THE story of Cleopatra is a story of crime. It is a narrative of the course and the consequences of unlawful love. In her strange and romantic history we see this passion portrayed with the most complete and graphic fidelity in all its influences and effects; its uncontrollable impulses, its intoxicating joys, its reckless and mad career, and the dreadful remorse and ultimate despair and ruin in which it always and inevitably ends.??Cleopatra was by birth an Egyptian; by ancestry and descent she was a Greek. Thus, while Alexandria and the delta of the Nile formed the scene of the most im-portant events and incidents of her history, it was the blood of Macedon which flowed in her veins. Her character and action are marked by the genius, the courage, the originality, and the impulsiveness pertaining to the stock from which she sprung. The events of her history, on the other hand, and the peculiar character of her adventures, her sufferings, and her sins, were determined by the circumstances with which she was surrounded, and the influences which were brought to bear upon her in the soft and voluptuous clime where the scenes of her early life were laid..??Egypt has always been considered as physically the most remarkable country on the globe. It is a long and narrow valley of verdure and fruitfulness, completely insulated from the rest of the habitable world. It is more completely insulated, in fact, than any literal island could be, inasmuch as deserts are more impassable than seas. The very existence of Egypt is a most extraordinary phenomenon. If we could but soar with the wings of an eagle into the air, and look down upon the scene, so as to observe the operation of that grand and yet simple process by which this long and wonderful valley, teeming so profusely with animal and vegetable life, has been formed, and is annually revivified and renewed, in the midst of surrounding wastes of silence, desolation, and death, we should gaze upon it with never-ceasing admiration and pleasure. We have not the wings of the eagle, but the generalizations of science furnish us with a sort of substitute for them. The long series of patient, careful, and sagacious observations, which have been continued now for two thousand years, bring us results, by means of which, through our powers of mental conception, we may take a comprehensive survey of the whole scene, analo-gous, in some respects, to that which direct and actual vision would afford us, if we could look down upon it from the eagle's point of view. It is, however, so-mewhat humiliating to our pride of intellect to reflect that long-continued philosophical investigations and learned scientific research are, in such a case as this, after all, in some sense, only a sort of substitute for wings. A human mind connected with a pair of eagle's wings would have solved the mystery of Egypt in a week; whereas science, philosophy, and research, confined to the surface of the ground, have been occupied for twenty centuries in accomplishing the undertaking.

n condiiile n care cmpul teoriilor cosmopolite contemporane se afl ntr-o permanent expansiune, lucrarea urmrete maniera n care aceast paradigm a cosmopolitismului, care nu este lipsit de anumite tensiuni i controverse, poate fi aplicat i n analiza tiinelor politice, n general, i a teoriei politice, n special. Nivelurile de analiz se refer la principiile fundamentale, noile concepte i ipotezele formulate i soluiile propuse n cadrul cosmopolitismului.

Dincolo de miza succesului ?colar (examenul de Evaluare Na?ional? fiind un prag important pentru fiecare elev), studiul limbii ?i al literaturii rom?ne trebuie s? r?m?n?, ?n gimnaziu, o experien?? cultural? pertinent? ?i interesant?, care s? implice imagina?ia, gustul estetic, nevoia de autointerogare ?i de comunicare. Respect?nd programa specific?, structura oficial? a subiectelor ?i maniera de formulare a sarcinilor de lucru stabilite de Ministerul Educa?iei, volumul ??i propune s? nuan?eze preg?tirea continu? ?i sistematic? pentru Evaluarea Na?ional?, intervenind cu fi?e teoretice esen?ializate, teme de portofoliu, modele ?i sugestii de rezolvare, r?spunsuri selective ?i o cons istent? baterie de teste de antrenament. De asemenea, cartea are ?n vedere, prin selec?ia textelor (clasice sau contemporane, din autori celebri sau mai pu?in cunoscu?i ?n anii de gimnaziu), redescoperirea ?n adolescentul de 14?15 ani a cititorului pasionat sau m?car avizat, dornic s???i sus?in? punctele de vedere, s???i l?rgeasc? orizontul cultural ?i s? descopere, dincolo de informa?ii, reguli, canoane, adev?ratele provoc?ri, ierarhii, idoli, ca form? de acomodare cu specificul ?i noile problematici ale orelor de limba ?i literatura rom?n? din clasa a IX?a de liceu.

Eseuri ?i cronici teatrale structurate simultan ?n dou? planuri, ?nc?t se reconstituie panorama artei spectacolului ?n Rom?nia ?i par?ial ?n lume, ?n perioada 1993-2003, ?i se realizeaz? o privire din unghiul zilei de azi a artei dramatice, ?n evolu?ia ei, de la antici la contemporani.

Cea dinti monografie care ofer o imagine cuprinztoare asupra receptrii literaturii romne n Cehia, cartea de fa este o incursiune n diversele etape ale totalitarismului comunist: stalinismul integral, perioada dezgheului, anii aizeci (cu transformrile din jurul Primverii de la Praga), urmai de perioada de normalizare care se ntinde pn la momentul Revoluiei de Catifea. Ineditul acestei lucrri este dat i de explorarea manifestrii unor opere i a unor personaliti literare romneti (precum Mircea Eliade, Constantin Virgil Gheorghiu sau Petru Dumitriu) n zona literar ceh prohibit din anii supui studiului, mai precis n publicaiile din exil i n revistele de tip samizdat. Cititorului i este oferit un tablou amplu asupra autorilor romni receptai cu predilecie de ctre cehi sub comunism i asupra tendinelor manifestate de romnitii cehi (coloana vertebral a procesului receptrii), de criticii literari i de recenzeni. Cartea definete o epoc n istoria raporturilor culturale dintre romni i cehi, dou popoare legate de un trecut adeseori comun i de o prietenie sincer.“ – Profesor dr. Mihai Mitu

Cartea abordeaz? o tem? important?, care nu a f?cut obiectul unei cercet?ri distincte ?n istoriografia rom?neasc?, mai ales perioada 1948-1955. Autorul a analizat evolu?ia elitei politice na?ional-??r?niste ?i na?ional-liberale ?n ?ntreg intervalul 1945-1955 … Ponderea cea mai mare o ocup? activitatea represiv? a guvernan?ilor care, ?n anii 1947-1950, au desf??urat o ampl? ac?iune de arestare a tuturor adversarilor regimului … Urm?rind simultan, potrivit criteriului cronologic, ?ntregul tablou al situa?iei interna?ionale, al activit??ii guvernamentale, al vie?ii interne a partidelor analizate, al ac?iunii liderilor politici etc … lucrarea se dovede?te a fi temeinic documentat? ?i realmente original?.

Lucrarea vizeaz? o tem? de actualitate – brandul de ora?, oferind un cadru teoretic al acestui nou concept de marketing, completat de o parte aplicativ? divers?, care ?i-a propus s? identifice ?i s? completeze eforturile autorit??ilor locale ?n aceast? direc?ie.

Eseurile cuprinse ?n aceast? carte au ?n comun c?teva teme care m-au preocupat: ra?ionalitatea, valorile ?i libertatea. O parte din articole au ap?rut ?n diferite publica?ii, altele au v?zut lumina tiparului prin aceast? carte. Am ?ncercat s? aduc ?n con?tiin?a public? c??iva g?nditori rom?ni importan?i ?n spa?iul cultural rom?nesc ?i l?sa?i ?n umbra uit?rii. Opera acestora e realizat? ?n bun? parte ?n perioada interbelic?, ?ntr-un climat de libertate, f?r? presiuni ideologice sau de alt? natur?, fiind rezultatul for?ei intelectuale ?i al culturii personale. Dup? 1946 regimul comunist a ?ngr?dit progresiv libert??ile politice, a ?ncercat s? distrug? tradi?iile culturale a?a-zis burgheze, exercit?nd o represiune asupra intelectualit??ii ?i a creatorilor de opere. Domeniul ?tiin?elor sociale a fost afectat de o cenzur? inchizitorial?, pun?ndu-se la index autori ?i opere considerate periculoase pentru societatea rom?neasc? ?i ideologia marxist?.

Un periplu documentat prin lumea artelor plastice contemporane, un model de analiz? a fenomenului plastic actual, extrem de viu ?i incitant, ba chiar provoc?tor, ?n ciuda multiplelor probleme ridicate de tranzi?ia autohton?.

Avangardismul rom?nesc r?m?ne a fi unul dintre curentele literare cele mai controversate ?i, ?n ultima instanta – ne demonstreaza aceasta monografie – cele mai putin cunoscute. Monografia abunda ?n informa?ii, aspecte, ?nt?mpl?ri, evenimente, mai pu?in sau deloc cunoscute. Cartea se adreseaz? elevilor, studen?ilor, precum ?i publicului larg de cititori.

Architects of Little Rock provides biographical and historical sketches of the architects working in Little Rock from 1830 to 1950. Thirty-five architects are profiled, including George R. Mann, Thomas Harding, Charles L. Thompson, Max. F. Mayer, Edwin B. Cromwell, George H. Wittenberg, Lawson L. Delony, and others. Readers will learn who these influential professionals were, where they came from, where they were educated, how they lived, what their families were like, how they participated in the life of the city, and what their buildings contributed to the city. Famous buildings, including the Historic Arkansas Museum, the Old State House, the Arkansas State Capitol, St. Andrews Cathedral, Little Rock City Hall, the Pulaski County Court House, Little Rock Central High School, and Robinson Auditorium are showcased, bringing attention to and encouraging appreciation of the city's historic buildings.Published in collaboration with the Fay Jones School of Architecture.

As the heady promise of the 1960s sagged under the weight of widespread violence, rioting, and racial unrest, two young men--one black and one white--took to stages across the nation to help Americans confront their racial divide: by laughing at it.Tim and Tom tells the story of that pioneering duo, the first interracial comedy team in the history of show business--and the last. Tim Reid and Tom Dreesen polished their act in the nightclubs of Chicago, then took it on the road, not only in the North, but in the still-simmering South as well, developing routines that even today remain surprisingly frank--and remarkably funny--about race. Most nights, the shock of seeing an integrated comedy team quickly dissipated in uproarious laughter, but on some occasions the audience's confusion and discomfort led to racist heckling, threats, and even violence. Though Tim and Tom perpetually seemed on the verge of making it big throughout their five years together, they grudgingly came to realize that they were ahead of their time: America was not yet ready to laugh at its own failed promise.Eventually, the grind of the road took its toll, as bitter arguments led to an acrimonious breakup. But the underlying bond of friendship Reid and Dreesen had forged with each groundbreaking joke has endured for decades, while their solo careers delivered the success that had eluded them as a team. By turns revealing, shocking, and riotously funny, Tim and Tom unearths a largely forgotten chapter in the history of comedy.?

Drawing on a broad foundation in the history of nineteenth-century French art, Richard Shiff offers an innovative interpretation of Cezanne's painting. He shows how Cezanne's style met the emerging criteria of a "e;technique of originality"e; and how it satisfied critics sympathetic to symbolism as well as to impressionism. Expanding his study of the interaction of Cezanne and his critics, Shiff considers the problem of modern art in general. He locates the core of modernism in a dialectic of making (technique) and finding (originality). Ultimately, Shiff provides not only clarifying accounts of impressionism and symbolism but of a modern classicism as well.

What if every farfetched conspiracy theory about Barack Obama turned out to be trueTwo reporters for the The Daily Caller received an unsolicited manu* in the mail, the diary of a former Obama administration political operative. What they read stunned them. "The Lizard King" describes a White House where the reality is more surreal, and comically bizarre, than anything its most fervent enemies have alleged. Tasked by David Axelrod with debunking right wing rumors about the president, the narrator embarks on a journey that takes him from Washington to Moscow to the tribal areas of Pakistan in search of the real Barack Obama. His findings leave him shocked, his political ideology in tatters and his understanding of the world forever changed.

By the early 1960s, theorists like Levi-Strauss, Lacan, Foucault, and Barthes had created a world ruled by signifying structures and pictured through the grids of language, information, and systems. Artists soon followed, turning to language and its related forms to devise a new, conceptual approach to art making. Examining the ways in which artists shared the structuralist devotion to systems of many sorts, Systems We Have Loved shows that even as structuralism encouraged the advent of conceptual art, it also raised intractable problems that artists were forced to confront.?Considering such notable art figures as Mary Kelly, Robert Morris, Robert Smithson, and Rosalind Krauss, Eve Meltzer argues that during this period the visual arts depicted and tested the far-reaching claims about subjectivity espoused by theorists. She offers a new way of framing two of the twentieth century's most transformative movements-one artistic, one expansively theoretical-and she reveals their shared dream-or nightmare-of the world as a system of signs. By endorsing this view, Meltzer proposes, these artists drew attention to the fictions and limitations of this dream, even as they risked getting caught in the very systems they had adopted. The first book to describe art's embrace of the world as an information system, Systems We Have Loved breathes new life into the study of conceptual art.

The Decision Between Us?combines an inventive reading of Jean-Luc Nancy with queer theoretical concerns to argue that while scenes of intimacy are spaces of sharing, they are also spaces of separation. John Paul Ricco shows that this tension informs our efforts to coexist ethically and politically, an experience of sharing and separation that informs any decision. Using this incongruous relation of intimate separation, Ricco goes on to propose that "e;decision"e; is as much an aesthetic as it is an ethical construct, and one that is always defined in terms of our relations to loss, absence, departure, and death.?Laying out this theory of "e;unbecoming community"e; in modern and contemporary art, literature, and philosophy, and calling our attention to such things as blank sheets of paper, images of unmade beds, and the spaces around bodies,?The Decision Between Us?opens in 1953, when Robert Rauschenberg famously erased a drawing by Willem de Kooning, and Roland Barthes published?Writing Degree Zero, then moves to 1980 and the "e;neutral mourning"e; of Barthes'?Camera Lucida, and ends in the early 1990s with installations by Felix Gonzalez-Torres. Offering surprising new considerations of these and other seminal works of art and theory by Jean Genet, Marguerite Duras, and Catherine Breillat,?The Decision Between Us?is a highly original and unusually imaginative exploration of the spaces between us, arousing and evoking an infinite and profound sense of sharing in scenes of passionate, erotic pleasure as well as deep loss and mourning.

There is a perfect drink for every situation. So what should you drink tonightIt depends . . .Are you stalking your exTry a pisco sour.Drowning out the ticking of your biological clockA bee's knees will do.Spoiling for a vicious brawl with your dearest loved onesA tipperary helps you get there.Sinking into debauchery underneath the mistletoe at your boss's holiday partyA presbyterian, what else?How to Booze has all the answers on what to drink when. Armed with nearly one hundred iconic recipes, useful facts on technique and ingredients, and more than enough advice to get you into trouble, you will now know just the right drink for the occasion and how to prepare it likea professional.

What separates the men from the boysThe Man Cave. Boyhood Fort Man Cave Who's allowed Not girls—they have cooties Not women—they have authority Primary materials used in construction Wood, stuff your mom doesn't want Particleboard, stuff your wife doesn't want Key activities inside Goofing around, avoiding responsibility Goofing around, avoiding responsibility Peak periods of use After school, weekends After work, weekends Slumber parties with buddiesYes No Food and beverages consumed Soda and unhealthy snacks Beer and unhealthy snacks Spend the night insideNot as a habit, but it's been known to happen Not as a habit, but it's been known to happen Money spent on space As little as possible As much as possible Is this a phase you will outgrowYes No The Man Cave Book is a tribute to great and glorious man spaces and the craftsmen behind them. Complete with instructions and insights into creating your own unique refuge and shrine to beer, sports, and everything else that's right with the world, this is an essential manual for any man cave enthusiast.

A Hilarious Expose of the Secret Lives of Unicorns, Based on the Popular Online Comic!In Unicorn Being a Jerk, author/illustrator C.W. Moss reveals - through approximately 55 colorful illustrations and accompanying captions - that unicorns are not the majestic creatures we think they are but are in fact jerks whose petty, selfish antics include stomping on children's sandcastles, feeding pigs to bacon, and parking in handicap spots at the mall. In the vein of The Book of Bunny Suicides, this humor book will be required reading for all those unsuspecting unicorn fans out there who will come face to face with the ugly reality of this mythical creature.

An informative, fun and rather charming essay on the nature and history of one of life’s most desirable assets, Charm, by renowned culture and design critic, Stephen Bayley. Aiming to wound, a schoolmaster wrote on future design-guru Stephen Bayley’s last ever school report “Charm alone will not get him through”. Bayley took this to mean that an affable, genial, outgoing nature was not enough to ensure survival in a harsh world of statistical performance. But survive and flourish is exactly what Bayley did and now he aims to define Charm by looking at its origins and meanings throughout history and in the modern age.

Why face the embarrassment of dealing with life's most awkward questions when adorable baby animals can do it for youAmanda McCall and Ben Schwartz, the creators of the wickedly lovable Grandma's Dead, return with Why is Daddy in a Dress?, another invaluable aid to avoiding sticky situations. A book of postcards featuring cuddly kittens, playful puppies, fuzzy ducklings, and hoppity baby bunnies broaching sensitive subjects like "Are you a hooker?" or "Can we stop cuddling?," Why is Daddy in a Dressis the perfect cure for foot-in-mouth disease.