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Technology and Mathematics: Philosophical and Historical Investigations (Philosophy of Engineering and Technology #30)
by Sven Ove HanssonThis volume is the first extensive study of the historical and philosophical connections between technology and mathematics. Coverage includes the use of mathematics in ancient as well as modern technology, devices and machines for computation, cryptology, mathematics in technological education, the epistemology of computer-mediated proofs, and the relationship between technological and mathematical computability. The book also examines the work of such historical figures as Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Charles Babbage, Ada Lovelace, and Alan Turing.
What Does it Mean to be Human? Life, Death, Personhood and the Transhumanist Movement (Anticipation Science #3)
by D. John DoyleThis book is a critical examination of the philosophical and moral issues in relation to human enhancement and the various related medical developments that are now rapidly moving from the laboratory into the clinical realm. In the book, the author critically examines technologies such as genetic engineering, neural implants, pharmacologic enhancement, and cryonic suspension from transhumanist and bioconservative positions, focusing primarily on moral issues and what it means to be a human in a setting where technological interventions sometimes impact strongly on our humanity. The author also introduces the notion that death is a process rather than an event, as well as identifies philosophical and clinical limitations in the contemporary determination of brain death as a precursor to organ procurement for transplantation. The discussion on what exactly it means to be dead is later applied to explore philosophical and clinical issues germane to the cryonics movement. Written by a physician/ scientist and heavily referenced to the peer-reviewed medical and scientific literature, the book is aimed at advanced students and academics but should be readable by any intelligent reader willing to carry out some side-reading. No prior knowledge of moral philosophy is assumed, as the various key approaches to moral philosophy are outlined early in the book.
Biosignatures for Astrobiology (Advances in Astrobiology and Biogeophysics)
by Barbara Cavalazzi Frances WestallThis book aims at providing a brief but broad overview of biosignatures. The topics addressed range from prebiotic signatures in extraterrestrial materials to the signatures characterising extant life as well as fossilised life, biosignatures related to space, and space flight instrumentation to detect biosignatures either in situ or from orbit. The book ends with philosophical reflections on the implications of life elsewhere. In the 15 chapters written by an interdisciplinary team of experts, it provides both detailed explanations on the nature of biosignatures as well as useful case studies showing how they are used and identified in ancient rocks, for example. One case study addresses the controversial finding of traces of fossil life in a meteorite from Mars. The book will be of interest not only to astrobiologists but also to terrestrial paleontologists as well as any reader interested in the prospects of finding a second example of life on another planet.
How to Measure the Quality of Judicial Reasoning (Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice #69)
by Mátyás Bencze Gar Yein NgThis edited volume examines the very essence of the function of judges, building upon developments in the quality of justice research throughout Europe. Distinguished authors address a gap in the literature by considering the standards that individual judgments should meet, presenting both academic and practical perspectives. Readers are invited to consider such questions as: What is expected from judicial reasoning? Is there a general concept of good quality with regard to judicial reasoning? Are there any attempts being made to measure the quality of judicial reasoning? The focus here is on judges meeting the highest standards possible in adjudication and how they may be held to account for the way they reason. The contributions examine theoretical questions surrounding the measurement of the quality of judicial reasoning, practices and legal systems across Europe, and judicial reasoning in various international courts. Six legal systems in Europe are featured: England and Wales, Finland, Italy, the Czech Republic, France and Hungary as well as three non-domestic levels of court jurisdictions, including the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). The depth and breadth of subject matter presented in this volume ensure its relevance for many years to come. All those with an interest in benchmarking the quality of judicial reasoning, including judges themselves, academics, students and legal practitioners, can find something of value in this book.
Der Europäische Gerichtshof für Menschenrechte als Diskurswächter: Zur Methodik, Legitimität und Rolle des Gerichtshofs im demokratisch-rechtsstaatlichen Entscheidungsprozess (Beiträge zum ausländischen öffentlichen Recht und Völkerrecht #263)
by Björnstjern BaadeDas Buch nimmt die aktuelle Kritik am EGMR zum Anlass, die Grundsatzfrage zu stellen, welche Rolle dieser gegenüber dem demokratisch-rechtsstaatlichen Entscheidungsprozess seiner Vertragsstaaten einnehmen sollte. Denn die Kritik an der Legitimität des Gerichtshofs, die momentan im Vereinigten Königreich am drastischsten formuliert wird, wirft berechtigte demokratietheoretische Frage auf und ist ernst zu nehmen. Neben einer detaillierten rechtstheoretischen und -methodischen Bewertung der Rechtsprechung wird die Kritik auch aus staatstheoretischer Sicht behandelt. Hierbei werden jeweils interdisziplinär Erkenntnisse der Philosophie sowie der Sprach- und Politikwissenschaften herangezogen. Nach einer ausführlichen Analyse anhand der Wiener Vertragsrechtskonvention werden objektivistische Auslegungsansätze (wie original meaning oder positivisme sociologique) erörtert und zurückgewiesen. Die Kontrolle der Einhaltung prä-existenter Normen ist als alleiniges Erklärungs- und Rechtfertigungsmodell jedenfalls defizitär. Aufgabe des Gerichtshofs ist es auch, den demokratisch-rechtsstaatlichen Entscheidungsdiskurs an seine korrekte Funktionsweise zu binden, seine normative Rationalität sicherzustellen sowie hierfür die Tatsachengrundlage zu prüfen. Hierbei kommt der margin of appreciation und dem sie maßgeblich bestimmenden Faktor der Legitimität der kontrollierten Entscheidung besondere Bedeutung zu. Sie verhindert ihrerseits, dass der Gerichtshof aus seiner Rolle fällt, die darin besteht, als Wächter dieses Diskurses einen Beitrag dazu zu leisten, dass die Institutionen demokratischer Rechtsstaaten ihrer Rolle entsprechen.
Die Bindung der Dritten Welt an das postkoloniale Völkerrecht: Die Völkerrechtskommission, das Recht der Verträge und das Recht der Staatennachfolge in der Dekolonialisierung (Beiträge zum ausländischen öffentlichen Recht und Völkerrecht #264)
by Anna KruegerDas Buch untersucht die völkerrechtshistorische, -theoretische und -praktische Debatte um die Bindung der Dritten Welt an die etablierte Völkerrechtsordung nach der Dekolonialisierung unter besonderer Beachtung herausragender Völkerrechtler in den neuen Staaten wie Ram Prakash Anand, Taslim Olawale Elias, Mohammed Bedjaoui, Abdul Hakim Tabibi und Mustafa Kamil Yasseen. Dabei werden die Arbeiten der Völkerrechtskommission der Vereinten Nationen (ILC) und die sich anschließenden Staatenkonferenzen im Recht der Verträge (WVK) sowie im Recht der Staatennachfolge (WKSV und WKSVAS) aufgearbeitet, welche die Völkerrechtler in der Dritten Welt zur Umsetzung ihres „Globalsolidarischen Projekts“ (Reform der etablierten Völkerrechtsordnung im Interesse der Weltgemeinschaft, Errichtung einer Neuen Weltwirtschaftsordnung) zu nutzen versuchten.
Die auswärtige Gewalt des Europäischen Parlaments: Kritik der Legitimation und Dogmatik der außenpolitischen Prärogative der Exekutive (Beiträge zum ausländischen öffentlichen Recht und Völkerrecht #265)
by Roya SangiDas vorliegende Buch gibt eine legitimationstheoretische Antwort auf die Fragen, ob die auswärtige Gewalt exekutivischer Natur ist und welchen Beitrag das Europäische Parlament zur europäischen Außenpolitik zu leisten vermag und zieht sie zur Entfaltung einer legitimen europäischen Außenpolitik heran. Die Monographie zeichnet ein Gesamtbild der auswärtigen Gewalt des Europäischen Parlaments im Vergleich zur auswärtigen Gewalt des Deutschen Bundestages und derjenigen des US-amerikanischen Kongresses. Das Locke´sche Dogma der außenpolitischen Prärogative der Exekutive dominiert nicht nur im nationalen Rahmen, insbesondere in der Rechtsprechung des BVerfG, vielmehr ist es auch symmetrisch auf Unionsebene wirksam. Dieses Dogma analysiert die Arbeit im Geflecht Lockes Legitimitätstheorie und Gewaltenteilungslehre. Daneben steht eine Untersuchung des diesem Dogma zugrundeliegenden Gesetzesbegriffes, die für die auswärtige Gewalt der Union nutzbar gemacht wird. Das Werk arbeitet die legitimationsstiftende Leistung des Europäischen Parlaments zu außenpolitischen Handlungen der EU heraus und sichert die abstrakt gewonnenen Erkenntnisse empirisch durch ausgewählte Fallstudien ab.
Die Vollstreckungsimmunität der Staaten im Wandel des Völkerrechts (Beiträge zum ausländischen öffentlichen Recht und Völkerrecht #271)
by Anja HöfelmeierDieses Buch behandelt die völkerrechtliche Immunität von Staaten und ihren Untergliederungen gegen hoheitliche Zwangsmaßnahmen anderer Staaten. Solche Maßnahmen umfassen jegliche Zugriffe auf staatliches Vermögen, die in gerichtlichen Vollstreckungs- und Anspruchssicherungsverfahren vorgenommen werden. Diese Immunität hat mit einem sich wandelnden Souveränitätsverständnis im Völkerrecht kontinuierlich Modifikationen erfahren, die sich zunächst in Ausnahmen für privatwirtschaftliches Handeln des Staates und später in Ansätzen zur normativen Einschränkung der Immunität nach schweren Völkerrechtsbrüchen äußerten. In diesem Buch werden die Entstehung und der aktuelle völkerrechtliche Gehalt der Vollstreckungsimmunität und ihrer Einschränkungen aus verschiedenen Quellen ermittelt. Zuvorderst wird die nationale Gesetzgebungs- und Spruchpraxis verschiedener Staaten untersucht und verglichen. Auch internationale Kodifikationen zur Staatenimmunität, vor allem die United Nations Convention on Jurisdictional Immunities of States and Their Property, und das Urteil des Internationalen Gerichtshofs im Fall "Jurisdictional Immunities of the State" aus dem Jahre 2012 werden im Zusammenhang dargestellt. Anders als die kommerzielle Ausnahme zur Vollstreckungsimmunität lässt sich eine Ausnahme für die Aufarbeitung schwerer Völkerrechtsbrüche nicht auf eine gewachsene Staatenpraxis stützen, sondern wird in der Literatur mit dogmatischen Argumenten begründet. Hierzu zählen die Heranziehung einer Normenhierarchie, übergreifender Gerechtigkeitsargumente oder des völkerrechtlichen Instruments der Gegenmaßnahme ebenso wie die Darstellung, die der Staatenimmunität eine Kollision mit fundamentalen Menschenrechten attestiert und diesen Normenkonflikt zulasten der Immunität auflöst. Diese Ansätze werden im vorliegenden Buch eingehend auf ihre Stichhaltigkeit nach dem geltenden Völkerrecht untersucht und auf die besondere Situation einer Geltendmachung der Vollstreckungsimmunität übertragen. Schließlich gibt das Werk einen Überblick über die Völkerrechtsentwicklung und das aus ihr jeweils folgende Souveränitäts- und Immunitätsverständnis. Aus dieser Analyse heraus werden Prognosen und Vorschläge dafür erarbeitet, wie sich die Staaten- und Vollstreckungsimmunität - als Ausfluss der staatlichen Souveränität - zukünftig im völkerrechtlichen Gefüge positionieren kann und welche Ansätze dazu genutzt werden könnten, auftretende Adjudikations- und Vollstreckungsdefizite völkerrechtskonform zu bewältigen.
Democracy and Financial Order: Legal Perspectives (Beiträge zum ausländischen öffentlichen Recht und Völkerrecht #273)
by Matthias Goldmann Silvia SteiningerThis book discusses the relationship between democracy and the financial order from various legal perspectives. Each of the nine contributions adopts a unique perspective on the legal and political challenges brought to the fore by the Global Financial Crisis. This crisis and the ensuing sovereign debt crisis in Europe are only the latest in a long series of financial crises around the globe in recent decades. By their very existence, but also as a result of the political turmoil they have created, these financial crises testify to the well-known tensions between democracy and a market-based economic and financial order. However, what is missing in this debate is an analysis of the role of law for reconciling democracy with a market-based financial order. To fill this lacuna, the book focuses on the controversy surrounding the concept of law, thereby adding another variable to the debate on the relation between democracy and capitalism. Each chapter addresses the concept of law from a particular theoretical angle, be it a full-grown legal theory or an approach in political economy that has a particular view of the law.
The Ecological Era and Classical Chinese Naturalism: A Case Study of Tao Yuanming (China Academic Library)
by Shuyuan LuReflecting the currently growing eco-movement, this book presents to western readers Tao Yuanming, an ancient Chinese poet, as a representative of classical oriental natural philosophy who offered lived experience of “dwelling poetically on earth.” Drawing on Derrida’s specter theory, it interprets Tao Yuanming in a postmodern and eco-critical context, while also exploring his naturalist “kindred spirits” in other countries, so as to urge the people of today to contemplate their own existence and pursuits. The book’s “panoramic” table of contents offers readers a wonderful reading experience.
The Confucian Misgivings--Liang Shu-ming’s Narrative About Law
by Zhangrun XuThe major intellectual interest throughout this book is to offer a study on China's legal legacy, through Liang Shu-ming's eyes. The book follows the formula of the parallel between Life and Mind (人生与人心), Physis and Nomos, and compares Liang Shu-ming's narrative with his own practical orientation and with the theories of other interlocutors. The book puts Liang Shu-ming into the social context of modern Chinese history, in particular, the context of the unprecedented crisis of meaning in the legal realm and the collapse of a transcendental source for Chinese cultural identity in the light of modernity. The evaluation provided by this narrative could be helpful in clarifying the deep structures and significance of the present Chinese legal system through historically exploring Liang Shu-ming's misgivings. The book is intended for academics of legal, history and cultural studies. The book is unique in that it is the first book to explore New Confucian's considerations on reconstruction of Chinese legal system in the modern era. It presents a comprehensive systematical comparison of Liang Shu-ming's narrative about constitutional government in China against other schools of thought.
Chinese Business Law (The Palgrave Series on Chinese Law)
by Danling YuThis book offers the first definitive English-language resource on Chinese business law. Written by an authoritative source, the book accurately describes what the business law is and explains legislative intentions underlying the myriad of law, rules, and regulations. Moreover, it provides the most up-to-date information on law, rules, and regulations and contains accurate predictions of the future legislative trend. It is written for readers across the spectrum of both common law and civil law systems. The author’s experience as expert counsel to Chinese central governmental legislative functions including the State Council Legislative Affairs Office and the expert editor and translator in chief of the national administrative regulations in business and finance, extensive experience of international legal practice and arbitration, and teaching and research experience in international business law and Chinese law will make this book of interest to lawyers, business people, and scholars.
The Associated Press Guide to News Writing (Third Edition)
by Rene J. CapponA former AP General News Editor offers novices and seasoned professionals practical advice and lively commentary on writing like a pro. He covers all the essentials of researching, generating, and writing: developing a hook, choosing the right words, constructing a good lead, and more.
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (Quick Desk Reference Series™)
by Michigan Legal Publishing Ltd.A concise and comprehensive edition of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and related supplementary statutes for quick reference. Updated through January 1, 2018. Perfect for your briefcase or desk and a great format for the attorney or law school student who simply needs to refer to the rules.
The Last Italian: Portrait of a People (DESTINATIONS)
by William MurrayOffers a candid portrait of the Italian people in a collection of pieces describing events and topics highlighting life in contemporary Italy.
The Magazines Handbook (Media Practice)
by Jenny McKayThe Magazines Handbook is an introductory guide to all aspects of magazine journalism and publishing. The book explores the latest innovations in digital design and delivery, whilst also reaffirming the continued importance of key journalistic skills, including good interviewing, feature writing and news writing. The book includes chapters on the visual aspects of magazines, such as illustration and picture editing, and chapters covering the business background of this increasingly global industry. Jenny McKay offers tips on training and work experience as well as outlining the function of various editorial jobs. Profiles of four young journalists give a flavour of life in the early years of a career. Chapters include: advice on embarking on a career in magazine journalism; an overview of magazine design and the production process; analysis of the state of the magazine industry today, with a look to its future; a discussion of legal issues related to magazine journalism; a glossary of key terms and recommended reading in every chapter. Now in its fourth edition, The Magazines Handbook offers a nuanced and reflective account of periodical journalism, ideal for students of journalism and budding professionals who are seeking a useful starting point for wide-ranging academic discussion about magazines.
Sentir el bosque: La experiencia del shinrin-yoku (baño de bosque)
by Álex GesseUna invitación a conectarte con la naturaleza: los baños de bosque. Vivimos abstraídos en ciudades, escenarios urbanos y paisajes grises. Con el paso del tiempo, hemos olvidado el impacto que nos puede causar la ausencia de naturaleza. Álex Gesse nos invita a probar los baños de bosque, una técnica japonesa que nos ayuda a reconectar con la naturaleza y con sus efectos beneficiosos para el cuerpo y el espíritu. En este libro, el autor -guía experimentado en baños de bosque- nos relata una veintena de experiencias reales de shinrin-yoku, que han de servir de inspiración e ilustración de lo que podemos encontrarnos en un viaje al interior del bosque, un paseo relajado, sin prisa, sin presiones, como una pausa extraordinaria fuera de nuestra rutina, y que nos conducirá a reencontrarnos con nosotros mismos. Además, nos dice, podemos buscar la naturaleza y su poder sanador allí donde estemos: en la oficina, en casa, en las calles de nuestra ciudad... Allí donde más lo necesites. «Todos tus sentidos están para ser despertados, para conectarte con el bosque, y cuando se liberan, las emociones se despiertan, las conversaciones se desenvuelven y un nuevo mundo surge a tu alrededor, permitiéndote encontrar la armonía con el bosque y, en definitiva, hallar tu equilibrio interior.»
Ace Group Fitness Instructor Manual: A Guide for Fitness Professional
by AceThe all-new ACE Group Fitness Instructor Manual, 3rd Edition, prepares fitness professionals to design effective group fitness programs and both safely and successfully lead a wide range of class formats and participants. A must-have resource for group fitness instructors, the manual addresses critical core competencies regardless of the types of classes you plan to teach. Topics range from instruction techniques and program design to the business of group fitness and an instructor's ethical and legal responsibilities as well. Additionally, the manual tackles important considerations that group fitness instructors face when instructing a variety of individuals, including pregnant women and those with significant weight challenges. The manual includes an all-new companion DVD, Essentials of Group Fitness Instruction, on which world-renowned group fitness expert and award-winning presenter, Lawrence Biscontini, offers essential steps and strategies to unlocking the critical elements of group fitness. Discover key components of class design, such as how to determine desired outcomes through exercise and movement selection, sequencing, choreography, program modifications and music.
The St. Martin’s Guide to Writing (Twelfth Edition)
by Charles R. Cooper Rise AxelrodWhether you have years of teaching experience or are new to the classroom, you and your students can count on The St. Martin’s Guide to Writing to provide the thoroughly class-tested support you need for first-year composition, with a rhetoric, an array of engaging readings, a research manual, and a handbook, all in a single book — and available online in LaunchPad. Thousands of instructors and their students rely on the Guide’s proven approach because it works: Acclaimed step-by-step reading and writing guides to 9 different genres offer sure-fire invention that get students started and revision strategies that help them develop their writing. The new edition continues in its strategies to serve a diverse audience of schools and students with an improved, accessible design, new support for reflection that encourages the transfer, and a new Student’s Companion for students taking co-requisite or ALP courses.
A Crash Course In Healthcare IT: Everything You Need to Know About this Industry
by Michael FishweicherIf you’re started already. You probably have noticed that here is a lot of industry related information that any staff member may come across on any given day. If you’re like me and want to be sure that you’re able to carry an intelligent conversation with a co-worker, client, or potential cacnt.
Titans of History: The Giants Who Made Our World
by Simon Sebag MontefioreIn this inspiring, horrifying, and accessible collection of short, entertaining, and vivid life stories, Simon Sebag Montefiore—one of our pre-eminent historians and a prizewinning writer—presents the giant characters who have changed the course of world history. These titans of history—encompassing queens, empresses, and actresses, kings, sultans, and conquerors, as well as prophets, artists, courtesans, psychopaths, and explorers—lived lives of astonishing drama, courage and adventure, debauchery and slaughter, virtue and crime. The subjects range widely throughout time and geography from Buddha and Genghis Khan to Nero and Churchill; from Catherine the Great and Anne Frank to Toussaint l’Ouverture and Martin Luther King; from Mozart to Mao; from Jesus Christ and Shakespeare to Einstein and Elvis. Through these lives, Montefiore recounts the most momentous world events—from ancient times to the Crusades, the Holocaust, and the Gulf Wars. These are the historical figures that everyone should know and the stories we should never forget.
Marinades, Rubs, Brines, Cures and Glazes: 400 Recipes for Poultry, Meat, Seafood, and Vegetables
by Jim TarantinoIn this revised and expanded edition of his best-selling book, grilling guru Jim Tarantino explains the art and science of marinades and presents more than 400 savory, sweet, and spicy recipes. Featuring 150 brand-new recipes and sections on brines, cures, and glazes, this marinating bible is chock-full of ideas for preparing moist and flavorful beef, poultry, vegetables, and more--both indoors and out--including:Apple Cider Brine * Zesty Jalapeño Lime Glaze * Tapenade Marinade * Ancho-Espresso Dry Rub * Grilled Iberian Pork Loin with Blood Orange-Sherry Sauce * Vietnamese Grilled Lobster SaladMARINADES, RUBS, BRINES, CURES & GLAZES provides home cooks with a diverse repertoire of mouthwatering recipes and fail-safe techniques, so you can grill, steam, sauté, roast, and broil with confidence.Hundreds of marinades, rubs, brines, cures, glazes, bastes, mops, sops, dipping sauces, spice mixes, caramels, and more.Delicious dishes. Recipes for marinated main courses and sides with a tantalizing array of global flavors, from the deep South to the South Pacific.In-depth info. The know-how you need to understand how marinades react with meats and vegetables, with detailed marinating charts.Indispensable ingredients. Lists of essential foodstuffs to stock your pantry for a full repertoire of recipes and endless culinary improvisation.Tips & tricks for the kitchen & the grill. How to cure and brine seafood, smoke meat to perfection, get creative with jerky, and tons of other useful techniques.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Presentation Skills for Scientists: A Practical Guide
by Edward Zanders Lindsay MacLeodIt is now widely recognised that professional presentation skills are an indispensable cornerstone of a successful scientific career. This updated second edition provides a concise and accessible guide to preparing and delivering scientific presentations. Its highly practical 'how-to' style focuses on the issues that are of immediate concern to the busy scientist. The text covers all of the important aspects of scientific presentations, including knowing your audience, producing visual material, controlling nerves and handling questions. It also includes advice on presenting in English for non-native speakers, helping them to improve the clarity and effectiveness of their presentations. Links are included throughout the text to the accompanying website, which contains annotated video clips of speakers delivering a talk and demonstrates the common problems encountered, as well as exercises designed to overcome them. It also contains image files to demonstrate the design issues to consider when creating visual material.
Description of Situations: An Essay in Contextualist Epistemology (SpringerBriefs in Philosophy)
by Nuno VenturinhaThis book approaches classic epistemological problems from a contextualist perspective. The author takes as his point of departure the fact that we are situated beings, more specifically that every single moment in our lives is already given within the framework of a specific context in the midst of which we understand ourselves and what surrounds us.In the process of his investigation, the author explores, in a fresh way, the works of key thinkers in epistemology. These include Bernard Bolzano, René Descartes, Gottlob Frege, Edmund Husserl, Immanuel Kant and Ludwig Wittgenstein, but also contemporary authors such as Stewart Cohen, Keith DeRose, David Lewis, Duncan Pritchard, Ernest Sosa and Charles Travis. Some of the topics covered are attributions of knowledge, the correspondence theory of truth, objectivity and subjectivity, possible worlds, primary and secondary evidence, scepticism, transcendentalism and relativism. The book also introduces a new contextualist thought-experiment for dealing with moral questions.Contextualism has received a great deal of attention in contemporary epistemology. It has the potential to resolve a number of issues that traditional epistemological approaches cannot address. In particular, a contextualist view opens the way to an understanding of those cognitive processes that require situational information to be fully grasped. However, contextualism poses serious difficulties in regard to epistemic invariance. This book offers readers an innovative approach to some fundamental questions in this field.
China's Cosmopolitan Empire: The Tang Dynasty (History of Imperial China #3)
by Mark Edward Lewis<p>The Tang dynasty is often called China’s “golden age,” a period of commercial, religious, and cultural connections from Korea and Japan to the Persian Gulf, and a time of unsurpassed literary creativity. Mark Lewis captures a dynamic era in which the empire reached its greatest geographical extent under Chinese rule, painting and ceramic arts flourished, women played a major role both as rulers and in the economy, and China produced its finest lyric poets in Wang Wei, Li Bo, and Du Fu. <p>The Chinese engaged in extensive trade on sea and land. Merchants from Inner Asia settled in the capital, while Chinese entrepreneurs set off for the wider world, the beginning of a global diaspora. The emergence of an economically and culturally dominant south that was controlled from a northern capital set a pattern for the rest of Chinese imperial history. Poems celebrated the glories of the capital, meditated on individual loneliness in its midst, and described heroic young men and beautiful women who filled city streets and bars. <p>Despite the romantic aura attached to the Tang, it was not a time of unending peace. In 756, General An Lushan led a revolt that shook the country to its core, weakening the government to such a degree that by the early tenth century, regional warlordism gripped many areas, heralding the decline of the Great Tang.</p>