Weyl's research peeled away the accumulated layers of Communist hagiography and reveals Marx to have been a bigot of the first order. He used the proverbial "N word" just the way a Klan thug would. He hated the Jews, the Slavs, the Chinese and everybody else. If he was funny and clean-shaven, he'd be Archie Bunker instead of the fearless prophet of the downtrodden working classes. Weyl passed away in 1975. Born in 1910, he was educated at Columbia College in New York and then did postgraduate work at the prestigious London School of Economics. He returned to the United States at the height of the Great Depression joined the Communist Party and got a job in one of President Roosevelt's "New Deal" agencies. He hob-nobbed with other Communists including Alger Hiss, but "found secret membership in this [Communist] cell while a US official duplicitous, and resolved my personal problem by resigning from the government." Appalled by Stalin's cynical alliance with Hitler in 1939, Weyl left the Communist Party and began to notice some of the warts on its founder, Karl Marx. This book is his gift to us and it stands as a reminder of the kind of flawed man Marx really was. It should be required reading in every history and political science course on the planet. It is original, well written, carefully researched and interesting for anybody who is a student of modern history, European history, totalitarianism, 20th century world history, especially the Cold War.

The rediscovery of Scotland’s past and a wake-up call about its future, from a leading scholar-journalist Scotland has a new Parliament and it has North Sea oil, but is it yet an independent, self-sustaining democracy? Is it a true nation? In Stone Voices, Neal Ascherson launches what he calls an imaginative invasion of his native land, searching for the relationships, themes, and fantasies that make up “Scotland.” Beginning with a breathtaking portrait of the country’s landscape, and of the way humanity has indelibly marked even its rockiest contours, Ascherson takes us on a journey through Scotland’s past, interweaving his historical accounts with a rollicking report on a back-country bus expedition he joined during the 1997 referendum campaign that led to Scotland’s first modern Parliament. He asked voters then what kind of country they hoped for, what they feared, and what they expected—questions that animate his book as well. In his search for a nation, Acherson explores many themes: the slow, hybrid formation of the Scottish people over centuries of successive immigrations; the way their most renowned intellectuals and writers came to hate the national church; the peculiar nature of their diaspora; the coexistence of their search for an “authentic” Scotland with the myths others create; and the Scots’ proud sense of true independence. Stone Voices enlightens us about Scotland, about Europe, and about the conditions for freedom that we must all seek today.

חדשים אוקטובר 2008

Book by Wynn, Ned

Poetry. The latest collection from prolific poet, literary chronicler, and man on the scene, Neeli Cherkovski, pays homage to his aging and gone friends from the heyday of all their lives, contemplates upon his own dwindling days, celebrates each moment passing by, and attempts to come to grips with ultimate ends. Neeli Cherkovski was born a poet and through hard, lifelong work, turned himself into a constant maker. These poems result from a close alignment between fingers, pencil, paper, and brain.

Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Western Society for French History, Vol. 22

Perfect for the many readers who bought Politically Correct Bedtime Stories and The Portable Curmedgeon, this clever book attacks 26 things that drive people crazy, from advertising to car alarms, from McDonald's to teeth-grinding.

Art from the ghettos and concentration camps of Nazi Europe echo the spirit and courage of and the horrors endured by the Jewish people determined to survive in the face of imminent annihilation

Nelly Sachs' book-length poem "Glowing Enigmas" is widely regarded as the Nobel Laureate's finest poetic achievement and one of the essential poetic works of postwar Europe. This definitive edition is the first in English to showcase the poem in its entirety. Michael Hamburger's incomparable translation captures the deep sadness, lyrical mystery, and transcendent opacity at the heart of Sachs' haunting masterpiece.

"Be calm," the voice said softly. "Take the black one first. Line up the wires just below the throat, and gently, gently..."So begins the nightmare that the world has long feared. What starts as an assassination becomes a civil war and the conflict spreads until half the African continent is threatened by annihilation. Mistrust and suspicion force the superpowers into confrontation as they strive to protect their interests in Africa. And as the terrorist leader responsible for it all watches his last and most dangerous gamble spiral out of control, rescuers struggle to reach the U.S. President. Trapped in an underground cavern, he is powerless to use his knowledge to prevent a nuclear catastrophe. Political conspiracy, an unusual love affair, and the threat to world peace will keep you hypnotized until the chilling conclusion. The Third Power takes place at the height of the cold war--but although the actors have changed, this is an all-too-possible blueprint for disaster in the current political environment.

America grows older yet stays focused on its young. Whatever hill we try to climb, we're "over" it by fifty and should that hill involve entertainment or athletics we're finished long before. But if younger is better, it doesn't appear that youngest is best: we want our teachers, doctors, generals, and presidents to have reached a certain age. In context after context and contest after contest, we're more than a little conflicted about elders of the tribe; when is it right to honor them, and when to say "step aside"? In LASTINGNESS, Nicholas Delbanco, one of America's most celebrated men of letters, profiles great geniuses in the fields of visual art, literature, and music-Monet, Verdi, O'Keeffe, Yeats, among others - searching for the answers to why some artists' work diminishes with age, while others' reaches its peak. Both an intellectual inquiry into the essence of aging and creativity and a personal journey of discovery, this is a brilliant exploration of what determines what one needs to do to keep the habits of creation and achievement alive.

The Art of Youth is a moving inquiry into the nature of artistic prodigies who did their major work at an early age. Renowned novelist Nicholas Delbanco gives us a triptych of indelible portraits: the American writer Stephen Crane (immortalized by The Red Badge of Courage ); British artist Dora Carrington (called "the most neglected serious painter of her time"); and the legendary composer George Gershwin ( Rhapsody in Blue , Porgy and Bess ). All three lived colorful, productive lives before dying early, at an average age of thirty-five. In this learned and elegant book, Delbanco discovers what it is we mourn in authors who pass away so young, and muses on his own life--one marked by both early success and longevity.

Now thoroughly revised and updated, this edition also includes a new introduction which places Britain's experience of monetarism into a world context.

"In Error, Nicholas Rescher presents a fresh analysis of the occurrence, causality, and consequences of error in human thought, action, and evaluation. Rescher maintains that error-avoidance and truth-achievement are distinct but equally important factors for rational inquiry, and that error is inherent in the human cognitive process (to err is human). He defines three main categories of error cognitive (failure to realize truths); practical (failure related to the objective of an action): and axiological (failure in evaluation), and articulates the factors that contribute to each. His discussion also provides a historical perspective on the treatment of error by Greek philosophers and later thinkers such as Aquinas, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, James, Royce, Moore, and Russell."--BOOK JACKET