Crisis Under Critique: How People Assess, Transform, and Respond to Critical Situations By Didier Fassin (editor), Axel Honneth (editor)
2022 | 456 Pages | ISBN: 0231204329 | PDF | 3 MB
The word "crisis" denotes a break, a discontinuity, a rupture―a moment after which the normal order can continue no longer. Yet our political vocabulary today is suffused with the rhetoric of crisis, to the point that supposed abnormalities have been normalized. How can the notion of crisis be rethought in order to take stock of―and challenge―our understanding of the many predicaments in which we find ourselves?Instead of diagnosing emergencies, Didier Fassin, Axel Honneth, and an assembly of leading thinkers examine how people experience, interpret, and contribute to the making of and the response to critical situations. Contributors inquire into the social production of crisis, evaluating a wide range of cases on five continents through the lenses of philosophy, sociology, anthropology, political science, history, and economics. Considering social movements, intellectual engagements, affected communities, and reflexive perspectives, the book foregrounds the perspectives of those most closely involved, bringing out the immediacy of crisis. Featuring analysis from below as well as above, from the inside as well as the outside, Crisis Under Critique is a singular intervention that utterly recasts one of today's most crucial―yet most ambiguous―concepts.

John Western, "Cosmopolitan Europe: A Strasbourg Self-Portrait: A Strasbourg Self-Portrait "
English | ISBN: 1138248150 | 2016 | 296 pages | EPUB | 4 MB
The past hundred years of Europe are distilled in the experiences of the citizens of Strasbourg. From the turn of the twentieth century until 1945, Europe's ruling idea of nationalism rendered Strasbourg/Straßburg the prize in a tug-of-war between the two greatest continental powers, France and Germany. Then, in the immediate post-war period, ideals for European unity set up various European institutions, some headquartered in Strasbourg, which have gradually created a partially supranational Europe. At the end of the 1950s, a third theme arises: the large-scale settling in Strasbourg and other such richer, western European cities of persons from poorer lands, frequently ex-colonial territories, whose appearance and cultural practices render them essentially "different" to local eyes: expressions of racism thereby jostle with professions of multiculturalism. Now in the globalisation era, the issue of "immigration" has broadened yet further into transnationalism: the experience of persons who are embedded in varying manner in both Strasbourg and in their land of origin. Based on in-depth, lively interviews with 80 men and 80 women ranging from 101 to 20 years, and from all over the world (France, Germany, Alsace-Lorraine, Portugal, Italy, ex-Yugoslavia, Albania, Algeria, Morocco, Turkey, Cameroon, and Afghanistan amongst other countries), the author draws out of these compelling testimonies all sorts of compelling insights into issues of identity, race, nationality, culture, politics, heritage and representation, giving a unique and valuable view of what it means (and has meant over the past century) to be a European.

, "Contested Loyalty: Debates over Patriotism in the Civil War North "
English | ISBN: 0823279758 | 2018 | 328 pages | EPUB | 3 MB
Embroiled in the Civil War, northerners wrote and spoke with frequency about the subject of loyalty. The word was common in newspaper articles, political pamphlets, and speeches, appeared on flags, broadsides, and prints, was written into diaries and letters and the stationary they appeared on, and even found its way into sermons. Its ubiquity suggests that loyalty was an important concept...but what did it mean to those who used it? Contested Loyalty examines the significance of loyalty across fault lines of gender, social class, and education, race and ethnicity, and political or religious affiliation. These differing vantage points reveal the complicated ways in which loyalties were defined, prioritized, acted upon, and related.

Contemporary Plays from Iraq By A. Al-Azraki (editor), James Al-Shamma (editor)
2017 | 224 Pages | ISBN: 147425330X | PDF | 2 MB
Contemporary Plays from Iraq is a ground-breaking collection of Middle Eastern drama translated into English for the very first time. With works from both established and emerging male and female playwrights, written in country and in exile, this volume offers current Iraqi perspectives on a war and occupation that have significantly impacted the Middle East and the rest of the world. Dealing exclusively with contemporary plays originating from Iraq, this anthology gives under-studied Arabic political theatre the attention it deserves and provides a general introduction that sets the plays within their cultural and historical contexts. The plays are preceded by introductions from the playwrights themselves, further enriching each piece for the enjoyment and understanding of the reader.

Elizabeth Shesko, "Conscript Nation: Coercion and Citizenship in the Bolivian Barracks "
English | ISBN: 0822946025 | 2020 | 264 pages | EPUB | 4 MB
Military service in Bolivia has long been compulsory for young men. This service plays an important role in defining identity, citizenship, masculinity, state formation, and civil-military relations in twentieth-century Bolivia. The project of obligatory military service originated as part of an attempt to restrict the power of indigenous communities after the 1899 civil war. During the following century, administrations (from oligarchic to revolutionary) expressed faith in the power of the barracks to assimilate, shape, and educate the population. Drawing on a body of internal military records never before used by scholars, Elizabeth Shesko argues that conscription evolved into a pact between the state and society. It not only was imposed from above but was also embraced from below because it provided a space for Bolivians across divides of education, ethnicity, and social class to negotiate their relationships with each other and with the state. Shesko contends that state formation built around military service has been characterized in Bolivia by multiple layers of negotiation and accommodation. The resulting nation-state was and is still hierarchical and divided by profound differences, but it never was simply an assimilatory project. It instead reflected a dialectical process to define the state and its relationships.

Paul D. Casdorph, "Confederate General R.S. Ewell: Robert E. Lee's Hesitant Commander"
English | ISBN: 0813160278 | 2014 | 496 pages | EPUB | 3 MB
Richard Stoddert Ewell is best known as the Confederate General selected by Robert E. Lee to replace "Stonewall" Jackson as chief of the Second Corps in the Army of Northern Virginia. Ewell is also remembered as the general who failed to drive Federal troops from the high ground of Cemetery Hill and Culp's Hill during the Battle of Gettysburg. Many historians believe that Ewell's inaction cost the Confederates a victory in this seminal battle and, ultimately, cost the Civil War.

August William 1909-1971 Derleth, "Concord Rebel: a Life of Henry D. Thoreau"
English | ISBN: 1014784565 | 2021 | 242 pages | EPUB | 3 MB
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.

Computational and Experimental Simulations in Engineering: Proceedings of ICCES 2022
English | 2023 | ISBN: 3031020960 | 389 Pages | PDF (True) | 13 MB
This book gathers the latest advances, innovations, and applications in the field of computational engineering, as presented by leading international researchers and engineers at the 27th International Conference on Computational & Experimental Engineering and Sciences (ICCES), held online on January 8-12, 2022. ICCES covers all aspects of applied sciences and engineering: theoretical, analytical, computational, and experimental studies and solutions of problems in the physical, chemical, biological, mechanical, electrical, and mathematical sciences. As such, the book discusses highly diverse topics, including composites; bioengineering & biomechanics; geotechnical engineering; offshore & arctic engineering; multi-scale & multi-physics fluid engineering; structural integrity & longevity; materials design & simulation; and computer modeling methods in engineering. The contributions, which were selected by means of a rigorous international peer-review process, highlight numerous exciting ideas that will spur novel research directions and foster multidisciplinary collaborations.

Communal Dining in the Roman West: Private Munificence Towards Cities and Associations in the First Three Centuries AD (Mnemosyne Supplements) by Shanshan Wen
English | June 23, 2022 | ISBN: 9004516867 | True PDF | 321 pages | 1.8 MB
An investigation of the practice of privately sponsored communal dining in the Western Roman Empire and new insights into the regional variations and transformations of imperial society.

Richard E. Holl, "Committed to Victory: The Kentucky Home Front During World War II "
English | ISBN: 0813165636 | 2015 | 408 pages | EPUB | 3 MB
When World War II broke out in Europe in September 1939, Kentucky was still plagued by the Great Depression. Even though the inevitably of war had become increasingly apparent earlier that year, the citizens of the Commonwealth continued to view foreign affairs as a lesser concern compared to issues such as the lingering economic depression, the approaching planting season, and the upcoming gubernatorial race. It was only the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that destroyed any lingering illusions of peace.