"Illich discusses reading as a major part of life. His belief is that reading and studying are synonymous with a religious lifestyle, either that of a Christian monk, or those who follow Judaism. He tells of those who continue to read the scriptures when they return from the synagogue. Illich shows us how a meditative state of mind is conducive to world peace and harmony, and how this can come about if we listen to those who follow a 'bookish' lifestyle."

"Ivan Illich was an iconoclast who urged a fundamental rethinking of modern institutions. He believed that Western civilization can only be understood properly as a corruption of the New Testament ... ." "In The rivers north of the future, based on a series of interviews with David Cayley in the late 1990s, Illich explores this theme - characterized by the saying 'The corruption of the best is the worst.' As Charles Taylor notes in his foreword, 'from within [Illich's] perspective, the significance of the Good Samaritan story appears obvious: it is a stage on the road to a universal morality of rules.' Illich's analysis of contemporary society is both a bold historical hypothesis and an invitiation to believers to revise and renew their understanding of Christian faith." --book cover.

Ivan Jablonka's History Is a Contemporary Literature offers highly innovative perspectives on the writing of history, the relationship between literature and the social sciences, and the way that both social-scientific inquiry and literary explorations contribute to our understanding of the world. Jablonka argues that the act and art of writing, far from being an afterthought in the social sciences, should play a vital role in the production of knowledge in all stages of the researcher's work and embody or even constitute the understanding obtained. History (along with sociology and anthropology) can, he contends, achieve both greater rigor and wider audiences by creating a literary experience through a broad spectrum of narrative modes. Challenging scholars to adopt investigative, testimonial, and other experimental writing techniques as a way of creating and sharing knowledge, Jablonka envisions a social science literature that will inspire readers to become actively engaged in understanding their own pasts and to relate their histories to the present day. Lamenting the specialization that has isolated the academy from the rest of society, History Is a Contemporary Literature aims to bring imagination and audacity into the practice of scholarship, drawing on the techniques of literature to strengthen the methods of the social sciences.

Product Description Ivan Klima has been acclaimed by Booklist as "one of the most important literary voices of Eastern Europe, on a par with Havel, Konrad, and Haraszti." His novels Waiting for the Dark, Waiting for the Light and The Ultimate Intimacy have established him as a writer with a uniquely wry perspective on human affection. In Lovers for a Day, he delivers a beautiful and masterfully crafted collection of short stories on the theme of love. In "Heaven Hell Paradise," a doctor who has escaped to London comes back to communist Czechoslovakia to be with his lover and realizes too late that he barely knows her. And in "A Baffling Choice," a young woman begins an affair with an older man who lives in her apartment building, right under the nose of his wife. The dreams and frustrations of the student cafeteria and the turmoil of political exile in the early 1960s evolve into portraits of people struggling with responsibility, fidelity, and absence, haunted by a terrible guilt when their desires begin to become reality. Klima's unique wisdom creates a personal political history of Prague that is an acute and moving examination of our attempts to find freedom in love. Amazon.com Review Ranging over nearly three decades, the stories collected in Ivan Klíma's Lovers for a Day offer a fine cross section of the Czech writer's career. Yet the book also traces the misunderstandings and frustrations, the hopes and disenchantments of an entire nation--where, ironically enough, Klíma's creations were banned until the mid-1990s. How does this fictional barometer work? The earlier tales, which tend toward dissections of private life, seldom mention the Communist regime--yet their protagonists are so thoroughly warped by political circumstance that even love becomes an avatar of control and constraint. In the later, post-perestroika stories, Klíma's characters explore their newfound freedom. Yet that, too, turns out to be something of a mixed bag, in both the public and private sector. No wonder the judge in "It's Raining Out" finds his new beat--divorce court--nearly as dispiriting as the old regime's political trials: He would divorce couples on grounds of infidelity or mutual incompatibility. Some of them were husbands and wives who had stopped living together long ago, but in spite of that, he could never rid himself of the conviction that most of the divorces were unnecessary, that people were attempting to escape the inescapable: their own emptiness, their own incapacity to share their lives with another person. For Klíma's countryman desire represents a zone of freedom: an assertion of the unique self in the face of a collective state. For Klíma, alas, eros is yet another venue for repression. Suggesting that national politics might inscribe itself onto the deepest contours of the individual, he's able to write about both at once. It's a grim equation, perhaps. But Klíma's mastery of the medium, and his rare emotional intelligence, make for a superb exposition of love among the ruins. --Burhan Tufail From Publishers Weekly Sophisticated readers may expect to admire anything new from the justly revered Czech novelist (Waiting for the Light, Waiting for the Dark). Many of them will be disappointed with these 12 short stories. Klima's tales are sorted into three unequal sections: "Lovers for One Night" collects five stories from the 1960s, while "Intimate Conversations" and "About Love and Death" hold seven from the '80s and '90s. All these dejected fictions concern the success or failure of hopeful myths of intimacyAbut they are not equally successful. The fiction from the '60s tends to drown in involuted rhetoric; sometimes it's trite, other times it's supercharged with languid enervations and prominent symbolism through which the characters barely appear. It's hard to know whether the translator or Klima is responsible for such clunky prose as "She knew everything. She knew precisely why it was w

Here, in Klima's own powerful words, is the motivation behind his writing - the necessity to bear witness to his country's turbulent history. In the title essay of this collection of essays, Klima invokes the spirit of the city that has shaped and sustained him: ironical, cultural, accustomed to adversity but full of hope. A city which has spawned and inspired Milan Kundera, Josef Skvorecky and Pavel Kohut.

Ivan Margolius introduces a number of architects who, throughout history, have found inspirational techniques and discovered solutions to structural problems within their architectural projects.

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"Originally published in 2002, Canada's Army quickly became the definitive history of the Canadian military. In the twenty intervening years, we have seen major changes to how Canadians think about their military, and in the ways Canadians fight, train, and serve their nation in peace and in war. Written by J.L. Granatstein, one of the country's leading political and military historians, Canada's Army traces the full three-hundred-year history of the Canadian military. This thoroughly revised third edition brings Granatstein's work up to date with fresh material and new scholarship on the evolving role of the military in Canadian society, along with updated sources, maps, and illustrations. It explores the military from its origins in New France to the Conquest, the Revolutionary War, and the War of 1812; from South Africa and the two World Wars to the Korean War and contemporary peacekeeping efforts. The third edition includes new coverage of the War in Afghanistan; NATO deployments to Poland, Latvia, and Iraq; aid to the civil power deployments; and the role of the army reserve. Granatstein points to the inevitable continuation of armed conflict around the world and makes a compelling case for Canada to maintain properly equipped and professional armed forces. Masterfully written and passionately argued, Canada's Army offers a rich analysis of the political context for the battles and events that shape our understanding of the Canadian military."--

Describes the growth of the Hitler myth and the fascination which Hitler had for people. Analyzes the themes and methods used by Hitler, based on his book "Mein Kampf" and on his speeches (including his attacks on the Jews). Deals especially with his language - the phraseology of sacrifice, of nature, and of prophecy. For material relating to Nazi laws against the Jews, see pp. 159-174.

Providing answers to questions on Shabbat observance as well as an analysis of the process by which the answers are derived, this guide tackles controversial Shabbat issues such as the possibility for a Shabbat bus, women’s cosmetics, and the building of an eruv. Though many books address questions of Shabbat observance, Shabbat, the Right Way provides definitive direction as well as insight into the advice it offers. Anyone seeking to understand Jewish law—and even those already familiar with Halacha—will come away with a better sense of the tenets that lie at the heart of Judaism.

There is a lot of rubbish to sort through in Tommy and Tuppence Beresford's new country home, The Laurels. Turning the pages of an abandoned book, Tuppence uncovers a troubling note: "Mary Jordan did not die naturally. It was one of us. I think I know which one." Peering into the past, the Beresfords learn the author of the note died very young—was it coincidence, or did he know too much? But it is no coincidence when a loose panel of glass just misses Tuppence, nor when a bullet grazes her arm. Someone wants to bury the sixty-year-old secret...and the Beresfords.