"We all know eloquence when we hear it. But what exactly is it? And how might we gain more of it for ourselves? This entertaining and, yes, eloquent book illuminates the power of language from a linguistic point of view and provides fascinating insights into the way we use words. David Crystal, a world-renowned expert on the history and usage of the English language, probes the intricate workings of eloquence. His lively analysis encompasses everyday situations (wedding speeches, business presentations, storytelling) as well as the oratory of great public gatherings. Crystal focuses on the here and now of eloquent speaking--from pitch, pace, and prosody to jokes, appropriateness, and how to wield a microphone. He explains what is going on moment by moment and examines each facet of eloquence. He also investigates topics such as the way current technologies help or hinder our verbal powers, the psychological effects of verbal excellence, and why certain places or peoples are thought to be more eloquent than others. In the core analysis of the book, Crystal offers an extended and close dissection of Barack Obama's electrifying "Yes we can" speech of 2008, in which the president demonstrated full mastery of virtually every element of eloquence--from the simple use of parallelism and an awareness of what not to say, to his brilliant conclusion constructed around two powerful words: dreams and answers"--

Founded in 1841, The Jewish Chronicle is the oldest continuously published Jewish newspaper in the world. A force for change, a forum for debate and a shaper of Jewish identity, it has played a central part in the development of modern Anglo-Jewry. More than just a mirror of Anglo-Jewish mores, registering waves of immigration and social change, The Jewish Chronicle has been an active player in historical events. Its editors have intervened decisively in communal history and debated with British statesmen. No historian can understand the inner life of British Jews without looking at the social reports, the sports column, the arts and cultural coverage and the advertising that the paper has carried. This book, written by a noted historian of Jewish social affairs, gives an insight into the working of a newspaper, the struggles between editors and directors, and the boardroom politics. It is the story of a publishing adventure that became an institution and helped to shape the destiny of an entire community.

Designed as a reference work for the student and general reader, this Kabbalistic dictionary is a concise and handy guide to the history and treasures of the Jewish mystical tradition. It is the first dictionary of Kabbalah to provide an overview of the major themes of Jewish Kabbalistic thought as it developed over the centuries and also contains brief introductions to its major practitioners. In addition to the dictionary itself, the book contains a chronology of Kabbalah, a history of Kabbalah from ancient times to the present, maps, illustrations and an insight into the emergence of the Kabbalah Centre in California, where many celebrities, including Madonna, worship.

Beginning with the earliest philosopher of the Middle Ages, Saadiah ben Joseph al-Fayyumi, this work surveys the work of such figures as Joseph Albo and Isaac Arama. It places these thinkers in an historical context and describe their contributions to the history of Jewish medieval thought.

About the is an exciting story, how music has for thousands of years been held in balance between the basic facts that, on the one hand sound is vibration of matter ruled by mathematical ratios and that, on the other hand, musical art works are immaterial, indeed, irrational. In studying this first attempt at a synthesis, the reader should not forget that this book treats the rise of music in the ancient world and consequently in little concerned with the practice, the conceptions and the misconceptions of medieval and modern Oriental music, except in so far as they throw light on antiquity. Nor should he forget at what disadvantage such an attempt is placed by the incompleteness of our sources both musical and extramusical. About the Sachs (1881 –1959) was a German musicologist. He was one of the founders of modern organology (the study of musical instruments). Among his contributions was the Hornbostel–Sachs system, which he created with Erich von Hornbostel. Born in Berlin, Sachs studied piano, music theory and composition as a youth in that city. However, his doctorate from Berlin University (where he was later professor of musicology) in 1904 was on the history of art, with his thesis on the sculpture of Verrocchio. He began a career as an art historian, but promptly became more devoted to music, eventually being appointed director of the Staatliche Instrumentensammlung, a large collection of musical instruments. He reorganised and restored much of the collection, and his career as an organologist began. His numerous books include works on rhythm, dance and musical instruments, with his The History of Musical Instruments (1940), a comprehensive survey of musical instruments worldwide throughout history, seen as one of the most important. The l

Welcome to the Stasis, the clandestine, near-omnipotent organization that stands at the heart of Charles Stross's Hugo Award-winning novella, Palimpsest. By mastering the mysteries of the Timegate, the Stasis has repeatedly steered mankind away from the brink of utter extinction. Through countless millennia, through the "mayfly flickerings" of innumerable transient civilizations, its members have intervened at critical junctions, reseeding the galaxy with viable potential survivors. In the process, they have reconfigured the basic structure of the universe, all in the name of human continuity. Pierce is a newly recruited member of the Stasis, serving out a complex twenty- year apprenticeship while struggling to find his way through the paradoxical maze of history (and unhistory) that surrounds him. As his once simple existence expands and replicates over vast stretches of time, Pierce uncovers a new and unexpected destiny, one that will embroil him in the larger purposes of the Stasis and in the ultimate, unresolved fate of humanity itself. Skillfully merging the threads of an individual life with the grandest, most overarching concerns, Palimpsest offers both visionary brilliance and narrative excitement in equal measure. Powerfully imagined, beautifully constructed, and written throughout with great economy of means, it is the kind of mind-expanding mini-epic that only science fiction and only a master practitioner like Charles Stross could produce.

Tea leaf reading is an age-old form of divination that has followed the tea trade around the globe, touching many cultures along the way. The Stranger in the Cup will teach you the secret lore of tea cup magic, including how to select a cup, how to choose the best tea for a reading, how to brew the tea, and how to give amazing tasseomantic readings. With a full dictionary of more than 800 tea leaf symbols, plus dozens of sample cup interiors that will show you exactly what the leaves reveal, this book will guide you from beginner to expert cup reader in no time. Along the way, you will learn the history of tea, the history of tea leaf reading, and the history of the rare tea cups specially marked for cartomancy, numerology, and astrology readings, as well as the history of the woman-led Tea Room Movement of the 20th century that made tea leaf reading the preferred fortune-telling method of the radical Suffragettes. Profusely illustrated, beautifully laid out, and deeply descriptive, this is a book to treasure or to share with a special friend.

Poems deal with loneliness, the past, animals, dreams, war, art, writers, letters, history, welfare, aging, workers, and the imagination

Poems deal with literature, history, nature, city life, darkness, travel, politics, teaching, friendship, and baseball

A rich heritage that needs to be documented Beginning in 1869, when the study of homosexuality can be said to have begun with the establishment of sexology, this encyclopedia offers accounts of the most important international developments in an area that now occupies a critical place in many fields of academic endeavours. It covers a long history and a dynamic and ever changing present, while opening up the academic profession to new scholarship and new ways of thinking. A groundbreaking new approach While gays and lesbians have shared many aspects of life, their histories and cultures developed in profoundly different ways. To reflect this crucial fact, the encyclopedia has been prepared in two separate volumes assuring that both histories receive full, unbiased attention and that a broad range of human experience is covered. Written for and by a wide range of people Intended as a reference for students and scholars in all fields, as well as for the general public, the encyclopedia is written in user-friendly language. At the same time it maintains a high level of scholarship that incorporates both passion and objectivity. It is written by some of the most famous names in the field, as well as new scholars, whose research continues to advance gender studies into the future.

Now in its second edition the acclaimed volume is more than a book about the contrabass, but an introduction to string playing at a time in the history of Western music when timbre has finally ascended to its rightful role among musical parameters. It articulates the real musical image and potential of the contrabass, and introduces new concepts, aesthetics, and techniques. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1989.

This book presents the fantastic myths about the angels who were lured to sin and the proud angel who rebelled against God and was cast down as Satan. The author traces the history of these beliefs in Judaism, Christianity and Islam and assembles a variety of tales and superstitions - some grotesque, others quaint and humorous. The presentation also reveals a basic divergence between Judaism and Christianity. "In the sense that he instigated the sin of Adam, we may call the Devil the source of all sin. But individual sins have a variety of causes, and are not all the work of Satan. Some of the causes of sin are internal - ignorance, malice, passion. The external causes of sin are said to be God, the Devil and human tempters. St. Thomas denies that God can be the cause of sin. He is indeed the cause of all acts, insofar as they possess being and activity, but sinfulness is always in the nature of a deficiency, resulting not from God's will, but from man's free choice."

Edward Cooper was a hard man to know. Dour and exuberant by turns, his moods dictated the always-uncertain climate of the Cooper household. Now - balding, octogenarian - he makes an unlikely literary muse. But to his now middle-aged son, he looms larger than life, an overwhelming, baffling presence. Edward Cooper made his name as a divorce attorney in LA whose cases were devoured by the tabloids. Now, he is slowly succumbing to dementia. As Bernard attempts to forge a coherent picture of his family history, he uncovers Edward's lawsuits against other family members, and recalls the itemized invoice his father once sent him for the total cost of his upbringing, for the sum of two million dollars. 'Bernard Cooper's The Bill from My Fathe r is a glorious cornucopia of love and pain. Not only is Cooper an exemplary writer but he can parse an emotion down to its most resonant note. This memoir amazes' Alice Sebold, author of The Lovely Bones 'Cooper is a beautiful writer . . . his book is in a class of its own . . . Somehow, this is a story about all parents and their grown-up children and how they manage to keep going through all the insults and mixed messages and botched attempts to express love' Observer 'Cooper's wry, rueful memoir of a lifetime's wrangling with the old guy is memorably moving, emotionally disciplined, devilish in the detail and smartly funny. Read it now' The Times

By the middle of the eighteenth century the merchants were dominant figures in the northern American colonies, powerful economically, politically, and socially. But in New England this preeminence had not been present in the first years of settlement; it had been achieved in the course of three generations of social development as the merchants often Puritans themselves, rose within the Bible Commonwealths to challenge the domination of the Puritan fathers. In lively detail Mr. Bailyn here presents the struggle of the merchants to achieve full social recognition as their successes in trade and in such industries as fishing and lumbering offered them avenues to power. Surveying the rise of merchant families, he offers a portrait in depth of the emergence of a new social group whose interests and changing social position powerfully affected the developing character of American society. The story of this group is the story of people and of their many-sided interests. The merchants were united by the demands of their common devotion to trade, yet they did not form a socially homogeneous unit. In fact their social differences--created in the confusions and dislocations of the early days of settlement came to play an important role in their business and political activities. Moreover, their commercial ventures, successes, and failures affected their social and political situation. Internationalists by occupation, they were deeply affected by personal relations with Europeans as well as by events in the Old World. Drawing on source material from many fields--business records, religious and political data, literary remains, and genealogical information--Mr. Bailyn has discovered much that is new about the merchants, and has brought it all together into a composite portrait of our economic founding fathers that is fascinating in itself and that will reorient our thinking about many aspects of early New England history.

Rabbi Berel Wein once again exhibits his admirable talent for clear, lucid explanation in this highly informative work. Though each chapter is brief, the sweep of the book is broad - exploring life-cycle events from birth through death, the Jewish view of family life and values, character refinement, Sabbath, holidays and specific religious practices. An enriching reading experience, Living Jewish enables every reader to find deeper meaning in Jewish traditions and reconnect with the ancient values that have found new expression in the modern era. Rabbi Wein is well known as a historian, raconteur, lecturer and author of numerous works on Jewish history and Jewish thought. His enlightening and entertaining style will captivate your interest, and his inspiring insights will add meaning to your life.

“Humpty Dumpty” is the story of the defeat of passion. In this novel our civilization with all its biological and psychological ancestry laid bare, rises to overpower one of its supermen. Savaron, the man, with a skyrocket for a soul, hurls himself against the invisible monster—the lifeless decaying thing he identifies as society. Genius holds carnival in Savaron's mind. Brilliantly and futilely he struggles to extricate himself from the grip of the crowd-men of his day. His brain for a little while illuminates the way for him. Love corrupts him, conventions repudiated by his mind steal into his heart, confusion begins to knock his brain and Savaron, the gay and unscrupulous giant, finds himself fastened to the earth of Lilliput. In this Novel Hecht has outwritten the promise of Erik Dorm and Gargoyles. More epithetical than the former and vaster in scope and clearer in detail than the latter, “Humpty Dumpty” emerges as one of the most vivid and daring of modern excursions into the soul of man. Ben Hecht was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, journalist, and novelist. A journalist in his youth, he went on to write 35 books and some of the most enjoyed screenplays and plays in America. He received screen credits, alone or in collaboration, for the stories or screenplays of some seventy films. In the 1910s and 1920s, Hecht became a noted journalist, foreign correspondent, and literary figure. In the late 1920s, his co-authored, reporter-themed play, The Front Page, became a Broadway hit. American Screenwriters calls him “one of the most successful screenwriters in the history of motion pictures”. Hecht received the first Academy Award for Best Story for Underworld (1927). Many of the screenplays he worked on are now considered classics.

This book has been considered important throughout the human history, and so that this work is never forgotten Alpha Editions has made efforts in its preservation by republishing this book in a modern format for the present and future generations. This whole book has been re-formatted, re-typed and re-designed. These books are not made of scanned copies of their original work, and hence the text is clear and readable.

Sixteen more lost stories by Ben Hecht from the Snickersnee Press, this compilation about Chicago's pioneering Modernist artists, their art and the pioneering skyscrapers punctuating the cityscape. Audiences include 1. Art and cultural historians of early Modernism in Chicago; 2. Short story lovers interested in literary journalism of Ben Hecht at his before-30 Chicago brightest. 3. Chicago history. The 1921-1922 short works reveal Hecht's passion for avant-garde art including German DaDa, show off his unbridled wordsmithery, philosophizing and humor in his salad days before he became Hollywood's most sought-after film writer and script doctor (Scarface, Spellbound, Notorious). Written for his Chicago Daily News column 1001 Afternoons in Chicago, the pieces vary from bar rooom comedy about specific artists to intellectual arguments about Modernism and beauty, subjects unexplored by other Hecht biographers. Uncompiled until rediscovered on microfilm by archival research consultant and Hecht biobibliographer Florice Whyte Kovan, they rejuvenate and contextualize with her historical notes and profuse illustrations. Hecht interviews Primitivist Jerome Blum, visiting Russian painter Nicholas Roerich; satirizes landscape artist George Peyraud, expounds on Dadaist Johannes Van Baader. He features his own illustrators Herman Rosse and Wallace Smith, the latter illustrating Hecht's banned book, Fantasius Mallare. Two-page spreads recall George Grosz's early Americana drawings; works by eccentric Stanislaw Szukalski's, recently a NetFlix subject. No-Jury artists rejected at Art Institute of Chicago, as Hecht laments, receive a two-page cartoon spread. Over 20 artists referenced. Hecht's skyscraper stories track daily construction of the spire-topped Temple Building and extoll the iconic Wrigley Tower. A roman a clef with a surprise ending invokes the extravagant dreams of architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Kovan's quirky landscape-oriented layout varies column height evoking the cityscape. Her research at Smithsonian Archives of American Art, MoMA and Library of Congress establishes that several artist friends became Hollywood artists and set designers. She adds scholarly value with material, 104 reference images including film stills; bibliography, image acknowledgements, internal commentary, endnotes, foreword, afterword, index. The vibrant sundrenched cover is from hand-made painted washi paper by Washington, DC artist Sheila Crider who created it for Kovan's original artist book.

Product Description Printed in England in 1982 by the venerable Webb & Bower, this award-winning, richly illustrated (black and white photographs, engravings) and deeply researched work is part walking guidebook, part history and social analysis. The full title is The Mews of London - a Guide to the Hidden Byways of London's Past. Highly readable and without technical language, it provides fascinating glimpses into one of the great cities of the world and reminds us that the architecture of a city is also a social history and a record of the thoughts of its builders and inhabitants. The authors -- one of whom later became Cultural Affairs Officer at the British Embassy in Washington DC, and the other was the inventor of the famous Zuckermann Harpsichord Kit -- impart a sense of how to read this history in geography, metal, wood and stone, and their absorption in the topic, and their love for it, is obvious. The collection of nostalgic photographs alone is well worth the time one spends with this remarkable little volume. The Mews of London won special mention for originality in the Guide Book of the Year Awards by the London Tourist Board, 1983. Review ... "mews" refers to cages where falcons were kept... "mew"...word muer (to molt) dervived from the Latin mutare... -- London Property Magazine, 1982 --London Property Magazine... authoritative on ... history... topography of those unique streets...Rosen/Zuckermann are delighted ... treasures survive... many are in conservation areas... --The London Explorer, 1982 - Tom Pocock --The London Explorer From the Inside Flap ...the first book about one of London's most remarkable features -- the vast network of former stable blocks left over from the days of the horse. There are more than 600 mews in London, many discreetly hidden behind arches, and they contain some of the prettiest and least-known houses in the city. This book leads the reader through these secluded backwaters rarely seen by tourists, in a series of walks from Bayswater to Belgravia, and Mayfair to Marylebone, each one accompanied by maps and detailed descriptions.The authors' painstaking research leads them into an absorbing historical and sociological discussion of the mews origin and survival in a changing world. The reader is taken into unexplored corners full of romantic appeal , where cobbled streets, imposing arches and quaint architectural details give him a fleeting glimpse into another era of carriages and coachmen of the bygone days of gaslit streets. Illustrated with engravings from the past and Chris Wormald's evocative photographs of present-day life in the mews, this book is a unique blend of history and guidebook, whose non-technical commentary is addressed to the Londoner and tourist, to the walker and armchair explorer and to all who love the diversity of cities. About the Author Barbara Rosen has a BA from McGill University, Montreal and an EdM from Harvard University. A former English and creative writing teacher she came to Europe in 1978 to research in England, France and Spain for a book on music. In the course of her work at the British Library she became interested in English social history and city architecture. She served as Cultural Affairs Officer at the British Embassy/British Council in Washington, DC. She now runs a company - Anima Galleries - which represents Russian, European and US artists and organizes exhibtions at major US and European venues. Wolfgang Zuckermann has a BA from Queens College, New York, and for a long time owned the famous musical instrument company, Zuckermann Harpsichords. In 1968, he published The Modern Harpsichord which sold out after two hard-cover editions. He has also written End of the Road --the world car crisis and how we can solve it as well as several children's books. He came to Europe to do further research in his field and was a resident of Exeter and London for ten years. He gave frequent seminars and lectures

One of the richest & fullest lives of recorded ancient history is that of David, King of Israel. David's story has instructed, moved, inspired, & enchanted listeners & readers throughout the centuries. Barbara Cohen recounts David's story with a different purpose than that of the biblical writers. Her interest is in David the man, the human being who was poet, soldier, politician, administrator, lover, father, & religious leader to the united kingdoms of Judah & Israel. She tells his story in modern language, using the perspective of today's knowledge of archaeology, history, psychology, & politics, to bring him to life as an individual.