Kingdom And Country

Welcome to the new Wild West: a vast, sprawling land of eternal hope and busted dreams, of grizzlies, dune buggies and range wars, dope growers, corporate bandits, ecotage and, yes, even gun-slinging. With grace and humor the author takes the reader along on an exhilarating land voyage from the Pecos River to the Pacific Northwest and south again to the Mexican border.... (Originally published in hardcover by Houghton Mifflin) Jim Harrison (author of Legends of the Fall): "A wonderful and well-considered evocation of the New West, all the better because it reads like a fine novel." Wallace Stegner (Angle of Repose): "He got into places and activities that most native Westerners never even get close to, and he reports them with verve, wit, irony, and a very sharp eye. He gives us, pretty much from the viewpoints of the antagonists, the battles between those who want to use the West, even to death, and those who want to preserve it... He makes abundantly clear that the myths of untrammeled freedom, space, and individualism unchecked by social responsibility thrive... A sound and very lively book." Tracey Kidder (Mountains Beyond Mountains): "This immensely entertaining book contains much more than fine writing about beautiful places. It is a portrait gallery of fascinating, characters, hilarious and sad, and... a meditation on the past and future of the 'World West.'"

We love God. We love our country. What does it look like to love each properly and well? National tensions are at a record high. People on all points in the political spectrum care deeply about their country, although they differ wildly in their opinions about what it looks like to serve that country well. As Christians, we love God and seek to follow him. At the same time, nothing shapes us and tugs at our loyalties quite like the place we live. And of course we are regularly encouraged to pledge our allegiance to our country—or particular understandings of it. Who wins when the priorities of God and our country clash? In Kingdom and Country, a collection of leading Christian thinkers and practitioners take a holistic approach to considering the questions of patriotism, nationalism, and where our ultimate loyalties must lie. Contributors include Alejandro Mandes, Juliet Liu, Ryan Tafilowski, Derek Vreeland, Rod Wilson, Michelle Reyes, Amanda Smith, Karen Wilk, Sean Palmer, and Tina Boesch Kingdom and Country is the second in a series of Kingdom Conversations, books that bring together trusted Christian voices to address some of the most urgent and perplexing challenges of our time in timeless and redemptive ways.

A remarkable history of the two-centuries-old relationship between the United States and China, from the Revolutionary War to the present day From the clipper ships that ventured to Canton hauling cargos of American ginseng to swap Chinese tea, to the US warships facing off against China's growing navy in the South China Sea, from the Yankee missionaries who brought Christianity and education to China, to the Chinese who built the American West, the United States and China have always been dramatically intertwined. For more than two centuries, American and Chinese statesmen, merchants, missionaries, and adventurers, men and women, have profoundly influenced the fate of these nations. While we tend to think of America's ties with China as starting in 1972 with the visit of President Richard Nixon to China, the patterns—rapturous enchantment followed by angry disillusionment—were set in motion hundreds of years earlier. Drawing on personal letters, diaries, memoirs, government documents, and contemporary news reports, John Pomfret reconstructs the surprising, tragic, and marvelous ways Americans and Chinese have engaged with one another through the centuries. A fascinating and thrilling account, The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom is also an indispensable book for understanding the most important—and often the most perplexing—relationship between any two countries in the world.

This report looks at the state of health in United Kingdom.

This profile provides a concise and policy-relevant overview of health and the health system in the United Kingdom as part of the broader series of the State of Health in the EU country profiles. It provides a short synthesis of: the health status in the country; the determinants of health, focussing on behavioural risk factors; the organisation of the health system; and the effectiveness, accessibility and resilience of the health system. This profile is the joint work of the OECD and the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, in co-operation with the European Commission.