Literary theory, according to Wendell Harris, has over the last twenty-five years become increasingly characterized by illogical arguments, an esoteric vocabulary, and gnomic references to what various authority figures are presumed to have demonstrated. Arcane modes of argument and unargued assumptions leave the reader of contemporary theorists frustrated; little of the resulting criticism entices the reader to seek out the literary work itself.

Harris argues that regardless of the specifics of individual theories, the central struggle is between traditional hermeneutics, in which the interpretation of the author's intended meaning is the necessary first step in any response to a text, and the more recent hermeticism, which seeks to deny the relevance of intention, the possibility of determinate meaning, and the reference of language to any reality beyond itself.

With wit, insight, and analytical precision, Harris critiques the misunderstanding of scientific method spawned by the failure of structuralism, the absolutism of poststructuralism, and the confusions over contextualism and historicism. He concludes with an analysis of the hollowness of the current model of professionalism in literature departments.

Carl V. Harris's Segregation in the New South, completed and edited by W. Elliot Brownlee, explores the rise of racial exclusion in late nineteenth-century Birmingham, Alabama. In the 1870s, African Americans in this crucial southern industrial city were eager to exploit the disarray of slavery's old racial lines, assert their new autonomy, and advance toward full equality. However, most southern whites worked to restore the restrictive racial lines of the antebellum South or invent new ones that would guarantee the subordination of Black residents. From Birmingham's founding in 1871, color lines divided the city, and as its people strove to erase the lines or fortify them, they shaped their futures in fateful ways. Social segregation is at the center of Harris's history. He shows that from the beginning of Reconstruction southern whites engaged in a comprehensive program of assigning social dishonor to African Americans-the same kind of dishonor that whites of the Old South had imposed on Black people while enslaving them. In the process, southern whites engaged in constructing the meaning of race in the New South.

The role that race and religion play in American presidential elections is attracting national attention like never before. The 2008 presidential candidates reached out to an unprecedented number of racial and religious voting constituencies including African Americans, Latinos, Muslims, Mainline Protestants, Catholics, Evangelicals, Jews, women, the non-religious, and more. Religion, Race, and the American Presidency focuses on the roles of these racial and religious groups in presidential elections over the last forty years, and in elections since 2000 in particular. Drawing upon survey data, interviews, and case studies of recent presidents, the contributors examine the complicated relationships between American presidents and key racial and religious groups. The paperback edition features a new capstone chapter on the 2008 elections. Contributions by Brian Robert Calfano, David G. Dalin, Paul A. Djupe, Gaston Espinosa, John C. Green, Melissa V. Harris-Lacewell, Lyman A. Kellstedt, So Young Kim, David C. Leege, Laura R. Olson, Corwin Smidt, Katherine E. Stenger, and Adam L. Warber.

Literary theory, according to Wendell Harris, has over the last twenty-five years become increasingly characterized by illogical arguments, an esoteric vocabulary, and gnomic references to what various authority figures are presumed to have demonstrated. Arcane modes of argument and unargued assumptions leave the reader of contemporary theorists frustrated; little of the resulting criticism entices the reader to seek out the literary work itself. Harris argues that regardless of the specifics of individual theories, the central struggle is between traditional hermeneutics, in which the interpretation of the author's intended meaning is the necessary first step in any response to a text, and the more recent hermeticism, which seeks to deny the relevance of intention, the possibility of determinate meaning, and the reference of language to any reality beyond itself. With wit, insight, and analytical precision, Harris critiques the misunderstanding of scientific method spawned by the failure of structuralism, the absolutism of poststructuralism, and the confusions over contextualism and historicism. He concludes with an analysis of the hollowness of the current model of professionalism in literature departments.

Today's student of literature is faced with an overwhelming variety of critical approaches. The need to evaluate their usefulness in furthering our understanding of literature is therefore a growing concern. In Literary Meaning, Wendell V. Harris explores the fallacies behind the fashionable hermeticism that insists that the meaning of a text is indeterminate and divides language from any reality beyond itself. Harris then puts forward a powerful case for the return to hermeneutics, in which an understanding of the author's intended meaning is the first step in reading, and at the same time insists upon the hollowness of the current mode of professionalism in literature departments. Set to provoke fierce debate, this controversial book will become essential reading for all those involved in literary criticism.

Between 327 and 70 B.C. the Romans expanded their empire throughout the Mediterranean world. This highly original study looks at Roman attitudes and behavior that lay behind their quest for power. How did Romans respond to warfare, year after year? How important were the material gains of military success--land, slaves, and other riches--commonly supposed to have been merely an incidental result? What value is there in the claim of the contemporary historian Polybius that the Romans were driven by a greater and greater ambition to expand their empire? The author answers these questions within an analytic framework, and comes to an interpretation of Roman imperialism that differs sharply from the conventional ones.

Maintaining one's bodily health is paramount toward having a satisfactory life. Health professionals, therefore, hold a key place in society. This book provides an overview of the different areas of work in the medical field, from ophthalmologists to chiropodists -- head to toes and everything in between. Included in the descriptions are job qualifications and prospects, working conditions, and earnings. This book is a must to anyone considering entering this ever-growing occupation.

Over the last twenty years, the humanities and social sciences have been preoccupied with the powers and limitations of language. During these years literary theory has become peculiarly fascinated with what language cannot do, with the impossibility of language meaning what the individual intends it to mean, if indeed individuals can intend or mean. But language does exist and does appear to be useful in communicating, and most of the time those who use the same language feel they are successful in communicating with each other. In Interpretive Acts, rather than ask whether communication is possible, Professor Harris explores the issues that arise from the question: how does communication occur? In this, he draws on a variety of fields which have contributed to literary theory by the study of strategies for expressing and for interpreting intended meanings: discourse analysis, sociolinguists, philosophy of language, and rhetorical theory. For language to be understood, there has to be a mutually understood context: Professor Harris argues that there are seven dimensions of context in terms of which an author calculates readers' responses. Having defined the goal of interpretation as the author's intended meaning, criticism is then seen in terms of the question: `what does it mean that the author meant that meaning?'

The Kou, Dark Origins is the second installment in the vampire series written by Author Todd V. Harris. The Kou tells the story of a young mans journey into a new world where he discovers secrets within himself that he never thought were there. Fall in love with Val, Fen and the Kou while you satisfy your thirst for adventure, love and lust. Embrace The Kou.

The author of these memoirs, Countess Katinka Szapary, was born into an extremely well connected family of the Austro-Hungarian aristocracy. In them, she recalls the 1920's and 1930's when she was growing up in rural Hungary, her experiences of the Second World War, the Russian invasion of eastern Europe, and her post-war experiences when she was employed as a translator by the British occupying forces in Vienna, at which time her family were being subjected to the deportations and executions of the Stalinist regime. The memoirs, which were only discovered after the author's death, include details of past events that occurred in her family, as told to her by elderly relatives, including their involvement in the Hungarian uprising against the Habsburgs of 1848. Countess Szapary was a keen observer, herself. As a result, across the pages of her memoirs pass a panoply of characters - of eccentric relatives, family retainers, serfs, highwaymen, aristocrats, gypsies, priests, members of royalty, celebrities (including Marlene Dietrich), and post-war black marketers. With the fall of Budapest to the Russians in February 1945, Countess Szapary fled, in front of the advancing Russian army, on horseback, and often under bombardment, until she was able to cross the Austrian border - only to be taken for a spy by the German Waffen SS. In 1948, Countess Szapary journeyed to England, as an enemy alien, in search of some lost Esterhazy jewels, and remained in England, working at the Austrian Embassy, until her death on January 23rd, 1985."

Fenmore has grown up under the tight reigns of love and protection from his family. On his 21st birthday he will ascend into a Kou vampire. All the secrets of his friends and family are revealed; and nothing will ever be the same. Ride with the Kou vampires on this horrific adventure into the world unseen-unknown and undead."I am a vampire. My two best friends are werewolves. Maybe my Nana was right; I should have stayed home..."