Bestselling author Sam Harris dismantles the most common justification for religious faith—that a moral system cannot be based on science.

A breakthrough theory that tools and technology are the real drivers of human evolution

Although humans are one of the great apes, along with chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans, we are remarkably different from them. Unlike our cousins who subsist on raw food, spend their days and nights outdoors, and wear a thick coat of hair, humans are entirely dependent on artificial things, such as clothing, shelter, and the use of tools, and would die in nature without them. Yet, despite our status as the weakest ape, we are the masters of this planet. Given these inherent deficits, how did humans come out on top?

In this fascinating new account of our origins, leading archaeologist Timothy Taylor proposes a new way of thinking about human evolution through our relationship with objects. Drawing on the latest fossil evidence, Taylor argues that at each step of our species’ development, humans made choices that caused us to assume greater control of our evolution. Our appropriation of objects allowed us to walk upright, lose our body hair, and grow significantly larger brains. As we push the frontiers of scientific technology, creating prosthetics, intelligent implants, and artificially modified genes, we continue a process that started in the prehistoric past, when we first began to extend our powers through objects.

Weaving together lively discussions of major discoveries of human skeletons and artifacts with a reexamination of Darwin’s theory of evolution, Taylor takes us on an exciting and challenging journey that begins to answer the fundamental question about our existence: what makes humans unique, and what does that mean for our future?

In September 1952, John Lukacs, then a young and unknown historian, wrote George Kennan (1904-2005), the U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union, asking one of the nation's best-known diplomats what he thought of Lukacs's own views on Kennan's widely debated idea of containing rather than militarily confronting the Soviet Union. A month later, to Lukacs's surprise, he received a personal reply from Kennan.

So began an exchange of letters that would continue for more than fifty years. Lukacs would go on to become one of America's most distinguished and prolific diplomatic historians, while Kennan, who would retire from public life to begin a new career as Pulitzer Prize-winning author, would become revered as the man whose strategy of containment led to a peaceful end to the Cold War. Their letters, collected here for the first time, capture the writing and thinking of two of the country's most important voices on America's role and place in world affairs. From the division of Europe into East and West after World War II to its unification as the Soviet Union disintegrated, and from the war in Vietnam to the threat of nuclear annihilation and the fate of democracy in America and the world, this book provides an insider's tour of the issues and pivotal events that defined the Cold War.

The correspondence also charts the growth and development of an intellectual and personal friendship that is intense, devoted, and honest. As Kennan writes in a later letter to Lukacs, perceptive, understanding, and constructive criticism is . . . as I see it, in itself a form of creative philosophical thought. It is a belief to which both men subscribed and that they both practiced.

Presented with an introduction by Lukacs, the letters in Through the History of the Cold War reveal new dimensions to Kennan's thinking about America and its future, and illuminate the political—and spiritual—philosophies that the two authors shared as they wrote about a world transformed by war and by the clash of ideologies that defined the twentieth century.

In his celebrated previous book, Apocalypse 2012: An Investigation Into Civilization’s End, Lawrence E. Joseph appraised the likelihood of planet-wide catastrophe in 2012 by presenting convincing scientific evidence of looming chaos and even mass extinction.  Now, in AFTERMATH:  A Guide to Preparing For And Surviving Apocalypse 2012 he answers the most pressing question to arise from the investigation: What can we do to mitigate the coming cataclysm? 
Here Joseph presents the latest findings about the threats to our life on earth – including an all-out collapse of power grids and satellite systems resulting from solar flares expected to climax with unprecedented ferocity in 2012. Incipient plagues, famines, droughts and runaway global warming are also assessed for their catastrophic potential.  When it comes to formulating a response to an impending apocalypse, the field of options is narrow, but Joseph argues that there is plenty of constructive action that can be taken at the personal, local, national, and global level, individually and collectively, to prepare for, endure and emerge from disaster.  And Joseph takes readers beyond the end-of-the-world mania of the “Apoca-freaks,”  by offering visions of the post-apocalyptic future, ranging from the Enlightened Age the Maya foresaw to a re-drawn geopolitical map that could result from global upheaval. 
        Authoritative and written with Joseph’s trademark lighthearted skepticism and wit, AFTERMATH brings together investigative reportage from sources ranging from NASA and National Academy of Sciences to a shaman conclave in Siberia, to the Cave of the Apocalypse in Patmos, Greece, where the book of Revelation was written, plus historical research and scenario planning to offer pragmatic advice about how to control the damage should the world as we know it end in 2012.
 

 

The practice of public human resource management has evolved significantly in recent years due toincreased outsourcing, privatization, and the diminution of public employee rights. This thoroughly revised and updated edition of the classic reference Handbook of Human Resource Management in Government offers authoritative, state-of-the-art information for public administrators and human resource professionals. The third edition features contributions from noted experts in the field, including Donald E. Klingner, Mary E. Guy, Jonathan P. West, Jeffrey L. Brudney, Montgomery Van Wart, J. J. Steven Ott, Norma M. Riccucci, and many more.

Praise for the Handbook of Human Resource Management in Government

This third edition of the Handbook of Human Resource Management in Government is an essential resource for scholars, practitioners, and general readers in need of concise summaries of up-to-date, cutting-edge, public personnel administration research. No other handbook on the market more concisely, more comprehensively, more clearly synthesizes this vast, rapidly changing field that remains so vital to effective government performance. —Richard Stillman, editor-in-chief, Public Administration Review

The Handbook of Human Resource Management in Government comprehensively and seamlessly blends theory and practice. The result is a clear road map that can finally make HR a key player in helping thegovernment meet the unprecedented challenges facing our nation, our states, and our communities. —Bob Lavigna, vice president, Research, Partnership for Public Service, Washington, DC

With each successive edition, Condrey's Handbook of Human Resource Management in Governmentbecomes a more essential tool for graduate students who wish to improve their understanding of this field. Condrey's own expertise has enabled him to take contributions from leading experts in the field and shape them into a reader that is comprehensive, engaging, and authoritative.
—Donald E. Klingner, University of Colorado Distinguished Professor, School of Public Affairs, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs; former president, American Society for Public Administration; and fellow, National Academy of Public Administration

For anyone concerned with HRM in government, this updated and expanded volume is 'must reading.'—Meredith Newman, president, American Society for Public Administration

A thorough and contemporary exploration of issues fundamental to multicultural competency

Handbook of Multicultural Counseling Competencies draws together an expert group of contributors who provide a wide range of viewpoints and personal experiences to explore the identification and development of specific competencies necessary to work effectively with an increasingly diverse population. Beginning with a Foreword by Derald Wing Sue, this unique handbook offers a broad, comprehensive view of multiculturalism that is inclusive and reflective. The coverage in this important book lies beyond the scope of traditionally defined multiculturalism, with discussion of historically overlooked groups that have experienced prejudice and bias because of their size, social class, age, language, disability, or sexual orientation.

This book provides readers with:

    

• Practical cases and examples to enhance skill development, promote critical thinking, and increase awareness

    

• A cross-section of diversity characteristics and best practice guidelines

    

• Examination of detailed, developmentally relevant competency categories

    

• Resources and exercises designed for practitioners at various levels of experience and expertise

    

• A forum for debate, discussion, and growth

Designed to help readers enhance general multicultural compe-tency and their ability to provide services to the populations specifically described, this thought-provoking text will prove useful in facilitating ongoing dialogues about multicultural competence in all its variations.

Psychology: The Science of Mind and Behavior imparts students with a scientific understanding of the field of psychology while showing them the impact on their day-to-day existence. A simple conceptual framework within the text emphasizes relations between biological, psychological, and environmental levels of analysis and portrays the focus of modern psychology. Through a variety of features, the text challenges students to think critically about psychology as a science and its impact on their lives.

To help students study more effectively and efficiently, a groundbreaking adaptive questioning diagnostic and personalized study plan help students “know what they know” while guiding them to master these concepts through engaging interactivities, exercises, and readings.

Now available with Connect Psychology, Psychology: The Science of Mind and Behavior follows the science behind psychology, leading students through the process of critical examination.

Why is eating chocolate so pleasurable? Can the function of just one small group of chemicals really determine whether you are happy or sad? Does marijuana help to improve your memory in old age? Is it really best to drink coffee if you want to wake up and be alert? Why is a drug like PCP potentially lethal? Why does drinking alcohol make you drowsy? Do cigarettes help to relieve anxiety? What should you consume if you are having trouble staying in your chair and focusing enough to get your work done? Why do treatments for the common cold make us drowsy? Can eating less food preserve your brain? What are the possible side effects of pills that claim to make your smarter? Why is it so hard to stop smoking? Why did witches once believe that they could fly?

In this book, Gary Wenk demonstrates how, as a result of their effects on certain neurotransmitters concerned with behavior, everything we put into our bodies has very direct consequences for how we think, feel, and act. The chapters introduce each of the main neurotransmitters involved with behavior, discuss its role in the brain, present some background on how it is generally turned on and off, and explain ways to influence it through what we consume.

Political methodology has changed dramatically over the past thirty years, and many new methods and techniques have been developed. Both the Political Methodology Society and the Qualitative/Multi-Methods Section of the American Political Science Association have engaged in ongoing research and training programs that have advanced quantitative and qualitative methodology. The Oxford Handbook of Political Methodology presents and synthesizes these developments.

The Handbook provides comprehensive overviews of diverse methodological approaches, with an emphasis on three major themes. First, specific methodological tools should be at the service of improved conceptualization, comprehension of meaning, measurement, and data collection. They should increase analysts' leverage in reasoning about causal relationships and evaluating them empirically by contributing to powerful research designs. Second, the authors explore the many different ways of addressing these tasks: through case-studies and large-n designs, with both quantitative and qualitative data, and via techniques ranging from statistical modelling to process tracing. Finally, techniques can cut across traditional methodological boundaries and can be useful for many different kinds of researchers. Many of the authors thus explore how their methods can inform, and be used by, scholars engaged in diverse branches of methodology.

Did the Washington Post bring down Richard Nixon by reporting on the Watergate scandal? Did a cryptic remark by Walter Cronkite effectively end the Vietnam War? Did William Randolph Hearst vow to furnish the war in the 1898 conflict with Spain? In Getting It Wrong, W. Joseph Campbell addresses and dismantles these and other prominent media-driven myths--stories about or by the news media that are widely believed but which, on close examination, prove apocryphal. In a fascinating exploration of these and other cases--including the supposedly outstanding coverage of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina--Campbell describes how myths like these can feed stereotypes, deflect blame from policymakers, and overstate the power and influence of the news media.