"Why do we spend time reading and discussing books which tell of events which never in fact occurred?" The question is elementary - and yet, as David Daiches suggests in this provocative study, it is the elementary questions that are never answered. Although literary criticism today is more concerned with technique than with the basic question of value, the question of value underlies all the others. Professor Daiches therefore directs this book to the search for the basic function and purpose of imaginative prose and poetry. A Study of Literature is not, however, an obscure book of literary theory; it contains abundant and pungent examples and critical analyses - of prose fiction, of modern writing, and of the nature of poetry. "It's main purpose," as Professor Daiches says, "is to help the reader of works of imaginative literature to see what he is reading, to understand just what it is that he gets from different kinds of reading, and to discriminate between those different kinds."

This book derives from the Messenger Lectures at Cornell. In it Daube provides a synoptic view of nonviolent civil disobedience in the Ancient World. His learning lets him draw freely on Greek and Roman sources--theological, legal historical, literary, dramatic, and popular. From these he shows that there is hardly a variety of civil disobedience known today which is not anticipated in some form or another by the ancients. Is this book more than an entertaining exercise of scholarship? Professor Daube writes, "To speak through historical figures is sometimes wiser than to declare in one's own name. The word 'person' originally means a mask . . . Civil disobedience can at all times profitably avail itself of persons."

The exodus story—telling how the Lord delivered Israel from Pharaoh, and how Israel in consequence became the people of the Lord—set a pattern which determined the thinking of both Old and New Testament writers. Professor Daube shows how the authors of the story were influenced by the social laws of their time: for it was the right and duty of a strong and loyal man to redeem an enslaved kinsman, who would then owe allegiance to his rescuer. St. Paul takes over this model when he says that those made free from sin become servants to righteousness. Entire narratives are made to approximate to the pattern: it seems to be a factor in the story of Jacob and Laban, and it is very clearly seen in that of the Ark with the Philistines. Professor Daube’s demonstration of the vitality of individual notions from the exodus story and of the general pattern is illuminating, and his exposition of the legal ideas underlying it is no less so. Methods of relative dating are discussed, arising out of the fact that a considerable number of these social laws have been transmitted in sources later than the exodus story itself.

David Daube (1909-1999) was an eminent authority on Talmudic, Roman and ancient law, who taught legal history and jurisprudence at Cambridge, Aberdeen, Oxford and Berkeley. He was also in the vanguard of scholars who established the importance of Jewish and Talmudic perspectives to the understanding of the New Testament. This book, first published in 1947 and now reissued, contains five ground-breaking essays on the legal issues present in a number of Old Testament narratives including the story of Joseph and his brothers. Among the topics discussed are theft, deception, evidence, liability and punishment. These are set in the wider context of the growth of codes in the Pentateuch, Rabbinic interpretations of the Torah, and Roman sources including Macrobius and Gaius. Daube's book will resonate afresh in the scholarly climate of the twenty-first century, where the relationships between law and religion and between Judaism and Christianity are again the subject of lively debate.

Inleidende beschrijvingen van de belangrijkste componisten en composities uit de westerse klassieke muziek tot heden.

Life Goes to the Movies

With emphasis on the kinds of situations and problems grandparents are often exposed to, this book helps its readers understand the differing demands and associated stress on children growing up in today's society. Tour.

More than 60 photographers from more than a dozen countries were commissioned to shoot photos during one 24-hour period in May 1994. In short, A Day in the Life of Israel is like Israel itself, densely layered, wildly diverse, alternately brash and philosophical, pragmatic and insane - but, in the end, always fascinating and photogenic beyond belief. The 200 color and black and white images in this book were selected from nearly 100,000 shot on May 5, 1994. None is 24 hours older or younger than any other. Maps and text accompany the photos. Exquisite presentation. Part of the A Day in the Life series. Oversized.

When David Goldblatt received the world-renowned Hasselblad Award in 2006, he had been making photographs of the South African landscape and culture for more than 50 years. Born in 1930 in a gold-mining town near Johannesburg, his parents were Jewish refugees from Lithuania, and they raised him with an emphasis on tolerance and antiracism. In 1975, at the height of apartheid, Goldblatt explored white nationalist culture in Some Afrikaners Photographed, and in the 80s he observed workers on the Kwandebele-Pretoria bus, many of whom traveled eight hours every day to work and back. His late-90s solo show at New York's Museum of Modern Art focused on architectural work, and showed off Goldblatt's uncanny ability to discover a society through its buildings and landscapes. His photographs of architectural structures revealed the ways that ideology had defined his home country's landscape.

Goldblatt began working on 'Some Afrikaners photographed', first published in 1975, in 1963. He had sold his father's clothing store where he worked, and become a full-time photographer. The ruling Afrikaner National Party--many of its leaders and members had supported the Nazis in the Second World War--was firming its grip on the country in the face of black resistance. Yet Goldblatt was drawn not to the events of the time but to the quiet and commonplace where nothing happened and yet all was contained and immanent. Through these photos he explored his ambivalence towards the Afrikaners he knew from his father's store. Most, he guessed, were National Party voters, yet he experienced them as austere, upright, unaffected people of rare generosity of spirit and earthy humor. Their potency and contradictions moved and disturbed him; their influence pervaded his life. The book includes an essay by South African writer Antjie Krog: Three kinds of Afrikaners look out at us from these photographs, she writes, of which the poor Afrikaner is the most haunting--the simple one who, by the sweat of his brow, eats his bread in isolation. Art critic Ivor Powell charts the outraged reaction of the Afrikaner media towards photos that showed rural Afrikaners at a time when the Afrikaner elite was trying to establish itself on the international stage, as well as his own reaction to the original book: It was all but incandescent with tension and revelation, with a sense of souls being held up to scrutiny, of skins being peeled away.

David P. Goldman, senior editor of First Things, writes on Judaism in a gentile world, previously appearing in First Things.

One partner is Jewish, the other is a Christian. Do they celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas, or both? Do they worship in a church or a synagogue? How will the children be raised? This essential resource addresses the concerns of interfaith couples, and includes interviews with intermarried couples, a discussion of intermarriage in history, and more.

In a work of remarkable clarity and wisdom, Rabbi Wolpe confronts a central dilemma of modern Judaism, combining his deep knowledge of ancient tradition with modern sensibilities to show contemporary Jews that God still speaks to them--to their daily struggles, angers, fears, and needs, offering comfort and inspiration.

When Mossad operative Dov Shamir kills an al-Quaida terrorist in London, his face is captured on a webcam, turning what should have been a routine assassination into a nightmare. Branded a "rogue operative" and abandoned by his own people, Dov takes refuge in the home of the one man he can count on to help him - a Palestinian intellectual who was his professor and mentor at the School of Oriental and African Studies where he did his PhD. Though Dov and Rahman are divided by politics, Rahman is a man of immense personal loyalty and a staunch opponent of anything that will bring the Palestinian cause into disrepute (as well as being Dov's former SCUBA diving partner). But it becomes particularly important to help when Dov reveals the terrorists' plan to blow up the sunken wreckage of an old World War II munitions ship packed with high explosives. But when the terrorists ambush them, Dov has to form an uneasy alliance with Salima - Rahman's feisty and distrustful 24-year-old daughter. Unable to convince the skeptical authorities that the attack on the ship is anything other than a desperate fabrication by Dov, their only hope is a junior police officer. But he has motives of his own. And with the net closing in on the fleeing Israeli operative, Dov and Salima find themselves caught in a race against time to stop the attack before hundreds of innocent people are killed.

The Battle for the Labour Party was first published in 1981 and was referenced by Tony Benn in his 1980-1990 diaries as ‘a valuable guide to the developments within the Labour party at this time'.This 1982 updated edition is an essential resource for all who are interested in understanding the history of the Labour Party from 1973-1982.The continuing power struggle within the Labour Party had raged for decades and had drastic effects on its popularity and credibility. At the 1982 party conference, the division between the Left and Right sharpened. Tony Benn's attempts to get into the shadow cabinet, the defection of members to the SDP, the Militant inquiry and the Tatchell affair all added to this general disenchantment.This 1982 edition accurately describes how these events developed. There are two additional chapters which deal with the activities of New Left groups in London boroughs, and with the fightback of the Right between the two party conferences. Interviews with major figures, including Shirley Williams and Roy Grantham, shed light on the events of the time. There is also more detailed insight into the GLC and events within London.For everyone interested or involved in the history of British politics, The Battle for the Labour Party provides an insightful and thought-provoking account of a fascinating piece of history.

Recounts the Holocaust rescue efforts from London of Rabbi Schonfeld (1912-1984) via the organization he founded, the Chief Rabbi's Religious Emergency Council. He was influenced by his teacher, Rabbi Michael Dov Weissmandel, who rescued Jews in Europe. Despite the opposition of assimilationist, antisemitism-fearing members of the British Jewish establishment, and of some Zionists, Schonfeld succeeded in bringing to England several thousand Orthodox Jews, both children and adults (mainly rabbis, teachers, and their families). He raised funds, provided housing, and gained support from the goverment. His rescue work began in 1938 and continued after 1945, when he brought Jewish orphans out of antisemitic Poland. Schonfeld was interested in spiritual as well as physical rescue and his successes affected the profile of British Jewry. Pt. 1 (pp. 1-119) contains a biography of Schonfeld. Pt. 2 (pp. 121-236) contains testimonies on his activities, especially the Kindertransports he organized, by people who were rescued by him or worked with him.

With the rare gift of a storyteller, David Landau takes the reader inside the little-known world of the haredim - the bearded, black-clothed Jewish fundamentalists. Decimated by the Holocaust, this sect has enjoyed a dramatic revival that has caused tensions everywhere and a bitter battle for the soul of Israel. Piety and Power describes life in the self-contained haredi ghettos in London, New York, and Jerusalem, where Hasidic rabbis reign supreme and strict rules govern every aspect of life. Landau takes the reader into homes marked by warm family life and strict sexual codes, and into yeshivas, the intellectual core of the community, where young men spend decades as full-time students of the Torah. For many readers, Jews and Gentiles alike, this will be a disturbing book. It depicts an aggressive, assertive fundamentalism in an expansive and self-confident mood, certain of its divine right to win souls and influence the Jewish people and to dictate its views on who is a Jew.

An astonishing collection of short stories--set deep in the twisted heart of middle class America--from one of America's most promising and highly acclaimed young writers. Leavitt lays bare the terrible lies of love and pain that bind us all in this "astounding collection of short stories".--New York Times. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award.

AMY GERSTLER’S COMMITMENT TO INNOVATIVE POETRY that conveys meaning, feeling, wit, and humor informs the cross section of poems in the 2010 edition of The Best American Poetry. The works collected here represent the wealth, the breadth, and the tremendous energy of poetry in the United States today. Featuring poems from some of our country’s top bards, including John Ashbery, Anne Carson, Louise Glück, Sharon Olds, and Charles Simic, The Best American Poetry 2010 also presents poems that poignantly capture the current moment, such as the sonnets John Updike wrote to chronicle his dying weeks. And there are exciting poems from a constellation of rising stars: Bob Hicok, Terrance Hayes, Denise Duhamel, Dean Young, and Elaine Equi, to name a very few. The anthology’s mainstays are in place: It opens with series editor David Lehman’s incisive foreword about the state of American poetry and has a marvelous introduction by Amy Gerstler. Notes from the poets, illuminating their poems and their writing processes, conclude this delightful addition to a classic series. Dick Allen * John Ashbery * Sandra Beasley * Mark Bibbins * Todd Boss * Fleda Brown * Anne Carson * Tom Clark * David Clewell * Michael Collier * Billy Collins * Dennis Cooper * Kate Daniels * Peter Davis * Tim Dlugos * Denise Duhamel * Thomas Sayers Ellis * Lynn Emanuel * Elaine Equi * Jill Alexander Essbaum * B. H. Fairchild * Vievee Francis * Louise Glück * Albert Goldbarth * Amy Glynn Greacen * Sonia Greenfield * Kelle Groom * Gabriel Gudding * Kimiko Hahn * Barbara Hamby * Terrance Hayes * Bob Hicok * Rodney Jones * Michaela Kahn * Brigit Pegeen Kelly * Corinne Lee * Hailey Leithauser * Dolly Lemke * Maurice Manning * Adrian Matejka * Shane McCrae * Jeffrey McDaniel * W. S. Merwin * Sarah Murphy * Eileen Myles * Camille Norton * Alice Notley * Sharon Olds * Gregory Pardlo * Lucia Perillo * Carl Phillips * Adrienne Rich * James Richardson * J. Allyn Rosser * James Schuyler * Tim Seibles * David Shapiro * Charles Simic * Frank Stanford * Gerald Stern * Stephen Campbell Sutherland * James Tate * David Trinidad * Chase Twichell * John Updike * Derek Walcott * G. C. Waldrep * J. E. Wei * Dara Wier * Terence Winch * Catherine Wing * Mark Wunderlich * Matthew Yeager * Dean Young * Kevin Young