The Splendid Century

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"Witty, judicious and extremely well written, The Splendid Century is social history at its best." The New York Times What was life like in France during the reign of its most glorious monarch, Louis XIV? Known as the Sun King, he reigned for seventy-two years, in an age of growing decadence and absolutism in Europe. His court was one of the most lavish places the world has ever scene as nobles and courtiers vied for patronage in the spectacular corridors and beautiful rooms of the Palace of Versailles. W. H. Lewis' brilliant account of this era The Splendid Century: Life in the France of Louis XIV does an exquisite job of bringing late seventeenth and early eighteenth century France to life. The first chapter uncovers what Louis, this remarkable monarch that innumerable myths have developed around, was actually like. This is followed by a stunning evocation of what life was like at the court, as brilliant political, military and cultural figures like Colbert, Mazarin, Louvois, the Grand Condé and Turenne, wandered through the corridors of power at Versailles. Perhaps the most interesting section of the book, however, is Lewis' account was life was life in France away from the court during this period. He explores the lives of the common people who struggled survive while those in Versailles gorged themselves, the emerging religious conflicts that developed across the nation, the marching army that followed Louis' increasingly aggressive and expansionist orders, as well as the merchants and traders who tried to continue as normal through these turbulent years. "This book is the kind of modern scholarship in history which makes reading a delight. A fascinating book, excellently documented and as readable as it is authentic." Book-of-the-Month Club News "Not only a highly pleasurable, lucid read, but also an incredibly informative and satisfying introduction. Lewis deftly moved from court to country, king to commoner, illuminating the best and the worst of Louis XIV's France. Along the way, he gives a tantalizing glimpse into the underlying tensions within French society that would later serve as the impetus for the French Revolution." Cardis Murray, College of St. Rose "A rather scholarly work on a specific period -- Louis XIV -- which offers a wealth of interesting data." Kirkus Reviews "The curtain of the past covers over the glories and heartaches, the achievements and disappointments, the casual social moments and weighty political events of other days. Only the unusual author can take us behind that curtain and make the past live again with all its vivid intensity. W. H. Lewis, not a professional historian but a retired army officer, has achieved this goal for the glorious age of Louis XIV." Lester S. King, MD, JAMA

This book surveys an underlying discourse on female and oriental consumerism in nearly four centuries of British colonialist narratives on India. It examines some of the significant ways in which the subaltern and female body was constructed by Western ethnographers within early modern British colonialist discourses. The book offers a genealogy of colonialist spectatorship, and examines the ideologies originating within both public and private colonial spheres. Through a comparison of the discourses about and by women one can see the continuation of patriarchal injunctions within Western protofeminist discourses. Economic, ethical, colonial, patriarchal, and protofeminist polemics thus reached to and shaped one another, and this book is a record of the complex ways in which gender discourses and colonialist discourses intersected to create a colonialist spectatorship that constituted non-Western and female subjects as spectacular and needing discipline. The insights on Western protofeminists and their crisis of self-representation as subjects versus objects of discourse also further the examination of women's history in the colonial arena.

Featuring the first-ever English translation of the "Splendid Vision Sutra," a sixth-century Indian Mahayana Buddhist scripture known for its rich ritual magic and worship of bodhisattva-goddesses, this volume explicates the text's cultural significance as a source of extraordinary value, cosmic truth, and existential meaning. The ancient author of the "Splendid Vision Sutra" promises every imaginable reward to those who heed its words and rites, whether one's desire is to become king, enjoy heavenly pleasures for thousands of millennia, or attain the spiritual summit of advanced bodhisattvahood. Richard S. Cohen carefully analyzes this religious rhetoric, developing a heuristic model of "scripture" that extends beyond Buddhist literature. In his framework, a text becomes sacred scripture when a community accepts it as a receptacle of extraordinary value, an authoritative source of cosmic truth, and a guide for meaningful action. While clarifying these points, Cohen untangles the discursive skein through which the "Splendid Vision Sutra" expresses its authority, inspires readers to accept that authority, and promises superior power and accomplishments to those who implement its teachings. Exploring ways of living and reading a text, Cohen draws on Marcel Duchamp's theory of found art, Jerzy Grotowski's idealization of the holy actor, and other formulations, identifying contingencies, uncertainties, and incompleteness in the lived present and its determination of our reception of the past. More than a mere introduction to an important work, The Splendid Vision opens a window into religious experience and practice in contemporary environments as well as in the world of the sutra.

This history traces the ncwc's development and assesses the effectiveness of its many interventions in the political process over the past 100 years. The author shows that through the Council, women have dealt with virtually all the major social and political issues that have faced Canada.