In the annals of American criminal justice, two prisons stand out as icons of institutionalized brutality and deprivation: Alcatraz and Sing Sing. In the 70 odd years before 1963, when the death sentence was declared unconstitutional in New York, Sing Sing was the site of almost one-half of the 1,353 executions carried out in the state. More people were executed at Sing Sing than at any other American prison, yet Sing Sing's death house was, to a remarkable extent, one of the most closed, secret and mythologized places in modern America.
Victorian Britain is often considered as the high point of "laissez-faire," the place and the time when people were most "free" to make their own lives without the aid or interference of the State. This book, by leading historians of nineteenth-century state and society, asks to what extent that was true and, to the extent that it was, how it worked.
The Nature of Life: Classical and Contemporary Perspectives from Philosophy and Science
Bringing together the latest scientific advances and some of the most enduring subtle philosophical puzzles and problems, this book collects original historical and contemporary sources to explore the wide range of issues surrounding the nature of life. Selections ranging from Aristotle and Descartes to Sagan and Dawkins are organised around four broad themes covering classical discussions of life, the origins and extent of natural life, contemporary artificial life creations and the definition and meaning of 'life' in its most general form.
Added by: Kahena | Karma: 11526.37 | Fiction literature | 7 October 2010
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Hyperion
Hyperion is a Hugo Award-winning 1989 science fiction novel. It is the first book of the Hyperion Cantos, and is the only book in it to extensively employ the literary device of the frame story (although arguably The Fall of Hyperion also uses it, but to a lesser extent). The plot of the novel is highly complex, featuring multiple time-lines and characters whose behavior changes dramatically.
The Gods of Ancient Greece: Identities and Transformations
Greek mythology still grabs the modern consciousness. Apollo and Dionysos, Artemis and Aphrodite, Zeus and Hermes;but what exactly did these divinities stand for? A team of international scholars offer fresh insight into the making and meaning of Greek mythology. They recount the stories and significance of individual gods and ask to what extent cult, myth, and literary genre determine the nature of divinity.
