An incisive exploration of the way Greek myths empower us to defeat tyranny. As tyrannical passions increasingly plague twenty-first-century politics, tales told in ancient Greek epics and tragedies provide a vital antidote. Democracy as a concept did not exist until the Greeks coined the term and tried the experiment, but the idea can be traced to stories that the ancient Greeks told and retold. From the eighth through the fifth centuries BCE, Homeric epics and Athenian tragedies exposed the tyrannical potential of individuals and groups large and small. These stories identified abuses of power as self-defeating. They initiated and fostered a movement away from despotism and toward broader forms of political participation. Following her highly praised book Enraged: Why Violent Times Need Ancient Greek Myths, the classicist Emily Katz Anhalt retells tales from key ancient Greek texts and proceeds to interpret the important message they hold for us today. As she reveals, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Aeschylus's Oresteia, and Sophocles's Antigone encourage us—as they encouraged the ancient Greeks—to take responsibility for our own choices and their consequences. These stories emphasize the responsibilities that come with power (any power, whether derived from birth, wealth, personal talents, or numerical advantage), reminding us that the powerful and the powerless alike have obligations to each other. They assist us in restraining destructive passions and balancing tribal allegiances with civic responsibilities. They empower us to resist the tyrannical impulses not only of others but also in ourselves. In an era of political polarization, Embattled demonstrates that if we seek to eradicate tyranny in all its toxic forms, ancient Greek epics and tragedies can point the way.

'Embattled America' is a reinterpretation of conservative evangelical persecution claims. The centrality of such claims to American life is widely known. This book, however, argues against standard approaches to them. It interprets a range of controversial subjects and persons surrounding embattled religion, from the Obama-to-Trump era: Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, the Tea Party, Wallbuilders, anti-sharia legislation and birthers. The lesson of each episode is linked not to any iteration of religion but to a democratic fundament that is obscured in the obsession with controversial religion.--

The Civil War was just days old when the first enslaved men, women, and children began fleeing their plantations to seek refuge inside the lines of the Union army as it moved deep into the heart of the Confederacy. In the years that followed, hundreds of thousands more followed in a mass exodus from slavery that would destroy the system once and for all. Drawing on an extraordinary survey of slave refugee camps throughout the country, Embattled Freedom reveals as never before the everyday experiences of these refugees from slavery as they made their way through the vast landscape of army-supervised camps that emerged during the war. Amy Murrell Taylor vividly reconstructs the human world of wartime emancipation, taking readers inside military-issued tents and makeshift towns, through commissary warehouses and active combat, and into the realities of individuals and families struggling to survive physically as well as spiritually. Narrating their journeys in and out of the confines of the camps, Taylor shows in often gripping detail how the most basic necessities of life were elemental to a former slave's quest for freedom and full citizenship. The stories of individuals--storekeepers, a laundress, and a minister among them--anchor this ambitious and wide-ranging history and demonstrate with new clarity how contingent the slaves' pursuit of freedom was on the rhythms and culture of military life. Taylor brings new insight into the enormous risks taken by formerly enslaved people to find freedom in the midst of the nation's most destructive war.

"The Seventh-day Adventist church faces a crisis. Confusion and division are rampant. Assurance of truth has surrendered to uncertainty. Surety of faith has given way to an enfeebling pluralism. Distinctiveness has been overcome by ecumenism. The sense of urgency has been replaced by carnal security. The spiritual church has become a social club. Unwavering loyalty is now branded as bigotry. Faithfulness to christ is judged to be legalism. The defenders of truth are spurned as schismatics. The state of the church has led untold thousands to reevaluate their relationship to the seventh-day Adventist church. Many have lost all hope that the church would ever suceed in bringing God's truth to every inhabitant of the world - something which must occur if God's people will ever enter the kingdom of heaven. This has instigated the greatest separtationist movement ever known in our ranks. Embattled Church addresses this issue of separation. Has God written "Ichabod" across the portals of the seventh-day Adventist church? Must we look for another? The word of inspiration answers these questions unequivocally." -- Back cover.

Embattled Nation explores Canada’s tumultuous wartime election of 1917 and the people and issues that made it a pivotal moment in Canadian history. Embattled Nation explores the drama of Canada’s tumultuous election of 1917. In the context of the bloody battles of Vimy Ridge, Hill 70, Passchendaele, and of the Halifax explosion, Sir Robert Borden’s Conservative government introduced conscription and called for a wartime election. Most Liberals, led by Sir Wilfrid Laurier, opposed compulsory military service, while in Quebec a new movement emerged to contest the Canadian government’s attitude and policy. To survive and win the election, Prime Minister Borden resorted to unprecedented measures that tested the fabric of Canadian democracy.

The overseas basing of troops has been a central pillar of American military strategy since World War II--and a controversial one. Are these bases truly essential to protecting the United States at home and securing its interests abroad--for example in the Middle East-or do they needlessly provoke anti-Americanism and entangle us in the domestic woes of host countries? Embattled Garrisons takes up this question and examines the strategic, political, and social forces that will determine the future of American overseas basing in key regions around the world. Kent Calder traces the history of overseas bases from their beginnings in World War II through the cold war to the present day, comparing the different challenges the United States, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union have confronted. Providing the broad historical and comparative context needed to understand what is at stake in overseas basing, Calder gives detailed case studies of American bases in Japan, Italy, Turkey, the Philippines, Spain, South Korea, the Balkans, Afghanistan, and Iraq. He highlights the vulnerability of American bases to political shifts in their host nations--in emerging democracies especially--but finds that an American presence can generally be tolerated when identified with political liberation rather than imperial succession. Embattled Garrisons shows how the origins of basing relationships crucially shape long-term prospects for success, and it offers a means to assess America's prospects for a sustained global presence in the future.

Why Aloha to You?Aloha to You is meant to inspire and motivate you to find the power within to live the life you deserve.It is a self-discovering journey to find your true passion, what makes you happy, and how to go about living a meaningful and fulfilling life.Everyone has something unique to offer the world and that something is built off of the foundation of life - Aloha.Follow the author Daniel Aipa's own journey to self-discovery through a compilation of essays that look to empower you to become stronger physically, mentally, and spiritually.Each chapter offers a lesson, rooted in Hawaiian values, to bring awareness of exactly what it is you want out of your life.This book is divided into three parts: Kuha'o (Self-reliance), Mana (Power), and Aloha (Compassion). It can be read in order or in parts depending on where you are and what you need in your own self-discovery.What's unique about this book?During his journey Aipa found what Aloha means to him, and he wants the same for you.With that in mind, he gives Aloha to You.