Book categories

Behind Barbed Wire

A History of Concentration Camps from the Reconcentrados to the Nazi System 1896-1945

by Deborah G. Lindsay, Foreword by Nigel Hamilton

2020

Most people associate concentration camps with Nazi Germany. Behind Barbed Wire examines how these notorious World War II camps actually reflected a previous use of the system, a system that began almost a century earlier. In truth, Adolf Hitler had studied the American Indian Reservations as he plotted his regime's attack on European Jews and other minorities. Remarkably, in the years between the reservations and the Nazi camps, the United States, along with several other Western powers, implemented concentration camps throughout the globe, each instance employing more and more barbaric measures with harsher and harsher outcomes. Behind Barbed Wire explains how these nations dubiously justified camp operations by citing military counterinsurgency tactics, containment policies, and simply ...

The Magic of Yggdrasill

The Poetry of Old Norse Unconscious

by Yves Kodratoff

2020

This book took its start with the author’s realization that what Old Norse calls 'magic' can be understood as 'unconscious', as stated by C. G. Jung: (we find) "magical means everything where unconscious influences are at work." This book reveals the existence of several Norse words specifically dedicated to magic, as are 'sköp', for instance, and it details the magic they carry with them. In our modern civilization these "skop" still exist but their magical nature is no longer obvious, though this point can be disputed.Once this magic is discovered and acknowledged, it becomes possible to infer from Norse poetry the existence and handling of unconscious archetypes within its associated myths. A few of them have been analyzed in detail and this enabled us to better understand some surpris...

The End of the Rod

A History of the Abolition of Corporal Punishment in the Courts of England and Wales

by Raymond L. Gard

2009

The End of the Rod describes the tortuous steps that led to the abolition of corporal punishment as a sentence of the courts in England and Wales in 1948. It seeks to give voice to the key actors in the process: civil servants and politicians, along with those actually inflicting and experiencing that corporal punishment. It uses a variety of archival material and original sources to achieve this. The account begins in the late nineteenth century and traces debates, negotiations, and manoeuvring from then to the legislation of 1948. The work then looks at the consequences of that abolition and offers an explanation as to why the changes it describes may have occurred.

Lightships, Lighthouses, and Lifeboat Stations

A Memoir and History

by Bernie Webber, Foreword by Michael Tougias

2016

Bernie Webber, hero of Disney movie, The Finest Hours and bestselling book Lightships, Lighthouses and Lifeboat Stations is part history book, part memoir, written by Bernie Webber, recipient of the Coast Guard's highest award, the Gold Life-saving Medal, and hero of the Disney movie The Finest Hours. While the public will recognize Webber's name from the movie and the bestselling book by the same name, few people know that during his lengthy Coast Guard career he served on lightships (ships anchored in dangerous areas to warn other vessels of hazards) in addition to lifeboat stations (small boat rescue stations) and lighthouses. Webber poses the following question: "How did the lightship men cope with the isolation, constant loneliness, boredom, fear, or just sheer terror? All were part ...

Voices of Protest

Liberia on the Edge, 1974-1980

by H. Boima Fahnbulleh

2004

Voices of Protest: Liberia on the Edge, 1974-1980 is a compilation of writings and speeches of Liberians who were in the forefront of the struggle for democratic change in their country during the period leading up to the military coup of 1980 that changed the course of Africa's oldest Republic. The writings and speeches show the sentiments of the people as they confronted a ruling group which had held power for over a century and was unwilling to carry out meaningful transformation that would meet the aspirations of the majority of the citizens. These writings and speeches are historical source materials that will give another perspective to the political agitation that sought an alternative to the stagnation in the country before the military intervened to stop the democratic momentum.

Croatia and Slovenia at the End and After the Second World War (1944-1945)

Mass Crimes and Human Rights Violations Committed by the Communist Regime

by Blanka Matkovich

2017

This book focuses on the events that took place in late 1944 and 1945 in Croatia and Slovenia when the intensity of violence was strongest. At that time, the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ), assisted by the People’s Liberation Army of Yugoslavia, the Yugoslav Army, the Department for the Protection of the People (OZNA) and the Corps of People’s Defence of Yugoslavia (KNOJ) conducted organized terror not only by intimidation, persecution, torture and imprisonment, but also by the execution of a large number of citizens perceived by the KPJ as disloyal, passive, ideological enemies or class enemies. However, investigating war and post-war crimes committed by communist regime was not possible until 1990, after the democratic changes in Yugoslavia. This book is based on documents kept in t...

The Antikythera Mechanism

The Story Behind the Genius of the Greek Computer and its Demise

by Evaggelos G. Vallianatos

2021

In Antikythera Mechanism: The Story Behind the Genius of the Greek Computer and Its Demise, Evaggelos G. Vallianatos, historian and ecopolitical theorist, shows that after the conquest of Persia by Alexander the Great in the late fourth century BCE, the Greeks, especially in Egypt, reached unprecedented heights of achievements in science, technology, and civilization. The Antikythera Mechanism, an astronomical computer probably crafted in Rhodes in the second century BCE, was proof of that prowess. It's the grandfather of our computers. Greek sponge divers discovered the Antikythera Mechanism in 1900 on a 2,100-year-old Roman-era shipwreck. The hand-powered device reveals a sophisticated Greek technology previously unknown to scholars and historians, not seen and understood again until th...

In Harmony

The Complementary Musical Tales of the Brockton Symphony Orchestra, Sharon Civic Orchestra, and Sharon Community Chamber Orchestra

by Dr. Lisa Redpath

2022

In Harmony: The Complementary Musical Tales of the Brockton Symphony Orchestra, Sharon Civic Orchestra, and Sharon Community Chamber Orchestra is a stirring, historical account of these three Massachusetts ensembles. Each chapter documents the orchestras' operations ranging from their founders to the conductors, repertoire, players, soloists, volunteers, fundraisers, behind-the-scenes realities, and special features. While details of each organization are presented in depth, a seasoning of interesting, humorous, and at times tragic human-interest stories make these tales come alive. Musicians, audience members, supporters, and readers with a passion for history will find connections to the events told here. Welcome to the inside world of these venerable ensembles which take their places in...

Concentration Camps

A Traveler's Guide to World War II Sites (revised 3rd edition)

by Marc Terrance

2003

Concentration Camps: A Traveler's Guide to World War II Sites is a MUST for anyone planning on visiting these memorials. It contains 45 street maps showing the exact directions to the sites, in most cases how to walk from the nearest train stations to the camps! Includes road signs, bus and train information, opening hours, addresses, phone/fax numbers, email and many useful websites for more information. Over 160 photos lead you on your journey through Poland, Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, France and The Netherlands. This concise, detail-filled guide will help you along your way and open your eyes to the atrocities that occurred during the Holocaust. Whether you are a survivor of the camps, a history student or simply a traveler in search of a better understanding of this s...

American Scissors and Shears

An Antique and Vintage Collectors' Guide

by Philip R. Pankiewicz

2013

American Scissors and Shears provides an historical overview of more than 100 companies and individuals involved in producing scissors and shears in the United States from the mid-1800s to approximately 1930. Accompanying and enhancing the text are hundreds of photographs, advertisements, and patents of the many varieties of antique and vintage scissors produced during this time period. The book will prove invaluable to tool collectors, cutlery collectors (including knives and scissors), sewing enthusiasts, history buffs in general, and to those interested in early American industries. Some books have provided broad overviews of the history of scissors; others have investigated sewing implements, including scissors. None to date have provided the in-depth survey of American-made sci...

Captain F. Spiess and the German Meteor Expedition of 1925-27

by William J. Emery and Walter Zenk

2019

Banned from taking naval vessels to foreign ports after WW1 Germany undertakes a comprehensive oceanographic expedition to the Atlantic Ocean to test many new measurement systems and to establish the long term circulation patterns of the Atlantic. Challenged by the proscription on German naval vessels from visiting foreign ports after WW1 a group of German oceanographers from the Institute for Marine Sciences in Berlin carried out a pioneering research expedition from 1925-27 to sample the hydrographic structure of the South Atlantic Ocean. Its captain Fritz Spiess was the primary driving force behind the expedition and the German navy supplied the survey ship Meteor. During this 2.5 year expedition the Meteor scientists tested a great many new measurement systems many of which later becam...

Unfinished History

A New Account of Franz Schubert's B minor Symphony

by David Montgomery; Foreword by David Zinman

2017

This study addresses a long-standing mythology concerning the "Unfinished" Symphony and reviews anachronistic performance practices that prevent listeners from experiencing the work as a product of its own time. David Montgomery’s Unfinished History challenges the traditional story of Franz Schubert’s B-minor Symphony and searches for a more credible account of this great work. Written for all Schubert lovers from lay readers to musicians and musicologists, the book reviews a strangely persistent mythology concerning the symphony, continuing with the first in-depth examination of its manuscript and related documents. Details of handwriting, notation, paper, watermarks, compositional procedures, and stylistic contexts suggest a new year and country of origin for the “Unfinished” Symphon...

Why Custer Was Never Warned

The Forgotten Story of the True Genesis of America's Most Iconic Military Disaster, Custer's Last Stand

by Phillip Thomas Tucker, Ph.D.

2017

For the first time, this ground-breaking book tells the forgotten story of the true genesis of the June 25, 1876 disaster along the Little Bighorn, "Custer's Last Stand." The failure of the southern column to continue to advance north after the battle of the Rosebud set the stage for the annihilation of George Armstrong Custer and his five companies of the 7th Cavalry at the Little Bighorn. For nearly 150 years, almost everything possible already has been written about the fascinating story of "Custer's Last Stand" except the analysis and new views that have been emphasized in this most revealing book: the true causes and culprits of the bloody fiasco at the Little Bighorn on June 25, 1876 that shocked the American nation like no other post-Civil War event. Phillip Thomas Tucker, Ph.D....

Warsaw and Jerusalem

Polish-Jewish History, Culture, Values, and Education between Paradise and Inferno

by Nitza Davidovitch and Eyal Lewin

2019

Warsaw and Jerusalem deals with different aspects of the inherent paradoxes of Jewish-Polish relations. Written by scholars from Israel and from Poland, who study history, culture, education, and politics, this book forms a unique interdisciplinary collage. Thus, it has a twofold advantage: as an academic insight in the field of Jewish studies; and as a social bonder of an academic community that has its representatives in universities in Israel and in Poland.This project is bound to be an inspiring source for scholars of Jewish studies and Jewish history. In college or university classes, the collection of a variety of chapters will aid students who compose their assignments and need brainwave resources in the field. With a contribution to the deep comprehension of the ongoing discourse a...

America's 1890s Parachute Queen

Pioneer Skydiving Sensation Miss Hazel Keyes

by William D. Kalt III

2022

Death-defying skydiver Miss Hazel Keyes thrills thousands as she leaps from her balloon with her monkey, Miss Jennie Yan Yan. Sail through the heavens with this robust, spunky woman as she earns nationwide fame for more than a decade. Miss Hazel’s life after her aerial career proves equally thrilling as she battles assaults from friends, family, and strangers to maintain her wealth and sanity. This action-packed tale of courage stands remarkable in American history. WORDS OF PRAISE William Kalt knows a good story when he sees one: he offers a well-documented profile of a woman whose name might have been lost but for this lively retelling....Kalt has captured it all in this well-illustrated, remarkable book. ---Helene Woodhams, Arizona Daily Star, February 6th, 2023. Like a slightly c...

The Scourge of Terrorism from the Middle Ages to the Twenty-First Century

Who, What, When, Where, Why?

by Marian Leighton

2023

This is the first book covering the entire timeline as well as the actors and factors driving international terrorism in each phase of its development. It provides an historical journey across the terrorist landscape and offers insights and analyses of the successive challenges that terrorists have posed. The narrative shifts from the Assassins of medieval times to the nihilists of Tsarist Russia to the left-wing, Marxist-oriented terrorist organizations of the Cold War era to the more recent Islamist-based groups, including their respective supporters and enablers: the Palestinians, Russia and the Soviet bloc, and Iran. More than 20 years have elapsed since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. A new generation has grown up with little or no knowledge of ...

The Influence of Stonehenge on Minoan Navigation and Trade in Europe

How Michigan Copper Arrived in the Mediterranean During the Bronze Age

by Capt. Richard deGrasse

2021

This book presents a plausible account of how thousands of tons of unusually pure copper ore from Isle Royale in northern Michigan's Lake Superior was mined and shipped to Europe by the Minoans 4500 years ago during the Bronze Age, and how Stonehenge in England was used as an aid to Minoan celestial navigation back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean. The author proposes that Minoan ocean navigators used stone circles, particularly Stonehenge, to advance the science of celestial astronomy of Bronze Age navigation and trade. Words of Praise and Reviews Richard De Grasse has written a book about the Minoan (people from Crete) exploration of the copper mines of Isle Royale in Lake Superior, Michigan during the Bronze age. While this is an original, as yet unproven theory, De Grasse makes...

Land and Liberty I

A Chronology of Traditional American History

by David Warren Saxe

2006

This book presents the fundamental topics of traditional American history in chronological order, emphasizing geographical and economic issues and the genesis and growth of America's founding principles.

Land and Liberty II

The Basics of Traditional American History

by David Warren Saxe

2006

This book presents the basics of traditional American history: basic lessons, essential truths and principles, definitions of liberty and freedom, establishment of citizenship education, and understandings of the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution.

The History and Future of Narragansett Bay

by Capers Jones

2006

The book covers 10,000 years of the history of Narragansett Bay. Topics include the geology of the Bay, paleo-Indians, pre-Colombian exploration, Indian Tribes living near the Bay, and the economic history and future of the Bay region.

The Roman Emperor Gaius ‘Caligula’ and his Hellenistic Aspirations

by Geoff W. Adams

2007

The Roman Emperor Gaius ‘Caligula’ and his Hellenistic Aspirations examines one of the most notorious of Roman Emperors in light of his rather unconventional upbringing in the Eastern Provinces of the Roman Empire. The study has sought to use the ancient evidence in order to reassess the context in which the young Gaius Caligula was raised particularly in relation to the influence of his father, Germanicus.

A Thinker and Seeker

My Journey To Be a Biomedical Scientist

by Robert A. Floyd

2021

This book is about the author’s (my) life including my ancestors who came into Colonial America from Northern Ireland in 1746. This book is also about me growing up on the farm. There are episodes given such as the time when I was about 10 years old and had the chore of taking two gallons of skim milk to feed about eight 200 pounds pigs their desert so to speak. On at least one occasion, the pigs surrounded me and ran into the pail of skim milk resulting in me getting a skim milk bath. My educational journey started in a two-room country school where the eighth grade included four girls and me. My educational journey continued through high school, University undergraduate and graduate school where the high light of my learning was the spookiness of quantum physics. My goal began to be rea...

Megalithism

Sacred and Pagan Architecture in Prehistory

by Alberto Pozzi

2013

Megalithism, or the art of using huge boulders to create sacred, pagan monuments and sites, still fascinates us today. How did Prehistoric man cut, transport, and place such enormous stones, some weighing up to 200 metric tons, without bulldozers, drills, and cranes? Yet primitive man, without the written word or wheel, created structures which still stupefy us in the 21st century, both due to their components and the precision used in positioning them. This book takes us back in time to the 5th-2nd millennia B.C. and helps us visualise the Stone Age world and its constructions - menhirs, dolmens, rows and circles of standing stones. Undoubtedly they were sacred places, used for pagan rituals and funerary purposes, but the author also gives us details of their astronomic and physical...

The Theosophical Society

The History of a Spiritualist Movement

by Jeffrey D. Lavoie

2012

This peer-reviewed study represents a culmination of years of research into the history of the Theosophical Society. In this unique project which combines biographies with source analyses, Jeffrey D. Lavoie records a detailed history of the early Theosophical Society and examines its relationship with the modern Spiritualist movement between the years 1875-1891. Special attention has been paid to some of the neglected figures associated with these organizations including Arthur Lillie- the Gnostic-occultist and early critic of the Theosophical Society; the Davenport Brothers- the Spiritualist mediums who developed many of the standard elements which became associated with modern Spiritualism; Alfred Wallace- the prominent scientist, Spiritualist, and supposed member of the Theosophical Soc...

The Nature of Resistance in South Carolina's Works Progress Administration Ex-Slave Narratives

by Gerald J. Pierson

2002

The Federal Writers' Project, part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration of the 1930s, collected interviews from over 3500 ex-slaves throughout the United States, including 365 former South Carolina slaves. These narratives are an invaluable resource to those interested in resistance by the last generation of South Carolinians held in bondage. This thesis tells us about the separate worlds inhabited by the Palmetto State's slaves and their owners, and describes, often in the slaves' own words, the resistance precipitated by the friction between these worlds.

Our Fathers

Making Black Men

by Lewis W. Diuguid

2017

Many people don't understand why black lives must matter and why the racial divide seems to be taking the country back 50 years. Like the mythical Sankofa bird, the answer to what's missing now lies in what existed before. Our Fathers: Making Black Men focuses on one block of St. Louis in the mid-20th century, where African American businessmen living the American Dream also created a sense of community for boys in that neighborhood. Lincoln I. Diuguid, a PhD graduate of Cornell University in chemistry, anchored the block with Du-Good Chemical Laboratories & Manufacturers. The chemistry the book reveals isn't rocket science, it's just the lost formula of community engagement. Men like Doc gave boys on the street jobs and a strong work ethic. They did it through sharing the African American...

Research Journal of Germanic Antiquity

A Western Esoteric Journal Vol.2, No.3

by Jeffrey D. Lavoie (editor)

2014

Founded in 2011, the Research Journal of Germanic Antiquity is an independent scholarly journal devoted to preserving, translating, and circulating all early modern German religious texts (16th - 20th century). The underlying goal of this journal is to reprint rare German publications to introduce them to a new generation of researchers while placing them into their historical context.

This journal also seeks to publish articles on the subject of Western Esotericism including but not limited to Ariosophy, Atlanteology, Theosophy, Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism, Spiritualism, Norse mythology, Mesmerism, etc. We especially encourage the submission of articles that engage the subject of racism within these traditions.

Frank Pais

Architect of Cuba's Betrayed Revolution

by Jose Alvarez, Ph.D.

2009

Even though Fidel Castro founded the "26 of July" movement, this book shows that the organizing throughout Cuba fell on the shoulders of an underground leader named Frank Pais, who was also responsible for the survival of the incipient guerrilla force led by Castro in the Sierra Maestra. Pais became not only the National Chief of Action-as portrayed in the official publications-but the top leader of the M-26-7's National Directorate. The antagonism between Castro and Pais may have been the reason for his mysterious death when he was only 22 years of age. This is the true story of his life and legacy. At this crucial time, when historians are trying to arrive at the revolution's final balance, a book like this is essential to read before reaching an impartial verdict.

Poison Eaters

Snakes, Opium, Arsenic, and the Lethal Show

by Richard Swiderski

2010

Testing the boundaries between food, poison and medicine is a public show made into a continuing drama of risk and survival. This book is the first to explore the tradition of deliberate poison eating, its practitioners, and the substances that might nourish or kill them. Readers interested in the human history of drugs and medicine, in feats of endurance usually survived and in the play of controlling and regulatory authorities that always accompanies drug and poison use will find Poison Eaters especially appealing.

Libations of the Eighteenth Century

A Concise Manual for the Brewing of Authentic Beverages from the Colonial Era of America, and of Times Past

by David A. Woolsey

2002

A manual dedicated to recreating the brewed beverages that existed in the American Colonies. All of the historic recipes were documented as dating from 1800 or earlier, and all were taste-tested. The book consists of more than fifty recipes for ale, beer, mead, hard cider, and mixed drinks, including an award winning recipe for porter. Along with the recipes is a how-to chapter on brewing. There is an additional chapter on non-alcoholic brews, such as tea and coffee, and herbalsubstitutes for both. Plus, a section on making non-alcoholic beer, and carbonated soft drinks. "Very educational..., I really enjoyed it." Peter Allen"...with nine chapters the book covers a wide variety of beverages from colonial as well as earlier historic periods" THE LOYALIST GAZETTE"A good book that cove...

Swedes in Moline, Illinois

1847-2002

by Lilly M. Setterdahl

2003

Thousands of Swedes settled in Moline, Illinois, from the late 1840s through the 1920s. For many years they made up the largest ethnic group in the city. They came to work in the plow factories and to join relatives who were here before them. Lilly Setterdahl has drawn from many different sources and brought forward a mosaic of facts and photographs. The reader will learn about the environment facing the new immigrants, how they conquered the challenges of adapting to another culture and language to become Americans and, in many cases, significant contributors to society. Other immigrants groups, no doubt, experienced the same tribulations and rewards.The work at hand is unique in many ways. As far as is known, no other Swedish-American researcher has attempted to include smaller busine...

Rendezvous with Destiny

by Fritz Ulrich

2000

In Denmark there is a memorial dedicated to 10 American flyers from World War II. This book describes their last mission. On the 24th of February, 1944, 867 bombers of the 8th Air Force were heading for targets on German territory. One of these B-17s named "Just Elmer´s Tune" did not make it home to base again; its 13th mission was going to be its last. Several German fighter planes attacked them during their mission and finally they crash landed in Denmark. This documentary follows the different crewmembers' destiny that day, minute by minute and during their imprisonment in Germany until the liberation. It was possible for the author to track down the German pilot who shot down "Just Elmer´s Tune" and so it is possible to tell his side of the story too. On June 27th, 1998, Fri...

Chemawa Indian Boarding School

The First One Hundred Years, 1880 to 1980

by Sonciray Bonnell

1997

This study presents interviews with American Indian/ Alaska Native alumni who received some or all of their elementary and high school education at the Chemawa Indian Boarding School in Salem, Oregon between 1917 and 1985. A brief summary of Indian history, in particular Indian education, is presented as the context for many of the changes that occurred at Chemawa during its first one hundred years. The purpose of this study is to examine Chemawa alumni recollections of Chemawa within an imposed educational system. My research process included library and archival research, academic classes and personal interviews. I interviewed alumni who had attended Chemawa between 1917 and 1985. Themes such as academics, vocational training, social life and general impressions of Chemawa a...

In Quest of Nirvana

by Laszlo Szechenyi

1999

In Quest of Nirvana is a vivid portrayal of the struggle for survival in the author's newly adopted country, the USA, after having been forced to flee from his native Hungary at the end of World War II. He encounters a political haven, a free Democracy, a society where few restrictions exist, but help is available only to those who help themselves. His total loss of a lifestyle that had been comparable to "Utopia" is the reason for a difficult re-start at the lowest economic levels; a fight against all odds, facing seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Impoverished and degraded from the highest levels of the social elite, the author nevertheless builds upon a basis of moral strength, courage, perseverance and a lasting incentive to achieve consistently improving conditions. His goals ...

Men and Women of Their Own Kind

Historians and Antebellum Reform

by Glenn M Harden

2003

This thesis traces the historiography of antebellum reform from its origins in Gilbert Barnes's rebellion from the materialist reductionism of the Progressives to the end of the twentieth century. The focus is the ideas of the historians at the center of the historiography, not a summary of every work in the field. The works of Gilbert Barnes, Alice Felt Tyler, Whitney Cross, C. S. Griffin, Donald Mathews, Paul Johnson, Ronald Walters, George Thomas, Robert Abzug, Steven Mintz, and John Quist, among many others, are discussed. In particular, the thesis examines the social control interpretation and its transformation into social organization under more sympathetic historians in the 1970s. The author found the state of the historiography at century's end to be healthy with a promising futur...

Honour and Disgrace

Women and the Law in Early Modern Catalonia

by Isabel Pérez-Molina

2001

This study analyses the legal condition of women in Catalonia, Spain, in the early modern ages, particularly during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, by way of the study of primary legal sources. The legal discourse was conceived as being different for men and women: women were treated as a specific social category, were judicially discriminated against and were given inferior legal personality. Following the moral discourse of the time, jurists classified women as honest and dishonest, and tried to establish a physical and legal barrier to divide the good from the bad. As a result, women were before the law, pawns for male decisions. However, women did not easily comply with the submissive role attributed to them and, as civil lawsuits show, often they used the law that discrimina...

Extremism Triumphant

The Politics of Slavery and Abortion

by Darin P. Wipperman

2003

Generations of Americans have witnessed the political disputes over slavery and abortion, the two most contentious issues in the nation's history. This book surveys the origins and course of this unfortunate strife, arguing that leaders on both sides of the two issues have embraced political expediency or an illogical view of Constitution, rather than viable solutions. Focusing on key events and a diverse range of individuals, Extremism Triumphant offers fresh perspectives while lamenting missed opportunities and bitter debate.Making extensive use of Congressional debates and Supreme Court opinions, the narrative takes us on a journey from before the nation's founding to the early part of the 21st Century. Critical of each pole of the slavery impasse that brought civil war, the book sho...

The Chinese Catholic Church in Conflict: 1949-2001

by Beatrice Leung and William T. Liu

2004

This is a sociological and historical analysis of the conflict between the state and the Catholic Church in China between 1949 and 2001 during half of a century of the socialist regime. The relationship began with conflict, followed by accomodation and finally a cooperative spirit had developed for a complex web of political and diplomatic reasons. Never in the past the Catholic Church has shown a rigorous growth under the encouragement of the Communist Party to shape the Church in the image of a indigenous and local church and to minimize the influence of the Vatican. There remains a persistent struggle between the underground church, those who remain loyal to early missionaries and to the Holy See, and the official national church controlled by the Party/State. The authors argue that...

Roasting the Pig

A Vision of Cluny, Cockaigne and the Treatise of Garcia of Toledo

by Paul N. Morris

2007

This thesis, examining the Treatise of Garcia of Toledo, explores the connection between the legend of Cockaigne and its connection with the powerful monastic foundation of Cluny. The Treatise was written as a condemnation of Cluniac influence in 11th and 12th century Spain.

Calomel in America

Mercurial Panacea, War, Song and Ghosts

by Richard M. Swiderski

2008

Formed as a word and a chemical compound in an culturally diverse Europe, calomel came to America as a solution to epidemics also imported. It grew into a primary gesture, both medical and commercial, of the healing professions. Opposition to its use, founded on experience with the effects of consuming it, took the form of song and satire that echoed faintly after the drug was forgotten.

Late Mamluk Patronage

Qansuh al-Ghuri's Waqfs and His Foundations in Cairo

by Khaled A. Alhamzah

2009

This book attempts to look at the structure and functions of the constituent elements of the Ghuriyya complex through the medium of contemporary sources --in particular its waqfiyya--and in doing so, the motives and attitudes of the patron, his goals and his ambitions are defined. In addition, the study seeks to place the monuments in broader context and examine them within the more extended social, economic, political, and cultural environment of al- Ghuri’s reign. This book will be of considerable interest to academics and students working on the history of art and architecture, history, culture and urbanism of the Middle East. Its subject is the expressive intent of Mamluk architecture, using new cultural and iconographical approaches. The book offers the first complete English translat...

Commissar and Mullah

Soviet-Muslim Policy from 1917 to 1924

by Glenn L. Roberts

2007

During the revolutionary period the Soviets came into political and cultural conflict with Russia’s Muslims. Despite indications that the majority of Muslims desired political unification based on their Islamic heritage, the Party divided them into separate “nationalities” along narrow ethnic lines, incorporated most into the RSFSR, and attempted to uproot traditional Islamic institutions and customs under the aegis of class war. Resistance took the form of pan-Muslim nationalism, a reformist political conception with roots in the Near East. This conflict not only aborted the export of revolution to the Islamic world, contributing to the passing of the revolutionary era in Russia, but aided Stalin’s rise to power. Soviet policy succeeded politically, defining the terms of interaction bet...

Custer's Bugler

The Life of John Martin (Giovanni Martino)

by Leo Solimine

2012

Custer's Bugler is an examination into the life of John Martin (born Giovanni Martino). Abandoned as a baby, he marched with Garibaldi before coming to America; within 3 years, Martino (now Martin) would find a permanent place in American history by carrying Custer's final dispatch from the Little Big Horn. He continued in active military service for another 30 years before passing away in 1922.

John Martin lived a historical odyssey, from his earliest days in rural southern Italy to life on the Plains as a Cavalry trooper before his final act in the rapidly modernizing world of New York City. Custer's Bugler: The Life of John Martin (Giovanni Martino) details his extraordinary story.

X-Ray Vision

A Way of Looking

by Richard M. Swiderski

2012

X-ray vision at first was the revival of the phantasmagoria and ground-penetrating sight of earlier centuries attached to the new technology of X-rays in the early twentieth century. The image-idea of the existence of rays that allow prepared eyes to see into clothing, through walls and into the earth, not feasible in fact, generated fictions and surrogates of how living beings would experience such an ability, what they would do with it and what it would do to them. Expressing both a need and a desire, X-ray vision underwent its own development gathering elements of play, inquiry and assault independent of X-ray technology but converging with microscopy, telescopy, television and surveillance.

Terranova

The Spanish Cod Fishery on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland in the Twentieth Century

by Rosa García-Orellán

2010

Terranova is the story of Spain’s twentieth-century industrial cod fishery on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. It combines oral history (including interviews with over 300 participants in the fishery) with socio-political-economic history to describe how the industry and Spain itself evolved over seven decades. Terranova pays special attention to how work and life onboard trawlers changed in 1926, when Spain’s industrial fishery began, and how they have evolved through the turn of the twenty-first century. It concludes by describing how technological advances and increased competition among fishers brought the collapse of the Newfoundland cod fishery in 1992.

Kul'tura Kosmosa

The Russian Popular Culture of Space Exploration

by Andrew Thomas

2011

This thesis argues that there is a popular culture of space exploration characteristic of a wider Russia; its roots lie in pagan times and it grew through Orthodox Christianity and Soviet Communism to the twenty-first century, where it is actively promoted by Russia and neighbouring nations. The key influences stem from Nikolai Fedorov, Kontsantin Tsiolkovsky, Friedrich Tsander and Yuri Gagarin. The narrative of the twentieth-century Soviet space programme is considered from this perspective and the cultural importance of Tsiolkovsky to this programme is acknowledged. This is an alternative perspective to the commonly-held Western view of the "Space Race". The manipulation of imagery and ritual of space exploration by Russia and other neighbouring nations is examined, and the effect on...

Searching the Presbyterian Soul

The Formation, Changes, and Purposes of Scotland’s Covenants, 1557-1690

by Craig Kelly

2013

This thesis reconstructs Reformed—and later, Presbyterian—thought by analysing the influences on the formation, changes in conception, and purposes of Scotland’s covenants from the emergence of covenantalism at the initial Reformation in 1557 to the Glorious Revolution of 1689—90. To achieve this, it has relied primarily on covenant documents and sermons. It has challenged the idea that Presbyterians comprised a homogeneous and fixed group in opposition to the crown’s ostensibly Episcopalian policies. Rather, this thesis argues that Presbyterian thought was transitory and was influenced by particular historical contexts, biblical exemplars, and to a lesser extent cultural norms such as the promissory nature of Scots contract law. It is not possible to investigate Presbyterians in isolation...

Social Control and the Education of Adults in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries

The Role of Religion, Natural Law, Science and Useful Knowledge in Curbing Licentiousness, Promoting Moral Rescue and Averting Working-Class Dissent

by J. Jeffrey Robinson

2013

An almost universal concern of the Victorian governing classes was with the question of social control: how to deflect a largely uneducated working class from their inevitable challenge to the centres of power, accepted value systems and existing authority structures. The fear in which the masses were held by the middle and upper classes came to dominate access to education or, more accurately, to what they defined as "useful knowledge," since this was designed to instil the values of a just and ordered society. Conversely for the working class, it would give them power; power over their own lives and in so-doing provide access to that social hierarchy currently valued by the governing minority. This book addresses the role of the providers of education alongside the responses of those ...

The Emperor Commodus

Gladiator, Hercules or a Tyrant?

by Geoff W. Adams

2013

This work establishes the various perspectives surrounding and emanating from the Roman Emperor Commodus. Included are an in-depth analysis of his major influences as a child/youth, particularly in relation to his family, as well as a discussion of the influences that had occurred in Rome and while in the provinces, despite the frequent denial of any positive attributes towards him within the works of many late Republican authors. Adams analyses the progression of influences and events throughout the life of the infamous emperor in order to clearly establish Commodus’ perspectives about not only the Principate, but also how his role within Roman society was clearly influenced by the ideals of his more well-received predecessors (the ‘Five Good Emperors’ – Edward Gibbon). It is intended ...