Search results for ""author sam"

Linda Trinkaus Zagzebski here explains and defends the idea that the God of the monotheistic religions does not only know all objective facts, but he also perfectly grasps the conscious states of all conscious beings from their own point of view. She calls that property omnisubjectivity. God not only knows that you are in pain, for instance, but is present in your pain, grasping your pain the way you grasp it. The same point applies to every feeling, every belief, every thought, every desire you have. It also applies to the conscious states of animals. Zagzebski begins with an account of what subjectivity is and why it differs from anything in the objective world, then argues that omnisubjectivity is entailed by divine omniscience and omnipresence, divine love and justice, and practices of prayer. She offers three models of how omnisubjectivity is possible: the empathy model, the perceptual model, and panentheism. She answers objections that it is incompatible with other attributes such as timelessness, immutability, impassibility, divine goodness, divine holiness, and infinity. She extends the account of omnisubjectivity to the divine grasp of possible but non-actual subjective states, arguing that God grasps all possible subjective states of all possible conscious beings in his imagination. She then applies the conclusions of the book to the doctrines of the Trinity, the Incarnation, and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Many arguments in the book apply to all the monotheistic religions and some arguments apply to monotheistic Hinduism. The book concludes with the claim that subjectivity is primary in the universe. God is intrinsically subjectivity and intersubjectivity. Objectivity is being from the outside viewpoint, and it exists only relative to the created world.

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In August 1955, the mutilated body of Emmett Till-a fourteen-year-old black Chicago youth-was pulled from Mississippi's Tallahatchie River. Abducted, severely beaten, and finally thrown into the river with a weight fastened around his neck with barbed wire, Till, an eighth-grader, was killed for allegedly whistling at a white woman. The nation was horrified by Till's death. When the all-white, all-male jury hastily acquitted the two white defendants, the outcry reached a frenzied pitch-spurring a fury that would prove critical in the mobilization of black resistance to white racism in the Deep South. In this sensitive inquiry, historian Stephen J. Whitfield probes Till's death; its ideological roots; the potent myths concerning race, sexuality, and violence; and the incident's enduring effects on American national life. As he recreates the trial, its participants, and the social structure of the Delta, Whitfield examines how white rural Mississippians actually tried "two of their own." Though they were acquitted, these same defendants were soon being ostracized by their own neighbors, and within four months of Till's death, Southern blacks were staging the historic Montgomery bus boycott-the first major battle in the coming war against racial injustice that would lead to the passage of civil rights legislation a decade later.

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Die Spaltlampe ist heute das meistgebrauchte und vielseitigste Untersuchungsgerät des Ophthalmologen.Der Atlas zeigt eine Vielzahl unentdeckter Anwendungsmöglichkeiten der Spaltlampe und zeigt die Zukunftsfähigkeit des Gerätes auf.Diese Sammlung von über 4000 Abbildungen ist einzigartig, denn der Atlas zeigt, wie man mit der Spaltlampe nahezu die gesamte Augenheilkunde abbilden kann – vom Vorderabschnitt über den Augenhintergrund bis hin zur Motilität der Augen und den Lidern. Der Autor verbindet die traditionellen Untersuchungstechniken der Spaltlampe mit der Videografie als Form der Befunddokumentation.Neben der Konstruktionsgeschichte, der Technik sowie den Untersuchungsmöglichkeiten wird eine neue Form der Befunddokumentation, die Videografie mit der Spaltlampe, beschrieben. Dabei werden mit einer Videokamera nicht nur Befunde am Augenhintergrund durch ein vorgehaltenes hohes Plusglas dokumentiert. Die „kurzsichtige“ Spaltlampe wird mit einem Minusglas versorgt und ist dann in der Lage, auch Objekte in weiterer Entfernung zu sehen wie z. B. Augenmuskelstörungen oder das Gesicht des Patienten. So gelingt es, nicht nur den vorderen Augenabschnitt, sondern auch den Fundus sowie den Kammerwinkel und damit den gesamten Bulbus zu betrachten. Der Atlas wird durch einige Videos zur neuen Dokumentationsmethode ergänzt.Für alle AugenärztInnen und OptometristInnen in Praxis und Klinik gleichermaßen, die die Videografie und Verlaufsdokumentation nutzen oder vertiefen möchten oder einfach nur Interesse an diesem einzigartigen "Bilderschatz" und den einmaligen Fotodokumentationen haben.

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Fifty years after John F. Kennedy's death, we find ourselves enmeshed in an era of political division and cynicism, where politicians talk past one another and the spirit of "Ask not what your country can do for you-ask what you can do for your country" is less visible than it should be. We seem to have forgotten that we're all on the same team. Fortunately, Scott D. Reich has given us The Power of Citizenship, a timely book to bring us back on track. Reich asserts that the most powerful element of Kennedy's legacy is his emphasis on the theme of citizenship, and that a rededication to the values Kennedy promoted will shine a bright path forward for our country. Evoking the hopes and aspirations of the 1960s, Reich recaptures the excitement of the Kennedy era. But what truly sets this book apart is the unique way it blends the romance of Camelot with the new frontiers of today-not only identifying modern challenges, but also offering a tangible blueprint for how we can improve our public discourse, be good citizens, and lift our nation to new heights of greatness. Part history and part call to action, The Power of Citizenship hones in on the very essence of what made JFK so inspirational and timeless, reminding us once again that we must ask what we can do for our country. This is a must-read for Americans of all generations.

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Los estudios tradicionales sobre el criollismo pre-ilustrado tienden a situarlo entre la simple adulación al poder español y el origen de una teleología nacionalista que derivará a principios del siglo XIX en la formación de los modernos estados hispanoamericanos. Este volumen tiene el mérito de presentar a través de doce artículos especializados –provenientes de la pluma de algunos de los más destacados investigadores del periodo “colonial“– una renovación saludable y un cuestionamiento productivo de las lecturas anteriores sobre el criollismo en los casos centrales de México y Perú. A la vez, explora la utilidad y las limitaciones de la lotería postcolonial angloparlante para el conocimiento del amplio y complejo corpus hispanoaméricano, poniendo al día y ampliando uno de los debates más urgentes en las disciplinas humanas relacionadas con la región. ~ Traditional studies on pre-Enlightenment criollismo tend to place it between the simple adulation of Spanish power and the origin of a nationalist teleology that at the beginning of the 19th century will derive in the creation of the modern Spanish-American states. This volume has the merit of presenting through twelve specialised articles – coming from the pen of some of the most outstanding researchers of the ‘colonial’ period – a healthy renewal and a productive questioning of the previous readings on criollismo in the central cases of México and Perú. At the same time, it explores the usefulness and limitations of the English-speaking postcolonial lottery for knowledge of the broad and complex Spanish-American corpus, updating and expanding on one of the most pressing debates in the human disciplines related to the region.

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This study provides a striking new explanation of how China's Nationalist Party (GMD) defeated its rivals in the revolution of 1922–1929 and helped bring some degree of unification to a country torn by class, regional, and ideological interests. Disarming the Allies of Imperialism argues that inconsistency—more than culture, ideology, or any other factor—gave nationalism its unique edge. Revolutionary leaders manipulated revolutionaries and non-revolutionaries alike to advantage their own positions and seize national power, sometimes seeking to protect foreign lives and property and shield Chinese merchants from agitative disruptions, sometimes voting to do the opposite. Exploiting the symbiotic yet contradictory relationship between state-building, which sought foreign ties and international recognition; and low-level agitators committed to confrontational anti-imperialist objectives, top Guomindang leaders were able to manipulate political circumstances to their own benefit. For example, party leaders stirred up anti-Christian sentiment, pitting popular forces against mission schools, while simultaneously intervening to rescue these same schools from agitative destruction, thus "helping" missionaries to soften their attitudes toward the revolution and eventually embrace the new order. Scholars of modern Chinese history and anyone familiar with the growing literature on nationalism will appreciate this work for its elucidation of a complex historical snarl, while undergraduates and scholars outside the China field will find this a useful and accessible study as well.

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The Shepherd of Hermas (70-150 CE) is one of the oldest Christian works from a major urban center. While the majority of manuscript evidence of the Shepherd is concentrated in North Africa, the work has long-standing association with the city of Rome. It consists of three major sections: the Book of Visions, the Mandates, and the Similitudes. The Shepherd was enormously popular during the early centuries as a catechetical text used for moral formation. Its manuscript evidence during the early centuries far exceeded that of the Gospels. This book uses cognitive literary theory, specifically the approach known as enactive reading, to investigate why a work that was exceedingly popular among readers in antiquity has failed to receive the same reception by modern scholars. The study focuses on the first section of the Shepherd known as the Book of Visions, which narrates Hermas's visionary experiences in first-person voice. The book argues that enactive reading can help to generate immersive experiences of Hermas's visions and explain the success and appeal of the Book of Visions among ancient readers. Cognitive approaches also highlight how modern scholars trained to read apocalypses 'against the grain' to search for historical or theological information fail to notice and appreciate the very things that made apocalypses engaging and entertaining to a broad range of ancient readers and hearers.

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Harnessing the power of positive thinking to uplift, encourage, and inspire, Calm: 100 Affirmations for Serenity guides you through empowering affirmations and more to achieve personal growth. The way we speak to ourselves matters. Positive affirmations and meditations are an important tool for personal growth—and these uplifting, inspiring, and motivational statements, when implemented regularly, can have a profound impact on our lives. This mindful book incorporates original, modern, and charming line art on every page as well as 100 guided affirmations to help you reflect, maintain positivity, and grow as a person.Here is a sample of the type of guided affirmation included in this beautifully designed book:Today’s affirmation: I embrace myself in this moment.Why is this affirmation powerful?: Embracing yourself exactly as you are in this moment is an excellent way to cultivate self-acceptance and self-love. Whatever you’re feeling in this moment, whether positive or negative, this meditation reminds us that every expression of ourselves is worthy of love.Journaling prompt: Let’s cultivate a little mindfulness and connect to the present moment. Take a few breaths and close your eyes. How do you feel exactly in this moment? What thoughts are going through your mind? How does your body feel? Journal anything that comes up.Bonus exercise: Give yourself a hug for at least 30 seconds. I know this might sound strange, but it’s a great way to self-soothe.

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In The Great Power of Small Nations, Elizabeth N. Ellis (Peoria) tells the stories of the many smaller Native American nations that shaped the development of the Gulf South. Based on extensive archival research and oral histories, Ellis’s narrative chronicles how diverse Indigenous peoples—including Biloxis, Choctaws, Chitimachas, Chickasaws, Houmas, Mobilians, and Tunicas—influenced and often challenged the growth of colonial Louisiana. The book centers on questions of Native nation-building and international diplomacy, and it argues that Native American migration and practices of offering refuge to migrants in crisis enabled Native nations to survive the violence of colonization. Indeed, these practices also made them powerful. When European settlers began to arrive in Indigenous homelands at the turn of the eighteenth century, these small nations, or petites nations as the French called them, pulled colonists into their political and social systems, thereby steering the development of early Louisiana. In some cases, the same practices that helped Native peoples withstand colonization in the eighteenth century, including frequent migration, living alongside foreign nations, and welcoming outsiders into their lands, have made it difficult for their contemporary descendants to achieve federal acknowledgment and full rights as Native American peoples. The Great Power of Small Nations tackles questions of Native power past and present and provides a fresh examination of the formidable and resilient Native nations who helped shape the modern Gulf South.

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What does it mean to be a "rights-holder" and how does it come about? Remote Freedoms explores the contradictions and tensions of localized human rights work in very remote Indigenous communities. Based on field research with Anangu of Central Australia, this book investigates how universal human rights are understood, practiced, negotiated, and challenged in concert and in conflict with Indigenous rights. Moving between communities, government, regional NGOs, and international UN forums, Sarah E. Holcombe addresses how the notion of rights plays out within the distinctive and ambivalent sociopolitical context of Australia, and focusing specifically on Indigenous women and their experiences of violence. Can the secular modern rights-bearer accommodate the ideals of the relational, spiritual Anangu person? Engaging in a translation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights into the local Pintupi-Luritja vernacular and observing various Indigenous interactions with law enforcement and domestic violence outreach programs, Holcombe offers new insights into our understanding of how the global rights discourse is circulated and understood within Indigenous cultures. She reveals how, in the postcolonial Australian context, human rights are double-edged: they enforce assimilation to a neoliberal social order at the same time that they empower and enfranchise the Indigenous citizen as a political actor. Remote Freedoms writes Australia's Indigenous peoples into the international debate on localizing rights in multicultural terms.

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If we believe that the small, open economies of Nordic Europe are paragons of good governance, why are they so prone to economic crisis? In Good Governance Gone Bad, Darius Ornston provides evidence that adapting flexibly to rapid, technological change and shifting patterns of economic competition may be a great virtue, but it does not prevent countries from making strikingly poor policy choices and suffering devastating results. Home to three of the "big five" financial crises in the twentieth century, Nordic Europe in the new millennium has witnessed a housing bubble in Denmark, the collapse of the Finnish ICT industry, and the Icelandic financial crisis. Ornston argues that the reason for these two seemingly contradictory phenomena is one and the same. The dense, cohesive relationships that enable these countries to respond to crisis with radical reform render them vulnerable to policy overshooting and overinvestment. Good Governance Gone Bad tests this argument by examining the rise and decline of heavy industry in postwar Sweden, the emergence and disruption of the Finnish ICT industry, and Iceland’s impressive but short-lived reign as a financial powerhouse as well as ten similar and contrasting cases across Europe and North America. Ornston demonstrates how small and large states alike can learn from the Nordic experience, providing a valuable corrective to uncritical praise for the "Nordic model."

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Hundreds of thousands of students and early-career professionals have relied on this authoritative report-writing tool, now updated for DSM-5/ICD-10-CM and newer types of evaluations. In a convenient8" x 10.5"format, the book covers nearly all areas of concern addressed in intakes, evaluations, treatment plans, progress notes, and closing summaries. The user seeking the right wording for a clinical document can skim and select from thousands of technical terms, behavioral descriptors, and standard statements. Also provided are interview questions for almost every symptomatic behavior, a huge collection of mental status questions, a reproducible Mental Status Evaluation summary form, and links to hundreds of internet resources. The companion website offers all the URLs from the book, the reproducible forms, and a handy reference on current psychiatric medications. New to This Edition *A list of all psychiatric ICD-10 diagnoses (all of the codes in DSM-5, plus many more), including Z codes essential to a comprehensive biopsychosocial evaluation. *Sample evaluation report keyed to the book's chapters. *Sections on additional clinical issues: intimate partner violence, gender identity, human trafficking, recovery-oriented language, and more. *Many more Internet links, including a wide variety of screening and assessment tools. See also The Paper Office for the Digital Age, Fifth Edition, by Edward L. Zuckerman and Keely Kolmes, which provides the essential record-keeping and risk-reduction tools that every psychotherapy practice needs.

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This book provides a broad introduction to consulting psychology that reviews assessment and intervention at three levels of competency—individual, group, and organizational—including how these levels interact. Consulting psychology is a burgeoning yet sometimes underappreciated discipline whose goal is to empower clients and improve workplace functioning. In this book, Dr. Lowman describes this fulfilling and important work, translating theory and research into a succinct and accessible overview that will familiarize students, psychologists from multiple disciplines, and others with the field. Lowman reviews how consultation helps clients at three levels—individual, group, and organizational. Using illustrative case examples, he samples issues that can arise at each level and describes appropriate tools for assessment and intervention. The various consulting activities surveyed include: screening potential job candidates; coaching individuals to help them adapt to new roles and manage relationships with colleagues; evaluating and improving work group dynamics, such as communication patterns; and working with different organizational cultures to enhance system-wide processes and structures. Leadership is given special focus as a complex topic that spans all three levels and requires the consultant to consider a host of variables. Multiculturalism and internationalism are also examined as competencies that consulting psychologists must possess in our increasingly globalized society. Lowman also considers important professional standards and guidelines for consulting psychologists, including the APA Ethics Code.

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The early novel was not the coming-of-age story we know today—eighteenth-century adolescent protagonists remained in a constant state of arrested development, never truly maturing.Between the emergence of the realist novel in the early eighteenth century and the novel's subsequent alignment with self-improvement a century later lies a significant moment when novelistic characters were unlikely to mature in any meaningful way. That adolescent protagonists poised on the cusp of adulthood resisted a headlong tumble into maturity through the workings of plot reveals a curious literary and philosophical counter-tradition in the history of the novel. Stephanie Insley Hershinow's Born Yesterday shows how the archetype of the early realist novice reveals literary character tout court. Through new readings of canonical novels by Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding, Horace Walpole, Ann Radcliffe, Frances Burney, and Jane Austen, Hershinow severs the too-easy tie between novelistic form and character formation, a conflation, she argues, of Bild with Bildung. A pop-culture-infused epilogue illustrates the influence of the eighteenth-century novice, as embodied by Austen's Emma, in the 1995 film Clueless, as well as in dystopian YA works like The Hunger Games. Drawing on bold close readings, Born Yesterday alters the landscape of literary historical eighteenth-century studies and challenges some of novel theory's most well-worn assumptions.

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Tackle anxiety and depression head-on with this practical workbook If you're one of the millions of people affected by—or whose loved ones are affected by—anxiety and depression, you're probably looking for strategies to help subdue or even transcend these debilitating and painful disorders. In that case, Anxiety and Depression Workbook For Dummies is a great place to start. This book is filled with chapters that cut across diagnostic categories, incorporating treatment techniques based on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Emotion Focused Therapy, and Interpersonal Therapy. Use the techniques explored in this book to start making real changes, which can quickly lead to you feeling better. It also includes: Practical and hands-on descriptions of mindfulness-based practices you can implement immediately Brand-new updates to reflect modern changes in technology, social media, and the prevalence of loneliness Consideration of the pros and cons of medications and other biological interventions for depression and anxiety, including exploration of the placebo effect Additional worksheets online available for download Perfect for anyone trying to work through the challenging issues presented by anxiety and depression, for those trying to help a loved one do the same thing, or for those in therapy, this book is an excellent supporting resource that can help contribute to positive changes in the lives of people affected by emotional distress.

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This book provides practical strategies for dentists to effectively and confidently communicate with many dental insurance issues, as well as with their patients and members of their staff. Providing real-world examples and sample letters, the book includes specific guidance on how to handle common communication scenarios to avoid being caught off-guard or unprepared. Leadership and Communication in Dentistry begins with a unique section discussing communications with insurance companies, including negotiations, PPO contract issues, appeals letters, and more. It then includes chapters on communicating with patients, addressing how to listen to their concerns and motivate them, and staff, emphasizing how to be a better leader and institute office policies. The final section explores how dentists can use leadership and communication skills to improve their practice of dentistry. Provides concrete guidance on how dentists can confidently take the lead on conversations with dental insurance companies, their staff, and their patients Includes real-world examples of how to lead through communications Divided into sections covering communications with insurance companies, dental patients, and staff members Teaches that being mindful of proper communication and leadership skills will create a true balance for the successful dentist leader to become successful at living Leadership and Communication in Dentistry is a must-have resource for any dentist or dental student wishing to improve their communication skills.

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A thorough look at how societies can use cultural algorithms to understand human social evolution For those working in computational intelligence, developing an understanding of how cultural algorithms and social intelligence form the essential framework for the evolution of human social interaction is essential. This book, Cultural Algorithms: Tools to Model Complex Dynamic Social Systems, is the foundation of that study. It showcases how we can use cultural algorithms to organize social structures and develop socio-political systems that work. For such a vast topic, the text covers everything from the history of the development of cultural algorithms and the basic framework with which it was organized. Readers will also learn how other nature-inspired algorithms can be expressed and how to use social metrics to assess the performance of various algorithms. In addition to these topics, the book covers topics including: The CAT system including the Repast Simphony System and CAT Sample Runs How to problem solve using social networks in cultural algorithms with auctions Understanding Common Value Action to enhance Social Knowledge Distribution Systems Case studies on team formations An exploration of virtual worlds using cultural algorithms For industry professionals or new students, Cultural Algorithms provides an impactful and thorough look at both social intelligence and how human social evolution translates into the modern world.

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The Diamonds are a Chicago Street gang whose members are second-generation Puerto Rican youths. For Felix Padilla, the young men who join the Diamonds have made a logical choice. The gang is an alternative and dependable route to emotional support, self-respect, material goods, and upward mobility. Although Padilla shares the same ethnic background as the gang members and also grew up in a Chicago barrio, gaining the trust of the Diamonds was not easy. Eventually, however, he was able to get close enough to the members to interview and observe them. Padilla shows us his decision to join the Diamonds. From early childhood, boys develop positive images of the gang. They realize that the dominant culture promises mobility, but that their paths to that mobility are blocked. By joining a gang they can creatively oppose the dominant culture. Padilla does not paint a romanticized picture of the Diamonds. Some members come to understand that when they sell drugs, they benefit the gang's leaders and suppliers more than themselves. Further, they recognize that the gang is also subject to problems of domination and inequality. Padilla shows that though the Diamonds are sometimes violent, they are not psychopaths. While we need not approve of what they do, he urges us to understand it as a rational response to the doors these young men see closed around them.

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The Education of the Eye examines the origins of visual culture in eighteenth-century Britain. It claims that at the moment when works of visual art were first displayed and contemplated as aesthetic objects two competing descriptions of the viewer or spectator promoted two very different accounts of culture. The first was constructed on knowledge, on what one already knew, while the second was grounded in the eye itself. Though the first was most likely to lead to a socially and politically elite form for visual culture, the second, it was held, would almost certainly end up in the chaos of the mob. But there was another route through these conflicting accounts of the visual that preserved the education of the eye while at the same time allowing the eye freedom to enter into the realm of culture. This third route, that of the sentimental look, is explored in a series of contexts: the gallery, the pleasure garden, the landscape park, and the country house. The Education of the Eye sets out to reclaim visual culture for the democracy of the eye and to explain how aesthetic contemplation may, once more, be open to all who have eyes to look. The book will interest historians of eighteenth-century British culture and historians of architecture, art, and landscape, as well as readers generally curious about the origins of our current visual culture.

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“Marsh makes commendable use of the scant documentary evidence to piece together Hannah Freeman’s life. Her painstaking efforts to give Hannah a voice are impressive.” ―Thomas Britten, The HistorianOn July 28, 1797, an elderly Lenape woman stood before the newly appointed almsman of Pennsylvania’s Chester County and delivered a brief account of her life. In a sad irony, Hannah Freeman was establishing her residency—a claim that paved the way for her removal to the poorhouse. Ultimately, however, it meant final removal from the ancestral land she had so tenaciously maintained. Thus was William Penn’s “peaceable kingdom” preserved. A Lenape among the Quakers reconstructs Freeman’s history, from the days of her grandmothers before European settlement to the beginning of the nineteenth century. The story that emerges is one of persistence and resilience, as “Indian Hannah” negotiates life with the Quaker neighbors who employ her, entrust their children to her, seek out her healing skills, and, when she is weakened by sickness and age, care for her. Yet these are the same neighbors whose families then dispossess her own.Fascinating in its own right, Freeman’s life is also remarkable as a unique account of a Native American woman in a colonial community during a time of dramatic transformation and upheaval. In particular, it expands our understanding of colonial history and the Native experience that history often renders silent.

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In the blink of a summer, Bea goes from having a best friend and a place she belongs to being dropped and invisible, eating lunch alone and only talking to teachers. The end of sixth grade and the start of Camp Amelia can't come soon enough.But then the worst part of school, ex-best friend Maisy, shows up in Bea's safe place and ruins it all. Maisy lands in the same bunk as Bea and summer suddenly seems dire. Never having camped a day in her life, Maisy agrees: it's hopeless. She should be at home, spending time with her little sister and hanging out with her super popular crew of friends--not at this stupid adventure camp failing everything and being hated by everyone. In a desperate bid to belong, Maisy offers Bea a deal: if Bea helps her fit in at the camp, she will get Bea into the M & M's, their town's popular clique, when they enter seventh grade in the fall. The Popularity Pact is born.Written by an alumna of Sarah Lawrence College's The Writing Institute, The Popularity Pact: Camp Clique is the first part of an exciting new middle grade duology that deals with coming of age, friendship between girls, and the power of trust. The novel's engaging but accessible style is sure to lend it broad appeal and make it a success.

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Why do some leaders and segments of the public display remarkable persistence in confrontations in international politics, while others cut and run? The answer given by policymakers, pundits, and political scientists usually relates to issues of resolve. Yet, though we rely on resolve to explain almost every phenomenon in international politics—from prevailing at the bargaining table to winning on the battlefield—we don't understand what it is, how it works, or where it comes from. Resolve in International Politics draws on a growing body of research in psychology and behavioral economics to explore the foundations of this important idea.Joshua Kertzer argues that political will is more than just a metaphor or figure of speech: the same traits social scientists and decision-making scholars use to comprehend willpower in our daily lives also shape how we respond to the costs of war and conflict. Combining laboratory and survey experiments with studies of great power military interventions in the postwar era from 1946 to 2003, Kertzer shows how time and risk preferences, honor orientation, and self-control help explain the ways leaders and members of the public define the situations they face and weigh the trade-offs between the costs of fighting and the costs of backing down.Offering a novel in-depth look at how willpower functions in international relations, Resolve in International Politics has critical implications for understanding political psychology, public opinion about foreign policy, leaders in military interventions, and international security.

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Many developing countries have a history of highly centralized governments. Since the late 1980s, a large number of these governments have introduced decentralization to increase democracy and improve services, especially in small communities far from capital cities. In Going Local, an unprecedented study of the effects of decentralization on thirty Mexican municipalities, Merilee Grindle describes how local governments respond when they are assigned new responsibilities and resources under decentralization policies. She explains why decentralization leads to better local governments in some cases--and why it fails to in others. Combining quantitative and qualitative methods, Grindle examines data based on a random sample of Mexican municipalities--and ventures into town halls to follow public officials as they seek to manage a variety of tasks amid conflicting pressures and new expectations. Decentralization, she discovers, is a double-edged sword. While it allows public leaders to make significant reforms quickly, institutional weaknesses undermine the durability of change, and legacies of the past continue to affect how public problems are addressed. Citizens participate, but they are more successful at extracting resources from government than in holding local officials and agencies accountable for their actions. The benefits of decentralization regularly predicted by economists, political scientists, and management specialists are not inevitable, she argues. Rather, they are strongly influenced by the quality of local leadership and politics.

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Much has changed for the priests at the Minakshi Temple, one of the most famous Hindu temples in India. In The Renewal of the Priesthood, C. J. Fuller traces their improving fortunes over the past 25 years. This fluidly written book is unique in showing that traditionalism and modernity are actually reinforcing each other among these priests, a process in which the state has played a crucial role. Since the mid-1980s, growing urban affluence has seen more people spend more money on rituals in the Minakshi Temple, which is in the southern city of Madurai. The priests have thus become better-off, and some have also found new earnings opportunities in temples as far away as America. During the same period, due partly to growing Hindu nationalism in India, the Tamilnadu state government's religious policies have become more favorable toward Hinduism and Brahman temple priests. More priests' sons now study in religious schools where they learn authoritative Sanskrit ritual texts by heart, and overall educational standards have markedly improved. Fuller shows that the priests have become more "professional" and modern-minded while also insisting on the legitimacy of tradition. He concludes by critiquing the analysis of modernity and tradition in social science. In showing how the priests are authentic representatives of modern India, this book tells a story whose significance extends far beyond the confines of the Minakshi Temple itself.

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Robert A. Ferguson investigates the nature of loneliness in American fiction, from its mythological beginnings in Rip Van Winkle to the postmodern terrors of 9/11. At issue is the dark side of a trumpeted American individualism. The theme is a vital one because a greater percentage of people live alone today than at any other time in U.S. history.The many isolated characters in American fiction, Ferguson says, appeal to us through inward claims of identity when pitted against the social priorities of a consensual culture. They indicate how we might talk to ourselves when the same pressures come our way. In fiction, more visibly than in life, defining moments turn on the clarity of an inner conversation.Alone in America tests the inner conversations that work and sometimes fail. It examines the typical elements and moments that force us toward a solitary state—failure, betrayal, change, defeat, breakdown, fear, difference, age, and loss—in their ascending power over us. It underlines the evolving answers that famous figures in literature have given in response. Figures like Mark Twain’s Huck Finn and Toni Morrison’s Sethe and Paul D., or Louisa May Alcott’s Jo March and Marilynne Robinson’s John Ames, carve out their own possibilities against ruthless situations that hold them in place. Instead of trusting to often superficial social remedies, or taking thin sustenance from the philosophy of self-reliance, Ferguson says we can learn from our fiction how to live alone.

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As Americans, we believe there ought to be a level playing field for everyone. Even if we don’t expect to finish first, we do expect a fair start. Only in sports have African Americans actually found that elusive level ground. But at the same time, black players offer an ironic perspective on the athlete-hero, for they represent a group historically held to be without social honor.In his first new collection of sports essays since Tuxedo Junction (1989), the noted cultural critic Gerald Early investigates these contradictions as they play out in the sports world and in our deeper attitudes toward the athletes we glorify. Early addresses a half-century of heated cultural issues ranging from integration to the use of performance-enhancing drugs. Writing about Jackie Robinson and Curt Flood, he reconstructs pivotal moments in their lives and explains how the culture, politics, and economics of sport turned with them. Taking on the subtexts, racial and otherwise, of the controversy over remarks Rush Limbaugh made about quarterback Donovan McNabb, Early restores the political consequence to an event most commentators at the time approached with predictable bluster. The essays in this book circle around two perennial questions: What other, invisible contests unfold when we watch a sporting event? What desires and anxieties are encoded in our worship of (or disdain for) high-performance athletes?These essays are based on the Alain Locke lectures at Harvard University’s Du Bois Institute.

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Mammals first evolved at about the same time as dinosaurs, and their story is perhaps the more fascinating of the two - in part because it is also our own story. In this literate and entertaining book, eminent naturalist David Rains Wallace brings the saga of ancient mammals to a general audience for the first time. Using artist Rudolph Zallinger's majestic The Age of Mammals mural at the Peabody Museum as a frame for his narrative, Wallace deftly moves over varied terrain - drawing from history, science, evolutionary theory, and art history - to present a lively account of fossil discoveries and an overview of what those discoveries have revealed about early mammals and their evolution. In these pages we encounter towering mammoths, tiny horses, giant-clawed ground sloths, whales with legs, uintatheres, zhelestids, and other exotic extinct creatures as well as the scientists who discovered and wondered about their remains. We meet such memorable figures as Georges Cuvier, Richard Owen, Edward D. Cope, George Gaylord Simpson, and Stephen Jay Gould and learn of their heated disputes, from Cuvier's and Owen's fights with early evolutionists to present controversies over the Late Cretaceous mass extinction. Wallace's own lifelong interest in evolution is reflected in the book's evocative and engaging style and in the personal experiences he expertly weaves into the tale, providing an altogether expansive perspective on what Darwin described as the 'grandeur' of evolution.

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The Routledge International Encyclopedia of Queer Culture covers gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer (GLBTQ) life and culture post-1945, with a strong international approach to the subject.The scope of the work is extremely comprehensive, with entries falling into the broad categories of Dance, Education, Film, Health, Homophobia, the Internet, Literature, Music, Performance, and Politics. Slang is also covered. The international contributors come from a wide array of backgrounds: scholars, journalists, artists, doctors, scientists, lawyers, activists, and an enormous range of ideologies and points of view are represented. Major entries provide in-depth information and consider the intellectual and cultural implications of their subjects in a global context. Information is completely up-to-date, including full coverage and analysis of such current or ongoing issues as same-sex marriage/civil union and the international AIDS epidemic. Additionally, there are important appendices covering international sodomy laws and archival institutions, which will be of great value to researchers. The Encyclopedia is fully cross-referenced and many entries carry a bibliography. Where possible internet references have been given and there is a full index.The combination of its wide scope, determined international coverage and appendices make the Routledge International Encyclopedia of Queer Culture a uniquely ambitious work and an extremely rich source of information. It is a priority addition for all libraries serving scholars and students with an interest in GLBTQ culture, history and politics across the disciplines.

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Unemployment levels have received a great deal of attention and discussion in recent years. However, another labor category—underemployment—has virtually been ignored. Underutilized or underemployed workers are those who are experiencing inadequate hours of work, insufficient levels of income, and mismatch of occupation and skills. Marginal Workers, Marginal Jobs addresses two principal issues: how can we measure underemployment, and how can we explain its prevalence? To answer the first question, Teresa Sullivan examines yardsticks in use, demonstrates their inadequacy, and develops a different measure that is easy to interpret and is usable by both demographers and economists. In answering the second, she analyzes 1960 and 1970 census data to determine the relative effects of population composition and job structure on levels of employment. One of the important contributions of Sullivan's study is to distinguish between marginal workers and marginal jobs in explaining underutilization. Previous explanations, including the widely used dual market theory, have not stressed this analytic distinction. In addition, her work accounts separately for the various types of marginality and seeks to show the condition of workers who are marginal on more than one count—for example, those who are both young and black, or old and female. A provocative study based on large samples of the U.S. population, this book raises important questions about a critical subject and makes a significant contribution to the theory of underutilization.

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Margaret Stieg Dalton offers a comprehensive study of the German Catholic cultural movement that lasted from the late nineteenth century until 1933. Rapidly advancing industrialization, higher literacy rates, rising real income, and increased leisure time created a demand for intellectually accessible entertainment. Technological developments not only gave rise to new forms of entertainment, but also to the means by which they were marketed and disseminated. At the same time, the effects of modernism were being felt in all areas of high culture. Dalton’s book examines the encounter of clergy and lay Catholics with both high culture and popular culture in Germany. German Catholic culture was more than the product of an individual who happened to be Catholic; it was intellectual and artistic activity with a specifically Catholic stamp, a unique blend that offered distinctive variants of art, literature, and music. In response to the predominant Protestant, nationalistic culture, German Catholics attempted to create an alternative cultural universe that would insulate them from a world that seemed to threaten their faith. Dalton’s book provides detailed insight into the manner in which Catholics and other Germans tried to determine to what extent the new world could be accepted while still holding on to traditional values. Catholicism, Popular Culture, and the Arts in Germany, 1880-1933 will be welcomed by anyone interested in European intellectual and cultural history.

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This thoughtful book grapples with the contentious issue of fetal protection policy in the workplace, contrasting the right of the mother to control her life against the right of the fetus to occupy a risk-free environment. By describing the history of sex discrimination in the American workplace and examining current research on workplace dangers to reproductive health, Blank critically assesses fetal protection policies established by corporations in the last two decades. After explaining the U.S. government's response--both regulatory and judicial--Blank concludes that current means of redress for fetal injuries in the workplace are woefully inadequate. Blank argues for a practicable strategy that will maximize women's employment choices and reproductive health and at the same time keep to a minimum the risks associated with fetal harm. He turns to alternatives to exclusionary policies that are more likely to ensure the birth of children with sound minds and bodies. These include increased maternal leaves, guaranteed prenatal care, expanded research on workplace hazards, and an accidental compensation fund that relieves employers of the yet unrealized fear of liability for fetal harm. Fetal Protection in the Workplace confronts a controversial topic in biomedical policy, law, and women's studies, provides clear suggestions for future policy options, and explains this ongoing conflict involving women's rights and employment and concern for the needs of the unborn.

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In 1922 Robert Allerton—described by the Chicago Tribune as the “richest bachelor in Chicago”—met a twenty-two-year-old University of Illinois architecture student named John Gregg, who was twenty-six years his junior. Virtually inseparable from then on, they began publicly referring to one another as father and son within a couple years of meeting. In 1960, after nearly four decades together, and with Robert Allerton nearing ninety, they embarked on a daringly nonconformist move: Allerton legally adopted the sixty-year-old Gregg as his son, the first such adoption of an adult in Illinois history.An Open Secret tells the striking story of these two iconoclasts, locating them among their queer contemporaries and exploring why becoming father and son made a surprising kind of sense for a twentieth-century couple who had every monetary advantage but one glaring problem: they wanted to be together publicly in a society that did not tolerate their love. Deftly exploring the nature of their design, domestic, and philanthropic projects, Nicholas L. Syrett illuminates how viewing the Allertons as both a same-sex couple and an adopted family is crucial to understanding their relationship’s profound queerness. By digging deep into the lives of two men who operated largely as ciphers in their own time, he opens up provocative new lanes to consider the diversity of kinship ties in modern US history.

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As Elizabeth Warren memorably wrote, “It is impossible to buy a toaster that has a one-in-five chance of bursting into flames and burning down your house. But it is possible to refinance an existing home with a mortgage that has the same one-in-five chance of putting the family out on the street.” More than a century after the government embraced credit to fuel the American economy, consumer financial protections in the increasingly complex financial system still place the onus on individuals to sift through fine print for assurance that they are not vulnerable to predatory lending and other pitfalls of consumer financing and growing debt. In Democracy Declined, Mallory E. SoRelle argues that the failure of federal policy makers to curb risky practices can be explained by the evolution of consumer finance policies aimed at encouraging easy credit in part by foregoing more stringent regulation. Furthermore, SoRelle explains how angry borrowers’ experiences with these policies teach them to focus their attention primarily on banks and lenders instead of demanding that lawmakers address predatory behavior. As a result, advocacy groups have been mostly unsuccessful in mobilizing borrowers in support of stronger consumer financial protections. The absence of safeguards on consumer financing is particularly dangerous because the consequences extend well beyond harm to individuals—they threaten the stability of entire economies. SoRelle identifies pathways to mitigate these potentially disastrous consequences through greater public participation.

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Teachers of literature make judgments about value. They tell their students which works are powerful, beautiful, surprising, strange, or insightful—and thus, which are more worthy of time and attention than others. Yet the field of literary studies has largely disavowed judgments of artistic value on the grounds that they are inevitably rooted in prejudice or entangled in problems of social status. For several decades now, professors have called their work value-neutral, simply a means for students to gain cultural, political, or historical knowledge. ​Michael W. Clune’s provocative book challenges these objections to judgment and offers a positive account of literary studies as an institution of aesthetic education. It is impossible, Clune argues, to separate judgments about literary value from the practices of interpretation and analysis that constitute any viable model of literary expertise. Clune envisions a progressive politics freed from the strictures of dogmatic equality and enlivened by education in aesthetic judgment, transcending consumer culture and market preferences. Drawing on psychological and philosophical theories of knowledge and perception, Clune advocates for the cultivation of what John Keats called “negative capability,” the capacity to place existing criteria in doubt and to discover new concepts and new values in artworks. Moving from theory to practice, Clune takes up works by Keats, Emily Dickinson, Gwendolyn Brooks, Samuel Beckett, and Thomas Bernhard, showing how close reading—the profession’s traditional key skill—harnesses judgment to open new modes of perception.

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Recent years have seen a renaissance of interest in the relationship between natural law and natural rights. During this time, the concept of natural rights has served as a conceptual lightning rod, either strengthening or severing the bond between traditional natural law and contemporary human rights. Does the concept of natural rights have the natural law as its foundation or are the two ideas, as Leo Strauss argued, profoundly incompatible? With The Foundations of Natural Morality, S. Adam Seagrave addresses this controversy, offering an entirely new account of natural morality that compellingly unites the concepts of natural law and natural rights. Seagrave agrees with Strauss that the idea of natural rights is distinctly modern and does not derive from traditional natural law. Despite their historical distinctness, however, he argues that the two ideas are profoundly compatible and that the thought of John Locke and Thomas Aquinas provides the key to reconciling the two sides of this long-standing debate. In doing so, he lays out a coherent concept of natural morality that brings together thinkers from Plato and Aristotle to Hobbes and Locke, revealing the insights contained within these disparate accounts as well as their incompleteness when considered in isolation. Finally, he turns to an examination of contemporary issues, including health care, same-sex marriage, and the death penalty, showing how this new account of morality can open up a more fruitful debate.

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Admirably clear, concise, down-to-earth, and powerful - all too often, legal writing embodies none of these qualities. Its reputation for obscurity and needless legalese is widespread. Since 2001 Bryan A. Garner's "Legal Writing in Plain English" has helped address this problem by providing lawyers, judges, paralegals, law students, and legal scholars with sound advice and practical tools for improving their written work. Now the leading guide to clear writing in the field, this indispensable volume encourages legal writers to challenge conventions and offers valuable insights into the writing process that will appeal to other professionals: how to organize ideas, create and refine prose, and improve editing skills. Accessible and witty, "Legal Writing in Plain English" draws on real-life writing samples that Garner has gathered through decades of teaching experience. Trenchant advice covers all types of legal materials, from analytical and persuasive writing to legal drafting, and the book's principles are reinforced by sets of basic, intermediate, and advanced exercises in each section. In this new edition, Garner preserves the successful structure of the original while adjusting the content to make it even more class-room-friendly. He includes case examples from the past decade and addresses the widespread use of legal documents in electronic formats. His book remains the standard guide for producing the jargon-free language that clients demand and courts reward.

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What is the impact of surveillance capitalism on our right to free speech? The Internet once promised to be a place of extraordinary freedom beyond the control of money or politics, but today corporations and platforms exercise more control over our ability to access information and share knowledge to a greater extent than any state. From the online calls to arms in the thick of the Arab Spring to the contemporary front line of misinformation, Jillian York charts the war over our digital rights. She looks at both how the big corporations have become unaccountable censors, and the devastating impact it has had on those who have been censored. In Silicon Values, leading campaigner Jillian York, looks at how our rights have become increasingly undermined by the major corporations desire to harvest our personal data and turn it into profit. She also looks at how governments have used the same technology to monitor citizens and threatened our ability to communicate. As a result our daily lives, and private thoughts, are being policed in an unprecedented manner. Who decides the difference between political debate and hate speech? How does this impact on our identity, our ability to create communities and to protest? Who regulates the censors? In response to this threat to our democracy, York proposes a user-powered movement against the platforms that demands change and a new form of ownership over our own data.

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Do contemporary big-budget blockbuster films like Gravity move something in us that is fundamentally the same as what avant-garde and experimental films have done for more than a century? In a powerful challenge to mainstream film theory, Cinema’s Bodily Illusions demonstrates that this is the case. Scott C. Richmond bridges genres and periods by focusing, most palpably, on cinema’s power to evoke illusions: feeling like you’re flying through space, experiencing 3D without glasses, or even hallucinating. He argues that cinema is, first and foremost, a technology to modulate perception. He presents a theory of cinema as a proprioceptive technology: cinema becomes art by modulating viewers’ embodied sense of space. It works primarily not at the level of the intellect but at the level of the body. Richmond develops his theory through examples of direct perceptual illusion in cinema: hallucinatory flicker phenomena in Tony Conrad’s The Flicker, eerie depth effects in Marcel Duchamp’s Anémic Cinéma, the illusion of bodily movement through onscreen space in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001, Godfrey Reggio’s Koyaanisqatsi, and Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity. In doing so he combines insights from Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of perception and James J. Gibson’s ecological approach to perception. The result is his distinctive ecological phenomenology, which allows us to refocus on the cinema’s perceptual, rather than representational, power.Arguing against modernist habits of mind in film theory and aesthetics, and the attendant proclamations of cinema’s death or irrelevance, Richmond demonstrates that cinema’s proprioceptive aesthetics make it an urgent site of contemporary inquiry.

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The Four Point series is designed for English language learners whose primary goal is to succeed in an academic setting. The series covers the four academic skills of reading, writing, listening, and speaking while providing reinforcement and systematic recycling of key vocabulary and further exposure to grammar issues. In order to participate in academic settings, ELLs need focused activities to develop and then maintain their use of vocabulary and grammar. Each book in the series focuses heavily on vocabulary in particular, highlighting between 125-150 key vocabulary items including individual words, compound words, phrasal verbs, short phrases, idioms, metaphors, collocations, and longer set lexical phrases. Each unit in Reading-Writing 1, includes two reading passages on the same topic within a field of academic study: Psychology, World Civilizations, Astronomy, Literature, Civil Engineering, and Political Science. Each reading is accompanied by a before reading, during reading, and after reading strategy and practice activity. The goal is to provide students with a variety of strategies/tools to master whatever academic texts they may encounter. In addition, exercises have been designed to develop vocabulary, paraphrasing, summarizing, and synthesizing skills. By addressing the breadth and depth of reading and writing tasks required in academic settings instead of only reading for pleasure or writing for research projects, this volume truly prepares students for the variety of reading texts and writing projects they will be assigned in colleges and universities.

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Meat and meat products have been consumed by humankind throughout time, and the rise of industrialization and mass production in the past century has made them more affordable and available. At the same time, meat and meat products have been blamed for causing cancer and degenerative diseases. Information regarding this has been often blatantly controversial, leading to misinterpretation, uncertainty, and fake news. Rethinking the role of meat in human nutrition is a present challenge for the food industry. To address this, we must look towards green and clean technologies that adhere to the fundamental principles of environmental care. This book includes comprehensive reviews of hot topics relating to meat products. The reader will find current information and scientific evidence about emerging technologies, modern trends and future perspectives on the subject, with emphasis placed on chemical and health aspects. The COVID-19 pandemic has proved that we cannot continue with business as usual. The inevitable consequences of "the old normal" (zoonotic disease, antimicrobial resistance, climate change and food insecurity) will not revert. As we move into the next decade and beyond, we need a more healthy, sustainable and fair food system. This book aims to contribute to build a better scenario for subsequent consumer generations. Today more than ever, food scientists are leading actors in the international scene.

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Immigration has always caused immense public concern, especially when the perception is that immigrants are not assimilating into society they way they should, or perhaps the way they once did. Americans are frustrated as they try to order food, hire laborers, or simply talk to someone they see on the street and cannot communicate with them because the person is an immigrant who has not fully adopted American culture or language. But is this truly a modern phenomenon? In From Immigrants to Americans, Jacob Vigdor offers a direct comparison of the experiences of immigrants in the United States from the mid-19th century to the present day. His conclusions are both unexpected and fascinating. Vigdor shows how the varying economic situations immigrants come from has always played an important role in their assimilation. The English language skills of contemporary immigrants are actually quite good compared to the historical average, but those who arrive without knowing English are learning at slower rates. He continues to argue that today’s immigrants face far fewer “incentives” to assimilate and offers a set of assimilation friendly policies. From Immigrants to Americans is an important book for anyone interested in immigration, either the history or the modern implications, or who want to understand why today’s immigrants seem so different from previous generations of immigrants and how much they are the same. Co-published with the Manhattan Institute

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Jim Cromartie first came to Nantucket as a college student, but for the past 35 years he has called the island home. As a young artist, his major patron was the late Nelson Rockefeller, who introduced him to the world of art and started him on the path to becoming a major realistic painter at a time when abstract art was the norm. His work introduced the style of Hard-Edge Realism that is created in acrylic paint on wood panel and depicted all objects in the composition in exquisite detail. The resulting work is both dynamic and serene in a style reminiscent of Edward Hopper and Andrew Wyeth. As a lone-wolf realistic painter in a world gone wild over abstract art, Jim often felt overwhelmed but never quit his crusade to bring realism back to the forefront of art. The perfection of realism led him to a parallel career as a painter of historical buildings. Principal among his historical works are “The U.S. Capitol,” the “White House,” and the “Supreme Court.” This new book tells his story in the first person, tracing the trials and joys of an artist struggling to find his style and acceptance in the world. It is a story told with wit and humor, and is sure to entertain, at the same time as it provides insight into the development of a significant contemporary artist. It is heavily illustrated with 73 color reproductions of Jim's work, representing both finished works and some of Jim's preparatory watercolor sketches.

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More than 150 recipes for making the most of your home-grown fruit and vegetables – from warming soups and bakes to vibrant summer salads and tangy preserves. There is nothing as satisfying as growing your own produce – home-grown fruit and vegetables, picked and used at the height of freshness, are more tasty and nutritious than any supermarket offerings. Not only that, but they also cut down on food miles and can be a far more budget friendly way to eat. Home-grown Harvest is a celebration of the bounty you can grow in your garden, back yard or even windowbox. Cultivating your own fruit and vegetables does not have to mean eating the same dishes days in a row to use up produce. Instead, this book will show you how to use creatively what you grow in an array of exciting combinations. Simply organised, the book makes each vegetable or fruit the star of its own chapter, providing a wealth of different recipes to use up any gluts you may have (from the garden or a trip to the farmers’ market). From fresh dishes such as Triple Tomato Risotto with Basil or Strawberry Tiramisu, to preserves and chutneys, which can be stored for future use, each recipe is selected because it is rich in fresh produce. With handy tips and hints for preparing vegetables, and beautiful photographs throughout, Home-grown Harvest is an invaluable guide to cooking seasonally and eating very well indeed.

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As seen on Shane Dawson's YouTube channel! What if falling in love meant almost losing everything? Where does a moderately popular internet star who never leaves her house look for potential suitors? Online. Tinder, Bumble, Match.com, OkCupid—I tried them all. My thirty-one-year-old self clicked and swiped her little heart out, leading to more dates than I could count, and more disappointment than I was prepared for. Maybe you can relate. Maybe you know all too well the perils of modern dating. But let’s say, eventually, you meet someone. You think to yourself, “Wow, they’re perfect! Take me off the market, put a ring on it, knock me up, the whole enchilada, because they are ‘the one.’” Let’s also say that they “feel the same way” about you. Your life starts to make sense! All the pain, heartbreak, and frustration from past failed relationships was worth it. Slow clap. That’s how I felt about Milos. He was from Europe, a doctor, wealthy, athletic. He had an accent and a dog. Milos was textbook marriage material. For him it was “love at first sight,” but for me, it was “anxiety on every date.” Something was telling me to run—but for two years, the only running I did was straight into his arms. If only I would have listened. This isn’t a love story. It’s my story of survival.

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Why do we seem stuck in a culture of violence and injustice? How is it that we can recognize the transcendent ideal represented by figures such as Jesus, Lao-tzu, and many others who have walked among us and yet not seem to reach the same state? In The Biology of Transcendence Joseph Chilton Pearce examines the current biological understanding of our neural organization to address how we can go beyond the limitations and constraints of our current capacities of body and mind--how we can transcend. Recent research in the neurosciences and neurocardiology identifies the four neural centers of our brain and indicates that a fifth such center is located in the heart. This research reveals that the evolutionary structure of our brain and its dynamic interactions with our heart are designed by nature to reach beyond our current evolutionary capacities. We are quite literally, madeto transcend. Pearce explores how this “biological imperative” drives our life into ever-greater realms of being--even as the “cultural imperative” of social conformity and behavior counters this genetic heritage, blocks our transcendent capacities, and breeds violence in all its forms. The conflict between religion and spirit is an important part of this struggle. But each of us may overthrow these cultural imperatives to reach “unconflicted behavior,” wherein heart and mind-brain resonate in synchronicity, opening us to levels of possibility beyond the ordinary.

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A Sunday Times Paperback of the YearA provocative, razor-sharp, and timely novel about a beloved English professor facing a slew of accusations against her husband from his former students – a situation that becomes more complicated when she herself develops an obsession of her own . . .When I was a child, I loved old men, and I could tell that they also loved me.And so we meet our deliciously incisive narrator: a popular English professor whose husband, a charismatic professor at the same small liberal arts college, is under investigation for his inappropriate relationships with his former students. The couple have long had a mutual understanding when it comes to their extramarital pursuits, but with these new allegations, life has become far less comfortable for them both.And when our unnamed narrator becomes increasingly infatuated with Vladimir, a celebrated, married young novelist who’s just arrived on campus, their tinder-box world comes dangerously close to exploding.Julia May Jonas takes us into charged territory, where the restrictions of morality bump up against the impulses of the human heart. Darkly funny and moving, Vladimir maps the personal and political minefield of our current moment, exposing the messy contradictions of power and desire.'This astonishing debut . . . I was utterly hooked by this twisty, sexy, shocking treat of a novel' – The Sunday Times

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How do people improvise political communities in the face of state collapse—and at what cost? Street Sovereigns explores the risks and rewards taken by young men on the margins of urban Haiti who broker relations with politicians, state agents, and NGO workers in order to secure representation, resources, and jobs for themselves and neighbors. Moving beyond mainstream analyses that understand these groups—known as baz (base)—as apolitical, criminal gangs, Chelsey Kivland argues that they more accurately express a novel mode of street politics that has resulted from the nexus of liberalizing orders of governance and development with longstanding practices of militant organizing in Haiti. Kivland demonstrates how the baz exemplifies an innovative and effective platform for intervening in the contemporary political order, while at the same time reproducing gendered and generational hierarchies and precipitating contests of leadership that exacerbate neighborhood insecurity. Still, through the continual effort to reconstitute a state that responds to the needs of the urban poor, this story offers a poignant lesson for political thought: one that counters prevailing conceptualizations of the state as that which should be flouted, escaped, or dismantled. The baz project reminds us that in the stead of a vitiated government and public sector the state resurfaces as the aspirational bedrock of the good society. "We make the state," as baz leaders say.

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During the rise of second-wave feminism in the ‘60s and ‘70s, political activists were not the only ones at work to usher in a more equitable world. In the music world, female rock performers were pursuing a revolution of their own: rejecting the industry’s manufactured pop personas and the unacknowledged labor they contributed to male-led groups, women took control of their own music, messages, and images. Even while they often used music to critique rampant chauvinism, they made some of their greatest impacts by paving the way for subsequent musicians to simply be true to themselves. In this way, they helped to transform the music business and society more broadly.In She’s a Badass, rock critic Katherine Yeske Taylor interviews more than a dozen of these influential, fearless women about their experiences in an era when female rockers were not given the same respect and opportunities as their male peers. Each chapter focuses on an individual artist, taking an in-depth look at her most memorable experiences in the music business that helped cement her place on the list of influential artists. From Suzi Quatro (the first female rock star to front her own band, singing and playing bass as well as writing her own songs) through superstar singer-songwriter Jewel, She’s a Badass reveals the incredible talent, determination, and humor these women deployed in order to further the feminist cause while building brilliant musical careers.

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