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Books > History > History of specific subjects
When Ishi, "the last wild Indian," came out of hiding in August of
1911, he was quickly whisked away by train to San Francisco to meet
Alfred Kroeber, one of the fathers of American anthropology. When
Kroeber and Ishi came face to face, it was a momentous event, not
only for each man, but for the cultures they represented. Each
stood on the brink: one culture was in danger of losing something
vital while the other was in danger of disappearing altogether.
Ishi was a survivor, and viewed the bright lights of the big city
with a mixture of awe and bemusement. What surprised everyone is
how handily he adapted himself to the modern city while maintaining
his sense of self and his culture. He and his people had
ingeniously used everything they could get their hands on from
whites to survive in hiding, and now Ishi was doing the same in San
Francisco. The wild man was in fact doubly civilized-he had his own
culture, and he opened himself up to that of modern America.
Kroeber was professionally trained to document Ishi's culture, his
civilization. What he didn't count on was how deeply working with
the man would lead him to question his own profession and his
civilization-how it would rekindle a wildness of his own. Though
Ishi's story has been told before in film and fiction, Wild Men is
the first book to focus on the depth of Ishi and Kroeber's
friendship and to explore what their intertwined stories tell us
about Indian survival in modern America and about America's
fascination with the wild even as it was becoming ever-more urban
and modern. Wild Men is about two individuals and two worlds
intimately brought together in ways that turned out to be at once
inspiring and tragic. Each man stood looking at the other from the
opposite edge of a chasm: they reached out in the hope of keeping
the other from falling in.
Scholars of language ideology have encouraged us to reflect on and
explore where social categories come from, how they have been
reproduced, and whether and to what extent they are relevant to
everyday interactional practices. Taking up on these issues, this
book focuses on how ethnicity has been semiotically constructed,
valued, and reproduced in Indonesia since Dutch colonial times, and
how this category is drawn upon in everyday talk. In doing so, this
book also seeks to engage with scholarship on superdiversity while
highlighting some points of engagement with work on ideas about
community. The book draws upon a broad range of scholarship on
Indonesia, recordings of Indonesian television from the mid-1990s
onwards, and recordings of the talk of Indonesian students living
in Japan. It is argued that some of the main mechanisms for the
reproduction and revaluation of ethnicity and its links with
linguistic form include waves of technological innovations that
bring people into contact (e.g. changes in transportation
infrastructure, introduction of print media, television, radio, the
internet, etc.), and the increasing use of one-to-many
participation frameworks such as school classrooms and the mass
media. In examining the talk of sojourning Indonesians the book
goes on to explore how ideologies about ethnicity are used to
establish and maintain convivial social relations while in Japan.
Maintaining such relationships is not a trivial thing and it is
argued that the pursuit of conviviality is an important practice
because of its relationship with broader concerns about eking out a
living.
An innovative and accessible overview of how ancient Scandinavians
understood and made use of their mythological stories. Old Norse
Mythology provides a unique survey of the mythology of Scandinavia:
the gods THorr (Thor) with his hammer, the wily and duplicitous
Odinn (Odin), the sly Loki, and other fascinating figures. They
create the world, battle their enemies, and die at the end of the
world, which arises anew with a new generation of gods. These
stories were the mythology of the Vikings, but they were not
written down until long after the conversion to Christianity,
mostly in Iceland. In addition to a broad overview of Nordic myths,
the book presents a case study of one myth, which tells of how
THorr (Thor) fished up the World Serpent, analyzing the myth as a
sacred text of the Vikings. Old Norse Mythology also explores the
debt we owe to medieval intellectuals, who were able to incorporate
the old myths into new paradigms that helped the myths to survive
when they were no longer part of a religious system. This superb
introduction traces the use of the mythology in ideological
contexts, from the Viking Age until the twenty-first century, as
well as in entertainment.
From the twelve days of Christmas to the Spring traditions of
Valentine, Shrovetide, and Easter eggs, through May Day revels and
Midsummer fires, and on to the waning of the year, Harvest Home,
and Hallowe'en; Ronald Hutton takes us on a fascinating journey
through the ritual year in Britain.
His comprehensive study covers all the British Isles and the whole
sweep of history from the earliest written records to the present
day. Great and lesser, ancient and modern, Christian and pagan, all
rituals are treated with the same attention. The result is a
colorful and absorbing history in which Ronald Hutton challenges
many common assumptions about the customs of the past and the
festivals of the present debunking many myths and illuminates the
history of the calendar we live by.
Stations of the Sun is the first complete scholarly work to cover
the full span of British rituals, challenging the work of
specialists from the late Victorian period onwards, reworking our
picture of the field thoroughly, and raising issues for historians
of every period.
Desperate to seize control of Kentucky, the Confederate army
launched an invasion into the commonwealth in the fall of 1862,
viciously culminating at an otherwise quiet Bluegrass crossroads
and forever altering the landscape of the war. The Battle of
Perryville lasted just one day yet produced nearly eight thousand
combined casualties and losses, and some say nary a victor. The
Rebel army was forced to retreat, and the United States kept its
imperative grasp on Kentucky throughout the war. Few know this
hallowed ground like Christopher L. Kolakowski, former director of
the Perryville Battlefield Preservation Association, who draws on
letters, reports, memoirs and other primary sources to offer the
most accessible and engaging account of the Kentucky Campaign yet,
featuring over sixty historic images and maps.
Twenty-five years after it spent sixteen weeks at #1 on the New
York Times bestseller list, John Feinstein's A Season on the Brink
remains the classic of the genre and an unforgettable chronicle of
his year spent following the Indiana Hoosiers and their fiery coach
Bob Knight. This anniversary edition features an updated package
and a new Introduction by Feinstein.
Granted unprecedented access to the Indiana Hoosiers' basketball
program during the 1985-1986 season, John Feinstein saw and heard
it all--practices, team meetings, strategy sessions, and mid-game
huddles--as the team strove to return to championship form. A
Season on the Brink, recently named #6 on Sports Illustrated's "Top
100 Sports Books of All Time" list, not only captures the drama and
pressure of big-time college basketball, but paints a vivid
portrait of a complex, brilliant coach as he walks the fine line
between genius and madness.
In this groundbreaking book, renowned global economist David McWilliams unlocks the mysteries and the awesome power of money: what it is, how it works and why it matters.
Money is an epic, breathlessly entertaining journey across the world through the present and the past, from the birthplace of money in ancient Babylon to the beginning of trade along the silk road to China, from Marrakech markets to Wall Street and the dawn of cryptocurrency. By tracking its history McWilliams uncovers our relationship with money, transforming our perspective on its impact on the world right now.
The story of money is the story of our desires, our genius and our downfalls. Money has shaped the very essence of what it means to be human. We can’t hope to understand ourselves without it. And yet despite money’s primacy, most of us don’t truly understand it. Where does money come from? How much is out there? Who controls it? Nothing we’ve invented as a species has defined our own evolution so thoroughly and changed the direction of our planet’s history so dramatically. Money is power – and power beguiles. It unleashes our deepest cravings.
The story of money is the story of earth’s most inventive, destructive and dangerous animal, Homo Sapiens. It is our story.
"The book is the product of a protracted, laborious and scrupulous
research and draws on a most extensive and varied assembly of
documents. But the archival evidence, factual accounts and even
personal narratives would have remained remote, dry and cold if not
for the author's remarkable gift of empathy. Barbara Engelking
gives the witnesses of the Holocaust a voice which readers of this
book will understand....Under her pen memories come alive
again."--from the Foreword by Zygmunt BaumanOriginally published in
Polish to great acclaim and based on interviews with survivors of
the Holocaust in Poland, Holocaust and Memory provides a moving
description of their life during the war and the sense they made of
it. The book begins by looking at the differences between the
wartime experiences of Jews and Poles in occupied Poland, both in
terms of Nazi legislation and individual experiences. On the Aryan
side of the ghetto wall, Jews could either be helped or blackmailed
by Poles. The largest section of the book reconstructs everyday
life in the ghetto. The psychological consequences of wartime
experiences are explored, including interviews with survivors who
stayed on in Poland after the war and were victims of anti-Semitism
again in 1968. These discussions bring into question some of the
accepted survivor stereotypes found in Holocaust literature. A
final chapter looks at the legacy of the Holocaust, the problems of
transmitting experience and of the place of the Holocaust in Polish
history and culture.
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Nolensville
(Paperback)
Beth Lothers, Vicky Travis
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R609
R552
Discovery Miles 5 520
Save R57 (9%)
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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Derived from the word "to propagate," the idea and practice of
propaganda concerns nothing less than the ways in which human
beings communicate, particularly with respect to the creation and
widespread dissemination of attitudes, images, and beliefs. Much
larger than its pejorative connotations suggest, propaganda can
more neutrally be understood as a central means of organizing and
shaping thought and perception, a practice that has been a
pervasive feature of the twentieth century and that touches on many
fields. It has been seen as both a positive and negative force,
although abuses under the Third Reich and during the Cold War have
caused the term to stand in, most recently, as a synonym for
untruth and brazen manipulation. Propaganda analysis of the 1950s
to 1989 too often took the form of empirical studies about the
efficacy of specific methods, with larger questions about the
purposes and patterns of mass persuasion remaining unanswered. In
the present moment where globalization and transnationality are
arguably as important as older nation forms, when media enjoy near
ubiquity throughout the globe, when various fundamentalisms are
ascendant, and when debates rage about neoliberalism, it is urgent
that we have an up-to-date resource that considers propaganda as a
force of culture writ large. The handbook will include twenty-two
essays by leading scholars from a variety of disciplines, divided
into three sections. In addition to dealing with the thorny
question of definition, the handbook will take up an expansive set
of assumptions and a full range of approaches that move propaganda
beyond political campaigns and warfare to examine a wide array of
cultural contexts and practices.
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World War II Rhode Island
(Paperback)
Christian McBurney, Brian L Wallin, Patrick T. Conley, John W. Kennedy, Maureen A. Taylor
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R561
R521
Discovery Miles 5 210
Save R40 (7%)
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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Colonel Jan Breytenbach writes in the foreword: 'On Ascension Day,
1978, a composite South African parachute battalion jumped onto the
tactical HQ of SWAPO's PLAN army, based at Cassinga, 250 kilometers
north of the Angolan border to destroy the facility, their
logistics, and to wipe out a strong concentration of SWAPO
guerrillas. The airborne assault, part of Operation Reindeer, was
an unqualified success; the whole base was destroyed. 608 PLAN
fighters were killed, with many more wounded which pushed the final
SWAPO death toll to well over a thousand. We lost only four
paratroopers killed in action plus a dozen or so wounded. According
to airborne experts in Britain and Australia, this was the most
audacious parachute assault since the Second World War; the
mounting airfield was well over 1,000 nautical miles away. I was
the commander of that airborne assault, which although successful
above all expectations, also highlighted many shortcomings, some of
which nearly led to a disastrous outcome.' 44 Parachute Brigade was
formed later that year, with the need for a specialist Pathfinder
Company patently clear. Into the ranks came professional veterans
from the UK, USA, Australasia, Rhodesia and elsewhere, from such
Special Forces units as the SAS, Selous Scouts and the RLI. 'This
is their book, a collection of stories about the founding and
deployment of a unit of 'Foreign Legionnaires', from different
parts of the world who became welded together into a remarkable
combat unit, unsurpassed by any other South African Defence Force
unit in their positive and aggressive approach to battle. For me it
was an honor to have faced incoming lead together with them.
In 1794, two years before Tennessee became a state, the legislature
of the Southwest Territory chartered Blount College in Knoxville as
one of the first three colleges established west of the Appalachian
Mountains. In 1807, the school changed its name to East Tennessee
College. The school relocated to a 40-acre tract, known today as
the Hill, in 1828 and was renamed East Tennessee University in
1840. The Civil War literally shut down the university. Students
and faculty were recruited to serve on battlefields, and troops
used campus facilities as hospitals and barracks. In 1869, East
Tennessee University became the states land-grant institution under
the auspices of the 1862 Morrill Act. In 1879, the state
legislature changed the name of the institution to the University
of Tennessee. By the early 20th century, the university admitted
women, hosted teacher institutes, and constructed new buildings.
Since that time, the University of Tennessee has established
campuses and programs across the state. Today, in addition to a
rich sports tradition, the University of Tennessee provides
Tennesseans with unparalleled opportunities.
For fans of Radium Girls and history and WWII buffs, The Girls Who
Stepped Out of Line takes you inside the lives and experiences of
15 unknown women heroes from the Greatest Generation, the women who
served, fought, struggled, and made things happen during WWII-in
and out of uniform, for theirs is a legacy destined to embolden
generations of women to come. The Girls Who Stepped Out of Line are
the heroes of the Greatest Generation that you hardly ever hear
about. These women who did extraordinary things didn't expect
thanks and shied away from medals and recognition. Despite their
amazing accomplishments, they've gone mostly unheralded and
unrewarded. No longer. These are the women of World War II who
served, fought, struggled, and made things happen-in and out of
uniform. Young Hilda Eisen was captured twice by the Nazis and
twice escaped, going on to fight with the Resistance in Poland.
Determined to survive, she and her husband later emigrated to the
U.S. where they became entrepreneurs and successful business
leaders. Ola Mildred Rexroat was the only Native American woman
pilot to serve with the Women's Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) in
World War II. She persisted against all odds-to earn her silver
wings and fly, helping train other pilots and gunners. Ida and
Louise Cook were British sisters and opera buffs who smuggled Jews
out of Germany, often wearing their jewelry and furs, to help with
their finances. They served as sponsors for refugees, and
established temporary housing for immigrant families in London.
Alice Marble was a grand-slam winning tennis star who found her own
path to serve during the war-she was an editor with Wonder Woman
comics, played tennis exhibitions for the troops, and undertook a
dangerous undercover mission to expose Nazi theft. After the war
she was instrumental in desegregating women's professional tennis.
Others also stepped out of line-as cartographers, spies, combat
nurses, and troop commanders. Retired U.S. Army Major General Mari
K. Eder wrote this book because she knew their stories needed to be
told-and the sooner the better. For theirs is a legacy destined to
embolden generations of women to come.
The twentieth century has been popularly seen as "the American
Century," as publisher Henry Luce dubbed it, a long period in which
the United States had amassed the economic resources, the political
and military strength, and the moral prestige to assume global
leadership. By century's end, the trajectory of American politics,
the sense of ever waxing federal power, and the nation's place in
the world seemed less assured. Americans of many stripes came to
contest the standard narratives of nation building and
international hegemony that generations of historians dutifully
charted. In this volume, a group of distinguished junior and senior
historians-including John McGreevy, James Campbell, Elizabeth
Borgwardt, Eric Rauchway, Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman, and James
Kloppenberg- revisit and revise many of the chestnuts of American
political history. First and foremost, the contributors challenge
the teleological view of the inexorable transformation of the
United States into a modern nation. To be sure, chain stores
replaced mom-and-pop businesses, interstate highways knit together
once isolated regions, national media shaped debate from coast-to
coast, and the IRS, the EPA, the Federal Reserve, the Social
Security Administration and other instruments of national power
became daily presences in the lives of ordinary Americans. But the
local and the parochial did not inexorably give way to the national
and eventually to global integration. Instead, the contributors to
this volume illustrate the ongoing dialectic between centrifugal
and centripetal forces in the development of the twentieth century
United States. The essays analyze a host of ways in which local
places are drawn into a wider polity and culture. At the same time,
they reveal how national and international structures and ideas
repeatedly create new kinds of local movements and local energies.
The authors also challenge the tendency to view American politics
as a series of conflicts between liberalism and conservatism, which
Arthur Schlesinger, Sr. and Jr. codified as the idea that American
national politics routinely experienced roughly fifteen year
periods of liberal reform followed by similar intervals of
conservative reaction. For generations, American political history
remained the story of reform, the rise and fall, triumphs and
setbacks of successive waves of reformers-Jacksonian Democrats and
abolitionists, Populists and Progressives, New Dealers and Great
Society poverty warriors-and, recently, equally rich scholarship
has explored the origins and development of American conservatism.
The contributors do not treat the left and right as separate
phenomena, as the dominant forces of different eras. Instead they
assert the liberal and the conservative are always and essentially
intertwined, mutually constituted and mutually constituting. Modern
American liberalism operates amid tenacious, recurring forces that
shape and delimit the landscape of social reform and political
action just as conservatives layered their efforts over the
cumulative achievements of twentieth century liberalism,
necessarily accommodating themselves to shifts in the instruments
of government, social mores and popular culture. These essays also
unravel a third traditional polarity in twentieth century U.S.
history, the apparent divide between foreign policy and domestic
politics. Notwithstanding its proud anti-colonial heritage and its
enduring skepticism about foreign entanglements, the United States
has been and remains a robustly international (if not imperial)
nation. The authors in this volume-with many formative figures in
the ongoing internationalization of American history represented
among them-demonstrate that international connections (not only in
the realm of diplomacy but also in matters of migration, commerce,
and culture) have transformed domestic life in myriad ways and, in
turn, that the American presence in the world has been shaped by
its distinctive domestic political culture. Blurring the boundaries
between political, cultural, and economic history, this collective
volume aims to raise penetrating questions and challenge readers'
understanding of the broader narrative of twentieth-century U.S.
history.
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