Let's say you're the manager of one of the most beloved franchises in Major League Baseball, with every past and current player available on your bench. Game time is approaching and the ump needs your line-up card. Who's your starting pitcher? Fireballer Dwight Gooden, lights-out Tom Seaver, or run-stingy Jacob de Grom? Is Gary Carter behind the plate or Mike Piazza? Who'll bat clean-up? Combining statistical analysis, common sense, and a host of intangibles, Brian Wright constructs an all-time All-Star Mets line-up for the ages. Agree with his choices or not, you'll learn all there is to know about the men who played for and managed New York's Amazin' Mets.

Brigid of Kildare, Ireland, is uniquely venerated as both a goddess and a saint throughout Ireland, Europe and the USA. Often referred to as Mary of the Gael and considered the second most important saint in Ireland after St Patrick, her widespread popularity has led to the creation of more traditional activities than any other saint; some of which survive to this day. As a result of original historical and archaeological research Brian Wright provides a fascinating insight into this unique and mysterious figure. This book uncovers for the first time when and by whom the goddess was 'conceived' and evidence that St Brigid was a real person. It also explains how she 'became' a saint, her historical links with the unification of Ireland under a High King in the first century and discusses in depth her first documented visit to England in AD 488. Today, Brigid remains strongly connected with the fertility of crops, animals and humans and is celebrated throughout the world via the continuation of customs, ceremonies and relics with origins dating back to pre-Christian times. Using a combination of early Celtic history, archaeology, tradition and folklore from Ireland, Britain and other countries, this comprehensive study unravels the mystery of a goddess and saint previously complicated by the passage of time.

During the Second World War Birmingham suffered 365 air raid alerts and 77 actual air raids. These raids took place between the 8th August 1940 and the 23rd April 1943. There were over 9,000 casualties of whom 2,241 were killed. This book contains the first hand accounts of some of those who survived. The Memorial shown on the front cover "The Tree of Life" by Lorenzo Quinn is dedicated to the memory of all victims of the Blitz on Birmingham. The memorial was donated to the City of Birmingham by the Halcyon Gallery on behalf of its founders Racna and Lionel Green, in association with Birmingham City Council and Birmingham Air Raids Remembrance Association.

The conservation of genetic resources is vital to the maintenance of biodiversity and to the world's ability to feed its growing population. There are now more than a thousand genebanks worldwide involved in the ex situ (meaning "away from the source") storage of particular classes of crops. Since the 1970s, the eleven genebanks maintained by the centres of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) have become pivotal to the global conservation effort. However, key policy and management issues - usually with economic dimensions - have largely been overlooked.This provided the impetus for a series of detailed economic studies, led by IFPRI, in collaboration with five CGIAR centres: CIAT (based in Colombia), CIMMYT (Mexico), ICARDA (Syria), ICRISAT (India) and IRRI (Philippines). This book reports these studies and discusses their wider implications.

WINNER OF THE HERITAGE TORONTO 2022 BOOK AWARD Rich and diverse narratives of Indigenous Toronto, past and present Beneath many major North American cities rests a deep foundation of Indigenous history that has been colonized, paved over, and, too often, silenced. Few of its current inhabitants know that Toronto has seen twelve thousand years of uninterrupted Indigenous presence and nationhood in this region, along with a vibrant culture and history that thrives to this day. With contributions by Indigenous Elders, scholars, journalists, artists, and historians, this unique anthology explores the poles of cultural continuity and settler colonialism that have come to define Toronto as a significant cultural hub and intersection that was also known as a Meeting Place long before European settlers arrived. "This book is a reflection of endurance and a helpful corrective to settler fantasies. It tells a more balanced account of our communities, then and now. It offers the space for us to reclaim our ancestors' language and legacy, rewriting ourselves back into a landscape from which non Indigenous historians have worked hard to erase us. But we are there in the skyline and throughout the GTA, along the coast and in all directions." -- from the introduction by Hayden King