"The cultural death of God has created a conundrum for intellectuals. How could a life stripped of ultimate meaning be anything but absurd? How was man to live? How could he find direction in a world of no direction? What would he tell his children that could make their lives worthwhile? What is the ground of morality? Existentialism is the literary cri de coeur resulting from the realization that without God, everything good, true and beautiful in human life is destined to be destroyed in a pitiless material cosmos. Theodore Dalrymple and Kenneth Francis examine the main existentialist works, from Ecclesiastes to the Theatre of the Absurd, each man coming from a different perspective. Francis is a believer, Dalrymple is not, but both empathize with the struggle to find meaning in a seemingly meaningless universe. Part literary criticism, part philosophical exploration, this book holds many surprising gems of insight from two of the most interesting minds of our time."--Amazon.

[8], 376 pages, 12 plates, cloth.

Understanding the history of psychiatry requires an accurate view of its function and purpose. In this provocative new study of this nominal medical specialty, Szasz challenges conventional beliefs about psychiatry. He asserts that, in fact, psychiatrists are not concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of bonafide illnesses. He contends that the truth about psychiatry, its self-evident ends, and the means used to achieve them is socially unacceptable. Psychiatric tradition, social expectation, and the law make it clear that coercion is the profession's determining characteristi

This critique of Left Zionism argues a Jewish-only state cannot offer peace or justice for Palestinians.

Describes the seafaring society of the Polynesians long ago and includes instructions for making some of their craft objects.

7 essays by leading media critics explore the politics and social implications of television. "...An important step into the past wasteland era of writing about the tube." - NYT Book Review

Mohamed Al Fayed, flamboyant tycoon, condemned by DTI inspectors as "guilty of deception on a grand scale," has always bitterly attacked these findings. This is the story of the poor boy from Egypt who became the self-proclaimed King of Knightsbridge.

In 2000, Theater Communications Group published Death & Taxes which contained the following one-acts: REVERSE TRANSCRIPTION, G DAVID SCHINE IN HELL, NOTES ON AKIBA, TERMINATING and EAST COAST ODE TO HWARD JARVIS. In 2009 the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, under the title Tiny Kushner, produced FLIP FLOP FLY, TERMINATING, EAST COAST ODE TO HOWARD JARVIS, DR ARNOLD A HUTSCHNECKER IN PARADISE, and ONLY WE WHO GUARD THE MYSTERY SHALL BE UNHAPPY. This book, for the first time, collects all these one-acts in one place.

Product Description Once a notorious hippie, Sammuel Himmelhoch joins a Hassidic sect of penitents in Jerusalem and becomes a Master of the Return, guiding fellow converts to the teachings of Rabbi Nahman of Bratslay From Publishers Weekly In Mara, Reich, herself the scion of a rabbinical family, took aim at the mores of American Orthodox Jewry. Here, she casts her sly, sardonic eye upon those at the opposite end of the spectrum, so to speakIsraeli penitents. With vigor, irreverence and devastating accuracy, she limns a flock of zany zealots, intoxicated by the rarefied Hassidism of Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav. These cultists, former hippies who are now "high on the One Above," are at once delightfully absurd in their revival, even invention, of bizarre customs (such as the paramount pilgrimage to Rabbi Nahman's Ukranian grave to terminate "nocturnal emissions"); poignant in their misguided, miseducated search for identity and redemption; as self-indulgent in their expiation as they once were in their passions; and alarming in their patent misogyny, racism, deceit, self-righteousness and extreme messianic political agenda. In Reich's hands, plot and character development are sacrificed to an extravagant religious and social parody cum cautionary tale. The penitents remain symbolic figuresas exemplified by an elderly midwife, whose name, Shifra-Puah, evokes her righteous colleagues from the biblical book of Exodus who disobeyed the pharaonic decree to murder male newborns, and Avraham Ger, whose surname, Hebrew for convert, proclaims his adoption of Judaism. Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal Samuel Himmelhoch was once lighting effects man for notorious rock groups, his wife Ivriya rode horses bare-breasted in Rosh Pina, and Sora Katz was the former Pam Buck of Macon, Georgia, but now they are all members of an extreme Hassidic sect, living together in the Moslem quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. Described with affection and great insight, the riotous adventures of these sincere but sometimes misguided penitents easily mix the supernatural with human events. Reich pinpoints absurdity and self-righteousness beautifully, as when Reb Lev Luria pontificates in gematria (talmudic numeric equivalents) derived from his newly donated computer. An arrestingly comtemporary treatment of Jewish spirituality and renewal. Highly recommended. Molly Abramowitz, Silver Spring, Md.Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This series of essays on safety and loss prevention is aimed at helping the process industries avoid accidents and improve its public image. The central message is the apparent inability of organizations to learn, and retain in the long term, the lessons drawn from accidents. Thus incidents of a similar type recur within the same company at intervals of a decade or so, as personnel involved move on to other jobs.

From the late 1930's to the early 1960's, Chinese nightclubs fourished in San Francisco's Chinatown. They were the first, and in those days the only venues for talented Asians who sang or danced professionally. Asian entertainers came from everywhere to perform in Chinatown, and they all found a home in the Chinese Nightclubs. For publicity purposes, many of the entertainers were compared to famous Caucasian stars. They were billed as "The Chinese Fred Astair and Ginger Rogers," "the Chinese Frank Sinatra", the "Chinese Sophie Tucker." They sang and danced for the GIs during the war, and Hollywood stars like Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman came to their shows. In this book the men and women who performed in the nightclubs from 1937 to 1964, tell their stories in their own words. Forbidden city brings back to life an age of glamour and a long neglected slice of Asian-American history.

"The Great Women Superheroes is the first book for its kind-a unique and lively look at the larger than life comic book women who have fascinated generations of American readers. Tina Robbins, the foremost authority on women and comics and the author of the widely hailed A Century of Women Cartoonists, traces the full story of all the strong and heroic women who've battled evildoers and righted wrongs in the pages of America's Sunday funnies and comic books from the 1940s to today. From the famous to the forgotten, all the powerful women of the comics are here, from Wonder Woman to Elktra, from the cat-suited Miss Fury and poineer avitrix Flying Jenny of the 1940's to the leather-corseted action heroines like Ghost of the 1990's, Robbins covers all the good girls and all the bad girls in one fascinating volume." -- back cover.

New translation of Le coeur a gaz (1922) with introduction, commentary, and staging.