heroes are Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar, Oguz Atay, and Yusuf Atilgan. I have become a novelist by following their footsteps ...I love Yusuf Atilgan; he manages to remain local although he benefits from Faulkner's works and the Western traditions."--Orhan Pamuk "Motherland Hotel is a startling masterpiece, a perfect existential nightmare, the portrait of a soul lost on the threshold of an ever-postponed Eden."--Alberto Manguel "This moving and unsettling portrait of obsession run amok might have been written in 1970s Turkey, when social mores after Ataturk were still evolving, but it stays as relevant as the country struggles to save the very democratic ideals on which the Republic was rebirthed...brilliant writing ..."--Poornima Apte, Booklist, Starred Review "Turkish writer Atilgan's classic 1973 novel about alienation, obsession, and precipitous decline, nimbly translated by Stark...An unsettling study of a mind, steeped in violence, dropping off the edge of reason." --Kirkus Reviews "A maladroit loner who runs the seen-better-days Motherland Hotel in a backwater Turkish town, Zeberjet has become obsessed with a female guest who stayed there briefly and frantically anticipates her presumed return...as Zeberjet becomes increasingly unhinged, we're drawn into his dark interior life while coming to understand Turkey's post--Ottoman uncertainty. Sophisticated readers will understand why Atilgan is called the father of Turkish modernism, while those who enjoy dark psychological novels can also appreciate."--Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal "Yusuf Atilgan gives us a wonderful, timeless novel about obsession, with an anti-hero who is both victim and perpetrator, living out a life 'neither dead nor alive' in a sleepy Aegean city. Motherland Hotel is an absolute gem of Turkish literature."--Esmahan Aykol, author of Divorce Turkish Style "Yusuf Atilgan, like Patrick Modiano, demonstrates how the everyday can reflect larger passions and catastrophes. Beautifully written and translated, Motherland Hotel can finally find the wider audience in the west that it deserves." --Susan Daitch, author of The Lost Civilization of Suolucidir "The freedom that Atilgan articulates isn't the freedom of Lord Byron or Milton Friedman. It's more like the sense of freedom that comes with finally having a diagnoses. It's the freedom that comes from understanding that you're imprisoned in other people's' ideas of freedom. But there's a consolation and a quiet wisdom that comes from understanding that these definitions will pass in turn, like guests checking out of a hotel."--Scott Beauchamp, Full Stop Zeberjet, the last surviving member of a once prosperous Ottoman family, is the owner of the Motherland Hotel, a run-down establishment a rundown establishment near the railroad station. A lonely, middle-aged introvert, his simple life is structured by daily administrative tasks and regular, routine sex with the hotel's maid. One day, a beautiful woman from the capital comes to spend the night, promising to return "next week," and suddenly Zeberjet's insular, mechanical existence is dramatically and irrevocably changed. The mysterious woman's presence has tantalized him, and he begins to live his days in fevered anticipation of her return. But the week passes, and then another, and as his fantasies become more and more obsessive, Zeberjet gradually loses his grip on reality. Motherland Hotel was hailed as the novel of the year when it was published in 1973, astonishing critics with its experimental style, its intense psychological depth and its audacious description of sexual obsession. Zeberjet was compared to such memorable characters as Quentin Compson in Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury and Meursault in Albert Camus' The Stranger. While author Yusuf Atilgan had already achieved considerable literary fame, Motherland Hotel cemented his reputation as one of Turkey's premier modernists.

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A portal into the perseverance of Jewish culture in the face of attempts to destroy it.To answer his son's question: what was it like growing up in Samarkand? Rabbi Hillel Zaltzman wrote and researched this memoir and history about Chassidic Jews who found refuge in Samarkand during the World War II and continued to live there under Soviet rule. This is a personal story for Zaltzman, who was born in Kharkov, Ukraine. When the Nazis invaded Kharkov, Zaltzman’s parents fled with their three young children to Samarkand (Uzbekistan). There they reconnected to other refugee Chassidic families, as well as some famous Chassidic rebbes also in flight. In Uzbekistan they created a thriving Jewish community until its institutions were abruptly shut down by Stalin immediately after the war. Still this Jewish community in Samarkand, Uzbekistan is remembered as shpitz Chabad—the epitome of Chassidic ideals and devotion.Zaltzman’s father kept him out of the Soviet schools, where atheism was promoted and Sabbath observance was impossible, teaching him furtively at home, until a neighbor discovered his existence at the age of 9. Zaltzman had no choice but to attend a public school then, but he still observed the demands of his faith and stayed home from school when necessary. Hillel studied with esteemed Chabad Chassidic rebbes who taught at great personal risk. If discovered, they could be sentenced to harsh labor in Siberia.Zaltzman credits his father’s unswerving commitment to his chinuch—his Jewish education—was beyond any compromise, and it was an exemplary expression of their Chabad brand of Chassidic Judaism: “The Chabad community was infused with a rich inner world of Chassidic vitality,” Zaltzman writes.Meanwhile, the Soviet regime remained obsessed with eliminating a Jewish religious identity; a special division of the NKVD (Soviet secret police) was assigned the task of destroying Jewish schools and yeshivas, and surveilling individuals through synagogue informers. Zaltzman records his experiences and adventures and those of other memorable people he has known and the sacrifices they made to share their love of Torah and Jewish learning in the secret underground yeshivas. He describes their attempts to celebrate Jewish holidays, make matzah, and obtain prayer books, as well as their other colorful escapades. He also tells of their exasperating experiences trying to obtain exit visas to leave the Soviet Union. The largely untold story of Chabad activism and heroism comes through with great immediacy in this first-person account of spiritual resistance to a Communist regime at war with the Jewish devotion to God and Torah. From the age 16, along with several other idealistic young men, Hillel Zaltzman was involved in Chamah, an underground Jewish organization that helped sustain and preserve Jewish life in the Soviet Union through education. Chamah established a network of underground Jewish schools that clandestinely taught more than 1,500 children over the years and provided material and spiritual support to Jews trying to obtain exit visas in the 1960s and 70s. Hillel himself was allowed to immigrate to Israel only in 1971, after years of trying. Now living in New York, he is the director of IChamah, an international organization which is devoted to serving Jews from the Former Soviet Union in Israel, Russia, and the US. Rabbi Zaltzman was honored for his humanitarian and Jewish outreach in the U.S. Senate in May 2016, as part of Jewish American Heritage Month.

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“When Cal Thomas speaks, I try to listen. I’ve been listening to him for a LONG time!" — Mike Huckabee “For more than 40 years, Cal Thomas had a front row seat to some of America's most contentious public policy debates. And for more than four decades, Cal wielded his pen to speak truth to power and to advance traditional conservative values. Cal's stories and tales from that front row—as the watchman—are sure to entertain!” — Mike Pence"A new bestselling page-turner." — Washington Examiner“This is what I have done—and am continuing to do—as I seek to serve God first and then my country.”—Cal ThomasCal Thomas—one of the most popular syndicated columnists in the country—is America’s “Watchman” in the night.In A Watchman in the Night, Cal Thomas takes the reader on a “road trip” through over fifty years of journalism and American life, serving as a “watchman” on culture and politics and seeking to conform it to a standard that never changes. A watchman “keeps guard over a building at night, to protect it from fire, vandals, or thieves.” Thomas is a believer that certain values and principles never change and has critiqued misbehavior and wrong-headedness by people on “his side” from the start. “If values and Truth mean anything,” Thomas says, “they must be applied equally. Hypocrisy and heresy cannot be ignored no matter the source.” In the book, Thomas does not stigmatize labels, such as “conservative” and “religious,” because Thomas says: “It allows people to define me and others by their perception of those labels. Ask me a question and I will give you my answer.For over fifty years in journalism, Thomas has offered incisive, humorous and often corrective commentary to our social, political, and religious conversations. An early commitment to addressing publicly what he sees has marked Thomas’ entire career. Cal has always called both parties, both sides of the American political divide, to account, to take the high road and to honor our civic and religious ideals with compatible behavior to the very best of our ability. This increasingly “radical” approach to public life has won him many friends on both sides of the political aisle, hundreds of thousands of faithful readers of his columns, and a continuous barrage of accolades and “hate mail,” much of it charming when it is not too foul to repeat.Cal came to the Christian faith while a young journalist at a dinner led by Dr. Richard Halverson, Pastor at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, MD, and later, Chaplain of the United States Senate. This experience informed the rest of Cal’s life as he hosted his own private dinners for members of the press and members of Congress from both parties leading to deep friendships with Senator Ted Kennedy and many others, friendships which became a hallmark of Cal’s life despite wide political differences. For over two decades, Cal has hosted the National Prayer Breakfast Media Dinner as a continuation of his commitment to the reality that a relationship with Jesus Christ can change a person’s life and ultimately change a nation, and that things of such import are best discussed over dinner. The book includes tones about faith, but focuses on American social, cultural and political currents.A Watchman in the Night: What I’ve Seen Over 50 Years Reporting on America is a living history of our times, of who we were then and who we are now and who we might become (for better or worse) in the future, and a remarkable chronicle of modern American life.

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