Author: Cyril of Scythopolis File Type: pdf Between the deep valley which contains the Jordan river and the Dead Sea, and the hill country of Judea, in which Jerusalem and Bethlehem are situated, lies a narrow stretch of desert which evokes memories of great Biblical ascetics - Elijah and John the Baptist. The empty landscape and scriptural associations drew Christian ascetics in the third century. The new edition of this work by Cyril of Scythopolis provides perhaps our best source of information on the Palestinian monastic movement from AD 400-600. He gives a history not only of holy monks, but also of the Palestinian Church at the height of its power and prestige.

Author: Easy-Forex File Type: pdf

Author: Lawrence Levine File Type: pdf In this unusually wide-ranging study, spanning more than a century and covering such diverse forms of expressive culture as Shakespeare, Central Park, symphonies, jazz, art museums, the Marx Brothers, opera, and vaudeville, a leading cultural historian demonstrates how variable and dynamic cultural boundaries have been and how fragile and recent the cultural categories we have learned to accept as natural and eternal are. For most of the nineteenth century, a wide variety of expressive forms--Shakespearean drama, opera, orchestral music, painting and sculpture, as well as the writings of such authors as Dickens and Longfellow--enjoyed both high cultural status and mass popularity. In the nineteenth century Americans (in addition to whatever specific ethnic, class, and regional cultures they were part of) shared a public culture less hierarchically organized, less fragmented into relatively rigid adjectival groupings than their descendants were to experience. By the twentieth century this cultural eclecticism and openness became increasingly rare. Cultural space was more sharply defined and less flexible than it had been. The theater, once a microcosm of America--housing both the entire spectrum of the population and the complete range of entertainment from tragedy to farce, juggling to ballet, opera to minstrelsy--now fragmented into discrete spaces catering to distinct audiences and separate genres of expressive culture. The same transition occurred in concert halls, opera houses, and museums. A growing chasm between serious and popular, between high and low culture came to dominate Americas expressive arts. If there is a tragedy in this development, Levine comments, it is not only that millions of Americans were now separated from exposure to such creators as Shakespeare, Beethoven, and Verdi, whom they had enjoyed in various formats for much of the nineteenth century, but also that the rigid cultural categories, once they were in place, made it so difficult for so long for so many to understand the value and importance of the popular art forms that were all around them. Too many of those who considered themselves educated and cultured lost for a significant period--and many have still not regained--their ability to discriminate independently, to sort things out for themselves and understand that simply because a form of expressive culture was widely accessible and highly popular it was not therefore necessarily devoid of any redeeming value or artistic merit. In this innovative historical exploration, Levine not only traces the emergence of such familiar categories as highbrow and lowbrow at the turn of the century, but helps us to understand more clearly both the process of cultural change and the nature of culture in American society. From Library JournalLevine contends that early 19th-century America was characterized by no rigid cultural divisions between elite and mass culture. By the later part of the century, however, a clear line had been drawn Shakespearean plays, classical music, and art of the old masters increasingly became the property of the elite only. The pendulum has swung back now, he observves, as there is a lessening of cultural divisions in contemporary America. A well-written contribution to the history of American culture. Without hestitation, this book is recommended highly to all academic American studies and popular culture collections as well as to large public libraries. Susan A. Stussy, St. Norbert Coll., De Pere, Wis. 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. ReviewProvides just the kind of balanced, historically informed assessment that can be of immediate value at a time when appeals to eternal truth fly thick and fast.--Walter Kendrick (Village Voice Literary Supplement )We can all appreciate a scholar who bites the process that feeds him. HighbrowLowbrow sinks its teeth into our smug cultural assumptions and holds on for dear life.--Carlin Romano (Washington Post Book World )[This book] provides depth and complexity to a debate that has degenerated into stale polemics. By unearthing a wealth of fascinating details about American culture in the middle and later nineteenth century, Levine shows us how much has changed en route to the twentieth. In particular, he reveals how recently the categories of high and low culture came into being, and how thoroughly they were shaped by class prejudice and ethnocentric anxiety...HighbrowLowbrow is absorbing and provocative, clearly a product of humane judgment and mature reflection, and a pleasure to read.--Jackson Lears (Tikkun )How we Americans came to treat symphony and chamber concerts and operas as if we were going to church is an interesting tale. For a most thorough and informative discussion, please read Lawrence Levines witty book.--Willa J. Conrad (Newark Star-Ledger )Levine offers a fascinating account of the nations evolving artistic tastes and thereby challenges any aesthetic storm trooper who would try to enforce an oversimplified notion of Culture with a capital C...What [he] proves, compellingly, is that we should be less rigid in our aesthetic judgments.--Lisa Zeidner (Philadelphia Inquirer )Levines lucid, mind-stretching and highly accessible scholarship describes how, by the late nineteenth century, American culture divided into high art and low, two warring camps. (Newsday )Remarkably interesting.--Fredric Paul Smoler (Nation )This book, like all of Levines work, invites us out to play. His writing is highly engaging, his argumentativeness provocative. Even in his lament he gives us hope, for he has written a high-minded and very American defense of the unforeclosed and pluralist potential of democratic culture.--Michael Fellman (American Historical Review )

Author: Elizabeth Oakes File Type: pdf From BooklistThis volume is part of Facts On Files European Nations series, which is aimed predominantly at a high-school and college-student audience and provides concise country-based surveys of European history. The reference guides contain a broad array of political, cultural, social, and other content, and their arrangement facilitates browsing for the casual reader. The volume on Austria and Hungary traces the history of the Austrian Empire from its beginnings to its dissolution and then the history of the successor states of a separate Austria and Hungary, as well as the new states of Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, to the present day. The history of each state is discussed in chapters that make up more than 50 percent of the volume. Information is current through 2002. Following the historical chapters is a 200-page Historical Dictionary A-Z with more than 160 entries for people, places, and events. Entries range from a paragraph or two to more than five pages for *Anti-Semitism in the successor states. * A series of chronologies, a list of rulers and statesmen, a section of more than 20 maps, and a very selective bibliography round out the book. The text is complemented by black-and-white photographs and illustrations.Although not inexpensive for a one-volume reference book, this title is a worthy addition to most university and public library collections because it contains such expansive material in compact form. RBB American Library Association. lt