A Companion to American Foreign Relations is an authoritative volume of historiographical essays that survey the state of U.S. diplomatic history. The essays cover the entire range of the history of American foreign relations from the colonial period to the present. They discuss the major sources and analyze the most influential books and articles in the field. The contributors -- eminent scholars and experts in their subject matter--delve deeply into the literature and integrate discussions of new methodological approaches with more traditional diplomatic history.
The Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers includes both academic and non-academic philosophers, and a large number of female and minority thinkers whose work has been neglected. It includes those intellectuals involved in the development of psychology, pedagogy, sociology, anthropology, education, theology, political science, and several other fields, before these disciplines came to be considered distinct from philosophy in the late nineteenth century. Each entry contains a short biography of the writer, an exposition and analysis of his or her doctrines and ideas, a bibliography of writings, and suggestions for further reading. While all the major post-Civil War philosophers are present, the most valuable feature of this dictionary is its coverage of a huge range of less well-known writers, including hundreds of presently obscure thinkers. In many cases, the Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers offers the first scholarly treatment of the life and work.
A Companion to Asian American Studies is comprised of 20 previously published essays that have played an important historical role in the conceptualization of Asian American studies as a field.
- Essays are drawn from international publications, from the 1970s to the present - Includes coverage of psychology, history, literature, feminism, sexuality, identity politics, cyberspace, pop culture, queerness, hybridity, and diasporic consciousness
Julia Alvarez made her mark on the American literary horizon with the 1991 publication of her debut novel How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, a story based on her own family's bicultural experiences. Readers and critics alike quickly discovered the writer's penchant for extracting humor from hardship, and weaving personal history into vivid prose. Within a decade, Alvarez had published three more highly acclaimed novels, including !Yo! (1997), a delightful sequel to her first novel. This Critical Companion introduces readers to the life and works of Dominican American writer Alvarez and examines the thematic and cultural concerns that run through her novels.
By the time European conquistadores and colonizers arrived in the Americas, starting in 1492, American Indians had already invented sophisticated hunting and fishing technology. They gathered hundreds of plants for food, fiber, and medicine, and first domesticated three-quarters of the food crops raised in the world today. Food, Farming, and Hunting covers the many contributions that American Indians have made throughout history, including the various tools used in hunting, such as bolas, bows and arrows, and camouflage, and the different methods of fishing for each culture. The volume identifies the many foods North American, Mesoamerican, and South American Indians gathered, discusses the birth of agriculture in the Americas, and describes the plants that were eventually domesticated and farmed. Later developments and improvements in farming, such as irrigation and the use of fertilizer, are also covered.