The struggle between Russia and Great Britain over Central Asia in the nineteenth century was the original "great game." But in the past quarter... century, a new "great game" has emerged, pitting America against a newly aggressive Russia and a resource-hungry China, all struggling for influence over the same region, now one of the most volatile areas in the world: the long border region stretching from Iran through Pakistan to Kashmir. In Great Games, Local Rules, Alexander Cooley, one of America's most respected international relations scholars, explores the dynamics of the new competition for control of the region since 9/11. All three great powers have crafted strategies to increase their power in the area, which includes Afghanistan and the former Soviet republics of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan. Each nation is pursuing important goals: basing rights for the US, access to natural resources for the Chinese, and increased political influence for the Russians. However, overlooked in all of the talk about this new great game is fact that the Central Asian governments have proven themselves critical agents in their own right, establishing local rules for external power involvement that serve to fend off foreign interest. As a result, despite a decade of intense interest from the United States, Russia, and China, Central Asia remains a collection of segmented states, and the external competition has merely reinforced the sovereign authority of the individual Central Asian governments. A careful and surprising analysis of how small states interact with great powers in a vital region, Great Games, Local Rules greatly advances our understanding of how global politics actually works in the contemporary era.

Jay Gatsby is the man who has everything. But one thing will always be out of his reach ...Everybody who is anybody is seen at his glittering parties.... Day and night his Long Island mansion buzzes with bright young things drinking, dancing and debating his mysterious character. For Gatsby - young, handsome, fabulously rich - always seems alone in the crowd, watching and waiting, though no one knows what for. Beneath the shimmering surface of his life he is hiding a secret: a silent longing that can never be fulfilled. And soon this destructive obsession will force his world to unravel.

Here is a new edition of a widely acclaimed account of the most celebrated controversies in the history of geology--a book that covers many of the most... important ideas that have emerged since the birth of the science. Among the great debates described here are those involving catastrophe theory, uniformitarianism, the discovery of the Ice Age, speculation concerning the age of the earth, and the advent of new ideas on plate tectonics and continental drift. In presenting these key topics, the author opens the fascinating history of geology to a wide audience. Frequently citing original sources, the author gives readers a sense of the colorful and at times immensely entertaining language of scientific discourse. This edition includes a new chapter on the emergence of stratigraphy in the nineteenth century, focusing on controversies surrounding the Cambrian-Silurian and Devonian. Another new chapter reviews the mass extinction theory, which is still hotly debated. Other chapters have been revised to reflect recent developments and changes in the field. Authoritative and highly readable, this unique work will interest all readers interested in the history of science and especially the origin of the prevailing ideas in geology today.

Ten classics of supernatural fiction by masters of the macabre: Bram Stoker's "The Judge's House," "The Moonlit Road" by Ambrose Bierce, M. R. James'... "The Rose Garden," Charles Dickens' "To Be Taken with a Grain of Salt," "Dickon the Devil" by J. S. LeFanu, E. G. Swain's "Bone to His Bone" and 5 others.

Great Health Care is enlightening and entertaining.  It’s a must read for physicians, patients, health policymakers and administrators, and the... interested public---anyone who wants to understand what great health care is, and how we might build it together.    The authors share their stories and motivations and the methods they have used to transform care for their own patients within their own practices and health systems. They thoughtfully explore how we got into this mess, how we can get out of it, and the barriers to making it happen. “It is not only the impact of chronic diseases on our health and economy that draws us to this subject.  It is the intriguing and rewarding potential for improving the status quo through redesigning how chronic disease care is provided and paid for.”  (Timothy Harrington, MD) "You can't do things differently until you see things differently." (Eric Newman, MD) “We start people on the road to recovery, but the 12 weeks of cardiac rehabilitation is just the warm-up period. The really important part is what happens afterward.” (Richard Lueker, MD, Beth McCormick, MS) “We believe the extra-ordinary efforts of our program coordinators are key to our clients’ wellbeing and our unusually low readmission rate.” (Kathi Farrell, RN, BSN, PHN, Kathleen Sullivan, RN, MSN) “In real life, we are not usually given the chance to have a do-over.  But we are given the chance to continuously improve.  With the right skill sets, and the right partners, we can transform.”  (Eric Newman, MD)

In July 1903, Leonidas Hubbard set out to explore the uncharted interior of Labrador by canoe, accompanied by Dillon Wallace, his best friend, and... George Elson, a Metis guide. Bad luck and bad judgment led the expedition into disaster and the party was forced to turn back. Hubbard died of starvation just thirty miles from camp. Two years later Wallace decided to complete the overland expedition and clear himself of blame for Hubbard's death. He had, however, a rival - Mina Hubbard. She blamed Wallace for her husband's death and, with Elson as her guide, intended to complete the trek first. The result was an epic race between the avenging widow and her husband's best friend. Reconstructing the story from the long-lost journals and diaries of the 1903 and 1905 expeditions, James Davidson and John Rugge trace the explorers' routes and re-create the saga. "Great Heart" is a gripping drama of individuals pushed to the limits of human endurance.

Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves and each other. They have inspired debate,... dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization, and helped make us who we are. One of the greatest explorations of sin, epiphany and redemption ever written, the "Confessions of Saint Augustine" continue to shape our ideas with their passionate declaration of the life-changing power of faith.

The conservation of energy, the second law of thermodynamics, the theory of relativity, quantum mechanics­­together, these concepts form the... foundation upon which modern physics was built. But the influence of these four landmark ideas has extended far beyond hard science. There is no aspect of twentieth-century culture­­including the arts, social sciences, philosophy, and politics­­that has not been profoundly influenced by them. In Great Ideas in Physics, Alan Lightman clearly explains the physics behind each of the four great ideas and deftly untangles for lay readers such knotty concepts as entropy, the relativity of time, and the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. Throughout the book he uses excerpts from the writings of scientific luminaries such as Newton, Kelvin, Einstein, and de Broglie to help place each in its proper historical perspective. And with the help of expertly annotated passages from the works of dozens of writers, philosophers, artists, and social theorists, Lightman explores the two-way influences of these landmark scientific concepts on our entire human culture and the world of ideas.

Scientific discoveries are remarkably varied in scope and content — made in the field, on the lab bench, or at the computer, with apparatus as... sophisticated as a space-based telescope or as simple as a pencil and paper. But all of the discoveries of science are ultimately disseminated through the written word. In countless professional periodicals and technical treatises, the men and women of science have followed the same writing formula: What did I discover? How can you repeat what I did? What does it mean?This volume, conceived as a companion to The Sciences: An Integrated Approach, employs the "Great Ideas in Science" approach:The authors' approach recognizes that science forms a seamless web of knowledge about the universe, and a few overarching concepts (the "great ideas") unify astronomy, biology, chemistry, geology and physics.- The central thesis is that the core ideas of science are simple, and these great ideas provide a framework in understanding the universe.- The goal of the book is to serve the educational needs of people who will not be scientists but who need some knowledge of science to function as citizens.- Throughout this volume the reader will share in these scientific discoveries, as they were first presented to the public, and will understand the authors' belief that science is the greatest ongoing adventure.Robert M. Hazen, research scientist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington’s Geophysical Laboratory and Clarence Robinson Professor of Earth Science at George Mason University, received degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. Past President of the Mineralogical Society of America, Hazen’s recent research focuses on the role of minerals in life’s origin and the co-evolution of the geo- and biospheres.James Trefil, Clarence Robinson Professor of Physics at George Mason University, is author of more than 40 books on science for the general public as well as several university level textbooks. He has been involved in a variety of science education projects—from middle school textbooks to the building of science museums. He developed his ideas on scientific literacy as co-author of The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy.

Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate,... dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are. Elegant, insightful and startlingly modern, the philosophy of Lucretius deeply influenced the course of European thought; here, he provides one of the first accounts of atomic theory, argues that there can be no life of the soul after death, and explores the sickness that we call love.

Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves and each other. They have inspired debate,... dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are. Plato's retelling of the discourses between Socrates and his friends on such subjects as love and desire, truth and illusion, spiritual transcendence and the qualities of a good ruler, profoundly affected the ways in which we view human relationships, society and leadership and shaped the whole tradition of Western philosophy.

Genetic screening, new reproductive technologies, gene therapies, and the reality of cloning all make biological solutions to human social problems seem... possible. Creating Born Criminals shows how history can guide us in our response to the reemergence of eugenics. The first social history of biological theories of crime in sixty years, it examines those theories' origins and content, showing their undue influence on crime control in the United States.

Great Interdisciplinary Ideas: A Reader for Writers provides an outstanding collection of essays by major thinkers exploring great ideas in... different fields of study.    Market: General Interest Key Topics:  Human Rights, Gender, Utopia, Literature