In this volume distinguished scholars from both sides of the Atlantic explore the work of Tacitus in its historical and literary context and also show how his text was interpreted in the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries. Discussed here, for example, are the ways predilections of a particular age color one's reading of a complex author and why a reexamination of these influences is necessary to understand both the author and those who have interpreted him. All of the essays were first prepared for a colloquium on Tacitus held at Princeton University in March 1990. The resulting volume...

Here is the intensely personal and often humorous autobiography of one of the most distinguished theoretical physicists of his generation, Sir Rudolf Peierls. Born in Germany in 1907, Peierls was indeed a bird of passage," whose career of fifty-five years took him to leading centers of physics--including Munich, Leipzig, Zurich, Copenhagen, Cambridge, Manchester, Oxford, and J. Robert Oppenheimer's Los Alamos. Peierls was a major participant in the revolutionary development of quantum mechanics in the 1920s and 1930s, working with some of the pioneers and, as he puts it, "some of the great...

Perhaps the most famous modern-day millenarian movements are the "cargo cults" of Melanesia, active especially during the 1930s and 1950s. Melanesians had long believed that the sign of the millennium would be the arrival of their ancestors in ships bearing lavish material goods, and they interpreted the advent of European vessels as the fulfillment of these expectations. As it became apparent that the Europeans meant to keep the goods and to colonize the people, scores of small-scale revolts known as cargo cults emerged as attempts to secure the cargo and thereby preserve the people's...

Much of what was central to Tolstoy seems embarrassing to Western and Soviet critics, points out Richard Gustafson in his absorbing argument for the predominance of Tolstoy's religious viewpoint in all his writings. Received opinion says that there are two Tolstoys, the pre-conversion artist and the post-conversion religious thinker and prophet, but Professor Gustafson argues convincingly that the man is not two, but one.

Originally published in 1986.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print...

Mary Reynolds studies the rhetorical and linguistic maneuvers by which Joyce related his work to Dante's and shows how Joyce created in his own fiction a Dantean allegory of art. Dr. Reynolds argues that Joyce read Dante as a poet rather than as a Catholic; that Joyce was interested in Dante's criticism of society and, above all, in his great powers of innovation.

Originally published in 1981.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton...

Gregory Treverton reviews the significant episodes in Europe's history after World War II, emphasizing America's preoccupation with Europe and the decisive effect of U.S. foreign policy on European security and economic arrangements during the postwar years.

Originally published in 1992.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in...

The first woman known to have written in English, the fourteenth-century mystic Julian of Norwich has inspired generations of Christians with her reflections on the "motherhood" of Jesus, and her assurance that, despite evil, "all shall be well." In this book, Denise Baker reconsiders Julian not only as an eloquent and profound visionary but also as an evolving, sophisticated theologian of great originality. Focusing on Julian's Book of Showings, in which the author records a series of revelations she received during a critical illness in May 1373, Baker provides the first...

This analysis of the decision making of William H. Rehnquist from the beginning of his tenure as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court in 1971 until he was nominated to be Chief Justice in 1986 presents a refreshing new perspective on the Burger Court's most conservative member. The common assessment of Rehnquist's career on the Supreme Court is that he has tried to put his own political agenda into effect--deciding as he wishes and justifying it later. Davis disputes that view through careful, insightful analysis of his opinions, his votes, and his public speeches. She...

Although today in France church attendance is minimal, when death occurs many families still cling to religious rites. In exploring this common reaction to one of the most painful aspects of existence, Thomas Kselman turns to nineteenth-century French beliefs about death and the afterlife not only to show how deeply rooted the cult of the dead is in one Western society, but how death and the behavior of mourners have been politicized in the modern world. Drawing on sermons preached in rural and urban parishes, folktales, and accounts of seances, the author vividly re-creates the social and...

For all persons seriously concerned about the destruction of natural environments in the contemporary world, this book presents a comprehensive rationale for preserving wild species and ecosystems. Bryan G. Norton appeals most centrally to "transformative value," the power of human contacts with wild species to transform and uplift the human spirit. Until now species preservationists have found a theoretical basis for their policies in the "demand" value of wild species for fulfilling certain narrowly defined human needs or in controversial and badly understood proposals about the...