A witty history of the state that's always in the news, for everything from alligator attacks to zany crimes.There's an old clip of Bugs Bunny sawing the entire state of Florida off the continent—and every single time a news story springs up about some shenanigans in Florida, someone on the internet posts it in response. Why are we so ready to wave goodbye to the Sunshine State? In A Florida State of Mind: An Unnatural History of Our Weirdest State, James ...

There are approximately 200 nations on Earth and the social sciences are being practiced in each one, yet too little of this global enterprise is known to Western, particularly American, social scientists. Drawing upon five years of experience as editor-in-chief of a major international encyclopedia of the social and behavioral sciences, James D. Wright provides social scientists a representative sampling of the work of their international colleagues.The volume includes investigati...

Elevated homocysteine is a powerful, independent risk factor in more than 100 major medical conditions, including heart disease, strokes, and Alzheimer's disease. The authors discuss factors that contribute to high homocysteine, tell how to detect it if it's too high, and explain how to dramatically lower it.

National service and volunteerism enjoy a rich history in the United States and an emergent future in other parts of the world. However, there remains relatively scant evidence of overall impact of national service programs and volunteer effectiveness. This condition continues to threaten national service and volunteer programs with the risk of defunding and/or the risk of not investing sufficiently from the start. This book brings together a selection of diverse chapters written by a comb...

These new poems by the author of Saint Judas and The Green Wall embody a sharp break with his earlier work. Their impact is well described by the British critic Michael Hamburger: "He has absorbed the work of modern Spanish and other continental poets and evolved a medium of his own. This medium dispenses with argument and rhetoric, and presents the pure substance of poetry, images which are 'the objective correlatives' of emotion and feeling. It is only in the new collection that Wright h...

At the heart of the story of America's wars are our "citizen soldiers" -- those hometown heroes who fought and sacrificed from Bunker Hill at Charlestown to Pointe du Hoc in Normandy, and beyond, without expectation of recognition or recompense. Americans like to think that the service of its citizen volunteers is, and always has been, of momentous importance in our politics and society. But though this has made for good storytelling, the reality of America's relationship to its veterans i...

Aiesha is a mysterious woman with a son and an even more mysterious past. She belongs to a group that lays claim to Eric once he turns eighteen. This group's leader, the larger-than-life Chief Arthur, is as charismatic as he is evil. Aiesha has scores to settle with a number of people in her past. To do this, she must disappear for a while, so that she can return ready for revenge.

The Key to (Almost) Everything is an engaging, contemporary and concise approach to sociology written for adults, students and just about anybody who could profit from knowing about the discipline of sociology. It is expertly written by an author drawing on 40 years of teaching on the fundamental social structures and processes characteristic of human societies. Each of the book’s chapters is modeled on the courses found in the sociology curriculum. These chapters are not course or lecture...

Is the consciousness of Americans in the midst of dramatic transformation? Or do people think and feel much the same as they have always thought and felt? Do most people enjoy their work, or hate it? Is the American family being replaced by new institutional forms, or is it much the same as it was in the 1950's? Have material values been replaced by a "postmaterial consciousness" in a postindustrial society? Are Americans becoming more conservative, less conservative, or staying about the ...

Exploration of a fascinating saltmarsh plant - said to be packed in nutrients - that is of particular value in the kitchen but potentially also in healthcare. Samphire was a favourite in the diet of George Washington and it was also served at the banquet that followed the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana. It is freely available in many estuarial locations around the world, and there have been various initiatives to grow it commercially in area of desert in Saudia Arabia and elsewhe...

Richard Meinertzhagen was the most dynamic ornithologist of his generation - as an observer of birds, as a researcher and as an author of books and papers for specialist journals.He was not a trained scientist. Constant pleas to his father to send him to study Zoology were in vain.After a brief unfulfilling stint as a clerk for the family-owned bank, he joined the Army and enjoyed an impressive career, rising to the rank of Colonel.His travels as a soldier, and late...

The Vietnam War is largely recalled as a mistake, either in the decision to engage there or in the nature of the engagement. Or both. Veterans of the war remain largely anonymous figures, accomplices in the mistake. Critically recounting the steps that led to the war, this book does not excuse the mistakes, but it brings those who served out of the shadows.Enduring Vietnam recounts the experiences of the young Americans who fought in Vietnam and of families who grieved tho...