After years of rapprochement the relationship between Russia & the West is more strained now than it has been in the past 25 years Putin s motives his reasons for seeking confrontation with the West remain for many a mystery Not for Mikhail Gorbachev In this new work Russia s elder statesman draws on his wealth of knowledge & experience to reveal the development of Putin s regime & the intentions behind it He argues that Putin has significantly diminished the achievements of perestroika & is part of an over-centralized system that presents a precarious future for Russia Faced with this Gorbachev advocates a radical reform of politics & a new fostering of pluralism & social democracy Gorbachev s insightful analysis moves beyond internal politics to address wider problems in the region including the Ukraine conflict as well as the global challenges of poverty & climate change Above all else he insists that solutions are to be found by returning to the atmosphere of dialogue & cooperation which was so instrumental in ending the Cold War This book represents the summation of Gorbachev s thinking on the course that Russia has taken since 1991 & stands as a testament to one of the greatest & most influential statesmen of the twentieth century ...

Why isn't wood weaker that it is? Why isn't steel stronger? Why does glass sometimes shatter & sometimes bend like spring? Why do ships break in half? What is a liquid & is treacle one? All these are questions about the nature of materials All of them are vital to engineers but also fascinating as scientific problems During the 250 years up to the 1920s & 1930s they had been answered largely by seeing how materials behaved in practice But materials continued to do things that they "ought" not to have done Only in the last 40 years have these questions begun to be answered by a new approach Material scientists have started to look more deeply into the make-up of materials They have found many surprises; above all perhaps that how a material behaves depends on how perfectly
- or imperfectly
- its atoms are arranged Using both SI & imperial units Professor Gordon's account of material science is a demonstration of the sometimes curious & entertaining ways in which scientists isolate & solve problems

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Elmore Green started life as an only child as many children do He had a room all to himself & everything in it was his But one day everything changed This brand new picture book from the hugely talented Lauren Child about the arrival of a new sibling is bound to be a hit with parents & children Told with humour & with wonderfully stylish artwork this is Lauren Child at her absolute best ...

A fully revised expanded & updated edition of this masterly portrayal of contemporary Spain The restoration of democracy in 1977 heralded a period of intense change that continues today Spain has become a land of extraordinary paradoxes in which traditional attitudes & contemporary preoccupations exist side by side Focussing on issues which affect ordinary Spaniards from housing to gambling from changing sexual mores to rising crime rates John Hooper's fascinating study brings to life the new Spain of the twenty-first century ...

In this major work sociologists Luc Boltanski & Eve Chiapello go to the heart of the changes in contemporary capitalism Via an unprecedented analysis of the latest management texts that have formed the thinking of employers in their reorganization of business the authors trace the contours of a new spirit of capitalism They argue that from the middle of the 1970s onwards capitalism abandoned the hierarchical Fordist work structure & developed a new networkbased form of organization that was founded on employee initiative & autonomy in the workplace-a "freedom" that came at the cost of material & psychological security The authors connect this new spirit with the children of the libertarian & romantic currents of the late 1960s (as epitomised by dressed-down cool capitalists such as Bill Gates & " Ben & Jerry") arguing that they practice a more successful & subtle-form of exploitation Now a classic work charting the sociological structure of neoliberalism Boltanski & Chiapello show how the new spirit triumphed thanks to a remarkable recuperation of the left's critique of the alienation of everyday life that simultaneously undermined their "social critique" In this new edition the two author reflect on the reception of the book & the debates it has stimulated ...

From one of our most celebrated writers on religion comes this fresh bold & unsettling new translation of the New Testament David Bentley Hart undertook this new translation of the New Testament in the spirit of "etsi doctrina non daretur" "as if doctrine is not given" Reproducing the texts' often fragmentary formulations without augmentation or correction he has produced a pitilessly literal translation one that captures the texts' impenetrability & unfinished quality while awakening readers to an uncanniness that often lies hidden beneath doctrinal layers The early Christians' sometimes raw astonished & halting prose challenges the idea that the New Testament affirms the kind of people we are Hart reminds us that they were a company of extremists radical in their rejection of the values & priorities of society not only at its most degenerate but often at its most reasonable & decent " To live as the New Testament language requires" he writes " Christians would have to become strangers & sojourners on the earth to have here no enduring city to belong to a Kingdom truly not of this world & we surely cannot do that can we?" ...

The words phrases & stories of the New Testament permeate the English language Indeed this relatively small group of twenty-seven works written during the height of the Roman Empire not only helped create & sustain a vast world religion but also have been integral to the larger cultural dynamics of the West above & beyond particular religious expressions Looking at the New Testament through the lens of literary study Kyle Keefer offers an engrossing exploration of this revered religious text as a work of literature but also keeps in focus its theological ramifications Unique among books that examine the Bible as literature this brilliantly compact introduction offers an intriguing double-edged look at this universal text-a religiously informed literary analysis The book first explores the major sections of the New Testament-the gospels Paul's letters & Revelation-as individual literary documents Keefer shows how in such familiar stories as the parable of the Good Samaritan a literary analysis can uncover an unexpected complexity to what seems a simple straightforward tale At the conclusion of the book Keefer steps back & asks questions about the New Testament as a whole He reveals that whether read as a single document or as a collection of works the New Testament presents readers with a wide variety of forms & viewpoints & a literary exploration helps bring this richness to light A fascinating investigation of the New Testament as a classic literary work this Very Short Introduction uses a literary framework-plot character narrative arc genre-to illuminate the language structure & the crafting of this venerable text ABOUT THE SERIES The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly Our expert authors combine facts analysis perspective new ideas & enthusiasm to make interesting & challenging topics highly readable ...

As part of the Christian Bible the New Testament is at once widely influential & (especially among the young & the educated) increasingly unknown Those who want to know the basics can find in this introduction the sort of information that locates these ancient writings in their historical & literary context Those who want to learn why these compositions have had such impact can find here an appreciation for the religious experiences of the first Christians that forced them to reinterpret their Jewish & Greek heritage & reshape their symbolic world In addition to providing the broad conceptual & factual framework for the New Testament -- including the process by which distinct compositions became a sacred book -- this introduction provides as well a more detailed examination of specific compositions that have had particularly strong influence including Paul's letters to the Corinthians & Romans the four Gospels & the Book of Revelation ABOUT THE SERIES The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly Our expert authors combine facts analysis perspective new ideas & enthusiasm to make interesting & challenging topics highly readable ...

An epic tale of Vladimir Putin's path to power as he emerged from obscurity to become one of the world's most conflicted & important leaders Former New York Times Moscow Bureau Chief Steven Lee Myers has followed Putin since well before the recent events in the Ukraine & gives us the fullest & most engaging account available of his rise to power A gripping page-turning narrative about Russian power & prestige the book depicts a cool & calculating leader with enormous ambition & few scruples As the world struggles to confront a newly assertive Russia the importance of understanding Putin has never been greater Vladimir Putin rose out of Soviet deprivation to the pinnacle of influence in the new Russian nation He came to office in 2000 as a reformer cutting taxes & expanding property rights bringing a measure of order & eventually prosperity to millions whose only experience of democracy in the early years following the Soviet collapse was instability poverty & criminality But soon Putin orchestrated the preservation of a new kind of authoritarianism consolidating power reasserting his country's might brutally crushing revolts & swiftly dispatching dissenters even as he retained the support of many ...

Please note this is a region 2 DVD & will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play A massive 13 DVD box set containiing the entirety of the revived " Twilight Zone& from the 1980s Every volume contains heaps of extra footage & amazing material certain to thrill the hardest of the hard core fans Travel into the fifth dimension once again with The Twilight Zone testing the limits of reality & exploring the mysteries of the universe Airing from 1985 to 1989 this critically acclaimed anthology series carried on the legacy of the original Rod Serling program & attracted a br&-new audience of fans The series features major stars in compelling tales of intrigue by such noted writers as Ray Bradbury Stephen King Harlan Ellison Rockne S O& Bannon Arthur C Clarke & Theodore Sturgeon Now the entire thrilling first season of 24 one-hour episodes can be seen in their entirety! Actors Robin Ward Charles Aidman Luci-Lynn Norris Richard Mulligan William Atherton Julie Khaner Roberts Blossom Heather Haase Ellen Albertini Dow & Burr Middleton Director Peter Medak Certificate 12 years & over Year 1985 Screen Fullscreen 43 Languages English
- Dolby Digital (20) Stereo Duration 27 hours (approx) Region Region 2
- Will only play on European Region 2 or multi-region DVD players

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