Almost a half century after his death in 1953, the Welsh author Dylan Thomas continues to capture the attention of scholars and critics. Though he attained some measure of fame before he died, he never enjoyed financial prosperity. His life was plagued with difficulties of all kinds, and he was only 39 years old at the time of his death. Some of his works, such as "Fern Hill" and "Do not go gentle into that good night" are frequently included in anthologies, and Thomas is now often considered one of the most important and original poets of the 20th century. During his trips to the United States, he read his works to large audiences on college campuses. He also made a number of radio broadcasts and recordings, and his moving voice made scores of listeners respond emotionally to his poems. Though Dylan Thomas has earned his place in literary history, readers often find his poems difficult to understand. This reference book is a valuable guide to his life and work. Because his writings are so very much a product of his troubled life, the volume begins with an insightful biography that provides a context for understanding Thomas's works. The second section then systematically overviews his works. While his poems receive much attention, the section also includes discussions of his prose works, his filmscripts, and his broadcasts. A third section then surveys the critical and scholarly response to his writings, with separate chapters detailing his reception in Wales, England, and North America. A selected bibliography lists editions of Thomas's works, along with the most important general studies of his writings.

The volume covers wide-ranging topics from Theory: structure of finite fields, normal bases, polynomials, function fields, APN functions. Computation: algorithms and complexity, polynomial factorization, decomposition and irreducibility testing, sequences and functions. Applications: algebraic coding theory, cryptography, algebraic geometry over finite fields, finite incidence geometry, designs, combinatorics, quantum information science.

Sacred and Secular Intersections in Music of the Long Nineteenth Century: Church, Stage, and Concert Hall explores interconnections of the sacred and the secular in music and aesthetic debates of the long nineteenth century. The essays in this volume view the category of the sacred not as a monolithic attribute that applies only to music written for and performed in a religious ritual. Rather, the "sacred" is viewed as a functional as well as a topical category that enhances the discourse of cross-pollination of musical vocabularies between sacred and secular compositions, church and concert music. Using a variety of methodological approaches, the contributors articulate how sacred and religious identities coalesce, reconcile, fuse, or intersect in works from the long nineteenth century that traverse an array of genres and compositional styles.

The Music History Classroom brings together essays written by recognized and experienced teachers to assist in the design, implementation, and revision of college-level music history courses. This includes the traditional music history survey for music majors, but the materials presented here are applicable to other music history courses for music majors and general education students alike, including period classes, composer or repertory courses, and special topics classes and seminars. The authors bring current thought on the scholarship of teaching and learning together with practical experience into the unique environment of the music history classroom. While many of the issues confronting teachers in other disciplines are pertinent to music history classes, this collection addresses the unique nature of musical materials and the challenges involved in negotiating between historical information, complex technical musical issues, and the aesthetics of performing and listening. This single volume provides a systematic outline of practical teaching advice on all facets of music history pedagogy, including course design, classroom technology, listening and writing assignments, and more. The Music History Classroom presents the 'nuts-and-bolts' of teaching music history suitable for graduate students, junior faculty, and seasoned teachers alike.

The Music History Classroom brings together essays written by recognized and experienced teachers to assist in the design, implementation, and revision of college-level music history courses. This includes the traditional music history survey for music majors, but the materials presented here are applicable to other music history courses for music majors and general education students alike, including period classes, composer or repertory courses, and special topics classes and seminars. The authors bring current thought on the scholarship of teaching and learning together with practical experience into the unique environment of the music history classroom. While many of the issues confronting teachers in other disciplines are pertinent to music history classes, this collection addresses the unique nature of musical materials and the challenges involved in negotiating between historical information, complex technical musical issues, and the aesthetics of performing and listening. This single volume provides a systematic outline of practical teaching advice on all facets of music history pedagogy, including course design, classroom technology, listening and writing assignments, and more. The Music History Classroom presents the 'nuts-and-bolts' of teaching music history suitable for graduate students, junior faculty, and seasoned teachers alike.

When someone goes public with a simple, straightforward, good idea, the audience usually scratches its collective head and wonders why no one thought of it before. That was my reaction as I read James A. Davis and Tom W. Smith's short volume on the General Social Survey (GSS), the first of a new Sage series on major social science data bases. . . . I suspect there isn't a GSS user out there who wouldn't learn quite a bit from reading this book. . . . The knowledge it provides is partly historical, partly practical, and partly inspirational. . . . The practical sections make up a very readable and thorough discussion of its study design. . . . The inspirational part of the book, at least for me is Davis and Smith's narrative on the variety of studies and collaborative activity that make the GSS a unique source for comparative, historical, methodological, and cross-sectional research. . . . For those who wonder whether their interesting questions have been answered in previous research, Davis and Smith provide basic guidelines for finding out who has done what with the GSS. --Contemporary Sociology "This series will lead to more informed analysis of existing data sources as well as more insightful interpretation of studies based on them (for series quote). . . . In this superb first volume for the series, James A. Davis and Tom W. Smith have provided a lucid introduction to the history, philosophy, sampling design, and evolving content of the General Social Survey (GSS). . . . This guide conveys with both cogency and liveliness the major features of the GSS. . . . The chapter on sampling design, which describes both the shift from a block-quota modified probability sample to a full probability sample and the switch from a 1970 sample frame to a 1980 sample frame, gives evidence of the commitment to high quality. . . . The book communicates an abiding responsiveness to the emerging data needs of a developing social science. . . . The responsiveness of the GSS to new data needs, amply evident in the book, is one of its most laudable features. . . . It is a tribute to Davis and Smith that their book stimulates the reader not only to order the GSS database straightaway and carry out tests of some intriguing propositions but also to make testable some previously untestable propositions by persuading the GSS to collect information on the propositions' previously unmeasured parts. This book augurs well for the series." --Journal of the American Statistical Association "All of the questions my methods students have asked over the years (and all I've asked myself) are answered, and then some. . . . The guide is effective in making the data accessible." --Karen Campbell, Vanderbilt University "I think this series is a very good idea. Code books are intimidating for many users, and clear, approachable guides to major social science data sets will be well received. The User's Guide to the GSS . . . will ultimately be such a resource. . . . The section on Design Effects . . . is a very good subject to include in such a guide." --Dan Krymkowski, Dartmouth College "A fine introduction to an invaluable social science data resource." --Judith Tanur, State University of New York, Stony Brook "Should provide helpful assistance to undergraduates whose exposure to the GSS may be their first experience with survey research and quantitative analysis. In addition, it should be a useful tool to more experienced analysts who need to quickly master the intricacies of the GSS." --Microcase Forum For any researcher, student, or teacher using the General Social Survey (GSS), this book is a must. Written by the two researchers who have directed the GSS since its inception in 1972, this practical, easy-to-use volume enables you to exploit this large data set more effectively than ever before. This volume clearly explains the "rotations" and "split ballots" in the study design, describes available samples (including the 1982 and 1987 oversamples of black respondents) and weights, and discusses interviewer training, quality control, validation, and coding procedures. In addition, it outlines the topics covered in the GSS, including the recurrent, replicated "core" items suitable for trend analyses, the annual topical modules on subjects of current interest, and the international modules produced in collaboration with the International Social Survey Program. And, this guidebook covers the various data sets in which GSS data are accessible, and directs you to the data banks that disseminate them. Both novice and experienced GSS users will find The NORC General Social Survey an invaluable tool.

Still a vital new area of study, music history pedagogy now involves the global classroom Viewpoints from both senior and junior scholars with particular university classroom experiences are shared Concentrates solely on Music, whereas other Works on globalizing the classroom have broadly considered many subjects in the university curriculum

Still a vital new area of study, music history pedagogy now involves the global classroom Viewpoints from both senior and junior scholars with particular university classroom experiences are shared Concentrates solely on Music, whereas other Works on globalizing the classroom have broadly considered many subjects in the university curriculum

You're Up (For Teenagers Only ) is a hand book that is a powerhouse of information that teens want to know to help make their transition from being a child to being an adult an easier journey. The ideas for help with parents, friends, and every-day situations were given by a group of 100 teens who have discovered how to find happiness during these difficult and, at times, painful and confusing teenage years. It is put together in a common language that is easily understood by the teenager and the parent, with examples and solutions for some of the problems most teenagers have to face. Now is the time to get out of this book what other teens want you to know so that your life as a teen can be easier to endure.

On Ido, island of Sphinx people, cocooned cities, and Mer Ancestors, love and monogamy are strictly prohibited, physical pleasures abound, and a brewing civil war pits youth and virility against age and experience. The Ido Youth seek the preservation of Taste, a set of carnal sex rites beginning in the 21st year and ending with climax, Enlightenment, and Elderhood. Meanwhile, the Elders vow to obliterate the old traditions in favor of The One Faith, a religion of love, marriage, restraint, and discipline under the direction of a mysterious foreigner known simply as, The Guide. At the center of the war is Onya, esteemed warrior and daughter of the shrewd Elder General Dame. Though dedicated to both Taste and tradition, she begins to question the very core of her beliefs when she falls in love with Quince, co-General of the Youth Cause. Together they must navigate otherworldly pleasures, the savagery of war, an intrusive religion, and their own forbidden love.

Historians have long treated the patriotic anthems of the American Civil War as colorful, if largely insignificant, side notes. Beneath the surface of these songs, however, is a complex story. “Maryland, My Maryland� was one of the most popular Confederate songs during the American Civil War, yet its story is full of ironies that draw attention to the often painful and contradictory actions and beliefs that were both cause and effect of the war. Most telling of all, it was adopted as one of a handful of Southern anthems even though it celebrated a state that never joined the Confederacy. In Maryland, My Maryland: Music and Patriotism during the American Civil War James A. Davis illuminates the incongruities underlying this Civil War anthem and what they reveal about patriotism during the war. The geographic specificity of the song’s lyrics allowed the contest between regional and national loyalties to be fought on bandstands as well as battlefields and enabled “Maryland, My Maryland� to contribute to the shift in patriotic allegiance from a specific, localized, and material place to an ambiguous, inclusive, and imagined space. Musical patriotism, it turns out, was easy to perform but hard to define for Civil War–era Americans.  

Abse is one of Britain's leading and best-loved literary figures. These plays House of Cowards, The Dogs of Pavlov, and Pythagoras (Smith) were written in reaction to the Holocaust. House of Cowards concerns the willingness of people to surrender their individuality to a charismatic leader; The Dogs of Pavlov explores the conditioning of people to perform unthinking evil; and Pythagoras (Smith) is set in an asylum and is concerned with the relationship of patient, doctor, medicine, and magic. All have been performed in London. Abse's achievement is to retain humor and hope among such themes.

When someone goes public with a simple, straightforward, good idea, the audience usually scratches its collective head and wonders why no one thought of it before. That was my reaction as I read James A. Davis and Tom W. Smith's short volume on the General Social Survey (GSS), the first of a new Sage series on major social science data bases. . . . I suspect there isn't a GSS user out there who wouldn't learn quite a bit from reading this book. . . . The knowledge it provides is partly historical, partly practical, and partly inspirational. . . . The practical sections make up a very readable and thorough discussion of its study design. . . . The inspirational part of the book, at least for me is Davis and Smith's narrative on the variety of studies and collaborative activity that make the GSS a unique source for comparative, historical, methodological, and cross-sectional research. . . . For those who wonder whether their interesting questions have been answered in previous research, Davis and Smith provide basic guidelines for finding out who has done what with the GSS. --Contemporary Sociology "This series will lead to more informed analysis of existing data sources as well as more insightful interpretation of studies based on them (for series quote). . . . In this superb first volume for the series, James A. Davis and Tom W. Smith have provided a lucid introduction to the history, philosophy, sampling design, and evolving content of the General Social Survey (GSS). . . . This guide conveys with both cogency and liveliness the major features of the GSS. . . . The chapter on sampling design, which describes both the shift from a block-quota modified probability sample to a full probability sample and the switch from a 1970 sample frame to a 1980 sample frame, gives evidence of the commitment to high quality. . . . The book communicates an abiding responsiveness to the emerging data needs of a developing social science. . . . The responsiveness of the GSS to new data needs, amply evident in the book, is one of its most laudable features. . . . It is a tribute to Davis and Smith that their book stimulates the reader not only to order the GSS database straightaway and carry out tests of some intriguing propositions but also to make testable some previously untestable propositions by persuading the GSS to collect information on the propositions' previously unmeasured parts. This book augurs well for the series." --Journal of the American Statistical Association "All of the questions my methods students have asked over the years (and all I've asked myself) are answered, and then some. . . . The guide is effective in making the data accessible." --Karen Campbell, Vanderbilt University "I think this series is a very good idea. Code books are intimidating for many users, and clear, approachable guides to major social science data sets will be well received. The User's Guide to the GSS . . . will ultimately be such a resource. . . . The section on Design Effects . . . is a very good subject to include in such a guide." --Dan Krymkowski, Dartmouth College "A fine introduction to an invaluable social science data resource." --Judith Tanur, State University of New York, Stony Brook "Should provide helpful assistance to undergraduates whose exposure to the GSS may be their first experience with survey research and quantitative analysis. In addition, it should be a useful tool to more experienced analysts who need to quickly master the intricacies of the GSS." --Microcase Forum For any researcher, student, or teacher using the General Social Survey (GSS), this book is a must. Written by the two researchers who have directed the GSS since its inception in 1972, this practical, easy-to-use volume enables you to exploit this large data set more effectively than ever before. This volume clearly explains the "rotations" and "split ballots" in the study design, describes available samples (including the 1982 and 1987 oversamples of black respondents) and weights, and discusses interviewer training, quality control, validation, and coding procedures. In addition, it outlines the topics covered in the GSS, including the recurrent, replicated "core" items suitable for trend analyses, the annual topical modules on subjects of current interest, and the international modules produced in collaboration with the International Social Survey Program. And, this guidebook covers the various data sets in which GSS data are accessible, and directs you to the data banks that disseminate them. Both novice and experienced GSS users will find The NORC General Social Survey an invaluable tool.

Social scientists routinely draw conclusions about cause and effect from their data. This book spells out the pre-statistical assumptions of multivariate research and explains in nonmathematical terms: the concepts of causal direction and system order; direct, indirect, and spurious statistical effects; signs and the sign rule; rules for introducing control variables, elaboration and explanation, "effects analysis," and path analysis. The book is not statistical in the sense of developing specific statistical tools. Rather, it explains the prestatistical assumptions required, whatever the technique. The importance of substantive knowledge about the "real world" is stressed, and the myth that causal problems can be solved by statistical calculations alone is repeatedly challenged.