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Staying at Home: Identities, Memories and Social Networks of Kazakhstani Germans
by Rita SandersDespite economic growth in Kazakhstan, more than 80 per cent of Kazakhstan's ethnic Germans have emigrated to Germany to date. Disappointing experiences of the migrants, along with other aspects of life in Germany, have been transmitted through transnational networks to ethnic Germans still living in Kazakhstan. Consequently, Germans in Kazakhstan today feel more alienated than ever from their 'historic homeland'. This book explores the interplay of those memories, social networks and state policies, which play a role in the 'construction' of a Kazakhstani German identity.
Staying in the Game: The Playbook for Beating Workplace Sexual Harassment
by Adrienne LawrenceA practical guide to shutting down workplace sexual harassment so it doesn't derail your career or your life, from the first on-air personality to sue ESPN for sexual harassment."A strong book that will help you navigate the choppy waters of sexual harassment. Gain your power, read this book."-Rose McGowan, New York Times bestselling author of BraveEven in the #MeToo era, studies show that women in the workforce continue to harbor misconceptions about sexual harassment and are unprepared to respond when it happens. Lawyer and former ESPN anchor Adrienne Lawrence has learned to advocate for herself and other women. In this book, she offers much-needed insight on topics such as: • Identifying the five types of harassers and the five types of coworkers who enable them • Researching company culture and history to identify sexual harassment hotbeds • Properly documenting inappropriate behavior • Preparing for retaliation and mental health hurdles such as anxiety and depression • Managing public exposure and figuring out when to leverage the power of the media and/or lawyer upThis essential guide helps women navigate the complicated realities of sexual harassment and teaches them how to be their own best advocates in toxic work environments.
Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene
by Donna J. HarawayIn the midst of spiraling ecological devastation, multispecies feminist theorist Donna J. Haraway offers provocative new ways to reconfigure our relations to the earth and all its inhabitants. She eschews referring to our current epoch as the Anthropocene, preferring to conceptualize it as what she calls the Chthulucene, as it more aptly and fully describes our epoch as one in which the human and nonhuman are inextricably linked in tentacular practices. The Chthulucene, Haraway explains, requires sym-poiesis, or making-with, rather than auto-poiesis, or self-making. Learning to stay with the trouble of living and dying together on a damaged earth will prove more conducive to the kind of thinking that would provide the means to building more livable futures. Theoretically and methodologically driven by the signifier SF--string figures, science fact, science fiction, speculative feminism, speculative fabulation, so far--Staying with the Trouble further cements Haraway's reputation as one of the most daring and original thinkers of our time.
Steadfast Democrats: How Social Forces Shape Black Political Behavior (Princeton Studies in Political Behavior #19)
by Ismail K. White Chryl N. LairdA groundbreaking look at how group expectations unify black Americans in their support of the Democratic partyBlack Americans are by far the most unified racial group in American electoral politics, with 80 to 90 percent identifying as Democrats—a surprising figure given that nearly a third now also identify as ideologically conservative, up from less than 10 percent in the 1970s. Why has ideological change failed to push more black Americans into the Republican Party? Steadfast Democrats answers this question with a pathbreaking new theory that foregrounds the specificity of the black American experience and illuminates social pressure as the key element of black Americans’ unwavering support for the Democratic Party.Ismail White and Chryl Laird argue that the roots of black political unity were established through the adversities of slavery and segregation, when black Americans forged uniquely strong social bonds for survival and resistance. White and Laird explain how these tight communities have continued to produce and enforce political norms—including Democratic Party identification in the post–Civil Rights era. The social experience of race for black Americans is thus fundamental to their political choices. Black voters are uniquely influenced by the social expectations of other black Americans to prioritize the group’s ongoing struggle for freedom and equality. When navigating the choice of supporting a political party, this social expectation translates into affiliation with the Democratic Party. Through fresh analysis of survey data and original experiments, White and Laird explore where and how black political norms are enforced, what this means for the future of black politics, and how this framework can be used to understand the electoral behavior of other communities.An innovative explanation for why black Americans continue in political lockstep, Steadfast Democrats sheds light on the motivations consolidating an influential portion of the American electoral population.
Steal This Book
by Abbie HoffmanStill Notorious, Radical, and Revolutionary 50 Years Later.A survival guide from one of the greatest creative organizers of the 20th century—now with a new foreword by co-conspirator, Lisa Fithian. Throughout the 1960's and 70's, Abbie Hoffman criss-crossed the country, ferreting out alternative ways of getting by in America—some illegal and all radical. Causing scandals with its advice on how to Survive!, Fight!, and Liberate! in the &“prison that is Amerika,&” Steal This Book is a revolutionary's manual to running a guerilla movement, as well as getting free food, housing, transportation, medical care, and more. This anniversary edition gives a new generation an insider's view into the movements of the sixties and seventies. While many of the holes in the system that Abbie exposed have since been plugged, the spirit of revolution, the dedication to opposing injustice, and the passion of creative activism continue to inspire today.
Stealing Benefacio's Roses
by Martin PrechtelFollowing the acclaimed Secrets of The Talking Jaguar and Long Life, Honey in the Heart, this is an expansive, lyrical novel in the tradition of indigenous oral storytelling. Based on the author's many years of living in a Guatemalan village, Stealing Benefacio's Roses interweaves dramatic recountings of village life and the political horrors of civil war with lyric retellings of sacred Mayan myths. The story shifts expertly from timeless, with archetypal characters like Raggedy Boy and the goddess known as the Water-Skirted Beauty, to timely in the book's striking first-person narrative set in the 1980s. Prechtel shows how ancient myths can become a part of life for everyone and help nurture spiritual survival in the modern world. Though it comes third in sequence with the author's other two books, Stealing Benefacio's Roses also stands on its own as a classic work of spiritual seeking and adventure.
Stealing Books in Eighteenth-Century London
by Christopher Reid Richard Coulton Matthew MaugerThis study offers an authoritative and readable account of the hidden history of book theft in eighteenth-century London. It exploits a rich primary source, the compelling narratives of crime contained in the digitised Proceedings of the Old Bailey. The authors explain how cases of book theft came to court, and how in the ensuing trials the nature of the book itself became a question for legal debate. They assess the motives which led Londoners to steal books and the methods they employed in thefts from households and booksellers. Finally, the authors ask what the Proceedings tells us about the social ownership of books, and how the phenomenon of book theft differently affected book producers and consumers. Stealing Books in Eighteenth-Century London will appeal to readers interested in the connected histories of metropolitan life, crime, and the book in this period, and in the uses of digital resources in humanities research.
Stealing Green Mangoes: Two Brothers, Two Fates, One Indian Childhood
by Sunil Dutta“The poignant memoir of two brothers raised under the dark shadow of Indian Partition” before one becomes a Los Angeles cop and the other a terrorist (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)Sunil Dutta is a twenty-year veteran of the LAPD. He was also a biologist and a translator of classic Indian poetry. But before that, he was a refugee of the genocidal violence that followed the Partition of India. While Sunil eventually escaped to a new life, his brother Raju took a different path. Raju was arrested, fled the law, and became a fugitive. Then he became a terrorist. Later in life, facing Stage IV lung cancer, Sunil tried to understand how he and his brother found themselves on such radically different paths. In Stealing Green Mangoes, Dutta takes us from his childhood home in Rajasthan to the streets of southeastern Los Angeles, attempting to uncover what it was that tore him and Raju apart.A memoir with sweeping, spiritual ambitions, Stealing Green Mangoes asks probing questions about surviving trauma, crossing borders, and how we become who we are.
Stealing History: Tomb Raiders, Smugglers, and the Looting of the Ancient World
by Roger AtwoodRoger Atwood knows more about the market for ancient objects than almost anyone. He knows where priceless antiquities are buried, who is digging them up, and who is fencing and buying them. In this fascinating book, Atwood takes readers on a journey through Iraq, Peru, Hong Kong, and across America, showing how the worldwide antiquities trade is destroying what's left of the ancient sites before archaeologists can reach them, and thus erasing their historical significance. And it is getting worse. The discovery of the legendary Royal Tombs of Sipan in Peru started an epidemic. Grave robbers scouring the courntryside for tombs--and finding them. Atwood recounts the incredible story of the biggest piece of gold ever found in the Americas, a 2,000-year-old, three-pound masterpiece that cost one looter his life, sent two smugglers to jail, and wrecked lives from Panama to Pennsylvainia. Packed with true stories, this book not only reveals what has been found, but at what cost to both human life and history.
Stealing Home: Los Angeles, the Dodgers, and the Lives Caught in Between
by Eric NusbaumA story about baseball, family, the American Dream, and the fight to turn Los Angeles into a big league city.Dodger Stadium is an American icon. But the story of how it came to be goes far beyond baseball. The hills that cradle the stadium were once home to three vibrant Mexican American communities. In the early 1950s, those communities were condemned to make way for a utopian public housing project. Then, in a remarkable turn, public housing in the city was defeated amidst a Red Scare conspiracy.Instead of getting their homes back, the remaining residents saw the city sell their land to Walter O'Malley, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Now LA would be getting a different sort of utopian fantasy -- a glittering, ultra-modern stadium.But before Dodger Stadium could be built, the city would have to face down the neighborhood's families -- including one, the Aréchigas, who refused to yield their home. The ensuing confrontation captivated the nation - and the divisive outcome still echoes through Los Angeles today.
Stealing Lincoln's Body
by Thomas J. CraughwellOn the night of the presidential election in 1876, a gang of counterfeiters out of Chicago attempted to steal the entombed embalmed body of Abraham Lincoln and hold it for ransom. The custodian of the tomb was so shaken by the incident that he willingly dedicated the rest of his life to protecting the president's corpse. In a lively and dramatic narrative, Thomas J. Craughwell returns to this bizarre, and largely forgotten, event with the first book to place the grave robbery in historical context. He takes us through the planning and execution of the crime and the outcome of the investigation. He describes the reactions of Mary Todd Lincoln and Robert Todd Lincoln to the theft―and the peculiar silence of a nation. He follows the unlikely tale of what happened to Lincoln's remains after the attempted robbery, and details the plan devised by the Lincoln Guard of Honor to prevent a similar abominable recurrence. Along the way, Craughwell offers entertaining sidelights on the rise of counterfeiting in America and the establishment of the Secret Service to combat it; the prevalence of grave robberies; the art of nineteenth-century embalming; and the emergence among Irish immigrants of an ambitious middle class―and a criminal underclass. This rousing story of hapless con men, intrepid federal agents, and ordinary Springfield citizens who honored their native son by keeping a valuable, burdensome secret for decades offers a riveting glimpse into late-nineteenth-century America, and underscores that truth really is sometimes stranger than fiction.
Stealing My Religion: Not Just Any Cultural Appropriation
by Liz BucarFrom sneaker ads and the “solidarity hijab” to yoga classes and secular hikes along the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route, the essential guide to the murky ethics of religious appropriation.We think we know cultural appropriation when we see it. Blackface or Native American headdresses as Halloween costumes—these clearly give offense. But what about Cardi B posing as the Hindu goddess Durga in a Reebok ad, AA’s twelve-step invocation of God, or the earnest namaste you utter at the end of yoga class?Liz Bucar unpacks the ethical dilemmas of a messy form of cultural appropriation: the borrowing of religious doctrines, rituals, and dress for political, economic, and therapeutic reasons. Does borrowing from another’s religion harm believers? Who can consent to such borrowings? Bucar sees religion as an especially vexing arena for appropriation debates because faiths overlap and imitate each other and because diversity within religious groups scrambles our sense of who is an insider and who is not. Indeed, if we are to understand why some appropriations are insulting and others benign, we have to ask difficult philosophical questions about what religions really are.Stealing My Religion guides us through three revealing case studies—the hijab as a feminist signal of Muslim allyship, a study abroad “pilgrimage” on the Camino de Santiago, and the commodification of yoga in the West. We see why the Vatican can’t grant Rihanna permission to dress up as the pope, yet it’s still okay to roll out our yoga mats. Reflecting on her own missteps, Bucar comes to a surprising conclusion: the way to avoid religious appropriation isn’t to borrow less but to borrow more—to become deeply invested in learning the roots and diverse meanings of our enthusiasms.
Stealing Time: Migration, Temporalities and State Violence
by Monish Bhatia Victoria CanningThis book draws together empirical contributions which focus on conceptualising the lived realities of time and temporality in migrant lives and journeys. This book uncovers the ways in which human existence is often overshadowed by legislative interpretations of legal and illegalised. It unearths the consequences of uncertainty and unknowing for people whose futures often lay in the hands of states, smugglers, traffickers and employers that pay little attention to the significance of individuals’ time and thus, by default, their very human existence. Overall, the collection draws perspectives from several disciplines and locations to advance knowledge on how temporal exclusion relates to social and personal processes of exclusion. It begins by conceptualising what we understand by ‘time’ and looks at how temporality and lived realities of time combine for people during and after processes of migration. As the book develops, focus is trained on temporality and survival during encampment, border transgression, everyday borders and hostility, detention, deportation and the temporal impacts of border deaths. This book both conceptualises and realises the lived experiences of time with regard to those who are afforded minimal autonomy over their own time: people living in and between borders.
Stealing the Show: How Women Are Revolutionizing Television
by Joy PressFrom a leading cultural journalist, a definitive look at the rise of the female showrunner—and a new golden era of television.Female writers, directors, and producers have radically transformed the television industry in recent years. Shonda Rhimes, Lena Dunham, Tina Fey, Amy Schumer, Mindy Kaling: These extraordinary women have shaken up the entertainment landscape, making it look like an equal opportunity dream factory. But things weren't always this rosy. It took decades of determination in the face of preconceived ideas and outright prejudice to reach this new era. In this endlessly informative and wildly entertaining book, veteran journalist Joy Press tells the story of the maverick women who broke through the barricades, starting with Roseanne Barr (Roseanne) and Diane English (Murphy Brown), whose iconic shows redefined America’s idea of “family values” and incited controversy that reached as far as the White House. Barr and English inspired the next generation of female TV writers and producers to carve out the creative space and executive power needed to present radically new representations of women on the small screen. Showrunners like Amy Sherman Palladino (Gilmore Girls), Jenji Kohan (Weeds, Orange Is the New Black), and Jill Soloway (Transparent) created characters and storylines that changed how women are seen and how they see themselves, in the process transforming the culture. Stealing the Show is the perfect companion to such bestsellers as Mindy Kaling’s Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, Tina Fey’s Bossypants, and Shonda Rhimes’ Year of Yes¸ not to mention Sheila Weller’s Girls Like Us and Rebecca Traister’s All the Single Ladies. Drawing on deep research and interviews with the key players, this is the exhilarating behind-the-scenes story of a truly groundbreaking revolution in television.
Stealth Jihad: How Radical Islam Is Subverting America Without Guns Or Bombs
by Robert SpencerDoes America face a jihadist threat that's even bigger than terrorism?While our homeland security efforts are focused on preventing terrorist attacks, another jihadist threat is growing right here in America--in plain sight.In Stealth Jihad, Islam expert and New York Times bestselling author Robert Spencer blows the whistle on a long-term plot by Islamic jihadists to undermine the United States. This effort aims not to bring America to its knees through attacks with guns or bombs, but to subvert the country from within--by gradually Islamizing America. The ultimate goal, the stealth jihadists themselves declare, is nothing less than the adoption of Islamic law in the United States.Describing the disturbing ease with which stealth jihadists have already become ensconced in the American political and media landscapes, Spencer exposes the full modus operandi of the movement as revealed in a stunning document unveiled in a recent terrorism funding trial. In this unsettling book, he explains:* Which Islamic fundamentalist organization is behind the stealth jihad* How stealth jihadists have reinvented themselves as mainstream civil rights activists--despite their many past declarations of Islamic supremacism* How stealth jihadists played a key role in formulating U.S. government guidelines for the War on Terror* How insistence on "accommodating" Islamic cultural and religious practices in America is part of a calculated strategy to achieve a dangerous larger agenda* The effort by stealth jihadists to whitewash the teaching of Islam in schools* What can be done to defeat the stealth jihad and preserve America's libertyAmerica, Spencer demonstrates, is all but oblivious to a new kind of threat presented by a loosely organized movement whose activists are well funded, highly motivated, and relentless in pursuit of their agenda. This book is a wake-up call for a country so focused on foreign threats that it has left itself vulnerable to a growing danger much closer to home.
Steamboat Disasters of the Lower Missouri River (Disaster)
by Vicki Berger Erwin James ErwinDuring the nineteenth century, more than three hundred boats met their end in the steamboat graveyard that was the Lower Missouri River, from Omaha to its mouth. Although derided as little more than an "orderly pile of kindling," steamboats were, in fact, technological marvels superbly adapted to the river's conditions. Their light superstructure and long, wide, flat hulls powered by high-pressure engines drew so little water that they could cruise on "a heavy dew" even when fully loaded. But these same characteristics made them susceptible to fires, explosions and snags--tree trunks ripped from the banks, hiding under the water's surface. Authors Vicki and James Erwin detail the perils that steamboats, their passengers and crews faced on every voyage.
Steampunk and Nineteenth-Century Digital Humanities: Literary Retrofuturisms, Media Archaeologies, Alternate Histories (Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Literature)
by Roger WhitsonSteampunk is more than a fandom, a literary genre, or an aesthetic. It is a research methodology turning history inside out to search for alternatives to the progressive technological boosterism sold to us by Silicon Valley. This book turns to steampunk's quirky temporalities to embrace diverse genealogies of the digital humanities and to unite their methodologies with nineteenth-century literature and media archaeology. The result is nineteenth-century digital humanities, a retrofuturist approach in which readings of steampunk novels like William Gibson and Bruce Sterling's The Difference Engine and Ken Liu's The Grace of Kings collide with nineteenth-century technological histories like Charles Babbage's use of the difference engine to enhance worker productivity and Isabella Bird's spirit photography of alternate history China. Along the way, Steampunk and Nineteenth-Century Digital Humanities considers steampunk as a public form of digital humanities scholarship and activism, examining projects like Kinetic Steam Works's reconstruction of Henri Giffard's 1852 steam-powered airship, Jake von Slatt's use of James Wimshurst's 1880 designs to create an electric influence machine, and the queer steampunk activism of fans appearing at conventions around the globe. Steampunk as a digital humanities practice of repurposing reacts to the growing sense of multiple non-human temporalities mediating our human histories: microtemporal electricities flowing through our computer circuits, mechanical oscillations marking our work days, geological stratifications and cosmic drifts extending time into the millions and billions of years. Excavating the entangled, anachronistic layers of steampunk practice from video games like Bioshock Infinite to marine trash floating off the shore of Los Angeles and repurposed by media artist Claudio Garzón into steampunk submarines, Steampunk and Nineteenth-Century Digital Humanities uncovers the various technological temporalities and multicultural retrofutures illuminating many alternate histories of the digital humanities.
Stedman's Surinam: Life in an Eighteenth-Century Slave Society. An Abridged, Modernized Edition of Narrative of a Five Years Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam
by John Gabriel StedmanThis abridgment of the Prices' acclaimed 1988 critical edition is based on Stedman's original, handwritten manuscript, which offers a portrait at considerable variance with the 1796 classic. The unexpurgated text, presented here with extensive notes and commentary, constitutes one of the richest and most evocative accounts ever written of colonial life—and one of the strongest indictments ever to appear against New World slavery.
Stedman's Surinam: Life in an Eighteeth-Century Slave Society
by John Gabriel StedmanThe famed account of 18th-century slavery in South America, “made more readable by moderate editorial changes . . . A well-accomplished abridgment” (Colonial Latin American Historical Review).This abridgment of Richard and Sally Price’s acclaimed 1988 critical edition is based on John Gabriel Stedman’s original, handwritten manuscript, which offers a portrait at considerable variance with the 1796 classic. The unexpurgated text, presented here with extensive notes and commentary, constitutes one of the richest and most evocative accounts ever written of colonial life—and one of the strongest indictments ever to appear against New World slavery.
Steel City: Hamilton and Region
by J. J. Drake L. G. Reeds M. J. DearFrom its establishment nearly 200 years ago as a village at the centre of an agricultural district, Hamilton has grown into one of Canada's biggest industrial centres, at the heart of a highly developed regional municipality. The story of its changing landscapes, both physical and human, is presented in the nineteen essays that make up this volume, all by geographers associated with Hamilton's McMaster University. Change is the essence of the story. Each contributor focuses on one aspect of the past, present, or future landscapes of Hamilton, and places it within the context of change in the region. The first series of essays explores physical landscapes – geology and relief, climate, soils, vegetation, and hydrology – and shows how human activity has moulded them. The second group charts the evolution of human landscapes in the region, paying special attention to contemporary Hamilton with its rich and diverse combination of people and cultures, and also to the political intrigue that surrounded the introduction of regional government to the area. Finally a third series focuses on the functioning of the Hamilton region. Within a highly complex system, the city and region balance a broad range of often contradictory trends and activities. The contributors examine the difficulties facing agriculture in a rapidly urbanizing region; the importance of Hamilton in caring for welfare-dependent populations; the future of steel in Steel City; the challenges posed by energy requirements in the region; and the hard choices facing policy-makers. The last two essays discuss the role played by McMaster University in the life of the region, and the landscape of Hamilton today: a remarkable complex of historical interest, great natural beauty, and modern city life.
Steel Closets
by Anne BalayEven as substantial legal and social victories are being celebrated within the gay rights movement, much of working-class America still exists outside the current narratives of gay liberation. In Steel Closets, Anne Balay draws on oral history interviews with forty gay, lesbian, and transgender steelworkers, mostly living in northwestern Indiana, to give voice to this previously silent and invisible population. She presents powerful stories of the intersections of work, class, gender, and sexual identity in the dangerous industrial setting of the steel mill. The voices and stories captured by Balay--by turns alarming, heroic, funny, and devastating--challenge contemporary understandings of what it means to be queer and shed light on the incredible homophobia and violence faced by many: nearly all of Balay's narrators remain closeted at work, and many have experienced harassment, violence, or rape. Through the powerful voices of queer steelworkers themselves, Steel Closets provides rich insight into an understudied part of the LGBT population, contributing to a growing body of scholarship that aims to reveal and analyze a broader range of gay life in America.
Steel-Engraved Book Illustration in England (Routledge Revivals)
by Basil HunnisettFirst published in 1980, Steel-Engraved Book Illustration in England is a detailed and comprehensive survey of the steel engravings that were so popular in the nineteenth century. With an extensive range of illustrations, the book refutes the assumption that steel engravings are of little artistic value or importance, a common attitude rooted largely in the connection between steel engravings and mass-produced books. Beginning with an exploration of the identification problems and early history of steel engravings, it moves through the production and printing of the plates and on to a study of several engravers and artists, as well as of the books themselves. Steel-Engraved Book Illustration in England will appeal to anyone interested in the history of printing and illustration.
Steeped in Heritage: The Racial Politics of South African Rooibos Tea
by Sarah Fleming IvesSouth African rooibos tea is a commodity of contrasts. Renowned for its healing properties, the rooibos plant grows in a region defined by the violence of poverty, dispossession, and racism. And while rooibos is hailed as an ecologically indigenous commodity, it is farmed by people who struggle to express “authentic” belonging to the land: Afrikaners, who espouse a “white” African indigeneity, and “coloureds,” who are characterized either as the mixed-race progeny of “extinct” Bushmen or as possessing a false identity, indigenous to nowhere. In Steeped in Heritage Sarah Ives explores how these groups advance alternate claims of indigeneity based on the cultural ownership of an indigenous plant. This heritage-based struggle over rooibos shows how communities negotiate landscapes marked by racial dispossession within an ecosystem imperiled by climate change and precarious social relations in the postapartheid era.
Steeple Chasing: Around Britain by Church
by Peter RossFrom the author of A Tomb With a View - a celebration of the weird and wonderful churches of BritainChurches are all around us. Their steeples remain landmarks in our towns, villages and cities, even as their influence and authority has waned. They contain art and architectural wonders - one huge gallery scattered, like a handful of jewels, across these isles.Award-winning writer Peter Ross sets out to tell their stories, and through them a story of Britain. Join him as he visits the unassuming Norfolk church which contains a disturbing secret, and London's mighty cathedrals with their histories of fire and love. Meet cats and bats, monks and druids, angels of oak and steel.Steeple Chasing, though it sometimes strikes an elegiac note, is a song of praise. It celebrates churches for their beauty and meaning, and for the tales they tell. It is about people as much as place, flesh and bone not just flint and stone. From the painted hells of Surrey to the holy wells of Wales, consider this a travel book . . . with bells on.Praise for Peter Ross'Ross is a wonderfully evocative writer, deftly capturing a sense of place and history, while bringing a deep humanity to his subject. He has written a delightful book.' - The Guardian'Fascinating . . . Ross makes a likeably idiosyncratic guide and one finishes the book feeling strangely optimistic about the inevitable.' - The Observer'A phenomenal, lyrical, beautiful book.' - Frank Turner'The author's humanity has acted as a beacon of light in the darkness.' - The Sunday Times(P) 2023 Headline Publishing Group Ltd
Steeple Chasing: Around Britain by Church
by Peter Ross'What makes Steeple Chasing so compelling - and it is a wonderful book; thoughtful and challenging - ... is Ross's essential kindness, his unfailing empathy with the people he meets on his pilgrimage.' - Daily Telegraph *****'Steeple Chasing is a beautiful and brilliant book; written with such care and deep, abiding interest in its subject matter as to entrance the enthusiast and amateur alike. I loved it.' - Fergus Butler-Gallie'Ross has always had a quiet charm, and it is perhaps displayed best in this book. ' - The Scotsman From the author of A Tomb With a View - Scottish Non-Fiction book of the Year Churches are all around us. Their steeples remain landmarks in our towns, villages and cities, even as their influence and authority has waned. They contain art and architectural wonders - one huge gallery scattered, like a handful of jewels, across these isles.Award-winning writer Peter Ross sets out to tell their stories, and through them a story of Britain. Join him as he visits the unassuming Norfolk church which contains a disturbing secret, and London's mighty cathedrals with their histories of fire and love. Meet cats and bats, monks and druids, angels of oak and steel.Steeple Chasing, though it sometimes strikes an elegiac note, is a song of praise. It celebrates churches for their beauty and meaning, and for the tales they tell. It is about people as much as place, flesh and bone not just flint and stone. From the painted hells of Surrey to the holy wells of Wales, consider this a travel book . . . with bells on.Praise for Peter Ross'Ross is a wonderfully evocative writer, deftly capturing a sense of place and history, while bringing a deep humanity to his subject. He has written a delightful book.' - The Guardian'Fascinating . . . Ross makes a likeably idiosyncratic guide and one finishes the book feeling strangely optimistic about the inevitable.' - The Observer'The author's humanity has acted as a beacon of light in the darkness.' - The Sunday Times