Other books that might interest you

• 

  The Making of the English Bible

  Gerald Hammond

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  A renowned Bible scholar examines how the Hebrew text has been interpreted—and misinterpreted—from the Renaissance to modern times. In this wide-ranging and authoritative study, Gerald Hammond sheds light on how the Bible has evolved over centuries of English-language translation. His extensive analysis begins in the sixteenth century with William Tyndale’s pioneering work. This early text is contrasted with the seventeenth century authorized version, showing how each in their own ways attempted to bring the meaning and nuance of the Hebrew scripture to English readers.  Between these towering Renaissance works, Hammond examines the two Bibles translated by Miles Coverdale; the Geneva Bible; the Bishops’ Bible; and the Catholic Bible. He also offers incisive criticism of the New English Bible, demonstrating that—in the pursuit of accessibility above all—the newer translations seem to have given up on what should be essential: faithful adherence to the source.

  Show book

• 

  Chiang Kai-Shek: The Life and...

  Editors Charles River

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  The Republic of China’s most famous leader and general was Chiang Kai-Shek, who rose from humble origins as the son of a local trader to become, as he liked to remind visitors, the ruler over more people than any other world leader. He certainly became one of the most influential leaders of the 20th century, yet today, he is considerably less well-known than many other figures from that period, which was so rife of chaos and tumultuous change. Chiang had come to power at a time when China was rebuilding itself after a period of internal conflict and turmoil, attempting to unify the nation in the face of the Japanese and the man who would become his arch-rival: Mao Zedong, leader of the Chinese Communists. 
  	Chiang’s delicate balancing act required shifting alliances, and his ability to negotiate effectively under the most adverse circumstances continues to make this a difficult period to understand clearly. Even the party that he led, the Kuomintang (KMT), was full of contradictions. The KMT was certainly corrupt and capable of brutality and violent repression of actual or perceived threats, yet it also brought a period of stability and economic growth to an impoverished China, supported women’s rights and land reform, and even established a quota for female members of parliament at a time when no other country in the world had even considered such a thing. After being defeated across mainland China by Mao, Chiang and the KMT moved to the island of Taiwan and presided over the “Taiwan Miracle,” the transition of this island to become one of the industrial and manufacturing leaders of South East Asia. 
  	This is the surprising, fascinating, complex, and sometimes baffling story of Chiang Kai-shek, and the eras of change through which he lived. 

  Show book

• 

  Building America - The Life of...

  Jean H. Baker

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  An English émigré who became America's first professional architect, Benjamin Henry Latrobe put his stamp on the built landscape of the new republic. Latrobe contributed to such iconic structures as the south wing of the US Capitol building, the White House, and the Navy Yard. He created some of the early republic's greatest neoclassical interiors, including the Statuary Hall. 
   
   
   
  As a young man, Latrobe was apprenticed to both a leading architect and civil engineer in London, studied the European continent's architectural and engineering monuments, worked on canals, and designed private houses. After the death of his first wife, he was bankrupt and emigrated to the United States in 1796 to restart his career. For the new nation with grand political expectations, he intended buildings and engineering projects to match those aspirations. Like his patron Thomas Jefferson, Latrobe saw his neoclassical designs as a way to convey American democracy. He envisioned his engineering projects as a way to unite the nation and improve public health. 
   
    
   
  Building America masterfully narrates the life and legacy of a key figure in creating an American aesthetic in the new United States.

  Show book

• 

  The Woman They Wanted -...

  Shannon Harris

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  As a twenty-three-year-old singer and the soon-to-be wife of youth pastor Joshua Harris, nothing in Shannon Harris's secular upbringing prepared her to enter the world of conservative Christianity. Soon Joshua's bestselling book I Kissed Dating Goodbye helped inspire a national purity movement, and Shannon's identity became "pastor's wife." 
   
   
   
  The Woman They Wanted recounts Shannon's remarkable experience inside Big Church—where she was asked to live within a narrow definition of womanhood for almost two decades—and her subsequent journey out of that world and into a more authentic version of herself. Entering conservative American Christianity was like being drawn out to sea, she writes, inexorable and all consuming. Slowly, her worldview was narrowed, her motivations questioned, her behavior examined, until she had been whittled down to an idealized version of femininity envisioned as an extension of her husband and the church. However, when Sovereign Grace Ministries fell apart due to leadership conflicts and Shannon found herself outside church circles for the first time in years, she heard her intuition calling to her again. As she began to shake off the fog of depression and confusion, that voice grew louder. In honoring it, she awakened to the realities in which she had been trapped and found her truest self.

  Show book

• 

  Leaning on Gates

  Seamus O'Rourke

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  In the sequel to award-winning playwright Seamus O'Rourke's popular first memoir, Standing in Gaps, this innocent Leitrim lad finally flees the nest, briefly sampling life in New York, Dublin and London, before inevitably returning to his beloved, duller-than-dishwater home, to a life which now includes alcohol, Dr. Hook and some low-budget romance.
  But man does not live on romance alone and Seamus needs to get to the bottom of his general uselessness, spurred on as always by his ever-the-realist father, who prophesied his mediocrity from an early age. Seamus continues to underachieve whilst struggling to interpret his Auld Lad's advice and watered down compliments – 'You weren't as bad as I often saw ya', 'They must be badly stuck, if they asked you' and the classic 'What kind of an eejit are ya?' – in a memoir that captures the innocence and the absurdity of rural life in 1980s and 1990s Ireland.

  Show book

• 

  The Drummond Affair - Murder and...

  Stephanie Matthews, Daniel Smith

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  1950s France. A British establishment figure. A shocking crime. A miscarriage of justice.The search for truth. 
   
  In 1952, in a peaceful corner of Provence, a farmer's son stumbled upon a terrible scene. Three bodies: a husband and wife shot dead, their ten-year-old daughter savagely beaten to death. They were all British. So begins one of the most notorious murder cases in French history. 
   
  Sir Jack Drummond was a senior advisor to the British government, a household name who was respected and admired. His fame made the case a cause celebre in France and resulted in the swift conviction of a local farmer, but questions about Drummond's life and death remain unanswered. 
  In this bold new investigation, Stephanie Matthews and Daniel Smith strip away the 
   
  prejudice and propaganda to reveal a grave miscarriage of justice. A light is shone on Drummond's secret life in the shadows of the C old War, painting a portrait of an enigmatic man, who may not have been the innocent holidaymaker he appeared to be, and recasting one of the twentieth century's most notorious murders in a fascinating and important new light.

  Show book