Altri libri che potrebbero interessarti

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  Rocking in the Free World -...

  Nicholas Tochka

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  Progressive and libertarian, anti-Communist and revolutionary, Democratic and Republican, quintessentially American but simultaneously universal. By the late 1980s, rock music had acquired a dizzying array of political labels. These claims about its political significance shared one common thread: that the music could set you free. 
   
   
   
  Rocking in the Free World explains how Americans came to believe they had learned the truth about rock 'n' roll, a truth shaped by the Cold War anxieties of the fifties, the countercultural revolutions (and counter-revolutions) of the sixties and seventies, and the end-of-history triumphalism of the eighties. How did rock 'n' roll become enmeshed with so many different competing ideas about freedom? And what does that story reveal about the promise-and the limits-of rock music as a political force in postwar America?

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  Strange Legends of Sanskrit...

  HENRY ROMANO

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  The Vedic and Sanskrit periods are different in matter, spirit, and form from the earlier periods. Sanskrit literature, which is abundant and well developed, is profane; Vedic literature is primarily religious. However, the Upanishads also contain a moralizing spirit despite their speculative tendencies. 
  The Hindu Vedas are filled with gods’ stories, powers, and epic battles supposedly fought thousands of years ago. Sagas are mythological stories intended to be taken as allegories to learn valuable lessons for life. Hindu myths tell of noble gods fighting evil forces, flying Vimanas machines, and battles with powerful weapons. Can we be sure these are just metaphors? 
  Vimana means “having been measured out” or “traveling,” and they were machines that the gods piloted. This flying craft came in various shapes and sizes and could travel a wide range of speeds and distances, like the chariots found in biblical texts. According to Hindu Sanskrit texts, the Vimana aircraft are flying machines of various degrees of sophistication. 
  In comparison with the Vedic age, religion now prevails significantly differently. Several gods are worshipped in the new period, including Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. Most of the prominent deities of the Veda have become secondary deities, although Indra still holds a prominent position as the chief of a warrior’s heaven. As well as the serpent deities and several classes of demigods and demons, some new gods of lesser ranks have also developed, such as Kubera, goddess of wealth; Ganesh, goddess of learning; Karttikeya, god of war; Shri or Lakshmi, goddess of beauty and fortune; and Durga or Parvati, the terrible spouse of Shiva.

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  First Blood in North Africa -...

  Jon Diamond

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  A pictorial history of America’s first major military campaign in Africa during WWII. In November 1942, eleven months after Pearl Harbor, the U.S. launched Operation Torch, a multipronged attack on French North Africa—a region controlled by Germany through Vichy France. Led by Generals Eisenhower and Patton, it was America’s first major offensive against the Germans.   Through rare wartime images, this book vividly chronicles the initial landings in Morocco and Algeria and the subsequent desert clashes in Tunisia as American forces battled the German Afrika Korps of Erwin Rommel, the famous “Desert Fox.”   

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  Critical Thinking - The Art of...

  Hector Davidson

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  Critical thinking is the disciplined process of actively analyzing, evaluating, and synthesizing information to make reasoned judgments and decisions. It involves a systematic approach to thinking that seeks to uncover underlying assumptions, assess the validity of arguments, and apply logical reasoning to complex problems. 
    
  At its core, critical thinking is about being intellectually autonomous and reflective. It requires individuals to question and scrutinize their own beliefs, the arguments presented by others, and the evidence supporting those arguments. Critical thinkers do not accept information at face value; instead, they engage in a process of inquiry that involves several key components. 
    
  Analysis involves breaking down complex information into its constituent parts to understand its structure and relationships. This includes identifying the main arguments, assessing the relevance and quality of evidence, and understanding the context in which information is presented. 
    
  Evaluation involves assessing the credibility and strength of arguments and evidence. This requires determining whether the arguments are logically sound, whether the evidence is reliable and pertinent, and whether there are any biases or fallacies affecting the argument.

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  Moors of Andalusia The: The...

  Editors Charles River

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  The history of the Spanish Peninsula is closely bound to that of the Moors. The term “Spain” was not in wide use until the region was united by the monarchs of Aragon and Castile, and the Moors called the lands they ruled in the Iberian Peninsula Al-Andalus, traditionally thought to be an Arabic transliteration of Vandal, the Germanic tribe which briefly ruled the region in the early fifth century. The English name Andalusia derives from the Spanish Andalucia, which is still used by Spain to name its southern region. 
  	Not surprisingly, three religions attempting to coexist during medieval times resulted in nearly incessant conflicts, marked by high taxation, disparate societies, rigid cultural controls, and systemic violence. Despite the odds, these three religions managed to live in a state of quasi-acceptance and peace in most of the major cities in the Iberian Peninsula like Cordoba and Toledo, with sporadic warfare occurring on the borders between Al-Andalus and the Christian kingdoms near the Pyrenees Mountains. Muslims, Christians, and Jews would attempt to reorganize their societies several times over the centuries through warfare, always with Jews on the lower rungs and Christians and Muslims fighting it out above them.  
  	Though it’s often forgotten today, the fighting that took place during the Reconquista was not originally driven by religion. Instead, the majority of the battles were fought by ambitious rulers who sought territorial expansion, like many other civilizations during the Middle Ages. In fact, the Reconquista would not gain its unique religious flavor until the 13th century, when the territories that would become Castile and Aragon drummed up religious fervor to achieve its aims and gained papal support from Rome.

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  CIA’s Most Controversial...

  Editors Charles River

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  Though it might be hard to believe, the Americans did not have a covert operations organization when they joined World War II, and like the British, it took them some time to realize it could be a powerful tool. As a result, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was not established until June 13, 1942, six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Nevertheless, during World War II, all the hard work in the United States led to the growth of the OSS into an organization with over 13,000 staff and 40 offices scattered across the world. Its purposes were initially similar to that of Britain’s Special Operations Executive, including espionage, sabotage, and intelligence assessments, but with time and experience, it expanded to include economic, psychological, and guerrilla warfare, as well as counter-intelligence work. And of course, it would all chart a path for the early days of America’s most famous intelligence agency, the CIA.  
  The agency has done some good things, and it has inarguably done some bad things. Naturally, people tend to remember the most controversial operations, from CIA-funded revolutions to the Bay of Pigs and domestic experiments such as the mysterious Project MK-Ultra. Many decisions were made, either by the agency or by those elected to give the agency direction, in the raw emotions of the Cold War, and this also colored many of the decisions. Regardless, well after Allen Dulles’ tenure as the CIA’s director, investigations uncovered the facts that the CIA did not merely operate overseas, but also conducted several operations against American citizens, which Dulles both knew about and approved.  
  This book looks at the operations that continue to fascinate, confuse, and disgust modern society, from the people who managed the operations to the results.

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