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American Roulette: How I Turned the Odds Upside Down—My Wild Twenty-Five-Year Ride Ripping Off the World's Casinos
by Richard MarcusIn American Roulette, Richard Marcus tells his never-before-heard story, of ripping off casinos. The book follows Marcus, along with several of the world's great professional casino cheaters, as he travels from Las Vegas to London and Monte Carlo, pilfering large sums of money from casinos by performing sleight of hand magic tricks with gaming chips. As skilled cheaters, they back up their moves with psychological setups to convince pit bosses that they're watching legitimate high rollers getting lucky, while in fact they're being ripped off blind. With the exploding growth of casino gambling, heightened by Indian reservation and riverboat expansion, more and more elaborate casino cheaters are illegally assaulting the green-felt, getting rich off of novice casino personnel. Richard Marcus's insider story is a window into the hidden world of intriguing personalities and tense situations he encounters as a member of expert casino-cheating teams who use their wits to turn the odds upside down and "earn" millions. American Roulette is a fascinating story not only for those who occasionally casino-gamble, but for everyone with a little larceny in their heart.
American Roulette: The Social Logic of Death Penalty Sentencing Trials
by Sarah Beth KaufmanAs the death penalty clings to life in many states and dies off in others, this first-of-its-kind ethnography takes readers inside capital trials across the United States. Sarah Beth Kaufman draws on years of ethnographic and documentary research, including hundreds of hours of courtroom observation in seven states, interviews with participants, and analyses of newspaper coverage to reveal how the American justice system decides who deserves the most extreme punishment. The "super due process" accorded capital sentencing by the United States Supreme Court is the system’s best attempt at individuated sentencing. Resources not seen in most other parts of the criminal justice system, such as jurors and psychological experts, are required in capital trials, yet even these cannot create the conditions of morality or justice. Kaufman demonstrates that capital trials ultimately depend on performance and politics, resulting in the enactment of deep biases and utter capriciousness. American Roulette contends that the liberal, democratic ideals of criminal punishment cannot be enacted in the current criminal justice system, even under the most controlled circumstances.
American Rule: How a Nation Conquered the World but Failed Its People
by Jared Yates SextonFrom writer and political analyst Jared Yates Sexton comes a journey through the history of the United States, from the nation&’s founding to the twenty-first century, which examines and debunks the American myths we've always told ourselves. In recent years, Americans have faced a deluge of horrifying developments in politics and culture: stolen elections, fascist rallies, families torn apart and locked away. A common refrain erupts at each new atrocity: This isn't who we are. In American Rule, Jared Yates Sexton upends those convenient fictions by laying bare the foundational myths at the heart of our collective American imagination. From the very origins of this nation, Americans in power have abused and subjugated others; enabling that corruption are the many myths of American exceptionalism and steadfast values, which are fed to the public and repeated across generations. Working through each era of American growth and change, Sexton weaves together the origins and perpetuation of these narratives still in the public memory, and the acts we have chosen to forget. Stirring, deeply researched, and disturbingly familiar, American Rule is a call to examine our own misconceptions of what it means, and has always meant, to be an American.
American Rural Communities
by A. E. Luloff Louis E. SwansonThis book is dedicated to the people of rural America whose struggle to make community meaningful provides important lessons. It includes the contributors' prescription for the 1990s that calls for a renewal of action, development, and leadership on the part of local citizens and civic leaders.
American Sage: The Spiritual Teachings of Ralph Waldo Emerson
by Barry M. Andrews&“Succeeds in making Emerson&’s ideas and recommended spiritual practices accessible. . . . [For] those interested in nineteenth-century American spiritualism.&” —Publishers Weekly Even during his lifetime, Ralph Waldo Emerson was called the Sage of Concord, a fitting title for this leader of the American Transcendentalist movement. Everything that Emerson said and wrote directly addressed the conduct of life, and in his view, spiritual truth and understanding were the essence of religion. Unsurprisingly, he sought to rescue spirituality from decay, eschewing dry preaching and rote rituals. Unitarian minister Barry M. Andrews has spent years studying Emerson, finding wisdom and guidance in his teachings and practices, and witnessing how the spiritual lives of others are enriched when they grasp the many meanings in his work. In American Sage, Andrews explores Emerson's writings, including his journals and letters, and makes them accessible to today's spiritual seekers. Written in everyday language and based on scholarship grounded in historical detail, this enlightening book considers the nineteenth-century religious and intellectual crosscurrents that shaped Emerson's worldview to reveal how his spiritual teachings remain timeless and modern, universal and uniquely American. &“An ideal companion for readers working through Emerson's essays, a reading group on spirituality, and any number of classroom situations.&” —David M. Robinson, author of Emerson and the Conduct of Life: Pragmatism and Ethical Purpose in the Later Work &“In a style that is both scholarly and highly readable, Andrews offers an insightful account of Emerson's teachings. . . . demonstrating how his ideas are relevant to readers of today who are poised between faith and unbelief.&” —Phyllis Cole, author of Mary Moody Emerson and the Origins of Transcendentalism: A Family History
American Sahib
by John MuehlAN AMERICAN MEDIC ATTACHED TO THE BRITISH INDIAN ARMY DURING WORLD WAR TWO RECOUNTS HIS EXPERIENCES.John Muehl saw India as few Americans, few Britons, and few Indians ever have the chance to see it. He was with the American Field Service, attached to the British Indian Army, and wore British uniform. "I could travel the length and breadth of the country, with the blessing of the Raj but without its stigma. I was a 'pukah sahib' in the Poona Club, a tommy in the Lady Lumley Canteen, an American tourist in Gorpuri Bazaar, and simply a friend to Raman and Singh." He mingled with the Sikhs and Gurkhas and other Indians who fought under the British not for love of empire or for hate of Japan but for their board and keep. "Nay British sahib-American sahib," he would say when Indians showed reluctance to talk with him. Admiration for America was great enough-though it turned to suspicion by the end of this war in which America seemed to make common cause with the Raj-so that this phrase usually broke down the barrier. And AMERICAN SAHIB is John Muehl's journal of a year. It is an inside story of appalling poverty, famine, and political ferment among the Indians, and of bungling, brutality, and hypocrisy on the part of the British rulers. Fortunately for the reader, the dark picture is lightened with humor and with a sense of the patient philosophy that sustains India. This young American's first shock came when he learned through personal conversations in exclusive officer's clubs that the Briton in India does not conceive himself as graciously bearing the white man's burden, as the propaganda would have us believe. In private, the Briton admits almost boastfully that India's function is to serve as a source of raw materials for England and a market for her products, and if she is ground down in the process that is her worry...Through John Muehl's eyes and ears, we too can see India and hear its people.
American Saint: The Life of Elizabeth Seton
by Joan Barthel“A fascinating biography” of Elizabeth Seton, who shocked high society by converting to Catholicism—a faith that was illegal in New York when she was born (Booklist).In this riveting biography of the first American saint, Joan Barthel tells the mesmerizing story of a woman whose life encompassed wealth and poverty, passion and sorrow, love and loss. Elizabeth was born into a prominent New York City family in 1774—when Catholicism was illegal and priests in the city were arrested, and sometimes hanged. Her father was the chief health officer for the Port of New York, and she lived down the block from Alexander Hamilton. She danced at George Washington’s sixty-fifth Birthday Ball in cream slippers, monogrammed. When Elizabeth and her husband sailed to Italy in a doomed attempt to cure his tuberculosis, she and her family were quarantined in a damp dungeon. And when, after she was widowed, Elizabeth became a Catholic, she was so scorned that people talked of burning down her house. American Saint is the inspiring story of a brave woman who forged the way for other women who followed and who made a name for herself in a world entirely ruled by men. Founder of the Sisters of Charity, she resisted male clerical control of her religious order—and she also started America’s first Catholic school, laying the foundation of an educational system that would help countless children thrive in a new nation.“Compelling . . . an exquisite story of Seton’s inspiring life. . . . Readers interested in Catholic history and U.S. history should not overlook this important biography.” —Publishers Weekly“Barthel is a fine and insightful observer of this larger-than-life woman who was so far ahead two hundred years ago that we’re still catching up with her.” —Gloria SteinemIncludes a foreword by Maya Angelou
American Samurai: Myth and Imagination in the Conduct of Battle in the First Marine Division 1941-1951
by Craig CameronA study of the cultural myths and imagination concerning the Marine Corps before, during and after World War Two and the influence these had on the war.
American Sanctions in the Asia-Pacific (Routledge Security in Asia Pacific Series #Vol. 14)
by Brendan TaylorSanctions are a persistent – many would argue increasingly central – component of American efforts to shape foreign policy outcomes in the Asia-Pacific. The use of sanctions in the context of two of the most pressing regional security issues currently on Washington’s radar – the ongoing North Korean nuclear crisis and the management of China’s emergence – clearly reaffirms this pattern. This book provides the first comprehensive treatment of US sanctions policy in the Asia-Pacific. Using the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush presidencies as a basis for comparison, it examines nine prominent episodes involving the US use of sanctions toward countries in this economically and strategically vital part of the world. In each case it addresses the reasons why sanctions were employed in the first place, the precise nature of sanctions and how they operated in practice, before evaluating their effectiveness. Finally, it identifies common trends that emerge from this analysis and draws out practical implications for US sanctions policy, in particular when and how the US can – and cannot – optimally use sanctions in an Asia-Pacific context.
American Sanctuary: Mutiny, Martyrdom, and National Identity in the Age of Revolution
by A. Roger EkirchFrom “one of the most wide-ranging and imaginative historians in America today; there is no one else quite like him in the profession” (Gordon S. Wood)—a dazzling and original work of history. A. Roger Ekirch’s American Sanctuary begins in 1797 with the bloodiest mutiny ever suffered by the Royal Navy—on the British frigate HMS Hermione, four thousand miles from England’s shores, off the western coast of Puerto Rico. In the midst of the most storied epoch in British seafaring history, the mutiny struck at the very heart of military authority and at Britain’s hierarchical social order. Revolution was in the air: America had won its War of Independence, the French Revolution was still unfolding, and a ferocious rebellion loomed in Ireland, with countless dissidents already arrested. Most of the Hermione mutineers had scattered throughout the North Atlantic; one of them, Jonathan Robbins, had made his way to American shores, and the British were asking for his extradition. Robbins let it be known that he was an American citizen from Danbury, Connecticut, and that he had been impressed into service by the British. John Adams, the Federalist successor to Washington as president, in one of the most catastrophic blunders of his administration, sanctioned Robbins’s extradition, according to the terms of the Jay Treaty of 1794. Convicted of murder and piracy by a court-martial in Jamaica, Robbins was sentenced by the British to death, hauled up on the fore yardarm of the frigate Acasta, blindfolded with his hands tied behind his back, and hanged. Adams’s miscalculation ignited a political firestorm, only to be fanned by news of Robbins’s execution without his constitutional rights of due process and trial by jury. Thomas Jefferson, then vice president and leader of the emergent Republican Party, said, “No one circumstance since the establishment of our government has affected the popular mind more.” Congressional Republicans tried to censure Adams, and the Federalist majority, in a bitter blow to the president, were unable to muster a vote of confidence condoning Robbins’s surrender. American Sanctuary brilliantly lays out in full detail the story of how the Robbins affair and the presidential campaign of 1800 inflamed the new nation and set in motion a constitutional crisis, resulting in Adams’s defeat and Jefferson’s election as the third president of the United States. Ekirch writes that the aftershocks of Robbins’s martyrdom helped to shape the infant republic’s identity in the way Americans envisioned themselves. We see how the Hermione crisis led directly to the country’s historic decision to grant political asylum to refugees from foreign governments—a major achievement in fulfilling the resonant promise of American independence, as voiced by Tom Paine, to provide “an asylum for mankind
American Satire: An Anthology of Writings from Colonial Times to the Present
by Nicholas BakalarThis entertaining, informative collection covers the best of American satire—from Ben Franklin's cutting satiric attacks to Nathaniel Hawthorne's Celestial Railroad, Calvin Trillin's Old Marrieds, Mark Twain's American Abroad to P.J. O'Rourke's The Innocents Abroad—Updated, a late 20th-century take on Twain's classic piece. "Entertaining and satisfying...An excellent introduction."—Amazon.com.
American Saturday
by Clark HowardA &“vividly written&” account of the bloody 1971 San Quentin riot by the Edgar Award–winning author of Zebra and Six Against the Rock (Kirkus Reviews). American Saturday traces one man&’s path from the slums of Chicago to the California state prison where he embraced radicalism, was charged for the murder of a corrections officer, and eventually, was gunned down during the violent chaos following a failed escape attempt. This chilling account of an infamous prison riot comes from a writer who has been called &“a superlative storyteller&” (Publishers Weekly). &“The Saturday was August 21, 1971 and the headline read &‘George Jackson, 5 Others Slain in San Quentin.&’ Howard&’s account traces the careers of the inmates and guards whose lives converged and ended that day, but focuses on the pivotal figure of Jackson himself, whose botched escape attempt—just before his scheduled trial in the &‘Soledad Brothers&’ murder case—led to a gory riot in which three guards, two other inmates, and Jackson himself were killed. . . . Extensively researched and vividly written.&” —Kirkus Reviews
American Savage: Insights, Slights, and Fights on Faith, Sex, Love, and Politics
by Dan SavageOn the heels of his Emmy-winning It Gets Better campaign, columnist and provocateur Dan Savage weighs in on such diverse issues as healthcare, gun control, and marriage equality with characteristic straight talk and humor. <P> Dan Savage has always had a loyal audience, thanks to his syndicated sex-advice column "Savage Love," but since the incredible global success of his It Gets Better project-his book of the same name was a New York Times bestseller-his profile has skyrocketed. In addition, he's written for The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Onion, GQ, The Guardian, Salon. com, and countless other widely read publications. Savage is recognized as someone whose opinions about our culture, politics, and society should not only be listened to but taken seriously. <P> Now, in American Savage, he writes on topics ranging from marriage, parenting, and the gay agenda to the Catholic Church and sex education. .
American Scare: Florida's Hidden Cold War on Black and Queer Lives
by Robert W. FieselerA vital exposé for both our history and our present day, American Scare tells the riveting story of how the Florida government destroyed the lives of Black and queer citizens in the twentieth century. In January 1959, Art Copleston was escorted out of his college accounting class by three police officers. In a motel room, blinds drawn, he sat in front of a state senator and the legal counsel for the Florida Legislative Investigation Committee, nicknamed the &“Johns Committee.&” His crime? Being a suspected homosexual. And the government of Florida would use any tactic at their disposal—legal or not—to get Copleston to admit it. Using a secret trove of primary source documents that have been decoded and de-censored for the first time in history, journalist Robert Fieseler unravels the mystery of what actually happened behind the closed doors of an inquisition that held ordinary citizens ransom to its extraordinary powers. The state of Florida would prefer that this history remain buried. But for nearly a decade, the Florida Legislature founded, funded, and supported the Johns Committee—an organization using the cover of communism to viciously attack members of the NAACP and queer professors and students. Spearheaded by Charley Johns, a multi-term politician in a gerrymandered legislature, the Committee was determined to eliminate any threats to the state's white, conservative regime. Fieseler describes the heartbreaking ramifications for citizens of Florida whose lives were imperiled, profiling marginalized residents with compassion and a determination to bring their devasting experiences to light at last. A propulsive, human-centered drama, with fascinating insight into Florida politics, American Scare is a page-turning reckoning of our racist and homophobic past—and its chilling parallels to today.
American Scary: A History of Horror, from Salem to Stephen King and Beyond
by Jeremy Dauber"America is the world's biggest haunted house and American Scary is the only travel guide you need. I loved this book." —Grady Hendrix, New York Times bestselling author of How to Sell a Haunted House and The Final Girl Support GroupFrom the acclaimed author of American Comics comes a sweeping and entertaining narrative that details the rise and enduring grip of horror in American literature, and, ultimately, culture—from the taut, terrifying stories of Edgar Allan Poe to the grisly, lingering films of Jordan Peele America is held captive by horror stories. They flicker on the screen of a darkened movie theater and are shared around the campfire. They blare out in tabloid true-crime headlines, and in the worried voices of local news anchors. They are consumed, virally, on the phones in our pockets. Like the victims in any slasher movie worth its salt, we can&’t escape the thrall of scary stories. In American Scary, noted cultural historian and Columbia professor Jeremy Dauber takes the reader to the startling origins of horror in the United States. Dauber draws a captivating through line that ties historical influences ranging from the Salem witch trials and enslaved-person narratives directly to the body of work we more closely associate with horror today: the weird tales of H. P. Lovecraft, the lingering fiction of Shirley Jackson, the disquieting films of Alfred Hitchcock, the up-all-night stories of Stephen King, and the gripping critiques of Jordan Peele. With the dexterous weave of insight and style that have made him one of America&’s leading historians of popular culture, Dauber makes the haunting case that horror reveals the true depths of the American mind.
American Schism: How the Two Enlightenments Hold the Secret to Healing our Nation
by Seth David RadwellAn enlightened exploration of history to unite a deeply divided America. The political dialogue in America has collapsed. Raw and bitter emotions such as anger and resentment have crowded out any logical debate. In this investigative tracing of our nation's divergent roots, author Seth David Radwell explains that only reasoned analysis and historical perspective can act as salves for the irrational political discourse that is raging at present. Two disparate Americas have always coexisted, and Radwell discovered that the surprising origin of these dual Americas was not an Enlightenment, but two distinct Enlightenments that have been fiercely competing since the founding of our country. Radwell argues that it is only by embracing Enlightenment principles that we can build a civilized, progressive, and tolerant society. American Schism reveals - the roots of the rifts in America since its founding and what is really dividing red and blue America; - the core issues that underlie all of today's bickering; - a detailed, effective plan to move forward, commencing what will be a long process of repair and reconciliation. Seth David Radwell changes the nature of the political debate by fighting unreason with reason, allowing Americans to firmly ground their differing points of view in rationality.
American School Reform: What Works, What Fails, and Why
by Mark Smylie Joseph P. Mcdonald Jolley Bruce Christman Thomas B. Corcoran Norm Fruchter Milbrey W. Mclaughlin Gordon Pradl Gabriel Reich Joan Talbert.Dissecting twenty years of educational politics in our nation’s largest cities, American School Reform offers one of the clearest assessments of school reform as it has played out in our recent history. Joseph P. McDonald and his colleagues evaluate the half-billion-dollar Annenberg Challenge#151;launched in 1994#151;alongside other large-scale reform efforts that have taken place in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and the San Francisco Bay Area. They look deeply at what school reform really is, how it works, how it fails, and what differences it can make nonetheless. McDonald and his colleagues lay out several interrelated ideas in what they call a theory of action space. Frequently education policy gets so ambitious that implementing it becomes a near impossibility. Action space, however, is what takes shape when talented educators, leaders, and reformers guide the social capital of civic leaders and the financial capital of governments, foundations, corporations, and other backers toward true results. Exploring these extraordinary collaborations through their lifespans and their influences on future efforts, the authors provide political hope#151;that reform efforts can work, and that our schools can be made better.
American Schools: The $100 Billion Challenge
by Dwight Allen Jr. William H. Cosby Jr.Exchanging comedy for community activism, Bill Cosby teams up with Dwight Allen, Eminent Professor of Education Reform at Old Dominion University, to issue a challenge to the federal government and the new captains of industry: produce one hundred billion dollars and reform, revamp, and reinvent our schools. Together, Cosby and Allen do more than discuss the problems- the crumbling buildings, flagging test scores, and failing students- they offer concrete solutions, outlining a point-by-point plan for putting dot-com dollars to work.
American Science Fiction Television and Space: Productions and (Re)configurations (1987-2021)
by Joel Hawkes Alex Christie Tom NienhuisThis collection reads the science fiction genre and television medium as examples of heterotopia (and television as science fiction technology), in which forms, processes, and productions of space and time collide – a multiplicity of spaces produced and (re)configured. The book looks to be a heterotopic production, with different chapters and “spaces” (of genre, production, mediums, technologies, homes, bodies, etc), reflecting, refracting, and colliding to offer insight into spatial relationships and the implications of these spaces for a society that increasingly inhabits the world through the space of the screen. A focus on American science fiction offers further spatial focus for this study – a question of geographical and cultural borders and influence not only in terms of American science fiction but American television and streaming services. The (contested) hegemonic nature of American science fiction television will be discussed alongside a nation that has significantly been understood, even produced, through the television screen. Essays will examine the various (re)configurations, or productions, of space as they collapse into the science fiction heterotopia of television since 1987, the year Star Trek: Next Generation began airing.
American Science Fiction and the Cold War: Literature and Film (America In The 20th/21st Century Ser. #Vol. 3)
by David SeedFirst Published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
American Science in an Age of Anxiety
by Jessica WangNo professional group in the United States benefited more from World War II than the scientific community. After the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, scientists enjoyed unprecedented public visibility and political influence as a new elite whose expertise now seemed critical to America's future. But as the United States grew committed to Cold War conflict with the Soviet Union and the ideology of anticommunism came to dominate American politics, scientists faced an increasingly vigorous regimen of security and loyalty clearances as well as the threat of intrusive investigations by the notorious House Committee on Un-American Activities and other government bodies.This book is the first major study of American scientists' encounters with Cold War anticommunism in the decade after World War II. By examining cases of individual scientists subjected to loyalty and security investigations, the organizational response of the scientific community to political attacks, and the relationships between Cold War ideology and postwar science policy, Jessica Wang demonstrates the stifling effects of anticommunist ideology on the politics of science. She exposes the deep divisions over the Cold War within the scientific community and provides a complex story of hard choices, a community in crisis, and roads not taken.
American Scoundrel: The Life of the Notorious Civil War General Dan Sickles
by Thomas KeneallyOn the last Sunday of February 1859, Dan Sickles, a charming young congressman from New York, murdered his good friend Philip Barton Key (son of Francis Scott Key)–who was also his wife’s lover–in Washington’s Lafayette Square. The shooting took place directly across the street from the White House, the home of Sickles’s friend and protector, President James Buchanan. Sickles turned himself in; political friends in New York’s Tammany Hall machinery, including the dynamic criminal lawyer James Brady, quickly gathered around. While his beautiful young wife was banned from public life and shunned by society, Dan Sickles was acquitted. American Scoundrel is the extraordinary story of this powerful mid-nineteenth century politician and inveterate womanizer, whose irresistible charms and rock-solid connections not only allowed him to get away with murder — literally — but also paved the way to a stunning career. Once free to resume his life, Dan Sickles raised a regiment for the Union political elite and went on to become a general in the army, rising to the rank of brigadier general and commanding a flank at the Battle of Gettysburg in a maneuver so controversial it is still argued over by scholars today. After losing a leg in that battle, Sickles fought on and after the war became military governor of South Carolina, and later was named minister to Spain, where he continued astonishingly to conduct his amorous assignations. With great brio and insight — and a delight in bad behavior — Thomas Keneally has brought to light a tale of American history that resonates with uncomfortable truths about our politics, ethics, and morality.
American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence
by Pauline MaierPauline Maier shows us the Declaration as both the defining statement of our national identity and the moral standard by which we live as a nation. It is truly "American Scripture," and Maier tells us how it came to be -- from the Declaration's birth in the hard and tortuous struggle by which Americans arrived at Independence to the ways in which, in the nineteenth century, the document itself became sanctified.Maier describes the transformation of the Second Continental Congress into a national government, unlike anything that preceded or followed it, and with more authority than the colonists would ever have conceded to the British Parliament; the great difficulty in making the decision for Independence; the influence of Paine's []Common Sense[], which shifted the terms of debate; and the political maneuvers that allowed Congress to make the momentous decision.In Maier's hands, the Declaration of Independence is brought close to us. She lets us hear the voice of the people as revealed in the other "declarations" of 1776: the local resolutions -- most of which have gone unnoticed over the past two centuries -- that explained, advocated, and justified Independence and undergirded Congress's work. Detective-like, she discloses the origins of key ideas and phrases in the Declaration and unravels the complex story of its drafting and of the group-editing job which angered Thomas Jefferson.Maier also reveals what happened to the Declaration after the signing and celebration: how it was largely forgotten and then revived to buttress political arguments of the nineteenth century; and, most important, how Abraham Lincoln ensured its persistence as a living force in American society. Finally, she shows how by the very act of venerating the Declaration as we do -- by holding it as sacrosanct, akin to holy writ -- we may actually be betraying its purpose and its power.From the Hardcover edition.
American Scriptures
by Laurie F. Maffly-KippA groundbreaking collection of sacred Christian writings of American origin from Mormons, Shakers, Christian Scientists, and others. "Scripture" is any work in which the authors, translators, editors, or discoverers all claim to have received wisdom from a source outside themselves, be it revelation, enlightened philosophy, or ancient archive. For the first time in a single volume, American Scriptures gathers fifteen of these texts from religious movements with origins in the United States. Laurie F. Maffly-Kipp's concise single volume will enlighten not only readers interested in the historical and religious aspects of the scriptural texts, but also those whose interest has been piqued by such bestsellers as Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code.
American Sectionalism in the British Mind, 1832-1863
by Peter O'ConnorIn American Sectionalism in the British Mind, 1832–1863, Peter O’Connor uses an innovative interdisciplinary approach to provide a corrective to simplified interpretations of British attitudes towards the United States during the antebellum and early Civil War periods. Exploring the many complexities of transatlantic politics and culture, O’Connor examines developing British ideas about U.S. sectionalism, from the abolition of slavery in the British Empire and the Nullification Crisis in South Carolina to the Civil War.Through a close reading of travelogues, fictional accounts, newspaper reports, and personal papers, O’Connor argues that the British literate population had a longstanding familiarity with U.S. sectionalism and with the complex identities of the North and South. As a consequence of their engagement with published accounts of America produced in the decades leading up to the Civil War, the British populace approached the conflict through these preexisting notions.O’Connor reveals even antislavery commentators tended to criticize slavery in the abstract and to highlight elements of the system that they believed compared favorably to the condition of free blacks in the North. As a result, the British saw slavery in the U.S. in national as opposed to sectional terms, which collapsed the moral division between North and South. O’Connor argues that the British identified three regions within America—the British Cavalier South, the British Puritan New England, and the ethnically heterogeneous New York and Pennsylvania region—and demonstrates how the apparent lack of a national American culture prepared Britons for the idea of disunity within the U.S. He then goes on to highlight how British commentators engaged with American debates over political culture, political policy, and states’ rights. In doing so, he reveals the complexity of the British understanding of American sectionalism in the antebellum era and its consequences for British public opinion during the Civil War.American Sectionalism in the British Mind, 1832–1863 re-conceptualizes our understanding of British engagements with the United States during the mid-nineteenth century, offering a new explanation of how the British understood America in the antebellum and Civil War eras.