In 1954 Leon Festinger, a brilliant young experimental social psychologist in the process of outlining a new theory of human behavior - the theory of cognitive dissonance - and his colleagues infiltrated a cult who believed the end of the world was only months away. How would these people feel when their prophecy remained unfulfilled? Would they ad...more

"Silver" Winner of the 2008 Foreword Magazine Book of the Year Award, Religion CategoryBefore he began his recent travels, it seemed to Phil Zuckerman as if humans all over the globe were “getting religion”—praising deities, performing holy rites, and soberly defending the world from sin. But most residents of Denmark and Sweden, he found...more

The Fellowship of the Ring, part one of J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic masterpiece, fist reached these shores on October 21, 1954, arriving, as C. S. Lewis proclaimed, "like lightning from a clear sky." Fifty years and nearly one hundred million American readers later comes a beautiful new one-volume collector’s edition befitting the stature of this cro...more

Outstanding translations by leading contemporary scholars -- many commissioned especially for this volume -- are presented here in the first single edition to include the entire surviving corpus of works attributed to Plato in antiquity. In his introductory essay, John Cooper explains the presentation of these works, discusses questions concerning ...more

Based on the life of a little known writer, Rostand's hero has become a figure of theatrical legend: Cyrano, with the nose of a clown and the soul of a poet, is by turns comic and sad, as reckless in love as in war, and never at a loss for words. The text is accompanied by Notes and a full Introduction which sets the play in its literary and histor...more

BEAR IN MIND THAT THE MEASURE OF A MAN IS THE WORTH OF THE THINGS HE CARES ABOUT. IF IT IS GOOD TO SAY OR DO SOMETHING, THEN IT IS EVEN BETTER TO BE CRITICIZED FOR HAVING SAID OR DONE IT. ARE MY GUIDING PRINCIPLES HEALTHY AND ROBUST? ON THIS HANGS EVERYTHING. Essayist Matthew Arnold described the man who wrote these words as "the most beautiful ...more