Bøger udgivet af Globe Pequot Press

Imagine standing in a child's room at your mid-point of life, staring into a mirror of truth, and realizing that the child you last saw in that looking glass now has thinning hair, bulging love handles, and an aching back. You may be halfway through life, but are you half-through living? Robin T.W. Yuan, M.D., attacks mid-life and its fears with vigor, humor, and truth in a book of insightful and entertaining vignettes about foggy memory, failing vision, fading dreams, and a sagging physique: a gentle, animal-loving boy becomes a middle-aged ant killer; a once avid and aggressive baseball player turns into a recreational softballer cautious about sliding into home plate; an aging uncle longs to recapture lost innocence through the eyes of his two-year-old nephew.

A thematic essay following the course of Western history in terms of cultural inheritance and legacy from Periclean Athens through the Dark Ages and Renaissance, into the beginning of what is now the third millennium.

Lader spotlights the struggle for abortion rights, discusses the brutal clinic murders in Pensacola and Boston, and argues that RU 486 could markedly reduce clinical abortions by making the termination of a pregnancy a 'private matter'.

Christine Todd Whitman came from nowhere in 1993 to defeat Democrat Jim Florio and become the first woman governor of New Jersey. Her meteoric rise to power has left many people wondering who she is, where she came from, and what motivates her. This engrossing political biography traces her background of old money tempered with social conscience and details its impact on her difficult but successful journey to the New Jersey governor's mansion...and perhaps beyond. Though an aristocrat from a moderate Republican family, Christie Whitman waged a grass-roots campaign to cut the heavy burden of New Jersey's taxes. At first, a skeptical public, reacting negatively to her plan, sent her public-opinion rating so low that even her own supporters felt she had lost the race for the governorship. But in the final, dramatic days of the campaign for the statehouse, Whitman proved to be the campaign's strongest asset. Undaunted by the polls, she donned a pair of blue jeans and took her campaign directly to New Jersey voters in farmers' markets, shopping centers, and businesses. She convinced people of her sincerity, dispelled the "out-to-lunch" image Democrats had painted of her, and fought on to capture one of the most powerful governorships in the nation. Taking office in January 1994, she surprised everyone by making good on her promise to cut income taxes for most New Jersey residents by 30 percent. As a result, she stands as a major player in national Republican politics with pundits speculating on her role in upcoming presidential elections. A voice of caution to the conservative wing of the party, she has shied away from dramatic cuts in government and takes a moderate position on socialissues. Author Sandy McClure traces Whitman's roots back to the days when she was a young tomboy plotting pranks at her parents' rural estate in northwestern New Jersey. She provides an inside look at Whitman's family heritage: the impact of her politically active grandparents, her role as the daughter of Republican party movers and shakers, her early years at the Republican National Committee, her marriage to the grandson of a New York governor, and her devotion to her role as a mother. The story includes the controversies of Whitman's early years in local and state politics and tells how her near defeat of U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley, the state's most popular politician, launched her bid for the statehouse.

In this fascinating collection of his unique tales, Steve Allen, America's premier humorist and one of the true Renaissance men of our time, reveals the breadth of his writing talents as he weaves a compelling array of stories about fields as diverse as comedy, religion, politics, racial prejudice, homosexuality, sex, love, murder, and - well, the human predicament generally, which he perceives as essentially tragic. Some of his stories are chuckle-aloud funny, others are emotionally sensitive or shocking and disturbing.

THE THEATRE OF BLACK AMERICANS

THE STANISLAVSKY TECHNIQUE: RUSSIA

This irreverent, satirical look at the never-ending flying saucer controversy lampoons the full spectrum of the UFO "invasion," from the ancient astronaut theories to the evolution of today's alien abduction "epidemic." From the first chapter, "Wheelbarrows of the Gods," readers see how a close look at prehistoric myths from around the world reveal common threads in each account. McHugh relates how Noah and his sons inadvertently caused aliens to flood the Earth for forty days and nights; how extraterrestrials gave Nostradamus his power, and how they influenced the success of the 1969 New York Mets. He traces the evolution of the alien abduction epidemic and offers a tongue-in-cheek quiz to determine if you have been abducted without realizing it.

Most people think they know what's in the Bible, or at least what kind of material it contains. Most of them are wrong: they are familiar only with a few church-approved texts, and are astounded not just at how awful God is in the Old Testament, but also at how less than perfect his son is in the New. As David Voas demonstrates in The Bad News Bible: The New Testament, Jesus fails to live up to his Good Shepherd reputation, while God the Father, who has already spoiled his image in the Old Testament, merely stays aloof. The promise of a heavenly afterlife comes from Paul, as does the rule that men have authority over women. Judgment Day is expected to come at any moment, and the New Testament writers seem far more eager to burn sinners than to forgive them.

In this fascinating volume, scientist and teacher James S. Perlman shows us that science is not a dry, mechanistic process but a dynamic interplay between human beings and their surroundings, embodying their attempts to understand, anticipate, and cope with natural events. The interactive nature of science requires the use of our minds, imaginations, and sense-extending apparatus, such as telescopes and microscopes. We are reminded that scientists do not merely observe; they form ideas and images which they then project back upon nature to explain what they see. And these ideas and images are themselves influenced by the limitations of the observer as well as by prevailing social, intellectual, and technological conditions. In Science without Limits, Dr. Perlman takes us on an extraordinary voyage through history as he demonstrates the ways in which science developed as a distinctly human and evolving enterprise from early man to the present. On our journey Perlman introduces us to the great figures of Western science and how their discoveries modified existing ways of viewing the world.

Recognize the con artist before you get taken! Schulte exposes dozens of telephone, mail, and computer-based scams, explaining how they work and how you can avoid becoming their next victim.

Long a taboo subject in Soviet historiography, the Stalinist policy toward Jews is thoroughly examined in this revealing study by one of Russia's leading historians. Sifting through thousands of recently declassified documents in the formerly secret archives of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the KGB, Gennadi Kostyrchenko uncovers irrefutable evidence of Stalin's intentionally anti-Semitic policy. The documents describe the suppression of all free manifestations of Jewish life, forced assimilation, and the purging of Jews from most official positions. Soviet Jews fought valiantly against fascism in World War II, yet they discovered after the war that an even greater threat confronted them at home from their national leader. Kostyrchenko documents the systematic elimination of Jews from journalism, the arts, humanities, and industry. He concludes by examining hitherto secret records of the infamous "doctors' plot" launched by Stalin just prior to his death. Out of the Red Shadows is a devastating expose of state-sponsored anti-Semitism comparable in its virulence to the Nazi reign of terror.

To most of us, insurance represents a secure investment that provides affordable, dependable protection. Author Kenneth D. Myers believes that this lucrative industry is a business going bad. In False Security, Myers chronicles the abuses of the insurance industry, exposing the inside story of bad investments, unscrupulous or naive executives, bilked clients, collapsed companies, and staggering financial losses. What emerges from this expose is an alarming picture of incompetence, greed, and corruption. Myers reveals how experienced insurance executives jeopardized their companies by trying to price-gouge the competition out of business, only to go under themselves. He looks at hostile takeovers, the extravagant use of ill-gotten profits, the many income-tax "safe havens", and the squandering of millions of dollars by executives who failed at one company after another and eventually fled the country. The result of thousands of hours of investigation and many interviews, False Security outlines never-before-reported details of greed and corruption gathered from state and federal prosecutors, industry officials, and the criminals themselves. Some of the perpetrators were also involved in the savings-and-loan scandal and today are in prison, but others are free, still pursuing questionable enterprises.

Liberalism in religion grew strong in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, then collapsed. Why? Duncan Howlett argues that a fatal flaw at the heart of the movement undercut its progress. The Liberals were unwilling or unable to hold to their own central principle: the need to maintain a free and open mind, heart, and spirit in religion. In the end Liberalism always fell back on the basic traditions and dogmas of the organized religions. Alert minds drawn to Liberalism by the prospect of complete freedom of thought in religion felt betrayed, and many abandoned the movement. Howlett summons us to a new and self-consistent Liberalism, one that test to the uttermost the validity of every belief we hold. The latter half of the book spells out the positive beliefs of a self-consistent Liberalism and the demands those beliefs lay upon us.

This important new book is a guide to understanding cancer and its causes. Dr. Elizabeth Whelan, a nationally known consumer health advocate, explains in layperson's terms what the average consumer can do to reduce the risks of contracting this most feared of diseases. For decades, Americans have assumed that cancer strikes in wholly unpredictable ways and that it is simply a matter of fate that one person is afflicted with the disease while another is not. Yet Whelan points to research showing that when it comes to cancer risks, we largely determine our own fates. Science has made great strides in recent years toward understanding the causes of this complex illness. As a result Whelan believes that we now have the knowledge to significantly reduce the incidence of cancer nationwide. But how does the average person interpret the confusing array of warnings and suspicions regarding cancer risks, which are reported almost daily in the news media? Whelan goes to great lengths to separate the unproven hypothetical causes of cancer from reliable scientific findings. Above all, tobacco in all its forms and uses is the main culprit: estimates now attribute some 40 percent of cancer incidence to exposure to tobacco. Whelan also discusses other contributing factors such as diet, alcohol, radioactivity, sunlight, drugs, sexual behavior, environmental factors, and occupational risks. The Complete Guide to Preventing Cancer presents the most recent state-of-the-art information on cancer risk and prevention in nontechnical language and a user-friendly format.

This important book addresses the vast array of treatments and philosophies that postulate supernatural phenomena as the key to health and disease. Jack Raso combines his own personal experience with "alternative" healthcare, in-depth research on the wide variety of methodologies, and an educational background in health science and nutrition to simplify the often confusing field of "alternative" healing techniques. Raso begins with an account of his own personal odyssey from believer to skeptic, demonstrating how easily a person raised in a devoutly religious tradition accepts supernatural explanations and mystical approaches to physical ailments. Raso examines the philosophic underpinnings of "alternative" medicine as well as such techniques as hands-on healing, Qigong, and faith healing. He shows that, whatever the specific philosophy, the common denominator is a rejection of the scientific approach of modern medicine in favor of a belief in paranormal forces that influence the well-being of mind and body. The final section is a firsthand account of Raso's many revealing visits to various "alternative" medical practitioners. The book concludes with an encyclopedic glossary of "alternative" healthcare terminology that explains to the uninitiated the formidable jargon so often used by proponents of "alternative" treatments.

In September 1993 a unique dialogue took place. Humanists from around the country gathered in Salt Lake City, Utah, to exchange ideas with Mormons on the topics of feminism, freedom of conscience, academic freedom in Mormon universities, and clashes between "dissident intellectuals" and Mormon church authorities. Of particular concern in the discussion was the recent excommunication of members of the Mormon church and the departure of two professors from Brigham Young University for allegedly expressing ideas at variance with church teachings. Ironically, despite such conflicts, Mormons officially and individually endorse freedom of conscience; the dignity of the human right to exercise free agency is a principle rooted in the Mormon as well as the humanist tradition. On this basis for mutual understanding, the dialogue between the two diverse cultures of Mormonism and humanism proceeded. George D. Smith has collected twelve essays, all but one of which were presented at the Utah conference, for this thought-provoking volume. Among the subjects covered are ecclesiastical abuse and the excommunicated "September Six", academic freedom at Brigham Young University, the politics of exclusivity, and free inquiry in a religious context. Paul Kurtz, editor of Free Inquiry, introduces the discussion with an overview of "Humanism and the Idea of Freedom". The volume concludes with a 1939 essay by noted American journalist Walter Lippmann entitled "The Indispensable Opposition".

Imprisoned paraphiliac Ronald Keyes reveals the factors that contributed to his sadomasochistic tendencies and criminal life. Taunted and beaten into a state of erotic ecstasy by his dominatrix "Connie," Keyes became utterly subservient to her wishes. In an act of ultimate capitulation, he accommodated Connie's need to achieve orgasm through crime. Caught and imprisoned, Keyes sought to understand the nature of his sexual drives The result is a fascinating look into the mind of a most unusual man: scholar, writer, keen observer of human sexuality, and prisoner.

"The meaning of life"...we question it, ponder it, dispute and fret about it, but at some point each of us finds the need to address this fundamental issue of human existence. Some believe that there is purpose inherent in our nature as human beings and in the vast universe of which we are but a small part. Others hold that the values we strive for and the virtues we seek are revealed to us by a divine creator of the cosmos in whose plan we figure as integral components. Still others say that our lives have no intrinsic meaning beyond that which we give them. With such competing views, how are we to sort out for ourselves this special human concern? In Does Life Have a Meaning? well-known philosopher and scholar Milton Munitz suggests that we must first set aside our comfortable assumptions and try to gain an accurate understanding of this powerful concept known as "the meaning of life". The power of its impact on our lives requires that we first consider the basic character of the world around us. We can approach this intellectual and spiritual need by trying to map out the major dimensions of existence in the hope of sorting out what constitutes the content of our world. Equipped with such an overview, we should be in a better position to consider the locus, opportunities, and limits for finding various types and sources of meaning in our individual lives. In pursuit of this goal, Munitz contends that we must recognize a basic distinction between two important dimensions of Reality: (1) the observable universe - the domain of interactive existents (including human existents) open to increasingly refined identification of its varied contents, their intelligibility, and - in verylimited cases - to human control, and (2) Boundless Existence, a wholly unintelligible, transcendent aspect of Reality that should not to be confused with common theistic conceptions of God. Munitz explores the "the meaning of life" on the dimension of the observable universe when the life of any individual human existent is made intelligible in some degree and the extent to which at least some of the meanings embedded in the multiple interactions of a human existent with other existents (human or not) are of a welcome, rewarding character as judged by humanly chosen criteria, rather than by claiming to ground them in some preassigned cosmic or divine source and authority. Conversely, he discusses the prospects for finding meaning in life within the context of Boundless Existence, that vast transcendence devoid of properties and conceptual bounds whether religious, scientific, or philosophic. Does Life Have a Meaning? will tweak many comfortable beliefs about who we are and what, if anything, life has to offer. It will help remove the intellectual clutter from a topic that has occupied our attention for centuries.

In these three classic essays--"The Forgery of the Old Testament", "The Myth of Immortality", and "Lies of Religious Literature"--ex-priest Joseph McCabe exposes the inconsistencies that lie behind the texts of Christianity. With forcefulness, clarity, and often biting humor, McCabe attacks two millennia of Christian tradition using the weapons of science and reason.

Philosopher Robert Ehman looks at the familiar topics of personal identity, morality, sexuality, love, and death from a new perspective: that of the unique, irreplaceable personal value of each individual self as distinguished from the anonymity of our impersonal contemporary world. Ehman defines the authentic self as something more than the locus of spatial-temporal identity, the agent of action, the object of moral duties and respect, or the sum total of personal projects, achievements, social function, and status. What makes the self authentic can be discovered by contrasting who we really are, as irreplaceable individuals with uniquely personal perspectives, with the roles we must play in an essentially technological world, where one individual can easily be substituted for another. But the primary experience through which we encounter the authentic self, according to Ehman, is love; for it is personal love that provides access to the unique value of an individual self. This level of insight into the person is quite distinct from a moral appreciation of the individual, in which we respect another as a free being with rights and duties. It is also to be distinguished from sexual desire, in which we appreciate another for his or her potential for satisfying our own sexual urges, regardless of any value apart from the sexual context. Ehman concludes his study by considering Heidegger's intriguing proposal that it is only through a proper understanding of death that we can achieve authenticity. Through the experience of the death of a loved one and by coming to terms with the reality of our own death, we are afforded new opportunities of understanding the unique, irreplaceable value ofeach personal self.

The success of Steve Allen's How to Be Funny led first to the republication of that book and has now occasioned a companion volume, Make 'em Laugh. This new how-to book about the art of comedy includes an even richer assortment of examples of the author's unique humor. Allen, called by Noel Coward the most talented man in America, laces his formal instruction with hilarious adlibs, written jokes, TV comedy sketches, satires, song parodies, humorous essays, amusing autobiographical reminiscences, one-act plays, witty speeches, and stand-up monologues from his comedy concerts. Allen is probably the most borrowed-from comedian of all time. The perceptive reader will recognize in this book many of the comic ideas that he originated during the golden age of television comedy, ideas that are still influential in the 1990s. If there were a college course in creating and performing comedy, Make 'em Laugh would be the ideal textbook.

Michael Faraday (1791-1867) was one of the world's greatest experimental philosophers and popularizers of science. These six extraordinary lectures on gravitation, cohesion, chemical affinity, heat, magnetism, and electricity were intended for young audiences. Together, they offer the reader a fascinating introduction to some of Faraday's most important work on the correlation between the physical forces of the universe.

Family caregivers must often juggle their duties as parents, spouses, and employees while tending to the daily needs of a loved one who is elderly, chronically ill, or dying. As the rising cost of care forces many more people to respond to the needs of a family member, increasing numbers of primary care providers will become susceptible to anxiety, frustration, guilt, confusion, anger, emotional and physical fatigue, resentment, worry and depression, and other sources of pressure. Soon stress becomes an everyday occurrence that at times seems insurmountable. If those who care for the ill and the infirm are to remain effective, they must confront the reality of stress and their obligation, both to themselves and their loved ones, to take the time to find ways of relieving these pressures. In Taking Time for Me, Katherine L. Karr's insightful observations and suggestions - enhanced by compelling personal accounts of real care providers who are struggling with their own needs while tending to the needs of others - demonstrate that caregivers can overcome their personal conflicts and develop innovative ways of renewing their strength without jeopardizing the well-being of those who depend on them. From exercise regimens and support groups to recognizing the humor in everyday situations, this book can revitalize caregivers for the challenges ahead.