Publisher: libreka classics
Complete Works of Plutarch - Volume 3: Essays and Miscellanies by Plutarch libreka classics – These are classics of literary history, reissued and made available to a wide audience. Immerse yourself in well-known and popular titles!
A man who had won the Nobel Peace Prize, who was widely counted one of the greatest UN Secretary Generals, was nearly hounded from office by scandal. Indeed, both Annan and the institution he incarnates were so deeply shaken after the Bush Administration went to war in Iraq in the face of opposition from the Security Council that critics, and even some friends, began asking whether this sixty-year-old experiment in global policing has outlived its usefulness. Do its failures arise from its own structure and culture, or from a clash with an American administration determined to go its own way in defiance of world opinion? James Traub, a New York Times Magazine contributor who has spent years writing about the UN and about foreign affairs, delves into these questions as no one else has done before. Traub enjoyed unprecedented access to Annan and his top aides throughout much of this traumatic period. He describes the despair over the Oil-for-Food scandal, the deep divide between those who wished to accommodate American critics and those who wished to confront them, the failed attempt to goad the Security Council to act decisively against state-sponsored ethnic cleansing in Sudan. And he recounts Annan's effort to respond to criticism with sweeping reform—an effort which ultimately shattered on the resistance of U.S. Ambassador John Bolton.In The Best Intentions, Traub recounts the dramatically entwined history of Kofi Annan and the UN from 1992 to the present. In Annan he sees a conscientious idealist given too little credit for advancing causes like humanitarian intervention and an honest broker crushed between American conservatives and Third World opponents—but also a UN careerist who has absorbed that culture and can not, in the end, escape its limitations.Show book
The term “mafia” has been used to refer to various secret groups or organizations that are involved in various forms of organized crimes and are spread across the world in various countries. They are usually recognized by the name of the country in which they have originated. Most of the group members of the mafia belong to a particular nationality and operate in the particular country itself. The main goal of such mafia groups is to have full control over the various kinds of activities. They can even have a monopoly over certain criminal activities. But one should not be mistaken! Though several films, documentaries and plays have been enacted in the life of the mafias and the wrong deeds done by them, people might still get the impression that the mafias are good people. The people might be allured by the money-earning capacity of the mafias in no matter of time. The lavish lifestyle led by them and the kind of richness they possess, it might appear quite overwhelming on the exterior front. But the truth is that, on the inner side, it is all black. The mafias have their hands spoiled with the color of blood. Mafia members are constantly living under the violence from the other mafia groups and often end up getting killed or killing others. There is no room for peace in their lives. The world in the due course of the mafias and their menace, has witnessed several major wars. The Mafia Wars as it is called have been the root cause due to the disturbances created in one group or the other and in taking revenge on the other. As we live in the present era, there are still major mafia groups out there in several parts of the world.Show book
Creating a unique, immersive setting one culture at a time A guide for authors, gamers, and hobbyists Written to help fantasy and science fiction storytellers, game designers, gamers, and hobbyists, CULTURES AND BEYOND (THE ART OF WORLD BUILDING, #3) is a how-to guide for filling an imaginary world with fascinating societies. It includes chapters on creating culture, organizations, armed forces, religions, the supernatural, magic systems, technological and supernatural items, languages, names, and various systems our world will have, from health, educational, legal, and commerce, to information systems. You’ll learn how to leverage real world cultures while making them seem original. Even those who’ve never invented a world will soon be masters as the author’s decades of experience walk readers through using pre-made templates that make world building faster, better, and easier to complete. Invent interesting laws, crimes, and punishments that involve imaginary creatures or technologies, and learn how to leverage trial by ordeal and other judicial acts from Earth’s past. Determine how much education is available and what form it takes. Create currencies for different places while keeping them easy for your audience to fathom, plus learn how to determine the value to assign labor, materials, products, time, and more. Master the art of creating naming styles for different societies. Fashion new military groups in gritty detail. Dream up sensible rules for magic, its practitioners, the supernatural and what happens when things go wrong. Learn what kind of files you’ll need to create, how to organize them, and get jump started with a dozen free templates you’ll use again and again. CULTURES AND BEYOND is the third volume in THE ART OF WORLD BUILDING, the most in-depth, multi-volume series of its kind. Build better, faster.Show book
The ancient ruins of Tiwanaku have fascinated explorers, scholars, and travelers for centuries. Nestled on the altiplano of Bolivia near the southern shore of Lake Titicaca, Tiwanaku has been a site of mystery and intrigue since its rediscovery by European chroniclers. However, long before outsiders arrived, indigenous Andean communities revered the site as a sacred place, connecting it to their ancestors and the origins of civilization in the region. Spanish chroniclers in the sixteenth century were among the first Europeans to record accounts of Tiwanaku. Conquistadors like Pedro Cieza de León described the ruins with awe, noting the massive stone blocks and intricate carvings scattered across the landscape. They speculated that such a monumental city could not have been built by the indigenous people they encountered, leading to myths of lost civilizations and supernatural origins. Some even believed that Tiwanaku predated the Great Flood, a theory influenced by biblical narratives. These early interpretations, though often misguided, helped cement Tiwanaku’s reputation as one of the most enigmatic ancient sites in the Americas. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, explorers and archaeologists began conducting more systematic investigations of Tiwanaku. Travelers such as Ephraim Squier and Arthur Posnansky documented the ruins extensively, producing sketches and maps that revealed the scale and complexity of the site. Posnansky, in particular, developed theories suggesting that Tiwanaku was over ten thousand years old, arguing that its architectural alignments reflected advanced astronomical knowledge. Though modern research has debunked these extreme claims, his work brought significant attention to Tiwanaku and laid the groundwork for future archaeological studies.Show book
A thoughtful, reflective narrative of a reluctant soldier that captures the rhythms of life in war as well as the boredom and chaos of Vietnam. At the height of the Vietnam War, Charles Carr left graduate school to serve in the army in Southeast Asia, knowing that if he didn’t, another man would go—and possibly die—in his place. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion of the 47th Infantry (Mechanized) in the northern Mekong Delta for a tour of forcing himself through rice paddies and jungles all day and then setting ambushes at night. He concluded his tour with a stint at battalion headquarters. More than just a war memoir, this is the story of one soldier trying to find his way in uncertain times—and to survive his year in Vietnam.Show book
Volume 4 discusses some of the key leaders of the ancient world, including Julius Caesar, Marcus Aurelius and Constantine, as well as important religious figures such as Saint Ambrose and Saint Augustine. - Summary by KHandShow book
