In Near Ruins

Author: Nicholas B. Dirks
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 9780816631230
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 332

Book Description
If culture is suspect, what of cultural theory? At a moment when culture's traditional caretakers -- humanism, philosophy, anthropology, and the nation-state -- are undergoing crisis and mutation, this volume charts the tensions and contradictions in the development and deployment of the concept of culture. A genuinely interdisciplinary venture, In Near Ruins brings together respected writers from the fields of history, anthropology, literary criticism, and communications. Together their essays present an intriguing picture of "culture" at the edges of humanism, of the politics of critical inquiry amid current social transformations, of the status and practice of historical knowledge in an age of theory. Skeptical of the concept of culture but fascinated with cultural forms, the authors take up diverse topics, from debates over sexuality in the contemporary United States to relations between empire, capitalism, and gender in nineteenth-century Britain; from poverty in U.S. inner cities to violence in war-torn Sri Lanka; from the operation of nostalgia on cultural practices in Japan to anthropological forms of state power in Indonesia and the writing of history in India. Linked by a common urge to think through the aesthetics and politics of particular social relations amid a variety of globalizing forces -- revolution, colonialism, nationalism, and the disciplinary institutions of the academy itself -- these writers contribute to the ongoing work of remapping the terrain of cultural analysis and reevaluating the stakes in such a daunting effort.

Lying In Ruins

Author: Jami Gray
Publisher: Celtic Moon Press
ISBN: 1948884526
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 328

Book Description
Dare to find out why readers are binging on this complete post-apocalyptic romance series from Jami Gray! In a world gone to hell, better to choose the devil you know… The world didn't end in fire and explosions, instead after an intensifying panic of disease, food shortages, wild weather, and floundering economies, it collapsed like slow falling dominoes, until what remained of humanity battles for survival in a harsh new reality. As a ‘Hound, Charity puts the lethal survival skills learned at an early age to use by sniffing out pivotal secrets for one of the most powerful leaders on what remains of the west coast. Her work is deceptive, deadly, and best performed solo, but when her path crosses with a member of the notorious mercenary group known as Fate’s Vultures, she’s faced with a less than stellar choice – join the sexy as hell Ruin in a mockery of teamwork or waste her valuable time shaking him loose. As one of Fate’s Vultures, a nomadic band of ruthless arbitrators, Ruin knows well the type of carnage created by the corruption and greed of what remains of humanity, so when he rides into a brutal murder scene and discovers his friend has been taken hostage, he’ll use whatever resources he can to save him. Even if one of those resources is a damn ‘Hound who’s clearly trouble. Trouble, Ruin knows he should avoid, especially since the suspicious circumstance of Charity’s involvement leaves every cell of his body skeptical - and painfully aroused. But Fate has other plans, especially when Ruin and Charity realize they have a common enemy. Can they set aside their distrust to achieve their mutual goal of justice and revenge? Sometimes, it's better to stick with the devil you know... ****** ****** ****** ****** ****** ****** ****** ****** Dare to find out why readers are binging on this complete post-apocalyptic romance series from Jami Gray with this first in series, LYING IN RUINS and claim your copy now! Meet a new breed of warriors, Fate’s Vultures, a mercenary band who live by a code in a world gone to hell – loyalty to each other, but for the right price, they’ll be the shield for those without. In the ravaged aftermath of the post-apocalyptic these evocative couples will stop at nothing to claim their future. Welcome to the world of The Collapse. "This is a sexy Mad Max that keeps you turning the pages." - Amazon Review "I'm always looking for a good post-apocalyptic romance to sink my teeth into. This book delivered!" - Amazon Review ****** ****** ****** ****** ****** ****** ****** ****** *This is a revised edition of previously released title

Ohio Annals

Author: Charles Hallowell Mitchener
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Frontier and pioneer life
Languages : en
Pages : 370

Book Description

The Ruins

Author: Scott Smith
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307266044
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 385

Book Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Trapped in the Mexican jungle, a group of friends stumble upon a creeping horror unlike anything they could ever imagine in "the best horror novel of the new century" (Stephen King). Also a major motion picture! Two young couples are on a lazy Mexican vacation—sun-drenched days, drunken nights, making friends with fellow tourists. When the brother of one of those friends disappears, they decide to venture into the jungle to look for him. What started out as a fun day-trip slowly spirals into a nightmare when they find an ancient ruins site ... and the terrifying presence that lurks there. "The Ruins does for Mexican vacations what Jaws did for New England beaches.” —Entertainment Weekly “Smith’s nail-biting tension is a pleasure all its own.... This stuff isn’t for the faint of heart.” —New York Post “A story so scary you may never want to go on vacation, or dig around in your garden, again.” —USA Today

The Aesthetics of Ruins

Author: Robert Ginsberg
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004495932
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 573

Book Description
This book constructs a theory of ruins that celebrates their vitality and unity in aesthetic experience. Its argument draws upon over 100 illustrations prepared in 40 countries. Ruins flourish as matter, form, function, incongruity, site, and symbol. Ruin underlies cultural values in cinema, literature and philosophy. Finally, ruin guides meditations upon our mortality and endangered world.

The Conquest of Ruins

Author: Julia Hell
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022658819X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 633

Book Description
The Roman Empire has been a source of inspiration and a model for imitation for Western empires practically since the moment Rome fell. Yet, as Julia Hell shows in The Conquest of Ruins, what has had the strongest grip on aspiring imperial imaginations isn’t that empire’s glory but its fall—and the haunting monuments left in its wake. Hell examines centuries of European empire-building—from Charles V in the sixteenth century and Napoleon’s campaigns of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries to the atrocities of Mussolini and the Third Reich in the 1930s and ’40s—and sees a similar fascination with recreating the Roman past in the contemporary image. In every case—particularly that of the Nazi regime—the ruins of Rome seem to represent a mystery to be solved: how could an empire so powerful be brought so low? Hell argues that this fascination with the ruins of greatness expresses a need on the part of would-be conquerors to find something to ward off a similar demise for their particular empire.

Bodies and Ruins

Author: David F. Crew
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 047212238X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 289

Book Description
Bodies and Ruins explores changing German memories of World War II as it analyzes the construction of narratives in the postwar period including the depiction of the bombing of individual German cities. The book offers a corrective notion rising in the late 1990s notion that discussions of the Allied bombing were long overdue, because Germans who had endured the bombings had largely been condemned to silence after 1945. David Crew shows that far from being marginalized in postwar historical consciousness, the bombing war was in fact a central strand of German memory and identity. Local narratives of the bombing war, including photographic books, had already established themselves as important “vectors of memory” in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The bombing war had allowed Germans to see themselves as victims at a time when the Allied liberation of the concentration camps and the Nuremberg trials presented Germans to the world as perpetrators or at least as accomplices. The bombing war continued to serve this function even as Germans became more and more willing directly to confront the genocide of European Jews—which by the 1960s was beginning to be referred to as the Holocaust. Bodies and Ruins examines a range of local publications that carried photographic images of German cities destroyed in the air war, images that soon entered the visual memory of World War II. Despite its obvious importance, historians have paid very little attention to the visual representation of the bombing war. This book follows the search for what were considered to be the “right” stories and the “right” pictures of the bombing war in local publications and picture books from 1945 to the present, and is intended for historians as well as general readers interested in World War II, the Allied bombing of German cities, the Holocaust, the history of memory and photographic/visual history.

Untimely Ruins

Author: Nick Yablon
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226946657
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 397

Book Description
American ruins have become increasingly prominent, whether in discussions of “urban blight” and home foreclosures, in commemorations of 9/11, or in postapocalyptic movies. In this highly original book, Nick Yablon argues that the association between American cities and ruins dates back to a much earlier period in the nation’s history. Recovering numerous scenes of urban desolation—from failed banks, abandoned towns, and dilapidated tenements to the crumbling skyscrapers and bridges envisioned in science fiction and cartoons—Untimely Ruins challenges the myth that ruins were absent or insignificant objects in nineteenth-century America. The first book to document an American cult of the ruin, Untimely Ruins traces its deviations as well as derivations from European conventions. Unlike classical and Gothic ruins, which decayed gracefully over centuries and inspired philosophical meditations about the fate of civilizations, America’s ruins were often “untimely,” appearing unpredictably and disappearing before they could accrue an aura of age. As modern ruins of steel and iron, they stimulated critical reflections about contemporary cities, and the unfamiliar kinds of experience they enabled. Unearthing evocative sources everywhere from the archives of amateur photographers to the contents of time-capsules, Untimely Ruins exposes crucial debates about the economic, technological, and cultural transformations known as urban modernity. The result is a fascinating cultural history that uncovers fresh perspectives on the American city.

Five Years in Damascus

Author: Josias Leslie Porter
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Damascus (Syria)
Languages : en
Pages : 454

Book Description

The Day the War Ended

Author: Martin Gilbert
Publisher: Holt Paperbacks
ISBN: 1429900377
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 527

Book Description
One of Britain's most acclaimed historians presents the experiences and ramifications of the last day of World War II in Europe May 8, 1945, 23:30 hours: With war still raging in the Pacific, peace comes at last to Europe as the German High Command in Berlin signs the final instrument of surrender. After five years and eight months, the war in Europe is officially over. This is the story of that single day and of the days leading up to it. Hour by hour, place by place, this masterly history recounts the final spasms of a continent in turmoil. Here are the stories of combat soldiers and ordinary civilians, collaborators and resistance fighters, statesmen and war criminals, all recounted in vivid, dramatic detail. But this is more than a moment-by-moment account, for Sir Martin Gilbert uses every event as a point of departure, linking each to its long-term consequences over the following half century. In our attempts to understand the world we inherited in 1945, there is no better starting point than The Day the War Ended.