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George Mackay Brown: The Life
By Maggie Fergusson. 2007
George Mackay Brown was one of Scotland's greatest twentieth-century writers, but in person a bundle of paradoxes. He had a…
wide international reputation, but hardly left his native Orkney. A prolific poet, admired by such fellow poets as Seamus Heaney, Ted Hughes and Charles Causley, and hailed by the composer Peter Maxwell Davies as 'the most positive and benign influence ever on my own efforts at creation', he was also an accomplished novelist (shortlisted for the 1994 Booker Prize for Beside the Ocean of Time) and a master of the short story. When he died in 1996, he left behind an autobiography as deft as it is ultimately uninformative. 'The lives of artists are as boring and also as uniquely fascinating as any or every other life,' he claimed. Never a recluse, he appeared open to his friends, but probably revealed more of himself in his voluminous correspondence with strangers. He never married - indeed he once wrote, 'I have never been in love in my life.' But some of his most poignant letters and poems were written to Stella Cartwright, 'the Muse of Rose Street', the gifted but tragic figure to whom he was once engaged and with whom he kept in touch until the end of her short life.Maggie Fergusson interviewed George Mackay Brown several times and is the only biographer to whom he, a reluctant subject, gave his blessing. Through his letters and through conversations with his wide acquaintance, she discovers that this particular artist's life was not only fascinating but vivid, courageous and surprising.Unequal Crime Decline: Theorizing Race, Urban Inequality, and Criminal Violence
By Karen F. Parker. 2008
2009 Choice Outstanding Academic TitleCrime in most urban areas has been falling since 1991. While the decline has been well-documented,…
few scholars have analyzed which groups have most benefited from the crime decline and which are still on the frontlines of violence--and why that might be. In Unequal Crime Decline, Karen F. Parker presents a structural and theoretical analysis of the various factors that affect the crime decline, looking particularly at the past three decades and the shifts that have taken place, and offers original insight into which trends have declined and why.Taking into account such indicators as employment, labor market opportunities, skill levels, housing, changes in racial composition, family structure, and drug trafficking, Parker provides statistics that illustrate how these factors do or do not affect urban violence, and carefully considers these factors in relation to various crime trends, such as rates involving blacks, whites, but also trends among black males, white females, as well as others. Throughout the book she discusses popular structural theories of crime and their limitations, in the end concentrating on today's issues and important contemporary policy to be considered. Unequal Crime Decline is a comprehensive and theoretically sophisticated look at the relationship among race, urban inequality, and violence in the years leading up to and following America's landmark crime drop.Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism
By Natasha Walter. 2011
I once believed that we only had to put in place the conditions for equality for the remnants of old-fashioned…
sexism in our culture to wither away. I am ready to admit that I was wrong.'Empowerment, liberation, choice. Once the watchwords of feminism, these terms have now been co-opted by a society that sells women an airbrushed, highly sexualised and increasingly narrow vision of femininity. Drawing on a wealth of research and personal interviews, LIVING DOLLS is a straight-talking, passionate and important book that makes us look afresh at women and girls, at sexism and femininity - today.American Post-Judaism, Revised Edition
By Shaul Magid. 2013
How do American Jews identify as both Jewish and American? American Post-Judaism argues that Zionism and the Holocaust, two anchors…
of contempoary American Jewish identity, will no longer be centers of identity formation for future generations of American Jews. Shaul Magid articulates a new, post-ethnic American Jewishness. He discusses pragmatism and spirituality, monotheism and post-monotheism, Jesus, Jewish law, sainthood and self-realization, and the meaning of the Holocaust for those who have never known survivors. Magid presents Jewish Renewal as a movement that takes this radical cultural transition seriously in its strivings for a new era in Jewish thought and practice.Encountering Islam on the First Crusade
By Nicholas Morton. 2016
The First Crusade (1095–9) has often been characterised as a head-to-head confrontation between the forces of Christianity and Islam. For…
many, it is the campaign that created a lasting rupture between these two faiths. Nevertheless, is such a characterisation borne out by the sources? Engagingly written and supported by a wealth of evidence, Encountering Islam on the First Crusade offers a major reinterpretation of the crusaders' attitudes towards the Arabic and Turkic peoples they encountered on their journey to Jerusalem. Nicholas Morton considers how they interpreted the new peoples, civilizations and landscapes they encountered; sights for which their former lives in Western Christendom had provided little preparation. Morton offers a varied picture of cross cultural relations, depicting the Near East as an arena in which multiple protagonists were pitted against each other. Some were fighting for supremacy, others for their religion, many simply for survival.Pagan Christmas: The Plants, Spirits, and Rituals at the Origins of Yuletide
By Claudia M ller-Ebeling, Christian R tsch. 2003
An examination of the sacred botany and the pagan origins and rituals of Christmas • Analyzes the symbolism of the…
many plants associated with Christmas • Reveals the shamanic rituals that are at the heart of the Christmas celebration The day on which many commemorate the birth of Christ has its origins in pagan rituals that center on tree worship, agriculture, magic, and social exchange. But Christmas is no ordinary folk observance. It is an evolving feast that over the centuries has absorbed elements from cultures all over the world--practices that give plants and plant spirits pride of place. In fact, the symbolic use of plants at Christmas effectively transforms the modern-day living room into a place of shamanic ritual. Christian Rätsch and Claudia Müller-Ebeling show how the ancient meaning of the botanical elements of Christmas provides a unique view of the religion that existed in Europe before the introduction of Christianity. The fir tree was originally revered as the sacred World Tree in northern Europe. When the church was unable to drive the tree cult out of people’s consciousness, it incorporated the fir tree by dedicating it to the Christ child. Father Christmas in his red-and-white suit, who flies through the sky in a sleigh drawn by reindeer, has his mythological roots in the shamanic reindeer-herding tribes of arctic Europe and Siberia. These northern shamans used the hallucinogenic fly agaric mushroom, which is red and white, to make their soul flights to the other world. Apples, which figure heavily in Christmas baking, are symbols of the sun god Apollo, so they find a natural place at winter solstice celebrations of the return of the sun. In fact, the authors contend that the emphasis of Christmas on green plants and the promise of the return of life in the dead of winter is just an adaptation of the pagan winter solstice celebration.Executing God
By Sharon L. Baker. 2013
Why did God have to murder his only son to pay our debts? What kind of vengeful, violent God can…
only be satisfied by vicarious blood atonement? In Executing God, theologian Sharon Baker presents a biblically based and theologically sound critique of popular theories of the atonement. Concerned about the number of acts of violence performed in the name of God, Baker challenges cultural assumptions about the death of Jesus and its meaning to Christians. She ultimately offers a constructive alternate view of atonement based on God's forgiveness that opens up salvation to a wider group of people.Culture Smart! Singapore
By Angela Milligan. 2004
The small island state of Singapore is unique in the region. Not only is it a very young country- independence…
came in 1965- but it is a land of immigrants, in which people from three distinct backgrounds, Chinese, Malay, and Indian, live side by side in harmony. Culture Smart! Singapore introduces the Western visitor to the rich and varied cultures and customs of Singapore's communities. It shows what motivates people, how they interact with each other and with outsiders, and tells you what to expect and how to behave in unfamiliar situations. In doing so, it offers you a fuller, more rounded experience of this fascinating society.Ginsberg: A Biography
By Barry Miles. 1989
Barry Miles has accounted the life of one of the most extraordinary poets. Drawing on his long literary association with…
Ginsberg, as well as on the poet's journals and correspondence, he presents an account of a controversial life.The Power of Ritual in Prehistory: Secret Societies and Origins of Social Complexity
By Brian Hayden. 2018
The Power of Ritual in Prehistory is the first book in nearly a century to deal with traditional secret societies…
from a comparative perspective and the first from an archaeological viewpoint Providing a clear definition as well as the material signatures of ethnographic secret societies Brian Hayden demonstrates how they worked what motivated their organizers and what tactics they used to obtain what they wanted He shows that far from working for the welfare of their communities traditional secret societies emerged as predatory organizations operated for the benefit of their own members Moreover and contrary to the prevailing ideas that prehistoric rituals were used to integrate communities Hayden demonstrates how traditional secret societies created divisiveness and inequalities They were one of the key tools for increasing political control leading to chiefdoms states and world religions Hayden s conclusions will be eye-opening not only for archaeologists but also for anthropologists political scientists and scholars of religionDean Worcester’s Fantasy Islands brings to life one of the most significant (but under examined) figures in the history of U.…
S. colonialism in the Philippines. Upon the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, Worcester, a scientist who had traveled twice to the Philippines on zoological expeditions, established himself as one of America’s leading experts on the Philippines. Over a fourteen-year career as a member of the U. S. colonial regime, Worcester devoted much of his time and energy to traveling among and photographing non-Christian minority groups in the Philippines. He amassed an archive of several thousand photographs taken by him or by government photographers. Worcester deployed those photographs in books, magazine articles, and lectures to promote his belief that the United States should maintain control of the Philippines for decades to come. While many historians have examined American colonial photography in the Philippines, this book is the first lengthy treatment of Worcester’s role in shaping American perceptions of the Philippines in the early twentieth century.Recreating The Church: Leadership for the Postmodern Age
By Richard L. Hamm. 2007
Mainline denominations in the United States are in crisis. These institutions-created in and for modernity-are now facing a changed, postmodern…
culture. Hamm faces the crisis, examining its origins, and offers sound advice on how to lead to church to make the adaptive changes needed to thrive in postmodern times.Memoirs of My Life and Writings
By Edward Gibbon. 1984
Tracks of a Fellow Struggler: Living and Growing through Grief
By John R. Claypool. 1974
With over a million copies sold one s pastor s personal experience with devastating grief…
and learning to heal through faith has touched countless hearts John Claypool had been a pastor for almost two decades ministering to others who suffered through the loss of loved ones when loss hit home with the death of his eight-year-old daughter In Tracks of a Fellow Struggler Rev Claypool shares his own journey through the darkness of heartbreaking grief through four extraordinary sermons The first was delivered just eleven days after his daughter s diagnosis of leukemia the second after her first major relapse nine months later and the third weeks after her death The final sermon an inspiring reflection on the process of grieving was preached three years later Loss is something we must all cope with and one of the greatest spiritual challenges is sustaining faith when life seems most unfair sometimes tragic With a depth of compassion born of his own personal experience the author of Mending the Heart brings emotional comfort and spiritual strength to anyone who has suffered the loss of a loved oneMigrating to the Movies: Cinema and Black Urban Modernity
By Jacqueline Najuma Stewart. 2005
The Power of the Zoot: Youth Culture and Resistance During World War II
By Luis Alvarez. 2008
Providing a new history of youth culture based on rare, in-depth interviews with former zoot-suiters, Luis Alvarez explores race, region,…
and the politics of culture in urban America during World War II. He argues that Mexican American and African American youths, along with many nisei and white youths, used popular culture to oppose accepted modes of youthful behavior, the dominance of white middle-class norms, and expectations from within their own communities.Kill the Cowboy: A Battle of Mythology in the New West
By Sharman Apt Russell. 1993
The Management of Conflict: Interpretations and Interests in Comparative Perspective
By Marc Howard Ross. 1993
Deleuzian Intersections
By Casper Bruun Jensen, Kjetil Rodje. 2012
Science and technology studies, cultural anthropology and cultural studies deal with the complex relations between material, symbolic, technical and political…
practices. In a Deleuzian approach these relations are seen as produced in heterogeneous assemblages, moving across distinctions such as the human and non-human or the material and ideal. This volume outlines a Deleuzian approach to analyzing science, culture and politics.31 Days to Living as a New Believer: A Devotional For New Believers
By R. Larry Moyer. 2002