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  Saga of Erik the Red (Reeves...

  Various Various

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  The Saga of Erik the Red is one of the two important thirteenth-century accounts of the Norse explorations of Greenland and North America, along with The Saga of the Greenlanders. Containing fantastic anecdotes about ghostly visitations, wise women-seers, and one-legged native Unipeds, the saga is just as fascinating for what is clearly authentic history. It vividly relates the conflict between Christianity and the old Norse religion; the significant place of extraordinary women in Icelandic and Greenland culture; the frequent incursions of the Norsemen into Ireland and Scotland, lands really not at all far from the centers of Norse activity; and first contact with the native inhabitants of the Dawnlands of northeastern North America. Most absorbing are the clear embodiments of real human personalities in this historical saga: Leif Erikson and his lover, the renownedly intelligent Thorgunna who boldly renounced social convention; Gudrid the daughter of Thorbiorn, beautiful and of strong and influential character; Thioldhild, the wife of Erik the Red, who refused to have sex with him so long as he resisted Christianity; Thorbiorg, the eldritch “Little Sibyl,” who dispensed prophecies to the settlers of Greenland; and Thorhall, the fey, untameable hunter, who held fast to his god Thor the Red-Bearded even when it meant being severed from human society.This translation by Arthur Middleton Reeves is taken from a weighty compilation of texts related to the Norse explorations entitled The Norse Discoveries of America and including the translations and editing of fellow Norse scholars North Ludlow Beamish and Rasmus Björn Anderson. ( Expatriate)

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  People's Science - Bodies and...

  Ruha Benjamin

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  “An engaging, insightful, and challenging call to examine both the rhetoric and reality of innovation and inclusion in science and science policy.” —Daniel R. Morrison, American Journal of Sociology   Stem cell research has sparked controversy and heated debate since the first human stem cell line was derived in 1998. Too frequently these debates devolve to simple judgments—good or bad, life-saving medicine or bioethical nightmare, symbol of human ingenuity or our fall from grace—ignoring the people affected. With this book, Ruha Benjamin moves the terms of debate to focus on the shifting relationship between science and society, on the people who benefit—or don’t—from regenerative medicine and what this says about our democratic commitments to an equitable society.   People’s Science uncovers the tension between scientific innovation and social equality, taking the reader inside California’s 2004 stem cell initiative, the first of many state referenda on scientific research, to consider the lives it has affected. Benjamin reveals the promise and peril of public participation in science, illuminating issues of race, disability, gender, and socio-economic class that serve to define certain groups as more or less deserving in their political aims and biomedical hopes.    Ultimately, Ruha Benjamin argues that without more deliberate consideration about how scientific initiatives can and should reflect a wider array of social concerns, stem cell research—from African Americans’ struggle with sickle cell treatment to the recruitment of women as tissue donors—still risks excluding many. Even as regenerative medicine is described as a participatory science for the people, Benjamin asks us to consider if “the people” ultimately reflects our democratic ideals.

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  The Sterling Redemption -...

  James Edmiston, Lawrence Kormornick

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  The fight against a false accusation in the Arms-to-Iraq affair. “A searing expose of one of the most shameful and cynical prosecutions of modern times.” —The Guardian   This is the untold true story of James Edmiston who suffered an extraordinary miscarriage of justice in 1983 when senior officials blocked vital witnesses coming to his trial which led to a personal tragedy; a broken marriage, and the loss of a business.   The book explains how he was wrongly charged with alleged illegal exports to Iraq, and then took on the establishment against seemingly impossible odds for twenty-five years, to establish his innocence and to win record compensation from the British government in a truly remarkable case. Divorced and bankrupted, he is now rebuilding a shattered life, nearly thirty years later.   This extraordinary story is a fascinating insight into government and the abuse of power and is based on many original sources including the Scott Report and Judgment of the Court of Appeal (criminal). The co-author, Lawrence Kormornick, is a Solicitor-Advocate (civil) who has represented Edmiston and several other victims of the Arms-to-Iraq prosecution scandal against the government and has a unique insight into these cases.   Packed with ironies, twists of fate, and many unanswered questions it is a compelling read for anyone interested in political intrigue and abuse of power, miscarriage of justice, and learning about how an individual took on the state and won.  “A true story of alleged skulduggery and, possibly, criminal acts in the form of perverting the course of justice by the authorities and it should be bedside reading for everybody who believes in the rule of law.” —The Law Society Gazette

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  Who Will Rule in 2019?

  Jan-Jan Joubert

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  THE ANC RECEIVED a bloody nose in the 2016 local elections, when it lost three major metros to the opposition. Will the fractured ruling party be able to reunite under Cyril Ramaphosa and gain a majority at the polls in 2019? Or could the DA and the EFF overcome their vast ideological divide to oust the ANC?
  The South African political landscape has changed dramatically since Jacob Zuma stepped down as president. Veteran political journalist Jan-Jan Joubert looks at all the possible scenarios, taking us behind the scenes into a world of political horse trading to analyse the options available to all the parties in the run-up to the next election. Will the oldest liberation movement in Africa have to form a coalition to stay in power? And what is the likelihood of the ANC's turning to the EFF to bolster its support?
  One thing is certain: deals will be done. By examining the results of the local elections, Joubert argues that the 2019 national elections may well be the first in 25 years in which no party wins an outright majority.
  In exclusive interviews, political leaders also share their views on the major issues dividing – or perhaps uniting – South Africa today, and point the way to a new political future.

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  Chomsky For Beginners

  David Cogswell

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  Noam Chomsky has written some 30 books, he is one of the most-quoted authors on Earth, The New York Times calls him “arguably the most important intellectual alive” – yet most people have no idea who he is or what he’s about.Chomsky For Beginners tells you what he’s about: Chomsky is known for his work in two distinct areas – Linguistics and... “Gadflying.” (“Gadfly,” the word applied to Socrates, comes closest to the constant social irritant that Chomsky has become.) It is Chomsky’s work as Political Gadfly and Media Critic that has given passion and hope to the general public – and alienated the Major Media – which is, of course, why you don’t know more about him.Chomsky’s message is very simple: Huge corporations run our country, the world, both political parties, and Major Media. (You suspected it; Chomsky proves it.) If enough people open their minds to what he has to say, the whole gingerbread fantasy we’ve been fed about America might turn into a real democracy.What’s so special about Chomsky For Beginners? The few existing intros to Chomsky cover either Chomsky-the-Linguist or Chomsky-the-Political-Gadfly. Chomsky For Beginners covers both – plus an exclusive interview with the maverick genius. The clarity of David Cogwell’s text and the wit of Paul Gordon’s illustrations make Chomsky as easy to understand as the genius next door. Words and art are combined to clarify (but not oversimplify) the work and to “humanize” the man who may very well be what one savvy interviewer called him – “the smartest man on Earth.” 

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  Nationalism and the Moral...

  Bernard Yack

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  Nationalism is one of modern history’s great surprises. How is it that the nation, a relatively old form of community, has risen to such prominence in an era so strongly identified with the individual? Bernard Yack argues that it is the inadequacy of our understanding of community—and especially the moral psychology that animates it—that has made this question so difficult to answer. Yack develops a broader and more flexible theory of community and shows how to use it in the study of nations and nationalism. What makes nationalism such a powerful and morally problematic force in our lives is the interplay of old feelings of communal loyalty and relatively new beliefs about popular sovereignty. By uncovering this fraught relationship, Yack moves our understanding of nationalism beyond the oft-rehearsed debate between primordialists and modernists, those who exaggerate our loss of individuality and those who underestimate the depth of communal attachments. A brilliant and compelling book, Nationalism and the Moral Psychology of Community sets out a revisionist conception of nationalism that cannot be ignored.

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