Reminiscences And Remembrances

On a terrible day in December 1958, one of the deadliest fires in American history took the lives of ninety-two children and three nuns at Our Lady of the Angels School in Chicago. On the fiftieth anniversary of the fire, Kuenster talks with children, parents, firemen, reports, clergy, nurses, policemen, school officials, and others who were in some way connected with the disaster.

Veteran airmen from both the European and Pacific theaters recount their recollections of the Second World War in the Air. From attacks on Japanese cities to intercepting the Luftwaffe the airmen recall the deeds of the “Greatest Generation”.

As immortality is the stability of life, and eternity the stability of being, so memory is the stability of knowledge. The faculty of memory depends on a fully functioning brain. Remembrance and recollection are the attributes and handmaidens of that memory. An idea recurring spontaneously is remembrance; when searched and retrieved by effortful thinking, recollection. While memory is physical and evanescent, for it depends upon the condition of the brain, reminiscence is the memory of the soul. Memory is the only faculty in man directly opposed to prognostication, or looking into futurity. Memory is one thing, and mind (i.e., thoughts) is another; the one is a recording machine, a register which very easily gets out of order; the other, thoughts, which are eternal and imperishable. Memory is an important power, but the mind itself is not memory, it is restless and wandering in its nature, and must be controlled. Phantasy is uncontrolled remembrance of past thoughts and images. Phantasy is the most unreliable thing in us. Phantasy stifles enthusiasm. Phantasy is an impediment to our spiritual perceptions. When the mind is inspired by the spirit above, if phantasy intervenes, the enthusiastic energy ceases; for enthusiasm and ecstasy are contrary to each other. Conviction breeds enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is the genius of sincerity. The enthusiastic passion is a kind of fury, partaking something of divine inspiration. But it is not called forth from within, it is an insufflation from some stronger power from without, thus bringing about a disturbance of the rational mind. What we have within, that only can we see without and thus, by summoning the forgotten knowledge from Lethe, we may re-enter into the heavenly vault.

Placing Chinese Community Party history in the realm of social history and comparative politics, this text studies the roots of the policy failures of the late Maoist period and the tenacity of the CCP.

Reminiscences of life and work of Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, 1892- 1956, Indian statesman, by his private secretary and close associates.

Sharing their insights, anecdotes, and experiences in a clear, accessible style, the contributors provide readers with a rare glimpse into the inner workings of the Supreme Court.

This text presents an introduction and a reference source of terms in the writing of biographies, autobiographies and related literature.