The Closet And The Cul De Sac

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The Closet and the Cul-de-Sac

Author : Clayton Howard
Publisher : University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN 13 : 0812295986
Total Pages : 392 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (122 download)

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Book Synopsis The Closet and the Cul-de-Sac by : Clayton Howard

Download or read book The Closet and the Cul-de-Sac written by Clayton Howard and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2019-02-18 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The right to privacy is a pivotal concept in the culture wars that have galvanized American politics for the past several decades. It has become a rallying point for political issues ranging from abortion to gay liberation to sex education. Yet this notion of privacy originated not only from legal arguments, nor solely from political movements on the left or the right, but instead from ambivalent moderates who valued both personal freedom and the preservation of social norms. In The Closet and the Cul-de-Sac, Clayton Howard chronicles the rise of sexual privacy as a fulcrum of American cultural politics. Beginning in the 1940s, public officials pursued an agenda that both promoted heterosexuality and made sexual privacy one of the state's key promises to its citizens. The 1944 G.I. Bill, for example, excluded gay veterans and enfranchised married ones in its dispersal of housing benefits. At the same time, officials required secluded bedrooms in new suburban homes and created educational campaigns designed to teach children respect for parents' privacy. In the following decades, measures such as these helped to concentrate middle-class families in the suburbs and gay men and lesbians in cities. In the 1960s and 1970s, the gay rights movement invoked privacy to attack repressive antigay laws, while social conservatives criticized tolerance for LGBTQ+ people as an assault on their own privacy. Many self-identified moderates, however, used identical rhetoric to distance themselves from both the discriminatory language of the religious right and the perceived excesses of the gay freedom struggle. Using the Bay Area as a case study, Howard places these moderates at the center of postwar American politics and shows how the region's burgeoning suburbs reacted to increasing gay activism in San Francisco. The Closet and the Cul-de-Sac offers specific examples of the ways in which government policies shaped many Americans' attitudes about sexuality and privacy and the ways in which citizens mobilized to reshape them.

The Closet and the Cul-de-Sac

Author : Clayton Howard
Publisher : University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN 13 : 0812251245
Total Pages : 392 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (122 download)

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Book Synopsis The Closet and the Cul-de-Sac by : Clayton Howard

Download or read book The Closet and the Cul-de-Sac written by Clayton Howard and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2019-03-26 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The right to privacy is a pivotal concept in the culture wars that have galvanized American politics for the past several decades. It has become a rallying point for political issues ranging from abortion to gay liberation to sex education. Yet this notion of privacy originated not only from legal arguments, nor solely from political movements on the left or the right, but instead from ambivalent moderates who valued both personal freedom and the preservation of social norms. In The Closet and the Cul-de-Sac, Clayton Howard chronicles the rise of sexual privacy as a fulcrum of American cultural politics. Beginning in the 1940s, public officials pursued an agenda that both promoted heterosexuality and made sexual privacy one of the state's key promises to its citizens. The 1944 G.I. Bill, for example, excluded gay veterans and enfranchised married ones in its dispersal of housing benefits. At the same time, officials required secluded bedrooms in new suburban homes and created educational campaigns designed to teach children respect for parents' privacy. In the following decades, measures such as these helped to concentrate middle-class families in the suburbs and gay men and lesbians in cities. In the 1960s and 1970s, the gay rights movement invoked privacy to attack repressive antigay laws, while social conservatives criticized tolerance for LGBT people as an assault on their own privacy. Many self-identified moderates, however, used identical rhetoric to distance themselves from both the discriminatory language of the religious right and the perceived excesses of the gay freedom struggle. Using the Bay Area as a case study, Howard places these moderates at the center of postwar American politics and shows how the region's burgeoning suburbs reacted to increasing gay activism in San Francisco. The Closet and the Cul-de-Sac offers specific examples of the ways in which government policies shaped many Americans' attitudes about sexuality and privacy and the ways in which citizens mobilized to reshape them.

The Generic Closet

Author : Alfred L. Martin
Publisher : Indiana University Press
ISBN 13 : 0253054621
Total Pages : 221 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (53 download)

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Book Synopsis The Generic Closet by : Alfred L. Martin

Download or read book The Generic Closet written by Alfred L. Martin and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2021-04-06 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Even after a rise in gay and Black representation and production on TV in the 1990s, the sitcom became a "generic closet," restricting Black gay characters with narrative tropes. Drawing from 20 interviews with credited episode writers, key show-runners, and Black gay men, The Generic Closet situates Black-cast sitcoms as a unique genre that uses Black gay characters in service of the series' heterosexual main cast. Alfred L. Martin, Jr., argues that the Black community is considered to be antigay due to misrepresentation by shows that aired during the family viewing hour and that were written for the imagined, "traditional" Black family. Martin considers audience reception, industrial production practices, and authorship to unpack the claim that Black gay characters are written into Black-cast sitcoms such as Moesha, Good News, and Let's Stay Together in order to closet Black gayness. By exploring how systems of power produce ideologies about Black gayness, The Generic Closet deconstructs the concept of a monolithic Black audience and investigates whether this generic closet still exists.

The City Aroused

Author : Damon Scott
Publisher : University of Texas Press
ISBN 13 : 1477328343
Total Pages : 263 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (773 download)

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Book Synopsis The City Aroused by : Damon Scott

Download or read book The City Aroused written by Damon Scott and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2024 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The City Aroused is a lively history of urban development and its influence on queer political identity in postwar San Francisco. By reconstructing the planning and queer history of waterfront drinking establishments, Damon Scott shows that urban renewal was a catalyst for community organizing among racially diverse operators and patrons with far-reaching implications for the national gay rights movement. Following the exclusion of suspected homosexuals from the maritime trades in West Coast ports in the early 1950s, seamen's hangouts in the city came to resemble gay bars. Local officials responded by containing the influx of gay men to a strip of bars on the central waterfront while also making plans to raze and rebuild the area. This practice ended when city redevelopment officials began acquiring land in the early 1960s. Aided by law enforcement, they put these queer social clubs out of business, replacing them with heteronormative, desexualized land uses that served larger postwar urban development goals. Scott argues that this shift from queer containment to displacement aroused a collective response among gay and transgender drinking publics who united in solidarity to secure a place in the rapidly changing urban landscape"--

Cul-de-Sac

Author : David Martin
Publisher : Villard
ISBN 13 : 0307824330
Total Pages : 327 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (78 download)

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Book Synopsis Cul-de-Sac by : David Martin

Download or read book Cul-de-Sac written by David Martin and published by Villard. This book was released on 2013-04-24 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: suspenseful, frightening, and gripping thriller about a family secret and a wrongly accused murderer from the author of Lie to Me. Here, David Martin brings back his most engaging hero: retired Detective Teddy Camel--a.k.a. "The Human Lie Detector"--on his last case.

You Exist Too Much

Author : Zaina Arafat
Publisher : Catapult
ISBN 13 : 1646220595
Total Pages : 273 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (462 download)

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Book Synopsis You Exist Too Much by : Zaina Arafat

Download or read book You Exist Too Much written by Zaina Arafat and published by Catapult. This book was released on 2021-06-08 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A “provocative and seductive debut” of desire and doubleness that follows the life of a young Palestinian American woman caught between cultural, religious, and sexual identities as she endeavors to lead an authentic life (O, The Oprah Magazine). On a hot day in Bethlehem, a 12–year–old Palestinian–American girl is yelled at by a group of men outside the Church of the Nativity. She has exposed her legs in a biblical city, an act they deem forbidden, and their judgement will echo on through her adolescence. When our narrator finally admits to her mother that she is queer, her mother’s response only intensifies a sense of shame: “You exist too much,” she tells her daughter. Told in vignettes that flash between the U.S. and the Middle East—from New York to Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine—Zaina Arafat’s debut novel traces her protagonist’s progress from blushing teen to sought–after DJ and aspiring writer. In Brooklyn, she moves into an apartment with her first serious girlfriend and tries to content herself with their comfortable relationship. But soon her longings, so closely hidden during her teenage years, explode out into reckless romantic encounters and obsessions with other people. Her desire to thwart her own destructive impulses will eventually lead her to The Ledge, an unconventional treatment center that identifies her affliction as “love addiction.” In this strange, enclosed society she will start to consider the unnerving similarities between her own internal traumas and divisions and those of the places that have formed her. Opening up the fantasies and desires of one young woman caught between cultural, religious, and sexual identities, You Exist Too Much is a captivating story charting two of our most intense longings—for love, and a place to call home.

The Known Citizen

Author : Sarah E. Igo
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674244796
Total Pages : 593 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (742 download)

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Book Synopsis The Known Citizen by : Sarah E. Igo

Download or read book The Known Citizen written by Sarah E. Igo and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-10 with total page 593 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Washington Post Book of the Year Winner of the Merle Curti Award Winner of the Jacques Barzun Prize Winner of the Ralph Waldo Emerson Award “A masterful study of privacy.” —Sue Halpern, New York Review of Books “Masterful (and timely)...[A] marathon trek from Victorian propriety to social media exhibitionism...Utterly original.” —Washington Post Every day, we make decisions about what to share and when, how much to expose and to whom. Securing the boundary between one’s private affairs and public identity has become an urgent task of modern life. How did privacy come to loom so large in public consciousness? Sarah Igo tracks the quest for privacy from the invention of the telegraph onward, revealing enduring debates over how Americans would—and should—be known. The Known Citizen is a penetrating historical investigation with powerful lessons for our own times, when corporations, government agencies, and data miners are tracking our every move. “A mighty effort to tell the story of modern America as a story of anxieties about privacy...Shows us that although we may feel that the threat to privacy today is unprecedented, every generation has felt that way since the introduction of the postcard.” —Louis Menand, New Yorker “Engaging and wide-ranging...Igo’s analysis of state surveillance from the New Deal through Watergate is remarkably thorough and insightful.” —The Nation

The Transformation of American Sex Education

Author : Ellen S. More
Publisher : NYU Press
ISBN 13 : 1479835242
Total Pages : 373 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (798 download)

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Book Synopsis The Transformation of American Sex Education by : Ellen S. More

Download or read book The Transformation of American Sex Education written by Ellen S. More and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2024-09-03 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive history of the battle over sex education in the United States Mid-century America had a problem talking about sex. Dr. Mary Calderone first diagnosed this condition and, in 1964, led the uphill battle to de-stigmatize sex education. Supporters hailed her as the “grandmother of modern sex education” while her detractors painted her as an “aging libertine,” but both could agree that she was quickly shaping the way sex was discussed in the classroom. Part biography, part social history, The Transformation of American Sex Education for the first time situates Dr. Mary Calderone at the center of decades of political, cultural, and religious conflict in the fight for comprehensive sex education. Ellen S. More examines Americans’ attempts to come to terms with the vexed subject of sex education in schools from the late 1940s to the early twenty-first century. Using Mary Calderone’s life and career as a touchstone, she traces the origins of modern sex education in the United States from the work of a group of reformers who coalesced around Calderone to create the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS) in 1964, to the development and use of the competing approaches known as “abstinence-based” and “comprehensive” sex education from the 1980s into the twenty-first century. A fascinating and timely read, The Transformation of American Sex Education provides a substantial contribution to the history of one of America’s most intense and protracted culture wars, and the first account of the woman who fought those battles.

Index of Haunted Houses

Author : Adam O. Davis
Publisher : Sarabande Books
ISBN 13 : 1946448672
Total Pages : 79 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (464 download)

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Book Synopsis Index of Haunted Houses by : Adam O. Davis

Download or read book Index of Haunted Houses written by Adam O. Davis and published by Sarabande Books. This book was released on 2020-09-01 with total page 79 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a book of ghost stories, and for the most part, ghosts are jealous monsters, intent upon our destruction. They never appear overtly here, yet we gradually become aware of their presence the way spirits in haunted houses trod over creaky floors, slam doors, and issue sudden gusts of wind. The poems are Koan-like—the fewer the words, the more charged they are. The engine driving this sense of haunting and loss is money, which Davis describes as “federal bone” boiling around us. Bison in Nebraska are reduced to bones, “seven/standing men/tall” fodder for the fertilizer used by farmers in the 1800s. Though they often specify dates, there’s an equality to the hauntings—every instance has its moment, and persists, despite being in the past, present, or future. If there really was a 1980 or 1848 or 1499, Davis implies it is somewhere. Index of Haunted Houses is spooky and sad—a stunning debut, one that will surprise, convince, and most of all, delight.

Kevin O'Brien Bundle: Disturbed, The Last Victim, Watch Them Die

Author : Kevin O'Brien
Publisher : Pinnacle Books
ISBN 13 : 0786028912
Total Pages : 1603 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (86 download)

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Book Synopsis Kevin O'Brien Bundle: Disturbed, The Last Victim, Watch Them Die by : Kevin O'Brien

Download or read book Kevin O'Brien Bundle: Disturbed, The Last Victim, Watch Them Die written by Kevin O'Brien and published by Pinnacle Books . This book was released on 2011-04-26 with total page 1603 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Disturbed Deceptive The houses in Willow Tree Court are sleek and modern-the kind designed to harbor happy families and laughing children. No one would guess the secrets that lurk beyond the neat lawns and beautiful facades. Depraved Molly Dennehy is trying to fit in to her new surroundings, though her neighbors are clearly loyal to her husband's ex-wife. But that's the least of Molly's worries. Her stepson's school has been rocked by a brutal slaying, and a psychopath known as the Cul-de-Sac Killer is murdering families in Seattle homes. Homes just like Molly's. Disturbed With each passing day, Molly grows more convinced that someone is watching her family, someone consumed with rage and vengeance. On this quiet road, a nightmare has been unleashed, and the trail of terror will lead right to her door. . . The Last Victim A Killer's Masterpiece At first, Bridget Corrigan's work with her twin brother's senatorial campaign is an exciting distraction from the trauma of her messy divorce. But everything changes when Bridget is reminded of the secret she and Brad have been keeping since high school, a secret that could destroy the campaign--and their lives. Someone else knows what they did. Someone who's been picking off the members of their little group one by one. . . Will Be Painted His job keeps him busy, but he loves every moment of it. Following them, photographing them, and immortalizing them on canvas. He knows exactly how they'll look when the last breath is drawn, because he has planned out their deaths with perfect precision. And the best is yet to come: Bridget Corrigan. He has very special plans for her portrait--she just doesn't know it yet. . . In Cold Blood With every "accident" that befalls the members of her old clique, Bridget feels danger edging closer to home. Yet uncovering the truth about the killer would mean revealing what really happened that horrible night years ago. She'll have to find someone to trust--the question is, who? Because turning to the wrong person could be the last mistake she ever makes. . . Watch them Die Different Victims The blonde film student. The brunette paralegal. The red-headed artist. Different Methods The first victim is strangled. The second is stabbed repeatedly. And the third is pushed out of an open window. Same Madman In the city of Seattle, no single woman is safe. From afar he watches the ones he so desperately wants. Willing to do whatever it takes to prove his love. But should his latest obsession betray him, he will have no choice but to punish her. By finding new and brutal ways to teach her a lesson. And by finally loving her--to death. . .

Disturbed

Author : Kevin O'Brien
Publisher : Pinnacle Books
ISBN 13 : 0758271824
Total Pages : 528 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (582 download)

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Book Synopsis Disturbed by : Kevin O'Brien

Download or read book Disturbed written by Kevin O'Brien and published by Pinnacle Books . This book was released on 2011-01-28 with total page 528 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A newlywed woman faces frosty neighbors as a coldblooded killer stalks Seattle in the New York Times bestselling author's chilling domestic thriller. The houses in Willow Tree Court are sleek and modern—the kind designed to harbor happy families and laughing children. No one would guess the secrets that lurk beyond the neat lawns and beautiful facades. Molly Dennehy is trying to fit in to her new surroundings, though her neighbors are clearly loyal to her husband's ex-wife. But that's the least of Molly's worries. Her stepson's school has been rocked by a brutal slaying, and a psychopath known as the Cul-de-Sac Killer is murdering families in Seattle homes. Homes just like Molly's. With each passing day, Molly grows more convinced that someone is watching her family, someone consumed with rage and vengeance. On this quiet road, a nightmare has been unleashed, and the trail of terror will lead right to her door . . .

Cul-de-sac

Author : Joy Fielding
Publisher : Seal Books
ISBN 13 : 1400027012
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Cul-de-sac by : Joy Fielding

Download or read book Cul-de-sac written by Joy Fielding and published by Seal Books. This book was released on 2022-08-09 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A shooting lays bare the secrets harboured by five families in a sleepy suburban cul-de-sac in this riveting psychological thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of All the Wrong Places. Someone in a quiet, unassuming cul-de-sac was shot dead in the middle of the night. Was it Maggie, the perfectionist wife, or Craig, the husband who can't quite live up to her expectations? When Maggie witnessed a shooting and later testified against a killer set free, the couple relocated, putting new pressure on their already strained union. Maggie is constantly looking over her shoulder. She owns a gun, just in case. Was it Nick, a doctor whose family, especially his wife, Dani, must bear the brunt of his ill temper? Nick is an avid hunter, too, and keeps a collection of handguns. Or was it Julia, a recently widowed grandmother? Her grandson is a troublemaker, someone not above stealing from her purse. His friends are equally unsavory. Her son buys her a gun for her protection. And then there's Olivia and her husband, Vic, who has been laid off, forcing Olivia to become the breadwinner. Vic is resentful. And depressed. He's started drinking heavily, and has threatened to shoot himself on several occasions. Or it could be one of the newlyweds, Aiden and Heidi, who are already on the rocks. Aiden refuses to stand up to his intrusive mother. When Heidi befriends Julia's grandson, it sets the stage for a major blow-up. Every house owns a gun. And anyone can be the victim, or the killer.

Coming Out Republican

Author : Neil J. Young
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226818055
Total Pages : 450 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (268 download)

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Book Synopsis Coming Out Republican by : Neil J. Young

Download or read book Coming Out Republican written by Neil J. Young and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2024 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A revelatory and comprehensive history of the gay Right from incisive political commentator Neil J. Young. One of the most maligned, misunderstood, and even mocked constituencies in American politics, gay Republicans regularly face condemnation from both the LGBTQ+ community and their own political party. Yet they've been active and influential for decades. Gay conservatives were instrumental, for example, in ending "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and securing the legalization of same-sex marriage--but they also helped lay the groundwork for the rise of Donald Trump. In Coming Out Republican, political historian and commentator Neil J. Young provides the first comprehensive history of the gay Right. From the 1950s up to the present day, Young excavates the multifarious origins, motivations, and evolutions of LGBTQ+ people who found their way to the institutions and networks of modern conservatism. Many on the gay Right have championed conservative values--like free markets, a strong national defense, and individual liberty--and believed that the Republican Party therefore offered LGBTQ+ people the best pathway to freedom. Meanwhile, that same party has actively and repeatedly demonized them. With his precise and provocative voice, Young details the complicated dynamics of being in--and yet never fully accepted into--the Republican Party. Coming Out Republican provides striking insight into who LGBTQ+ conservatives are, what they want, and why many of them continue to align with a party whose rank and file largely seem to hate them. As the Republican Party renews its assaults on LGBTQ+ rights, understanding the significant history of the gay Right has never been more critical.

The Mystery of Case D. Luc (Cul-de-Sac Kids Book #6)

Author : Beverly Lewis
Publisher : Baker Books
ISBN 13 : 1441260692
Total Pages : 56 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (412 download)

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Book Synopsis The Mystery of Case D. Luc (Cul-de-Sac Kids Book #6) by : Beverly Lewis

Download or read book The Mystery of Case D. Luc (Cul-de-Sac Kids Book #6) written by Beverly Lewis and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 1995-08-01 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dunkum's new basketball has been signed by his hero, David Robinson. Now Dunkum spends all his time playing with the ball. He's much too busy for his Cul-de-sac friends.When the ball disappears, Dunkum finds a secret code. Someone with a weird name has stolen the basketball! And he's leaving messages everywhere! Who is the mysterious Case D. Luc? And will the codes lead Dunkum to his treasured ball? The Mystery of Case D. Luc was chosen as a C.S. Lewis Noteworthy Book

Left in the Midwest

Author : Amanda L. Izzo
Publisher : University of Missouri Press
ISBN 13 : 0826274803
Total Pages : 554 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (262 download)

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Book Synopsis Left in the Midwest by : Amanda L. Izzo

Download or read book Left in the Midwest written by Amanda L. Izzo and published by University of Missouri Press. This book was released on 2022-12-30 with total page 554 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite St. Louis’s mid-twentieth-century reputation as a conservative and sleepy midwestern metropolis, the city and its surrounding region have long played host to dynamic forms of social-movement organizing. This was especially the case during the 1960s and 1970s, when a new generation of local activists lent their energies to the ongoing struggles for Black freedom, lesbian and gay liberation, feminist social transformations, environmental protection, an end to the Vietnam War, and more. This volume, the first of its kind, offers fifteen scholarly contributions that together bring into focus the exceptional range of progressive activist projects that took shape in a single midwestern city during these tumultuous decades. In contrast to scholarship that seeks to interpret the era’s social-movement initiatives in a primarily national context, the works presented in this expansive collection emphasize the importance of locality, neighborhood, community institutions, and rooted social networks. Documenting wrenching forces of metropolitan change as well as grassroots resilience, Left in the Midwest shows us how place powerfully shaped agendas, worldviews, and opportunities for the disparate groups that dedicated themselves to progressive visions for their city. By revising our sense of the region’s past, this volume also expands our sense of the possibilities that the future may hold for activist movements seeking change in St. Louis and beyond.

Strindberg's Dramaturgy

Author : Göran Stockenström
Publisher : U of Minnesota Press
ISBN 13 : 1452908079
Total Pages : 399 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (529 download)

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Book Synopsis Strindberg's Dramaturgy by : Göran Stockenström

Download or read book Strindberg's Dramaturgy written by Göran Stockenström and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 1988 with total page 399 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Against Relativism

Author : James Franklin Harris
Publisher : Open Court Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9780812692020
Total Pages : 252 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (92 download)

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Book Synopsis Against Relativism by : James Franklin Harris

Download or read book Against Relativism written by James Franklin Harris and published by Open Court Publishing. This book was released on 1992 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent decades have witnessed the extraordinary growth of radical relativism, a doctrine which now dominates the entire culture, from popular music to journalism and from religion to school curricula. According to the radical relativist creed, any proposition can be true or false in relation to a chosen framework, the evaluation of fundamental theories or 'paradigms' is beyond argument, there are no universal standards of rationality, and, methodologically, 'Anything goes!'. As James Harris explains in Against Relativism, the new relativism undoes the work of the Enlightenment and inevitably leads to the conclusion that Galileo was wrong to insist that the Earth indeed moves. Succor for relativism has come from many philosophical schools, both Analytic and 'Continental'. Among the sources of the new relativism are the collapse of Logical Positivism and the shift within anthropology from a linear evolutionary model to numerous models for understanding human culture. In this detailed critique, Professor Harris has selected the strongest and most plausible arguments for relativism within contemporary academic philosophy. He turns the techniques of relativism against relativism itself, showing that it is ultimately self-refuting or otherwise ineffectual. He demonstrates that Quine's rejection of the analytic-synthetic distinction appeals to the very analytic truths Quine tries to dispel; that Kuhn's celebrated account of paradigms must be either self-refuting or unintelligible; that Rorty cannot avoid presuppposing the epistemological principles he attacks; and that (although feminist criticisms of science exert a welcome corrective) attempts to develop a distinctively 'feminist science'are misconceived and unhelpful to feminism. In all these discussions, the author explains the arguments he is criticizing, for the benefit of the non-specialist reader, so that this work can serve as a partisan but fair introduction to some of the most important of present-day philosophy.