Art: Art and Gender in the Spanish Empire, Delirious New Orleans, & Silk Fabrics in Italian and Northern Paintings

Creating the Cult of St. Joseph: Art and Gender in the Spanish Empire (BOOK): by Charlene Villasenor Black

Creating the Cult of Saint Joseph is a refreshing and stimulating contribution to the fields of Spanish and Latin American art history and cultural studies. Villaseñor's combination of colonial and gender theories with art-historical analysis is sure to yield interesting results in future studies of religious art in the Spanish Empire. Her bibliography is an impressive collection of archival material, primary religious texts, and wide-ranging secondary sources; it promises to become an indispensable research tool for students of the period.—Marta Bustillo, CAA Reviews

Among this book's strengths are its engaging prose, impressive corpus of visual images, and emphasis on the connection between St. Joseph's cult and societal and religious ideals in the early modern Hispanic world. . . . This book offers fresh insight into the dissemination and popularity of the cult of St. Joseph in early modern Spain and colonial Mexico.—Joseph F. Chorpenning, Sixteenth Century Journal

In detail and with an abundance of sources, both graphic and literary, this book follows the major stages of growth in Josephine piety. . . . This book shows the need to study religious art not only on its own aesthetic terms but also as a key participant in and articulator of great (often too great) social, cultural, and religious themes in a given time and place.—Reverend Alvaro Silva, Religion and the Arts

Delirious New Orleans: Manifesto for an Extraordinary American City (BOOK): by Stephen Verderber

"Delirious New Orleans makes the argument that this collection of vernacular architecture serves as cultural touchstones, and that its presence is a necessary component to this great American city. " Kevin Alter, School of Architecture, University of Texas at Austin "As well as providing a superb record of New Orleans's endangered urban fabric, Delirious New Orleans is also a meditation on "placemaking", something he feels modern architects and town planners have ignored...Verderber's evocative, even loving, descriptions of these structures and artefacts and his striking images create a memorable celebration of the built environment of New Orleans and reflect a deep understanding of place. He hopes his study is not a eulogy but a blueprint for a soon-to-be-reborn city...Whether it continues to fulfil this role in the future will depend on whether the authorities listen to the communities they are supposed to represent and to "preservation warriors" such as Verderber; and whether placemaking triumphs over placelessness."—P.D. Smith, Times Literary Supplement

Merchants, Princes and Painters: Silk Fabrics in Italian and Northern Paintings, 1300-1550 (BOOK): by Lisa Monnas

Covering a period that witnessed the flowering of the Renaissance and the major expansion of the Italian silk industry, this volume examines the Italian silk fabrics depicted in paintings from Italy, England and the Netherlands over the course of 250 years. Lisa Monnas offers a masterly evaluation of these paintings as source material for classifying surviving textiles, giving particular attention to the identification of historic textile types and their weave structure.

Monnas examines a wide range of subjects, including silk as a marker of social status, the material possessions of artists and their ownership of textiles as props, the involvement of painters in silk design, and the repetition and transfer of patterns. She considers the evidence of paintings not only for the veracity with which the silks are depicted but also for their value as a historic source concerning the use of fabrics.

Film: The Last Samurai, Tom Cruise

DVD: In Japan, Civil War veteran Captain Nathan Algren trains the Emperor's troops to use modern weapons as they prepare to defeat the last of the country's samurais. But Algren's passion is swayed when he is captured by the samurai and learns about their traditions and code of honor.

Philosophy & Religion: Shia-Sunni the Story of the Split in Islam, Riddle of Influence, & Ecotherapy

After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split in Islam (BOOK): by Lesley Hazleton

Narrative history at its most compelling, After the Prophet relates the dramatic tragic story at the heart of the ongoing rivalry between Shia and Sunni Islam.

Even as Muhammad lay dying, the battle over his successor had begun. Pitting the family of his favorite wife, the controversial Aisha, against supporters of his son-in-law, the philosopher-warrior Ali, the struggle would reach its breaking point fifty years later in Iraq, when soldiers of the first Sunni dynasty massacred seventy-two warriors led by Muhammad's grandson Hussein at Karbala. Hussein's agonizing ordeal at Karbala was soon to become the Passion story at the core of Shia Islam.

Hazleton's vivid, gripping prose provides extraordinary insight into the origins of the world's most volatile blend of politics and religion. Balancing past and present, she shows how these seventh-century events are as alive in Middle Eastern hearts and minds today as though they had just happened, shaping modern headlines from Iran's Islamic Revolution to the civil war in Iraq.

Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of Influence (BOOK): edited by Christine Daigle and Jacob Golomb

"This collection of essays is a remarkable achievement. It allows readers access to the exciting domain of existential philosophy, fiction, autobiography, and more." –Shannon M. Mussett, Utah Valley University

Bettelheim: Living and Dying (BOOK): by David James Fisher

"... A historical gold mine for research into the history of psychoanalysis. ... This collections of essays is valuable both for Fisher's interpretative insights and the publication of several primary documents in the history of European and North American psychoanalysis."–Journal of the History of the Behavioural Sciences, Vol. 45 (s), Spring 2009

"An important and engaging book ... provides rich and intriguing perspectives on this extraordinary and complicated man, including personal accounts by the author who served as confidante to Bettelheim in the years just prior to Bettelheim's suicide. ... this fine books, overall, is a balanced portrait, written with care, style, and thoughtfulness, about a man whose contributions continue to await the widespread recognition they are due."–Clinical Social Work 37 (2009)

Conflict and Creativity at Work: Human Roots of Corporate Life (BOOK): by Albert Low

This book Contributes to the tide of activism that is calling for higher ethical standards and corporate social responsibility within the corporate world. It offers a new way to look at a company, work, a product and company organization. To compete in the West we must revise the present antiquated corporate philosophy that asserts that the interests of the stockholder are the only interests that the corporation can legally serve and adopt policies that promote corporate social responsibility.

Ecotherapy: Healing with Nature in Mind (BOOK): edited by Linda Buzzell and Craig Chalquist foreword by David W. Orr

In the 14 years since Sierra Club Books published Theodore Roszak, Mary E. Gomes, and Allen D. Kanner’s groundbreaking anthology, Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind, the editors of this new volume have often been asked: Where can I find out more about the psyche-world connection? How can I do hands-on work in this area? Ecotherapy was compiled to answer these and other urgent questions.

Ecotherapy, or applied ecopsychology, encompasses a broad range of nature-based methods of psychological healing, grounded in the crucial fact that people are inseparable from the rest of nature and nurtured by healthy interaction with the Earth. Leaders in the field, including Robert Greenway, and Mary Watkins, contribute essays that take into account the latest scientific understandings and the deepest indigenous wisdom. Other key thinkers, from Bill McKibben to Richard Louv to Joanna Macy, explore the links among ecotherapy, spiritual development, and restoring community.

As mental-health professionals find themselves challenged to provide hard evidence that their practices actually work, and as costs for traditional modes of psychotherapy rise rapidly out of sight, this book offers practitioners and interested lay readers alike a spectrum of safe, effective alternative approaches backed by a growing body of research.

Essentials of Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Assessment (BOOK): by Naomi L. Quenk

From the Author: This is the only book available (other than the 1998 MBTI Manual) that focuses exclusively on Form M, the new standard form of the MBTI. It is an excellent resource for people who want to increase their comfort and skill in using the MBTI with clients. It has detailed guidelines for introducing and explaining each dichotomy, including questions to ask that will help people identify their preferences. What is most distinctive about the book, however, is that it provides comprehensive descriptions of clients and therapists of different types and how type influences the counseling process. Included are: what brings different types to counseling, what approaches they prefer, and what they expect to achieve from therapy. Similar information is covered for counselors regarding their preferred therapy styles and the kinds of client with whom they most enjoy working. The assets and pitfalls that are likely to occur for different client-therapist combinations are also described.

Political Science: Government Debt, Ethics & International Affairs, and the Problem of Political Marketing

Democracy's Debt: The Historical Tensions Between Economic and Political Liberty (BOOK): by M. Lane Bruner

It is an undeniable fact that economic circumstances can directly impact political affairs, that wealth is easily translated into political influence, and that political movements and constitutional arrangements can directly influence economic environments. There is no consensus, however, on how to best manage the tensions between the production and maintenance of wealth and the just and responsible exercise of political power.

In an in-depth analysis of these historic tensions, Professor of Communication M. Lane Bruner surveys the history of argumentation related to wealth and statecraft, and, more important, the actual economic and political practices in republican polities of the past to compare arguments to policies. The overriding goal of the study is to analyze which forms of governance have provided the most useful guides for the reform of contemporary institutions in charge of global governance.

Ethics & International Affairs: A Reader (BOOK): edited by Joel H. Rosenthal, Christian Barry

The third edition of "Ethics & International Affairs" provides a fresh selection of classroom resources, ideal for courses in international relations, ethics, foreign policy, and related fields. Published with the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, this collection contains some of the best contemporary scholarship on international ethics, written by a group of distinguished political scientists, political theorists, philosophers, applied ethicists, and economic development specialists. Each contributor explores how moral theory can inform policy choices regarding topics such as war and intervention, international organizations, human rights, and global economic justice. This book provides an entry point into these key debates and offers a platform for further discussion. It was published in cooperation with the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs.

Innovations in Human Resource Management: Getting the Public's Work Done in the 21st Century (BOOK): edited by Hannah S. Sistare, Myra Howze Shiplett… etc

Human resource management is experiencing profound change, new challenges, exciting accomplishments, and much uncertainty. The public service has moved away from the old days of 'personnel management' concerned mostly with processing 'personal action' paperwork, to a system where public employees are managed as human capital to get the work of the government done more effectively and efficiently. This volume brings together the latest thinking on human resource management in the public service, presented by distinguished thought leaders in the field. While it focuses primarily on federal government policies and practices, the principles, conclusions, and recommendations translate readily to state and local government, and to the private sector as well.

Media, Culture and Society in Putin's Russia (BOOK): edited by Stephen White

An international collection of papers focused on media, culture and society in post-communist Russia. Contributors deploy a wealth of primary data in examining the kinds of issues that are central to our understanding of the kind of system that has been established in the world’s largest country after a period of far-reaching change.

Rightward Bound: Making America Conservative in the 1970s (BOOK): edited by Bruce J. Schulman & Julian E. Zelizer

Rightward Bound brilliantly demonstrates how American conservatism emerged as a full-blown movement in the 1970s and, in the process, created the United States of the twenty-first century. It is a wonderful book!—Laura Kalman, University of California, Santa Barbara

A new generation of American historians demonstrates that the decade of the 1970s proved the crucial seed time for the rise of modern American conservatism. There was nothing inevitable about the nation's march to the right, which makes this book all the more fascinating and necessary for those who want to understand twenty-first century America.—Nelson Lichtenstein, author of Wal-Mart: The Face of Twenty-First-Century America

Rightward Bound is the most comprehensive and incisive history to date of the conservative mobilization that surged through and transformed the United States in the 1970s. It will prove essential reading for anyone seeking to understand conservative ideologies, institutions, and organizing strategies as well as the complexities of politics and culture in late twentieth-century America.—Gary Gerstle, Vanderbilt University

The Economics of Immigration: Theory and Policy (BOOK): by Orn B. Bodvarsson & Hendrik Van den Berg

Written as a both a reference for researchers and as a textbook on the economics of immigration. It is aimed at two audiences: (1) researchers who are interested in learning more about how economists approach the study of human migration flows; and (2) graduate students taking a course on migration or a labor economics course where immigration is one of the subfields studied. The book covers the economic theory of immigration, which explains why people move across borders and details the consequences of such movements for the source and destination economies. The book also describes immigration policy, providing both a history of immigration policy in a variety of countries and using the economic theory of immigration to explain the determinants and consequences of the policies. The timing of this book coincides with the emergence of immigration as a major political and economic issue in the USA, Japan Europe and many developing countries.

The Problem of Political Marketing (BOOK): by Heather Savigny

Based upon analysis of existing theoretical literature and current political practice this book addresses both the use of marketing and its impact (real and potential) upon democracy by answering the following:

* Why have politicians adopted political marketing? What are the contextual factors that have led to this?
* How does the political marketing literature model this activity?
* What are the underlying assumptions of these models?
* How does political marketing affect democracy?
* How is political marketing best conceptualized and understood in light of this critical analysis?