The Blitzer Algebra Series combines mathematical accuracy with an engaging, friendly, and often fun presentation for maximum student appeal. Blitzer’s... personality shows in his writing, as he draws students into the material through relevant and thought-provoking applications. Every Blitzer page is interesting and relevant, ensuring that students will actually use their textbook to achieve success!

When Germany launched its blitzkrieg invasion of France in 1940, it forever changed the way the world waged war. Although the Wehrmacht ultimately... succumbed to superior Allied firepower in a two-front war, its stunning operational achievement left a lasting impression on military commanders throughout the world, even if their own operations were rarely executed as effectively. Robert Citino analyzes military campaigns from the second half of the twentieth century to further demonstrate the difficulty of achieving decisive results at the operational level. Offering detailed operational analyses of actual campaigns, Citino describes how UN forces in Korea enjoyed technological and air superiority but found the enemy unbeatable; provides analyses of Israeli operational victories in successive wars until the Arab states finally grasped the realities of operational-level warfare in 1973; and tells how the Vietnam debacle continued to shape U.S. doctrine in surprising ways. Looking beyond major-power conflicts, he also reveals the lessons of India’s blitzkrieg-like drive into Pakistan in 1971 and of the senseless bloodletting of the Iran-Iraq War. Citino especially considers the evolution of U.S. doctrine and assesses the success of Desert Storm in dismantling an entrenched defending force with virtually no friendly casualties. He also provides one of the first scholarly analyses of Operation Iraqi Freedom, showing that its plan was curiously divorced from the realities of military history, grounded instead on nebulous theories about expected enemy behavior. Throughout Citino points to the importance of mobility—especially mobilized armor—in modern operational warfare and assesses the respective roles of firepower, training, doctrine, and command and control mechanisms. Brimming with new insights, Citino’s study shows why technical superiority is no guarantee of victory and why a thorough grounding in the history of past campaigns is essential to anyone who wishes to understand modern warfare. Blitzkrieg to Desert Storm provides that grounding as it addresses the future of operational-level warfare in the post–9/11 era. This book is part of the Modern War Studies series.

Strand's poems occupy a place that exists between abstraction and the sensuous particulars of experience. It is a place created by a voice that moves... with unerring ease between the commonplace and the sublime. The poems are filled with "the weather of leavetaking," but they are also unexpectedly funny. The erasure of self and the depredations of time are seen as sources of sorrow, but also as grounds for celebration. This is one of the difficult truths these poems dramatize with stoicism and wit. The winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, Blizzard of One is an extraordinary book--the summation of the work of a lifetime by one of our very few true masters of the art of poetry.

To understand border enforcement and the shape it has taken, it is imperative to examine a groundbreaking Border Patrol operation begun in 1993 in El... Paso, Texas, "Operation Blockade." The El Paso Border Patrol designed and implemented this radical new strategy, posting 400 agents directly on the banks of the Rio Grande in highly visible positions to deter unauthorized border crossings into the urban areas of El Paso from neighboring Ciudad Juárez--a marked departure from the traditional strategy of apprehending unauthorized crossers after entry. This approach, of "prevention through deterrence," became the foundation of the 1994 and 2004 National Border Patrol Strategies for the Southern Border. Politically popular overall, it has rendered unauthorized border crossing far less visible in many key urban areas. However, the real effectiveness of the strategy is debatable, at best. Its implementation has also led to a sharp rise in the number of deaths of unauthorized border crossers.Here, Dunn examines the paradigm-changing Operation Blockade and related border enforcement efforts in the El Paso region in great detail, as well as the local social and political situation that spawned the approach and has shaped it since. Dunn particularly spotlights the human rights abuses and enforcement excesses inflicted on local Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants as well as the challenges to those abuses. Throughout the book, Dunn filters his research and fieldwork through two competing lenses, human rights versus the rights of national sovereignty and citizenship.

Archie Bunker. Jed. Laverne and Shirley. Cliff Huxtable. Throughout the entire history of American prime-time television only four sitcoms have been... true blockbusters, with Nielsen ratings far above the second- and third-rated programs. Weekly, millions of Americans of every age were making a special effort to turn on the set to see what Archie, Jed, Laverne, and Cliff were doing that week. The wild popularity of these shows--All in the Family, The Beverly Hillbillies, Laverne & Shirley (and its partner Happy Days), and The Cosby Show--left commentators bewildered by the tastes and preferences of the American public. How do we account for the huge appeal of these sitcoms, and how does it figure into the history of network prime-time television? Janet Staiger answers these questions by detailing the myriad factors that go into the construction of mass audiences. Treating the four shows as case studies, she deftly balances factual explanations (for instance, the impact of VCRs and cable on network domination of TV) with more interpretative ones (for example, the transformation of The Beverly Hillbillies from a popular show detested by the critics, to a blockbuster after its elevation as the critics' darling), and juxtaposes industry-based reasons (for example, the ways in which TV shows derive success from placement in the weekly programming schedule) with stylistic explanations (how, for instance, certain shows create pleasure from a repetition and variation of a formula). Staiger concludes that because of changes in the industry, these shows were a phenomenon that may never be repeated. And while the western or the night-time soap has at times captured public attention, Blockbuster TV maintains that the sitcom has been THE genre to attract people to the tube, and that without understanding the sitcom, we can't properly understand the role of television in our culture.

Teach spatial skills to young children-and improve their overall academic outcomes! This innovative teaching resource has the research-based insights... and practical activities early childhood educators need to promote spatial development throughout the school day.

In Bloc Politics at the United Nations, Endeley presents a detailed analysis of the structure and functioning of the African Group at the United Nations... (UN). At the heart of the UN system is a series of regional caucusing blocs, of which the African Group is one of the most dynamic and cohesive. The African Group, which comprises more than twenty-five percent of the UN's Member States and wields considerable voting strength, has the potential to be one of the most prominent international actors in the post-Cold War era. Since its stance on crucial international issues can tip the scales in one direction or another, the African Group is very widely courted by the other international actors. Yet the behavior, structure, and function of the African Group at the UN have seldom been the object of any serious scientific inquiry. Endeley's analysis is informed by direct observation and by the consultation of key primary and secondary sources.

Bloggers Boot Camp shows you how to build a great blog from the ground up. This isn't a book about technology -- it's a book about engaging millions of... readers. Starting your blog is easy, but building and maintaining a popular one is hard. Blogging experts John Biggs and Charlie White (Gizmodo, Mashable and TechCrunch) share their secrets from the frontline showing you how to blog with quality and flair, find the best stories, and attract millions of readers to your blog. Blogging goes way beyond writing. It's a conversation between you and your audience. Guiding you to blogging success Bloggers Boot Camp shows you how to: * Uncover a niche for your blog, and realize key factors about yourself that you need to know before you write a single word. * Gather the ideal tools for blogging, without spending too much or approaching it underequipped. *Discover the best ways to spread the word about your new blog. * Find the most compelling stories to write about, and get the information before anyone else does. * Transform your writing by learning the subtle art of constructing a compelling, engaging blog post. * Stimulate your readers to directly participate in the two-way conversation, perhaps the most exciting part of this new way of communicating.* Teaches writers how to blog and bloggers how to write * Offers a simple method for writing every day and a simple formula for creating compelling content * The writers have 20,000+ posts under their belts at three of the five most powerful blogs in the world.

THE WORLD OF ONLINE NETWORKING AND COMMUNICATION HAS EXPLODED in the last ten years. Social networking sites, YouTube, and blogs offer hours of... entertainment, but have also become important vehicles for activism. The "netroots," as Eric Boehlert calls this phenomenon, have risen to incredible power, and never has that been clearer than in the 2008 presidential election. Bloggers on the Bus traces the major events that rocked the campaign trail and reveals the stories of the online activists who made it all possible. In the tradition of Timothy Crouse’s essential bestseller, The Boys on the Bus, Bloggers on the Bus goes inside the modern world of liberal politics to reveal the stories and scandals at its very heart. Boehlert exposes just how much influence the online community—and especially the blogosphere—had on the outcome of the 2008 elections. Bloggers have set off an industry debate about journalism and privacy and have changed the face of campaign strategy. This ad-hoc, mostly pro bono, community has been able to change, in telling and significant ways, American politics and media. Colored by vivid portraits and character sketches, this book will reveal the new wave of changes that has revolutionized progressive politics. Like the many passionate reporters and observers who came before them, these men and women are breaking new ground every day. Bloggers on the Bus will chronicle that media and political rebellion as it unfolds and introduce readers to the fascinating players involved.

Blogging has profoundly influenced not only the nature of the internet today, but also the nature of modern communication, despite being a genre... invented less than a decade ago. This book-length study of a now everyday phenomenon provides a close look at blogging while placing it in a historical, theoretical and contemporary context.Scholars, students and bloggers will find a lively survey of blogging that contextualises blogs in terms of critical theory and the history of digital media. Authored by a scholar-blogger, the book is packed with examples that show how blogging and related genres are changing media and communication. It gives definitions and explains how blogs work, shows how blogs relate to the historical development of publishing and communication and looks at the ways blogs structure social networks and at how social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook incorporate blogging in their design. Specific kinds of blogs discussed include political blogs, citizen journalism, confessional blogs and commercial blogs.

This proven bestseller is fully updated and better than ever!Now in its fourth edition, Blogging For Dummies is fully updated and more practical than... ever for today's bloggers. Whether you're just beginning or are already a full-tilt blogging maven, you'll find the up-to-date information you need in these friendly pages. Want to integrate your blog with social media? Jump into the fast-moving world of microblogging on Twitter or Tumblr? Choose which blogging software to use? Optimize your current blog for search? This detailed book guide covers it all, and then some. Buy the book, build a better blog, and blog about it!Provides up-to-date information on blogging software choices and utilitiesExplains how to identify your unique niche and attract readersWalks you through setting up an account and writing your first postShows you how to optimize your blog for search, so new readers find you Helps you integrate your blog with social mediaReveals what you need to know to start microblogging on Twitter or TumblrExplores the ways you can make money with your blog Start a conversation with the very latest blog-building tips and techniques in Blogging For Dummies.

The popular blog-tracking site technorati.com reports the existance of well over one hundred million blogs. Despite the medium’s ubiquity, the impact... of political blogging on politics and civic engagemment has not been systematically examined. In an era of depressed civic engagement, where access to the media by common citizens is limited, blogs have the power to change the political landscape. Blogging the Political catalogs the individuals engaged in political blogging, explains why they started blogging, and examines what they hope to gain from it. The larger question at hand is whether and how political blogging facilitates civic engagement and mobilization in the United States. Do political bloggers participate in politics only through blogging or also through more traditional activities such as voting or sending an email to an elected official? Do they encourage their readers to undertake political activities, and how do they go about doing so?  Examining  the activity of a diverse spectrum of bloggers, Pole concludes that blogging is indeed a new and important form of political participation, one that can potentially transform politics and lead to increased civic engagement.

The protests unleashed by Iran’s disputed presidential election in June 2009 brought the Islamic Republic’s vigorous cyber culture to the world’s... attention. Iran has an estimated 700,000 bloggers, and new media such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube were thought to have played a key role in spreading news of the protests. The Internet is often celebrated as an agent of social change in countries like Iran, but most literature on the subject has struggled to grasp what this new phenomenon actually means. How is it different from print culture? Is it really a new public sphere? Will the Iranian blogosphere create a culture of dissidence, which eventually overpowers the Islamist regime? In this groundbreaking work, the authors give a flavor of contemporary Internet culture in Iran and analyze how this new form of communication is affecting the social and political life of the country. Although they warn against stereotyping bloggers as dissidents, they argue that the Internet is changing things in ways which neither the government nor the democracy movement could have anticipated. Blogistan offers both a new reading of Iranian politics and a new conceptual framework for understanding the politics of the Internet, with implications for the wider Middle East, China, and beyond. 

We—the users turned creators and distributors of content—are TIME’s Person of theYear 2006, and AdAge’s Advertising Agency of the Year 2007. We... form a new Generation C. We have MySpace, YouTube, and OurMedia; we run social software, and drive the development of Web 2.0. But beyond the hype, what’s really going on? In this groundbreaking exploration of our developing participatory online culture, Axel Bruns establishes the core principles which drive the rise of collaborative content creation in environments, from open source through blogs and Wikipedia to Second Life. This book shows that what’s emerging here is no longer just a new form of content production, but a new process for the continuous creation and extension of knowledge and art by collaborative communities: produsage. The implications of the gradual shift from production to produsage are profound, and will affect the very core of our culture, economy, society, and democracy. Building on an analysis of key sites including Wikipedia, Flickr, YouTube, and Second Life, it explores the intellectual, technological, and social implications of produsage, as well as the legal and economic models employed by produsage projects. In doing so, the book highlights the implications of produsage for our culture, democracy, and society.