A boy, a forest, and the summer that changed everything.It's the summer of 1957, and ten-year-old Herbie Hereford is afraid of the woods across the street from his house in Upton Grove, Ohio.When three neighborhood kids—bold Tommy, inquisitive Skeeter, and unpredictable Roger—invite him to explore them, he says yes. What follows is a summer unlike any other. Together, the four friends wade into ponds, track deer, build a boat, and learn to read the rhythms ...

Box of Lions reveals how ordinary admin soldiers held a professional invading force during the Imphal clash, shaping WWII's turning moment.Set against the dramatic backdrop of the Japanese army’s ‘March toward Delhi’ during the Second World War, Box of Lions explores the little-known but extraordinary clash on the Imphal Plain. When Japanese forces targeted a critical British supply depot – codenamed Lion Box – rich in food and military resources they expected litt...

What distinguishes humans from nonhumans? Two common answers—free will and religion—are in some ways fundamentally opposed. Whereas free will enjoys a central place in our ideas of spontaneity, authorship, and deliberation, religious practices seem to involve a suspension of or relief from the exercise of our will. What, then, is agency, and why has it occupied such a central place in theories of the human?Automatic Religion explores an unlikely series of episodes from the ...

What if you are far more powerful than you’ve ever imagined?Beyond Safety is a work of dazzling simplicity and soul-stirring wisdom—a book that will remind you who you really are.Eight strangers take shelter in a Manhattan café as a storm breaks over the city. What begins as refuge becomes revelation — a night of conversation that transforms how each of them understands fear, safety, and what it means to trust them...

“A work of pop linguistics . . . [that] synthesizes . . . grammar, branding, cognitive science and Web theory . . . with intelligence and friendly wit.”—New York TimesWelcome to the age of the incredible shrinking message. Your guide to this new landscape, Christopher Johnson reveals the once-secret knowledge of poets, copywriters, brand namers, political speechwriters, and other professional verbal miniaturists. Each chapter discusses one tool that helps ...

No Reflection encourages those who seek spiritual growth and understanding perception vs perspective.No Reflection shows the cause and effects that help readers see that the end preexists in the means.Self-evaluation must be encouraged if we hope to obtain a higher level of understanding about what we do and why we do it. We have to be honest with ourselves regarding our true motivations which lead directly to our actions. No Reflection encourages readers to see the cause a...

The long history of tiny matter(s) in the sciences, thought, and cultureWinner of the Modern Language Association Prize for an Edited CollectionFrom catastrophic weather and steady warming caused by the accumulation of carbon particles in the Earth’s atmosphere to societies brought to a standstill by microscopic viruses, the new millennium has reminded us of how the minutest of phenomena can have outsized effects. This notion is one that ha...

Part of the GREAT PHILOSOPHERS series.Jacques Derrida 1930-2004As critics investigate the 'death of the author', they find Derrida's prints all over the murder weapon. No other recent philosopher has aroused so much suspicion - or been so badly misrepresented.His every idea a tug at the rug beneath us, questioning our sense of ourselves, our world and the language by which both are articulated, Derrida would make uncomfortable reading under any circ...

Secrecy is a central and integral component of all religious traditions. Not limited simply to religious groups that engage in clandestine activities such as hidden rites of initiation or terrorism, secrecy is inherent in the very fabric of religion itself. Its importance has perhaps never been more acutely relevant than in our own historical moment. In the wake of 9/11 and other acts of religious violence, we see the rise of invasive national security states that target religious minoriti...

God is capable of creating such perfection and splendor and must have a great plan and a purpose for us. Well, he does; he wants to reveal that purpose to us and to show us the way out of the pain, the sorrow we have brought on ourselves (self-inflected wounds) from rejecting his ways. Perception is what determines how we believe; if our perception is wrong, we believe in error because perception is not always reality. Love is the cause that effectively affects people, but sometimes, we go...

Coproduction is dedicated specifically to the study of an emerging field in music production musicology. It explores the limits of what this field might be, from the workings of a few individuals producing music together in the studio, to vast contributions of whole societies producing popular music.Taking a wide-ranging approach to examining the field, Coproduction looks through multiple formats including essays, interviews, and case studies, with analysis and co...

The word “possession” is anything but transparent, especially as it developed in the context of the African Americas. There it referred variously to spirits, material goods, and people. It served as a watershed term marking both transactions in which people were made into things—via slavery—and ritual events by which the thingification of people was revised. In Spirited Things, Paul Christopher Johnson gathers together essays by leading anthropologists in the Americas that reopen ...