We live in a modern world of social media, cars, electricity, supermarkets, television, fast food, and Hollywood pop culture, and few Westerners have known anything else. Ireland, however, modernized long after most Western countries; many rural areas lacked electricity or technology even in the 1970s. Within living memory villagers lived much as humans had for centuries, or as the Amish do today; they grew and raised their own food, built their own homes, traded with their neighbours, and spent their evenings making their own music and telling their own stories. 

When Brian Kaller moved to a homestead in rural Ireland, he found that some of his elderly neighbours grew up this way, the last who remember a traditional world. Over the next two decades Kaller interviewed his neighbours and assembled oral histories, archives, diaries and memoirs to create a portrait of their lives that can help illuminate traditional cultures everywhere. 

The Last Who Remember invites the reader on a tour of agrarian life, with each chapter, devoting chapters to childhood, schooling, working, socialising, courting, and dying. He looks at the safe, literate, high-trust society they created, and shows how their self-reliance and close communities sustained them in times of hardship. He compares it to today’s unprecedented levels of unhappiness, mental illness and addiction while surrounded by material goods, and questions what we abandoned when we became modern. 

This monograph is the first modern research study in English to provide history of the Amur Society ( known as Black Dragon Society due to a mistranslation from Japanese to English), its genesis, its members and its activities in historical context from 1901-1945. Using original sources, some consulted for the first time, Dr Jacob discusses the Amur Society as a key driving force in Japan's embrace of national expansion and analyzes the effect of this ultra-nationalist secret society on Japanese history from before the Russo-Japanese War(1901 +) to the bitter defeat of 1945 and the end of colonial empire, military rule and international aggression . The Amur Society was seen by its enemies as an almighty secret society, one which determined the course of Japanese history from the murky background of Japanese civil and military politics. Founded in 1901 the Amur-Society was aimed at stopping the Russian expansionist ambitions in East Asia and preparing Japan for a war against the tsardom. The members of the society followed a double-sided strategy to achieve this goal. In public they rooted for an anti-Russian mood of the Japanese society by starting a propaganda campaign which consisted of pamphlets and public lectures. In secret their members began spying in Korea, Manchuria and even Siberia gathering information would be of value during the upcoming war with Russia. Although the Russo-Japanese War started in 1904/05 and the Japanese troops gained victory after victory, the diplomats were not able to build on these t victories during the negotiations in Portsmouth, NH where Russia - especially Sergej Witte - won the only Russian victory of that conflict. Although the Kokuryûkai( Amur Society) ,due to the conclusion of the war and the Russo-Japanese diplomatic relations in the years after 1905, had lost its raison d'être it still till 1946. During the years after 1905 the society became more engaged in Korean affairs and tried to accelerate a political unification with Korea and the destruction of Korean cultural and poliical elites as well as Christian religious practice . After Uchida Ryôhei (the leader of the society) was not able to influence Ito Hirobumi -g overnor general in Korea - he returned to Japan and the Kokuryûkai involved in influencing Japanese society via newpapers,books as well as propaganda aimed at army leadership. Their new aim was to influence Japan's pan-Asianism and to force it onto a more expansionistic course. During the Shôwa period, the Kokuryûkai tried to establish an ultranationalist mass movement and founded the Greater Japanese Productive Party (Dai-Nippon Seisantô), but even if it was able to recruit a few thousand members it became not influential mass movement but an open conspiracy against democratic, labor and pacifistic organizations. Terrorism was embraced and practiced against the enemy i.e. felow Japanese.The early death of Uchida in 1937 marked a startling decline of the Kokuryûkai's general influence as even more radical ideas took hold as Japan waged war throughout China then Southeast Asia attacking America and Australia in the Pacific and India in South Asia .

Exploring Vladimir Nabokov’s Creative Universe offers a fresh perspective on certain aspects of Nabokov’s creative universe. The analysis begins with the writer’s faith, viewed as the bedrock of his ethics. Consequently, all other themes discussed in Part I, from moral dilemmas to cruelty to animals, emanate from this source and intertwine into a unique moral system. A moralist but not a moralizer, Nabokov encouraged his readers, with whom he conducts a creative dialogue, to form their own opinions and to accept moral responsibility for their actions. While the themes studied in Part I reflect Nabokov’s unique moral code, the devices examined in Part II, from chromesthesia and iconicity to upside-down, highlight the writer’s desire to present a novel outlook on the surrounding world. Thus, Nabokov’s use of heretofore unexplored conceit showcases his extraordinary imaginative prowess, by dint of which he strives to surprise and to engage his readers more intensely. Furthermore, by forging highly intricate and astounding connections between different spheres of experience and knowledge, Nabokov motivated his audience to think outside the box and to make their own meaningful and unforgettable discoveries.

This book explores the practice among Japanese writers in the modern era of composing kanshi, traditional Sinitic poetry. For the Japanese, writing poetry in Literary Sinitic (also known as Classical Chinese) is an “exophonic” practice, referring to the act of writing in a language other than one’s native tongue. Meiji period (1868-1912) writers who, like generations of Japanese before them, received a traditional Confucian education, including studies in Literary Sinitic, were by and large capable of composing kanshi. As a result of changes in the Japanese education system following the Imperial Rescript on Education of 1890, and of shifting attitudes toward China after the Sino-Japanese War (1894-95), subsequent generations of Japanese were less proficient in Literary Sinitic. Yet, as this book documents, throughout the twentieth century and even in the twenty-first century, a small number of Japanese writers have continued to produce kanshi. Moreover, each generation of Japanese writers who have composed kanshi has turned to kanshi composition for a certain purpose and directed it to a specific audience in an act that this study refers to as “exophonic literary performance.” Interestingly, as the Japanese literary community has become increasingly multicultural, writers with roots in China have appeared, for whom the exophonic performance of kanshi takes on a special meaning, challenging the very idea of what it means to be a Japanese writer. 

This book explores the managerial dimensions of esports, one of the most rapidly emerging phenomena of the digital age, from both academic and professional perspectives. Esports is not merely about playing games; it represents a dynamic and multilayered ecosystem encompassing leadership, talent management, finance, event organization, marketing, and ethics. Esports Management analyzes current developments in the industry and examines in detail the relationships among professional teams, organizations, tournament organizers, sponsors, and audiences. Orçun Keçeci’s book serves as a comprehensive reference for academics, sports managers, aspiring professionals, and students aiming to better understand the field. Each chapter is supported by both theoretical frameworks and real-world case studies, offering a deep insight into the present and future of esports. Esports Management is a strategic guide for anyone aiming to professionalize in the esports domain and sheds light on the key components necessary for sustainable success in this fast-evolving industry.