Fathoming Our Past

“[An] amiable, in-depth examination of the most critical era for the development of modern oceanography” (Publishers Weekly). In a history at once scientific and cultural, Helen Rozwadowski shows us how the Western imagination awoke to the ocean's possibilities?in maritime novels, in the popular hobby of marine biology, in the youthful sport of yachting, and in the laying of a trans-Atlantic telegraph cable. The ocean emerged as important new territory, and scientific interests intersected with those of merchant-industrialists and politicians. Rozwadowski documents the popular crazes that coincided with these interests?from children's sailor suits to the home aquarium and the surge in ocean travel. She describes how, beginning in the 1860s, oceanography moved from yachts onto the decks of oceangoing vessels, and landlubber naturalists found themselves navigating the routines of a working ship's physical and social structures. Fathoming the Ocean offers a rare and engaging look into our fascination with the deep sea and into the origins of oceanography?origins still visible in a science that focuses the efforts of physicists, chemists, geologists, biologists, and engineers on the common enterprise of understanding a vast, three-dimensional, alien space. “Rozwadowski greatly expands our own understanding, all while telling a story that is original, wide-ranging, and illuminating.” —Margaret Deacon, Southampton Oceanography Centre, author of Science and the Sea: The Origins of Oceanography “Required reading for anyone wanting to understand how the oceans have come to play the role that they do in Western knowledge.” —Eric L. Mills, Dalhousie University and author of Biological Oceanography: An Early History, 1870-1960 “Chronicles the birth of deep-sea oceanography, from early observations by Benjamin Franklin to the voyage of HMS Challenger in the 1870s. [Rozwadowski] weaves a rich narrative from the world of renowned as well as lesser-known oceanographers.” —Nature

Finally, by exploring the fascinating modern history of the Yijing, Fathoming the Cosmos and Ordering the World attests to the tenacity, flexibility, and continuing relevance of this most remarkable Chinese classic.

Fathoming the Holocaust represents the culmination of a singular effort to attempt to explain the Final Solution to the "Jewish Problem" in terms of a general theory of social problems construction. The book is comprehensive in scope, covering the origins and emergence of the Final Solution, wartime reaction to it, and the postwar memory of the genocide. It does so within the framework of a social problems construction, a perspective that treats social problems not as a condition but as an activity that identifies and defines problems, persuades others that something must be done about them, and generates practical programs of remedial action. Berger holds that social problems have a "natural history," that is, they evolve through a sequence of stages that entail the development and unfolding of claims about problems and the formulation and implementation of solutions. Fathoming the Holocaust is therefore a book that aims to advance sociological understanding of the Holocaust, not simply to describe its history, but to examine its social construction, that is, to understand it as a consequence of concerted human activity. In doing so, Berger hopes to encourage the teaching of the Holocaust in the social scientific curricula of higher education. In contrast to the extensive historical literature on the Holocaust, Berger offers a distinctly sociological approach that examines how the Holocaust was constructed--first as a social policy designed by the Nazis, implemented by functionaries, and resisted by its victims and opponents; later as several varying layers of historical memory. The scope of this book extends from the prewar through the contemporary periods, focusing on the societal issues governing the interpreting of these events in Israel, the German Federal Republic, and the United States. Berger's is a text with both large general interest and essential material for courses in social problems, European history, and Jewish studies. Ronald J. Berger, professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, has previously published six books and numerous articles and book chapters. His earlier book on the Holocaust was a sociological account of his father and uncle's survival experiences.

Bestselling author B. Alan Wallace delivers the long-awaited followup to his Stilling the Mind: Shamatha Teachings from Dudjom Lingpa’s Vajra Essence (2011). This companion volume stems from an oral commentary Düdjom Lingpa gave to the next section of the Vajra Essence, in which he elucidates the cultivation of contemplative insight, or vipashyana, into the nature of existence as a whole. The revelation appears in the form of a fascinating dialogue within Düdjom Lingpa’s own mind: various aspects of his mind pose questions to his own primordial consciousness, and the pithy and provocative replies tap into the very ground of being. The ensuing dialogue explores every stage of the path to buddhahood in this lifetime, from the very beginning to the unexcelled result of the rainbow body, signifying enlightenment. Everything you need to know to attain buddhahood is complete in this text. As Wallace continued to reflect on Dudjom Lingpa’s writings and their relevance to the modern world, he was inspired to elaborate extensively on his original commentary. The book includes new introductory essays and an afterword, revealing the texts’ contribution to the contemplative revolution triggered by the discoveries of Galileo, Darwin, and Einstein.

With his positive approach to translation studies featured in this highly original volume, Chunshen Zhu brings into perspective from the vantage point of translation the workings of human factors in text production, interpretation, and dissemination in and through translation in varying social situations. This book examines a variety of key issues heatedly debated or largely neglected in the field of translation studies and beyond – for example, meaning making, nature of the unit of translation, augmentation of transitivity by modification, signification of repetition, and cognitive effects of syntactic iconicity – by critically engaging insights from functional linguistics and philosophy of language, among other fields of study. These issue-driven, phenomenon-focused, and theorization-oriented studies, presented in eight chapters with ample exemplification and case studies, form a coherent whole to bring a network of correlations between theory and practice, linguistics and literature, form and content, information structure and communicative function, intention and effect, and textuality and experience to bear upon the study of translation, fathoming its depths not only as a linguistic operation but more significantly as a textually accountable process of intersubjective and cross-lingual sign making that facilitates humans’ understanding of themselves and of the world. The book is therefore a useful reference for scholars, teachers, and postgraduate and research students who are interested in a comprehensive yet focused approach to translation as an academic subject straddling linguistics and literary, cultural, and social studies. It will also be useful for those who would like to observe bilingualism and cross-cultural communication through translation in general and translation involving the Chinese language in particular.

In his previous book, The Attention Revolution, bestselling author Alan Wallace guided readers through the stages of shamatha, a meditation for focusing the mind. In Stilling the Mind, he uses the wisdom of Dzogchen--the highest of all the meditation traditions--to open up the shamatha practice into a space of vast freedom. Here, Wallace introduces us to Dudjom Lingpa's Vajra Essence, one of the most cherished works of the Nyingma school from which Dzogchen stems. With his trademark enthusiasm and keen intelligence, Wallace makes obscure concepts intelligible to contemporary readers and allows us to glimpse the profound realizations of a great nineteenth-century spiritual adept.