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The Fight of Exiled Journalist and Anti-Communist Activist Josef Josten: For Freedom, Democracy, and Human Rights (1948-1985) explores the life and work of exiled Czech journalist Josef Josten (1913-1985) and his fight against the communist Soviet regime in his homeland. Josten was a tireless journalist, activist, and organizer of campaigns and initiatives to expose communist strategy and tactics. During his exile, he set up the Free Czechoslovakia Information Service, which issued the regular bulletin Features and News from Behind the Iron Curtain. His work culminated in the Free Czechoslovakia Campaign, and the establishment of the British Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Prosecuted. This book offers insight into the Soviet directives regarding their relationship with Great Britain, the struggles of the Czech exile community, and the infiltration of the exile movement by Soviet secret agents.

Motivation in the Ancient Greek Ethos: Punishment, Shame, and Moral Guilt explores motivational techniques that were utilized in the Ancient Greek culture (from Archaic to Classical periods) to channel the reluctant agent's behavior in a desirable direction. Structured around several types of "appeal to fear" strategies--including an appeal to fears of divine retribution, earthly punishment, public disgrace, or oblivion--, this book analyzes these strategies with regard to their efficiency, practical applicability, and normative priority. In addition, Andrei G. Zavaliy argues that towards the end of the Classical period of Greek history the repertoire of the standard motivational strategies was enriched by a new possibility: an appeal to fear of self-shaming and, in general, to fear of painful inner qualms as a consequence of misbehavior. The latter type of incentive was clearly present in Democritus and appeared somewhat tangentially in Plato but was emphatically restated by Aristotle. Zaviliy further suggests that the type of psychic discomfort experienced by a wrongdoer, according to Aristotle, is structurally similar to the "pangs of conscience" in the way this phenomenon was developed during the late Hellenistic period, and, this Aristotelian psychic discomfort can thus be reasonably correlated with the feeling of moral guilt.

Imagined Networks in Pre-Modern Italian Literature: Literary Mothers, Literary Sisters presents the untold stories of the literary mothers and sisters in pre-modern Italian literature and the vibrant intellectual networks they forged. The authors argue that these women writers became adoptive references for other authors, often as an alternative to an established canon of textual authority. The proposed concepts of literary motherhood and sisterhood focus on the agency of the writers in choosing a model, rather than adhering to hierarchical structures. The women showcased in this book defied conventions, and are aware of the generative power of their works and regard themselves as literary guiding lights for future authors. They built prolific communities through exchanges, correspondences, debates, oblique conversations, and sometimes subtle allusions that confer authority to each other. The six essays in this book bring to life the figures of Caterina da Siena, Isabella Andreini, Giulia Bigolina, Margherita Costa, Lucrezia Marinella, Arcangela Tarabotti, and the relationship between Gaspara Stampa and Luisa Bergalli, as well as that between Bianca Milesi Mojon and Maria Edgeworth.

This study examines the development of anti-capital punishment sentiment in antebellum American Literature. Drawing on republican criminal reform theories, prominent American authors and social reformers advocated for the abolition of the gallows, justice, and criminal reform for the diverse citizens of the young republic.

Breaking the Cycle of Structural Violence in Northern Mexico: Toward Integral Peace explores how large-scale economic interests and local power dynamics all play a role in creating a climate of violence against women, migrants, and other stigmatized groups in Northern Mexico. By using case studies and interviews, Juan Jaime Loera Gonzalez and Horacio Almanza Alcalde analyze the asbestos industry's role in causing cancer, structural gender violence, the high levels of risk faced by migrants, and how the government fails to address malnutrition among indigenous people. This book investigates conditions and the manifestations of structural violence and illuminates how these issues interconnect and perpetuate systemic injustices. This volume also offers a comprehensive framework for action by proposing strategies to dismantle oppressive structures and foster genuine peace.

The German philosopher Karl Jaspers was moved by the possibilities of global understanding throughout his life and penetrated it more deeply than any other thinker before him. Anton Hügli argues that Jaspers' petition to not proclaim a new doctrine,-but to continue thinking along the path taken by the great philosophers of the past,-is itself an expression of his unconditional will to communicate. The limits of communication that Jaspers shows us are not accidental psychological and sociological obstacles to understanding, but limits that we humans encounter as humans: we want to communicate what cannot be communicated. Instead of an understanding based on a truth that can be understood by all, there is a struggle between the powers of faith. How we can communicate with one another and work for peace and unity in the world? This ultimate question requires a twofold clarification: on the one hand, of the nature of the objects that have always been considered inexpressible, the human's individual existence and God as the ultimate One, and on the other hand, of the faculty in us that allows us to think things that cannot be thought.

The Politics of Death in Anti-colonial Praxis by Gregory Maxaulane explores the political conditions necessary for revolution and freedom. At the intersection of continental philosophy and Black studies, this book examines the political economy of death within the Black experience in South Africa by theorizing death as a productive and generative process. Maxaulane provides a deeper understanding of the politics of death by focusing on how continental philosophy and Black studies treat the problem of praxis as well as the parallels and convergences between the models of praxis they sustain. This book is a comprehensive exploration of these fields, providing critical engagements with the evolution of ideology and the anti-colonial praxis in South African history. Challenging liberal democratic doctrines that have undermined the claims of Black radical imagination, Maxaulane argues that the political economy of death allows us to break from tradition through a concept of freedom not grounded in transcendentalism.

Political Economy of COVID-19: Understanding the Dynamics of a Global Pandemic, provides a theoretical, conceptual and methodological approach to the understanding of the pandemic through multiple case analyses. It produces and discusses COVID-19 research with interdisciplinary perspectives by addressing how the pandemic distinctly impacted the local and global economy and how numerous stakeholders responded. The book is truly global and interdisciplinary, through chapter contributions and case analysis from practitioners and emerging and established scholars. The ideas raised in this book have the potential to take central elements of post-pandemic political, social and economic thinking to a new line of inquiry and provide more compelling nuances. The book will be essential reading for researchers, students and scholars interested in development studies, political economy, historicity of the pandemic, conspiratorial debates and country specific policy response.

To tackle the paucity of adequate housing in the Muslim World, Strategic Rebuilding and Affordable Housing in the Muslim World brings together a cohort of essays that deal with the the latest approaches, policy discussions, attendant research methodologies and recommendations. The volume's multidisciplinary contributors- academics, practitioners, architects, planners, researchers, urbanists, economists-offer valuable insights and critical analysis on strategic rebuilding of affordable and adequate housing, as well as the continuous improvement of living conditions. Each chapter broadens our understanding of the 'house' as a source of stability and security for individuals or families because one's house is the center of emotional life, with its ability to provide serenity, safety, and self-worth. Therefore, weaving the many aspects of this argument together the contributors of this volume purport a point of view that is carefully well-thought-out to expand the focus from just addressing individual and family needs to looking at the wider community benefits. Furthermore, adequate housing will increasingly become the focus of re-settlement, urban renewal and re-investment, primarily to deal with the homeless conditions that already exist-the influx of refugees and internally displaced people (IDP's) as the result of natural disasters (earthquakes and floods) and the collateral damage caused by war.

Vox Eurydice: The Ascent of the Female Rescuer in German-Language Opera is a mythological and depth psychological analysis written from a feminist perspective, on the emergence of the theme of rescue stories, and specifically plots where a female heroine saves a male character, which arose in German-language opera during the roughly one hundred years that spanned the lifetimes of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven and Richard Wagner. Margaret Ann Mendenhall argues that the German-language works of these three musical giants grew out of the rescue story paradigm, as an extension of Italian opera buffa and French opéra comique. This is reflected in Mozart's Singspiele and Beethoven's one completed opera, Fidelio, considered the epitome of the German-language rescue opera. The author then examines Wagner's oeuvre, not only his ten mature masterpieces, but also three earlier operas and his unfinished pieces. The author also posits that the need for the ascent of the female rescuer in German-language opera was unconsciously tied into the desire of the people of the German-speaking territories for a homeland, and how the presence of this archetype subsided soon after a German nation was established in 1871.

Geoliturgy and Ecological Crisis: The Spiritual Practice of Caring for Creation examines sources and select practices within Christian tradition-Scripture, the Nicene Creed, the Eucharist, and fasting-from an ecological perspective in order to develop a practical spirituality for living in an ecologically responsible way in the world. This spirituality, which Jeffrey S. Lamp labels Geoliturgy, describes a way to read the Bible ecologically and to understand the doctrinal content of the Nicene Creed in ecological terms. Lamp then examines the Eucharist and fasting as liturgical and devotional practices that form the structure of a spirituality that extends from church services into the daily lives of the faithful. The resulting vision of this study is the reclamation of the biblical mandate for human beings to function as benevolent priestly co-rulers with God in creation to prepare creation to become the dwelling place of God.

Edward FitzGerald's Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám Revisited: The Wine, the Vine, and the Rose examines an overlooked masterpiece which was a phenomenon in its day. Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, translated by Edward FitzGerald (1809-1883), sold millions of copies between its first publication in 1859 and World War II, becoming one of the best-selling books of all time, only to disappear from the public eye until the age of the Internet revived interest in the work. Russell Brickey synthesizes scholarship and close reading in the first monograph dedicated to the Rubáiyát, taking into account the original poetry of Omar Khayyám (1038-1141), a polyglot who lived in medieval Persia, and the western poetic tradition that informed FitzGerald's creative palimpsest. These include the Song of Solomon, 17th century Cavalier Poetry, the Sonnet Sequence, and the poems of Alfred Tennyson, William Wordsworth, and others. This book looks at the offshoots of Omar Khayyám and Edward FitzGerald's poetic brotherhood, the pulp-novels, movies, and poems their poem inspired.

History is storytelling. History is the selection of facts, placed in a specific order, to result in a specific conclusion. It's the choice of facts, the prioritization of facts, and the ignoring of facts, that creates the narrative of history -- the narrative of the American story. The American story is the creation of specific historical events and the meanings that have been applied to them. Since America is defined by ideas and not ethnicity, it matters what narratives of America that Americans accept, support, and defend. White Narratives Matter: The Whitewashing of the American Story and How Racial Narratives Explain the Development of Trumpism uses original speeches and writings of politicians and other social leaders, from Thomas Jefferson to Tucker Carlson to explore how the White social conservative worldviewnarrative of American history developed over the past two centuries. White Narratives Matter explores how this process of fact selection, prioritization, and development of White social conservative rhetoric of the American story has defined American politics and policies, which culminated in the rise of Donald Trump and Trumpism within the American political landscape.

Turkish-American relations have been considered a model partnership between a great and middle power during the Cold War due to the positive nature of relations, being advantageous to both sides. While the United States took advantage of Türkiye's geopolitical position and military strength against the USSR, Türkiye benefited from American economic power and military technology. However, with the end of the Cold War and the emergence of new regional and global developments, a stable framework to clarify and shape Turkish-American relations has not yet been crafted. Additionally, crises such as the non-approval of the 1 March memorandum in 2003 to support the American war effort in Iraq and the 15 July 2016 coup attempt in Türkiye further distanced these two historical allies. To discuss these issues frankly and to provide some suggestions to improve the two countries' relations in many different regions/fields including Syria, Iraq, the Eastern Mediterranean, the Caucasus, the defense industry, the energy sector, and much more; Turkish-American Relations in the 21st Century aims to bring important experts on Turkish foreign policy and Turkish-American relations together.

In this book, Luigi Manca and Alessandra Manca examine the use of utopian imagery in magazine advertisements from the 1970s through the early 2020s. Positing that these advertisements reflect the public's unbridled desires, rather than reality itself, the authors argue that these idealistic reflections can lead the public to be unable or unwilling to recognize real threats to democracy, social justice, and the environment. They extend this analysis to argue that political moderates have long underestimated the ability of mass media and charismatic, radical politicians to tap into the utopian dreams of millions of disillusioned-and predominantly white-Americans to leverage these dreams in order to further their own political agendas. Ultimately, this cumulative study spanning decades of advertisement history portrays a consumer utopia shaped almost exclusively by unrestrained consumer desire.

This edited volume focuses on slow media, an approach that fosters intentional and thoughtful engagement with media of all forms. Contributors explore our individual and community relations with analog and digital media by critiquing current power structures underpinning contemporary media sensibilities, processes, and technologies. Through these critiques, the authors pose crucial questions surrounding how to slow down and be intentional within the landscape of accelerated media technology innovation and ubiquity. Building on existing media studies theory, the essays in this volume explore case studies of the intersections between analog and digital media, share insights from personal slow media projects, and propose useful methods for ethical and thoughtful media practices for both producers and audiences. Ultimately, this volume prompts readers to contemplate and reconsider the role of media technologies in contemporary life.

Like its predecessor, Eternal Putin?: Confronting Navalny, the Pandemic, Sanctions, and War with Ukraine (Lexington, 2023), Vladimir Putin's Version of 'War and Peace': The Battle for the Russian Home Front, 2022-24 is a chronological and descriptive account of almost all facets of Russian life during a very short period of time; i.e. from the onset of Russia's war on Ukraine in February 2022 to its presidential election in March 2024. Its strength lies in its wealth of detail on Russia's home front. To set the stage, the first chapters cover the course of war primarily focused on the consequences of the war for Russians at home. The ripple effects follow in chapters on Russia's politics, its economy, human and civil rights, and the Kremlin's international relationships. Among the subjects featured in sub-sections are the 'foreign agent' frenzy, pressure against the LGBT community, schools as incubators of young 'patriots', healthcare, the environment, the media, Russia's new diaspora in exile, the Russian Orthodox Church's role, war crimes, and international sport. Putin as vozhd (leader) is the subject of one chapter. Russia's forced and chosen pivot to the East for political and economic allies are also examined. Above all, this book highlights the Russian government's attempts to create a loyal citizenry. Nowhere else is the battle for the home front covered so thoroughly.

In this book, Deborah Geis offers a new approach to the evolving genre of culinary films that center on the acts of eating and cooking through close analyses of ten different films. These films range from the classics, like Big Night (1996) and Babette's Feast (1987) to later box-office hits, like Chef (2014) and to films that deserve a second look, like East Side Sushi (2014), Burnt (2015), and Mid-August Lunch (2008). Throughout these analyses, the book focuses on tropes including the "big dinner" as it connects to intercultural and transcultural communities; the self-destructive perfectionism of the obsessive chef; and the craft of cooking in relation to aging and mortality. Geis invites readers and viewers to experience food-driven narrative films with an appetite for appreciating the visual ingredients and the ways in which they construct pleasure through the act of looking as a vicarious approach to consuming the actual food. Drawing on the work of film theorist Christian Metz, Geis ultimately poses a new paradigm for watching and understanding culinary cinema as a significant - and constantly-evolving - genre that comes with its own conventions and contemporary filmmakers who seek to expand and transform those conventions in surprising ways.

Arguing that January 6th was just the tip of the iceberg, this book reveals the full impact of white Christian nationalism on the United States. Flowers explores how white Christian nationalism has infused its agenda in social, cultural, legislative, and political aspects of life in an effort to move the United States toward becoming an authoritarian theocratic white ethnostate. Part of the larger far-right enterprise, white Christian nationalism is unique in the way in which it pulls a variety of far-right ideologies together. These ideologies include anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ+, antisemitism, authoritarianism, Christian nationalism, ethnonationalism, male supremacy, racism, sexism, and xenophobia. Understanding the way these ideologies complement each other and are perpetuated is the only route to resist them.

Discussions of waste and electronic discard management often view micro-scale ingenious activities around unregulated recycling centers in the Global South only as a source of pollution. Gathering Electronic Waste in Tanzania: Labor, Value, and Toxicity goes further and explores the complexities of electronic waste management. Samwel Moses Ntapanta examines the materialities of electronics and e-discards, toxicity, and the sociocultural and economic fabrics of e-waste management in Tanzania. He traces the lifecycle of electronic goods beyond their discard in the Global South: from the importation of used goods to cycles of repair, and from the collection of 'scrap' to repurposing materials for manufacturing. Through the concept of gathering, Ntapanta provides insight into the effects of unregulated mechanisms to address the e-waste problem. He argues that understanding this connection between informal workers and the economy at large paves a path for better waste regime models, reduced violence, and environmental justice for workers and marginalized communities.

For women, the conundrum of modernity and tradition is an on-going puzzle of what aspects of modernity to appropriate and what aspects of tradition to retain in their everyday lives. Tracing the emergence of this conundrum in the nationalist debates on colonial modernity, Modernity, Tradition, and Indian Women argues that the everyday lives in contemporary times is animated by both the civilizational meta-narratives and the constitutional meta-narratives that keeps alive this conundrum of modernity and tradition. While societal gender scripts socialize women in families based on cultural ideologies, individuals struggle to expand their zones of freedom by rescripting their personal gender scripts in the direction of modernity. Rescripting a life of more freedom depends upon the changes in dispositions that cultural ideologies have for long instilled in men and women. Drawing evidence from marriage norms and partner choice in diverse contexts, religiosity, clothing and consumption, this book explores the ways in which women selectively appropriate aspects of modernity even while retaining traditions in their lives.

The Civically Engaged Woman: The Rhetoric and Activism of the Silenced Voice introduces readers to the lives of lesser-known women living in the US during the period of 1820-1920. The contributors address why their rhetoric, communicative participation, and civic actions were noteworthy and impactful, and offers implications for the relevance of their work today. Through examining these women's "communicative engagement" (McKinney, Kaid, and Bystrom 2005), the authors argue for recognition of their civic contributions and celebration of their lives and legacy; therefore, enlarging our understanding of civic engagement and the heroines and narratives that guide us. Scholars of rhetoric, communication, and women's studies will find this book particularly useful.

In Pilosity, Prejudice, and Passion in The Tale of Old Bearded Achbor by Yaakov ben El'azar of Toledo, Tovi Bibring argues that behind the restless parody and the sour tone of the tale, lies a fierce discourse of hate toward the Other, incarnated as a black woman, as well as an insistent alarm regarding the threat of assimilation. Following an enticing fully annotated translation of an overwhelming medieval Hebrew composition featuring a pathetic sermon, a hedonist feast, a love liaison, violent shaming, and murder, Bibring artfully explores their significances through a variety of chapters. From highlighting how hair symbolism and color symbolism construe dangerous prejudices, to suggesting that Achbor is a symbolic incarnation of a new Balaam, the author, through close-readings of selected excerpts, draws connections to the broader medieval and classical context. By highlighting possible literary correspondences, she sheds insightful light on this mysterious tale. This book stands as a testament to the richness of medieval European Hebrew culture, making it a must-read for scholars and enthusiasts alike.

The Mathematical Mind of F. M. Dostoevsky: Imaginary Numbers, Non-Euclidean Geometry, and Infinity reconstructs the curriculum and readings that F. M. Dostoevsky encountered during his studies and connects such sources to the mathematical references and themes in his published works. Prior to becoming a man of letters, Dostoevsky studied at the Main Engineering School in St. Petersburg from 1838 to 1843. After he was arrested, submitted to mock execution by firing squad, and sentenced to penal servitude in Siberia for his involvement in the revolutionary Petrashevsky Circle in 1849, most of his books and journals from the period of his education were confiscated, and destroyed by the Third Section of the Russian Secret Police. Although most scholars discount the legacy of his engineering studies, the literary aesthetics of his works communicate an acute awareness of mathematical principles and debates. This book unearths subtexts in works by Dostoevsky, communicating veins of mathematical thought that evolved throughout Classical Antiquity, the Renaissance, and the Scientific Revolution.

Lost Lutherans: Perspectives on American Religious Decline offers a straightforward look at change in American religion. Chris Suehr presents the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) as an example of religious change in a way that is welcoming to interested readers and fulfilling to social scientists. By amplifying real voices, this book presents the social science, but also explores the stories behind its statistics--the people who have left, their reasons, their beliefs, and their quests. Lost Lutherans is a useful resource on specific areas of American religion--from the history of the Mainline to the voices of modern people who have left it. This book examines the gradual changes in society, culture, and institutions that have led to this religious transformation.

Television's Second Golden Age: Politics and International Relations in the Era of HBO and Streaming TV examines the foremost series in the Second Golden Age of Television (1999-present), in terms of the political themes, theories, and issues expressed in major television genres. By using The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire, The Wire, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, House of Cards, Battlestar Galactica, and Game of Thrones. Joel R. Campbell explains the nature of the Second Golden Age. He clarifies how the rise of quality television through premium cable television channels and later streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon have made it possible for television properties with deeper drama, long story arcs, and concentration on political and social issues. Each chapter analyzes a specific television series that aired or streamed since 1999, in terms constructivist political theory.

Constitutionalism and Liberty: Essays in Honor of David K. Nichols explores the relationship between liberty and constitutionalism in American politics and political theory, and is organized around the question of how human liberty is preserved and advanced while empowering government to have the necessary authority to effectively govern society. The essays themselves are divided into three areas reflecting the breadth and diversity of David K. Nichols's scholarship. The first assesses how we should understand separation of powers and checks and balances in the American constitutional system. The second area treats different aspects of American legal practice and jurisprudence, including the powers and role of the American judiciary philosophically and institutionally as well as questions of administrative power, civil rights, parental rights, and symbolic speech. The final section examines a range of issues in political philosophy and theory, including two chapters on the intersection of political theory with literature and art. The array of subjects covered by these chapters is a testament to the broad influence of Nichols' teaching and scholarship, and to the widening interest in aspects of American politics, constitutional law, and political theory that cross traditional barriers in political science.

The Words of Robotics addresses how the way we "tell" stories about robots cannot be reduced to a strictly logical discourse, but must involve the rhetorical aspects of "ethos" and "pathos." The author focuses on the aspect of motion in order to analyze the relation between humans and robots, and show the opportunities and pitfalls of the popularization of academic discourses in using a rhetorical approach to talk about robots. This approach allows one to go beyond the reductionisms of either overstating the abilities and power of the robots or reducing the discourse to a specialized, mere technical language.

Racial discrimination in America has deep historical roots that persist to this day, leading to disparities in areas like police shootings, high incarceration rates, and unlawful, tragic deaths Understanding these roots is crucial to addressing the ongoing challenges in achieving racial equality and healing from racial trauma. From Discrimination to Inclusion: A Journey of Transforming and Embracing Diversity by Ruth Chu-Lien Chao examines various forms of racism, including individual, internalized, interpersonal, and institutional racism, to provide a better understanding of the detrimental consequences they have in BIPOC communities. Seeking a way forward, Chao develops strategies to address racism through anti-racism exercises, collaboration among individuals from diverse racial backgrounds, and racial inclusion by promoting empathy, diversity, and equal opportunities. This book also explores the importance of empathy and openness toward racial inclusion and how this can be cultivated through education and policy implementation. By integrating strategies that encourage us to both challenge racism and address the traumatic responses that they evoke, this book advocates for a society where diversity is celebrated, and racism is actively addressed. Promoting racial inclusion is a collective effort that requires ongoing commitment and action at both individual and systemic levels.