Search results for ""mcfarland""

Homelessness in America's cities remains a growing problem. The homeless today face the same challenges as in years past: poverty, tenuous or no ties to family and friends, physical and mental health issues, and substance abuse. Compared to the 1950s to 1970s, more homeless are now sleeping on city streets versus in shelters or single room hotels. Homelessness rates are affected by economic trends, lack of equitable and inclusive healthcare and housing, decline in public assistance programs, and natural and man-made disasters. This collection of essays covers case studies, innovations, practices and policies of municipalities coping with homelessness in the 21st century.

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Long recognized as the definitive reference work on the hundreds of science fiction movies that from 1950 through 1962 terrified and fascinated a generation with zombified teenagers, robots, invading aliens and monsters of every kind, Bill Warren's Keep Watching the Skies! is greatly expanded in this 21st Century Edition. With new entries on several films, it also revisits, revises and expands the commentary on every film in the 1982 and 1986 two-volume edition.In addition to a detailed plot synopsis, cast and credit listings, and an overview of each film's critical reception, Warren delivers richly informative assessments of the films and a wealth of insights and anecdotes about their making, often drawing on remarks by the filmmakers that have emerged in the quarter century since the original edition. The book is arranged by film title, contains 273 photographs, has seven useful appendices, and concludes with an enormous index.

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Drawing on new research, this biography of William Steinitz (1836-1900), the first World Chess Champion, covers his early life and career, with a fully-sourced collection of his known games until he left London in 1882. A portrait of mid-Victorian British chess is provided, including a history of the famous Simpson's Divan. Born to a poor Jewish family in Prague, Steinitz studied in Vienna, where his career really began, before moving to London in 1862, bent on conquering the chess world. During the next 20 years, he became its strongest and most innovative player, as well as an influential writer on the game. A foreigner with a quarrelsome nature, he suffered mockery and discrimination from British amateur players and journalists, which eventually drove him to immigrate to America. The final chapters cover his subsequent visits to England and the last three tournaments he played there.

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Reuel Long's experiences as an MD in the emergency rooms of Flint, Michigan prepared him for only some of what he would see in a mobile army surgical hospital. Antiwar sentiment among the doctors in basic training at Fort Sam Houston set the tone for his tour as a general medical officer. In March 1971, the 27th MASH played a critical role treating survivors of the deadliest attack on any firebase during the Vietnam War.Long's vivid memoir recalls the casualties he cared for during the war, including one he crossed paths with 44 years later—who in his own words describes his rehabilitation from the loss of his legs and his protesting the war from a wheelchair. An addendum gives an insider's account of the U.S. military's initial failure to remedy a fatal design flaw in the M16 rifle, which caused an unknown number of American casualties.

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Over the final twenty years of his life, Mark Twain was an incredibly controversial figure. He evolved from the "clown prince of American literature" into a biting social critic and political observer. While some pundits hailed him as a satirist equal to Cervantes and Jonathan Swift, others excoriated him as a "degenerate literary freak" who wielded a "scurrilous and venomous pen."This volume traces the evolution of Mark Twain's public image between 1891 and his death in 1910. It features hundreds of reviews and other critical notices printed in magazines and newspapers across the U.S. and other English-speaking countries. This selected sample represents the full range of critical opinion, whether favorable or hostile, about Mark Twain's late writings. Sources reflect geographical differences in Twain's contemporary reputation, such as the conflicted responses in the British colonies towards Mark Twain's anti-imperialism and the pious disapproval in the American heartland for his attacks on foreign missions.

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The 1948 World Series gave fans an unusual showdown—neither of the contestants had seen the Fall Classic for a generation. The Cleveland Indians had last won the American League pennant in 1920. The Boston Braves had not been atop the National League since 1914. Both teams featured excellent pitching. Boston's aces were Warren Spahn and Johnny Sain. Cleveland had stalwarts of the mound Bob Feller and Bob Lemon, and surprise knuckleball phenom Gene Bearden. Despite being prohibitive favorites, Cleveland battled through six hard-fought games for the championship. This book recounts every at-bat of the 1948 Series, along with key moments of the regular season, including the antics of colorful Indians' owner Bill Veeck and a near fatality on the diamond.

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Stephen King's fiction has formed the basis of more motion picture adaptations than any other living author. His earliest short stories, collected in the Night Shift anthology, have been adapted into hit features including Creepshow, Children of the Corn, Cat's Eye, Maximum Overdrive, Graveyard Shift, Sometimes They Come Back, and The Mangler. Through his "Dollar Baby" program, King licensed several Night Shift stories to aspiring filmmakers for just one dollar each, resulting in numerous student film adaptations.This book critically examines and contextualizes adaptations of the Night Shift short stories, from big box office features to relatively unknown student films. It illuminates how each film is a uniquely and intricately collaborative endeavor, and charts the development of each adaptation from first option to final cut. Through old and new interviews with the creators, the work explores how filmmakers continue to reinvent, reimagine, remake and reboot King's stories.

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From the earliest accounts of contact with Europeans, Polynesians have been perceived as sensual and sexual beings. By the late 1800s, publications, lectures and stage plays about the Pacific became popular across Europe, and often contained exotic and erotic components. This book details the fusion of truth and fiction in the representation of Pacific Islanders, focusing on the sexualization of Polynesians in American cinema and other forms of mass communications and commercial entertainment. With messaging almost subliminal to American audiences, the Hollywood media machine produced hundreds of tropical film titles with images of revealing grass skirts, scanty sarongs, female toplessness and glistening exposed male pectorals. This critical filmography demonstrates how the concept of "sex sells," especially when applied on a large scale, shaped American social views on Polynesian people and their culture. Chapters document this phenomenon and an annotated filmography of sexualized tropes and several appendices conclude the book, including a glossary of Polynesian terms and a film index.

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In 1948, the Australian government banned the production, importation and exhibition of horror films in a move to appease religious communities and entertainment watchdogs. Drawing upon previously unseen government documents, private letters and contemporary newspaper accounts, this book is the first to extensively cover the history of censorship and the early production of horror movies in Australia. Beginning its examination in the late 19th century, the book documents the earliest horror films like Georges Melies' The Haunted Castle (1896), and how Australians enjoyed such films before the ban. The book then explains how certain imports, like 1954's Creature from the Black Lagoon, were able to circumvent the ban while others were not. It also reveals how Australian television, though similarly impacted by government censorship, was occasionally able to broadcast films technically banned from cinematic release. The work concludes with a look at the first Australian horror films produced after the ban was formally lifted in 1969, like Terry Bourke's Night of Fear (1973).

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In a new and updated second edition, this book--first published in 1983--provides a detailed review of the end of the Vietnam War. Drawing on the author's eyewitness reporting and extensive research, the book relies on carefully reported facts, not partisan myths, to reconstruct the war's last years and harrowing final months. The catastrophic suffering those events brought to ordinary Vietnamese civilians and soldiers is vividly portrayed. The largely unremembered wars in Cambodia and Laos are examined as well, while new material in an updated final chapter points out troubling parallels between the Vietnam War and America's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Abandoned on the streets of Philadelphia at age four, Matthew Saad Muhammad (1954-2014) survived orphanages, street gangs and prison to become one of the most exciting prizefighters of boxing's last Golden Age of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Time and again he battled back from the brink of defeat to win against the best fighters of the era. His victory over Marvin Johnson for the WBC Light Heavyweight Championship was described by one veteran boxing writer as the only fight he covered where it seemed both fighters might die.He fought not just for wealth and fame but to discover his identity--he had no idea who he was, where came from or what happened to his parents. This book reveals the full story of "Miracle Matthew" and how he became one of Philadelphia's great ring legends.

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Part memoir, part primer, part cautionary tale, this book takes the reader along on a filmmaker's 12-year journey through Hollywood Hell, culminating in the movie Angels In Stardust (2016), starring Alicia Silverstone, AJ Michalka and Billy Burke. Describing meetings with producers, agents, managers, hustlers, wannabes and famous celebrities, and how he overcame the host of problems encountered while trying to produce a movie, William Robert Carey's humorous and confessional narrative illustrates why it takes a minor miracle, a cabinet of liquor and plenty of Pepto-Bismol to complete a film. Copies of his option agreement, script sales contract and director's contract, crafted by LA entertainment attorneys, are included as a valuable guide for beginners.

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The presentation of technology as a response to human want or need is a defining aspect of Black Mirror, a series that centers the transhumanist conviction that ontological deficiency is a solvable problem. The articles in this collection continue Black Mirror's examination of the transhuman need for plentitude, addressing the convergence of fantasy, the posthuman, and the dramatization of fear. The contributors contend that Black Mirror reveals both the cracks of the posthuman self and the formation of anxiety within fantasy's empty, yet necessary, economy of desire.The strength of the series lies in its ability to disrupt the visibility of technology, no longer portraying it as a naturalized, unseen background, affecting our very being at the ontological level without many of us realizing it. This volume of essays argues that this negative lesson is Black Mirror's most successful approach. It examines how Black Mirror demonstrates the Janus-like structure of fantasy, as well as how it teaches, unteaches, and reteaches us about desire in a technological world.

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In a career that spanned 57 years, Dan Mason (1853-1929) went from performing German dialect routines in variety halls to appearing in Broadway musicals to playing character roles in silent films. Along the way he also wrote, produced, directed and starred in his own plays. Best remembered for his role as the irascible "Skipper" in the Toonerville Trolley silent comedies, Mason created dozens of unique and colorful characters on stage and screen. This first-ever biography of the American comedian explores the roots of his craft and the challenges he faced navigating the rapidly changing world of popular entertainment in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

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While many people think true crime is a new phenomenon, Americans have been obsessed with the genre for over a century, and popular culture continuously tries to cash in. The names of infamous serial killers are well-known, but the identities of their often-female victims are frequently lost to history. This text flips the script and focuses on the women to keep their identities known and remembered.This is the first book to examine how popular culture has mistreated women as both perpetrators and victims of crime, covering a hundred-year span from 1920 to 2020. Detailed is popular culture's interest in true crime and how women in true crime documentation have largely been sexualized and victim-blamed over the decades.

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American International Pictures was in many ways the “missing link” between big-budget Hollywood studios, “poverty-row” B-movie factories and low-rent exploitation movie distributors. AIP first targeted teen audiences with science fiction, horror and fantasy, but soon grew to encompass many genres and demographics—at times, it was indistinguishable from many of the “major” studios.From Abby to Zontar, this filmography lists more than 800 feature films, television series and TV specials by AIP and its partners and subsidiaries. Special attention is given to American International Television (the TV arm of AIP) and an appendix lists the complete AITV catalog. The author also discusses films produced by founders James H. Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff after they left the company.

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During Shakespeare's life, the History Plays were more than a collection of history lessons. They were cause to compare and contrast with the current monarchy and perhaps draw out some allegories and allusions. They were political and therefore dangerous. Yet William Shakespeare from Stratford-on-Avon never spent time in prison, unlike his fellow playwrights, Marlowe, Kyd and Jonson. The identification of authorship candidate, Henry Neville, by James and Rubinstein (2005), has opened the door to reinterpret the canon, particularly the History Plays. With this key, we review these plays. Neville had intimate access to a major history source, the Holinshed Chronicles (1587), had been ambassador to France and spoke French (Henry V), knew the descendents of Jack Cade (Henry VI), knew Crosby Place (Richard III) and lived in Blackfriars (Henry VIII). When Neville became a political prisoner, 'Shakespeare' stopped writing History Plays.We have accessed Neville's library containing annotated books, suggesting they are source material for the plays. By reference to the Holinshed Chronicles, in particular, we have identified numerous anomalies in the plays that indicate a consistent bias that portrays his ancestors in a positive light, reveals Neville's politics, and his self-portrait.

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Anything is possible in the world of Latin American folklore: Aunt Misery traps Death in a pear tree; Lucia Zenteno carries away a river in her hair; shapeshifting Amazonian dolphins lure young girls to their underwater city; the Feathered Snake brings the first musicians to Earth; and a farmer discovers that doing favors for the Lord of Creation can lead to disaster.One in a series of folklore reference guides (""...an invaluable resource..."" - School Library Journal), this book features 470 tales told in Mexico, Central America and South America, a region underrepresented in collections of world folklore. Gathered from 21 countries, this volume includes English translations of stories from the Inca, Maya, and Aztec civilizations, Spanish and Portuguese missionaries and colonists, African slave cultures and more than 75 indigenous tribes. The tales are numbered and grouped into themed sections.

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We are made up of 100 trillion cells all of which communicate with each other via chemical and electrical systems. We truly are masterpieces and consciousness is a miracle, something that is shown in Essays on Consciousness: Towards a New paradigm in Science which certainly is a new paradigm.

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This is the story of the wonders of refrigeration. For thousands of years, humans coped with heat by devising natural cooling systems of ventilation and evaporation. They harvested and stored natural ice and snow for summer usage. By the mid 1800s, men began to develop huge machines to make artificial ice using scientific and mechanical principles. By the early 1900s engineers developed electric domestic refrigerators, which by 1927 became affordable and convenient household appliances.By then, a more sophisticated public demanded more modern looking appliances than engineers could produce, and a new breed of designers entered the manufacturing world to provide them. During the Depression, such modern designs not only significantly increased falling sales, but resulted in the modern appliances and kitchens we now enjoy.Today refrigeration enables the preservation of perishable food for distribution around the world, makes tropical climates habitable for millions, saves lives with medical applications, and powers space flight.

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One of CBS's most successful shows, The Big Bang Theory's mix of humor, nerdy protagonists, sexy female leads and quirky characters have brought the series international acclaim. Like Friends before it, The Big Bang Theory is touted as the show for the new millennium, bringing together aspects of classic humor applied to modern predicaments, usually sexual in nature. This collection of new essays explores sexual themes in The Big Bang Theory, interpreted through various critical lenses. Focusing on gender issues, the contributors explore how the series deals with sexuality and the ideals of masculinity, femininity and heterosexuality.

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The five directors studied here embody postmodernism-the erosion of the earlier 20th century distinction between ""high culture"" and the so-called mass or popular culture that had its beginnings in the 1950s and 1960s. Comprised of repetition, pastiche, parody and homage, their postmodern films borrowed from high and low, from directors like Lean, Kurosawa, Hitchcock, Ford and Godard. The personal history and childhood interests of each director are studied, along with their apprenticeship in film school and early directorial efforts. This shared film school background and their familiarity with the films of Hollywood's classic period, of the entire ouevres of certain directors, have allowed them mastery of a wide range of film styles, genres and techniques.

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Today the United States is plagued with cultural and political polarization--the Reds and the Blues. Because religion has been of great significance in America right from the first colonists who believed themselves to be God's chosen nation, it is not surprising that religion constitutes the basis of today's dichotomy. The recent resurgence of Christian fundamentalism is significant for the future of America as a nation ""under God."" This book examines the history of conservative American Christianity as it interacts with liberal beliefs. With the Enlightenment, the Puritan sense of mission faded, but was rekindled with the Great Awakening. This religious movement unified the colonies and provided an animating ideal which led to revolution against Britain. But soon after, the forces of liberalism made inroads, and the seeds of division were planted. This balanced account favors neither conservative nor liberal. It is history with a human touch, emphasizing personalities from Jonathan Edwards and William Jennings Bryan to David Koresh and Jim Jones.

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Hundreds of leading ladies have appeared in the thousands of Westerns produced since 1903's The Great Train Robbery, riding in and out, never to be heard of again. A relative few of the women stayed around to make a name for themselves. This comprehensive biographical reference book of those rangeland queens is divided into four parts: ""Path Finders,"" active before 1920; ""Trail Blazers,"" whose heyday was in the 1920s; ""Pioneers,"" of the 1930s and 1940s; and ""Homesteaders,"" primarily post-1940. If an actress appeared in at least eight Westerns, or a lesser number of significant oaters, she is in this book. Generously illustrated.

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In the 1970s political and economic changes to the world order led to an emerging ""globalization"" credited with the ceding of state sovereignty to a ""de facto world government"" and with the anti-globalism movement directed at countering it. Mexico, however, has maintained the salience of the national unit in the form of the state as a ruling apparatus and as the target of organized, non-state, political opposition. This study examines the transformation of Mexico's social and political organization from state corporatism to transnationalized corporatism, a form distinguished by the effect that International Financial Institutions and the World Trade Organization have on the state's relationship to the rest of society. By exploring how non-governmental organizations, political parties, unions and social movements (notably the Zapatistas) engage with the state under neoliberalism, this work significantly emphasizes the continued relevance of corporatist structures in an environment of electoral democratic reform.

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Mark Twain once wrote, ""We are nothing but echoes."" Despite this pronouncement, Twain's voice continues to reverberate in the 21st century. Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn helped define modern American literature, creating The Huck Finn Tradition in contemporary writing. This volume discusses the intertextual connections between Twain's iconic novel and eight works by celebrated American author Cormac McCarthy, including Suttree, The Orchard Keeper, Blood Meridian, All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, Cities of the Plain, No Country for Old Men, and The Road. By chronicling the diverse scholarly comparisons between Twain and McCarthy and exploring the echoes of Twain and Huck Finn in McCarthy's writing, this study reveals how McCarthy has not only absorbed Twain's tradition, but transformed it, with consequences that surpass the work of other Twain heirs.

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In the mid-20th century, Mickey Spillane was the sensation of not just mystery fiction but publishing itself. The level of sex and violence in his Mike Hammer thrillers (starting with I, The Jury in 1947) broke down long-held taboos and engendered a near hysterical critical backlash. Nonetheless, Spillane's influence has been felt--reflections of Hammer are visible in nearly every subsequent tough guy of fiction and film, including James Bond, Dirty Harry, Shaft, Billy Jack, and Jack Bauer. Spillane's fiction came to the screen in a series of films that include Kiss Me Deadly (1955) and The Girl Hunters (1963) with the author himself playing his private eye. These films, and television series starring Darren McGavin and Stacy Keach respectively, are examined in a lively, knowledgeable fashion by Spillane experts. Included are cast and crew listings, brief biographical entries on key persons, and a lengthy interview with Spillane.

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One hundred years of film censorship, from the beginning to the end of the 20th Century, is chronicled in this volume. The freewheeling nature of films in the early decades was profoundly affected by Prohibition, the Depression and the formation of the Legion of Decency--culminating in a new age of restrictiveness in the movies. Such powerful arbiters of public taste as Will H. Hays of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, and Joseph Breen of the Production Code Association, fomented an era whereby films with contentious material were severely censored or even condemned. This held sway until rebellious filmmakers like Otto Preminger challenged the system in the 1950s, eventually resulting in the abandonment of the old regime in favor of the contemporary ""G"" through ""N-17"" ratings system.

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During the interwar ""golden age"" of British detective fiction, women writers like Dorothy L. Sayers and Agatha Christie reigned sovereign, but their work remains tame compared to today's crime novels. Elements of sexuality and gender, including soft porn and sexual psychopathy, pervade contemporary detective fiction. The 10 essays in this collection explore issues of gender and sexuality in crime writing by women from 1985 to 2011, surveying works about girl sleuths, parodies, hard-boiled detective fiction, police procedurals, and recent serial killer series. They examine the relationship between genre and gender and explore how later works enter into a field of ""post-feminism."" Most importantly, this volume demonstrates how popular women writers of the last three decades have reconceptualized what it means to be a female detective.

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Among the most expensive--and most profitable--films of all time, the works of James Cameron have had a profound effect upon popular culture and the technology of moviemaking. Yet the very blockbuster nature of his films means that the political commentary, cultural discourse and rich symbolism within the works are often overlooked. From The Terminator to Avatar, the director has evinced a persistence of themes, concerns and visions that capture the contemporary zeitgeist. This collection of essays on James Cameron's films, written by a diverse group of scholars from a wide range of disciplines, provides a comprehensive exploration of the work and legacy of one of America's foremost filmmakers.

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Relying on first hand accounts, this book tells how thousands of Native Americans were forced to cede land to European settlers and move westward in the 1830s. Presidential policies are examined, as well as the ways in which Indians attempted to maintain cultural identity during this radical shift.

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With its mix of family drama, sex, and violence, Britain's Tudor dynasty (1485-1603) has long excited the interest of filmmakers and moviegoers. Since the birth of movie-making technology, the lives and times of Kings Henry VII, Henry VIII, and Edward VI and Queens Mary I and Elizabeth I have remained popular cinematic themes. From 1895's The Execution of Mary Stuart to 2011's Anonymous, this comprehensive filmography chronicles every known film about the Tudor era, including feature films; made-for-television films, mini-series, and series; documentaries; animated films; and shorts. From royal biographies to period pieces to modern movies with flashbacks or time travel, this work reveals how these films both convey the attitudes of Tudor times and reflect the era in which they were made.

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Two prolific and award-winning science fiction writers, Mike Resnick and Barry N. Malzberg, have been publishing a ""Dialogue"" in every issue of the ""SFWA Bulletin"", official publication of the Science Fiction Writers of America, for more than a decade. These collected columns explore every aspect of the literary genre, from writing to marketing to publishing, combining wit and insight with decades of experience in 25 topics.

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This book describes French fortifications from 1715 (the death of Louis XIV) to 1815 (the fall of Napoleon). After an historical background, it covers the heritage of the Ancient Regime with the important contributions of Vauban (the bastioned defense), Gribeauval's reforms in artillery, and Montalembert's innovations. Chapters explore the style of Napoleonic fortifications, siege warfare, artillery and engineering corps, as well as the Napoleonic achievements in France, Italy, German and the Netherlands, including both projects that were realized and those that were never completed. Included are nearly 250 line drawings of historic fortifications.

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Over the last ten years the field of Blake studies has profited from new discoveries about the life of Blake and his writings. This book examines the effect that Blake's mother's recently discovered Moravianism has had on our understanding of his poetry, and gives special attention to Moravianism and Swedenborgianism and their relation to his sexual politics. This is accomplished by a close reading of Blake's poetry, which examines in detail the subjects of religion, sex, and the attempted colonization of Africa by a Swedenborgian utopian group.

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On June 8, 1912, Carl Laemmle of the Independent Motion Picture Company, Pat Powers of Powers Picture Company, Mark Dintenfass of Champion Films, and Bill Swanson of American Eclair, meeting in New York City, signed a contract to merge their studios. The four formed a storied name in Hollywood history - the Universal Motion Picture Manufacturing Company. From a ""la flamme le papillon se brule les ailes"", a 1912 French Eclair film distributed by Universal, to ""Zip and His Gang"" (1915), this is a comprehensive filmography of 9,397 silent-era feature, split reel, and one, two, and three reel films produced or distributed by Universal Motion Picture Manufacturing Company. The film entries include title, release date, copyright date, producer, director, scenarist, author, length of the film, and major cast members. The work also includes the 74 serials released by Universal.

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Although Hitler's extermination of the Jews was well under way by the end of 1941, it was at the Wannsee Conference of January 1942 that Reinhard Heydrich officially announced the Nazi party's pursuit of the infamous 'final solution.' This conference was held at a luxurious villa known as the Wannsee House, and both the house and the conference have a complicated and fascinating history, which unfolded as economic and political events drew together wealthy German businessmen and powerful political figures in sometimes surprising ways.This book traces that history from 1914 - the year that saw the foundations laid for both the house and the Holocaust - to the present. Appendices provide a wealth of historical documents, including the Reich's rules 'defining' Jews, letters from Reich Security Service officials providing early documentary evidence of the Holocaust, and a transcript of Adolf Eichmann's 1961 court testimony regarding the Wannsee Conference.

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Boredom is a prevalent theme in Herman Melville's works, but rather than amounting to a passing trend or an accent for drawing attention to the action that also permeates his work, this volume argues for the centrality of boredom in the writings. The author contends that in Melville's mature work, especially Moby Dick, boredom presents itself as an insidious presence in the lives of Melville's characters, until it matures from being a mere killer of time into a killer of souls.

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A little over a century ago in Hartford, Connecticut, Colonel Albert A. Pope was hailed as a leading automaker in the United States. That his name is not a household word today is the very essence of his story. Students of American business history will know of Pope, but this work also includes Pope's account of his Civil War service at Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Vicksburg and explores in detail his entrepreneurial ventures.Pope's company was the world's largest manufacturer of bicycles (under the Columbia label) in the late 1800s. His production methods pointed the way for the building of automobiles through lightweight metals, rubber tires, precision machining, interchangeability of parts, and vertical integration. The founder of the Good Roads Movement, Pope entered automobile manufacturing while steam, electricity, and gasoline power were still vying for supremacy. The story of his failed dream of dominating U.S. automobile production is an engrossing view into America's industrial history.

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This work brings together a unique range of sources to reveal a forgotten episode in London's history. Situated opposite Westminster on the south bank of the River Thames, by 1848 Lambeth's waterfront had become London's industrial center and a magnet to migrant workers. The book exposes the suffering of the working population in the face of apathy and ineptitude, and convincingly challenges the long-standing belief that London's numerous cholera outbreaks beginning in 1832 were unrelated. The work combines recent scientific research with first-hand accounts to show for the first time that in the nineteenth century cholera was very probably endemic in the River Thames.

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One of the darkest days in United States history since Valley Forge was August 30, 1862. On this date the Confederate army inflicted a smashing defeat to the United States army at Manassas, on the outskirts of Washington. To many, including the president and press, it appeared that Washington was all but lost.The defeat was all the more galling because it was inflicted by a numerically inferior and inadequately equipped confederate force. Someone, it was assumed, had to be responsible. Union Army commander Major General John Pope came forward and blamed the loss on young, handsome, charismatic and popular Major General Fitz-John Porter. He charged Porter with disobedience of orders and shameful conduct before the enemy. But was Porter really guilty or was it he who saved the country from an even greater disaster? This book examines the question of Porter's guilt or innocence, examining the trial and its aftereffects from several perspectives. It also examines the larger question: If Porter was innocent, then who was to blame?

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Often, the title of one of the world's great musical compositions is not a clear or simple matter. An allusive title, particularly in a foreign language, or a title that does not seem related to the work, can confuse even the most devoted music lover.Here are histories of the creation of 3,500 titles for symphonies, operas, oratorios, ballets, orchestral works, choral works, chamber music, keyboard compositions, and songs, ranging from the popular to the obscure. Titles are arranged alphabetically by most common form, English or other language (with French, German, Italian and Spanish titles usually given in those languages), and each entry includes alternate titles and non - English language versions of the title where appropriate, the composer's name, date of composition and first performance, opus number where appropriate, a description of the work, and the origin of the title or any story behind it. A bibliography and an index of composers are included.

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Born into poverty with an abusive home life, Dean Koontz found a respite in books. As he began a writing career in the late 1960s, Koontz began injecting the dark experiences of his own life into his literature, and autobiography became a central thematic element of his thrillers, science fiction and horror stories. Even Koontz's earliest pieces, like Star Quest and Demon Seed, are tapestries of raw, varied and energetic storylines equally as worthy of examination as his later popular novels.This compilation of essays examines the fiction of Dean Koontz, from his earliest literary efforts in the 1960s and '70s to his emergence as a bestselling author of suspense. Written by some of the top experts in popular culture studies, these essays will appeal to the many fans of Dean Koontz's work, as well as to general readers of popular thrillers. It is the first study to approach the evolution of major themes and intricacies in Koontz's early career as a bestselling author.

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This book provides a thorough historical overview of US and UN sanctions against North Korea since 1950. Several essays propose ways to make such sanctions more politically effective while limiting their harmful humanitarian consequences. The book also discusses the impact of the newest, six-nation agreement signed in February 2007 which would shut down North Korea's nuclear facility in return for economic aid and a security guarantee.

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Because they rely heavily on physical comedy, many Hollywood slapstick films can be understood as comic meditations on the place and nature of the human body. Focusing on the works of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and Laurel and Hardy, among others, this book examines ways that the body represents or interacts with the mind, setting, voice and machines in slapstick films. It also covers female performances in slapstick and brutality and suffering in the slapstick tradition.

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Long known as one of the greatest chess masters of the nineteenth century, William Steinitz had a rich and elevated career and life, which can now be known as well. From Steinitz's own writings and the fruits of extensive first-time-ever research by the author, a fascinating portrayal emerges of the life and genius of a man widely known as the ""Bohemian Caesar"" quite apart from his chess dominance. Lengthy annotations for the 15 selected games are provided by modern grandmaster Andy Soltis, often augmented by Steinitz's own observations. Three additional games are also included. Each game is illustrated.

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Ticket scalping is as much an American staple as apple pie. Beginning as early as the mid - 1800s, scalpers, known as ""sidewalk men,"" were charging all the traffic would bear for event tickets. Although these speculators were generally viewed as pariah and public opinion was against the practice, legal attempts to limit their activities were far from successful. Boston enacted laws as early as 1873, while Pennsylvania followed suit in 1884. Still, such measures did little good since some laws were declared unconstitutional and, for the ones that were upheld, the fines were negligible with jail time rarely served. Over the years, as moral objections to scalping dimmed, the public became more tolerant as the practice became increasingly prevalent. By the 1950s, the capitalist mantras of free market and economic principles of supply and demand were even being used to justify the practice. This volume details the ways in which scalping has changed over the years from a one-man business to an agency-controlled enterprise, from performances by Jenny Lind to Billy Joel. The book examines the general situation, public opinion and legal perception of scalping for four distinct periods: 1850-1899; 1900-1917; 1918-1949 and 1950-2005. Emphasis is placed on the ways in which public and legal perception of the practice has evolved over this period. Scalping, slowly gaining a more positive status, has become more accepted as part of the economic practice of free market.

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He had that rarest of all things, common sense. And in the case of Oscar Wilde he also had a gift for delivering this common sense in sometimes pithy but always memorable statements. One of the world's most unforgettable authors, Oscar Wilde had a comment for any and every occasion, many of which are quoted here. From art and actors to vice and virtue, this volume organizes 3109 Oscar Wilde quotations by subject matter, effectively providing a new way to enjoy Wilde's considerable literary legacy. Quotations are taken from Wilde's works, including ""The Importance of Being Earnest"" and ""The Picture of Dorian Gray"", his correspondence, magazine articles and newspaper editorials. Some, which are otherwise not immediately verifiable, are garnered from reliable secondary sources. Sixty-seven chapters deal with topics as varied as death, domesticity, friends and enemies, with the source of each quote duly noted. The work, a fascinating read of Wilde's acute observations, is indexed.

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