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 William Dalrymple, "Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan, 1839-42" English | ISBN: 0307948536 | 2014 | 593 pages | MOBI | 3 MB A Best Book of the Year: The Economist, Slate, Kirkus Reviews  Fred Paxton, "Restrained Radicals: Populist Radical Right Parties in Local Government" English | ISBN: 1009379089 | 2023 | 298 pages | PDF | 14 MB The entry of populist radical right parties into positions of power has generated anxious debate regarding the potential consequences for liberal democracy. Their activities in local government, however, have been largely overlooked. This comparative analysis of populist radical right-led local governments in Western Europe makes an important contribution to a crowded field through the study of so far uncharted terrain. Comparing cases in Austria, France, Italy and Switzerland, Fred Paxton details the extent of ideological impact in local politics and the various restraints that are placed on their radicalism. Drawing from a wealth of new data, he explains the varying degree of radicalism with recourse to two principal factors: the constraints of the local government institutional setting and the national party leaders' strategies towards the local arena. This book broadens our understanding of populist radical right parties in Western Europe and the sub-national processes through which they are developing.  Nick Hopwood, "Reproduction: Antiquity to the Present Day" English | ISBN: 1107658373 | 2020 | 764 pages | PDF | 83 MB From contraception to cloning and pregnancy to populations, reproduction presents urgent challenges today. This field-defining history synthesizes a vast amount of scholarship to take the long view. Spanning from antiquity to the present day, the book focuses on the Mediterranean, western Europe, North America and their empires. It combines history of science, technology and medicine with social, cultural and demographic accounts. Ranging from the most intimate experiences to planetary policy, it tells new stories and revises received ideas. An international team of scholars asks how modern 'reproduction' - an abstract process of perpetuating living organisms - replaced the old 'generation' - the active making of humans and beasts, plants and even minerals. Striking illustrations invite readers to explore artefacts, from an ancient Egyptian fertility figurine to the announcement of the first test-tube baby. Authoritative and accessible, Reproduction offers students and non-specialists an essential starting point and sets fresh agendas for research.  Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, "Repeating the Words of the Buddha" English | ISBN: 9627341592 | 2006 | 168 pages | MOBI | 2 MB Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche spent many years in retreat, assimilating the teachings within his experience. He spoke with humor and true understanding, expressing plainly and simply what he himself had undergone. Consequently, his teachings are uniquely accessible, with a powerfully beneficial impact on those who hear or read his words. This book, a selection of his oral and written teachings, spells out the essential points of spiritual practice and leads readers along the same path they would follow in the presence of a master. Through direct, pithy instructions, students are encouraged to question the master repeatedly, while at the same time processing their own experiences. Representing the heart of Rinpoche's teachings, Repeating the Words of the Buddha shows that the enlightened essence is present within the mind of any sentient being, and that it can be recognized by all who seek it.  Linda Smith, "Renting Lacy: A Story Of America's Prostituted Children " English | ISBN: 0989645177 | 2013 | 223 pages | MOBI | 702 KB  Aubrey E. Buster, "Remembering the Story of Israel: Historical Summaries and Memory Formation in Second Temple Judaism " English | ISBN: 1009150685 | 2022 | 350 pages | PDF | 4 MB In this book, Aubrey Buster demonstrates how methods adapted from cultural and social memory studies and the new formalism can illuminate the communal function of biblical and extra-biblical historical summaries in Second Temple Judaism. Refining models drawn from memory studies, she applies them to ancient texts and demonstrates the development of Judah's speech about their past across the Second Temple period. Buster's wide-ranging study demonstrates how and where the historical summary functions in the book of Psalms, Nehemiah, 1 and 2 Chronicles, as well as the Qumran Psalms Scrolls, Words of the Luminaries, Paraphrase of Genesis and Exodus, and Pseudo-Daniel. She shows how the historical summary proves to be a generative, replicable, and ultimately productive form of memory. Crossing the boundaries of genre categories and time periods, liturgical performances, and literary works, historical summaries crafted a highly selective but broadly useful mode of commemoration of key events from Israel's past.  Wendell Bird, "Religious Speech and the Quest for Freedoms in the Anglo-American World" English | ISBN: 1316514730 | 2023 | 420 pages | PDF | 6 MB In the secular, contemporary world, many people question the relevance of religion. Many also wonder whether religiously-informed speech and beliefs should be tolerated in the public square, and whether religions hinder freedom. In this volume, Wendell Bird reminds us that our basic freedoms are the important legacies of religious speech arising from the Judeo-Christian tradition. Bird demonstrates that religious speech, rather than secular or irreligious speech based on other belief systems, historically made the demands and justifications for at least six critical freedoms: speech and press, rights for the criminally accused, higher education, emancipation from slavery, and freedom from discrimination. Bringing an historically-informed approach to the development of some of the most important freedoms in the Anglo-American world, this volume provides a new framework for our understanding of the origins of crucial freedoms. It also serves as a powerful reminder of an aspect of history that is steadily being forgotten or overlooked-that many of our basic freedoms are the historical legacies of religious speech arising from Judeo-Christian faiths.  Karrie J. Koesel, "Religion and Authoritarianism: Cooperation, Conflict, and the Consequences " English | ISBN: 1107037069 | 2014 | 242 pages | PDF | 5 MB This book provides a rare window into the micropolitics of contemporary authoritarian rule through a comparison of religious-state relations in Russia and China - two countries with long histories of religious repression, and even longer experiences with authoritarian politics. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in multiple sites in these countries, this book explores what religious and political authority want from one another, how they negotiate the terms of their relationship, and how cooperative or conflicting their interactions are. This comparison reveals that while tensions exist between the two sides, there is also ample room for mutually beneficial interaction. Religious communities and their authoritarian overseers are cooperating around the core issue of politics - namely, the struggle for money, power, and prestige - and becoming unexpected allies in the process.  Alessandro Antonietti, "Reflective Thinking in Educational Settings: A Cultural Framework" English | ISBN: 1107025737 | 2014 | 352 pages | PDF | 3 MB This volume examines the role that culture plays in the acquisition of cognitive, linguistic, and social skills. Taking reflective thinking as a central analytical concept, the contributors investigate the role of personal reflection in a series of mental activities, including the creation of social relationships, the creation of a mental narrative to make sense of events, and metacognition. These three types of cognition are usually conceived of as separate research fields. Metarepresentation and Narrative in Educational Settings draws these discrete subfields into dialogue, exploring the connections and interplay among them. This approach yields insight into a range of topics, including language acquisition, cognitive processes, Theory of Mind, cross-cultural interaction, and social development. The volume also outlines the implications of these findings in terms of further research and possible social policy initiatives.  Alex von Tunzelmann, "Reel History: The World According to the Movies" English | ISBN: 1782396462 | 2016 | 352 pages | AZW3 | 4 MB From ancient Egypt to the Tudors to the Nazis, the film industry has often defined how we think of the past. But how much of what you see on the screen is true? And does it really matter if filmmakers just make it all up? Picking her way through Hollywood's version of events, acclaimed historian Alex von Tunzelmann sorts the fact from the fiction. Along the way, we meet all our favorite historical characters, on screen and in real life: from Cleopatra to Elizabeth I, from Spartacus to Abraham Lincoln, and from Attila the Hun to Nelson Mandela. Based on the long-running column in the Guardian, Reel History takes a comic look at the history of the world as told through the movies-the good, the bad, and the very, very ugly. |
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