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  Conquistadors: The Lives and...

  Editors Charles River

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  During the Age of Exploration, some of the most famous and infamous individuals were Spain’s best known conquistadors. Naturally, as the best known conquistador, Hernán Cortés is also the most controversial. Like Christopher Columbus before him, Cortés was lionized for his successes for centuries without questioning his tactics or motives, while indigenous views of the man have been overwhelmingly negative for the consequences his conquests had on the Aztecs and other natives in the region. Just about the only thing everyone agrees upon is that Cortés had a profound impact on the history of North America. Of course, the lionization and demonization of Cortés often take place without fully analyzing the man himself, especially because there are almost no contemporaneous sources that explain what his thinking and motivation was. If anything, Cortés seemed to have been less concerned with posterity or the effects of the Spanish conquest on the natives than he was on relations with the Mother Country itself.  
  	If Columbus and Cortés were the pioneers of Spain’s new global empire, Pizarro consolidated its immense power and riches, and his successes inspired a further generation to expand Spain’s dominions to unheard of dimensions. Furthermore, he participated in the forging of a new culture: like Cortés, he took an indigenous mistress with whom he had two mixed-race children, and yet the woman has none of the lasting fame of Cortés’s Doña Marina. With all of this in mind, it is again remarkable that Pizarro remains one of the less well-known and less written about of the explorers of his age. On the other hand, there are certain factors that may account for the conqueror of Peru’s relative lack of lasting glory. Cortés’s reputation was built on being the first to overthrow a great empire, so Pizarro’s similar feat, even if it bore even greater fruit in the long run, would always be overshadowed by his predecessor’s precedent. 

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  Thirteenth: Greatest of Centuries

  James Joseph Walsh

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  It cannot but seem a paradox to say that the Thirteenth was the greatest of centuries. To most people the idea will appear at once so preposterous that they may not even care to consider it. A certain number, of course, will have their curiosity piqued by the thought that anyone should evolve so curious a notion. Either of these attitudes of mind will yield at once to a more properly receptive mood if it is recalled that the Thirteenth is the century of the Gothic cathedrals, of the foundation of the university, of the signing of Magna Charta, and of the origin of representative government with something like constitutional guarantees throughout the west of Europe. The cathedrals represent a development in the arts that has probably never been equaled either before or since. The university was a definite creation of these generations that has lived and maintained its usefulness practically in the same form in which it was then cast for the seven centuries ever since. The foundation stones of modern liberties are to be found in the documents which for the first time declared the rights of man during this precious period. (Summary from Preface)

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  Meditations - Annotated Edition...

  Marcus Aurelius

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  Meditations by Marcus Aurelius – Annotated Edition 
   A modern version with a new translation and step-by-step explanations of each meditation, designed for today’s reader. 
  What if one of the most powerful tools for inner strength and clarity was written nearly 2,000 years ago—and finally made truly accessible? 
  This isn’t the usual edition of Meditations. 
   It’s a complete and modern reworking of Marcus Aurelius’s timeless wisdom, adapted for real life—here and now. 
  Inside, you’ll find a clear, direct, and human new translation. 
   Each meditation is followed by a short explanation that helps you grasp its meaning and apply it in practice. 
   No more confusion. No background in philosophy needed. 
  Includes a historical introduction revealing the real Marcus Aurelius: not just a Roman emperor, but a man facing stress, grief, war, duty, and doubt—just like us. 
  At the end of each of the 12 original Books, you’ll also find chapter-by-chapter commentary, offering deeper insight into key Stoic themes—helping you pause, connect the dots, and reflect more deeply. 
  Why readers love this edition:It’s practical: every meditation becomes a usable toolIt’s clear: no outdated or obscure languageIt’s complete: no cuts, no missing contentIt’s accessible: perfect even for first-time readersIt’s transformative: not just informative, but truly impactful 
  Ideal for anyone seeking:A modern approach to Stoic philosophyTools to strengthen the mind and regulate emotionsA practical guide to personal growthA genuine connection with Marcus Aurelius’s thoughtA deep, thoughtful, and transformative reading or listening experience 
  Don’t just read Marcus Aurelius. 
   Understand him. Learn from him. 
   And become unshakable.

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  Smothered and Covered - Waffle...

  Ty Matejowsky

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  Waffle House has long been touted as an icon of the American South. The restaurant's consistent foregrounding as a resonant symbol of regional character proves relevant for understanding much about the people, events, and foodways. Whether approached as a comedic punchline on the Internet, television, and other popular media or elevated as a genuine touchstone of messy American modernity, Waffle House, its employees, and everyday clientele do much to transcend one-dimensional characterizations, earning distinction in ways that regularly go unsung. 
   
   
   
  Smothered and Covered: Waffle House and the Southern Imaginary is the first book to socioculturally assess the chain within the field of contemporary food studies. In this groundbreaking work, Ty Matejowsky argues that Waffle House's often beleaguered public persona is informed by various complexities and contradictions. 
   
   
   
  Matejowsky discusses Waffle House's roots in established southern foodways and traces the chain's development. He also considers Waffle House's place in American and southern popular culture, highlighting its myriad depictions in music, television, film, fiction, stand-up comedy, and sports. Altogether, Matejowsky deftly and persuasively demonstrates how Waffle House serves as a microcosm of today's South with all the accolades and criticisms this distinction entails.

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  Allegorical Moments - Call to...

  Lyn Hejinian

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  Allegorical Moments is a set of essays dedicated to rethinking allegory and arguing for its significance as a creative and critical response to sociopolitical, environmental, and existential turmoil affecting the contemporary world. Traditionally, allegorical interpretation was intended to express an orthodoxy and support an ideology. Hejinian attempts to liberate allegory from its dogmatic usages. Presenting modern and contemporary materials ranging from the novel to poetry to painting and cinema to activist poetry of the Occupy movement, each essay in the book "begins again" with different materials and from different perspectives. Hejinian's generative scholarship looks back to experimental modernism and forward into a future for a vital, wayward poetry resistant to the crushing global effects of neoliberalism.

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  How Did Life End Up With Us? -...

  Ss O'Connor

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  Why does the gene behave like a hedge fund manager? Why are mutations like a gambling scam? Why does nothing ever become top dog in life and win forever? Humans only arrived after 99.99% of the time there’s been life on earth. So what was here before us? And how did these species, and the evolutionary process that created them, end up with the unpromising creatures that were our ancestors?In this, the first book of The Secrets of Life quartet, SS O’Connor brings his outsider’s, questioning eye to reveal the great forces that lie behind life: from the laws that arose with Big Bang, through to the ‘decisions’ that organisms make to determine their chances.But how did everything come about? And what made some life forms succeed - while others would join the 99.9% of species that appeared, yet went on to become extinct? The story goes right back to our single-celled forebears - the only things that were on the planet for 80% of its existence, and then continues as it lays out the ways that successive transmissions built increasing complexity, and how the resulting species found their synergistic ways of coexisting.  In an easy-going, conversational style, O'Connor explains in lay-man's language how the gene is the great conductor of life’s orchestra, how it helped millions of life forms to refine themselves - yet why it also sees failure, death and extinctions as opportunities rather than disasters.  Last, the book tells the story of the men who unpicked the mysteries, what they meant by fitness and ‘the fittest’, but why they continued to be baffled by organisms that broke the rules by helping each other. Why would some even choose to be sterile when producing the next generation was the overriding compulsion in life? And why would the answer to this question explain why altruism is the proof for the ‘gene-based theory of evolution’ - and why cooperation was to become the strongest force in life?

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