Ever since Copernicus, scientists have continually adjusted their view of human nature, moving it further and further from its ancient position at the center of Creation. But in recent years, a startling new concept has evolved that places it more firmly than ever in a special position. Known as the Anthropic Cosmological Principle, this collection of ideas holds that the existence of intelligent observers determines the fundamental structure of the Universe. In its most radical version, the Anthropic Principle asserts that "intelligent information-processing must come into existence in the...

Analyzes the Frenchman's unique national identity, attitudes towards foreigners, education, and intellectual and cultural development from the late 1840's through the 1900's.

This book is about much more than 'the glory that was Greece'. Each of the fourteen distinguished contributors describes a particular aspect of Greek culture, and then shows what later generations have made of this valuable inheritance. The result is a lucid and down-to-earth introduction to how the ancient Greeks lived and thought, and to their influence on the world today. Topics covered include politics, literature, history, education, philosophy, science, myth, and art and architecture.

A landmark study of key century in medieval history, this book comprises the history of the century and a quarter which elapsed between the compilation of Domesday Book and the issue of the Magna Carta, the two greatest documents of English medieval history. The volume opens with chapters in which the position of the monarchy and social and economic background of the period in its feudal, rural, and urban aspects are discussed. In the political sphere it describes the building up of the great continental dominions, which in the time of Henry II are known as the Angevin Empire, and the...

The sentimental novels of the early national period were considered a danger to society and were criticized for the corrupting influence they had on the minds of their mostly young and female audience. They told tales of vice and intrigue that purported to be "based on fact" and also advocated the need for better female education that would prepare young women against sweet-talking seducers. Extremely popular in America after the Revolution and throughout the nineteenth century, Charlotte Temple and The Coquette were two of the most successful novels of the period. Reprinted...

Now available in a newly revised and updated second edition, this highly acclaimed volume presents a series of portraits of the most famous appellate judges in American history from John Marshall to the Burger court.
G. Edward White traces the American judicial tradition through sketches of the careers and contributions of such significant judges as John Marshall, Joseph Story, Roger Taney, Stephen Field, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Louis Brandeis, Charles Evans Hughes, Felix Frankfurter, Hugo Black, Earl Warren, William Brennan, and Sandra Day O'Connor. This expanded edition contains a new...

Tomas O'Crohan was born on the Great Blasket Island in 1865 and died there in 1937, a great master of his native Irish. He shared to the full the perilous life of a primitive community, yet possessed a shrewd and humorous detachment that enabled him to observe and describe the world. His book is a valuable description of a now vanished way of life; his sole purpose in writing it was in his own words, 'to set down the character of the people about me so that some record of us might live after us, for the like of us will never be again'.
The Blasket Islands are three miles off Irelands...

The Nobel Prize is the most prestigious award a scientist can receive. This book brings the Nobel Prize, the science, and the human drama behind it into focus, based on the author's encounters with over 70 Nobel laureates and other famous scientists.