TRICK I-- The first thing to vanish is a worthless doorstop. Then in the twinkling of an eye, goes its rich and eldely owner. and, for the grand finale, both reappear--each as dead as the other. TRICK II--From the House of Darkness issues more bafflement. In total darkness and from a distance of twelve feet, four bullets are pumped within an inch of each other into a spectator's back. A feat utterly impossible to perform--yet brazenly and undeniably done. TRICK III-- The piece de resistance. This time it's an entire house, a real house, a solid house which Ellery Queen had been in only the day before...vanished from the face of the earth. And in its place, one of the most incredible conundrums ever to face the master crime solver. * The Lamp of God (Detective Story, October 1935 as House of Haunts) * ...The Treasure Hunt (Detective Story, 1935) * ...The Hollow Dragon (Redbook, December 1936) * ...The House of Darkness (The American Magazine, February 1935) * ...The Bleeding Portrait (original "The Gramatan Mystery" * Man Bites Dog (Blue Book, June, 1939) * Long Shot (Blue Book, September 1939) * Mind Over Matter (Blue Book, October 1939) * The Trojan Horse (Blue Book, December 1939)

Every generation of Jews in every denomination of Judaism finds itself facing complex legal questions. The status of same-sex unions and the plight of the agunah (a woman who cannot obtain a divorce) are just two of a myriad of thorny questions Jewish legal experts grapple with today. These are not esoteric problems but issues with a profound impact on the daily happiness of countless people. How do the rabbis who draft responses to these questions reach their conclusions? What informs their decisions and their approach to Jewish law?The acclaimed writer and legal expert Elliot Dorff addresses these and other questions in this guide to the philosophy behind Jewish law. What motivates modern Jews to follow Jewish law? How does Jewish law strike the balance between continuity and change? On what grounds and under what circumstances do human beings have the authority to interpret or even change God's laws?Dorff also offers a systematic comparison of Jewish law and U.S. law, based on his course on this subject at UCLA.Whether you are a lawyer or simply interested in the philosophy behind recent rabbinic decisions, this is a book that will deepen your understanding of the Jewish legal s

In this topically relevant book on modern ethical issues, Dorff focuses on personal ethics, Judaism's distinctive way of understanding human nature, our role in life, and what we should strive to be, both as individuals and as members of a community. Dorff addresses specific moral issues that affect our personal lives: privacy, particularly at work as it is affected by the Internet and other modern technologies; sex in and outside of marriage; family matters, such as adoption, surrogate motherhood, stepfamilies, divorce, parenting, and family violence; homosexuality; justice, mercy, and forgiveness; and charitable acts and social action.

Elliot Dorff explores the Jewish perspective of social justice in relation to topics such as poverty, war, intrafaith and interfaith relations, family and privacy. He also covers Jewish social ethics as they both relate to and contrast with today's Christian and American belief systems. Dorff, a respected leader in the field of Jewish ethics, argues that Jewish sources, when properly placed within the framework of modern-day realities, can provide guidance for Jews looking to "do the right and the good" in their daily lives. These writings help many Jews understand the foundations and directions of their own social responsibility.

Menaḥem Mendel Schneerson (1902-1994) was the seventh and seemingly last Rebbe of the Habad-Lubavitch dynasty. Marked by conflicting tendencies, Schneerson was a radical messianic visionary who promoted a conservative political agenda, a reclusive contemplative who built a hasidic sect into an international movement, and a man dedicated to the exposition of mysteries who nevertheless harbored many secrets. Schneerson astutely masked views that might be deemed heterodox by the canons of orthodoxy while engineering a fundamentalist ideology that could subvert traditional gender hierarchy, the halakhic distinction between permissible and forbidden, and the social-anthropological division between Jew and Gentile. While most literature on the Rebbe focuses on whether or not he identified with the role of Messiah, Elliot R. Wolfson, a leading scholar of Jewish mysticism and the phenomenology of religious experience, concentrates instead on Schneerson's apocalyptic sensibility and his promotion of a mystical consciousness that undermines all discrimination. For Schneerson, the ploy of secrecy is crucial to the dissemination of the messianic secret. To be enlightened messianically is to be delivered from all conceptual limitations, even the very notion of becoming emancipated from limitation. The ultimate liberation, or true and complete redemption, fuses the believer into an infinite essence beyond all duality, even the duality of being emancipated and not emancipated--an emancipation, in other words, that emancipates one from the bind of emancipation. At its deepest level, Schneerson's eschatological orientation discerned that a spiritual master, if he be true, must dispose of the mask of mastery. Situating Habad's thought within the evolution of kabbalistic mysticism, the history of Western philosophy, and Mahayana Buddhism, Wolfson articulates Schneerson's rich theology and profound philosophy, concentrating on the nature of apophatic embodiment, semiotic materiality, hypernomian transvaluation, nondifferentiated alterity, and atemporal temporality.

Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) is considered one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century in spite of his well-known transgressions-his complicity with National Socialism and his inability to show remorse or compassion for its victims. In The Duplicity of Philosophy's Shadow, Elliot R. Wolfson intervenes in a debate that has seen much attention in scholarly and popular media from a unique perspective, as a scholar of Jewish mysticism and philosophy who has been profoundly influenced by Heidegger's work. Wolfson sets out to probe Heidegger's writings to expose what remains unthought. In spite of Heidegger's explicit anti-Semitic statements, Wolfson reveals some crucial aspects of his thinking--including criticism of the biological racism and militant apocalypticism of Nazism--that betray an affinity with dimensions of Jewish thought: the triangulation of the concepts of homeland, language, and peoplehood; Jewish messianism and the notion of historical time as the return of the same that is always different; inclusion, exclusion, and the status of the other; the problem of evil in kabbalistic symbolism. Using Heidegger's own methods, Wolfson reflects on the inextricable link of truth and untruth and investigates the matter of silence and the limits of speech. He challenges the tendency to bifurcate the relationship of the political and the philosophical in Heidegger's thought, but parts company with those who write off Heidegger as a Nazi ideologue. Ultimately, The Duplicity of Philosophy's Shadow argues, the greatness and relevance of Heidegger's work is that he presents us with the opportunity to think the unthinkable as part of our communal destiny as historical beings

"From Jewish-lesbian editor, activist, and author Elly Bulkin comes a book about transforming the self through language. Memory as catalyst. Dyke origins. Childhood sexual abuse. The rough and tumble of feminist politics. The break-up of a long-term relationship. Radical Jews, motherhood, the love of friends. A writer's high dive into a bucket of water"--

"This is a work of genuine discovery that uses both the methods and sources of first-rate scholarship. It is a valuable addition to the 'new thinking' about the Middle East, [although] there are many who will refute its contribution without so much as a glance at its first page because it was written by Elmer Berger. The loss is theirs. Who will gain are those, like Berger himself, with an open mind and a willingness to become familiar with new perspectives on an ancient controversy."--From the Foreword by Don Peretz, professor of political science, SUNY-Binghamton At the outset of the 1949 armistice negotiations between Israel and its Arab neighbors, acting UN mediator Ralph Bunche expressed his hope that the talks would "chart the road to a peace for Palestine," an outcome apparently as elusive today as when he spoke those words more than forty years ago. Perhaps the most significant aspect of this meticulously documented analysis of those negotiations is its relevance for today's headlines. Relating the proposals and counterproposals, the conspiracies and power plays to present-day Israeli and Middle East policies, Berger suggests that the basic negotiating strategies of the main players have persisted almost unchanged into the present, a "near rigidity" that has defeated all efforts to achieve peace in the Middle East's central conflict. Berger is a controversial rabbi, an avowed anti-Zionist who proves himself capable of examining highly flammable issues and events with objectivity, insight, and rigorous scholarship. Drawing upon newly released material from official Israeli and U.S. archives, Berger manages to paint both the large picture and the telling detail--the frustrations of the conscientious and highly respected Bunche, the pathetically unprepared Arab negotiators, the well-informed Israeli diplomats, the intrigue of the Israel-Transjordan alliance. The work will serve serious observers of the prolonged conflict over Palestine as a guide to applicable international law and to the attitudes and negotiating policies of the countries involved. Elmer Berger has for twenty-five years been president of American Jewish Alternatives to Zionism, Inc., and has written and edited a number of books on Judaism and Jewish nationalism. At the outset of the 1949 armistice negotiations between Israel and its Arab neighbors, acting UN mediator Ralph Bunche expressed his hope that the talks would "chart the road to a peace for Palestine," an outcome apparently as elusive today as when he spoke those words more than forty years ago. Perhaps the most significant aspect of this meticulously documented analysis of those negotiations is its relevance for today's headlines. Relating the proposals and counterproposals, the conspiracies and power plays to present-day Israeli and Middle East policies, Berger suggests that the basic negotiating strategies of the main players have persisted almost unchanged into the present, a "near rigidity" that has defeated all efforts to achieve peace in the Middle East's central conflict. Berger is a controversial rabbi, an avowed anti-Zionist who proves himself capable of examining highly flammable issues and events with objectivity, insight, and rigorous scholarship. Drawing upon newly released material from official Israeli and U.S. archives, Berger manages to paint both the large picture and the telling detail--the frustrations of the conscientious and highly respected Bunche, the pathetically unprepared Arab negotiators, the well-informed Israeli diplomats, the intrigue of the Israel-Transjordan alliance. The work will serve serious observers of the prolonged conflict over Palestine as a guide to applicable international law and to the attitudes and negotiating policies of the countries involved. Elmer Berger has for twenty-five years been president of American Jewish Alternatives to Zionism, Inc., and has written and edited a number of books on Judaism and Jewish nationalism.

Ely Devons (1913-67) was a British economist and statistician who made notable contributions to a variety of areas. Originally published in 1950, this book contains a study of the way in which the Ministry of Aircraft Production planned production during the Second World War. Based upon Devons' firsthand experience within the planning division of the Ministry, the text forms a highly personal record of the ways in which production was planned, incorporating criticisms and judgements where necessary. A linear historical perspective is avoided, in favour of a systematic approach focusing on various aspects of the production process in turn. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in British aircraft production and military history.

Coming back was worse, much worse, than Martin Stone had anticipated. Martin Stone returns to the city from which his family was driven in 1938. He has concealed his destination from his father, and hopes to win some form of restitution for the depressed old man living in exile in London. THE LOST EUROPEANS portrays a tense, ruined yet flourishing Berlin where nothing is quite what it seems.

First published in 1976. Violent behaviour occurs in every society. It grows out of the social order and can therefore be understood only in a social context. This book examines an orderly and relatively tranquil society, a small Israeli town settled by new immigrants, which is run by public agencies who pour in their resources to maintain the inhabitants. Circumstances have made the town an egalitarian society, but also limit its members' economic opportunities. This society has produced its special combinations of violent behaviour. The analysis extensively employs the 'case method' which has increasingly been used by social anthropologists.

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Between late 1942 and early 1944, the Marines took part in a series of major campaigns in and around the Solomons--including New Georgia, Bougainville, and Cape Gloucester--all part of the effort to reach the Japanese at Rabaul. Eric Hammel has scoured the National Archives to unearth every extant combat photo of these campaigns that paved the way to victory in the Pacific. Although the 1st Marine Division had broken the back of the Japanese on Guadalcanal in furious combat in October and November of 1942, there was still much hard fighting up the "slot" in the Solomons first in New Georgia, then Bouganville, and finally Cape Goucester on the west end of New Britain, where the 1st Marine Divsion returned to battle at the end of 1943 after being restored following its grueling fight for Guadalcanal. The Marines campaigns in the Solomons and onto New Britain resulted in the mighty Japanese fortress at Rabaul on the northeast coast of New Britain being isolated and the flank of the continuing army campaign for New Guinea under MacArthur being secured from attacks from Fortress Rabaul. The high watermark of the Japanese in the South and Southwest Pacific had now passed, and the Marines would continue their island hopping in the Central Pacific all the way to Japan.

An organizing manifesto for the twenty-first century, Playbook for Progressives is a must-have for the activist’s tool kit. This comprehensive guide articulates pragmatically what is required in the often mystifying and rarely explained on-the-ground practice of organizing. Here, Eric Mann distills lessons he learned from over forty years as an organizer, as well as from other organizers within the civil rights, labor, LGBT, economic justice, and environmental movements.

* A major historical essay on white racism and Black Reconstruction from 1865 to the present-- rooted in the work of Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, John Brown, W.E.B. Du Bois, Harry Haywood, Fannie Lou Hamer, Malcolm X, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Black Panther Party, and Amiri Baraka.* A strategic intervention on demand development: The Right of Return for the 250,000-person Black New Orleans Diaspora, An Environmental Justice Plan for New Orleans, Full Democratic Rights, Land, Reparations, and Self-Determination for Black People in the U.S., Black Women in the Eye of the Storm, Immigrant and Indigenous Rights, Free the Prisoners, U.S. Out of Iraq, and Placing the Struggle on the International Stage. * A call for a Third Reconstruction--a hopeful and strategic challenge to the two-party Second Counterrevolution under which we are living today. An antiracist, anti-imperialist alternative to the Age of Reaction

Based on unprecedented access to the Order's internal documents, this book provides the first systematic social history of the Orange Order - the Protestant association dedicated to maintaining the British connection in Northern Ireland. Kaufmann charts the Order's path from the peak of its influence, in the early 1960s, to its present-day crisis. Along the way, he sketches a portrait of many of Orangeism's leading figures, from ex-Prime Minister John Andrews to Ulster Unionist Party politicians like Martin Smyth, James Molyneaux, and David McNarry. Kaufmann also includes the highly revealing correspondence with adversaries such as Ian Paisley and David Trimble. Packed with analyses of mass-membership trends and attitudes, the book also takes care to tell the story of the Order from 'below' as well as from above. In the process, it argues that the traditional Unionism of West Ulster is giving way to the more militant Unionism of Antrim and Belfast which is winning the hearts of the younger generation in cities and towns throughout the province.

A war correspondent emphasises the disputes between India and Pakistan: China and India; the rival interests of Russia, the US, Iran, China, India, and Pakistan

What kind of political philosopher was Hegel? In what ways was he right and wrong, and how much does it matter? To what extent can he be held responsible for the factions that came after him? Was he the founder of modern revolutionary theory, the great conservative champion of the Prussian militarist state, or a philosopher with equal appeal to left and right?The controversy surrounding such questions is fed both by the facts of Hegel's life and by the immense range of views expressed in his writings and lectures. In "Hegel and the State" Eric Weil reviews these disputes, their philosophic underpinnings, and their historical consequences, providing an introduction to the breadth of Hegel's thoughts about politics as well as a reliable guide through its twists, turns, and detours. First published in 1950, "Hegel and the State" has become one of the few classics of Hegel studies. It is now available for the first time in English translation in an edition that includes Weil's closely related essay, "Marx and the "Philosophy of Right,"" an examination of Marx's most direct confrontation with Hegel's philosophy.

This volume focuses on key conceptual issues in the social sciences, such as Winch's idea of a social science, structuralism, Malinowski and Evans-Pritchard, and the concept of kinship. In particular it deals with such problems as the relationship of nature and culture, the relevance of concepts drawn from within a given society to its understanding, and the relation of theory to time.

"These essays explore the relationship between culture and politics in the modern world. They range in space from Iran to Algeria, and the eastern marchlands of Europe to the Atlantic, and in time over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. But they are all inspired by a cluster of linked preoccupations with the nature of the social order now emerging in the world and the kinds of moral and political legitimation it requires and permits. The essays are also linked by Ernest Gellner's distinctive, and highly arresting, intellectual temper and style. The volume will interest a wide range of readers in the social sciences and philosophy."--Book cover.