Society: books tagged “society” (17/99) @ BookFinder.com

ISBN 9780804115711 (0-8041-1571-0, 0804115710)

by Mark Twain

ISBN 0804115710 (0-8041-1571-0)
Softcover, Ballantine Books

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Book summary:

A seminal work of American Literature that still commands deep praise and still elicits controversy, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is essential to the understanding of the American soul. The recent discovery of the first half of Twain's manuscript, long thought lost, made front-page news. And this unprecedented edition, which contains for the first time omitted episodes and other variations present in the first half of the handwritten manuscript, as well as facsimile reproductions of thirty manuscript pages, is indispensable to a full understanding of the novel. The changes, deletions, and additions made in the first half of the manuscript indicate that Mark Twain frequently checked his impulse to write an even darker, more confrontational book than the one he finally published. [via]

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ISBN 9780806505497 (0-8065-0549-4, 0806505494)

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The Age of Reason: Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology

by Thomas Paine

ISBN 0806505494 (0-8065-0549-4)
Softcover, Lyle Stuart

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Thomas Paine, defender of freedom, independence, and rational common sense during America's turbulent revolutionary period, offers insights into religion which ring sharply true more than two centuries later. This unabridged edition of "The Age of Reason" sets forth Paine's provocative observations on the place of religion in society. [via]

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ISBN 9780910309707 (0-910309-70-1, 0910309701)

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The Age of Reason: Examination of the Prophecies

by Thomas Paine, Frank R. Zindler

ISBN 0910309701 (0-910309-70-1)
Softcover, Amer Atheist Pr

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Book summary:

Until the publication of this annotated edition, Thomas Paine's third part of "The Age Of Reason" was extremely rare and almost unknown. Titled "Examination of the Prophecies," the book examines all the supposed prophecies of Jesus in the Old Testament alleged by the evangelists of the New Testament. With great wit and penetrating logic, Paine showed that not one of the Old Testament passages cited had anything to do with the Christian's would-be Messiah. Paine appears to have been the first writer in English to suggest that Jesus was not an historical figure.

Frank R. Zindler's marginal notes and commentary examine the Greek and Hebrew texts of the verses being discussed. They show that Paine, who knew no ancient languages and knew of none of the important biblical manuscripts that would be discovered after his death, was astonishingly correct in his critique. [via]

More editions of The Age of Reason: Examination of the Prophecies:

The Age of Reason: Examination of the Prophecies: ISBN 0910309701 (0-910309-70-1)
Softcover, Amer Atheist Pr

ISBN 9780791059289 (0-7910-5928-6, 0791059286)

Albert Camus's the Stranger

by Harold Bloom

ISBN 0791059286 (0-7910-5928-6)
Hardcover, Facts on File

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Albert Camus's the Stranger: ISBN 0791059286 (0-7910-5928-6)
Hardcover, Facts on File

ISBN 9780786218349 (0-7862-1834-7, 0786218347)

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Blindness

by Jose Saramago, Giovanni Pontiero

ISBN 0786218347 (0-7862-1834-7)
Hardcover, Thorndike Pr

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In an unnamed city in an unnamed country, a man sitting in his car waiting for a traffic light to change is suddenly struck blind. But instead of being plunged into darkness, this man sees everything white, as if he "were caught in a mist or had fallen into a milky sea." A Good Samaritan offers to drive him home (and later steals his car); his wife takes him by taxi to a nearby eye clinic where they are ushered past other patients into the doctor's office. Within a day the man's wife, the taxi driver, the doctor and his patients, and the car thief have all succumbed to blindness. As the epidemic spreads, the government panics and begins quarantining victims in an abandoned mental asylum--guarded by soldiers with orders to shoot anyone who tries to escape. So begins Portuguese author José Saramago's gripping story of humanity under siege, written with a dearth of paragraphs, limited punctuation, and embedded dialogue minus either quotation marks or attribution. At first this may seem challenging, but the style actually contributes to the narrative's building tension, and to the reader's involvement.

In this community of blind people there is still one set of functioning eyes: the doctor's wife has affected blindness in order to accompany her husband to the asylum. As the number of victims grows and the asylum becomes overcrowded, systems begin to break down: toilets back up, food deliveries become sporadic; there is no medical treatment for the sick and no proper way to bury the dead. Inevitably, social conventions begin to crumble as well, with one group of blind inmates taking control of the dwindling food supply and using it to exploit the others. Through it all, the doctor's wife does her best to protect her little band of blind charges, eventually leading them out of the hospital and back into the horribly changed landscape of the city.

Blindness is in many ways a horrific novel, detailing as it does the total breakdown in society that follows upon this most unnatural disaster. Saramago takes his characters to the very edge of humanity and then pushes them over the precipice. His people learn to live in inexpressible filth, they commit acts of both unspeakable violence and amazing generosity that would have been unimaginable to them before the tragedy. The very structure of society itself alters to suit the circumstances as once-civilized, urban dwellers become ragged nomads traveling by touch from building to building in search of food. The devil is in the details, and Saramago has imagined for us in all its devastation a hell where those who went blind in the streets can never find their homes again, where people are reduced to eating chickens raw and packs of dogs roam the excrement-covered sidewalks scavenging from corpses.

And yet in the midst of all this horror Saramago has written passages of unsurpassed beauty. Upon being told she is beautiful by three of her charges, women who have never seen her, "the doctor's wife is reduced to tears because of a personal pronoun, an adverb, a verb, an adjective, mere grammatical categories, mere labels, just like the two women, the others, indefinite pronouns, they too are crying, they embrace the woman of the whole sentence, three graces beneath the falling rain." In this one woman Saramago has created an enduring, fully developed character who serves both as the eyes and ears of the reader and as the conscience of the race. And in Blindness he has written a profound, ultimately transcendent meditation on what it means to be human. --Alix Wilber [via]

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Blindness: ISBN 0786218347 (0-7862-1834-7)
Hardcover, Thorndike Pr

ISBN 9780808514022 (0-8085-1402-4, 0808514024)

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Catch-22

by Joseph Heller

ISBN 0808514024 (0-8085-1402-4)
Hardcover, Bt Bound

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Book summary:

There was a time when reading Joseph Heller's classic satire on the murderous insanity of war was nothing less than a rite of passage. Echoes of Yossarian, the wise-ass bombardier who was too smart to die but not smart enough to find a way out of his predicament, could be heard throughout the counterculture. As a result, it's impossible not to consider Catch-22 to be something of a period piece. But 40 years on, the novel's undiminished strength is its looking-glass logic. Again and again, Heller's characters demonstrate that what is commonly held to be good, is bad; what is sensible, is nonsense.

Yossarian says, "You're talking about winning the war, and I am talking about winning the war and keeping alive."
"Exactly," Clevinger snapped smugly. "And which do you think is more important?"
"To whom?" Yossarian shot back. "It doesn't make a damn bit of difference who wins the war to someone who's dead."
"I can't think of another attitude that could be depended upon to give greater comfort to the enemy."
"The enemy," retorted Yossarian with weighted precision, "is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on."
Mirabile dictu, the book holds up post-Reagan, post-Gulf War. It's a good thing, too. As long as there's a military, that engine of lethal authority, Catch-22 will shine as a handbook for smart-alecky pacifists. It's an utterly serious and sad, but damn funny book. [via]

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Catch-22: ISBN 0808514024 (0-8085-1402-4)
Hardcover, Bt Bound

ISBN 9780814742815 (0-8147-4281-5, 0814742815)

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Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide

by Henry Jenkins

ISBN 0814742815 (0-8147-4281-5)
Hardcover, New York Univ Pr

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Book summary:

Henry Jenkins at Authors@Google (video)

Winner of the 2007 Society for Cinema and Media Studies Katherine Singer Kovacs Book Award

2007 Choice Outstanding Academic Title

Convergence Culture maps a new territory: where old and new media intersect, where grassroots and corporate media collide, where the power of the media producer and the power of the consumer interact in unpredictable ways.

Henry Jenkins, one of Americas most respected media analysts, delves beneath the new media hype to uncover the important cultural transformations that are taking place as media converge. He takes us into the secret world of Survivor Spoilers, where avid internet users pool their knowledge to unearth the shows secrets before they are revealed on the air. He introduces us to young Harry Potter fans who are writing their own Hogwarts tales while executives at Warner Brothers struggle for control of their franchise. He shows us how The Matrix has pushed transmedia storytelling to new levels, creating a fictional world where consumers track down bits of the story across multiple media channels.Jenkins argues that struggles over convergence will redefine the face of American popular culture. Industry leaders see opportunities to direct content across many channels to increase revenue and broaden markets. At the same time, consumers envision a liberated public sphere, free of network controls, in a decentralized media environment. Sometimes corporate and grassroots efforts reinforce each other, creating closer, more rewarding relations between media producers and consumers. Sometimes these two forces are at war.

Jenkins provides a riveting introduction to the world where every story gets told and every brand gets sold across multiple media platforms. He explains the cultural shift that is occurring as consumers fight for control across disparate channels, changing the way we do business, elect our leaders, and educate our children.

[via]

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Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide: ISBN 0814742815 (0-8147-4281-5)
Hardcover, New York Univ Pr

ISBN 9780946640850 (0-946640-85-8, 0946640858)

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Dubliners

by James Joyce, Louis Le Brocquy

ISBN 0946640858 (0-946640-85-8)
Softcover, Lilliput Pr Ltd

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Book summary:

This elegant paperback edition with sixty lithographs by Louis Le Brocquy is a reprint of the famous privately printed Dolmen Press edition of 1986. [via]

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Dubliners: ISBN 0946640858 (0-946640-85-8)
Softcover, Lilliput Pr Ltd

ISBN 9780805051063 (0-8050-5106-6, 0805051066)

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Ecology of Fear : Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster

by Mike Davis

ISBN 0805051066 (0-8050-5106-6)
Hardcover, Holt & Company, Henry

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Book summary:

The 1990s have not been kind to Los Angeles. As Mike Davis writes, "The destructive February 1992, January 1993, and January 1995 floods ($500 million in damage) were mere brackets around the April 1992 insurrection ($1 billion), the October-November 1993 firestorms ($1 billion) and the January 1994 earthquake ($42 billion)." But, he argues, the increasing fear about nature's reign of terror in Southern California reflected in Hollywood's preoccupation with apocalypse--L.A. has been destroyed on screen by everything from lava (Volcano) to nukes (Miracle Mile) to alien death rays (Independence Day)--is in reality a strong case of denial. Again, Davis himself says it best: "For generations, market-driven urbanization has transgressed environmental common sense. Historic wildfire corridors have been turned into view-lot suburbs, wetland liquefaction zones into marinas, and floodplains into industrial districts and housing tracts. Monolithic public works have been substituted for regional planning and a responsible land ethic. As a result, Southern California has reaped flood, fire, and earthquake tragedies that were as avoidable, as unnatural, as the beating of Rodney King and the ensuing explosion in the streets."

As in City of Quartz, his earlier book about Los Angeles, Davis reveals the deeper ideological narratives behind historical events. Whether he's explaining the motivations behind the persistent refusal of civic leaders to admit that a tornado alley runs down the middle of the region, from Long Beach to Pasadena, or discussing, as one chapter refers to it, "the case for letting Malibu burn," he outlines his arguments with a fascinating amount of detail and a subtle sense of irony. There are wonderful chapters here, such as "Maneaters of the Sierra Madre," a zoology of the wild beasts Angelenos fear, including mountain lions that descend from the hills to eat joggers and small children, swarms of Africanized killer bees making their way across the deserts, and El Chupacabra, the "goat-sucking vampire" that joined L.A.'s roster of faddish icons in 1996.

Although this book is specifically about Los Angeles, its lessons about the relationship between urban developments and natural ecosystems and about the dangerous influence of class politics on environmental safety policy are applicable to any city. Anyone with a serious interest in natural history or urban policy should make a point of reading this book. --Ron Hogan [via]

More editions of Ecology of Fear : Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster:

Ecology of Fear : Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster: ISBN 0805051066 (0-8050-5106-6)
Hardcover, Holt & Company, Henry

Emma Bovary

by Harold Bloom

ISBN 0791009351 (0-7910-0935-1)
Hardcover, Facts on File

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Emma Bovary: ISBN 0791009351 (0-7910-0935-1)
Hardcover, Facts on File

ISBN 9780844671246 (0-8446-7124-X, 084467124X)

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The Ends of the Earth: From Togo to Turkmenistan, from Iran to Cambodia--A Journey to the Frontiers of Anarchy

by Robert Kaplan

ISBN 084467124X (0-8446-7124-X)
Hardcover, Peter Smith Pub Inc

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Book summary:

"The future here could be sadder than the present," writes Robert Kaplan in a chapter about the African nation of Sierra Leone. From Kaplan's perspective, the same could be said of virtually the entire Third World, which he spends the bulk of this book visiting and describing. Kaplan, an acclaimed foreign correspondent and author of Balkan Ghosts, is congenitally pessimistic about the developmental prospects of West Africa, the Nile Valley, and much of Asia. This traveler's tale offers dire warnings about overpopulation, environmental degradation, and social chaos. We should all hope that Kaplan's forecast is wrong, but we ignore him at our peril. [via]

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The Ends of the Earth: From Togo to Turkmenistan, from Iran to Cambodia--A Journey to the Frontiers of Anarchy: ISBN 084467124X (0-8446-7124-X)
Hardcover, Peter Smith Pub Inc

ISBN 9780805076554 (0-8050-7655-7, 0805076557)

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Fight Club

by Chuck Palahniuk

ISBN 0805076557 (0-8050-7655-7)
Softcover, Holt & Company, Henry

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Book summary:

The only person who gets called Ballardesque more often than Chuck Palahniuk is, well... J.G. Ballard. So, does Portland, Oregon's "torchbearer for the nihilistic generation" deserve that kind of treatment? Yes and no. There is a resemblance between Fight Club and works such as Crash and Cocaine Nights in that both see the innocuous mundanities of everyday life as nothing more than the severely loosened cap on a seething underworld cauldron of unchecked impulse and social atrocity. Welcome to the present-day U.S. of A. As Ballard's characters get their jollies from staging automobile accidents, Palahniuk's yuppies unwind from a day at the office by organizing bloodsport rings and selling soap to fund anarchist overthrows. Let's just say that neither of these guys are going to be called in to do a Full House script rewrite any time soon.

But while the ingredients are the same, Ballard and Palahniuk bake at completely different temperatures. Unlike his British counterpart, who tends to cast his American protagonists in a chilly light, holding them close enough to dissect but far enough away to eliminate any possibility of kinship, Palahniuk isn't happy unless he's first-person front and center, completely entangled in the whole sordid mess. An intensely psychological novel that never runs the risk of becoming clinical, Fight Club is about both the dangers of loyalty and the dreaded weight of leadership, the desire to band together and the compulsion to head for the hills. In short, it's about the pride and horror of being an American, rendered in lethally swift prose. Fight Club's protagonist might occasionally become foggy about who he truly is (you'll see what I mean), but one thing is for certain: you're not likely to forget the book's author. Never mind Ballardesque. Palahniukian here we come! --Bob Michaels [via]

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ISBN 9780899665764 (0-89966-576-4, 0899665764)

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Flatland

by Edwin Abbott Abbott

ISBN 0899665764 (0-89966-576-4)
Hardcover, Buccaneer Books

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Flatland is one of the very few novels about math and philosophy that can appeal to almost any layperson. Published in 1880, this short fantasy takes us to a completely flat world of two physical dimensions where all the inhabitants are geometric shapes, and who think the planar world of length and width that they know is all there is. But one inhabitant discovers the existence of a third physical dimension, enabling him to finally grasp the concept of a fourth dimension. Watching our Flatland narrator, we begin to get an idea of the limitations of our own assumptions about reality, and we start to learn how to think about the confusing problem of higher dimensions. The book is also quite a funny satire on society and class distinctions of Victorian England. [via]

More editions of Flatland:

Flatland: ISBN 0899665764 (0-89966-576-4)
Hardcover, Buccaneer Books

ISBN 9780786230488 (0-7862-3048-7, 0786230487)

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Gathering Blue

by Lois Lowry

ISBN 0786230487 (0-7862-3048-7)
Hardcover, Thorndike Pr

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Lois Lowry's magnificent novel of the distant future, The Giver, is set in a highly technical and emotionally repressed society. This eagerly awaited companion volume, by contrast, takes place in a village with only the most rudimentary technology, where anger, greed, envy, and casual cruelty make ordinary people's lives short and brutish. This society, like the one portrayed in The Giver, is controlled by merciless authorities with their own complex agendas and secrets. And at the center of both stories there is a young person who is given the responsibility of preserving the memory of the culture--and who finds the vision to transform it.

Kira, newly orphaned and lame from birth, is taken from the turmoil of the village to live in the grand Council Edifice because of her skill at embroidery. There she is given the task of restoring the historical pictures sewn on the robe worn at the annual Ruin Song Gathering, a solemn day-long performance of the story of their world's past. Down the hall lives Thomas the Carver, a young boy who works on the intricate symbols carved on the Singer's staff, and a tiny girl who is being trained as the next Singer. Over the three artists hovers the menace of authority, seemingly kind but suffocating to their creativity, and the dark secret at the heart of the Ruin Song.

With the help of a cheerful waif called Matt and his little dog, Kira at last finds the way to the plant that will allow her to create the missing color--blue--and, symbolically, to find the courage to shape the future by following her art wherever it may lead. With astonishing originality, Lowry has again created a vivid and unforgettable setting for this thrilling story that raises profound questions about the mystery of art, the importance of memory, and the centrality of love. (Ages 10 and older) --Patty Campbell [via]

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Gathering Blue: ISBN 0786230487 (0-7862-3048-7)
Hardcover, Thorndike Pr

ISBN 9781400030804 (1-4000-3080-3, 1400030803)

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The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices

by Xinran Xue, Esther Tyldesley

ISBN 1400030803 (1-4000-3080-3)
Softcover, Vintage Books

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Book summary:

When Deng Xiaopings efforts to open up China took root in the late 1980s, Xinran recognized an invaluable opportunity. As an employee for the state radio system, she had long wanted to help improve the lives of Chinese women. But when she was given clearance to host a radio call-in show, she barely anticipated the enthusiasm it would quickly generate. Operating within the constraints imposed by government censors, Words on the Night Breeze sparked a tremendous outpouring, and the hours of tape on her answering machines were soon filled every night. Whether angry or muted, posing questions or simply relating experiences, these anonymous women bore witness to decades of civil strife, and of halting attempts at self-understanding in a painfully restrictive society. In this collection, by turns heartrending and inspiring, Xinran brings us the stories that affected her most, and offers a graphically detailed, altogether unprecedented work of oral history. [via]

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The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices: ISBN 1400030803 (1-4000-3080-3)
Softcover, Vintage Books

ISBN 9780822204756 (0-8222-0475-4, 0822204754)

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The Grapes of Wrath

by John Steinbeck

ISBN 0822204754 (0-8222-0475-4)
Softcover, Dramatist's Play Service

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Book summary:

When The Grapes of Wrath was published in 1939, America, still recovering from the Great Depression, came face to face with itself in a startling, lyrical way. John Steinbeck gathered the country's recent shames and devastations--the Hoovervilles, the desperate, dirty children, the dissolution of kin, the oppressive labor conditions--in the Joad family. Then he set them down on a westward-running road, local dialect and all, for the world to acknowledge. For this marvel of observation and perception, he won the Pulitzer in 1940.

The prize must have come, at least in part, because alongside the poverty and dispossession, Steinbeck chronicled the Joads' refusal, even inability, to let go of their faltering but unmistakable hold on human dignity. Witnessing their degeneration from Oklahoma farmers to a diminished band of migrant workers is nothing short of crushing. The Joads lose family members to death and cowardice as they go, and are challenged by everything from weather to the authorities to the California locals themselves. As Tom Joad puts it: "They're a-workin' away at our spirits. They're a tryin' to make us cringe an' crawl like a whipped bitch. They tryin' to break us. Why, Jesus Christ, Ma, they comes a time when the on'y way a fella can keep his decency is by takin' a sock at a cop. They're workin' on our decency."

The point, though, is that decency remains intact, if somewhat battle-scarred, and this, as much as the depression and the plight of the "Okies," is a part of American history. When the California of their dreams proves to be less than edenic, Ma tells Tom: "You got to have patience. Why, Tom--us people will go on livin' when all them people is gone. Why, Tom, we're the people that live. They ain't gonna wipe us out. Why, we're the people--we go on." It's almost as if she's talking about the very novel she inhabits, for Steinbeck's characters, more than most literary creations, do go on. They continue, now as much as ever, to illuminate and humanize an era for generations of readers who, thankfully, have no experiential point of reference for understanding the depression. The book's final, haunting image of Rose of Sharon--Rosasharn, as they call her--the eldest Joad daughter, forcing the milk intended for her stillborn baby onto a starving stranger, is a lesson on the grandest scale. "'You got to,'" she says, simply. And so do we all. --Melanie Rehak [via]

More editions of The Grapes of Wrath:

ISBN 9780978843106 (0-9788431-0-X, 097884310X)

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The Hidden Persuaders

by Vance Packard, Mark Crispin Miller

ISBN 097884310X (0-9788431-0-X)
Softcover, Ig Pub

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Book summary:

"One of the best books around for demystifying the deliberately mysterious arts of advertising."--Salon

"Fascinating, entertaining and thought-stimulating."--The New York Times Book Review

"A brisk, authoritative and frightening report on how manufacturers, fundraisers and politicians are attempting to turn the American mind into a kind of catatonic dough that will buy, give or vote at their command--The New Yorker

Originally published in 1957 and now back in print to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary, The Hidden Persuaders is Vance Packards pioneering and prescient work revealing how advertisers use psychological methods to tap into our unconscious desires in order to "persuade" us to buy the products they are selling.

A classic examination of how our thoughts and feelings are manipulated by business, media and politicians, The Hidden Persuaders was the first book to expose the hidden world of motivation research, the psychological technique that advertisers use to probe our minds in order to control our actions as consumers. Through analysis of products, political campaigns and television programs of the 1950s, Packard shows how the insidious manipulation practices that have come to dominate todays corporate-driven world began. Featuring an introduction by Mark Crispin Miller, The Hidden Persuaders has sold over one million copies, and forever changed the way we look at the world of advertising.

Vance Packard (1914-1996) was an American journalist, social critic, and best-selling author. Among his other books were The Status Seekers, which described American social stratification and behavior, The Waste Makers, which criticizes planned obsolescence, and The Naked Society, about the threats to privacy posed by new technologies.

[via]

More editions of The Hidden Persuaders:

The Hidden Persuaders: ISBN 097884310X (0-9788431-0-X)
Softcover, Ig Pub

Huckleberry Finn / Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

by Mark Twain

ISBN 0883017059 (0-88301-705-9)
Softcover, Academic Industries

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Book summary:

A seminal work of American Literature that still commands deep praise and still elicits controversy, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is essential to the understanding of the American soul. The recent discovery of the first half of Twain's manuscript, long thought lost, made front-page news. And this unprecedented edition, which contains for the first time omitted episodes and other variations present in the first half of the handwritten manuscript, as well as facsimile reproductions of thirty manuscript pages, is indispensable to a full understanding of the novel. The changes, deletions, and additions made in the first half of the manuscript indicate that Mark Twain frequently checked his impulse to write an even darker, more confrontational book than the one he finally published. [via]

More editions of Huckleberry Finn / Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:

ISBN 9780865970083 (0-86597-008-4, 0865970084)

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An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations

by Adam Smith

ISBN 0865970084 (0-86597-008-4)
Softcover, Liberty Fund

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Book summary:

No book has done more to instruct, enlighten, and inform conservatives about economics than Adam Smith's undisputed classic. [via]

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ISBN 9780905712703 (0-905712-70-6, 0905712706)

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John Steinbeck

ISBN 0905712706 (0-905712-70-6)
Hardcover, Xs Books

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Book summary:

5 stories in one the grapes of wrath the moon is down cannery row east of eden of mice and men [via]

More editions of John Steinbeck:

John Steinbeck: ISBN 0905712706 (0-905712-70-6)
Hardcover, Xs Books

ISBN 9780905712062 (0-905712-06-4, 0905712064)

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John Steinbeck

by John Steinbeck

ISBN 0905712064 (0-905712-06-4)
Hardcover, Book Sales

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Book summary:

The Grapes of Wrath / The Moon Is Down / Cannery Row / East of Eden / Of Mice and Men [via]

More editions of John Steinbeck:

John Steinbeck: ISBN 0905712064 (0-905712-06-4)
Hardcover, Book Sales

ISBN 9780791082393 (0-7910-8239-3, 0791082393)

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John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath

by Harold Bloom

ISBN 0791082393 (0-7910-8239-3)
Hardcover, Facts on File

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Book summary:

Harold Bloom writes, "The Grapes of Wrath is a flawed but permanent American book." John Steinbeck's novel, still popular a half-century after its original publication, is the focus of this edition of Bloom's Notes. Along with a collection of some of the best criticism available on his work, this text includes a brief biography of the author, structural and thematic analysis, an index of themes and ideas, and more. This series is edited by Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of the Humanities, Yale University; Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Professor of English, New York University Graduate School. These texts are the ideal aid for all students of literature, presenting concise, easy-to-understand biographical, critical, and bibliographical information on a specific literary work. Also provided are multiple sources for book reports and term papers with a wealth of information on literary works, authors, and major characters. [via]

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John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath: ISBN 0791082393 (0-7910-8239-3)
Hardcover, Facts on File

ISBN 9780812976236 (0-8129-7623-1, 0812976231)

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The Jungle

by Upton Beall Sinclair, Arthur, Anthony (AFT), Jane Jacobs

ISBN 0812976231 (0-8129-7623-1)
Softcover, Modern Library

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Upton Sinclair's The Jungle is a vivid portrait of life and death in a turn-of-the-century American meat-packing factory. A grim indictment that led to government regulations of the food industry, The Jungle is Sinclair's extraordinary contribution to literature and social reform. [via]

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ISBN 9780835910484 (0-8359-1048-2, 0835910482)

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The Jungle

by Janice Greene, Upton Beall Sinclair, Shelley Matheis

ISBN 0835910482 (0-8359-1048-2)
Softcover, Globe Fearon Co

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Book summary:

With its high-interest adaptations of classic literature and plays, this series inspires reading success and further exploration for all students. These classics are skillfully adapted into concise, softcover books of 80-136 pages. Each retains the integrity and tone of the original book.

[via]

More editions of The Jungle:

The Jungle: ISBN 0835910482 (0-8359-1048-2)
Softcover, Globe Fearon Co

ISBN 9780812034332 (0-8120-3433-3, 0812034333)

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Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest

by Peter Fish, Ken Kesey

ISBN 0812034333 (0-8120-3433-3)
Softcover, Barrons Educational Series Inc

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Book summary:

A guide to reading "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest" with a critical and appreciative mind. Includes background on the author's life and times, sample tests, term paper suggestions, and a reading list. [via]

More editions of Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest:

Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest: ISBN 0812034333 (0-8120-3433-3)
Softcover, Barrons Educational Series Inc

ISBN 9781400030644 (1-4000-3064-1, 1400030641)

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The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn

by Diane Ravitch

ISBN 1400030641 (1-4000-3064-1)
Softcover, Random House Inc

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Book summary:

The impulse in the 1960s and 70s to achieve fairness and a balanced perspective in our nations textbooks and standardized exams was undeniably necessary and commendable. Then how could it have gone so terribly wrong? Acclaimed education historian Diane Ravitch answers this question in her informative and alarming book, The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn. Author of 7 books, Ravitch served as the U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education from 1991 to 1993. Her expertise and her 30-year commitment to education lend authority and urgency to this important book, which describes in copious detail how pressure groups from the political right and left have wrested control of the language and content of textbooks and standardized exams, often at the expense of the truth (in the case of history), of literary quality (in the case of literature), and of education in general. Like most people involved in education, Ravitch did not realize "that educational materials are now governed by an intricate set of rules to screen out language and topics that might be considered controversial or offensive." In this clear-eyed critique, she is an unapologetic challenger of the ridiculous and damaging extremes to which bias guidelines and sensitivity training have been taken by the federal government, the states, and textbook publishers.

In a multi-page sampling of rejected test passages, we discover that "in the new meaning of bias, it its considered biased to acknowledge that lack of sight is a disability," that children who live in urban areas cannot understand passages about the country, that the Aesop fable about a vain (female) fox and a flattering (male) crow promotes gender bias. As outrageous as many of the examples are, they do not appear particularly dangerous. However, as the illustrations of abridgment, expurgation, and bowdlerization mount, the reader begins to understand that our educational system is indeed facing a monumental crisis of distortion and censorship. Ravtich ends her book with three suggestions of how to counter this disturbing tendency. Sadly, however, in the face of the overwhelming tide of misinformation that has already been entrenched in the system, her suggestions provide cold comfort. --Silvana Tropea [via]

More editions of The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn:

The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn: ISBN 1400030641 (1-4000-3064-1)
Softcover, Random House Inc

ISBN 9780884360438 (0-88436-043-1, 0884360431)

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Le Pere Goriot

by De Balzac Honore

ISBN 0884360431 (0-88436-043-1)
Softcover, Varsitybooks.Com

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Le Pere Goriot: ISBN 0884360431 (0-88436-043-1)
Softcover, Varsitybooks.Com

ISBN 9780883324677 (0-88332-467-9, 0883324679)

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Madame Bovary

by Gustave Flaubert

ISBN 0883324679 (0-88332-467-9)
Softcover, Schoenhofs Foreign Books

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Flaubert avait beau affirmer qu'il désirait faire du style le coeur d'un "livre sur rien", son premier roman n'en est pas moins un récit, un roman de la "fatalité", comme le souligne innocemment Charles Bovary, sans même savoir qu'il s'agit d'une fatalité d'ordre narratologique qui imbrique imperceptiblement les éléments du texte pour rendre l'issue inévitable. Tableau des Moeurs de province, Madame Bovary dépeint avec tant d'efficacité la dynamique de la frustration que le mélange d'ennui profond, d'apathie et d'exaltation romanesque qui caractérise son héroïne a donné naissance au terme de bovarysme. De Tostes à Yonville-l'Abbaye, Emma Bovary traîne sa morne existence jalonnée d'adultères. Certes, ses échappées à bord de l'Hirondelle, l'express qui relie Yonville à Rouen, pimentent sa vie. Mais elle est conduite par Hivert, vouée au retour ironique et incontournable. Quelles que soient les tentatives d'évasion, le bovarysme triomphe. Dans le portrait de cette petite bourgeoise normande, Flaubert a poussé l'écriture objective, neutralité indispensable afin de se fondre dans les personnages, au point de rendre si vivantes les aspirations d'Emma que le roman lui valut un procès. --Sana Tang-Léopold Wauters [via]

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ISBN 9780940450073 (0-940450-07-0, 0940450070)

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Mark Twain

by Mark Twain

ISBN 0940450070 (0-940450-07-0)
Hardcover, Penguin Group USA

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Here for the first time in one volume are the most famous and characteristic of Mark Twain's works. Through each of them runs the powerful and majestic Mississippi. The river represented for Twain the complex and contradictory possibilities in his own and the nation's life: the place where civilization's comforts meet the violence and promise of freedom of the frontier. It was the place, too, where Twain's youthful innocence confronted the grim reality of slavery. The nostalgic re-creation of childhood in "Tom Sawyer"--"simply a hymn put into prose form to give it a worldly air," said Twain--and the richly anecdotal memoir of his days as a riverboat pilot in "Life on the Mississippi" give way to the realism and often dark comedy of "Huckleberry Finn" and the troubled exploration of slavery in his mystery, "Pudd'nhead Wilson." Together, these four books trace the central trajectory of his life and career, and they can be read as a single masterpiece. [via]

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Mark Twain: ISBN 0940450070 (0-940450-07-0)
Hardcover, Penguin Group USA

Moral Man and Immoral Society: A Study in Ethics and Politics

by Reinhold Niebuhr

ISBN 0844662216 (0-8446-6221-6)
Hardcover, Peter Smith Pub Inc

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Moral Man and Immoral Society: A Study in Ethics and Politics: ISBN 0844662216 (0-8446-6221-6)
Hardcover, Peter Smith Pub Inc

Noblesse Oblige; An Enquiry into the Identifiable Characteristics of the English Aristocracy.

by Nancy Mitford

ISBN 0837173876 (0-8371-7387-6)
Hardcover, Greenwood Pub Group

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Noblesse Oblige; An Enquiry into the Identifiable Characteristics of the English Aristocracy.: ISBN 0837173876 (0-8371-7387-6)
Hardcover, Greenwood Pub Group

ISBN 9780807014172 (0-8070-1417-6, 0807014176)

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One Dimensional Man: Studies in Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society

by Herbert Marcuse

ISBN 0807014176 (0-8070-1417-6)
Softcover, Beacon Pr

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Book summary:

The work offers a wide-ranging critique of both contemporary capitalism and the Communist society of the Soviet Union, documenting the parallel rise of new forms of social repression in both these societies, as well as the decline of revolutionary potential in the West. Marcuse argues that "advanced industrial society" created false needs, which integrated individuals into the existing system of production and consumption via mass media, advertising, industrial management, and contemporary modes of thought.
[via]

More editions of One Dimensional Man: Studies in Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society:

ISBN 9780881037159 (0-88103-715-X, 088103715X)

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One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest

by Ken Kesey

ISBN 088103715X (0-88103-715-X)
Hardcover, Signet

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FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. McMurphy, a criminal who feigns insanity, is admitted to a mental hospital where he challenges the autocratic authority of the head nurse. [via]

More editions of One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest:

One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest: ISBN 088103715X (0-88103-715-X)
Hardcover, Signet

Pere Goriot

by Honore De Balzac

ISBN 0804900841 (0-8049-0084-1)
Softcover, Airmont Pub Co

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Pere Goriot: ISBN 0804900841 (0-8049-0084-1)
Softcover, Airmont Pub Co

ISBN 9780809599943 (0-8095-9994-5, 0809599945)

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The Picture of Dorian Gray

by Oscar Wilde

ISBN 0809599945 (0-8095-9994-5)
Softcover, Wildside Pr

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Book summary:

A lush, cautionary tale of a life of vileness and deception or a loving portrait of the aesthetic impulse run rampant? Why not both? After Basil Hallward paints a beautiful, young man's portrait, his subject's frivolous wish that the picture change and he remain the same comes true. Dorian Gray's picture grows aged and corrupt while he continues to appear fresh and innocent. After he kills a young woman, "as surely as if I had cut her little throat with a knife," Dorian Gray is surprised to find no difference in his vision or surroundings. "The roses are not less lovely for all that. The birds sing just as happily in my garden."

As Hallward tries to make sense of his creation, his epigram-happy friend Lord Henry Wotton encourages Dorian in his sensual quest with any number of Wildean paradoxes, including the delightful "When we are happy we are always good, but when we are good we are not always happy." But despite its many languorous pleasures, The Picture of Dorian Gray is an imperfect work. Compared to the two (voyeuristic) older men, Dorian is a bore, and his search for ever new sensations far less fun than the novel's drawing-room discussions. Even more oddly, the moral message of the novel contradicts many of Wilde's supposed aims, not least "no artist has ethical sympathies. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style." Nonetheless, the glamour boy gets his just deserts. And Wilde, defending Dorian Gray, had it both ways: "All excess, as well as all renunciation, brings its own punishment." [via]

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ISBN 9780807009727 (0-8070-0972-5, 0807009725)

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Race Matters

by Cornel West

ISBN 0807009725 (0-8070-0972-5)
Hardcover, Beacon Pr

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First published in 1993 on the one-year anniversary of the L.A. riots, Race Matters has since become an American classic. Beacon Press is proud to present this hardcover edition with a new introduction by Cornel West. The issues that it addresses are as controversial and urgent as before, and West's insights remain fresh, exciting, and timely. Now more than ever, Race Matters is a book for all Americansone that will help us build a genuine multiracial democracy. [via]

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ISBN 9780812035209 (0-8120-3520-8, 0812035208)

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Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man

by Anthony S. Abbott, P. Ellison

ISBN 0812035208 (0-8120-3520-8)
Softcover, Barrons Educational Series Inc

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Book summary:

A guide to reading "Invisible Man" with a critical and appreciative mind encouraging analysis of plot, style, form, and structure. Also includes background on the author's life and times, sample tests, term paper suggestions, and a reading list. [via]

More editions of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man:

Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man: ISBN 0812035208 (0-8120-3520-8)
Softcover, Barrons Educational Series Inc

ISBN 9780812971064 (0-8129-7106-X, 081297106X)

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Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books

by Azar Nafisi

ISBN 081297106X (0-8129-7106-X)
Softcover, Random House Inc

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Book summary:

An inspired blend of memoir and literary criticism, Reading Lolita in Tehran is a moving testament to the power of art and its ability to change and improve people's lives. In 1995, after resigning from her job as a professor at a university in Tehran due to repressive policies, Azar Nafisi invited seven of her best female students to attend a weekly study of great Western literature in her home. Since the books they read were officially banned by the government, the women were forced to meet in secret, often sharing photocopied pages of the illegal novels. For two years they met to talk, share, and "shed their mandatory veils and robes and burst into color." Though most of the women were shy and intimidated at first, they soon became emboldened by the forum and used the meetings as a springboard for debating the social, cultural, and political realities of living under strict Islamic rule. They discussed their harassment at the hands of "morality guards," the daily indignities of living under the Ayatollah Khomeini's regime, the effects of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, love, marriage, and life in general, giving readers a rare inside look at revolutionary Iran. The books were always the primary focus, however, and they became "essential to our lives: they were not a luxury but a necessity," she writes.

Threaded into the memoir are trenchant discussions of the work of Vladimir Nabokov, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jane Austen, and other authors who provided the women with examples of those who successfully asserted their autonomy despite great odds. The great works encouraged them to strike out against authoritarianism and repression in their own ways, both large and small: "There, in that living room, we rediscovered that we were also living, breathing human beings; and no matter how repressive the state became, no matter how intimidated and frightened we were, like Lolita we tried to escape and to create our own little pockets of freedom," she writes. In short, the art helped them to survive. --Shawn Carkonen [via]

More editions of Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books:

Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books: ISBN 081297106X (0-8129-7106-X)
Softcover, Random House Inc

Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics as If People Mattered

by E. F. Schumacher

ISBN 085634012X (0-85634-012-X)
Hardcover, Blond and Briggs

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Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics as If People Mattered: ISBN 085634012X (0-85634-012-X)
Hardcover, Blond and Briggs

ISBN 9780881791693 (0-88179-169-5, 0881791695)

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Small Is Beautiful: Economics as If People Mattered

by E. F. Schumacher

ISBN 0881791695 (0-88179-169-5)
Softcover, Hartley & Marks Publishers, Incorporated

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Book summary:

Small is Beautiful is the perfect antidote to the economics of globalization. As relevant today as when it was first published, this is a landmark set of essays on humanistic economics. This 25th anniversary edition brings Schumacher's ideas into focus for the end-of-the-century by adding commentaries by contemporary thinkers who have been influenced by Schumacher. They analyze the impact of his philosophy on current political and economic thought. Small is Beautiful is the classic of common-sense economics upon which many recent trends in our society are founded. This is economics from the heart rather than from just the bottom line. [via]

More editions of Small Is Beautiful: Economics as If People Mattered:

Small Is Beautiful: Economics as If People Mattered: ISBN 0881791695 (0-88179-169-5)
Softcover, Hartley & Marks Publishers, Incorporated

ISBN 9780881032475 (0-88103-247-6, 0881032476)

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The Stranger

by Albert Camus

ISBN 0881032476 (0-88103-247-6)
Hardcover, Bt Bound

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The Stranger is not merely one of the most widely read novels of the 20th century, but one of the books likely to outlive it. Written in 1946, Camus's compelling and troubling tale of a disaffected, apparently amoral young man has earned a durable popularity (and remains a staple of U.S. high school literature courses) in part because it reveals so vividly the anxieties of its time. Alienation, the fear of anonymity, spiritual doubt--all could have been given a purely modern inflection in the hands of a lesser talent than Camus, who won the Nobel Prize in 1957 and was noted for his existentialist aesthetic. The remarkable trick of The Stranger, however, is that it's not mired in period philosophy.

The plot is simple. A young Algerian, Meursault, afflicted with a sort of aimless inertia, becomes embroiled in the petty intrigues of a local pimp and, somewhat inexplicably, ends up killing a man. Once he's imprisoned and eventually brought to trial, his crime, it becomes apparent, is not so much the arguably defensible murder he has committed as it is his deficient character. The trial's proceedings are absurd, a parsing of incidental trivialities--that Meursault, for instance, seemed unmoved by his own mother's death and then attended a comic movie the evening after her funeral are two ostensibly damning facts--so that the eventual sentence the jury issues is both ridiculous and inevitable.

Meursault remains a cipher nearly to the story's end--dispassionate, clinical, disengaged from his own emotions. "She wanted to know if I loved her," he says of his girlfriend. "I answered the same way I had the last time, that it didn't mean anything but that I probably didn't." There's a latent ominousness in such observations, a sense that devotion is nothing more than self-delusion. It's undoubtedly true that Meursault exhibits an extreme of resignation; however, his confrontation with "the gentle indifference of the world" remains as compelling as it was when Camus first recounted it. --Ben Guterson [via]

More editions of The Stranger:

ISBN 9780808520870 (0-8085-2087-3, 0808520873)

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Stranger in a Strange Land

by Robert A. Heinlein

ISBN 0808520873 (0-8085-2087-3)
Hardcover, Bt Bound

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Book summary:

Stranger in a Strange Land, winner of the 1962 Hugo Award, is the story of Valentine Michael Smith, born during, and the only survivor of, the first manned mission to Mars. Michael is raised by Martians, and he arrives on Earth as a true innocent: he has never seen a woman and has no knowledge of Earth's cultures or religions. But he brings turmoil with him, as he is the legal heir to an enormous financial empire, not to mention de facto owner of the planet Mars. With the irascible popular author Jubal Harshaw to protect him, Michael explores human morality and the meanings of love. He founds his own church, preaching free love and disseminating the psychic talents taught him by the Martians. Ultimately, he confronts the fate reserved for all messiahs.

The impact of Stranger in a Strange Land was considerable, leading many children of the 60's to set up households based on Michael's water-brother nests. Heinlein loved to pontificate through the mouths of his characters, so modern readers must be willing to overlook the occasional sour note ("Nine times out of ten, if a girl gets raped, it's partly her fault."). That aside, Stranger in a Strange Land is one of the master's best entertainments, provocative as he always loved to be. Can you grok it? --Brooks Peck [via]

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Television and the Teaching of English

by Neil Postman

ISBN 0891974458 (0-89197-445-8)
Softcover, Ardent Media Inc

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Television and the Teaching of English: ISBN 0891974458 (0-89197-445-8)
Softcover, Ardent Media Inc

ISBN 9780882950624 (0-88295-062-2, 0882950622)

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Utopia

by Thomas More, H. V. S. Ogden

ISBN 0882950622 (0-88295-062-2)
Softcover, Harlan Davidson

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Book summary:

Wootton's new translation brings out the liveliness of More's work and offers an accurate and reliable version of a masterpiece of social theory. His edition is further distinguished by the inclusion of a translation of Erasmus's 'The Sileni Of Alcibades', a work very close in sentiment to Utopia, and one immensely influential in the sixteenth century. This attractive combination suits the edition especially well for use in Renaissance and reformation courses. Wootton's introduction simultaneously provides a remarkably useful guide to anyone's first reading of More's mysterious work and advance an original argument on the origins and purpose of Utopia which no one interested in sixteenth-century social theory will want to miss. [via]

More editions of Utopia:

ISBN 9780874624489 (0-87462-448-7, 0874624487)

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Utopia

by John Sheehan

ISBN 0874624487 (0-87462-448-7)
Softcover, Marquette Univ Pr

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Utopia: ISBN 0874624487 (0-87462-448-7)
Softcover, Marquette Univ Pr

ISBN 9780872203761 (0-87220-376-X, 087220376X)

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Utopia: With Erasmus's the Sileni of Alcibiades

by Thomas More, David Wootton

ISBN 087220376X (0-87220-376-X)
Softcover, Hackett Pub Co Inc

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Book summary:

Wootton's new translation brings out the liveliness of More's work and offers an accurate and reliable version of a masterpiece of social theory. His edition is further distinguished by the inclusion of a translation of Erasmus's "The Sileni of Alcibiades", a work very close in sentiment to Utopia, and one immensely influential in the sixteenth century. This attractive combination suits the edition especially well for use in Renaissance and Reformation courses as well as for Western Civilization survey courses. Wootton's Introduction simultaneously provides a remarkably useful guide to anyone's first reading of More's mysterious work and advances an original argument on the origins and purposes of Utopia which no one interested in sixteenth-century social theory will want to miss. [via]

More editions of Utopia: With Erasmus's the Sileni of Alcibiades:

Utopia: With Erasmus's the Sileni of Alcibiades: ISBN 087220376X (0-87220-376-X)
Softcover, Hackett Pub Co Inc

ISBN 9781400034635 (1-4000-3463-9, 1400034639)

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War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning

by Chris Hedges

ISBN 1400034639 (1-4000-3463-9)
Softcover, Random House Inc

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Book summary:

As a veteran war correspondent, Chris Hedges has survived ambushes in Central America, imprisonment in Sudan, and a beating by Saudi military police. He has seen children murdered for sport in Gaza and petty thugs elevated into war heroes in the Balkans. Hedges, who is also a former divinity student, has seen war at its worst and knows too well that to those who pass through it, war can be exhilarating and even addictive: It gives us purpose, meaning, a reason for living.

Drawing on his own experience and on the literature of combat from Homer to Michael Herr, Hedges shows how war seduces not just those on the front lines but entire societies, corrupting politics, destroying culture, and perverting the most basic human desires. Mixing hard-nosed realism with profound moral and philosophical insight, War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning is a work of terrible power and redemptive clarity whose truths have never been more necessary. [via]

More editions of War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning:

War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning: ISBN 1400034639 (1-4000-3463-9)
Softcover, Random House Inc

ISBN 9780901720313 (0-901720-31-3, 0901720313)

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Watership Down

by Richard George Adams

ISBN 0901720313 (0-901720-31-3)
Hardcover, Rex Collings Ltd

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Book summary:

Watership Down has been a staple of high-school English classes for years. Despite the fact that it's often a hard sell at first (what teenager wouldn't cringe at the thought of 400-plus pages of talking rabbits?), Richard Adams's bunny-centric epic rarely fails to win the love and respect of anyone who reads it, regardless of age. Like most great novels, Watership Down is a rich story that can be read (and reread) on many different levels. The book is often praised as an allegory, with its analogs between human and rabbit culture (a fact sometimes used to goad skeptical teens, who resent the challenge that they won't "get" it, into reading it), but it's equally praiseworthy as just a corking good adventure.

The story follows a warren of Berkshire rabbits fleeing the destruction of their home by a land developer. As they search for a safe haven, skirting danger at every turn, we become acquainted with the band and its compelling culture and mythos. Adams has crafted a touching, involving world in the dirt and scrub of the English countryside, complete with its own folk history and language (the book comes with a "lapine" glossary, a guide to rabbitese). As much about freedom, ethics, and human nature as it is about a bunch of bunnies looking for a warm hidey-hole and some mates, Watership Down will continue to make the transition from classroom desk to bedside table for many generations to come. --Paul Hughes [via]

More editions of Watership Down:

Watership Down: ISBN 0901720313 (0-901720-31-3)
Hardcover, Rex Collings Ltd

ISBN 9780879757052 (0-87975-705-1, 0879757051)

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Wealth of Nations

by Adam Smith

ISBN 0879757051 (0-87975-705-1)
Hardcover, Prometheus Books, Publishers

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Book summary:

Political economy had been studied long before Adam Smith. But Wealth of Nations (1776) established it for the first time as a separate science. Smith based his arguments on vast historical knowledge, and developed his principles with remarkable clarity. What set this work apart was its statement of the doctrine of natural liberty. Smith believed that "man's self-interest is God's providence" - that if government abstained from interfering with free competition, the invisible hand of capitalism would emerge from the competing claims of individual self-interest. Industrial problems would be resolved and maximum efficiency reached. After more than two centuries, Smith's work still stands as the best statement and defense of the fundamental principles of capitalism. [via]

More editions of Wealth of Nations:

Wealth of Nations: ISBN 0879757051 (0-87975-705-1)
Hardcover, Prometheus Books, Publishers

ISBN 9780865970069 (0-86597-006-8, 0865970068)

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The Wealth of Nations: Adam Smith ; Introduction by Alan B. Krueger ; Edited, With Notes and Marginal Summary, by Edwin Cannan

by Adam Smith

ISBN 0865970068 (0-86597-006-8)
Softcover, Liberty Fund

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Book summary:

First published in 1776, the year in which the American Revolution officially began, Smith's Wealth of Nations sparked a revolution of its own. In it Smith analyzes the major elements of political economy, from market pricing and the division of labor to monetary, tax, trade, and other government policies that affect economic behavior. Throughout he offers seminal arguments for free trade, free markets, and limited government.

Criticizing mercantilists who sought to use the state to increase their nations' supply of precious metals, Smith points out that a nation's welath should be measured by the well-being of its people. Prosperity in turn requires voluntary exchange of goods in a peaceful, well-ordered market. How to establish and maintain such markets? For Smith the answer lay in man's social instincts, which government may encourage by upholding social standards of decency, honesty, and virtue, but which government undermines when it unduly interferes with the intrinsically private functions of production and exchange.

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More editions of The Wealth of Nations: Adam Smith ; Introduction by Alan B. Krueger ; Edited, With Notes and Marginal Summary, by Edwin Cannan:

The Wealth of Nations: Adam Smith ; Introduction by Alan B. Krueger ; Edited, With Notes and Marginal Summary, by Edwin Cannan: ISBN 0865970068 (0-86597-006-8)
Softcover, Liberty Fund

ISBN 9780971394254 (0-9713942-5-3, 0971394253)

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Why Do People Hate America?

by Ziauddin Sardar, Merryl Wyn Davies

ISBN 0971394253 (0-9713942-5-3)
Softcover, Disinformation Co

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Book summary:

The controversial bestseller that caused huge waves in the UK! The Independent calls it "required reading." Noam Chomsky says it "contains valuable information that we should know, over here, for our own good, and the world's." We call it our biggest book so far and will be backing it from day one with guaranteed co-op spending, a national publicity and review blitz, talk radio bookings, various retail sales aids including postcards, and of course the usual full court press on the Web and via email.

This is NOT just another 9/11 book: it is the book for those of us trying to understand why America--and Americans--are targets for hate. Many people do hate America, in Europe, Asia, South America and Africa, as well as in the Middle East. Ziauddin Sardar and Merryl Wyn Davies explore the global impact of America's foreign policy and its corporate and cultural power, placing this unprecedented dominance in the context of America's own perception of itself. In doing so, they consider TV and the Hollywood machine as a mirror which reflects both the American Dream and the American Nightmare. Their analysis provides an important contribution to a debate which needs to be addressed by people of all nations, cultures, religions and political persuasions--and especially by Americans.

Described by The Times Higher Education Supplement as "packed with tightly argued points," the book is carefully researched and built to withstand the inevitable criticism that will be aimed at it. A book that some reviewers will love to hate and others will praise for its insights, it's guaranteed to cause a stir.

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More editions of Why Do People Hate America?:

Why Do People Hate America?: ISBN 0971394253 (0-9713942-5-3)
Softcover, Disinformation Co

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