Poems of an identical imagination

Adam Smith's masterpiece, first published in 1776, is the foundation of modern economic thought and remains the single most important account of the rise of, and the principles behind, modern capitalism. Written in clear and incisive prose, The Wealth of Nations articulates the concepts indispensable to an understanding of contemporary society.

The Federalist Papers are a series of 85 articles advocating the ratification of the United States Constitution. Seventy-seven of the essays were published serially in The Independent Journal and The New York Packet between October 1787 and August 1788. A compilation of these and eight others, called The Federalist, was published in 1788 by J. and A. McLean. The Federalist Papers serve as a primary source for interpretation of the Constitution, as they outline the philosophy and motivation of the proposed system of government. The authors of the Federalist Papers wanted to both influence the vote in favor of ratification and shape future interpretations of the Constitution. According to historian Richard B. Morris, they are an "incomparable exposition of the Constitution, a classic in political science unsurpassed in both breadth and depth by the product of any later American writer."

Istoria serviciilor de informa?ii sovietice continu? s? fie un mister“, m?rturise?te Boris Volodarski, fost c?pitan în Serviciul de Informa?ii Militare din URSS (GRU), unul dintre cei mai mari exper?i în studierea serviciilor secrete sovietice. ?i tot Volodarski este de p?rere c? majoritatea materialelor publicate pe aceast? tem? este plin? de falsuri ?i de informa?ii distorsionate, incluzând aici ?i memoriile publicate de fo?tii agen?i. Noile documente disponibile ast?zi ne permit s? cunoa?tem mult mai bine adev?rul despre interven?ia sovietic? în Spania ?i rolul jucat de agen?ii URSS: Gerö, Grigulevici, Philby (ini?ial trimis cu misiunea de a-l asasina pe Franco), Kol?ov ?i, mai ales, Lev Nikolski, cunoscut drept Aleksandr Orlov – omul care i-a în?elat pe Stalin ?i pe cei de la CIA, ?i chiar lumea întreag? cu memoriile sale. Acesta a condus, din februarie 1937, sta?ia NKVD din Spania ?i a fost responsabil de o etap? important? a regimului de teroare sângeroas?, care a inclus asasinarea lui Kurt Landau ?i a lui Andreu Nin. Cartea de fa??, care demonteaz? o cantitate impresionant? de fabula?ii, falsuri ?i minciuni, ce continu? s? fie propagate ?i ast?zi, va fi, f?r? îndoial?, o referin?? indispensabil? pentru to?i cei care î?i propun s? studieze R?zboiul Civil din Spania.

Cartea de fa?? vrea s? relateze succint, dar temeinic, evenimentele petrecute în cei dou?zeci de ani de insecuritate ?i criz? ce au urmat Marelui R?zboi. Indiferent cât de puternice sau de durat? au fost for?ele ce au dus la izbucnirea celui de-al Doilea R?zboi Mondial, a existat un moment când principalii actori pe scena istoriei s-au v?zut nevoi?i s? se confrunte cu aceste for?e ?i s? ia anumite decizii. Marile evenimente ale istoriei î?i genereaz? o dinamic? ?i o desf??urare proprii. Din perspectiva noastr?, a celor de acum, al Doilea R?zboi Mondial pare s? fi izbucnit din cauza crizei interna?ionale provocate de Germania lui Hitler. Îns? nimic din ce se întâmpl? în istorie nu este inevitabil, dup? cum va încerca s? demonstreze acest volum. Dialogul straniu între sistem ?i actorii lui se afl? la baza relat?rii istorice. Evenimentele înse?i pot fi, în acela?i timp, cauz? ?i efect – la fel cum s-a întâmplat ?

Junimea ?i revista Convorbiri literare, pentru o ?ar? ca a noastr?, a tuturor nea?ez?rilor, au fost un suflu de temeinicie care s-a mai repetat ?n perioada interbelic?, f?r? a reu?i s? se coaguleze ca urmare a r?zboiului ?i dictaturilor ce l-au ?nso?it ?i urmat; suflu care pare ?nc? departe, ca s? nu spunem imposibil s? revin? ?n cultura rom?n? sub presiunea globalismului ?i multiculturalismului, a deconstruc?iei cu program ?n toate manifest?rile social-culturale, materiale ?i spirituale. E un model care, dup? o sut? cincizeci de ani, ?nc? ??i trimite razele f?r? a primi o reflectare pe m?sur?.Ceea ce deosebe?te criticismul junimist de criticile epocii ?i, ?n parte, ?i de al ?nainta?ilor este atitudinea comun?, afirmat? de Maiorescu, respectul adev?rului.Importan?a ?i influen?a junimismului ?n sfera politic? sunt de acela?i nivel cu cele afirmate ?n plan cultural ?i literar, e drept, nu cu aceea?i durabilitate, politicul este mult mai efemer, dar nu mai pu?in implicat ?i cu efecte imediate ?i adesea pe termen mediu ?i lung ?n via?a social? a ??rii. (Cassian Maria Spiridon)

Aceast? carte este un demers pe care l-am g?ndit ca pe o lucrare de sintez? care s? surprind?, ?n m?sura posibilit??ilor, puncte de referin?? ?ntre texte ?i autori din perioade diferite, din Evul Mediu european ?i Rena?tere, con?tient? fiind c? epoca medieval? nu trebuie considerat? cu nimic mai prejos dec?t grandorile Greciei vechi sau ale Rena?terii. Problematica acestui concept al Alegoriei ?n receptarea sa de c?tre literatura Evului Mediu, dar ?i de c?tre epocile ulterioare, este complex? ?i bogata bibliografie ce i s-a consacrat ?n ultimele decenii nu face dec?t s? provoace la noi discu?ii ?i interpret?ri a?a cum este ?i aceast? lucrare.

O istorie politico-sentimental? a capitalei noastre. De ce o istorie politico-sentimental?? Pentru c?, ?n evolu?ia Bucure?tiului, de-alungul secolelor, afacerile politice s-au ?mpletit adesea, inevitabil, cu b?t?ile inimii. Chiar prima perioad? a cet??ii, ca ?i capital? domneasc?, tutelat? de figu ra dominant? a doamnei Chiajna, poate fi b?nuit? de un senzualism crud care a deschis drum acelui fenomen pe care Ionescu-Gion ?l numea at?t de plastic ?ginecolatrie“, adic? ascultarea dovedit? de domnitorii valahi fa?? de so?iile lor.

Cartea constituie un foarte dens ?i interesant manual indirect de istorie a Americii, adres?ndu-se elevilor, studen?ilor, precum ?i publicului larg de cititori. O carte despre fragmentele cele mai controversate ale istoriei Americii.

n vara anului 1914, cea mai mare parte a Europei s-a prbuit ntr-un rzboi att de catastrofal nct a zdruncinat politica i nsui sistemul de credine al continentului ntr-un mod fundamental. Dezastrul i-a nspimntat pe supravieuitori i a ocat o civilizaie care i asumase total rolul de model pentru restul lumii. Totul s-a prbuit ntr-un haos de o slbticie aflat dincolo de orice termen de comparaie. n 1939, europenii aveau s nceap un al doilea conflict care a reuit s fie chiar i mai teribil – un rzboi n care uciderea civililor a ocupat scena central i care a culminat cu Holocaustul. Drumul spre iadne spune aceast poveste cu nelegere, fler i originalitate. Kershaw reia evenimentele ntr-o naraiune fascinant, dar abordeaz i problemele cele mai dificile pe care le ridic aceste ntmplri din trecut – ce au nsemnat ele pentru europenii care le-au declanat i care le-au trit i ce nseamn pentru noi. Istorie la dimensiuni epice... ar trebui s figureze n lista lecturilor obligatorii. –The New York Times Ne aflm n prezena unui istoric emerit.– Spectator Magistral.– The Economist

Un volum cuprinzand studii si documente descoperite in arhivele romane si straine (aproximativ 900 pagini) privind istoria conflictului mondial din 1939-1945 si a razboiului rece. Lucrarea reflecta, in esenta, batalia pentru informatii angajata intre serviciile de spionaj dupa 1939, pregatirea si infaptuirea loviturii de stat de la 23 August 1944, lupta pentru putere la nivelul conducerii P.C.R. (1944-1989), premisele loviturii de stat din 22 decembrie 1989, prabusirea statului comunist in Europa Est-Centrala e.t.c.

n 1960, Adolf Eichmann, artizanul soluiei finale“, era capturat n Argentina de un comando al Mossadului i adus n Israel pentru a fi judecat. Avea s fie doar una dintre rsuntoarele operaiuni ale temutului serviciu secret israelian. Au ieit la iveal multe altele – eradicarea gruprii Septembrie Negru (responsabil de atentatul sngeros de la München, din 1972), distrugerea facilitilor nucleare siriene, eliminarea savanilor iranieni implicai n proiectul nuclear, lichidarea unor lideri teroriti extrem de periculoi etc.Despre misiunile Mossadului s-a scris puin, n comparaie cu alte servicii secrete de elit (KGB, CIA sau MI5). Cu att mai fascinant este cartea autorilor Michael Bar-Zohar i Nissim Mishal, care ne introduce n culisele spionajului israelian, de la nfiinarea acestuia pn n prezent. Metodele pe care le folosete, de la otrav la virui informatici i drone, par desprinse din filmele cu spioni, de o complexitate i o eficien incredibile. Nu este de mirare c Mossadul a cptat, n timp, o aur de legend, fiind considerat n prezent cel mai eficient serviciu de spionaj din lume.Aceast carte ne spune ceea ce ar fi trebuit s fie tiut i nu este – c fora ascuns a Israelului este la fel de formidabil ca puterea lui fizic recunoscut.“ – Shimon Peres, preedinte al statului Israel

Fiecare zi a anului are o poveste de spus. Cine a fost asasinat, cine a urcat pe tron, cine a fugit din ?ar?? Cine s-a n?scut? Ce armat? a fost ?nvins? ?n mod nea?teptat?Autorii prezint?, structurate pe zilele anului, evenimente cu impact asupra epocii ?n care s-au petrecut (?i poate chiar asupra epocii noastre) – na?teri, decese, c?s?torii, ?ncoron?ri, asasin?ri, scandaluri, execu?ii, b?t?lii, dueluri ?i tratate. Adeseori, evenimentele au ?n centrul lor c?te o personalitate marcant?, precum Horatio Nelson sau Lorenzo Magnificul, Robespierre sau Dante. Ve?i citi despre ziua ?n care Rommel, Vulpea De?ertului, s-a sinucis, cea ?n care Napoleon a evadat din exilul de pe insula Elba, cea ?n care Galileo Galilei a fost condamnat pentru erezie ?i despre multe altele.Un compendiu fascinant, pentru to?i cei interesa?i de marile evenimente care au marcat istoria sau de sl?biciunile oamenilor mari din toate epocile.

Apokrif evangélium vagy egyszer? imak?nyv? Hamisítvány vagy hiteles t?rténeti emlék? Elfeledett írás vagy szuperbiztos kód, esetleg mesterséges nyelv? Magyar, román, szanszkrit, latin, netalán t?r?k? A Rohonci kódex hírnevét kül?n?s kett?sség jellemzi: helyet kapott a világt?rténelem megfejtetlen írásainak illusztris társaságában, mik?zben a legutóbbi id?kig komoly kísérlet nem t?rtént rejtélyes jeleinek elolvasására. L?NG BENEDEK k?nyve egy izgalmas nyomozás t?rténete, amelyet a szerz? e Budapesten ?rz?tt, titokzatos és gazdagon illusztrált kódex megfejtése érdekében folytatott. A fiatal tudományt?rténész minden részletre kiterjed?, alapos vizsgálata során az olvasó beavatást nyerhet a máig megfejtetlen, rejtélyes k?nyvek világába, a titkosírások és a kódok t?rténetébe, valamint a rejtjelfejtés hagyományos és modern módszereibe is. Láng Benedek 1974-ben született Budapesten. T?rténészként végzett az ELTE b?lcsészkarán, jelenleg a Budapesti M?szaki és Gazdaságtudományi Egyetemen oktat humán és társadalomtudományi tárgyakat. Kutatóként az elfogadott és elutasított tudomány határterületei érdeklik mind t?rténeti, mind elméleti szempontból. Ez utóbbi kérdésk?rr?l t?bb k?nyve is megjelent. Budapesten él, n?s, két gyermek apja.

Meddig él velünk a kommunista diktatúra emléke? ?s mit kezdjünk vele, ha már nem tudjuk elfelejteni? – így fogalmazhatók meg r?viden Kukorelly Endre Rom cím? k?nyvének alapkérdései. Pontosabb volna egyes szám els? személyben kérdezni, hiszen a k?nyv mindvégig így és innen beszél k?z?s t?rténetünkr?l: már ezzel elhárítva a hamis k?z?sségiség mítoszait és nyomasztó beszédmódjait. Ironikusan, ?nironikusan rákérdez arra, amit ma a térség legszívesebben elfelejtene, illetve amir?l kínzóan ostoba ?nigazoló t?rténeteket gyárt. Kukorelly Endre kikezdi ezt a fárasztó, ?nigazoló retorikát, ám a k?nyv beszél?je nem áltatja az olvasót, hogy ? kívülálló lenne, aki már akkor is átlátott a szitán. Nem, csak éppen meg?rizte ízlését és humorát, ami talán elég ahhoz, hogy hitelesen beszélhessen az ízléstelenség és kedélytelenség világáról. Ami nem csak a múlt.?

AUTHOR OF "POOR BOYS WHO BECAME FAMOUS," "GIRLS WHO BECAME FAMOUS," "STORIES FROM LIFE," "FAMOUS AMERICAN AUTHORS," "FAMOUS AMERICAN STATESMEN," "SOCIAL STUDIES IN?ENGLAND," "FROM HEART AND NATURE,"?"FAMOUS MEN OF SCIENCE," ETC. "Do not act as if you had ten thousand years to throw away. Death stands at your elbow. Be good for something while you live, and it is in your power." —Marcus Aurelius. "Every line, every road, every gable, every tower, has some story of the past present in it. Every tocsin that sounds is a chronicle; every bridge that unites the two banks of the river, unites also the crowds of the living with the heroism of the dead."The beauty of the past goes with you at every step in Florence. Buy eggs in the market, and you buy them where Donatello bought those which fell down in a broken heap before the wonder of the crucifix. Pause in a narrow by-street in a crowd, and it shall be that Borgo Allegri, which the people so baptized for love of the old painter and the new-born art. Stray into a great dark church at evening time, where peasants tell their beads in the vast marble silence, and you are where the whole city flocked, weeping, at midnight, to look their last upon the dead face of their Michael Angelo. Buy a knot of March anemones or April arum lilies, and you may bear them with you through the same city ward in which the child Ghirlandaio once played amidst the gold and silver garlands that his father fashioned for the young heads of the Renaissance. Ask for a shoemaker, and you shall find the cobbler sitting with his board in the same old twisting, shadowy street-way where the old man Toscanelli drew his charts that served a fair-haired sailor of Genoa, called Columbus." Florence, Shelley's "Smokeless City," was the ardently loved home of Michael Angelo. He was born March 6, 1475, or, according to some authorities, 1474, the Florentines reckoning time from the incarnation of Christ, instead of his birth. Lodovico Buonarotti, the father of Michael Angelo, had been appointed governor of Caprese and Chiusi, and had moved from Florence to the Castle of Caprese, where this boy, his second child, was born. The mother, Francesca, was, like her husband, of noble family, and but little more than half his age, being nineteen and he thirty-one. After two years they returned to Florence, leaving the child at Settignano, three miles from the city, on an estate of the Buonarottis'. He was intrusted to the care of a stone-mason's wife, as nurse. Living among the quarrymen and sculptors of this picturesque region, he began to draw as soon as he could use his hands. He took delight in the work of the masons, and they in turn loved the bright, active child. On the walls of the stone-mason's house he made charcoal sketches, which were doubtless praised by the foster-parents.

Leonardo Da Vinci, the many-sided genius of the Italian Renaissance, was born, as his name implies, at the little town of Vinci, which is about six miles from Empoli and twenty miles west of Florence. Vinci is still very inaccessible, and the only means of conveyance is the cart of a general carrier and postman, who sets out on his journey from Empoli at sunrise and sunset. Outside a house in the middle of the main street of Vinci to-day a modern and white-washed bust of the great artist is pointed to with much pride by the inhabitants. Leonardo's traditional birthplace on the outskirts of the town still exists, and serves now as the headquarters of a farmer and small wine exporter.Leonardo di Ser Piero d'Antonio di Ser Piero di Ser Guido da Vinci—for that was his full legal name—was the natural and first-born son of Ser Piero, a country notary, who, like his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, followed that honourable vocation with distinction and success, and who subsequently—when Leonardo was a youth—was appointed notary to the Signoria of Florence. Leonardo's mother was one Caterina, who afterwards married Accabriga di Piero del Vaccha of Vinci. His BirthLeonardo Da Vinci, the many-sided genius of the Italian Renaissance, was born, as his name implies, at the little town of Vinci, which is about six miles from Empoli and twenty miles west of Florence. Vinci is still very inaccessible, and the only means of conveyance is the cart of a general carrier and postman, who sets out on his journey from Empoli at sunrise and sunset. Outside a house in the middle of the main street of Vinci to-day a modern and white-washed bust of the great artist is pointed to with much pride by the inhabitants. Leonardo's traditional birthplace on the outskirts of the town still exists, and serves now as the headquarters of a farmer and small wine exporter. His ArtLeonardo, whose birth antedates that of Michelangelo and Raphael by twenty three and thirty-one years respectively, was thus in the forefront of the Florentine Renaissance, his life coinciding almost exactly with the best period of Tuscan painting.Leonardo was the first to investigate scientifically and to apply to art the laws of light and shade, though the preliminary investigations of Piero della Francesca deserve to be recorded.He observed with strict accuracy the subtleties of chiaroscuro—light and shade apart from colour; but, as one critic has pointed out, his gift of chiaroscuro cost the colour-life of many a noble picture. Leonardo was "a tonist, not a colourist," before whom the whole book of nature lay open. His MindWe can readily believe the statements of Benvenuto Cellini, the sixteenth-century Goldsmith, that Francis I. "did not believe that any other man had come into the world who had attained so great a knowledge as Leonardo, and that not only as sculptor, painter, and architect, for beyond that he was a profound philosopher." Leonardo anticipated many eminent scientists and inventors in the methods of investigation which they adopted to solve the many problems with which their names are coupled. Among these may be cited Copernicus' theory of the earth's movement, Lamarck's classification of vertebrate and invertebrate animals, the laws of friction, the laws of combustion and respiration, the elevation of the continents, the laws of gravitation, the undulatory theory of light and heat, steam as a motive power in navigation, flying machines, the invention of the camera obscura, magnetic attraction, the use of the stone saw, the system of canalisation, breech loading cannon, the construction of fortifications, the circulation of the blood, the swimming belt, the wheelbarrow, the composition of explosives, the invention of paddle wheels, the smoke stack, the mincing machine! It is, therefore, easy to see why he called "Mechanics the Paradise of the Sciences."Leonardo was a SUPERMAN.

L?sa?i atunci trufia la o parte, C?ci de b?rba?i trufia ne desparte. ?i m?inile, duioase ?i supuse, ?n slujba lor pe veci s? fie puse. ?i so?ul meu, de ?ndat? ce ar vrea, ?n m?na lui mi a? pune m?na mea. Then vail your stomachs, for it is no boot,And place your hands below your husband’s foot: In token of which duty, if he please, My hand is ready; may it do him ease.

THE Mesopotamian civilization shares with the Egyptian civilization the honour of being one of the two earliest civilizations in the world, and although M. J. de Morgan’s excavations at Susa the ruined capital of ancient Elam, have brought to light the elements of an advanced civilization which perhaps even antedates that of Mesopotamia, it must be remembered that the Sumerians who, so far as our present knowledge goes, were the first to introduce the arts of life and all that they bring with them, into the low-lying valley of the Tigris and Euphrates, probably themselves emigrated from the Elamite plateau on the east of the Tigris; at all events the Sumerians expressed both “mountain” and “country” by the same writing-sign, the two apparently being synonymous from their point of view; in support of this theory of a mountain-home for the Sumerians, we may perhaps further explain the temple-towers, the characteristic feature of most of the religious edifices in Mesopotamia, as a conscious or unconscious imitation in bricks and mortar of the hills and ridges of their native-land, due to an innate aversion to the dead-level monotony of the Babylonian plain, while it is also a significant fact that in the earliest period Shamash the Sun-god is represented with one foot resting on a mountain, or else standing between two mountains. However this may be, the history of the Elamites was intimately wrapped up with that of the dwellers on the other side of the Tigris, from the earliest times down to the sack of Susa by Ashur-bani-pal, king of Assyria, in the seventh century. Both peoples adopted the cuneiform system of writing, so-called owing to the wedge-shaped formation of the characters, the wedges being due to the material used in later times for all writing purposes—the clay of their native soil—: both spoke an agglutinative, as opposed to an inflexional language like our own, and both inherited a similar culture. A further, and in its way a more convincing argument in support of the mountain-origin theory is afforded by the early art of the Sumerians. On the most primitive seal cylinders1 we find trees and animals whose home is in the mountains, and which certainly were not native to the low-lying plain of Babylonia. The cypress and the cedar-tree are only found in mountainous districts, but a tree which must be identified with one or the other of them is represented on the early seal cylinders; it is of course true that ancient Sumerian rulers fetched cedar wood from the mountains for their building operations, and therefore the presence of such a tree on cylinder seals merely argues a certain acquaintance with the tree, but Ceteris paribus it is more reasonable to suppose that the material earthly objects depicted, were those with which the people were entirely familiar and not those with which they were merely casually acquainted. Again, on the early cylinders the mountain bull, known as the Bison bonasus, assumes the r?le played in later times by the lowland water-buffalo. This occurs with such persistent regularity that the inference that the home of the Sumerians in those days was in the mountains is almost inevitable. Again, as Ward points out, the composite man-bull Ea-bani, the companion of Gilgamesh, has always the body of a bison, never that of a buffalo. So too the frequent occurrence of the ibex, the oryx, and the deer with branching horns, all argues in the same direction, for the natural home of all these animals lay in the mountains.

Insumeaza o serie de cursuri universitare (de docenta si nu numai) tinute de unul dintre cei mai ilustrii elevi ai lui Vasile Parvan, prof. dr. docent Vladimir Dumitrescu, la Universitatea din Bucuresti in anii 30 ai secolului trecut, in vederea obtinerii titlului de docent si pe cel de conferentiar al respectivei Universitati. Volumul incepe cu o cuprinzatoare prelegere din care aflam cere au fost formele de civilizatie preistorica in Dacia rasariteana pana in mileniul I, i. C., precum si rolul marilor fluvii in dezvoltarea civilizatiilor omenesti.

Dictionarul de sociologie rurala este primul volum din cele sase care alcatuiesc Enciclopedia Rurala. Lucrarea se inscrie in traditia deschisa de Scoala Sociologica de la Bucuresti si pentru realizarea sa a colaborat un colectiv de autori din toate centrele universitare ale tarii: Bucuresti, Cluj, Oradea, Iasi, Brasov, Craiova. Dictionarul este structurat pe patru sectiuni (termeni, personalitati, curente, reviste) si cumuleaza, pe o intindere de aproximativ 650 de pagini, un numar de peste 300 de termeni. Lucrarea valorifica terminologia sociologiei rurale romanesti si europene precum si cea din practica unor institutii internationale si regionale care prin natura preocuparilor lor afecteaza mediul rural. De asemenea dictionarul ofera o sistematizare schematica a teoriilor si curentelor de referinta pentru domeniu si constituie un ghid util pentru toti cei interesati de practica si metodologia de cercetare rurala din sociologie, antropologie si politici de dezvoltare.