Parts of this book were previously presented at conferences and seminars at the University of Chicago, York University, the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY), the Advanced Studies Institute of the University of Michigan, Washington University, the University of Cologne, and the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique in Paris. I would like to thank Carolyne Johnson, Beverley Diamond, Stephen Blum, David Cohen, Nicholas Dirks, Dick Fox, Heike Behrend, and Bernard Lortat-Jacob for hosting these events. In addition to these occasions, I benefited enormously from the interaction with my colleagues at the University of Texas at Austin, most notably Gerard Behague, Stuart Goosman, and Steve Slawek. Drafts of various chapters have also been read by Peter Wicke and Stuart Goosman. Thomas Turino read the entire manuscript and provided invaluable comments and criticism. Tom Gruning prepared the index, and Ian Eagleson read the page proofs.

In writing this book I was heavily dependent on the help of others. I am particularly grateful to Mark Smith for his advice and his patience in answering my questions about Coptic and Egyptology, and to Wadi Abullif for his generous assistance in Cairo. I would like to thank Sydney Aufre`re, Anne Boud’hors, Nathalie Bosson, Charles Libois, and the late Maurice Martin for allowing me to profit from their discoveries and expertise, Colin Wakefield for his help at the Bodleian Library and his advice about Arabic transcriptions, Nigel Hope for his proof correcting and Bonnie Blackburn for her copy-editing. My thanks also go to Anne Ashby, Alice Bailey, Maurits van den Boogert, Anthony Grafton, Nelly Hanna, Johannes den Heijer, Jan Helderman, Karim Ibrahim, Robert Jones, Gautier Juynboll, Ivo Klaver, Jill Kraye, William Lyster, Dorothea McEwan, Ian MacLean, Georges Masson, Peter Miller, Andrew Pettegree, Paul Botley, Jenny Boyle, Francis Richard, Jonathan Rolls, Lydia Salviucci Insolera, Rijk Smitskamp, Gerald Toomer, Hans van der Velde, Michael Walsh, Nicholas Warner, Joanna Weinberg, and Jan Just Witkam. I gratefully acknowledge an S. T. Lee Fellowship at the School of Advanced Study, London University, the subsidies given to me for travel in Egypt by the Leidse Universitaire Fonds, the library and hospitality of the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo, and above all of the Warburg Institute in London, and, finally, the support of the Dr C. LouiseThijssen-Schoute Stichting, to whose former chairman,A. G. H . Bachrach, this book is affectionately dedicated.

. . . the book can be recommended to all with an interest in the issue of older workers in a globalised world. Ageing and Society Early retirement has been a policy to cope with the problems of massive unemployment in many Western welfare states. However, it has become apparent that this strategy is costly and destroys human capital urgently needed in ageing societies. This book offers a comprehensive and up-to-date study of late-career patterns and processes of early retirement in fourteen OECD countries, using both cross-sectional and longitudinal data. It is an important contribution to life-course research and will provide the foundation for any serious discussion on pension reforms and increasing the employability of older workers. Hans-Jürgen Andreß, University of Cologne, Germany This timely book investigates the growth of the early retirement trend and its varying spread among different groups of older workers in fourteen modern societies. It argues for a differentiated political approach to reverse early retirement, which relies on both pension and employability policies for older workers. Examining the early retirement trend virtually all modern societies have been faced with since the onset of the globalization process in the 1970s and 1980s, this book provides a thorough analysis of older workers late careers and their retirement transitions, as well as explaining why this trend has developed differently between nations. To promote an effective reversal of the early retirement trend, national policymakers are advised not to concentrate their efforts exclusively on reducing the financial incentives for an early exit still present in most national pension systems. In addition, it is also recommended that they invest in the employability of older workers, implying a thorough reconsideration of the design of education and labor market policies. Dirk Hofäcker presents a unique and comprehensive synthesis of theories describing and explaining the trend towards early retirement, and critically discusses their comparative advantages and shortcomings. Researchers and students of sociology, economics, gerontology, demography and comparative welfare states should not be without this book and policymakers and practitioners dealing with labor market policies will find it invaluable.

Released to coincide with the fortieth anniversary of Israel s occupation of the West Bank (June1967), this timely book exposes the realities of daily life for Palestinians in the West Bank in the twenty-first century. Based around photographs of, and interviews with, ordinary Palestinian people, it looks at all aspects of daily life ranging from restrictions on movement and imprisonment to the effects of the occupation on business, the practicing of religion and the development of democracy. By providing the reader with a comprehensive understanding of how Israel's policies in the West Bank affect the lives of real people on the ground, the book cuts through the smokescreens and political correctness that pervade coverage of the issue and offers the reader a new platform from which to form his or her own opinions.

Since its first publication in 1945 Lord Russell's A History of Western Philosophy has been universally acclaimed as the outstanding one-volume work on the subject -- unparalleled in its comprehensiveness, its clarity, its erudition, its grace and wit. In seventy-six chapters he traces philosophy from the rise of Greek civilization to the emergence of logical analysis in the twentieth century. Among the philosophers considered are: Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, the Atomists, Protagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, the Cynics, the Sceptics, the Epicureans, the Stoics, Plotinus, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, Benedict, Gregory the Great, John the Scot, Aquinas, Duns Scotus, William of Occam, Machiavelli, Erasmus, More, Bacon, Hobbes, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, the Utilitarians, Marx, Bergson, James, Dewey, and lastly the philosophers with whom Lord Russell himself is most closely associated -- Cantor, Frege, and Whitehead, co-author with Russell of the monumental

Switzerland is a small country, both in geography and population size, and might almost be marginal if not for its amazing trajectory and continuing political and economic vitality, for it has brought together peoples of different races, religions, languages, and political persuasions in a voluntary union that has withstood the tests of time relatively well. This was not quite a case of natural harmony, but rather of agreeing to live and work together in the common interest despite the many differences, which makes it particularly interesting in a period of rapid globalization. Other features of special interest are its neutrality, direct democracy, and devolution of powers (now known as subsidiarity), which may also have lessons to teach. This does not necessarily make Switzerland an ideal model—there are less admirable aspects as well—but it is definitely a place one should know more about. Alas, its considerable diversity and complexity make it harder to fathom than most other places, but fortunately that is taken into account in Historical Dictionary of Switzerland. The chronology charts a long and tortuous path to unity and the sometimes unsteady progression to the present day. The introduction then makes sense of this history, focusing on the main trends and showing the end result. But the dictionary section is the most important, since it includes information on the component units, not only the cantons but also the main cities and some communes, Swiss who were particularly prominent in the history of their own country and of those they migrated to, the main political institutions and crucial economic facts and actors, some old traditions that are still preserved, and the geographic base from which it all derived. The bibliography then offers further scope for exploration.

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