Within the Old Testament books of 1 and 2 Samuel we find some of the most well-known stories of the Bible - those of Hannah, David, Absalom and many more which have been fruitful sources of inspiration for classic artworks and musical compositions, as well as innumerable Sunday school lessons. Yet often we only consider these stories in a way that's disconnected from our everyday faith. In this accessible and stimulating commentary, Mary Evans guides us through The Message of 1 & 2 Samuel in the conviction that they are a vital part of God's Word, full of teaching that is dynamically relevant for all Christian believers. Exploring the narratives and creatively bringing out their application, she shows us how we can interpret and respond to them today in a way that is both challenging and exciting. With questions for further reflection that can be used by individuals and small groups, this is an invigorating study that will help you better understand the meaning of 1 & 2 Samuel and their continued relevance for today. Part of the much loved Bible Speaks Today series of commentaries, The Message of 1 & 2 Samuel offers a thoughtful and readable exposition of the Biblical text as well as considering the lessons Christians can still learn from it today. Used by Bible students and teachers around the world, the Bible Speaks Today commentaries are ideal for students and preachers who are looking to delve more deeply into the riches of Scripture. This beautifully redesigned edition has also been sensitively updated to include modern references and use the NIV Bible text. The Message of 1 & 2 Samuel will be helpful for anyone looking for commentaries on Samuel that will give them a better knowledge and understanding of its meaning both for its original audience and for modern Christians.

This book explores the sublime in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s later major prose in relation to more recent theories of the sublime. Building on the author’s previous monograph Sublime Coleridge: The Opus Maximum, this study focuses on sublime theory and discourse in Coleridge’s other major prose texts of the 1820s: Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit (wr. 1824), Aids to Reflection (1825), and On the Constitution of the Church and State (1829). This book thus ponders the constellations of aesthetics, literature, religion, and politics in the sublime theory and practice of this central Romantic author and three of his important successors: Julia Kristeva, Theodor Adorno, and Jacques Rancière.

The 2012 French Presidential elections marked a watershed moment for the French Left, marking their return to a full term of executive power for the first time since 1981. From early in the campaign, the victory of Francois Hollande appeared inevitable, given the unpopularity of the Right-wing incumbent, Nicolas Sarkozy, and the economic crisis afflicting France. This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the lead-up to the Presidential elections, including the political landscape, the candidate selection and the campaign. It looks at how each of the ten candidates set out their policy alternatives, and how the Right in particular failed to present the united front necessary to defeat a coherent Left challenge. It also examines the events and outcomes of the subsequent legislative elections, to understand whether these constituency elections now represent anything more than an early plebiscite for the newly elected president.

Emphasizing the need for businesses to take a proactive approach to media relations, examines methods and techniques used by executives to develop successful press relations. "Marketing News"

Media relations is a hot topic on today's business agenda. This timely book advocates that business take a proactive approach to media relations to prevent biased treatment. Various strategies are developed and techniques that executives can use are explored. Many case examples are cited of campaigns waged by companies in diverse circumstances. It is based on a national survey of business executives of the Fortune 1,000 largest corporations and journalists from the nation's largest newspapers.

The classic explanation of the craft of history and the vital worth of historians to civilizationIn this volume, English historian Richard Evans offers a defence of the importance of his craft. At a time when fact and historical truth are under unprecedented assault, Evans shows us why history is necessary. Taking us into the historians' workshop to show us just how good history gets written, he demolishes the wilder claims of postmodern historians, who deny the possibility of any realistic grasp of history, and explains the deadly political dangers of losing a historical perspective on the way we live our lives.

As women increasingly play a role and gain ever greater prominence in congressional politics, they need to navigate the at times conflicting demands of loyalty to party culture, responsiveness to party leadership, political goals, and the need to get reelected. Based on extensive interviews and historical research, this book examines differences between Republican and Democratic political cultures, how these differences affect women members of Congress as they pursue agendas and seek to bolster their electability, and the effectiveness of women within an institution traditionally dominated by men.

This book, which was first published in 1988, deals with the neglected history of the lowest layers of German society, of marginal, outcast and deviant groups such as arsonists, witches, bandits, infanticides, poachers, murderers, prostitutes, vagrants and thieves, from the end of the thirteenth century to the middle of the twentieth. This book is ideal for students of history, particularly the German history.

In the search for the causes of the First World War and the origins of Hitler's 'Third Reich', the attention of historians has turned increasingly towards the development of German society under Kaiser Wilhelm II. These ten essays, first published in 1978, introduced interpretations of Wilhelmine Germany to an English-speaking audience and contributed towards the discussion of these interpretations that were taking place amongst German historians. This book is ideal for student of history, particularly German history.

This book, first published in 1986, surveys the history of rural society in Germany from the eighteenth century to the present day. The contributions include studies of Junker estates and small farming communities, serfs and landless labourers, maidservants and worker-peasants. They demonstrate the variety and complexity of the social division that structures the rural economy. Throughout the book there is an emphasis on the conflicts that divided rural society, and the ways and means in which these were expressed, whether in serf strikes in eighteenth-century Brandenburg, village gossip in early twentieth-century Hesse, or factional struggles over planning permission in present-day Swabia. The rural world emerges not as traditional, passive and undifferentiated , but as actively participating in its own making; not only responding to the changes going on around it, but exploiting them for its own purposes and influencing them in its own way. This book is ideal for students of history, particularly German history.

This book surveys the history of the German family in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The contributions deal with the influence of industrialisation on family life in town and country, with rural families and communities under the impact of social and economic change, and with the role and influence of the family in the lives of men and women in the newly-emerged working class. Research on the history of the family had so far, at the point of this book's publication in 1981, concentrated on England and France; this book adds an important comparative dimension by extending the discussion into Central Europe and bringing fresh evidence and interpretation to bear on the wider debate about the effects of industrialisation on family structure and family life as a whole. The authors approach the subject from a variety of perspectives, including social anthropology, oral history, economic history and feminist studies. This book is ideal for students of history, particularly the history of Germany.

Unemployment was perhaps the major problem confronting European society at the time in which this book was first published in 1987, and is arguably still the case today. This collection of essays by British and German historians contributes to the debate by taking a close look at unemployment in the Weimar Republic. What groups were most severely affected, and why? How did they react? How effective were welfare and job creation schemes? Did unemployment fuel social instability and political extremism? How far was unemployment a cause of the collapse of the Weimar Republic and the triumph of the Third Reich? Did the Nazis solve the unemployment problem by peaceful Keynsianism or through massive rearmament? This book is ideal for students of history, sociology, and economics.

In Rereading German History, first published in 1997, Richard J. Evans draws together his seminal review essays on the political, economic, cultural and social history of Germany through war and reunification. This book provides a study of how and why historians - mainly German, American, British and French - have provided a series of differing and often conflicting readings of the German past. It also presents a reconsideration of German history in the light of the recent decline of the German Democratic Republic, collapse of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany. Rereading German History re-examines major controversies in modern German history, such as the debate over Germany's 'special path' to modernity in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and the discussions in the 1980s on the uniqueness or otherwise of Auschwitz. Evans also analyses the arguments over the nature of German national identity. The book offers trenchant and important analytical insights into the history of Germany in the last two centuries, and is ideal reading material for students of modern history and German studies.

Originally published in 1977, this book brings together what is known about liberal feminist and socialist movements for the emancipation of women all over the world in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It deals not only with Britain and the United States but also with Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary and the Scandinavian countries. The chapters trace the origins, development, and eventual collapse of these movements in relation to the changing social formations and political structures of Europe, America and Australasia in the era of bourgeois liberalism. The first part of the book discusses the origins of feminist movements and advances a model or 'ideal type' description of their development. The second part then takes a number of case studies of individual feminist movements to illustrate the main varieties of organised feminism and the differences from country to country. The third part looks at socialist women's movements and includes a study of the Socialist Women's International. A final part touches on the reason for the eclipse of women's emancipation movements in the half-century following the end of the First World War, before a general conclusion pulls together some of the arguments advanced in earlier chapters and attempts a comparison between these feminist movements of 1840-1920 and the Women's Liberation Movement.

Following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, America's political institutions underwent radical changes as they adapted to comprehensive security reforms. While the media exhaustively covered new security protocols in the executive office, little attention was paid to other federal agencies and branches that overhauled their systems to accommodate heightened security requirements. As a congressional fellow living in Washington, D.C., Jocelyn Jones Evans was an eyewitness to the institutional culture of Capitol Hill before and after the 9/11 terrorist attacks as well as during the subsequent anthrax scare. In One Nation Under Siege: Congress, Terrorism, and the Fate of American Democracy, Evans uses her personal experiences as the foundation for a richly researched analysis of how Congress changed as an institution and a national symbol in the wake of 9/11. Evans reveals not only physical transformations but also internal policy shifts that threaten democracy by limiting citizens' access to their elected leaders. The only comprehensive study of the effects of terrorism on the nation's capital, One Nation Under Siege provides a detailed investigation of how the nation's intricate political system adapted in times of crisis. It covers an essential chapter in the social and political history of the United States.