Focusing on American railroad history but touching on other countries, award-winning author Milton Meltzer shows how something as ubiquitous as the railroad is, in fact, a force that changed the world.

"An essential moral, philosophical, and practical reckoning with the laws we put in place to address the problem of sexual abuse and harassment. In this pathbreaking book, Martha C. Nussbaum brings necessary clarity to the societal challenges of sexual abuse and harassment, illuminating the pride and greed that lead men to objectify and dominate others, and the thirst for revenge that can distort the aims of justice. In the context of a clear and bracing legal history of accountability for sexual assault and the legal recognition of sexual harassment, Nussbaum confronts three "citadels of pride"-the judiciary, the arts, and sports. Exposing prideful privilege in the intellectual world, unpunished narcissism in the arts, and toxic masculinity and corruption in American sports, she discusses egregious cases of male entitlement leading to sexual abuse and exploitation. She examines both successful and unsuccessful efforts to address these situations, and proposes solutions; most controversially, that Division I football be disbanded. Laying out a hopeful way forward, Nussbaum offers a path to accountability without malice, and generosity without capitulation"--

"[A] swiftly written debut memoir...[Segal] vividly describes his firsthand experience as a teenager inside the Stonewall bar during the historic riots, his participation with the Gay Liberation Front, and amusing encounters with Elton John and Patti LaBelle . . . A jovial yet passionately delivered self-portrait inspiring awareness about LGBT history from one of the movement's true pioneers." --Kirkus Reviews "With great verve and spirit, Segal has rendered a lively and dramatic memoir of the early days of the gay rights struggle; the infighting over strategies and objectives; the long, hard road of progress; and a look at the challenges still ahead." --Booklist On December 11, 1973, Mark Segal disrupted a live broadcast of the CBS Evening News when he sat on the desk directly between the camera and news anchor Walter Cronkite, yelling, "Gays protest CBS prejudice!" He was wrestled to the studio floor by the stagehands on live national television, thus ending LGBT invisibility. But this one victory left many more battles to fight, and creativity was required to find a way to challenge stereotypes surrounding the LGBT community. Mark Segal's job, as he saw it, was to show the nation who gay people are: our sons, daughters, fathers, and mothers. Because of activists like Mark Segal, whose life work is dramatically detailed in this poignant and important memoir, today there are openly LGBT people working in the White House and throughout corporate America. An entire community of gay world citizens is now finding the voice that they need to become visible.

"The glorious Folly is a colorful and exciting novel built around the amazing career of St. Paul. It follows him from the period during which he was a devout and fiery Hebrew scholar who persecuted Christians because he considered it his duty to God, through his miraculous conversion on the road to Damascus, to his magnificent achievements as missionary, church builder, and expounder of Christian doctrine, to his imprisonment and triumphant death as a martyr in Rome. In addition to tracing the adventures of St. Paul, The glorious Folly is about that epochal period in history when a mere handful of devoted and inspired Christians set out to give a living faith to a dying pagan world. Here is presented, through fictional characters who come vividly to life, the family and community life of the little group of fervent Christians who faced terrible persecutions and martyrdom because of their love for Christ and for each other. Against the background of the stupendous evil of Nero's Rome, its cruelty, treachery, and corruption, St. Paul and the early Christians are shown in all the radiance, glory, and adventure of their exemplary and devout lives"--

Unlock the mysteries of the universe with this guide that makes one of the most complex fields of science both accessible and as mind-blowing as a great poem. Quantum theory forms the foundation of modern physics, explaining everything from the tiniest particles to the vast expanse of the cosmos. Yet, for many, it remains a perplexing enigma. In this engaging and informative book, physicists Lederman and Hill break down the complexities of quantum physics for curious minds, weaving together history, science, and storytelling to illuminate the breakthroughs of renowned figures like Max Planck, Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, and Erwin Schrödinger. The book explores the bizarre realities of quantum mechanics—particles that can exist in multiple places at once, waves that shift when observed, and the paradoxes that even confounded Einstein. It also delves into the latest developments in field theory and string theory, offering readers a glimpse into quantum physics’ most fascinating frontiers. With clear analogies, vivid examples, and a touch of humor, Quantum Physics for Poets reveals how this science shapes everything from groundbreaking technologies to the fundamental nature of reality itself. Whether you're a science enthusiast or a curious reader, this book invites you to savor the wonders of the quantum world. "A sparkling and articulate new account of how the quantum revolution changed 20th century science – and, as a further delight, how physics and poetry can speak the same language." ― Chicago Tribune

When a powerful mystic steps on the hand of a radical young hippie doctor from Detroit, it changes lives and the world. Sometimes Brilliant chronicles the adventures of a philosopher, seeker, unconventional doctor, groundbreaking tech innovator, and key player in the eradication of one of the worst pandemics in human history. His story--about what happens when love, compassion, and determination meet the right circumstances to effect positive change--is the kind that keeps hope and the sense of possibility alive. After sitting at the feet of Martin Luther King Jr. at the University of Michigan in 1963, Larry Brilliant was swept up into the civil rights movement, marching and protesting across America and Europe. As a radical young doctor, he followed the Hippie Trail from London over the Khyber Pass with his wife Girija, Wavy Gravy, and the Hog Farm commune to India. There, he found himself in a Himalayan ashram wondering whether he had stumbled into a cult. Instead, one of India's greatest spiritual teachers, Neem Karoli Baba, opened Larry's heart and told him his destiny was to work for the World Health Organization to help eradicate deadly smallpox. He never would have believed he'd become a key player in eliminating a ten-thousand-year-old disease that killed more than half a billion people in the twentieth century alone. Brilliant's unlikely trajectory, chronicled in Sometimes Brilliant, has brought him into close proximity with political leaders, spiritual masters, cultural heroes, and titans of technology around the world--from the Grateful Dead to Mikhail Gorbachev, from Ram Dass, the Dalai Lama, Lama Govinda, and Karmapa to Steve Jobs and the founders of Google, Salesforce, Facebook, Microsoft, and eBay, and Presidents Carter, Clinton, George W. Bush, and Obama. Anchored by the engrossing account of the heroic efforts of the extraordinary people involved in smallpox eradication in India, this is a riveting and fascinating epidemiological expedition, an honest reckoning of an entire generation, and a deeply moving spiritual memoir. It is a testament to faith, love, service, and what it means to engage with life's most important questions in pursuit of a better, more brilliant existence.

In Yiddish, khurbn is the word for "total destruction," the word for what the English-speaking world calls the Jewish "Holocaust" of World War II. In 1987, thirteen years after the publication of his book of ancestral poems, Poland/1931, Jerome Rothenberg visited Poland and the small town of Ostrow-Mazowiecka, from which his parents had emigrated in 1920. "I hadn't realized," he writes, "that it was only fifteen miles from Treblinka..." Out of the poet's confrontation with his family's annihilation came Khurbn & Other Poems. "The poems that I first began to hear at Treblinka are the clearest message I have ever gotten about why I write poetry. They are an answer also to the proposition that poetry cannot or should not be written after Auschwitz." For decades a leader of the American literary avant-garde, Rothenberg, with Khurbn & Other Poems, adds his voice to those writers, like Paul Celan and Edmond Jabes, who have sought to name the unnamable at the ruinous heart of the history of our time.

HARRY TURTLEDOVE HAS BECOME ONE OF THE MOST popular authors in SF today, with such bestsellers as The Guns of the South, How Few Remain, the Worldwar series, and The Great War: American Front. Widely hailed as the master of "alternate history" tales, he weaves his deep understanding of human history together with strong storytelling, a fantastic imagination, and a confident voice. Now Turtledove returns to the story of a World War in a world where magic works, with this moving sequel to Into the Darkness. Forthweg has been lost to the Algarvian and the Unkerlanter soldiers. Not satisfied to share the plundered Forthweg, Algarve invades Unkerlant and begins its slow push toward the Unkerlanter capital during the country's harsh winter. Away from the front, Algarvian soldiers corral Kaunians to send them west, toward Unkerlant, to work camps. The Kaunians left behind are worried about what the work camps might mean, but are assuaged by Algarvian lies. In Kuusamo, scholars race to find the relation between the laws of similarity and contagion, while the patient warriors of Zuwayza weigh the merits of siding with either the Algarvians or the Unkerlanters. Rumors abound about the Algarvian work camps, rumors most cannot believe are true. But the mages know, for they can feel the loss of life in their very souls. Turtledove's cast of characters takes on its own life as the reader sees the war from all sides and understands how the deaths and destruction benefit no one, not even the victors. In this world, the battle escalates and people tremble under the ... darkness descending.

Harry Levin is one of the major literary critics in America. This book is a brilliant and original study of the whole world of comedy, concentrating on playwrights through the centuries, from Aristophanes and Plautus in classical times to Bernard Shaw and Bertolt Brecht and their recent successors. Theories about the subject of comedy have abounded, but they have generally been divorced from theatrical practice. The alternative--discussions of plays and playwrights, without defining or analyzing the problems they have in common--is also unsatisfying. Moreover, many critics, in trying to make the subject of humor "respectable" have treated the subject humorlessly, while others have succumbed to the temptation to be flip. Levin views the comic repertory as a richly variegated but broadly unified whole and provides a synthesis of theory and practice plus a further synthesis of theories heretofore regarded as conflicting. He isolated two fundamental aspects of comedy: one centers on the ludicrous (irresponsible, irreverent) "playboy" whom we laugh with, and the other on the ridiulous (pretentious, forbidding) "killjoy", whom we laugh at. Levin traces the dialectical interplay of these components throughout history and across various cultures and media. He places strong emphasis on such major dramatists as Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Molière, and William Congreve. He comments on the nature and theory of comedy as enunciated by such famous figures as George Meredith and Henri Bergson, and includes essays on such related ideas as humor, satire, and games; but the emphasis throughout is on the plays and on the stage, with incidental reference to comedians like Charlie Chaplin and the Marx Brothers. About the Author: Harry Levin is Irving Babbitt Professor of Comparative Literature Emeritus at Harvard University. His many books include The Question of Hamlet and Shakespeare and the Revolution of the Times.

But my contention here is that the US crimes in the [postwar] period have only been superficially recorded, let alone documented, let alone acknowledged, let alone recognised as crimes at all. I believe this must be addressed and that the truth has considerable bearing on where the world stands now. ... Indonesia, Greece, Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay, Haiti, Turkey, the Philippines, Guatemala, El Salvador, and, of course, Chile. ... Hundreds of thousands of deaths took place throughout these countries. Did they take place? And are they in all cases attributable to US foreign policy? The answer is yes they did take place and they are attributable to American foreign policy. But you wouldn t know it. It never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening it wasn t happening. It didn t matter. It was of no interest. The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them. You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It s a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis. Pinter s depictions of the ravages of the American Empire since 1945 [is unrivalled]. It.[comes as] one searing rhetorical lightening bolt. It will go into the history books, alongside such imperishable excoriations of empire as the speeches Thucidides put into the mouths of the Melians, and Tacitus into the mouth of Calgacus. Alexander Cockburn

How different is Iran from Appalachia? Iranian-born writer Nahai's first two novels, Cry of the Peacock and Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith, were set in her native land, to great effect and rave reviews. Now, in a thoughtfully executed third novel, Nahai takes on Appalachia, illuminating another region whose people are united by a fundamentalist faith, their beliefs as exotic to, and misunderstood by, most Western readers as those of the people of Iran. Foreign correspondent Adam Watkins is stationed in Lebanon when he receives news that Little Sam Jenkins, the father he barely knew, has died of snakebite. A snake-handling preacher who had survived nine decades of hard living and 446 snakebites, Sam finally succumbed to the venom of a snake given to him by Blue, a gorgeous Kurdish woman born in Iraq, and herself a skilled snake-handler who never fit in with the Holy Rollers. Adam, having tried for 18 years to create a new life for himself, returns home looking for answers: What drove Sam? And was Blue merely testing Sam's faith, or did she intend to kill him? A strong sense of geography and religious history provides the backdrop as Nahai explores the enigma of charisma, opening a window on an insular world and rendering the "other" America explicable. Alternating with Adam's story is the first-person account of Blue, her voice charged with the mythic, seductive power of a Scheherazade. Faith versus fanaticism, fear as a motivating force for seeking salvation these themes are examined, as events both tragic and redemptive unfold. This multifaceted work expands Nahai's fictional universe in new and curiously fitting directions. Agent, Barbara Lowenstein. (Nov. 1)Forecast: Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith was a bestseller on the West Coast and has been translated into 16 languages. The Appalachia setting of Nahai's latest may startle her fans and lead to slow sales at first, but strong reviews should attract new readers.

Is the concept of God dead? Or is the experience to which the concept points, and the supreme value which it expresses, dead? In other words, shouldn't the question for today's world be, "Is Man Dead?" rather than "Is God Dead?" In this major book from the author of "The Sane Society" and "Man for Himself," we explore the evolution in the Old Testament of the basic concepts of God, Man, History, Sin, and Repentance. Erich Fromm shows how the concept of God evolved from that of a "jealous" God to that of a "constitutional monarch" and finally to that of the nameless God bound by the same principles that govern man. Conversely, he shows how Man, once the obedient servant of God, became free to the point of making his own history. While his vast knowledge and wide-ranging insights cover a broad area, Erich Fromm's greatest appeal to today's readers will be in his urgent cry for a rebirth of humanism—and in his implicit answer to the question, "Is religious experience necessarily connected with a belief in God?"

1928. With eight illustrations after Rembrandt. Ludwig studied law but chose writing as a career. At first he wrote plays and novella, but also worked as a journalist. In 1906 he moved to Switzerland but during World War I he worked as a foreign correspondent for the Berliner Tageblatt in Vienna and Istanbul. During the 1920s he achieved international fame for his popular biographies which combined historical fact and fiction with psychological analysis. In The Son of Man Emil Ludwig writes a history of Jesus from his own unique perspective. Contents: To the Reader; Prelude: Jerusalem; Calling; Glad Tidings; The Shadows Darken; Struggle; and Passion. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.

What should your child learn in the sixth grade? How can you help him or her at home? This book answers these important questions and more, offering the specific shared knowledge that thousands of parents and teachers across the nation have agreed upon for American sixth graders. Featuring sixteen pages of full-color illustrations, a bolder, easier-to-follow format, and a thoroughly updated curriculum, What Your Sixth Grader Needs to Know, Revised Edition, is designed for parents and teachers to enjoy with children. Hundreds of thousands of children have benefited from the Core Knowledge Series. This revised edition gives a new generation of sixth graders the advantage they need to make progress in school today, and to establish an approach to learning that will last a lifetime. Discover: • Favorite Poems—old and new, from Edgar Allan Poe’s classic “The Raven” to Maya Angelou’s “Woman Work” • Literature—from around the world, including Homer’s epics the Iliad and the Odyssey, Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, and Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper • Learning About Language—he rules of written English, including the four kinds of sentences, common English sayings and phrases, plus an introduction to Greek and Latin roots • History and Geography—world history from ancient Greece and the fall of the Roman Empire to the Enlightenment and the French Revolution; American history of the post—Civil War era, including the Industrial Revolution, immigration, urbanization, and reform • Visual Arts—a brief history of art, stretching from the classical period through the Renaissance, Baroque, and Romantic periods all the way to the age of realism, with full-color reproductions and discussions of great works by artists such as El Greco, Rembrandt, and Winslow Homer • Music—understanding and appreciating music, including musical notation, chords, and scales—plus biographies of great composers such as Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Chopin • Math—challenging lessons, ranging from probability and statistics, geometry, ratios and proportions to basic pre-algebra • Science—fascinating discussions of plate tectonics, oceans, astronomy, the environment, the human body, and the immune system—plus short biographies of great scientists such as Marie Curie

Judging by today's bestseller lists, one would think that religion is either irrational or extreme. What's missing is a genuine debate between the atheists and fanatics; someone to point out that religion has value in the modern world. "Why Faith Matters" is an articulate defense of religion in America. It makes the case for faith and shows its relationship to history and science. Refuting the cold reason of the atheists and the hatred of the fanatics with a vision of religion informed by faith, love, and understanding, Rabbi David J. Wolpe follows in a literary tradition that stretches from Cardinal Newman to C. S. Lewis to Thomas Merton--all individuals of faith who brought religion and culture together in their own works. Drawing on the personal and powerful story of his battle with cancer, Wolpe offers a moving statement in support of religion today. In a poignant response to the new atheists, Wolpe takes readers through the origins and nature of faith, the role of the Bible in modern life, and the compatibility of God and science. He concludes with a powerful argument for the place of God, faith, and religion in today's world.

Everyday themes as diverse as exploration, the fight against evil, laboratory experiments, and self-improvement are presented in this new anthology of short stories from David Gerrold. Largely consisting of stories featuring an alternative history, and often written for Mike Resnick's Alternative series, the stories range from funny to horrifying and lighthearted to profound. In "Franz Kafka, Superhero!" Kafka employs his unusual metamorphosis to fight evil throughout the world and take on even Sigmund Freud. Two characters who hope to better themselves experience "The Seminar from Hell," while "The Firebringers" features Humphrey Bogart, Gregory Peck, Ronald Reagan, and Jimmy Stewart as soldiers charged with dropping the first atom bomb. Taking an archaeological turn, a team of anthropologists struggles with understanding the artifacts of a mysterious alien race in "Digging in Gehenna." With wit and imagination, these pieces provide a rare and intriguing addition to any Gerrold collection.

David Berlinski explains the power of humanity's oldest predictive system in this stunning and original new book. Astrology began at the dawn of time and over the centuries became a complex system with gifted seers often achieving results of eerie accuracy. For most of recorded history, astrologers have been found at the elbows of the rich and the powerful. However, Newton's system of the world put an end to one aspect of the astrological tradition. As a result, a method once widely used has become widely discredited, especially by scientific critics with little knowledge of astrology itself. With a genius for storytelling and penetrating analysis, Berlinski explains how astrology works and how astrological ideas, although disguised, have reappeared in modern scientific theories. .

This work portrays the giants of jazz, relates what they achieved, and tells how they made their way in a world not always ready for them. The text offers a clear, informative history of the art, and the photographs present Coleman Hawkins, Count Basie, Charles Mingus, Benny Godman, Louis Armstrong and scores of others. These haunting photographs are supplemented with some rare vintage prints to tell the whole story of jazz from Buddy Bolden to Anthony Braxton.

Father of the birth control pill, developer of antihistamines, founder of biomedical companies, teacher of world-class chemists, best-selling novelist.... As The Scientist notes, "Few can match Carl Djerassi's juggling act for success and longevity". Here is Djerassi's remarkable autobiography. Blending vivid descriptions of the lucrative world of drug development with controversial chapters on the politics of contraception and poignant disclosures about his personal life, this book tells the story of one of the most productive and socially conscious chemists working today. The Pill, Pygmy Chimps, and Degas' Horse tells how Djerassi, while still in his twenties and leading a small team in an obscure laboratory in Mexico City, used a locally grown yam first to synthesize cortisone and then, within twelve months, to create the first steroid effective as a birth control pill. Dubbed for this latter work "the father of the pill", a title he often shares with Gregory Pincus and John Rock, who performed the biological and clinical studies to confirm the pill's efficacy in humans, Djerassi has spent a lifetime thinking and rethinking, discussing and debating, the social, economic, and biological consequences of the changed attitudes toward contraception engendered by the pill. In two riveting chapters entitled "The Pill at Twenty" and "The Pill at Forty: What Now?" Djerassi recounts the fascinating history of the pill's journey from its first days in the laboratory to widespread public use--from being hailed as an agent of the sexual revolution to condemnation as an agent of the new promiscuity, to being accused of being an expression of the scientific community's sexism (Why was there no malebirth control pill?). And then, in a powerful consideration of where the politics of contraception have taken us, he discusses why so few innovations in contraception are being investigated today, and why even fewer are making their way to the public. The Pill, Pygmy Chimps, and Degas' Horse chronicles Djerassi's many successful careers in science, business, the academy, and the arts (he is a published poet and novelist, as well as the founder of an artists' colony). His growing appreciation for the soft side of science--its human and humane aspects--have long been reflected in the courses he teaches at Stanford, in the plot of his novel, Cantor's Dilemma, and in his decision to found one of the first environmentally aware pesticide companies. In this intellectually challenging book, the reader is let into the fertile mind and psyche of one of the few Renaissance men of twentieth-century science.

Every week on the public radio show On the Media , the award-winning journalist Brooke Gladstone analyzes the media and how it shapes our perceptions of the world. Now, from her front-row perch on the day’s events, Gladstone brings her genius for making insightful, unexpected connections to help us understand what she calls—and what so many of us can acknowledge having—“trouble with reality.” Reality, as she shows us, was never what we thought it was—there is always a bubble, people are always subjective and prey to stereotypes. And that makes reality actually more vulnerable than we ever thought. Enter Donald J. Trump and his team of advisors. For them, as she writes, lying is the point . The more blatant the lie, the easier it is to hijack reality and assert power over the truth. Drawing on writers as diverse as Hannah Arendt, Walter Lippmann, Philip K. Dick, and Jonathan Swift, she dissects this strategy, straight out of the authoritarian playbook, and shows how the Trump team mastered it, down to the five types of tweets that Trump uses to distort our notions of what’s real and what’s not. And she offers hope. There is meaningful action, a time-tested treatment for moral panic. And there is also the inevitable reckoning. History tells us we can count on it. Brief and bracing, The Trouble with Reality shows exactly why so many of us didn’t see it coming, and how we can recover both our belief in reality—and our sanity.