Billie Challinor's mother dies during an air raid, but the child grows up confident that in her jazz musician father Chas she has the best dad in the world. Seeking refuge from the London Blitz by moving to Leeds, kindly landlady Liz Morris befriends them: the scarred, wisecracking man, who isn't afraid to overstep the mark if the cause is a good one, and his clever and resilient little girl. Billie needs every ounce of courage she possesses when her father joins the Army just before the D-Day landings and fails to return. Though Liz is happy to raise the child as her own, Billie is claimed by her Uncle Cedric, an outwardly respectable and prosperous solicitor. But he is also a ruthless criminal mastermind who will stop at nothing to secure the fortune to which Billie is sole heiress. Confident of his superior strength and cunning, he foolishly overlooks the fact that she is her father's daughter: resourceful, quick-witted, and ready to seize any chance she can to escape his deadly clutches and return to her beloved Aunt Liz.
When Ben is assigned to volunteer at a daycare facility for homeless families during spring break, he discovers that working with the kids at Sidewalk's End is rewarding. Then Ben witnesses what he thinks is physical abuse of Batista, one of the center's children, and is frustrated when the system doesn't react quicky with help. After another of the center's children dies, Ben, haunted by his brother's mysterious death years before, enlists his friends in a desperate, and misguided attempt, to rescue Batista.
Beginning in 1786, Captain John Meares of Great Britain bravely explored the North Pacific, but his attempt to dominate the fur trade between the Northwest Coast and Asia was frustrated when the Spanish Navy seized his ships off Vancouver Island. Meares missed the opportunity to explore the Strait of Juan de Fuca or discover the Columbia River. Hence, he was "almost a hero."
American soldiers who returned from the war in Vietnam were not always treated kindly or with understanding. For Culver, his memory of the love he and Mabel shared before he went to war was a painful reminder of how his life was changed by being in Vietnam. A Hero’s Welcome, in the words of leading Vietnam War literature critic David Willson, “has got baseball, summer camp, college dorm life, and war. It’s got everything. This is an all-American novel.” It’s about how one veteran rediscovered America and about how America treated those it sent to fight an unpopular war. “A classic of the American war in Vietnam War. A brilliant novel of love gone wrong. Naparsteck makes the 1960’s come alive.” —David Willson, co-editor of Vietnam War Literature: An Annotated Bibliography; Willson [please note: he has two l’s in his name] is widely considered one of the nation’s leading experts on Vietnam War literature). Date: February 2000 Martin Naparsteck’s writing is “knee deep in particulars, with the power of close-focus psychological observation.” —Veronica Geng, Mississippi Review, Fall 1964 Naparsteck’s writing “takes risks and survives, indeed prospers because of its honesty….As readers and human beings we all too seldom reflect on truth until we’ve the fortune to read authors like the one here.” —novelist Colin Hester, Diamond Sutra, 1997 “Quirky, playful, and original, the work of Martin Naparsteck is not easily forgotten.” —Janet Hutchings, editor of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, July 1996
An eyewitness account of Tiananmen Spring, available once again to commemorate the ten year anniversary of these historic events of China's recent past
The interaction of the individual in history and politics has posed major theoretical questions of historical analysis for the past two centuries: is social destiny shaped by forces beyond the power of the individual, or can the future be mastered by collective effort under the outstanding leadership of heroic men and women? In this classic study, a major philosopher and social theorist of the twentieth century offers a searching examination of the conditions under which individuals make choices that significantly alter the course of historical events and presents a scathing critique of various forms of social determinism that deny the individual freedom of action or a decisive role in history. The myth of the hero as the savior of the tribe or nation, as Hook notes, is older than written history. Until the ninteenth century, the hero functioned not merely as a cult figure but as a principle of historical explanation, a key to the rise and fall of countries and even of cultures. The exaggerations and omissions of this point of view produced an equally simplistic reaction with the formulation of determinist historiographies in which physical, racial, social, and economic forces replaced individuals as the dynamic factors in the development of events. Hook singles out orthodox Marxism as the most all-encompassing determinist system and subjects the historical thinking of Engels, Plekhanov, and Trotsky to sharp and meticulous scrutiny. Using the Russian Revolution as a test case, Hook observes that while the February 1917 Revolution was an inevitable development, the October revolution was, according to the best historical evidence, contingent upon the personality and actions of Lenin. In his 1978 reconsideration of the subject of heroism, appearing new to this edition, Hook defines a middle ground between the extremes of voluntarism and determinism that explains why the presence of strong personalities are decisive under certain conditions while under others key actors would appear to be almost interchangeable. He points us toward an understanding of a fascinating problem in history and raises essential questions about the role of "great" men and women in a democracy. "The Hero in History "will be of interest to intellectual historians, philosophers, political scientists, and sociologists.
"... containing the names and the disposition made of more than 20,000 pictures, from ... May 15th, 1915, up to the end of the year 1917. This list will be supplemented by further lists presented at the end of each half yearly period."--Pennsylvania. State Board of Censors of Moving Pictures. Report, 1918, p. 7.
Heroic figures, all with the human desire for idealization in common, are the focus of this study — from Oedipus and King Arthur to heroes of the Trojan War and Robin Hood.
In these pages are a collection of my thoughts, that over the years I have written down. I hope all who read these find something useful from them. Some came from events, people, places, or companies I have worked for, in, with, or have had some form of contact in the passing of this time we have. Some are just thoughts. These all have different meanings for me; happiness, sadness, or ideas about others. All I can hope is you, who read these, enjoy them and
Heroic figures, invested with a common pattern that satisfies the human desire for idealization, are the focus of this intriguing study of legendary characters — from Oedipus and King Arthur to heroes of the Trojan War and Robin Hood. A fascinating study that will appeal to students of folklore, mythology, and history.
