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The Social and Political Thought of Archie Mafeje
by Dr. Bongani NyokaThis comprehensive treatment of Archie Mafeje as a thinker and researcher analyses his overall scholarship and his role as a theoretician of liberation and revolutionary theorySocial scientist Archie Mafeje, who was born in the Eastern Cape but lived most of his scholarly life in exile, was one of Africa's most prominent intellectuals. This ground-breaking work is the first of its kind to consider the entire body of Mafeje’s oeuvre and offers a much-needed engagement with his ideas. The most inclusive and critical treatment to date of Mafeje as a thinker and researcher, the book analyses his overall scholarship and his role as a theoretician of liberation and revolution. Author Bongani Nyoka's main argument is that Mafeje’s superb scholarship developed out of his experience as an oppressed black person and his early political education, which merged with his university training to turn him into a formidable cutting-edge intellectual force. There are three main parts to the book. Part I evaluates Mafeje's critique of the social sciences, part II focuses on his work on land and agrarian issues in sub-Saharan Africa and part III deals with his work on revolutionary theory and politics. The book engages in the act of knowledge decolonisation, making a unique contribution to South Africa’s sociological, historical and political studies.
Toxic Lake: Environmental Destruction and the Epic Fight to Save Onondaga Lake
by Thomas Shevory2024 Outstanding Academic Title, given by Choice ReviewsThe environmental history of “the most polluted lake in America.”Native Americans have long regarded Onondaga Lake as one of the most sacred spaces in the continent, the place where peace between nations was achieved and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy was created. In the mid-twentieth century, however, it acquired a wholly different reputation as “the most polluted lake in America.” Toxic Lake is an environmental history of this complex ecological system, tracking how it was tarnished, the costly efforts to clean it up, and the controversies those efforts generated.Thomas Shevory argues that the history of Onondaga Lake mirrors the larger environmental history of the US, from colonization to the industrial era, resulting, eventually, in the rise of social movements and legislative action for environmental protection. Layered within this history is the dismissal of indigenous land claims and the marginalization of indigenous voices in clean-up efforts. Toxic Lake illustrates that the failure to prevent the environmental destruction of Onondaga Lake was part of a political climate which favored unregulated industrial production and urban growth, ignoring the destructive impacts on local environments. Shevory argues this larger failure was the result of an active process of privileging the economic interests of polluters over other business interests, expanding neighborhoods, and indigenous rights. He concludes with an investigation of New York’s recent declaration that the clean-up is complete, questioning what exactly that means and whether the lake’s status as a sacred space will ever be re-established. Toxic Lake is a compelling work of history, demonstrating the disastrous effects of pollution and the importance of community involvement in environmental activism.
Using WebPageTest: Web Performance Testing for Novices and Power Users
by Rick Viscomi Marcel Duran Andy DaviesLearn basic and advanced uses of WebPagetest, the performance measurement tool for optimizing websites. This practical guide shows users new to this tool how run tests and interpret results, and helps experienced users gain a better and more thorough understanding of hidden features in WebPagetest that make testing easier.Written by WebPagetest power users and performance experts, this book will help web developers and frontend engineers solve the problem of slow sites. Topics include:Basic test setup—shows beginners how to get meaningful resultsAdvanced test setup—provides another level of technical depth by explaining features not thoroughly documented at webpagetest.orgAnalysis of results—helps you understand of how to interpret test resultsPrivate instance setup—teaches power users the intricacies of the webpagetest private instance and how it worksAPI and external tools—provides a detailed reference for the API and demonstrates tools already using the API to extend WebPagetest
HTTP: The Definitive Guide
by David Gourley Brian Totty Marjorie Sayer Anshu Aggarwal Sailu ReddyBehind every web transaction lies the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) --- the language of web browsers and servers, of portals and search engines, of e-commerce and web services. Understanding HTTP is essential for practically all web-based programming, design, analysis, and administration.While the basics of HTTP are elegantly simple, the protocol's advanced features are notoriously confusing, because they knit together complex technologies and terminology from many disciplines. This book clearly explains HTTP and these interrelated core technologies, in twenty-one logically organized chapters, backed up by hundreds of detailed illustrations and examples, and convenient reference appendices. HTTP: The Definitive Guide explains everything people need to use HTTP efficiently -- including the "black arts" and "tricks of the trade" -- in a concise and readable manner.In addition to explaining the basic HTTP features, syntax and guidelines, this book clarifies related, but often misunderstood topics, such as: TCP connection management, web proxy and cache architectures, web robots and robots.txt files, Basic and Digest authentication, secure HTTP transactions, entity body processing, internationalized content, and traffic redirection.Many technical professionals will benefit from this book. Internet architects and developers who need to design and develop software, IT professionals who need to understand Internet architectural components and interactions, multimedia designers who need to publish and host multimedia, performance engineers who need to optimize web performance, technical marketing professionals who need a clear picture of core web architectures and protocols, as well as untold numbers of students and hobbyists will all benefit from the knowledge packed in this volume.There are many books that explain how to use the Web, but this is the one that explains how the Web works. Written by experts with years of design and implementation experience, this book is the definitive technical bible that describes the "why" and the "how" of HTTP and web core technologies. HTTP: The Definitive Guide is an essential reference that no technically-inclined member of the Internet community should be without.
Beautiful Security: Leading Security Experts Explain How They Think
by John Viega Andy OramAlthough most people don't give security much attention until their personal or business systems are attacked, this thought-provoking anthology demonstrates that digital security is not only worth thinking about, it's also a fascinating topic. Criminals succeed by exercising enormous creativity, and those defending against them must do the same. Beautiful Security explores this challenging subject with insightful essays and analysis on topics that include:The underground economy for personal information: how it works, the relationships among criminals, and some of the new ways they pounce on their preyHow social networking, cloud computing, and other popular trends help or hurt our online securityHow metrics, requirements gathering, design, and law can take security to a higher levelThe real, little-publicized history of PGPThis book includes contributions from:Peiter "Mudge" ZatkoJim StickleyElizabeth NicholsChenxi WangEd BellisBen EdelmanPhil Zimmermann and Jon CallasKathy WangMark CurpheyJohn McManusJames RouthRandy V. SabettAnton ChuvakinGrant Geyer and Brian DunphyPeter WaynerMichael Wood and Fernando FranciscoAll royalties will be donated to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).
Head First PHP & MySQL: A Brain-Friendly Guide (Head First)
by Michael Morrison Lynn BeighleyIf you're ready to create web pages more complex than those you can build with HTML and CSS, Head First PHP & MySQL is the ultimate learning guide to building dynamic, database-driven websites using PHP and MySQL. Packed with real-world examples, this book teaches you all the essentials of server-side programming, from the fundamentals of PHP and MySQL coding to advanced topics such as form validation, session IDs, cookies, database queries and joins, file I/O operations, content management, and more.Head First PHP & MySQL offers the same visually rich format that's turned every title in the Head First series into a bestseller, with plenty of exercises, quizzes, puzzles, and other interactive features to help you retain what you've learned.Use PHP to transform static HTML pages into dynamic web sitesCreate and populate your own MySQL database tables, and work with data stored in filesPerform sophisticated MySQL queries with joins, and refine your results with LIMIT and ORDER BYUse cookies and sessions to track visitors' login information and personalize the site for usersProtect your data from SQL injection attacksUse regular expressions to validate information on formsDynamically display text based on session info and create images on the flyPull syndicated data from other sites using PHP and XMLThroughout the book, you'll build sophisticated examples -- including a mailing list, a job board, and an online dating site -- to help you learn how to harness the power of PHP and MySQL in a variety of contexts. If you're ready to build a truly dynamic website, Head First PHP & MySQL is the ideal way to get going.
High Performance JavaScript: Build Faster Web Application Interfaces
by Nicholas C. ZakasIf you're like most developers, you rely heavily on JavaScript to build interactive and quick-responding web applications. The problem is that all of those lines of JavaScript code can slow down your apps. This book reveals techniques and strategies to help you eliminate performance bottlenecks during development. You'll learn how to improve execution time, downloading, interaction with the DOM, page life cycle, and more.Yahoo! frontend engineer Nicholas C. Zakas and five other JavaScript experts—Ross Harmes, Julien Lecomte, Steven Levithan, Stoyan Stefanov, and Matt Sweeney—demonstrate optimal ways to load code onto a page, and offer programming tips to help your JavaScript run as efficiently and quickly as possible. You'll learn the best practices to build and deploy your files to a production environment, and tools that can help you find problems once your site goes live.Identify problem code and use faster alternatives to accomplish the same taskImprove scripts by learning how JavaScript stores and accesses dataImplement JavaScript code so that it doesn't slow down interaction with the DOMUse optimization techniques to improve runtime performanceLearn ways to ensure the UI is responsive at all timesAchieve faster client-server communicationUse a build system to minify files, and HTTP compression to deliver them to the browser
Programming Windows Store Apps with C#: Master WinRT, XAML, and C# to Create Innovative Windows 8 Applications
by Iris Classon Matthew Baxter-ReynoldsIf you’re a .NET developer looking to build tablet apps, this practical book takes you step-by-step through the process of developing apps for the Windows Store. You’ll learn how to use Microsoft’s Modern UI design language with Windows 8.1 and WinRT 8.1.1 by building a line-of-business mobile app with C# through the course of the book.To develop the app, you’ll work with the same system details and design specs that apply to retail apps, such as persistence, backend service, and Windows 8 features for sharing and search. You’ll learn how to develop the code, incorporate third-party open source products, and package your app for the Windows Store.Build a UI with XAML and the Model/View/View-Model patternUnderstand asynchrony—and rediscover threads and parallelismStore data and system settings locally with SQLiteUse app bars for commands and the settings charm for Help optionsPresent notifications as tile updates, badges, or toast popupsHelp users visualize locations and tag activities to a mapEnable apps to share data and run side-by-side in the UIImplement functionality for running tasks in the background
Programming Python: Powerful Object-Oriented Programming
by Mark LutzIf you've mastered Python's fundamentals, you're ready to start using it to get real work done. Programming Python will show you how, with in-depth tutorials on the language's primary application domains: system administration, GUIs, and the Web. You'll also explore how Python is used in databases, networking, front-end scripting layers, text processing, and more. This book focuses on commonly used tools and libraries to give you a comprehensive understanding of Python’s many roles in practical, real-world programming.You'll learn language syntax and programming techniques in a clear and concise manner, with lots of examples that illustrate both correct usage and common idioms. Completely updated for version 3.x, Programming Python also delves into the language as a software development tool, with many code examples scaled specifically for that purpose.Topics include:Quick Python tour: Build a simple demo that includes data representation, object-oriented programming, object persistence, GUIs, and website basicsSystem programming: Explore system interface tools and techniques for command-line scripting, processing files and folders, running programs in parallel, and moreGUI programming: Learn to use Python’s tkinter widget libraryInternet programming: Access client-side network protocols and email tools, use CGI scripts, and learn website implementation techniquesMore ways to apply Python: Implement data structures, parse text-based information, interface with databases, and extend and embed Python
Learning the bash Shell: Unix Shell Programming
by Cameron NewhamO'Reilly's bestselling book on Linux's bash shell is at it again. Now that Linux is an established player both as a server and on the desktop Learning the bash Shell has been updated and refreshed to account for all the latest changes. Indeed, this third edition serves as the most valuable guide yet to the bash shell.As any good programmer knows, the first thing users of the Linux operating system come face to face with is the shell the UNIX term for a user interface to the system. In other words, it's what lets you communicate with the computer via the keyboard and display. Mastering the bash shell might sound fairly simple but it isn't. In truth, there are many complexities that need careful explanation, which is just what Learning the bash Shell provides.If you are new to shell programming, the book provides an excellent introduction, covering everything from the most basic to the most advanced features. And if you've been writing shell scripts for years, it offers a great way to find out what the new shell offers. Learning the bash Shell is also full of practical examples of shell commands and programs that will make everyday use of Linux that much easier. With this book, programmers will learn:How to install bash as your login shellThe basics of interactive shell use, including UNIX file and directory structures, standard I/O, and background jobsCommand line editing, history substitution, and key bindingsHow to customize your shell environment without programmingThe nuts and bolts of basic shell programming, flow control structures, command-line options and typed variablesProcess handling, from job control to processes, coroutines and subshellsDebugging techniques, such as trace and verbose modesTechniques for implementing system-wide shell customization and features related to system security
XML in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference
by Elliotte Rusty Harold W. Scott MeansIf you're a developer working with XML, you know there's a lot to know about XML, and the XML space is evolving almost moment by moment. But you don't need to commit every XML syntax, API, or XSLT transformation to memory; you only need to know where to find it. And if it's a detail that has to do with XML or its companion standards, you'll find it--clear, concise, useful, and well-organized--in the updated third edition of XML in a Nutshell.With XML in a Nutshell beside your keyboard, you'll be able to:Quick-reference syntax rules and usage examples for the core XML technologies, including XML, DTDs, Xpath, XSLT, SAX, and DOMDevelop an understanding of well-formed XML, DTDs, namespaces, Unicode, and W3C XML SchemaGain a working knowledge of key technologies used for narrative XML documents such as web pages, books, and articles technologies like XSLT, Xpath, Xlink, Xpointer, CSS, and XSL-FOBuild data-intensive XML applicationsUnderstand the tools and APIs necessary to build data-intensive XML applications and process XML documents, including the event-based Simple API for XML (SAX2) and the tree-oriented Document Object Model (DOM)This powerful new edition is the comprehensive XML reference. Serious users of XML will find coverage on just about everything they need, from fundamental syntax rules, to details of DTD and XML Schema creation, to XSLT transformations, to APIs used for processing XML documents. XML in a Nutshell also covers XML 1.1, as well as updates to SAX2 and DOM Level 3 coverage. If you need explanation of how a technology works, or just need to quickly find the precise syntax for a particular piece, XML in a Nutshell puts the information at your fingertips.Simply put, XML in a Nutshell is the critical, must-have reference for any XML developer.
Relational Theory for Computer Professionals: What Relational Databases Are Really All About
by C. J. DateAll of today’s mainstream database products support the SQL language, and relational theory is what SQL is supposed to be based on. But are those products truly relational? Sadly, the answer is no. This book shows you what a real relational product would be like, and how and why it would be so much better than what’s currently available.With this unique book, you will:Learn how to see database systems as programming systemsGet a careful, precise, and detailed definition of the relational modelExplore a detailed analysis of SQL from a relational point of viewThere are literally hundreds of books on relational theory or the SQL language or both. But this one is different. First, nobody is more qualified than Chris Date to write such a book. He and Ted Codd, inventor of the relational model, were colleagues for many years, and Chris’s involvement with the technology goes back to the time of Codd’s first papers in 1969 and 1970. Second, most books try to use SQL as a vehicle for teaching relational theory, but this book deliberately takes the opposite approach. Its primary aim is to teach relational theory as such. Then it uses that theory as a vehicle for teaching SQL, showing in particular how that theory can help with the practical problem of using SQL correctly and productively.Any computer professional who wants to understand what relational systems are all about can benefit from this book. No prior knowledge of databases is assumed.
Keeping Women in Science
by Kate WhiteKeeping Women in Science examines the careers of women and men at a large Australian research institute and the challenges that women with or without children experience, often resulting from direct and indirect discrimination and being positioned as outsiders. The research found a huge generational change between the Baby Boomers—the current science leaders—and Gen X and Gen Ys. Younger women and men reject the traditional model of a successful scientist—a single male for whom science is like a religious vocation. Instead, they seek new models for doing science that support dual careers, work flexibility and work-life balance.
Democratic Nation: Identity, Freedom and Equality in Australia 1901–1925
by David KempA Democratic Nation: Identity, Freedom and Equality in Australia 1901-1925 tells the story of the political battle after Federation to achieve unprecedented levels of social and economic equality, while preserving both national independence and individual freedom. As the third book in a landmark five-volume Australian Liberalism series, A Democratic Nation shows how Australians, inspired by the exceptional democracy they had achieved, set out to perfect its principles while protecting it from a world they saw as increasingly threatening. The period saw political battles within and between Liberal and Labor parties as attempts to protect identities defined by nation, class and race confronted ideas of individual freedom and equality. As the war of 1914-18 between the European empires gave rise to unimaginable horrors, economic chaos and continuing violence, the Australian Labor Party shattered and the Liberal Party became submerged in a new Nationalist win-the-war alliance. In peacetime it struggled to restore the nation's social and economic health under the weight of pre-war and wartime identity-based policies. Throughout years of divisive political conflict, the Australian people would remain largely faithful to their hope of a land that would give them freedom to chart their own destinies, and would resist the siren calls of those who promised a conflict-free world by the use of centralised power to reconstruct the industrial and social order.
Native-Born: The First White Australians
by John MolonyThe native-born . . . have walked constantly with me, but only as shadows. In libraries and manuscript rooms, in the faded pages of newspapers and journals, in the lectures of my colleagues or conversations with others, they have been there, but shyly, and rarely did they speak for themselves. Often I thought that they scarcely knew who they were and, if they did, whether they were allowed to know they were Australians and whether they were ever encouraged by those born elsewhere to think of themselves as Australians. This beautifully written, absorbing and thoughtful book tells the story of the first white Australians to be born in this land. Born here before 1850, most were the children of convicts. They had no access to land and no education, and the free settlers generally treated them with contempt, as second-rate citizens. John Molony was curious to discover how they thought of themselves; what it meant to them to be Australian. He draws fascinating links between their experience and atitudes and those of all children of immigrant parents; up to the present day.
Watson's Pier
by Joshua FunderOn 20 December 1977, as Stanley Watson takes the slow train journey to family Christmas, memories from over 60 years ago play in his mind. He had been and still was a man of his time, as as steady, simple and direct as the railway lines he built. As an engineer in the 28th Signalling Company, recently wed and with a young child, he knew it to be his duty to enlist as soon as war broke out in 1914. He left for Egypt in October and he knows his wife is pregnant as he reaches Gallipoli on 25 April 1915, a participant in that fateful landing that is writ large in Australian history. He survived that landing to construct the first pier at Anzac Cove, from which the Anzacs withdrew on the nights of 18 and 19 December. For a long time, he was known as the last man to leave Gallipoli. Watson's Pier is a beautifully told story as seen through the eyes of Stanley Watson, one of the leaders of the escape from Gallipoli. It draws on Watson's story, his writing, oral history and the official war records. While telling one man's remarkable experience of war for the first time, Watson's Pier challenges history on the final moments at ANZAC Cove and offers a new perspective on the meaning of Gallipoli.
Football War: The VFA and VFL's Battle for Supremacy 1930-1949
by Xavier FowlerIn the shadow of the impending Second World War, a battle for control kicked off between two rival factions in Australian Rules football-the powerful upstart Victorian Football League, comprising the strongest inner-city clubs, and the struggling Victorian Football Association, which sought new teams and spectators in Melbourne's growing outer suburbs. The conflict spilled out of Victoria, inciting division and discord in almost every corner of the country. Woven through Xavier Fowler's lively history are the stories of iconic players whose lives and careers were fundamentally altered by the conflict as they crisscrossed the breach, including Australian Football Hall of Famers Ron Todd, Laurie Nash, Jack Dyer and Bob Pratt. From bitter personal rivalries to the lasting impacts on the game itself, The Football War is the untold story of the battle for supremacy on- and off-field, and the fight for the soul of Australian Rules.
Comeback: The Fall and Rise of Geelong
by James ButtonAs a boy, James Button fell in love with the Geelong Football Club. It was a family affair. But as the years wore on and the defeats and disappointments mounted, it became clear to him: his team would never win a flag. This book tells the story of his glorious mistake. Writing as a reporter, not primarily as a fan, James interviews hundreds of people to tell the story of how one organisation changed its culture, on and off the field. He relates not only the fortunes of the team over fifty years but of the town with which it is so closely entwined. And he tries to explain why so many of us, whoever we barrack for, are gripped by an unreasonable passion for football.
Seeking Justice in Cambodia: Human Rights Defenders Speak Out
by Sue CoffeySeeking Justice in Cambodia tells the powerful stories of the original founders of Cambodian human rights organisations and the younger generation of leaders, all of whom have fought tirelessly and with great conviction to achieve justice and human rights for all Cambodians. Sue Coffey decided to compile this book following the period she spent working in Cambodia as an Australian Government volunteer. She was shocked by much of what she saw at the time: lack of transparency in government dealings; rampant deforestation; people being thrown off their land to make way for hydro schemes; freedom of speech and action blatantly under threat. She felt that unless the stories of these remarkable people were recorded, they might be lost to posterity. But this issue is not just a Cambodian one. The lessons here can apply to many other countries struggling to achieve human rights. Seeking Justice in Cambodia tells a powerful tale of the struggle to bring human rights to all Cambodians from the early 1990s to the present day.
Charles Conder: The Last Bohemian
by Ann GalballyCharles Conder was one of the youngest, most original and most talented members of the Heidelberg School of impressionist painters, and one of the few to achieve a lasting reputation outside Australia. His work hangs in many major collections, including the Tate Britain, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the National Portrait Gallery in London and the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Paris beckoned early, and he soon fell in with the fin de si�cle generation led by Oscar Wilde, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Aubrey Beardsley. He embraced Bohemia, was forever in debt, worked erratically but unceasingly and lived as if there were no tomorrow. Conder was rescued from poverty by marriage to a wealthy Canadian widow, but his bohemian past eventually called in its account. Tragically, he descended into syphilitic madness and died in his fortieth year. Conder's was a beguiling, charmed, desperate life. He was handsome, rakish, sociable and extraordinarily talented. Anne Galbally's splendid biography is as passionate and fascinating as her subject.
King of the Australian Coast
by Marsden HordernPhillip Parker King has been described as the greatest of Australia's early marine surveyors. But while the achievements of Cook and Flinders are widely known, this is the first telling of King's story.Unlike Cook and Flinders, King was Australian-born—the son of Philip Gidley King, governor of New South Wales. In a series of gruelling voyages between 1817 and 1822, King charted most of the north-west coast of Australia from the eastern tip of Arnhem Land all the way round to Cape Leeuwin and King George Sound. He surveyed Macquarie Harbour in Van Diemen's Land and the treacherous waters inside the Great Barrier Reef, filling gaps in the work of his famous predecessors.Marsden Hordern, a splendid storyteller, creates for the reader a sense of following, engrossed, in King's wake. The hazards of reefs, shoals and tides are ever-present, as is delight in unfamiliar wildlife and curiosity about the Aboriginal people. The question left hanging is whether King might be better known today had he been a less capable, good and faithful servant of the Crown, and more inclined to the excess and ineptitude of certain other early explorers.Winner of the New South Wales Premier's Literary Award for General History.Companion volume to Mariners are Warned!, another prize-winning maritime biography by the same author.
Becoming Men: Black masculinities in a South African township
by Dr. Malose LangaThis vivid evocation of the lives of 32 boys from a Johannesburg township is essential reading for anybody wishing to understand black masculinity in South AfricaBecoming Men is the story of 32 boys from Alexandra, one of Johannesburg's largest townships, over a period of twelve seminal years in which they negotiate manhood and masculinity. Psychologist and academic Malose Langa has documented graphically what it means to be a young black man in contemporary South Africa. The boys discuss a range of topics including the impact of absent fathers, relationships with mothers, siblings and girls, school violence, academic performance, homophobia, gangsterism, unemployment and, in one case, prison life. Dominant themes that emerge are deep ambivalence, self-doubt and hesitation in the boys' approaches to alternative masculinities that are non-violent, non-sexist and non-risk-taking. The difficulties of negotiating the multiple voices of masculinity are exposed as many of the boys appear simultaneously to comply with and oppose the prevalent norms. Providing a rich interpretation of how emotional processes affect black adolescent boys, Langa suggests interventions and services to support and assist them, especially in reducing the high-risk behaviours generally associated with hegemonic masculinity. This is essential reading for students, researchers and scholars of gender studies who wish to understand manhood and masculinity in South Africa. Psychologists, youth workers, lay counsellors and teachers who work with adolescent boys will also find it invaluable.
Religion, Race, and COVID-19: Confronting White Supremacy in the Pandemic (Religion and Social Transformation)
by Stacey M. Floyd-ThomasExamines how the dynamics emerging from the pandemic affect our most vulnerable populations and shape a new religious landscapeThe COVID-19 pandemic upset virtually every facet of society and, in many cases, exposed gross inequality and dysfunction. The particular dynamics emerging from the coronavirus pandemic have been felt most intensely by America’s most vulnerable populations, who are disproportionately people of color and the working poor, the people whom the Bible refers to as “the least of these.”This book makes the case that the pandemic was not just a medical phenomenon, or an economic or social one, but also a religious one. Religious practice has been altered in profound ways. Controversies around religious freedom have been re-ignited over debates concerning whether government can restrict church services. Christian white supremacists not only defied shelter in place orders, but found new ways to propagate racist attacks, with their White Christian identity fueling their reactions to the pandemic. Some religious leaders, including those in communities of color, saw the virus as an indicator of God’s wrath, or as a divine test, and viewed altering their traditional practices to mitigate the virus’s spread as a weakening of faith.Religion, Race, and COVID-19 argues that there is a religious hierarchy in US society that puts “the least of these” last while prioritizing those who benefit most from white privilege. Yet these vulnerable populations draw on theological and religious resources to contend with these existential threats. The volume shows how social transformation occurs when faith is both formed and informed during crises, offering compelling insight into the saliency and lasting impact of religiosity within human culture.
The World of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: The Experiences of Living with OCD
by Dana FennellBeyond trivialization and misunderstanding, the realities of people experiencing OCD Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) affects millions of people worldwide and looms large in popular culture, for instance when people quip about being “so OCD.” However, this sometimes has little relation to the actual experiences of people diagnosed with the disorder. In The World of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Dana Fennell explores the lives of people who have OCD, giving us fresh insight into a highly misunderstood, trivialized, and sometimes stigmatized mental disorder that has no surefire cure. Drawing primarily on interviews with people who have OCD, Fennell shows us the diversity of ways the disorder manifests, when and why people come to perceive themselves as having a problem, what treatment options they pursue, and how they make sense of and manage their lives. From those who have obsessions about their sexuality and relationships, to those who check repeatedly to make sure they have not caused harm, she sheds light on the hopes, expectations, and difficulties that people with OCD encounter. Fennell reveals how people cope in the face of this misunderstood disorder, including how they manage the barriers they face in the workplace and society. An eye-opening read, The World of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder encourages us to consider, empathize with, and take steps to improve the lives of people with mental health issues.
Ostraka in the Collection of New York University (ISAW Monographs)
by Gert Baetens, Roger S. Bagnall, Clementina Caputo, Élodie Mazy, and David M. RatzanA comprehensive edition and commentary of 77 ostrakaOstraka in the Collection of New York University is a comprehensive edition and commentary of 77 ostraka, or potsherds with ancient texts written on them, from Greco-Roman and late antique Egypt. Seventy-two of these ostraca are housed in NYU Special Collections, originally purchased by Caspar Kraemer in 1932, then the chair of the NYU Classics Department. Although Kraemer advertised the imminent publication of the texts in 1934 and later collaborated with the famed papyrologist Herbert Youtie, neither completed the project. The ostraka in this small collection span the 2nd century BCE to the 8th century CE and include both Greek and Coptic texts. The majority, however, form a coherent dossier of tax receipts related to mortuary activities in Upper Egypt during the reign of Augustus (texts 7-70, dated from roughly the last quarter of the 1st century BCE to 12 CE). The five ostraka published in this volume not held by NYU include one that had been part of Kraemer’s original purchase but was subsequently lost (thankfully preserved in a photograph in Youtie’s archive at the University of Michigan), and four ostraka now held by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The latter four texts were purchased separately and published previously, but clearly belong to the same group of texts. They are included in this volume both for the sake of completeness and because the present authors were able to improve the readings in light of the context provided by the dossier as a whole. In addition to the scholarly edition of these texts, the volume contains a full discussion of their provenance, the taxes involved, the taxpayers and tax-collectors, and a ceramological analysis of the sherds as media for these texts.The book will be of interest primarily to specialists in papyrology and scholars who study the economic history of the ancient Mediterranean, Hellenistic Egypt, the Roman empire, and papyrology.