Bøker utgitt av Lexington Books

After graduation from Georgetown University in 1896, William Franklin Sands joined the US diplomatic corps as second secretary in Tokyo. His year there sparked his interest in East Asia, so when a position in Korea opened, he took it, with the help of his influential father, an admiral in the US navy. For two years he served under US Minister Horace Allen until a more powerful position opened as chief qdviser to the Korean government in 1900. As the most influential foreign adviser, Sands attempted to convince Emperor Kojong to undertake reforms and to promote Korean neutrality to keep the country independent. The author argues, however, that Sands was hampered by corrucpt officials who had the ear of the emperor, by the Japanese and the Russians who competed for influence and who tried to replace Sands with their own advisers, and, ironically, by Horace Allen. When he lost the confidence of Kojong and when the Russo-Japanese War broke out, Sands was forced out, having failed to maintain Koreas independence as Japan moved to take over. Although his subsequent activities included other diplomatic postings, teaching, and writing, he maintained an interest in Korea and offered his services as World War Two raged.

In Feminist Theories and Feminist Economics: A Multi-Paradigmatic Approach, Kavous Ardalan examines four paradigms of feminist theory and economics and their social impact. Analyzing the insights of these paradigmsfunctionalist, interpretive, radical humanist, and radical structuralistArdalan offers a comprehensive view of feminist thought, advocating for a multi-paradigmatic approach to understanding feminist research and its economic relevance for society.

Configuring Memory in Czech Family Sagas: The Art of Forgetting in Generic Tradition explores how literature may configure family memory. Family sagas can be viewed as a structure helping us to share our memories. Special attention will be paid to crucial generic motifs within family sagas, as well as to elements of the narrative structure, which hold powerful memory-forming potential. The book proves that this potential can be fulfilled in two ways. The genre under analysis tends to strengthen the ';bad family memory' and consider it as a burden, and to encourage one to forget their family past. Despite the prevalence of the saga as a cultural form right across mass media, the literary genre of the family saga has not attracted intensive critical acclaim. Readers of this book will not only learn more about the genre of family saga but also be encouraged to reflect on their own family memories.

Richard Rojcewicz's Heidegger, Plato, Philosophy, Death: An Atmosphere of Mortality offers an original perspective on the bond between philosophy and death in the thought of Martin Heidegger and Plato. For Heidegger, authentic being-toward-death is not preoccupation with death as such, nor resoluteness in the face of ones demise, but preoccupation with the meaning of the beingsourselveswho comport themselves understandingly toward death and who breathe an atmosphere of mortality. Authentic dying is then nothing other than the practice of philosophy. For Plato, philosophy is the practice of dying, the separating of the soul to its own autonomous existence. This separation, however, is not that of the soul from the body. Instead, it is separation from common understanding, hearsay, everydayness, and mediocrity. Accordingly, both Heidegger and Plato see an intimate connection between philosophy and death. Rather than a morbid focus on negativity and dissolution, however, this connection leads to a call to being authentic, thinking for oneself, and repudiating the superficiality of the crowd. For both Heidegger and Plato, philosophizing and dying are, most concretely, a matter of heeding the Delphic oracle: Know thyself. Rojcewicz pursues this theme of philosophy and death through the topics of signs, anxiety, conscience, music, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Can rock music help us understand literature? Rock Music in American Fiction Writing, 1966-2011 argues that a close analysis of the rock music incorporated into a literary textan investigation of the lyrics, a musicological exploration of the sounds and rhythms, a cultural-historical inquiry into the production and reception of a songmay yield exciting new insight into and expand our understanding of American literary production from the mid-20th century onwards. Reading major works by Joyce Carol Oates, Alice Walker, Don DeLillo, Jeffrey Eugenides, Sherman Alexie and Jennifer Egan from such a rock-musicological vantage point, Rock Music in American Fiction Writing adds a new dimension to recent work in American literary criticism by seeking to establish rock music as an analytical tool for literary investigation. The book concentrates on the way these literary artists have struggled to come to terms with the dichotomies inherent in rock musicits liberating and revolutionary impulses as well as its adherence to the bleakest laws of consumer capitalismin their work. By combining a musicological with a literary analysis, Rock Music in American Fiction Writing highlights the crucial and complex role rock music has played in shaping the artistic outlook and cultural sensibilities of literary artists since the 1960s in America and beyond.

Reading Religious Ritual with Ricoeur: Between Fragility and Hope creates a dialogue between Ricur's hermeneutic philosophy and the interpretation of human ritual practices, especially as such practices are manifested within the context of Christian liturgy. In the first part of the book, Christina M. Gschwandtner shows that Ricur's account of religion would be deepened if it were to take into account not only the biblical texts but also forms of liturgical expression and ritual actions. She challenges Ricur's early reading of the symbol and second navete, broadens his interpretation of biblical texts and faith to consider religious actions more fully, and suggests that ritual can enhance human capacities. The second part of the book employs Ricur's hermeneutics in order to shed light on the analysis of liturgy, demonstrating that his accounts of truth, of the world of the text, of religious language, of the imagination, and of the formation of identity are all eminently applicable to liturgical experience. Reading Religious Ritual with Ricoeur shows that one of the most significant themes in Ricur's workthe tension between fragility and hopeis especially helpful for understanding what liturgy does and how it functions. Seeing how liturgy and ritual configure fragility and hope also enriches Ricur's account of the role and function of religion in human experience.

In Abusive Supervision in Government Agencies, Caillier uses both quantitative and qualitative survey data, a mixed-method approach, to argue that certain organizational norms and subordinate factors either increase or decrease the presence of abusive supervision in agencies and that when employees experience abusive supervision, their well-being and work attitudes are adversely affected. In addition, a mixed-method approach is used to contend that problems concerning the abusive supervision process are pervasive in agencies. More specifically, many targets of abuse supervision fail to report the incident, and for those who do, agencies seldom do anything to stop abusive supervisors and the overwhelming majority of targets experience some form of retaliation for reporting the abuse. The author also uses qualitative data to argue that many agencies still do not have a robust workplace aggression policy. The author concludes by identifying future directions for research concerning abusive supervision.

Arts and Politics of the Situationist International contextualizes the SI within a comprehensive aesthetic and theoretical framework that integrates its concepts and practical activities with previous critical thinkers, political activists, artists, and poets. The SI belongs to a history of radical gestures and cultural practices concerned with re-imagining everyday life and overcoming alienation. This book regards the SI as a critical interdisciplinary endeavor in the history of consciousness, particularly as a moment in an ongoing western-European trajectory of aesthetic negation dating back to the early nineteenth century. The chapters search for origins of the SI in French Symbolist poetry, Dada and Surrealism, Hegelian-Marxism, and Lefebvrian social theory in an effort to provide a clearly-defined ';something' out of which the SI developed as an increasingly radical collective of artists, writers, and theorists.

Agency in Constrained Academic Contexts: Explorations of Space in Educational Anthropology examines how social agents construct autonomous spaces in the context of neoliberal education. The contributors to this edited collection consider the ways that educators, students, and families assert agency, claim space, and thereby reshape the constraints imposed by the durability of the academic institutions of which they are a part.

Kaiowcide: Living through the Guarani-Kaiowa Genocide is an analysis of the genocidal violence perpetrated against indigenous peoples in Brazil and towards the Guarani-Kaiowa. The ongoing indigenous genocide is defined as ';Kaiowcide,' in place since the 1970s, when the Guarani-Kaiowa mobilized a reaction to land grabbing and oppression in the final years of the military dictatorship. The book is based on years of research on the agribusiness frontiers, on the indigenous geography of the Guarani-Kaiowa, and on sustained engagement with indigenous communities. Instead of merely describing the genocidal tragedy, the focus is on the life through genocide and trying to collectively go beyond it. One of the main contributions is to provide a robust interpretative analysis of the causes and the ramifications of the genocidal experience lived by the Guarani-Kaiowa. Rather than focusing on formalist notions of ';direct intent' by settlers and governments, as a prerequisite for the tagging as genocide, this book emphasizes the destructive potential of the actors actively involved in agrarian capitalist transformations promoted by the national state in socio-economic frontiers.

Pakistan and Human Rights consists of a series of innovative and carefully chosen chapters by leading experts and specialists in the field of human rights law. With contributions from young emerging scholars, many of whom live and work in Pakistan, this volume takes a critical look at the legal ordering of human rights issues in Pakistan today.

Diversity and Cultural Competence in the Health Sector: Ebola-Affected Countries in West Africa examines the 20142016 Ebola crisis in three West African countries. The authors argue that this public health disaster was exacerbated by the lack of cultural competency in emergency response efforts. Considering the role of culture in the social, economic, health-related, and political dynamics that made these countries particularly vulnerable to the disease and how culturally competent approaches could have been employed sooner to reduce risk and prevent death and disability, this book serves as a guide for government officials, nongovernmental relief agencies, healthcare professionals, and public health personnel on how to effectively center cultural competence in emergency response to infectious disease outbreaks.

Slow Places in Bela Tarr's Films explores Hungarian filmmaker Bela Tarr's approach to creating geographies of indifference through slow cinema techniques. Through a close examination of Tarr's filmography, Clara Orban observes that his interiors provide claustrophobic environments in which human relationships have difficult flourishing, while his exteriors become landscapes through which characters wander endlessly. Furthermore, Orban argues, Tarr's sparse use of animals provides contrast to the humans who inhabit these spaces, as they, too, are indifferent to humans' fates. Orban utilizes close readings of Tarr's filmsincluding his earlier short filmsalong with relevant poems, a thorough filmography, and an interview with Tarr about aspects of this book to aid in her analysis. Ultimately, this book offers an accessible but detailed look at the geographic locations and ecological implications of the entire compendium of Tarr's productions.

In Oral Traditions in Contemporary China: Healing a Nation, Juwen Zhang provides a systematic survey of such oral traditions as folk and fairy tales, proverbs, ballads, and folksongs that are vibrantly practiced today. Zhang establishes a theoretical framework for understanding how Chinese culture has continued for thousands of years with vitality and validity, core and arbitrary identity markers, and folkloric identity. This framework, which describes a cultural self-healing mechanism, is equally applicable to the exploration of other traditions and cultures in the world. Through topics from Chinese Cinderella to the Grimms of China, from proverbs like ';older ginger is spicier' to the life-views held by the Chinese, and from mountain songs and ballads to the musical instruments like the clay-vessel-flute, the author weaves these oral traditions across time and space into a mesmerizing intellectual journey. Focusing on contemporary practice, this book serves as a bridge between Chinese and international folklore scholarship and other related disciplines as well. Those interested in Chinese culture in general and Chinese folklore, literature, and oral tradition in particular will certainly delight in perusing this book.

After the Fact: Authority and the Historical Document in Late Twentieth-Century Literature examines historiographic metafiction's epistemological concern with the historical document. The six texts herein recover official and neglected documents, viewing history from marginal perspectives endeavoring an ethical reconsideration of dominant historical narratives. Thematically paired chapters focus on eye-witness narratives, legal and official government documents, and news publications. The first two chapters, D.M. Thomas' The White Hotel with Toni Morrison's Beloved, explore the writers' reconsideration of eye-witness accounts, specifically the Holocaust survivor narrative and the slave narrative. The second pair reviews mythologies of the nation in the United States. Susan Howe's Singularities rewrites the Indian captivity narrative. Hannah Weiner's Spoke revises the 1868 Black Hills treaty to focus on how popular and official texts promote the colonial imaginary and function to justify colonial expansion. The final two chapters examine Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace and Robert Coover's The Public Burning, which critique the press's authority by questioning its claim to objectivity.

The modern trajectory of Middle EasternEast Asian interactions has garnered very little scholarly attention and scrutiny. The two-way connection between both regions have witnessed a litany of activities and developments over the past several decades, but such dynamics are yet to be investigated sufficiently in tandem with their overall impacts on the world's safety and well-being. Aiming to fill part of this acute research gap, East Asia's Strategic Advantage in the Middle East concentrates primarily on different aspects of East Asia's modern relationship with the Middle East by turning the spotlight on strategic advantages of East Asian countries in critical areas in the region.Over the past several years, there have been a slew of talks and debates about the formation of strategic ties between the East Asian states and their counterparts across the Middle East region. However, East Asias advantage of strategic nature has been there for decades, shaping the contours of an increasingly multifaceted chain of interactions involving the two sides. The more other stakeholders , Western powers in particular, made serious attempts to secure their precious assets in the Middle East, the larger East Asias strategic advantage in the region grew.

Nigeria-India Relations in a Changing World covers critical issues in the relations between these two countries in a single volume. Even though the relationship between Nigeria and India is characterized by a sense of continuity, changes in the world since the end of the Cold War have necessitated that the two countries recalibrate their foreign policies and adjust their domestic economies along with their approaches to governance. Sharkdam Wapmuk provides an in-depth examination of the contextual, theoretical, and historical foundations of Nigeria-India relations. He analyzes Nigerian and Indian economic relations and contemporary dynamics in strategic engagement between the two countries.The book concludes with an exploration of the new normal for Nigeria-India relations in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

In South Africa-China Relations: Between Aspiration and Reality in a New Global Order, Phiwokuhle Mnyandu analyzes South Africa-China relations in the context of South Africa's quest to reduce unemployment and transform its economy to ensure lasting social stability. Mnyandu uses trade patterns, analyses of governmental organizations and initiatives, and other socio-economic data to determine the extent to which developmental change or stasis has taken place as relations between South Africa and China have deepened. Tracing South Africa's changing attitudes and policies towards China's involvement, the impact of programs involving commodities trades on unemployment, and the prospective outcomes of an endogenous developmental policy, Mnyandu concludes by proposing a quadri-linear model as a tool for more comprehensive analyses of China's relations not only with South Africa, but other African countries as well to avoid disinformation on Africa-China issues.

Through an analysis of historical and contemporary literature, Visions of Womanhood in Contemporary African Literature argues that African women were not relegated to the background in African society until after colonization. Blessing Diala-Ogamba analyzes the history of women's roles in African society through oral stories and biographies to show how colonialization worked to oppress women in Africa and explores the ways contemporary African literature confronts and works to overcome its colonial past. Using works by authors such as Akachi Adimora Ezeigbo, Lilian Masitera, Nawal El Sadaawi, Lauretta Ncgobo, Sembene Ousmane, and many others, Diala-Ogamba reveals the consistent progression of women and their roles in African novels and society.

This book discusses examples of how the U.S. Founding Fathers were influenced and inspired by Chinese agriculture, architecture, and philosophy. China, then one of the most stable and powerful civilizations in the world, offered unique perspectives on various aspects of society which were distinct from the Founding Fathers' European heritage. China provided an alternative set of social and political frameworks which supported the Founding Fathers' efforts to craft a unique heritage for their young nation. These Founders sought to establish a political identity that was distinct from European aristocratic traditions.

In No Perfect Birth: Trauma and Obstetric Care in the Rural United States, Kristin Haltinner examines the institutional and ideological forces that cause harm to women in childbirth in the rural United States. Interweaving the poignant and tragic stories of mothers with existing research on obstetric care and social theories, Haltinner points to how a medical staff's lack of time, a mother's need to navigate and traverse complex spaces, and a practitioner's reliance on well-trodden obstetric routines cause unnecessary and lasting harm for women in childbirth. Additionally, Haltinner offers suggestions towards improving current practices, incorporating case models from other countries as well as mothers' embodied knowledge.

This book examines Cold War relations between Egypt and the United States. The author argues that Nasser's responses to security and political threats in the Middle East and North Arica conflicted with America's postwar strategy in those regions. The author focuses on how the failure of AmericanEgyptian diplomacy endangered the Postwar Petroleum Order and facilitated the outbreak of the Six-Day War.

Person and Value: Karol Wojtyla's Personalistic and Normative Theory of Man, Morality, and Love discusses the central themes of Karol Wojtyla's personalistic teaching in a concise yet comprehensive manner. Grzegorz Ignatik presents a philosophical understanding of the human person and human action that conforms with the phenomenological and metaphysical methodologies used by Wojtyla himself. This book pays special attention to Wojtyla's phenomenological insights concerning the significance of value for human life. Ignatik's reflections are based on his extensive research of original textspublished and yet unpublishedwritten by Karol Wojtyla in his original tongue, Polish. By returning to and rediscovering the original sources, Person and Value provides a fresh and profound engagement with the anthropological and ethical thought of the future Pope John Paul II. Written for all who wish to encounter one of the most illustrious minds of the twentieth century, this book will be an indispensable key to reading his works.

The book gives an insight into how the quality of health care may improve through the model of knowledge management and a multi-contingency approach to organizational design. The author assesses the relational triangle between knowledge management, organizational design, and the health system in Montenegro. Montenegrin health care system is presented through macroeconomic, managerial, and organizational-legal factors. The author focuses on the importance of knowledge management, leadership, organizational strategy, structure, culture and climate of health organizations. The author's research covered public and private health institutions of Montenegro and included data collection from managers, union members, doctors, technicians, and finally, users of health services. A special part is dedicated to organizational challenges in the context of COVID-19 pandemic. The author explains how political agenda confronted with knowledge and profession and made Montenegro found itself in downward spiral in its fight against the pandemic. An abundance of diverse approaches to the quality of health services - from the point of view of service providers and users, decision makers and employees, management and trade union representatives, and private and public sector, makes the book stimulating and useful for professionals in health management, policy makers, patients, and the general audience.

Over the past few decades, there has been a renewal of scholarly interest in the work of Henri Bergson (18591941). At once a commentary and a stark re-evaluation of Bergson's philosophy, Updating Bergson: A Philosophy of the Enduring Present argues that time should be thought of as a hierarchy of simultaneous durations, the shifting reality of which can be revealed by the philosophical method of intuition. A duration is a perpetually dynamic flow situated in the now. Put simply, for Bergson, change is the substance of things. Nothing exists apart from alteration. Adam Lovasz analyzes Bergson's philosophy of time, encompassing the three basic types of durationmaterial, organic, and subjectiveand also touches on themes such as relativity, evolution, the problem of materialism and idealism, and the topic of free will. Lovasz connects key questions addressed by Bergson to contemporary scientific debates and paradigms. Shedding new light on the various aspects of Bergsons philosophy, this book is both a provocation and an invitation to think in terms of the enduring present, rather than committing ourselves to a dead past or an absent future.

In this work, Ken Bielen explains how album cover art authenticates recording artists in a particular genre. He considers albums issued from the 1950s to the 1980s, the golden era of record album cover art. The whole album package is studied, including the front and back covers, the inside cover, the inner sleeve, and the liner notes. Performers in rock and roll, folk and folk rock, soul and disco, psychedelic, Americana nostalgia, and singer-songwriter genres are included in this study of hundreds of record album covers.

The modern culture we live off and take for granted is an elevated, sophisticated one, containing a great variety of precious anthropological insights and strengths, with a surprising adaptability and openness to absorb, to clarify and to unite. However, in the present moment it comes across, in many cases, as a culture detached from the faith that gave life to it in the first place, and without which it may simply not survive. In fact it has become, of late, a fragile culture, a culture less and less capable of adapting and absorbing and uniting. This may be seen in the way many aspects of modern culture and public life have fallen into a pathology of rationalism, individualism, inequality, discord, ingratitude. This may be seen in our attempt to live in isolation from our fellow humans, unwilling to recognize the world we live in and the privileges we enjoy as God's gifts. Faith Challenges Culture: A Reflection of the Dynamics of Modernity describes the process in two directions: how culture challenges faith to provide answers that have not been previously given, and how faith challenges culture not only by showing modern culture's fragility and ambivalence, but also by posing new questions.

What is philosophy? What can philosophy offer us? What brings us to think philosophically? Arthur Schopenhauer's writings offer fascinating answers to these questions that have largely been overlooked until now. In Schopenhauer and the Nature of Philosophy, Jonathan Head explores the surprisingly rich and compelling metaphilosophy that underlies Schopenhauer's work and argues that it offers a vital key to unlocking many of the mysteries that surround his ideas. Schopenhauer understands philosophy as grounded in a deep wonder about life and the world that is universal to the human experience, as well as meeting a fundamental need for both explanation and consolation. This account of the nature of philosophy leads to further important discussions concerning the relationship between philosophy and religion, the value of mysticism, and the possibility of social progress. Through examining Schopenhauer's account of how and why philosophy is done, this book sheds crucial new light on a thinker whose ideas continue to both provoke and inspire.

In Speaking of Silence in Heidegger, Wanda Torres Gregory critically analyzes Heidegger's thoughts on silence. Arguing that silence about silence is a guiding principle in his sparse and often reticent words, Torres Gregory sets out to decipher their elusive meanings. Charting the trajectory of Heidegger's reflections, from Being and Time to On the Way to Language, she shows that he develops his ideas of silence in increasingly closer relations to his also evolving ideas of truth as the unconcealedness of being/beyng and language as disclosive sonorous saying. Torres Gregory distinguishes between human, primordial, and primeval forms of silence, and the linguistic, pre-linguistic, and proto-linguistic levels at which silence can occur in relation to sonorous speech. While the book focuses on these inner conceptual dynamics, the author remains mindful of Heidegger's ties to National Socialism and clarifies how his theoretical assumptions allow for oppressive silencing. The book concludes with critical reflections on the later Heidegger's thinking of silence and proposes alternatives to his claims concerning the sound beyond sounds, the metaphysics of mystical silence, the uniquely linguistic essence of the mortals, and the loud idle talk in the age of modern technology.

In Reinventing American Jurisprudence: Law through the Lens of Value, George David Miller and Laura Brown unfurl an original approach to value and an imaginative landscape in philosophy of law. Value essentialism identifies value formations such as a sacred cow and scapegoat tandem and the intensification of ';oughtness' as it approaches sacred zenith values. Readers learn how Occam's razor has been responsible for the death of many ideas; how the celebrated Other gains nuance as near and remote; and where a spectral assessment of probability and necessity leads. Analyses of Supreme Court cases grow out in different and exciting directions. Buck was not about eugenics, but another iteration of the value of efficiency and Yo Wick was decided less on law and more on a justice's finding humanity in Chinese laundry mat proprietors. Lochner involved not an ideological binary but three distinct value schemes. ';Separate but equal' was refined as parallelism and exploitative tangents. In Brown, the Fourteenth Amendment took a significant subjective turn. In Heller, the communitarian position of stopping violence before it began could be contrasted with the individualistic position of waiting until you see the whites of their eyes in your bedroom. Citizens United was distilled into the question: was the First Amendment designed to maximize participation or maximize democracy?