ACADEMIC SLEUTH BEN REESE RETURNS TO SCOTLAND, ENTANGLED IN A CASE OF MURDER AMONG FRIENDS. The sudden death of rich, generous Scottish professor Georgina Fletcher seems like a tragic accident. Indeed, American archivist Ben Reese can scarcely believe that it was not. But Georgina had foreseen her death, and had laid down a secret trail of evidence pointing to a hard-hearted murder committed by someone with much to gain if she died--or to lose if she lived. Was it the brilliant sculptor Georgina had educated and supported? The beautiful student who is also her heir? Her late husband's business associates? Or a jealous colleague in her own department? It appears that someone very close to her not only killed with fiendish cleverness but wants to ensnare Ben like a blind rat in a live trap--from which he'll never escape. . . .

This book provides a needed survey of a truly remarkable number of different theoretical approaches to the related phenomena of attitude and belief change. It focuses on variable perspective theory which is far more deserving of attention than the present level of research activity.

What can motivate citizens in divided societies to engage in free, open, and reasoned dialogue? Attempts by philosophers to answer this question focus largely on elucidating what citizens owe to one another as free and equal citizens, as members of a shared social context, or as agents who are mutually dependent on one another for our well-being. In The Deliberative Impulse: Motivating Discourse in Divided Societies, Andrew F. Smith suggests that that a better answer can be offered in terms of what we owe to our convictions. Given the defining role they play in how we live our lives and regard ourselves, among the highest-order interests that we maintain is being in a position to do right by our convictions—to abide by conscience. By developing a clear understanding of how best to act on this interest, we see that we are well served by engaging in public deliberation. Particularly for citizens in societies that are fragmented along ethnic, cultural, ideological, and religious lines, our interest in abiding by conscience should give us clear moral, epistemic, and religious incentives to deliberatively engage with allies and adversaries alike. Scholars who focus on issues in political philosophy, ethics, and political theory will value this book for how it suggests we can overcome the motivational roadblocks to active political participation and robust deliberation.

Persuasion Points answers those questions for secondary teachers, helping you seamlessly teach the explicit elements of high-scoring persuasive essays, which are so important for end-of-course writing examinations, state assessments, advanced courses, and national college-entrance tests. These 82 ready-to-go strategic exercises save you time and make writing instruction easy to incorporate in your instructional hour. Author Brian Backman includes: writing exercises for students, with teacher notes and reference sheets; tools to help students practice drafting, revising, and editing their essays while infusing elements of style; practice essays for students to score against a rubric; and skill-sharpening games and activities for the whole class; questions for close reading; a glossary of terms; and 101 writing prompts. With Persuasion Points, your students will be able to tackle any persuasive writing task with confidence!

A remarkable guide to the quests that give our lives meaning—and how to find your own—from the New York Times bestselling author of The $100 Startup and 100 Side Hustles “If you like complacency and mediocrity, do not read this book. It’s dangerously inspiring.”—A. J. Jacobs, author of The Know-It-All When he set out to visit all of the planet’s countries by age thirty-five, compulsive goal-seeker Chris Guillebeau never imagined that his journey’s biggest revelation would be how many people like himself exist—each pursuing a challenging quest. These quests are as diverse as humanity itself, involving exploration, the pursuit of athletic or artistic excellence, or battling against injustice and poverty. Everywhere that Chris visited he found ordinary people working toward extraordinary goals, making daily down payments on their dreams. These “questers” included a suburban mom pursuing a wildly ambitious culinary project, a DJ producing the world’s largest symphony, a young widower completing the tasks his wife would never accomplish—and scores of others writing themselves into the record books. The more Chris spoke with these strivers, the more he began to appreciate the direct link between questing and long-term happiness, and he was compelled to complete a comprehensive study of the phenomenon. In The Happiness of Pursuit, he draws on interviews with hundreds of questers, revealing their secret motivations, their selection criteria, the role played by friends and family, their tricks for solving logistics, and the importance of documentation. Equally fascinating is Chris’s examination of questing’s other side. What happens after the summit is climbed, the painting hung, the endurance record broken, the at-risk community saved? A book that challenges each of us to take control—to make our lives be about something while at the same time remaining clear-eyed about the commitment—The Happiness of Pursuit will inspire readers of every age and aspiration. It’s a playbook for making your life count. “The Happiness of Pursuit is smart, honest, and dangerous. Why dangerous? Because it is as practical as it is inspiring. You won’t just be daydreaming about your quest—you’ll be packing for it!”—Brené Brown, Ph.D., LMSW, author of Daring Greatly

Approachable yet sophisticated and comprehensive presentation of the key concepts and theories of persusaion. Key text for an increasingly relevant course taught in various departments, such as communication studies and psychology. Fresh attention to online influence and new examples of persusaion today, including within health campaigns, attitudes, communicator appeals, dissonance, and ethics. Updated companion website that includes an instructor’s manual, lecture slides, sample test questions, and links to relevant articles and videos illustrating concepts presented in the text.

By piecing the lives of selected individuals into a grand mosaic, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Daniel J. Boorstin explores the development of artistic innovation over 3,000 years. A hugely ambitious chronicle of the arts that Boorstin delivers with the scope that made his Discoverers a national bestseller. Even as he tells the stories of such individual creators as Homer, Joyce, Giotto, Picasso, Handel, Wagner, and Virginia Woolf, Boorstin assembles them into a grand mosaic of aesthetic and intellectual invention. In the process he tells us not only how great art (and great architecture and philosophy) is created, but where it comes from and how it has shaped and mirrored societies from Vedic India to the twentieth-century United States.