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Landscapes of Power and Identity: Comparative Histories in the Sonoran Desert and the Forests of Amazonia from Colony to Republic
by Cynthia RaddingLandscapes of Power and Identity is a groundbreaking comparative history of two colonies on the frontiers of the Spanish empire--the Sonora region of northwestern Mexico and the Chiquitos region of eastern Bolivia's lowlands--from the late colonial period through the middle of the nineteenth century. An innovative combination of environmental and cultural history, this book reflects Cynthia Radding's more than two decades of research on Mexico and Bolivia and her consideration of the relationships between human societies and the geographic landscapes they inhabit and create. At first glance, Sonora and Chiquitos are quite different: one a scrub-covered desert, the other a tropical rainforest of the greater Amazonian and Paraguayan river basins. Yet the regions are similar in many ways. Both were located far from the centers of colonial authority, organized into Jesuit missions and linked to the principal mining centers of New Spain and the Andes, and then absorbed into nation-states in the nineteenth century. In each area, the indigenous communities encountered European governors, missionaries, slave hunters, merchants, miners, and ranchers. Radding's comparative approach illuminates what happened when similar institutions of imperial governance, commerce, and religion were planted in different physical and cultural environments. She draws on archival documents, published reports by missionaries and travelers, and previous histories as well as ecological studies and ethnographies. She also considers cultural artifacts, including archaeological remains, architecture, liturgical music, and religious dances. Radding demonstrates how colonial encounters were conditioned by both the local landscape and cultural expectations; how the colonizers and colonized understood notions of territory and property; how religion formed the cultural practices and historical memories of the Sonoran and Chiquitano peoples; and how the conflict between the indigenous communities and the surrounding creole societies developed in new directions well into the nineteenth century.
Landscapes of Promise: The Oregon Story, 1800-1940
by William G. Robbins William CrononBefore the first white trappers reached the Oregon country in the late 18th century, Native Americans had already had a profound impact on the landscape by regularly burning forest undergrowth to open grazing land for elk and deer. Europeans and Americans, however, viewed the land as a series of commercial opportunities and exploited resources they believed to be unlimited. Drawing upon newspaper accounts, journals, and a host of other primary sources, the author explores human activity in Oregon and the attitudes which affected it.
Landscapes of Protest in the Scottish Highlands after 1914: The Later Highland Land Wars (Studies In Historical Geography Ser.)
by Iain J.M. RobertsonIn November 1918, the implementation of agrarian change in the Scottish Highlands threatened another wave of unemployment and eviction for the land-working population, which led to widespread and varied social protest. Those who had been away on war service (and their families) faced returning to exactly the same social and economic conditions in the Scottish Highlands they had hoped they had left behind in the struggle to make ’a land fit for heroes’. Widespread and varied social protest rapidly followed. It argues that, previously, there has been a failure to capture fully the geography, chronology typology and rate of occurrence of these events. The book not only offers new insights and a greater understanding of what was happening in the Highlands in this period, but illustrates how a range of forms of protest were used which demand attention, not least for the fact that these events, unlike most of the earlier Land Wars period, were successful. There are functioning townships in the Highlands today that owe their existence to the land invasions of the 1920s. The book innovatively concentrates on formulating explanation and interpretation from within and looks to the crofting landscape as base, means and motive to disturbance and interpretation. It proposes that protest is much more convincingly understood as an expression of environmental ethics from 'the bottom up' coming increasingly into conflict with conservationist views expressed from 'the top down' It focuses on individual case studies in order to engage more convincingly with an important evidential base - that of popular memory of land disturbances - and to adopt a frame and lens through which to explore the fluid and contingent nature of protest performances. Based upon the belief that in the study of landscapes of social protest the old shibboleth of space as solely passive setting and symbolic register is no longer tenable is paid here to nature/culture interactions, to vernacular ecological b
Landscapes of Trauma: The Psychology of the Battlefield
by Nigel HuntIntegrating trauma studies with historical research and social psychology, Landscapes of Trauma examines a range of battlefields from across history, including Waterloo, the Battle of Sedan, the Battle of the Ebro and the Battle of Normandy, to bring to light what these battlefields say about our collective and individual psyches. Hunt explores how war shapes the nature of trauma, not only by its innate horror but also by the historical and societal contexts it is fought in, from the cultural and social conventions of the period to the topography of the settings. This book provides a deep analysis of how war is experienced and remembered in different eras and by different generations. Moving beyond the clinical concept of post-traumatic stress disorder, Hunt discusses how trauma can be understood socially and historically, as well as through the lens of individual suffering. This book also investigates the psychological foundations of memorialisation, remembrance and commemoration that shape the legacy of the battles discussed. Using interviews with veterans, their letters, journals and diaries, as well as literary and historical sources, Hunt locates the battlefield as a place where humans explore the parameters of human behaviour, thought and emotion. This book is in important resource for students and scholars interested in the psychology of trauma and war, as well as military history.
Landscapes of War: From Sarajevo to Chechnya
by Juan Goytisolo Peter BushAn incisive examination of the tensions that exist between the West and Islamic societies of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. Provides rich historical analysis and reportage of life in four explosive war-zones: Sarajevo, Algeria, the West Bank and Gaza, and Chechnya. Translated by Peter Bush.
Landscapes of Warfare: Urartu and Assyria in the Ancient Middle East
by Tiffany Earley-SpadoniLandscapes of Warfare offers an in-depth exploration of the Urartian empire, which occupied the highlands of present-day Turkey, Armenia, and Iran in the early first millennium BCE. Lesser known than its rival, the Neo-Assyrian empire, Urartu presents a unique case of imperial power distributed among mountain fortresses rather than centralized in cities. Through spatial analysis, the book demonstrates how systematic warfare, driven by imperial ambitions, shaped Urartian and Assyrian territories, creating symbolically and materially powerful landscapes. Tiffany Earley-Spadoni challenges traditional views by emphasizing warfare’s role in organizing ancient landscapes, suggesting that Urartu’s strength lay in its strategic optimization of terrain through fortified regional networks. Using an interdisciplinary approach that includes GIS-enabled studies and integrates archaeological, historical, and art-historical evidence, she illustrates how warfare was a generative force in structuring space and society in the ancient Middle East. Landscapes of Warfare situates Urartu’s developments within the broader context of regional empires, providing insights into the mechanisms of warfare, governance, and cultural identity formation.
Landscapes of Writing in Chicano Literature
by Imelda Martín-JunqueraAdding nuance to a global debate, esteemed scholars from Europe and North and Latin America portray the attempts in Chicano literature to provide answers to the environmental crisis. Diverse ecocritical perspectives add new meaning to the novels, short stories, drama, poetry, films, and documentaries analyzed in this timely and engaged collection.
Landscapes of the First World War
by Vanda Wilcox Selena Daly Martina SalvanteThis comparative and transnational study of landscapes in the First World War offers new perspectives on the ways in which landscapes were idealised, mobilised, interpreted, exploited, transformed and destroyed by the conflict. The collection focuses on four themes: environment and climate, industrial and urban landscapes, cross-cultural encounters, and legacies of the war. The chapters cover Europe, Russia, the Middle East, Africa and the US, drawing on a range of approaches including battlefield archaeology, military history, medical humanities, architecture, literary analysis and environmental history. This volume explores the environmental impact of the war on diverse landscapes and how landscapes shaped soldiers’ experiences at the front. It investigates how rural and urban locales were mobilised to cater to the demands of industry and agriculture. The enduring physical scars and the role of landscape as a crucial locus of memory and commemoration are also analysed. The chapter 'The Long Carry: Landscapes and the Shaping of British Medical Masculinities in the First World War' is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license via link.springer.com.
Landscapes of the JIHAD: Militancy, Morality, Modernity
by Faisal DevjiWhat are the motives behind Osama bin Laden's and Al-Qaeda's jihad against America and the West? Innumerable attempts have been made in recent years to explain that mysterious worldview. In Landscapes of the Jihad, Faisal Devji focuses on the ethical content of this jihad as opposed to its purported political intent. Al-Qaeda differs radically from such groups as Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood and Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiyah, which aim to establish fundamentalist Islamic states. In fact, Devji contends, Al-Qaeda, with its decentralized structure and emphasis on moral rather than political action, actually has more in common with multinational corporations, antiglobalization activists, and environmentalist and social justice organizations. Bin Laden and his lieutenants view their cause as a response to the oppressive conditions faced by the Muslim world rather than an Islamist attempt to build states.Al-Qaeda culls diverse symbols and fragments from Islam's past in order to legitimize its global war against the "metaphysical evil" emanating from the West. The most salient example of this assemblage, Devji argues, is the concept of jihad itself, which Al-Qaeda defines as an "individual duty" incumbent on all Muslims, like prayer. Although medieval Islamic thought provides precedent for this interpretation, Al-Qaeda has deftly separated the stipulation from its institutional moorings and turned jihad into a weapon of spiritual conflict. Al-Qaeda and its jihad, Devji suggests, are only the most visible manifestations of wider changes in the Muslim world. Such changes include the fragmentation of traditional as well as fundamentalist forms of authority. In the author's view, Al-Qaeda represents a new way of organizing Muslim belief and practice within a global landscape and does not require ideological or institutional unity. Offering a compelling explanation for the central purpose of Al-Qaeda's jihad against the West, the meaning of its strategies and tactics, and its moral and aesthetic dimensions, Landscapes of the Jihad is at once a sophisticated work of historical and cultural analysis and an invaluable guide to the world's most prominent terrorist movement.
Landscapes of the Metropolis of Death: Reflections on Memory and Imagination
by Otto Dov KulkaHistorian Otto Dov Kulka has dedicated his life to studying and writing about Nazism and the Holocaust. Until now he has always set to one side his personal experiences as a child inmate at Auschwitz. Breaking years of silence, Kulka brings together the personal and historical, in a devastating, at times poetic, account of the concentration camps and the private mythology one man constructed around his experiences. Auschwitz is for the author a vast repository of images, memories, and reveries: the Metropolis of Death over which rules the immutable Law of Death. Between 1991 and 2001, Kulka made audio recordings of these memories as they welled up, and in "Landscapes of the Metropolis of Death" he sifts through these fragments, attempting to make sense of them. He describes the Family Camp s children s choir in which he and others performed Ode to Joy within yards of the crematoria, his final, indelible parting from his mother when the camp was liquidated, and the black stains along the roadside during the winter death march. Amidst so much death Kulka finds moments of haunting, almost unbearable beauty (for beauty, too, Kulka says, is an inescapable law). As the author maps his interior world, readers gain a new sense of what it was to experience the Shoah from inside the camps both at the time, and long afterward. "Landscapes of the Metropolis of Death" is a unique and powerful experiment in how one man has tried to understand his past, and our shared history.
Landscapes of the Secular: Law, Religion, and American Sacred Space
by Nicolas Howe“What does it mean to see the American landscape in a secular way?” asks Nicolas Howe at the outset of this innovative, ambitious, and wide-ranging book. It’s a surprising question because of what it implies: we usually aren’t seeing American landscapes through a non-religious lens, but rather as inflected by complicated, little-examined concepts of the sacred. Fusing geography, legal scholarship, and religion in a potent analysis, Howe shows how seemingly routine questions about how to look at a sunrise or a plateau or how to assess what a mountain is both physically and ideologically, lead to complex arguments about the nature of religious experience and its implications for our lives as citizens. In American society—nominally secular but committed to permitting a diversity of religious beliefs and expressions—such questions become all the more fraught and can lead to difficult, often unsatisfying compromises regarding how to interpret and inhabit our public lands and spaces. A serious commitment to secularism, Howe shows, forces us to confront the profound challenges of true religious diversity in ways that often will have their ultimate expression in our built environment. This provocative exploration of some of the fundamental aspects of American life will help us see the land, law, and society anew.
Landscapes of the Western Front: Materiality During the Great War (Routledge Studies in Modern European History)
by Ross WilsonThis book examines the British soldiers on the Western Front and how they responded to the war landscape they encountered behind the lines and at the front. Using a multidisciplinary perspective, this study investigates the relationship between soldiers and the spaces and materials of the warzone, analyzing how soldiers constructed a ‘sense of place’ in the hostile, unpredictable environment. Drawing upon recent developments within First World War Studies and the anthropological examination of the fields of conflict, an ethnohistorical perspective of the soldiers is built which details the various ways soldiers responded to the physical and material world of the Western Front. This study is also grounded in the wider debates on how the First World War is remembered within Britain and offers an alternative perspective on the individuals who fought in the world’s first global conflagration nearly a century ago.
Landscapes, Gender, and Ritual Space (The Ancient Greek Experience)
by Susan Guettel ColeThe division of land and consolidation of territory that created the Greek polis also divided sacred from productive space, sharpened distinctions between purity and pollution, and created a ritual system premised on gender difference. Regional sanctuaries ameliorated competition between city-states, publicized the results of competitive rituals for males, and encouraged judicial alternatives to violence. Female ritual efforts, focused on reproduction and the health of the family, are less visible, but, as this provocative study shows, no less significant. Taking a fresh look at the epigraphical evidence for Greek ritual practice in the context of recent studies of landscape and political organization, Susan Guettel Cole illuminates the profoundly gendered nature of Greek cult practice and explains the connections between female rituals and the integrity of the community. In a rich integration of ancient sources and current theory, Cole brings together the complex evidence for Greek ritual practice. She discusses relevant medical and philosophical theories about the female body; considers Greek ideas about purity, pollution, and ritual purification; and examines the cult of Artemis in detail. Her nuanced study demonstrates the social contribution of women's rituals to the sustenance of the polis and the identity of its people.
Landschaftswandel und Siedlungsverschiebung: Siedlungsdynamik im Großraum Susiana vom 5. bis 2. Jahrtausend vor unserer Zeit
by Elnaz RashidianDiese geoarchäologische Untersuchung zu den vor- und frühgeschichtlichen Siedlungen im Großraum Susiana (SW Iran) und ihrer Flusslandschaft stellt die traditionelle kulturhistorische Sicht der „Uruk-Expansion“ in Frage und präsentiert eine neue Erklärung für die archäologisch erwiesene Siedlungsverschiebung in dieser Region. Zum ersten Mal wurde anhand geoarchäologischer Methodik das Phänomen der westlichen Flussmigration in diesem Zeitraum untersucht und mit der zeitgleichen westlichen Siedlungsverschiebung in Verbindung gebracht. Dutzende Bohrungen und Bodenprofile geben einen einmaligen Einblick in den Unterboden dieser Region und bezeugen das Ausmaß des anthropogenen Landschaftswandels lange vor der Entstehung großurbaner Räume im Vorderen Orient. Elnaz Rashidian ist promovierte Archäologin mit dem Schwerpunkt Geoarchäologie des Vorderen Orients. Zurzeit wirkt sie als Post-Doc in zwei Projekten zur sassanidischen archäologischen Landschaft in Firuzabad (Universität Aix-Marseille) und BozPar (Universität Konstanz) mit. Ihr Hauptinteresse gilt der Interaktion von Menschen mit ihrer umliegenden Landschaft und dem darauffolgenden Landschaftswandel. Sie engagiert sich für interdisziplinäre Forschung in der Vorderasiatischen Archäologie und für die Anwendung geoarchäologischer Methoden in der Landschafts- und Siedlungsarchäologie.
Landside | Airside: Why Airports Are the Way They Are
by Victor MarquezWhy do we love and hate airports at the same time? Have you been a victim of tiresome walks, congestion, long lines, invasive pat-downs, eternal delays and so on? Perhaps no other technological system has been challenged by continuously changing paradigms like airports. Think a minute on rail stations; think of how successful are the rail networks of the world in connecting nations, with just minimum security measures. Why aviation and airports are so radically different in this regard?In order to answer those questions the author embarks on a thorough revision of airport history and airport planning that in the end builds up a new theory about how airports are formed from the outset. Within its journey from the early airfield to the newest hubs of today, Dr. Marquez identifies for the first time the Landside–Airside boundary as the single most important feature that shapes an airport. In this sense, his finding challenges the “historical linearity” that, until today, used to explain a century of airports.From both an analytical and theoretical S&TS stance, Dr. Marquez assures that it is only when airports needed to be fully reinvented (LaGuardia, Dulles and Tampa) when they become transparent and we may be able to understand their lack of technological stability.
Landslide
by Jonathan DarmanIn politics, the man who takes the highest spot after a landslide is not standing on solid ground. In this riveting work of narrative nonfiction, Jonathan Darman tells the story of two giants of American politics, Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan, and shows how, from 1963 to 1966, these two men--the same age, and driven by the same heroic ambitions--changed American politics forever. The liberal and the conservative. The deal-making arm twister and the cool communicator. The Texas rancher and the Hollywood star. Opposites in politics and style, Johnson and Reagan shared a defining impulse: to set forth a grand story of America, a story in which he could be the hero. In the tumultuous days after the Kennedy assassination, Johnson and Reagan each, in turn, seized the chance to offer the country a new vision for the future. Bringing to life their vivid personalities and the anxious mood of America in a radically transformative time, Darman shows how, in promising the impossible, Johnson and Reagan jointly dismantled the long American tradition of consensus politics and ushered in a new era of fracture. History comes to life in Darman's vivid, fly-on-the wall storytelling. Even as Johnson publicly revels in his triumphs, we see him grow obsessed with dark forces he believes are out to destroy him, while his wife, Lady Bird, urges her husband to put aside his paranoia and see the world as it really is. And as the war in Vietnam threatens to overtake his presidency, we witness Johnson desperately struggling to compensate with ever more extravagant promises for his Great Society. On the other side of the country, Ronald Reagan, a fading actor years removed from his Hollywood glory, gradually turns toward a new career in California politics. We watch him delivering speeches to crowds who are desperate for a new leader. And we see him wielding his well-honed instinct for timing, waiting for Johnson's majestic promises to prove empty before he steps back into the spotlight, on his long journey toward the presidency. From Johnson's election in 1964, the greatest popular-vote landslide in American history, to the pivotal 1966 midterms, when Reagan burst forth onto the national stage, Landslide brings alive a country transformed--by riots, protests, the rise of television, the shattering of consensus--and the two towering personalities whose choices in those moments would reverberate through the country for decades to come. Advance praise for Landslide "Jonathan Darman turns fresh eyes on two political giants of the late twentieth century, LBJ and Ronald Reagan. Landslide is full of surprises and new insights on these two presidents, and is written with flair. A delicious feast of a read."--Lesley Stahl"Masterly . . . In taking us back to a moment in American history when politics worked, Jonathan Darman provides a resonant reality check on a system that now seems all too dysfunctional. The intertwined stories of Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan offer us a window on the intrinsic give-and-take that makes governing possible. Anyone who cares about politics, biography, and current affairs will find this a delightful and illuminating book."--Jon Meacham, author of Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power "Jonathan Darman writes with power, sweep, vivacity, and humor. He is at once a gifted storyteller, a keen judge of character, and a genie of political insight. He gives us two giants, Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan, in all their glory and human vanity, and takes us on a breathtaking thousand-day ride."--Evan Thomas, author of Ike's Bluff and The Wise MenFrom the Hardcover edition.
Landsman Hay
by Robert Hay Vincent McinerneyIn 1803, at the age of fourteen, Robert Hay joined the Royal Navy and spent the next eight years at sea. His colorful memoir describes a sailor s hard life during the period and includes actions off the French coast and in the East Indies, where he was badly wounded. When his ship ran aground off Plymouth, he deserted but was quickly taken by a press gang, escaped, and eventually reached home in Scotland. A talented writer, Hay offers not only an entertaining yarn, but thoughtful observations of early nineteenth-century naval life and the human condition.
Landsman Hay (Seafarers' Voices)
by Robert HayIn 1803, at the age of fourteen, Robert Hay ran away from home to join the Royal Navy, and for the next eight years experienced the trials and tribulations of a sailors life. Intelligent, agile and willing, he became a boy servant to a series of officers, all of whom helped advance his education as was the practice of the day. But the taxing conditions of life onboard he found detestable and he was, after an action off the French coast, sorely tempted to desert but the well known and ruthless treatment of deserters, if caught, deterred him this time. He was then posted to the East Indies where he was badly wounded and nearly lost a leg before returning home after five years with £14 and fourteen days leave to look forward to. His next ship ran aground off Plymouth and, this time, he took the opportunity to desert but was then quickly taken by a press gang. Terrified of being identified, he managed to escape and reach the Scotland and home. As well as a wonderful yarn, the book is also an impressive description of early nineteenth-century naval life, and his ability as a writer was considerable. His descriptions of his remarkable experiences in the East Indies are full of the flavour of the region, while the sailors natural inclination to drink and debauchery is told with verve. But also running through the narrative are many fine observations on nature and on the human condition. A true and vivid account of the sailors life of this era.
Landsman: A Novel
by Peter MelmanAs fictional characters go, few embody such striking contradictions as cardsharp Elias Abrams: Jewish by birth, he joins the Confederate Army during the Civil War. Indeed, the question of duality runs deep through this novel — not only is Elias a Jew defending the right to oppress a people, but after he helps to commit a horrific crime, he finds himself unexpectedly overtaken by the power of love. Exploring themes of literature, redemption, atonement, and love, this novel delivers a startling dose of moral ambiguity, keen insights into the human condition, and unexpected moments that devastate with their casual simplicity.
Land’s End: Capitalist Relations on an Indigenous Frontier
by Tania Murray LiDrawing on two decades of ethnographic research in Sulawesi, Indonesia, Tania Murray Li offers an intimate account of the emergence of capitalist relations among indigenous highlanders who privatized their common land to plant a boom crop, cacao. Spurred by the hope of ending their poverty and isolation, some prospered, while others lost their land and struggled to sustain their families. Yet the winners and losers in this transition were not strangers--they were kin and neighbors. Li's richly peopled account takes the reader into the highlanders' world, exploring the dilemmas they faced as sharp inequalities emerged among them.The book challenges complacent, modernization narratives promoted by development agencies that assume inefficient farmers who lose out in the shift to high-value export crops can find jobs elsewhere. Decades of uneven and often jobless growth in Indonesia meant that for newly landless highlanders, land's end was a dead end. The book also has implications for social movement activists, who seldom attend to instances where enclosure is initiated by farmers rather than coerced by the state or agribusiness corporations. Li's attention to the historical, cultural, and ecological dimensions of this conjuncture demonstrates the power of the ethnographic method and its relevance to theory and practice today.
Langstaff: A Nineteenth-Century Medical Life
by Jacalyn DuffinA unique and readable microhistory of an ordinary physician and his community during a period of revolutionary medical change. Duffin bases her insights on a detailed computer-assisted analysis of 40 years of extant daybooks of James Langstaff (1825-1889).
Langston Hughes and the *Chicago Defender*: Essays on Race, Politics, and Culture, 1942-62
by Langston HughesLangston Hughes is well known as a poet, playwright, novelist, social activist, communist sympathizer, and brilliant member of the Harlem Renaissance. He has been referred to as the "Dean of Black Letters" and the "poet low-rate of Harlem." But it was as a columnist for the famous African-American newspaper the Chicago Defender that Hughes chronicled the hopes and despair of his people. For twenty years, he wrote forcefully about international race relations, Jim Crow, the South, white supremacy, imperialism and fascism, segregation in the armed forces, the Soviet Union and communism, and African-American art and culture. None of the racial hypocrisies of American life escaped his searing, ironic prose. This is the first collection of Hughes's nonfiction journalistic writings. For readers new to Hughes, it is an excellent introduction; for those familiar with him, it gives new insights into his poems and fiction.
Langston's Salvation: American Religion and the Bard of Harlem
by Wallace D. BestWinner of the 2018 Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion in Textual Studies, presented by the American Academy of Religion 2018 Outstanding Academic Title, given by Choice MagazineA new perspective on the role of religion in the work of Langston HughesLangston's Salvation offers a fascinating exploration into the religious thought of Langston Hughes. Known for his poetry, plays, and social activism, the importance of religion in Hughes’ work has historically been ignored or dismissed. This book puts this aspect of Hughes work front and center, placing it into the wider context of twentieth-century American and African American religious cultures. Best brings to life the religious orientation of Hughes work, illuminating how this powerful figure helped to expand the definition of African American religion during this time. Best argues that contrary to popular perception, Hughes was neither an avowed atheist nor unconcerned with religious matters. He demonstrates that Hughes’ religious writing helps to situate him and other black writers as important participants in a broader national discussion about race and religion in America. Through a rigorous analysis that includes attention to Hughes’s unpublished religious poems, Langston’s Salvation reveals new insights into Hughes’s body of work, and demonstrates that while Hughes is seen as one of the most important voices of the Harlem Renaissance, his writing also needs to be understood within the context of twentieth-century American religious liberalism and of the larger modernist movement. Combining historical and literary analyses with biographical explorations of Langston Hughes as a writer and individual, Langston’s Salvation opens a space to read Langston Hughes’ writing religiously, in order to fully understand the writer and the world he inhabited.
Language & Species
by Derek BickertonThe classic work on the origins and evolution of language from the pioneering linguist and author of Adam&’s Tongue.Language and Species presents the most detailed and well-documented scenario to date of the origins of language. Drawing on "living linguistic fossils" such as "ape talk," the "two-word" stage of small children, and pidgin languages—as well as important discoveries in paleoanthropology—Bickerton shows how a primitive "protolanguage" could have offered Homo erectus a novel ecological niche. He goes on to demonstrate how this protolanguage could have developed into the languages we speak today."You are drawn into [Bickerton's] appreciation of the dominant role language plays not only in what we say, but in what we think and, therefore, what we are."—Robert Wright, New York Times Book Review "The evolution of language is a fascinating topic, and Bickerton's Language and Species is the best introduction we have."—John C. Marshall, Nature
Language Around the World: Ways we Communicate our Thoughts and Feelings
by Gill BudgellDiscover fascinating facts about communication in all its forms, from around the world and over timeEngaging factual writing introduces young readers to the most interesting aspects of languages, how they evolve and change over time. Humans&’ use of language is one of our distinguishing features. Language allows us to communicate what we think, what we want, what we feel, and what we have learned. Some 100,000 years ago, humans began speaking. Since then, we have developed nearly 7000 languages. Languages are living things; they evolve and change over time. They even travel! People carry their language with them and spread it. Large language families even have their own family trees, such as Spanish, French, English. Different languages can be mixed and combined to create new languages with similar words, pronunciation, and grammar rules. Languages can even become extinct if they are not shared and learned by each new generation. Spoken languages are not the only way we communicate. Sign language, Morse code, semaphore, smoke signals, computer codes - humans have invented numerous ways of communicating. Sharing feelings, thoughts, and ideas through the power of language is an essential part of being human.