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Through careful, detailed consideration of a host of primary documents about the young activists who formed the Underground Railroad's underappreciated operational workforce, this book offers fresh insight to the complex question, "Who ended slavery?" Bound for the Future: Child Heroes of the Underground Railroad illuminates the vital contributions of specific, underappreciated child activists within the extremely local circumstances of their daily work. It also provides meaningful context to the actions of these young activists within the much broader social practice of resisting slavery, and offers fresh insight into the complicated question of who was responsible for ending slavery. Through a thorough examination of these subjects, author Jonathan Shectman proves his central thesis: in many specific cases, children were the essential lifeblood of the Underground Railroad's operational workforce. This text will appeal to wide range of readers, including young students, educators, scholars, and anyone seeking a fresh perspective on civil rights, anti-slavery activism, and U.S. history.
The 18th century saw the emergence of the industrial and chemical revolutions and witnessed the near-universal acceptance of applied science. It was a time of revolutionary, lasting transformation for the practice of science and mathematics. Most procedures and precepts of modern science took hold during the 18th century, when scientists first paired scientific research with practical application to astonishing results. In over 60 alphabetical entries, Shectman examines at the tremendous scientific discoveries, inventions, and inquiries of the period. Familiar topics such as the steam engine and hot air balloon are covered, along with lesser-known topics such as the Watt copy press and Newton's experimentum crucis. A thorough discussion of each entry's scientific impact provides readers with an understanding of the lasting social and political importance of these advancements. Narratives enrich the entries by adding context and perspective to the century's fascinating scientific history. Students and researchers will find this reference book easy to use. Included are an appendix of entries listed by scientific field, a glossary of terms, indexes by name and subject.
Designed to reform contemporary British society, Joseph Addison and Richard Steele’s The Tatler (1709-1711) and The Spectator (1711-1712, 1714) rely heavily on the representation of contemporary manners. In shaping such behavioural images, the authors made use of the satirical character sketch. Their character sketches (re)create social interactions between fictionalised representatives of moral types of men and women located in contemporary London. This study examines how Addison and Steele employed the character sketch to create a ‘cosmography’ of (wo)man by actively engaging with the observational approaches of contemporary naturalists. Addison and Steele adapted distinctly empirica...
This “thoroughly researched and sharply opinionated” biography presents a nuanced portrait of the renowned 18th century navigator (The Wall Street Journal). The age of discovery was at its peak in the eighteenth century, with bold adventurers charting the furthest reaches of the globe. Foremost among these explorers was Captain James Cook of the British Royal Navy. Recent writers have viewed Cook through the lens of colonial exploitation, regarding him as a villain. While they raise important issues, many of these critical accounts overlook his major contributions to science, navigation and cartography. In Captain Cook, Frank McLynn re-creates the voyages that took the famous navigator from his native England to the outer reaches of the Pacific Ocean. Although Cook died in a senseless, avoidable conflict with the people of Hawaii, McLynn illustrates that to the men with whom he served, Cook was master of the seas and nothing less than a titan. McLynn reveals Cook's place in history as a brave and brilliant yet tragically flawed man.
With its focus on gender, power, race, sexuality, and violence, Othello is an important site for new critical approaches to the study of Shakespeare's works. Both criticism and culture are represented in this collection of recent essays which provides readers with examples of feminist, new-historicist, cultural materialist, deconstructive, and post-colonial perspectives on Othello. With discussions of recent stage and screen productions, and analysis of the use of the play in such contemporary events as the O.J. Simpson murder trial, this compelling critical volume presents a wide variety of ways of understanding the continuing significance of Shakespeare's play both in his own time and in ours.
In the decades before the Civil War, the small number of slaves who managed to escape bondage almost always made their way northward along the secret routes and safe havens known as the Underground Railroad. Offering a new perspective on this standard narrative, Matthew Clavin recovers the story of fugitive slaves who sought freedom by—paradoxically—sojourning deeper into the American South toward an unlikely destination: the small seaport of Pensacola, Florida. Geographically and culturally, across decades of rule by a succession of powers—Spain, Great Britain, and the United States—Pensacola occupied an isolated position on the margins of antebellum Southern society. Yet as neighbo...
Shakespeare, The Movie brings together an impressive line-up of contributors to consider how Shakespeare has been adapted on film, TV, and video, and explores the impact of this popularization on the canonical status of Shakespeare. Taking a fresh look at the Bard an his place in the movies, Shakespeare, The Movie includes a selection of what is presently available in filmic format to the Shakespeare student or scholar, ranging across BBC television productions, filmed theatre productions, and full screen adaptations by Kenneth Branagh and Franco Zeffirelli. Films discussed include: * Amy Heckerling's Clueless * Gus van Sant's My Own Private Idaho * Branagh's Henry V * Baz Luhrman's William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet * John McTiernan's Last Action Hero * Peter Greenaway's Prospero's Books * Zeffirelli's Hamlet.
"Hodgdon's work should be required reading for anyone concerned with Shakespeare's cultural capital at the end of the twentieth century."—South Atlantic Review