The Sword of Ambition

The Sword of Ambition
Author: ʿUthmān ibn Ibrāhīm al-Nābulusī
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 247
Release: 2019-03-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 147980102X

Patronage, power, and competition in the Sultan’s court The Sword of Ambition opens a new window onto interreligious rivalry among elites in medieval Egypt. Written by the unemployed bureaucrat 'Uthman ibn Ibrahim al-Nabulusi, it contains a wealth of little-known historical anecdotes, unusual religious opinions, obscure and witty poetry, and humorous cultural satire. Leaving no rhetorical stone unturned, al-Nabulusi pours his deep knowledge of history, law, and literature into the work—addressed to the Ayyubid sultan—as he argues against the employment of Coptic and Jewish officials. Written at a time when much of the inter-communal animosity of the era was conditioned by fierce competition for scarce resources that were increasingly controlled by an ideologically committed Sunni Muslim state, The Sword of Ambition reminds us that “religious” conflict must always be considered in its broader historical perspective. An English-only edition.

Ambition

Ambition
Author: Eckart Goebel
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2022-06-02
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1501383868

We describe people who are “consumed” or “devoured” by ambition as if by a predator or an out-of-control inferno. Thinkers since deepest antiquity have raised these questions, approaching the subject of ambition with ambivalence and often trepidation-as when the ancient Greek poet Hesiod proposed a differentiation between the good and the bad goddess Eris. Indeed, ambition as a longing for immortal fame seems to be one of the unique hallmarks of the human species. While philosophy has touched only occasionally on the problem of burning ambition, sociology, psychoanalysis, and world literature have provided rich and more revealing descriptions and examples of its shaping role in human history. Drawing on a long and varied tradition of writing on this topic, ranging from the works of Homer through Shakespeare, Freud, and Kafka and from the history of ancient Greece and Rome to the Italian Renaissance and up to the present day (to modernity and the current neoliberal era), Eckart Goebel explores our driving passion for recognition - that insatiable hunter in the mirror - and power.

Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China

Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China
Author: Evan Osnos
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Total Pages: 417
Release: 2014-05-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 0374712042

Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction finalist Winner of the 2014 National Book Award in nonfiction. As the Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker, Evan Osnos was on the ground in China for years, witness to profound political, economic, and cultural upheaval. Age of Ambition provides a vibrant, colorful, and revelatory inner history of China during a moment of profound transformation. From abroad, we often see China as a caricature: a nation of pragmatic plutocrats and ruthlessly dedicated students destined to rule the global economy-or an addled Goliath, riddled with corruption and on the edge of stagnation. What we don't see is how both powerful and ordinary people are remaking their lives as their country dramatically changes. In Age of Ambition, Osnos describes the greatest collision taking place in that country: the clash between the rise of the individual and the Communist Party's struggle to retain control. He asks probing questions: Why does a government with more success lifting people from poverty than any civilization in history choose to put strict restraints on freedom of expression? Why do millions of young Chinese professionals-fluent in English and devoted to Western pop culture-consider themselves "angry youth," dedicated to resisting the West's influence? How are Chinese from all strata finding meaning after two decades of the relentless pursuit of wealth? Writing with great narrative verve and a keen sense of irony, Osnos follows the moving stories of everyday people and reveals life in the new China to be a battleground between aspiration and authoritarianism, in which only one can prevail. An Economist Best Book of 2014. Winner of the bronze medal for the Council on Foreign Relations’ 2015 Arthur Ross Book Award

Swordfish

Swordfish
Author: David McClintick
Publisher: Pantheon
Total Pages: 642
Release: 1993
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

The story of the DEA's efforts in the early 1980s, known as Operation Swordfish, against a Columbian drug cartel.

Ambition's Progress Part 1

Ambition's Progress Part 1
Author: B. Mathew
Publisher: Partridge Publishing
Total Pages: 211
Release: 2014-05
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1482899671

Short Description An allegory written by B Mathew. Written in flowery classical English of prose and verse. It has abundant allusions, bringing to life and excitement the beauty of classical mythology, western legends, Biblical stories, literature and poetry. Extended Description This book is a fiction story. But this book is also poetry. And this book is also a philosophy on principles of success. You can read it like a novel or fairytale story. You can also read it like poetry or philosophy. This allegory is written in classical English language with verses in poetry and allusions. The plot of this fairytale allegory is about a vagabond called Mr. Ambition, who lives in the City of Penury. This city of Penury is ruled by a horrible monster called Lord Poverty. In this city of Penury, this vagabond suffers great disgrace & reproach. One day, a good man by the name of Mr. Think Rich meets Mr. Ambition and encourages him to run away from the city of Penury and escape to another city called the City of Prosperity. But however, the long journey to that City of Prosperity is filled with great and terrible dangers and deadly snares, where there are many giants, monsters and demons and unimaginable deadly traps. As such, advises Mr. Think Rich, that Mr. Ambition must first make a detour to a mystical labyrinth called the Garden of Sorrow to seek out a mysterious giant called Mr. Other-Self. Because only Mr. Other-Self could safely guide Mr. Ambition to the city of Prosperity. At the entrance of the mystical Garden of Sorrow, Mr. Ambition meets Mr. Destiny. Mr. Destiny thereafter knights him as Sir Ambition the gallant Argonaut. But however, Sir Ambition finds himself overwhelmed by great misfortunes inside the garden of Sorrow. Where following a terrible battle with the horrible giant called Suicide, Sir Ambition is captured by the monster, Unemployment and imprisoned in a labour camp called, Hard-Manual-Labour Estate. Here the monster Unemployment maims Sir Ambition by digging out one of his eyes. But with the aid of an alter-ego, Sir Auto-Suggestion, Sir Ambition escapes Hard-Manual-Labour estate, but with Unemployment on hot pursued. In Sir Ambition's search for the mysterious man, Other-Self, he accidently stumbles upon a mysterious kingdom called, the Kingdom of Within. Here he is welcomed and nursed. After his wounds are healed, the king of this Kingdom of Within and his valiant gladiators escort Ambition out in his search for the elusive Mr. Other-Self. Then once again, the grisly monster, Unemployment confronts Ambition, the valiant king and knights from the kingdom of Within. But the monster, Unemployment easily overpowers and destroys these valiant men and fatally wounds Ambition, leaving him to die a painful and slow death. But with the help of his alter-ego and others, Ambition gathers his feeble strength and continue searching for the mysterious man, Mr. Other-Self. Finally Ambition stumbles upon a strange glittering Kingdom of GreatWithin and makes a last and final attempt to awaken the mysterious man, Other-Self. Sir Ambition succeeds in setting into motion the awakening process but soon dies from his fatal wounds. But even though Ambition dies, he dies with anticipated hope of a resurrection from death, knowing that Mr. Other-Self shall raise him up. Part 1 ends with the awakening process of the invincible man Other-Self.

Bravura

Bravura
Author: Nicola Suthor
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2021-02-02
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0691204586

The first major history of the bravura movement in European painting The painterly style known as bravura emerged in sixteenth-century Venice and spread throughout Europe during the seventeenth century. While earlier artistic movements presented a polished image of the artist by downplaying the creative process, bravura celebrated a painter’s distinct materials, virtuosic execution, and theatrical showmanship. This resulted in the further development of innovative techniques and a popular understanding of the artist as a weapon-wielding acrobat, impetuous wunderkind, and daring rebel. In Bravura, Nicola Suthor offers the first in-depth consideration of bravura as an artistic and cultural phenomenon. Through history, etymology, and in-depth analysis of works by such important painters as Franҫois Boucher, Caravaggio, Francisco Goya, Frans Hals, Peter Paul Rubens, Tintoretto, and Diego Velázquez, Suthor explores the key elements defining bravura’s richness and power. Suthor delves into how bravura’s unique and groundbreaking methods—visible brushstrokes, sharp chiaroscuro, severe foreshortening of the body, and other forms of visual emphasis—cause viewers to feel intensely the artist’s touch. Examining bravura’s etymological history, she traces the term’s associations with courage, boldness, spontaneity, imperiousness, and arrogance, as well as its links to fencing, swordsmanship, henchmen, mercenaries, and street thugs. Suthor discusses the personality cult of the transgressive, self-taught, antisocial genius, and the ways in which bravura artists, through their stunning displays of skill, sought applause and admiration. Filled with captivating images by painters testing the traditional boundaries of aesthetic excellence, Bravura raises important questions about artistic performance and what it means to create art.

The Sword of Angels

The Sword of Angels
Author: John Marco
Publisher: Astra Publishing House
Total Pages: 903
Release: 2006-07-05
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1101462264

Armed with a magic amulet which bestows eternal life on the wearer, a powerful knight protects the fortress of Grimhold, where the magical people of his world reside. But when his closest friend is pulled into the evil sway of the Devil's Armor, only the Sword of Angels can defeat it.

Cinema Arthuriana

Cinema Arthuriana
Author: Kevin J. Harty
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 319
Release: 2010-02-12
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0786446838

The legends of King Arthur have not only endured for centuries, but also flourished in constant retellings and new stories built around the central themes. With the coming of motion pictures, Arthur was destined to hit the screen. This edition of Cinema Arthuriana, revised in 2002, presents 20 essays on the topic of the recurring presence of the legend in film and television from 1904 to 2001. They cover such films as Excalibur (1981) and Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), television productions such as The Mists of Avalon (2001), and French and German films about the quest for the Holy Grail and the other adventures of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.