Roots of Evil is a saga of the prestigious Juelson family in the Rio GrandeValley of South Texas, in the early 1900s, struggling with racial intoleranceand injustices in a hostile land.

In this fascinating book, Michael Herzfeld argues that 'modern' bureaucratically regulated societies are no more 'rational' or less 'symbolic' than the societies traditionally studied by anthropologists. Drawing primarily on the example of modern Greece and utilizing other European materials, he suggests that we cannot understand national bureaucracies divorced from local-level ideas about chance, personal character, social relationships and responsibility. He points out that both formal regulations and day-to-day bureaucratic practices rely heavily on the symbols and language of the moral boundaries between insiders and outsiders; a ready means of expressing prejudice and of justifying neglect. It therefore happens that societies with proud traditions of generous hospitality may paradoxically produce at the official level some of the most calculated indifference one can find anywhere.

In this fascinating book, Michael Herzfeld argues that 'modern' bureaucratically regulated societies are no more 'rational' or less 'symbolic' than the societies traditionally studied by anthropologists. Drawing primarily on the example of modern Greece and utilizing other European materials, he suggests that we cannot understand national bureaucracies divorced from local-level ideas about chance, personal character, social relationships and responsibility. He points out that both formal regulations and day-to-day bureaucratic practices rely heavily on the symbols and language of the moral boundaries between insiders and outsiders; a ready means of expressing prejudice and of justifying neglect. It therefore happens that societies with proud traditions of generous hospitality may paradoxically produce at the official level some of the most calculated indifference one can find anywhere.

in 1993 an historian wrote: ..". The lynching was especially atrocious: Two young black men were seized, dragged into the woods, and there chained to trees and tortured to death with blowtorches while a howling crowd of whites cursed and taunted them. Photographs were made of the dead bodies...." (K.S. Davis) This historical novel - ground-breaking in its emotional and graphic intensity - portrays the impact of that atrocity (1937) on two empathetic boys who didn't taunt, but secretly snapped pictures of the living, screaming victims (ironically, one with FDR's surname) - and desperately tried to stop it! Two against 500 (some came by school bus). Failing, they fled in despair and determination - with their Brownie Eagle Eye, embarking on a compelling mission! They had no choice - they'd been 'Out There.' Enraged, then galvanized, by the failures and heart-breaks of Book I, 'Einstein' Brian and 'Maestro' Marcus become avenging angels, sworn to strike 'Preacher-Creature Cecil' and his 'henchmen from hell' with the swords of retribution, self-defense, and 'un-Confederate' justice. Kids no more, they begin to act like God because 'Somebody has to...!' With images of brutality sealed in camera, conscience, and nightmares, they write to Eleanor and FDR, and accept her invitation to dinner at the White House. Irrevocably sworn to the most profound 'what-if' of the Twentieth Century, the boys pledge themselves to a daunting 'rendezvous with destiny' - theirs and humanity's. And a Time Capsule ticket to 6939 (CE) and beyond from Albert Einstein.......

National indifference is one of the most innovative notions historians have brought to the study of nationalism in recent years. The concept questions the mass character of nationalism in East Central Europe at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth century. Ordinary people were not in thrall to the nation; they were often indifferent, ambivalent or opportunistic when dealing with issues of nationhood. As with all ground-breaking research, the literature on national indifference has not only revolutionized how we understand nationalism, over time, it has also revealed a new set of challenges. This volume brings together experienced scholars with the next generation, in a collaborative effort to push the geographic, historical, and conceptual boundaries of national indifference 2.0.

In the tradition of Kathleen Norris, Terry Tempest Williams, and Thomas Merton, The Solace of Fierce Landscapes explores the impulse that has drawn seekers into the wilderness for centuries and offers eloquent testimony to the healing power of mountain silence and desert indifference. Interweaving a memoir of his mother's long struggle with Alzheimer's and cancer, meditations on his own wilderness experience, and illuminating commentary on the Christian via negativa--a mystical tradition that seeks God in the silence beyond language--Lane rejects the easy affirmations of pop spirituality for the harsher but more profound truths that wilderness can teach us. "There is an unaccountable solace that fierce landscapes offer to the soul. They heal, as well as mirror, the brokeness we find within." It is this apparent paradox that lies at the heart of this remarkable book: that inhuman landscapes should be the source of spiritual comfort. Lane shows that the very indifference of the wilderness can release us from the demands of the endlessly anxious ego, teach us to ignore the inessential in our own lives, and enable us to transcend the "false self" that is ever-obsessed with managing impressions. Drawing upon the wisdom of St. John of the Cross, Meister Eckhardt, Simone Weil, Edward Abbey, and many other Christian and non-Christian writers, Lane also demonstrates how those of us cut off from the wilderness might "make some desert" in our lives. Written with vivid intelligence, narrative ease, and a gracefulness that is itself a comfort, The Solace of Fierce Landscapes gives us not only a description but a "performance" of an ancient and increasingly relevant spiritual tradition.

Gary Indiana, a 'huge satirical talent' (The New York Times), presents a darkly comic novel fueled by the virtuoso con artist Evangeline Slote and her extravagant life of chicanery and petty crime. Inspired by the case of Sante and Ken Kimes, the real-life mother/son grifters, the novel is a dissection of the mind of a charismatic sociopath and a satire of the society that appeases and abets her.