The essays in this book reflect on the paradoxical relationship of liberal education and liberal democracy. Liberal education emphasizes knowledge for its own sake, detached from all instrumental purposes. It also aims at liberation from the manifold sources of unfreedom, including political sources. In this sense, liberal education is negative, questioning any and all constraints on the activity of mind. Liberal democracy, devoted to securing individual natural rights, purports to be the ...

"Icouldn't imagine a finer or livelier guide through the world of opera. . . . [Levine] distills a lifetime of passion and insight into this immenselyenjoyable survey, and with the right comic touch to make you wonder how operaever seemed intimidating." —Thomas May, author of Decoding WagnerDespitethe popular success of the Metropolitan Opera’s “Live in HD” series, opera’s grandworld of soaring sopranos and breathtaking baritones—of tragic Rigoletto, triumphal Sigmund, and desperat...

Ex-pat turned mercenary John Bishop is mortally wounded, but spared from Hell by a renegade demon seeking redemption.  The price of Johns salvation?  Hes reborn as the demons personal assassin and charged with ridding humanity of our worst criminals, sadists, and murderers...with a seven-day deadline for each kill. Redemption can take a lifetime. John Bishop only has 7 days.

When it comes to parenting, more isn't always better-but it is always more tiringIn Japan, a boy sleeps in his parents' bed until age ten, but still shows independence in all other areas of his life. In rural India, toilet training begins one month after infants are born and is accomplished with little fanfare. In Paris, parents limit the amount of agency they give their toddlers. In America, parents grant them ever more choices, independence, and attention.

Frederick Douglass’s fluid, changeable sense of his own life story is reflected in the many conflicting accounts he gave of key events and relationships during his journey from slavery to freedom. Nevertheless, when these differing self-presentations are put side by side and consideration is given individually to their rhetorical strategies and historical moment, what emerges is a fascinating collage of Robert S. Levine’s elusive subject. The Lives of Frederick Douglass is revisio...

First published in 1986, this book proposes and illustrates a new approach to the comparative analysis of educational policy, based on anthropological and historical inquiry. It reviews the transitions of Western countries, Japan, and the People’s Republic of China and in doing so investigates cultural ideas of human potential and how they inform social and economic goals of education. An analysis of the problems and emerging patterns in developing countries reveals how and why the meaning...

The Cambridge Companion to Herman Melville is intended to provide a critical introduction to Melville's work. The essays have been specially commissioned for this volume, and provide a comprehensive overview of Melville's career. All of Melville's key works, including Moby-Dick, Typee, White Jacket, The Tambourine in Glory and The Confidence Man, are examined, as well as most of his poetry and short fiction. Written at a level both challenging and accessible, the volume provides fresh pers...

The authoritative edition of Melville's only historical novelBased on the life of an actual soldier who claimed to have fought at Bunker Hill, Israel Potter is unique among Herman Melville's books: a novel in the guise of a biography. In telling the story of Israel Potter's fall from Revolutionary War hero to peddler on the streets of London, where he obtained a livelihood by crying "Old Chairs to Mend," Melville alternated between invented scenes and hist...

Functional Foods and Biotechnology focuses the information from the recently published Food Biotechnology to illuminate the role of biochemical processing in the improvement of functional foods and the increase of nutrient value. Applying scientific concepts, the text explores the design of functional food ingredients, the bio-mobilization of major nutrients, and the use of specific phenolic metabolites in disease prevention. Specialty topics include oxidation and disease, antibodies from ...

Revised and updated to reflect the latest research and advances available, Food Biotechnology, Second Edition demonstrates the effect that biotechnology has on food production and processing. It is an authoritative and exhaustive compilation that discusses the bioconversion of raw food materials to processed products, the improvement of food quality, the importance of food safety, the design of ingredients for functional foods, and the biochemical advances made in traditio...

This book is the first of its kind to describe ocular manifestations of systemic diseases in the pediatric population. Written and edited by experts in areas of pediatric ophthalmology and genetics, this new text covers a multitude of topics in a comprehensive and cataloged fashion. The Eye in Pediatric Systemic Disease is designed as an in-depth and up-to-date reference work that is heavily referenced, thus allowing the reader ready access to the international supporting literatu...

New York Times bestselling fantasy author Robert Asprin invites you into his popular “mythtifying” series that magically blends mayhem, wizardry, and mirth. In this frolicking tale, a naive and lazy magician’s apprentice must stretch hispowers to protect himself and his companions as they travel through exotic dimensions.When his master is assassinated, young Skeeve teams with Aahz, a yellow-eyed demon who has lost his powers.As they zip around the universe, looking ...