Sport has always been a legitimate focus for human energy, and in the last fifteen years it has emerged as a legitimate focus for scholarly energy as well. In this interdisciplinary overview of the study of sport, sociology, intellectual history, psychology, anthropology, and literature are brought to bear in seeking new understanding of the role and significance of sport in society. Some of the conclusions will be controversial or even disturbing, and the breadth of the volume clearly demonstrates that sport history is not merely a hobby. As Jack W. Berryman notes in the introduction to the...

These essays offer new interpretations of the origins of American federalism and the meaning of liberty in American political culture.
Peter S. Onuf's introduction examines the historiography of the Constitution--the ways in which distinct schools of historians have interpreted the formation of the federal system. He explains how the essays contribute to this scholarly debate and notes that the present-day concern with "original intent" is a misleading approach to the Constitution. Rather than trying to achieve miraculous solutions to deep-seated social and political problems, the...

This anthology on the conflict between Mexico and the United States from 1846 to 1848 considers the military, social, political, and diplomatic aspects of what is often referred to in Mexico as the "invasion yanqui." Included are an account of President Polk's wartime tour of New England, a study of monarchist intrigues in Mexico during the war, a description of the disharmony between Polk and his generals that resulted in weakened policy formation, and, finally, a view of a soldier's life through the letters of Andrew Trussell, a volunteer.

To Americans the word "frontier" usually evokes images of cowboys and Indians, longhorns and buffalo, and shoot-outs on Main Street--in short, the American West. Yet other countries, too, have had their frontiers, and the entire New World served as a frontier for Europeans after the fifteenth century.
The study of frontiers that began with the works of Frederick Jackson Turner and Walter Prescott Webb has in recent years developed a comparative dimension. The five essays of this volume look at European expansion into Mexico, Canada, Brazil, Southern Africa, and Australia. The authors...

With the recent election of the nation's first African American president--an individual of blended Kenyan and American heritage who spent his formative years in Hawaii and Indonesia--the topic of transnational identity is reaching the forefront of the national consciousness in an unprecedented way. As our society becomes increasingly diverse and intermingled, it is increasingly imperative to understand how race and heritage impact our perceptions of and interactions with each other. "Assumed Identities "constitutes an important step in this direction.However, "identity is a slippery...

Although the origins, application, and socio-historical implications of the Jim Crow system have been studied and debated for at least the last three-quarters of a century, nuanced understanding of this complex cultural construct is still evolving, according to Stephanie Cole and Natalie J. Ring, coeditors of "The Folly of Jim Crow: " "Rethinking the Segregated South." Indeed, they suggest, scholars may profit from a careful examination of previous assumptions and conclusions along the lines suggested by the studies in this important new collection.Based on the March 2008 Walter Prescott Webb...

In 1910 insurgent leaders crushed the Porfirian dictatorship, but in the years that followed fought among themselves, until a nationalist consensus produced the 1917 Constitution. This in turn provided the basis for a reform agenda that transformed Mexico in the modern era. The civil war and the reforms that followed receive new and insightful attention in this book.These essays, the result of the 45th annual Walter Prescott Webb Memorial Lectures, presented by the University of Texas at Arlington in March 2010, commemorate the centennial of the outbreak of the revolution.A potent mix of...

Approaching the early decades of the Iron Curtain with new questions and perspectives, this important book examines the political and cultural implications of the communists international initiatives. Building on recent scholarship and working from new archival sources, the seven contributors to this volume study various effects of international outreachpersonal, technological, and culturalon the population and politics of the Soviet bloc. Several authors analyze lesser-known complications of East-West exchange; others show the contradictory nature of Moscow s efforts to consolidate its...

To a large degree, the story of Texas' secession from Mexico has been undertaken by scholars of the state. Early twentieth century historians of the revolutionary period, most notably Eugene Barker and William Binkley, characterized the conflict as a clash of two opposing cultures, yet their exclusive focus on the region served to reinforce popular notions of a unique Texas past.
Disconnected from a broader historiography, scholars have been left to ponder the most arcane details of the revolutionary narrative--such as the circumstances of David Crockett's death and whether William...