Author: John J. Mearsheimer
File Type: pdf
The Israel Lobby, by John J. Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Stephen M. Walt of Harvards John F. Kennedy School of Government, was one of the most controversial articles in recent memory. Originally published in the London Review of Books in March 2006, it provoked both howls of outrage and cheers of gratitude for challenging what had been a taboo issue in America the impact of the Israel lobby on U.S. foreign policy. Now in a work of major importance, Mearsheimer and Walt deepen and expand their argument and confront recent developments in Lebanon and Iran. They describe the remarkable level of material and diplomatic support that the United States provides to Israel and argues that this support cannot be fully explained on either strategic or moral grounds. This exceptional relationship is due largely to the political influence of a loose coalition of individuals and organizations that actively work to shape U.S. foreign policy in a pro-Israel direction. Mearsheimer and Walt provocatively contend that the lobby has a far-reaching impact on Americas posture throughout the Middle East--in Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, and toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict--and the policies it has encouraged are in neither Americas national interest nor Israels long-term interest. The lobbys influence also affects Americas relationship with important allies and increases dangers that all states face from global jihadist terror. Writing in The New York Review of Books, Michael Massing declared, Not since Foreign Affairs magazine published Samuel Huntingtons The Clash of Civilizations? in 1993 has an academic essay detonated with such force. The publication of The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy is certain to widen the debate and to be one of the most talked-about books of the year.**
Author: Barak S. Cohen
File Type: pdf
In For Out of Babylonia Shall Come Torah and the Word of the Lord from Nehar Peqod Barak S. Cohen reevaluates the evidence in Tannaitic or Amoraic literature of an independent Babylonian Mishnah which originated in the proto-talmudic period. The book focuses on an analysis of the most notable halakhic corpora that have been identified by scholars as originating in the Tannaitic period or at the outset of the amoraic. If indeed such an early corpus did exist, what are its characteristics and what, if any, connection does it have with the parallel Palestinian collections? Was this Babylonian mishnah created in order to harmonize the Palestinian Mishnah with a corpus of rabbinic teachings already existent in Babylonia? Was this corpus one of the main contributors to the strained interpretations and resolutions found so frequently in the Bavli?--
Author: Farish A. Noor
File Type: pdf
A century before the Philippines came under American control, Americans were already travelling to Southeast Asia regularly. This book looks at the writings of American diplomats, adventurers, and scientists and chronicles how nineteenth-century Americans viewed and imagined Southeast Asia through their own cultural-political lenses. It argues that as Americans came to visit the region they also brought with them a train of cultural assumptions and biases that contributed to the development of American Orientalism in Southeast Asia. **
Author: Frank Bechhofer
File Type: pdf
This practical introduction for first time researchers provides a bridge between how to conduct research and the philosophy of social science, allowing students to relate what they are doing to why. It does not provide a set of rigid recipes for social scientists as many methodology books do, rather it stimulates students to think about the issues involved when deciding upon their research design.By discussing standard approaches to research design and method in various social science disciplines, the authors illustrate why particular designs have traditionally predominated in certain areas of study. But whilst they acknowledge the strengths of these standard approaches, their emphasis is on helping researchers find the most effective solution to their problem by encouraging them, through this familiarity with the principles of various approaches, to innovate where appropriate. This text will prove indispensable for social science students of all levels embarking upon a research project, and for experienced researchers looking for a fresh perspective on their object of study.ReviewThis short book is an excellent introduction to the basic organizing principles that underlie social research design. . . . This is a well-written, nontechnical introduction to the issues that surround decision-making about research design that would be a valuable asset to the beginning social researcher.*Choice*About the AuthorFrank Bechofer is Professor at the Research Centre for Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. Lindsay Paterson is Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Edinburgh.
Author: Paul E. Szarmach
File Type: pdf
First published in 1998, this valuable reference work offers concise, expert answers to questions on all aspects of life and culture in Medieval England, including art, architecture, law, literature, kings, women, music, commerce, technology, warfare and religion. This wide-ranging text encompasses English social, cultural, and political life from the Anglo-Saxon invasions in the fifth century to the turn of the sixteenth century, as well as its ties to the Celtic world of Wales, Scotland and Ireland, the French and Anglo-Norman world of the Continent and the Viking and Scandinavian world of the North Sea. A range of topics are discussed from Sedulius to Skelton, from Wulfstan of York to Reginald Pecock, from Pictish art to Gothic sculpture and from the Vikings to the Black Death. A subject and name index makes it easy to locate information and bibliographies direct users to essential primary and secondary sources as well as key scholarship. With more than 700 entries by over 300 international scholars, this work provides a detailed portrait of the English Middle Ages and will be of great value to students and scholars studying Medieval history in England and Europe, as well as non-specialist readers. **
Author: Robert D. Richardson
File Type: epub
Ralph Waldo Emerson is one of the most important figures in the history of American thought, religion, and literature. The vitality of his writings and the unsettling power of his example continue to influence us more than a hundred years after his death. Now Robert D. Richardson Jr. brings to life an Emerson very different from the old stereotype of the passionless Sage of Concord. Drawing on a vast amount of new material, including correspondence among the Emerson brothers, Richardson gives us a rewarding intellectual biography that is also a portrait of the whole man. These pages present a young suitor, a grief-stricken widower, an affectionate father, and a man with an abiding genius for friendship. The great spokesman for individualism and self-reliance turns out to have been a good neighbor, an activist citizen, a loyal brother. Here is an Emerson who knew how to laugh, who was self-doubting as well as self-reliant, and who became the greatest intellectual adventurer of his age. Richardson has, as much as possible, let Emerson speak for himself through his published works, his many journals and notebooks, his letters, his reported conversations. This is not merely a study of Emersons writing and his influence on others it is Emersons life as he experienced it. We see the failed minister, the struggling writer, the political reformer, the poetic liberator. The Emerson of this book not only influenced Thoreau, Fuller, Whitman, Dickinson, and Frost, he also inspired Nietzsche, William James, Baudelaire, Marcel Proust, Virginia Woolf, and Jorge Luis Borges. Emersons timeliness is persistent and striking his insistence that literature and science are not separate cultures, his emphasis on the worth of every individual, his respect for nature. Richardson gives careful attention to the enormous range of Emersons readingsfrom Persian poets to George Sandand to his many friendships and personal encountersfrom Mary Moody Emerson to the Cherokee chiefs in Bostonevoking both the man and the times in which he lived. Throughout this book, Emersons unquenchable vitality reaches across the decades, and his hold on us endures. **