One of Canada's preeminent social thinkers, John Ralston Saul, begins the book with a harsh reminder that public policy can be successful only when driven by the humanistic principles which fueled its formulation. Once saving money becomes a goal in itself, rather than "something we do on the side," public policy has little chance of survival. In subsequent chapters introducing the five key areas, Dr. Richard Cruess (McGill) and Dr. Sylvia Cruess (McGill) write on the physician's role in society; the Honourable Bob Rae tackles the political challenges of health care in the consumer era; Professor Raisa Deber (Toronto) looks at the rightful place of economics in health policy; Sister Nuala Kenny (Dalhousie) examines the ethical dilemmas we face; and Professor Bernard Dickens (Toronto) describes how current health care issues are perceived by the law. Other contributors represent a "who's who" of Canada's most highly recognized academics, professionals, and policy-makers. Also writing on clinical practice are Pat Kelly (PISCES), Dr. Terrence Montague (Merck Frosst), and Dr. Hugh Scully (Cardiac Care Network). The Honourable Monique Bégin, Mark Wainberg (International AIDS Society), and Rev. Lois Wilson (Senator, Canadian Parliament) write on politics. Nathalie St. Pierre (Fédération Nationale des Associations des Consommateurs du Québec), Devidas Menon (Institute of Pharmaco-Economics), and Dr. John Wade (Former Deputy Minister of Health, Manitoba) discuss economics. Tim Caufield (Alberta), Maurice McGregor (McGill), and Lesley Degner (St. Boniface Research Centre) consider ethical issues. Marcia Rioux (Roeher Institute), Jamie Cameron (York), and Henry Dinsdale (Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons) deal with the law. Do We Care? is a must-read for anyone involved in decision-making about the future of Canadian health care -- and for all of us who are affected by these decisions. Do We Care? is the result of a conference entitled "Directions for Canadian Health Care: A Framework for Sound Decisions" which was held in Toronto in October of 1998.

Blakey Vermeule wonders how readers become involved in the lives of fictional characters, people they know do not exist. Vermeule examines the ways in which readers’ experiences of literature are affected by the emotional attachments they form to fictional characters and how those experiences then influence their social relationships in real life. She focuses on a range of topics, from intimate articulations of sexual desire, gender identity, ambition, and rivalry to larger issues brought on by rapid historical and economic change. Vermeule discusses the phenomenon of emotional attachment to literary characters primarily in terms of 18th-century British fiction but also considers the postmodern work of Thomas Mann, J. M. Coetzee, Ian McEwan, and Chinua Achebe. From the perspective of cognitive science, Vermeule finds that caring about literary characters is not all that different from caring about other people, especially strangers. The tools used by literary authors to sharpen and focus reader interest tap into evolved neural mechanisms that trigger a caring response. This book contributes to the emerging field of evolutionary literary criticism. Vermeule draws upon recent research in cognitive science to understand the mental processes underlying human social interactions without sacrificing solid literary criticism. People interested in literary theory, in cognitive analyses of the arts, and in Darwinian approaches to human culture will find much to ponder in Why Do We Care about Literary Characters?

India is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. Yet health is not a part of our ambitious development story. In fact, India’s disproportionately stingy healthcare budget makes some of the poorer nations look better in comparison. Statistics, however, speak louder than critics: we have one of the highest numbers of women dying in childbirth and under-five mortality rates. Every year nearly sixty million people get pushed below the poverty line due to the health expenditures that they incur. But there are a few bright spots too: India has eradicated polio and reversed the incidence of HIV/AIDS by an impressive margin. Drawing on her experience as the former union health secretary, K. Sujatha Rao gives us an unsparingly candid insider’s view of India’s health system. This richly detailed book favours increasing the health budget, greater use of technology, and providing leadership and good governance. Rao argues that unless good health is prioritized as a national goal, India’s growth story will remain largely self-congratulatory.

Impeccable scholarship and lavish illustration mark this landmark study of American railroad folksong. Norm Cohen provides a sweeping discussion of the human aspects of railroad history, railroad folklore, and the evolution of the American folksong. The heart of the book is a detailed analysis of eighty-five songs, from "John Henry" and "The Wabash Cannonball" to "Hell-Bound Train" and "Casey Jones," with their music, sources, history, and variations, and discographies. A substantial new introduction updates this edition.

We want to live good lives, but determining what a good life is isn't easy, especially if we want the lives we lead to be ours, rather than somebody else's. Tom Kennedy helps us see why it is hard to find our way when it comes to living well and what we can do about that. Finding our way requires knowing who we are, understanding ourselves, and Christians, because of their experience with God, will understand themselves differently than others in at least some ways. Kennedy explores that understanding and discovers that Christian encounters with God lead to beliefs about God, human nature, forgiveness, values, and loving well that have important implications for what we do and feel, for how we should live. In clear and familiar language, and with probing questions, he helps us think more carefully, and deeply, about our identities and what it should look like for us to live well.

Thanks to coded notes taken by the teenager John Pynchon, this volume transports the reader, virtually, back to Sundays in the seventeenth century, when the community gathered to listen to the Rev. George Moxon. The setting was Springfield, Massachusetts, founded in 1636 by John's father William Pynchon. As a note-taker, John recorded just what he heard in this rare resource, which allows the reader to listen in on the weekly sermons he documented in the 1640s. This symbol-by-symbol transcription into a word-for-word text preserves the character of the minister's original remarks, and reveals Moxon as an able, engaging speaker who offered encouragement--and challenge--to the growing plantation he faithfully served through its earliest years on the edge of a wilderness. Not only do the sermons in this collection provide snippets of popular theological discourse at particular moments in the 1600s; they also point to issues of the day, and they help us get inside the thoughts and word patterns of that era.

The Practice of Value is an exploration of a pervasive but puzzling aspect of our world: value. The starting-point is the Berkeley Tanner Lectures delivered in 2001 by the leading moral theorist Joseph Raz. His aim is to make sense of the dependence of value on social practice, without falling back on cultural relativism. The lectures are followed by discussions from three eminent philosophers, Christine Korsgaard, Robert Pippin, and Bernard Williams, and a response from. Raz. The result is a fascinating debate, accessible to readers throughout and beyond philosophy, about the relations betwee.