Wang Books

Although this isn't considered one of Howells' better novels, it's one of my personal favorites. Towards the end of his career, this "dean" of American letters became increasingly concerned with political issues. In particular, he began to align himself, to an extent, with the socialist movement. He never became a full-blown socialist, but he did appreciate their philosophy and understand the limitations of our American democracy. As a result of this growing interest, Howells' fiction turned from socio-cultural concerns to matters of politics. A Traveler from Altruria is a fine example of this change in subject matter. Despite the fact that many critics have interpreted this ostensibly utopian novel as a blind--and rather naive--call to socialism, I heartily disagree. In fact, I contend that Howells was self-consciously and ironically questioning the socialist movement and the utopian tradition. Howells' underappreciated effort is concise, witty and sophisticated. I recommend it to all fans of American literature and to all students of political science. The Bedford edition is exquisitely packaged and shrewdly conceptualized. The introduction, appendices, and other ancillary materials make for a thorough and savvy document.

I really enjoyed this book although I thought at the beginning that it was really going to be dreary. I actually read it in a class taught by the editor of the book, David Levy. His insights during class made the book more interesting to me and I ended up really liking it. The utopia that it presents is unusual and quite unlike any I have encountered in any other piece of literature. The end of the novel does seem to kind of go off track into a seeminly endless socialist rambling, but overall the book is very good. Seeing our society from the Altrurian's point of view was kind of jolt and made me look at many things differently. Overall, I would recommend highly recommend this novel.

This is a very thoughtful and provocative collection of eight essays on various simulated spaces which have infiltrated the American landscape. The book's overall thesis is that public space and "authentic" urban life increasingly has been replaced by simulations of urban life, usually as spaces of commodification (e.g. malls, gentrified districts, theme parks). In this process of replacing public space, aspects of American public life--open space for assembly, the interaction of different people, concern for communities--also get erased. While simulated spaces may seem to improve public space and public life, they do so at a cost, one that the critics seem to suggest is the loss of real public space and perhaps even of democracy.

The purpose of this book is not only to describe these spaces, but to oppose them. Each of the authors point to the negative effects of simulated space. In many cases, the essays' implications jump right out of the page and into your neighborhood. Margaret Crawford's essay on the Edmonton shopping mall could be applied to any mall in Anytown, USA. Neil Smith's essay on gentrification points out the high price that comes with "revitalization"; one is reminded of many similiar projects outside his NYC example: Philadelphia, Detroit, Seattle,and so forth. Edward Soja and Trevor Boddy both contribute well-written essays which demonstrate growing chasm between the "haves" and the "have-nots." With these essays, extended and local comparisons with dying urban areas and suburbia, sprawl, gated communities, and so forth are appropriate. Michael Sorkin's own essay on Disneyland turns a well-wrought phrase, and gives the Disney Studies scholar much to think about. (NOTE: Those interested in Disney should read this article if nothing else in the collection, although many of the essays are applicable to the study of Disney.) Of the essays, it is perhaps the one least obviously applicable to "real" life. But then again, Sorkin notes the distance between the simulated environment of the theme park and the reality of the city is decreasing.

Of course, the scholars' analyses are dark and even depressing. And more than once, the authors manage to sound like angry young critics filled with more agenda than action. More than once, extended discussion of the issues raised in the essays would have helped--although many of these authors do have full-length treatments elsewhere--or perhaps alternative perspectives which would have varied the collection's tone and helped sustain readers' interest. And like any collection some of the essays are stronger than others. Overall, though, the collection makes a reader stop and think. Many readers will end up carefully reconsidering 1) the state of American life and its public space and 2) one's participation in these developments. Variations deserves recognition for addressing these issues.

This book enlists many different authors, who all have an amazing point of view on the built environment. From gated communities to Disneyland, every chapter expresses concerns of fast-changing developed environments. Our cities are quickly becoming cold, enclosed enclaves. This book helped me realize how our society has snubbed the utilizaton of public space. This is definitely a book for every person interested in city planning, urban studies,or sociology. Whether a student or leisure reader, this book will open your minds to what is really taking place in our cities, suburbs, resorts, and recreational facilities. Any place in which society is forced to interact with one another is referred to in "Variations on a Theme Park". Read it. It will open your mind!

The book is a real trailblazer on the subject of wildfire and its high costs in lives, property, and money. Kennedy frames his argument as an attempt to incite a "taxpayer revolt" on the subject, based on a long list of government policies, regulations, and subsidies encouraging people to build homes and businesses in areas with high risk of being destroyed by wildfires.

He cites the interest deduction for home mortgages, mortgage insurance, publicly financed infrastructure supporting residential developments, roads, real property taxes, and the high cost of suppressing wildfires now exceeding $2 billion annually. He notes in particular the rebuilding of homes in fire-prone areas, sometimes on multiple occasions, paid for by insurance whose costs are borne by "the rest of us."

Kennedy begins with the description of the May 2000 fire that began as a controlled burn at Bandelier National Monument. The National Park Service was wrongfully given much of the blame for a fire that ultimately burned some 18,000 acres, including 235 houses in Los Alamos, N.M. Los Alamos was a city of more than 12,000 people planned by scientists and engineers who gave every consideration to its security from spies, but none to the fact the city is "set in a firetrap."

Kennedy notes that: "In the last half century about one-fifth of the American people have moved into flame zones," ill informed of the natural risks and encouraged by governmental and business policies.

One of the author's principal recommendations involves the development of a National Flame Zone Atlas that "would show graduated degrees of danger, from low probability of big fires to high." Parts of such an Atlas exist now in disparate locations. An Atlas, revised regularly to reflect the dynamics of weather, vegetation, and population, could help reduce fire losses and steer public and private efforts to reduce flammable materials, such as the slash and debris from commercial logging and vegetation close to at-risk homes, businesses, and whole towns.

He identifies a fire-industrial complex, similar to the military-industrial complex to which President Eisenhower referred in his farewell address that has a self-serving set of reasons to maintain the status quo. Fighting wildfire is very big business these days! That industry will (and does) lobby against reforms that could reduce fire losses through changes in regulations affecting insurance, infrastructure investments, roads and highways, and land use planning. Kennedy asserts that: "Not an acre of land has changed hands in the last half century without a part of the price being paid by another taxpayer."

Thousands of people are moving unwarned into fire-prone areas every day - encouraged to do so by taxpayer subsidies (federally insured mortgages, roads, and insurance rates kept artificially low by regulators). Seven of the nine most fire-endangered states are also among those gaining the most in population. Meanwhile wildfires have doubled in frequency and in the size of areas burned. Meanwhile, Global Warning is likely to considerably expand the area of fire-prone forests.

Kennedy's primary focus is the 2000 Los Alamos area fire that arose from a controlled burn that took off with unexpected winds, leading to about 450 burned houses and underserved scapegoating of the officials in charge. A second example is the 2002 Rodeo-Chediski fire in N.E. Arizona that burned 460,000 acres. Even before the fire was out, the state's Governor Hull and Senator Kyl were blaming it on "environmental wackos" that had blocked logging that would have removed much of the fire load. Reality, however, is that two-thirds of the fire took place within already heavily logged areas on the Apache Reservation, the environmental lawsuit only involved about 5% of the total area burned, a major reason the fire grew so large was delays in initially fighting it, as well as poor utilization of available volunteered privately-owned equipment, and that the Forest Service had already concluded that "timber harvest . . . has increased fire severity more than any other recent human activity." (Kennedy was its former director.) Furthermore, only 17% of wildfires have started on federal land.

Kennedy recommends creating a "fire atlas" that would depict the fire danger in non-urban areas - it could be used by potential homeowners for more informed sitings, and by insurance agencies to more accurately reflect hazards.

Acquainted with Grief

In 'Acquainted with Grief' Thomas Harvey has given us an interesting insight in to the church of 20th century China. He does this through biographical details of the life of Wang Mingdao.

This book is for the serious reader who wishes to be better informed on some of the key issues within the church which those in leadership had to face through turbulent times in the nation's history. The issues raised by Wang Mingdao continue to be relevant to our understanding of the church in China today. It is important to know how the church has arrived where it is today, to know what it has come out of and what it has come through in order to see more clearly the way forward.

Wang Mingdao was born during the Boxer Uprising in historic and emotional circumstances which had a traumatic effect upon his early life. His early disenchantment with the West and his own personal pursuit of perfection led him to seek rebaptism and the non-aggressive reform of society. Though not pursuing a career in politics his teaching nevertheless lead to a political reaction and his eventual internment. He quickly sensed that Western missionaries had passed their sell by date and that the future of the church in China lay with his own people. The church needed indigenous leadership and not to be lead by foreigners.

Repentance and conversion were for him the key ingredients in his self-understanding and the means of reforming the church. The Chinese word for ethics is daode. Dao meaning the path or way and when followed leads to excellence or daode. Harvey argues that Wang saw a meeting of Chinese cultural concerns for righteousness. From this Wang saw a meeting of Chinese cultural ideas with the Christian understanding of Christ being the way. There were for him many paths in life; some of them dark and uncertain but to follow Christ was to walk in the light. Therefore in Wang Mingdao we see a fusion of Christianity and Chinese culture. This notion helped to embody Christianity in China. This was not a super spiritual other worldly journey but one with practical consequences for him and society.

In his pursuit of perfection and the marriage of the biblical and Chinese notions of the dao he hits the age old conflict between theory and practice squarely on its head when he says,
"There are indeed a few Christians in the world who are engaged in spreading the light, but unfortunately their efforts are limited to words. They can preach quite acceptably; they can describe the beauties of the Lord; and they can indicate the path that men should follow. But before long their own shadow obscures this good teaching. For there is a considerable difference between what they say and what they do".
The church in his eyes is a company of people who are central to this way of life and hence his criticism of corruption within the churches. The churches, he said, must be exemplars and followers of the excellent way, a way which has echoes of St. Paul in his first Corinthian letter. Wang prays that" we may be model believers, and that ours may be a model church"

When the Communist Revolution came it changed the face of the church and the nation as it sought to conform the whole nation to its view of religion and society. Wang Mingdao reacted against and resisted their fusion of political ideology and the gospel. Though the Communist Party ruled society it nevertheless represented a minority which needed the support and co-operation of other sectors of society in order to govern effectively. The refusal of Christians such as Wang Mingdao to cooperate with the state was therefore an affront to the Party.
Wang Mingdao's resistance is not easily categorised. In order to understand his attempt to maintain an independent course for the church one must read the book in its entirety. He was not a man to compromise his position for which he paid a heavy price in detention. What was to be the defining yardstick of belief? Was it to be the authority of the party, the state or the Scriptures? What was it in The Three Self Movement that he saw fit to reject and criticise? How are those questions relevant for the church today? Why can there be a true governing, self supporting, self propagating church which would be of benefit to itself and to the nation? "Cults heresy and ignorance and dangerous practices are as much a problem for the churches as they are for the government. Allowing Christians to mind their own backyards would relieve the government of some of their own work", says Harvey. Questions such as these put him at odds with the state that sought to bring all institutions into a united front to secure universal compliance.

What is it that the church is called to serve? How does it give to God what is due to God and to the state what is due to the state? How is the Christian able to be both a citizen of heaven and a citizen of earth? How can the church be both patriotic and prophetic? These are some of the questions that this well written and stimulating book raises. What does the future hold? With thirty to seventy millions of Christians within China and a growth rate of 7% annually the Christians of China represent a growing an influential body of thought within the world. Their distinctive character, their thoughts and opinions are in some ways a reflection of the character of Wang Mingdao. For the student who has read the book and wishes to research further there are useful notes and a bibliography at the end of the book.

The Revd Dr Thomas Harvey is a Presbyterian Minister, a lecturer at Trinity Theological College and a former teacher in China. The book is published by Brazos Press ISBN 1-58743-059-2

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I got this on a whim and enjoyed it. Good videos with lots of western information regarding the topic and tcm treatments. Show examples, different treatment methods. This one mentions E-stim, herb cakes and moxa while illustrating point locations and functions. I'll be getting more.

This work has fully lifted the veil on AIDS. It has focused on the various dimensions in which mankind has had to cope with a disease whose method of transmission transcends cultural barriers. The addition of a Resource Directory highlights the need for networking in today's global environment.

Arna Bontemps delivers an overview that is often overlooked in American history books, the African American migration. Bontemps decribes the hardships and struggles of Africans searching for a better life. To really enjoy the drama and detail of this novel, you must realize the impact that African Americans had on the history of America. I believe that this book gives a great presentation of black americans depicting the theme of hope, with disappointment, and love of life, and the struggle to gain that, any place but here (in the South). Although it is not grand reading material, you will learn a lot.

This is a great look into some of the less noted incidents of
suppression of civil rights and liberties that took place during the
McCarthy era. The author brings to light many of the demigods
running the government. He takes you through the maze of the govt agencies interrelations
and shows the attitudes towards protecting the security of America verses individual rights.

The author provides a very extensive bibiography to allow you to confirm his research.

In this meticulously researched book, first-time author Jessica Wang sheds new light on the tempestuous relationship between scientists and the US government during the Cold War period. Wang's access to previously classified documents, coupled with first-hand interviews with the scientists involved, support fresh thinking on the causes and costs of anticommunist paranoia. Readers will appreciate the tensions that existed during the post-war years and understand why compromise between scientists and political leaders was often elusive. The lessons learned are as applicable today as they were half a century ago. "American Science in an Age of Anxiety" is valuable reading for students of 20th century history, or anyone interested in learning how America dealt with internal challenges during contentious times.

I have found this book to be useful for my foundations class. However, I have made a lot of corrections in calculations, axis labeling, and other minor but important information in the text. It seems that some editing needs to take place prior to the next edition of this text. The content is good but minor errors are scattered through the book.