Pennsylvania Books

The book arrived in good speed and condition.

Many don't realise that the freedom we experience today is due to the long development of an attitude of toleration. This book gives an excellent account, through a variety of essays on how this move was made possible. It is very readable, and is suitable for the beginner who has an interest in the subject, or the more advanced student/lecturer who appreciates the accuracy and depth that this book has to offer.

Please give this book a go - it is a highly facinating subject, and you will not be disappointed. I strongly recommend everyone develop an understanding of such important subject matter. Many today argue that morality be enforced by the law - without understanding the complexity and history behind the move to remove it. It is through toleration that the quality of our lives today are made possible. If you want a better understanding of this development, I have read an abundance of material, and I can honestly say, that this title is one of the best. Give it a go.

This is a wonderful book. Rather then a field guide it asists the field guide by showing when the birds are seen in the area, and has a breif description.

I bought this book not knowing what it was. I saw the 23rd PA and said, "i'm buying it!" Boy was I surprised to see what it turned out to be! The 1903 Unit history in full!! ANDDDD there are appendices full of info on the 23rd and their service, renunuins, etc! I LOVE IT! If you are interested in the 23rd PA, the 61st PA, Zouaves, or soldier life in the Civil War this book is for you!

This book is extremely important in that it gives a full perception of "newer," or less traditional African American bodies which made a significant impact on the black religious experience. Arthur Huff Fauset (1899 - 1983?) was a novelist and anthropologist whose interest in the Black Church may have stemmed from the fact that his father was an A.M.E. minister, even though he died when Fauset was an infant. His mother was white and a Christian convert of Jewish heritage (Fauset, 1971, 127). He was a member of a literary family: his older sister, Jessie Redmond Fauset (1884-1961), was a novelist and poet, and was considered "the most prolific of the Renaissance writers of the genteel school" by Calvacade magazine. Arthur Huff Fauset's 1944 book, Black Gods of the Metropolis: Negro Religious Cults in the Urban North, provides a glimpse of five black religious bodies: the Mount Sinai Holy Church of America, Inc.; the United House of Prayer for All People; Church of God (Black Jews); the Moorish Science Temple of America; and the Father Divine Peace Mission Movement. These were chosen because they were "among the most important and best-known cults of their respective types, and hence among the most representative" (Fauset, 1971, 10). Using participant observation, he presents their origin, a portrait of their respective leader and/or founder, their organizational forms, and an explanation of their practices and rituals. He was a fellow of the American Anthropological Association and was further prepared by studying folklore "extant among Blacks in Philadelphia, British West Indies, Nova Scotia and in the South" in 1931. His master's thesis, "Folklore From Nova Scotia," was the first collection of black folklore in Canada (Fauset 1971, 127). Other books included accounts of Sojourner Truth and a biographical account of the American Negro. He was a contributor of many essays, short stories, articles and book reviews to Crisis and Opportunity. He also wrote several novels, including African Lament on Shaka, King of the Zulus. According to the biographical account, Fauset was involved in "militant civil rights activism." His friends included Alain Locke, W. E. B. DuBois, Adam Clayton Powell, Paul Robeson, and A. Philip Randolph. This lead to work as the editor of the Philadelphia edition of Powell's newspaper, The People's Voice. He was also honorably discharged from the Army just before being commissioned during World War II due to his prior civil rights activities (Fauset 1971, 128). In the introduction to the 1971 edition of the book, John Szwed states that Fauset's book is important because it gives a heretofore unavailable description of the practices and beliefs of blacks in the United States: The beginning point for understanding any religious institution is at least elementary knowledge of its practices and beliefs. But it is a sad fact that we have better descriptions -- incomplete as they are -- of religious beliefs and practices in West Africa, Brazil, and the Caribbean than we have of those of black people in the United States. And it is in this respect that Black Gods of the Metropolis is a singularly important book. Fauset, in writing one of the first books of urban American ethnography, took very seriously the culture of the Negroes of North America. (Fauset, 1971, v) Fauset (1971, 107-108) concluded that African Americans' "over-emphasis ... in the religious sphere" was related to the comparatively meager participation of blacks in other institutional forms of American culture, the result of racial discrimination which forbade black participation in mainstream society. Thus, the one institution with which blacks are closely identified was a form of cultural, spiritual, physical and leadership expression. He maintained that blacks were attracted to cults because they offered both spiritual nurture and freedom to control their own destinies through businesses, politics, social reform and social expression. He also surmised that the personal charisma of the leader was an important factor in attracting members, that the cults had rigid taboos "over certain features of the private lives of its members, frequently reaching into the most intimate details of their lives." Sexual inhibitions were of ultimate importance in most of the cults he studied. He also found that the literal adherence to the Bible as a guide lessened as the programs of the cult became focused upon social, economic and political uplift.

Glasker's analysis of the black student movement at the University of Pennsylvania in the 1960s and 1970s is an important contribution to the field of black studies. However, it has importance far beyond this field, as it sheds light on the basic issues of diversity in the multi-cultural setting that has characterized American society in recent decades. He introduces and explains categories of analysis that may be unfamiliar to most readers, such as the concept of bi-culturalism. Like other ethnic groups and interest groups, black students wanted to have a setting where they could represent their own interests and cultural inclinations, but this did not mean that their all-black organizations were separatist or nationalist. Not only did presumeably liberal white organizations find all-black organizations uncomfortable, so did integrationist organizations such as the NAACP. Glasker traces all these cross currents in a sensitive and well-documented fashion. The episodes at the University of Pennsylvania, as he suggests, were replicated at many other campuses across the United States as universities began to admit black students with lower SAT scores from urban settings to help achieve more racial balance. At institutions such as Cornell, Rutgers, and many state universities, the same patterns emerged: black students seeking institutions that would preserve their different values and attiutudes, at the same time that they pursued the achievement of education and professional development that would earn them a place in the mainstream society. The essence of bi-culturalism comes through in the study: the simultaneous preservation of cultural differences and the pursuit of the middle class aspirations for economic advancement. The book should be purchased by all major libraries and by any individual who is interested in this fascinating aspect of modern American life.

This author is amazing! After reading her "German Bodies: Race and Representation after Hitler", I was totally unprepared for this book. "Blood and Nation" is encyclopedic in its scope, ranging from a linguistic analysis of blood metaphors in ancient European languages to a very up-to-date analysis of political rhetoric in moder Germany. Linke's thesis is that blood represents a "key metaphor" with which Europeans think about gender and race. She traces the persistence of this metaphor over several thousand years, with examples taken from Norse myths, religious practices, legal texts, etc., etc. The scholarship is astonishing in its range of sources, and the author's conclusions -- even when I disagreed with them -- are always original and thought-provoking (as when she compares the rhetoric of the ultra-left Green party to that of the Nazis!). Altogether, one of the best books I've read this decade.

While many readers are often hesitant to read a book of essays... this book is truly a facinating read. Ancient myths of vampires often revolve around evil and death, but these essays look at the familiar image in a new light, quite relevant to our modern society. Here we explore the many faces of the vampire going far beyond Stoker's "Dracula". Through these essays we see the vampire as more than just a stalker in the night, but as a symbol of our own human insecurities of sexuality, lonliness, and death. Readers of horror will love this book as a companion piece to old favorites as their eyes will be opened to a broader view of a facinating staple of both modern and classic fiction alike.

Boehm very astutely tackles a society in the often misinterpreted and misunderstood Balkan peninsula. He combines ethnographic and historical inquiry in a very methodical and comprehensive approach to the concept of blood feuds as they existed in tribal Montenegro before it attained nation status. He not only details the doings of the blood feud, but also gives a necessary background of cultural values and social structure that supported this cultural phenomenon. Most importantly, he convincingly brings to light the ideological compulsion and perspective of the Montenegrins themselves, in justifying how the blood feud could be a culturally accepted institution without stigma, a concept alien to most Western sensiblities. His writing style is never dry, and he minimalizes the use of jargon...it is a wonderful intro to the processes of ethnography and ethnohistory, while also delving into a sadly neglected region of the world. A must read for anthropology buffs or anyone seeking cultural data on this part of the world!!

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