The inside story of one of the great intellectual breakthroughs of our time—the first great decipherment of an ancient script—now revised and updated. In the past dozen years, Maya decipherment has made great strides, in part due to the Internet, which has made possible the truly international scope of hieroglyphic scholarship: glyphic experts can be found not only in North America, Mexico, Guatemala, and western Europe but also in Russia and the countries of eastern Europe. The third edition of this classic book takes up the thorny question of when and where the Maya script first appeared in the archaeological record, and describes efforts to decipher its meaning on the extremely early murals of San Bartolo. It includes iconographic and epigraphic investigations into how the Classic Maya perceived and recorded the human senses, a previously unknown realm of ancient Maya thought and perception. There is now compelling documentary and historical evidence bearing on the question of why and how the “breaking of the Maya code” was the achievement of Yuri V. Knorosov—a Soviet citizen totally isolated behind the Iron Curtain—and not of the leading Maya scholar of his day, Sir Eric Thompson. What does it take to make such a breakthrough, with a script of such complexity as the Maya? We now have some answers, as Michael Coe demonstrates here.
This volume, the second of three, offers an anthology of Western descriptions of Islamic religious buildings in Syria, Egypt and North Africa, mostly from the seventeenth to early twentieth centuries, taken from travel books and ambassadorial reports. (The third volume will deal with Islamic palaces around the Mediterranean.) As travel became easier and cheaper, thanks to better roads, steamships, hotels and railways, tourist numbers increased, museums accumulated eastern treasures, illustrated journals proliferated, and photography provided accurate data. All three deal with the impact of Western trade, taste and imports on the East, and examine the encroachment of westernised modernism.
Vivid, laconic, and crisp. The bodies fall like dominoes, and every word sounds like it was shot from a gun. And as you might expect from Lesy, the photographs are extraordinary." —Luc Sante Things began as they usually did: Someone shot someone else. So begins a chapter of Michael Lesy's disturbingly satisfying account of Chicago in the 1920s, the epicenter of Murder in America. Just as Lesy’s first book, Wisconsin Death Trip, subverted the accepted notion of the Gay Nineties, so Murder City exposes the dark side of the Jazz Age. Revisiting seventeen Chicago murder cases—including that of Belva and Beulah, two murderesses whose trials inspired the musical Chicago—Lesy's sharp, fearless storytelling makes a compelling case that this collection of criminals may be progenitors of our modern age.
For Katherine Orr the words "I love you " are not enough. Only a demonstrative expression of her husband Jayce's love can rescue their relationship. But Jayce's personal demons prevent him from giving her this even though he knows that she is all that stands between him and a descent into chaos. Simultaneously, Bryan struggles to repair the breach of lobe in his life caused by the death of his daughter. But his wife, Jayce's sister, grows ever more distant. Charismatic social activist Faith, who longs for love but fears she will lose herself in it, unwittingly becomes the catalyst for change in the lives of all four characters. The paths of these four converge toward a tragic event as each struggles to decipher the intricacies of love lost and love found. Each discovers in their own way that love is the living core of human existence and that how we love defines who we are. Visit www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog after each chapter for another dimension of this internet-enhanced novel.
In 1864, General Sterling Price with an army of 12,000 ragtag Confederates invaded Missouri in an effort to wrest it from the United States Army's Department of Missouri. Price hoped his campaign would sway the 1864 presidential election, convincing war-weary Northern voters to cast their ballots for a peace candidate rather than Abraham Lincoln. It was the South's last invasion of Northern territory. But it was simply too late in the war for the South to achieve such an outcome, and Price grossly mismanaged the campaign, guaranteeing the defeat of his force and of the Confederate States. This book chronicles the Confederacy's desperate, final, ill-fated attempt to win a decisive victory.
WITH A FOREWORD BY LISA M. FINE, MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY—Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is known for its natural beauty and severe winters, as well as the mines and forests where men labored to feed industrial factories elsewhere in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. But there were factories in the Upper Peninsula, too, and women who worked in them. Phyllis Michael Wong tells the stories of the Gossard Girls, women who sewed corsets and bras at factories in Ishpeming and Gwinn from the early twentieth century to the 1970s. As the Upper Peninsula’s mines became increasingly exhausted and its stands of timber further depleted, the Gossard Girls’ income sustained both their families and the local economy. During this time the workers showed their political and economic strength, including a successful four-month strike in the 1940s that capped an eight-year struggle to unionize. Drawing on dozens of interviews with the surviving workers and their families, this book highlights the daily challenges and joys of these mostly first- and second-generation immigrant women. It also illuminates the way the Gossard Girls navigated shifting ideas of what single and married women could and should do as workers and citizens. From cutting cloth and distributing materials to getting paid and having fun, Wong gives us a rare ground-level view of piecework in a clothing factory from the women on the sewing room floor.
The definitive history of the Maya, fully updated with the latest archaeological studies and featuring full-color illustrations. The definitive history of the Maya, fully updated with the latest archaeological studies and featuring full-color illustrations. The Maya has long been established as the best, most readable introduction to the ancient Maya by experts Michael D. Coe and Stephen Houston. In this new edition, this classic has been updated by distilling the latest scholarship for the general reader and student. This edition incorporates the most recent archaeological and epigraphic findings, which continue to proceed at a fast pace, along with full-color illustrations. The new material includes evidence of the earliest human occupants of the Maya region and the beginnings of agriculture and settled life; analysis from lidar on swampy areas, such as Usumacinta, that show enormous rectangle earthworks, including Aguada Fe´nix, dating from 1050 to 750 BCE; and recent advances in decoding Maya writing and imagery. This revised edition also expands information on the roles of women, courtiers, and outsiders; covers novel research about Maya cities, including research into water quality, marketplaces, fortifications, and integrated road systems; and includes coverage of more recent Maya, including their displacement and mistreatment, along with growing affirmations of their cultural identity and legal rights. The Maya highlights the vitality of current scholarship about this brilliant culture.
Hebrews is a sermon, and a providentially sermon for our age. This ancient text speaks to a Christ-community descending into an abyss of ennui, losing coordinates of faith and sliding through a back door or nonchalance. With glimpses across the globe and though history, this book attempts to extrapolate meaning for today from a sometimes difficult first century text.
Best known as the longtime chief counsel to the Communist Party of the United States, John Abt also was one of Angela Davis's first attorneys and the man Lee Harvey Oswald wanted to defend him after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In Advocate and Activist, John Abt and Michael Myerson provide a detailed account of a life that touched and was touched by the labor and left-wing political movements in the United States for nearly sixty years. Abt went to Washington, D.C., in the early 1930s to join the New Deal. He worked in a succession of government posts and for the LaFollette Civil Liberties Committee. He was Sidney Hillman's counsel in the labor movement and a top aide to Henry Wallace's 1948 presidential campaign. At the height of McCarthyism he became the Communist party's chief counsel. Defending the party in the Smith Act and McCarran Act prosecutions, he succeeded at dismantling the acts piece by piece, establishing precedents and making sure that being a Communist was not illegal.
Providing the first global cultural context for the assassination of John F. Kennedy, this investigation into how United States intelligence agencies and other entities manipulated liberal religious groups and educational institutions for ideological, political, and economic gain during the Cold War exposes numerous previously misunderstood political operations. Including assassinations, these projects include those facilitated by Allen Dulles, John Foster Dulles, the U.S. State Department, the Office of Strategic Services and its successor, the CIA, and other individuals and groups. Focusing on the manipulations of key individuals in the American Unitarian Association, the Unitarian Service Committee, and the Unitarian-supported Albert Schweitzer College by covert American interests during the Cold War, this exposé asserts that an unwitting Lee Harvey Oswald—an asset and pawn of American intelligence—was the ideal scapegoat in a tragically successful conspiracy to murder President Kennedy.
A series of life or death struggles challenge two young archeologists when they accidently enter Xibalba [She-bahl-bah], the Mayan mythical underworld described in the creation myth Popol Vuh. This myth involves the journey of the two hero twins into Xibalba and their adventures conquering the tests of the Lords of Xibalba. My story deals with contemporary protagonists who unwittingly are forced to retrace the twins dangerous journey in order to return to this world. The couple finds that Xibalba is truly inhabited by souls of the deceased and a separate race of beings worshipping death and ruled by twelve gods known as the Lords of Xibalba whose names were as frightening as One Death and Lord Scab Scrapper. Using their Mayan knowledge of the Popol Vuh with modern problem solving skills, they work through the Lords challenges in hopes of finding a portal back to their world.
“A highly readable and well-documented account of the use and abuse of religion for violent political ends . . . This is a book well worth reading” (Timothy J. Demy, ThD, PhD, coauthor of In the Name of God). Most Americans could not fathom how Islamic terrorists could bring down the World Trade Center or an army psychiatrist could turn on his own soldiers, taking their lives in the name of his religion. How could an ex-army veteran blow up a federal building, or a Jewish doctor gun down Muslims at worship? None of these incidents fit our conceptions of the benevolence of religion. More importantly, is there something inherent within religions that justifies the taking of human lives? In Few Call It War, Dr. Robert Hicks explores these questions and takes the blinders off illuminating the roots of religious violence, what religious terrorists have in common, and how they differ. As Hicks points out, all major religions have used violence and terrorist methodologies at some points in their histories. Few Call It War reveals how the teachings of religious founders and the sacred writings attributed to them provide rich soil from which contemporary religious clerics and ideologues gain converts. If one is interested in gaining an answer to the question, “Of all the religions in the world, which are most prone to using violence?” Few Call It War provides a well-reasoned answer that is well worth the read. “A masterpiece in the study of religiously motivated terrorism. He has been fair in his critique of all religions, including movements within Judaism and even Christianity.” —Robert L. Brennemann, PhD, professor, Intercultural Studies, North Central University
Here is the story of America's oldest - and oddest - civilization, the Olmecs of the southern Mexican jungles. Virtually unknown to archaeologists until the early twentieth century, their true importance is only now being realized and shedding new light on how the Indian peoples of the Americas came to be here.
New chapters express ongoing concerns about freedom of expression, the role of the Havana Film Festival in restoring Havana's central position in Latin American cinema, & the changing audience for Cuban films.
DIVTogether for the first time in a single volume, two of Dr. Michael L. Brown's groundbreaking works are ready to challenge a new generation of Christians to combat the status quo of a compromised church and a godless society./div-----DIVHave you ever wondered why you rarely-if ever-see the kinds of miracles today that were so common in the Bible? Whatever Happened to the Power of God? explores why so few of the seriously ill are healed, why apparent encounters with God's supernatural power so rarely change lives, and why spiritual warfare seems to have little effect on society. This book asks the questions you have always wanted to ask and confronts you with answers that will change your life. Find out what's holding back the power of God!/div ----- In It's Time to Rock the Boat, Dr. Brown reveals the biblical pattern for changing society through preaching a confrontational gospel. The Old Testament prophets, New Testament apostles, John the Baptist, and Jesus the Messiah Himself were not content to let society be dragged down by its sinful and destructive elements-they took a stand against an onslaught of degradation and made waves that rocked the world! God is calling each of us to be part of that world-shaking movement. It's time!DIV/div
New chapters express ongoing concerns about freedom of expression, the role of the Havana Film Festival in restoring Havana's central position in Latin American cinema, & the changing audience for Cuban films.
Syria's Monuments: their Survival and Destruction analyses travellers’ accounts of the Roman, Christian and Islamic monuments of Syria (including Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine/Israel). An epilogue assesses the impact of the recent civil war on the state of the monuments, and their likely future.
Tells the dual story of the growth in popularity in the United States from the 1860s onwards and the remarkable role it played in Central American history as a result of the chicle used in its production farmed on the Yucatan peninsula.
The Sykes-Picot Agreement was one of the defining moments in the history of the modern Middle East. Yet its co-creator, Sir Mark Sykes, had far more involvement in British Middle East strategy during World War I than the Agreement for which he is now most remembered. Between 1915 and 1916, Sykes was Lord Kitchener's agent at home and abroad, operating out of the War Office until the war secretary's death at sea in 1916. Following that, from 1916 to 1919 he worked at the Imperial War Cabinet, the War Cabinet Secretariat and, finally, as an advisor to the Foreign Office. The full extent of Sykes's work and influence has previously not been told. Moreover, the general impression given of him is at variance with the facts. Sykes led the negotiations with the Zionist leadership in the formulation of the Balfour Declaration, which he helped to write, and promoted their cause to achieve what he sought for a pro-British post-war Middle East peace settlement, although he was not himself a Zionist. Likewise, despite claims he championed the Arab cause, there is little proof of this other than general rhetoric mainly for public consumption. On the contrary, there is much evidence he routinely exhibited a complete lack of empathy with the Arabs. In this book, Michael Berdine examines the life of this impulsive and headstrong young British aristocrat who helped formulate many of Britain's policies in the Middle East that are responsible for much of the instability that has affected the region ever since.
The Kingdom Life provides an integrated approach to spiritual formation. This rich compilation from an extraordinary team of thinkers offers sound theology and key practices to strengthen you and those you disciple in light of Christ's lordship and life in the kingdom. -- back.
The first history ever written on the Irish in Kansas City, St. Louis, The Irish Wilderness and Missouri at large. Includes the early settlers and settlements, family history, parades, organizations, politics, from the earliest times to modern day. This is the only enlarged and updated edition ever in print. Sources for futher study included. Indexed. Authored by the most published author in the field. Free "Missouri Irish" companion podcast series to this book, hosted by the author, at www.Irishroots.com
The challenge presented by climate change is, by its nature, global. The populations of the Mexican Caribbean, the focus of this book, are faced by everyday decisions not unlike those in the urban North. The difference is that for the people of the Mexican Caribbean evidence of the effects of climate change, including hurricanes, is very familiar to them. This important study documents the choices and risks of people who are powerless to change the economic development model which is itself forcing climate change. The book examines the Mexican Caribbean coast and explores the wider issues of managing climate change in vulnerable areas of the tropics. It also points to the inability to integrate development thinking into climate change adaptation. The authors suggest that failures in local governance - the transparency of state actions and the local populations lack of effective power - represents a greater threat to adaptation than the absence of technical capacity in vulnerable areas. Using local case studies of communities, fishing villages and tourist destinations, this well-researched book will appeal to international students and academics working on climate change and professionals in development, conservation and tourism industries.
During the Cold War, culture became another weapon in America's battle against communism. Part of that effort in cultural diplomacy included a program to arrange the exhibition of hundreds of American paintings overseas. Michael L. Krenn studies the successes, failures, contradictions, and controversies that arose when the U.S. government and the American art world sought to work together to make an international art program a reality between the 1940s and the 1970s. The Department of State, then the United States Information Agency, and eventually the Smithsonian Institution directed this effort, relying heavily on the assistance of major American art organizations, museums, curators, and artists. What the government hoped to accomplish and what the art community had in mind, however, were often at odds. Intense domestic controversies resulted, particularly when the effort involved modern or abstract expressionist art. Ultimately, the exhibition of American art overseas was one of the most controversial Cold War initiatives undertaken by the United States. Krenn's investigation deepens our understanding of the cultural dimensions of America's postwar diplomacy and explores how unexpected elements of the Cold War led to a redefinition of what is, and is not, "American.
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