The American Council of Learned Societies was formed in 1919 to support humanistic learning in the United States and to represent American scholarship abroad. When John William Ward became President of the ACLS in 1982, he believed that the ACLS's tradition of high caliber scholarship and teaching should be commemorated through an annual lecture delivered by a distinguished humanist on the "life of learning". As a result of Ward's vision, each year since 1983 the American Council of Learned Societies has invited one of America's leading scholars to deliver the Haskins Lecture, in honor of Charles Homer Haskins, a distinguished scholar and teacher who was instrumental in the founding of the ACLS. In this volume, which commemorates the 75th anniversary of the ACLS, Douglas Greenberg and Stanley Katz bring together the lectures presented by ten of America's most distinguished scholars. Each lecture is a personal and intellectual glimpse into the "life of learning" of such celebrated scholars as Maynard Mack, Annemarie Schimmel, and John Hope Franklin. The lectures focus on self-reflection of lives dedicated to learning, rather than on scholarship in the usual sense of the term. Ranging from being forced to learn Latin to painful memories of war and racism, the lecturers all recount stories from their eventful lives. Each offers thoughts on the body of work he or she has produced and the forces, personal and intellectual, that have shaped it. The scholars bring something of their disciplines to the lectures, sharing not only personal anecdotes but their love of learning. The range of disciplines the lecturers come from represents the diversity of the scholarship supported by the ACLS. Theirlectures offer a unique intellectual history of some of our most renowned scholars and will also serve as a history of the Council - the role it has played in fostering scholarship and the vast contributions it has made to American letters throughout the past seventy-five years.

The proliferation of regional and subregional conflicts around the world underscores the need for effective conflict resolution strategies. This book examines the place and role of voluntary organisations dedicated to the promotion of peace and the resolution of intractable social conflicts. Focussing on the work of nongovernmental organisations (NGOS)in Northen Ireland, South Africa, and Israel/Palestine, the contributors investigate the nature of these organisations, their accomplishments, and how the various social systems in which they operate their functions and structures.

Order early and save more than $100 when you buy this set at the introductory price of $750! List price of $895 is effective May 1, 2009. The Oxford International Encyclopedia of Legal History is a comprehensive, international, interdisciplinary reference work that includes approximately 1,000 articles on all aspects of legal history throughout the world from ancient to modern times. Articles deal with private law, public law, and constitutional/higher law throughout the world and are written and signed by one of the many noteworthy contributors, which include major scholars and experts.
For years, scholars have been investigating the remote origins of their respective national and religious law. Only recently has there been a developing interest in and study of the history of law in modern times. This encyclopedia will bring together the study of ancient law with the study of modern law-examining statutes and administrative rulings as well as judicial decisions, legislatures, agencies, and courts.
The Encyclopedia will cover ancient, medieval, early modern, and modern law in eight legal traditions and geographical/cultural areas: Ancient Greek Law, Ancient Roman Law, Chinese Law, English Common Law, Islamic Law, Medieval Roman Law, United States Law, and law in other regions (Africa, Latin America, and South Asia among them). It will address major categories of law within these traditions, including private law (contract, tort, civil procedure), varieties of public law (criminal law, administrative law, statutory law), and higher law/ constitutional law. It will be the first encyclopedia of law to provide historical and contemporary comparisons of world legal systems.

Stanley Katz, Douglas Greenberg and a group of international scholars examine the state of constitutions around the world. The essays break new ground in an emerging field, discussing the transition from authoritarian to democratic regimes, examining the obstacles to democracy and comparing the world-wide experiences of constitutionalism. The papers are drawn from a series of conferences sponsored by the American Council of Learned Societies. The contributors come from all regions of the world: Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe and North America, producing a volume of truly international scope.

Taking their cue from the late Paul L. Murphy, one of our nation's leading legal historians, this illustrious group of scholars argues that the field of constitutional history is "too important to be left solely to lawyers and judges." Their "state-of-the-field" volume reclaims constitutional history's rightful place as a vital and necessary part of our intellectual enterprise, in part by pushing the field onto fresh, even controversial, terrain. The result is a provocative new look at the past, present, and future of American constitutionalism, one that opens a window on the larger American soul.

Much as Murphy has done, these scholars contend that this restoration is much needed and will greatly enrich judicial and public policy, advance a tradition of justice worthy of America's democratic aspirations, give due attention to cultural contexts, and, most importantly, afford Americans a richer understanding of their constitutional heritage.

Their essays explore, for example, the ways in which previously excluded groups have come more fully into the Constitution's orbit of freedom, the ongoing importance of institutions and doctrines, and the ways in which theory and informal texts might enrich the field. How, they ask, might scholars take account of the lived experiences of litigants, reformers, and lawyers in the forging of constitutional change?

A kind of prospectus for the future of American constitutional history, these essays address fundamental questions about the field and its evolution. More important, they persuasively argue that the best way to reinvigorate the study of constitutionalism is to reconnect it to its social and cultural contexts, to appreciate the continuing necessity of archival research, to recognize and support the value of new approaches and perspectives, and to reaffirm in the end that the best way to explain the history of rights is to remember the courage of the people who had the vision and conviction to put the judges through their constitutional paces.

"The cross-cultural understandings this book provides can do much to help us determine the distinctive shape and form American religious philanthropy might take in the future." Christian Century

"The provocative information challenges the assumptions that philanthropy is a primarily Western or Christian tradition, and it clarifies the need for additional study." Choice

An investigation of how cultures outside the Western tradition understand philanthropy and how people in these cultures attempt to realize "the good" through giving and serving. These essays study philanthropy in Buddhist, Islamic, Hindu, Jewish, and Native American religious traditions and in cultures from Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia."