2335 books match the query 'Modern' and 569 start with t

cover of The Tree of Life, Book Two: From the Depths I Call You, 1940–1942

The Tree of Life, Book Two

From the Depths I Call You, 1940–1942

Chava Rosenfarb

University of Wisconsin Press, 2005

This volume describes the lives of the novel’s protagonists in the Lodz Ghetto at the beginning of World War II. Chava Rosenfarb, herself a survivor of the Lodz Ghetto, Auschwitz, and Bergen-Belsen, draws on her own history to create realistic characters who struggle daily to retain a sense of humanity and dignity despite the physical and psychological effects of ghetto life. Although horrendous experiences are depicted, the light of faith in the human spirit shines through this novel’s every page.

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cover of The Tsar, The Empire, and The Nation: Dilemmas of Nationalization in Russia's Western Borderlands, 1905-1915

The Tsar, The Empire, and The Nation

Dilemmas of Nationalization in Russia's Western Borderlands, 1905-1915

Darius Staliunas

Central European University Press, 2021

This collection of essays addresses the challenge of modern nationalism to the tsarist Russian Empire. First appearing on the empire’s western periphery this challenge, was most prevalent in twelve provinces extending from Ukrainian lands in the south to the Baltic provinces in the north, as well as to the Kingdom of Poland.
At issue is whether the late Russian Empire entered World War I as a multiethnic state with many of its age-old mechanisms run by a multiethnic elite, or as a Russian state predominantly managed by ethnic Russians. The tsarist vision of prioritizing loyalty among all subjects over privileging ethnic Russians and discriminating against non-Russians faced a fundamental problem: as soon as the opportunity presented itself, non-Russians would increase their demands and become increasingly separatist.
The authors found that although the imperial government did not really identify with popular Russian nationalism, it sometimes ended up implementing policies promoted by Russian nationalist proponents. Matters addressed include native language education, interconfessional rivalry, the “Jewish question,” the origins of mass tourism in the western provinces, as well as the emergence of Russian nationalist attitudes in the aftermath of the first Russian revolution.

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cover of The Ultimate Why Question: Why Is There Nothing at All Rather than Nothing Whatsoever?

The Ultimate Why Question

Why Is There Nothing at All Rather than Nothing Whatsoever?

John F. Wippel

Catholic University of America Press, 2011

This volume gathers studies by prominent scholars and philosophers about the question how have major figures from the history of philosophy, and some contemporary philosophers, addressed "the ultimate why question": why is there anything at all rather than nothing whatsoever?
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cover of The Unity of Hegel's "Phenomenology of Spirit": A Systematic Interpretation

The Unity of Hegel's "Phenomenology of Spirit"

A Systematic Interpretation

Jon Stewart

Northwestern University Press, 2011

Hegel's Phenomenology is considered by many to be the most difficult book in the philosophical canon. While some authors have published excellent essays on various chapters and aspects of the book, few authors have successfully tackled the whole.

In The Unity of Hegel's "Phenomenology of Spirit", Jon Stewart interprets Hegel's work as a dialectical transformation of Kantian transcendental philosophy, providing from this unified standpoint a case for Hegel's own conception of philosophy as a system. In restoring them to their larger systematic contexts, Stewart clarifies Hegel's individual analyses, as well as indicating the meaning and significance of the transitions and illustrating the parallelisms between the respective analyses. Many of Hegel's main themes-
universal-particular, mediacy-immediacy-are traced through the text, demonstrating Hegel's formal continuity.

By examining at the microlevel the particulars of the dialectical movement, and by analyzing at the macrolevel the role of the argument in question in the context of the work as a whole, Stewart provides a detailed analysis of the Phenomenology and a significant scholarly demonstration of Hegel's own conception of the Phenomenology as a part of a systematic philosophy.
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cover of The University in the Twenty-first Century: Teaching the New Enlightenment in the Digital Age

The University in the Twenty-first Century

Teaching the New Enlightenment in the Digital Age

Hannes Klöpper

Central European University Press, 2016

This volume addresses the broad spectrum of challenges confronting the university of the 21st century. Elkana and Klöpper place special emphasis on the questions regarding the very idea and purposes of universities, especially as viewed through curriculum—what is taught—and pedagogy—how it is taught. The ideas recommended here for reform concern especially undergraduate or Bachelor degree programs in all areas of study, from the humanities and social sciences to the natural sciences, the technical fields, law, medicine, and other professions. The core thesis of this book rests on the emergence of a 'New Enlightenment', which requires a revolution in curriculum and teaching in order to translate the academic philosophy of global contextualism into universal practice or application. The university is asked to revamp teaching in order to foster critical thinking that would serve students their entire lives. This book calls for universities to become truly integrated rather than remaining collections of autonomous agencies more committed to competition among themselves than cooperation in the larger interest of learning.
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cover of The Unspeakable Vice: The Catholic Church and Homosexuality in the Twentieth Century

The Unspeakable Vice

The Catholic Church and Homosexuality in the Twentieth Century

Francesco Torchiani, Translated by Johanna Bishop

University of Wisconsin Press, 2026

As gay men and lesbian women increasingly gained recognition and acceptance in twentieth-century literature and film, and subsequently in social and political movements, the Catholic Church reacted by subtly moving away from its overt condemnation of homosexuality as an urgent moral problem and toward tacitly shunning homosexuality as an “unspeakable vice.” In this revealing history, Francesco Torchiani reconstructs the Catholic Church’s shifting attitudes toward homosexuality during this period by drawing on a vast array of internal documents and external accounts. This monograph expands the scholarship on the relationship between Catholicism and homosexuality in terms of both method and content, ultimately concluding that the Catholic Church continues to wholeheartedly condemn homosexuality despite making genuine efforts to reflect on and understand its social and cultural impact. The Unspeakable Vice therefore sheds new light on and places into historical perspective the questions the Catholic Church continues to reckon with regarding its role in contemporary society.

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cover of The Unwritten Enlightenment: Literature between Ideology and the Unconscious

The Unwritten Enlightenment

Literature between Ideology and the Unconscious

Nathan Gorelick

Northwestern University Press, 2024

Unveiling the fantasies that drove the Enlightenment and created modern literature

Nathan Gorelick’s The Unwritten Enlightenment: Literature between Ideology and the Unconscious traces the relations between literary criticism and psychoanalysis to their shared origins in the Enlightenment era’s novels and novelistic discourse, where the period’s efforts to invent new notions of subjectivity and individualism are most apparent. Gorelick shows how modern concepts of literature and the unconscious were generated in response to these efforts and by an ethical concern for what the language of the Enlightenment excludes, represses, or struggles to erase. Troubling the idea of the Enlightenment on its own terms, subverting its supposed authority from within, Gorelick thus reveals the workings of unconscious fantasy at the foundations of our contemporary political realities. The Unwritten Enlightenment makes clear that to criticize the Enlightenment’s deficiencies, ambiguities, and legacies of violence without regard for the unconscious fantasies that drive them risks reproducing the very patterns of thought, action, and imagination that the Enlightenment novel already unsettles.
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cover of The Value of Labor: The Science of Commodification in Hungary, 1920-1956

The Value of Labor

The Science of Commodification in Hungary, 1920-1956

Martha Lampland

University of Chicago Press, 2016

At the heart of today’s fierce political anger over income inequality is a feature of capitalism that Karl Marx famously obsessed over: the commodification of labor. Most of us think wage-labor economics is at odds with socialist thinking, but as Martha Lampland explains in this fascinating look at twentieth-century Hungary, there have been moments when such economics actually flourished under socialist regimes. Exploring the region’s transition from a capitalist to a socialist system—and the economic science and practices that endured it—she sheds new light on the two most polarized ideologies of modern history.
            Lampland trains her eye on the scientific claims of modern economic modeling, using Hungary’s unique vantage point to show how theories, policies, and techniques for commodifying agrarian labor that were born in the capitalist era were adopted by the socialist regime as a scientifically designed wage system on cooperative farms. Paying attention to the specific historical circumstances of Hungary, she explores the ways economists and the abstract notions they traffic in can both shape and be shaped by local conditions, and she compellingly shows how labor can be commodified in the absence of a labor market. The result is a unique account of economic thought that unveils hidden but necessary continuities running through the turbulent twentieth century. 
 
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cover of The Varnished Truth: Truth Telling and Deceiving in Ordinary Life

The Varnished Truth

Truth Telling and Deceiving in Ordinary Life

David Nyberg

University of Chicago Press, 1993

Everyone says that lying is wrong. But when we say that lying is bad and hurtful and that we would never intentionally tell a lie, are we really deceiving anyone? In this wise and insightful book, David Nyberg exposes the tacit truth underneath our collective pretense and reveals that an occasional lie can be helpful, healthy, creative, and, in some situations, even downright moral.

The Varnished Truth takes us beyond philosophical speculation and clinical analysis to give us a sense of what it really means to tell the truth. As Nyberg lays out the complexities involved in leading a morally decent life, he compels us to see the spectrum of alternatives to telling the truth and telling a clear-cut lie.
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cover of The Victoria History of Essex: Harwich, Dovercourt and Parkeston in the 19th Century

The Victoria History of Essex

Harwich, Dovercourt and Parkeston in the 19th Century

Andrew Senter Andrew Morrell

University of London Press, 2019

Exploring the changing character of Harwich, Dovercourt and Parkeston through the course of the 19th century, included in this book is the economic, social and political history of the borough. The book provides an overview of the development of areas such as education, religion, public health with a strong focus on Harwich’s maritime history. The borough of Harwich, including the parish of Dovercourt, lies in the far north east corner of Essex. Its coastal location as a natural harbour at the mouth of the Orwell river dictated that Harwich had a prominent role as a port and naval base from the 14th century onwards. In the 19th century Harwich retained its military function, particularly during the Napoleonic and Crimean wars. The port declined economically as a result of losing the continental packet service in the 1830s, but it was rejuvenated by the opening of the railway in 1854. Dovercourt grew as a residential area and seaside resort in the second half of the 19th century, although the rest of the parish retained much of its traditional agricultural character. The opening of the port at nearby Parkeston in 1883 led to a rapid growth in both passenger traffic and trade to and from the continent.
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cover of The Victorians in the Rearview Mirror

The Victorians in the Rearview Mirror

Simon Joyce

Ohio University Press, 2007

When Margaret Thatcher called in 1979 for a return to Victorian values such as hard work, self-reliance, thrift, and national pride, Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock responded that “Victorian values” also included “cruelty, misery, drudgery, squalor, and ignorance.”

The Victorians in the Rearview Mirror is an in-depth look at the ways that the twentieth century reacted to and reimagined its predecessor. It considers how the Victorian inheritance has been represented in literature, politics, film, and visual culture; the ways in which modernists and progressives have sought to differentiate themselves from an image of the Victorian; and how conservatives (and some liberals) have sought to revive elements of nineteenth-century life. Nostalgic and critical impulses combine to fix an understanding of the Victorians in the popular imagination.

Simon Joyce examines heritage culture, contemporary politics, and the “neo-Dickensian” novel to offer a more affirmative assessment of the Victorian legacy, one that lets us imagine a model of social interconnection and interdependence that has come under threat in today’s politics and culture.

Although more than one hundred years have passed since the death of Queen Victoria, the impact of her time is still fresh. The Victorians in the Rearview Mirror speaks to diverse audiences in literary and cultural studies, in addition to those interested in visual culture and contemporary politics, and situates detailed close readings of literary and cinematic texts in the context of a larger argument about the legacies of an era not as distant as we might like to think.

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cover of The Vietnam War and Postmodernity

The Vietnam War and Postmodernity

Michael Bibby

University of Massachusetts Press, 1999

The longest war in the nation's history, the American military intervention in Vietnam dominated United States culture and politics from 1965 to 1975. In addition to causing immense devastation in Southeast Asia, the war transformed American society, with effects that continue to be felt today. Yet aside from a few cultural studies of the war's representations, scholars have tended to ignore the relationship between the American war in Vietnam and broader cultural developments in the West. Frederic Jameson once characterized the Vietnam War as “the first terrible postmodernist war,” suggesting that it embodied or reflected the sensibility of an emerging historical epoch. But does it make sense to place a military conflict within a category of cultural and aesthetic periodization? Is it possible to see the Vietnam War as an expression and reflection of postmodernity—what Jameson calls “the cultural logic of late capitalism?” These are some of the questions addressed in this volume. Ranging across a variety of disciplines, including philosophy, cultural studies, literary criticism, and film studies, the essays explore the war's discourses and technologies in relation to the post-modern condition. At the same time, they reinterpret key cultural representations of the war from a postmodern perspective. The result is a book that poses important challenges to both Vietnam War studies and postmodern studies, at once reshaping the ways postmodernity is conceived and reminding us of the war's enduring significance in contemporary cultural history. In addition to Michael Bibby, contributors are Philip D. Beidler, Michael Clark, Cynthia J. Fuchs, Brady Harrison, Tony Williams, Eric Gadzinski, Chris Hables Gray, and Douglas Kellner.

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cover of The Village and the Class War: Anti-Kulak Campaign in Estonia 1944-49

The Village and the Class War

Anti-Kulak Campaign in Estonia 1944-49

Anu Mai Kõll

Central European University Press, 2013

Before collectivization of agriculture in Estonia, “kulaks” (better-off farmers) were persecuted and many of them were finally deported in March 1949. This book is situated on the local level; the aim is to understand what these processes meant from the perspective of the Estonian rural population, a kind of study that has been missing so far. Analyzes the mechanisms of repression, applying new aspects. Repression was mainly conducted through a bureaucratic process where individual denunciations were not even necessary. The main tool of persecution was a screening of the rural population with the help of records, censuses and local knowledge, in order to identify, or invent, “kulak families”. Moreover, in the Estonian sources, the World War II history of each individual was a crucial part of screenings. The prisoners of war of the Red Army, held in camps in Estonia, played an unexpected part in this campaign. Another result is a so far neglected wave of peaceful resistance as the kulak identifications were challenged in 1947-48. This has not been addressed in the existing literature. The results mainly answer the question “how” this process worked, whereas the question ”why” finds hypothetical responses in the life trajectories of actors.
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cover of The Virginal Mother in German Culture: From Sophie von La Roche and Goethe to Metropolis

The Virginal Mother in German Culture

From Sophie von La Roche and Goethe to Metropolis

Lauren Nossett

Northwestern University Press, 2019

The Virginal Mother in German Culture presents an innovative and thorough analysis of the contradictory obsession with female virginity and idealization of maternal nature in Germany from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries. Lauren Nossett explores how the complex social ideal of woman as both a sexless and maternal being led to the creation of a unique figure in German literature: the virginal mother. At the same time, she shows that the literary depictions of virginal mothers correspond to vilified biological mother figures, which point to a perceived threat in the long nineteenth century of the mother’s procreative power.

Examining the virginal mother in the first novel by a German woman (Sophie von La Roche), canonical texts by Goethe, nineteenth-century popular fiction, autobiographical works, and Thea von Harbou’s novel Metropolis and Fritz Lang’s film by the same name, this book highlights the virginal mother at pivotal moments in German history and cultural development: the entrance of women into the literary market, the Goethezeit, the foundation of the German Empire, and the volatile Weimar Republic. The Virginal Mother in German Culture will be of interest to students and scholars of German literature, history, cultural and social studies, and women’s studies.

 
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cover of The Visual Life of Romantic Theater, 1780-1830

The Visual Life of Romantic Theater, 1780-1830

Edited by Diane Piccitto and Terry F. Robinson

University of Michigan Press, 2023

The Visual Life of Romantic Theater examines the dynamism and vibrancy of stage spectacle and its impact in an era of momentous social upheaval and aesthetic change. Situating theatrical production as key to understanding visuality ca. 1780-1830, this book places the stage front and center in Romantic scholarship—a field in a period long defined by its focus on poetry—by reenvisioning traditional approaches to artistic and social production. How, it asks, did dramaturgy and stagecraft influence aesthetic and sociopolitical concerns? How does a focus on visuality expand our understanding of the historical experience of theatergoing? In what ways did stage performance converge with visual culture beyond the theater? How did extra-theatrical genres engage with theatrical sight and spectacle? Finally, how does a focus on dramatic vision change the way we conceive of Romanticism itself? The volume’s essays by emerging and established scholars provide exciting and suggestive answers to these questions, along with a more capacious conception of Romantic theater as a locus of visual culture that reached well beyond playhouse walls.

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cover of The Vitality of Allegory: Figural Narrative in Modern and Contemporary Fiction

The Vitality of Allegory

Figural Narrative in Modern and Contemporary Fiction

Gary Johnson

The Ohio State University Press, 2012

In The Vitality of Allegory Gary Johnson argues that the rumors of allegory’s death have been greatly exaggerated. Surveying the broad landscape of modern and contemporary narrative fiction, including works from Europe, Africa, and North America, Johnson demonstrates that, although wholly allegorical narratives have become relatively rare, allegory itself remains a vibrant presence in the ongoing life of the novel, a presence that can manifest itself in a variety of ways.
Working from the premise that conventional conceptions of allegory have been inadequate, Johnson takes a rhetorical approach, defining allegory as the transformation of some phenomenon into a figural narrative for some larger purpose. This reconception allows us to recognize that allegory can govern a whole narrative—and can do so strongly or weakly—or be an embedded part or a thematic subject of a narrative and that it can even be used ironically. By developing these theoretical points through careful and insightful analysis of works such as Jackson’s “The Lottery,” Orwell’s Animal Farm, Kafka’s The Metamorphosis and The Trial, Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Roth’s American Pastoral, Mann’s Death in Venice, Coetzee’s Elizabeth Costello, and several works by John Barth, Johnson himself transforms our understanding of allegory and of the history of the modern and contemporary novel.
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cover of The Wake of Wellington: Englishness in 1852

The Wake of Wellington

Englishness in 1852

Peter W. Sinnema

Ohio University Press, 2006

Soldier, hero, and politician, the Duke of Wellington is one of the best-known figures of nineteenth-century England. From his victory at Waterloo over Napoleon in 1815, he rose to become prime minister of his country. But Peter Sinnema finds equal fascination in Victorian England’s response to the duke’s death.

The Wake of Wellington considers Wellington’s spectacular funeral pageant in the fall of 1852—an unprecedented event that attracted one and a half million spectators to London—as a threshold event against which the life of the soldier-hero and High Tory statesman could be re-viewed and represented.

Canvassing a profuse and dramatically proliferating Wellingtoniana, Sinnema examines the various assumptions behind, and implications of, the Times’s celebrated claim that the Irish-born Wellington “was the very type and model of an Englishman.” The dead duke, as Sinnema demonstrates, was repeatedly caught up in interpretive practices that stressed the quasi-symbolic relations between hero and nation.

The Wake of Wellington provides a unique view of how in death Wellington and his career were promoted as the consummation of a national destiny intimately bound up with Englishness itself, and with what it meant to be English at midcentury.

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cover of The War in Ukraine’s Donbas: Origins, Contexts, and the Future

The War in Ukraine’s Donbas

Origins, Contexts, and the Future

David R. Marples

Central European University Press, 2022

This collective work analyzes the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, providing a coherent picture of Ukraine and Eastern Europe in the period 2013–2020. Giving voice to different social groups, scholarly communities and agencies relevant to Ukraine’s recent history, The War in Ukraine's Donbas goes beyond simplistic media interpretations that limit the analysis to Vladimir Putin and Russian aims to annex Ukraine. Instead, the authors identify the deeper roots linked to the autonomy and history of Donbas as a region. The contributions explore local society and traditions and the alienation from Ukraine caused by the events of Euromaidan, which saw the removal of the Donetsk-based president Viktor Yanukovych. Other chapters address the refugee crisis, the Minsk Accords in 2014 and the impact of the new president Volodymyr Zelensky and his efforts to bring the war to an end by negotiations among Russia, Ukraine, France, and Germany.

The book concludes with four proposals for a durable peace in Donbas: territorial power-sharing; the conversion of rebels into legitimate political parties; amnesty for all participants of the armed conflict; and a transitional period of several years until political institutions are fully re-established.

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cover of The War of 1812 in the West: From Fort Detroit to New Orleans

The War of 1812 in the West

From Fort Detroit to New Orleans

David Kirkpatrick

Westholme Publishing, 2019

With the State of Kentucky in the Lead, the Battle to Secure the American Frontier for Westward Expansion 
The spring of 1812 found the young American republic on edge. The British Navy was impressing American seamen with impunity at an alarming rate while vicious attacks on frontier settlements by American Indians armed with British weapons had left a trail of fear and outrage. As calls for a military response increased, Kentucky, the first state west of the Appalachians, urged that only by defeating the British could the nation achieve security. The very thought conjured up embellished memories of the American Revolution, and once war was declared, many soldiers believed that the “Spirit of 76” would lead them to victory. But the conflict quickly transformed from a patriotic parade to a desperate attempt to survive against a major military power. While the War of 1812 is known mostly for later events, including the burning of Washington and the siege of Fort McHenry, much of the first two years of the war was fought in the west, with the British Army and their Indian allies nearly overrunning the Old Northwest and threatening the borders of the original colonies. 
In The War of 1812 in the West: From Fort Detroit to New Orleans, David Kirkpatrick chronicles the near catastrophic loss of the Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois Territories, the bitter fight against both Tecumseh’s Confederation and the Creek Nation, and the slow recovery and ultimate victory of American forces—a large portion of which was supplied by Kentucky—from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Battles such as River Raisin, Thames River, Fort Meigs, and New Orleans are placed in context to show how they secured America’s frontier and opened territory to the west to new settlement following the war. 
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cover of The Warsaw Ghetto's Little Nurse: The Memoirs of Alina Margolis-Edelman

The Warsaw Ghetto's Little Nurse

The Memoirs of Alina Margolis-Edelman

Alina Margolis-Edelman

Central European University Press, 2026

The memoirs of the Polish-Jewish writer, physician, and humanitarian aid activist, Alina Margolis-Edelman (1922–2008), present the life of its author from her childhood in .ód., Poland till the end of the World War II. Soon after the beginning of the war her father was shot by the Gestapo, and her mother moved to Warsaw Ghetto with Alina and her younger brother. Alina enrolled in the Jewish School of Nursing and worked as a nurse and a courier for the Resistance movement. In a rescue action she describes in the book, she saved the life of Marek Edelman – one of the leaders of the Ghetto Uprising (1943), and he later became her husband.
The stories told in her book illuminate issues of anti-Semitism, Holocaust, and Jewish resistance to oppression. She writes about solidarity in times of great danger, resilience in dire situations, dignity of love and care.
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cover of The Warwolf: A Peasant Chronicle of the Thirty Years War

The Warwolf

A Peasant Chronicle of the Thirty Years War

Hermann Lons

Westholme Publishing, 2006

The conflict that ravaged seventeeth-century Europe, as seen in a classic German novel—freshly translated
The Thirty Years War, fought between 1618 and 1648, was a ruthless struggle for political and religious control of central Europe. Engulfing most of present-day Germany, the war claimed at least ten million lives. The lengthy conflict was particularly hard on the general population, as thousands of undisciplined mercenaries serving Sweden, Spain, France, the Netherlands, and various German principalities, robbed, murdered, and pillaged communities; disease spread out of control and starvation became commonplace. In The Warwolf, Hermann Löns's acclaimed historical novel, the tragedy and horrors of war in general, and these times in particular are revealed. The Warwolf, based on the author's careful research, traces the life of Harm Wulf, a land-owning peasant farmer of the northern German heath who realizes after witnessing the murder of neighbours and family at the hands of marauding troops that he has a choice between compromising his morals or succumbing to inevitable torture and death. Despite his desire for peace, Wulf decides to band with his fellow farmers and live like "wolves," fiercely protecting their isolated communities from all intruders. Löns's brilliant portrayal of the two sides faced by any person in a moral crisis—in Harm Wulf's case, whether to kill or be killed—continues to resonate. Originally published in 1910 and still in print in Germany, The Warwolf is available for first time in English.
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cover of The Weavers of Trautenau: Jewish Female Forced Labor in the Holocaust

The Weavers of Trautenau

Jewish Female Forced Labor in the Holocaust

Janine P. Holc

Brandeis University Press, 2023

A sympathetic history that focuses on the experiences of women and girls during the Holocaust and draws on new archival sources.
 
Beginning in late 1940, over three thousand Jewish girls and young women were forced from their family homes in Sosnowiec, Poland, and its surrounding towns to worksites in Germany. Believing that they were helping their families to survive, these young people were thrust into a world where they labored at textile work for twelve hours a day, lived in barracks with little food, and received only periodic news of events back home. By late 1943, their barracks had been transformed into concentration camps, where they were held until liberation in 1945.
 
Using a fresh approach to testimony collections, Janine P. Holc reconstructs the forced labor experiences of young Jewish females, as told by the women who survived and shared their testimony. Incorporating new source material, the book carefully constructs survivors’ stories while also taking a theoretical approach, one alert to socially constructed, intersectional systems of exploitation and harm. The Weavers of Trautenau elucidates the limits and possibilities of social relations inside camps and the challenges of moral and emotional repair in the face of indescribable loss during the Holocaust.
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cover of The Web of Differing Versions: Where Africa Ends and America Begins

The Web of Differing Versions

Where Africa Ends and America Begins

Reid Gómez

University of Minnesota Press, 2026

A visionary reckoning with prophecy, possession, and the grammar of liberation

A bold, experimental intervention in literary and theoretical discourse of colonialism and diaspora, The Web of Differing Versions engages with Leslie Marmon Silko’s 1991 Almanac of the Dead as literature, prophecy, and philosophy. Reid Gómez makes “The Indian Connection” that Silko prophesizes—Land Back!—and offers a prescient response to Silko’s enduring question: who has spiritual possession of the Américas?

Realizing the great capacity of Black and Native studies, Gómez crafts a visionary mode of scholarship that resists acknowledging conceptual, political, spiritual, formal, or linguistic borders. Rather than comparing or separating, she demonstrates how to stop telling things apart: Black|Indian, slavery|colonization, and writing|translation. Gómez shifts focus from racialized identities to the prophesied world itself, working with music, literature, and language to elaborate the connections that exist between racialized bodies, land, and sea as she emphasizes the ubiquity of escape, revolt, and beauty/hózhǫ́.

A theoretical composition, this book enacts a practice of re-visioning that uses Silko’s Almanac to challenge the limits of thought, language, and the very idea of scholarship. Attending the multiplicity of time into times, past into pasts, future into futures, The Web of Differing Versions offers a new grammar for a shared and violent world.

Retail e-book files for this title are screen-reader friendly.

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cover of The Wisconsin Story: 150 People, Places, and Turning Points that Shaped the Badger State

The Wisconsin Story

150 People, Places, and Turning Points that Shaped the Badger State

Dennis McCann

Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2019

The Wisconsin Story: 150 People, Places, and Turning Points that Shaped the Badger State offers readers engaging vignettes about everything Wisconsin. From portraits of significant figures like Robert and Belle La Follette, Golda Meir, and Edna Ferber, to stories of important events like the Black Hawk War, 1960s campus protests, and oleo smuggling, The Wisconsin Story takes readers on a fun and informative ride all across the Badger State. Where was Calvin Coolidge’s summer White House? What was the “anti-corset resolution?” And why was a cow named Ollie milked on an airplane? Award-winning newspaper columnist Dennis McCann’s talent for distilling complex subjects into brief stories that pack a punch makes this collection the perfect answer to the question “what makes Wisconsin, Wisconsin?”
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cover of The Wordsworth Circle, volume 52 number 4 (Autumn 2021)

The Wordsworth Circle, volume 52 number 4 (Autumn 2021)

The University of Chicago Press

University of Chicago Press Journals, 2021

This is volume 52 issue 4 of The Wordsworth Circle. The Wordsworth Circle (TWC) is an international quarterly learned journal founded in 1970 to facilitate communications among colleagues interested in the lives, works, and times of British, American, and European writers from 1770 to 1850, before and after. TWC publishes original essays, conference papers, letters, editions, bibliographies, textual and historical scholarship, biography, interpretive criticism, and critical theory, as well as interdisciplinary, cultural, and comparative studies. It is concerned with anything that influenced, impinges upon, expresses, or contributes to an understanding of the writers, works, and events associated with Romantic studies and its after-lives.
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cover of The Wordsworth Circle, volume 53 number 1 (Winter 2022)

The Wordsworth Circle, volume 53 number 1 (Winter 2022)

The University of Chicago Press

University of Chicago Press Journals, 2022

This is volume 53 issue 1 of The Wordsworth Circle. The Wordsworth Circle (TWC) is an international quarterly learned journal founded in 1970 to facilitate communications among colleagues interested in the lives, works, and times of British, American, and European writers from 1770 to 1850, before and after. TWC publishes original essays, conference papers, letters, editions, bibliographies, textual and historical scholarship, biography, interpretive criticism, and critical theory, as well as interdisciplinary, cultural, and comparative studies. It is concerned with anything that influenced, impinges upon, expresses, or contributes to an understanding of the writers, works, and events associated with Romantic studies and its after-lives.
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cover of The Wordsworth Circle, volume 53 number 2 (Spring 2022)

The Wordsworth Circle, volume 53 number 2 (Spring 2022)

The University of Chicago Press

University of Chicago Press Journals, 2022

This is volume 53 issue 2 of The Wordsworth Circle. The Wordsworth Circle (TWC) is an international quarterly learned journal founded in 1970 to facilitate communications among colleagues interested in the lives, works, and times of British, American, and European writers from 1770 to 1850, before and after. TWC publishes original essays, conference papers, letters, editions, bibliographies, textual and historical scholarship, biography, interpretive criticism, and critical theory, as well as interdisciplinary, cultural, and comparative studies. It is concerned with anything that influenced, impinges upon, expresses, or contributes to an understanding of the writers, works, and events associated with Romantic studies and its after-lives.
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cover of The Wordsworth Circle, volume 53 number 3 (Summer 2022)

The Wordsworth Circle, volume 53 number 3 (Summer 2022)

The University of Chicago Press

University of Chicago Press Journals, 2022

This is volume 53 issue 3 of The Wordsworth Circle. The Wordsworth Circle (TWC) is an international quarterly learned journal founded in 1970 to facilitate communications among colleagues interested in the lives, works, and times of British, American, and European writers from 1770 to 1850, before and after. TWC publishes original essays, conference papers, letters, editions, bibliographies, textual and historical scholarship, biography, interpretive criticism, and critical theory, as well as interdisciplinary, cultural, and comparative studies. It is concerned with anything that influenced, impinges upon, expresses, or contributes to an understanding of the writers, works, and events associated with Romantic studies and its after-lives.
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cover of The Wordsworth Circle, volume 53 number 4 (Autumn 2022)

The Wordsworth Circle, volume 53 number 4 (Autumn 2022)

The University of Chicago Press

University of Chicago Press Journals, 2022

This is volume 53 issue 4 of The Wordsworth Circle. The Wordsworth Circle (TWC) is an international quarterly learned journal founded in 1970 to facilitate communications among colleagues interested in the lives, works, and times of British, American, and European writers from 1770 to 1850, before and after. TWC publishes original essays, conference papers, letters, editions, bibliographies, textual and historical scholarship, biography, interpretive criticism, and critical theory, as well as interdisciplinary, cultural, and comparative studies. It is concerned with anything that influenced, impinges upon, expresses, or contributes to an understanding of the writers, works, and events associated with Romantic studies and its after-lives.
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cover of The Wordsworth Circle, volume 54 number 1 (Winter 2023)

The Wordsworth Circle, volume 54 number 1 (Winter 2023)

The University of Chicago Press

University of Chicago Press Journals, 2023

This is volume 54 issue 1 of The Wordsworth Circle. The Wordsworth Circle (TWC) is an international quarterly learned journal founded in 1970 to facilitate communications among colleagues interested in the lives, works, and times of British, American, and European writers from 1770 to 1850, before and after. TWC publishes original essays, conference papers, letters, editions, bibliographies, textual and historical scholarship, biography, interpretive criticism, and critical theory, as well as interdisciplinary, cultural, and comparative studies. It is concerned with anything that influenced, impinges upon, expresses, or contributes to an understanding of the writers, works, and events associated with Romantic studies and its after-lives.
[more]
cover of The Wordsworth Circle, volume 54 number 3 (Summer 2023)

The Wordsworth Circle, volume 54 number 3 (Summer 2023)

The University of Chicago Press

University of Chicago Press Journals, 2023

This is volume 54 issue 3 of The Wordsworth Circle. The Wordsworth Circle (TWC) is an international quarterly learned journal founded in 1970 to facilitate communications among colleagues interested in the lives, works, and times of British, American, and European writers from 1770 to 1850, before and after. TWC publishes original essays, conference papers, letters, editions, bibliographies, textual and historical scholarship, biography, interpretive criticism, and critical theory, as well as interdisciplinary, cultural, and comparative studies. It is concerned with anything that influenced, impinges upon, expresses, or contributes to an understanding of the writers, works, and events associated with Romantic studies and its after-lives.
[more]
cover of The Wordsworth Circle, volume 54 number 4 (Autumn 2023)

The Wordsworth Circle, volume 54 number 4 (Autumn 2023)

The University of Chicago Press

University of Chicago Press Journals, 2023

This is volume 54 issue 4 of The Wordsworth Circle. The Wordsworth Circle (TWC) is an international quarterly learned journal founded in 1970 to facilitate communications among colleagues interested in the lives, works, and times of British, American, and European writers from 1770 to 1850, before and after. TWC publishes original essays, conference papers, letters, editions, bibliographies, textual and historical scholarship, biography, interpretive criticism, and critical theory, as well as interdisciplinary, cultural, and comparative studies. It is concerned with anything that influenced, impinges upon, expresses, or contributes to an understanding of the writers, works, and events associated with Romantic studies and its after-lives.
[more]
cover of The Wordsworth Circle, volume 55 number 1 (Winter 2024)

The Wordsworth Circle, volume 55 number 1 (Winter 2024)

The University of Chicago Press

University of Chicago Press Journals, 2024

This is volume 55 issue 1 of The Wordsworth Circle. The Wordsworth Circle (TWC) is an international quarterly learned journal founded in 1970 to facilitate communications among colleagues interested in the lives, works, and times of British, American, and European writers from 1770 to 1850, before and after. TWC publishes original essays, conference papers, letters, editions, bibliographies, textual and historical scholarship, biography, interpretive criticism, and critical theory, as well as interdisciplinary, cultural, and comparative studies. It is concerned with anything that influenced, impinges upon, expresses, or contributes to an understanding of the writers, works, and events associated with Romantic studies and its after-lives.
[more]
cover of The Wordsworth Circle, volume 55 number 2 (Spring 2024)

The Wordsworth Circle, volume 55 number 2 (Spring 2024)

The University of Chicago Press

University of Chicago Press Journals, 2024

This is volume 55 issue 2 of The Wordsworth Circle. The Wordsworth Circle (TWC) is an international quarterly learned journal founded in 1970 to facilitate communications among colleagues interested in the lives, works, and times of British, American, and European writers from 1770 to 1850, before and after. TWC publishes original essays, conference papers, letters, editions, bibliographies, textual and historical scholarship, biography, interpretive criticism, and critical theory, as well as interdisciplinary, cultural, and comparative studies. It is concerned with anything that influenced, impinges upon, expresses, or contributes to an understanding of the writers, works, and events associated with Romantic studies and its after-lives.
[more]
cover of The Wordsworth Circle, volume 55 number 3 (Summer 2024)

The Wordsworth Circle, volume 55 number 3 (Summer 2024)

The University of Chicago Press

University of Chicago Press Journals, 2024

This is volume 55 issue 3 of The Wordsworth Circle. The Wordsworth Circle (TWC) is an international quarterly learned journal founded in 1970 to facilitate communications among colleagues interested in the lives, works, and times of British, American, and European writers from 1770 to 1850, before and after. TWC publishes original essays, conference papers, letters, editions, bibliographies, textual and historical scholarship, biography, interpretive criticism, and critical theory, as well as interdisciplinary, cultural, and comparative studies. It is concerned with anything that influenced, impinges upon, expresses, or contributes to an understanding of the writers, works, and events associated with Romantic studies and its after-lives.
[more]
cover of The Wordsworth Circle, volume 55 number 4 (Autumn 2024)

The Wordsworth Circle, volume 55 number 4 (Autumn 2024)

The University of Chicago Press

University of Chicago Press Journals, 2024

This is volume 55 issue 4 of The Wordsworth Circle. The Wordsworth Circle (TWC) is an international quarterly learned journal founded in 1970 to facilitate communications among colleagues interested in the lives, works, and times of British, American, and European writers from 1770 to 1850, before and after. TWC publishes original essays, conference papers, letters, editions, bibliographies, textual and historical scholarship, biography, interpretive criticism, and critical theory, as well as interdisciplinary, cultural, and comparative studies. It is concerned with anything that influenced, impinges upon, expresses, or contributes to an understanding of the writers, works, and events associated with Romantic studies and its after-lives.
[more]
cover of The Wordsworth Circle, volume 56 number 1 (Winter 2025)

The Wordsworth Circle, volume 56 number 1 (Winter 2025)

The University of Chicago Press

University of Chicago Press Journals, 2025

This is volume 56 issue 1 of The Wordsworth Circle. The Wordsworth Circle (TWC) is an international quarterly learned journal founded in 1970 to facilitate communications among colleagues interested in the lives, works, and times of British, American, and European writers from 1770 to 1850, before and after. TWC publishes original essays, conference papers, letters, editions, bibliographies, textual and historical scholarship, biography, interpretive criticism, and critical theory, as well as interdisciplinary, cultural, and comparative studies. It is concerned with anything that influenced, impinges upon, expresses, or contributes to an understanding of the writers, works, and events associated with Romantic studies and its after-lives.
[more]
cover of The Wordsworth Circle, volume 56 number 2 (Spring 2025)

The Wordsworth Circle, volume 56 number 2 (Spring 2025)

The University of Chicago Press

University of Chicago Press Journals, 2025

This is volume 56 issue 2 of The Wordsworth Circle. The Wordsworth Circle (TWC) is an international quarterly learned journal founded in 1970 to facilitate communications among colleagues interested in the lives, works, and times of British, American, and European writers from 1770 to 1850, before and after. TWC publishes original essays, conference papers, letters, editions, bibliographies, textual and historical scholarship, biography, interpretive criticism, and critical theory, as well as interdisciplinary, cultural, and comparative studies. It is concerned with anything that influenced, impinges upon, expresses, or contributes to an understanding of the writers, works, and events associated with Romantic studies and its after-lives.
[more]
cover of The Wordsworth Circle, volume 56 number 3 (Summer 2025)

The Wordsworth Circle, volume 56 number 3 (Summer 2025)

The University of Chicago Press

University of Chicago Press Journals, 2025

This is volume 56 issue 3 of The Wordsworth Circle. The Wordsworth Circle (TWC) is an international quarterly learned journal founded in 1970 to facilitate communications among colleagues interested in the lives, works, and times of British, American, and European writers from 1770 to 1850, before and after. TWC publishes original essays, conference papers, letters, editions, bibliographies, textual and historical scholarship, biography, interpretive criticism, and critical theory, as well as interdisciplinary, cultural, and comparative studies. It is concerned with anything that influenced, impinges upon, expresses, or contributes to an understanding of the writers, works, and events associated with Romantic studies and its after-lives.
[more]
cover of The Wordsworth Circle, volume 56 number 4 (Autumn 2025)

The Wordsworth Circle, volume 56 number 4 (Autumn 2025)

The University of Chicago Press

University of Chicago Press Journals, 2025

This is volume 56 issue 4 of The Wordsworth Circle. The Wordsworth Circle (TWC) is an international quarterly learned journal founded in 1970 to facilitate communications among colleagues interested in the lives, works, and times of British, American, and European writers from 1770 to 1850, before and after. TWC publishes original essays, conference papers, letters, editions, bibliographies, textual and historical scholarship, biography, interpretive criticism, and critical theory, as well as interdisciplinary, cultural, and comparative studies. It is concerned with anything that influenced, impinges upon, expresses, or contributes to an understanding of the writers, works, and events associated with Romantic studies and its after-lives.
[more]
cover of The Wordsworth Circle, volume 57 number 1 (Winter 2026)

The Wordsworth Circle, volume 57 number 1 (Winter 2026)

The University of Chicago Press

University of Chicago Press Journals, 2026

This is volume 57 issue 1 of The Wordsworth Circle. The Wordsworth Circle (TWC) is an international quarterly learned journal founded in 1970 to facilitate communications among colleagues interested in the lives, works, and times of British, American, and European writers from 1770 to 1850, before and after. TWC publishes original essays, conference papers, letters, editions, bibliographies, textual and historical scholarship, biography, interpretive criticism, and critical theory, as well as interdisciplinary, cultural, and comparative studies. It is concerned with anything that influenced, impinges upon, expresses, or contributes to an understanding of the writers, works, and events associated with Romantic studies and its after-lives.
[more]
cover of The Work of Mourning

The Work of Mourning

Jacques Derrida

University of Chicago Press, 2001

Jacques Derrida is, in the words of the New York Times, "perhaps the world's most famous philosopher—if not the only famous philosopher." He often provokes controversy as soon as his name is mentioned. But he also inspires the respect that comes from an illustrious career, and, among many who were his colleagues and peers, he inspired friendship. The Work of Mourning is a collection that honors those friendships in the wake of passing.

Gathered here are texts—letters of condolence, memorial essays, eulogies, funeral orations—written after the deaths of well-known figures: Roland Barthes, Paul de Man, Michel Foucault, Louis Althusser, Edmond Jabès, Louis Marin, Sarah Kofman, Gilles Deleuze, Emmanuel Levinas, Jean-François Lyotard, Max Loreau, Jean-Marie Benoist, Joseph Riddel, and Michel Servière.

With his words, Derrida bears witness to the singularity of a friendship and to the absolute uniqueness of each relationship. In each case, he is acutely aware of the questions of tact, taste, and ethical responsibility involved in speaking of the dead—the risks of using the occasion for one's own purposes, political calculation, personal vendetta, and the expiation of guilt. More than a collection of memorial addresses, this volume sheds light not only on Derrida's relation to some of the most prominent French thinkers of the past quarter century but also on some of the most important themes of Derrida's entire oeuvre-mourning, the "gift of death," time, memory, and friendship itself.

"In his rapt attention to his subjects' work and their influence upon him, the book also offers a hesitant and tangential retelling of Derrida's own life in French philosophical history. There are illuminating and playful anecdotes—how Lyotard led Derrida to begin using a word-processor; how Paul de Man talked knowledgeably of jazz with Derrida's son. Anyone who still thinks that Derrida is a facetious punster will find such resentful prejudice unable to survive a reading of this beautiful work."—Steven Poole, Guardian

"Strikingly simpa meditations on friendship, on shared vocations and avocations and on philosophy and history."—Publishers Weekly
[more]
cover of The Work of Mourning

The Work of Mourning

Jacques Derrida

University of Chicago Press, 2003

Jacques Derrida is, in the words of the New York Times, "perhaps the world's most famous philosopher—if not the only famous philosopher." He often provokes controversy as soon as his name is mentioned. But he also inspires the respect that comes from an illustrious career, and, among many who were his colleagues and peers, he inspired friendship. The Work of Mourning is a collection that honors those friendships in the wake of passing.

Gathered here are texts—letters of condolence, memorial essays, eulogies, funeral orations—written after the deaths of well-known figures: Roland Barthes, Paul de Man, Michel Foucault, Louis Althusser, Edmond Jabès, Louis Marin, Sarah Kofman, Gilles Deleuze, Emmanuel Levinas, Jean-François Lyotard, Max Loreau, Jean-Marie Benoist, Joseph Riddel, and Michel Servière.

With his words, Derrida bears witness to the singularity of a friendship and to the absolute uniqueness of each relationship. In each case, he is acutely aware of the questions of tact, taste, and ethical responsibility involved in speaking of the dead—the risks of using the occasion for one's own purposes, political calculation, personal vendetta, and the expiation of guilt. More than a collection of memorial addresses, this volume sheds light not only on Derrida's relation to some of the most prominent French thinkers of the past quarter century but also on some of the most important themes of Derrida's entire oeuvre-mourning, the "gift of death," time, memory, and friendship itself.

"In his rapt attention to his subjects' work and their influence upon him, the book also offers a hesitant and tangential retelling of Derrida's own life in French philosophical history. There are illuminating and playful anecdotes—how Lyotard led Derrida to begin using a word-processor; how Paul de Man talked knowledgeably of jazz with Derrida's son. Anyone who still thinks that Derrida is a facetious punster will find such resentful prejudice unable to survive a reading of this beautiful work."—Steven Poole, Guardian

"Strikingly simpa meditations on friendship, on shared vocations and avocations and on philosophy and history."—Publishers Weekly
[more]
cover of The World Is Our Stage: The Global Rhetorical Presidency and the Cold War

The World Is Our Stage

The Global Rhetorical Presidency and the Cold War

Allison M. Prasch

University of Chicago Press, 2023

A fresh account of the US presidential rhetoric embodied in Cold War international travel.
 
Crowds swarm when US presidents travel abroad, though many never hear their voices. The presidential body, moving from one secured location to another, communicates as much or more to these audiences than the texts of their speeches. In The World is Our Stage, Allison M. Prasch considers how presidential appearances overseas broadcast American superiority during the Cold War. Drawing on extensive archival research, Prasch examines five foundational moments in the development of what she calls the “global rhetorical presidency:” Truman at Potsdam, Eisenhower’s “Goodwill Tours,” Kennedy in West Berlin, Nixon in the People’s Republic of China, and Reagan in Normandy. In each case, Prasch reveals how the president’s physical presence defined the boundaries of the “Free World” and elevated the United States as the central actor in Cold War geopolitics.
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cover of The World Unclaimed: A Challenge to Heidegger’s Critique of Husserl

The World Unclaimed

A Challenge to Heidegger’s Critique of Husserl

Lilian Alweiss

Ohio University Press, 2003

The World Unclaimed argues that Heidegger’s critique of modern epistemology in Being and Time is seriously flawed. Heidegger believes he has done away with epistemological problems concerning the external world by showing that the world is an existential structure of Dasein. However, the author argues that Heidegger fails to make good his claim that he has “rescued” the phenomenon of the world, which he believes the tradition of philosophy has bypassed. Heidegger fails not only to reclaim the world but also to acknowledge its loss. Alweiss thus calls into question Heidegger’s claim that ontology is more fundamental than epistemology.

The World Unclaimed develops its powerful critique of Being and Time by arguing for a return to Husserl. It draws on Husserl’s insight that it is the moving and sensing body that discloses how we are already familiar with the world. Kinaesthesia provides a key for understanding our relation to the world. The author thus suggests that thinkers in the vein of Husserl and Kant -who, for Heidegger, epitomize the tradition of modern philosophy by returning to a “worldless subject”- may provide us with the resources to reclaim the phenomenon of the world that Being and Time sets out to salvage.

Alweiss’s fresh and innovative study demonstrates that it is possible to overcome epistemological skepticism without ever losing sight of the phenomenon of the world. Moreover, Alweiss challenges us to reconsider the relation between Husserl and Heidegger by providing a forceful defense of Husserl’s critique of cognition.

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cover of The World beyond the Windshield: Roads and Landscapes in the United States and Europe

The World beyond the Windshield

Roads and Landscapes in the United States and Europe

Christof Mauch

Ohio University Press, 2008

For better or worse, the view through a car’s windshield has redefined how we see the world around us. In some cases, such as the American parkway, the view from the road was the be-all and end-all of the highway; in others, such as the Italian autostrada, the view of a fast, efficient transportation machine celebrating either Fascism or its absence was the goal. These varied environments are neither necessary nor accidental but the outcomes of historical negotiations, and whether we abhor them or take delight in them, they have become part of the fabric of human existence.

The World beyond the Windshield: Roads and Landscapes in the United States and Europe is the first systematic, comparative look at these landscapes. By looking at examples from the United States and Europe, the chapters in this volume explore the relationship between the road and the landscape thatit traverses, cuts through, defines, despoils, and enhances. The authors analyze the Washington Beltway and the Blue Ridge Parkway, as well as iconic roads in Italy, Nazi Germany, East Germany, and Great Britain. This is a story of the transatlantic exchange of ideas about environment and technology and of the national and nationalistic appropriations of such landscaping.

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cover of The World of Aufbau: Hitler's Refugees in America

The World of Aufbau

Hitler's Refugees in America

Peter Schrag

University of Wisconsin Press, 2019

Aufbau—a German-language weekly, published in New York and circulated nationwide—was an essential platform for the generation of refugees from Hitler and the displaced people and concentration camp survivors who arrived in the United States after the war. The publication served to link thousands of readers looking for friends and loved ones in every part of the world. In its pages Aufbau focused on concerns that strongly impacted this community in the aftermath of World War II: anti-Semitism in the United States and in Europe, the ever-changing immigration and naturalization procedures, debates about the designation of Hitler refugees as enemy aliens, questions about punishment for the Holocaust and other Nazi crimes, the struggle for compensation and restitution, and the fight for a Jewish homeland.

The book examines the columns and advertisements that chronicled the social and cultural life of that generation and maintained a detailed account of German-speaking cultures in exile. Peter Schrag is the first to present a definitive account of the influential publication that brought postwar refugees together and into the American mainstream.
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cover of The World of Elizabeth Inchbald: Essays on Literature, Culture, and Theatre in the Long Eighteenth Century

The World of Elizabeth Inchbald

Essays on Literature, Culture, and Theatre in the Long Eighteenth Century

Daniel J. Ennis

University of Delaware Press, 2022

This collection centers on the remarkable life and career of the writer and actor Elizabeth Inchbald (1753–1821), active in Great Britain in the late eighteenth century. Inspired by the example of Inchbald’s biographer, Annibel Jenkins (1918–2013), the contributors explore the broad historical and cultural context around Inchbald’s life and work, with essays ranging from the Restoration to the nineteenth century. Ranging from visual culture, theater history, literary analyses and to historical investigations, the essays not only present a fuller picture of cultural life in Great Britain in the long eighteenth century, but also reflect a range of disciplinary perspectives. The collection concludes with the final scholarly presentation of the late Professor Jenkins, a study of the eighteenth-century English newspaper The World (1753-1756). 
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cover of The Worlds of Victor Sassoon: Bombay, London, Shanghai, 1918–1941

The Worlds of Victor Sassoon

Bombay, London, Shanghai, 1918–1941

Rosemary Wakeman

University of Chicago Press, 2024

An interpretative history of global urbanity in the 1920s and 1930s, from the vantage point of Bombay, London, and Shanghai, that follows the life of business tycoon Victor Sassoon.
 
In this book, historian Rosemary Wakeman brings to life the frenzied, crowded streets, markets, ports, and banks of Bombay, London, and Shanghai. In the early twentieth century, these cities were at the forefront of the sweeping changes taking the world by storm as it entered an era of globalized commerce and the unprecedented circulation of goods, people, and ideas. Wakeman explores these cities and the world they helped transform through the life of Victor Sassoon, who in 1924 gained control of his powerful family’s trading and banking empire. She tracks his movements between these three cities as he grows his family’s fortune and transforms its holdings into a global juggernaut. Using his life as its point of entry, The Worlds of Victor Sassoon paints a broad portrait not just of wealth, cosmopolitanism, and leisure but also of the discrimination, exploitation, and violence wreaked by a world increasingly driven by the demands of capital.
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cover of The Writer as Migrant

The Writer as Migrant

Ha Jin

University of Chicago Press, 2008

National Book Award winner Ha Jin raises questions about language, migration, and the place of literature in a rapidly globalizing world.

Consisting of three interconnected essays, The Writer as Migrant sets Ha Jin’s own work and life alongside those of other literary exiles, creating a conversation across cultures and between eras. He employs the cases of Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Chinese novelist Lin Yutang to illustrate the obligation a writer feels to the land of their birth, while Joseph Conrad and Vladimir Nabokov—who, like Ha Jin, adopted English for their writing—are enlisted to explore a migrant author’s conscious choice of a literary language. A final essay draws on V. S. Naipaul and Milan Kundera to consider the ways in which our era of perpetual change forces a migrant writer to reconceptualize the very idea of home. Throughout, Jin brings other celebrated writers into the conversation as well, including W. G. Sebald, C. P. Cavafy, and Salman Rushdie—refracting and refining the very idea of a literature of migration.

Simultaneously a reflection on a crucial theme and a fascinating glimpse at the writers who compose Ha Jin’s mental library, The Writer as Migrant is a work of passionately engaged criticism, one rooted in departures but feeling like a new arrival.
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