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The Scientific Sublime in Imperial Rome charts the role of the sublime in first-century debates about how and why we investigate the natural world. It shows how the sublimity of the study of nature--the scientific sublime--animates Manilius' Astronomica, Seneca's Natural Questions, Lucan's Civil War, and the anonymous Aetna, and explores how these authors inflect and deploy the scientific sublime in their respective historical and socio-political contexts.Imbued with the triumphal optimism of the Augustan moment, Manilius takes the reader on a rollercoaster ride through the expanses of the heavens, reveling in the infinite dimensions of the cosmos and the astounding ability of his mathematical calculations to uncover the mind of god; this is the ultimate intellectual pursuit. The instability and paranoia of the Neronian period fundamentally compromise this posture. In Natural Questions, Seneca rejects Manilius' celestial adventure and redirects the reader's gaze to atmospheric phenomena. The turbulence and tumult of meteorological inquiry do not lead to certain knowledge, but Seneca hopes that its electric vitality might counteract the allure of morally corrupt pastimes and of political power itself. For Lucan, the Manilian and Senecan projects are delusional fantasies. The study of nature, stripped of the illusion that it serves some higher purpose, constitutes a distraction from the urgent necessity of civil war, and those characters who understand nature's mechanics appear laughably irrelevant or downright deadly. In the early Flavian period, the Aetna poet rehabilitates the ecstatic charge of natural inquiry. Dismissing the lofty aspirations of Manilius and Seneca, the author careens over Sicily's jagged terrain and plunges the reader into the depths of the earth searching for terrestrial knowledge. By the poem's conclusion, however, sheer awe before the amphitheatrical spectacle of nature supplants the rush of philosophical analysis as the goal of studying the earth; this attitude connects the poet with Longinus and the Elder Pliny.Through close readings, this book tells a new story about the study of nature at Rome. It locates the sublimity of that study at the center of early imperial Latin literature and thereby renders the classical sublime more expansive, dynamic, and contested.

The dramatic story behind an extraordinary transformation: the reconciliation between Europe's Protestants and Catholics, and the emergence of a new era of Christian collaboration. For centuries, Europe's Catholics and Protestants were bitter rivals, each group blaming the other for violence and alleged moral decline. Yet starting in the 1930s, they swiftly made peace, abandoning old stereotypes and even forming joint political parties and social organizations. Why did these erstwhile adversaries suddenly start cooperating, and what were the consequences? A groundbreaking study, The End of the Schism overturns conventional wisdom about this revolutionary change. Udi Greenberg shows that ecumenism did not grow out of mutual tolerance. Rather, Christian thinkers and politicians on both sides of the Catholic-Protestant divide came together to contain what they considered growing threats to Christian life: socialism, feminism, and Afro-Asian liberation movements. This project of interconfessional peacemaking accelerated with the rise of the Nazis, whose call for religious unity sparked intense debates among Christian denominations about their relationships with one another. Their rapprochement culminated in the unfolding of the Cold War and decolonization, when Catholic and Protestant authorities formally declared each other "brethren in faith." The End of the Schism makes clear the enormous consequences of the ecumenical revolution. By working together, Catholics and Protestants were able to design Europe's economic policies, regulate its sexual practices, and deeply shape its postwar relationship with the Global South. As confessional attachments in Europe have weakened, this coalition of Christians has only grown more cohesive, leveraging their alliance to maintain influence across a politically fractured continent.

How museums are changing to embrace a more inclusive vision of American art US museums have faced increasing pressure to reckon with their histories in light of movements against racism, violence, and the erosion of human rights here and abroad. Self-reflection and transformation have emerged in tandem with a focus on incorporating antiracism and decolonization in museum practice. Fundamental to these shifts is the idea that one cannot tell the story of American art without Native American, African American, Asian American, and Latinx art. Featuring innovative scholarship and approaches from art history, anthropology, gender and sexuality studies, history, and ethnic studies, the curators and scholars in this volume write about transforming theory and methodology into museum practice as they reflect on the challenges and possibilities for expanding the canon of American art. Beyond the shortcomings of traditional curatorial approaches, they demonstrate how sustained dialogue, community engagement, and curatorial collaboration have fueled important changes to art curation. A progress report and a how-to guide, this collection considers the flawed past and inclusive future for how American art is displayed and taught.

A critical look at the difficulties women face in the field of Jewish studies, drawing on quantitative data, personal stories, and the gendered history of the field The field of Jewish studies has expanded significantly in recent years, with increasing numbers of women entering the field. These scholars have brought new perspectives from studies of women, gender, and sexuality. Yet they have also faced institutional and individual obstacles. In this book, Susannah Heschel and Sarah Imhoff examine the place of women and nonbinary people in Jewish studies, arguing that, for both intellectual and ethical reasons, the culture of the field must change. Heschel and Imhoff explore quantitative data regarding women as editors of and contributors to academic journals and anthologies, examine data regarding citations of women's scholarship, and scrutinize women's presence on panels at academic conferences. They analyze the wider context of the contemporary academy, discussing what is distinctive about Jewish studies. They trace the history of the field, its connections to traditional religious studies, and its growth in US institutions, interspersing this with stories of scholars in the field who have experienced harassment and gender discrimination. Finally, they offer suggestions for a reparative path forward.

On April 22, 2015, the sorority sisters at Ohio's Muskingum University's Delta house encountered a horrific scene: pools of blood and gore in the first-floor bathroom. No one knew exactly what had happened, but the sisters suspected it had something to do with Emile Weaver. Studious, athletic, and well-liked, Emile had recently started wearing bulky sweatsuits and hiding her midsection, as if she was covering up a sudden weight gain. Could Emile be pregnant?   Emboldened by fear, the sorority sisters investigated. In the driveway next to the kitchen door, they found Emile's newborn baby girl dead inside a garbage bag. Emile's crime seemed senseless and left her family and friends with an aching question: what happened?   American Infanticide situates Emile's tragic act in a long intellectual, social, and legal history, uncovering disturbing missing chapters in our national history that undercut myths that have shaped public reactions to so-called monster moms and dumpster babies since the colonial era. Ultimately, the book uncovers how bias and inconsistency dictate how women accused of infant homicide are perceived and punished and sheds new light on how and why our legal responses to infanticide are so deeply misguided.

In Rethinking Metaphysics, Amie Thomasson aims to change how we think about metaphysics: what it can do, and why it matters. Traditional metaphysics has aimed to discover deep truths about the world. But this has led to rivalries with science, epistemological mysteries, and a despairing scepticism about how we could gain knowledge in metaphysics. Thomasson argues that the problems with prior approaches to metaphysics arise from a problematic assumption that all discourse functions in the same way. Drawing on work in linguistics, she shows how to develop a richer view of linguistic functions that enables us to see why this assumption leads us astray. By better understanding the plurality of linguistic functions, she argues, we can also disentangle ourselves from many old metaphysical problems--including problems about properties, numbers, morality and modality. In place of the traditional model, we should think of metaphysics as work in conceptual engineering--including both a reverse engineering project aimed at understanding how various parts of our language and conceptual scheme work and what functions they serve, and a constructive engineering project that investigates what concepts and language we should use and how we should use them. Rethinking metaphysics as conceptual engineering in this way enables us to avoid the problems of traditional metaphysics, while also demonstrating the perennial importance of metaphysics to human life.

The conventional wisdom has held that China's economic power is very close to America's and that Washington cannot undertake a broad economic cutoff of China without hurting itself as much, or more. In Command of Commerce, Ben A. Vagle and Stephen G. Brooks show the conventional wisdom is wrong on both fronts. The authors argue that America's economic power has been underestimated because conventional economic measures have ignored America's unprecedented control over the world's largest multinational corporations. They further argue that China's economic power has been overestimated due to Beijing's manipulation of its economic data and measurement issues presented by China's uniquely structured economy. The authors also show Washington could impose massive, disproportionate harm on Beijing if it imposed a broad economic cutoff on China in cooperation with its allies or via a distant naval blockade. Across six scenarios, China's short-term economic losses from a broad cutoff range from being 5 to 11 times higher than America's. And in the long run, America and almost all its allies would return to previous economic growth levels; in contrast, China's growth would be permanently degraded.

A fast-paced, gripping history of meddling, manipulation, and skulduggery among great power rivalsIn 2016, the United States was stunned by evidence of Russian meddling in the US presidential elections. But it shouldn't have been. Subversion--domestic interference to undermine or manipulate a rival--is as old as statecraft itself. The basic idea would have been familiar to Sun Tzu, Thucydides, Elizabeth I, or Bismarck. Russia's operation was just the latest episode, and there will be more to come.It came as a surprise in 2016 because the sole superpower had fallen asleep at the wheel. But what's really new? Have we entered a new age of vulnerability? To answer these questions, and to protect ourselves against future subversion, we need a clear-eyed understanding of what it is and how it works.In A Measure Short of War, Jill Kastner and William C. Wohlforth provide just that, taking the reader on a compelling ride through the history of subversion, exploring two thousand years of mischief and manipulation to illustrate subversion's allure, its operational possibilities, and the means for fighting back against it. With vivid examples from the ancient world, the great-power rivalries of the 19th century, epic Cold War struggles, and more, A Measure Short of War shows how prior technological revolutions opened up new avenues for subversion, and how some democracies have been fatally weakened by foreign subverters while others have artfully defended themselves--and their democratic principles.A primer on the history of subversive statecraft in great power rivalry, A Measure Short of War will leave readers smarter about foreign meddling, more prepared to debate national responses, and better able to navigate between the twin temptations of insouciance and overreaction.