New Arrivals 2015 / 2016: TOK and History- November

Jean Francois-Revel, a pillar of French intellectual life in our time, became world famous for his challenges to both Communism and Christianity. Twenty-seven years ago, his son, Matthieu Ricard, gave up a promising career as a scientist to study Tibetan Buddhism -- not as a detached observer but by immersing himself in its practice under the guidance of its greatest living masters.

Meeting in an inn overlooking Katmandu, these two profoundly thoughtful men explored the questions that have occupied humankind throughout its history. Does life have meaning? What is consciousness? Is man free? What is the value of scientific and material progress? Why is there suffering, war, and hatred? Their conversation is not merely abstract: they ask each other questions about ethics, rights, and responsibilities, about knowledge and belief, and they discuss frankly the differences in the way each has tried to make sense of his life.

'Last Child In The Woods' shows how our children have become increasingly alienated and distant from nature, why this matters and how we can make a difference.

There is widespread confusion about the nature of religious truth. For the first time in history, a significantly large number of people want nothing to do with God. Militant atheists preach a gospel of godlessness with the zeal of missionaries and find an eager audience. What has happened?

Every culture is a unique answer to a fundamental question: What does it mean to be human and alive? Anthropologist and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Wade Davis leads us on a thrilling journey to celebrate the wisdom of the world’s indigenous cultures.

Focusing on the example of a T-shirt manufactured in China, using cotton grown in Texas, sold in the U.S., then discarded and sold again in Africa, Pietra Rivoli charts the complicated world of international trade in manufactured goods & raw materials.

"China Under Mao narrates the rise and fall of the Maoist revolutionary state from 1949 to 1976. Andrew G. Walder argues that Mao's China was defined by two distinctive institutions: a Party apparatus that exercised firm discipline over its members; and a socialist economy modeled after the Soviet Union. Although a large bureaucracy had oversight of this authoritarian system, Mao intervened at every turn. The doctrines and political organization that produced Mao's greatest achievements--victory in the civil war, the creation of China's first modern state, a historic transformation of urban and rural life--also generated his worst failures: the industrial depression and rural famine of the Great Leap Forward and the destruction and stagnation of the Cultural Revolution. Misdiagnosing China's problems as capitalist restoration and prescribing continuing class struggle against imaginary enemies, Mao ruined much of what he had built and created no viable alternative"--Provided by publisher.
China's Communist Party seized power in 1949 after a long period of guerrilla insurgency followed by full-scale war, but the Chinese revolution was just beginning. 'China Under Mao' narrates the rise and fall of the Maoist revolutionary state from 1949 to 1976 - an epoch of startling accomplishments and disastrous failures, steered by many forces but dominated above all by Mao Zedong.

This comprehensive history and analysis covere all the key figures in this exciting drama and is the result of over 25 years of studying this important period in Japanese history. Throughout the book, the author quotes extensively from the journals and letters of Katsu Kaishu. Kaishu faithfully served the Tokugawa Shogun in a number of important military posts through his illustrious career during the final years of the Tokugawa Bakufu, the regime that ruled Japan for more than two and a half centuries until its fall in 1868.

In this vivid and engrossing biography, we move with the emperor through his early, traditional education; join in the formal processions that acquainted the young emperor with his country and its people; observe his behavior in court, his marriage, and his relationships with various consorts; and follow his maturation into a "Confucian" sovereign dedicated to simplicity, frugality, and hard work. Later, during Japan's wars with China and Russia, we witness Meiji's struggle to reconcile his personal commitment to peace and his nation's increasingly militarized experience of modernization. Emperor of Japan conveys in sparkling prose the complexity of the man and offers an unrivaled portrait of Japan in a period of unique interest.

A Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist takes readers on a surprising tour of America’s biggest export, our most prodigious product, and our greatest legacy: our trash