Author: Luke Patey
File Type: pdf
In the past decade, the need for oil in Asias new industrial powers, China and India, has grown dramatically. The need for oil in Asias new industrial powers, China and India, has grown dramatically. The New Kings of Crude takes the reader from the dusty streets of an African capital to Asias glistening corporate towers to provide a first look at how the worlds rising economies established new international oil empires in Sudan, amid one of Africas longest-running and deadliest civil wars. For over a decade, Sudan fuelled the international rise of Chinese and Indian national oil companies. But the political turmoil surrounding the historic division of Africas largest country, with the birth of South Sudan, challenged Asias oil giants to chart a new course. Luke Patey weaves together the stories of hardened oilmen, powerful politicians, rebel fighters, and human rights activists to show how the lure of oil brought China and India into Sudan - only later to ensnare both in the messy politics of a divided country. His book also introduces the reader to the Chinese and Indian oilmen and politicians who were willing to become entangled in an African civil war in the pursuit of the worlds most coveted resource. It offers a portrait of the challenges China and India are increasingly facing as emerging powers in the world.
Author: Edwin D. Craun
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Drawing on manuscript sources, this book examines how the medieval clergy developed the authority and persuasive force to attempt to govern the day-to-day speech of Western Christians. It explores, for the first time, how Chaucer, Langland, Gower and the Patience poet presented and judged these attempts to label some political, social and private speech as deviant and destructive--as lying, slander, blasphemy and other Sins of the Tongue.Review...Crauns analysis provides a model of how reinscribing the literary within its appropriate traditions, engaging the rhetorical backgrounds that fourteenth-century poets would have expected their readers to share, helps to bring poetry to life. Kathryn L. Lynch, Speculum--A Journal of Medieval Studies Book DescriptionDrawing on manuscript sources, Pastoral Rhetoric and the Deviant Speaker examines how the medieval clergy developed the authority and persuasive force to attempt to govern the day-to-day speech of Western Christians. It explores, for the first time, how Chaucer, Langland, Gower and the Patience poet presented and judged these attempts to label some political, social and private speech as deviant and destructive SH as lying, slander, blasphemy and other Sins of the Tongue.
Author: Ahuvia Kahane
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The Prologue of Apuleius innovative novel, the Metamorphoses (or Golden Ass), has captivated readers and scholars from the Renaissance to the present day. This volume contains a new text and translation of the Prologue and a wide range of essays which highlight its importance for students of Classical literature and modern literary theory.ReviewThis book of 325 pages...is given over to only the first 119 words of Apuleius Metamorphoses in twenty-four essays by some of the best Classicists of this generation.--Religious Studies ReviewAbout the AuthorAndrew Laird is at University of Warwick, and Visiting Fellow in the Department of Classics at Princeton University. Ahuvia Kahane is at Northwestern University.
Author: Kerry Walters
File Type: pdf
This title moves beyond the polemics to present an overview of atheism that is rigorous yet accessible. Interest in atheism has surged since the New Atheism trinity of Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and Christopher Hitchens launched their attack on religious belief. Their militant, in-your-face style has delighted readers who are already nonbelievers and infuriated theists, and in the process made them best-selling authors. But the cost of their approach is that the current cultural and intellectual dialogue about atheism frequently generates more heat than light acrimony replaces reasoned investigation, polemic overpowers philosophical analysis, and too often the outcome is confusion rather than truth. Atheism A Guide for the Perplexed moves beyond the polemics to present an overview of atheism that is rigorous but still accessible to the educated layperson as well as the undergraduate student in philosophy and theology courses. After a preliminary investigation of what atheists mean when they use the words atheism and God - a much more complex investigation than one might suspect - the book explores the differences and similarities between old and new atheism places atheism of either variety in context by examining the naturalistic worldview that grounds it provides a short historical sketch of atheism examines a number of arguments against God-belief investigates whether an atheist worldview is consistent with ethics and a sense of purposefulness asks is an atheist spirituality is possible inquires into whether the current militancy against religious belief is pertinent or a red herring and, concludes with a few suggestions for continued dialogue between believers and nonbelievers. The goal throughout is to present a balanced, non-partisan introduction to the worldview, principles, and arguments of atheism that highlights the positions strengths as well as its weaknesses. Continuums Guides for the Perplexed are clear, concise and accessible introductions to thinkers, writers and subjects that students and readers can find especially challenging - or indeed downright bewildering. Concentrating specifically on what it is that makes the subject difficult to grasp, these books explain and explore key themes and ideas, guiding the reader towards a thorough understanding of demanding material.** Atheism A Guide for the Perplexed moves beyond the polemics to present an overview of atheism that is rigorous but still accessible to the educated layperson as well as to the undergraduate student in philosophy and theology. After a preliminary investigation of what atheists mean when they use the words atheism and God-a much more complex investigation than one might suspect-the book explores the differences and similarities between old and new atheism places atheism of either variety in context by examining the naturalistic worldview that grounds it provides a short historical sketch of atheism examines a number of arguments against God-belief investigates whether an atheist worldview is consistent with ethics and a sense of purposefulness inquires into whether the current militancy against religious belief is pertinent or a red herring and concludes with a few suggestions for continued dialogue between believers and nonbelievers.The goal throughout is to present a balanced, non-partisan introduction to the worldview, principles, and arguments of atheism that highlights the positions strengths as well as its weaknesses.
Author: Donald Goldsmith
File Type: pdf
For decades, astronomers have sought to discover the ultimate fate of the universe. Will the cosmos continue forever in its expansion, which began billions of years ago with the big bang? Or will gravity someday reverse the process, producing a big crunch? Two groups of astronomers have recently announced a discovery that seems to resolve the issue but that also shakes the science of cosmology to its very foundation the expansion of the universe appears to be accelerating. The Runaway Universe is the story of these astronomers who have stood the world of cosmology on its ear-and of their competitive race to discover the future of the universe. **From Publishers Weekly It could be even bigger than we thought not only is the universe expanding (as astronomers have long known) but its rate of expansion is increasing. Observations of supernovas in 1998, if accurate, show that the cosmos is spreading and dispersing. In a neat, up-to-date introduction to cosmology and astrophysics, prolific astronomy popularizer Goldsmith (The Astronomers The Hunt for Life on Mars) explains how the universe might be shaped and why its sped-up growth is such a surprise. Einsteins theories introduced a number called the cosmological constant if that number had a certain (below-zero) value, the universe would stay the same size. Recent models of the expanding universe set Einsteins constant at zero. Now it turns out the constant has a value above zero. On his way toward the new science of supernovae, Goldsmith covers Einstein and general relativity, telescope maestro Edwin Hubble and his rival Harlow Shapley, such 1980s quantum theorists as Alan Guth and the mysterious dark matter dispersed through intergalactic space. It turns out that all the structure in the cosmos has grown from tiny fluctuations in the density of matter from place to place moreover, we live in a 10-billion-year window of cosmological history during which space is curved, but not too curved--earlier or later, life could never arise. Outlining these theories and discoveries, Goldsmith can sound like a stage magician his new knowledge will prove so amazing that your friends and family will doubt what you have to tell them. On the other hand, hes exceptionally good at explaining math in laypersons terms--a talent welcome in a complicated subject such as this. (Jan.) 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal The universe has been expanding ever since the Big Bang, but gravity is slowing its expansion over time. So held conventional astronomical wisdom until 1998, when two teams of researchers presented data indicating that the expansion of the universe is actually accelerating under the influence of a mysterious antigravity force. How the scientists reached their astonishing conclusion, and how they might in turn be proved wrong, is the subject of this book. Goldsmith, an astronomer and science writer (Einsteins Greatest Blunder?), has received awards for popularizing astronomy. His text is well organized and at times witty. But this is one of his less accessible works before settling down with it, readers would benefit from completing an undergraduate-level introductory astronomy course, and the math-shy will find it downright intimidating. Recommended for academic libraries. -Nancy Curtis, Univ. of Maine Lib., Orono 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.