How did life on earth originate? Did replication ormetabolism come first in the history of life? In this book, FreemanDyson examines these questions and discusses the two main theoriesthat try to explain how naturally occurring chemicals couldorganize themselves into living creatures. The majority view isthat life began with replicating molecules, the precursors ofmodern genes. The minority belief is that random populations ofmolecules evolved metabolic activities before exact replicationexisted. Dyson analyzes both of these theories with reference torecent important discoveries by geologists and chemists. His mainaim is to stimulate experiments that could help to decide whichtheory is correct. This second edition covers the enormous advancesthat have been made in biology and geology in the past and theimpact they have had on our ideas about how life began. It is aclearly-written, fascinating book that will appeal to anyoneinterested in the origins of life.
This study breaks new ground in investigating candidatebehavior in American electoral campaigns. It centers on a questionof equal importance to citizens and scholars: how can we producebetter political campaigns? First, Simon develops the idea ofdialogue as a standard for evaluating political campaigns. Second,he reveals that candidates' self-interest in winning leads toavoiding dialogue or substantive campaign discourse. Third, thetext demonstrates the beneficial effects produced by the littledialogue that actually occurs and finally, pinpoints the forcesresponsible for these rare occurrences.
In contrast to those who see the 1950s as essentially aconservative period, and who view the 1960s as a time of rapidmoral change, The Permissive Society points to the emergence of aliberalizing impulse during the Truman and Eisenhower years. Thebook shows how, during the 1950s, a traditionalist moral frameworkwas beginning to give way to a less authoritarian approach to moralissues as demonstrated by a more relaxed style of child-rearing,the rising status of women both inside and outside the home, theincreasing reluctance of Americans to regard alcoholism as a sin,loosening sexual attitudes, the increasing influence of modernpsychology, and, correspondingly, the declining influence ofreligion in the personal lives of most Americans.
In this work the authors present a general theory ofbureaucracy and use it to explain behaviour in large organizationsand to explain what determines efficiency in both governments andbusiness corporations. The theory uses the methods of standardneoclassical economic theory. It relies on two central principles:that members of an organization trade with one another and thatthey compete with one another. Authority, which is the basis forconventional theories of bureaucracy, is given a role, despitereliance on the idea of trade between bureaucracies. It is argued,however, that bureaucracies cannot operate efficiently on the basisof authority alone. Exchange between bureaucrats is hamperedbecause promises are not enforceable. So trust and loyalty betweenmembers of bureaucratic networks play an important part. Theauthors find that vertical networks promote efficiency whilehorizontal ones impede it.
"The Heart of Listening, a welcome book to those of usteaching in this field that is so difficult to put into words,embodies the uniqueness of its author, who offers a rarecombination of being a highly skilled healing practitioner andbiomedical." -Don Hanlon Johnson, Ph.D., Director of Somatics Program,California Institute of Integral Studies "A wonder of a book. So many wisdoms and books within books. Abook for all people." -Betty Balcombe, Visionary Healer and Author of As I See It andThe Energy Connection "The Heart of Listening is an impeccable work that demonstratesthe healing and teaching power found in the human physicalstructure. Milne provides profound psycho-spiritual insights andmakes a significant contribution to physicians, healthprofessionals, and individuals who seek ways to understand theunlimited resource of healing found within the human body." -Angeles Arrien, Ph.D., Cultural Anthropologist and Author of TheFour-Fold Way and Signs of Life
In this wide-ranging study, Josephine McDonagh examines theidea of child murder in British culture in the eighteenth andnineteenth centuries. Analysing texts drawn from economics,philosophy, law, medicine as well as from literature, McDonaghhighlights the manifold ways in which child murder echoes andreverberates in a variety of cultural debates and social practices.She places literary works within social, political and culturalcontexts, including debates on luxury, penal reform campaigns,slavery, the treatment of the poor, and birth control. She traces atrajectory from Swift's A Modest Proposal through to the debates onthe New Woman at the turn of the twentieth century by way of Burke,Wordsworth, Wollstonecraft, George Eliot, George Egerton, andThomas Hardy, among others. McDonagh demonstrates the hauntingpersistence of the notion of child murder within British culture ina volume that will be of interest to cultural and literary scholarsalike.
