In the ancient world, many units of measurement were based, approximately, on some parts of the human body: arm, cubit, span, inch, foot; or on their functions: pace, half hour, league… I wondered if there might be some parts of the body, which weighed 4.25g: in other words, half a siqlum or half a giĝ. And I identified, albeit with wide variations, these parts in the foreskin which Abraham/Hammurabi cuts off as a symbol of a new faith, reviving - I cannot say how consciously - an ancient, now forgotten tradition which stands at the base of that antique unit of measurement with an abstract value and the form of a Ring to be worn as a bracelet or anklet on or in one’s own body (eg. nose rings, called nezem in Hebrew, and still in use as ornaments in many populations, in India for example; and earrings). These rings would therefore have had a weight and a composition of precious material equivalent to a coin. Such coin could be connected to the Pukku, ring, belonged to Gilgamesh, which could have been the non-Indoeuropean root PKK from which Benveniste derived the word Pecunia (money), as being therefore much older than the term Pecus (herd, flock). In my work, this is the origin of the coin: round, empty, portable, also deriving from the discarded foreskin, thereby generating symbolic rings long before the Lydia of Croesus. It certainly does not arise from a non-existent god of the underworld who would defecate gold: in other words, that so often cited Mammon who has persecuted us for 2,000 years.

Accompanied by Virgil, Dante visited all nine circles, where the irredeemable wicked are punished for eternity; but in the belly of that appalling place he found no trace of the disabled. And yet, at that time, they were considered bearers of the maximum sin, the physical and mental non-conformity to the paradigm of the human species, as to say to the image of God. The tenth circle is that piece of hell that must be sought on earth. Always being outside a norm is considered an attack on the natural order of things, a danger to be fought with all energy. The presence of characters that differentiate an individual from the majority of his peers is capable of producing a social disadvantage, a handicap and relegates him to the margins of the community to which he belongs, when he does not completely expel him. Over the centuries the meaning of disability has been much more akin to that of guilt and sin, or of uselessness; sometimes even of crime.The book illustrates how disability was defined at different times, and how it is defined and considered today.

This book reports not only a didactic experience but also research, offering a training model on peace mediation. The female protagonists of this research experience the role of trainers of other compatriots through a new didactic model. Compared to other books, the volume proposes for the first time a reflection of research - action on the themes of peace, security of the female gender. The peculiarity of this book is to propose a research path that looks at the future prospects of women as expert teachers of mediation and integration processes.

Choosing, deciding and changing constitute the common thread of everything that we want and that we do. The deep transformation of all social system, in all its dimensions has profoundly resented of the diverse possibility or in other respects, of the absence of possibility, precisely of choosing, deciding and changing. What are we really choosing today? The hetero-direction and the conditioning seem to have become the norm, individuals are passively accustomed to an input that come from subjects and locations not identifiable. Annamaria Rufino analyzes the mystifications of new social and political “geographies” of the middle-global world that disseminate topos which they self reproduce, generating untying between our will and our real capacity of doing. Invasive dynamics overlap imperceptibly the human relations, also permeating and infecting them. The risk is, then, the loss of control of the experience, main cause of the incapacity of choosing, deciding and changing.

The middle - globality is the time of the “not occurring”. The uncertainty of not existing, in all its – individual, social, institutional and economical – manifestations dizzily transforms the social system, destroying it in the immediacy of here and now, contributing then to generate words, images and gestures that are expressed very often in violence and uncertainty. A violence above all, of “system”, of complex definition and solution. The Annamaria Rufino’s pamphlet, leads the gaze behind the scenes of a communicative representation for which everyone is co-author, often unaware and “transitional”. As total institution, the communication “force” to be negation of our existence, as victims of a disarming narration, where the presumption of consciousness denies the historical inheritance, which has been the cornerstone of the modern society that is struggling, despite everything, for the construction of the future.

The theme of this pamphlet is the knowledge, reread in its own origins and in the transformations of the middle-global world where the deep meaning appears lost in the conscious awareness. The risks, fears and conflicts that cross the society, especially in its own virtual dimension, seem to affect the sense and memory of the humanistic culture, as conscious relationship between knowledge and reality and then, make us forget the meaning of freedom as common value. Annamaria Rufino with this pamphlet “throws a stone into a pond, not only for the contemporary melancholy but also for the conventional praise of the only communication, individualization and liberation, of the there is no alternative…”. This is not an academic text but a book “against the world position statement as it is, for the world as it could be”. (J. Spurk)

This book explores how Western European psychotherapists, interviewed between 2016 and 2019, understand spirituality and how they address spiritual matters in clinical sessions. By studying a purposive sample of 15 Clinicians from Spain, England, Switzerland, Greece, Norway and Denmark, it was found that these shared similar views about spirituality, understood as dynamic, fluid and independent from religion. The interviewed psychotherapists showed great variation in their psychotherapy trainings, theoretical background and spiritual stances. However, the participants’ rich narratives illustrate that independently from their personal and professional background they all approached spiritual matters from a client centered, humanistic perspective. Spirituality was often addressed heuristically, integrating different approaches in a creative manner through an array of interventions. Differences in the participants’ religious and cultural background did not appear to determine the clinicians’ views and approaches. Recommendations for practice are discussed, stressing the relevance of implementing a non-materialistic scientific paradigm that acknowledges different personal experiences, as a source of spiritual knowledge. The importance of keeping a non-judgmental perspective and the need to acknowledge views and practices of those considering themselves as spiritual but not religious are also highlighted. Different audiences may find this book relevant, for instance psychotherapists and those in charge of psychotherapy training programs wishing to integrate a spiritual perspective in clinical work independent from religious doctrines. Likewise, those interested in historical perspectives about the traditional exclusion of spirituality from clinical work as well as the current re-integration of non- dogmatic, fluid spiritual perspectives may find relevant information. The theoretical discussions and methodological explanations could be of interest for those considering to implement thematic analysis or to pursue qualitative studies from a collaborative and reflexive stance.

When the Declaration of Independence was signed by a group of wealthy white men in 1776, poor white men, African Americans, and women quickly discovered that the unalienable rights it promised were not truly for all. The Nineteenth Amendment eventually gave women the right to vote in 1920, but the change was not welcomed by people of both genders in politically and religiously conservative Kentucky. As a result, the suffrage movement in the Commonwealth involved a tangled web of stakeholders, entrenched interest groups, unyielding constitutional barriers, and activists with competing strategies. In A Simple Justice, Melanie Beals Goan offers a new and deeper understanding of the women's suffrage movement in Kentucky by following the people who labored long and hard to see the battle won. Women's suffrage was not simply a question of whether women could and should vote; it carried more serious implications for white supremacy and for the balance of federal and state powers -- especially in a border state. Shocking racial hostility surfaced even as activists were working to make America more equitable.Goan looks beyond iconic suffragette figures such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton to reveal figures whose names have been lost to history. Laura Clay and Madeline McDowell Breckinridge led the Kentucky movement, but they did not do it alone. This timely study introduces readers to individuals across the Bluegrass State who did their part to move the nation closer to achieving its founding ideals.

During the Great Migration, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, became a mecca for African Americans seeking better job opportunities, wages, and living conditions. The city's thriving economy and vibrant social and cultural scenes inspired dreams of prosperity and a new start, but this urban haven was not free of discrimination and despair. In the face of injustice, activists formed the Urban League of Pittsburgh (ULP) in 1918 to combat prejudice and support the city's growing African American population. In this broad-ranging history, Joe William Trotter Jr. uses this noteworthy branch of the National Urban League to provide new insights into an organization that has often faced criticism for its social programs' deep class and gender limitations. Surveying issues including housing, healthcare, and occupational mobility, Trotter underscores how the ULP - often in concert with the Urban League's national headquarters - bridged social divisions to improve the lives of black citizens of every class. He also sheds new light on the branch's nonviolent direct-action campaigns and places these powerful grassroots operations within the context of the modern Black Freedom Movement. The impact of the National Urban League is a hotly debated topic in African American social and political history. Trotter's study provides valuable new insights that demonstrate how the organization has relieved massive suffering and racial inequality in US cities for more than a century.

Nowadays we are used to think of design in terms of quality and beauty of the tangible or intangible artefacts that are generated by an industrialised system. Considering objects, graphic representations, interfaces or services, the main difference between craftsmanship and design stays in the replicability and scalability of the proposed solution measured against an existent market and its hierarchical dynamics. This implies an order that on the surface seems to be naturally stirred by the so-called “taste”, or a series of trends that reflect the preferences of the overall public: however, looking closer, all the design production involves a carefully controlled balance driven by economical, political and social interests.

In this vital transnational study, Kimberly D. Hill critically analyzes the colonial history of central Africa through the perspective of two African American missionaries: Alonzo Edmiston and Althea Brown Edmiston. The pair met and fell in love while working as a part of the American Presbyterian Congo Mission - an operation which aimed to support the people of the Congo Free State suffering forced labor and brutal abuses under Belgian colonial governance. They discovered a unique kinship amid the country's growing human rights movement and used their familiarity with industrial education, popularized by Booker T. Washington's Tuskegee Institute, as a way to promote Christianity and offer valuable services to local people. From 1902 through 1941, the Edmistons designed their mission projects to promote community building, to value local resources, and to incorporate the perspectives of the African participants. They focused on childcare, teaching, translation, construction, and farming - ministries that required constant communication with their Kuba neighbors. Hill concludes with an analysis of how the Edmistons' pedagogy influenced government-sponsored industrial schools in the Belgian Congo through the 1950s. A Higher Education illuminates not only the work of African American missionaries - who are often overlooked and under-studied - but also the transnational implications of black education in the South. Significantly, Hill also addresses the role of black foreign missionaries in the early civil rights movement, an argument that suggests an underexamined connection between earlier nineteenth-century Pan-Africanisms and activism in the interwar era.

Andrei Kozyrev was foreign minister of Russia under President Boris Yeltsin from August 1991 to January 1996. During the August 1991 coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev, he was present when tanks moved in to seize the Russian White House, where Boris Yeltsin famously stood on a tank to address the crowd assembled. He then departed to Paris to muster international support and, if needed, to form a Russian government-in-exile. He participated in the negotiations at Brezhnev’s former hunting lodge in Belazheva, Belarus where the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus agreed to secede from the Soviet Union and form a Commonwealth of Independent States. Kozyrev’s pro-Western orientation made him an increasingly unpopular figure in Russia as Russia’s spiraling economy and the emergence of ultra-wealthy oligarchs soured ordinary Russians on Western ideas of democracy and market capitalism.

The election of Donald Trump as the 45th US president in 2016 was a pivotal moment in history for America and for the world. A celebrity rather than a politician, Trump promised to turn politics on its head - and he did. Is he an aberration or does he represent a continuity of forces already in play? Who was he, where did he come from, and what did he do? These are questions future historians will ask as they grapple with the meaning of Trump, the implications of his presidency and his place in history.

Soon after its foundation in 1901, the Commonwealth of Australia gave women the vote and the right to sit in parliament. Women’s suffrage was in fact a major aspect of the new nation’s progressive and international thinking. With great vigour, Australian women, including the Melbourne-born artist Dora Meeson Coates, ably involved themselves with the women’s movement in Great Britain. And with astounding presumption, the Australian parliament sent a Resolution to its lofty Westminster counterpart recommending that women’s suffrage be adopted. Here, Myra Scott vividly describes the increasingly violent women’s movement in England, the opposition to it by menfolk generally, the British Prime Minister’s personal bias against it, Australia’s part in this scenario, Meeson’s creative activism - and her rousing Suffrage Banner, which has pride of place in Australia’s parliament house.

The collapse of the Soviet Union famously opened new venues for the theories of nationalism and the study of processes and actors involved in these new nation-building processes. In this comparative study, Kudaibergenova takes the new states and nations of Eurasia that emerged in 1991, Latvia and Kazakhstan, and seeks to better understand the phenomenon of post-Soviet states tapping into nationalism to build legitimacy. What explains this difference in approaching nation-building after the collapse of the Soviet Union? What can a study of two very different trajectories of development tell us about the nature of power, state and nationalizing regimes of the ‘new’ states of Eurasia? Toward Nationalizing Regimes finds surprising similarities in two such apparently different countries - one “western” and democratic, the other “eastern” and dictatorial.

The world economy had barely recovered from the global financial crisis when the COVID-19 pandemic struck and knocked it back to the floor. Governments already struggling with low growth and high debt have, once again, been forced to take extraordinary measures to protect businesses and jobs. The future looks grim. The pandemic swept across the globe in 2020 as quickly as confidence in the banking system had vanished in 2008. In Ireland, only the tough decisions of a small group of regulators and officials kept the country from collapse, though the price of salvation was a huge national debt and years of lost opportunities. As a key insider to the Irish bailout, Jonathan McMahon was at the heart of the response, witnessing what it takes to manage a crisis that threatens a nation. Battle-hardened by his experiences at the top of UK financial regulation during the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Jonathan's advice on how to deal with crises is invaluable as countries all around the globe grapple with the effects of COVID-19. Jonathan does not have all the answers, but as Henry David Thoreau said, "It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see." Jonathan argues that we have to attend to the real, underlying causes of crises, not expediently dodge the difficult choices to be made. The bitter truth is that even if a vaccine is found to eradicate the virus, the huge challenges facing political and business leaders will persist. Post-Pandemic is essential reading as we make decisions about our future. It is a book for our times. "… a magnificent book. McMahon brings his policy experience … to give us key lessons of looking at the data, making judgements, and acting quickly before the problems become unmanageable. … [W]ritten in a fun, racy style … in the post-pandemic world of pervasive uncertainty, it carries profound messages." – Ashoka Mody, Visiting Professor in International Economic Policy at Princeton University, former Assistant Director with the International Monetary Fund and author of EuroTragedy: A Drama in Nine Acts "Can our reactions to the previous crisis help us navigate the post-pandemic economic recovery? Drawing on a shrewd interpretation of his experience in Ireland a decade ago, and illustrating the discussion with vivid cameos, Jonathan McMahon makes a persuasive case that they can. A lively and instructive read." – Professor Patrick Honohan, former Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland and author of Currency, Credit and Crisis: Central Banking in Ireland and Europe. "The Covid 19 pandemic has produced an economic crisis which, as usual, is quite unlike its predecessors. But Jonathan McMahon shows that there are some enduring principles which should govern crisis management. He has drawn on his experience in the eye of the storm in the euro zone banking crisis to write an entertaining and extremely useful book." – Sir Howard Davies, Chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland and former Director of the London School of Economics.