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Halal Development: Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Halal Development (ICHaD 2020), Malang, Indonesia, October 8, 2020
by Heri PratiktoThe increasing demand for halal products, including goods and services, every year, especially for food and beverages, has resulted in a growing need for products with halal guarantees. Along with the increasing trend of the global demand, it has resulted in an increase in producers of halal food and beverages in both Muslim and non-Muslim countries. In addition the demand for halal tourism is also increasing. Indonesia is one of the largest Muslim countries in the world. However, there are still many Muslim consumer actors and Muslim producer actors who do not yet have an awareness of the importance of complying with the provisions of Islamic law in consuming and producing goods and services. There are still many restaurants and hotels that serve food and drinks that are not certified halal. There are still many food, medicinal and cosmetic products that are not halal certified. But now many secular countries such as France, Canada, Australia, the United States, Britain are also halal certified with the aim of meeting the Muslim demand for halal products for food and beverage, including for halal tourism. Starting from the development of the halal industry both in the fields of food, beverages and services, an International Seminar was held, which provides a more complete understanding of halal products, current halal developments and can serve as motivation to produce halal products, providing research results from the topic of halal development. The international seminar, entitled International Conference on Halal Development, listed speakers from several countries able to provide an overview of the halal development of several countries. This book contains a selection of papers from the conference.
Halal Matters: Islam, Politics and Markets in Global Perspective
by Florence Bergeaud-Blackler, Johan Fischer and John LeverIn today’s globalized world, halal (meaning ‘permissible’ or ‘lawful’) is about more than food. Politics, power and ethics all play a role in the halal industry in setting new standards for production, trade, consumption and regulation. The question of how modern halal markets are constituted is increasingly important and complex. Written from a unique interdisciplinary global perspective, this book demonstrates that as the market for halal products and services is expanding and standardizing, it is also fraught with political, social and economic contestation and difference. The discussion is illustrated by rich ethnographic case studies from a range of contexts, and consideration is given to both Muslim majority and minority societies. Halal Matters will be of interest to students and scholars working across the humanities and social sciences, including anthropology, sociology and religious studies.
Halal Sex: The Intimate Lives of Muslim Women in North America
by Sheima BenembarekAn unprecedented glimpse into the sex lives of female and gender-expansive Muslims living across Canada and the United States.In the Muslim world, sex is permissible (or halal) only within the confines of marriage. Outside of wedlock, the act is considered haram, a sin of the faith. Girls are taught to protect their virginity; their mothers, if not forgoing &“the talk&” altogether, obscure the facts with elliptical language and metaphors.So, what happens when immigrants and the children of immigrants set about pursuing an open and active sex life on a more sexually liberated continent, amid western peers and attitudes? The six deeply personal stories in Halal Sex attempt to answer this question, bringing a hushed conversation out into the open.Within these pages you&’ll meet Azar, a non-binary trans Sufi; Bunmi, a Nigerian navigating shame and Tinder; Eman, a lesbian stand-up comic in an interfaith marriage; Taslim, a virgin in her forties struggling to erect healthy boundaries; and Khadijah, an exotic dancer and sex worker.With great empathy, Sheima Benembarek makes space for the honesty and vulnerability of each participant and handles their stories with gentleness and care. What emerges is a tapestry of a diverse Islam—encompassing a wide variety of cultural and religious and socioeconomic backgrounds—and a frank, feminist contribution to the advancement of Muslim sexual education and pleasure.
Halal Slaughter of Livestock: Animal Welfare Science, History and Politics of Religious Slaughter (Animal Welfare #22)
by Awal FuseiniThis unique volume gives insight into the science of slaughter with in-depth discussion of neural communication and the welfare aspects of pre-slaughter handling and slaughter of livestock. The concepts of conscious perception, unconsciousness, stunning, slaughter and death are discussed to provide readers with an understanding of the different events that lead to the conversion of animals into carcasses and subsequently into meat. This accessible work is an excellent resource for learning about welfare issues of different techniques, as it includes historical aspects of religious and conventional slaughter with a focus on the developments around technologies. It comprises the advent of mechanical slaughter in the form of poleaxes to present day use of sophisticated stunning equipment.Moreover, the author covers key aspects of halal meat production and discusses the politics of religious slaughter with an emphasis on the increasing number of anti-halal movements across Europe, America and others. The slaughter of animals for consumption by people of faith is economically significant and has led to a race for market share by multinational retail enterprises. However, there are also ethical and political aspects of religious slaughter which have always divided opinion.The topic of this book provides an important link to the disciplines of animal welfare research, the meat industry and the food business. Scientists, students, as well as government agencies, veterinarians and professionals in food processing and slaughter technology manufacturing will find this an important account. Simplified summaries and practical notes make this reference highly readable.
Halal Supply Chain Integrity: Concept, Constituents and Consequences
by Nor Aida Abdul Rahman Zawiah Abdul Majid Mohd Farid ShamsudinThe market and demand for halal goods and services is ever increasing, and, with it, the importance of supply chain integrity also increases. Integrity, from the perspective of halal logistics service providers, is a prerequisite of halal compliance. This book provides a unique overview of halal supply chain integrity (HSCI) using examples from Malaysia country as a case. The book carefully addresses and simplifies the issues of integrity in halal logistics and supply chain. It gathers findings from studies on halal supply chain integrity conducted in Malaysia, a leading country in halal production, to shed light on current issues, developments and future trends on the theory and practice of halal in the logistics sector. The book discusses factors such as halal quality assurance, trust and commitment and halal assets specificity, in particular. This book will be a useful reference to research scholars and professionals who wish to understand halal logistics and supply chain management and also the importance of protecting integrity of halal services and products.
Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad
by Matthew F. Delmont• Winner of the 2023 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in Nonfiction • A New York Times Notable Book• A Best Book of the Year from TIME, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Washington Independent Review of Books, and more!The definitive history of World War II from the African American perspective, written by civil rights expert and Dartmouth history professor Matthew Delmont&“Matthew F. Delmont&’s book is filled with compelling narratives that outline with nuance, rigor, and complexity how Black Americans fought for this country abroad while simultaneously fighting for their rights here in the United States. Half American belongs firmly within the canon of indispensable World War II books.&” —Clint Smith, #1 New York Times bestselling author of How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across AmericaOver one million Black men and women served in World War II. Black troops were at Normandy, Iwo Jima, and the Battle of the Bulge, serving in segregated units and performing unheralded but vital support jobs, only to be denied housing and educational opportunities on their return home. Without their crucial contributions to the war effort, the United States could not have won the war. And yet the stories of these Black veterans have long been ignored, cast aside in favor of the myth of the &“Good War&” fought by the &“Greatest Generation.&”Half American is American history as you&’ve likely never read it before. In these pages are stories of Black heroes such as Thurgood Marshall, the chief lawyer for the NAACP, who investigated and publicized violence against Black troops and veterans; Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., leader of the Tuskegee Airmen, who was at the forefront of the years-long fight to open the Air Force to Black pilots; Ella Baker, the civil rights leader who advocated on the home front for Black soldiers, veterans, and their families; James Thompson, the 26-year-old whose letter to a newspaper laying bare the hypocrisy of fighting against fascism abroad when racism still reigned at home set in motion the Double Victory campaign; and poet Langston Hughes, who worked as a war correspondent for the Black press. Their bravery and patriotism in the face of unfathomable racism is both inspiring and galvanizing. In a time when the questions World War II raised regarding race and democracy in America remain troublingly relevant and still unanswered, this meticulously researched retelling makes for urgently necessary reading.
Half Human, Half Animal: Tales Of Werewolves And Related Creatures
by Jamie HallIn the pages you are about to read, you will meet many legendary creatures. All of them have one thing in common: they transform. Everyone knows what a werewolf is, and most people have seen at least a couple of werewolf movies. Others will be less familiar to you, such as the feline cousins of werewolves, the werecats. I doubt that the word "werecat" is part of your vocabulary, yet the concept of a person who can transform into a cat is a fairly common idea.
Half The Sky: How to Change the World
by Nicholas D. Kristof Sheryl WuDunnPulitzer Prize-winning reporting team, husband and wife Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, take us on a journey through Africa and Asia to meet an extraordinary array of exceptional women struggling against terrible circumstances. More girls have been killed in the last fifty years, precisely because they are girls, than men were killed in all the wars of the twentieth century combined. More girls are killed in this routine 'gendercide' in any one decade than people were slaughtered in all the genocides of the twentieth century. In the nineteenth century, the central moral challenge was slavery. In the twentieth, it was totalitarianism. In the twenty-first, Kristof and WuDunn demonstrate, it will be the struggle for gender equality in the developing world. Fierce, moral, pragmatic, full of amazing stories of courage and inspiration, HALF THE SKY is essential reading for every global citizen.
Half The Sky: How to Change the World
by Nicholas D. Kristof Sheryl WuDunnPulitzer Prize-winning reporting team, husband and wife Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, take us on a journey through Africa and Asia to meet an extraordinary array of exceptional women struggling against terrible circumstances. More girls have been killed in the last fifty years, precisely because they are girls, than men were killed in all the wars of the twentieth century combined. More girls are killed in this routine 'gendercide' in any one decade than people were slaughtered in all the genocides of the twentieth century. In the nineteenth century, the central moral challenge was slavery. In the twentieth, it was totalitarianism. In the twenty-first, Kristof and WuDunn demonstrate, it will be the struggle for gender equality in the developing world. Fierce, moral, pragmatic, full of amazing stories of courage and inspiration, HALF THE SKY is essential reading for every global citizen.
Half a Century of Municipal Decline: 1935-1985
by Ken Young Martin Loughlin M. David GelfandLocal government passed unscathed through the political and economic upheavals which followed the Great Depression. Contemporary commentators had every reason to look forward to continued growth and expansion in the role of local government, which was seen as the main vehicle for the social programmes of the comeing Welfare State. That optimism was misplaced. Many of the trends of the early twentieth century have been reveresed. From the vantage point of 1985, local government was in crisis so severe that its continued existence was called into question. In this unique book eleven authors explain what happened and how the local government system weakened. Political, financial, economic and legal issues are explored, as are factors such as housing, planning, and social welfare. This book was first published in 1985.
Half and Half
by Claudine C. O'HearnAs we approach the twenty-first century, biracialism and biculturalism are becoming increasingly common. Skin color and place of birth are no longer reliable signifiers of one's identity or origin. Simple questions like What are you? and Where are you from? aren't answered--they are discussed.How do you measure someone's race or culture? Half this, quarter that, born here, raised there. What name do you give that? These eighteen essays, joined by a shared sense of duality, address both the difficulties of not fitting into and the benefits of being part of two worlds. Danzy Senna parodies the media's fascination with biracials in a futuristic piece about the mulatto millennium. Garrett Hongo writes about watching his mixed-race children play in a sea of blond hair and white faces, realizing that suburban Oregon might swallow up their unique racial identity. Francisco Goldman shares his frustration with having constantly to explain himself in terms of his Latino and Jewish roots. Malcolm Gladwell understands that being biracial frees him from racial discrimination but also holds him hostage to questions of racial difference. For Indira Ganesan, India and its memory are evoked by the aromas of foods.Through the lens of personal experience, these essays offer a broader spectrum of meaning for race and culture. And in the process, they map a new ethnic terrain that transcends racial and cultural division.From the Hardcover edition.
Half in Shadow: The Life and Legacy of Nellie Y. McKay
by Shanna Greene BenjaminNellie Y. McKay (1930–2006) was a pivotal figure in contemporary American letters. The author of several books, McKay is best known for coediting the canon-making Norton Anthology of African American Literature with Henry Louis Gates Jr., which helped secure a place for the scholarly study of Black writing that had been ignored by white academia. However, there is more to McKay's life and legacy than her literary scholarship. After her passing, new details about McKay's life emerged, surprising everyone who knew her. Why did McKay choose to hide so many details of her past? Shanna Greene Benjamin examines McKay's path through the professoriate to learn about the strategies, sacrifices, and successes of contemporary Black women in the American academy. Benjamin shows that McKay's secrecy was a necessary tactic that a Black, working-class woman had to employ to succeed in the white-dominated space of the American English department. Using extensive archives and personal correspondence, Benjamin brings together McKay's private life and public work to expand how we think about Black literary history and the place of Black women in American culture.
Half in Shadow: The Life and Legacy of Nellie Y. McKay
by Shanna Greene BenjaminNellie Y. McKay (1930–2006) was a pivotal figure in contemporary American letters. The author of several books, McKay is best known for coediting the canon-making with Henry Louis Gates Jr., which helped secure a place for the scholarly study of Black writing that had been ignored by white academia. However, there is more to McKay's life and legacy than her literary scholarship. After her passing, new details about McKay's life emerged, surprising everyone who knew her. Why did McKay choose to hide so many details of her past? Shanna Greene Benjamin examines McKay's path through the professoriate to learn about the strategies, sacrifices, and successes of contemporary Black women in the American academy. Benjamin shows that McKay's secrecy was a necessary tactic that a Black, working-class woman had to employ to succeed in the white-dominated space of the American English department. Using extensive archives and personal correspondence, Benjamin brings together McKay’s private life and public work to expand how we think about Black literary history and the place of Black women in American culture.
Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
by Nicholas D. Kristof Sheryl WuDunn#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A passionate call to arms against our era&’s most pervasive human rights violation—the oppression of women and girls in the developing world. From the bestselling authors of Tightrope, two of our most fiercely moral voicesWith Pulitzer Prize winners Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn as our guides, we undertake an odyssey through Africa and Asia to meet the extraordinary women struggling there, among them a Cambodian teenager sold into sex slavery and an Ethiopian woman who suffered devastating injuries in childbirth. Drawing on the breadth of their combined reporting experience, Kristof and WuDunn depict our world with anger, sadness, clarity, and, ultimately, hope.They show how a little help can transform the lives of women and girls abroad. That Cambodian girl eventually escaped from her brothel and, with assistance from an aid group, built a thriving retail business that supports her family. The Ethiopian woman had her injuries repaired and in time became a surgeon. A Zimbabwean mother of five, counseled to return to school, earned her doctorate and became an expert on AIDS.Through these stories, Kristof and WuDunn help us see that the key to economic progress lies in unleashing women&’s potential. They make clear how so many people have helped to do just that, and how we can each do our part. Throughout much of the world, the greatest unexploited economic resource is the female half of the population. Countries such as China have prospered precisely because they emancipated women and brought them into the formal economy. Unleashing that process globally is not only the right thing to do; it&’s also the best strategy for fighting poverty.Deeply felt, pragmatic, and inspirational, Half the Sky is essential reading for every global citizen.
Half-Jew
by Susan JacobySince childhood, Susan Jacoby, the New York Times bestselling author of The Age of American Unreason, was sure that her father was keeping a secret. At age twenty, just before beginning her writing career as a reporter for the Washington Post, she learned the truth: Robert Jacoby, a Catholic convert with a Catholic wife, was also a Jew. In Half-Jew, Jacoby grapples with the hidden identity cloaked by the persona of a successful accountant and member of St. Thomas Aquinas Church in East Lansing, Michigan--and with the secrets and lies that had marked her family's history for three generations on two continents. Beginning in 1849 when her great-grandfather arrived in America as a political refugee, Jacoby traces her lineage through the lives of her great-uncle Harold, the distinguished astronomer whose map of the constellations is etched on the ceiling of Grand Central Terminal; her uncle, the bridge champion Oswald Jacoby, her aunt Edith, also a Catholic convert and eventually a reformer within the church; and, of course her father himself. At the core of story is the psychic damage that accrues across generations when people conceal their true ethnic and religious origins. Featuring a new afterword, Half-Jew is a meticulously researched, emotionally poignant examination of the dark legacy of European and American anti-Semitism as well as a tender-hearted account of a daughter coming to understand her father, herself, and her family's true legacy.
Halfway Home: Race, Punishment, and the Afterlife of Mass Incarceration
by Reuben Jonathan MillerA &“persuasive and essential&” (Matthew Desmond) work that will forever change how we look at life after prison in America through Miller&’s &“stunning, and deeply painful reckoning with our nation&’s carceral system&” (Heather Ann Thompson) Each year, more than half a million Americans are released from prison and join a population of twenty million people who live with a felony record. Reuben Miller, a chaplain at the Cook County Jail in Chicago and now a sociologist studying mass incarceration, spent years alongside prisoners, ex-prisoners, their friends, and their families to understand the lifelong burden that even a single arrest can entail. What his work revealed is a simple, if overlooked truth: life after incarceration is its own form of prison. The idea that one can serve their debt and return to life as a full-fledge member of society is one of America&’s most nefarious myths. Recently released individuals are faced with jobs that are off-limits, apartments that cannot be occupied and votes that cannot be cast. As The Color of Law exposed about our understanding of housing segregation, Halfway Home shows that the American justice system was not created to rehabilitate. Parole is structured to keep classes of Americans impoverished, unstable, and disenfranchised long after they&’ve paid their debt to society. Informed by Miller&’s experience as the son and brother of incarcerated men, captures the stories of the men, women, and communities fighting against a system that is designed for them to fail. It is a poignant and eye-opening call to arms that reveals how laws, rules, and regulations extract a tangible cost not only from those working to rebuild their lives, but also our democracy. As Miller searchingly explores, America must acknowledge and value the lives of its formerly imprisoned citizens.
Halfway House: Prisoner Reentry and the Shadow of Carceral Care (Alternative Criminology #26)
by Liam MartinAn inside look at the struggles former prisoners face in reentering society Every year, roughly 650,000 people prepare to reenter society after being released from state and federal prisons. In Halfway House, Liam Martin shines a light on their difficult journeys, taking us behind the scenes at Bridge House, a residential reentry program near Boston, Massachusetts. Drawing on three years of research, Martin explores the obstacles these former prisoners face in the real world. From drug addiction to poverty, he captures the ups and downs of life after incarceration in vivid, engaging detail. He shows us what, exactly, it is like to live in a halfway house, giving us a rare, up-close view of its role in a dense and often confusing web of organizations governing prisoner reentry. Martin asks us to rethink the possibilities—and pitfalls—of using halfway houses to manage the worst excesses of mass incarceration. A portrait of life in the long shadow of the carceral state, Halfway House lets us see the struggles of reentry through the eyes of former prisoners.
Halfway up Parnassus: A Personal Account of the U of T, 1932-1971
by Claude BissellHalfway up Parnassus is a personal account of the University of Toronto with particular emphasis on the period when Dr. Bissell was its president, from 1958 to 1971. The first half of that period was the flowering of the old, self-confident university, with its established patterns of government, and its untroubled constituents. The second half saw the slow, powerful emergence of a new university, uncertain of itself and its role, seeking to find a form for democratic aspirations--not, however, without some dramatic confrontations with left-wing students. Nowhere in Canada was the process more sharply defined than at the University of Toronto. This book records that process from the point of view of a major participant. It is also intended as a series of portraits of major academic figures and as an intimate recollection of a society that is passing away.It is not a philosophical book about education, but a human document--an attempt to render the tone of academic society, and in this account Dr. Bissell has combined, to great effect, autobiography, descriptive narration, and historical analysis. The book will be of interest to Canadians concerned about our intellectual and cultural life, and to academic societies everywhere.
Hall County, Georgia (Black America Series)
by Linda Rucker Hutchens Ella J. SmithLocated in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Northeast Georgia, Hall County and the city of Gainesville have been significantly enriched by the contributions of their African-American residents. Hall County, Georgia is a retrospective photographic album; it is a glimpse of the past, featuring an array of churches, schools, businesses, and outstanding leaders in the African-American community.
Hall of Mirrors: Power, Witchcraft, and Caste in Colonial Mexico
by Laura A. LewisThrough an examination of caste in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Mexico, Hall of Mirrors explores the construction of hierarchy and difference in a Spanish colonial setting. Laura A. Lewis describes how the meanings attached to the categories of Spanish, Indian, black, mulatto, and mestizo were generated within that setting, as she shows how the cultural politics of caste produced a system of fluid and relational designations that simultaneously facilitated and undermined Spanish governance. Using judicial records from a variety of colonial courts, Lewis highlights the ethnographic details of legal proceedings as she demonstrates how Indians, in particular, came to be the masters of witchcraft, a domain of power that drew on gendered and hegemonic caste distinctions to complicate the colonial hierarchy. She also reveals the ways in which blacks, mulattoes, and mestizos mediated between Spaniards and Indians, alternatively reinforcing Spanish authority and challenging it through alliances with Indians. Bringing to life colonial subjects as they testified about their experiences, Hall of Mirrors discloses a series of contradictions that complicate easy distinctions between subalterns and elites, resistance and power.
Halliburton's Army: How a Well-connected Texas Oil Company Revolutionized the Way America Makes War
by Pratap ChatterjeeHalliburton's Army is the first book to show, in shocking detail, how Halliburton really does business, in Iraq, and around the world. From its vital role as the logistical backbone of the U. S. occupation in Iraq--without Halliburton there could be no war or occupation--to its role in covering up gang-rape amongst its personnel in Baghdad, Halliburton's Army is a devastating bestiary of corporate malfeasance and political cronyism. Pratap Chatterjee--one of the world's leading authorities on corporate crime, fraud, and corruption--shows how Halliburton won and then lost its contracts in Iraq, what Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld did for it, and who the company paid off in the U. S. Congress. He brings us inside the Pentagon meetings, where Cheney and Rumsfeld made the decision to send Halliburton to Iraq--as well as many other hot-spots, including Somalia, Yugoslavia, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, and, most recently, New Orleans. He travels to Dubai, where Halliburton has recently moved its headquarters, and exposes the company's freewheeling ways: executives leading the high life, bribes, graft, skimming, offshore subsidiaries, and the whole arsenal of fraud. Finally, Chatterjee reveals the human costs of the privatization of American military affairs, which is sustained almost entirely by low-paid unskilled Third World workers who work in incredibly dangerous conditions without any labor protection. Halliburton's Army is a hair-raising exposé of one of the world's most lethal corporations, essential reading for anyone concerned about the nexus of private companies, government, and war.
Halloween and Other Festivals of Death and Life
by Jack SantinoCollection of scholarly articles on Halloween's historical and folkloric origins, new and traditional customs and practices, and media images.
Halloween!: Customs, Recipes and Spells
by Silver RavenWolfWitches' hats and harvest moonGhosts that dance to haunted tuneApples, goodies, food galoreHalloween has this and more!Just where did the autumn gaiety begin? Let Silver RavenWolf guide you through the cobwebby corners of time to uncover the history behind Halloween. Honor the spirit of this hallowed harvest holiday with:Halloween magick: Prosperity Pumpkin Spell, Corn Husk Dolly, Solitary Harvest Moon RitualMagickal goodies: Candied Love Apples, Witches' Brew, Sugar Snakes in Graveyard DustHalloween myths and superstitions: Black cats, scarecrows, pitchforks, witches, ghosts, and haintsDivination: Circle of Ashes and Stones, Magick Mirrors, Apple, Pumpkin Seed, and Water DivinationRituals to Honor the Dead: The Dumb Supper, Samhain Fire, Soul Lights, Spirit Rattles and Spirit Bowls
Halloween: Romantic Art and Customs of Yesteryear Postcard Book
by Lesley Bannatyne"Lesley Bannatyne's fascinating book . . . will be widely appealing to anyone who ever wondered where witches, trick-or-treating, and jack-o-lanterns really came from. It is by far the best book on the history of Halloween available today."--Alison Guss, senior producer,"The Haunted History of Halloween," The History Channel"An excellent resource for research into the history of holidays . . . in the United States . . . Highly Recommended."--The Book Report"Deserves attention as a recommended library acquisition with years of 'life' to its information."--The Midwest Book Review"Overflows with rich and provocative details of ritual, feasts, superstition, and devilment."--North Carolina Historical ReviewHalloween has evolved from the Celtic celebrations of 2,000 years ago to become today the fastest-growing holiday in the country. This, the only book to completely cover All Hallow's Eve, from its beginnings to the present, examines the ancient origins as well as its traditions and celebrations, from costuming to bobbing for apples. Jack-o-lanterns, black cats, and witches are explained. Ghosts, ghouls, and goblins lurk behind every page.The book traces the contributions of America's immigrants to the holiday, documenting the beliefs each ethnic group has added to the mix. Related recipes, poems, songs, and photos perfectly complement the meticulously documented text. The result is the most educational and entertaining examination of Halloween, its myths, and its truths.
Halloween: The History of America's Darkest Holiday
by David J. SkalWonderfully well-written, outrageous, and provocative." -- Booklist."Entertaining ... and scholarly ... Like a bag of Halloween candy, the book is a lot of fun." -- Boston Globe."Fans of cultural history will devour each chapter ... like a toothsome treat." -- Christian Science Monitor.Acclaimed cultural critic David J. Skal explores one of America's most perplexingly popular holidays in this original mix of personal anecdotes and social analysis. Skal traces Halloween's evolution from its dark Celtic history and quaint, small-scale celebrations to its emergence as mammoth seasonal marketing event.Skal takes readers on a cross-country survey that covers remarkably divergent perspectives, from the merchants who welcome a money-making opportunity that's second only to Christmas to fundamentalists who decry Halloween a form of blasphemy and practicing witches who embrace it as a holy day. He also profiles individuals who revel in this once-a-year occasion to participate in elaborate fantasies. Their narratives, combined with the author's cultural analysis, offer a revealing look at an intriguing aspect of our national psyche.