Offers important new perspectives on the African diaspora in North America.

The African Diaspora in the United States and Canada at the Dawn of the 21st Cen (Global Academic Publishing)

Biographies & Memoirs

Frazier, John W.

Community & Culture

Global Academic Publishing

The Cold War's Last Battlefield: Reagan, the Soviets, and Central America (Global Academic Publishing Book)

An engaging insider’s account by a member of President Reagan’s Central America policy team. Central America was the final place where U.S. and Soviet proxy forces faced off against one another in armed conflict. In The Cold War’s Last Battlefield, Edward A. Lynch blends his own first-hand experiences as a member of the Reagan Central America policy team with interviews of policy makers and exhaustive study of primary source materials, including once-secret government documents, in order to recount these largely forgotten events and how they fit within Reagan’s broader foreign policy goals. Lynch’s compelling narrative reveals a president who was willing to risk both influence and image to aggressively confront Soviet expansion in the region. He also demonstrates how the internal debates between competing sides of the Reagan administration were really an argument about the basic thrust of U.S. foreign policy, and that they anticipated, to a remarkable degree, policy discussions following the September 11, 2001 terror attacks. “This thought-provoking narrative of Reagan’s foreign policy in Central America would be an asset to any library.” — CHOICE “Academia is sometimes criticized for not including analyses that are sympathetic to conservative values and to Ronald Reagan in particular. This book is a clear refutation of that allegation, enriched by the author’s personal experience in the Reagan administration. This thorough review remains timely, especially given how frequently Reagan is used both by supporters and detractors as a lodestar for what to pursue or avoid.” — Lowell S. Gustafson, coeditor of National and Human Security Issues in Latin America: Democracies at Risk

The Cold War's Last Battlefield: Reagan, the Soviets, and Central America (Global Academic Publishing)

History

Lynch, Edward A.

Americas

A selection of poems  by one of Islam’s greatest poetic voices.   “In his poetry, Hafiz has inscribed undeniable truth  indelibly … Hafiz has no peer!” — Goethe Poems of Wine and Tavern Romance includes 103 pioneering poems by the  medieval Persian poet and Sufi monk Muhammad Shemseddin Hafiz (ca. 1320–1389). With the rich complexity of a character in Shakespeare, Hafiz  celebrates his pleasures and longed-for lovers in a context of Qur’anic  narrative allusion, allowing his poems to hint at stages in a spiritual quest. First translated into German in 1814, by Joseph von Hammer,  Hafiz’s poetry initiated a revolution in the mind of Johann Wolfgang von  Goethe, and Hafiz became, for Goethe, a Muslim mentor. Hafiz’s love poems are  mainly directed to the men he met in taverns, but Hammer often changed the  gender of the addressees to placate contemporary opinion in Germany. Hammer rendered Hafiz’s poetry in a  variety of newly invented verse forms as well as traditional ones carried over  from ancient Greece and  Rome, which he felt would make them more acceptable to readers acquainted with  such themes in Greek and Latin verse. Though always faithful to Hammer’s  pioneering poetic forms, Martin Bidney’s new translations restore the genders as  they appeared in the original Persian. In his poetic “replies” to Hafiz, Bidney  clarifies the implications of Hafiz’s Qur’anic allusions and Islamic legendary  references, and he also elucidates  parallels  between medieval Persian and various Western cultures by introducing newly  translated relevant passages from such works as Carmina Burana, Ovid’s Amores,  and Horace’s Odes.   Hammer’s translation of Hafiz was  already a pioneering West-East synthesis when it inspired Goethe to try to top  it in his own experimental West-East Divan (translated by Bidney in 2010), and Bidney’s translation of Hafiz’s  groundbreaking, varied, verbally colorful, and melodious poetry will delight  the general reader and fascinate the scholar. “…[a]  fascinating and appealing book.” — CHOICE

Poems of Wine and Tavern Romance: A Dialogue with the Persian Poet Hafiz (Global Academic Publishing)

Literature & Fiction

Bidney, Martin

Ḥāfiẓ

Poetry

Chinese Through Song (Global Academic Publishing) (English and Chinese Edition)

An innovative approach to teaching Chinese language and culture, using folk and popular songs.Offering an innovative approach to language learning, Chinese through Song helps students develop their language proficiency and music appreciation through the use of folk, popular, and art songs. Because songs emphasize the color, pronunciation, and intonation of every syllable, they can be a valuable tool for improving a student’s spoken language skills. By learning and performing the songs in this book, students will expand their vocabularies and improve their pronunciation, voice projection, and language expression―all while learning about Chinese culture in a fun and stimulating way.This revised and expanded edition includes thirty songs, many of them new to this edition. They feature lucid and vivid language, as well as beautiful and relatively simple melodies. They are good for voice development and can be practiced in different modes of performance, including solos, duets, rounds, and musical dramas.Each chapter comprises up to seven sections: (1) a song, including sheet music and lyrics in Chinese characters and pinyin Romanization; (2) a line-by-line English translation; (3) a vocabulary list designed for students who have completed at least one year of Chinese; (4) cultural notes that help students understand the historical and social context of the song; (5) language notes on the use of key words and important sentence patterns; (6) singing instructions, including remarks on interpretation and performance; and (7) language exercises for both classroom practice and homework assignments.Chinese through Song may be used in several ways: as the main textbook for an interdisciplinary, intermediate-level course, emphasizing both language acquisition and musical performance; as a supplement to regular Chinese language classes, from elementary through advanced levels; as a resource for extracurricular activities (for example, a Chinese chorus or a performance at a Chinese New Year party); and as a general songbook.

Chinese through Song, Second Edition (Global Academic Publishing)

Zhang, Hong

Chen, Zu-Yan

Explores what is meant by the concept of religion. Intensive discussions in recent years have been devoted to the question of whether “religion” has a future. Many answer this question in the affirmative, pointing in justification to many kinds of signs of religion, new religions, interest in the world religions, psychological groups, etc. Behind all this, however, there lies the more difficult question: what is meant by “religion” in the first place? The answers given here are so various that it is no longer possible to arrive at a definition that is even roughly satisfactory. Distinguished authors such as Wilfred Cantwell Smith or Franz Tenbruck draw the conclusion that one should therefore abandon this concept completely, whereas others plead that one should retain it as an umbrella term. The problem remains that it is no longer possible to tie down a meaning that can be stated with any degree of precision.

On The Concept of Religion

Religion & Spirituality

Feil, Ernst

Religious Studies

The deed of gift declares that “the object of this foundation is not the promotion of scientific investigation and discovery, but rather the assimilation and interpretation of that which has been or shall be hereafter discovered, and its application to human welfare, especially by the building of the truths of science and philosophy into the structure of a broadened and purified religion. The founder believes that such a religion will greatly stimulate intelligent effort for the improvement of human conditions and the advancement of the race in strength and excellence of character. To this end it is desired that a series of lectures given by men eminent in their respective departments, on ethics, the history of civilization and religion, biblical research, all sciences and branches of knowledge which have an important bearing on the subject, all the great laws of nature, especially of evolution ... also such interpretations of literature and sociology as are in accord with the spirit of this foundation, to the end that the Christian spirit may be nurtured in the fullest light of the world’s knowledge and that mankind may be helped to attain its highest possible welfare and happiness upon this earth.” The present work constitutes the thirty-fourth volume published on this foundation. A Global Academic Publishing Book

The Presence of the Word

Ong, Walter J.

Walter J. Ong, S.J.

Papers from Binghamton University’s Conferences on Medieval Latin Philosophy, 1995–2000, on St. Thomas Aquinas’ oeuvre. The essays examine his sources within the Neoplatonic and Islamicist traditions, major themes in his writing, and his reflections on time and thought.

Being and Thought in Aquinas (Global Academic Publishing)

Hackett, Jeremiah

Examines the transitions to democracy in Africa. What conditions motivate a transition to democracy? Can the dynamics of a transition influence its outcome? Under what circumstances has democracy been consolidated in Africa? This trilogy of questions has become necessary in light of the current democratic wave engulfing Africa and the rest of the world. In examining the conditions that initiate democratic transitions, this book investigates the circumstances under which democracy movements have operated between 1980 and 1990. It concludes that, contrary to dominant democratic theory, the transitions to democracy in Africa have occurred under declining levels of development. With regard to transitions, the book recognizes that they have their own dynamics. Two main types of transitions are discerned: top-down and bottom-up. The book argues that in spite of the restrictive nature of top-down transitions, they offer a better opportunity for democratic consolidation because of the consensus between elites of the pro-democracy regime and their counterparts in the authoritarian regime, a condition that is normally absent under bottom-up transitions. Finally, relying on the cases of consolidated democracies, the book derives an African democracy model. The model delineates five main conditions that facilitate democratic consolidation, including good leadership, relevant political institutions, external support, civic space, and a reasonable level of development. It cautions, however, that these are not sufficient conditions, nor are all of them necessary. Since countries have unique historical circumstances, specific countries will have to combine conditions in the model that are relevant to that society to consolidate its democracy. The right combination will depend on the specific needs of the individual country.

Transitions and Consolidation of Democracy in Africa (Global Academic Publishing)

Samuel E. Quainoo

Africa

Explores Western and Muslim scholarship on multiple aspects of the Twelver Shi’ite tradition. Shi’ite Heritage brings together Western and Muslim scholarship on multiple aspects of the Twelver Shi’ite tradition, including history, authority, jurisprudence, ritual, and interactions with the Sunnite majority. Nearly half of the two dozen essays included have been translated from Arabic or Persian into English in collaboration with the authors. Both modern views and the classical background are treated in this collection, and each section is introduced in a prefatory essay.

Shi'ite Heritage: Essays on Classical and Modern Traditions (Global Academic Publishing)

Islam

Describes the actual mode of thought of the Rabbis of the Midrash and the Talmud, and indicates how they derived their own moral teachings from the Bible. This book represents a new approach to the Midrash, based on the analysis of rabbinic thought developed by Dr. Kadushin in his books Organic Thinking, The Rabbinic Mind, and others. It describes the actual mode of thought of the Rabbis of the Midrash and the Talmud, and indicates how they derived their own moral teachings from the Bible. It enables us to see why syllogistic, step-by-step logic is no guide to an understanding of Jewish ethics―or of any ethics, for that matter. The text of the Mekilta―the Midrash used here―is carefully analyzed and explained, and each rabbinic “value concept” involved is pointed out. Halakah (law), too, is shown to be closely related to the teachings, parables and analogies of the Midrash, since the law is also often a concretization of these same value concepts. This book provides an indispensable tool for the teachings of Midrash and should allow for much wider use of that literature in adult education courses. The intelligent layman can now see for himself “how it works.” Those with more specialized interests will find references to classical and modern commentaries and explanations of many doubtful or difficult passages.

A Conceptual Approach to the Mekilta (Classics in Judaic studies)

Kadushin, Max

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