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Quantum mechanics, which describes the behavior of subatomic particles, seems to challenge common sense. Waves behave like particles; particles behave like waves. You can tell where a particle is, but not how fast it is moving--or vice versa. An electron faced with two tiny holes will travel through both at the same time, rather than one or the other. And then there is the enigma of creation ex nihilo, in which small particles appear with their so-called antiparticles, only to disappear the next instant in a tiny puff of energy. Since its inception, physicists and philosophers have struggled to work out the meaning of quantum mechanics. Some, like Niels Bohr, have responded to quantum mechanics' mysteries by replacing notions of position and velocity with probabilities. Others, like Einstein and Penrose, have disagreed and think that the entire puzzle reflects not a fundamental principle of nature but our own ignorance of basic scientific processes. Sneaking a Look at God's Cards offers the general reader a deep and real understanding of the problems inherent to the interpretation of quantum mechanics, from its inception to the present. The book presents a balanced overview of current debates and explores how the theory of quantum mechanics plays itself out in the real world. Written from the perspective of a leading European physicist, it looks extensively at ideas from both sides of the Atlantic and also considers what philosophers have contributed to the scientific discussion of this field. Sneaking a Look at God's Cards sets out what we know about the endlessly fascinating quantum world, how we came to this understanding, where we disagree, and where we are heading in our quest to comprehend the seemingly incomprehensible.

"e;The day will come when not only my writings, but precisely my life--the intriguing secret of all the machinery--will be studied and studied."e; Soren Kierkegaard's remarkable combination of genius and peculiarity made this a fair if arrogant prediction. But Kierkegaard's life has been notoriously hard to study, so complex was the web of fact and fiction in his work. Joakim Garff's biography of Kierkegaard is thus a landmark achievement. A seamless blend of history, philosophy, and psychological insight, all conveyed with novelistic verve, this is the most comprehensive and penetrating account yet written of the life and works of the enigmatic Dane who changed the course of intellectual history. Garff portrays Kierkegaard not as the all-controlling impresario behind some of the most important works of modern philosophy and religious thought--books credited with founding existentialism and prefiguring postmodernism--but rather as a man whose writings came to control him. Kierkegaard saw himself as a vessel for his writings, a tool in the hand of God, and eventually as a martyr singled out to call for the end of "e;Christendom."e; Garff explores the events and relationships that formed Kierkegaard, including his guilt-ridden relationship with his father, his rivalry with his brother, and his famously tortured relationship with his fiancee Regine Olsen. He recreates the squalor and splendor of Golden Age Copenhagen and the intellectual milieu in which Kierkegaard found himself increasingly embattled and mercilessly caricatured. Acclaimed as a major cultural event on its publication in Denmark in 2000, this book, here presented in an exceptionally crisp and elegant translation, will be the definitive account of Kierkegaard's life for years to come.

In the Shadow of the Bomb narrates how two charismatic, exceptionally talented physicists--J. Robert Oppenheimer and Hans A. Bethe--came to terms with the nuclear weapons they helped to create. In 1945, the United States dropped the bomb, and physicists were forced to contemplate disquieting questions about their roles and responsibilities. When the Cold War followed, they were confronted with political demands for their loyalty and McCarthyism's threats to academic freedom. By examining how Oppenheimer and Bethe--two men with similar backgrounds but divergent aspirations and characters--struggled with these moral dilemmas, one of our foremost historians of physics tells the story of modern physics, the development of atomic weapons, and the Cold War. Oppenheimer and Bethe led parallel lives. Both received liberal educations that emphasized moral as well as intellectual growth. Both were outstanding theoreticians who worked on the atom bomb at Los Alamos. Both advised the government on nuclear issues, and both resisted the development of the hydrogen bomb. Both were, in their youth, sympathetic to liberal causes, and both were later called to defend the United States against Soviet communism and colleagues against anti-Communist crusaders. Finally, both prized scientific community as a salve to the apparent failure of Enlightenment values. Yet, their responses to the use of the atom bomb, the testing of the hydrogen bomb, and the treachery of domestic politics differed markedly. Bethe, who drew confidence from scientific achievement and integration into the physics community, preserved a deep integrity. By accepting a modest role, he continued to influence policy and contributed to the nuclear test ban treaty of 1963. In contrast, Oppenheimer first embodied a new scientific persona--the scientist who creates knowledge and technology affecting all humanity and boldly addresses their impact--and then could not carry its burden. His desire to retain insider status, combined with his isolation from creative work and collegial scientific community, led him to compromise principles and, ironically, to lose prestige and fall victim to other insiders. Schweber draws on his vast knowledge of science and its history--in addition to his unique access to the personalities involved--to tell a tale of two men that will enthrall readers interested in science, history, and the lives and minds of great thinkers.

From Aristotle to contemporary soap operas, friendship has always been a subject of fascination. This book describes the varied nature of personal relationships, and also locates friendship in contemporary debates about individualization and the supposed "collapse of community."

A vital and underappreciated dimension of social interaction is the way individuals justify their actions to others, instinctively drawing on their experience to appeal to principles they hope will command respect. Individuals, however, often misread situations, and many disagreements can be explained by people appealing, knowingly and unknowingly, to different principles. On Justification is the first English translation of Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thevenot's ambitious theoretical examination of these phenomena, a book that has already had a huge impact on French sociology and is likely to have a similar influence in the English-speaking world. In this foundational work of post-Bourdieu sociology, the authors examine a wide range of situations where people justify their actions. The authors argue that justifications fall into six main logics exemplified by six authors: civic (Rousseau), market (Adam Smith), industrial (Saint-Simon), domestic (Bossuet), inspiration (Augustine), and fame (Hobbes). The authors show how these justifications conflict, as people compete to legitimize their views of a situation.On Justification is likely to spark important debates across the social sciences.

W H Auden's first ten years in the United States were marked by rapid and extensive change in his life and thought. He became an American citizen, fell in love with Chester Kallman, and began to reflect on American culture. This volume contains prose that Auden wrote during these years, including essays and reviews he published under pseudonyms.

The Holy Grail and its quest is a legend that has had a powerful impact on our civilization. The Grail is an ancient Celtic symbol of plenty, and a Christian symbol of redemption and eternal life, the chalice that caught the blood of the crucified Christ. This book presents this legend as a living myth that is profoundly relevant to modern life.

Uses the phenomenon called 'six degrees of separation' as a prelude to a more general exploration: under what conditions can a small world arise in any kind of network? This book is intended for a variety of fields, including physics and mathematics, as well as sociology, economics, and biology.

A contribution to Shi'ite Sufism. It brings us to the core of this movement with an analysis of Ibn 'Arabi's life and doctrines. It begins with a spiritual topography of the twelfth century, emphasizing the differences between exoteric and esoteric forms of Islam. It also relates Islamic mysticism to mystical thought in the West.

Discusses ten of Wagner's most beloved operas, illuminates their key themes and the myths and literary sources behind the librettos, and demonstrates how the composer's style changed from work to work.

Artemisia Gentileschi, widely regarded as important woman artist before the modern period, was a major Italian Baroque painter of the seventeenth century and the only female follower of Caravaggio. This work shows that her original treatments of mythic-heroic female subjects depart radically from traditional interpretations of the same themes.

The first major biography of a brilliant American artist and the city that shaped himBarnett Newman (1905-1970), a founding member of the abstract expressionist movement, was a contemporary of such figures as Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, and Clyfford Still. He left behind only 118 finished paintings, six sculptures, and fewer than 140 drawings, yet is often regarded as the greatest painter to have emerged after the Second World War. Barnett Newman is the definitive biography of a charismatic New Yorker who by defying the rules created an art of the sublime. Drawing on original research conducted over decades, scores of interviews and oral histories, and previously unseen correspondence, this book paints a richly textured portrait of a creative sage who became an exemplar of the artist-citizen. Born in New York to Polish Jewish immigrant parents, he grandly aspired to involve himself in every detail of the city's life. He was a crusader for the civil service, ran against La Guardia for mayor, worked as a teacher, wrote poetry, criticism, and manifestos, produced political plays, and promoted other artists-all before painting a mature work of his own in his early forties. Newman began with none of the qualities once considered indispensable for a master artist, such as training, apprenticeship, or natural facility. But he possessed a galvanizing intellect and a conviction that aesthetic expression is an ecstatic declaration of existence and an assertion of human dignity. Beautifully illustrated and replete with previously unpublished information gleaned from full access to Newman's archives, here is the landmark account of a maverick who became an influential mentor and who created some of the most enduring works of the twentieth century.

A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice“A comprehensive biography of . . . one of the most acclaimed poets of her generation and a face of American feminism.”—New York TimesA major American writer, thinker, and activist, Adrienne Rich (1929–2012) transformed herself from a traditional, Radcliffe-educated lyric poet and married mother of three sons into a path-breaking lesbian-feminist author of forceful, uncompromising prose as well as poetry. In doing so, she emerged as an architect and exemplar of the feminist movement, breaking ranks to denounce the male-dominated literary establishment and paving the way for women writers to take their places in the cultural mainstream. Drawing on a wealth of unpublished materials, including Rich’s correspondence and in-depth interviews with many people who knew her, Hilary Holladay provides a vividly detailed, full-dimensional portrait of a woman whose work and life continue to challenge and inspire new generations.

From the award-winning author of Revolutionizing the Sciences, a monumental historical account of how of we came to see the world through the lens of scienceScience is the basis of our assumptions about ourselves and our world, from ideas about our evolutionary past to our conceptions of the vast expanses of space and the smallest particles of matter. In this panoramic book, acclaimed historian of science Peter Dear uncovers the roots of such beliefs, revealing how they constitute a natural philosophy that has been developed and refined over the course of centuries—and how the world as we have come to know it was by no means inevitable.In a sweeping, multifaceted narrative, Dear describes some of the most breathtaking accomplishments in the advance of human knowledge, such as Isaac Newton’s laws of motion and gravitation, Carl Linnaeus’s taxonomy, Antoine Lavoisier’s new chemistry, Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, and Albert Einstein’s theories of relativity. Challenging the notion that science is only about “making discoveries,” he shows how our world has been formed by people, institutions, and cultural assumptions, giving rise to disciplines ranging from biology and astrophysics to electromagnetism and the social sciences.Taking readers from the early eighteenth century to today, The World as We Know It reveals how our ideas about our place in the universe were bequeathed to us by individuals, cultures, and a curiosity that knows no bounds.

The mental labor that keeps families afloatand why women do most of itMothers and fathers use their time differently, with women spending roughly twice as many hours on family labor as men. But what about the gendered differences in the ways women and men think? What's on Her Mind provides an illuminating look at the cognitive labor that families depend on and reveals why this essential aspect of family life is disproportionately handled by womeneven in couples that aspire to practice equality.While most accounts of household labor center on how people use their time, Allison Daminger focuses on a less visible and less easily quantifiable aspect of family life. She introduces readers to the concept of cognitive laboranticipating, researching, deciding, and following upand shows how women in different-gender couples do most of this critical work. She argues that cognitive labor has less to do with personality traitsfor example, she's type A while he's laid-backand more to do with learned skills that men and women deploy in distinct ways. Yet not all couples fall into the personality trap. Daminger looks at different-gender couples who achieve a more balanced cognitive allocation while also exploring how queer couples carve out unique relationships to the gender binary.Drawing on original, in-depth interviews with members of different- and same-gender couples, What's on Her Mind points to new ways of understanding the interplay between who we are as individuals and the cognitive work we do on behalf of our families.

Why democracy is under assault across the globe by the leaders entrusted to preserve itDemocracies around the world are getting swept up in a wave of democratic erosion. Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, two dozen presidents and prime ministers have attacked their countries' democratic institutions, violating political norms, aggrandizing their own powers, and often trying to overstay their terms in office. The Backsliders offers the first general explanation for this wave. Drawing on a wealth of original research, Susan Stokes shows that increasing income inequality, a legacy of late twentieth-century globalization, left some countries especially at risk of backsliding toward autocracy. Left-behind voters were drawn to right-wing ethnonationalist leaders in countries like the United States, India, and Brazil, and to left-wing populist ones in countries like Venezuela, Mexico, and South Africa. Unlike military leaders who abruptly kill democracies in coups, elected leaders who erode them gradually must maintain some level of public support. They do so by encouraging polarization among citizens and also by trash-talking their democracies: claiming that the institutions they attack are corrupt and incompetent. They tell voters that these institutions should be torn down and replaced by ones under the executive's control. The Backsliders describes how journalists, judges, NGOs, and opposition leaders can put the brakes on democratic erosion, and how voters can do so through political engagement and the power of the ballot box.

"Nan Z. Da, who immigrated to the United States from China as a child, analyzes Shakespeare's King Lear as a way to understand her family's experience in China during and after the Cultural Revolution"--

A spectacularly illustrated history of an enigmatic medieval diagramThe Wound Man-a medical diagram depicting a figure fantastically pierced by weapons and ravaged by injuries and diseases-was reproduced widely across the medieval and early modern globe. In this panoramic book, Jack Hartnell charts the emergence and endurance of this striking image used as a visual guide to the treatment of many ailments, taking readers on a remarkable journey from medieval Europe to eighteenth-century Japan and explaining why the Wound Man continues to intrigue us today. Drawing on a wealth of original research, Hartnell traces the many lives of the Wound Man, from its origins in late medieval Bohemia to its vivid reincarnations in hundreds of manuscripts and printed books over more than three hundred years. Transporting readers beyond the specifics of bodily injury, Hartnell demonstrates how the Wound Man's body was at once an encyclopedic repository of surgical knowledge, a fantastic literary and religious muse, a catalyst for shifting media landscapes, and a cross-cultural artistic feat that reached diverse audiences around the world. The Wound Man, we discover, held profound importance for scribes, students, printmakers, poets, nuns, monks, and both healers and patients alike. Marvelously illustrated, Wound Man sheds light on the entwined histories of art and medicine, showing how premodern medical diagrams represent a unique site of contact between sickness and cure, suffering and sanctity, and painting and print.

A richly illustrated new exploration of the painting, photography, and illustration of the politically progressive American artist Ben Shahn, On Nonconformity offers a fresh and wide-ranging account of the work of Ben Shahn (1898-1969), a Jewish immigrant from Russian-controlled Lithuania who became one of America's most prominent and prolific "social viewpoint" artists from the Great Depression through the Vietnam War. Revealing why Shahn remains so relevant today, the book examines his commitment to progressive political causes, from combating fascism to fighting for civil rights. Incorporating international perspectives, it investigates his World War II poster art, labor-related work, and engagement in postwar artistic debates. It brings new insights to Shahn's social realist and documentary styles and their evolution into allegorical, lyrical, and often abstract idioms that embrace the philosophical and the spiritual. And it demonstrates the underappreciated complexity of Shahn's layered visual language and how he experimented with modernist conceptual strategies-often involving photography-to create his paintings, murals, drawings, prints, posters, illustrated books, and commercial designs. Shahn's guiding credo-formulated in the Cold War-asserted that nonconformity was the precondition for all significant art and great social change. Ben Shahn, On Nonconformity illuminates why the artist's work should be seen as a series of "nonconformities" driven by his steadfast dedication to social justice and humanistic values. Exhibition ScheduleThe Jewish Museum, New YorkMay 23-October 12, 2025

An engaging and thought-provoking introduction to river scienceWhen we look at a river, either up close or while flying over a river valley, what are we really seeing? Following the Bend takes readers on a majestic journey by water to find answers, along the way shedding light on the key concepts of modern river science, from hydrology and water chemistry to stream and wetland ecology. In this accessible and uniquely personal book, Ellen Wohl explains how to "read" a river, blending the latest science with her own personal experiences as a geologist and naturalist who has worked on rivers for more than three decades. She charts how water travels through the hydrologic cycle around the globe and downstream to distribute energy, move sediment, and shape river channels, and how living organisms adapt to life in flowing water to create vibrant river ecosystems. Wohl looks at the role of disturbances such as floods and droughts and discusses how geologists interpret the sedimentary records of past river processes. She illustrates how river networks interact with Earth's surface and considers issues for rivers in the future, such as progressive drying, river restoration, and the legal personhood of a river to maintain its distinctive spirit, identity, and integrity. Sharing a new understanding of how rivers function as both physical systems and ecosystems, Following the Bend enables us to observe rivers with fresh eyes and more fully appreciate the beauty, vibrancy, and complexity our planet's vital waterways.

How only violence and catastrophes have consistently reduced inequality throughout world historyAre mass violence and catastrophes the only forces that can seriously decrease economic inequality? To judge by thousands of years of history, the answer is yes. Tracing the global history of inequality from the Stone Age to today, Walter Scheidel shows that inequality never dies peacefully. Inequality declines when carnage and disaster strike and increases when peace and stability return. The Great Leveler is the first book to chart the crucial role of violent shocks in reducing inequality over the full sweep of human history around the world.Ever since humans began to farm, herd livestock, and pass on their assets to future generations, economic inequality has been a defining feature of civilization. Over thousands of years, only violent events have significantly lessened inequality. The "e;Four Horsemen"e; of leveling-mass-mobilization warfare, transformative revolutions, state collapse, and catastrophic plagues-have repeatedly destroyed the fortunes of the rich. Scheidel identifies and examines these processes, from the crises of the earliest civilizations to the cataclysmic world wars and communist revolutions of the twentieth century. Today, the violence that reduced inequality in the past seems to have diminished, and that is a good thing. But it casts serious doubt on the prospects for a more equal future.An essential contribution to the debate about inequality, The Great Leveler provides important new insights about why inequality is so persistent-and why it is unlikely to decline anytime soon.

A collection of insightful and revealing quotations on a wide range of subjects from the father of modern politicsNiccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) is the father of modern political thought, but he is also one of the greatest writers of the Renaissance and his wisdom and style extend far beyond politics to encompass a compelling philosophy of life as well. In The Quotable Machiavelli, Maurizio Viroli, one of the world's leading Machiavelli scholars, offers a rich collection of the Florentine's most memorable words on a wide range of subjects, including politics, the human condition, religion, love and happiness, antiquity and history, patriotism, and virtue. Drawing on Machiavelli's entire body of writings, and including little-known quotations as well as famous passages, the book shows the full scope of his thought and belies the cliche that he was a "e;Machiavellian"e; cynic. In addition to Machiavelli's own words on dozens of subjects of perennial interest, the book includes some almost unknown texts in which his contemporaries describe him. Complete with a biographical introduction, the book serves as a handy reference and a smart and lively introduction to a masterly thinker and writer.Includes a rich collection of Machiavelli's most memorable words on a wide range of subjects, from politics to the human condition-almost 700 quotations in allEdited and introduced by one of the world's leading Machiavelli scholarsServes as a smart and lively introduction to Machiavelli's life and worksDraws on the complete body of Machiavelli's writingsFeatures a brief biography of Machiavelli, a chronology of his life, suggestions for further reading, and an index

Describes how living things bump up against non-biological reality. Asking us wonder about the design of plants and animals around us, this book includes examples from every major group of animals and plants, with illustrative problems, and with suggestions of experiments that need only common household materials.