This book honors the career of Professor Elizabeth Gierlowski-Kordesch who was a pioneer and leader in the field of limnogeology since the 1980s. Her work was instrumental in guiding students and professionals in the field until her untimely death in 2016. This collection of chapters was written by her colleagues and students and recognize the important role that Professor Gierlowski-Kordesch had in advancing the field of limnogeology. The chapters show the breadth of her reach as these have been contributed from virtually every continent. This book will be a primary reference for scientists, professionals and graduate students who are interested in the latest advances in limnogeologic processes and basin descriptions in North and South America, Europe, Africa, and China. *Free supplementary material available online for chapters 3,11,12 and 13. Access by searching for the book on link.springer.com

In 1638, a small book of no more than 92 pages in octavo was published “appresso Gioanne Calleoni” under the title “Discourse on the State of the Jews and in particular those dwelling in the illustrious city of Venice.” It was dedicated to the Doge of Venice and his counsellors, who are labelled “lovers of Truth.” The author of the book was a certain Simone (Simḥa) Luzzatto, a native of Venice, where he lived and died, serving as rabbi for over fifty years during the course of the seventeenth century. Luzzatto’s political thesis is simple and, at the same time, temerarious, if not revolutionary: Venice can put an end to its political decline, he argues, by offering the Jews a monopoly on overseas commercial activity. This plan is highly recommendable because the Jews are “wellsuited for trade,” much more so than others (such as “foreigners,” for example). The rabbi opens his argument by recalling that trade and usury are the only occupations permitted to Jews. Within the confines of their historical situation, the Venetian Jews became particularly skilled at trade with partners from the Eastern Mediterranean countries. Luzzatto’s argument is that this talent could be put at the service of the Venetian government in order to maintain – or, more accurately, recover – its political importance as an intermediary between East and West. He was the first to define the role of the Jews on the basis of their economic and social functions, disregarding the classic categorisation of Judaism’s alleged privileged religious status in world history. Nonetheless, going beyond the socio-economic arguments of the book, it is essential to point out Luzzatto’s resort to sceptical strategies in order to plead in defence of the Venetian Jews. It is precisely his philosophical and political scepticism that makes Luzzatto’s texts so unique. This edition aims to grant access to his works and thought to English-speaking readers and scholars. By approaching his texts from this point of view, the editors hope to open a new path in research into Jewish culture and philosophy that will enable other scholars to develop new directions and new perspectives, stressing the interpenetration between Jews and the surrounding Christian and secular cultures.

In Socialism of Fools, Michele Battini focuses on the critical moment during the Enlightenment in which anti-Jewish stereotypes morphed into a sophisticated, modern social anti-Semitism. He recovers the potent anti-Jewish, anticapitalist propaganda that cemented the idea of a Jewish conspiracy in the European mind and connects it to the atrocities that characterized the Jewish experience in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Beginning in the eighteenth century, counter-Enlightenment intellectuals and intransigent Catholic writers singled out Jews for conspiring to exploit self-sustaining markets and the liberal state. These ideas spread among socialist and labor movements in the nineteenth century and intensified during the Long Depression of the 1870s. Anti-Jewish anticapitalism then migrated to the Habsburg Empire with the Christian Social Party; to Germany with the Anti-Semitic Leagues; to France with the nationalist movements; and to Italy, where Revolutionary Syndicalists made anti-Jewish anticapitalism the basis of an alliance with the nationalists. Exemplified best in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the infamous document that "leaked" Jewish plans to conquer the world, the Jewish-conspiracy myth inverts reality and creates a perverse relationship to historical and judicial truth. Isolating the intellectual roots of this phenomenon and its contemporary resonances, Battini shows us why, so many decades after the Holocaust, Jewish people continue to be a powerful political target.

This book highlights the use of historical data in natural hazard assessments. Different types of data, such as historical data from written documents, are linked to technically measured data such as stream gauge height and consequently river discharge in order to archive new possibilities of probability determination of respective hazardous processes. In addition, this book strengthens this interdisciplinary approach through the application to different processes of earthquakes, floods, and landslides. Based on worldwide examples, the book introduces how various disciplines address the use of historical data in their respective analysis. These studies might give suggestions of new approaches in their own field derived from applications shown by other disciplines. Audience: This volume is of particular interest to professionals interested and involved in natural hazard assessments, working at research institutions and organisations, large and small scale enterprises, governmental agencies as well as private personnel. However, also advanced students might find the book helpful in addressing specific issues raised in natural hazard courses.

"In Staging Holiness. The Case of Hospitaller Rhodes (ca. 1309-1522) Sofia Zoitou offers a study of the history of relic collections, devotional rituals and sites invested with special meaning in Rhodes, during a time when the island became one of the most frequented ports of call for ships carrying pilgrims from Venice to the Holy Land. Scrutinizing late medieval travel reports by pilgrims from all over Europe along with extant historical, archaeological, visual and material evidence, Sofia Zoitou traces the various forms of the Rhodian cultic sites' evolution and perception, ultimately considered as an overall artistic strategy for the staging of the sacred"--

This book contains peer-reviewed papers from the Second World Landslide Forum, organised by the International Consortium on Landslides (ICL), that took place in September 2011. The entire material from the conference has been split into seven volumes, this one is the seventh: 1. Landslide Inventory and Susceptibility and Hazard Zoning, 2. Early Warning, Instrumentation and Monitoring, 3. Spatial Analysis and Modelling, 4. Global Environmental Change, 5. Complex Environment, 6. Risk Assessment, Management and Mitigation, 7. Social and Economic Impact and Policies.