Silverman's new book is a comprehensive overview of Jewish circumcision throughout history. Beginning with Genesis, the author traces paradoxes and tensions in biblical-Jewish circumcision as seen both within Judaism and from the dominant, non-Jewish culture. Topics include rabbinic literature, early Christianity, Medieval notions of menstruating Jewish men and the blood libel, the relic of ChristOs foreskin, modern notions of the Jewish body and Jewish manhood, and the current debate over Jewish and routine medical circumcision in America.

Throughout America's history immigration policy has always been a controversial and complex topic, going to the heart of what it means to be American. Now, with terrorism as a new concern, Americans have begun to look closer at the effects of rising immigration and porous borders. In this cogently-argued work, immigration scholar Otis L. Graham, Jr. examines the history of immigration pressures and American policy debates and choices. He begins with the first "Great Wave" of the 1880s and traces the effects of the system of national origins, enforced from the 1920s through 1965. The reforms of the 1960s ushered in an era of large-scale legal and illegal immigration, resulting in a vast social experiment in demographic transformation. In assessing the past, present, and future of immigration, Graham shows that the failure to control the influx of foreigners is leading America toward further security risks, unsustainable population growth, imported worker competition with American labor, and, ultimately, social fragmentation.

The Hidden Handshake uses four distinct, yet intertwined essays to address the questions surrounding our notions of citizenship, national identity, and cosmopolitan belonging. The violent disintegration of Yugoslavia and the undercurrent of EU enlargement stand out as two contrasting movements that highlight the importance of having a national identification while also defying it to avoid both the rigidity of nationalist exclusivism and the blithe nonsense of "global citizenship." Through the exploration of sociohistorical material and artistic visions as well as the author's layered identity as a Slovene, a Yugoslav, a Central European, and a European, Ale? Debeljak tries to show that it is possible to remain faithful to geography, history, and community even as one fosters links to global cultural movements. Not surprisingly, the book itself shares some of this hybrid identity. It uses not only theoretical concepts and empirical data, but also historical sketches on art, national life, and society, along with poetic autobiographical reminiscences and personal anecdotes. Ultimately, the book calls for an adoption of liberal nationalism, which is commensurate with democratic order, and for a more ecumenical understanding of artistic visions that does not discriminate on the grounds of one's place of origin.

In The Deconstitutionalization of America: The Forgotten Frailties of Democratic Rule, Roger M. Barrus and his coauthors embark on a discussion of American democracy from the nineteenth century to the present day. The present paradox democracy finds itself in can be summed up as 'the best of times and the worst of times.' Democracy, at its best, has triumphed throughout the world. It is the authors contention that this same success represents the potential for its undoing: with all governments claiming to be democratic, modern democrats-and this includes just about everyone-find it difficult if not impossible to understand the nature and problems of democracy. Since most everyone lives within a democratic horizon, they have nothing to compare democracy to and no one to point out its faults. In this way, they are hampered in dealing with their social and political problems, some of which may be the result of contradictions inherent in the democratic principle itself. The solution to democracy's ills might not be, after all, more democracy.

America's Promise is a concise, highly readable introduction to American History. Designed to clearly explain major themes and events, it also captures the rich and often amusing character of the American people. The strong narrative emphasizes public life and how individuals constructed public structures in which they lived and worked. Including the latest scholarship in social, cultural, and political history, the work integrates the history and importance of women and minorities. To aid students in learning and reviewing, each chapter begins with a preview of the main ideas that will be discussed and ends with a conclusion that reinforces the key concepts. Rather than being simply declaratory signposts, section headings highlight main ideas and help carry along the narrative. A glossary defines main terms, and a timeline helps students keep track of events. Selected readings are also included to encourage further reading and study. Finally, carefully selected illustrations and maps portray, pinpoint, and illuminate important episodes in American history. The most concise and competitively priced book available, America's Promise is a breath of fresh air in the introductory market.

America's Promise is a concise, highly readable introduction to American History. Designed to clearly explain major themes and events, it also captures the rich and often amusing character of the American people. The strong narrative emphasizes public life and how individuals constructed public structures in which they lived and worked. Including the latest scholarship in social, cultural, and political history, the work integrates the history and importance of women and minorities. To aid students in learning and reviewing, each chapter begins with a preview of the main ideas that will be discussed and ends with a conclusion that reinforces the key concepts. Rather than being simply declaratory signposts, section headings highlight main ideas and help carry along the narrative. A glossary defines main terms, and a timeline helps students keep track of events. Selected readings are also included to encourage further reading and study. Finally, carefully selected illustrations and maps portray, pinpoint, and illuminate important episodes in American history. The most concise and competitively priced book available, America's Promise is a breath of fresh air in the introductory market.

Why does Digital Imaging start with a glossary? So that right from the beginning readers learn to "speak digital." Koelling demystifies the process of planning and managing a digitizing project, including important issues of copyright and ethics, choosing equipment, weighing technical alternatives, and creating databases. These are not the trendy details that will be out of date next month but the core issues everyone needs to understand so they can make good decisions and plan projects with long-term benefits. Koelling reminds us, too, that these projects can be both fun and satisfying to work on. Don't miss the last chapter on image enhancement history detectives have a great new technique at their fingertips.

What gives an animal 'rights?' What makes product testing on animals wrong? In Animal Rights, Human Wrongs prominent activist and philosopher Tom Regan skillfully puts forth the argument for animal rights through the exploration of two questions central to moral theory: What makes an act right? What makes an act wrong? Taking into consideration moral theories such as contractarianism, utilitarianism, and Kantian ethics, Regan provides the theoretical framework that grounds a responsible pro-animal rights perspective, and ultimately explores how asking moral questions about other animals can lead to a better understanding of ourselves. The necessity of making a transition from moral theory to moral practice becomes startlingly clear as Reagan examines the commonplace, everyday choices that would be affected by believing in a moral theory that affirms the rights of animals. For the many people who have ever wondered 'what difference does it make if animals have rights,' Animal Rights, Humans Wrongs provides a provocative and intriguing answer. For a discussion of animal rights tailored to a more general audience, see Empty Cages: Facing the Challenge of Animal Rights (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003).

Europe 1715-1919 explores the tumultuous period in European history between the Age of Enlightenment and World War I. By integrating political, social, economic, and cultural history, Shirley Elson Roessler and Reny Miklos provide an entertaining and comprehensive account of the emergence of modern Europe. With clear and eloquent prose, the book explains the ideas of the Enlightenment and their effect on the social fabric of Europe, the watershed of the French Revolution, the rise and fall of Napoleon, the advances of the Industrial Revolution, and the centrifugal forces of nationalism that led, ultimately, to the disaster of World War I. Eminently readable, Europe 1715-1919 will appeal to students, scholars, and all interested in the history of modern Europe.

The book presents a theory explaining variations in the extent to which work affects self-esteem. The conventional wisdom is that work necessarily influences self-esteem, but the research evidence presented in the text indicates that this is not the case. There is, in fact, considerable variation in the extent of this relationship. A systematic theory relating attributes of the self and characteristics of status assignment systems to the self-investment process is presented.

Today's school principal is charged with the responsibility for creating a learning organization which emphasizes success for all students. An important component leading to these successful school experiences is decision-making based on standards that are grounded in research and best-practice. Standards-Based Leadership: A Case Study Book for the Principalship provides a structure for learning and growth that connects theory with practice whether the principal is already 'on the job' or enrolled in a preparation program. Each chapter is organized around identification of a major ELCC standard, as well as the Texas standards. The scenarios are all based on real problems that have faced real principals. Applying the descriptors of the standard and using the brief literature reviews as resources to guide decision-making, principals are provided with a framework for implementation of specific strategies that will best help students. As school leaders reflect on the realistic situations provided in each chapter and identify possible applications and implications, they will be strengthened in their quest to meet the challenges of standards-based leadership for the principalship.

Families are a child's first and best teachers. A significant amount of research exists that strongly links the engagement of families in the educational lives of their children as a strong foundation to the successful achievement of all students. Educators cannot expect total engagement and high standards from students if both families and schools cannot form powerful alliances to guide those students to academic and lifelong success. Putting research into practice remains one of the most significant barriers to engaging families with schools. School leaders, already stretched thin, struggle to carve out the time and energy necessary to pour through research and create programs to promote family engagement within their school and community. As principal of a large, comprehensive, and diverse high school, Constantino solves this dilemma by providing a step-by-step process for practitioners to create family engagement programs at all levels. Engaging All Families provides a summary of research that acts as a foundation upon which the practitioner's tools are crafted. Readers are given the resources necessary to assess their present level of family engagement and the ideas, strategies, suggestions, programs, practices, policies, and procedures to implement a wide variety of customized family engagement programs. Numerous resources and references are also included. As a successful school administrator and nationally known expert in the field of family and community engagement, Steven Constantino builds the bridge from research to practice with Engaging All Families, and provides the information that allows all schools to become family friendly.

This comprehensive study of leaders of color in higher education is a must-read for anyone wishing to understand and/or navigate a career path through the dangerous waters of white-controlled, status quo universities and community colleges in the United States. Based on interviews with pioneers in the field, the author draws upon their personal experiences - and his own-to examine the challenges and dilemmas facing minority members who choose the route of educational leadership. How creative leaders overcome these barriers to success in the academy is the major theme of the volume. The differing issues facing African Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans, American Indians, and women of color are all addressed in detail, and their commonalities noted. A list of helpful suggestions concerning activism, leadership style, institutional politics, mentorship, and roles are included to help those who contemplate this career path.

This comprehensive study of leaders of color in higher education is a must-read for anyone wishing to understand and/or navigate a career path through the dangerous waters of white-controlled, status quo universities and community colleges in the United States. Based on interviews with pioneers in the field, the author draws upon their personal experiences - and his own-to examine the challenges and dilemmas facing minority members who choose the route of educational leadership. How creative leaders overcome these barriers to success in the academy is the major theme of the volume. The differing issues facing African Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans, American Indians, and women of color are all addressed in detail, and their commonalities noted. A list of helpful suggestions concerning activism, leadership style, institutional politics, mentorship, and roles are included to help those who contemplate this career path.

The Myth of the Year reveals the astronomy underlying Celtic and Greek mythology using the calendar of the Druids discovered in Coligny, France and the Sacred Calendar of Eleusis of ancient Greece. The myths of the ancients follow the seasons through the constellations illuminating the path of knowledge our ancestors lived throughout their year. To fully explain the meaning of these seasonal myths, the origin of the goddesses and the gods are traced to their Neolithic roots using Marija Gimbutas' archetypes of the Neolithic Pantheon. Indo-European adaptations made to some of the major deities are also discussed providing a profile of the evolution of the ancient goddesses and gods from Neolithic times to their present representations in the night sky. Besides linking astronomy to mythology, The Myth of the Year presents an effective and carefully researched path of ancient knowledge viable as a source of patterns of the sky, the earth, the moon, and the sun, meticulously plotted through eons of ancient knowledge.

A comprehensive look at how John Dewey's ethics can inform environmental issues.

In Basic Needs: A Year With Street Kids in a City School, Julie Landsman chronicles one year as a teacher in a program for students in such serious trouble they are asked to leave their middle schools and attend a special program for disruptive students. Landsman allows her readers to get to know the students, their home and street situations, and how their stories develop over the year, and in doing so, shows the complexity of young people, their beauty, and their individuality. This second edition is as current a story as the original: about kids in trouble and their resiliency. Landsman has added a foreword, afterword, and an extensive Resource Guide, which includes all the text of activities from Diversity Days, revolving around how to create a community in your classroom and includes ideas for every week of the school year. Landsman also includes a list of books to read over the summer for busy teachers. In total, the second edition of Basic Needs is a worthy follow-up to the highly praised original.

Creating Positive Images: A Guide for Young People is important for young adults who want to be successful in personal and professional life. Patsy Johnson Hallman explains how the value of being able to project a positive self-image is three-fold. First, making a good impression gives us confidence. And with confidence, we are more comfortable, and life is more satisfying than when we are lacking confidence. Second, when we project a positive self-image we are more likely to get the response we want from other people. This is true, because in general, people respond positively if they are approached positively. And third, as individuals, we are more productive when we are positive.In Creating Positive Images, Hallman provides information that can be useful to young people who want to build skills for social interaction. Features: A discussion on how one presents oneself in a positive manner: Ways one interacts successfully with people in a wide range of social and professional situations. This book was written to assist pre-professionals and new professionals in conducting themselves for optimum success.

Girls and boys are different. So why do our schools insist on treating them as identical? Could this misguided equality have anything to do with the increasing dissatisfaction among women that is revealed in survey after survey? Do gender-blind educational policies in fact work to women's disadvantage? Bringing together many women's voices, from Bridget Jones to Simone de Beauvoir, Betty Friedan to Germaine Greer, James Tooley challenges education's sacred cows, demanding a radical rethinking of sexual politics and a fairer way forward for women. "The Miseducation of Women" landed like a bombshell when it was published in England a few months ago; but Mr. Tooley's book, replete with examples and anecdotes from the United States as well as Great Britain, has equal application to the gender arguments on this side of the Atlantic.

In Baptism in the Holy Spirit, Koo Dong Yun analyzes nine different theologians' constructs of "Spirit baptism," also known as "baptism of the Holy Spirit," as reflected from their various ecclesiastical and theological traditions (Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Dispensational, Pentecostal, and Reformed). This comparative study further underscores three distinctive features of Pentecostal theology: the Lukan orientation, the vitality of experience, and the verifiability of Spirit baptism.

Originally published in Cuba in 1934, Territorial Expansion of the United States is the first and only English translation of Ramiro Guerra y Sanchez's work. "Yankee imperialism" has generally been identified as the period in American history after the war with Spain and the seizure of the Panama canal zone until the advent of the "good neighbor" policy, as declared by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930's. Guerra is the first historian to point out clearly that "Yankee imperialism" began in the 18th century and continued until the first publication of this book."

This guide helps educators gain a better understanding of several issues impacting on teacher-student relationships so that they will be better prepared to help students improve academically and socially. Understanding these issues will help students take their place as contenders in an ever-changing and complex world. The following are the issues that must be addressed in order to help each of our students successfully navigate through the risks and challenges of adolescence and follow their star: 1. Why historically teachers have not utilized their bully pulpit and skills to lead the way in addressing the personal and well-being problems. 2. Why changes in our students' families and communities have now created the need for teachers to be the primary source of intervention for underachieving and failing students. 3. Why school guidance counselors and social workers need to step back from their unattainable role as the primary source of student intervention and shift this role to teachers on the front lines. 4. Why we need to help teachers and administrators improve the quality of teacher-student relations right now and not postpone needed intervention until secondary school enrollment and class size are reduced. 5. How we can proceed to train and expect teachers to better understand how their students learn, develop, and effectively address the non-academic issues that get in the way of learning. An Educator's Guide to Better Understanding the Personal Side of Students' Lives is a road map on how to elevate the teacher's advising role, the most underutilized helping resource in the school, to its rightful place as a source of academic and non-academic help for students. Students need teacher advisers who can help them successfully navigate through the risks of adolescent life. This guide will help. The book includes 36 case studies of high school students that support why it is important for educators to be advisors and mentors. To learn more, visit www.williamfibkins.com.

'Always be prepared,' wrote the apostle Peter, 'to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.' Reading and digesting this book will help. Gary R. Habermas begins his apologetic for Christianity by demonstrating the historicity of the resurrection of Christ. He then connects the resurrection to several key tenets of Christian theology, through paths not only historical, but also philosophical, counseling, and experiential. The resurrection, Habermas shows, is the central belief for every Christian, whether that person believes it was an actual historical event or not. But it is Habermas' illustration that Jesus quite literally rose bodily from the dead that makes this book so unique. The resurrection is not only the foundation for Christian belief past and present, but also the basis for future hope. What, for instance, does the resurrection of Jesus have to teach us about our own fear of death? Habermas' answers to this and other questions proves how essential the resurrection is to living a Christian life, and gives us great hope for the future.

Many Americans commonly associate evangelical Protestants with the scoldings of the religious right and solicitations of money by televangelists. Whether or not these associations are particularly flattering, it is true that a concern for preserving a moral social order as well as an unrelenting desire to make new converts are traits that have defined evangelicalism throughout American history. In this cogent account, D. G. Hart unpacks evangelicalism's current reputation by tracing its development over the course of the twentieth century. He shows how evangelicals entered the century as full partners in the Protestant denominations and agencies that molded American cultural and intellectual life. Although the fundamentalist controversy of the 1920s marginalized evangelicals in America's largest denominations, their views about the individual, society, and families went virtually unchallenged in American society because of the ongoing dominance of Protestant churches and institutions. After 1960, when the United States entered a period sometimes called "post-Protestant," evangelicals began to assert themselves more aggressively in politics and culture, seeking to preserve a Christian society. These evangelical responses to Protestantism's waning influence in America reveal a curious feature of twentieth-century life: despite its conformity to American ideals, since the 1970s evangelical Protestantism has been perceived as alien to other Americans. Mr. Hart's illuminating study offers an explanation for this change in evangelicalism's fortunes by showing the success and limitations of this popular religious movement.

In Nation-States, Richard Lee Hough interprets the role of the nation-state, analyzing the factors that impinge on its viability and correcting the present tilt in numerous commentaries positing, or prophesying, its decline. Hough seeks to balance, or refute those, who in various ways, see the degeneration of the modern nation-state.