In this incisive collection of essays, educator and activist Mark Naison draws on years of research on Bronx history and his own experience on the front lines of the education wars to unapologetically defend teachers and students from education "reform" policies that undermine their power and creativity. Naison shows how dominant education policy systematically hurts the very children it claims to support and instead forces them to "race to the top." He exposes the Duncans, Rhees, and Gateses for schemes that intensify racial and economic inequality. And he refocuses the conversation on teaching and organizing strategies that should be implemented in communities everywhere.

HAVE YOU EVER MET A CHILD WHO TALKED LIKE AN ADULT? Who knew big words and knew how to use them? Was he a charmer or an insufferable smart aleck—or maybe both? Mark Oppenheimer was just such a boy, his talent for language a curse as much as a blessing. Unlike math or music prodigies, he had no way to showcase his unique skill, except to speak like a miniature adult—a trick some found impressive but others found irritating. Frustrated and isolated, Oppenheimer used his powers for ill—he became a wisenheimer—pushing his peers and teachers away, acting out with prank phone calls, and worse. But when he got to high school, Oppenheimer discovered an outlet for his loquaciousness: the debate team. This smart, funny memoir not only reveals a strange, compelling subculture, it offers a broader discussion of the splendor and power (including the healing power) of language and of the social and developmental hazards of being a gifted child. Oppenheimer’s journey from loneliness to fulfillment affords a fascinating inside look at the extraordinary subculture of world-class high-school debate and at the power of language to change one’s life.

Did Muslims and Jews in the Middle Ages cohabit in a peaceful "interfaith utopia"? Or were Jews under Muslim rule persecuted, much as they were in Christian lands? Rejecting both polemically charged ideas as myths, Mark Cohen offers a systematic comparison of Jewish life in medieval Islam and Christendom--and the first in-depth explanation of why medieval Islamic-Jewish relations, though not utopic, were less confrontational and violent than those between Christians and Jews in the West. Under Crescent and Cross has been translated into Turkish, Hebrew, German, Arabic, French, and Spanish, and its historic message continues to be relevant across continents and time. This updated edition, which contains an important new introduction and afterword by the author, serves as a great companion to the original.

Dieses Prestel Postcard Book enthält 30 Postkarten im Format 16 x 11,5 cm mit den schönsten Werken von Marc Rothko und einem Einführungstext in Deutsch und Englisch. Die farbigen Reproduktionen entsprechen der Qualität der Prestel-Bücher. Die Postkarten können problemlos einzeln herausgelöst werden.

This is an account of the most massive ethnic cleansing ever performed. Between 1944 and 1950, through terror and starvation, 12-14 million ethnic Germans were driven from their eastern homelands by the advancing Soviet Union at the end of WWII, generating a death toll so large and chaotic that it can only be estimated between 600 thousand and 2 million. It is a piece of history largely ignored in the West. In the East (i.e.Russia) it was very much concealed (and even denied). That is, until Mark Solonin, a Russian aviation engineer and historian wrote this book in 2009. The problem with history is that it changes, depending on who is writing it and for whom it is being written. As the hackneyed phrase goes: "History is written by the victors". A subtler rephrasing has it that "the vanquished are the ones who are guilty of treason, even by the historians." Sometimes, however, many parties feel that certain historical events are best forgotten, the facts being too awful and the conclusions too dire to face. This was certainly the case with the history of the Red Army's advance through Eastern Europe at the end of the Second World War. The Western Allies preferred not to know so as to avoid being sullied by the crimes. The Soviets, who never had their Nuremburg for this or other doings, most certainly were not ready to face the matter and never have. "It was a long time ago and it never happened anyway." This short book was written by Mark Solonin in 2009 and is possibly the first book written by a Russian historian as a polemic for Russian readers to face facts and discover one can still live -and live better- with awkward knowledge. It is a remarkable work and should be useful to Western readers who also need to face the fact that we here allowed these matters to swept under the carpet as well. Mark Solonin is the author of several best-selling books in Russian that freshly analyse the history of the Second World War (the Soviet Great Patriotic War). As a result, he now finds himself obliged for his personal safety to live in exile.

For most of us, the French Revolution has been reduced to jokes about Marie-Antoinette, guillotines and the Scarlet Pimpernel. But for Mark Steel, bestselling author of REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL, the French Revolution was one of the most inspirational moments in human history - a moment when ordinary people changed the world and became extraordinary. It deserves better jokes than that. In this revolutionary new book, Steel banishes stuffiness from history, telling us what happened in France between the storming of the Bastille and the rise of Napoleon, bringing to life the people who made them happen. His account is dominated by bizarre events and splendid characters, from the famously odd Robespierre, Danton and Thomas Paine, to the less well known Drouet, the local postman who arrested the fleeing King because he recognised him as the man off of the money. VIVE LA REVOLUTION is an uproariously serious work of history - brilliantly funny and insightful, it puts the peculiarity of individual people back at the centre of the story.

This book analyzes the different ways mathematics is applicable in the physical sciences, and presents a startling thesis--the success of mathematical physics appears to assign the human mind a special place in the cosmos. Mark Steiner distinguishes among the semantic problems that arise from the use of mathematics in logical deduction; the metaphysical problems that arise from the alleged gap between mathematical objects and the physical world; the descriptive problems that arise from the use of mathematics to describe nature; and the epistemological problems that arise from the use of mathematics to discover those very descriptions. The epistemological problems lead to the thesis about the mind. It is frequently claimed that the universe is indifferent to human goals and values, and therefore, Locke and Peirce, for example, doubted science's ability to discover the laws governing the humanly unobservable. Steiner argues that, on the contrary, these laws were discovered, using manmade mathematical analogies, resulting in an anthropocentric picture of the universe as "user friendly" to human cognition--a challenge to the entrenched dogma of naturalism.

Shows drawings and paintings by the contemporary American artist, and discusses his unique approach to color, composition, and light

Following the success of Winning With the Dutch, this book provides a unique insight into the Sicilian Defence by top Soviet Grandmaster, Mark Taimanov. The author describes in detail the main principles of this popular opening, using a selection of fascinating and instructive games. This book features diagrams of the important position of each game and uses illustrative games to pinpoint the various aspects of defence strategies.

The tenure of Earl Warren as chief justice of the United States Supreme Court (1953-69) was marked by a series of decisions unique in the history of the Court for the progressive agenda they bespoke. What made the Warren Court special? How can students of history and political science understand the Warren Court as part of constitutional history and politics? To answer such questions, nine well-known legal scholars and historians explore how each justice contributed to the distinctiveness of the Warren Court in Supreme Court history.

"What kind of person do you want to be in the coming year? While many of us attend High Holiday services each year, how many of us feel prepared and inspired? This year, instead of just 'showing up' prepare yourself with easily digestible and compact Jewish wisdom from Rabbi Mark Wildes ... Each reading, to be studied each day from Rosh Chodesh Elul to Yom Kippur, is followed by a challenge question to personalize that teaching so the book can serve as a spiritual diary as you approach the High Holidays. The 40 day challenge will help you use this special time on the Jewish calendar to become the very best version of yourself, and connect to God at a time when He is closest"--

Teenotchy Simms is a young black man, a servant in the household of the Klebers, an upright Quaker family living in Philadelphia. Trapped by his family's history, Teenotchy thinks more of the past than the future. Then in 1913 a young white man, Alexander, enters his life.

This unique book gives an informal introduction into the non-Euclidean geometries through a series of dialogues between a somewhat grown-up Alice (of Looking Glass fame), her uncle Lewis Carroll, and a visitor from the twentieth century, Dr Whatif. In the story, Lewis Carroll's geometrical beliefs are cast into the Euclidean mould, Dr Whatif asks the penetrating and controversial questions, and Alice acts as a mediator and interested participant. The book is intentionally more mathematical than Lewis Carroll's books, but for those of us who enjoyed Alice's earlier adventures there are many interesting flashbacks to those inimitable characters: the Red Queen, Tweedle-Dum and his twin brother, the Mad Hatter ... The text is filled with humour, wit, and verses of poetry. Part 1 contains the story in six chapters, each of which concludes with a problem set; Part 2 is more mathematical, and looks at the axiom systems, and gives solutions to the problems. The presentation, with its old-time borders, script headings, and cartoon drawings evokes the spirit of the original Alice.

Written in the aftermath of World War II, Love Goes to Press opened in London in 1946 and on Broadway in 1947. At the time a relief for the survivors of Blitzkrieg and ration cards, today it is a devilishly entertaining portrayal of the Battle of the Sexes. In this romantic farce, set in a press camp on the Italian front in 1944, two women war correspondents—smart, sexy, and famous for scooping their male competitors—struggle to balance their professional lives with their love lives. The American literary tradition is replete with stories of “men without women,” but in Love Goes to Press Martha Gellhorn and Virginia Cowles have created a world of “women without men.” Complications ensue when one of our heroines unexpectedly encounters her ex-husband, a famous writer whom she had divorced on the grounds of plagiarism. This Bison Books edition features a preface and an updated afterword by Sandra Spanier discussing her recent archival discoveries, her experience of working with Gellhorn to publish the play for the first time, and the strong resemblance of the leading man to Gellhorn’s ex-husband, Ernest Hemingway.