For Thomas, folklore' is an all-encompassing term that incorporates the sum total of the rituals, practices, and behavior of the black community. . . . Although some readers will quarrel with the elasticity of Thomas's theoretical framework, this study nevertheless offers a useful overview of the various ways in which Afro-American writers have drawn upon a common cultural heritage. "Choice"

This study focuses on the transposition of Afro-American folk heroes and rituals from folklore to literature. Thomas shows how black American novelists perceive the heroes and rituals of their...

The First Industrial Revolution of the eighteenth century brought fundamental changes in the allocation of people, resources, and energy. In the Second Industrial Revolution, the revolutionary impact of automobiles, photography, electric power, and industrial chemicals made the United States a foremost world power. The Third Industrial Revolution begins with the information revolution brought about by the computer. Each decade since World War II has brought crucial developments in the areas of CAD/CAM, fiber optics, lasers, holography, biogenetics, bioagriculture, and telecommunications....

In the 1980s, record numbers of Americans have qualified for food stamps and food aid in other forms, despite increasingly rigid standards of eligibility. After more than two decades of such assistance, hunger and malnutrition remain widespread among low-income groups in the United States. This new study examines the policy processes that have shaped food assistance programs since the Kennedy administration and looks at prospects for resolving the political stalemate over food aid that has overtaken national policy.

Following an analysis of the dynamics of the policy process, Professor...

This is the first comparative study of the background, development, laws, structure, and impact of teacher unionism in nations around the world. This ground-breaking analysis offers an international perspective on the world's most populous profession--teaching--and its halting but powerful efforts to form unions, to engage in collective bargaining, and to win a decent living for its millions of members. Teachers, union leaders, policymakers, and all who are interested in the issues surrounding education as a profession, the operation of schools, the role of government in education, and the...

Ferdinand Eberstadt, the man whose war production strategy was credited with shortening World War II by one full year, was America's financier extraordinaire. His contributions over a period of nearly fifty years helped to shape the world of business and finance as we know it today. In this lively analytical biography, Perez and Willett chronicle Eberstadt's career in the public and private sectors and explore the motives, methods, and personal style that were responsible for his successes as well as his failures. This balanced, clearly written account is packed with information and...

The Vatican's foreign relations, particularly their Middle Eastern aspects, are generally little known. This book attempts to clear up the misunderstandings and misconceptions in regard to the Vatican's Middle Eastern relations. For more than a thousand years, the Holy See has been inextricably involved in the Middle East; indeed, the very roots of the Roman Catholic Church originate there. Yet despite the religious overtones of the Holy Land issue, Kreutz argues that the Vatican's Middle Eastern policy is much more than an expression of its religious and secular ideology, it is a...

As a reading of the recent literature indicates, there has been a trend among public policy analysts to disavow the utility of the Western political tradition for understanding contemporary social dilemmas. This edited collection demonstrates that the history of political philosophy actually increases the awareness of the nature of such problems. By employing models of historical understanding, the contributors permit political theory to illuminate the dilemmas underlying modern policy questions and permit historical theorists to model perspectives that are useful in confronting current...

This bibliography brings together information on over 4,000 dissertations that deal wholly or in part with Irish writers and Anglo-Irish literature. Included are works from more than 350 universities and from 28 different countries, a scope of material that has not been collected in one place before. The dissertation subjects include not only poets, novelists, and dramatists, but also critics, diarists, scholars, historians, and journalists. In all, 193 authors are studied, whose lives cover the years from 1600 to the present.

The book, which supersedes all previously published volumes...

This work focuses on Marlowe's works as an index of the major transformation of Elizabethan theatrical practices. In the opening chapter, Cole reviews the unusually intriguing historical record of Marlowe's life outside the theatre. The body of the book addresses Marlowe's individual plays as experiments in extending and redefining the traditional concepts and techniques of tragic drama, and suggests how his contemporaries and followers made use of his innovations. Intended as an introduction to the subject, this book provides an insightful approach to Marlowe's work and the study of...

Church-State Constitutional Issues explores the often-debated and always topical issue of the relationship between church and state as outlined in the First Amendment. Donald L. Drakeman takes an interdisciplinary approach to examine the meaning of the establishment clause, demonstrating how the studies of law, religion, history, and political science provide insight into this relationship, which, since the nation's inception, has been difficult to define.

The study first chronicles the Supreme Court's decision regarding the interpretation of the establishment clause from the early 19th...