This book addresses the challenge of education for citizenship at a specific, concrete level. It offers examples of efforts to create among our students a new set of what Tocqueville called mores or culturally defining 'habits of the heart' which will enhance citizenship, foster a sense of connectedness to a community stretching beyond the university, and ultimately, support the practices, basic values, and institutions necessary for the democratic process.

National Jewish Book Award finalist An essential and accessible introduction to one of the most complex, controversial topics in the world, from a leading expert on Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. When it comes to Israel and Palestine, it can be hard to know what to say. Daniel Sokatch gets it. He heads the New Israel Fund, an organization dedicated to equality and democracy for all Israelis--Arab, Jewish, and otherwise. The question he gets asked, on an almost daily basis, is, "Can't you just explain the Israel situation to me? In, like, 10 minutes or less?" This book is his timely and much-needed answer. Can We Talk About Israel? tells the story of that country and explores why so many people feel so strongly about it without actually understanding it very well at all. Sokatch grapples with a century-long struggle between two peoples that both perceive themselves as (and indeed are) victims. And he explains why Israel (and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict) inspires such extreme feelings--why it seems like Israel is the answer to “what is wrong with the world” for half the people in it, and “what is right with the world” for the other half. As Sokatch asks, is there any other topic about which so many intelligent, educated, and sophisticated people express such strongly and passionately held convictions, and about which they actually know so little? Complete with engaging illustrations by Christopher Noxon, Can We Talk About Israel? is an easy-to-read yet penetrating and original look at a subject we could all afford to better understand.

Folklore is one of the most national of all disciplines, yet also one with a strong international and scholarly dimension. Therefore, it seems appropriate that this book should be edited by a national institution such as the Finnish Literature Society together with a cross-national institution such as the Nordic Institute of Folklore, with editorial contribution from representatives of university departments in the study of traditions in Finland. The title could have been International Studies in Folklore, for the contributions are truly international in their scope and distribution. We have, however, chosen a title which refers to Lauri Honko's recent occupation with the folklore process.

Industrial advancement has not changed the basic fragility of human life, and the commercialization and consumer orientation of the mass media has actually helped legends travel faster and farther. Legends are communicated not only orally, face to face, but also in the press, on radio and television, on countless Web sites, and by e-mail, perpetuating new waves of the "culture of fear.""--BOOK JACKET.