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Common Purse, Uncommon Future: The Long, Strange Trip of Communes and Other Intentional Communities explores the many new types of communal living being tried in America and Europe today. A growing number of people disenchanted with the pressures and demands of mainstream lifestyles are drawn by the nostalgic appeal of traditional, mostly agrarian and artisanal, lifestyles as practiced in residential communities where liminal rituals of membership serve to validate pacts to live and work together in cooperative social and economic relations.

"This work narrates the development of a historically remote--although internationally celebrated--coffee-growing region from the early 19th century through to the first decade of the 21st century. It considers the nation-building process from the margins to question traditional scholarly works that have reproduced, rather than deconstructed, Costa Rica's exceptionalist national mythologies that imagine this isthmian republic as Central America's 'white,' democratic, nonviolent, and egalitarian republic. The book recognizes that even though Costa Rica's exceptionalist rendition draws on some undeniable realities, it thoughtfully considers the origins, applicability, and longevity of the different elements of this exceptionalist master narrative. In particular, it suggests the mythology emerged during the Cold War, as revolution, civil war, military dictatorship, and state violence plagued much of Central America. In this same period, Costa Rica not only retained a relatively stable democratic system, but policymakers eliminated the standing army in 1948. This widely embraced and celebrated historical narrative, however, distorts as much as it illuminates the experience of contemporary and historical actors"--

Dr. Paddock spent the year completing a book and revising an article.

"As the United States grew into an empire in the late nineteenth century, notions like 'sea power' derived not only from fleets, bases, and decisive battles, but also from a scientific effort to understand and master the ocean environment. Beginning in the early nineteenth century and concluding in the first years of the twentieth, Jason W. Smith tells the story of the rise of the U.S. Navy and the emergence of American ocean empire through its struggle to control nature. In vividly told sketches of exploration, naval officers, war, and, most significantly, the ocean environment, Smith draws together insights from environmental, maritime, military, and naval history, and the history of science and cartography, placing the U.S. Navy's scientific efforts within a broader cultural context"--

This volume contains six articles on Ibn 'Asākir and his 'Ta'rīkh madīnat Dimāshq' illustrating a variety of perspectives and approaches to the material. It includes a seventh article that discusses the process by which the now standard 'Dār al-fikr' edition was compiled. The contributions address both the geographical and biographical sections of the 'Ta'rīkh madīnat Dimashq'. Some of the authors examine Ibn 'Asākir's sources, while others describe how Ibn 'Asākir's works were used by later generations of scholars and how he influenced multiple genres of later writings. The volume also contains analyses of individual biographies and discussions of Ibn 'Asākir's treatment of larger classes of people, including the first analysis of his biographies of women. In sum, it illustrates both the wide range of topics that the 'Ta'rīkh madīnat Dimashq' covers and the latest techniques for analyzing Ibn 'Asākir and his work.

"Between 1944 and 1996, Guatemala experienced a revolution, counterrevolution, and civil war. In the middle of these national shifts were students from Guatemala's only public university, the University of San Carlos (USAC). USAC students served in, advised, protested, and were later persecuted by the government, all the while crafting a powerful student nationalism founded on their responsibility to lead the nation. In no other moment has the relationship between the university and the state been so mutable, yet so mutually formative. By showing how the very notion of the middle class in Guatemala emerged from these student movements, this book places an often-marginalized region and period at the center of histories of class, protest, and youth movements, while providing an entirely new way to think about the role of universities and student bodies in the formation of liberal democracy throughout Latin America.

The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) was the country's first creator of overseas Christian missions. Founded in 1810 and supported by a coalition of Calvinist denominations, the ABCFM established the first American missions in India, China, Africa, Oceania, the Middle East, and many other places. It was America's largest missionary organization in the nineteenth century, and its influence was immense. Its missionaries established the first Western schools and hospitals in many parts of the world, and they successfully promoted women's rights and other ideals from the Enlightenment. They also transformed oral languages such as Zulu, Hawaiian, and Cherokee into written form, and they preserved many elements of premodern cultures (albeit not always intentionally). The contributors to this book provide valuable insights on the work of the ABCFM (which exists today under a different name). Some of the contributors profile the lives of notable ABCFM missionaries, others focus on ideological shifts within the Board, and still others chronicle the Board's role in historic events, including the Opium Wars, the colonization of Hawai'i, and the Armenian Genocide. From reading this book, people will come to understand why the ABCFM is widely viewed as America's most historically significant missionary organization.

What is a national medicine? What does it mean for a medicine to be traditional and scientific at the same time? How could a specifically Vietnamese medicine emerge out of the medical practices and treatments that have flourished and waned during key soci

Historians have focused almost entirely on the attempt by southern African Americans to attain equal rights during Reconstruction. However, the northern states also witnessed a significant period of struggle during these years. Northern blacks vigorously protested laws establishing inequality in education, public accommodations, and political life and challenged the Republican Party to live up to its stated ideals. In "We Will Be Satisfied With Nothing Less," Hugh Davis concentrates on the two issues that African Americans in the North considered most essential: black male suffrage rights and equal access to the public schools. Davis connects the local and the national; he joins the specifics of campaigns in places such as Cincinnati, Detroit, and San Francisco with the work of the National Equal Rights League and its successor, the National Executive Committee of Colored Persons. The narrative moves forward from their launching of the equal rights movement in 1864 to the "end" of Reconstruction in the North two decades later. The struggle to gain male suffrage rights was the centerpiece of the movement's agenda in the 1860s, while the school issue remained a major objective throughout the period. Following the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870, northern blacks devoted considerable attention to assessing their place within the Republican Party and determining how they could most effectively employ the franchise to protect the rights of all citizens.-- Book jacket.