Bücher veröffentlicht von Academic Studies Press

In the early 1990s, the countries of the former Soviet Bloc faced an urgent need to reform the systems by which they delivered broad, basic social welfare to their citizens. Inherited systems were inefficient and financially unsustainable. Linda J. Cook here explores the politics and policy of social welfare from 1990 to 2004 in the Russian Federation, Poland, Hungary, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. Most of these countries, she shows, tried to institute reforms based on a liberal paradigm of reduced entitlements and subsidies, means-testing, and privatization. But these proposals provoked opposition from pro-welfare interests, and the politics of negotiating change varied substantially from one political arena to another. In Russia, for example, liberalizing reform was blocked for a decade. Only as Vladimir Putin rose to power did the country change its inherited welfare system. Cook finds that the impact of economic pressures on welfare was strongly mediated by domestic political factors, including the level of democratization and balance of pro- and anti-reform political forces. Postcommunist welfare politics throughout Russia and Eastern Europe, she shows, are marked by the large role played by bureaucratic welfare stakeholders who were left over from the communist period and, in weak states, by the development of informal processes in social sectors. In the early 1990s, the countries of the former Soviet Bloc faced an urgent need to reform the systems by which they delivered broad, basic social welfare to their citizens. Inherited systems were inefficient and financially unsustainable. Linda J. Cook here explores the politics and policy of social welfare from 1990 to 2004 in the Russian Federation, Poland, Hungary, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. Most of these countries, she shows, tried to institute reforms based on a liberal paradigm of reduced entitlements and subsidies, means-testing, and privatization. But these proposals provoked opposition from pro-welfare interests, and the politics of negotiating change varied substantially from one political arena to another. In Russia, for example, liberalizing reform was blocked for a decade. Only as Vladimir Putin rose to power did the country change its inherited welfare system. Cook finds that the impact of economic pressures on welfare was strongly mediated by domestic political factors, including the level of democratization and balance of pro- and anti-reform political forces. Postcommunist welfare politics throughout Russia and Eastern Europe, she shows, are marked by the large role played by bureaucratic welfare stakeholders who were left over from the communist period and, in weak states, by the development of informal processes in social sectors.

Thieves-in-law' (vory-v-zakone in Russian) are career criminals belonging to a criminal fraternity that began in the 1930s in the Soviet prison camps. For reasons that the book attempts to explain, thieves-in-law became exceptionally prevalent in the former Soviet republic of Georgia. Here, by the 1990s, they formed a mafia network--criminal associations that attempt to monopolize protection in legal and illegal sectors of the economy. At this time, the mafia was in many ways more powerful than the state. In 2005, however, anti-organized crime policy was transferred from Italy and America to Georgia. Legislation targeting the thieves-in-law directly was successful in causing a steep decline in mafia influence and organized criminal activity. This book asks how and why this occurred. In particular, why did the thieves-in-law not resist the attack on them successfully? Based on extensive fieldwork and utilizing unique access to primary sources of data, such as police files, court cases, archives, and expert interviews, the book provides a case study of varying organized criminal resilience to state attack. It studies the dynamics of changing mafia activities, recruitment practices, and organization as these relate to changes in the socio-economic environment and, in particular, anti-organized crime policy in what is the first sustained, directed anti-mafia policy implemented in a post-Soviet country.

Edythe Haber relies on letters, archival materials, and memoirs by contemporaries to create Teffi's biography, as well as to reveal the inner mechanisms of Russian literary life, both in the country and in emigration, and placing it in the rampant historical context. Readers are presented with a panorama of the brilliant artistic world of the Silver Age and the Paris of Russian emigres.

As cinema industries around the globe adjusted to the introduction of synch-sound technology, the Soviet Union was also shifting culturally, politically, and ideologically from the heterogeneous film industry of the 1920s to the centralized industry of the 1930s, and from the avant-garde to Socialist Realism. In The Voice of Technology: Soviet Cinema's Transition to Sound, 1928-1935, Lilya Kaganovsky explores the history, practice, technology, ideology, aesthetics, and politics of the transition to sound within the context of larger issues in Soviet media history. Industrialization and centralization of the cinema industry greatly altered the way movies in the Soviet Union were made, while the introduction of sound radically altered the way these movies were received. Kaganovsky argues that the coming of sound changed the Soviet cinema industry by making audible, for the first time, the voice of State power, directly addressing the Soviet viewer. By exploring numerous examples of films from this transitional period, Kaganovsky demonstrates the importance of the new technology of sound in producing and imposing the "Soviet Voice."

Moscow under Construction explores the growth of place-based opposition to redevelopment practices in Moscow and consequent changes in city's governance regime. Groups of citizens have struggled to defend homes, neighborhoods, heritage buildings, and historic districts. Although their aims typically have been specific and limited, an important consequence of their activism has been to create a culture of protest. In this way, without intending to, local protestors have been building civil society in the Russian capital. The proliferation of "initiative groups" and "social associations" has not only protected specific places in the city and but also changed the governance regime and planning process.

Writing a Usable Past argues that in the twenty years following the Bolshevik Revolution, writers seeking to understand the role of man in human history looked to literary heroes from past eras. Each in his own way, authors Iurii Tynianov, Vladislav Khodasevich, and Mikhail Bulgakov turned to the genre of biography--novels, literary biographies, plays--in search of a hero for their own time. As biographers, they each then felt the pull of the centenary commemoration of the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin and entered into the competition to claim Pushkin as a symbol of Russian culture. The split in Russian culture between those who remained in Soviet Russia and those who became part of the far-flung diaspora creates a fascinating way to explore the role of biography for this contested era.

This ten-chapter book explores how music and society are, and have been, intertwined and mutually influential. It examines the agents behind these connections: who determines musical cultures in society? Which social groups are represented in particular musical contexts? Which social groups are silenced or less well represented in music's histories, and why?

This broad-ranging study, the first full-length investigation of conceptions of faith and trust in the Judeo-Arabic tradition, explores a family of related concepts?faith (iman, emunah), conviction (i'tiqād), and trust/reliance (tawakkul/ittikal)?in Saadya, Ba?ya, Halevi, Maimonides, Abraham Maimonides, and the Egyptian pietist circle of Abraham he-?asid. The work points to a rich spectrum of conceptions of faith and trust?from the purely cognitive to the experiential and affective. What emerges are themes of faithfulness, loyalty, experiential certainty, and trustworthiness, expressed in devotion to a way of life that embodies these ideals. The virtue of trust expresses steadfast commitment to the truth.This study vividly illustrates the ?Jewish-Arab symbiosis,? highlighting the shared spiritual language and rich, intertwined worlds of Islamic and Jewish philosophy, theology, and mysticism.

Anna Nasilowska's A History of Polish Literature is a one-volume guide that immerses readers in the rich tapestry of Polish literature and reveals its enduring impact on European identity from the Middle Ages to the late twentieth century. By exploring key themes, writers, and works and grounding her discussion in crucial biographical context, she weaves together the lives of a carefully curated list of Polish writers to paint a vivid literary portrait, elucidating the epochs that these writers shaped. Offering indispensable insights for readers who may be unfamiliar with the world of Polish literature, it is an excellent jumping-off-point for further study and learning.

The book offers a thorough study of the early poetry (1956?1971) of the Ukrainian/American writer Yuriy Tarnawsky, focusing on its evolutionary path from late modernism to postmodernism, which the author conceptualizes as a ?shift of dominants? from humanist (existentialist) questions to an anti-humanist and post-epistemological perspective.

This volume examines the rhetorical development that occurred over the first two terms of Vladimir Putin's tenure as president of Russia. During that time Putin abandoned any effort at integration with the West, turning toward Eurasia and promoting a mythical image of Russia as a singular geopolitical entity spanning one thousand years.

R. Saadia Gaon (882-942) was unquestionably one of the most important if not the most important medieval Jewish thinker. He dealt with biblical exegesis, philosophy, grammar, poetry, prayer, and Halakha, and in many of these fields he is considered an innovator and a trailblazer, paving new paths for his followers. Many of the sages who lived after him cited from his writings. He served as head of the Academy of Sura, Babylon, but the impact of his works was felt in all generations who lived and followed. This study seeks to describe and analyze R. Saadia Gaon's life, his public enterprise, his works, and his influence on the generations after him.

In Collected Studies (Volume 4): Jews in the Medical Profession, Joseph Shatzmiller, the prominent scholar of Provence Jewry, presents a fascinating glimpse into the world of Jewish doctors and medicine in medieval Western Europe. Drawing on a wealth of archival sources and intellectual history, Shatzmiller delves into the lives and experiences of Jewish physicians who played a crucial role in the medical profession during the Middle Ages. From their scientific collaborations with Christian colleagues to their role as leaders within the Jewish community, this book provides a rich portrait of the complex and dynamic world of medieval medicine. The book covers topics such as the Jewish students in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Montpellier, Jewish women in medicine, doctors' salaries, pharmacology, and medical books. With its insightful analysis and meticulous research, Jews in the Medical Profession is a valuable contribution to the history of medicine and Jewish studies."The collection of studies that these four volumes offer is the result of more than sixty years of commitment to scholarship. Like many colleagues, I relied in the beginning on printed material in books that dealt with law, religion, and secular literature. Then, as a disciple of George Duby, I discovered the world of archives and hand-written Latin manuscripts. The present collection relies, to a great extent, on previously unknown information discovered during years of search in the archives of Southern France, mostly on those of the county of Provence. They are situated in the cities of Marseille and Aix-en-Provence as well as the town of Digne. The legal registers of the High Middle Ages (1250-1350) as well as those produced by the counties' administration introduce us to the ordinary people of the region, to their daily life and to their preoccupations; their names are spelled out, the dates are recorded and the localities in which they were active are designated. At times these documents encourage us to endorse information found in contemporary literary sources and to overcome our hesitation and excessive caution concerning their value as historical evidence."- Joseph Shatzmiller

Joseph Shatzmiller's Collected Studies (Volume 3): Maimonidean Argument in France is a comprehensive compilation of his research on the intellectual and mental history of the Jews in Provence. The central focus of the book is the ongoing conflict between adherents of Maimonidean philosophy and its opponents, which persisted throughout the thirteenth century due to the movement of translations from Arabic to Hebrew. Additionally, the book delves into other important aspects of Provence Jewry, including their attitudes towards the Albigensian heresy and the intellectual contributions of figures such as Kalonymus ben Kalonymus, Jacob ben Eliyahu, and the renowned biblical commentator, astronomer, and philosopher Gersonides. Shatzmiller's research illuminates the significance of Provence Jewry within the larger framework of Jewish communities in the Mediterranean and western Europe during the Middle Ages."The collection of studies that these four volumes offer is the result of more than sixty years of commitment to scholarship. Like many colleagues, I relied in the beginning on printed material in books that dealt with law, religion, and secular literature. Then, as a disciple of George Duby, I discovered the world of archives and hand-written Latin manuscripts. The present collection relies, to a great extent, on previously unknown information discovered during years of search in the archives of Southern France, mostly on those of the county of Provence. They are situated in the cities of Marseille and Aix-en-Provence as well as the town of Digne. The legal registers of the High Middle Ages (1250-1350) as well as those produced by the counties' administration introduce us to the ordinary people of the region, to their daily life and to their preoccupations; their names are spelled out, the dates are recorded and the localities in which they were active are designated. At times these documents encourage us to endorse information found in contemporary literary sources and to overcome our hesitation and excessive caution concerning their value as historical evidence."- Joseph Shatzmiller

In Collected Studies (Volume 2): Christian Majority-Jewish Minority, Joseph Shatzmiller, the preeminent scholar of the Jews in Provence, examines the complex relationship between Christians and Jews during the Middle Ages. Through a careful analysis of historical documents and primary sources, Shatzmiller sheds light on the diverse experiences of the Jewish minority in Provence, from their legal status in Christian courts to the persecution and violence they faced during times of crisis. This book provides a nuanced understanding of the relationship between Christians and Jews in medieval Western Europe, and the role of the Jewish community in shaping the social and political landscape of the region."The collection of studies that these four volumes offer is the result of more than sixty years of commitment to scholarship. Like many colleagues, I relied in the beginning on printed material in books that dealt with law, religion, and secular literature. Then, as a disciple of George Duby, I discovered the world of archives and hand-written Latin manuscripts. The present collection relies, to a great extent, on previously unknown information discovered during years of search in the archives of Southern France, mostly on those of the county of Provence. They are situated in the cities of Marseille and Aix-en-Provence as well as the town of Digne. The legal registers of the High Middle Ages (1250-1350) as well as those produced by the counties' administration introduce us to the ordinary people of the region, to their daily life and to their preoccupations; their names are spelled out, the dates are recorded and the localities in which they were active are designated. At times these documents encourage us to endorse information found in contemporary literary sources and to overcome our hesitation and excessive caution concerning their value as historical evidence."? Joseph Shatzmiller

In Collected Studies (Volume 1): The Jews of Provence, Joseph Shatzmiller, the foremost expert on Provençal Judaism, offers a comprehensive overview of the medieval history of the Jews in Provence. Through an analysis of community regulations, tax distribution, rabbinic leadership, and everyday life, Shatzmiller provides a rich and powerful mosaic of Jewish society in Provence. This masterful work sheds light on the diverse experiences of Jews in the region, from their interactions with Christian neighbors to their internal conflicts and struggles. With its insightful analysis and meticulous research, The Jews of Provence is an essential read for anyone interested in the history of Jewish communities in medieval Europe."The collection of studies that these four volumes offer is the result of more than sixty years of commitment to scholarship. Like many colleagues, I relied in the beginning on printed material in books that dealt with law, religion, and secular literature. Then, as a disciple of George Duby, I discovered the world of archives and hand-written Latin manuscripts. The present collection relies, to a great extent, on previously unknown information discovered during years of search in the archives of Southern France, mostly on those of the county of Provence. They are situated in the cities of Marseille and Aix-en-Provence as well as the town of Digne. The legal registers of the High Middle Ages (1250-1350) as well as those produced by the counties' administration introduce us to the ordinary people of the region, to their daily life and to their preoccupations; their names are spelled out, the dates are recorded and the localities in which they were active are designated. At times these documents encourage us to endorse information found in contemporary literary sources and to overcome our hesitation and excessive caution concerning their value as historical evidence."- Joseph Shatzmiller

Noonomy explores the effect of modern technological shifts on human society. The author shows that technologies are about to undergo qualitative changes which will create new opportunities for personal development and the satisfaction of wants and, simultaneously, engender risks associated with growth opportunities of human interference with nature and technogenic stress on the environment. Based on the study of cutting-edge technologies and resulting socioeconomic shifts, Bodrunov makes the conclusion about the upcoming civilizational crisis. The crisis can be overcome through the formation of a new industrial society of the second generation reliant on knowledge-intensive material production and gradual removal of humans from immediate material production processes. These two trends can fully develop only subject to the transition from the current socioeconomic formation to a non-economic one-the noonomy.

The book explores the effect of modern technological shifts on human society, showing that technologies are undergoing qualitative changes that open up new opportunities for personal development and satisfaction of wants and, simultaneously, engender risks associated with growing opportunities of human interference with nature and technogenic stress on the environment.

Standing at the intersection of Visual Studies and Queer Studies, the volume Queer(ing) Russian Art: Realism, Revolution, Performance exposes and explores the queer imagery and sensibilities in works of visual art in pre-Soviet, Soviet and post-Soviet contexts and beneath the surface of conventional histories of Russian art.

From their privileged childhood in Egypt, the paths of once-inseparable twins Taher and Aisha diverge early: When the USSR invades Afghanistan, Taher abandons their shared plans to study medicine in Europe, instead joining their cousin, Ahmed, as a medic for the mujahideen fighting the Soviets. As Aisha's Western perspective grows, so does her fear for her brother, who is becoming increasingly radicalized during the civil war between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance. With powerful imagery, Danuta Hinc's When We Were Twins shows how innocence and loyalty to those we love can be twisted by political forces, leading a young man to choose a fateful path that changes the course of history.

Explains the major jurisprudential factors driving the halakhic jurisprudence of Rabbi Yehiel Mikhel Epstein, twentieth-century author of the Arukh Hashulchan - the most comprehensive, seminal, and original modern restatement of Jewish law since Maimonides.

The studies gathered in the collection present the Russian-language Israeli literature that has been forming over the past hundred years in all the variety of genres and aesthetic movements. In every generation and in every aliyah, Russian-Israeli authors tirelessly search for new forms, born of the encounter with the new land.

A sequel to Gellman's trilogy with Academic Studies Press of constructive Jewish theology, this book presents a new concept of the Jews as God's Chosen People; a reply to an argument for the reliability of Torah history; and provides an approach to the problem of evil for troubled believers and want to be believers, without trying to solve the problem.

The volume focuses on violence during the breakdown of East Central European states brought by one of the most violent periods in modern European history: from the start of the Great War in 1914 until 1923 when Europe, finally, achieved peace after a series of civil conflicts and interstate wars.

The Comics of Asaf Hanuka: Telling Particular and Universal Stories traces how Asaf Hanuka's comics and graphic novels reflect his own experiences of being an insider (as a Jew and Israeli) and an outsider (as a Mizrahi or Judeo-Arab) in Israeli society alongside what it means to be a parent and a spouse in contemporary Western society.

"Bethea's book conveys the story of an amazingly ambitious attempt to preserve the humanities while also saving the future of disadvantaged high school students in Chicago. ... Highly recommended." - Library Journal (starred review)The Pushkin Project tells the story of how a Russian studies professor changes course late in his career by reeducating himself in evolutionary thought and founding a summer institute that partners with inner-city high schools to implement a new set of learning strategies for underserved youth.These "cognitive cross-training" strategies involve introducing students from Hispanic and Black neighborhoods in the west and south sides of Chicago to the Russian culture and language, with an emphasis on poet, playwright, and novelist Alexander Pushkin. Through the lens of modern evolutionary thought, students adopt not only a new and different language and culture, but also a different sort of literary hero, one whose African heritage within the majority culture speaks to them directly. This inspiring and compelling story provides fascinating insights into Russia's national poet, brings the sciences and humanities together, and provides new directions in teaching young people from historically disadvantaged backgrounds.

This book is inspired by the author's work as part of a major international and interdisciplinary research group at the University of Konstanz, Germany: "What If-On the Meaning, Relevance, and Epistemology of Counterfactual Claims and Thought Experiments." Having contributed to great discoveries, such as those by Galileo and Einstein, thought experiments are especially topical in the twenty-first century, since this is a concept that bridges the gap between the arts and the sciences, promoting interdisciplinary innovation. To study thought experiments in literature, it is imperative to examine relevant texts closely: this has rarely been done to date and this is precisely what this book does as a pilot study focusing on selected works of philosophy and literature. Specifically, thought experiments by Thomas Malthus are analyzed side by side with short stories and novels by Vladimir Odoevsky and Nikolai Chernyshevsky, Alexander Bogdanov and Aleksei Tolstoy, Alexander Chaianov and Nina Berberova.