American motion pictures still dominate the world market with an impact that is difficult to measure. Their role in American culture has been a powerful one since the 1930s and is a hallmark of our culture today. Though much has been written about the film industry, there has been very little systematic attention paid to the ideology of its creative elite. How does the outlook of that elite impact on the portrayals of America that appear on the screen? How do their views interact with the demands of the market and the structure of the industry to determine the product that is seen by mass audiences? Hollywood's America is a marvellously rich and careful discussion of these questions. It combines a meticulous systematic content analysis of fifty years of top-grossing films with a history of the changing structure of the industry. To that mixture it adds an in-depth survey of Hollywood's creative elite, comparing them to other leadership groups. The result is a balanced discussion of unique breadth and depth on a subject of national importance.Placing the film industry in the context of American society as a whole, the authors point out that Hollywood's creative leadership impacts the larger society even as it is influenced by that society. The creators of films cannot remove themselves too far from the values of the audiences that they serve. However, the fact that films are made by a relatively small number of people, who, as the authors demonstrate, tend to share a common outlook, means that, over time, motion pictures have had an undeniable impact on the beliefs, lifestyles, and action of Americans.This study contributes to the debate over the role and influence of those who create and distribute the products of mass culture in the United States.The book also contains a devastating critique of the poststructuralist theories that currently dominate academic film criticism, demonstrating how they fail in their attempt to explain the political significance of motion pictures.
Is the American judiciary still the least dangerous branch, as Alexander Hamilton and legal scholar Alexander Bickel characterized it? Unlike legislatures or administrative agencies, courts do not make policy so much as direct and redirect policy as it is implemented. The judicial contribution to policymaking involves the infusion of constitutional rights into the realm of public policy, and as the government has grown, the courts have become more powerful from doing more and more of this. Powers and Rothman explore the impact of the federal courts, providing a brief account of the development of constitutional law and an overview of the judiciary's impact in six controversial areas of public policy. •Busing •Affirmative action •Prison reform •Mental health reform •Procedural reforms in law enforcement •Electoral redistricting In each of these areas, the authors review significant cases that bear on the particular policy, exploring the social science evidence to assess the impact of the courts on policies—and the consequences of that intervention. Powers and Rothman conclude that judicial intervention in public policy has often brought about undesirable consequences, sometimes even for the intended beneficiaries of government intervention.
Classification of Finite Simple Groups (CFSG) is a major project involving work by hundreds of researchers. The work was largely completed by about 1983, although final publication of the “quasithin” part was delayed until 2004. Since the 1980s, CFSG has had a huge influence on work in finite group theory and in many adjacent fields of mathematics. This book attempts to survey and sample a number of such topics from the very large and increasingly active research area of applications of CFSG. The book is based on the author's lectures at the September 2015 Venice Summer School on Finite Groups. With about 50 exercises from original lectures, it can serve as a second-year graduate course for students who have had first-year graduate algebra. It may be of particular interest to students looking for a dissertation topic around group theory. It can also be useful as an introduction and basic reference; in addition, it indicates fuller citations to the appropriate literature for readers who wish to go on to more detailed sources.
American motion pictures still dominate the world market with an impact that is difficult to measure. Their role in American culture has been a powerful one since the 1930s and is a hallmark of our culture today. Though much has been written about the film industry, there has been very little systematic attention paid to the ideology of its creative elite. How does the outlook of that elite impact on the portrayals of America that appear on the screen? How do their views interact with the demands of the market and the structure of the industry to determine the product that is seen by mass audiences? Hollywood's America is a marvellously rich and careful discussion of these questions. It combines a meticulous systematic content analysis of fifty years of top-grossing films with a history of the changing structure of the industry. To that mixture it adds an in-depth survey of Hollywood's creative elite, comparing them to other leadership groups. The result is a balanced discussion of unique breadth and depth on a subject of national importance.Placing the film industry in the context of American society as a whole, the authors point out that Hollywood's creative leadership impacts the larger society even as it is influenced by that society. The creators of films cannot remove themselves too far from the values of the audiences that they serve. However, the fact that films are made by a relatively small number of people, who, as the authors demonstrate, tend to share a common outlook, means that, over time, motion pictures have had an undeniable impact on the beliefs, lifestyles, and action of Americans.This study contributes to the debate over the role and influence of those who create and distribute the products of mass culture in the United States.The book also contains a devastating critique of the poststructuralist theories that currently dominate academic film criticism, demonstrating how they fail in their attempt to explain the political significance of motion pictures.
This highly acclaimed criminology text presents an up-to-date review of rational choice theories, including deterrence, shaming, and routine activities.
Students looking to build their skills through extra practice worksheets or teachers seeking already-created workbooks, reinforcing key concepts for their students, need look no further. Anyone in a foundation program or first year-college math course is bound to find this workbook approachable and immensely useful.The workbook is written by a teacher, who understands the needs of math students and has been teaching the material covered in this workbook for over five years to a diverse host of students from different backgrounds and needs. Material presented includes Linear Equations and Matrices, Quadratic and Cubic Equations, Sequences and Series, Indices and Logarithms, Trigonometry, Differentiation, and Integration. With over 2,000 level-appropriate created questions to practice, mathematical skills and confidence are sure to be reinforced and boosted.
This volume includes some of the key research papers in the area of machine learning produced at MIT and Siemens during a three-year joint research effort. It includes papers on many different styles of machine learning, organized into three parts. Part I, theory, includes three papers on theoretical aspects of machine learning. The first two use the theory of computational complexity to derive some fundamental limits on what isefficiently learnable. The third provides an efficient algorithm for identifying finite automata. Part II, artificial intelligence and symbolic learning methods, includes five papers giving an overview of the state of the art and future developments in the field of machine learning, a subfield of artificial intelligence dealing with automated knowledge acquisition and knowledge revision. Part III, neural and collective computation, includes five papers sampling the theoretical diversity and trends in the vigorous new research field of neural networks: massively parallel symbolic induction, task decomposition through competition, phoneme discrimination, behavior-based learning, and self-repairing neural networks.
Updated annually, the 31st edition of Mayson, French and Ryan on Company Law provides the most current and comprehensive treatment of this area. This textbook continues to deliver, with clarity, accurate technical detail balanced with theoretical discussion and quotes from important cases.
In this book Fowl examines the role played by three poetic texts, Phil. 2.6-11, Col. 1.15-20, and 1Tim. 3.16 in the arguments of their epistles. Rather than functioning as criteria of christological orthodoxy, these poetic narrations of Christ's person and work are used by Paul to support various ethical positions. For Paul and the Christians he addresses, these stories of Christ are exemplars for the life and practice of the church.
Shaping the Surface explores the history of modern British architecture through the lens of surface, materiality and decoration. Picking up on a trait that art historian Nikolaus Pevsner first identified as a 'national mania for beautiful surface quality', this book makes a new contribution to architectural history and visual culture in its detailed examination of the surfaces of British architecture from the middle of the 19th century up to the turn of the 21st century. Tracing this continuing sensibility to surface all the way through to the modern era, it explores how and why surface and materiality have featured so heavily in recent architectural tradition, examining the history of British architecture through a selection of key cultural moments and movements from Romanticism and the Arts and Crafts, to Brutalism, High-Tech, Post-Modernism, Neo-Vernacular, and the New Materiality. Embedded within the narrative is the question of whether such national characters can exist in architecture at all – and indeed the extent to which it is possible to identify a British architectural consciousness in an architectural tradition characterised by its continuous importation of theories, ideas, materials and people from around the globe. Shaping the Surface provides a deep critique and meditation on the importance of surface and materiality for architects, designers, and historians everywhere - in Britain and beyond - while it also serves as a thematic introduction to modern British architectural history, with in-depth readings of the works of many key British architects, artists, and critics from Ruskin and William Morris to Alison and Peter Smithson, Eduardo Paolozzi, Richard Rogers and Caruso St John.
Some key aspects of contemporary epistemology deserve to be challenged, and How to Know does just that. This book argues that several long-standing presumptions at the heart of the standard analytic conception of knowledge are false, and defends an alternative, a practicalist conception of knowledge. Presents a philosophically original conception of knowledge, at odds with some central tenets of analytic epistemology Offers a dissolution of epistemology’s infamous Gettier problem — explaining why the supposed problem was never really a problem in the first place. Defends an unorthodox conception of the relationship between knowledge-that and knowledge-how, understanding knowledge-that as a kind of knowledge-how.
Recent years have brought an unexpected revival of popular interest in angels. Books professing to draw back the curtain on the unseen angelic world filled entire bookstore shelves. Here, as if to mock the cold universe of modernity, were the stories of numerous and warm encounters with angelic beings. But who are angels, and what is their nature and purpose in the biblical scheme of things? Are the biblical stories to be taken literally or symbolically, or should they be relegated to another day and age? How have the great theologians of the church regarded the angels? And most important, what are the nature and role of angels in God's cosmos and his redemptive plan? Stephen Noll answers these questions in this detailed exploration of angels in the tapestry of Scripture. Here is a biblical-theological study of angels, Satan and the powers that fills a significant gap and will command the attention of serious students of scripture.
With Christian revivals (including Evangelicals in the White House), Islamic radicalism and the revitalisation of traditional religions it is clear that the world is not heading towards a community of secular states. Nowhere are religious thought and political practice more closely intertwined than in Africa. African migrants in Europe and America who send home money to build churches and mosques, African politicians who consult diviners, guerrilla fighters who believe that amulets can protect them from bullets, and ordinary people who seek ritual healing: all of these are applying religious ideas to everyday problems of existence, at every level of society. Far from falling off the map of the world, Africa is today a leading centre of Christianity and a growing field of Islamic activism, while African traditional religions are gaining converts in the West. One cannot understand the politics of the present without taking religious thought seriously. Stories about witches, miracles, or people returning from the dead incite political action. In Africa religious belief has a huge impact on politics, from the top of society to the bottom. Religious ideas show what people actually think about the world and how to deal with it. Ellis and Ter Haar maintain that the specific content of religious thought has to be mastered if we are to grasp the political significance of religion in Africa today, but their book also informs our understanding of the relationship between religion and political practice in general.
Foucault, Power, and Education invites internationally renowned scholar Stephen J. Ball to reflect on the importance and influence of Foucault on his work in educational policy. By focusing on some of the ways Foucault has been placed in relation to educational questions or questions about education, Ball highlights the relationships between Foucault's concepts and methods, and educational research and analysis. An introductory chapter offers a brief explanation of some of Foucault's key concerns, while additional chapters explore ways in which Ball himself has sought to apply Foucault's ideas in addressing contemporary educational issues. In this intensely personal and reflective text, Ball offers an interpretation of his Foucault--That is, his own particular reading of the Foucauldian toolbox. Ideal for courses in education policy and education studies, this valuable teaching resource is essential reading for any education scholar looking for a starting point into the literature and ideas of Foucault.
Plato. Aristotle. Augustine. Hume. Kant. Hegel. Every student of philosophy needs to know the history of the philosophical discourse such giants have bequeathed us. Philosopher C. Stephen Evans brings his expertise to this daunting task as he surveys the history of Western philosophy, from the Pre-Socratics to Nietzsche and postmodernism—and every major figure and movement in between.
He [Tindal] has been a most notorious ill Liver (registered as 'tis said, or deserving to be soe, at All Soul's under ye Title of Egregious Fornicator)" -- Thomas Hearne, Remarks and Collections (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1885) Matthew Tindal was the outstanding freethinker of his time, famous for writing what became known as the 'Deists' Bible'. While not as profound as his near contemporaries John Locke and David Hume, Tindal played an important part in the creation of the modern world. Between the early 1690s and his death in 1733 Tindal made major contributions in a various areas. As Deputy Judge Advocate of the Fleet he had a large influence on the case law on piracy. His timely pamphlet on the freedom of the press was hugely influential in the ending of the legal requirement that all publications be licensed before being printed. His book on The Rights of the Christian Church had an immense impact on church/state relations and on the growth of freethinking. Tindal's Christianity as old as the Creation in 1730 was the ultimate statement of the deist understanding of Christianity and was highly influential in England and on the Continent. Through Voltaire it profoundly affected the French freethinkers and following its translation into German it laid the foundations of hermeneutics. Stephen Lalor's book will be of considerable interest to readers across many disciplines.
This encyclopedia covers American right-wing extremist groups and extremism from the 1930s to the present day, including neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan, and various anti-government organizations. Right-wing extremism in America has had an established presence from the 1930s through the present day. The election of America's first African-American president and the resuscitation of "big government" policymaking have stimulated a reaction from, and a reemergence of, right-wing extremists, Neo-Nazis, racist skinheads, and white supremacists. Unfortunately, it seems Americans are still living in an age of extremism. The Encyclopedia of Right-Wing Extremism in Modern American History provides useful, authoritative information about these groups and their histories, covering conservative extremism from the 1930s onward, such as white supremacist groups and neo-Nazis, Christian Identity and other right-wing religious movements, and anti-American government extremists. An introductory overview, insightful conclusion chapter, and useful, up-to-date bibliography are also included.
The second edition of Government Accountability: Australian Administrative Law offers an accessible and practical introduction to administrative law in Australia. The text introduces the legal principles that regulate the exercise of power by public authorities and explains the legal mechanisms that exist to remedy failures, with an emphasis on the overarching principle of accountability. Thoroughly revised and updated to incorporate recent changes to case law and legislation, this edition offers expanded, contemporary material on public investigatory bodies, information disclosure, administrative review tribunals, the limits on juridical review, and procedural fairness. Updated case examples throughout illustrate the practical operation of these principles and assist readers to connect theory with practice. Government Accountability provides readers with a concise introduction to the contexts, theory and application of administrative law and arms students with the knowledge and skills to successfully analyse and assess the decisions and actions of public authorities.
A work with broad implications for theories of comparative strategic behavior and civil-military relations, Societies and Military Power uses the long history of the armies of India as a basis for analyzing whether the character of a given society affects the amount of military power that can be generated by the armies that emerge from that society. By examining the changing relationship between ruling elites in the Indian subcontinent and their armed forces, the book shows that divisions within society are mirrored within the military, even within the contemporary professional military. Stephen Peter Rosen explores the proposition that cultural explanations don't sufficiently account for changes in military power, whereas social structure does. He suggests also that the dynamics of civil-military relations in a non-Western setting are not explicable without social-structural insight. He concludes that the comparative study of strategic behavior and military organization has lacked a sound foundation, which the social-structural explanation offered in this book begins to provide.
As of June 1977, the United States had some 232 nuclear power plants either planned or in operation, with a generating capacity estimated at about 321 million kilowatts. To date, the industrial world has spent over $200 billion in order to produce useful energy from nuclear fission. By all odds, civilian nuclear power is one of the largest technological ventures in history. To many, this massive effort is completely justified: No other single technology offers as much promise for satisfying world energy needs in the years ahead—particularly as fossil fuels dwindle and climb drastically in price. Yet to others, there is no single technology which raises such serious questions of risk to public health and safety.
Calculus: Early Transcendentals Single Variable, 12th Edition offers students a rigorous and intuitive treatment of single variable calculus, including the differentiation and integration of one variable. Using the Rule of Four, the authors present mathematical concepts from verbal, algebraic, visual, and numerical points of view. The book includes numerous exercises, applications, and examples that help readers learn and retain the concepts discussed within, and discusses polynomials, rational functions, exponentials, logarithms, and trigonometric functions early in the text.
Stephen Krasner's assumption of a distinction between state and society is the root of his argument for the superiority of a statist interpretation of American foreign policy. Here he challenges the two dominant and rival interpretations of the relationship between state and society: interest group liberalism and Marxism. He contends that the state is an autonomous entity acting on behalf of the national interest, and that state behavior cannot be explained by group or class interest. On the basis of fifteen case studies drawn from extensive public records and published literature on American raw materials policy in the twentieth-century, Professor Krasner provides empirical substance to the debate about the meaning of the "national interest," the importance of bureaucratic politics, and the influence of business on American foreign policy.
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