Political Will and Personal Belief: The Decline and Fall of Soviet Communism
A brilliant and original analysis of the fall of communism that focuses on the impact of its cumulative failures on the communist elite.
Despite its arid title, this is a significant and interesting book. Hollander, well known for his excellent study of Western champions of the Soviet system (Political Pilgrims: Travels of Western Intellectuals to the Soviet Union, China and Cuba, 1927-1978), here examines 22 members of the ruling elite in the USSR and Eastern Europe who lost their faith. How, he wonders, was the determination to rule gradually undermined. He explores this question through interviews with defectors, exiles, high-ranking current political functionaries, and police officials and a careful reading of a collection of memoirs. While not minimizing the effects of economic collapse, Hollander rightly stresses the human component in communism's fall: the elites' loss of confidence in its right to govern played a vital part in the utterly unforeseen denouement. A worthy volume for academic and major public libraries.
Norse Mythology explores the magical myths and legends of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and Viking-Age Greenland--outlining along the way the prehistoric tales and beliefs from these regions that have remained embedded in the imagination of the world.
Games for children (kindergarten/preschool) 11 games for children + 33 printable animal images + pictures of animals for colouring These are some of the materials I used to teach children (a 3 and a 5-year-old) some vocabulary, simple phrases and answers to common questions. They keep children interested and make English fun. I created the games using graphics software and some scans of a dictionary for children.
Grammar of Old English by Eduard Sievers (Rare Book Collection)
Hitherto, Old English grammars have virtually been founded upon the language of the poetical texts. This is to be deplored, especially when we consider that the manuscripts in which they are contained are uniformly late; that the texts themselves were composed at an earlier period, and frequently in another dialect; and that in our present versions ancient forms are almost hopelessly jumbled with more modern ones, and specimens of the most widely separated dialects are occasionally united in the same composition.
In the present treatise, on the other hand, the language of the older prose writings has, to a greater extent than heretofore, been chosen as the basis of grammatical investigation, since it is safe to assume that they represent in some measure a single dialect. Besides the characterization of the West Saxon, which is everywhere made the most prominent, an attempt has also been made to give, though in the most concise terms, the chief variations of the other dialects.
