Proceedings, American Philosophical Society (vol. 146, no. 1, 2002)

Proceedings, American Philosophical Society (vol. 146, no. 1, 2002) PDF Author:
Publisher: American Philosophical Society
ISBN: 9781422372791
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 144

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Men on Horseback

Men on Horseback PDF Author: David A. Bell
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 0374714746
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 231

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Book Description
"In his lucid and bracing history, [David] Bell helps us better understand how [a] charismatic grifter came to occupy the most powerful office in the world . . . Bell’s description of our predicament makes for essential reading." —Robert Zaretsky, Los Angeles Review of Books An immersive examination of why the age of democratic revolutions was also a time of hero worship and strongmen In Men on Horseback, the Princeton University historian David A. Bell offers a dramatic new interpretation of modern politics, arguing that the history of democracy is inextricable from the history of charisma, its shadow self. Bell begins with Corsica’s Pasquale Paoli, an icon of republican virtue whose exploits were once renowned throughout the Atlantic World. Paoli would become a signal influence in both George Washington’s America and Napoleon Bonaparte’s France. In turn, Bonaparte would exalt Washington even as he fashioned an entirely different form of leadership. In the same period, Toussaint Louverture sought to make French Revolutionary ideals of freedom and equality a reality for the formerly enslaved people of what would become Haiti, only to be betrayed by Napoleon himself. Simon Bolivar witnessed the coronation of Napoleon and later sought refuge in newly independent Haiti as he fought to liberate Latin America from Spanish rule. Tracing these stories and their interconnections, Bell weaves a spellbinding tale of power and its ability to mesmerize. Ultimately, Bell tells the crucial and neglected story of how political leadership was reinvented for a revolutionary world that wanted to do without kings and queens. If leaders no longer rule by divine right, what underlies their authority? Military valor? The consent of the people? Their own Godlike qualities? Bell’s subjects all struggled with this question, learning from each other’s example as they did so. They were men on horseback who sought to be men of the people—as Bell shows, modern democracy, militarism, and the cult of the strongman all emerged together. Today, with democracy’s appeal and durability under threat around the world, Bell’s account of its dark twin is timely and revelatory. For all its dangers, charisma cannot be dispensed with; in the end, Bell offers a stirring injunction to reimagine it as an animating force for good in the politics of our time.

The Fall of Egypt and the Rise of Rome

The Fall of Egypt and the Rise of Rome PDF Author: Guy de la Bedoyere
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300280297
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 275

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Book Description
A compelling history of the Ptolemies, the decline of Egypt, and the rising power of the Roman Empire The Ptolemaic era, Egypt’s last and one of its longest dynasties, was in many ways a gilded age. Its early rulers restored and even expanded Egyptian power. Over a span of 300 years the period was witness to intellectual enlightenment, imaginative state-building, and some of the most memorable characters in ancient history, including Alexander the Great and Cleopatra VII. But these Macedonian Greek pharaohs embarked on ruinous warfare, faced rebellion, and descended into murderous family feuds. Increasingly reliant on the dizzying rise of Roman power, Ptolemaic Egypt was finally annexed by Augustus in 30 BCE. How did such an ancient civilization come to this? Exploring the lives of the Ptolemaic pharaohs, de la Bédoyère reveals the jealousy, greed, and murderous ambition in their Egypt and the legendary city of Alexandria, their capital. This is a lively, accessible account of Ancient Egypt’s last days—and of the new power rising in its place.

Perspectives on Information

Perspectives on Information PDF Author: Magnus Ramage
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136707638
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 184

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Book Description
Information is everywhere, and defines everything in today's society. Moreover, information is a key concept in a wide range of academic disciplines, from quantum physics to public policy. However, these disciplines all interpret the concept in quite different ways. This book looks at information in several different academic disciplines - cybernetics, ICT, communications theory, semiotics, information systems, library science, linguistics, quantum physics and public policy. Perspectives on Information brings clarity and coherence to different perspectives through promoting information as a unifying concept across the disciplinary spectrum. Though conceived as a contribution to the ongoing conversation between academic disciplines into the nature of information, the deliberately accessible style of this text (reflecting the authors’ backgrounds at The Open University) will be make it valuable for anyone who needs to know something more about information. Given the ubiquity of information in the 21st century, that means everyone.

Antiochus the Great

Antiochus the Great PDF Author: Michael Taylor
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473826918
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
The story of the man who ruled a sprawling ancient empire and strove to defend it against the Roman Republic. A teenage king in 223 BC, Antiochus III inherited an empire in shambles, ravaged by civil strife and eroded by territorial secessions. But he proved himself a true heir of Alexander—defeating rebel armies and embarking on a campaign of conquest and reunification. Although repulsed by Ptolemy IV at the Battle of Raphia, his eastern campaigns reaffirmed Seleucid hegemony as far as modern Afghanistan and Pakistan. Returning westward, he defeated Ptolemy V at Panion and succeeded in adding Koile Syria to the Seleucid realm. At the height of his powers, he challenged growing Roman power, unimpressed by their recent successes against Carthage and Macedon. His expeditionary force was crushed at Thermopylae and evacuated. Refusing to bow before Roman demands, Antiochus energetically mobilized against Roman invasion, but was again decisively defeated at the epic battle of Magnesia. Despite the loss of territory and prestige enshrined in the subsequent Peace of Apamea, Antiochus III left the Seleucid Empire in far better condition than he found it. Although sometimes presented as a failure against the unstoppable might of Rome, Antiochus III must rank as one of the most energetic and effective rulers of the ancient world. This book narrates his eventful career—and examines Seleucid military organization and royal administration.

The History of the Brain and Mind Sciences

The History of the Brain and Mind Sciences PDF Author: Stephen T. Casper
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1580465951
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
How did epidemics, zoos, German exiles, methamphetamine, disgruntled technicians, modern bureaucracy, museums, and whipping cream shape the emergence of modern neuroscience?

Rediscovering the Islamic Classics

Rediscovering the Islamic Classics PDF Author: Ahmed El Shamsy
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691241910
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
The story of how Arab editors of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries revolutionized Islamic literature Islamic book culture dates back to late antiquity, when Muslim scholars began to write down their doctrines on parchment, papyrus, and paper and then to compose increasingly elaborate analyses of, and commentaries on, these ideas. Movable type was adopted in the Middle East only in the early nineteenth century, and it wasn't until the second half of the century that the first works of classical Islamic religious scholarship were printed there. But from that moment on, Ahmed El Shamsy reveals, the technology of print transformed Islamic scholarship and Arabic literature. In the first wide-ranging account of the effects of print and the publishing industry on Islamic scholarship, El Shamsy tells the fascinating story of how a small group of editors and intellectuals brought forgotten works of Islamic literature into print and defined what became the classical canon of Islamic thought. Through the lens of the literary culture of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Arab cities—especially Cairo, a hot spot of the nascent publishing business—he explores the contributions of these individuals, who included some of the most important thinkers of the time. Through their efforts to find and publish classical literature, El Shamsy shows, many nearly lost works were recovered, disseminated, and harnessed for agendas of linguistic, ethical, and religious reform. Bringing to light the agents and events of the Islamic print revolution, Rediscovering the Islamic Classics is an absorbing examination of the central role printing and its advocates played in the intellectual history of the modern Arab world.

America Ascendant

America Ascendant PDF Author: Dennis M. Spragg
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 1640122648
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
America Ascendant vividly portrays the global crisis that brought the media and the government into an alliance that changed the course of American and world history. President Franklin D. Roosevelt organized an extraordinary partnership between the U.S. government and America’s media outlets to communicate to the reluctant and isolationist American public the nature of the threat that World War II posed to the nation and the world. The coalition’s aim was to promote the concept of American exceptionalism and use it to galvanize the public for the government’s cause. America Ascendant details the efforts of many prominent individuals and officials to harness the collective energy of the nation and guide the United States throughout World War II then describes its aftermath and the Cold War period. Dennis M. Spragg demonstrates how the news and entertainment of American broadcasters such as David Sarnoff, William Paley, and Elmer Davis helped rally the American people to fashion a new liberal democratic order to stop the global spread of Communism. This media-government alliance, however, was not achieved without difficulty. Spragg highlights the competing visions and personalities that clashed, as media and government leaders tried to develop the paradigm that ultimately shifted American cultural and political thought. Throughout this searching history he sheds light on the underappreciated coordination between the media and the government to establish a liberal democratic world order and demonstrates why American exceptionalism still matters.

Hellenistic Astrology

Hellenistic Astrology PDF Author: Chris Brennan
Publisher: Amor Fati Publications
ISBN: 0998588903
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 698

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Book Description
Hellenistic astrology is a tradition of horoscopic astrology that was practiced in the Mediterranean region from approximately the first century BCE until the seventh century CE. It is the source of many of the modern traditions of astrology that still flourish around the world today, although it is only recently that many of the surviving texts of this tradition have become available again for astrologers to study. Hellenistic Astrology: The Study of Fate and Fortune is one of the first comprehensive surveys of this tradition in modern times. The book covers the history, philosophy, and techniques of ancient astrology, with a special focus on demonstrating how many of the fundamental concepts underlying the practice of western astrology originated during the Hellenistic period.

Alexandria and Qumran: Back to the Beginning

Alexandria and Qumran: Back to the Beginning PDF Author: Kenneth Silver
Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 178491729X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 612

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Book Description
This book addresses the proto-history and the roots of the Qumran community and of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the light of contemporary scholarship in Alexandria, Egypt.

The Shakespearean International Yearbook

The Shakespearean International Yearbook PDF Author: Dr Tiffany Jo Werth
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
ISBN: 1472468503
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 235

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Book Description
What makes Shakespeare centrally 'exceptional' to the current humanities curriculum, a measure and minimum unit for University administrations and the general public to recognise the activity of 'the humanities'? The contributing authors of essays in this issue of the Yearbook ask how we might push this question beyond familiar categories of the exceptional, the superlative, the above, beyond, below, or even the normative and familiar, in order to scale Shakespeare historically, canonically, and ontologically in relation to 'the human'. Each essay offers a case study devoted to Shakespeare's attentiveness to or implications for a specific location along the scala naturae -- from the wind of the coelum down to the stony lapis. Attending to locations such as these offers to displace 'the human' to a periphery, to but one among the jostling forces of life. Yet, as a centripetal figure of our culture, even of world culture, Shakespeare proves hard to displace, being engrained so deeply in our sense. Essays in the volume take up the challenge of evaluating Shakespeare’s intimate involvement with our understandings of what is or makes 'the human'. In the now-established tradition of The Shakespearean International Yearbook, the 15th issue surveys important developments and topics of concern in contemporary Shakespeare studies.