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Top analyst Leslie Gruis's timely new book argues that privacy is an individual right and democratic value worth preserving, even in a cyberized world. Since the time of the printing press, technology has played a key role in the evolution of individual rights and helped privacy emerge as a formal legal concept.All governments exercise extraordinary powers during national security crises. In the United States, many imminent threats during the twentieth century induced heightened government intrusion into the privacy of Americans. The Privacy Act of 1974 and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA, 1978) reversed that trend. Other laws protect the private information of individuals held in specific sectors of the commercial world. Risk management practices were extended to computer networks, and standards for information system security began to emerge. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) incorporated many such standards into its Cybersecurity Framework, and is currently developing a Privacy Framework. These standards all contribute to a patchwork of privacy protection which, so far, falls far short of what the U.S. constitutional promise offers and what our public badly needs. Greater privacy protections for U.S. citizens will come as long as Americans remember how democracy and privacy sustain one another, and demonstrate their commitment to them.

The past decade has overflowed in a raging stream of contradictions. Old certainties have yielded to relentless insecurity over a time when much of the human experience got immeasurably better even as many things only ever seemed to get worse. As Paul du Quenoy's globetrotting criticism reveals, the arts were in a ferment that matched profound and yet totally unpredicted social and political transformations. Balanced, sometimes precariously, against the demands of an absurd and increasingly superfluous academic career, du Quenoy spent the 2010s seeking enlightenment, inspiration, and, above all, diversion, in total works of art all over the world, ranging from the traditional cultural capitals to humbler and more remote surroundings. Peering through the prism of performance, Through the Years With Prince Charming offers a unique bird's eye view of art and life in a changing world.

Speaking of Wagner compiles in a new and highly accessible format celebrated author, lecturer, and Metropolitan Opera commentator William Berger's collection of talks and presentations about Richard Wagner, the most controversial, and perhaps the most widely influential, artist in history. These talks have been successful with diverse audiences, ranging from newcomers to the field to the most exacting experts, often at the same time! Berger's book preserves that wide range of tone: erudite but engaging, from lofty to startlingly coarse (as the subject requires), and connecting the subject to references from mythology to psychology and even (and especially) to cutting-edge pop culture.

California poet Jack Foley has been called "a brilliant critic and a unique poet whose work energetically records the disintegration of the patriarchy" and a writer of "genuinely avant-garde poetry." His collaborative, multimedia poetry performances are both seminal and shamanic, evolving from the linguistic musical tradition of the original San Francisco Beat poets and extending their eye, ear and voice of penetrating clarity into a modern mythology. "A Backward Glance O'er Travel'd Roads" - a title from Walt Whitman - is a spiritual history, an attempt to show, as Wordsworth put it many years ago, "the growth of a poet's mind." Where did I begin? What forces moved me in what directions? What is the result of the effort to create art in a medium that is currently simultaneously respected, misunderstood, and discredited? What kind of poetry is possible in a dark time? "A Backward Glance O'er Travel'd Roads" throws light not only on Foley's life and work, but also on the history of twentieth-century poetry, and on the efforts, successes, and failures of Modernism.¿

Malcolm X remarked that "education is the passport of the future." This book, developed for aspiring and forward-thinking college students, identifies future careers and future skill sets for the global marketplace and workspaces on the horizon. These future careers include occupations in artificial intelligence, information technology, wearables, virtual reality, genomics, cryptocurrencies, connected homes and others. The skill sets presented include complex problem solving, critical thinking, emotional intelligence, cognitive flexibility, detail orientation, creativity, and others anticipating future competencies. The concepts of factual knowledge, conceptual knowledge, procedural knowledge, and meta-cognitive knowledge are also discussed to foster the undergraduate learning experience in American higher education.

This book presents the most accurate picture of the United States Marine Corps at the onset of the American Civil War and describes the actions of the Marines at the Battle of First Manassas, or as the Union called it, Bull Run. To tell the story of the actions of the U.S. Marines in the Manassas Campaign, distinguished Marine Corps historians Bruce H. Norton and Phillip Gibbons begin with Marine actions in October 1859 at Harpers Ferry, where they were instrumental in suppressing John Brown's raid on the town's Federal Armory and attempted slave insurrection. The Marines were the only professional fighting force that could respond immediately when the call for assistance came to retake the Armory, which Brown's men had seized. The Marines were led by highly professional and well-trained officers and non-commissioned officers who represented a decades-old standard of excellence well established by the eve of the Civil War. The book then discusses Marine actions at the Battle of First Manassas, the Civil War's first battle, on July 21, 1861, a story that has never been adequately or accurately told. In both engagements, the Marines proved that they were "at all times ready," as the Corps remains to this very day.

Edited by veteran Czech diplomat and senior religion scholar Glenn Hughes, The Presence of the Past presents new insights from a conference hosted by the Václav Havel Program for Human Rights and Diplomacy at Florida International University, in cooperation with the Czech non-profit organization Post Bellumand the Vaclav Havel Library. Its fundamental topic is memory, the human capacity to retain its contents in the flux of time, which is explored and discussed both theoretically and in terms of current action-oriented public discourse.The distinguished group of philosophers, theologians, political scientists, historians, journalists, and political activists who contributed to this volume share their perspectives on pressing issues in the modern world, at the nexus of politics and philosophy. This book's most central goal is to bring together those who are used to operating in the realm of ideas, in the so-called "ivory tower," and those who work on the ground-sharp observers of human matters, trained to study them from different perspectives and exposed in their daily lives to the practical problems connected with our capacities of memory, individual or collective. The aim of this dialogue and communication is to open a path to a new beginning. A postscript tries to demonstrate that such an encounter is truly possible; that it can even be productive, and make a good deal of sense.

The phrase "solidarity of the shaken" was introduced into the today's political vocabulary by Jan Patöka, one of the last students of the philosopher Edmund Husserl and undoubtedly the most important Czech philosopher of the twentieth century. In January 1977, Patöka became - together with Vaclav Havel and Jiri Hajek -- one of the first three spokespersons of Charter 77, Czechoslovakia's anti-communist resistance movement. He died less than three months later, as a result of total exhaustion caused by days-long police interrogations.Patöka's Socratic death is an unavoidable component of his philosophical legacy. Is his main message still relevant today, after the "short" twentieth century ended with the collapse of communism in Europe in 1989? Is it still in circulation and perceived as an important Central European contribution to the new "dialogue of mankind" taking place today, as we approach the end of the second decade of new millennium?Six years ago, the Vaclav Havel Library organized a seminar in Prague where a group of scholars sought to answer these questions. This book offers any readers concerned with human rights the results of these incisive discussions. Patöka's life and work are decidedly not diminishing with time. On the contrary, they have been actualized by our current spiritual crisis.

Eurasia remains a zone of confrontation between the United States and Russia. Over the last decade, this confrontation has reached the Middle East, and, extending through Central Asia to China and points further afield, it has acquires global dimensions.After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Eurasia and the territories on Russia's periphery acquired increased geopolitical importance. After a decade of euphoria at what seemed to be new freedoms and another decade adjusting to new realities, the last ten years have witnessed a struggle between Putin's Russia and America of Cold War proportions.Gradually, Moscow redefined its geopolitical priorities and reclaimed a sphere of influence over the newly independent countries of Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova and has projected power into Ukraine and the three Caucasian republics. This is now a battleground between Russia and the United States.Since the end of the Cold War, relations between Washington and Moscow fluctuated from open and amicable to cool and suspicious. Presently, they seem to be contradictory and difficult to grasp, though it is certain that Russia is doing everything to keep the "Near Abroad" under its control while harassing American interests globally wherever it can.As of 2019, Russia has just won a new battle in Syria that may reconfigure the geopolitical balance of the entire Middle East. What we need the most in this situation is honest and competent leaders capable of wrestling with politics as well as with ethical and moral issues that both influence and reflect international politics.

Once Upon a Time of Transition is a journey through four decades in the career of a Czech dissident and diplomat reflecting on transitions from the 20th to the 21st century. A meaningful contribution to on-going public debates, and to a better understanding of our current political situation, Ambassador Martin Palou¿ explores the uncertain territory between philosophy and politics. Directly or indirectly, his texts were inspired by three great Central European thinkers of the 20th century, Hannah Arendt, Jan Patöka and Eric Voegelin. At stake is the classical Socratic question concerning the "common good" that they all raised in their investigations of the human condition -- the question that Aristotle held to direct all our actions whether we adhere to some form of metaphysics or theology, or subscribe to the post-modern nihilism so fashionable these days.

This book is about Bangladesh's first female prime minister, Begum Khaleda Zia, who served three terms in office and achieved enormous popularity. Her charisma inexorably emanates from her sense of dignity, integrity, uncompromising principles, and commitment to freedom, independence, and sovereignty of Bangladesh--a new and small country bordering the larger India, which is always up to its hegemonic designs.

In Covid-19 and the Transformation of American Society, the first book-length consideration of the Covid-19 pandemic's implications, noted sociologist Jose Martinez lays bare the immense social changes that we should expect from the nouvel coronavirus, which has upended American life since March 2020. A vital theme of his critique is how inequality already entrenched in American society may worsen due to large-scale economic disruption that resonates strongly in the socioeconomic circumstances of minorities and the poor. On the other hand, society may also experience constructive social changes resulting from a widespread reconsideration of consumerism driven by frank reassessments of our wants and needs. This book addresses how the coronavirus has contributed to long-lasting reconsiderations of social relationships, from dating to leisure to education, in both negative and positive ways, and how national and cultural politics will never be the same. Martinez opens a new field in foretelling an unanticipated future for American society and, indeed, the entire world. It concludes with a consideration of possible solutions to address social changes that we are unlikely to avoid.

Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia (1878-1918) was born the youngest son of Tsar Alexander III, ruler of the mightiest empire on earth. Upon the premature death of his elder brother Grand Duke George in 1899, Michael was thrust into the spotlight as the Heir-Tsesarevich of his older brother, Tsar Nicholas II, then the father of three girls. Even after the birth of an heir in 1904, Michael was pushed closer to the throne with each of the young boy's life-threatening bouts of hemophilia. By 1916, with World War I in full swing, Nicholas and and Empress Alexandra had become deeply unpopular not only in political circles but also with other members of the House of Romanov, who felt that the parlous times required drastic change. Michael found himself at the center of these events and was briefly even named Emperor as they unfolded. In Michael Romanov: Brother of the Last Tsar, translator Helen Azar and Romanov historian Nicholas B. A. Nicholson present for the first time in English Grand Duke Michael's annotated diaries and letters of 1916-1918. These newly available documents offer rare insight into the fall of the Russian Empire, the rise and fall of the Provisional Government that succeeded it, and the terrifying days of the Bolshevik Revolution, after which Michael found himself a prisoner doomed to meet his end in the remote city of Perm, at the edge of Siberia, just over a month before the former Tsar and his family were murdered in Ekaterinburg.

After the unexpected collapse of the Soviet Union, the categories of "Left" and "Right" continue to be used to describe political ideologies, despite their historic ambiguity and a shared utopian root. The idealistic belief that a perfect world is possible continues to dwell on existential hope for messianic salvation. This belief lay at the heart of the apocalyptic narratives of the Bible and reflects what the Greeks called hubris, a fatal and destructive form of conceit. This conceit reemerged in the Gnostic sects of early Christianity, then again in medieval millenarianism, Jacobinism, Marxism, Fascism, and secular "liberal" collectivism. Modern-day Salafi Islam is the latest manifestation in this nefarious tradition. In The Utopian Conceit and the War on Freedom, noted political philosopher Juliana Geran Pilon explores the roots of this malevolent ideology as the common ancestor of both anti-capitalism and anti-Semitism in the contemporary world, where political and religious freedom is increasingly under assault.In an age of rampant religious and philosophical skepticism and national and ethnic deracination, religious and quasi-religious ideologies bent on the vilification and destruction of entire communities are confronting and undermining a confused, guilt-ridden, materialistic, and often nihilistic Western society. In this bold and dynamic book, Pilon argues that a strong defense of freedom and pluralism, which forms the basis of constitutional democracy, is essential for the survival of civilization. Culturally sensitive and empirically tested outreach, predicated on an uncompromising defense against disinformation and terror, must be waged by all civilized nations, but especially the United States as its role evolves in a changing world.

For forty years, Jackie Frame stood at the center of business, entertainment, and publicity in Classic Hollywood. This stunning collection of never before told vignettes reveals that lost world in all its splendor and with all its quirks. No scholar of the period will be able to reconstruct its dynamics, and no fan will be able to appreciate the film and music of those exciting times, without a careful consideration of these scintillating and revelatory memoirs by a true Hollywood insider. Jackie Frame's journey from suburban England to the entertainment capital of the world is itself a truly remarkable twentieth-century tale.

The Torah. The family. The kiddush. The joy. In Jewish Neighborhoods in California: History and Development, Keith Warwick amplifies the essence of Judaism as experienced in California s historic Jewish neighborhoods. Both memory and history, this book contains facts, images, inspiration and a little of what the author calls poetry. There have been, are, and will be Jewish neighborhoods in California, which is home to over a million Jews. These range from Oakland's Jewish Community Center, which was active in West Oakland until the 1960s, to several Jewish enclaves in San Francisco. Los Angeles is a national Center of Judaism. Warwick traces its development over time. The city's Fairfax District contains only a sliver of the Jewry that it held in the early 1900s, while the Pico Robertson Jewish neighborhood is actively growing and is currently home to a growing community of Orthodox Jews. This book captures their vibrant history and changing present.

"Born in Tashkent, raised in Moscow and New York City, an editor in Odessa, a correspondent in Paris, there seems nowhere Davidzon hasn't been, no one he hasn't met. The result is a distinctive voice and eye, an eclectic mix of the cultural critic, the political analyst and the liberal cosmopolitan, evident from the first page of this delightful book" - Mark Galeotti, University College London and Royal University Services Institute The Tashkent-born Russian-American literary critic, editor, essayist, and journalist Vladislav Davidzon has been covering post-Soviet Ukraine for the past ten years, a tumultuous time for that country and the surrounding world. The 2014 "Revolution of Dignity" heralded a tremendous transformation of Ukrainian politics and society that has continued to ripple and reverberate throughout the world. These unprecedented events also wrought a remarkable cultural revolution in Ukraine itself. In late 2015, a year and a half after the 2014 Revolution swept away the presidency of the Moscow-leaning kleptocratic President Viktor Yanukovich, Davidzon and his wife founded a literary journal, The Odessa Review, focusing on newly emergent trends in film, literature, painting, design, and fashion. The journal became an East European cultural institution, publishing outstanding writers in the region and beyond. From his vantage point as a journalist and editor, Davidzon came to observe events and know many of the leading figures in Ukrainian politics and culture, and to write about them for a Western audience. Davidzon later found himself in the center of world events as he became a United States government witness in the Ukraine scandal that shook the presidency of Donald Trump. This eagerly anticipated debut tells the real story of what happened in Ukraine from the keen and resilient perspective of an observer at its center.

This set of letters, written daily last year to his grandchildren by Reinhold Knoll, emeritus professor of sociology in Vienna, began as an attempt to maintain his relationships with them during the enforced separation of the pandemic of 2021. But as the themes accumulated they evolved into something of an obituary of European culture, politics, and society, as well as an admonition and a gesture of thanks to the United States, itself unbloodied by the religious wars, having taken a revolutionary path different from that of Paris, and above all having saved Europe from the World Wars of the twentieth century.There are one hundred eleven letters, in homage to the "pragmatic idealism" of Beethoven: like the corpus of his piano sonatas, some are light and humorous while others plumb the depths, but each reaches its own unique unity by bringing the past into the present or deriving the present from the past, often enhanced by the irony, humor, and independence of the Viennese perspective, with recondite and penetrating observations on enlightenment and revolution, painting and architecture and music, the history of social thought, the devolution of the museum, the status of the church, the migration crisis, fashions in pedagogy, and the insidious reversal by which technology is reducing its human users into tools for its own aimless profit. It is the work of a balanced consciousness in troubled times.