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New Releases by a

a is the author of American Encounters with Arabs (2005), Kepler's Witch (2004), Paris in the Age of Absolutism (2002), Russia and the Russians (2001), Empirical Processes in M-Estimation (2000).

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American Encounters with Arabs

release date: Nov 30, 2005
American Encounters with Arabs
For sixty years, U.S. government officials have conducted public diplomacy programs to try to reach Arab public opinion—to inform, educate, and understand Arab attitudes. American public affairs officers have met serious challenges in the past, but Arab public criticism of the United States has reached unprecedented levels since September 11, 2001. Polls show that much of the negative opinion of the United States, especially in the Middle East, can be traced to dissatisfaction with U.S. foreign policy. Rugh, a retired career Foreign Service officer who twice served as ambassador to countries in the region, explains how U.S. government officials have dealt with key problem issues over the years, and he recommends ways that public diplomacy can better support and enhance U.S. national interests in the Middle East. This struggle for the hearts and minds of the Arab world, so crucial to the success of American efforts in post-occupation Iraq, is carried out through broadcasting, cultural contacts, and educational and professional exchanges. Rugh describes the difference between public diplomacy and propaganda. He points out that public diplomacy uses open means of communication and is truthful. Its four main components are explaining U.S. foreign policy to foreign publics; presenting them with a fair and balanced picture of American society, culture, and institutions; promoting mutual understanding; and advising U.S. policy makers on foreign attitudes. Public diplomacy supports the traditional diplomatic functions of official business between governments. Whereas diplomats from the United States deal with diplomats of foreign governments, public affairs officers deal with opinion leaders such as media editors, reporters, academics, student leaders, and prominent intellectuals and cultural personalities. Rugh provides an up-close-and-personal look at how public affairs officers do their jobs, how they used innovation in their efforts to meet the challenges of the past, and how they continue to do so in the post-September 11 era.

Kepler's Witch

release date: Mar 30, 2004
Kepler's Witch
Set against the backdrop of the witchcraft trial of his mother, this fascinating biography of Johannes Kepler, "the Protestant Galileo" and 16th-century mathematician and astronomer, reveals the surprisingly spiritual nature of the quest of early modern science.

Paris in the Age of Absolutism

release date: Jan 01, 2002
Paris in the Age of Absolutism
By the eighteenth century Paris was one of the great wonders of Europe, renowned for its magnificent royal monuments and as a center for science, literature, and the arts. More so than any other European city, Paris reflected the spirit of an age--an age that reached its zenith with the reign of France''s Sun King, Louis XIV. No book better captures that spirit than Orest Ranum''s Paris in the Age of Absolutism, first published in 1968 and now reissued in a revised and expanded edition. Ranum''s tour of Paris begins in the late 1500s with a French capital city exhausted by the violence of the Wars of Religion and proceeds through the long century that ends with the death of Louis XIV in 1715. Henry IV (1589-1610), head of the Bourbon branch of the royal family, laid the foundations of modern Paris, but it was during the mature years of his grandson, Louis XIV, and during the service of his visionary minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, that a New Rome was created. By 1715 the city was far different from what it had been in 1590. There were now large geometrical public squares with statues of the King at their focal point. There were arches of triumph, hospital-prisons, a new and gigantic wing on the Louvre, handsome stone bridges, streetlights, and massive stone quays along the Seine. Ranum ranges widely through the streets and quarters of Paris, attentive to the achievements of town planners, architects, and engineers as well as to city politics, social currents, and the spirit of religious reform. Behind it all lay the rule-creating authoritarianism of the absolute state, which, ironically, unleashed Parisians'' creative impulses in everything from literature, painting, and music to architecture, mathematics, and physics. Paris in the Age of Absolutism is one of those rare books that combines elegant prose with stunning erudition, making it both captivating for general readers and challenging to scholars. This new edition has been thoroughly revised and expanded to take into account the wealth of scholarship that has appeared since 1968. Of particular note are a new introduction and a new chapter on women writers. A larger format accentuates a full selection of illustrations, many of them new to this edition.

Russia and the Russians

release date: Jan 01, 2001
Russia and the Russians
Chronicles the history of the Russian Empire from the Mongol Invasion, through the Bolshevik Revolution, to the aftereffects of the Cold War.

Empirical Processes in M-Estimation

release date: Jan 28, 2000
Empirical Processes in M-Estimation
The theory of empirical processes provides valuable tools for the development of asymptotic theory in (nonparametric) statistical models, and makes possible the unified treatment of a number of them. This book reveals the relation between the asymptotic behaviour of M-estimators and the complexity of parameter space. Virtually all results are proved using only elementary ideas developed within the book; there is minimal recourse to abstract theoretical results. To make the results concrete, a detailed treatment is presented for two important examples of M-estimation, namely maximum likelihood and least squares. The theory also covers estimation methods using penalties and sieves. Many illustrative examples are given, including the Grenander estimator, estimation of functions of bounded variation, smoothing splines, partially linear models, mixture models and image analysis. Graduate students and professionals in statistics as well as those with an interest in applications, to such areas as econometrics, medical statistics, etc., will welcome this treatment.

Majority Rule or Minority Will

release date: Mar 28, 1999
Majority Rule or Minority Will
This book examines the influence of precedent on the behavior of the US Supreme Court justices throughout the Court''s history. Supreme Court justices almost always "follow" precedent, in that they always cite precedents for the positions they take. Because there are always precedents on either side of a case for justices to follow, following precedent does not mean that the justices are ever influenced by precedent. Employing the assumption that for precedent to be an influence on the behavior of justices, it must lead to a result they would not otherwise have reached, the authors show that precedent rarely controls the justices'' votes.

Throwaway Dads

release date: Jan 01, 1999
Throwaway Dads
Argues that the largely negative portrayal of fathers in mass media is both inaccurate and harmful, and offer proposals for change.

Foundations of Astronomy

release date: Jan 01, 1997
Foundations of Astronomy
What is our place in the universe? Mike Seeds takes students on the journey to learning how we know what we know about the universe. Seeds enables the student to gain perspective on our planet in relation to the rest of the universe and to understand how a small set of natural processes are responsible for a wide variety of phenomena and a diverse assortment of objects. This text will help students piece together the process of science and use the facts the way real scientists use facts, as springboards to understanding. Innovative pedagogy in this edition stimulates critical thinking and is coupled with Seeds'' proven success in writing at a level appropriate for students.

Sociolinguistics

release date: Jun 13, 1996
Sociolinguistics
New edition of widely-acclaimed textbook, including new sections on up-to-date topics for the 1990s.

Herbal Medicines

release date: Jan 01, 1996
Herbal Medicines
This work, produced under the direction of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, is intended to serve as a reference work for pharmacists, doctors and other health-care workers and to help them provide professional advice on the use of herbal remedies to members of the public.

Ecology of Java & Bali

release date: Jan 01, 1996
Ecology of Java & Bali
Java and Bali are the best known of all the islands in Indonesia, and nowhere else in the country are ecological issues so acute. This book provides invaluable ecological data, so that development activities can be viewed in light of their ecological and social impacts.These eagerly-awaited volumes are the result of four years of research into the status of Indonesian coastal and marine ecosystems. They chart the extraordinary treasure trove of the areas marine biodiversity, and discuss the problems that have resulted from current population pressures and economic development.

Defense Industries in Latin American Countries

release date: Jun 30, 1994
Defense Industries in Latin American Countries
This book develops a model for analyzing the relationships of the defense industry with the productive infrastructure, the political constraints, and the technological capabilities of a semi-industrialized country. This model is used as the base for the analysis of the defense industries of semi-industrialized Latin-American countries that have shown a proven capacity to produce and export indigenous defense equipment: Argentina, Brazil and Chile. The defense industries of these three countries are described and analyzed in depth, with the objective of determining the reasons for their varying performance and of assessing the effects, positive or negative, on their respective national economies.

A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

release date: Jan 01, 1994
A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Mark Tessler''s comprehensive and balanced history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the earliest times to the present provides a constructive framework for understanding recent developments and assessing the prospects for future peace.

Reinventing The Future

release date: Jan 01, 1994
Reinventing The Future
The author of The Eudaemonic Pie now reveals the inspiration, motivations, and aspirations of the world''s greatest scientists. The scientists interviewed in this collection have changed the rules of the game--altered our perception of reality and the language used to describe it.

Dirty Little Secrets of World War II

release date: Jan 01, 1994
Dirty Little Secrets of World War II
Military information no one told you about the greatest most terrible war in history.

The Rites of Passage of Jean Genet

release date: Jan 01, 1992
The Rites of Passage of Jean Genet
"In this book, Gene A. Plunka argues that the most important single element that solidifies all of Genet''s work is the concept of metamorphosis. Genet''s plays and prose demonstrate the transition from game playing to the establishment of one''s identity through a state of risk taking that develops from solitude. However, risk taking per se is not as important as the rite of passage. Anthropologist Victor Turner''s work in ethnography is used as a focal point for the examination of rites of passage in Genet''s dramas." "Rejecting society, Genet has allied himself with peripheral groups, marginal men, and outcasts--scapegoats who lack power in society. Much of their effort is spent in revolt or direct opposition in mainstream society that sees them as objects to be abused. As an outcast or marginal man, Genet solved his problem of identity through artistic creation and metamorphosis. Likewise, Genet''s protagonists are outcasts searching for positive value in a society over which they have no control; they always appear to be the victims or scapegoats. As outcasts, Genet''s protagonists establish their identities by first willing their actions and being proud to do so." "Unfortunately, man''s sense of Being is constantly undermined by society and the way individuals react to roles, norms, and values. Roles are the products of carefully defined and codified years of positively sanctioned institutional behavior. According to Genet, role playing limits individual freedom, stifles creativity, and impedes differentiation. Genet equates role playing with stagnant bourgeois society that imitates rather than invents; the latter is a word Genet often uses to urge his protagonists into a state of productive metamorphosis. Imitation versus invention is the underlying dialectic between bourgeois society and outcasts that is omnipresent in virtually all of Genet''s works." "Faced with rejection, poverty, oppression, and degradation, Genet''s outcasts often escape their horrible predicaments by living in a world of illusion that consists of ceremony, game playing, narcissism, sexual and secret rites, or political charades. Like children, Genet''s ostracized individuals play games to imitate a world that they can not enter. Essentially, the play acting becomes catharsis for an oppressed group that is otherwise confined to the lower stratum of society." "Role players and outcasts who try to find an identity through cathartic game playing never realize their potential in Genet''s world. Instead, Genet is interested in outcasts who immerse themselves in solitude and create their own sense of dignity free from external control. Most important, these isolated individuals may initially play games, yet they ultimately experience metamorphosis from a world of rites, charades, and rituals to a type of "sainthood" where dignity and nobility reign. The apotheosis is achieved through a distinct act of conscious revolt designed to condemn the risk taker to a degraded life of solitude totally distinct from society''s norms and values." --Book Jacket.

The Quest for El Cid

release date: Jan 01, 1991
The Quest for El Cid
Rodrigo Díaz, the legendary warrior-knight of eleventh-century Castile known as El Cid, is still honored in Spain as a national hero for liberating the fatherland from the occupying Moors. Yet, as this book reveals, there are many contradictions between eleventh-century reality and the mythology that developed later. By placing El Cid in a fresh, historical context, Fletcher shows us an adventurous soldier of fortune who was of a type, one of a number of "cids," or "bosses," who flourished in eleventh-century Spain. But the El Cid of legend--the national hero -- was unique in stature even in his lifetime. Before his death El Cid was already celebrated in a poem; posthumously he was immortalized in the great epic Poema de Mío Cid. When he died in Valencia in 1099, he was ruler of an independent principality he had carved for himself in Eastern Spain. Rather than the zealous Christian leader many believe him to have been, Rodrigo emerges in Fletcher''s study as a mercenary equally at home in the feudal kingdoms of northern Spain and the exotic Moorish lands of the south, selling his martial skills to Christian and Muslim alike. Indeed, his very title derives from the Arabic word sayyid, meaning ''lord'' or ''master.'' And as there was little if any sense of Spanish nationhood in the eleventh century, he can hardly be credited for uniting a medieval Spanish nation. This ground-breaking inquiry into the life and times of El Cid disentangles fact from myth to create a striking portrait of an extraordinary man, clearly showing how and why legend transformed him into something he was not during his lifetime.--From publisher description.

Symbolic Analysis Cross-culturally

release date: Jan 01, 1989
Symbolic Analysis Cross-culturally
Examines the relationship of symbolism and the Rorschach test across three divergent cultures--Japanese, Algerian Arab, and Apache

A Guide to the Birds of Panama

release date: Jan 01, 1989
A Guide to the Birds of Panama
This is the first paperback version of the second edition of the popular A Guide to the Birds of Panama. In the second edition, published in 1989, the authors expanded information on the birds of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Honduras: approximately 200 new species were added to the material in the 1976 edition. Over 300 additional species, some of them Panamanian, were illustrated. Sixteen new plates were added, and three of the original plates were replaced by improved versions. Throughout the book changes were made to accommodate the explosion in knowledge of the birds of Panama and nearby areas and of neotropical birds in general. The basic sequence and systematics of the AOU 1983 Check-list were adopted. Also included in the revised edition was expanded and updated information on birdfinding in Panama, prepared with the assistance of two of Panama''s best resident birders. The book also contains a special section outlining developments in Panama ornithology and conservation. "A sophisticated treatment of one of the world''s richest avifaunas."--The Quarterly Review of Biology

Soviet Workers and Stalinist Industrialization

Equality Under the Constitution

Equality Under the Constitution
Has some significant discussion of the rights of homosexuals under the 14th Amendment. See Chapter 9.--P. Thorslev.

A New History of India

A New History of India
A New History of India, now in its fifth edition, explores today''s affluent India. This edition remains the most readable and illuminating one-volume history of India and brings students up-to-date on current developments.

Mandarin Chinese

Mandarin Chinese
This reference grammar provides, for the first time, a description of the grammar of Mandarin Chinese, the official spoken language of China and Taiwan, in functional terms, focusing on the role and meanings of word-level and sentence-level structures in actual conversations.

The Canonization of the Synagogue Service

The Canonization of the Synagogue Service
Lawrence A. Hoffman''s inquiry into the reasons for the canonization of the Jewish style synagogue service between the eighth and eleventh centuries presents a novel reinterpretation of the available evidence that will have repercussions for studies of Jewish and Christian liturgy. The author suggests that Babylonian Jewish authorities attempted to fix Jewish liturgy during the height of the geonic period (c. 750-1025 A. D.) in response to changing social and economic conditions, and that this period, customarily considered as a whole, should be divided instead into three distinct eras. Because the changing attitude toward liturgical canonization during this period reflects the Jewish community''s self-perception and its view of other groups with whom it dealt, Professor Hoffman''s findings cast fresh light on such important matters as the Karaite schism and the condition of the medieval Palestinian community. In addition, many of the ancient liturgical alternatives discussed provide essential background for studies of both Jewish and Christian liturgies of antiquity. To enhance usefulness of the book for nonexperts, this volume contains a glossary of liturgical terms and rubrics, introductory surveys of the history of the prayers discussed, and full biography and notes for further reading.
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