14302 results for "History"

The laws of war: constraints on warfare in the Western world

Howard, Michael
This book explores not only the formal constraints on the conduct of war throughout Western history but also the unwritten conventions about what is permissible in the course of military operations. Ranging from classical antiquity to the present, historians discuss the legal and cultural regulation of violence in such areas as belligerent rights, the treatment of prisoners and civilians, the observing of truces and immunities, the use of particular weapons, siege warfare, codes of honour, and war crimes.
Yale University Press 1994 303 pages

Unearthed: a lost actress, a forbidden book, and a search for life in the shadow of the Holocaust

Frank, Meryl
"As child, Meryl Frank was the chosen inheritor of family remembrance. Her aunt Mollie, a formidable and cultured woman, insisted that Meryl never forget who they were, where they came from, and the hate that nearly destroyed them. Over long afternoons, Mollie told her about the city, the theater, and, above all else, Meryl's cousin, the radiant Franya Winter. Franya was the leading light of Vilna's Yiddish theater, a remarkable and precocious woman who cast off the restrictions of her Hasidic family and community to play roles as prostitutes and bellhops, lovers and nuns. Yet there was one thing her aunt Mollie would never tell Meryl: how Franya died. Before Mollie passed away, she gave Meryl a Yiddish book containing the terrible answer, but forbade her to read it. And for years, Meryl obeyed. Unearthed is the story of Meryl's search for Franya and a timely history of hatred and resistance. Through archives across four continents, by way of chance encounters and miraculous discoveries, and eventually, guided by the shocking truth recorded in the pages of the forbidden book, Meryl conjures the rogue spirit of her cousin-her beauty and her tragedy. Meryl's search reveals a lost world destroyed by hatred, illuminating the cultural haven of Vilna and its resistance during World War II. As she seeks to find her lost family legacy, Meryl looks for answers to the questions that have defined her life: what is our duty to the past? How do we honor such memories while keeping them from consuming us? And what do we teach our children about tragedy?"--
Hachette Books 2023 242 pages

China's intellectuals: advise and dissent

Goldman, Merle
Suppression and thaw have marked the course of communism in China. Merle Goldman traces that shifting pattern over the last decades of Mao's regime, linking it to the unique role of the intellectual in government. Her engrossing account of the relations between the intellectuals and the governing elites provides a map of understanding to some recent events in the turbulent history of the People's Republic.
Harvard university press 1981 276 pages

Rivington Street

Meredith Tax
For nearly a century, Juilliard has trained the artists who compose the elite corps of the performing arts community in the United States. This comprehensive history, in paperback for the first time, takes us behind the scenes of one of the most famous music schools in the world.Detailing Juilliard's colorful history and penetrating the mystique of its rarefied, ultracompetitive conservatory atmosphere, Andrea Olmstead tells a fascinating story of vision and temperament, of talent and backstabbing politics, and of artistry and determination. Through its various incarnations the institution has been shaped by the strong personalities of its administrators, the artistic sensibilities of its faculty, and the prodigious gifts of its students.Drawing on interviews, ephemeral materials, and previously neglected archival records, Olmstead traces the school's ups and downs and documents the accomplishments and foibles of its leaders. She also probes the controversies that have littered the school's history, from Augustus Juilliard's $12.5 million bequest in 1919 to the expensive move to Lincoln Center.
Jove Publications 1983 400 pages

The rise and decline of the state

Van Creveld, Martin
The state, which since the middle of the seventeenth century has been the most important of all modern institutions, is in decline. From Western Europe to Africa, many existing states are either combining into larger communities or falling apart. Many of their functions are likely to be taken over by a variety of organizations that, whatever their precise nature, are not states. In this unique volume Martin van Creveld traces the story of the state from its beginnings to its end. Starting with the simplest political organizations that ever existed, he guides the reader through the origins of the state, its development, its apotheosis during the two World Wars, and its spread from its original home in Western Europe to cover the globe. In doing so, he provides a fascinating history of government from its origins to the present day. This original book will of interest to historians, political scientists and sociologists.
Cambridge University Press 1999-08-26 439 pages

More on war

Van Creveld, Martin
"War is the most important thing in the world', writes Martin van Creveld, one of the world's best-known experts on military history and strategy. The survival of every country, government, and individual is ultimately dependent on war - or the ability to wage it in self-defence. That is why, though it may come but once in a hundred years, it must be prepared for every day. When it is too late - when the bodies lie stiff and people weep over them - those in charge have failed in their duty. Nevertheless, in spite of the centrality of war to human history and culture, there has for long been no modern attempt to provide a replacement for the classics on war and strategy, Sun Tzu's The Art of War, dating from the 5th or 6th century BC, and Carl von Clausewitz's On War, written in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars. What is needed is a modern, comprehensive, easy to read and understand theory of war for the 21st century that could serve as a replacement for these classic texts. The purpose of the present book is to provide just such a theory.--Book flap
Oxford University Press 2017 219 pages

The new religious intolerance: overcoming the politics of fear in an anxious age

Nussbaum, Martha C.
"What impulse prompted some newspapers to attribute the murder of 77 Norwegians to Islamic extremists, until it became evident that a right-wing Norwegian terrorist was the perpetrator? Why did Switzerland, a country of four minarets, vote to ban those structures? How did a proposed Muslim cultural center in lower Manhattan ignite a fevered political debate across the United States? In The New Religious Intolerance, Martha C. Nussbaum surveys such developments and identifies the fear behind these reactions. Drawing inspiration from philosophy, history, and literature, she suggests a route past this limiting response and toward a more equitable, imaginative, and free society." -- Provided by publisher.
Belknap Press of Harvard University Press 2012-04-24 285 pages

Frontiers Of Justice

Martha Craven Nussbaum
Achieving social justice is one of the key challenges facing the world today scholars of political theory have long grappled with issues arising from it however, as the history of ideas shows, the concept itself has undergone much change over the centuries and there is no watertight definition of what ‘justice’ connotes in the contemporary context going beyond the existing frontiers of social justice, this unique volume aims to develop theoretical concepts able to respond to real dilemmas facing society today the author closely examines the classical social contract theory, one of the most widely accepted approaches to social justice in the western tradition she focuses in particular on the ideas of one of the greatest names in contemporary political philosophy, john rawls, whose work developed the theory to new philosophical depths and complexity nussbaum moves in a fresh direction and suggests that there is an inherent limitation within the social contract theory, even in the work of rawls—it is premised on the idea of a contract for mutual advantage among approximate equals she demonstrates that it is unable to address questions of social justice between unequal parties instead she goes on to develop a theory of social justice based on the ‘capabilities approach’, which she places generally within the tradition of ‘liberal conceptions’ the author analyses three social issues which could not be resolved, or even really addressed by traditional theories of justice—the problem of achieving justice for persons with physical and mental disability, of extending justice to all citizens of the world, and lastly the problem of doing justice in relation to the treatment of ‘non-human animals’ she helps us to think more clearly about the purpose of political cooperation and the nature of political principles—and to look to a future of greater justice for all
Oxford University Press 2007-05-18 487 pages

LSD, spirituality, and the creative process

Dobkin de Rios, Marlene
An exploration of how LSD influences imagination and the creative process. • Based on the results of one of the longest clinical studies of LSD that took place between 1954 and 1962, before LSD was illegal. • Includes personal reports, artwork, and poetry from the original sessions as testimony of the impact of LSD on the creative process. In 1954 a Los Angeles psychiatrist began experimenting with a then new chemical discovery known as LSD-25. Over an eight-year period Dr. Oscar Janiger gave LSD-25 to more than 950 men and women, ranging in age from 18 to 81 and coming from all walks of life. The data collected by the author during those trials and from follow-up studies done 40 years later is now available here for the first time, along with the authors' examination of LSD's ramifications on creativity, imagination, and spirituality. In this book Marlene Dobkin de Rios, a medical anthropologist who has studied the use of hallucinogens in tribal and third world societies, considers the spiritual implications of these findings in comparison with indigenous groups that employ psychoactive substances in their religious ceremonies. The book also examines the nature of the creative process as influenced by psychedelics and provides artwork and poetry from the original experiment sessions, allowing the reader to personally witness LSD's impact on creativity. The studies recounted in LSD, Spirituality, and the Creative Process depict an important moment in the history of consciousness and reveal the psychic unity of humanity.
Park Street Press 2003-04-28 246 pages

Mathematics and logic

Kac, Mark
A description of the historical development of mathematics with a brief survey of high points and trenchant influences, originally published in 1986 by Praeger. A remarkable bargain. Fascinating study considers the origins and nature of mathematics, its development and role in the history of scientific thinking, impact of high-speed computers, 20th-century changes in the foundations of mathematics and mathematical logic, mathematization of science and technology, much more. Compelling reading for mathematicians, physicists, students₇anyone interested in the evolution of mathematical thought. 34 illustrations. 1968 edition.
Dover 1992 170 pages

A cross and a star: memoirs of a Jewish girl in Chile

Agosín, Marjorie
In this unique memoir, renowned poet, fiction writer, critic, and activist Marjorie Agosin writes in the voice of her mother, Frida, the daughter of European Jewish immigrants, living in Chile in the years before, during, and after World War II. Frida recounts stories from her family's Jewish/Chilean history: of her father, who had to leave Vienna in 1920 because he fell in love with a Christian cabaret dancer; of her paternal grandmother, who came to Chile later with a number tattooed on her arm; and of her great grandmother, an immigrant from Odessa, who learned to speak Spanish in Chile and loved the language so much that she repeated its harmonious sounds even in her sleep. Frida's stories of the past soften the realities of present times, when some immigrants from Germany still display portraits of Hitler m their homes and Jews still remain, after two generations, strangers in their own land. These stories are permeated with the shadow of faraway war in Europe, which haunts Frida's dreams and is a vivid presence in the everyday life in this Chilean town. For Frida the cross and the star of the title come to define two worlds that are for her distinct, yet inexorably entwined. Agosin's poetic reflections reveal a culture and a landscape little-known outside of her native land, explore the boundaries of "voice", and create a moving testament to endurance and to the power of memory and of words.
Garnet 1997 16 pages

Sex wars

Piercy, Marge
Life is hard in post-Civil War New York, but change is in the air. Women are agitating for the vote and other rights. Immigrants are pouring into the city, bringing a new spirit in their wake. Among them is Freydeh, who lives in a tiny tenement flat with eight others and works at as many jobs as she can handle in hopes of raising enough money to bring her beloved family over to America from Russia. And she has a dream: someday, she will own a place and a business of her own. Then she receives a letter - many months after it was first posted - containing devastating news: her parents have died in a cholera epidemic. After their death, Freydeh's sister set off to America without them, all by herself, and according to the letter would have arrived in the port of New York many months earlier. Freydeh is horrified and terrified for her little sister, who appears to be adrift somewhere in the city. Freydeh puts everything else aside and launches a search to find her, which turns into something of a hunt for a needle in a haystack. Interweaved with Freydeh's story is a vividly wrought account of the suffragette movement and the fight to secure women’s rights. SEX WARS is a fascinating novel that only recreates a turbulent period in history but also illustrates the plight and ultimately the triumph of one woman on a quest.
Piatkus 2005-12-19 411 pages

For Boys Only

Aronson, Marc,Newquist, HP
Hey, Boys! Want to have some fun? Maybe learn how to land an airplane in an emergency? Or fight off an alligator? Escape from being tied up? How about taking a ride on one of America’s scariest roller coasters? Learn how to make fake blood or turn a real bone into a pretzel. What if you could find out how to identify some of the world’s most horrifying creatures? Or learn the secret of making a blockbuster movie? What about guessing the top 11 greatest moments in sports history? Find buried treasure? And once you’ve found the treasure, find out just how much it would cost you to buy one of the world’s most expensive cars. You’ll find all this—and much more—over 250 pages of the biggest, baddest, and best information on just about everything. Plus we’ve placed a special, mind-bending, solve-the-code puzzle on random pages throughout the book that will lead you to a really cool solution! Now, that’s fun!
Gift Books from Hallmark 2011-05-06 160 pages

Rembrandt's Polish rider

Kalman, Maira,Salomon, Xavier F.
The romantic and enigmatic character of this picture has inspired many theories about its subject, meaning, history, and even its attribution to Rembrandt. Several portrait identifications have been proposed, including an ancestor of the Polish Oginski family, which owned the painting in the eighteenth century, and the Polish Socinian theologian Jonasz Szlichtyng. The rider's costume, his weapons, and the breed of his horse have also been claimed as Polish. 0But if The Polish Rider is a portrait, it certainly breaks with tradition. Equestrian portraits are not common in seventeenth-century Dutch art, and furthermore, in the traditional equestrian portrait the rider is fashionably dressed and his mount is spirited and well-bred. The painting may instead portray a character from history or literature, and many possibilities have been proposed. Candidates range from the Prodigal Son to Gysbrech van Amstel, a hero of Dutch medieval history, and from the Old Testament David to the Mongolian warrior Tamerlane. It is possible that Rembrandt intended simply to represent a foreign soldier, a theme popular in his time in European art, especially in prints. 0Nevertheless, Rembrandt's intentions in The Polish Rider seem clearly to transcend a simple expression of delight in the exotic. The painting has also been described as a latter-day Miles Christianus (Soldier of Christ), an apotheosis of the mounted soldiers who were still defending Eastern Europe against the Turks in the seventeenth century. Many have felt that the youthful rider faces unknown dangers in the strange and somber landscape, with its mountainous rocks crowned by a mysterious building, its dark water, and the distant flare of a fire.
The Frick Collection in association with GILES 2019 84 pages

The meaning of stoicism

Edelstein, Ludwig
"As the ancients themselves knew, Stoicism was not a uniform doctrine. Throughout the centuries there existed factions; the Stoics treasured their independence of judgment and quarreled among themselves." Yet, "despite their individual differences, the Stoic dissenters remained Stoics. That which they had in common, that which made them Stoics, is what I understand as the meaning of Stoicism." Thus delimiting his framework, Ludwig Edelstein attempts to define Stoicism by grasping the elusive common element that bound together the various factions within the ethical system. He begins this exemplary essay with a description of the Stoic sage—the ideal aimed at by Zeno and his followers—which establishes the basic characteristics of the philosophy. Mr. Edelstein then proceeds to a more detailed examination, discussing the Stoic concepts of nature and living in accord with nature; the internal criticism of the second and first centuries B.C., which indicates the limitations and possibilities inherent in the doctrine; the Stoic's way of life and his attitude toward practical affairs, revealing the values cherished by the adherents of the Stoa; and, finally, the place of Stoicism in the history of philosophy.
Harvard University Press, publ. for Oberlin college 1980 108 pages

The sculpture of Louise Nevelson: constructing a legend

Nevelson, Louise
A comprehensive look at Louise Nevelson's career as a pioneering sculptor Louise Nevelson (1900-1988) was a towering figure in postwar American art, exerting great influence with her monumental installations, innovative sculptures made of found objects, and celebrated public artworks. The Sculpture of Louise Nevelson focuses on all phases of the artist's remarkable ascent to the top of the art world, from her groundbreaking works of the 1940s to complex pieces completed in the late 1980s. The most extensive study of Nevelson to be published in over 20 years, this beautifully illustrated book also demonstrates how Nevelson's flamboyant style and carefully cultivated persona enhanced her reputation as an artist of the first rank. Essays by distinguished scholars examine a wide variety of important issues and themes throughout Nevelson's career, including the role of monochromatic color in her painted wooden sculpture; the art-historical context of her work; her acclaimed large-scale commissioned artworks, which established her as a central figure in the public art revival of the late 1960s; and her "self-fashioning" as a celebrated artist, particularly her origins as a Ukrainian-born Jewish immigrant to the United States. An illustrated chronology and exhibition history accompany the text. Published in conjunction with the first major exhibition of Nevelson's work in America since 1980, this book provides essential information on and insights into the study of a revolutionary 20th-century artist. Published in association with The Jewish Museum Exhibition Schedule: The Jewish Museum, New York (May 5 - September 16, 2007) de Young, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (October 27, 2007 - January 13, 2008)
Jewish Museum 2007 238 pages

Memoirs of Lorenzo Da Ponte

Ponte, Lorenzo Da
From the glittering salons of Venice to the grand opera houses of Vienna and the bustling streets of New York, Memoirs of Lorenzo Da Ponte offers a fascinating journey through the life of one of history’s most intriguing figures. Best known as Mozart’s librettist for Don Giovanni, The Marriage of Figaro, and Così fan tutte, Da Ponte was much more than a lyricist—he was a poet, priest, adventurer, and immigrant who reinvented himself time and again. In this candid and engaging autobiography, Da Ponte recounts his tumultuous life with wit and charm. Born a Jewish convert to Catholicism, he became a priest, only to be exiled from Venice due to scandal. He found fortune and fame in Vienna under Emperor Joseph II, collaborating with Mozart to create some of the most enduring works in opera. Yet his life was marked by upheaval—falling from grace, wandering through Europe, and eventually settling in America, where he became a bookseller, teacher, and even helped establish Italian opera in the New World. A tale of artistic genius, resilience, and reinvention, Memoirs of Lorenzo Da Ponte is a captivating firsthand account of an extraordinary life lived at the crossroads of history, music, and adventure.
Independently published 2025-02-02 479 pages

Thirty years: Lincoln Kirstein's The New York City Ballet : expanded to include the years 1973-1978, in celebration of the company's thirtieth anniversary

Kirstein, Lincoln
Here, for the first time in a paperback edition, is the text of Lincoln Kirstein's The New York City Ballet, published in 1973, and now brought up to date with 120 new pages recounting the history of the company through the past five years—years that have seen the creation of major works by George Balanchine such as Union Jack, Vienna Waltzes, Chaconne, and Kammermusik No. 2, and that produced the Ravel Festival, for which both Balanchine and Jerome Robbins made works that have entered the permanent repertory; years that have witnessed the amazing artistic growth of dancers like Peter Martins and Merrill Ashley, the return to the company of Suzanne Farrell, the arrival of Mikhail Baryshnikov; years in which the quality of the New York City Ballet—and its acceptance by the dance public—has reached new heights.
Knopf 1978 398 pages