Author: Jenny Blain File Type: pdf This accessible study of Northern European shamanistic practice, or seidr, explores the way in which the ancient Norse belief systems evoked in the Icelandic Sagas and Eddas have been rediscovered and reinvented by groups in Europe and North America. The book examines the phenomenon of altered consciousness and the interactions of seid-workers or shamanic practitioners with their spirit worlds. Written by a follower of seidr, it investigates new communities involved in a postmodern quest for spiritual meaning.ReviewIt is good to see this degree of academic research applied to one of the more neglected aspects of our native spirituality and magick. Highly recommended. - The Cauldron... this is an extremely honest attaempt by Blain to remain true to both her academic training and her faith as a seidr preistess. - Jan Henning, Wood and WaterJenny Blains Nine Worlds of Seid-Magic Ecstacy and Neo-Shamanism in North European Paganism *is a rich and engaging addition to the growing literature on Neopagan religions and modern-day shamanism. - Nova Religio*About the AuthorJenny Blain is a senior lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University where she leads the Master of Research programme in Social Research. Her research interests centre on issues of identity, gender, paganism and shamanism, social theory and experiential ethnography.

Author: Wendy Lesser File Type: pdf A lively and *inspired* biography celebrating the centennial of this master choreographer, dancer, and stage director Jerome Robbins (19181998) was born Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz and grew up in Weehawken, New Jersey, where his Russian-Jewish immigrant parents owned the Comfort Corset Company. Robbins, who was drawn to dance at a young age, resisted the idea of joining the family business. In 1936 he began working with Gluck Sandor, who ran a dance group and convinced him to change his name to Jerome Robbins. He went on to become a choreographer and director who worked in ballet, on Broadway, and in film. His stage productions include West Side Story, Peter Pan, and Fiddler on the Roof. In this deft biography, Wendy Lesser presents Jerome Robbinss life through his major dances, providing a sympathetic, detailed portrait of her subject. **Review A compact and incisive portrait of the great dancer and choreographer. . . . A breezy and inviting biography.Kirkus Reviews This brief but carefully researched biography (part of the Jewish Lives series) builds a persuasive case for the importance of Jerome Robbinss career as a choreographer . . . . An evenhanded portrait.Publishers Weekly This slim volume . . . drills down to the essential core of a complicated man. . . . In a skillful blend of personal biography and professional profile, Lesser reminds us of Robbins place in twentieth-century dance and theater and fosters a new appreciation for his legacy.Booklist Can you separate the art from the artist? Through Robbinss dances, Lesser intelligently and critically examines his work. Her writing inspires an exciting dialogue with the readerand with Robbinss art and processthat makes you feel up close and inside his dances.Pam Tanowitz Wendy Lessers book is a brief but concentrated look at the excellent and varied work of a complicated artist. Jerome Robbins made some of the best dances in town. Ever in Balanchines long shadow, he somehow had the chops and the chutzpah to choreograph for the same media (Broadway, movies, and the ballet) and with a similar expertise. This book answers questions I didnt know I had. It is a fascinating and generous point of view.Mark Morris Through her own unique lens as a literary critic and writer with a strong appreciation for dance, Wendy Lesser presents a rich, unexpected portrait of Jerome Robbins. Lessers delicately crafted book is a boon to the study of Robbins and dance criticism.Emily Coates, Yale University About the Author Wendy Lesser is the founder and editor of The Threepenny Review and the author of a novel and ten previous books of nonfiction, including the widely acclaimed You Say to Brick The Life of Louis Kahn. She has written for the New York Times Book Review, the New York Review of Books, the London Review of Books, and other publications.

Author: Fabian Schuppert File Type: pdf This book offers an original account of a distinctly republican theory of social and global justice. The book starts by exploring the nature and value of Hegelian recognition theory. It shows the importance of that theory for grounding a normative account of free and autonomous agency. It is this normative account of free agency which provides the groundwork for a republican conception of social and global justice, based on the core-ideas of freedom as non-domination and autonomy as non-alienation. As the author argues, republicans should endorse a sufficientarian account of social justice, which focuses on the nature of social relationships and their effects on peoples ability to act freely and realize their fundamental interests. On the global level, the book argues for the cosmopolitan extension of the republican principles of non-domination and non-alienation within a multi-level democratic system. In so doing, the book addresses a major gap in the existing literature, presenting an original theory of justice, which combines Hegelian recognition theory and republican ideas of freedom, and applying this hybrid theory to the global domain. **From the Back Cover This book offers an original account of a distinctly republican theory of social and global justice. The book starts by exploring the nature and value of Hegelian recognition theory. It shows the importance of that theory for grounding a normative account of free and autonomous agency. It is this normative account of free agency which provides the groundwork for a republican conception of social and global justice, based on the core-ideas of freedom as non-domination and autonomy as non-alienation. As the author argues, republicans should endorse a sufficientarian account of social justice, which focuses on the nature of social relationships and their effects on peoples ability to act freely and realize their fundamental interests. On the global level, the book argues for the cosmopolitan extension of the republican principles of non-domination and non-alienation within a multi-level democratic system. In so doing, the book addresses a major gap in the existing literature, presenting an original theory of justice, which combines Hegelian recognition theory and republican ideas of freedom, and applying this hybrid theory to the global domain. Fabian Schuppert creates a grand synthesis uniting neo-republican insights on freedom with Hegelian recognition theory. The result is an account of agency that arises from the idea of non-domination whose aim it is to safeguard individual freedom. When combined with Hegelian recognition theory a social focus also emerges. This amalgam comments on many of the major disputes concerning global justice from a cosmopolitan perspective. Because of the broad scope and the many contemporary discussions engaged this book will be of keen interest to scholars as well as a welcome addition to the classroom. Michael Boylan, Professor and Chair, Philosophy, Marymount University, USA In this highly readable and imaginative book, Schuppert shows how a republican political theory can address the problems of recognition, identity, and non-domination. Moreover, Schuppert demonstrates that Hegels political philosophy has continuing vitality for the 21st century as he applies it to contemporary policy debates on basic needs, human rights, and cosmopolitanism. Robert Paul Churchill, Professor of Philosophy, George Washington University, USA

Author: Kerry Brown File Type: pdf China has become the powerhouse of the world economy and home to 1 in 5 of the worlds population, yet we know almost nothing of the people who lead it. How does one become the leader of the worlds newest superpower? And who holds the real power in the Chinese system? In The New Dragons, the noted China expert Kerry Brown journeys deep into the heart of the secretive Communist Party. Chinas system might have its roots in peasant rebellion but it is now firmly under the control of a power-conscious Beijing elite, almost half of whose members are related directly to former senior Party leaders. Brown reveals the intrigue, scandal and murder surrounding the internal battle raging between two Chinas one founded by Mao on Communist principles, and a modern China in which to get rich is glorious. At the centre of it all sits the latest Party Secretary, Xi Jinping - the son of a revolutionary, with links both to big business and to the Peoples Liberation Army. His rise to power is symbolic of the new dragons leading the worlds next superpower.**