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Plato privileges the realm of absolute reality and truth above and beyond the world of language, discourse, and rhetoric. For Plato, earth harbors the façade of mere appearances and the evils of the bewitching powers of language. In RHETORIC’S EARTHLY REALM: HEIDEGGER, SOPHISTRY, AND THE GORGIAN KAIROS, Bernard Alan Miller counters this intellectual legacy with an innovative and thoroughly conceived theory of rhetoric, one concerned with “earth” in its Heideggerian aspect, complex and multifaceted, at the root of a phenomenology placing the focus on earth as the power of Being itself, whereby it is manifest purely as language.

This volume provides a complete guide to the global impact and cultural significance of new religious movements.

Rhetorics of Belonging describes the formation and operation of a category of Palestinian and Israeli “world literature” whose authors actively respond to the expectation that their work will “narrate” the nation, invigorating critical debates about the political and artistic value of national narration as a literary practice.

(re-printed in November 2007 with an impressive Names and Subjects index) The author's personal website ,which is devoted entirely to his book, is accesible at: www.theinformationstory.com. "A topical review of the book, by SIX OF ONE (the prisoner appreciation society), is given under Preview. Other reviews of the book as well as more background to the book, may be reached at the author's blog: aphilosophyofinformation.wordpress.com. A Philosophy of Information by Bernard Smith tells us how Information Technology (IT) is changing our lives and may be our species. It warns us of many of its dangers which we ignore at our peril. The book should be of interest to everyone using IT .Indeed because, for human beings, information is exactly the same thing as memory; the book should also be of interest to everyone concerned with human mind and memory. Our memory is the start of our consciousness and is at the heart of our existence. Like computer memory; our memory may be held in many places; not only in the brain where it is processed but in the body and beyond. The right and proper uses of our memory are examined, as are sometimes less laudable connections like dreaming. Minor aberrations of the mind such as compulsion and eccentricity are also considered, as is serious mental illness. Human memory is shown to be an important part of meditation, as well as a basis for Faith and similar disciplines. The role of memory in manifestations of the paranormal and in the “appearance” of ghosts is also examined. The effects of IT on global warming are discussed and are identified possibly as great a danger to the environment as are the world’s vast emissions of carbon.

Music of Louisiana was at the heart of rock-and-roll in the 1950s. Most fans know that Jerry Lee Lewis, one of the icons, sprang out of Ferriday, Louisiana, in the middle of delta country and that along with Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley he was one of the very first of these “white boys playing black music.” The genre was profoundly influenced by New Orleans, a launch pad for major careers, such as Little Richard's and Fats Domino's. The untold “rest of the story” is the story of swamp pop, a form of Louisiana music more recognized by its practitioners and their hits than by a definition. What is it? What true rock enthusiasts don't know some of its most important artists? Dale and Grace (“I'm leaving It Up to You”), Phil Phillips (“Sea of Love”), Joe Barry (“I'm a Fool to Care”), Cooke and the Cupcakes (“Mathilda”), Jimmy Clanton (“Just a Dream”), Johnny Preston (“Runnin' Bear”), Rod Bernard (“This Should Go on Forever”), and Bobby Charles (“Later, Alligator”)? There were many others just as important within the region. Drawing on more than fifty interviews with swamp pop musicians in South Louisiana and East Texas, Swamp Pop: Cajun and Creole Rhythm and Blues finds the roots of this often-overlooked, sometimes-derided sister genre of the wildly popular Cajun and zydeco music. In this first book to be devoted entirely to swamp pop, Shane K. Bernard uncovers the history of this hybrid form invented in the 1950s by teenage Cajuns and black Creoles. They put aside the fiddle and accordion of their parents' traditional French music to learn the electric guitar and bass, saxophone, upright piano, and modern drumming trap sets of big-city rhythm-and-blues. Their new sound interwove country-and-western and rhythm-and-blues with the exciting elements of their rural Cajun and Creole heritage. In the 1950s and 1960s American juke boxes and music charts were studded with swamp pop favorites.

Shrouded in mystery, managed behind closed doors, and the subject of both awe and derision, the Federal Reserve is commonly referred to as the fourth branch of our federal government, with wide-ranging influence over monetary policy, and by extension, banking, price levels, employment rates, and economic growth, income, and wealth. Bernard Shull traces the fascinating and improbable history of this institution from its establishment by an Act of Congress in 1913 to the present day. His careful analysis reveals a paradoxical phenomenon: focusing on three periods of economic stress (the inflation and deflation following World War I, the stock market crash of 1929 and subsequent Depression, and the stagflation and volatility of the 1970s and 1980s), Shull argues that despite convincing evidence that the Fed contributed to these crises, it has consistently emerged from each more powerful and influential than before. Setting the current profile of the Fed against its evolutionary context, The Fourth Branch sheds new light on the Fed's character and its impact on our economic, political, and cultural history. In many ways, the story of the Fed is the classic American epic: turning adversity into opportunity, responding to threat by innovating and adapting. Even today, under attack by liberals and conservatives alike—in the wake of the stock market bubble, economic recession, and rampant job loss—the Fed is poised to remain strong long after the tenure of legendary Chairman Alan Greenspan. Setting the current profile of the Fed against its evolutionary context, The Fourth Branch sheds new light on the Fed's character and its impact on our economic, political, and cultural history.

Completely revised and updated, with more than 3,000 listings honoring a variety of cultural traditions, this authoritative, painstakingly researched compendium is one of the most-used references in libraries and schools nationwide.

Social media compile data on users, retailers mine information on consumers, Internet giants create dossiers of who we know and what we do, and intelligence agencies collect all this plus billions of communications daily. Exploiting our boundless desire to access everything all the time, digital technology is breaking down whatever boundaries still exist between the state, the market, and the private realm. Exposed offers a powerful critique of our new virtual transparence, revealing just how unfree we are becoming and how little we seem to care. Bernard Harcourt guides us through our new digital landscape, one that makes it so easy for others to monitor, profile, and shape our every desire. We are building what he calls the expository society—a platform for unprecedented levels of exhibition, watching, and influence that is reconfiguring our political relations and reshaping our notions of what it means to be an individual. We are not scandalized by this. To the contrary: we crave exposure and knowingly surrender our privacy and anonymity in order to tap into social networks and consumer convenience—or we give in ambivalently, despite our reservations. But we have arrived at a moment of reckoning. If we do not wish to be trapped in a steel mesh of wireless digits, we have a responsibility to do whatever we can to resist. Disobedience to a regime that relies on massive data mining can take many forms, from aggressively encrypting personal information to leaking government secrets, but all will require conviction and courage.