Andrew Williams

Using iPods or portable CD players, millions of people take their music with them every day to modify their daily experiences. Encased in headphones, they listen to music for entertainment, but also use it, among other things, as a buffer between themselves and the world outside, and to manage their moods. What is it about music that makes it useful in different ways to so many people? Have people always used music in these ways, or only since the technology of the Walkman and then the mp3 player made music portable? In this wide-ranging exploration of how and why we use portable music, Andrew Williams sheds new light on the role music plays in our everyday lives. Portable Music and Its Functions will be of use to students and scholars of sociology and cultural studies as well as of musicology.

Despite recent constitutional arrangements, human rights remain an ambiguous and complex subject in the European Union. Human rights issues may have become increasingly relevant to the life of the EU over the past thirty years but there has been an institutional reluctance to mould a unified human rights policy worthy of the name. Nevertheless, the EU's practices have not been constructed randomly: they have evolved within discrete policy realms along coherent narrative lines. From the arguably mythical basis that the EU was founded upon a general principle of respect for human rights; policies and practices have developed along two distinct paths. Internally, within the EU, human rights are contingent. Scrutiny is erratic and even casual, and enforcement is left to the courts and independent agencies. Externally, in the EU's interactions with non-members, however, the story is very different: human rights are broad in concept. Collective notions of rights are accepted and promoted. Scrutiny can be intrusive and effective, and systems of enforcement, increasingly severe in scope and strength, have been applied. This bifurcation has direct implications for the EU's constitutional structure and its future human rights activities. It suggests that, through human rights language, conditions for conflict rather than integration have arisen, and that a system of double standards has been instituted. Williams therefore argues that the EU's claims to a credible human rights policy are suspect. This book examines the nature and scope of the bifurcation and explains its origins and development. In doing so it questions orthodox interpretations and provides a radical new reading of the EU's human rights law and practice. At its heart, the book claims that without a fundamental reappraisal of the basis upon which the EU responds to human rights, it will remain plagued by this ironical condition.

Nightfall, 6 June 1944. D-Day is over and the Allies have carved a tenuous foothold in 'Fortress Europe'. The future of Europe hangs in the balance as Hitler's formidable SS Panzer troops threaten to drive them back into the sea. D-Day to Berlin is the remarkable story of the Allied struggle for survival - the battle from the beaches of Normandy to the heart of Hitler's Reich and ultimate victory just eleven months later. The campaign to free Europe from Nazi oppression through the collective operations from D-Day to Berlin mark one of the greatest ever military offensives. The Allies overcame initial setbacks to inflict a devastating defeat on Hitler's crack divisions in France - a victory that was threatened just months later in the bitter winter fighting of the Battle of the Bulge. The final crossing of the Rhine and the advance into Germany changed the course of European history forever. In D-Day to Berlin we meet men and women from both sides - British, American and German soldiers - whose bravery and endurance made the final push through Europe the defining drama of the Second World War.

Despite recent constitutional arrangements, human rights remain an ambiguous and complex subject in the European Union. Human rights issues may have become increasingly relevant to the life of the EU over the past thirty years but there has been an institutional reluctance to mould a unified human rights policy worthy of the name. Nevertheless, the EU's practices have not been constructed randomly: they have evolved within discrete policy realms along coherent narrative lines. From the arguably mythical basis that the EU was founded upon a general principle of respect for human rights; policies and practices have developed along two distinct paths. Internally, within the EU, human rights are contingent. Scrutiny is erratic and even casual, and enforcement is left to the courts and independent agencies. Externally, in the EU's interactions with non-members, however, the story is very different: human rights are broad in concept. Collective notions of rights are accepted and promoted. Scrutiny can be intrusive and effective, and systems of enforcement, increasingly severe in scope and strength, have been applied. This bifurcation has direct implications for the EU's constitutional structure and its future human rights activities. It suggests that, through human rights language, conditions for conflict rather than integration have arisen, and that a system of double standards has been instituted. Williams therefore argues that the EU's claims to a credible human rights policy are suspect. This book examines the nature and scope of the bifurcation and explains its origins and development. In doing so it questions orthodox interpretations and provides a radical new reading of the EU's human rights law and practice. At its heart, the book claims that without a fundamental reappraisal of the basis upon which the EU responds to human rights, it will remain plagued by this ironical condition.

Introducing the application of free energy correlations to elucidating the mechanisms of organic and bio-organic reactions, this book provides a new and illuminating way of approaching a potentially complex topic. The idea of how free energy correlations derive from polar substituent change is introduced, and common pitfalls encountered in the application of free energy relationships are described, along with the use of these anomalies in mechanistic studies. The concept of effective charge is described in detail, with examples of its application. Throughout, worked answers are provided for the problems posed. Databases of parameters, an extensive bibliography and comprehensive lists of further reading are also included. The text provides an invaluable source of information to senior undergraduates, postgraduates and to industrial researchers with an interest in mechanistic studies. It is the first such book in more than thirty years.

From 1939 until 1942, Hitler's U-boats - his 'grey wolves' - threatened to accomplish what his air force had hitherto been unable to achieve: to starve Britain into submission.

The concept of concerted mechanisms was formulated nearly 90 years ago and virtually all general organic chemistry texts mention it. Until now, however, no monograph has addressed the concept explicitly. Over the last two decades, substantial advancements made in the development of precise methods for elucidating concerted mechanisms have heightened the need for a comprehensive text on the subject. Concerted Organic and Bio-organic Mechanisms gathers the salient materials related to this emerging field into a single text. It sets forth the precise definition of concertedness-along with working sub-definitions-and describes rigorous experimental tools chemists can use to diagnose the existence or absence of concerted mechanisms. Advances in our understanding of concerted mechanisms lead to further questions. Concerted Organic and Bio-organic Mechanisms provides the background and the tools researchers need to consider these important questions and further advance the frontiers of reactions, synthesis, and catalysis.

This is a practical guide showing how to undertake a domestic building survey. The text describes the practical aspects of surveying with a full description of the author's own experience, at the same time drawing out the important principles involved.