Altri libri che potrebbero interessarti

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  When Science Meets Power - 1st...

  Geoff Mulgan

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  Science and politics have collaborated throughout human history and science is repeatedly invoked today in political debates, from pandemic management to climate change. 
   
   
   
  Leading policy analyst Geoff Mulgan here calls attention to the growing frictions caused by the expanding—and unsolicited—authority being heaped upon science. As science increasingly competes with politics, a defined plan of cooperation is urgently needed. 
   
   
   
  Mulgan outlines science and politics as two distinct, imperfect forms of collective intelligence. Whereas science is ordered around what we know and what is, politics engages what we feel and what matters. Politics functions because it recognizes the limits of power, the need for delegation and expert advice. The intellectual logic of science, on the other hand, focuses on detail and depth, struggling to place its knowledge in wider contexts. The crux of the matter, Mulgan argues, is how can we ensure that crucial decisions taken in democracies are both well informed and legitimate? 
   
   
   
  Rooted in understanding that science and politics are not just fields of ideas but also fields of action, this book proposes ways to ensure that the two work effectively together.

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  Byzantium: The History of the...

  Editors Charles River

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  Byzantium may have reached its zenith during the Middle Ages as Constantinople, but it had previously stood out among Greek and other ancient cities for its wealth, size, and strategic location. It is probable that given the location, if the Megarans had not founded their city where they did, another Greek polis would have. It is equally probable that any city in that area would have enjoyed success from the wealth generated from its involvement in the key two-way trade between the Greek states and their numerous colonies around the Black Sea and the increasing general east-west trade between the Roman Empire and the exotic lands to the east.  
  Byzantium’s position as guardian of the Bosphorus gave it advantages that stood the city in good stead for thousands of years and consolidated the city as an intercontinental and international trading hub. Inevitably, such a vibrant international center produced many creative thinkers, and Byzantium was the birthplace or home to such figures as Homerus, a tragedian who lived in the early 3rd century BCE. Another overlooked figure was Philo, an engineer who lived from 280-220 BCE and is known as Philo Mechanicus. Although he was primarily an engineer, he was also a physicist and writer on mechanics. His most important work was the huge Syntaxis, which contained sections on general mathematics, mechanics, harbor construction, siege engine construction, pneumatics, mechanical toys, and coding for military use. The military sections Belopoeica and Poliorcetica survived, and they detailed how to build missiles, construct fortresses, and how to properly provision an army.

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  Dividing Lines - How...

  Deborah N. Archer

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  Our nation's transportation system is crumbling. But as acclaimed scholar and ACLU president Deborah Archer warns in Dividing Lines, before we can think about rebuilding and repairing, we must consider the role race has played in transportation infrastructure, from the early twentieth century and into the present day. 
   
   
   
  As Archer demonstrates, the success of the Civil Rights movement and the fall of Jim Crow in the 1960s did not mean the end of segregation. With state-sanctioned racism no longer legal, officials across the country turned to transportation infrastructure to keep Americans divided. A wealthy white neighborhood could no longer be "protected" by racial covenants and segregated shops, but a multilane road, with no pedestrian crossings, could be built along its border to make it difficult for people from a lower-income community to visit. Highways could not be routed through Black neighborhoods based on the race of their residents, but those neighborhoods' lower property values—a legacy of racial exclusion—could justify their destruction. 
   
   
   
  Drawing on a wealth of sources, including interviews with people who now live in the shadow of highways and other major infrastructure projects, Archer presents a sweeping, national account—from Atlanta and Houston to Indianapolis and New York City—of our persistent divisions.

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  Brown Girl Like Me - The...

  Jaspreet Kaur

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  Captivatingly read by the author, Jaspreet Kaur.You might feel that this fight is too big for you. How on earth can you dismantle so many complex, long-standing systems of oppression? My answer: piece by piece.Brown Girl Like Me is an inspiring memoir and empowering manifesto that equips women with the confidence and tools they need to navigate the difficulties that come with an intersectional identity. Jaspreet Kaur unpacks key issues such as the media, the workplace, the home, education, mental health, culture, confidence and the body, to help South Asian women understand and tackle the issues that affect them, and help them be in the driving seat of their own lives.Jaspreet pulls no punches, tackling difficult topics from mental health and menstruation stigma to education and beauty standards, from feminism to cultural appropriation and microaggressions. She also addresses complex issues, such as how to manage being a brown feminist without rejecting your own culture, and why Asian girls – the second highest performing group of students in the country – aren't seen in larger numbers in universities and head offices.Interviews with brilliant South Asian Women of all walks of life as well as academic insight show what life is really like for brown women in the diaspora. Part toolkit, part call-to-arms, Brown Girl Like Me is essential reading for South Asian women as well as people with an interest in feminism and cultural issues, and will educate, inspire and spark urgent conversations for change.

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  The Lion of Round Top - The Life...

  Hans G. Myers

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  “This military biography clearly and informatively rescues from an undeserved obscurity one of the Union’s key commanders at the battle of Gettysburg.” —Midwest Book Review Citizen-soldier Strong Vincent was many things: Harvard graduate, lawyer, political speaker, descendent of pilgrims and religious refugees, husband, father, brother. But his greatest contribution to history is as the savior of the Federal left flank on the second day at Gettysburg, when he and his men held Little Round Top against overwhelming Confederate numbers. Forgotten by history in favor of his subordinate, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, Vincent has faded into relative obscurity in the decades since his death. This book restores Vincent to his rightful place among the heroes of the battle of Gettysburg: presenting his life story using new, never-before-published sources and archival material to bring the story of one of the most forgotten officers of the American Civil War back to the attention of readers and historians.“This is a well-researched and well-written book, and the author makes a strong case for Colonel Vincent’s essential role in the union victory at Gettysburg.” —The Journal of America’s Military Past “Erie, Pennsylvania historian Hans G. Myers brings to life an overlooked Gettysburg hero . . . a good, well-researched biography certainly worth the read.” —Maine at War“Readers of battle history, in particular the voluminous literature on Gettysburg, will find interest in both the short life of Strong Vincent and the hereto unheralded role his decisions played in saving the Federal left flank at Little Round Top.” —Journal of MilitaryHistory

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  Nan Yar? - Who am I? - The...

  Ramana Maharshi

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  What is liberation? How does the mind become still? What is happiness?Who am I? is the title of a series of 28 questions and answers that Sri M. Shivaprakasham Pillai asked the Indian master Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi around 1902. He visited the master in a cave on Mount Arunachala in southern India and asked for spiritual guidance.It is recorded that Ramana Maharshi answered these questions in Tamil, the language he was familiar with. This text was first published in Tamil in 1923, underwent several revisions, was translated into English by an Indian scholar from the University of Madras in 1982 and finally translated into a modern German version in 2002. The questions that were asked over a hundred years ago have lost none of their validity. The radical answers bear witness to a profound knowledge of the nature of the human spirit and point in an emphatic and uncompromising way to the possibility of realising our true self.This work is one of the only two prose pieces among Ramana Maharshi's messages in his own words. They clearly represent the central teaching that the path of knowledge, the enquiry with the question 'Who am I?' is the direct path to liberation. 'Self-enquiry leads directly to Self-realisation by removing the obstacles that make us think that the Self is not yet realised.'  Sri Ramana MaharshiIn the foreword, OM C. Parkin describes the essence of this spiritual treasure in clear and impressive words: 'All questions that arise from the depths of the human soul ultimately lead to a single one: "Who am I?" The instruction to this last of all questions contains the knowledge that everything a person seeks can only be found within. Love is within. Truth is within. God is within. God is the Self.'

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