Collecting the interpretations of outstanding writers on the literature and history of modern Britain, this book deals with a rich variety of themes, some familiar, many unexpected, taking the reader on a highly engaging excursion through British life and intellectual biography. The scope includes not only the personalities, politics, and culture of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, but also the interaction of British and other societies throughout the world.

This analysis of the interplay among people and of events leading up to the reform acts of 1898--the Hundred Days--and their abrupt termination presents a new interpretation of the late Ch'ing political scene. The Emperor, the Empress-Dowager, and high-court personalities are followed through the maze of motives and relationships that characterized the power structure in Peking.

Of special interest is Kwong's treatment of K'ang-Yu-Wei, often viewed as the Emperor's advisor during this period and a major source of reform policy, a promincence largely derived frm his own writings and those of Liange Ch'i-ch'ao. Those sources are here examined and show to be less than objective,and K'ang's role is assessed as far more peripheral than heretofore believed

During his four-decade career at NFL Films, writing and directing segments for weekly highlight shows and national telecasts, Bob Angelo saw and heard things that never made their way into his productions. Now, in The NFL Off-Camera, Angelo mines the thousands of interviews he conducted to compile a revealing collection of short, insightful essays profiling his favorite—and least favorite—pro football players, coaches, team owners, executives, and broadcasters—all of whom he interacted with personally.
 
Angelo effuses about his meeting with the larger-than-life Jim Brown and appreciates the trash talking John Randle. He poignantly reflects on “Bullet” Bob Hayes, the world's fastest man who “could not outrun his demons,” and showcases the mercurial Duane Thomas and the free-wheeling Tony Siragusa. The NFL Off-Camera reveals why Angelo sparred with Hall-of-Fame player turned broadcaster Frank Gifford and demonstrates why Super Bowl champion head coach Sean Payton is his “least favorite person in pro football.” 

From Jared Allen to Jim Zorn, The NFL Off-Camera explores nearly 100 of the game’s outsized personalities and debunks some of football's most enduring myths. Angelo’s original, unfiltered look at Pro Football is as hard-hitting and exciting as any one of his NFL Films.
 
 

No better guide over the thousand-year period called the Middle Ages could be found than Josef Pieper. In this amazing tour de monde medievale, he moves easily back and forth between the figures and the doctrines that made medieval philosophy unique in Western thought. After reflecting on the invidious implications of the phrase "Middle Ages," Pieper turns to the fascinating personality of Boethius whose contribution to prison literature, The Consolation of Philosophy, is second only to the Bible in the number of manuscript copies. The Neo-Platonic figures - Dionysius and Eriugena - are the occasion for a discussion of negative theology. The treatment of Anselm of Canterbury's proof of God's existence involves later voices, e.g., Kant. Like other historians, Pieper is enamored of the twelfth century, which is regularly eclipsed by accounts of the thirteenth century. Pieper does justice to both. His account of the rivalry between Peter Abelard and Bernard of Clairvaux is masterful, nor does he fail to give John of Salisbury the space he deserves.
The account is broken by the gradual replacement of the synthesis of faith and reason that had been achieved in the early Middle Ages by a new one that made use of Aristotle. Pieper gives a thorough and lively account of the struggle between Aristotelians and anti-Aristotelians, and the famous condemnations that put the effort of Saint Thomas Aquinas at risk. But the Summa theologiae is regarded by Pieper as the unique achievement of the period.
If the early centuries, the medieval period, can be seen as moving toward the thirteenth and Thomas's unique achievement, subsequent centuries saw the decline of scholasticism and theappearance of harbingers of modern philosophy.
The book closes with Pieper's thoughts on the permanent philosophical and theological significance of scholasticism and the Middle Ages. Once again, wearing his learning lightly, writing with a clarity that delights, Josef Pieper has taken the field from stuffier and more extended accounts.