The Dutch and German Communist Left (1900–68)


Book Description

The Dutch-German Communist Left, represented by the German KAPD-AAUD, the Dutch KAPN and the Bulgarian Communist Workers Party, separated from the Comintern (1921) on questions like electoralism, trade-unionism, united fronts, the one-party state and anti-proletarian violence. It attracted the ire of Lenin, who wrote his Left Wing Communism, An Infantile Disorder against the Linkskommunismus, while Herman Gorter wrote a famous response in his pamphlet Reply to Lenin. The present volume provides the most substantial history to date of this tendency in the twentieth-century Communist movement. It covers how the Communist left, with the KAPD-AAU, denounced 'party communism' and 'state capitalism' in Russia; how the German left survived after 1933 in the shape of the Dutch GIK and Paul Mattick’s councils movement in the USA; and also how the Dutch Communistenbond Spartacus continued to fight after 1942 for the world power of the workers councils, as theorised by Pannekoek in his book Workers’ Councils (1946).




Armies and Ecosystems in Premodern Europe


Book Description

Using the ecosystem concept as his starting point, the author examines the complex relationship between premodern armed forces and their environment at three levels: landscapes, living beings, and diseases. The study focuses on Europe's Meuse Region, well-known among historians of war as a battleground between France and Germany. By analyzing soldiers' long-term interactions with nature, this book engages with current debates about the ecological impact of the military, and provides new impetus for contemporary armed forces to make greater effort to reduce their environmental footprint.







Arabic Astronomical and Astrological Sciences in Latin Translation


Book Description

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1955.




Kings, Commoners and Concessionaires


Book Description

A first full-length study of the political economy of the nineteenth-century Swazi state.




Advances in Molecular Genetics of Plant-Microbe Interactions, Vol. 2


Book Description

This volume presents the latest research findings in molecular plant-microbe interactions, based on presentations of leading international scientists at the Sixth International Symposium on this subject. From these presentations it is clear that the field has made enormous advances in the past several years. In addition to the text on plant-microbe interactions, a number of experts in fields peripherally related to the main subject of the symposium also participated, and these individuals have also contributed to the present volume. This published material is very up-to-date, representing the cutting edge of current research. For anyone interested in learning of the latest advanced in this rapidly moving field, this volume is required reading.




Bacteria in Nature


Book Description

Any branch of biology depends for its progress on the development of new concepts and to a lesser, but sometimes crucial, extent on the elimination of erroneous notions. Understanding the roles of bacteria required first the observation that such minute creatures existed, and subsequently the exper imental demonstrations that their presence was necessary for the occurrence of particular phenomena. In this first volume, the authors review the development of scientific understanding of the role of microbes as agents of diverse natural processes. Notably absent is a separate review of the history of microbes as agents of disease, a his tory available in many other publications. Regrettably absent is a review of the his tory of microbes as agents of inorganic transformations, a serious omission that resulted from the illness of the prospective author late in the preparation of this volume. The topic will of course be treated in later volumes, although not predominantly in a historical manner. Otherwise, the emphasis in this volume is on the history of understanding interrelationships between modes of bacterial existence and the inanimate environment. These relationships were established long be fore multicellular, differentiated or ganisms appeared as potential microbial habitats, and their recognition and elucidation contributed greatly to the widened appreciation of bacterial di versity and the importance of these simpler creatures to the physiochemical conditions of the biosphere.




The Eternal Hermes


Book Description

From the Western esotericism pioneer, a “work of lucid scholarship [that reveals] the full range of Hermes’ innumerable manifestations in European history” (Parabola). Hermes—the fascinating, mercurial messenger of the gods, eloquent revealer of hidden wisdom, and guardian of occult knowledge—has played a central role in the development of esotericism in the West. Drawing upon many rare books and manuscripts, this highly illustrated work explores the question of where Hermes Trismegistus came from, how he came to be a patron of the esoteric traditions, and how the figure of Hermes has remained lively and inspiring to our own day. “Great erudition blended with a highly refined metaphysical sensibility brings the great Hermes to life and allows this powerful psychospiritual archetype to speak once again [and perhaps even play a few much-needed tricks on us].” —Jacob Needleman, author of The Heart of Philosophy “Faivre’s remarkable achievement in this single volume is to combine the historical richness of the Hermetic tradition with its relevance to understanding the circumambulations of the psyche today as it pursues its spiritual quest.” —June Singer, author of Boundaries of the Soul “This book is an impressive and compelling contribution to the puzzling question of both the source and perdurance of Hermes in his variety of shape-shifting guises. From Alexandria to Amsterdam, Athens to America, this thrice-great Hermes keeps showing up, perhaps even more than in antiquity!” —David L. Miller, author of The New Polytheism




The Light of Nature


Book Description

This volume of essays is meant as a tribute to Alistair Crombie by some of those who have studied with him. The occasion of its publication is his seven tieth birthday - 4 November 1985. Its contents are a reflection - or so it is hoped - of his own interests, and they indicate at the same time his influence on subjects he has pursued for some forty years. Born in Brisbane, Australia, Alistair Cameron Crombie took a first degree in zoology at the University of Melbourne in 1938, after which he moved to Je sus College, Cambridge. There he took a doctorate in the same subject (with a dissertation on population dynamics - foreshadowing a later interest in the history of Darwinism) in 1942. By this time he had taken up a research position with the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries in the Cambridge Zoological La boratory, a position he left in 1946, when he moved to a lectureship in the his tory and philosophy of science at University College, London. H. G. Andrewa ka and L. C. Birch, in a survey of the history of insect ecology (R. F. Smith, et al. , History of Entomology, 1973), recognise the importance of the works of Crombie (with which they couple the earlier work of Gause) as the principal sti mulus for the great interest taken in interspecific competition in the mid 194Os.