Author: Steven Bernstein File Type: pdf The most significant shift in environmental governance over the last thirty years has been the convergence of environmental and liberal economic norms toward liberal environmentalism -- which predicates environmental protection on the promotion and maintenance of a liberal economic order. Steven Bernstein assesses the reasons for this historical shift, introduces a socio-evolutionary explanation for the selection of international norms, and considers the implications for our ability to address global environmental problems.The author maintains that the institutionalization of sustainable development at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) legitimized the evolution toward liberal environmentalism. Arguing that most of the literature on international environmental politics is too rationalist and problem-specific, Bernstein challenges the mainstream thinking on international cooperation by showing that it is always for some purpose or goal. His analysis of the norms that guide global environmental policy also challenges the often-presumed primacy of science in environmental governance.ReviewBernstein convincingly and usefully rejects the role of epistemic communities as a driving force behind the norm change he identifies... Compelling... His attention to the role of ideas in environmental policy is important.(Choice )An original and thorough analysis of the evolution of international environmental governance.... this fascinating work makes an important contribution.(Environmental Politics )[T]ackled with style and commitment... [t]his is a book that many should and will want to read, both for its assessment of environmentalism internationally and for its original contribution to constructivist theory.(Don Munton Perspectives on Politics ) ReviewA fascinating and lucid analysis of the evolution of thinking concerning international environmental management. Whereas liberal economic policies were regarded as anathema to sound ecological management in the 1970s, they became central to international approaches in the 1990s. Bernstein perceptively points out that the transformation can only be understood in terms of striking changes in the acceptance of certain political norms over the three decades. The book is clearly one of the best studies on international environmental politics.(Mark W. Zacher, University of British Columbia )

Author: Marie N. Sørbø File Type: pdf Jane Austens worldwide popularity is not least due to the remaking of her novels for the visual media. Of the fifty-odd Austen related productions since 1938, forty-three of them adapt her novels to the various screens of cinema, television, computer and tablet. However, her attraction for film-makers is undoubtedly promoted by her own qualities. As a novelist, Jane Austen has been particularly recognized for her ironic voice, which dominates all her stories and gives the readers a peculiar perspective on her world. Do film-makers want this, and if so, how do they transmit her attitude of amused distance? In the present book, Marie N. Srb investigates the function and targets of irony in two novels and seven films. Irony and Idyll is the first book-length study of Austens irony since 1952, and the only comparative analysis of all the available screen adaptations of Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park. On the bicentenary of their publication, these novels continue to influence modern culture. Marie Nedregotten Srb has taught English literature at Volda University College, Norway, for many years, including courses on film and fiction. For her doctoral degree she wrote a dissertation on the reception of Jane Austen on screen. Srb has contributed the Norwegian chapters to the volumes on The Reception of Jane Austen in Europe (2007) and The Reception of George Eliot in Europe (forthcoming, 2015). She was part of the leadership of the European COST Action Women Writers in History (2009-13), and is a Principal Investigator in the HERA funded project Travelling TexTs 1790-1914 The Transnational Reception of Womens Writing at the Fringes of Europe (2013-16).

Author: Haruki Murakami File Type: epub From internationally acclaimed author Haruki Murakamia fantastical illustrated short novel about a boy imprisoned in a nightmarish library. Opening the flaps on this unique little book, readers will find themselves immersed in the strange world of best-selling Haruki Murakamis wild imagination. The story of a lonely boy, a mysterious girl, and a tormented sheep man plotting their escape from a nightmarish library, the book is like nothing else Murakami has written. Designed by Chip Kidd and fully illustrated, in full color, throughout, this small format, 96 page volume is a treat for book lovers of all ages. From the Trade Paperback edition. **Amazon.com Review An Amazon Best Book of the Month, December 2014 What an odd and oddly beautiful little book. A little boy enters a quiet library -- even more hushed than usual, were told in the opening line -- and is sent to Room 107, where he meets a creepy old librarian who leads him deep into a maze of dark catacombs beneath the library. There, we learn of the librarians ghoulish designs and the boy encounters a small man wearing the skin of a sheep and a pretty young girl pushing a teacart, their worlds now all jumbled together. Not even fresh-made doughnuts can sweeten the boys nightmarish predicament as the librarians prisoner. The Strange Library was designed and illustrated by famed book jacket designer (and frequent Murakami collaborator) Chip Kidd, whose moody and mysterious depictions of a childs (and a parents) darkest dream match Murakamis surreal imagination. Its hard to discern the message. Maybe something about knowledge being free or the value of libraries. No matter. This is vintage Murakami and, at the same time, something entirely fresh. No one puts animal skins on humans like Murakami. No one would dare. --Neal Thompson Review This Murakami could hardly get more Murakami. Daniel Handler, The New York Times Book Review A fairy tale that reads at times like a grim blend of Kafka and Lewis Carroll, with a touch of whimsical erudition in the vein of The Phantom Tollbooth. . . . Around the corner of every frightening turn is something delightful. The New Yorker [A] charming, surreal story. . . . whether he is writing for adults or children, [Murakami] remains a suspenseful and fantastical storyteller. The Washington Post An odd and beautiful thing. . . .It had me enthralled. The Independent (UK) Japanese master Haruki Murakamis short fantasy tale The Strange Library . . . takes readers on a wondrous journey. Elle Readers will get caught up in the world of the strange library . . . full of characters and images both awfully weird and utterly down to earth, transforms as you read it, becoming a living, nearly talismanic exercise in how to lift yourself out of the realm of the ordinary and allow the sentences to carry you into an alternate universe. The mysterious pleasure of it all is the payoff when you read Murakami. Some scholar may explain it to us all one day, diagram the roots of his work in the Japanese storytelling tradition, in fable and myth, the special effects he imports from American literature. For me, now, Im just enjoying basking in the heat of this hypnotic short work. NPR Books Like much of Murakamis work, its simultaneously whimsical, meandering and sinister a surrealistic tale . . . shot through with brutality, punishment and loss. The Telegraph (UK) This dryly funny, concise fable features all the hallmarks of Murakamis deadpan magic, along with splashes of Lewis Carroll and the brothers Grimm. Publishers Weekly At once beguiling and disquietingin short, trademark Murakamia fast read that sticks in the mind. Kirkus Reviews

Author: Alexandra Minna Stern File Type: pdf Many people assume that eugenics all but disappeared with the fall of Nazism, but as this sweeping history demonstrates, the idea of better breeding had a wide and surprising reach in the United States throughout the twentieth century. With an original emphasis on the American West, Eugenic Nation brings to light many little-known factsfor example, that one-third of the involuntary sterilizations in this country occurred in California between 1909 and 1979as it explores the influence of eugenics on phenomena as varied as race-based intelligence tests, school segregation, tropical medicine, the Border Patrol, and the environmental movement. Eugenic Nation begins in the 1900s, when influential California eugenicists molded an extensive agenda of better breeding for the rest of the country. The book traces hereditarian theories of sex and gender to the culture of conformity of the 1950s and moves to the 1960s, arguing that the liberation movements of that decade emerged in part as a challenge to policies and practices informed by eugenics.** Many people assume that eugenics all but disappeared with the fall of Nazism, but as this sweeping history demonstrates, the idea of better breeding had a wide and surprising reach in the United States throughout the twentieth century. With an original emphasis on the American West, Eugenic Nation brings to light many little-known factsfor example, that one-third of the involuntary sterilizations in this country occurred in California between 1909 and 1979as it explores the influence of eugenics on phenomena as varied as race-based intelligence tests, school segregation, tropical medicine, the Border Patrol, and the environmental movement. Eugenic Nation begins in the 1900s, when influential California eugenicists molded an extensive agenda of better breeding for the rest of the country. The book traces hereditarian theories of sex and gender to the culture of conformity of the 1950s and moves to the 1960s, arguing that the liberation movements of that decade emerged in part as a challenge to policies and practices informed by eugenics.