Monday, November 11, 2019

Internal Conflict in Barn Burning by William Faulkner Essay

The works â€Å"Barn Burning† by William Faulkner and â€Å"The Chrysanthemums† by John Steinbeck at first glance may seem to have no connection, but in spite of different plot they focus on similar ideas. The story â€Å"Barn Burning† by William Faulkner discusses the inner conflict within Sartoris Snopes, a young boy who faced a dilemma. He tries to make a decision of choosing between to lieing in the court under his father’s pressiure who does not want to get into the jail and acting against his father by telling the truth. The main character is influenced by Abner, his father, who tells him, â€Å"You got to learn to stick to your own blood or you ain’t going to have any blood to stick to you.† ( P 496). I think this quote reflects the main issue of the story, which is about blood ties. And we clearly see how Sarty is affected by these blood ties. Faulkner depicts the inner conflict and dilemma that the main character faces. We start to understand the moral dilemma of the main character from the beginning of the story. I think Faulkner make us think about the question: at what point should a person make a choice between what his parents and or family believes and his own values? The situation in which Sarty’s conflict is developeded is a trial. In this trial Sarty is asked, † I reckon any boy named for Colonel Sartoris in this country can’t help but tell the truth, can they?† ( P 154). The young boy, Sarty, somewhere deep in his heart has a feeling that he wants to act in a right way, but as he is oly 10 years old, I think it is hard for him to make firm decisions. His feelings and thoughts are influnced by his father, who pressures him, trying to prevent himself from punishment in the court. We also understand that Abner makes his son struggle with himself by the way Sarty describes him. Abner does not speak much. We see this in the way he communicates with his family and other characters. He is a person with so much pride that he is ready to do anything to revenge those who do something wrong to him or try to own him, even if he has to break the law. The choice that a young boy has to make stands between his family and conscience. When Sarty Snopes considers that he has to make a decision of choosing between blood, which is his duty to his family, and his own morality.  Sarty’s father stesses the value of loyalty to the family. He states,thatif he does not stick to hi blood, he will not have any blood to stick to. Sarty tries to make himself believe this and even starts a fight with a boy for insulting his father. At first Sarty wants to be a moral person. He is very very upset that he has to lie speaking to the judge, but he is still going to do that, knowing his father wants him to do so. As Sarty respected Abner for his values, he thought he could back up him. The boy believed his father was a brave man in the war, and that he wanted to send a warning beforehand with a slave so that no one was hurt. The battle between listening to his own heart and deciding to follow his family is the hardest struggle of Sarty’s life. He understands that it is not correct to agree with his father’s suggestions, but he is not interested in disreputing his father by disagreeing with him. The author explains that if he was older he would â€Å"resist the world and try to change the course of its events† ( P 379). Sarty learns that he does not necessaruly need bulk in irder to refuse Abner; at first he defends his father, but finally his decided to listen to his heart, which wants to help those who were harmed by obstinate and dogmatic Abner. Sarty warns the people in the big white house and goes down the road. Soon Sarty hears a a few shots, and he thinks that his father and brother are caught by the landlord and are shot by him. Regardless of what indeeed happened, he understands he can never return. The boy just continues to walk, and he does not look back. At this moment Sarty’s blood ties are broken, and he gets rid of the fear of his father’s wrath. The main character is free now. But his freedom requires paying some price. I think that the boy still feels some kind of blood tie, described by the author, and he made this choice with a lot of feelings on both sides of the issue. Sarty still cares for his family in some sense, he still feels love towards his father, even though he understands that what his father’s deeds are wrong and he really had to stop them and cease to be a part of them. The fact that the boy is not able to come back home is not a question of his  choice, I think he just canont go back. So, Sarty’s heart still suffers from some conflict that is not really resolved, even though the situation has really changed. As I have already discussed, at the beginning of the story Sarty feels a strong allegiance to his father, however, finally we learn that his views change radically. The point of culmination is at the end of the story when Sarty has warned Major de Spain of Abner’s intentions to burn the barn. I think that the main character experiences the burst of emotions, running down de Spain’s drive and hearing Major’s horse galloping behind him. The resolution to the conflict comes when Abner and his elder son are shot. But the real solution happens at night after Abner’s death, when Sarty is sitting upon the crest of a hill thinking about his actions and future life. Faulkner proves us that it is impossible to sruggle with one’s own heart . The moment when Sarty decided to choose morality over the blood pool and warned the de Spain’s revealed his true character. Though this meant the death of his father, Sarty didn’t regret of warning de Spain. Instead, it looked like the boy was trying to subsitute his memories of his father by some honorable, good person, who had strong convictions. In his story â€Å"The Chrysanthemums† John Steinbeck also reveales the conflict of a human heart, which is connected with women’s unfulfilled needs and desires. The author stresses that as human beings we have to appreciate each other, otherwise eventually we will make our lives dark and tragic. The main character, Elisa Allen, is frustrated with her present life. She is plagued with no children and her husband is not able admire her romantically as a woman. The only thing that helps her to calm down is her flower garden where beautiful chrysanthemums grow. Steinbeck shows Elisa’s thoughts nad feelings about her inner self by depicting those chrysanthemums. The story presents the idea that appreciation by the people who we love is an element of human existence. When Elisa was acknowledged by her husband, said, â€Å"maybe I could do it, too. I’ve a gift with things, all right. My mother had it. She could stick anything in the ground and make it grow† ( P  1261). At this moment the woman feels her husband’s appreciation for commenting on her wonderful flowers. This idea of recognition is shown by John Steinbeck to demonstrate the need for a felling of acceptance. Feeling a strong need for acceptance, Elisa turns to a stranger and makes attempts to be appreciated. While Elisa talks to this stranger, their conversation connects to the realm of Elisa’s flowers. â€Å"Elisa’s eyes grew alert and eager. ‘She couldn’t have known much about chrysanthemums. You can raise them from a seed'† ( P 1264). This depicts Elisa’s happiness and passion, as she has an opportunity to be appreciated through her flowers again. By undestanding the value of Elisa’s flowers, the stranger really accepts the woman, as her flowers are in some sense the expression of herself. They are everything Elisa possesses, being sometimes valued by her husband and also being valued by the stranger. â€Å"†¦ her eyes shone. She tore off the battered hat and shook out her dark pretty hair† ( P 1264). In this quote we see that Elisa opens her heart up to the stranger. She â€Å"tore off† the hat to free herself from the work which was not appreciated, and revealed her real beauty to the stranger. By acting so, Elisa is prepared herself to get the gratitude from the stranger, the gratitude that she did not receive often from her husband. . After the tinker departs, Elisa is looking forward to her evening with her husband. She hopes Henry will recognize her needs as a woman and provide her with the romance and passion which she desires. But this hope is quickly broken. The best best compliment on her appearance that Henry makes after she has changed is, â€Å"You look strong enough to break a calf over your knee, happy enough to eat it like a watermelon† ( P 393). This unflattering comment on her appearance does not do much for Elisa’s ego as a woman nor toward her feelings toward her husband. Elisa’s hope is finally destroyed, as she finds the flowers on the road. The woman feels that her soul is completely emptied by the tinker’s thoughtless rejection of her feelings. Just like her husband, he has failed to value the qualities that make her unique as a woman. This symbolic act has vanished her hope. Elisa realizes that her life will not change. Henry will not fully appreciate or understand her femininity and sexuality. She has to l earn to be content with such  unthoughtful husband and her awful marriage. She realizes that her devastation is really complete and leaves her â€Å"crying weakly-like an old woman† ( P 394). The chrysanthemums stand for the symbol of Elisa’s role as a woman. At the beginning they symbolize her children, later they represent her femininity and sexuality. Elisa feels that her life destroyed her soul because she lacked children and romance in her marriage with Henry. Eventually, her husband fails to appreciate her feminine qualities and her emotional needs. The encounter with the tinker reawakens her sexuality and Elisa starts to hope that she still has a chance for a more exciting and romantic marriage. However, seeing the flowers on the road she realizes that there will not be any changes in her life. Finally, her soul is devastated by such a miserable and uhhappy life. I think that in contrast to the inner conflict, which Faulkner’s Sarty experienced at the beginning of the strory and resolved at the end, Steinbeck’s Elisa faced different situation. She had some hopes that her life will go in the desirable way, but all her expectations failed. In my opinion, in spite of the conflicts which different natures, both authors proved in their works that if human heart comes into the conflict with itself, it brings suffering. But I think that it is worth to suffer like Sarty for the sake of resolving the conflict; however, life turns into the tragedy, when the conflict, like in Elisa’s case, is the final of a person’s dreams and expectations. Bibliography 1.Faulkner, William. Barn Burning. Bedford Introduction to Literature. Boston; Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2002. 2.Billinglea, O. Fathers and Sons: The Spiritual Quest in Faulkner’s ‘Barn Burning. Mississippi Quarterly: The Journal of Southern Culture 44.3 (Summer 1991). 3.Fowler, Virginia C. Faulkner’s ‘Barn Burning’: Sarty’s Conflict Reconsidered. College Language Association Journal 24.4 (June 1981). 4. Steinbeck, John. The Chrysanthemums. Fiction: A Longman Pocket Anthology. Ed. R.S. Gwynn. Second Ed. New York: Longman, 1998. 5.Beach, J. John Steinbeck’s Authentic Characters. Readings on John Steinbeck. Ed. Swisher, Clarice. San Diego: Greenhaven, 1996.

Friday, November 8, 2019

Archetypes in The Natural essays

Archetypes in The Natural essays After discovering a God-given talent, a young boy struggles to achieve his only dream; to become the best there ever was. Baseball is all he has ever known, so he prevails through the temptations and situations laid before him by those out to destroy his career. His hopes and dreams outweigh all the temptations along his journey. These hopes, dreams, and temptations are depicted through archetypes in the movie The Natural. An archetype is a universal symbol. It is also a term from the criticism that accepts Jungs idea of recurring patterns of situation, character, or symbol existing universally and instinctively in the collective unconscious of man. Archetypes come in three categories: images (symbols), characters, and situations. Feelings are provoked about a certain subject by archetypes. The use of the images of water, sunsets, and circles set the scene of the movie. Characters, including the temptress, the devil figure, and the trickster, contribute to the movies conflicts that the hero must overcome in order to reach his dream. However, to reach his dream, the hero must also go through many situations such as, the fall, dealing with the unhealable wound, and the task. By using archetypes in the movie, the viewer can obtain more than just the plot and better understand the true theme of the movie: to never give up on dreams. Archetypal imagery in this movie is abundant, but the most obvious and repetitive archetypes are those of water, sunsets, and circles. Prior to Roy Hobbs, the heros, arrival to the major league, the coach, Pop, comments, Wouldnt you think I could get a fresh drink of water after all the years that I have been in this game. At this point in the game, his team is losing miserably and Roys arrival only seems to make the situation worse because his first impression is an overage rookie. When Roy finally gets a chance to prove himself as a ball player...

Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Role of Stakeholder Paper Example

Role of Stakeholder Paper Example Role of Stakeholder Paper – Research Paper Example Role of Stakeholder Introduction The term stakeholders refers to persons or groups who rely on an organization to attain their goals while the organization depend on them for support and other aspects such as governance. These include people who are likely to benefit from company’s operations hence work towards the success of the company. Stakeholders thus include persons who play part in the running of a company (shareholders and employees) in addition to other persons who may be concerned in the company’s activities but do not own it. Generally, stakeholders are all entities who influence or are affected by the operations and decisions of an organization. Stakeholders are the individuals or groups that share the benefits and risks of a company. They are thus and are affected by management decisions. However, some stakeholder may not be in support of the companies decisions depending on the effect such decisions may have on them. The stakeholders are thus crucial and i nfluence the management of a company. This paper focuses on the role of stakeholders in implementing a quality management process. The chief stakeholders in any business include managers, shareholders, company employees, government, communities, clients, trade unions, and other companies or organizations. Employees are important contributors in decision making thus their opinions are crucial in running of a company or business (Jackson, Sawyers, Jackson, Sawyers, & Jenkins, 2008). Trade union’s role in implementation of quality management in a company since they influence company decisions regarding employees security, compensation as well as the recruitment process. Shareholders are the most important component of a company and play a crucial role in implementation of management process since they are interested in the welfare of the company in which they have invested. They also partake in making of some company decisions. Customers or clients are another important stakeholder who determines how a company should be managed. This is because customers influence management aspects pertaining to quality, ethics, as well as organizational values. For example, a food processing industry will have to include the major customers in management aspects regarding the quality to ensure that the product made meet their needs. The government is a critical stakeholder in any organization, which influence different managerial aspects hence management. The government regulates features such as taxation and company legislation hence the quality of management (Jackson, Sawyers, & Jenkins, 2008). Other organizations are also important entities that affect the management of a company. They could be the competitors or the distributors. A good example of an organization where other organization are important stakeholders is a manufacturing company where the retailers involved in distributing company’s product and thus influence management decisions (Foster, 2012; Jackson, Sawyers, & Jenkins, 2008). References Foster, T. (2012). Managing Quality: Integrating the Supply Chain. New York: Pearson Education, Limited. Jackson, S., Sawyers, R., & Jenkins, G. (2008). Managerial Accounting: A Focus on Ethical Decision Making. Stamford: Cengage Learning.

Monday, November 4, 2019

Human resource Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

Human resource - Essay Example The act further prevents employers from using force or threat of retaliation to influence employees’ freedom and right to elect, democratically, their unions for representation. The act also identifies an organization’s supervisor as part of its management. This means that a supervisor is an organization’s agent and the organization is therefore vicariously liable for its supervisors’ actions (Bramball, 2012). The same act however identifies management’s right to influence unions’ elections through tactful initiatives (DeCrew, 2003). Applying these principles supports my decision to uphold the elections because even though the supervisor made repeated appearances near the union’s meeting, his action does not communicate any form of threat to retaliate on the union. This undermines applicability of threat of reprisal against the union. Even though the supervisor is an agent to the organization, his action is consistent with the manageme nt’s right to use its tactics to influence union elections (Bramball, 2012; DeCrew,

Saturday, November 2, 2019

Television and Cultural Change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Television and Cultural Change - Essay Example One can dispute this claim by looking at the UK TV programme, ‘Crossroads’. With time, the definition of social classes has become dilute, as people no longer act in ways that show their social belonging. This paper seeks to explore the history of social class, taste and capitalism. At the end, be able to establish whether there is a link between the different phenomena. In the twelfth century, most people lived in, the villages, as opposed to the few who lived in the towns. The town dwellers consisted of skilled labourers who the nobles paid for their upkeep for the various jobs they did. A great pandemic reduced the population significantly and led to few skilled labourers in towns. The nobles wooed people from the villages to come work in the towns by giving the skilled labourers a wage for the work done. With time, skilled labourers in the towns became rich, were able to leave the skilled labour, and became traders. This led to the development of trade to the extent that different nations traded with each other. Merchants came up, and they started investing their money to buy goods and sell them in a different place. This was how capitalism started and developed. Capitalism is a financial system where individuals or corporations solely do investment and make profits. In this economy, the private sector has the right to produce, dispense and exchange wealth without any interference. In capitalism, the government does not control or interfere with the making or distribution of the wealth of individuals (Holland, 1997). The system that controls the economy is the market prices of the goods as well as the profits incurred. Unlike the working class, the people that belong to the capitalism class do not get wages and money for their abilities. Instead, the capitalism class gets money and profits from what they produce and

Thursday, October 31, 2019

Letter of recommendation for pharmacy residency program Essay

Letter of recommendation for pharmacy residency program - Essay Example She consistently performs her duties with a high degree of competency and often goes the extra mile, doing more than expected. she always puts her clients best interests above everything else. She values their health concerns so much that she does not hesitate to contact their physician’s office and insurance company in order to find cheaper alternative medicines for customers who could not afford certain medications. She genuinely cares for her patients wellness and takes the extra time and effort to ensure that the patients receive the treatments that they actually need. Claire’s clinical knowledge and communication skills are excellent. She consistently provides knowledgeable counseling to her patients, effectively answering their questions regarding prescription and non-prescription medications. She does not hesitate to contact the physician’s office to clarify questions about prescriptions, communicating effectively with them in order to get the problem identified in order to come up with possible solutions, proving that she has excellent problem solving skills. Claire works well under pressure and knows how to manage her time well. She is a master multitasker who can promptly process prescriptions and help customers. Even during our peak hours at the pharmacy, she manages to remain calm and always has a ready smile for the patients in life. She always meets our customers needs and provdes excellent customer service. Many customers have appreciated her helpfulness and have commended her by writing to me in my capacity as her supervisor in order to commend her commitment to her duties and responsibilities. Compared to her peers and numerous other interns that I have encountered, she has been the best of the lot. Claire has always been a hard working, fast learner, and a mature individual. She genuinely cares for the patients and takes her responsibilities seriously. She has excellent work ethics and always brings a positive attitude to the

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

High school Essay Example for Free

High school Essay We could say that an educated person is like a piece of artwork, it is open to the interpretation of the viewer. Just like every art work critique has their own opinion about an artwork, everyone has their own different interpretations of what an educated person is. One thing is clear though, in order to be a successful person in life, you do not need money, as well as in order to be an educated person, you do not need a college diploma. What you are willing to give up in order to become your best person depends on how much you truly want to accomplish that goal. Not everyone knows right away what they have a passion for. One has to explore new activities and only then will they be able to decide for themselves. Everyone expresses their opinion, and in my thought an educated person is the willing to put in time like Gladwell explains, claims their learning rights like Rich exercises, applies critical thinking and reasoning to work towards a success like Wagner emphasizes and lastly does not fall victim to adversity like my father focuses attention on. An educated person should always be willing to put in time. This means that they are willing to give up what they want now, for what they want most. For example, in Gladwell, Schoenfeld the math professor experimented with a young girl Renee, which took her approximately twenty-two minutes to figure the slope of a vertical line. â€Å"This is eight-grade mathematics If I put the average eighth grader in the same position as Renee, I’m guessing that after the first few attempts, they would have said, ‘I don’t get it. I need you to explain it. ’ (Gladwell 2008, pp. 245). † What Schoenfeld proved with this experiment was the willingness of Renee to continue the math problem. Of course, compared to the eighth grader, Renee had more self-discipline and wanted to continue on going until she was able to solve it. An educated person should be willing to put in time and work towards their goal. It will not be easy or given to the person, there is a lot of time and energy put to having what one wants. Another idea Gladwell explains is the amount of time one is willing to put in and how that makes one an expert. â€Å"Researchers have settled on what they believe is the magic number for true expertise: 10,000 hours† (Gladwell 2008, pp.40). Gladwell’s idea of hard work and dedication to whatever it is that you want to become an expert at takes at least 10,000 hours. I agree with him, but only to a certain point. It is true that in order to become someone well knowledgeable on a certain activity or topic one must practice and put in time. I do not necessarily agree that 10,000 hours should be the exact number for â€Å"true expertise† as Gladwell calls it, but it definitely should not be a few hours. For example, ideally doctors should be one of the most specialized fields. They are ones performing their knowledge on people and I honestly would not want a doctor that has gotten a few hours of practice to do anything to me, because there is more of a chance that they are not as experienced as someone else that has been working for decades as a doctor. An educated person should be willing to put in time to practice which is what makes someone good at their specialization. Rich’s idea of â€Å"claiming an education† also applies within our pursuit to defining an educated person. Rich explains that a student should not think about education as â€Å"receiving it†, but to be thought of as â€Å"claiming it† (Rich 1979 pp.365). Rich explains that claiming an education is taking as if one were the owner. I agree with Rich, students should have the mentality of taking the education being given to them. There is a difference between claiming what is rightfully yours, and taking what if rightfully yours. One difference is that when you claim something, you are putting in effort to learning what is being taught. For example, a student that goes to class and learns whatever the lesson was for that day, would in my terms be called receiving. On the other hand, if that same student were to go to the instructor’s office hours and basically use the resources that there are around campus, that would be claiming. The mere difference of going one step above the other makes the difference between the two. Rich also backs this idea of claiming, with the simple act of participating in class, becoming more engaged in class and the teacher’s professional life. This idea of claiming an education is not limited to those in school, because not every educated person goes to college, or needs a college degree. It is helpful in order to have something to fall back upon. One way we can connect the idea of claiming an education without going to school, could be my father’s story. His decision of dropping out of high school did not stop him from doing what he wanted to do. He claimed his rights to learning about how to create his own company and becoming a successful entrepreneur, without having a business college degree. Claiming your rights as a human being over all is what counts. Anyone should be able to express their passion for something. In my father’s case, he first started by working at a small local shop as a cashier, but he found himself not doing what he loved, â€Å"I loved helping people, make their houses bigger or just fixing their house up for them. † (Gomez 2014). My father eventually stopped receiving, and started claiming. An educated person is one who does not receive, but one that claims and demands their ability to practice their passion. Give a child a list of three words with a definition to each, allow them to memorize it and few minutes later, they can regurgitate it back to you. As an education major, it is easy to go a whole year teaching children a certain vocabulary words, or teaching them how to solve a math problem, but explaining why the answer is the answer, is a lot more difficult. Wagner explains that many students lack â€Å"intellectual challenges† (Wagner 2008, pp. xxv). A class lacking intellectual challenge for students can cause a downfall in the future. Providing students with more rigorous work and questioning their solutions, prevents them from finding lessons uninteresting and eventually leading them to want to drop the course, or worse yet, want to drop out of school. For example in history class, one has to remember specific dates, but also know why several of these specific events happened or what lead to it. I was one of them. Rarely do students remember what lead to wars, or life historically changing events, like the great depression because they are just taught either to memorize the dates or they find it easier to only remember the dates and names of important historical figures. The same concept can be applied to mathematics, where one has to know how to solve the problem, but does not always know why a certain formula was used or why it only works with that certain problem. According to Wagner, knowing the answer is not sufficient, one must know and be able to critically think about the end result. Therefore, an educated person should be willing to not only claim their education, but also be able to apply more critical thinking and reasoning. Which by later exercising that through practicing and preparing, one can accomplish their goals. Lastly, I interviewed my father, because he is the first man I have ever admired. He was able to successfully carry out a career that he did not go to college for. Matter of fact, he never went to college, and only completed a few years of high school. Through my interview with him, he allowed me to truly appreciate and admire him a lot more. One main adversity he got through was coming in to the United States, he believes that without coming to the United States his success would not have been possible. â€Å"Coming from a huge family, having 8 brothers and 7 sisters you did not always get what you wanted† (Gomez 2014). My father further explained that he was always having to share his things and he never had the opportunities that I have today. â€Å"I had to run a whole mile in order to get to class, there were no buses, because we lived in the country, and I had to run to the city every morning to get to school† (Gomez 2014). My father continues with his story, â€Å"every morning we all had to do chores, mine were taking care of the farm animals. I would milk the cows every morning and since I had to do my morning chores before school, sometimes I ran late and I had to go to school smelling like farm animals and sweat† (Gomez 2014). The dedication put into working back then is not the same today. For everything there is always an excuse made up. I myself have made many excuses, but it takes an educated person to not make excuses. He could have easily said I am not walking a mile to go to school, but he was determined. My father did not drop out of school because he was failing his classes. At age 18 he became an innocent victim in a shooting, in which he was shot in the stomach and had missed a big portion of his senior year. He was months away from graduating, but he never was able to complete his missed classes due to the lack of support from his teachers, he explained. He after started his own family and came to the United States when I was born. â€Å"You are the luckiest one of everyone in the family† he told me, â€Å"your sisters do not have the opportunity that you have and an educated person is one who can make the best situation out of a tough one† (Gomez 2014). Without doubt, my father was able to create a self-made company. He was the only one of his 15 siblings to become an entrepreneur, and today in my eyes he is the most successful. An educated person would ideally be my own father, who was willing to put in time to learn about his passion, claim his rights as a United States resident and created his own business, and lastly he did fall victim to adversity. An educated person and a successful person go hand in hand, but the definitions are endless, and open to many interpretations, but what makes either person educated or successful, depends on what they are willing to give up in order to become their best person. An educated person is one who no matter what is willing to put in time in order to be called an expert at his passion. Someone who rightfully claims the ability to carry out their love for their passion and lastly, someone who does not fall victim to adversity. ? Bibliography Gladwell, Malcolm. â€Å"The 10,000-Hour Rule† in Outliers, 34-68. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2008. Gladwell, Malcolm. â€Å"Rice Paddies and Math Tests† in Outliers, 224-249. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2008. Gustavo Gomez, interview by Alondra Gomez, April 28, 2014. Rich, Adrienne. â€Å"Claiming and Education† in On Lies, Secrets and Silence, 365-369. New York: W. W. Norton Company, 1979. Wagner, Tony. The Global Achievement Gap, intro xix-xxviii. New York: Basic Books, 2008.