This is the first major study by a Russian Marxist historian of the most tragic and fateful year in the history of the Soviet Union. With an encyclopedic knowledge of Soviet source material, including archival documents released after the fall of the USSR, Vadim Rogovin presents a detailed and penetrating analysis of the causes, impact and consequences of Stalin's purges. He demonstrates that the principal function of the terror was the physical annihilation of the substantial socialist opposition to Stalin's bureaucratic regime.

Irreducible Tensorial Sets discusses mathematical methods originating from the theory of coupling and recoupling of angular momenta in atomic physics that constitute an extension of vector and tensor algebra. The book presents a unified treatment with a compact system of notations from different approaches, such as group theory, algebra, and quantum mechanical transformation theory. It discusses irreducible tensorial sets that cover different sets of quantities such as tensor components and states of atomic systems. It also explains quantum mechanical applications, coupling and recoupling of atomic and nuclear states, the Wigner-Eckart theorem, and the products of tensorial sets of operators. The text shows how to calculate the interaction energy between atomic systems couple with one another with a constant total angular momentum. The book also explains the correlations which are functions of the Euler angles between the frame of reference in which a radiation is observed and a frame of reference attached to the orienting radiation or field. It then cites sample problems related to the angular distribution of radiations. The book will prove useful for physicists, for mathematicians, or for readers with some knowledge in theoretical physics, particularly on theory of groups and quantum mechanics.

Many people think that animal liberation would require a fundamental transformation of basic beliefs. We would have to give up "speciesism" and start viewing animals as our equals, with rights and moral status. And we would have to apply these beliefs in an all-or-nothing way. But in Ethics and the Beast , Tzachi Zamir makes the radical argument that animal liberation doesn't require such radical arguments--and that liberation could be accomplished in a flexible and pragmatic way. By making a case for liberation that is based primarily on common moral intuitions and beliefs, and that therefore could attract wide understanding and support, Zamir attempts to change the terms of the liberation debate. Without defending it, Ethics and the Beast claims that speciesism is fully compatible with liberation. Even if we believe that we should favor humans when there is a pressing human need at stake, Zamir argues, that does not mean that we should allow marginal human interests to trump the life-or-death interests of animals. As minimalist as it sounds, this position generates a robust liberation program, including commitments not to eat animals, subject them to factory farming, or use them in medical research. Zamir also applies his arguments to some questions that tend to be overlooked in the liberation debate, such as whether using animals can be distinguished from exploiting them, whether liberationists should be moral vegetarians or vegans, and whether using animals for therapeutic purposes is morally blameless.

""A uniquely nuanced and engaging perspective on the oddness of Hollywood...Superhero goes inside baseball in all the best ways: unbiased, at times ridiculous, and wonderfully, uncomfortably accurate. It begs to be read because it is so damned good." -Amanda Seyfried A-list actor Peter Compton and producing partner Marci Levy exist in the rarefied air of Hollywood's elite. Their status as a married power couple is unmatched, their presence in any room transformative and god-like. But as their private jet lands in Atlanta to begin production on a tentpole superhero movie, even their privileged position will come under threat by the massive pressures of such an undertaking. Compton, a self-educated recovering addict, sees the role of Sparta comics superhero Major Machina as the opportunity to transcend his already stratospheric platform. As director Joel Slavkin, Oscar-winning DP Javier Benavidez, and a crew of hundreds arrive in Atlanta to begin shooting, it doesn't take long for the production to be embroiled in the tension and egos that drive the film. But when video of Peter's disastrous on-set behavior goes viral, Peter and Marci's partnership will be challenged as it never has before. As the stakes grow ever higher, it may just take a superhero to save them. With his signature wit and razor sharp dialog, Tim Blake Nelson invites the reader to walk alongside him as he enters the closely-guarded world of industrial strength cinema"--

Theodore Dalrymple's brilliant new collection of writings follows on the extraordinary success of his earlier books, Life at the Bottom and Our Culture, What's Left of It . No writer today is more adept and incisive in exploring the state of our culture and the ideas that are changing our ways of life. In Not with a Bang But a Whimper , he takes the measure of our cultural decline, with special attention to Britain-its bureaucratic muddle, oppressive welfare mentality, and aimless young-all pursued in the name of democracy and freedom. He shows how terrorism and the growing numbers of Muslim minorities have changed our public life. Also here are Mr. Dalrymple's trenchant observations on artists and ideologues, and on the treatment of criminals and the mentally disturbed, his area of medical interest.

Hugo, Nebula, and Tiptree award–winning author Suzy McKee Charnas offers up her lush stories in this compelling retrospective story collection. In Stagestruck Vampires , the supernatural and the real intertwine seamlessly. A villainous maestro is redeemed by his lovely, apt pupil in “Beauty and the Opera or The Phantom Beast.” Inside the “Unicorn Tapestry,” a psychotherapist stalks a vampire. A dazzling performance of Tosca is marred by a shocking murder during “A Musical Interlude.” This collection features original work by Charnas—the mystical novelette, “Peregrines,” and two original essays. Also included is a collaborative story on vampire themes, “Advocates,” written with Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, author of the Saint-Germain Chronicles.

Book by Paikin, Steve

If ever there was a collection worthy of the title "Marvel Masterworks," Bill Everett's seminal '70s return to the Sub-Mariner, the character he made a legend, is it! Beginning with Sub-Mariner #50, Everett began a run as writer/artist that rivaled the greatest work of his career. His luxuriant artwork and signature anarchic take on Sub-Mariner made every page an action-packed classic. Villains from Subby's past like Prince Byrrah set the stage, while the debut of Namorita and a new fi re-vs.-water nemesis, Sunfi re, ratchet up the drama. COLLECTING: SUB-MARINER (1968) 50-60

This course is for students, young and old alike, who wish to understand the Constitution. It explores briefly the origins of our country, and the steps that led to the formation of the Constitution.

This volume, first published in English in 1987 makes available an important part of Weil’s early writings. Although primarily known as a religious thinker, she devoted enormous energy in her formative years to her work as a political activist and as a philosopher/teacher. This book reveals these other sides of Weil and demonstrates the lines of continuity underlying her whole thought. Written between 1929 and 1941 the book covers a crucial and transitional period in Weil’s life. Taken together they represent invaluable primary source material on the evolution of Weil’s life and on her chosen method of abstracting elements from her personal experience and transmuting that experience into considered thought. Even when highly theoretical, her writing was always concerned with the application of her intelligence to concrete problems of human existence.

In spite of the increasing attention attributed to the rise in prominence of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries, few studies have looked at the ways in which broader social expectations with respect to the role of higher education across the BRICS have changed, or not, in recent years. Our point of departure is that, contrary to the conventional wisdom focusing on functionalistic perspectives, higher education systems are not just designed by governments to fulfill certain functions, but have a tendency for evolving in a rather unpredictable fashion as a result of the complex interplay between a number of internal and external factors. In reality, national higher education systems develop and change according to a complex process that encompasses the expectations of governmental agencies, markets, the aspirations of the population for the benefits of education, the specific institutional traditions and cultures of higher education institutions, and,increasingly so, the interests and strategies of the private firms entering and offering services in the higher education market. This basically means that it is of outmost importance to move away from conceiving of "universities" or "higher education" as single, monolithic actors or sector. One way of doing this is by investigating a selected number of distinct, but nonetheless interrelated factors or drivers, which, taken together, help determine the nature and scope of the social compact between higher education (its core actors and institutions) and society at large (government, industry, local communities, professional associations).

This is the story of a nation--the United States--that has conducted more than 160 wars and other military ventures while insisting it loves peace. In the process, the US has forged a world empire while maintaining its innocence of imperialistic designs. From Mexico to Lebanon, from China to the Dominican Republic, from Nicaragua to Vietnam, the US has intervened regularly in the affairs of other nations. Yet the myth that Americans are benevolent, peace-lving people who will fight only to defend the rights of others lingers on. Excesses and cruelties, though sometimes admitted, usually are regarded as momentary aberrations. In this comprehensive history of American imperialism, Sidney Lens punctures the myth once and for all by showing how the US, from the time it gained its own independence, has used every available means--political, economic, and military--to dominate other peoples.

Shulamith Hareven reflects on a life of political activism and cultural production in this volume of essays, The Vocabulary of Peace . In her soberly intelligent and staunchly human voice, Hareven looks at the Jewish society of her day and at its relations with Arabs inside and outside its borders. Critical of nationalistic ideology and its tendency to become national policy, she argues for an approach that respects both its past and its neighbors. Broaching topics from the nature of the Hebrew language to the dangers of mythologizing reality, while incorporating sketches of Israeli and Palestinian life, Hareven makes a case for changing the words we use to talk about peace. Shulamith Hareven (1930-2003) was born in Warsaw, Poland, and arrived in pre-state Israel in 1940, living in Jerusalem. She served in the Haganah underground, as a combat-medic during the siege of Jerusalem, and an officer in Operations in the Israeli Defense Forces. She reported from the front lines of the War of Attrition and the Yom Kippur War. During the First Intifada, she spent time in Palestinian refugee camps, publishing eyewitness reports in the Israeli press. She was the first woman member to be elected to the Academy of the Hebrew Language, and was a longtime member of Peace Now. She wrote in a variety of genres, and her work has been translated into twenty-one languages.

"The acclaimed and controversial historian turns his critical gaze on the writing of history today. Drawing on his four decades as a professional historian, Shlomo Sand interrogates the academic discipline of history, whose origin lay in the need for a national ideology. In the last few decades, traditional history has begun to fragment, yet only to give rise to a new role of historians as priests of official memory. Working in Israel has sharpened Sand's perspective, since the role of history as national myth is particularly salient in a country where the Bible is treated as a history book. He asks such questions as: Is every historical narrative ideologically marked? Do political requirements and state power weigh down inordinately on historical research and teaching? And, in such conditions, can there be a morally neutral and 'scientific' truth? Despite his trenchant criticism of academic history, Sand would still like to believe that the past can be understood without myth, and sees pointers for this in the work of Weber and Sorel."--Publisher's description

An eminent anthropologist examines the foundings of the first celibate Buddhist monasteries among the Sherpas of Nepal in the early twentieth century--a religious development that was a major departure from "folk" or "popular" Buddhism. Sherry Ortner is the first to integrate social scientific and historical modes of analysis in a study of the Sherpa monasteries and one of the very few to attempt such an account for Buddhist monasteries anywhere. Combining ethnographic and oral historical methods, she scrutinizes the interplay of political and cultural factors in the events culminating in the foundings. Her work constitutes a major advance both in our knowledge of Sherpa Buddhism and in the integration of anthropological and historical modes of analysis. At the theoretical level, the book contributes to an emerging theory of "practice", an explanation of the relationship between human intentions and actions on the one hand, and the structures of society and culture that emerge from and feed back upon those intentions and actions on the other. It will appeal not only to the increasing number of anthropologists working on similar problems but also to historians anxious to discover what anthropology has to offer to historical analysis. In addition, it will be essential reading for those interested in Nepal, Tibet, the Sherpa, or Buddhism in general.