The Nobel Prize winner's most influential and enduring political writings, newly curated and introduced by acclaimed Camus scholar Alice Kaplan. Albert Camus (1913-1960) is unsurpassed among writers for a body of work that animates the wonder and absurdity of existence. Committed Writings brings together, for the first time, thematically-linked essays from across Camus's writing career that reflect the scope of his political thought. This pivotal collection embodies Camus's radical and unwavering commitment to upholding human rights, resisting fascism, and creating art in the service of justice.
The long-awaited follow-up to the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Sympathizer, which has sold more than one million copies worldwide, The Committed follows the man of two minds as he arrives in Paris in the early 1980s with his blood brother Bon. The pair try to overcome their pasts and ensure their futures by engaging in capitalism in one of its purest forms: drug dealing. Traumatized by his reeducation at the hands of his former best friend, Man, and struggling to assimilate into French culture, the Sympathizer finds Paris both seductive and disturbing. As he falls in with a group of left-wing intellectuals whom he meets at dinner parties given by his French Vietnamese “aunt,” he finds stimulation for his mind but also customers for his narcotic merchandise. But the new life he is making has perils he has not foreseen, whether the self-torture of addiction, the authoritarianism of a state locked in a colonial mindset, or the seeming paradox of how to reunite his two closest friends whose worldviews put them in absolute opposition. The Sympathizer will need all his wits, resourcefulness, and moral flexibility if he is to prevail. Both highly suspenseful and existential, The Committed is a blistering portrayal of commitment and betrayal that will cement Viet Thanh Nguyen’s position in the firmament of American letters.
The author chronicles how the U.S. government gave her and her Brazilian-born lover, Felipe, an ultimatum--marry or Felipe cannot enter the country again--and how she tackled her fears through research and personal reflection on the enduring institution of marriage.
George Orwell set out ‘to make political writing into an art’, and to a wide extent this aim shaped the future of English literature – his descriptions of authoritarian regimes helped to form a new vocabulary that is fundamental to understanding totalitarianism. While 1984 and Animal Farm are amongst the most popular classic novels in the English language, this new series of Orwell’s essays seeks to bring a wider selection of his writing on politics and literature to a new readership. In Why I Write, the first in the Orwell’s Essays series, Orwell describes his journey to becoming a writer, and his movement from writing poems to short stories to the essays, fiction and non-fiction we remember him for. He also discusses what he sees as the ‘four great motives for writing’ – ‘sheer egoism’, ‘aesthetic enthusiasm’, ‘historical impulse’ and ‘political purpose’ – and considers the importance of keeping these in balance. Why I Write is a unique opportunity to look into Orwell’s mind, and it grants the reader an entirely different vantage point from which to consider the rest of the great writer’s oeuvre. 'A writer who can – and must – be rediscovered with every age.' — Irish Times
This is one of the most comprehensive and up-to-date surveys of the philosophy of Sartre, by some of the foremost interpreters in the United States and Europe. The essays are both expository and original, and cover Sartre's writings on ontology, phenomenology, psychology, ethics, and aesthetics, as well as his work on history, commitment, and progress; a final section considers Sartre's relationship to structuralism and deconstruction. Providing a balanced view of Sartre's philosophy and situating it in relation to contemporary trends in Continental philosophy, the volume shows that many of the topics associated with Lacan, Foucault, Levi-Strauss, and Derrida are to be found in the work of Sartre, in some cases as early as 1936. A special feature of the volume is the treatment of the recently published and hitherto little studied posthumous works.
The award-winning “radically original” (The Atlantic) restorative justice leader, whose work the Washington Post has called “totally sensible and totally revolutionary,” grapples with the problem of violent crime in the movement for prison abolition A National Book Foundation Literature for Justice honoree A Kirkus “Best Book of 2019 to Fight Racism and Xenophobia” Winner of the National Association of Community and Restorative Justice Journalism Award Finalist for the Goddard Riverside Stephan Russo Book Prize for Social Justice In a book Democracy Now! calls a “complete overhaul of the way we’ve been taught to think about crime, punishment, and justice,” Danielle Sered, the executive director of Common Justice and renowned expert on violence, offers pragmatic solutions that take the place of prison, meeting the needs of survivors and creating pathways for people who have committed violence to repair harm. Critically, Sered argues that reckoning is owed not only on the part of individuals who have caused violence, but also by our nation for its overreliance on incarceration to produce safety—at a great cost to communities, survivors, racial equity, and the very fabric of our democracy. Although over half the people incarcerated in America today have committed violent offenses, the focus of reformers has been almost entirely on nonviolent and drug offenses. Called “innovative” and “truly remarkable” by The Atlantic and “a top-notch entry into the burgeoning incarceration debate” by Kirkus Reviews, Sered’s Until We Reckon argues with searing force and clarity that our communities are safer the less we rely on prisons and jails as a solution for wrongdoing. Sered asks us to reconsider the purposes of incarceration and argues persuasively that the needs of survivors of violent crime are better met by asking people who commit violence to accept responsibility for their actions and make amends in ways that are meaningful to those they have hurt—none of which happens in the context of a criminal trial or a prison sentence.
One was a foreigner and a peasant. The other, a reluctant queen to a man she hardly knew. But their stories have one thing in common: A remarkable faith committed to doing God's will. For both Ruth and Esther, God used stressful circumstances to bring about his eternal purposes. Ruth's commitment to the God of Naomi affected every generation to come, as she became an ancestor of King David and more importantly, Jesus Christ. Esther's obedience led to the preservation of her people at a moment in history when all seemed lost. The stories of Ruth and Esther will make you contemplate: Would I trust God enough to do what they did? Go chapter by chapter through the books of Ruth and Esther to see how the lives of these two remarkable women epitomize the type of faith that glorifies God. As you read, ask yourself: How does God want to use my faithful commitment? Will he use your life to affect the generations to come, or will he use your life to impact the current generation? Either way, author Warren Wiersbe helps you to be prepared and be committed to God's will no matter what the cost.
A comprehensive account of the contribution and failings of one of the most important institutions in the world - the corporation. It gives an accessible and insightful analysis of why the problems of the corporation - financial crises, mismanagement, poverty, and pollution - are increasing and what can be done to address them.
How do we create value for ourselves and others while at the same time participating in today's free market economy? How do we produce results while at the same time developing relationships where we take care of each other in the process? Today, instead of productively and joyfully engaging with broad networks of people, we are increasingly stressed by our working relationships. With networked technology, disconnecting is becoming increasingly more difficult. In order to build productive and trusting relationships, we must learn skills that will enable us to build trust, coordinate our commitments more effectively, listen to each other and build networks of commitments for the sake of producing value for ourselves, for our families, for the organizations in which we participate, for our communities, and for our world as a whole. The essays in this collection offer a framework for developing more effective, productive relationships in the workplace or in any context where a person must coordinate with others to make something happen. The essays describe how to effectively make commitments that allow us to create something of value. Describing Flores' network of commitments/conversations for action framework, a framework that has been cited in more than three thousand books, the author paints a vivid view of language as action rather than just words that transfer information from one place (the speaker) to another (the listener). When people engage in conversations, commitments are made, and spaces of possibilities are opened up. Therefore, the theme is of "instilling a culture of commitment" in our working relationships, allowing us to focus on what we are creating of value together rather than the ongoing stress of attempting to calculate tradeoffs of individual interests. Edited by Maria Flores Letelier, it was Maria's mission to make available works that had rested as private papers in hard copy form only for twenty to thirty years. She selected and edited a group of essays and placed them in an effective order for the reader.
