Search results for ""Axios Press""

In responding to the financial crash of 2008, both the Bush Administration and the Obama Administration have relied on prescriptions developed by John Maynard Keynes, the most important economist since Marx. But should we be relying on Keynes? What did Keynes actually say? Did he make his case? This title concludes that he did not.

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Who is the greatest living essayist writing in English? Joseph Epstein would surely be at the top of anybody's list. Epstein is penetrating. He is witty. He has a magic touch with words, that hard to define but immediately recognizable quality called style. Above all, he is impossible to put down. Joseph Epstein's Wind Sprints: Shorter Essays is the third volume of essays from Axios Press following the much acclaimed Essays in Biography, 2012 and A Literary Education and Other Essays, 2014. It contains 142 short essays, literary sprints rather than marathons. Subjects range from domestic life to current social trends to an appraisal of "contemporary nuttiness." After reading Epstein, we see life with a fresh eye. We also see ourselves a little more clearly. This is what Plutarch intended: life teaching by example, but with a wry smile and such a sure hand that we hardly notice the instruction. It is just pure pleasure.

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The canonical gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, provide not only Jesus' works but also his actions, the context within which the words are spoken. By presenting Jesus' words without those intervening stories, we can experience Jesus' teachings in a way that is fresh and immediate.

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The Beguiling Serpent looks at emotions, and emotional values in particular. On one level a sequel to A Question of Values, it is also an excellent introduction to emotions and values, and ideal course material.

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Socrates is important to us for many reasons. First, he recognized the value of logic and showed us how to use it to discover truth. Second, he led an exemplary and courageous life which cannot fail to inspire anyone who reads about it. His calm and eloquent defense of himself during the final trial for heresy, which ended in his condemnation and execution, are among the most famous passages in world literature. No one, apart from the great religious teachers, has had a more profound impact on human thought. Socrates himself wrote nothing. Fortunately his pupils Plato and Xenophon recorded his sayings for posterity. Indeed the connection between Socrates and Plato is so close that this little book could alternatively been titled The Essence of Plato. The latter's philosophical treatises did not survive, so that all that remains to us is the Dialogues which mostly recount the life of Socrates. Axios Press's Essence of ...series takes the greatest works ever written in the field of practical philosophy and pares them down to their essence. We select the best passagesthe ones that are immediately relevant to us today, full of timeless wisdom and advice about the world and how best to live our livesand leave behind the more obscure or less important bits. Our selections are not isolated: they flow together to create a seamless work that will capture your interest and attention from page one. And we provide useful notes and a solid introduction to the work.

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When Bernie Sanders announced his campaign for the Democratic nomination for president on April 30, 2015, few people took much notice. Here was a 73-year-old US Senator from the tiny state of Vermont taking on Hillary Clinton, who seemed to have the nomination locked up. Although Sanders had caucused with the Democrats, he had always heretofore run as an Independent. Brooklyn born, he was also the first person of Jewish faith to mount a serious campaign for president. Balding and looking like everyone's grandfather, he was neither a brilliant speaker nor a brilliant political tactician. What he did have was conviction in his beliefs, which he frankly described as Socialist," and a determination to mount a revolution" against the existing political and economic establishment. As improbable as this campaign was, it immediately took flight. Millions of voters, especially young people, joined Bernie's army." In state after state, he won Democratic voters under the age of 40 by overwhelming majorities. His fervent supporters made almost a million small gifts to the campaign, average size $31. This was unheard of. What motivated Bernie to undertake his ground breaking campaign? First and foremost, he was appalled by the economic inequality of American society, which he felt was getting ever worse. He wanted to tax the rich and especially Wall Street much more heavily in order to finance more Social Security and Medicare for all, among other expanded government programs. Sanders planned to jumpstart the economy by vastly increasing government investments in infrastructure" such as roads and bridges. He would raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour for a start and keep raising it. He would open US borders to immigration while simultaneously cutting back on open borders for trade. Would this program work? Would it lead to the intended outcome? Where Bernie Went Wrong considers this question and concludes that while Sanders is right in calling for a revolution against today's political and economic elites, his proposed solutions would actually make the plight of the poor and middle class even worse.

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EdnaLewis was recently honored with the issuance of a postal stamp by the US PostOffice. She is renowned as one of the greatest American chefs and as an African-Americanwoman who almost single handedly revived a forgotten world of refined Southerncooking. Anothercelebrated American chef, James Beard, remarked: Edna Lewis makes me want togo right into the kitchen and start cooking." Lewis won many industry awardsand was often referred to as the GrandeDame of Southern Cooking" and the South's answer to Julia Child." Lewis(1916-2006) also had a remarkable life story. She was born and grew up in ruralVirginia in an area called Freetown. She learned to cook from an extendedfamily that included grandparents who had been enslaved. The Edna Lewis Cookbook, Lewis's first book, published in 1972, contains over 100 recipes, arranged in menu form andorganized according to the season of the year: Spring, Summer, Autumn, andChristmas. With its focus mostly although not exclusively on Southern food, itbegan the revival of true Southern cooking. Lewis went on to publish three more books: The Taste of Country Cooking (1976), In Pursuit of Flavor (1988), and The Gift of Southern Cooking,co-authored with Scott Peacock (2003). Her menus and recipes were featured in a variety ofpublications, including the New YorkTimes, the New York Times Magazine,the Washington Post, Gourmet, Food & Wine, Cook's, House & Garden, and Redbook, among others. This edition of The Edna Lewis Cookbook marks the 100th Anniversary of MissLewis's birth. Evangeline Petersonstudied with Edna Lewis and assisted her in compiling The Edna LewisCookbook. Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE

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The extraordinary Rosita Forbes explored the Libyan desert, sailed across the Red Sea, and trekked more than a thousand miles into remote Abyssinia. She wrote some thirty books about these and other journeys, as well as biographies, histories, novels, and memoirs. She was a widely published journalist and commentator on international affairs, a popular lecturer, and a documentary filmmaker. Her story deserves to be retold and her writing discovered by a new generation.

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What personal values are. How we decide about them. What the alternatives are. Seventy-eight value systems featured. Used in classrooms at Harvard and around the world. Praised by educators from Harvard, Yale, Stanford, the Institute for Advanced Study, the University of Virginia, Berea College and elsewhere.

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Who invented the personal essay? That is hard to say. The ancient Roman philosopher and cynical power broker, Seneca? The 16th century French philosopher Montaigne certainly brought it to a peak of perfection. There were many 19th century masters, not so many after that. Who is the greatest living essayist writing in English? That requires no debate at all. It is unquestionably Joseph Epstein. He is not only the best living essayist; he is right up there in the company of Seneca and Montaigne, but one of our own, living in our era and dealing with our pleasures and travails. Epstein is penetrating. He is witty. He has a magic touch with words, that hard to define but immediately recognizable quality called style. Above all, he is impossible to put down. Epstein reads omnivorously and brings us the best of what he reads, passages that we would never have found on our own. How easy it is today, in the digital age, drowning in emails and other ephemera, to forget the simple delight of reading for no intended purpose. Like any master essayist, however, this one brings us more than the shared experience of a lifetime of reading. He brings us himself, alternately scolding and charming, sparkling and deep, buoyant and sad, zany and wise, rebellious and conservative, bookworm and sports fan, clever and everyman, debunker and preservationist, deep into high culture, deep into low culture, curious, fresh, and settled in his ways. This is the friend we all wish we could have, the ideal, humane companion who is completely comfortable in his own human skin. Like Plutarch, he gives us life teaching by example, but with a wry smile and such a sure hand that we hardly notice the instruction. It is pure pleasure.

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This book begins with the following author's note: "One crisp sunny morning I was surprised to find a package left at my front door containing this book in manuscript form. Its author included a note saying that his last name was Lewis, that he had seen a book of mine, and that he had decided to adopt my name as his own. In addition, he expected me to publish his (our) book and that the cover should be "nice." I have tried to do as requested." What follows this note is a rollicking fictional memoir that takes us through the ups and downs of the mysterious author's life. And what a life it is, full to the brim with every imaginable kind of neurotic behavior. There is method to this madness. In earlier books, including the best-selling A Question of Values and its sequel The Beguiling Serpent, Lewis developed a unique theory of the emotions. The " Poor Me" Manual further develops the theory and brings it to vivid life. This is fun reading. You will often laugh out loud. But you will also learn a great deal about the emotions and about which emotional strategies work and which don't. This book would be a great gift for anybody, but especially the teenager in your life.

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Takes the greatest works of practical philosophy and pares them down to their essence.

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We see it everywhere: * shady zoning regulations in a small town; * taxpayer money diverted into political campaigns; * deals that enrich the few at the expense of the many; * billion-dollar bailouts; * trillions of newly printed dollars flowing from government to Wall Street at giveaway interest rates; * brand-name economists hired to defend the indefensible with a smokescreen of economic theory. When private interests need a political favor, they know whom to call. When politicians need money, they also know whom to call. The people involved try to keep most of it concealed behind closed doors. This is the system that prevails in Russia after the fall of Communism. But increasingly it is America's system as well. Many people regard Wall Street as the epicenter of American capitalism. In reality it is the epicenter of American crony capitalism. Where Wall Street stops and Washington begins is impossible to say. This situation was not caused, as many suppose, by the Crash of 2008. Rather the Crash was caused by the longstanding Wall Street-Washington partnership. But the problem extends far beyond Wall Street to every corner of America. If we are going to do anything about our present economic problems, and also give the poor a chance at a better life, we will need to eliminate crony capitalism. Although full of hair-raising stories, this book is also about solutions. It tells us in clear and simple terms what is wrong and what needs to be done about it.

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Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) personifies the calm and dignified rationalism of the 18th century. He became world famous as the author of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, a multi-volume work describing almost 1300 years of history in some of the finest English prose ever written. The present volume is taken from volume one and focuses entirely on the early Christian Church. Gibbon does not mince words. He likes the religious toleration that prevailed in the Roman Empire prior to Christianity and describes it in his characteristically witty way: The various modes of worship which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people, as equally true; by the philosopher, as equally false; and by the magistrate, as equally useful." He further outraged orthodox believers of his time by saying that his entire work described the triumph of barbarism and religion." Axios Press's Essence of ...series takes the greatest works ever written in the field of practical philosophy and pares them down to their essence. We select the best passagesthe ones that are immediately relevant to us today, full of timeless wisdom and advice about the world and how best to live our livesand leave behind the more obscure or less important bits. Our selections are not isolated: they flow together to create a seamless work that will capture your interest and attention from page one. And we provide useful notes and a solid introduction to the work.

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What is Hinduism? Historians, teachers, scholars, and gurus have disagreed for centuries-and continue to disagree. One reason is because Hinduism-the world's oldest continuously extant major religion-is not a single faith with a static set of beliefs and a single sacred scripture. It is actually a mixture of faiths that have evolved from the inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent-a universal faith that is open to interpretation and evolving scientific truth, and one that deeply respects individual thought. In this, her latest book, Gajjar has striven for clarity in her explanations while recognizing the immense complexity of the subject matter. "In a sense," she writes, "On Hinduism is an opinion about an opinion. Religions are beliefs and opinions about the universe, about humankind, about birth and death and matters of the spirit. Hinduism itself is a widely held belief system and this work is a true account of what Hindus believe." On Hinduism is a comprehensive account of contemporary Hinduism, a religion that for many justifies place and existence. The author skillfully weaves together history, philosophy, science, mythology, literature, and biography to give even the novice a strong framework to understand the depth and importance of Hinduism. The book is both an historical and a philosophical account, grounded by the deep reflections of an important mind.

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This updated and expanded edition of Are the Rich Necessary? is an ideal introduction to economics at a time when economics is on everyone's mind. Lewis is always objective, fair, and fun to read. Rich is also an ideal adjunct to an economics textbook. The New York Times called this book both highly provocative and highly pleasurable.

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Describes the consumption of the Gilded Age.

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Takes the greatest works of practical philosophy and pares them down to their essence.

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Takes the greatest works of practical philosophy and pares them down to their essence.

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