Author: Richard Beeman Beyond Confederation scrutinizes the ideological background of the U.S. Constitution, the rigors of its writing and ratification, and the problems it both faced and provoked immediately after ratification. The essays in this collection question much of the heritage of eighteenth-century constitutional thought and suggest that many of the commonly debated issues have led us away from the truly germane questions. The authors challenge many of the traditional generalizations and the terms and scope of that debate as well.The contributors raise fresh questions about the Constitution as it enters its third century. What happened in Philadelphia in 1787, and what happened in the state ratifying conventions? Why did the states--barely--ratify the Constitution? What were Americans of the 1789s attempting to achieve? The exploratory conclusions point strongly to an alternative constitutional tradition, some of it unwritten, much of it rooted in state constitutional law; a tradition that not only has redefined the nature and role of the Constitution but also has placed limitations on its efficacy throughout American history. The authors are Lance Banning, Richard Beeman, Stephen Botein, Richard D. Brown, Richard E. Ellis, Paul Finkelman, Stanley N. Katz, Ralph Lerner, Drew R. McCoy, John M. Murrin, Jack N. Rakove, Janet A. Riesman, and Gordon S. Wood.

Author: Milton H. Jamail Though Venezuela is sandwiched between two soccer-mad countriesBrazil and Colombiabaseball is its national pastime and passion. Yet until the late 1980s few professional teams actively scouted and developed players there. This book is about the man who changed all that and brought Venezuela into Major League Baseball in a major way.While other teams were looking to the Dominican Republic for new talent, Houston Astros' scout Andres Reiner saw an untapped niche in Venezuela. Venezuelan Bust, Baseball Boom recounts how, over the next fifteen years, Reiner signed nearly one hundred players, nineteen of whom reached the majors. The stories of these playersamong them Bobby Abreu, Johan Santana, Melvin Mora, Carlos Guillen, and Freddy Garciaare interwoven with Reiners own, together creating a fascinating portrait of a curious character in the annals of sports and a richly textured picture of the opening of Venezuela as baseballs new frontier. Countless interviews broaden and deepen the storys insights into how the scouting system works, how Reiner worked within it, and how his efforts have affected the sport of baseball in Venezuela and the significance of Venezuela in the world of Major League Baseball.

Author: Ladan Niayesh This volume brings together three little-known works by key playwrights from the late sixteenth-century golden age of English drama. All three convey the public theatres fascination with travel and adventure through the popular genre of heroic romance, while reflecting the contemporaries wide range of responses to cross-cultural contacts with the Muslim East and the Mediterranean challenges posed by the Ottoman empire. The volume presents the first modern-spelling editions of the three plays, with extensive annotations catering for specialised scholars while also making the texts accessible to students and theatre-goers. A detailed introduction discusses issues of authorship, dates and sources, and sets the plays in their historical and cultural contexts, offering exciting insights on Elizabethan performance strategies, printing practices, and the circulation of knowledge and stereotypes related to ethnic and religious difference.

Author: By Brett Callwood Along with the Stooges, the Velvet Underground, and the New York Dolls, the MC5 are recognized in music circles as one of the bands that paved the way for punk rock. While the group did not reach the heights of national celebrity or financial success during their seven years together, their musical legacy has never been more celebratedwith recently reissued recordings and documentary footage, as well as an unlikely reunion tour. In MC5: Sonically Speaking, author Brett Callwood delves into the MC5s story from the bands beginnings in 1960s Detroit to its 1972 break-up, the post-MC5 fates of its members, and the eventual reunion that cemented its legacy. Callwood interviews the bands surviving members and close associates to create a compelling firsthand picture of the MC5s history and its music. He introduces readers to the bands original members, Rob Tyner, Wayne Kramer, Fred Sonic Smith, Michael Davis, and Dennis Thompson, and links the power of the MC5 phenomenon to its early days as the raucous house band of Detroits legendary Grande Ballroom. Callwood also traces the MC5s revolutionary political bent through their relationship with friendand later, managerJohn Sinclair, their firsthand experience of the 1967 Detroit riots, and the formation of Sinclairs White Panther Party. Callwood surveys the three classic albums that came out of the bands blend of political protest and hard driving rock n roll, and he details the later projects of the ex-MC5 members, including Sonics Rendezvous Band, the influential art-punk band Destroy All Monsters, and Wayne Kramers solo recordings. He also recounts their personal struggles with drugs, incarceration, and estrangement from one another, as well as the untimely deaths of Smith and Tyner in the 1990s. With the remaining members of the MC5 still making music and coming off a hugely successful string of performances as the DKT/MC5 in the last decade, Callwood proves that the bands story and their music are as intriguing and relevant as ever. Anyone interested in musical history, Detroit rock n roll, or American popular culture of the 1960s and beyond will appreciate this candid and fascinating look at the MC5, which was originally published in the UK and is available for the first time in the US in this updated version.