Since the dawn of communication, humankind has looked around itself and used myths and legends to make sense of the world. Imaginative tales of goddesses, heroes, villains and beasts bring understanding to the biggest questions in life: Who made the world? What happens when we die? Where did we come from? How should we live our lives? Gods, Heroes and Monsters invites you to take your place at the campfire that’s been glowing since the first tale was told. Discover the fascinating variety – and several surprising similarities – of the stories that have been shared for millennia, from one person to another, one lesson at a time. Ancient stories are retold under themes such as the beginning (and end) of the world, death, love and monsters and spirits. Uncover how the successes and catastrophes that befall man started as revenge, love and war between the pantheon of gods. Hear the tales of ordinary men and women who have stepped up and overcome life-threatening challenges, from Mulan to Hercules. Discover how the Chinese, Hindu and Greek civilizations interpreted the Zodiac. Take your own epic voyage from the well-known myths of the Greeks, Norsemen and Egyptians, to the enchanting tales of the Native Americas, Australia’s First Nations, West Africa, China, Japan and beyond.

For over a century, Yellowstone National Park has been a monument to wildness in America. But long before flames swept through Yellowstone in 1988, that wildness had come under fire from encroachments that were making the park one of our nation's most commodified pieces of real estate.

For as long as they've existed, parks like Yellowstone have been the scene of some of the most intensive commercial activity in the American West. Selling Yellowstone recounts the story of such activities in our oldest park from the 1870s through the 1960s. It is the first book to examine critically the place of business in the development of America's national parks, demonstrating the prominent role played by profit-driven entrepreneurs in shaping the physical landscape of what is generally perceived as unaltered wilderness.

Challenging popular perceptions that our national parks are protected from commercialism, Mark Barringer reveals how businessmen, with the support of the National Park Service, marketed Yellowstone as a museum of mythology: a landscape created to look like what Americans wanted to believe the Old West once was. Together, the NPS and the concessionaires--particularly Harry W. Child's Yellowstone Park Company--altered the park repeatedly to fit a desired image and then creatively promoted it for mass consumption. As a result, the concessionaires virtually owned Yellowstone, selling it piecemeal to receptive customers as if it were an inexhaustible commodity.

First marketed as a nature museum to be viewed from the comfort of stagecoach seats or hotel room windows, the park was transformed from a wilderness preserve to a series of roadside attractions. Roads were built to geysers and waterfalls; wolves were eliminated and bison were bred; visitors were given a choice between comfortable hotels and more rustic lodges and camps. The Yellowstone Park Company sought to meet all of the public's expectations, reaping the profits from satisfying American idealizations.

Contemporary environmental attitudes eventually forced significant policy changes in the parks, but shifting political winds continue to determine such matters as snowmobile access to Yellowstone. Barringer's book contributes to the ongoing debate over the character and limits of the social construction of nature as it raises important questions about what our national parks represent, why so many people continue to feel so strongly about them, and what must be done to protect them.

The Bible has influenced contemporary culture both positively and negatively. The present volume is a collection of papers that were discussed at an international colloquium on the use of the Bible in Ethics in the Department of Biblical Studies at the University of Sheffield in April 1995. Participants came from many parts of the world and from different backgrounds, and the papers reflect their varied interests and the contexts in which they work. The contributors, in addition to the three editors, are John Barton, Bruce Birch, Mark Brett, Mark Chapman, David Clines, Philip Davies, Cheryl Exum, Stephen Fowl, Norman Gottwald, John Haldane, Walter Houston, Sharon Ringe, Chrisopher Rowland, Lisa Sowle Cahill and Gerald West.>

This collection of essays written by biblical scholars from around the world attempts to probe the relationship between the Bible and the world. It reflects modern social, political and hermeneutical issues, including liberation concerns. These themes echo John Rogerson's commitment to relate his research and the Bible to contemporary issues - a commitment visible both in his publications and in his religious and political activities. This book is an expression of appreciation of John Rogerson by former and current colleagues, former students, and other biblical scholars.

This volume brings together ten essays on the various contexts for texts that social-scientific approaches invoke. These contexts are: the cultural values that inform the writers of texts, the relationship between the text and the reader or community of readers, and the production of texts themselves as social artifacts. In the first, predominantly theoretical, section of the book, John Rogerson applies the perspective of Adorno to the reading of biblical texts; Mark Brett advocates methodological pluralism and deconstructs ethnicity in Genesis; and Gerald West explores the 'graininess' of texts. The second part contains both theory and application: Jonathan Dyck draws a 'map of ideology' for biblical critics and then applies an ideological critical analysis to Ezra 2. M. Daniel Carroll R. reexamines 'popular religion' and uses Amos as a test case; Stanley Porter considers dialect and register in the Greek of the New Testament, then applies it to Mark's Gospel. This is an original as well as wide-ranging exploration of important social-scientific issues and their application to a range of biblical materials.>

This book provides a step-by-step approach to all of the essential elements of strategy. It outlines a 28-step approach, with a 30+ slide strategy presentation. By following the examples in the book the reader will be able to construct a world-class strategy and to present it in an effective and thoughtful manner. The approach integrates diagnosis, design, strategic plan and implementation in one seamless flow of insight and action.

Perhaps the most common question raised in the literature on coercive international sanctions is: "Do sanctions work?" Unsurprisingly, the answer to such a sweeping question remains inconclusive. However, even the widely-presumed logic of coercive sanctions - that economic impact translates into effective political pressure - is not the primary driver of conflict developments. Furthermore, existing rationalist-economistic approaches neglect one of the most striking differences seen across sanctions conflicts: the occurrence of positive sanctions or their combination with negative sanctions, implicitly taking them as logically indifferent. Instead of asking whether sanctions work, this book addresses a more basic question: How do coercive international sanctions work, and more substantially, what are the social conditions within sanctions conflicts that are conducive to either cooperation or non-cooperation? Arguing that coercive sanctions and international conflicts are relational, socially-constructed facts, the author explores the (de-)escalation of sanctions conflicts from a sociological perspective. Whether sanctions are conducive to either cooperation or non-cooperation depends on the one hand on the meaning they acquire for opponents as inducing decisions upon mutual conflict. On the other hand, negative sanctions, positive sanctions, or their combination each contribute differently to the way in which opponents perceive conflict, and to its potential transformation. Thus, it is premature to 'predict' the political effectiveness of sanctions simply based on economic impact. The book presents analyses of the sanctions conflicts between China and Taiwan and over Iran's nuclear program, illustrating how negative sanctions, positive sanctions, and their combination made a distinct contribution to conflict development and prospects for cooperation. It will be of great interest to researchers, postgraduates and academics in the fields of international relations, sanctions, international security and international political sociology.

Perhaps the most common question raised in the literature on coercive international sanctions is: "Do sanctions work?" Unsurprisingly, the answer to such a sweeping question remains inconclusive. However, even the widely-presumed logic of coercive sanctions - that economic impact translates into effective political pressure - is not the primary driver of conflict developments. Furthermore, existing rationalist-economistic approaches neglect one of the most striking differences seen across sanctions conflicts: the occurrence of positive sanctions or their combination with negative sanctions, implicitly taking them as logically indifferent. Instead of asking whether sanctions work, this book addresses a more basic question: How do coercive international sanctions work, and more substantially, what are the social conditions within sanctions conflicts that are conducive to either cooperation or non-cooperation? Arguing that coercive sanctions and international conflicts are relational, socially-constructed facts, the author explores the (de-)escalation of sanctions conflicts from a sociological perspective. Whether sanctions are conducive to either cooperation or non-cooperation depends on the one hand on the meaning they acquire for opponents as inducing decisions upon mutual conflict. On the other hand, negative sanctions, positive sanctions, or their combination each contribute differently to the way in which opponents perceive conflict, and to its potential transformation. Thus, it is premature to 'predict' the political effectiveness of sanctions simply based on economic impact. The book presents analyses of the sanctions conflicts between China and Taiwan and over Iran's nuclear program, illustrating how negative sanctions, positive sanctions, and their combination made a distinct contribution to conflict development and prospects for cooperation. It will be of great interest to researchers, postgraduates and academics in the fields of international relations, sanctions, international security and international political sociology.

A masterful introduction to world mythology, shedding light on the impact it has had on cultures past and present and untangling the complex web of deities, monsters and myths. From the signs of the zodiac to literature and art, the influence of world mythology can still be seen in everyday life. With a stunning array of fascinating tales, World Mythology in Bite-sized Chunks gets to grips with the ancient stories of Aboriginal, Sumerian, Egyptian, Mesoamerican, Maori, Greek, Roman, Indian, Norse and Japanese cultures, encompassing legends from the most diverse societies and the most ancient cultures from across the globe. Learn about why Odin, the Father of the Gods in Norse mythology, was so keen to lose an eye, the importance of the Osiris myth of Ancient Egypt, and much more besides. Entertaining, authoritative and incisive, this is an enlightening journey into the fascinating world of mythology.

This unique book works as a complete course in acrylic painting, built up from key techniques. As you progress through the sections of the book, the author demonstrates each technique with the creation of a mini painting, measuring 5-inch (123/4-centimetre) square. So by the time you have worked right through to the end, you will have an amazing collection of 50 mini paintings, on board, or paper, or canvas, that will be a testament to your skill and creativity. The subject matter for the squares varies from abstracts and simple colour mixing exercises, through to figurative subjects: a flower, a sunset, a busy street scene - and much more. These can be mounted, exhibited, or simply collected in a portfolio, or given away as gifts for friends to cherish. The book is ideal for anyone coming to acrylics for the first time, or keen to improve their skills, and who is sometimes daunted by the thought of filling a large empty canvas or blank piece of board. Instead, it will free painters from creative hang-ups, and replace them with an addictive desire to create that next 5-inch square! This title was previously published in 2015 as Little Ways to Learn Acrylics.

Ever since psychologist Daniel Goleman published his landmark book "Emotional Intelligence" in 1995, psychology has shifted from measuring cold intellect alone to evaluating what is known as the "Emotional Quotient." And your EQ may be even more important than your IQ for determining success. This compilation of tests will analyze your emotional intelligence from a variety of perspectives, help you pinpoint your strengths and weaknesses, and reveal aspects of your personality you may not have realized existed. The booklet is divided into two sections, with the first part containing eight tests aimed at measuring such qualities as self-image, independence, leadership, relationships, and job satisfaction. The second section contains a key for interpreting the scores, along with insightful explanations about your emotional reactions.

Unlike most probability textbooks, which are often written only for the mathematically-oriented students, Mark Ward and Ellen Gundlach's Introduction to Probability makes the subject much more accessible, reaching out to a much wider introductory-level audience. Its approachable and conversational style, highly visual approach, practical examples, and step-by-step problem solving procedures help all kinds of students understand the basics of probability theory and its broad applications in the outside world. This textbook has been extensively class-tested throughout its preliminary edition in order to make it even more effective at building confidence in students who have viable problem-solving potential but are not fully comfortable in the realm of mathematics. Its rich pedagogy, combined with a thoughtful structure, provides an accessible introduction to this complex subject.

This book provides a step-by-step approach to all of the essential elements of strategy. It outlines a 21-step approach, with a 30+ slide strategy presentation for readers to apply themselves. By following the examples in the book, the reader will be able to construct a world-class strategy and to present it in an effective manner. The approach integrates diagnosis, design, and implementation into one seamless flow from insight to action.