In the Beginning 2. Adam and Eve 3. Murder, Flood, Dispersion 4. Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar 5. Isaac 6. The Jacob Saga 7. Folklore Analysis and Type Scenes 8. Moses and Exodus 9. The God of Israel 10. Covenant and Law, Part I 11. Covenant and Law, Part II 12. The Conquest 13. The Book of Judges, Part I 14. The Book of Judges, Part II 15. Samuel and Saul 16. King David 17. From King Solomon to Preclassical Prophecy 18. The Prophets and the Fall of the North 19. The Southern Kingdom 20. Babylonian Exile 21. Restoration and Theocracy 22. Wisdom Literature 23. Life in the Diaspora 24. Apocalyptic Literature

    Drawing on both native and Spanish chronicles, he vividly describes the dramatic story of the conquest, with all its savagery and suspense. This authoritative, exciting history is among the most powerful and important accounts of the culture of the South American Indians and the Spanish Conquest.

    Central to many spiritual and philosophical traditions and known in English as "meditation," these practices are considered a major means for enhanced awareness and self-mastery. In recent decades, modern science has dramatically confirmed what advanced meditators have long claimed—that meditation, correctly practiced, offers deep and lasting benefits for mental functioning and emotional health, as well as for physical health and well-being.

    Who are we as a society? Who do we want to be? Who are we afraid we might become? When these questions are framed in the speculative versions of Heaven and Hell on earth, you won't find easy answers, but you will find tremendously insightful and often entertaining perspectives.Utopian and dystopian writing sits at the crossroads of literature and other important academic disciplines such as philosophy, history, psychology, politics, and sociology. It serves as a useful tool to discuss our present condition and future prospects - to imagine a better tomorrow and warn of dangerous possibilities. To examine the future of mankind through detailed and fascinating stories that highlight and exploit our anxieties in adventurous, thought-provoking, and engaging ways. From Thomas More's foundational text Utopia published in 1516 to the 21st-century phenomenon of The Hunger Games, dive into stories that seek to find the best - and the worst - in humanity, with the hope of better understanding ourselves and the world. Great Utopian and Dystopian Works of Literature delivers 24 illuminating lectures, led by Pamela Bedore, Associate Professor of English at the University of Connecticut, which plunge you into the history and development of utopian ideas and their dystopian counterparts. You'll encounter some of the most powerful and influential texts in this genre as you travel centuries into the past and thousands of years into the future, through worlds that are beautiful, laughable, terrifying, and always thought-provoking.

    David Abulafia's The Great Sea is the first complete history of the Mediterranean, from the erection of temples on Malta around 3500 BC to modern tourism. Ranging across time and the whole extraordinary space of the Mediterranean from Gibraltar to Jaffa, Genoa to Tunis, and bringing to life pilgrims, pirates, sultans and naval commanders, this is the story of the sea that has shaped much of world history.

    Relativity and quantum physics touch the very basis of physical reality, altering our commonsense notions of space and time, cause and effect. Both have reputations for complexity. But the basic ideas behind relativity and quantum physics are, in fact, simple and comprehensible by anyone. As Professor Wolfson points out, the essence of relativity can be summed up in a single sentence: The laws of physics are the same for all observers in uniform motion. The same goes for quantum theory, which is based on the principle that the "stuff " of the universe-matter and energy-is not infinitely divisible but comes in discrete chunks called "quanta." Profound ... Beautiful ... Relevant Why should you care about these landmark theories? Because relativity and quantum physics are not only profound and beautiful ideas in their own right, they are also the gateway to understanding many of the latest science stories in the media. These are the stories about time travel, string theory, black holes, space telescopes, particle accelerators, and other cutting-edge developments. Consider these ideas: Although Einstein's theory of general relativity dates from 1914, it has not been possible to test certain predictions until recently. The Hubble Space Telescope is providing some of the most striking confirmations of the theory, including certain evidence for the existence of black holes, objects that warp space and time so that not even light can escape. Also, the expansion of the universe predicted by the theory of general relativity is now a known rate. General relativity also predicts an even weirder phenomenon called "wormholes" that offer shortcuts to remote reaches of time and space. According to Einstein's theory of special relativity, two twins would age at different rates if one left on a high-speed journey to a distant star and then returned. This experiment has actually been done, not with twins, but with an atomic clock flown around the world. Another fascinating experiment confirming that time slows as speed increases comes from measuring muons at the top and bottom of mountains. A seemingly absurd consequence of quantum mechanics, called "quantum tunneling," makes it possible for objects to materialize through impenetrable barriers. Quantum tunneling happens all the time on the subatomic scale and plays an important role in electronic devices and the nuclear processes that keep the sun shining. Some predictions about the expansion of the universe were so odd that Einstein himself tried to rewrite the mathematics in order to eliminate them. When Hubble discovered the expansion of the universe, Einstein called the revisions the biggest mistake he had ever made. An intriguing thought experiment called "Schrödinger's cat" suggests that a cat in an enclosed box is simultaneously alive and dead under experimental conditions involving quantum phenomena. From Aristotle to the Theory of Everything Professor Wolfson begins with a brief overview of theories of physical reality starting with Aristotle and culminating in Newtonian or "classical" physics. Then he outlines the logic that led to Einstein's theory of special relativity, and the simple yet far-reaching insight on which it rests. With that insight in mind, you move on to consider Einstein's theory of general relativity and its interpretation of gravitation in terms of the curvature of space and time. Professor Wolfson then shows how inquiry into matter at the atomic and subatomic scales led to quandaries that are resolved-or at least clarified-by quantum mechanics, a vision of physical reality so at odds with our experience that it nearly defies language. Bringing relativity and quantum mechanics into the same picture leads to hypotheses about the origin, development, and possible futures of the entire universe, and the possibility that physics can produce a "theory of everything" to account for all aspects of the physical world. Fascinating Incidents and Ideas Along the way, you'll explore these fascinating incidents and ideas: In the 1880s, Albert Michelson and Edward Morley conducted an experiment to determine the motion of the Earth relative to the ether, which was a supposedly imponderable substance pervading all of space. You'll learn about their experiment, its shocking result, and the resulting theoretical crisis. In 1905, a young Swiss patent clerk named Albert Einstein resolved the crisis by discarding the ether concept and asserting the principle of relativity-that the laws of physics are the same for all observers in uniform motion. Relativity implies that the time order of events can be different in different reference frames. Does this wreak havoc with cause and effect? And why does Einstein assert that nothing can go faster than light? Shortly after publishing his 1905 paper on special relativity, Einstein realized that his theory required a fundamental equivalence between mass and energy, which he expressed in the equation E=mc2. Among other things, this famous formula means that the energy contained in a single raisin could power a large city for a whole day. Historically, the path to general relativity followed Einstein's attempt to incorporate gravity into relativity theory, which led to his understanding of gravity not as a force, but as a local manifestation of geometry in curved spacetime. Quantum theory places severe limits on our ability to observe nature at the atomic scale because it implies that the act of observation necessarily disturbs the thing that is being observed. The result is Werner Heisenberg's famous "uncertainty principle." Are quarks, the particles that make up protons and neutrons, the truly elementary particles? What are the three fundamental forces that physicists identify as holding particles together? Could they be manifestations of a single, universal force? A Teaching Legend On his own Middlebury College campus, Professor Wolfson is a teaching legend with an infectious enthusiasm for his subject and a knack for conveying difficult concepts in a way that fosters true understanding. He is the author of an introductory text on physics, a contributor to the esteemed publication Scientific American, and a specialist in interpreting science for the nonspecialist. In this course, Professor Wolfson uses extensive illustrations and diagrams to help bring to life the theories and concepts that he discusses. Thus we highly recommend our DVD version, although Professor Wolfson is mindful of our audio students and carefully describes visual materials throughout his lectures. Professor Richard Wolfson on the Second Edition of Einstein's Relativity: "The first version of this course was produced in 1995. In this new version, I have chosen to spend more time on the philosophical interpretation of quantum physics, and on recent experiments relevant to that interpretation. I have also added a final lecture on the theory of everything and its possible implementation through string theory. The graphic presentations for the DVD version have also been extensively revised and enhanced. But the goal remains the same: to present the key ideas of modern physics in a way that makes them clear to the interested layperson."

    Years of tone-deaf US policies have left the region powerless to control its own destiny—playing into a longstanding sense of shame and impotence for a once-mighty people. In this definitive account, preeminent historian Eugene Rogan traces five centuries of Arab history, from the Ottoman conquests through the British and French colonial periods and up to the present age of unipolar American hegemony. The Arab world is now more acutely aware than ever of its own vulnerability, and this sense of subjection carries with it vast geopolitical consequences.Drawing from Arab sources little known to Western readers, Rogan's The Arabs will transform our understanding of the past, present, and future of one of the world's most tumultuous regions.

    He chronicles the rise and fall of dynastic power during this period; he examines its numerous material, social and cultural innovations and inventions: The wheel, civil, engineering, building bricks, the centralized state, the division of labour, organised religion, sculpture, education, mathematics, law and monumental building.At the heart of Kriwaczek's magisterial account, though, is the glory of Babylon - 'gateway to the gods' - which rose to glorious prominence under the Amorite king Hammurabi, who unified Babylonia between 1800 and 1750 BC. While Babylonian power would rise and fall over the ensuing centuries, it retained its importance as a cultural, religious and political centre until its fall to Cyrus the Great of Persia in 539 BC.

    Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas Wolfe, Teddy Roosevelt, John Singer Sargent, James Whistler, Henry James, and Edith Wharton.Orphaned at a young age, Edith Stuyvesant Dresser claimed lineage from one of New York’s best-known families. She grew up in Newport and Paris, and her engagement and marriage to George Vanderbilt was one of the most watched events of Gilded Age society. But none of this prepared her to be mistress of Biltmore House.Before their marriage, the wealthy and bookish Vanderbilt had dedicated his life to creating a spectacular European-style estate on 125,000 acres of North Carolina wilderness. He summoned the famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted to tame the grounds, collaborated with celebrated architect Richard Morris Hunt to build a 175,000-square-foot chateau, filled it with priceless art and antiques, and erected a charming village beyond the gates. Newlywed Edith was now mistress of an estate nearly three times the size of Washington, DC and benefactress of the village and surrounding rural area. When fortunes shifted and changing times threatened her family, her home, and her community, it was up to Edith to save Biltmore—and secure the future of the region and her husband’s legacy.The Last Castle is the uniquely American story of how the largest house in America flourished, faltered, and ultimately endured to this day.

    As audacious as it is edifying, here is a hilarious and irreverent—yet always historically accurate—overview of the ascent (or descent) of humankind, courtesy of the same rebel geniuses who brought you Mental Floss presents Condensed Knowledge and Mental Floss Presents Forbidden Knowledge. Updated with all the hot topics and events of the past few years, The Mental Floss History of the World is proof positive that just because something’s true doesn’t mean it’s boring.

    Today, according to Professor Phillip Cary, Augustine is recognizable even to non-Christians as the most important Christian writer outside of the Bible. Yet Augustine was also a man-a rhetorician trained in the Roman way whose life and discovery of his calling make for one of the most fascinating stories in the history of religious philosophy. Explore Augustine's Life, Teachings, and Doctrine This course paints a rich and detailed portrait of the life, works, and ideas of this remarkable figure, whose own search for God has profoundly shaped all of Western Christianity. You learn what Augustine taught and why he taught it-and how those teachings and doctrines helped shape the Roman Catholic Church. These lectures are rewarding even if you have no background at all in classical philosophy or Christian theology. This is because Professor Cary, who has taught Villanova's nationally recognized seminars on ancient, medieval, Renaissance, and modern thought, has organized an entirely self-contained course. Professor Cary (Ph.D. in Philosophy and Religious Studies, Yale University) is a scholar-in-residence at the Templeton Honors College at Eastern University, where he is director of the Philosophy program and teaches a year-long Great Books seminar. He is author of Augustine's Invention of the Modern Self (Oxford University Press). Professor Cary explains any special religious or philosophical concepts you need to know in order to appreciate Augustine's impact, with real-life examples and analogies that make even the most subtle concepts clear and easy to understand. You'll gain a sense of what Augustine was saying, how his own experiences led him to say it, and how his thoughts fit into the theological, philosophical, and political worlds that swirled around him. Who Was Augustine? A Brief Biography Augustine was born in 354. Early in his life he was inspired by the works of Cicero to devote his life to the pursuit of truth. He started this pursuit as a Rhetorician, then he became a Manichaean, and later a Skeptic. Ambrose, bishop of Milan, and Augustine's mother, Monica, were among those instrumental in his conversion to Catholic Christianity in 386. In North Africa he founded a small monastic community and in 391 was elected Bishop of Hippo at a time when people still had some say in who would lead their religious community. From 395 to 430, he served as bishop. He wrote many treatises among which we find the celebrated Confessions, published in 400 as an open letter to his congregation and a prayer to God. His works also include The City of God and On the Trinity. Many of his writings were directed against heresies, particularly Manichaeism, Donatism, and Pelagianism. He is noted for founding the Western theological tradition and establishing doctrines of the Trinity and Christology. The Life, Works, and Significance of Augustine The course begins with two extremely helpful lectures that help place Augustine in context as both a Church Father (interpreter of the Bible and teacher of Christian doctrine) and philosopher (one who has given us new conceptions of the human heart and its depths). In Lecture 1 you meet Augustine the Roman Christian, one of the Church Fathers responsible for the transition from Bible stories to actual Christian doctrine, a man writing with the end of the Roman Empire at hand. In Lecture 2 you also meet Augustine the Christian Platonist and learn the Platonic concepts-including the idea of a non-bodily, eternal mode of being and the way that concept applies to God-which so deeply influenced him and other religious thinkers of the time. With Augustine's role in-and debt to-these two worlds established, Professor Cary then looks at Augustine's life and legacy in three parts. Part 1: Augustine's Life Lectures 3 through 6 are devoted to a study of Augustine's life. You look at the Confessions, his great spiritual autobiography, written when he was a 45-year-old bishop reflecting on the spiritual path of a questing young man of whom the grown Augustine might not always approve. You examine the Confessions from three angles: The intellectual angle spotlights his passionate search for truth. The emotional angle focuses on the love that drives this search, and the aching sense of loss, grief, and yearning which the Confessions evokes in order to show how love can go wrong.The religious angle explores Augustine's search for truth that leads him to Christ and the Christian life, conceived as a journey toward heaven.The section on Augustine's life ends with a focus on his career as a Christian writer following the period of his life covered by the Confessions, which culminated in his almost 15-year effort to write the 22 books of The City of God. Part II: Augustine's Thought The next series of three lectures explains key concepts of Augustine's thought, all related to his epochal doctrine of grace. You examine how Augustine relates the human qualities of faith and love to the divine gift of grace (Lecture 7); how his doctrine of grace addresses troublesome issues like the origin of evil, original sin, and predestination (Lecture 8); and how he relates the inward gift of grace to the external side of human life in his teachings about signs, words, sacraments, and the Church (Lecture 9). Part III: Augustine's Concept of Persons The final three lectures address Augustine's concept of persons, both human and divine. You look at Augustine's distinctive conception of the human soul as a private inner world (Lecture 10); then his distinctive way of relating his concept of the soul to the doctrine of the Trinity, which is the orthodox Christian conception of God (Lecture 11); and finally his understanding of God's relationship to specific human communities in history, specifically focusing on The City of God (Lecture 12).Great Courses, #611

    Its mission was to know the world. When it did not succeed, it set out to change the world. Its failures have handed us, in the words of President Eisenhower, “a legacy of ashes.”Now Pulitzer Prize–winning author Tim Weiner offers the first definitive history of the CIA—and everything is on the record. LEGACY OF ASHES is based on more than 50,000 documents, primarily from the archives of the CIA itself, and hundreds of interviews with CIA veterans, including ten Directors of Central Intelligence. It takes the CIA from its creation after World War II, through its battles in the cold war and the war on terror, to its near-collapse after September 11th, 2001.Tim Weiner’s past work on the CIA and American intelligence was hailed as “impressively reported” and “immensely entertaining” in The New York Times.The Wall Street Journal called it “truly extraordinary . . . the best book ever written on a case of espionage.” Here is the hidden history of the CIA: why eleven presidents and three generations of CIA officers have been unable to understand the world; why nearly every CIA director has left the agency in worse shape than he found it; and how these failures have profoundly jeopardized our national security.

    Modern science demonstrates that this mental hardwiring, traceable to the survival needs of our earliest ancestors, is at the root of many of the psychological and behavioral problems that we face today.For thousands of years, people have used mindfulness practices—techniques to develop awareness of present experience with acceptance—to deal effectively with a wide range of life challenges. And, a large and fascinating body of scientific research now validates the remarkable benefits of mindfulness practice for psychological as well as physical health.But how exactly does mindfulness work, in scientific terms? How can understanding the science and practice of mindfulness improve everyday life? And how can the human brain, whose very functioning gives rise to so many of the problems we struggle with, actually provide a solution?Now, in the 24 fascinating lectures of The Science of Mindfulness, Professor Ronald D. Siegel, a clinical psychologist on the faculty of Harvard Medical School, reveals the science behind mindfulness in compelling detail and demonstrates its application to an extraordinary range of human problems—psychological, social, and medical. You’ll closely examine the neurobiology involved, leaving you with a clear knowledge of the science underlying ancient practices that are now profoundly influencing the contemporary world. And you’ll learn many practical ways you can use mindfulness techniques in your own life.

    Over the course of the next 47 years, the company's reach grew until almost all of India south of Delhi was effectively ruled from a boardroom in the city of London.

    But for the first time in this memoir, an active Muslim American federal agent reveals his experience infiltrating and bringing down a terror cell in North America.A longtime undercover agent, Tamer Elnoury joined an elite counterterrorism unit after September 11. Its express purpose is to gain the trust of terrorists whose goals are to take out as many Americans in as public and as devastating a way possible. It's a furious race against the clock for Tamer and his unit to stop them before they can implement their plans. Yet as new as this war still is, the techniques are as old as time: listen, record, and prove terrorist intent.Due to his ongoing work for the FBI, Elnoury writes under a pseudonym. An Arabic-speaking Muslim American, a patriot, a hero: To many Americans, it will be a revelation that he and his team even exist, let alone the vital and dangerous work they do keeping all Americans safe.