Books published by Michigan State University Press

Strains of Dissent recovers the significance of music as a rhetorical means of survival, subversion, and national identity construction and illuminates the creative and cunning ways that individual citizens defied the Occupation outside of formal resistance networks and movements.

Presents a new study of the worldwide African diaspora by bringing together diverse, multidisciplinary scholarship to address the connectedness of Black subject identities, experiences, issues, themes, and topics, applying them dynamically to diverse locations of the Blackworld - Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, and the USA.

Spanning a historical period that begins with women's exclusion from university debates and continues through their participation in coeducational intercollegiate competitions, Debating Women highlights the crucial role that debating organizations played as women sought to access the fruits of higher education in the USA and UK.

Invites readers from a range of contexts to engage with Indigenous YA and convincingly demonstrates the centrality of Indigenous stories, Indigenous knowledge, and Indigenous people to the flourishing of everyone in every place.

One of the few interdisciplinary volumes on Bahia available, Tthis book contains contributions covering a wide chronological and topical range by scholars whose work has made important contributions to the field of Bahian studies over the last two decades.

Examines crucial moments in the rhetoric of the Cold War, beginning with an exploration of American neutrality and the debate over entering World War II.

The contributors to this volume examine the state of the existing transboundary relationship between Canada and the United States, including the governance structures and processes, the environmental impacts and adequacy of these structures and processes, and the opportunities and obstacles that exist for reform and improved outcomes.

Focusing on Baldwin's six novels, along with essays, stories, and drama, this book shows that his novels use biblical ideas in partly - but not fully - secularized ways to express the possible human attainment of a new life embodying a real but undefinable holiness.

Explores the bridge between the physical and the human - a bridge essentially designed by scholastic theory, clarified by mimetic theory, and built by quantum theory - and the path it opens to that metaphysical understanding for which philosophers of modern science have been striving.

Drawing on interviews with Girard and his colleagues, Evolution of Desire: A Life of Rene Girard provides an essential introduction to one of the twentieth century's most controversial and original minds.

An account of Paolo Diego Bubbio's twenty-year intellectual journey through the twists and turns of Rene Girard's mimetic theory.

The first reference book to introduce the concept and development of service-learning in China, providing a full picture of the infusion of service-learning into the Chinese educational system and describes this new teaching experience using case studies, empirical data, and educational and institutional policies within Chinese context.

Uses a set of letters sent to Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935 by American clergymen to make a larger argument about the rhetorical processes of our national politics. Taking one specific moment of political change, the author illuminates the larger processes of change, competition, and stability in national politics.

Explores the professional and intellectual tensions of curricula, pedagogies, and personal practices that honour the relationships of interspecies ecologies, reinhabit and reconceive wounded landscapes and wounding institutions, and allow us to reattune ourselves to new yet ancient frameworks for sustainability.

Offers a diverse array of innovative teaching and research strategies from engaged universities - from Australia, Egypt, Malaysia, Mexico, Scotland, South Africa, and the United States - that demonstrates how learning by doing elevates students' consciousness and develops their civic capabilities.

How do humans stop fighting? Where do the gods of myth come from? What does it mean to go mad? Mark R. Anspach tackles these and other conundrums as he draws on ethnography, literature, psychotherapy, and the theory of Rene Girard to explore some of the fundamental mechanisms of human interaction. Likening gift exchange to vengeance in reverse, the first part of the book outlines a fresh approach to reciprocity, while the second part traces the emergence of transcendence in collective myths and individual delusions. From the peacemaking rituals of prestate societies to the paradoxical structure of consciousness, Anspach takes the reader on an intellectual journey that begins with the problem of how to deceive violence and ends with the riddle of how one can deceive oneself.

Michigan is the only state in the country that has a death penalty prohibition in its constitution-Eugene G. Wanger's compelling arguments against capital punishment is a large reason it is there. The forty pieces in this volume are writings created or used by the author, who penned the prohibition clause, during his fifty years as a death penalty abolitionist. His extraordinary background in forensics, law, and political activity as constitutional convention delegate and co-chairman of the Michigan Committee Against Capital Punishment has produced a remarkable collection. It is not only a fifty-year history of the anti-death penalty argument in America, it also is a detailed and challenging example of how the argument against capital punishment may be successfully made.

A thematic analysis of the career of Bronterre O'Brien, one of the most influential leaders of Chartism, this book relates his activities-and the Chartist movement-to broader themes in the history of Britain, Europe, and America during the nineteenth century. O'Brien (1804-64) came to be known as the "e;schoolmaster"e; of Chartism because of his efforts to describe and explain its intellectual foundations. The campaign for the People's Charter (with its promise of political democratization) was a highpoint in O'Brien's career as writer and orator, but he was already well known before the campaign began, and during the 1840s he distanced himself from other Chartist leaders and from several important Chartist initiatives. This book examines the personal, tactical, and ideological reasons for O'Brien's departure, as well as his development of a social and economic agenda to accompany "e;constitutional"e; Chartism, in line with the evolution of radical thought after the Great Reform Act of 1832. It also evaluates O'Brien's reputation, among his contemporaries and among modern historians, in order better to understand his contribution to radicalism in Britain and beyond.

Brazilian-African Diaspora in Ghana is a fresh approach, challenging both pre-existing and established notions of the African Diaspora by engaging new regions, conceptualizations, and articulations that move the field forward. This book examines the untold story of freed slaves from Brazil who thrived socially, culturally, and economically despite the challenges they encountered after they settled in Ghana. Kwame Essien goes beyond the one-dimensional approach that only focuses on British abolitionists' funding of freed slaves' resettlements in Africa. The new interpretation of reverse migrations examines the paradox of freedom in discussing how emancipated Brazilian-Africans came under threat from British colonial officials who introduced stringent land ordinances that deprived the freed Brazilian- Africans from owning land, particularly "e;Brazilian land."e; Essien considers anew contention between the returnees and other entities that were simultaneously vying for control over social, political, commercial, and religious spaces in Accra and tackles the fluidity of memory and how it continues to shape Ghana's history. The ongoing search for lost connections with the support of the Brazilian government-inspiring multiple generations of Tabom (offspring of the returnees) to travel across the Atlantic and back, especially in the last decade-illustrates the unending nature of the transatlantic diaspora journey and its impacts.

Although women alone have the ability to bring children into the world, modern Western thought tends to discount this female prerogative. In Giving Life, Giving Death, Lucien Scubla argues that structural anthropology sees women as objects of exchange that facilitate alliance-building rather than as vectors of continuity between generations. Examining the work of Levi-Strauss, Freud, and Girard, as well as ethnographic and clinical data, Giving Life, Giving Death seeks to explain why, in constructing their master theories, our greatest thinkers have consistently marginalized the cultural and biological fact of maternity. In the spirit of Freud's Totem and Taboo, Scubla constructs an anthropology that posits a common source for family and religion. His wide-ranging study explores how rituals unite violence and the sacred and intertwine the giving of death and the giving of life.

Enigmas of Sacrifice: A Critique of Joseph M. Plunkett and the Dublin Insurrection of 1916 is the first critical study of the religious poet and militarist Joseph M. Plunkett, who was executed with the other leaders of the Dublin insurrection of 1916. Through Plunkett the author gains access to areas of nationalist thought that were more often assumed or repressed than publicly formulated.In this eye-opening book, W. J. Mc Cormack explores and analyzes Plunkett's brief life, work, and influence, beginning with his wealthy but dysfunctional family, irregular Jesuit education, and self-canceling sexuality. Mc Cormack continues through Plunkett's active phase when amateur theatricals and a magazine editorship brought him into the emergent neonationalist discourse of early twentieth-century Ireland. Finally, the author arrives at Holy Week 1916, when Plunkett masterminded the forgery of official documentation in order to provoke and justify the insurrection he planned. Mc Cormack analyzes Plunkett's significant texts and provides context through critical perspectives on his milieu. Enigmas of Sacrifice is unique in its effort to understand a major figure of Irish nationalism in terms that reach beyond political identity.

The discovery of mirror neurons in the 1990s led to an explosion of research and debate about the imitative capacities of the human brain. Some herald a paradigm shift on the order of DNA in biology, while others remain skeptical. In this revolutionary volume Jean- Michel Oughourlian shows how the hypotheses of Rene Girard can be combined with the insights of neuroscientists to shed new light on the "e;mimetic brain."e;Offering up clinical studies and a complete reevaluation of classical psychiatry, Oughourlian explores the interaction among reason, emotions, and imitation and reveals that rivalry-the blind spot in contemporary neuroscientific understandings of imitation-is a misunderstood driving force behind mental illness. Oughourlian's analyses shake the very foundations of psychiatry as we know it and open up new avenues for both theoretical research and clinical practice.

The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians has been a part of Chicago since its founding. In very public expressions of indigeneity, they have refused to hide in plain sight or assimilate. Instead, throughout the city's history, the Pokagon Potawatomi Indians have openly and aggressively expressed their refusal to be marginalized or forgotten-and in doing so, they have contributed to the fabric and history of the city.Imprints: The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians and the City of Chicago examines the ways some Pokagon Potawatomi tribal members have maintained a distinct Native identity, their rejection of assimilation into the mainstream, and their desire for inclusion in the larger contemporary society without forfeiting their "e;Indianness."e; Mindful that contact is never a one-way street, Low also examines the ways in which experiences in Chicago have influenced the Pokagon Potawatomi. Imprints continues the recent scholarship on the urban Indian experience before as well as after World War II.

Yam in West Africa examines a crop that has been sidelined and ignored for too long while being central to the existence of so many and consumed worldwide. In this book, Felix Nweke attempts to unravel the contradictory nature of the yam crop sector in West Africa by looking at the largest issues in the problematic industry.Yam production is concentrated in West Africa, which is responsible for more than 90 percent of the 50 million tons produced annually around the globe. Though the crop can attract high prices, too often its producers live in penury. Regional issues drive up labor costs of food crops because of dependence on obsolete technology. In addition, certain agronomic practices that are peculiar to yam production remain unchanged, and pests and diseases still ravage the crop. Yam in West Africa investigates solutions to these problems with the aim of expanding yam production, increasing sales, helping farmers, and bringing more of this staple food to those who need it. The future of the yam is bright; this book aims to make it more so.

This book is a response to Friedrich Nietzsche's provocative question: How much and how does ressentiment condition our daily life? During the twentieth century we witnessed veritable eruptions of this insidious emotion, and we are still witnesses of its proliferation at various levels of society. This book aims to explore, according to Rene Girard's mimetic theory, the anthropological and social assumptions that make up ressentiment and to investigate its genesis. The analysis of ressentiment shows that this emotion evolves from mimetic desire: it is an affective experience that people have when a rival denies them opportunities or valuable resources (including status) that they consider to be socially accessible. It is a specific figure of mimetic desire that is typical of contemporary society, where the equality that is proclaimed at the level of values contrasts with striking inequalities of power and access to material resources. This dichotomy generates increasing tension between highly competitive and egalitarian mimetic desires and growing social inequalities. The ressentiment is ambiguous, and its ambiguity is that of mimetic desire itself, which we cannot dismiss from our lives. In that it provides occasions of conflict and baseness, ressentiment can fuel violence, discord, and injustice, but it also can open opportunities for growth and justice, and for inventing institutions that are better adapted to the transformations of our contemporary society.

In 1755 the city of Lisbon was destroyed by a terrible earthquake. Almost 250 years later, an earthquake beneath the Indian Ocean unleashed a tsunami whose devastating effects were felt over a vast area. In each case, a natural catastrophe came to be interpreted as a consequence of human evil. Between these two events, two indisputably moral catastrophes occurred: Auschwitz and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And yet the nuclear holocaust survivors likened the horror they had suffered to a natural disaster-a tsunami.Jean-Pierre Dupuy asks whether, from Lisbon to Sumatra, mankind has really learned nothing about evil. When moral crimes are unbearably great, he argues, our ability to judge evil is gravely impaired, and the temptation to regard human atrocity as an attack on the natural order of the world becomes irresistible. This impulse also suggests a kind of metaphysical ruse that makes it possible to convert evil into fate, only a fate that human beings may choose to avoid. Postponing an apocalyptic future will depend on embracing this paradox and regarding the future itself in a radically new way.The American edition of Dupuy's classic essay, first published in 2005, also includes a postscript on the 2011 nuclear accident that occurred in Japan, again as the result of a tsunami.

This book offers an alternative explanation for one of the core dilemmas of Brazilian literary criticism: the "e;midlife crisis"e; Machado de Assis underwent from 1878 to 1880, the result of which was the writing of The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas, as well as the remarkable production of his mature years-with an emphasis on his masterpiece, Dom Casmurro.At the center of this alternative explanation, Castro Rocha situates the fallout from the success enjoyed by Ea de Queirs with the publication of Cousin Baslio and Machado's two long texts condemning the author and his work. Literary and aesthetic rivalries come to the fore, allowing for a new theoretical framework based on a literary appropriation of "e;thick description,"e; the method proposed by anthropologist Clifford Geertz. From this method, Castro Rocha derives his key hypothesis: an unforeseen consequence of Machado's reaction to Ea's novel was a return to the classical notion of aemulatio, which led Machado to develop a "e;poetics of emulation."e;

Genuinely talented and successful managers in any field-business, government, military, academia-are scarce. John Howard Burdakin was a happy exception to the norm. This engaging biography examines Burdakin's life in the railroad industry-at Pennsylvania Railroad, Penn Central, and finally at Grand Trunk Corporation-during a tumultuous time in the transportation business and underscores his core principles and how he employed them in the management of people and property. Some contemporary observers may consider Burdakin's often conservative style as quite out of date, but a more sober assessment reveals that his approach has utility in any time and in any field. An excellent resource for leadership professionals, this study focuses on Burdakin's career in management, ever stressing his foundational convictions-how he came by them, how he employed those principles as a manager, and how they were understood by those who worked for him or with him. Through teamwork, trust, hard work, honesty, diligence, and integrity, Burdakin would become respected as one of the railroad industry's brightest guiding lights.

Every day, millions of people around the world sit down to a meal that includes meat. This book explores several questions as it examines the use of animals as food: How did the domestication and production of livestock animals emerge and why? How did current modes of raising and slaughtering animals for human consumption develop, and what are their consequences? What can be done to mitigate and even reverse the impacts of animal production? With insight into the historical, cultural, political, legal, and economic processes that shape our use of animals as food, Fitzgerald provides a holistic picture and explicates the connections in the supply chain that are obscured in the current mode of food production. Bridging the distance in animal agriculture between production, processing, consumption, and their associated impacts, this analysis envisions ways of redressing the negative effects of the use of animals as food. It details how consumption levels and practices have changed as the relationship between production, processing, and consumption has shifted. Due to the wide-ranging questions addressed in this book, the author draws on many fields of inquiry, including sociology, (critical) animal studies, history, economics, law, political science, anthropology, criminology, environmental science, geography, philosophy, and animal science.

Provides a forum to reassess the theoretical and hermeneutical reach of key issues brought forward by Girard's book, Deceit, Desire, and the Novel, including literary knowledge, realism and representation, imitation and the anxiety of influence, metaphysical desire, deviated transcendence, literature and religious experience, individualism and modernity, and death and resurrection.