Why would an inkstone have a poem inscribed on it? Early modern Chinese writers did not limit themselves to working with brushes and ink, and their texts were not confined to woodblock-printed books or the boundaries of the paper page. Poets carved lines of verse onto cups, ladles, animal horns, seashells, walking sticks, boxes, fans, daggers, teapots, and musical instruments. Calligraphers left messages on the implements ordinarily used for writing on paper. These inscriptions—terse compositions in verse or epigrammatic prose—relate in complex ways to the objects on which they are written. Thomas Kelly develops a new account of the relationship between Chinese literature and material culture by examining inscribed objects from the late Ming and early to mid-Qing dynasties. He considers how the literary qualities of inscriptions interact with the visual and physical properties of the things that bear them. Kelly argues that inscribing an object became a means for authors to grapple with the materiality and technologies of writing. Facing profound social upheavals, from volatility in the marketplace to the violence of dynastic transition, writers turned to inscriptions to reflect on their investments in and dependence on the permanence of the written word. Shedding new light on cultures of writing in early modern China, The Inscription of Things broadens understandings of the links between the literary and the material.

Since the mid 1990s, theoretical and empirical research on how social capital affects well-being has blossomed in the field of economic development. Based on noted theoretical and empirical work in other social sciences, this concept is now becoming a vital new tool for economists. The chapters in this volume explore the challenges and opportunities raised by this concept for researchers, practitioners and teachers. Social Capital and Economic Development is based upon a consistent, policy-based vision of how social capital affects well-being in developing countries. The book includes a comparison of experimental and empirical evidence on social capital and a range of field-based evidence, from environmental to cultural to nation-building and on how investment in social capital can improve well-being. The contributions are from leading development economists as well as non-economic social scientists with expertise in this field. Development academics, practitioners, and environmental economists will find this coherent volume of great interest, as well as those involved in public policy in the developing world.

Why would an inkstone have a poem inscribed on it? Early modern Chinese writers did not limit themselves to working with brushes and ink, and their texts were not confined to woodblock-printed books or the boundaries of the paper page. Poets carved lines of verse onto cups, ladles, animal horns, seashells, walking sticks, boxes, fans, daggers, teapots, and musical instruments. Calligraphers left messages on the implements ordinarily used for writing on paper. These inscriptions—terse compositions in verse or epigrammatic prose—relate in complex ways to the objects on which they are written. Thomas Kelly develops a new account of the relationship between Chinese literature and material culture by examining inscribed objects from the late Ming and early to mid-Qing dynasties. He considers how the literary qualities of inscriptions interact with the visual and physical properties of the things that bear them. Kelly argues that inscribing an object became a means for authors to grapple with the materiality and technologies of writing. Facing profound social upheavals, from volatility in the marketplace to the violence of dynastic transition, writers turned to inscriptions to reflect on their investments in and dependence on the permanence of the written word. Shedding new light on cultures of writing in early modern China, The Inscription of Things broadens understandings of the links between the literary and the material.

Concentrating mainly on the process philosophy developed by Alfred North Whitehead, this series of essays brings together some of the newest developments in the application of process thinking to the physical and social sciences. These essays, by established scholars in the field, demonstrate how a wider and deeper understanding of the world can be obtained using process philosophical concepts, how the distortions and blockages inevitably inherent in substantivist talk can be set aside, and how new and fertile lines of research in the sciences can be opened as a result.

The first comprehensive monograph on Mickalene Thomas, a key figure in 21st-century contemporary art Over the past two decades, Mickalene Thomas's critically acclaimed and extensive body of work has spanned painting, collage, photography, video, and the immersive installations that have become her signature. With influences ranging from nineteenth-century painting to popular culture, Thomas's art articulates a complex and empowering vision of aspiration and self-image through gender and race while expanding on and subverting common definitions of beauty, sexuality, and celebrity. This book, made in close collaboration with Thomas, is the first to survey the breadth of her extraordinary career. Publication coincides with the opening of Mickalene Thomas's first global exhibition, Beyond the Pleasure Principle, at Levy Gorvy galleries in New York, London, Paris, Hong Kong, and Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris.

Ulrich von Liechtenstein's extraordinary account of his adventures as a knight-errant is one of the most vivid images of chivalric life. Ulrich von Liechtenstein's extraordinary account of his adventures as a knight-errant is one of the most vivid images of chivalric life to have come down to us. His knightly autobiography was written in the mid-thirteenth century,and gives an account of the "journey of Venus" which he undertook in 1226 in honour of his lady, in which he claimed to have broken 307 spears in jousts against all comers in the space of a month. Some of it is obviously quietlyexaggerated, written for his friends' entertainment many years later, and he is not above a sly dig at the conventions of courtly love, but he completely accepts its basic ideas. It is full of lively episodes and good stories, aswell as verses in honour of his lady; if the tale has been polished up for effect, it is nonetheless a thoroughly entertaining account of how a knight saw his ideal career in the jousting field. If the name is unexpectedly familiar to modern readers, it is because it was borrowed by the hero of the film A Knight's Tale; Ulrich would have certainly approved of his exploits. Introduction by KELLY DEVRIES.

This volume presents the first English translation of one of the most original literary products of the German medieval period. It is introduced with a sketch of the poet's life, an evaluation of his work as autobiography and as fiction, and a survey of the extensive criticism that has been devoted to it. Service of Ladies has been put into English not only as a significant document of its time and place, but more especially because it is a piece of literature which is perhaps as entertaining today as it was seven centuries ago when Ulrich was reciting it to the laughter and applause of the knights and ladies of his native Styria.

Since its first publication in 1941, A Testament of Devotion, by the renowned Quaker teacher Thomas Kelly, has been universally embraced as a truly enduring spiritual classic. Plainspoken and deeply inspirational, it gathers together five compelling essays that urge us to center our lives on God's presence, to find quiet and stillness within modern life, and to discover the deeply satisfying and lasting peace of the inner spiritual journey. As relevant today as it was a half-century ago, A Testament of Devotion is the ideal companion to that highest of all human arts-the lifelong conversation between God and his creatures.

I have in mind something deeper than the simplification of our external programs, our absurdly crowded calendars of appointments through which so many pantingly and frantically gasp. These do become simplified in holy obedience, and the poise and peace we have been missing can really be found. But there is a deeper, an internal simplification of the whole of one's personality, stilled, tranquil, in childlike trust listening ever to Eternity's whisper, walking with a smile into the dark."

Bias seems to be everywhere. Biased media outlets decisively influence the political opinions and votes of millions of people. Discriminatory policies favor some racial groups over others. We tend to judge ourselves more favorably than our peers, and more favorably than the evidence warrants. But what is it, exactly, for a person or thing to be biased? In Bias: A Philosophical Study, Thomas Kelly explores a number of foundational questions about the nature of bias and our practices of attributing it. He develops a general framework for thinking about bias, the norm theoretic account, and shows how that framework illuminates much that we say and think about bias in both everyday life and the sciences. He argues provocatively that both morality and rationality sometimes require us to be biased; that groups of people can be biased even if none of their members are; that we are often rationally required to believe that those who disagree with us are biased, even if we know absolutely nothing about why they believe as they do or about their psychologies; and that whether someone counts as biased is often a relative matter. He defends the possibility of what he calls 'biased knowing' and argues that the phenomenon has significant implications for both philosophical methodology and scepticism. A central aim of the book is to expand the range of issues that have thus far been considered under the heading 'the philosophy of bias' by putting new theoretical questions on the table and proposing bold answers that can serve as starting points for future inquiry.

It is 1930, and ground has just been broken for the Empire State Building. One of the thousands of men who will come to work high above the city is Michael Briody, an Irish immigrant torn between his desire to make a new life in America and his pledge to gather money and arms for the Irish republican cause. When he meets Grace Masterson, an alluring artist who is depicting the great skyscraper's rise from her houseboat on the East River, Briody's life suddenly turns exhilarating--and dangerous--for Grace is also a paramour of Johnny Farrell, Mayor Jimmy Walker's liaison with Tammany Hall and the underworld. Thomas Kelly is the author of two previous novels: "Payback," called "the best story about New York's labor unions, corrupt contractors and organized crime since "On the Waterfront"" (S"an Francisco Chronicle"); and "The Rackets," described as "an elegy for the city's old Irish working class, and even for its tangled, unavoidable dealings with the Mafia" ("The New York Times Book Review"). Kelly, who worked for ten years in construction, is a graduate of Fordham University and Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. He lives in New York City. A "New York Times "Notable Book
A "Chicago"" Tribune "Best Book of the Year
It is 1930, and ground has just been broken for The Empire State Building, dubbed "the Eighth Wonder of the World." One of the thousands of men working high above the city is Michael Briody, an Irish immigrant torn between his desire to make a new life in America and his pledge to gather money and arms for the Irish Republican cause. When he meets Grace Masterson, an alluring artist who is depicting the great skyscraper's rise from her houseboat on the East River, Briody's life turns exhilarating--and dangerous, for Grace is also a paramour of Johnny Farrell, Mayor Jimmy Walker's liaison with Tammany Hall, and the New York underworld.
Their heartbreaking love story--which takes place both in the rough neighborhoods of the Bronx and amid the swanky nightlife of the '21' Club--is also a chronicle of the city's passage from a working-class enclave to a world-class metropolis, and a vivid reimagining of the conflict that pitted the Tammany Hall political machine against the boundlessly ambitious Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
With "Payback" and "The Rackets," Thomas Kelly has shown himself to be a master of the urban thriller. With "Empire Rising" he takes his work to a new level. In his telling of the story of the people who made America's most distinctivecity, New York is brought exuberantly to life. ""Empire Rising" is an ode to urban grease; I'll never look at that grand old building the same way again . . . There is a compelling muscularity to [Kelly's] work--the plots barrel along, the characters are wildly colorful--and there is a dead-on authenticity to the dialogue and the atmospherics. There is also a bracing, and rare, appreciation for the sheer satisfaction of honest work . . . Kelly is a big-hearted and admirably ambitious writer. He wants to show the city top to bottom, from Jimmy Walker's boudoir to the Irish pubs in the South Bronx where the construction workers drink their paychecks . . . Kelly's city is palpably alive and passionate, and very recognizably New York, especially in the vertiginous rush of upward mobility, the fissures it causes within families, the loyalties strained, the traditions lost."--Joe Klein, "The New York Times Book Review"
"Kelly mixes his fictional characters with historical ones, and the dialogue and atmospherics are pitch-perfect."--Ihsan Taylor, "The New York Times Book Review" "Kelly has obviously done his research. New York in 1930 shines through the pages with high resolution. Kelly gives us impressive cameos of Babe Ruth, the photographer Lewis Hines, and Cab Calloway, as well as Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whose presidential ambitions drive much of the political deal-making in the novel . . . The swiftness with which Kelly moves from the atmosphere of the job site to his cataloging of the manifold processes conveys the feeling of exhilaration he achieves throughout the book . . . Through his seemingly effortless use of research as well as his unpretentious prose style, Kelly reveals genuine talent."--Peter Campion, "San Francisco Chronicle"
"The plot is filled with murky intrigue and dirty secrets . . . [Kelly] knows how to tell stories and write muscular sentences."--"USA"" Today"
"The ferocious struggle for survival has rarely seemed so entertaining."--Dan Cryer, "Newsday"
"This is an extraordinary novel, teeming with the sweat and risk of skilled labor, the abstractions of belief, the aching need for love."--Peter Hamill
""Empire Rising" is, at bottom, a love story, told by one of my favorite authors: a writer of candor, grace, wit, and skill, who writes about the New York where the unique spirit of the Irish hovers over every sidewalk, building, street, and alleyway."--James McBride, author of "The Color of Water"
""Empire Rising" is a vivid, evocative, enthralling tale of gangsters, pols, an enduring New York mystery, and hard, joyful work. This is historical fiction writing at its best."--Kevin Baker, author of "Paradise Alley"
""Empire Rising" is vivid, vibrant, and raw, a story about beauty and corruption, idealism and violence, as intricate as New York City itself."--Lauren Belfer, author of "City of ""Light"" "
"At the heart of this audacious novel is a unique love story between two 1930s immigrants, both so compellingly drawn that one almost forgets the scaffolds that hold them together: corruption, power, greed, art, and desire."--Colum McCann, author of "Dancer" and "This Side of Brightness"
"Tom Kelly's labors recall those he chronicles in the creation of New York's signature skyscraper, piling mind over matter and then matter over mind until we reach striking heights."--Edward Conlon, author of "Blue Blood"
"An audacious and compelling narrative by a master storyteller: tough, tender, and beautifully imagined, this intensely American tale is universal in its scope."--Joseph O'Connor, author of "Star of the Sea"
"The construction of the Empire State Building in 1930--a display of 'the great industrial frenzy of America' in a time of Depression and Prohibition--forms the background for this savage urban melodrama. Like Kelly's previous fiction, his third novel is a knowledgeable, vigorously detailed portrayal of big-city political and fiscal skullduggery and corruption, featuring a generous host of brawling characters . . . Kelly keeps it all moving, juxtaposing worksite scenes high above the city, meetings in miscellaneous smoke-filled rooms, hotel rendezvous between Grace and her married lover Farrell, and violence on the perilous streets where men marked by the city's rival Irish, Italian, and Jewish mobs suffer 'justice.' The supporting cast includes such nicely drawn presences as powerful racketeer Tough Tommy Touhey, crooked Judge Crater (tucked securely into Touhey's pocket until he undertakes an ill-advised double-cross), and Briody's firebrand Irish Republican landlord, Danny Casey, as well as cameo appearances by Babe Ruth, a sexually frisky FDR, and heavyweight pug Prim