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- The Real Deal on Black Folklore
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Tales of the Congaree
Edward C. L. Adams
Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0807841889 |
Book Description
This volume brings back into print a remarkable record of black life in the 1920s, chronicled by Edward C.L. Adams, a white physician from the area around the Congaree River in central South Carolina. It reproduces Adams's major works, Congaree Sketches (1927) and Nigger to Nigger (1928), two collections of tales, poems, and dialogues from blacks who worked his land, presented in the black vernacular language. They are supplemented here by a play, Potee's Gal, and some brief sketches of poor whites.
What sets Adams's tales apart from other such collections is the willingness of his black informants to share with him not only their stories of rabbits and "hants" but also their feelings on such taboo subjects as lynchings, Jim Crow courts, and chain gangs. Adams retells these tales as if the blacks in them were talking only among themselves. Whites do not appear in these works, except as rare background figures and topics of conversation by Tad, Scip, and other black storytellers. As Tad says, "We talkin' to we."
That Adams was permitted to hear such tales at all is part of the mystery that Robert O'Meally explains in his introduction. The key to the mystery is Adams's ability—in his life, as in his works—to wear both black and white masks. He remained a well-placed member of white society at the same time that he was something of a maverick within it. His black informants therefore saw him not only as someone more likeable and trustworthy than most whites but also as someone who was in a position to help them in some way if he understood more about their lives.
As a writer, O'Meally suggests, Adams was not simply an objective recorder of folklore. By donning a black mask, Adams was able to project attitudes and values that most whites of his place and time would have disavowed. As a result, his tales have a complexity and richness that make them an authentic witness to the black experience as well as a lasting contribution to American letters.
Customer Reviews:
The Real Deal on Black Folklore.......2002-12-17
E.C.L. Adams was an interesting fellow. In the 1920s, he won the trust of the Blacks in his area and they told him raw stories filled with their true feelings about racial oppression as well as other aspects of their daily lives. Adams collected these stories into two volumes that are collected here (as well as some additional material)that hold up quite well today. No patronizing of his subjects, stereotyping, nor overexaggerated "Negro dialect" which marred similar collections of this kind of material by White writers. I would recommend this and Zora Neale Hurston's "Mules and Men" and "Every Tounge Got to Confess" for anyone who wants to know the real deal on African-American folklore.
One minor complaint, the editor mentions the existance of some other tales that Adams colected that exist in his papers that do not appear in this collection. Wonder why this stuff wasn't included?
Book Description
Pleasures and palaces are, of course, an enormously entertaining part of this vivid account of France under Louis XIV. More important is the author's exploration of the political, economic, social and artistic forces that developed during the long reign of the Sun-King. It was an age of contradictions and compromises and high taxes and formal manners. And to the day he died Louis XIV ate with his fingers and acted like God. The opening account of Louis XIV's private life and loves sets the pace for this witty, provocative account of a century that, like our own, was a time of transition, dissatisfaction and progress. This was the age of Moliere, Racine, Corneille...the age of the salons and the graceful correspondents. And also an age that sent thousands of Huguenots to the galleys, the notorious death ships that served as seventeenth-century concentration camps.
Customer Reviews:
A Joy to Read.......2006-09-23
This is one of the most fun books of history you will ever be lucky enough to read. It covers some aspects of 17th Century French history, with the greatest proportion of the book centered on Louis XIV and his court, although there are chapters on the peasantry and the brutality of the galleys.
I personally enjoyed the essays on court etiquette because it was so ludicrous. Louis convinced the nobility of France to give up their private armies to live in tiny attic bedrooms at Versailles and fight over who got to sit in an armchair and who had to sit on a stool. Human nature never changes--in the 21st century people fight to achieve status by buying the correct Manolo Blahnik shoes and the right Hermes carry all.
The chapter on female education alone is worth the price of admission. Louis and Mme. de Maintenon established a school for the daughters of impoverished aristocrats, and as a result reformed education for upper class females throughout France.
As other reviewers have said, this is history in the grand manner and most enjoyable.
Tour de Force.......2002-07-29
The wealth of detail in W.H. Lewis' book The Splendid Century is incredible, but even more incredible is Lewis' ability to see the forest and the trees, to intelligently distinguish between what is useful and what is irrelevant and to leave the reader with a definite impression of Louis XIV's France.
Like his brother, C.S., Warren Lewis has that stereotyped but still very real and precious commodity of English commonsense. His good-humored rationality flavors the book but not to the detriment of the subject. Lewis was, afterall, writing about Louis XIV's France, not 20th century England. As with all the best historians, Lewis has the ability to see the world from outside the ideologies and pressures of the present. More than once, he cautions the reader against applying current century thinking to a 17th century problem or event.
But tone is where Lewis excels. Personable without being chatty, humorous without being sarcastic, A Splendid Century is amazingly relaxing to read, especially allowing for the subject matter and Lewis' fact-filled prose.
Recommendation: Buy it.
History in the Grand Manner.......2001-06-26
W.H. Lewis wrote this famous book (dedicated to his brother C.S.) in 1953, but it has stood the test of time very well and provides an excellent introduction to the history of France during the reign of Louis XIV. "The Splendid Century" is history in the grand manner, written in the style of Trevelyan, Runciman and Roy Porter. The erudition is everywhere apparent, but it is worn lightly and the story is told in fluent prose enlivened by the odd flash of sly humour.
As the author points out in the introduction, the book might have been better titled "Some Aspects of Life in the Reign of Louis XIV;" rather than present a sequential narrative, Lewis chose to structure the book as a series of essays on particular aspects. There are chapters on the king and his court, the religious situation, the organisation of the army and the state of the peasantry. Among the unexpected pleasures of the book are the chapters on sea voyages, the world of the galleys and the education of women. A surprising omission, however, is a discussion of Colbert and his attempts at administrative reform. Nevertheless, this is a fine work of history that can be strongly recommended.
Historical analysis at its best........2000-11-27
Mr.W.H.Lewis, brother of Mr.C.S., projects his fondness for the 17th century with bravado in The Splendid Century. The word splendid, derived from the latin for "illuminated", allows the reader to understand his thesis of the Grand Siecle without turning a page, by simply judging the book by its cover. Here is a profoundly pious Christian man composing some of the most glorious prose about a controvertial subject and succeeding where so many others have failed.
By not limiting himself to Versailles Mr.Lewis creates honesty. But he does not stop there, he remains true to the popular understanding. The Sun King's world brought to life.
An excellent overview of 17th century France.......2000-08-30
So much of what you read about the France of Louis 14th is based on the memoirs of Courtiers, to whom Versailles was the centre of the universe. In many ways that was true. Louis built Versilles to be the new heart of France. One where *he* ruled absoultley to the glorie of France.
However, this book covers much more than Versilles. You get to see what the majority of France was like during the period outside the court. Why the country was loathed by all courtiers, the real definition of a stinking Paris. How to get caught out at dinner for wrong ettiqute. Why you *didn't* want to end up on the Galleys and what your chances of education would have been like.
The author makes it clear that it is hard to make generalisations about this period in France, but he does his best to give us examples of the confusion and differences people experienced during the period.
If you think our taxes are bad today. Read this book and thank your lucky stars you aren't living in 17th cent France.
All in all this is a very enlightening read and highly recommended to anybody who wants a real glimpse of what the *real* France was like under Louis 14th.
Product Description
Study of the social, moral, and political life of France in the seventeenth century; W.H. Lewis describes the effects of the powerful personality of KLouis XIV as it confronted a nation torn with grievances in the provinces, the church, and the court. With color and spirit. Lewis re-creates the life and times of the famous king and the magnificent and climatic era that preceded the fall of the old regime.
Amazon.com
"Intended as an upper-level undergraduate or introductory graduate text in computer science theory," this book lucidly covers the key concepts and theorems of the theory of computation. The presentation is remarkably clear; for example, the "proof idea," which offers the reader an intuitive feel for how the proof was constructed, accompanies many of the theorems and a proof. Introduction to the Theory of Computation covers the usual topics for this type of text plus it features a solid section on complexity theory--including an entire chapter on space complexity. The final chapter introduces more advanced topics, such as the discussion of complexity classes associated with probabilistic algorithms.
Book Description
Michael Sipser's emphasis on unifying computer science theory - rather than offering a collection of low-level details - sets the book apart, as do his intuitive explanations. Throughout the book, Sipser builds students' knowledge of conceptual tools used in computer science, the aesthetic sense they need to create elegant systems, and the ability to think through problems on their own.
Customer Reviews:
My choice for textbook in my computation theory class.......2007-10-01
I recently encountered this book at a publisher's booth at a computer conference and read it on the ride back home. This morning I made a trip to the college bookstore and notified them that it is the textbook that I will be using in my computation theory class this spring.
The chapter titles are:
0) Introduction - this chapter contains the fundamental mathematical background of sets, functions, graphs and proofs. For most students, it could be skipped or skimmed.
1) Regular languages - this chapter is an introduction to deterministic and nondeterministic finite automata and regular expressions.
2) Context-free languages - an introduction to context-free grammars and pushdown automata.
3) The Church-Turing theses - an introduction to Turing machines and the variants, such as multiple tapes and nondeterministic Turing machines.
4) Decidability - the definition of decidability and how Turing machines and finite automata are used to prove or disprove if a language is decidable.
5) Reducibility - the definition of reducible and how Turing machines can be used to execute reductions.
6) The recursion theorem - an introduction to the recursion theorem and some applications to formal theories.
7) Time complexity - the first chapter in the coverage of algorithmic complexity, in this case execution time.
8) Space complexity - an examination of the complexity of algorithms from the perspective of the amount of memory required.
9) Intractability - an examination of the problems that can be solved in principle but not in practice.
10) Advanced topics in complexity theory - approximation algorithms, probabilistic algorithms, alternation, interactive proof systems, parallel computation and cryptography.
There is less coverage of grammars than most books, which is replaced by more in the area of algorithmic analysis. In my opinion, that is an appropriate tradeoff, the analysis of algorithms gives the students some understanding of how automata are applied in computer science.
Another excellent feature of this book is the solutions to selected exercises that appear at the end of the chapters. My estimate is that reasonably detailed solutions to approximately one-third of the problems are included. This allows the students to work extra problems by themselves, and helps the instructor if they are asked to do another example in class that they have not already worked through.
The exposition is very good; I am convinced that the students will be able to read the material on their own, which is one more reason why I adopted this book for my course.
well-organized, progressive, and understandable.......2007-01-06
As an intro to the theoretical background to computer science goes, this book is about as readable and approachable as you can get.
It gives a very thorough treatment of the whole theoretical basis, from regular languages and pumping lemmas out through Turing machines and related issues, and on to some interesting language classes (like NP and PSpace-complete).
If there's a single sticking point with the book, it's that it insists on a very strict formalism (ie: everything is proof-based) -- something necessary for the topic, but it sometimes renders the material a bit hard to digest.
Great book on the subject.......2006-12-27
If you are interested in or for other reasons must read a book on this subject, this is the book. I took a class last semester which used Hopcroft as the text and I found myself often turning to this book for better understanding. This book is more intuitive and thus a bit less formal than Hopcroft but when trying to learn, understanding is better than mathematical formalism. If you are new to the subject, Sipser is the book to begin with.
Very readable, diverse, and a little sparse.......2006-11-25
This is a wonderful little gem of a book that presents the theory of computation in a fascinating way. It is targeted at advanced undergraduates in computer science, but assumes remarkably little prior knowledge, making it accessible to nearly anyone. The book covers a lot of ground, including the standard fare of automata, computability, and complexity results, plus some bonus material such as probablistic and parallel complexity, information theory, decidable logical theories, and other topics that are normally left out of introductory books. On top of this, the book is remarkably thin!
The best attribute of Sipser's book, though, is the engaging style. This is an easy book to read. You will not feel like you're running into a brick wall, as is sometimes the case with books on abstract topics. It's not so much that the book is slow or gentle (it's really not) as that it is interesting, engaging, and has a knack for stopping short of getting too caught up in details. A number of small things -- the occasional amusing exercise, the "proof idea" sections, or helpful pictures -- add up to an enjoyable reading experience.
Two cautions are appropriate to students considering this book. First, there are variations between authors in the definitions of various automata (especially PDAs). The differences are trivial, and more a matter of taste than of any real importance; but it could come up if you use Sipser as a supplement to a course that follows a different textbook. Second, the coverage of many topics in Sipser's book is brief and concise, sometimes more than you might like. Some important concepts (for example, pairwise distinguishability of strings) are only mentioned in exercises, not in the main chapter, so at least skim all the exercises even if you don't do them. The sketchy coverage is especially pronounced in advanced topics, so (as always) expect to do some filling in of concepts if you go on into further study of this area.
Most appropriate for CS students.......2006-06-01
As a teacher of the subject, I have had the chance to evaluate numerous books on the theory of computation. Of all the available texts, I think this one is the most appropriate for CS students. In the past I taught out of Dexter Kozen's book, which is incredibly elegant, but had some resistance from the students. Thinking it over I decided that Kozen's text, although beautiful, may be better suited to students pursuing a degree in pure math. Sipser's book, on the other hand, is more gentle. I find that Sipser demands far less mathematical maturity from his readers, and thus allows the difficulty to be shifted from excessive formalism to the inherent challenges present in the material. In addition, following Sipser's treatment, I was able to cover finite state machines and pushdown automata in far less time, thus allowing me to concentrate on computability and beyond. The book really shines in its treatment of computability theory, eloquently directing attention to some of the most beautiful aspects.
Another benefit of Sipser's book is the exercises, of which there are many more in this edition. Someone studying on their own should find the initial group of exercises in each section quite approachable. Even the more challenging problems are not incredibly hard, and typically draw their difficulty from the deeper themes of the chapter instead of obscure details.
If you are looking for an enjoyable, well-paced book with an introduction to computability and complexity that is truly inspiring, this is the one for you. A mathematician looking for a bit more rigor may do better with Kozen.
Book Description
Emphasizing issues of computational efficiency, Michael Kearns and Umesh Vazirani introduce a number of central topics in computational learning theory for researchers and students in artificial intelligence, neural networks, theoretical computer science, and statistics.
Computational learning theory is a new and rapidly expanding area of research that examines formal models of induction with the goals of discovering the common methods underlying efficient learning algorithms and identifying the computational impediments to learning.
Each topic in the book has been chosen to elucidate a general principle, which is explored in a precise formal setting. Intuition has been emphasized in the presentation to make the material accessible to the nontheoretician while still providing precise arguments for the specialist. This balance is the result of new proofs of established theorems, and new presentations of the standard proofs.
The topics covered include the motivation, definitions, and fundamental results, both positive and negative, for the widely studied L. G. Valiant model of Probably Approximately Correct Learning; Occam's Razor, which formalizes a relationship between learning and data compression; the Vapnik-Chervonenkis dimension; the equivalence of weak and strong learning; efficient learning in the presence of noise by the method of statistical queries; relationships between learning and cryptography, and the resulting computational limitations on efficient learning; reducibility between learning problems; and algorithms for learning finite automata from active experimentation.
Customer Reviews:
This is interesting stuff.......2000-11-18
Kearns is an impressive researcher, precise and succinct. The material on this book follows a tradition of careful proofs of fundamental issues in learning. I wouldn't think this is material of practical use; for that kind of material I'd recommend the new edition of Duda. Rather, Kearns is one of a team of researchers pushing the frontier of proving what is learnable and what is not, why some representations are good for learning and which are not, the dimensionality of the target problem (related to overfitting) working with prinpled definitions of what it is meant to learn borrowed from computational complexity theory.
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Patterns of China's Lost Harmony: A Survey of the Country's Environmental Degradation and Protection
R. Edmonds
Manufacturer: Routledge
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0415104785 |
Book Description
Patterns of China's Lost Harmony blends historical documentation with contemporary analysis to determine the degree of human impact upon China's vegetation, soil, water, air and wildlife. Tracing the development of environmental ideas from the ancient Chinese classics, Richard Louis Edmonds assesses vegetation degradation before and after 1949 by using national statistics and policies as well as local examples.
The book stresses regional variation in degradation and protection and relates them to the country's growing economic imbalance. Edmonds analyzes pollution and the policies recently introduced for its control, and discusses wildlife management and the evolution of China's nature reserve network. The book will serve as an important reference tool for understanding the historical scope of environmental degradation and for examining attempts to control environmental degradation since the 1980s.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Geographical Journal, published by Royal Geographical Society on March 1, 1996. The length of the article is 482 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: Patterns of China's Lost Harmony. A Survey of the Country's Environmental Degradation and Protection.(Brief Article)
Author: John G. Taylor
Publication:
The Geographical Journal (Refereed)
Date: March 1, 1996
Publisher: Royal Geographical Society
Volume: v162
Issue: n1
Page: p86(1)
Article Type: Book Review, Brief Article
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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