As Europe enters a new century of unprecedented prosperity, many beliefs compete to shape the coming years. Pacifism, nationalism, socialism, and other ideas offer a vision of new utopias while older institutions and beliefs struggle to maintain order and relevance. Four young Parisians are caught up in the sweep of historic events that affect their actions as they try to influence the world they have inherited. Their ideals soon clash with older notions more persistent and powerful than imagined. As the century progresses the continent faces crises from old tribal tensions, but with each resolution, Europe appears to draw closer to a new golden age. Then, in the summer of 1914, an unexpected event draws the continent’s most fragile nations into conflict and threatens to undo decades of peace and prosperity. The first in a series, Some Damn Fool Thing portrays the years leading up to the Great War and the people most affected.

“A monumental new volume. . . . Revelatory, even revolutionary. . . . Clark has done a masterful job explaining the inexplicable.” — Boston Globe One of The New York Times Book Review’s 10 Best Books of the Year • Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize (History) Historian Christopher Clark’s riveting account of the explosive beginnings of World War I. Drawing on new scholarship, Clark offers a fresh look at World War I, focusing not on the battles and atrocities of the war itself, but on the complex events and relationships that led a group of well-meaning leaders into brutal conflict. Clark traces the paths to war in a minute-by-minute, action-packed narrative that cuts between the key decision centers in Vienna, Berlin, St. Petersburg, Paris, London, and Belgrade, and examines the decades of history that informed the events of 1914 and details the mutual misunderstandings and unintended signals that drove the crisis forward in a few short weeks. Meticulously researched and masterfully written, The Sleepwalkers is a dramatic and authoritative chronicle of Europe’s descent into a war that tore the world apart.

What was it like to live, work and play on a small dairy farm durnig the great depression? Here's a first hand account from a farm boy who would later travel the world, but never forgot his childhood years on the family farm in Janesville, Wisconsin. Relive the daily challenges and joys of farm life; technological advances like milking machines, threshers, and indoor plumbing changed the way families lived. From barn burning fires to blinding blizzards, from Model Ts to pickup trucks, from large family gatherings to quiet nights around the radio, this is an intimate look at life on the farm.

Realism has been the most influential theoretical approach in international relations since the discipline was born. Yet realism, for all its popularity, has always been criticised for its narrow world view of a system of states all seeking power, security and survival in a world of anarchy. Additionally, realism has struggled to provide explanations for some of the major events and evolutions in world politics. The timing of the outbreak of wars, the disappearance of superpowers and trends of regionalisation are all inadequately explained by realism, leaving the critic to ask, simply, why? Dylan Kissane answers this question by going to the core of realist theory and arguing that realism‘s problems stem from a critical yet flawed assumption about the nature of the international system. By assuming an anarchical system, realists diminish the complexity of international politics and blind themselves to the impact of substate actors. In this book, Kissane opens the door to re-founding international relations theory not on anarchy but on the assumption of a complex international system. Drawing on an interdisciplinary literature and offering a novel application of complexity theory to international politics, Beyond Anarchy is the beginning of a new and exciting stream of international relations theory for the twenty-first century.

As a boy, being reared in a highly religious atmosphere, the idea of a man living on earth two thousand years ago "going about doing good," "giving sight to the blind," "healing the sick," and, eventually, "dying for our sins" was indeed perplexing in light of the fact that there was no living being to whom I could relate to Jesus Christ. This confusing phenomenon became more chaotic in my mind as I grew older and realized that individuals who claimed to be Jesus's "prophets" were seemingly His opposite-driving luxury cars, preaching against welfare handouts, condemning rather than forgiving those who found themselves "taking the wrong path." "If Jesus lived today," I meagerly reasoned, "would He drive luxury cars? Would He own several Rolls Royces? Would He condemn those who did not contribute money to the 'cause of the kingdom?' Would He go on television and radio condemning abortion? What would a present-day Jesus really be like?" Over a period of many years, I jotted down thoughts, taped ideas, took notes of sermons, and studied the Gospels hoping to someday coordinate all of these into a novel depicting a present-day Jesus Christ. The present book is the result of that.