Throughout human history, civilizations have stratified their citizens, often by establishing royal, priestly, executive, or warrior castes. Many who have achieved elite-level power joined their civilizations' premier organizations not through birthright or sociopolitical attainment, but rather by completing codified rites of passage that demonstrated their exceptional physical, spiritual, or psychological capabilities, and their deep commitment to their cultures.Crucibles: His...

An exploration of the initiation rituals of fourteen elite groups, both historical and contemporary, providing a roadmap for modern organizations to better themselves by implementing and managing their own rigorous portal processes.Throughout human history, civilizations have stratified their citizens, often by establishing royal, priestly, executive, or warrior castes. Many who have achieved elite-level power joined their civilizations’ premier organizations not t...

This is a book about monsters.Monsters who love us. Monsters who hate us. The monsters we nurture, and the monsters we become. They may be imperceptibly small or unimaginably vast, completely devoid of thought or filled with incomprehensible rage and hunger, but regardless of scale or motivation, they cannot be ignored.On these pages, you will meet an artist who plays with the geometry of madness, a child who refuses to accept the rules of loss, and a mind unravelled by the...

The citizens of the United States generally oppose new energy developments, yet the public does not want to go without cheap, plentiful energy. This book explores the intricate relationship between public opinion and energy issues. Using the state of California as a model, the author addresses such questions as, What roles do ideology and other values play in influencing opinions on energy issues? How much does the public understand about energy issues? Who favors further oil development o...

Three months before his death, Joseph Smith established the Council of Fifty, a confidential group that he believed would protect the Latter-day Saints in their political rights and one day serve as the government of the kingdom of God. The Council of Fifty operated under the leadership of Joseph Smith and then Brigham Young, playing a key role in Joseph Smith's presidential campaign and in preparing for the Mormon exodus to the West. The council's minutes had never been available until th...

Energy crises, which amount to painful combinations of energy shortages and soaring prices, have struck the United States several times in recent decades. Each time they have resulted in political and economic shockwaves because, when gasoline becomes more expensive, the American public tends to react with anger and suspicion. Energy crises instantly put related issues at the top of the nation's agenda, sometimes with dramatic consequences for public policy. What can we learn from recent h...

Over the past twenty years, more than 12,000 pages of scholarly research on Joseph Smith have been published as part of the Joseph Smith Papers, with thousands more being prepared right now. These pages are filled with insights into Joseph, but most have not yet been shared in a way that makes the accessible to a broader audience. This collection of short essays will help close this gap and bring insights into Joseph to Latter-day saints, both those who are struggling with questions about ...

No matter the content area, evidence-based grading puts student growth at the heart of the classroom. Designed for teachers and administrators of grades 6-12, Proficiency-Based Grading in the Content Areas details a five-step approach for implementing evidence-based grading and maintaining its effectiveness over time. This book equips any educator -- from technical to fine arts -- with the tools and support to make this important shift.Use proficiency-based grading...

The twelfth volume in the Documents series, to be published in April 2021, features ninety-six documents including Joseph Smith's correspondence, accounts of his discourses, and his last major written revelation. The volume also features a representative selection of his more routine documents such as deeds, ecclesiastical authorizations, and financial and legal records.

The eleventh volume of the Documents series contains personal correspondence, financial and legal documents, sermon accounts, and other documents from September 1842 through February 1843. These texts show Joseph Smith eluding arrest and extradition to Missouri while endeavoring to honor his many ecclesiastical and civic responsibilities in Nauvoo, Illinois. Key documents include letters Joseph Smith wrote to the Latter-day Saints instructing them on the practice of baptism for the dead, d...

The compilation Fortunes Stabilnes, the English poetry Charles d'Orléans wrote in the course of his twenty-five year captivity in England after Agincourt, requires a larger lens than that of Chaucerianism, through which ithas most often been viewed. A fresh view from another perspective, one that attends to form and style, as well as to the poet's French traditions, reveals a more conceptually complex and innovative kind of poetry than we have seenuntil now.The essays colle...

For seventeen years, Ty Mattson never knew if his father survived the Mexican War. But when he receives news that his father is alive--and he's joined the Confederate forces of General John Morgan--Ty leaves home to enlist with Morgan's Raiders.Owen Mattson turns out to be everything Ty imagined he would be: a good man, a true mentor, a great soldier. But a Confederate assassin's bullets nearly divide father and son yet again.From the blood-soaked chaos of Morgan's devastat...