“…The 2020 World Happiness Report suggests that rural residents in Northern and Western Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand are generally happier than their urban counterparts. …”

“…Experiences from the identified mini-HTA systems and evaluations of their function are used to develop a Norwegian mini-HTA version and to pilot a project for mini-HTA in the Western Norway Regional Health Authority…”

“…"This volume addresses the exercise of personal autonomy in contemporary situations of normative pluralism. In the Western liberal tradition, from a strictly legal and theoretical perspective the social individual has the right to exercise the autonomy of his or her will. …”

“…These differences are therefore also explored in depth within the book.By focusing on Poland, the book provides a different perspective to criminal career research, which is generally limited to a few countries in Western Europe and the United States.The book will be of great interest to academics and students who are developing their own research in the fields of criminal careers, juvenile delinquency, and antisocial behaviours by young people. …”

“…The US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, non-traditional security threats, global economic instability, the apparent spread of authoritarianism and illiberal politics, together with the rise of emerging powers from the Global South have led many to predict the end of Western dominance on the global stage. This book brings together scholars from international relations, economics, history, sociology and area studies to debate the future of US leadership in the international system. …”

“…But in this moment of what author Ryan Claycomb terms the "rightward lurch" of western democracies, does this idealized space of democratic deliberation remain effective? …”

“…Calling attention to their presence in Western history, Weiner points out that her formulations are not limited to Oceania. …”

“…Where one essay illustrates the workings of medieval mysticism in the work of Freud's most famous patient, Daniel Paul Schreber, author of "Memoirs of My Nervous Illness" (1903), another looks at Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri's Empire, a theoretical synthesis whose conscientious medievalism was the subject of much polemic in the post-9/11 era, in which premodernity itself was perceived as a threat to western values. The collection concludes with an afterword by Fredric Jameson, a theorist of postmodernism who has engaged with the medieval throughout his career…”

“…Generously illustrated, The Meaning of the Library examines this key institution of Western culture. Tracing what the library has meant since its beginning, examining how its significance has shifted, and pondering its importance in the twenty-first century, significant contributors--including the librarian of the Congress and the former executive director of the HathiTrust--present a cultural history of the library. …”

“…As Spaniards consolidated their hold over central Mexico they fanned out in several directions, first entering western Mexico - the future New Galicia - in 1524. …”

“…This state-of-the art look at mothers and mothering in the ancient world also takes on a contemporary relevance as the authors join current debates on motherhood and suggest links between the lives of ancient mothers and the diverse, often conflicting roles of women in modern Western society…”

“…This volume contains: (1) Hugh's On the Ark of Noah and A Short Treatise on the Form of the Ark, treatises that unfold Hugh's teaching on stages and fruition of the mystical quest in relation to a complex drawing that incorporates a figure of Christ seated in majesty, embracing a map of the world on which is superimposed a diagram of Noah's Ark, representing the 12 stages of the contemplative quest; (2) Richard's On the Ark of Moses, a work that uses the symbolic (allegorical and tropological) interpretation of the Ark of the Covenant and the figures of the Cherubim that accompany the Ark in the Jerusalem Temple to convey Richard's vivid and compelling teaching on the varieties of contemplative experience as he understood them in twelfth-century Paris; and (3) Thomas Gallus' Commentary on the Song of Songs, which offers a window into a formative period of transition in the western Christian spiritual tradition, with Gallus's commentary on the Song of Songs giving voice to a more "affective" (versus "speculative") understanding of the mystical quest and experience, drawing upon and extending earlier Victorine explorations of the interrelationship of love and knowing in the experience of contemplation -- Editor…”

“…Galileo's encounter with the Catholic Church was not only a major turning point in the history of western culture; it is the paradigm case of the clash between the institutional authority of religion and the authority of scientific reason, a clash that has come to define the modern era. …”

“…Addressing the Europe Union's twenty-first century challenges, this study looks at the policies of the EU towards its neighbours as a critical dimension of the totality of the EU's foreign and security policy.This volume brings together a broad range of scholars and seeks to highlight some of the main issues that concern the European relations with its neighbour's countries in the Western Balkans, the Eastern and Southern Europe, and with Russia. …”

“…By listening to people's voices rather than purely counting heads, it offers a fresh history of de-christianization, and predicts that the British experience since the 1960s is emblematic of the destiny of the whole of western Christianity…”

“…Drawing on the fields of narratology and linguistics, Beck demonstrates that the Iliad and the Odyssey represent speech in a broader and more nuanced manner than has been perceived before, enabling us to re-evaluate our understanding of supposedly "modern" techniques of speech representation and to refine our idea of where Homeric poetry belongs in the history of Western literature. She also broadens ideas of narratology by connecting them more strongly with relevant areas of linguistics, as she uses both to examine the full range of speech representational strategies in the Homeric poems. …”

“…Up through the Middle Ages, red held a place of privilege in the Western world. For many cultures, red was not just one color of many but rather the only color worthy enough to be used for social purposes--in some languages, the word for red was the same as the word for color. …”

“…But Soviet prosecutors at Nuremberg were unable to deal comfortably with the complexities of an open, western-style legal proceeding, which undercut their effectiveness throughout the trial. …”

“…, Brian Leiter argues that the reasons have nothing to do with religion, and that Western democracies are wrong to single out religious liberty for special legal protections. …”

“…From Machiavelli to Hobbes, Freud to Dawkins, the roots of this belief have sunk deep into Western thought. Human beings, we're taught, are by nature selfish and governed by self-interest. …”