Pope Benedict XVI and the President of the Italian Senate offer a critique of the spiritual and political crises affecting Europe, discussing human rights, morality, relativism, terrorism, and relations with the United States.

The intellectual and political elite of the West is nowadays taking for granted that religion, in particular Christianity, is a cultural vestige, a primitive form of knowledge, a consolation for the poor minded, an obstacle to coexistence. In all influential environments, the widespread watchword is “We are all secular” or “We are all post-religious.” As a consequence, we are told that states must be independent of religious creed, politics must take a neutral stance regarding religious values, and societies must hold together without any reference to religious bonds. Liberalism, which in some form or another is the prevailing view in the West, is considered to be “free-standing,” and the Western, liberal, open society is taken to be “self-sufficient.” Not only is anti-Christian secularism wrong, it is also risky. It's wrong because the very ideas on which liberal societies are based and in terms of which they can be justified—the concept of the dignity of the human person, the moral priority of the individual, the view that man is a “crooked timber” inclined to prevarication, the limited confidence in the power of the state to render him virtuous—are typical Christian or, more precisely, Judeo-Christian ideas. Take them away and the open society will collapse. Anti-Christian secularism is risky because it jeopardizes the identity of the West, leaves it with no self-conscience, and deprives people of their sense of belonging. The Founding Fathers of America, as well as major intellectual European figures such as Locke, Kant, and Tocqueville, knew how much our civilization depends on Christianity. Today, American and European culture is shaking the pillars of that civilization. Written from a secular and liberal, but not anti-Christian, point of view, this book explains why the Christian culture is still the best antidote to the crisis and decline of the West. Pera proposes that we should call ourselves Christians if we want to maintain our liberal freedoms, to embark on such projects as the political unification of Europe as well as the special relationship between Europe and America, and to avoid the relativistic trend that affects our public ethics. “The challenges of our particular historical moment”, as Pope Benedict XVI calls them in the Preface to the book, can be faced only if we stress the historical and conceptual link between Christianity and free society.

The transition of blacks from slavery into the postwar free economy, and the inevitable reorganization of the plantation after the Civil War, were two of America's most profound transformations. How did the sharecropping system evolve, and how did it help maintain commercial agriculture after the war? What role did the emancipated slaves, their ex-masters, and the Freedmen's Bureau play in the reorganization of the southern economy? What were the effects of federal policy, the new market in free labor, and race and class conflict? Drawing on thousands of previously untapped sources and solid statistical evidence, Gerald David Jaynes fills the historical lacuna by presenting a new socioeconomic interpretation of the birth of the free black worker. "Branches Without Roots" explains how both southern planters and black workers, in light of the failure of Reconstruction politics, looked to the sharecropping system as a solution to their problems. The planters saw it has a way to sustain prewar production levels, and blacks attempted to use it as a viable economic base. Jaynes argues that it was the collective organization and self-help activities of the freedpeople and the democratic fever incited by black leaders and local agents of the Freedmen's Bureau that precipitated the agrarian revolution and the postbellum transformation of southern plantation. -- From publisher's description.

Hailed by Andre Gide as the patron saint of all outsiders, Simone Weil's short life was ample testimony to her beliefs. In 1942 she fled France along with her family, going firstly to America. She then moved back to London in order to work with de Gaulle. Published posthumously The Need for Roots was a direct result of this collaboration. Its purpose was to help rebuild France after the war. In this, her most famous book, Weil reflects on the importance of religious and political social structures in the life of the individual. She wrote that one of the basic obligations we have as human beings is to not let another suffer from hunger. Equally as important, however, is our duty towards our community: we may have declared various human rights, but we have overlooked the obligations and this has left us self-righteous and rootless. She could easily have been issuing a direct warning to us today, the citizens of Century 21.

Plant roots are amazing! From keeping plants anchored in the ground to sucking up water from the soil, roots are an essential part of plants. Some go deep below Earth’s surface while others spread far and wide just below the dirt. Dig in to discover how roots help plants survive.

Roots anchor plants in the ground, and they take in water and minerals from the soil to help plants grow. There is a lot to learn about these important plant parts, and readers discover many fun facts about roots through simple, clear text and helpful diagrams. Detailed, full-color photographs are also included to help readers develop a strong understanding of an important elementary science curriculum topic.

On a journey to the old world„she discovered a whole new world. After a messy year of heartbreak and setbacks, Tara sets off to Ireland in search of clues to her familyÍs ancestry, but what she found wasn't at all what she expected. Some of it has to do with the lack of records, but a lot has to do with John, the charming cartoonist she met on Twitter. Wrapped in real family history and set amongst the natural beauty of the Irish countryside, Roots is a classic romantic-comedy adventure and a page-turning account of a young woman finding herself.