|
|
David R. Colburn
and Lance deHaven-Smith
University Press of Florida
"I strongly encourage all citizens
to read this important book so that they will understand how Florida's
history has shaped its current political environment and helped determine
the issues that are crucial to the state's development ... This wonderful
book provides a starting point for Floridians to recommit themselves to
the American experiment."
- Former Gov. Reubin O'D. Askew
Whether new to Florida or a rare native, you probably find the state's government confusing, if not downright mystifying. The role of Southern politics in a state that seems so unsouthern bewilders more than a few newcomers. In this lively, accessible introduction to Florida's political history, David Colburn and Lance deHaven-Smith explain the evolution of Florida's go.
Florida's heritage has been shaped by Native American and Spanish roots, colonial ties to Great Britain, a Deep South culture marked by racial strife and the Civil War, and, most recently, economic and immigration dynamics that link it to the Sunbelt States, the Caribbean and South America. These influences combine to make Florida politics complex, contradictory, occasionally bizarre, but seldom dull.
Addressing how this diversity has shaped government, the authors offer a concise history of the state's political development over the last 150 years and of the issues facing it today - information essential to all Floridians, including new voters, new residents and newly elected officials, as well as seasoned political observers.
*
David R. Colburn is professor of
history and director of the Reubin O'D. Askew Institute on Politics and
Society at the University of Florida. Lance deHaven-Smith is professor
of public administration and associate director of the Florida Institute
of Government at Florida State University.
Latin American Art
Ancient to Modern
John F. Scott
University Press of Florida
"An ambitious treatment of Latin
American art throughout time and space ... This kind of comprehensive treatment
is sorely needed in the field of art history and cultural studies ... I
would certainly purchase this book, both for my own personal reading and
for use as a required text."
- Eloise Quinones Keber, City University
of New York
In this history of the art of Latin America, the first in a generation, John F. Scott traces the development of art in the region from pre-Columbian times to the present. Illustrated with 182 color and black-and-white photographs, Latin American Art spans all geographical areas and time periods to provide a coherent picture of artistic culture in the entire area.
Unique in its linking of pre-Columbian and Hispanic cultures, the book encompasses art forms ranging from sculpture, pottery and painting to architecture, and cultures from the Ice Age to Classic civilizations, Native empires and the colonial period of American viceroyalties to independence and the 20th century. Relating the arts to the life and politics of each age, Scott addresses the major media, styles and artists that defined each period, placing special emphasis on the areas that were the centers of high cultures and analyzing a few distinctive works from each, such as the Inca architecture at Cuzco and the great murals of Mexico.
Written in a straightforward and accessible style, Latin American Art will be an important text in arts and humanities courses. It will also be of value to art historians and to those interested in cultural studies, ethnic studies and Latin America in general.
*
John F. Scott is professor of art
history at the University of Florida. He has published several books on
Latin American art, including Ancient Mesoamerica (UPF, 1987); Mexican,
Central and South American Art; Art of the Taino of the Dominican Republic;
and the Danzantes of Monte Alban, as well as numerous articles in English,
Spanish and German.
Haunted Bodies
Gender and Southern
Texts
Anne Goodwyn Jones
and Susan V. Donaldson
University Press of Virginia
"The best collection of essays
on Southern writing to date. It adds significantly to the emerging body
of writing that attempts to deprovincialize the study of Southern literature.
Most importantly, the collection will help to shape - and in some cases
completely reshape - the critical discourse on the works and authors included."
- Will Brantley, author of Feminine
Sense in Southern Memoir
Being a woman or being a man has traditionally carried special emotional baggage in the American South, where definitions of femininity and masculinity have intersected with notions of whiteness and blackness, of "quality" and "trash." Images of gender have been wielded in defense of slavery and white supremacy, of the honor of "gentlemen" and the violence of "poor whites." From the white Southern lady praised for the absence of desire to the black lynching victim accused of excessive desire, Southern sexuality has long been haunted by stories that shape severely hierarchical relationships among race, class and gender.
In Haunted Bodies, Anne Goodwyn Jones and Susan V. Donaldson have brought together some of our most highly regarded Southern historians and literary critics to consider race, gender and texts through three centuries and from a wealth of vantage points. Works as diverse as 18th century court petitions and lyrics of 1970s rock music demonstrate how definitions of Southern masculinity and femininity have been subject to bewildering shifts and disabling contradictions for centuries.
*
Anne Goodwyn Jones is associate
professor of English at the University of Florida.
Susan V. Donaldson is associate professor
of English and American Studies at the College of William and Mary. Both
have lectured and published widely on gender and the South.
The Myths Behind Our
Words
English Vocabulary
Derived from the Myths of Greece and Rome
Karelisa V. Hartigan
Illustrations by Desmond Jackson
Forbes Custom Publishing
(excerpt taken from author's introduction)
For the people of ancient Greece and Rome, their myths were vital legends about every aspect of daily life. These stories explained the natural world, its beginning, its landscape and its climate. They explained also the social order of peoples, giving families a genealogy and political structures a foundation. The myths took terror out of the unknown by offering reasons for the changing seasons, bolts of lightning, storms at sea. The Greek myths also described the workings of the human psyche and the human emotion. In short, the mythology of the Greeks, and later the Romans, played a key role in their society and religion.
In this book I have presented the words which come to us from the myths of Greece and Rome, words whose meaning comes from the legends and sagas of the Greek and Roman people. For almost every word I have provided an illustration to show that language has both an oral and visible vitality.
*
Karelisa Hartigan is a professor
of classics at the University of Florida. She has published books on classical
Greek drama and the production of Greek drama on the American stage, and
a book on the use of classical mythology in modern advertising is forthcoming.
African Entrepreneurship
Theory and Reality
Anita Spring and Barbara E. McDade
University Press of Florida
Practical and penetrating, this collection explores the varieties of entrepreneurship in Africa - rural and urban, legal and illegal, formal and informal - and considers the vital role of entrepreneurs in the economic development of the continent from Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon to Kenya, Zimbabwe, Zambia and South Africa.
African entrepreneurship encompasses both innovators and business owners who range from the ubiquitous, well-recognized market traders and informal sector provisioners to large-scale international traders and formal sector firm owners. Some new practices may be African adaptations of phenomena established elsewhere.
The prominence of African women in several chapters reflects their contributions to economic development, as well as their marginalization during the creation and implementation of public and private sector development strategies. Traditional African business practices (utilizing kinship-based networks, clientelism and joint household business activities) often are combined with global business practices (hiring formally trained managers, employing trade credit and computerizing systems). Derived from concrete examples of such situations, the book's theoretical discussion stays focused on the realities on which it is based.
*
Anita Spring, professor of anthropology
and African studies at the University of Florida, is the author or editor
of four books, most recently Agricultural Development and Gender Issues
in Malawi.
Barbara E. McDade, assistant professor of economic geography at the University of Florida, has served as chair of the Africa Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers.