Common sense has always been a cornerstone of American politics. In 1776, Tom Paine’s vital pamphlet with that title sparked the American Revolution. And today, common sense—the wisdom of ordinary people, knowledge so self-evident that it is beyond debate—remains a powerful political ideal, utilized alike by George W. Bush’s aw-shucks articulations and Barack Obama’s down-to-earth reasonableness. But far from self-evident is where our faith in common sense comes from and how its populist logic has shaped modern democracy. Common Sense: A Political History is the first book to explore this essential political phenomenon. The story begins in the aftermath of England’s Glorious Revolution, when common sense first became a political ideal worth struggling over. Sophia Rosenfeld’s accessible and insightful account then wends its way across two continents and multiple centuries, revealing the remarkable individuals who appropriated the old, seemingly universal idea of common sense and the new strategic uses they made of it. Paine may have boasted that common sense is always on the side of the people and opposed to the rule of kings, but Rosenfeld demonstrates that common sense has been used to foster demagoguery and exclusivity as well as popular sovereignty. She provides a new account of the transatlantic Enlightenment and the Age of Revolutions, and offers a fresh reading on what the eighteenth century bequeathed to the political ferment of our own time. Far from commonsensical, the history of common sense turns out to be rife with paradox and surprise.

“Finally a book about teaching that tells it like it is,” NEA Today said about Michael Gose’s first edition, What It Means to Be a Teacher. The second edition continues the stories that capture the meaning of teaching and now looks back with commentary on how those tales also work as parables. In the spirit of Thomas Paine, this second edition uses “Common Sense” to tell what is really going on with students, teachers, and schools. (Hint: the reality is actually a lot more optimistic than commonly portrayed in the media.)

In 1776, an American patriot, Thomas Paine, authored a revolutionary document titled, COMMON SENSE, that stirred his fellow countrymen to fight for independence. Over 200 years later, corporate America is suffering at the hands of weak and often insane leadership. If you're tired of your company's weak leadership and ridiculous gimmicks, this book is a must read for you. Many once proud institutions in America have been socialized: Media Education Government And now, corporate America is signing on to a socialistic leadership strategy. If you believe corporate America is on the wrong path, I urge you to join the Eagle Nation and fight for a return to COMMON SENSE leadership. The following three lessons from the book illustrates Wurtz's pursuit of COMMON SENSE leadership: Discipline Like Momma Would Diversity Training - Adults Attending Kindergarten The Noble Pursuit of Extreme Profits In 1776, Thomas Paine proclaimed, "If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace." It's time to attack corporate insanity. It's what patriots do! I hope you will join us!

While the popular talk of English common sense in the eighteenth century might seem a by-product of familiar Enlightenment discourses of rationalism and empiricism, this book argues that terms such as ‘common sense’ or ‘good sense’ are not simply synonyms of applied reason. On the contrary, the discourse of common sense is shaped by a defensive impulse against the totalizing intellectual regimes of the Enlightenment and the cultural climate of change they promote, in order to contain the unbounded discursive proliferation of modern learning. Hence, common sense discourse has a vital regulatory function in cultural negotiations of political and intellectual change in eighteenth-century Britain against the backdrop of patriotic national self-concepts. This study discusses early eighteenth-century common sense in four broad complexes, as to its discursive functions that are ethical (which at that time implies aesthetic as well), transgressive (as a corrective), political (in patriotic constructs of the nation), and repressive (of otherness). The selection of texts in this study strikes a balance between dominant literary culture – Swift, Pope, Defoe, Fielding, Johnson – and the periphery, such as pamphlets and magazine essays, satiric poems and patriotic songs.

What does it mean when a judge in a court of law uses the phrase “common sense”? Is it a type of evidence or a mode of reasoning? In a world characterized by material and political inequalities, whose common sense should inform the law? Common Sense and Legal Judgment explores this rhetorically powerful phrase, arguing that common sense, when invoked in political and legal discourses without adequate reflection, poses a threat to the quality and legitimacy of legal judgment. Often operating in the service of conservatism, populism, or majoritarianism, common sense can harbour stereotypes, reproduce unjust power relations, and silence marginalized people. Nevertheless, drawing the works of theorists such as Thomas Reid, Antonio Gramsci, and Hannah Arendt into conversation with rulings by the Supreme Court of Canada, Patricia Cochran demonstrates that with careful attention, the democratic, egalitarian, and community-sustaining aspects of common sense can be brought to light. A call for critical self-reflection and the close scrutiny of power relationships and social contexts, this book is a direct response to social justice predicaments and their confounding relationships to law. Creative and interdisciplinary, Common Sense and Legal Judgment reinvigorates feminist and anti-poverty understandings of judgment, knowledge, justice, and accountability.

The author reports the results of his research into the cause of arthritis and offers a dietary plan complete with menus designed to relieve the disease's symptoms.

The Rise and Fall of Scottish Common Sense Realism examines the ways in which five Scottish philosophers - Lord Kames (1696-1782), Thomas Reid (1710-1796), Dugald Stewart (1753-1828), Sir William Hamilton (1788-1856), and James Frederick Ferrier (1808-1864) - tackled a problem which has haunted Western philosophy ever since Descartes: that of determining whether any form of perceptual realism is defensible, or whether the very idea of a material world existing independently of perception and thought is more trouble than it is worth. This century-long conversation about the relation between mind and world led these five Scots to think uncommonly hard about a host of challenging issues in epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of mind, and meta-philosophy. In order to present each philosopher's views in a fair and reasonably charitable light, Douglas McDermid has tried to identify the main problems each was attempting to solve, to relate his work to that of his predecessors where possible, to describe the mistakes (real or perceived) he was particularly anxious to correct, to explain the internal logic of his position, and to discuss some of the main objections which he anticipated and tried to rebut. McDermid's hope is that even seasoned students of the realism controversy may learn something new and valuable from this exercise, if only because he has chosen to focus not on the usual suspects - Descartes, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant - but on a fresh and undervalued cast of characters.

Evangelicals in nineteenth-century America had a headquarters at Princeton. Charles Hodge never expected that a former student of Princeton and his own replacement during his hiatus in Europe, John W. Nevin, would lead the German Reformed Church's seminary in a new, and in his mind, destructive direction. The two, along with their institutions, would clash over philosophy and religion, producing some of the best historical theology ever written in the United States. The clash was broad, influencing everything from hermeneutics to liturgy, but at its core was the philosophical antagonism of Princeton's Scottish common-sense perspective and the German speculative method employed by Mercersburg. Both Princeton and Mercersburg were the cautious and critical beneficiaries of a century of European Protestant science, philosophy, and theology, and they were intent on adapting that legacy to the American religious context. For Princeton, much of the new European thought was suspect. In contrast, Mercersburg embraced a great deal of what the Continent offered.Princeton followed a conservative path, never straying far from the foundation established by Locke. They enshrined an evangelical perspective that would become a bedrock for conservative Protestants to this day. In contrast, Nevin and the Mercersburg school were swayed by the advances in theological science made by Germany's mediating school of theology. They embraced a churchy idealism called evangelical catholicism and emphatically warned that the direction of Princeton and with it Protestant American religion and politics, would grow increasingly subjective, thus divided and absorbed with individual salvation. They cautioned against the spirit of the growing evangelical bias toward personal religion as it led to sectarian disunity and they warned evangelicals not to confuse numerical success with spiritual success. In contrast, Princeton was alarmed at the direction of European philosophy and theology and they resisted Mercersburg with what today continues to be the fundamental teachings of evangelical theology. Princeton's appeal was in its common-sense philosophical moorings, which drew rapidly industrializing America into its arms. Mercersburg countered with a philosophically defended, churchly idealism based on a speculative philosophy that effectively critiqued what many to this day find divisive and dangerous about America's current Religious Right.

This, the fourth edition of Schein's Common Sense Emergency Abdominal Surgery, builds on the reputation of the three previous editions. Already a worldwide benchmark, translated into half a dozen languages, this book guides surgical trainees logically through the minefields of assessment and management of acute surgical abdominal conditions. General surgery as a concept may have been overtaken in many parts of the world by the development of niche specialties, but the need for a cohort of generalists able to deal competently with common surgical emergencies has not gone away. If you recognise this need then this is the book for you! Tyro surgeons and experienced practitioners alike will benefit from the distilled wisdom contained in these pages. The direct, no nonsense, writing style, supported by entertaining cartoons, gives clear guidance while at the same time providing amusing insights into our collective surgical pschye. NOT a standard textbook. Buy it! You'll not regret it. Some new editors and authors enhance the new edition. Almost all chapters have been revised to take account of new concepts and modern developments. New chapters have been added and some completely rewritten often with a new emphasis on the importance of a laparoscopic approach. Reviews of previous editions “This is written with short punchy chapters making it a very difficult book to put down… “. R.A.B. Wood, Journal of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh “Since Mondor’s times in the forties of the last century there was no other book in surgery to be written so easy and witty …”. Boris D. Savchuk, World Journal of Surgery “By the end I was a total enthusiast… this is a text like no other I read… Unreservedly recommended to old and young and alike.” M. Winslet, Royal Free Hospital, London, Colorectal Disease “The title describes this book perfectly. This is a no-nonsense approach to the sometimes very difficult situations in general surgery.… The authors describe their experiences in tough situations of patient care for residents and young attendings.… the historical quotes add a good amount of insight and interest. I have not come across another book like this.… Focused on the real situations that surgeons come across, the book answers the questions that are not addressed in the major textbooks.” Robert A. Hanfland, Doody’s Review Service “This book covers emergency abdominal surgery in a useful and interesting way. [It is] a small and handy book yet the coverage is wide. It would be of interest to any general surgeon and should certainly be read by surgical trainees. [It] allows mention of many things which would otherwise be excluded from a more rigidly structured work. I was also glad to be reminded of many things which I had known but forgotten. The writers clearly know what they are talking about.” David Evans, Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England A sample of testimonials posted on amazon... By Donald Dupuis, MD, Lahey Clinic ««««« “A Must Have Book. I am about to end my chief year in general surgery residency — my copy of the first edition shows the wear of half a dozen total read throughs and probably hundreds of referencings. Newest edition is equally good. For the last 3 years I have given this book to our interns if they finish their surgical internship. And I’ve paid for this myself — if you know how little residents get paid you will know how important I think it is. If you are in surgical training DO NOT WAIT ANOTHER DAY BEFORE YOU BUY THIS BOOK. I do agree with another reviewer who thought a bit of cool surgical technique would have been good too. But, all in all, best, most useful little book on surgery ever. Nuff said.” By Chet A. Morrison, Assistant Professor of Surgery, Director of Surgical Critical Care, Michigan State University «««« “A very useful practical guide. This is a fine book in the tradition of ‘guides to being on call’ — or maybe the ‘guide to the perplexed’. I like the straightforward get to the point style, and the directness of the book makes this a useful book to have handy when confronted with some of the emergency surgery problems. I would only say it could have had a bit more on surgical technique, and one or two references would have been useful (instead there was almost a militant insistence on as few as possible). But I would recommend it for any resident who is on call, and I find it useful as a staff sugeon as well.” By K. M. Kemp ««««« “Love it. I’m a big fan of this book, having just finished it a month ago. It’s a good mix of the author’s own experience as well as expert commentary when indicated. Compared to a textbook, it’s much more engaging and easier to read. Also compared to a text, it seems much more practical in the advice it gives. As a brand new intern, I gleaned a lot from this book. Highly recommended for fellow trainees.” By Jendri ««««« “A surgical must have. This is a very well written and very practical guide to emergency surgery. It covers virtually all aspects of emergency general surgery and does it in a very interesting way. I think this is one of the best books on the subject. For me it certainly is a must have. In the next edition, probably the only thing that I would like to add to this book would be the information about the military uniform worn by Dr Karl Schein on the photograph on one of the first pages. Dr Schein is wearing a uniform of the 1st Polish Army formed in Soviet Union in 1943. Altogether a great book.” By andreromeo ««««« “A must. Dr. Moshe Schein has a very personal view about medicine and about the art of surgery, and that is why this book is really a must for clinicians and surgeons.” By Andy ««««« “Simply perfect. The best choice in surgery for trainees! It makes the more difficult surgery areas very easy to understand. I recommend it to all surgeons.” By maxim ««««« “Worth every penny. Invaluable as a guide to assist in the resolution of a broad range of abdominal problems. The book is well structured, running from opening chapters addressing pre-operative issues, and on through a pretty complete spectrum of gut complaints likely to arise in the real world, and how best to sort them out. It’s not only useful, but very well written, and, for a text book, an absolute pleasure to read. Short bite size chapters combined with the occasional cartoon make this 3rd edition of Schein well worth the investment. Blend with Cope’s Diagnosis of the Acute Abdomen for the ideal cocktail.” By J. D. Wassner ««««« “Well-written, easy to read. Should be required reading for any General Surgery resident, & anyone who does acute-care & trauma.”

Catharine Esther Beecher's work, 'Common Sense Applied to Religion; Or, The Bible and the People,' serves as a compelling examination of religious beliefs and practices in 19th-century America. Beecher employs a straightforward and practical writing style, making complex theological concepts accessible to a wide audience. The book delves into the intersecting realms of religion and society, emphasizing the role of individuals in interpreting and applying religious teachings in everyday life. Beecher's emphasis on the importance of reason and critical thinking in matters of faith reflects the influence of the Enlightenment era on her work. This book stands as a testament to Beecher's commitment to promoting religious literacy and encouraging personal reflection on spiritual matters. Beecher's own background as a prominent educator and social reformer likely informed her perspective on the relationship between religion and public life. Her deep insights and thoughtful analysis make this book a valuable resource for readers interested in exploring the complexities of religious belief in the American context.