Other books that might interest you

• 

  Bios and Mythos

  Joseph Campbell

  • 1
  • 1
  • 0

  Joseph Campbell wrote this article for a collection of essays, Psychoanalysis and Culture, printed in 1951 to celebrate the sixtieth birthday of the famed psychiatrist and ethnologist, Géza Róheim. In it, he seeks to define the biological roots of the human mythic impulse.
   
  Written two years after his seminal Hero with a Thousand Faces, “Bios & Mythos” takes what was, for Campbell, a unique view of myth. In deference to Róheim, who defined myth as a mechanism for satisfying the universal human desire to return to the infant’s safety with its mother, Campbell invokes what was to become one of his favorite images for the function of myth: that of the marsupial pouch, the second womb. Here, more than elsewhere in his work, Campbell emphasizes myth as an intermediary aid that the individual can outgrow.
   
  “Bios & Mythos” is available in print as part of The Flight of the Wild Gander.

  Show book

• 

  The Infinite Desire for Growth

  Daniel Cohen

  • 0
  • 2
  • 0

  Why society’s expectation of economic growth is no longer realistic 
  Economic growth--and the hope of better things to come—is the religion of the modern world. Yet its prospects have become bleak, with crashes following booms in an endless cycle. In the United States, eighty percent of the population has seen no increase in purchasing power over the last thirty years and the situation is not much better elsewhere. The Infinite Desire for Growth spotlights the obsession with wanting more, and the global tensions that have arisen as a result. Amid finite resources, increasing populations, environmental degradation, and political unrest, the quest for new social and individual goals has never been so critical. 
  Leading economist Daniel Cohen provides a whirlwind tour of the history of economic growth, from the early days of civilization to modern times, underscoring what is so unsettling today. The new digital economy is establishing a "zero-cost" production model, inexpensive software is taking over basic tasks, and years of exploiting the natural world have begun to backfire with deadly consequences. Working hard no longer guarantees social inclusion or income. Drawing on economics, anthropology, and psychology, and thinkers ranging from Rousseau to Keynes and Easterlin, Cohen examines how a future less dependent on material gain might be considered and, how, in a culture of competition, individual desires might be better attuned to the greater needs of society. 
  At a time when wanting what we haven't got has become an obsession, The Infinite Desire for Growth explores the ways we might reinvent, for the twenty-first century, the old ideal of social progress.

  Show book

• 

  The Poison Plot - A Tale of...

  Elaine Forman Crane

  • 0
  • 1
  • 0

  An accusation of attempted murder rudely interrupted Mary Arnold’s dalliances with working men and her extensive shopping sprees. When her husband Benedict fell deathly ill and then asserted she had tried to kill him with poison, the result was a dramatic petition for divorce. The case before the Rhode Island General Assembly and its tumultuous aftermath, during which Benedict died, made Mary a cause célèbre in Newport through the winter of 1738 and 1739.Elaine Forman Crane invites readers into the salacious domestic life of Mary and Benedict Arnold and reveals the seamy side of colonial Newport. The surprise of The Poison Plot, however, is not the outrageous acts of Mary or the peculiar fact that attempted murder was not a convictable offense in Rhode Island. As Crane shows with style, Mary’s case was remarkable precisely because adultery, criminality and theft, and even spousal homicide were well known in the New England colonies. Assumptions of Puritan propriety are overturned by the facts of rough and tumble life in a port city: money was to be made, pleasure was to be had, and if marriage became an obstacle to those pursuits a woman had means to set things right.The Poison Plot is an intimate drama constructed from historical documents and informed by Crane’s deep knowledge of elite and common life in Newport. Her keen eye for telling details and her sense of story bring Mary, Benedict, and a host of other characters—including her partner in adultery, Walter Motley, and John Tweedy the apothecary who sold Mary toxic drugs—to life in the homes, streets, and shops of the port city. The result is a vivid tale that will change minds about life in supposedly prim and proper New England.

  Show book

• 

  Introducing Heidegger - A...

  Jeff Collins

  • 1
  • 1
  • 0

  Martin Heidegger - philosophy's 'hidden king', or leading exponent of a dangerously misguided secular mysticism. Heidegger has been acclaimed as the most powerfully original philosopher of the twentieth century. Profoundly influential on deconstruction, existentialism and phenomenology, he stands behind all major strands of post-structuralist and postmodern thought. Heidegger announced the end of philosophy and of humanism, and was a committed Nazi and vocal supporter of Hitler's National Socialism. Was Heidegger offering a deeply conservative mythology or a crucial deconstruction of philosophy as we have known it? "Introducing Heidegger" provides an accessible introduction to his notoriously abstruse thinking, mapping out its historical contexts and exploring its resonances in ecology, theology, art, architecture, literature and other fields. The book opens up an encounter with a kind of thinking whose outlines might still not yet be clear, and whose forms might still surprise us.

  Show book

• 

  Metaphors Be With You - An A to...

  Dr. Mardy Grothe

  • 0
  • 3
  • 0

  Respected quotation anthologist and author of Oxymoronica and Viva la Repartee Dr. Mardy Grothe is at his best in Metaphors Be with You, an A to Z dictionary of 2,750 of history’s greatest metaphorical quotations, meticulously curated for writers, readers, and quotation lovers everywhere. 
  In Metaphors Be with You, Dr. Mardy Grothe has created the definitive reference on English’s finest metaphors, sourced from literature, politics, philosophy, Hollywood, religion, sports, comedy, history, religion, pop culture, and more. Arranged into two sections—"The Ten Best Things Ever Said" and "The Single Best Thing Ever Said"—Metaphors Be with You includes quotations on five hundred human interest topics and an introduction to the nature, importance, and sheer joy of metaphorical language. 
  Essential for writers, readers, and language aficionados, this breathtaking, beautifully designed sourcebook also contains elegantly integrated digital access to Dr. Mardy’s Dictionary of Metaphorical Quotations, the world’s largest online database of quotations containing metaphors, similes, and analogies. This one-of-a-kind synergy between print and technology offers a comprehensive look at the diversity of words and phrases we use to relate to, understand, and describe our world by providing access to detailed source information, innumerable "Error Alerts," and fascinating quotation backstories that will engage readers as they delve into metaphorical language and discover their own favorites. 
  Whether you’re crafting a speech, writing a novel, or simply searching for new ways to express yourself, this remarkable compendium is sure to inspire you with the perfect metaphor every time.

  Show book

• 

  Keywords for Disability Studies

  Rachel Adams, David Serlin,...

  • 1
  • 1
  • 0

  Keywords for Disability Studies aims to broaden and define the conceptual framework of disability studies for readers and practitioners in the field and beyond. The volume engages some of the most pressing debates of our time, such as prenatal testing, euthanasia, accessibility in public transportation and the workplace, post-traumatic stress, and questions about the beginning and end of life. 
  Each of the 60 essays in Keywords for Disability Studies focuses on a distinct critical concept, including “ethics,” “medicalization,” “performance,” “reproduction,” “identity,” and “stigma,” among others. Although the essays recognize that “disability” is often used as an umbrella term, the contributors to the volume avoid treating individual disabilities as keywords, and instead interrogate concepts that encompass different components of the social and bodily experience of disability. The essays approach disability as an embodied condition, a mutable historical phenomenon, and a social, political, and cultural identity. 
  An invaluable resource for students and scholars alike, Keywords for Disability Studies brings the debates that have often remained internal to disability studies into a wider field of critical discourse, providing opportunities for fresh theoretical considerations of the field’s core presuppositions through a variety of disciplinary perspectives. 
  Visit keywords.nyupress.org for online essays, teaching resources, and more.

  Show book