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Book The Limits of the World

    Book Details:
  • Author : Jennifer Acker
  • Publisher :
  • Release : 2020-04-07
  • ISBN : 9781883285869
  • Pages : pages

Download or read book The Limits of the World written by Jennifer Acker and published by . This book was released on 2020-04-07 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book History at the Limit of World History

Download or read book History at the Limit of World History written by Ranajit Guha and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2003-08-27 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The past is not just, as has been famously said, another country with foreign customs: it is a contested and colonized terrain. Indigenous histories have been expropriated, eclipsed, sometimes even wholly eradicated, in the service of imperialist aims buttressed by a distinctly Western philosophy of history. Ranajit Guha, perhaps the most influential figure in postcolonial and subaltern studies at work today, offers a critique of such historiography by taking issue with the Hegelian concept of World-history. That concept, he contends, reduces the course of human history to the amoral record of states and empires, great men and clashing civilizations. It renders invisible the quotidian experience of ordinary people and casts off all that came before it into the nether-existence known as "Prehistory." On the Indian subcontinent, Guha believes, this Western way of looking at the past was so successfully insinuated by British colonization that few today can see clearly its ongoing and pernicious influence. He argues that to break out of this habit of mind and go beyond the Eurocentric and statist limit of World-history historians should learn from literature to make their narratives doubly inclusive: to extend them in scope not only to make room for the pasts of the so-called peoples without history but to address the historicality of everyday life as well. Only then, as Guha demonstrates through an examination of Rabindranath Tagore's critique of historiography, can we recapture a more fully human past of "experience and wonder."

Book The Limits to Growth

Download or read book The Limits to Growth written by Donella H. Meadows and published by Universe Pub. This book was released on 1972 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the factors which limit human economic and population growth and outlines the steps necessary for achieving a balance between population and production. Bibliogs

Book Life Within Limits

Download or read book Life Within Limits written by Michael Jackson and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2011-02-16 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exploration of life satisfaction, happiness, and wellbeing in the first world and third world.

Book The Limits of History

    Book Details:
  • Author : Constantin Fasolt
  • Publisher : University of Chicago Press
  • Release : 2004
  • ISBN : 0226239101
  • Pages : 349 pages

Download or read book The Limits of History written by Constantin Fasolt and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: History casts a spell on our minds more powerful than science or religion. It does not root us in the past at all. It rather flatters us with the belief in our ability to recreate the world in our image. It is a form of self-assertion that brooks no opposition or dissent and shelters us from the experience of time. So argues Constantin Fasolt in The Limits of History, an ambitious and pathbreaking study that conquers history's power by carrying the fight into the center of its domain. Fasolt considers the work of Hermann Conring (1606-81) and Bartolus of Sassoferrato (1313/14-57), two antipodes in early modern battles over the principles of European thought and action that ended with the triumph of historical consciousness. Proceeding according to the rules of normal historical analysis—gathering evidence, putting it in context, and analyzing its meaning—Fasolt uncovers limits that no kind of history can cross. He concludes that history is a ritual designed to maintain the modern faith in the autonomy of states and individuals. God wants it, the old crusaders would have said. The truth, Fasolt insists, only begins where that illusion ends. With its probing look at the ideological underpinnings of historical practice, The Limits of History demonstrates that history presupposes highly political assumptions about free will, responsibility, and the relationship between the past and the present. A work of both intellectual history and historiography, it will prove invaluable to students of historical method, philosophy, political theory, and early modern European culture.

Book A Life Without Limits

Download or read book A Life Without Limits written by Chrissie Wellington and published by Center Street. This book was released on 2012-05-15 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2007, Chrissie Wellington shocked the triathlon world by winning the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii. As a newcomer to the sport and a complete unknown to the press, Chrissie's win shook up the sport. A LIFE WITHOUT LIMITS is the story of her rise to the top, a journey that has taken her around the world, from a childhood in England, to the mountains of Nepal, to the oceans of New Zealand, and the trails of Argentina, and first across the finish line. Wellington's first-hand, inspiring story includes all the incredible challenges she has faced--from anorexia to near--drowning to training with a controversial coach. But to Wellington, the drama of the sports also presents an opportunity to use sports to improve people's lives. A LIFE WITHOUT LIMITS reveals the heart behind Wellington's success, along with the diet, training and motivational techniques that keep her going through one of the world's most grueling events.

Book The Myth of Choice

    Book Details:
  • Author : Kent Greenfield
  • Publisher : Yale University Press
  • Release : 2011-09-15
  • ISBN : 0300178875
  • Pages : 316 pages

Download or read book The Myth of Choice written by Kent Greenfield and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2011-09-15 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Freedom of choice is at the core of the American story. But what if choice is fake?Americans are fixated on the idea of choice. Our political theory is based on the consent of the governed. Our legal system is built upon the argument that people freely make choices and bear responsibility for them. And what slogan could better express the heart of our consumer culture than "Have it your way"?In this provocative book, Kent Greenfield poses unsettling questions about the choices we make. What if they are more constrained and limited than we like to think? If we have less free will than we realize, what are the implications for us as individuals and for our society? To uncover the answers, Greenfield taps into scholarship on topics ranging from brain science to economics, political theory to sociology. His discoveries—told through an entertaining array of news events, personal anecdotes, crime stories, and legal decisions—confirm that many factors, conscious and unconscious, limit our free will. Worse, by failing to perceive them we leave ourselves open to manipulation. But Greenfield offers useful suggestions to help us become better decision makers as individuals, and to ensure that in our laws and public policy we acknowledge the complexity of choice.

Book The Limits of Power  the World and United States Foreign Policy  1945 1954

Download or read book The Limits of Power the World and United States Foreign Policy 1945 1954 written by Joyce Kolko and published by New York : Harper & Row. This book was released on 1972 with total page 848 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines American foreign policy and diplomacy in the decade following World War II.

Book Beyond the Limits

Download or read book Beyond the Limits written by Donella Hager Meadows and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book The Physicist s World

    Book Details:
  • Author : Thomas Grissom
  • Publisher : JHU Press
  • Release : 2011-06-02
  • ISBN : 1421400847
  • Pages : 326 pages

Download or read book The Physicist s World written by Thomas Grissom and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2011-06-02 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thomas Grissom explains what physics really is: the science of understanding how everything in the universe works. This book tells the unfolding story of our attempt to quantify the material world and to conceptualize the nature of physical laws.

Book The Limits of Empire

    Book Details:
  • Author : Robert J. McMahon
  • Publisher : Columbia University Press
  • Release : 1999
  • ISBN : 9780231108812
  • Pages : 302 pages

Download or read book The Limits of Empire written by Robert J. McMahon and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most complete picture to date of how U.S. strategies of containment and empire-building spiraled out of control in Southeast Asia, investigating also how the demoralizing experience of Vietnam radically undermined U.S. enthusiasm for the region in a strategic sense.

Book The Uses and Limits of Intelligence

Download or read book The Uses and Limits of Intelligence written by and published by Transaction Publishers. This book was released on 1993-01-01 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a major survey and assessment of U.S. intelligence activities over the last forty-five years. It offers a systematic and authoritative evaluation of American intelligence-gathering machinery: how it has been used, misused, and on occasion, ignored. The book has been hailed as "a splendid work, reflective and penetrating" by James R. Schlesinger; while Zbigniew Brzezinski describes Laqueur as "a man who understands the relationships between history and the world of secret services." Henry S. Rowen noted that Laqueur "brings a rare degree of analytical power to this important subject."

Book The Limits of Safety

    Book Details:
  • Author : Scott Douglas Sagan
  • Publisher : Princeton University Press
  • Release : 2020-05-05
  • ISBN : 0691213062
  • Pages : 306 pages

Download or read book The Limits of Safety written by Scott Douglas Sagan and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-05-05 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Environmental tragedies such as Chernobyl and the Exxon Valdez remind us that catastrophic accidents are always possible in a world full of hazardous technologies. Yet, the apparently excellent safety record with nuclear weapons has led scholars, policy-makers, and the public alike to believe that nuclear arsenals can serve as a secure deterrent for the foreseeable future. In this provocative book, Scott Sagan challenges such optimism. Sagan's research into formerly classified archives penetrates the veil of safety that has surrounded U.S. nuclear weapons and reveals a hidden history of frightening "close calls" to disaster.

Book Between Magic and Rationality

Download or read book Between Magic and Rationality written by Vibeke Steffen and published by Museum Tusculanum Press. This book was released on 2015-04-21 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Between Magic and Reality, Vibeke Steffen, Steffen Jöhncke, and Kirsten Marie Raahauge bring together a diverse range of ethnographies that examine and explore the forms of reflection, action, and interaction that govern the ways different contemporary societies create and challenge the limits of reason. The essays here visit an impressive array of settings, including international scientific laboratories, British spiritualist meetings, Chinese villages, Danish rehabilitation centers, and Uzbeki homes, where they encounter a diverse assortment of people whose beliefs and concerns exhibit an unusual but central contemporary dichotomy: scientific reason versus spiritual/paranormal belief. Exploring the paradoxical way these modes of thought push against reason's boundaries, they offer a deep look at the complex ways they coexist, contest one another, and are ultimately intertwined. Vibeke Steffen is associate professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Copenhagen, where Steffen Jöncke is senior advisor. Kirsten Marie Raahauge is associate professor in the School of Design at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen.

Book The Limits of Rationality

Download or read book The Limits of Rationality written by Karen Schweers Cook and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2008-10-03 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Prevailing economic theory presumes that agents act rationally when they make decisions, striving to maximize the efficient use of their resources. Psychology has repeatedly challenged the rational choice paradigm with persuasive evidence that people do not always make the optimal choice. Yet the paradigm has proven so successful a predictor that its use continues to flourish, fueled by debate across the social sciences over why it works so well. Intended to introduce novices to rational choice theory, this accessible, interdisciplinary book collects writings by leading researchers. The Limits of Rationality illuminates the rational choice paradigm of social and political behavior itself, identifies its limitations, clarifies the nature of current controversies, and offers suggestions for improving current models. In the first section of the book, contributors consider the theoretical foundations of rational choice. Models of rational choice play an important role in providing a standard of human action and the bases for constitutional design, but do they also succeed as explanatory models of behavior? Do empirical failures of these explanatory models constitute a telling condemnation of rational choice theory or do they open new avenues of investigation and theorizing? Emphasizing analyses of norms and institutions, the second and third sections of the book investigate areas in which rational choice theory might be extended in order to provide better models. The contributors evaluate the adequacy of analyses based on neoclassical economics, the potential contributions of game theory and cognitive science, and the consequences for the basic framework when unequal bargaining power and hierarchy are introduced.

Book Sounding the Limits of Life

Download or read book Sounding the Limits of Life written by Stefan Helmreich and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2015-10-27 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is life? What is water? What is sound? In Sounding the Limits of Life, anthropologist Stefan Helmreich investigates how contemporary scientists—biologists, oceanographers, and audio engineers—are redefining these crucial concepts. Life, water, and sound are phenomena at once empirical and abstract, material and formal, scientific and social. In the age of synthetic biology, rising sea levels, and new technologies of listening, these phenomena stretch toward their conceptual snapping points, breaching the boundaries between the natural, cultural, and virtual. Through examinations of the computational life sciences, marine biology, astrobiology, acoustics, and more, Helmreich follows scientists to the limits of these categories. Along the way, he offers critical accounts of such other-than-human entities as digital life forms, microbes, coral reefs, whales, seawater, extraterrestrials, tsunamis, seashells, and bionic cochlea. He develops a new notion of "sounding"—as investigating, fathoming, listening—to describe the form of inquiry appropriate for tracking meanings and practices of the biological, aquatic, and sonic in a time of global change and climate crisis. Sounding the Limits of Life shows that life, water, and sound no longer mean what they once did, and that what count as their essential natures are under dynamic revision.

Book Augustine and the Limits of Politics

Download or read book Augustine and the Limits of Politics written by Jean Bethke Elshtain and published by University of Notre Dame Pess. This book was released on 2018-04-30 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now with a new foreword by Patrick J. Deneen. Jean Bethke Elshtain brings Augustine's thought into the contemporary political arena and presents an Augustine who created a complex moral map that offers space for loyalty, love, and care, as well as a chastened form of civic virtue. The result is a controversial book about one of the world's greatest and most complex thinkers whose thought continues to haunt all of Western political philosophy. What is our business "within this common mortal life?" Augustine asks and bids us to ask ourselves. What can Augustine possibly have to say about the conditions that characterize our contemporary society and appear to put democracy in crisis? Who is Augustine for us now and what do his words have to do with political theory? These are the underlying questions that animate Jean Bethke Elshtain's fascinating engagement with the thought and work of Augustine, the ancient thinker who gave no political theory per se and refused to offer up a positive utopia. In exploring the questions, Why Augustine, why now? Elshtain argues that Augustine's great works display a canny and scrupulous attunement to the here and now and the very real limits therein. She discusses other aspects of Augustine's thought as well, including his insistence that no human city can be modeled on the heavenly city, and further elaborates on Hannah Arendt's deep indebtedness to Augustine's understanding of evil. Elshtain also presents Augustine's arguments against the pridefulness of philosophy, thereby linking him to later currents in modern thought, including Wittgenstein and Freud.