Ordinary Vices or Beyond Liberalism and Fundamentalism

Ordinary Vices

Author: Judith N Shklar

The seven deadly sins of Christianity represent the abysses of character, whereas Shklar's "ordinary vices"—cruelty, hypocrisy, snobbery, betrayal, and misanthropy—are merely treacherous shoals, flawing our characters with mean-spiritedness and inhumanity.

Shklar draws from a brilliant array of writers—Moliere and Dickens on hypocrisy, Jane Austen on snobbery, Shakespeare and Montesquieu on misanthropy, Hawthorne and Nietzsche on cruelty, Conrad and Faulkner on betrayal—to reveal the nature and effects of the vices. She examines their destructive effects, the ambiguities of the moral problems they pose to the liberal ethos, and their implications for government and citizens: liberalism is a difficult and challenging doctrine that demands a tolerance of contradiction, complexity, and the risks of freedom.

New interesting book: Security Analysis or What the CEO Wants You to Know

Beyond Liberalism and Fundamentalism: How Modern and Postmodern Philosophy Set the Theological Agenda

Author: Nancey C Murphy

This book clarifies differences between the intellectual positions of the so-called two-party system of liberals and conservatives in American Protestant Christianity. Nancey Murphy advances the thesis that the philosophy of the modern period is largely responsible for the polarity of Protestant Christian thought. A second thesis is that the modern philosophical positions driving the division between liberals and conservatives have themselves been called into question. This, then, presents the opportunity to ask how theology ought to be done in a postmodern era and to envision a rapprochement between theologians of the left and right. The book concludes by speculating on the future and the likelihood that the compulsion to separate into two distinct camps will be precluded by the coexistence of a wide range of theological positions from left to right.

Table of Contents:

	Preface
	Introduction	1
1	Experience or Scripture: How Do We Know God?	11
2	Description or Expression: How Can We Speak about God?	36
3	Immanence or Intervention: How Does God Act in the World?	62
4	Epistemological Holism and Theological Method	85
5	Linguistic Holism and Religious Language	110
6	Metaphysical Holism and Divine Action	135
	Conclusion	154
	Index	157

Vietnam or The Grimke Sisters from South Carolina

Vietnam: Past and Present

Author: D R SarDesai

Vietnam, with its recent history of continual conflict, has stirred intense interest among scholars and politicians, journalists and general readers alike. Millions of Vietnamese children have grown to adulthood carrying memories of bloodshed, terror, bombing, and dislocation. The U.S. intervention there divided public opinion throughout the world, affecting human values, national economies, presidential prospects, and military strategies. The spectacle of people with outmoded weaponry immobilizing the most militarily advanced nation in the world cast doubt on the very basis of modern strategic defense.What motivated the Vietnamese people to wage such a protracted battle at such great economic and emotional cost? Was it communism, nationalism, or a combination of both? And how does one explain the conflicts among the communist regimes in the region? What are the prospects for Hanoi emerging as a major political and ideological center in Southeast Asia?This concise introduction attempts to answer these questions by bringing a historical perspective to the Vietnam War, which is often lacking in other works. D. R. SarDesai situates the country in the context of the traditional Sino-Vietnamese cultural and colonial relationship and the more recent experience under the French. Arguing that the quest for national identity has been a recurring theme throughout Vietnamese history, the author asserts that nationalism, even more than communism, has fueled the struggles against France, the United States, and China. A major portion of the study deals with the postwar era of Vietnam’s reconstruction, administrative reorganization, its decade-long occupation of Cambodia and the subsequent UNsettlement, and its relations with the world’s major powers. This thoughtful and accessible text will be valuable for students of both Vietnamese history and contemporary politics.In this new edition, SarDesai pays particular attention to the normalization of U.S.-Vietnamese relations, Vietnam’s policy of economic liberalization, the role of industrialized nations in the globalization of Vietnam’s economy, and Vietnam’s growing participation with the Allied countries of the Pacific region. A new chapter on the Vietnamese-American community in the United States is also included.

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The Grimke Sisters from South Carolina

Author: Gerda Lerner

A landmark work of women's history originally published in 1967, Gerda Lerner's best-selling biography of Sarah and Angelina Grimke explores the lives and ideas of the only southern women to become antislavery agents in the North and pioneers for women's rights. This revised and expanded edition includes two new primary documents and an additional essay by Lerner. In a revised introduction Lerner reinterprets her own work nearly forty years later and gives new recognition to the major significance of Sarah Grimke's feminist writings.

Brotherhood of Warriors or Race Nation Class

Brotherhood of Warriors: Behind Enemy Lines with a Commando in One of the World's Most Elite Counterterrorism Units

Author: Aaron Cohen

At the age of eighteen, Aaron Cohen left Beverly Hills to prove himself in the crucible of the armed forces. He was determined to be a part of Israel's most elite security cadre, akin to the American Green Berets and Navy SEALs. After fifteen months of grueling training designed to break down each individual man and to rebuild him as a warrior, Cohen was offered the only post a non-Israeli can hold in the special forces. In 1996 he joined a top-secret, highly controversial unit that dispatches operatives disguised as Arabs into the Palestinian-controlled West Bank to abduct terrorist leaders and bring them to Israel for interrogation and trial.

Between 1996 and 1998, Aaron Cohen would learn Hebrew and Arabic; become an expert in urban counterterror warfare, the martial art of Krav Maga, and undercover operations; and participate in dozens of life-or-death missions. He would infiltrate a Hamas wedding to seize a wanted terrorist and pose as an American journalist to set a trap for one of the financiers behind the Dizengoff Massacre, taking him down in a brutal, hand-to-hand struggle. A propulsive, gripping read, Cohen's story is a rare, fly-on-the-wall view into the shadowy world of "black ops" that redefines invincible strength, true danger, and inviolable security.

Kirkus Reviews

Canadian-born and California-raised Cohen describes his work with the Israeli group Sayeret Duvdevan in this you-are-there debut memoir. The author went on his first mission as a member of this elite counterterrorism unit in March 1996. The investigation of an explosion at Tel Aviv's Dizengoff Mall was the first of many bloody crime scenes ("battlefield scenes," he calls them) Cohen had to deal with, but that was the life he chose when he moved to Israel to protect his people. He brings us into the shadowy world of Sayeret Duvdevan, offering details of his missions and his training, throwing in some contemporary and historical context, introducing us to his comrades-in-arms and delivering numerous gory anecdotes. At times Cohen comes off as stridently militant. "I recognize that what I've written here may sound unduly harsh, pro-militaristic, even anti-Arab in places," he writes in an epilogue, "but I am writing this not as a propagandist but as a pragmatist." This acknowledgement doesn't make his attitude any less jarring, though it's obviously hard to be objective in such violently graphic descriptions: slipping in a pool of blood at the scene of a suicide bombing, looking at a soldier who's had one leg blown off and will probably bleed to death before medical help arrives. Cohen's book contains an inherent contradiction. He paints himself as a lover of his God, his family and his country, an idealist who wants to do the right thing, but he displays throughout a streak of fanaticism that is clearly a prerequisite for membership in the Sayeret Duvdevan. Readers in less-extreme circumstances may find his attitude difficult to appreciate. Relentlessly bleak and extremely depressing. Agent:Richard Abate/ICM

Look this: Favourite Things to Give and Eat or Brandy Trade under the Ancien Regime

Race, Nation, Class: Ambiguous Identities

Author: Etienne Balibar

What are the particular characteristics of contemporary racism, and how far do they force us to rethink the relations between class struggles and nationalism? Balibar and Wallerstein debate these questions.

New York September 11 or The Blair Years

New York September 11

Author: Magnum Photographers

By now, the story of September 11 has been burned into our collective memory, but few have seen New York from the perspective of Magnum photographers. Eleven members of the legendary photo agency immediately dispersed from their monthly meeting in New York as the events unfolded, risking their own lives to document the incomprehensible. Their photographs, by turns haunting, surreal, and breathtaking, are collected together in New York September 11, by Magnum Photographers, compellingly presented in a high-quality edition from powerHouse Books. From their various vantage points we are transported to Ground Zero to witness the destruction of the World Trade Center, the buildings' implosion which sent thousands fleeing from debris through the streets, and the exodus out, only to return to the scene in quiet observation and admiration of the rescue workers whose jobs have only begun—and of the mourners who have been gathering in bewildering grief.

As a tribute to the World Trade Center's noted place in history, New York September 11, by Magnum Photographers will also include some of the most beloved photographs of the Twin Towers taken by Magnum over the last quarter of a century.

A portion of the proceeds will be donated to an accredited charitable organization, The New York Times 9/11 Neediest Fund.

Services and products have been donated by the following companies: Smart Papers - Knightkote Matte, Hamilton, Ohio; Meridian Printing, East Greenwich, Rhode Island; Gist Inc. Prepress, New Haven, Connecticut; Bindtech, Nashville, Tennessee; Acme Bookbinding, Charlestown, Massachusetts; Kappa Graphic Board USA, Chesapeake, Virginia; Duggal Visual Solutions, New York City; Laumont Photographics, New York City.

Magnum photographers responding on September 11 include Steve McCurry, Susan Meiselas, Larry Towell, Gilles Peress, Thomas Hoepker, Alex Webb, Paul Fusco, Eli Reed, David Alan Harvey, Bruce Gilden, and Chien-Chi Chang. Classic World Trade Center images in the book have been provided by Magnum photographers Bruce Davidson, Dennis Stock, Burt Glinn, Hiroji Kubota, Josef Koudelka, Richard Kalvar and Raymond Depardon.

Magnum Photos, founded in 1947 by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, George Rodger and David "Chim" Seymour, is a cooperative of nearly sixty photographers. For the past half century, Magnum photographers have worked for nearly every major publication in the world. The photographers are particularly well known for their photo essays and seminal photo essays, including "Vietnam Inc." by Philip Jones Griffiths in the sixties and "Gypsies" by Josef Koudelka in the seventies. To this day, Magnum continues to produce the very best in documentary photography, as evident in New York September 11, by Magnum Photographers.

Publishers Weekly

In the recent wave of books related to the tragedy of September 11 Taliban histories, introductions to Islam, volumes of pictures and commemorative poems New York September 11, by the famed Magnum Photos collective, stands out as haunting tribute to the city, to the emergency workers, to the dead, and to the Towers themselves. David Halberstam poignantly reflects on that "rarest" of moments the kind that "separate[s] yesterday from today, and then from now" in his introduction to the volume, while, in 70 color and 20 b&w photos (most reproduced on two full pages) the Magnum Photographers capture the terrible destruction and, as in a shot of a sunset seen through the Ground Zero dust cloud the terrible beauty of that day. A portion of the proceeds to go to the New York Times 9/11 Neediest Fund. ( Nov.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Go to: Whale Done or Blood on the Street

The Blair Years: The Alistair Campbell Diaries

Author: Alastair Campbell

A revelatory account of Tony Blair’s tumultuous leadership, The Blair Years gathers extracts from the diaries of the man who knew him best: Alastair Campbell—Blair’s spokesman from 1994 to 2003, his press secretary, strategist, and closest confidant. It is a compelling chronicle of contemporary British politics and the rise of New Labour, providing the first important record of a remarkable decade in Britain’s history.

Here are the defining events of the time, from the Labour Party’s new dawn to the war on terror; from the death of Princess Diana to negotiations for peace in Northern Ireland; from Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq to the Hutton Inquiry of 2003, the year Campbell resigned his position. Here also are Blair’s relationships with world leaders and heads of state, including presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. But above all, here is Tony Blair up close and personal, making the decisions that affected the lives of millions, under relentless and frequently hostile pressure.

Often described as the second most powerful figure in Britain, Alastair Campbell is no stranger to controversy. Feared and admired in equal measure, hated by some, he was pivotal to the founding of New Labour and the sensational election victory of 1997. Campbell spent more waking hours alongside the prime minister than anyone, and his diaries—at times brutally frank, often funny, always engrossing—take the reader right to the heart of government.
The Blair Years is a story of politics in the raw, of progress and setback, of reputations made and destroyed, under the relentless scrutiny of a 24-hour media. Unflinchinglytold, it covers the crises and scandals, the rows and resignations, the ups and downs at No. 10 Downing Street. But amid the landmark events are insights and observations that make this a remarkably human portrayal of some of the most influential people in the world.

A completely riveting book about life at the very top, told by a man who saw it all.

The Washington Post - Martin Kettle

Campbell's book must…be read with care. It is not the full, unexpurgated, inside story of the Blair era. For that we must wait at least until Campbell publishes the whole text—which is unlikely as long as Labor remains in power. What we have got is both spun and doctored…Yet even with these cautions, this is beyond question the most important and revelatory book so far written about the inner workings of Blair's government. Along with Brown, strategist Peter Mandelson and pollster Philip Gould, Campbell was at the heart of the New Labor project that transformed an ailing party that had lost four successive British general elections into a dominant party that won the next three and may yet win more. After 1997, he was at Blair's side in Downing Street through all the key events…By turns arrogant, brilliant, combative, demotic and emotional, Campbell delivers his impressions and verdicts in a wholly committed, staccato style. It is an earthy account of life in the Blair government's 24/7 media-centric world. As Campbell might say, he doesn't do reflection.

The New York Times - James P. Rubin

For political junkies, The Blair Years is riveting stuff. Alastair Campbell offers the real thing—an unvarnished portrait of the players at the top of the British Labor Party as they sought to return to government in the 1990s after nearly two decades in opposition. Then, in office, we see them confront war in Bosnia and Kosovo, the troubles in Northern Ireland, the public's loss of confidence in the health care system and, of course, 9/11 and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Most fascinating is the political warfare that was Campbell's special niche. He was press secretary when Tony Blair was the leader of the opposition Labor Party. Once Blair took office as prime minister, Campbell, a former political journalist, became director of communications and strategy, a position he held until 2003. In The Blair Years we join him and his merry band as they compete with the Conservative Party, feud with the far left wing of their own party, struggle among themselves and just try to survive in a brutal tabloid culture that regards elected officials mostly as scoundrels, liars or fools.

Publishers Weekly

Tony Blair was one of Great Britain's youngest and longest-serving prime ministers, and Campbell was Blair's spokesman and later press secretary from 1994 to 2003, accompanying Blair through his initial, hugely successful campaign for prime minister, the reform of the Labour Party, the death of Princess Diana, the Clinton presidency, 9/11 and the war in Iraq. The style of Campbell's diaries, full of shorthand and acronyms ("TB" for Tony Blair, "BC" for Bill Clinton), takes some getting used to but pays off in immediacy and candor; rather than a polished account of events, Campbell gives readers refreshingly unvarnished impressions of what occurred at the time it was occurring, free of spin or second-guessing. People behave badly-swearing, losing tempers, perspiring, dressing inappropriately and lusting after women-and political fortunes, as well as marriages, suffer the strain. Appearances by Bill Clinton (in the midst of the Lewinsky fallout) are remarkable for the vulnerability they reveal, and the arrangements for Diana's funeral, made by the Blair cabinet and the royal family together, exhibit a fascinating mix of compassion and calculation (Blair comments shrewdly, "She will become an icon straight away. She will live on as an icon.") As readers watch Blair navigate the shoals of political life, they, like the author, will emerge admiring him and appreciating the frank and ultimately flattering portrait that Campbell provides. (Aug.)

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