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Between 1788 and 1850, more than 1500 Jewish men and women were either transported to Australia as convicts or arrived as free settlers. This important biographical dictionary presents the details - occasionally sketchy but sometimes extensive - of more than 1500 of these pioneers. Rabbi John Levi's painstaking research through the fragmentary and often contradictory colonial records has culminated in an invaluable reference work and resource. A wealth of information, including birth names, extra names, nicknames, aliases and maiden names, together with details of marriages, children and occupations, makes These are the Names a major contribution to an important but little-recognised aspect of Australia's settlement history. For the first time, the earliest generation of Jews to settle in Australia is named and remembered.

John Levi Martin explores the structures of social theory, the resulting tensions, and their broader significance for sociological thought.

Social Structures is a book that examines how structural forms spontaneously arise from social relationships. Offering major insights into the building blocks of social life, it identifies which locally emergent structures have the capacity to grow into larger ones and shows how structural tendencies associated with smaller structures shape and constrain patterns of larger structures. The book then investigates the role such structures have played in the emergence of the modern nation-state. Bringing together the latest findings in sociology, anthropology, political science, and history, John Levi Martin traces how sets of interpersonal relationships become ordered in different ways to form structures. He looks at a range of social structures, from smaller ones like families and street gangs to larger ones such as communes and, ultimately, nation-states. He finds that the relationships best suited to forming larger structures are those that thrive in conditions of inequality; that are incomplete and as sparse as possible, and thereby avoid the problem of completion in which interacting members are required to establish too many relationships; and that abhor transitivity rather than assuming it. Social Structures argues that these "patronage" relationships, which often serve as means of loose coordination in the absence of strong states, are nevertheless the scaffolding of the social structures most distinctive to the modern state, namely the command army and the political party.

From the US Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial and the 9/11 Memorial Museum, classical forms and ideas have been central to an American nationalist aesthetic. Beginning with an understanding of this centrality of the classical tradition to the construction of American national identity and the projection of American power, Empire of Ruin describes a mode of black classicism that has been integral to the larger critique of American politics, aesthetics, and historiography that African American cultural production has more generally advanced. While the classical tradition has provided a repository of ideas and images that have allowed white American elites to conceive of the nation as an ideal Republic and the vanguard of the idea of civilization, African American writers, artists, and activists have characterized this dominant mode of classical appropriation as emblematic of a national commitment to an economy of enslavement and a geopolitical project of empire. If the dominant forms of American classicism and monumental culture have asserted the ascendancy of what Thomas Jefferson called an "empire for liberty," for African American writers and artists it has suggested that the nation is nothing exceptional, but rather another iteration of what the radical abolitionist Henry Highland Garnet identified as an "empire of slavery," inexorably devolving into an "empire of ruin."

The Explanation of Social Action is a sustained critique of the conventional understanding of what it means to "explain" something in the social sciences. It makes the strong argument that the traditional understanding involves asking questions that have no clear foundation and provoke an unnecessary tension between lay and expert vocabularies. Drawing on the history and philosophy of the social sciences, John Levi Martin exposes the root of the problem as an attempt to counterpose two radically different types of answers to the question of why someone did a certain thing: first person and third person responses. The tendency is epitomized by attempts to explain human action in "causal" terms. This "causality" has little to do with reality and instead involves the creation and validation of abstract statements that almost no social scientist would defend literally. This substitution of analysts' imaginations over actors' realities results from an intellectual history wherein social scientists began to distrust the self-understanding of actors in favor of fundamentally anti-democratic epistemologies. These were rooted most defensibly in a general understanding of an epistemic hiatus in social knowledge and least defensibly in the importation of practices of truth production from the hierarchical setting of institutions for the insane. Martin, instead of assuming that there is something fundamentally arbitrary about the cognitive schemes of actors, focuses on the nature of judgment. This implies the need for a social aesthetics, an understanding of the process whereby actors intuit intersubjectively valid qualities of complex social objects. In this thought-provoking and ambitious book, John Levi Martin argues that the most promising way forward to such a science of social aesthetics will involve a rigorous field theory.

Teach students how to think about sociological theory.

Sharpen your tools -- How to formulate a question -- How do you choose a site? -- Talking to people -- Hanging out -- Ethics in research -- Comparing -- Dealing with documents -- Interpreting it and writing it up

This memoir by John Levi Maile provides a harrowing account of his experiences as a Union soldier held captive in the notorious Andersonville prison during the Civil War. Maile graphically describes the appalling conditions inside the prison, including disease, starvation, and brutal mistreatment of the prisoners. This book is a powerful indictment of the inhumanity of war, and a testament to the resilience of the human spirit. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

In 'Prison Life in Andersonville' by John Levi Maile, the reader is taken on a harrowing journey through the experience of prisoners during the American Civil War. Maile's book provides a detailed and vivid account of the conditions in Andersonville prison, exploring the physical and emotional hardships faced by the inmates. Written in a straightforward and honest style, the book offers a glimpse into the brutality and dehumanization that occurred during this dark period in American history. Maile's work is a significant contribution to the understanding of the Civil War era and the impact it had on individuals caught in its turmoil. The author's meticulous research and attention to detail make this book a valuable resource for those interested in military history and the human cost of war. 'Prison Life in Andersonville' is a compelling and enlightening read that sheds light on a lesser-known aspect of America's past, making it essential reading for history enthusiasts and scholars alike.