Author: David Koistinen File Type: pdf Koistinen puts the political back in political economy in this fascinating account of New Englands twentieth-century industrial erosion. First-rate research and sound judgments make this study essential reading.Philip Scranton, Rutgers UniversityCamden Well-organized and clearly written, Confronting Decline looks at one community to understand a process that has become truly national.David Stebenne, Ohio State University Koistinens important book makes clear that many industrial cities and regions began to decline as early as the 1920s.Alan Brinkley, Columbia University Sheds new light on a complex system of enterprise that sometimes blurs, and occasionally overrides, the distinctions of private and public, as well as those of locality, state, region, and nation. In so doing, it extends and deepens the insights of previous scholars of the American political economy.Robert M. Collins, University of Missouri The rise of the United States to a position of global leadership and power rested initially on the outcome of the Industrial Revolution. Yet as early as the 1920s, important American industries were in decline in the places where they had originally flourished. The decline of traditional manufacturingdeindustrializationhas been one of the most significant aspects of the restructuring of the American economy. In this volume, David Koistinen examines the demise of the textile industry in New England from the 1920s through the 1980s to better understand the impact of industrial decline. Focusing on policy responses to deindustrialization at the state, regional, and federal levels, he offers an in-depth look at the process of industrial decline over time and shows how this pattern repeats itself throughout the country and the world. A volume in the series Working in the Americas, edited by Richard Greenwald and Timothy J. Minchin **

Author: Giselinde Kuipers File Type: pdf This is an updated edition of Good Humor, Bad Taste A Sociology of the Joke, published in 2006. Using a combination of interview materials, survey data, and historical materials, it explores the relationship between humor and gender, age, social class, and national differences in the Netherlands and the United States. This edition includes new developments and research findings in the field of humor studies.**Review[...] Good Humor, Bad Tast is an important bookElliott Oring in Journal of American Folklore 2009 This is an insightful and very clearly espressed study of an important social phenomenon ?humor. Besides, it contains, if I may say so without losing cast in Batavia, some very funny jokes.Christie Davies in American Journal of Sociology 2008 [...] this is a valuable and insightful contribution to the scholarship on jokes and humor that opens up many possibilities for future research.Moira Smith in Journal of Folklore Research 22008 About the Author Giselinde Kuipers, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. This book is the first extensive sociological study of the relationship between humor and social background. Using a combination of interview materials, survey data, and historical materials, it explores the relationship between humor and gender, age, social class, and national differences in the Netherlands and the United States. The exploration of social differences in sense of humor starts off from one specific, and not very prestigious, humorous genre the joke. Good Humor, Bad Taste explains why jokes are good humor to some, bad taste to others.**

Author: Colin Renfrew File Type: pdf Modern archaeology has amassed considerable evidence for the disposal of the dead through burials, cemeteries and other monuments. Drawing on this body of evidence, this book offers fresh insight into how early human societies conceived of death and the afterlife. The twenty-seven essays in this volume consider the rituals and responses to death in prehistoric societies across the world, from eastern Asia through Europe to the Americas, and from the very earliest times before developed religious beliefs offered scriptural answers to these questions. Compiled and written by leading prehistorians and archaeologists, this volume traces the emergence of death as a concept in early times, as well as a contributing factor to the formation of communities and social hierarchies, and sometimes the creation of divinities.

Author: Temma Kaplan File Type: pdf In our time, the term democracy is frequently evoked to express aspirations for peace and social change or particular governmental systems that claim to benefit more than a select minority of the population. In this book, Temma Kaplan examines attempts from ancient Mesopotamia to the early twenty first century to create democratic governments that allow people to secure food, shelter, land, water, and peace for their mutual benefit. Since early times, proponents of direct or participatory democracy have come into conflict with the leaders of representative institutions that claim singular power over democracy. Patriots of one form or another have tried to reclaim the initiative to determine what democracy should mean and who should manage it. Frequently, people in small communities, trade unions, or repressed racial, religious, and political groups have marched forward using the language of democracy to carve a space for themselves and their ideas at the center of political life. Sometimes they have reinterpreted the old laws, and sometimes they have formulated new laws and institutions in order to gain greater opportunities to debate the major issues of their time. This book examines the development of the democratic ideal from ancient Rome to the Cortes in Spain, the philosophies of Guru Nanak and the Castilian patriot Juan de Padilla, and such inspirational personalities as the Polish trade unionist Anna Walentnyowicz and Burmese politician Aung San Suu Kyi. Though few democracies have sustained themselves for significant lengths of time, their emergence nearly everywhere on earth over thousands of years indicates their resilience despite the fragility of the democratic ideal. At a moment when the term Democracy is evoked to express inchoate aspirations for peace and social change or particular governmental systems that may or may not benefit more than a select minority of the population, this book examines attempts from ancient Mesopotemia to the democraticmovements of the early twenty-first century to sustain and improve their own lives and those of outsiders who have migrated into territory they regard as their own. Democratic activists have formed organizations to regulate the distribution of water, to restore the environment, and to assure thatthey and their children will have a future. They have organized their relations with deities and those who held secular power, and they have created particular institutions that they hoped would help them shape a good, free, and creative life for themselves and those who follow. They have alsocreated laws and representative bodies to serve their needs on a regular basis and have written about the difficulties those they have elected to office have maintaining their ties to those who brought them to power in the first place. Since early times, proponents of direct or participatory democracy have come into conflict with the leaders of representative institutions that claim singular power over democracy. Patriots of one form or another have tried to reclaim the initiative to define what democracy should mean and whoshould manage it. Frequently people in small communities, trade unions, repressed, exploited, or denigrated racial, religious, political, or sexual groups have marched forward using the language of democracy to find space for themselves and their ideas at the center of political life. Sometimes theyhave re-interpreted the old laws, and sometimes they have formulated new laws and institutions in order to gain greater opportunities to debate the major issues of their time. Whatever conclusions they come to, they are only temporary since changing times require new solutions, assuring thatdemocracy can only survive as a continuous process. As such and as a system of beliefs, democracy has many flaws. But looking cross-culturally and trans-historically, it still seems like democracy still holds promise for improving the lives of all the worlds people.