14302 results for "History"

Heidegger's confusions

Edwards, Paul
In this thorough critique of the philosophy of Martin Heidegger, philosopher Paul Edwards continues a project that he began several years ago. As he once stated in the New York Review of Books (June 11, 1981), Edwards's goal has been "to rescue [Heidegger's] valuable ideas from the logical confusions in which they are embedded and from the willfully obscure and perverse language in which they are frequently expressed." In this penetrating and witty book, Edwards insightfully analyzes Heidegger's quest for being; his treatment of death, anxiety, and nothingness; and his double-talk about life after death. In a brief preface Edwards aptly sums up the thrust of his criticism:"Bertrand Russell once referred to Kant as the greatest catastrophe in the history of philosophy. C. D. Broad commented that this position surely belonged to Hegel. Russell and Broad were wrong, because this title undoubtedly belongs to Martin Heidegger. Some years ago, Anthony Quinton spoke of Heidegger's 'ponderous and rubbishy woolgathering.' Until fairly recently, Heidegger was not taken seriously by philosophers in Great Britain and the United States. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case. One goal of the present study is to stem this tide of unreason."
Prometheus Books 2004 129 pages

Process philosophy: a survey of basic issues

Rescher, Nicholas
Process Philosophy surveys the basic issues and controversies surrounding the philosophical approach known as “process philosophy.” Process philosophy views temporality, activity, and change as the cardinal factors for our understanding of the real—process has priority over product, both ontologically and epistemically. Rescher examines the movement’s historical origins, reflecting a major line of thought in the work of such philosophers as Heracleitus, Leibniz, Bergson, Peirce, William James, and especially A. N. Whitehead. Reacting against the tendency to associate process philosophy too closely with this last-named thinker, Rescher writes, “Indeed, one cardinal task for the partisans of process at this particular juncture of philosophical history is to prevent the idea of ‘process philosophy’ from being marginalized through a limitation of its bearing to the work and influence of any one single individual or group.” This book will appeal to both students and professors of philosophy. Those teachers who have not been trained in process philosophy will welcome this new text by one one of North America’s foremost philosophers as a perspicuous and informative introduction.
University of Pittsburgh Press 2000 144 pages

Curiouser and curiouser: essays

Delbanco, Nicholas
A miscellany of sorts, preeminent author and critic Nicholas Delbanco's Curiouser and Curiouser attests to a lifelong interest in music and the visual arts as well as both "mere" and "sheer" literature. With essays ranging from the restoration of his father-in-law's famed Stradivarius cello--known throughout the world as "The Countess of Stanlein"--to a reimagining of H. A. and Margaret Rey's lives and the creation of their most beloved character, Curious George , Delbanco examines what it means to live and love with the arts. Whether exploring the history of personal viewing in the business of museum-going, musing on the process of rewriting one's earliest published work, or looking back on the twists and turns of a life that spans the greater part of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, Delbanco's Curiouser and Curiouser invites adventurous readers to follow him down the rabbit hole as he reflects on life as a student, an observer, a writer, a lover, a father, a teacher, and most importantly, a participant in the everyday experiences of human life.
Mad Creek Books, an imprint of The Ohio State University Press 2017 179 pages

As far as I remember

Kerr, Michael R. E.
This candidly written autobiography of Sir Michael Kerr chronicles the life of one of Britains most prominent judges of the 70s and 80s from his Continental childhood up to his career in the Court of Appeal and beyond. In the first part of his memoir,the author traces his family history and Germanic roots. His father, Alfred Kerr, was a well-known dramatic critic and essayist, whose writings were widely known throughout Germany from the turn of the century and have recently seen a resurrection, 50 years after his death, as related in the last chapter of the book. But because of the fame of his anti-Nazi writings and broadcasts, the Kerrs were forced to flee from Berlin as early as 3 March 1933, when Hitler came to power. The author and his sister Judith, later to become a famous author of childrens books, had a relatively happy cosmopolitan childhood in Zurich, Paris, Nice and ultimately England. But their parents lives remained on the edge of poverty and sometimes despair and there was never again a family home. The memoirs then tell of his years at Aldenham School and the beginnings of Cambridge, and of his assimilation into the English way of life. They relate the story of his internment as an enemy alien in 1940 and of his subsequent release and service as a pilot in the Royal Air Force until the end of World War II. The author then returned to Cambridge to finish his law degree and was urged to go the Bar. The later chapters of this autobiography are mainly devoted to the law. They recount the authors career as a leading commercial Junior and then a Silk, his initial hesitations about the Bench, but ultimately culminating in his appointment as a Lord Justice of Appeal. He describes the Bar of the post-war decades and is frank about the frustrations and disappointments of his career. He also provides insights into the oddities of the English legal system, but maintaining throughout his firm belief in the importance of an independent Bar.
Hart 2005 356 pages

Quantum mechanics and gravity

Sachs, Mendel
Theoretical physics is presently at a very exciting time in the history of scientific discovery. For we are at a precipice facing two conflicting 20th century revolutionary movements in physics, each purporting to be basic truths of nature - the quantum theory and the theory of relativity. In the 20th century the mathematical expression of the quantum theory yielded correct predictions of a great deal of the data on the behavior of the molecular, atomic, nuelear and elementary partiele domains of matter. In the same period, the theory of relativity suc cessfully described new features of material systems. In special rela tivity, the relativistic Doppler effects (transverse and longitudinal) of electromagnetic radiation, and the mechanics of matter that moves at speeds elose to the speed of light, revealing, for example, the en 2 ergy mass relation, E = mc , revolutionized our thinking. In its form of general relativity, it has yielded a formalism that successfully pre dicted features of the phenomenon of gravity, also predicted by the elassical Newtonian theory, but in addition, features not predicted by the elassical theory, thereby superceding Newton's theory of universal gravitation. The problem we are now faced with, in these early decades of the 21st century, is that in their precise mathematical forms and their conceptual bases, the theory of relativity and the quantum theory are both logically and mathematically incompatible.
Springer 2011 192 pages

Replenishing Jessica

Maxwell Bodenheim
One may contend that "Replenishing Jessica" is neither a novel nor an essay, but one cannot deny it is prose. After all, a poet wrote it and he put into is such a phrase as, "He wrapped his dreams in a sigh," which is good even if it does not belong in this novel..." So wrote a critic contemporary of Maxwell Bodenheim in December 1925. Shortly afterwards, the novel was yanked from bookshelves and repressed for reasons of obscenity. It would be almost four years later that Replenishing Jessica would finally be cleared of its charges by a New York judge and available for sale. A new edition was published by Boni & Liveright and sold in excess of 10,000 copies mere days after its revival. Success had landed on Bodenheim's doorstep, but would only last a short while before he was once again at the cusp of personal and financial failure. Replenishing Jessica fell out of print in the early 1950s and has since been forgotten in the annals of Depression-era American literature. Though Bodenheim wrote the novel with its suggestive title in order to turn a quick buck, he managed to also instill into the book a magical realism accurately capturing the sights and sound of Jazz Age New York. Now reprinted for the first time in over 70 years, Bodenheim scholar, Paul Maher Jr., has researched and edited a new edition of Replenishing Jessica for the 21st-century complete with an extensive introduction tracing the history of the book and a biography of Bodenheim between 1925 to 1928.
Independently Published 2021-07-17 248 pages

Kinship

Maxim Shrayer
Kinship, the new collection of poetry by the bilingual author, Boston College professor Maxim D. Shrayer, weaves together some of the principal themes in modern Jewish history: ancestry in Eastern Europe, the Shoah, antisemitism, exile, displacement and immigration, Zionism and Israel. Shrayer's richly orchestrated and formally elegant verse captures with poignancy and passion what it feels like to be a Jewish poet with Soviet roots, living in America during Russia's brutal war in Ukraine. Kinship is, ultimately, a pained and inspiring meditation on writing between languages and cultures.
Finishing Line Press 2024-04-05 50 pages

Martin Ritt: interviews

Ritt, Martin
This collection of interviews provides a revealing self-portrait of Martin Ritt (1914-1990), America's preeminent maker of social films and one of the most sensitive portraitists of the rural South. Ritt's Hollywood career began in 1958 with Edge of the City and ended in 1990 with the release of Stanley and Iris. In all, he directed twenty-six movies, including some of Hollywood's most enduring films--Hud, Hombre, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, The Brotherhood, The Molly Maguires, The Front, and Norma Rae. Although he gave mostly boilerplate interviews to the press when promoting a movie, Ritt provided more revealing interviews for seminars, oral histories, and documentary filmmakers. The most significant of these, published here for the first time, create a close-up portrait of this distinguished director of plays and films. Ritt speaks eloquently about his years with the Group Theatre and recreates the passion of the director Harold Clurman. He tells how the Group shaped his ideas about art and the communal nature of the theatrical enterprise, which he extended into his work in film. He speaks of his relationship with Clifford Odets and Elia Kazan, and he talks in detail about his experiences with the blacklist, directing and acting in TV during its Golden Age, his career as a theater director, and his experiences working with such actors as Paul Newman, Sally Field, Sophia Loren, Orson Welles, and Robert De Niro. Ritt discusses his philosophy of directing, the place of film in the history of art, his quarrels with ""auteur theory,"" and the influence of his politics on his work. Gabriel Miller, a professor of English at Rutgers University, is the author of The Films of Martin Ritt: Fanfare for the Common Man (University Press of Mississippi). Articles by him have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, American Book Review, and Literature/Film Quarterly, among other publications.
University Press of Mississippi 2003 213 pages

Walk Into the Sun A Novel of New York After the Default

Mark S. Goldberg
In 1975, New York City faced a massive budget deficit and feared it could not pay its city workers. Their potential default was national front-page news. Thirty-four years later -- with nationwide bank closings, bankruptcies of major corporations, enormous layoffs and the largest national deficit in history -- might that ugly specter of default be facing New York again? After all, it is currently happening today, in Washington, D.C., where a bankrupt city has lost its public service personnel, garbage litters the streets and rats have made the district buildings their homes.Within the pages of, WALK INTO THE SUN, it is 2009 and the unthinkable has happened to New York City. That city is in default. However, this is not a story of the saving of the city. Rather, it is a tale of the people who make up its body. From the garbage man to the Bowery cop to the sewer-dwelling orphan. From the advertising executive and his dying son to the widow killer and his prey. From the Mayor's aide to the Governor's wife to the last remaining doctor in New York City.The story shows the effects of the default; the walkouts by police, firefighters and sanitation workers. Looters and snipers taking over the streets. Uncollected garbage bringing rats. And rats bringing the worst form of disease. How such varied characters deal with this horror and ultimately come together -- not to save the city, but themselves -- is the basis of WALK INTO THE SUN.
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform 2010-09-14 290 pages

Toward a theory of historical narrative: a case study in Perso-Islamicate historiography

Waldman, Marilyn R.
"Professor Waldman challenges the prevailing practice in Islamicate historiography by undertaking a multifaceted analysis of a single text--a major historical narrative and a pivotal work in the history of new Persian language and literature since the tenth century: the Ghaznavid period's Ta'rīkh-i Bayhaqī ... Dr. Waldman is able to identify a wide range of phenomena that suggest the close relationship between historical narratives like the one under study and other literary narratives. She demonstrates that theories of narrative developed by literary critics can and should be expanded to account for historical narrative, and explores the potential utility of one critical approach--speech act theory ... Dr. Waldman calls for a dramatic reversal in the traditional ways in which historical narratives have been used by historians--not in order to curtail their function, as some critics would do, to merely confirming what hard evidence suggests--but rather so as to allow them to provide their abundant and unique information about hitherto unappreciated dimensions in the history of language, communication, ideas, and culture"--From book jacket.
Ohio State University Press 1980 214 pages

The renewal of Palestine in the Jewish imagination

Ellis, Marc H.
"Beyond the immediate issues of politics and economics lie the larger and deeper realities of history and fidelity. As a Jew I am asking in these essays traditional religious questions in light of our present circumstances: What does it mean to be Jewish after the Holocaust and the consolidation of our empowerment in Israel/Palestine? Coming from a situation of oppression, what does it mean for Jewish history and theology to continue oppressing the Palestinian people? Has our empowerment in Israel brought us the freedom we so urgently needed, or has our abuse of power in Israel brought us a new enslavement and ghettoization which we did not seek, but now pursue almost blindly? Can we be healed of our trauma of Holocaust by finalizing the trauma of the Palestinian people which we as Jews have inflicted? At the lighting of the Shabbat candles, shall we bless our endeavor and thank God for making us into a warrior people?"--
Wipf & Stock 2016-05-02 158 pages

First Light Encountering Edward Said and the Late-Style Jewish Prophetic in the New Diaspora

Marc H. Ellis
Encountering Edward Said on Yom Kippur: Reflections on the Late-Style Jewish Prophetic is a fascinating and controversial collection of journals and meditations on the plight and possibility of the prophetic witness in the modern world. In these pages, the Jewish theologian, Marc H. Ellis, explores the prophetic through his encounters with the late Palestinian intellectual, Edward Said, as a way of thinking through the stakes of contemporary Jewish history. His unexpected encounter with Said on Yom Kippur provides a fascinating window to explore the dangers and possibilities of present-day Jewish life and its future. Ellis applies Said's idea of late-style to the Jewish prophetic - what Ellis names the Late-Style Jewish Prophetic - to mean the reappearance and coming home of the Jewish prophetic as it undergoes its own deconstruction and re-emergence. At turns deeply personal and creatively theoretical, Ellis doesn't shy away from the forbidden terrains of self questioning and progressive posturing, even with people and movements he identifies with. The result is a sensitive and provocative exploration filled with questions and responses rather than definitive answers.
Michigan Publishing Services 2023-09-25 296 pages

Dangerous Allies

Malcolm Fraser,Cain Roberts
We need the US for defence, but we only need defence because of the US Australia has always been reliant on 'great and powerful friends' for its sense of national security and for direction on its foreign policy-first on the British Empire and now on the United States. Australia has actively pursued a policy of strategic dependence, believing that making a grand bargain with a powerful ally was the best policy to ensure its security and prosperity. Dangerous Allies examines Australia's history of strategic dependence and questions the continuation of this position. It argues that international circumstances, in the world and in the Western Pacific especially, now make such a policy highly questionable. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the United States has also changed dramatically, making it less relevant to Australia and a less appropriate ally on which Australia should rely. Malcolm Fraser argues that Australia should adopt a much greater degree of independence in foreign policy, and that we should no longer merely follow other nations into wars of no direct interest to Australia or Australia's security. He argues for an end to strategic dependence and for the timely establishment of a truly independent Australia.
Melbourne University Publishing 2014-11-14 378 pages

Tangut (Hsi Hsia) Studies

Susan Hesse,Luc Kwanten
This collection of essays and reviews represents the most significant and comprehensive writing on Shakespeare's A Comedy of Errors. Miola's edited work also features a comprehensive critical history, coupled with a full bibliography and photographs of major productions of the play from around the world. In the collection, there are five previously unpublished essays. The topics covered in these new essays are women in the play, the play's debt to contemporary theater, its critical and performance histories in Germany and Japan, the metrical variety of the play, and the distinctly modern perspective on the play as containing dark and disturbing elements. To compliment these new essays, the collection features significant scholarship and commentary on The Comedy of Errors that is published in obscure and difficulty accessible journals, newspapers, and other sources. This collection brings together these essays for the first time.
Taylor & Francis Group 1997-07-29 125 pages

Muckraking and progressivism in the American tradition: with a new introduction by the author

Filler, Louis
Muckraking and progressivism have always marched arm-in-arm, cutting a wide path through modern American history. Originally published as Appointment at Armageddon , Filler's book is a vital contribution in understanding the intrinsic dynamic of reform in American life. It extracts from the issues that fostered progressivism and muckraking an essence that illuminates contemporary debate. Filler points out that early twentieth-century progressivism was essentially middle class, seeking common denominators for social interests. It was also a modernizing force in such areas as child labor, poverty, farm problems, and race relations. In his new introduction, Filler reviews various instances of progressivism throughout history. Filler maintains that progressivism died out when pride in its achievements turned to bitterness. Rather than celebrating the progress made by outstanding Americans, such as W.E.B. DuBois and Susan B. Anthony, various groups began focusing only on the oppressed and the oppressors. By concentrating on the negative instead of the positive, Americans abandoned the forward-looking tenets of turn of the century progressivism. Muckraking and Progressivism in the American Tradition is a timely book. It is needed to inspire Americans to find a new way to solve current dilemmas. This significant work will be of interest to sociologists, historians, and political theorists.
Transaction Publishers 1996 476 pages

Cruel deeds and dreadful calamities: the illustrated police news, 1864-1938

Stratmann, Linda
“Jack the Ripper Arrested with Victim Alice MacKenzie in Whitechapel.” “Boys Murder Their Mother. Revolting Crime at Plaistow—Shocking Details.” “Horrible Discovery of Human Remains at Rainham.” These are just some of the captions for the true crimes depicted in the Illustrated Police News. Best known for its meticulous coverage of the murders of Jack the Ripper, the weekly newspaper, published from 1864 until 1938, reported murders, hangings, and other dramatic crimes of the time alongside images packed with gruesome detail. Unapologetic about its sensationalism, the Illustrated Police News has been often dismissed as of little value, merely a crude publication that aimed to thrill the undiscerning reader with prurient pictures. But in Cruel Deeds and Dreadful Calamities, Linda Stratmann sets the record straight, arguing that it was actually a promoter of social change. Stratmann examines its social and political agenda and reveals the power and compassion in its images. She argues that the publication campaigned against the evils of cruelty, poverty, drink, and crime. As well, it anticipated by many years the features of today’s journalism, in the rapidity with which it provided pictures of current news events, its appeal to the emotions, and the way it involved its readers in the reporting process. A highly illustrated and comprehensive look at the Illustrated Police News,this book offers substantial new research into how the paper was produced, the men who made it a success, and the stories behind the pictures. This look into the dark underbelly of Victorian culture will appeal to both crime and history readers alike.
British Library 2011 160 pages

A Mexican elite family, 1820-1980: kinship, class, and culture

Lomnitz, Larissa Adler
This book presents the history of the Gomez, an elite family of Mexico that today includes several hundred individuals, plus their spouses and the families of their spouses, all living in Mexico City. Tracing the family from its origins in mid-nineteenth-century Mexico through its rise under the Porfirio Diaz regime and focusing especially on the last three generations, the work shows how the Gomez have evolved a distinctive subculture and an ability to advance their economic interests under changing political and economic conditions. One of the authors' major findings is the importance of the kinship system, particularly the three-generation "grandfamily" as a basic unit binding together people of different generations and different classes. The authors show that the top entrepreneurs in the family, the direct descendants of its founder, remain the acknowledged leaders of the kin, each one ruling his business as a patron-owner through a network of clienty2Drelatives. Other family members, though belonging to the middle class, identify ideologically with the family leadership and the bourgeoisie, and family values tend to overrule considerations of strictly business interest even among entrepreneurs.
Princeton University Press 1987 294 pages

Survival and sociology: vindicating the human subject

Wolff, Kurt H.
Kurt Wolff seeks to answer a large ques­tion: what are the justifications and tasks of sociology at a time when hu­mankind and its planet are in jeop­ardy? Since his youth in Germany, where he was a student ofthelate, great Karl Mannheim, the author has ori­ented much of his work to the sociology of sociology. Survival and Sociology takes into ac­count that this age, for the first time in history, extends to society what was only in the province of nature and god—the ability to destroy as well as create life. That being the case, the concern of so­ciology must shift from everyday issues to ideas and policies aimed at averting human extinction. The act of "surrendering" to our novel condition may give us a clue. In any case, it re-establishes our continuity with such founding figures as Max We­ber. Max Scheler. Alfred Schutz, Emile Durkheim. Georg Simmel, and Mann­heim himself. As a result. Wolffs work can be seen as both innovative and continuing a grand tradition of analysis. The an­swers given are very much in terms of specific American conditions, but also provide the sort of theoretical scaffold­ing that underwrites current East-West negotiations on practical issues relat­ing to arms negotiations and peace set­tlements. It is thus a work that should have wide appeal to students of the his­tory of ideas, sociologists of knowledge, and people interested in the philosoph­ical foundations of war and peace.
Transaction Publishers 1991 119 pages

It's the gypsy in me

Bercovici, Konrad
PREFACE. THE Author of this very practical treatise on Scotch Loch - Fishing desires clearly that it may be of use to all who had it. He does not pretend to have written anything new, but to have attempted to put what he has to say in as readable a form as possible. Everything in the way of the history and habits of fish has been studiously avoided, and technicalities have been used as sparingly as possible. The writing of this book has afforded him pleasure in his leisure moments, and that pleasure would be much increased if he knew that the perusal of it would create any bond of sympathy between himself and the angling community in general. This section is interleaved with blank shects for the readers notes. The Author need hardly say that any suggestions addressed to the case of the publishers, will meet with consideration in a future edition. We do not pretend to write or enlarge upon a new subject. Much has been said and written-and well said and written too on the art of fishing but loch-fishing has been rather looked upon as a second-rate performance, and to dispel this idea is one of the objects for which this present treatise has been written. Far be it from us to say anything against fishing, lawfully practised in any form but many pent up in our large towns will bear us out when me say that, on the whole, a days loch-fishing is the most convenient. One great matter is, that the loch-fisher is depend- ent on nothing but enough wind to curl the water, -and on a large loch it is very seldom that a dead calm prevails all day, -and can make his arrangements for a day, weeks beforehand whereas the stream- fisher is dependent for a good take on the state of the water and however pleasant and easy it may be for one living near the banks of a good trout stream or river, it is quite another matter to arrange for a days river-fishing, if one is looking forward to a holiday at a date some weeks ahead. Providence may favour the expectant angler with a good day, and the water in order but experience has taught most of us that the good days are in the minority, and that, as is the case with our rapid running streams, -such as many of our northern streams are, -the water is either too large or too small, unless, as previously remarked, you live near at hand, and can catch it at its best. A common belief in regard to loch-fishing is, that the tyro and the experienced angler have nearly the same chance in fishing, -the one from the stern and the other from the bow of the same boat. Of all the absurd beliefs as to loch-fishing, this is one of the most absurd. Try it. Give the tyro either end of the boat he likes give him a cast of ally flies he may fancy, or even a cast similar to those which a crack may be using and if he catches one for every three the other has, he may consider himself very lucky. Of course there are lochs where the fish are not abundant, and a beginner may come across as many as an older fisher but we speak of lochs where there are fish to be caught, and where each has a fair chance. Again, it is said that the boatman has as much to do with catching trout in a loch as the angler. Well, we dont deny that. In an untried loch it is necessary to have the guidance of a good boatman but the same argument holds good as to stream-fishing...
Skinner Press 2007-03 337 pages