Alec Somerville's Books

The History of The Brothers-In-Law: 1963-1970 - From Windsor, Ontario

By: Paul Langan,Alec Somerville

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The History of The Brothers-In-Law: 1963-1970 - From Windsor, Ontario

By: Paul Langan,Alec Somerville

Windsor Ontario's The Brother-In-Law folk group performed from 1963 to 1970. The group originally consisted of police officers. Their first album sold over 240,000 copies. This booklet looks back at their career with interviews with original members Alec Somerville and Larry Reaume.

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Paul Langan

Published Date

ISBN 10

1998829308

ISBN 13

9781998829309

With Stars in Their Eyes

The Extraordinary Lives and Enduring Genius of Aden and Marjorie Meinel

By: Jim Bernard Breckinridge,Alec M. Pridgeon

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With Stars in Their Eyes

The Extraordinary Lives and Enduring Genius of Aden and Marjorie Meinel

By: Jim Bernard Breckinridge,Alec M. Pridgeon

Aden B. Meinel and wife Marjorie P. Meinel stood at the confluence of several overarching technological developments of the 20th century: postwar aerial surveillance by spy planes and satellites, solar energy, the evolution of telescope design, interdisciplinary optics, and photonics. In 1945 he was a Navy Ensign ordered to find the secret tunnels in Nazi Germany where the V-2 rockets menacing Great Britain and Belgium were being manufactured. After receiving both his B.A. degree and Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of California at Berkeley within three years, Aden was invited to join the scientific staff at Yerkes Observatory/University of Chicago. While there he was selected by the National Science Foundation to manage the development of a new national observatory on Kitt Peak, Arizona, and served as its first Director. In the early 1960s he founded the Optical Sciences Center at the University of Arizona, which later metamorphosed into the College of Optical Sciences with the doctoral program in interdisciplinary optics. It was here that he also designed the first Multiple Mirror Telescope and with wife Marjorie pioneered the feasibility of solar energy power on a commercial scale. Aden's knowledge and expertise in optics made him invaluable in research on cameras for spy satellites and spy planes overflying the Soviet Union and Southeast Asia. After retirement the Meinels worked for NASA/JPL on the precursor of the James Webb Space Telescope and on the exoplanet program. They also served on the team that corrected spherical aberration in the Hubble Space Telescope"--

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Page Count

533

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0190915676

ISBN 13

9780190915674

Beyond the Blue Mountain

By: Alec McDonald

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Beyond the Blue Mountain

By: Alec McDonald

From the glaciers of Spitsbergen to the palaces of Oman, this is an unlikely journey by an unassuming Liverpool boy who spent much of his career rising, to his surprise, through MI6, when not indulging his passion for rock-climbing.

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Page Count

217

Publisher

Troubador Publishing Ltd

Published Date

ISBN 10

1800465920

ISBN 13

9781800465923

The Gospel and Henry VIII

Evangelicals in the Early English Reformation

By: Alec Ryrie

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The Gospel and Henry VIII

Evangelicals in the Early English Reformation

By: Alec Ryrie

During the last decade of Henry VIII's life, his Protestant subjects struggled to reconcile two loyalties: to their Gospel and to their king. This book tells the story of that struggle and describes how a radicalised English Protestantism emerged from it. Focusing on the critical but neglected period 1539–47, Dr Ryrie argues that these years were not the 'conservative reaction' of conventional historiography, but a time of political fluidity and ambiguity. Most evangelicals continued to hope that the king would favour their cause, and remained doctrinally moderate and politically conformist. The author examines this moderate reformism in a range of settings - in the book trade, in the universities, at court and in underground congregations. He also describes its gradual eclipse, as shifting royal policy and the dynamics of the evangelical movement itself pushed reformers towards the more radical, confrontational Protestantism which was to shape the English identity for centuries.

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Page Count

330

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1139440551

ISBN 13

9781139440554

Empires of the Imagination

A Critical Survey of Fantasy Cinema from Georges Melies to The Lord of the Rings

By: Alec Worley

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Empires of the Imagination

A Critical Survey of Fantasy Cinema from Georges Melies to The Lord of the Rings

By: Alec Worley

The warlocks and ghosts of fantasy film haunt our popular culture, but the genre has too long been ignored by critics. This comprehensive critical survey of fantasy cinema demonstrates that the fantasy genre amounts to more than escapism. Through a meticulously researched analysis of more than a century of fantasy pictures--from the seminal work of Georges Melies to Peter Jackson's recent tours of Middle-earth--the work identifies narrative strategies and their recurring components and studies patterns of challenge and return, setting and character. First addressing the difficult task of defining the genre, the work examines fantasy as a cultural force in both film and literature and explores its relation to science fiction, horror, and fairy tales. Fantasy's development is traced from the first days of film, with emphasis on how the evolving genre reflected such events as economic depression and war. Also considered is fantasy's expression of politics, as either the subject of satire or fuel for the fires of propaganda. Discussion ventures into the subgenres, from stories of invented lands inhabited by fantastic creatures to magical adventures set in the familiar world, and addresses clashes between fantasy and faith, such as the religious opposition to the Harry Potter phenomenon. From the money-making classics to little-known arthouse films, this richly illustrated work covers every aspect of fantasy film.

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Page Count

698

Publisher

McFarland

Published Date

ISBN 10

1476611831

ISBN 13

9781476611839

The Mechanics of Claims and Permissible Killing in War

By: Alec D. Walen

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The Mechanics of Claims and Permissible Killing in War

By: Alec D. Walen

According to the dominant account of rights, there are two ways to permissibly kill people: they have done something to forfeit their right to life, or their rights are outweighed by the significantly greater cost of respecting them. Contemporary just war theorists tend to agree that it is difficult to justify killing in the second way. Thus, they focus on the conditions under which rights might be forfeited. But it has proven hard to defend an account of forfeiture that permits killing when and only when it is morally justifiable. In The Mechanics of Claims and Permissible Killing in War, Alec D. Walen develops an alternative account of rights according to which rights forfeiture has a much smaller role to play. It plays a smaller role because rights themselves are more contextually contingent. They systematically reflect the different kinds of claims people can make on an agent. For example, those who threaten to cause harm without a right to do so have weaker claims not to be killed than innocent bystanders or those who have a right to threaten to cause harm. By framing rights as the output of a balance of competing claims, and by laying out a detailed account of how to balance competing claims, Walen provides a more coherent account of when killing in war is permissible.

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Page Count

265

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0190872055

ISBN 13

9780190872052

The origins of the Scottish Reformation

By: Alec Ryrie

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The origins of the Scottish Reformation

By: Alec Ryrie

The Scottish Reformation of 1560 is one of the most controversial events in Scottish history, and a turning point in the history of Britain and Europe. Yet its origins remain mysterious, buried under competing Catholic and Protestant versions of the story. Drawing on fresh research and recent scholarship, this book provides the first full narrative of the question. Focusing on the period 1525-60, in particular the childhood of Mary, Queen of Scots, it argues that the Scottish Reformation was neither inevitable nor predictable. A range of different ‘Reformations’ were on offer in the sixteenth century, which could have taken Scotland and Britain in dramatically different directions. This is not a ‘religious’ or a ‘political’ narrative, but a synthesis of the two, paying particular attention to the international context of the Reformation, and focusing on the impact of violence - from state persecution, through terrorist activism, to open warfare. Going beyond the heroic certainties of John Knox, this book recaptures the lived experience of the early Reformation: a bewildering, dangerous and exhilarating period in which Scottish (and British) identity was remade.

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Page Count

233

Publisher

Manchester University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1847793851

ISBN 13

9781847793850

Fuel for the Flame

By: Alec Waugh

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Fuel for the Flame

By: Alec Waugh

First published in 1960, this is a tale of an imaginary island on the Equator that has suddenly achieved importance through the discovery of oil - what will happen to the men and women living under the tensions of life on this island? At one end of this island is the oil refinery where the members of the staff live in constant proximity to one another, and where emotions are heightened by the lack of privacy. The men are goaded by ambitions for power, while the women are drawn into affairs of love and passion. At the other end of the island is a hotbed of politics where a British diplomat is attempting to retain the island under Britain's sphere of influence; where an ailing king is fearful of what will happen when he is succeeded by a young and untrained prince; where a nationalist group is plotting to overthrow the monarchy and seize the oil fields. Waugh handles brilliantly his political plots, but always interwoven with them are the personal dramas of love and fear, of cowardice and courage. Rich in detail and characterisation, and in the exotic colours and customs of this strange land, the novel has constant suspense and variety.

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Page Count

557

Publisher

A&C Black

Published Date

ISBN 10

1448202531

ISBN 13

9781448202539

Space and Food in the City

Cultivating Social Justice and Urban Governance through Urban Agriculture

By: Alec Thornton

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Space and Food in the City

Cultivating Social Justice and Urban Governance through Urban Agriculture

By: Alec Thornton

Urban social movements are influential agents in shaping cityscapes to reflect values and needs of communities. Alongside urban population growth, various forms of urban agriculture activity, such as community and market gardens, are expanding, globally. This book explores citizens’ ‘rights to city’ and alternative views on urban space and the growing importance of urban food systems.

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Page Count

132

Publisher

Springer

Published Date

ISBN 10

3319893246

ISBN 13

9783319893242

Island in the Sun

By: Alec Waugh

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Island in the Sun

By: Alec Waugh

First published in 1957, this tells of Santa Marta, which to the casual visitor is a sub-tropical paradise, a small sister of Jamaica, Bermuda and Nassau, unmentioned in the colour-splashed brochures of travel agents: an island where the sun shines throughout the year on the sandy beaches of innumerable coves, on the cane-fields and coconut plantations, on the shingled hits of the peasant villages and the fine houses of the white planters handed down through generation after generation, from the Sugar Barons of a past century. But this was not how the newspaper columnist, Bradshaw, saw it when he arrived on his first trip to the Caribbean. Bradshaw found Santa Marta a smouldering volcano. This novel is a brilliantly successful evocation of the atmosphere and the problems of life on a West Indian island. It is a dramatic story, packed with incident and thrilling in this mounting tension. It weaves into the fortunes of a small group of islanders the ambitions and jealousies, the hopes and fears, the complexes and inhibitions of a people to whom the tint of the skin is more important than wealth, or power, or skill, whose tangled history has bequeathed a heritage of passion in an island where the blood never cools.

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Page Count

760

Publisher

A&C Black

Published Date

ISBN 10

1448202167

ISBN 13

9781448202164

The Enigma of Admiral Darlan

By: Alec De Montmorency

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The Enigma of Admiral Darlan

By: Alec De Montmorency

The enigma of Admiral Darlan is a part of the great French tragedy. His vertiginous rise to power in the very midst of the French catastrophe, his enigmatic wranglings with the Germans, his defiance of the natural friends of France, his insistence on questions of national pride when it seemed to the world that France could not afford any further pride, his feat in imposing his conditions on the Allies in North Africa, and his cruel death on that Christmas Eve, are all part of a great riddle in the tragedy of France. [...] This book was written in incomplete form before the Allied invasion of North Africa; but since then, and since the Admiral’s death, it has been possible to add many important details connected with his differences with the British and with his negotiations with the Axis Powers—details which at that time it would have been both undesirable and impossible to include.

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Page Count

193

Publisher

Pickle Partners Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

178720717X

ISBN 13

9781787207172

Book's by Alec Somerville

The History of The Brothers-In-Law: 1963-1970 - From Windsor, Ontario

The History of The Brothers-In-Law: 1963-1970 - From Windsor, Ontario

With Stars in Their Eyes

With Stars in Their Eyes

Beyond the Blue Mountain

Beyond the Blue Mountain

The Gospel and Henry VIII

The Gospel and Henry VIII

Empires of the Imagination

Empires of the Imagination

The Mechanics of Claims and Permissible Killing in War

The Mechanics of Claims and Permissible Killing in War

The origins of the Scottish Reformation

The origins of the Scottish Reformation

Fuel for the Flame

Fuel for the Flame

Space and Food in the City

Space and Food in the City

Island in the Sun

Island in the Sun

The Enigma of Admiral Darlan

The Enigma of Admiral Darlan

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