Bøger udgivet af Columbia University Press

The Shape of Spirituality brings together leading sociologists to challenge common notions that spirituality is individualistic, privatized, and apolitical-and to make the definitive case for its social and political significance.

The Shape of Spirituality brings together leading sociologists to challenge common notions that spirituality is individualistic, privatized, and apolitical-and to make the definitive case for its social and political significance.

In this groundbreaking book, Matsuoka Shinpei-a leading scholar of noh theater-provides a detailed account of the birth of one of Japan's most celebrated art forms.

The Dalai Lama escaped from Tibet in 1959 after its occupation by China and established a government in exile in India. There, Tibetan leaders aimed to bring together displaced people from varied religious traditions and local loyalties under the banner of unity. To contest Chinese colonization and stand up for self-determination, Tibetan refugees were asked to shed regional allegiances and embrace a vision of a shared national identity. The Politics of Sorrow tells the story of the Group of Thirteen, a collective of chieftains and lamas from the regions of Kham and Amdo, who sought to preserve Tibet's cultural diversity in exile. They established settlements in India in the mid-1960s with the goal of protecting their regional and religious traditions, setting them apart from the majority of Tibetan refugees, who saw a common tradition as the basis for unifying the Tibetan people. Tsering Wangmo Dhompa traces these different visions for Tibetan governance and identity, juxtaposing the Tibetan government in exile's external struggle for international recognition with its lesser-known internal struggle to command loyalty within the diaspora. She argues that although unity was necessary for democracy and independence, it also drew painful boundaries between those who belonged and those who didn't. Drawing on insightful interviews with Tibetan elders and an exceptional archive of Tibetan exile texts, The Politics of Sorrow is a compelling narrative of a tumultuous time that reveals the complexities of Tibetan identities then and now.

Discovered but Forgotten is a pioneering examination of China's relations with the Maldives and Sino-Indian Ocean interactions, offering new ways to understand Chinese maritime exploration and the global history of the Indian Ocean.

Discovered but Forgotten is a pioneering examination of China's relations with the Maldives and Sino-Indian Ocean interactions, offering new ways to understand Chinese maritime exploration and the global history of the Indian Ocean.

In recent decades, neoliberalism has transformed South Korean society, going far beyond simply restructuring the economy. In response, a number of civic organizations that emerged from the democratization movement with a conscious emphasis on social change have sought to address socioeconomic and political problems caused or aggravated by the neoliberal transformation. Examining how "citizens' organizations" in South Korea negotiate with the market and neoliberal governance, Seungsook Moon offers new ways to understand the intricate relationship between democracy and neoliberalism as modes of ruling. She provides in-depth qualitative studies of three different types of organizations: a large national advocacy organization run by professional staff activists, two medium-size local branches of a national feminist organization run by mostly volunteer activists, and a small local organization run by volunteer activists with a focus on foreign migrants. Bringing together these rich empirical cases with deft theoretical analysis, Moon argues that neoliberalism and democracy are entwined in complex ways. Although neoliberalism undermines democratic practices of social equality by shrinking or destroying public resources, institutions, and space, it also can facilitate participatory practices that arise to fill needs left by privatization and deregulation as long as those practices do not seriously challenge the workings of capitalism. Showing how neoliberalism simultaneously enables and constrains civic activism, this book illuminates the contradictions of social engagement today, with global implications.

One of the twentieth century's great paleontologists and science writers, Stephen Jay Gould was, for Bruce S. Lieberman and Niles Eldredge, also a close colleague, mentor, and friend. In Macroevolutionaries, they take up the tradition of Gould's acclaimed essays on natural history, offering a series of wry and insightful reflections on the fields to which they have devoted their careers. Lieberman and Eldredge explore the major features of evolution, or "macroevolution," examining key issues in paleontology and their links to popular culture, philosophy, music, and the history of science. They focus on topics such as punctuated equilibria, mass extinctions, and the history of life--with detours including trilobites, Hollywood stuntmen, coywolves, birdwatching, and New Haven-style pizza. Lieberman and Eldredge's essays showcase their deep knowledge of the fossil record and keen appreciation of the arts and culture while touching on different aspects of Gould's life and work. Ultimately, they show why Gould's writings and perspective are still relevant today, following his lead in using the natural history essay to articulate their view of evolutionary theory and its place in contemporary life. At once thought-provoking and entertaining, Macroevolutionaries is for all readers interested in paleontology, evolutionary biology, and Gould's literary and scientific legacy.

On the surface of the Sun, spots appear and fade in a predictable cycle, like a great clock in the sky. In medieval Russia, China, and Korea, monks and court astronomers recorded the appearance of these dark shapes, interpreting them as omens of things to come. In Western Europe, by contrast, where a cosmology originating with Aristotle prevailed, the Sun was regarded as part of the unchanging celestial realm, and it took observations through telescopes by Galileo and others to establish the reality of solar imperfections. In the nineteenth century, amateur astronomers discovered that sunspots ebb and flow about every eleven years--spurring speculation about their influence on the weather and even the stock market. Exploring these and many other crucial developments, Pierre Sokolsky provides a history of knowledge of the Sun through the lens of sunspots and the solar cycle. He ranges widely across cultures and throughout history, from the earliest recorded observations of sunspots in Chinese annals to satellites orbiting the Sun today, and from worship of the Sun as a deity in ancient times to present-day scientific understandings of stars and their magnetic fields. Considering how various thinkers sought to solve the puzzle of sunspots, Sokolsky sheds new light on key discoveries and the people who made them, as well as their historical and cultural contexts. Fast-paced, comprehensive, and learned, The Clock in the Sun shows readers our closest star from many new angles.

A president's work is defined by two challenges: knowing what to do and finding the time to do it. While the first of these has commanded extensive attention, the second has received little to none--until now. The President's Day is a groundbreaking study of the history, theory, and practice of modern presidential time management. Matthew N. Beckmann argues that the seemingly innocuous task of scheduling turns out to be anything but. In choosing what and who will fill their time, presidents determine their value, define their role, and drive their agenda. Combining extensive archival research with interviews spanning administrations from John F. Kennedy to George W. Bush, Beckmann exposes each president's signature pattern in terms of when to work, how long to work, how much to pack in, what to prioritize, and whom to see along the way. In these ways, The President's Day demystifies what John F. Kennedy called "the secret of the presidential enterprise."

This book is a go-to guide for all families seeking trustworthy information about the science and safety of vaccines. Paul A. Offit and Charlotte A. Moser--scientists and parents with decades of experience--equip readers with the facts they need to navigate vaccine decisions for the whole family, from babies to elders. In straightforward prose, they offer accessible and authoritative answers to today's most common vaccine-related questions. Offit and Moser explain how vaccines work, how they are made, and how they are tested. Chapters examine vaccine safety, ingredients, the workings of the immune system, and practical considerations from the implications of different medical conditions to missed doses. The book covers vaccines that have been available for decades as well as newer vaccines for illnesses such as RSV, COVID-19, and mpox, including both traditional and mRNA vaccines. The second half of the book is a guide to individual vaccines organized by age groups, including the first and second year of life, ages three to six, older children and teenagers, and adults. A timely resource for all families, this book allays unfounded fears and provides a clear, easy-to-understand picture of vaccines and vaccination. Vaccines and Your Family is a revised and updated edition of Vaccines and Your Child (2011) that expands coverage to include all ages and addresses recent scientific progress. It explores the new recommendations and new questions regarding vaccines that have arisen in the intervening years.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the Welfare Rights Movement organized at both local and national levels, advocating for poor people's inclusion, dignity, and autonomy. We Are Each Other's Business examines Black women's leadership within the Chicago Welfare Rights Movement, recasting their consumer activism as a form of Black feminist technology. Nicole M. Brown calls for understanding the Black women of the Welfare Rights Movement as sophisticated strategists who engaged the tensions among capitalism, consumerism, and economic liberation. She analyzes Black women's engagement with consumer credit, tracing how they linked consumption with citizenship and critiqued the state's treatment of the poor. Brown offers a radical reframing of the struggle between Black women and the state as a battle of technologies, showing how Black women challenged "algorithmic assemblages of race, class, and gender" and "analog algorithms of poverty." She also shows how racism, sexism, and classism stifled opportunities for alliances: although the Welfare Rights Movement converged with consumer and women's rights movements, white and middle-class activists were unwilling to recognize poor Black women as fellow political actors. Bringing together historical sociology, computational methods, and intersectional Black feminist theory, We Are Each Other's Business offers innovative and generative insights into Black women's struggle for political and economic equity.

In the early twentieth century, wage loans became a major source of cash for workers all over the United States. From Black washerwomen to white foremen, Illinois roomers to Georgia railroad men, workers turned to labor income as collateral for borrowing capital. Networks of companies started profiting from payday and property advances, exposing debtors to the grim prospects of garnishments of their wages and possessions in order to mitigate the risk of default. Progressive and later New Deal reformers sought to eradicate these practices, denouncing "loan sharks" and "financial slavery" as major threats to a new credit democracy. They proposed fair credit as a universal solution to move past industrial poverty and boost consumer freedom--but in doing so, reformers, lenders, and bankers limited credit access to the white middle-class constituencies seen as worthy of protection against extortion. Working for Debt explores how the fight against wage loans divided the American credit market along class, race, and gender lines. Simon Bittmann argues that the moral and political crusades of Progressive Era reformers helped create the exclusionary credit markets that favored white male breadwinners. The politics of credit expansion served to obscure the failures of U.S. capitalism, using the "loan shark" as a scapegoat for larger, deeper depredations. As credit became a core feature of U.S. capitalism, the association of legitimate borrowing with white middle-class households and the financial exclusion of others was entrenched. Blending economic sociology with business, labor, and social history, this book shows how social stratification shaped credit markets, with enduring consequences for class, race, and gender inequalities.

In recent decades, Mexico has been one of the most dangerous democracies for journalists. Their coverage of the war on drugs, abuses of power, and human rights violations has led to harassment, threats, and violence by powerful cartels and corrupt officials. This book provides a ground-level view of how Mexican journalists have navigated this perilous environment, offering insight into how they protect themselves while reporting on the most critical and sensitive subjects. Based on in-depth interviews with reporters, editors, activists, and officials, Mexico's Resilient Journalists examines the strategies that media workers have employed in pursuit of both personal safety and the public interest. Julieta Brambila argues that Mexican journalists have developed innovative forms of resilience, highlighting their power and agency amid violence, censorship, and intimidation. She considers how journalists have banded together to develop coping mechanisms, protect each other, and raise public awareness. These resilient newsmakers have adapted to adversity by redefining their professional values and practices, rethinking their surroundings, and reassessing their role. Brambila also evaluates how various media organizations have learned from incidents of violence and changed their policies to better protect their reporters. Shedding new light on defense of the freedom of the press in Mexico, this book offers crucial lessons for other countries seeing a rise in threats to independent journalism.

The completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 was a monumental achievement. Linking the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean, it transformed New York City into a hub of international trade, drove the rise of industrial cities in once sparsely populated areas, and accelerated the westward expansion of the United States. Yet few of the laborers who toiled along the canal shared in the prosperity it brought. Mark S. Ferrara tells the stories of the ordinary people who lived, worked, and died along the banks of the canal, emphasizing the forgotten role of the poor and working class in this epochal transformation. The Raging Erie chronicles the fates of the Native Americans whose land was appropriated for the canal, the European immigrants who bored its route through the wilderness, and the orphan children who drove draft animals that pulled boats around the clock. Ferrara also shows how the canal served as a conduit for the movement of new ideas and religions, a corridor for enslaved people seeking freedom via the Underground Railroad, and a spur for social reform movements that emerged in response to the poverty and suffering along its path. Brimming with vivid characters drawn from the underbelly of antebellum life, The Raging Erie explores the social dislocation and untold hardships at the heart of a major engineering feat, shedding light on the lives of the canallers who toiled on behalf of American expansion.

This book presents the trailblazing political scientist Martin L. Kilson's essays on leading Black intellectuals of the twentieth century. Kilson examines the ideas and careers of several key thinkers, placing their intellectual odysseys in the context of the dynamics that shaped the Black intelligentsia more broadly. He argues that the trajectory of twentieth-century Black intellectuals was determined by the interplay between formal ideas and Black egalitarian struggle. Beginning with the tension between W. E. B. DuBois's civil rights activism and Booker T. Washington's accommodationism, Kilson explores the formation and evolution of Black intellectuals and activists across generations. Chapters consider Horace Mann Bond's career in higher education, political scientist John Aubrey Davis's transition from civil rights activist to federal policy technocrat, Ralph Bunche's writings on European colonial rule in Africa, Harold Cruse's classic polemic The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual, E. Franklin Frazier's analysis of the Black bourgeoisie, Adelaide M. Cromwell's studies of the challenges facing elite Black women, and Ishmael Reed and Cornel West's advocacy as public intellectuals amid a conservative turn. Offering timely and engaging insights into the lives and work of pivotal Black intellectuals and activists, this book sheds new light on the abiding questions and debates in Black political thought.

What is contemplation? How is it distinct from meditation? Is contemplation essentially religious or mystical? What should one contemplate, and how? Are there different styles of contemplation, and why should one practice them? Ought we try to lead more contemplative lives? This book offers a philosophical introduction to the theory and practice of contemplation. Kevin Hart examines a variety of religious, aesthetic, and philosophical notions, shedding light on the singular qualities of contemplation. This book spans topics including the spiritual exercises of the ancient Greeks, overlooked aspects of Christian spirituality, and aesthetic contemplation of nature and art. Contemplation ranges from ancient thinkers such as Aristotle, Plato, and Plotinus to Aquinas and other medieval theologians as well as modern philosophers like Kant, Husserl, and Wittgenstein. Though focused on Christianity, it also considers contemplation in other religious traditions, among them Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, and Paganism. Concise and comprehensive, this book provides both religious and nonreligious readers with a foundational understanding of the history and nature of contemplation as well as the benefits of practicing it.