Fashion and Its Social Agendas
Fashion and Its Social Agendas

Author: Diana Crane

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2012-06-12

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 0226924831

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It has long been said that clothes make the man (or woman), but is it still true today? If so, how has the information clothes convey changed over the years? Using a wide range of historical and contemporary materials, Diana Crane demonstrates how the social significance of clothing has been transformed. Crane compares nineteenth-century societies—France and the United States—where social class was the most salient aspect of social identity signified in clothing with late twentieth-century America, where lifestyle, gender, sexual orientation, age, and ethnicity are more meaningful to individuals in constructing their wardrobes. Today, clothes worn at work signify social class, but leisure clothes convey meanings ranging from trite to political. In today's multicode societies, clothes inhibit as well as facilitate communication between highly fragmented social groups. Crane extends her comparison by showing how nineteenth-century French designers created fashions that suited lifestyles of Paris elites but that were also widely adopted outside France. By contrast, today's designers operate in a global marketplace, shaped by television, film, and popular music. No longer confined to elites, trendsetters are drawn from many social groups, and most trends have short trajectories. To assess the impact of fashion on women, Crane uses voices of college-aged and middle-aged women who took part in focus groups. These discussions yield fascinating information about women's perceptions of female identity and sexuality in the fashion industry. An absorbing work, Fashion and Its Social Agendas stands out as a critical study of gender, fashion, and consumer culture. "Why do people dress the way they do? How does clothing contribute to a person's identity as a man or woman, as a white-collar professional or blue-collar worker, as a preppie, yuppie, or nerd? How is it that dress no longer denotes social class so much as lifestyle? . . . Intelligent and informative, [this] book proposes thoughtful answers to some of these questions."-Library Journal

Sociology in Action
Sociology in Action

Author: Diane Symbaluk

Publisher:

Published: 2018-02-16

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 9780176725068

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The essence of sociology lies in the sociological imagination. Sociology in Action: A Canadian Perspective, Third Edition, articulates the importance of developing a sociological imagination and highlights the tools that are necessary to develop that skill: empirical research methods that create verifiable knowledge, sociological theories that explain that knowledge, and critical thinking that enables us to evaluate and to extrapolate from that knowledge. By the time students have completed this text, they will be better equipped to engage in effective social action in the context of their families, communities, and professions, as well as in the context of larger social problems such as social inequality and environmental degradation. With their signature passion and Sociological Toolkit, Diane Symbaluk and Tami Bereska have created a text that will inspire 21st-century learners to become active and informed citizens.

Bitter Sweet
Bitter Sweet

Author: Barbara A. Tyler

Publisher: Abbott Press

Published: 2012-05-18

Total Pages: 60

ISBN-13: 1458203522

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The reality of war is bittersweet. With war come both the bitter memories of the pain that conflict causes and the sweet rewards that having courage and respect for your country can bestow. Without courage and faith, no rewards are forthcoming. In Bitter Sweet, author Barbara A. Tyler recounts the war experiences of two black veterans who served during World War II and the Korean War. Part memoir, part military history, Bitter Sweet details the military careers of John J. Pickney and Woodrow Duhon who both joined the military in 1944Pickney the United States Navy and Duhon the Marine Corps. Though the two men never served together, they became friends and bonded through their experiences as black men serving in the military. This story details their careers, including Duhons brush with death and receipt of two Purple Hearts. Featuring many photos, these stories illustrate the realities of war and show the fight, bravery, and endurance it takes to survive service during times of conflict.

The Red Hat Club Rides Again
The Red Hat Club Rides Again

Author: Haywood Smith

Publisher: Macmillan + ORM

Published: 2005-03-15

Total Pages: 459

ISBN-13: 1429989580

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Georgia, SuSu, Teeny, Diane, and Linda are back in a warm, sassy Southern novel from the New York Times bestselling author of QUEEN BEE OF MIMOSA BRANCH and RED HAT CLUB. Georgia, SuSu, Teeny, Linda and Diane have been friends for more than thirty years. But when Pru Bonner, black sheep of the group, falls off the wagon so hard it shakes their world, "the girls" stage a hilarious kidnapping in Vegas to help their childhood friend clean up her act. As the women confront their pasts along with their hazardous adventure, they discover surprising strength in themselves and their friendships. Laughter is spiced with secrets, surprises, and pitfalls aplenty, including a midlife pregnancy test, the perils of internet dating, an all-expense-paid plastic surgery cruise, and a surprise celebration that proves it's never too late for love. As in THE RED HAT CLUB, these irrepressible heroines face the challenges of friendship in sickness and in health, with heart and indomitable humor. So join The Red Hats and remember that age is all in your head, calories should always be in chewable form (Diet Coke with chocolate éclairs!), and that when all else fails, your Red Hats will see you through.

The Anxious Triumph
The Anxious Triumph

Author: Donald Sassoon

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2019-06-27

Total Pages: 800

ISBN-13: 0241315174

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'A magnum opus, an accessible and genuinely global history ... This is a book for today and tomorrow' Financial Times Capitalist enterprise has existed in some form since ancient times, but the globalization and dominance of capitalism as a system began in the 1860s when, in different forms and supported by different political forces, states all over the world developed their modern political frameworks: the unifications of Italy and Germany, the establishment of a republic in France, the elimination of slavery in the American south, the Meiji Restoration in Japan, the emancipation of the serfs in Tsarist Russia. This book magnificently explores how, after the upheavals of industrialisation, a truly global capitalism followed. For the first time in the history of humanity, there was a social system able to provide a high level of consumption for the majority of those who lived within its bounds. Today, capitalism dominates the world. With wide-ranging scholarship, Donald Sassoon analyses the impact of capitalism on the histories of many different states, and how it creates winners and losers by constantly innovating. This chronic instability, he writes, 'is the foundation of its advance, not a fault in the system or an incidental by-product'. And it is this instability, this constant churn, which produces the anxious triumph of his title. To control or alleviate such anxieties it was necessary to create a national community, if necessary with colonial adventures, to develop a welfare state, to intervene in the market economy, and to protect it from foreign competition. Capitalists needed a state to discipline them, to nurture them, and to sacrifice a few to save the rest: a state overseeing the war of all against all. Vigorous, argumentative, surprising and constantly stimulating, The Anxious Triumph gives a fresh perspective on all these questions and on its era. It is a masterpiece by one of Britain's most engaging and wide-ranging historians.

The Open Organization
The Open Organization

Author: Jim Whitehurst

Publisher: Harvard Business Press

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 246

ISBN-13: 1625275277

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Based on open source principles of transparency, participation, and collaboration, "open management" challenges conventional business ideas about what companies are, how they run, and how they make money. This book provides the blueprint for putting it into practice in your own firm. He covers challenges that have been missing from the conversation to date, among them: how to scale engagement; how to have healthy debates that net progress; and how to attract and keep the "Social Generation" of workers. Through a mix of vibrant stories, candid lessons, and tested processes, Whitehurst shows how Red Hat has blown the traditional operating model to pieces by emerging out of a pure bottom up culture and learning how to execute it at scale. And he explains what other companies are, and need to be doing to bring this open style into all facets of the organization.