Best of
Research

1953

Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti


Maya Deren - 1953
    Foreword by Joseph Campbell This is the classic, intimate study, movingly written with the special insight of direct encounter, which was first published in 1953 by the fledgling Thames & Hudson firm in a series edited by Joseph Campbell. Maya Deren's Divine Horsemen is recognized throughout the world as a primary source book on the culture and spirituality of Haitian Voudoun. The work includes all the original photographs and illustrations, glossary, appendices and index. It includes the original Campbell foreword along with the foreword Campbell added to a later edition.

The Sacred Pipe: Black Elk's Account of the Seven Rites of the Oglala Sioux


Black Elk - 1953
    Shortly before his death in August, 1950, when he was the "keeper of the sacred pipe," he said, "It is my prayer that, through our sacred pipe, and through this book in which I shall explain what our pipe really is, peace may come to those peoples who can understand, and understanding which must be of the heart and not of the head alone. Then they will realize that we Indians know the One true God, and that we pray to Him continually."Black Elk was the only qualified priest of the older Oglala Sioux still living when The Sacred Pipe was written. This is his book: he gave it orally to Joseph Epes Brown during the latter's eight month's residence on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, where Black Elk lived. Beginning with the story of White Buffalo Cow Woman's first visit to the Sioux to give them the sacred pip~, Black Elk describes and discusses the details and meanings of the seven rites, which were disclosed, one by one, to the Sioux through visions. He takes the reader through the sun dance, the purification rite, the "keeping of the soul," and other rites, showing how the Sioux have come to terms with God and nature and their fellow men through a rare spirit of sacrifice and determination.The wakan Mysteries of the Siouan peoples have been a subject of interest and study by explorers and scholars from the period of earliest contact between whites and Indians in North America, but Black Elk's account is without doubt the most highly developed on this religion and cosmography. The Sacred Pipe, published as volume thirty-six in the Civilization of the American Indian Series, will be greeted enthusiastically by students of comparative religion, ethnologists, historians, philosophers, and everyone interested in American Indian life.

The Acts of the Apostles


William Barclay - 1953
    Barclay wrote both his gospel and Acts for the principal purpose of showing how the new faith that began so humbly in Palestine had expanded, Dr. Barclay discusses the plan in Acts, Luke's skill as a historian, the accuracy of his sources, and the honesty with which he used them.

A New Concept of the Universe


Walter Russell - 1953
    This is a simple yet complete, consistent and workable cosmogony which wil enable future scientists to visualize the universe as One Whole, and will open the door to the new age of transmutation.

Mariners, Renegades and Castaways: The Story of Herman Melville and the World We Live In


C.L.R. James - 1953
    L. R. James (1901 - 1989) was a brilliant polymath who has been described by Edward Said as a centrally important 20th-century figure. Through such landmark works as The Black Jacobins, Beyond a Boundary, and American Civilization, James's thought continues to influence and inspire scholars in a wide variety of fields. There is little doubt, wrote novelist Caryl Phillips in The New Republic, that James will come to be regarded as the outstanding Caribbean mind of the twentieth century.In his seminal work of literary and cultural criticism, Mariners, Renegades and Castaways, James anticipated many of the concerns and ideas that have shaped the contemporary fields of American and Postcolonial Studies, yet this widely influential book has been unavailable in its complete form since its original publication in 1953. A provocative study of Moby Dick in which James challenged the prevailing Americanist interpretation that opposed a totalitarian Ahab and a democratic, American Ishmael, he offered instead a vision of a factory-like Pequod whose captain of industry leads the mariners, renegades and castaways of its crew to their doom.In addition to demonstrating how such an interpretation supported the emerging US national security state, James also related the narrative of Moby Dick, and its resonance in American literary and political culture, to his own persecuted position at the height (or the depth) of the Truman/McCarthy era. It is precisely this personal, deeply original material that was excised from the only subsequent edition. With a new introduction by Donald E. Pease that places the work in its critical and cultural context, Mariners, Renegades and Castaways is once again available in its complete form.

A Pictorial History of the Silent Screen


Daniel C. Blum - 1953
    334 Page,Year by Year pictoriaj History of the Silent Screen.

The Ethics of Rhetoric


Richard M. Weaver - 1953
    A strong advocate of cultural conservatism, Weaver (1910-1953) argued strongly for the role of liberal studies in the face of what he saw as the encroachments of modern scientific and technological forces in society. He was particularly opposed to sociology. In rhetoric he drew many of his ideas from Plato, especially his Phaedrus.As a result, all the main strands of Weaver's thought can be seen in this volume, beginning with his essay on the Phaedrus and proceeding through his discussion of evolution in the 1925 Scopes "Monkey Trial." In addition, this book includes studies of Lincoln, Burke, and Milton, and remarks about sociology and some proposals for modern rhetoric. Each essay poses issues still under discussion today.

Applied Imagination: Principles and Procedures of Creative Thinking


Alex F. Osborn - 1953
    He also believed that creativity could be taught.

Bread in the Wilderness


Thomas Merton - 1953
    They are bread, miraculously provided by Christ, to feed those who have followed Him into the wilderness." Merton's goal in this moving book is to help the reader enter into the Psalms: "The secret is placed in the hands of each Christian. It only needs to be discovered and fulfilled in our own lives." The new ND Classic edition of Bread in the Wilderness faithfully reproduces the beautiful, large-format original 1953 New Directions books, created by the celebrated designer Alvin Lustig and lavishly illustrated throughout with photographs of a remarkable medieval crucifix at Perpignan, France.

Beside the Bulldog The Intimate Memoirs of Churchill's Bodyguard


Walter Thompson - 1953
    We see the greatest Briton being ingenious, impetuous, forthright, irritating and unpredictable, but above all, an inspired leader.

Old Men Forget


Duff Cooper - 1953
    Old Men Forget is a 1953 autobiography by Duff Cooper, Viscount Norwich, detailing his Victorian childhood, Edwardian youth, and prominent place in 20th century British literature, politics, diplomacy and the army.The title is taken from a famous speech by the King in William Shakespeare's Henry V.

The Greatest Faith Ever Known: The Story of the Men Who First Spread the Religion of Jesus and of the Momentous


Fulton Oursler - 1953
    Faithfully based on the scriptures of the Acts and the Epistles, this saga of kings and jailers, of far voyages and shipwreck, of strange miracles and escapes and ultimate martyrdom, has inspired and touched generations of readers. It is a story that is timeless."A magnificent book and the most inspiring reading that has come my way for a long time."--A.J. Cronin"A lucid, deeply moving account of the first century of the Christian era. Fulton Oursler has re-created the life of the early Church with noble simplicity and profound understanding."--Laurence J. McGinley, S.J., Past President of Fordham University"Multitudes of people will rejoice in this book... [the] story is told with wonderful and convincing simplicity."--Chicago Tribune

The Living Brain


W. Grey Walter - 1953
    He analyzes, with vivid examples, the rhythmic patterns of personality revealed in different "brain prints," and discusses what light these new electronic processes can throw on memory, vision, fatigue, sleep, hypnotism, genius, lunacy, sex disturbances, crime, and other problems of everyday interest. He includes descriptions, with wiring diagrams, of the various electrical toys (including the speculatrix or mechanical turtle) which he has himself invented to demonstrate his theories. With an extraordinary gift for language, a minimum of speculation and a maximum of demonstrated fact, Dr Walter has written a truly exciting book, a landmark in the advance of human knowledge.

A History of French Louisiana: The Reign of Louis XIV, 1698-1715


Marcel Giraud - 1953
    Now the long-awaited English translation of Volume One of his Histoire de la Louisiana Fran�aise makes the results of his meticulous research readily available. Professor Giraud explores all phases of the beginnings of colonization in the vast Louisiana territory from the first voyage of d'Iberville to the end of the reign of Louis XIV. He examines the attitude of he French regency, the interest of the Church, and the effects of wars and private monopoly on the struggling settlements along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico and on the Mississippi. The almost unbelievable poverty with which the emigrants contended, brought on the their lack of agricultural knowledge and by France's niggardly financial support, is portrayed vividly.Professor Giraud has assembled an immense store of information bolstered by documentation from all available sources. The book includes an excellent bibliography and a list of archival resources.

The Complete Madison - His Basic Writings


Saul K. Padover - 1953
    

The Murder of Christ


Wilhelm Reich - 1953
    Volume One of The Emotional Plague of MankindIntroductionThe TrapThe Kingdom of Heaven on EarthThe Genital EmbraceSeduction into LeadershipThe Mystification of ChristThe Great Gap-Man's SittingThe March on JerusalemJudas IscariotPaul of TarsusProtecting the Murderers of ChristMocenigoToward GolgothaThe Disciples SleepGethsemaneThe Scourging'You Say It'The Silent GlowCrucifixion & ResurrectionAppendixBibliography