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AI in Business: Volume 2 (Studies in Systems, Decision and Control #516)
by Reem Khamis Amina BuallayThis book is a comprehensive guide to understanding the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in improving business functions, as well as the limitations and challenges that come with its implementation. In this book, readers will learn about the various opportunities that AI presents in business, including how it can automate routine tasks, reduce errors, and increase efficiency. The book covers a range of topics, including how AI can be used in financial reporting, auditing, fraud detection, and tax preparation. However, the book also explores the limitations of AI in business, such as the need for skilled professionals, data quality, and the potential for bias. It examines the challenges that companies face when implementing AI in business functions, including the need for ethical considerations, transparency, and accountability. The book is written for business professionals, business leaders, and anyone interested in the potential of AI in business functions. It offers practical advice on how to implement AI effectively and provides insights into the latest developments in AI technology. Through case studies and real-world examples, readers will gain a deeper understanding of how AI can be used to enhance business functions, as well as the potential pitfalls and limitations to be aware of. Overall, this book is an essential guide for anyone looking to harness the power of AI to improve their business functions and to stay ahead in an increasingly competitive business environment.
AI, Ethics, and Discrimination in Business: The DEI Implications of Algorithmic Decision-Making (Palgrave Studies in Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Indigenization in Business)
by Marco MarabelliThis book takes a historical approach to explore data, algorithms, their use in practice through applications of AI in various settings, and all of the surrounding ethical and DEI implications. Summarizing our current knowledge and highlighting gaps, it offers original examples from empirical research in various settings, such as healthcare, social media, and the GIG economy.The author investigates how systems relying on a binary structure (machines) work in systems that are instead analogic (societies). Further, he examines how underrepresented populations, who have been historically penalized by technologies, can play an active role in the design of automated systems, with a specific focus on the US legal and social system.One issue is that main tasks of machines concern classification, which, while efficient for speeding up decision-making processes, are inherently biased. Ultimately, this work advocates for ethical design and responsible implementation and deployment of technology in organizations and society through through government-sponsored social justice, in contrast with free market policies.This interdisciplinary text contributes to the timely and relevant debate on algorithmic fairness, biases, and potential discriminations. It will appeal to researchers in business ethics and information systems while building on theories from anthropology, psychology, sociology, management, marketing, and economics.
AI-Driven Cybersecurity and Threat Intelligence: Cyber Automation, Intelligent Decision-Making and Explainability
by Iqbal H. SarkerThis book explores the dynamics of how AI (Artificial Intelligence) technology intersects with cybersecurity challenges and threat intelligence as they evolve. Integrating AI into cybersecurity not only offers enhanced defense mechanisms, but this book introduces a paradigm shift illustrating how one conceptualize, detect and mitigate cyber threats. An in-depth exploration of AI-driven solutions is presented, including machine learning algorithms, data science modeling, generative AI modeling, threat intelligence frameworks and Explainable AI (XAI) models. As a roadmap or comprehensive guide to leveraging AI/XAI to defend digital ecosystems against evolving cyber threats, this book provides insights, modeling, real-world applications and research issues. Throughout this journey, the authors discover innovation, challenges, and opportunities. It provides a holistic perspective on the transformative role of AI in securing the digital world.Overall, the useof AI can transform the way one detects, responds and defends against threats, by enabling proactive threat detection, rapid response and adaptive defense mechanisms. AI-driven cybersecurity systems excel at analyzing vast datasets rapidly, identifying patterns that indicate malicious activities, detecting threats in real time as well as conducting predictive analytics for proactive solution. Moreover, AI enhances the ability to detect anomalies, predict potential threats, and respond swiftly, preventing risks from escalated. As cyber threats become increasingly diverse and relentless, incorporating AI/XAI into cybersecurity is not just a choice, but a necessity for improving resilience and staying ahead of ever-changing threats. This book targets advanced-level students in computer science as a secondary textbook. Researchers and industry professionals working in various areas, such as Cyber AI, Explainable and Responsible AI, Human-AI Collaboration, Automation and Intelligent Systems, Adaptive and Robust Security Systems, Cybersecurity Data Science and Data-Driven Decision Making will also find this book useful as reference book.
AI and Chatbots in Fintech: Revolutionizing Digital Experiences and Predictive Analytics (Contributions to Finance and Accounting)
by Gioia ArnoneThis book is a comprehensive guide to the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the Financial Technology (FinTech) industry. It is comprised of ten chapters, each addressing a specific aspect of AI in FinTech. The reader is introduced to AI in FinTech, including its history and current state and the role of chatbots in FinTech and how they are used to improve customer service. Furthermore, the book explores the business framework of AI-based ChatGPT in FinTech, including the technology behind ChatGPT and how it can be applied to various financial sectors. The book examines the use of predictive analytics and machine learning in FinTech, highlighting how these tools are used to predict customer behavior and improve decision-making. The author delves into how ChatGPT is used to determine buying behavior and discusses the use of machine learning to reshape the digital experience in FinTech. Additionally, the book provides best practices for retaining customers in FinTech, including how to use AI to create personalized experiences that keep customers coming back, and explores the different applications of predictive models in FinTech, including how they are used to improve risk management and fraud detection. Lastly, the book discusses the use of ChatGPT for stock price prediction and the detection of financial fraud and examines the role of ChatGPT in the world of cryptocurrency, including how it can be used to make informed investment decisions. Overall, this book provides a comprehensive overview of the different ways AI is being used in FinTech and the potential it holds for improving customer experiences and driving innovation in the financial industry.
Agricultural Field Experiments: Design and Analysis (Books in Soils, Plants, and the Environment #Vol. 31)
by Roger G. PetersenThis text provides statistical and biometrical procedures for designing, conducting, analyzing and interpreting field experiments. It addresses the most important research topics in agriculture, including agronomy, breeding and pasture trials; farming systems research; and intercropping research.
Agricultural Biomass Nanocatalysts for Green Energy Applications (Clean Energy Production Technologies)
by Manish Srivastava Ashutosh Kumar RaiThe book discusses the various sustainable approaches to combine agrowaste and nanomaterials into catalysts or nanocatalysts with the objective of enhancing biofuel production. It explores the practical sustainability of agronanocatalysts in bioenergy production at a mass scale, while also addressing the existing challenges and proposes sustainable remedies to overcome these limitations. Additionally, the book dives into the cost considerations, recognizing it as a major concern for the widespread utility of catalysts, and explores viable commercial applications in this context.Nanomaterials continue to attract attention in the field of proteins and enzymes due to their versatile physicochemical properties and potential. They offer opportunities to enhance various biofuel production processes by serving as catalysts in the reaction medium. For instance, studies have highlighted the significant improvements in cellulase enzyme production, stability, pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass, and enzymatic hydrolysis efficiency achieved through the utilization of nanomaterials. The impact of nanomaterials on fermentative hydrogen production has also been documented. While the application of nanomaterials in biofuel production processes has been reported in the literature, there remains a need to focus on the type of nanomaterials, their synthesis, and their specific effects on important process parameters. Addressing and evaluating these factors is crucial to effectively improve and streamline biofuel production processes using nanomaterials. The book serves as a comprehensive introduction to nanomaterials and nanotechnology in biofuel production, catering to the needs of researchers, academicians and students.
Agri-Tech Approaches for Nutrients and Irrigation Water Management
by Shivam Gupta, Sushil Kumar Himanshu and Pankaj Kumar GuptaThis book includes concepts, methodologies, and techniques used in soil nutrients and irrigation water management with regional and global prospects. This book accommodates up-to-date approaches to agricultural technologies along with future directions and compiles a wide range of articles ranging from soil moisture flow, nutrient dynamics, crop water estimation techniques, approaches to improve crop water productivity and soil health, crop simulation modeling, and remote sensing/GIS applications. The book also includes chapters on climate-resilient agriculture, advances in big data and machine-learning techniques, IoT, plasma technology, seed priming, and precision farming techniques and their environmental/economic impacts.Features:• Discusses applications sustainable technologies for soil nutrients and irrigation water management at multi-scale. • Covers application of remote sensing/GIS, big data and machine learning, IoT, plasma technology, seed priming, and precision farming techniques for nutrients and water management.• Reviews concepts, methodologies, and techniques being used in soil nutrients and irrigation water management. • Provides up-to-date information as well as future directions in the field of nutrients and agricultural water management.This book is aimed at researchers and graduate students in agriculture, water resources, environment, and irrigation engineering.
The Aging Revolution: The History of Geriatric Health Care and What Really Matters to Older Adults
by Charles Kenney Michael J. Dowling Maria Torroella CarneyA history of aging in the United States and an innovative blueprint for revolutionizing care for older adults from Northwell Health, New York&’s largest health care system. The New York Times described Dr. Robert Butler as &“the man who saw old age anew.&” In his 1975 book Why Survive: Being Old in America, Butler argued that for far too many people old age was &“a period of quiet despair . . . and muted rage&” and he set out to mitigate it. Nearly five decades since he penned his book, a devoted band of brilliant physicians and others in the healthcare field have realized at least a portion of Butler&’s dream: to recognize and alleviate suffering among the aging.The Aging Revolution is the story of Butler and his disciples: women and men who saw older distressed adults in hospitals and homes, and worse: being ignored by most of the medical establishment. These revolutionaries could not ignore the suffering, and they set out—individually and collectively—to create entirely new ways of caring for aging adults to ease their suffering and improve their quality and length of life. This revelatory book tells a story never-before told in its entirety, recounting the one of the most significant periods of improvement in American medical history. Readers will learn about pioneering individuals, concepts, and ideas that have improved the lives of millions, including: the women who placed the spotlight on delirium and falls—major issues for older adults; the campaign to build and spread Geriatric and Palliative Care; the small bands of doctors who worked the halls of Congress to create a new program that provides primary care along with home visits from healthcare professionals; and the New York-based foundation that has devoted its mission and millions exclusively to improving care and quality of life for aging adults. Today, as a result, chronic conditions that almost always accompany old age are far more manageable. Older people enjoy more options for work and professional development, for education, for leisure and travel, for sports and maintaining physical strength and mobility. For increasing numbers of Americans, life is healthier and richer in the experiences that matter most. Yet, aging in America can still be a challenge and, too often, particularly for the poor, a painful struggle. The range of mental and physical well-being has almost infinite variations: ninety-year-olds running marathons; sixty-five-year-olds incapacitated by stroke. While this book celebrates the incredible progress and strides made in this field, it also highlights areas that need improvement. The authors lay out specific steps that, if implemented, could ignite the aging revolution and diminish the total volume of older adults suffering in America.
Aging, Aging Populations and Welfare (International Perspectives on Aging #40)
by Jason L. PowellAs the world experiences a rapid increase in the aging population, it is essential to address the challenges and opportunities that arise as a result. This book explores the significant impact of aging on individual well-being, societal welfare systems, and the global economy. By examining the multifaceted aspects of aging, demography and welfare, the book aims to provide a comprehensive and critical narrative to navigating these challenges and achieving better outcomes for both older individuals and society as a whole. The book has a critical approach running through it; despite this, there is a need to do something with the critical questions and focus on sustainable solutions to problems and issues an aging population poses to researchers, policy makers and older people themselves. In essence, the primary purpose of this book is to shed light on the complexities surrounding aging, demography and its intersection with welfare systems. By delving into various perspectives, such as social, economic, and healthcare considerations, this book highlights the holistic understanding needed to address the challenges associated with an aging population effectively.
Agile Retrospectives, Second Edition
by David Horowitz Esther Derby Diana LarsenIn an uncertain and complex world, learning is more important than ever before. In fact, it can be a competitive advantage. Teams and organizations that learn rapidly deliver greater customer value faster and more reliably. Furthermore, those teams are more engaged, more productive, and more satisfied. The most effective way to enable teams to learn is by holding regular retrospectives. Unfortunately, many teams only get shallow results from their retrospectives. This book is filled with practical advice, techniques, and real-life examples that will take retrospectives to the next level--whether your team is co-located, hybrid, or remote. This book will help team leads, scrum masters, and coaches engage their teams to learn, improve, and deliver greater results. For nearly two decades, scrum masters, team leads, and coaches have relied on the first edition of Agile Retrospectivesas an essential resource to facilitate better retrospectives. This edition builds on recent research, reflects the authors' experiences over two decades, and shares wisdom gleaned from the global retrospective community. Find practical advice to level up retrospective skills. Address the challenges of remote and hybrid retrospectives head on. Take advantage of expanded guidance on designing and facilitating retrospectives--based on the questions and concerns of practitioners worldwide. Gain insight into choosing a broad or narrow focus for retrospectives. Explore how to use both objective and subjective data to enable more effective conversations. Learn how to make decisions that stick. Understand the importance of psychological safety and how to foster it in retrospectives. Elevate issues and engage managers in systemic change. Learn from many real-life stories that demonstrate how our advice has impacted retrospectives at organizations around the globe. Finally, find a set of recommended flows that reveal the authors' thought process in designing retrospectives for scenarios teams faced in real life.
Agile Processes in Software Engineering and Extreme Programming: 25th International Conference on Agile Software Development, XP 2024, Bozen-Bolzano, Italy, June 4–7, 2024, Proceedings (Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing #512)
by Xiaofeng Wang Peggy Gregory Eduardo Guerra Michele Marchesi Darja ŠmiteThis open access book constitutes the proceedings of the 25th International Conference on Agile Software Development, XP 2024, which took place in Bozen-Bolzano, Italy, during June 04-07, 2024. XP is the premier agile software development conference combining research and practice. It is a unique forum where agile researchers, practitioners, thought leaders, coaches, and trainers get together to present and discuss their most recent innovations, research results, experiences, concerns, challenges, and trends. XP conferences provide an informal environment to learn and trigger discussions and welcome both people new to agile and seasoned agile practitioners. This year’s conference was held with the theme “Reflect, Adapt, Envision”. The 10 full and 2 short papers included in these proceedings were carefully reviewed and selected from 32 submissions. They were organized in topical sections as follows: agile at scale; value and quality in agile; and people and teams in agile.
Agent Zo: The Untold Story of Fearless WW2 Resistance Fighter Elzbieta Zawacka
by Clare Mulley'Deeply researched and written with verve... thoughtful as well as action packed' The Times'Gripping, moving and important' Simon Sebag Montefiore'Clare Mulley tells the tale of the remarkable Elzbieta Zawacka with flare, passion and insight' James Holland'Agent Zo is a triumph. Absolutely essential reading' Hallie RubenholdThis is the incredible story of Elzbieta Zawacka, the WW2 female resistance fighter known as Agent Zo, told here for the very first time. Agent Zo was the only woman to reach London from Warsaw during the Second World War as an emissary of the Polish Home Army command, and then in Britain she became the only woman to join the Polish elite Special Forces, known as the 'Silent Unseen'. She was secretly trained in the British countryside, and then the only female member of these SOE affiliated forces to be parachuted back behind enemy lines to Nazi-occupied Poland. There, whilst being hunted by the Gestapo who arrested her entire family, she took a leading role in the Warsaw Uprising and the liberation of Poland.After the war she was demobbed as one of the most highly decorated women in Polish history. Yet the Soviet-backed post-war Communist regime not only imprisoned her, but also ensured that her remarkable story remained hidden for over forty years. Now, through new archival research and exclusive interviews with people who knew and fought alongside Zo, Clare Mulley brings this forgotten heroine back to life, and also transforms how we see the history of women's agency in the Second World War.
Agent Jack: The True Story of MI5's Secret Nazi Hunter
by Robert Hutton"An appealing mix of accessibility and research. [Hutton] has illuminated a fascinating and often appalling side of the war at home." — Wall Street Journal The never-before-told story of Eric Roberts, who infiltrated a network of Nazi sympathizers in Great Britain in order to protect the country from the grips of fascismJune 1940: Europe has fallen to Adolf Hitler’s army, and Britain is his next target. Winston Churchill exhorts the country to resist the Nazis, and the nation seems to rally behind him. But in secret, some British citizens are plotting to hasten an invasion. Agent Jack tells the incredible true story of Eric Roberts, a seemingly inconsequential bank clerk who, in the guise of “Jack King”, helped uncover and neutralize the invisible threat of fascism on British shores. Gifted with an extraordinary ability to make people trust him, Eric Roberts penetrated the Communist Party and the British Union of Fascists before playing his greatest role for MI5: Hitler's man in London. Pretending to be an agent of the Gestapo, Roberts single-handedly built a network of hundreds of British Nazi sympathizers—factory workers, office clerks, shopkeepers —who shared their secrets with him. It was work so secret and so sensitive that it was kept out of the reports MI5 sent to Winston Churchill. In a gripping real-world thriller, Robert Hutton tells the fascinating story of an operation whose existence has only recently come to light with the opening of MI5’s World War II files. Drawing on these newly declassified documents and private family archives, Agent Jack shatters the comforting notion that Britain could never have succumbed to fascism and, consequently, that the world could never have fallen to Hitler. Agent Jack is the story of one man who loved his country so much that he risked everything to stand against a rising tide of hate.
Agent-Based Models: Agent-based Modelling Using The Skin Platform (Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences #153)
by Nigel GilbertAgent-based simulation has become increasingly popular as a modeling approach in the social sciences because it enables researchers to build models where individual entities and their interactions are directly represented. The Second Edition of Nigel Gilbert′s Agent-Based Models introduces this technique; considers a range of methodological and theoretical issues; shows how to design an agent-based model, with a simple example; offers some practical advice about developing, verifying and validating agent-based models; and finally discusses how to plan an agent-based modelling project, publish the results and apply agent-based modeling to formulate and evaluate social and economic policies.
Agent-Based Models: Agent-based Modelling Using The Skin Platform (Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences #153)
by Nigel GilbertAgent-based simulation has become increasingly popular as a modeling approach in the social sciences because it enables researchers to build models where individual entities and their interactions are directly represented. The Second Edition of Nigel Gilbert′s Agent-Based Models introduces this technique; considers a range of methodological and theoretical issues; shows how to design an agent-based model, with a simple example; offers some practical advice about developing, verifying and validating agent-based models; and finally discusses how to plan an agent-based modelling project, publish the results and apply agent-based modeling to formulate and evaluate social and economic policies.
Agendas and Instability in American Politics (Chicago Studies In American Politics Ser.)
by Frank R. Baumgartner Bryan D. JonesWhen Agendas and Instability in American Politics appeared fifteen years ago, offering a profoundly original account of how policy issues rise and fall on the national agenda, the Journal of Politics predicted that it would “become a landmark study of public policy making and American politics.” That prediction proved true and, in this long-awaited second edition, Bryan Jones and Frank Baumgartner refine their influential argument and expand it to illuminate the workings of democracies beyond the United States. The authors retain all the substance of their contention that short-term, single-issue analyses cast public policy too narrowly as the result of cozy and dependable arrangements among politicians, interest groups, and the media. Jones and Baumgartner provide a different interpretation by taking the long view of several issues—including nuclear energy, urban affairs, smoking, and auto safety—to demonstrate that bursts of rapid, unpredictable policy change punctuate the patterns of stability more frequently associated with government. Featuring a new introduction and two additional chapters, this updated edition ensures that their findings will remain a touchstone of policy studies for many years to come.
Ageing as Future: A Study by the Volkswagen Foundation
by Stephan Lessenich Frieder R. Lang Klaus RothermundContemporary societies are aging – but what does that mean? Is this something bad? And can societies age as a whole? By bringing together psychological, gerontological, and sociological findings, this open access book opens up a hitherto unique, multifaceted, and realistic view of the phenomenon of old age and the process of aging. The volume is based on the results of the project “Ageing as Future”, a long-term project network (2007-2021) involving a total of more than 30 scientists worldwide. The focus of the project was threefold: A first issue was concerned with how views on aging influence development in old age; secondly, the project analyzed determinants and consequences of provision for old age; and thirdly, it investigated the different ways in which aging is shaped by managing time in old age. For more than a decade, the authors conducted quantitative and qualitative studies, involving large samples from three different continents. The results show that one-sided views of old age – whether negative stereotypes or positive exaggerations – do not do justice to the complexity of the experience of aging. Based on these results, the authors plead for individual and societal acceptance of the social fact of aging – and for the right to live an autonomous and dignified life in old age just as in other phases of life. Ageing as Future: A study by the Volkswagen Foundation presents findings from a unique large international study that are of interest to aging researchers around the world: academically, socio-politically, practically, and personally. Whether old or young, the book encourages one to question one's own views of aging. When reading this book, it becomes obvious that old age is a highly diverse experience, depending on a host of societal and individual factors.
Age-Related Macular Degeneration: Current Management
by Jay Duker Andre WitkinRetinal disease in general, and age-related macular degeneration (AMD) specifically, is of major interest worldwide due to the increasing aging population and the revolution in management of wet AMD over the past several years. Age-Related Macular Degeneration presents an up-to-date, clinically relevant monograph on the current diagnosis and management of AMD.Age-Related Macular Degeneration by Drs. Jay S. Duker and Andre J. Witkin serves as a reference for ophthalmologists treating AMD in the clinic as well as other eye care professionals who see and counsel patients with AMD. Chapters will focus on the pathogenesis and risk factors for AMD, the diagnosis of AMD, treatment options, and promising investigative interventions. To help readers gain familiarity recognizing AMD, the book contains multiple images in different formats: high quality color fundus photographs, black-and-white angiograms, black-and-white autofluorence images, and both color and black-and-white OCT images.Relevant to current management of AMD, Age-Related Macular Degeneration: Current Management concentrates on “clinical utility” rather than emphasizing published studies, filling the current void in the market for the general ophthalmology and optometry audience. Comprehensive ophthalmologists, optometrists and retinal specialists will appreciate the book’s practical approach to AMD.
The Age of Wood: Our Most Useful Material and the Construction of Civilization
by Roland EnnosA &“smart and surprising&” (Booklist) &“expansive history&” (Publishers Weekly) detailing the role that wood and trees have played in our global ecosystem—including human evolution and the rise and fall of empires—in the bestselling tradition of Yuval Harari&’s Sapiens and Mark Kurlansky&’s Salt.As the dominant species on Earth, humans have made astonishing progress since our ancestors came down from the trees. But how did the descendants of small primates manage to walk upright, become top predators, and populate the world? How were humans able to develop civilizations and produce a globalized economy? Now, in The Age of Wood, Roland Ennos shows for the first time that the key to our success has been our relationship with wood. &“A lively history of biology, mechanics, and culture that stretches back 60 million years&” (Nature) The Age of Wood reinterprets human history and shows how our ability to exploit wood&’s unique properties has profoundly shaped our bodies and minds, societies, and lives. Ennos takes us on a sweeping journey from Southeast Asia and West Africa where great apes swing among the trees, build nests, and fashion tools; to East Africa where hunter gatherers collected their food; to the structural design of wooden temples in China and Japan; and to Northern England, where archaeologists trace how coal enabled humans to build an industrial world. Addressing the effects of industrialization—including the use of fossil fuels and other energy-intensive materials to replace timber—The Age of Wood not only shows the essential role that trees play in the history and evolution of human existence, but also argues that for the benefit of our planet we must return to more traditional ways of growing, using, and understanding trees. A brilliant blend of recent research and existing scientific knowledge, this is an &“excellent, thorough history in an age of our increasingly fraught relationships with natural resources&” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).
The Age of the Image: Redefining Literacy in a World of Screens
by Stephen ApkonAn urgent, erudite, and practical book that redefines literacy to embrace how we think and communicate nowWe live in a world that is awash in visual storytelling. The recent technological revolutions in video recording, editing, and distribution are more akin to the development of movable type than any other such revolution in the last five hundred years. And yet we are not popularly cognizant of or conversant with visual storytelling's grammar, the coded messages of its style, and the practical components of its production. We are largely, in a word, illiterate. But this is not a gloomy diagnosis of the collapse of civilization; rather, it is a celebration of the progress we've made and an exhortation and a plan to seize the potential we're poised to enjoy. The rules that define effective visual storytelling—much like the rules that define written language—do in fact exist, and Stephen Apkon has long experience in deploying them, teaching them, and witnessing their power in the classroom and beyond. In The Age of the Image, drawing on the history of literacy—from scroll to codex, scribes to printing presses, SMS to social media—on the science of how various forms of storytelling work on the human brain, and on the practical value of literacy in real-world situations, Apkon convincingly argues that now is the time to transform the way we teach, create, and communicate so that we can all step forward together into a rich and stimulating future.
The Age of Subtlety: Nature and Rhetorical Conceits in Early Modern Europe (The Early Modern Exchange)
by Javier Patiño LoiraA craze for intricate metaphors, referred to as conceits, permeated all forms of communication in seventeenth-century Italy and Spain, reshaping reality in highly creative ways. The Age of Subtlety: Nature and Rhetorical Conceits in Early Modern Europe situates itself at the crossroads of rhetoric, poetics, and the history of science, analyzing technical writings on conceits by such scholars as Baltasar Gracián, Matteo Peregrini, and Emanuele Tesauro against the background of debates on telescopic and microscopic vision, the generation of living beings, and the boundaries between the natural and the artificial. It contends that in order to understand conceits, we must locate them within the early modern culture of ingenuity that was also responsible for the engineer’s machines, the juggler’s sleight of hand, the wiles of the statesman, and the discovery of truths about nature.
The Age of Reconstruction: How Lincoln’s New Birth of Freedom Remade the World (America in the World #59)
by Don H. DoyleA sweeping history of how Union victory in the American Civil War inspired democratic reforms, revolutions, and emancipation movements in Europe and the AmericasThe Age of Reconstruction looks beyond post–Civil War America to tell the story of how Union victory and Lincoln’s assassination set off a dramatic international reaction that drove European empires out of the Americas, hastened the end of slavery in Latin America, and ignited a host of democratic reforms in Europe.In this international history of Reconstruction, Don Doyle chronicles the world events inspired by the Civil War. Between 1865 and 1870, France withdrew from Mexico, Russia sold Alaska to the United States, and Britain proclaimed the new state of Canada. British workers demanded more voting rights, Spain toppled Queen Isabella II and ended slavery in its Caribbean colonies, Cubans rose against Spanish rule, France overthrew Napoleon III, and the kingdom of Pope Pius IX fell before the Italian Risorgimento. Some European liberals, including Victor Hugo and Giuseppe Mazzini, even called for a “United States of Europe.” Yet for all its achievements and optimism, this “new birth of freedom” was short-lived. By the 1890s, Reconstruction had been undone in the United States and abroad and America had become an exclusionary democracy based on white supremacy—and a very different kind of model to the world.At home and abroad, America’s Reconstruction was, as W.E.B. Du Bois wrote, “the greatest and most important step toward world democracy of all men of all races ever taken in the modern world.” The Age of Reconstruction is a bracing history of a remarkable period when democracy, having survived the great test of the Civil War, was ascendant around the Atlantic world.
The Age of Disenchantments: The Epic Story of Spain's Most Notorious Literary Family and the Long Shadow of the Spanish Civil War
by Aaron Shulman“An intriguing narrative of literary ambition and family dysfunction—betrayal, drug addiction, and madness—that begins during the Spanish Civil War.” —Amanda Vaill, The New York Times Book ReviewIn this absorbing and atmospheric historical narrative, journalist Aaron Shulman takes us deeply into the circumstances surrounding the Spanish Civil War through the lives, loves, and poetry of the Paneros, Spain’s most compelling and eccentric family, whose lives intersected memorably with many of the most storied figures in the art, literature, and politics of the time—from Neruda to Salvador Dalí, from Ava Gardner to Pablo Picasso to Roberto Bolaño.Weaving memoir with cultural history and biography, and brought together with vivid storytelling and striking images, The Age of Disenchantments sheds new light on the romance and intellectual ferment of the era while revealing the profound and enduring devastation of the war, the Franco dictatorship, and the country’s transition to democracy.A searing tale of love and hatred, art and ambition, and freedom and oppression, The Age of Disenchantments is a chronicle of a family who modeled their lives (and deaths) on the works of art that most inspired and obsessed them and who, in turn, profoundly affected the culture and society around them.“A valuable primer on the ways literature intertwined with politics during Franco’s reign.” —Rigoberto González, Los Angeles Times“In this sweeping, ambitious debut, journalist Shulman offers a group biography of a family indelibly marked by the Spanish Civil War . . . Prodigiously researched and beautifully written.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Against Prediction: Profiling, Policing, and Punishing in an Actuarial Age
by Bernard E. HarcourtFrom random security checks at airports to the use of risk assessment in sentencing, actuarial methods are being used more than ever to determine whom law enforcement officials target and punish. And with the exception of racial profiling on our highways and streets, most people favor these methods because they believe they’re a more cost-effective way to fight crime. In Against Prediction, Bernard E. Harcourt challenges this growing reliance on actuarial methods. These prediction tools, he demonstrates, may in fact increase the overall amount of crime in society, depending on the relative responsiveness of the profiled populations to heightened security. They may also aggravate the difficulties that minorities already have obtaining work, education, and a better quality of life—thus perpetuating the pattern of criminal behavior. Ultimately, Harcourt shows how the perceived success of actuarial methods has begun to distort our very conception of just punishment and to obscure alternate visions of social order. In place of the actuarial, he proposes instead a turn to randomization in punishment and policing. The presumption, Harcourt concludes, should be against prediction.
Against Common Sense: Teaching And Learning Toward Social Justice
by Kevin K. KumashiroWhat does it mean to teach for social justice? Drawing on his own classroom experiences, leading author and educator Kevin K. Kumashiro examines various aspects of anti-oppressive teaching and learning and their implications for six different subject areas and various grade levels. Celebrating 20 years as a go-to resource for K-12 teachers and teacher educators, this 4th edition of the bestselling Against Common Sense: Teaching and Learning Toward Social Justice features:• An expanded introduction that examines teaching in today’s context of censorship and attacks on diversity, democracy, and teaching truth;• New sections on teacher preparation, social studies, reading and writing, and the arts;• Updated lists of resources in every chapter;• Graphics, teacher responses, and discussion questions to enhance comprehension and help translate theory into practice across the disciplines.Compelling and accessible, the 4th edition of Against Common Sense continues to offer readers the tools they need to begin teaching against their commonsensical assumptions and toward democracy and justice.