In this epic Sci-Fi tale, betrayed galactic emperor Elias finds his consciousness trapped in a metal body, forcing him to overcome impossible odds to reclaim his throne.
How well do we know our country? Whom do we include when we use the word "American"? These are not just contemporary issues but recurring questions Americans have asked themselves throughout their history--and questions that were addressed when, in 1935, the Roosevelt administration created the Federal Writers' Project (FWP) under the aegis of the Works Progress Administration. Although the immediate context of the FWP was work relief, national FWP officials developed programs that spoke to much larger and longer-standing debates over the nature of American identity and culture and the very definition of who was an American. Hirsch reviews the founding of the FWP and the significance of its American Guide series, considering the choices made by administrators who wanted to celebrate diversity as a positive aspect of American cultural identity. In his exploration of the FWP's other writings, Hirsch discusses the project's pioneering use of oral history in interviews with ordinary southerners, ex-slaves, ethnic minorities, and industrial workers. He also examines congressional critics of the FWP vision; the occasional opposition of local Federal Writers, especially in the South; and how the FWP's vision changed in response to the challenge of World War II. In the course of this study, Hirsch raises thought-provoking questions about the relationships between diversity and unity, government and culture, and, ultimately, culture and democracy.
For one 1970s teenager, winning at poker and winning on Wall Street go hand-in-hand: “A coming-of-age story for the ages.” —Peter Lattman, vice chairman, The Atlantic In the wake of his mother’s death, Rogers Stout has no choice but to grow up fast. By high school, he already has the gambler’s gifts: a titanic brain, an uncanny ability to read people, and a risk-taker’s daring. All he lacks is direction . . . Everything changes the summer before his senior year when Rogers is invited into the boisterous environment of an investment bank’s trading room—and to a gambling hall dive where he immediately wins big at poker, capturing the attention of his coworkers with his card-playing skills. Intrigued by trading markets, Rogers’s intellectual curiosity takes him to Wharton and then Wall Street, where he faces challenges as an outsider who thinks and acts differently from the white-shoe establishment. Riding professional and personal highs and lows—like the stock market crash of 1974—he’ll have to learn to rebound, if he’s to survive . . . An intriguing look at human aspiration and the interplay of honor, greed, fear, and individuality, this novel reveals a time when a new generation upended the status quo on Wall Street and forever changed investing. “A rip-roaring yarn of baseball, poker, and Wall Street told with humor and humanity, and a loving rendering of Wharton in the seventies.” —Geoffrey Garrett, dean, The Wharton School “[An] absorbing story of an aspiring Wall Street trader.” —Kirkus Reviews
Folklorist, writer, editor, regionalist, cultural activist—Benjamin Albert Botkin (1901–1975) was an American intellectual who made a mark on the twentieth century, even though most people may be unaware of it. This book, the first to reevaluate the legacy of Botkin in the history of American culture, celebrates his centenary through a collection of writings that assess his influence on scholarship and the American scene. Through his work with the Federal Writers' Project during the New Deal, the Writers' Unit of the Library of Congress Project, and the Archive of American Folksong, Botkin did more to collect and disseminate the nation's folk-cultural heritage than any other individual in the twentieth century. This volume focuses on Botkin's eclectic but interrelated concerns, work, and vision and offers a detailed sense of his life, milieu, influences, and long-term contributions. Just as Botkin boldly cut across the boundaries between high and low, popular and folk, this book brings together reflections that range from the historical to the philosophical to the disarmingly personal. One group of articles looks at his career and includes the first extended analysis of Botkin's poetry; another probes the fruitful relationships Botkin had with leading musicologists, composers, poets, and intellectuals of his day. This is also the first book to bring together a collection of Botkin's best-known writings, giving readers an opportunity to appreciate his wide-ranging mind and clear, often memorable prose. For Botkin, the blurring of art and science, literature and folklore was not just a philosophy but a way of life. This book reflects that life and invites fans and those new to Botkin to appraise his lasting contributions.
The fundamental niche of a species is rarely if ever realized because the presence of other species restricts it to a narrower range of ecological conditions. Additionally, distribution theory predicts that for two competing species living in sympatry, the subordinate species will be constrained from optimal resources. This constraint would result in use of lower quality resources by the subordinate species and possible spatial segregation from the dominant species. I evaluated diet in relation to body condition and reproduction for sympatric brown bears (Ursus arctos) and American black bears (U. americanus) in southcentral Alaska during 1998-2000, and assessed spatial segregation and habitat selection in 2000. Based on isotopic analysis, salmon (Onchorhynchus spp.) predominated in brown bear diets (>53% annually) whereas black bears assimilated 0-25% salmon annually. Black bears did not exploit salmon during 1998, a year with below average spawning numbers, probably because brown bears deterred black bear access to salmon. Enhanced body condition (as indexed by increased percent body fat) from salmon consumption resulted in better body condition the following spring. Further, black bear reproduction was directly related to body condition; reproductive rates were reduced when body condition was poorer. Analyses of radio location data confirmed that 24-hour monitoring of bears was necessary to determine habitat use and that habitat use varied seasonally. Black bears avoided areas occupied by brown bears during summer, supporting the ideal despotic distribution model. In contrast, black bears selected areas where brown bears were present during spring, presumably because of spatially-restricted (i.e., restricted to low elevations) but dispersed availability of food. Similarities in preferred and potentially limited resources resulted in co-occupancy of areas at intermediate to coarse spatial resolutions; however, spatial avoidance of brown bears and black bears influenced population-level use of resources. Further, the realized niche of black bears was constrained by brown bears through partitioning of food resources, which varied among years. Reduced access to salmon caused black bears to forage more extensively in areas containing less nutritious food, resulting in lowered body condition and subsequent lowered reproduction. Coexistence of these species in this study area appears dependent on the distribution, abundance, and availability of salmon and berries.
Evolving in an urban landscape, professional baseball attracted a dedicated fan base among the inhabitants of major cities, including ethnic and racial minorities, for whom the game was a vehicle for assimilation. But to what extent were these groups welcomed within the world of baseball, and what effect did their integration--or, as in the case of African Americans, their ultimate inability to integrate--have on the culture of a pastime that had recently become a national obsession? How did their mutual striving for acceptance affect relations between these minorities? (In deep and long-lasting ways, as it turns out.) This book provides a carefully considered portrait of baseball as both a sporting profession--one with quick-changing rules and roles--and as an institution that reinforced popular ideas about cultural identity, masculinity and American exceptionalism.
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