Influenced by Robert and Clara Schumann and Joseph Joachim, Johannes Brahms not only learned to play the organ at the beginning of his career, but also wrote significant compositions for the instrument as a result of his early counterpoint study. He composed for the organ only sporadically or as part of larger choral and instrumental works in his subsequent career. During the final year of his life, however, he returned to pure organ composition with a set of chorale preludes--though many of these are thought to have been revisions of earlier works. Today, the organ works of Johannes Brahms are recognized as beautifully-crafted compositions by church and concert organists across the world and have become a much-cherished component of the repertoire. Until now, however, most scholarly accounts of Brahms's life and work treat his works for the organ as a minor footnote in his development as a composer.
Precisely because the collection of organ works is not extensive, the pieces--composed at different times during Brahms's lifetime--help to map his path as a composer, pinpointing various stages in his artistic development. In this volume, Barbara Owen offers the first in-depth study of this corpus, considering Brahms's organ works in relation to his background, methods, and overall artistic development, his contacts with organs and organists, the influence of his predecessors and contemporaries, and analyses of each specific work and its place in Brahms's career. Her expert history and analysis of Brahms's individual organ works and their interpretation also investigates contemporary practices relative to the performance of these pieces. The book's three valuable appendices present aguide to editions of Brahms's organ works, a discussion of the organ in Brahms's world that highlights some organs the composer would have heard, and a listing of the organ transcriptions of Brahms's work.
Blending unique insights into composition and performance practice, this book will be read eagerly by performers, students, and scholars of the organ, Brahms, and the music of the Nineteenth Century.

Owen's study is of excellent quality and should be considered required reading for students of these topics. Ultimately this book will be ranked as a significant sociological study of the correctional officer for its pioneering application of the interactionist theoretical perspective to this increasingly visible, yet still little-understood, occupational group. "Criminal Justice RevieW"

Based on interviews with 125 prison workers and participant observation, this in-depth study examines the prison worker's world as a foundation for a theory of social control. By analyzing the intricate relations among the workers themselves rather than among the prisoners, Barbara Owen posits that social control arises through the combination of interaction, power, and meaning. Owen argues that the motives of workers are practical, rather than pathological as suggested by earlier research. She focuses her study on the social context of the prison shop floor--challenging the accepted idea that prison work is difficult because of the prisoners. The findings indicate that the problems of the prison workers are structurally induced and arise from interaction with co-workers rather than with prisoners.

The first book-length treatment of the nature of prison culture among women in thirty years, "In the Mix"describes the prison culture in a large California prison, from the point of view of the women themselves. Based on three years of study, including participant-observation, in-depth interviews and surveys, this book describes the daily life of the prison from a variety of perspectives, with an emphasis on the gendered nature of its social organization, roles and normative frameworks.

The title, "In the Mix", describes the contours of prison culture and its themes of trouble, programming and relationships. Common themes, such as the impact of substance use, limited economic opportunity, patriarchy, survival on the streets and in the prison, thread through the individual chapters. Owen argues that prison culture for women is tied directly to the role of women in society as well as a dynamic social structure that is shaped by the conditions of women's lives in prison and in the "free world".

Damaged, but not Defeated Despaired but not Destroyed is an inspirational book of healing for those who have been damaged in this life but not destroyed. This book is filled with testimony and triumph of the loving power of Jesus Christ to bring hope and healing to those who are hurting.

"In this book, Barbara Owen has created a rich resource of historical information coupled with strategies for interpreting that information on today's instruments." Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society

..". Barbara Owen has succeeded admirably in distilling three centuries of organ registration practice into a volume less than three hundred pages long.... Anyone with an interest in the history of the organ and its music... will not want to ignore this book." Sixteenth Century Journal

"It is rare to find a book that combines such careful scholarship with a practical focus that makes it accessible to performing musicians as well as research specialists." Notes

"An excellent volume from historical, musical style and interpretive standpoints. Highly recommended for all large academic and professional music collections." Choice

..". recommend this book to all serious organists." The American Organist Magazine

Barbara Owen has prepared the first work to present in a single book the registrational practices of organists from c.1550 to 1800. The four parts of the book move from the Renaissance through the Early, High, and Late Baroque. Each part starts with a brief description of the political and religious climate of the period and the way such factors affected the compositions and the organ-building of the time."

In Search of Safety takes a close look at the sources of gendered violence and conflict in women's prisons. The authors examine how intersectional inequalities and cumulative disadvantages are at the root of prison conflict and violence and mirror the women's pathways to prison. Women must negotiate these inequities by developing forms of prison capital-social, human, cultural, emotional, and economic-to ensure their safety while inside. The authors also analyze how conflict and subsequent violence result from human-rights violations inside the prison that occur within the gendered context of substandard prison conditions, inequalities of capital among those imprisoned, and relationships with correctional staff. In Search of Safety proposes a way forward-the implementation of international human-rights standards for U.S. prisons.

In Search of Safety takes a close look at the sources of gendered violence and conflict in women's prisons. The authors examine how intersectional inequalities and cumulative disadvantages are at the root of prison conflict and violence and mirror the women's pathways to prison. Women must negotiate these inequities by developing forms of prison capital-social, human, cultural, emotional, and economic-to ensure their safety while inside. The authors also analyze how conflict and subsequent violence result from human-rights violations inside the prison that occur within the gendered context of substandard prison conditions, inequalities of capital among those imprisoned, and relationships with correctional staff. In Search of Safety proposes a way forward-the implementation of international human-rights standards for U.S. prisons.