Download or read book Myths in Crisis written by Jose Manuel Losada and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2015-09-04 with total page 470 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This trilingual volume examines the extent to which myths are affected by the crises of the 20th and 21st centuries. It brings together four theoretical studies which analyse both the crisis of structure – implying the distortion or disappearance of myth – and the crisis of concepts and terminology that currently threaten the study of mythology. The largest section of the volume focuses on the crises that have affected ancient, medieval and modern literary myths from a global perspective, taking into account psychology, ethics, politics and contemporary meta-literature. The final section examines the crisis experienced by those myths which permeate the material world, investigating historical and fictitious characters, mythologized places, and languages. The volume is a remarkable collection of 30 texts that were selected from 300 proposals by prestigious researchers from over 30 countries during the 3rd International Conference of Myth Criticism held in Madrid in October 2014.

Download or read book Masculinity in Crisis written by R. Horrocks and published by Springer. This book was released on 1994-08-30 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book argues that masculine identity is in deep crisis in Western culture - the old forms are disintegrating, while men struggle to establish new relations with women and with each other. This book offers a fresh look at gender, particularly masculinity, by using material from the author's work as a psychotherapist. The book also considers the contrubtions made by feminism, sociology and anthropology to the study of gender, and suggests that it must be studied from an interdisciplinary standpoint. Masculity is seen to have economic, political and psychological roots, but the concrete development of gender must be traced in the relations of the male infant with his parents. Here the young boy has to separate from his mother, and his own proto-feminine identity, and identify with his father - but in Western culture fathering is often deficient. Male identity is shown to be fractured, fragile and truncated. Men are trained to be rational and violent, and to shut out whole areas of existence and feeling. Many stereotypes imprison men - particularly machismo, which is shown to be deeply masochistic and self-destructive.

Download or read book Water Crisis Myth or Reality written by Peter P. Rogers and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2005-12-22 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Always considered a classic renewable resource, after a hundred thousand years of farming and industry, rivers in many parts of the world are running dry and the groundwater is over pumped. In addition, the rate at which water sources are becoming contaminated with waste from humans, industry, and agriculture is truly alarming. Do these factors add up to a water crisis that merits drastic, large-scale action? Not necessarily say the editors of Water Crisis: Myth or Reality. They challenge this pessimism, concluding that while there are serious global water issues to be considered, the concept of a global water crisis is largely overstated. The book examines the issues and explores which conditions are permanent and unchangeable and which are remediable and changeable. The chapters explore when and where severe regional and local water problems occur and make suggestions about how they may be solved in a deliberate, non-crisis manner. The book covers recent breakthroughs in desalination technologies, the eco-sanitation revolution, international trade in agricultural products, methods of governance and negotiation in water allocation, and pricing and devolution of property rights and the roles they play in solving water issues. The editors, along with a panel of world-renowned experts, suggest that water issues can be solved over the next few decades using new technologies and processes.

Download or read book The Cuban Missile Crisis in American Memory written by Sheldon M Stern and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2012-09-05 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Marshals irrefutable evidence to succinctly demolish the mythic version of the crisis . . . sober analysis.” —The Atlantic This book exposes the misconceptions, half-truths, and outright lies that have shaped the still dominant but largely mythical version of what happened in the White House during those harrowing two weeks of secret Cuban missile crisis deliberations. More than a half-century after the event, it is surely time to demonstrate, once and for all, that Robert F. Kennedy’s Thirteen Days and the personal memoirs of other ExComm members cannot be taken seriously as historically accurate accounts of the ExComm meetings. This book, from the first historian to listen to and evaluate the White House tapes made during the crisis, does exactly that. “Stern is not alone in questioning the precision of the transcripts offered, but he has made the most painstaking attempt to clarify what was really said and done.” —Journal of American History

Download or read book Lights Out written by Spencer Abraham and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2010-07-06 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this timely book, former Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham debunks the myths that warp our current debate over energy, and offers new solutions to the real problems we face in America. Drawing on the very latest thinking from experts in industry and academia, and his own experiences running America's Energy Department, he proposes a fresh approach to meeting our daunting energy threats. This book effectively answers how America and the world can overcome the challenges of rising global energy demand, geopolitical disruptions of the energy marketplace, and the environmental impact of producing and using energy. What emerges is a pragmatic energy strategy that calls for blending a variety of energy sources including nuclear, clean coal, solar, wind, and natural gas with a more determined effort at improving energy efficiency through the deployment of smart energy grids and buildings, to help meet our challenges while preserving our economy and environment. Coming in the midst of a national debate about global warming, energy dependence and rising energy prices and rich with anecdotes from the author's service in the Senate and cabinet, this book is a clarion call that will help shape our energy future.

Download or read book The Future of the Welfare State written by Francis G. Castles and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2004-07-08 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This assessment of the threat posed to modern welfare states by globalization and demographic change brings together empirical methods, current information from 21 countries and insights from across the social sciences. The author also presents likely trajectories of welfare state development in coming decades.

Download or read book The Manufactured Crisis written by David C. Berliner and published by Longman Publishing Group. This book was released on 1997 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past decade a rising chorus of critics - from William Bennett to Allan Bloom - has decried the supposedly dire state of our public schools. Kids aren't learning what they should, violence and chaos reign in the classroom, and bureaucracy strangles attempts at reform. But how much of that grim image is really true? In The Manufactured Crisis, two prominent scholars, prize-winning educational psychologist David C. Berliner and leading social psychologist Bruce J. Biddle, fight back with the good news. They debunk a whole series of familiar but untrue statistics about public schools - that SAT scores have been dropping, when for many groups they are in fact rising; that illiteracy is up, when in fact the numbers have been skewed because schools are now educating the traditionally disenfranchised in ever larger numbers; that investments in public education do not pay off when, in fact, they lead to greater student achievements and life earnings; that private schools are inherently better than public schools when, in fact, the evidence does not support this charge. Berliner and Biddle tear through these and other sensational myths to give the reader an honest look at public education in America and the misguided, often tragic proposals that critics have urged for correcting these fictive problems. In addition, they expose and offer solutions to the real problems American public schools face today, schools that continue to provide an increasingly diverse citizenry with the opportunity to better their lives.

Download or read book Myths America Lives By written by Richard T. Hughes and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2018-09-05 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Six myths lie at the heart of the American experience. Taken as aspirational, four of those myths remind us of our noblest ideals, challenging us to realize our nation's promise while galvanizing the sense of hope and unity we need to reach our goals. Misused, these myths allow for illusions of innocence that fly in the face of white supremacy, the primal American myth that stands at the heart of all the others.

Download or read book The Transformation Myth written by Gerald C. Kane and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2021-09-28 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this business bestseller, how companies can adapt in an era of continuous disruption: a guide to responding to such acute crises as COVID-19. Gold Medalist in Business Disruption/Reinvention. When COVID-19 hit, businesses had to respond almost instantaneously--shifting employees to remote work, repairing broken supply chains, keeping pace with dramatically fluctuating customer demand. They were forced to adapt to a confluence of multiple disruptions inextricably linked to a longer-term, ongoing digital disruption. This book shows that companies that use disruption as an opportunity for innovation emerge from it stronger. Companies that merely attempt to "weather the storm" until things go back to normal (or the next normal), on the other hand, miss an opportunity to thrive. The authors, all experts on business and technology strategy, show that transformation is not a one-and-done event, but a continuous process of adapting to a volatile and uncertain environment. Drawing on five years of research into digital disruption--including a series of interviews with business leaders conducted during the COVID-19 crisis--they offer a framework for understanding disruption and tools for navigating it. They outline the leadership traits, business principles, technological infrastructure, and organizational building blocks essential for adapting to disruption, with examples from real-world organizations. Technology, they remind readers, is not an end in itself, but enables the capabilities essential for surviving an uncertain future: nimbleness, scalability, stability, and optionality.

Download or read book 50 Myths and Lies That Threaten America s Public Schools written by David C. Berliner and published by Teachers College Press. This book was released on 2014-03-07 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is guaranteed to spark lively debates and critical thinking in any classroom! Two of the most respected voices in education identify 50 myths and lies that threaten America's public schools. Berliner and Glass argue that many citizens conception of K12 public education in the United States is more myth than reality. Warped opinions about our nations public schools include: they are inferior to private schools; they are among the worst in the world in math and science; teachers should be fired if their students dont score at the national average, and on and on. With more than a little humor, Berliner and Glass separate fact from fiction in this comprehensive look at modern education reform. They explain how the mythical failure of public education has been created and perpetuated in large part by political and economic interests who stand to gain from its destruction. They expose a rapidly expanding variety of organizations and media that intentionally misrepresent facts. Where appropriate, they name the promoters of the hoax and point out how their interests are served by encouraging false beliefs. Their method of debunking these falsehoods is to argue against their logic, criticize the data supporting them, and present more credible contradictory data. This dynamic book features short essays on important topics to provide every teacher, administrator, school board member, and concerned parent with reliable knowledge from authoritative sources.

Download or read book Who Needs the Cuts written by Barry Kushner and published by Hesperus Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The United Kingdom, like other countries, is embarking on an unprecedented round of spending cuts. Talk of deficits, the National Debt, Quantitative Easing, and other economic terminology is presented to the public as evidence that there is a vital need for some of the most drastic cuts the West has faced. But according to Barry Kushner, there is an alternative story that is not being told. There is a view of the economic events of the past five years that does not see the UK in debt crisis. It offers choice, differences of opinion, uncertainty and hope. It takes us on a different voyage beyond economics into politics and visions of society, our expectations and ambitions. It is an alternative story that prompted an American Nobel prize-winning economist to write '"Jobs now, deficits later" was and is the right strategy. Unfortunately, it's a strategy that has been abandoned in the face of phantom risks and delusional hopes."--Publisher description.

Download or read book Five Myths about Nuclear Weapons written by Ward Wilson and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2013 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Expanded from an article that created a stir in foreign policy circles, this book shows why five central arguments promoting nuclear weapons are, in essence, myths.

Download or read book A Crisis of Beliefs written by Nicola Gennaioli and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2018-09-11 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How investor expectations move markets and the economy The collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008 caught markets and regulators by surprise. Although the government rushed to rescue other financial institutions from a similar fate after Lehman, it could not prevent the deepest recession in postwar history. A Crisis of Beliefs makes us rethink the financial crisis and the nature of economic risk. In this authoritative and comprehensive book, two of today’s most insightful economists reveal how our beliefs shape financial markets, lead to expansions of credit and leverage, and expose the economy to major risks. Nicola Gennaioli and Andrei Shleifer carefully walk readers through the unraveling of Lehman Brothers and the ensuing meltdown of the US financial system, and then present new evidence to illustrate the destabilizing role played by the beliefs of home buyers, investors, and regulators. Using the latest research in psychology and behavioral economics, they present a new theory of belief formation that explains why the financial crisis came as such a shock to so many people—and how financial and economic instability persist. A must-read for anyone seeking insights into financial markets, A Crisis of Beliefs shows how even the smartest market participants and regulators did not fully appreciate the extent of economic risk, and offers a new framework for understanding today’s unpredictable financial waters.

Download or read book 50 Myths and Lies That Threaten America s Public Schools written by David C. Berliner and published by Teachers College Press. This book was released on 2014 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two of the most respected voices in education and a team of young education scholars identify 50 myths and lies that threaten America's public schools. With hard-hitting information and a touch of comic relief, Berliner, Glass, and their Associates separate fact from fiction in this comprehensive look at modern education reform. They explain how the mythical failure of public education has been created and perpetuated in large part by political and economic interests that stand to gain from its destruction. They also expose a rapidly expanding variety of organizations and media that intentionally misrepresent facts. Many of these organizations also suggest that their goal is unbiased service in the public interest when, in fact, they represent narrow political and financial interests. Where appropriate, the authors name the promoters of these deceptions and point out how they are served by encouraging false beliefs. This provocative book features short essays on important topics to provide every elected representative, school administrator, school board member, teacher, parent, and concerned citizen with much food for thought, as well as reliable knowledge from authoritative sources. “Berliner and Glass are long-time critics of wrong-headed education reforms. 50 Myths and Lies continues their record of evidence-based truth-telling. Joined by 19 young scholars in identifying 50 of the worst ideas for changing our nation's schools, they are able to sort through the cacophony of today’s all too often ill-informed debate. Anyone involved in making decisions about today’s schools should read this book.” —Linda Darling-Hammond, Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education, Stanford University “This book is true grit. It’s the gritty reality of hard data. It’s the irritating grit that makes you shift in your seat. And it’s the grit that sometimes makes you want to weep. Well argued, well written—whether you agree or disagree with this book, if you care about the future of public education, you mustn’t ignore it.” —Andy Hargreaves, professor, Thomas More Brennan Chair in Education, Lynch School of Education, Boston College “50 Myths and Lies is a powerful defense of public education and a discerning refutation of the reckless misimpressions propagated by a juggernaut of private-sector forces and right-wing intellectuals who would gladly rip apart the legacy of democratic schooling in America. It is a timely and hard-hitting book of scholarly but passionate polemic. The teachers of our children will be grateful.” —Jonathan Kozol, educator, author of Fire in the Ashes “What do you get when two world-class scholars and a team of talented analysts take a hard look at 50 widely held yet unsound beliefs about U.S. public schools? Well, in this instance you get a flat-out masterpiece that, by persuasively blending argument and evidence, blasts those beliefs into oblivion. Required reading? You bet!” —W. James Popham, professor emeritus, UCLA David C. Berliner is an educational psychologist and bestselling author. He was professor and dean of the Mary Lou Fulton Institute and Graduate School of Education at Arizona State University. Gene V Glass is a senior researcher at the National Education Policy Center and a research professor in the School of Education at the University of Colorado Boulder. TheirAssociates are the hand-picked leading PhDs and PhDs in training from their respective institutions.

Download or read book The Myth of the Free Market written by Mark Anthony Martinez and published by Kumarian Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: * Explains how the 2008 financial meltdown came about and how to revitalize global and domestic economies * Shows how capitalist economies developed and why the state matters in their functioning Free market purists claim that the state is an inefficient institution that does little for society beyond providing stability and protection. The activities related to distributing resources and economic growth, they say, are better left to the invisible hand of the marketplace. These notions now seem tragically misguided in the wake of the 2008 market collapse and bailout. Mark Martinez describes how the flawed myth of the "invisible hand" distorted our understanding of how modern capitalist markets developed and actually work. Martinez draws from history to illustrate that political processes and the state are not only instrumental in making capitalist markets work but that there would be no capitalist markets or wealth creation without state intervention. He brings his story up to the present day to show how the seeds of an unprecedented government intervention in the financial markets were sown in past actions. The Myth of the Free Market is a fascinating and accessible introduction to comparative economic systems as well as an incisive refutation of the standard mantras of neoclassical free market economic theory.

Download or read book Myths and Politics in Western Societies written by John Girling and published by Transaction Publishers. This book was released on 1993-01-01 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ""In an intriguing and provocative bookan important thesis. An important addition to libraries serving both academic and general readers."" --Choice

Download or read book The Farm Crisis Bigger Farms and the Myths of Competition and Efficiency written by Darrin Qualman and published by Canadian Centre Policy Alternatives. This book was released on 2004 with total page 35 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: