Suchergebnisse

A shocking account of Nazi genocide and the inhuman conditions in Auschwitz, but equally shocking is the initial disbelief with which the revelations were met. "Alfred Wetzler was a true hero. His escape from Auschwitz, and the report he helped compile, telling for the first time the truth about the camp as a place of mass murder, led directly to saving the lives of 120,000 Jews…. No other single act in the Second World War saved so many Jews from the fate that Hitler and the SS had determined for them."—Sir Martin Gilbert Together with another young Slovak Jew Rudolf Vrba, both deported in 1942, the author succeeded in escaping from the notorious death camp in the spring of 1944. There were some very few successful escapes from Auschwitz during the war, but it was these two who smuggled out the damning evidence – a ground plan of the camp, constructional details of the gas chambers and crematoriums and, most convincingly, a label from a canister of Cyclone gas. The book is cast in the form of a novel to allow information not personally collected by the two fugitives but provided for them by a handful of reliable friends, to be included. Nothing, however, has been invented. From the Introduction by Dr. Robert Rozett Wetzler is a master at evoking the universe of Auschwitz, and especially, his and Vrba's harrowing flight to Slovakia. The day-by-day account of the tremendous difficulties the pair faced after the Nazis had called off their search of the camp and its surroundings is both riveting and heart wrenching. [.] Shining vibrantly through the pages of the memoir are the tenacity and valor of two young men, who sought to inform the world about the greatest outrage ever committed by humans against their fellow humans

Heidegger Explained is a clear and thorough summary of the philosophy of Martin Heidegger (1889–1976). It gives a fascinating explanation of all stages of Heidegger's life and career, and shows his entire philosophy to emerge from one simple but profound insight. Many philosophers believe that Heidegger was the greatest philosopher of the twentieth century. His influence has long been felt not just in philosophy, but also in such fields as art, architecture, and literary studies. Yet the great difficulty of Heidegger's terminology has often scared away interested readers lacking an academic background in philosophy. Author Graham Harman shows that Heidegger is actually one of the simplest and clearest of thinkers. All the diverse topics of his writings, and all the lengthy analyses he gives of past philosophers, boil down to a single powerful idea: being is not presence. In any human relation with the world, our thinking and even our acting do not fully exhaust the world. Something more always withdraws from our grasp. Neither being itself nor individual beings are ever fully "present-at-hand," in Heidegger's terminology. This single insight allows Heidegger to revolutionize the phenomenology of his teacher Edmund Husserl. The method of Husserl was to focus entirely on how things present themselves to us as phenomena in consciousness. Heidegger understood that the things are always partly hidden from consciousness, living a secret life of their own. Human beings are not lucid scientific observers staring at the world and describing it, but instead are thrown into a world where light is always mixed with shadow. For Heidegger, the entire history of philosophy has reduced being to some sort of presence, whether by defining it as atoms, consciousness, perfect forms, the will to power, or even God. In this way, past philosophers have all chosen one

Energy in Nature and Society is a systematic and exhaustive analysis of all the major energy sources, storages, flows, and conversions that have shaped the evolution of the biosphere and civilization. Vaclav Smil uses fundamental unifying metrics (most notably for power density and energy intensity) to provide an integrated framework for analyzing all segments of energetics (the study of energy flows and their transformations). The book explores not only planetary energetics (such as solar radiation and geomorphic processes) and bioenergetics (photosynthesis, for example) but also human energetics (such as metabolism and thermoregulation), tracing them from hunter-gatherer and agricultural societies through modern-day industrial civilization. Included are chapters on heterotrophic conversions, traditional agriculture, preindustrial complexification, fossil fuels, fossil-fueled civilization, the energetics of food, and the implications of energetics for the environment. The book concludes with an examination of general patterns, trends, and socioeconomic considerations of energy use today, looking at correlations between energy and value, energy and the economy, energy and quality of life, and energy futures. Throughout the book, Smil chooses to emphasize the complexities and peculiarities of the real world, and the counterintuitive outcomes of many of its processes, over abstract models. Energy in Nature and Society provides a unique, comprehensive, single-volume analysis and reference source on all important energy matters, from natural to industrial energy flows, from fuels to food, from the Earth's formation to possible energy futures, and can serve as a text for courses in energy studies, global ecology, earth systems science, biology, and chemistry. Vaclav Smil is Distinguished Professor at the University of Manitoba and the author of many books, including Energy at the Crossroads (2003), The Earth's Biosphere: Evolution, Dynamics, and Change (2002), and Energies: An Illustrated Guide to the Biosphere and Civilization (1998), all of which are published by The MIT Press.

Praise for 50 Facts that Should Change the World -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- About the Author -- Introduction: Why should these 50 facts change the world? -- The average Japanese woman can expect to live to be 84. The average Botswanan will reach just 39 -- A third of the world's obese people live in the developing world -- If you stand at the junction of Oxford Street and Regent Street in central London, there are 161 branches of Starbucks within a five-mile radius -- China has 44 million missing women -- Brazil has more Avon ladies than members of its armed services -- Ninety-four per cent of the world's executions in 2005 took place in just four countries: China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the USA -- British supermarkets know more about their customers than the British government does -- Every cow in the European Union is subsidised by 2.50 a day. That's more than what 75 per cent of Africans have to live on -- In more than 70 countries, same-sex relationships are illegal. In nine countries, the penalty is death -- One in five of the world's people lives on less than 1 a day -- More than 12,000 women are killed each year in Russia as a result of domestic violence -- In 2006, 16 million Americans had some form of plastic surgery -- Landmines kill or maim at least one person every hour -- There are 44 million child labourers in India -- People in industrialised countries eat between six and seven kilograms of food additives every year -- David Beckham's deal with the LA Galaxy football team will earn him £50 every minute -- Seven million American women and 1 million American men suffer from an eating disorder -- Nearly half of British fifteen year olds have tried illegal drugs and nearly a quarter are regular cigarette smokers

With great vigour and from the vantage point of long experience of writing and teaching Jewish history, Moshe Rosman treats the key questions that postmodernism raises for the writing of Jewish history.What is the relationship between Jewish culture and history and those of the non-Jews among whom Jews live? Can we-in the light of postmodernist thought-speak of a continuous, coherent Jewish People, with a distinct culture and history? What in fact is Jewish cultural history, and how can it be written? How does gender transform the Jewish historical narrative? How does Jewish history fit into the multicultural paradigm? Has Jewish history entered a postmodern phase? How can Jewish history utilize the methodologies of other disciplines to accomplish its task? All these are questions that Jewish historians need to think about if their work is to be taken seriously by mainstream historians and intellectuals, or indeed by educated Jews interested in understanding their own cultural and historical past. While engaging with the questions raised by postmodernists, the author adopts a critical stance towards their work. His basic claim is that it is possible to incorporate, judiciously, postmodern innovations into historical scholarship that is still based on documentary research and critical analysis. The resulting endeavor might be termed 'a reformed positivism'. Rosman presents a concentrated, coherent, cogent argument as to what considerations must be brought to bear on the writing of Jewish history today. By highlighting in one book the issues raised by postmodernism, How Jewish is Jewish History? provides those in the field with a foundation from which to discuss how it should be practiced in light of this generation's challenges. It is a valuable resource for students of Jewish history and historiography and a handy tool for scholars who must

From the Publisher: Although for much of the mid-20th century police departments across the U.S. had been reluctant to embrace new technology, depending instead on traditional police techniques, detectives in Los Angeles finally departed from this practice when they found themselves stymied in their attempts to solve the infamous Night Stalker serial murder case. This murderer and rapist had gone on a deadly rampage during the spring and summer of 1985, and though the police used every traditional police technique, they could not solve the crime. Finally, in desperation, they decided to do something different: use what was then the latest, cutting edge-technology. This new technology, the laser print finder, worked perfectly and the police arrested the Night Stalker the next day. Following this astonishing success, police departments across the nation suddenly began clamoring to obtain all kinds of new technology to assist them in solving crimes. This rush to embrace the latest technology hasn't slowed in the intervening 21 years. This book takes readers through every major branch of law enforcement and shows how technology has radically changed police department operations during the last two decades. It also shows how these changes continue today as technology advances and refines techniques already in practice. Beginning with the Night Stalker case, the author illustrates how the use and reliance on new technologies in solving crimes has made policing and detective work more accurate and efficient in capturing and convicting criminals (and courts more recently in releasing innocents convicted of crimes). Capitalizing on the interest in all things forensic, this book illuminates the behind the scenes technologies that go into solving crimes and keeping dangerous criminals off the street. Snow covers DNA and fingerprint technologies, vehicle technologies, undercover work, bomb detection, and other methods. Using many real life examples and first hand anecdotes, he shows how technology has become part and parcel of criminal justice efforts to solve crimes.

"Cover" -- "Half Title" -- "Title" -- "Copyright" -- "Contents" -- "Preface" -- "Introduction" -- "The author, Ibn al-Athīr" -- "The writings of Ibn al-Athīr" -- "The chronicle, al-Kāmil fῑ'l-ta'rῑkh" -- "Editions and previous translations of al-Kāmil" -- "The present translation" -- "The Chronicle of Ibn al-Athīr" -- "The Year 491 [1097-1098]" -- "The Year 492 [1098-1099]" -- "The Year 493 [1099-1100]" -- "The Year 494 [1100-1101]" -- "The Year 495 [1101-1102]" -- "The Year 496 [1102-1103]" -- "The Year 497 [1103-1104]" -- "The Year 498 [1104-1105]" -- "The Year 499 [1105-1106]" -- "The Year 500 [1106-1107]" -- "The Year 501 [1107-1108]" -- "The Year 502 [1108-1109]" -- "The Year 503 [1109-1110]" -- "The Year 504 [1110-1111]" -- "The Year 505 [1111-1112]" -- "The Year 506 [1112-1113]" -- "The Year 507 [1113-1114]" -- "The Year 508 [1114-1115]" -- "The Year 509 [1115-1116]" -- "The Year 510 [1116-1117]" -- "The Year 511 [1117-1118]" -- "The Year 512 [1118-1119]" -- "The Year 513 [1119-1120]" -- "The Year 514 [1120-1121]" -- "The Year 515 [1121-1122]" -- "The Year 516 [1122-1123]" -- "The Year 517 [1123-1124]" -- "The Year 518 [1124-1125]" -- "The Year 519 [1125-1126]" -- "The Year 520 [1126-1127]" -- "The Year 521 [1127-1128]" -- "The Year 522 [1128]" -- "The Year 523 [1128-1129]" -- "The Year 524 [1129-1130]" -- "The Year 525 [1130-1131]" -- "The Year 526 [1131-1132]" -- "The Year 527 [1132-1133]" -- "The Year 528 [1133-1134]" -- "The Year 529 [1134-1135]" -- "The Year 530 [1135-1136]" -- "The Year 531 [1136-1137]" -- "The Year 532 [1137-1138]" -- "The Year 533 [1138-1139]" -- "The Year 534 [1139-1140]" -- "The Year 535 [1140-1141]" -- "The Year 536 [1141-1142]" -- "The Year 537 [1142-1143]" -- "The Year 538 [1143-1144]" -- "The Year 539 [1144-1145]" -- "The Year 540 [1145-1146]" -- "The Year 541 [1146-1147]

Imagines the development of the Western Hemisphere without European contact and colonization. This work answers the hypothetical question: What would the Americas be like today- politically, economically, culturally- if Columbus and the Europeans had never found them, and how would American peoples interact with the world's other societies? It assumes that Columbus did not embark from Spain in 1492 and that no Europeans found or settled the New World afterward, leaving the peoples of the two American continents free to follow the natural course of their Native lives. The Americas That Might Have Been is a professional but layman-accessible, fact-based, nonfiction account of the major Native American political states that were thriving in the New World in 1492. Granberry considers a contemporary New World in which the glories of Aztec Mexico, Maya Middle America, and Inca Peru survived intact. He imagines the roles that the Iroquois Confederacy of the American Northeast, the powerful city-states along the Mississippi River in the Midwest and Southeast, the Navajo Nation and the Pueblo culture of the Southwest, the Eskimo Nation in the Far North, and the Taino/Arawak chiefdoms of the Caribbean would play in American and world politics in the 21st Century. Following a critical examination of the data using empirical archaeology, linguistics, and ethnohistory, Granberry presents a reasoned and compelling discussion of native cultures and the paths they would have logically taken over the past five centuries. He reveals the spectacular futures these brilliant pre-Columbian societies might have had, if not for one epochal meeting that set off a chain of events so overwhelming to them that the course of human history was forever changed. Julian Granberry is Language Coordinator with Native American Language Services in Florida and author of numerous

"Sharp's book reemphasizes the tremendous costs of maintaining the death penalty—costs to real people and real families that ripple throughout generations to come."—Saundra D. Westervelt, author of Shifting the Blame: How Victimization Became a Criminal Defense "Everyone concerned with the effects of capital punishment must have this book."—Margaret Vandiver, professor, department of criminology and criminal justice, University of Memphis Murderers, particularly those sentenced to death, are considered by most to be unusually heinous, often sub-human, and entirely different from the rest of us. In Hidden Victims, sociologist Susan F. Sharp challenges this culturally ingrained perspective by reminding us that those individuals facing a death sentence, in addition to being murderers, are brothers or sisters, mothers or fathers, daughters or sons, relatives or friends. Through a series of vivid and in-depth interviews with families of the accused, she demonstrates how the exceptionally severe way in which we view those on death row trickles down to those with whom they are closely connected. Sharp shows how family members and friends—in effect, the indirect victims of the initial crime—experience a profoundly complicated and socially isolating grief process. Departing from a humanist perspective from which most accounts of victims are told, Sharp makes her case from a sociological standpoint that draws out the parallel experiences and coping mechanisms of these individuals. Chapters focus on responses to sentencing, the particular structure of grieving faced by this population, execution, aftermath, wrongful conviction, family formation after conviction, and the complex situation of individuals related to both the killer and the victim. Powerful, poignant, and intelligently written, Hidden Victims challenges all of us—regardless of which side of the death penalty you are on—to understand the economic, social, and psychological repercussions that shape the lives of the often forgotten families of death row inmates

Nelson - The New Letters, edited by Colin White, presents around 500 of the most important letters uncovered during the course of the epic Nelson Letters Project, a five year search of archives throughout the world. Dating from 1777 and including the earliest extant Nelson letter, this collection shows us both Nelson the officer and Nelson the private man, and, uniquely among the plethora of new Nelson books, it records his life and exploits in his own words. Written in Nelson's free-flowing and conversational style, these letters introduce a very real and human figure bringing us much closer to an otherwise distant historical hero. Colin White's accompanying annotations and essays place Nelson's life and letters in full context. So alongside letters to the Duke of Clarence (later King William IV), Prime Minister Addington, and dignitaries like the King and Queen of Naples, covering treaty negotiations, battle orders and campaign plans, we can also read warm missives to family and friends, informal notes and instructions to colleagues and subordinates and some eloquently passionate letters to Emma Hamilton. Other highlights include Nelson's account of the Battle of Copenhagen; detailed orders for the Trafalgar and Nile campaigns; notes of his careful diplomatic negotiations; his network of personal contacts; and his concern with his public image. In the Maritime Foundation's 2005 Media Awards, Nelson - The New Letters was short-listed for the Mountbatten Maritime Prize, and Dr White was short-listed for the Desmond Wettern Maritime Media Award. Dr COLIN WHITE was Director of the Royal Naval Museum. In an extraordinarily busy 2005 he was also Director of Trafalgar 200, guest curator of the acclaimed Nelson and Napoleon exhibition at the National Maritime Museum, chaired the Official Nelson Commemorations Committee, and gave dozens of talks on Nelson throughout the country and North America. He was also the author of The Nelson Encyclopaedia The Nelson Companion, and 1797: Nelson's Year of Destiny

Although modern international law is now recognized as universally applicable to all the states as soon as they emerge as independent entities (whether members of the United Nations or not, they are accepted as members of the ever-expanding international society, and are bound by its rules and seek its protection), this is only a recent phenomenon not older than the United Nations itself. Before the Second World War, modern international law was supposed to be merely a law of and for the civilized Western European Christian states, or states of European origin, and applicable only between them. Not only Asian and African states which had come to be colonized, but also the position of independent states, such as Persia, Siam, China, Abyssinia, and the like, was said to be anomalous. Since they belonged to different civilizations, questions were raised as to how far relations with their governments could be based on the rules of international law. If that is the case, when did European international law become universally binding? Can states, which did not, and could not, participate in its origin and development question some of its rules, which are inimical to their interests? How can and does this law change, or be modified, in the absence of any supra-national legislature or other authority? What has been the attitude and practice of these newly independent Asian and African states towards international law, which was largely developed by and for the benefit of the rich and industrialized states of Western Europe and the United States, and even more importantly, their role in its development? The author, an Asian scholar and well-known Professor of International Law, trained and educated in the West, has sought to deal with these and other questions in the nine papers contained in this book

Why has capitalism produced economic growth that so vastly dwarfs the growth record of other economic systems, past and present? Why have living standards in countries from America to Germany to Japan risen exponentially over the past century? William Baumol rejects the conventional view that capitalism benefits society through price competition--that is, products and services become less costly as firms vie for consumers. Where most others have seen this as the driving force behind growth, he sees something different--a compound of systematic innovation activity within the firm, an arms race in which no firm in an innovating industry dares to fall behind the others in new products and processes, and inter-firm collaboration in the creation and use of innovations. While giving price competition due credit, Baumol stresses that large firms use innovation as a prime competitive weapon. However, as he explains it, firms do not wish to risk too much innovation, because it is costly, and can be made obsolete by rival innovation. So firms have split the difference through the sale of technology licenses and participation in technology-sharing compacts that pay huge dividends to the economy as a whole--and thereby made innovation a routine feature of economic life. This process, in Baumol's view, accounts for the unparalleled growth of modern capitalist economies. Drawing on extensive research and years of consulting work for many large global firms, Baumol shows in this original work that the capitalist growth process, at least in societies where the rule of law prevails, comes far closer to the requirements of economic efficiency than is typically understood. Resounding with rare intellectual force, this book marks a milestone in the comprehension of the accomplishments of our free-market economic system--a new understanding that, suggests the author,

Young seventeen-year-old Joelito Fil?rtiga was taken from his family home in Asunci?n, Paraguay, brutally tortured, and murdered by the Paraguayan police. Breaking Silence is the inside story of the quest for justice by his fatherùthe true target of the policeùParaguayan artist and philanthropist Dr. Joel Fil?rtiga. That cruel death, and the subsequent uncompromising struggle by Joelito's father and family, led to an unprecedented sea change in international law and human rights. The author, Richard Alan White, first became acquainted with the Fil?rtiga family in the mid-1970s while doing research for his dissertation on Paraguayan independence. Answering a distressed letter from Joelito's father, he returned to Paraguay and journeyed with the Fil?rtiga family on their long and difficult road to redress. White gives the reader a compelling first-hand, participant-observer perspective, taking us into the family with him, to give witness to not only their agony and sorrow, but their resolute strength as wellùstrength that led to a groundbreaking 10 million legal decision in Fil?rtiga v. Pe?a. (Americo Norberto Pe?a-Irala was the Paraguayan police officer responsible for Joelito's abduction and murder, whom the Fil?rtigas had arrested after finding him hiding in Brooklyn.) That landmark decision, based on the almost obscure Alien Tort Claims Act of 1789, ruled that U.S. courts could accept jurisdiction in international casesùrecognizing the right of foreign human rights victims to sueùeven though the alleged violation occurred in another country by a non-American and against a non-American. So fundamentally has the Fil?rtiga precedent changed the landscape of international human rights law, that it has served as the basis for nearly 100 progeny suits, and grown to encompass not only human rights abuses, but also violations of international

Even in the flattest landscape there are passes where the road first climbs to a peak and then descends into a new valley. Most of these passes are simply topography with little or no difference in climate, language, or culture between the valleys on either side. But some passes are different: they are true divides. History too knows such divides. Once these divides have been crossed, the social and political landscape changes; the social and political climate is different, and so is the social and political language. Some time between 1965 and 1973 we passed over such a divide and entered "the next century." Challenging, insightful, and provocative, Peter Drucker's The New Realities anticipates the central issues of a rapidly changing world. When it was initially published, in 1989, some reviewers mistakenly thought The New Realities was a book about the future, or in other words, a series of predictions. But, as indicated in the title, the book discusses realities. Drucker argues that events of the next thirty to forty years, or even further on, had already largely been defined by events of the previous half-century. Thus, Drucker discusses episodes in world history that had not yet happened at the time of the book's initial publication, such as: the archaism of the hope for "salvation by society" in "The End of FDR's America"; the democratization of the Soviet Union in "When the Russian Empire is Gone"; the technology boom of the 1990s in "The Information-Based Organization"; and the evolution of management in "Management as Social Function and Liberal Art." Graced with a new preface by the author that discusses both reactions to the original publication of the book and how important it is for decision-makers to consider the past and present when planning for the future, The New Realities is mandatory reading for understanding politics,

This book focuses on the modern cultures of Africa, from the consequences of the imposition of Western rule to the current struggles to define national identities in the context of neo-liberal economic policies and globalization. The book argues that it is against the backdrop of foreign influences that Africa has defined for itself notions of identity and development. African cultures have been evolving in response to change, and in other ways solidly rooted in a shared past. The book successfully deconstructs the last one hundred and fifty years of cultures that have been disrupted, replaced and resurrected. The Power of African Cultures challenges many preconceived notions, such as male dominance and female submission, the supposed unity of ethnic groups, and contemporary Western stereotypes of Africans. The book shows the dynamism of African cultures to adapt to foreign imposition. Even as colonial rule forced the adoption of foreign institutions and cultures, African cultures appropriated these elements. Traditions were reworked, symbols redefined, and the past situated in contemporary problems in order to accommodate the modern era. The book illustrates the intersection between culture and politics in history and in the present. An ongoing dialogue exists between the upholding of traditional African culture and the imposition of a modern culture, and the identity of a people and their relationships to each other and the outside world are at stake. All societies deal with the ambiguity and tensions of maintaining an old world in the face of new developments, but Africans have had to come to terms with an ambiguous identity, as new nation states, institutions, religions, languages and gender roles established themselves on old traditions and understandings of the world. Toyin Falola is the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities and University Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and author of Nationalism and African Intellectuals and Violence in Nigeria, both from the University of Rochester Press.