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Building is a system of energy and environment, which needs to accommodate diverse needs and demands at individual and societal levels. Nearly 40% of global energy use derives from construction. In fact, a house consumes a significant amount of energy before and after occupancy, and the associated CO2 emissions are contributing to climate change. Prefabrication is a means to mass-produce buildings or parts and components. Thus, in theory, production costs can be reduced through economies of scale. In the 1920s, the significance of mass-produced houses was widely propagated by Le Corbusier who saw standardization as fundamental to mass production. Nonetheless, today, in response to growing gl...
By legislative decree, the planned community of Belleville began in 1814 as the new county seat on the site of George Blair's farm, in proximity to no major crossroads or rivers. This book chronicles Belleville's remarkable--if not phenomenal--rise to become the "Capitol of Southern Illinois," a feat celebrated to no small degree by proud residents on the occasion of Belleville's centennial celebration. Much of what contributed to Belleville's 19th-century rise to prominence in politics and its economic growth in agribusiness, mining, banking, manufacturing, and retail sectors are illustrated here. This collection of photographs shows some of the many reasons why modern-day Bellevillian's retain pride in the city's history and continue their efforts to preserve it.
It’s official: the zombie apocalypse is here. The living dead have been lurking in popular culture since the 1930s, but they have never been as ubiquitous or as widely-embraced as they are today. Zombie Cinema is a lively and accessible introduction to this massively popular genre. Presenting a historical overview of zombie appearances in cinema and on television, Ian Olney also considers why, more than any other horror movie monster, zombies have captured the imagination of twenty-first-century audiences. Surveying the landmarks of zombie film and TV, from White Zombie to The Walking Dead, the book also offers unique insight into why zombies have gone global, spreading well beyond the borders of American and European cinema to turn up in films from countries as far-flung as Cuba, India, Japan, New Zealand, and Nigeria. Both fun and thought-provoking, Zombie Cinema will give readers a new perspective on our ravenous hunger for the living dead.
Rethinking Postmodernism(s) revisits three historical sites of American literary postmodernism: the early postmodernism of Thomas Pynchon's V. (1961), the emancipatory postmodernism of Toni Morrison's Beloved (1987), and the late or post-postmodernism of Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything Is Illuminated (2002). For the first time, it confronts these texts with the pragmatist philosophy of Charles Sanders Peirce, staging a conceptual dialogue between pragmatism and postmodernism that historicizes and recontextualizes customary readings of postmodern fiction. The book is a must-read for all interested in current reassessments of literary postmodernism, in new critical dialogues between seminal postmodern texts, and in recent attempts to theorize the 'post-postmodern' moment.
This book examines the figure of the sleeper agent as part of post-9/11 political, journalistic and fictional discourse. There is a tendency to discuss the terroristic threat after 9/11 as either a faraway enemy to be hunted down by military force or, on the other hand, as a ubiquitous, intangible threat that required constant alertness at home. The missing link between these two is the sleeper agent – the foreign enemy hiding among US citizens. By analyzing popular television shows, several US comic books, and a broad variety of Hollywood films that depict sleeper agents direct or allegorically, this book explores how a shift in perspective—from terrorist to sleeper agent—brings new insights into our understanding of post-9/11 representations of terrorism. The book’s interdisciplinary focus between media studies, cultural studies, and American studies, suggests that it will find an audience in a variety of fields, including historical research, narratology, popular culture, as well as media and terrorism studies.
Outbreak narratives have proliferated for the past quarter century, and now they have reached epidemic proportions. From 28 Days Later to 24 to The Walking Dead, movies, TV shows, and books are filled with zombie viruses, bioengineered plagues, and disease-ravaged bands of survivors. Even news reports indulge in thrilling scenarios about potential global pandemics like SARS and Ebola. Why have outbreak narratives infected our public discourse, and how have they affected the way Americans view the world? In Going Viral, Dahlia Schweitzer probes outbreak narratives in film, television, and a variety of other media, putting them in conversation with rhetoric from government authorities and news...
For military cartoonists the absurdity of war inspires a laugh-or-cry response and provides an endless source of un-funny amusement. Cartoons by hundreds of artists-at-arms from more than a dozen countries and spanning two centuries are included in this study--the first to consider such a broad range of military comics. War and military life are examined through the inside jokes of the men and women who served. The author analyzes themes of culture, hierarchy, enemies and allies, geography, sexuality, combat, and civilian relations and describes how comics function within a community. A number of artists included were known for their work with Disney, Marvel Comics, the New Yorker and Madison Avenue but many lesser known artists are recognized.
Emerging from darkness, daring to take form and become something more than the Other, monsters stalk these pages, shifting form in true monstrous fashion as they inhabit literature and film, history and parallel communities modelled after our own. They become enmeshed in popular music, run rampant through cities, take androgynous form to rally for their own identities, their own futures, and their own families, and they hold up mirrors while we are caught shattering our sense of Self. Both the past and the future are rich fodder for the evil that monsters do, and from freak show to homunculus to serial killer to cyborg, they remind us that they are never far from sight - and that we cannot look away even if we wish to. Monstrosity from the Inside Out takes as the paradox that monsters are simultaneously impossible and very much a part of what it means to be human.
New Perspectives on the War Film addresses the gap in the representation of many forgotten faces of war in mainstream movies and global mass media. The authors concentrate on the untold narratives of those who fought in combat and were affected by its brutal consequences. Chapters discuss the historically under-represented stories of individuals including women, African-American and Indigenous Soldiers. Issues of homosexuality and gender relations in the military, colonial subjects and child soldiers, as well as the changing nature of war via terrorism and bioterrorism are closely analyzed. The contributors demonstrate how these viewpoints have been consistently ignored in mainstream, blockbuster war sagas and strive to re-integrate these lost perspectives into current and future narratives.
"Richard W. Rubright addresses the limits and constraints of technology in enhancing American military capability. Analyzing the confines and self-imposed restrictions on the use of technology as well as current military doctrine, he develops a new rubric for guiding the military in modern warfare... This book is the first to address the role of technology in counterinsurgency operations within operational, tactical and strategic contexts"--Dust jacket.