* What is ethnography in social research? * To what use can ethnographic data be put? * Who are its fiercest critics? * Does ethnography have a future? Ethnography is one of the principal methods of qualitative research and has a long-established tradition of use in the social sciences. However, the literature on ethnography has become a battleground as ethnography is attacked from within and without the qualitative tradition. Post-modern critics attack the methodological status of ethnography and challenge the importance of its representations of reality, and others argue that globalization narrows its application as localism disappears. Ethnography provides a robust defence of this research method and establishes its continued relevance in the social sciences. It sets out the competing methodological bases of ethnography and details its different uses as a research method. The author offers guidelines for good practice in the research process, as well as advice on the analysis, interpretation and presentation of ethnographic data. Although written as a textbook, the contents are research led, informed by the author's own extensive experience of undertaking ethnographic research in dangerous and sensitive locations in Northern Ireland and elsewhere. The result is a lively and engaging read on an essential topic for both students and researchers.
John Brewer explores the essential nature of the social sciences and the ways in which notions of 'impact' and 'value' could be reframed to generate a more productive debate around their contribution to the good of society.
A collection of essays on the contemporary crisis and change in South Africa which considers the international political position, Afrikaner politics, South African economics, internal Black politics, The United Democratic Front, Black trade unions and constitutional change.
Studies of Northern Ireland's ex-combatants ignore religion, while advocates of religious interventions in transitional justice exaggerate its influence. Using interview data with ex-combatants, this book explores religious influences upon violence and peace, and develops a model for evaluating the role of religion in transitional justice.
Dynamics of American Political Parties examines the process of gradual change that inexorably shapes and reshapes American politics. Parties and the politicians that comprise them seek control of government in order to implement their visions of proper public policy. To gain control parties need to win elections, and winning elections requires assembling an electoral coalition that is larger than that crafted by the opposition. Uncertainty rules and intra-party conflict rages as different factions and groups within the parties debate the proper course(s) of action and battle it out for control of the party. Parties can never be sure how their strategic maneuvers will play out, and, even when it appears that a certain strategy has been successful, party leaders are unclear about how long apparent success will last. Change unfolds slowly, in fits and starts.
Jayme Tiomno (1920-2011) was one of the most influential Brazilian physicists of the 20th century, interacting with many of the renowned physicists of his time, including John Wheeler and Richard Feynman, Eugene Wigner, Chen Ning Yang, David Bohm, Murray Gell-Mann, Remo Ruffini, Abdus Salam, and many others. This biography tells the sometimes romantic, often discouraging but finally optimistic story of a dedicated scientist and educator from a developing country who made important contributions to particle physics, gravitation, cosmology and field theory, and to the advancement of science and of scientific education, in many institutions in Brazil and elsewhere. Drawing on unpublished documents from archives in Brazil and the US as well as private sources, the book traces Tiomno's long life, following his role in the establishment of various research facilities and his tribulations during the Brazilian military dictatorship. It presents a story of progress and setbacks in advancing science in Brazil and beyond, and of the persistence and dedication of a talented physicist who spent his life in search of scientific truth.
Land trusts, or conservancies, protect land by owning it. Although many people are aware of a few large land trusts--The Nature Conservancy and the Trust for Public Land, for instance--there are now close to 1,300 local trusts, with more coming into being each month. American land trusts are diverse, shaped by their missions and adapted to their local environments. Nonetheless, all land trusts are private, non-profit organizations for which the acquisition and protection of land by direct action is the primary or sole mission. Nonconfrontational and apolitical, land trusts work with willing land owners in voluntary transactions. Although land trusts are the fastest-growing and most vital part of the land conservation movement today, this model of saving land by private action has become dominant only in the past two decades. Brewer tells why the advocacy model--in which private groups try to protect land by promoting government purchase or regulation-- in the 1980s was eclipsed by the burgeoning land trust movement. He gives the public a much-needed primer on what land trusts are, what they do, how they are related to one another and to other elements of the conservation and environmental movements, and their importance to conservation in the coming decades. As Brewer points out, unlike other land-saving measures, land trust accomplishments are permanent. At the end of a cooperative process between a landowner and the local land trust, the land is saved in perpetuity. Brewer's book, the first comprehensive treatment of land trusts, combines a historical overview of the movement with more specific information on the different kinds of land trusts that exist and the problems they face. The volume also offers a "how-to" approach for persons and institutions interested in donating, selling, or buying land, discusses four major national land trusts (The Nature Conservancy, Trust for Public Land, American Farmland Trust, and Rails-to-Trails Conservancy); and gives a generous sampling of information about the activities and accomplishments of smaller, local trusts nationwide. Throughout, the book is enriched by historical narrative, analysis of successful land trusts, and information on the how and why of protecting land, as well as Brewer's intimate knowledge of ecological systems, biodiversity, and the interconnectedness of human and non-human life forms. Conservancy is a must-read volume for people interested in land conservation--including land trust members, volunteers and supporters--as well as anyone concerned about land use and the environment.
In Susan A. Brewer's fascinating The Best Land, she recounts the story of the parcel of central New York land on which she grew up. Brewer and her family had worked and lived on this land for generations when the Oneida Indians claimed that it rightfully belonged to them. Why, she wondered, did she not know what had happened to this place her grandfather called the best land. Here, she tells its story, tracing over the past four hundred years the two families—her own European settler family and the Oneida/Mohawk family of Polly Denny—who called the best land home. Situated on the passageway to the west, the ancestral land of the Oneidas was coveted by European colonizers and the founders of the Empire State. The Brewer and Denny families took part in imperial wars, the American Revolution, broken treaties, the building of the Erie Canal, Native removal, the rise and decline of family farms, bitter land claims controversies, and the revival of the Oneida Indian Nation. As Brewer makes clear in The Best Land, through centuries of violence, bravery, greed, generosity, racism, and love, the lives of the Brewer and Denny families were profoundly intertwined. The story of this homeland, she discovers, unsettles the history she thought she knew. With clear determination to tell history as it was, without sugarcoating or ignoring the pain and suffering of both families, Brewer navigates the interconnected stories with grace, humility, and a deep love for the land. The Best Land is a beautiful homage to the people, the place, and the environment itself.
This book has two aims: to clarify the meaning of C. Wright Mills's depiction of the sociological imagination; and to use this to develop a sociological framework that assists in understanding the process by which communal violence has ended in Northern Ireland and South Africa. The contrast between these two societies is a familiar one, but the book is novel by developing an explanatory framework based on Mills's 'sociological imagination'. This model merges developments in the two countries at the individual, social structural and political arenas in order to account for the emergence of their peace processes.
Party affiliation has long been the driving force behind electoral politics in the United States. Despite this fact, scant attention has been devoted to the American electorate’s party images—the "mental pictures" that individuals have about the parties which enable citizens to translate events in the larger political environment into terms meaningful to them as individuals. Party images are central to understanding individuals’ political perceptions and, ultimately, voting behavior. Party Images in the American Electorate systematically examines the substance, evolution, and manipulation of party images within the American public over the last half century, both within the public as a whole and within important subgroups based on class, race and ethnicity, sex, and religiosity. Ultimately, this important book investigates how these party images are tied into the story of party polarization and how they affect electoral outcomes in the United States.
In 1807, Thomas Worthington was born into a wealthy and powerful Ohio family. Though his path in life should have led to fortune and prestige, he died alone and penniless, having spent his life and his fortune trying to remove the stain of shame from his reputation and name. This is the previously untold story of Worthington, West Point graduate, leader of men in both the Mexican War and War Between the States, and bitter enemy of the man who would ruin his life--General William Tecumseh Sherman. As commander of the 46th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Worthington valiantly led his men into battle at Shiloh, but his knowledge of Sherman's blunders, both before and during the battle, resulted in his being illegally court-martialed and cashiered out of the Army. The last twenty years of his life were spent in a desperate quest to tell his side of the story, the true events of Shiloh as he saw them. Colonel Worthington's story is one of war, both public and personal, honor, and a quest for vindication. Photographs and maps illustrate Worthington's dramatic life and struggle.
Priscilla J. Brewer examines the development and history of the first American appliance—the cast iron stove—that created a quiet, but culturally contested transformation of domestic life and sparked many important debates about the role of women, industrialization, the definition of social class, and the development of a consumer economy. Brewer explores the shift from fireplaces to stoves for cooking and heating in American homes, and sheds new light on the supposedly "separate spheres" of home and world of nineteenth- century America. She also considers the changing responses to technological development, the emergence of a consumption ethic, and the attempt to define and preserve distinct Anglo-American middle class culture. There are few works that treat this significant subject, and Brewer covers impressive new ground. Extensively documented—based on letters, diaries, probate inventories, census records, sales figures, advertisements, fiction, and advice literature-this book will be valuable to scholars of American history and women's studies.
Originally published in 1892, "the object of this Handbook is to supply readers and speakers with a lucid, but very brief account of such names as are used in allusions and references, whether by poets or prose writers; - to furnish those who consult it with the plot of popular dramas, the story of epic poems, and the outline of well-known tales. The number of dramatic plots sketched out is many hundreds. Another striking and interesting feature of the book is the revelation of the source from which dramatists and romancers have derived their stories, and the strange repetitions of historic incidents. It has been borne in mind throughout that it is not enough to state a fact. It must be stated attractively, and the character described must be drawn characteristically if the reader is to appreciate it, and feel an interest in what he reads." This work, an American reprint of The Reader's Handbook by E. Cobham Brewer, ..".while retaining all of the original material that can interest and aid the English-speaking student, gives also 'characters and sketches found in American novels, poetry and drama.
The revival of interest in Arthurian legend in the 19th century was a remarkable phenomenon, apparently at odds with the spirit of the age. Tennyson was widely criticised for his choice of a medieval topic; yet The Idylls of the Kingwere accepted as the national epic, and a flood of lesser works was inspired by them, on both sides of the Atlantic. Elisabeth Brewer and Beverly Taylor survey the course of Arthurian literature from 1800 to the present day, and give an account of all the major English and American contributions. Some of the works are well-known, but there are also a host of names which will be new to most readers, and some surprises, such as J. Comyns Carr's King Arthur, rightly ignored as a text, but a piece oftheatrical history, for Sir Henry Irving played King Arthur, Ellen Terry was Guinevere, Arthur Sullivan wrote the music, and Burne-Jones designed the sets. The Arthurian works of the Pre-Raphaelites are discussed at length, as are the poemsof Edward Arlington Robinson, John Masefield and Charles Williams. Other writers have used the legends as part of a wider cultural consciousness: The Waste Land, David Jones's In Parenthesis and The Anathemata, and the echoes ofTristan and Iseult in Finnigan's Wake are discussed in this context. Novels on Arthurian themes are given their due place, from the satirical scenes of Thomas Love Peacock's The Misfortunes of Elphin and Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court to T.H. White's serio-comic The Once and Future King and the many recent novelists who have turned away from the chivalric Arthur to depict him as a Dark Age ruler. The Return of King Arthurincludes a bibliography of British and American creative writing relating to the Arthurian legends from 1800 to the present day.
Parties and Elections in America: The Electoral Process covers all elements of parties and the electoral process, including local, state, and national party organizations; American party history and party systems; state and local nominations; stateand local elections; presidential nominations; and presidential elections. Separate chapters are devoted to the important subjects of the media in the electoral process and campaign finance. The role of political parties in representative democracy-and their contributions to it-are examined critically. The sixth edition incorporates the results of the 2010 midterm elections.
The Libellus de expugnatione Terrae Sanctae per Saladinum (or Little Book about the Conquest of the Holy Land by Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn) is the most substantial contemporary Latin account of the conquest of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1187. Seemingly written by a churchman who was in Jerusalem itself when the city was besieged and captured, the Libellus fuses historical narrative and biblical exegesis in an attempt to recount and interpret the loss of the Holy Land, an event that provoked an outpouring of grief throughout western Christendom and sparked the Third Crusade. This book provides an English translation of the Libellus accompanied by a new, comprehensive critical edition of the Latin text and a detailed study in the introduction.
This classic text provides an in-depth examination and history of American political parties and their critical role in representative democracy at the local, state, and national levels.
Wonder and Skepticism in the Middle Ages explores the response by medieval society to tales of marvels and the supernatural, which ranged from firm belief to outright rejection, and asks why the believers believed, and why the skeptical disbelieved. Despite living in a world whose structures more often than not supported belief, there were still a great many who disbelieved, most notably scholastic philosophers who began a polemical programme against belief in marvels. Keagan Brewer reevaluates the Middle Ages’ reputation as an era of credulity by considering the evidence for incidences of marvels, miracles and the supernatural and demonstrating the reasons people did and did not believe in such things. Using an array of contemporary sources, he shows that medieval responders sought evidence in the commonality of a report, similarity of one event to another, theological explanations and from people with status to show that those who believed in marvels and miracles did so only because the wonders had passed evidentiary testing. In particular, he examines both emotional and rational reactions to wondrous phenomena, and why some were readily accepted and others rejected. This book is an important contribution to the history of emotions and belief in the Middle Ages.
Balthasar Hubmaier remains one of the most significant figures in the radical reformation of the sixteenth century. A Pledge of Love is close and thorough examination of Hubmaiers view of the sacraments within the context of worship. This ground-breaking work examines the distinctive theology of this important Anabaptist and his possible influence upon others.
It is now beyond question that contemporary American politics is highly contentious and divided. We argue that deep disagreement over the idea of personal responsibility lies at the heart of this polarization. Republicans believe that individuals succeed or fail based on their own talents and efforts, while Democrats see a society where many individuals lack opportunity and are adversely affected by forces they cannot control. This fundamental difference drives American political conflict.
There are many references to be found in old English history, of dangerous dragons and heroic knights, saving maidens and villagers from death and destruction. These ancient folklores and legends are drawn from across the length and breadth of the country. The fascinating descriptions of each of these ferocious animals are truly startling from their curious and terrifying appearances, to their inherent, and sometimes magical abilities. They are among the first of the ancient mythical creatures and are often referred to as beasts, monsters, demons and serpents. Such enchanting tales have been passed down over thousands of years, depicted in cave paintings, rock art, manuscripts, documents, paintings and sculptures, and preserved for the wonderment of all. Some tales have much detail and evidence attached to them, whereas for some, the details are scarce. Enjoy this comprehensive captivating catalogue of fascinating dragon legends of old England.
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