Most Popular Books by MICHAEL MORRIS

Erma Lee is on the run . . . Running from an abusive husband . . . running from a mother who doesn''t care -- never cared. Running from a soul-numbing factory job that has held her down her entire life ... Erma Lee and her granddaughter, Cher, flee to the town of Wiregrass, Alabama, to escape the past and start over -- or so Erma Lee thinks. Erma Lee forms an unlikely friendship with Miss Claudia, an elderly socialite who is hiding a few details about her own past. Life in Wiregrass is different for Erma Lee and Cher, for here they find mercy and promise -- until, that is, the day Cher''s convict father arrives in town, forcing all three women to come to terms with buried secrets.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE FINANCIAL TIMES AND SCHRODERS BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR A revelatory, paradigm-shifting work from a renowned Columbia professor and “one of the great social and cultural psychologists” (Amy Cuddy) that demystifies our tribal instincts and shows us how to use them to create positive change. Tribalism is our most misunderstood buzzword. We’ve all heard pundits bemoan its rise, and it’s been blamed for everything from political polarization to workplace discrimination. But as acclaimed cultural psychologist and Columbia professor Michael Morris argues, our tribal instincts are humanity’s secret weapon. Ours is the only species that lives in tribes: groups glued together by their distinctive cultures that can grow to a scale far beyond clans and bands. Morris argues that our psychology is wired by evolution in three distinctive ways. First, the peer instinct to conform to what most people do. Second, the hero instinct to give to the group and emulate the most respected. And third, the ancestor instinct to follow the ways of prior generations. These tribal instincts enable us to share knowledge and goals and work as a team to transmit the accumulated pool of cultural knowledge onward to the next generation. Countries, churches, political parties, and companies are tribes, and tribal instincts explain our loyalties to them and the hidden ways that they affect our thoughts, actions, and identities. Rather than deriding tribal impulses for their irrationality, we can recognize them as powerful levers that elevate performance, heal rifts, and set off shockwaves of cultural change. Weaving together deep research, current and historical events, and stories from business and politics, Morris cuts across conventional wisdom to completely reframe how we think about our tribes. Bracing and hopeful, Tribal unlocks the deepest secrets of our psychology and gives us the tools to manage our misunderstood superpower.

Written by a leading expert, this is the ideal guide to the only book Wittgenstein published during his lifetime, the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Michael Morris makes sense of Wittgenstein’s brief but often cryptic text, highlighting its key themes. He introduces and analyzes: Wittgenstein’s life and the background to the Tractatus the ideas and text of the Tractatus the continuing importance of Wittgenstein''s work to philosophy today, Wittgenstein is the most important twentieth-century philosopher in the English speaking world. This book will be essential reading for all students of philosophy of language and metaphysics.

Real Likenesses presents a radical new approach to artistic representation. At its heart is a serious reconsideration of the relationship between medium and content in representational art, which counters currently dominant theories that make attention to the former inevitably a distraction from attending to the latter. Through close analysis of paintings, photographs, and novels, Michael Morris proposes a new understanding of the real likenesses we encounter in representational art; what they are, how they are made present to us, and how they are created. The result is an intuitive way of thinking about how these art forms work.

On the surface, Brandon Willard seems like your average eight-year-old boy. He loves his mama, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and G. I. Joe. But Brandon''s life is anything but typical. Wise beyond his years, Brandon understands he''s the only one in this world he can count on. It''s an outlook that serves him well the day his mama leaves him behind at the Raleigh bus station and sets off to Canada with "her destiny" -- the latest man that she hopes will bring her happiness. The day his mother leaves, Brandon takes the first step toward shaping his own destiny. Soon he sends himself spending pleasant days playing with his cousins on his grandparents'' farm and trying to forget the past. In the safety of that place, Brandon finally is able to trust the love of an adult to help iron out the wiry places until his nerves are as steady as any other boy''s. But when Sophie Willard shows up a year later with a determined look in her eye and a new man in tow, Brandon''s grandparents ignore a judge''s ruling and flee the state with Brandon. Creating a new life and identity in a small Florida town, Brandon meets the people who will fill him with self-worth and self-respect. He slowly becomes involved with "God''s Hospital," a church run by the gregarious Sister Delores, a woman who is committed to a life of service for all members of the community, black and white, regardless of some townsfolk''s disapproval.

In this textbook, Michael Morris offers a critical introduction to the central issues of the philosophy of language. Each chapter focusses on one or two texts which have had a seminal influence on work in the subject, and uses these as a way of approaching both the central topics and the various traditions of dealing with them. Texts include classic writings by Frege, Russell, Kripke, Quine, Davidson, Austin, Grice and Wittgenstein. Theoretical jargon is kept to a minimum and is fully explained whenever it is introduced. The range of topics covered includes sense and reference, definite descriptions, proper names, natural-kind terms, de re and de dicto necessity, propositional attitudes, truth-theoretical approaches to meaning, radical interpretation, indeterminacy of translation, speech acts, intentional theories of meaning, and scepticism about meaning. The book will be invaluable to students and to all readers who are interested in the nature of linguistic meaning.

In the time of World War I, Ella is alone and struggling to support her three sons in the coastal town of Apalachicola, Florida, when a mysterious man arrives offering to help her avoid foreclosure on her home.

Eating Sitting Down is a very unique, sometimes off-beat, and thought-provoking compilation of poetry that touches the heart and mind. The words and poems collected in Eating Sitting Down touch the heart, the mind, the known and the unknown, while representing in part, the origins of us all. The author has even written a few new poems of his own in this unorthodox but effective look at life through the eyes of experience itself. Several years in the making, Eating Sitting Down is being published due to the encouragement, support, and gentle nudging of friends and family alike. Learning to let inspiration become the motivating factor behind this book has proven to be very humbling. The author hopes that in one way or another, everyone takes something positive away from Eating Sitting Down. TAKING FLIGHT You recognize choice Giving the voice In the back of your mind A solidified Identity And this I see to be you Your oh so sweet sound Your even sweeter soul Every eve of your being It is everything so whole And everything is you You own your becoming So now become your own It''s not a slip stream Behind your chosen dream It''s your reality dear I hope you''re making now The time to soar

Every Step of the Way celebrates the tenth anniversary of South Africa''s first democratic election but also seeks to widen and promote a conversation about South Africa''s contested pasts.

Live Like You Were Dying is the unforgettable story inspired by Tim McGraw''s #1 Country Music song of the same name. It weaves a tale of the miracles that happen once you stop being so busy with life that you actually have time to live it. Millions have embraced the song''s lyrics. Now experience the inspirational story that will touch your heart and soul.

The diverse responsibilities of a new managerial position in the modern workplace can appear daunting. This practical guide aims to dispel any such fears, with direct and comprehensive advice on the immediate difficulties faced by a new manager. The fundamental skills necessary are discussed, including effective communication, delegation, financial/accounting principles, human resource concerns, marketing and PR.

For political philosophers, Morris provides an epistemology that integrates social interests within a normative account of knowledge.

Few thirty-day periods in history have been more tumultuous than the fall of Saigon in April of 1975. Few thirty-day periods in history have been more tumultuous than the fall of Saigon in April of 1975. With US military now gone for two years, the North Vietnamese Army routed South Vietnam’s forces, resulting in thousands of refugees pouring into the former colonial capital. The world watched and waited for what many expected would be a bloodbath. Escape from Saigon follows various people trapped in the besieged city. Among them are a former GI attempting to rescue his Vietnamese wife’s terrified relatives; a Vietnamese-American television reporter whose conflicted heritage threatens her future; an American businessman risking his life to smuggle out his employees; and the last remaining US diplomatic personnel in Saigon, including the ambassador, military liaisons, and CIA operatives. The NVA onslaught is spearheaded by two officers—one intent on maintaining military restraint, the other bent on revenge and will sweep up families, friends, and comrades in this final chapter of a war that has already taken millions of lives. Escape from Saigon is a story of a city and its inhabitants struggling to survive in its most desperate hours—a tale that stays true to the historic record while recounting moments of human hardship, courage, and triumph. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction—novels, novellas, political and medical thrillers, comedy, satire, historical fiction, romance, erotic and love stories, mystery, classic literature, folklore and mythology, literary classics including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, Cather, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.