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Books > History > History of specific subjects > General
"Battle: A History of Combat and Culture" spans the globe and the
centuries to explore the way ideas shape the conduct of warfare.
Drawing its examples from Europe, the Middle East, South Asia, East
Asia, and America, John A. Lynn challenges the belief that
technology has been the dominant influence on combat from ancient
times to the present day. In battle, ideas can be more far more
important than bullets or bombs. Carl von Clausewitz proclaimed
that war is politics, but even more basically, war is culture. The
hard reality of armed conflict is formed by - and, in turn, forms -
a culture's values, assumptions, and expectations about fighting.
The author examines the relationship between the real and the
ideal, arguing that feedback between the two follows certain
discernable paths. Battle rejects the currently fashionable notion
of a "Western way of warfare" and replaces it with more nuanced
concepts of varied and evolving cultural patterns of combat. After
considering history, Lynn finally asks how the knowledge gained
might illuminate our understanding of the war on terrorism.
The Bronx Is Burning "meets Chuck Klosterman in this wild
pop-culture history of baseball's most colorful and controversial
decade
"The Major Leagues witnessed more dramatic stories and changes
in the '70s than in any other era. The American popular culture and
counterculture collided head-on with the national pastime, rocking
the once-conservative sport to its very foundations. Outspoken
players embraced free agency, openly advocated drug use, and even
swapped wives. Controversial owners such as Charlie Finley, Bill
Veeck, and Ted Turner introduced Astroturf, prime-time World
Series, garish polyester uniforms, and outlandish promotions such
as Disco Demolition Night. Hank Aaron and Lou Brock set new heights
in power and speed while Reggie Jackson and Carlton Fisk emerged as
October heroes and All-Star characters like Mark "The Bird" Fidrych
became pop icons. For the millions of fans who grew up during this
time, and especially those who cared just as much about Oscar
Gamble's afro as they did about his average, this book serves up a
delicious, Technicolor trip down memory lane.
""
This Pivot book examines literary elements of urban topography that
have animated Alan Moore, Peter Ackroyd, and Iain Sinclair's
respective representations of London-ness. Ann Tso argues these
authors write London "psychogeographically" to deconstruct popular
visions of London with colonial and neoliberal undertones. Moore's
psychogeography consists of bird's-eye views that reveal the brute
force threatening to unravel Londonscape from within; Ackroyd's
aims to detect London sensuously, since every new awareness recalls
an otherworldly London; Sinclair's conjures up a narrative
consciousness made erratic by London's disunified landscape.
Drawing together the dystopian, the phenomenological, and the
postcolonial, Tso explores how these texts characterize
"London-ness" as estranging.
Hu seeks to explain China's failure to establish a democratic
system. He demonstrates both continuity and change in China's
democratization process. Modern China regards power and wealth as
primary goals and treats a strong state as a major means to these
ends. Such a preference puts democracy on a back burner.
Employing a theoretical framework which consists of five
factors--historical legacies, local forces, the world system,
socialist values, and economic development--Hu shows that, while
all of these factors were at work in all eras, each assumes a
special significance in a particular period. Traditional China
before the 1911 Revolution attempted to adjust itself to a new,
Western-dominated world. In the Republican era, the control of
local forces topped the political agenda. Nationalist China sought
to survive and develop in the world system, while Maoist China set
for itself the task of building a socialist state. And, of course,
economic development has been the priority of the Deng era. As Hu
shows, these five factors have had determining impacts on the long
struggle for democracy in China.
Until the latter decades of the twentieth century historical works
on Australian education tended, almost without exception, to not
foreground gender. The revitalisation of feminism in both the
social and academic worlds in the 1970s nurtured scholarship whose
primary purpose was to place gender at the centre of policy and
research. One strand of this project was to map the careers and
structural positioning of women teachers. However, while this
important advance brought an analytical lens to bear on what had
been a significant lacuna in the history of education the emphasis
on the overt structural and cultural exclusions faced by women who
taught tended to perpetuate stereotypes of teaching and
professionalism. Thus, women teachers were understood as victims of
patriarchal bureaucratic systems. The possibility that women
teachers had more complex and agentic lives was largely unexplored.
More recent scholarship has called for the need to investigate the
subjective experiences of becoming and being a woman teacher thus
creating a greater set of bounded studies which pay close attention
to ethnic, class and regional differences as well as instances
where women teachers exercised autonomy and resistance. A further
significant development has been the insistence on the inclusion of
'stories from below' gathered through the biographical and
autobiographical writings of women teachers as well as oral history
testaments. This book is part of that ongoing historical
exploration of women teachers' lives and makes a unique
contribution. This is partly due to the location, Western
Australia, and also in the focus on the process of becoming a woman
teacher. Oral testimonies from twenty-four womenteachers who
graduated from the only Western Australian teachers' college in the
early twentieth century provide the personal perspective, while
secondary sources, policy texts and institutional records are used
to create the historical context. This book challenges the
assumption that families and schools unproblematically reproduced
prevailing gender regimes. By becoming teachers, these women had
been exposed to traditional expectations that they would accept
masculine authority and eventually leave teaching to become wives
and mothers. On the other hand they were also educated, encouraged
to enter the teaching profession, and rewarded for their
achievements. They learned to invest themselves in developing their
rational and critical capacities. If they stayed in the profession
they would have to remain spinsters, an apparently unacceptable
social position. It might have seemed like an impossible choice but
in the final chapter of the book Janina Trotman details the nature
of these choices and the rich and varied lives of the women who
made them. Girls Becoming Teachers will appeal to a wide range of
groups. Scholars engaged in researching gender, education and
professionalism would find much of interest, as will those who
investigate the construction of subjectivities. Since much of the
book is based on oral testimonies it would be an important addition
to an Oral History Collection. Finally, since stories are a source
of pleasure and fascination, many teachers, both retired and in
service would find the book a pleasure to read.
The rich heritage of Virginia horse racing traces its roots back to
the colonial days of the late seventeenth century. Horse racing
began as single-day events held at county fairs, family farms, and
hunt meets, taking a long and meandering path to become the sport
we know and love today. "Colonial Downs and More" examines the
important changes that occurred in Virginia's horse racing industry
during the last half century, with a particular focus on the
debates over pari-mutuel wagering. The legalization of pari-mutuel
wagering became a hot-button legislative issue in the 1980s,
sparked by horse breeders and owners hoping to improve the
industry. In 1988, voters approved the legalization of pari-mutuel
wagering, a move that opened the doors for the establishment of a
new racetrack that would come to be known as Colonial Downs.
Colonial Downs faced major obstacles from its inception.
Construction was bogged down by licensing delays and legal issues.
Nine long years elapsed before it finally opened its gates in 1997.
After a modest opening, attendance and wagering slumped over the
next three to five years. Nonetheless, despite the difficulties,
the track and associated operations remain high quality, offering
breeders and owners needed funds and providing racing fans with
unparalleled fun and excitement.
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