Larry Grubbs, "Secular Missionaries: Americans and African Development in the 1960s "
English | ISBN: 155849734X | 2010 | 256 pages | PDF | 2 MB
In 1961, as President John F. Kennedy proclaimed the beginning of a "Decade of Development," the United States embarked on its first coherent "Africa" policy. Guided by the precepts of modernization theory, American policymakers, diplomats, academics, and Peace Corps volunteers were dispatched to promote economic growth and nation-building among the newly independent countries of sub-Saharan Africa. At the outset, Larry Grubbs shows, many of these" secular missionaries" were no less sanguine about their prospects for success than were their Christian predecessors a century earlier. But before long their optimism gave way to disillusionment, as rosy forecasts of sustained development collided with African political realities and colonial economies based on single-commodity exports subject to global price fluctuations. In this book, Grubbs presents a cultural history of this ill-fated American campaign to modernize Africa during its first decade of independence. Drawing on government documents and contemporary press accounts as well as an extensive body of scholarship on U.S.-Africa relations, he exposes the contradictions at the core of a self-serving idealism that promised to "win" the continent of Africa for the West in the context of the Cold War. While many Americans working in Africa considered themselves opponents of ethnocentrism, the modernization goals they served carried an ingrained, if unacknowledged, cultural and ideological sense of superiority and faith in American exceptionalism. Similarly, persistent myths about African backwardness and primitiveness continued to afflict U.S. policy, despite official pronouncements of confidence in the transformative power of Western expertise and can-do pragmatism in bringing African societies into the modern world. If the assumptions underlying U.S. policy toward Africa during the 1960s were simply relics of outmoded Cold War orthodoxies, that would be one thing. Unfortunately, Grubbs concludes, many of the same ideas imbue contemporary discussions of the ongoing "crisis" in Africa, from the campaigns to "Save Darfur" and stop the spread of AIDS to efforts to eliminate "blood diamonds" and forgive African debts.

Scenario Visualization: An Evolutionary Account of Creative Problem Solving By Robert Arp
2008 | 209 Pages | ISBN: 0262012448 | PDF | 2 MB
In order to solve problems, humans are able to synthesize apparently unrelated concepts, take advantage of serendipitous opportunities, hypothesize, invent, and engage in other similarly abstract and creative activities, primarily through the use of their visual systems. In Scenario Visualization, Robert Arp offers an evolutionary account of the unique human ability to solve nonroutine vision-related problems. He argues that by the close of the Pleistocene epoch, humans evolved a conscious creative problem-solving capacity, which he terms scenario visualization, that enabled them to outlive other hominid species and populate the planet. Arp shows that the evidence for scenario visualization-by which images are selected, integrated, and then transformed and projected into visual scenarios-can be found in the kinds of complex tools our hominid ancestors invented in order to survive in the ever-changing environments of the Pleistocene world. Arp also argues that this conscious capacity shares an analogous affinity with neurobiological processes of selectivity and integration in the visual system, and that similar processes can be found in the activities of organisms in general. The evolution of these processes, he writes, helps account for the modern-day conscious ability of humans to use visual information to solve nonroutine problems creatively in their environments. Arp's account of scenario visualization and its emergence in evolutionary history suggests an answer to two basic questions asked by philosophers and biologists concerning human nature: why we are unique; and how we got that way.

Jonathan P. Roth, "Roman Warfare "
English | ISBN: 0521830281 | 2009 | 328 pages | PDF | 7 MB
Roman Warfare surveys the history of Rome's fighting forces from their inception in the 7th century BCE to the fall of the Western Empire in the 5th century CE. In non-technical, lively language, Jonathan Roth examines the evolution of Roman war over its thousand-year history. He highlights the changing arms and equipment of the soldiers, unit organization and command structure, and the wars and battles of each era. The military narrative is used as a context for Rome's changing tactics and strategy and to discuss combat techniques, logistics, and other elements of Roman war. Political, social, and economic factors are also considered. Full of detail, up-to-date on current scholarly debates, and richly illustrated with 39 halftones and 27 color plates, Roman Warfare is intended for students of the ancient world and military history.

Diana K. Davis, "Resurrecting the Granary of Rome: Environmental History and French Colonial Expansion in North Africa "
English | ISBN: 0821417525 | 2007 | 312 pages | PDF | 37 MB
Winner of the George Perkins Marsh Prize for Best Book in Environmental History

Reporting for the Media By Fred Fedler, John R. Bender, Lucinda Davenport, Michael W. Drager
2005 | 700 Pages | ISBN: 0195169999 | PDF | 11 MB
I had to get this book for my Journalism class (Hello Ms. Noguera!) and I found it an interesting textbook that had both good and bad points. On the plus side it is pretty thorough as far as teaching the basics of how to format your writings, and how to use basic grammar and spelling. I've had English writing courses that were less thorough than some of the materials that are printed here. The early to mid chapters are all pretty good in giving you the details how to write so that readers will continue to read your news stories, and so editors will continue to buy them. This book also has an extreme amount of writing exercises that will allow you to practice what you have just read about in each chapter. Just in case the authors constant detailing of how to write properly for publication starts to wear you down, each chapter is peppered with plenty of examples, some of which are full length short articles, to use to compare to your own writing when you do the assignments. Many of these examples are interesting in and of themselves. On the opposite side of things I found the book to be too fragile. For some reason the book is constructed so that each page is serrated so that it can be torn out. Why? I can almost see having the assignment sheets as tearaways, but why the rest of the text pages? Even the index and appendixes are serrated! If you use the book as it should be used, the pages will fall out just through the regular use of the book. But considering that most of the writing assignments are extensive writing projects, you can't even use the assignment sheets to write on anyway if you were to tear them out. Good textbooks should last a long time and be in constant use. While the book gives the student plenty of assignments to do, some of the later chapters refuse to give us examples of what the student's writings should look like when they are done. A good example of this is the public affairs and crime chapter (Chapter 16), which gives us plenty of detail on HOW to do the story, but doesn't give us a single example WHAT the story will look like after you're done. Another thing that annoys is having plenty of writing assignments without some form of answer keys or pages. A few assignments are given answers, but these are VERY select. No answer keys for most of the book's assignment ultimately makes doing these exercises on your own a useless pursuit, as you will not know if you're doing one of them the correct way. Since this book is meant to be used only in a classroom setting, these book's assignments can only be written, and then handed off to an objective third party (instructor, teacher) to be graded or evaluated. There is just ultimately no way for anybody to do the writing assignments on their own with having that expert third person feedback. An answer booklet should be issued with the textbook, either as an adjunct, or as an independent text that can be acquired by the student. If possible, a DVD could be issued to accompany the book so we could check out our writing assignments. We could then use the author's versions as a guide, and then our questions about format and content could then be forwarded to an objective or interested party. Whatever, a great deal could be done to make this book more user friendly for the independent, non-class attending writer. On the other hand, as I have said, each chapter seems, to this neophyte, pretty thorough on each subject that it tackles, leaving the practicing of the facts presented for us to master. Since nobody else has done it, here's what's in this book:*****Chapter 1: Journalism Today (covers traditional, digital, and citizen journalism, and how to train journalist for the 21st century).*****Chapter 2: The Basics: Format, Copy Editing And AP Style (associated press style, copy-editing symbols, checking copy, formats).*****Chapter 3: Grammar And Spelling (sentence structure, active and passive voices, ambiguous pronouns, plurals and possessives, spelling and grammar).*****Chapter 4: Newswriting Style (prewriting, simplifying, remaining objective). The quote that titles this review was taken from a "Don't Write Like This" feature in this chapter.*****Chapter 5: Language Of News (preciseness of writing, using strong verbs, clichés, more verbs).*****Chapter 6: Selecting And Reporting The News (characteristics of news, types of news, public/civil journalism, objectivity, details newspaper are reluctant to publish, importance of accuracy).*****Chapter 7: Basic News Leads (news leads, sentence structure in leads, guidelines, common errors, checklist for writing leads).*****Chapter 8: Alternative Leads (criticisms, "buried" or "delayed" leads, multiparagraph leads, quotations, using questions, suspenseful, descriptive, shocking, ironic, direct-address, unusual, and unusual words leads).*****Chapter 9: The Body Of A News Story (inverted-pyramid, hourglass, focus, narrative styles, using transitions, explaining the unfamiliar, using examples, descriptions, and humor, the needing to be fair, editing your copy).*****Chapter 10: Quotations And Attribution (quotations, blending quotations and narrative, attributions, anonymous sources, capitalizing and punctuating quotations, descriptive writing).*****Chapter 11: Interviews (preparing, conducting, and writing the interview).*****Chapter 12: Writing Obituaries (types of, obituary considerations, styles).*****Chapter 13: Speeches And Meetings (advance stories, covering speeches and meetings, follow stories, adding color).*****Chapter 14: Specialized Types Of Stories (brights, follow-ups, roundups, sidebars).*****Chapter 15: Feature Stories (selecting a topic, gathering information, types and parts).*****Chapter 16: Public Affairs Reporting (crime and accidents, local government, courts).*****Chapter 17: Advanced Reporting (statistics, informal polls, converging media, computer assisted reporting).*****Chapter 18: Writing For Broadcast (writing for your listener and announcer, leads for broadcasting, body of a broadcast news story, updating story, editing, sourcing, and guidelines).*****Chapter 19: The News Media And PR Practitioners (public relations, working with the news media, news release and their types).*****Chapter 20: Libel, Privacy And Newsgathering Issues (libel, privacy, newsgathering issues, bar-press guidelines).*****Ethics (media credibility, ethics, ethics issues, how to get information out of sources without cozying up, codes of ethics).*****Becoming A Professional (journalist's attributes, getting hired, needing more women and minorities, freelancing).*****Appendix A: City Directory (abbreviations of occupations that can be used in stories (?).

Regents Exams and Answers: Physics-Physical Setting (Barron's Regents NY), Revised Edition by Miriam Lazar
English | January 5th, 2021 | ISBN: 1506266371 | 680 pages | True EPUB | 14.36 MB
Barron's Regents Exams and Answers: Physics 2020 provides essential review for students taking the Physics Regents, including actual exams administered for the course, thorough answer explanations, and comprehensive review of all topics.

Reading the novel in English, 1950-2000 By Brian W. Shaffer
2006 | 276 Pages | ISBN: 140510113X | PDF | 4 MB
Written in clear, jargon-free prose, this introductory text charts the variety of novel writing in English in the second half of the twentieth century. An engaging introduction to the English-language novel from 1950-2000 (exclusive of the US). Provides students both with strategies for interpretation and with fresh readings of selected seminal texts. Maps out the most important contexts and concepts for understanding this fiction. Features readings of ten influential English-language novels including Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale , Kazuo Ishiguro's Remains of the Day and Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart .

Power Teams Beyond Borders: How to Work Remotely and Build Powerful Virtual Teams by Peter Ivanov
English | January 14th, 2021 | ISBN: 1119762944 | 240 pages | True EPUB | 2.30 MB
Empower your virtual and remote teams with this comprehensive and timely new resource

Yumi Moon, "Populist Collaborators: The Ilchinhoe and the Japanese Colonization of Korea, 1896-1910"
English | ISBN: 0801450411 | 2013 | 312 pages | PDF | 2 MB
An empire invites local collaborators in the making and sustenance of its colonies. Between 1896 and 1910, Japan's project to colonize Korea was deeply intertwined with the movements of reform-minded Koreans to solve the crisis of the Choson dynasty (1392-1910). Among those reformers, it was the Ilchinhoe (Advance in Unity Society)―a unique group of reformers from various social origins―that most ardently embraced Japan's discourse of "civilizing Korea" and saw Japan's colonization as an opportunity to advance its own "populist agendas." The Ilchinhoe members called themselves "representatives of the people" and mobilized vibrant popular movements that claimed to protect the people's freedom, property, and lives. Neither modernist nor traditionalist, they were willing to sacrifice the sovereignty of the Korean monarchy if that would ensure the rights and equality of the people.

Charles H. Kahn, "Plato and the Socratic Dialogue"
English | ISBN: 0521648300 | | 456 pages | PDF | 15 MB
This book offers a new interpretation of Plato's early and middle dialogues as the expression of a unified philosophical vision. Whereas the traditional view sees the dialogues as marking successive stages in Plato's philosophical development, we may more legitimately read them as reflecting an artistic plan for the gradual, indirect and partial exposition of Platonic philosophy. The magnificent literary achievement of the dialogues can be fully appreciated only from the viewpoint of a unitarian reading of the philosophical content.