Author: Ron Powers File Type: epub Ron Powerss tour de force has been widely acclaimed as the best life and times, filled with Mark Twains voice, and as a great American story.Samuel Clemens, the man known as Mark Twain, invented the American voice and became one of our greatest celebrities. His life mirrored his countrys, as he grew from a Mississippi River boyhood in the days of the frontier, to a Wild-West journalist during the Gold Rush, to become the king of the eastern establishment and a global celebrity as America became an international power. Along the way, Mark Twain keenly observed the characters and voices that filled the growing country, and left us our first authentically American literature. Ron Powerss magnificent biography offers the definitive life of the founding father of our culture.

Author: Daniel Jütte (jutte) File Type: pdf The fifteenth through the eighteenth centuries were truly an Age of Secrecy in Europe, when arcane knowledge was widely believed to be positive knowledge which extended into all areas of daily life. So asserts Daniel Jutte in this engrossing, vivid, and award-winning work. He maintains that the widespread acceptance and even reverence for this economy of secrets in premodern Europe created a highly complex and sometimes perilous space for mutual contact between Jews and Christians. Surveying the interactions between the two religious groups in a wide array of secret sciences and practices, the author relates true stories of colorful professors of secrets and clandestine encounters. In the process Jutte examines how our current notion of secrecy is radically different in this era of WikiLeaks, Snowden, etc., as opposed to centuries earlier when the truest, most important knowledge was generally considered to be secret by definition.**ReviewAn important, widely researched, and fascinating contribution to our understanding of both early modern European history and Jewish history.Natalie Zemon Davis(Natalie Zemon Davis) Daniel Jutte masterfully reveals a forgotten economy where secretswere prized, prestigious commodities rather than causes of anxiety,suspicion, or outrage. The Age of Secrecy is a major contribution toearly modern history, Jewish history, and the history of knowledge.David Armitage, Harvard University (David Armitage) Daniel Juttes Age of Secrecy uncloaks the foundational role played by the arcane in the constitution of early modern knowledge. Look closely into hidden but knowable things, Jutte shows, and you will see a hidden but absolutely crucial world that did not collapse with what we know of as the scientific revolution. It did not even fold with the Enlightenment. Part complementary history of the early modern Judaism, part history of knowledge, this remarkable book opens our eyes to a central, if far too often ignored, dimension of European history that periodizes the history of the period in a novel and riveting way.Peter Galison,Harvard University (Peter Galison) This outstanding and in many ways path-breaking work is a remarkable example of careful and detailed engagement with a wide range of scholarship and creative and careful attention to both familiar and little-discussed sources. As such, it will be a valuable resource for scholars in many fields, and it helps to further the study of early modern Jewish history, early modern science, and the culture of the early modern world.Dean Phillip Bell, Shofar An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies (Dean Phillip Bell) About the Author Daniel Jutte is currently a junior fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows and a lecturer in the Department of History at Harvard. Jeremiah Riemer is an esteemed translator whose most recent translation from German is Michael Brenners A Short History of the Jews.

Author: Jim Mac Laughlin File Type: pdf Kropotkin and the Anarchist Intellectual Tradition rescues Peter Kropotkins philosophy of anarchism from the neglect that it has suffered in mainstream histories of the social and environmental sciences. Stressing Kropotkins intellectual strengths and philosophical integrity of anarchism, Jim Mac Laughlin counteracts the persistent misrepresentation of anarchism as a utopian creed or a recipe for social chaos and political disorder. Moving beyond most previous accounts of Kropotkins anarchism, Mac Laughlin focuses less on the man and his political career, instead providing a sustained and critical reading of his extensive writings on the social, historical and scientific basis of modern anarchism. The result is a thorough examination of a number of key themes in Kropotkins philosophy of anarchism, including his concerted efforts to provide anarchism with an historical and scientific basis the role of mutualism and mutual aid in social evolution and natural history the ethics of anarchism, and the anarchist critique of state-centred nationalism and other expressions of power politics. **Review Few know more about Kropotkins work than Jim MacLaughlin, and I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a lively introduction to the mans writing and its implications. Weaving Kropotkins specific contributions into the overall history of political anarchism and its major claims, MacLaughlin convincingly shows how the world today still needs the mutualism that the old Russian championed. (John Agnew, University of California, Los Angeles) A deeply intellectual, yet readable account of Kroptkins life and thought, set in the context of a stellar account of the development of scientific anarchism. Essential for all critical thinkers and political activists desperately in need of a dose of optimism in these sorry times. (Richard Peet, Clark University) About the Author Jim Mac Laughlinis a political geographer and social scientist. He is the author of Reimagining the Nation-State The Contested Terrains of Nation Building, also published by Pluto Press.

Author: William M. Baum File Type: pdf Understanding Behaviorismis a classic textbook that explains the basis of behavior analysis and its application to human problems in a scholarly but accessible manner. ul lNow in its third edition, the text has been substantially updated to include the latest developments over the last decade in behaviour analysis, evolutionary theory, and cultural evolution theoryl lThe only book available that explains behavior analysis and applies it to philosophical and practical problems, written by one of todays best-known and most highly respected behavioristsl lExplores ancient concepts such as purpose, language, knowledge, and thought, as well as applying behavioural thinking to contemporary social issues like freedom, democracy, and culturel lPart of the new evolutionary perspective for understanding individual behavior in general and culture in particular culminates with practical approaches to improving the lives of all humanityl ul **Review Synthesizing the principles of behavior analysis with contemporary understanding of evolutionary selection, Baums account progresses systematically from basic pragmatic behavior all the way to the practices that constitute human cultural values. The resulting book is a modern equivalent of B.F. Skinners ground-breaking Science and Human Behavior.Philip N. Hineline, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Temple University, and President of the Association for Behavior Analysis International (ABAI) In clear, lively prose Baums book gives students as well as laypeople an understanding of the cutting edge of behavioristic thought. In this third edition, Baum embeds behavioral psychology even more firmly than previously in its proper settingthat of evolutionary biology. The book is actually an instrument (like a telescope or a microscope) through which the reader may observe human life as it really is, rather than as common sense (that which says the sun goes round the earth) tells us it is.Howard Rachlin, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Stony Brook University In some quarters in the human sciences the roles of reinforcement and punishment in shaping individual behavior and cultural evolution have been neglected. Understanding Behaviorism explains why this is a serious mistake.Peter J. Richerson, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, University of California Davis A mainstay in my undergraduate learning course, Understanding Behaviorism is an excellent text covering the core concepts of both the philosophy of behaviorism and the science of behavior analysis. Dr. Baum provides a clear, accessible introduction that anyone interested in behavior analysis or psychology should read.Matthew Bell, Ph.D., Associate Professor, University of California San Diego What a thorough and highly intelligible piece of writing! By elucidating the bigger picture and the relation to its parts, this brilliant third edition truly facilitates understanding behaviorism and its relation to evolutionary theory. It will be my go-to-guide for many years of tuition and research to come.Carsta Simon, Doctoral Student, Oslo and Akershus University College, Norway From the Back Cover Now in its ninth edition, American Politics and Society has established itself as the leading text on the subject written from a non-US perspective. Students are guided through the intricacies of the American political system placing the most recent developments in international context. Acclaimed author David McKay incorporates numerous updates and revisions to reflect recent trends in American Politics developments characterized by the deepest ideological divisions in recent memory. Reflecting on these historic changes McKay focuses on the divisive ideological climate that now dominates American politics that were exemplified by the bitter and polarized 2016 presidential election campaign. Particular attention is paid to the performance of the Obama presidency and to the reasons why, at all levels, American politics has become so polarized over recent years. The book is written in a student-friendly style and is supplemented with numerous illustrations and helpful pedagogical features, including chronologies, biographies and definition boxes highlighting key concepts and controversial issues. It provides thought-provoking insights into the social background to contemporary American politics, while fully embracing the latest developments in the most turbulent political context in the modern era.