Natural history museums have evolved from being little more than musty repositories of stuffed animals and pinned bugs, to being crucial generators of new scientific knowledge. They have also become vibrant educational centers, full of engaging exhibits that share those discoveries with students and an enthusiastic general public. Grande offers a portrait of curators and their research, conveying the intellectual excitement and the educational and social value of curation. He uses the personal story of his own career-- most of it spent at Chicago's Field Museum-- to explore the value of research and collections, the importance of public engagement, changing ecological and ethical considerations, and the impact of rapidly improving technology.
Thousands of religions have adherents today, and countless more have existed throughout history. What accounts for this astonishing diversity? This extraordinarily ambitious and comprehensive book demonstrates how evolutionary systematics and philosophy can yield new insight into the development of organized religion. Lance Grande—a leading evolutionary systematist—examines the growth and diversification of hundreds of religions over time, highlighting their historical interrelationships. Combining evolutionary theory with a wealth of cultural records, he explores the formation, extinction, and diversification of different world religions, including the many branches of Asian cyclicism, polytheism, and monotheism. Grande deploys an illuminating graphic system of evolutionary trees to illustrate historical interrelationships among the world’s major religious traditions, rejecting colonialist and hierarchical “ladder of progress” views of evolution. Extensive and informative illustrations clearly and vividly indicate complex historical developments and help readers grasp the breadth of interconnections across eras and cultures. The Evolution of Religions marshals compelling evidence, starting far back in time, that all major belief systems are related, despite the many conflicts that have taken place among them. By emphasizing these broad historical interconnections, this book promotes the need for greater tolerance and deeper, unbiased understanding of cultural diversity. Such traits may be necessary for the future survival of humanity.
The landscape of southwestern Wyoming around the ghost town of Fossil is beautiful but harsh; a dry, high mountain desert with cool nights and long, cold winters inhabited by a sparse mountain desert community. But during the early Eocene, more than fifty million years ago, it was a subtropical lake, surrounded by volcanoes and forests and teeming with life. Buried within the sun-baked limestone is spectacular evidence of the lush vegetation and plentiful fauna of the ancient past, a transitional ecosystem giving us clues to how North America recovered from a great extinction event that wiped out dinosaurs and the majority of all species on the planet. Paleontologists have been conducting excavations at Fossil Butte for more than 150 years, and with The Lost World of Fossil Lake, one of the world’s leading experts on the fossils from this spectacular locality takes readers on a fascinating journey through the history of the discovery and exploration of the site. Deftly mixing incredible color photographs of the remarkable fossils uncovered at the site with an explanation of their evolutionary significance, Grande presents an unprecedented, comprehensive portrait of the site, its treasures, and what we’ve learned from them. Grande presents a broad range of fossilized organisms from Fossil Lake—from single-celled algae to palm trees to crocodiles—and together they make this long-extinct community come to life in all its diversity and splendor. A field guide and atlas round out the book, enabling readers to identify and classify the majority of the known fossils from the site. Lavishly produced in full color, The Lost World of Fossil Lake is a stunning reminder of the intellectual and physical beauty of scientific investigation—and a breathtaking window onto our planet’s long-lost past.
Gems and Gemstones" features nearly 300 color images of cut gems, precious and semiprecious stones, gem-quality mineral specimens, and fine jewelry to be unveiled in the new Grainger Hall of Gems at the Field Museum in Chicago.
Natural history museums have evolved from being little more than musty repositories of stuffed animals and pinned bugs, to being crucial generators of new scientific knowledge. They have also become vibrant educational centers, full of engaging exhibits that share those discoveries with students and an enthusiastic general public. Grande offers a portrait of curators and their research, conveying the intellectual excitement and the educational and social value of curation. He uses the personal story of his own career-- most of it spent at Chicago's Field Museum-- to explore the value of research and collections, the importance of public engagement, changing ecological and ethical considerations, and the impact of rapidly improving technology.
Borderlands violence, so explosive in our time, has deep roots in history. Lance R. Blyth’s study of Chiricahua Apaches and the presidio of Janos in the U.S.-Mexican borderlands reveals how no single entity had a monopoly on coercion, and how violence became the primary means by which relations were established, maintained, or altered both within and between communities, to include the Spanish-Mexican settlement of Janos in Nueva Vizcaya, present-day Chihuahua, and the Chiricahua Apaches. For more than two centuries violence was at the center of the relationships by which Janos and Chiricahua formed their communities. Violence created families by turning boys into men through campaigns and raids, which ultimately led to marriage and also determined the provisioning and security of these families, with acts of revenge and retaliation governing their attempts to secure themselves even as trade and exchange continued sporadically. This revisionist work reveals how during the Spanish, Mexican, and American eras both conflict and accommodation constituted these two communities that previous historians have often treated as separate and antagonistic. By showing not only the negative aspects of violence but also its potentially positive outcomes, Chiricahua and Janos helps us to understand violence not only in the southwestern borderlands but in borderland regions generally around the world.
This book is a study of the capital transfers to the United States in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and, for the latter decades of that period, of the transfers from the United States to the rest of the worldMparticularly Canada, the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central and South America. It provides a quantitative estimate of the level and industrial composition of those transfers, and qualitative descriptions of the sources and uses of those funds; and it attempts to assess the role of those foreign transfers on the economic development of the recipient economies. In the process, it describes the evolution of the American domestic capital market. Finally, it explores the issue of domestic political response to foreign investment, attempting to explain why, given the obvious benefits of such investment, the political reaction was so negative and so intense in Latin America and in the American West, but so positive in Canada and the eastern United States.
With intriguing domes of pinkish granite surrounded by a sea of Hill Country limestone, Enchanted Rock State Natural Area attracts over 300,000 visitors every year who come to the park to hike, rock climb, spelunk, camp, picnic, and observe birds and wildflowers. Geologists from around the world come to Enchanted Rock to examine landforms that were shaped by forces on ancient continents of Earth more than one billion years ago! All of these visitors, however, are only the latest comers in a line of human history that stretches back 13,000 years to early Native Americans and includes Spanish explorers, Mexican and German settlers, and thirteen private and public owners up to the current owner, the state of Texas. Surprisingly, given the area's wealth of unusual geology, native plants and animals, and human history, no comprehensive guide to Enchanted Rock has been published before now. In Enchanted Rock, you'll find everything you need to fully appreciate this unique place. Lance Allred draws on the work of specialists in many fields to offer a popular account of the park's history, geology, weather, flora, and fauna. Whether you want to know more about how Enchanted Rock was formed, identify a wildflower or butterfly, or learn more about plant communities along the hiking trails, you'll find accurate information here, presented in an inviting style. Over a thousand color photographs illustrate the enjoyable text.
Some Confederates called him a “Bluebelly,” “Mudsill,” and even a “Lincolnite” (for President Abraham Lincoln), but the name that has carried down through the decades is simply “Billy Yank.” Author Lance Herdegen tells his fascinating multi-faceted story in Union Soldiers in the American Civil War. Union Soldiers offers a complete guide for Civil War enthusiasts of all ages. Herdegen employs nearly 100 photographs coupled with clear and concise prose broken down into short, easy to understand chapters to better understand these men. Coverage includes such varied topics as the organization of the Union Army, learning to be soldiers, winter campaigning, photography, sick call, nurses, religion, discipline, prisoner of war camps, weaponry, uniforms, as well as numbers and losses and the strengths of the various Union armies. It also examines the participation of U.S. Color Troops and the role played by African Americans during the Civil War. This handy reference book includes a list of Civil War points of interest, some bookshelf suggestions, and a glossary of Civil War terms. Experienced Civil War buffs will find Union Soldiers in the American Civil War an invaluable quick reference guide, and one that makes an excellent gift for introducing the Civil War to anyone of any age.
Lance Hewson's book on translation criticism sets out to examine ways in which a literary text may be explored as a translation, not primarily to judge it, but to understand where the text stands in relation to its original by examining the interpretative potential that results from the translational choices that have been made. After considering theoretical aspects of translation criticism, Hewson sets out a method of analysing originals and their translations on three different levels. Tools are provided to describe translational choices and their potential effects, and applied to two corpora: Flaubert's Madame Bovary and six of the English translations, and Austen's Emma, with three of the French translations. The results of the analyses are used to construct a hypothesis about each translation, which is classified according to two scales of measurement, one distinguishing between "just" and "false" interpretations, and the other between "divergent similarity", "relative divergence", "radical divergence" and "adaptation".
In this new view of the Citroen story, automotive/aviation writer and design specialist Lance Cole investigates not just the details of the cars of Citroen, but the aeronautical and cultural origins that lay behind Citroen's form and function. The book digs deep into the ethos of Automobiles Citroen to create a narrative on one of the greatest car manufacturers in history. Using interviews, translations, archive documents and specially-commissioned photographs, the Citroen journey is cast in a fresh perspective. It explains in detail the influences upon Citroen design: Voisin, Lefebrve, Bertoni, Boulanger, Mages, Opron and recent Citroen designers such as Coco, Blakeslee and Soubirou. As well as all the men of the great period of 1920s-1970s expansion, it also cites less well-known names of Citroen's French engineering, design, and influence such as Cayla, Gerin, Giret, Harmand, Dargent and others, to give a full picture of Citroen heritage.The book provides in-depth analysis of all major Citroen models with an engineering and design focus and profiles key individuals and cars up to the present day and Citroen's 'DS'-branded resurgence. It features many newly commissioned photographs, rare archive drawings and interviews with Citroen owners.Researched amongst leading Citroen experts and restorers, Lance Cole provides a fresh perspective on the Citroen car manufacturer, its design language and the legacy of its extraordinary engineering which will be of great interest to all Citroen and motoring enthusiasts. Superbly illustrated with 329 colour photographs, many newly commissioned along with rare archive drawings.
Until recently, Robert Kelley will tell you himself that he is a pretty good private detective. But you might find this proud Texan a little more humble these days thanks to his troublesome client Corbel Pendergrat and a case that has more frustrating twists and turns for the detective than a Texas tornado. In no time at all, Kelley finds himself investigating a death, embezzlement, kidnapping, missing person, and cattle rustling. Yes, I said cattle rustling. Thanks to long kept secrets by his client, he cannot involve the police. Throw into the mix meaty thuggish bodyguards, illegal border busters, a spoiled heir, a femme fatale and her husband, the criminal empire boss, and you have more than one man can handle alone. Lucky for our detective, he doesn't have to. In trying to solve all these crimes, Kelley enlists the help of his best friend, private detective and former Marine Corps buddy Jackson Cartwright. He also has the love and support from his very large Irish Catholic family. Finally, if Robert Kelley's current situation isn't confusing enough, he finds his heart suddenly entangled with the likes of the stunning Lydia Rico. This story of intrigue takes place smack-dab in the heart of the Lone Star State, in the Dallas""Fort Worth Metroplex. Those familiar with this little piece of heaven on earth will relate to the many local and even historic landmarks, places, and people. Those who are not get to take a voyage of discovery to Texas. For the ignorant among you who haven't figured it out after reading all of the above, that if you don't take the time out of your busy schedules to find out what happens to our Cowtown detective, then you're just simply missing out!
A lifelong traveler, riding on a train from Long Beach to New Orleans, Louisiana, at age one--in the middle of World War II, to a 520-mile pilgrimage trek on the Camino de Santiago in his mid-seventies--the author describes many ways he has grown internally as a result of his travels and bonding with nature. A few travel highlights include a five-month tour of Western Europe in the early 1970s, many road trips through the United States and Mexico, walking across Northern Spain on the two longest Caminos (one thousand miles total) and walking from Porto, Portugal, to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. In addition are two memorable group pilgrimages: one in Italy; and the other to the three countries of Portugal, Spain, and France. 2
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