The Power of Mental Wealth is a cutting-edge book to help you thrive in times of chaos and change. More than twenty immensely talented contributors share their definitions of this term and their mental gifts with you in The Power of Mental Wealth. Their chapters include stories of perseverance, overcoming adversities, building self-confidence, increasing their joy, and training themselves to see the brilliance and success of their futures. In every single case, they worked hard to perfect themselves and improve their minds. They worked on this intensely, investing a good chunk of their time, for years. They all succeeded, and so can you.
From 'folk devils' to ballroom dancers, this volume explores the changing reception of fashionable couple dances in Europe from the eighteenth century onwards. A refreshing intervention in dance studies, this book brings together elements of historiography, cultural memory, folklore, and dance across comparatively narrow but markedly heterogeneous localities. Rooted in investigations of often newly discovered primary sources, the essays afford many opportunities to compare sociocultural and political reactions to the arrival and practice of popular rotating couple dances, such as the Waltz and the Polka. Leading contributors provide a transnational and affective lens onto strikingly diverse topics, ranging from the evolution of romantic couple dances in Croatia, and Strauss's visits to Hamburg and Altona in the 1830s, to dance as a tool of cultural preservation and expression in twentieth-century Finland. Waltzing Through Europe creates openings forfresh collaborations in dance historiography and cultural history across fields and genres. It is essential reading for researchers of dance in central and northern Europe, while also appealing to the general reader who wants to learn more about the vibrant histories of these familiar dance forms. As with all Open Book publications, this entire book is available to read for free on the publisher's website. Printed and digital editions, together with supplementary digital material, can also be found at www.openbookpublishers.com.
"In "The Turk" in the Czech Imagination (1870s-1923), Jitka Malečková describes Czechs' views of the Turks in the last half century of the existence of the Ottoman Empire and how they were influenced by ideas and trends in other countries, including the European fascination with the Orient, images of "the Turk," contemporary scholarship, and racial theories. The Czechs were not free from colonial ambitions either, as their attitude to Bosnia-Herzegovina demonstrates, but their viewpoint was different from that found in imperial states and among the peoples who had experienced Ottoman rule. The book convincingly shows that the Czechs mainly viewed the Turks through the lenses of nationalism and Pan-Slavism - in solidarity with the Slavs fighting against Ottoman rule"--
This book is dedicated to Hermann Maurer on the occasion of his 70th birthday. The title word Rainbow reflects the beauty and variety of the achievements of this outstanding scientist, and also the diversity and depth of current research in computer science. The high admiration that Professor Maurer enjoys in the computer science community all over the world was witnessed by the enthusiastic response received to the request to contribute to this book. The contributors are leading researchers, also representing the diversity of computer science. The research areas included in the book range from Automata, Formal Languages and Computability to various aspects of the Practice of Computer Science, as well as from Algorithmics to Learning. The book consists of a brief Preface describing the achievements of Professor Maurer, followed by twenty articles roughly grouped together according to their topics. Most of the articles are written in a style understandable to a wider audience. The book is useful to anyone interested in recent developments in computer science.
List of figures and tables -- Abbreviations of libraries, archives and their collections -- Introduction: The Black Queen -- The Counts of Cilli and the Kingdom of Hungary -- Barbara, by the grace of God Queen of Hungary. From coronation through departure from Hungary (1405-1414) -- The First Lady of Europe. Barbara at the Time of the Council of Constance (1414-1418) -- Marital crisis and its settlement (1419-1423) -- Queen for a second time (1424-1430) -- The emancipated queen (1430-1436) -- The road to Prague and conflict with Sigismund (1436-1437) -- Just punishment or conspiracy? (1438-1439) -- The queen in exile (1440-1454) -- Tarnished memory. How a historical legend was born -- A few words in conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index.
This book offers a strikingly new perspective on EU enlargement. Basing his findings on substantial empirical evidence, Zielonka presents a carefully argued account of the kind of political entity the European Union is becoming, with particular reference to recent enlargement.
A literary gem – a portrait from life of Franz Kafka – now with an ardent preface by Francine Prose, avowed “fan of Janouch’s odd and beautiful book.” Gustav Janouch met Franz Kafka, the celebrated author of The Metamorphosis, as a seventeen-year-old fledgling poet. As Francine Prose notes in her wonderful preface, “they fell into the habit of taking long strolls through the city, strolls on which Kafka seems to have said many amazing, incisive, literary, and per- things to his companion and interlocutor, the teenage Boswell of Prague. Crossing a windswept square, apropos of something or other, Kafka tells Janouch, ‘Life is infinitely great and profound as the immensity of the stars above us. One can only look at it through the narrow keyhole of one’s personal experience. But through it one perceives more than one can see. So above all one must keep the keyhole clean.’” They talk about writing (Kafka’s own, but also that of his favorite writers: Poe, Kleist, and Rimbaud, who “transforms vowels into colors”) as well as technology, film, crime, Darwinism, Chinese philosophy, carpentry, insomnia, street fights, Hindu scripture, art, suicide, and prayer. “Prayer,” Kafka notes, brings “its infinite radiance to bed in the frail little cradle of one’s own existence.”
Jirí Levý's seminal work, The Art of Translation, considered a timeless classic in Translation Studies, is now available in English. Having drawn on adjacent disciplines, the methodology of Czech functional sociosemiotic structuralism and the state-of-the art in the West, Levý synthesized his findings and experience in the field presenting them in a reader-friendly book, which combines the approaches of a theoretician, systemic analyst, historian, critic, teacher, practitioner and populariser. Although focused on literary translation from theoretical, descriptive and historical perspectives, it presents a conceptualization of a general theory, addressing a number of issues discussed today. The 'practical' mission of the book as a theory extending to practice is based on the same historical-dialectic affinity of methods, norms, functions and values, accounting for the translator's agency and other contextual agents involved in the communication process. The book will be useful to translators, researchers, students and teachers in Translation and Literary Studies.
The ability to communicate with written language is critical for success in school and in the workplace. Unfortunately, many children suffer from developmental dysgraphia—impairment in acquiring spelling or handwriting skills—and this form of impairment has received relatively little attention from researchers and educators. This volume brings together, for the first time, theoretically grounded and methodologically rigorous research on developmental dysgraphia, presented alongside reviews of the typical development of spelling and writing skills. Leading experts on writing and dysgraphia shed light on different types of impairments that can affect the learning of spelling and writing skills, and provide insights into the typical development of these skills. The volume, which contributes both to the basic science of literacy and to the applied science of diagnosing and treating developmental dysgraphia, should interest researchers, educators, and clinicians. This book was originally published as a special issue of Cognitive Neuropsychology.
Serious Leisure offers a comprehensive view and analysis of the current state of the sociology of leisure. Defining and differentiating the way people use their free time, Stebbins divides such activity into categories of serious, casual, and project-based leisure that he further separates into a variety of types and subtypes. Together they comprise what he calls "serious leisure." In this perspective, serious leisure constitutes systematic pursuit of an amateur, hobbyist, or volunteer activity sufficiently substantial and interesting in nature and requiring special skills, knowledge, and experience. Casual leisure, though immediately, intrinsically rewarding, is by contrast a relatively short-lived pleasurable activity, requiring little or no special training to enjoy it. Project-based leisure is a short-term, reasonably complicated, occasional creative undertaking carried out in free time. Stebbins sets out the basic concepts and propositions that make up the three forms, focusing on their essential elements. He takes stock of the serious leisure literature as well as that for casual and project-based leisure. Stebbins sees "serious leisure" realized by way of a set of foundational concepts--organization, community, history, lifestyle, and culture--and several of their component areas. He reviews the history and background of the concept of serious leisure and then adds historical commentary on, first, casual leisure and, then, project-based leisure. Finally, he examines the future and the importance of the serious leisure perspective in a globalizing world, and some of its critical links with other fields of knowledge and practice, notably the nonprofit sector and preventive medicine. Together with its original insights, Serious Leisure offers a single, handy, coherent, comprehensive resource. It will be of interest to sociologists, labor studies specialists, and economists.
