When I met Ms. Kate Carlisle at the Kingsbridge VA in Bronx, New York, I had accidently made reference to something that was said by connecting it to an action I had in the service. When I realized I had said something I did not want to divulge, I tried to let it hang. She noticed my discomfort and said, I am very interested in things about WW2. You should write about your experiences. I think I offhandedly replied, Oh! I could write a book about my combat experiences, but I never typed anything in my life. To which she countered, You write, and Ill type! She was serious, and I wrote, and she, good to her word, kept typing and asking for more. The project ended abruptly when she was transferred to Boston to work on her PHD. It would have probably died there, but upon mentioning it to my daughter Patricia, she then provided me with an old computer and some lessons, so I had no excuse. To you who have never tried, writing is real work! Now everyone was waiting to see what the baby was going to look like. I was now in labor, and that takes time. I said this to those who had great expectations of me as a writer. The balky computer was giving me all the cover I needed to quit because, due to my ineptness, it was only operating on certain days. My son Kevin became Mr. Fix-It with the computer, and while I loved his company, I couldnt have him spend the time fixing it, so I eventually broke down and bought a new laptop with a printer. Now I was in business! Well, I found out you could play solitaire and chess on this machine as well as type. Guess what I got involved with until I got a call from Trafford publishing? Well, now I had to finish my writing. Lastly, I must acknowledge and thank all who will read this book, which spans the era from my birth in 1925, which was in the period Roaring Twenties. Then we lived through the 1930s, the Great Depression, in the worst in the history of our nation and concluded in 1945 with the end of the greatest war in history. I was honorably discharged from the army in 1946. I will give you more than a snapshot of those above events, which is a lot more than the few lines the kids get to read in their high school history books of this exhausting string of decades, including war that covered actions in five continents. What you dont often read in textbooks is the daily life and the drama it brings to ordinary people in such times. You will meet my family. They are not only of my bloodlines but my real buddies. You will read about my faith, which I love dearly and I try to live it. I really cant understand people who try to live without its benefits. We who had our lives chastised by so much life are now judged as living in a historic era and said to be of the greatest generation. As an eyewitness to those historic times and now an overripe geriatric of age 89, I only wish to put into our accumulated history what I can pass on to the greater generation of my grand- and great-grandchildren. To do this, I thought it best to start at the beginning.
From the former New York Times Beijing bureau chief comes a closely observed story of a struggling Chinese basketball team and its quixotic, often comical attempt to make the playoffs by copying the American stars of the NBA. When the worst professional basketball team in China, the Shanxi Brave Dragons, hired former NBA coach Bob Weiss to improve its fortunes, the team's owner, Boss Wang, promised that Weiss would be allowed to Americanize his players by teaching them "advanced basketball culture." That promise would be broken from the moment Weiss landed in China. As we follow this team of colorful oddballs on a fascinating road trip through modern China, we see Weiss learn firsthand what so many other foreigners there have discovered: that changing China happens only when and how China wants to be changed.
Featuring work previously unpublished, The Heroes Have Gone shows off Jim W. Corder's consummate skills as a memoirist, essayist, and cultural critic. Though the subjects are wide-ranging--West Texas, World War II, writing and teaching, TCU football--one looms above the rest: Corder's lifetime love affair with America's pastoral sport, baseball.
The wonderfully original story of a struggling Chinese basketball team and its quixotic, often comical attempt to right its fortunes by copying the American stars of the NBA—a season of cultural misunderstanding that transcends sports and reveals China’s ambivalent relationship with the West. When the Shanxi Brave Dragons, one of China’s worst professional basketball teams, hired former NBA coach Bob Weiss, the team’s owner, Boss Wang, promised that Weiss would be allowed to Americanize his players by teaching them “advanced basketball culture.” That promise would be broken from the moment Weiss landed in China. Desperate for his team to play like Americans, Wang—a peasant turned steel tycoon—nevertheless refused to allow his players the freedom and individual expression necessary to truly change their games. Former New York Times Beijing bureau chief Jim Yardley tells the story of the resulting culture clash with sensitivity and a keen comic sensibility. Readers meet the Brave Dragons, a cast of colorful, sometimes heartbreaking oddballs from around the world: the ambitious Chinese assistant coach, Liu Tie, who believes that Chinese players are genetically inferior and can improve only through the repetitious drilling once advocated by ancient kung fu masters; the moody and selfish American import, Bonzi Wells, a former NBA star so unnerved by China that initially he locks himself in his apartment; the Taiwanese point guard, Little Sun, who is demonized by his mainland Chinese coaches; and the other Chinese players, whose lives sometimes seem little different from those of factory workers. As readers follow the team on a fascinating road trip through modern China—from glamorous Shanghai and bureaucratic Beijing to the booming port city Tianjin and the polluted coal capital of Taiyuan—we see Weiss learn firsthand what so many other foreigners in China have discovered: China changes only when and how it wants to change.
For the first time, the inside story of the brilliant American engineer who defeated Enigma and the Nazi code-masters Much has been written about the success of the British “Ultra” program in cracking the Germans’ Enigma code early in World War II, but few know what really happened in 1942, when the Germans added a fourth rotor to the machine that created the already challenging naval code and plunged Allied intelligence into darkness. Enter one Joe Desch, an unassuming but brilliant engineer at the National Cash Register Company in Dayton, Ohio, who was given the task of creating a machine to break the new Enigma settings. It was an enterprise that rivaled the Manhattan Project for secrecy and complexity–and nearly drove Desch to a breakdown. Under enormous pressure, he succeeded in creating a 5,000-pound electromechanical monster known as the Desch Bombe, which helped turn the tide in the Battle of the Atlantic–but not before a disgruntled co-worker attempted to leak information about the machine to the Nazis. After toiling anonymously–it even took his daughter years to learn of his accomplishments–Desch was awarded the National Medal of Merit, the country’s highest civilian honor. In The Secret in Building 26, the entire thrilling story of the final triumph over Enigma is finally told.
Journalist and China expert Mann examines the evolution of American policy toward China and asks, Does it make sense? What are our ideas and hidden assumptions about China? In this vigorous look at China's political evolution and its future, Mann explor
We face a crisis of public reason. Our quest for a politics that is free, moral and rational has, somehow, made it hard for us to move, to change our positions, to visit places and perspectives that are not our own, and to embrace reality. This book addresses this crisis with a model of public reason based in a new aesthetic reading of Hannah Arendt’s political theory. It begins by telling the story of Arendt’s engagement with the Augenblicke of Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Jaspers, Heidegger, Kafka and Benjamin, in order to identify her own aesthetic Moment. Josefson then explicates this Moment, what he calls the freedom of the beautiful, as a third face of freedom on par with Arendt’s familiar freedoms of action and the life of the mind. He shows how this freedom, rooted in Jaspers’s phenomenology and a non-metaphysical reading of Kant, serves to redress the world-alienation that was a uniting theme across Arendt’s works. Ultimately, this volume aims to challenge orthodox accounts of Arendtian politics, presenting Arendt’s aesthetic politics as a radically new model of republicanism and as an alternative to political liberal, deliberative and agonistic models of public reason.
Car Troubles central premise is that the car as the dominant mode of travel needs to be problematized. It examines a wide range of issues that are central to automobility by situating it within social, economic, and political contexts, and by combining social theory, specific case studies and policy-oriented analysis. With an international team of contributors the book provides a coherent and comprehensive analysis of the global phenomenon of automobility from the Anglo world to the cases in China and Chile and all the elements that relate to it.
Washington State is a place of political mavericks. Split tickets are a source of pride and independent voters outnumber Democrats and Republicans. Washington was first to have a voter-approved state Equal Rights Amendment, first to elect a woman as governor, and first to elect a Chinese-American to the position. Today, Washington’s open primary election system and voter registration process demonstrate it has not drifted far from its populist roots. Governing the Evergreen State provides an absorbing look at an ever-evolving state political and judicial system and presents intriguing case studies. With chapters on interest groups, the constitution, the environment, media coverage, the court system, the legislature, political parties, changing demographics, and more, this volume updates the popular Governing Washington. Fresh discussions and analysis written by academics from universities across the state, a senator, a pollster, a newspaper reporter/blogger, a former chief justice of the state Supreme Court, and a court administrator offer a springboard for further examination and discussion.
An absolutely stunning -- and scary - wake-up call that reveals how the economic world is about to change dramatically in the next few years as dozens of RDEs ("Rapidly Developing Economies") begin to assert themselves as major economic powers. Globalization is about Americans outsourcing product development and services to other countries. Globality is the next step, where rapidly developing economies from around the world are now competing with us head to head. The authors present a strong case that the economic climate in which we have lived is going to change in unprecedented ways. "...their insights into the competitive battle in emerging markets are so keen." -- William J. Holstein of The New York Times "Many American chief executives, it turns out, are aiming at emerging markets...And they will find many insights into prevailing in those battles in this book." -- William J. Holstein of The New York Times "...for any corporate strategist pondering the challenges and opportunities of globalization, this book is an indispensable guide." -- John Cummings of Business Finance "While the global economy has been a hot topic for at least two decades, it is in constant need of updating ...GLOBALITY...does the job nicely." -- BNET "[This] vividly detailed tome describes the latest shift in globalization from a one-way street of Western domination to an increasingly competitive global playing field, where businesses from once-discounted nations are solidifying their standing." -- CIO Insight "Whatever the next New World Order turns out to be, the advice in GLOBALITY will come in useful, for multinationals and individual workers alike." -- Business Pundit "A smart discourse on how local companies in developing economies, such as China, India and Brazil, are bucking tradition and going for broke on their own terms..." -- BNET "This book is a must-read for leaders of companies in the developed world who want to get into the globality act and stay in it." -- Cecil Johnson, McClatchy-Tribune News "Get ready for a new wave of challengers, 'bursting their way onto the big stage.' So say the three authors of this smart analysis about the latest developments in global competition" -- Andrea Sachs of TIME
Jim Meehan a retired British Positive Psychologist and published poet was diaignosed at the age of fifty-three to be suffering from Type II diabetes. He was a keen mountain walker, having scaled all the highest peaks in the British Isles, many peaks in the Spanish Pyrenees, the Alps, the Italian Dolomites, the United States and Canadian Rockies, an enthusiastic cyclist who rode 105 miles in a day through Death Valley, California at the age of sixty-two, and at the age of seventy ran the Chicago marathon. However, his health took a turn for the worse when due to the complications of Type II diabetes, poor blood circulation and sepsis his left leg was amputated below his knee six months prior to his eightieth birthday and seven months after his eightieth birthday had his right leg amputated below the knee in April 2023. During his recovery he wrote Your Legs Or Your Life? about his health and fitness story prior to and following his amputations in order to help others, both amputees and full-bodied adults alike, to benefit about learning from his experiences and coping strategies and enable them, to some extent, live a fuller, happier and healthier life. All proceeds from the sales of this book will be donated to the United Kingdom Limbless Association whose vision is ‘no amputee need cope alone.’
The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was formed in July 1940 - its mission: to send agents into occupied Europe to conduct covert operations against Allied enemies. Many of these agents were women and girls. MY STORY: CODENAME CÉLINE tells the thrilling tale of 'Céline', a young teenager, desperate to do her bit towards the war effort. Parachuted into occupied France to help the Resistance, Céline finds herself on the front line of fierce and terrifying fighting - will she be able to keep her nerve and complete her mission before it's too late?
A New York Times Notable Book: A memoir of the writing life of Jim Harrison, from hardscrabble years to high-profile Hollywood friendships, “as engaging as it is eccentric” (The Washington Post Book World). In this “sprawling, impressionistic memoir”, which was selected as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, Jim Harrison chronicles his coming-of-age, from a boy drunk with books to a young man making his way among fellow writers he deeply admires—including Peter Matthiessen, Robert Lowell, W.H. Auden, Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams, and Allen Ginsberg (The New York Times Book Review). Harrison discusses forthrightly the life-changing experience of becoming a father, and the minor cognitive dissonance that ensued when this boy from the heartland somehow ended up a highly paid Hollywood screenwriter. He gives free rein to his seven obsessions—alcohol, food, stripping, hunting and fishing (and the dogs who have accompanied him in both), religion, the road, and our place in the natural world—which he elucidates with earthy wisdom and an elegant sense of connectedness. Off to the Side is a work of great beauty and importance, a triumphant achievement that captures the writing life and brings all of us clues for living. A true masterpiece of memoir from an author whose “writing bears earthy whiffs of wild morels and morals and of booze and botany, as well as hints of William Faulkner, Louise Erdrich, Herman Melville, and Norman Maclean.” (San Francisco Chronicle) “This fine memoir is a worthy capstone to a fascinating career.” —Publishers Weekly
Having grandchildren late in life means that they will never really get to know you. This was the case for me and for my children. I never knew my grandparents as they lived and died in Ireland before I had a chance to go there. I might have gone over in 1950 and seen my maternal grandfather Patrick Quinn. He was the only grandparent living when it was possible, after the war, to visit Ireland. Regretfully, I didnt go when I had the chance, and he died in 1951.
Leave piecemeal strategic change approaches behind and learn how to plan, facilitate, and integrate your change efforts for lasting success. Enterprise-Wide Change takes you through the ?Rollercoaster of Change,? showing you how to deal with resistance, regard skeptics as your best friends, and build a buy-in and stay-in strategy among your employees. The authors use the science of ?Systems Thinking? -- a comprehensive, yet simple and integrated way to analyze and build synergy from key organizational elements. You?ll find proven and practical questions, summaries, case studies, examples, and worksheets as well as systems tools, tips, and techniques to foster organization change and development.
The Revolutionary War in the Lymes started as a rebellion of ideas. From its origins in the Cromwellian Saybrook Colony, Lyme (today's Lyme, Old Lyme, East Lyme and Salem) prospered under the free hand of self-governance and spurned King George III's efforts to rein in the wayward colonies. In 1765, Reverend Stephen Johnson wrote incendiary missives against the Stamp Act. A few years later, the town hosted its own Tea Party, burning one hundred pounds of British tea near the town green. When the alarm came from Lexington in 1775, Lyme's citizens were among the first to answer. Historians Jim Lampos and Michaelle Pearson explore how local Patriots shaped an epic revolt.
Television shows like CSI, Forensic Files, and The New Detectives make it look so easy. A crime-scene photographer snaps photographs, a fingerprint technician examines a gun, uniformed officers seal off a house while detectives gather hair and blood samples, placing them carefully into separate evidence containers. In a crime laboratory, a suspect's hands are meticulously examined for gunshot residue. An autopsy is performed in order to determine range and angle of the gunshot and time-of-death evidence. Dozens of tests and analyses are performed and cross-referenced. A conviction is made. Another crime is solved. The credits roll. The American public has become captivated by success stories like this one with their satisfyingly definitive conclusions, all made possible because of the wonders of forensic science. Unfortunately, however, popular television dramas do not represent the way most homicide cases in the United States are actually handled. Crime scenes are not always protected from contamination; physical evidence is often packaged improperly, lost, or left unaccounted for; forensic experts are not always consulted; and mistakes and omissions on the autopsy table frequently cut investigations short or send detectives down the wrong investigative path. In Forensics Under Fire, Jim Fisher makes a compelling case that these and other problems in the practice of forensic science allow offenders to escape justice and can also lead to the imprisonment of innocent people. Bringing together examples from a host of high-profile criminal cases and familiar figures, such as the JonBenet Ramsey case and Dr. Henry Lee who presented physical evidence in the O. J. Simpson trial, along with many lesser known but fascinating stories, Fisher presents daunting evidence that forensic science has a long way to go before it lives up to its potential and the public's expectations.
A New York Times and million copy bestseller, the classic handbook on reading aloud to children—revised and updated Recommended by “Dear Abby”, The New York Times and The Washington Post, for three decades, millions of parents and educators have turned to Jim Trelease's beloved classic to help countless children become avid readers through awakening their imaginations and improving their language skills. Now this new edition of The Read-Aloud Handbook imparts the benefits, rewards, and importance of reading aloud to children of a new generation. Supported by delightful anecdotes as well as the latest research, The Read-Aloud Handbook offers proven techniques and strategies—and the reasoning behind them—for helping children discover the pleasures of reading and setting them on the road to becoming lifelong readers.
A compendium of straightforward techniques on how to accentuate the positive and redirect the negative, increasing productivity at work and at home. What do your people at work and your spouse and kids at home have in common with a five-ton killer whale? Probably a whole lot more than you think, according to top business consultant and mega-bestselling author Ken Blanchard and his coauthors from SeaWorld. In this moving and inspirational new book, Blanchard explains that both whales and people perform better when you accentuate the positive. He shows how using the techniques of animal trainers -- specifically those responsible for the killer whales of SeaWorld -- can supercharge your effectiveness at work and at home. When gruff business manager and family man Wes Kingsley visited SeaWorld, he marveled at the ability of the trainers to get these huge killer whales, among the most feared predators in the ocean, to perform amazing acrobatic leaps and dives. Later, talking to the chief trainer, he learned their techniques of building trust, accentuating the positive, and redirecting negative behavior -- all of which make these extraordinary performances possible. Kingsley took a hard look at his own often accusatory management style and recognized how some of his shortcomings as a manager, spouse, and father actually diminish trust and damage relationships. He began to see the difference between "GOTcha" (catching people doing things wrong) and "Whale Done!" (catching people doing things right). In Whale Done!, Ken Blanchard shows how to make accentuating the positive and redirecting the negative the best tools to increase productivity, instead of creating situations that demoralize people. These techniques are remarkably easy to master and can be applied equally well at home, allowing readers to become better parents and more committed spouses in their happier and more successful personal lives.
The classic million-copy bestselling handbook on reading aloud to children--revised and updated for a new generation of readers Recommended by "Dear Abby" upon its first publication in 1982, millions of parents and educators have turned to Jim Trelease's beloved classic for more than three decades to help countless children become avid readers through awakening their imaginations and improving their language skills. Jim Trelease's Read-Aloud Handbook, updated and revised by education specialist Cyndi Giorgis, discusses the benefits, the rewards, and the importance of reading aloud to children of a new generation. Supported by delightful anecdotes as well as the latest research, an updated treasury of book recommendations curated with an eye for diversity, Jim Trelease's Read-Aloud Handbook offers proven techniques and strategies for helping children of all backgrounds and abilities discover the pleasures of reading and setting them on the road to becoming lifelong readers.
Assessment in Applied Sport Psychology is a comprehensive resource that offers both students and professionals the opportunity to hone their skills to help their clients, starting with the initial consultation and lasting through a long-term relationship. In this text, Jim Taylor and a team of sport psychology experts help practitioners gain a deep understanding of assessment in order to build trusting relationships and effective intervention plans that address the needs and goals of their clients. Part I of Assessment in Applied Sport Psychology covers topics such as the importance of assessment, the appropriateness of qualitative and quantitative assessment, ethical issues that can arise from assessment, and the impact of diversity in the use of assessment. Part II introduces readers to six ways that consultants can assess athletes: mental health screening, personality tests, sport-specific objective measures, interviewing, observation, and applied psychophysiology. Chapters in this section explain the strengths and weaknesses of each approach—for example, when traditional pencil-and-paper and observation approaches may be more appropriate than interviewing—and offer consultants a more complete toolbox of assessments to use when working with athletes. Part III addresses special issues, such as career transition, talent identification, and sport injury and rehabilitation. One chapter is devoted to the hot-button issue of sport-related concussions. Tables at the end of most chapters in parts II and III contain invaluable information about each of the assessment tools described, including its purpose, publication details, and how to obtain it. Chapters also contain sidebars that provide sample scenarios, recommended approaches, and exercises to use with clients. Assessment in Applied Sport Psychology works toward two main goals. The first is to help consultants gain a complete understanding of their clients through the use of a broad range of assessment tools. The second is to show consultants how to ethically and effectively use assessments to develop a comprehensive understanding of their clients, thus enabling them to assist their clients in achieving their competitive and personal goals.
Scrambled," Part Three. Dr. Eggman has tracked his treasonous lackey, Snively, all the way to the Dragon Kingdom! Snively is out to rescue the love of his life, but will the embittered Iron Queen take him back? More importantly: will the Dragon Kingdom survive a visit from the good doctor?
As the twentieth century turned to the twenty-first, there was a civil war raging in the toy train hobby between those who ran and/or collected O-gauge toy trains. The icon of the hobby, Lionel LLC, was being challenged by an upstart company, Mike's Train House (MTH), for the minds, hearts and pocketbooks of those in the hobby or just beginning in it. When Bill and Amy Weaver inherit a rare, one-of-a-kind toy train locomotive they are targeted by two wealthy collectors who will do anything, legal or otherwise, to obtain this valuable addition to their collection. If they can't buy it then maybe they will have to kill for it.
Legendary treasures. Mythical robberies. Lost riches. Buried plunder and fabulous wealth. Hidden dangers. Ancient curses and deathbed jinxes. Captivating tales of lost fortunes, hidden caches, the eternal allure of wealth, and the heartbreak of mysterious curses! Read about the pursuit of riches turning to grief in this mesmerizing story collection! A thrilling exploration of the world's most intriguing and dangerous treasure hunts, Lost Loot: Cursed Treasures and Blood Money collects dozens of fascinating stories of reward, riches, greed, and ruin, including … Curses, deaths, and centuries old treasure on Oak Island Searchers hunted down and killed before finding a gangster’s stolen riches The eternal quest for D. B. Cooper and his hijack ransom Elaborate booby traps protecting ill-gotten gains Cursed Aztec wealth lost as it journeyed to Spain Mysterious caves holding secrets in the Grand Canyon Montezuma’s revenge The train-robbing Robin Hood myth of the Sam Bass Gang Jean Lafitte and the Galveston Hoard The lost Dutchman mine Civil War coins hurriedly stashed after a brutal reign of terror The missing Fabergé eggs John Dillinger’s suitcase King Kamehameha’s burial chamber Captain Kidd's buried treasure And more stories of doomed pursuits of plundered riches. Tales of bewitching riches and hunts gone wrong, yet hope springs eternal. Lost Loot unfolds like a treasure map—but beware of the hidden, deadly obstacles!
Humorous, informative and oddly intriguing Scottish questions are answered. After the success of the internationally bestselling "Does Anything Eat Wasps?", here are all the particularly Scottish questions people never knew they wanted answered, like: Is it true that most Scottish fishermen can't swim? How do you go about proving your claim to the throne of Scotland? Where in Scotland is the wettest place in Europe? Are Aberdonians really the dourest of the dour and meanest of the mean? Was Scotland really named after a bunch of Irish pirates? Was high-rise housing such a bad idea? Are half the children in Scotland now born to unmarried parents? What makes Scots angry? And has anyone ever been killed by Highland midges? A wheen of queries about Scotland and the Scots, this is a miscellany of the unlikely but true in one of the strangest wee countries in the world. With one hundred questions handily arranged by category, "Does Anyone Like Midges?" is a compendium of the most perplexing and timeless Scottish questions, big and not-so-big, that have somehow escaped answer until now, each one authoritatively dealt with in a manner sure to illuminate and flabbergast in equal measure.
The first-ever collection of interviews with this well-known, prolific writer whose books include twenty-two volumes of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction published over a period of thirty-six years
A professional assassin stalks London’s streets in the first historical mystery featuring Scotland Yard’s Detective Chief Inspector Stark. London, 1921. The Great War has recently ended and tensions in England are high. Now, prominent Cabinet minister Lord Amersham has been shot dead outside his Regent’s Park home. With two bullets to the chest and one to the forehead, all signs point to a professional hit. Charged with solving one of the most sensitive and high-profile cases Scotland Yard has ever faced, DCI Paul Stark is under pressure to get the job done quickly. Amersham’s colleague Winston Churchill, Secretary of State for the Colonies, is convinced the Bolsheviks are responsible. Stark’s contemporaries at Special Branch believe there’s a connection to Government talks about Irish Home Rule. And others believe the motive could be connected to Lord Amersham’s rather scandalous private life . . . When a second crime takes place—another murder committed by an expert marksman at close range—the case takes a terrifying turn and puts Stark right in the middle of an international crisis. “Besides providing interesting nuggets of history, Eldridge depicts his lead characters with complexity and compassion, auguring well for this series kickoff.” —Kirkus Reviews
Sharing with the Gods examines one of the most ubiquitous yet little studied aspects of ancient Greek religion, the offering of so-called "first-fruits" (aparchai) and "tithes" (dekatai), from the Archaic period to the Hellenistic. While most existing studies of Greek religion tend to focus on ritual performance, this volume investigates questions of religious belief and mentality: why the Greeks presented these gifts to the gods, and what their behaviour tells us about their religious world-view, presuppositions, and perception of the gods. Exploiting an array of ancient sources, the author assesses the diverse nature of aparchai and dekatai, the complexity of the motivations underlying them, the role of individuals in shaping tradition, the deployment of this religious custom in politics, and the transformation of a voluntary practice into a religious obligation. By synthesizing a century of scholarship on 'first-fruits' practices in Greek and other religious cultures, the author challenges prevailing interpretations of gift-exchange with the gods in terms of do ut des and da ut dem, which emphasize the reciprocal, obligatory, and sometimes commercial aspects of the gift, and explores hitherto neglected notions including gratitude and thanksgiving. Drawing on current approaches to gift-giving in anthropology, sociology, and economics, in particular the French anthropologist Godelier's idea of 'debt', the volume offers new perspectives with which to conceptualize human-divine relations, and challenges traditional views of the nature of gift-giving between men and gods in Greek religion.
Would you own the GOLD or would the GOLD own YOU?' When Jim Richards left home to make his fortune in a gold rush, he had no language skills, no money and no idea. But when he found diamond-filled potholes in the remote rivers of Guyana, his problems really began. Chasing gold and diamond rushes around the world, Richards worked with local miners in some of the maddest, baddest and most dangerous places on earth. His dramatic journey ranges from the piranha-infested rivers of South America to the blazing deserts of Australia, from the world's biggest mining scam in Indonesia to the war-torn jungles of Laos. To find the gold, first Jim had to find himself. He learned to dig deep and discover the resilience and fortitude needed to overcome isolation, disease, equipment disasters and gun-toting criminals to come out on top. Gold Rush is a blood-and-guts treasure hunt - the ultimate adventure story.
“An entertaining survey” (Publishers Weekly) through the highs and lows of a spectacular, pivotal year in American history—1908. A captivating look at a bygone era through the lens of a single, surprisingly momentous American year one century ago. 1908 was the year Henry Ford launched the Model T, the Wright Brothers proved to the world that they had mastered the art of flight, Teddy Roosevelt decided to send American naval warships around the globe, the Chicago Cubs won the World Series (a feat they have never yet repeated), and six automobiles set out on an incredible 20,000 mile race from New York City to Paris via the frozen Bering Strait. A charming and knowledgeable guide, Rasenberger takes readers back to a time of almost limitless optimism, even in the face of enormous inequality, an era when the majority of Americans believed that the future was bound to be better than the past, that the world’s worst problems would eventually be solved, and that nothing at all was impossible. As Thomas Edison succinctly said that year, “Anything, everything is possible.”
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