Bøger udgivet af Combined Academic Publ.

"The bronze doors of Hildesheim are considered a masterpiece of Ottonian art. They feature the oldest known monumental image cycle in German sculpture and also the oldest cycle of images cast in metal in Germany. Cast around 1015 for Hildesheim Cathedral in Germany, they were commissioned by Bishop Bernward of Hildesheim (938-1022) and show relief images from the Old and New Testaments. This book is a close reading of each panel of the doors and takes seriously the doors as texts that were legible to medieval viewers at multiple levels"--

"A Field Guide to the Patchy Anthropocene leads the reader through a series of sites, observations, thought experiments, and genre-stretching descriptive practices to take stock of our current planetary crisis. This is a guide for researchers of many stripes; a book that nurtures and promotes a revitalized natural history in direct response to worlds falling apart"--

An exploration of the explosive illegal trade in succulents and the passion that drives it Cacti and succulents are phenomenally popular worldwide among plant enthusiasts, despite being among the world’s most threatened species. The fervor driving the illegal trade in succulents might also be driving some species to extinction. Delving into the strange world of succulent collecting, The Cactus Hunters takes us to the heart of this conundrum: the mystery of how and why ardent lovers of these plants engage in their illicit trade. This is a world of alluring desires, where collectors and conservationists alike are animated by passions that at times exceed the limits of law.    What inspires the desire for a plant? What kind of satisfaction does it promise? The answer, Jared D. Margulies suspects, might be traced through the roots and workings of the illegal succulent trade—an exploration that traverses the fields of botany and criminology, political ecology and human geography, and psychoanalysis. His globe-spanning inquiry leads Margulies from a spectacular series of succulent heists on a small island off the coast of Mexico to California law enforcement agents infiltrating a smuggling ring in South Korea, from scientists racing to discover new and rare species before poachers find them to a notorious Czech “cacto-explorer” who helped turn a landlocked European country into the epicenter of the illegal succulent trade.    A heady blend of international intrigue, social theory, botanical lore, and ecological study, The Cactus Hunters offers complex insight into species extinction, conservation, and more-than-human care.     Retail e-book files for this title are screen-reader friendly with images accompanied by short alt text and/or extended descriptions.

"Despite his enduring popularity, Philip K. Dick (1928-1982) has long been a marginal figure in American literature, even in the science fiction genre he helped revolutionize. Offering a major new perspective on the author, influential French philosopher David Lapoujade orients Dick within philosophy and draws connections to a wide variety of other thinkers and artists, revealing his oeuvre to comprise a profound reality defined by artifice, precarity, and control"--

"The life stories and roles of women in the Neapolitan Camorra in the post-war period showing their agency and presence in this criminal organization"--

In this lively account of the writing, publication, and legacy of the 1956 bestselling novel, "Peyton Place," Ardis Cameron tells how the story of a patricide in a small New England village became a cultural phenomenon.

"The book studies how the Holocaust was taught in Italian, East German, and West German postwar history textbooks during the Cold War"--

In a narrative-redefining approach, Engaging the Evil Empire dramatically alters how we look at the beginning of the end of the Cold War. Tracking key events in US-Soviet relations across the years between 1980 and 1985, Simon Miles shows that covert engagement gave way to overt conversation as both superpowers determined that open diplomacy was the best means of furthering their own, primarily competitive, goals. Miles narrates the history of these dramatic years, as President Ronald Reagan consistently applied a disciplined carrot-and-stick approach, reaching out to Moscow while at the same time excoriating the Soviet system and building up US military capabilities.The received wisdom in diplomatic circles is that the beginning of the end of the Cold War came from changing policy preferences and that President Reagan in particular opted for a more conciliatory and less bellicose diplomatic approach. In reality, Miles clearly demonstrates, Reagan and ranking officials in the National Security Council had determined that the United States enjoyed a strategic margin of error that permitted it to engage Moscow overtly.As US grand strategy developed, so did that of the Soviet Union. Engaging the Evil Empire covers five critical years of Cold War history when Soviet leaders tried to reduce tensions between the two nations in order to gain economic breathing room and, to ensure domestic political stability, prioritize expenditures on butter over those on guns. Miles's bold narrative shifts the focus of Cold War historians away from exclusive attention on Washington by focusing on the years of back-channel communiqués and internal strategy debates in Moscow as well as Prague and East Berlin.

"Explores the experiences and memories of the 1.5 million German POWs held by the Soviet Union in World War II and how they were used in postwar economic reconstruction"-

"Bringing together ideas from philosophy and cognitive science, Distracted leverages a postphenomenological perspective to reveal how our smartphones make us such bad drivers. Robert Rosenberger shows that we have developed habits of perception regarding our compulsive technology use-habits that may wrest our attention away from the road-and contends that a better understanding of why this combination of technologies is so dangerous could effectively adjust both habits and laws"--

"Aligning discourses surrounding hegemonic colonial visions of the environment and disability, this volume illustrates the ways in which colonial understandings of disability were and continue to be defined by relationships with the environment, collectively creating a form of eco-ableism that continues to this day"--

With a focus on Berlin, this assessment of transatlantic relations since 1945 emphasizes the importance of diplomacy and long-term conflict management at a time when many commentators speculate about a new cold war developing.

"Michael Feola diagnoses the dangers the racist "Great Replacement" narrative poses as it shapes the far-right imagination, expands through civil society, and deforms political culture. Showing how it has motivated a variety of dangerous political projects in pursuit of illiberal, antidemocratic futures, The Rage of Replacement makes clear that replacement theory poses a dire threat to democracy and safety"--

Assesses the broad impact of China's influential leader The Xi Jinping Effect explores the relationship between the People's Republic of China's current "paramount leader"?arguably the most powerful figure since Mao Zedong (1893?1976)?and multiple areas of political and social transformation. It illuminates not just policy arenas in which his leadership of China has had an outsized impact but also areas where his initiatives have faltered due to unintended consequences, international pushback, or the divergence of local priorities from those of the central government. Collectively, the book's chapters document the ways in which Xi's neo-totalitarianism has dismantled Reform Era legacies, while reconfiguring governance and rewiring China's global connections. Contributions by anthropologists, historians, sociologists, and political scientists consider such issues as Xi's anticorruption campaign and obsession with ideological governance, state surveillance, the status of ethnic minorities and migrants, income inequality, and China's relations with Taiwan and Southeast Asia.Open access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295752822

A little-known story of mutiny and murder illustrating the centrality of smuggling and slavery in early American societyOn the night of June 1, 1743, terror struck the schooner Rising Sun. After completing a routine smuggling voyage where the crew sold enslaved Africans in exchange for chocolate, sugar, and coffee in the Dutch colony of Suriname, the ship traveled eastward along the South American coast. Believing there was an opportunity to steal the lucrative cargo and make a new life for themselves, three sailors snuck below deck, murdered four people, and seized control of the vessel.Mutiny on the Rising Sun recounts the origins, events, and eventual fate of the Rising Sun¿s final smuggling voyage in vivid detail. Starting from that horrible night in June 1743, it narrates a deeply human history of smuggling, providing an incredible story of those caught in the webs spun by illicit commerce. The case generated a rich documentary record that illuminates an international chocolate smuggling ring, the lives of the crew and mutineers, and the harrowing experience of the enslaved people trafficked by the Rising Sun. Smuggling stood at the center of the lives of everyone involved with the business of the schooner. Larger forces, such as imperial trade restrictions, created the conditions for smuggling, but individual actors, often driven by raw ambition and with little regard for the consequences of their actions, designed, refined, and perpetuated this illicit commerce. At once startling and captivating, Mutiny on the Rising Sun shows how illegal trade created demand for exotic products like chocolate, and how slavery and smuggling were integral to the development of American capitalism.

Meltdown Expected tells the story of how, both domestically and internationally, 1978 and 1979 saw a series of catastrophes that shook America’s confidence and hurtled the nation into the final phase of the Cold War. Covering everything from the Three Mile Island disaster to the Iran hostage crisis, it is a vivid portrait of a tumultuous time.

"Originally designed as an educational supplement for the renowned Stanford courses Computer Science 106A and 106B, Bit by Bit is a comic-style resource that uses fractal grids, custom-drawn characters, and fun graphics as a visually immersive introduction to the key concepts of beginner coding, learning pedagogy, education, and visual thinking. Bit by Bit takes readers on a journey that encompasses the full scope of both courses; beginning with the chief elements and fundamentals of programming such as functions, variables, and integers; carrying readers through the basics of Python and C++ into the conceptual world of efficiency and recursion; and walking them through collections of linked data structures. Throughout each section, course and Stanford alum Ecy Femi King is there to guide, cajole, and assist, simultaneously providing useful tips to encourage maximum knowledge absorption and engaging commentary for readers at every level. In short, this book is more than just a cohesive "study buddy" for introductory Stanford courses. Rather, it delivers a far-reaching guide of both pedagogical interest and practical use to students, educators, and researchers worldwide"--

" A thorough analysis of the right-wing interests contributing to the downfall of American democracy. The war on American democracy is at a fever pitch. Such a corrosive state of affairs did not arise spontaneously up from the people but instead was pushed, top-down, by six private sector special interest groups--big business, the House Freedom Caucus, the Federalist Society, Fox News, white evangelicals, and armed militias. In American Apocalypse Rena Steinzor argues that these groups are nothing more than well-financed armies fighting a battle of attrition against the national government, with power, money, and fame as their central motivations. The book begins at the end of Lyndon Johnson's presidency, when the modern regulatory state was born. Agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration ensured that everything from our air to our medicine was safe. But efforts to thwart this "big government" agenda began swiftly, albeit in the shadows. Business leaders built a multi-billion dollar presence in the Capitol, and the rest of the six interest groups soon followed. While the groups do not coordinate their attacks, and sometimes their short-term goals even conflict, their priorities fall within a surprisingly tight bullseye: the size and power of the administrative state. In the near-term, their campaigns will bring the crucial functions of government to a halt, which will lead to immediate suffering by the working classes, and a rapid deterioration of race relations. Over the long-term, as the prevalence of global pandemics and climate crises increase, an incapacitated national government will usher in unimaginable harm. This book is the first to conceptualize these groups together, as one deconstructive and awe-inspiring force. Steinzor delves into each of their histories, mapping the strategies, tactics, and characteristics that make them so powerful. She offers the most comprehensive story available about the downfall of American democracy, reminding us that only by recognizing what we are up against can we hope to bring about change"--