Category: Religious Studies (Page 20 of 41)

Here is a selection of the 46 titles added to the catalogue in the past week. Click on a link for more information.

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4Q Instruction /by Matthew Goff. 

 Barrow’s boys /Fergus Fleming. 
Barrow’s Boys is a spellbinding account of perilous journeys to uncharted areas under the most challenging conditions. Re-creating the successes and harrowing failures of the original extreme adventurers, Fergus Fleming captures the incredibly brave, and often downright insane, passion for exploration that led a band of men into situations that would humble even the bravest adventurers today. While many of the journeys failed entirely, Barrow and his men ultimately opened Africa to the world, discovered Antarctica, and pried apart the mandibles of the Arctic. Many of the missions have gone down among the greatest in history, yet they have never before been collected into one volume that captures the full sweep of Barrow’s program. Beyond their own renowned discoveries, Barrow’s officers inspired scores of men, from Livingstone to Shackleton, to continue the incredible quest for knowledge well into the twentieth century.Never again would such a disparate and entertaining band of explorers stalk the world.

Before Mao: the untold story of Li Lisan and the creation of Communist China /Patrick Lescot ;translated by Steven Rendall. Combining an exceptional love story with a gripping tale of incarceration in Stalin’s gulag and later in Mao Tse-tung’s concentration camps,  Lescot’s Before Mao is a deeply moving, beautifully told saga of Li Lisan, Mao’s predecessor at the head of the Communist Party and a key member of the Russian and Chinese revolutions.  Told in an engaging, highly dramatic style that reads more like a novel than a standard history, Lescot skillfully unfolds this page-turning biography. Moving from China to France to the Soviet Union and finally back to China, Before Mao is an extraordinary chronicle of the indomitable human spirit, “allowing us to share in some true moments of emotion, where love wins over totalitarianism’s destruction of individuality” (Le Monde).

Bingo plus: number workbookfor literacy and level 1 /by Donna Bowler.

Chinese characters: a journey through China /Sarah Lloyd.

Chinese roundabout: essays in history and culture /Jonathan D. Spence.

Christian reconstruction: R.J. Rushdoony and American religious conservatism /Michael J. McVicar. This is the first critical history of Christian Reconstruction and its founder and champion, theologian and activist Rousas John Rushdoony (1915-2001). Drawing on exclusive access to Rushdoony’s personal papers and extensive correspondence, McVicar demonstrates the considerable role Reconstructionism played in the development of the radical Christian Right and an American theocratic agenda.

Copts at the crossroads: the challenges of building inclusive democracy in contemporary Egypt /Mariz Tadros. This book poses such questions as why there has been a mass exodus of Copts from Egypt, and how this relates to other religious minorities in the Arab region; why it is that sectarian violence increased during and after the 2011 Revolution; and how the new configuration of power has influenced the extent to which a vision of a political order is being based on the principles of inclusive democracy. 

Daughters & mothers: making it work /Dorothy Firman and Julie Firman. In this profound book, coauthors Julie and her daughter Dorothy Firman, both psychotherapists who specialize in mother/daughter workshops, help readers sift through old behavior patterns, feelings and thoughts to transform their relationships and, ultimately, themselves. Daughters and Mothers is an essential guide for women who want to heal their relationship and achieve greater acceptance, love and harmony. It book is for women of all ages-and one that is never too late to read.

Dealing with China: an insider unmasks the new economic superpower /Henry M. Paulson Jr.  Paulson delivers a behind-the-scenes account of China’s rise as an economic superpower.  DEALING WITH CHINA takes the reader behind closed doors to witness the creation and evolution of China’s state-controlled capitalism.

Dragon lady: the life and legend of the last empress of China /by Sterling Seagrave with the collaboration of Peggy Seagrave. Drawing on many unpublished or long-overlooked contemporary sources, Seagrave shows us Tzu Hsi as a complex woman who–though often misguided–tried to hold her country together in the context of unrelenting foreign attempts to colonize and tear it apart. Here at last is an authentic portrait of this fascinating historical figure, as well as insight into the Western craving to believe in a sinister, dragon-haunted Orient. Dragon Lady is at once a compelling biography and the equally compelling story of how a myth was contrived, how it endured, and how, ultimately, the truth has emerged.

Empress Dowager Cixi: the concubine who launched modern China /Jung Chang. In this groundbreaking biography, Chang vividly describes how Cixi fought against monumental obstacles to change China.  Chang comprehensively overturns the conventional view of Cixi as a diehard conservative and cruel despot. Chang not only records the Empress Dowager’s conduct of domestic and foreign affairs, but also takes the reader into the depths of her splendid Summer Palace and the harem of Beijing’s Forbidden City, where she lived surrounded by eunuchs–one of whom she fell in love, with tragic consequences. The world Chang describes here, in fascinating detail, seems almost unbelievable in its extraordinary mixture of the very old and the very new. Based on newly available, mostly Chinese, historical documents such as court records, official and private correspondence, diaries and eyewitness accounts, this biography will revolutionize historical thinking about a crucial period in China’s–and the world’s–history. Packed with drama, fast paced and gripping, it is both a panoramic depiction of the birth of modern China and an intimate portrait of a woman: as the concubine to a monarch, as the absolute ruler of a third of the world’s population, and as a unique stateswoman.

Engaging Torah: modern perspectives on the Hebrew Bible /edited by Walter Homolka and Aaron Panken. In this volume of essays, eminent Jewish scholars from around the world present introductions to the different parts of the Bible for the wider public. The essays encompass a general introduction to the Torah in Jewish life, and include specific essays on each of the Five Books of Moses, as well as on the Haftarot, Neviim, and Ketuvim. The contributions provide an overview of the core content of each book as well as highlight central themes and the reception and relevance of these themes in Jewish life and culture past and present. These essays, informed by and based on the profound academic research of their authors, together provide an invaluable bridge between high-level academic insight and the study of the Bible both in synagogues and in homes.

Fortunate sons: the 120 Chinese boys who came to America, went to school, and revolutionized an ancient civilization /Liel Leibovitz & Matthew Miller. Filled with colorful characters and vivid historical detail, this book unearths the dramatic stories of these young men who led China at the pivotal moment when it teetered between modernity and tradition.

John Stuart Mill: a critical study,[by] H. J. McCloskey.

Martin Luther and the German Reformation /Rob Sorensen. A concise, critical study of Martin Luther and his impact on the modern world. The book is extensively based on the writings of Martin Luther and draws connections between Luther’s life and teachings and the contemporary world.

Meet you in hell: Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and the bitter partnership that transformed America/Les Standiford. The history of two founding fathers of American industry–Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick–and the bloody steelworkers’ strike that separated them forever.

Never again: securing America and restoring justice /John Ashcroft. In this work Ashcroft breaks his silence about historic events that transpired during his term of office–including the largest terrorist attack in U.S. history, the enactment and defense of the Patriot Act, the Robert Hanssen spy scandal, the execution of Timothy McVeigh, and the recently discovered domestic surveillance program authorized by President Bush.

Red capitalism: the fragile financial foundation of China’s extraordinary rise /Carl E. Walter and Fraser J.T.Howie. In Red Capitalism,  Walter and Howie detail how the Chinese government reformed and modeled its financial system in the 30 years since it began its policy of engagement with the west. This is not a story of impending collapse, but of frustrated reforms that suggests that any full opening and meaningful reform of the financial sector is not, indeed cannot be, on the government’s agenda anytime soon.

Red notice: a true story of high finance, murder, and one man’s fight for justice /Bill Browder. A real-life political thriller about an American financier in the Wild East of Russia, the murder of his principled young tax attorney, and his dangerous mission to expose the Kremlin’s corruption. Browder made his fortune heading the largest investment fund in Russia after the Soviet Union’s collapse. But when he exposed the corrupt oligarchs who were robbing the companies in which he was investing, Vladimir Putin turned on him and, in 2005, had him expelled from Russia. Browder glimpsed the heart of darkness, and it transformed his life, exposing a towering cover-up that leads right up to Putin. A financial caper, a crime thriller, and a political crusade, Red Notice is the story of one man taking on overpowering odds to change the world.

Sacco and Vanzetti: the men, the murders, and the judgment of mankind /Bruce Watson. The riveting true story of one of the nation’s most infamous trials and executions. In the first full-length narrative of the case in thirty years, Watson unwinds a gripping tale that opens with anarchist bombs going off in a posh Washington, D.C., neighborhood and concludes with worldwide outrage over the execution of the “good shoemaker” and the “poor fish peddler.” Sacco and Vanzetti mines deep archives and new sources, unveiling fresh details about these naïve dreamers and militant revolutionaries.  Authoritative and engrossing, Sacco and Vanzettiwill capture fans of true crime books and everyone who enjoys riveting American history.

Scribble scribble: notes on the media /Nora Ephron.

The age of sacred terror/Daniel Benjamin, Steven Simon. Benjamin and Simon began working on this book more than a year before September 11, 2001 to sound the alarm for a nation that had not recognized the gravest threat of our time. One of their book’s original goals has remained: to provide the insights to understand an enemy unlike any seen in living memory. But after September 11, a second, equally crucial goal was added: to understand how America let its defenses down, how warnings went unheeded, and how key parts of the government failed at vital tasks. The Age of Sacred Terror also describes the road ahead, where the terrorists will look to draw strength, and what the United States must do, at home and abroad, to stop them.  It is the book that Americans must read to understand the foremost challenge we face.

The complete Gilbert &Sullivan opera guide /Alan Jefferson.

The gnostic new age: how a countercultural spirituality revolutionized religion from antiquity to today /April D. DeConick. In The Gnostic New Age, DeConick recovers this vibrant underground history to prove that Gnosticism was not suppressed or defeated by the Catholic Church long ago, nor was the movement a fabrication to justify the violent repression of alternative forms of Christianity. DeConick begins in ancient Egypt and follows with the rise of Gnosticism in the Middle Ages, the advent of theosophyand other occult movements in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and contemporary New Age spiritual philosophies. 

The last empress: MadameChiang Kai-Shek and the birth of modern China /Hannah Pakula.

The mirror makers: a history of American advertising and its creators /Stephen Fox.

The monster of Florence/Douglas Preston with Mario Spezi. New York Times bestselling author  Preston presents a gripping  account of crime and punishment in the lush hills surrounding Florence, Italy.  This is the true story of Preston and Spezi’s search for–and identification of–the man they believe committed an unsolved double-murder, and their chilling interview with him. And then, in a strange twist of fate, Preston and Spezi themselves become targets of the police investigation.  The Monster Of Florence, tells a remarkable and harrowing story involving murder, mutilation, and suicide-and at the center of it, Preston and Spezi, caught in a bizarre prosecutorial vendetta.

The politics of a guaranteed income;|the Nixon administration and the family assistance plan[by]Daniel P. Moynihan.

The tragedy of liberation: a history of the Chinese revolution, 1945-1957 /Frank Dikötter. Dikötter presents a stunning and revelatory chronicle of Mao Zedong’s ascension and campaign to transform the Chinese into what the party called New People.   Drawing on hundreds of previously classified documents, secret police reports, unexpurgated versions of leadership speeches, eyewitness accounts of those who survived, and more, The Tragedy of Liberation bears witness to a shocking, largely untold history. Interweaving stories of ordinary citizens with tales of the brutal politics of Mao’s court, Dikötter illuminates those who shaped the ‘liberation’ and the horrific policies they implemented in the name of progress. Told with great narrative sweep, The Tragedy of Liberation is a powerful and important document giving voice at last to the millions who were lost, and casting new light on the foundations of one of the most powerful regimes of the twenty-first century.

The way of the bachelor: early Chinese settlement in Manitoba /Alison R. Marshall. This exploration of the intersection of gender and migration in rural Canada offers new takes on the Chinese quest for identity in North America.

Tombstone: the great Chinese famine, 1958-1962 /Yang Jisheng ; translated from the Chinese by Stacy Mosher and Guo Jian ; As a journalist with privileged access to official and unofficial sources, Yang spent twenty years piecing together the events that led to mass nationwide starvation, including the death of his own father. Yang attributes responsibility for the deaths to China’s totalitarian system and the refusal of officials at every level to value human life over ideology and self-interest. Tombstone is a testament to inhumanity and occasional heroism that pits collective memory against the historical amnesia imposed by those in power. Stunning in scale and arresting in its detailed account of the staggering human cost of this tragedy, Tombstone is written both as a memorial to the lives lost and in hopeful anticipation of the final demise of the totalitarian system.

TrumpNation: the art of being The Donald /by Timothy L. O’Brien. This entertaining look inside the world of Donald Trump is chock full of rip-roaring anecdotes, jaw-dropping quotes, and rigorous research into the business deals, political antics, curious relationships, and complex background of the leading Republican presidential candidate.  Through interviews with Trump’s closest friends-and with Trump himself-award-winning journalist and author Timothy L. O’Brien presents a look inside the life of one of the world’s most famous businessmen, pulling back the curtain on the wizard of hype known as The Donald. This “myth-busting biography” (Kirkus Reviews) provides all the necessary details to “separate Trump the reality from Trump the reality show” (USA Today.)

Why America slept: the failure to prevent 9/11 /Gerald Posner. After an eighteen-month investigation that uncovered explosive new evidence through interviews and in classified documents, Gerald Posner reveals much previously undisclosed information. In a dramatic narrative, Why America Sleptexposes the frequent mistakes made by law enforcement and government agencies, and demonstrates how the failures to prevent 9/11 were tragically not an exception but typical. Along the way, by delving into terror financing, the links between far-flung terror organizations, and how the United States responded over the years to other attacks, Posner also makes a damning case that 9/11 could have been prevented. This breakthrough book presents an infuriating review of how incompetence and misplaced priorities made America an easy target for terrorists.