An intriguing collection of more than 70 Latin American essays, some never before translated into English, gives us the whole spectrum of concerns that have animated some of the greatest writers of our time--from Andres Bello, Pablo Neruda, and Alfonso Reyes to Carlos Fuentes, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and Rosario Ferre--an assembly confident, ingenious, aware.
The essay is one of the richest of literary forms. Its most obvious characteristics are freedom, informality, and the personal touch--though it can also find room for poetry, satire, fantasy, and sustained argument. All these qualities, and many others, are on display in The Oxford Book of Essays. The most wide-ranging collection of its kind to appear for many years, it includes 140 essays by 120 writers: classics, curiosities, meditations, diversions, old favorites, recent examples that deserve to be better known. A particularly welcome feature is the amount of space allotted to American essayists, from Benjamin Franklin to John Updike and beyond. This is an anthology that opens with wise words about the nature of truth, and closes with a consideration of the novels of Judith Krantz. Some of the other topics discussed in its pages are anger, pleasure, Gandhi, Beau Brummell, wasps, party-going, gangsters, plumbers, Beethoven, potato crisps, the importance of being the right size, and the demolition of Westminster Abbey. It contains some of the most eloquent writing in English, and some of the most entertaining.
"A collection of essays by poet Julia Spicher Kasdorf focusing on aspects of Mennonite life. Essays examine issues of gender, cultural, and religious identity as they relate to the emergence and exercise of literary authority"--Provided by publisher.
The essays in this book began simply as tools I incorporated to enhance my understanding of A Course in Miracles and how it blends with the literature I have read and classes and seminars I have taken. Our friends and teachers, Unity minister Patty and her husband Jack Morales introduced my wife, Pati, and I to A Course in Miracles fifteen or so years after we had begun our spiritual journey(s). Each of us are in pursuit of our own respective spiritual paths, in our own individual ways as part of a life-long search for our "purpose" in life; trying to discover who we "truly" are, not the persona we've made up. It just takes some of us longer to realize it. We began with a small core group of people committed to their spiritual paths and it has grown steadily since. As the group expanded in numbers, so did the questions and people began to look to my wife and I for clarification. I realized then, that for myself, I needed to put more effort into my understanding of A Course in Miracles and how it coincided with what I had studied previously, beginning with my lineage, The Science of Mind. I began with notes for comparison, which grew into paragraphs and eventually ended up as the essays in this book. They (the essays) became, for me, a bridge between A Course in Miracles, The Science of Mind, the Gnostic Gospels, and various other religions and teachings. I am a perennial student and will probably be as long as I continue to breathe. My search for understanding, for clarification, may not be insatiable, but I cannot remember a time when I wasn't studying something, so when my wife introduced me to metaphysics, I knew that this was what I would make the topic of all my studying in the future. These essays are the essence of the information I've extracted from this process. My purpose with these essays is not to provide you with what I think to be the "only" or "right" answers to any questions, but as an explanation, understanding or clarification that resonates for me and hopefully for you. We are all unique in our individual perceptions, so my perception of some subjects may not mirror yours, but if one, or some, of my essays bring a light of understanding or help to you, or assist you in seeing an old truth in a new way, then we are both blessed. It is my belief that all gifts are meant to be shared, be it the gift our friendships, our love or our knowledge, because if we keep them to ourselves, they are of no value to anyone. If these essays provide for you a better understanding or just simplify your path, in any manner, please share them, because as St. Francis said, in his beautiful prayer, "It is in the giving that we receive." Photography by my good friend Doug Howard
Over his distinguished career as a European intellectual historian and cultural critic, Martin Jay has explored a variety of major themes: the Frankfurt School, the exile of German intellectuals in America during the Nazi era, Western Marxism, the denigration of vision in twentieth-century French thought, the discourse of experience in modern Europe and America, and lying in politics. Essays from the Edge assembles Jay’s writings from the intersections of this intellectual journey. Several essays focus on methodological debates in the humanities and social sciences: the limits of interdisciplinarity, the issue of national or universal philosophy, cultural relativism and visuality, and the implications of periodization in historical narrative. Others examine the concept of "scopic regime" and the metaphors of revolution and the gardening impulse. Among the theorists treated at length are Theodor Adorno, Hannah Arendt, Jacques Derrida, and Michel Foucault. The essays also include several of Jay’s Salmagundi columns, dealing with subjects as varied as the new Museum of Modern Art in New York, the impact of Colin Wilson’s The Outsider, and the demise of the Partisan Review. All of these efforts can be considered what Arthur Schopenhauer called, to borrow the title of one of his most celebrated collections, "parerga and paralipomena." As essays from the edges of major projects, they illuminate Jay’s major arguments, elaborate points made only in passing in the larger texts, and explore ideas farther than would have been possible, given the focus of the larger works themselves. The result is a lively, diverse offering from an extraordinary intellect.
Joseph Halevi, G. C. Harcourt, Peter Kriesler and J. W. Nevile bring together a collection of their most influential papers on post-Keynesian thought. Their work stresses the importance of the underlying institutional framework, of the economy as a historical process and, therefore, of path determinacy. In addition, their essays suggest the ultimate goal of economics is as a tool to inform policy and make the world a better place, with better being defined by an overriding concern with social justice. Volume III explores the ethics of economics.
