Scientific authority & twentieth-century America

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Peter Whitfield

"Our understanding of nature - as a succession of forms assumed by eternal elements - emerged during the hundred years between 1840 and 1940, when theories of thermodynamics, atomic structure, and the equivalence of matter and energy all took shape. In Peter Whitfield's view, it represents probably the greatest single achievement of human thought.". "In the course of his stimulating and wide-ranging survey, Whitfield describes the long and complex process of discovery that lies behind that achievement, from the earliest times up to the mid-20th century. He shows how people with enquiring minds and a range of beliefs have tried to 'build bridges between nature and eternity', and he argues that the history of science, like that of art, is not a simple progression from lower to higher, but a sequence of responses to the world, conditioned by historical circumstances."--BOOK JACKET.

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Léonie J. Archer

Bringing together normally self-contained areas of research, this book presents penetrating analyses of the nature and perpetuation of slavery through the ages.

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Paul du Quenoy

"Explores the relationship between culture and power in Imperial Russia. Argues that Russia's performing arts were part of a vibrant public culture that was usually ambivalent or hostile to the tumultuous political events of the revolutionary era"--Provided by publisher.

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Sander L. Gilman

The essays in this collection, written by a pioneering interdisciplinary scholar, deal with the roles of images in the construction of stereotypes and the categories of difference as represented in texts - in high literature, in medical literature, in art - from the last fin-de-siecle to our own. Intensely engaged in the cultural politics of everyday life and conscious of how texts reflect and shape our social practices, they deal primarily with representations and self-representations of "Jews" in the past one hundred years and focus on the question of the constructions of the Jew's body in art and literature. The title essay, "Love + Marriage = Death: STDs and AIDS in the Modern World," however, studies the image of sexually transmitted disease from Shakespeare to Martin Amis. It sets the tone for an understanding of this collection as a book about Jews and their representation, but not as a special, isolated case.