Conflagration


Book Description

Guam is and idyllic Pacific Island paradise with friendly natives. We felt fortunate to be stationed there, despite the typhoons, the wild life, the cliffs and the mountains. After my divorce, my family left, I was faced with a few surprises, among them was an earthquake and an accident from which I had to run for my life, in company with my friend and the driver of the other vehicle, before it exploded. The road was isolated, far from help. It seemed a hopeless situation. Why had I decided to stay after my family left? There were several times I asked myseld, such as after I became jobless, wondering how I would eat and afford rent. Still fortune smiled, enough for me to make it through. With friends and good company, I kept my spirits up despite all life's down turns. Could there be a happy ending to it all? Life's an adventure, a learning experience, I was yet to find out.




Flammable Cities


Book Description

In most cities today, fire has been reduced to a sporadic and isolated threat. But throughout history the constant risk of fire has left a deep and lasting imprint on almost every dimension of urban society. This volume, the first truly global study of urban conflagration, shows how fire has shaped cities throughout the modern world, from Europe to the imperial colonies, major trade entrepôts, and non-European capitals, right up to such present-day megacities as Lagos and Jakarta. Urban fire may hinder commerce or even spur it; it may break down or reinforce barriers of race, class, and ethnicity; it may serve as a pretext for state violence or provide an opportunity for displays of state benevolence. As this volume demonstrates, the many and varied attempts to master, marginalize, or manipulate fire can turn a natural and human hazard into a highly useful social and political tool.




Conflagration


Book Description

A dramatic retelling of the story of the Transcendentalists, revealing them not as isolated authors but as a community of social activists who shaped progressive American values. Conflagration illuminates the connections between key members of the Transcendentalist circle—including James Freeman Clarke, Elizabeth Peabody, Caroline Healey Dall, Elizabeth Stanton, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Theodore Parker, and Margaret Fuller—who created a community dedicated to radical social activism. These authors and activists laid the groundwork for democratic and progressive religion in America. In the tumultuous decades before and immediately after the Civil War, the Transcendentalists changed nineteenth-century America, leading what Theodore Parker called “a Second American Revolution.” They instigated lasting change in American society, not only through their literary achievements but also through their activism: transcendentalists fought for the abolition of slavery, democratically governed churches, equal rights for women, and against the dehumanizing effects of brutal economic competition and growing social inequality. The Transcendentalists’ passion for social equality stemmed from their belief in spiritual friendship—transcending differences in social situation, gender, class, theology, and race. Together, their fight for justice changed the American sociopolitical landscape. They understood that none of us can ever fulfill our own moral and spiritual potential unless we care about the full spiritual and moral flourishing of others.







Understanding the Somalia Conflagration


Book Description

Somalia has been devastated by a US-backed Ethiopian invasion and years of civil war, and it has long been without a central government. Against this background of violence, Somali-born Afyare Abdi Elmi attempts to find a peace-building consensus. Somalia is a failed state and a Muslim state. This combination means the West assumes that it will become a breeding ground for extremism. The country regularly hits the headlines as a piracy hotspot. This combination of internal division and outside interference makes for an intensely hostile landscape. Elmi shows that only by going to the roots of the conflict can the long process of peace begin. He highlights clan identities, Islam and other countries in the region as the key elements in any peace-building effort. This unique account from an author who truly understands Somalia should be required reading for students and academics of international relations and peace / conflict studies.




The Conflagration of Community


Book Description

“After Auschwitz to write even a single poem is barbaric.” The Conflagration of Community challenges Theodor Adorno’s famous statement about aesthetic production after the Holocaust, arguing for the possibility of literature to bear witness to extreme collective and personal experiences. J. Hillis Miller masterfully considers how novels about the Holocaust relate to fictions written before and after it, and uses theories of community from Jean-Luc Nancy and Derrida to explore the dissolution of community bonds in its wake. Miller juxtaposes readings of books about the Holocaust—Keneally’s Schindler’s List, McEwan’s Black Dogs, Spiegelman’s Maus, and Kertész’s Fatelessness—with Kafka’s novels and Morrison’s Beloved, asking what it means to think of texts as acts of testimony. Throughout, Miller questions the resonance between the difficulty of imagining, understanding, or remembering Auschwitz—a difficulty so often a theme in records of the Holocaust—and the exasperating resistance to clear, conclusive interpretation of these novels. The Conflagration of Community is an eloquent study of literature’s value to fathoming the unfathomable.







Paths to Conflagration


Book Description

A reexamination of the historical relationship between Laos and Thailand, by two preeminent Lao historians who bring to light a wealth of new source material in their evaluation of the Laotian leader, Chao Anou, and his failed revolt against Siam. This book challenges conventional Thai interpretations of that event and of the political conflicts leading up to it.




Love Like a Conflagration


Book Description

There is not a poem in this remarkable book that will leave you unchanged or be forgotten ... Each of these poems is as permanently current as it is consummate. [Greer] puts on the page the passion long absent from American poetry. I've never read a book as poetically and beautifully frank as this. --Samuel Hazo, past poet laureate of Pennsylvania




Structural Firefighting: Strategy and Tactics


Book Description

The fourth edition of Structural Firefighting: Strategy and Tactics meets and exceeds the course objectives and outcomes for the National Fire Academy’s Fire and Emergency Services Higher Education (FESHE) non-core course, Strategy and Tactics (C0279). Structural Firefighting: Strategy and Tactics prepares the fire officer to take command at structure fires, effectively using available resources. The goal of this text is to explain proven tactics and strategies used at structure fires. It is designed to be used by all fire officers, from company officer to chief of department. The Fourth Edition provides the necessary tools to achieve maximum productivity under adverse fireground conditions. It references NFPA fire investigations, applicable NFPA statistics and standards, the NIOSH Firefighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program, and the Technical Report Series from the U.S. Fire Administration. It has been expanded to include information from recent studies by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Underwriters Laboratories (UL), and others. The Fourth Edition contains new content on integration of initial rapid intervention crews, updated content on vent-enter-isolate-search tactics, and more, while continuing to emphasize the role of preincident planning and command decisions that maximize life safety, extinguishment, and property conservation. A multitude of case studies, incident summaries, and extensive end-of-chapter activities promote application of chapter content and critical thinking skills. This text allows a company officer or incident commander to learn fireground procedures at an accelerated pace, thus reducing the cost in lives and property associated with learning by experience only. The Fourth Edition also includes: New and significantly expanded, in-depth Suggested Activities that challenge the reader to apply the strategies and tactics presented in each chapter Incident Summaries that summarize real fireground events and lessons learned Fallacy/Fact boxes that defuse myths and clarify the facts Updated statistics on significant fires in various occupancy types Safety and strategy tips throughout each chapter