The 20th century might be accurately described as the television century. Perhaps no technological invention in recent history has so vastly affected the American public. James Roman, author of Love, Light, and a Dream: Television's Past, Present, and Future (Greenwood, 1996), traces the evolution of American television programming from its beginnings as an experimental "spinoff" of radio broadcasting to its current role as an omnipresent and, some would say, omnipotent force of media and culture. Roman provides thematic chapters on all of television's major genres, including: Westerns Medical dramas Soap operas Sitcoms Children's programs Sports broadcasting Miniseries Docudramas And Reality television An involving mixture of scholarship and nostalgia, this volume offers an intelligent examination of the many ways that American society has shaped--and been shaped by--television.

For one brief period in the early 1940s, Pete Reiser was the equal of any outfielder in baseball, even Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio, but his penchant for running into outfield walls while playing defense prematurely ended his journey to Cooperstown. Pitcher Herb Score was a brilliant pitcher until a Gil McDougald line drive shelved his career. And Thurman Munson was one of the games best catchers in the late 1970s until a tragic plane crash ended his life. These three players and fourteen others (Smoky Joe Wood, Vean Gregg, Kirby Puckett, Hal Trotsky, Tony Oliva, Paul Dean, Ewell Blackwell, David Ferris, Steve Busby, J.R. Richard, Tony Conigliaro, Johnny Beazley, Mark Fidrych, and Lyman Bostock) enjoyed brilliant careers--potentially worthy of the Hall of Fame--that were cut short by injury, illness or death. Some enjoyed several seasons of success only to see their playing days end just short of numbers worthy of Cooperstown; others enjoyed only a season or two of brilliance. The profiles concentrate on the players accomplishments and speculate on how their careers might have developed if they had continued.

This work contains the full text of the papers given at the first Tax Law History Conference in Cambridge in September 2002 and organised by the Cambridge Law Facultys Centre for Tax Law. The papers ranged widely from the time of King John to the 20th century,from Tudor Englands Statute of Wills to the American taxes on slaves, from Hong Kong, Australia and Israel. The sources ranged from the Public Record office to the bowels of Somerset House. The topics ranged from the tax base through tax administration to tax policy making as well as providing detailed accounts of the UKs remittance basis of taxation and the Excess Profits Duty of the First World War. All students of tax law and tax history will want to read these papers by an international team of leading scholars in tax law and history.

The development of the pistol helped bring the age of the armored knight to an end, provided the elite with a status symbol of dangerous glamour, and inspired both artisans and industrialists to reach new heights of invention. Pistols follows the evolution of personal sidearms in Europe, the United States, and Asia from medieval-era "hand cannons" with their clunky ignition systems, to the revolutionary Colt revolvers of the 19th century, to the modern semiautomatic weapons of today. Full of fascinating insights and details, this work shows how pistols brought about the decline of knights in armor, and ultimately replaced the sword on the battlefield. The book also explores the pistol's astonishing "democratization" as it moved from being a luxury item of the nobility, to standard issue for soldiers, to a mass-produced commodity and source of intensive corporate competition. Along the way, readers meet the many colorful characters (often eccentric geniuses) who devoted themselves to pistol development. Provides complete technical details of exemplary pistols from the first working models to the present In-depth coverage of the three major pistol designs-single-shot, revolver, and automatic-and their production and issuance in the United States, Europe, and Asia

In this Third Volume of the series, Research on Education in Africa, the Caribbean and the Middle East, the volume continues with the previously established overarching purpose of publishing chapters that are based upon research conducted in those regions by scholars, many of whom are indigenous to the regions they write about and are, therefore, able to provide cultural insights about relevant issues, as well as nonindigenous scholars who have conducted their studies in countries within the regions or about those regions. This mixture of indigenous scholarship offering emic perspectives and outside scholarship offering etic perspectives continues to be a relative strength and uniqueness of this book series. In addition, several chapters in the current volume constitute collaborations between the authors etic and emic to the contexts about which they write. This bifocality in the gaze cast upon issues covered in this book series has been well received by readers of earlier volumes of the series.

British Theatre and the Great War examines how theatre in its various forms adapted itself to the new conditions of 1914-1918. Contributors discuss the roles played by the theatre industry. They draw on a range of source materials to show the different kinds of theatrical provision and performance cultures in operation not only in London but across parts of Britain and also in Australia and at the Front. As well as recovering lost works and highlighting new areas for investigation (regional theatre, prison camp theatre, troop entertainment, the threat from film, suburban theatre) the book offers revisionist analysis of how the conflict and its challenges were represented on stage at the time and the controversies it provoked. The volume offers new models for exploring the topic in an accessible, jargon-free way, and it shows how theatrical entertainment of the time can be seen as the `missing link' in the study of First World War writing.

The first compilation ever to explore the contentious history of the world gay rights movement from its inception in Germany in the 1800s to today. Denmark recently became the first country in the world to allow marriage between same-sex partners. In Uganda, homosexuality is a crime punishable by life imprisonment. Depending on where you are in the world, homosexuality is an "unspeakable love", a medical deviance, a legitimate alternative lifestyle, or simply a non-issue. Gay and Lesbian Issues: A Reference Handbook traces the developments, people and organizations responsible for bringing homosexual issues to the public's attention. In addition to exploring such controversial issues as gays in the military and child adoption this title discusses court decisions, pivotal events, and key individuals like Magnus Hirschfeld, Radclyffe Hall, Anita Bryant, and Harvey Milk, a San Francisco gay rights activist who was murdered by a town supervisor. What happens when a same-sex couple marrying in Denmark returns to the U.S. expecting to be treated as legally married? This one-of-a-kind reference explores the interplay of international politics with U.S. policies. Students, administrators and parents alike will discover a wealth of supportive data and statistics on hate crimes, adolescent suicide, military discrimination and much more.

This book studies three female Chinese intellectuals in the first half of the 20th century, namely Feng Yuanjun, Lu Yin, and Cheng Junying, the first graduates of Beijing Female Higher Normal College, which was the first-ever national higher educational institution for women in modern China. Combining narrative inquiry, life history, oral history, and psychohistory methods, it comprehensively explores the specific developmental paths and mental processes of the post-May Fourth female intellectuals, and examines the complex interrelationships between various factors including social, academic, gender, and educational evolution in the first half of the 20th century, and the emergence of modern Chinese female intellectuals. The book is highly recommended for all scholars, undergraduate and graduate students of modern Chinese history, gender and women's studies, history of education, history of higher education, etc., and for all those who are interested in female Chinese intellectuals.

A fascinating study of the environmental history of Australia, New Zealand, and the islands of the Pacific, from the time of the dinosaurs to the present day. Of interest to students and academics alike, this book provides a much-needed synthesis of the recent literature on the environmental history of Australia and Oceania. Part of ABC-CLIO's Nature and Human Societies series, this book maps out the key trends in the region's environmental history, charting the creation of the Australian continent from the ancient land mass of Gondwanaland to the arrival of humans. Especially fascinating are the chapters highlighting how successive waves of human migration created environmental havoc throughout the region, leading to the collapse of the Easter Island civilization and the spread of nonindigenous flora and fauna. From the controversies over the reasons why creatures such as the marsupial lion and the giant kangaroo became extinct to such contemporary problems as deforestation and global warming, this book contains sobering lessons for us all. A chronology covers key phenomena and events in the region's environmental history from before the dinosaurs to the present day Includes an annotated bibliography detailing the major works on the history of the region's environment

The public provision of early childhood education has developed at different rates across individual countries over the past two centuries. This book provides the historical background to explain how these national differences occurred, with particular reference to welfare and educational systems, to highlight how particular influences grew.

"A lively and interesting overview of guns in American life; past, present, and future...Guns in America: A Reader will serve most promisingly as a long-awaited introduction to a complex and controversial issue."
--"Left History"

Firearms have long been at the core of our national narratives. From the Puritans' embrace of guns to beat back the "devilish Indian" to our guilty delight in the extralegal exploits of Dirty Harry, Americans have relied on the gun to right wrongs, both real and imagined.

The extent to which guns have been woven into our nation's mythology suggests that the current debate is only partly about guns themselves and equally about conflicting cultural values and competing national identities. Belying the gun debate are a host of related issues: contesting conceptions of community, the proper relationship between the individual and the state, and the locus of responsibility for maintaining order.

Guns in America documents and analyzes the history of firearms in America, exploring various aspects of gun manufacture, ownership, and useaand more importantly, the cultural and political implications which this history reveals.

Eschewing single-minded partisanship and emphasizing nuance and compromise, Jan E. Dizard and Robert Merrill Muth have assembled a diverse array of writings from all points on the ideological spectrum. The documents span the whole of American history, from Puritan sermons to contemporary NRA documents. The result is an indispensable panorama of the never-ending controversies over gun control, crime, hunting, and militias.