From the New World
Extraits
Littérature française
From the New World
"Et si la tâche était finalement impossible dès le départ et qu'il n'était pas capable de mener son projet à terme ? N'était-il pas temps de grandir, afin de laisser mourir à jamais ces chimères irréalisables ? " Lorsqu'un anonyme masqué d'une tête de cheval décide de fonder sa propre secte pour prôner une idéologie nouvelle, ses paroles touchent immédiatement les internautes qui voient en lui leur prophète. Il faut dire qu'avec la disparition des animaux, le nouvel essor de la mafia, la prolifération des sectes et la banalisation des déviances sexuelles de plus en plus étranges, les promesses du Cheval ont vite fait de toucher ce qu'il reste encore du coeur de ceux et celles qui l'écoutent. Car le monde en 2050 n'est qu'à peine pire que celui que nous connaissons actuellement... Mais que dissimule réellement cet homme derrière son masque ? Ses objectifs sont-ils aussi nobles qu'il le prétend ? Mérite-t-il l'attention que lui prêtent la police, les médias et tous les paumés du monde de demain ? Une fiction spéculative passionnante sur la montée en puissance d'une secte dans un monde futuriste aux frontières de notre actualité ! Passionné par la littérature d'anticipation et de science-fiction, Nicolas Gaudin s'est naturellement tourné vers l'écriture. Inspiré de La Vague de Dennis Gansel, From the new world raconte avec justesse la montée d'un mouvement social et sociétal dans un futur proche.
11/2020
Non classé
Living in Two Worlds
This is a study of Singapore pastors' worldview & understanding of the epidemiology, symptomatology and management of possession behaviour. The pastors' accounts are compared with those from the scientific disciplines, and convergences and divergences noted. Factors shaping both the pastors' and the scientific discourses are examined. The pastors are shown to respond to competing scientific paradigms by reinforcing their two-worlds worldview. They either live mainly in the other world, or in each world at a time, or between the two worlds. Based on theological reflection focusing on epistemology, theodicy & cosmology, the author shows that the paradigm of living in both worlds simultaneously is the most appropriate pastoral response. The theological vision of the coexisting worlds and the pastoral task of unmasking and resisting evil in all its varieties and depths are then discussed.
05/1994
Divers
Charlotte Lennox, "The Female Quixote". Agrégation d'anglais, Edition 2024-2025
Picture a resolute heroine from a seventeenth-century French romance who has been unknowingly teleported to mid-eighteenth-century Britain. Equipped with her worldview fashioned by the beliefs and values of those romances, how would she navigate this unfamiliar world ? Would her journey be a seamless progression from one comically ridiculous error to the next ? How would she assess the morals and customs of her newfound society, and how would its members perceive her ? In The Female Quixote, Charlotte Lennox embarks on this imaginative experiment. Her Cervantean parody fosters a dynamic reading experience, swinging between complicity and detachment. It projects an image of the parodied romances but also of the social world of eighteenth-century Britain. Encouraging readers to contemplate the fluid interplay between fiction and the real, the novel prompts reflection on the disparities between the social norms of both realms. This study takes a multifaceted approach to Lennox's novel, situating the work in its literary-historical context and examining the narrative features aligning it both with realist novels and romances. Additionally, it analyses key themes and provides summaries of characters and chapters. The study also offers a selection of texts that shed light on the debates accompanying the transition from an older codification of prose fiction to a new contender : the realist novel. The overarching objective is to showcase The Female Quixote's significance in shaping the modern novel's early history.
11/2023
Sociologie
A Handbook of Global Citizenship Education. The Belgian perspective
Presented as a response to contemporary global issues (such as sustainable development, interculturality or democracy), Global Citizenship Education (GCE) aims to "open people's eyes and minds to the realities of the world and awaken them to bring about a world of greater justice, equity and human rights for all". Given that GCE is now perceived as a means of bringing contemporary world issues into classrooms, teachers and school principals are increasingly encouraged to adopt it. Indeed, new skills frameworks require students to develop knowledge on global issues, while students themselves are demanding this education because they seek the means to play a greater role in the world. Often addressed in the form of social or environmental issues perceived as being of serious concern, GCE is expected to feature increasingly in the curricula of schools and universities in the future. But in Belgium and around the world, Global Citizenship Education (GCE) has been the subject of debate in recent years. This handbook reflects these various debates. Initially published in French, it is, above all, an attempt to compensate for the absence of texts on the subject from the French-speaking world, notably from the Belgian research and practice world. This English version enhances the international visibility of the vital academic, institutional, and professional sectors addressing GCE in Belgium, and highlights the specific features of GCE in this country. It will be particularly useful for students, teachers and practitioners, and everyone who wants to understand the challenges of Global Citizenship Education today.
01/2023
12 ans et +
The Young World Tome 2 : The New Order
Un virus a décimé toute la population des Etats-Unis, à l'exception des adolescents. Ces derniers pensaient être les seuls survivants mais ils se trompaient. Après l'inattendu twist final du tome 1, Donna et Jefferson se séparent. Jefferson retourne à New York, où il va tenter de trouver l'antidote du virus au sein de la tribu des Washington Square. Donna, quant à elle, se rend en Angleterre, où elle est confrontée à un tout autre monde. Parviendront-ils à se réunir de nouveau pour empêcher ce qui s'annonce comme un désastre plus grand encore que le virus qui a anéanti le continent ?
04/2016
Mexique
Secret Mexico City
An indispensable guide for those who thought they knew the city well or who would like to discover its many other facets. The forgotten café where Fidel Castro and Che Guevara used to meet, a tribute to the city's ghosts, a mammoth in the metro, a cave transformed into a shrine, an underground parking lot with mosaics dating from 1930, a Baroque altarpiece made from papier mâché, a village based on the principles of Thomas More's Utopia, secret masterpieces of colonial art in rooms only open around two hours a week, the largest roof garden in Latin America, the photo on which the Oscar statuette is modelled, the first building in the world faced with a material that can trap urban smog, a road surface designed for praying as you walk ...
02/2024
Divers
Even if this Love Disappears from the World Tonight
Poussé par ses camarades de classe, le jeune Toru Kamiya fait une fausse déclaration d'amour à Maori. Cette dernière accepte de faire semblant de sortir avec lui à une seule condition : interdiction formelle de tomber amoureux ! Mais tout change lorsqu'il apprend que la jeune fille, atteinte d'amnésie antérograde, oublie durant son sommeil tout ce qu'elle a vécu dans la journée...
06/2024
Illustration
The Illustrator. 100 Best from around the World, Edition français-anglais-allemand
L'illustration est plus libérée et variée que jamais, et elle trouve sa place sur tout un éventail de supports, des impressions aux écrans. livres, emballages, vêtements et restaurants. Cet ouvrage salue la qualité, la diversité, l'intensité, l'humour, la vivacité et la nature exceptionnelle du travail produit aujourd'hui par les illustrateurs. Qu'il s'agisse d'artistes vétérans comme Peter Blake, Sue Coe et Brad Holland, ou de talents montants comme Robin Eisenberg, Jean Jullien et Olimpia Zagnoli. les 100 artistes dans cette collection ne sont que la pointe de l'iceberg proverbial. Ils offrent aussi un instantané probant des styles, des techniques et de l'emploi de la couleur par des artistes du monde entier. Nous vous mettons au défi de choisir vos favoris !
08/2019
BD jeunesse
The World
Une documentation parcellaire des mémoires du Monde pendant et après la grande guerre entre les sorceliers et les machines. Plongez dans les mystères de The World. Livré avec 8 cartes recto/verso qui donnent des détails supplémentaires sur l'univers et une planche de stickers.
08/2019
Monographies
Karl. No Regrets
The artist Patrick Hourcade met Karl Lagerfeld in 1976, initiating a friendship that would last more than twenty years, nourished by a shared passion for the arts of the eighteenth century. Patrick Hourcade tells us the story of this aesthetic meeting of minds. Together they would construct a magnificent world of refinement and luxury-at times bordering on the extravagant-from the Château de Grand-Champ in Brittany to the Hôtel Pozzo di Borgo in Paris and villa La Vigie on the Côte d'Azur. Drawing on unpublished photographs and documents, the author paints an intimate portrait of Karl Lagerfeld, both shadow and light. He gives us a unique and singular perspective, populated by the exceptional personalities who accompanied the great couturier throughout his life.
10/2021
Romans, témoignages & Co
The Boy from the Mish
Aussi passionnant que sincère, Quand tu seras prêt parle de premier amour, d'identité mais aussi de confiance en soi. Magnifiquement écrit, ce roman marque le début de la carrière d'un auteur particulièrement prometteur. C'est l'été en Australie et tout va bien dans la vie de Jackson. Les cours sont terminés et il traîne, comme d'habitude, avec ses potes. Au détour de ses sorties, il aime moquer des touristes... tout en essayant d'éviter les racistes ! Et comme chaque année, à l'approche de Noël, sa tante et ses insupportables petits cousins débarquent pour rendre visite à sa famille. Sauf que cette fois-ci, ils sont accompagnés de Tomas, un mystérieux garçon au passé trouble. Très vite, Jackson se rapproche de lui... Au fur et à mesure que leur relation évolue, l'adolescent va devoir redéfinir sa relation avec ses amis, avec sa famille, et peut-être même sa place au sein de sa communauté. Tout en affrontant son plus grand secret, celui qu'il pensait avoir caché pour de bon...
09/2023
Comics Super-héros
Batman The World
Le champ d'action de Batman ne se limite pas à Gotham City ! Le Chevalier Noir a juré de rendre la justice partout où l'on a besoin de lui, et ses enquêtes l'ont conduit plus d'une fois aux quatre coins de la planète. Retrouvez dans cet album des aventures du plus grand des super-héros sur tous les continents !
09/2021
Ecrits sur l'art
Daring French Explorations. Traiblazing Adventures around the World : 1714-1854
Daring French Explorations is an exceptional homage to adventure. Intrepid French mariners-including legendary explorers Lapérouse, Bougainville, and Dumont d'Urville, and unsung sailors La Barbinais, Pagès, and Roquefeuil-embark readers on sixteen voyages around the world from 1714 to 1854. A selection of firsthand accounts culled from their maritime travelogues recounts the trials and tribulations the explorers encountered as they charted new routes to remote territories. Their unfiltered observations on wide-ranging themes-from geopolitics and commerce to climate change and global cultures-resonate with contemporary issues. This handsome volume-featuring many previously unpublished illustrations, engravings, and maps-traces their extraordinary scientific, diplomatic, or commercial expeditions, which significantly marked the history of world exploration. Driven by a spirit of adventure and a passion for expeditions, inveterate collector Hubert Sagnières has drawn from his extensive library to curate this unprecedented introduction to the glory days of French naval history. Award-winning author Edward Duyker is a fellow at the Australian Academy of the Humanities.
02/2024
Histoire internationale
New Man, New Nation, New World
In this new interpretation of the French Revolution, Jan Baszkiewicz examines revolutionary attempts to "regenerate" man, France and the world in the face of deep-seated and persistent traditions. Using a broad array of primary sources – including pamphlets, diaries, police reports, and debate protocols – Baszkiewicz analyzes the tools French revolutionaries used to build a new society on the wreckage of the Ancien Régime : Spectacular holidays, reforms in family and marriage law, general schooling, the Republican Calendar, the "liberation" of public spaces, education through work, a new religion, terror and war. In the end, the great plans for regeneration failed, though the myths that surrounded those failures lived on well into the twentieth century.
05/2012
BD tout public
I am GooGol - The Great Invasion
Their arrival was heralded as a new beginning for the human race. Humans were no longer alone in the cosmos. Instead, they were suddenly thrust into an arena much larger than they were ready to deal with. In an age of technological advancement, Toughware and the wiki implants were the culmination of the first successful blending of human and alien technology. Suddenly, anyone with a wiki implant could ride the data streams. Hackers became celebrities as the neural landscape became the world's playground. And for a special few, a startling side effect was discovered. Fearing the worst, the Lambda Initiative was created to police wiki infractions and to protect the fabled Lambda Time Travel Restrictions. Anyone, human or alien, attempting to bypass the Lambda Protocols was subject to prosecution under this new law. To enforce this law, the G-Men were created. Culled from specialists with military and law enforcement experience, the G-Men sought out Lambda Protocol violators with swift and violent response. With wiki crimes on the rise and a growing anti-alien movement gaining strength, something had to be done. The government needed a solution, but they weren't sure what to do. And then they discovered a teenage girl living in Brazil with a special affinity for traversing and moulding the data stream. They had discovered the first Googol. And the world was about to change.
12/2010
Musique classique
Songs of Love. 12 Romances. 12 Lieder. Soprano (tenor) and piano.
Leokadiya Kashperova (1872-1940), hitherto consigned to a footnote in musical history as Stravinsky's piano teacher, is undergoing rediscovery. A double graduate of the St Petersburg Conservatoire, she emerged as a virtuoso pianist and composer in the romantic tradition. She was associated with some of the great musicians of her day, including Balakirev and Auer. She performed in both Germany and the UK in the 1900s, but her career petered out after 1920. Songs of Love was first published in 1904. No evidence survives of any public performance in Kashperova's lifetime although it is very likely that they were performed at her regular 'musical evenings at home on Tuesdays' mentioned in her Memoirs. The transparency of the piano writing strongly suggests that she would accompany herself singing. Kashperova, by all accounts, possessed a fine voice, and in the summer of 1906 she decided 'to learn from the artistry', as she put it, of the tenor Raimond von Zur-Mühlen who was widely celebrated for having developed (with Clara Schumann) the Lieder-Abend tradition. His summer-schools on the Baltic coast were frequented by aspiring singers from all over Europe, even Japan and India. Kashperova herself was responsible for the poetic lyrics of Songs of Love (in both Russian and German), which may well have emerged from her own bittersweet experience of life and love ; she was not to marry until 1916 at the age of forty-four. That Kashperova is the author of both the music and the lyrics of Songs of Love would suggest that they express very personal sentiments. Instrumentation : soprano (tenor) and piano
12/2023
Poésie
Tales from the garden
Recueil de poésies contemplatives, Tales from the garden ("Contes du jardin") a été écrit pendant la période du premier confinement et du printemps, alors que l'auteur habitué aux vols longs couriers était assigné à rester au sol et à contempler son jardin. Alternant des textes aux inspirations multiples, le rythme et la frugalité des mots de certains poèmes laissent parfois penser à l'art japonais du Haïku.
02/2023
BD tout public
The girl from Ipanama
Au pied du célèbre Hollywood Sign qui surplombe Los Angeles, on vient de trouver le corps atrocement mutilé de la jeune Dorothy Knowles. La veille, avec son amie, la starlette Jennifer Shapiro, elle devait passer la soirée chez George Scarpa, le parrain de la mafia locale... Ron Chavez, un flic chicano à la volonté tenace, se lance sur la piste de Jennifer qui a été vraisemblablement témoin du meurtre de Dorothy. Ses recherches sont compliquées par l'intervention pernicieuse d'Ed Jennings, un autre policier mandaté par Scarpa. Qui de Chavez l'obstiné ou de Jennings le pourri a le plus à perdre dans ce très sombre thriller à la James Ellroy ?
04/2012
Science-fiction
Things from the Flood
"The Loop" est fermée. La vie revient à la normale lorsque la campagne pastorale est soudainement inondée par les eaux sombres de l'immense installation souterraine abandonnée. Des rumeurs se sont répandues dans les salles de classe et les cours d'école, des histoires sur l'inondation et sur la façon dont elle a apporté quelque chose avec elle. Une chose est claire : le passé n'est pas prêt d'être oublié. Dans ce nouvel ouvrage, Stålenhag continue les histoires de Tales From The Loop, souvenirs d'une enfance nordique imprégnée de machines et de créatures étranges d'autres dimensions. Dans Things From The Flood, il déplace son attention des années 80 aux années 90, la décennie de grands changements lorsque le monde extérieur est vraiment venu en Scandinavie.
12/2021
Science-fiction
Tales from the Loop
En 1954, le gouvernement suédois ordonna la construction du plus grand accélérateur de particules au monde. L'installation fut achevée en 1969, au fond de la campagne pastorale de Mälaröarna. La population locale a appelé cette merveille de la technologie "The Loop". Ce livre rassemble les étranges histoires qui tournent autour. Les peintures de Simon Stålenhag représentant la banlieue suédoise des années 1980, peuplée de machines fantastiques et de bêtes étranges, se sont propagées comme une traînée de poudre sur Internet et sont devenues un phénomène mondial.
12/2021
Chanson française
Live from the moumoune
Quand on écoute Atomic Ping Pong, la gravité est optionnelle et l'absurde est le seul dialecte à bord. Avec l'album Live from the Moumoune, enregistré sur trois concerts en mai 2023, le groupe franco-canadien marie plaisir et pensée critique et allie flow et collapsologie dans un son entier et chaleureux. De l'écologie à l'amour gay en passant par la mise en orbite d'un raton laveur transgenre, les 5 musicien.nes y brassent une musique aux influences multiples pour créer un univers euphorisant, atomique et lunaire. Refrains hypnotisants à triple sens, nappes de synthé enveloppantes et clarinette basse explosive montée sur pédalier tentaculaire, chaque nouveau morceau est l'occasion de changer de costume comme de style. Entre l'humour de Philippe Katerine, le groove d'Abraham Inc et la sensibilité de Sages Comme Des Sauvages, Atomic Ping Pong invite le public à danser sur un sentier surréaliste, politique et plein d'auto-dérision.
03/2024
Histoire de France
«Die Welt war meine Gemeinde»- Willem A. Visser ’t Hooft. A Theologian for Europe between Ecumenism and Federalism
Willem A. Visser 't Hooft (1900–1985), Dutch pastor and theologian, was one of the most significant personalities in the Protestant Ecumenical movement. Deeply influenced by Karl Barth, and filled with a strong Ecumenical spirit, he was closely involved in the founding of the World Council of Churches, of which he was elected General Secretary. During the Second World War, many Protestants became convinced of the need for an international political system which, beside uniting the nations and peoples of Europe, would guarantee them fundamental freedoms and mutual respect for their historical, cultural and confessional traditions. The directors of the WWC were strongly committed to federalism, partly because of the political traditions of the states from which their member churches originated (Switzerland ; Great Britain and its Commonwealth ; the United States), and partly because of their conviction that a simple confederation of states, based on the model of the League of Nations, would be completely incapable of containing national ambitions. In spring 1944, Visser 't Hooft welcomed into his Geneva home the representatives of the European Resistance, who, under the leadership of Altiero Spinelli and Ernesto Rossi, signed the International Federalist Declaration of the Resistance Movements. These historic transnational encounters, aimed not only at coordinating military action or seeking diplomatic contacts but at exploring ways to "build" peace and re-establish the future of the Continent on new foundations, marked a profound break with the past.
12/1985
Beaux arts
New worlds
"New Worlds" presents a selection of five outstanding nautical atlases known as portolan charts, or "portalans".These historic documents are the work of eminent scholars from Majorca, Lisbon, Le Havre, and Amsterdam. Cartographers by trade, and sometimes also skilled illuminators, they mapped what was the most probable imago mundi for their time, each exemplar crafting a fascinating visual chronicle. Jean-Yves Sarazin, head of Charts and Maps at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, scrutinizes thèse charts or atlases, and situates them in the great history of European discoveries and voyages from the early 14th to the late 17th century, from the Portuguese reconnaissance of the coasts of Africa, through the adventures of Columbus,Vespucci, and Magellan, to the Dutch voyages in the Pacific and Australia.The book's many colour reproductions are alive with picturesque details: camel caravans in the heart ofAsia, Portuguese andArab ships sailing in the Indian Ocean, wild beasts or chimaera, countless exotic plants, naval battles, and not least the frequent strangeness of the indigenous people.
10/2012
Informatique
DREAMWEAVER 2 H.O.T HANDS-ON TRAINING. CD-Rom included
Do you like to learn by doing? Do manuals leave you craving for real-world examples? Are you looking for concrete training that goes beyond theory and reference materials?
Learn Dreamweaver by following classroom-proven exercises that will teach you to build sophisticated web pages. This book is geared toward people who have never written HTML or those who would like to switch from coding by hand to a visual HTML editor.
Complete with insider tips, illustrated with detailed graphics, and accompanied by a CD-ROM that's loaded with guided exercises, demo software and QuickTime movies, this book ensures that you'll learn all the key features of Dreamweaver 2.
12/1999
Indépendants
Windows on the World
Mexique, septembre 2001. Un repas de famille, comme tant d'autre. Quand soudain, le programme télé s'interrompt... Il y a quelques mois, devant l'accumulation de dettes, Balthazar, le père de famille, est parti aux USA en quête d'un meilleur salaire. Il travaille dans les cuisines du célèbre restaurant Windows on the World dans l'une des deux tours du World Trade Center... Pour la famille, les images sont horribles. Sans nouvelles de leur proche, le désespoir est là, les prières se multiplient. Lorsqu'une nuit... Hallucination ou réalité ? Le fils décide de croire sa mère persuadée d'avoir vu sonb mari à la télévision. Débute alors pour Fernando une quête entre traversée de la frontière, difficultés des recherches et indifférence des autres. Windows on the World est un roman graphique saisissant où amour et devoir mènent la danse dans une New York endeuillée. L'histoire court sur plus de 230 pages et s'appuie sur des dessins semi-réalistes dont le style évoquera tour à tour les frère
01/2022
Littérature française (poches)
Windows on the world
"Vous connaissez la fin : tout le monde meurt. Certes la mort arrive à pas mal de gens, un jour ou l'autre. L'originalité de cette histoire, c'est qu'ils vont tous mourir en même temps et au même endroit. La plupart des clients du Windows on the World ne se connaissent pas entre eux. Dans un instant, le temps deviendra élastique. Tous ces gens feront enfin connaissance. Dans un instant, ils seront tous unis dans la Fin du Monde." Le seul moyen de savoir ce qui s'est passé dans le restaurant situé au 107e étage de la tour nord du World Trade Center, le 11 septembre 2001, entre 8 h 30 et 10 h 29, c'est de l'inventer. F. B. "Un livre émouvant et fort qui confère à la littérature une mission fondamentale : dire l'indicible." Gérard de Cortanze, Le Magazine littéraire. "Frédéric Beigbeder restitue le drame dans sa brutalité, sans bavardage. On ne peut qu'être impressionné par Windows in the World." Josyane Savigneau, Le Monde des livres.
05/2015
Mode
Barbie. The World Tour
Ce livre événement plonge les lecteurs en plein coeur du monde de Barbie, après l’extraordinaire succès du film de Greta Gerwig (près de 6 millions d’entrées en France). Publié en collaboration exclusive avec Margot Robbie et Mattel, l’ouvrage célèbre l’icône de mode qu’est la légendaire poupée. En vue de la tournée promotionnelle du film, l’actrice et son styliste Andrew Makumal ont demandé aux plus grands créateurs, de Chanel, Versace, Armani et Schiaparelli, de s’inspirer des looks historiques de Barbie pour créer des tenues de tapis rouge. La tournée ayant été écourtée, la plupart de ces créations sont restées inédites. Pour la première fois, elles sont ici toutes réunies, photographiées par l’incontournable photographe de mode Craig McDean. L’ouvrage mêle la sophistication de la Haute Couture à la légèreté du monde de Barbie. Un entretien avec Margot Robbie et Andrew Makumal revient sur la genèse du projet, tandis que des contributions exceptionnelles des créateurs à l’origine des looks reviennent sur leur processus de travail. Le livre rassemble également des images rares de poupées tirées des archives de Mattel, ainsi que des croquis et polaroids réalisés pendant la préparation des tenues. La parution de cet ouvrage insolite, à la croisée des mondes de la mode, de la culture pop et du cinéma, coïncide avec la célébration renouvelée de Barbie à l’occasion de son 65ème anniversaire et de la saison des prix cinématographiques internationaux du printemps.
03/2024
Religion
Leviticus
Whereas many books in this field deal with individual aspects or texts of the study of family laws, Leviticus : The Priestly Laws and Prohibitions from the Perspective of Ancient Near East and Africa examines extensively biblical texts, ancient Near Eastern text, and oral traditions from Africa. Thus, three different cultures converge : the world of the Hebrew Bible, the world of the ancient Near East, and the world of Africa. This volume examines in detail the history of the development of ancient laws in general and family laws in particular, especially the laws relating to marriages between close relatives. Furthermore, Johnson M. Kimuhu looks at prohibitions and taboos in Africa and the problems they pose with regard to the interpretation and translation of difficult biblical concepts into African languages. In that sense, Kimuhu provides an example of how to contextualize or integrate African traditions into the study of biblical Hebrew, and he also offers insights into the current debate on the study of kinship from the point of view of social/cultural anthropology and the Hebrew Bible legal system. Teachers, students, and researchers in biblical studies, ancient Near Eastern studies, African traditions, and social/cultural anthropology will find this book helpful in their quest to understand family laws, prohibitions, and taboos.
02/2008
Histoire et Philosophiesophie
The Undergrowth of Science. Delusion, self-deception and human frailty
Walter Gratzer's themes in the stories he relates in The Undergrowth of Science are collective delusion and human folly. Science is generally seen as a process bound by rigorous rules, which its practitioners must not transgress. Deliberate fraud occasionally intrudes, but it is soon detected, the perpetrators cast out and the course of discovery barely disturbed. Far more interesting are the outbreaks of self-delusion that from time to time afflict upright and competent researchers, and then spread like an epidemic or mass-hysteria through a sober and respectable scientific community. When this happens the rules by which scientists normally govern their working lives are suddenly suspended. Sometimes these episodes are provoked by personal vanity, an unwillingness to acknowledge error or even contemplate the possibility that a hard-won success is a will o' the wisp; at other times they stem from loyalty to a respected and trusted guru, or even from patriotic pride; and, worst of ail, they may be a consequence of a political ideology which imposes its own interpretation on scientists' observations of the natural world. Unreason and credulity supervene, illusory phenomena are described and measured, and theories are developed to explain them - until suddenly, often for no single reason, the bubble bursts, leaving behind it a residue of acrimony, recrimination, embarrassment and ruined reputations.
Here, then, are radiations, measured with high precision yet existing only in the minds of those who observed them; the Russian water, which some thought might congeal the oceans: phantom diseases which called for heroic surgery; monkey testis implants that restored the sexual powers of ageing roués and of tired sheep; truths about genetics and about the nature of matter, perceptible only to Aryan scientists in the Third Reich or Marxist ideologues in the Soviet Union; and much more. The Undergrowth of Science explores, in terms accessible to the lay reader, the history of such episodes, up to our own time, in ail their absurdity, tragedy and pathos.
01/2000
Histoire de France
Christian Democrat Internationalism. Its Action in Europe and Worldwide from post World War II until the 1990s- Volume III: The European People’s Party- Continental and Social Cooperation
From September 2011 to December 2013 the Luigi Sturzo Institute in Rome along with the Centre of European Studies planned a series of international scientific meetings to study one highly important political subject : the commitment of Christian Democrats on an international level. This project has been organised thanks to the support of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, and the International Labour Organisation. Internationalism is a Key Element for the Christian Democrat Identity. In fact, CD is a political movement of thought and action whose roots lie in a specific ideology : to use the German word Weltanschauung, it is based on a particular framework of ideas and beliefs that leads the party to interpret the relationship between men and nations from an international point of view, ensuring the human being a central place in every social policy. The Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, wrote in a Message to these Meetings : "We can consider ourselves very lucky that 50 years ago forward-thinking personalities founded the World Union of Christian Democrats. From then on, the world, through globalisation, has been deeply changed. Events that take place in other continents immediately impact on our lives. We will be able to protect ourselves from terrorism, achieve economic and social security, and defend our environment only through common global action. This is the task of our generation : to overcome these global challenges. [...] Our parties and our political organisations share a common Christian ideal of man. This ideal, grounded on the inalienability of human dignity, is at the core of one important value : to this man has linked a social and economic model that combines economic success and social responsibility." Her message clearly shows the need to use historical knowledge, to return to and explore a rich and challenging past as well as to develop a reflection on and a course of action for the present and the future.
12/1986
