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Winner of the 1983 National Book Award! "...a perfectly marvelous book about the Queen of Sciences, from which one will get a real feeling for what mathematicians do and who they are. The exposition is clear and full of wit and humor..." - The New Yorker (1983 National Book Award edition) Mathematics has been a human activity for thousands of years. Yet only a few people from the vast population of users are professional mathematicians, who create, teach, foster, and apply it in a variety of situations. The authors of this book believe that it should be possible for these professional mathematicians to explain to non-professionals what they do, what they say they are doing, and why the world...
In an era when human lives are increasingly measured and weighed in relation to the medical and scientific, notions of what is “normal” have changed drastically. While it is no longer useful to think of a person’s particular race, gender, sexual orientation, or choice as “normal,” the concept continues to haunt us in other ways. In The End of Normal, Lennard J. Davis explores changing perceptions of body and mind in social, cultural, and political life as the twenty-first century unfolds. The book’s provocative essays mine the worlds of advertising, film, literature, and the visual arts as they consider issues of disability, depression, physician-assisted suicide, medical diagnos...
We live in an age of obsession. Not only are we hopelessly devoted to our work, strangely addicted to our favorite television shows, and desperately impassioned about our cars, we admire obsession in others: we demand that lovers be infatuated with one another in films, we respond to the passion of single-minded musicians, we cheer on driven athletes. To be obsessive is to be American; to be obsessive is to be modern. But obsession is not only a phenomenon of modern existence: it is a medical category—both a pathology and a goal. Behind this paradox lies a fascinating history, which Lennard J. Davis tells in Obsession. Beginning with the roots of the disease in demonic possession and its secular successors, Davis traces the evolution of obsessive behavior from a social and religious fact of life into a medical and psychiatric problem. From obsessive aspects of professional specialization to obsessive compulsive disorder and nymphomania, no variety of obsession eludes Davis’s graceful analysis.
Selected as an "Editors Choice" by the Chicago Tribune Lennard J. Davis grew up as the hearing child of deaf parents. In this candid, affecting, and often funny memoir, he recalls the joys and confusions of this special world, especially his complex and sometimes difficult relationships with his working-class Jewish immigrant parents. Gracefully slipping through memory, regret, longing, and redemption, My Sense of Silence is an eloquent remembrance of human ties and human failings.
No other piece of ancient Near Eastern literature that has survived the ravages of time compares favorably with the book of Genesis. Its theological perspectives and historical profiles of early man are unique. It is important not because it is oldother collections antedate it by many years-but because it completely transcends the primitive mythology of the ancient world. Reading and studying Genesis are not burdensome tasks. Its themes are varied and its personal portraits unparalleled. It immediately tackles on of man's most basic questions: What is the origin of all things? Its answer is as credible as it is captivating. From the origin of man the writer shifts attention to the fall of ...
Damaging stories and rumors can go viral in an instant—now, the nation’s premier political spin doctor teaches you how to cope with disasters in business, politics, and life by telling it all, telling it early, and telling it yourself. TELL IT ALL, TELL IT EARLY, TELL IT YOURSELF These days, every scandal is tried in the court of public opinion. Political insider and legal crisis manager Lanny Davis has spent years helping politicians, sports figures, business executives, and corporations—including Bill Clinton, Martha Stewart, Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder, and Macy’s, to name a few—through the biggest reputation crises of our times. In this fascinating and practical resource, Davis tells the real stories behind his famous clients’ very public scandals and how each case has aided him in the creation of five invaluable rules that absolutely anyone can use to protect himself. Damaging falsehoods can go viral in an instant. The nation’s premier political spin doctor will teach you how to fight back.
L.J. Davis’s 1971 novel, A Meaningful Life, is a blistering black comedy about the American quest for redemption through real estate and a gritty picture of New York City in collapse. Just out of college, Lowell Lake, the Western-born hero of Davis’s novel, heads to New York, where he plans to make it big as a writer. Instead he finds a job as a technical editor, at which he toils away while passion leaks out of his marriage to a nice Jewish girl. Then Lowell discovers a beautiful crumbling mansion in a crime-ridden section of Brooklyn, and against all advice, not to mention his wife’s will, sinks his every penny into buying it. He quits his job, moves in, and spends day and night on demolition and construction. At last he has a mission: he will dig up the lost history of his house; he will restore it to its past grandeur. He will make good on everything that’s gone wrong with his life, and he will even murder to do it.
The first major behind-the-scenes account of the history, passage, and impact of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)—the landmark moment for disability rights The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is the widest-ranging and most comprehensive piece of civil rights legislation ever passed in the United States, and it has become the model for disability-based laws around the world. Yet the surprising story behind how the bill came to be is little known. In this riveting account, acclaimed disability scholar Lennard J. Davis delivers the first on-the-ground narrative of how a band of leftist Berkeley hippies managed to make an alliance with upper-crust, conservative Republicans to br...
Katie was a normal American teenager when she decided to explore the possibility of voluntary work overseas. She temporarily 'quit life' to serve in Uganda for a year before going to college. However, returning to 'normal' became impossible and Katie 'quit life' - college, designer clothes, her little yellow convertible and her boyfriend - for good, remaining in Uganda. In the early days she felt as though she were trying to empty the ocean with an eyedropper, but has learnt that she is not called to change the world in itself, but to change the world for one person at a time. By the age of 22 Katie had adopted 14 girls and founded Amizima Ministries which currently has sponsors for over 600 children and a feeding program for Uganda's poorest citizens - so it is no wonder she feels Jesus wrecked her life, shattered it to pieces, and put it back together making it more beautiful than it was before.
Sadatina, an Adamu girl on the brink of becoming a woman has lived a peaceful life with her family in Adamusola, the land beyond the Old Men Mountains. But tragic events change her life forever, revealing a hidden past that leads her into the midst of a war between her people and those that would see them destroyed, the Mosele. Armed with a spiritual weapon and her feline 'sisters, ' Sadatina becomes a Shosa, a warrior trained to fight the terrible nyokas, demon-like creatures that aid the Mosele in their war against her people. Woman of the Woods by Milton Davis is an action filled, emotionally charged adventure that expands the scope of the world of Uhuru and introduces another unforgettable character to the fabled continent's heroic legends.