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We'll All Be Murdered in our Beds: The shocking history of crime reporting in Britain by Duncan Campbell 4.1 Stars (78 Reviews)    Price verified 2 hours ago

'If it bleeds, it leads' - this maxim is as true now as it was 300 years ago. Crime is the staple of the news, and our appetite for these dark and dangerous stories shows no sign of abating. In this colourful history of crime reporting since 1700, Duncan Campbell reveals what it's really like to deal with murderers, gangsters, robbers, cat burglars, victims, informers and detectives. He introduces us to the 'hacks in the macs' and the 'Murder Gang', who would go to any lengths to get a story - and serve it up to an ever-eager reading public. At a time when the relationships between the press, public, police and criminals are being questioned as never before, We'll All Be Murdered in Our Beds tells the compelling, sometimes scandalous tale of the stories and storytellers that have entertained, shocked and appalled us - and will continue to do so. Praise for We'll All Be Murdered in Our Beds: 'Duncan Campbell remains one of the very few journalists who has retained the criminal fraternity's trust and respect... He is engagingly clever and writes like a dream' - Howard Marks, author of Mr Nice 'When it comes to stellar crime reporting, Duncan Campbell is the absolute maestro. He captures the colour of the courts, the drama of events and the lives of those who appear there, in the most elegant and authentic way. A fascinating read' - Helena Kennedy, QC Duncan Campbell is former crime correspondent of the Guardian, former chairman of the Crime Reporters' Association and winner of the Bar Council's newspaper journalist of the year. He has written for the Observer, New Statesman, LRB, Oldie, Esquire and British Journalism Review. He has presented Crime Desk on BBC Radio 5 Live and the Radio 4 documentary Bandits of the Blitz, has appeared on the Today programme, LBC radio and numerous TV documentaries, and has lectured widely on crime reporting. He is the author of seven books including the bestselling The Underworld and an acclaimed crime novel, If ...

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 330 Pages (1,644 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: May 10th, 2024

Japanese Lessons: A Year in a Japanese School Through the Eyes of An American Anthropologist and Her Children by Gail R. Benjamin (NYU Press) 4.7 Stars (11 Reviews)    Price verified 6 hours ago

Benjamin dismantles Americans' preconceived notions of the Japanese education system "Gail R. Benjamin reaches beyond predictable images of authoritarian Japanese educators and automaton schoolchildren to show the advantages and disadvantages of a system remarkably different from the American one... " -- The New York Times Book Review Americans regard the Japanese educational system and the lives of Japanese children with a mixture of awe and indignance. We respect a system that produces higher literacy rates and superior math skills, but we reject the excesses of a system that leaves children with little free time and few outlets for creativity and self-expression. In Japanese Lessons, Gail R. Benjamin recounts her experiences as a American parent with two children in a Japanese elementary school. An anthropologist, Benjamin successfully weds the roles of observer and parent, illuminating the strengths of the Japanese system and suggesting ways in which Americans might learn from it. With an anthropologist's keen eye, Benjamin takes us through a full year in a Japanese public elementary school, bringing us into the classroom with its comforting structure, lively participation, varied teaching styles, and non-authoritarian teachers. We follow the children on class trips and Sports Days and through the rigors of summer vacation homework. We share the experiences of her young son and daughter as they react to Japanese schools, friends, and teachers. Through Benjamin we learn what it means to be a mother in Japan--how minute details, such as the way mothers prepare lunches for children, reflect cultural understandings of family and education.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 303 Pages (2,199 KB)
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Added: Feb 6th, 2024

By Any Media Necessary: The New Youth Activism (Connected Youth and Digital Futures Book 3) by Henry Jenkins 4.3 Stars (16 Reviews)    Price verified 9 hours ago

The participatory politics and civic engagement of youth in the digital age There is a widespread perception that the foundations of American democracy are dysfunctional, public trust in core institutions is eroding, and little is likely to emerge from traditional politics that will shift those conditions. Youth are often seen as emblematic of this crisis -- frequently represented as uninterested in political life, ill-informed about current-affairs, and unwilling to register and vote. By Any Media Necessary offers a profoundly different picture of contemporary American youth. Young men and women are tapping into the potential of new forms of communication such as social media platforms, spreadable videos and memes, remixing the language of popular culture, and seeking to bring about political change -- by any media necessary. In a series of case studies covering a diverse range of organizations, networks, and movements involving young people in the political process -- from the Harry Potter Alliance which fights for human rights in the name of the popular fantasy franchise to immigration rights advocates using superheroes to dramatize their struggles -- By Any Media Necessary examines the civic imagination at work. Before the world can change, people need the ability to imagine what alternatives might look like and identify paths by which change can be achieved. Exploring new forms of political activities and identities emerging from the practice of participatory culture, By Any Media Necessary reveals how these shifts in communication have unleashed a new political dynamism in American youth. Read Online at connectedyouth.nyupress.org

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 352 Pages (58,779 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Feb 6th, 2024

BEHIND CIVILISATION by GAVIN HUANG 3.5 Stars (38 Reviews)    Price verified 5 hours ago

This 2nd Edition has been exceed by the newer 3rd Edition, "Behind Civilization: the fundamental rules in the universe" published in March, 2022. The 3rd Edition has achieved unifying the Big Bang Theory with the evolutionary theory. You can use the book title to search on Amazon or use this url to get access tiny.cc/d9eruz This book is a critical breakthrough in scientific philosophy. It revolutionises our understanding of nature, particularly on civilisation, through discovering a fundamental mechanism which not only governs lifeless objects but the intelligence-driven civilisation as well. As a result, it unites social science with natural science, and further, science with philosophy. This discovery also provides an alternative to challenge the most fundamental issue, "theory of everything". As this mechanism is the most fundamental level, it is the foundation of similarity, including the amazing similarities between a human body and a society. Upon this theoretical basis, following the rules of this mechanism and using a human body as a model (symbolized by the naked human body on the book cover), civilisation is systematically investigated. As such, technological development and its consequential social development are understood from the most fundamental level. As a result, the human future have been successfully predicted and many historical puzzles have been unequivocally solved. These questions are: why could the ancient Greeks create a brilliant civilisation; why were there so many great thinkers; why did Scientific Revolution and the model of university education originate from Europe rather than from other places; why did the Chinese civilisation remain stagnant while the West was rapidly rising after Scientific Revolution. Even one of the long-lasting enigmatic question, "what is beauty", is unequivocally answered once and for all. It is the expression of one of the fundamental laws of physics but it is not symmetry and the axiom that "beauty is in ...

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 391 Pages (5,038 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Jan 10th, 2024

Transformations in Twentieth Century Korea (Routledge Advances in Korean Studies) by Yun-shik Chang (Routledge) 4.1 Stars (17 Reviews)    Price verified 5 hours ago

This edited collection traces the social, economic, political, and cultural dimensions of Korea's dramatic transformation since the late nineteenth century. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the chapters examine the internal and external forces which facilitated the transition towards industrial capitalism in Korea, the consequences and impact of social change, and the ways in which Korean tradition continues to inform and influence contemporary South Korean society. Transformations in Twentieth Century Korea employs a thematic structure to discuss the interrelated elements of Korea's modernization within agriculture, business and the economy, the state, ideology and culture, and gender and the family. The essays in this volume encompass the Choson dynasty, the colonial period, and postcolonial Korea. Collectively, they provide us with an original and innovative approach to the study of modern Korea, and show how knowledge of the country's past is critical to understanding contemporary Korean society. With contributions from a number of prominent international scholars within sociology, economics, history, and political science, Transformations in Twentieth Century Korea incorporates a global framework of historical narrative, ideology and culture, and statistical and economic analysis to further our understanding of Korea's evolution towards modernity.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 394 Pages (10,857 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Jul 3rd, 2023

Encyclopedia of Human Evolution and Prehistory: Second Edition by Eric Delson (Routledge) 4.3 Stars (427 Reviews)    Price verified 3 hours ago

Praise for the first edition: "The most up-to-date and wide-ranging encyclopedia work on human evolution available."--American Reference Books Annual "For student, researcher, and teacher... the most complete source of basic information on the subject."--Nature "A comprehensive and authoritative source, filling a unique niche... essential to academic libraries... important for large public libraries." --Booklist/RBB

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 798 Pages (245,532 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: May 31st, 2023

Wittgenstein's Novels by Martin Klebes (Routledge) 4.5 Stars (20 Reviews)    Price verified 2 hours ago

Analyzing features of Wittgenstein's philosophical work and including in-depth textual analyses, this study investigates the impact of Ludwig Wittgenstein's work on contemporary German and French novelists. Drawing upon aesthetics, architectural history, philosophy of science, and photography, the book seeks to explain why references both to Wittgenstein as a person, as well as to his work are more pervasive than other equally renowned twentieth century philosophers and asks why some authors such as Händler and Roubaud, are less well-known and only partially translated into English.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 314 Pages (12,749 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: May 29th, 2023

Paradise on Fire: Syed Ali Geelani and the Struggle for Freedom in Kashmir by Abdul Hakeem 4.5 Stars (9 Reviews)    Price verified 8 hours ago

Paradise on Fire is the story of the struggle for national liberation of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, spearheaded by Syed Ali Shah Geelani. This political biography of Kashmir's leading freedom fighter reveals the true horror of the Kashmir dispute, the dynamics of this historical struggle for self-determination, and Geelani's huge contribution in leading this search for liberation.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 300 Pages (4,997 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Mar 31st, 2023

Intellectuals in the Modern Islamic World: Transmission, Transformation and Communication (New Horizons in Islamic Studies) by Stephane Dudoignon (Routledge) 4.7 Stars (10 Reviews)    Price verified 8 hours ago

Incorporating a rich series of case-studies covering a range of geographical areas, this collection of essays examines the history of modern intellectuals in the Islamic world throughout the twentieth century. The contributors reassess the typology and history of various scholars, providing significant diachronic analysis of the different forms of communication, learning, and authority. While each chapter presents a separate regional case, with an historically and geographically different background, the volume discloses commonalities, similarities and intellectual echoes through its comparative approach. Consisting of two parts, the volume focuses first on al-Manar, the influential journal published between 1898 and 1935 that inspired much imagination and arguments among local intelligentsias all over the Islamic world. The second part discusses the formation, transmission and transformation of learning and authority, from the Middle East to Central and Southeast Asia. Constituting a milestone in comparative studies of the modern Islamic world, this book highlights the range of and transformation in the role of intellectuals in Islamic societies.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 396 Pages (3,885 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Mar 22nd, 2023

Game of Privilege: An African American History of Golf (The John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture) by Lane Demas (The University of North Carolina Press) 4.7 Stars (58 Reviews)    Price verified 8 hours ago

This groundbreaking history of African Americans and golf explores the role of race, class, and public space in golf course development, the stories of individual black golfers during the age of segregation, the legal battle to integrate public golf courses, and the little-known history of the United Golfers Association (UGA)--a black golf tour that operated from 1925 to 1975. Lane Demas charts how African Americans nationwide organized social campaigns, filed lawsuits, and went to jail in order to desegregate courses; he also provides dramatic stories of golfers who boldly confronted wider segregation more broadly in their local communities. As national civil rights organizations debated golf's symbolism and whether or not to pursue the game's integration, black players and caddies took matters into their own hands and helped shape its subculture, while UGA participants forged one of the most durable black sporting organizations in American history as they fought to join the white Professional Golfers' Association (PGA). From George F. Grant's invention of the golf tee in 1899 to the dominance of superstar Tiger Woods in the 1990s, this revelatory and comprehensive work challenges stereotypes and indeed the fundamental story of race and golf in American culture.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 377 Pages (13,605 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Mar 3rd, 2023

The Geopolitics of the Global Energy Transition (Lecture Notes in Energy Book 73) by Manfred Hafner (Springer) 4.3 Stars (16 Reviews)    Price verified 8 hours ago

The world is currently undergoing an historic energy transition, driven by increasingly stringent decarbonisation policies and rapid advances in low-carbon technologies. The large-scale shift to low-carbon energy is disrupting the global energy system, impacting whole economies, and changing the political dynamics within and between countries. This open access book, written by leading energy scholars, examines the economic and geopolitical implications of the global energy transition, from both regional and thematic perspectives. The first part of the book addresses the geopolitical implications in the world's main energy-producing and energy-consuming regions, while the second presents in-depth case studies on selected issues, ranging from the geopolitics of renewable energy, to the mineral foundations of the global energy transformation, to governance issues in connection with the changing global energy order. Given its scope, the book will appeal to researchers in energy, climate change and international relations, as well as to professionals working in the energy industry.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 583 Pages (11,771 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Jan 25th, 2023

The Future of Land Warfare (Geopolitics in the 21st Century) by Michael E. O'Hanlon (Brookings Institution Press) 4.1 Stars (104 Reviews)    Price verified 2 hours ago

What happens if we bet too heavily on unmanned systems, cyber warfare, and special operations in our defense? In today's U.S. defense policy debates, big land wars are out. Drones, cyber weapons, special forces, and space weapons are in. Accordingly, Pentagon budget cuts have honed in on the army and ground forces: this, after the long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, seems like an appealing idea. No one really wants American boots on the ground in bloody conflicts abroad. But it is not so easy to simply declare an end to messy land wars. A survey of the world's trouble spots suggests that land warfare has more of a future than many now seem to believe. In The Future of Land Warfare, Michael O'Hanlon offers an analysis of the future of the world's ground forces: Where are large-scale conflicts or other catastrophes most plausible? Which of these could be important enough to require the option of a U.S. military response? And which of these could in turn demand significant numbers of American ground forces in their resolution? O'Hanlon is not predicting or advocating big American roles in such operations—only cautioning against overconfidence that we can and will avoid them. O'Hanlon considers a number of illustrative scenarios in which large conventional forces may be necessary: discouraging Russia from even contemplating attacks against the Baltic states; discouraging China from considering an unfriendly future role on the Korean peninsula; handling an asymmetric threat in the South China Sea with the construction and protection of a number of bases in the Philippines and elsewhere; managing the aftermath of a major and complex humanitarian disaster superimposed on a security crisis—perhaps in South Asia; coping with a severe Ebola outbreak not in the small states of West Africa but in Nigeria, at the same time that country falls further into violence; addressing a further meltdown in security conditions in Central America.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 345 Pages (5,478 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Jan 25th, 2023

Knowledge and Action (Knowledge and Space Book 9) by Peter Meusburger (Springer) 4.4 Stars (10 Reviews)    Price verified 8 hours ago

This volume explores interdependencies between knowledge, action, and space from different interdisciplinary perspectives. Some of the contributors discuss knowledge as a social construct based on collective action, while others look at knowledge as an individual capacity for action. The chapters contain theoretical frameworks as well as experimental outcomes. Readers will gain insight into key questions such as: How does knowledge function as a prerequisite for action? Why are knowledge gaps growing and not diminishing in a knowledge society? How much knowledge is necessary for action? How do various types of knowledge influence the steps from cognition to action? How do different representations of knowledge shape action? What impact have spatial conditions for the formation of knowledge? What is the relationship between social and geographical space? The contributors consider rationality in social and economic theories as well as in everyday life. Attention is also given to action theoretic approaches and rationality from the viewpoints of psychology, post-structuralism, and human geography, making this an attractive book for students, researchers and academics of various backgrounds. This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 466 Pages (2,830 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Jan 25th, 2023

Sleeper : A gripping, exciting and believable action thriller with surprising twists by T.J. Hawkins 4.3 Stars (453 Reviews)    Price verified 2 hours ago

THE MULTI-AWARD WINNING DEBUT THRILLER BY T.J.HAWKINS Tom Rivers is a middle aged professional. He has a wife and two daughters. His life is comfortable, if somewhat unremarkable. But he has a secret, that even he doesn't know about. During a business trip to London he discovers that he is instead, a genetically superior and highly trained MI5 agent who has been kept in a sleeper state for the past twenty five years and is now expected to save his country from catastrophe. A terrorist cell has developed a weapon so devastating that it could send Britain back to the Dark Ages and, at the same time, cost thousands of innocent lives. Their leader, a charismatic and extrovert psychopath, has carefully planned his attack on the capital with America in mind as his next target. Except, there was one element he hadn't predicted - Tom Rivers as his nemesis. The game of cat and mouse races across London as Tom and his team try to stop the terrorists in time and before the threat of nuclear war becomes a reality. But there are also other sinister forces at work, operating from the shadows. Who can be trusted? Sleeper is the award winning debut thriller by T.J. Hawkins that has been described by reviewers as fast-paced and hard to put down. Exciting, believable and action packed with characters that truly engage.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 333 Pages (1,486 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Dec 31st, 2022

Ética, hermenéutica y política. Filosofía en el fondo (Spanish Edition) by Miguel Fernández Membrive (ITESO) 4.5 Stars (31 Reviews)    Price verified 7 hours ago

Esta obra colectiva de ensayos académicos dictaminados, inspirados en el ciclo de conferencias Filosofía en el Fondo, ofrece una rica y entretejida lectura que en cuatro secciones (La ética ante el problema del mal, Diferencia y alteridad, Hermenéutica de la modernidad, e Intersticios políticos) profundiza los problemas humanos que resisten el paso del tiempo con enfoques hermenéuticos, genealógicos y críticos. (ITESO) (ITESO Universidad). Disponible también en versión impresa www.publicaciones.iteso.mx .

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 342 Pages (1,914 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Nov 11th, 2022

Oral Literature in Africa (World Oral Literature Series Book 1) by Ruth Finnegan (Open Book Publishers) 4.3 Stars (27 Reviews)    Price verified 4 minutes ago

Ruth Finnegan's Oral Literature in Africa was first published in 1970, and since then has been widely praised as one of the most important books in its field. Based on years of fieldwork, the study traces the history of storytelling across the continent of Africa. This revised edition makes Finnegan's ground-breaking research available to the next generation of scholars. It includes a new introduction, additional images and an updated bibliography, as well as its original chapters on poetry, prose, "drum language" and drama, and an overview of the social, linguistic and historical background of oral literature in Africa. This volume is complemented by original recordings of stories and songs from the Limba country (Sierra Leone), collected by Finnegan during her fieldwork in the late 1960s, which are freely accessible here. The book is available as a free pdf and ebook download thanks to the generous support of interested readers and organisations, who made donations using the crowd-funding website unglue.it. Oral Literature in Africa is part of our World Oral Literature Series in conjunction with the World Oral Literature Project.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 729 Pages (4,506 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Oct 29th, 2022

El paraíso de la impunidad (ReVisión Universitaria) (Spanish Edition) by David Velasco Yáñez 4.3 Stars (31 Reviews)    Price verified 4 minutes ago

México vive una crisis humanitaria en materia de derechos humanos, en cuya raíz se encuentra la impunidad que se ha enseñoreado en el país convirtiéndole en un paraíso para los victimarios. (ITESO) (ITESO Universidad) publicaciones.iteso.mx

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 516 Pages (9,826 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Oct 1st, 2022

Science of Societal Safety: Living at Times of Risks and Disasters (Trust Book 2) by Seiji Abe (Springer) 4.4 Stars (10 Reviews)    Price verified 7 hours ago

This open access book covers comprehensive but fundamental principles and concepts of disaster and accident prevention and mitigation, countermeasures, and recovery from disasters or accidents including treatment and care of the victims. Safety and security problems in our society involve not only engineering but also social, legal, economic, cultural, and psychological issues. The enhancement needed for societal safety includes comprehensive activities of all aspects from precaution to recovery, not only of people but also of governments. In this context, the authors, members of the Faculty of Societal Safety Science, Kansai University, conducted many discussions and concluded that the major strategy is consistent independently of the type and magnitude of disaster or accident, being also the principle of the foundation of our faculty. The topics treated in this book are rather widely distributed but are well organized sequentially to provide a clear understanding of the principles of societal safety. In the first part the fundamental concepts of safety are discussed. The second part deals with risks in the societal and natural environment. Then follows, in the third part, a description of the quantitative estimation of risk and its assessment and management. The fourth part is devoted to disaster prevention, mitigation, and recovery systems. The final, fifth part presents a future perspective of societal safety science. Thorough reading of this introductory volume of societal safety science provides a clear image of the issues. This is largely because the Japanese have suffered often from natural disasters and not only have gained much valuable information about disasters but also have accumulated a store of experience. We are still in the process of reconstruction from the Great East Japan earthquake and the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident. This book is especially valuable therefore in studying the safety and security of people and their societies.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 313 Pages (5,824 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Sep 2nd, 2022

Europe and the Refugee Response: A Crisis of Values? (Routledge Studies in Development, Mobilities and Migration) by Elżbieta M. Goździak (Routledge) 4.8 Stars (18 Reviews)    Price verified 8 hours ago

This book explores how the rising numbers of refugees entering Europe from 2015 onwards played into fears of cultural, religious, and ethnic differences across the continent. The migrant, or refugee crisis, prompted fierce debate about European norms and values, with some commentators questioning whether mostly Muslim refugees would be able to adhere to these values, and be able to integrate into a predominantly Christian European society. In this volume, philosophers, legal scholars, anthropologists and sociologists, analyze some of these debates and discuss practical strategies to reconcile the values that underpin the European project with multiculturalism and religious pluralism, whilst at the same time safeguarding the rights of refugees to seek asylum. Country case studies in the book are drawn from France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom; representing states with long histories of immigration, countries with a more recent refugee arrivals, and countries that want to keep refugees at bay and refuse to admit even the smallest number of asylum seekers. Contributors in the book explore the roles which national and local governments, civil society, and community leaders play in these debates and practices, and ask what strategies are being used to educate refugees about European values, and to facilitate their integration. At a time when debates on refugees and European norms continue to rage, this book provides an important interdisciplinary analysis which will be of interest to European policy makers, and researchers across the fields of migration, law, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, and political science. The Open Access version of this book, available at https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9780429279317, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 310 Pages (2,659 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Aug 7th, 2022

Atlantic Bonds: A Nineteenth-Century Odyssey from America to Africa (H. Eugene and Lillian Youngs Lehman Series) by Lisa A. Lindsay (The University of North Carolina Press) 4.4 Stars (24 Reviews)    Price verified 5 hours ago

A decade before the American Civil War, James Churchwill Vaughan (1828-1893) set out to fulfill his formerly enslaved father's dying wish that he should leave America to start a new life in Africa. Over the next forty years, Vaughan was taken captive, fought in African wars, built and rebuilt a livelihood, and led a revolt against white racism, finally becoming a successful merchant and the founder of a wealthy, educated, and politically active family. Tracing Vaughan's journey from South Carolina to Liberia to several parts of Yorubaland (present-day southwestern Nigeria), Lisa Lindsay documents this "free" man's struggle to find economic and political autonomy in an era when freedom was not clear and unhindered anywhere for people of African descent. In a tour de force of historical investigation on two continents, Lindsay tells a story of Vaughan's survival, prosperity, and activism against a seemingly endless series of obstacles. By following Vaughan's transatlantic journeys and comparing his experiences to those of his parents, contemporaries, and descendants in Nigeria and South Carolina, Lindsay reveals the expansive reach of slavery, the ambiguities of freedom, and the surprising ways that Africa, rather than America, offered new opportunities for people of African descent.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 323 Pages (9,334 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Jul 29th, 2022

Corazón de Dixie: Mexicanos in the U.S. South since 1910 (The David J. Weber Series in the New Borderlands History) by Julie M. Weise (The University of North Carolina Press) 4.6 Stars (15 Reviews)    Price verified 6 hours ago

When Latino migration to the U.S. South became increasingly visible in the 1990s, observers and advocates grasped for ways to analyze "new" racial dramas in the absence of historical reference points. However, as this book is the first to comprehensively document, Mexicans and Mexican Americans have a long history of migration to the U.S. South. Corazon de Dixie recounts the untold histories of Mexicanos' migrations to New Orleans, Mississippi, Arkansas, Georgia, and North Carolina as far back as 1910. It follows Mexicanos into the heart of Dixie, where they navigated the Jim Crow system, cultivated community in the cotton fields, purposefully appealed for help to the Mexican government, shaped the southern conservative imagination in the wake of the civil rights movement, and embraced their own version of suburban living at the turn of the twenty-first century. Rooted in U.S. and Mexican archival research, oral history interviews, and family photographs, Corazon de Dixie unearths not just the facts of Mexicanos' long-standing presence in the U.S. South but also their own expectations, strategies, and dreams.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 360 Pages (16,985 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Jul 29th, 2022

Ayotzinapa y la crisis del estado neoliberal mexicano (ReVisión Universitaria) (Spanish Edition) by David Velasco Yáñez (ITESO) 4.2 Stars (17 Reviews)    Price verified 8 hours ago

¿Qué pasó en Ayotzinapa? Es la pregunta que surgió el 26 de septiembre de 2014, que no encuentra una respuesta satisfactoria pese a la intervención de actores de distintas instancias, niveles y nacionalidades, y al esbozo de múltiples hipótesis sobre los enfrentamientos registrados en Iguala, Guerrero, que derivaron en la muerte de varias personas y la desaparición de 43 estudiantes de la Normal Rural "Isidro Burgos", en una tragedia que evidenció la crisis que atraviesa el estado mexicano y que afecta a todo el país. A partir de lo acontecido en Ayotzinapa y con base en la teoría general de los campos de Pierre Bourdieu y su propuesta de análisis teórico metodológico sobre el estado, en esta obra se realiza un análisis de la práctica sistemática y generalizada de las desapariciones forzadas en México, con el fin de ofrecer otra manera de comprender el entretejido político-económico-social que hace posible este grave fenómeno, que desgarra tanto a familias como a la comunidad. La herida abierta por Ayotzinapa sangra y el objetivo último de este libro es contribuir a evitar que se cierre en tanto no se responda la interrogante de qué pasó ahí y que crímenes de lesa humanidad como este sigan aconteciendo en México.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 313 Pages (1,036 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Jun 26th, 2022

Behind Civilization : The Fundamental Rules in the Universe by Gavin Huang 4.3 Stars (19 Reviews)    Price verified 2 hours ago

In this new edition, a hypothesis is put forward for the first time to unify the Big Bang theory and the evolutionary theory by showing both events following the same set of fundamental interrelationships. As the evolution of life is a part of the evolutions of the universe, these two events express many fundamental similarities (this is self-similarity, which means a part of the system is similar to the whole system). Based on the same principle, the evolution of multicellular organisms, social evolution, development of the human body, and human technological development are all a part of the evolution of life. Thus, they all follow the same set of rules that all life follows and, at the fundamental level, the interrelationships that the Big Bang follows. Therefore, all of these events follow the fundamental interrelationships and express fundamental similarities. In other words, all these events are the specific expressions of those fundamental interrelationships - the fundamental mechanism that governs everything in the universe. Upon these interrelationships, new approaches to study social development and technological development are employed. By using the knowledge of the medical sciences, including the structures (anatomy and histology), functions (physiology) and development (embryology) of a human body; knowledge of the evolution of life; and the concept of fundamental interrelationships, we can see the future beyond the horizon. Using the nerve system in parallel as a model, we can comprehensively understand the development of the information revolution. Based upon parallel interrelationships, we can see that the transformation of society due to individuals' power increase brought by new technologies bears great similarities with the transformation from the solid state of ice to the liquid state of water due the individual molecules' kinetic energy increase. As the fundamental interrelationships govern social evolution, all events in human civilisation ...

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 485 Pages (4,853 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Jun 14th, 2022

Letters of Helena Roerich II: 1935-1939 by Helena Roerich (Agni Yoga Society) 4.5 Stars (19 Reviews)    Price verified 8 hours ago

Helena Roerich was an unusually gifted woman, author of many books. Her collected Letters, in two volumes, are an example of the wisdom, spiritual insight, and simple advice she shared with a multitude of correspondents -- friends, foes, and co-workers alike.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 493 Pages (1,002 KB)
Lending: Enabled
Added: Jun 1st, 2022

Russian Fairy Tales A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore by William Ralston Shedden Ralston 4.2 Stars (146 Reviews)    Price verified 3 hours ago

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 426 Pages (539 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: May 1st, 2022

Empire's Violent End: Comparing Dutch, British, and French Wars of Decolonization, 1945–1962 by Thijs Brocades Zaalberg (Cornell University Press) 3.6 Stars (35 Reviews)    Price verified 2 hours ago

In Empire's Violent End, Thijs Brocades Zaalberg and Bart Luttikhuis, along with expert contributors, present comparative research focused specifically on excessive violence in Indonesia, Algeria, Vietnam, Malaysia, Kenya, and other areas during the wars of decolonization. In the last two decades, there have been heated public and scholarly debates in France, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands on the violent end of empire. Nevertheless, the broader comparative investigations into colonial counterinsurgency tend to leave atrocities such as torture, execution, and rape in the margins. The editors describe how such comparisons mostly focus on the differences by engaging in "guilt ranking." Moreover, the dramas that have unfolded in Algeria and Kenya tend to overshadow similar violent events in Indonesia, the very first nation to declare independence directly after World War II. Empire's Violent End is the first book to place the Dutch-Indonesian case at the heart of a comparison with focused, thematic analysis on a diverse range of topics to demonstrate that despite variation in scale, combat intensity, and international dynamics, there were more similarities than differences in the ways colonial powers used extreme forms of violence. By delving into the causes and nature of the abuse, Brocades Zaalberg and Luttikhuis conclude that all cases involved some form of institutionalized impunity, which enabled the type of situation in which the forces in the service of the colonial rulers were able to use extreme violence.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 380 Pages (2,005 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Apr 18th, 2022

Ink-Stained Hollywood: The Triumph of American Cinema’s Trade Press by Eric Hoyt (University of California Press) 4.1 Stars (15 Reviews)    Price verified 8 hours ago

A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at www.luminosoa.org. For the first half of the twentieth century, no American industry boasted a more motley and prolific trade press than the movie business -- a cutthroat landscape that set the stage for battle by ink. In 1930, Martin Quigley, publisher of Exhibitors Herald, conspired with Hollywood studios to eliminate all competing trade papers, yet this attempt and each one thereafter collapsed. Exploring the communities of exhibitors and creative workers that constituted key subscribers, Ink-Stained Hollywood tells the story of how a heterogeneous trade press triumphed by appealing to the foundational aspects of industry culture -- taste, vanity, partisanship, and exclusivity. In captivating detail, Eric Hoyt chronicles the histories of well-known trade papers (Variety, Motion Picture Herald) alongside important yet forgotten publications (Film Spectator, Film Mercury, and Camera!), and challenges the canon of film periodicals, offering new interpretative frameworks for understanding print journalism's relationship with the motion picture industry and its continued impact on creative industries today.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 415 Pages (17,284 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Mar 3rd, 2022

No Truth Without Beauty: God, the Qur’an, and Women's Rights (Sustainable Development Goals Series) by Leena El-Ali (Palgrave Macmillan) 5.0 Stars (11 Reviews)    Price verified 3 hours ago

In this comprehensive open access book, written for readers from any or no religious background, Leena El-Ali does something remarkable. Never before has anyone taken on every last claim relating to Islam and women and countered it not just with Qur'anic evidence to the contrary, but with easy-to-use tools available to all. How can a woman's testimony be worth half of a man's? How can men divorce their wives unilaterally by uttering three words? And what's with the obsession with virgins in Paradise? Find the chapter on any of the seventeen topics in this book, and you will quickly learn a) where the myth came from and b) how to bust it. The methodology pursued is simple. First, the Qur'an is given priority over all other literary or "scriptural" sources. Second, the meaning of its verses in the original Arabic is highlighted, in contrast to English translations and/or widespread misunderstanding or misinterpretation.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 426 Pages (717 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Dec 30th, 2021

Red Dynamite: Creationism, Culture Wars, and Anticommunism in America (Religion and American Public Life) by Carl R. Weinberg 3.9 Stars (14 Reviews)    Price verified 24 minutes ago

In Red Dynamite, Carl R. Weinberg argues that creationism's tenacious hold on American public life depended on culture-war politics inextricably embedded in religion. Many Christian conservatives were convinced that evolutionary thought promoted immoral and even bestial social, sexual, and political behavior. The "fruits" of subscribing to Darwinism were, in their minds, a dangerous rearrangement of God-given standards and the unsettling of traditional hierarchies of power. Despite claiming to focus exclusively on science and religion, creationists were practicing politics. Their anticommunist campaign, often infused with conspiracy theory, gained power from the fact that the Marxist founders, the early Bolshevik leaders, and their American allies were staunch evolutionists. Using the Scopes "Monkey" Trial as a starting point, Red Dynamite traces the politically explosive union of Darwinism and communism over the next century. Across those years, social evolution was the primary target of creationists, and their "ideas have consequences" strategy instilled fear that shaped the contours of America's culture wars. By taking the anticommunist arguments of creationists seriously, Weinberg reveals a neglected dimension of antievolutionism and illuminates a source of the creationist movement's continuing strength. Thanks to generous funding from Indiana University and its participation in TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem), the ebook editions of this book are available as Open Access volumes from Cornell Open (cornellpress.cornell.edu/cornell-open) and other repositories.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 483 Pages (3,268 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Nov 19th, 2021

Manchus and Han: Ethnic Relations and Political Power in Late Qing and Early Republican China, 1861-1928 (Studies on Ethnic Groups in China) by Edward J. M. Rhoads (University of Washington Press) 4.8 Stars (10 Reviews)    Price verified 4 minutes ago

China?s 1911?12 Revolution, which overthrew a 2000-year succession of dynasties, is thought of primarily as a change in governmental style, from imperial to republican, traditional to modern. But given that the dynasty that was overthrown?the Qing?was that of a minority ethnic group that had ruled China?s Han majority for nearly three centuries, and that the revolutionaries were overwhelmingly Han, to what extent was the revolution not only anti-monarchical, but also anti-Manchu? Edward Rhoads explores this provocative and complicated question in Manchus and Han, analyzing the evolution of the Manchus from a hereditary military caste (the ?banner people?) to a distinct ethnic group and then detailing the interplay and dialogue between the Manchu court and Han reformers that culminated in the dramatic changes of the early 20th century. Until now, many scholars have assumed that the Manchus had been assimilated into Han culture long before the 1911 Revolution and were no longer separate and distinguishable. But Rhoads demonstrates that in many ways Manchus remained an alien, privileged, and distinct group. Manchus and Han is a pathbreaking study that will forever change the way historians of China view the events leading to the fall of the Qing dynasty. Likewise, it will clarify for ethnologists the unique origin of the Manchus as an occupational caste and their shifting relationship with the Han, from border people to rulers to ruled. Winner of the Joseph Levenson Book Prize for Modern China, sponsored by The China and Inner Asia Council of the Association for Asian Studies

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 414 Pages (5,632 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Nov 6th, 2021

Can Biotechnology Abolish Suffering? by David Pearce (The Neuroethics Foundation) 4.4 Stars (26 Reviews)    Price verified 6 hours ago

Can Biotechnology Abolish Suffering? is a collection of essays by utilitarian philosopher David Pearce. The essays deal with a variety of subjects, including the abolition of suffering through biotechnology, negative utilitarianism, our obligations toward non-human animals, the nature of consciousness, and the future of intelligent life.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 649 Pages (3,365 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Sep 15th, 2021

The Cold War from the Margins: A Small Socialist State on the Global Cultural Scene by Theodora Dragostinova 3.9 Stars (19 Reviews)    Price verified 2 hours ago

In The Cold War from the Margins, Theodora K. Dragostinova reappraises the global 1970s from the perspective of a small socialist state -- Bulgaria -- and its cultural engagements with the Balkans, the West, and the Third World. During this anxious decade, Bulgaria's communist leadership invested heavily in cultural diplomacy to bolster its legitimacy at home and promote its agendas abroad. Bulgarians traveled the world to open museum exhibitions, show films, perform music, and showcase the cultural heritage and future aspirations of their "ancient yet modern" country. As Dragostinova shows, these encounters transcended the Cold War's bloc mentality: Bulgaria's relations with Greece and Austria warmed, émigrés once considered enemies were embraced, and new cultural ties were forged with India, Mexico, and Nigeria. Pursuing contact with the West and solidarity with the Global South boosted Bulgaria's authoritarian regime by securing new allies and unifying its population. Complicating familiar narratives of both the 1970s and late socialism, The Cold War from the Margins places the history of socialism in an international context and recovers alternative models of global interconnectivity along East-South lines. Thanks to generous funding from The Ohio State University Libraries and its participation in TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem), the ebook editions of this book are available as Open Access volumes from Cornell Open (cornellpress.cornell.edu/cornell-open) and other repositories.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 340 Pages (6,454 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: May 16th, 2021

Cultural Organizations, Networks and Mediators in Contemporary Ibero-America (Routledge Studies in Cultural History Book 82) by Diana Roig-Sanz (Routledge) 4.7 Stars (30 Reviews)    Price verified 3 hours ago

This book proposes an innovative conceptual framework to explore cultural organizations at a multilateral level and cultural mediators as key figures in cultural and institutionalization processes. Specifically, it analyzesthe role of Ibero-American mediators in theinstitutionalization of Hispanic and Lusophone cultures in thefirst half of the 20th century by means of two institutionalnetworks: PEN (the non-governmental writer's association) and the International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation (predecessor to UNESCO). Attempting to combine cultural and global history, sociology, and literary studies, the book uses an analytical focus on intercultural networks and cultural transfer to investigate the multiple activities and roles that these mediators and cultural organizations set in motion. Literature has traditionally studied major figures and important centers of cultural production, but other regions and localities also played a crucial role in the development of intellectual cooperation. This book reappraises the place of Ibero-America in international cultural relations and retrieves the lost history of key secondary actors. The book will appeal to scholars from international relations, global and cultural history, sociology, postcolonial Studies, world and comparative literature, and New Hispanisms. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9780429299407, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 344 Pages (4,453 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: May 10th, 2021

Advancing Human Assessment: The Methodological, Psychological and Policy Contributions of ETS (Methodology of Educational Measurement and Assessment) by Randy E. Bennett (Springer) 3.9 Stars (13 Reviews)    Price verified 8 hours ago

This book is open access under a CC BY-NC 2.5 license.?? This book describes the extensive contributions made toward the advancement of human assessment by scientists from one of the world's leading research institutions, Educational Testing Service. The book's four major sections detail research and development in measurement and statistics, education policy analysis and evaluation, scientific psychology, and validity. Many of the developments presented have become de-facto standards in educational and psychological measurement, including in item response theory (IRT), linking and equating, differential item functioning (DIF), and educational surveys like the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the Programme of international Student Assessment (PISA), the Progress of International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) and the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). In addition to its comprehensive coverage of contributions to the theory and methodology of educational and psychological measurement and statistics, the book gives significant attention to ETS work in cognitive, personality, developmental, and social psychology, and to education policy analysis and program evaluation. The chapter authors are long-standing experts who provide broad coverage and thoughtful insights that build upon decades of experience in research and best practices for measurement, evaluation, scientific psychology, and education policy analysis. Opening with a chapter on the genesis of ETS and closing with a synthesis of the enormously diverse set of contributions made over its 70-year history, the book is a useful resource for all interested in the improvement of human assessment.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 725 Pages (3,917 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Apr 15th, 2021

How Generations Remember: Conflicting Histories and Shared Memories in Post-War Bosnia and Herzegovina (Global Diversities) by Monika Palmberger (Palgrave Macmillan) 3.9 Stars (14 Reviews)    Price verified 44 minutes ago

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book provides a profound insight into post-war Mostar, and the memories of three generations of this Bosnian-Herzegovinian city. Drawing on several years of ethnographic fieldwork, it offers a vivid account of how personal and collective memories are utterly intertwined, and how memories across the generations are reimagined and 'rewritten' following great socio-political change. Focusing on both Bosniak-dominated East Mostar and Croat-dominated West Mostar, it demonstrates that, even in this ethno-nationally divided city with its two divergent national historiographies, generation-specific experiences are crucial in how people ascribe meaning to past events. It argues that the dramatic and often brutal transformations that Bosnia and Herzegovina has witnessed have led to alterations in memory politics, not to mention disparities in the life situations faced by the different generations in present-day post-war Mostar. This in turn has created variations in memories along generational lines, which affect how individuals narrate and position themselves in relation to the country's history. This detailed and engaging work will appeal to students and scholars of anthropology, sociology, political science, history and oral history, particularly those with an interest in memory, post-socialist Europe and conflict studies.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 365 Pages (3,115 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Feb 13th, 2021

The Triple Path by James Kenneth Rogers (The Church of the West) 3.9 Stars (45 Reviews)    Price verified 59 minutes ago

There's a crisis of meaning in the modern world. How many of us yearn for something, without knowing exactly what? We've lost something, straying in a world of distractions. Society's increasing secularization has stripped the sacred from our lives and culture, jettisoning much that is bright and good in exchange for dark, dull substitutes. Every human society has had religion-has needed religion. It is foolish to think ours is any different. But at the same time, the ancient cosmologies and doctrines of the world's major religions appear to be in ever-greater conflict with modern discoveries, making traditional religion feel increasingly dissatisfying and irrelevant to growing numbers of people. The Triple Path offers a solution-it sets forth a new monotheistic religion that revives the most ancient branch of Christianity, Adoptionism. It harmonizes and reconciles our great Western heritage with modernity, weaving together the ancient wisdom of the ages with modern insights, but with an emphasis on keeping as much as possible of the teachings and practices of Western tradition and faith. It beckons to us, inviting us to draw closer to God by seeking Wisdom, practicing Virtue, and laboring with Hope. When you honestly appraise yourself and your life, could you be aiming higher? Perhaps existence is calling to you to do more, to be more. Perhaps the Triple Path is calling to you to take up the challenge and embark on a spiritual quest. Test its fruits for yourself. Rediscover the sacred. Come back to religion and God.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 754 Pages (15,716 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Feb 10th, 2021

Migration, Gender and Social Justice: Perspectives on Human Insecurity (Hexagon Series on Human and Environmental Security and Peace Book 9) by Thanh-Dam Truong (Springer) 4.6 Stars (11 Reviews)    Price verified 8 hours ago

This book is the product of a collaborative effort involving partners from Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America who were funded by the International Development Research Centre Programme on Women and Migration (2006-2011). The International Institute of Social Studies at Erasmus University Rotterdam spearheaded a project intended to distill and refine the research findings, connecting them to broader literatures and interdisciplinary themes. The book examines commonalities and differences in the operation of various structures of power (gender, class, race/ethnicity, generation) and their interactions within the institutional domains of intra-national and especially inter-national migration that produce context-specific forms of social injustice. Additional contributions have been included so as to cover issues of legal liminality and how the social construction of not only femininity but also masculinity affects all migrants and all women. The resulting set of 19 detailed, interconnected case studies makes a valuable contribution to reorienting our perceptions and values in the discussions and decision-making concerning migration, and to raising awareness of key issues in migrants' rights. All chapters were anonymously peer-reviewed. This book resulted from a series of projects funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 420 Pages (13,533 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Feb 9th, 2021

Computational Cognitive Modeling and Linguistic Theory (Language, Cognition, and Mind Book 6) by Adrian Brasoveanu (Springer) 4.7 Stars (36 Reviews)    Price verified 7 hours ago

This open access book introduces a general framework that allows natural language researchers to enhance existing competence theories with fully specified performance and processing components. Gradually developing increasingly complex and cognitively realistic competence-performance models, it provides running code for these models and shows how to fit them to real-time experimental data. This computational cognitive modeling approach opens up exciting new directions for research in formal semantics, and linguistics more generally, and offers new ways of (re)connecting semantics and the broader field of cognitive science. The approach of this book is novel in more ways than one. Assuming the mental architecture and procedural modalities of Anderson's ACT-R framework, it presents fine-grained computational models of human language processing tasks which make detailed quantitative predictions that can be checked against the results of self-paced reading and other psycho-linguistic experiments. All models are presented as computer programs that readers can run on their own computer and on inputs of their choice, thereby learning to design, program and run their own models. But even for readers who won't do all that, the book will show how such detailed, quantitatively predicting modeling of linguistic processes is possible. A methodological breakthrough and a must for anyone concerned about the future of linguistics! (Hans Kamp) This book constitutes a major step forward in linguistics and psycholinguistics. It constitutes a unique synthesis of several different research traditions: computational models of psycholinguistic processes, and formal models of semantics and discourse processing. The work also introduces a sophisticated python-based software environment for modeling linguistic processes. This book has the potential to revolutionize not only formal models of linguistics, but also models of language processing more generally. (Shravan Vasishth)

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 425 Pages (56,755 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Jan 9th, 2021

Cultural Heritage in a Changing World by Karol Jan Borowiecki (Springer) 4.3 Stars (11 Reviews)    Price verified 9 hours ago

The central purpose of this collection of essays is to make a creative addition to the debates surrounding the cultural heritage domain. In the 21st century the world faces epochal changes which affect every part of society, including the arenas in which cultural heritage is made, held, collected, curated, exhibited, or simply exists. The book is about these changes; about the decentring of culture and cultural heritage away from institutional structures towards the individual; about the questions which the advent of digital technologies is demanding that we ask and answer in relation to how we understand, collect and make available Europe's cultural heritage. Cultural heritage has enormous potential in terms of its contribution to improving the quality of life for people, understanding the past, assisting territorial cohesion, driving economic growth, opening up employment opportunities and supporting wider developments such as improvements in education and in artistic careers. Given that spectrum of possible benefits to society, the range of studies that follow here are intended to be a resource and stimulus to help inform not just professionals in the sector but all those with an interest in cultural heritage.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 479 Pages (3,661 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Dec 20th, 2020

Hot Property: The Housing Market in Major Cities by Rob Nijskens (Springer) 4.4 Stars (12 Reviews)    Price verified 59 minutes ago

This open access book discusses booming housing markets in cities around the globe, and the resulting challenges for policymakers and central banks. Cities are booming everywhere, leading to a growing demand for urban housing. In many cities this demand is out-pacing supply, which causes house prices to soar and increases the pressure on rental markets. These developments are posing major challenges for policymakers, central banks and other authorities responsible for ensuring financial stability, and economic well-being in general.This volume collects views from high-level policymakers and researchers, providing essential insights into these challenges, their impact on society, the economy and financial stability, and possible policy responses. The respective chapters address issues such as the popularity of cities, the question of a credit-fueled housing bubble, the role of housing supply frictions and potential policy solutions. Given its scope, the book offers a revealing read and valuable guide for everyone involved in practical policymaking for housing markets, mortgage credit and financial stability.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 356 Pages (27,464 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Nov 27th, 2020

Policing Gender, Class And Family In Britain, 1800-1945 (Women's and Gender History) by Linda Mahood (Routledge) 4.2 Stars (13 Reviews)    Price verified 49 minutes ago

This book is intended for undergraduate courses on modern British history, women's history, courses on family, sexuality and childhood. Women's studies, history of education, sociology.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 319 Pages (602 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Oct 20th, 2020

Imperial Matter: Ancient Persia and the Archaeology of Empires by Lori Khatchadourian (University of California Press) 4.4 Stars (85 Reviews)    Price verified 8 hours ago

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's new open access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. What is the role of the material world in shaping the tensions and paradoxes of imperial sovereignty? Scholars have long shed light on the complex processes of conquest, extraction, and colonialism under imperial rule. But imperialism has usually been cast as an exclusively human drama, one in which the world of matter does not play an active role. Lori Khatchadourian argues instead that things -- from everyday objects to monumental buildings -- profoundly shape social and political life under empire. Out of the archaeology of ancient Persia and the South Caucasus, Imperial Matter advances powerful new analytical approaches to the study of imperialism writ large and should be read by scholars working on empire across the humanities and social sciences.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 481 Pages (63,182 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Oct 19th, 2020

Nature-Based Solutions to Climate Change Adaptation in Urban Areas: Linkages between Science, Policy and Practice (Theory and Practice of Urban ... by Nadja Kabisch (Springer) 4.3 Stars (20 Reviews)    Price verified 49 minutes ago

This open access book brings together research findings and experiences from science, policy and practice to highlight and debate the importance of nature-based solutions to climate change adaptation in urban areas. Emphasis is given to the potential of nature-based approaches to create multiple-benefits for society. The expert contributions present recommendations for creating synergies between ongoing policy processes, scientific programmes and practical implementation of climate change and nature conservation measures in global urban areas. Except where otherwise noted, this book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 358 Pages (4,876 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Oct 19th, 2020

Medieval Arabic Historiography: Authors as Actors (SOAS/Routledge Studies on the Middle East) by Konrad Hirschler (Routledge) 4.5 Stars (20 Reviews)    Price verified 8 hours ago

Medieval Arabic Historiography is concerned with social contexts and narrative structures of pre-modern Islamic historiography written in Arabic in seventh and thirteenth-century Syria and Eygpt. Taking up recent theoretical reflections on historical writing in the European Middle Ages, this extraordinary study combines approaches drawn from social sciences and literary studies, with a particular focus on two well-known texts: Abu Shama's The Book of the Two Gardens, and Ibn Wasil's The Dissipater of Anxieties. These texts describe events during the life of the sultans Nur-al-Din and Salah al-Din, who are primarily known in modern times as the champions of the anti-Crusade movement. Hirschler shows that these two authors were active interpreters of their society and has considerable room for manoeuvre in both their social environment and the shaping of their texts. Through the use of a fresh and original theoretical approach to pre-modern Arabic historiography, Hirschler presents a new understanding of these texts which have before been relatively neglected, thus providing a significant contribution to the burgeoning field of historiographical studies.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 344 Pages (1,233 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Oct 19th, 2020

The Ethics of Cybersecurity (The International Library of Ethics, Law and Technology Book 21) by Markus Christen (Springer) 4.3 Stars (241 Reviews)    Price verified 6 hours ago

This open access book provides the first comprehensive collection of papers that provide an integrative view on cybersecurity. It discusses theories, problems and solutions on the relevant ethical issues involved. This work is sorely needed in a world where cybersecurity has become indispensable to protect trust and confidence in the digital infrastructure whilst respecting fundamental values like equality, fairness, freedom, or privacy. The book has a strong practical focus as it includes case studies outlining ethical issues in cybersecurity and presenting guidelines and other measures to tackle those issues. It is thus not only relevant for academics but also for practitioners in cybersecurity such as providers of security software, governmental CERTs or Chief Security Officers in companies.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 388 Pages (3,877 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Sep 16th, 2020

Dissecting the Criminal Corpse: Staging Post-Execution Punishment in Early Modern England (Palgrave Historical Studies in the Criminal Corpse and its ... by Elizabeth T. Hurren (Palgrave Macmillan) 4.0 Stars (26 Reviews)    Price verified 6 hours ago

Those convicted of homicide were hanged on the public gallows before being dissected under the Murder Act in Georgian England. Yet, from 1752, whether criminals actually died on the hanging tree or in the dissection room remained a medical mystery in early modern society. Dissecting the Criminal Corpse takes issue with the historical cliché of corpses dangling from the hangman's rope in crime studies. Some convicted murderers did survive execution in early modern England. Establishing medical death in the heart-lungs-brain was a physical enigma. Criminals had large bull-necks, strong willpowers, and hearty survival instincts. Extreme hypothermia often disguised coma in a prisoner hanged in the winter cold. The youngest and fittest were capable of reviving on the dissection table. Many died under the lancet. Capital legislation disguised a complex medical choreography that surgeons staged. They broke the Hippocratic Oath by executing the Dangerous Dead across England from 1752 until 1832. This book is open access under a CC-BY license.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 431 Pages (4,581 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Sep 4th, 2020

Grammaticalization and Language Change in Chinese: A formal view (Routledge Studies in Asian Linguistics) by Xiu-Zhi Zoe Wu (Routledge) 4.2 Stars (11 Reviews)    Price verified 9 hours ago

This innovative study on the phenomenon of 'grammaticalization' and its manifestation in Chinese provides new insights into language change in Chinese and a large number of grammatical topics. Grammaticalization occurs in all of the world's languages. Xiu-Zhi Zoe Wu demonstrates general linguistic principles present and active in the phenomenon of grammaticalization whilst also describing the modelling of language in formal theoretical approaches to syntax; so this book fills two major gaps in the current study of linguistics. Grammaticalization and Language Change in Chinese illuminates how studies of language development and change provide special insights into the understanding of current, synchronic systems of language. Using patters from Chinese, the author establishes cross-linguistic generalizations about language change and grammaticalization. This book should be of great interest to Chinese linguists and readers interested in language change in different languages.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 325 Pages (2,351 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Sep 4th, 2020

The Archaeology of Europe’s Drowned Landscapes (Coastal Research Library Book 35) by Geoff Bailey (Springer) 4.3 Stars (17 Reviews)    Price verified 8 hours ago

This open access volume provides for the first time a comprehensive description and scientific evaluation of underwater archaeological finds referring to human occupation of the continental shelf around the coastlines of Europe and the Mediterranean when sea levels were lower than present. These are the largest body of underwater finds worldwide, amounting to over 2500 find spots, ranging from individual stone tools to underwater villages with unique conditions of preservation. The material reviewed here ranges in date from the Lower Palaeolithic period to the Bronze Age and covers 20 countries bordering all the major marine basins from the Atlantic coasts of Ireland and Norway to the Black Sea, and from the western Baltic to the eastern Mediterranean. The finds from each country are presented in their archaeological context, with information on the history of discovery, conditions of preservation and visibility, their relationship to regional changes in sea-level and coastal geomorphology, and the institutional arrangements for their investigation and protection. Editorial introductions summarise the findings from each of the major marine basins. There is also a final section with extensive discussion of the historical background and the legal and regulatory frameworks that inform the management of the underwater cultural heritage and collaboration between offshore industries, archaeologists and government agencies. The volume is based on the work of COST Action TD0902 SPLASHCOS, a multi-disciplinary and multi-national research network supported by the EU-funded COST organisation (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). The primary readership is research and professional archaeologists, marine and Quaternary scientists, cultural-heritage managers, commercial and governmental organisations, policy makers, and all those with an interest in the sea floor of the continental shelf and the human impact of changes in climate, sea-level and coastal ...

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 1,105 Pages (149,689 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Aug 25th, 2020

Global History and New Polycentric Approaches: Europe, Asia and the Americas in a World Network System (Palgrave Studies in Comparative Global ... by Manuel Perez Garcia (Palgrave Macmillan) 4.2 Stars (37 Reviews)    Price verified 7 hours ago

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. Rethinking the ways global history is envisioned and conceptualized in diverse countries such as China, Japan, Mexico or Spain, this collections considers how global issues are connected with our local and national communities. It examines how the discipline had evolved in various historiographies, from Anglo Saxon to southern European, and its emergence in Asia with the rapid development of the Chinese economy motivation to legitimate the current uniqueness of the history and economy of the nation. It contributes to the revitalization of the field of global history in Chinese historiography, which have been dominated by national narratives and promotes a debate to open new venues in which important features such as scholarly mobility, diversity and internationalization are firmly rooted, putting aside national specificities. Dealing with new approaches on the use of empirical data by framing the proper questions and hypotheses and connecting western and eastern sources, this text opens a new forum of discussion on how global history has penetrated in western and eastern historiographies, moving the pivotal axis of analysis from national perspectives to open new venues of global history.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 492 Pages (5,268 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Aug 10th, 2020

Self, God and Immortality: A Jamesian Investigation (American Philosophy Book 12) by Eugene Fontinell (Fordham University Press) 4.4 Stars (17 Reviews)    Price verified 39 minutes ago

Can we who have been touched by the scientific, intellectual, and experimental revolutions of modern and contemporary times still believe with and degree of coherence and consistency that we as individual persons are immortal. Indeed, is there even good cause to hope that we are? In examining the present relationship of reason to faith, can we find justifying reasons for faith? These are the central questions in Self, God, and Immortality, a compelling exercise in philosophical theology. Drawing upon the works of William James and the principles of American Pragmatism, Eugene Fontinell extrapolates carefully from "data given in experience" to a model of the cosmic process open to the idea that individual identity may survive bodily dissolution. Presupposing that the possibility of personal immortality has been established in the first part, the second part of the essay is concerned with desirability. Here, Fontinell shows that, far from diverting attention and energies from the crucial tasks confronting us here and now, such belief can be energizing and life enhancing. The wider importance of Self, God, and Immortality lies in its pressing both immortality-believers and terminality-believers to explore both the metaphysical presuppositions and the lived consequences of their beliefs. It is the author's expressed hope that such explorations, rather than impeding, will stimulate co-operative efforts to create a richer and more humane community. Self, God and Immortality: A Jamesian Investigation is available from the publisher on an open-access basis.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 415 Pages (970 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Aug 10th, 2020

Rethinking Causality, Complexity and Evidence for the Unique Patient: A CauseHealth Resource for Healthcare Professionals and the Clinical Encounter by Rani Lill Anjum (Springer) 4.8 Stars (8 Reviews)    Price verified 7 hours ago

This open access book is a unique resource for health professionals who are interested in understanding the philosophical foundations of their daily practice. It provides tools for untangling the motivations and rationality behind the way medicine and healthcare is studied, evaluated and practiced. In particular, it illustrates the impact that thinking about causation, complexity and evidence has on the clinical encounter. The book shows how medicine is grounded in philosophical assumptions that could at least be challenged. By engaging with ideas that have shaped the medical profession, clinicians are empowered to actively take part in setting the premises for their own practice and knowledge development. Written in an engaging and accessible style, with contributions from experienced clinicians, this book presents a new philosophical framework that takes causal complexity, individual variation and medical uniqueness as default expectations for health and illness.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 430 Pages (3,496 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Aug 9th, 2020

Library and Information Sciences: Trends and Research by Chuanfu Chen (Springer) 3.9 Stars (94 Reviews)    Price verified 7 hours ago

This book explores the development, trends and research of library and information sciences (LIS) in the digital age. Inside, readers will find research and case studies written by LIS experts, educators and theorists, most of whom have visited China, delivered presentations there and drafted their articles based on feedback they received. As a result, readers will discover the LIS issues and concerns that China and the international community have in common. The book first introduces the opportunities and challenges faced by the library and information literacy profession and discusses the key role of librarians in the future of information literacy education. Next, it covers trends in LIS education by examining the vision of the iSchool movement and detailing its practice in Syracuse University. The book then covers issues in information seeking and retrieval by showing how visual data mining technology can be used to detect the relationship and pattern between terms on the Q&A of a social media site. It also includes a case study regarding tracing information seeking behavior and usage on a multimedia website. Next, the book stresses the importance of building an academic accreditation framework for scientific datasets, explores the relationship between bibliometrics and university rankings, and details the birth and development of East Asian Libraries in North America. Overall, the book offers readers insight into the changing nature of LIS, including the electronic dissemination of information, the impact of the Internet on libraries, the changing responsibilities of library professionals, the new paradigm for evaluating information, and characteristics and functions of today's library personnel.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 301 Pages (5,979 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Aug 6th, 2020

Children and Peace: From Research to Action (Peace Psychology Book Series) by Nikola Balvin (Springer) 4.7 Stars (8 Reviews)    Price verified 4 hours ago

This open access book brings together discourse on children and peace from the 15th International Symposium on the Contributions of Psychology to Peace, covering issues pertinent to children and peace and approaches to making their world safer, fairer and more sustainable. The book is divided into nine sections that examine traditional themes (social construction and deconstruction of diversity, intergenerational transitions and memories of war, and multiculturalism), as well as contemporary issues such as Europe's "migration crisis", radicalization and violent extremism, and violence in families, schools and communities. Chapters contextualize each issue within specific social ecological frameworks in order to reflect on the multiplicity of influences that affect different outcomes and to discuss how the findings can be applied in different contexts. The volume also provides solutions and hope through its focus on youth empowerment and peacebuilding programs for children and families. This forward-thinking volume offers a multitude of views, approaches, and strategies for research and activism drawn from peace psychology scholars and United Nations researchers and practitioners. This book's multi-layered emphasis on context, structural determinants of peace and conflict, and use of research for action towards social cohesion for children and youth has not been brought together in other peace psychology literature to the same extent. Children and Peace: From Research to Action will be a useful resource for peace psychology academics and students, as well as social and developmental psychology academics and students, peace and development practitioners and activists, policy makers who need to make decisions about the matters covered in the book, child rights advocates and members of multilateral organizations such as the UN.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 738 Pages (5,869 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Aug 2nd, 2020

Volcanic Unrest: From Science to Society (Advances in Volcanology) by Joachim Gottsmann (Springer) 4.3 Stars (23 Reviews)    Price verified 9 hours ago

This open access book summarizes the findings of the VUELCO project, a multi-disciplinary and cross-boundary research funded by the European Commission's 7th framework program. It comprises four broad topics: 1. The global significance of volcanic unrest 2. Geophysical and geochemical fingerprints of unrest and precursory activity 3. Magma dynamics leading to unrest phenomena 4. Bridging the gap between science and decision-making Volcanic unrest is a complex multi-hazard phenomenon. The fact that unrest may, or may not lead to an imminent eruption contributes significant uncertainty to short-term volcanic hazard and risk assessment. Although it is reasonable to assume that all eruptions are associated with precursory activity of some sort, the understanding of the causative links between subsurface processes, resulting unrest signals and imminent eruption is incomplete. When a volcano evolves from dormancy into a phase of unrest, important scientific, political and social questions need to be addressed. This book is aimed at graduate students, researchers of volcanic phenomena, professionals in volcanic hazard and risk assessment, observatory personnel, as well as emergency managers who wish to learn about the complex nature of volcanic unrest and how to utilize new findings to deal with unrest phenomena at scientific and emergency managing levels. This book is open access under a CC BY license.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 640 Pages (56,711 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Jul 30th, 2020

The Place of Devotion: Siting and Experiencing Divinity in Bengal-Vaishnavism (South Asia Across the Disciplines Book 23) by Sukanya Sarbadhikary (University of California Press) 4.5 Stars (11 Reviews)    Price verified 6 hours ago

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's new open access publishing program for monographs. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. Hindu devotional traditions have long been recognized for their sacred geographies as well as the sensuous aspects of their devotees' experiences. Largely overlooked, however, are the subtle links between these religious expressions. Based on intensive fieldwork conducted among worshippers in Bengal's Navadvip-Mayapur sacred complex, this book discusses the diverse and contrasting ways in which Bengal-Vaishnava devotees experience sacred geography and divinity. Sukanya Sarbadhikary documents an extensive range of practices, which draw on the interactions of mind, body, and viscera. She shows how perspectives on religion, embodiment, affect, and space are enriched when sacred spatialities of internal and external forms are studied at once.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 302 Pages (8,676 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Jul 29th, 2020

Secondary Analysis of Electronic Health Records by MIT Critical Data (Springer) 4.3 Stars (26 Reviews)    Price verified 24 minutes ago

This book trains the next generation of scientists representing different disciplines to leverage the data generated during routine patient care. It formulates a more complete lexicon of evidence-based recommendations and support shared, ethical decision making by doctors with their patients. Diagnostic and therapeutic technologies continue to evolve rapidly, and both individual practitioners and clinical teams face increasingly complex ethical decisions. Unfortunately, the current state of medical knowledge does not provide the guidance to make the majority of clinical decisions on the basis of evidence. The present research infrastructure is inefficient and frequently produces unreliable results that cannot be replicated. Even randomized controlled trials (RCTs), the traditional gold standards of the research reliability hierarchy, are not without limitations. They can be costly, labor intensive, and slow, and can return results that are seldom generalizable to every patient population. Furthermore, many pertinent but unresolved clinical and medical systems issues do not seem to have attracted the interest of the research enterprise, which has come to focus instead on cellular and molecular investigations and single-agent (e.g., a drug or device) effects. For clinicians, the end result is a bit of a "data desert" when it comes to making decisions. The new research infrastructure proposed in this book will help the medical profession to make ethically sound and well informed decisions for their patients.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 612 Pages (12,013 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Jul 8th, 2020

Care in Healthcare: Reflections on Theory and Practice by Franziska Krause (Palgrave Macmillan) 4.2 Stars (40 Reviews)    Price verified 8 hours ago

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book examines the concept of care and care practices in healthcare from the interdisciplinary perspectives of continental philosophy, care ethics, the social sciences, and anthropology. Areas addressed include dementia care, midwifery, diabetes care, psychiatry, and reproductive medicine. Special attention is paid to ambivalences and tensions within both the concept of care and care practices. Contributions in the first section of the book explore phenomenological and hermeneutic approaches to care and reveal historical precursors to care ethics. Empirical case studies and reflections on care in institutionalised and standardised settings form the second section of the book. The concluding chapter, jointly written by many of the contributors, points at recurring challenges of understanding and practicing care that open up the field for further research and discussion. This collection will be of great value to scholars and practitioners of medicine, ethics, philosophy, social science and history.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 309 Pages (514 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Jul 3rd, 2020

Revolution: Ice Age Re-Entry by Carlton Brown (Atitlan Press) 4.3 Stars (69 Reviews)    Price verified 8 hours ago

Mitigating the Risks of 21st Century Global Cooling and a Long-Term Energy Crisis There's an urgent need to prepare for 21st-century global cooling. This grand solar minimum period during the decades ahead portends natural cooling risks, including seasonal weather extremes, Polar glaciation, sea ice expansion, and climate-forcing volcanism, as well as an increased prospect of viral pandemics. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change erroneously dismissed these cooling risks based on its Article 2-diktat, while Government agencies algorithmically increased the global temperature indices with each new version released to hide our climate change reality. The Poles entered a new Ice Age after the glacial cycle's peak temperature 8-10.5 millennia ago. Greenland's temperature then declined 5°C via a series of oscillations to its coldest trough in the 1700s. The most extreme solar activity induced warming phase in 8,000 years was then entered, which may have peaked before 2022. Glacier ice accumulated from 5-millennia ago reaching its peak during the Little Ice Age. Much of this ice melted with the prolonged grand solar maximum phase, and before significant human climate influence. This book provides global best-practice solutions for implementing centralized and decentralized sustainable development, to secure energy, water, and food during cold climates. Alarmingly, there are only fifty years of proven oil and gas reserves left, while unproven reserves are modeled guesstimates, meaning we must take urgent action to switch the world's energy system to renewable energy. Revolution is pitched at the level of central and local government, communities, and people living at home.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 355 Pages (12,706 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: May 15th, 2020

Autistic Community and the Neurodiversity Movement: Stories from the Frontline by Steven K. Kapp (Palgrave Macmillan) 4.5 Stars (59 Reviews)    Price verified 8 hours ago

This open access book marks the first historical overview of the autism rights branch of the neurodiversity movement, describing the activities and rationales of key leaders in their own words since it organized into a unique community in 1992. Sandwiched by editorial chapters that include critical analysis, the book contains 19 chapters by 21 authors about the forming of the autistic community and neurodiversity movement, progress in their influence on the broader autism community and field, and their possible threshold of the advocacy establishment. The actions covered are legendary in the autistic community, including manifestos such as "Don't Mourn for Us", mailing lists, websites or webpages, conferences, issue campaigns, academic project and journal, a book, and advisory roles. These actions have shifted the landscape toward viewing autism in social terms of human rights and identity to accept, rather than as a medical collection of deficits and symptoms to cure.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 362 Pages (3,079 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: May 8th, 2020

Interregional Interaction in Ancient Mesoamerica by Joshua Englehardt (University Press of Colorado) 4.9 Stars (20 Reviews)    Price verified 8 hours ago

Interregional Interaction in Ancient Mesoamerica explores the role of interregional interaction in the dynamic sociocultural processes that shaped the pre-Columbian societies of Mesoamerica. Interdisciplinary contributions from leading scholars investigate linguistic exchange and borrowing, scribal practices, settlement patterns, ceramics, iconography, and trade systems, presenting a variety of case studies drawn from multiple spatial, temporal, and cultural contexts within Mesoamerica. Archaeologists have long recognized the crucial role of interregional interaction in the development and cultural dynamics of ancient societies, particularly in terms of the evolution of sociocultural complexity and economic systems. Recent research has further expanded the archaeological, art historical, ethnographic, and epigraphic records in Mesoamerica, permitting a critical reassessment of the complex relationship between interaction and cultural dynamics. This volume builds on and amplifies earlier research to examine sociocultural phenomena -- including movement, migration, symbolic exchange, and material interaction -- in their role as catalysts for variability in cultural systems. Interregional cultural exchange in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica played a key role in the creation of systems of shared ideologies, the production of regional or "international" artistic and architectural styles, shifting sociopolitical patterns, and changes in cultural practices and meanings. Interregional Interaction in Ancient Mesoamerica highlights, engages with, and provokes questions pertinent to understanding the complex relationship between interaction, sociocultural processes, and cultural innovation and change in the ancient societies and cultural histories of Mesoamerica and will be of interest to archaeologists, linguists, and art historians. Contributors: Philip J. Arnold III, Lourdes Budar, José Luis Punzo Diaz, Gary Feinman, David Freidel, Elizabeth Jiménez Garcia, Guy ...

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 424 Pages (7,480 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: May 1st, 2020

Réflexions sur la violence (French Edition) by Georges Sorel (eBooksLib) 4.0 Stars (51 Reviews)    Price verified 5 hours ago

Ce livre est une oeuvre du domaine public éditée au format numérique par Norph-Nop. L'achat de l'édition Kindle inclut le téléchargement via un réseau sans fil sur votre liseuse et vos applications de lecture Kindle

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 368 Pages (439 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Apr 28th, 2020

Biodiversity and Health in the Face of Climate Change by Melissa R. Marselle (Springer) 4.2 Stars (22 Reviews)    Price verified one hour ago

This open access book identifies and discusses biodiversity's contribution to physical, mental and spiritual health and wellbeing. Furthermore, the book identifies the implications of this relationship for nature conservation, public health, landscape architecture and urban planning - and considers the opportunities of nature-based solutions for climate change adaptation. This transdisciplinary book will attract a wide audience interested in biodiversity, ecology, resource management, public health, psychology, urban planning, and landscape architecture. The emphasis is on multiple human health benefits from biodiversity - in particular with respect to the increasing challenge of climate change. This makes the book unique to other books that focus either on biodiversity and physical health or natural environments and mental wellbeing. The book is written as a definitive 'go-to' book for those who are new to the field of biodiversity and health.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 745 Pages (19,989 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Apr 22nd, 2020

Healthy Minds in the Twentieth Century: In and Beyond the Asylum (Mental Health in Historical Perspective) by Steven J. Taylor (Palgrave Macmillan) 4.1 Stars (29 Reviews)    Price verified 6 hours ago

This open access edited collection contributes a new dimension to the study of mental health and psychiatry in the twentieth century. It takes the present literature beyond the 'asylum and after' paradigm to explore the multitude of spaces that have been permeated by concerns about mental well-being and illness. The chapters in this volume consciously attempt to break down institutional walls and consider mental health through the lenses of institutions, policy, nomenclature, art, lived experience, and popular culture. The book adopts an international scope covering the historical experiences of Britain, Ireland, and North America. In accordance with this broad approach, contributions to the volume span academic fields such as history, arts, literary studies, sociology, and psychology, mirroring the diversity of the subject matter. This book is available open access under a CC BY 4.0 license at link.springer.com

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 392 Pages (5,071 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Mar 31st, 2020

Creativity/Anthropology (The Anthropology of Contemporary Issues) by Smadar Lavie (Cornell University Press) 4.3 Stars (14 Reviews)    Price verified 8 hours ago

Creativity and play erupt in the most solemn of everyday worlds as individuals reshape traditional forms in the light of changing historical circumstances. In this lively volume, fourteen distinguished anthropologists explore the life of creativity in social life across the globe and within the study of ethnography itself. Contributors include Barbara A. Babcock, Edward M. Bruner, James W. Fernandez, Don Handelman, Smadar Lavie, José E. Limon, Barbara Myerhoff, Kirin Narayan, Renato Rosaldo, Richard Schechner, Edward L. Schieffelin, Marjorie Shostak, Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, and Edith Turner.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 426 Pages (2,563 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Mar 23rd, 2020

Revolution Goes East: Imperial Japan and Soviet Communism (Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University) by Tatiana Linkhoeva 4.1 Stars (35 Reviews)    Price verified 2 hours ago

Revolution Goes East is an intellectual history that applies a novel global perspective to the classic story of the rise of communism and the various reactions it provoked in Imperial Japan. Tatiana Linkhoeva demonstrates how contemporary discussions of the Russian Revolution, its containment, and the issue of imperialism played a fundamental role in shaping Japan's imperial society and state. In this bold approach, Linkhoeva explores attitudes toward the Soviet Union and the communist movement among the Japanese military and politicians, as well as interwar leftist and rightist intellectuals and activists. Her book draws on extensive research in both published and archival documents, including memoirs, newspaper and journal articles, political pamphlets, and Comintern archives. Revolution Goes East presents us with a compelling argument that the interwar Japanese Left replicated the Orientalist outlook of Marxism-Leninism in its relationship with the rest of Asia, and that this proved to be its undoing. Furthermore, Linkhoeva shows that Japanese imperial anticommunism was based on geopolitical interests for the stability of the empire rather than on fear of communist ideology. Thanks to generous funding from New York University and its participation in TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem), the ebook editions of this book are available as Open Access (OA) volumes from Cornell Open (cornellpress.cornell.edu/cornell-open) and other repositories.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 421 Pages (806 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Feb 22nd, 2020

Germany On Their Minds: German Jewish Refugees in the United States and Their Relationships with Germany, 1938–1988 (Studies in German History Book ... by Anne C. Schenderlein 4.0 Stars (45 Reviews)    Price verified 8 hours ago

Throughout the 1930s and early 1940s, approximately ninety thousand German Jews fled their homeland and settled in the United States, prior to that nation closing its borders to Jewish refugees. And even though many of them wanted little to do with Germany, the circumstances of the Second World War and the postwar era meant that engagement of some kind was unavoidable -- whether direct or indirect, initiated within the community itself or by political actors and the broader German public. This book carefully traces these entangled histories on both sides of the Atlantic, demonstrating the remarkable extent to which German Jews and their former fellow citizens helped to shape developments from the Allied war effort to the course of West German democratization.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 417 Pages (799 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Feb 3rd, 2020

The Spectator, Volume 1 Eighteenth-Century Periodical Essays by Joseph Addison 4.1 Stars (14 Reviews)    Price verified 8 hours ago

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 903 Pages (2,044 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Oct 2nd, 2019

Supermundane by Agni Yoga Society 4.8 Stars (31 Reviews)    Price verified 8 hours ago

Supermundane is the fourteenth book from the Agni Yoga Series which is composed of fourteen books. In them is found a synthesis of ancient Eastern beliefs and modern Western thought and a bridge between the spiritual and the scientific. Unlike previous yogas, Agni Yoga is a path not of physical disciplines, meditation, or asceticism -- but of practice in daily life. It is the yoga of fiery energy, of consciousness, of responsible, directed thought. It teaches that the evolution of the planetary consciousness is a pressing necessity and that, through individual striving, it is an attainable aspiration for mankind. It affirms the existence of the Hierarchy of Light and the center of the Heart as the link with the Hierarchy and with the far-off worlds. Though not systematized in an ordinary sense, Agni Yoga is a Teaching that helps the discerning student to discover moral and spiritual guide-posts by which to learn to govern his or her life and thus contribute to the Common Good. For this reason Agni Yoga has been called a "living ethics." Agni Yoga Society, Inc., New York

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 336 Pages (1,162 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Sep 12th, 2019

The Economics of Discontent: From Failing Elites to The Rise of Populism by Jean-Michel Paul 4.2 Stars (770 Reviews)    Price verified 7 hours ago

The social contract that has underpinned growth and political stability in the Western world since World War II has broken down. Houses, health care and higher education have become unaffordable to a majority of people, while the burden of unregulated monopolies, globalization and uncontrolled immigration has fallen disproportionately on the lower and middle classes. Wrapped in political correctness, an increasingly out of touch Western elite continues catering to special interests and fails to grasp the urgency for change. Populist movements harnessing public anger appear unable to propose and implement effective solutions. The last financial crisis was bad enough. But the next crisis will spread deeper and wider. And yet we stand economically, politically and most of all intellectually unprepared. This book is the story of how we have arrived at the brink of disaster and how we can move away from the win-lose policies of recent decades to restore much-needed balance.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 557 Pages (63,630 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Aug 19th, 2019

Information—Consciousness—Reality: How a New Understanding of the Universe Can Help Answer Age-Old Questions of Existence (The Frontiers ... by James B. Glattfelder (Springer) 4.4 Stars (74 Reviews)    Price verified 3 hours ago

This open access book chronicles the rise of a new scientific paradigm offering novel insights into the age-old enigmas of existence. Over 300 years ago, the human mind discovered the machine code of reality: mathematics. By utilizing abstract thought systems, humans began to decode the workings of the cosmos. From this understanding, the current scientific paradigm emerged, ultimately discovering the gift of technology. Today, however, our island of knowledge is surrounded by ever longer shores of ignorance. Science appears to have hit a dead end when confronted with the nature of reality and consciousness. In this fascinating and accessible volume, James Glattfelder explores a radical paradigm shift uncovering the ontology of reality. It is found to be information-theoretic and participatory, yielding a computational and programmable universe.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 957 Pages (19,449 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Jul 14th, 2019

Railway Ecology by Luís Borda-de-Água (Springer) 4.3 Stars (10 Reviews)    Price verified 9 hours ago

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book provides a unique overview of the impacts of railways on biodiversity, integrating the existing knowledge on the ecological effects of railways on wildlife, identifying major knowledge gaps and research directions and presenting the emerging field of railway ecology. The book is divided into two major parts: Part one offers a general review of the major conceptual and theoretical principles of railway ecology. The chapters consider the impacts of railways on wildlife populations and concentrate on four major topics: mortality, barrier effects, species invasions and disturbances (ranging from noise to chemical pollution). Part two focuses on a number of case studies from Europe, Asia and North America written by an international group of experts.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 598 Pages (7,742 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Feb 19th, 2019

By Honor Bound: State and Society in Early Modern Russia by Nancy Shields Kollmann (Cornell University Press) 4.3 Stars (20 Reviews)    Price verified 9 hours ago

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Russians from all ranks of society were bound together by a culture of honor. Here one of the foremost scholars of early modern Russia explores the intricate and highly stylized codes that made up this culture. Nancy Shields Kollmann describes how these codes were manipulated to construct identity and enforce social norms -- and also to defend against insults, to pursue vendettas, and to unsettle communities. She offers evidence for a new view of the relationship of state and society in the Russian empire, and her richly comparative approach enhances knowledge of statebuilding in premodern Europe. By presenting Muscovite state and society in the context of medieval and early modern Europe, she exposes similarities that blur long-standing distinctions between Russian and European history.Through the prism of honor, Kollmann examines the interaction of the Russian state and its people in regulating social relations and defining an individual's rank. She finds vital information in a collection of transcripts of legal suits brought by elites and peasants alike to avenge insult to honor. The cases make clear the conservative role honor played in society as well as the ability of men and women to employ this body of ideas to address their relations with one another and with the state. Kollmann demonstrates that the grand princes -- and later the tsars -- tolerated a surprising degree of local autonomy throughout their rapidly expanding realm. Her work marks a stark contrast with traditional Russian historiography, which exaggerates the power of the state and downplays the volition of society.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 320 Pages (4,338 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Dec 16th, 2018

The Practical Anarchist: Writings of Josiah Warren (American Philosophy) by Crispin Sartwell (Fordham University Press) 4.3 Stars (22 Reviews)    Price verified 8 hours ago

The Practical Anarchist brings to light the work of Josiah Warren, eccentric American genius. Devoting his life to showing the practicality of an astonishing ideal, Warren devoted equal industry to the question of how to make a pair of shoes and how to remake the social world into an individualist paradise. This will be the first chance for many readers to encounter Warren's writings, and in many cases their first publication since their original appearance in obscure, self-published periodicals, including The Peaceful Revolutionist (1833), the first American anarchist periodical. Moreover, they often appeared in a bizarre experimental typography. This volume presents, out of the welter of bewildering writings left by Warren, a reading text designed for today' readers and students. It seeks to convey the practical value of many of Warren's ideas, their continuing relevance. The Practical Anarchist: Writings of Josiah Warren is available from the publisher on an open-access basis.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 303 Pages (4,981 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Nov 29th, 2018

Celebrated Crimes (Complete) by Alexandre Dumas père 3.7 Stars (40 Reviews)    Price verified 8 hours ago

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 306 Pages (2,081 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Nov 10th, 2018

Everything Flows: Towards a Processual Philosophy of Biology by Daniel J. Nicholson (OUP Oxford) 4.4 Stars (59 Reviews)    Price verified 4 hours ago

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Everything Flows explores the metaphysical thesis that the living world is not made up of substantial particles or things, as has often been supposed, but is rather constituted by processes. The biological domain is organised as an interdependent hierarchy of processes, which are stabilized and actively maintained at different timescales. Even entities that intuitively appear to be paradigms of things, such as organisms, are actually better understood as processes. Unlike previous attempts to articulate processual views of biology, which have tended to use Alfred North Whitehead's panpsychist metaphysics as a foundation, this book takes a naturalistic approach to metaphysics. It submits that the main motivations for replacing an ontology of substances with one of processes are to be found in the empirical findings of science. Biology provides compelling reasons for thinking that the living realm is fundamentally dynamic, and that the existence of things is always conditional on the existence of processes. The phenomenon of life cries out for theories that prioritise processes over things, and it suggests that the central explanandum of biology is not change but rather stability, or more precisely, stability attained through constant change. This edited volume brings together philosophers of science and metaphysicians interested in exploring the prospects of a processual philosophy of biology. The contributors draw on an extremely wide range of biological case studies, and employ a process perspective to cast new light on a number of traditional philosophical problems, such as identity, persistence, and individuality.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 416 Pages (10,086 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Oct 9th, 2018

Archaeological Perspectives on Warfare on the Great Plains by Andrew Clark (University Press of Colorado) 4.3 Stars (21 Reviews)    Price verified 29 minutes ago

The Great Plains has been central to academic and popular visions of Native American warfare, largely because the region's well-documented violence was so central to the expansion of Euroamerican settlement. However, social violence has deep roots on the Plains beyond this post-Contact perception, and these roots have not been systematically examined through archaeology before. War was part, and perhaps an important part, of the process of ethnogenesis that helped to define tribal societies in the region, and it affected many other aspects of human lives there. In Archaeological Perspectives on Warfare on the Great Plains, anthropologists who study sites across the Plains critically examine regional themes of warfare from pre-Contact and post-Contact periods and assess how war shaped human societies of the region. Contributors to this volume offer a bird's-eye view of warfare on the Great Plains, consider artistic evidence of the role of war in the lives of indigenous hunter-gatherers on the Plains prior to and during the period of Euroamerican expansion, provide archaeological discussions of fortification design and its implications, and offer archaeological and other information on the larger implications of war in human history. Bringing together research from across the region, this volume provides unprecedented evidence of the effects of war on tribal societies. Archaeological Perspectives on Warfare on the Great Plains is a valuable primer for regional warfare studies and the archaeology of the Great Plains as a whole. Contributors: Peter Bleed, Richard R. Drass, David H. Dye, John Greer, Mavis Greer, Eric Hollinger, Ashley Kendell, James D. Keyser, Albert M. LeBeau III, Mark D. Mitchell, Stephen M. Perkins, Bryon Schroeder, Douglas Scott, Linea Sundstrom, Susan C. Vehik

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 447 Pages (24,909 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: May 16th, 2018

The Non-Western World: Environment, Development and Human Rights by Pradyumna P. Karan (Routledge) 4.7 Stars (25 Reviews)    Price verified 8 hours ago

Through a cross-cultural and multi-disciplinary approach, this introductory textbook focuses on critical issues of development, environment, and cultural conflicts facing most area of the non-Western world. Areas covered include China, Japan, Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East, and sub-Saharan Africa.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 602 Pages (248 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: May 16th, 2018

Public Health Ethics: Cases Spanning the Globe (Public Health Ethics Analysis Book 3) by Drue H. Barrett (Springer) 4.5 Stars (42 Reviews)    Price verified 9 hours ago

This Open Access book highlights the ethical issues and dilemmas that arise in the practice of public health. It is also a tool to support instruction, debate, and dialogue regarding public health ethics. Although the practice of public health has always included consideration of ethical issues, the field of public health ethics as a discipline is a relatively new and emerging area. There are few practical training resources for public health practitioners, especially resources which include discussion of realistic cases which are likely to arise in the practice of public health. This work discusses these issues on a case to case basis and helps create awareness and understanding of the ethics of public health care. The main audience for the casebook is public health practitioners, including front-line workers, field epidemiology trainers and trainees, managers, planners, and decision makers who have an interest in learning about how to integrate ethical analysis into their day to day public health practice. The casebook is also useful to schools of public health and public health students as well as to academic ethicists who can use the book to teach public health ethics and distinguish it from clinical and research ethics.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 353 Pages (1,440 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Apr 11th, 2018

Compositionality and Concepts in Linguistics and Psychology (Language, Cognition, and Mind Book 3) by James A. Hampton (Springer) 4.4 Stars (66 Reviews)    Price verified 8 hours ago

By highlighting relations between experimental and theoretical work, this volume explores new ways of addressing one of the central challenges in the study of language and cognition. The articles bring together work by leading scholars and younger researchers in psychology, linguistics and philosophy. An introductory chapter lays out the background on concept composition, a problem that is stimulating much new research in cognitive science. Researchers in this interdisciplinary domain aim to explain how meanings of complex expressions are derived from simple lexical concepts and to show how these meanings connect to concept representations. Traditionally, much of the work on concept composition has been carried out within separate disciplines, where cognitive psychologists have concentrated on concept representations, and linguists and philosophers have focused on the meaning and use of logical operators. This volume demonstrates an important change in this situation, where convergence points between these three disciplines in cognitive science are emerging and are leading to new findings and theoretical insights. This book is open access under a CC BY license.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 629 Pages (10,277 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Apr 6th, 2018

Rethinking Japanese Feminisms by James Welker (University of Hawaii Press) 4.6 Stars (33 Reviews)    Price verified 6 hours ago

Rethinking Japanese Feminisms offers a broad overview of the great diversity of feminist thought and practice in Japan from the early twentieth century to the present. Drawing on methodologies and approaches from anthropology, cultural studies, gender and sexuality studies, history, literature, media studies, and sociology, each chapter presents the results of research based on some combination of original archival research, careful textual analysis, ethnographic interviews, and participant observation. The volume is organized into sections focused on activism and activists, employment and education, literature and the arts, and boundary crossing. Some chapters shed light on ideas and practices that resonate with feminist thought but find expression through the work of writers, artists, activists, and laborers who have not typically been considered feminist; others revisit specific moments in the history of Japanese feminisms in order to complicate or challenge the dominant scholarly and popular understandings of specific activists, practices, and beliefs. The chapters are contextualized by an introduction that offers historical background on feminisms in Japan, and a forward-looking conclusion that considers what it means to rethink Japanese feminism at this historical juncture. Building on more than four decades of scholarship on feminisms in Japanese and English, as well as decades more on women's history, Rethinking Japanese Feminisms offers a diverse and multivocal approach to scholarship on Japanese feminisms unmatched by existing publications. Written in language accessible to students and non-experts, it will be at home in the hands of students and scholars, as well as activists and others interested in gender, sexuality, and feminist theory and activism in Japan and in Asia more broadly.

Genre: Politics & Social Sciences [x]
Length: 314 Pages (1,943 KB)
Lending: Not Enabled
Added: Mar 20th, 2018