Michael Levin

Everyone thinks kids hate math. But the truth is, kids don’t hate math—they hate worksheets! Writing down equations takes fine motor skills that young children haven't yet developed, making the process of learning math difficult and tedious. Math done mentally, or verbal math, makes math fun. Children see math problems as a game and a challenge. In the second edition of this pioneering educational bestseller, handwriting is removed from math problems to help children cement fundamental mathematical skills so that they may solve problems without having to do any writing at all. Developed as a supplement to traditional math education, the lesson is completely comprehensive, step-by-step, and leaves no area undone. The first book of the series introduces children to the basic concept of adding and subtracting, and works its way up to math problems involving numbers with double digits. The book is meant for children between the ages of 5 and 7.

The years between the American Revolution of 1776, the French Revolution of 1789 and the European Revolutions of 1848 saw fundamental shifts from autocracy to emerging democracy. It is a vital period in what may be termed 'modernity': that is of the western societies that are increasingly industrial, capitalist and liberal democratic. Unsurprisingly, these years of stress and transition produced some significant reflections on politics and society.This indispensable introductory text considers how a cluster of key thinkers viewed the global political upheavals and social changes of their time, covering the work of:• Edmund Burke * Georg Hegel • Thomas Paine * Alexis de Tocqueville• Jeremy Bentham * Karl Marx and Friedrich EngelsLively and approachable, it is essential reading for anyone with an interest in modern history, political history or political thought.

The years between the American Revolution of 1776, the French Revolution of 1789 and the European Revolutions of 1848 saw fundamental shifts from autocracy to emerging democracy. It is a vital period in what may be termed 'modernity': that is of the western societies that are increasingly industrial, capitalist and liberal democratic. Unsurprisingly, these years of stress and transition produced some significant reflections on politics and society.This indispensable introductory text considers how a cluster of key thinkers viewed the global political upheavals and social changes of their time, covering the work of:• Edmund Burke * Georg Hegel • Thomas Paine * Alexis de Tocqueville• Jeremy Bentham * Karl Marx and Friedrich EngelsLively and approachable, it is essential reading for anyone with an interest in modern history, political history or political thought.

In a recent feature profile, the American fine art magazine Focus declared that "Michael Levin's captivating images are soulful and evocative; he is truly one of the rising stars in photography."Using long exposures, Levin reduces the landscape to elemental shapes. Each image has a simplicity and purity capturing the essence of the landscape. Many of his photographs feature water and clouds and show what has been described as "the smooth skin of light," yet it is the architectural intrusions into these clean spaces that most engage him.Exhibitions in Canada and United States are to be confirmed.

These are uncertain times. The balance of power is continually shifting worldwide. In The Next Great Clash, Michael Levin presents evidence of a global political order on the verge of a historic power shift from West to East. A reemerging China is the only nation with the latent capacity to challenge American hegemony, and Levin demonstrates that such challenges to the status quo usually lead to war. Russia, even in its diminished capacity since the end of the Cold War, has deftly positioned itself as the swing player in a future conflict between the United States and China. Levin contends that, since the turn of the century, the global War on Terror has distracted the United States from these developments, as China and Russia draw closer together in an alliance that may well displace American primacy. The Next Great Clash, augmented by personal experience in China, Russia, and the United States, combines years of scholarly research and political analysis—along with a riveting and up-to-date history of Chinese-Russian relations. This bold and iconoclastic tour de horizon is a must-read for anyone interested in international affairs.

John Stuart Mill's best-known work is On Liberty (1859). In it he declared that Western society was in danger of coming to a standstill. To understand how Mill came to this conclusion requires one to investigate his notion of the stages from barbarism to civilisation, and also his belief in imperialism as part of the civilising process. This study encompasses discourses on the blessings, curses and dangers of modernisation from approximately the time of the American and French revolutions to that of the so-called mid-Victorian calm in which On Liberty was written. Current political issues concerning the West and Islamic countries have heightened interest in just the kind of question that this book discusses: that of how the West relates to, and assesses, the rest of the world.

John Stuart Mill's best-known work is On Liberty (1859). In it he declared that Western society was in danger of coming to a standstill. To understand how Mill came to this conclusion requires one to investigate his notion of the stages from barbarism to civilisation, and also his belief in imperialism as part of the civilising process. This study encompasses discourses on the blessings, curses and dangers of modernisation from approximately the time of the American and French revolutions to that of the so-called mid-Victorian calm in which On Liberty was written. Current political issues concerning the West and Islamic countries have heightened interest in just the kind of question that this book discusses: that of how the West relates to, and assesses, the rest of the world.

The book views the 'hungry forties' through the writings of the conservative Thomas Carlyle, the liberal John Stuart Mill and the socialist Friedrich Engels. It is unsurprising that one of the most fraught decades of modern British history produced socio-political literature of such interest and intensity. The rapid growth of industrial cities, the emergence of working-class organizations and rising middle class power as well as revolutions abroad in 1848 made this a tumultuous time. These writers provide extensive, diverse and high quality reflections on the tensions produced in this key period of transition to an industrial, democratic society.

Levin traces the century and a half between the American and French revolutions and the end of the First World War, a key period for public debate over democratization. Examining the writings and ideology of a variety of anti-democratic thinkers, he illustrates how arguments for franchise extention had to contend with a deeply entrenched antipathy to democratic ideas. Only if we resurrect expressions of this opposition, he argues, and recall the dominant values that democracy challenged, are we able to understand the historical and ideological context from which modern western values and institutions emerged.

This study examines the arguments that the democratic movement has had to overcome. A history of franchise extension in the USA, France, Germany and the United Kingdom provides the context for examining the attitudes to democracy of John Adams, de Tocqueville, Hegel and Carlyle.

Combining philosophical rigor with detailed knowledge of a wide range of subjects, Michael Levin presents a thorough examination of feminism as both a theory and as a generator of social policy. His book provides a much-needed counterweight to uncritical feminist scholarship prevalent in so much social science writing. Levin argues that feminists deny that innate sex differences have anything to do with the basic structure of society. He shows how this denial leads feminists to interpret observable differences between male and female roles as the result of discrimination and restricting social conditioning rather than as the free expression of basic preferences. Levin concludes that feminist proposals for remedying this imaginary oppression systematically thwart individual liberty. The first chapters of Feminism and Freedom show the conflict between feminist ideology and recent developments in anthropology, neurology, child psychology, and behavioral genetics, as basic principles of scientific method. The author then moves to a wide-ranging discussion of affirmative action, comparable worth, and the impact of feminism on education, military manpower policy, language, family life and sports—showing in each case how feminist policies run counter to classical liberalism. Written in a lively, challenging, and accessible style, as controversial as it is timely, Feminism and Freedom is must reading for anyone interested in understanding society and preserving liberty. Michael Levin is a professor of philosophy at the City College of New York and the Graduate Center of City University of New York. He is the author of Metaphysics and the Mind-Body Problem, and has written extensively on ethics, epistemology, and the foundations of science and mathematics.