Best of
Humanities

2016

The Divine Reality: God, Islam and the Mirage of Atheism


Hamza Andreas Tzortzis - 2016
    Join him on an existential, spiritual and rational journey that articulates powerful arguments for the existence of God, the Qur'an, the Prophethood of Muhammad and why we must know, love and worship God. He addresses academic and popular objections while showing how contemporary atheism is based on false assumptions about reality, which leads to incoherent answers to life's important questions.Does hope, happiness and human value make sense without the Divine? Do we have an ultimate purpose? Can we have consciousness and rational minds without God? Did the universe come from nothing? Does evil and suffering negate Divine mercy? Has scientific progress led to the denial of God? Are revelation and prophethood myths? Is God worthy of our worship? If you want to know how the Islamic intellectual and spiritual tradition answers these questions then this is the book for you.Hamza Andreas Tzortzis's new book presents a much needed comprehensive account of Islamic theism that draws upon Western and Islamic thought.

The Way to the Spring: Life and Death in Palestine


Ben Ehrenreich - 2016
    Along the way he has written major stories for American outlets, including a remarkable New York Times Magazine cover story. Now comes the powerful new work that has always been his ultimate goal, The Way to the Spring.We are familiar with brave journalists who travel to bleak or war-torn places on a mission to listen and understand, to gather the stories of people suffering from extremes of oppression and want: Katherine Boo, Ryszard Kapuściński, Ted Conover, and Philip Gourevitch among them. Palestine is, by any measure, whatever one's politics, one such place. Ruled by the Israeli military, set upon and harassed constantly by Israeli settlers who admit unapologetically to wanting to drive them from the land, forced to negotiate an ever more elaborate and more suffocating series of fences, checkpoints, and barriers that have sundered home from field, home from home, this is a population whose living conditions are unique, and indeed hard to imagine. In a great act of bravery, empathy and understanding, Ben Ehrenreich, by placing us in the footsteps of ordinary Palestinians and telling their story with surpassing literary power and grace, makes it impossible for us to turn away.

The Ascension Mysteries: Revealing the Cosmic Battle Between Good and Evil


David Wilcock - 2016
    With his latest book, The Ascension Mysteries, David will take readers on a surprising and enthralling journey through the history of the universe, exploring the great Cosmic Battle surrounding our own Ascension. David Wilcock’s previous New York Times bestsellers, The Source Field Investigations and The Synchronicity Key, used cutting-edge alternative science to reveal oft-hidden truths about our universe. In The Ascension Mysteries, David takes us on a gripping personal journey that describes the secret cosmic battle between positive and negative happening every day, hidden in both the traumas of our own lives and the world’s headlines.   Through his contact with a positive higher intelligence behind the UFO phenomenon, groundbreaking scientific information, and data from high-ranking government whistle-blowers, David reveals that the earth is now on the front lines of a battle that has been raging between positive and negative extraterrestrials for hundreds of thousands of years. The Ascension Mysteries explores the towering personal obstacles David overcame to unlock the great secrets of our universe and looks ahead to what this battle means for each of us personally. By unifying ancient texts from a variety of religions with scientific data and insider testimony, David presents a stunning conclusion—that Earth is on the verge of a massive cosmic event that will transform matter, energy, consciousness, and biological life as we now know it and will utterly defeat the great villains of our time.

1941: Fighting the Shadow War: A Divided America in a World at War


Marc Wortman - 2016
    Long before, Franklin D. Roosevelt had been supporting the Allies. While Americans were sympathetic to the people being crushed under the Axis powers, they were unwilling to enter a foreign war. FDR knew he had to fight against isolationism, anti-Semitism, and the scars of World War I, and win the war of public sentiment. In 1941: Fighting the Shadow War, A Divided America in a World at War Marc Wortman explores the "complex, contentious, and portentous" journey of America’s entry into World War II.FDR used all the powers at his disposal, from helping Winston Churchill and the British Navy with loans, to espionage at home and abroad, to battle with Hitler in the shadows. To gain public opinion, the largest obstacle was Charles Lindberg and his Committee for America First with its following of thousands. Wortman tracks journalist Philip Johnson and William Shirer as they report on the invasion of Poland: one a Nazi sympathizer, the other fervently anti-Nazi. Johnson and Shirer’s story are threads woven throughout the book. Combining military and political history, 1941: Fighting the Shadow War, A Divided America in a World at War tells the story of how FDR led the country to war.

Siddhartha's Brain: Unlocking the Ancient Science of Enlightenment


James Kingsland - 2016
    Twenty-five centuries later, humans have transformed everything about our world—except our brains, which remain the same powerful yet flawed instruments possessed by our ancestors. What if the solution we seek to the psychological problems of life in the digital age—distraction, anxiety, addiction, loss of deep meaning—had already been worked out by the Buddha in ancient India? Appealing to readers of Eastern wisdom and Jon Kabat-Zinn, as well as to fans of bestsellers by Oliver Sacks and Malcolm Gladwell, acclaimed science writer and practicing Buddhist James Kingsland reveals how scientists are now unlocking the remarkable secrets of Siddhartha’s brain.Moving effortlessly between science and scripture, Kingsland charts Siddhartha’s spiritual journey and explains how new research by leading neuroscientists and clinical psychologists—many of whom are interviewed in these pages—suggests that mindfulness practice reconfigures our brains to make us sharper, smarter, healthier, and happier, and that it can help treat stress, anxiety, depression, chronic pain, hypertension, and substance abuse. There have even been hints that meditation can enhance immune function, slow cellular aging, and keep dementia at bay. Featuring six guided meditations, Siddhartha’s Brain is a practical and inspiring odyssey of mind and spirit.“Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think.”—Siddhartha

Dark Age America: Climate Change, Cultural Collapse, and the Hard Future Ahead


John Michael Greer - 2016
    Knowing where we're headed collectively is a crucial step in responding constructively to the challenges of the future and doing what we can now to help our descendants make the most of the world we're leaving them.John Michael Greer, historian of ideas and one of the most influential authors exploring the future of industrial society, writes the widely cited weekly blog the Archdruid Report and has published more than thirty books including The Long Descent, The Ecotechnic Future, The Wealth of Nature, and After Progress. He lives in Cumberland, Maryland, an old mill town in the Appalachians, with his wife Sara.

The Big Questions of Philosophy


David Kyle Johnson - 2016
    There is no better way to study the big questions in philosophy than to compare how the world's greatest minds have analyzed these questions, defined the terms, and then reasoned out potential solutions. Once you've compared the arguments, the final step is always deciding for yourself whether you find an explanation convincing.This course gives you the tools to follow and create logical arguments while exploring famous philosophers' viewpoints on these important questions. Although progress has been made toward answers, brilliant thinkers have continued to wrestle with many big questions that inspire thoughtful people everywhere. These questions include: What is knowledge? Does God exist? Do humans have free will? What is right and wrong? How should society be organized?Given the complexity of these big questions, it should be no surprise that many controversies are far from settled. In fact, by the end of these 36 lectures, you may be even less sure of the right answers to some of the questions than you were at the beginning. But being a philosopher means constantly testing your views - giving a reasoned defense if you believe you are right and modifying your ideas when you realize you are wrong. You'll discover that great thinkers before you have offered convincing answers to hard questions, philosophers after them have made equally persuasive objections, and then still others have refined the debate even further - causing the issues to come into sharper and sharper focus.Join Plato, St. Anselm, Descartes, Locke, Hume, Kant, Mill, Smith, Marx, Rawls, and many others in an exploration of fundamental questions. Get ready to think big!

The Myth of Human Supremacy


Derrick Jensen - 2016
    Vast and underappreciated complexities of nonhuman life are explored in detail—from the cultures of pigs and prairie dogs, to the creative use of tools by elephants and fish, to the acumen of caterpillars and fungi. The paralysis of the scientific establishment on moral and ethical issues is confronted and a radical new framework for assessing the intelligence and sentience of nonhuman life is put forth. Jensen attacks mainstream environmental journalism, which too often limits discussions to how ecological changes affect humans or the economy—with little or no regard for nonhuman life. With his signature compassionate logic, he argues that when we separate ourselves from the rest of nature, we in fact orient ourselves against nature, taking an unjust and, in the long run, impossible position.Jensen expresses profound disdain for the human industrial complex and its ecological excesses, contending that it is based on the systematic exploitation of the earth. Page by page, Jensen, who has been called the philosopher-poet of the environmental movement, demonstrates his deep appreciation of the natural world in all its intimacy, and sounds an urgent call for its liberation from human domination.From the Trade Paperback edition.

The Dream of Enlightenment: The Rise of Modern Philosophy


Anthony Gottlieb - 2016
    The Dream of Enlightenment tells their story and that of the birth of modern philosophy. What does the advance of science entail for our understanding of ourselves and for our ideas of God? How should a government deal with religious diversity - and what is government actually for? Their questions remain our questions, and it is tempting to think these philosophers speak our language and live in our world; but to understand them properly, we must step back into their shoes. Gottlieb puts readers in the minds of these frequently misinterpreted figures, elucidating the history of their times while engagingly explaining their arguments and assessing their legacy. Gottlieb creates a sweeping account of what they amounted to, and why we are still in their debt.

Terror, Love and Brainwashing: Attachment in Cults and Totalitarian Systems


Alexandra Stein - 2016
    It focuses on how charismatic, authoritarian leaders control their followers' attachment relationships via manipulative social structures and ideologies so that, emotionally and cognitively isolated, they become unable to act in their own survival interests. Using the evolutionary theory of attachment to demonstrate the psychological impact of these environments, and incorporating the latest neuroscientific findings, Stein illustrates how the combined dynamic of terror and 'love' works to break down people's ability to think and behave rationally. From small local cults to global players like ISIS and North Korea, the impact of these movements is widespread and growing.This important book offers clarity and a unique perspective on the dynamics of these systems of control, and concludes with guidance to foster greater awareness and prevention. It will be essential reading for mental health professionals in the field, as well as policy makers, legal professionals, cult survivors, and their families, as well as anyone with an interest in these disturbing groups. Students of social and developmental psychology will also find it fascinating.

Burma '44: The Battle That Turned Britain's War in the East


James Holland - 2016
    Not only was it the first decisive victory for British troops against the Japanese, more significantly, it demonstrated how the Japanese could be defeated. The lessons learned in this tiny and otherwise insignificant corner of the Far East, set up the campaign in Burma that would follow, as General Slim’s Fourteenth Army finally turned defeat into victory.Burma '44 is a tale of incredible drama. As gripping as the story of Rorke's drift, as momentous as the battle for the Ardennes, the Admin Box was a triumph of human grit and heroism and remains one of the most significant yet undervalued conflicts of World War Two.

Can't We All Disagree More Constructively?: from The Righteous Mind (Kindle Single) (A Vintage Short)


Jonathan Haidt - 2016
      Drawing on twenty-five years of groundbreaking research, Haidt shows why liberals, conservatives, and libertarians have such different intuitions about right and wrong, and why we need the insights of each if we are to flourish as a nation. Here is the key to understanding the miracle of human cooperation and the eternal curse of moralistic aggression, across the political divide and around the world.   An ebook short.

Why Our Status Quo Failed and Is Beyond Reform


Charles Hugh Smith - 2016
     This failure is not rooted in superficial issues such as politics or governmental regulations; the failure is structural. The very foundation of the status quo has rotted away, and brushing on another coat of reformist paint will not save our societal house from collapse. Yet those who benefit from our status quo naturally deny it has failed, for the reason that it has yet to fail them personally—either pretending to not understand all unsustainable systems eventually collapse, or hoping to postpone it.The writing is on the wall for us to read:We are doing more of what has failed spectacularly.We are implementing emergency measures as permanent policies.We receive diminishing returns on status quo solutions.We suffer declining social mobility.We have a loss of social cohesion/shared purpose.Our status quo is not only failing to solve humanity’s six core problems—it has become the problem.Since this failure is now inevitable, something is coming to replace it. It is urgent that each of us understand why our status quo has failed, and why the usual menu of reforms can’t stop this failure, to prepare ourselves for the radical transformations ahead.

Letters for a Nation : From Jawaharlal Nehru to His Chief Ministers 1947-1963


Jawaharlal Nehru - 2016
    Carefully selected from among nearly 400 such letters, this collection covers a range of themes and subjects, including citizenship, war and peace, law and order, national planning and development, governance and corruption, and India’s place in the world. The letters also cover momentous world events and the many crises and conflicts the country faced during the first sixteen years after Independence. Visionary, wise and reflective, these letters are not just a testimony to Nehru’s statesmanship and his deep engagement with every aspect of India’s democratic journey, but are also of great contemporary relevance for the guidance they provide for our current problems and predicaments.

The Simple Beauty of the Unexpected: A Natural Philosopher’s Quest for Trout and the Meaning of Everything


Marcelo Gleiser - 2016
    Now a world-famous theoretical physicist with hundreds of scientific articles and several books of popular science to his credit, he felt it was time to connect with nature in less theoretical ways. After seeing a fly-fishing class on the Dartmouth College green, he decided to learn to fly-fish, a hobby, he says, that teaches humility. In The Simple Beauty of the Unexpected, Gleiser travels the world to scientific conferences, fishing wherever he goes. At each stop, he ponders how in the myriad ways physics informs the act of fishing; how, in its turn, fishing serves as a lens into nature’s inner workings; and how science engages with questions of meaning and spirituality, inspiring a sense of mystery and awe of the not yet known. Personal and engaging, The Simple Beauty of the Unexpected is a scientist’s tribute to nature, an affirmation of humanity’s deep connection with and debt to Earth, and an exploration of the meaning of existence, from atom to trout to cosmos.

The Commander: Fawzi al-Qawuqji and the Fight for Arab Independence 1914–1948


Laila Parsons - 2016
    As a young officer in the Ottoman Army, he fought the British in World War I and won an Iron Cross. In the 1920s, he mastered the art of insurgency and helped lead a massive uprising against the French authorities in Syria. A decade later, he reappeared in Palestine, where he helped direct the Arab Revolt of 1936. When an effort to overthrow the British rulers of Iraq failed, he moved to Germany, where he spent much of World War II battling his fellow exile, the Mufti of Jerusalem, who had accused him of being a British spy. In 1947, Qawuqji made a daring escape from Allied-occupied Berlin, and sought once again to shape his region’s history. In his most famous role, he would command the Arab Liberation Army in the Arab-Israeli War of 1948.In this well-crafted, definitive biography, Laila Parsons tells Qawuqji’s dramatic story and sets it in the full context of his turbulent times. Following Israel’s decisive victory, Qawuqji was widely faulted as a poor leader with possibly dubious motives. The Commander shows us that the truth was more complex: although he doubtless made some strategic mistakes, he never gave up fighting for Arab independence and unity, even as those ideals were undermined by powers inside and outside the Arab world. In Qawuqji’s life story we find the origins of today’s turmoil in the Arab Middle East.

The ABCs of Socialism


Bhaskar Sunkara - 2016
    The remarkable run of self-proclaimed democratic socialist Bernie Sanders for president of the United States has prompted for the first time in decades and to the shock of many a national conversation about socialism. A "New York Times" poll in late November found that a majority of Democrats had a favorable view of socialism, and in New Hampshire in February, more than half of Democratic voters under 35 told the Boston Globe they call themselves socialists. It s unclear exactly what socialism means to this generation, but couple with the ascendancy of longtime leftwinger Jeremy Corbyn to the leadership of the Labour Party in the UK, it s clear there s a historic, generational shift underway. This book steps into this moment to offer a clear, accessible, informative, and irreverent guide to socialism for the uninitiated. Written by young writers from the dynamic magazine "Jacobin," alongside several distinguished scholars, "The ABCs of Socialism" answers basic questions, including ones that many want to know but might be afraid to ask ( Doesn t socialism always end up in dictatorship?, Will socialists take my Kenny Loggins records? ). Disarming and pitched to a general readership without sacrificing intellectual depth, this will be the best introduction an idea whose time seems to have come again."

Foucault in Iran: Islamic Revolution after the Enlightenment


Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi - 2016
    He declares that Foucault recognized that Iranians were at a threshold and were considering if it were possible to think of dignity, justice, and liberty outside the cognitive maps and principles of the European Enlightenment. Foucault in Iran centers not only on the significance of the great thinker’s writings on the revolution but also on the profound mark the event left on his later lectures on ethics, spirituality, and fearless speech. Contemporary events since 9/11, the War on Terror, and the Arab Uprisings have made Foucault’s essays on the Iranian Revolution more relevant than ever. Ghamari-Tabrizi illustrates how Foucault saw in the revolution an instance of his antiteleological philosophy: here was an event that did not fit into the normative progressive discourses of history. What attracted him to the Iranian Revolution was precisely its ambiguity.Theoretically sophisticated and empirically rich, this interdisciplinary work will spark a lively debate in its insistence that what informed Foucault’s writing was not an effort to understand Islamism but, rather, his conviction that Enlightenment rationality has not closed the gate of unknown possibilities for human societies.

Darwin's Bridge: Uniting the Humanities and Sciences


Joseph Carroll - 2016
    Wilson in his 1998 book, Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge. Wilson's original thesis contained two parts: that nature forms a unitary order of causal forces, hierarchically organized, and that scientific knowledge, because it delineates nature, also forms a unitary order, promising consensus among diverse fields.Bringing together cutting-edge scientists and scholars across this range, Darwin's Bridge gives an expert account of consilience and makes it possible to see how far we have come toward unifying knowledge about the human species, what major issues are still in contention, and which areas of research are likely to produce further progress. Readers will be delighted as they, along with the work's contributing authors, explore the deeper meaning of consilience and consider the harmony of human evolution, human nature, social dynamics, art, and narrative.

A Vegan Ethic: Embracing a Life of Compassion Toward All


Mark Hawthorne - 2016
    Along with proven advice for going and staying vegan, an overview of animal exploitation, and answers to common questions about ethical eating (such as Isn t humane meat a good option? and Don t plants feel pain? ), A Vegan Ethic draws on the work and experiences of intersectional activists to examine how all forms of oppression - including racism, sexism, ableism, and speciesism - are connected by privilege, control, and economic power. By recognizing how social justice issues overlap, we can develop collaborative strategies for finding solutions.

A Year in the Life of Medieval England


Toni Mount - 2016
    But what about the everyday experience of the royal subjects and common people? Here, alongside the coronations, diplomatic dealings and key battles, can be found the fabric of medieval life as it was really lived, in its folk songs, recipes and local gossip. With a diverse range of entries – one for each day of the year – historian Toni Mount provides an almanac for lovers of all things medieval.A detailed picture is gathered from original sources such as chronicles, manor court rolls, coroners’ rolls and the records of city councils. We learn not only of the royals and nobles of official history but also the quarrels of a miscellany of characters, including William and Christopher of York, Nalle Kittewritte who stole her neighbours’ washing, and Margery from Hereford who was murdered by an Oxford student. The world in which they laboured, loved and lived is vividly reimagined, one day at a time.

Outspoken: A Decade of Transgender Activism and Trans Feminism


Julia Serano - 2016
    It is a personal history of where transgender activism has recently been, and a passionate insightful analysis of where it should head in the future. This collection compiles forty-eight of her previously unpublished and difficult to find trans-themed writings, including her early slam poems and spoken word, essays and manifestos written contemporaneously with her acclaimed books Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity and Excluded: Making Feminist and Queer Movements More Inclusive, plus her recent work addressing differences within transgender communities and activism. These pieces are augmented with thoughtful introductions and interludes that contextualize the issues at hand and previous periods in transgender activism. Combining elements of memoir, historical account, gender theory, and activist philosophy, this book is a must for anyone who has appreciated Serano's previous books and/or has an interest in transgender identities, experiences, perspectives, and progress.

Nature in the City: Bengaluru in the Past, Present, and Future


Harini Nagendra - 2016
    This book charts Bengaluru's journey from the early settlementsin the 6th century CE to the 21st century city, and demonstrates how nature has looked and behaved, and has been perceived in Bengaluru's home gardens, slums, streets, parks, sacred spaces, and lakes.A fascinating narrative of the changing role and state of nature in the midst of urban sprawl, and integrating research with stories of people and places, this book presents an accessible and informative story of a city where nature thrives and strives.

Survival Theory: A Preparedness Guide


Jonathan Hollerman - 2016
    Best-Selling Preparedness Author and Survival Retreat Consultant, Jonathan Hollerman, will present evidence that America as we know it could be destroyed from the loss of our nation's electric grid or other societal collapse scenarios. Many preparedness "experts" severely underestimate the threat posed by millions of starving, desperate people. This preparedness guide will help you develop a plan to escape the deadly rioting and looting, showing you where you can take your family to keep them safe, even if you can't afford a fully- stocked survival retreat. Hollerman's in-depth expertise and recommendations cover Bug Out Bags, SHTF Weapons, Tactical Gear, Survival Tools, Knives, Long Term Food Storage, Livestock, Bug Out Locations, Survival Retreat Recommendations, and much much more...

Humanitarian Aftershocks in Haiti


Mark Schuller - 2016
    But now, five years later, that generous aid has clearly failed. In Humanitarian Aftershocks in Haiti, anthropologist Mark Schuller captures the voices of those involved in the earthquake aid response, and they paint a sharp, unflattering view of the humanitarian enterprise.     Schuller led an independent study of eight displaced-persons camps in Haiti, compiling more than 150 interviews ranging from Haitian front-line workers and camp directors to foreign humanitarians and many displaced Haitian people. The result is an insightful account of why the multi-billion-dollar aid response not only did little to help but also did much harm, triggering a range of unintended consequences, rupturing Haitian social and cultural institutions, and actually increasing violence, especially against women. The book shows how Haitian people were removed from any real decision-making, replaced by a top-down, NGO-dominated system of humanitarian aid, led by an army of often young, inexperienced foreign workers. Ignorant of Haitian culture, these aid workers unwittingly enacted policies that triggered a range of negative results. Haitian interviewees also note that the NGOs “planted the flag,” and often tended to “just do something,” always with an eye to the “photo op” (in no small part due to the competition over funding). Worse yet, they blindly supported the eviction of displaced people from the camps, forcing earthquake victims to relocate in vast shantytowns that were hotbeds of violence.  Humanitarian Aftershocks in Haiti concludes with suggestions to help improve humanitarian aid in the future, perhaps most notably, that aid workers listen to—and respect the culture of—the victims of catastrophe.

Parodies Lost


Alan W. Powers - 2016
    These in the growth of a poet's mind: the central character, Onagain (distant derivative from Pushkin) is based on my brilliant college friend. This question begins my story-poem: Why are poets expected to be sad-face? "He knew--from a picture of Rod McCuen-- of all his race, the poet makes the saddest face. And next to a hound, the saddest sound."Maybe when the dog is not a hound, he'll write more cheerily. Our dog (gerel) poet is an English Sheepdog named Wordsworth, pet of the brilliant parodist who left us young.

Edge of Irony: Modernism in the Shadow of the Habsburg Empire


Marjorie Perloff - 2016
    For them, the trauma of World War I included the sudden loss of the geographical entity into which they had been born: in 1918, the empire was dissolved overnight, leaving Austria a small, fragile republic that would last only twenty years before being annexed by Hitler’s Third Reich. In this major reconsideration of European modernism, Marjorie Perloff identifies and explores the aesthetic world that emerged from the rubble of Vienna and other former Habsburg territories—an “Austro-Modernism” that produced a major body of drama, fiction, poetry, and autobiography.Perloff explores works ranging from Karl Kraus’s drama The Last Days of Mankind and Elias Canetti’s memoir The Tongue Set Free to Ludwig Wittgenstein’s notebooks and Paul Celan’s lyric poetry. Throughout, she shows that Austro-Modernist literature is characterized less by the formal and technical inventions of a modernism familiar to us in the work of  Joyce and Pound, Dada and Futurism, than by a radical irony beneath a seemingly conventional surface, an acute sense of exile, and a sensibility more erotic and quixotic than that of its German contemporaries. Skeptical and disillusioned, Austro-Modernism prefers to ask questions rather than formulate answers.

State of Rebellion: Violence and Intervention in the Central African Republic


Louisa Lombard - 2016
    In the face of seemingly senseless bloodshed, journalists, politicians, and scholars struggled to account for the conflict’s origins. In this first comprehensive account of the violence, Louisa Lombard argues that the conflict was more than a straightforward religious clash between Christians and Muslims. Instead, she traces the roots of the conflict to fears of spiritual insecurity and a social breakdown that drove inter-communal violence.   Placing the uprising within its broader social, cultural, and historical context , Lombard reveals the complicated roles played by marginalized rural youths, local political leaders, and the global community in sustaining the conflict, and she offers an urgent corrective to our perceptions of this little-understood country, making a compelling case for international leaders to rethink their approach to resolving the conflict.

50 Masterpieces you have to read before you die, vol 2


Various - 2016
    Barrie]- Cabin Fever [ B. M. Bower]- The Secret Garden [Frances Hodgson Burnett]- A Little Princess [Frances Hodgson Burnett]- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland [Lewis Carroll]- The King in Yellow [Robert William Chambers]- The Man Who Knew Too Much [Gilbert Keith Chesterton]- The Woman in White [Wilkie Collins]- The Most Dangerous Game [Richard Connell]- On the Origin of Species, 6th Edition [Charles Darwin]- Robinson Crusoe [Daniel Defoe]- The Iron Woman [Margaret Deland]- David Copperfield [Charles Dickens]- Oliver Twist [Charles Dickens]- A Tale of Two Cities [Charles Dickens]- The Double [Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky]- The Hound of the Baskervilles [Arthur Conan Doyle]- The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes [Arthur Conan Doyle]- The Three Musketeers [Alexandre Dumas]- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button [Francis Scott Fitzgerald]- A Room with a View [E. M. Forster]- Dream Psychology [Sigmund Freud]- Tess of the d'Urbervilles [Thomas Hardy]- Siddhartha [Hermann Hesse]- Dubliners [James Joyce]- The Metamorphosis [Franz Kafka]- The Arabian Nights [Andrew Lang]- The Sea Wolf [Jack London]- The Call of Cthulhu [Howard Phillips Lovecraft]- Anne of Green Gables [Lucy Maud Montgomery]- Beyond Good and Evil [Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche]- The Murders in the Rue Morgue [Edgar Allan Poe]- The Black Cat [Edgar Allan Poe]- The Raven [Edgar Allan Poe]- Swann's Way [Marcel Proust]- Romeo and Juliet [William Shakespeare]- Treasure Island [Robert Louis Stevenson]- The Elements of Style [William Strunk Jr.]- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer [Mark Twain]- The Prince and the Pauper [Mark Twain]- The Kama Sutra [Vatsyayana]- A Journey into the Center of the Earth [Jules Verne]- The Mysterious Island [Jules Verne]- 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea [Jules Verne]- The War of the Worlds [H. G. Wells]- The Time Machine [H. G. Wells]- The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde- The Voyage Out by Virginia WoolfAlso available : 50 Masterpieces you have to read before you die Vol: 1 (Golden Deer Classics)Classics Authors Super Set Serie 1 (Golden Deer Classics)

Big Farms Make Big Flu: Dispatches on Influenza, Agribusiness, and the Nature of Science


Rob Wallace - 2016
    There is no shortage of news items on hundreds of thousands of hybrid poultry--each animal genetically identical to the next--packed together in megabarns, grown out in a matter of months, then slaughtered, processed and shipped to the other side of the globe. Less well known are the deadly pathogens mutating in, and emerging out of, these specialized agro-environments. In fact, many of the most dangerous new diseases in humans can be traced back to such food systems, among them Campylobacter, Nipah virus, Q fever, hepatitis E, and a variety of novel influenza variants.Agribusiness has known for decades that packing thousands of birds or livestock together results in a monoculture that selects for such disease. But market economics doesn't punish the companies for growing Big Flu--it punishes animals, the environment, consumers, and contract farmers. Alongside growing profits, diseases are permitted to emerge, evolve, and spread with little check. "That is," writes evolutionary biologist Rob Wallace, "it pays to produce a pathogen that could kill a billion people."In Big Farms Make Big Flu, a collection of dispatches by turns harrowing and thought-provoking, Wallace tracks the ways influenza and other pathogens emerge from an agriculture controlled by multinational corporations. Wallace details, with a precise and radical wit, the latest in the science of agricultural epidemiology, while at the same time juxtaposing ghastly phenomena such as attempts at producing featherless chickens, microbial time travel, and neoliberal Ebola. Wallace also offers sensible alternatives to lethal agribusiness. Some, such as farming cooperatives, integrated pathogen management, and mixed crop-livestock systems, are already in practice off the agribusiness grid.While many books cover facets of food or outbreaks, Wallace's collection appears the first to explore infectious disease, agriculture, economics and the nature of science together. Big Farms Make Big Flu integrates the political economies of disease and science to derive a new understanding of the evolution of infections. Highly capitalized agriculture may be farming pathogens as much as chickens or corn.

The Posthuman Child: Educational Transformation Through Philosophy with Picturebooks


Karin Murris - 2016
    Grounded in a critical posthumanist perspective on the purpose of education, it provides a genealogy of psychology, sociology and philosophy of childhood in which dominant figurations of child and childhood are exposed as positioning child as epistemically and ontologically inferior. Entangled throughout this book are practical and theorised examples of philosophical work with student teachers, teachers, other practitioners and children (aged 3-11) from South Africa and Britain. These engage arguments about how children are routinely marginalised, discriminated against and denied, especially when the child is also female, black, lives in poverty and whose home language is not English. The book makes a distinctive contribution to the decolonisation of childhood discourses.Underpinned by good quality picturebooks and other striking images, the book's radical proposal for transformation is to reconfigure the child as rich, resourceful and resilient through relationships with (non) human others, and explores the implications for literary and literacy education, teacher education, curriculum construction, implementation and assessment. It is essential reading for all who research, work and live with children.

Cold War Ruins: Transpacific Critique of American Justice and Japanese War Crimes


Lisa Yoneyama - 2016
    By linking justice to the effects of American geopolitical hegemony, and by deploying a conjunctive cultural critique—of "comfort women" redress efforts, state-sponsored apologies and amnesties, Asian American involvement in redress cases, the ongoing effects of the U.S. occupation of Japan and Okinawa, Japanese atrocities in China, and battles over WWII memories—Yoneyama helps illuminate how redress culture across Asia and the Pacific has the potential to bring powerful new and challenging perspectives on American exceptionalism, militarized security, justice, sovereignty, forgiveness, and decolonization.

Summary of Deep Work: by Cal Newport | Includes Analysis


Instaread Summaries - 2016
    This type of focused effort does not require longer hours. Instead, a seasoned practitioner can accomplish more in a shorter time frame. Furthermore, the product of this working style will be of a higher quality than what others produce when they attempt to work while succumbing to the noise of distractions around them, particularly those related to technological overload.Today’s work culture rewards people who are frequently busy and responsive to email throughout all hours of the day and night. However, these people are least likely to produce at the high quality that can only be created by engaging in deep work…  PLEASE NOTE: This is summary and analysis of the book and NOT the original book.   Inside this Instaread Summary of Deep Work: Overview of the bookImportant PeopleKey TakeawaysAnalysis of Key Takeaways  About the Author With Instaread, you can get the key takeaways, summary and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

Political Strategies in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica


Sarah Kurnick - 2016
    Rulers must reinforce social inequality and bolster their own unique position at the top of the sociopolitical hierarchy, yet simultaneously emphasize social similarities and the commonalities shared by all. Political Strategies in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica explores the different and complex ways that those who exercised authority in the region confronted this contradiction.New data from a variety of well-known scholars in Mesoamerican archaeology reveal the creation, perpetuation, and contestation of politically authoritative relationships between rulers and subjects and between nobles and commoners. The contributions span the geographic breadth and temporal extent of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica—from Preclassic Oaxaca to the Classic Petén region of Guatemala to the Postclassic Michoacán—and the contributors weave together archaeological, epigraphic, and ethnohistoric data.Grappling with the questions of how those exercising authority convince others to follow and why individuals often choose to recognize and comply with authority, Political Strategies in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica discusses why the study of political authority is both timely and significant, reviews how scholars have historically understood the operation of political authority, and proposes a new analytical framework to understand how rulers rule. Contributors include Sarah B. Barber, Joanne Baron, Christopher S. Beekman, Jeffrey Brzezinski, Bryce Davenport, Charles Golden, Takeshi Inomata, Arthur A. Joyce, Sarah Kurnick, Carlo J. Lucido, Simon Martin, Tatsuya Murakami, Helen Perlstein Pollard, and Víctor Salazar Chávez.

Activestills: Photography as Protest in Palestine/Israel


Vered Maimon - 2016
    Inspired by what they had seen in Bil’in, the group went on to form Activestills, a collective whose work has become vital in documenting the struggle against Israeli occupation and everyday life in extraordinary situations.  Activestills: Photography as Protest in Palestine/Israel examines the collective’s archive and activity from historical, theoretical, critical, and personal perspectives. It is the result of an in-depth dialogue among members of the collective and activists, journalists, intellectuals, and academics, and stands as the definitive study of the collective’s work.   Combining striking full-colour photographs with essays and commentary, Activestills stands as both a major contribution to reportage on Israel/Palestine and a unique collection of visual art.

Atheism For Kids


Jessica Thorpe - 2016
    Atheism For Kids asks open-ended and non-judgmental questions about religion, with suggestions for how we might choose to live if we opt for an atheist or humanist lifestyle instead. An indispensable guide for anybody parenting atheist children or interested in explaining religion to children, this book: • Encourages critical and evidence-based thinking. • Offers the foundations for a moral and spiritual framework outside of religion. • Promotes key humanist values including tolerance and compassion for all, regardless of religious background or experience. Atheism for Kids was written alongside the British National Curriculum, and is ideal for home educators or those teaching atheism in schools.