Author: Daniel Defoe File Type: pdf Daniel Defoes enthralling story-telling and imaginatively detailed descriptions have ensured that his fiction masquerading as fact remains one of the most famous stories in English literature. On one level a simple adventure story, the novel also raises profound questions about moral and spiritual values, society, and mans abiding acquisitiveness. This new edition includes a scintillating Introduction and notes that illuminate the historical context.ReviewEvan Davis has done an excellent job of bringing together many of the strands of thought that Defoe put into The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe his interests in travel, economics, religion, and the experience of solitude and putting them into an attractive format. Professor Davis supplies examples of texts on related topics such as solitude, cannibalism, and castaway narratives, along with a group of wonderful illustrations, including a large number of Crusoe and Friday, showing everything from the sympathetic and helpful Crusoe to Crusoe the colonialist and exploiter. These are well chosen to make points about the ways in which Crusoe fits into the interests of post-colonial criticism. Professor Davis is also very good in his introduction on the ambiguity with which Crusoe treats Friday. Is he a friend, a servant, or a slave? Or all three? This will be a useful and indeed an exciting text for students at all levels. (Maximillian E. Novak )This edition greatly enriches the readers appreciation of Robinson Crusoe both as a classic that transcends its historical origins and as a text that reflects a specific historical context. In each role, the novel can be viewed from many perspectives, ranging from those embodied in other writings by Defoe and his contemporaries to later ideas about psychology, economics, religion, and post-colonialism, and the introduction and appendices give the reader access to an extraordinarily copious array of these perspectives. The introduction, moreover, goes well beyond compiling viewpoints while elegantly marshaling information, Evan R. Davis also contests received opinion and offers fresh insights. This is an extremely useful edition for students, general readers, and even those already well-acquainted with Defoe. (Oscar Kenshur ) --Oscar Kenshur From the Inside FlapDaniel Defoe relates the tale of an English sailor marooned on a desert island for nearly three decades. An ordinary man struggling to survive in extraordinary circumstances, Robinson Crusoe wrestles with fate and the nature of God. This edition features maps.

Author: John Dominic Crossan File Type: epub The acclaimed Bible scholar and author of The Historical Jesus and God & Empirethe greatest New Testament scholar of our generation (John Shelby Spong) grapples with Scriptures two conflicting visions of Jesus and God, one of a loving God, and one of a vengeful God, and explains how Christians can better understand these passages in a way that enriches their faith.Many portions of the New Testament, introduce a compassionate Jesus who turns the other cheek, loves his enemies, and shows grace to all. But the Jesus we find in Revelation and some portions of the Gospels leads an army of angels bent on earthly destruction. Which is the true revelation of the Messiahand how can both be in the same Bible?How to Read the Bible and Still be a Christian explores this question and offers guidance for the faithful conflicted over which version of the Lord to worship. John Dominic Crossan reconciles these contrasting views, revealing how different writers of the books of the Bible not only possessed different visions of God but also different purposes for writing. Often these books are explicitly competing against another, opposing vision of God from the Bible itself.Crossan explains how to navigate this debate and offers what he believes is the best central thread to what the Bible is all about. He challenges Christians to fully participate in this dialogue, thereby shaping their faith by reading deeply, reflectively, and in community with others who share their uncertainty. Only then, he advises, will Christians be able to read and understand the Bible without losing their faith. **

Author: Marion Fourcade File Type: pdf Economists and Societies is the first book to systematically compare the profession of economics in the United States, Britain, and France, and to explain why economics, far from being a uniform science, differs in important ways among these three countries. Drawing on in-depth interviews with economists, institutional analysis, and a wealth of scholarly evidence, Marion Fourcade traces the history of economics in each country from the late nineteenth century to the present, demonstrating how each political, cultural, and institutional context gave rise to a distinct professional and disciplinary configuration. She argues that because the substance of political life varied from country to country, peoples experience and understanding of the economy, and their political and intellectual battles over it, crystallized in different ways--through scientific and mercantile professionalism in the United States, public-minded elitism in Britain, and statist divisions in France. Fourcade moves past old debates about the relationship between culture and institutions in the production of expert knowledge to show that scientific and practical claims over the economy in these three societies arose from different elites with different intellectual orientations, institutional entanglements, and social purposes.Much more than a history of the economics profession, Economists and Societies is a revealing exploration of American, French, and British society and culture as seen through the lens of their respective economic institutions and the distinctive character of their economic experts.Review[O]ne of my favorite history of economic thought books, period. It skips textual exegesis and looks at what the economics profession actually did. . . . Definitely recommended. (Tyler Cowen Marginal Revolution )Fourcade has produced a remarkable book. . . . Her 52-page bibliography should be evidence enough of the remarkable effort that went into this book. (M. Perelman Choice )In-depth and well-informed comparative analyses of cross-country differences in the practice and conceptualization of economics are few in number hence, Fourcades book is a welcome and valuable addition to the literature. Certainly it is an impressive product for a young scholar. (Bruce E. Kaufman Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal )[T]his excellent book is a major contribution to the literatures on the professions, sociology of knowledge, economic and political sociology, and comparative political economy insofar as it offers a penetrating look into the relationship between ideas and institutions. (Andrew Roberts American Journal of Sociology )Fourcades detailed argumentation, and her use of a clear and direct language far removed from what economists like to trivialize as sociologisms, makes this work an important one for both economists and historians of economics. Historians of the social sciences, and of science more generally, will find this work to be invaluable in their own attempts to contextualize post-World War II scientific practice. I note, finally, the excellent typography and production values exhibited in this work. Princeton University Press has done very well by both the author and the reader. (E. Roy Weintraub Business History Review )This book looks like a creative synthesis of much of the best sociology currently available in the States. . . . It is also an invitation to fellow sociologists to further this line of inquiry looking once again at their discipline and profession with the same scholarship, empirical evidence, and intellectual sophistication. (Marco Santoro Sociologica )[A] splendid volume which breaks new ground methodologically and is a major contribution to the history and sociology of western economics. (Roger Middleton Economic History Review )One cannot but be impressed with the richness of the material it covers and the deep immersion of the author in the secondary literature. . . . Her case for the significance of national cultures in economics is more than a valuable complement to the Americanization narrative it invites us to look closer at the historical conditions that made possible the process that this narrative is supposed to describe. (Philippe Fontaine Constitutional Political Economy ) From the Inside FlapEconomists and Societies is an eye-opener for economists. A study of the sociological reasons why economists do what they do, it shows that economics in the United States, Britain, and France has very different orientations. Fourcade demonstrates irrefutably that economists are as much influenced by where they are located as by their supposed adherence to scientific method. This is a revolutionary book.--George A. Akerlof, Nobel Prize-winning economistA masterpiece. Fourcade shows a deep understanding of the institutional differences between Britain, France, and the United States, and demonstrates how they have produced differences in the forms that professional economics has taken. She explores uncharted territory and sketches a novel theory of how economics took such different courses in these three countries. This is a remarkable, stunning book.--Frank Dobbin, Harvard UniversityThis book is a remarkable study of how, in an age when economics has become an international discipline, cultural differences between three societies have influenced the way the discipline has developed. It would be hard to read this wide-ranging book and not learn much about how economics developed in the twentieth century.--Roger E. Backhouse, author of The Ordinary Business of LifeA wide-ranging historical survey of the origins, institutionalization, and transformation of the discipline and profession of economics. Fourcade poses the very important question as to why we do not have a single market for economic ideas in the world. Few books succeed so well at showing the great number of historical and institutional contingencies that shape the production and consumption of scientific knowledge.--Mauro F. Guillen, coauthor of Building a Global BankWhy does modern economics look the way it does? An economist would say it was a reflection of the generic economy. Fourcade instead asserts that it has everything to do with the institutional structures of its national incubators. Her indispensable book elevates the story of economics to a new level of sophistication.--Philip Mirowski, author of Machine DreamsMany economists and other scholars still believe economics to be homogenous, and Fourcade dispels this wrong belief. Economists and Societies contributes to the literature on professions and scientific knowledge by demonstrating the importance of various structural and institutional arrangements in determining the nature of scientific knowledge.--Yuval Yonay, University of Haifa

Author: Tom Cliff File Type: pdf For decades, Chinas Xinjiang region has been the site of clashes between long-residing Uyghur and Han settlers. Up until now, much scholarly attention has been paid to state actions and the Uyghurs efforts to resist cultural and economic repression. This has left the other half of the puzzlethe motivations and ambitions of Han settlers themselvessorely understudied. With Oil and Water, anthropologist Tom Cliff offers the first ethnographic study of Han in Xinjiang, using in-depth vignettes, oral histories, and more than fifty original photographs to explore how and why they became the people they are now. By shifting focus to the lived experience of ordinary Han settlers, Oil and Water provides an entirely new perspective on Chinese nation building in the twenty-first century and demonstrates the vital role that Xinjiang Han play in national politicsnot simply as Beijings pawns, but as individuals pursuing their own survival and dreams on the frontier. **