John Edwards

This book provides a comprehensive and compelling history of the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella form the origins and upbringing of the two rulers, through the events and circumstances of their rule, to the consequences for the following generations.

Religion and intolerance have always been close bedfellows. The Spanish Inquisition took this truth to new extremes, it is synonymous with persecution and purges of horror. Edward''s new account seeks to explain this phenomenon.'

Religious education in liberal pluralist societies such as the UK, the USA, and Australian underwent radical change in the 1980s and 1990s, with a major shift towards multi-faith, educationally oriented programmes. This has meant significant modifications to both the content and the methodology of religious-education courses and to the way they are conceived of and taught in schools and universities. One important implication of this change for the teaching and study of religion today is the need for a philosophical dimension that deals with issues such as the truth status of religious statements and the moral acceptability of religious claims. This dimension is often insufficiently developed; this lack is made more critical by the multiple competing truth claims of various religions, giving rise to such contentious problems as the growth of fundamentalism, increasing religious intolerance and conflict, and differences of opinion on central moral problems such as birth control, abortion and euthanasia. This text attempts to provide the philosophical underpinning that the study and teaching of religion in modern societies requires.

Religious education in liberal pluralist societies such as the UK, the USA, and Australian underwent radical change in the 1980s and 1990s, with a major shift towards multi-faith, educationally oriented programmes. This has meant significant modifications to both the content and the methodology of religious-education courses and to the way they are conceived of and taught in schools and universities. One important implication of this change for the teaching and study of religion today is the need for a philosophical dimension that deals with issues such as the truth status of religious statements and the moral acceptability of religious claims. This dimension is often insufficiently developed; this lack is made more critical by the multiple competing truth claims of various religions, giving rise to such contentious problems as the growth of fundamentalism, increasing religious intolerance and conflict, and differences of opinion on central moral problems such as birth control, abortion and euthanasia. This text attempts to provide the philosophical underpinning that the study and teaching of religion in modern societies requires.

The articles in this volume explore both individual and corporate aspects of religion in Spain during the 15th and 16th centuries - Jewish, Christian and Muslim. John Edwards looks in particular at the status, experience, and attitudes of the conversos, those who had converted to Christianity to avoid expulsion from Spain, and at the activities of the Inquisition. In the second part of the book he expands his analysis to examine the social, economic, and political basis of religious conflict in the period. The primary focus of the book is on the cities of Andalucia, Cordoba above all, but its concerns extend to Castile and Aragon as well.

When Race Counts investigates the use of race-conscious practices in social policy in Britain and America. It questions the distinction between affirmative action and preferential treatment, and evaluates the effectiveness of a range of education and employment policies designed to counteract both unintended and direct discrimination against ethnic minorities. The book uses both empirical and moral analyses to examine the controversial dilemma of whether and in what circumstances preferential treatment may be used as a means of improving the condition of minority groups. John Edwards looks at justifications for overriding the merit principle, particularly in employment, and shows who bears the costs of such a policy, and where the benefits lie. He argues that the merit principle is in itself so flawed that to override it would cause no great damange to justice. He then sets out the requirements of an acceptable policy of minority preference tailored to the disadvantages of specific minority groups.

When Race Counts investigates the use of race-conscious practices in social policy in Britain and America. It questions the distinction between affirmative action and preferential treatment, and evaluates the effectiveness of a range of education and employment policies designed to counteract both unintended and direct discrimination against ethnic minorities. The book uses both empirical and moral analyses to examine the controversial dilemma of whether and in what circumstances preferential treatment may be used as a means of improving the condition of minority groups. John Edwards looks at justifications for overriding the merit principle, particularly in employment, and shows who bears the costs of such a policy, and where the benefits lie. He argues that the merit principle is in itself so flawed that to override it would cause no great damange to justice. He then sets out the requirements of an acceptable policy of minority preference tailored to the disadvantages of specific minority groups.

By looking at the effect of language difference, rather than at theories of language, John Edwards examines the interaction of language with nationalism, politics, history, identity and education. He illustrates his arguments with a rangew of examples, from recent attempts to revive and preserve languages such as Irish and Basque, to the argument over French and English in Canada and the `US English' campaign. He also examines the linguistic myopia of those who would seek to elevate one language over another. Multilingualism unpicks the complexity associated with a world of so many languages, and creates an overview which is multidisciplinary in focus. Its mixture of curious facts, wit and eloquence, will appeal to anyone who cares about the role of language in society.

Throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, policy for inner city regeneration underwent a transformation from a reliance on central and local government activity and the use of public funds, to a much heavier dependence on private sector activities and private investment. In The Enterprise Culture and the Inner City, the authors offer a vigorous and critical investigation of government policy and, in response to the result of the 1992 general election and the implications of the Olympia and York Canary Wharf project, present a credible prediction for the future (or lack of future) of the inner city.

Throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, policy for inner city regeneration underwent a transformation from a reliance on central and local government activity and the use of public funds, to a much heavier dependence on private sector activities and private investment. In The Enterprise Culture and the Inner City, the authors offer a vigorous and critical investigation of government policy and, in response to the result of the 1992 general election and the implications of the Olympia and York Canary Wharf project, present a credible prediction for the future (or lack of future) of the inner city.

This book contains a collection of papers dealing with a range of controversial issues which exercised the minds of local authority officials from 1884-1908. The 28 items reproduced cover a wide range of matters. They are presented chronologically because many of the papers deal with more than one topic but also because it provides a clearer guide to the development of views on numerous inter-related issues. These issues are still of interest and relevant today: most of the papers deal with the need to improve the level of accountability to local electors - something which has been the main thrust of UK government policy since 1979. Other papers focus on the need to address internal accounting problems, such as the need for improved costing procedures to measure the performance of different activities.

This social and religious history of European Jews in the early modern period is unique in placing Jewish experience in the context of Christian society. Beginning with late medieval Jewry and the expulsion from Spain in 1492 of Jews who refused to convert to Christianity, John Edwards goes on to analyse the role of Jews during the Renaissance, the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation, and ends with the early development of religious toleration and the Enlightenment. He examines the complexity of personal and communal belief and practice, and also describes the social, political and economic experience of Jews and Christians, bringing together Christian and Jewish historiography in order to enrich our understanding of the social relations between the two.

Missile X is a nuclear weapon of unprecedented destructive power. Once deployed, it could destroy all Soviet land missiles in one thiry-minute barrage. If based on land, it will require a construction effort greater than the Panama Canal or the Great Wall of China. But the superweapon is also vulnerable to attack, and its construction has enormous economic and political consequences. Thus, since its inception in 1970, MX has been fiercely debated in the White House, the Pentagon, and on Capitol Hill. President Jimmy Carter called it, initially, "the craziest thing I ever heard," and yet only two years later, caught up in the implacable logic of the nuclear arms race, he would approve an expanded budget for its development. John Edwards has interviewed all the major actors in this drama, and through his incisive portraits of the scientists, politicians and generals who control the weapons community, he shows how policy grows out of their personal and ideological conflicts.