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Billy Budd: Downloadable Teaching Unit (Clasicos Universales Series #41)
by Herman MelvilleA young sailor in the eighteenth-century Royal Navy is falsely accused of mutiny in this classic tale of good and evil by the celebrated author of Moby Dick.England, 1797. Billy Budd, a young sailor aboard the merchant ship Rights-of-Man is conscripted to serve on a Royal Navy warship, the HMS Bellipotent. Innocent and charming despite his stutter, Billy is quickly accepted by the crew—and resented by the ship&’s brooding master-at-arms, John Claggart. When Claggart accuses Billy of conspiracy to mutiny, the false charge sets the young innocent on an inescapable path toward tragedy. Herman Melville&’s final novel, Billy Budd was first published in 1924, more than thirty years after the author&’s death. A tale of virtue caught in the machinery of law and wartime vigilance, this American classic has been adapted for both stage and screen, and remains one of Melville&’s most beloved works.
Beyond Powerful: Your Chronic Illness is Not Your Kryptonite
by Lala JacksonAn author with autoimmune Type 1 diabetes reveals how you can achieve what you want—even while battling chronic health issues. Are you frustrated by being constantly sidelined by your health? Do you feel like every time you dig into a project your chronic disease gets in the way? Do you worry that living with a chronic illness means you will never feel well enough to reach your goals? In Beyond Powerful, Lala Jackson offers personal anecdotes of being an overachiever living with autoimmune disease—as well as inspiring, entertaining stories of go-getters who use the superpowers they&’ve developed by dealing with chronic illness in order to reach massive goals. If you are someone who lives with chronic health issues and are searching for a way to keep running toward exactly what you want to bring to the world, then Beyond Powerful has the answers you need! &“I&’ve often said that I can&’t regret living with autoimmune disease because that experience helped sculpt who I am. Beyond Powerful embraces this positive mindset and takes it to a whole new level, allowing us to appreciate the skills honed through the challenges of chronic illness and, even more importantly, giving us permission to be empowered and improved, yet never defined, by our diseases.&” —Dr. Sarah Ballantyne, PhD, New York Times–bestselling author of The Paleo Approach
Ready for Pretirement: 3 Secrets for Safe Money and a Fabulous Future
by Kris MillerA little planning goes a long way—prepare for a more secure financial future with this practical, proactive guide that &“will help you sleep at night&” (Sam Horn, author of Pop!). Retirement planning can be scary, confusing, and overwhelming—especially if you wait until you&’re faced with a family medical emergency. It is during these unexpected situations that people often make foolish decisions because of the stress and pressure to make a quick choice. Stop procrastinating and get started now with the tools included in this guide. Older people can face pressing financial planning issues related to age and health—that&’s why retirement planning isn&’t just for seniors. Author Kris Miller taps into her vast estate planning experience and explains why you should get started now—even if you&’re only in your twenties or thirties. Learn how to create a Living Will and a Living Trust; make sure your family is cared for; build wealth; protect your assets from sky-high medical expenses; and retire happy. Ready For Pretirement provides an easy-to-understand overview of the financial decisions that need to be made. From writing a will to creating a trust, from the proper way to hold property to selecting low-risk investments, this book provides necessary guidance—so when you&’re ready to plunge into your golden years, you can do it with peace of mind.
Teacher You Are Enough & More: A Guide to Uplift Educators
by Claire Rachel Maghtas Karen Jean EppsInspiration for those working in education—to prevent burnout, persevere through challenges, and keep their spirit strong! This book supports and uplifts those who have devoted themselves to the demanding, difficult, and often underappreciated work of education—offering strategies, exercises, and tools that align teachers&’ spirits with God to stay at peace while teaching. Educators Claire Rachel Maghtas and Karen Jean Epps&’ intention is to energize other educators and give them useful techniques for handling stress and persevering through the difficult times. This inspirational guide includes invigorating verses from the Bible along with personal testimonies to help teachers cope. Teachers will learn strategies to stay in balance while enhancing students&’ achievements and well-being.
If You Will It: Rebuilding Jewish Peoplehood for the 21st Century
by Elliott AbramsHundreds of thousands of young Jews have drifted away from the American Jewish community and many more may follow. This book explains to Jewish parents, donors, and organizations how Jewish education, Jewish summer camping, and time spent in Israel can revive and strengthen Jewish identity.American Jewish identity is steadily weakening. National surveys show hundreds of thousands of children with one, or even two, Jewish parents not being raised as Jews by religion or to think of themselves as members of the Jewish community. And the surveys show that young American Jews are far less engaged with and supportive of Israel than their parents&’ and grandparents&’ generations—even after the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023 and the Gaza war that followed.What can Jewish parents and organizations do to ensure that future generations of American Jews will have a strong Jewish identity? Elliott Abrams looks at the history of the American Jewish community and its relationship with Israel—from the high points of Israel&’s creation in 1948 and the Six-Day War in 1967, to the years before the Second World War and now in the 21st century when many American Jews turned away from the Jewish State. He tells American Jewish parents, donors, and organizations where to focus: on getting children a serious Jewish education, sending them to Jewish summer camps, and bringing them to Israel for weeks, semesters, or academic years. These are the building blocks for Jewish identity that work reliably for young American Jews—especially those who are not Orthodox in their faith.Abrams, author of Faith or Fear: How Jews Can Survive in a Christian America, brings together the latest survey data, his own experiences at the highest levels of the US government, his knowledge of Israel, and his role as chairman of Tikvah, the Jewish educational non-profit organization, to provide the answers to the toughest questions American Jews—especially American Jewish parents—are facing.
"Looks Good to Me": Constructive code reviews
by Adrienne BraganzaDeliver code reviews that consistently build up your team and improve your applications.&“Looks Good to Me&” offers a unique approach to delivering meaningful code reviews that goes beyond superficial checklists and tense critical conversations. Instead, you&’ll learn how to improve both your applications and your team dynamics. &“Looks Good to Me&” teaches you how to: • Understand a code review's benefits proactively prevent loopholes and bottlenecks • Co-create an objective code review system • Clarify responsibilities: author, reviewer, team lead/manager, and the team itself • Establish manageable guidelines and protocols • Align with your team and explicitly document the policies they will follow • Automate code quality with linting, formatting, static analysis, and automated testing • Compose effective comments for any situation • Consider combining code reviews with pair programming or mob programming • AI for code reviews Inside &“Looks Good to Me&” you&’ll find comprehensive coverage of every part of the code review process, from choosing a system to keeping reviews manageable for everyone involved. With this mix of tools, processes, common sense, and compassion, you&’ll run a highly effective review process from first commit to final deployment. Foreword by Scott Hanselman. About the technology Transform code reviews into the positive, productive experiences they&’re meant to be! Whether it&’s your code under the microscope or you&’re the one giving the feedback, this sensible guide will help you avoid the tense debates, fruitless nitpicking, and unnecessary bottlenecks you&’ve come to expect from code reviews. About the book &“Looks Good to Me&” teaches the considerate, common sense approach to code reviews pioneered by author Adrienne Braganza. You&’ll learn how to create a cohesive team environment, align review goals and expectations clearly, and be prepared for any changes or obstacles you may face. Along the way, you&’ll master practices that adapt to how your team does things, with multiple options and solutions, relatable scenarios, and personal tidbits. You&’ll soon be running highly effective reviews that make your code—and your team—stronger. What's inside • Why we do code reviews • Automate processes for code quality • Write effective comments About the reader For any team member, from developer to lead. About the author Adrienne Braganza is an engineer, speaker, instructor, and author of the bestselling book Coding for Kids: Python. Table of Contents Part 1 1 The significance of code reviews 2 Dissecting the code review 3 Building your team&’s first code review process Part 2 4 The Team Working Agreement 5 The advantages of automation 6 Composing effective code review comments Part 3 7 How code reviews can suck 8 Decreasing code review delays 9 Eliminating process loopholes 10 The Emergency Playbook Part 4 11 Code reviews and pair programming 12 Code reviews and mob programming 13 Code reviews and AI A Team Working Agreement starter template B Emergency Playbook starter template C PR templates D List of resources
Iran's Rise and Rivalry with the US in the Middle East
by Mohsen M. MilaniThe 1979 Islamic Revolution triggered a cold war between Iran and the United States – former fast friends. Despite the US&’s relentless efforts at containment, Iran has risen as a formidable power in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and Gaza. Its newfound status not only frustrates the US but has swiftly become a thorn in the side of Israel and Saudi Arabia. How did Iran rise so rapidly? And as it faces ever increasing pressure at home and abroad, can it hold onto its power? Mohsen Milani guides us through the twists and turns of the Iran–US rivalry in the battlefields of the Middle East. Going from the fall of the Shah to revolutionary Iran&’s alliances with Syria, Hamas, Hezbollah, Iraqi militias, and the Houthis in the Axis of Resistance, Milani lifts the veil on Iran&’s foreign policy strategy and its implications for the region, the US and Iran itself.
Why We Believe: Finding Meaning in Uncertain Times
by Prof. Alister McGrathBelief: surely it&’s a relic from the past, a hangover from a superstitious age that is totally out of sync with today&’s rational, science-led culture? 'A timely, often bracing and always highly stimulating book.' Tom Holland, author of Dominion and co-host of The Rest is History In today&’s science-driven, rational world, belief is dismissed as an artefact of a bygone era – something absurd at best, harmful at worst. The prevailing narratives paint belief as primitive, weird, even dangerous. But as life grows ever more confusing and our societies more atomised, contemplating something bigger than ourselves has never been more vital. Alister McGrath offers a fresh perspective on belief, presenting it not as a weakness of rational thought but as an essential tool for navigating uncertainty. Elegant and thought-provoking, Why We Believe reveals how belief provides meaning in the face of existential despair, how it fosters community and offers solace. As society moves beyond the dismissive rhetoric surrounding people of faith, here is a powerful manifesto for the re-enchantment of the Western mind. 'Scholarly, compulsively readable and with gems of information on every page... a must read.' Revd Fergus Butler-Gallie, author of A Field Guide to the English Clergy
The Exclamation Mark: And Other Short Stories (Hesperus Classics)
by Anton ChekhovA civil servant stands accused of not understanding the rules of punctuation. He begins to go through the correct use of commas and semicolons before arriving at the exclamation mark, which, he realizes, in 40 years of writing, he has never used. From here he develops a bizarre and paranoid fantasy in which everyday objects transform into malevolent exclamation marks. Written when Chekhov was on the verge of becoming a literary celebrity, this is an enlightening new selection that reveals the author's often neglected comic talents.
Brilliance by Design: Creating Learning Experiences That Connect, Inspire, and Engage
by Vicki HalseyMany subject matter experts are just that, subject matter experts--not experts in the art of teaching, facilitating, or designing. Thousands of authors, trainers, and speakers have great content, but they lack the skills required to convey their content in a way that inspires learners to unleash their brilliance and move the learning to practice.. They often spend 70% of their time on WHAT they are going to teach, and 30% of their time on HOW, when they should be spending 30% on WHAT, and 70% on HOW. Their instructional techniques often are at odds with their message of inclusivity, eagerness for people to learn, and hopes that their content will change lives and organizations. “Brilliance by Design” outlines how to design learning interactions (such as meetings and workshops) that enable people to do their best thinking. Using the tested, signature ENGAGE model, it helps anyone who brings people together for the purpose of learning, problem-solving, or innovating to develop a clear, high-impact training design that unleashes brilliance. It presents a model that enables teachers to analyze learner and teacher needs, create objectives that meet those needs, and incorporate interactive tools that “fire ‘em up,” ensuring all key outcomes are met. To help readers unleash the brilliance in others, this book provides the structure, tools, language, and models needed to create optimal learning experiences from their ideas, practices, models and books. In learning these techniques, readers will achieve powerful outcomes, building communities of learners who share best practices and communicate at a deep and profound level while doing real work.
A History of Chicago's O'Hare Airport (Landmarks Ser.)
by Michael Branigan&“Delves into O&’Hare&’s past and present, based on Branigan&’s extensive research and his interviews with aviation professionals and enthusiasts&” (Chicago Tribune). In 1942, a stretch of Illinois prairie that had served as a battleground and a railroad depot became the site of a major manufacturing plant, producing Douglas C-54 Skymasters for World War II. Less than twenty years later, that plot of land boasted the biggest and busiest airport in the world. Many of the millions who have since passed through it have likely only regarded it as a place between cities. But for people like Michael Branigan, who has spent years on its tarmac, they know that O&’Hare is a city unto itself, with a fascinating history of gangsters, heroes, mayors, presidents, and pilots. Includes photos! &“This book reads like no other in the aviation industry from the historical context. Mike is a prolific writer with a knack for telling a story in a way that people can easily relate and understand.&” —TribLocal
Attorney by Day, Novelist by Night: Bring Your Book to Light While Still Practicing Law
by Kim BenjaminAn inspiring guide for lawyers—or any busy professionals—who want to pursue their literary dreams. Are you an attorney working hard, sixty-plus-hour weeks to right the wrongdoings of the world? Are you enjoying a successful legal career, but still not wholly satisfied? Have you dreamed of exploring your creative side and following in the footsteps of John Grisham, Scott Turow, Marcia Clark, Robert Dugoni, and the countless other lawyers who have channeled their talent and unique experience into literary success? It&’s no surprise that many in the legal profession feel the desire to write, as they deal every day with the subtleties of language in their work—and encounter plenty of conflict and drama to provide creative inspiration. This helpful, supportive guide shows how they can indulge their dreams, pursue their passion, and find greater fulfillment—without abandoning their career.
Among the White Moon Faces: An Asian-American Memoir of Homelands (The\cross-cultural Memoir Ser.)
by Shirley Geok-lin LimThis &“fascinating autobiography&” from an award-winning Asian-American female author &“reads like a novel&” (The Washington Post Book World). With insight, candor, and grace, Shirley Geok-lin Lim recalls her path from her poverty-stricken childhood in war-torn Malaysia to her new and exciting yet uncertain womanhood in America. Grappling to secure a place for herself in the United States, she is often caught between the stifling traditions of the old world and the harsh challenges of the new. But throughout her journey, she is sustained by her &“warrior&” spirit, gradually overcoming her sense of alienation to find a new identity as an Asian American woman: professor, wife, mother, and, above all, an impassioned writer. In Among the White Moon Faces, Lim offers a memorable rendering of immigrant women&’s experience and a reflection upon the homelands we leave behind, the homelands we discover, and the homelands we hold within ourselves. &“What sets Among the White Moon Faces apart is that Lim writes with such aching precision, revealing and insightfully analyzing her changing roles as woman, immigrant, scholar, and Other.&” —San Francisco Chronicle Book Review &“Lim&’s descriptions are both lyrical and precise.&” —Publishers Weekly &“Evocative writing bolstered by insights into colonialism, race relations, and the concept of the &‘other&’. . . . This is an entrancing memoir.&” —Kirkus Reviews
Ultimate Freedom: Unlock the Secrets to a Life of Passion, Purpose, and Prosperity
by Vickie Helm Mia Bolte&“Truthful and direct! . . . The field guide to having it all and creating the life of your dreams. If you value success and freedom, this book is for you&” (Joel Comm, New York Times–bestselling author). In this groundbreaking work, Vickie Helm and Mia Bolte mine their more than thirty years of consulting experience to share with you the tools and secrets to unlocking a life of passion, purpose and prosperity. You will discover the tools you need now, to move you through your future with more certainty and personal ability. The authors show you how to protect yourself and thrive during these uncertain times. Within its pages are the six most important freedoms you must protect or they will be seized out from under you without your knowing it, but with your permission. Vickie and Mia also share the potency of knowing when and how to slow down, reflect, and evaluate in order to discern and grow the life of your dreams. Unlock your inner genius and discover how to rethink, reimagine, and rediscover a life of passion, purpose, and prosperity. &“An energy drink for the mind! Vickie and Mia offer an honest and direct approach to finally living life on your own terms; stunningly simple ways to understand your power and embrace confidence in who you are.&” —Lori Ruff, Forbes Top 25 Social Media Power Influencer, brand influencer & strategist
With Liberty and Dividends for All: How to Save Our Middle Class When Jobs Don't Pay Enough
by Peter BarnesPeter Barnes argues that because of globalization, automation, and winner-take-all capitalism, there won’t be enough high-paying jobs to sustain America’s middle class in the future. Therefore, to survive economically, our middle class needs—and deserves—a supplementary source of nonlabor income.To meet this need, Barnes proposes to give every American a share of the wealth we own together— starting with our air and financial infrastructure. These shares would pay dividends of several thousand dollars per year—money that wouldn’t be welfare or wealth redistribution but legitimate property income.
Murder in Wauwatosa: The Mysterious Death of Buddy Schumacher (True Crime Ser.)
by Paul Hoffman&“Looks at the twists and turns in the investigation, possible perpetrators . . . as well as some of the good that eventually came out of this tragedy&” (Wauwatosa Patch). In 1925, the peaceful Milwaukee suburb of Wauwatosa found itself involved in mystery and horror. Eight-year-old Arthur &‘Buddy&’ Schumacher Jr. was last seen by three of his friends after they hopped off a freight train they&’d jumped to get a ride to a nearby swimming hole. For seven weeks, the community and state searched desperately to find the boy until his body was found just a mile from his house with his clothing torn and a handkerchief shoved down his throat. The police pursued several promising leads, but to no avail. Includes photos. &“Tosa native Paul Hoffman reconstructs the case . . . and finds it more than cold . . . He conjures up a picture of a much different Wauwatosa than we know today.&” —Shepherd Express &“More than 85 years later, the murder of Buddy Schumacher remains unsolved. There were suspects at the time and their stories and the cases against them are included in Murder in Wauwatosa.&” —OnMilwaukee
Good Company: Business Success in the Worthiness Era
by Laurie Bassi Ed Frauenheim Dan McMurrer Larry CostelloWe're losing patience with bad companies. We're fed up with the greed of Goldman Sachs, sickened by BP's pollution, tired of tainted food, tightfisted employers, and phony "corporate social responsibility." And Laurie Bassi and her co-authors have news: the "bad boy" days are over. We're at the dawn of the Worthiness Era, when doing the right thing is no longer optional--it's the key to success. And they've got the data to prove it. Good Company lays out the convergence of social, economic, and political forces-- ranging from the explosion of online information sharing to the emergence of the ethical consumer and the rapid expansion of the green market--that are ushering in this new era. Moreover, the authors prove the connection between good corporate behavior and the bottom line with their Good Company Index. Using publicly available information as well as original research, the Good Company Index evaluates each of the Fortune 100 companies as an employer, seller, and steward and then gives it a final grade. Among the surprising findings: only two Fortune 100 companies get an A, while a number of highly respected companies get a C or worse. Overall, companies in the same industry with higher rankings on the index consistently outperform their competitors. And this is not some academic exercise: the authors have used the principles of the index at their own investment firm to deliver market-beating results. Using a host of real-world examples Bassi and company carefully explain each aspect of corporate worthiness, offering companies a guide to what it now takes to win customer loyalty. Good Company moves the debate about corporate citizenship from the realm of faith to the realm of facts, showing it's no longer a question of ethics or virtue: it's a matter of survival.Winner of the gold medal in the Business/Leadership category of the 2012 Nautilus Book Awards and Choice Magazine's Outstanding Academic Title Award.
3 Shades of Blue: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, and the Lost Empire of Cool
by James KaplanThe National Bestseller • One of The Minneapolis Star Tribune's Best Books of the Year&“A superb book...[Kaplan is] a master biographer, a dogged researcher and shaper of narrative, and this is his most ambitious book to date.&” —Los Angeles TimesFrom the author of the definitive biography of Frank Sinatra, the story of three towering artists—Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Bill Evans—and how they came together to create the most iconic jazz album of all time, Kind of BlueIn 1959, America&’s great indigenous art form, jazz, reached the height of its power and popularity. James Kaplan&’s magnificent 3 Shades of Blue captures how that golden era came to be, and its pinnacle with the recording of Kind of Blue. It&’s a book about music, and business, and race, and heroin, and the cities that gave jazz its home, and the Black geniuses behind its rise. It&’s an astonishing meditation on creativity and the strange environments where it can flourish most. It&’s a book about the great forebears and founders of a lost era, and the disrupters who would take the music down truly new paths. And it&’s about why the world of jazz most people know is a museum to this never-replicated period. But above all, 3 Shades of Blue is a book about three very different men—the greatness and varied fortunes of Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Bill Evans. The tapestry of their lives is, in Kaplan&’s hands, a national odyssey with no direction home. It is also a masterpiece, a book about jazz that is as big as America.
The Magicians: A Novel (Magicians Trilogy #1)
by Lev GrossmanLev Grossman&’s new novel THE BRIGHT SWORD is out now!The New York Times bestselling novel about a young man practicing magic in the real world, now an original series on SYFY&“The Magicians is to Harry Potter as a shot of Irish whiskey is to a glass of weak tea. . . . Hogwarts was never like this.&” —George R.R. Martin &“Sad, hilarious, beautiful, and essential to anyone who cares about modern fantasy.&” —Joe Hill &“A very knowing and wonderful take on the wizard school genre.&” —John Green &“The Magicians may just be the most subversive, gripping and enchanting fantasy novel I&’ve read this century.&” —Cory Doctorow&“This gripping novel draws on the conventions of contemporary and classic fantasy novels in order to upend them . . . an unexpectedly moving coming-of-age story.&” —The New Yorker&“The best urban fantasy in years.&” —A.V. ClubQuentin Coldwater is brilliant but miserable. A high school math genius, he&’s secretly fascinated with a series of children&’s fantasy novels set in a magical land called Fillory, and real life is disappointing by comparison. When Quentin is unexpectedly admitted to an elite, secret college of magic, it looks like his wildest dreams have come true. But his newfound powers lead him down a rabbit hole of hedonism and disillusionment, and ultimately to the dark secret behind the story of Fillory. The land of his childhood fantasies turns out to be much darker and more dangerous than he ever could have imagined. . . .The prequel to the New York Times bestselling book The Magician King and the #1 bestseller The Magician's Land, The Magicians is one of the most daring and inventive works of literary fantasy in years. No one who has escaped into the worlds of Narnia and Harry Potter should miss this breathtaking return to the landscape of the imagination.
Dolphin Confidential: Confessions of a Field Biologist
by Maddalena BearziA &“compelling&” up-close memoir of a career spent among marine mammals and a portrait of the daily lives of dolphins (Publishers Weekly). Working among charismatic and clever dolphins in the wild is a unique thrill—and this book invites us shore-bound dreamers to join Maddalena Bearzi as she travels alongside them. In a fascinating account, she takes us inside the world of a marine scientist and offers a firsthand understanding of marine mammal behavior, as well as the frustrations and delights that make up dolphin research. Bearzi recounts her experiences at sea, tracing her own evolution as a woman and a scientist from her earliest travails to her transformation into an advocate for conservation and dolphin protection. These compelling, in-depth descriptions of her fieldwork also present a captivating look into dolphin social behavior and intelligence. Drawing on her extensive experience with the metropolitan bottlenose dolphins of California in particular, she offers insights into the daily lives of these creatures—as well as the difficulties involved in collecting the data that transforms hunches into hypotheses and eventually scientific facts. The book closes by addressing the critical environmental and conservation problems facing these magnificent, socially complex, highly intelligent, and emotional beings. &“Pairing vivid images of bottlenose dolphins swimming together and caring for one another with descriptions of the meticulous scientific work required to record their behavior, Maddalena Bearzi sheds light on the life of a field biologist…A beautifully written account.&”—Library Journal
Face Value: The Entwined Histories of Money and Race in America
by Michael O'MalleyThe cultural historian and author of Keep Watching analyses American ideas about race, money, identity, and their surprising connections through history. From colonial history to the present, Americans have passionately, even violently, debated the nature and of money. Is it a symbol of the value of human work and creativity, or a symbol of some natural, intrinsic value? In Face Value, Michael O&’Malley provides a penetrating historical analysis of American thinking about money and the ways that this ambivalence intertwines with race. Like race, money is bound up in questions of identity and worth, each a kind of shorthand for the different values of two similar things. O&’Malley illuminates how these two socially constructed hierarchies are deeply rooted in American anxieties about authenticity and difference. In this compelling work of cultural history, O&’Malley interprets a wide array of historical sources to evaluate competing ideas about monetary value and social distinctions. More than just a history, Face Value offers a new way of thinking about the present culture of coded racism, gold fetishism, and economic uncertainty. &“This is a &‘big idea&’ book that no one but Michael O&’Malley could even have thought of—much less pulled off with such nuance and clarity.&”—Scott A. Sandage, author of Born Losers
Liberalism's Last Man: Hayek in the Age of Political Capitalism
by Vikash YadavA modern reframing of Friedrich Hayek’s most famous work for the 21st century.Friedrich Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom was both an intellectual milestone and a source of political division, spurring fiery debates around capitalism and its discontents. In the ensuing discord, Hayek’s true message was lost: liberalism is a thing to be protected above all else, and its alternatives are perilous.In Liberalism’s Last Man, Vikash Yadav revives the core of Hayek’s famed work to map today’s primary political anxiety: the tenuous state of liberal meritocratic capitalism—particularly in North America, Europe, and Asia—in the face of strengthening political-capitalist powers like China, Vietnam, and Singapore. As open societies struggle to match the economic productivity of authoritarian-capitalist economies, the promises of a meritocracy fade; Yadav channels Hayek to articulate how liberalism’s moral backbone is its greatest defense against repressive social structures.
In Search of Cell History: The Evolution of Life's Building Blocks
by Franklin M. HaroldThis comprehensive history of cell evolution &“deftly discusses the definition of life&” as well as cellular organization, classification and more (San Francisco Book Review). The origin of cells remains one of the most fundamental mysteries in biology, one that has spawned a large body of research and debate over the past two decades. With In Search of Cell History, Franklin M. Harold offers a comprehensive, impartial take on that research and the controversies that keep the field in turmoil. Written in accessible language and complemented by a glossary for easy reference, this book examines the relationship between cells and genes; the central role of bioenergetics in the origin of life; the status of the universal tree of life with its three stems and viral outliers; and the controversies surrounding the last universal common ancestor. Harold also discusses the evolution of cellular organization, the origin of complex cells, and the incorporation of symbiotic organelles. In Search of Cell History shows us just how far we have come in understanding cell evolution—and the evolution of life in general—and how far we still have to go. &“Wonderful…A loving distillation of connections within the incredible diversity of life in the biosphere, framing one of biology&’s most important remaining questions: how did life begin?&”—Nature
Electing Judges: The Surprising Effects of Campaigning on Judicial Legitimacy (Chicago Studies in American Politics)
by James L. GibsonA revealing and provocative study of the effects of judicial elections on state courts and public perceptions of impartiality. In Electing Judges, leading judicial politics scholar James L. Gibson responds to the growing concern that the realities of campaigning are undermining judicial independence and even the rule of law. Armed with empirical evidence, Gibson offers the most systematic and comprehensive study to date of the impact of judicial elections on public perceptions of fairness, impartiality, and the legitimacy of state courts—and his findings are both counterintuitive and controversial. Gibson finds that ordinary Americans do not conclude from campaign promises that judges are incapable of making impartial decisions. Instead, he shows, they understand the process of deciding cases to be an exercise in policy making, rather than of simply applying laws to individual cases—and consequently think it&’s important for candidates to reveal where they stand on important issues. Negative advertising also turns out to have a limited effect on perceptions of judicial legitimacy, though certain kinds of campaign contributions can create the appearance of improper bias. Taking both the good and bad into consideration, Gibson argues persuasively that elections are ultimately beneficial in boosting the institutional legitimacy of courts, despite the slight negative effects of some campaign activities
Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddities for Amusement and Profit
by Robert BogdanThis cultural history of the travelling freak show in America chronicles the rise and fall of the industry as attitudes about disability evolved.From 1840 until 1940, hundreds of freak shows crisscrossed the United States, from the smallest towns to the largest cities, exhibiting their casts of dwarfs, giants, Siamese twins, bearded ladies, savages, snake charmers, fire eaters, and other oddities. By today&’s standards such displays would be considered cruel and exploitative—the pornography of disability. Yet for one hundred years the freak show was widely accepted as one of America&’s most popular forms of entertainment. Robert Bogdan&’s fascinating social history brings to life the world of the freak show and explores the culture that nurtured and, later, abandoned it. In uncovering this neglected chapter of show business, he describes in detail the flimflam artistry behind the shows, the promoters and the audiences, and the gradual evolution of public opinion from awe to embarrassment. Freaks were not born, Bogdan reveals; they were manufactured by the amusement world, usually with the active participation of the freaks themselves. Many of the "human curiosities" found fame and fortune, until the ascent of professional medicine transformed them from marvels into pathological specimens.