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Subtle Insights Concerning Knowledge and Practice

Sa'd ibn Mansur Ibn Kammuna al-Baghdadi

Written in the mid-thirteenth century for the newly appointed governor of Isfahan, this compact treatise and philosophical guidebook includes a wide-ranging and accessible set of essays on ethics, ... More

Written in the mid-thirteenth century for the newly appointed governor of Isfahan, this compact treatise and philosophical guidebook includes a wide-ranging and accessible set of essays on ethics, psychology, political philosophy, and the unity of God. Ibn Kammūna, a Jewish scholar writing in Baghdad during a time of Mongol occupation, was a controversial figure whose writings sometimes incited riots. He argued, among other things, the commonality of all monotheisms, both prophetic and philosophical. Here, for the first time in English, is a surprisingly modern work on the unity of all monotheistic regimes from a key medieval philosopher.Less

Becoming Diaspora Jews: Behind the Story of Elephantine

Karel van der Toorn

This book tells the story of the earliest Jewish diaspora in Egypt in a way it has never been told before. In the fifth century BCE there was a Jewish community on Elephantine Island. Why they spoke ... More

This book tells the story of the earliest Jewish diaspora in Egypt in a way it has never been told before. In the fifth century BCE there was a Jewish community on Elephantine Island. Why they spoke Aramaic, venerated Aramean gods besides Yaho, and identified as Arameans is a mystery, but a previously little explored papyrus from Egypt sheds new light on their history. The papyrus shows that the ancestors of the Elephantine Jews came originally from Samaria. Due to political circumstances, they left Israel and lived for a century in an Aramean environment. Around 600 BCE, they moved to Egypt. These migrants to Egypt did not claim a Jewish identity when they arrived, but after the destruction of their temple on the island they chose to deploy their Jewish identity to raise sympathy for their cause. Their story—a typical diaspora tale—is not about remaining Jews in the diaspora, but rather about becoming Jews through the diaspora.Less

People and the Land through Time: Linking Ecology and History, Second Edition

Emily W. B. Russell Southgate

This extensive revision of the first edition of People and the Land Through Time incorporates research over the last two decades to bring the field of historical ecology from an ecological ... More

This extensive revision of the first edition of People and the Land Through Time incorporates research over the last two decades to bring the field of historical ecology from an ecological perspective up to date. It emphasizes the use of new sources of data and interdisciplinary data analysis to interpret ecological processes in the past. It describes a diversity of past ecosystems, and how they affect current ecosystem structure and function as well as offering insight into current structure and process, and assisting in predicting the future. This historical perspective highlights the varied and complex roles of indigenous people in historic ecosystems and as well as the importance of past and present climatic fluctuations. The book begins with an introduction to the importance of history for ecological studies, and then has three chapters which explain methods and approaches to reconstructing the past, using both traditional and novel sources of data and analysis. The following five chapters discuss ways people have influenced natural systems, starting with the most primitive, manipulating fire, and proceeding through altering species ranges, hunting and gathering, agriculture and finally structuring landscapes through land surveys, trade and urbanization. Two chapters then deal with diversity, extinction and sustainability in a changing world. The final chapter integrates the rest of the book especially in terms of the importance of history in basic ecological studies, global change and understanding conservation. Throughout, the emphasis is on the potential for evidence-based research in historical ecology, and the new frontiers in this exciting field.Less

Congress: The First Branch

Benjamin Ginsberg and Kathryn Wagner Hill

This accessible overview of the US Congress's past and present, introduces students to the country's most democratic institution. The book surveys Congressional elections, the internal structure of ... More

This accessible overview of the US Congress's past and present, introduces students to the country's most democratic institution. The book surveys Congressional elections, the internal structure of Congress, the legislative process, Congress and the president, and Congress and the courts. It offers a fresh approach to the First Branch grounded in a historical, positive frame. The book argues that many of the characteristics of Congress with which Americans are so impatient stem directly from the institution's democratic nature. It is slow to act, cumbersome in its procedures, and contentious in its discussions precisely because it is a democratic decision-making body. But complaints are also that it is seen as polarized and corrupt, serving lobbyists, special interests, and campaign contributors rather than the American people. The book concludes by considering whether these charges amount to a serious indictment of Congress, its members, and its procedures.Less

Why the Electoral College Is Bad for America: Third Edition

George C. Edwards

This is the third edition of the definitive book on the unique system by which Americans choose a presidents, and why that system should be changed. It is a critique of the U.S. electoral college and ... More

This is the third edition of the definitive book on the unique system by which Americans choose a presidents, and why that system should be changed. It is a critique of the U.S. electoral college and includes a new chapter focusing on the 2016 election. The book examines the function of the electoral college during the 2016 presidential elections and argues that the electoral college did not work as it should have. The book claims that the electoral college distorted the electoral process and gave the candidates strong incentives to ignore most of the country. It did not guarantee victory to the candidate receiving the most votes, nor ensure national harmony, nor provide the winner a broad coalition and a mandate to govern. The book asserts that there is a need to focus directly and systematically on the core questions surrounding the electoral college and assess whether its role in American democracy is justified.Less

How the Gospels Became History: Jesus and Mediterranean Myths

M. D Litwa

The purpose of this book is to show why and how (what later became) the four canonical gospels take on a historical cast, a history-like “feel” that remains vitally important for many Christians ... More

The purpose of this book is to show why and how (what later became) the four canonical gospels take on a historical cast, a history-like “feel” that remains vitally important for many Christians today. This aim is worked out by in-depth comparisons with other Greco-Roman stories that have been made to seem like history (mythic historiography). Instead of using these comparisons to justify genetic links between texts, Litwa uses them to show how the evangelists dynamically interacted with Greco-Roman literary culture, felt the pressures of its structures of plausibility, and responded by using well-known historiographical tropes. These include the mention of famous rulers and kings, geographical notices, the introduction of eyewitnesses, vivid presentation, alternative reports, staged skepticism, and so on. This study is the most sustained and thorough comparison of the gospels and Greco-Roman mythology (not just Homer and Euripides) of the past fifty years. Its innovation is to show that the gospels were not perceived as myths (or mythoi), but as histories (records of actual events).Less

Sparta's First Attic War: The Grand Strategy of Classical Sparta, 478-446 B.C.

Paul A. Rahe

During the Persian Wars, Sparta and Athens worked in tandem to defeat what was, in terms of relative resources and power, the greatest empire in human history. For the decade and a half that ... More

During the Persian Wars, Sparta and Athens worked in tandem to defeat what was, in terms of relative resources and power, the greatest empire in human history. For the decade and a half that followed, they continued their collaboration until a rift opened and an intense, strategic rivalry began. This book examines the grounds for their alliance, the reasons for its eventual collapse, and the first stage in an enduring conflict that would wreak havoc on Greece for six decades. Throughout, the book argues that the alliance between Sparta and Athens and their eventual rivalry were extensions of their domestic policy and that the grand strategy each articulated in the wake of the Persian Wars and the conflict that arose in due course grew out of the opposed material interests and moral imperatives inherent in their different regimes.Less

Divine Bodies: Resurrecting Perfection in the New Testament and Early Christianity

Candida R. Moss

This book is an exploration of what the New Testament has to say about the nature of resurrected bodies. It argues that previous scholarship and tradition has been shaped by Pauline discussions of ... More

This book is an exploration of what the New Testament has to say about the nature of resurrected bodies. It argues that previous scholarship and tradition has been shaped by Pauline discussions of glorious bodies and has failed to appreciate the diverse and disorienting range of opinions about the nature of the resurrected body. Drawing upon previously unexplored evidence in ancient medicine, philosophy, and culture, this book both revisits central texts – such as the resurrection of Jesus – and mines virtually ignored passages in the Gospels to show how the resurrection of the body addresses larger questions about identity and the self.Less

The Temple in Early Christianity: Experiencing the Sacred

Eyal Regev

The first scholarly work to trace the Temple throughout the entire New Testament, this book examines Jewish and Christian attitudes toward the Temple in the first century and provides both Jews and ... More

The first scholarly work to trace the Temple throughout the entire New Testament, this book examines Jewish and Christian attitudes toward the Temple in the first century and provides both Jews and Christians with a better understanding of their respective faiths and how they grow out of this ancient institution. The centrality of the writing reveals the authors' negotiations with the institutional and symbolic center of Judaism as they worked to form their own religion.Less

On Political Obligation

Judith N. Shklar

Samantha Ashenden and Andreas Hess (eds)

The lectures that comprise this book are a reminder of the legacy and a demonstration of the promise of a critical assessment and evaluation of political obligation. Shklar shows that the crucial ... More

The lectures that comprise this book are a reminder of the legacy and a demonstration of the promise of a critical assessment and evaluation of political obligation. Shklar shows that the crucial questions that any political activist, any reflective citizen, and any existing or aspiring polity should raise are as pertinent today as they were in the past, despite their function and nature having changed over time. The book discusses the practical choices, dilemmas, compromises, risks, and dangers that are the result of the tensions that arise whenever the notions of obligation and loyalty are foregrounded, and when what it means to be a citizen and the aims of a given polity are in conflict. What can I/we do in such a situation? How should I/we act? Shklar takes us through several historical constellations and scenarios in which such questions have arisen and been answered—for better or for worse.Less