The Hatata are two extraordinary texts of African philosophy composed in Ethiopia in the 1600s. Written in the ancient African language of Gəˁəz (Classical Ethiopic), these two texts advocate for the rights of women and rail against slavery and warfare. They offer ontological proofs for God and question some biblical commands while reframing others. One states that his exploration of reason has led him to abandon Christianity. The two texts put reason above belief, desire above asceticism, love above sectarianism, and the natural world above the human. They explore the nature of being as well as the nature of knowledge, the human, ethics, and the human relation with the divine. Delighting in the language and contradictions of Psalms, they advise on right living. They are remarkable examples of something many assume doesn’t exist: early written African thought. This accessible English translation of the Hatata essays, along with extensive footnotes documenting the cultural and historical context and the work's many textual allusions, enables all to read it and scholars to teach with it. The Hatata Inquiries are essential to understanding the global history of philosophy, being among the early works of rational philosophy.

The Appalachian dulcimer is one of America's major contributions to world music and folk art. Homemade and handmade, played by people with no formal knowledge of music, this beautiful instrument entered the post-World-War-II Folk Revival with virtually no written record. Appalachian Dulcimer Traditions tells the fascinating story of the effort to recover the instrument's lost history through fieldwork in the Southern mountains, finding of old instruments, and listening to the tales of old folks. After reviewing the instrument's distinctive musical features, Ralph Lee Smith presents the dulcimer's story chronologically, tracing its roots in a Renaissance German instrument, the scheitholt; describing the early history of the scheitholt and the dulcimer in America; and outlining the development of distinctive dulcimer styles in Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, and Kentucky. The story continues into the 20th Century, through the final group of tradition-based Appalachian makers whose work flowed into the national scene of the Folk Revival. This fully revised edition provides expanded information about the history of the scheitholt and the dulcimer before the Civil War and discusses traditions and types that are still being discovered and documented. Smith also adds his personal adventures in searching for the dulcimer's history. A new final chapter describes types and styles that do not fit conveniently into the mainstream development of the instrument. The book concludes with several appendixes, including measurements of representative dulcimers and listings of dulcimer recordings in the Archive of Folk Culture of the Library of Congress.

The Appalachian dulcimer is one of America's major contributions to world music and folk art. Homemade and handmade, played by people with no formal knowledge of music, this beautiful instrument arrived in the light of the 20th century with virtually no written record. Appalachian Dulcimer Traditions is a first-hand report to enlarge our knowledge of the dulcimer's history by searching the hills and "hollers" of Appalachia, looking at old instruments, and listening to the tales of old folks. After reviewing the instrument's special musical features, the book describes some related instruments, and reveals little-known facts about the dulcimer's origins on the early Appalachian frontier. The book then describes three major design traditions of the dulcimer, each centered in its own geographical area, and focuses on important makers in each of the three traditions-the Melton family of Galax, Virginia, Charles M. Prichard of Huntington, West Virginia, and "Uncle Ed" Thomas of Kentucky. A final chapter describes four Appalachian makers of the folk revival transition, who began making instruments the old-time way and modernized them to meet the needs of Post-World-War-II urban players. The book concludes with listings of dulcimer recordings in the Archive of Folk Culture of the Library of Congress.

If you want to enjoy getting older and becoming a "senior"citizen, this book is for you. If you are over age 50, this book is for you or, if you hope to reach age 50, this book is also for you. Age changes one's perspective about everything. Ideas you once thought were set in stone, people who would never change, values etched in steel and assumptions that things would always work out like they have in the past, will all change. This is what makes life interesting. You can never be certain where life's road will lead you. Being able to laugh at yourself as you travel along this road is an indispensable tool for maintaining your sanity in an ever-changing world. Looking at life from this perspective can be a great blessing. It is much easier to see the world around you from the top of the mountain than it is from only half-way to the top. "Been there, done that" becomes increasingly true as you advance in years. As a newspaper columnist and story-teller, Thomas writes about every-day occurrences, but with an off-center sense of humor. You will find yourself laughing with him and at yourself as he opens the door to your memories. If you want to enjoy getting older, this book is just what the doctor ordered. Or, if you know of someone who is getting older, do them a favor . . . recommend it to them so they can laugh with you. Seniors, especially, will enjoy this book. All of the stories in this book can be shared with children and grandchildren, as well as others. They will laugh at them as well as at you as you open the to door to your memories, creating an opportunity for you to share your life with them. You may both be inspired to talk more often, as well as to talk about what is really important in life and to share the things you love with the people you love.

If you are tired of pretending that you are something that you are not, living up to someone elses expectation and always preparing for something great that never seems to happen then this book is for you.

Each word's intent is to help filter the impurities of outside influences. Within these pages you are given the gift of you without prejudice or guilt. You will have a free pass to explore what you think, what you have experienced and what you want. You will learn that the only acceptable timetable for greatness is now.

The author, Ralph B. Lee, Jr., went through a series of questions that helped him clarify who he was and what was important to him. With his particular personality ever present in the writing as well as his tactical analytical style of addressing issues of living you will enjoy an exhaustive exploration of you.

Our market society has convinced most that greatness can be purchased or that greatness is outside each of us. Ralph will show you that you don't need to have anything more than what you have to be great. You are great because you are great.

In A SHORT HISTORY OF GUATEMALA, Ralph Lee Woodward, Jr. (Ph.D., Tulane University, 1962) briefly synthesizes the exciting history of Guatemala from its ancient Maya heritage to the present. Based on nearly a half-century of research on the history of this Central American republic, the work highlights the political, economic, and social evolution of Guatemala, with particular emphasis on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. With keen insight into the struggle for economic and social development since national independence in 1821, Woodward offers a new interpretation of the country's past and present

Rafael Carrera (1814-1865) ruled Guatemala from about 1839 until his death. Among Central America's many political strongmen, he is unrivaled in the length of his domination and the depth of his popularity. This "life and times" biography explains the political, social, economic, and cultural circumstances that preceded and then facilitated Carrera's ascendancy and shows how Carrera in turn fomented changes that persisted long after his death and far beyond the borders of Guatemala.

Perhaps no instrument better represents the music of Appalachia than the fretted dulcimer. The instrument was no longer confined to back porches and local music halls when Jean Ritchie so melodically thrust herself and her dulcimer into the national limelight during the folk revival of the 1950s. But where did the dulcimer, known to exist in no other folk culture in the world, come from? In The Story of the Dulcimer, Ralph Lee Smith traces the dulcimer's beginnings back to European immigration to America in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. As German immigrants settled in Pennsylvania and Appalachia, they brought with them scheitholts, a type of northern European fretted zither. As German immigrants intermingled with English and Scotch-Irish immigrants, the scheitholt, which was customarily played to a slower tempo in German cultural music, began to be musically integrated into the faster tempos of English and Scotch-Irish ballads and folk songs. As Appalachia absorbed an increasing flow of English and Scotch-Irish immigrants and the musical traditions they brought with them, the scheitholt steadily evolved into an instrument that reflected this folk music amalgamation, and the modern dulcimer was born. In this second edition, Smith brings the dulcimer's history into the twenty-first century with a new preface and updates to the original edition. Copiously illustrated with images of both antique scheitholts and contemporary dulcimers, The Story of the Dulcimer is a testament to the enduring musical heritage of Appalachia and solves one of the region's musical mysteries.