Showing results by author "A. Rivers" in All Categories

Gnosticism is one of the great mysteries in the history of Western religion. At its core is an ancient Greek word, gnosis, a word prominent in the writings of Plato which refers to a deep personal knowledge or understanding that often transcends the physical world. The Gnostics painted a picture of a fallen, broken world in which physicality was a product of a lesser deity. This deity was created in defiance of the One and in order to trap humans and blind them to the truths of their predicament and divine origins.

The Japanese had to deal with large numbers of Filipino and American soldiers who had surrendered after a lengthy defense in the Bataan peninsula, but they were not prepared for so many prisoners of war because their own military philosophy emphasized rigid discipline and fighting until the end. They could not imagine a situation in which Japanese soldiers would willingly surrender, so they assumed that no other combatants would do so either.

The Polish invasion proved invaluable in providing the German high command with a low-risk, high-value live-fire exercise for their newly minted war machine, while the actual combat experience highlighted the remaining flaws in the system. During the campaign, the Germans honed tactics and weapon systems for the massive struggle with the Soviets, British, and US that loomed on the horizon.

Theologian and reformer John Wycliffe never had the opportunity to take his doctrines outside of his native England, but he could never have imagined that his teachings would one day travel as far as 920 miles east to Bohemia. In fact, while his contentious convictions aroused much ado....

You know what you need to do. So why can't you just… do it? The inner critic won't shut up. The to-do list keeps growing. You've tried discipline, motivation hacks, and pep talks, but you're still stuck in the same loop: overthinking, starting, stopping, shame-spiraling, repeat. What if the problem isn't you? It's how you're talking to yourself. This book gives you a simple, proven framework, inspired by Internal Family Systems, to stop fighting yourself and start leading yourself. No couch required. No jargon. Just short, repeatable practices (3–10 minutes) that help you quiet the ...

Without question, the most famous battle of the American Civil War took place outside of the small town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, which happened to be a transportation hub, serving as the center of a wheel with several roads leading out to other Pennsylvanian towns.

By the golden age of the mountain man in the mid-19th-century, there were perhaps only 3,000 living in the West. Their origins were disparate, although they included many Anglo-Americans. A good number hailed from wilderness regions of Kentucky and Virginia and throughout the newly purchased Louisiana Territory, which occupied the entire central section of the continent. French Canadians traveled from the north to work in the fur trade, while Creole-Europeans represented approximately 15 percent of the men known to be living the isolated mountain life.

When the Spanish came into contact with different tribes in the Southwest, they were so intrigued by the structure of the communities that they gave the natives the name Pueblo, a term they used to measure certain sizes for their own settlements. Thus, while most Americans have heard of the Pueblo and Navajo, many remain unfamiliar with distinctions within the tribes.

El estudio de los evangelios apócrifos - relatos de la vida o dichos de Jesús que no entraron al Nuevo Testamento - es una disciplina popular entre los académicos que llena ya varios estantes de cualquier biblioteca respetable.

Elizabeth Moore is on the run, hiding under a false name in the quiet town of Cedar Ridge, Colorado. All she wants is a chance to clear her name and disappear again, but she never counted on finding friendship or the quiet strength of a rancher who sees past her guarded smile. She knows better than to get attached. Still, Cedar Ridge feels like home in a way nothing else ever has. Sam Callahan didn't ask to become a parent, but after his brother's death, he's all his niece and nephew have left. Grief has hardened him, but the new schoolteacher's gentle presence begins to crack through his ...

Like most black soldiers, the 54th Massachusetts received discriminatory treatment from the army, despite the fact that the 54th acquitted itself well in a nearly suicidal attack at Fort Wagner. As a result the 54th fought in several battles of lesser note, and they might have faded into obscurity if not for the critically acclaimed movie Glory, which looked at the lives of its commander, Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, and its soldiers. Today, the 54th Massachusetts is perhaps the most famous regiment of the entire war.

The world is filled with mysteries, and even in the modern age, much of the planet remains unexplored. The depths of the oceans and the intricate and extensive cave systems that honeycomb some parts of the Earth are still largely unknown. Thus, it should come as no surprise that when it comes to this terra incognita, people have projected all sorts of ideas.

Mae Finch's grandmother, eager to see her granddaughter married, arranges a mail-order groom for her. Though hesitant, Mae agrees to honor her wish, but she never expected her future husband to be the mysterious Gideon, a man with a troubled past, seeking a new start. Gideon wants to marry Mae as a cover while tracking the Dust Devil gang, with no plans for love. Yet, the more time he spends with her, the harder it is to stay detached, and he soon finds himself falling for the woman he’s sworn to protect from danger. When the Rusty Reapers uncover his mission and everything is at risk, ...

From the Lowcountry's first recorded duel to old-fashioned summers at the "hottest spot in town," this book will captivate you with stories of people, events, and places that have all but vanished from memory. Find out the real history behind some of Charleston's beloved mansions and learn about the early plantations and their owners. Join the authors as they relate the riots and romance, the preservation and politics—and even a ghost story—from Charleston's hidden history.

The 15th century was a pivotal era for Europe, during which it transitioned from a social and religious union under Christendom into a disparate collection of nation-states, and it was during this period that the Middle Ages came to an end and the Modern Period began. Less than a century earlier, in the mid-14th century, the Vatican called upon England and sought financial aid in the hopes of boosting papal defenses against French forces

A little more than 100 years ago a Mexican peasant named Emiliano Zapata gathered a rural army from the plantations and villages of southern Mexico, seized the lands of the haciendas, and began to distribute them among the peasants of Anenecuilco, his hometown, in the state of Morelos. Outraged and impatient with the ceaseless destitution of the indigenous peoples at the hands of the landowners, he had decided to take justice in his hands.

Don't tell a soul, but I walked away from my NHL career for one reason: Josie Richards. Fifteen years younger, yet she owns me in ways no one could understand. She's my enemy on ice—a figure skating ice queen with a rebellious streak that makes more than my palm twitch. But after her ice skating accident, she's broken. Fear controls her now, and I'm done watching her drawn in it. I'm her new coach—on and off the ice—and I'll drag her back to the top if it's the last thing I do. What didn't I expect? Knocking her up. I thought raising my niece prepared me for fatherhood.

Discover the the life and accomplishments of Max Planck, theoretical physicist whose revolutionary discovery of energy quanta and formulation of fundamental quantum theory allowed for countless others to expand on the knowledge of atomic processes.

This is the story of Santa Muerte, the so-called cult of crisis, a red-hot combo of a kermesse (Mexican carnival), Catholicism and New Age; a hedonist practice but involving bodily sacrifice too. It is an expression of economic, psychological and social forces, bigger than perhaps any of her acolytes suspect. This book looks at the folk saint and the manner in which her cult grew. You will learn about Santa Muerte like never before.

As labor unions and movements began to form and coalesce in the 19th century, the tensions between workers and companies led to demonstrations, encounters, and even conflicts that descended into violence. Among those, none were larger than the colloquially known Battle of Blair Mountain, which pitted West Virginian miners against authorities in 1921. It represented the largest labor uprising in American history and the largest armed uprising in the country since the Civil War, and it would have lasting ramifications on unions and labor moving forward.