Books published by Rowman & Littlefield

Historical Imagination defends a phenomenological and hermeneutical account of historical knowledge. The book's central questions are what is historical imagination, what is the relation between the imaginative and the empirical, in what sense is historical knowledge always already imaginative, how does such knowledge serve us, and what is the relation of historical understanding and self-understanding? Paul Fairfield revisits some familiar hermeneutical themes and endeavors to develop these further while examining two important periods in which historical reassessments or re-imaginings of the past occurred on a large scale. The conception of historical imagination that emerges seeks to advance beyond the debate between empiricists and postmodern constructivists while focusing on narrative as well as a more encompassing interpretation of who an historical people were, how things stood with them, and how this comes to be known. Fairfield supplements the philosophical argument with an historical examination of how and why during late antiquity, early Christian thinkers began to reimagine their Greek and Roman past, followed by how and why renaissance and later enlightenment figures reimagined their ancient and medieval past.

Amazon is everywhere. In our mailboxes, in delivery vans clogging our streets, in an increasing portion of our air traffic, in our grocery stores, on our televisions, in our smart home devices, and in the infrastructure powering many of the websites we visit. Amazon's tendrils touch the majority of online retail transactions in the United States and in many other countries. As Amazon changes the face of capitalist business, it is also changing global culture in multiple ways. This book brings together some of the most important analyses of Amazon's pioneering business practices and how they intersect with and affect the components of everyday culture. Its contributors examine the political economy of Amazon's platform, making the argument that it operates as an unregulated monopoly that is disruptive to the global economy and that its infrastructure and logistical operations increasingly alienate its workers and wreak many other social harms.Our contributors outline the practices of resistance that have been employed by organizers ranging from Amazon employees to artists to digital piecemeal laborers working on Amazon's Mechanical Turk platform. They examine the broader cultural impact that Amazon has had, looking at things like Amazon Prime and the creation of unending consumption, the absorption of Whole Foods and its brand of 'conscious capitalism,' and the impact of Amazon Studios and Prime Video on everyday film and television viewing practices.This book examines the broader environmental impacts that Amazon is having on the world, looking at the slow violence it incurs, its underwhelming Climate Pledge, and the regional impacts that its business practices have. Lastly, this book gathers together some important artistic responses to Amazon for the first time in an appendix that offers readers insight into other ways in which critics of the company are making their voices heard and attempting to move broader audiences into solidarity against Amazon.

World events have made clear that liberal society must become more resilient in the face of totalitarian challenges. But how is liberal society to do that? In this groundbreaking work, social ethicist Elmar Nass presents the ethical and anthropological foundations of a liberal social order within a Christian conception of humanity and society in an ecumenical spirit. In doing so, Nass revives the long-neglected discussion on the ethics of order.Christian foundations and claims are currently confronted with alternative social-ethical concepts from other religions, traditions, and social philosophies. Nass argues that Christian social ethics has a critical role to play as it engages the world. Nass vividly discusses fundamental and concrete social challenges for human dignity, freedom and justice (such as peace, integrity of creation, euthanasia, family, social justice, digitalization, behavioral economics, and many more) in the light of the threefold Christian responsibility (before God, before oneself, before one another). He articulates ethical orientations derived with clarity from a Christian foundation of values.The Christian social ethics system presented by Nass is a transparent value template that can be applied to ever new challenges in the present and in the future. With this understanding of social responsibility, questions of racism, migration, gender and sexuality, the environment, and public health and pandemics, among many others, can thus be addressed and answered. Nass offers a full-throated and robust Christian position for the value discussions of our time.

The World Today Series: Latin America offers the latest available economic, demographic, political, and cultural information. Including solid statistical data expressing freedom, violence, and governmental orientation. Consideration is given to the evolving relationships with the United States and other Latin American nations. Revisions have also addressed new historical interpretations, for example, of the history of Mexico and latest political changes, for example, in Venezuela and Cuba. Maps, charts, and photographs provide extensive visual expressions of the region, its geography, peoples, and cultures, in particular public architecture, agricultural technology, specular geology, and striking diversity. The images offer a narrative of the multiplicity of peoples as demonstrated in their clothing, economic and everyday activities, their physical surroundings. Consequently, the narrative combines global economics, national politics, and daily social life throughout the region. The chapters can be read as individual histories for each of the countries, within the context created by contrasts and similarities with the other nations of Latin America.

Connecting World Geography to World History Through Storytelling, Eco-feminism, and Mindfulness reaches toward a fresh exploration of the land and water while offering suggestions for content-based social-emotional learning activities that include ethnogeography exercises and mindfulness activities.

This book shows how the Fourth Gospel's language about "the Jews" is profoundly shaped by its scriptural imagination. It is the product of a self-consciously Jewish author who saw himself as living and writing from within the Jewish tradition.

Co-written by a musician and a professor of religion, this book studies progressive rock music's profound engagement with religious themes. It looks closely not only at lyrics but at the music itself, which spans an array of artists and songs from its early days to the present.

An essential tool for parents, seasoned teachers, and other individuals involved in the life of somebody who happens to have mental retardation, this book provides readers with scores of useful resources, including websites, professional organizations, and support groups.

Young academicians are serious scholars and voracious readers who are perennially in search of practical and inspiring advice about their vocation. This title synthesizes and summarizes several conversations with academicians.

Though many books have been written about leadership, all have failed to include the traits of an effective follower until now. In this book, the author offers six habits or behaviors of highly effective followers: purpose, responsibility, communication, flexibility, integrity, and sensitivity.

Leadership Mentioring will help school districts face the task of developing new leaders with greater confidence.

This book will help facilitate successful leadership transition in museums and arts organizations.

Historical Dictionary of Holocaust Cinema, Second Edition contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has more than 175 cross-referenced entries on films, directors, and historical figures. Foreign-language, experimental, and canonical films are included.

This second edition of Big Little Things highlights 50 tools for building better classrooms at all levels.

An inclusive and informative guide to self-acceptance of one's gender and sexual identity, built from collaboration across the political spectrum on best practices to have respectful and affirmative engagement with and about intersectional LGBTQIA+-identified individuals.

An inclusive and informative guide to responding to minority stress with social resilience, assertiveness, and competence, built from collaboration across the political spectrum on best practices to have respectful and affirmative engagement with and about intersectional LGBTQIA+-identified individuals.

A concise, authoritative, and illustrated reference on boat batteries and charging, including general boat plumbing systems, freshwater and saltwater systems, hot water systems, galley plumbing, water makers, bilge pumps, shower (gray) water systems, and sewage (black) water and MSD systems.

Jack Kerouac was one of America's great writers of the latter half of the 20th century, yet he endured a life characterized by persistent hardship and disillusion. Leading Kerouac scholar Paul Maher Jr. targets the writer's embattled insight of self as central to his life and work. He reveals how Kerouac's troubled interactions with alcohol, drugs, and spirituality stamped its importance on his autobiographical prose and poetry and created a singular language that united thoughts on the human condition and spiritual liberation. Becoming Kerouac: A Writer In His Time affixes Kerouac's life and art in a fresh way, giving readers a rich perspective from which to understand this 20th-century literary genius.Using unpublished archival material, Becoming Kerouac focuses on the writer's critical formative years --1940 to 1957-- to demonstrate his growth as a novelist and poet. Maher contends that Kerouac developed his singular language to capture human consciousness as it never had before. His futilities catapulted American literature to reflect its restless post-World War II anxieties. Narrating the events that comprised Kerouac's life, biographers have long struggled to illustrate his complexness and the contradictions that shaped his determinations and dogged his relationships. But without consideration of the writing, the troubles in life fail to reveal their deeper resonances by skillfully analyzing the work while tracing the events. Maher achieves a full portrait, revealing struggles that problematize his work. Becoming Kerouac fuses Kerouac's life and art to comprehend this misunderstood literary genius.

Maurice Hornocker is recognized worldwide as the first scientist to unravel the secrets of America's most enigmatic predator-the mountain lion. This is a gripping account of the never-before-told adventures, challenges, and controversies surrounding his groundbreaking study of cougars in the remote reaches of the Idaho Primitive Area.

A complete guide and source-book brimming with advice on collecting and preparing gems and minerals .

Some of Nevada's more unusual attractions and events include the annual Elko Running from the Bulls, the Virginia City Camel Races, and of course, Route 375--the "Extraterrestrial Highway"--where a number of UFO sightings have been reported. These and many more are found in this offbeat guide to Nevada.

There have been many books on Theodore Roosevelt, but there are none that solely focus on the last years of his life. Racked by rheumatism, a ticking embolism, pathogens in his blood, a bad leg from an accident, and a bullet in his chest from an assassination attempt, in the last two years of his life from April 1917 to January 6, 1919, he went from the great disappointment of being denied his own regiment in World War I, leading a suicide mission of Rough Riders against the Germans, to the devastating news that his son Quentin had been shot down and killed over France. Suffering from grief and guilt, marginalized by world events, the great glow that had been his life was now but a dimming lantern. But TR's final years were productive ones as well: he churned out several "instant" books that promoted U.S. entry into the Great War, and he was making plans for another run at the Presidency in 1920 at the time of his death. Indeed, his political influence was so great that his opposition to the policies of Woodrow Wilson helped the Republican Party take back the Congress in 1918. However, as William Hazelgrove points out in this book, it was Roosevelt's quest for the "vigorous life" that, ironically, may have led to his early demise at the age of sixty. "The Old Lion is dead," TR's son Archie cabled his brother on January 6, 1919, and so, too, ended a historic era in American life and politics.

This book argues that rights complete rather than undermine the ethical and political vision of Alasdair MacIntyre. It does so through bringing MacIntyre into conversation with medieval historians, contemporary theologians, and postcolonial thinkers, demonstrating how his thought can be extended through their insights.