Most Popular Books by John Perry

John Perry Barlow’s wild ride with the Grateful Dead was just part of a Zelig-like life that took him from a childhood as ranching royalty in Wyoming to membership in the Internet Hall of Fame as a digital free speech advocate. Mother American Night is the wild, funny, heartbreaking, and often unbelievable (yet completely true) story of an American icon. Born into a powerful Wyoming political family, John Perry Barlow wrote the lyrics for thirty Grateful Dead songs while also running his family’s cattle ranch. He hung out in Andy Warhol’s Factory, went on a date with the Dalai Lama’s sister, and accidentally shot Bob Weir in the face on the eve of his own wedding. As a favor to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Barlow mentored a young JFK Jr. and the two then became lifelong friends. Despite being a freely self-confessed acidhead, he served as Dick Cheney’s campaign manager during Cheney’s first run for Congress. And after befriending a legendary early group of computer hackers known as the Legion of Doom, Barlow became a renowned internet guru who then cofounded the groundbreaking Electronic Frontier Foundation. His résumé only hints of the richness of a life lived on the edge. Blessed with an incredible sense of humor and a unique voice, Barlow was a born storyteller in the tradition of Mark Twain and Will Rogers. Through intimate portraits of friends and acquaintances from Bob Weir and Jerry Garcia to Timothy Leary and Steve Jobs, Mother American Night traces the generational passage by which the counterculture became the culture, and it shows why learning to accept love may be the hardest thing we ever ask of ourselves.

A biography of the often misunderstood, yet heroic, Confederate general who sacrificed everything for his native state of Virginia during the Civil War. Traitor. Divider. Defender of slavery. This damning portrayal of Robert E. Lee has persisted through 150 years of history books. And yet it has no basis in fact. In the spirit of bold restoration, Lee: A Life of Virtue reveals the true Lee—passionate patriot, caring son, devoted husband, doting father, don’t-tread-on-me Virginian, Godfearing Christian. Weaving forgotten facts and revelations (Lee considered slavery a moral outrage) with striking personal details (for years he carried his weakened mother to and from her carriage), biographer John Perry crafts a compelling treatment of the virtuous warrior who endured withering opposition and sacrificed all to stand for Constitutional freedoms.

At last: Self-help for procrastinators. (The secret: acceptance!) Filled with charm, tongue-in-cheek wit, and the insights of a lifelong introspective dawdler, The Art of Procrastination is a philosophical self-help program for every reader who suffers the pangs of being a procrastinator. John Perry celebrates this nearly universal character flaw by pointing out how often procrastinators are, paradoxically, doers. They may not be accomplishing everything on their to-do lists, but that doesn’t make them slackers. It just indicates a need to rethink the to-do list. He also introduces the philosophical notion of akrasia (the mystery of why we often choose to act against our better judgement), examines the torturous relationship between procrastination and perfectionism, and shows how to give yourself permission to do an imperfect but, in fact, perfectly good job. These are strategies—task triage, horizontal organization. Underlying causes—right-parenthesis deficit disorder. Anecdotes and ideas. But above all, an attitude of acceptance. Pat yourself on the back for what you manage to get done—but don’t stop enjoying that time you waste, too. Who knows where daydreams will lead?

Perry''s excellent dialogue makes a complicated topic stimulating and accessible without any sacrifice of scholarly accuracy or thoroughness. Professionals will appreciate the work''s command of the issues and depth of argument, while students will find that it excites interest and imagination. --David M. Rosenthal, CUNY, Lehman College

Physicalism is the idea that if everything that goes on is physical, our consciousness and feelings must also be physical. This book defends a view called antecedent physicalism.

No other American military leader is so important and yet so little known as John J. Pershing. He led an army of more than a million men in France, defeating the seemingly invincible German war machine with only six months of offensive action. He was an American hero, and yet, today, General Pershing has faded away to the second or third tier of America’s historical consciousness. His accomplishments rightly place him in the company of great generals such as MacArthur, Eisenhower, and Patton, all of whom he commanded and inspired, and all of whom he outranked. He shaped world events in Europe as surely as Woodrow Wilson or David Lloyd George,so why has America forgotten him? John Perry chronicles the life of a strong, inflexible leader who was an insufferable nit-picker on the job, but a faithful friend, tender husband, and devoted father. To the small group fortunate enough to know him, Pershing was a great and wonderful man. To the rest, he was stiff, cold, impersonal, and best avoided.

In this Christian Encounter Series biography, author John Perry explores the life of Sir. Winston Churchill, the man who changed World War II. Winston Churchill captivated the world with his voice and his writings. His books and speeches ooze with patriotism and faith in a just God. But he wasn’t always known for his oratory skills, his faith, or his ability to captivate. In fact, as a child, he was small for his age, accident-prone, and frequently sick. To make matters worse, he was stubborn and self-centered, had a lisp, and did poorly in school. Born to an aristocratic family, young Winston was whisked off to boarding school at an early age, ignored by his parents, and left in the care of a nanny, Elizabeth Everest. But Everest excelled where Winston’s own parents had failed him. She nurtured and encouraged him, and shared with him her own steadfast faith in God, shaping the views and vision of the persistent little English boy who would become one of the most influenu00adtial men in history.

Sport Psychology: A Complete Introduction is designed to give you everything you need to succeed, all in one place. It covers the key areas that students are expected to be confident in, outlining the basics in clear, jargon-free English and providing added-value features like summaries of key experiments and even lists of questions you might be asked in your seminar or exam. The book uses a structure that mirrors the way sports psychology is taught on many university courses, and is split into theory and application. Chapters in the first part include coverage of essential personality traits, including mental toughness, confidence, motivation and character. The chapters on applied sports psychology cover topics such as assessment, working with groups, skills training, coping techniques and working with coaches and children. There is also substantial coverage of measurement questionnaires, skills and routes to practice. Sport Psychology employs the ''Breakthrough Method'' to help you advance quickly at any subject, whether you''re studying for an exam or just for your own interest. The Breakthrough Method is designed to overcome typical problems you''ll face as learn new concepts and skills. - Problem: "I find it difficult to remember what I''ve read."; Solution: this book includes end-of-chapter summaries and questions to test your understanding. - Problem: "Lots of introductory books turn out to cover totally different topics than my course."; Solution: this book is written by a university lecturer who understands what students are expected to know.

Critical Pragmatics develops three ideas: language is a way of doing things with words; meanings of phrases and contents of utterances derive ultimately from human intentions; and language combines with other factors to allow humans to achieve communicative goals. In this book, Kepa Korta and John Perry explain why critical pragmatics provides a coherent picture of how parts of language study fit together within the broader picture of human thought and action. They focus on issues about singular reference, that is, talk about particular things, places or people, which have played a central role in the philosophy of language for more than a century. They argue that attention to the ''reflexive'' or ''utterance-bound'' contents of utterances sheds new light on these old problems. Their important study proposes a new approach to pragmatics and should be of wide interest to philosophers of language and linguists.

Media coverage at the time of the Scopes trial was far from accurate. This book sets the record straight, revealing how inaccuracies distorted the view of the Christian faith.

When Charles Colson was released after seven months of prison time following the Watergate scandal, the last thing on earth he wanted to do was go back into those dark, frightening prisons, but God called him to do just that. Thus was born a life-long ministry, and here, for the first time, if the amazing success story of Prison Fellowship''s thirty years of work in the darkest places on earth.

John Perry--author of the acclaimed Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality (Hackett Publishing Co., 1978)--revisits Gretchen Weirob in this lively and absorbing dialogue on good, evil, and the existence of God. In the early part of the work, Gretchen and her friends consider whether evil provides a problem for those who believe in the perfection of God. As the discussion continues they consider the nature of human evil—whether, for example, fully rational actions can be intentionally evil. Recurring themes are the distinction between natural evil and evil done by free agents, and the problems the Holocaust and other cases of genocide pose for conceptions of the universe as a basically good place, or humans as basically good beings. Once again, Perry’s ability to get at the heart of matters combines with his exemplary skill at writing the dialogue form. An ideal volume for introducing students to the subtleties and intricacies of philosophical discussion.

This volume collects a number of Perry’s classic works on personal identity as well as four new pieces, The Two Faces of Identity,Persons and Information,Self-Notions and The Self, and The Sense of Identity. Perry’s Introduction puts his own work and that of others on the issues of identity and personal identity in the context of philosophical studies of mind and language over the past thirty years.

Christian Encounters, a series of biographies from Thomas Nelson Publishers, highlights important lives from all ages and areas of the Church. Some are familiar faces. Others are unexpected guests. But all, through their relationships, struggles, prayers, and desires, uniquely illuminate our shared experience. A generation of 20th-century Americans knew him as a gentle, stoop-shouldered old black man who loved plants and discovered more than a hundred uses for the humble peanut. George Washington Carver goes beyond the public image to chronicle the adventures of one of history''s most inspiring and remarkable men. George Washington Carver was born a slave. After his mother was kidnapped during the Civil War, his former owners raised him as their own child. He was the first black graduate of Iowa State, and turned down a salary from Thomas Edison higher than the U.S. President to stay at the struggling Tuskegee Institute, where he taught and encouraged poor black students for nearly half a century. Carver was an award-winning painter and acclaimed botanist who saw God the Creator in all of nature. The more he learned about the world, the more convinced he was that everything in it was a gift from the Almighty, that all people were equal in His sight, and that the way to gain respect from his fellow man was not to demand it, but to earn it.

For fifty years “ Detroit” has been shorthand for all that'' s wrong with urban America: crime, corruption, decay, racial tension, struggling businesses, failing schools, a declining tax base, and more. Since 1950 Detroit has lost two-thirds of its population, falling from fifth place in the U.S. (just behind Los Angeles) to twenty-fourth (just behind Nashville). Between 2000 and 2017 alone, its population fell 28%, a steeper drop than any other major American city. A third of its land now lies vacant or dotted with empty, derelict houses. The good news is there are unmistakable signs of renewal in Detroit. Given a fresh start— courtesy of the largest municipal bankruptcy in history followed by heroic commitments to the community from visionary local entrepreneurs— Detroit has slowed its rate of population decline, stabilized its finances, and set out to prove to the world that it'' s once again open for business.

Growing up in the Tennessee hills, Alvin York was equally renowned as a marksman and as a hard-drinking brawler. A dramatic New Year’s conversion convinced him that killing was against God’s will, and yet this shy, big-boned mountaineer singlehandedly dispatched two dozen Germans and captured 132 in the closing days of World War I. He earned the Medal of Honor and a ticker tape parade but refused to cash in on his fame, insisting “Uncle Sam’s uniform ain’t for sale.” This succinct and gripping new account of Sgt. York’s remarkable life includes details from exclusive interviews with the sergeant’s three surviving children and information drawn from battlefield eyewitness reports and original film studio archives: fresh reminders of the legacy of one of America’s great Christian patriots. We learn about life through the lives of others. Their experiences, their trials, their adventures become our schools, our chapels, our playgrounds. Christian Encounters, a series of biographies from Thomas Nelson Publishers, highlights important lives from all ages and areas of the Church through prose as accessible and concise as it is personal and engaging. Some are familiar faces. Others are unexpected guests. Whether the person is D.L. Moody, Sergeant York, Saint Nicholas, John Bunyan, or William F. Buckley, we are now living in the world that they created and understand both it and ourselves better in the light of their lives. Their relationships, struggles, prayers, and desires uniquely illuminate our shared experience.

In the face of ongoing religious conflicts and unending culture wars, what are we to make of liberalism''s promise that it alone can arbitrate between church and state? In this wide-ranging study, John Perry examines the roots of our thinking on religion and politics, placing the early-modern founders of liberalism in conversation with today''s theologians and political philosophers. From the story of Antigone to debates about homosexuality and bans on religious attire, it is clear that liberalism''s promise to solve all theo-political conflict is a false hope. The philosophy connecting John Locke to John Rawls seeks a world free of tragic dilemmas, where there can be no Antigones. Perry rejects this as an illusion. Disputes like the culture wars cannot be adequately comprehended as border encroachments presided over by an impartial judge. Instead, theo-political conflict must be considered a contest of loyalties within each citizen and believer. Drawing on critics of Rawls ranging from Michael Sandel to Stanley Hauerwas, Perry identifies what he calls a ''turn to loyalty'' by those who recognize the inadequacy of our usual thinking on the public place of religion. The Pretenses of Loyalty offers groundbreaking analysis of the overlooked early work of Locke, where liberalism''s founder himself opposed toleration. Perry discovers that Locke made a turn to loyalty analogous to that of today''s communitarian critics. Liberal toleration is thus more sophisticated, more theologically subtle, and ultimately more problematic than has been supposed. It demands not only governmental neutrality (as Rawls believed) but also a reworked political theology. Yet this must remain under suspicion for Christians because it places religion in the service of the state. Perry concludes by suggesting where we might turn next, looking beyond our usual boundaries to possibilities obscured by the liberalism we have inherited.

Electric Ladyland is one of the greatest guitar albums ever made. During the recording process, Jimi Hendrix at last had time and creative freedom to pursue the sounds he was looking for. In this remarkable and entertaining book, John Perry gets to the heart of Hendrix''s unique talent - guiding the reader through each song on the album, writing vividly about Hendrix''s live performances, and talking to several of Hendrix''s peers and contemporaries. Excerpt Natural wit, sharpness of ear and a pervasive sense of fun prevented Hendrix from sticking just to the wah-wah pedal''s literal use (and it''s worth remembering that Hendrix off-stage was a natural mimic, whose imitations of Little Richard or of Harlem drag-queens made his friends howl). In fact, he found a use for the pedal without even using guitar. By turning his amp up high and treading the pedal he found he could modulate the natural hiss of amplifier valves, producing sounds of gentle breezes, howling storms or the susurration of waves on a beach; sounds that are all over "1983" and "Moon Turn The Tides". Hendrix had an ear and (though it''s often overlooked) he also had a fine, sly sense of humour that - with characteristic lightness of touch - he was able to express in music.

War hero, Medal of Honor recipient, and one of the world''s first international media celebrities, Sgt. Alvin York was the most famous soldier of his generation. His welcome home ticker-tape parade in New York was the biggest in history at the time. Advertisers clamored for his endorsement, corporations invited him to join their boards of directors, and movie producers vied to put his story on the silver screen. Yet this shy country boy from the hills of Tennessee couldn''t imagine cashing in on fame coming from killing fellow human beings in the service of his country. “Uncle Sam''s uniform ain''t for sale,” he told them. Sgt. York: His Life, Legend & Legacy remains the only complete biography of this great American patriot based on original sources. Author John Perry scoured military records including official accounts of York''s famous battle from surviving eyewitnesses, as well as Warner Bros. archives in Hollywood for details about the film. He also interviewed a host of people who knew York including neighbors who welcomed him home from the war, attended his wedding, hunted and camped with him in the Wolf River Valley. York''s four surviving children were eager participants in the project, with son George Edward Buxton York commenting upon reading the completed draft, tears streaming down his face, “Now people will know what my daddy was really like!” This new edition includes a message from York''s youngest son, 90-year-old Andrew Jackson York.

What you see is what you get with Melissa Gorga. On "Real Housewives of New Jersey," viewers love her persona as a beautiful, ambitious woman who has a successful career but also puts family first. In fact, her stable yet sexy marriage to loveable Joe is a welcome antidote to the constant fighting and backbiting on the show. Despite the pressure of life in the spotlight, she makes marriage look easy. How does she do it? Melissas overriding principle: treat your husband like a King. And in response, youll be treated like a Queen. In "Love Italian Style, " Melissa shares her (and his) secrets to relationship success--generations-tested old-fashioned advice served up with a sexy twist. To her, the four tenets to a happy marriage are: respect, honesty, loyalty, and passion (underscore passion). By sharing her and Joes life together--from their first date to still keeping it hot in the bedroom eight years later, Melissa admits that yes, marriage has been a lot of work, but the rewards are ten-fold. And, with her time-tested strategies, couples can "Gorganize" their own relationships, strengthen their bond, and amp up the passion for life-long bliss. Appealing to the millions of Real Housewife fans, this playful guidebook promises to make any marriage better--the Gorga way.

Anthropologist Perry makes innovative use of ethnographic data to reconstruct Apachean history and culture, shedding light on the origins, dispersions, and relationships of the people who include the Navajo, as well as the Western, Chiricahua, Mescalero, Jicarilla, Lipan, and Kiowa Apaches. His method will be instructive to students of other cultures who face a similar lack of historical and archaeological data. Paper edition (unseen), $17.95. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

What do little Sam Ruskin, sweet Victoria Glassford, and Mr. Singh, the security guard, have

Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver, children of slaves, overcame seemingly insurmountable barriers to find renown in the fields of education and science. Both men retained strong personalities that occasionally came into conflict. Like iron sharpening iron, their differences served to refine and define their collaborative work. An abiding faith in Christ and sense of divine appointment guided them through a world of dark prejudice with humility and self-confidence. They quietly proved their oppressors wrong and along the way made remarkable discoveries and contributions that have inestimably benefited mankind to this day.

The Ebola virus disease represented a grave crisis for Liberia. After many years of civil conflict its health system had been weakened and there were too few physicians and health care workers who were willing and able to deal effectively with the disease which spread far beyond Africa to Europe and the United States of America. The book offers a convenient summary of the background of the EVD crisis, and the ways it was defeated by the public who were energized by the gravity of the situation. It discusses the lessons learned, the effect of the disease on children, and the way forward for the international health care system to prepare itself better for possible future epidemics of the same scale and gravity.

In this provocative book, Barwise and Perry tackle the slippery subject of meaning, a subject that has long vexed linguists, language philosophers, and logicians.

A biographical account of preacher and ministry leader James T. Draper, interwoven with the story of the life, growth, and character of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Tyler, a nine-year-old boy, is stricken with incurable brain cancer and begins to write letters to God. He turns his suffering into spiritual lessons for his widowed mother, his embittered adolescent brother, and a troubled postman.