Originating in 1795, the term Caucasian identifies both the peoples of the Caucasus Mountains region as well as those thought to be Caucasian. The author explores the history of the term and the category of the Caucasian race more broadly in light of the changing politics of racial theory and notions of racial identity.
We do not understand music--it understands us. This aphorism by Theodor W. Adorno expresses the quandary and the fascination many listeners have felt in approaching Beethoven's late quartets. No group of compositions occupies a more central position in chamber music, yet the meaning of these works continues to stimulate debate. William Kinderman's ......
Within the social sciences, few matters are as significant as the study of human play--or as neglected. In Play Reconsidered, rather than viewing play simply as a preoccupation of the young and a vehicle for skill development, Thomas S. Henricks argues that it's a social and cultural phenomenon of adult life, enveloped by wider structures and ......
Awarded the ASCAP Deems Taylor Special Recognition Award (2007).During the great upheavals in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Europe was divided over ideas about religion, science, education, economy, and government. The Church fought the Reformation, scholars formed into competing universities, and trade became increasingly ......
No longer willing to accept naval blockades, the impressment of American seamen, and seizures of American ships and cargos, the United States declared war on Great Britain. The aim was to frighten Britain into concessions and, if that failed, to bring the war to a swift conclusion with a quick strike at Canada. But the British refused to cave in ......
John Dygon was the prior of St. Augustine's monastery in Canterbury when Henry VIII boldly dissolved the English Catholic Church during the 1530s and reorganized it under royal control. Only a single copy of Dygon's treatises on music theory has survived, held by Trinity College, Cambridge. This volume is the first publication of the two ......
Irish Catholic Nuns and the Origins of New York's Welfare System, 1830-1920
Habits of Compassion is a study of Irish-Catholic Sisters' tremendously successful work in founding charitable organizations in New York City from the famine through the early 20th century. Maureen Fitzgerald argues that it was these nuns' championing of the rights of the poor--especially poor women--that resulted in an explosion of ......
Figure skating, unique in its sublimely beautiful combination of technical precision, musicality, and interpretive elements, has undergone many dramatic developments since the only previous history of the sport was published in 1959. This exciting and information-packed new history explains skating's many technical and artistic advances, its ......
''The fact is that The Welcome is full of pleasures, both linguistic and ideational. There's a philosophical intelligence behind it, one that will rarely allow itself the sobrieties of the philosophical. . . . David Friedman blends surreal hijinks with gestures toward the serious, At their best, an original voice guides a distinctive sensibility ......
