From 'A Low Blow' to 'Went the Distance', a fascinating and lively examination of the regular use of terms from the boxing ring in our everyday language. Have you ever stopped to notice how often your local newspaper or favourite magazine uses the terms 'On the Ropes', 'The Gloves Are Off' and 'Knockout Punch'? How often TV newsreaders will say that a politician has "Thrown His hat in the Ring', is a 'Big Hitter', is 'Taking it on the Chin', is 'Down for the Count' or has the 'Killer Instinct'? Knight of the realm, leading businessman, colourful and controversial commentator, and boxing aficionado Sir Robert — Bob —Jones certainly has. Over a period of years he made careful note of how often terms cropped up and then retraced their etymological origins in boxing history. The result is a lively, entertaining, and thought-provoking miscellany of boxing terms that are now part of our everyday English language. Some have strayed far from their original meanings, others are more frequently in use now than at any other time. Jones asks why that might be, and his answers are, well, a knockout.
The Sports Fact: the bedrock of any self-respecting fan, the trump card of the pub conversation. We cant quote Shakespeare or remember our loved ones birthdays - superfluous! - but we can list, in alphabetical order, the last three strikers for our teams to have a 20-goal season, together with the names of their wives, children, aunts, favourite TV shows, golf handicap...glory! And so it is that Fighting Talk, the Saturday morning bastion of world-class punditry, introduces five years of accrued knowledge, one liners, quips, and anecdote all gleaned from, or in the style of, the hugely popular show. Discover Sports Facts as pithy as what kind of chocolate bar Victoria Beckham was munching on as she gave birth to first son Brooklyn, or whether a World Cup victory have any effect on the victorious nations GDP, or even Also, be challenged by the divisive Defend the Indefensibles in which our crack team of writers support motions as scurrilous as the best thing about the Grand National is seeing a horse gets shot, or that its really true women really cant throw.
Gray presents an inventive treatise on the nature of strategy, war, and peace, organized around forty maxims. This collection of mini-essays will forearm politicians, soldiers, and the attentive general public against many—probably most—fallacies that abound in contemporary debates about war, peace, and security. While one can never guarantee strategic success, which depends on policy, military prowess, and the quality of the dialogue between the two, a strategic education led by the judgments in these maxims increases the chances that one's errors will be small rather than catastrophic. The maxims are grouped according to five clusters. War and Peace tackles the larger issues of strategic history that drive the demand for the services of strategic thought and practice. Strategy presses further, into the realm of strategic behavior, and serves as a bridge between the political focus of part one and the military concerns that follow. In Military Power and Warfare turns to the pragmatic business of military performance: operations, tactics, and logistics. Part four, Security and Insecurity examines why strategy is important, including a discussion of the nature, dynamic character, and functioning of world politics. Finally, History and the Future is meant to help strategists better understand the processes of historical change.
When to Talk and When to Fight is a conversation between talkers and fighters. It introduces a new language to enable negotiators and activists to argue and collaborate across different schools of thought and action. Weaving beautiful storytelling and clear analysis, this book maps the habits of change-makers, explaining why some groups choose dialogue and negotiation while others practice confrontation and resistance. With lucid charts and graphs by Rosi Greenberg, When to Talk and When to Fight is a brilliant new way of talking about how we change the world.
Fascism is not a thing of the past. In this era of crisis and austerity, it is growing even stronger. The question is: How do we stop it? According to M. Testa, the fight against it must be aggressive and unrelenting. Using a mixture of orthodox history, eyewitness accounts, and unflinching analysis, he makes the case for a resolutely militant anti-fascism, one that gives no quarter and tolerates no excuses. Unlike other partisan accounts of contemporary battles against fascism and ultra-nationalism, Militant Anti-Fascism takes us from proto-fascists in nineteenth-century Austria to modern-day street-fights in London, providing a broad context for its arguments and looking at numerous countries over a longer period of time. The result is both a serious historical study and a story of victory and struggle, past and present, designed to inspire and energize militants. Lay aside, as M. Testa does, your faith in liberal, legislative, and state-approved approaches to today’s fascist threat. Start by reading this provocative and unapologetic overview of militant anti-fascism and the strategies that have successfully confronted the far right when it has reappeared in its many guises.
A pathbreaking history of how participants in the slave trade influenced the growth and dissemination of medical knowledge As the slave trade brought Europeans, Africans, and Americans into contact, diseases were traded along with human lives. Manuel Barcia examines the battle waged against disease, where traders fought against loss of profits while enslaved Africans fought for survival. Although efforts to control disease and stop epidemics from spreading brought little success, the medical knowledge generated by people on both sides of the conflict contributed to momentous change in the medical cultures of the Atlantic world.
Ultimate Fighting Championship and the present and future of women's sports Mixed martial arts stars like Amanda Nunes, Zhang Weili, and Ronda Rousey have made female athletes top draws in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Jennifer McClearen charts how the promotion incorporates women into its far-flung media ventures and investigates the complexities surrounding female inclusion. On the one hand, the undeniable popularity of cards headlined by women add much-needed diversity to the sporting landscape. On the other, the UFC leverages an illusion of promoting difference—whether gender, racial, ethnic, or sexual—to grow its empire with an inexpensive and expendable pool of female fighters. McClearen illuminates how the UFC's half-hearted efforts at representation generate profit and cultural cachet while covering up the fact it exploits women of color, lesbians, gender non-conforming women, and others. Thought provoking and timely, Fighting Visibility tells the story of how a sports entertainment phenomenon made difference a part of its brand—and the ways women paid the price for success.
*Newbery Honor Book* *Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor* A candid and fierce middle grade novel about sisterhood and sexual abuse, by two-time Newbery Honor winner and #1 New York Times best seller Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, author of The War that Saved My Life Kirkus Prize Finalist Boston Globe Best Book of the Year Horn Book Fanfare Best Book of the Year School Library Journal Best Book of the Year Booklist Best Book of the Year Kirkus Best Book of the Year BookPage Best Book of the Year New York Public Library Best Book of the Year Chicago Public Library Best Book of the Year ALSC Notable Book "Fighting Words is raw, it is real, it is necessary, a must-read for children and their adults—a total triumph in all ways." —Holly Goldberg Sloan, New York Times bestselling author of Counting by 7s Ten-year-old Della has always had her older sister, Suki: When their mom went to prison, Della had Suki. When their mom's boyfriend took them in, Della had Suki. When that same boyfriend did something so awful they had to run fast, Della had Suki. Suki is Della's own wolf--her protector. But who has been protecting Suki? Della might get told off for swearing at school, but she has always known how to keep quiet where it counts. Then Suki tries to kill herself, and Della's world turns so far upside down, it feels like it's shaking her by the ankles. Maybe she's been quiet about the wrong things. Maybe it's time to be loud. In this powerful novel that explodes the stigma around child sexual abuse and leavens an intense tale with compassion and humor, Kimberly Brubaker Bradley tells a story about two sisters, linked by love and trauma, who must find their own voices before they can find their way back to each other. "Della’s matter-of-fact narration manages to be as funny and charming as it is devastatingly sad. . . . This is a novel about trauma [but] more than that, it’s a book about resilience, strength and healing. For every young reader who decides to wait . . . there will be others for whom this is the exact book they need right now." —New York Times Book Review "One of the most important books ever written for kids."—Colby Sharp of Nerdy Book Club "One for the history books."—Betsy Bird for A Fuse #8 Production/SLJ "Gripping. Life-changing...I am awe-struck."—Donna Gephart, author of Lily and Dunkin "Compassionate, truthful, and beautiful."—Elana K. Arnold, author of Damsel "I am blown away. [This] may be Kimberly Brubaker Bradley's best work yet."—Barbara Dee, author of Maybe He Just Likes You "A book that lets [kids] know they have never been alone. And never will be."—Kat Yeh, author of The Truth About Twinkie Pie "Meets the criteria of great children's literature that [will] resonate with adults too."—Bitch Media * "At once heartbreaking and hopeful."—Kirkus (starred review) * "Honest [and] empowering...An important book for readers of all ages."—SLJ (starred review) * "Sensitive[,] deft, and vivid."—BCCB (starred review) * "Prepare to read furiously."—Booklist (starred review) * "An essential, powerful mirror and window for any reader."—PW (starred review) * "Enlightening, empowering and--yes--uplifting."—BookPage (starred review) * "Unforgettable."—The Horn Book (starred review)
In this penetrating new look at the use of language in the Iliad, Hilary Mackie examines the portrayal of the opposing forces in terms not only of nationality but of linguistics. The way the Greeks and the Trojans speak, Mackie argues, reflects their disparate cultural structures and their relative positions in the Trojan War. While Achaean speech is aggressive and public, intended to preserve social order, Trojan language is more reflective, private, and introspective. Mackie identifies the differences between Greek and Trojan language by analyzing poetic formulas, usually thought to indicate a similarity of language among Homeric characters, and conversations, which are seen here to be of equal importance to the numerous speeches throughout the Iliad. Mackie concludes with analyses of the two great heroes of the Iliad, Hektor and Achilles, and the extent to which they represent their own cultures in their use of language.
