58,196 results in 0.09 seconds

The issue is power: essays on women, jews, violence and resistance

Kaye/Kantrowitz, Melanie
"The Issue is Power in this collection of essays, speeches, and reviews spanning 15 years of writing and organizing. Political activist and writer Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz brings an insightful eye and a sharp analytical mind to address a wide range of issues in contemporary America: race, class, anti-Semitism, lesbian culture, war, sexual power, identity politics, Israel, Palestine and the Middle East, international and domestic violence against and by women. Kaye/Kantrowitz is indomitable in the fight against being worn down, hushed up. Her work reminds us of the strength in community. The second edition includes a Foreword by Julie R. Enszer"--
Aunt Lute Books 1992 277 pages

Unsettled: an anthropology of the Jews

Konner, Melvin
Presented as an anthropoligist's view of Jewish culture and history, antisemitism is noted in terms of Christianity and contempt for Jews in terms of Islam (chs. 7 and 6, respectively). The Holocaust (including religious responses and literature) is the topic of ch. 13, "Smoke: How the Germans Gave the Jews Graves in the Air, " and reistance that of ch. 14, "Fire: How the Jews Fought Back."
Viking Compass 2003 500 pages

A history of modern Tibet. Volume 2. The calm before the storm, 1951-1955

Goldstein, Melvyn C.
This is an excellent, illuminating book, in line with Goldstein's preceding volume. It is both superbly researched and highly readable, thanks to the author's admirable capacity to weave significan not quotations and documents into his narrative. This said, a couple of issues may be raised. 1st and almost all important, in analyzing this chunk of Tibetan history Goldstein adopts a consistent approach, reflecting his views. This is fully acceptable, however sometimes1gets the impression that the author's perspective has become static and schematic, as if he had partially lost his previous sensitivity to the events on the ground. The previous volume's extraordinarily vivid image of Lhasa's life and society is no longer there and the author seems to have become somewhat estranged from Tibetan mentality. Second, while it is impossible for anyone to fully grasp the complexity of Tibetan life and culture, Goldstein's relative indifference to its essential religious dimension is quite apparent here
University of California Press 2007-08 639 pages

Literary Dissent in Communist China

Merle Goldman
In modern China, literature has been regarded as a vehicle of political and idea logical dissent, a concept that has persisted under communism. This study exhaustively analyzes the conflict between the Chinese Communist party and the intellectuals, particularly the writers, in the crucial decades of the 1940's and 1950's. By singling out individual writers as egregious examples, party leaders, through a series of thought-control campaigns, have tried to mold intellectuals along orthodox doctrinal lines. But these same leaders, holding to the paradoxical conviction that personal initiative and creativity are necessary catalysts in the effort to construct a Communist state, have not wanted to stifle these qualities altogether. The result has been a pattern of permissiveness and pressure, as illustrated by the ill-fated "Hundred Flowers" movement and the subsequent return to a policy of harsh regimentation. In depicting the views, feelings, frustrations, and tragic fates of many individual intellectuals in the confrontation with an oppressive party bureaucracy, the author reveals, in an unprecedented way, the nature of the authoritarian society that has evolved in Communist China. Her study convincingly demonstrates that totalitarian rule has not guaranteed the subservience of the Chinese intelligentsia and, even more important, that the alienated, critical intellectual remains a significant and vital force.
Harvard University Press 2013-10 360 pages

The Old Bunch

Meyer Levin,David Rolfe
Meyer Levin was a Chicago-born Jewish author. His best-known book is "Compulsion", which is a novelization of the notorious Loeb and Leopold murder case of 1924. Levin was in a special position to tell the story, because he was personally acquainted with the perpetrators. Levin is also famous for bringing Anne Frank's diary to light. But "The Old Bunch" may be his greatest work. "The Old Bunch" was written in the mid-1930's, and it tells the tales of the kids of a Chicago Jewish ghetto coming of age and stepping out into the world. It's presumably something of a fantasy autobiography, echoing Levin's own adventures -- Levin was born in 1905, and the events in this book take place beginning in the year 1921 (when the "bunch" is graduating from school), and running through to 1934. The book is compelling for its individual stories and for its living window into times past. Because it was written prior to the horrors of WWII, it's a very pure view of the pre-war era. (Anything written later will necessarily be done with hindsight, and will likely de-emphasize "unimportant" details in favor of those that connect to major war events.) But the history is merely a fascinating byproduct of the vivid human stories that fill the pages. "The Old Bunch" is surprisingly unknown today, which is a shame. This really is one of the great novels, in a class with Tolstoy and Steinbeck. It conveys the entirety of the era: The people, the culture, the economics, Chicago politics (very dirty!), with a global perspective as well (some characters travel to Europe and Palestine). It covers the Roaring Twenties, Prohibition, the Great Depression, and the New Deal. To read the book is to live and breathe in these bygone days. Most importantly, Meyer Levin depicts events without agenda or judgment. Characters may be Democrats or Republicans or workers or bosses or religionists or atheists or many other things, but all are portrayed with depth, and none are simple heroes or villains or symbols. These are, in the end, tales about the very personal and individual transitions to adulthood, and the elusive quest for wisdom. It is the same challenge that every generation must face. "The Old Bunch" was critically acclaimed and went through numerous print editions, but it eventually passed into the public domain and was temporarily forgotten. A Wall Street Journal article in 2012 ("Destiny's Children", by Joseph Epstein) sparked a revival of interest, and Rancho Lazarus Publications is proud to present a new edition, accurately rendered and true to the original text, and with the addition of occasional footnotes to clarify details of historical accuracy that the modern reader may not have on tap. With almost 700 pages of text (the original hardback book ran to almost 1000 pages), this is an epic novel. But far from being overlong, it's the sort of reading that leaves you wishing there was more. "Written in good hard-driving colloquial prose, full of sharp characterizations. . . A very fine novel." -- New Republic "A landmark -- vivid and exciting reading. It brilliantly succeeds in taking the reader on a memorable tour of the world in which the old bunch lived." -- The New York Times
Rancho Lazarus Publications 2014-07-31 674 pages

Beyond Capital: Marx's political economy of the working class

Lebowitz, Michael A.
Marxism has long been accused of economic determinism, reductionism and a silence on human experience. Beyond Capital argues that these problems can be traced back to Marx's failure to write his planned book on Wage-Labor. Added to the subsequent ignorance of Marx's method, the result has been a one-sided presentation of Marxism. By considering workers and their needs, Beyond Capital demonstrates the one-sidedness of such concepts as the value of labor-power and the theoretical inferences drawn from Capital. However, rather than rejecting Marx, Beyond Capital argues that his "political economy of the working class" and the process of struggle are central for going beyond capitalism.
St. Martin's Press 1992 314 pages

Plant a tree: choosing, planting, and maintaining this precious resource

Weiner, Michael A.
Includes the latest information regarding private and government programs for planting trees; also features a discussion of important environmental issues. Provides complete how-to steps and diagrams on growing and maintaining trees as well as excellent advice on selecting the best trees by location--cities vs. rural areas, each region of the US and much of Canada. The Tree List gives vital statistics for over 160 species and is accompanied by beautiful antique photographs.
Wiley 1992-03-20 292 pages

Five thousand years of monarchy

Arnheim, M. T. W.
"Journey through the complete history of human power structures with Dr. Michael Arnheim's groundbreaking book, Five Thousand Years of Monarchy. This meticulously researched work offers a fresh and original interpretation of the nature of government, arguing that there are in reality only two pure forms: monarchy and oligarchy, and throughout Arnheim explores the timeless struggle between the two. From ancient Mesopotamia to modern China, explore how power structures have shaped societies, influenced stability, liberty, and equality, and determined the course of history"-- Provided by publisher.
Wiley-Blackwell 2025-09-23 448 pages

Two Models of Government A New Classification of Governments in Terms of Power

Michael Arnheim
This book offers a fresh and original analysis of the power structure of a number of societies, past and present. There are and ever have been only two essential models of government: minority rule of all types (labelled "oligocracy") and regimes in which power is concentrated in the hands of a single individual (labelled "monocracy"). The present-day "democracies" of Britain and the United States are in reality composite oligocracies made up of several disparate elements. Oligocracies are by definition regimes with a high degree of inequality, but with variable levels of liberty. Oligocracy and inequality are the "default" features of human society. Equality is unattainable except by a radical monocracy like Fidel Castro's Cuba, and then only with difficulty and at the expense of liberty and probably of lives as well. Equality of opportunity must not be equated with equality. Equality of opportunity means an equal opportunity to become unequal. For genuine freedom of expression to exist there also needs to be equality, because the little man standing on his soap-box and shouting his lungs out at Speaker's Corner in London's Hyde Park cannot compete with the media moguls -- which is why genuine freedom of expression is rare. Once these truths are recognised, it becomes clear that for a Western nation to combine "regime change" in a foreign state with an attempt to impose "democracy" and Western "liberal" values on it is likely to be doomed to failure - as is amply demonstrated by the recent history of Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.
Black House Publishing, Limited 2016-07-29 372 pages