The Tao of Deception

The Tao of Deception PDF Author: Ralph D. Sawyer
Publisher: Basic Books (AZ)
ISBN: 0465072054
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 514

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Book Description
The definitive book on ancient military principles that is strikingly relevant to the War on Terror, the war in Iraq, and the rise of China as a geopolitical power

The Tao of Deception

The Tao of Deception PDF Author: Ralph D. Sawyer
Publisher: Basic Books (AZ)
ISBN: 0465072054
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 514

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Book Description
The definitive book on ancient military principles that is strikingly relevant to the War on Terror, the war in Iraq, and the rise of China as a geopolitical power

Grass Roof, Tin Roof

Grass Roof, Tin Roof PDF Author: Dao Strom
Publisher: HMH
ISBN: 0547972830
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 243

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Book Description
A Vietnamese family flees its war-torn home and resettles in California, in a novel that offers a “brilliant exploration of exile, loss, and identity” (Robert Olen Butler). Told from multiple perspectives and spanning several decades, Grass Roof, Tin Roof begins with the story of Tran, a Vietnamese writer facing government persecution, who flees her homeland during the exodus of 1975 and brings her two children to the West. Here, she marries a Danish American man who has survived a different war. He promises understanding and guidance—but the psychic consequences of his past soon hinder his relationships with the family, as the children, for whom the war is now a distant shadow, struggle to understand the world around them on their own terms. In delicate, innovative prose, Strom’s characters experience the collision of cultures and the spiritual aftermath of war on the most visceral level. Grass Roof, Tin Roof is “an affecting study on the slippery nature of home” (Los Angeles Times). “[Strom] explores the mysteries of loss, culture and identity, with skill, poignancy and imagination.” —Detroit Free Press

Military Literature in the Medieval Roman World and Beyond

Military Literature in the Medieval Roman World and Beyond PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004696431
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 463

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Book Description
What do the mysterious Roman author Vegetius, the Byzantine emperor Leo VI, and the Chinese general Li Jing all have in common? They are three of the dozens of authors across the medieval Mediterranean world and beyond who wrote works of military literature, sometimes called military handbooks, manuals, or treatises. This book brings together a multidisciplinary international team of scholars who present cutting edge essays on diverse aspects of medieval military literature. While some chapters offer novel approaches to familiar authors like Vegetius, some present research on under-valued topics like Byzantine military illustrations, and others provide holistic studies on subjects like early modern treatises, they all move the discussion of medieval military literature forward. Contributors are Michael B. Charles, Georgios Chatzelis, Pierre Cosme, Maxime Emion, Immacolata Eramo, Michael Fulton, David Graff, John Haldon, Catherine Hof, John Hosler, Savvas Kyriakidis, Łukasz Różycki, Katharina Schoneveld, Georgios Theotokis, Conor Whately, Michael Whitby, and Nadya Williams.

With Or Without God, Life's Mysteries Continue Ruminations on God, Life, Death, Spirits, Reincarnation and the Future of Humankind

With Or Without God, Life's Mysteries Continue Ruminations on God, Life, Death, Spirits, Reincarnation and the Future of Humankind PDF Author: Sondlo Leonard Mhlaba, PhD
Publisher: Strategic Book Publishing
ISBN: 1608608638
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 199

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Book Description
Sooner or later, we all face the questions explored in With or Without God, Life's Mysteries Continue, questions about the purpose of life, human mortality, spirituality, God, and life beyond the grave. The title conveys the author's tentativeness, perhaps humility. There are no postulates here, no truths to be revealed. These are ruminations. What makes these ruminations notable is that they are those of a man who, in his own words, has traversed centuries of human experience in 66 years and, in the process, acquired a unique perspective on life and nature. Mhlaba grew up in Zimbabwe, in what he calls a pre-modern age. He has lived in fear of spooks and ghosts, worshipping ancestral spirits, and was subject to the tyranny of witches and the machinations of unseen forces. He could have easily remained in that life as his forebears had done before him. Fortunately, his parents understood that he and his siblings would live much of their lives in a changed world, and prepared them through education. The book ends with a fascinating look into the future of humankind, taking the reader through uncharted territory and a new sense of awe about the meaning of life and what may lie beyond. Mhlaba went on to earn a Ph.D. and taught physics and mathematics at university level. He now lives in Newton, Massachusetts, with his wife, Nancy. They have four grown children. Mhlaba is currently writing a book on global governance.

Plato's Pigs and Other Ruminations

Plato's Pigs and Other Ruminations PDF Author: M. D. Usher
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108839584
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 283

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Book Description
A pioneering, original work of synthesis that traces modern ideas about systems science and sustainable living back to Classical antiquity.

Winter Pasture

Winter Pasture PDF Author: Li Juan
Publisher: Thinkingdom
ISBN: 1662600348
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
Named one of The Washington Post's Best Travel Books of 2021. "Winter Pasture is Li Juan's crowning achievement, shattering the boundaries between nature writing and personal memoir." —Smithsonian Magazine "Li Juan spent minus-20-degree nights with nomadic herders in the Chinese steppes. You’ll want to join her." —Laura Miller, Slate "Deeply moving...full of humor, introspection and glimpses into a vanishing lifestyle." —The New York Times Book Review Winner of the People's Literature Award, WINTER PASTURE has been a bestselling book in China for several years. Li Juan has been widely lauded in the international literary community for her unique contribution to the narrative non-fiction genre. WINTER PASTURE is her crowning achievement, shattering the boundaries between nature writing and personal memoir. Li Juan and her mother own a small convenience store in the Altai Mountains in Northwestern China, where she writes about her life among grasslands and snowy peaks. To her neighbors' surprise, Li decides to join a family of Kazakh herders as they take their 30 boisterous camels, 500 sheep and over 100 cattle and horses to pasture for the winter. The so-called "winter pasture" occurs in a remote region that stretches from the Ulungur River to the Heavenly Mountains. As she journeys across the vast, seemingly endless sand dunes, she helps herd sheep, rides horses, chases after camels, builds an underground home using manure, gathers snow for water, and more. With a keen eye for the understated elegance of the natural world, and a healthy dose of self-deprecating humor, Li vividly captures both the extraordinary hardships and the ordinary preoccupations of the day-to-day of the men and women struggling to get by in this desolate landscape. Her companions include Cuma, the often drunk but mostly responsible father; his teenage daughter, Kama, who feels the burden of the world on her shoulders and dreams of going to college; his reticent wife, a paragon of decorum against all odds, who is simply known as "sister-in-law." In bringing this faraway world to English language readers here for the first time, Li creates an intimate bond with the rugged people, the remote places and the nomadic lifestyle. In the signature style that made her an international sensation, Li Juan transcends the travel memoir genre to deliver an indelible and immersive reading experience on every page.

The Seven Military Classics Of Ancient China

The Seven Military Classics Of Ancient China PDF Author: Ralph D. Sawyer
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 1541674294
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 488

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Book Description
The Seven Military Classics is one of the most profound studies of warfare ever written, a stanchion in sinological and military history. It presents an Eastern tradition of strategic thought that emphasizes outwitting one's opponent through speed, stealth, flexibility, and a minimum of force -- an approach very different from that stressed in the West. Safeguarded for centuries by the ruling elite of imperial China, even in modern times these writings have been known only to a handful of Western specialists. This volume contains seven separate essays, written between 500 BCE and 700 CE, that preserve the essential tenets of strategy distilled from the experience of the most brilliant warriors of ancient China.

Book of Spies

Book of Spies PDF Author: Ralph D Sawyer
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 168

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Book Description
The only premodern contemplation of spies ever written apart from Sunzi's brief but incisive Art of War chapter, Jian Shu (Book of Spies) was completed in the last century of the severely weakened Qing dynasty to address pressing defensive needs. The first third of the book ponders the nature of clandestine intelligence gathering, including estrangement and disinformation, two crucial elements in the activist orientation that characterized China's theory and practice from the outset; agent categories and their missions; aspects of historical evolution; and the critical need for their skills despite the misgiving, even condemnation, of Confucian oriented officials. The remainder of the book consists of fifty-three historical exemplifications that show the techniques and their effects in practice. Interspersed with theoretical analysis and drawn from over 2500 years of strife and intrigue, they represent a veritable window on the practice of Chinese spycraft that remains of contemporary interest in the PRC. Ralph D. Sawyer, the translator, is a noted specialist in Chinese strategic and intelligence issues. His books on intelligence include The Tao of Spycraft: Intelligence Theory and Practice in Traditional China; The Tao of Deception: Unorthodox Warfare in Historic and Modern China; and Lever of Power: Military Deception in China and the West. His translation of important military works from China's voluminous tradition include The Seven Military Classics of Ancient China; Sun-tzu Art of War; Sun Pin Military Methods; Strategies for the Human Realm: Crux of the T'ai-pai Yin-ching; Zhuge Liang: Strategy, Achievements, and Writings; Ruminations in a Grass Hut; and One Hundred Unorthodox Strategies: Battle and Tactics of Chinese Warfare.

The Art of Being Human

The Art of Being Human PDF Author: Michael Wesch
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781724963673
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
Anthropology is the study of all humans in all times in all places. But it is so much more than that. "Anthropology requires strength, valor, and courage," Nancy Scheper-Hughes noted. "Pierre Bourdieu called anthropology a combat sport, an extreme sport as well as a tough and rigorous discipline. ... It teaches students not to be afraid of getting one's hands dirty, to get down in the dirt, and to commit yourself, body and mind. Susan Sontag called anthropology a "heroic" profession." What is the payoff for this heroic journey? You will find ideas that can carry you across rivers of doubt and over mountains of fear to find the the light and life of places forgotten. Real anthropology cannot be contained in a book. You have to go out and feel the world's jagged edges, wipe its dust from your brow, and at times, leave your blood in its soil. In this unique book, Dr. Michael Wesch shares many of his own adventures of being an anthropologist and what the science of human beings can tell us about the art of being human. This special first draft edition is a loose framework for more and more complete future chapters and writings. It serves as a companion to anth101.com, a free and open resource for instructors of cultural anthropology. This 2018 text is a revision of the "first draft edition" from 2017 and includes 7 new chapters.

The Folly of the World

The Folly of the World PDF Author: Jesse Bullington
Publisher: Hachette+ORM
ISBN: 0316201715
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
On a stormy night in 1421, the North Sea delivers a devastating blow to Holland: the Saint Elizabeth Flood, a deluge of biblical proportions that drowns hundreds of towns, thousands of people, and forever alters the geography of the Low Countries. Where the factions of the noble Hooks and the merchant Cods waged a literal class war but weeks before, there is now only a nigh-endless expanse of grey water, a desolate inland sea with moldering church spires jutting up like sunken tombstones. For a land already beleaguered by generations of civil war, a worse disaster could scarce be imagined. Yet even disaster can be profitable, for the right sort of individual, and into this flooded realm sail three conspirators: a deranged thug at the edge of madness, a ruthless conman on the cusp of fortune, and a half-feral girl balanced between them. With The Folly of the World, Jesse Bullington has woven an extraordinary new tale of the depraved and the desperate.