Friends Indeed?


Book Description

Friends Indeed? adds to the literature on international conflict resolution and the role played by groups of states created to support UN peacemakeing and peace operations. This book furthers our understanding of how and in what circumstances the United Nations secretary-general and secretariat can work productively with these "group of friends" in the resolution of conflict.




The Fictions of Latin American Law and their Strategic Uses


Book Description

Challenges the distorted hegemonic accounts of Latin American law and reveals their geopolitical and economic consequences in the world today.




Gps for America


Book Description

"The American Union is imperfect. But it is certainly motioning towards a more perfect union." It is this foundational thesis in the fulfillment of the American vision that this book focuses on. By affording an integrated and holistic approach, the book shows that the American dynamics is transformational living phenomenon framed on four major paradigms: that America is a land of freedom; that America is a land of opportunity; that America is impregnated with inertia within it that propels it to "repair its faults"; and that the nation has been moving to a higher ground in its motion with a concerted effort of its people as one (E pluribus Unum) to build a more perfect Union. A pragmatic but positive outlook on the American reality in the bountiful land by a first generation immigrant from Gojjam, Ethiopia, the author tries to help the reader develop a generic framework in understanding the evolving American reality since the founders took the bold step in 1776 to write an audacious proposal that "all men are created equal," endowed by the creator with "inalienable rights." The analysis in the book begins by framing the constitutional bases of the nation as a four dimensional compass. Using what he terms as the American GPS, he leads the reader to have a snapshot on the structure of American government, citizenship, church and state, legal, economic, political and foreign policy issues to show that in fact what is manifesting in the American socio-political topology is not a random act but an in-built, systemic transfiguration in creating the opportunity for all children of Adam to realize their God given inalienable rights, being Geezans (freely roaming citizens of the universe) in fulfilling the vision of the nation. After reading this book, the reader will never waste time in random thoughts about the American ever unfolding reality. By all accounts America is an emergent and noble idea whose better days are yet to come. That is the projection whose totality can be meaningfully captured through a living compass: The American GPS!




America's Constitution


Book Description

Offers an analysis of the history and tenets of the U.S. Constitution, detailing the original intent of the creators of the document, answering questions about the text, and critically assessing the evolution of the Bill of Rights and all other amendments




National Images and United States-Canada Relations


Book Description

This book explores the psychological–cultural dimension of the United States–Canada relationship by analyzing how each country has viewed the other. Drawing on a wide range of data, including primary sources, secondary literature, and survey research, the methodology is historical/analytical, seeking to explicate and understand how Americans and Canadians, and their elites, have viewed one another from the moment they were launched on separate trajectories, why they developed and held such ideas, and what consequences these images had for the bilateral relationship between the countries. American and Canadian images of the other have deep roots and are, in many respects, recognizably the same today as they were many decades ago. Moreover, even when anchored to important realities of the other, such images influence the perception and interpretation of events, and actions taken by the other. How Americans and Canadians have viewed each other, the sources of these ideas, the way they have been influenced by each country’s domestic politics and place within the international system, and the consequences for their bilateral relationship are among the questions examined. Interdisciplinary in approach, the book will appeal to scholars and students of political science, international relations, and history.




American Revolutions in the Digital Age


Book Description

The interdisciplinary essays in American Revolutions in the Digital Age explore what digital tools can tell us about the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century United States and reveal how an understanding of the American past can make sense of our digital present. By employing a host of innovative digital research methods, these authors challenge long-held assumptions about the American past. In addition, this collection uniquely demonstrates how contemporary anxieties about an array of topics, including media disinformation, patriarchy, economic inequality, and public memory, can be better understood through careful considerations of early American history. Open Access edition funded by Iona University




American Audiences on Movies and Moviegoing


Book Description

A unique perspective on half a century of American cinema—from the audience's point of view. Tom Stempel goes beyond the comments of professional reviewers, concentrating on the opinions of ordinary people. He traces shifting trends in genre and taste, examining and questioning the power films have in American society. Stempel blends audience response with his own observations and analyzes box office results that identify the movies people actually went to see, not just those praised by the critics. Avoiding statistical summary, he presents the results of a survey on movies and moviegoing in the respondents' own words—words that surprise, amuse, and irritate. The moviegoers respond: "Big bad plane, big bad motorcycle, and big bad Kelly McGillis."—On Top Gun "All I can recall were the slave girls and the Golden Calf sequence and how it got me excited. My parents must have been very pleased with my enthusiasm for the Bible."—On why a seven-year-old boy stayed up to watch The Ten Commandments "I learned the fine art of seduction by watching Faye Dunaway smolder."—A woman's reaction to seeing Bonnie and Clyde "At age fifteen Jesus said he would be back, he just didn't say what he would look like."—On E.T. "Quasimodo is every seventh grader."—On why The Hunchback of Notre Dame should play well with middle-schoolers "A moronic, very 'Hollywoody' script, and a bunch of dancing teddy bears."—On Return of the Jedi "I couldn't help but think how Mad magazine would lampoon this." —On The Exorcist




The Book of American Songs


Book Description




After Emily: Two Remarkable Women and the Legacy of America's Greatest Poet


Book Description

“Scandal and pathos abound” (The New Yorker) in this riveting account of the mother and daughter who brought Emily Dickinson’s genius to light. Longlisted for the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography • Finalist for the Plutarch Award Despite Emily Dickinson’s renown, the story of the two women most responsible for her initial posthumous publication—Mabel Loomis Todd and her daughter, Millicent Todd Bingham—has remained in the shadows of the archives. Utilizing hundreds of overlooked letters and diaries to weave together three unstoppable women, Julie Dobrow reveals the intrigue of Dickinson’s literary beginnings, including Mabel’s tumultuous affair with Emily’s brother, Austin Dickinson, controversial editorial decisions, and a battle over the right to define the so-called Belle of Amherst.