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In 1849, a fourteen-year-old Amish girl defies convention by leaving her secure home in Pennsylvania to accompany her father across the continent by wagon train. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.
Following the attacks of September 11th, New York Governor George Pataki witnessed a truly United States of America rise like the mythological phoenix. People came together regardless of their generational, ethnic, situational, or cultural background, and he stated, “On that terrible day, a nation became a neighborhood. All Americans became New Yorkers.” These words echo today with a hollow ring, and a bitter sting. The economic and emotional fallout post-9/11 was devastating. The political toll was even worse, bringing us to where we are today, a society as divided as it’s been in more than a hundred years, separated by political tribes that demand ideological purity coupled with blind loyalty. In looking at America and its divide, Pataki asks a bold question: Did the terrorists win? This is a question no sitting politician or pundit from either side of the political spectrum will dare address. Along with President George W. Bush and Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Pataki was one of only three people directly involved in, commanding, and making life or death decisions during 9/11. Few have the experience or depth to even begin to dive into this subject; as a result, Pataki’s answers might surprise you. In sharing his perspective of where we were and where we are today, he hopes to shed light on what he calls the great divide. It’s a divide not just between left and right or Republicans and Democrats, but between the American people and their government. This division has fostered anger and resentment toward Washington, and toward each other, in a cultural separation that is likened to that of the Civil War. Now, almost twenty years since the deadliest attack on American soil, Americans have reached another critical moment: will we unite again, or this time get lost in the divide? Drawing on Pataki’s memories, notes, crises, and critical events, The Great Divide gives an unprecedented, shocking, heart-pounding inside view into what happened before, during, and after 9/11. The Governor reflects on where our country is today and how we can rebuild a common future and perhaps return to a time when a nation became a neighborhood.
Cold War history has emphasized the division of Europe into two warring camps with separate ideologies and little in common. This volume presents an alternative perspective by suggesting that there were transnational networks bridging the gap and connecting like-minded people on both sides of the divide. Long before the fall of the Berlin Wall, there were institutions, organizations, and individuals who brought people from the East and the West together, joined by shared professions, ideas, and sometimes even through marriage. The volume aims at proving that the post-WWII histories of Western and Eastern Europe were entangled by looking at cases involving France, Denmark, Poland, Romania, Switzerland, and others.
Beyond the Divide is an attempt to bridge the seeming chasm that exists between religion (specifically Christianity) and science. Much polarization and animosity often exists between two groups, that which is pro-science/anti-religion, and the other which is pro-religion/anti-21st century scientific theories and discoveries. Even though the pathways to discovering truths may be different in science and religion, there need not be irreconcilable differences. Within these pages, personal stories and research are woven together to provide evidence for how embracing modern scientific discoveries can actually remove barriers that may exist for those who would like to believe in God but find such evidence untenable. This book centers on the belief that Jesus Christ is a person for all the ages, something that is no less true in our post-modern world. In fact, the more we discover about Jesus, the more we can conclude that Jesus would in no way pit himself against scientific progress. What if we could even believe that through God's Spirit, we are given the wisdom which enables us to make progress in our many discoveries about our remarkable universe? Step inside this liberating experience as we explore this mysterious world together!
On a journey begun twenty years earlier, Daryl Farmer, a twenty-year-old two-time college dropout, did what lost men have so often done in this country: he headed west. Twenty years later and seventy pounds heavier, with the yellowing journals from that transformative five-thousand-mile bicycle trek in his pack, Farmer set out to retrace his path. This is his story of pursuing that distant summer and that distant dream of home, where home is endless space, a roof of big sky, and a bed of dry earth. ø Just as the years altered the man, so, too, have they altered the West, and Farmer?s second journey affords a unique perspective on these changes?as well as on what lasts. Whether caught in a Colorado snowstorm or braving a Yellowstone herd of bison, kayaking with orcas in Puget Sound, trading Ninja moves with a homeless man in San Francisco, or getting the lowdown on aliens on Nevada?s Extraterrestrial Highway, Farmer charts a moving landscape of people and places. This is the West where the natural world and personal character are inextricably linked, and where one man?s ride into the past and present takes us to the heart of that ever-evolving connection.
That there is a "digital divide"—which falls between those who have and can afford the latest in technological tools and those who have neither in our society—is indisputable. Virtual Inequality redefines the issue as it explores the cascades of that divide, which involve access, skill, political participation, as well as the obvious economics. Computer and Internet access are insufficient without the skill to use the technology, and economic opportunity and political participation provide primary justification for realizing that this inequality is a public problem and not simply a matter of private misfortune. Defying those who say the divide is growing smaller, this volume, based on a unique national survey that includes data from over 1800 respondents in low-income communities, shows otherwise. In addition to demonstrating why disparities persist in such areas as technological abilities, the survey also shows that the digitally disadvantaged often share many of the same beliefs as their more privileged counterparts. African-Americans, for instance, are even more positive in their attitudes toward technology than whites are in many respects, contrary to conventional wisdom. The rigorous research on which the conclusions are based is presented accessibly and in an easy-to-follow manner. Not content with analysis alone, nor the untangling of the complexities of policymaking, Virtual Inequality views the digital divide compassionately in its human dimensions and recommends a set of practical and common-sense policy strategies. Inequality, even in a virtual form this book reminds us, is unacceptable and a situation that society is compelled to address.
Canada’s first mosque, the Al Rashid mosque in Edmonton, was built in 1938. In the years since, as Canada’s Muslim population has grown, close to two hundred mosques, Islamic centres, prayer spaces, and jamatkhanas have been built across the country. Beyond the Divide explores the mosques of Canada in their diversity, beauty, practicality, and versatility. From east to west and to the north, Tammy Gaber visits ninety mosques in more than fifty cities, including Canada’s most northern places of worship in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. For nearly a century Muslims have made mosques in a variety of spaces, from converted shops and vacated churches to large, purpose-built complexes. Drawing on site photographs, architectural drawings, and interviews, Gaber explores the extraordinary diversity in how these spaces have been designed, built, and used – as places not only of worship, but of community gathering, education, charitable work, and civic engagement. Throughout, Beyond the Divide provides a groundbreaking analysis of gendered space in Canadian mosques, how these spaces are designed and reinforced, and how these divides shape community experience. The first comprehensive study of mosque history and architecture in Canada, Beyond the Divide reveals the mosque to be a dynamic building type that adapts to its context, from its climate and physical environment to the community it serves. Above all, mosque designs depend on the people who gather in them, and what those people strive for their mosques to be.
This book features reflections by scholars and practitioners from diverse religious traditions. It posits that the global challenges facing humanity today can only be mastered if humans from diverse faith traditions can meaningfully collaborate in support of human rights, reconciliation, sustainability, justice, and peace. Seeking to redress common distortions of religious mis- and dis-information, the book aims to construct interreligious common ground ‘beyond the divide’. Organised into three main sections, the book features sixteen conceptual, empirical, and practice-informed chapters that explore spirituality across faiths and cultures. Chapter 1 delineates the state of the art in relation to interfaith engagement, Chapters 2–8 advance theoretical research, Chapters 9–12 discuss empirical perspectives, and Chapters 13–16 showcase field projects and recount stories and lived experiences. Comprising works by scholars, professionals, and practitioners from around the globe, Interfaith Engagement Beyond the Divide: Approaches, Experiences, and Practices is an interdisciplinary publication on interreligious thought and engagement: Assembles a curated collection of chapters from numerous countries and diverse religious traditions; Addresses interfaith scholarship and praxis from a range of interdisciplinary perspectives; Comprises interfaith dialogue and collaborative research involving authors of different faiths; Envisions prospects for peace, interreligious harmony in diversity, and a world that may be equitably and enduringly shared. The appraisal of present and future challenges and opportunities, framed within a context of public policy and praxis, makes this interdisciplinary publication a useful tool for teaching, research, and policy development. Chapter 16 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.
According to conventional wisdom in American legal culture, the 1870s to 1920s was the age of legal formalism, when judges believed that the law was autonomous and logically ordered, and that they mechanically deduced right answers in cases. In the 1920s and 1930s, the story continues, the legal realists discredited this view by demonstrating that the law is marked by gaps and contradictions, arguing that judges construct legal justifications to support desired outcomes. This often-repeated historical account is virtually taken for granted today, and continues to shape understandings about judging. In this groundbreaking book, esteemed legal theorist Brian Tamanaha thoroughly debunks the formalist-realist divide. Drawing from extensive research into the writings of judges and scholars, Tamanaha shows how, over the past century and a half, jurists have regularly expressed a balanced view of judging that acknowledges the limitations of law and of judges, yet recognizes that judges can and do render rule-bound decisions. He reveals how the story about the formalist age was an invention of politically motivated critics of the courts, and how it has led to significant misunderstandings about legal realism. Beyond the Formalist-Realist Divide traces how this false tale has distorted studies of judging by political scientists and debates among legal theorists. Recovering a balanced realism about judging, this book fundamentally rewrites legal history and offers a fresh perspective for theorists, judges, and practitioners of law.
