This diverse series offers an accessible approach to countries across the world, from Ethiopia to Poland. Each title gives information about the language, history and geography of the country and includes a detailed map and useful facts, as well as how to find out more.
This dynamic series captures the spirit of each country through accurate, easy to-read text combined with photographs It explores the culture and history of each nation from nature and sport, to language and religion.
This dynamic series captures the spirit of each country through accurate, easy to-read text combined with photographs. It explores the culture and history of each nation from nature and sport, to language and religion.
Melvin traces the emergence and development of the motif of angelic interpretation of visions from late prophetic literature (Ezekiel 40-48; Zechariah 1-6) into early apocalyptic literature (1 Enoch 17-36; 72-82; Daniel 7-8). Examining how the historical and socio-political context of exilic and post-exilic Judaism and the broader religious and cultural environment shaped Jewish angelology in general, Melvin concludes that the motif of the interpreting angel served a particular function. Building upon the work of Susan Niditch, Melvin concludes that the interpreting angel motif served a polemical function in repudiating divination as a means of predicting the future, while at the same time elevating the authority of the visionary revelation. The literary effect is to reimagine God as an imperial monarch who rules and communicates through intermediaries-a reimagination that profoundly influenced subsequent Jewish and Christian tradition.
This diverse series offers an accessible approach to countries across the world, from Ethiopia to Poland. Each title gives information about the language, history and geography of the country and includes a detailed map and useful facts, as well as how to find out more.
H. Richard Niebuhr's major work, which he did not live to complete, was to be on theological ethics. Based on the published and unpublished writings that Niebuhr completed during the last decade of his life, Roots of Relational Ethics demonstrates that Niebuhr's conception of responsibility was the culmination of his thought about self, God, Christ, the church, ethics and decision-making, and social evil. R. Melvin Keiser examines the limitations and potential of Niebuhr's use of responsibility in comparison with relevant themes in liberation and feminist theological ethics. He suggests that Niebuhr's mature work can contribute to the alleviation of environmental exploitation, sexism, anti-Judaims, war, racism, and classism.
The Undiscovered Dewey explores the profound influence of evolution and its corresponding ideas of contingency and uncertainty on John Dewey's philosophy of action, particularly its argument that inquiry proceeds from the uncertainty of human activity. Dewey separated the meaningfulness of inquiry from a larger metaphysical story concerning the certainty of human progress. He then connected this thread to the way in which our reflective capacities aid us in improving our lives. Dewey therefore launched a new understanding of the modern self that encouraged intervention in social and natural environments but which nonetheless demanded courage and humility because of the intimate relationship between action and uncertainty. Melvin L. Rogers explicitly connects Dewey's theory of inquiry to his religious, moral, and political philosophy. He argues that, contrary to common belief, Dewey sought a place for religious commitment within a democratic society sensitive to modern pluralism. Against those who regard Dewey as indifferent to moral conflict, Rogers points to Dewey's appreciation for the incommensurability of our ethical commitments. His deep respect for modern pluralism, argues Rogers, led Dewey to articulate a negotiation between experts and the public so that power did not lapse into domination. Exhibiting an abiding faith in the reflective and contestable character of inquiry, Dewey strongly engaged with the complexity of our religious, moral, and political lives.
Afeatured article in Die Zeit, the leading German weekly, begins with "Melvin, du hast gewonnen"--Mel, you have won! In his extraordinary account of the final days of the German Democratic Republic (DDR) we see the reckoning of a regime, and also the vindication of a life-long devotee of European democracy. It is unlikely that any comparable memoir will be written, since Lasky's career spanned the entire history of wartime and postwar Germany, especially in divided and Wall-torn Berlin.Voices in a Revolution, now in paperback, offers an in-depth portrayal of the Communist police state before the breakdown, followed by a blow-by-blow account of the drama of breakdown and regime transformation. Characters in the everyday cultural world of Germany come alive as harbingers and heralds of the end of the old and the necessity of the new.Lasky understands the role of accident as well as of necessity. The West Germans had all but abandoned the slogan of One People, One Nation when they were faced with the immense task of supervising just such a reintegration. The work ends with the awakening conscience at the very point that the Berlin Wall came tumbling down. This is a memorable work--one likely to sear the conscience of lovers of freedom and analysts of tyranny alike.
In this age of electronic noise, political antagonism, and general discontent, Paths to the Personal delivers to the spiritually hungry a delicious feast of peaceful promise.' Walter Gulick, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Humanities and Religious Studies, Montana State University Billings Paths to the Personal: Thinkers on the Way to Postcritical and Theopoetic Depths seeks to define and explore the dimension of the personal underlying all knowing, doing, being, and religion. Using a lens combining Michael Polanyi’s postcritical and Stanley Hopper’s theopoetic thought, which carries the author into and beyond their explorative depths of the personal, Keiser asks to what degree the personal is present in the thinking of Augustine, Tillich, H.R. Niebuhr, Fritz Buri, Freud, Mircea Eliade, Merleau-Ponty, William Poteat, Hopper, and Polanyi. The immersive issues in these pages are: how we know; how words (symbols, metaphors, myths, and religious talk) work; contributions of philosophy to justice and peace-making; and the nature of religious thinking and being. While not focused on Quaker thought and spirituality, the author's Quaker perspective undergirds these inquiries.
Democracy is perhaps the defining characteristic of modern Western society, but even as late as the nineteenth century it was often viewed with suspicion by many who saw it as akin to anarchy and mob rule. It was not until the French and American revolutions of the eighteenth century that electoral democracy began to gain momentum as a serious force, which was eventually to shape political discourse on a broad, international scale. Taking as its focus the French Revolution, this book explores how the experience in France influenced the emergence of electoral democracy, arguing - contrary to recent revisionist studies - that it was indeed the progenitor of modern representative democracy. Rejecting the revisionist semiotic approach to political culture; it instead adopts a definition emphasizing the shared values that govern political behavior, arguing that the Revolution's essential contribution to modern political culture is its concept of citizenship, embracing widespread political participation. In a broader sense, the book studies the grass-roots democracy, focusing on participation in the primary and secondary electoral assemblies. It is primarily concerned with electoral behavior and practices: how can we explain the electoral process and its results? It analyzes electoral procedures and practices, and voter turnout, based on extensive quantitative data. While focused on political history, this work also examines political sociology, giving careful attention to the occupational composition of elected officials. While acknowledging the democratic shortcomings of the French Revolution (the absence of political parties, electoral campaigns, and declared candidates), the book’s comprehensive study of revolutionary elections concludes that, together with its American counterpart, the French Revolution did indeed give birth to modern electoral democracy. As such, this book is essential reading for historians, political scientists, sociologists and readers interested in the origin of modern liberal democracy.
Although there is broad consensus among Bible prophecy scholars that the times of the gentiles will continue until the return of Jesus Christ, the century-old, traditional interpretation holds that Daniel’s fourth, gentile kingdom (the Roman Empire) ceased to exist in AD 476 in the West at Rome and, therefore, must be “revived” politically in the beginning of the seven-year tribulation period. That prevailing viewpoint is obscuring a clear understanding of the continuing existence of the fourth kingdom as well as its fulfillment in history of important prophecies related to the end times. Peters forewarned about this potential interpretation problem in The Theocratic Kingdom (1884). Daniel’s Fourth Kingdom: (1) establishes that the divided Roman Empire still exists today and explains why that fact matters regarding the season of Christ’s return; (2) respectfully questions the traditional interpretation; (3) exhorts the church to love not the temporal kingdoms of this world but, instead, to embrace her gospel-inspired, Holy Spirit-empowered, love-driven, apolitical, evangelical mission to share the gospel with all nations while expecting the possibly imminent pretribulation rapture; and (4) invites all readers, believers and skeptics alike, to consider the relevance of the Bible concerning world history, current events, and the future.
The importance of Melvin J. Lasky and of the journals he has edited "(Encounter "in London, "Der Monat "in Berlin) has been beautifully captured by a young European intellectual, Dr. Michael Naumann: "Lasky's work, quite apart from its value as a meditation, is a testimony of personal courage. This is the work of an outsider, of a thinker in crazed times, who ranks with the few who can apply that 16th-century observation of Richard Hooker to themselves with every justification: 'Posterity may know we have not loosely through silence permitted things to pass away as in a dream.'..." "On The Barricades, And Off, "is an extraordinary collection of writings by Lasky dealing with Revolutionaries and Ideologies, with the German Problem and the Russian Question, with Travelling and Climates of Opinion. But there is nothing eclectic or random about this effort. Indeed the essays are stitched together by an impassioned dedication to the open society and, no less, a universal, even-handed critique of all closed societies. Born in New York City, Melvin J. Lasky has been co-editor of "Encounter "in London (called "the most brilliant European periodical") since he succeeded Irving Kristol in 1958. He was educated at the City College of New York, at the University of Michigan, and Columbia University. He was the literary editor of the New Leader before serving in World War II as a combat historian in France and -Germany. After the war he was a foreign correspondent for the "New York Times, The Reporter, Partisan Review, "and other publications. His work as an editor and writer reflects that unusual group of cosmopolitan scholars and men of letters who emerged from the ashes of conflict to help recreate the intellectual climate for democracy in Europe, indirectly reestablishing transatlantic critical standards in America.
This book is an intellectual tour de force: a comprehensive Darwinian interpretation of human development. Looking at the entire range of human evolutionary history, Melvin Konner tells the compelling and complex story of how cross-cultural and universal characteristics of our growth from infancy to adolescence became rooted in genetically inherited characteristics of the human brain. All study of our evolution starts with one simple truth: human beings take an extraordinarily long time to grow up. What does this extended period of dependency have to do with human brain growth and social interactions? And why is play a sign of cognitive complexity, and a spur for cultural evolution? As Konner explores these questions, and topics ranging from bipedal walking to incest taboos, he firmly lays the foundations of psychology in biology. As his book eloquently explains, human learning and the greatest human intellectual accomplishments are rooted in our inherited capacity for attachments to each other. In our love of those we learn from, we find our way as individuals and as a species. Never before has this intersection of the biology and psychology of childhood been so brilliantly described. "Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution," wrote Dobzhansky. In this remarkable book, Melvin Konner shows that nothing in childhood makes sense except in the light of evolution.
Democracy is perhaps the defining characteristic of modern Western society, but even as late as the nineteenth century it was often viewed with suspicion by many who saw it as akin to anarchy and mob rule. It was not until the French and American revolutions of the eighteenth century that electoral democracy began to gain momentum as a serious force, which was eventually to shape political discourse on a broad, international scale. Taking as its focus the French Revolution, this book explores how the experience in France influenced the emergence of electoral democracy, arguing - contrary to recent revisionist studies - that it was indeed the progenitor of modern representative democracy. Rejecting the revisionist semiotic approach to political culture; it instead adopts a definition emphasizing the shared values that govern political behavior, arguing that the Revolution's essential contribution to modern political culture is its concept of citizenship, embracing widespread political participation. In a broader sense, the book studies the grass-roots democracy, focusing on participation in the primary and secondary electoral assemblies. It is primarily concerned with electoral behavior and practices: how can we explain the electoral process and its results? It analyzes electoral procedures and practices, and voter turnout, based on extensive quantitative data. While focused on political history, this work also examines political sociology, giving careful attention to the occupational composition of elected officials. While acknowledging the democratic shortcomings of the French Revolution (the absence of political parties, electoral campaigns, and declared candidates), the book’s comprehensive study of revolutionary elections concludes that, together with its American counterpart, the French Revolution did indeed give birth to modern electoral democracy. As such, this book is essential reading for historians, political scientists, sociologists and readers inte
For the past half century, the Indonesian military has depicted the 1965-66 killings, which resulted in the murder of approximately one million unarmed civilians, as the outcome of a spontaneous uprising. This formulation not only denied military agency behind the killings, it also denied that the killings could ever be understood as a centralised, nation-wide campaign. Using documents from the former Indonesian Intelligence Agency’s archives in Banda Aceh this book shatters the Indonesian government’s official propaganda account of the mass killings and proves the military’s agency behind those events. This book tells the story of the 3,000 pages of top-secret documents that comprise the Indonesian genocide files. Drawing upon these orders and records, along with the previously unheard stories of 70 survivors, perpetrators, and other eyewitness of the genocide in Aceh province it reconstructs, for the first time, a detailed narrative of the killings using the military’s own accounts of these events. This book makes the case that the 1965-66 killings can be understood as a case of genocide, as defined by the 1948 Genocide Convention. The first book to reconstruct a detailed narrative of the genocide using the army’s own records of these events, it will be of interest to students and academics in the field of Southeast Asian Studies, History, Politics, the Cold War, Political Violence and Comparative Genocide.
A rich, multifaceted history of affirmative action from the Civil Rights Act of 1866 through today’s tumultuous times From acclaimed legal historian, author of a biography of Louis Brandeis (“Remarkable” —Anthony Lewis, The New York Review of Books, “Definitive”—Jeffrey Rosen, The New Republic) and Dissent and the Supreme Court (“Riveting”—Dahlia Lithwick, The New York Times Book Review), a history of affirmative action from its beginning with the Civil Rights Act of 1866 to the first use of the term in 1935 with the enactment of the National Labor Relations Act (the Wagner Act) to 1961 and John F. Kennedy’s Executive Order 10925, mandating that federal contractors take “affirmative action” to ensure that there be no discrimination by “race, creed, color, or national origin” down to today’s American society. Melvin Urofsky explores affirmative action in relation to sex, gender, and education and shows that nearly every public university in the country has at one time or another instituted some form of affirmative action plan--some successful, others not. Urofsky traces the evolution of affirmative action through labor and the struggle for racial equality, writing of World War I and the exodus that began when some six million African Americans moved northward between 1910 and 1960, one of the greatest internal migrations in the country’s history. He describes how Harry Truman, after becoming president in 1945, fought for Roosevelt’s Fair Employment Practice Act and, surprising everyone, appointed a distinguished panel to serve as the President’s Commission on Civil Rights, as well as appointing the first black judge on a federal appeals court in 1948 and, by executive order later that year, ordering full racial integration in the armed forces. In this important, ambitious, far-reaching book, Urofsky writes about the affirmative action cases decided by the Supreme Court: cases that either upheld or struck down particular plans that affected both governmental and private entities. We come to fully understand the societal impact of affirmative action: how and why it has helped, and inflamed, people of all walks of life; how it has evolved; and how, and why, it is still needed.
Media Warfare is the concluding volume of Melvin Lasky's monumental The Language of Journalism, a series that has been praised as a ""brilliant"" and ""original"" study in communications and contemporary language. Firmly rooted in the critical tradition of H. L. Mencken, George Orwell, and Karl Kraus, Lasky's incisive analysis of journalistic usage and misusage gauges both the cultural and political health of contemporary society as well the declining standards of contemporary journalism.As in the first two volumes, Lasky's scope is cross-cultural with special emphasis on the sometimes conflicting, sometimes mutually influential styles of American and British journalistic practice. His approach to changes in media content and style is closely keyed to changes in society at large. Media Warfare pays particular attention to the gradual easing and near disappearance of censorship rules in the 1960s and after and the attendant effects on electronic and print media. In lively and irreverent prose, Lasky anatomizes the dilemmas posed by the entrance of formerly ""unmentionable"" subjects into daily journalistic discourse, whether for reasons of profit or accurate reporting. He details the pervasive and often indirect influence of the worlds of fashion and advertising on journalism with their imperatives of sensationalism and novelty and, by contrast, how the freeing of language and subject matter in literature--the novels of Joyce and Lawrence, the poetry of Philip Larkin--have affected permissible expression for good or ill. Lasky also relates this interaction of high and low style to the spread of American urban slang, often with Yiddish roots and sometimes the occasion of anti-Semitic reaction, into the common parlance of British no less than American journalists.Media Warfare concludes with prescriptive thoughts on how journalism might still be revitalized in a ""post-profane"" culture. Witty, timely, and deeply learned, the three volumes of The Language of Journalism are a c
A Library Journal Starred Review (March 2024) praises the book as a "remarkable resource that will please both musical professionals and amateurs, along with teachers and their students, and conductors and singers.” Throughout the ages, people have wanted to sing in a communal context. This desire apparently stems from a deeply rooted human instinct. Consequently, choral performance historically has often been related to human rituals and ceremonies, especially rites of a religious nature. Historical Dictionary of Choral Music, Second Edition contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has more than 1,300 cross-referenced entries on composers, conductors, choral ensembles, choral genres, and choral repertoire. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about choral music.
The most comprehensive study of ideology and utopia since Karl Mannheim's work of the 1930s, Utopia and Revolution can be understood as turning classical political theory on its head or, perhaps, inside out. Instead of the usual summary of how English radical theologies contributed to the revolutionary process, Lasky shows how such political theology of the mid-seventeenth century became the backbone of the natural history of revolutionary disasters. In a remarkable feat of scholarship in intellectual history, Lasky charts the course of this historic entanglement over some five turbulent centuries of Western history. In so doing, he traces the ideological extension of the human personality through the writings of political theorists, philosophers, poets, and historians.
Drawing upon extensive archival and other original sources, Soviet Power and the Countryside offers a new approach to understanding the political dynamics that led to the collapse of the Soviet order. A detailed analysis of the design, implementation and collapse of Soviet policy toward the countryside is used to explore the implications of a broadening of participation in the policy process from the 1960s. Neil J. Melvin argues that the new knowledge about rural society created as a result of this process provided the basis for a fundamental change in the nature of power relations in the Soviet order, leading to the decay and eventual collapse of policy making institutions.
Discourse on fundamentalism has gained much attention in recent years, particularly in a post-9/11 context where extremist or terrorist threats are more prominent, perilous, and pervasive. This edited volume seeks to spotlight the perspectives of academics and practitioners vis-à-vis global trends in religious fundamentalism and right-wing extremism over the past decade. It presents a collection of works from notable academics and practitioners; including a selection of case studies from Asia to illustrate the contemporary interplay of religion, politics and identity; alongside broader global trends of religious fundamentalism.The chapters that follow attempt to trace the sources and factors that led to the dramatic rise in these powerful forces of faith, which influence societies and politics around the world. Together, they present a carefully curated narrative of the interplay of religion and identity politics globally and across Asia. The prevailing differences in demographics, history and the extent of ethno-religious diversity across country contexts are perused across each chapter, and the ensuing circumstances deliberated upon.As these circumstances change, the ways people interpret their identities, engage in politics, and navigate their religion will also evolve. How we manage the effects of religious fundamentalism must hence begin with an understanding of how religion, identity, and politics interact — and this is what the upcoming chapters seek to illustrate.
Debating Social Problems emphasizes the process of debate as a means of addressing social problems and helps students engage in active learning. The debate format covers sensitive material in a way that encourages students to talk about this material openly in class. This succinct text includes activities that promote critical thinking and includes examples from current events.
This is the second volume of Melvin J. Lasky’s The Language of Journalism series, praised as a “brilliant” and “original” study in communications and contemporary language, and as “a joy to read.” When it was first published, it broke ground in focusing on the comparative styles and prejudices of mainstream American and British newspapers, and in its trenchant analysis of their systematic debasement of language in the face of obligatory platitudes and compulsory euphemisms. Lasky documents the growing crisis affecting honest, thoughtful, and independent journalism in the Western world. He extends the scope of his first volume in the trilogy and deepens the interpretation. He also adds a personal touch of wit and anecdote, as one might expect from an experienced international journalist and historian. Lasky’s examination of the use of formerly forbidden language is a triumph of sinuous semantics. In his incisive analysis, we see the tortuous struggle of a once Puritanized literary culture writhing to break free of censorship and self-censorship. This volume on the phenomenon of profanity adds another dimension to Lasky’s thesis on mass culture’s trivialization of real social and political phenomena. It also underscores our society’s embrace of banality, in standardizing politically correct jargon and slang. Readers of the first volume will find here a new range of references to illuminate the detail of what our newspapers have been publishing.
This text is aimed at professionals and students working on random processes in various areas, including physics and finance. The first author, Melvin Lax (1922-2002), was a distinguished Professor of Physics at City College of New York and a member of the U. S. National Academy of Sciences, widely known for his contribution on random processes in physics. Most chapters of this book are the outcome of the class notes which Lax taught at the City University of New York from 1985 to 2001. The material is unique as it presents the theoretical framework of Lax's treatment of random processes, starting from basic probability theory, to Fokker-Planck and Langevin Processes, and includes diverse applications, such as explanation of very narrow laser width and analytical solution of the elastic Boltzmann transport equation. Lax's critical viewpoint on mathematics currently used in the financial world is also presented in this book.
Melvin traces the emergence and development of the motif of angelic interpretation of visions from late prophetic literature (Ezekiel 40-48; Zechariah 1-6) into early apocalyptic literature (1 Enoch 17-36; 72-82; Daniel 7-8). Examining how the historical and socio-political context of exilic and post-exilic Judaism and the broader religious and cultural environment shaped Jewish angelology in general, Melvin concludes that the motif of the interpreting angel served a particular function. Building upon the work of Susan Niditch, Melvin concludes that the interpreting angel motif served a polemical function in repudiating divination as a means of predicting the future, while at the same time elevating the authority of the visionary revelation. The literary effect is to reimagine God as an imperial monarch who rules and communicates through intermediaries-a reimagination that profoundly influenced subsequent Jewish and Christian tradition.
The concluding volume of Lasky's monumental "The Languages of Journalism," a series that has been praised as a "brilliant" and "original" study in communications and contemporary language. Other volumes in the series include "Profanity, Obscenity and the Media" and "Newspaper Culture.
This lavishly illustrated guidebook to the many distinctive attractions of Boston's Victorian heritage provides the walker and the armchair traveler alike with delightful and enlightening discoveries of the city's remarkable treasure trove of nineteenth-century landmarks and luminaries. Victorian Boston Today, edited by Mary Melvin Petronella for the New England Chapter of the Victorian Society of America, includes a beautifully drawn map for each tour, and contains such features as expanded descriptive captions for the profuse vintage illustrations, telephone numbers and web addresses for sites open to the public, directions between tour sites, information about public transportation, and a wealth of other practical enhancements and tips. From the South End's signature residential squares to the Black Heritage Trail to Jamaica Plain's pastoral landscape, these walking tours vividly recapture the spirit of Victorian Boston. The guidebook will fascinate Boston residents, tourists, and historians, and it will provide inspiration for the active preservation of the city's magnificent buildings and neighborhoods.
In this age of electronic noise, political antagonism, and general discontent, Paths to the Personal delivers to the spiritually hungry a delicious feast of peaceful promise.' Walter Gulick, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Humanities and Religious Studies, Montana State University Billings Paths to the Personal: Thinkers on the Way to Postcritical and Theopoetic Depths seeks to define and explore the dimension of the personal underlying all knowing, doing, being, and religion. Using a lens combining Michael Polanyi’s postcritical and Stanley Hopper’s theopoetic thought, which carries the author into and beyond their explorative depths of the personal, Keiser asks to what degree the personal is present in the thinking of Augustine, Tillich, H.R. Niebuhr, Fritz Buri, Freud, Mircea Eliade, Merleau-Ponty, William Poteat, Hopper, and Polanyi. The immersive issues in these pages are: how we know; how words (symbols, metaphors, myths, and religious talk) work; contributions of philosophy to justice and peace-making; and the nature of religious thinking and being. While not focused on Quaker thought and spirituality, the author's Quaker perspective undergirds these inquiries.
Since the 1960s, German scholars have developed distinctive methods for writing the history of political, social, and philosophical concepts. This work is a critical introduction to this emerging genre: the history of political and social concepts, or Begriffsgeschichte. Systematically surveying political, social, and philosophical discourses and their contexts, historians of concepts track linguistically how the advent, mentalities, and effects of modernity have been conceptualized in contested forms. After assessing the programs and achievements of this genre, and analyzing extended examples of its use, the author argues the need for an analogous project to chart the careers of concepts central to the political and social vocabularies of English-speaking societies.
H. Richard Niebuhr's major work, which he did not live to complete, was to be on theological ethics. Based on the published and unpublished writings that Niebuhr completed during the last decade of his life, Roots of Relational Ethics demonstrates that Niebuhr's conception of responsibility was the culmination of his thought about self, God, Christ, the church, ethics and decision-making, and social evil. R. Melvin Keiser examines the limitations and potential of Niebuhr's use of responsibility in comparison with relevant themes in liberation and feminist theological ethics. He suggests that Niebuhr's mature work can contribute to the alleviation of environmental exploitation, sexism, anti-Judaims, war, racism, and classism.
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