Chaos and Compromise: The Evolution of the Mississippi Budgeting Process takes the topic of budgeting and makes it exciting, and not just for political junkies. Instead of focusing on numbers, this book looks at the policymakers responsible for the budget. Brian A. Pugh provides a historical perspective on the decisions and actions of legislators and governors going back more than a century. Pugh reviews how Mississippi's budget making evolved and sifts legislation and litigation as well as those legislators and governors responsible for developing this process. Pugh explains in detail the significant actions taken by the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of government that affected Mississippi's procedures. Significant legislation covered includes the passage of Senate Bill 356, which gave the governor the authority to prepare and submit a budget recommendation in 1918; the passage of the Administrative Reorganization Act of 1984; the passage of the Budget Reform Act of 1992; and the passage of the Financial and Operational Responses That Invigorate Future Years Act (FORTIFY) during the First Extraordinary Session of 2017. The first two chapters provide a historical perspective and give the reader an understanding of how legislation and litigation contributed. The book also covers interventions by the courts, which led to the unprecedented separation of powers case Alexander v. State of Mississippi by and Through Allain (1983). In addition to discussing important laws and legislators, Pugh takes a detailed look at six of Mississippi's recent governors - Bill Allain, Ray Mabus, Kirk Fordice, Ronnie Musgrove, Haley Barbour, and Phil Bryant - to examine their methods for getting the legislature to include their ideas in the often anguished process of making a budget.

Absorbing.artfully narrat es] a possible course of events in the expedition's demise, based on the one official note and bits of debris (including evidence of cannibalism) found by searchers sent to look for Franklin in the 1850s. Adventure readers will flock to this fine regaling of the enduring mystery surrounding the best-known disaster in Arctic exploration.--Booklist
""A great Victorian adventure story rediscovered and re-presented for a more enquiring time.""--The Scotsman
""A vivid, sometimes harrowing chronicle of miscalculation and overweening Victorian pride in untried technology.a work of great compassion.""--The Australian
It has been called the greatest disaster in the history of polar exploration. Led by Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin, two state-of-the-art ships and 128 hand-picked men----the best and the brightest of the British empire----sailed from Greenland on July 12, 1845 in search of the elusive Northwest Passage. Fourteen days later, they were spotted for the last time by two whalers in Baffin Bay. What happened to these ships----and to the 129 men on board----has remained one of the most enduring mysteries in the annals of exploration. Drawing upon original research, Scott Cookman provides an unforgettable account of the ill-fated Franklin expedition, vividly reconstructing the lives of those touched by the voyage and its disaster. But, more importantly, he suggests a human culprit and presents a terrifying new explanation for what triggered the deaths of Franklin and all 128 of his men. This is a remarkable and shocking historical account of true-life suspense and intrigue.

The lower Mississippi River winds past the city of New Orleans between enormous levees and a rim of sand, mud, and trees called "the batture." On this remote and ignored piece of land thrives a humanity unique to the region-ramblers, artists, drinkers, fishers, rabbit hunters, dog walkers, sunset watchers, and refugees from immigration, alimony, and other aspects of modern life. Author Oliver A. Houck has frequented this place for the past twenty-five years. Down on the Batture describes a life, pastoral, at times marginal, but remarkably fecund and surprising. From this place he meditates on Louisiana, the state of the waterway, and its larger environs. He describes all the actors who have played lead roles on the edge of the mightiest river of the continent, and includes in his narrative plantations, pollution, murder, land grabs, keelboat brawlers, slave rebellions, the Corps of Engineers, and the oil industry. Houck draws from his experience in New Orleans since the early 1970s in the practice and teaching of law. He has been a player in many of the issues he describes, although he does not undertake to argue them here. Instead, story by story, he uses the batture to explore the forces that have shaped and spell out the future of the region. The picture emerges of a place that-for all its tangle of undergrowth, drifting humanity, shifting dimensions in the rise and fall of floodwater-provides respite and sanctuary for values that are original to America and ever at risk from the homogenizing forces of civilization.

Until his death in 2000, Artyom Borovik was considered one of the preeminent journalists in Russia. With The Hidden War he provided the world its first glimpse inside the Soviet military machine, capturing the soldiers' terror, helplessness, and despair at waging war in a foreign land against an unseen enemy for unclear purposes. When first published, Borovik's groundbreaking revelations exposed the weaknesses beneath the Soviet Union's aura of military might, creating an enormous controversy both in Russia and around the world. A vital and fascinating portrait of the Soviet empire at the twilight of its power, this is a book that still resonates today. An honest and graphic account of individual and general disillusionment during the very worst kind of war. -Christopher Hitchens, New York Newsday; Alternately fascinating and horrific.... A fascinating look at the life and death of Soviet soldiers. -- Bill Wallace, San Francisco Chronicle; I have read no other account of the war in Afghanistan equal to this ... this is literature. -- Graham Greene

Empires--vast states of territories and peoples united by force and ambition--have dominated the political landscape for more than two millennia. "Empires in World History" departs from conventional European and nation-centered perspectives to take a remarkable look at how empires relied on diversity to shape the global order. Beginning with ancient Rome and China and continuing across Asia, Europe, the Americas, and Africa, Jane Burbank and Frederick Cooper examine empires' conquests, rivalries, and strategies of domination--with an emphasis on how empires accommodated, created, and manipulated differences among populations.

Burbank and Cooper examine Rome and China from the third century BCE, empires that sustained state power for centuries. They delve into the militant monotheism of Byzantium, the Islamic Caliphates, and the short-lived Carolingians, as well as the pragmatically tolerant rule of the Mongols and Ottomans, who combined religious protection with the politics of loyalty. Burbank and Cooper discuss the influence of empire on capitalism and popular sovereignty, the limitations and instability of Europe's colonial projects, Russia's repertoire of exploitation and differentiation, as well as the "empire of liberty"--devised by American revolutionaries and later extended across a continent and beyond.

With its investigation into the relationship between diversity and imperial states, "Empires in World History" offers a fresh approach to understanding the impact of empires on the past and present.

The Mullica Valley estuary and its watershed, formed over the last 10,000 years, are among the cleanest estuaries along the east coast of the United States. This 365,000-acre ecosystem benefits from a combination of protected watershed, low human population density, and general lack of extensive development. In Beneath the Surface, marine scientist Ken Able helps the reader penetrate the surface and gain insights into the kinds of habitats, the animals, and plants that live there. Readers will gain a better understanding of the importance of these shallow waters; how the amount of salt in the water determines where animals and plants are found in estuaries; the day-night, seasonal, and annual variation in their occurrence; and how change is occurring as the result of climate variation. Throughout the book are insightful sidebars telling intimate stories of where various animals came from and where they are going as they travel through the estuary on their way to and from other portions of the East Coast. Beneath the Surface emphasizes the kinds and importance of the animals and plants that live beneath the surface of this unique ecosystem.

The Story of Israel is an illuminating book that explores the nation's history. Seventy years after Israel declared independence on 14 May 1948, the dramatic events before and since this point form an extraordinary period of history. From Theodor Herzl's efforts to establish a sovereign Jewish nation in Palestine to the 21st-century roadmap for peace and beyond, The Story of Israel brings the period to life as never before. Sir Martin Gilbert's authoritative text is supplemented by more than 150 photographs and maps, as well as rare documents, including pages from Herzl's diary, identification papers of an Exodus refugee and Ben-Gurion's copy of his Declaration of Independence speech - all of which shed light on fascinating history of the country. This is the ultimate guide to the turbulent history of a proud and powerful nation.

Robert J. Alexander traces organized labor from its origins in colonial Cuba, examining its evolution under the Republic, noting the successive political forces within it and the development of collective bargaining, culminating after 1959 in its transformation into a Stalin-model labor movement. In Castro's Cuba, organized labor has been subordinate to the Party and government and has been converted into a movement to control the workers and stimulate production and productivity instead of being a movement to defend the interests and desires of the workers.

Starting with the organization of tobacco workers and a few other groups in the last years of Spanish colonial rule, Robert J. Alexander traces the growth of the labor movement during the early decades of the republic, noting particularly the influence of three political tendencies: anarchosyndicalists, Marxists, and independents. He examines the generally unfavorable attitudes of early republican governments to the labor movement, and he discusses the first central labor body, the CNOC, which was at first under anarchist influence, and soon captured by the Communists. The role of the CNOC vis-a-vis the Machado dictatorship, including the deal with Machado in 1933 is also discussed. Alexander then looks at the unions during the short Grau San Martine nationalist regime of 1933 and the near-destruction of organized labor by the Batista dictatorship of 1934-1937; the revival of the labor movement after the 1937 deal of the Communists with Batista and the establishment of the Confederacion de Trabajadores de Cuba, as well as the struggles for power within it, resulting in a split in the CTC in 1947, with the dominance of the Autentico-party controlled group. During this period regular collective bargaining became more or less the rule. He then describes the deterioration of the Confederacion of Trabajadores de Cuba under the Batista dictatorship of 1952-1959. Alexander ends with a description of organized labor during the Castro regime: the early attempt of revolutionary trade unionists to establish an independent labor movement, followed by the Castro government's seizure of control of the CTC and its unions, and the conversion of the Cuban labor movement into one patterned after the Stalinist model of a movement designed to stimulate production and productivity--under government control--instead of defending the rights and interests of the unions' members.

Based on an extensive review of Cuban materials as well as Alexander's numerous interviews, correspondence, and conversations with key figures from the late 1940s onward, this is the most comprehensive English-language examination of organized labor in Cuba ever written. Essential reading for all scholars and students of Cuban and Latin American labor and economic affairs as well as important to political scientists and historians of the region."

What binds together Louis Riel's former secretary, a railroad inventor, a Montreal comedienne, an early proponent of Canada's juvenile system and a prominent Canadian architect? Socialists, suffragists, musicians, artists--from 1898 to 1948, these and some 550 other individual Canadian Baha'is helped create a movement described as the second most widespread religion in the world.

Using diaries, memoirs, official reports, private correspondence, newspapers, archives and interviews, Will C. van den Hoonaard has created the first historical account of Baha'is in Canada. In addition, "The Origins of the Baha'i Community of Canada, 1898-1948" clearly depicts the dynamics and the struggles of a new religion in a new country.

This is a story of modern spiritual heroes--people who changed the lives of others through their devotion to the Baha'i ideals, in particular to the belief that the earth is one country and "all" of humankind are its citizens.

Thirty-nine original photographs effectively depict persons and events influencing the growth of the Baha'i movement in Canada.

"The Origins of the Baha'i Community of Canada, 1898-1948" makes an original contribution to religious history in Canada and provides a major sociological reference tool, as well as a narrative history that can be used by scholars and Baha'is alike for many years to come.

J. Williams Thorne (1816-1897) was an outspoken farmer who spent the first half-century of his remarkable life in Chester County, Pennsylvania, where he took part in political debates, helped fugitive slaves in the Underground Railroad and co-founded the Progressive Friends Meeting near his home in Longwood. Williams and his associates discussed vital matters of the day, from slavery to prohibition to women's rights. These issues sometimes came to Thorne's doorstep-he met with nationally prominent reformers, and thwarted kidnappers seeking to enslave one of his free black tenants. After the Civil War, Williams became a "carpetbagger," ;moving to postwar North Carolina to pursue farming and politics. An "infidel" Quaker (anti-Christian), he was opposed by Democrats who sought to keep him out of the legislature on account of his religious beliefs. Today a little-known figure in history, Williams made his mark through his outspokenness and persistent battling for what he believed.

After more than three years of grim fighting, General Ulysses Grant had a plan to end the Civil War-laying siege to Petersburg, Virginia, thus cutting off supplies to the Confederate capital at Richmond. He established his headquarters at City Point on the James River, requiring thousands of troops, tons of supplies, as well as extensive medical facilities and staff. Nurses flooded the area, yet many did not work in medical capacities-they served as organizers, advocates and intelligence gatherers. Nursing emerged as a noble profession with multiple specialties. Drawing on a range of primary and secondary sources, this history covers the resilient women who opened the way for others into postwar medical, professional and political arenas.

Ice Ghosts weaves together the epic story of the Lost Franklin Expedition of 1845-whose two ships and crew of 129 were lost to the Arctic ice-with the tale of the incredible discovery of the flagship's wreck in 2014. Paul Watson, who was on the icebreaker that led the discovery expedition, tells a fast-paced historical adventure story: Sir John Franklin and the crew of the HMS Erebus and Terror setting off in search of the fabled Northwest Passage, the hazards they encountered and the reasons they were forced to abandon ship hundreds of miles from the nearest outpost of civilization, and the decades of searching that exposed rumours of cannibalism and a few scattered papers and bones-until a combination of Inuit lore and the latest science yielded a discovery for the ages.

This is a volume of essays exploring important themes in the economic and social history of Russia and the Soviet Union during the critical period between 1860 and 1930. It covers developments in agriculture, industry, trade, economic theory, defence policy and the social impact of revolution. The essays are written by well-established specialists in Russian and Soviet economic and social history and are intended as a tribute to the work of the highly-esteemed economic historian Olga Crisp.

Rhode Island sent 23,236 men to fight in the Civil War. They served in eight infantry regiments, three heavy artillery regiments, three regiments and one battalion of cavalry, a company of hospital guards and 10 batteries of light artillery. Hundreds more served in the U.S. Army, Navy and Marine Corps. Rhode Islanders participated in nearly every major battle of the war, firing the first volleys at Bull Run, and some of the last at Appomattox. How many died in the Civil War is a question that has long eluded historians. Drawing on a twenty-year study of regimental histories, pension files, letters, diaries, and visits to every cemetery in the state, award-winning Civil War historian Robert Grandchamp documents 2,182 Rhode Islanders who died as a direct result of military service. Each regiment is identified, followed by the name, rank and place of residence for each soldier, the details of their deaths and, where known, their final resting places.

Mark Newman draws on a vast range of archives and many interviews to uncover for the first time the complex response of African American and white Catholics across the South to desegregation. In the late nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century, the southern Catholic Church contributed to segregation by confining African Americans to the back of white churches and to black-only schools and churches. However, in the twentieth century, papal adoption and dissemination of the doctrine of the Mystical Body of Christ, pressure from some black and white Catholics, and secular change brought by the civil rights movement increasingly led the Church to address racial discrimination both inside and outside its walls. Far from monolithic, white Catholics in the South split between a moderate segregationist majority and minorities of hard-line segregationists and progressive racial egalitarians. While some bishops felt no discomfort with segregation, prelates appointed from the late 1940s onward tended to be more supportive of religious and secular change. Some bishops in the peripheral South began desegregation before or in anticipation of secular change while elsewhere, especially in the Deep South, they often tied changes in the Catholic churches to secular desegregation. African American Catholics were diverse and more active in the civil rights movement than has often been assumed. While some black Catholics challenged racism in the Church, many were conflicted about the manner of Catholic desegregation generally imposed by closing valued black institutions. Tracing its impact through the early 1990s, Newman reveals how desegregation shook congregations but seldom brought about genuine integration.

Focusing on the development of the Communist Party in Moscow between 1925 and 1932 and its ultimate assumption of absolute power. This volume examines in detail the political changes in Moscow, including the crisis over collectivization, and the organization strategy of the Party in Moscow.

Up to now the culture of the Stalin period has been studied mainly from a political or ideological point of view. In this book renowned specialists from many countries approach the problem rather 'from inside'. The authors deal with numerous aspects of Stalinist culture such as art, literature, architecture, film and popular culture. Yet the volume is more than a mere collection of studies on special issues. It is an inquiry into the very nature of a certain type of culture, its symbols, rites and myths. The book will be useful not only for students of Soviet culture but also for a wider audience.

This selection of documents - for the most part never before translated into English - traces the process of modernization which took place in Russia between 1856 and 1881. Political, social and economic developments are dealt with in thematic sections and the documents also show the growth of the revolutionary movement and conservative attempts to quell it. The great flowering of Russian literature and art during the quarter-century is also reflected. The documents are accompanied by individual commentaries and an extensive guide to further reading, whilst the volume is prefaced by a substantial introductory essay setting the documents in context.

China's Arctic Ambitions and What They Mean for Canada is an in-depth studies of China's increasing interest in the Arctic. It offers a holistic approach to understanding Chinese motivations and the potential impacts of greater Chinese presence in the circumpolar region, exploring resource development, shipping, scientific research, governance, and security. Drawing on extensive research in Chinese government documentation, business and media reports, and current academic literature, this timely volume eschews the traditional assumption that Chinese actions are unified and monolithic in their approach to Arctic affairs. Instead, it offers a careful analysis of the different, and often competing, interests and priorities of Chinese government and industry. Analyzing Chinese interests and activities from a Canadian perspective, the book provides an unparalleled point of reference to discuss the implications for the Canadian and broader circumpolar North.

This fourth volume of the History of the Prairie West Series contains fifteen articles examining the rich history of business and early industry in Canada's Prairie Provinces prior to the Great Depression.
Without denying the central importance of agriculture in the development and growth of the early Prairie West, the essays in "Business and Inudstry" explore the lesser known history of some of the earliest businesses in the region. As we enter the second decade of the twenty-first century, a time when the three Prairie Provinces comprise the fastest-growing, and perhaps the most dynamic, economic regions in Canada, it may be worthwhile to cast our gaze back to an earlier and simpler era. In these essays, we can glimpse the origins of the entrepreneurial spirit and business ehtos that have come to define the business culture of the Prairie West.