Author: Clifford R. Backman File Type: pdf The Worlds of Medieval Europe updates and revises traditional textbook representations of the Middle Ages by balancing the conventional focus on political affairs, especially those of northern Europe, with equally detailed attention to medieval society as it developed in the Mediterranean. The result is a nuanced portrayal of a multifarious western world that was sharply divided between its northern and southern aspects. By also integrating the histories of the Islamic and Byzantine world into the main narrative, the text brings new life to the continuum of interaction--social, cultural, and intellectual, as well as commercial--that existed among all three societies. In addition, it describes ways in which the medieval Latin West attempted to understand the unified and rational structure of the human cosmos, which they believed existed beneath the observable diversity and disorder of the world. This effort to re-create a human ordering of unity through diversity provides an essential key to understanding medieval Europe and the ways in which it regarded and reacted to the worlds around it. The Worlds of Medieval Europe is an ideal text for undergraduate courses in medieval history, Western civilization, the history of Christianity, and Muslim-Christian relations. It also serves as an excellent supplement for courses on the history of a specific country in the medieval period, the history of medieval art, or the history of the European economy. **Review Advance Praise This fresh and often iconoclastic survey acknowledges the diversity of medieval experiences--from era to era, region to region, class to class. The solid and traditional political narrative is enriched with an energetic discussion of environmental and technological issues, while social history, fascinating in itself, is successfully integrated into these contexts. Important intellectual themes of religion and philosophy are particularly accessible to students through a clear and focused examination of broader issues. The later Middle Ages, now the focus of much research, receive extended treatment. There are suggested texts and studies to draw students into the library but the text itself is so richly annotated with primary sources that as a course resource it could stand alone.--James W. Brodman, University of Central Arkansas About the Author Clifford R. Backman, Associate Professor of History, Boston University.

Author: Patrick Radden Keefe File Type: epub bFrom award-winning bNew Yorker staff writer Patrick Radden Keefe, a stunning, intricate narrative about a notorious killing in Northern Ireland and its devastating repercussions In December 1972, Jean McConville, a thirty-eight-year-old mother of ten, was dragged from her Belfast home by masked intruders, her children clinging to her legs. They never saw her again. Her abduction was one of the most notorious episodes of the vicious conflict known as The Troubles. Everyone in the neighborhood knew the I.R.A. was responsible. But in a climate of fear and paranoia, no one would speak of it. In 2003, five years after an accord brought an uneasy peace to Northern Ireland, a set of human bones was discovered on a beach. McConvilles children knew it was their mother when they were told a blue safety pin was attached to the dress--with so many kids, she had always kept it handy for diapers or ripped clothes. Patrick Radden Keefes mesmerizing book on the bitter conflict in Northern Ireland and its aftermath uses the McConville case as a starting point for the tale of a society wracked by a violent guerrilla war, a war whose consequences have never been reckoned with. The brutal violence seared not only people like the McConville children, but also I.R.A. members embittered by a peace that fell far short of the goal of a united Ireland, and left them wondering whether the killings they committed were not justified acts of war, but simple murders. From radical and impetuous I.R.A. terrorists such as Dolours Price, who, when she was barely out of her teens, was already planting bombs in London and targeting informers for execution, to the ferocious I.R.A. mastermind known as The Dark, to the spy games and dirty schemes of the British Army, to Gerry Adams, who negotiated the peace but betrayed his hardcore comrades by denying his I.R.A. past--Say Nothing conjures a world of passion, betrayal, vengeance, and anguish. Review Meticulously reported, exquisitely written, and grippingly told, Say Nothing is a work of revelation. Keefe not only peels back, layer by layer, the truth behind one of the most important and mysterious crimes of a terrible conflict he also excavates the history of the Troubles, and illuminates its repercussions to this day. bDAVID GRANN, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon b Patrick Radden Keefes gripping account of the Troubles is equal parts true-crime, history, and tragedy. Keefes incisive reporting reveals the hidden costs of the Troubles, illuminating both the terrible toll of the conflict, and how it continues to reverberate today. A must read. bGILLIAN FLYNN, #1 New York Times bestselling author of bGone Girl Patrick Radden Keefe uses the old Irish phrase, Whatever you say, say nothing, to suggest and to say just about everything. Keefes great accomplishment is to capture the tragedy of the Troubles on a human scale. By tracing the intersecting lives of a handful of unforgettable characters, he has created a deeply honest and intimate portrait of a society still haunted by its own violent past. Say Nothing is a bracing, empathetic, heartrending work of storytelling. bCOLUM McCANN, New York Times bestselling author of Transatlantic and Let the Great World Spin, Winner of the National Book Awardb Patrick Radden Keefe has the rare ability to convey an intimate story that powerfully illuminates a much larger one. Combining the skills of an investigative journalist with the storytelling power of a suspense novelist, Keefe brilliantly represents the menace and intrigue that devastated Belfast during The Troubles, and shows the course of ordinary lives headed toward inevitable and awful collision. By turns gripping and profoundly revelatory, Say Nothing shines a brighter light on Northern Irelands tragic past than any history book. SCOTT ANDERSON,b bNew York Times bestselling author of Lawrence in Arabia A shattering, intimate study of how young men and women consumed by radical political violence are transformed by the history they make, and struggle to come to terms with the blood they have shed, Say Nothing is a powerful reckoning. Keefe has written an essential book. PHILIP GOUREVITCH, author of National Book Critics Circle Award winner We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families and The Ballad of Abu Ghraib Smart, searching, and utterly absorbing, Say Nothing sweeps us into the heart of one of the modern worlds bitterest conflicts and, with unusual compassion, walks us back out again along the road to reconciliation. This is more than a powerful, superbly reported work of journalism. It is contemporary history at its finest. MAYA JASANOFF, author of the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning Libertys Exiles and The Dawn Watch Say Nothing is a piercing inquiry into the nature of political violence and its aftermath, by one of the best reporters in the United States. In this beautifully written book, Patrick Radden Keefe delves into the heart of the IRA, chronicling the worst years of the Troubles and the ghosts that continue to haunt Belfast even now that the fighting is over. Faulkner had it right The past is never dead. Its not even past. b PETER BERGEN, author of Manhunt The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden From 911 to Abbottabad b [Keefe] incorporates a real-life whodunit into a moving, accessible account of the violence that has afflicted Northern Ireland... Tinged with immense sadness, this work never loses sight of the humanity of even those who committed horrible acts in support of what they believed in.em font-style italic bold bbbPublishers Weekly, starred reviewb A searing reflection on the Troubles and their aftermath... Masterly. bThe Economist b About the Author bPATRICK RADDEN KEEFEb is a staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of The Snakehead and Chatter. His work has also appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Slate, New York, and The New York Review of Books. He received the 2014 National Magazine Award for Feature Writing, for his story A Loaded Gun, was a finalist for the National Magazine Award for Reporting in 2015 and 2016, and is also the recipient of an Eric and Wendy Schmidt Fellowship at the New America Foundation and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Author: Michela Arnaboldi File Type: pdf Performance Measurement and Management for Engineersintroduces key concepts in finance, accounting, and management to project managers who have engineering backgrounds. It focuses these basic concepts on issues of measuring and managing enterprise value. Thus, after defining enterprise value, the book begins by explaining the ways and means of measurement. It then takes up financial measurement, describing and analyzing the typologies of financial indicators while illustrating their advantages and disadvantages. After focusing on measuring enterprise value, the second section takes up managing that value. Like the first, it pursues a double view using indicators for internal control while employing them to analyze other companies. If engineering project managers possess a source of quantitative and qualitative information about business management, Performance Measurement and Management for Engineers will help them increase their contributions to the business. ul lExplains how main performance indicators are related to the value of the companyl lReveals how to assess the financial needs of companies in relation to their financial goals and mechanisms (e.g., equity, debt, and hybrid)l lDescribes key information and indicators for assessing the ability of enterprises to create value across timel lIndicates the profitability sources of different business unitsl ul **From the Back Cover Performance Measurement and Management for Engineersintroduces key concepts in finance, accounting, and management to project managers who have engineering backgrounds. It focuses these basic concepts on issues of measuring and managing enterprise value. Thus, after defining enterprise value, the book begins by explaining the ways and means of measurement. It then takes up financial measurement, describing and analyzing the typologies of financial indicators while illustrating their advantages and disadvantages. After focusing on measuring enterprise value, the second section takes up managing that value. Like the first, it pursues a double view using indicators for internal control while employing them to analyze other companies. If engineering project managers possess a source of quantitative and qualitative information about business management, Performance Measurement and Management for Engineers will help them increase their contributions to the business. About the Author Michela Arnaboldi is a member of the core faculty of the School of Management at Politecnico di Milano, where she is Director of the Educational Division of the School of Management. She has served as visiting professor at the Centre for Analysis of Risk and Regulation at the London School of Economics and is a member of the Institute of Public Sector Accounting Research of the University of Edinburgh. Giovanni Azzone has served as Chairman of the Evaluation Committee and member of the Board of Management of the Office of Internal Control of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers. He has published in International Journal of Public Sector Management, Journal of Organizational Change Management, and Studies in Higher Education. Marco Giorgino is Professor of Corporate Finance and Global Risk Management. He teaches Corporate Finance, Corporate and Investment Banking, Risk Management, the Master of Science in Management Engineering, and he is the author of over 80 publications, books and articles on banking and financial services.

Author: Robert M. Baum File Type: pdf West Africas Women of God examines the history of direct revelation from Emitai, the Supreme Being, which has been central to the Diola religion from before European colonization to the present day. Robert M. Baum charts the evolution of this movement from its origins as an exclusively male tradition to one that is largely female. He traces the response of Diola to the distinct challenges presented by conquest, colonial rule, and the post-colonial era. Looking specifically at the work of the most famous Diola woman prophet, Alinesitoue, Baum addresses the history of prophecy in West Africa and its impact on colonialism, the development of local religious traditions, and the role of women in religious communities.