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  Mandate for Mesopotamia and...

  Editors Charles River

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  The United Nations is one of the most famous bodies in the world, and its predecessor, the League of Nations, might be equally notorious. In fact, President Woodrow Wilson’s pet project was controversial from nearly the minute it was conceived. While it would attempt to resolve some territorial disputes, it simply proved too weak to prevent international aggression, primarily among the Axis Powers in the buildup to World War II. Thus, the League’s greatest legacy ended up being its dismal failure to prevent World War II and ensure that World War I had truly been the “war to end all wars,” as originally intended. 
  Although the League of Nations was short-lived and clearly failed in its primary mission, it did essentially spawn the United Nations at the end of World War II, and many of the UN’s structures and organizations came straight from its predecessor, with the concepts of an International Court and a General Assembly coming straight from the League. More importantly, the failures of the League ensured that the UN was given stronger authority and enforcement mechanisms, most notably through the latter’s Security Council, and while the League dissolved after a generation, the UN has survived for over 70 years. 
  One of the League’s most lasting legacies was the manner in which it handed over administrative control of land in the Middle East to the victorious Allied Powers, namely France and Britain. The Ottoman Empire quickly collapsed after World War I, and its extensive lands were divvied up between the French and British. While the French gained control of the Levant, which would later become modern day nations like Syria and Lebanon, the British were given mandates for Mesopotamia and Palestine. The British Mandate for Palestine gave the British control over the lands that have since become Jordan, Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip, while Mesopotamia covered modern Iraq.

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  Beyond Survival - Strategies and...

  Leah Lakshmi...

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  Transformative justice seeks to solve the problem of violence at the grassroots level, without relying on punishment, incarceration, or policing. Community-based approaches to preventing crime and repairing its damage have existed for centuries. However, in the putative atmosphere of contemporary criminal justice systems, they are often marginalized and operate under the radar. Beyond Survival puts these strategies front and center as real alternatives to today's failed models of confinement and "correction." 
   
   
   
  In this collection, a diverse group of authors focuses on concrete and practical forms of redress and accountability, assessing existing practices and marking paths forward. They use a variety of forms—from toolkits to personal essays—to delve deeply into the "how to" of transformative justice, providing alternatives to calling the police, ways to support people having mental health crises, stories of community-based murder investigations, and much more. At the same time, they document the history of this radical movement, creating space for long-time organizers to reflect on victories, struggles, mistakes, and transformations.

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  No Democracy Lasts Forever - How...

  Erwin Chemerinsky

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  No Democracy Lasts Forever argues that the Constitution has become a threat to American democracy and must be dramatically changed or replaced if secession is to be avoided. 
   
   
   
  Deeply troubled by the Constitution's inherent flaws, Erwin Chemerinsky, the renowned dean of Berkeley law school, came to the sobering conclusion that our nearly 250-year-old founding document is responsible for the crisis now facing American democracy. Pointing out that just fifteen of the 11,848 amendments proposed since 1789 have passed, Chemerinsky contends that the very nature of our polarization results from the Constitution's "bad bones," which have created a government that no longer works or has the confidence of the public. Yet political armageddon can still be avoided, Chemerinsky writes, if a new constitutional convention is empowered to replace the Constitution of 1787, much as the Founding Fathers replaced the outdated Articles of Confederation. If this isn't possible, Americans must give serious thought to forms of secession—including a United States structured like the European Union—based on a recognition that what divides us as a country is, in fact, greater than what unites us.

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  Along Lake Michigan - Shipwreck...

  Michael Schumacher

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  The Great Lakes are graveyards of a vast number of shipwrecks (30,000 by some estimates), and Lake Michigan has more than the other four lakes combined. The stories of those wrecks tell the history of that mighty lake in its endless, mercurial challenge to human endeavor. 
   
   
   
  Michael Schumacher charts the course of shipping disasters great and small on Lake Michigan. He illuminates the details of maritime weather and shipcraft, the lives devoted to and lost on the water, and the mistakes and monumental failures that led to these ships' watery ends. 
   
   
   
  Here are tragic tales like that of the Eastland, the deadliest shipwreck in Great Lakes history, lost while docked in the Chicago River; the Rouse Simmons, a wooden schooner loaded with Christmas trees; the train ferry Milwaukee and the Wisconsin, a package freighter, gone within one week of each other in October 1929; and the passenger vessel the Lady Elgin, a devastating loss met with incredible heroism. 
   
  The stories of these shipwrecks, spanning a full century of commercial traffic on Lake Michigan, document the myriad forms of bravery and misfortune that mark our encounters with the Great Lakes.

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  The Deepest Place - Suffering...

  MD Curt Thompson

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  In the face of personal and global suffering, is it possible to live with hope rather than despair? Join psychiatrist, speaker, and award-winning author Curt Thompson as he shows us how God transforms our grief into a lasting peace that surpasses all understanding. 
  Suffering is a defining reality of life. Yet so many of us are so focused on avoiding discomfort that we've never learned how to actually suffer. But what if we could move from anxiety to durable hope? 
  In The Deepest Place, Thompson invites us to explore how the Apostle Paul's experience of love, secure attachment, and the deeply felt sense of God's abiding presence carried him through the challenges he faced--and how it can help us not just survive, but flourish in the presence of suffering. 
  Combining scripture with his own professional insight, Thompson helps us discover that:Suffering can increase our sense of security rather than our fearsHope is something we form in communityFaith can grow out of anger, cynicism, and doubtPerseverance changes our brain and reshapes our imaginationListening to our bodies helps us find new hope in loss 
    
  As Thompson reminds us, those who have suffered greatly, including the Apostle Paul, are able to see their stories with a new understanding of God's presence and unfailing love. Let The Deepest Place show you how to do the same. 
  Graphics are included in the audiobook companion PDF download.

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  Echoes of Eternity - Myth Ritual...

  Christian Felix

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  "Echoes of Eternity: Myth, Ritual, and the Persistence of the Sacred" by Christian Felix offers a captivating exploration of religious experience worldwide. Felix delves into the dichotomy between the sacred and the profane, revealing how rituals, myths, and symbols bridge the gap between the mundane and the transcendent. Through meticulous analysis and comparative study, he unveils the significance of sacred spaces, times, and the myth of eternal recurrence. Felix's interdisciplinary approach sheds light on the universal aspects of religious phenomena, making this book essential reading for scholars and seekers alike, inviting readers to ponder the mysteries of the sacred in human life.

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