Author: Matthew Klingle File Type: pdf At the foot of the snow-capped Cascade Mountains on the forested shores of Puget Sound, Seattle is set in a location of spectacular natural beauty. Boosters of the city have long capitalized on this splendor, recently likening it to the fairytale capital of L. Frank Baums The Wizard of Oz, the Emerald City. But just as Dorothy, Toto, and their traveling companions discover a darker reality upon entering the green gates of the imaginary Emerald City, those who look more closely at Seattles landscape will find that it reveals a history marked by environmental degradation and urban inequality. This book explores the role of nature in the development of the city of Seattle from the earliest days of its settlement to the present. Combining environmental history, urban history, and human geography, Matthew Klingle shows how attempts to reshape nature in and around Seattle have often ended not only in ecological disaster but also social inequality. The price of Seattles centuries of growth and progress has been paid by its wildlife, including the famous Pacific salmon, and its poorest residents. Klingle proposes a bold new way of understanding the interdependence between nature and culture, and he argues for what he calls an ethic of place. Using Seattle as a compelling case study, he offers important insights for every city seeking to live in harmony with its natural landscape. **
Author: Ssandra Cavallo
File Type: pdf
Did early modern people care about their health? And what did it mean to lead a healthy life in Italy and England? Through a range of textual evidence, images and material artefacts Conserving health in early modern culture documents the profound impact which ideas about healthy living had on daily practices as well as on intellectual life and the material world in this period. In both countries staying healthy was understood as depending on the careful management of the six Non-Naturals the air one breathed, food and drink, excretions, sleep, exercise and repose, and the passions of the soul. To a close scrutiny, however, models of prevention differed considerably in Italy and England, reflecting country-specific cultural, political and medical contexts and different confessional backgrounds. **
Author: Rick Curtis
File Type: epub
When it was first published in 1998, The Backpackers Field Manual set the standard for comprehensive backpacking books. Now exhaustively updated to offer a more complete view of backpacking today, it covers the latest developments in gearsuch as Global Positioning Systems and ultralight hiking equipmentfirst aid, and Leave No Trace comping, and includes a chapter devoted to outdoor leadership resources and basics. Beginners and experienced hikers alike will find this book indispensable for trip planning strategies and also as a quick reference on the trail forBACKCOUNTRY SKILLShow to forecast the weather, identify trees, bear-proof your campsite, wrap an injured ankle, and more--illustrated with more than 100 line drawings.TRICKS OF THE TRAILtime-tested practical lessons learned along the wayGOING ULTRALIGHTdownsizing suggestions for those who want to lighten upEvery traveler knows that space in a backpack is limited, so on your next trip, carry the only guide youll ever needthis oneand take to the great outdoors with confidence.
Author: Daniel A. Bell
File Type: pdf
Is liberal democracy a universal ideal? Proponents of Asian values argue that it is a distinctive product of the Western experience and that Western powers shouldnt try to push human rights and democracy onto Asian states. Liberal democrats in the West typically counter by questioning the motives of Asian critics, arguing that Asian leaders are merely trying to rationalize human-rights violations and authoritarian rule. In this book--written as a dialogue between an American democrat named Demo and three East Asian critics--Daniel A. Bell attempts to chart a middle ground between the extremes of the international debate on human rights and democracy.Bell criticizes the use of Asian values to justify oppression, but also draws on East Asian cultural traditions and contributions by contemporary intellectuals in East Asia to identify some powerful challenges to Western-style liberal democracy. In the first part of the book, Bell makes use of colorful stories and examples to show that there is a need to take into account East Asian perspectives on human rights and democracy. The second part--a fictitious dialogue between Demo and Asian senior statesman Lee Kuan Yew--examines the pros and cons of implementing Western-style democracy in Singapore. The third part of the book is an argument for an as-yet-unrealized Confucian political institution that justifiably differs from Western-style liberal democracy.This is a thought-provoking defense of distinctively East Asian challenges to Western-style liberal democracy that will stimulate interest and debate among students of political theory, Asian studies, and international human rights.
Author: Bret Easton Ellis
File Type: epub
One of the most disturbing novels Ive read in a long time. It possesses an unnerving air of documentary reality - Michiko Kakutani, New York Times. In 1985, Bret Easton Ellis shocked, stunned and disturbed with his debut novel, Less Than Zero. Published when he was just twenty-one, this extraordinary and instantly infamous work has done more than simply define a genre, it has become a rare thing a cult classic and a timeless embodiment of the zeitgeist. Twenty-five years on, Less Than Zero continues to be a landmark in the lives of successive generations of readers across the globe. Filled with relentless drinking in seamy bars and glamorous nightclubs, wild, drug-fuelled parties, and dispassionate sexual encounters, Less Than Zero - narrated by Clay, an eighteen-year-old student returning home to Los Angeles for Christmas - is a fierce coming-of-age story, justifiably celebrated for its unflinching depiction of hedonistic youth, its brutal portrayal of the inexorable consequences of such moral depravity, and its authors refusal to condone or chastise such behaviour. An extraordinarily accomplished first novel - New Yorker. The Catcher in the Rye for the MTV generation - USA Today. Remarkable. A killer - sexy, sassy, sad - Village Voice.
Author: Iutisone Salevao
File Type: pdf
This book adopts an inter-disciplinary approach to the study of the theology, symbolism and argument of Hebrews. Employing sociological models, the book examines Hebrews in the context of the early Christians construction and maintenance of a social world. In that respect, the book elaborates the thesis that Hebrews was designed to serve a legitimating function in the realm of social interaction, that its theology, symbolism and argument were designed to construct and maintain the symbolic universe of the community of the readers. It is argued that we cannot properly understand the theology, symbolism and argument of Hebrews apart from its first-century context.**
Author: Éric Montpetit
File Type: pdf
The work of early pluralist thinkers, from Arthur Bentley to Robert Dahl, inspired much optimism about democracy. They argued that democracy was functioning well, despite disagreements arising among the diversity of interests represented in policy-making processes. Yet it is unlikely that anyone paying attention to news coverage today would share such optimism. The media portray current policy-making processes as intractably polarized, devoid of any opportunity to move forward and adopt essential policy changes. This book aims to revive our long-lost sense of optimism about policy-making and democracy. Through original research into biotechnology policy-making in North America and Europe, Eric Montpetit shows that the depiction of policy-making offered by early pluralist thinkers is not so far off the present reality. Todays policy decision-making process - complete with disagreement among the participants - is consistent with what might be expected in a pluralist society, in sharp contrast with the negative image projected by the media. **Review Politics, and especially the interest-group struggle, gets a bad rap. In this spirited defense of democratic, pluralist politics, Eric Montpetit compares the practice of politics with what the media says about that process in biotechnology policy. He finds serious distortions in media depictions that, he argues, need redressing. Montpetits defense is straightforward, solidly empirical, and his case is well-made. The book is a must-read for policy scholars, students in public policy courses, journalists covering politics, and policy activists. It is a needed bromide for todays overly cynical view of the democratic political process. Bryan D. Jones, University of Texas, Austin Eric Montpetit shines a light on policy processes under the shadow of mainstream politics and, in doing so, shows that pluralistic democracies are not quite as distressed as commonly depicted in the mass media. His book forces a much-needed introspection of our prior assumptions and baseline knowledge about how we study, understand, and assess policy processes. Grounded in theory and backed by solid empirical evidence, this book remains accessible to academics and non-academics looking to connect studies of policy processes and democratic politics. Christopher Weible, University of Colorado Denver In Defense of Pluralism cuts against the grain of many popular and scholarly accounts by showing how policy actors in North America and Europe have a much more nuanced set of beliefs about genetically engineered foods and stem cell research than media coverage of these controversies would lead us to believe. Montpetit shows that disagreement over contentious issues does not undermine policy actors ability to address pressing, complex problems. The quality of the research in this book is truly impressive, and its findings are presented in a highly accessible style that will appeal to a broad range of readers. Adam Sheingate, Johns Hopkins University Book Description Providing an empirically grounded perspective on policy disagreements, Eric Montpetit highlights significant distortions in the media coverage of policy-making. This book will be of interest to policy-making scholars and professionals, as well as to professionals in communication and journalism looking for material to reflect upon in their work.