The dispossessed

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Susanna Wade Martins

"Between 1720 and 1870, the British countryside went through a revolution. Agricultural productivity rose exponentially to meet the demands of a growing, urbanised and industrialised population. The changes, however, were not just economic; both rural society and the rural landscape were also transformed. Much of the countryside we are familiar with today can be dated to this period, especially in areas where arable agriculture predominates." "In all of this farmers were key players. Moving away from economic analysis, and focusing instead on rural society, Susanna Wade Martins tells their story. She explores how new farming landscapes were the outcome of a crucial relationship: between the landlord, who usually provided the capital to implement new methods, and the tenant farmer, who managed the farm. Bound by a greater net of Parliamentary enclosures, the British landscape was made to serve the end of the nation's industrial expansion. 'Planned landscapes' were not, however, uniform, and there is a need to reveal a complex pattern, with 'improvement' in some areas actually contributing to regional distinctiveness." "Drawing on the details of contemporary accounts from Caithness to East Anglia, this book tells the human and environmental story of the Age of Improvement. It is a book for all those interested in landscape history and the social history of Britain in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries."--Jacket.

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[compiled by] Tony Crowley

"For almost a thousand years language has been an important and contentious issue in Ireland. The story of the relations between the English and Irish languages is a complex one full of unexpected alliances, strange accounts of historical origins, and peculiar forms of cultural identity. Above all it reflects the great themes of Irish history: colonial invasion, native resistance, religious and cultural difference.". "Collected here for the first time are texts on the politics of language from the date of the first legislation against Irish, the Statute of Kilkenny of 1366, to the constitution of the Free State in 1922. Crowley's introduction connects these texts to current debates, taking the Belfast Agreement as an example, and illustrates how the language debates continue to have historical resonance today. Divided into six historical sections with detailed introductions, this unique sourcebook includes familiar cultural texts such as Spenser's View of the Present State of Ireland and essays and letters by Yeats and Synge, alongside less familiar writings, from introductions to the first Irish-English and English-Irish dictionaries to the Preface to the New Testament in Irish (1602).". "Providing direct access to original texts, this is an historical resource book which can be used as a case study in the relations between language and cultural identity both in the present and the past."--BOOK JACKET.

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Irene Kiefer

Presents the cases for and against the use of nuclear power, considering its advantages over other forms of energy as well as disadvantages such as the problems of accidents, low-level radiation, and radioactive waste disposal.

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Sanford Levinson

In An Argument Open to All, renowned legal scholar Sanford Levinson takes a novel approach to what is perhaps America's most famous political tract. Rather than concern himself with the authors as historical figures, or how The Federalist helps us understand the original intent of the framers of the Constitution, Levinson examines each essay for the political wisdom it can offer us today. In eighty-five short essays, each keyed to a different essay in The Federalist, he considers such questions as whether present generations can rethink their constitutional arrangements; how much effort we should exert to preserve America's traditional culture; and whether The Federalist's arguments even suggest the desirability of world government.