Search results for ""mcfarland co inc""

Shakespeare's comedy Love's Labour's Lost has perplexed scholars and theatergoers alike for over 400 years due to its linguistic complexity, obscure topical allusions and decidedly non-comedic ending. According to traditional scholarly interpretations, it is Shakespeare's "French" play, based on events and characters from the French Wars of Religion.This work argues that the play's French surface conceals a Russian core. It outlines a comprehensive interpretation of Love's Labour's Lost that is rooted in diplomatic and trade relations between Russia and Elizabethan England during the dramatic decades following England's discovery of a northern trade route to Muscovy in 1553. Drawing on original research of 16th-century sources in English, Latin and French, the text also surveys Russian sources that have been previously unavailable in translation. This analysis provides new explanations for some of the play's previously most enigmatic elements, such as its unconventional ending, the significance of its secondary characters, linguistic anomalies and the Masque of the Muscovites itself.

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This detailed study of the career of Anthony Mann argues Mann's prominence and influence alongside contemporaries like John Ford. Mann (1906-1967), who was active in Hollywood and Europe, directed or produced more than 40 films, including ""The Fall of the Roman Empire"" and ""God's Little Acre"". He was best known for his film noir and westerns and his work starring Jimmy Stewart, but Mann later moved into Cold War and epic films. The book features a filmography and 50 movie stills and photographs.

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The 1970s were both successful and tragic for the Pittsburgh Pirates. They won five NL Eastern Division crowns and the 1971 World Championship, but lost the great Roberto Clemente in a plane crash and pitcher Bob Mosse in a car accident during this time. By the end of the 1970s, the Pirates were a good team, but no longer were considered favorites to win a World Series. Thanks to a fantastic finish in 1978, the Pittsburghers gained new hope for the 1979 season. As intriguing as the season was, it wasn't until the evening of August 25th that the Pirate fans really started to believe ""it"" could truly happen. The history of that magical ball club is covered here, from how the 1979 world champion team was built, to a thorough look at the season and post season, to how ""The Family"" finally fell. Also included are biographical sketches of each player who appeared on the team's roster that year and a section of complete statistics.

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Charles Spencer Chaplin was a stage performer before he was a filmmaker, and it was in English music hall that he learned the rudiments of his art. The last film he made in the United States, ""Limelight"", was a tribute to the music hall days of his youth. As a parallel to Chaplin's past, the film was set in 1914, the year he left the musical revue stage for a Hollywood career. This collection of essays examines ""Limelight"", and the history of English music hall. Featuring contributions from the world's top Chaplin and music hall historians, as well as previously unpublished interviews with collaborators who worked on ""Limelight"", the book offers new insight into one of Chaplin's most important pictures, and the British form of entertainment that inspired it. Essays consider how and why Chaplin made ""Limelight"", other artists who came out of English music hall, and the film's international appeal, among other topics. The book is filled with rare photographs, many published for the first time, sourced from the Chaplin archives and the private collections of other performers and co-stars.

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Recent years have found much of Africa to be a land of turmoil and revolution. Distress in the Sudan and countries, such as Rwanda, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone and Liberia have made Africa the sight of a variety of atrocities from displacement to torture to genocide. The country of Chad, which theoretically gained its independence from France in 1960, is one of many that have been fighting a series of particularly brutal wars, both internal and external. In 1982, Hissene Habre wrested power from Chad's UN - recognized government, igniting a vicious civil war. Thousands of innocent citizens were kidnapped, tortured and killed in an attempt to mitigate the political unrest of the nation. Covering the years from 1982-1986, this memoir tells the story of Esaie Toingar, a native of southern Chad and miraculous survivor of Chad's darkest days, many of which came during the months of September. This work contains Toingar's first-hand description of growing up, coming of age and waging the ultimate struggle for survival in the war-torn country. It gives a graphic account of what transpired in Chad during the rule of Hissene Habre, and the ways in which the author managed to survive, fleeing his home village and seeking safety among the CODOs, a rebel movement of the South. Derived primarily from Toingar's own memories, this work also utilizes information garnered from other first-hand testimonials, and a 1991 documentary filmed by post - Habre Chad Television. Unique photographs from the author's own collection are included.

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The floozy, the gangster's moll, the nasty debutante: Most Hollywood actresses played at least one of these bad girls in the 1930s. Since censorship customarily demanded that goodness prevail, vixens were in mainly supporting roles - but the actresses who played them were often colorful scene stealers. These characters and the women who played them first began to appear in film in 1915 when Theda Bara played home-wrecker Elsie Drummond in The Vixen. Movie theaters filled and the industry focused on heaving bosoms and ceaseless lust. Bara never shed the vamp image. The type evolved into the flapper, the gangster's moll, the ""dame,"" and the ""bad girl."" This work covers the lives and careers of 28 actresses, providing details about their lives and giving complete filmographies of their careers.

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This work covers 840 intentional suicide cases initially reported in Daily Variety (the entertainment industry's trade journal), but also drawing attention from mainstream news media. These cases are taken from the ranks of vaudeville, film, theatre, dance, music, literature (writers with direct connections to film), and other allied fields in the entertainment industry from 1905 through 2000. Accidentally self-inflicted deaths are omitted, except for a few controversial cases. It includes the suicides of well-known personalities such as actress Peg Entwistle, who is the only person to ever commit suicide by jumping from the top of the Hollywood Sign, Marilyn Monroe and Dorothy Dandridge, who are believed to have overdosed on drugs, and Richard Farnsworth and Brian Keith, who shot themselves to end the misery of terminal cancer. Also mentioned, but in less detail, are the suicides of unknown and lesser-known members of the entertainment industry. Arranged alphabetically, each entry covers the person's personal and professional background, method of suicide, place of burial, and, in some instances, includes actual statements taken from the suicide note.

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Consciousness is perplexing: too familiar and intimate to ignore, too complex and elusive to understand. Although consciousness is embedded in all our experience and is considered basic to all our knowing, no one seems to know what exactly it is, and the concept is both widely used and much abused. For the better part of the twentieth century, the study of consciousness was viewed as unworthy of scholarly and scientific pursuit. Research has consequently suffered. This cross-cultural examination first explores the varieties of conscious experience and reflects on the attempts to understand and explain consciousness in the Western scholarly and scientific tradition. The next section deals with Eastern spiritual traditions and how they differ with and complement the Western viewpoints. In the final chapters the author reconciles the two traditions for a comprehensive understanding of what consciousness is, and considers how such an understanding may be helpful for a cross-cultural assessment of behavior, as well as for enhancing human abilities and wellness.

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Witty and practical, this book is for amateur string instrument players who want to play forms of chamber music. It covers everything. The long chapter discussing the ""literature"" is valuable.

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The Hmong were driven out of Laos by the turmoil of the Vietnam War and settled in America in such large numbers that they are now the second largest Southeast Asian population in the United States. Twelve Hmong immigrants, including a female shaman, an ex-military officer, a reformed gang member, a doctor, and a woman who was snatched from her mountain village at the age of eight, deposited in Laos' French culture and finally returned to Laos years later, tell their stories of adapting to American life and culture while preserving the values of their own ancient culture. The author also considers the 5,000 years of Hmong history and its lasting influence.

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This collection features a diverse mixture of leading ladies of Westerns, along with several who are not quite as well known. Some toiled in B westerns, others worked exclusively at the A level, and a few were relegated to television. Those interviewed are Jane Adams, Julie Adams, Merry Anders, Vivian Austin, Joan Barclay, Patricia Blair, Pamela Blake, Adrian Booth, Genee Boutell, Lois Collier, Mara Corday, Gail Davis, Myrna Dell, Ann Doran, Faith Domergue, Dale Evans, Beatrice Gray, Coleen Gray, Anne Gwynne, Lois Hall, Kay Hughes, Marsha Hunt, Eilene Janssen, Anna Lee, Joan Leslie, Nan Leslie, Kay Linaker, Teala Loring, Lucille Lund, Beth Marion, Donna Martell, Kristine Miller, Peggy Moran, Maureen O'Hara, Debra Paget, Jean Porter, Paula Raymond, Jan Shepard, Marion Shilling, Roberta Shore, Elanor Stewart, Peggy Stewart, Linda Stirling, Gale Storm, Helen Talbot, Audrey Totter, Virginia Vale, Elena Verdugo, Jacqueline White and Gloria Winters. Gwynne, Hall, Storm and Vale provide forewords to the work.

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