Author: Wilhelm Röpke
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
ISBN: 1412838940
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 298
Book Description
The Social Crisis of Our Time
Author: Wilhelm Röpke
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
ISBN: 1412838940
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 298
Book Description
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
ISBN: 1412838940
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 298
Book Description
The Crisis of Our Time
Author: John Carvalho
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 1496926161
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 375
Book Description
Dr. John Carvalho, former Harvard academician and winner of the United States National Research Service Award, is no stranger to the word crisis. As a scientist, scholar and statesman he has spent decades working on the front lines of biomedical and theoretical exploration, global health, and the worldwide, human rights movement. The Crisis of Our Time is the astonishing, partial memoir and discourse regarding his lifes career and philosophy concerning the planets most pressing problems. Written in a way accessible to everyone, Carvalho, beginning with his passionate, poetic, and provocative first chapter, challenges us to discover that the disastrous, external crises of our lives emanate from the unity of our conscious and subconscious experiences. Indeed, the great troubles afflicting humanitywar, infectious disease, economic recession, terrorism, family discord, psychological trauma, human rights violationsdilemmas that appear unsolvable, actually originate whenwithout truthful self-reflectionwe glorify mediocrity rather than strive to excel. Employing cutting-edge, scientific information; keen, historical insight; extensive, cultural experience; and profound, philosophical analysis; Carvalho dissects our crises to elucidate why they perpetuate. In so doing, he introduces his theory of causal circular systems to reveal how causes feed off and exacerbate effects, which, in turn, reinforce those same causes. Furthering his views, he explores global health, the example par excellence, as well as economics, political history, planetary climate change, and the most central crisis of allBeing or Nothingnessthe fears of the Selfthe dread of our mortality. Ultimately, this short but eye-opening book creates epic meaning while using an artistic, literary style that is virtually unseen in nonfiction. Anyone who genuinely seeks excellence over mediocrity, truth over falsity, meaning over purposelessness, and resolution over despair should read Crisis.
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 1496926161
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 375
Book Description
Dr. John Carvalho, former Harvard academician and winner of the United States National Research Service Award, is no stranger to the word crisis. As a scientist, scholar and statesman he has spent decades working on the front lines of biomedical and theoretical exploration, global health, and the worldwide, human rights movement. The Crisis of Our Time is the astonishing, partial memoir and discourse regarding his lifes career and philosophy concerning the planets most pressing problems. Written in a way accessible to everyone, Carvalho, beginning with his passionate, poetic, and provocative first chapter, challenges us to discover that the disastrous, external crises of our lives emanate from the unity of our conscious and subconscious experiences. Indeed, the great troubles afflicting humanitywar, infectious disease, economic recession, terrorism, family discord, psychological trauma, human rights violationsdilemmas that appear unsolvable, actually originate whenwithout truthful self-reflectionwe glorify mediocrity rather than strive to excel. Employing cutting-edge, scientific information; keen, historical insight; extensive, cultural experience; and profound, philosophical analysis; Carvalho dissects our crises to elucidate why they perpetuate. In so doing, he introduces his theory of causal circular systems to reveal how causes feed off and exacerbate effects, which, in turn, reinforce those same causes. Furthering his views, he explores global health, the example par excellence, as well as economics, political history, planetary climate change, and the most central crisis of allBeing or Nothingnessthe fears of the Selfthe dread of our mortality. Ultimately, this short but eye-opening book creates epic meaning while using an artistic, literary style that is virtually unseen in nonfiction. Anyone who genuinely seeks excellence over mediocrity, truth over falsity, meaning over purposelessness, and resolution over despair should read Crisis.
The Crisis of Our Age
Author: Pitirim Aleksandrovich Sorokin
Publisher: Element Books, Limited
ISBN: 9780905682082
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
Publisher: Element Books, Limited
ISBN: 9780905682082
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
Rescue
Author: David Miliband
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501154400
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 160
Book Description
We are in the midst of a global refugee crisis. Sixty five million people are fleeing for their lives. The choices are urgent, not just for them but for all of us. What can we possibly do to help? With compassion and clarity, David Miliband shows why we should care and how we can make a difference. He takes us from war zones in the Middle East to peaceful suburbs in America to explain the crisis and show what can be done, not just by governments with the power to change policy but by citizens with the urge to change lives. His innovative and practical call to action shows that the crisis need not overwhelm us. Miliband says this is a fight to uphold the best of human nature in the face of rhetoric and policy that humor the worst. He defends the international order built by western leaders out of the ashes of World War II, but says now is the time for reform. Describing his family story and drawing revealing lessons from his life in politics, David Miliband shows that if we fail refugees, then we betray our own history, values, and interests. The message is simple: rescue refugees and we rescue ourselves.
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501154400
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 160
Book Description
We are in the midst of a global refugee crisis. Sixty five million people are fleeing for their lives. The choices are urgent, not just for them but for all of us. What can we possibly do to help? With compassion and clarity, David Miliband shows why we should care and how we can make a difference. He takes us from war zones in the Middle East to peaceful suburbs in America to explain the crisis and show what can be done, not just by governments with the power to change policy but by citizens with the urge to change lives. His innovative and practical call to action shows that the crisis need not overwhelm us. Miliband says this is a fight to uphold the best of human nature in the face of rhetoric and policy that humor the worst. He defends the international order built by western leaders out of the ashes of World War II, but says now is the time for reform. Describing his family story and drawing revealing lessons from his life in politics, David Miliband shows that if we fail refugees, then we betray our own history, values, and interests. The message is simple: rescue refugees and we rescue ourselves.
The Financial Crisis of Our Time
Author: Robert W. Kolb
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780199792788
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 424
Book Description
In 2006 residential real estate prices peaked and started to fall, then threatened the world's financial institutions in 2007, and confronted the global economy with disaster in 2008. In the past few years, millions of people have lost very substantial portions of their wealth. And while the markets have rebounded considerably, they are still far from a full recovery. Now, professional economists, policy experts, public intellectuals, and the public at large are all struggling to understand the crisis that has engulfed us. In The Financial Crisis of Our Time, Robert W. Kolb provides an essential, comprehensive review of the context within which these events unfolded, arguing that while the crisis had no single cause, housing finance played a central role, and that to understand what happened, one must comprehend the mechanism by which the housing industry came into crisis. Kolb offers a history of the housing finance system as it developed throughout the twentieth century, and especially in the period from 1990 to 2006, showing how the originate-to-distribute model of mortgage financing presented market participants with a "clockwork of perverse incentives." In this system, various participants-simply by pursuing their narrow personal interests-participated in an elaborate mechanism that led to disaster. The book then gives a narrative of the crisis as it developed and analyzes all of the participants in the housing market, from the home buyers to investors in collaterialized debt obligations (CDOs). At each step, the book explains in a nontechnical manner the essential relationships among the market participants and zeroes in on the incentives facing each party. The book also includes an extensive glossary and a detailed, authoritative timeline of the subprime financial crisis. Offering a unique look at the participants and incentives within the housing finance industry and its role in the biggest financial catastrophe in recent history, Robert W. Kolb provides one of the most comprehensive and illuminating accounts of the events that will be studied for decades to come as the financial crisis of our time.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780199792788
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 424
Book Description
In 2006 residential real estate prices peaked and started to fall, then threatened the world's financial institutions in 2007, and confronted the global economy with disaster in 2008. In the past few years, millions of people have lost very substantial portions of their wealth. And while the markets have rebounded considerably, they are still far from a full recovery. Now, professional economists, policy experts, public intellectuals, and the public at large are all struggling to understand the crisis that has engulfed us. In The Financial Crisis of Our Time, Robert W. Kolb provides an essential, comprehensive review of the context within which these events unfolded, arguing that while the crisis had no single cause, housing finance played a central role, and that to understand what happened, one must comprehend the mechanism by which the housing industry came into crisis. Kolb offers a history of the housing finance system as it developed throughout the twentieth century, and especially in the period from 1990 to 2006, showing how the originate-to-distribute model of mortgage financing presented market participants with a "clockwork of perverse incentives." In this system, various participants-simply by pursuing their narrow personal interests-participated in an elaborate mechanism that led to disaster. The book then gives a narrative of the crisis as it developed and analyzes all of the participants in the housing market, from the home buyers to investors in collaterialized debt obligations (CDOs). At each step, the book explains in a nontechnical manner the essential relationships among the market participants and zeroes in on the incentives facing each party. The book also includes an extensive glossary and a detailed, authoritative timeline of the subprime financial crisis. Offering a unique look at the participants and incentives within the housing finance industry and its role in the biggest financial catastrophe in recent history, Robert W. Kolb provides one of the most comprehensive and illuminating accounts of the events that will be studied for decades to come as the financial crisis of our time.
COVID-19 and the Structural Crises of Our Time
Author: Lim Mah-Hui
Publisher: ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute
ISBN: 9814951811
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 199
Book Description
“We live in paradoxical times. Traditionally, the West has led the world in theory and practice. Yet, recent developments, from COVID-19 to the storming of the US Capitol, show how lost the West has become. This loss of direction has deep roots. In their usual thoughtful and incisive fashion, Lim Mah-Hui and Michael Heng Siam-Heng, draw out the deeper origins of our current crises and show us a new way forward. A must-read for anyone who wants to understand our strange times." -- Kishore Mahbubani, founding Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, is the author of Has China Won? “A powerful and compelling critique of neoliberal globalization and its potentially devastating, but long underestimated, consequences for financial stability, the environment, social equity and democracy. COVID-19 has laid bare these dysfunctions and stresses. But this is not a pessimistic book. The authors argue, correctly, that we may be on the cusp of another Great Transformation. The choices we make today to make markets more resilient, improve social protection, and preserve our freedoms could lay the foundations for a sustainable globalization that works for future generations.” -- Donald Low, Professor of Practice in Public Policy and Director of the Institute for Emerging Market Studies, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology “This fascinating book highlights the interplay between financial and health crises that the COVID-19 pandemic exposed. Financialized capitalism is bad for the planet, bad for human health, and creates more unequal and insecure societies. The authors make a strong and convincing case for re-embedding markets into society and finance into the real economy.” --Jayati Ghosh, Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, USA “Lim and Heng’s ambitious volume argues that 2020 was the year of the global ‘perfect storm’ of multiple crises, with the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbating financial, economic, socio-political and environmental breakdowns. They extend Karl Polanyi’s original insights to appeal for a sustainable global New Deal. While the reader may not agree with all their theses, the scope of their coverage and ambition will set the stage for debates over the annus horribilis.” -- Jomo K.S., Founder-chair, IDEAS www.network.ideas; former United Nations Assistant Secretary General "This book provides plenty of food for thought for many pondering if the COVID-19 crisis could lead to a major transformation of the global economic system shaped by unfettered market forces and policies of governments in their service."-- Yilmaz Akyuz, former Director, UNCTAD, Geneva
Publisher: ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute
ISBN: 9814951811
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 199
Book Description
“We live in paradoxical times. Traditionally, the West has led the world in theory and practice. Yet, recent developments, from COVID-19 to the storming of the US Capitol, show how lost the West has become. This loss of direction has deep roots. In their usual thoughtful and incisive fashion, Lim Mah-Hui and Michael Heng Siam-Heng, draw out the deeper origins of our current crises and show us a new way forward. A must-read for anyone who wants to understand our strange times." -- Kishore Mahbubani, founding Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, is the author of Has China Won? “A powerful and compelling critique of neoliberal globalization and its potentially devastating, but long underestimated, consequences for financial stability, the environment, social equity and democracy. COVID-19 has laid bare these dysfunctions and stresses. But this is not a pessimistic book. The authors argue, correctly, that we may be on the cusp of another Great Transformation. The choices we make today to make markets more resilient, improve social protection, and preserve our freedoms could lay the foundations for a sustainable globalization that works for future generations.” -- Donald Low, Professor of Practice in Public Policy and Director of the Institute for Emerging Market Studies, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology “This fascinating book highlights the interplay between financial and health crises that the COVID-19 pandemic exposed. Financialized capitalism is bad for the planet, bad for human health, and creates more unequal and insecure societies. The authors make a strong and convincing case for re-embedding markets into society and finance into the real economy.” --Jayati Ghosh, Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, USA “Lim and Heng’s ambitious volume argues that 2020 was the year of the global ‘perfect storm’ of multiple crises, with the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbating financial, economic, socio-political and environmental breakdowns. They extend Karl Polanyi’s original insights to appeal for a sustainable global New Deal. While the reader may not agree with all their theses, the scope of their coverage and ambition will set the stage for debates over the annus horribilis.” -- Jomo K.S., Founder-chair, IDEAS www.network.ideas; former United Nations Assistant Secretary General "This book provides plenty of food for thought for many pondering if the COVID-19 crisis could lead to a major transformation of the global economic system shaped by unfettered market forces and policies of governments in their service."-- Yilmaz Akyuz, former Director, UNCTAD, Geneva
The Confidence Trap
Author: David Runciman
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691178135
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 424
Book Description
Why democracies believe they can survive any crisis—and why that belief is so dangerous Why do democracies keep lurching from success to failure? The current financial crisis is just the latest example of how things continue to go wrong, just when it looked like they were going right. In this wide-ranging, original, and compelling book, David Runciman tells the story of modern democracy through the history of moments of crisis, from the First World War to the economic crash of 2008. A global history with a special focus on the United States, The Confidence Trap examines how democracy survived threats ranging from the Great Depression to the Cuban missile crisis, and from Watergate to the collapse of Lehman Brothers. It also looks at the confusion and uncertainty created by unexpected victories, from the defeat of German autocracy in 1918 to the defeat of communism in 1989. Throughout, the book pays close attention to the politicians and thinkers who grappled with these crises: from Woodrow Wilson, Nehru, and Adenauer to Fukuyama and Obama. In The Confidence Trap, David Runciman shows that democracies are good at recovering from emergencies but bad at avoiding them. The lesson democracies tend to learn from their mistakes is that they can survive them—and that no crisis is as bad as it seems. Breeding complacency rather than wisdom, crises lead to the dangerous belief that democracies can muddle through anything—a confidence trap that may lead to a crisis that is just too big to escape, if it hasn't already. The most serious challenges confronting democracy today are debt, the war on terror, the rise of China, and climate change. If democracy is to survive them, it must figure out a way to break the confidence trap.
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691178135
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 424
Book Description
Why democracies believe they can survive any crisis—and why that belief is so dangerous Why do democracies keep lurching from success to failure? The current financial crisis is just the latest example of how things continue to go wrong, just when it looked like they were going right. In this wide-ranging, original, and compelling book, David Runciman tells the story of modern democracy through the history of moments of crisis, from the First World War to the economic crash of 2008. A global history with a special focus on the United States, The Confidence Trap examines how democracy survived threats ranging from the Great Depression to the Cuban missile crisis, and from Watergate to the collapse of Lehman Brothers. It also looks at the confusion and uncertainty created by unexpected victories, from the defeat of German autocracy in 1918 to the defeat of communism in 1989. Throughout, the book pays close attention to the politicians and thinkers who grappled with these crises: from Woodrow Wilson, Nehru, and Adenauer to Fukuyama and Obama. In The Confidence Trap, David Runciman shows that democracies are good at recovering from emergencies but bad at avoiding them. The lesson democracies tend to learn from their mistakes is that they can survive them—and that no crisis is as bad as it seems. Breeding complacency rather than wisdom, crises lead to the dangerous belief that democracies can muddle through anything—a confidence trap that may lead to a crisis that is just too big to escape, if it hasn't already. The most serious challenges confronting democracy today are debt, the war on terror, the rise of China, and climate change. If democracy is to survive them, it must figure out a way to break the confidence trap.
The Age of the Crisis of Man
Author: Mark Greif
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400852102
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 449
Book Description
A compelling intellectual and literary history of midcentury America In a midcentury American cultural episode forgotten today, intellectuals of all schools shared a belief that human nature was under threat. The immediate result was a glut of dense, abstract books on the "nature of man." But the dawning "age of the crisis of man," as Mark Greif calls it, was far more than a historical curiosity. In this ambitious intellectual and literary history, Greif recovers this lost line of thought to show how it influenced society, politics, and culture before, during, and long after World War II. During the 1930s and 1940s, fears of the barbarization of humanity energized New York intellectuals, Chicago protoconservatives, European Jewish émigrés, and native-born bohemians to seek "re-enlightenment," a new philosophical account of human nature and history. After the war this effort diffused, leading to a rebirth of modern human rights and a new power for the literary arts. Critics' predictions of a "death of the novel" challenged writers to invest bloodless questions of human nature with flesh and detail. Hemingway, Faulkner, and Richard Wright wrote flawed novels of abstract man. Succeeding them, Ralph Ellison, Saul Bellow, Flannery O'Connor, and Thomas Pynchon constituted a new guard who tested philosophical questions against social realities—race, religious faith, and the rise of technology—that kept difference and diversity alive. By the 1960s, the idea of "universal man" gave way to moral antihumanism, as new sensibilities and social movements transformed what had come before. Greif's reframing of a foundational debate takes us beyond old antagonisms into a new future, and gives a prehistory to the fractures of our own era.
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400852102
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 449
Book Description
A compelling intellectual and literary history of midcentury America In a midcentury American cultural episode forgotten today, intellectuals of all schools shared a belief that human nature was under threat. The immediate result was a glut of dense, abstract books on the "nature of man." But the dawning "age of the crisis of man," as Mark Greif calls it, was far more than a historical curiosity. In this ambitious intellectual and literary history, Greif recovers this lost line of thought to show how it influenced society, politics, and culture before, during, and long after World War II. During the 1930s and 1940s, fears of the barbarization of humanity energized New York intellectuals, Chicago protoconservatives, European Jewish émigrés, and native-born bohemians to seek "re-enlightenment," a new philosophical account of human nature and history. After the war this effort diffused, leading to a rebirth of modern human rights and a new power for the literary arts. Critics' predictions of a "death of the novel" challenged writers to invest bloodless questions of human nature with flesh and detail. Hemingway, Faulkner, and Richard Wright wrote flawed novels of abstract man. Succeeding them, Ralph Ellison, Saul Bellow, Flannery O'Connor, and Thomas Pynchon constituted a new guard who tested philosophical questions against social realities—race, religious faith, and the rise of technology—that kept difference and diversity alive. By the 1960s, the idea of "universal man" gave way to moral antihumanism, as new sensibilities and social movements transformed what had come before. Greif's reframing of a foundational debate takes us beyond old antagonisms into a new future, and gives a prehistory to the fractures of our own era.
C.G. Jung and the Crisis in Western Civilization
Author: John A Cahman
Publisher: Chiron Publications
ISBN: 1630517666
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 444
Book Description
The partisan split in American politics is the result of a major transformation of the West, as the psychology of the past based on hierarchy and privilege is being replaced by a psychology of equality. The status of women and minorities is at the center of this. The West's long history of inequality is gradually changing. When women's equality is considered symbolically, it represents the feminine rising to parity with the masculine, a status it has not held since prehistory. Minority groups have carried the projected shadow of the White majority for centuries; that is gradually ending. Integration of the feminine and the shadow are core concepts of C.G. Jung's psychology of individuation. The emerging equality of women and minorities indicates that our group psychology is entering a period of individuation. This is a huge change, at least as profound as pagan Rome becoming Christian or medieval Europe transitioning into the modern West. The turmoil of our time is because of the great historical change as we leave what has been the modern West. The turmoil is the widespread appearance of the same conflicts that Jung saw in his patients a century ago. The same answer still applies, the path Jung realized at the time, individuation, and it is already beginning to shape our future. In this book author John Cahman traces the history of Western Civilization as a developmental process and shows how our time marks a great turning point in that story as we leave an age of sexism, racism, and hierarchy and enter one of individuation.
Publisher: Chiron Publications
ISBN: 1630517666
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 444
Book Description
The partisan split in American politics is the result of a major transformation of the West, as the psychology of the past based on hierarchy and privilege is being replaced by a psychology of equality. The status of women and minorities is at the center of this. The West's long history of inequality is gradually changing. When women's equality is considered symbolically, it represents the feminine rising to parity with the masculine, a status it has not held since prehistory. Minority groups have carried the projected shadow of the White majority for centuries; that is gradually ending. Integration of the feminine and the shadow are core concepts of C.G. Jung's psychology of individuation. The emerging equality of women and minorities indicates that our group psychology is entering a period of individuation. This is a huge change, at least as profound as pagan Rome becoming Christian or medieval Europe transitioning into the modern West. The turmoil of our time is because of the great historical change as we leave what has been the modern West. The turmoil is the widespread appearance of the same conflicts that Jung saw in his patients a century ago. The same answer still applies, the path Jung realized at the time, individuation, and it is already beginning to shape our future. In this book author John Cahman traces the history of Western Civilization as a developmental process and shows how our time marks a great turning point in that story as we leave an age of sexism, racism, and hierarchy and enter one of individuation.
The Crisis of Our Time
Author: John Carvalho
Publisher: Author House
ISBN: 149692617X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 375
Book Description
Dr. John Carvalho, former Harvard academician and winner of the United States National Research Service Award, is no stranger to the word crisis. As a scientist, scholar and statesman he has spent decades working on the front lines of biomedical and theoretical exploration, global health, and the worldwide, human rights movement. The Crisis of Our Time is the astonishing, partial memoir and discourse regarding his life's career and philosophy concerning the planet's most pressing problems. Written in a way accessible to everyone, Carvalho, beginning with his passionate, poetic, and provocative first chapter, challenges us to discover that the disastrous, external crises of our lives emanate from the unity of our conscious and subconscious experiences. Indeed, the great troubles afflicting humanity--war, infectious disease, economic recession, terrorism, family discord, psychological trauma, human rights violations--dilemmas that appear unsolvable, actually originate when--without truthful self-reflection--we glorify mediocrity rather than strive to excel. Employing cutting-edge, scientific information; keen, historical insight; extensive, cultural experience; and profound, philosophical analysis; Carvalho dissects our crises to elucidate why they perpetuate. In so doing, he introduces his theory of "causal circular systems" to reveal how causes feed off and exacerbate effects, which, in turn, reinforce those same causes. Furthering his views, he explores global health, the example par excellence, as well as economics, political history, planetary climate change, and the most central crisis of all--Being or Nothingness--the fears of the Self--the dread of our mortality. Ultimately, this short but eye-opening book creates epic meaning while using an artistic, literary style that is virtually unseen in nonfiction. Anyone who genuinely seeks excellence over mediocrity, truth over falsity, meaning over purposelessness, and resolution over despair should read Crisis.
Publisher: Author House
ISBN: 149692617X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 375
Book Description
Dr. John Carvalho, former Harvard academician and winner of the United States National Research Service Award, is no stranger to the word crisis. As a scientist, scholar and statesman he has spent decades working on the front lines of biomedical and theoretical exploration, global health, and the worldwide, human rights movement. The Crisis of Our Time is the astonishing, partial memoir and discourse regarding his life's career and philosophy concerning the planet's most pressing problems. Written in a way accessible to everyone, Carvalho, beginning with his passionate, poetic, and provocative first chapter, challenges us to discover that the disastrous, external crises of our lives emanate from the unity of our conscious and subconscious experiences. Indeed, the great troubles afflicting humanity--war, infectious disease, economic recession, terrorism, family discord, psychological trauma, human rights violations--dilemmas that appear unsolvable, actually originate when--without truthful self-reflection--we glorify mediocrity rather than strive to excel. Employing cutting-edge, scientific information; keen, historical insight; extensive, cultural experience; and profound, philosophical analysis; Carvalho dissects our crises to elucidate why they perpetuate. In so doing, he introduces his theory of "causal circular systems" to reveal how causes feed off and exacerbate effects, which, in turn, reinforce those same causes. Furthering his views, he explores global health, the example par excellence, as well as economics, political history, planetary climate change, and the most central crisis of all--Being or Nothingness--the fears of the Self--the dread of our mortality. Ultimately, this short but eye-opening book creates epic meaning while using an artistic, literary style that is virtually unseen in nonfiction. Anyone who genuinely seeks excellence over mediocrity, truth over falsity, meaning over purposelessness, and resolution over despair should read Crisis.