Field Linguistics
This book deals with one aspect of the issue of linguistic diversity in the world: the task of linguistic documentation arising out of original research in the field. Although many linguistics programmes include a field methods component, I have often been asked by academics, ‘When you do fieldwork, how do you actually start?’ This suggests that researchers are possibly sometimes still being thrown into the field at the deep end, much as I suppose I was back in the early 1970s when I was sent on my first fieldtrip. I went with an abundance of enthusiasm, tempered with some trepidation, but not a whole lot of practical training. There therefore has to be a substantial need for a book such as this.
This book is the first to focus on war and peace in the ancient world from a global perspective. 19 distinguished scholars, all of whom are experts in their fields, discuss different aspects of this fascinating subject in relation to a large number of early civilizations, from China and India through West Asia (Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Hittites, Israel, Persia, and early Islam) to the Mediterranean (Greece, Rome, and early Christianity) and the Americas (the Aztecs and the Iroquois Peace League).
The book demonstrates that ancient societies, no less than modern ones, suffered from the losses and destructions caused by war, and yearned for peace and prosperity. It offers remarkable insights into the different responses ancient societies developed in order not only to defend their territory, but also to avoid war and restore peace. Some early societies, the volume reveals, even developed an explicit public discourse on war and peace, and embedded peace in an ideological or religious framework.
John Burnet's: Early Greek Philosophy (with notes)
This text is a reprint of the 3rd edition of John Burnet's famous study of Presocratic philosophy, Early Greek Philosophy, originally published in 1920 with Burnet's notes.
This collection comprises stories written in the late 1950s and early '60s, a period when Dick was also taking off as a novelist. Some of this has had an influence on his short stories, which are generally longer than before, and which, in some cases are early versions of what would eventually become novels such as the Simulacra and the Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch.
Generally speaking, these are all good to great stories...
