A Companion to Colonial America (Blackwell Companions to American History)

Book Description

A Companion to Colonial America consists of 23 original essays by expert historians on the key issues and topics in American colonial history. Each essay surveys the scholarship and prevailing interpretations in these key areas, discussing the differing arguments and assessing their merits. In certain fields, such as politics and religion, the essays cover debates and approaches over the better part of the last century. More recent fields such as migration and gender have a narrower interpretive history, but receive the same comprehensive treatment. Essays on newly emerging fields such as ecology, and a closing summary essay look ahead to the future of Colonial American studies. The contributors are the best in their field and have collaborated to produce an invaluable reference work for American historians, students, and readers of American colonial history.

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themes of the early years.......2007-06-26

This year is the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Jamestown Colony in Virginia. As part of the commemorative events, it has been acknowledged that Jamestown had African slaves. A part of the American past that still affects modern American society. But in this book, one contributor reminds us that Jamestown was not really the earliest date of African slavery in North America. That dubious honour could be claimed by Sapelo Sound in Georgia in 1526. More significantly, the book describes how slavery evolved in the various North American colonies. Most had slaves at one time or another. Some, in what would become the Northern states of the US, gradually diminished its occurrence. But others, in the south, went from being slaveowning societies to slave societies. Where the former meant slaves existed, while the latter were societies who economies were based on slavery.

Many other topics are covered by the book. Ranging from women and gender, across the southwest and west, to an analysis of the class structures of different regions. A good read, for someone already knowledgeable about the main themes in American history.

A Companion to the Literatures of Colonial America (Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture)

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A Companion to the Literatures of Colonial America (Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture)
Ivy Schweitzer
Manufacturer: Blackwell Publishing Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1405112913

Book Description

Consisting of more than 30 original essays by leading scholars in the field, this Companion provides a broad introduction to Colonial American literatures. The volume situates texts in their various historical and cultural contexts, including colonialism, imperialism, diaspora, and nation formation. In particular, it brings out the comparative, hemispheric and transatlantic nature of the writing of this period, and highlights the interactions between non-scribal native groups and Europeans that helped to shape early American writing.The Companion is divided into four main sections: the opening section on issues and methods covers a wide range of approaches to defining and reading early American writing; the second section, entitled "New World Encounters ", considers the interactions between cultural groups during the early centuries of exploration; the third section on identities looks at the development of regional spheres of influence in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; while the final section considers major genres and writers of the period in a series of "Cross-Cultural Conversations ".The Companion is designed to be used alongside Castillo and Schweitzer 's The Literatures of Colonial America: An Anthology (Blackwell Publishing, 2001).

A Companion to Colonial America.(Book Review): An article from: Journal of Southern History

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A Companion to Colonial America.(Book Review): An article from: Journal of Southern History
Peter C. Mancall
Manufacturer: Southern Historical Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B0009GPRA8
Release Date: 2005-08-01

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Journal of Southern History, published by Southern Historical Association on November 1, 2004. The length of the article is 1826 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: A Companion to Colonial America.(Book Review)
Author: Peter C. Mancall
Publication: Journal of Southern History (Refereed)
Date: November 1, 2004
Publisher: Southern Historical Association
Volume: 70 Issue: 4 Page: 885(4)

Article Type: Book Review

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COMPANION TO THE LITERATURES OF COLONIAL AMERICA

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COMPANION TO THE LITERATURES OF COLONIAL AMERICA
CASTILLO SCHWEITZER
Manufacturer: BLACKWELL PUBLISHING
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000N5A3HC

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I needed this book for class, but I am enjoying it .

The history of soil erosion

What bird's eye?

A major work for general readers

Great Overall View of History

The Human Web: A Bird's-Eye View of World History
Robert McNeill , and William H. McNeill
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History (California World History Library)

Son of the Revolution

Before European Hegemony: The World System A.D. 1250-1350

Navigating World History: Historians Create a Global Past

The World That Trade Created: Society, Culture, And the World Economy, 1400 to the Present (Sources and Studies in World History)

ASIN: 0393925684

Book Description

An original vision of world history that reveals the larger patterns of human cooperation and conflict from the earliest times.

Why did the first civilizations emerge when and where they did? How did Islam become a unifying force in the world of its birth? What enabled the West to project its goods and power around the world from the fifteenth century on? Why was agriculture invented seven times and the Internet just once?

In a spirited contribution to the quickening discussion of world-historical questions such as these, J. R. and William H. McNeill explore the webs that have drawn humans together in patterns of interaction and exchange, cooperation and competition, since the beginning. Whether small or large, loose or dense, these webs have provided the medium for the movement of ideas, goods, power, and money within and across cultures, societies, and nations. Avoiding any determinism, environmental or cultural, the McNeills give us a synthesizing picture of the big patterns of world history in a rich, open-ended, concise account. Maps, 25 b/w illustrations.

Customer Reviews:

I needed this book for class, but I am enjoying it ........2007-09-28

I purchased the book because it was assigned for my world history class. I expected it to be dry and straightforward. However that is has not been the case so far. I have read about five chapters and the book postulates interesting and fun theories about human development.

The history of soil erosion.......2006-07-21

By the 1990s, U.S miners moved about 4 billion tons of rock per year, and the world figures was about five times that. "All this mining corroded the lithosphere with a warren of underground shafts and chambers, and after the appearance of the requisite earth-moving machinery, pockmarked the earth's surface with thousands of huge open pits, mainly in the United States, Russia, Germany, and Australia.

Pulse One: Eroded soil ends up in reservoirs and lakes, affecting aquatic life. It silts up shorelines, harbors, and river channels, requiring dredging. The first pulse came when agriculture in the Middle East, India, and China emerged from the river valleys and spread over former forest lands. This occurred slowly, say between 2000 B.C to 1000 AD, as states, economies, and population grew- and as iron tools made clearing forest easier. Where ever existing vegetation was cut or burned to make way for crops or animals, faster erosion resulted. China's loess plateau typifies the first pulse. Some 40 million people live in an area the size of France; it is one of the worlds most eroded landscapes; soil consist of windborne deposits from Mongolia; before cultivation forests cover most of the loess plateau; by 1990 soil erosion carries off 2.2 billion tons of topsoil a year; the soil in the Dahe gave it the name "Yellow river".

Pulse Two: The second global surge in soil erosion came with the frontier expansion of Europe and the integration of world agricultural markets. The pulse began with the European conquest and the Euro-African settlements; thickly settle mountainous regions of the Andes and Central America's agricultural terraces fell apart and soil erosion spurred; cultivators would leave fields bare and hoofed animals loosened up more soil; European settlers had the power to move populations into marginal lands, such as steep lands where the soil was unstable; the lands came under the plow; in Rhodesia, Africa, white farms introduced plows and commercial agriculture plant wheat, tobacco, coffee, and other crops; the create a spate of erosion in Kenya and Rhodesia; people huddle in smaller area and made it more tempting to farm unstable soils; soil erosion accelerated promoting tree cutting; more incentive for cash crop increase pressure to produce; cattle and soil husbandry caused over grazing problems; Canals, railroads, steamships, and telegraphs knitted the world markets together making sense to plow up North America praire, run tens of thousands of sheep over lower slopes of New Zealand Southern Alps in order to sale to burgeoning urban populations far away. Plain development had its affects: dust storms in Saskatchewan darkened the skiess as 3 to 4 million hectares of prairie land was completely destroyed.

Third pulse. The third pulse gathered in the 1950s. Populations experienced an unprecedented level of health and survival. "Demographic growth, often together with state policies and land tenure patterns, spurred land hunger and land clearing, even on steep and marginal lands. Lowland peasants migrated to highland regions, mountain peasants invaded rainforests, and still others colonized semiarid lands. Once, ingrained agronomic knowledge and familiar animals and technology often proved inappropriate to new settings." "Technology changes in agriculture, specifically the adoption of heavy machinery, led to soil compaction after 1930, and especially after 1950, as tractor grew in size. " Soil compaction inhibit plant growth. Industrial pollution and heavy use of nitrogen fertilizers after 1960 led to soil acidification, especially in Europe. By 1990 soil irrigation had salinization 7% of the world's land.

Soil degradation now effects one third of the world's land surface; a quarter of the earths cultivate land area; about 2 billion hectacres; 430 million hectacres are irreversible destroyed; in China, 1978 erosion forced the abandonment of 31 percent of the arable land; the US loses 1.7 billion tons to erosion each year; a cost of $150 per person.

What bird's eye?.......2004-06-28

I love ambitious books, and today's world needs big perspectives. But this book is rooted more in current American values than in historical facts.
To give just a few examples: where else could the authors have found the wisdom that the first gardeners were women? or that farming could only take off after private property became the norm? The book is full of assumptions, and sometimes at the expense of the facts. Stating that Napoleon unified the French in the 1800-1810s, when France had been a centralized kingdom and European superpower for six centuries, is like saying that GWBush is the uniter of the Americans. To prove a point about exchanges speeding up, the book says that it in 1650, it would take a Dutch ship a year to go from Java to Amsterdam. But a famous dutch ship's journal relates of Bontekoe's adventurous journey there around 1620. Although plagued by tropical storms, losing his mast, losing his way, losing time to help other ships and the brandy on board catching on fire setting off a gunpowder explosion, he did Europe to Java in 10 months and came back in 9.
So I love the scope of this book but reading it is very disappointing. Jared Diamond or Marvin Harris are in a completely different league, culturally as well as scientifically.

A major work for general readers.......2003-12-13

W.H. McNeill has written several of the top 20 works for specialists and general audience on general history. This work is a breathtaking overview of world history seen in the context of environment.

People who rightly were thrilled by Diamond's "Guns, Germs and Steel" should go on and enjoy this rare treat: lucid and easy to understand, based on a wealth of erudition connected with plain sense, a new vision.

Young readers might get ideas about a change of courses. As a university professor I immediately took this book up as reading matter for my students - mostly engineers and lawyers at present.

Great Overall View of History.......2003-06-13

The Human Web is an excellent summary of human history. It is indeed a bird's eye view in that it looks at the broad overall sweep of human affairs and doesn't bog down in unnecessary detail. The major theme is the construction and expansion of human webs, or interconnections that tie cultures and civilizations together ever more tightly. If space voyagers ever arrived on Earth (and could read a human language) this book would be one of the first things I hope we hand them to help them understand us.

Book Description

The foundation of any successful process safety program is a current set of process hazard analyses (PHAs) for each of its processes. Revalidating PHAs to keep them up to date and applicable is a must. This book is derived from the experience of many companies in the chemical and hydrocarbon processing industries, and presents demonstrated, concise, and common sense approaches for a resource-effective revalidation of PHAs. It includes flowcharts, checklists, and worksheets that provide invaluable assistance to the revalidation process.

Frank Whittle: Invention of the Jet (Revolutions in Science)

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Dispelling the Whittle myths

Frank Whittle: Invention of the Jet (Revolutions in Science)
Andrew Nahum
Manufacturer: Totem Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1840466626

Book Description

Tells the true story of Frank Whittle inventing the jet engine and revolutionizing avaiation.

Customer Reviews:

Dispelling the Whittle myths.......2006-05-02

Those readers who have believed that Frank Whittle invented the jet engine may be in for a surprise. Andrew Nahum's incisive book, Frank Whittle - Invention of the Jet, aims to dispel the myths surrounding this topic and Whittle's role in it.

As with so many important inventions, the development of the jet engine was to a large extent driven by the necessities of war. Particularly the British, Germans and Americans worked feverishly to produce a war-winning jet fighter during the Second World War, but the Germans won this particular arms race by being the first to get effective and combat-ready jet aeroplanes in the air, though it came too late to influence the eventual outcome of the war.

Britain's inability to beat the Germans in this respect, and its subsequent failure to lead the way in the postwar jet aircraft industry despite Whittle's pioneering work, have led many, including Whittle himself, to criticise those in authority in the wartime years for lack of government support and for failing to appreciate the work done by Whittle's Power Jets company, which was forcibly nationalised by the wartime government in 1944. It is this apparent failure of appreciation, feeding on the age-old stereotype of the misunderstood genius battling against reactionary conservatives still imprisoned by dated paradigms, from which grew the various misconceptions surrounding Whittle's role which Nahum seeks to dispel.

Andrew Nahum is principal curator of transport technologies at the Science Museum in London and a visiting professor in vehicle design at the Royal College of Art. He is also the author of i.a. Flying Machines, one of the DK Eyewitness Guides.

Nahum makes a convincing case for his main point that, in fact, the then British government was not at all indifferent to Whittle's foresight and energy and supported him and his colleagues as far as reasonably possible in a critical time when the needs of a conventional propeller-driven air force under intense attack from Germany had to be balanced with Whittle's demands for desperately needed funds to finance long-term and still experimental weapons such as the jet.

The book includes chapters on Whittle's early jet ideas, wartime development and the difficult problems with the Whittle W.2 jet design, the rise and fall of Whittle's Power Jets company, jet developments in the US, and the first jet airliner (the Comet) and why it failed. In a fascinating endnotes section Nahum discusses jet development in Germany and if the jet would have been developed without Whittle. His answers to this question are particularly illuminating, for instance when quoting Sir Harry Ricardo who said, "... we are too fond ... of crediting a few particular individuals with a monopoly of inventive genius ... Most intelligent people come to much the same conclusion, at much the same time."

Though this book aims to be a necessary correction to deeply-held perceptions and misconceptions it recognises Whittle's important contributions. Nahum credits Whittle for giving Britain an early launch into the turbine industry and discusses eventual developments such as the supersonic Concorde achievement as partly resulting from Whittle's pioneering work.

This concise little book, only 177 pages, is not a biography and we do not learn much about Whittle the man. Being a layman I would have liked more diagrams than the three provided, and the book would also have benefited from a table clearly illustrating the various achievements together with dates, so as to provide a historical overview and draw the welter of information together. But then more illustrations would have increased the very reasonable price of this book.

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Frank Higgins: Trail Blazer
Thomas D. Whittles
Manufacturer: Kessinger Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1417967838

Gas Turbine Aero-Thermodynamics: With Special Reference to Aircraft Propulsion

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Frank tells of the hardships of developing the turbine

Gas Turbine Aero-Thermodynamics: With Special Reference to Aircraft Propulsion
Frank, Sir Whittle
Manufacturer: Pergamon Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0080267181

Customer Reviews:

Frank tells of the hardships of developing the turbine.......1997-12-11

Frank starts from his entry into the British military service. He got a patent on the turbine engine in 1930 and spent years fighting authorities while he developed the engine. The perils of early tests are detailed graphically. His engine was used in the Metior and sent to the usa in 1942 after we were in the war. GE developed a working engine in 6 months then Frank came over to help them all he could. An excellent boot about the hardships faced by a man who was clearly ahead of his time.

Genesis: Frank Whittle and the Invention of the Jet Engine

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From innovation to product
Depressing story of beaurocracy at its worst...
Young Jet Genius
Jet Engine History Revealed!

Genesis: Frank Whittle and the Invention of the Jet Engine
John Golley
Manufacturer: The Crowood Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 185310860X

Book Description

This is the story of a genius throttled by British government bureaucracy. Although gagged for decades by the secrecy of that period, the story can now be told in full and these revelations provide a fascinating insight into the attitudes of the wartime government and military establishment, attitudes that led to one of the greatest inventions of all time being offered freely to those who were to become Britain's main aircraft manufacturing competitors.

Customer Reviews:

From innovation to product.......2007-06-09

Although this book is mostly for aviation aficionados it gives it's own insight to the issue of making innovation into a product.

I liked the way book took it's reader into the battle of innovator proving his inventions merits to an industry for which the very invention was a disruption of long lines of established products. Franks obstacles can be common for many other developers/engineers that want to make a product that changes the world.

Depressing story of beaurocracy at its worst..........2002-12-16

I found the book interesting however if you're hoping for a good explanation of the JET engine, the developments and aircraft, this book is NOT for you. Not enough meat, diagrams or pictures. See instead other works like Klaus Hunecke's excellent book "Jet Engines".

If you're an avid historian and want to know how a visionary RAF officer/engineer worked himself to near death for little reward or advancement within a government system that tried hard to stymie him at every step, this is indeed a moving,fascinating and somewhat depressing book... they even gave his engines away to the Russians and Americans.

Young Jet Genius.......2001-11-11

Perhaps a little too detailed for casual readers, the story of Frank Whittle's struggle to develop the jet engine. From his early days at Cranwell, through his battles with government and corporations, through his final success. A great addition for the aviation historian.

Jet Engine History Revealed!.......2001-10-04

If you are an aficionado of turbine engine history you owe it to yourself to find out how it all started. John Golley gives an exhaustive account of Frank Whittle's struggle to develop and perfect the first jet aero engine. The technical difficulties are discussed, but the emphasis is on Whittle's battles with the British government over private versus government control of patents, R&D funding, and development work. It also illustrates how war-time necessities can actually delay experimental work when priorities are placed on existing technology (i.e. piston engines). Well written with great detail on who, what, where, and when. Working in the engineering field myself, I would have liked to have more detail on the "nuts & bolts", but this is a minor complaint. There is more than enough detail in this area for the average reader.

Fetal and Neonatal Neurology and Neurosurgery

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Fetal and Neonatal Neurology and Neurosurgery
Malcolm I. Levene
Manufacturer: Churchill Livingstone
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0443063796

Book Description

The New Edition of the field's definitive reference work provides exceptional coverage of the normal and abnormal development of the brain from conception through the first year of life. A multidisciplinary, international team of experts explores everything from the structural development of CNS to all its many associated clinical conditions. And, it includes management options, prognosis, and outcomes for each clinical condition so readers can develop treatment programs for these complex conditions.

Nde in the Nuclear and Pressure Vessel Industries: Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Nde in the Nuclear and Pressure Vessel Industries 22-25 May 1995 Kyoto International Conference

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Nde in the Nuclear and Pressure Vessel Industries: Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Nde in the Nuclear and Pressure Vessel Industries 22-25 May 1995 Kyoto International Conference
Kunihiro Lida , Glenn M. Light , M. John Whittle , and Frank V. Ammirato
Manufacturer: Asm Intl
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0871705486

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WHITTLE
John Golley
Manufacturer: Smithsonian
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Biography - Whittle, Sir Frank, Sir (1907-1996): An article from: Contemporary Authors Online

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Biography - Whittle, Sir Frank, Sir (1907-1996): An article from: Contemporary Authors Online
Gale Reference Team
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B0007SHT0E
Release Date: 2007-06-13

Book Description

Word count: 1772.

Book review: Frank Whittle: Invention of the Jet [A book review from: World Patent Information]

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Book review: Frank Whittle: Invention of the Jet [A book review from: World Patent Information]
M. Blackman
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Elsevier | By Publisher | e-Docs | Formats | Books
ASIN: B000RR1MLM

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from World Patent Information, published by Elsevier in 2005. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

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Book Description

This perspective on the South African wild animal rehabilitation centre Wildcare explains how wild animal rehabilitation has moved from a backyard pastime to a highly complex operation.

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Inspirational!.......2007-03-30

This is a must-read for anyone interested in South African wildlife and/or wildlife rehabilitation. Karen's knowledge, work ethic and profound compassion for the lives of orphaned and injured animals is such an inspiration. You will celebrate with the many fortunate lives who are able to return to the wild. The stories (and pictures) will touch your heart long after you have finished reading this truly amazing book.

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