New Books

The History of Modern Spain is a comprehensive examination of Spain's history from the beginning of the 19th century to the present day. Bringing together a group of leading figures and emerging scholars in the field from the UK, Canada, the United States, Spain and other European countries, the book combines a political narrative with chapters exploring a wide range of thematic topics, such as gender, family and sexuality, nations and nationalism, empire, environment, religion, migrations and Spain in world history. The volume includes a series of biographical sketches of influential Spaniards from intellectual, cultural, economic and political spheres which provides an interesting, alternative way into understanding the last 220 years of Spanish history. The History of Modern Spain also has a glossary, a chronology and a further reading list.--Adapted from back cover.

"Holocaust accounts typically cast Jewish victims as meek, going "like sheep to the slaughter." Given such portrayals, people ask, "Why didn't Jews resist?" But Jews did resist, staging armed uprisings in ghettos and camps throughout Nazi-occupied Europe. This book's goal is not to dispel the myth of Jewish passivity, however; instead, it argues that Jewish resistance deserves explanation. Research on social movements shows that protest occurs when protesters have an opportunity for action and both the material resources and belief in themselves to get their protest off the ground, but members of Jewish resistance movements lacked these factors. So why did they fight back? Using methods of comparative-historical sociology, the book answers this question by comparing three Jewish ghettos during World War II: Warsaw (site of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943), Vilna (where activists planned for armed resistance in the ghetto but could not achieve that goal), and Lodz (where no plans for armed resistance emerged). It finds that resistance rested on Jews' assessments of the threats facing them, and especially on their hope for survival. Somewhat ironically, armed resistance took place only once activists reached the critical conclusion that they had no hope for survival and saw such resistance as the best response to their situation. These findings have implications for other examples of resistance under extreme conditions, such as prison riots and rebellions of enslaved people"-- Provided by publisher.

"Nicholas Sammond describes how popular early American cartoon characters were derived from blackface minstrelsy. He charts the industrialization of animation in the early twentieth century, its representation in the cartoons themselves, and how important blackface minstrels were to that performance, standing in for the frustrations of animation workers. Cherished cartoon characters, such as Mickey Mouse and Felix the Cat, were conceived and developed using blackface minstrelsy's visual and performative conventions: these characters are not like minstrels; they are minstrels. They play out the social, cultural, political, and racial anxieties and desires that link race to the laboring body, just as live minstrel show performers did. Carefully examining how early animation helped naturalize virulent racial formations, Sammond explores how cartoons used laughter and sentimentality to make those stereotypes seem not only less cruel but actually pleasurable. Although the visible links between cartoon characters and the minstrel stage faded long ago, Sammond shows how important those links are to thinking about animation then and now, and about how cartoons continue to help illuminate the central place of race in American cultural and social life"--Publisher's description.

Examines Hitler's years in Munich after World War I and his radical transformation from a directionless loner into the leader of Munich's right-wing movement.

"The Golden Age of the Spanish Empire would establish five centuries of Western supremacy across the globe and usher in an era of transatlantic exploration that eventually gave rise to the modern world. It was a time of discovery and adventure, of great political and social change--it was a time when Spain learned to rule the world. Assembling a spectacular cast of legendary characters like the Duke of Alba, El Greco, Miguel de Cervantes, and Diego Velázquez, Robert Goodwin brings the Spanish Golden Age to life with the vivid clarity and gripping narrative of an epic novel. From scholars and playwrights, to poets and soldiers, Goodwin is in complete command of the history of this tumultuous and exciting period. But the superstars alone will not tell the whole tale--Goodwin delves deep to find previously unrecorded sources and accounts of how Spain's Golden Age would unfold, and ultimately, unravel. Spain is a sweeping and revealing portrait of Spain at the height of its power and a world at the dawn of the modern age"--Publisher's description.

Presents an illuminating biography of Alfonso X, the thirteenth-century philosopher-king whose affinity for Spain's Islamic culture left an indelible mark on Western civilization.

"On the tenth anniversary of his rise to power in 1932, Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) seemed to many the 'good dictator.' He was the first totalitarian and the first fascist in modern Europe. But a year later Hitler's entrance onto the political stage signaled a German takeover of the fascist ideology.0 In this definitive account, eminent historian R.J.B. Bosworth charts Mussolini's leadership in reaction to Hitler. Bosworth shows how Italy's decline in ideological pre-eminence, as well as in military and diplomatic power, led Mussolini to pursue a more populist approach: angry and bellicose words at home, violent aggression abroad, and a more extreme emphasis on charisma. In his embittered efforts to bolster an increasingly hollow and ruthless regime, it was Mussolini, rather than Hitler, who offered the model for all subsequent authoritarians."-- Provided by publisher.

"In this compelling new history, Lucy Wooding explores every aspect of life in Tudor England, reassessing not just how monarchs ruled, but also how men and women thought, wrote, lived and died. Wooding sheds new light on a society rich in ideas and ideals as well as conflicts and controversies. We see a monarchy under strain; religion in crisis; a population contending with war, rebellion, plague and poverty. Tudor England presents a markedly different picture of this famous era from the one we thought we knew"-- Provided by publisher.

This landmark work answers two of the most fundamental questions in history - how, and why, did the Holocaust happen? Laurence Rees has spent twenty-five years meeting survivors and perpetrators of the Holocaust. Now, in his magnum opus, he combines their enthralling eyewitness testimony, a large amount of which has never been published before, with the latest academic research to create the first accessible and authoritative account of the Holocaust in more than three decades. This is a new history of the Holocaust in three ways. First, and most importantly, Rees has created a gripping narrative that contains a large amount of testimony that has never been published before. Second, he places this powerful interview material in the context of an examination of the decision making process of the Nazi state, and in the process reveals the series of escalations that cumulatively created the horror. Third, Rees covers all those across Europe who participated in the deaths, and he argues that whilst hatred of the Jews was always at the epicentre of Nazi thinking, what happened cannot be fully understood without considering the murder of the Jews alongside plans to kill millions of non-Jews, including homosexuals, "Gypsies" and the disabled. Through a chronological, intensely readable narrative, featuring enthralling eyewitness testimony and the latest academic research, this is a compelling new account of the worst crime in history.

"An ambitious, valuable history of a major European power. Following the defeat of the Third Reich in 1945, Germany has experienced recurring turmoil and reinvention. In this ambitious book, Michael Gehler explores the political path Germany has taken since the Yalta Conference, observing the different Germanies against the background of the Cold War, European integration, and international relations. Written from an independent perspective, it provides a valuable assessment of our own times, as he shows how the three Germanies (Bonn, Pankow, and today's 'Berlin Republic') sought to establish governments that could create stable states"--Publisher's description

"Over just a few months in spring 1933, Germany transformed from a deeply divided republic into a one-party Nazi dictatorship. In Hitler's First Hundred Days, award-winning historian Peter Fritzsche offers a probing new account of the dramatic and pivotal period when Germans became Nazis and the Third Reich began. Amid the ravages of economic depression, Germans in the early 1930s were pulled to political extremes both left and right. But after Adolf Hitler's appointment as chancellor in January, the Nazis moved with brutality and audaciousness to swiftly create a new political order. Fritzsche closely examines the events of these days--the elections and mass arrests, the gunfire and bonfires, the patriotic rallies and anti-Jewish boycotts--to understand both the terrifying power that the National Socialists exerted over ordinary Germans, and the powerful appeal of the new era they promised. Going down streets, up stairwells, and into German homes, rifling through newspapers, letters, and diaries, listening to the sounds of the radio and to song and slogan, Fritzsche unfolds the moments when suddenly dissenting voices went silent and almost everyone seemed to be a Nazi. It was a time characterized by both coercion and consent--but ultimately, a majority of Germans preferred the Nazi future to the Weimar past. Remarkably rich and illuminating, Hitler's First Hundred Days is the chilling story of the beginning of the end, when one hundred days seemed to inaugurate a new thousand-year Reich"--Provided by publisher.

A new historian of Mary Queen of Scots draws on new sources to shatter various myths surrounding this odd monarch and uncover some of the scandals and political machinations underpinning, and undermining, her throne.

Nothing represents the turbulent and inspiring history of France quite like the Palace of Versailles. Made famous by the absolutist king Louis XIV, Versailles became legendary for its aristocratic and cultural splendors, but after the Revolution of 1789 it fell into disrepute as a reminder of royal excess and abuse of power. Subsequent French governments struggled with how to handle the palace and grounds - should the site be memorialized, rehabilitated, or even destroyed outright? Distinguished historian Colin Jones masterfully traces the evolution of Versailles from its origins as an early seventeenth-century hunting lodge to the focal point of the opulent Louis XIV's centralized power, and from the palace's variegated fortunes under Revolution to its rediscovered vocation as a site of memory recalling France's former cultural hegemony. This is the vivid story of the creation, renovation, and enduring legacy of the most famous building in France: a building complex of mythical status and a space of royal and aristocratic pleasures that has become one of the world's greatest tourist destinations. Tracking the evolution of Versailles as a building and as a political space in compelling prose, this book is a must-read for any Francophile. -- From dust jacket.

Philip II is not only the most famous king in Spanish history, but one of the most famous monarchs in English history: the man who married Mary Tudor and later launched the Spanish Armada against her sister Elizabeth I. This compelling biography of the most powerful European monarch of his day begins with his conception (1526) and ends with his ascent to Paradise (1603), two occurrences surprisingly well documented by contemporaries. Eminent historian Geoffrey Parker draws on four decades of research on Philip as well as a recent, extraordinary archival discovery -- a trove of 3,000 documents in the vaults of the Hispanic Society of America in New York City, unread since crossing Philip's own desk more than four centuries ago. Many of them change significantly what we know about the king. he book examines Philip's long apprenticeship; his three principal interests (work, play, and religion); and the major political, military, and personal challenges he faced during his long reign. Parker offers fresh insights into the causes of Philip's leadership failures: was his empire simply too big to manage, or would a monarch with different talents and temperament have fared better?--Publisher's description.

J. Robert Oppenheimer is one of the iconic figures of the twentieth century, a physicist who led the effort to build the atomic bomb for his country in a time of war, and who later found himself confronting the moral consequences of scientific progress. In this biography twenty-five years in the making, Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin capture Oppenheimer's life and times, from his early career to his central role in the Cold War. --From publisher's description.

General Francisco Franco ruled Spain for nearly forty years, as one of the most powerful and controversial leaders in that nation's long history. He has been the subject of many biographies, several of them more than a thousand pages in length, but all the preceding works have tended toward one extreme of interpretation or the other. This is the first comprehensive scholarly biography of Franco in English that is objective and balanced in its coverage, treating all three major aspects of his life--personal, military, and political. The coauthors, both renowned historians of Spain, present a deeply researched account that has made extensive use of the Franco Archive (long inaccessible to historians). They have also conducted in-depth interviews with his only daughter to explain better his family background, personal life, and marital environment, as well as his military and political career. Franco: A Personal and Political Biography depicts his early life, explains his career and rise to prominence as an army officer who became Europe's youngest interwar brigadier general in 1926, and then discusses his role in the affairs of the troubled Second Spanish Republic (1931-36). Stanley G. Payne and Jesús Palacios examine in detail how Franco became dictator and how his leadership led to victory in the Spanish Civil War that consolidated his regime. They also explore Franco's role in the great repression that accompanied the Civil War--resulting in tens of thousands of executions--and examine at length his controversial role in World War II. This masterful biography highlights Franco's metamorphoses and adaptations to retain power as politics, culture, and economics shifted in the four decades of his dictatorship.

"The Real History of Tom Jones revivifies historical materials from which Henry Fielding constructed the greatest comic novel of the eighteenth century. This study recovers and explores the contexts necessary to understand Fielding's subtle art, such as the bloody conflict for the throne between Stuarts and Hanoverians, a contradictory class system, game laws that both protected and floated individual property rights and a justice system that proclaimed hanging for many crimes but let most criminals go. Drawing on evidence such as the peculiar appearance of eighteenth-century money, the fraudulent autobiography of a gypsy king, and a magical prayer book illustration, the book offers new readings of both Tom Jones and the political and legal landscape of Georgian England."--Jacket.

"This volume offers perspective on modern French society and culture through thematic chapters on topics ranging from geography to popular culture. Ideal for students and general readers, this book includes insightful, current information about France's past, present, and future"-- Provided by publisher.

"Portugal is one of history's most successful survivors. It is but a small country whose population rose slowly from one million to nine million over eight hundred years. In that time it acquired a political and cultural autonomy within Europe. It also made its mark on every corner of the globe through colonization, emigration and commerce. Unlike the more prosperous Catalonia it succeeded in escaping from Spanish captivity in the seventeenth century."--Provided by publisher.

"A history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization from its origins to beyond the end of the Cold War"--Provided by publisher.

"A magisterial, myth-dispelling history of Islamic Spain spanning the millennium between the founding of Islam in the seventh century and the final expulsion of Spain's Muslims in the seventeenth. In Kingdoms of Faith, award-winning historian Brian A. Catlos rewrites the history of Islamic Spain from the ground up, evoking the cultural splendor of al-Andalus, while offering an authoritative new interpretation of the forces that shaped it. Prior accounts have portrayed Islamic Spain as a paradise of enlightened tolerance or the site where civilizations clashed. Catlos taps a wide array of primary sources to paint a more complex portrait, showing how Muslims, Christians, and Jews together built a sophisticated civilization that helped transform the Western world, even as they waged relentless war against each other and their coreligionists. Religion was often the language of conflict, but seldom its cause--a lesson we would do well to learn in our own time"-- Provided by publisher."The history of Islamic Spain remains central to popular understandings of Europe's past and present. In Kingdoms of Faith, the acclaimed historian Brian Catlos rewrites this fascinating era from the ground up, bringing to vivid life the violence, religious passions, and cultural and scientific achievements that characterized Spain under Muslim rule, while at the same time offering an authoritative new interpretation of the forces that shaped it. Catlos opens in the 7th century with the founding of Islam, charting the bloody expansion of Muslim domains spearheaded by Muhammed's ambitious successors. Within a hundred years, the Western thrust of the Muslim conquest had crossed the narrow sea between North Africa and the rock of Gibraltar; the society they established south of the Pyrenees would endure for nearly one thousand years. Scholars and the public alike too often interpret this era in the context of the political and religious conflicts that divide the modern Middle East. Depending on our politics, Catlos argues, we imagine Muslim Spain either as a romantic golden age of peaceful toleration, or as a period when the Christians of the Iberian Peninsula suffered under merciless Muslim rulers. Avoiding both nostalgia and polemic, Catlos explores in astonishing detail the complex relations among this hybrid society's religious communities. He reveals, above all, that religious identity was only one factor among many that shaped personal identity. The glories of Islamic Spain--in mathematics, theology, astronomy, textiles and more--spread far and wide, shaping the societies of the Mediterranean basin and helping create the foundation for European ascendance"-- Provided by publisher.

The Bayeux Tapestry is the worldʼs most famous textile - an exquisite 230-foot-long embroidered panorama depicting the events surrounding the Norman Conquest of 1066. It is also one of historyʼs most mysterious and compelling works of art. This account of the battle that redrew the map of medieval Europe has inspired dreams of theft, waves of nationalism, visions of limitless power, and esthetic rapture. R. Howard Bloch reveals the history, the hidden meaning, the deep beauty, and the enduring allure of this astonishing piece of cloth. Book jacket.Includes information on Anglo-Saxons, Arabs, Canterbury (England), Charlemagne, coins, Constantinople, Danes, Edward the Confessor, England, English Channel, feudalism, France, Germany, Guy of Amiens, Guy of Ponthieu, Battle of Hastings, Heinrich Himmler, Holy Roman Empire, Knights, medieval manuscripts, Mathilda (queen of England), Michel Francisque, Middle Ages, Mont Saint Michel, Normandy, Normans, Odo of Bayeux, Old French language, Orderic Vitalis, Rome, Scandinavia, Sicily, The Song of Roland, Song of the Battle of Hastings, Battle of Stamford Bridge, Stigand (archbishop of Canterbury), Sutton Hoo treasure, textile arts, Vikings, Westminster Abbey, William of Normandy, William of Poitiers, William the Conqueror, World War II, York, etc.

"In the 21st century, typhoid fever afflicts over 21 million people each year. The infection was even more devastating, crippling entire armies and claiming the lives of both rich and poor. This book chronicles the fight against typhoid in the words of medical pioneers, showing how far we have come and how far we have yet to go"-- Provided by publisher.

"This book provides original sources, detailed commentary and helpful chronologies and bibliographies on: the emergence of the regime and the Paris Commune of 1871; Franco-German relations; the character of the Third Republic and the nature of French Republicanism and Socialism; Church-state relations; anti-Semitism and the Dreyfus Affair; the role of women and the importance of the national birth rate; and the character of the French Right and of French fascism."--Jacket.

"Superconductors capture the imagination with seemingly magical properties that allow them to carry electricity without losing any energy at all. They are however, extraordinarily difficult materials to work with. In this book, Susannah Speller explores the astonishing variety of superconducting materials and the rich science behind optimising their performance for use in different applications. Readers will discover how diverse superconducting materials and their applications are, from the metallic alloys used in the Large Hadron Collider to the thin film superconductors that will be crucial for quantum computers. This book tells about how even the simplest superconductors have to be carefully designed and engineered on the nanometre scale. Along the way, the reader will be introduced to what materials science is all about and why advanced materials have such widespread importance for technological progress. With 'Wider View' and 'Under the Lens' sections, Speller provides an accessible and illuminating exploration of superconductors and their place in the modern world."--Amazon.com viewed Mar. 28, 2023.

The biography of one of the most powerful figures of the Cold War era, Josip "Tito" Broz (1892-1980), describes how he led Yugoslavia for nearly four decades with charisma, cunning, and an iron fist. With his Partisans he fought Hitler during World War II, and after the war he shrewdly resisted the Soviet Union's grasp. A leader of the non-aligned nations, he long enjoyed a reputation in the West as "the only good Communist" despite a dubious human rights record at home. It recounts how Tito, with little schooling but an astute intellect and driving ambition, rose through Communist Party ranks to shape and rule the Yugoslav federation. Surviving multiple assassination attempts by Nazis, Soviet spies, and others, he threatened Stalin in return and may have contrived Stalin's death. The narrative follows Tito's personal and political life into old age, as the specter of a Soviet invasion haunted him until his death at age eighty-seven.

"A revelatory history of the transformational decade after World War II when Germany raised itself out of the ashes of defeat, turned away from fascism, and reckoned with the corruption of its soul, and the horrors of the Holocaust"-- Provided by publisher.The years 1945 to 1955 were a raw, wild decade that found many Germans politically, economically, and morally bankrupt. Victorious Allied forces occupied the four zones that make up present-day Germany. More than half the population was displaced; 10 million newly released forced laborers and several million prisoners of war returned to an uncertain existence. Cities lay in ruins: no mail, no trains, no traffic. Bodies were still being found beneath the rubble. Using major global political developments as a backdrop, Jähner weaves a series of life stories into a nuanced panorama of a nation undergoing monumental change. Poised between two eras, this decade is portrayed as a period that proved decisive for Germany's future-- and one starkly different from how most of us imagine it today. -- Adapted from jacket.

"Mussolini has rarely been taken seriously as a totalitarian dictator; Hitler and Stalin have always cast too long a shadow. But what was a negative judgment on the Duce, considered innocuous and ineffective, has begun to work to his advantage. As has occurred with many other European dictators, present-day popular memory of Mussolini is increasingly indulgent; in Italy and elsewhere he is remembered as a strong, decisive leader and people now speak of the 'many good things' done by the regime. After all, it is said, Mussolini was not like 'the others'. Mussolini in Myth and Memory argues against this rehabilitation, documenting the inefficiencies, corruption, and violence of a highly repressive regime and exploding the myths of Fascist good government. But this short study does not limit itself to setting the record straight; it seeks also to answer the question of why there is nostalgia - not only in Italy - for dictatorial rule. Linking past history and present memory, Corner's analysis constructs a picture of the realities of the Italian regime and examines the more general problem of why, in a moment of evident crisis of western democracy, people look for strong leadership and take refuge in the memory of past dictatorships. If, in this book, Fascism is placed in its totalitarian context and Mussolini emerges firmly in the company of his fellow dictators, the study also shows how a memory of the past, formed through reliance on illusion and myth, can affect the politics of the present."-- Provided by publisher.

"The sharp polarization of left and right is commonly dwelt on as the big political handicap of our times. Angry divisions on the right itself get less attention. Conservatism fills that gap. Across Europe and the US, a liberal right is at war with an illiberal right. As the leading force in politics, it is vital to understand the roots of the right's struggle with itself, how it stands and how it is likely to come out. From its early 19th-century origins to now, conservatism never finally settled on how far to compromise with liberalism, democracy and the capitalist world out of which both grew. By the late 19th century, the mainstream right had come to terms with all three. Its reward was lasting success in the next century and beyond. On the political fringes and among ethical-cultural critics, a recalcitrant right, unreconciled to liberal democracy, never died. Resistance to liberal democracy is seen today in the hard right, a strange but potent alliance of hyper-liberal globalists and anti-liberal localists. Conservatism focuses on an exemplary core of France, Britain, Germany and the United States. It describes the parties, politicians and thinkers of the right, bringing out strengths and weaknesses in conservative thought. An appendix includes definitions of leading terms, a brief account of conservatism's philosophical origins and mini-lives of more than 200 conservatives. Historical and topical, neither celebration nor caricature, Conservatism is a unique, panoramic survey of the Western world's dominant political tradition"-- Provided by publisher.

Peter Grieder offers an introduction to the history of East Germany which engages critically with key debates and advances fresh interpretations. Arguing that the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was a totalitarian welfare state, Grieder divides its life into six phases: conception, construction, consolidation, conservatism, crisis, and collapse; analyses key concepts in the Introduction; provides an overall assessment of the GDR at the end of the volume; integrates experiences of individual GDR citizens in order to gain a deeper understanding of the East German polity.

"A History of Modern Italy addresses the question of how Italy's modern history--from its prolonged process of nation-building in the nineteenth century to the crises of the last two decades--has produced a paradoxical blend of hyper-modernity and traditionalism that sets the country apart in the broader context of Western Europe. Author Anthony L. Cardoza explores how Italians have experienced seismic shifts in their social and economic landscape over the past two centuries, while simultaneously maintaining older cultural norms, social practices, and political methods. The book's narrative of modern Italy incorporates and blends the research findings and methodological insights of the new quantitative and cultural historical scholarship of the past twenty-five years. In doing so, the book chronicles the regime changes that have taken the country from a liberal monarchy, through a fascist dictatorship, to a democratic republic while also delving into the economic and social history of the nation through these periods." -- Provided by publisher.

"Today's New Zealand is an emerging paradigm for successful cultural relations. Although the nation's Māori (indigenous Polynesian) and Pākehā (colonial European) populations of the 19th century were dramatically different and often at odds, they are today co-contributors to a vibrant society. For more than a century they have been working out the kind of nation that engenders respect and well-being; and their interaction, though often riddled with confrontation, is finally bearing bicultural fruit. By their model, the encounter of diverse cultures does not require the surrender of one to the other; rather, it entails each expanding its own cultural categories in the light of the other. The time is ripe to explore this nation's cultural dynamics for what we can learn about getting along. This anthropological inquiry focuses on religion and related symbols, forms of reciprocity, the operation of power and the concept of culture as these themes have developed in modern New Zealand society."-Provided by publisher-- Provided by publisher.

"This classic text provides an authoritative and current analysis of contemporary Russia. Leading scholars explore the daunting domestic and international problems Russia confronts, considering a comprehensive array of economic, political, foreign policy, and social issues"-- Provided by publisher.

"Visitors to Albania typically arrive at the modern Mother Teresa airport in the capital city of Tirana. A thirty-minute taxi ride brings one to Skanderbeg Square, the heart of the metropolis of some 850,000. Twenty-three miles from the coast on a lowland plain underneath mount Dajti to the east, modern Tirana is, on the surface, just another Balkan capital choked with traffic, shoddily constructed apartment buildings, cafes and restaurants - overwhelmed by the modern. Yet, in and around the city it is still possible to at least catch a glimpse of the remnants of some of the different civilizations which have over the centuries contributed to the creation of the modern Albanian state and nation"-- Provided by publisher.

"On the eve of the Crimean War, about half a million people lived in the land of Palestine. They were Arabic-speaking. Most were Muslims, but about 60,000 were Christians of various denominations, and around 20,000 were Jews. In addition, they had to tolerate the presence of 50,000 Ottoman soldiers and officials as well as 10,000 Europeans. Their administrative life revolved around the sanjaq, the Ottoman sub-province, of which Ottoman Palestine had three: Nablus, Acre and Jerusalem. To some extent these administrative divisions corresponded to the topography. Palestine had four hilly regions: the Jerusalem mountains, the Nablus mountains, and two other areas: Hebron in the Jerusalem district, and Galilee in the Acre sub-province. Each geographical and administrative area had a major town as its capital, so that some of Palestine's most famous cities were foci of social and cultural life. Acre, Jerusalem, Hebron and Nablus were among these important towns, as were the smaller coastal towns of Haifa, Jaffa and Gaza"-- Provided by publisher.

"Ruler of Florence for seven bloody years, 1531 to 1537, Alessandro de' Medici was arguably the first person of color to serve as a head of state in the Western world. Born out of wedlock to a dark-skinned maid and Lorenzo de' Medici, he was the last legitimate heir to the line of Lorenzo the Magnificent. When Alessandro's noble father died of syphilis, the family looked to him. Groomed for power, he carved a path through the backstabbing world of Italian politics in a time when cardinals, popes, and princes vied for wealth and advantage. By the age of nineteen, he was prince of Florence, inheritor of the legacy of the grandest dynasty of the Italian Renaissance. Alessandro faced down family rivalry and enormous resistance from Florence's oligarchs, who called him a womanizer-which he undoubtedly was--and a tyrant. Yet this real-life counterpart to Machiavelli's Prince kept his grip on power until he was assassinated at the age of 26 during a late-night tryst arranged by his scheming cousins. After his death, his brief but colorful reign was criticized by those who had murdered him in a failed attempt to restore the Florentine republic. For the first time, the true story is told in The Black Prince of Florence. Catherine Fletcher tells the riveting tale of Alessandro's unexpected rise and spectacular fall, unraveling centuries-old mysteries, exposing forgeries, and bringing to life the epic personalities of the Medicis, Borgias, and others as they waged sordid campaigns to rise to the top. Drawing on new research and first-hand sources, this biography of a most intriguing Renaissance figure combines archival scholarship with discussions of race and class that are still relevant today." --Provided by publisher.

"In The Joy of Science, Jim Al-Khalili presents eight lessons that serve as a guide to thinking and living life a little more scientifically. It is a gentle entrée to the conceptual core of what science is and the spirit of how it is practiced, which will help any reader understand how to live a more rational life and benefit from doing so. The book will connect the lay public with what science fundamentally is - not knowledge per se, but rather a way of thinking, which gives us the power to turn encounters with the unknown into greater insights into the true nature of reality. In an engaging, conversational tone, and writing from the perspective of a practitioner of science, Al- Khalili invites readers to engage with the world in a new way and to think as scientists are trained to do about unsolved mysteries; the nature of truth, uncertainty, and the role of doubt; the value and dangers of simplification; the challenges of complexity or too little information; the importance of evidence-based thinking; the value of guarding against bias (in oneself and others); the importance of being able to change one's mind, and more. By the end, the reader will come away with a clear sense of how the ideas at the heart of the scientific method are deeply relevant to our current times, lives, and personal decision making. Knowing how to think and live more scientifically can make our all of our lives better, and this short book gives non-specialists a welcoming introduction to this knowledge, sharing "the joy" that science can bring"--Provided by publisher.

"This contributed volume examines ethical ramifications of the development and use of autonomous vehicles. From ethical emergencies akin to the classic trolley problem to more overarching effects on social and economic structures, this volume's discussion appeal to philosophers, social scientists, engineers, urban planners, and policy makers"-- Provided by publisher.

"A History of Fascism in France explores the origins, development, and action of fascism and extreme right and fascist organisations in France since the First World War. Synthesizing decades of scholarship, it is the first book in any language to trace the full story of French fascism from the First World War to the modern National Front, via the interwar years, the Vichy regime and the collapse of the French Empire. Chris Millington unpicks why this extremist political phenomenon has, at times, found such fervent and widespread support among the French people. The book chronologically surveys fascism in France whilst contextualizing this within the broader European and colonial frameworks that are so significant to the subject. Concluding with a useful historiographical chapter that brings together all the previously explored aspects of fascism in France, A History of Fascism in France is a crucial volume for all students of European fascism and France in the 20th century."-- Back cover

"Since 2005, Angela Merkel has transformed not only the way Germans see themselves but also the way that politicians worldwide, male and female, perceive women in power. The East German daughter of a Protestant pastor, this physicist-turned-politician has deployed her life experiences to cultivate a unique set of leadership skills. Her pragmatic, data-driven, and future-oriented approach to politics - grounded in a commitment to democratic pluralism, human rights, and personal responsibility - has produced extraordinary paradigm shifts in many national policies in the wake of major crises. As the first English-language scholarly book to provide an in-depth account of her career and influence, Becoming Madam Chancellor examines Merkel's achievements across six key policy domains, contextualizes these within broader German history before and after reunification, and uncovers the personal and political factors that have contributed to Chancellor Merkel's hard-earned status as the world's most powerful woman."--Publisher's description.

Based largely on Neville Chamberlain's own words and official government documents, this book describes how were it not for Chamberlain's powerful, dominating presence in the British government, World War II might have been avoided.

"In this engaging work, 2002 Bolton-Jonhson Prize Winner Eric Van Young captures the crucial hundred years of Mexico's remarkable transition from a Spanish colony to a modernized, independent nation"-- Provided by publisher.In this engaging book, Eric Van Young races the political, economic, and social development of Mexico through the crucial one hundred years of its remarkable transition from a relatively prosperous Spanish colony to a violently unstable republic marked by economic stagnation, political confrontation, and burgeoning efforts at modernization-- Back cover.

"This accessible and engaging single-volume history of Serbia covers the full span of history, from the sixth-century Slav migrations up to the present day. It traces key developments surrounding Serb states, institutions, and societies, while incorporating the individual experiences and perspectives of ordinary people"-- Provided by publisher.

"In elegant and accessible prose, Julián Casanova tells the gripping story of the Spanish Civil War. These anguished and traumatic years filled Spain with hope, frustration and drama. Not only did it pit countryman against countryman, and neighbour against neighbour, but from 1936-39 this bitterly contended struggle sucked in competing and seemingly atavistic forces that were soon to rage across the face of Europe, and then the rest of the world: nationalism and republicanism; communism and fascism; anarchism and monarchism; anti-clerical reformism and aristocratic Catholic conservatism. The 'Guerra Civil' is of enduring interest precisely because it represents much more than just a regional contest for power and governmental legitimacy. It has come to be seen as a seedbed for the titanic political struggles and larger social upheavals that scarred the entire 20th century. Charting the most significant events and battles alongside the main players in the tragedy, Casanova provides answers to some of the pressing questions (such as the roots and extent of anticlerical violence) that have been asked in the 70 years that have passed since the painful defeat of the Second Republic. Now with a revised introduction, Casanova offers an overview of key historiographical shifts since the title was first published; not least the wielding of the conflict to political ends in certain strands of contemporary historiography towards an alarming neo-Francoist revisionism"-- Provided by publisher.

"This volume brings together French and British scholars of France to analyse one of French politics' most intellectually compelling phenomena, the presidency of the republic. It examines the strengths and weaknesses of that leadership as well as the way that executive power has been established in the Fifth Republic; how presidential power and the subsequent full scale development of "personality politics" developed within an essentially party-driven, democratic and, most importantly, republican system. Hence the authors in this volume examine the phenomenon of a strong presidency in the French republican framework. The individual chapters focus on the presidency and upon the individual presidents and the way in which they have addressed their own relation to the presidencies they presided over on top of a range of other factors informing their terms of office. A conclusion sums up and appraises the contemporary role of the French presidency within the party system and the republic. The project has generated a great deal of interest in the French political studies community"-- Provided by publisher.

"The nation-state Belgium, born in 1830, and the polities that preceded it since ancient times, have played an important role in European and even global history. This introductory history offers a synthetical and non-specialist yet academically based view on the social, economic, political, and cultural aspects of its evolution"-- Provided by publisher.

Daily life in Ancient Israel - Great prophets including, Hosea, Amos, Isaiah - People and lands of the Old Testament.

John Grady Cole, a 16-year-old dispossessed Texan, crosses the Rio Grande into Mexico in 1949, accompanied by his pal Lacey Rawlins. The two precocious horsemen pick up a sidekick-- a laughable but deadly marksman named Jimmy Blevins-- encounter various adventures on their way south and finally arrive at a paradisiacal hacienda where Cole falls into an ill-fated romance.

Based on incidents that took place in the southwestern United States and Mexico around 1850, this novel chronicles the crimes of a band of desperados, with a particular focus on one, "the kid," a boy of fourteen.An epic novel of the violence and depravity that attended America's westward expansion, Blood Meridian brilliantly subverts the conventions of the Western novel and the mythology of the "wild west." Based on historical events that took place on the Texas-Mexico border in the 1850s, it traces the fortunes of the Kid, a fourteen-year-old Tennesseean who stumbles into the nightmarish world where Indians are being murdered and the market for their scalps is thriving.

The story of Cornelius Suttree, who has forsaken a life of privilege with his prominent family to live in a dilapidated houseboat on the Tennessee River near Knoxville. Remaining on the margins of the outcast community there - a brilliantly imagined collection of eccentrics, criminals, and squatters - he rises above the physical and human squalor with detachment, humor, and dignity.

"Many people are interested in pursuing a career in mental health but may be uncertain about career options. This book helps to identify the best educational path for their interests and prepare for success. Throughout, mental health professionals share inspiring wisdom to build realistic expectations and highlight key decision points. Comprehensive information about the disciplines of counseling, marital/couples and family therapy, psychology, psychiatry, psychiatric nursing, and social work is provided, along with an expansive array of job possibilities. Practical guidance about masters versus doctoral degrees, graduate admissions success, educational costs, and salary projections is offered. Readers learn about how diversity and inclusion issues, as well as laws and ethics impact mental health, and how to prevent career burnout. Thought-provoking chapters promote balanced respect for both the healing art and the science of mental health, and forecast innovations that will shape the field into the future. Finally, multimedia resources are recommended to boost career preparedness"-- Provided by publisher.

"This second edition of a popular and established text offers healthcare students and professionals a clear and concise overview of health beliefs and practices in world religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Confucianism, Taoism, Sikhism, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. Adopting a consistent structure, each chapter considers the demographic profile of the community, the religion?s historical development, and key beliefs and practices, including views regarding health and sickness, death, and dying. Each chapter also ends with a useful checklist of advice on what to do and what to avoid, along with recommendations for further reading, both online and in print form."--Publisher.

"Digital Detox: Why Taking a Break from Technology Can Improve Your Well-Being explores a range of topics associated with the countermovement to digital device over-usage and addiction that began to surface in Europe, and soon, thereafter, globally. In various forms, the countermovement became known as including individuals who vociferously advocated for a regular "digital detox" regimen in order to preserve one's mental and physical well-being. It explores experts' opinions on the rising awareness of the negative psychological, physiological, and behavioral effects of digital overuse, or Internet Addiction, on private citizens; the need to prevent or recover from these harms; measures commonly used to counteract addictions to smart phones, social media, and online gaming; how Internet addictions are related to individuals' motivations to undergo a digital detox; and ; research findings regarding the protocols and effectiveness of various digital detox remedies practiced during normative and lockdown periods-like those arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. Topics in this book are divided into two main sections: (1) Harm to persons from various online addictions to smartphones, social media, online gaming, and the like- giving rise to the digital detox countermovement, and (2) Digital detox remedies: Do they work?"-- Provided by publisher.

'Machiavellian' can signify duplicity and amorality in politics, but Machiavelli himself is far more complex than this cliché. A high-ranking Florentine government official and prolific writer of hugely influential political, military and historical works, Machiavelli was also a vernacular poet, first-rank dramatist and religious radical, rejecting not only the contemporary Catholic Church but Christianity itself. From champion of Florentine popular republicanism to political radical to conservative, Robert Black explores the many faces of the man described as the father of modern political philosophy and political science. -- Provided by publisher.

"Lou Reed was a musician, singer, songwriter, poet, and founding member of the legendary rock band the Velvet Underground. He collaborated with many artists, from Andy Warhol and John Cale to Robert Wilson and Metallica. Reed had a groundbreaking solo career that spanned five decades until his death in 2013. Reed was also an accomplished martial artist whose practice began in the 1980s. He studied with Chen Tai Chi pioneer Master Ren GuangYi. This book is a comprehensive collection of Reed's writings on Tai Chi. It includes conversations with Reed's fellow musicians, artists, friends, and Tai Chi practitioners, including Julian Schnabel, A. M. Homes, Hal Willner, Mingyur Rinpoche, Eddie Stern, Tony Visconti, and Iggy Pop. The Art of the Straight Line features Reed's unpublished writings on the technique, practice, and purpose of martial arts, as well as essays, observations, and riffs on meditation and life"--Inside front jacket flap."A stunning, richly illustrated book of essential wisdom-covering Tai Chi, mindfulness, creativity, and the art of living and dying from rock icon Lou Reed, edited by his wife the artist Laurie Anderson"-- Provided by publisher.

This book provides a concise overview of the history of Polynesia, focusing on New Zealand and its outlying islands, during the period 900?1600. It provides a thematic examination of Polynesia to avoid placing the region?s history into an inaccurate, linear Western chronology. The themes of movement and migration, adaptation and change, and development and expansion offer the optimal means of understanding Polynesia during this time. Through this innovative and unique perspective on Polynesian history, which has not been previously undertaken, the reader is encouraged to think about regions outside Europe in relation to the premodern period.

Czechoslovakia, the state which preceded today's Czech and Slovak republics, lasted for just seventy-four years, the span of an average person's lifetime. In these years, it experienced democracy, Fascist dictatorship, Nazi occupation, Communist rule, Soviet invasion and, finally, democracy again. In this groundbreaking history, based on archive sources, Mary Heimann brings alive Czechoslovakia's troubled existence, from the international machinations that led to its founding at the end of the First World War to its peaceful partition in 1993. Controversially, she argues against the simplistic Western view of Czechoslovakia as a plucky little country unfortunate in its neighbors which was sacrificed first to Hitler and then to Stalin. Instead she tells an unexpected and much more interesting story: of a state which was not just the victim but also a perpetrator of intolerant nationalism. Most notably, she argues that the Czech and Slovak authorities share responsibility with the Great Powers not only for the Munich Crisis, but also for wartime persecution of Jews and Gypsies, the brutality of the post-war German and Hungarian expulsions, the failure of the Prague Spring, and the grim reality of Czechoslovak Communism.

"The origin story of the revolutionary driverless car, from concept to its present status, told through the stories of the key innovators by the Wired reporter who has covered this story for the past five years"-- Provided by publisher.Davies tells the fascinating story of the futurists who are determined to put self-driving cars on the road. His account begins with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the people who invented the Internet. The agency launched a series of robot races attracted visionaries who took self-driving technology to near reality. Eventually Detroit automakers realized that they had to pursue this technology or risk becoming obsolete. The competition remains intense-- and their quest will change our lives. -- adapted from jacket

"There is no single volume that encompasses an integrated social and cultural history of the Sámi people from the Nordic countries and northwestern Russia. Neil Kent's book fills this lacuna. In the first instance, he considers how the Sámi homeland is defined: its geography, climate, and early contact with other peoples. He then moves on to its early chronicles and the onset of colonisation, which changed Sámi life profoundly over the last millennium. Thereafter, the nature of Sámi ethnicity is examined, in the context of the peoples among whom the Sámi increasingly lived, as well as the growing intrusions of the states who claimed sovereignty over them. The Soviet gulag, the Lapland War and increasing urbanisation all impacted upon Sámi life. Religion, too, played an important role from pre-historic times, with their pantheon of gods and sacred sites, to their Christianisation. In the late twentieth century there has been an increasing symbiosis of ancient Sámi spiritual practice with Christianity. Recently the intrusions of the logging and nuclear industries, as well as tourism have come to redefine Sámi society and culture. Even the meaning of who exactly is a Sámi is scrutinised, at a time when some intermarry and yet return to Sámi, where their children maintain their Sámi identity."--Google Books viewed Sept. 21, 2021.

A novel focus on "personal responsibility" has transformed political thought and public policy in America and Europe. Since the 1970s, responsibility--which once meant the moral duty to help and support others--has come to suggest an obligation to be self-sufficient. This narrow conception of responsibility has guided recent reforms of the welfare state, making key entitlements conditional on good behavior. Drawing on intellectual history, political theory, and moral philosophy, Yascha Mounk shows why the Age of Responsibility is pernicious--and how it might be overcome. Mounk shows that today's focus on individual culpability is both wrong and counterproductive: it distracts us from the larger economic forces determining aggregate outcomes, ignores what we owe our fellow citizens regardless of their choices, and blinds us to other key values, such as the desire to live in a society of equals. Recognizing that even society's neediest members seek to exercise genuine agency, Mounk builds a positive conception of responsibility. Instead of punishing individuals for their past choices, he argues, public policy should aim to empower them to take responsibility for themselves--and those around them.-- Provided by publisher

"The fall of France in 1940 panicked US leaders, leading to their fateful decision to recognize the pro-Nazi Vichy government. Michael S. Neiberg takes readers back to the fraught early years of World War II, when America's misguided policy on Vichy alienated its British ally and ensured tensions with Charles de Gaulle and the postwar French Republic"-- Provided by publisher.

The Georgian era is often seen as a time of innovations. It saw the end of monarchical absolutism, global exploration and settlements overseas, the world's first industrial revolution, deep transformations in religious and cultural life, and Britain's role in the international trade in enslaved Africans. But how were these changes perceived by people at the time? And how do their viewpoints compare with attitudes today? In this wide-ranging history, Penelope J. Corfield explores every aspect of Georgian life-politics and empire, culture and society, love and violence, religion and science, industry and towns. People's responses at the time were often divided. Pessimists saw loss and decline, while optimists saw improvements and light. Out of such tensions came the Georgian culture of both experiment and resistance. Corfield emphasizes those elements of deep continuity that persisted even within major changes, and shows how new developments were challenged if their human consequences proved dire.

"The Italian Renaissance has come to occupy an almost mythical place in the imaginations of those who appreciate history, art, or remarkable personalities. This book will reinforce the contention that individuals with access to wealth and power can have a profound influence. They matter. And this explains why the Italian Renaissance is often perceived as elitist. Those who commissioned the works of art, often those who produced them, and many of those who appreciated them were privileged, educated, influential members of the Renaissance 'one percent.' This is meant in no way to denigrate modern interest in the poor and the marginalized, but merely to say that the enduring ideas and artifacts of the Renaissance arose from a highly-rarefied world of sophisticated talent and thought galvanized by individual curiosity and accomplished with practiced skill. And so it is that this book will be an exploration of the Italian Renaissance guided by particular moments and men--and a few remarkable women. It will be a large canvas with broad strokes intended to be seen at a distance for the dynamic sweep of its narrative of ideas and creative genius." --Provided by publisher.

The swift and unexpected defeat of the French Army in 1940 shocked the nation. Two million soldiers were taken prisoner, six million civilians fled from the German army's advance to join convoys of confused and terrified refugees, and only a few managed to escape the country. The vast majority of French people were condemned to years of subjugation under Nazi and Vichy rule. This compelling book investigates the impact of the occupation on the people of France and dispels any lingering notion that somehow, under the collaborating government of Marshal P̌tain, life was quite tolerable for most French citizens. Richard Vinen describes the inescapable fear and the moral quandaries that permeated life in German-controlled France. Focusing on the experiences of the least privileged, he shows how chronic shortages, desperate compromises, fear of displacement, racism, and sadistic violence defined their lives. Virtually all adult males festered in POW camps or were sent to work in the Reich. With numerous enthralling anecdotes and a variety of maps and evocative photographs, The Unfree French makes it possible for the first time to understand how average people in France really lived from 1940 to 1945, why their experiences differed from region to region and among various groups, and why they made the choices they did during the occupation.

"A breakout biography of Louis-Napoleon III, whose controversial achievements have polarized historians. Considered one of the pre-eminent Napoleon Bonaparte experts, Pulitzer Prize-nominated historian Alan Strauss-Schom has turned his sights on another in that dynasty, Napoleon III (Louis-Napoleon) overshadowed for too long by his more romanticized forebear. In the first full biography of Napoleon III by an American historian, Strauss-Schom uses his years of primary source research to explore the major cultural, sociological, economical, financial, international, and militaristic long-lasting effects of France's most polarizing emperor. Louis-Napoleon's achievements have been mixed and confusing, even to historians. He completely revolutionized the infrastructure of the state and the economy, but at the price of financial scandals of imperial proportions. In an age when "colonialism" was expanding, Louis-Napoleon's colonial designs were both praised by the emperor's party and the French military and resisted by the socialists. He expanded the nation's railways to match those of England; created major new transoceanic steamship lines and a new modern navy; introduced a whole new banking sector supported by seemingly unlimited venture capital, while also empowering powerful new state and private banks; and completely rebuilt the heart of Paris, street by street. Napoleon III wanted to surpass the legacy of his famous uncle, Napoleon I. In The Shadow Emperor, Alan Strauss-Schom sets the record straight on Napoleon III's legacy."--Provided by publisher.

With the rising number of missing Indigenous women, her family's involvement in a murder investigation, and grave robbers profiting off her Anishinaabe tribe, Perry takes matters into her own hands to solve the mystery and reclaim her people's inheritance."Perry Firekeeper-Birch was ready for her Summer of Slack but instead, after a fender bender that was entirely not her fault, she's stuck working to pay back her Auntie Daunis for repairs to the Jeep. Thankfully she has the other outcasts of the summer program, Team Misfit Toys, and even her twin sister Pauline. Together they ace obstacle courses, plan vigils for missing women in the community, and make sure summer doesn't feel so lost after all. But when she attends a meeting at a local university, Perry learns about the "Warrior Girl", an ancestor whose bones and knife are stored in the museum archives, and everything changes. Perry has to return Warrior Girl to her tribe. Determined to help, she learns all she can about NAGPRA, the federal law that allows tribes to request the return of ancestral remains and sacred items. The university has been using legal loopholes to hold onto Warrior Girl and twelve other Anishinaabe ancestors' remains, and Perry and the Misfits won't let it go on any longer. Using all of their skills and resources, the Misfits realize a heist is the only way to bring back the stolen artifacts and remains for good. But there is more to this repatriation than meets the eye as more women disappear and Pauline's perfectionism takes a turn for the worse. As secrets and mysteries unfurl, Perry and the Misfits must fight to find a way to make things right--for the ancestors and for their community"-- Publisher's description.

"From the American Revolution to Black Lives Matter, Americans have come to associate freedom with the fight of the oppressed for a better world. Few ideas are as central to the national mythos. But whenever the federal government has taken a stand for racial minorities, however halfhearted, white Americans have been quick to weaponize the concept of freedom, framing the state itself as a tyrannical obstacle to their own liberties. In Freedom's Dominion, prize-winning historian Jefferson Cowie lays bare the tales of violence and power that lie beneath America's cherished ideal of freedom, through the history of one seemingly charming place in Alabama-Barbour County and its largest town, Eufaula. Long before it was the launching pad for Alabama governor and prominent segregationist George Wallace, Barbour served as a battleground between local and national authorities. In the 1830s, white intruders battled federal troops sent to evict them from Creek Indian lands-including the village called Eufala Town-that they had unlawfully invaded. Eventually the white resistance prompted the federal government to give up the fight and relocate the Creeks westward, bowing to whites' insistence on their freedom to settle where they wished, and smoothing the way for the growth of plantation slavery. In the wake of the Civil War, US troops backed the right of Barbour County's African Americans to vote-until they didn't, and white residents massacred black voters lined up at the polls on Election day in 1874. During the New Deal, local whites eagerly embraced growing federal spending in Barbour County while steadfastly resisting simultaneous efforts to alter the racial order, using convict labor, tenant farming, and lynching to maintain their freedom to rule. After the federal government finally took an enduring affirmative stance on African American rights during the 1950s and 1960s, it prompted Wallace and his allies to take their fight for freedom to the national stage. When Wallace demanded "Segregation forever!" in his famous 1963 inaugural address, invoking "freedom" twenty-four times, he merely channeled the currents of Southern-and national-history. This was no new "backlash," as it was often described at the time. Ever the Founding, white Americans crying freedom have responded to even the most limited federal interventions to help non-white people with massive, and often violent, resistance. Tracing one town's story and a long struggle between local racism and federal power that continues to this day, Freedom's Dominion reveals how many white Americans came view the federal government as an obstacle to their freedom-their freedom, that is, to oppress"; Provided by publisher.

"Vietnam's role in one of the Cold War's longest-running conflicts has meant that its past has been endlessly abused. Popular accounts have cherry-picked from the Vietnamese past to tell politicized, American-centered stories--either reducing the story of Vietnam and the Vietnamese to a noble tradition of anticolonial resistance embodied by the communist leader Ho Chi Minh, or alternatively seeking to rehabilitate American allies by making similarly essentialist claims about "the Vietnamese" and their history. Now, over forty years after the end of the American war in Vietnam, the events which created the modern state of Vietnam can be seen in truly historical perspective. Christopher Goscha's Vietnam: A New History tells the story of this fascinating and complex country on its own terms, emphasizing the contingency that characterizes Vietnam's history and the diversity of its people, polities, geography, and experiences as both colonized and colonizers"-- Provided by publisher.

"The concept of a Northern European 'Renaissance' in the arts, in thought, and in more general culture north of the Alps often evokes the idea of a cultural transplant which was not indigenous to, or rooted in, the society from which it emerged. Classic definitions of the European 'Renaissance' during the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries have often seen it as an Italian import of, for example, humanism and classical learning into the Gothic North. There were certainly differences between North and South which have to be addressed, not least in the development of the visual arts. In this book, Malcolm Vale argues for a Northern Renaissance which, while cognisant of Italian developments, had a life of its own, expressed through such innovations as a rediscovery of pictorial space and representational realism, and which displayed strong continuities with the indigenous cultures of northern Europe. But it also contributed new movements and tendencies in thought, the visual arts, literature, religious beliefs and the dissemination of knowledge which often stemmed from, and built upon, those continuities. A Short History of the Renaissance in Northern Europe - while in no way ignoring or diminishing the importance of the Greek and Roman legacy - seeks other sources, and different uses of classical antiquity, for a rather different kind of 'Renaissance' in the North."-- Back cover.The idea of a rebirth in the art and civilization of the western world during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries has proved an enduring one. Italy has long been seen as its home : the source of both its origins and its finest cultural expressions. Yet in the north, the bright Mediterranean dawn of Boccaccio and Michelangelo was echoed by the artistic genius of Memling and the brilliant humanistic insights of Erasmus. This lively new history argues that the rediscovery of the antique worlds of Greece and Rome between 1400 and 1540 is only one part of the story. Though Italy was the natural heir to the Roman era, northern Europe developed a realism and illusionistic naturalism in painting which owed little, if anything, to the south. Some of Jan van Eyck's and Rogier van de Weyden's portraits have never been surpassed. These painters were profoundly influential, not only on their northern followers like Hans Holbein the Younger, but on Italian artists as well. Netherlandish painting was universally admired by fifteenth-century Italians, while the musical creativity of the Low Countries was also much prized in Italian cities and courts. Expertly traversing religion, art, history and culture, Malcolm Vale suggests that the region that produced Luther and Durer owed as much to its own past heritage as to new ideas from Italy. His book will change our perceptions of this flowering of European art and culture.

Ivan the Terrible is infamous as a sadistic despot responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent people, particularly during the years of the oprichnina, his state-within-a-state. Ivan was the first ruler in Russian history to use mass terror as a political instrument. However, Ivan's actions cannot be dismissed by attributing the behavior to insanity. Ivan interacted with Muscovite society as both he and Muscovy changed. This interaction needs to be understood in order properly to analyze his motives, achievements, and failures. Ivan the Terrible: Free to Reward and Free to Punish provides an up-to-date comprehensive analysis of all aspects of Ivan's reign. It presents a new interpretation not only of Ivan's behavior and ideology, but also of Muscovite social and economic history. Charles Halperin shatters the myths surrounding Ivan and reveals a complex ruler who had much in common with his European contemporaries, including Henry the Eighth.

From Near and Far takes a transnational approach to the history of France by considering the many ways in which people and places beyond the conventionally accepted borders of the nation shaped its life.

"This book examines the political histories of Iran's last two monarchical dynasties, the Qajars and the Pahlavis. In its long dynastic history, several monarchs and the larger dynasties they represented assumed themselves to be the apogees of imperial rule. But following the decline and eventual collapse of Safavid rule in the 1720s, except for brief interludes such as the reigns of Nader Shah Afshar from 1737 to 1747 and Karim Khan Zand from 1751 to 1779, the country was racked by centrifugal forces, warring tribes, and dynastic pretenders. It was around the time of the second Qajar monarch, Fath Ali Shah, who ascended to the throne in 1797, when dynastic rule similar to what was the norm during the Safavids once again appeared in Iran. The book traces the rise and fall of the Qajars and their successor dynasty, the Pahlavis. The following questions inform the research here. How and why did each of the dynasties rise to power? What domestic and international forces impacted them? What were the characteristics and consequences of that rule? How and why were the two dynasties effective in fulfilling their goals? Even if the Pahlavi narrative that their dynasty represented 2,500 years of monarchical rule in Iran is to be rightly doubted, the monarchy's collapse is of great consequence for the longue durée of Iranian history. What occurred in Iran in 1978-79 was much more than a political revolution; it was a rupture of historic proportions, a critical juncture after which Iranian history will never have an institution that for centuries had been its centerpiece, that of the monarchy. With the benefit of hindsight, the Qajars and the Pahlavis appear to have represented the last gasps of monarchy in Iran. My hope is for this book to at least partially capture the nuances and subtle complexities of how these dynasties rose, operated, and fell"-- Provided by publisher.

Following the demise of the Carolingian dynasty in 987 the French lords chose Hugh Capet as their king. He was the founder of a dynasty that lasted until 1328. Although for much of this time, the French kings were weak, and the kingdom of France was much smaller than it later became, the Capetians nevertheless had considerable achievements and also produced outstanding rulers, including Philip Augustus and St Louis. This wide-ranging book throws fascinating light on the history of Medieval France and the development of European monarchy.

"The house of Valois ruled France for 250 years, playing a crucial role in its establishment as a major European power. When Philip VI came to the throne, in 1328, France was a weak country, with much of its modern area under English rule. Victory in the Hundred Years War, and the acquisition of Brittany and much of Burgundy, combined with a growing population and taxable wealth, made the France of Francis I the only power in Europe capable of rivalling the Habsburg empire of Charles V. Francis displayed his power by spectacular artistic patronage and aggressive foreign wars. Following the death of Henry II in a tournament, the problems of two royal minorities and the divisive forces of the Reformation led to the temporary eclipse of royal power. By the time the last Valois, Henry III, was stabbed to death by a Dominican friar in 1589, the dynasty was discredited but the monarchy survived, providing the foundations for the Bourbons to build on."--BOOK JACKET.

In the decades since its introduction, secularization theory has been subjected to doubt and criticism from a number of leading scholars, who have variously claimed that it is wrong, flawed, or incomplete. In Beyond Doubt, Isabella Kasselstrand, Phil Zuckerman, and Ryan T. Cragun mount a strong defense for the theory, providing compelling evidence that religion is indeed declining globally as a result of modernization. Though defenses of secularization theory have been mounted in the past, we now have many years' worth of empirical data to illuminate trends, and can trace changes not just at a given point in time but over a trajectory. Drawing on extensive survey data from nations around the world, the book demonstrates that, in spite of its many detractors, there is robust empirical support for secularization theory. It also engages with the most prominent criticisms levied against the theory, showing that data that are said to refute the narrative of religious decline are easily explainable and in keeping with the broader tendency toward secularization. Beyond simply defending secularization theory, the authors endeavor to formalize it, offering clear definitions of relevant terms and creating propositions that can be repeatedly and accurately tested. Beyond Doubt offers the strongest argument to date for the existence of a global secularization trend, and will be a vital resource for students and scholars alike who study religion and secularism.

"In this study of Occupied France, Julian Jackson examines French experiences of occupation during the 'Dark Years' of 1940-1944. Pulling together previously separate histories of occupation, resistance, and collaboration, he presents a definitive history of the period. The book ranges from the politics of Marshal Petain's regime to the experiences of the ordinary French people, from surrender in 1940 to the purges of liberation. The author restores the organized Resistance to a more central role than has been customary in recent years and presents a social history of the resistance which takes in the roles of foreigners, women, Jews, and peasants. He uncovers the long term roots of the Vichy regime in political and social conflict and cultural crisis stretching back to the Great War and concludes by tracing the lasting legacy and memory of occupation since 1945"--Jacket.

"Modern Germany explores life, society, and history in this comprehensive thematic encyclopedia, spanning such topics as geography, pop culture, the media, and gender"-- Provided by publisher.

"Brunhild was a foreign princess, raised to be married off for the sake of alliance-building. Her sister-in-law Fredegund started out as a lowly palace slave. And yet-in sixth-century Merovingian France, where women were excluded from noble succession and royal politics was a blood sport-these two iron-willed strategists reigned over vast realms, changing the face of Europe. The two queens commanded armies and negotiated with kings and popes. They formed coalitions and broke them, mothered children and lost them. They fought a decades-long civil war-against each other. With ingenuity and skill, they battled to stay alive in the game of statecraft, and in the process laid the foundations of what would one day be Charlemagne's empire. Yet after the queens' deaths-one gentle, the other horrific-their stories were rewritten, their names consigned to slander and legend. In The Dark Queens, award-winning writer Shelley Puhak sets the record straight. She resurrects two very real women in all their complexity, painting a richly detailed portrait of an unfamiliar time and striking at the roots of some of our culture's stubbornest myths about female power. The Dark Queens offers proof that the relationships between women can transform the world." -- description from publisher's websiteThe remarkable, little-known story of two trailblazing women in the Early Middle Ages who wielded immense power, only to be vilified for daring to rule. Brunhild was a foreign princess, raised to be married off for the sake of alliance-building. Her sister-in-law Fredegund started out as a lowly palace slave. And yet, in sixth-century Merovingian France, where women were excluded from noble succession and royal politics was a blood sport, these two iron-willed strategists reigned over vast realms, changing the face of Europe.

A Tale of Two Cities has long been valued as one of Charles Dickens's most important and fascinating novels. Set during a time of great historical turmoil, presenting a fascinating cast of memorable characters, and exploring some of the most important themes (particularly moral issues), this book has long commanded the intense attention of anyone who has read it. This volume explores the novel from various deliberately diverse perspectives, setting it in historical, critical, and aesthetic contexts and examining how its impact has been kept alive to the present day. -- Provided by publisher.

This volume of critical approaches brings together a lively and diverse selection of essays. Of primary concern to a number of the essays reprinted in this volume is the moral character of the protagonist, Pip. Essays by Samuel Sipe and Elizabeth MacAndrew argue that Pip achieves a sort of moral autonomy as the novel progresses while critics like Peter Brooks and Eiichi Hara view Pip as a victim...Scholar John Cunningham examines the Christian imagery and rituals present in the novel, while Calum Kerr employs a mythic-structural approach in viewing Pip's progress as a character. In the volume's concluding essay, the topic of Dickens's treatment of gender and class is taken up by Peter Scheckner. Each essay is 5,000 words in length, and all essays conclude with a list of "Works Cited," along with endnotes. -- Publisher's website.

"The very first cookbook to celebrate Juneteenth, from food writer and cookbook author Nicole A. Taylor--who draws on her decade of experiences observing the holiday"--Amazon.On June 19, 1865, more than two years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, General Order No. 3 informed the people of Texas that all enslaved people were now free. In 1866, Juneteenth celebrations were celebrated with music, dance, and BBQs. Taylor bridges the traditional African American table and twenty-first century flavors with stories and recipes that will inspire parties to salute the holiday, or to help you create moments to savor joy all year round. -- adapted from inside front cover

"Filled with recipes for impressive, craveable food--with all the guidance needed to make it--(Serious) New Cook is perfect for young adults or any new(ish) cooks who have ever found themselves salivating at cooking TikToks or drooling over gorgeous cookbooks, only to believe they aren't skilled enough to attempt the recipes themselves. Here, the clear, detailed instruction and stunning step-by-step photography will have readers wowing their friends and families from their very first dish"-- Provided by publisher.

This volume creates an urgently needed interdisciplinary dialogue about issues of race, gender, and health. An enduring history of racism, sexism, and dehumanization of Black women's bodies has largely rendered the health needs of the Black community inaudible and invisible. Grounded in the lived experiences and expertise of Black women, this collection bridges gaps between researchers, practitioners, educators, and advocates. Black women's public health work is a regenerative practice--one that looks backward, inward, and forward to improve the quality of life for Black communities in the United States and beyond. The three dozen authors in this volume offer analysis, critique, and recommendations for overcoming longstanding and contemporary challenges to equity in public health practices. --From publisher description.

"The Dark Side of Reform: Exploring the Impact of Public Policy on Racial Equity contains nine chapters on the development of social policies with the potential to advance racial equity. In addition to studying these policies and their implications, the chapters in this volume demonstrate how lessons from the past can be used to inform the direction of current discussions. At the heart of these conversations are concerns about whether Black people, in particular, will receive the full benefit of transformative laws that may emerge in the coming years. The volume also offers recommendations on implementing policies that address the unique concerns of structurally disadvantaged communities with particular emphasis on Black and Latinx people." -- Publisher's description

"This book offers a genealogy of queer theory, tracing its roots to an unexpected source: empirical research on marginal sex practices and communities in the era before Stonewall. Scholars trained in the heady philosophical version of queer theory that emerged in the late 1980s and early 90s, have been slow to acknowledge this connection to postwar social science. For them, queer theory seemed to change everything, not only challenging gender and sexual norms but the nature of scholarship itself, allying it more closely with activism and popular protest. 'Underdogs' is the result of one such scholar's reeducation. Heather Love shows that queer thought, even at its most critical and utopian, owes a great deal to studies of social deviance conducted in the postwar period, particularly the work of Erving Goffman. This perspective allows Love to inquire more deeply--if still sympathetically--into aspects of queer thought that have proven contentious: its stance against identity and legislative politics; its universalism and its comparative reach; its focus on individual experience, small-scale interactions, and the politics of gesture and self-presentation; its focus on the impact of homophobia, rather than more positive aspects of queer culture; and its reliance on strategies of exposure to shake the hold of gender and sexual norms. These aspects of queer thought, so strongly associated with the 1990s and early 2000s, have in each case important precedents in midcentury sociology. By staging an encounter between queer theory and this past, Love helps us see what aspects of queer thought continue to be most salient and effective in the twentyfirst century"-- Provided by publisher.

This revelatory book charts and explains the impact and consequences of successive pandemics, plagues and epidemics on the course of world history - all through the lens of today's ongoing global experience of COVID 19. Ranging from prehistory to the present day, it first defines what constitutes a pandemic or epidemic then looks at 20 guilty diseases: including cholera, influenza, bubonic plague, leprosy, measles, smallpox, malaria, AIDS, MERS, SARS, Zika, Ebola and, of course, Covid-19. Some less well-known, but equally significant and deadly contagions such as Legionnaires' Disease, psittacosis, polio, the Sweat, and dancing plague, are also covered.The book is ordered chronologically. Each chapter features an explanation and description of epidemiology, sources and vectors, morbidity, mortality, governmental response and reaction, societal response and impact as well as psychological issues where known - and the political, legal and scientific consequences it had or has for each locus at a local and international level. In short - the book explains how each of the events both made and influenced subsequent history in its own way, particularly how each shaped future medical and scientific research and vaccine development programmes. It also examines myths about infectious diseases, the role of the media and social media. Perhaps most importantly, Paul Chrystal asks what lessons have been learnt. Will we be better prepared next time? Because, if one thing is sure, there is going to be a 'next time'.

"Providing a multifaceted view of modern Finland, this book describes its history, culture, language, geography, natural history and the mythology of early peoples. Topics include Fenno-Scandia inhabitants and their environment, traditional naturalism and modern environmentalism, and the salient features of 'Finnishness,' including an analysis of the Finnish educational system and gender equality. Finland's art, architecture and music, are highlighted, along with its peace-keeping missions worldwide. The country's several ethnic groups and their languages are discussed--the Saami, Finns, Finland-Swedes, Russian-speaking peoples, Jews, and Gypsies. The author examines Finland's late but rapid development in commerce and industry, with a focus on the history of Nokia Corporation, which grew from a 19th-century manufacturer of pulpwood and rubber boots to a 21st-century international digital communications company"--Publisher description.

Poisoner, despot, necromancer -- the dark legend of Catherine de Medici is centuries old. In this critically hailed biography, Leonie Frieda reclaims the story of this unjustly maligned queen to reveal a skilled ruler battling extraordinary political and personal odds -- from a troubled childhood in Florence to her marriage to Henry, son of King Francis I of France; from her transformation of French culture to her fight to protect her throne and her sons' birthright. Based on thousands of private letters, it is a remarkable account of one of the most influential women ever to wear a crown.

"A definitive biography of the mythic general who refused to accept the Nazi domination of France, drawing on unpublished letters, memoirs, and papers in the newly opened de Gaulle archives that show how this volatile man put a broken France back at the center of world affairs. In the early summer of 1940, when France was overrun by German troops, one junior general who had fought in the trenches in Verdun refused to accept defeat. He fled to London, where he took to the radio to address his compatriots back home. 'Whatever happens,' he said, 'the flame of French resistance must not be extinguished and will not be extinguished.' At that moment, Charles de Gaulle entered history. For the rest of the war, de Gaulle insisted he and his Free French movement were the true embodiment of France. Sometimes aloof but confident in his leadership, he quarreled violently with Churchill and Roosevelt. Through sheer force of personality he inspired French men and women to risk their lives to resist the Nazi occupation. Thanks to de Gaulle, France was recognized as one of the victorious Allies when Germany was finally defeated. Then, as President of the Fifth Republic, de Gaulle brought France to the brink of a civil war over his controversial decision to pull out of Algeria. Julian Jackson's landmark biography, the first major reconsideration in over twenty years, captures this titanic figure as never before"--Provided by publisher.

Their names linger in memory mainly as punch lines, synonyms for obscurity: Millard Fillmore, Chester Arthur, Calvin Coolidge. They conjure up not the White House so much as a decaying middle school somewhere in New Jersey. But many forgotten presidents, writes Michael J. Gerhardt, were not weak or ineffective. They boldly fought battles over constitutional principles that resonate today. Constitutional law scholar Michael Gerhardt tells the story of The Forgotten Presidents. He surveys thirteen administrations in chronological order, from Martin Van Buren to Franklin Pierce to Jimmy Carter, distinguishing political failures from their constitutional impact. Again and again, he writes, they defied popular opinion to take strong stands. Martin Van Buren reacted to an economic depression by withdrawing federal funds from state banks in an attempt to establish the controversial independent treasury system. His objective was to shrink the federal role in the economy, but also to consolidate his power to act independently as president. Prosperity did not return, and he left office under the shadow of failure. Grover Cleveland radically changed his approach in his second (non-consecutive) term. Previously he had held back from interference with lawmakers; on his return to office, he aggressively used presidential power to bend Congress to his will. Now seen as an asterisk, Cleveland consolidated presidential authority over appointments, removals, vetoes, foreign affairs, legislation, and more. Jimmy Carter, too, proves surprisingly significant. In two debt-ceiling crises and battles over the Panama Canal treaty, affirmative action, and the First Amendment, he demonstrated how the presidency's inherent capacity for efficiency and energy gives it an advantage in battles with Congress, regardless of popularity. Incisive, myth-shattering, and compellingly written, this book shows how even obscure presidents championed the White House's prerogatives and altered the way we interpret the Constitution.

"The lost twin sons of the old merchant Egeon--both named Antipholus--find themselves in Ephesus, without either one even knowing of the other's existence. Meanwhile, Egeon has arrived in search of the son he thinks is still alive--and has been sentenced to death for the "crime" of being from Syracuse. To add to the confusion, the two Antipholuses have twin servants, both named Dromio. As the four men unwittingly encounter each other, the play is crammed with wildly escalating misunderstandings before the truth emerges and Egeon is pardoned. "--Provided by publisher.

"Is your phone the first thing you reach for in the morning and the last thing you touch before bed? Do you frequently pick it up 'just to check, ' only to look up forty-five minutes later wondering where the time has gone? Do you say you want to spend less time on your phone--but have no idea how to do so without giving it up completely? If so, this book is your solution. Award-winning journalist Catherine Price presents a practical, hands-on plan to break up--and then make up--with your phone. The goal? A long-term relationship that actually feels good. You'll discover how phones and apps are designed to be addictive and how the time we spend on them damages our abilities to focus, think deeply, and form new memories. You'll then make customized changes to your settings, apps, environment, and mindset that will enable you to take back control of your life--both on your phone and off."--Back cover.

"This book presents Alfred in his historical context, seen through Asser's Life, the Anglo Saxon Chronicle, and other texts. It engages with current discussions about the authenticity of attributions to Alfred of works such as the Old English Boethius and Soliloquies, and explores how Alfred came to be considered the ''Great'' king of legend."--Provided by publisher.

The horrors of the Western Front are widely known, but what was life like on 'the other side of the trenches' in World War I? Helen McPhail here shows how the rich agricultural and industrial areas of northern France were invaded by the Germans, then occupied and exploited by them, between the summer of 1914 and the Armistice in November 1918. Factories were stripped, household furniture and fittings requisitioned, food supplies taken, the population mistreated and malnourished and even taken to forced labour camps - the people lived in terror. Starvation loomed and contact with the outside world vanished. Based on original sources, including diaries, letters and journals, this fascinating account describes how - in the struggle to survive - French civilians responded in ways familiar in World War II: escape networks, espionage, producing clandestine newspapers and attempting to help British soldiers trapped behind enemy lines. It provides a unique viewpoint on a forgotten aspect of World War I.

"Since its publication five decades ago, William L. Shirer's monumental study of Hitler's empire has been widely acclaimed as the definitive record of the twentieth century's blackest hours. A worldwide bestseller with millions of copies in print, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich offers an unparalleled and thrillingly told examination of how Adolf Hitler nearly succeeded in conquering the world. Here, in a thoughtful new introduction for the fiftieth anniversary of its National Book Award win, Ron Rosenbaum, author of the much-admired Explaining Hitler, takes a fresh and penetrating look at this vital and enduring classic and the role it continues to play in today's discussions of the history of Nazi Germany"--The publisher.

"We talk a lot about race, yet we rarely focus on the underlying question of what race is and its connections to racism. Conversations about race can be uncomfortable and confusing, but this is resolvable if we ask the right questions and focus on clear answers. What, exactly, is race? Joseph L. Graves and Alan H. Goodman illuminate the idea of race so that people who want to confront the topic of racial injustice can do so with the necessary conceptual tools. Most people think race is real, they argue, and it is. But race is not real in the way that most of us have grown up to think of it. Race is not natural, fixed, or based on biology. Instead, they continue, racism created the idea of race, the idea of race has real effects, and while human genetic variation is biologically real, it is not race. The book is based on evidence from biological and social science. It is composed of twelve question-begging chapters, which engage topics such as the origins of race, race and genetics, the forms of racism, race and health, race and ability, institutional racism, DNA and ancestry testing, "race mixing," race and politics, and what it means to be an antiracist. The book is ideally suited for people want to understand more about what race is, where it came from, and how to confront its pernicious effects, in a format that is clear, direct, and can be used as a model to defend one's antiracist position"-- Provided by publisher.

The world's leading economist of inequality presents a short but sweeping - and surprisingly optimistic - history of human progress toward equality, despite crises, disasters, and backsliding. It's easy to be pessimistic about inequality. We know it has increased dramatically in many parts of the world over the past two generations. Now, in this surprising and powerful work, the author reminds us that the grand sweep of history gives us reasons to be optimistic. Over the centuries, he shows, we have been moving toward greater equality. The author guides readers with elegance and concision through the great movements that have made the modern world for better and worse: the growth of capitalism, revolutions, imperialism, slavery, wars, and the building of the welfare state. It's a history of violence and social struggle, punctuated by regression and disaster. But through it all, the author shows, human societies have moved fitfully toward a more just distribution of income and assets, a reduction of racial and gender inequalities, and greater access to health care, education, and the rights of citizenship. Our rough march forward is political and ideological, an endless fight against injustice. To keep moving, the author argues, we need to learn and commit to what works, to institutional, legal, social, fiscal, and educational systems that can make equality a lasting reality. At the same time, we need to resist historical amnesia and the temptations of cultural separatism and intellectual compartmentalization. At stake is the quality of life for billions of people. We know we can do better, the author concludes. The past shows us how. The future is up to us. -- Adapted from publisher's description.

"Despite the rich history of nonviolent philosophy, many people today are unfamiliar with the basic principles and practices of nonviolence--even as these concepts have guided so many direct-action movements to overturn forms of racial apartheid, military and police violence, and dictatorships around the world. Revolutionary Nonviolence is a crucial resource on the long history of nonviolent philosophy through the teachings of Rev. James M. Lawson, one of the great practitioners of revolution through deliberate and sustained nonviolence. His ongoing work demonstrates how we can overcome violence and oppression through organized direct action, presenting a powerful roadmap for a new generation of activists. Rev. Lawson's work as a theologian, pastor, and social change activist has inspired hope and liberation for more than sixty years. To hear and see him speak is to experience the power of the prophetic tradition in the African American and social gospel. In Revolutionary Nonviolence, Michael K. Honey and Kent Wong reflect on Rev. Lawson's talks and dialogues, from his speeches at the Nashville sit-in movement in 1960 to his lectures in the current UCLA curriculum. This volume provides a comprehensive introduction to Rev. Lawson's teachings on how to center nonviolence in successfully organizing for change"-- Provided by publisher.

"An eye-opening portrait of the diverse disability community as it is today and how attitudes, activism, and representation have evolved since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)"-- Provided by publisher."An eye-opening portrait of the diverse disability community as it is today and how attitudes, activism, and representation have evolved since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). In Disability Pride, disabled journalist Ben Mattlin weaves together interviews and reportage to introduce a cavalcade of individuals, ideas, and events in engaging, fast-paced prose. He traces the generation that came of age after the ADA reshaped America, and how it is influencing the future. He documents how autistic self-advocacy and the neurodiversity movement upended views of those whose brains work differently. He lifts the veil on a thriving disability culture--from social media to high fashion, Hollywood to Broadway--showing how the politics of beauty for those with marginalized body types and facial features is sparking widespread change. He also explores the movement's shortcomings, particularly the erasure of nonwhite and LGBTQIA+ people that helped give rise to Disability Justice. He delves into systemic ableism in health care, the right-to-die movement, institutionalization, and the scourge of subminimum-wage labor that some call legalized slavery. And he finds glimmers of hope in how disabled people never give up their fight for parity and fair play."-- Provided by publisher.

"What can Latinx youth contribute to critical conversations on culture, politics, identity, and representation? Latinx Teens answers this question and more by offering an energetic, in-depth look at how Latinx teenagers influence twenty-first-century U.S. popular culture. In this exciting new book, Trevor Boffone and Cristina Herrera explore the diverse ways that contemporary mainstream film, television, theater, and young adult literature invokes, constructs, and interprets adolescent Latinidad. Latinx Teens shows how coming-of-age Latinx representation is performed in mainstream media, and how U.S. audiences consume Latinx characters and stories. Despite the challenges that the Latinx community face in both real and fictional settings, Latinx teens in pop culture forge spaces that institutionalize Latinidad. Teen characters make Latinx adolescence mainstream and situate teen characters as both in and outside their Latinx communities and U.S. mainstream culture, conveying the complexities of "fitting in," and refusing to fit in all at the same time. Fictional teens such as Spider-Man's Miles Morales, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter's Julia Reyes, Party of Five's Acosta siblings, and In the Heights's Nina Rosario comprise a growing body of pop culture media that portray young Latinxs as three-dimensional individuals who have agency, authenticity, and serious charisma. Teenagers and young adults have always had the power to manifest social change, and this book acknowledges, celebrates, and investigates how Latinx teens in popular culture take on important current issues. With a dynamic interdisciplinary approach, Latinx Teens explores how Latinxs on the cusp of adulthood challenge, transform, expand, and reimagine Latinx identities and their relationships to mainstream U.S. popular culture in the twenty-first century. The book makes a critical intervention into Latinx studies, youth studies, and media cultures. Students and scholars alike will benefit from the book's organization, complete with chapters that focus on specific mediums and conclude with suggestions for further reading and viewing. As the first book that specifically examines Latinx adolescence in popular culture, Latinx Teens insists that we must privilege the stories of Latinx teenagers in television, film, theater, and literature to get to the heart of Latinx popular culture. Exploring themes around representation, identity, gender, sexuality, and race, the works explored in this groundbreaking volume reveal that there is no single way to be Latinx, and show how Latinx youth are shaping the narrative of the Latinx experience for a more inclusive future." -- Publisher's description

Amoral, cunning, ruthless, and instructive, this piercing work distills three thousand years of the history of power into 48 well-explicated laws. It outlines the laws of power in their unvarnished essence, synthesizing the philosophies of Machiavelli, Sun-tzu, Carl von Clausewitz, and other great thinkers. Some laws teach the need for prudence, the virtue of stealth, and many demand the total absence of mercy, but like it or not, all have applications in real life. Illustrated through the tactics of Queen Elizabeth I, Henry Kissinger, P.T. Barnum, and other famous figures who have wielded--or been victimized by--power, these laws will fascinate any reader interested in gaining, observing, or defending against ultimate control.--From publisher description.

"This book examines the microaggressions that LGBTQ people face on a daily basis, highlights their impact on mental health, and discusses ways mental health providers can help clients process and address microaggressions. In contrast to outright assaults and hate crimes, microaggressions are typically more covert or innocuous in nature-sometimes intentional or unintentional-communicating hostile, insulting, or negative messages about people of oppressed groups. Since the first edition of this book (That's So Gay!: Microaggressions and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community) was published, there has been a cultural shift towards the acceptance of LGBTQ people in some parts of the United States. Yet many state governments have also passed laws that attack and discriminate against LGBTQ people, while institutional and interpersonal discrimination continues to occur in the lives of LGBTQ people throughout the country. This book includes a comprehensive overview of empirical work on microaggressions against LGBTQ people. Mental health practitioners can use the book to understand how microaggressions negatively affect their clients' lives, enabling them to build stronger therapeutic relationships and develop appropriate treatment plans. Educators can use this book to instruct their students, trainees, and colleagues about heterosexism, genderism, and microaggressions. It is a helpful resource for insight into workplace dynamics, and it can also be useful for lay readers of all backgrounds"--Publisher's description.

"In her trademark warm and informative style, bestselling author and expert gardener Maggie Stuckey shares everything you need to know to succeed with container gardening: planning, gearing up, planting, nurturing, and harvesting"-- Provided by publisher.Even if all you have is a balcony, patio, or front stoop, you can grow and cultivate a fresh bounty of vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers to enjoy in every season. Stuckey pairs the spirit of the Victory Gardens of the 1940s to today's container gardens. Whether you're a new or experienced gardener, Stuckey provides everything you need to know for your own container Victory Garden. -- adapted from back cover

"This book provides a compelling history, documentation and analysis of hate crimes committed against Navajos and Native Americans in the Four Corners"-- Provided by publisher.

"This book provides a compelling history, documentation and analysis of hate crimes committed against Navajos and Native Americans in the Four Corners"-- Provided by publisher.

Presents information about growing vegetables in containers, covering such topics as selecting suitable pots, starting plants from seeds, and managing pests and diseases, with advice on individual vegetables and herbs.

"The first full biography in decades, "King" mixes revelatory and exhaustive new research with brisk and accessible storytelling to forge the definitive life for our times"-- Provided by publisher."Vividly written and exhaustively researched, Jonathan Eig's King: A Life is the first major biography in decades of the civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.--and the first to include recently declassified FBI files. In this revelatory new portrait of the preacher and activist who shook the world, the bestselling biographer gives us an intimate view of the courageous and often emotionally troubled human being who demanded peaceful protest for his movement but was rarely at peace with himself. He casts fresh light on the King family's origins as well as MLK's complex relationships with his wife, father, and fellow activists. King reveals a minister wrestling with his own human frailties and dark moods, a citizen hunted by his own government, and a man determined to fight for justice even if it proved to be a fight to the death. As he follows MLK from the classroom to the pulpit to the streets of Birmingham, Selma, and Memphis, Eig dramatically re-creates the journey of a man who recast American race relations and became our only modern-day founding father--as well as the nation's most mourned martyr"--Dust jacket flap.

"In Assyria, historian Eckart Frahm tells the epic story of one of the ancient world's most accomplished civilizations, the Assyrian Empire. Tracing its origins to a minor city state in present-day Iraq, Assyria at its height, around 660 BCE, stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf, the first empire the world had seen. Breath-taking, belligerent conquest -- epitomized in the motto of the seventh-century king Esarhaddon, "Before me, cities; behind me, ruins" -- fuelled much of Assyria's growth. But as their power increased, the Assyrians accomplished stunning achievements off the battlefield, too, commissioning the world's first universal library, creating monumental sculpture, and building an elaborate "Royal Road" throughout the empire that allowed the Assyrian metropole, Ashur, to stay in regular contact with its provinces. For three centuries, Assyria reigned preeminent before it suddenly collapsed in 609 BCE, destroyed by the combined armies of the Babylonians and the Medes. Drawing on deep research into Assyrian archaeology, art, and literature, Frahm reveals the enduring influence of Assyria in world history. The empire established a long tradition of war-prone, multi-ethnic conqueror-states, organized into separate provinces and geared towards moving resources on a massive scale from the periphery to the political center. The government of Assyria served, first directly and then indirectly, as a model for future Eurasian empires, from the Babylonian and Persian Empires of antiquity to the Abbasid and Ottoman caliphates of the Islamic period. And its impact extended far beyond politics. For instance, one of the main roots of Israelite monotheism -- from which Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all emerged -- was the traumatic encounter of the Israelites and Judeans with the autocratic rulers of Assyria. While Assyria ultimately fell rapidly within the span of only a decade, the empire left behind a centuries-long legacy that transformed global civilization. An utterly definitive history, this is the breathtaking story of Assyria, told as never before. It will completely reshape our understanding of the ancient world"-- Provided by publisher.

Offers a look at the history of medicine itself through the story of transplant surgery from ancient times to the present day. Craddock takes us on a journey - from sixteenth-century skin grafting to contemporary stem cell transplants - uncovering stories of experiments and operations performed by unexpected people in unexpected places. Bringing together philosophy, science and cultural history, this volume explores how transplant surgery constantly tested the boundaries between human, animal and machine. Craddock shows us that the history - and future - of transplant surgery is tied up with questions not only about who we are, but also what we are, and what we might become. --From publisher description.

"Alexander the Great's conquests staggered the world. He led his army across thousands of miles, from northern Greece to modern Pakistan, overthrowing the greatest empires of his time and building a new one in their place. He led from the front and was often wounded. He claimed to be the son of a god, but he was actually the son of Philip II. In Philip and Alexander: Kings and Conquerors, classical historian Adrian Goldsworthy argues that without the work and influence of his father, it is very doubtful that Alexander would have achieved so much. Philip II of Macedon is often remembered as an old man, one-eyed and lame from wounds. But he was young and inexperienced when he came to power. Philip inherited a minor kingdom that was on the verge of being dismembered. He succeeded in making Macedonia dominant throughout Greece and preparing Alexander to lead his army into war against Persia. Philip, Goldsworthy shows, created the armies that won Alexander's victories. A bold new interpretation, Philip and Alexander will be the definitive dual biography of two men who together reshaped the ancient world."-- Provided by publisher.

"German military history is typically viewed as an inexorable march to the rise of Prussia and the two world wars, the road paved by militarism and the result a specifically German way of war. Peter Wilson challenges this narrative. Looking beyond Prussia to German-speaking Europe across the last five centuries, Wilson finds little unique or preordained in German militarism or warfighting. Iron and Blood takes as its starting point the consolidation of the Holy Roman Empire, which created new mechanisms for raising troops but also for resolving disputes diplomatically. Both the empire and the Swiss Confederation were largely defensive in orientation, while German participation in foreign wars was most often in partnership with allies. The primary aggressor in Central Europe was not Prussia but the Austrian Habsburg monarchy, yet Austria's strength owed much to its ability to secure allies. Prussia, meanwhile, invested in militarization but maintained a part-time army well into the nineteenth century. Alongside Switzerland, which relied on traditional militia, both states exemplify the longstanding civilian element within German military power. Only after Prussia's unexpected victory over France in 1871 did Germans and outsiders come to believe in a German gift for warfare--a special capacity for high-speed, high-intensity combat that could overcome numerical disadvantage. It took two world wars to expose the fallacy of German military genius. Yet even today, Wilson argues, Germany's strategic position is misunderstood. The country now seen as a bastion of peace spends heavily on defense in comparison to its peers and is deeply invested in less kinetic contemporary forms of coercive power"--Front dust jacket flap.

"An in-depth look at the many ways immigration has redefined modern America. The impact of immigrants over the past half century has become so much a part of everyday life in the United States that we sometimes fail to see it. This deeply researched book by one of America's leading immigration scholars tells the story of how immigrants are fundamentally changing this country. An astonishing number of immigrants and their children-nearly eighty-six million people-now live in the United States. Together, they have transformed the American experience in profound and far-reaching ways that go to the heart of the country's identity and institutions.Unprecedented in scope, One Quarter of the Nation traces how immigration has reconfigured America's racial order-and, importantly, how Americans perceive race-and played a pivotal role in reshaping electoral politics and party alignments. It discusses how immigrants have rejuvenated our urban centers as well as some far-flung rural communities, and examines how they have strengthened the economy, fueling the growth of old industries and spurring the formation of new ones. This wide-ranging book demonstrates how immigration has touched virtually every facet of American culture, from the music we dance to and the food we eat to the films we watch and books we read.One Quarter of the Nation opens a new chapter in our understanding of immigration. While many books look at how America changed immigrants, this one examines how they changed us. It reminds us that immigration has long been a part of American society, and shows how immigrants and their families continue to redefine who we are as a nation"-- Provided by publisher.

"A quarter of a century after her first book, Thinking in Pictures, forever changed how the world understood autism, Temple Grandin--the 'anthropologist from Mars,' as Oliver Sacks dubbed her--transforms our understanding of the different ways our brains are wired. Visual thinkers constitute a far greater proportion of the population than previously understood, she reveals, and a more varied one, from the purest 'object visualizers' like Grandin herself, with their intuitive knack for engineering and problem-solving, to 'visual spatials'--the abstract, mathematical thinkers who excel in pattern recognition and systemic thinking. With her genius for demystifying science, Grandin draws on cutting-edge research to take us inside visual thinking and its intuitive affinities for design, innovation, and problem-solving. She also makes us aware of how a world geared to the highly verbal screens out visual thinkers from an early age. Rather than continuing to waste their singular gifts, driving a collective loss in productivity and competitiveness, Grandin proposes new approaches to educating, parenting, employing, and collaborating with visual thinkers. In a highly competitive world, this important book helps us to see, we need every mind on board"-- Provided by publisher.

Fifty years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed, the Clotilda became the last ship in history to bring enslaved Africans to the United States. The ship was scuttled and burned on arrival to hide evidence of the crime, allowing the wealthy perpetrators to escape prosecution. Despite numerous efforts to find the sunken wreck over the next 160 years, it wasn't found until 2019. Raines, who uncovered one of our nation's most important historical artifacts, recounts the ship's perilous journey, the story of its rediscovery, and its complex legacy. Against all odds, Africatown, the Alabama community founded by the captives of the Clotilda, prospered in the Jim Crow South. Raines tells the epic tale of one community's triumphs over great adversity and a celebration of the power of human curiosity to uncover the truth about our past and heal its wounds.--Adapted from jacket.

Based on extensive archival research and 130 interviews conducted nationwide, the author looks at lesbian and gay parenthood from the early 1950s through today. He offers a previously untold story of the American family: the first history of lesbian and gay parents and their children in the United States. Beginning in the postwar era, a period marked by both intense repression and dynamic change for lesbians and gay men, he argues that by forging new kinds of family and childrearing relations, gay and lesbian parents have successfully challenged legal and cultural definitions of family as heterosexual. These efforts have paved the way for the contemporary focus on family and domestic rights in lesbian and gay political movements. Included are stories of lesbian mothers and gay fathers in the 1950s, lesbian and gay parental activist networks and custody battles, families struggling with the AIDS epidemic, and children growing up in lesbian feminist communities. He also addresses changes in gay and lesbian parenthood in the 1980s and 1990s brought about by increased awareness of insemination technologies and changes in custody and adoption laws.--Publisher information.

"An Indispensable Toolset for Same-Sex Parenthood. First published in 2016 and winner of four literary awards.Now updated and packed with valuable information and more powerful stories of same-sex parents achieving and navigating parenthood. Yes, you do have options. Same-sex couples (gay dads, lesbian moms, or other queer couples) are faced with many different options when choosing to have a family that includes beautiful children. In Journey to Parenthood, author, activist and father Eric Rosswood guides and helps prospective LGBTQIA parents explore adoption, foster care, assisted reproduction, surrogacy and co-parenting. Create your own happy family unit. Each section includes a description of a specific family-building approach, followed by personal stories from same-sex couples and individuals who have chosen that particular path. Learn strategies for dealing with challenges you will encounter on this parenting journey. Inside find: Strategies for successfully navigating same sex parenthood. Firsthand accounts combined with critical tips and advice. Updated information about adoption, foster care, assisted reproduction, surrogacy and co-parenting.

"From surrogacy and adoption, to transgender pregnancy and finding child care, parenting as an LGBTQ person is complex. This book is an authoritative, comprehensive, and easy-to-read guide to parenthood and family building for LGBTQ people. The path to becoming a parent is complicated for LGBTQ people. Some LGBTQ people don't consider parenthood because of stereotypes and barriers, while others are interested in parenthood but unsure about the first steps or overwhelmed by the path to take. Still others are discouraged by the attitudes of their family, community, or religion. This book provides LGBTQ parents and prospective parents with the detailed, evidence-based knowledge they need to navigate the transition to parenthood, and help their children thrive. Dr. Abbie E. Goldberg, psychologist and researcher, uses the results of her LGBTQ Family Building Project to help challenge traditional beliefs that have often been weaponized against LGBTQ people to prevent or discourage them from becoming parents. She walks readers through the various steps and decision points in becoming a parent, describes key research findings on family building, and offers key questions and reader-friendly checklists to easily enable readers to evaluate the LGBTQ friendliness and overall "fit" of adoption agencies, health care providers, day cares, and other institutions"-- Provided by publisher.

For over 3,000 years the myth of Troy has fascinated artists and audiences alike--from the epic tales of Homer's Iliad and Virgil's Aeneid to retellings from Chaucer to Madeline Miller, and stagings from Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida to Brad Pitt's rendering of the hero Achilles. But what is it about this tale that makes it so eternally appealing, and what do we actually know about historical Troy? This richly illustrated volume tells the story of Troy and the great Trojan War through the lens of objects from the Greek Bronze Age to the twenty-first century. Using the Classical works of art for which the British Museum is internationally known, this book considers the ancient myth through the eyes of Greek and Roman artists. Drawing on the latest research, it chronicles the search for Troy that convinced the world of the city's existence, beginning with the nineteenth-century excavations by Heinrich Schliemann. Focusing on the major characters in the story--Helen of Troy, Achilles and Hector, Aeneas and Odysseus--it illustrates how artists from Cranach and Rubens to Romare Bearden and Cy Twombly have been inspired to explore contemporary themes of war and heroism, love and beauty. Troy sheds new light on a story that has resonated for millennia.

"One in two of us will develop cancer at some point in our lives and yet many of us don't understand how cancers arise. How many different kinds of cancer are there? What treatments are available? What does the future hold in terms of developing new therapies? This book demystifies cancer by explaining the underlying cell and molecular biology in a clear and accessible style. It answers the questions commonly asked about cancer, such as what causes cancer and how cancer develops. It explains how DNA makes proteins and how mutations can corrupt those proteins. It also gives an overview of current therapies and how treatments may advance over the next decades, as well as explaining what actions we can take to help prevent cancer developing. Understanding Cancer is an accessible and engaging introduction to cancer biology for any interested reader"--Publisher's description.

"Upon arrival to the United States, Mexican immigrants are racialized as simultaneously non-white and "illegal." This racialization process complicates notions of race that they bring with them, as the "pigmentocracy" of Mexican society, in which their skin color may have afforded them more privileges within their home country, collides with the American racial system. Racial Baggage examines how immigration reconfigures U.S. race relations, illuminating how the immigration experience can transform understandings of race in home and host countries. Drawing on interviews with Mexicans in Los Angeles and Guadalajara, sociologist Sylvia Zamora illustrates how racialization is a transnational process that not only changes immigrants themselves, but also everyday understandings of race and racism within the United States and Mexico. Within their communities and networks that span an international border, Zamora argues, immigrants come to define "race" in a way distinct from both the color-conscious hierarchy of Mexican society and the Black-white binary prevalent within the United States. In the process, their stories demonstrate how race is not static, but rather an evolving social phenomenon forever altered by immigration"-- Provided by publisher.

"This book provides readers with the information they need to better understand Alzheimer's disease. Written in easy-to-understand language, it is aimed at those who may have a parent, grandparent, or other loved one struggling with this condition"-- Provided by publisher.Alzheimer's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder that causes problems with thinking, memory, and behavior. Such symptoms as memory loss usually develop slowly but get worse over time, eventually becoming severe enough to interfere with daily activities and bodily functions. What You Need to Know about Alzheimer's Disease is part of Greenwood's Inside Diseases and Disorders series. This series profiles a variety of physical and psychological conditions, distilling and consolidating vast collections of scientific knowledge into concise, readable volumes. A list of "Top 10" essential questions begins each book, providing quick-access answers to readers' most pressing concerns. The text follows a standardized, easily navigable structure, with each chapter exploring a particular facet of the topic. In addition to covering such basics as causes, signs and symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment options, books in this series delve into issues that are less commonly addressed but still critically important, such as effects on loved ones and caregivers. Case illustrations highlight key themes discussed in the book and are accompanied by insightful analyses and recommendations. -- Provided by publisher.

"I was flown in by the Health Committee of the small town. They wanted me to meet with a family in distress. They felt the family, who was well loved in their town, was in turmoil while facing the impending death of the father. Right off the plane, I was brought to the patient's private hospital room. The father of the family, Benny, aged 64, was dying of cancer. I was told that neither his family nor he recognized that he was dying. The battle was already lost, according to the health professionals. Yet the family wanted to keep fighting for his life in every possible way"-- Provided by publisher.

"This book takes you to the places that inspired J.R.R. Tolkien to create his fictional locations in The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and other classic works. Written by renowned Tolkien expert John Garth, The Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien features a wealth of breathtaking illustrations, including Tolkien's own drawings, contributions from other artists, rare archival images, and spectacular color photos of contemporary locations across Britain and beyond, from the battlefields of World War I to Africa. Garth identifies the locales that served as the basis for Hobbiton, the elven valley of Rivendell, the Glittering Caves of Helm's Deep, and many other settings in Middle-earth, from mountains and forests to rivers, lakes, and shorelands. He reveals the rich interplay between Tolkien's personal travels, his wide reading, and his deep scholarship as an Oxford don. Garth draws on his profound knowledge of Tolkien's life and work to shed light on the extraordinary processes of invention behind Tolkien's works of fantasy. He also debunks popular misconceptions about the inspirations for Middle-earth and puts forward strong new claims of his own. An illustrated journey into the life and imagination of one of the world's best-loved authors, The Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien provides a unique exploration of the relationship between the real and the fantastical and is an essential companion for anyone who wants to follow in Tolkien's footsteps"-- Provided by publisher.

"This book--a story of social reproduction and change--illustrates how the larger ideological struggles over who belongs in this country, who is valuable, and who is an American are worked out by young people through their everyday acts of striving in school and caring for friends and family. It uses the experiences of everyday high schoolers, some undocumented and some from families with mixed legal standing, to understand the roles that education and a broad definition of achievement play in shaping how young people, who are today the focus of xenophobic ire, come to understand their national identity and sense of belonging to the United States"--Provided by publisher.

In the United States, more than seven million people claim to be multiracial, or have racially mixed heritage, parentage, or ancestry. In The Colors of Love, Melinda A. Mills explores how multiracial people navigate their complex--and often misunderstood--identities in romantic relationships. Drawing on sixty interviews with multiracial people in interracial relationships, Mills explores how people define and assert their racial identities both on their own and with their partners. She shows us how similarities and differences in identity, skin color, and racial composition shape how multiracial people choose, experience, and navigate love. Mills highlights the unexpected ways in which multiracial individuals choose to both support and subvert the borders of race as individuals and as romantic partners. The Colors of Love broadens our understanding about race and love in the twenty-first century--Publisher's description.

"Dealing with narratives of vulnerable populations, this book looks at how they deal with dimensions of their social life, especially in regard to health. It reflects the socio-political ecologies like public hostility and stereotyping, neglect of their unique health needs, their courage to overcome adversity, and the love of family and healthcare providers in mitigating their problems. The narratives inform us about the dissimilarity between the way we speak, what we hear and how we act. American society likes to give the impression that it is listening to the plight of vulnerable populations, but the stories in this volume prove otherwise"-- Provided by publisher.

In 2023, the United States had the highest level of income and wealth inequality of all the developed nations of the world, with the bottom 50 percent of workers controlling only 2 percent of the nation's wealth overall. While wealth inequality has been a core political and economic issue in America from the very beginning, each generation also grapples with emerging ideas about how to address this perennial economic justice issue and, in 2023, as inflation and rising costs of living brought this issue to a head again, economists, politicians, and American citizens were increasingly asking if radical solutions might we warranted in order to expand access to the American Dream. This volume of Reference Shelf introduces the idea of wealth distribution through tax restructuring, regulations on corporate profits, minimum wage laws, and more radical potential solutions like the establishment of a universal basic income. Articles from American periodicals, blogs, and magazines introduce readers to the various aspects of this debate and will tie the income inequality debate of the 2020s to the historic American struggle for economic equity. -- Vendor website

"With hate crimes on the rise and social movements like Black Lives Matter bringing increased attention to the issue of police brutality, the American public continues to be divided by issues of race. How do adolescents and young adults form friendships and romantic relationships that bridge the racial divide? In The Company We Keep, sociologists Grace Kao, Kara Joyner, and Kelly Stamper Balistreri examine how race, gender, socioeconomic status, and other factors affect the formation of interracial friendships and romantic relationships among youth. They highlight two factors that increase the likelihood of interracial romantic relationships in young adulthood: attending a diverse school and having an interracial friendship or romance in adolescence. While research on interracial social ties has often focused on whites and blacks, Hispanics are the largest minority group and Asian Americans are the fastest growing racial group in the United States. The Company We Keep examines friendships and romantic relationships among blacks, whites, Hispanics, and Asian Americans to better understand the full spectrum of contemporary race relations. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, the authors explore the social ties of more than 15,000 individuals from their first survey responses as middle and high school students in the mid-1990s through young adulthood nearly fifteen years later. They find that while approval for interracial marriages has increased and is nearly universal among young people, interracial friendships and romantic relationships remain relatively rare, especially for whites and blacks. Black women are particularly disadvantaged in forming interracial romantic relationships, while Asian men are disadvantaged in the formation of any romantic relationships, both as adolescents and as young adults. They also find that people in same-sex romantic relationships are more likely to have partners from a different racial group than are people in different-sex relationships. The authors pay close attention to how the formation of interracial friendships and romantic relationships depends on opportunities for interracial contact. They find that the number of students choosing different race friends and romantic partners is greater in schools that are more racially diverse, indicating that school segregation has a profound impact on young people's social ties. Kao, Joyner, and Balistreri analyze the ways school diversity and adolescent interracial contact intersect to lay the groundwork for interracial relationships in young adulthood. The Company We Keep provides compelling insights and hope for the future of living and loving across racial divides."-- Provided by publisher

Thanks to advances in technology, medicine, Social Security, and Medicare, old age for many Americans is characterized by comfortable retirement, good health, and fulfilling relationships. But there are also millions of people over 65 who struggle with poverty, chronic illness, unsafe housing, social isolation, and mistreatment by their caretakers. What accounts for these disparities among older adults? Sociologist Deborah Carr's Golden Years? draws insights from multiple disciplines to illuminate the complex ways that socioeconomic status, race, and gender shape the nearly every aspect of older adults' lives. By focusing on an often-invisible group of vulnerable elders, Golden Years? reveals that disadvantages accumulate across the life course and can diminish the well-being of many.

Coming out can be fraught with difficulty for both parents and child--but Wesley C. Davidson, a popular blogger on gay rights issues, and Dr. Jonathan Tobkes, a New York City-based psychiatrist, provide a road map so families can better navigate this rocky emotional terrain. Emphasizing communication and unconditional love, Davidson and Tobkes help parents untangle their own feelings, identify and overcome barriers to acceptance, encourage strong self-esteem in their child, handle negative or hostile reactions to their child's sexual identity, and more. Filled with case studies and interviews, along with useful action plans and conversation starters, this is a positive, progressive guide to raising healthy, well-adjusted adults.

"Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) loved more than anything to talk about the craft of writing and the pleasure of reading good books. His dedication to the creative impulse manifests itself in the extraordinary amount of work he produced in virtually every literary genre--fiction, poetry, travel writing, and essays--in a short and peripatetic life. His letters, especially, confess his elation at the richness of words and the companionship of books, often projected against ill health and the shadow of his own mortality. Stevenson belonged to a newly commercial literary world, an era of mass readership, marketing, and celebrity. He had plenty of practical advice for writers who wanted to enter the profession: study the best authors, aim for simplicity, strike a keynote, work on your style. He also held that a writer should adhere to the truth and utter only what seems sincere to his or her heart and experience of the world. Writers have messages to deliver, whether the work is a tale of Highland adventure, a collection of children's verse, or an essay on umbrellas. Stevenson believed that an author could do no better than to find the appetite for joy, the secret place of delight that is the hidden nucleus of most people's lives. His remarks on how to write, on style and method, and on pleasure and moral purpose contain everything in literature and life that he cared most about--adventuring, persisting, finding out who you are, and learning to embrace "the romance of destiny.""-- Provided by publisher.

"With his richly detailed world of Middle Earth and the epic tales he told around it, J.R.R. Tolkien invented the modern fantasy novel. For readers and students getting to grips with this world for the first time, J.R.R. Tolkien: A Guide for the Perplexed is an essential guide to the author's life and work. The book helps readers explore: Tolkien's life and times Tolkien's mythical world The languages of Middle Earth The major works - The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Posthumously published writings - from The Silmarillion to the recently discovered The Fall of Gondolin With reference to adaptations of Tolkien's work including the Peter Jackson films, notes on Tolkien's sources and surveys of key scholarly and critical writings, this is an accessible and authoritative guide to one of the 20th century's greatest and most popular writers"-- Provided by publisher

This is the most comprehensive history of the Netherlands available in the English language. It surveys Dutch history from the 16th century, when the nation took shape as a geographical, administrative and political entity, right through to the Netherlands of today. Examining domestic politics and wider international contexts, as well as economic and cultural history, Friso Wielenga provides a varied and in-depth investigation that will lead to a rich understanding of the country's past. The book also challenges misplaced preconceptions regarding political consensus and religious toleration in the country and offers a balanced assessment of developments across the early modern, modern and contemporary eras. -- Provided by publisher.

Destroyed by Vesuvius in 79 CE, the ruins of Pompeii offer the best evidence we have of life in the Roman Empire. But the eruptions are only part of the story. In The Fires of Vesuvius, acclaimed historian Mary Beard makes sense of the remains. She explores what kind of town it was -- more like Calcutta or the Costa del Sol? -- and what it can tell us about "ordinary" life there. --from publisher description.

The first full account in any language of the last Muslim king of Spain. An action-packed story of betrayal, courage, intrigue, heroism, and tragedy. The Moor's Last Stand presents the poignant story of Boabdil, the last Muslim king of Granada. Betrayed by his family and undermined by faction and internal conflict, Boabdil was defeated in 1492 by the forces of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of the newly united kingdoms of Castile and Aragon. The Christian victory marked the completion of the long Christian re-conquest of Spain and ended seven centuries in which Christians, Muslims, and Jews had, for the most part, lived peacefully and profitably together. Five centuries after his death, Boabdil continues to be a potent symbol of resistance to the forces of western Christendom, and his image endures in contemporary culture. Based on original research in the region by a leading historian of Granada, this book presents a vivid account of Boabdil's life and times and considers the impact of his defeat then and now.

Jane Austen and Comedy takes for granted two related notions. First, Jane Austen's books are funny; they induce laughter, and that laughter is worth attending to for a variety of reasons. Second, Jane Austen's books are comedies, understandable both through the generic form that ends in marriage after the potential hilarity of romantic adversity and through a more general promise of wish fulfillment. In bringing together Austen and comedy, which are both often dismissed as superfluous or irrelevant to a contemporary world, this collection of essays directs attention to the ways we laugh, the ways that Austen may make us do so, and the ways that our laughter is conditioned by the form in which Austen writes: comedy. Jane Austen and Comedy invites reflection not only on her inclusion of laughter and humor, the comic, jokes, wit, and all the other topics that can so readily be grouped under the broad umbrella that is comedy, but also on the idea or form of comedy itself, and on the way that this form may govern our thinking about many things outside the realm of Austen's work.

This book provides a comparative history of the domestic and international nature of Spain's First Carlist War (1833-40) and the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), as well as the impact of both conflicts. The book demonstrates how and why Spain's struggle for liberty was won in the 1830s only for it to be lost one hundred years later. It shows how both civil wars were world wars in miniature, fought in part by foreign volunteers under the gaze and in the political consciousness of the outside world. Prefaced by a short introduction, The Spanish Civil Wars is arranged into two domestic and international sections, each with three thematic chapters comparing each civil war in detail. The main analytical perspectives are political, social and new military history in nature, but they also explore aspects of gender, culture, nationalism and separatism, economy, religion and, especially, the war in its international context. The book integrates international archival research with the latest scholarship on both subjects and also includes a glossary, a bibliography and several images. It is a key resource tailored to the needs of students and scholars of modern Spain which offers an intriguing and original new perspective on the Spanish Civil War.