Originally published as 'Cities of Peasants', this highly-acclaimed account of the expansion of capitalism in the developing world has now been extensively rewritten and updated.Focusing on Latin America, Bryan Roberts traces the evolution of developing societies and their economies to the present. Taking account of the move towards more 'open' economies, a shrinking of the state and various transitions towards democracies, he shows how urban growth has produced new patterns of soc...

The arrow of time refers to the curious asymmetry that distinguishes the future from the past. Reversing the Arrow of Time argues that there is an intimate link between the symmetries of 'time itself' and time reversal symmetry in physical theories, which has wide-ranging implications for both physics and its philosophy. This link helps to clarify how we can learn about the symmetries of our world; how to understand the relationship between symmetries and what is real, and how to overcome ...

Bryan Roberts’ study of two poor neighborhoods of Guatemala City is an important contribution to the understanding of the urban social and power organization of underdeveloped countries. It is the first major study of any Central American urban population.Organizing Strangers gives an account of how poor people cope with an unstable and mobile urban environment, and case material is provided on the emergence of collective action among them. Several themes that are crucial ...

To provide a view of the history of western rhetoric, this volume presents original articles by a number of world-renowned scholars representing different countries and varying viewpoints. In discussing the status of the historical perspectives on rhetoric, these international scholars also present a tribute to James J. Murphy, whose scholarship and service did much to shape the field. The book will introduce new insights into western European rhetoric and its connections with English rhet...

When the death of a relative, a friend, or a pet happens or is about to happen . . . how can we help a child to understand?Lifetimes is a moving book for children of all ages, even parents too. It lets us explain life and death in a sensitive, caring, beautiful way. Lifetimes tells us about beginnings. And about endings. And about living in between. With large, wonderful illustrations, it tells about plants. About animals. About people. It tells t...

Ritualized Writing takes readers into the fascinating world of Japanese Buddhist manuscript cultures. Using archival sources that have received scant attention in English, primarily documents from an eighth-century Japanese scriptorium and colophons from sutra manuscripts, Bryan D. Lowe uncovers the ways in which the transcription of Buddhist scripture was a highly ritualized endeavor. He takes a ground-level approach by emphasizing the activities and beliefs of a wide range of in...

In an era defined by information overload and polarized discourse, Sowing the West Texas Wind brings together a diverse array of scholars, scientists, journalists, and legal experts to examine the rise of misinformation and its real-world impacts. The scope goes from the deeply local to the national and global to understand how trust is won and lost. With a focus on the last decade’s most defining crises—including the COVID-19 pandemic, climate disinformation, and election interfe...

This book is for people who want to learn, especially while treading the fertile ground of organizational life.The idea of a learning organization has become increasingly prominent over the last few years. This book's predecessor, The Fifth Discipline, helped give voice to that wave on interest by presenting the conceptual underpinnings of the work of building learning organizations. Since its publication in 1990, Peter Senge et al. have talked to thousands of people who have commi...

I hope the title of this book is not misleading. If you are expecting an entire volume of spinoffs from Lovecraft's The Shadow Out of Time, complete with consciousness-swapping across the aeons, cone-shaped scholarly beings compiling their archives while dinosaurs roam outside their cities and some nameless doom threatens them from below, this isn't it. I did indeed include a few stories of that sort, as such titles as Robert Guffey's "Toward a General Theory of Yithian Psychology" and Rob...

The Dance of Change offers exercises, tools and techniques for sustaining organisational learning over the long term, as well as suggestions, advice, cautions and warnings based on the experience of people who have already followed the path suggested by the author in The Fifth Discipline. The central message of the text is that learning is the only sustainable competitive advantage.

A remarkable collection, Robots through the Ages includes stories from some of the best writers of science fiction, both old and new.This anthology, with an introduction by Robert Silverberg, offers a sweeping survey of robots as depicted throughout literature. Since the Iliad—in which we are shown golden statues built by Hephaestus “with minds and wisdoms”—humans have been fascinated by the idea of artificial life. From the Argonautica t...

This Tony Award–winning, "jaw-dropping political drama" chronicles LBJ's fight for the Civil Rights Act and includes an introduction by Bryan Cranston ( Variety).Winner of the 2014 Tony Award for Best Play, as well as Best Play awards from the New York Drama Critics' Circle, the Outer Critics Circle, the Drama League, and numerous other awards, All the Way is a masterful exploration of politics and power from the Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright ...