Rural communities / rural life Books
The University of Chicago Press Animal Intimacies Interspecies Relatedness in
Book SynopsisA look at the range of close relationships between humans and wild and domesticated animals in the Himalayas.
£22.80
Vintage Publishing Cider with Rosie
Book SynopsisLaurie Lee was born in Stroud, Gloucestershire, in 1914, and was educated at Slad village school and Stroud Central School. At the age on nineteen he walked to London and then travelled on foot through Spain, as described in his book As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning. In 1950 he married Catherine Polge and they had one daughter. Cider With Rosie (1959) has sold over six million copies worldwide, and was followed by two other volumes of autobiography: As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning (1969) and A Moment of War (1991). Laurie Lee also published four collections of poems, The Sun My Monument (1944), The Bloom of Candles (1947), My Many-Coated Man (1955) and Packet Poems (1960) as well as The Voyage of Magellan (1948), a verse play for radio, A Rose for Winter (1955), which records his travels in Andalusia, The Firstborn (1964), I Can't Stay Long (1975), a collection of his writing, and Two Women (1983). Laurie Lee died in May 1997.Trade ReviewUtterly captivating * Four Shires *A classic of English literature * Good Book Guide *[Laurie Lee] froze a moment in time for us. You don’t forget the language and he is wonderful at detail -- Michael Morpurgo * Daily Express *Evocative memoir. * RTE Guide *So convincing and atmospheric… This magical book will captivate you with its richly painted images * Woman's Weekly *
£7.99
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Village Rails
Book SynopsisA 2-4 player card game of trains, tracks, and tricky decisions designed by the award-winning design duo Brett J. Gilbert and Matthew Dunstan.In the sleepy English countryside, life continues undisturbed as it has for centuries. It is up to you to travel to every corner of this land, bearing the promise of modernisation, accommodating the oddly specific demands of the locals, and ushering in the age of steam.In Village Rails, you will be criss-crossing the fields of England with railway lines, connecting villages together, and navigating the complex and ever-changing demands of rural communities. Connect stations and farmsteads to your local network while placing your railway signals and sidings ever so carefully. Meet the exacting standards of cantankerous locals planning strangely specific trips, and weigh their demands against your limited funding. There is much to balance in this tricky tableau-building card game of locomotives and local motives.
£18.00
Canongate Books How Beautiful We Were
Book SynopsisA PEN/FAULKNER AWARD FINALIST'Sweeping and quietly devastating' New York Times'A David and Goliath story for our times' O, the Oprah MagazineSet in the fictional African village of Kosawa, this is the story of a people living in fear amidst environmental degradation wrought by an American oil company. Pipeline spills have rendered farmlands infertile. Children are dying from drinking toxic water. Promises of clean-up and financial reparations are made - and broken. Left with few choices, the people of Kosawa decide to fight back. But it will come at a steep price - one which generation after generation will have to pay.How Beautiful We Were is a masterful exploration of what happens when the reckless drive for profit, coupled with the ghost of colonialism, comes up against one community's determination to hold onto its ancestral land and a young woman's willingness to sacrifice everything for the sake of her people's freedom.Trade ReviewSweeping and quietly devastating . . . In Kosawa, Mbue has created a place and a people alive with emotional range . . . Profoundly affecting * * New York Times * *The unforgettable story of a community on the wrong end of Western greed, How Beautiful We Were will enthral you, appal you and show you what is possible when a few people stand up and say "this is not right". A masterful novel by a spellbinding writer engaged with the most urgent questions of our day -- DAVID EBERSHOFF, New York Times bestselling author of THE DANISH GIRLImbolo Mbue would be a formidable storyteller anywhere, in any language. It's our good luck that she and her stories are American -- JONATHAN FRANZENA David and Goliath story for our times, a riveting tale of how people coming together to make change can topple even the fiercest, best-financed foe * * O, The Oprah Magazine * *How Beautiful We Were goes to the heart of one of the most urgent matters of the day. The highly suspenseful story of an African village's struggle for survival and justice in the face of ruthless American corporate greed is written with remarkable acuity and compassion. Mbue has given us a book with the richness and power of a great contemporary fable, and a heroine for our time -- SIGRID NUNEZ, author of THE FRIEND, winner of the National Book AwardImbolo Mbue's revelatory novel of a fictional African village ruined by Big Oil is a mighty addition to the stacks * * ELLE * *What a beautiful book! I can't tell you how many times I cried for these characters, their place and their story . . . Beautifully written with moving and vivid descriptions, engaging complex characters, interesting plots, and tension so tightly wound that at times I found myself holding my breath -- YVONNE BATTLE-FELTON, author of REMEMBEREDTells the story of a people living in fear amidst environmental degradation wrought by an American oil company. Exploring what happens when the reckless drive for profit comes up against one community's determination to hold onto its ancestral land, it makes for unputdownable reading * * Glamour, Best new novel you won't want to put down * *Imbolo Mbue crafts an aching narrative about greed, community and perseverance * * Time * *A generation of narrative voices, many of them children, shape this sweeping, elegiac story of capitalism, colonialism and boundless greed, reminding us of the myriad ways we fail to make a better world for our children * * Esquire * *
£9.49
Canongate Books A Fortunate Man: The Story of a Country Doctor
Book SynopsisIn 1966 John Berger spent three months in the Forest of Dean shadowing an English country GP, John Sassall. Sassall is a fortunate man - his work occupies and fulfils him, he lives amongst the patients he treats, the line between his life and his work is happily blurred.In A Fortunate Man, Berger's text and the photography of Jean Mohr reveal with extraordinary intensity the life of a remarkable man. It is a portrait of one selfless individual and the rural community for which he became the hub. Drawing on psychology, biography and medicine A Fortunate Man is a portrait of sacrifice. It is also a profound exploration of what it means to be a doctor, to serve a community and to heal.With a new introduction by writer and GP, Gavin Francis.Trade ReviewI only wish I could do justice in a few words to the richness that makes this book so compelling * * Guardian * *A miniature masterpiece of observation and a profound meditation on the nature and value of the doctor-patient relationship -- POLLY MORLANDIn 1967 A Fortunate Man marked the most significant step forward in the collaboration of a writer and photographer since Let us Now Praise Famous Men by Walker Evans and James Agee. Incredibly, it still does . . . A masterpiece -- GEOFF DYERA genuine tour de force . . . The intimate portrait of one man and his microscopic world reveals the faults and strains of a whole society * * Observer * *It's one of my favourite books in the world, an ongoing inspiration as to how books should be written (and photography used) -- ALAIN de BOTTONJohn Berger seems to me peerless; not since Lawrence has there been a writer who offers such attentiveness to the sensual world with responsiveness to the imperatives of conscience -- SUSAN SONTAGA book about caring that will make you care, and a book about deep healing that may heal your soul. It is also, almost 50 years on, uncannily timely -- SIMON GARFIELDThis disturbingly beautiful book will continue to haunt you long after you have set it aside -- RICHARD HOLLOWAYThis extraordinary book unravels the tangled branches of the everyday to reveal the brightness within. It inspires me to think more slowly, more deeply, to wear acquired knowledge lightly, to open my senses more fully to the wonders in the plain and close-at-hand -- JAMES MEEKA masterpiece of witness; a three-way meditation on humanity, society and the value of healing -- GAVIN FRANCIS
£10.44
Penguin Books Ltd Christ Stopped at Eboli
Book Synopsis''We''re not Christians, Christ stopped short of here, at Eboli.'' Exiled to a remote and barren corner of Italy for his opposition to Mussolini, Carlo Levi entered a world cut off from history and the state, hedged in by custom and sorrow, without comfort or solace, where, eternally patient, the peasants lived in an age-old stillness and in the presence of death - for Christ did stop at Eboli.
£9.49
Monthly Review Press,U.S. Fanshen: A Documentary of Revolution in a Chinese
Book SynopsisMore than forty years after its initial publication, William Hinton's Fanshen continues to be the essential volume for those fascinated with China's revolutionary process of rural reform and social change. A pioneering work, "Fanshan" is a marvelous and revealing look into life in the Chinese countryside, where tradition and modernity have had both a complimentary and caustic relationship in the years since the Chinese Communist Party first came to power. It is a rare, concrete record of social struggle and transformation, as witnessed by a participant. "Fanshen" continues to offer profound insight into the lives of peasants and China's complex social processes. This classic volume includes a new preface by Fred Magdoff.Trade Review"One of the most important books about China which has been written since the Revolution.... For anyone who wants to understand anything important about the Chinese revolution of our time, the reading of this book is an absolute necessity." JOSEPH NEEDHAM, London Tribune "A vivid and compelling 'grassroots' account of life in the village precisely during the period in which the new Communist power was establishing itself....[A] unique contribution to our understanding of life in a northern Chinese village on the eve of the Communist takeover." BENJAMIN SCHWARTZ, New York Times Book Review "Fanshen is an extraordinary book. It will dispose of many myths, both those of the Left and of the Right." C. P. FITZGERALD, The Nation "Fanshen is an important book.... It is an arresting narrative [on] the agonizing story of rural China in turmoil...told with a remarkable evenness of temper and a rare understanding of human weaknesses and strengths. The lessons of Long Bow village, so movingly and compassionately recorded...should be studied and restudied by all." C. T. HSU, Saturday Review"
£17.06
Bristol University Press Community Development Social Action and Social
Book SynopsisThe sixth, fully updated edition of this bestselling guide links the theory and practice of community work in an insightful and relatable read for students and practitioners. The textbook features brand new sections on work in health, housing, with children, young people and those with disabilities and the changing role of IT.
£25.19
Columbia University Press The Rural Voter
Book Synopsis
£18.00
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC In Kiltumper: A Year in an Irish Garden
Book Synopsis'Poignant ... A meditation on life, love and the importance of nature' IRISH TIMES When they were in their twenties, Niall Williams and Christine Breen made the impulsive decision to leave New York City and move to Christine’s ancestral home in the town of Kiltumper in rural Ireland. In the decades that followed, the pair dedicated themselves to writing, gardening and living a life that followed the rhythms of the earth. In 2019, with Christine in the final stages of recovery from cancer and the surrounding land threatened by the arrival of turbines, Niall and Christine decided to document a year - in words and Christine's drawings - of living in their garden and in their small corner of a rapidly changing world. Proceeding month by month through the year, this is the story of a garden in all its many splendours, and a couple who have made their life observing its wonders.Trade ReviewMoving and surprisingly provocative ... This couple's narrative is more than a January-December chronicle, it is the result of decades of care ... In Kiltumper is as much a book about the cherishing of a marriage as it is about the love of a place ... A heartfelt paean to a disappearing way of life -- Dominique Browning * Wall Street Journal *A record, both honest and beautiful, of a sustainable but precarious way of life -- Claire Connolly * Times Literary Supplement *Poignant ... A meditation on life, love and the importance of nature -- Brian Maye * Irish Times *Beautifully written ... A wonderfully lyrical and uplifting read -- Dermot Bolger * Sunday Business Post *An absorbing and thought-provoking read -- Diarmuid Gavin * Irish Independent *An intimate, meditative garden memoir -- Hilary White * Sunday Independent *While the events chronicled rarely move beyond the garden, and while the descriptions are so intimate they almost elicit grief for the dying cherry tree and spark exhortations to the dahlias to hold on to their heavy heads, it is the gardeners’ personalities that bloom -- Caroline O'Doherty * Irish Independent *The small Kiltumper acreage is detailed with a sense of wonder and of pleasure ... Chapter after chapter is enhanced with exquisite pencil drawings ... Frequently quotable, always eloquent ... This is a book full of joy, warmly rich with accomplishment and wonder and a strong sense of mutual commitment -- Mary Leland * Irish Examiner *Arresting ... Remarkable ... This book, in Seamus Heaney's phrase, catches the heart off guard ... Uncommonly magical ... Read it and be restored to yourself -- Cahir O'Doherty * Irish Central *I loved their two voices, truthful and gentle and generous, so full of care for their land and for each other ... A record of how deeply life can be lived within a garden's walls -- GEORGINA HARDINGA beautiful story, with words at once uplifting and poignant. Full of the acceptance and the optimism that only a garden and the act of caring for it brings -- JO THOMPSONI read it with enormous pleasure … There were so many episodes I loved, whether they were heartbreaking or uplifting … It was a delight to step into Niall and Christine’s precious garden, into the rhythms of their way of living, and to be refreshed -- TIM PEARSThis is a book to whet one’s appetite — for reading, writing, gardening — and living. I loved the counterpoint of the two voices as they face age, cancer, the struggle to write, to garden — to keep at it — under the threat of wind turbines and the wild Atlantic wind; not to give up. A triumph -- Katherine SwiftA celebration of life in rural Ireland * Irish Times, Best books for Christmas 2021 *Including beautiful pen and ink drawings by Christine, this is the story of a garden in all its many splendours and a couple who have made their life observing its wonders * Countryside *Whether you like gardening or enjoy reflections on a life lived simply in harmony with nature, this book is a sheer joy ... Niall and Christine celebrate the challenges and joys in delightful detail, from feeding Harp beer to brassicas, to running writing workshops and sharing the good life with friends and family -- Zoë West * Woman & Home, Book Club Awards *Here, they record 12 months of work in their garden, capturing their love of the land – which has been in Christine’s family since the 18th century – and also reflecting on the past and anxiously contemplating what the future holds as climate change takes hold. Through everything, their garden is a lovingly nurtured constant * Sunday Express, S Magazine *Twelve months in a cherished garden ... The good life, with its ups and downs * Saga *A celebration of the solace of country life … Country living, Breen reflects, teaches “about darkness and stars, about sunlight and silence, about things out of your control”: about the inevitability of change. The book includes Breen’s elegant botanical drawings. A warm homage to a piece of beloved Irish land * Kirkus Reviews *The book will appeal to any devoted gardener, and it also serves as an inviting snapshot of a place -- Eric Liebetrau * Kirkus Reviews *
£11.69
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC In Kiltumper: A Year in an Irish Garden
Book Synopsis'Poignant ... A meditation on life, love and the importance of nature' IRISH TIMES When they were in their twenties, Niall Williams and Christine Breen made the impulsive decision to leave New York City and move to Christine’s ancestral home in the town of Kiltumper in rural Ireland. In the decades that followed, the pair dedicated themselves to writing, gardening and living a life that followed the rhythms of the earth. In 2019, with Christine in the final stages of recovery from cancer and the surrounding land threatened by the arrival of turbines, Niall and Christine decided to document a year - in words and Christine's drawings - of living in their garden and in their small corner of a rapidly changing world. Proceeding month by month through the year, this is the story of a garden in all its many splendours, and a couple who have made their life observing its wonders.Trade ReviewMoving and surprisingly provocative ... This couple's narrative is more than a January-December chronicle, it is the result of decades of care ... In Kiltumper is as much a book about the cherishing of a marriage as it is about the love of a place ... A heartfelt paean to a disappearing way of life -- Dominique Browning * Wall Street Journal *A record, both honest and beautiful, of a sustainable but precarious way of life -- Claire Connolly * Times Literary Supplement *Poignant ... A meditation on life, love and the importance of nature -- Brian Maye * Irish Times *Beautifully written ... A wonderfully lyrical and uplifting read -- Dermot Bolger * Sunday Business Post *An absorbing and thought-provoking read -- Diarmuid Gavin * Irish Independent *An intimate, meditative garden memoir -- Hilary White * Sunday Independent *While the events chronicled rarely move beyond the garden, and while the descriptions are so intimate they almost elicit grief for the dying cherry tree and spark exhortations to the dahlias to hold on to their heavy heads, it is the gardeners’ personalities that bloom -- Caroline O'Doherty * Irish Independent *The small Kiltumper acreage is detailed with a sense of wonder and of pleasure ... Chapter after chapter is enhanced with exquisite pencil drawings ... Frequently quotable, always eloquent ... This is a book full of joy, warmly rich with accomplishment and wonder and a strong sense of mutual commitment -- Mary Leland * Irish Examiner *Arresting ... Remarkable ... This book, in Seamus Heaney's phrase, catches the heart off guard ... Uncommonly magical ... Read it and be restored to yourself -- Cahir O'Doherty * Irish Central *I loved their two voices, truthful and gentle and generous, so full of care for their land and for each other ... A record of how deeply life can be lived within a garden's walls -- GEORGINA HARDINGA beautiful story, with words at once uplifting and poignant. Full of the acceptance and the optimism that only a garden and the act of caring for it brings -- JO THOMPSONI read it with enormous pleasure … There were so many episodes I loved, whether they were heartbreaking or uplifting … It was a delight to step into Niall and Christine’s precious garden, into the rhythms of their way of living, and to be refreshed -- TIM PEARSThis is a book to whet one’s appetite — for reading, writing, gardening — and living. I loved the counterpoint of the two voices as they face age, cancer, the struggle to write, to garden — to keep at it — under the threat of wind turbines and the wild Atlantic wind; not to give up. A triumph -- Katherine SwiftA celebration of life in rural Ireland * Irish Times, Best books for Christmas 2021 *Including beautiful pen and ink drawings by Christine, this is the story of a garden in all its many splendours and a couple who have made their life observing its wonders * Countryside *Whether you like gardening or enjoy reflections on a life lived simply in harmony with nature, this book is a sheer joy ... Niall and Christine celebrate the challenges and joys in delightful detail, from feeding Harp beer to brassicas, to running writing workshops and sharing the good life with friends and family -- Zoë West * Woman & Home, Book Club Awards *Here, they record 12 months of work in their garden, capturing their love of the land – which has been in Christine’s family since the 18th century – and also reflecting on the past and anxiously contemplating what the future holds as climate change takes hold. Through everything, their garden is a lovingly nurtured constant * Sunday Express, S Magazine *Twelve months in a cherished garden ... The good life, with its ups and downs * Saga *A celebration of the solace of country life … Country living, Breen reflects, teaches “about darkness and stars, about sunlight and silence, about things out of your control”: about the inevitability of change. The book includes Breen’s elegant botanical drawings. A warm homage to a piece of beloved Irish land * Kirkus Reviews *The book will appeal to any devoted gardener, and it also serves as an inviting snapshot of a place -- Eric Liebetrau * Kirkus Reviews *
£17.09
HarperCollins Publishers Going Wild in Woolly Bush: Bernard and Barbara's
Book Synopsis Nudinits is back with a guide to getting it all out in the open. Bernard and Barbara, from the eccentric village of Woolly Bush, deep in the English countryside, are here to give you some helpful reflections on outdoor life. Woolly Bush has all the standard features of a typical village – the cake shop, the vegetable show, the vicar – apart from two big differences: it’s all made of wool, and none of the characters have clothes on! With all the usual bare-bottomed fun from nudinits, brimming with double entendres and jollity, this outdoorsy set of pictures and comments will have you laughing out loud. Bursting with British eccentricity and the odd bare bottom, this enchanting book will appeal to humour-lovers and knitting fans alike. N.B. This book does not contain any knitting patterns. For nudinits knitting patterns, check out Nudinits: Bare-bottomed Fun from the Village of Woolly Bush and Nudinits: A Naughty Knitted Noel.Trade Review‘Filled to the brim with bare-bottomed fun, these knitted tales of village life, complete with hilarious captions, will be sure to get you giggling’ -- Let's Knit‘If you are looking for some cheeky fun, you need to grab a copy of Going Wild in Woolly Bush’ -- Knit Now‘A cheeky treat for any knitter. Keep calm, avert your eye if necessary and carry on crafting’ -- Knitting
£7.19
Orion Publishing Co Seasons of My Life
Book SynopsisThe classic, No.1 bestselling and much-loved memoir by Hannah Hauxwell about life in remote Yorkshire in the 1970s.''The world''s favourite Daleswoman'' YORKSHIRE POST''She brings the reader back to the essentials'' MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS''Hannah''s humility, simplicity and strange accent - a mix of Yorkshire and Northumbrian with a Scandinavian lilt - touched many viewers ... Hannah''s attachment to Low Birk Hatt remained with her for life: My heart and soul will always be up on the Dales, ''COUNTRYFILE MAGAZINEHannah Hauxwell first came to the nation''s attention on Yorkshire television''s award-winning documentary TOO LONG A WINTER, when she captured the hearts and imaginations of millions who were captivated by her ability to single-handedly run her family''s farm in an isolated area in Yorkshire. Since the age of 35, following the deaths of her parents and uncle, she lived a self-sufficient life withTrade ReviewThe world's favourite Daleswoman * YORKSHIRE POST *When Hannah Hauxwell speaks, people listen. She possesses a quality which cannot properly be defined * THE JOURNAL *Yorkshire farmer and recluse, Hannah Hauxwell lived a hard life, alone on her small Pennine farm - until she became an unlikely TV star in the 1970s ... Hannah's humility, simplicity and strange accent - a mix of Yorkshire and Northumbrian with a Scandinavian lilt - touched many viewers ... Hannah's attachment to Low Birk Hatt remained with her for life: "My heart and soul will always be up on the Dales," * COUNTRYFILE MAGAZINE *Anyone who watched the amazing documentary will want to read SEASONS OF MY LIFE * LANCASHIRE MAGAZINE *She brings the reader back to the essentials * MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS *[Hauxwell] was living a harsh existence as a hill farmer in the Yorkshire Dales, without electricity or running water, when the 1973 television documentary Too Long a Winter turned her into a national celebrity * GUARDIAN *When Hannah Hauxwell speaks, people listen. She possesses a quality which cannot properly be defined. -- David Whetstone * The Journal (Newcastle) *
£10.48
Indiana University Press Reconsidering Untouchability
Book SynopsisToward a new history of caste and untouchabilityTrade Review"Reconsidering Untouchability overall stands as an authoritative challenge to conventional accounts of Dalit history." —American Historical Review"This engaging historiography of Dalit identity in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in northern India is a significant contribution to understanding the situation of the "untouchables" in Indian society as a whole." —Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies"Rawat's Reconsidering Untouchability is a valuable addition to [the] recent tradition of caste interpretation... [He] elicits from the history of the Chamars of... Uttar Pradesh a historiographical and sociological position which is both viable and distinctive, identifies new departures for a history of 'untouchability' itself, and defends the position from challenges." —Ssheej Hegde, Central University Hyderabad, H-Asia, H-Net Reviews, April 2012"Challenges and revises our understanding of the historical and contemporary role of dalits in Indian society. A pathbreaking book that rightfully restores the historical agency of and gives voice to dalits in north India." —Anand A. Yang, University of Washington"A timely and important contribution to the study of modern India. Rawat’s excellent and revisionist piece of Dalit history successfully overturns the stereotypical image of Chamars as leather-workers. It also helps us to understand why the ex-untouchables of north India came to invest in a politics of identity that challenged both nationalists and socialists alike." —Dipesh Chakrabarty, University of Chicago"Awarded the Joseph W. Elder Prize in the Indian Social Sciences, Ramnarayan Rawat's Reconsidering Untouchability charts a new trajectory for scholarship on Dalitis in North India." —The Journal of Asian StudiesTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Untouchable Boundaries: Chamars and the Politics of Identity and History1. Making Chamars Criminal: The Crime of Cattle Poisoning2. Investigating the Stereotype: Chamar Peasants and Agricultural Laborers3. Is the Leather Industry a Chamar Enterprise? The Making of Leatherworkers4. Struggle for Identities: Chamar Histories and Politics5. From Chamars to Dalits: The Making of an Achhut Identity and Politics, 192756Conclusion: Overcoming Domination: The Emergence of a New Achhut IdentityAppendix: Statistical TablesGlossaryNotesBibliographyIndex
£19.79
Penguin Books Ltd Akenfield
Book Synopsis''The best portrait of rural life in England'' Roger Deakin''Exquisite'' John Updike''The finest contemporary writer on the English countryside'' ObserverRonald Blythe''s perceptive and vivid evocation of the rural Suffolk he had known since childhood was acclaimed as an instant classic when it was published in 1969. It reverberates with the voices of the village inhabitants, from the reminiscences of survivors of the Great War evoking days gone by, to the concerns of a younger generation of farm-workers and the fascinating and personal recollections of, among others, the local schoolteacher, doctor, blacksmith, saddler, district nurse and magistrate. Providing insights into the land, education, welfare, class, religion and death, Akenfield forms a unique document of a way of life that has, in many ways, disappeared.Trade ReviewA hundred years from now, anyone wanting to know how things were on the land will turn more profitably to Akenfield than to a sheaf of anaemically professional social surveys. * the Guardian *Blythe lovingly opens the curtains of legend and landscape, revealing the inner, almost clandestine, spirit of the village behind. His book consists of direct-speech monologues, delivered by 49 Suffolk residents, and interpretatively linked by the author. The effect is one of astonishing immediacy: it is as if those country people have looked up for a moment from their plow, lawnmower or kitchen sink, and are talking directly (and disturbingly frankly) to the reader -- Jan Morris * The New York Times *Exquisite -- John Updike
£9.99
Harvard University, Asia Center Eating Rice from Bamboo Roots
Book SynopsisEyferth charts the vicissitudes of a rural community of papermakers in Sichuan, tracing the changes in the distribution of knowledge that led to a massive transfer of technical control from villages to cities, from primary producers to managerial elites, and from women to men.
£32.26
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Servants in Rural Europe: 1400-1900
Book SynopsisThis is the first book to survey the experience of servants in rural Europe from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century. This is the first book to survey the experience of servants in rural Europe from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century. Live-in servants were a distinctive element of early modern society. They were typically young adults aged between 16 and 24 who lived and worked in other people's households before marriage. Servants tended to be employed for long periods, several months to years at a time, and were paid with food and lodging as well as cash wages. Both women and men worked as servants in large numbers. Unlike domestic servants in towns and wealthy households, rural servants typically worked on farms and were an important element of the agricultural workforce. Historians have viewed service as a distinct life-cycle stage between childhood and marriage. It brought both freedom and servility for young people. It allowed them to leave home and earn a living before marriage, whilst learning a range of agricultural and craft skills which reduced their dependence on their parents and increased their choice in marriage partners. Still, servants had limited rights: they were under the authority of their employer, with a similar legal status to children. In many countries the employment of servants was tightly controlled by law. Servants could demand their wages, and leave when the contract ended, but had to work long hours and had little say in their work tasksduring employment. While some servants effectively became family members, trusted and cared for, others were abused physically and sexually by their employers. This collection features a range of methodologies, reflecting the variety of source materials and approaches available to historians of this topic in a range of European countries and time periods. Nonetheless, it demonstrates the strong common themes that emerge from studying servants and will be of particular interest to historians of work, gender, the family, agriculture, economic development, youth and social structure. JANE WHITTLE is Professor of Rural History at the University of Exeter. Contributors: CHRISTINE FERTIG, JEREMY HAYHOE, SARAH HOLLAND, THIJS LAMBRECHT, CHARMIAN MANSELL, HANNE ØSTHUS, RICHARD PAPING, CRISTINA PRYTZ, RAFFAELLA SARTI, CAROLINA UPPENBERG, LIES VERVAET, JANE WHITTLETrade ReviewLinked by common themes and rigorous methodologies, the chapters of Servants in Rural Europe: 1400-1900 also constitute independent studies, each amply documented and illustrated by graphs, tables, and microhistories that will constitute an indispensable mine of data and ideas for specialists. * HISTOIRE SOCIALE/SOCIAL HISTORY *This book is a welcome contribution to the existing literature on the history of servanthood. * JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY HISTORY *Taken together, the chapters provide an innovative analysis of the nature of live-in service within the agrarian economy and make a valuable contribution to early modern economic history. Scholars of women's history, economic history, and social history will find the articles particularly useful and insightful. * CHOICE *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Servants in the Economy and Society of Rural Europe - Jane Whittle The Employment of Servants in Fifteenth- and Sixteenth-Century Coastal Flanders: A Case-Study of Scueringhe Farm near Bruges - Lies Vervaet The Institution of Service in Rural Flanders in the Sixteenth Century: A Regional Perspective - Thijs Lambrecht A Different Pattern of Employment: Servants in Rural England c.1500-1660 - Jane Whittle Female Service and the Village Community in South-West England 1550-1650: The Labour Laws Reconsidered - Charmian Mansell Life-cycle Servant and Servant for Life: Work and Prospects in Rural Sweden c. 1670-1730 - Christina Prytz Servants in Rural Norway, c.1650-1800 - Hanne Osthus Rural Servants in Eighteenth-Century Münsterland, Northwestern Germany: Households, Families and Servants in the Countryside - Christine Fertig Rural Servants in Eastern France 1700-1872: Change and Continuity over Two Centuries - Jeremy Hayhoe The Servant Institution during the Swedish Agrarian Revolution: The Political Economy of Subservience - Carolina Uppenberg Farm service and hiring practices in mid nineteenth-century England: The Doncaster Region in the West Riding of Yorkshire - Sarah Holland Dutch Live-In Farm Servants in the Long Nineteenth Century: The Decline of the Life-Cycle Service System for the Rural Lower Class - Richard Paping Rural Life-Cycle Service: Established Interpretations and New (Surprising) Data: The Italian Case in Comparative Perspective (Sixteenth to Twentieth Centuries) - Raffaella Sarti Select Bibliography
£23.74
Stanford University Press Violence and Order on the Chengdu Plain: The
Book SynopsisIn 1939, residents of a rural village near Chengdu watched as Lei Mingyuan, a member of a violent secret society known as the Gowned Brothers, executed his teenage daughter. Six years later, Shen Baoyuan, a sociology student at Yenching University, arrived in the town to conduct fieldwork on the society that once held sway over local matters. She got to know Lei Mingyuan and his family, recording many rare insights about the murder and the Gowned Brothers' inner workings. Using the filicide as a starting point to examine the history, culture, and organization of the Gowned Brothers, Di Wang offers nuanced insights into the structures of local power in 1940s rural Sichuan. Moreover, he examines the influence of Western sociology and anthropology on the way intellectuals in the Republic of China perceived rural communities. By studying the complex relationship between the Gowned Brothers and the Chinese Communist Party, he offers a unique perspective on China's transition to socialism. In so doing, Wang persuasively connects a family in a rural community, with little overt influence on national destiny, to the movements and ideologies that helped shape contemporary China.Trade Review"Di Wang's rich volume on the Sichuan Paoge offers a major contribution to the history of Chinese secret societies. Based in part on the fascinating thesis of a sociology student at Yenching University, the study brilliantly illuminates the complex linkages between rural society and culture, the limits of local government, and Western-inspired intellectual efforts to arrive at a new understanding of peasant life." -- David Ownby * author of Brotherhoods and Secret Societies in Early and Mid-Qing China *"Violence and Order on the Chengdu Plain is the first monograph in English that is solely dedicated to the study of paoge, one of the most influential secret societies in the upper- and middle-Yangzi regions in pre-1949 China. An elegant microhistory, this work weaves an intimate study with larger social and political contexts involving rebellions, revolutions, foreign invasion, state penetration, and peasant resistance that characterized twentieth-century China." -- Huaiyin Li * University of Texas at Austin *"Without doubt, Di Wang's new book represents an excellent example of a microhistory writing in the field of modern Chinese history." -- Shaofan An * Frontiers of History in China *"Every once in a blue moon, this reviewer finishes a book and thinks: 'Now this is the kind of book I aspire to write.' Di Wang's Violence and Order on the Chengdu Plain is one of those rare books....Full of pathos and interwoven with complex narratives, Violence and Order is rich in anthropological and sociological data collected in the 1930s and 1940s, and complete with entertaining and humanizing historical anecdotes." -- Kelly Hammond * China Review International *"Violence and Order on the Chengdu Plain is an illuminating study of how secret societies operated in early twentieth-century Sichuan and how they have been understood....[The book] adds to the recent flourishing of studies of Sichuan in the Republican period." -- Henrietta Harrison * Journal of Asian Studies *"Violence and Order on the Chengdu Plain is a far-reaching contribution to scholarship on secret societies, local governance, popular culture, and rural society in the first half of China's twentieth century that deserves to be widely read, by both specialists and nonspecialists alike." -- Benno R. Weiner * Twentieth-Century China *"Wang has made an impressive contribution to our understanding of Chinese secret societies, specifically the Paoge....this book is highly readable and is a welcome addition to the historiography of modern China." -- Hongyan Xiang * Pacific Affairs *Table of ContentsContents and AbstractsIntroduction: Two Voices Joined in the Chengdu Plain chapter abstractThe academic disciplines of sociology and anthropology took root in 1920s China under the influence of American scholars and missionaries. Among these pioneers were Shen Baoyuan's teachers in the Department of Sociology at Yenching University in Beijing. Under their influence, Shen aspired to become a "rural activist" and went to the countryside to learn about rural issues from peasants. In the summer of 1945 she traveled to the village she called Hope Township in the Chengdu Plain, Sichuan Province, to investigate the Gowned Brothers. This introduction discusses past scholarship of secret societies and traces the intellectual origins of Shen's investigation that built the academic foundation for her fieldwork. 1A Public Execution chapter abstractShen Baoyuan created the pseudonym Hope Township to protect the privacy of the people she investigated. However, based on the information in her report as well as other historical sources, this chapter confirms that Hope Township is in fact Chongyiqiao, a northern suburb of Chengdu. Lei Mingyuan, the central personality in Shen's report and head of the local branch of the Gowned Brothers, publicly lynched his daughter and the young tailor who worked for the family in response to rumors that the two were engaged in an affair. Despite the brutal and brazen nature of his crimes, however, Lei did not face any charges. This chapter details the horrific crime and its ramifications, looking at the problematic prevalence of lynching and the rule of law at the time. 2A Local Band of the Gowned Brothers chapter abstractThe Chengdu Plain, in rural western Sichuan, was one of the most affluent areas in all of inland China. All aspects of geography, ecology, economy, lifestyle, and local culture and customs enhanced the development and survival of the Gowned Brothers, who thrived here. This chapter describes these factors as well as the growth of the secret society. The organization was founded in the early Qing period with the goal of "overthrowing the Qing and restoring the Ming." In its long struggle against the Qing government, the Gowned Brothers developed a solid organizational structure and extensive power network. A large proportion of Sichuan's male population were members and played an active role in local control and security. This chapter documents how this secret society assumed and enforced dominance of local communities. 3Spirituality and Customs chapter abstractThis chapter explores the spiritual beliefs and actions of the Gowned Brothers and looks at how these reinforced the secret society's power structure. Paoge members took what was traditional and fashioned a variety of specialized rites and customs for themselves. Over the past forty or so years, historians and students of Chinese society have taken a much-needed neutral, in some sense anthropological, stance toward China's broad landscape of rites, beliefs, and religious and ceremonial practices. This chapter turns to the unique observations of Shen Baoyuan, who was fascinated with what many in academe of her time thought of as arcane and superstitious ploys. It begins with a short sketch of how traditional rites and beliefs were acted out in the Paoge's own local areas. Popular religions were closely tied to local culture, and the Gowned Brothers worshipped Guandi, which brought members together to fight for a common goal. 4Secret Codes and Language chapter abstractIn her investigation, Shen Baoyuan documented unique words used by Paoge members in everyday life, rituals, and communication, often referred to as "black words" or "hidden lingo." Her 1946 report explained pointed out that the very name of the Paoge originates from an agenda of "national spirit" and "revolutionary ideas," which was a way to refer to the anti-Manchu revolution. Haidi, documenting the organization's history, language, structure, and other information, was the organization's canonical text. The Gowned Brothers created their own language, which reflected their unique political ideas, identity, and historical narratives and provided a covert means of communication. This chapter analyzes the development and role of their secret language as well as the political implications. 5Disciplines and Dominance chapter abstractMembers of the Gowned Brothers reinforced their solidarity and internal stability through strict regulations, codes of conduct, and rituals for meetings and other activities. Any member who violated them would be harshly punished or even executed. This chapter examines these regulations and their chilling effect on nearly every type of behavior. Paoge members actively participated in stabilizing local order. The parties involved in a dispute usually did not pursue justice through a formal, forensic process, but instead went to a teahouse for "negotiation tea." This practice was an important means through which Paoge members learned about current events and kept order in even the smallest of neighborhoods. As prominent members of the community, the brothers challenged official judicial power in this role. This chapter describes the Paoge's mediation process and its effect on local jurisprudence. 6A Tenant Farmer and Paoge Master chapter abstractThis chapter examines Lei Mingyuan's economic situation as his leadership in the Gowned Brothers grew. Scholars generally believed that a tenant belonged to the economic class of poor peasants, but Lei, as a tenant farmer, did not actually do fieldwork. Instead, he hired four short-term laborers, whom he paid on a daily basis. Contrary to the assumption that a leader of the secret society would at least be economically well-to-do, Lei did not fit any category of the rural class division established by the Chinese Communist Party during the Land Revolution in the early 1950s. He rose to power primarily through success in fighting bandits. 7Entering the Paoge chapter abstractThis chapter describes the dynamics that led the Paoge worldview and policies that took hold in the Lei family. Although Lei Mingyuan was a Paoge leader, he was not omnipotent, according to Shen Baoyuan's observations in her 1946 report. He was imperceptibly influenced by social constraints, but he had to support his family and fulfill family obligations. Rice cultivation was the primary focus of those who lived in Hope Township, and the home Lei shared with his second wife, Woman Lei, was surrounded by bamboo groves and paddies. Woman Lei was literate and stern, the survivor of a great tragedy in her first marriage. Her demeanor and shrewdness enhanced the family's ability to establish Lei's reputation as a leader in the organization. 8The Decline of Power chapter abstractThis chapter describes the events that sealed Lei Mingyuan's grim demise, through the lens of the larger framework of leadership in the Gowned Brothers. Given his apparent lifestyle and role in his village from about 1939 to 1945, Lei was incapable of maintaining his responsibilities. Covering up his growing financial and leadership problems, Lei lost his economic freedom when his paddy fields of about seven acres were transferred to another tenant as a result of his failure to pay rent. One might assume that a landlord would not dare enforce the rules against a man as powerful as Lei, but in reality all landholders, despite their status, were subject to the same standards. As Lei's personal economic situation weakened, the financial support he had provided his subordinates diminished, thus causing his political power to wane as well. 9A Family Crisis and a Rural Woman's Fate chapter abstractLei Mingyuan understood that his leadership position in the Gowned Brothers depended on the strength of his reputation. His need to "save face" had driven him to carry out the public execution of his daughter and her presumed lover. This chapter weaves together other stories and details of community life revealing that the women in Lei's family suffered under his tyranny. Lei's economic and political instability drew him into a life of decadence: he began taking opium, further escalating his personal financial crisis. Notoriety resulted for Lei family when their servant girl ran away, further diminishing Lei's reputation and authority. Lei was indifferent to his family's suffering and sought a concubine. Woman Lei resisted, however, and garnered the support from other Gowned Brothers, leading Lei Mingyuan to abort his plan. Eventually, the couple reconciled and the Lei family moved to a shabby house in a neighborhood of coolies. 10Fall of the Paoge chapter abstractThis chapter explores how the Communists established their control in rural China. Knowledge of the transition from the Nationalist regime to the socialist state has centered on major cities, and there has been little understanding of how the CCP extended its power into the countryside. This chapter reveals that the Paoge did not confront the CCP upon its arrival on the Chengdu Plain; rather, the organization quietly watched the situation unfold. When the new regime imposed a grain tax, however, the group led resistance in what the Communist discourse called the "bandit riots." Although the Paoge had many connections with the Communist revolution, the CCP could not tolerate its antiestablishment tradition and was determined to destroy the organization entirely. 11Looking for the Storyteller chapter abstractThis book is primarily concerned with two people: Paoge leader Lei Mingyuan (and his family) and Shen Baoyuan, the storyteller. This chapter provides important, new information on Shen and her 1946 report. Lei and Shen lived in two completely different worlds, with different geographical, educational, social, and economic backgrounds, but they intersected in the summer of 1945. One was investigated and described; the other was the investigator and narrator. Both played a role in retelling an untold, powerful piece of human history. The book is also a three-way narrative: in addition to Lei and Shen, there is the author, who engages the dialogue and attempts to understand the Paoge leader Lei Mingyuan through Shen Baoyuan's perspective. 12Untangling Paoge Myth chapter abstractThis chapter's comprehensive examination of texts and narratives aids the understanding of how the public's perception of the Gowned Brothers was constructed over the centuries. These materials reveal the complex relationship between the Chinese Communist Party and the Paoge. In her report Shen Baoyuan harshly criticized the Paoge in Hope Township, but she found a reason to be hopeful by the fresh ideas presented in Righteous Monthly, a journal published by the organization in Chengdu. At the time, however, Shen did not realize that the journal actually was controlled by the CCP. More than six decades have passed since the Paoge was obliterated. However, during the post-Mao reform the CCP gradually loosened its control, leaving a prime opportunity for the revival of at least some secret societies in China.
£23.39
Profile Books Ltd The Appeal: The smash-hit bestseller
Book SynopsisTHE SUNDAY TIMES CRIME BOOK OF THE YEAR WINNER OF THE 2022 CWA JOHN CREASEY NEW BLOOD DAGGER ONE MURDER. FIFTEEN SUSPECTS. CAN YOU UNCOVER THE TRUTH? There is a mystery to solve in the sleepy town of Lower Lockwood. It starts with the arrival of two secretive newcomers, and ends with a tragic death. Roderick Tanner QC has assigned law students Charlotte and Femi to the case. Someone has already been sent to prison for murder, but he suspects that they are innocent. And that far darker secrets have yet to be revealed... Throughout the amateur dramatics society's disastrous staging of All My Sons and the shady charity appeal for a little girl's medical treatment, the murderer hid in plain sight. The evidence is all there, waiting to be found. But will Charlotte and Femi solve the case? Will you? 'Agatha Christie for the 21st century' THE TIMES 'Witty, clever and completely addictive' MAIL ON SUNDAY 'Gripping, ambitious and unusual' SOPHIE HANNAHTrade ReviewThis dazzlingly clever cosy crime novel in emails completely trumps Richard Osman... Hallett uses the epistolatory form to superb effect in this terrific debut * Sunday Times *Agatha Christie for the 21st century. A dazzlingly clever murder mystery, told via emails, about sinister goings-on in an amateur dramatics group * The Times *Witty, clever and completely addictive * Mail on Sunday *This witty thriller is giving Richard Osmond's Thursday Murder Club a run for its money in the cosy crime stakes, as it continues to charm readers. Hallett's debut, set in a sleepy town where an am-dram production of All My Sons is in the works, is funny and full of twists. Amateur sleuths and thespians alike will love it * Evening Standard *It's hilarious, intriguing and absolutely unputdownable * Stylist *This ingeniously conceived whodunnit encourages the reader to turn detective in a murder case set against the backdrop of an amateur dramatic club. Brain-twistingly clever * Metro *If you're looking for a crime novel that is very different but very satisfying I thoroughly recommend The Appeal by Janice Hallett. I loved it -- Elly Griffiths, bestselling author of THE POSTSCRIPT MURDERSThe whole thing is a delight... Teasing out the mystery in the madness is nearly as fun as searching for the solution * New York Times (Best Books of 2022) *A breath of fresh air in the thriller market. Cleverly constructed - because it is not only about what is being said, but also about what is not being said - it is peopled with characters who are both believable and relatable, including a murderer hidden in plain sight. A literary triumph -- B.A. Paris, author of BEHIND CLOSED DOORSVery gripping. I loved the ambitious and unusual approach -- Sophie Hannah, bestselling author of HAVEN'T THE GROWN[A] daring debut... Hallett will soon have you laughing out loud... The Appeal is clever and funny * The Times *This debut mystery from British author Hallett is a kick: a whodunit epistolary novel in which a pair of young lawyers sort through a mountain of emails, messages and letters to try to sort out a mysterious death in an amateur theatrical troupe * Seattle Times *I couldn't put it down. [Hallett's] take on the epistolary novel is so involving AND funny at the right moments. Puts the reader right in the thick of it, as we become the spyware eavesdropping on all these private emails and messages. Brilliant idea and SO cleverly executed -- Diane Setterfield, author of ONCE UPON A RIVERIf you're looking for something insanely gripping to take to the sofa with, then run to The Appeal by Janice Hallett. It's a brilliantly fresh, ingenious and original whodunnit that is heading to the top of the bestseller chart if there's any justice. So, so good -- India Knight, author of IN YOUR PRIMEThe Appeal grips from the start, expertly stage-managing emails and messages to create an intriguing mystery with a cast of vivid, memorable characters. Original, clever, devious - and never less than utterly compelling - this is a case you're about to become obsessed with. A real triumph -- Alex North, bestselling author of THE WHISPER MANTakes the whodunnit to a whole new level. Intriguing, clever and above all, wholly original. A rare feat indeed, and to be savoured -- Elizabeth Haynes, bestselling author of INTO THE DARKEST CORNEROne of the most enjoyable books I've read all year. Extremely addictive, it will reel you in, one piece of evidence at a time. Ingenious and highly original -- Alex Pavesi, author of EIGHT DETECTIVESWholly original, constructed as delicately as a spiderweb, and as heartfelt as it is intelligent, I could not stop reading The Appeal -- Catriona Ward, author of THE LAST HOUSE ON NEEDLESS STREETFiendishly clever, highly original and totally gripping -- Cass Green, bestselling author of IN A COTTAGE IN A WOODSly, funny, perfectly observed and clever. A superior and sophisticated Midsomer Murders packed with delicious red herrings -- Kate Griffin, author of KITTY PECK AND THE MUSIC HALL MURDERSWhat a book. It has galvanised me to do better! Exceptional -- Matt Wesolowski, author of SIX STORIESFresh, funny and impossible to put down. The Appeal is about an amateur dramatics group and an appeal to raise funds for a sick child and it's brilliant -- Mark Edwards, bestselling author of THE HOUSE GUESTBrilliantly crafted, The Appeal is a refreshingly different take on the modern crime novel. Full of suspicion and secrets, I raced my way to the end - and what an ending! -- Lisa Hall, author of THE PARTYWhat a cracking book. Fresh, original and very clever -- Mel Sherratt, author of TAUNTING THE DEADBrilliantly original, inventive and clever. I loved this book and you will too -- Phoebe Morgan, author of THE DOLL HOUSEIngenious and page-turning traditional crime given an original twist... like a modernised Agatha Christie -- Maxim Jakubowski, CRIME TIMEHighly original with characters that leap off the page. An addictive read -- Michelle Frances, author of THE GIRLFRIENDI loved this - it's utterly compulsive and unlike anything I've read in a while. It is such a cliché to say it, but I genuinely could NOT put it down. Bravo -- Katie Lowe, author of THE FURIESA very clever novel that puts you in the place of an investigator. A hugely enjoyable challenge and a most original book -- Jane Lythell, author of THE LIE OF YOUA totally original take on a thriller - intriguing and dark but with a dash of humour - I raced through it -- Catherine Cooper, author of THE CHALETA wonderfully revealing portrait of how we communicate - what we hide and show of ourselves. It's sharp, funny, a brilliant game, and once you start playing you won't be able to stop -- Rachel Elliot, author of WHISPERS THROUGH A MEGAPHONESo cleverly written. I felt like I was a trainee lawyer sifting through evidence and trying to discover the culprit. It was exciting, fresh, and forces the reader to be an active investigator. I loved it -- Louise Mullins, author of I KNOW YOUWhat a book. Right up there with the best I've read this year. Great characters, smart structure, and kept me guessing all the way to the end -- Dan Malakin, author of THE REGRETA brilliant hybrid of Agatha Christie and Silk -- Guy Morpuss, author of BLACK LAKE MANORI haven't enjoyed a book this much since Standard Deviation. Congratulations, Janice Hallett! -- Louise Voss, author of THE LAST STAGEFantastic. Gives you that deliciously satisfying feeling of reading other people's private emails -- S.V. Leonard, author of THE ISLANDERSAn utterly compelling whodunnit putting the reader at the centre of the action. A must read for thriller fans. A blistering, page-turner of a debut -- Michael Wood, author of THE SEVENTH VICTIMHighly original... for a first novel it is a tour de force * Crime Review *Will have you reading between the lines to discover whose hands are covered in blood * USA Today (Best Beach Reads) *
£9.49
Zeticula Ltd Kintyre Country Life
Book SynopsisWhen it was first published in 1987, this picture of the lives of country folk from the eighteenth century to the early twentieth completed a trilogy on the history and culture of the author's native Kintyre. The material, from both oral and written sources, tells of everyday lives - working the land, raising livestock, building and furnishing homes, finding fuel and preparing food and celebrating special days. There are also accounts of sheep-stealing, shinty battles, and violent encounters between excise-men and the distillers - and smugglers - of illicit whisky. Illustrated with maps of the peninsula and photographs and reproductions taken or collected by the author
£12.95
Canelo The Tanglewood Wedding Shop: A gorgeously
Book SynopsisSomething old, something new, something borrowed, something untrue…Edie has enough on her plate keeping her tyrannical boss happy at Moira’s Wedding Shop. So when society bride Tia begs Edie to design her wedding dress – and keep it a secret from the domineering mother-in-law to be – Edie reluctantly says ‘I will’ to making Tia’s dream come true. If her deception is found out, though, it would mean losing her job…Meanwhile best man James has his eye on Edie and he’s proving ever harder for her to resist. James is upper-crust and Edie’s one unexpected bill away from the breadline – they’re from completely different worlds and there’s no way it can ever work between them… right?A charming, feel-good romance for fans of Daisy James, Holly Martin and Portia MacIntosh.
£9.49
David R. Godine Publisher Inc Lucy's Summer
Book SynopsisTake your children back to 1910 for an old-fashioned New England summer in the country, complete with a July Fourth parade.Poet laureate Donald Hall (author of The Ox-Cart Man and other classics of country life) grew up spending his summers on his grandfather’s farm in rural New Hampshire. It was there he milked cows, raised sheep, and heard stories about the past that are brought to life in this read-aloud picture book for young children.In that long-ago time, the biggest celebration of the year was the July Fourth celebration in Danbury, New Hampshire—complete with flags, marching bands, speeches, and ice cream. A trip to Boston, where toys could be bought for a penny apiece, was a major event. This is a piece of Americana that will bring readers—and listeners—back to a simpler time when pleasure came from making as much as buying, where politics were truly local, and when worth was determined by character, not price.Published in the same format and with the same delightful handcolored scratchboard illustrations by Michael McCurdy as Donald Hall’s Lucy’s Christmas, this is a wonderful way to share old-time summer traditions and history with your child.
£10.99
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Agricultural Knowledge Networks in Rural Europe,
Book SynopsisAn examination of how farming expertise could be shared and extended, over four centuries. All kinds of knowledge, from traditional know-how to modern science, are socially contingent and the product of an age-long and permanent social struggle. This book unravels the creation and the exchange of agronomic knowledge in rural Europe, from the early eighteenth century up until the end of the twentieth. It explores the spreading of knowing through the lens of "knowledge networks": where did agricultural knowledge come from and how did one learn to run a farm? Who was involved in this process of knowledge exchange? Which strategies and communicative methods were employed and what kind of networks were active? The answers to these questions mirror, as the book illustrates, the inventiveness of the actors on the scene: the creativity of a French naturalist in establishing links with local farmers to stop the circulation of a devastating grain moth, the power of the agricultural press to instill "proper values" into Hungarian farming practices or to shape the identity of the Galician agrarian movement, and the agency of post-war British farmers in selecting their own information, from sources such as lectures to the Young Farmers' Club, visits by public advisors and representatives of commercial firms, and radio programs. From the start of the agricultural Enlightenment, increasingly farmers have been besieged by a growing army of experts, telling them what to do, when and how. In a sense farming has become one of the most patronised professions. But farmers can resist and carve their own path. The chapters here reveal the continuous tensions between science-based agriculture and practice-based farming, between the expert image of an ideal agriculture and the (less known) self-image of being a good farmer. The dominant process, as this book shows, is that of an instrumental top-down transmission of knowledge from "the lab to the field". But between these two poles, complex and flourishing networks developed, functioning as trading zones in which knowledge and experience could be circulated, put to the test, forgotten, altered, rejected - and sometimes imposed.Trade Review[G]ive[s] us much food for thought and points the way to further studies and collaborations in rural Europe, an interesting time to be doing so as the United Kingdom leaves the Common Agricultural Policy. -- LANDSCAPES[...] readers will find value in every chapter, which all offer clear, thoughtful and well-researched histories of farming knowledge. * AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Knowledge and its Networks in Rural Europe: From the Early Eighteenth to the Late Twentieth Century - Yves Segers and Leen Van Molle Agricultural Literature in Scandinavia and the Anglo-Saxon Countries as an Indicator of a Deep-Rooted Economic Enlightenment, c.1700-1800 - Janken Myrdal Peasant Eyes: A Critique of the Agricultural Enlightenment - Verena Lehmbrock Fighting the Angoumois Grain Moth: Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau and his Network of Entomological Observers - Pierre-Etienne Stockland 'Promoting and Accelerating the Progress of Agriculture': A Case Study of Agricultural Societies in the Doncaster District, South Yorkshire, England - Sarah Holland 'Proper Values' in Agriculture: The Role of Agricultural Associations in Knowledge Dissemination in Hungary, 1830-1880 - Zsuzsanna Kiss 'The Eye of the Master'. Livestock Improvement and Knowledge Networks in Belgium, 1900-1940 - Dries Claeys and Yves Segers Bridging Rural Culture and Expert Culture: The Agrarian Press in Galicia, c.1900-c.1950 - Miguel Cabo and Lourenzo Fernández Prieto Farmers Facing a Body of Expertise: the Activities and Methods of the Departmental Services for Agriculture in Oise (France), 1945-1955 - Laurent Herment Technical Change and Knowledge Networks in England, 1945-1980s - Paul Brassley Communicating an Innovation: Building Dutch Progeny Testing Stations for Pigs - Steven van der Laan
£76.00
Pan Macmillan A Fortunate Woman: A Country Doctor’s Story - The
Book SynopsisShortlisted for the Baillie Gifford PrizeThe Top Ten BestsellerWaterstones Non-Fiction Book of the MonthA Sunday Times Paperback of the Year ‘If you want to read a book that moves you both at the level of sentence and the quality of language and with the emotional depth of its subject matter, then A Fortunate Woman is definitely the book you should be reading’ - Samanth Subramanian, Baillie Gifford judgeWhen Polly Morland is clearing out her mother’s house she finds a book that will lead her to a remarkable figure living on her own doorstep: the country doctor who works in the same remote, wooded valley she has lived in for many years. This doctor is a rarity in contemporary medicine – she knows her patients inside out, and their stories are deeply entwined with her own.In A Fortunate Woman, with its beautiful photographs by Richard Baker, Polly Morland has written a profoundly moving love letter to a landscape, a community and, above all, to what it means to be a good doctor.‘Morland writes about nature and the changing landscape with such lyrical precision that her prose sometimes seems close to poetry’ - Christina Patterson, The Sunday Times‘Timely . . . compelling . . . a delicately drawn miniature’ - Financial Times‘This book deepens our understanding of the life and thoughts of a modern doctor, and the modern NHS, and it expands movingly to chronicle a community and a landscape’ - Kathleen Jamie, New StatesmanTrade ReviewMorland writes about nature and the changing landscape with such lyrical precision that her prose sometimes seems close to poetry . . . There has been no shortage in recent years of books about healthcare . . . With this gem, Morland has done something similar for general practice. Let’s just hope the policymakers listen. -- Christina Patterson * Sunday Times *The doctor's kindly, holistic approach - she makes time to investigate her patients' social as well as physical needs - seems to evoke a lost world . . . Morland's book contains a profound message for the future at a critical moment for general practice and us all. -- Wendy Moore * TLS *This book deepens our understanding of the life and thoughts of a modern doctor, and the modern NHS, and it expands movingly to chronicle a community and a landscape – “the valley” itself is a defining feature of people’s lives. -- Kathleen Jamie * New Statesman *Polly Morland and Richard Baker have more than done justice to the original John Berger book - and produced a work that stimulates the eye and mind in equal measure. -- Alain de BottonI was consoled and compelled by this book’s steady gaze on healing and caring. The writing is beautiful. -- Sarah Moss, author of Summerwater and Ghost WallSuperb - beautiful, enthralling, careful, tender, a humanitarian act in itself, deeply moral, moving, lucid and loving. -- Laura Cumming, James Tait Black-winner and bestselling Costa-shortlisted author of The Vanishing Man and On Chapel SandsAll human life is here in this evocative portrayal of the challenges and joys of rural family doctoring in modern times. Enthralling and uplifting. -- James LeFanu, author The Rise & Fall of Modern MedicineA Fortunate Woman is the best book I’ve read about general practice for a long time. Astonishingly perceptive, it shows how a committed GP can keep human values alive in an increasingly impersonal NHS – and why we urgently need more like her. -- Professor Roger Neighbour OBE. Past President, Royal College of General PractitionersA vibrant and authentic portrait of the rural family doctor in these difficult contemporary times. -- Trisha Greenhalgh, Professor of Primary Care at the University of OxfordOne of the best books about medicine that I have read. The patients' stories are vivid, moving, often unforgettable. Polly Morland has written with incredible sensitivity, appreciation and descriptive ability about the valley and the people who live there -- Professor Roger Jones OBEA Fortunate Woman is grounded in a legacy of care and compassion for the community served, shared though a compelling narrative based on patient stories. I loved it. -- Prof Dame Helen Stokes-LampardI thought it was stunning in style and content and I hope it encourages all readers to reflect on what I agree is your key message – the importance of relationship-base care and the fact that it is under threat. -- Professor Martin Marshall, Chair of the Royal College of General PractitionersBeautifully and tenderly written, [A Fortunate Woman] also serves as a topical reminder of what is possible with continuity of care. -- Caroline Sanderson, 'Editor's Choice' * Bookseller *
£9.49
Oxford University Press Inc Innovation in Real Places
Book SynopsisTrade Review[A] compelling and timely book * Kevin Morgan, Regional Studies *Want to be an innovation hot spot? Don't copy Silicon Valley... we should remember what innovation is and why we care about it. The first part comes down to realising that innovation is not invention. * John Morgan, The Times Higher Education *The abiding message of Breznitz's book is that it is a mistake to assume that "what works in one time and one place will always work across time and space... a defense of experiments, mistakes, and the right to choose. * William H. Jeneway, Project Syndicate *In this fascinating book, Breznitz, a professor at the Munk School at the University of Toronto, argues that innovation is 'the only way to ensure sustained long-term economic and human-welfare growth'. But, crucially, 'innovation is not invention, nor is it high-tech and the creation of new technology and gadgets". It is "the complete process of taking new ideas and devising new or improved products and services.' This Catholicism gives fascinating insights. * Martin Wolf, Financial Times *This book provides valuable guidance for all governmental or business leaders who are trying to find sustainable solutions in the midst of turbulent circumstances. Technology provides enormous opportunities, but these will be realized only through excellent leadership and management. * Aho Esko, former Prime Minister of Finland *Writing a book with advice to local leaders on how to create innovative ecosystems, which are resistant to the centrifugal forces of globalization, was a brilliant idea. This book proves that a precisely structured narrative can be a powerful tool to communicate the results of excellent academic research. * Marek Belka, former Prime Minister of Poland; Head of the Central Bank of Poland *A must-read book for researchers, mayors, economic developers and all those concerned with building more innovative and inclusive places. Breznitz combines cutting-edge research on innovative clusters and ecosystems, with laser-like focus on what works and what does not. His book provides a much-needed reminder that Silicon Valley is the wrong model: Cities across the world must forged their own unique paths and strategies for innovation and prosperity. * Richard Florida, author of Rise of the Creative Class *Breznitz's brilliant research on innovation and growth strategies coupled with a meticulous focus on explaining what does is means in practical terms for local leaders, makes is a must read for anyone who cares about their community. A truly important book and a highly enjoyable read. * Thierry Mandon, Former Minister of Public Accounts and State Reform and Minister of Higher Education and Research, France *In writing this highly engaging and accessible book, Breznitz has done an important public service. Readers interested in the future of innovation and prosperity will avail themselves of not only the most cutting-edge research, but also understand how it applies to their own community. Breznitz's provocative arguments against the Silicon Valley model and the Venture Capital Industry caused me to nod my head in agreement as the former Chief Scientist of Israel and wince in pain as an active Venture Capitalist at the same time. This's a tour de force and a must read for policy makers and concerned, but hopeful, citizens. * Avi Hasson, former Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Economy of the State of Israel *Finally, a book which is not only a masterful piece of research but is also extremely useful for policy makers. This very well written and superbly research book is a much-needed eye opener for the multiple opportunities that exist in our globalized world. * Victor Sánchez Urrutia, National Secretariat for Science, Technology and Innovation, Panama *Dan Breznitz has written a terrific piece which has influenced my thinking about the varied and multifaceted approaches to innovation that we need dependent on place. * Ro Khanna, Member of Congress *The 'problem with startup ecosystems' says Breznitz, 'is the assumption of homogeneity. They think about their whole population as potential founders of new companies.' They need to instead 'realize that people have experience and capacities at all ages, all backgrounds. What a 45-year-old needs to start a real company is completely different from what three 22-year-olds will need.' This is exactly right-and something that I explore in my own book (if I can get it finished)." * Dane Stangler, Forbes.com *It's what I think the doctor ordered as an exploration for some of the deep social tensions." ~Rob Johnson, president of the Institute for New Economic ThinkingTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction Part I: The State of Innovation Chapter 1: The New Globalization of Innovation Chapter 2: The Silicon Peaches Chapter 3: Startups are Everywhere! (But The Growth Statistics) Chapter 4: Making America Great Again? Part II: Innovation and Prosperity Chapter 5: Four are Better Than One (But First, Let Us Plan It Strategically) Chapter 6: Singing and Designing--Incrementally--Innovation-Based Growth Chapter 7: Out With The Old, In With The New! But in What Ways? Chapter 8: Looking for Better Options: The Science of Innovation Policies and Agencies in a Globally Fragmented World Part III: The Three Dysfunctionals A Short Introduction to Part III Chapter 9: Our Anti-Intellectual Property Rights System Chapter 10: The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions: The Age of Financialization Chapter 11: Data: Why Mining Us is the New Boom and For Whom Conclusion: In Defense of Experiments, Mistakes, and the Right to Choose Index Bibliography
£15.99
Canelo Murder at an Irish Wedding: An unputdownable cosy
Book SynopsisA cunning killer turns a wedding into a wake...Any wedding is a big deal in the County Cork village of Kilbane, but with a local lad marrying a famous fashion model at Kilbane Castle, there’s no talk of anything but the upcoming nuptials. Siobhán O’Sullivan and her five siblings have their plates full catering the three-day affair from their bistro. But the celebratory mood suddenly turns sober when the best man is found murdered in the woods.For Siobhán, the tragic turn is more than grist for the gossip mill. Her beau, Macdara Flannery, is the prime suspect – and she intends to clear his name. Now, like the bride walking down the aisle, Siobhán needs to watch her step. For as she gets closer to unveiling the truth, the murderer is planning a very chilly reception for her.An enthralling cosy village mystery set in County Cork, perfect for fans of Clare Chase and Margaret Mayhew.
£8.54
HarperCollins Publishers The Last Town on Earth
Book SynopsisSet against the dual backdrop of World War I and the devastating 1918 influenza epidemic, ‘The Last Town On Earth’ is a brilliantly drawn tale of morality and patriotism in a time of upheaval.Trade Review'Thomas Mullen is an old-fashioned storyteller, and his epic novel dramatizes the complex tensions between individual rights and group responsibilities. Mullen is both merciless and measured in his depiction of the natural forces that can drag idealism down to earth.' Daily Telegraph 'A subtle, robustly written novel of compelling contemporary resonance. The ensuing crisis involves the entire community, pitting principles against passion, values against instinct.' Observer 'Thomas Mullen's debut novel is an exceptionally powerful portrait of a community losing its soul under intense pressure.' Waterstones Books Quarterly
£11.39
HarperCollins Publishers Confetti at the Cornish Café
Book SynopsisWarm and funny and feel-good. The best sort of holiday read.' Katie FfordeFilled with warm and likeable characters. Great fun!' Jill MansellCan they make this a wedding to remember? Cal and Demi are preparing to turn their beloved Kilhallon Resort into a wedding venue. With the cliff-top setting and coastal views, it''s the perfect place for a magical ceremony.To launch the venue they need something special, and their first clients are no ordinary couple. The bridge and groom are internationally famous actors Lily Craig and Ben Trevone. And they have the demands to match their celebrity status.As the big day approaches and tempers soar, can Demi and Cal ensure that Kilhallon''s first wedding goes off without a hitch? One thing's for sure, this will be a Cornish celebration like no other A gorgeous romance from Sunday Times bestselling author Phillipa Ashley. Perfect for fans of Sarah Morgan, Karen Swan and Heidi Swain. Authors and readers can't get enough of Phillipa Ashley!:Warm and fTrade Review‘Warm and funny and feel-good. The best sort of holiday read’ Katie Fforde ‘Filled with warm and likeable characters. Great fun!’ Jill Mansell ‘An utterly glorious, escapist read from a one of the freshest voices to emerge in women's fiction today. I loved every gorgeous page.’ Claudia Carroll ‘A delicious festive treat with as many twists and turns as a Cornish country lane’ Jules Wake
£9.49
HarperCollins Publishers Rural
Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR NATURE WRITING 2024Eye-opening and persuasive' SUNDAY TIMESBrilliant I loved it' KIT DE WAALThoughtful, moving, honest' CAL FLYN*Winner of The Lakeland Book of the Year 2024*Work in the countryside ties you, soul and salary, to the land. But often those who labour in nature have the least control over what happens there.Why have our rural industries been replaced by tourism? Why can''t people stay living in the places they grew up? In this beautifully observed book, Rebecca Smith traces the stories of foresters and millworkers, miners, builders, farmers and pub owners, to paint a picture of the working class lives that often go overlooked. This is a book for anyone who loves and longs for the countryside.Trade Review‘[An] intelligent, multifaceted exploration of working-class life in the British countryside’Independent ‘Smith beautifully stitches together the beauty, tragedy and comedy that underpins rural communities today making her book a fascinating history lesson’The Scotsman ‘The politics of land ownership and rural economics are complex and Smith deserves credit for grappling with some of this territory within an accessible and thought-provoking narrative. There’s much to enjoy in Rural’The Herald ‘Smith is uniquely positioned to harvest the stories of rural and ex-rural working-class communities and turn them into something approaching magic. Rural ascends to beauty because it manages something more than simple reportage … This book is tender, glowing, vitally important stories whispered into an ear’Kirstin Innes, Press and Journal ‘A brilliant book about another side of working-class life, not a tower block in sight. Clever and honest, tackling slavery, loss and aspiration with humour and candour. I loved it’Kit de Waal, author of My Name is Leon ‘A wonderful book, beautifully conceived … So immediate and clearly seen, so gracefully and gently written … It is such a valuable thing’Adam Nicolson, author of Life Between the Tides ‘A thoughtful, moving, honest book that questions what it means to belong to a place when it can never belong to you … Timely and illuminating’Cal Flyn, author of Islands of Abandonment ‘Tenderly reveals the precarious lives that underpin the beauty and the wealth of our countryside. Essential reading for lovers of the land and its people’Katherine May, author of Wintering ‘A vital, questing book about the often misunderstood past, hard present-day, and possible futures of rural life in the UK’Dan Richards, author of Outpost
£17.09
Emerald Publishing Limited Rural Transport Policy
Book SynopsisAddresses rural transport policy issues in a comprehensive way. The aim of this book is not so much to provide answers to the various transport problems, but to provide a foundation for the formulation of ideas. It sets out to define the key transport issues involved in a rural context, and explores specific policies to deal with the issues.Trade ReviewGlenda Jackson CBE MP This book certainly addresses the most important aspects of the rural dimension of transport, and I am sure that it will make a significant contribution to the debate on rural transport policy. Stephen Essex, University of Plymouth Urban transport has dominated the research literature and the last major books on rural transport were written in the 1970s. This book therefore represents a long-awaited text, especially given the substantial changes in circumstances affecting rural transport during the 1980s and 1990s... a useful introduction and reference source for undergraduates studying transport and rural issues...a valuable addition to a neglected area and will appeal to students of transport, geography and planning. Journal of Transport GeographyTable of ContentsChapter headings and selected papers: Introduction. The reason for this book. What do we mean by rural? A typology of rural areas in the UK. Rural Travel Patterns and Behaviour. Household car ownership. Geographical aspects of rural trip making. Summary of travel behaviour in urban and rural areas. Mobility and Accessibility. Defining accessibility. Service provision levels in rural areas. Perspectives on mobility and accessibility in policy. Traffic Forecasts. National forecasts. Rural traffic forecasts. Trends affecting rural traffic levels. Transport and Rural Development. Introduction. Defining rural development. Transport and rural development: micro and macro perspectives. Environmental Issues. The meaning of environmental. The environmental effects of transport. The policy angle. Attitudes to Rural Transport Issues. Attitudes to car ownership and use. Attitudes to traffic and the environment. Attitudes among the transport profession. Policy Statements on Rural Transport. Rural transport policy as embodied in government policy documents. The views of interest groups. The Effects of National Policies on Rural Areas. Transport policies and their effect on different sections of the population. Road pricing. Graduated fuel pricing. Tools for Rural Transport. Community transport. Other improvements to public transport. Encouraging walking. Examples of Change: Demand Management and Transport Packages. Demand management. The package approach to funding. Strategies for Rural Transport Creating strategies. Strategies for rural transport. A Blueprint for Rural Transport Policy. The overall strategy. A sustainable future for rural transport. Further elements of the blueprint. Conclusions. Rural transport issues cannot be isolated. The importance of accessibility. The importance of itermodal thinking. Index.
£111.14
Random House UK The Wolf Pit
Book Synopsisonly after childhood ended was he aware of the price the adults had paid for life in this most romantic of settings.Navigating family tensions and the trials of growing up, Will describes the close-knit community of North Yorkshire and his family's place within it: the shepherd probing the head-high snowdrifts for his flock;Trade ReviewA love letter to a family defined by a desire to make beauty and a gift for telling stories. The Wolf Pit has more quietly desperate heroism than any book I’ve ever read. -- Brian Morton * Sunday Herald *Persuasive, atmospheric writing. A love letter to a past world * Sunday Times *Bittersweet * The Times *The book takes on an existential desire to understand who we really are * Spectator *
£8.54
Vintage Publishing Nairn in Darkness and Light
Set in the 1920s, this marvellously sensitive autobiography recreates the varied community of Nairn, with its fishermen and townsfolk, its crofters and its prosperous upper-middle-classes. Nairn has witnessed many of the triumphs and tragedies of Scottish history, and these are recalled with intuitive understanding. But it is also the scene of David Thomson''s formative years when he suffered an eye injury which nearly blinded him and shaped his whole future.Winner of the McVitie''s Prize and the first NCR Book Award For Non-Fiction
£14.39
Penguin Books Ltd Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
Book SynopsisIn the summer of 1936, Agee and Evans set out on assignement for Fortune magazine to explore the daily lives of sharecroppers in the South. Their journey would prove an extraordinary collaboration and a watershed literary event when in 1941 Let Us Now Praise Famous Men was first published to enourmous critical acclaim. This unspairing record of place, of the people who shaped the land, and of the rhythm of their lives today stands as one of the most influential books of the twentieth century.
£13.49
Penguin Books Ltd The Apple Orchard
Book SynopsisPete Brown is simultaneously allergic to and obsessed by apples. He has written several books on food and drink, including Man Walks into a Pub, Three Sheets to the Wind, and Hops and Glory. His discriminating palate has led him to be a judge in the Great Taste Awards and the Radio 4 Food and Farming Awards, and a frequent contributor to Radio 4's Food Programme.Trade ReviewWonderful, revelatory ... very moving -- Sheila Dillon, BBC Radio 4An absorbing love letter to the English apple tree...lyrical and joyful * The Times Literary Supplement *His ability to laugh at himself, openness to wonder and willingness to go wherever the search takes him make Brown an engaging writer and The Apple Orchard an entertaining journey * Mail on Sunday *A delightful book * Sunday Times *
£10.44
Penguin Books Ltd English Pastoral
Book SynopsisTHE SUNDAY TIMES NATURE BOOK OF THE YEARThe new bestseller from the author of The Shepherd''s Life''A beautifully written story of a family, a home and a changing landscape'' Nigel Slater As a boy, James Rebanks''s grandfather taught him to work the land the old way. Their family farm in the Lake District hills was part of an ancient agricultural landscape: a patchwork of crops and meadows, of pastures grazed with livestock, and hedgerows teeming with wildlife. And yet, by the time James inherited the farm, it was barely recognisable. The men and women had vanished from the fields; the old stone barns had crumbled; the skies had emptied of birds and their wind-blown song. English Pastoral is the story of an inheritance: one that affects us all. It tells of how rural landscapes around the world were brought close to collapse, and the age-old rhythms of work, weather, community and wild things were loTrade ReviewRemarkable ... A brilliant, beautiful book ... Eloquent, persuasive and electric with the urgency that comes out of love -- Christine Patterson * The Sunday Times *It is a book full of love: of his grandfather, of his children and of the Lake District valley where he lives and farms ... Some books change our world. I hope this turns out to be one of them. -- Julian Glover * Evening Standard *A beautifully written story of a family, a home and a changing landscape. -- Nigel SlaterJames Rebanks's English Pastoral deserves to be called a masterpiece. Four generations of his family building on centuries of their farming in the Cumbrian Fells gives us a poetic, practical, raw and almost miraculously detailed picture of this ancient way of life struggling to survive and to be reborn. This wonderful book was waiting to be written. -- Melvyn Bragg * New Statesman Book of the Year *A wonder of a book, fierce, tender, and beautiful. Deeply personal but also global in significance, its pages course with love and concern so palpable I more than once wept while reading it. James Rebanks writes lyrically and passionately of the shadow that has fallen over our relationship with land, and how we might reconfigure the ways we think about it, relate to it, interact with it, and with each other. It's both a sobering, urgent read and a deeply inspiring, hopeful one. The book, and author, are to be treasured -- Helen Macdonald * author of H is for Hawk *Powerful, important and deserves every accolade. -- Raynor WinnOne of the most important books of our time. Told with humility and grace, this story of farming over three generations - where we went wrong and how we can change our ways - will be our land's salvation. -- Isabella TreeWhat a terrific book: vivid and impassioned and urgent--and, in both its alarm and its awe for the natural world, deeply convincing. Rebanks leaves no doubt that the question of how to farm is a question of human survival on this hard-used planet. He should be read by everyone who grows food, and by everyone who eats it -- Philip GourevitchJames Rebanks's story of his family's farm is just about perfect. It belongs with the finest writing of its kind -- Wendell BerryAmbitious, accomplished ... Rebanks is eloquent - scenes of mud and guts are interspersed with quotes ranging from Virgil to Schumpeter, Rachel Carson to Wendell Berry ... English Pastoral builds into a heartfelt elegy for all that has been lost from our landscape, and a rousing disquisition on what could be regained - a rallying cry for a better future. -- Laura Battle * Financial Times *Heartfelt, rich with detail ... James Rebanks writes with his heart, and his heart is in the right place. We should listen to him. -- Jamie Blackett * Telegraph *Marvellous and moving -- Richard Flanagan, Man Booker Prize winning author of Narrow Road to the Deep NorthIt moved me to tears, made me feel excited and optimistic, and said, so eloquently and succinctly, all the things I've been thinking and feeling ... It is not just a beautiful book to read, but so important and so timely. A wonderful, thought-provoking, heartlifting read. -- Kate HumbleRapturous ... For Rebanks writing and farming have proved complementary: while working long hours on the land he has produced a book in a pastoral tradition that runs from Virgil to Wendell Berry -- Blake Morrison * Guardian *I have never met anyone so roaringly, joyously in context and content as James Rebanks, belting around his farm in the rain ... The story of Rebanks and his family is the story of what farming has been in Britain but, also, the story of what it could become -- Caitlin Moran * The Times *Perfectly judged, it made me cry (twice) and left me with a new understanding of agriculture, and a real sense of hope. -- Melissa HarrisonWonderful ... I can't imagine anyone starting to read English Pastoral and not being eager to read it all at once, as I did -- Philip PullmanA heartfelt book and one that dares to hope. -- Alan BennettA home-grown Georgics for the twenty-first century * The Tablet *A wonderful and timely account of one farmer's lifelong effort to do right by his family, his land, his animals and his ecosystem -- Nick OffermanLyrical, evocative, generous ... Thank the gods of agriculture for James Rebanks -- Kristin Kimball * New York Times *A book of toil and beauty, rooted in a fell farm in the Lake District ... English Pastoral is a nuanced, hopeful, honest story. It is essential reading. * Geographical Magazine *The power of English Pastoral lies not just in the passion and eloquence of its prose or the clarity of its argument. It carries the authority of one who has not just thought about these problems, but lived them. It is a timely and important book. * TLS *Beautiful and shocking, but ultimately so gloriously hopeful. The book we should all read as we emerge from this latest strangeness. -- Paula HawkinsI can't remember a book I've wanted to press into people's hands more this year than this resonant, immensely thoughtful look back at three generations of a farming family ... Managing to cram the whole modern history of British farming and nature into 270 beautifully written pages, this is a gem that's moving and immensely informative. -- Andrew Holgate * The Sunday Times Nature Book of the Year *A rare and urgent book ... Its beauty is not only in the writing but in what is behind it: a gentle and wise sensibility that is alive to the human love affair with the land and yet also intimately cognisant of our collective and systematic cruelty towards it. -- Hisham MatarI think, genuinely, this is the best book I've read this year, and one of the most important books of recent years. It is about food and farming, and how we eat what we eat. It's about progress and nostalgia, without being prideful or mawkish, it's about families and tradition, and the passing of time. It made me simultaneously proud to be British, and sad for what we have become, but hopeful that we can change. -- Adam RutherfordJames Rebanks combines the descriptive powers of a great novelist with the pragmatic wisdom of a farmer who has watched his world transformed. This is a profound and beautiful book about the land, and how we should live off it. -- Ed CaesarThrough the eyes of James Rebanks as a grandson, son, and then father, we witness the tragic decline of traditional agriculture, and glimpse what we must now do to make it right again. As an evocation of British landscape past and present, it's up there with Cider With Rosie. -- Joanna BlythmanA beautiful and important book. -- Sadie JonesEnglish Pastoral is a work of art. It is nourishing and grounding to read ... this brave and beautiful book will shape hearts and minds. -- Jane Clarke, author of When the Tree FallsA wonderful, humane book told through the eyes of a man who has watched much vanish from his land, and now wants to put it back ... Moving and illuminating. -- Benedict Macdonald, author of RebirdingJames Rebanks describes the life of a Lakeland working farmer from the inside with a unrivalled truth and eloquence -- Tom Fort, author of Casting ShadowsVivid, accessible, inspiring - a story about one man's emerging land ethic, and an appreciation of the old ways in modern times. A vital book for anybody who eats -- Kathryn Aalto, author of Writing WildJames Rebanks is a beautiful writer, in a unique position to describe the challenges currently being faced by farmers throughout the world. English Pastoral is a joy to read and extremely moving - a book which should be read by every citizen. -- Patrick Holden, Sustainable Food TrustFarming, unlike almost any other job, is bound up in a series of complex ropes that Rebanks captures in his own story so beautifully: family pressure and loyalty, ego, loneliness, and a special kind of peer pressure...English Pastoral is going to be the most important book published about our countryside in decades, if not a generation -- Sarah LangfordA deeply personal account by a farmer of what has happened to farming in Britain. Everyone interested in food should read this compelling, informative, moving book -- Jenny LinfordRebanks is a rare find indeed: a Lake District farmer whose family have worked the land for 600 years, with a passion to save the countryside and an elegant prose style to engage even the most urban reader. He's refreshingly realistic about how farmed and wild landscapes can coexist and technology can be tamed. A story for us all. * Evening Standard, Best Books of Autumn 2020 *Moving, thought-provoking and beautifully written. -- James HollandEnglish Pastoral is one of the most captivating memoirs of recent years ...The traditional pastoral is about retreat into an imagined rural idyll, but this confronts very real environmental dilemmas. Like the best books, it gives you hope and new energy. -- Amanda Craig * Guardian *James Rebanks has a sharp eye and a lyrical heart. His book is devastating, charting the murderous and unsustainable revolution in modern farming ... But it is also uplifting: Rebanks is determined to hang on to his Herdwicks, to keep producing food, and to bring back the curlews and butterflies and the soil fertility to his beloved fields. Truly a significant book for our time. * Daily Mail – Books of the Year *Lyrical and illuminating ... will fascinate city-dwellers and country-lovers alike. * Independent – 10 Best Non-Fiction Books of 2020 *A lyrical account of Rebanks' childhood on the Lake District farm that he's made famous; an account of how he learned about stockmanship and community and the rhythms of the land from his father and grandfather. [...] His writing is properly Romantic, which is a high compliment [...] Rebanks is obviously a wonderful human as well as a splendid writer. -- Charles FosterA lament for lost traditions, a celebration of a way of living and a reminder that nature is 'finite and breakable.' Mr. Rebanks hits all the right notes and deserves to be heard * Wall Street Journal *The most important story, perfectly told -- Amy LiptrotMemorable, urgent, eloquent ... Rebanks speaks with blunt, unmatched authority. He is also a fine writer with descriptive power and a gift for characterisation ... English Pastoral may be the most passionate ecological corrective since Rachel Carson's Silent Spring -- Caroline Fraser * New York Review of Books *
£10.44
Penguin Books Ltd Stand By Me
Book Synopsis''A woven time-travelling book, about love, land, life ... Short stories that link together like trees in a forest'' Jackie MorrisOn a clear Kentucky night in 1888, a young woman risks her life to save a stranger from a drunken mob. Almost a hundred years later, her great-grandson Andy climbs a hill at the edge of town, and is flooded with memories of all he has lived, seen and heard of the past century - of farmers wooing schoolteachers and soldiers trudging home from war; of the first motor car, the Great Depression and Vietnam; of neighbourly feuds and family secrets; of grief and betrayal - and of great friendship that endures for a lifetime.These are Wendell Berry''s tales of Port William, a little farming community nestled deep in the Kentucky River valley. They unravel the story of a town over the course of four generations, lovingly chronicling the intertwined lives of the families who call it home. Affectionate, elegiac and wry, tTrade ReviewA woven time-travelling book, about all that it is to be human, about love, land, life. Just beautiful. What an amazing writer he is. Short stories that link together like trees in a forest -- Jackie Morris, co-author of THE LOST WORDSWhat a wise and inspiring collection this is, although 'collection' hardly does it justice, it sounds far too piecemeal and ephemeral for a book with such a meditative and singular focus. It's so full of life, expanding the horizon as you read, revealing a wider and a deeper way of looking at the quotidian. Like Denis Johnson, Marilynne Robinson, or Seamus Heaney, Wendell Berry shows us that sometimes looking deeply into one world can become a profound way of looking at the whole world. -- Barney Norris, author of FIVE RIVERS MET ON A WOODED PLAINPraise for Wendell Berry: One of America's finest prose writers * Publishers Weekly *Berry richly evokes Port William's farmlands and hamlets, and his characters are fiercely individual, yet mutually protective in everything they do. . . . His sentences are exquisitely constructed, suggesting the cyclic rhythms of his agrarian world * New York Times *Intricate and beautiful, sad but strong * Washington Post *A small treasure . . . part of a long line that descends from Chaucer to Katherine Mansfield to William Trevor. * Chicago Tribune *Berry is the master of earthy country living seen through the eyes of laconic farmers.... He makes his stories shine with meaning and warmth * Christian Science Monitor *What unites [these stories] is a deep humanity, compassion and a sense of recognition that our modern lives unfolded at some point on Earth from stories such as these * Seattle Times *No writer has written of a place better or more completely than Wendell Berry has written of Port William * Arkansas Democrat Gazette *Berry is an American treasure; this collection belongs in all literary fiction collections * Library Journal *Berry's writing is graceful, poignant and compassionate, and his feel for the inner lives of his quirky rural characters makes for many memorable portraits. A valuable work of literature and historical set piece, this collection vividly captures the fabric of a kind of all-American life * Publishers Weekly *Wendell Berry writes with a good husbandman's care and economy . . . His stories are filled with gentle humor * New York Times Book Review *This is the most complete-and the most powerful-vision of any American writer in my time. The stories of the Port William Membership are a delight, a goad, and a testament less to what was than to what could be. They will leave no reader unmoved and unchanged -- Bill McKibbenWendell Berry gives us an intimate portrayal of the mind and heart of rural America. His graceful prose is truthful and eloquent. His tone is reliable and steady, like a good rain, sober and serious-all this and at times he is so funny you have to stop and roll on the floor -- Bobbie Ann Mason[Berry's] essays, poetry and fiction have fertilized a crop of great solace in my life, and helped to breed a healthy flock of good manners, to boot. As I travel this unlikely road of opportunity, as a woodworker and writer, sure, but most often as a jackass, I have his writings upon which to fix my mind and my heart, to keep my life's errant wagon between the ditches, as it were. Mr. Berry's sentences and stories deliver a great payload of edifying entertainment, which I hungrily consume, but it is the bass note of morality thumping through his musical phrases that guides me with the most constant of hands upon my plow. -- Nick Offerman, New York Times bestselling author of Paddle Your Own CanoeThe local nature of their canny, comic tonalities [...] might lead browsers to take these Berry stories as merely quaint. That would be a mistake. In fact, like Isaac Bashevis Singer, Berry has been expanding by contraction, husbanding by close focus - in Berry's case, on the familiar demesne of Port William, Ky... A masterpiece...Berry moves way beyond nostalgia toward an immersion in other lives that expresses itself as a sense of intimate apartness; a willingness to follow his characters, but not necessarily to change them. Poetry nestled inside prose: startlingly and classically moving * Kirkus Reviews *The stories express a biblical reverence for life and community, yet they're funny, too, and so beautiful * Booklist *This bewitching book, a collage amounting almost to a novel, formed of 18 short stories linked to each other by people and place, nourishes deep-seated memories of the old country ways...Berry writes with such wisdom and understanding of the Kentucky countryside and its people that it scarcely seems like fiction. These are stories about the importance of memory and history in the life of a community...they celebrate the visceral links between man and Nature...acutely observed and beautifully wrought...gently humorous, full of eccentricity, sometimes wistful and occasionally sad, but unfailingly enjoyable, rewarding, even joyful. * Country Life *Berry is a thought-provoking writer who uses humour and sorrow to evoke memorable characters, atmosphere and setting * Irish Times *
£10.44
Oxford University Press Inc Race Brokers Housing Markets and Segregation in
Book SynopsisHow is it that America''s cities remain almost as segregated as they were fifty years ago? In Race Brokers, Elizabeth Korver-Glenn examines how housing market professionals--including housing developers, real estate agents, mortgage lenders, and appraisers--construct contemporary urban housing markets in ways that contribute to neighborhood inequality and racial segregation. Drawing on extensive ethnographic and interview data collected in Houston, Texas, Korver-Glenn shows how these professionals, especially those who are White, use racist tools to build a fundamentally unequal housing market and are even encouraged to apply racist ideas to market activity and interactions. Korver-Glenn further tracks how professionals broker racism across the entirety of the housing exchange process--from the home''s construction, to real estate brokerage, mortgage lending, home appraisals, and the home sale closing. Race Brokers highlights the imperative to interrupt the racism that pervades housing market professionals'' work, dismantle the racialized routines that underwrite such racism, and cultivate a truly fair housing market.Trade ReviewI highly recommend Korver-Glenn's book to housing scholars for both its important methodological intervention and her insights from the field. For housing practitioners and policymakers, I recommend the penultimate recommendations chapter, which has implementable policies for regulation and oversight, such as recommendations for building a more just appraising profession. * Stephen Sherman, Journal of the American Planning Association *For scholars of neighborhoods, housing, and racial segregation, Dr. Korver-Glenn offers an insightful look into the role of real estate professionals in patterning inequality and reifying racial segregation.... Dr. Korver-Glenn offers an opportunity to apply the Race Brokers framework beyond the field of housing, helping sociologists better understand how racist ideas and tropes inform other unequal power relationships and market exchanges. * Brian J. McCabe, Social Forces *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1: H-Town Chapter 2: Building Homes Chapter 3: Brokering Sales Chapter 4: Lending Capital Chapter 5: Appraising Value Chapter 6: Fair Housing Conclusion Methodological Appendix References Notes Index
£25.49
Oxford University Press Inc The Innovation Complex Cities Tech and the New
Book SynopsisYou hear a lot these days about innovation and entrepreneurship and about how good jobs in tech will save our cities. Yet these common tropes hide a stunning reality: local lives and fortunes are tied to global capital. You see this clearly in metropolises such as San Francisco and New York that have emerged as superstar cities. In these cities, startups bloom, jobs of the future multiply, and a meritocracy trained in digital technology, backed by investors who control deep pools of capital, forms a new class: the tech-financial elite. In The Innovation Complex, the eminent urbanist Sharon Zukin shows the way these forces shape the new urban economy through a rich and illuminating account of the rise of the tech sector in New York City. Drawing from original interviews with venture capitalists, tech evangelists, and economic development officials, she shows how the ecosystem forms and reshapes the city from the ground up.Zukin explores the people and plans that have literally rooted digital technology in the city. That in turn has shaped a workforce, molded a mindset, and generated an archipelago of tech spaces, which in combination have produced a now-hegemonic innovation culture and geography. She begins with the subculture of hackathons and meetups, introduces startup founders and venture capitalists, and explores the transformation of the Brooklyn waterfront from industrial wasteland to innovation coastline. She shows how, far beyond Silicon Valley, cities like New York are shaped by an influential triple helix of business, government, and university leaders--an alliance that joins C. Wright Mills''s power elite, real estate developers, and ambitious avatars of academic capitalism. As a result, cities around the world are caught between the demands of the tech economy and communities'' desires for growth--a massive and often--insurmountable challenge for those who hope to reap the rewards of innovation''s success.Trade ReviewZukin's work mainly provides a fascinating insight into a city in transition... Zukin's book can convince us to make cities sustainable, not only physically but also in a social sense. * Wouter J. Verheul, Delft University of Technology, TESG *There are many ways agglomeration serves to create value through innovation. However, Zukin goes beyond the typically described positive effects, in particular efficient knowledge diffusion, to recognize the negative social and economic effects. * S. J. Gabriel, CHOICE *I found the book particularly interesting for those scholars dealing with innovation and entrepreneurship in a rather quantitative manner, since it may help them to better comprehend the interesting stories behind innovative entrepreneurship, which too often risk being hidden by the 'cold' numbers of econometrics. * Luca Grilli, Regional Studies *Sharon Zukin's Innovation Complex proves once again that she is one of the most astuteobservers of American cities. For decades, innovation and the tech industry were thought to be the province of the suburbs. But Zukin shows how and why innovation and startup companies have come back to the city en masse and the economic contradictions that the rise of the urban innovation complex brings. * Richard Florida, author ofThe Rise of the Creative Class *With a keen eye and a sly sense of irony, Sharon Zukin takes us behind the doors of the startups, venture capital firms, business incubators, co-working spaces, and coding camps that have made New Yorka major hub of what she aptly dubs 'The Innovation Complex.' Beneath the technical wizardry and relentless boosterism of this new world, Zukin sees reasons to be skeptical about its promises to deliver a better life for us all. * Joshua B. Freeman, author of Behemoth: A History of the Factory and the Making of the Modern World? *In The Innovation Complex, Sharon Zukin masterfully reveals how New York City-of all places-pivoted to tech and established an ecosystem rivaling Silicon Valley.In the process, she helps us understand cities, the startup world, and the economic tensions that come with progress. * Steven Levy, author In the Plex and Facebook: TheInside Story *Sharon Zukin deftly argues in The Innovation Complex that tech capitals do not simply bubble up from a primordial soup of young entrepreneurs' inventions. They are made through ideas, norms, and narratives as well as by policies and investments. Zukin takes us on a tour of the specific places and activities that make up the New York City innovation complex-hackathons, meetups, innovation districts, tech campuses, boot camps, and co-working spaces. What we come to see is the political process of innovation itself and how this process reconfigures cities. The result is a nuanced and critical look at the costs that a tech boom exacts on cities and citizens. * Gina Neff, University of Oxford, author of Venture Labor: Work and the Burden of Risk in Innovative Industries *Table of Contents1. Imagining Innovation 2. Hackathons and the Spirit of the New Capitalism 3. Meetups: Leveraging the Community 4. Accelerators, Startups, and the Circulation of Capital 5. The VC Office and the Concentration of Capital 6. Brooklyn's "Innovation Coastline" 7. Pipelines: Talent, Meritocracy, and Academic Capitalism 8. "The Address of Innovation" 9. Author's Note: On Methods and Journeys
£25.64
Oxford University Press India Connected How the Smartphone Is
Book Synopsis
£27.92
Oxford University Press, USA Labour Bondage in West India
Book SynopsisOn the basis of his new fieldwork done in south Gujarat between 2004 and 2006, Jan Breman critically analyses the historical roots of the ongoing subordination of the rural poor in what has come to be recognised as a booming economy.
£18.99
Oxford University Press Inc Innovation in Real Places
Book SynopsisA challenge to prevailing ideas about innovation and a guide to identifying the best growth strategy for your community.Across the world, cities and regions have wasted trillions of dollars on blindly copying the Silicon Valley model of growth creation. Since the early years of the information age, we''ve been told that economic growth derives from harnessing technological innovation. To do this, places must create good education systems, partner with local research universities, and attract innovative hi-tech firms. We have lived with this system for decades, and the result is clear: a small number of regions and cities at the top of the high-tech industry but many more fighting a losing battle to retain economic dynamism.But are there other models that don''t rely on a flourishing high-tech industry? In Innovation in Real Places, Dan Breznitz argues that there are. The purveyors of the dominant ideas on innovation have a feeble understanding of the big picture on global production anTrade Reviewa compelling and timely book * Kevin Morgan, Regional Studies *Want to be an innovation hot spot? Don't copy Silicon Valley... we should remember what innovation is and why we care about it. The first part comes down to realising that innovation is not invention. * John Morgan, The Times Higher Education *The abiding message of Breznitz's book is that it is a mistake to assume that "what works in one time and one place will always work across time and space... a defense of experiments, mistakes, and the right to choose. * William H. Jeneway, Project Syndicate *In this fascinating book, Breznitz, a professor at the Munk School at the University of Toronto, argues that innovation is 'the only way to ensure sustained long-term economic and human-welfare growth'. But, crucially, 'innovation is not invention, nor is it high-tech and the creation of new technology and gadgets". It is "the complete process of taking new ideas and devising new or improved products and services.' This Catholicism gives fascinating insights. * Martin Wolf, Financial Times *This book provides valuable guidance for all governmental or business leaders who are trying to find sustainable solutions in the midst of turbulent circumstances. Technology provides enormous opportunities, but these will be realized only through excellent leadership and management. * Aho Esko, former Prime Minister of Finland *Writing a book with advice to local leaders on how to create innovative ecosystems, which are resistant to the centrifugal forces of globalization, was a brilliant idea. This book proves that a precisely structured narrative can be a powerful tool to communicate the results of excellent academic research. * Marek Belka, former Prime Minister of Poland; Head of the Central Bank of Poland *A must-read book for researchers, mayors, economic developers and all those concerned with building more innovative and inclusive places. Breznitz combines cutting-edge research on innovative clusters and ecosystems, with laser-like focus on what works and what does not. His book provides a much-needed reminder that Silicon Valley is the wrong model: Cities across the world must forged their own unique paths and strategies for innovation and prosperity. * Richard Florida, author of Rise of the Creative Class *Breznitz's brilliant research on innovation and growth strategies coupled with a meticulous focus on explaining what does is means in practical terms for local leaders, makes is a must read for anyone who cares about their community. A truly important book and a highly enjoyable read. * Thierry Mandon, Former Minister of Public Accounts and State Reform and Minister of Higher Education and Research, France *In writing this highly engaging and accessible book, Breznitz has done an important public service. Readers interested in the future of innovation and prosperity will avail themselves of not only the most cutting-edge research, but also understand how it applies to their own community. Breznitz's provocative arguments against the Silicon Valley model and the Venture Capital Industry caused me to nod my head in agreement as the former Chief Scientist of Israel and wince in pain as an active Venture Capitalist at the same time. This's a tour de force and a must read for policy makers and concerned, but hopeful, citizens. * Avi Hasson, former Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Economy of the State of Israel *Finally, a book which is not only a masterful piece of research but is also extremely useful for policy makers. This very well written and superbly research book is a much-needed eye opener for the multiple opportunities that exist in our globalized world. * Victor Sánchez Urrutia, National Secretariat for Science, Technology and Innovation, Panama *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction Part I: The State of Innovation Chapter 1: The New Globalization of Innovation Chapter 2: The Silicon Peaches Chapter 3: Startups are Everywhere! (But The Growth Statistics) Chapter 4: Making America Great Again? Part II: Innovation and Prosperity Chapter 5: Four are Better Than One (But First, Let Us Plan It Strategically) Chapter 6: Singing and Designing--Incrementally--Innovation-Based Growth Chapter 7: Out With The Old, In With The New! But in What Ways? Chapter 8: Looking for Better Options: The Science of Innovation Policies and Agencies in a Globally Fragmented World Part III: The Three Dysfunctionals A Short Introduction to Part III Chapter 9: Our Anti-Intellectual Property Rights System Chapter 10: The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions: The Age of Financialization Chapter 11: Data: Why Mining Us is the New Boom and For Whom Conclusion: In Defense of Experiments, Mistakes, and the Right to Choose Index Bibliography
£26.59
Oxford University Press Inc Activism under Fire The Politics of NonViolence
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewHow is social mobilization possible in gang territories? Anjuli Fahlberg's research answers this question, affirming the necessity to differentiate favela activism from traditional social movements. Activism under Fire is a powerful concept to understand the strategy of non-violence adopted by political actors as part of their resistance and adaptation to violent and restrictive contexts. Fahlberg's original participatory field research reveals how favela activists have constructed a sphere of non-violent politics, which operates politically parallel to, and symbolically in opposition to, the sphere of violent politics in the neighborhood. * Sonia Fleury, Senior Researcher, Center for Strategic Studies, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation *This book is a gem. Anjuli Fahlberg writes this 'conduit of stories' with a refreshing self-awareness and respect for her community collaborators, gracefully integrating grassroots ethnography with the academic literature. What she calls 'pragmatic resistance' in the City of God is something I have observed in Rio's favelas over the past three decades as turf wars between drug gangs and their dance with the police and militias have taken lethal violence to new extremes. * Janice Perlman, author of The Myth of Marginality and Favela: Four Decades of Living on the Edge in Rio de Janeiro *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Conflict Activism in Rio de Janeiro's Gang Territories 1. Cidade de Deus: A Contested Territory 2. Milking the Resource Matrix: Democracy, Development, and Digital Devices 3. Violent Clientelism and Gendered Governance 4. Political Upcycling: Anti-Violence Protest through Education, Culture, and Racial Solidarity 5. Ties that Strengthen, Ties that Bind: Favela Actors in Urban Politics and Transnational Movements Conclusion: Seek and Ye Shall Find: Looking for Non- Violence in Conflict Zones Appendix: Ethnographic Reflections: Participatory Action Research in Areas of Violence Notes Bibliography Index
£19.99
Oxford University Press Inc The Drive for Dollars How Fiscal Politics Shaped
Book SynopsisThe story of the interplay between finance, freeways, and urban form in the 20th century and their enduring impact on American cities and neighborhoods in the 21st.American cities are distinct from almost all others in the degree to which freeways and freeway travel dominate urban landscapes. In The Drive for Dollars, Brian D. Taylor, Eric A. Morris, and Jeffrey R. Brown tell the largely misunderstood story of how freeways became the centerpiece of U.S. urban transportation systems, and the crucial, though usually overlooked, role of fiscal politics in bringing freeways about. The authors chronicle how the ways that we both raise and spend transportation revenue have shaped our transportation system and the lives of those who use it, from the era before the automobile to the present day. They focus on how the development of one revolutionary type of road--the freeway--was inextricably intertwined with money. With the nation''s transportation finance system at a crossroads today, this book sheds light on how we can best fund and plan transportation in the future. The authors draw on these lessons to offer ways forward to pay for transportation more equitably, provide travelers with better mobility, and increase environmental sustainability and urban livability.Trade ReviewWithout understanding how they were funded and financed, it is difficult to understand the impact of the vast nation's network of roads, streets, and freeways. In The Drive for Dollars, the authors clearly describe how money was the catalyst that brought the grand plans to life, both for good and bad." -Robert Puentes, President and CEO, Eno Center for TransportationThe Drive for Dollars tells a fascinating story about the unintended consequences that flow from choosing specific tax options-especially cents-per-gallon fuel taxes-to underpin urban interstate freeway funding. To tell this masterful tale, the authors weave a multi-disciplinary account from the historical records in planning, civil engineering, public administration, and community development. The book is essential reading for anyone interested in urban or transportation history." -Asha Weinstein Agrawal, Director of MTI's National Transportation Finance Center, San José State UniversityThis volume is a must read for all those interested in urban planning. * Choice *Table of ContentsPreface Part I Overview and Introduction Chapter 1: Cities, Cars, and Freeways Chapter 2: Urban and Rural Road Planning and Finance Before the Automobile Part II Planning and Financing Roads for Autos Before Freeways Chapter 3: Planning and Paying for Streets in Cities in the Pre-Freeway Automobile Era Chapter 4: Planning and Paying for Highways Between Cities in the Pre-Freeway Era Part III Planning and Finance in the Early Freeway Era Chapter 5: Planning Highways in Cities in the Pre-Interstate Era Chapter 6: Planning and Financing Highways Between Cities in the Pre-Interstate Era Chapter 7: Financing Freeways in the Postwar Era Part IV The Interstate Era and Its Enduring Legacy Chapter 8: The Rise of the Interstate Era Chapter 9: The Fall of the Interstate Era Chapter 10: Turning Back the Clock: Finance and Planning in the Post-Freeway Era Chapter 11: Conclusion: Groping for a Post-Freeway Consensus References Notes Index
£32.86
Oxford University Press Rural Livelihoods and Diversity in Developing Countries
Book SynopsisBoth livelihoods and diversity have become popular topics in development studies. The livelihood concept offers a more complete picture of the complexities of making a living in rural areas of low income countries than terms formerly considered adequate, such as subsistence, incomes, or employment. Diversity recognizes that people manage by doing many different things rather than just one or a few things. This book sets out the rural livelihoods approach within the larger context of past and current themes in rural development. It adopts diversity as its principal theme and explores the implications of diverse rural livelihoods for ideas about poverty, agriculture, environment, gender, and macroeconomic policy. It also considers appropriate methods for gaining quick and effective knowledge about the livelihoods of the rural poor for project and policy purposes.Trade Reviewthis book ... has much to commend it * Steve Wiggins, Journal of Development Studies *This is a good guide to those entering the subject with little prior knowledge * Steve Wiggins, Journal of Development Studies *Professor Ellis is to be congratulated. Not for the first time, he has produced a book whose chapters can readily be added to student reading lists * Steve Wiggins, Journal of Development Studies *In a field where there has been much excitement and debate over the last two years, little of this has been overtaken by events: a tribute oto the author's ability to present lucidly mainstream positions and yet still incorporate insights from some interesting but less well known work * Steve Wiggins, Journal of Development Studies *The great virtue of Ellis's book is that it summarises the literature, and seeks to define the terms in a way that will enable future discussion to proceed from a common base * Mary Tiffen, Development Policy Review *strongly recommended. If you only have time to read one book on livelihoods, this is it * Mary Tiffen, Development Policy Review *Table of ContentsPART I. CONCEPTS, DEFINITIONS, AND FRAMEWORK ; 1. Livelihoods, Diversification, and Agrarian Change ; 2. A Framework for Livelihoods Analysis ; PART II. DIMENSIONS OF DIVERSE RURAL LIVELIHOODS ; 3. Determinants of Livelihood Diversification ; 4. Poverty and Income Distribution ; 5. Agriculture and Farm Productivity ; 6. Environment and Sustainability ; 7. Gender and Rural Livelihoods ; 8. Macro Policies and Reform Agendas ; PART III. INVESTIGATING LIVELIHOODS FOR POLICY PURPOSES ; 9. Methods and Livelihoods ; 10. A Case-Study in Rural Tanzania ; PART IV. LOOKING AHEAD ; 11. Livelihoods, Diversification, and Policies
£76.95
Taylor & Francis Inc Rural Vietnam The Small World of Khanh Hau
Book SynopsisVietnam is a land whose features change dramatically within short distances--from mountains and high plateaus to coastal plains and inland swamps. To the south, the large delta formed by the Mekong and Lesser river systems inches forward yearly into the South China Sea. This delta, while hardly typical of all Vietnam, is one of the most fertile rice-producing regions of Southeast Asia. Its importance lies not only in the substantial contribution this area can, and will, provide, but it is also the area of most recent settlement by the Vietnamese. The study of its institutions reveals much about the prospects for social and economic change.The analysis of economic change in underdeveloped areas is beset with many complex questions: what factors account for economic activity? Among many signs of change, which are significant? How may one predict the probabilities of future economic development? Rural Vietnam: The Small World of Khanh Hau answers these questions for a VTable of Contents1: The Small World of Khanh Hau; 2: The Resources of Population; 3: The Resources of the Land; 4: Rice Production in Khanh Hau; 5: Secondary Farm Production; 6: The Marketing Process; 7: The Organization of Human Effort; 8: Productivity in Agriculture; 9: Village Expenditure and the Standard of Living; 10: Credit and Savings in a Rural Community; 11: Responses to Innovation and Change; 12: An Aggregate View of Economic Activity; 13: Economic Activity and the Social Setting
£45.59
University of Chicago Press Who Benefits from the Nonprofit Sector
Book SynopsisThis study examines the major elements of the nonprofit sector of the economy of the United States, describing the institutions and their functions, and then exploring how their benefits are distributed across various economic classes.
£22.80
The University of Chicago Press Why Americans Hate Welfare Race Media and the
Book SynopsisAsks whether traditional observations about farm families apply to three hundred Iowa children who grew up with some tie to the land during the agricultural crisis of the 1980s, a time of widespread farm bankruptcies and factory closings. The answer, the authors show, is a resounding yes.Trade Review"What is it about 'ties to the land' that influences the development of young people? The answers the authors provide are not only analytically compelling, but they reveal invaluable insights for solving many of the problems facing our urban and suburban school communities as they struggle to provide meaningful environments for socializing and educating our adolescents into productive adults." (American Journal of Sociology) "A welcome corrective to the literature on development, which has focused almost exclusively on metropolitan areas.... Through their careful connection of life choices to life chances in historical context, the authors offer a model of sociological inquiry worthy of emulation." (Social Forces)"
£29.45
The University of Chicago Press Men Like That
Book SynopsisThis history of queer life in the South seeks to debunk the myth that same-sex desires can't find expression outside the big city. It shows that the nominally conservative institutions of small-town life - home, church, school and workplace - were the very sites where queer sexuality flourished.
£25.65
