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Torts: A Contemporary Approach Second Edition
by Meredith J. Duncan Ronald TurnerThis casebook is organized to facilitate the study of tort law in the first year of law school. The text begins with an overview of the subject, pointing out distinctions between tort law and other types of law. It then covers intentional torts, negligence actions, and strict liability. The materials then build on these foundational principles by exploring more advanced tort subjects such as nuisance law, products liability actions, and defamation law. This textbook includes classic cases as well as contemporary cases relevant to today's students.
Torts and Personal Injury Law
by Cathy Okrent William BuckleyTorts and Personal Injury Law, fourth edition, is the perfect torts book that is comprehensive, but not too overwhelming to students. Each chapter begins with "The Biggest Mistakes Paralegals Make and How to Avoid Them" feature, inviting the reader to read deeper into each chapter. An overview of tort law for the paralegal who works on personal injury matters is covered over 13 chapters. Topics such as product liability, medical malpractice, and accidents are included. Additional coverage includes general tort law, alternative dispute resolution, negligence, defenses to negligence actions, intentional torts, injuries to property, liability, strict or absolute liability, product liability, special tort actions, and tort investigation. A total of over 75 cases are annotated and include the following hot button issues: malicious prosecution of the Duke University Lacrosse players, toxic mass torts, patient dumping, spoliation of evidence, sexual abuse by clergy, donor egg implantation by same sex couples, spam email fraud, HIPPA, and obesity caused by trans fats from fast food.
Torture and State Violence in the United States: A Short Documentary History
by Robert M. PallittoThe war on terror has brought to light troubling actions by the United States government which many claim amount to torture. But as this book shows, state-sanctioned violence and degrading, cruel, and unusual punishments have a long and contentious history in the nation. Organized around five broad thematic periods in American history—colonial America and the early republic; slavery and the frontier; imperialism, Jim Crow, and World Wars I and II; the Cold War, Vietnam, and police torture; and the war on terror—this annotated documentary history traces the low and high points of official attitudes toward state violence. Robert M. Pallitto provides a critical introduction, historical context, and brief commentary and then lets the documents speak for themselves. The result is a nearly 400-year history that traces the continuities and changes in debates over the meaning of torture and state violence in the U.S. and shows where state actions and policies have pushed and exceeded constitutional and international normative limits. Rigorously researched—and sometimes chilling—this volume is the first comprehensive reference work on state violence and torture in the U.S.
The Torture Report: A Graphic Adaptation
by Jane Mayer Sid Jacobson Scott Horton"The more who learn the truth the better off the country will be, because there is no better safeguard against the revival of torture than a well-informed public." --Jane Mayer, from the IntroductionOn December 9, 2014, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released a report that strongly condemned the CIA for its secret and brutal use of torture in the treatment of prisoners captured in the "war on terror" during the George W. Bush administration. This deeply researched and fully documented investigation caused monumental controversy, interest, and concern, and starkly highlighted both how ineffective the program was as well as the lengths to which the CIA had gone to conceal it.In The Torture Report, Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón use their celebrated graphic-storytelling abilities to make the damning torture report accessible, finally allowing Americans to lift the veil and fully understand the crimes committed by the CIA.
Touch of Frost (The\mythos Academy Ser. #1)
by Jennifer EstepThe new girl at a school for mythical warriors is out to solve her classmate&’s murder in the New York Times bestselling author&’s YA fantasy series debut. My name is Gwen Frost, and I go to Mythos Academy—a school of myths, magic and warrior whiz kids, where even the lowliest geek knows how to chop off somebody's head with a sword. Logan Quinn, the hottest Spartan guy in school, also happens to be the deadliest. But lately, things have been weird, even for Mythos. First, mean girl Jasmine Ashton was murdered in the Library of Antiquities. Then, someone stole the Bowl of Tears, a magical artifact that can be used to bring about the second Chaos War. That kinda puts us on the verge of death, destruction and lots of other bad, bad things. Now I'm determined to find out who killed Jasmine and why – especially since I should have been the one who died.
The Tournament: A Novel of the 20th Century (Text Classics Ser.)
by John ClarkeA novel of the 20th century in which the greatest thinkers and personalities engage in a two-week tennis tournament."If you didn't know better you'd think this city had gone crazy. The streets of Paris are full of celebrities and media, and out at the stadium the crowds are already huge as players pound the practice courts in preparation for the greatest tournament of the modern era. At the airport, where they've opened three more runways and put on extra staff, players and officials have been arriving like migrating birds. From all corners they've come, the stars of the modern game. What a line-up!" --from The TournamentThe most unusual tennis tournament in history is about to start. Albert Einstein is seeded fourth, Chaplin, Freud, and van Gogh are in the top rankings, and seeded first is Tony Chekhov. In all, 128 players--everyone from Louis Armstrong to George Orwell, Gertrude Stein to Coco Chanel--are going to fight it out until the exhilarating final match on center court.The Tournament is a funny, strange, and beguiling book in which, game by game and match by match, the world's most creative thinkers put their tennis skills to the ultimate test. And if you read carefully, you'll be set for life--having learned the cultural history of the 20th century!
Toward a Concrete Philosophy: Heidegger and the Emergence of the Frankfurt School (Signale: Modern German Letters, Cultures, and Thought)
by Mikko ImmanenToward a Concrete Philosophy explores the reactions of Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, and Herbert Marcuse to Martin Heidegger prior to their dismissal of him once he turned to the Nazi party in 1933. Mikko Immanen provides a fascinating glimpse of the three future giants of twentieth-century social criticism when they were still looking for their philosophical voices. By reconstructing their overlooked debates with Heidegger and Heideggerians, Immanen argues that Adorno, Horkheimer, and Marcuse saw Heidegger's 1927 magnum opus, Being and Time, as a serious effort to make philosophy relevant for life again and as the most provocative challenge to their nascent materialist diagnoses of the discontents of European modernity. Our knowledge of Adorno's "Frankfurt discussion" with "Frankfurt Heideggerians" remains anecdotal, even though it led to a proto-version of Dialectic of Enlightenment's idea of the entwinement of myth and reason. Similarly, Horkheimer's enthusiasm over Heidegger's legendary post–World War I lectures and criticism of Being and Time have escaped attention almost entirely. And Marcuse's intriguing debate with Heidegger over Hegel and the origin of the problematic of "being and time" has remained uncharted until now. Reading these debates as fruitful intellectual encounters rather than hostile confrontations, Toward a Concrete Philosophy offers scholars of critical theory a new, thought-provoking perspective on the emergence of the Frankfurt School as a rejoinder to Heidegger's philosophical revolution.
The Tower of Bones: The Three Powers Book 2
by Frank P. RyanFour young people have slipped from our world into the enchanted land of Tír in this 'epic adventure that just does not stop!' (Glenda A. Bixler on Authorsden), where they must face a malicious demigod and an evil witch. Alan, Kate, Mark and Mo could be an enormous force for good in this beautiful but war-torn, deeply oppressed world - but one of their number has been kidnapped and one lost, and one is changing almost beyond recognition. It's up to Alan to reunite them and restore their strength - but the Great Witch Olc, scheming in her Tower of Bones, has resurrected the malicious demigod Fangorath to use for her own evil ends, and she is planning to lure Alan into a trap.Millions are depending on them, but they're not just fighting for one world any more . . .
Traffick
by Ellen HopkinsFive teens victimized by sex trafficking try to find their way to a new life in this &“sincere and moving&” (Booklist) companion to the #1 New York Times bestselling Tricks from Ellen Hopkins, author of Crank.In her bestselling novel, Tricks, Ellen Hopkins introduced us to five memorable characters tackling these enormous questions: Eden, the preacher’s daughter who turns tricks in Vegas and is helped into a child prostitution rescue; Seth, the gay farm boy disowned by his father who finds himself without money or resources other than his own body; Whitney, the privileged kid coaxed into the life by a pimp and whose dreams are ruined in a heroin haze; Ginger, who runs away from home with her girlfriend and is arrested for soliciting an undercover cop; and Cody, whose gambling habit forces him into the life, but who is shot and left for dead. And now, in Traffick, these five are faced with the toughest question of all: Is there a way out? How these five teenagers face the aftermath of their decisions and experiences is the soul of this story that exposes the dark, ferocious underbelly of the child trafficking trade. Heartwrenching and hopeful, Traffick takes us on five separate but intertwined journeys through the painful challenges of recovery, rehabilitation, and renewal to forgiveness and love. All the way home.
Tragedy And Philosophy
by Walter KaufmannA critical re-examination of the views of Plato, Aristotle, Hegel and Nietzsche on tragedy. Ancient Greek tragedy is revealed as surprisingly modern and experimental, while such concepts as mimesis, catharsis, hubris and the tragic collision are discussed from different perspectives.
Tragedy in Crimson: How the Dalai Lama Conquered the World but Lost the Battle with China
by Tim JohnsonTragedy in Crimson is award-winning journalist Tim Johnson’s extraordinary account of the cat-and-mouse game embroiling China and the Tibetan exile community over Tibet. Johnson reports from the front lines, trekking to nomad resettlements to speak with the people who guard Tibet’s slowly vanishing culture; and he travels alongside the Dalai Lama in the campaigns for Tibetan sovereignty. Johnson unpacks how China is using its economic power around the globe to assail the Free Tibet movement. By encouraging massive Chinese migration and restricting Tibetan civil rights, the Chinese are also working to dilute Tibetan culture within Tibet itself. He also takes a sympathetic but unsentimental look at the Dalai Llama, a popular figure in the West who is regarded as a failure by many of his own people. Staggering in scope, vivid and audacious in its narrative aims, Tragedy in Crimson tells the story of a people on the brink of cultural extinction and the rising nation that is quashing them.
A Tragic Kind of Wonderful
by Eric LindstromIn the vein of It's Kind of a Funny Story and All the Bright Places, comes a captivating, immersive exploration of life with mental illness.For sixteen-year-old Mel Hannigan, bipolar disorder makes life unpredictable. Her latest struggle is balancing her growing feelings in a new relationship with her instinct to keep everyone at arm's length. And when a former friend confronts Mel with the truth about the way their relationship ended, deeply buried secrets threaten to come out and upend her shaky equilibrium.As the walls of Mel's compartmentalized world crumble, she fears the worst--that her friends will abandon her if they learn the truth about what she's been hiding. Can Mel bring herself to risk everything to find out?In A Tragic Kind of Wonderful, Eric Lindstrom, author of the critically acclaimed Not If I See You First, examines the fear that keeps us from exposing our true selves, and the courage it takes to be loved for who we really are.
The Traitor Within
by Alexander CordellA fourteen-year-old Chinese boy struggles to prove his loyalty and courage to his commune and country in the face of his fear of a predicted attack on his village by the Taiwanese enemy.
A Traitorous Heart
by Erin CotterA noblewoman in the scandalous French court finds herself under the dangerous and watchful eye of the Parisian royalty when she falls in love with the handsome king who is betrothed to her former lover in this bisexual The Three Musketeers by way of Bridgerton and F.T. Lukens.Paris, 1572. Seventeen-year-old Jacqueline &“Jac&” d&’Argenson-Aunis is lady-in-waiting to her best friend and former lover, the French Princess Marguerite &“Margot&” de Valois, but she dreams of more. If Jac plays her cards right, one day, she&’ll become a full member of the Societas Solis, a secret society of spies—just like her uncle and guardian, Viscount Gabriel d&’Argenson-Aunis. But it&’s hard to think about her own ambitions while France is on the brink of war, and the only thing that might save the country is an alliance—a marriage between the Catholic Princess Margot and Henry, the awful son of the Huguenot queen. Who would be the perfect person to play matchmaker? Jac, of course. Jac resents lying to her best friend almost as much as she resents the brazen and arrogant King Henry, but it&’s her one chance to prove to the Societas Solis that she belongs among their ranks before her uncle can marry her off or worse. The more time Jac spends in the French Court&’s clandestine corners, though, the more she starts to wonder if Henry is…not as terrible as she once believed. And the Societas Solis may not be what they seem. Politics. Spies. Chaos in the French court. Perhaps even witchcraft? Everything&’s more dangerous when love is involved.
The Traitor's Game: The Traitor's Game (The Traitor's Game #1)
by Jennifer A. NielsenHearts and loyalties collide in this electrifying new YA series from New York Times bestselling author Jennifer A. Nielsen.Jennifer A. Nielsen's New York Times bestseller The Traitor's Game, which Entertainment Weekly called "the next big YA fantasy," is perfect for fans of the Red Queen series by Victoria Aveyard and the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas. Kestra Dallisor has spent three years in exile in the Lava Fields, but that won't stop her from being drawn back into her father's palace politics. He's second-in-command to the cruel king, Lord Endrick, which makes Kestra a valuable bargaining chip. A group of rebels knows this -- and they snatch Kestra from her carriage as she reluctantly travels home.The kidnappers want her to retrieve the lost Olden Blade, the only object that can destroy the king, but Kestra is not the obedient captive they expected. One of the rebels, Simon, has his hands full as Kestra tries to foil their plot, by any means necessary. As motives shift and secrets emerge, both have to decide what -- and who -- it is they're fighting for.
The Traitor's Gate: The Nowhere Chronicles Book Two
by Sarah SilverwoodIt's Christmas-time, and Finmere Tingewick Smith (Fin to his friends) is back in Orrery House, with Christopher, one of his two best friends. They're there for the Initiation of the new Knights of Nowhere. The boys have tried to find some normalcy after their recent adventures, but they're badly missing Joe. He's stuck in the Nowhere, guarding two of the Five Eternal Stories that weave all the worlds together; they're held inside his own body. In the Somewhere, Christmas is a time of glad tidings and gifts and goodwill, Christmas trees, carols and the celebration of good things. But there is no Christmas in the Nowhere, and in both worlds, things are not as settled as they look, for Justin Arnold-Mather is getting ready to make his move. In the Nowhere, something is moving through the streets, attacking people - random victims - and leaving them mad and disfigured. And in Orrery House, a tiny crack has appeared in the Prophecy table.The Prophecy is coming alive. The battle lines will be drawn between even the closest of friends, for the fight is on. The Dark King is rising.
Trajectory
by Cambria GordonA Sydney Taylor Honor Book, perfect for fans of Kristin Hannah and Sharon Cameron, this is the stirring and dramatic story of one young woman who must find a way to overcome her deepest fears in order to unlock the secret that will help America and the Allies to victory as World War II rages on. Seventeen-year-old Eleanor is nothing like her hero Eleanor Roosevelt. She is timid and all together uncertain that she has much to offer the world. And as World War II rages overseas, Eleanor is consumed with worry for her Jewish relatives in Europe. When a chance encounter proves her to be a one-in-a-generation math whiz--a fact she has worked hard all her life to hide--Eleanor gets recruited by the US Army and entrusted with the ultimate challenge: to fine-tune a top-secret weapon that will help America defeat its enemies in World War II and secure the world's freedom. This could be her chance to help save her family in Poland.Soon, she's swept from the basement of an Ivy League engineering school, to the desert of California, to an Army Air Corps base at Pearl Harbor, and finally she takes to the skies above the South Pacific.But before she can solve this complicated problem, she must learn to unlock a bigger mystery: herself.Critically acclaimed author of The Poetry of Secrets, Cambria Gordon weaves an extraordinary story of remarkable courage and the will to unearth our deepest secrets, based on previously undiscovered true events.Advance praise for Trajectory:A Sydney Taylor Honor Book"Cambria Gordon's careful attention to setting and detail brings an unknown and surprising history vividly to life-and draws thought-provoking parallels to the present." -Amanda McCrina, author of Traitor and The Silent Unseen"Hidden Figures meets Code Name Verity in Trajectory, a richly detailed historical novel about Eleanor, a gifted female mathematician under pressure to get the results of her calculations right at the height of World War II. With members of her own Jewish family suffering a terrible fate in Europe, Eleanor is determined to make a difference-even if it means facing her fears head-on. I couldn't put this down!" -Kip Wilson, award-winning author of White Rose and The Most Dazzling Girl in Berlin"Well-paced and immersive, Trajectory takes readers on an exciting journey from Philadelphia to the California desert to the skies over the Pacific theater in the Second World War. Equally powerful is Eleanor's journey from timid high school senior hiding her math ability to problem solver unafraid to stand up to superiors and skeptics in pursuit of the Allies' victory. Gordon's novel honors the long-ignored women who helped make that victory happen." -Lyn Miller-Lachmann, author of Torch, winner of the 2023 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for YA Literature.
Trans Mission: My Quest to a Beard
by Alex BertieA brave firsthand account of online personality Alex Bertie's life, struggles, and victories as a transgender teen, as well as a groundbreaking guide for transitioning teens.Long before he became known for his YouTube videos, Alex Bertie was an isolated, often-afraid transgender teenager looking for answers. In this revolutionary memoir and valuable resource, Alex recounts his life, struggles, and victories as a young trans man. Along the way, he provides readers with accessible, highly researched explanations of gender, sexuality, and transitions. He explores without judgment how complicated all these things can be, and how many equally authentic ways there are to live as yourself and find happiness. It can be hard for questioning teens to believe in a brighter future, let alone find any sense of community. Here, with clarity and compassion, Alex writes as a supportive older brother for transitioning teens, their allies, their parents, and anyone looking to better understand others -- and themselves.
The Transatlantic Zombie: Slavery, Rebellion, and Living Death
by Sarah J. LauroOur most modern monster and perhaps our most American, the zombie that is so prevalent in popular culture today has its roots in African soul capture mythologies. The Transatlantic Zombie provides a more complete history of the zombie than has ever been told, explaining how the myth's migration to the New World was facilitated by the transatlantic slave trade, and reveals the real-world import of storytelling, reminding us of the power of myths and mythmaking, and the high stakes of appropriation and homage. Beginning with an account of a probable ancestor of the zombie found in the Kongolese and Angolan regions of seventeenth-century Africa and ending with a description of the way, in contemporary culture, new media are used to facilitate zombie-themed events, Sarah Juliet Lauro plots the zombie's cultural significance through Caribbean literature, Haitian folklore, and American literature, film, and the visual arts. The zombie entered US consciousness through the American occupation of Haiti, the site of an eighteenth-century slave rebellion that became a war for independence, thus making the figuration of living death inseparable from its resonances with both slavery and rebellion. Lauro bridges African mythology and US mainstream culture by articulating the ethical complications of the zombie's invocation as a cultural conquest that was rebranded for the American cinema. As The Transatlantic Zombie shows, the zombie is not merely a bogeyman representing the ills of modern society, but a battleground over which a cultural war has been fought between the imperial urge to absorb exotic, threatening elements, and the originary, Afro-disaporic culture's preservation through a strategy of mythic combat.
The Transformation of Governance: Public Administration for the Twenty-First Century (Interpreting American Politics)
by Donald F. KettlAn updated edition of the classic text on public administration presents practical steps for managing government effectively in an age of hyperpartisanship.Co-winner of the Louis Brownlow Book Award from the National Academy of Public AdministrationThe traditional theory of public administration is based on entrenched notions of hierarchy and authority. However, as the structure of public work has grown less hierarchical, managers have adopted a wide variety of non-authoritarian strategies. This growing gap between theoretical ideas and actual practice poses enormous challenges for front-line leaders struggling to deal with ever-larger expectations and ever-tighter budgets—and for American government in determining how best to hold public administrators accountable for their performance.The Transformation of Governance offers a new framework for reconciling effective administration with the requirements of democratic government. Instead of thinking in terms of organizational structure and management, Donald F. Kettl suggests, administrators and theorists need to focus on governance, or the links between government and its broader environment—political, social, and administrative—through which social action occurs.In this updated edition, a new epilogue shows Kettl urging political leaders to step back from the political barricades of hyperpartisanship to consider government’s contemporary dilemma: Is there any practical way forward for public administrators to manage government effectively? Reinforcing the ten principles of bridge building which he developed in the original book, Kettl adds an eleventh, which lays out five transformative strategies: redefining public law to promote public accountability; re-conceptualizing government agencies as instruments of leverage; launching government leaders as boundary spanners; using information technology for building authority and trust; and incorporating performance management into processes that drive collaboration.With a new preface from Michael Nelson, editor of the Interpreting American Politics series, this award-winning book will be sought out by public policymakers eager to read a leading scholar's newest insights into the field.
Transforming a College: The Story of a Little-Known College's Strategic Climb to National Distinction
by George KellerGeorge Keller’s case study of Elon University’s transformation from a struggling college with a limited endowment into a top regional university is now available in paperback.Ten years after the publication of Transforming a College, Elon University continues to thrive as a school that reinvented itself and its community around the idea of inspiring and guiding students. George Keller’s now-classic account has been used as an inspiration and playbook for many other institutions. Available for the first time in paperback, this edition coincides with Elon’s 125th anniversary. A new foreword and afterword from Elon president Leo M. Lambert tell the rest of the story of the university’s ambitious agenda to position Elon as a top-ranked liberal arts university and a national leader in engaged teaching and learning.
Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Tentative Conclusions about Uncertain Democracies
by Guillermo O’Donnell Philippe C. Schmitter Laurence WhiteheadThe foundational text for democratization studies for over 25 years.Political science scholars consider the four-volume work Transitions from Authoritarian Rule to be a foundational text for studying the process of democratization, specifically in those cases where an authoritarian regime is giving way to some form of democratic government. The most important of the four books is without a doubt the fourth volume, Tentative Conclusions about Uncertain Democracies, also known as "the little green book."Transitions from Authoritarian Rule was the first book in any language to systematically compare the process of transition from authoritarianism across a broad range of countries. Political democracy is not the only possible outcome. Guillermo O’Donnell, Philippe C. Schmitter, and Laurence Whitehead emphasize that it's not the revolution but the transition that is critical to the growth of a democratic state. This ground-breaking insight remains highly relevant as the ramifications of the Arab Spring continue to play out.This reissue features a new foreword by Cynthia J. Arnson, director of the Latin American Program at the Woodow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and Abraham F. Lowenthal, founding director of the Latin American Program, who wrote the original volume's foreword.
Transitions to Democracy: A Comparative Perspective
by Kathryn Stoner and Michael McFaulFifteen case studies by scholars and practitioners demonstrate the synergy between domestic and international influences that can precipitate democratic transitions.As demonstrated by current events in Tunisia and Egypt, oppressive regimes are rarely immune to their citizens’ desire for democratic government. Of course, desire is always tempered by reality; therefore how democratic demands are made manifest is a critical source of study for both political scientists and foreign policy makers. What issues and consequences surround the fall of a government, what type of regime replaces it, and to what extent are these efforts successful? Kathryn Stoner and Michael McFaul have created an accessible book of fifteen case studies from around the world that will help students understand these complex issues. Their model builds upon Guillermo O’Donnell, Philippe C. Schmitter, and Laurence Whitehead's classic work, Transitions from Authoritarian Rule, using a rubric of four identifying factors that can be applied to each case study, making comparison relatively easy. Transitions to Democracy yields strong comparisons and insights. For instance, the study reveals that efforts led by the elite and involving the military are generally unsuccessful, whereas mass mobilization, civic groups, and new media have become significant factors in supporting and sustaining democratic actors. This collection of writings by scholars and practitioners is organized into three parts: successful transitions, incremental transitions, and failed transitions. Extensive primary research and a rubric that can be applied to burgeoning democracies offer readers valuable tools and information.
The Transmission of "Beowulf": Language, Culture, and Scribal Behavior (Myth and Poetics II)
by Leonard NeidorfBeowulf, like The Iliad and The Odyssey, is a foundational work of Western literature that originated in mysterious circumstances. In The Transmission of Beowulf, Leonard Neidorf addresses philological questions that are fundamental to the study of the poem. Is Beowulf the product of unitary or composite authorship? How substantially did scribes alter the text during its transmission, and how much time elapsed between composition and preservation? Neidorf answers these questions by distinguishing linguistic and metrical regularities, which originate with the Beowulf poet, from patterns of textual corruption, which descend from copyists involved in the poem’s transmission. He argues, on the basis of archaic features that pervade Beowulf and set it apart from other Old English poems, that the text preserved in the sole extant manuscript (ca. 1000) is essentially the work of one poet who composed it circa 700. Of course, during the poem’s written transmission, several hundred scribal errors crept into its text. These errors are interpreted in the central chapters of the book as valuable evidence for language history, cultural change, and scribal practice. Neidorf’s analysis reveals that the scribes earnestly attempted to standardize and modernize the text’s orthography, but their unfamiliarity with obsolete words and ancient heroes resulted in frequent errors. The Beowulf manuscript thus emerges from his study as an indispensible witness to processes of linguistic and cultural change that took place in England between the eighth and eleventh centuries. An appendix addresses J. R. R. Tolkien’s Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary, which was published in 2014. Neidorf assesses Tolkien’s general views on the transmission of Beowulf and evaluates his position on various textual issues.
The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us To Choose Between Privacy And Freedom?
by David BrinIn New York and Baltimore, police cameras scan public areas twenty-four hours a day. Huge commercial databases track you finances and sell that information to anyone willing to pay. Host sites on the World Wide Web record every page you view, and "smart" toll roads know where you drive. Every day, new technology nibbles at our privacy.Does that make you nervous? David Brin is worried, but not just about privacy. He fears that society will overreact to these technologies by restricting the flow of information, frantically enforcing a reign of secrecy. Such measures, he warns, won't really preserve our privacy. Governments, the wealthy, criminals, and the techno-elite will still find ways to watch us. But we'll have fewer ways to watch them. We'll lose the key to a free society: accountability.The Transparent Society is a call for "reciprocal transparency." If police cameras watch us, shouldn't we be able to watch police stations? If credit bureaus sell our data, shouldn't we know who buys it? Rather than cling to an illusion of anonymity-a historical anomaly, given our origins in close-knit villages-we should focus on guarding the most important forms of privacy and preserving mutual accountability. The biggest threat to our freedom, Brin warns, is that surveillance technology will be used by too few people, now by too many.A society of glass houses may seem too fragile. Fearing technology-aided crime, governments seek to restrict online anonymity; fearing technology-aided tyranny, citizens call for encrypting all data. Brins shows how, contrary to both approaches, windows offer us much better protection than walls; after all, the strongest deterrent against snooping has always been the fear of being spotted. Furthermore, Brin argues, Western culture now encourages eccentricity-we're programmed to rebel! That gives our society a natural protection against error and wrong-doing, like a body's immune system. But "social T-cells" need openness to spot trouble and get the word out. The Transparent Society is full of such provocative and far-reaching analysis.The inescapable rush of technology is forcing us to make new choices about how we want to live. This daring book reminds us that an open society is more robust and flexible than one where secrecy reigns. In an era of gnat-sized cameras, universal databases, and clothes-penetrating radar, it will be more vital than ever for us to be able to watch the watchers. With reciprocal transparency we can detect dangers early and expose wrong-doers. We can gauge the credibility of pundits and politicians. We can share technological advances and news. But all of these benefits depend on the free, two-way flow of information.