Few subjects of social scientific inquiry need interpretive analysis more than the topic of racial politics, yet most US political science employs a narrowly behavioralist orientation. This book argues that it is time for political scientists studying race to more fully engage the issues that generate its political significance. Drawing on the work of interpretive political scholars and methods, Ron Schmidt, Sr. addresses core questions regarding racial politics in the US to demonstrate the value of using interpretive methods to better understand the meaning and significance of political actions, structures and conflicts involving racial identities—not instead of behavioral research but as a necessary addition. Interpreting Racial Politics in the United States will greatly enhance the evolving conversations concerning race and inequality within the US. It will be of great interest to students and scholars of politics and sociology, but also to those interested in deepening their understanding of racial politics.
Few subjects of social scientific inquiry need interpretive analysis more than the topic of racial politics, yet most US political science employs a narrowly behavioralist orientation. This book argues that it is time for political scientists studying race to more fully engage the issues that generate its political significance. Drawing on the work of interpretive political scholars and methods, Ron Schmidt, Sr. addresses core questions regarding racial politics in the US to demonstrate the value of using interpretive methods to better understand the meaning and significance of political actions, structures and conflicts involving racial identities--not instead of behavioral research but as a necessary addition. Interpreting Racial Politics in the United States will greatly enhance the evolving conversations concerning race and inequality within the US. It will be of great interest to students and scholars of politics and sociology, but also to those interested in deepening their understanding of racial politics.
Political theorist Wendy Brown has argued recently that contemporary neoliberalism, with its relentless obsession on the economy, has all but undone the tenets of democracy. The focus on maximizing credit scores and capital has, over time, promoted a politics that operates beyond and below the institutional and electoral world, eroding not just the desire for democratic action but even our ability to imagine it. In light of recent politics, it seems we may have reached the apotheosis of this depressing vision. This book is meant to suggest one way of thinking past and out of the current moment, and it does so by looking to a perhaps unlikely figure: Niccolo Machiavelli. The book presents Machiavelli as an anachronistic thinker -- a thinker who, deprived of his political community and public identity during his exile from Florence, originated a new approach to democratic theory and practice. In particular he immersed himself in the writings of ancient thinkers and looked to them as models for understanding contemporary problems of corruption, conspiracy, and torture. This book's main contribution is a methodological one: it argues that the power in Machiavelli's work derived from this sort of anachronistic reading, which went against the grain of Renaissance thought. In turn it shows that if we imitate Machiavelli's interpretive method in reading The Prince and Discourses of Livy, we can find in them solutions to the neoliberal problems Brown warns about.
The authors have done a commendable and impressive job of addressing a topic of long-lasting and increasing significance in U.S. politics." ---F. Chris Garcia, University of New Mexico "This is a path-breaking book that will be read across disciplines beyond political science." ---James Jennings, Tufts University Over the past four decades, the United States has experienced the largest influx of immigrants in its history. Not only has the ratio of European to non-European newcomers changed, but recent arrivals are coming from the Asian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, South America, and other regions which have not previously supplied many immigrants to the United States. In this timely study, a team of political scientists examines how the arrival of these newcomers has affected the efforts of long-standing minority groups---Blacks, Latinos, and Asian Pacific Americans---to gain equality through greater political representation and power. The authors predict that, for some time to come, the United States will function as a complex multiracial hierarchy, rather than as a genuine democracy. Ronald Schmidt, Sr. is Professor of Political Science at California State University, Long Beach. Yvette M. Alex-Assensoh is Associate Professor of Political Science and Dean of the Office for Women's Affairs (OWA) at Indiana University, Bloomington. Andrew L. Aoki is Professor of Political Science at Augsburg College. Rodney E. Hero is the Packey J. Dee Professor of American Democracy at the University of Notre Dame.
In 1906, at the Klondike Mine schoolhouse in Hatcher Pass, Alaska, teacher Raymond Williams gave his nine students a very special writing assignment that upon completion was to be sent to nine different people who would judged the work, and jointly decided on one grand prize winner. However, before this could happen, a mining explosion caused a landslide that crushed the classroom, and killed all nine students, yet sparing the life of their teacher. Although dreadful, the accident was all but forgotten until 1987, when a group of deer hunters on Kodiak Island discovers the wreckage of an old Army DC-3 airplane that had disappeared forty-five years earlier. Inside, investigators find several items such as the nine student desks, one unique brass U.S. Postal Service outdoor mailbox, along with other miscellaneous mining pieces that were all associated with that mining disaster. Upon removal of the aircraft fuselage to the Coast Guard Air Base on Kodiak Island, while the plane's cargo is being inspected, strange events begin to happen that lead people to eventually realize that something paranormal was at work and maybe some of the students that had used those school desks although long dead, were still present and involved in something very evil. In The Undelivered, a teacher's satanic beliefs dramatically change the lives of a handful of people that come in contact with the aircraft's contents. And, no amount of love, religious beliefs or educational training will change the course of what is to be.
Using a unique and ground-breaking approach that combines religion with American history, these four authors masterfully present a thoroughly researched and captivating account of fifty-two inspirational stories of America’s exceptionalism intricately woven with God’s truths. Each story connects the life-giving honesty of the American people with a life-shaping application from the gospel. Individuals interested in the history of the United States or Christianity and looking for an overarching account of what unites us as Americans and believers will be enthralled by these inspiring stories of struggles and triumphs. We are not the light, just the reflection if we stand close enough to the Source. The further we move away from God’s will for our lives, the more we stumble in the dark. But as believers we know there is an all-powerful force that will lift us up and help us to walk in the light. The goal of God’s Reflections: Biblical Insight from America’s Story is to draw Christians closer to the light source, so they can radiate brighter in their service to God and their country and be part of the greatest rescue mission of all: making disciples for Jesus Christ!
As with the beginning of the twentieth century, when food safety standards and the therapeutic benefits of certain foods and supplements first caught the public’s attention, the dawn of the twenty-first century finds a great social priority placed on the science of food safety. Ronald Schmidt and Gary Rodrick’s Food Safety Handbook provides a single, comprehensive reference on all major food safety issues. This expansive volume covers current United States and international regulatory information, food safety in biotechnology, myriad food hazards, food safety surveillance, and risk prevention. Approaching food safety from retail, commercial, and institutional angles, this authoritative resource analyzes every step of the food production process, from processing and packaging to handling and distribution. The Handbook categorizes and defines real and perceived safety issues surrounding food, providing scientifically non-biased perspectives on issues for professional and general readers. Each part is divided into chapters, which are then organized into the following structure: Introduction and Definition of Issues; Background and Historical Significance; Scientific Basis and Implications; Regulatory, Industrial, and International Implications; and Current and Future Implications. Topics covered include: Risk assessment and epidemiology Biological, chemical, and physical hazards Control systems and intervention strategies for reducing risk or preventing food hazards, such as Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) Diet, health, and safety issues, with emphasis on food fortification, dietary supplements, and functional foods Worldwide food safety issues, including European Union perspectives on genetic modification Food and beverage processors, manufacturers, transporters, and government regulators will find the Food Safety Handbook to be the premier reference in its field.
Police veteran George Newton loves his work and the risks associated with it. His partner, Gene Wilson, dreams of becoming a criminal lawyer. Each officer believes they have seen it all, but something so bizarre is about to occur that neither of these men will ever be able to trust their gut instincts again As Newton and Wilson cruise the streets of San Pedro, California, looking for gang activity, they see a middle-aged gentleman sitting in a vehicle on the side of the road. After they question the obviously intoxicated man, the officers allow him to walk to his house nearby to retrieve a pencil and paper. When he does not return, Newton and Wilson ring the doorbell and soon learn that Bill Balsam died at the hands of a drunk driver one year ago on that same street on the same night. Left with nothing but Balsams drivers license and an abandoned truck, the two officers are suddenly thrust into a world where the paranormal collides with reality and no one believes their story. In this captivating thriller, only time will tell what will happen when two men in blue encounter events that cannot be explainedlet alone accepted.
Once-Removed ... recounts the author's conflicted journey as a scruple-ridden gay youth through Catholic schools in San Jose, California; his desperate search for a cure through psychotherapy, subsequent marriage, divorce, single-parenting two sons, and a thirty-three year career in classrooms from Washington to California ... In 1980 his first lover weaned him away from alcohol dependency by showing him his inherent worth as a gay man. Maintaining sobriety meant coming out as a gay man, father, and teacher.
Schmidt reveals how the political culture of Southern California is structured by over a century's worth of efforts to exhort citizens to emulate models of virtue and to coerce them to imitate models of passive behavior. This book traces this effort to "script" the city's social life, demonstrating how democratic pedagogy and popular media have been used to advance a utopian vision of government. In a history peopled by outsized characters like Harrison Gray Otis, first publisher of the L.A. Times, and studio moguls Louis B. Mayer and Jack Warner, Schmidt shows how Angeleno elites, from media mavens to the militaristic heroes of the LAPD, have offered themselves as models of civic virtue and have used popular culture and political rhetoric to consolidate their power and remake the city in their image. Schmidt argues that the political education provided by L.A. elites has been intentionally imperial and hierarchical, and that a transformation of the city's politics will require a confrontation of its models of civic participation.
Jenny Watson is a divorced mother of two. Her daughter, Grace, is seventeen; her son, Eugene, fifteen, and they live together in a rat-infested, dilapidated apartment in the middle of gangland. Jenny wishes things were different. She wishes she could move her children to a safe neighborhood with a good school district, where their lives could be filled with promise. Who knew the lottery would be the answer to her prayers? After Jenny surprisingly strikes it rich, she's able to move her family to Terminal Island, California, where she purchases a dream home on the top of a hill. The price is too good to pass up, so the family moves immediately into a veritable mansion in paradise. It doesn't take long, however, for Jenny to realize her paradise may be hell. She and Grace are soon attacked by unseen forces that are singularly attracted to women. As the violent ghostly attacks escalate, Jenny has no choice but to call in a paranormal specialist. They discover it's just as they feared: a demonic spirit lives within the walls of their home, and Terminal Island holds a terrible secret. Who lived in the house prior to the Watsons, and what happened to them? The truth may be more than Jenny can bear as she watches her dreams turn into unimaginable nightmares.
In 1860, gold is discovered in the mountains of Southern California, leading to the creation of several mining camps. One is Holloran Springs, home to the Gilded Pearl brothel. For years their businesses flourish, until two of its most popular ladies are
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