by Barbara Miller Solomon (1989)
An outgrowth of a doctoral thesis entitled "New England pride and prejudice: a study in the origins of immigration restrictions." Bibliographical refernences included.
Richard Howells
"Why does the story of the Titanic retain such a hold on the popular imagination, one hundred years after it sank on the night of 15 April 1912? Howells explores the myths around the Titanic legend, showing what they reveal about the culture of their time, as well as the role that myth still plays in our lives today"--
M.J. Morgan
Drawing on research from a variety of academic fields, such as archaeology, history, botany, ecology, and physical science, M. J. Morgan explores the intersection of people and the environment in early eighteenth-century Illinois Country?a stretch of fecund, alluvial river plain along the Mississippi river. Arguing against the traditional narrative that describes Illinois as an untouched wilderness until the influx of American settlers, Morgan illustrates how the story began much earlier. She focuses her study on early French and Indian communities, and later on the British, nestled within the tripartite environment of floodplain, riverine cliffs and bluffs, and open, upland till plain/prairie and examines the impact of these diverse groups of people on the ecological landscape. By placing human lives within the natural setting of the period?the abundant streams and creeks, the prairies, plants and wildlife?she traces the environmental change that unfolded across almost a century.^ She describes how it was a land in motion; how the occupying peoples used, extracted, and extirpated its resources while simultaneously introducing new species; and how the flux and flow of life mirrored the movement of the rivers. Morgan emphasizes the importance of population sequences, the relationship between the aboriginals and the Europeans, the shared use of resources, and the effects of each on the habitat. Land of Big Rivers is a unique, many-themed account of the big-picture ecological change that occurred during the early history of the Illinois Country. It is the first book to consider the environmental aspects of the Illinois Indian experience and to reconsider the role of the French and British in environmental change in the mid-Mississippi Valley.^ It engagingly recreates presettlement Illinois with a remarkable interdisciplinary approach and provides new details that will encourage understanding of the interaction between physical geography and the plants, animals, and people in the Illinois Country. Furthermore, it exhibits the importance of looking at the past in the context of environmental transformation, which is especially relevant in light of today?s global climate change.
David Anderson
The Spanish Armada is one of the most exciting events in European history. Yet much of the story has been obscured by myth and propaganda. This book separates truth from myth. It tells the full story of the campaign and also provides absorbing detail on contemporary ship design, navigation and life at sea. It examines the recent findings on Armada wrecks and explains how these are changing our views of the conflict. David Anderson, Education Officer at the National Maritime Museum, has prepared a book which includes the latest research and is one of the fullest accounts yet of this spectacular enterprise.
John Minniss
"In this ... book, John Minnis reveals the loss. From the most cavernous engine shed like Old Oak Common to the most eccentric gimcrack country halt like those in Tollesbury's light railway with a tumbvledown carriage body for a waiting room; from a magnificent station setting like Symonds Yat to the remarkable Meccano-like gantries of the Liverpool Overhead Railway or the robust Gothic of the Midland Railway's architecture, here is a pictorial surbey of our lost railway heritage. ..."--Book jacket.