A fascinating exploration of the limits of human knowledge of our planet, its history and culture, and the universe beyond, from the author of The Things that Nobody Knows There are many, many more things that nobody knows. Do animals have a sense of humor? Why do we have five fingers? How long can humans live? What did Jesus do in his youth? Which speech did Lincoln deliver at Gettysburg? Does the appendix have any use? Is there an odd perfect number? In this witty and enlightening follow-up to The Things that Nobody Know s, William Hartston takes us on a guided tour of 501 further gaps in our knowledge of cosmology, mathematics, animal behavior, medical science, music, art, and literature.

A companion volume to his Critique of Religion and Philosophy, this book offers Walter Kaufmann's critical interpretations of some of the great minds in Western philosophy, religion, and literature.

This volume gathers sixteen essays on monarchy and power in the Hellenistic period and charts a new approach to Hellenistic history by focusing attention on biblical and Jewish evidence and reading that evidence in new ways. The essays consider the kings, queens, and power figures of the Hellenistic dynasties, as well as ancient Israelite kings, the Babylonian and Persian rulers of the Bible, Parthians, and Romans. The volume also represents a new kind of interpretation of the Greek Bible (Septuagint) and of the Jewish literature of the period, setting them in the context of Hellenistic political thought and practice.

THE NEW VOICES IN LITERATURE AWARD FINALIST A WILLIAM FAULKNER COMPETITION SEMI-FINALIST " a marvelous collage of history, politics, mystery and romance." Pat Averbach, Director, Chautauqua Writers Center When Taiwanese millionaire Ko-sa Ong shows up in Washington with Jade Phoenix by his side, Nick Malter, his best friend, and his lost "Angel" would all rather be in some other country. But Taiwan is no ordinary country in the 1970s. Against all odds, Ko-sa has everything he could want except a son and a nation. Jade Phoenix has nothing after her father, a senior Nationalist general, commits suicide. Nick Malter, an American reporter, peers under the veils that cloak the Chinese and their women. Love blooms in a wilderness of misunderstanding. Ko-sa and Nick share an abiding hatred of Chiang Kai-shek and the cynical American Secretary of State who would forever deny the Taiwanese their country. They risk all for each other, but both give up everything for the love of Jade Phoenix. A stroke of the pen shatters dreams of nationhood and foreign devils challenge ancient Chinese customs in this extraordinary cross-cultural adventure. Betrayal and trust forge uncontrollable urges, fierce loyalties, and love that extends beyond life itself.

In this book, each of the chapters offers an analysis of the origins and development of an important aspect of Japanese culture, including religion (Pure Land Buddhism and Zen, Shinto and folk religions, Confucianism and Tokugawa era ideology), philosophy (classical Buddhism and the contemporary Kyoto School), literature and the arts (medieval poetry and drama, modern fiction and films), and social behavior (family system, feminism, nationalism, and economic growth). The central, underlying theme is the uniqueness and creativity of Japan as seen from twentieth century perspectives. One of the fascinating things about Japanese culture is that, on the one hand, it seems to have held onto its traditional foundations with a greater sense of determination and celebration than most societies and, at the same time, it appears to have attained a position at the forefront of international modernist and postmodernist developments. The authors explore several approaches to this issue. One school of thought is influenced by recent Japanese writers and intellectual historians such as Mishima, Tanizaki, Watsuji, and Nakamura. Another approach is influenced by Western poststructuralist commentators such as Barthes, Derrida, and Lyotard. A third approach is to argue against the thesis known as nihonjinron ("Japanism" or cultural exceptionalism), by suggesting that the notion of Japanese uniqueness is itself a cultural myth generated by nationalist and particularist trends originating in the Tokugawa era. The volume features an essay by Kenzaburo Oe, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, entitled "Japan, the Dubious, and Myself."

Of Mind and Other Matters displays perhaps more vividly than any one of Nelson Goodman's previous books both the remarkable diversity of his concerns and the essential unity of his thought. Many new studies are incorporated in the book, along with material, often now augmented or significantly revised, that he has published during the last decade. As a whole the volume will serve as a concise introduction to Goodman's thought for general readers, and will develop its more recent unfoldings for those philosophers and others who have grown wiser with his books over the years. Goodman transcends the narrow “scientism and humanism that set the sciences and the arts in opposition”; his insights derive from both formal philosophy and cognitive psychology. As Hilary Putnam has noted, Goodman “prefers concrete and partial progress to grand and ultimately empty visions”; and here are illuminating studies of topics ranging from science policy and museum administration and art education to narrative in literature and painting and the analysis of elusive aspects of literal and metaphorical reference. All these are ramifications of Goodman’s profound and often revolutionary philosophical work on the ways we understand and even make the worlds we live in.

Nelly Sachs was the co-winner of the 1966 Nobel Prize for Literature. This book, containing nearly half of her verse, is her first to be published in the English language. The book includes in its entirety one of her most important poem sequences, 'Glowing Enigmas, I, II, and III,' written in the 1960's; poems from six other collections: 'In the Habitations of Death,' 'Eclipse of the Stars,' 'And No One Knows How to Go On,' 'Flight and Metamorphosis, Journey into a Dustless Realm,' and 'Death Still Celebrates Life'; and the complete text of 'Eli,' a mystery play of the sufferings of Israel.

Throughout the past three decades, Nadav Na'aman has repeatedly proved that he is one of the most careful historians of ancient Canaan and Israel. With broad expertise, he has brought together archaeology, text, and the inscriptional material from all of the ancient Near East to bear on the history of ancient Israel and the land of Canaan during the second and first millenniums B.C.E. Many of his studies have been published as journal articles or notes and yet, together, they constitute one of the most important bodies of literature on the subject in recent years, particularly because of the careful attention to methodology that Na'aman always has brought to his work. Collected here are 23 essays on the Hurrians, the Egyptians and their presence in the Levant during the second millennium B.C.E., Canaanite city-states, the Amarna Letters, and the neighbors of Canaan in the north, such as Alalakh and Damascus. The essays range over such topics as scribes and language, archaeology, cultural influences, and the interrelations of the great powers during this period. The volume includes indexes of ancient personal names, place-names, and biblical references.

""Moses Mendelssohn an die Freunde Lessings: Ein Anhang zu Herrn Jacobi Briefwechsel �����ber die Lehre des Spinoza"" ist ein Buch von Moses Mendelssohn, das im Jahr 1786 ver������ffentlicht wurde. Das Buch enth�����lt einen Brief von Mendelssohn an seine Freunde, in dem er auf die Lehre des Philosophen Spinoza eingeht. Dieser Brief ist ein Anhang zu einem Briefwechsel zwischen Jacobi und Mendelssohn �����ber die Lehre des Spinoza. In dem Brief diskutiert Mendelssohn die Beziehung zwischen Vernunft und Offenbarung sowie die Frage, ob Spinozas Philosophie mit der j�����dischen Religion vereinbar ist. Das Buch ist ein wichtiger Beitrag zur Diskussion �����ber die Philosophie des Spinoza und hat einen gro�����en Einfluss auf die j�����dische Aufkl�����rung und die Entwicklung der j�����dischen Philosophie gehabt.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.

Excerpt from Jewish Folk-Lore in the Middle Ages We look with other eyes on the heaped up treasures of Jewish aggadah, on the diamonds which oriental fancy made brilliant by a fiery inspiration. Brought under this new light cast on them they glitter and gleam in a thousand colours like the dew in the flower when lighted by the sun. We value as a poetical story, or picturesque image, legends like the following: In the time when the Lord remembers His children, and sees them dwelling in sorrow and grief amongst We look with other eyes on the heaped up treasures of Jewish aggadah, on the diamonds which oriental fancy made brilliant by a fiery inspiration. Brought under this new light cast on them they glitter and glean in a thousand colours like the dew in the flower when lighted by the sun. We value as a poetical story, or picturesque image, legends like the following: "In the time when the Lord remembers His Children, and sees them dwelling in sorrow and grief amongst the nations, He sheds two tears, and they drop into the great ocean, and their noise is heard from one end of the world to the other. Hence the earthquake." What a wonderful picture to express, the sympathy of heaven and earth with the heartstricken grief of the people! Or take another: "In the same day when King Solomon married the daughter of Necho, the Egyptian king, the angel Michael descended from heaven and planted a reed in the great ocean; and there came up loam, and upon that Rome was afterwards built." And further: "On the day when Jeroboam first established the two golden calves to be worshipped by Israel, Romulus and Remus erected their tents." Only ill-will, or prejudiced misunderstandings could not see the historical truth in the symbolical explanation of the relation which exist between the fall of Judah and the rise of Rome. Under the form of an allegory, they said that the power of the Jewish nation is intimately connected with the true and unchanged religious belief, and a change in such belief necessarily brings about an avoidable decline. In the curious tales of Rabbah bar-bar Channah, we recognize further, now-a-days, Indian sailor and travellers' tales, and in some of them Buddhistic legends, as for instance, the story of the gigantic fish, which destroys sixty towns, and out of whose bones to his pupils one of his former existence. Innumerable are the examples on which our feet stumble as we tread through the forest thousands of years old, called Jewish literature, where palms and hyssop, trees and bushes, flowers and thorns are often inextricably intertwined. On the other hand, we have learned to-day to recognize only as legends, the absurd accusations hurled against the Jews during the middle ages: such as the use of blood in their ceremonials, the poisoning of wells, the piercing of the host, so that it bled, even the accusations that the Jews have been usurers to so great an extent as it was presumed. All these, and similar accusations, are the outcome of prejudice, they are cobwebs spun by poisonous spiders, which hide the true light, and render the approach to the Ghetto disgusting and obnoxious. But we sweep them away, we know that they are only floating material to be found everywhere in the air, waiting only for the right time and the right men to appropriate and make use of them. They are for us nothing more than one of the those numerous legends, devoid of every internal truth, and interesting only for the student of folk-psychology and folk-lore. One more legend refers to the seclusion of the Jews within the walls of their houses, who are said to care nothing for the movement of the times, and who let the waves of the rolling sea pass over their shelter. But be the walls as high as towers and the prejudice as powerful as ever, they never form a real barrier against the spirit, which pours in through a thousand invisible channels. "The sun shines for the righteous as well as...

How should we understand the relation of the Holocaust to the broader historical processes of the century just ended? How do we explain the bearing of the Holocaust on problems of representation, memory, memorialization, and historical practice? These are some of the questions explored by an esteemed group of scholars in Catastrophe and Meaning, the most significant multiauthored book on the Holocaust in over a decade. This collection features essays that consider the role of anti-Semitism in the recounting of the Holocaust; the place of the catastrophe in the narrative of twentieth-century history; the questions of agency and victimhood that the Holocaust inspires; the afterlife of trauma in literature written about the tragedy; and the gaps in remembrance and comprehension that normal historical works fail to notice. --

The Philosophy of Art of Karl Marx by Mikhail Lifshitz is a comprehensive study of the Marxist theory of art. The book explores the relationship between art and society, and how art reflects the political and economic structures of society. Lifshitz examines the Marxist perspective on the role of art in the revolution and the struggle for social change. He also delves into the Marxist critique of bourgeois art and the concept of alienation in art. The book includes a detailed analysis of the writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels on art, as well as the works of other Marxist theorists such as Georg Lukacs and Antonio Gramsci. The Philosophy of Art of Karl Marx is a thought-provoking and insightful exploration of the Marxist perspective on art, and its relevance in the contemporary world.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.

Professor Postan's work on the social and economic history of the Middle Ages has had an enormous influence upon the study of the subject. His essays represent his major contribution and are an invaluable addition to the literature. Twenty-two essays are gathered together into two volumes. Previously published elsewhere, many in obscure places, over a period from 1928 to 1972, they are still greatly used and referred to today; their appearance in this more accessible form will be warmly welcomed by a wide range of students and scholars in all branches of medieval and economic history as well as by social scientists and economists generally. This volume contains such seminal pieces as The economic foundations of medieval society, The rise of a money economy, The chronology of labour services and The charters of the villeins.

Americans today recognize and celebrate leadership genius in the management of private companies. At the same time, the American public remains deeply skeptical of government's ability to address real economic and social challenges. The contributors to this timely and important volume increase our understanding of the potential incentives for and barriers to creative problem-solving in the public sector. Drawing on case studies of state and local government, as well as theoretical literature on private sector management, these scholars reveal both the problems and the possibilities in governmental decision-making.

"Elizabethan and Jacobean architecture - not the friendly unassuming architecture of the vernacular but the uniquely strange and exciting buildings put up by the great and powerful, ranging from huge houses to gem-like pavilions and lodges designed for feasting and hunting - is a phenomenon as remarkable as the literature which accompanied it, the literature of Shakespeare, Spenser, Sidney, Marlow, Jonson, Campion and others. Forty years after adventuring into this world in his first book, 'Robert Smythson', in which he discussed one family of mason-architects and the great houses with which they were connected, Mark Girouard has returned to the subject to cover the whole rich field in detail. In this beautiful and fascinating book, Girouard discusses social structure and the way of life behind it, the evolution of the house plan, the ferment of excitement aroused in English patrons and craftsmen as they learnt about the classic Five Orders and the buildings of Ancient Rome from publications and engravings, the surprising wealth of architectural drawings which survive from the period, the inroads of foreign craftsmen who brought new fashions in ornament with them, but also the strength of the native tradition which was creatively integrated with the 'antique' style. Behind the book is a vivid consciousness of the European scene, and the different ways in which different countries reacted to new influences yet did not abandon their native traditions. Italy, France, central Europe and above all the Low Countries provide the background, and England was influenced by all of them. But the principal argument of the book is the individuality of the English achievement. Girouard's pioneering work on Elizabethan architecture, then an unfashionable period, has helped inspire an increasing number of architectural historians to venture into the field. His new book benefits from their researches and publications, but is essentially a product of new research and travel on his part. The results are displayed with his own unique sense of style, and are fired by the excitement which the architecture of the period still generates in him." -- from book jacket.

In a world where politics is often associated with notions such as moral decay, frustration and disappointment, the feeling of betrayal, and of democracy in trouble, Kis examines theories about the morality of political action. Amending the two classical theses of realism and of indirect motivation in politics, Kis argues for a constrained thesis of realism and a wide thesis of indirect motivation. By these means the place of moral motivation and common deliberation can be identified, and political agents can be held morally accountable. The analysis refers to a broad range of classic and contemporary literature as well as to recent cases from international politics which call for moral judgment. The Appendix is dedicated to Václav Havel’s seminal essay on "The Power of the Powerless," which sheds light on the diversity of approaches dissident intellectuals have taken to politics.

In Apollo and Thelma , broadcaster and lawyer Jon Faine shares a yarn that has enthralled him for forty years, taking him from Melbourne's depression-era slums to the isolation of the outback. Apollo and Thelma have been a constant in Jon Faine's life for decades. As a young lawyer, he was captivated by his favourite client, the Mighty Apollo, a legendary strongman and circus star, famous for pulling trams with his teeth and having an elephant stand on him. Apollo's sister, Thelma, on the other hand, ruthless and rugged, had survived decades running solo one of the most remote pubs in the outback until unexpectedly dying, leaving behind a complicated estate. Befriending Apollo and immersing himself in Thelma's estate, Jon is forced to untangle a long line of astonishing stories and episodes in our distant and recent history that keep intersecting with his own. Via the circuitous route of these two larger-than-life characters - alongside a supporting cast of characters from the world of politics, law, literature and media - Jon reflects on their stories and is inevitably forced to rethink his own. Apollo and Thelma is a uniquely Australian story, beautifully told.

"Lapwing and Fox is a series of conversations in the form of letters and small books sent between two friends, writer and critic John Berger and artist and film-maker John Christie. Complementing their award-winning correspondence on the subject of colour, I Send You This Cadmium Red, published in 2000, Lapwing and Fox covers a wide range of ideas surrounding art and artists, drawing and paintin, nature and place. As well as the close scrutiny of works by Giacometti, Modigliani and Auerbach, and recollections of working with other artists and writers, the correspondence also explores a whole range of unexpectedly connected subjects, from making drawings of the dead and dying to encounters with barn owls and hares, and discussions of the mythologies surrounding them; from recollections of journeys on the Silk Road and observations of the night sky in Tajikistan to memories of the carved stone churches of Lalibela in Ethiopia and meditations on angels in literature, art and film..."--Page 4 of cover.

An anthology of writing by Jacqueline Rose, a singular, provocative critic renowned for her commitment to psychoanalytic theory as a uniquely productive way of analyzing literature, culture, politics, and society.

Herod: A Biography by Jacob S. Minkin is a comprehensive account of the life and reign of King Herod the Great, one of the most controversial figures in ancient history. The book traces Herod's rise to power, his political and military achievements, as well as his personal life and family relationships. Minkin explores Herod's role in the Roman Empire and his impact on the culture and politics of Judea during his reign. The author also delves into the controversies surrounding Herod's character, including his reputation as a cruel and tyrannical ruler. Drawing on a wide range of historical sources, including ancient texts, archaeological evidence, and modern scholarship, Herod: A Biography offers a nuanced and insightful portrait of one of the most fascinating figures in ancient history.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.