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Author: Jan Zábrana
Publisher: Charles University in Prague, Karolinum Press
ISBN: 8024649330
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 120
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Book Description
From the eighth floor of a tower block in Central Europe, Jan Zábrana surveyed the twentieth century. He had been exiled from his own life by Communism. His parents were imprisoned, their health broken, and he was not allowed to study languages in college. Refusing both to rebel outright or to cave in, he thought of himself as a dead man walking. “To all those who keep asking me to do things for them, I sometimes feel like saying: ‘But I’m dead. I died long ago. Why do you keep treating me as if I were one of the living?’” Yet during some of Europe’s most difficult years, he wrote The Lesser Histories, a collection of sixty-four sonnets that range through themes of age, sex, and political repression—a radiant testament to his times. The lines are emptied both of personal pathos and political stridency. Often Zábrana’s own voice segues into those of poets he had translated over the years, leaving only a bare shimmer of subjectivity—humorous, oblique, pained—with which to view his own works and days. The poems document a splendid and bitter isolation, and are immersed in the humor, hatreds, and loves of the everyday. Published in Czech in the ill-fated year of 1968, they subsequently fell into neglect. After the fall of Communism in 1989, Zábrana’s collected poems and selected diaries were published in Czech, and he was acclaimed as a major twentieth-century writer. Now, with this collection, he can begin to reach English-language readers for the first time.
Author: Jan Zábrana
Publisher: Charles University in Prague, Karolinum Press
ISBN: 8024649330
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 120
Get Book
Book Description
From the eighth floor of a tower block in Central Europe, Jan Zábrana surveyed the twentieth century. He had been exiled from his own life by Communism. His parents were imprisoned, their health broken, and he was not allowed to study languages in college. Refusing both to rebel outright or to cave in, he thought of himself as a dead man walking. “To all those who keep asking me to do things for them, I sometimes feel like saying: ‘But I’m dead. I died long ago. Why do you keep treating me as if I were one of the living?’” Yet during some of Europe’s most difficult years, he wrote The Lesser Histories, a collection of sixty-four sonnets that range through themes of age, sex, and political repression—a radiant testament to his times. The lines are emptied both of personal pathos and political stridency. Often Zábrana’s own voice segues into those of poets he had translated over the years, leaving only a bare shimmer of subjectivity—humorous, oblique, pained—with which to view his own works and days. The poems document a splendid and bitter isolation, and are immersed in the humor, hatreds, and loves of the everyday. Published in Czech in the ill-fated year of 1968, they subsequently fell into neglect. After the fall of Communism in 1989, Zábrana’s collected poems and selected diaries were published in Czech, and he was acclaimed as a major twentieth-century writer. Now, with this collection, he can begin to reach English-language readers for the first time.
Author: Diane Johnson
Publisher: New York Review of Books
ISBN: 1681374463
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 273
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Book Description
A classic of alternative biography and feminist writing, this empathetic and witty book gives due to a "lesser" figure of history, Mary Ellen Peacock Meredith, who was brilliant, unconventional, and at odds with the constraints of Victorian life. “Many people have described the Famous Writer presiding at his dinner table. . . . He is famous; everybody remembers his remarks. . . . We forget that there were other family members at the table—a quiet person, now muffled by time, shadowy, whose heart pounded with love, perhaps, or rage.” So begins The True History of the First Mrs. Meredith and Other Lesser Lives, an uncommon biography devoted to one of those “lesser lives.” As the author points out, “A lesser life does not seem lesser to the person who leads one.” Such sympathy and curiosity compelled Diane Johnson to research Mary Ellen Peacock Meredith (1821–1861), the daughter of the famous artist Thomas Love Peacock (1785–1866) and first wife of the equally famous poet George Meredith (1828–1909). Her life, treated perfunctorily and prudishly in biographies of Peacock or Meredith, is here exquisitely and unhurriedly given its due. What emerges is the portrait of a brilliant, well-educated woman, raised unconventionally by her father only to feel more forcefully the constraints of the Victorian era. First published in 1972, Lesser Lives has been a key text for feminists and biographers alike, a book that reimagined what biography might be, both in terms of subject and style. Biographies of other “lesser” lives have since followed in its footsteps, but few have the wit, elegance, and empathy of Johnson’s seminal work.
Author: Mark Essig
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0465040683
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 321
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Book Description
Unlike other barnyard animals, which pull plows, give eggs or milk, or grow wool, a pig produces only one thing: meat. Incredibly efficient at converting almost any organic matter into nourishing, delectable protein, swine are nothing short of a gastronomic godsend—yet their flesh is banned in many cultures, and the animals themselves are maligned as filthy, lazy brutes. As historian Mark Essig reveals in Lesser Beasts, swine have such a bad reputation for precisely the same reasons they are so valuable as a source of food: they are intelligent, self-sufficient, and omnivorous. What’s more, he argues, we ignore our historic partnership with these astonishing animals at our peril. Tracing the interplay of pig biology and human culture from Neolithic villages 10,000 years ago to modern industrial farms, Essig blends culinary and natural history to demonstrate the vast importance of the pig and the tragedy of its modern treatment at the hands of humans. Pork, Essig explains, has long been a staple of the human diet, prized in societies from Ancient Rome to dynastic China to the contemporary American South. Yet pigs’ ability to track down and eat a wide range of substances (some of them distinctly unpalatable to humans) and convert them into edible meat has also led people throughout history to demonize the entire species as craven and unclean. Today’s unconscionable system of factory farming, Essig explains, is only the latest instance of humans taking pigs for granted, and the most recent evidence of how both pigs and people suffer when our symbiotic relationship falls out of balance. An expansive, illuminating history of one of our most vital yet unsung food animals, Lesser Beasts turns a spotlight on the humble creature that, perhaps more than any other, has been a mainstay of civilization since its very beginnings—whether we like it or not.
Author: John Hinson
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1387902830
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 306
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Book Description
In the sequal to 100 Stories: The Lesser Known History of Humanity, John spent more time researching the annals of history to bring 100 more stories of things you likely never heard about (or didn't get the full story on) in history class. This second edition brings more of the same types of funny, intriguing, and downright horrifying stories over the last couple thousand years of recorded human history. Inside, you'll find interesting characters, fascinating war stories, and profiles of some of the worst serial killers that have ever lived.
Author: Dave Rear
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1446444848
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 290
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Book Description
Refreshes the parts other history books can’t reach... A bit ropy on the Renaissance? In the dark about the Enlightenment? Or, in fact, do you need a revision course on the entire history of the world and want to read a witty, irreverent, definitely not boring romp through everything that has ever happened on planet earth – from 15 billion years BC to the present day? Good. A Less Boring History of the World tells you everything you need to know from the Big Bang to Barack Obama, taking in the Byzantines, the Black Death, Bin Laden and the fall of bankers along the way, all boiled down to bite size chunks so that you can finally piece together all the different bits of history - and see how on earth we ended up in the mess we are today. A Less Boring History refreshes your memory and broadens your mind. And, if that’s not enough, it will also make you laugh. A lot.
Author: A. Parent
Publisher: Dig-Press
ISBN:
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 347
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Book Description
A book about SURVIVING Some of the Deadliest Plagues Known to Humanity... (& An Antidote to Corona Virus/COVID-19?) “…the more you know about the past, the better you are prepared for the future.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt ~ The direct quotes given throughout this study - augmented by original mortality data compiled and edited by A. Parent, reveals a lesser-known history of the dramatic decline in deaths from a whole plethora of pathogens that once plagued our developing nations and its probable cause. I.e., a natural universal biological phenomenon of ancestrally acquired robust resilience to dying from once deadlier contagions throughout the generations. The significance of this being that, whilst our health officials are expecting the plagues of old to return at any moment and are poised nervously armed with whatever vaccines they can throw at them, it would appear that our immune systems having very long-term ancestral memory have not forgotten how to battle against such opportunistic invaders of the past and it now looks highly likely that almost all of us would survive even if some of the deadliest contagions returned today to plague us in their original colours. This, therefore, also has implications for our more modern and firmly entrenched belief that we eradicated at least some of these bugs and, obviously, with our current mass vaccination strategies that are so firmly entrenched and becoming near-universal, we are not currently following nature's schedule of childhood natural immunization as a result. Thus, we assess the consequences of this situation in the context of the above. In essence, after reviewing all the relevant evidence for when, how and to what degree we have attempted to protect against infectious diseases at a population level versus nature's method of full exposure, this study reaches the inescapable conclusion that Nature has done a significantly better job of natural mass immunization down through the generations and across the entire world in line with our respective levels of development, a whole lot better than us. The moral of this story is that it looks like our ancestors were counting more of their descendent children (that's us) because they had the (actual) Pox and just about everything else going in the way of infectious diseases and we were healthier as a result. That was until we began to intervene in the natural generational immunity cycle - but, the protection afforded by our mass vaccination efforts being so short-lived - ironically, maybe helping to restore this remarkable immunization cycle once again. All in all, it is hoped that this study will go some way to alleviating our unnatural phobia regarding the germ or pathogens of old returning, and go some way to restoring our faith in Nature so that this may inform a more natural health focused future.
Author: Rufus Whittaker Stimson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Agricultural education
Languages : en
Pages : 660
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Book Description
Author: Manjunath.R
Publisher: Manjunath.R
ISBN:
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
Languages : en
Pages : 276
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Book Description
"A Brief Guide to the Cosmos: From the Big Bang to the End of Time" This book is an insightful, understandable, and contemporary perspective on the largest scientific mysteries and provides insight into complex universe-related concerns. The book provides answers to questions about what makes up the majority of the universe, what existed prior to the Big Bang and what exists outside of our universe, whether time always moves forward, whether the universe is infinite or constrained by physical laws, the size of space, and the mass of the universe. This book takes us on an incredible journey through the past, present, and future as well as through physics, astronomy, and mathematics. It demystifies for laymen concepts like antimatter, quarks, black holes, dark energy, and the big bang and completely changes how we view the universe and its fundamental truths. In "The History of the Universe in 1000 Words or Less: The Origin and Fate of the Universe," readers are taken on a concise yet comprehensive journey through the history of the universe, from its mysterious origins to its ultimate fate. Starting with the Big Bang, the book explains how the universe began and how it has evolved over billions of years. From the formation of stars and galaxies to the emergence of life on Earth, the book covers all the major milestones in the history of the cosmos. But the book is not just a collection of facts and figures. It also explores some of the biggest questions in science and philosophy, such as the nature of time, the existence of other universes, and the ultimate fate of the cosmos. Written in a clear, accessible style and filled with colorful illustrations and diagrams, "The History of the Universe in 1000 Words or Less" is the perfect introduction to the history of the universe for anyone who wants to understand the grandeur and wonder of the cosmos in a concise and engaging way. Whether you're a student of science, a curious reader, or just someone who loves to ponder the mysteries of the universe, this book is sure to captivate and inspire you.
Author: Geoffrey Ward
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 1984897748
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 866
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Book Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Based on the celebrated PBS television series, the complete text of an engrossing history of America’s least-understood conflict, “a significant milestone [that] will no doubt do much to determine how the war is understood for years to come.” —The Washington Post More than forty years have passed since the end of the Vietnam War, but its memory continues to loom large in the national psyche. In this intimate history, Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns have crafted a fresh and insightful account of the long and brutal conflict that reunited Vietnam while dividing the United States as nothing else had since the Civil War. From the Gulf of Tonkin and the Tet Offensive to Hamburger Hill and the fall of Saigon, Ward and Burns trace the conflict that dogged three American presidents and their advisers. But most of the voices that echo from these pages belong to less exalted men and women—those who fought in the war as well as those who fought against it, both victims and victors—willing for the first time to share their memories of Vietnam as it really was. A magisterial tour de force, The Vietnam War is an engrossing history of America’s least-understood conflict.
Author: Justus D. Doenecke
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 0813130026
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 434
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Book Description
When war broke out in Europe in 1914, political leaders in the United States were swayed by popular opinion to remain neutral; yet less than three years later, the nation declared war on Germany. In Nothing Less Than War: A New History of America's Entry into World War I, Justus D. Doenecke examines the clash of opinions over the war during this transformative period and offers a fresh perspective on America's decision to enter World War I. Doenecke reappraises the public and private diplomacy of President Woodrow Wilson and his closest advisors and explores in great depth the response of Congress to the war. He also investigates the debates that raged in the popular media and among citizen groups that sprang up across the country as the U.S. economy was threatened by European blockades and as Americans died on ships sunk by German U-boats. The decision to engage in battle ultimately belonged to Wilson, but as Doenecke demonstrates, Wilson's choice was not made in isolation. Nothing Less Than War provides a comprehensive examination of America's internal political climate and its changing international role during the seminal period of 1914--1917.
