BLESSED ASSURANCE: A HISTORY OF EVANGELICALISM IN AMERICA Review

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BLESSED ASSURANCE: A HISTORY OF EVANGELICALISM IN AMERICA ReviewAfter reading this book in one sitting, I am still unclear about its purpose. Readers expecting an historical overview will quickly become mired in long discussions about colonial ethnic politics. Readers expecting more penetrating scholarship will be put off by such gloss-overs as when Balmer writes the socially complex Salem Witch Trials off with a single word: 'misogyny' or when he repeatedly asserts that contemporary hymns inherit significant sexual imagery from the pietistic tradition but never presents an argument to support this assertion. The final two chapters strike me as thinly veiled assaults on Promise Keepers and the Christian Coalition. Justified or not, these attacks take the book out of the realm of history and into the realm of socio-political commentary, thus adding to my confusion about its ultimate purpose.
Balmer does have some interesting things to say, particularly about how American individualism and anti-institutionalism affect American politics and religion. Despite its apparent lack of focus, I enjoyed reading the book and found some useful nuggets related to my current academic project. Students of history, sociology, or religion may find the end-notes a good starting point for more serious study. Those looking for an overview (as the sub-title suggests) should look elsewhere.BLESSED ASSURANCE: A HISTORY OF EVANGELICALISM IN AMERICA Overview

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Italy since 1945 (Short Oxford History of Italy) Review

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Italy since 1945 (Short Oxford History of Italy) ReviewThis is very concise short exploration of Italy since the end of WWII. It touches on the many aspects of Italian life, the rise of the middle class, the shift towards mediteranianism, the triumph of Christian Democracy, and the love of sport(football). This book also touches on the love hate mentality that Italians have for Americans, they love our protection but love to hate the USA. This is a short narrative, it perhaps does not touch on the more important events that are shaping Italy today. The mafia, the red terrorists, the elections of 1992, the corruption, the craxi regime, the invasion of immigrants and the plight of the south. Perhaps the book needs to be longer, it should be recommended as a short concise read on Italy for those taking a survey course or those interested in the current state.Italy since 1945 (Short Oxford History of Italy) OverviewItaly since 1945 sets in context the tremendous changes that Italy has undergone in the last 55 years.In place of the land of pizza, sunshine, and soccer, McCarthy describes a developing nation: an economy that has found its own road to success via the piccole imprese with an increasingly strong stockmarket and more sophisticated banking; a dynamic, traditional, family-centered society; and a political system struggling to modernize after forty years of Christian Democrat rule and Communist opposition.McCarthy also looks at the role of the Church, including Pius XII's wartime activities and the 'foreign pope', John-Paul II before finally turning to sport in Italy - the only country to have 3 daily newspapers devoted to the subject. Authoritative, accessible, and absorbing, the book examines modern Italy through the eyes of 10 leading commentators and explores the Italian experience in the wider context of both the nation's past and its wider contemporary European position.

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Religion in Twentieth Century America (Religion in American Life) Review

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Religion in Twentieth Century America (Religion in American Life) ReviewThis neat little book is a wonderful overview of the evolution of religion in the United States in the twentieth century. The book begins with the early schism between the more conservative branch of Protestantism (which produced the Fundamentals of the Faith) and the more liberal branch (which produced the National Council of Churches). However, as it flows along, it embraces the streams Roman Catholic and Jewish development. Eventually, the book examines the arrival of traditional non-Judeo-Christian religions, and New Age religions.
This is a great book, one that gives the reader a clear understanding of religion in the United States, and how we arrived at this point. Although originally written for High School age readers (or perhaps because of that), it is highly informative to any reader, and indeed this orientation means that it is an easy read for those not already knowledgeable about the subject. I highly recommend this book.Religion in Twentieth Century America (Religion in American Life) Overview

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The Wicked City: Chicago From Kenna To Capone (Illinois) Review

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The Wicked City: Chicago From Kenna To Capone (Illinois) ReviewI'm the sure that the main draw to this book concerns the seedy, gangster underworld of Chicago. I don't know if I have enough patience to get there; the narrative so far relates sound-bite stories of the founders, urban planners, and architects who first erected this city. It's extremely interesting material, but Johnson's flits over it all in barely readable, fragmented prose. Furthermore, as one unfamiliar with the city (especially as it was in the 1800s), his descriptions of the landscape (and the design of the buildings) leaves me still with a black box imagination of what the city looks like. Pictures or illustrations would well suit the understanding of this book, which would lead to the (hopeful point of the story) understanding of the city.The Wicked City: Chicago From Kenna To Capone (Illinois) Overview

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Inventing Times Square: Commerce and Culture at the Crossroads of the World Review

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Inventing Times Square: Commerce and Culture at the Crossroads of the World ReviewAnyone who has actually lived in New York City and not simply "visited" it as the person in the previous review did, would know that New York has a soul and a character all its own. When you take such as the time square area and change it through gentrification, making it Disney shows, overpriced stores, and tourist traps you are basically forcing it to become something its not.
Its soul which was naturally created and maintained by the people that lived and thrived there, has been destroyed. It was destroyed in order to essentially superimpose a giant disneyland where the very new yorkers who made times square attain its status as the most recognizable American landmark can no longer afford to buy anything there much less live in or around it.
So I'm sure its just peachy one weekend if you wanna blow a little cash at some chain restaurant and see the little mermaid on ice, its the place to go. But for those of us who have grown up in and around times square, we have lost a lil piece of our souls so that people from around the world can see the little mermaid on ice. Compare it to when they closed down your favorite childhood ice cream shoppe in Poughkeepsie, just instead of sprinkles we had hookers; Ya yuppie.
-The EndInventing Times Square: Commerce and Culture at the Crossroads of the World Overview

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Peasant Metropolis: Social Identities in Moscow 1929-1941 Review

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Peasant Metropolis: Social Identities in Moscow 1929-1941 ReviewThis book recreates the "immigrant" experience of peasant workers in Moscow during the first two Five Year Plans, the era of the "Great Break." Here was laid the foundations of the Soviet system as we came to know and love it for the next sixty years.
As alluded, the story of peasant migrants come to the big city reminds me strongly of immigrants who came to New York, Chicago, and other big industrial US cities a generation before. The same dislocation, the same clannishness, the same rivalries between the established and the greenhorn. What also emerges is the rise of Stalin as political boss and Stalinism as a Russian variant of big-city bossism. The social base - immigrants and their upwardly-mobile offspring - was strikingly identical and goes far to explain Stalinism as a social phenomena, beyond the "cult of personality" or ideological wrangles with right or left party opponents.
At one crucial statement I do disagree with Professor Hoffmann, when he states on page 106 that "The Soviet industrial system, with its undisciplined worforce, weakened management, and Party and police interference, never achieved rationalized and routinized production." These same handicaps plagued American industry some 30 years before, but were overcome by expanding industry and the education and adaption of the workforce. As Stephen Kotkin shows in "Magnetic Mountain," tracing this same Stalinist pattern in the creation of the Magnitogortsk Complex, Stalinism hammered out a very credible industrial civilization; while Michael Burawoy's work experience in socialist Hungary showed a "rationalized and routinized production" regime equal to that of American factories where he'd earlier worked.
But altogether a useful contribution to the school of "Stalinist studies."Peasant Metropolis: Social Identities in Moscow 1929-1941 OverviewDuring the 1930's, 23 million peasants left their villages and moved to Soviet cities, where they comprised almost half the urban population and more than half the nation's industrial workers.Drawing on previously inaccessible archival materials, David L. Hoffmann shows how this massive migration to the cities--an influx unprecedented in world history--had major consequences for the nature of the Soviet system and the character of Russian society even today.Hoffmann focuses on events in Moscow between the launching of the industrialization drive in 1929 and the outbreak of war in 1941.He reconstructs the attempts of Party leaders to reshape the social identity and behavior of the millions of newly urbanized workers, who appeared to offer a broad base of support for the socialist regime.The former peasants, however, had brought with them their own forms of cultural expression, social organization, work habits, and attitudes toward authority.Hoffmann demonstrates that Moscow's new inhabitants established social identities and understandings of the world very different from those prescribed by Soviet authorities.Their refusal to conform to the authorities' model of a loyal proletariat thwarted Party efforts to construct a social and political order consistent with Bolshevik ideology.The conservative and coercive policies that Party leaders adopted in response, he argues, contributed to the Soviet Union's emergence as an authoritarian welfare state.

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Rejuvenile: Kickball, Cartoons, Cupcakes, and the Reinvention of the American Grown-up Review

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Rejuvenile: Kickball, Cartoons, Cupcakes, and the Reinvention of the American Grown-up ReviewI read this book over the course of several flights while traveling and I thoroughly enjoyed it. As a cartoonist who likes cupcakes and wearing superhero t-shirts, there should be no surprise why the book peaked my interest. But I was delighted to find that the book was neither an unstructured permission slip for irresponsible behavior, nor a "Harrumphing Codger" treatise on abolishing all forms of fun from life. Rather, it was a well-organized, even-handed, thoughtful and interesting approach on the phenomenon itself. I enjoyed the historical research, and although sometimes overly thourough, offered a lot of interesting background for the rest of the book. I also enjoyed the profiles of the people throughout the book. At times I found myself mentally cheering them on, while with others, I tended to react to with frustration (and sometimes even disgust). So ultimately, the book connected with me on an emotional level, and it made me think. Something all good books do.Rejuvenile: Kickball, Cartoons, Cupcakes, and the Reinvention of the American Grown-up Overview

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The History of Holland (The Greenwood Histories of the Modern Nations) Review

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The History of Holland (The Greenwood Histories of the Modern Nations) ReviewAlmost one third of this book is devoted to background, such as geography, econony, political system, and society. It is space and time well spent. The entire book reads quite easily, and I often had a hard time putting it down.The History of Holland (The Greenwood Histories of the Modern Nations) OverviewHolland was once a superpower upon whose empire the sun never set. Today it is on the leading edge of social change. This history of Holland, from its earliest beginnings to the present day, provides the most up-to-date survey of modern Dutch history, including the current Dutch approach to a number of social issues, such as the welfare state, the environment, socialized medicine, and the role of the military in the post-Cold War world. Containing a wealth of current information and statistics, this work will help the reader to understand the Dutch both within the historical context in which Holland exists and as world leaders in social change as we approach the twenty-first century. This engagingly written history provides a contemporary overview of Holland's geography, economy, political system, and society. Chapters arranged chronologically trace the history and culture of the nation from the Ice Age to the new post-Cold War world. Chapters on recent Dutch history show how Holland has claimed a leading role in social change: the Dutch have authorized euthanasia, socialized medicine, and legalized soft drugs. A selection of brief biographical sketches will introduce the reader to many of the important Dutch personalities throughout Holland's history, and a bibliographical essay will help the researcher to locate recommended books and other materials for further reading.

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Intercultural Communication: A Global Reader Review

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Intercultural Communication: A Global Reader ReviewI was very happy with this order. It came right on time for my class and it was worth the money as it is a very interesting book to read.Intercultural Communication: A Global Reader Overview
Intercultural Communication: A Global Reader contains 36 articles showcasing the development and diversity of intercultural communication theories in countries such as China, Africa, the United States, New Zealand, Mexico, Egypt, and others. Themes and topics discussed include identity and communication, intercultural verbal and nonverbal processes and interactions, relationships, and ethics.

The Reader may be used as a stand-alone text, an excellent companion to Fred E. Jandt's textbook An Introduction to Intercultural Communication: Identities in a Global Community, Fourth Edition, or in conjunction with other texts.The book is intended for the introductory intercultural communication course and is also of value for many courses in cultural studies, sociology, and anthropology.










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1,000 Things to Love About America: Celebrating the Reasons We're Proud to Call the U.S.A. Home Review

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1,000 Things to Love About America: Celebrating the Reasons We're Proud to Call the U.S.A. Home ReviewAn endlessly entertaining trip through America and its culture. It is surprising in its choices and range of subjects, an eclectic approach that pays off for the reader. This reader learned a lot while laughing a lot along the way.1,000 Things to Love About America: Celebrating the Reasons We're Proud to Call the U.S.A. Home Overview
From jazz to the Gettysburg Address to baseball to the White Castle hamburger-here are the 1,000 greatest things about America!

The Pilgrims called their new nation "a shining city upon a hill." Abraham Lincoln praised it as "the last, best hope of mankind." In times of boom or bust, this remarkable land we know as America has been a beacon of hope illuminating the world. Now the authors of 1,000 Years, 1,000 People: Ranking the Men and Women Who Shaped the Millennium have teamed up once again to pay unabashed tribute to the greatness of our country-in a fascinating, fun, and informative celebration of the concepts, inventions, institutions, icons, history, social trends, geographical wonders, and consumer products that have made the U.S.A. such an awesomely amazing place!

The Constitution • Mount Rushmore • Backyard Decks • Monopoly Internet Shopping • Duct Tape • Yogi Berra • The Super Bowl Ultimate Frisbee • The Fifth Amendment • The PTA • The Indy 500 Freedom of the Press • Hollywood • Sesame Street • ChapStick Poker • The Wizard of Oz • Fast Food • The Cleveland Orchestra

The Barn Owl • Glacier National Park • Jack Daniel's Old No. 7 Patchwork Quilts • Soap Operas • Joy of Cooking • West Point A Streetcar Named Desire • The Florida Keys • The Red Cross Wikipedia • Deodorant • The Hubble Space Telescope • Grizzly Bears The Beach Boys • The White House • Recycling • Meat Loaf

. . . and many, many more Things to Love About America!


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Creating the National Pastime Review

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Creating the National Pastime ReviewG. Edward White's book, Creating the National Pastime, examines the changes in major league baseball during the first half of the 1900's. The slow acceptance of radio, night baseball, black players, the rise of the commissioner's office, and the ironclad nature of the reserve clause are among the topics looked at in the book. The book does a good job examining some of the changes that took place between 1903 and 1953 in baseball that we take for granted today (night baseball, steel and concrete ballparks, etc.), but does get tedious at times with its wealth of somewhat arcane information. Overall, a pretty solid (if not always engrossing) read.Creating the National Pastime Overview

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Team Spirits: The Native American Mascots Controversy Review

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Team Spirits: The Native American Mascots Controversy ReviewC. Richard King and Charles Springwood, with their edited collection, bring to the forefront the cultural and social intricacies, animosities, and stereotypes associated with the Native American team mascot debate. The work "traces the (re)inventions of self and society through Native American mascots and the cultural artifacts, public sentiments, and ritual performances...associated with them." (1)
The essays are very informative and help clarify why certain practices have been misappropriated by the dominant "Euro-American" society. The authors prey upon the same themes in almost every essay, racial stereotypes, misappropriations of cultural practices, and displacement of Native American cultures and histories. Moreover, it appears that some of the authors take umbrage with the fact that certain Native American tribes actually support the use of their images as mascots. In their fabulous discussion of the Seminole Tribe and Florida State University, King and Springwood particularly illustrate their indignation in regards to the backing of the Chief Osceola mascot by the Seminole Tribe. The authors believe that members of the Seminole Tribe should quit "playing Indian" with the whites and work to challenge the misuse of Chief Osceola and the Seminole Tribe's identities and culture. King and Springwood also worryingly rely on a third-person account to buttress their argument that Florida State's appropriation of Native American imagery for use as a mascot only furthers popular stereotypes and prejudices.
Team Spirits is a work of activism. The collection of essays are designed inform readers of the complexities surrounding the Native American mascot controversy and hopefully reconsider their thoughts and conceptions of Native Americans. Perhaps the most important point of the text is that the appropriation of and misuse of Native American images reveal "much more about the non-Indian people and institutions that invented them than they have about Native American cultures and histories." (328) Most of the authors ignore the fact that mascots are not intended to glorify a certain historical or cultural distinctness. Many mascots were created in informal meetings without much regard to historical and cultural settings or identities. The authors of the essays expect mascots to lionize certain aspects of a locale's cultural and historical heritage. In reality, this just is not the case. However, Native American mascots are held to a higher standard as they should be and the complexities and controversies surrounding the issue show no signs of diminishing. Additionally, the Native American mascot controversy overshadows the argument that Native Americans have been perhaps the finest athletes the United States has ever had.
King and Springwood's effort certainly will not end the debate; it does provide analysis and understanding for those unfamiliar with the true subtle intricacies forever associated with Native Americans and their white conquerors.
Team Spirits: The Native American Mascots Controversy OverviewA growing controversy in recent years has arisen around the use and abuse of Native American team mascots. The Cleveland Indians, Atlanta Braves, Washington Redskins, Kansas City Chiefs, Florida State Seminoles, and so forth-these are just a few of the images and names popularly associated with Native Americans that are still used as mascots by professional sports teams, dozens of universities, and countless high schools. This practice, a troubling legacy of Native–Euro-American relations in the United States, has sparked heated debates and intense protests that continue to escalate.

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Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto Review

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Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto Review"Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs" is an essay collection that draws comparisons between popular culture and important social and interpersonal issues. It also happens to be extremely witty at times. Chuck Klosterman is a writer for Spin magazine, so he clearly knows pop culture and can write quality essays. The best of his work here truly encapsulates life. Who cannot relate to this quote? - "Every relationship is fundamentally a power struggle, and the individual in power is whoever likes the other person less." That profundity, by the way, is from an essay that discusses the merits of "When Harry Met Sally"; another section proffers the genius of Billy Joel. Yes, Klosterman is a bit of a hipster geek.
Pop culture references are sprinkled throughout the book, but sometimes it stretches a bit too much for the sake of a clever analogy. In the forward, Klosterman assserts that, at times, he feels as though "everything is completely connected." Unfortunately, he is not adept enough to make all of his essays into a cohesive whole (as other reviewers have noted). Ultimately, the book feels like a loose collection of unrelated but very funny skits. Although that debit doesn't sink the book, it does lessen its impact. In addition, Klosterman is sometimes too self-aware for his own good; several times, he makes reference to liking something "unironically" - such as "Saved by the Bell." His definitive goal seems to be achieving irony. While this credo certainly makes "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs" a funny read, it can become rather tedious as well. Overall, I'd recommend this book, but with reservations.Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto Overview

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