The Bloomsbury Handbook of Solitude, Silence and Loneliness is the first major account integrating research on solitude, silence and loneliness from across academic disciplines and across the lifespan. The editors explore how being alone – in its different forms, positive and negative, as solitude, silence and loneliness – is learned and developed, and how it is experienced in childhood and youth, adulthood and old age. Philosophical, psychological, historical, cultural and religious issues are addressed by distinguished scholars from Europe, North and Latin America, and Asia.

Provides biographies, novel synopses, poems, plays, and essays by or about women, and discusses feminist literature.

Includes, beginning Sept. 15, 1954 (and on the 15th of each month, Sept.-May) a special section: School library journal, ISSN 0000-0035, (called Junior libraries, 1954-May 1961). Also issued separately.

Make Room for Dreams examines Zionism from both a philosophical and practical point of view. This in-depth study reviews and evaluates the notion that Zionism has become a way of enlisting political or economic support for Israel and is no longer seen as a movement that should seek ways to realize humane or spiritual goals. The discussion focuses on the concept of Zionism as the return of the Jewish people to the land of Israel, a return that must be accompanied by a changing of certain basic attitudes concerning the Jews' mode of being-in-the-world. The manner of blending existentialism with political thought is seen in relation to the Biblical experience, and it is shown that Zionist challenges must draw their sustenance from the ability to read the Bible with existential and political awareness. It presents five specific challenges for Zionism in Israel, citing concrete examples from life in Israel, and some examples from the history of Zionism. The current situation is also described, and precise determinations for responding to the challenges are woven into each chapter. Also included is a thought-provoking summary of the manner in which a more authentic Jewish existence can be lived in Israel. This scholarly work is the first to deal with the complex issues behind the Zionist movement in present-day Israel, and will provide a valuable resource for philosophers, political scientists, and students in Jewish studies.

The interplay between solitude and society was a particularly persistent theme in nineteenth-century American literature, though writers approached this theme in different ways. Poe explored the metaphysical significance of isolation and held solitude in high esteem; Hawthorne viewed the theme in moral terms and examined the obligation of each individual to the larger community; and Emerson maintained that the contradictory states of self-reliance and solidarity are fundamental to human happiness. Herman Melville emerged with an ontological response to this issue. Questioning the nature of being, he argued that humans are essentially isolated creatures. While he grants that we are free to choose how we conduct our lives, whether in solitude or in society, we cannot escape the essential condition of our alienation. Thus in Moby-Dick, he coins the term Isolato to signify the inherent separateness of all individuals. Writing some fifty years later, Edith Wharton reached the same conclusion. This book argues that Wharton's views on solitude and society were strongly parallel to those of Melville. Scholars have generally held that Wharton was primarily influenced by the great English, French, and Russian writers of the nineteenth century; and that with the exception of Walt Whitman, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry James, she neglected the influence of American literature almost entirely. This study demonstrates that Wharton read a significant portion of Melville's writings, that she reflected on the nature and achievement of his works, and that her consideration of his importance emerged during very significant moments in her life, when she was forced to grapple with her own place as an individual in relation to a larger community. Though Melville and Wharton initially seem disparate, this book shows that they had much in common. By studying the two authors side by side, this volume reveals that they shared a similar way of seeing the world, particularly with respect to their considerations of solitude and society. Through their solitary characters, Melville and Wharton question the relationship of self and society and thus engage a universal problem of special interest to the nineteenth century.

Here is the first reference guide to the major sources for the study of recreational vehicles, boats, and aircraft in the context of American history and popular culture. It provides brief histories of the various types of vehicles and bibliographic essays on published and unpublished sources for further study. Reference works, histories, fiction, and specialized journals relating to the topic of recreational travel are described and analyzed. Appendixes list numerous museums, trade associations, and specialized organizations concerned with leisure travel, as well as films and video tapes.