Since Aristotle's famous declaration that the speculative sciences originated with the emergence of a leisure class, it has been accepted as a truism that intellectual activity requires political stability and leisure in order to flourish. Paradoxically, however, some of the most powerful and influential contributions to Western intellectual culture have been produced in conditions that were adverse-indeed hostile-to intellectual activity. Examples include Socrates' stirring defense of the examined life before a hostile Athenian jury, Boethius writing The Consolation of Philosophy under the specter of impending torture and execution, Galileo devising key notions for modern mechanics while under house arrest, and Jean-Paul Sartre drafting portions of Being and Nothingness in his war diaries, to name only a few of the most famous incidents-all extraordinary achievements spawned, developed or completed in adversity. In cases such as these, a philosopher or scientist must manage somehow to remain intellectually creative and focused despite living in conditions that are adverse or hostile to thought. In brief, they are working on ideas under fire. This book is a survey of several momentous cases of philosophers and scientists working under fire. Each chapter of Ideas Under Fire explores a particular case or set of related cases. For each case contributors consider two questions: How did the individual at the center of a particular moment of discovery overcome such formidable obstacles to leisure and conceptually abstract thought? And how did adversity shape their thinking under fire? Each chapter has been written by a specialist on its respective subject, and the book covers every period of Western history. All the chapters are written in an accessible style that is intended to appeal to both specialists and generalists.

David Rodriguez, or Padre David as he is known throughout El Salvador, is a diocesan priest who followed the Second Vatican Council's doctrinal mandate to advocate for the poor and oppressed. Along with other progressive clergy committed to liberation theology, Padre David helped drive forward the country’s popular movement. In the 1970s, Padre David joined the largest guerilla organization in El Salvador, the FPL (Popular Liberation Forces). At first, he supported the FPL clandestinely, helping to organize Christian Base Communities, autonomous religious groups dedicated to spreading liberationist ideas and to giving the Salvadoran poor a clear understanding of why their lives were so difficult. By the end of the twelve-year civil war, he was head of the FPL's finance committee. He traveled to the United States, Europe, and across Latin America raising funds for the movement and its resulting political party, the FMLN (Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front). In Priest Under Fire, Peter Sánchez tells the story of how one priest joined a movement to help his people and his country. He provides much-needed insight into both the Salvadoran civil war and the Catholic Church-influenced grassroots political movements, showing that they continue to inform Latin America today.

Why Read This Book? Unless we hide our faith as Christians, we will occasionally be somebody's target. Do we settle for: "You have your beliefs and I have mine, let's leave it at that"? Or do we take to heart the admonition of 1 Peter 3:15: "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have."? Taking the latter course will undoubtedly launch us into a series of joys and fears. It will test our faith, affect friendships and maybe even put our family at risk. This story is an attempt to portray the battles of an ordinary small town man who tries to balance commitment to work, family, community and his Christian faith with some joyful fruit and some heart wrenching results. Henry Wiebe was born in Hearst, Ontario but moved with his parents to Abbotsford, B.C. at age 9. After graduating from a Christian Mennonite high school he entered the elementary school teaching profession for 24 years, 15 as a principal. He was then invited to join the staff of Sevenoaks Alliance Church in Abbotsford as Pastor for Christian Education. After 10 years on staff there Henry served in Kijabe, Kenya as a volunteer teacher at Moffat Bible College for one year while his wife, Helen, assisted in station administration. Upon returning to Canada he became the Senior Pastor of Oliver Alliance Church for nearly 7 years and has since retirement served as voluntary Pastor for Seniors in the same church. You are invited to send any response to Henry Wiebe at RR#4, S15B, C13 Oliver, B.C. V0H 1T0 or email him at [email protected]

Cecily N. Zander’s The Army under Fire is a pathbreaking study focusing on the fierce political debates over the size and use of military forces in the United States during the Civil War era. It examines how prominent political figures interacted with the professional army and how those same leaders misunderstood the value of regular soldiers fighting to reunify the fractured nation.

The Bolshevik leaders who built the Red Army from the shattered remnants of the Imperial Russian Army after World War I were far more innovative and pragmatic than usually believed. These men had a clear vision of what they needed from their armed forces and sustained that vision through years of sustained combat. Many of their efforts were squandered, however, when they attacked an enemy that was far different from the forces they had built their Army against. In the end, a force that had triumphed against incredible odds to dominate a substantial portion of the earth's landmass was thrown back and humiliated by a second-rate power. This case study illuminates the dangers inherent in simultaneously conducting sustained combat operations and military transformation. Ominously, many of these same trends are currently manifesting themselves in American military transformation efforts.

The devastating fire that swept through Los Alamos, New Mexico, in the spring of 2000 may have been caused by one controlled burn gone wild, but it was far from an isolated event. All through the twentieth century, our national forests have been under assault from all sides: first ranchers and loggers laid their claims to our national forests, then recreationists and environmentalists spoke up for their interests. Who are our national forests really for? In this book, leading environmental historians show us what has been happening to these fragile woodlands. Taking us from lumber towns to Indian reservations to grazing lands, Forests under Fire reveals the interaction of Anglos, Hispanics, and Native Americans with the forests of the American Southwest. It examines recent controversies ranging from red squirrel conservation on Mt. Graham to increased tourism in our national forests. These case studies offer insights into human-forest relationships in places such as the Coconino National Forest, the Vallecitos Sustained Yield Unit, and the Gila Wilderness Area while also drawing on issues and concerns about similar biospheres in other parts of the West. Over the past century, forest management has evolved from a field dominated by the "conservationist" perspective—with humans exploiting natural resources-to one that emphasizes biocentrism, in which forests are seen as dynamic ecosystems. Yet despite this progressive shift, the assault on our forests continues through overgrazing of rangelands, lumbering, eroding mountainsides, fire suppression, and threats to the habitats of endangered species. Forests under Fire takes a closer look at the people calling the shots in our national forests, from advocates of timber harvesting to champions of ecosystem management, and calls for a reassessment of our priorities—before our forests are gone. Contents Introduction: Toward a Twenty-First-Century Forest Ecosystem Management Strategy / Christopher J. Huggard Industry and Indian Self-Determination: Northern Arizona’s Apache Lumbering Empire, 1870-1970 / Arthur R. Gómez A Social History of McPhee: Colorado’s Largest Lumber Town / Duane A. Smith The Vallecitos Federal Sustained-Yield Unit: The (All Too) Human Dimension of Forest Management in Northern New Mexico, 1945-1998 / Suzanne S. Forrest Grazing the Southwest Borderlands: The Peloncillo-Animas District of the Coronado National Forest in Arizona and New Mexico, 1906-1996 / Diana Hadley America’s First Wilderness Area: Aldo Leopold, the Forest Service, and the Gila of New Mexico, 1924-1980 / Christopher J. Huggard "Where There’s Smoke": Wildfire Policy and Suppression in the American Southwest / John Herron Struggle in an Endangered Empire: The Search for Total Ecosystem Management in the Forests of Southern Utah, 1976-1999 / Thomas G. Alexander Biopolitics: A Case Study of Political Influence on Forest Management Decisions, Coronado National Forest, Arizona, 1980s-1990s / Paul W. Hirt Epilogue: Seeing the Forest Not for the Trees: The Future of Southwestern Forests in Retrospect / Hal K. Rothman

Introduction: building South Vietnam -- "The Virgin Mary is going south": refugee resettlement in South Vietnam -- Civil servants and cold warriors: technical assistance in public administration -- Sowing the seeds of discontent: American agricultural-development programs in South Vietnam -- Policing the insurgency: police administration and internal security in South Vietnam -- Teaching loyalty: Educational development and the strategic hamlet program -- Conclusion: "Ears of stone