Babylon under Western Eyes examines the mythic legacy of ancient Babylon, the Near Eastern city which has served western culture as a metaphor for power, luxury, and exotic magnificence for more than two thousand years. Sifting through the many references to Babylon in biblical, classical, medieval, and modern texts, Andrew Scheil uses Babylon's remarkable literary ubiquity as the foundation for a thorough analysis of the dynamics of adaptation and allusion in western literature. Touching on everything from Old English poetry to the contemporary apocalyptic fiction of the "Left Behind" series, Scheil outlines how medieval Christian society and its cultural successors have adopted Babylon as a political metaphor, a degenerate archetype, and a place associated with the sublime. Combining remarkable erudition with a clear and accessible style, Babylon under Western Eyes is the first comprehensive examination of Babylon's significance within the pantheon of western literature and a testimonial to the continuing influence of biblical, classical, and medieval paradigms in modern culture.

This collection of essays on Turgenev, Goncharov, Conrad, Dostoevsky, Blok, Briusov, Gor?kii, Pasternak and Nabokov represents diverse voices but is also unified. One invariant is the recurring distinction between ?culture? and ?civilization? and the vision of Russia as the bearer of culture because it is ?barbaric.? Another stance advocates the synthesis of ?sense and sensibility? and the vision of ?Apollo? and ?Dionysus? creating a ?civilized culture? together. Those voices that delight in the artificiality of civilization are complemented by those apprehensive of the dangers in barbarism. This collection thus adds new perspectives to the much-debated opposition of vital Russia and a declining West, offering novel interpretations of classics from Oblomov to Lolita and The Idiot to Doctor Zhivago.

Kapitler: Political Violence in Western Societies; The Roots of Revolt;Terrorism as a Political Tool; Politics as Pathology; The Black Panthers Ghetto Revolt; Ulster:The Guns Speak; Quebec;The City and The Countryside; Che Guevara and his Heirs; Venezuela; Guatemala; Brazil; The Tupamaros.

A Tucson couple presents a collection of poems celebrating the natural beauty of Arizona.