Book Two of the Nature Mage Trilogy. Shirukai Sestin has been defeated. His demonic forces have been destroyed, and peace has been restored to the city of Helioport. Gaspi begins his studies again, but Hephistole, the chancellor of the college, has an unusual task for him - Gaspi is to leave the college and spend several months living in the wild with a reclusive druid called Heath. Druids commune with spirits of earth, water, wind and fire, and while living with Heath, Gaspi is to learn the closely guarded secrets of elemental magic. Hephistole is convinced that the mysterious elemental spirits will be of help in their ultimate struggle against Shirukai Sestin and his demons. In the Ruined City of Elmera, Shirukai Sestin summons Bale-beasts from the lower planes of existence - the same creatures he sent to attack the city of Helioport. A Bale-beast is a feeder, slaughtering human magic-users and draining off their powers for a singular dark purpose: to horde that stolen energy until the demon is glutted, and use it to transform into something much more deadly - a Darkman.Sestin's Bale-beasts terrorise the pagan tribes of the North, slaking their dreadful thirst by feeding on the primitive, shamanic magic-users. If even one Bale-beast transforms into a Darkman, Sestin will gain control of the ultimate assassin, and send it to seek out and destroy his enemies. Blissfully ignorant of the impending danger, Gaspi doesn't realise that he must bond with the shy and beautiful spirits, and unveil the secrets of elemental magic, or all may be lost.

Historicism is the essential introduction to the field, providing its readers with the necessary knowledge, background and vocabulary to apply it in their own studies. Paul Hamilton's compact and comprehensive guide: * explains the theory and basics of historicism * presents a history of the term and its uses * introduces the reader to the key thinkers in the field, from ancient Greece to modern times * considers historicism in contemporary debates and its relevance to other modes of criticism, such as feminism and post-colonialism * contains an extensive bibliography of further reading.

Considers the ethics and challenges of biotechnology.

Written by one of the leading thinkers in environmentalism, Earthcare brings together Merchant's existing work on the topic of women and the environment as well as updated and new essays. Earthcare looks at age-old historical associations of women with nature, beginning with Eve and continuing through to environmental activists of today, women's commitment to environmental conservation, and the problematic assumptions of women as caregivers and men as dominating nature.

For thousands of years, people have used nature to justify their political, moral, and social judgments. Such appeals to the moral authority of nature are still very much with us today, as heated debates over genetically modified organisms and human cloning testify. The Moral Authority of Nature offers a wide-ranging account of how people have used nature to think about what counts as good, beautiful, just, or valuable. The eighteen essays cover a diverse array of topics, including the connection of cosmic and human orders in ancient Greece, medieval notions of sexual disorder, early modern contexts for categorizing individuals and judging acts as "against nature," race and the origin of humans, ecological economics, and radical feminism. The essays also range widely in time and place, from archaic Greece to early twentieth-century China, medieval Europe to contemporary America. Scholars from a wide variety of fields will welcome The Moral Authority of Nature, which provides the first sustained historical survey of its topic. Contributors: Danielle Allen, Joan Cadden, Lorraine Daston, Fa-ti Fan, Eckhardt Fuchs, Valentin Groebner, Abigail J. Lustig, Gregg Mitman, Michelle Murphy, Katharine Park, Matt Price, Robert N. Proctor, Helmut Puff, Robert J. Richards, Londa Schiebinger, Laura Slatkin, Julia Adeney Thomas, Fernando Vidal

Misery to Mirth aims to change our thinking about health in early modern England. Drawing on sources such as diaries and medical texts, it shows that recovery did exist as a concept, and that it was a widely-reported event. The study examines how patients, and their loved ones, dealt with overcoming a seemingly fatal illness.--

SOIL: beneath our feet / food and fiber / ashes to ashes, dust to dust / dirt!Soil has been called the final frontier of environmental research. The critical role of soil in biogeochemical processes is tied to its properties and place—porous, structured, and spatially variable, it serves as a conduit, buffer, and transformer of water, solutes and gases. Yet what is complex, life-giving, and sacred to some, is ordinary, even ugly, to others. This is the enigma that is soil. Soil and Culture explores the perception of soil in ancient, traditional, and modern societies. It looks at the visual arts (painting, textiles, sculpture, architecture, film, comics and stamps), prose & poetry, religion, philosophy, anthropology, archaeology, wine production, health & diet, and disease & warfare. Soil and Culture explores high culture and popular culture—from the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch to the films of Steve McQueen. It looks at ancient societies and contemporary artists. Contributors from a variety of disciplines delve into the mind of Carl Jung and the bellies of soil eaters, and explore Chinese paintings, African mud cloths, Mayan rituals, Japanese films, French comic strips, and Russian poetry.

The Gender and Science Reader brings together key articles in a comprehensive investigations of the nature and practice of science.

Author Kathy McReynolds argues that the modern self can indeed become self-fulfilled, but not truly happy, with the help of science, especially biotechnology. She draws upon the classical and modern theories of Aristotle and Francis Bacon to reconsider the idea of the soul. This book offers a unique perspective to the interesting and necessary discussion of the soul.

This is a succinct and elegant argument for the specificity of a philosophy of tragedy, as opposed to a poetics of tragedy espoused by Aristotle.