Since very early times Sirius was a point of attraction in the night sky. It served to synchronize calendars in antiquity and was the subject of many myths and legends, including some modern ones. It was perceived as a red star for more than 400 years, but such reports were relegated to the Mediterranean region. Astronomically, Sirius is a very bright star. This, and its present close distance to us, argues in favor of it being the target of detailed studies of stellar structure and evolution. Its binary nature, with a companion that is one of the more massive white dwarfs, is an additional reason for such studies. This book collects the published information on Sirius in an attempt to derive a coherent picture of how this system came to look as it does.

Unlike most children faced with the prospect of having a stepmother, Gabby Weiss isn't the slightest bit resistant to the idea. In fact, she wishes her father would hurry up and marry someone who knows about womanhood; someone who understands her worries about everything that is happening (or worse, not happening) to her body. For a while, it seems like Cleo, her father's girfriend, might fulfil this role. But when things fall apart, Gabby has to find her own solution. She decides to travel to the last place she saw her mother to try and reconstruct a memory of her. But what she finds there is something even better.

"The Court Society is a book to be read on several levels. It is a historical book, carefully researched and with great imagination painting a vivid and detailed picture of the life of the king and his courtiers during the reign of Louis XIV. But it is concerned with more than this. From the time of the pharaohs to the downfall of king and emperors in the twentieth century, princely court societies have played a vital role in the development of humanity. The Court Society provides the key to an understanding not only of a particular court society but of court societies in general. Professor Elias raises the question, for example, of how it was possible for a single person, a monarch, to rule, and to count on the obedience of, millions of people. Was Louis XIV really the "absolute" monarch he is described today as being? Was he truly free to do what he liked, or were there clearly defined limits to the power of even an absolute prince? The Court Society is a sociological enquiry into the problems of power, particularly that of a hierarchic institution headed by a single person. As such, it has a great deal of importance to say about many situations in the world today"--Publisher.

Book by Wiener, Norbert

Norma Barzman is a blacklisted writer living in Southern France. Henry Myers is her beloved cousin, a former member of the Algonquin circle who has found his writing talent diminished with age, and is living an isolated life in New York City. When Norma invites Henry to Italy to realize their mutual dream of traveling together to Cremona to write about the mysterious origins of violin making, neither one could have anticipated the explosive consequences of their journey. But their adventure opens a Pandora's box of long-suppressed emotions, family secrets, and forces each to reassess their feelings towards each other, and themselves.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

INVENTING THE MIDDLE AGES The Lives, Works, and Ideas of the Great Medievalists of the Twentieth Century In this ground-breaking work, Norman Cantor explains how our current notion of the Middle Ages-with its vivid images of wars, tournaments, plagues, saints and kings, knights and ladies-was born in the twentieth century. The medieval world was not simply excavated through systematic research. It had to be conceptually created: It had to be invented, and this is the story of that invention. Norman Cantor focuses on the lives and works of twenty of the great medievalists of this century, demonstrating how the events of their lives, and their spiritual and emotional outlooks, influenced their interpretations of the Middle Ages. Cantor makes their scholarship an intensely personal and passionate exercise, full of color and controversy, displaying the strong personalities and creative minds that brought new insights about the past. A revolution in academic method, this book is a breakthrough to a new way of teaching the humanities and historiography, to be enjoyed by student and general public alike. It takes an immense body of learning and transmits it so that readers come away fully informed of the essentials of the subject, perceiving the interconnection of medieval civilization with the culture of the twentieth century and having had a good time while doing it! This is a riveting, entertaining, humorous, and learned read, compulsory for anyone concerned about the past and future of Western civilization.

This work focuses on the lives and works of 20 of the great medievalists of this century, demonstrating how the events of their lives, and their emotional and spiritual outlooks influenced their interpretations of the Middle Ages.

"In this collection of essays spanning the career of beloved Zen teacher Norman Fischer, readers see the fascinating development of the mind and interests of a gifted writer and profoundly committed practitioner"--

Contains four essays on political theory after the Holocaust. The prevalent indifference of the rest of humankind toward the victims of the Nazi genocide casts doubts on the consistency of all political theories of modern times. "The Contract of Mutual Indifference" (pp. 1-82) states that both individuals and states throughout the world must either recognize their duty to help those in acute danger or crying need, or arrive at a "contract of mutual indifference." "Socialist Hope in the Shadow of Catastrophe" (pp. 83-120) [appeared in "Are There Alternatives?" (London, 1996)] elaborates on the arguments in Ralph Miliband's "Socialism for a Sceptical Age" that the Holocaust and the worldwide reaction to it put in question the credibility of the socialist project. "Progress without Foundations?" (pp. 121-138) [a lecture delivered at a conference held in London in 1995] supports the view of Richard Rorty that the Holocaust did not discredit the idea of progress and gradual improvement of human nature, but only causes humanity to "try again." "Marxists before the Holocaust" (pp. 139-170) [an earlier version was delivered at a conference held in Amsterdam in 1996] criticizes the views of Ernest Mandel on the singularity of the Holocaust and its meaning.

"Saying No to Hate grounds readers in the history of antisemitism in America, emphasizing the strategies Jews have used to address threats and thereby preparing us to recognize, understand, and confront hatred today"--

"In 1944, at the height of World War II, 982 European refugees found a temporary haven at Fort Ontario in Oswego, New York. They were men, women, and children who had spent frightening years one step ahead of Nazi pursuers and death. They spoke nineteen different languages, and, while most of the refugees were Jewish, a number were Catholic, Greek Orthodox, and Protestant Christians. From the time they arrived at the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter on August 5 they began re-creating their lives and embarked on the road to becoming American citizens. In the history of World War II and the Holocaust, this "token" save by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the War Refugee Board was too little and too late for millions. But for those few who reached Oswego it was life changing. The Shelter and the Fence tells their stories"--

Norman Levine's Canada Made Me , first published in England in 1958, is a bitter, critical reassessment of the moral and cultural values of Canada. His account of his three-month journey from Halifax to Ucluelet, a fishing village on the west coast, is an unconventional portrait of Canada's underbelly. The book ends with the words: `I wondered why I felt so bitter about Canada. After all, it was all part of a dream, an experiment that could not come off. It was foolish to believe that you can take the throwouts, the rejects, the human kickabouts from Europe and tell them: Here you have a second chance. Here you can start a new life. But no one ever mentioned the price one had to pay; how much of oneself you had to betray.' Canada Made Me was regarded as so controversial that it did not appear in a Canadian edition until 1979. Critical opinion, however, has slowly swung around to the point the book was recently described in the Globe and Mail as a `laconic classic'. For this new edition Norman Levine has written an introduction which traces the book's publishing history and reputation.

Corwin, Norman Lewis

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