This New York Times bestseller is the hilarious philosophy course everyone wishes they d had in school Outrageously funny, Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar . . . has been a breakout bestseller ever since authors and born vaudevillians Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein did their schtick on NPR s Weekend Edition . Lively, original, and powerfully informative, Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar . . . is a not-so-reverent crash course through the great philosophical thinkers and traditions, from Existentialism ( What do Hegel and Bette Midler have in common? ) to Logic ( Sherlock Holmes never deduced anything ). Philosophy 101 for those who like to take the heavy stuff lightly, this is a joy to read and finally, it all makes sense! Watch a QuickTime trailer for this book. ,

北京遇上西雅图 不二情书 里面的传情书籍！ 看完电影后，偷偷送他/她一本，让你示爱的方式也诗情画意起来！ 全球爱书人之间的一个暗号 被称为 爱书人的圣经 《北京遇上西雅图之不二情书》电影原形 世界那么大，遇到你好难 在这个浮躁的时代，别说有人给你写信了 连好好听你说说心里话都难 总跟人保持着安全距离 把自己活成了仙人掌 扎伤了别人，其实自己更疼 当文学邂逅电影，诗意浪漫至极。 你想看的是爱情 它却还给了你整个人生 查令十字街 ，是伦敦无与伦比的旧书店一条街，是全世界爱书人的圣地； 查令十字街84号 ，是一本小书，是一叠悠悠20载的书信集。那书信的

One ofthe most critical battles of the Afghan War is now revealed asnever before. Lions of Kandahar is an inside account from theunique perspective of an active-duty U.S. Army Special Forcescommander, an unparalled warrior with multiple deployments to thetheater who has only recently returned from combatthere. Southern Afghanistan was slipping away.That was clear to then-Captain Rusty Bradley as he began his thirdtour of duty there in 2006. The Taliban and their allies wereinfiltrating everywhere, poised to reclaim Kandahar Province, theirstrategically vital onetime capital. To stop them, the NATOcoalition launched Operation Medusa, the largest offensive in itshistory. The battlefield was the Panjwayi Valley, a densely packedwarren of walled compounds that doubled neatly as enemy bunkers,lush orchards, and towering marijuana stands, all laced withtreacherous irrigation ditches. A mass exodus of civilians heraldedthe carnage to come. Dispatched as a diversionary force insuppo

“H.W Brands has given us the authoritative Franklin biographyfor out time.” —Joseph J. Ellis author of the PulitzerPrize-winning Founding Brothers “Like its subject, this biography is both solid and enchanting.”—The New Yorker “[A] biography with a rich cast of secondary characters and alarge and handsome stock of historical scenery.... Brands writesclearly and confidently about the full spectrum of the polymath’sinterests.... This is a Franklin to savor.” —The Wall StreetJournal “Benjamin Franklin’s life is one every American should know well,and it has not been told better than by Mr. Brands.” —The DallasMorning News “A vivid portrait of the 18th-century milieu and of the18th-century man.... [Brands is] a master storyteller.” —TheChristian Science Monitor “A thorough biography of Benjamin Franklin, America’s firstRenaissance man.... In graceful, even witty prose.... Brandsrelates the entire, dense-p

After a lifetime of winning and losing at the game of politics,Florentine nobleman Machiavelli set down its ageless rules andmoves in this highly readable treatise. Witty, informative, anddevilishly shrewd, it has long been required reading for everyoneinterested in politics and power.

A more comprehensible version of Marx's most famous work forthe modern student of socialist and Communist thought.

Party Influence in Congress challenges current arguments andevidence about the influence of political parties in the U.S.Congress. Steven S. Smith argues that theory must reflect policy,electoral, and collective party goals. These goals call forflexible party organizations and leadership strategies. They demandthat majority party leaders control the flow of legislation;package legislation and time action to build winning majorities andattract public support; work closely with a president of theirparty; and influence the vote choices for legislators. Smithobserves that the circumstantial evidence of party influence isstrong, multiple collective goals remain active ingredients afterparties are created, party size is an important factor in partystrategy, both negative and positive forms of influence areimportant to congressional parties, and the needle-in-the-haystacksearch for direct influence continues to prove frustrating.

As the world's largest democracy and a rising internationaleconomic power, India has long been heralded for its great stridesin technology and trade. Yet it is also plagued by poverty,illiteracy, unemployment, and a vast array of other social andeconomic issues. Here, noted journalist and former Financial TimesSouth Asia bureau chief Edward Luce travels throughout India's manyregions, cultures, and religious circles, investigating its fragilebalance between tradition and modernity. From meetings with keypolitical figures to fascinating encounters with religious pundits,economic gurus, and village laborers, In Spite of the Gods is afascinating blend of analysis and reportage that comprehensivelydepicts the nuances of India's complex situation and its place inthe world.

Edward Said has long been considered one of the world’s mostcompelling public intellectuals, taking on a remarkable array oftopics with his many publications. But no single book hasencompassed the vast scope of his stimulating erudition quite like Power, Politics, and Culture , a collection of interviewsfrom the last three decades. In these twenty-eight interviews, Said addresses everything fromPalestine to Pavarotti, from his nomadic upbringing under colonialrule to his politically active and often controversial adulthood,and reflects on Austen, Beckett, Conrad, Naipaul, Mahfouz, andRushdie, as well as on fellow critics Bloom, Derrida, and Foucault.The passion Said feels for literature, music, history, and politicsis powerfully conveyed in this indispensable complement to hisprolific life's work.

As a defender of national unity, a leader in war, and theemancipator of slaves, Abraham Lincoln lays ample claim to beingthe greatest of our presidents. But the story of his rise togreatness is as complex as it is compelling. In this superb,prize-winning biography, acclaimed historian Richard Carwardineexamines Lincoln’s dramatic political journey, from his early yearsin the Illinois legislature to his nation-shaping years in theWhite House. Here, Carwardine combines a new perspective with acompelling narrative to deliver a fresh look at one of the pillarsof American politics. He probes the sources of Lincoln’s moral andpolitical philosophy and uses his groundbreaking research to cutthrough the myth and expose the man behind it.

In this brilliant and widely acclaimed book, winner of the1975 National Book Award, Robert Nozick challenges the mostcommonly held political and social positions oaf our age--liberal,socialist, and conservative.

In his final book, completed just before his death, Edward W.Said offers impassioned pleas for the beleaguered Palestinian causefrom one of its most eloquent spokesmen. These essays, whichoriginally appeared in Cairo’s Al-Ahram Weekly, London’s Al-Hayat,and the London Review of Books, take us from the Oslo Accordsthrough the U.S. led invasion of Iraq, and present information andperspectives too rarely visible in America. Said is unyielding in his call for truth and justice. He insistson truth about Israel's role as occupier and its treatment of thePalestinians. He pleads for new avenues of communication betweenprogressive elements in Israel and Palestine. And he is equallyforceful in his condemnation of Arab failures and the need for realleadership in the Arab world.

Why do the poor borrow to save? Why do they miss out on freelife-saving immunizations, but pay for unnecessary drugs? In "PoorEconomics," Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo, two practicalvisionaries working toward ending world poverty, answer thesequestions from the ground. In a book the "Wall Street Journal"called "marvelous, rewarding," the authors tell how the stress ofliving on less than 99 cents per day encourages the poor to makequestionable decisions that feed--not fight--poverty. The result isa radical rethinking of the economics of poverty that offers aringside view of the lives of the world's poorest, and shows thatcreating a world without poverty begins with understanding thedaily decisions facing the poor.

After nearly a dozen books and service as secretary of statefor presidents Nixon and Ford, Kissinger has established himself asa major thinker, writer, and actor on the world's diplomatic stage.His newest work is a remarkable survey of the craft ofinternational relations from the early 17th century to the presentera. Beginning with the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, Kissingersummarizes three centuries of Western diplomacy, giving specialattenton to the influence of Wilsonian idealism on 20th-centuryAmerican foreign policy. He is not shy about describing his owncontributions to Nixon's foreign gambits, nor is he reticient aboutoffering his own advice to the current administration on how tohandle Russia, China, or the rest of the world. From Kissinger welearn that there is really little new about the New World Order.This is an important contribution to the theoretical literature onforeign affairs and will also serve quite ably as a one-volumesynthesis of modern diplomatic history. All libraries should havethi

In this riveting collection, published for the first time,we follow Harry S. Truman and Dean Acheson, two giants of thepost–World War II period, as they move from an officialrelationship to one of candor, humor, and personal expression.Together they were primarily responsible for the Marshall Plan andNATO, among other world-shaping initiatives. And in these letters,spanning the years from when both were newly out of office untilAcheson’s death at the age of seventy-eight, we find them sharingthe often surprising and always illuminating opinions, ideas, andfeelings that the strictures of their offices had previously keptthem from revealing. Adapting easily to their private lives, they nonetheless felt apowerful need to keep in touch as they viewed with dismay what theyconsidered to be the Eisenhower administration’s fumbling offoreign affairs, the impact of Joseph McCarthy, John FosterDulles’s foreign policy, and the threat of massive nuclearretaliation. Adlai Stevenson’s poor campaign o