Books published by University of Nebraska Press

The story of what happened at the colonial fortified town of Louisbourg between 1749 and 1758 is one of the great dramas of the history of Canada, indeed North America. This book presents the dramatic military and social history of this short-lived and significant fortress, seaport, and community, and the citizens who made it their home.

As scientists claiming specialized knowledge about indigenous peoples, especially American Indians, anthropologists used expositions to promote their quest for professional status and authority. This title shows how anthropology showcased itself "to show each half of the world how the other half lives".

Crow, a Siouan language spoken on the Crow Reservation in southeastern Montana, remains one of the most vital Native American languages, with several thousand speakers. This work gives a detailed description of the Crow language in a contemporary linguistic framework. It also offers an analysis of the crucial elements of the language.

Much more than a guidebook to writing and revising poems, this manual has all the comforts and merits of an enlightening conversation with a wise, patient friend, one willing to share everything he' s learned about the art he spent a lifetime learning. Ted Kooser offers tools, insights, and instructions (and warnings against instructions). Using examples from his own rich literary oeuvre and from the work of a number of successful contemporary poets, he schools us in the critical relationship between poet and reader, which is fundamental to what he believes is poetry' s ultimate purpose: to reach other people and touch their hearts. An index has been added to this Bison Books edition.

The nineteenth century witnessed the birth of German nationalism and the unification of Germany as a powerful nation-state. This title presents a study of modern Germany's morbid fascination with the war, and shows how the passionate argument over the 'meaning' of the Thirty Years' War shaped the Germans' conception of their nation.

A collection of over five thousand Yoruban proverbs arranged according to theme. It includes an introduction, which provides a framework and description of Yoruba cultural beliefs, the proverbs are arranged by theme into five sections: the good person; the fortunate person; relationships; human nature; rights and responsibilities; and truisms.

A biography of Robert Desnos (1900-1945), which re-evaluates the surrealist movement through the life and works of one of its founders. Desnos was as famous among the surrealists for his independence of mind as for his elaborate "automatic" drawings and his brilliant oral and written performances during the incubational period of the group.

Presents a history of popular religion, race, and gender in colonial Mexico focusing on questions of spiritual and social rebellion and conformity. This work examines more than one hundred trials of "false mystics" whom the Mexican Inquisition prosecuted in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Suggests that readers understand novels primarily by following the functioning of the minds of characters in the novel storyworlds. This work analyzes constructions of characters' minds in the fictional texts of a wide range of authors, from Aphra Behn and Henry Fielding to Evelyn Waugh and Thomas Pynchon.

Examines the ways in which easterners who travelled West during the California gold rush of 1849-51 obtained, assessed, and used information. This book follows several gold rush companies across the country, gleaning from their letters and diaries a sense of how they obtained information and evaluated its constantly changing sources.

Through an analysis of criminal case files, administrative records, and prisoner biographies, this book reconstructs life in the penal colonies and examines how the social sciences, tropical medicine, and sensational journalism evaluated and exploited the inmates' experiences.