Search results for ""Author James William""

Benevolence toward the poor in medieval Europe rested upon ideological foundations established by Christianity and was practiced by a diverse body of clerics and lay people. ""Charity and Religion in Medieval Europe"" is the first comprehensive study of the ideas that underlie medieval generosity and of the institutions created to serve the poor. It traces the roots of this liberality to the patristic era and demonstrates how the ideas of twelfth-century reformers, especially Pope Innocent III, broadened and deepened society's commitment to the downtrodden. In successive chapters, the informative study outlines the charitable practices of monasteries, bishops and their chapters, and individual clerics and lay people. It also chronicles the emergence of specialized religious orders that sheltered pilgrims, ransomed captives, tended to victims of skin diseases, cared for orphans and the sick, and attempted the reform of prostitutes. A chapter devoted to lay charity demonstrates how an ideal of practical sanctity helped to promote acts of generosity within parishes, confraternities, and various types of lay ascetical associations. Within hospitals and other institutions of charity, traditional religious practice was modified and adapted to provide a spiritual and corporate framework for the women and men who actually served the poor. Furthermore, within such institutions, the spiritual needs of patients were paramount, and so provision of the sacraments and religious burial was as important as ameliorative or palliative care that was provided to the poor. The book challenges conventional views of medieval piety by demonstrating how the ideology of charity and its vision of the active life provided an important alternative to the ascetical, contemplative tradition emphasized by most historians. By bridging the divide that often separated lay people from clergy, religious charity provided an arena of action within which all medieval Christians could fully participate.

Read more less

As a pioneer in Lean improvement methods, Jim Martin was among the first to suggest that truly successful Lean initiatives are those applied across every facet of an organization, not just on the shop floor. Building on this concept, Martin demonstrates that one of the most effective ways to implement operational improvements across an organization is to approach it through the resource that permeates every facet of a modern organization—information technology.Measuring and Improving Performance: Information Technology Applications in Lean Systems explains how the effective use of Lean project management methodologies can increase the productivity of information system deployment in service and manufacturing organizations. Starting with an overview of Lean and agile project management principles, the author walks readers through the implementation of Lean practices across key aspects of IT systems. Created to provide Lean and Six Sigma practitioners with a clear understanding of the important concepts related to the creation and modification of software to support process improvement activities across Lean systems, this reference book: Details how to apply Lean principles to IT systems on a global scale Explains how to design IT systems capable of meeting evolving customer needs and expectations Covers several project management methods including agile project management (APM), agile unified process (AUP), SCRUM, extreme programming (EP) Identifies the operational issues that can help project execution and those that can hinder it Complete with roadmaps and checklists, this book will help busy IT and Lean professionals discover more efficient ways to monitor business activity, gather business intelligence, manage and analyze business processes, and ultimately—increase overall operational efficiency.

Read more less

Our Might Always: The 355th Fighter Group in World War II is an exhaustive history in day-by-day combat diary format with over 800 rare images of the 355th including fifty color profiles of P-47s and P-51s. The 355th was third in combined German aircraft destroyed during World War II, first in ground credits, and fifth in air-to-air victory credits within the 8th Air Force. The book is extensively researched with respect to Luftwaffe units engaged, the data tables are extremely detailed and extensive for aircraft, pilots, victory credits, pilot rosters, losses, aces scores and unit awards.

Read more less

In this shockingly raw but beautifully written book, Michael Handrick unpicks the toxic narratives and myths built up by society of what it means to be a man, gay and working class. Moving through time and memory, from a rural council estate surrounded by snowdrop-filled forests, to searching for his sense of self across London, Italy, America and beyond, he explores how his struggles with mental health and abuse were compounded by stigmas around class, masculinity and sexuality. At this point in history, despite having more equal rights and media representation than ever before, the gay community is suffering a mental health epidemic. In a 2018 survey, Stonewall found that half of respondents had experienced depression, while other research shows 49 per cent of gay men have suffered from domestic abuse and 26 per cent have experienced rape, physical violence or stalking by an intimate partner. As he embarks on a journey to understand the root causes of the toxicity in our society, Handrick finds that the beginnings of the abuse, trauma and mental health crises faced by gay men, and the silence that surrounds them, remain unresolved. Difference is born on the lips, but it is society that shapes those words and actions. The mental health issues gay men live with, the abuse they go through, the stigma, prejudice and discrimination they face do not exist in a vacuum. They are created and catalysed in our societies. Difference is Born on the Lips is a call to come together and create a new conversation, and confront the systemic inequalities that the queer community should never have had to live with.

Read more less

This book challenges the assumption that Franz Schubert (1797-1828), best known for the lyricism of his songs, symphonies and chamber music, lacked comparable talent for drama. It is commonly assumed that Franz Schubert (1797-1828), best known for the lyricism of his songs, symphonies, and chamber music, lacked comparable talent for drama. Challenging this view, Drama in the Music of Franz Schubert provides a timely re-evaluation of Schubert's operatic works, while demonstrating previously unsuspected locations of dramatic innovation in his vocal and instrumental music. The volume draws on a range of critical approaches and techniques, including semiotics, topic theory, literary criticism, narratology, and Schenkerian analysis, to situate Schubertian drama within its musical and cultural-historical context. In so doing, the study broadens the boundaries of what might be considered 'dramatic' within the composer's music and offers new perspectives for its analysis and interpretation. Drama in the Music of Franz Schubert will be of interest to musicologists, music theorists, composers, and performers, as well as scholars working in cultural studies, theatre, and aesthetics. JOE DAVIES is College Lecturer in Music at Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford. JAMES WILLIAM SOBASKIE is Associate Professor of Music at Mississippi State University. Contributors: Brian Black, Lorraine Byrne Bodley, Joe Davies, Xavier Hascher, Marjorie Hirsch, Anne Hyland, Christine Martin, Clive McClelland, James William Sobaskie, Lauri Suurpää, Laura Tunbridge, Susan Wollenberg, Susan Youens

Read more less

During World War II, the United States Army Air Corps was led by a cadre of officers who believed implicitly that military aviation, particularly fast heavy bombers at high altitude, would be able to destroy strategic enemy targets during daylight with minimal losses. However, by 1942 the Flying Fortress was proving vulnerable to Luftwaffe fighters. This title charts the United States Army Air Force's struggle to develop a Long-Range Escort which would enable them to achieve the Combined Bomber Objectives and gain mastery of the skies over the Third Reich. The commitment of the USAAF to the Mediterranean and European theatres saw an increasingly desperate need to find a fighter escort, which reached crisis point in 1943 as losses suffered in the Tidal Wave offensive and Schweinfurt-Regensburg-Munster raids emphasised the mounting strength of the Luftwaffe. The USAAF leaders increasingly accepted the probability of bomber losses, and the deployment of the P-51B Mustang solved the problem of Germany’s layered defence strategy, as Luftwaffe fighters had been avoiding the P-47 Thunderbolt and P-38 Lightening escort fighters by concentrating their attacks beyond the range of the Thunderbolt and Lightning. The P-51B duly emerged as the ‘The Bastard Stepchild’ that the USAAF Material Division did not want, becoming the key Long-Range Escort fighter, alongside the P-38 and P-47, that defeated the Luftwaffe prior to D-Day. As well as the P-51B's history, this title explores the technical improvements made to each of these fighters, as well as the operational leadership and technical development of the Luftwaffe they fought against.

Read more less