Search results for ""johns hopkins university press""

"Be informed. Be empowered. Be well". If you are concerned that the cancer in your family is hereditary, you face difficult choices. Should you have a blood test that may reveal whether you have a high likelihood of disease? Do you preemptively treat a disease that may never develop? How do you make decisions now that will affect the rest of your life? This helpful, informative guide answers your questions as you confront hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. Developed by Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered (FORCE), the nation's only nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting families affected by hereditary breast and ovarian cancer, this book stands alone among breast and ovarian cancer resources. Equal parts health guide and memoir, it defines complex issues facing previvors and survivors and provides solutions with a fresh, authoritative voice. Written by three passionate advocates for the hereditary cancer community who are themselves breast cancer survivors, "Confronting Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer" dispels myths and misinformation and presents practical risk-reducing alternatives and decision-making tools. Including information about genetic counseling and testing, preventive surgery, and fertility and family planning, as well as explanations of health insurance coverage and laws protecting genetic privacy, this resource tackles head-on the challenges of living in a high-risk body. Confronting hereditary cancer is a complex, confusing, and highly individual journey. With its unique combination of the latest research, expert advice, and compelling personal stories, this book gives previvors, survivors, and their family members the guidance they need to face the unique challenges of hereditary cancer.

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The discovery of the nucleus transformed the past century and will revolutionize this one. Nuclear physics is one of the most exciting-and useful-branches of science. In medicine, it helps save lives through innovative medical technologies, such as the MRI, and in nuclear astrophysics, state-of-the-art theoretical and computer models account for how stars shine and describe how the chemical elements in the universe were formed. Now in its second edition, Nucleus tells the story of the nucleus from the early experimental work of the quiet New Zealander Lord Rutherford to the huge atom-smashing machines of today and beyond. Thoroughly revised and updated, the book includes the most current information on the radio dating of Earth and other planets in the Solar System, heavy-ion therapies, quark-gluon plasma and its relevance to black holes, and clarification of ab initio calculations of atomic nuclei. Lavishly illustrated and with lively prose and captivating details, this book unravels the scientific mysteries that surround the subject of the nucleus. Anyone with even a passing interest in science will delight in this guide to the nuclear age.

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This book is about having ideas and-a much longer haul-making them work. David Jones, best known for his Daedalus column, tells many stories about creators and their creations, including his own fantastical-seeming contributions to mainstream science-such as unrideable bicycles and chemical gardens in space. His theory of creativity endows each of us with a Random-Ideas Generator, a Censor, and an Observer-Reasoner. Jones applies the theory to a wide range of weird scientific experiments that he has conducted for serious scientific papers, for challenging printed expositions, and for presentations to a TV audience. He even suggests new ones, not yet tried! Creativity is as essential to science as curiosity, physical intuition, and shrewd deduction from well-planned experiments. But, says Jones, ingenuity is very uncertain-even for the greatest inventors, about 80 percent of ideas fail. Jokiness can help, and so can lots of random data. Jones has copious clever advice that will help you have that madly brilliant private thought in the first place-and will encourage you to take it further. Neither dense nor demanding, The Aha! Moment is engrossing, edifying, and scientifically serious; yet it is lightly written, has many jokes, and asks lots of silly questions. As Jones shows, it can often pay to take an absurd idea seriously.

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One fish, two fish, red fish, nearly thirty thousand species of fish-or fishes, as they are properly called when speaking of multiple species. This is but one of many things the authors of this fascinatingly informative book reveal in answering common and not-so-common questions about this ubiquitous group of animals. Fishes range in size from tiny gobies to the massive Ocean Sunfish, which weighs thousands of pounds. They live in just about every body of water on the planet. Ichthyologists Gene Helfman and Bruce Collette provide accurate, entertaining, and sometimes surprising answers to over 100 questions about these water dwellers, such as "How many kinds of fishes are there?" "Can fishes breathe air?" "How smart are fishes?" and "Do fishes feel pain?" They explain how bony fishes evolved, the relationship between them and sharks, and why there is so much color variation among species. Along the way we also learn about the Devils Hole Pupfish, which has the smallest range of any vertebrate in the world; Lota lota, the only freshwater fish to spawn under ice; the Candiru, a pencil-thin Amazonian catfish that lodges itself in a very personal place on male bathers and must be removed surgically; and many other curiosities. With more than 100 photographs-including two full-color photo galleries-and the most up-to-date facts on the world's fishes from two premier experts, this fun book is the perfect bait for any curious naturalist, angler, or aquarist.

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Masculinity, as both performed and studied, continues to be a particularly productive site for understanding cultural dynamics. Contemporary work within women's and gender studies programs recognizes that potential, regularly exploring masculine, bisexual, and transgendered subjectivities in the classroom and in scholarship. This collection of essays on masculinity offers a unique perspective on the topic by featuring articles ranging from early work in biological science and gender behavior to contemporary sociocultural readings of feminist pedagogy, gender violence, and global masculinities. The anthology provides specific insight into critical conversations on masculinity as they have unfolded over time and in the pages of Feminist Formations. Structured around highly readable essays on a wide range of topics and disciplines, it provides a basic introduction to the question of masculinity before moving on to studies of masculinity, science, and the body. The volume closes with two parts that discuss performing masculinity in global and domestic contexts. This survey of masculinity relates to a number of diverse subject areas, including biology, film, literature, economics, and political science. As such, the book is ideal both as a primary text in women's and gender studies courses and as a reference for faculty and students outside the discipline applying gender issues to their teaching and research.

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* A faculty member publishes an article without offering coauthorship to a graduate assistant who has made a substantial conceptual or methodological contribution to the article. * A professor does not permit graduate students to express viewpoints different from her own. * A graduate student close to finishing his dissertation cannot reach his traveling advisor, a circumstance that jeopardizes his degree. This book discusses these and other examples of faculty misconduct-and how to avoid them. Using data collected through faculty surveys, the authors describe behaviors associated with graduate teaching which are considered inappropriate and in violation of good teaching practices. They derive a normative structure that consists of five inviolable and eight admonitory proscriptive criteria to help graduate faculty make informed and acceptable professional choices. The authors discuss the various ways in which faculty members acquire the norms of teaching and mentoring, including the graduate school socialization process, role models, disciplinary codes of ethics, and scholarship about the professoriate and professional performance. Analyzing the rich data gleaned from the faculty surveys, they track how these norms are understood and interpreted across academic disciplines and are influenced by such factors as gender, citizenship, age, academic rank, tenure, research activity, and administrative experience.

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Tony Stark has been battling bad guys and protecting innocent civilians since he first donned his mechanized armor in the 1963 debut of Iron Man in Marvel Comics. Over the years, Stark's suit has allowed him to smash through walls, fly through the air like a human jet, control a bewildering array of weaponry by thought alone, and perform an uncountable number of other fantastic feats. The man who showed us all what it would take to become Batman probes whether science-and humankind-is up to the task of inventing a real-life Iron Man. E. Paul Zehr physically deconstructs Iron Man to find out how we could use modern-day technology to create a suit of armor similar to the one Stark made. Applying scientific principles and an incredibly creative mind to the question, Zehr looks at how Iron Man's suit allows Stark to become a superhero. He discusses the mind-boggling and body-straining feats Iron Man performed to defeat villains like Crimson Dynamo, Iron Monger, and Whiplash and how such acts would play out in the real world. Zehr finds that science is nearing the point where a suit like Iron Man's could be made. But superherodom is not just about technology. Zehr also discusses our own physical limitations and asks whether an extremely well-conditioned person could use Iron Man's armor and do what he does. A scientifically sound look at brain-machine interfaces and the outer limits where neuroscience and neural plasticity meet, Inventing Iron Man is a fun comparison between comic book science fiction and modern science. If you've ever wondered whether you have what it takes to be the ultimate human-machine hero, then this book is for you.

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As anyone from cold climates knows, living with lots of ice and snow can lead to a special appreciation of sports such as skiing, sledding, and skating. Prolific physics popularizer Mark Denny's take on winter athletics lays out the physical principles that govern glaciated game play. After discussing the physical properties of ice and snow and describing the physics behind sliding friction and aerodynamic drag, Denny applies these concepts to such sports as bobsledding, snowboarding, and curling. He explains why clap skates would only hinder hockey players, how a curling rock curls, the forces that control luge speed, and how steering differs from skiing to snowboarding. With characteristic accuracy and a touch of wit, Denny provides fans, competitors, and coaches with handy, applicable insights into the games they love. The separate section of technical notes offers an original and mathematically rigorous exploration of the key aspects of winter sports physics. A physics-driven exploration of sports played on ice and snow that is truly fun and informative, Gliding for Gold is the perfect primer for understanding the science behind cold weather athletics.

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The only mammals capable of true flight, bats are among the world's most fascinating creatures. This accessible guide to the forty-seven species of bats found in the United States and Canada captures and explains the amazing diversity of these marvels of evolution. A wide variety of bat species live in the United States and Canada, ranging from the California leaf-nosed bat to the Florida bonneted bat, from the eastern small-footed bat to the northern long-eared bat. The authors provide an overview of bat classification, biology, feeding behavior, habitats, migration, and reproduction. They discuss the ever-increasing danger bats face from destruction of habitat, wind turbines, chemical toxicants, and devastating diseases like white-nose syndrome, which is killing millions of cave bats in North America. Illustrated species accounts include range maps and useful identification tips. Written by three of the world's leading bat experts and featuring J. Scott Altenbach's stunning photographs, this fact-filled and easy-to-use book is the most comprehensive and up-to-date account of bats in the U.S. and Canada.

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There are few things requiring more expertise, delicacy, and compassion than caring for an infant, child, or young adult with a life-limiting condition. Written by leading researchers, clinicians from relevant disciplines, family members, and advocates, this practical guide provides professionals involved in pediatric palliative and end-of-life care with comprehensive information in a single volume. Thoroughly updated and expanded, this edition includes chapters addressing the unique challenges facing children with HIV/AIDS and their families, care in home and ICU settings, difficult decision-making processes, and the importance of communication with the child and family, as well as completely new chapters on spiritual dimensions of care and educational and advocacy initiatives. Intended for primary care physicians, pediatric practitioners and specialists, home care and hospice personnel, pastoral counselors, and affected families, the book includes useful resource and reference material and practical, hands-on tips. With contributions from an international group of expert educators, clinicians, and parents, this book takes a truly interdisciplinary approach to pediatric palliative care, presenting best practices, clear instruction, and the latest information and research for anyone involved in pediatric palliative and end-of-life care.

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Affordability, access, and accountability have long been among the central challenges facing higher education-and they remain so today. Here, Donald E. Heller and other higher education scholars and practitioners explore the current debates surrounding these key issues. As students and their families struggle to meet rising tuition prices, and as state funding for higher education dwindles, policymakers confront issues of affordability within state and institutional budgets. Changing demographics and challenges to affirmative action complicate the admissions process even as colleges and universities seek to diversify enrollments. And issues of institutional accountability have forced the restructuring of higher education governing boards and a reexamination of the role of public trustees in governance. This collection analyzes how issues of affordability, access, and accountability influence the way in which state governments approach, monitor, and set public higher education policy. The contributors examine the latest research on pressing challenges, explore how states are coping with these challenges, and consider what the future holds for public postsecondary education in the United States.

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As the population ages, increasing numbers of older people require the attention and services of mental health professionals. Despite their prevalence, however, mental health problems in this population often go undiagnosed and therefore untreated. This textbook offers medical students and professionals the information they need to care for older people with mental disorders. Drs. Donna Cohen and Carl Eisdorfer, two internationally recognized experts in geriatric mental health, provide a comprehensive framework within which students and practitioners alike can address the salient issues of the field. These include the biopsychosocial aging processes, specific pathologies prevalent in later life, social issues common to the elderly, the delivery of care in various settings, and the economic policies affecting services for older people. The authors' goal is not only to enhance clinical practice but also to urge physicians to develop and coordinate a more holistic care strategy that acknowledges the complex challenges of older patients. To this end, Cohen and Eisdorfer discuss essential principles of optimal care, the latest research findings, evidence- and consensus-based practice standards, resources to help professionals keep abreast of the changing mental health landscape, and ethical dilemmas of clinical practice and research. The signal strength of this book lies in its integrated approach, an approach that emphasizes the philosophy and principles of caring for older people along with clinical practices and issues. From this broader perspective, the authors describe the many factors that influence the lives, health, and well-being of older patients and their caregivers, making this an ideal text for psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, and social workers.

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Aaron Poochigian's new translations of Aeschylus's earliest extant plays provide the clearest rendering yet of their formal structure. The distinction between spoken and sung rhythms is as sharp as it is in the source texts, and for the first time readers in English can fully grasp the balanced, harmonious arrangement of choral odes. The importance of these works to the history of drama and tragedy and to the history of classical literature is beyond question, and their themes of military hubris and foreign versus native are deeply relevant today. Persians offers a surprisingly sympathetic portrayal of the Athenians' most hated enemy; in Seven against Thebes Argive invaders, though no less Greek than the Thebans themselves, are portrayed as barbarians; and in Suppliants the city of Argos is called upon to protect Egyptian refugees. Based on textual evidence and the archaeological remains of the Theater of Dionysus at Athens, Poochigian's introductory overview of stage properties and accompanying stage directions allow readers to experience the plays as they were performed in their own time. He is most careful in his translations of the plays' choral odes. Instead of rendering them with little or no form, Poochigian has preserved the comprehensive structures Aeschylus himself employed. Readers are thus able to recognize Aeschylus as a master of poetry as well as of drama. Poochigian's translations are the most accurate renditions of the poetry and dramaturgy of the original works available. Intended to be both read as literature and performed as plays, these translations are lucid and readable, while remaining staunchly faithful to the texts.

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Once a sleepy plantation society, the region from the Chesapeake Bay to coastal North Carolina modernized and diversified its economy in the years before the Civil War. Central to this industrializing process was slave labor. Money over Mastery, Family over Freedom tells the story of how slaves seized opportunities in these conditions to protect their family members from the auction block. Calvin Schermerhorn argues that the African American family provided the key to economic growth in the antebellum Chesapeake. To maximize profits in the burgeoning regional industries, slaveholders needed to employ or hire out a healthy supply of strong slaves, which tended to scatter family members. From each generation, they also selected the young, fit, and fertile for sale or removal to the cotton South. Conscious of this pattern, the enslaved were sometimes able to negotiate mutually beneficial labor terms-to save their families despite that new economy. Moving focus away from the traditional master-slave relationship in a staple-crop setting, Schermerhorn demonstrates through extensive primary research that the slaves in the upper South were integral to the development of the region's modern political economy, whose architects embraced invention and ingenuity even while deploying slaves to shoulder the burdens of its construction, production, and maintenance. Money over Mastery, Family over Freedom proposes a new way of understanding the role of American slaves in the antebellum marketplace. Rather than work against it, as one might suppose, enslaved people engaged with the market somewhat as did free Americans. Slaves focused their energy and attention, however, not on making money, as slaveholders increasingly did, but on keeping their kin out of the human coffles of the slave trade.

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In this update to his landmark publication, William J. Reese offers a comprehensive examination of the trends, theories, and practices that have shaped America's public schools over the last two centuries. Reese approaches this subject along two main lines of inquiry-education as a means for reforming society and ongoing reform within the schools themselves. He explores the roots of contemporary educational policies and places modern battles over curriculum, pedagogy, race relations, and academic standards in historical perspective. A thoroughly revised epilogue outlines the significant challenges to public school education within the last five years. Reese analyzes the shortcomings of "No Child Left Behind" and the continued disjuncture between actual school performance and the expectations of government officials. He discusses the intrusive role of corporations, economic models for enticing better teacher performance, the continued impact of conservatism, and the growth of home schooling and charter schools. Informed by a breadth of historical scholarship and based squarely on primary sources, this volume remains the standard text for future teachers and scholars of education.

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A notoriously difficult subject, covariant electrodynamics is nonetheless vital for understanding relativistic field theory. John M. Charap's classroom-tested introduction to the mathematical foundations of the topic presents the material in an approachable manner. Charap begins with a historical overview of electrodynamics and a discussion of the preliminary mathematics one needs in order to grasp the advanced and abstract concepts underlying the theory. He walks the reader through Maxwell's four equations, explaining how they were developed and demonstrating how they are applied. From there, Charap moves through the other components of electrodynamics, such as Lorentz transformations, tensors, and charged particle behavior. At each point, he carefully works through the mathematics, applies the concepts to simple physical systems, and provides historical context that makes clear the connections among the theories and the mathematicians responsible for developing them. A concluding chapter reviews the history of electrodynamics and points the way for independent testing of the theory. Thorough, evenly paced, and intuitive, this friendly introduction to high-level covariant electrodynamics is a handy and helpful addition to any physicist's toolkit.

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In April 2007, eleven leatherback turtles captured the imagination of the public worldwide as they "raced" from Costa Rica toward the Galapagos Islands. Known as the Great Turtle Race, this event tracked these critically endangered sea turtles, drawing attention to their fragile status and generating data on the turtles vital to efforts to study and protect them. But the Great Turtle Race is just one of many tools marine conservationists use to inform people about the status, biology, and lives of the seven sea turtle species. Due to human actions, once-plentiful sea turtle population levels plummeted throughout much of the twentieth century, stabilizing somewhat only after Archie Carr and Jacques Cousteau popularized their plight. With Saving Sea Turtles, award-winning author James R. Spotila picks up where Carr and Cousteau left off, going inside the modern-day conservation movement to tell the tales of today's sea turtle conservationists. He provides a complete overview of sea turtle biology and life cycles, discusses the human and natural world threats they face, and examines the new methods and technologies humans are using to save them. Throughout, Spotila dots the narrative with stories of real-life heroes who risk life and limb to understand, track, and conserve sea turtles across the globe. Spotila has been at the forefront of sea turtle research and conservation for decades. His inspirational story of dedicated individuals, creative endeavors, and adventure reveals what is being done and what else we must do in order to ensure that these fascinating animals continue swimming in the oceans.

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A stroke can alter two people's lives in an instant. For the person who has had a stroke, simple tasks suddenly become difficult or impossible. For that person's partner, life seems to revolve mostly around the stroke survivor's needs. Such a drastic change naturally requires making many, sometimes taxing, adjustments. In this book, two experts in stroke recovery help couples deal with the impact of stroke on their lives and their relationship. Drs. Sara and Jeffrey Palmer explain how to overcome three major challenges: * providing quality care for your partner* maintaining or rebuilding your relationship* caring for yourself as an individual The book invites you into the lives of real couples who are themselves coping with these challenges. Their experiences model how you can improve essential aspects of your relationship, including communication, roles and responsibilities, and sexuality. A list of practical tips summarizes each chapter, providing a handy reference guide to meeting each day's challenges. More than just a discussion of the medical and practical aspects of stroke and stroke recovery, this book focuses on the emotional, psychological, and social consequences of stroke and the deeply personal side of caregiving. When Your Spouse Has a Stroke will relieve your burden and strengthen your partnership.

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Psychiatry has lagged behind many clinical specialties in recognizing the importance of narrative for understanding and effectively treating disease. With this book, Bradley Lewis makes the challenging and compelling case that psychiatrists need to promote the significance of narrative in their practice as well. Narrative already holds a prominent place in psychiatry. Patient stories are the foundation for diagnosis and the key to managing treatment and measuring its effectiveness. Even so, psychiatry has paid scant scholarly attention to the intrinsic value of patient stories. Fortunately, the study of narrative outside psychiatry has grown exponentially in recent years, and it is now possible for psychiatry to make considerable advances in its appreciation of clinical stories. Narrative Psychiatry picks up this intellectual opportunity and develops the tools of narrative for psychiatry. Lewis explores the rise of narrative medicine and looks closely at recent narrative approaches to psychotherapy. He uses philosophic and fictional writings, such as Anton Chekhov's play Ivanov, to develop key terms in narrative theory (plot, metaphor, character, point of view) and to understand the interpretive dimensions of clinical work. Finally, Lewis brings this material back to psychiatric practice, showing how narrative insights can be applied in psychiatric treatments-including the use of psychiatric medications. Nothing short of a call to rework the psychiatric profession, Narrative Psychiatry advocates taking the inherently narrative-centered patient-psychiatrist relationship to its logical conclusion: making the story a central aspect of treatment.

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Carl and Evelyn Ernst have completely revised their landmark reference Venomous Reptiles of North America to present the most comprehensive review of these animals in years. Volume One of this definitive work presents dramatically improved species accounts of the venomous lizards and elapid and viperid snakes found north of Mexico's twenty-fifth parallel. Volume Two will cover the twenty-one rattlesnakes found in the United States, Canada, and, for the first time, species found only in northern Mexico. Ernst and Ernst have painstakingly researched and verified the highly valuable and detailed information in this volume, including every detail of the lives of these fascinating and sometimes deadly animals. Venomous Reptiles of the United States, Canada, and Northern Mexico provides facts on each animal's diet, reproductive behavior, physiology, ecology, and conservation status. The book also covers details on snakebite, how venom is delivered, venom composition, antivenom production, and medical treatments of envenomation. Each species account includes vivid photographs that aid with identification and detailed maps that show the species range. Venomous Reptiles of the United States, Canada, and Northern Mexico represents the latest research on these animals and includes the most extensive bibliography of literature on the subject. Anyone with an interest in venom, snakes, or herpetology in general will find a wealth of information within the pages of these impressive volumes.

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Bubbles are everywhere-in water and in air, made from soap and from gas. They are referenced in literature and sung about in songs. They are even the subject of great works of art. From the youngest child blowing bubbles in the backyard to the adult studying the fascinating science behind them, bubbles capture our imagination. F. Ronald Young's far-reaching survey of the humble bubble explores the complex behavior of these seemingly simple objects. If you stop to think about it, bubbles and droplets are the cornerstones of the world around us. They are the reason that dolphins cannot swim faster, that the sky is blue, and that coffee rings form. They are essential to knowing how atom smashers work, how detergents clean dishes, and how to pour a perfect pint. Beyond these basics, Young shows how humans have put bubbles to use throughout history. Whether in technology-making fire-fighting foams and waterproof makeup-or in medicine-cleaning wounds and clarifying ultrasounds-bubbles are capable of more than most of us have imagined. With easy-to-understand explanations, detailed illustrations, and entertaining anecdotes, Young reveals the Fizzics behind these familiar-yet surprising-objects.

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The history of Spain in late antiquity offers important insights into the dissolution of the western Roman empire and the emergence of medieval Europe. Nonetheless, scholarship on Spain in this period has lagged behind that on other Roman provinces. Michael Kulikowski draws on the most recent archeological and literary evidence to integrate late antique Spain into the broader history of the Roman empire, providing a definitive narrative and analytical account of the Iberian peninsula from A.D. 300 to 600. Kulikowski begins with a concise introduction to the early history of Roman Spain, and then turns to the Diocletianic reforms of 293 and their long-term implications for Roman administration and the political ambitions of post-Roman contenders. He goes on to examine the settlement of barbarian peoples in Spain, the end of Roman rule, and the imposition of Gothic power in the fifth and sixth centuries. In parallel to this narrative account, Kulikowski offers a wide-ranging thematic history, focusing on political power, Christianity, and urbanism. Kulikowski's portrait of late Roman Spain offers some surprising conclusions. With new archeological evidence and a fresh interpretation of well-known literary sources, Kulikowski contradicts earlier assertions of a catastrophic decline of urbanism, finding that the physical and social world of the Roman city continued well into the sixth century despite the decline of Roman power. This groundbreaking study will prompt further reassessments of the other Roman provinces and of medieval Spanish history.

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One of the earliest New World naturalists, Jose Celestino Mutis began his professional life as a physician in Spain and ended it as a scientist and natural philosopher in modern-day Colombia. Drawing on new translations of Mutis's nearly forgotten writings, this fascinating story of scientific adventure in eighteenth-century South America retrieves Mutis's contributions from obscurity. In 1760, the 28-year-old Mutis-newly appointed as the personal physician of the Viceroy of the New Kingdom of Granada-embarked on a 48-year exploration of the natural world of northern South America. His thirst for knowledge led Mutis to study the region's flora, become a professor of mathematics, construct the first astronomical observatory in the Western Hemisphere, and amass one of the largest scientific libraries in the world. He translated Newton's writings and penned essays about Copernicus; lectured extensively on astronomy, geography, and meteorology; and eventually became a priest. But, as two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Edward O. Wilson and Spanish natural history scholar Jose M. Gomez Duran reveal in this enjoyable and illustrative account, one of Mutis's most magnificent accomplishments involved ants. Acting at the urging of Carl Linnaeus-the father of taxonomy-shortly after he arrived in the New Kingdom of Granada, Mutis began studying the ants that swarmed everywhere. Though he lacked any entomological training, Mutis built his own classification for the species he found and named at a time when New World entomology was largely nonexistent. His unorthodox catalog of army ants, leafcutters, and other six-legged creatures found along the banks of the Magdalena provided a starting point for future study. Wilson and Duran weave a compelling, fast-paced story of ants on the march and the eighteenth-century scientist who followed them. A unique glance into the early world of science exploration, Kingdom of Ants is a delight to read and filled with intriguing information.

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Orthodox psychiatric texts are often rich in facts, but thin in concept. Depression may be defined as a dysfunction of mood, but of what use is a mood? How can anxiety be both symptom and adaptation to stress? What links the disparate disabilities of perception and reasoning in schizophrenia? Why does the same situation push one person into drink, drugs, danger, or despair and bounce harmlessly off another? Trouble in Mind is unorthodox because it models adaptive mental function along with mental illness to answer questions like these. From experience as a Johns Hopkins clinician, educator, and researcher, Dean F. MacKinnon offers a unique perspective on the nature of human anguish, unreason, disability, and self-destruction. He shows what mental illness can teach about the mind, from molecules to memory to motivation to meaning. MacKinnon's fascinating model of the mind as a vital function will enlighten anyone intrigued by the mysteries of thought, feeling, and behavior. Clinicians in training will especially appreciate the way mental illness can illuminate normal mental processes, as medical illness in general teaches about normal body functions. For students, the book also includes useful guides to psychiatric assessment and diagnosis.

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This work examines the Middle Colonies-New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania-as a region at the center of imperial contests among competing European powers and Native American nations and at the fulcrum of an emerging British-Atlantic world of culture and trade. Ned C. Landsman traces the history of the Middle Colonies to address questions essential to understanding their role in the colonial era. He probes the concept of regionality and argues that while each territory possessed varying social, religious, and political cultures, the collective lands of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania came to function as a region because of their particular history and their distinct place in the imperial and Atlantic worlds. Landsman demonstrates that the societal cohesiveness of the three colonies originated in the commercial and military rivalries among Native nations and developed further with the competing involvement of the European powers, eventually emerging as the focal point in the contest for dominion over North America. In relating this progression, Landsman discusses various factors in the region's development, including the Enlightenment, evangelical religion, factional politics, religious and ethnic diversity, and distinct systems of Protestant pluralism. Ultimately, he argues, it was within the Middle Colonies that the question was first posed, What is the American? An insightful and valuable classroom synthesis of the scholarship of the Middle Colonies, Crossroads of Empire makes clear the vital role of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania in establishing an American identity.

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The aftermath of September 11, 2001, brought the subject of engineering-failure forensics to public attention as had no previous catastrophe. In keeping with the engineering profession's long tradition of building a positive future out of disasters, Lessons amid the Rubble uses the collapse of the World Trade Center towers to explore the nature and future of engineering education in the United States. Sarah K. A. Pfatteicher draws on historical and current practice in engineering design, construction, and curricula to discuss how engineers should conceive, organize, and execute a search for the reasons behind the failure of man-made structures. Her survey traces the analytical journey engineers take after a disaster and discusses the technical, social, and moral implications of their work. After providing an overview of the investigations into the collapse of the Twin Towers, Pfatteicher explores six related events to reveal deceptively simple lessons about the engineering enterprise, each of which embodies an ethical dilemma at the heart of the profession. In tying these themes together, Pfatteicher highlights issues of professionalism and professional identity infused in engineering education and encourages an explicit, direct conversation about their meaning. Sophisticated and engagingly written, this volume combines history, engineering, ethics, and philosophy to provoke a deep discussion about the symbolic meaning of buildings and other structures and the nature of engineering.

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Political wisdom holds that the political boundaries of a state necessarily coincide with a nation's perceived cultural boundaries. Today, the sociocultural diversity of many polities renders this understanding obsolete. This volume provides the framework for the state-nation, a new paradigm that addresses the need within democratic nations to accommodate distinct ethnic and cultural groups within a country while maintaining national political coherence. First introduced briefly in 1996 by Alfred Stepan and Juan J. Linz, the state-nation is a country with significant multicultural-even multinational-components that engenders strong identification and loyalty from its citizens. Here, Indian political scholar Yogendra Yadav joins Stepan and Linz to outline and develop the concept further. The core of the book documents how state-nation policies have helped craft multiple but complementary identities in India in contrast to nation-state policies in Sri Lanka, which contributed to polarized and warring identities. The authors support their argument with the results of some of the largest and most original surveys ever designed and employed for comparative political research. They include a chapter discussing why the U.S. constitutional model, often seen as the preferred template for all the world's federations, would have been particularly inappropriate for crafting democracy in politically robust multinational countries such as India or Spain. To expand the repertoire of how even unitary states can respond to territorially concentrated minorities with some secessionist desires, the authors develop a revised theory of federacy and show how such a formula helped craft the recent peace agreement in Aceh, Indonesia. Empirically thorough and conceptually clear, Crafting State-Nations will have a substantial impact on the study of comparative political institutions and the conception and understanding of nationalism and democracy.

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A massive crowd of people, cloaked in the colors of their beloved athletes, slowly fill a 150,000-seat arena to cheer on their favorite teams. Athletes enter the stadium amid great pomp and circumstance as opposing fans hurl insults at one another and place bets on the day's outcome. Although this familiar scene might describe a contemporary football game, it also portrays a day at the chariot races in ancient Rome, where racers were the sports stars of the ancient world. Following close on the heels of his successful book on gladiators, Fik Meijer reveals all there is to know about chariot racing in the Roman Empire. After recounting the Nika riot of 532 AD-where tens of thousands of people were killed after a politically heated tournament of races-Meijer reviews the historical background, organization, and popularity of these games. He profiles the sport's famous teams, jockeys, and horses and discusses how the whole business fed into the strategy of Juvenal's "bread and circuses" to keep the citizenry happy. Expertly translated by Liz Waters, Chariot Racing in the Roman Empire also examines the political importance of these spectacles, where patricians and plebeians alike filled the stadiums. Meijer sees these contests not so much as an opiate for the people but as a political barometer: the Circus Maximus was the only place in the Empire where the supreme leader was confronted with the approval or disapproval of his people. Meijer makes use of scarce and obscure sources in this lively narrative, describing an exciting race with such enthusiasm readers will feel they are in the stands themselves. From the length of the track and the need to ride small horses, to the risks, techniques, and training methods involved in racing, Meijer recreates ancient Rome's favorite pastime in impressive detail.

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The stories of Ocean State roll over the reader like a wave. Family pleasures, marriage, the essential moments and mysteries of a seemingly ordinary world that break into magical territory before we can brace ourselves-Jean McGarry puts us in life's rough seas with what the New York Times has called a "deft, comic, and devastatingly precise" hand.

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Although they receive extensive clinical training, medical practitioners are given little or no instruction about the best way to break bad news. In this book and DVD set, Robert Buckman, author of How to Break Bad News, offers solid, practical, and practicable guidelines for such conversations as the diagnosis of a serious or fatal illness, the death of a loved one in the hospital, or a disclosure of medical error. This is a book about communication techniques that work in everyday clinical practice. It is not a series of prefabricated scripts but a collection of strategies and approaches that any clinician can use to effectively communicate with patients. Using basic, honest communication tools, Buckman shows doctors how to approach conversations dealing with the most sensitive medical topics. He explains what to anticipate in various situations and provides guidance on keeping the discussion as constructive as possible. For each of several scenarios, Buckman supplies alternative responses, indicating which can work best and why. Each protocol is given an acronym to provide a mnemonic aid to help clinicians respond quickly and effectively. The accompanying DVD illustrates the protocols with recordings of unscripted and unrehearsed conversations with standardized patients, showing how the strategies can actually work in real situations in a realistic time frame. Based on sound, proven strategies and peppered throughout with illustrative examples, Practical Plans for Difficult Conversations in Medicine provides the tools and knowledge necessary to start and sustain a genuine conversation at a moment when the first thought is "I have no idea what to say now."

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God or Darwin? It is one of the most contentious conflicts of our time. It is also completely unnecessary, according to Joel W. Martin, an evolutionary biologist and ordained elder in the Presbyterian Church USA. In this slim but powerful book, Martin argues that it is not contradictory to be a practicing, faithful Christian who accepts the science of evolution. Martin finds that much of the controversy in the United States over evolution is manufactured and predicated on a complete-and sometimes willful-misapprehension of basic science. Science and religion, he says, serve different purposes and each seeks to answer questions that the other need never address. He believes that many of the polarizing debates about evolution distract from the deeper lessons of Christianity and that literal, fundamentalist readings of the Bible require the faithful to reject not just evolution but many of science's greatest discoveries. Just as the scientific explanation of rainbows is not meant to refute the biblical "rainbow" story of God's promise, evolutionary theory is not a ploy to disavow the divine. Indeed, Martin shows that the majority of Christians worldwide accept the theory of evolution. He urges his fellow Christians to refuse to participate in the intellectually stifling debate over evolution and creationism/intelligent design.

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Harvested for food, harnessed for power, and home to more than 3,600 species of plants, fish, and animals, the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries have long been essential to the sustainability and survival of the region's populations. Historian William S. Dudley explores that history in an engaging and comprehensive account of Maryland's storied maritime heritage. Dudley paints a vivid picture of Maryland's maritime past in its broadest scope, exploring the complex and nuanced interactions of humans, land, and water through descriptions of shipbuilding, steam technology, agricultural pollution, commercial and passenger transportation, naval campaigns, watermen, crabbing, and oystering. He also discusses the evolution of recreational boating-yachting, cruising, and racing-and the role of underwater archaeology in uncovering the bay's shipwrecks. These interactions become chapters in the larger story of Maryland's waterways, a story that Dudley tells through insightful prose and stunning illustrations. This rich history of Maryland's waterways reveals how human enterprise has affected-and been affected by-the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.

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With Possible Worlds of Fiction and History, Lubomir Dole el reexamines the claim-made first by Roland Barthes and then popularized by Hayden White-that "there is no fundamental distinction between fiction and history." Dole el rejects this assertion and demonstrates how literary and discourse theory can help the historian to restate the difference between fiction and history. He challenges scholars to reassess the postmodern viewpoint by reintroducing the idea of possible worlds. Possible-worlds semantics reveals that possible worlds of fiction and possible worlds of history differ in their origins, cultural functions, and structural and semantic features. Dole el's book is the first systematic application of this idea to the theory and philosophy of history. Possible Worlds of Fiction and History is the crowning work of one of literary theory's most engaged thinkers.

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New York. London. Paris. Although these cities have similar sociodemographic characteristics, including income inequalities and ethnic diversity, they have vastly different health systems and services. This book compares the three and considers lessons that can be applied to current and future debates about urban health care. Highlighting the importance of a national policy for city health systems, the authors use well-established indicators and comparable data sources to shed light on urban health policy and practice. Their detailed comparison of the three city health systems and the national policy regimes in which they function provides information about access to health care in the developed world's largest cities. The authors first review the current literature on comparative analysis of health systems and offer a brief overview of the public health infrastructure in each city. Later chapters illustrate how timely and appropriate disease prevention, primary care, and specialty health care services can help cities control such problems as premature mortality and heart disease. In providing empirical comparisons of access to care in these three health systems, the authors refute inaccurate claims about health care outside of the United States.

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With budget reconciliations, filibusters, and supermajorities making headlines, In Praise of Deadlock explains the legislative process and its checkpoints, while maintaining a noncomformist respect for the hurdles and hang-ups inherent in the American system. As a practitioner who served for 14 years as chief of staff to Senators Bill Frist and Pete Domenici, W. Lee Rawls offers unusual insight into partisan struggle, which he sees as essential to advancing new policy and generating consensus. Such grappling, Rawls concludes, results in a nuanced, durable machine, producing better laws that have benefited from minority input.

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Written by a medical and a legal pioneer in the field, this book comprehensively reviews and analyzes the evolving law and policy issues surrounding assisted reproductive technologies. Dr. Howard W. Jones, Jr., founder of the first in vitro fertilization program in the United States, offers medical commentary, while attorney Susan L. Crockin, author of the column "Legally Speaking" in ASRM News (the newsletter of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine), provides legal analysis. The book opens with a legal primer and timelines sketching the medical and legal milestones in the history of reproductive technology and law. Each chapter provides a case-by-case discussion of the relevant law, as well as cogent medical and legal commentary and analysis on a particular substantive area. Chapter topics deal with a vast array of issues, including artificial insemination, sperm and egg donation, traditional and gestational surrogacy, posthumous reproduction, same-sex parentage, genetics, cryopreservation and embryo litigation, discrimination and access to reproductive care, professional liability, stem cell research, and abortion. In discussing the medical and legal issues surrounding these topics, Crockin and Jones reveal what has gone right and what at times has gone terribly wrong for both the families and the professionals involved. They make clear that technological advancements have far outpaced the laws and policies in place to protect all who use them. This book makes a timely contribution to current debates over the legal and policy issues raised by the highly publicized birth of octuplets in California and the embryo legislation activity taking place in many states. It offers information and insight to policymakers, medical and legal professionals, patients and other participants, and everyone else interested in the history and future direction of the field.

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Almost a decade ago, Peter S. Silin wrote Nursing Homes: The Family's Journey to provide family members with practical advice and emotional support. This successor volume incorporates the new and sometimes baffling world of assisted living. Nursing Homes and Assisted Living focuses on the psychological, emotional, and practical aspects of helping family members and seniors make a difficult transition. Silin approaches his subject with compassion and sensitivity, guiding readers through the process of finding the best possible care. He describes how nursing homes and assisted living facilities work and outlines the selection process; he explains how to prepare for the day a relative moves into a facility and suggests ways to help the resident settle in; he focuses on the family member's role in solving problems, obtaining good-quality care, and visiting. The author's insights help caregivers cope with difficult decisions and deal with emotional issues such as guilt and grief, while celebrating the tender, rewarding aspects of being a caregiver. Vignettes from real-life caregivers narrating their experiences amplify Silin's advice and will resonate with families. This book provides caregivers, family members, and seniors with the information they need to effect successful transitions. It is also a valuable tool for social workers, nurses, and family therapists.

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In a world where the opportunity to advance scholarly and scientific knowledge is dependent on the ability to secure sufficient funding, researchers and scholars must write funding proposals that stand out from the competition. The practical advice in this guidebook is designed to aid academics in writing successful applications at all stages of their careers. This book will help grant applicants plan and craft funding proposals that are concise, complete, and impressive-and that satisfy the mandates of the agencies to which they are applying. Applicants will learn how to * Avoid common writing blunders* Understand the central importance of the research budget* Overcome procrastination* Choose and secure professional references* Develop a career path with a view toward funding opportunities* Maintain a winning attitude that will improve the chances of success Write an Effective Funding Application details the all-important preparation stage in drafting a grant application, from identifying sources of funding and securing registration numbers to creating a schedule for meeting the application deadline. It reviews the nuts and bolts of writing and polishing a winning application, stressing the importance of logical thinking and thoughtful presentation. The book includes detailed information on developing budgets, "before" and "after" versions of proposals, and descriptions of common pitfalls that everyone can avoid.

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This guide offers parents fresh perspectives and simple skills to encourage good behavior in children and reduce stress for the entire family. Emphasizing personal choice, free will, and dispassionate parent-child interactions, Dr. William H. Hughes's step-by-step approach has been developed, tested, and proven to work time and again by child psychiatrists. Dr. Hughes demonstrates how parents must allow their children to decide for themselves whether they will cooperate and how they will act. Effective parenting builds character and increases self-confidence. Here, kids learn that they can choose to behave-and be rewarded for it. Dr. Hughes recommends that parents: * Set expectations. Make clear what the expected behavior is, whether it's doing homework or taking out the trash. * Monitor behavior. Keep an eye on what children are supposed to be doing, but let them decide for themselves whether they will complete the task. * Reward. Verbally praise good behavior and offer kids a reward. Let them play video games for an hour or invite a friend to a sleepover. Many parents are convinced that reward systems simply do not work. Dr. Hughes explains why his approach gets the desired results while other approaches do not. By not engaging in power struggles and giving rewards only when expectations have been met, parents teach their kids that in choosing good behavior they are choosing rewards-and rewards will motivate kids to act better. Dr. Hughes also outlines a clear strategy for dealing with kids who just won't take no for an answer. The book encourages parents to modify their own behavior, teaching them to shift their focus away from battling with their kids and to use their energy to help their children develop winning habits and attitudes for life.

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Almost a decade ago, Peter S. Silin wrote Nursing Homes: The Family's Journey to provide family members with practical advice and emotional support. This successor volume incorporates the new and sometimes baffling world of assisted living. Nursing Homes and Assisted Living focuses on the psychological, emotional, and practical aspects of helping family members and seniors make a difficult transition. Silin approaches his subject with compassion and sensitivity, guiding readers through the process of finding the best possible care. He describes how nursing homes and assisted living facilities work and outlines the selection process; he explains how to prepare for the day a relative moves into a facility and suggests ways to help the resident settle in; he focuses on the family member's role in solving problems, obtaining good-quality care, and visiting. The author's insights help caregivers cope with difficult decisions and deal with emotional issues such as guilt and grief, while celebrating the tender, rewarding aspects of being a caregiver. Vignettes from real-life caregivers narrating their experiences amplify Silin's advice and will resonate with families. This book provides caregivers, family members, and seniors with the information they need to effect successful transitions. It is also a valuable tool for social workers, nurses, and family therapists.

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The rare and endangered Chinese alligator has long held a prominent place in Chinese culture and mythology. Here John Thorbjarnarson and Xiaoming Wang, who have been at the forefront of efforts to conserve these remarkable creatures, provide comprehensive details about the biology, behavior, history, and cultural and conservation significance of the animal thought to be the basis of the Chinese dragon legend. Though more than 10,000 Chinese alligators live in zoos and breeding facilities, just a few hundred still exist in the wild. Much of their natural habitat has been lost to human development, leaving wild Chinese alligators clinging to small areas where the Yangtze River meets the Pacific Ocean. Thorbjarnarson and Wang recount how and why the species declined to the point where it is perhaps the most threatened of all crocodilians, discuss ongoing conservation works, and project what the future is likely to bring for the Chinese alligator. Their scientific synthesis sits in stark contrast to the alligators' unique relationship with Chinese culture, where folklore views it as a water deity related to dragons. Illustrated throughout and featuring the most up-to-date biological information available, this volume is a complete overview of the Chinese alligator, a conservation and cultural icon.

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This collection of essays examines alternative theories about persons and personal identity at the beginning and end of life. The contributions seek to answer the important question, When does a person begin and cease to exist? While the concept of personhood has figured prominently in contemporary debates over abortion and stem cell research, this is the first anthology to combine in a single volume both various theoretical perspectives and consideration of the more practical, bioethical issues. These essays are gathered from a rich tradition of philosophical and religious readings on the subject, from Rene Descartes's Meditations on First Philosophy and John Locke's Essay concerning Human Understanding to more modern discussions on persons living with dementia and on the definition of death. Organized chronologically, these works address three broad topics: theories of persons, persons at the beginning of life, and persons at the end of life. The first section offers differing views on the nature of persons that have influenced ontological and bioethical discussions of the subject. Essays in the next section track the debate over abortion and the moral status of embryos. The last section explores alternative definitions and determinations of death. Defining the Beginning and End of Life is a useful resource for examining the connection between theoretical and bioethical considerations about persons. It will engage bioethicists and philosophers as well as inform policy and law regarding issues at the beginning and end of life.

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This book brings together some of the best minds in neurology and philosophy to discuss the concept of personal identity and the moral dimensions of treating brain disease and injury. The contributors engage a crucial question: When an individual's personality changes radically because of disease or injury, should this changed individual be treated as the same person? Rapid advances in brain science are expanding knowledge of human memory, emotion, and cognition and pointing the way toward new approaches for the prevention and treatment of devastating illnesses and disabilities. Through case studies of Alzheimer disease, frontotemporal dementia, deep brain stimulation, and steroid psychosis, the contributors highlight relevant ethical and social concerns that clinicians, researchers, and ethicists are likely to encounter. Personal Identity and Fractured Selves represents the first formal collaboration between the Brain Sciences Institute and the Berman Institute of Bioethics, both at the Johns Hopkins University. The book asks neuroscientists and philosophers to address important questions on the topic of personal identity in an effort to engage both fields in fruitful conversation. Contributors: Samuel Barondes, M.D., University of California, San Francisco; David M. Blass, M.D., Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; Patrick Duggan, A.B., Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics; Ruth R. Faden, Ph.D., M.P.H., Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics; Michael S. Gazzaniga, Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara; Guy M. McKhann, M.D., Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; John Perry, Ph.D., Stanford University; Carol Rovane, Ph.D., Columbia University; Alan Regenberg, M.Be., Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics; Marya Schechtman, Ph.D., University of Illinois at Chicago; Maura Tumulty, Ph.D., Colgate University

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The essays in this volume examine democracy's development in the United States, demonstrating how that process has shaped-and continues to shape-the American political system. Scholars of American politics commonly describe the political development of the United States as exceptional and distinct from that of other advanced industrial democracies. They point to the United States as the longest-lived and most stable liberal democracy in history. What they often fail to mention, though, is that it took considerable time to extend democracy throughout the country. The contributors to this volume suggest that it is intellectually fruitful to consider the U.S. case in comparison to other countries. They argue that the development of democracy is ongoing in America; that even with a written constitution grounded in liberal democracy, the meaning and significance of U.S. democracy are still evolving. This volume shows that democratization and the pursuit of democracy are processes affected by multiple and continuing challenges-including such issues as citizenship, race, institution building, and political movements-as patterns and practices of politics and governance continue to change. This innovative approach contributes significantly to comparative democratization studies, a field normally confined to Latin America and former communist countries. The U.S. case is a unique reference point for students of American political development and comparative democratization.

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Passengers who dined on the Baltimore and Ohio during the heyday of American railroading received five-star service: white tablecloths, china, and silver; food cooked from scratch; and the undivided attention of skilled waiters. The B&O's cuisine won wide acclaim as the finest railway food in the country. Passengers enjoyed it as the slightly swaying dining car clicked along over the rails. Captivated by the romance of the subject, Thomas J. Greco and Karl D. Spence combine many of the B&O's best recipes with historical photos to capture the elegance and charm of the dining car experience. Greco and Spence made a quest of uncovering the original sources of these recipes, revisiting America's first institutional cookbook, The Culinary Handbook, by Charles Fellows, and researching the B&O's own specialty collections of the 1940s and 1950s, the Old Standard B&O Recipes, What's Cooking on the B&O? and B&O Chef's Notes. Along with the original recipes and modern interpretations, they supply captivating photographs of the dining cars, patrons, and staff; commentary describing the technical aspects of cooking on a moving train; examples of "service notes" used by chefs, stewards, and waiters; and a glossary of cooking terms. With Dining on the B&O, Greco and Spence preserve for future generations the singular experience of dining in high style on this iconic railway. The recipes collected here invite readers to prepare the dishes enjoyed by thousands of rail passengers in years gone by. Just open the book and start cooking the B&O way!

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In this fresh study Brian Schoen views the Deep South and its cotton industry from a global perspective, revisiting old assumptions and providing new insights into the region, the political history of the United States, and the causes of the Civil War. Schoen takes a unique and broad approach. Rather than seeing the Deep South and its planters as isolated from larger intellectual, economic, and political developments, he places the region firmly within them. In doing so, he demonstrates that the region's prominence within the modern world-and not its opposition to it-indelibly shaped Southern history. The place of "King Cotton" in the sectional thinking and budding nationalism of the Lower South seems obvious enough, but Schoen reexamines the ever-shifting landscape of international trade from the 1780s through the eve of the Civil War. He argues that the Southern cotton trade was essential to the European economy, seemingly worth any price for Europeans to protect and maintain, and something to defend aggressively in the halls of Congress. This powerful association gave the Deep South the confidence to ultimately secede from the Union. By integrating the history of the region with global events, Schoen reveals how white farmers, planters, and merchants created a "Cotton South," preserved its profitability for many years, and ensured its dominance in the international raw cotton markets. The story he tells reveals the opportunities and costs of cotton production for the Lower South and the United States.

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Nested Ecology provides a pragmatic and functional approach to realizing a sustainable environmental ethic. Edward T. Wimberley asserts that a practical ecological ethic must focus on human decision making within the context of larger social and environmental systems. Think of a set of mixing bowls, in which smaller bowls sit within larger ones. Wimberley sees the world in much the same way, with personal ecologies embedded in social ecologies that in turn are nested within natural ecologies. Wimberley urges a complete reconceptualization of the human place in the ecological hierarchy. Going beyond the physical realms in which people live and interact, he extends the concept of ecology to spirituality and the "ecology of the unknown." In doing so, Wimberley defines a new environmental philosophy and a new ecological ethic.

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The Constitution of the United States says little about the president's specific duties other than the enforcement of the laws of the land. Combining brilliant scholarship with a lively style, this book reveals how deep-seated forces, inherent in American society and affecting the presidency for over two centuries, have transformed the office created by the framers of the Constitution into the complex, powerful, and responsible institution it is today. The administrations of the "strong" presidents have added to the powers and duties of the office as we know them. In addition, such social and political forces as the growth of political parties, economic and geographic expansion, and the changing nature of the national government have all had their influence on the presidency. These processes are historically traced by the author and illustrated by vivid examples of how they worked in the case of such holders of the office as Washington, Jackson, Polk, Lincoln, the two Roosevelts, and Eisenhower. Every chapter of the book brings a fresh and authoritative approach to an office and an institution that is the subject of searching debates today.

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