|
Books > History > History of other lands
West Virginia's championship teams at WVU and Marshall and athletic
superstars like Jerry West and Mary Lou Retton are familiar to all,
but few know the untold story of sports in the Mountain State.
"Hillside Fields: A History of Sports in West Virginia "chronicles
the famous athletic triumphs and heart-breaking losses of local
heroes and legendary teams, recording the titanic struggles of a
small state competing alongside larger rivals. "
Hillside Fields" provides a broad view of the development of sports
in West Virginia, from one of the first golf clubs in America at
Oakhurst Links to the Greenbrier Classic; from the first girls
basketball championship in 1919 to post Title IX; from racially
segregated sports to integrated teams; and from the days when West
Virginia Wesleyan and Davis & Elkins beat the big boys in
football to the championship teams at WVU, Marshall, West Virginia
State and West Liberty. "
Hillside Fields "explains how major national trends and events, as
well as West Virginia's economic, political, and demographic
conditions, influenced the development of sports in the state. The
story of the growth of sports in West Virginia is also a story of
the tribulations, hopes, values and triumphs of a proud
people.
Questions of class and gender in Appalachia have, in the wake of
the 2016 presidential election and the runaway success of Hillbilly
Elegy, moved to the forefront of national conversations about
politics and culture. From Todd Snyder, a first generation college
student turned college professor, comes a passionate commentary on
these themes in a family memoir set in West Virginia coal country.
12 Rounds in Lo's Gym is the story of the author's father, Mike
""Lo"" Snyder, a fifth generation West Virginia coal miner who
opened a series of makeshift boxing gyms with the goal of providing
local at-risk youth with the opportunities that eluded his
adolescence. Taking these hardscrabble stories as his starting
point, Snyder interweaves a history of the region, offering a smart
analysis of the costs - both financial and cultural - of an economy
built around extractive industries. Part love letter to Appalachia,
part rigorous social critique, readers may find 12 Rounds in Lo's
Gym - and its narrative of individual and community strength in the
face of globalism's headwinds - a welcome corrective to popular
narratives that blame those in the region for their troubles.
Prairie Bachelor is a welcome contribution to the chronicles of
challenges faced by Kansas homesteaders at the end of the
nineteenth century and the resulting emergence of Populist politics
as a serious challenge to the two-party system. Fenwick vividly
transports the reader to the plains of central Kansas and describes
the foundation of a pioneer spirit defined by industriousness and
care for neighbor and community that exists to the present day."" -
US senator Jerry Moran, Kansas
'Exquisitely written and lavishly illustrated, this delightful book
brings five centuries of Ottoman culture to life. Diana Darke
constantly amazes the reader with fascinating facts and points of
relevance between the Ottoman past and the present day' - Eugene
Rogan, author of The Fall of the Ottomans A richly illustrated
guide to the Ottoman Empire, 100 years since its dissolution,
unravelling its complex cultural legacy and profound impact on
Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. At its height, the
Ottoman Empire spread from Yemen to the gates of Vienna. Western
perceptions of the Ottomans have often been distorted by
Orientalism, characterizing their rule as oppressive and
destructive, while seeing their culture as exotic and
incomprehensible. Based on a lifetime's experience of living and
working across its former provinces, Diana Darke offers a unique
overview of the Ottoman Empire's cultural legacy one century after
its dissolution. She uncovers a vibrant, sophisticated civilization
that embraced both arts and sciences, whilst welcoming refugees
from all ethnicities and religions, notably Christians and Jews.
Darke celebrates the culture of the Ottoman Empire, from its
aesthetics and architecture to its scientific and medical
innovations, including the first vaccinations. She investigates the
crucial role that commerce and trade played in supporting the
empire and increasing its cultural reach, highlighting the
significant role of women, as well as the diverse religious values,
literary and musical traditions that proliferated through the
empire. Beautifully illustrated with manuscripts, miniatures,
paintings and photographs, The Ottomans: A Cultural Legacy presents
the magnificent achievements of an empire that lasted over 600
years and encompassed Asian, European and African cultures,
shedding new light on its complex legacy.
Once there was a place called Smeltertown, and it was known as the
largest industrial city on the banks of the Rio Grande. The
smokestacks of the American Smelting and Refining Company, which
polluted the air for three miles in every direction, grew so tall
over the decades that they became a landmark just inside the El
Paso side of the US-Mexico border. In a community of small adobe
houses, many with dirt floors and without indoor plumbing, both the
men employed at the smelter and the women who raised families and
made homes there form the history of Smeltertown. Through
interviews with the women and their now middle-aged children, the
realities of everyday life in Smeltertown are revealed-as is the
strength of the women who forged a community and preserved a
culture in these primitive conditions. Current photographs of the
interviewees and historical photographs of Smeltertown illustrate
the history of an area not even native El Pasoans knew.
The Battle for the Falklands is a thoughtful and informed analysis
of an astonishing chapter in modern British history from journalist
and military historian Sir Max Hastings and political editor Simon
Jenkins. Ten weeks. 28,000 soldiers. 8,000 miles from home. The
Falklands War in 1982 was one of the strangest in British history.
At the time, many Britons saw it as a tragic absurdity - thousands
of men sent overseas for a tiny relic of empire - but the British
victory over the Argentinians not only confirmed the quality of
British arms but also boosted the political fortunes of Thatcher's
Conservative government. However, it left a chequered aftermath and
was later overshadowed by the two Gulf wars. Max Hastings' and
Simon Jenkins' account of the conflict is a modern classic of war
reportage and the definitive book on the conflict.
This book examines the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympic Games. It tells
the story of the extensive infrastructural transformation of the
city and its changing global image in relation to hosting of the
Games. Reviewing different cultural representations of Sarajevo in
the period from the 1960s to the 1980s, the book explores how the
promotion of the city as a future global tourist centre resulted in
an increased awareness among its populace of the city's cultural
particularities. The analysis reveals how the process of
modernisation relating to hosting of the Olympics provided an
opportunity to re-imagine the city as a particularly
environmentally progressive city. Placed within the field of
studies of late socialism, the book offers important insights into
Yugoslav society during the period, including those relating to the
country's unique geopolitical position and its nationalities
policies.
Intimation of Revolution studies the rise of Bengali nationalism in
East Pakistan in the 1950s and 60s by showcasing the interactions
between global politics and local social and economic developments.
It argues that the revolution of 1969 and the national liberation
struggle of 1971 were informed by the 'global sixties' that
transformed the political landscape of Pakistan and facilitated the
birth of Bangladesh. Departing from the typical understanding of
the Bangladesh as a product of Indo-Pakistani diplomatic and
military rivalry, it narrates how Bengali nationalists resisted the
processes of internal colonization by the Pakistani military
bureaucratic regime to fashion their own nation. It details how
this process of resistance and nation-formation drew on
contemporaneous decolonization movements in Asia, Africa, and Latin
America while also being shaped by the Cold War rivalries between
the USA, USSR, and China.
Donald A. Ritchie, a congressional historian for forty years ,
takes readers on a fascinating, behind-the-scenes tour of Capitol
Hill, pointing out the key players, explaining their behavior, and
translating parliamentary language into plain English. He also
explores the essential necessity of compromise to accomplish
anything significant in the legislative arena. However, recent
events show that political polarization has hardened and produced
gridlock, as Ritchie explains in this new edition. The 2020
election also produced a more diverse membership in terms of
gender, ethnicity, religion, and ideology, with primary elections
resulting in the defeat of moderate candidates by opponents ranging
from socialists on the left to conspiracy theorists on the right,
making bipartisan compromise harder to achieve. Among the most
significant events since the last edition, the Senate ignored
President Obama's last nomination to the Supreme Court and then
adopted a "nuclear option" to streamline future Supreme Court
confirmations. The House also twice impeached President Trump,
processes that starkly expose the differences between the
majority-rule requirements of the House and the super-majority
requirements of the Senate. This new edition explains how the
parties have changed in light of the unprecedented politics of the
past four years, culminating in the mob attack on the U.S. Capitol
on January 6, 2021, and how this development has affected both the
House and the Senate.
The emergence of the judiciary as an assertive and confrontational
center of power has been the most consequential new feature of
Pakistan's political system. This book maps out the evolution of
the relationship between the judiciary and military in Pakistan,
explaining why Pakistan's high courts shifted from loyal deference
to the military to open competition, and confrontation, with
military and civilian institutions. Yasser Kureshi demonstrates
that a shift in the audiences shaping judicial preferences explains
the emergence of the judiciary as an assertive power center. As the
judiciary gradually embraced less deferential institutional
preferences, a shift in judicial preferences took place and the
judiciary sought to play a more expansive and authoritative
political role. Using this audience-based approach, Kureshi roots
the judiciary in its political, social and institutional context,
and develops a generalizable framework that can explain variation
and change in judicial-military relations around the world.
Theodore (759-826), abbot of the influential Constantinopolitan
monastery of Stoudios, is celebrated as a saint by the Orthodox
Church for his stalwart defense of icon veneration. Three important
texts promoting the monastery and the memory of its founder are
collected in The Life and Death of Theodore of Stoudios. In the
Life of Theodore, Michael the Monk describes a golden age at
Stoudios, as well as Theodore's often antagonistic encounters with
imperial rulers. The Encyclical Letter of Naukratios, written in
826 by his successor, informed the scattered monks of their
leader's death. Translation and Burial contains brief biographies
of Theodore and his brother, along with an eyewitness account of
their reburial at Stoudios. These works, translated into English
for the first time, appear here alongside new editions of the
Byzantine Greek texts.
A University of Tradition is a fascinating compilation of history,
customs, pictures, and facts about Purdue University from its
founding in 1869 to the present day. Covering all aspects of
Purdue, from the origin of the nickname of its students and
alumni'Boilermakers'to a chronological list of all buildings ever
constructed on the campus of West Lafayette, Indiana, this book
presents the ultimate insider--s guide to one of the world--s great
universities. It contains a wealth of facts about student,
academic, sporting, and campus traditions, as well as biographical
information on all the University presidents and other members of
Purdue--s family, including David Ross, Neil Armstrong, Eliza
Fowler, Jack Mollenkopf, Helen Schleman, and Amelia Earhart.A
University of Tradition spotlights many items that will spark the
memories of any Purdue alumnus or fan. No matter if you were in the
...All-American' Marching Band, lived in the Quad, participated in
Grand Prix, wrote for the Purdue Exponent, or were on campus when
the Boilermakers won the 1967 Rose Bowl, you will appreciate and
enjoy this book. The second edition is fully updated for 2012 and
includes information about new landmarks, new traditions, and the
incoming twelfth president of the University.
Kansas Boy: The Memoir of A. J. Bolinger offers the
twenty-first-century reader delightful and revealing insights on
life during an era of dramatic change in American history. Bolinger
describes those years as 'bursting with energy, wild with
ambition.' The Kansas of his childhood and young adulthood was a
place where life was lived at a rapid pace: investors pursued
fortunes as town developers, settlers sought to establish
prosperous farms and ranches, and reformers tried to create an
ideal society. A. J. opens his account with a vividly detailed
description of the prairie itself, including how the frontier
settlements of Kansas were in the process of becoming established
communities. Born and raised in Elk County, Kansas, he tells
stories of ranching and cattle drives. Retelling some of the
legends of early Kansas, he debunks more than a few frontier myths.
As he moves toward adulthood his accounts of farming and small-town
life grow increasingly aware of the agricultural crisis of the
1880s and 1890s faced by farmers and small-town businesses as they
struggled with the growing power of corporations, in particular the
railroads. In doing so he offers ground-level insights into the
appeal of the Populist movement and the rise of the People' Party.
The challenges result in the Bolinger family's move to the city of
Topeka where A. J. attends Washburn College. As a college student
he helps temperance activist Carry Nation wage her antisaloon
campaign and goes to Washburn's new law school. His first step in
pursuing what would be a lifelong career in the law is to replicate
his family's and his era's pattern of moving to where new
opportunities lay: the Oklahoma territory. A. J. Bolinger
(1881-1977) offers today's reader a deeply felt memoir with keen
insights and thoughtful commentary that is by turns startlingly
progressive and deeply conservative. He offers us a richer
understanding of life on the prairies and plains of the last
decades of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the
twentieth century.
The absorbing vintage photographs brought together in "Vanishing
Georgia" recall life in the state from halfway through the
nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth. Pictured here
are both great events and commonplace occurrences: Atlanta in the
wake of Sherman's march and a small town bedecked in flags on the
Fourth of July; paddlewheelers loaded with barrels of turpentine
and proud owners of new automobiles; a get-together with neighbors
for a corn shucking and a crowd straining to hear the last words of
a convicted man. "Vanishing Georgia" is an engaging entree into the
state's vast and varied history, a treasure for both casual
browsers and serious scholars.
A TLS and Prospect Book of the Year. The scintillating story of the
Russian aristocrats, artists, and intellectuals who sought refuge
in Belle Epoque Paris. The fall of the Romanov dynasty in 1917
forced thousands of Russians to flee their homeland with only the
clothes on their backs. Many came to France's glittering capital,
Paris. Former princes drove taxicabs, while their wives found work
in the fashion houses. Some intellectuals, artists, poets,
philosophers, and writers eked out a living at menial jobs; a few
found success until the economic downturn of the 1930s hit. In
exile, White activists sought to overthrow the Bolshevik regime
from afar, and double agents plotted from both sides, to little
avail. Many Russians became trapped in a cycle of poverty and their
all-consuming homesickness. This is their story.
This classic in West Indian history is invaluable, not only for a
study of the history of Barbados, but for its wealth of information
about the island.
This history of Ukrainian immigrants in Michigan and their American
descendants examines both the choices people made and the social
forces that impelled their decisions to migrate and to make new
homes in the state. Michigan's Ukrainians came in four waves, each
unique in time and character, beginning in the late nineteenth
century and continuing in the twenty-first. Detroit attracted many
of them with the opportunities it offered in its booming automobile
industry. Yet others put down roots in cities and towns across the
state. Wherever they settled, they established churches and
community centers and continued to practice the customs of their
homeland. Many Ukrainian Americans have made significant
contributions to Michigan and the United States, including those
who are showcased in this book. This comprehensive text also
highlights cultural practices and traditional foods cherished by
community members.
For at least two centuries, the South's economy, politics,
religion, race relations, fiction, music, foodways and more have
figured prominently in nearly all facets of American life. In A New
History of the American South, W. Fitzhugh Brundage joins a stellar
group of accomplished historians in gracefully weaving a new
narrative of Southern history from its ancient past to the present.
This groundbreaking work draws on both well-established and new
currents in scholarship, including global and Atlantic world
history, histories of African diaspora, environmental history, and
more. The volume also considers the experiences of all people of
the South: Black, white, Indigenous, female, male, poor, elite, and
more. Together, the essays compose a seamless, cogent, and engaging
work that can be read cover to cover or sampled at leisure.
Contributors are Peter A. Coclanis, Gregory P. Downs, Laura F.
Edwards, Robbie Ethridge, Kari Frederickson, Paul Harvey, Kenneth
R. Janken, Martha S. Jones, Blair L. M. Kelley, Kate Masur, Michael
A. McDonnell, Scott Reynolds Nelson, Jim Rice, Natalie Ring, and
Jon F. Sensbach.
The interwar period marked a transition from a Gulf society
characterized by symbiosis and interdependency to a sub-region
characterized by national divisions, sectarian suspicions,
rivalries and political tension. In this study, Chelsi Mueller
tells the story of a formative period in the Gulf, examining the
triangular relationship between Iran, Britain and the Gulf Arab
shaykhdoms. By doing so Mueller reveals how the revival of Iranian
national ambitions in the Gulf had a significant effect on the
dense web of Arab-Iranian relations during the interwar period.
Shedding new light on our current understanding of the present-day
Arab-Iranian conflict, this study, which pays particular attention
to Bahrain and the Trucial states (United Arab Emirates), fills a
significant gap in the literature on the history of Arab-Iranian
relations in the Gulf and Iran's Persian Gulf policy during the
Reza Shah period.
|
|