7908 results for "Science"

A transatlantic tunnel, hurrah!

Harrison, Harry
An early classic of steampunk and neo-Victoriana, Harry Harrison’s A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah! The time is the 1970s—sort of. The place is Earth—in a way. The project: build a tunnel over four thousand miles in length, intended to sustain a pressure of one thousand atmospheres while accommodating cargo and passengers traveling in excess of a thousand miles per hour. The Transatlantic Tunnel will be the greatest engineering feat in the history of the British Empire, a structure worthy of Her Majesty’s Empire in this, the eighth decade of the twentieth century. If the project is a success, the credit will belong to Captain Augustine Washington, the most brilliant engineer of our age. It is Washington’s greatest hope that his success will at last erase the family shame inspired by that other Washington: George, traitor to his king, who was hanged by Lord Cornwallis more than two centuries ago. Harry Harrison, that incomparable creator of alternate worlds, has crafted a brilliant double exposure of history and a typically superb reading experience.
Tor 2013 237 pages

Andrew Johnson A Biography

Hans Louis Trefousse
A definitive life of the flawed man who succeeded to the American presidency after Lincoln's assassination and who presided, disastrously, over the tumultuous first years of Reconstruction. Historian Hans L. Trefousse gives us "a brilliant, compassionate portrait of a dynamic era of social change and national healing, and of the tragic failure of an American leader" (LIBRARY JOURNAL). Photos.
W. W. Norton & Company 1997-12 464 pages

Old Whigs: Burke, Lincoln, and the politics of prudence

Weiner, Greg
"The virtue of prudence suffuses the writings of Edmund Burke and Abraham Lincoln, yet the demands of statecraft compelled both to take daring positions against long odds: Burke against the seemingly inexorable march of the French Revolution, Lincoln against disunion at a moment when the Northern situation appeared untenable. Placing their statesmanship and writings in relief helps to illuminate prudence in its full dimensions: inflected with caution but not confined to it, bound to circumstance, and finding expression in the particular but grounded in the absolute. This comparative study of two thinkers and statesmen who described themselves as "Old Whigs" argues for a recovery of prudence as the political virtue par excellence by viewing it through the eyes, words and deeds of two of its foremost exemplars. Both statesmen deeply informed by the life of the mind, Burke and Lincoln illustrate prudence in its universal but also contrasting dimensions. Burke emphasized the primacy of feeling, Lincoln the axioms of logic. Burke saw British prudence emanating from the mists of ancient history; for Lincoln, America's soul lay in a discrete moment of founding in 1776. Yet both were moved by a respect for the mysterious and customary. Each maintained the virtue of compromise while adhering to immovable commitments. At a time when American politics, and American conservatism in particular, teems with a desire for boldness but also an innate resistance to schemes of social or political transformation, this book answers with a fuller and richer account of prudence as it emerges in the thought and action of two of the great statesmen and thinkers of modern times"--
Encounter Books 2019 170 pages

See how they ran: the changing role of the presidential candidate

Troy, Gil
Many Americans feel that presidentials have become inordinately expensive, shallow, and vulgar. The seemingly endless contest even appears to discourage the most suitable candidates from seeking the highest office in the land. Frustrated, we long for the good old days of dignified campaigns and worthy candidates. As Troy's fascinating history demonstrates, however, they never existed. This definitive volume examines every presidential campaign from 1840 to the present to explore why candidates campaign as they do, and why Americans complain about it. Troy reveals what our presidential campaigns tell us about American democracy itself.
Harvard University Press 1996-03-01 372 pages

The Education of Eva Moskowitz A Memoir

Eva Moskowitz
From Eva Moskowitz, the outspoken founder and CEO of the charter school Success Academy, comes a frank, feisty memoir about the rough-and-tumble battles to reform America’s education system. Eva Moskowitz is a fighter with a reputation for having "sharp elbows"— if that’s a synonym for getting the job done, she’ll take it. A born and bred New Yorker, former City Councilmember, and "charter czarina," Moskowitz has taken on powerful unions and politicians to establish and grow her astonishingly effective and popular charter school program in four of the city’s five boroughs. In this unabashedly candid memoir, Moskowitz tells of how she became a forward-thinking education entrepreneur and her fight to establish nearly four dozen schools—activism that has made her into one of the most polarizing figures in New York City and beyond. Now, having established a remarkable, even unprecedented, track record for guiding the city’s most disadvantaged children to high academic performance, Moskowitz addresses the battles she has won and lost, writing candidly about the people who seek to undermine her work—most notably New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio—and celebrating the powerful allies who have aided her cause, including former Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Governor Andrew Cuomo. Moskowitz’s insightful memoir is a deeply felt personal story and an impassioned call to action that bluntly identifies failing policies and the alarmingly powerful forces arrayed against improving an education system that is both deeply dysfunctional and prejudiced. The Education of Eva Moskowitz is sure to galvanize supporters, enrage her opponents, generate headlines, and urgently impact the national conversation on education.
HarperCollins 2018-09-11 400 pages

Marxist Economic Theory

Ernest Mandel
CONTENTS: Introduction - Labour, Necessary product, Surplus Product - Exchange, Commodity, Value - Money, Capital, Surplus-value - The Development of Capital - The Contradictions of Capitalism - Trade - Credit - Money - Agriculture- Reproduction and the Growth of National Income - Periodical Crises - Monopoly Capitalism - Imperialism - The Epoch of Capitalist Decline - The Soviet Economy - The Economy of the Transition Period - Socialist Economy - Origin, Rise and Withering Away of Political Economy- Bibliography - Index
Merlin Press 1968 797 pages

One Basket

Edna Ferber
In "One Basket" by Edna Ferber, readers are treated to a collection of short stories that provide a delightful glimpse into the lives of various characters. Through Ferber's skillful storytelling, these tales explore the intricacies of human relationships, dreams, and the intricacies of daily existence. The book's narrative diversity spans from the bustling streets of New York City to the quiet rural settings, making each story a unique experience. Themes of love, ambition, and personal growth are woven throughout, painting a vivid picture of American life in the early 20th century. Edna Ferber's masterful prose captures the essence of the human spirit, offering a rich and emotional reading experience for all.
Valde Books 2009 115 pages

The Gates of November

Chaim Potok
"REMARKABLE . . . A WONDERFUL STORY." --The Boston Globe The father is a high-ranking Communist officer, a Jew who survived Stalin's purges. The son is a "refusenik," who risked his life and happiness to protest everything his father held dear. Now, Chaim Potok, beloved author of the award-winning novels The Chosen and My Name is Asher Lev, unfolds the gripping true story of a father, a son, and a conflict that spans Soviet history. Drawing on taped interviews and his harrowing visits to Russia, Potok traces the public and privates lives of the Slepak family: Their passions and ideologies, their struggles to reconcile their identities as Russians and as Jews, their willingness to fight--and die--for diametrically opposed political beliefs. "[A] vivid account . . . [Potok] brings a novelist's passion and eye for detail to a gripping story that possesses many of the elements of fiction--except that it's all too true." --San Francisco Chronicle
Random House Publishing Group 1997-09-08 272 pages

Propaganda of the Deed The Pocket Alexander Berkman

Alexander Berkman
It was July 23, 1892, and Alexander Berkman was planning to die. He just had some business to attend to first. Dressed in a new suit and a black derby hat, Berkman burst into the Pittsburg office of Henry Clay Frick, the notoriously anti-union manager of the Carnegie Steel Company. From his pocket, Berkman produced a pistol. This pocket-sized book collects the shorter works of one of the world's most influential anarchists.
Trident Business Partners 2019-07-24 126 pages

The essential Hirschman

Hirschman, Albert O.
"The Essential Hirschman brings together some of the finest essays in the social sciences, written by one of the twentieth century's most influential and provocative thinkers. Albert O. Hirschman was a master essayist, one who possessed the rare ability to blend the precision of economics with the elegance of literary imagination. In an age in which our academic disciplines require ever-greater specialization and narrowness, it is rare to encounter an intellectual who can transform how we think about inequality by writing about traffic, or who can slip in a quote from Flaubert to reveal something surprising about taxes. The essays gathered here span an astonishing range of topics and perspectives, including industrialization in Latin America, imagining reform as more than repair, the relationship between imagination and leadership, routine thinking and the marketplace, and the ways our arguments affect democratic life. Throughout, we find humor, unforgettable metaphors, brilliant analysis, and elegance of style that give Hirschman such a singular voice.Featuring an introduction by Jeremy Adelman that places each of these essays in context as well as an insightful afterword by Emma Rothschild and Amartya Sen, The Essential Hirschman is the ideal introduction to Hirschman for a new generation of readers and a must-have collection for anyone seeking his most important writings in one book"--
Princeton University Press 2013 384 pages

Even more things that nobody knows: 501 further mysteries of life, the universe and everything

Hartston, William
There are many, many more things that nobody knows. Do animals have a sense of humor? Why do we have five fingers? How long can humans live? What did Jesus do in his youth? Which speech did Lincoln deliver at Gettysburg? Does the appendix have any use? Is there an odd perfect number? In this witty and enlightening follow-up to The Things that Nobody Know s, William Hartston takes us on a guided tour of 501 further gaps in our knowledge of cosmology, mathematics, animal behavior, medical science, music, art, and literature.
Atlantic Books 2015 391 pages

Destiny at bay: more magic from Mollo's menagerie

Mollo, Victor
Revised edition of the fifth Mollo classic; Brilliant plays against a background of human follies; Humorous and engaging; Join the Griffins, the bridge club where all the members have star parts to play, and take up arms in the great battle between Predestination and Freewill. Brilliant plays in attack and defence, devil's coups and smothers, squeezes and endplays, scissors and uppercuts, are all seen against a background of human follies and foibles. Psychology and imagination, no less than science and technique, light up the scene. In this, the fifth title in the Menagerie series, you meet again the Rueful Rabbit, luckiest of mortals; Karapet, the unluckiest player since job; and Walter the Walrus, the point-count specialist. With Papa's arrogance, the Toucan's humility, the secretary Bird's pedantry and Molly the Mule's rampant feminism, they make every deal vibrate and sparkle. The Hideous Hog remains all but insufferable as he clashes daily with destiny, and in the final episode confronts the prince of darkness himself.
Batsford 2001 208 pages

The courage to become: the virtues of humanism

Kurtz, Paul
Does life have meaning if one rejects belief in God? This book responds affirmatively to that question. Paul Kurtz, America's leading secular humanist, provides a powerful defense of the humanist alternative, rejecting both religious spirituality and nihilism. In this inspirational book, Kurtz outlines the basic virtues of the secular humanist outlook. These virtues include courage, not simply to be or to survive, but to overcome and become; that is, to fulfill our highest aspirations and ideals in the face of obstacles. The two other virtues Kurtz identifies are cognition (reason and science in establishing truth) and moral caring (compassion and benevolence in our relationships with others).
Praeger 1997 138 pages

On critique: a sociology of emancipation

Boltanski, Luc
"The relationship between sociology and social critique has haunted the discipline since its origins. Does critique divert sociology from its scientific project? Or is critique the ultimate goal of sociology, without which the latter would be a futile activity disconnected from the concerns of ordinary people? This issue has underpinned two divergent theoretical orientations that can be found in the discipline today: the critical sociology that was developed in its most elaborate form by Pierre Bourdieu, and the pragmatic sociology of critique developed by Luc Boltanski and his associates. In critical sociology, description in terms of power relations underscores the potency of mechanisms of oppression, the way the oppressed passively endure them, going so far in their alienation as to adopt the values that enslave them. Pragmatic sociology, by contrast, describes the actions of human beings who rebel but who are endowed with reason. It stresses their ability, in certain historical conditions, to rise up against their domination and construct new interpretations of reality in the service of critical activity. In this major new book Boltanski develops a framework that makes it possible to reconcile these seemingly antagonistic approaches - the one determinist and assigning the leading role to the enlightening science of the sociologist, the other concerned to stick as closely as possible to what people say and do. This labour of unification leads him to rework central notions such as practice, institution, critique and, finally, ‘social reality,' all with the aim of contributing to a contemporary renewal of practices of emancipation."--
Polity 2011-04-18 191 pages