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Books > History > History of specific subjects > General
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aEverybody knows that TV is crucial to globalization. Now,
thanks to Lisa Parks and Shanti Kumar, we know why and how
television matters globally. With TV studies moving out of the
classroom and onto the world stage, this volume is an indispensable
passport.a
--Toby Miller, editor of "Television & New Media"
From the 1967 live satellite program "Our World" to MTV music
videos in Indonesia, from French television in Senegal to the
global syndication of African American sitcoms, and from
representations of terrorism on German television to the
international Teletubbies phenomenon, TV lies at the nexus of
globalization and transnational culture.
Planet TV provides an overview of the rapidly changing landscape
of global television, combining previously published essays by
pioneers of the study of television with new work by cutting-edge
television scholars who refine and extend intellectual debates in
the field. Organized thematically, the volume explores such issues
as cultural imperialism, nationalism, postcolonialism,
transnationalism, ethnicity and cultural hybridity. These themes
are illuminated by concrete examples and case studies derived from
empirical work on global television industries, programs, and
audiences in diverse social, historical, and cultural contexts.
Developing a new critical framework for exploring the political,
economic, sociological and technological dimensions of television
cultures, and countering the assumption that global television is
merely a result of the current dominance of the West in world
affairs, Planet TV demonstrates that the global dimensions of
television were imagined intoexistence very early on in its
contentious history. Parks and Kumar have assembled the critical
moments in television's past in order to understand its present and
future.
Contributors include Ien Ang, Arjun Appadurai, Jose B. Capino,
Michael Curtin, Jo Ellen Fair, John Fiske, Faye Ginsburg, R.
Harindranath, Timothy Havens, Edward S. Herman, Michele Hilmes,
Olaf Hoerschelmann, Shanti Kumar, Moya Luckett, Robert McChesney,
Divya C. McMillin, Nicholas Mirzoeff, David Morley, Hamid Naficy,
Lisa Parks, James Schwoch, John Sinclair, R. Anderson Sutton, Serra
Tinic, John Tomlinson, and Mimi White.
Half the world's population lives in rural places, but education
scholars and policy makers worldwide give little attention to rural
of education. Indeed, most national systems, including in the
developed world, treat their educational systems as institutions
to"modernize" the global economy. The authors in this volume have
different concerns. They are rural education scholars from
Australia, Canada, the United States, and Kyrgyzstan, and here
their focus is the dynamics of social class: in particular rural
schools but also in rural schooling as a local manifestation of a
national (and the global) system. For the most part, the volume
comprises relevant empirical reports, but none neglects theory, and
some privilege theory and interpretation. First and last chapters
introduce the texts and synthesize their joint and separate
meanings. What are the implications of place for social class? How
do class dynamics manifest differently in more and less racially
homogeneous rural communities? How does place affect class and how
might class affect place? How doesschooling in rural communities
reproduce or interrupt social-class mobility across generations?
The chapters engage such questions more completely than other
volumes in rural education, not as afinal word or interm summary,
but as an opening to an important lineof inquiry thus far largely
neglected in rural education scholarship.
The Nation's Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)
are more relevant today than ever before. As the national student
loan debt grows, as the racial wealth gap continues to widen and as
unemployment in the African American community continues to exceed
that of other racial demographic groups, the HBCUs represent a
collective means to combating socioeconomic ills. The HBCUs stand
in the gap; supporting the African American community at-large.
Through the use of best practices and HBCU administrative
experiences, the authors offer a path forward for avoiding
political and cultural missteps. They tout the rich tradition,
legacy, as well as outcomes of HBCUs. New contributions to the
field are made through a collective of higher education
professionals and change agents whom are tied to HBCU scholarship.
A relevant and practical book for HBCU leadership and
administrators, HBCU faculty leaders and researchers that want to
uncover the ways and means for cultivating success within the HBCUs
longitudinally. New contributions to the field are made through a
collective of higher education professionals and change agents who
are tied to HBCU scholarship.
In early 1969, New York City and all it represented was in
disarray: politically, criminally, and athletically. But while
Simon and Garfunkel lamented the absence of a sports icon like Joe
DiMaggio, a modern Lancelot rode forth to lead the New York Mets to
heights above and beyond all sports glory. This book tells the
complete, unvarnished story of the great Tom Seaver, that rarest of
all American heroes, the New York Sports Icon. In a city that
produces not mere mortals but sports gods, Seaver represented the
last of a breed. His deeds, his times, his town-it was part of a
vanishing era, an era of innocence. In 1969, six years after John
F. Kennedy's assassination, Seaver and the Mets were the last gasp
of idealism before free agency, Watergate, and cynicism. Here is
the story of "Tom Terrific" of the "Amazin' Mets," a man worthy of
a place alongside DiMaggio, Ruth, Mantle, and Namath in the
pantheon of New York idols.
The first comprehensive history of the Chrysler Corporation, this
book is intended for readers interested in the history of
automobiles and of American business, and for fans and critics of
Chrysler's products. From the Chrysler Six of 1924, to the
front-wheel-drive vehicles of the 70s and 80s, to the minivan,
Chrysler boasts an impressive list of technological "firsts." But
even though the company has catered well to a variety of consumers,
it has come to the brink of financial ruin more than once in its
seventy-five-year history. How Chrysler achieved monumental success
and then managed colossal failure and sharp recovery is explained
in Riding the Roller Coaster, a lively, unprecedented look at a
major force in the American automobile industry since 1925. Charles
Hyde tells the intriguing story behind Chrysler--its products,
people, and performance over time--with particular focus on the
company's management. He offers a lens through which the reader can
view the U.S. auto industry from the perspective of the smallest of
the automakers who, along with Ford and General Motors, make up the
"Big Three." The book covers Walter P. Chrysler's life and
automotive career before 1925, when he founded the Chrysler
Corporation, and traces the company's history to 1998, when it
merged with Daimler-Benz. Chrysler made a late entrance into the
industry in 1925 when it emerged from Chalmers and Maxwell, and
further grew when it absorbed Dodge Brothers and American Motors
Corporation. The author follows this journey, explaining the
company's leadership in automotive engineering, its styling
successes and failures, its changing management, and its activities
from auto racing to defense production toreal estate. Throughout,
the colorful personalities of its leaders--including Chrysler
himself and Lee lacocca--emerge as strong forces in the company's
development, imparting a risk-taking mentality that gave the
company its verve.
Besieged examines the most important sieges in history-the actions
and motivations of attackers and defenders along with conditions
inside and outside the city walls. From Joshua's assault on Jericho
in the 15th century B.C. to the Russian attack on the Chechen
capital of Grozny at the end of the 20th century, siege warfare has
been a recurring theme in the human story. Again and again,
engineers have built supposedly impregnable fortifications, only to
see them overrun by an ingenious enemy. In Besieged, military
historian Paul F. Davis analyzes the most crucial sieges in world
history, such as the siege of Leningrad, which weakened the Nazi
forces in World War II, and that of the Alamo, which culminated in
independence for Texas. He also describes important sieges
unfamiliar to most readers, such as that of Arcot, where a British
victory halted the French takeover of southern India. In engaging,
accessible language, Davis tracks the invention of new
technologies, analyzes innovative tactics, and tells the human
story of conditions both inside and outside the city walls.
Examines 100 great sieges, from Jericho in 1405 B.C. to Grozny in
1997 Establishes the historical background of each siege, describes
the siege itself in both military and human terms, and analyzes the
results Provides more than 75 maps as well as tactical diagrams,
archival photographs, and artworks Includes a glossary explaining
unfamiliar military terms, from abatis to zig-zags
From the early forms of loans to farmers to present day credit
cards, consumer credit has always been part of human life and
economics. However, ever since the Bible, controversy has reigned
as to its legitimacy. It is the history of this controversy that is
presented here by the authors. Outlining significant developments
in different aspects of consumer credit from the Hammurabi Code
through to current questions such as household overindebtedness,
they shed some historical light on modern debates.
Many books have been written about Tin Pan Alley--the colloquial
name assigned to popular music before the advent of rock 'n'
roll--yet little is available about the individual songs defining
this enormously significant style of American music. This
encyclopedia of over 1,200 songs written from the middle of the
19th century through the 1950s provides information and commentary
on the music embraced by the American public.
No other single volume contains as much information on the
subject. Author Thomas Hischak provides an exhaustive yet highly
readable guide to the songs, their periods, their styles, and their
performers. His study explains in layman's language how this music
survived over time, and how it came to play such an influential
role in American popular culture. Ideal for researchers and
browsers alike, this encyclopedia is a long overdue examination of
an American musical institution.
These songs were not written for stage or screen, but for
saloons, singalongs, dance orchestras, sheet music, piano player
rolls, recordings, nightclubs, concerts, and radio broadcasts. They
colored the fabric of American popular culture for centuries, from
early American folk songs to Civil War melodies, 19th-century
sentimental ballads, minstrel songs, ragtime, and jazz.
Napoleon's youngest brother, Jerome, has over the centuries been
portrayed as a military commander who was completely incompetent
and unimportant to his famous sibling. This first biography of
Jerome by an American author utilizes many firsthand accounts
ofJerome's abilities that have never before been available to
readers in English, as well as archival material that has never
been published in any language, to challenge this view. Focussing
on the lesser-known theaters of operation from 1800 to the Russian
campaign in 1812, this study completes the gaps in the military
history of the Napoleonic Wars. As Lamar demonstrates, Jerome was
not responsible for the failure of Napoleon's early maneuvers
during the invasion of Russia, nor did he lose the Battle of
Waterloo in 1815.
Jerome's relationship with Napoleon was affected by his position
as the youngest member of the Bonaparte family. Much of Emperor
Napoleon I's true nature can be seen through his dealings with
Jerome and his naval career. After discussing Jerome's experiences
as the only Bonaparte to serve in the navy, Lamar detailsJerome's
involvement in land campaigns, in such varied places as Silesia,
Russia, and Waterloo. Another important aspect of Jerome's career
was his leadership role as King of Westphalia. This objective
account sheds new light on the life and accomplishments of one of
the most maligned figures of the Napoleonic era.
Camillo Agrippa's widely influential "Treatise on the Science of
Arms" was a turning point in the history of fencing. The author -
an engineer by trade and not a professional master of arms - was
able to radically re-imagine teaching the art of fencing. Agrippa's
treatise is the fundamental text of Western swordsmanship. Just as
earlier swordsmanship can be better understood from Agrippa's
critiques, so too was his book the starting point for the rapier
era. Every other treatise of the early-modern period had to deal
explicitly or implicitly with Agrippa's startling transformation of
the art and science of self-defense with the sword. Likewise, all
of the fundamental ideas that are still used today - distance,
time, line, blade opposition, counterattacks and countertime - are
expressed in this paradigm-shifting treatise. This is a work that
should be on the bookshelf of anyone interested in the history,
practice or teaching of fencing. His treatise was also a microcosm
of sixteenth-century thought. It examines the art, reduces it to
its very principles, and reconstructs it according to a way of
thinking that incorporated new concepts of art, science and
philosophy. Contained within this handy volume are concrete
examples of a new questioning of received wisdom and a turn toward
empirical proofs, hallmarks of the Enlightenment. The treatise also
presents evidence for a redefinition of elite masculinity in the
wake of the military revolution of the sixteenth century. At the
same time, is offers suggestive clues to the place of the hermetic
tradition in the early-modern intellectual life and its
implications for the origins of modern science. Camillo Agrippa's
"Treatise on the Science of Arms" was first published in Rome in
1553 by the papal printer Antonio Blado. The original treatise was
illustrated with 67 engravings that belong to the peak of
Renaissance design. They are reproduced here in full. "Mondschein
has at last made available to English-speaking readers one of the
most important texts in the history of European martial arts.
Agrippa marks a turning point in the intellectual history of these
arts.... Mondschein's introduction to his work helps the reader
understand Agrippa - and the martial practices themselves - as
pivotal agents in the evolving cultural and intellectual systems of
the sixteenth century. Above all, Mondschein's translation is
refreshingly clean and idiomatic, rendering the systematic clarity
of the Italian original into equally clear modern English -
evidence of the author's familiarity with modern fencing and
understanding of the physical realities that his author is trying
to express. Mondschein's contextualization of his topic points the
way for future scholarly exploration, and his translation will
doubtless be valued by both students of cultural history and
practitioners of modern sword arts." - Dr. Jeffrey L. Forgeng, Paul
S. Morgan Curator -Higgins Armory Museum, Adj. Assoc. Prof. of
Humanities, Worcester Polytechnic Institute First English
translation. Hardcover, 234 pages, 67 illustrations, introduction,
bibliography, glossary, appendix, index."
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