The Compton Press was, like much of the 1960s, a happening. It began, not with a grand design, but with a passion for letterpress printing. This passion was very infectious, and people were drawn to the mix of compositors, machine-minders, proof readers, editors, and typographers initially based in a converted cowshed and coach house in Compton Chamberlayne, Wiltshire. We stubbornly clung onto our liking for letterpress, and this led to our eventual demise, but for the 12 years that we lasted we printed over 500 editions of books, published over 100, and produced many journals, and uncountable items of jobbing printing.
“Thompson-Hernández's portrayal of Compton's black cowboys broadens our perception of Compton's young black residents, and connects the Compton Cowboys to the historical legacy of African Americans in the west. An eye-opening, moving book.”—Margot Lee Shetterly, New York Times bestselling author of Hidden Figures “Walter Thompson-Hernández has written a book for the ages: a profound and moving account of what it means to be black in America that is awe inspiring in its truth-telling and limitless in its empathy. Here is an American epic of black survival and creativity, of terrible misfortune and everyday resilience, of grace, redemption and, yes, cowboys.”— Junot Díaz, Pulitzer prize-winning author of This is How You Lose Her A rising New York Times reporter tells the compelling story of The Compton Cowboys, a group of African-American men and women who defy stereotypes and continue the proud, centuries-old tradition of black cowboys in the heart of one of America’s most notorious cities. In Compton, California, ten black riders on horseback cut an unusual profile, their cowboy hats tilted against the hot Los Angeles sun. They are the Compton Cowboys, their small ranch one of the very last in a formerly semirural area of the city that has been home to African-American horse riders for decades. To most people, Compton is known only as the home of rap greats NWA and Kendrick Lamar, hyped in the media for its seemingly intractable gang violence. But in 1988 Mayisha Akbar founded The Compton Jr. Posse to provide local youth with a safe alternative to the streets, one that connected them with the rich legacy of black cowboys in American culture. From Mayisha’s youth organization came the Cowboys of today: black men and women from Compton for whom the ranch and the horses provide camaraderie, respite from violence, healing from trauma, and recovery from incarceration. The Cowboys include Randy, Mayisha’s nephew, faced with the daunting task of remaking the Cowboys for a new generation; Anthony, former drug dealer and inmate, now a family man and mentor, Keiara, a single mother pursuing her dream of winning a national rodeo championship, and a tight clan of twentysomethings--Kenneth, Keenan, Charles, and Tre--for whom horses bring the freedom, protection, and status that often elude the young black men of Compton. The Compton Cowboys is a story about trauma and transformation, race and identity, compassion, and ultimately, belonging. Walter Thompson-Hernández paints a unique and unexpected portrait of this city, pushing back against stereotypes to reveal an urban community in all its complexity, tragedy, and triumph. The Compton Cowboys is illustrated with 10-15 photographs.
The story of an educational process that produced a remarkable family—the Comptons—of three college presidents and a Nobel prize winner. Hundreds of interviews, careful reading of volumes of family papers, inquiry along countless separate lines went into the making of this book. The result is a warm tribute to a family, a memorable history, and a fascinating essay on the origins of eminence.
In the first decade of the twentieth century, a few closely related families established a utopian community in Canada’s smallest province. Known officially as B. Compton Limited but described by a journalist in 1935 as "Prince Edward Island’s unique ‘brotherly love’ community," this utopia owed its longevity to the cohesion provided by its communal organization, dense kin ties, and long-held millenarianism – and to a decidedly pragmatic approach to business. All Things in Common demonstrates how "un-utopian" such a community could be while problematizing the contention that the inevitable end of all utopian experiments is a full-blown dystopia. Beginning with a compelling backstory and locating the Compton community in the historiography of North American utopias, the author goes on to explore the community’s business endeavours, its religious, familial, and transgressive aspects, and its brief period of international fame before assessing the factors that led to its dissolution in 1947. Providing a strong narrative framework, All Things in Common draws on rich family and archival records and diverse secondary sources, concluding with a consideration of the community’s legacy for its alumni and their descendants.
This volume consists of invited lectures and seminars presented at the NATO Advanced Study Institute "The Gamma Ray Sky with COMPTON GRO and SIGMA" , which was held at the Centre de Physique Theorique of Les Houches (France) in January / February 1994. The school has been planned by a Scientific Organizing Committee. It was organized with the aim of providing students and young researchers with an up-to-date account of the high-energy phenomena in the vicinity of compact objets and the diffuse gamma-ray backgrounds after the early results from the gamma-ray telescope SIGMA and the four instruments onboard COMPTON GRO (Gamma Ray Observatory) : BATSE (Burst and Transient Source Experiment),COMPTEL(Compto'l Telescope),EGRET (Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope) and OS SE(Oriented Scintillation Spectrometer Experiment) . It was attended by more than sixty researchers from many countries. The lectures and seminars represent a complete coverage of our present knowledge and understanding of: Gamma-ray backgrounds, Gamma-ray Burts,Active Galactic Nuclei,Galactic Compact Objects, Gamma-ray Spectroscopy, Instrumentation and observation techniques, etc ... Most of these lectures are reproduced in this volume. Unfortunately, a few lecturers have chosen not to submit their manuscript.
