Search results for ""author michael robertson""

The entertaining story of four utopian writers—Edward Bellamy, William Morris, Edward Carpenter, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman—and their continuing influence todayFor readers reared on the dystopian visions of Nineteen Eighty-Four and The Handmaid's Tale, the idea of a perfect society may sound more sinister than enticing. In this lively literary history of a time before "Orwellian" entered the cultural lexicon, Michael Robertson reintroduces us to a vital strain of utopianism that seized the imaginations of late nineteenth-century American and British writers.The Last Utopians delves into the biographies of four key figures--Edward Bellamy, William Morris, Edward Carpenter, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman—who lived during an extraordinary period of literary and social experimentation. The publication of Bellamy's Looking Backward in 1888 opened the floodgates of an unprecedented wave of utopian writing. Morris, the Arts and Crafts pioneer, was a committed socialist whose News from Nowhere envisions a workers' Arcadia. Carpenter boldly argued that homosexuals constitute a utopian vanguard. Gilman, a women's rights activist and the author of "The Yellow Wallpaper," wrote numerous utopian fictions, including Herland, a visionary tale of an all-female society.These writers, Robertson shows, shared a belief in radical equality, imagining an end to class and gender hierarchies and envisioning new forms of familial and romantic relationships. They held liberal religious beliefs about a universal spirit uniting humanity. They believed in social transformation through nonviolent means and were committed to living a simple life rooted in a restored natural world. And their legacy remains with us today, as Robertson describes in entertaining firsthand accounts of contemporary utopianism, ranging from Occupy Wall Street to a Radical Faerie retreat.

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Nothing frightens Winifred Schnitzel - but she does need her sleep, and the neighbourhood monsters won't let her be! Every night they sneak in, growling and belching and making a ruckus. Winifred constructs clever traps, but nothing stops these crafty creatures. What's a girl to do? (Hint: Monsters hate kisses!) The delightfully sweet ending will have every kid - and little monster - begging for an encore.

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Join the dinos for a bash before bedtime!Much like us, dinosaurs love to have fun. Dinosaurs from all around gather together to play instruments, dance, and sing before bedtime. But soon the dinosaurs grow tired and need their rest. This is a book that's sure to have kids following the dinos' lead as they get ready to go to sleep.

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Methuselah Flies presents a trailblazing project on the biology of aging. It describes research on the first organisms to have their lifespan increased, and their aging slowed, by hereditary manipulation. These organisms are fruit flies from the species Drosophila melanogaster, the great workhorse of genetics. Michael Rose and his colleagues have been able to double the lifespan of these insects, and improved their health in numerous respects as well. The study of these flies with postponed aging is one of the best means we have of understanding, and ultimately achieving, the postponement of aging in humans. As such, the carefully presented detail of this book will be of value to research devoted to the understanding and control of aging.Methuselah Flies:• is a tightly edited distillation of twenty years of work by many scientists• contains the original publications regarding the longer-lived fruit flies• offers commentaries on each of the topics covered — new, short essays that put the individual research papers in a wider context• gives full access to the original data • captures the scientific significance of postponed aging for a wide academic audience

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Religious liberalism in America has often been equated with an ecumenical Protestant establishment. By contrast, American Religious Liberalism draws attention to the broad diversity of liberal cultures that shapes America's religious movements. The essays gathered here push beyond familiar tropes and boundaries to interrogate religious liberalism's dense cultural leanings by looking at spirituality in the arts, the politics and piety of religious cosmopolitanism, and the interaction between liberal religion and liberal secularism. Readers will find a kaleidoscopic view of many of the progressive strands of America's religious past and present in this richly provocative volume.

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