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The American cultural historian, literary and social critic and college professor Paul Fussell (1924-2012) is primarily noted for his famous work The Great War and Modern Memory, but he also wrote and edited 21 books on a wide variety of topics, ranging from 18th century British literature to works on World War II and sardonic critiques of American society and culture. This book offers a thorough introduction to his writings and thought, and argues for Fussell's importance and relevancy. Covering Fussell's traumatic experience in World War II and the important influence it had on his life and outlook, this intellectual biography puts in context Fussell's perspectives on ethics, the human experience, war, and literature as an evaluative and critical endeavor.
Freedom, reason, tolerance. These are the values American Unitarianism was founded upon in the late 18th century: the same Enlightenment principles that had also inspired the nation's founders. Until recently, it was unthinkable that this liberal religion would be capable of banning books and silencing dissenters. But this is precisely what happened after Unitarian Universalist minister Todd Eklof wrote his book, "The Gadfly Papers: Three Inconvenient Essays by One Pesky Minister." Just hours after he began distributing it during the Unitarian Universalist Association's 2019 General Assembly, he was surrounded by five angry representatives of the Association, chastising him for the "harm" he was causing with a book none of them had read. Before the day ended, he was banned from returning to the Assembly and boxes of his book were soon confiscated and thrown away. He was then publicly condemned by hundreds of his colleagues in a letter calling his book racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, and classist, without citing a single example from within its pages. "The Gadfly Affair" is this 21st century heretic's gripping and meticulously documented account of what transpired between the time he was banned and eventually excommunicated from America's most liberal religion. "The Gadfly Affair" further exposes the ideological intolerance now manifesting in progressive organizations everywhere, a social phenomenon that is ushering the whole of Western culture into a new Dark Ages. "The Gadfly Affair" is about finding the moral courage to respond to what's happening in our society with the same forces that have always illuminated humanity's path in the darkest of times-freedom, reason, and tolerance.
From time to time, in every era, there emerges a journalist who roams the halls of power like a roaring lion, seeking whatever liars he may devour. Les Kinsolving has filled that role for decades, and his maverick reporting style has endeared him to a host of fans that watch with glee while Kinsolving makes politicians squirm.
Between the American Revolution and the Civil War, two of the most persistent themes in American history were immigration and the growth of reform movements, among them women's rights and the antislavery crusade. The front ranks of these movements were swollen with recent arrivals. Eight individuals of Polish ancestry made noteworthy contributions to the betterment of women's status in the U.S. and to the eradication of human bondage. This collection of biographical articles provides their personal background information, explanation of their contributions, commentary by their contemporaries and historical interpretation of their significance.
The untold stories of nine Polish Americans who bravely fought in the Civil War—includes photographs, maps, and illustrations. This unique history chronicles the lives of nine Polish American immigrants who fought in the Civil War. Spanning three generations, they are connected by the White Eagle—the Polish coat of arms—and by a shared history in which their home country fell to ruin at the end of the previous century. Still, each carried a belief in freedom that they inherited from their forefathers. More highly trained in warfare than their American brethren—and more inured to struggles for nationhood—the Poles made significant contributions to the armies they served. The first group had fought in the 1830 war for freedom from the Russian Empire. The European revolutionary struggles of the 1840s molded the next generation. The two youngest came of age just as the Civil War began, entering military service as enlisted men and finishing as officers. Of the group, four sided with the North and four with the South, and the ninth began in the Confederate cavalry and finished fighting for the Union side. Whether for the North or the South, they fought for their ideals in America’s greatest conflict. Nominated for the Gilder Lehrman Prize.
The concept of disobedient consciousness and the rebellious Socratic mind that grows out of this book is, above all, a product of Ramin Jahanbegloo’s life meetings with the two apparently contradictory worlds of philosophy and politics. More precisely, it is the result of approaching the public realm in terms of a philosophical quest for truth and justice. This restless quest for truth and justice has a history that continues to bear upon us, however much we choose to ignore it. We can think about the current situation of philosophy by exploring that history. The image of Socrates represents a mid-point between politics and philosophy; the Socratic mind, exemplified by the presence of the public gadfly in history, finds itself at the beginning of a new struggle for truth. The journey to this struggle started with the trial of Socrates, followed by the experiences of Henry David Thoreau, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Albert Camus. But the forging of the rebellious mind and the sustaining of the civic task of philosophy are goals which impose themselves to each of us whenever we are reminded by the urgency of critical thinking in our own dark times. The future of humankind necessarily requires convictions and commitments, but it also requires Socratic rebels, of the mind and of action, who have the courage to swim against the tide. Examining dissent in the history of philosophy, this book will appeal to scholars of political theory and political philosophy and to scholars and students of political and intellectual history.
“A unique and intriguing point of entry into the dialogues and a variety of concerns from metaphysics and epistemology to ethics, politics, and aesthetics.” —Eric Sanday, University of Kentucky Plato’s Animals examines the crucial role played by animal images, metaphors, allusions, and analogies in Plato’s dialogues. These fourteen lively essays demonstrate that the gadflies, snakes, stingrays, swans, dogs, horses, and other animals that populate Plato’s work are not just rhetorical embellishments. Animals are central to Plato’s understanding of the hierarchy between animals, humans, and gods and are crucial to his ideas about education, sexuality, politics, aesthetics, the afterlife, the nature of the soul, and philosophy itself. The volume includes a comprehensive annotated index to Plato’s bestiary in both Greek and English. “Plato’s Animals is a strong volume of beautifully written paeans to postmodern themes found in premodern thought.” —Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews “Shows readers of Plato that he remains significant to issues currently pursued in Continental thought and especially in relation to Derrida and Heidegger.” —Robert Metcalf, University of Colorado, Denver “Will provide fertile ground for future work in this area.” —Jill Gordon, author of Plato’s Erotic World
Author Peter Bridges presents the life of an American who in his day was both famous and influential, and, through Piatt, sheds light on much of the corruption and injustice of the Gilded Age. This biography is the latest volume in the ADST-DACOR series on Diplomats and Diplomacy.Peter Bridges holds degrees from Dartmouth College and Columbia University.
A darkly witty mystery set at a New England prep school: “Part Dead Poets Society. Part Heathers. Entirely addictive” (Glamour). “Do you know what it took for Socrates’ enemies to make him stop pursuing the truth?” “Hemlock.” The fiercely competitive Mariana Academy was founded with a serious honor code; its reputation has been unsullied for decades. But now, a long-dormant secret society called Prisom’s Party seems to have reemerged, threatening the school’s placid halls with vigilante justice, exposing students and teachers alike for even the most minor infraction. Iris Dupont, a budding journalist whose only confidant is the chain-smoking specter of Edward R. Murrow, feels sure she can break into the ranks of the Devil’s Advocate, the Party’s underground newspaper, and there uncover the source of its blackmail schemes and vilifying rumors. Some involve the school’s new science teacher, who also seems to be investigating the Party. Others point to an albino student who left school abruptly ten years before, never to return. And everything connects to a rare book called Marvelous Species. But the truth comes with its own dangers, and Iris is torn between her allegiances, her reporter’s instinct, and her own troubled past, in this “darkly comic romp” filled with double-crosses and deeply buried secrets (The Washington Post).
This book demonstrates how certain African American writers radically re-envisioned core American ideals in order to make them serviceable for racial justice. Each writer's unprecedented reconstruction of key American values has the potential to energize American citizenship today.