They all walk toward the Abyss for different reasons, each of them with varying persuasions. Along the way they meet Evangelist, and as a result they face the Great Persuasion. Some of their conversations are recorded in this book.

As the transition from socialism to a market economy gathered speed in the early 1990s, many people proclaimed the final success of capitalism as a practice and neoliberal economics as its accompanying science. But with the uneven achievements of the "transition"--the deepening problems of "development," persistent unemployment, the widening of the wealth gap, and expressions of resistance--the discipline of economics is no longer seen as a mirror of reality or as a unified science. How should we understand economics and, more broadly, the organization and disorganization of material life? In this book, international scholars from anthropology and economics adopt a rhetorical perspective in order to make sense of material life and the theories about it. Re-examining central problems in the two fields and using ethnographic and historical examples, they explore the intersections between these disciplines, contrast their methods and epistemologies, and show how a rhetorical approach offers a new mode of analysis while drawing on established contributions.

Settling down isn't high on Xavier Eaton's list—he's having too much fun playing the field, sharing his bed but never his heart. All that changes when the high-ranking military man and longtime bachelor comes back to South Carolina and walks into Selena Yates's tantalizing patisserie…. Charleston is a long way from Selena's West Virginia mining hometown. And the gorgeous Eaton war hero isn't like anyone the wary chocolatier has ever met. Xavier's kisses spark desire… and a powerful yearning to belong to him. As his kisses heat up the sultry Southern nights, Selena is tempted to say "I do" to a lifetime of passion. But is she ready to take her rightful place among the Eaton women as Xavier's beloved and adored bride?

The nations of the global north find themselves in a post-secular or post-Christian period, one in which the practice, expression, and effects of religion are undergoing massive shifts. In Persuasions of God, Paul Lynch pursues a project of “theorhetoric,” a radical new approach to speaking about the divine. Searching for new religious forms amid the lingering influence of Christianity, Lynch turns to René Girard, the most important twentieth-century thinker on the sacred and its expression within the Christian tradition. Lynch repurposes Girard’s mimetic theory to invent a post-Christian way of speaking to, for, and especially about God. Girard theorized the sacred as the nexus of violence, order, and sacralization that lies at the heart of religion. What Lynch advocates in our current moment of religious kairos is a paradoxically meek rhetoric that conscientiously refuses rivalry, actively exploits tradition through complicit invention, and boldly seeks a holiness free of exclusionary violence. The project of theorhetoric is to reinvent God through the reimagined themes of meekness, sacrifice, atonement, and holiness. From these, Persuasions of God offers religion reimagined for our post-secular age. An interdisciplinary mix of philosophy, sociology, rhetorical studies, and theology, this book draws on mimetic theory to answer the question of where religion goes next. It will be valued by religious studies and communications scholars as well as anyone interested in the future of Christianity in our modern world.

Review essays and statements written for special occasions may reveal as much about the writer as those written about; this is the presumption undergirding this collection of thirty-five years of criticism and commentary by Irving Louis Horowitz. For this volume, he selected his comments on famous, near famous, and infamous sociologists, political scientists, and assorted literary figures in between. Taken as a whole, this volume will surprise and delight readers who are acquainted with Horowitz's other works as well as those who are interested in the people he writes about.The book covers notable social scientists, from Arendt to Zetterberg, and such major figures in between as Becker, Bell, de Jouvenel, Mills, Parsons, Solzhenitsyn, and more than eighty others who have had an effect on the contemporary social and political landscape. Each is critically examined, sometimes positively, other times negatively. Horowitz was a major figure in his own right, and his writing here displays the kind of refreshing frankness experts will expect and the general reader will appreciate.The underlying assumption behind the volume, giving its disparate parts a unified characteristic, is that together these observations on others amount to a general perspective on social science held by the author. Whether his larger ambition is accepted or disputed, there is no doubt that the volume provides a standard against which to measure the literary quality of writing in the world of professional social research.

To find out why reasonable people are drawn to the seemingly bizarre practices of magic and witchcraft, Tanya Luhrmann immersed herself in the secret lives of Londoners who call themselves magicians. She came to know them as friends and equals and was initiated into various covens and magical groups. She explains the process through which once-skeptical individuals—educated, middle-class people, frequently of high intelligence—become committed to the ideas behind witchcraft and find magical ritual so compellingly persuasive. This intriguing book draws some disturbing conclusions about the ambivalence of belief within modern urban society.

Persuasion is a novel written by a famous British writer Jane Austen. It is a story about the life of Anne Elliot, a middle daughter of baronet Sir Walter, a spender and bluffer. Due to these features of his character, he found himself in a difficult financial position. He has to rent a family estate Kellynch Hall in order to pay his debts. Meanwhile, his most smart and considerate daughter Anne goes to Uppercross to look after a sick sister. In the days of her youth she was mutually in love with Frederick Wentworth, but because of a fear of a poor marriage, “reasons of conscience” and on the insistence of a “family friend” Lady Russel Anne stopped her relationship with him. But now after eight years, some incredible coincidence happens. The family that rents Kellynch Hall is related to Frederick Wentworth. Is the old-time love still alive in the hearts of Anne and Frederick?

Influence: Science and Practice is an examination of the psychology of compliance (i.e. uncovering which factors cause a person to say "yes" to another's request) and is written in a narrative style combined with scholarly research. Cialdini combines evidence from experimental work with the techniques and strategies he gathered while working as a salesperson, fundraiser, advertiser, and other positions, inside organizations that commonly use compliance tactics to get us to say "yes". Widely used in graduate and undergraduate psychology and management classes, as well as sold to people operating successfully in the business world, the eagerly awaited revision of Influence reminds the reader of the power of persuasion. Cialdini organizes compliance techniques into six categories based on psychological principles that direct human behavior: reciprocation, consistency, social proof, liking, authority, and scarcity. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

Visual messages are omnipresent in our daily life. They are constantly attempting to persuade us to buy, learn and act. Some are more successful than others in influencing our behavior and choices. What is the secret power of these messages? How do they succeed in changing our behavior? This book analyzes advertising beyond the persuasive power of the imagery itself. It explains the psychology behind 33 effective influence techniques in visual persuasion and how to apply them. The techniques range from influencing essentials to more obscure and insidious ones. The reader will gain deep insights into how visual means are constructed to influence behavior and decisionmaking on an unconscious level. All techniques are supported by rich visual references and additional information on the psychology of behavior change. This publication is not just an eye-opener for professionals and students in the communications and design field, but also for anybody who wants to understand how our behavior is influenced unconsciously by advertising, social campaigns and governmental messages. The book is co-authored by leading figures in social infl uence and visual persuasion. It is designed as an accessible modern reference book for creating and understanding persuasive visual imagery. It will open your eyes, we promise!

As the transition from socialism to a market economy gathered speed in the early 1990s, many people proclaimed the final success of capitalism as a practice and neoliberal economics as its accompanying science. But with the uneven achievements of the “transition”—the deepening problems of “development,” persistent unemployment, the widening of the wealth gap, and expressions of resistance—the discipline of economics is no longer seen as a mirror of reality or as a unified science. How should we understand economics and, more broadly, the organization and disorganization of material life? In this book, international scholars from anthropology and economics adopt a rhetorical perspective in order to make sense of material life and the theories about it. Re-examining central problems in the two fields and using ethnographic and historical examples, they explore the intersections between these disciplines, contrast their methods and epistemologies, and show how a rhetorical approach offers a new mode of analysis while drawing on established contributions.