ABC-CLIO Blog

Interview with Daina Ramey Berry, coeditor of Enslaved Women in America

2012-02-10T08:46:00.000-08:00

Q: What prompted you to work on Enslaved Women in America?

I accepted the invitation to edit this volume because I believe reference books reach a wider audience than what is customary in my field. The idea that high schools, community colleges, as well as four year institutions will likely purchase Enslaved Women is encouraging. This opportunity allows me to be in conversation with several young minds, not just my professional peers. I also wanted to share the stories of enslaved women with a larger audience and believe that this is a good avenue to accomplish this goal.

Q: What "message" do you want to communicate?

Enslaved women had a variety of different experiences in the United States and their remarkable stories are an important part of American History.

Q: What was the highlight of your research?

When one of the contributors, Dr. Jessica Millward, who is also member of the editorial board, shared the story of a Maryland bondwoman, Charity Folks and her family. Charity Folks will soon be a familiar name just like enslaved women such as Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman.

Q: What surprises readers/others the most about your research?

The persistence of enslaved women. So many women in this volume had a spirit of perseverance in the face of significant obstacles. Enslaved women made choices that reflected their individual personalities, wishes, and desires. Your average reader knows very little about slavery and even less about enslaved women so many of the stories in this volume are novel.

Forthcoming, June 2012

Q: How did your research change your outlook on the subject?

For the most part, work on this project encouraged me to continue to look for people who have been historically marginalized. With the history of slavery, one has to approach the archival record looking for their voices as well as their silences. I always ask, "what does this woman want us to know about her?" or "what does she want to hide from us?" Thus my approach to writing and/or telling this history involves being comfortable with ambiguities, hypocrisies, and secrecy, which ultimately draw upon emotions such as joy, pain, grief, pride, hope, and sorrow.

Q: How have people reacted to your book and/or the ideas you set forth?

People are generally excited about this publication because it is the first of it's kind. Students and scholars alike will hopefully turn to this volume as a resource for incorporating stories of enslaved women into their writing.

Q: What's next for you?

I am currently completing my second book entitled, The Price for Their Pound of Flesh: The Value of Human Chattels, which is a study of the commodificaiton of human beings. I am also finishing two co-edited books from conferences I hosted in 2011: Slavery and Freedom in Savannah and Sexuality and Slavery, with Professor Leslie Harris of Emory University.

The School Library Petition for ESEA: Idea Exchanges and Analyzing

2012-02-07T09:34:00.000-08:00

The ESEA petition passed with flying colors! During the process of gaining votes, there was a great deal of discussion and idea exchanging, collaboration and analysis – those critical 21st-century skills that are presented throughout ABC-CLIO databases.

Here are some viewpoints from Gail Dickinson, editor-in-chief of Library Media Connection, and Carl Harvey, Linworth/Libraries Unlimited author and President of AASL.

From Gail Dickinson:

"I confess I had my doubts about the quantity of flour." (Mrs. Cratchit, Scrooge, 1951, George Minter Productions)

"We did it! For a while, it looked as though we wouldn't, but sometime in the morning hours more than five hours before the February 4th deadline, the 25,000th person signed Carl Harvey's petition to the Obama administration supporting school libraries. We didn't do it alone, though. It became apparent early on that the school library world needed to rely on friends, and friends of friends. This was a message I was driven to make clear on the AASL Forum. School librarians tweeted, posted on Facebook, threatened family (or maybe that was just me). Companies like ABC-CLIO and Rosen and Capstone spread the word by emailing their clients. LMC and SLM distributed a flyer at ALA Midwinter, and Follett Library Resources helped distribute the LMC flyer. Molly Raphael, president of ALA, emailed all 60,000 members to encourage voting. Many AASL members were constantly watching the totals. I have no idea how many times I hit the REFRESH button, possibly hundreds. It was the most exciting thing I have seen in a long time. The library profession is alive and well, and ABC-CLIO remains a proud and supportive member of the parade."

From Carl Harvey, in response to Gail Dickinson:

"I think some of your statements on the forum, Gail, were a big help in giving people a reality check and a boost that they had to be the ones to take action . . . not waiting on others! :)

I do think what I learned the most is that anything is possible when we have so many folks working together for a similar cause. It shows that ALA and the division can work together, can be successful, can use social media to pull outside partners in, can be a strong voice from our vendor communities, and I think it is that perfect storm of all those things that got us across the threshold! We have to remember how much better and louder our voice is when we work all together."

New Release: Encyclopedia of Tudor England

2012-02-02T08:56:00.000-08:00

It seems that everywhere you turn there is a new movie, book, or TV show on some aspect of Tudor or Elizabethan times. Anonymous, a 2011 film directed by Roland Emmerich, and The Tudors, a BBC television series that ran on Showtime from 2007 to 2010, are just the latest in that growing list. Often these works revolve around the notoriously colorful and often outrageously distorted antics of royal characters such as Henry VIII and his wives. But many viewers and readers soon come to wonder what these times were really like and how much is actually known about these characters and the culture in which they lived. Often the reality proves to be just as interesting, if not more so, than the fictionalized portrayals, and following the research of historians of Tudor England can be as involving as any mystery story.

Published December 2011

The new Encyclopedia of Tudor England is an excellent resource for anyone who has ever watched a show or read a book and thought to themselves “Did that really happen?” Or began to wonder what people in Tudor England ate, wore, read, talked about, and even believed. What did they do for entertainment or work? How was knowledge conveyed? What happened when someone got in trouble with the law? Even in popular books and movies, terminology is often used or events referred to that are unfamiliar or confusing. With its concise and understandable explanations the Encyclopedia provides answers to those kinds of questions. Entries contain basic information about a person, event, place, thing, or idea, but they also help to set them in the context of their time and provide cross-references and bibliographies so that users can expand their knowledge in whatever direction suits them.

John A. Wagner, PhD, has taught British and U.S. history at Phoenix College, Phoenix, AZ, and at Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ. Wagner is the author or editor of six books, including Greenwood's Voices of Shakespeare's England: Contemporary Accounts of Elizabethan Daily Life, and is a contributor to numerous major reference volumes on early modern and medieval history.

Susan Walters Schmid, PhD, has taught history and publishing courses at Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ. Schmid is an independent scholar and freelance editor based in Nevada. Her review article on Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn was published in History Review in 2011.

CISSL Summer Institute: Guided Inquiry and Student Learning

2012-02-01T08:55:00.000-08:00

CISSL Summer Institute (Center for International Scholarship in School Libraries)

Mark your calendars for the Second Residential CISSL Summer Institute:

Guided Inquiry and Student Learning
June 27-29, 2012 at Rutgers University
For Teams of Teachers, School Librarians, and Administrators

This is a rare opportunity for a team from your school to learn how to design and implement Guided Inquiry, a method that transforms the way PreK-12 students engage with information to build creativity, critical thinking, and deep understanding for academic success and career readiness.

Based on the extensive research of the Center, Guided Inquiry provides a visionary, constructivist approach to addressing Common Core Standards and developing students as reflective thinkers, creative learners and producers of knowledge.

Faculty includes renowned leaders in learning: Carol Kuhlthau, Ross Todd, Leslie Maniotes, and LaDawna Harrington.

Contact Dr. Mary Jane McNally: mmcnally@rci.rutgers.edu
Details and application available February 1 at http://cissl.rutgers.edu/

What’s causing all this trouble with the Greek economy?

2012-01-31T11:32:00.000-08:00

In the past couple of years, stock markets around the world have plummeted with each bit of news regarding Greece’s economic woes. The economic crisis that Greece faced in late 2009 started about 10 years earlier. The records that Greece presented prior to admission to the Eurozone in 2001 as well as afterward did not show the true picture of its economic condition. The Eurozone requires that countries fulfill certain membership criteria, including a budget deficit that does not exceed 3% of the gross domestic product (GDP) and a public debt limited to 60% of the GDP. Greece met these criteria but did so by leaving out certain expenses. Also, a derivatives deal that Goldman-Sachs first put in place in 2001 masked the true nature of Greece’s deficit.

When Greek Prime Minister Georgios Papandreou was elected in the fall of 2009, he discovered the extent of the deficit and announced it. Several debt-ratings agencies then downgraded Greece’s rating to the lowest level in the Eurozone.

In May 2010, Papandreou dropped another bomb. He reported that the Greek deficit was 13.6% of GDP for 2009, higher than the 12.9% originally reported. The members of the Eurozone became very concerned that Greece’s economic situation would implode, and they would suffer the fallout. Thus, in May 2010, the European Union (EU) countries and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) decided to get things under control by giving Greece a loan of 110 billion euros ($139.1 billion)*, but under the condition that Greece would institute reforms. A few months later another loan package of 130 billion euros ($165.1 billion) was approved, but as of January 2012, it had not been finalized.

People became angry about the reforms instituted by the Papandreou government, which included cutting the wages and benefits of government workers and retirees and raising taxes. Demonstrations and strikes exploded around the country.

Financial experts point out that the worldwide recession, as well as graft and nonpayment of taxes, has contributed to Greece’s deficit. Papandreou ran on the slogan “Change,” which included changing a corrupt political system. Gerry Hadden, of Public Radio International’s “The World,” on a program that was broadcast on May 11, 2010, asked vegetable vendor Fotini Stavrou who she blamed for the crisis. Stavrou grabbed a potato and responded, “See this potato. If I stole it I would end up in jail. Yet our politicians steal millions and nothing happens to them.” She continued, “The two main political parties here robbed us blind, but it’s our fault. We voted for them.”

Thomopoulos' recent title The History of Greece published in December 2011.

Some economists blame part of Greece’s bleak economic picture on the use of bribes and patronage. Fakelakia (little envelopes) are part of doing business in Greece. Money is stuffed in a fakelaki and slipped to officials to help gain access to medical services, to avoid taxes, and for building permits or driver’s licenses.

Widespread tax evasion has also contributed to the deficit. In September 2011, the government used a new tactic in its approach to this problem. The finance minister named 6,000 firms that owed about 30 billion euros ($38.1 billion).

In the face of continuing economic problems, Prime Minister Papandreou stepped down in November 2011. A coalition government with Lucas Papademos as prime minister took over. The Papademos government faces rising unemployment (in September the unemployment rate was 17.5%) and a declining economy (probably more than a 5.5% reduction in the GDP for 2011).

Representatives of the EU, the IMF, and the Central Bank (referred to as the troika) are set to arrive in Greece in mid-January. The troika will determine whether or not Greece will receive the second installment of the loan. On March 20, 2012, 14.4 billion euros ($18.29 billion) are due on bonds. Without the second installment of the loan, Greece will not be able to pay what it owes.

Nicholas Paphitis of Associated Press in a January 4 article entitled “Greek PM Warns of Default without Loan Deal” reported: “Papademos said the troika has called for a re-examination of labor costs, to boost lagging competitiveness and fight high unemployment, and warned that, unless significant action is taken, the country will not receive its next vital installment.”

Paphitis continues: “Key details of the second bailout deal are still being negotiated — above all the provision under which private creditors such as banks and investment firms would take a 50 percent cut in the face value of the Greek bonds they hold.”

Greece is in a quagmire. If the second loan is not forthcoming, default may be the only option. But even if Greece declares bankruptcy, the country has the potential to emerge from the current crisis a stronger and healthier nation. Greece weathered the declaration of bankruptcy in 1932, as well as the devastation of the country during World War II and the subsequent civil war. Her people have stamina and grit. I don’t believe that they will allow their country to falter.

*The exchange rate of dollar to euro is based on the rate for January 11, 2012:1.27.

About the Author
ELAINE THOMOPOULOS, PhD, is an independent scholar who has authored local history books and is editor of Greek-American Pioneer Women of Illinois. She has published articles about Greece and Greek Americans and is curator of the Greek Museum of Berrien County, Michigan.

The "Axis of Evil" Speech and the Bush Doctrine

2012-01-29T07:00:00.000-08:00

Ten years ago, during his 2002 State of the Union Address, U.S. president George W. Bush outlined the broad strategy, objectives, and goals of the U.S.-led war on terrorism. Bush declared that one goal was to destroy the existing terrorist networks and prevent them from launching attacks such as the 9/11 strikes again. The second objective was to keep regimes that sponsored terrorism from gaining weapons of mass destruction. He then cited Iran, Iraq, and North Korea as rogue regimes that were part of an "axis of evil" that threatened international peace and security. In this excerpt from Tom Lansford's 9/11 and the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq: A Chronology and Reference Guide, the author discusses the "Axis of Evil" speech and how it led to the Bush Doctrine.

On January 29, 2002, Bush delivered a State of the Union address. During the speech, the president listed Iran, Iraq, and North Korea as part of an "axis of evil," and he accused the nations of threatening world peace by supporting terrorism, intimidating neighboring states, and seeking to acquire weapons of mass destruction. This marked the beginning of a broad diplomatic, political, and military effort to make a case for war against Iraq if it did not comply with existing UN resolutions. Bush stated,

Iraq continues to flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror. The Iraqi regime has plotted to develop anthrax, and nerve gas, and nuclear weapons for over a decade. This is a regime that has already used poison gas to murder thousands of its own citizens—leaving the bodies of mothers huddled over their dead children. This is a regime that agreed to international inspections—then kicked out the inspectors. This is a regime that has something to hide from the civilized world.

Fresh from toppling the Taliban regime, Bush's address declared to the world that the United States would be increasingly aggressive in seeking to counter threats to global peace. Bush announced, "I will not wait on events, while dangers gather. I will not stand by, as peril draws closer and closer."

The codification of Bush's more aggressive security was the National Security Strategy of the United States, published in September 2002. The document was developed by the National Security Council and articulated a policy that became known as the Bush Doctrine. The Bush Doctrine rejected reactive security policies and embraced preemptive military strikes as a means to forestall threats to the United States. Under the Bush Doctrine, the United States declared that it would attack enemies or potential enemies in order to prevent them from harming the United States or its allies. The Bush Doctrine was the means by which the president’s 2002 State of the Union Address was put into practice. The National Security Strategy contended, "To forestall or prevent such hostile acts by our adversaries, the United States will, if necessary, act preemptively in exercising our inherent right of self-defense. The United States will not resort to force in all cases to preempt emerging threats. Our preference is that nonmilitary actions succeed. And no country should ever use preemption as a pretext for aggression."

Tom Lansford is academic dean and professor of political science at the University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast, Long Beach, MS. His published works include A Bitter Harvest: US Foreign Policy and Afghanistan; Theodore Roosevelt: A Political Life; and To Protect and Defend: US Homeland Security Policy.

Celebrating Lunar New Year – 2012 the Year of the Dragon

2012-01-26T08:58:00.000-08:00

January 23, 2012 marked the first day of the Lunar New Year of the Dragon. People throughout China, Korea, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam, and diasporic communities worldwide will celebrate the Lunar New Year during the first fifteen days. The Lunar calendar is based on the cycles of the moon, which is different than the western Gregorian calendar based on the cycle of the sun. Lunar New Year always corresponds to the last two weeks of January or the first two weeks of February.

The dragon is the fifth sign of the Chinese zodiac. It is considered to be the most auspicious sign, thus in the year of the dragon, people born under this sign will benefit greatly from the forces of the dragon. Since the year of the dragon is an auspicious year, many will want to get married during this year. Family will want a baby born in the year of the dragon because dragons are a lucky sign; dragon people tend to be successful in life, and may potentially bring prosperity to the family. As such, women in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Chinese diasporic communities worldwide will visit fertility clinics and doctors in order to ensure the birth of a dragon baby. Towards the end of the dragon year, pregnant women may also ask their doctors to induce birth if it is safe. These activities speak to the value and importance Chinese people put into the year of the dragon.

In Asia, young people who have moved away from their parental homes and villages pack buses, trains, and planes to go back to celebrate the Lunar New Year with their families. Businesses, such as restaurants and shops, shut down. For a brief moment, big cities such as Beijing, China, or Taipei, Taiwan become quiet.

Planning for the celebration starts well before New Year's Day. Families are busy cleaning their homes, decorating it with freshly cut flowers, such as narcissus, water lilies, peonies, and azaleas, representing beauty and new growth for the new year; fruits, especially oranges and tangerines, are displayed and given as gifts to visitors and friends as they symbolize wealth and money. During the New Year season, red is the preferred color for dress as it symbolizes health and life, as blood runs through a living healthy body. Other bright colors are worn to keep the mode festive and jovial. A home that has a blooming plant on New Year's day is believed to prosper during the year. The color white is avoided as it represents death, as a dead body turns “white” when blood no longer runs through the body.

On New Year's Day, it is taboo to sweep the house as it would be sweeping away one's prosperity for the coming year. One cannot use a knife or scissors either, as it would be akin to cutting away one's prosperity in the New Year. The number four is avoided because in all dialects of Chinese, the sound for the number “four” sounds like the word for “death.” Similarly, death and dying are taboo subjects and should be avoided. Because the New Year's sets the tone for developments during the entire year, parents will not spank their children for being mischievous. Instead, they are tolerated with smiles and a positive attitude.

Traditionally, Lunar New Year in China and in Chinese communities worldwide is celebrated for fifteen days. However, due to common constraints on time and resources the fifteen day celebration may be shorten, or all activities for all fifteen days may not be observed.

On day 1, rituals are performed and offerings are made to the gods of heaven and earth.

On day 2, extended family members come together to make offerings and perform rituals for the ancestors. This includes cooking their favorite dishes while they are alive and sharing in the memories of their life. All dinners will serve a whole fish, a homonym for “abundance”; a whole chicken to represent wholeness and completeness; seaweed, a homonym for “wealth”; and lotus seeds, which symbolize fertility and a male child. Families with dogs treat their pets with extra special attention as it is considered the birthday of the dog.

On day 3 and 4, children will offer tea and well wishes to their parents, which includes in-laws. Parents will then give their children red envelopes, known as “hong bao” in Mandarin Chinese or “lai see” in Cantonese, which will contain some money.

On day 5, everyone stays in their own home to welcome the visit from the God of Wealth. It is taboo to go out on this day.

From day 6-12, people will visit families, extended families and good friends. At each visit, visitors present their host with oranges, tangerines, and flowers, and more red envelopes are given to children of the house. During this period, day 9 is reserved for rituals and offerings to the Jade Emperor, the highest ranking deity in the Chinese celestial pantheon.

On day 13, people will eat a simple dinner of rice porridge and mustard greens. On day 14, people will prepare for the celebration of the Lantern Festival by making lanterns. On day 15, people celebrate the Lantern Festival at night, writing wishes on their lanterns, lighting them up, and seeing them slowly rise to heaven. The Lantern Festival marks the end of the Lunar New Year celebrations.

While this celebration is important to people in Asia, it is also very important to Asian Americans. Cities throughout North America with large Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese communities hold public celebrations and parades in honor of Lunar New Year. The annual San Francisco Chinese New Year Parade is the largest celebration of its kind outside of Asia. Many Asian Americans close their shops or take a day off work to observe Lunar New Year.

JONATHAN H. X. LEE, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Asian American Studies who specializes in Southeast Asian and Sino-Southeast Asian American studies at San Francisco State University. Among his many publications, he is the coeditor of the Encyclopedia of Asian American Folklore and Folklife with Kathleen Nadeau (ABC-CLIO, 2010).

Censorship: The Web Goes Dark

2012-01-18T11:12:00.000-08:00

With minimal effort even casual Web users can locate information that many governments, including at times the U.S. government, would prefer to restrict: hardcore pornography, plans for making explosives or illegal drugs, home addresses of government officials and celebrities, unauthorized copies of copyrighted songs and movies, encouragement of racist violence and terrorism, and almost any imaginable type of objectionable content. Children researching homework assignments online may stumble upon Holocaust-denial and pro-genocide Web sites, unaware that what they are reading is not fact but paranoid delusion; criminals can find co-conspirators and all the information needed to plan their crimes.

At times the presence of this harmful content leads to demands for censorship, although harmful content is only a tiny portion of total online content—and many would disagree on whether particular content is harmful. Censorship carries a negative connotation; in the United States the power of the federal government to censor is severely restricted by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, while the Fourteenth Amendment extends these restrictions to the state as well.

Even in pre-Internet times censorship was difficult. First, it was unpopular: the First Amendment is close to the core of the values lumped together under the heading "civil liberties"; censorship, in other words, is perceived as un-American. Second, the magnitude of the task was daunting even when information was published on paper. The Internet has done nothing to diminish the first problem, while expanding the second—the volume of information—by several orders of magnitude. In addition, the Internet provides new censorship challenges: encryption technology makes it easy to conceal content from government snoops; the lack of face-to-face contact provides children with access to the same information as adults; and the borderless nature of the Internet makes it easy for providers of content censored in one country to move that content to a server in another, more permissive country—while remaining accessible to web users in the first, censoring country.

This international character also makes it difficult for the government to control another type of information: content that infringes on the intellectual property of others. While the Digital Millennium Copyright Act provides measures to remove infringing content or shut down sites that promote illegal downloads, it applies only in the United States. US authorities and copyright holders can do little about Web sites that are based in foreign countries. In 2011, two bills were introduced in Congress to address this problem. The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act (PROTECT IP Act or PIPA) in the Senate attempt to stop copyright infringement via foreign Web sites by cutting off funds and access from the United States. While applauded by many rightsholders, such as film and music industry associations, the bills have been denounced by civil liberties groups and Internet technology companies as an avenue of government censorship that threatens the Internet itself. The controversy grabbed national headlines in January 2012 as many popular Web sites staged a protest on January 18, with such sites as Wikipedia, Reddit, and BoingBoing going completely dark while others including Craigslist and Google featured prominent messages against the bills urging the public to contact Congress.

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(Partial excerpt) Cornwell, Nancy C. "Censorship: Overview." Issues: Understanding Controversy and Society. ABC-CLIO, 2012. Web. 18 Jan. 2012.

Martin Luther King Jr. - A Brief History

2012-01-16T08:06:00.000-08:00

Martin Luther King Jr. led the African American struggle to achieve full rights of U.S. citizenship and showed how mass peaceful action could solve intractable social and political problems. He eloquently voiced the hopes and grievances of African Americans, persuading the majority of them to take him as their leader.

King was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia, the son of an assistant pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church and the grandson of a reverend. Martin's parents, the Reverend King Sr. and Alberta Williams, had an older child, Christine, and a younger, Alfred Daniel ("A. D."), who also became a minister. When Reverend Williams died in 1931, the Reverend King Sr. succeeded him and was pastor for more than 50 years, until his death in 1984.

The young King went to segregated public schools and then to Booker T. Washington High School, which he left after two years when he qualified to enter Morehouse College, now part of Atlanta University. As he pursued a major in sociology, his concern with social betterment was aroused. King received his degree in 1948, but the year before, he had been ordained a Baptist minister and had become assistant pastor to his father.

In 1948, King went north to Chester, Pennsylvania, where he entered Crozer Theological Seminary as one of six African-American students among some 90 whites. At Crozer, he first became acquainted with the Social Gospel movement of Walter Rauschenbusch and the works of Mohandas Gandhi, who had been assassinated in early 1948. He graduated with a bachelor in divinity degree in 1951, having been president of the senior class, the top student, and winner of a graduate fellowship.

The Crozer fellowship enabled King to enter Boston University, which he had chosen over an offer from Yale University because of his desire to study with its philosophy department. By 1953, he had completed the course requirements for the Ph.D., and he had met Coretta Scott, who was studying voice at the New England Conservatory. They married that summer and returned to Boston, Coretta to finish her work at the conservatory, her husband to write his Ph.D. dissertation on the concept of God in the thought of Paul Tillich and H. N. Wieman, while taking courses at Harvard University in Plato and existential philosophy and preaching in local churches. In 1955, Boston University awarded him the Ph.D.

The previous year, however, King had been called to his first ministry at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, a strictly segregated city like any other in the South. King was beginning to be known for his preaching when, on December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a seamstress, was arrested for not giving up her bus seat to a white passenger. Her action, coming after the Supreme Court declared the segregation of schools unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), indicated the electrifying effects that decision had on African Americans, who henceforth would not tolerate situations they had long endured. The consequence was the subsequent Montgomery Bus Boycott. The Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), formed by the ministers of the African-American churches, chose King as its president to lead the protest. As the nonviolent boycott and the violence of the white community went on during 1956, national and international attention focused on Montgomery, and King became prominent for his eloquence and his personal courage in the face of attacks on his home and himself. In November, the U.S. Supreme Court declared Alabama's laws segregating buses unconstitutional.

Some 60 Southern African-American leaders met in January 1957 at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta to form a larger organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), to lead the struggle against segregation. King, elected its president, emphasized Gandhi's teaching of nonviolence and made the winning of African-American voting rights the first goal. His career was transformed as his fame and dedication grew. In March, he was invited to attend the ceremonies for the independence of Ghana, in West Africa. In May, he led a prayer pilgrimage of 25,000 people in Washington, D.C., demanding federal action on civil rights. In June 1958, he met with President Dwight D. Eisenhower to urge stronger federal protection of civil rights, and in September, his book Stride Toward Freedom was published, giving his account of the Montgomery protest. In February 1959, he and his wife went to India at the invitation of the Gandhian National Memorial Fund. In January 1960, he left his Montgomery pastorate for Atlanta, where the SCLC headquarters had been established, and he became cominister of his father's church.

The Gandhian techniques of civil disobedience that King and the SCLC supported included not only the boycott but the sit-in, the protest march, and the Freedom Rides. The action of the Freedom Riders, traveling across state lines, was an effort to force the federal government to protect the rights of Southern citizens. In that and other aspects of his work, King gradually gained the support of President John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert F. Kennedy, the U.S. attorney general.

The struggle to integrate Birmingham, Alabama during the spring of 1963 involved King's most strenuous and courageous action. The city's police, under Commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor, used brutal means—dogs, cattle prods, fire hoses—against the demonstrators. The American public witnessed horrifying scenes on television and in newspapers, bringing home the reality of the violence. King was arrested and thrown into a solitary cell, where he wrote a stirring "Letter from Birmingham Jail," defending nonviolent protest in answer to a statement by a group of local clergymen objecting to his tactics. Though sporadic violence continued, the Birmingham campaign was finally successful, and black and white leaders agreed on a gradual procedure of desegregation. King gave his account of the Birmingham struggle in Why We Can't Wait (1964).

The March on Washington in August 1963, organized by King and the SCLC, was attended by a quarter of a million people, at least a fourth of whom were white. From the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, King gave his most famous speech, with its repeated words "I Have a Dream." In the fall of 1964, King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and in his laureate address in Oslo, Norway, he saw the award as an affirmation of nonviolent protest. "The Movement," he declared, "seeks to liberate American society and to share in the self-liberation of all the people." His movement's efforts compelled Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act (1964), which committed the federal government to eliminating racial discrimination from American life.

In the spring of 1965, King organized two marches of many thousands from Selma to Birmingham to emphasize the need for a federal voting rights law. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act on August 6 in King's presence. His support of Johnson began to waver, however, and in 1967, he declared his opposition to the Vietnam War and became cochairman of an organization concerned about the war. He further broadened his concerns from racism to include unemployment and poverty. An attempt to improve slum conditions in Chicago was a failure. Some of his younger, more radical followers fell away as they found King unacceptably moderate. Riots in the ghettos of Newark, Harlem, Detroit, and Los Angeles challenged his nonviolent teaching.

To highlight the problems of the poor, both black and white, King planned a Poor People's Campaign in the form of a march and campground in Washington during April 1968. In March, he led protesters in Memphis in support of a strike of sanitation workers. "I've been to the mountaintop . . . and I've seen the Promised Land," he told his followers shortly before, on April 4, he was shot by a sniper, James Earl Ray, as he stood on the balcony of his motel room talking with Jesse Jackson and other followers. In 1999, his death was declared the work of a conspiracy rather than that of a lone gunman.

King's work is carried on at the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta. In 1986, his birthday, January 15, became a national holiday.

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"Martin Luther King Jr." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2012. Web. 16 Jan. 2012.

Read some quick facts about MLK Day from American Holidays and National Days here.

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Additional Resources:

The Martin Luther King, Jr., Encyclopedia by Clayborne Carson, Tenisha Armstrong, Susan Carson, Erin Cook, Susan Englander
Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Biography by Roger Bruns
The Civil Rights Movement: Martin Luther King, Jr. by Lee W. Eysturlid, Jeremy Gypton, Chris Mullin, and Brett Piersma

A Look at Brazil Today

2012-01-12T08:03:00.000-08:00

Brazil, the future site of the 2014 FIFA World Cup and host of the 2016 Summer Olympics, has the largest economy in Latin America and one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. But is some of the country's population being left behind in the push to continue such dramatic economic growth? John J. Crocitti explores the issue in this excerpt from the recently published title Brazil Today: An Encyclopedia of Life in the Republic.

Brazil, South America’s largest and most populated nation, belongs to an informal ranking of the world’s emerging economic powerhouses known as BRIC that includes Russia, India, and China. Subcontinental in area, richly endowed in natural resources and home to a hardy, inventive population, Brazil has long promised to join the ranks of prosperous, technologically advanced, egalitarian nations. Yet fulfillment of that promise has never been fully realized, thereby producing a land of stark contrasts. The casual observer immediately recognizes that abject poverty mingles with great wealth in Brazil’s major cities. World Bank statistics confirm such disparity, ranking income distribution among the nearly 200 million Brazilians, the world’s fifth-largest national population, as one of the world’s most uneven. As one scratches more deeply beneath the surface, other contrasts become apparent. Brazilian industry produces aircraft, automobiles and appliances, but neighborhoods frequently lack sanitary drinking water, electricity, and paved roads. Urban Brazil, densely populated and cosmopolitan, sometimes appears ages apart from its rural counterpart that often features cowboys, rainforests, and folk culture. Perhaps most intriguing, Brazilians exude a warmth and congeniality that belies the violence plaguing their daily lives. Indeed, Brazil is a complex country that defies easy categorization.

The many reasons for tempering optimism about Brazil’s future should not blind observers to the great strides made by the country in the last two decades. Although the annual inflation rate recently exceeded the government’s target of 6.5 percent, it cannot compare to the quadruple-digit inflation rates of the early 1990s that wiped out household purchasing power. Urban blight and crime remain unsolved, but Rio de Janeiro’s main streets have nothing of the destitute hoards of homeless people who until recently lingered near restaurants begging for scraps from customers’ plates. In big and small cities throughout Brazil, municipal governments and private investors are confidently renovating historic buildings and building new ones. The process of rejuvenating cities is slow, but the experienced visitor cannot fail to recognize that progress has occurred and that a sense of optimism prevails about future improvements. Progress also is visible in rural areas. Where once the best possible future for children whose parents were agricultural workers was to follow in their parents’ footsteps, those same children today might attend college, a possibility that this writer has confirmed with his own eyes. That such a change has occurred in less than two decades is nothing less than astounding.
Regardless of its short-term economic and political future, Brazil’s history of weathering difficult times assures that foreign interest in Brazil will remain strong.

Brazilians have a “can-do” attitude, known as jeito, that has always enabled the people individually and the nation collectively to turn meager resources into admirable achievements. In part, Brazil’s success owes much to an elite that is among the world’s best educated and most pragmatic. Just as important, Brazilians in general embrace new ideas no matter their place of origin, just as they welcome foreigners with a sincerity that is often missing in the United States. Although they are hard working, pragmatic, and continually making do with limited resources, Brazilians retain a deep spirituality while never forgetting to celebrate life and act with courtesy and friendliness. It is this complexity of Brazilian culture, which of course includes Brazilians’ social values, that intrigues people worldwide and attracts foreigners to the country and all things Brazilian. Even in the event that its economy stalls and its political system abandons social reforms, Brazil’s rich and inspiring culture will continue to draw admiration and interest in the discernible future.

About the Editors
John J. Crocitti, Editor, is professor of history and assistant chair of social sciences at San Diego Mesa College. He earned his MA in Latin American history from Tulane University and his PhD from the University of Miami. He has taught as an adjunct at San Diego State University as well as at several private institutions. He is also the author of a number of publications in the field of Brazilian studies.

Monique M. Vallance, Contributing Editor, earned her PhD at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in the history of Portugal, but her scholastic and research interests also focus on Brazil, particularly in the early modern period. She is the author of D. Luisa de Gusmão (Circulo de Leitores, 2011) and is an assistant editor for World History Encyclopedia (ABC-CLIO, 2011).

Succession in North Korea: A Family Affair

2012-01-09T09:03:00.000-08:00

When Kim Jong Il died of a heart ailment on December 17, 2011, the international community focused its attention on his son and successor Kim Jong Un. Little is known about Kim Jong Il's third son, who is reported to be 27 years old and was recently made a full general. Kim Jong Un was not publicly acknowledged to be the successor to his father until 2010, in sharp contrast to how his grandfather, Kim Il Sung, carefully managed his own succession over a long period of time. This excerpt from the second edition of Dr. Spencer C. Tucker's The Encyclopedia of the Korean War: A Political, Social, and Military History recounts the details of North Korea's previous leadership change.

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Kim Il Sung had early on chosen his son to be his political heir. He wanted to avoid the years of confusion and the ultimate repudiation that followed the deaths of his Soviet and Chinese contemporaries. Throughout the 1970s the ground was carefully laid for Kim's succession of his father. The North Korean top leadership, including Pak Song Chol, O Chin U, Kim Yong Nam, Yi Chong Ok, Chon Mun Sop, and So Chol, supported the succession. In preparation for this eventuality, North Korean authorities went to extraordinary lengths to glorify Kim and his accomplishments.

North Koreans began placing Kim's portraits along with those of his father in their homes, offices, and workplaces. In September 1973, Kim became a secretary of the Central Committee of the North Korean Workers' Party (NKWP) and, the following year, a member of its Politburo. By then, songs were being sung about him among party cadres, which carried special notebooks to record his instructions. And a slogan came into being: "Let's give our fealty from generation to generation."

Despite his prominence in the NKWP, Kim's rise to power and selection as his father's successor were unacknowledged for several years, and his activities were masked under the mysterious "Tang Chungang" (Party Center), who was given credit for wise guidance and great deeds. This veil was lifted at the Sixth Congress of the NKWP in October 1980, when Kim was publicly named to the Presidium of the Politburo, the Secretariat of the Central Committee, and the Military Commission. In other words, he was openly designated as successor to his father.

Kim received the title of Dear Leader, close to that of Kim Il Sung's Great Leader. Both Kims were addressed and referred to in specific honorific terms not used for anyone else. As was done for his father's birthday of April 15, Kim's birthday of February 16 came to be celebrated as a national holiday. In December 1991 Kim was named supreme commander of the North Korean armed forces. By the time of his father's death in July 1994, Kim had come to be ranked second in the leadership, behind his father and ahead of his father's old comrade-in-arms, O Chin U, who died of cancer in early 1995.

About Dr. Spencer C. Tucker:
A Senior Fellow in Military History for ABC-CLIO since 2003, Dr. Spencer C. Tucker has been instrumental in establishing ABC-CLIO as the premier military history reference publisher in the country. Tucker's interest in military history began while he was a student at the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) and was enhanced by a Fulbright Fellowship in France and while serving as a captain in military intelligence in the Pentagon during the Vietnam War. Although he concentrated on Modern European History in his graduate studies, he became interested in all periods of military history. Spence taught at the university and college level for 36 years, 30 of these at Texas Christian University and the last six as holder of the John Biggs Chair of Military History at VMI. Spence is particularly excited to be the editor of ABC-CLIO's award-winning series of war encyclopedias, which includes the 2nd edition of The Encyclopedia of the Korean War: A Political, Social, and Military History.

Three Kings' Day Bread

2012-01-06T08:12:00.000-08:00

To mark the Feast of the Epiphany:
Rosca de Reyes (Three Kings’ Day Bread)

Ingredients:

2 pkg. yeast
½ c. lukewarm milk
7 c. all-purpose flour
4 eggs
1¼ c. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1¾ c. butter
½ c. seedless raisins
2 Tbsp. orange blossom water
1 tsp. vanilla extract
½ tsp. anise seed
⅛ tsp. cinnamon
1 porcelain miniature doll
egg mixed with confectioner’s sugar (as needed)
biznaga (candied fruit)

Directions:

Dissolve the yeast into the lukewarm milk. Mix with all the dough ingredients (flour, eggs, sugar, salt, butter, raisins, orange blossom water, vanilla extract, anise seed, cinnamon) and knead the batter until it is smooth and elastic. Form into a large ball, place in a lightly greased bowl in a warm area, covered with a towel, and turn the ball of dough over so that it is greased on both sides. Allow it to double in size, about 2 hours.
Shape the dough into a large open ring (to represent the king’s crown). Hide the porcelain doll (this is the tradition) somewhere in the bread. Cover it again with towels and allow it to rise.
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Using a pastry brush, decorate the ring with a paste made of egg and confectioner’s sugar to create the appearance of rays of light extending from the center. Decorate the ring with biznaga.
Bake for 35–40 minutes, or until golden brown.
Cool completely on a rack before serving.

Yield: 24 slices

According to tradition, if one receives the bread slice with the porcelain doll inside, a year of good fortune awaits.

(This recipe is from Cooking with the Movies: Meals on Reels, part of the chapter on Like Water for Chocolate.)

Author Interview: William Jeynes on Character Education and Prayer in Schools

2011-12-29T08:46:00.000-08:00

Q: What prompted you to write A Call for Character Education and Prayer in the Schools? What "message" do you want to communicate?

A: I was raised as an atheist, in an environment in which I was taught that people of faith were responsible for many of the problems of the world. I am old enough to remember when Bible readings, voluntary prayer, and character education were still a part of the public school curriculum. I am also young enough to remember when these practices were taken out of the public schools. Even though I was an avid, and admittedly bigoted, anti-Christian atheist at the time, I could clearly see the striking difference in the school atmosphere after these practices were removed. Before 1963, if there was a major student conflict, teachers would instruct students regarding the wrongs of bullying, bring them through the steps of love and forgiveness, and attempt to bring about a peaceful resolution. There was also the use of terms like “delayed gratification,” “the work ethic,” “loving one another” and “sacrificing for others” that quickly declined in their use after 1963. All these trends caused even me, a staunch atheist, to question my beliefs and my insistence that I had no desire to interact with a person of faith.

In the years of schooling that followed I saw the atmosphere of the schools radically change, as the students gradually jettisoned most convictions of right and wrong. A culture of drugs, gangs, and violence pervaded the schools I attended. I grieved over a student movement that said it favored peace, but was bombing school buildings and attacking faculty and firefighters supposedly in the name of peace. Something was terribly wrong with the worldview of many in my generation. There was a moral vacuum in which we were simply encouraged to “do our own thing,” rather than “sacrifice for others.”

The fear proclaimed by many adults of the time was that these morally confused youth would one day be our leaders. And indeed, gradually they became our leaders. I realized I had to confront my belief system that had largely been based on stereotypes of people I had never met. I consumed hundreds and thousands of books and realized that character instruction previously had a central place in the schools for a good reason. I also realized that our society had paid a large price for its removal from the schools. Even our current recession is largely due to government and corporate corruption, by the same leaders who had little or no character instruction in their schools. I realized that a large degree of character was necessary for a society to thrive. Society cannot thrive unless people trust each other and when character is reduced substantially, so is trust.

Q: What was the highlight of your research? In the course of your research, what discovery surprised you the most? What surprises readers/others the most about your research?

A: I was most surprised by the extent to which the character of a people is so closely connected to crime rates, academic achievement, economic health, and so forth. Of course, whether character instruction occurs in the school is not the only, nor even the most important, source of personal integrity. However, if one concurrently examines the decline of the family and societal morality, it is amazing the extent to which other indices reflect health or problems. For example, is it merely coincidence that after falling between 1948 and 1962, divorce rates surged 17 consecutive years between 1963 and 1980 and the nation’s average SAT dropped 17 consecutive years during precisely the same period? Is it coincidence that in nations that remove character instruction from the schools, juvenile crime starts to skyrocket in the following year and drops when this instruction is reintroduced?

When I shared these data with other academics, government leaders, and people all across the globe, probably 98% of them acknowledge that there is a strong relationship between the character issue and crime, corruption, achievement, and other variables. Even though these individuals had generally given little thought to the matter previously, they realize there is a relationship. It has surprised me how quickly experts have agreed that the data speak so “loudly” that to use their words, the relationship is “undeniable.” I think it is largely because of this fact that I have been humbled with the opportunity to speak on these findings for the White House and for several government departments. These ideas have been embraced by both the Obama and G.W. Bush administrations, as well as by the government leaders of Great Britain, China, and South Korea.

Q: How did your research change your outlook on character education and faith?

A: As I shared, my research really began years ago, when I was in high school. Confronted with the realities of what the dearth of character education and any notion of freedom of religion in the schools had produced, I gained a great appreciation for both character education and America’s Judeo-Christian heritage. I do believe that character education can be taught in the public schools in a way that is not religious, but rather teaches children values that are embraced by people all around the world. All people, unless they are criminals or sociopaths, want their children to be taught to love, to be honest and sincere, responsible, and so forth. These are the values that should be taught in the schools. Nevertheless, I also think that public educators should show greater tolerance toward people of faith and as President Bill Clinton and others have shared, this is clearly missing. School teachers should teach about people of faith respectfully.

It is no doubt ironic that the man who wrote the foreword for this book is Madalyn Murray O’Hair’s son, Bill Murray. Madalyn Murray O’Hair worked harder than any other individual to remove all vestiges of faith and character instruction from the public schools. Bill and I were both raised as atheists and knew nothing better than to agree with our moms growing up. But then we each got older, researched the matter, and concluded that the faith heritage of the United States had primarily been a force for good. Love of God, love of neighbor, humility, peace, and joy that are practiced by Christians, Jewish people, and others are values to be respected and not dishonored. Even if a teacher is not a person of faith, religious people should not be demeaned. I believe a moment of silence is an appropriate way for people of all religious and non-religious persuasions to reflect and that this should be allowed in the schools.

Q: How have people reacted to your book and/or the ideas you set forth? Is it what you hoped for, or is there more work to be done?

A: I have been amazed and humbled at the extent to which government leaders, in particular, around the world have embraced these ideas. These ideas played a large role in my development of a 4-point plan to stimulate the South Korean economy in 1998, in the midst of Asia’s 1997-1998 economic crisis, the greatest such Asian crisis of the post-World War II period. This plan passed the South Korean parliament and helped the economy recover faster than in any other nation in Asia, growing by over 10% each of the next 2 years. I have had opportunities to speak on these ideas for the Obama and G.W. Bush administrations. I have also spoken on these themes at some of the top 20 American and world universities. I surely do not deserve these opportunities, but I am convinced it is by virtue of the truth of these principles rather than based on any talent in me that people in the government, the social sciences, and elsewhere have responded so enthusiastically.

Nevertheless, one only has to look at the morning news to realize that there is much work that needs to be done. Most classrooms do not value character education and dozens of nations have greater religious freedom in the public square than Americans do. The United States has a long way to go, as does the rest of the world, but hopefully this book can be a beginning.

Q: What's next for you?

A: I am anticipating writing a book on School Choice. I first wrote on this topic in 2000 for the Cambridge Journal of Education, in an article entitled, “School Choice: A Balanced Perspective.” I received a very positive response from this article, because of its emphasis on balance. The people of the United States in recent years have become more polarized in their views and I think there is a real need to examine the data and look at certain controversial issues in a balanced way. I also continue to work with both academic and political leaders in the United States to develop ways of teaching character education that nearly everyone can support.

Author Interview: Joy Porter on 'Land and Spirit in Native America'

2011-12-19T12:28:00.000-08:00

Q: What prompted you to write Land and Spirit in Native America? What "message" do you want to communicate?

A: Like most books, this one started from a mixture of concern that these issues were so infrequently discussed and from a desire on the author’s part to educate herself through the process of writing. One of the nice things about creating this book was the number of colleagues from outside of my discipline who were keen to help and give backbone to its arguments- from Alaskan anthropologists to scientists working on how radioactive and other risks are evaluated by the public.

The point of the book is to make clear how different various indigenous American approaches to land and spirit have been from Euro-American ones and to argue that those ideas have a special pertinence today as we fight to overcome inertia and address the causes and consequences of climate change. The book makes a point of dispensing with “Indians-as-eco-warrior” rhetoric but it does take very seriously the Indian experience of colonialism and the long record of Indian interrelationship with land and its vital and ongoing spiritual dimensions.

Q: What was the highlight of your research? In the course of your research, what discovery surprised you the most? What surprises readers/others the most about your research?

A: A lot in this book is likely to upset certain preconceptions. For example, Indian peoples are associated with ideas about balance within wilderness environments. That connection is not without validity but the larger picture shows Indian peoples to have been at the forefront of modernity and to have been forced to cope first with the environmental despoliation that modernity has brought about. Thus Land and Spirit has a chapter that deals with American Indian forced migration so as to make way for the nation’s “wilderness” parks and a large chapter on environmental justice and the complexities of Indian life in the nuclear southwest. Rather than conflating everything Indian with some woolly sense of the ecological, the book asks that we confront revealing truths about how some of America’s most disadvantaged communities have faced environmental stress within capitalism.

In fact, it was finding out more about the history and meaning of nuclear power and nuclear weapons and their Indian connections that surprised me most when writing this book. On one level, we should all recognize that everything American owes a great deal to what was or is Indian, but I had no idea how central Indian land, Indian mining effort and Indian suffering was to the growth and perpetuation of nuclearism in terms of national power and national defense. Like quite a few Indian people, I’m not simplistically anti-nuclear, but the more one reads the more one gains a dread-filled respect for this particular tiger we have caught by the tail. For what is good about nuclear power and particularly in terms of the containment of nuclear waste, the world owes Indian peoples a great debt.

Land and Spirit is an unconventional book. It does not confine itself to the tramlines of conventional regional or thematic history, instead it leaps across time and across disciplinary boundaries linking Native American Indian art, history, literature and philosophy to mainstream histories and up-to-the-minute debates. Part of the reasoning behind writing it was to bust Native American criticism and history out of its intellectual corral. It’s hard now to write about American literature without taking on board Native American Indian writers, but too often when issues like the environment, nuclear power and the history of the life of the spirit on American soil are discussed Indian people and Indian thinking gets ignored.

Forthcoming, 2012

Q: How did your research change your outlook on this subject?

A: I learned a lot about how urgent the need for change is when it comes to the environment and a lot about why it might be that we aren’t making those changes more quickly. In a world of 7 billion plus that is increasingly being torn apart by the legacy of recent global financial mismanagement, the need for new thinking is urgent. Land and Spirit argues that we need to look at our spiritual understanding of the earth and at the sometimes ugly truths of our history in order to find a popular and sure-footed path forward. The book does not set forth prescriptive answers, but it puts aspects of Indian experience center stage and it demands that we think about what’s “wild” on this earth in a new way.

Q: How have people reacted to your book and/or the ideas you set forth? Is it what you hoped for, or is there more work to be done?

A: This interview is happening when the book is only just in production but those few who have read it have used words like fantastic and amazing. They do owe me money though, now I come to think of it…only joking! One thing is clear though, much more nuanced work needs to be done on nuclear power in Indian country across disciplines. Also, we need to wrest debate about climate change away from mostly literary environmental writers and away from scientists who communicate primarily in the language of maths. These folk are obviously pivotal but so are other voices and other understandings. I hope this book encourages other writers on Indian themes to take Native American Indian Studies in an inclusive manner into productive communion with other fields and other disciplines. Indian history and Indian thought is too valuable not to be widely thought about and debated at the interstice of today’s most pressing arguments.

Q: What's next for you?

A: I am finishing another book for The University of Toronto Press about a poet who claimed to be Iroquois and who fought in the first world war. It’s called The American Indian Poet of the First World War: Modernism and the Indian Identity of Frank “Toronto” Prewett, 1883-1962. Prewett was a fascinating character who was the lover of Seigfreid Sassoon and got published by Virginia Woolf. The project is being supported by the UK Arts & Humanities Research Board. Aside from his illustrious Bloomsbury literary connections, Prewett is interesting because of his response to war. He suffered severe shell-shock. His experience and his writing says something meaningful, I think, about modernity and about primitivism and what it meant to have voice at the beginning of the twentieth century.

After that I am working on another project, this one supported by the British Academy. It too will be a new book, The American Presidency and Tribal Diplomacy in the Twentieth Century. It addresses the most important question in twentieth-century Native American politics--how decisive were personal tribal relationships with individual American presidents? Answering that could alter fundamentally not only our existing understandings of the presidency but also how we conceptualize relationships between “small nations” and dominant powers more generally.

JOY PORTER is Senior Lecturer & Associate Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Humanities at The University of Swansea, Wales, UK, author of To Be Indian: The Life of Seneca-Iroquois Arthur Caswell Parker, 1881-1955 (University of Oklahoma Press, 2002), co-editor with Professor Kenneth Roemer (University of Texas, Arlington), of The Cambridge Companion to Native American Literature (University of Cambridge Press, 2005), editor of Place and Indian History, Literature & Culture for Peter Lang (2007) and coauthor of Competing Voices in Native America (2009).

Holiday Recipe #8 - Chocolate-Covered Coconut Macaroons

2011-12-16T16:11:00.000-08:00

King David's Chocolate-Covered Coconut Macaroons
(This is a recipe that we used in the book Cooking with the Bible: Recipes for Biblical Meals. It's a hit every time.)

Ingredients
3 ½ cups unsweetened shredded coconut
¼ cup matzoh cake meal
1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs, separated, plus 1 egg white
6 oz. imported bittersweet chocolate
¼ cup water
1 tsp. almond extract

Directions

Cover 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 325°F.
In bowl, mix together coconut, matzoh cake meal, and 1 cup of the sugar. Add eggs and extra egg white and mix with fingers until well blended. Gently shape about 2 tablespoons dough into a pyramid and set on prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough, leaving about 2″ between cookies. Bake for about 25 minutes or until golden on top. Cool completely.
In saucepan, melt chocolate with the water, almond extract, and remaining ¼ cup sugar. Bring to boil; then simmer slowly for a few minutes until mixture starts to thicken. Cool slightly. Holding each macaroon with 2 fingers, dip half the cookie into the chocolate so that it is half black and half white. Allow to dry for a few seconds while tilted over a dish, then place on wax paper. Repeat with remaining cookies. Cool completely.

Yield: 16 macaroons

[Source: King David's Chocolate-Covered Coconut Macaroons recipe reprinted by permission of Recipe Gold Mine]

Holiday Recipe #7 - Carrot Cake

2011-12-15T13:35:00.000-08:00

Carrot Cake
(From the film Gosford Park; our guest Judy Baker lovingly prepared this luscious cake for our repast.)

Ingredients

4 eggs

1 c. vegetable oil

1 c. buttermilk

1 c. white granulated sugar

1 c. brown sugar, firmly packed

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3 c. all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

½ tsp. ground allspice

½ tsp. ground nutmeg
3 c. carrots, peeled and grated
1 c. canned crushed pineapple (without the juice)
1 c. slivered almonds
1 c. flaked coconut
½ c. raisins

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F.
In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, oil, buttermilk, sugars, and vanilla. Combine the dry ingredients and sift into the batter. Stir in the carrots, pineapple, almonds, coconut, and raisins until well blended. Pour into three 9" round pans that have been lined with parchment paper.
Bake for 50–60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to settle for 10 minutes, then remove from pans and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. When completely cooled, remove parchment paper.
Ice the top of each cake with a vanilla buttercream frosting (see next), then ice the sides until the entire cake is covered.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients

½ c. butter, room temperature
1 lb. confectioner’s sugar
½ c. milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

Cream the butter, then add the sugar a little at a time until the mixture begins to resemble crumbs. Slowly add the milk, beating all the while, then pour in the extract. Continue to beat until wispy. If the icing appears to be too runny, add more sugar.

Yield: 12–16 servings

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Recipes provided by Cooking with the Movies: Meals on Reels authors Anthony F. Chiffolo and Rayner W. Hesse, Jr.

The Evolution of U.S. Special Forces

2011-12-12T08:52:00.000-08:00

Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, U.S. Special Forces played a major role in the U.S.-led attack of Al Qaeda and Taliban forces in Afghanistan. Thanks in part to their efforts, by early December 2001 Kandahar, Afghanistan, the Taliban's last stronghold, fell to coalition forces. During the Iraq War, U.S. Special Forces were once again front and center, securing several large areas of the country. In this excerpt from the Introduction to John C. Fredriksen's Fighting Elites: A History of U.S. Special Forces, the author discusses the recent evolution of U.S. Special Forces into one of the key components of current U.S. military strategy.

Modern American special forces are a far cry from their historical antecedents, but threads of continuity persist in their tactical mastery of unconventional warfare. Moreover, the extreme dangers posed by the Soviet Union and Red China to the United States finally triggered a lasting resurgence in terms of special operations doctrine and, for once, the American military not only raised new special forces units, but also grudgingly maintained them as part of the standing military establishment. These include not only storied formations such as the Army’s Green Berets and Rangers, and the Navy’s SEALs, but also lesser known entities like the Air Force’s Air Resupply and Communications Command, the Marine Corp’s Force Recon companies. All performed dutifully during the Korean and Vietnamese conflicts, assuring that, while special forces may not enjoy wide popularity within military institutions, they were no longer considered expendable and subject to immediate disbandment at the end of hostilities.

The United States received an abject lesson in the utility of possessing appropriate special operations units for each service and every contingency following the disastrous Iranian hostage rescue attempt of 1980, which exuded dramatic remedial effects to that end. The interval between the end of the Cold War and the beginning of the War against Terror found special forces employed in minor fare like hunting war criminals in the Balkans and Somalia, tasks for which they are trained to do, but they acquired little distinction. However, the attack against the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, again spelled in stark relief the growing and sometimes dire necessity of recruiting, training, equipping, and preserving a viable special operations capabilities. That the cruel Taliban regime in Afghanistan and their al-Qaeda terrorist consorts were run out of that rugged country in only three months proffers incontrovertible proof that U.S. Special Forces are a potent factor to reckon with. They currently operate everywhere around the globe, wherever American interests and security are threatened, and scores of dead terrorists offer mute testimony to their deadly effectiveness. Given the implications of terrorism to national security, there is little wonder that, over the past two and a half centuries, America’s special forces have evolved steadily from episodic tactical novelties into battlefield force multipliers and standing strategic necessities. The 21st century may very well prove itself to be a golden age of unconventional warfare, and high-tech, special warriors to wage it.

John C. Fredriksen, PhD, is an independent historian. He is the author of 30 books and reference encyclopedias on military history, most recently Fighting Elites: A History of U.S. Special Forces. His other publications include ABC-CLIO's American Military Leaders: From Colonial Times to the Present and America's Military Adversaries: From Colonial Times to the Present. Fredriksen has also authored a series of chronologies detailing the histories of the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps.

Holiday Recipe #6 - Pike's Apple Torte

2011-12-09T09:11:00.001-08:00

Pike’s Apple Torte
(This recipe recreates a dessert from the film Big Eden. Although there was not enough room for this movie in Cooking with the Movies, it's a wonderful film with delicious food.)

Ingredients
7 Tbsp. butter
2 c. Red Delicious apples, skinned, cored, and sliced
4 eggs, well beaten
1 ½ c. sugar
¾ c. all-purpose flour, sifted
2 8-oz. packages cream cheese
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. lemon zest
½ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. nutmeg
½ c. chopped walnuts

Topping
1 c. Granny Smith apples, cored, pared, and thinly sliced
½ c. brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F.
In a small frying pan, melt half the butter and fry the apples in it until soft, about 3-4 minutes on each side. (Do not allow to burn.) Pour out into a large bowl, and mix together with the remaining butter and all other ingredients.
Generously butter a 9” round funnel cake pan. Pour the mixture into it.
In a large bowl, combine the topping ingredients. Individually place each apple slice on top of the cake mixture, in a fan shape, or some other clever way.
Bake for 60 minutes, or until the center is set. Allow to cool on a wire rack before serving.

Yield: 8-12 servings

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Recipes provided by Cooking with the Movies: Meals on Reels authors Anthony F. Chiffolo and Rayner W. Hesse, Jr.

Author Interview: Nathan R. Kollar, Defending Religious Diversity in Public Schools

2011-12-08T07:00:00.000-08:00

Q: What prompted you to write Defending Religious Diversity in Public Schools?

A: I initiated and facilitated an eighteen-month investigation into how four undergraduate colleges and three seminaries identified and taught those who believed differently than the majority in their institutions. This research, sponsored by the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion, enabled me to see how the radically different in our midst enhanced the learning of both teacher and student in our classrooms. It was an easy step to see how diversity in the entire educational process was necessary for a more complete education. This step was encouraged and facilitated by Anthony Chiffolo, an editor at ABC-CLIO. The result was Defending Religious Diversity which was an amalgam of teaching and research from the grant and twenty-three years of teaching as adjunct professor in the leadership program at the Warner School of Education at the University of Rochester.

Q: What "message" do you want to communicate?

A: That diversity in general and religious diversity in particular are necessary for our national survival.

Q: What was the highlight of your research?

A: Being able to understand and clearly communicate the vast amount of legal interpretations and development surrounding religion in our public schools.

Q: In the course of your research, what discovery surprised you the most?

A: That religious bullying occurs in many of our public schools.

Q: What surprises readers/others the most about your research?

A: That it is possible to bring those who differ radically from each other together for enhancing the common good.

Q: How did your research change your outlook on religious diversity?

A: It made me realize that many times intrareligious diversity is more divisive than interreligious diversity.

Q: How have people reacted to your book and/or the ideas you set forth?

A: Many wish that what is portrayed there can be achieved but hesitate to bring these ideas and skills into everyday practice. Reading about religious diversity is easy; living religious diversity is a challenge.

Q: Is it what you hoped for, or is there more work to be done?

A: I had hoped that , once principals and school boards recognized that schools that have a comprehensive religious diversity program have less bullying and a more comprehensive view of the world, they would implement or deepen programs for diversity in their schools. This has not happened not only because of the difficulty of implementation but also because the present state of education in the United States is in crisis as to goals, methods, evaluation, and financial backing.

Q: What's next for you?

A: If diversity is essential to living in a pluralistic society then it is necessary for my spiritual life. Recent experiences with traditional college age students and middle aged attendees at adult education forms led me to further research and seeking to bring to fruition a primer for understanding the spiritualities of the classical religions and their alternatives. The UCLA longitudinal study demonstrates the need for such a work and an international conference on diversity of religions. Interfaith Understanding Conference suggests how to meet that need. My challenge is to get beyond the popular myths about spirituality and provide tested means from the social sciences to enhance people’s lives in this primer for understanding diverse spiritualities.

Holiday Recipe #5 - Wilted Lettuce with Peas and Pearl Onions

2011-12-07T16:26:00.000-08:00

Wilted Lettuce with Peas and Pearl Onions
(From the film Gosford Park)

Ingredients
1 head iceberg lettuce, shredded
1 bag frozen peas, or 2 small cans
1 bag frozen pearl onions
2 c. water
1 lb. bacon, well done and cut into bits
1 Tbsp. bacon grease

Directions
In a medium pot, combine the lettuce, peas, and pearl onions with the water and cook until the lettuce is quite wilted and the peas and onions are cooked through. Drain. Add the bacon bits and grease, toss, and serve.

Yield: 6 servings

Although a dish featuring “wilted” lettuce might lack a certain “title” appeal, this recipe is quickly prepared, colorful, and quite tasty.

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Recipes provided by Cooking with the Movies: Meals on Reels authors Anthony F. Chiffolo and Rayner W. Hesse, Jr.

Holiday Recipe #4 - Brussels Sprouts with Hazelnuts

2011-12-02T07:00:00.000-08:00

Brussels Sprouts with Hazelnuts
(This recipe is from the movie Gosford Park, directed by Robert Altman.)

Ingredients
1 lb. fresh Brussels sprouts (try to buy them fresh the day they are to be used)
salted water
4 Tbsp. butter, melted
½ c. light brown sugar
1 tsp. Balsamic vinegar
¼ tsp. black pepper
½ c. hazelnuts, chopped

Directions

Preheat oven to 375°F.
Wash the sprouts and pull off any yellowed leaves. Parboil them in just enough salted water to cover for no more than 5 minutes, then drain.
In a small bowl, mix the butter and brown sugar with the Balsamic vinegar and pepper, then stir in the hazelnuts. Transfer the mixture to cover the bottom of a small baking dish. Place the sprouts on top of the nut mix, close enough together so that they don’t tip over. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes. Serve piping hot as an accompaniment.

Yield: 6–8 servings

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Recipes provided by Cooking with the Movies: Meals on Reels authors Anthony F. Chiffolo and Rayner W. Hesse, Jr.

Holiday Recipe #3 - Candied Sweet Potatoes

2011-11-30T07:00:00.000-08:00

Candied Sweet Potatoes with Walnuts, Cranberries, and Marshmallowettes
(From the film What's Cooking?)

Ingredients
8 med. sweet potatoes
4 Tbsp. butter
1 c. dark brown sugar
¾ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. nutmeg
½ c. white grape juice
½ c. walnuts
½ c. whole cranberries
½ c. mini marshmallows

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Peel the potatoes and cut them into 2" disks. Place them in a large pot with enough water to cover and cook until boiling; reduce the heat, cover and simmer for about 10 minutes or so, until the potatoes are fork tender. Drain, and place in a large oven-proof casserole dish.
Melt the butter and brown sugar in a small saucepan, and stir in the salt, pepper, nutmeg, and grape juice. Pour the mixture over the potatoes. Arrange a walnut, a cranberry or two, and a marshmallow in and around each potato for decorative effect. Bake for 50–60 minutes. Remove from oven and serve immediately.

Yield: 10 –12 servings

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In case you missed Recipes #1 & #2, click here to learn how to make a delicious Organic Turkey and Oyster and Shiitake Mushroom Stuffing from the authors of Cooking with the Movies: Meals on Reels.

Delicious Holiday Recipes!

2011-11-28T10:52:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving has come and gone, but that shouldn't mean that an entire year has to go by before we can enjoy turkey, stuffing, and all the other delicious holiday fare once again. Over the next two weeks, we'll be sharing some of the amazing recipes from authors Anthony Chiffolo and Rayner (Rusty) Hesse, Jr., and their book Cooking with the Movies: Meals on Reels, so you can enjoy the tastes of Thanksgiving all holiday season.

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For this year's Thanksgiving feast, we (well, mostly Rusty) prepared a luscious organic turkey with oyster and shiitake mushroom stuffing. This is one of the turkeys shown in the film What's Cooking? and is featured in a chapter on the movie in our book Cooking with the Movies: Meals on Reels.

For those who would like to enjoy the meal vicariously—and, next year, perhaps in actuality—here are the recipes:

Organic Turkey

Ingredients
1 20–24 lb. fresh organic turkey
½ c. melted butter
½ c. dried sage
½ c. dried tarragon
¼ c. paprika
2 Tbsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. lime pepper
1 tsp. salt
mushroom stuffing (see next)
½ c. water
1 pkg. fresh spinach leaves

Directions

Preheat oven to 325°F.
Wash the turkey inside and out, making sure to remove the neck and giblets that are usually stuffed inside the cavity of the bird. Pat dry. Place in a large roasting pan on sheets of aluminum foil set perpendicular to one another so that the pan is completely covered and there is enough foil left to lift the bird from the pan when holding all sides. Stuff the turkey just before placing it in the oven as per the instructions that follow. Pour the melted butter over the top of the turkey. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a small bowl, then spoon them over the bird, making sure to cover the legs as well as the breast. Pour the water around the sides of the turkey, and bake uncovered for 4–5 hours, basting about every 20–30 minutes with its own juices. (If desired, test with a meat thermometer to ensure that it is thoroughly cooked [165°F for inner breast, 180°F for the legs] and safe to serve.)
Remove turkey from the oven and let it stand for 20–30 minutes before slicing. Place the turkey on a large serving tray that has been completely laid out with spinach leaves as decoration (presentation is everything!).

Yield: 15–18 servings

Mrs. Williams’s Special Oyster and Shiitake Mushroom Stuffing

Ingredients
2 c. hot water
1 oz. dried porcini mushrooms
1¾ lb. bread, crust trimmed, cubed
6 Tbsp. unsalted butter
3 leeks, chopped
1 c. shallots, chopped
1¼ lb. oyster mushrooms
½ lb. Shiitake mushrooms
2 c. celery, chopped
1 c. dry hazelnuts, chopped
2 Tbsp. fresh sage
salt and pepper to taste
2 eggs, beaten
¾ c. chicken stock

Directions

Combine hot water and porcini mushrooms in a bowl. Let stand until mushrooms are soft, about 30 minutes. Drain, reserving liquid. Chop porcini mushrooms. Set aside.
Preheat oven to 325°F. Bake cubed bread on baking sheets until brown, about 15 minutes. Cool, then transfer to a large bowl.
Melt the butter over medium-high heat. Add leeks, shallots, and oyster and Shiitake mushrooms. Sauté until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Mix in the celery and porcini mushrooms and sauté another 5 minutes. Transfer mixture to the bowl with the bread cubes. Mix in the hazelnuts and sage. Season with salt and pepper and stir in the eggs and chicken stock. Stuff into turkey.
Any stuffing that remains, spoon into a buttered baking dish, covered with buttered foil. Bake stuffing in dish alongside turkey until heated through, about 30 minutes. Uncover and bake until top is crisp, about 15 minutes.

Yield: 12 servings

The lusciousness of an organic turkey is a real treat for the taste buds. Cooking is the same as for any other turkey, but an organic bird will be a bit more costly. Still, it’s worth the extra expense.

The meal continued with some wonderful vegetable dishes: sweet potatoes, brussels sprouts, and "wilted" lettuce. Check back soon for these recipes!

Kids, Sports, and Concussion: A Guide for Coaches and Parents

2011-11-22T11:00:00.001-08:00

Sidney Crosby, one of the most valuable players in the NHL and only 24 years of age, returned to the ice on Monday night after over spending 10 long months recovering from post-concussion symptoms after being hit in a game early in the year. The NFL started off the 2011-12 season with new regulations to protect against head injuries, limiting the amount of full-contact practice that a player can participate in. And in a close call in the 2011 Little League World Series, a teenage pitcher from Huntington Beach, California, was saved from what could have been a deadly line drive to the forehead by only the bill of his hat.

Concussions in sports have not only the potential to be career-ending, but also can have life-altering side effects. Youth sports are meant to be fun, and with the number of kids who play sports in the United States in the millions, knowing what to do in the event of a concussion and how to help prevent them is extremely vital to the safety of young athletes.

Below is an excerpt from the introduction to Kids, Sports, and Concussion: A Guide for Coaches and Parents by William Paul Meehan III, MD. Meehan is director of the Sports Concussion Clinic in the Division of Sports Medicine at Children's Hospital Boston, MA, and instructor of pediatrics and orthopedics at Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.

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Introduction
We were in the heart of the rugby scrum. A 20-year-old lock playing for Boston College was struck in the head by the mighty kick of an opponent. As the ball was released, he staggered away toward the wrong end of the field before collapsing to the ground. He rose unsteadily, only to collapse again. Finally, he rose to his feet and began sprinting, in an attempt to rejoin the play. But he was running in the wrong direction, away from ball. He fell one last time, only to be helped off of the field by his teammates.

“What’s the matter with him,” hollered the coach.
“He’s all right,” came the reply. “He just got his bell rung.”
And that was how it was.
We got “shaken up” or “had our bells rung.” We simply “shook it off,” “toughed it out,” or “walked it off.” The word concussion was rarely used. When it was used, it was mostly for athletes who were knocked unconscious for longer than a few seconds. Many times, we returned to the game in which we were injured. Often, we returned while still experiencing headaches, ringing in the ears, and other symptoms.

So why all the concern nowadays? What was it that changed the way sport-related concussion is diagnosed and managed? Why is the media constantly reporting stories about concussion in young athletes?

Five main medical findings change the way we think about sport-related concussion:
1. Concussion results in measurable brain dysfunction, which lasts for several days, weeks, or even months in some athletes.
2. This brain dysfunction often persists, even after the athlete reports being symptom-free.
3. Athletes who sustain one concussion are at increased risk of sustaining more concussions in the future.
4. The effects of multiple concussions are cumulative.
5. There may be long-term effects, only revealed later in life, that result from sustaining multiple concussions earlier in an athlete’s career.

These recent medical findings have led to a relatively rapid change in the way doctors and other clinicians think about sport-related concussions and concussive brain injury in general. This rapid change in thinking has generated a lot of attention, not only in the medical literature but also in the popular media.

When many of us were growing up, a concussion was not thought to be a serious injury. Athletes often laughed and joked about it. Certainly few people believed that there were any long-term effects or brain dysfunction that could result from a concussion or even multiple concussions.

Kids, Sports, and Concussion: A Guide for Coaches and Parents

William Paul Meehan III, MD

Praeger, April 2011

These days, we know that a concussion results in a true, measurable, loss of brain function, that can persist, even after athletes feel that they are completely recovered. Furthermore, we know that sustaining multiple concussions over the course of one's career can lead to more permanent brain dysfunction, depression, and other problems. This sudden change in thinking has left many athletes, parents, coaches, and others confused. Kids, Sports, and Concussion will help clarify the medical and scientific data that has resulted in this change of thinking. In doing so, this book will answer the following questions:

• What is a concussion?
• How common is concussion?
• Can an athlete prevent a concussion?
• What is the best way to assess a concussion?
• What can be done to treat a concussion?
• When is it safe to return to playing after a concussion?
• What are the risks of suffering multiple concussions?

In addition, readers of this book will learn how they can respond to a concussed athlete, as well as what they should expect from medical personnel tending to a concussed athlete. For those readers interested in starting a comprehensive concussion management program in their area, this book contains some recommendations on how to proceed. Lastly, the book concludes with several athletes describing, in their own words, their experiences with concussions.

At the end of each chapter is a list of suggested readings for those readers who may wish to learn more about the topics covered within the chapter. Many of these readings are medical or scientific articles, often those referred to in the chapter. While these articles may use some medical and scientific jargon, I believe the overall principles can be appreciated, even without scientific or medical training.

History and the Headlines: Native American Heritage Month

2011-11-21T12:40:00.001-08:00

Focus on Treaties for Native American Heritage Month

During the month of November, the United States commemorates National Native American Heritage Month, which recognizes the rich culture and historical importance of the indigenous peoples who first settled this land. Many events taking place during National Native American Heritage Month, such as Minnesota's "Why Treaties Matter" traveling exhibit, honor the different tribes who have shaped this country while acknowledging the challenges that Native Americans have faced and their complex relationship with the United States.

Help your students test their knowledge of treaties and develop critical thinking skills with reliable reference content and primary sources that you have come to expect from ABC-CLIO. Content includes:

An insightful introductory Need to Know essay that provides an overview of the history and significance of the treaty making process.
A thought-provoking Examine section that tests students' knowledge of treaties and promotes critical thinking through primary source analysis.
Over 150 reference entries, primary source documents, and images that offer students a unique opportunity to enhance their understanding of Native American treaties.

Simply click here to get started!

Did you miss this month's issue of History and the Headlines? Click here to join our e-mail list and receive future issues of this free online resource.

Celebrating Geography Awareness Week, November 13-19

2011-11-12T07:00:00.000-08:00

By Reuel R. Hanks

As a professor of geography, I am sometimes asked how I became interested in the subject. For quite some time, this struck me as an odd question, since the answer seemed obvious: if one is sentient and observant of the world, one is by default interested in geography. Unlike Antoine de Saint Euxpery’s geographer in The Little Prince, real geographers are not only concerned with “eternal things,” but also with the daily patterns of all that surrounds us, and how these change across space and time. There is indeed a geographic “adventure in your community” to be had, if you simply consider the where, how and why behind the features encountered every day. To be a geographer, one needs only an awareness of “place,” a notion that represents the totality of the features that identify, characterize, and shape a location.

Such an awareness is vital, because even at a local scale it leads to a greater comprehension of a globalizing world. Those who have a weak knowledge and understanding of the world around them are destined to be at a disadvantage, both professionally and personally. Geography provides the fundament for such understanding. For the past several decades, studies have shown that American students, and the general public, lack a solid grounding in geography. When tested about their knowledge of other peoples and countries, for example, Americans typically rank near the bottom when compared to most Europeans. Some have explained this as simply the result of North America’s relative isolation, the fact that the country borders on only two other states, one of which is primarily English-speaking and shares a similar culture, and other factors, most of which, ironically enough, are geographic.

Learn more about Hanks' new book here.

Yet these excuses are no longer acceptable, or even relevant. Physical distances, in the age of modern transportation systems, have become a secondary consideration, and contact with the remainder of the world is no longer dependent on actual travel, although visiting other locations is certainly an excellent way to learn about them. In the era of the Internet and globalization, we can no longer think in terms of the world being “out there somewhere.” It is here and now, often right outside our doors, perhaps even in our homes. The things we eat and drink, the vehicles we use for transportation, even the clothing we wear all come to us from “out there.” A failure to appreciate this diminishes us both intellectually and culturally.

2011 marks the twenty-fifth year we have celebrated Geography Awareness Week in the United States. Since 1987, when the first such observance took place, almost 30 new independent states have appeared on the world map (including one just this year), a single currency has been adopted by nearly as many European countries, and Global Positioning Satellites (GPS) have made it possible for anyone to pinpoint any location on the planet. Yet in 2006, five years after U.S. forces began fighting in Afghanistan and almost twenty years after the first Geography Awareness Week, a survey of young Americans found that ninety percent could not locate that country on a map. There’s still a long way to go for educators in raising geographic awareness—let it begin with an adventure in your community.

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Reuel R. Hanks, PhD, is professor of geography at Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK. He has taught courses on human and regional geography for more than 25 years.

Interview with Darryl V. Caterine, author of "Haunted Ground"

2011-11-11T06:30:00.000-08:00

ABC-CLIO's interview with Darryl V. Caterine, author of Haunted Ground: Journeys through a Paranormal America

Q: What prompted you to write Haunted Ground?

A: There were at least four reasons why I wanted to write a book on the paranormal in America. The first reason simply has to do with the fact that there are relatively few scholarly books on the subject. There are many good studies of specific movements, such as Spiritualism, but not so many on the "paranormal" as a whole.

I have also been studying and writing about similar phenomena in the Latin American and Latino context for years. People tend to forget that Catholicism south of the U.S. border and in the Caribbean is full of miraculous, supernatural, or paranormal activity. Interest in such phenomena has to do with the fact that Christianity in these cultures has been changed by its encounter with African and Native American beliefs and practices. There is still today a strong belief in many Latino communities in the intercession of the saints to perform miracles in everyday life. Veneration of, and even communication with, the ancestors is also prevalent in some communities, while healing practices derived from Native American and medieval Spanish societies thrive in others. So it was really just a small step to go from the study of Latino Catholicism, particularly as it is practiced outside of the institutional church, and interest in the paranormal in the U.S.

One of the reasons I became attracted to the study of religion in the first place had to do with the radically different worldviews that religious cultures preserve and celebrate. Unfortunately, in the United States context there has been a trend in the mainstream churches for the last few centuries to make religion look more "respectable" in modern eyes, which often entails ridding it of "superstitious" beliefs and practices—like a belief in the active participation of the supernatural or other-than-human in this world. So in order to get to these beliefs in a North American society like the U.S., I had to study something a little outside of the orbit of this mainstream religious universe. Interest in the paranormal seemed like an obvious choice.

Finally, I wanted to write a book that moved the whole discussion of the paranormal from the margins to the center of American religion. As I discuss in my book, the kinds of questions that the paranormal raises get right into the thick of what it means to be a modern person. The significant issue is not simply that 75 percent of Americans "believe in" the paranormal. The significant issue is that this widespread interest means that people are thinking critically about the maps of reality that mainstream religion, science, mass media and academe are giving them -- and finding that none of these "maps" are completely accurate or meaningful.

Q: You chose 3 "groups" to study: Ufologists, spiritualists, and dowsers—what points of commonality did you discover? How are they "religious"?

A: The big commonality between Ufologists, Spiritualists, and dowsers was a fascination they shared with the nature of Nature. At first this might sound a little abstract, so let's make another, quick comparison with the Latino Catholic example. In Latino cultures, when something out of the ordinary happens—let's say, a highly improbable recovery from a terminal illness—people find a place for it in a supernatural or other-worldly understanding of the world. It was the intercession of the Virgin of Guadalupe, or the grace of an African orisha, or the activity of a saint. But in the communities that I studied, the supernatural is usually not the place where people put extraordinary experience. Instead, they assume it has something to do with the nature of "Nature"—shorthand for the physical cosmos that scientists study, and also shorthand for the imagined universe in which modern people dwell. Extraordinary experiences happen to turn our commonsense notions of Nature upside down. Most scientists won't go near them, so we're left with explanations of the physical world that either deny or downplay these events. Mainstream religions do not make them a focal point of theological speculation so there's very little help there. And in our cultural mythology, we tend to forget that our love affair with Nature covers over the fact that the nation wouldn't be here if our ancestors hadn't destroyed or displaced millions of Native American peoples. The nature of Nature in the American paranormal universe is both topsy-turvy relative to scientific and religious models, and also deeply haunted by the perennial Native American ghosts.

Now these movements can be thought of as being religious in at least two important ways. First, one way of thinking about religion is as a way of relating to, and partially explaining, those people, places, and events that instill awe in us. Rudolf Otto spoke of religion as a response to the seductive and terrifying mystery. Certainly the phenomena of the paranormal fall into this category. Ghosts, UFOs, and psychic phenomena (which is one way of thinking about how dowsing works) either frighten or fascinate us, or maybe do a little of both. The many ways that Americans have thought about these phenomena are responses to mystery, and are therefore "religious" in this first sense of the term.

The other way that these movements are religious lies in the kinds of questions they ask about reality. Some scholars define "religion" as an exploration of what is ultimately meaningful or real— whether or not it includes the supernatural. Our culture's interest in the paranormal are certainly religious in this second sense of the term. Spiritualists want to know if there is some way of empirically knowing if consciousness survives the experience of death. Ufologists want to know if we are alone in the universe—or if this is the only universe that exists. Dowsers want to know if we are connected with each other and with the earth in ways that neither modern religion nor science have yet articulated. These are questions about ultimate matters; their answers shed light on our purpose here on earth, and what priorities our society should be setting for itself. These are just a few of the religious types of questions that interest in the paranormal raises.

Q: What was the highlight of your research?

A: I would have to say that the highlight of my research was the permission I felt in the various gatherings to ask questions outside of the conventional academic boxes. There was a way in which the research unleashed my creativity, not only to ask questions about religion and spirituality, but to think of my place in the world as a modern American. And as I write about in my book, these places are designed to inspire just this kind of experience. They are truly carnivals in the classic sense of the term: not merely places of entertainment or distraction, but places that encourage visitors to turn their commonplace notions of reality upside-down and inside-out. In this sense, paranormal gatherings are to the modern American nation what medieval European carnivals were to the Roman Catholic Church. Scholars in my field talk quite a bit about "liminality" or "anti-structural" places. If you really want to have a liminal experience, spend some time immersed in Lily Dale, or the Roswell UFO Festival, or the dowsing convention.

Q: In the course of your research, what discovery surprised you the most?

A: My major breakthrough, which did come as a surprised and freed me up to write the book, was that people who spend their lives immersed in the paranormal are very closely related to professional academics. In other words, my surprise was that they and I were basically doing the same thing: trying to figure out where we are, and what we are, as modern people—and then spinning out different kinds of narratives to make sense out of potential chaos.

Q: How did your research change your outlook on religion or spirituality?

A: Taking seriously some of the paranormal data, as well as the kinds of questions they raise, gave me an appreciation of how antiquated our religious maps of the world are. I don't intend this remark to be hostile; in fact, I am nostalgic for the days when religion perhaps could address all of our most burning questions of meaning. But we seem to be living in an era—and here I mean a long span of time that began hundreds of years ago—where we have to be content to live with a relatively high degree of cosmological incoherence. At one point in my book I refer to "spiritual homelessness." It would be nice to say that everything in heaven and on earth has a place in our philosophy or religion, but that does not seem to be the case, especially when you start looking into how much we do not know.

Q: What's next for you?

A: My next academic book will continue some of the issues raised in Haunted Ground, but in a more theoretical key. I'd like to trace the eclipse of the "supernatural" in modern western religion and the rise of the "paranormal" that came, for many people, to replace it. This story begins, I believe, with the cultural debate over the exorcisms of the German Catholic priest Johann Joseph Gassner, and the healing practices of Franz Anton Mesmer. They were both doing very similar types of work, but Mesmer "naturalized the supernatural," carving out an in-between space between science and religion. This odd quasi-scientific and quasi-religious way of looking at the world is the paranormal. As I hope I've shown in this last book, the ghost of Mesmer is still alive and well and haunting us today.

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Check out this MSNBC piece on our fascination with the paranormal, featuring Darryl Caterine.

Interview with "Vampires Today" author Joseph Laycock

2011-11-10T12:23:00.001-08:00

Q: What prompted you to write Vampires Today?

A: I describe this research as “a crime of opportunity.” I happened to be living in Atlanta when I learned about the Atlanta Vampire Alliance (AVA). When I approached them, they had some initial concerns that I was going to portray them as “cultists” or as mentally ill. But soon I had a working relationship with the vampires. What interested me about the AVA was not that they identified as vampires but that they had invested so much time in studying their own community. They have completed a massive survey project of nearly 1000 vampires. Religious groups and the mentally ill are normally not compelled to undergo rigorous self-analysis. The AVA were something different.

Q: Among the "groups" you studied, what points of commonality did you discover? How are they "religious" or "spiritual"?

A: For most of the vampires I spoke with, vampirism is a health issue: They feel they must “feed,” either on blood or human energy, or their physical, mental, and spiritual well-being deteriorates. Some vampires feel that their condition will one day be understood by medical science. Others see vampirism as metaphysical and some even belong to small religious movements with their own beliefs and ethical tenets about vampirism.

Q: What was the highlight of your research?

A: The highlight was making new friends. There are very few “boring” vampires. Everyone I met had interesting hobbies, skills, and stories. How often do you have dinner with a group of people that can design software, give a therapeutic massage, and forge a broadsword?

Q: In the course of your research, what discovery surprised you the most?

A: Vampires have constructed a meaningful identity for themselves. The creation of a new identity group affects an entire society––myself included. I think of myself as “white” because I am aware of racial identities. I think of myself as “Catholic” because I am aware of religious identities. Now, I think of myself as a “non-vampire” because I am aware of vampire identities. These issues of identity construction appear to be behind the more vitriolic attacks on the vampire community. Since I wrote Vampires Today, I have seen a number of blogs and Internet postings dismissing the vampire community as “freaks,” “insane,” etc. Beneath this anger seems to be a fear of what would happen if vampires were not considered insane. This is far more frightening to people than the vampires themselves. Most people like to take their categories for granted and do not like being reminded that the world could be ordered in a different way.

Q: How did your research change your outlook on religion or spirituality?

A: Vampires force us to reassess our definitions of religion and spirituality. When most people hear about vampires, they assume vampirism must be a “religion.” However, the majority of vampires do not consider vampirism to be a religion. Some vampires are atheists and deny that there is anything spiritual about their vampirism. Religion scholars do not have an agreed upon definition of what religion is. When analyzing vampires, the question is not “is this a religion?” but “in what sense is this religious?” It was especially interesting to compare vampires’ descriptions of how feeding made them feel with accounts of religious and mystical experiences. Many vampires described feelings of euphoria, peace, and heightened awareness after consuming blood or energy.

Q: Vampires are everywhere in popular culture: how have people reacted to your book?

A: Since Vampires Today came out, I have been approached by scores of newspapers, radio shows, and documentaries as well as Good Morning America, MTV, MSNBC, Geraldo at Large, The Colbert Report, NPR, The Dr. Phil Show, The Dr. Drew Show, and Anderson Cooper. Usually these shows contact me hoping I can get a vampire to appear on their program. Most vampires will not do interviews, both because television tends to sensationalize them with scary music and bad puns, and because they have suffered serious consequences when they are “outed” by the media. I have become a kind of bridge between the media and a community that is often unable to speak for itself.

Vampires Today has also been cited by a growing group of academics interested in the connection between religion and popular culture. This is exciting because academics have begun to ask new and important questions about this community. As a researcher, my goal is not to have “fifteen minutes of fame” on a talk show but to push the academic dialogue forward.

Q: What surprises people the most about your research?

A: Most people are surprised to hear that many vampires are ordinary, sane, productive members of society. I have met vampires who are grandmothers, police and military, and medical technicians. I have even met a vampire who graduated from Harvard Divinity School, where I received my master’s degree. You may already know someone who identifies as a vampire.

Q: What's next for you?

A: Scholars of American religion naturally focus on the most important religious movements, especially the mainline Protestant and evangelical traditions. I am interested in expanding this picture by looking at groups that have been ignored by researchers and historians. My next book will concern apparitions of the Virgin Mary and a woman named Veronica Lueken. Veronica lived in Queens, New York and began having visions of the end of the world in the 1970s. At her peak, she attracted thousands of followers around the world. There are six books of her prophecies available that most religion scholars have never examined. I have looked at this material as well as church documents and letters from the 1970s. Lueken and her followers are another group that is worth examining instead of pushing into the corner.

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Related Blog Post: Author Guest Post -- Joe Laycock on Real Life Vampires

The Death Knell of the Pan-Indian Confederacy

2011-11-07T10:06:00.000-08:00

November 7, 2011, marks the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Tippecanoe. The engagement pitted some 1,000 regular and militia troops under Indiana governor William Henry Harrison against approximately 500–750 Indians led by Tenskwatawa, also known as the Shawnee Prophet. For several years previous to the battle, Tenskwatawa and his brother, Tecumseh, had worked to create a pan-Indian confederacy to oppose Anglo-American westward expansion and preserve traditional ways of life. The defeat at Tippecanoe irrevocably weakened the confederacy, which disbanded completely some two years later. This excerpt from Dr. Spencer C. Tucker's Encyclopedia of North American Indian Wars recounts the details of this historic battle.

The warriors left Prophetstown during the night, and by 4:00 a.m. on November 7 they had surrounded Harrison’s camp. One of the American sentinels, Stephen Mars, heard movement in the darkness and fired a shot or two before fleeing for the safety of the camp. He was killed before he could reach it, but his shot alerted Harrison's men. The Indians then let out war whoops and opened fire. The battle opened first on the northwest side of the camp. Unfortunately for Harrison's men, when they rose many were silhouetted against their campfires, making them easy targets. Harrison himself mounted and rode to the sound of the firing. His own white horse had broken its tether during the night, and he rode a dark one. This probably saved his life, for the natives were looking for him on a white horse. (Harrison’s aide Colonel Abraham Owen, who found and rode Harrison’s white horse, was shot and killed.) Firing then broke out on the east side of the camp, and the battle became general. During the battle, the Prophet stationed himself on a high rock to the east and chanted war songs to encourage his followers. Informed early that some of his warriors had been slain, the Prophet insisted that his followers fight on, promising an easy victory.

After two hours of fighting and when it was sufficiently light, Harrison sent out mounted men to attack the natives on their flanks. Soon the natives were in retreat. In the battle, Harrison lost 68 men killed and 126 wounded, a significant casualty rate of up to a quarter of his force. The number of Native American dead is not known for certain. Thirty-seven bodies were found at the battle site, but this did not account for those who were carried off or died later from their wounds. Native American losses are estimated at no fewer than 50 killed and 70 or more wounded.

About the author

A Senior Fellow in Military History for ABC-Clio Publishing since 2003, Dr. Spencer C. Tucker has been instrumental in establishing ABC-CLIO as the premier military history reference publisher in the country. Spence's interest in military history began while he was a student at the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) and was enhanced by a Fulbright Fellowship in France and while serving as a captain in military intelligence in the Pentagon during the Vietnam War. Although he concentrated on Modern European History in his graduate studies, he became interested in all periods of military history. Spence taught at the university and college level for 36 years, 30 of these at Texas Christian University and the last 6 as holder of the John Biggs Chair of Military History at VMI. Spence is particularly excited to be the editor of ABC-CLIO's award-winning series of war encyclopedias, which includes The Encyclopedia of North American Indian Wars, 1607–1890: A Political, Social, and Military History.

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The Encyclopedia of North American Indian Wars, 1607–1890:
A Political, Social, and Military History
Edited by Spencer C. Tucker

This encyclopedia provides a broad, in-depth, and multidisciplinary look at the causes and effects of warfare between whites and Native Americans, encompassing nearly three centuries of history.

Genetic Genealogy

2011-11-04T09:36:00.000-07:00

You've likely heard of DNA tests for paternity lawsuits, crime scene investigation, and even medical conditions; but did you know genetic tests can help you learn more about your family tree?

For many, genetic testing has become a great way to enhance genealogical studies.
This is the focus of the 7th Genetic Genealogy Conference for Family Tree DNA Group Administrators in Houston, beginning November 4, where many of the emerging ethical issues with DNA testing will be addressed.

It is also the topic of discussion at the Fountaindale Public Library in Chicago on November 10, where David Dowell will present Adding DNA Testing to Your Genealogical Tool Kit.

Dowell is the author of the highly praised Crash Course in Genealogy, published earlier this year by Libraries Unlimited, and is currently working on a book on genetic genealogy. You can follow him on his blog, Dr. D Digs Up Ancestors.

Crash Course in Genealogy
David R. Dowell

A basic, how-to book written primarily to prepare librarians to assist genealogy researchers, this guide can also be used by those who wish to discover and document their family histories.

November: Revisiting Native American Heritage Month!

2011-11-01T07:00:00.000-07:00

By Loriene Roy
(Enrolled: White Earth Reservation; Member: Minnesota Chippewa Tribe), Professor, School of Information, The University of Texas at Austin

Fall arrives with children and adults returning to schools. Those living on Turtle Island (North America) move into the season of changing weather, tree color, and harvest. As the month of November looms, families plan their homecoming, often associated with a celebration they call Thanksgiving. In the midst of menu planning and the football season, it is easy to forget that November is officially Native American Heritage Month. A year ago, I shared some ideas on how to commemorate this month by learning more about Native cultures. This year, I am revisiting this topic, adding a few more resources and ideas and providing an update on topics introduced a year ago. Remember that your first stop for assistance in locating these resources—and pursing any topic more in depth—is your local public library!

My colleagues working at the National Museum of the American Indian, the Smithsonian library next to the National Air and Space Museum on the National Mall in Washington, DC, tell me that they often over hear adult visitors to the museum telling younger visitors that “American Indians do not exist anymore.” Perhaps this speaks to the fact that most people only think of Native peoples in the context of a museum collection of artifacts. It behooves all of us to remember that there are over 500 tribal nations within the geographic borders of the United States. And, members of tribal nations live in every state; two-thirds live away from tribal homelands.

Your local community might sponsor events this fall that focus on introducing or celebrating Native cultures. In my current home town of Austin, Texas, we celebrate our powwow with dances, educational programs, and food and vendor stalls. In November, the Windsor Park Branch of the Austin Public Library is hosting a documentary film series and panel discussion featuring “We Still Live Here,” a film about language recovery among the Wampanoag Nation of Massachusetts. Check your local programming for similar events—or consider planning your own!

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Last year I shared my “Ten To Watch” list of Native authors. Today I am adding an update with some news on these authors’ more recent activities. In addition, I am highlighting recent read including those by a well-known American Indian author, and a Maori librarian’s acclaimed first picture book.

• Sherman Alexie (Spokane/Coeur d'Alene) is now on Twitter where you can read such heart-stopping comments as, “In the library of my heart, the books are all large-print.” Sherman announces his latest publications, including the often difficult to locate poetry, on his website.

• In 2008, Louise Erdrich and her sister, Heid Erdrich (Turtle Mountain Anishinabe), founded Wiigwaas Press, a nonprofit organization that publishes books and develops programs to promote Native language revitalization. In 2010, Wiigwaas Press published Awesiinyensag, a collection of stories written in the Anishinaabemowin language for children. This fall, Awesiinyensag was selected by the Center of the Book at the Library of Congress as Minnesota’s Best Read for 2011.

• Wesleyan University Press has just published a book of interviews of Joy Harjo (Muskogee Creek). SoulTalk, Song Language is available in hardcover and as an e-book. Find out more about Harjo’s activities, including her nominations for music and book awards, at www.joyharjo.com.

• Anita Heiss’s (Wiradjuri Nation, Australia) latest chick-lit novel is Paris Dreaming, published by Random House Books Australia in January 2011. Heiss received the outstanding achievement in literature award at the 2011 Deadly Awards in September 2011. The Deadly Awards recognizes achievements by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. Heiss’s blog is a hot item. Huge interest was registered with her April 23, 2011 posting, “Anita’s Black Book Challenge (BBC),” on which she posted “Anita’s 100 (less one) Black Book Choice List” of her top titles by Aboriginal writers.

• Leslie Marmon Silko’s (Pueblo of Laguna/Cherokee) latest book is her memoir, The Turquoise Ledge (New York: Penguin, 2010). You can read—or listen—to a review of this book by Alan Cheuse at NPR.

• Cynthia Leitich Smith's (Muskogee Creek) young adult novel, Tantalize, was reissued as a graphic novel, Tantalize: Kieren’s Story (New York: Candlewick Press, 2011). Smith, who hosts a popular blog on children’s and young adult (YA) literature recently signed a three-book contract, including a novel, Smolder.

• Larry Loyie (Creek; Canada) is in the midst of writing his next YA novel, building on his autobiography, Goodbye Buffalo Bay (Oroville, Washington: Theytus Books, 2008). Loyie and his partner, Constance Brissenden, have completed over 1,200 school visits, talking with students, educators, and librarians about writing and First Nations history and issues.

• Navajo poet, Luci Tapahonso, is featured on a University of Arizona YouTube video. Her collections of poetry include Blue Horses Rush In (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1997).

• Tim Tingle’s (Choctaw) latest picture book, Saltypie: A Choctaw Journey From Darkness Into Light (El Paso: Cinco Puntos Press) was selected as a 2011 Notable Book by the American Library Association. Tingle’s writing is included in the following well received anthology: Dembicki, Matt, ed. Trickster: Native American Tales: A Graphic Collection. Golden, CO: Fulcrum Books, 2010.

Finally, here are some notes about authors or writing initiatives that were not covered last year.

• Well-known Abenaki writer, Joseph Bruchac has a new YA novel: Wolf Mark. New York: Lee & Low, 2011.

• James Bartleman (Chippewa, Rama First Nation), the first First Nations Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario, published his first novel, As Long as the Rivers Flow (Toronto: Random House, 2011), a story of the impact of the residential school system on one First Nations family.

• Chris Szekely (Maori librarian) has published his first work of fiction, a picture book titled, Rāhui (Wellington, New Zealand: Huia Publishers, 2011). A trailer of Rāhui is available on YouTube.

• For those seeking board books, books for the youngest readers and their caretakers, check out the series published by Native Northwest. The books feature artwork by a number of First Nations artists and includes Learn the Alphabet with Northwest Coast Native Art and Sharing Our World: Animals of the Native Northwest Coast.

• For readers interested in more academic writing, check out the First Peoples: New Directions in Indigenous Studies initiative. For those wanting to keep with politics and timely content impacting Native peoples. Check out Paul DeMain’s Native News Updates webcasts aired as “IndianCountryTV." DeMain sends alerts on Facebook when he posts new episodes.

El Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead)

2011-10-27T10:31:00.000-07:00

The following is an excerpt from Carrasco, Davíd and Scott Sessions. "El Día de los Muertos 2011: Background." The American Mosaic: The Latino American Experience. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 25 Oct. 2011:

One of the most meaningful yearly celebrations in Mexico, in fact throughout Latin America, is El Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), celebrated for nearly a week at the end of October and the beginning of November. This elaborate celebration, dedicated to the cult of the dead (also referred to as Todos Santos—All Saints' Day), combines pre-Columbian rituals and beliefs with Catholic practices and symbols. Although Day of the Dead rituals are complex and difficult to categorize, the central idea is that during this period of public and private (family) rituals, the living and dead family members and friends are joined together in an atmosphere of communion and spiritual regeneration.

Important elements of Day of the Dead festivities in Central Mexico were practiced by Aztecs and have become integrated into the Catholic traditions of Mexico and other parts of Latin America. This same pattern of images of the dead, altar, food offerings, incense, and communion is carried out today. It is important to note that the rituals, symbols, and elaborate decorations of home altars and cemeteries differ somewhat according to region. Some communities emphasize cemetery altars and decorations, whereas others emphasize the processions between home and cemetery. Still others make unusual efforts to decorate their home altars to dead ancestors in baroque, lavish ways. But all Day of the Dead celebrations focus on a spiritual covenant between the human community and supernatural entities of deceased family members, friends, or saints. What is outstanding in all cases is the belief that what happens during one's life here on this earth is dependent, in part, on treating the dead well. People believe that if the dead are not worshipped, nurtured, and remembered in the proper manner, their own economic security, family stability, and health will be in jeopardy. Therefore, careful and generous preparations are carried out.

Discover more on the history and traditions of El Dia de los Muertos—from its roots in both pre-Columbian and Christian rituals to contemporary forms of celebration in Latin America and the United States—by checking out the full Feature Story on the Latino American Experience. If you are not already a subscriber, click here for a free trial.

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Additional Resources

Daily Life of the Aztecs, Second Edition
Davíd Carrasco and Scott Sessions
Greenwood, 2011

Examine the fascinating details of the daily lives of the ancient Aztecs through this innovative study of their social history, culture, and continuing influence, written from the perspective of the history of religions.

Encyclopedia of Latino Popular Culture
Cordelia Chávez Candelaria, Arturo J. Aldama and Peter J. García
Greenwood, 2004

This 2-volume set is the first to encapsulate the breadth of Latina/Latino popular culture and its impact on the wider American culture.

Dictionary Of Chicano Folklore
Rafaela G. Castro
ABC-CLIO, 2000

Dictionary of Chicano Folklore charts the rich religious, social, artistic, and cultural heritage of Mexican Americans, who continue to evolve the customs and rituals connected to their Spanish and indigenous roots and the Spanish language.

India Celebrates 2011 Gandhi Jayanti and Diwali

2011-10-24T06:00:00.000-07:00

October marks the celebration of two of India's major national holidays: the birthday of Gandhi Jayanti and the festival of Diwali. This year, Diwali will be celebrated on Wednesday, October 26th. The following is an edited excerpt from India Today: An Encyclopedia of Life in the Republic, edited by Arnold P. Kaminsky and Roger Long:

The Republic of India celebrates three national holidays: Republic Day (January 26), Independence Day (August 15) and Gandhi Jayanti, celebrated every year on October 2. On this day Indians mark the birth of Mohandas Mahatma Karamchand Gandhi (1869–1948), considered the “father of the country” by most Indians. Celebrations include local and state festivities, prayer services, and other remembrances of Gandhi’s sacrifice for freedom from British rule in a unified India and his lifelong commitment to nonviolence.

Beyond the official secular holidays celebrated by Indians, there are several religious festivals and traditions that consume the attention of a large percentage of the population each year. Among the most colorful and boisterous is the Hindu festival known as Diwali (also known as Depawali, Dipavali, Dewali, Diwali, Divali, Dipotsavi, Dipapratipad). Diwali is the “festival of lights,” and in India is spread over five days in autumn and is scheduled according to the Hindu Lunar calendar. There are many different names for the days of Diwali in different regions of India (South & North India, East & West India) and in the different languages spoken in these regions (i.e. Hindi, Urdu, Telugu, Tamil, Gujarati, Bengali).

Although primarily a Hindu holiday, Diwali marks the beginning of the Hindu New Year and its origins predate modern Hinduism. As such, activities are related to the diversity of meanings given to the festival by the various Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist sects who celebrate the holiday. Most celebrations center on the use of light, with candles, oil lamps, and electric lights decorating houses during this time. Sweets and other edibles are prepared, and pujas (worship) to various gods and ancestors are carried out, but people pray especially to Lakshmi, Goddess of wealth, light, prosperity and wisdom, and also to Ganesha, the 'Remover of Obstacles' and the 'Lord of Beginnings'.

One loud aspect of Diwali is the widespread use of fireworks and “crackers.” These celebratory devices of black powder and paper turn normally quiet villages and cities into raucous places of celebration. One day of Diwali is also afforded the honor of being a public holiday, a day off for government officials, schools, and banks.

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Arnold P. Kaminsky, PhD, is professor of history at California State University, Long Beach, CA, and former chair of the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies. He was the founding director of the Yadunandan Center for India Studies at CSULB. A specialist on modern India and South Asia, his published works include The India Office: 1880–1910 and a number of articles and book chapters on the administrative history of India. Kaminsky has received numerous grants and fellowships to advance his research and engage in curricular design of Asia in the schools. He recently worked with the National Knowledge Commission of India to establish teacher education and higher education leadership collaboration between CSULB and Indian universities.

Roger D. Long, PhD, is professor of history at Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI. His research focuses on India during the 20th century, particularly during the 1930s and 1940s, with special reference to the nationalist movement. He has edited a number of volumes, including The Founding of Pakistan: An Annotated Bibliography; The Man on the Spot: Essays on British Empire History; Charisma and Commitment in South Asian History: Essays Presented to Stanley Wolpert; The Political Career of Muhammad Ali Jinnah; and 'Dear Mr. Jinnah': Selected Correspondence and Speeches of Liaquat Ali Khan, 1937–1947.

India Today
An Encyclopedia of Life in the Republic
Edited by Arnold P. Kaminsky and Roger D. Long

Containing almost 250 entries written by scholars from around the world, this two-volume resource provides current, accurate, and useful information on the politics, economics, society, and cultures of India since 1947.

Qaddafi's Death Begins a New Chapter in Libyan History

2011-10-21T11:43:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, October 20, 2011, Libyan citizens flooded the streets of Tripoli and other cities to celebrate the demise of strongman Muammar Qaddafi, who, along with his son and several other officials, was killed by revolutionary forces in his hometown of Sirte. Several hours after cell phone images and videos of a presumably deceased Qaddafi began to circulate, the new Libyan leadership confirmed the dictator's death. Amid the excitement, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussensenior announced that the international military force would pull out of Libya.

Qaddafi's death promises to be a real turning point in Libya's bloody civil war, which has raged since February between pro- and anti-Qaddafi factions. NATO, and specifically U.S., involvement in the conflict has proven particularly controversial. Debate over the motives, intensity, and duration of American involvement in the North African country has circulated since NATO operations began in mid-March. Although President Barack Obama assured the American public in an address to the nation on March 28 that the U.S. goal was to protect civilians and not to effect regime change, critics at home and abroad believe that the United States went far beyond these stated objectives. In late May, members of Congress from both political parties leveled criticism at Obama and his administration for continued U.S. involvement in NATO operations—without congressional approval and allegedly in violation of the War Powers Act.

It is clear that Qaddafi's death has ushered in a new era for modern Libya. Yet the details of this unfolding future—and, in particular, the international community's role in it—remain to be seen.

—Maxine Taylor, ABC-CLIO

Taylor, Maxine. "Muammar Qaddafi Killed: Overview." World at War: Understanding Conflict and Society. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 21 Oct. 2011.

If you are a database subscriber, read the rest of this feature story here.

To sign up for a free preview of our databases, click here.

Occupy Everything: The Streets Are Alive with the Sound of Anarchism

2011-10-21T10:24:00.000-07:00

The headlines from recent weeks can be paraphrased like something out of an anarchist’s dream: “Leaderless Movement Confronts Powers-That-Be.” The Occupy movement has spread across the U.S. and around the world in rapid fashion, and while it would be an overstatement to proclaim that it is an exercise in anarchism through-and-through, there is no doubt that the basic framework of decentralized solidarity strongly recalls previous episodes of anarchy breaking out.

Indeed, the spontaneous, emergent, and self-determined nature of the Occupy demonstrations falls within the ambit of anarchism—from the “people’s assemblies” model of governance to the general refusal to engage in the “politics of demand” that often characterizes social movements. The anarchist anthropologist David Graeber, one of the initial organizers of the catalyzing Occupy Wall Street effort, expressly analyzed the phenomenon in a Washington Post interview in terms that anarchists will find quite familiar:

“It’s pre-figurative, so to speak. You’re creating a vision of the sort of society you want to have in miniature. And it’s a way of juxtaposing yourself against these powerful, undemocratic forces you’re protesting. If you make demands, you’re saying, in a way, that you’re asking the people in power and the existing institutions to do something different. And one reason people have been hesitant to do that is they see these institutions as the problem.”

While this bears a resemblance to precursor mobilizations in which an anarchist ethos has helped set the tone for widespread actions and organizing tactics—as prominently seen in the anti-globalization movement, for instance—this is also something completely new and different. We would be hard-pressed to identify another example of a movement that has caught hold so broadly and quickly, without a central charismatic figure or even a concrete set of unified demands. Instead, this movement taps into a deep well of accumulated resentment while at the same time retaining a celebratory feel, yielding a combined effect of “love and rage” that mirrors contemporary anarchist praxis.

The panoply of slogans in the movement tells the story. “The Beginning Is Near.” “Lost My Job But Found an Occupation.” “Yes We Camp.” “Don’t Feed the Greed.” “I Can’t Afford My Own Politician So I Made This Sign.” “Tear Down This Wall St.” “Born-Again American.” “The People: Too Big to Fail.” After seeing a photo of a young woman holding a sign that read “I Care About You,” author Naomi Klein visited Occupy Wall Street and declared it “the most important thing in the world” right now.

The power of the moment plainly excuses the resort to hyperbole. We have been waiting a long time for this resurgence of people power, here in the “belly of the beast.” While the world has been witnessing popular uprisings and throwing off tyrants, Americans have largely been insulated through our relative privilege, subsidized creature comforts, and a palpable cultural echo-chamber of self-aggrandizement.

No more. Occupy Wall Street has morphed into Occupy Main Street. It coheres as Occupy Together and decenters itself anew as Occupy Everything. Ultimately, it asks us to once again Occupy Earth—which sets a high bar toward changing the paradigm, since the consumptive one we’ve been living in has been steadily rendering the biosphere inhospitable if not outright uninhabitable

Interestingly, the Occupy movement sprang up in full force right after I finished writing Anarchism Today. Yet the seeds of the movement’s cosmology are eminently present throughout the text, and the strands of anarchist organizing from the past and present that are described in the book read like a how-to manual for the cutting-edge movements in the streets today. The spirit of anarchy is alive and well, and is apparently coming soon to an everything near you…

About the Author:

Randall Amster holds a J.D. from Brooklyn Law School and a Ph.D. in Justice Studies from Arizona State University. He teaches Peace Studies and is the Graduate Chair of Humanities at Prescott College, and serves as the Executive Director of the Peace & Justice Studies Association. He publishes widely in areas including anarchism, ecology, nonviolence, war and peace, social movements, homelessness, immigration, and sustainable communities. Dr. Amster is a member of the editorial advisory boards for the Contemporary Justice Review and the Journal of Sustainability Education. In addition, he is a regular columnist for the Daily Courier and a frequent contributor to numerous online publications, and is also the founder and editor of the news and commentary website, New Clear Vision. His forthcoming book Anarchism Today will be published by Praeger/ABC-CLIO in March 2012.

Teaching Grammar and Persuasive Writing

2011-10-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

Someone quite wise once said that all writing is persuasive. So perhaps this blog entry is, too.

When I stepped out to write a book on persuasion I thought to myself, “What can I possibly add to the canon?” I mean the Greeks and Romans defined it, and philosophers and rhetoricians have been honing it ever since. Yet because I work with teachers who teach writing, I set out to make my humble contribution to the genre. And I think I accomplished that. Four by Four: Practical Methods for Writing Persuasively (Libraries Unlimited, Forthcoming) offers a distinctly hands-on way built upon four patterns to teach kids how to organize a persuasive paper.

Four by Four follows my Brushing Up on Grammar, (Libraries Unlimited, 2010) co-authored with Edward E. Wilson. Research tells us that grammar—to take—needs to be taught within the writing process. Unfortunately, teaching grammar in that way demands teachers who really know their grammar. If not, grammar taught in isolation gets drilled and therefore killed for most kids. BUG, as I affectionately call the book, helps teachers do what the title says—brush up. In that way perhaps they can add a dash of life to a subject most students dread.

Check out these great books that will help you teach your students to write both persuasively and well. The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) honors October 20 as The National Day on Writing www.ncte.org/dayonwriting/about

— Joyce Armstrong Carroll, Ed.D., H.L.D., Co-director Abydos Learning International

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Four by Four

Practical Methods for Writing Persuasively

By Joyce Armstrong Carroll, EdD, HLD, and Edward E. Wilson

Geared toward English and social studies teachers as well as school librarians, this book provides a clear and concise way to approach the teaching of persuasive writing—and to develop the skills students need to excel on high stakes tests as well.

Brushing Up on Grammar

An Acts of Teaching Approach

By Joyce Armstrong Carroll, EdD, HLD, and Edward E. Wilson

Teachers will use this book as a quick but intensive way to brush up on their grammar skills and a guide to hands-on ways to teach grammar concepts.

Liberian president Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf receives 2011 Nobel Peace Prize

2011-10-07T11:41:00.000-07:00

The Norwegian Nobel Prize committee today announced that Liberian president Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is the co-recipient of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize for her leading role in the "non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work." Sirleaf's dramatic rise to become the first democratically elected woman to lead an African nation vividly highlights the important role women play in achieving peace, as recounted below by Dr. Melinda Adams of James Madison University:

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf made the case that her experience as a woman prepared her for the presidency. Throughout the campaign, Sirleaf called attention to the fact that she was a mother and a grandmother. Speaking to The Perspective, a U.S.-based news magazine published by the Liberian Democratic Future (LDF), Sirleaf stated, for example: “I believe that there are certain attributes in a woman that give her some advantages over a man. Women are usually more honest, more sensitive to issues and bring a stronger sense of commitment and dedication to what they do. Maybe because they were mothers, and being a mother you have that special attention for the family, for the young, for children.” In the documentary, Iron Ladies of Liberia, Sirleaf notes that Liberians often respond favorably to her “Old Ma” political style, in which she approached constituents as a mother who listened to them. Sirleaf’s Ma Ellen campaign implicitly argued that as a woman—and a mother—she would bring feminine leadership qualities, such as warmth and compassion, to the presidency. After years of corruption, mismanagement, and violence associated with Liberia’s previous male leaders, Sirleaf’s commitment to create a government that was more honest, open, and responsive to constituents resonated with Liberians…

Support from Liberian women, which crossed ethnic and class lines, seemed to play an important role in her victory. The Ministry of Gender and Development undertook a voter registration drive that increased the percentage of registered voters who were women from under 30 percent to over 50 percent in less than a month. Literate females boasted the highest turnout figures (77.1% in October and 69.9% in November) of any groups in Liberia. A number of women’s organizations, including the Liberian Women Initiative (LWI), endorsed Sirleaf...In her inaugural address, Sirleaf acknowledged the important role that women played in her election, stating: “During the period of our elections, Liberian women were galvanized—and demonstrated unmatched passion, enthusiasm, and support for my candidacy. They stood with me; they defended me; they worked with me; they prayed for me.”

By Dr. Melinda Adams, from Cracking the Highest Glass Ceiling: A Global Comparison of Women's Campaigns for Executive Office

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Learn more about the inspiring work of President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and thousands of Liberian women in ending decades of Civil War in West Africa and rebuilding their country with:

Cracking the Highest Glass Ceiling:
A Global Comparison of Women's Campaigns for Executive Office
Edited By Rainbow Murray

This examination of the role of gender stereotyping in media coverage of executive elections uses nine case studies from around the world to provide a unique comparative perspective.

Women in Developing Countries:
A Reference Handbook
By Karen L. Kinnear

This book provides a much-needed survey of the discrimination and violence against women in developing countries, and identifies the literature and resources available about this topic.

Peace Movements Worldwide
Edited By Marc Pilisuk and Michael N. Nagler

This three-volume anthology is a comprehensive overview of how the human yearning for peace has played out, and is playing out, on this planet.

Women in Power: World Leaders since 1960
By Gunhild Hoogensen, Bruce O. Solheim

Profiles 22 women who have held the top positions of political leadership around the world.

Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson: A Hero is Born

2011-10-06T08:20:00.000-07:00

During the American Civil War 150 years ago, on October 7, 1861, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was promoted to major general in the Confederate Army. Jackson had earned his nickname a few months earlier during the First Battle of Bull Run when he played a pivotal role in the Confederate victory. During the height of the battle, Brigadier General Barnard Bee cried out, "There stands Jackson like a stone wall!", and a legend was born. In this excerpt from Ethan S. Rafuse's Stonewall Jackson: A Biography, Jackson is preparing his troops for the upcoming battle.

Jackson had his men up early on Sunday, July 21, but not as early as McDowell had his. At around 6:00 A.M., the sound of artillery and small arms fire could be heard upstream from Jackson’s position. A little over three hours later Jackson received a message reporting that the Federals had crossed Bull Run a few miles above the Stone Bridge that carried the Warrenton Turnpike over the creek and marked the Confederate left—and his command was needed to help deal with the threat. Jackson responded with alacrity and quickly moved his command to the vicinity of the Stone Bridge but, after listening awhile to the sound of an intense fight to the west, ordered his command to move in that direction. At around noon, Jackson reached the eastern border of a large open plateau on which the home of Judith Henry sat.

Upon reaching Henry Hill, Jackson and his men were greeted with the sight of hundreds of bloodied and exhausted Confederate troops. Included among them was artillery Capt. John Imboden. From Imboden and other sources, Jackson learned that the brigades of Col. Nathan Evans from Beauregard’s army and Brig. Gen. Bernard Bee’s and Col. Francis Bartow’s from Johnston’s army had been overwhelmed after a tough fight on Matthews Hill with a massive Union force pushing south from a crossing of Bull Run located near Sudley Church. Imboden also reported that he had used his three guns to support their fight and cover their withdrawal but had been compelled to pull back. “I’ll support your battery,” Jackson replied, “Unlimber here.” Imboden informed Jackson that he had nearly exhausted his ammunition in the course of the earlier engagement and intended to continue moving to the rear in search of ammunition to replenish his caissons, but Jackson persuaded him not to just yet.

Jackson then began methodically posting his five regiments in a tree-line in support of Imboden’s position and, to bolster the position, brought up the four guns of the Rockbridge Artillery and two guns from a Richmond battery. Meanwhile, the forces that had been so roughly handled on Matthews Hill began to rally in the area behind the right of Jackson’s line. One of their commanders, Bee, rode over to Jackson and excitedly reported, “General, they are driving us!” “Sir,” Jackson sternly replied after quickly looking over the field, “we will give them the bayonet.”

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Ethan S. Rafuse is professor of military history at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He is the author of several books about the Civil War, including Stonewall Jackson: A Biography; A Single Grand Victory: The First Campaign and Battle of Manassas; McClellan's War: The Failure of Moderation in the Struggle for the Union; and Robert E. Lee and the Fall of the Confederacy, 1863–1865.

Information Literacy Awareness

2011-10-03T09:01:00.000-07:00

October is National Information Literacy Awareness Month.

Click here to find all about events and activities to support information literacy.

ABC-CLIO is a major publisher of materials to support information literacy. Through two of our imprints, Libraries Unlimited and Linworth, we publish materials for educators, students, and library professionals to enhance the understanding of and instruction in information literacy skills. Wonderful new and forthcoming books like:

Information Literacy and Information Skills Instruction: Applying Research to Practice in the 21st Century School Library, Third Edition
By Nancy Pickering Thomas, Sherry R. Crow and Lori L. Franklin
Pub date: 6-13-2011
Imprint: Libraries Unlimited

Concise Guide to Information Literacy (forthcoming)
By: Scott Lanning Phil Roche
Pub date: 3-30-2012
Imprint: Libraries Unlimited

The Big6 Workshop Handbook: Implementation and Impact, Fourth Edition
By: Michael B. Eisenberg and Robert E. Berkowitz
Pub date: 3-25-2011
Imprint: Linworth

What are you doing to build information literacy in your school and library? We are here to help you. Check us out!

Sign up for our Inquiry and Information Literacy e-newsletter. Click here.

Brought to you by Sharon Coatney, editor of The Many Faces of School Library Leadership (Libraries Unlimited, 2010)

International Translation Day 2011

2011-09-30T09:17:00.000-07:00

Today, September 30, is International Translation Day 2011. (Read more.)

Contemporary World Fiction
Juris Dilevko, Keren Dali, and Glenda Garbutt

What people in North America learn about other cultures and countries is often filtered through Western perspectives and sensibilities. One way to get beyond that sometimes-one-dimensional view is to sample stories of other countries and cultures as told by people who live in those lands and speak their languages.

In a globalized world, knowledge about non-North American societies and cultures is a must. Contemporary World Fiction: A Guide to Literature in Translation provides an overview of the tremendous range and scope of translated world fiction available in English. In so doing, it will help readers get a sense of the vast world beyond North America that is conveyed by fiction titles from dozens of countries and language traditions.

Within the guide, approximately 1,000 contemporary non-English-language fiction titles are fully annotated and thousands of others are listed. Organization is primarily by language, as language often reflects cultural cohesion better than national borders or geographies, but also by country and culture. In addition to contemporary titles, each chapter features a brief overview of earlier translated fiction from the group. The guide also provides in-depth bibliographic essays for each chapter that will enable librarians and library users to further explore the literature of numerous languages and cultural traditions.

The Library Square

2011-09-23T08:56:00.000-07:00

By David Carr

We have to be grateful for the serendipitous motions and useful juxtapositions of our sphere. For example, while waiting to receive the first copies of my new book, Open Conversations: Public Learning in Libraries and Museums (Libraries Unlimited, September 2011), a fresh e-mail contained a reference to this essay, “Public Libraries: A New Type of Town Square.”

It was one of the notices I receive from dozens of organizations seeking to restore our nation’s public civility and discourse. The article is based on a new report from the International City/County Management Association, aimed at seeing libraries as community agencies and problem-solvers. The summary is simultaneously valuable and incomplete.

Valuable, because the public library is an instrumental agency in every community. It provides information that causes lives to be changed, risks to be taken, and futures to be imagined. When communities and citizens struggle with economic, educational, and civic challenges, they often look across the nation and world for ideas, or simply for words and names. They seek experts and stories for possible insights and resolutions. And they need a skilled, undaunted professional navigator at the edge of the information. Every wired library is capable of reaching as broadly and intensely as the user requires, with no real limits and with limitless lessons. Libraries not only provide ways toward responses to problems, they also teach users that good problems are always open to fresh approaches. It’s possible to live in a never-ending inquiry, if you are a steady user working together in a rich collection with a librarian you trust. For a learner, it’s idyllic.

But in my view, the ICMA’s summary also misses the point, because its examples of partnerships and service programs tend to address strategies for making local governments and institutions work better. Of course this is a good thing, but it misses something larger. In Open Conversations, I list some other matters that affect our culture, beyond fiscal discouragements, collapsing institutions, and the educational disappointments. For example, we are as a people silent among each other, without secular places to speak together about our lives and hopes. Our public discourse is badly compromised and politicized. Literacy is in the throes of change; and the values of reading and knowing are unclear to our youth–or their parents. Knowledge is obscured by twittering artifice and competitive dance programs. (Facebook? It’s nothing like a book at all!) Confidence erodes in more than corporations, banks, and schools. Our collective trust in the lasting goodness of government, religion, social security, news media, politics, and health care is unsteady. Our population is perpetually changing toward complexity, worldliness, and youth, inspiring both aspirations and fears at once. And we did not learn well after September 11, 2001; we may be now as vulnerable as then.

It seems to me that adults have plenty to learn about themselves, their nation, their neighbors, their institutions, their communities, and the possibilities of energy and change that may be obscured until they begin to speak to each other. Open Conversations is a work of advocacy toward a culture where libraries and museums (and other cultural institutions like botanical gardens, historical settings, and zoos) invite communities to think and speak together, creating an informed civility that engenders articulation, confidence, and courage. Unlike the strategic programs that tend to please foundations and governments, the conversations I advocate raise questions, assemble readings, look at evidence, and think about the critical, invisible parts of living: ethics, actions, generosity, intelligence, reflection, respect for self, respect for others, justice, innovation and the mindful life of a community.

We live within the tension between optimism and despair. If we do see these conversations happen, museums and libraries will not offer us a respite. Nor should we expect answers or solutions to emerge from them, although they might. Instead, we should hope to see great (and perhaps greatly unanswerable) questions arise, questions so powerful and inviting that we will want to address them steadily, wherever we can become something together, in order to name and explore what we need most to understand.

David Carr is the author of Open Conversations: Public Learning in Libraries and Museums.

The HPV Vaccine Controversy

2011-09-19T08:58:00.000-07:00

Ever since the FDA approved the HPV vaccine in 2006, its introduction has been embroiled in a medical, social, cultural, and political controversy. This controversy has once again been rekindled in the recent Republican Primary debates between Texas governor, Rick Perry and Congresswoman, Michelle Bachmann from Minnesota, where she emphatically stated that Merck’s HPV vaccine, Gardasil, causes mental retardation.

As a as a physician, a parent, and the author of the award-winning book The HPV Vaccine Controversy: Sex, Cancer, God and Politics (Praeger, 2008), I feel compelled to comment on this issue:

A report presented by four different sources to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), an independent panel of experts that advises the CDC, on vaccine policies, found no signals to link Gardasil directly to any of the serious adverse effects that have been publicized in the media.

In order to clarify this and help consumers make the best-informed decision before vaccinating, it is helpful to understand the difference between a side effect (caused directly by the vaccine), and an adverse effect (which usually occurs within six weeks after the administration of a vaccine but may or may not be related to the vaccine).

The two most common side effects reported are pain at the site of injection, followed by swelling and redness. These are temporary symptoms and resolve within a few days, as is the case with most other vaccines.
The number of adverse effects that link the HPV vaccines to the nervous system disorder are around 1-2/100,000 cases—about the same that occur in the general population as a sheer coincidence or chance, and have the same statistical occurrence as the population at large that has not been vaccinated.

It is obvious that the more number of shots administered, (as of June 22, 2011, 35 million doses of Gardasil had been distributed), the more likely the chance for these rare and unexpected events to occur. It should be noted that there is no report from the CDC of Gardasil resulting in mental retardation.

The HPV vaccine has established a decent track record at five years post-licensure. Based upon these current findings, the FDA strongly recommends vaccinating the target population: 9-26 year-old females and males. The CDC will continue to be vigilant and monitor safety data on an ongoing basis. Nevertheless, it is helpful to remind ourselves that regardless of how well studies are conducted, gray zones of risk exist. The history of medicine has shown us that such unfortunate events do occur for unknown reasons, and research is underway to study if genetics and environmental factors have a role to play in such rare and serious events.

One should always balance the greater good with these potentially minimal risks when evaluating the advantages offered by new and emerging medicines. ‘Scare mongering’ for personal political gain does not bode well for the education and welfare of the citizens at large. In the case of the HPV vaccine, it would be a shame if negative attention created by a few rare effects hampers the efforts to reach millions of women and men who risk losing their lives to HPV related diseases including cancers, particularly cervical cancer, both in our country and around the world.

Shobha S. Krishnan, MD is the Founder and President of the Global Initiative Against HPV and Cervical Cancer (GIAHC) A family physician and gynecologist, she serves on the STD research-working group at the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons. She is on the Medical Advisory Board of the National Cervical Cancer Coalition, and on the experts’ panel of the American Social Health Association. Dr. Krishnan has also worked as a surveillance physician for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and is the author of the independently written, national and international award-winning book, The HPV Vaccine Controversy: Sex, Cancer, God and Politics.

Author Donates Book Royalties to Local School District for Scholarships

2011-09-15T09:41:00.000-07:00

Sharon Coatney, former Blue Valley educator, has given $1,000.00 today to the Blue Valley School District in honor of Ruth Bell, former Director of Libraries for the District and consummate leader. The money is to be earmarked for two $500.00 scholarships to be awarded to two school librarians in the District to use to attend the national conference of the American Association of School Librarians, October 27-30 in Minneapolis in order to enhance their leadership skills. Mrs. Coatney was the school librarian at Oak Hill Elementary School in Blue Valley from 1987-2002. She is a past president of the American Association of School Librarians, and of the Kansas Association of School Librarians and was a Councilor at Large of the American Library Association for 8 years. The moneys given are taken from the royalties from her latest book, The Many Faces of School Library Leadership, (Libraries Unlimited, 2010) which is dedicated to her mentor and friend, Ruth Bell. She states that, "Leadership skills are of vital importance to the role of the school librarian in enhancing and enabling student learning in their schools."

Currently, Sharon Coatney is the Sr. Acquisitions Editor, Linworth/Libraries Unlimited, both imprints of ABC-CLIO.

The Palestinian Proposal for Statehood

2011-09-14T11:08:00.000-07:00

The issue of Palestinian statehood is again generating considerable discussion with all indications suggesting that the bid for statehood will be presented to the United Nations on September 20. Plans to submit the Palestinian proposal have sparked vigorous support and opposition. Palestinians are considering proposals to upgrade their status from an “observer entity” gained in 1974, to an “observer state,” a “nonmember state,” or a “member state.” Time will tell which course of action will be proposed to the General Assembly, but observer status is one step higher than observer entity, and would not require action by the U.N. Security Council. If it decides to pursue nonmember state status, this would be more of a symbolic victory that would not allow Palestinians to challenge Israel’s occupation of its territory. Full member state status would most closely fulfill the Palestinian vision for statehood and self-determination, but the obstacles for securing this standing are significant. The U.S. would veto the bid for sure in the Security Council, and typically when the Security Council recommends membership, it then relays the request to the General Assembly. The European Union (EU) has also been split with a prospective vote on Palestinian statehood among its member states.

As with previous attempts to secure statehood, Palestinians must demonstrate that they are able to govern themselves as a sovereign nation capable of nurturing a stable political system and economy. Acts of terrorism by Palestinian militants have taken the spotlight from state building activities in the past, and members of the U.N. will consider this historical context in the decision-making process as they register their votes. The Middle East has remained in a state of tension which began in December 2010, with surges of demonstrations and protests (known as the Arab Spring) occurring in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Syria, and Yemen. Unrest has followed in other nations as well. The Israeli government continues to embrace its hardline position under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the negotiation process has stalled on both sides. The continued Israeli occupation of sections of the West Bank and east Jerusalem are a source of tension, particularly among militant Palestinian factions. This has been exacerbated by recent announcements by Israel that it plans to build new homes in the West Bank, which was met by disapproval from the Middle East Quartet comprised of the U.S., Russia, the EU, and the U.N. With both sides demonstrating such an unwavering commitment to their own values, the questions now become: if Palestinians are denied a change in their status by the U.N., will this provoke a continued cycle of violence and unrest similar to what was seen in the intifadas (uprisings) of the past, and further endanger its future prospects for statehood? Or, if it is granted a status change, will it be able to build a strong state where terrorism is curbed, and how will relations with the hardline government of Israel evolve? There are other scenarios, but with any outcome one can expect significant developments to unfold in Palestinian affairs in times to come.

Dr. Daniel Baracskay is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Public Administration at Valdosta State University. Dr. Baracskay has a PhD in Political Science from the University of Cincinnati. He is the author of numerous journal articles and book chapters, including an article titled “Marshall Dimock’s Theoretical Legacy” in Public Administration and Management; “Strategic Communication During the Cold War” in Information Warfare 2.0 edited by James Forest; and “The April 1995 Bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City” and “The February 1993 Attack on the World Trade Center” in the popular volume Combating Terrorism in the 21st Century, also edited by James Forest. He recently published a book titled, The Palestine Liberation Organization: Terrorism and Prospects for Peace in the Holy Land in May 2011 through Praeger Press.

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Additional Resources

The Palestine Liberation Organization: Terrorism and Prospects for Peace in the Holy Land

Daniel Baracskay
Praeger, 5/2011

This meticulous and in-depth book chronicles the evolution of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)—one of the most powerful and influential terrorist organizations in modern Middle Eastern politics and world affairs.

Ten years after 9/11, is al-Qaida still a threat?

2011-09-09T09:08:00.000-07:00

The 10th anniversary of 9/11 is an appropriate time to reflect on whether al-Qaida, the terrorist organization responsible for the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, is still a serious threat to the United States. With the deaths of Osama bin Laden in May and Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, al-Qaida's second-ranking figure, in August, U.S. officials feel they have seriously weakened the group. However, others caution that al-Qaida has repeatedly demonstrated the ability to bounce back and should not be taken lightly.

A leading terrorism expert, James Forest, recently addressed the question of al-Qaida's future in a commentary on the Praeger Security International database.

In the long run . . . al-Qaida will cease to be a threat. No terrorist organization of any kind has been around forever. Their attacks have already alienated an overwhelming majority of the Muslim world, which is al-Qaida’s primary audience. They’re constantly appealing for support, and trying to justify their actions to the Muslim world, but at the same time al-Qaida attacks over the last decade have killed 8 Muslims for every 1 non-Muslim. That kind of hypocrisy undermines their ability to sustain the movement over the long term.

It may take a generation before al-Qaida loses all hope of financial support, recruitment, and safe haven. When the day comes that some al-Qaida figurehead releases a video statement, and absolutely nobody in the world is the least bit concerned, that day will make the final strategic victory. Osama bin Laden's "vision of the future", a future which (according to him and his colleagues) requires the murder of countless innocent people around the world, will someday meet the fate of bin Laden himself. When al-Qaida's ideology fails to resonate with anyone, and nobody anywhere in the world is inspired or motivated to murder on behalf of al-Qaida, the strategic victory that begins with the death of bin Laden will be complete.

JAMES J.F.FOREST, PhD is an associateprofessor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell,where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on terrorism, weapons ofmass destruction, and contemporary security studies. He was the Director ofTerrorism Studies at the United States Military Academy from 2001 to 2010. Dr. Forestwas selected by the Center for American Progress and Foreign Policy as one of “

America

’smost esteemed terrorism and national security experts” and participated intheir annual Terrorism Index studies 2006 through 2010.

9/11 Through the Eyes of an Expert on Islam in the West

2011-09-08T11:30:00.000-07:00

On September 11, 2001, millions of New Yorkers witnessed the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center firsthand, including award-winning author and journalist Abigail R. Esman. In this excerpt from her book Radical State: How Jihad Is Winning Over Democracy in the West, Esman relates her experience in New York and Amsterdam in the days following the attacks.

Over the next days, I wandered the streets of the Upper East Side alone, dazed, as everybody else was dazed, unsure, as everybody was unsure. I took photographs: a sign at Barnes & Noble on Lexington and Eighty-Seventh Street declaring “Closed, due to act of war”; the first few of what would soon be several thousand colored sheets of paper, marked with photographs of the “missing,” now known dead; impromptu shrines on the doorsteps of brownstones and apartment buildings, and waves of flowers at the doorway of Engine 22, our local firehouse on Eighty-fifth Street and Third Avenue. Smoke and stench and death rose up and over New York City in the wind.

On September 18, exactly one week after the attacks, I returned to Amsterdam (. . . .) And as I walked this city, a city whose very gentleness now felt practically obscene (. . .), where the sun slid into the gardens and over the balconies, where the smell of the smoke and the sorrow and the dead did not roll along the streets and into our lungs, I struggled to feel what I felt as I still walked the earth of New York City and held the hands of strangers with whom I would be forever extraordinarily, if inexplicably, bound. And I realized then just how far away from a new United States I was. No American flags waved along the street. No one else wore ribbons for the dead. I was alone in my fury, my bewilderment, my anger, alone in my sorrow, in my indignation, in my defiance. Leaving had robbed me of the chance to share all that filled this moment.

I was alone in Holland, too, or nearly so, in my fear: a scant thirty-three percent of the Dutch said they feel less safe now than they did before September 11. I counted myself among them. With the passing of every plane—and there are many over Amsterdam, and they fly low—my blood chilled, my pulse quickened, my heart pounded. I followed the sound until it was safely beyond hearing. I waited for the sirens. None came.

In Amsterdam, I found a world where one could express sympathy and horror, say a prayer, light a candle; a world where one could read the papers and watch the news and feel one's throat tighten at the images, and then still return the paper to the table, turn the station, leave the candle burning, and walk out into the sunlight to play. We could not do that in New York City.

In New York, in Manhattan, it was everywhere: in dust, in the wind, in stores that did not reopen, in the piles of newspapers outside a neighbor's apartment that announced that he was not home and most likely was not coming home again. It was in the eyes and questioning voices of those who asked if you were okay—and everybody asked: the drugstore cashiers, the postal clerks, the doormen of nearby buildings with whom for years you had shared only silent nods as you passed. “Are you all right? Is everyone you know?” One did not see a woman wearing black without wondering if it was fashion, shul, or a funeral that had dressed her.In Amsterdam, there was only wariness, a kind of gentle, if often ubiquitously polite sympathy, and silence. Or mostly. In the first few days of my return, I wore a ribbon on my lapel, just as others had done in New York, only in place of the red, white, and blue, which I thought would be too obvious, I wore white—a symbol, someone had told me, of universal peace. As I walked along the Van Woustraat by my home one afternoon, a man in a white djellaba approached me in the street. Within seconds he had planted himself directly in front of me, blocking my movement, staring straight into my eyes. He stood there just a few seconds—perhaps a half minute, no longer—and then went on his way. When I got home, I took the ribbon off and laid it on my desk. I never wore it publicly again.

Abigail R. Esman has been called "one of the best writers we have when it comes to jihadism in Europe." Based in New York and the Netherlands, Esman is a regular columnist for Forbes.com and has written extensively about Islam in the West for various international publications, including the New Republic, Salon.com, Foreign Policy, and others. Also an art critic, she is a contributing editor at Art & Auction magazine and the author and coauthor of books on art and contemporary culture.

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Additional Resources:

The 9/11 Encyclopedia: Second Edition
Stephen E. Atkins, Editor
06/02/2011
ABC-CLIO

This comprehensive collection of A–Z entries and primary source documents presents a thorough examination of all the individuals, groups, and events surrounding the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Free Online Resources Reflect on the 10th Anniversary of the September 11 Attacks

2011-09-07T11:49:00.000-07:00

ABC-CLIO brings you History and the Headlines, a series of free online resource collections that provide authoritative information and engaging activities to help students and patrons understand important events. Sign up for this free eNewsletter here.

TEN YEARS LATER: THE SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACKS
September 11, 2011, marks the 10th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., by members of the Al Qaeda terrorist group led by Osama bin Laden. A decade later, the harrowing events of that day remain a pivotal moment in American history, the effects of which are still being felt today.

Help your students explore the events, individuals, and issues surrounding September 11 and its aftermath with reliable reference content and primary sources that you have come to expect from ABC-CLIO. Content includes:
*An insightful Need to Know essay about the impact of September 11, 2001, on the American people, written by leading expert Frank Shanty
*A thought-provoking Examine section containing discussion questions that promote critical thinking
*Over 75 reference entries, images, and documents that boost understanding of this pivotal moment in history

SIMPLY CLICK HERE TO GET STARTED!

Sun Gods

2011-08-25T07:00:00.000-07:00

By Caroline Price, ABC-CLIO Media Resources Manager

As we continue the quest for exciting imagery on the new ABC-CLIO World Religions database, one of the most fascinating aspects of the process lies in researching how many different mythologies have used similar themes to explain how the world works.

Since the long, hot summer is blazing to a close, we thought we'd pull some images featured on the database to show how some religions personified the sun with a bevy of fiery gods and goddesses. Be sure to check out World Religions for more stories of the deities who helped shape the history of religion.

Japanese sun goddess Amaterasu-o-mikami

Corbis

Amaterasu-o-mikami, as legend has it, became so annoyed by the destructive behavior of her storm-god brother that she retired to a cave and refused to come out. This caused darkness to fall upon the world. The other gods created a plan to get Amaterasu-o-mikami to come out of the cave. The goddess Ama-no-uzume performed a ribald dance that made the sun goddess curious enough to look outside in order to investigate. She was then tricked into further opening the cave to look into a mirror, and one of the gods pulled her outside. Dawn broke as Amaterasu-o-mikami emerged, and the entrance to the cave was closed so she could not return to it.

Egyptian sun god Ra

Corel

Ancient Egyptian art sometimes depicts a Benu bird, the sacred bird of Heliopolis, as representative of the soul of the sun god Ra. Other depictions may show Ra as a man with the head of a falcon. He was considered first among the gods, and the passage of the sun across the sky was seen as his daily journey to renew the world.

Surya, Hindu sun god

J. Gordon Melton

In some versions of the Hindu myth, the sun god Surya drove a seven-horse chariot with one wheel, which caused it to orbit the sky. Surya was said to have as many as seven wives, who in turn represented such qualities as knowledge, courage, and light. In later versions of the myths, Surya's role diminished, and he was even depicted as being swallowed by the god Rahu each time there was a solar eclipse.

Aztec sun god Huitzilopochtli

Getty Images

Huitzilopochtli serves many roles in Aztec mythology, from a god of war to sun god. In one version he springs fully grown and armed from his mother, Coatlicue, in order to vanquish a plot his sister Coyolxauhqui was hatching against her. The scheming Coyolxauhqui was killed and her head tossed into the sky, where it became the moon.

NATO's Role in the Libyan Revolution

2011-08-23T09:27:00.000-07:00

On August 22, the Libyan rebels made a dramatic entrance into Tripoli, marking the culmination of their six-month-long struggle against the regime of Muammar Qadhafi. Back in February 2011, the rebellion began as a series of peaceful protests for change that sprang in Tunisia and rocked the Islamic world. Encountering the Qadhafi regime’s crackdown, the protests escalated into an uprising that spread across the country, with the forces opposing Qadhafi establishing a government based in Benghazi named the National Transitional Council (NTC) and seeking the overthrow the Qadhafi-led government. Qadhafi’s bloody crackdown was quickly condemned by the United Nations, which froze the Libyan assets and, following further government attacks on its citizens, authorized member states to establish and enforce a no-fly zone over Libya. Despite the ensuing NATO air bombardment campaign, the Qadhafi regime proved to be resilient. In fact, the hastily organized and poorly led rebel forces were repeatedly rolled back by much more experienced and better armed government forces, especially the vaunted Khamis Brigade. Just two weeks ago, the revolt against Muammar Qadhafi and his regime appeared to have stalled. The rebel efforts to push west from Benghazi and Misrata were repelled, and the rebel leadership appeared to be turning on itself. And yet, the last week of August showed a remarkable turnaround.

Several factors contributed to this change. The sudden collapse of Qadhafi's forces in late August was preceded by steady attrition through months of air strikes and squeezed supply lines. The NATO air campaign, which conducted over 19,750 sorties, inflicted considerable damage on the military capability of the Qadhafi forces. The relentless bombardment of armor and artillery east of Zawiya greatly weakened government defenses and contributed to breaking down much of the resistance that could have halted the rebel advance.

But much more important work was done behind the scenes. Judging from available reports, foreign special forces—primarily from France, Great Britain, and the United States, but also from Qatar and Jordan—played a major role in training the inexperienced rebel forces, providing weapons and serving as forward air control to guide air strikes. Over the last few weeks, the rebel groups appeared to be better armed and forged a closer and more effective working relationship with the NATO jets above them. While most of the world’s attention had focused on Brega and Misrata, the turning point of the campaign seems to have take place in what had hitherto been considered a sideshow, the Nafusa highlands in the west, where the NATO trainers and regular deliveries of arms and equipment fused the disparate rebel elements into a fighting force. The offensive that began from this region in early August delivered a breakthrough in the stalemate as the rebels scored a major victory at Zawiya. It demonstrated better preparation and coordination among the rebel forces while an amphibious assault on Tripoli clearly revealed the extent of planning that underlay rebel operations. One cannot but suspect considerable Western involvement in this planning. This detracts nothing from the efforts that the NTC has undertaken in its struggle against the Qadhafi regime, but it does underscore the decisive impact of NATO's decision to serve as the rebel air force.

--Alexander Mikaberidze is assistant professor of history at Louisiana State University, Shreveport, LA, and an award-winning author of eight books. His most recent published work is Conflict and Conquest in the Islamic World: A Historical Encyclopedia.

Conflict and Conquest in the Islamic World

This comprehensive reference work documents the extensive military history of the Islamic world between the 7th century and the present day.

Why is gold so valuable?

2011-08-18T08:50:00.000-07:00

The world of global finance is abuzz these days with dizzying attempts to determine whether the already historically high price of gold is poised for an uptrend or a downtrend. In the immediate aftermath of Standard & Poor’s downgrade of the U.S. credit rating from level AAA to AA+, gold prices soared to even higher record levels on August 9 to reach $1780.

This more than 40% increase in the price of gold over a 12-month period is attributed to investors’ desire to seek a safe haven amid uncertainties in foreign exchange markets in the context of national debt crises in Europe and the United States and concerns about inflation. Yet tracing patterns of levels of gold as a store of value relative to a range of stock indexes, money supply trends, commodity prices, inflation or deflation, monetary policy, political instability, consumer behavior, and other indicators can produce varied interpretations from a likewise wide range of viewpoints. Underlying all scientific attempts to pinpoint the direction in which gold prices are heading is the most important, and most elusive, question as to precisely why gold is valuable. This question becomes even more difficult to answer in a present-day geopolitical and global financial environment that is profoundly transformational on complex levels, a circumstance that leaves scholars, commentators, and policymakers a bit stumped in their attempts at identifying contemporary understandings of value as rooted in sociocultural or economic structures.

The high values ascribed to gold today may be due to the simple fact that humankind has turned to gold for reassurance in uncertain times for centuries. In The Creation and Destruction of Value (2009), Princeton University professor of history and international affairs Harold James stresses the fact that “crises lead to a fundamental uncertainty about what things are worth” and cites a long list of historical occasions on which individuals and investors turned to various material assets, perhaps chief among them gold, as a reaction to economic and political upheaval.

Contemporary market research by such organizations as the World Gold Council confirms the fact that gold prices evolve according to diverse factors and in response to myriad conditions that affect nations across the globe differently. The interplay of these conditions is difficult to predict, yet would seem essential to any tangible prediction of gold price given the dynamic relationship between the price of gold, foreign exchange, money supply, and general trust in sovereign solvency.

If it is so difficult to identify specific, empirical reasons for gold’s value in contemporary society, one might be led to consider if this question is even worth asking? It clearly is. History has shown that times of uncertainty often lead to periods of meaningful, productive scientific and philosophical inquiry into the institutional/political frameworks and human interactions that make the world go ‘round. It is my instinct to turn to an icon in the historical evolution of perceptions of money and value in Western society for answers to this worthwhile question—St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), who provides us with as an artful articulation of man’s relationship to gold as a precious commodity in his discourse on value in the Summa Theologica. As with other commodities, Aquinas notes that gold is perceived to have an intrinsic value tied to its beauty and functionality, yet cautions that this is simply based on human assumptions about what is or is not real when he compares the value of pure gold to gold fabricated by alchemical arts, postulating that if “real gold were to be produced by alchemy, it would not be unlawful to sell it for the genuine article, for nothing prevents art from employing certain natural causes for the production of natural and true effects.”

---Shannon L. Venable, author of Gold: A Cultural Encyclopedia

Gen. David Petraeus to Become Director of CIA

2011-08-15T11:27:00.000-07:00

When Gen. David Petraeus assumes his duties as director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in September, he will do so as someone uniquely qualified to lead the nation’s most prominent collector of foreign intelligence. The CIA is already a high-performing organization boasting talented and dedicated agents and analysts serving around the world. You can expect Director Petraeus to take the organization to even greater heights. This isn’t unabashed adulation, but simply where the Petraeus’ record points. Consider what some naysayers have suggested:

Petraeus will overstep his bounds or try to make policy on his own. Doubtful. Petraeus is always keenly aware of the limits of his authority. He is always loyal to his chain of command. He will try to persuade, he will work to impose his will, and he will be aggressive. But Petraeus will follow the rules and will find ways to operate within the authorities of his office.

The CIA won’t accept him because Petraeus is a military officer. The CIA consists of professionals who share the same ambition as does Petraeus – to succeed. They know full well how difficult it is to sustain their credibility in a dangerous world (not to mention the dangers of DC bureaucratic struggles). So they will have no problem at all welcoming Petraeus because he brings credibility demonstrated by a proven track record working the toughest national security challenges. And what many do not realize is the extent to which Petraeus integrated the work of intelligence professionals into his military decision-making as the top general in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Petraeus will try to ‘militarize’ the CIA. He won’t need to, and wouldn’t want to, either. Petraeus is the rare senior military officer that is very comfortable moving between cultures. Whether it is an elite university, an Army unit, or the CIA, Petraeus will adapt. He’s supremely confident in himself and his abilities. He will impose his priorities on the CIA, but he’ll do it smartly and creatively. Soon enough, the CIA will be embracing his changes.

The CIA isn’t a flawless organization. It’s big and faces such an array of national security challenges that it’s difficult to keep pace. But expect it to move forward aggressively under Petraeus’ leadership. And don’t heed the pundits who project that Petraeus is eager to enter the political ring. His focus will be on the CIA, and on providing and assessing intelligence to ensure the national security of the United States. There are other duties ahead of him – likely secretary of defense and/or state, director of national intelligence, or national security adviser. But political office isn’t on the horizon for him, not now, and likely not for a long while, if ever. Politicians, even presidents, wield their power for too short of a period. General, now director, Petraeus is playing a longer game.

----Bradley T. Gericke, PhD, is the author of David Petraeus: A Biography. Dr. Gericke is a military historian and U.S. Army strategist who is currently stationed with the 8th Army in Seoul, South Korea.

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David Petraeus: A Biography

Bradley T. Gericke

11/2010

This in-depth and forthright biography examines the personal and professional life of General David Petraeus, today's most prominent military leader.

From the Editor: The World History Encyclopedia

2011-08-10T14:16:00.000-07:00

"Overall, this massive undertaking is quite an impressive resource for students of world history. Academic libraries with significant history, anthropology, or archaeology collections would do well to add this to their collection, as would large public libraries." - Booklist. Read the full review here.

When we began this project, we aimed at providing the sort of resource we dreamed of when we were struggling to develop our first classes in world history. Teaching world history is definitely daunting to new teachers–some of whom believe that they’re supposed to teach everything that has ever happened everywhere on the globe. Too many people have been tempted to throw up their hands and run away. The reality is that we are working and trading with societies all across the globe, making the study of world history more valuable than ever. Knowledge of world history will help students develop a cultural sensitivity that enables a better understanding of their own society as well as the societies of others. When we study world history, we are in fact developing a solid platform for understanding the wide range of possibilities open to us as individuals participating in our own culture and simultaneously developing our skills for interacting with other cultures.

As experienced teachers know, and the College Board acknowledges, there are beneficial intellectual habits that can be formed best through study and analysis of world history. The College Board has identified five such "habits of mind." They are:

Seeing global patterns and processes over time and space while connecting local developments to global ones
Comparing within and among societies, including comparing societies' reactions to global processes
Considering human commonalities and differences
Exploring claims of universal standards in relation to culturally diverse ideas
Exploring the persistent relevance of world history to contemporary developments

(Source: http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/history_world/topic.html?worldhist)

Our goal as the editors of this encyclopedia was to develop an exemplary resource for curious and intelligent people–one that would be accessible to laypeople, students, and teachers alike. The academic participants who planned and outlined our project were all experienced teachers; we devised a resource with in-depth introductions and analyses to provide solid ground from which to launch into every aspect of human life that we could imagine. If you’re interested in comparisons across time or geography–for instance, comparing siege warfare in the ancient world with the battle of Stalingrad, or in comparing marriage customs in the Neolithic Age with those in Elizabethan England–we’ve got the resource for you!

We structured the work thematically, knowing that would facilitate comparisons as well as organizing the information into digestible chunks. There were times we almost despaired, but there were always scholars out there who could pull us over, around, under, or through the roadblocks we encountered. We also realized that we could never "finish" this project because the world keeps moving; as the old saying goes, "history, just one dratted thing after another." And, so, we offer the best, most complete examination of world history that a dozen scholars directing some 800 expert contributors could develop, knowing full well that a decade from now, we will be inspired to update it–history just keeps rolling on.

Having said that, we fell in love with the project we produced. We believe we accomplished our goal of having the most comprehensive overview of human history possible at this date. Most importantly, all of us on the project, as well as the students we “test drove” the project with, experienced that jolt of lightning that happens when we first reach an understanding of an aspect of human experience. We call it "the ah-hah! moment." We trust our readers will find it as exciting as we have.

--Carolyn Neel, Associate General Editor and Volume Editor of World History Encyclopedia

Ramadan

2011-08-01T10:54:00.000-07:00

As a way to mark the Night of Power (Lailat-ul-Qadr in Arabic)—when the Koran was first revealed to the Prophet Muhammad—fasting (sawm) every day during the ninth month (Ramadan) of the Islamic lunar calendar defines one of the Five Pillars of Islam. By the end of Ramadan, Muslims will have experienced hunger and thirst most of the time, and thus will be genuinely inclined to relieve the burden of the poor for whom this is a permanent plight. Muslims' awareness of the whole community of believers (Umma) should have increased over the month as a result of training to forgo the gratification of their own desires, since they and their fellow believers will have been radically curbing them for 29–30 days in a row. This discipline frees the spirit from its habitual patterns and reminds it of God's sovereignty and provident mercy.

As self-mastery for God's sake, Ramadan is an inner holy war against temptations, where valor is shown through endurance (sabr) against Satan and the strengthening of faith. But it is first and foremost an act of pure submission (the literal meaning of the word islam) to God's command, given in the sura (chapter) entitled Al Baqarah in the Koran. This is the only passage where a month is mentioned by name, with instructions to fast throughout the month during which the holy book was first "revealed as guidance to man and clear proof of the guidance, and criterion (of falsehood and truth)." ...

Thus, the fast regulates the entry into the body of all foreign substances, whether food, drink, smoke, or medication. All of these are banned between the first glimmer of dawn until the sun has completely set, at which time all these exchanges between inside and outside become licit again. These two moments of the start and end of the daily fasting period are signaled by cannon shots during Ramadan in the cities of many Islamic countries.

Just after sunset and the iftar prayer for the breaking of the fast has been said, it is usual to have a light snack, such as one or three dates as was Muhammad's custom; this evening "breakfast" is experienced as a kind of sacrament of brotherhood. Once the daily evening prayer has been completed, a full dinner may be consumed—obviously none too soon. In this context, a festive atmosphere overtakes Muslim neighborhoods as friends visit each other's families. Near bedtime, extra tarawih prayers for Ramadan follow the daily night prayer at home or at the mosque ….

SNEAK PEEK at ABC-CLIO's brand-new World Religions databases
Available August 15, 2011

As adherents approach the end of Ramadan (in 2011, this occurs at the end of August), the time between sundown on the 29th and the next morning's Eid ul-Fitr communal prayer for the breaking of the fast is set aside for special takbir prayers of Allahu Akbar ("God is Most Great") said in common in a number of variants. This time is also set aside for giving Zakat ul-Fitr—the seasonal "poor due," or support of the needy, which the head of the family must donate on behalf of all of its members to the corresponding number of needy Muslims. Zakat is another one of the Five Pillars of Islam. ...

After a month of ascetic exertion, Muslims watch for the new moon of Eid ul-Fitr (the festival marking the end of the month of Ramadan) with a great deal of excitement. The day before its expected appearance, men spend the day at the mosque and women take the children to cemeteries to visit departed family members. The new moon must be sighted between the sunset of the 29th and the break of dawn on the following day, or else a 30th day of fasting is added. The same method is used at the end of the previous month of Shaban to determine the actual beginning of Ramadan. …

At its core, Ramadan is one of the most important of all Islamic holy events—in depriving the body, enriching the soul, honoring Muhammad and the Koran, and submitting to God's command—and it has connected Muslims across the world for millennia, and continues to do so today.

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Roy, Christian. "Ramadan 2011: Background." World Religions: Belief, Culture, and Controversy. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 1 Aug. 2011.

Today in History: Lady Diana Spencer Weds Prince Charles

2011-07-29T08:17:00.000-07:00

On July 29, 1981 the royal wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer took place at St. Paul's Cathedral in London. Princess Diana was a beloved figure--known for her elegance and class and her passion for charity work--who's untimely death shocked the world.

Great Britain's Diana, Princess of Wales, was married to the heir to the British throne, Charles, Prince of Wales, from 1981 to 1996. After their divorce, Diana found a positive channel for her remarkable popularity by becoming a crusader for those less fortunate than herself.

Diana Frances Spencer was born on July 1, 1961 in Norfolk to an aristocratic family. Her father, Lord Althorp, became the eighth Earl of Spencer after his father's death in 1975. Diana's title then changed to Lady Diana Spencer. Diana grew up on an estate next door to the British royal family's Sandringham retreat. She went to a preparatory school in Norfolk and to West Heath boarding school in Kent. After completing finishing school in Switzerland, Diana returned to England to live in London, where she worked as a part-time governess and nanny before becoming a kindergarten teacher's aide.

Diana met Prince Charles, who was 12 years her senior, during her childhood and began dating him in 1980. Diana's beauty and innocence captured the world's imagination in February 1981 when the two became engaged. Their extravagant wedding on July 29, 1981 at St. Paul's Cathedral was televised worldwide and was watched by an estimated 1 billion people. Diana was the first Englishwoman to marry an heir to the British throne in more than 300 years. She in turn provided heirs to the throne, giving birth to two sons, Prince William Arthur Philip Louis in June 1982 and Prince Henry Charles Albert David in September 1984.

In the beginning of her marriage, Diana appeared eager to fulfill her role as the future queen and wife of the man who would be king. By the mid-1980s, however, the couple was growing apart. They continued to make public appearances together but led increasingly separate lives. Their marriage began to crumble in 1986, when Charles allegedly renewed a relationship with a former girlfriend, Camilla Parker-Bowles. A relentless barrage of tabloid coverage made their difficulties an embarrassment to the royal family.

Buckingham Palace repeatedly denied rumors of Charles and Diana's failing marriage until 1992, when Prime Minister John Major announced to the British Parliament that the two were separating. They began a rivalry for public approval through a series of confessionals in the media that concerned Queen Elizabeth II to the point that she asked them to end their marriage. Their divorce was formally announced in July 1996. Diana lost the right to be referred to as Her Royal Highness, but she retained her title of Princess of Wales. She retained equal access with Charles to their children.

While married to Prince Charles, Diana was active in more than 100 charities and used her public popularity to draw the world's attention to the need for humanitarian efforts. She became a spokesperson for the battle against AIDS, the eradication of land mines, and the welfare of children, the sick, and the dying. She announced in December 1993 that she would reduce the extent of her public life in order to make her public role more meaningful, yet she remained involved with Centrepoint (a homeless charity), the English National Ballet, the Leprosy Mission, National AIDS Trust, the Hospital for Sick Children, and Royal Marsden Hospital. In June 1997, she auctioned off a number of her dresses and suits, with the proceeds going to various charities.

In the year before her death, Diana especially embraced the issue of land mines, actively campaigning for a ban on their manufacture and use. A cheap and effective weapon, decades of international conflict have left millions of unrecorded land mines scattered in more than 50 countries throughout the world. Extremely difficult to detect and remove, discarded land mines reportedly kill or maim one person every 20 minutes worldwide. Diana visited land mine victims in Angola in January 1997 and spoke at a land mines conference at the Royal Geographical Society in London in June. She traveled to Washington, D.C. later that month to promote the American Red Cross' land mines campaign. In August, she visited Bosnia and met with land mine projects in Travnic, Sarajevo, and Zenezica.

These humanitarian projects received an enormous amount of publicity after Diana's death in a controversial car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997. The incredible public outpouring of grief following her death reflected the affection that the people in Britain and all over the world felt for her. Her funeral was among the most-watched events in television history, and the funds generated by those touched by her death went to the charities she had donated her time to in life.

"Diana, Princess of Wales." World History: The Modern Era. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 29 July 2011.

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Additional Resources

Diana, Princess of Wales: A Biography

By Martin Gitlin

From her aristocratic upbringing to her charitable legacy, this volume explores Lady Diana's role as a royal, a tragic figure, and a cultural icon.

Keeping Up with Reference: The True Value of a Reliable Reviewing Source

2011-07-25T10:12:00.000-07:00

Things change quickly in the world of reference. Technology has us all wondering what the next new "thing" will be and keeping up with these changes can be a job in itself. Where we used to be concerned mainly with what new print resources were available, librarians now have to keep track of new developments in the areas of e-books, databases, and apps, and the list keeps growing. As a library's budget is cut, and oftentimes staff right along with it, librarians are forced to choose between face time with their patrons and keeping up with the latest news in the industry that will help their library run smoothly.

Now more than ever, Librarians need to turn to trusted sources to help them keep current on what new products are coming out, what updates have been made to important resources, and who's merging their resources to create bigger and better products. It all comes down to one thing: where should you spend your library's precious dollars.

In the long run, turning to a trusted reviewing source can save you time and money. Why?

1. It lets some else keep up with the swift changes in the industry. If you're like most people with a little money to spend then you are probably bombarded with advertisements, e-mail campaigns, listservs, and press releases. Countless hours can be spent pouring over these ads, hours that may very well be better spent working with patrons or creating new services for your library. A good reviewing source will continually be mining the latest products on the market and give you access to reliable information about those in one place, and in an easy-to-search format.

2. It allows you to rely on the opinion of your peers, not on the hype. It's a company's job to make you believe that their product is the "best" and they'll spare no expense to make you believe that. Your library peers, however, have a different and more valuable perspective. A good reviewing source looks to librarians working in the field, creating their own collections, to provide you with the best advice on how new reference products can be used in a library setting. Most librarians have strong opinions on what works for their patrons. Dialog between librarians should be the driving force of a professional reviewing source.

3. It will help you discover how new products in the field compare to the products your library already owns. Libraries are full of materials—print and digital. Some are well used and some, unfortunately, are not used at all. Very rarely is a new product the very first of its kind. Most products out there have strong similarities with other titles on the market. Before you are tempted to buy the latest and greatest of any new product, you should find out how it compares to other resources that your library already owns. Sometimes it will be worth the investment and other times you'll discover that what you've got is perfectly fine (or even better) than the new product with all its bells and whistles. Once again, let your peers and experts in the subject give you some advice and share their professional insight.

4. It allows you to search by the topics your library's interested in, but gives you the option to look at everything else available. It's a good bet that you know the topics your patron's are interested in and what areas of your collection need new life. A good reviewing source will save you time by providing you easy access to the latest resources in the subjects you're interested in. Keyword searching, subject headings, and the ability to limit searches by publication date all help pinpoint your research and save you time in the long run. However, even though you have specific subjects you're interested in it's always nice to have the option to search other topics. A good reviewing source will allow you to limit your searches, but be comprehensive enough that you can find things you never even knew were out there.

There are several strong reference reviewing sources on the market. American Reference Books Annual, which has been published by Libraries Unlimited for over 40 years, offers all of the benefits of a reviewing source listed above—critical reviews that offer strong comparisons between like sources, reviews written by professionals within the field, and a comprehensive look at all resources on the market today. Used diligently, a top-notch reviewing source can save your library money in the long run by helping you pick the best resources for your library while also allowing you to do your job more effectively and efficiently.

-- Shannon Graff Hysell
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Shannon Graff Hysell has been editor of American Reference Books Annual for the past ten years. She is also editor of Recommended Reference Books for Small and Medium-sized Libraries and Media Centers and ARBAonline.

Today in History: Neil Armstrong Walks on Moon

2011-07-20T07:45:00.000-07:00

Neil Armstrong became an astronaut in the early days of the U.S. space program. He was selected as commander of Apollo 11, the first moon-landing expedition. Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon on July 20, 1969.

Armstrong was born on August 5, 1930 in Wapakoneta, Ohio. He spent his childhood there before attending college at Purdue University in Indiana, where he earned a degree in aerospace engineering. Immediately after graduating, Armstrong enlisted as a navy fighter pilot and served during the Korean War. On returning to civilian life in 1952, he became a test pilot.

Armstrong's life was soon redirected by the entry of the United States into a space race with its cold war rival, the Soviet Union. In 1957, the Soviets successfully launched the first man-made satellite, Sputnik, into orbit. Americans became fearful of Soviet superiority in space, and determined not to give the Soviets the upper hand in any arena, the United States pursued its space program in earnest. The Russians became the first to launch a person into space early in 1961.

In May of the same year, Alan Shepard became the first American man in space, and shortly after his flight, President John F. Kennedy challenged the United States to put a man on the moon before the end of the decade. Armstrong was selected to be an astronaut in 1962 with other talented test pilots. In 1966, he made his first space flight aboard Gemini 8. During that flight, he and fellow astronaut David Scott carried out the first docking maneuvers between two spacecrafts. Armstrong was among the astronauts chosen for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) next series of space missions, Apollo, which were intended to reach the moon. The ambitious program began in tragedy. On January 27, 1967, the Apollo 1 astronauts—Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee—were killed by a fire that broke out in their space capsule during a test launch.

Only two years after the disaster, NASA met Kennedy's challenge to put a man on the moon with Apollo 11. The moon landing also put the United States firmly ahead of the Soviets in the space race. Armstrong, the mission's commander, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins landed their lunar module on the moon on July 20, 1969. While the world watched on television, Armstrong, followed by Aldrin, descended from the craft to walk on the moon. As Armstrong made his descent he uttered the now famous phrase: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." The two men spent the next two hours exploring the lava plains of the Sea of Tranquility and collecting samples of lunar dust.

Armstrong left NASA in 1971, a year after publishing a book on his experiences in space, First On the Moon. He settled on a farm in his home state of Ohio with his wife and two children. From 1971 until 1979, Armstrong taught aerospace engineering, in which he holds a master's degree, at Cincinnati University. He briefly appeared in commercials as a spokesperson for Chrysler. He is currently the chairperson of a defense electronics firm in Ohio. Though Armstrong has led a purposefully private life since leaving NASA, he made several appearances in July 1994 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Apollo 11's moon landing, including an appearance with President Bill Clinton and his fellow Apollo 11 astronauts at the White House.

"Neil Armstrong." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 20 July 2011.

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Additional Resources:

Space Exploration and Humanity: A Historical Encyclopedia

History Committee of the American Astronautical Society

A complete history of human endeavors in space, this book also moves beyond the traditional topics of human spaceflight, space technology, and space science to include political, social, cultural, and economic issues, and also commercial, civilian, and military applications.

Casey Anthony: The First"Trial of the Century"of the Social-Media Age

2011-07-19T12:21:00.000-07:00

The Casey Anthony trial will be remembered as the first “Trial of the Century” for the social-media age. In the summer of 2008, Casey Anthony, a single mother from Orlando, Florida, was accused of murdering her two-year-old daughter, Caylee, after failing to report that she had been missing for 31 days. After the skeletal remains of Caylee Anthony were discovered in a wooded area near Casey Anthony’s home, prosecutors indicted Anthony on first-degree murder charges (as well as lesser charges) and sought the death penalty.
The murder trial began on May 24, 2011, captivating audiences across the globe as viewers became intrigued with details sensationalized through social-media websites and such television news programs as "Nancy Grace." Prosecutors argued that Casey Anthony murdered her two-year-old child to allow more opportunity for her to live a free lifestyle of partying. In fact, Anthony had partied consistently during the 31 days when her daughter was missing. Prosecutors also used forensic evidence to argue that the trunk of Casey Anthony’s automobile had contained chemicals and hair roots consistent with the decomposition of human remains. In addition, Anthony had allegedly searched a home computer for information about “chloroform,” “neck breaking,” and “death.”

While a large majority of the case's followers were convinced of Casey Anthony’s guilt and discussed it publicly via social media, a jury of seven women and five men nonetheless acquitted Anthony of the more serious charges on July 5, 2011. Anthony was found not guilty of first-degree murder, aggravated manslaughter, and aggravated child abuse but she was convicted on four misdemeanor counts of lying to law enforcement. While the jurors believed that Anthony was somehow involved in the death of her daughter, they maintained that the prosecution’s case lacked direct evidence that a murder had been committed. Judge Belvin Perry, who presided over the trial, sentenced Casey Anthony to four years in jail and $4,000 in fines for the misdemeanor convictions. However, Anthony was awarded three years credit for time served as well as further credit for good behavior and was released from prison on Sunday, July 17, 2011.

—Dr. Scott P. Johnson

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Dr. Scott P. Johnson's Trials of the Century: An Encyclopedia of Popular Culture and the Law explores five centuries of legal history by examining famous murder trials as well as historic trials that changed the political, legal, religious, social, and racial landscape of America from the 1690s through today.

Arlene Taylor Receives Distinguished Alumnus Award

2011-07-15T11:05:00.000-07:00

We extend our hearty congratulations to Libraries Unlimited author Arlene Taylor, for being recognized as an outstanding alumna from her alma mater, the University of Illinois.

Over the extent of her career, Dr. Taylor has taught at the University of Chicago, Columbia University, and the University of Pittsburgh. Countless library students, including such luminaries as Linda Smith, editor of Reference and Information Services: An Introduction, Fourth Edition have learned the refined skills of cataloging from her. Countless others have learned from her textbooks, Introduction to Cataloging and Classification, now in its tenth edition and her ground-breaking Organization of Information. In addition, Dr. Taylor has mentored many doctoral students who are following in her footsteps; one is co-authoring Taylor's next edition of her cataloging textbook. Congratulations, Arlene! The recognition is well-deserved!