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Showing 81 - 100 of 26220 items
By The Macat Team. 2017
Marcel Mauss’s 1925 essay The Gift is an enduring classic of sociological and anthropological analysis by a thinker who is…
one of the founding fathers of modern anthropology. The Gift exploits Mauss’s high-level analytical and interpretative skills to produce a brilliant investigation of the forms, meanings, and structures of gift-giving across a range of societies. Mauss, along with many others, had noted that in a wide range of societies – especially those without monetary exchange or legal structures – gift-giving and receiving was carried out according to strict customs and unwritten laws. What he sought to do in The Gift was to analyse the structures that governed how and when gifts were given, received, and reciprocated in order to grasp what implicit and unspoken reasons governed these structures. He also wanted to apply his interpretative skills to asking what such exchanges meant, in order to explore the implications his analysis might have for modern, western cultures. In Mauss’s investigations, it became clear that gift-giving is, in many cultures, a crucial structural force, binding people together in a web of reciprocal commitments generated by the laws of gifting. Indeed, he concluded, gifts can be seen as the ‘glue’ of society..By Various. 1988
The latest in the acclaimed Short Story Reinvented Series, 10 Journeys offers a unique array of poignant journeys both literal…
and psychological. Evocative and highly engaging, the stories transform everyday accounts into the most accessible yet powerful collection possible. Presenting a host of talented writers, each story compares and contrasts to encapsulate the individuality of short fiction. Sometimes dark and stimulating, other times charming and simply beautiful, these stories illustrate a portrait of unexpected wealth in ten bite-size chunks.By Edna Edith Sayers, Diana Moore. 2013
Lydia Huntley was born in 1791 in Norwich, CT, the only child of a poor Revolutionary war veteran. But her…
father's employer, a wealthy widow, gave young Lydia the run of her library and later sent her for visits to Hartford, CT. After teaching at her own school for several years in Norwich, Lydia returned to Hartford to head a class of 15 girls from the best families. Among her students was Alice Cogswell, a deaf girl soon to be famous as a student of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc. Lydia's inspiration came from a deep commitment to the education of girls and also for African American, Indian, and deaf children. She left teaching to marry Charles Sigourney, then turned to writing to support her family, publishing 56 books, 2,000 magazine articles, and popular poetry. Lydia Sigourney never abandoned her passion for deaf education, remaining a supporter of Gallaudet's school for the deaf until her death. Yet, her contributions to deaf education and her writing have been forgotten until now. All of Lydia Sigourney's of Lydia Sigourney's work on the nascent Deaf community is presented in this new volume. Her writing intertwines her mastery of the sentimentalism form popular in her day with her sharp insights on the best ways to educate deaf children. In the process, Mrs. Sigourney of Hartford reestablishes her rightful place in history.By Riley Quinn. 2017
In his 1997 work Guns, Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond marshals evidence from five continents and across 13,000 years of…
human history in an attempt to answer the question of why that history unfolded so differently in various parts of the globe. His results offer new explanations for why the unequal divisions of power and wealth so familiar to us today came into existence – and have persisted. Balancing materials drawn from a vast range of sources, addressing core problems that have fascinated historians, anthropologists, biologists and geographers alike – and blending his analysis to create a compelling narrative that became an international best-seller and reached a broad general market – required a mastery of the critical thinking skill of reasoning that few other scholars can rival. Diamond’s reasoning skills allow him to persuade his readers of the value of his interdisciplinary approach and produce well-structured arguments that keep them turning pages even as he refocuses his analysis from one disparate example to another. Diamond adds to that a spectacular ability to grasp the meaning of the available evidence produced by scholars in those widely different disciplines – making Guns, Germs and Steel equally valuable as an exercise in high-level interpretation.By Various. 2007
8 Rooms showcases a selection of sleek, thought-provoking and powerful short stories portraying thoughts and actions that take place in…
or around a single room. Each author’s interpretation demonstrates original and contemporary fiction that paints a realistic yet inimitable portrait of everyday life. A host of talented writers each offer absolute beauty that is weaved into the very fabric of these short stories. Easily accessible and entertaining, you can’t help but feel moved and inspired by this collection.By Rodolfo Maggio. 2017
American scholar Jared Diamond deploys his powers of interpretation to great effect in Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or…
Succeed, which seeks to understand the meaning behind the available evidence describing societies that have survived and those that have withered and died. Why, for example, did the Norsemen of Scandinavia who colonized Greenland in the early tenth century not survive, while the inhabitants of Highland New Guinea did? With the evidence to hand, Diamond notes that a society’s collapse tends to be preceded by a severe reduction in population and considerable decreases in political, economic and social complexity. Delving even deeper, Diamond isolates five major factors determine the success or failure of human societies in all periods of history: environmental degradation, which occurs when an ecosystem deteriorates as its resources are exhausted; climate change (natural or man-made); hostile neighbors; weakened trading partners; and access or otherwise to the resources that enable the society to adapt its challenges. The breadth of Diamond’s research provides the springboard from which to reach these definitions, but it inevitably also introduces complications; how can evidence produced by specialists in so many different disciplines be compared? Diamond’s ability to understand the meaning of the evidence at hand – and his readiness to seek and supply clarifications of meaning where necessary – underpin his achievement, and comprise a textbook example of how interpretative skills can provide a framework for strong critical thinking.By Sinclair Lewis. 1999
In 1930 Sinclair Lewis became the first American to win the Nobel Prize for literature, and the 1920 publication of…
Main Street brought him his first serious critical recognition. Born and raised in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, Lewis knew the American heartland as few other writers have. He both loved and despised small towns, and the tension between those feelings permeates this classic novel. The setting is Gopher Prairie, a bastion of prosaic, small-minded, middle-class values. Its newest inhabitant is the beautiful young Carol Kennicott, who dreams of transforming her adopted hometown into an oasis of beauty, refinement, and culture. But Carol is no match for the town's provincialism, and her struggle to overcome the complacency, bigotry, and hypocrisy of Gopher Prairie becomes the author's devastating and satiric take on all small towns.By Robert Frost. 1923
The second installment of Harvard's critically acclaimed five-volume edition of Robert Frost's correspondence contains letters from 1920 to 1928, 400…
of them gathered here for the first time. His 160 correspondents include family, friends, colleagues, fellow writers, visual artists, publishers, educators, librarians, farmers, and admirers.By Jacob Ross. 2015
From well-known and award-winning authors—including Bernardine Evaristo, Fred D'Aguiar, and Leone Ross—to previous unpublished writers, this ambitious and intriguing anthology…
of short stories showcases each author's most challenging work. These works from writers who are happy to describe themselves as Black British, have a rich variety of styles, forms, and themes, from raw realism, the erotic, and elegant economy, to the fanciful, humorous, and the tender. The contributors to Closure display a keen awareness of the short story form in all its contemporary possibilities as a way of telling and finding a form for the writer's vision. These are stories about the ways in which we do and do not love, unrequited yearnings, the quiet and often hidden violence in our lives, moments of epiphany, and the precious occasions of jubilation and uplift.By Kei Miller. 2013
The conviction that telling and collecting stories is the most powerful means to revelation is the driving force behind these…
essays from celebrated poet and novelist Kei Miller. The pages of the book are filled with stories about the experience of migration, of leaving familiar places and making connections in new ones, as well as reflections on family, friendship, and nation. Other more analytical pieces address the physicality of language, dub poetry, and the work of Marlon James, a friend of Miller’s. Still other texts display a passionate concern with moral justice with respect to economic and social oppression and homophobia. In these essays—prophecies, in Miller’s estimation—he shares with the reader a sensibility in which the sacred and the secular, conviction and skepticism, vision and analysis, and polemic and reflection engage in a profound and lively debate frequently marked by an undercurrent of humor.By Douglas Hartmann. 2016
Midnight basketball may not have been invented in Chicago, but the City of Big Shoulders--home of Michael Jordan and the…
Bulls--is where it first came to national prominence. And it's also where Douglas Hartmann first began to think seriously about the audacious notion that organizing young men to run around in the wee hours of the night--all trying to throw a leather ball through a metal hoop--could constitute meaningful social policy. Organized in the 1980s and '90s by dozens of American cities, late-night basketball leagues were designed for social intervention, risk reduction, and crime prevention targeted at African American youth and young men. In Midnight Basketball, Hartmann traces the history of the program and the policy transformations of the period, while exploring the racial ideologies, cultural tensions, and institutional realities that shaped the entire field of sports-based social policy. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, the book also brings to life the actual, on-the-ground practices of midnight basketball programs and the young men that the programs intended to serve. In the process, Midnight Basketball offers a more grounded and nuanced understanding of the intricate ways sports, race, and risk intersect and interact in urban America.By Betty Friedan. 1981
Friedan in her book, says that once past the initial phases of working against injustices, the women's movement should focus…
on working with men to remake private and public planning that work against full lives with children for them.By Kevin L. Nadal, Filipino-American National Historical Society. 2015
After the Spanish-American War in 1898, many Filipinos immigrated to New York City, mostly as students, enrolling at local institutions…
like Columbia University and New York University. Some arrived via Ellis Island as early as 1915, while Filipino military servicemen and Navy seafarers settled in New York after both World Wars I and II. After the Asian Immigration Act of 1965, many Filipinos came as professionals (e.g., nurses, physicians, and engineers) and formed settlements in various ethnic enclaves throughout the five boroughs of New York. Over the years, Filipinos have contributed significantly to New York arts and culture through Broadway theater, fashion, music, film, comedy, hip-hop, poetry, and dance. Filipino New Yorkers have also been successful entrepreneurs, corporate executives, community leaders, and politicians, and some, sadly, were victims of the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks.By Scroobius Pip. 2016
The Times Bestseller (Non-Fiction)Join Scroobius Pip as he gets to the bottom of what matters most in life: whether getting…
Russell Brand to expound on capitalism, Jon Ronson on the perils of social media, Simon Pegg on the power of satire, Killer Mike on race relations in the United States or Howard Marks on drugs and cancer, Pip elicits thought-provoking material by rummaging through the minds of some of the most interesting creatives of our time. Distraction Pieces features both curated highlights from the iTunes-chart-topping podcast - from Akala to Howard Marks via the likes of Adam Buxton, Romesh Ranganathan and Amanda Palmer - and exclusive new content, with chapters on politics, social media, music, comedy and more. Featuring illustrations by tattoo artist mr heggie, this is a must-have for fans of the Distraction Pieces podcast, and a must-read for anyone interested in the creative mind.By Mandy Macdonald. 2006
Cuba is a great deal more than its controversial system of government. It is physically beautiful and seductive, and it…
has a rich and ever-evolving culture that existed long before the revolution of 1959 and will certainly long outlive it. The Cuban people are tough, resilient, egalitarian, and pathologically sociable. At the same time they can be opinionated, self-dramatizing, and sometimes infuriating or exhausting to be with. But they are always generous-spirited and invigorating. In Culture Smart! Cuba, we aim to help you get to know them better.By Laura Furman. 2018
The O. Henry Prize Stories 2018 contains twenty prize-winning stories chosen from thousands published in literary magazines over the previous…
year. The winning stories come from a mix of established writers and emerging voices, and are uniformly breathtaking. They are accompanied by essays from the eminent jurors on their favorites, observations from the winning writers on what inspired their stories, and an extensive resource list of magazines that publish short fiction."The Tomb of Wrestling," Jo Ann Beard, Tin House "Counterblast," Marjorie Celona, The Southern Review "Nayla," Youmna Chlala, Prairie Schooner "Lucky Dragon," Viet Dinh, Ploughshares "Stop ’n’ Go," Michael Parker, New England Review "Past Perfect Continuous," Dounia Choukri, Chicago Quarterly Review "Inversion of Marcia," Thomas Bolt, n+1 "Nights in Logar," Jamil Jan Kochai, A Public Space "How We Eat," Mark Jude Poirier, Epoch "Deaf and Blind," Lara Vapnyar, The New Yorker "Why Were They Throwing Bricks?," Jenny Zhang, n+1 "An Amount of Discretion," Lauren Alwan, The Southern Review "Queen Elizabeth," Brad Felver, One Story "The Stamp Collector," Dave King, Fence "More or Less Like a Man," Michael Powers, The Threepenny Review "The Earth, Thy Great Exchequer, Ready Lies," Jo Lloyd, Zoetrope "Up Here," Tristan Hughes, Ploughshares "The Houses That Are Left Behind," Brenda Walker, The Kenyon Review "We Keep Them Anyway," Stephanie A. Vega, The Threepenny Review "Solstice," Anne Enright, The New YorkerPrize Jury for 2018: Fiona McFarlane, Ottessa Moshfegh, Elizabeth TallentBy Robert Jensen. 2017
The End of Patriarchy asks one key question: what do we need to create stable and decent human communities that…
can thrive in a sustainable relationship with the larger living world? Robert Jensen's answer is feminism and a critique of patriarchy. He calls for a radical feminist challenge to institutionalized male dominance; an uncompromising rejection of men's assertion of a right to control women's sexuality; and a demand for an end to the violence and coercion that are at the heart of all systems of domination and subordination. The End of Patriarchy makes a powerful argument that a socially just society requires no less than a radical feminist overhaul of the dominant patriarchal structures.By Diane Bell, Renate Klein. 1996
Showing that a radical feminist analysis cuts across class, race, sexuality, region, and religion, the varied contributors in this collection…
reveal the global reach of radical feminism and analyze the causes and solutions to patriarchal oppression.By Rebecca Whisnant, Christine Stark. 2004
Including the latest research on prostitution and pornography, this essay anthology shows how the sex industries harm those within them…
while undermining the possibilities for gender justice, human equality, and stable sexual relationships. From sex industries survivors to social activists and theorists such as Taylor Lee, Adriene Sere, and Kristen Anderberg, this volume asses from a feminist perspective the racism, poverty, militarism, and corporate capitalism of selling sex through strip clubs, brothels, mail-order brides, and child pornography.By Wayne Pharr. 2014
In the early morning hours of December 8, 1969, hundreds of SWAT officers engaged in a violent battle with a…
handful of Los Angeles-based members of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (BPP). Five hours and 5,000 rounds of ammunition later, three SWAT team members and three Black Panthers lay wounded. For the Panthers and the community that supported them, the shootout symbolized a victory, and a key reason for that victory was the actions of a 19-year-old rank-and-file member of the BPP: Wayne Pharr. Nine Lives of a Black Panther tells Pharr's riveting story of life in the Los Angeles branch of the BPP and gives a blow-by-blow account of how it prepared for and survived the massive attack. He illuminates the history of one of the most dedicated, dynamic, vilified, and targeted chapters of the BPP, filling in a missing piece of Black Panther history and, in the process, creating an engaging and hard-to-put-down memoir about a time and place that holds tremendous fascination for readers interested in African American militancy.