Hardy's first masterpiece, this 1874 novel received wide acclaim upon publication and remains among the author's best-loved works. The tale of a... passionate, independent woman and her three suitors, it explores Hardy's trademark themes: thwarted love, the inevitability of fate, and the encroachment of industrial society on rural life.

This Norton Critical Edition is based on the 1912 Wessex edition, emended to correct errors which have crept into the text from the manuscript onward.It... also incorporates revisions that Hardy made in his "study copy" of the novel and in his marked printer’s copy and page proofs for the Harper and Brothers "sixpenny edition" of 1901, whenever these revisions could be confidently judged to represent Hardy’s final deliberate intent. The resulting text includes revisions by Hardy which have never appeared before in a modern edition. The novel is fully annotated and is accompanied by Hardy’s map of Wessex and a simplified map of the landscape of Far from the Madding Crowd. "Textual Notes" include a list of emendations, examples of variant readings from the manuscript to the Wessex edition, and a discussion of the choice of copy text. The textual history of the novel is traced in extracts from studies by Richard Little Purdy and Simon Gatrell. "Backgrounds" includes substantial extracts from Hardy’s correspondence with Leslie Stephen and is followed by a selection of contemporary reviews. Twentieth-century "Criticism" is represented by Howard Babb, Roy Morrell, Alan Friedman, J. Hillis Miller, Michael Millgate, Penelope Vigar, Peter J. Casagrande, Ian Gregor, and Albert C. Schweik.

Set in his fictional Wessex countryside in southwest England, Far from the Madding Crowd was Thomas Hardy's breakthrough work. Though it was first... published anonymously in 1874, the quick and tremendous success of Far from the Madding Crowd persuaded Hardy to give up his first profession, architecture, to concentrate on writing fiction. The story of the ill-fated passions of the beautiful Bathsheba Everdene and her three suitors offers a spectacle of country life brimming with an energy and charm not customarily associated with Hardy.

Gabriel Oaks observes Bathsheba Everdene, the young mistress of Weatherbury Farm, fall victim to bad decisions and romantic impulses, unaware of the... stroke of fate that will finally bring about their union.

Mark Liberman and Geoffrey K. Pullum have collected some of their most insightful and amusing material from Language Log, their popular web site. Often... irreverent and hilarious, these brief essays take on many sacred cows, showing us--among many things--why Strunk & White is useless, how the College Board can't identify sentence errors in the SAT, and what makes Dan Brown one of the worst prose stylists in the business. There is plenty here to inspire deeper thoughts as well. Why do Pete Rose's statements fall short of saying "I'm sorry," and can we learn how to apologize by analyzing his mistakes? Is there such a thing as mind-reading fatigue? What is the meaning of "pluralism" and "Yankeehood"? Language Log is a site where serious professional linguists go to have fun. There's plenty of fun and plenty to get you thinking about language in new ways in this collection.

Raised in a nonreligious Jewish family, Charles London knew his heritage but had no strong desire to experience it personally. Then in the summer of... 2004, while doing relief work in Bosnia, he stumbled upon a remarkable community—where Jews worked alongside Muslims and Christians to rebuild a city ravaged by war. This encounter gave him the idea for a journey that would take him around the world and back to his roots. Far from Zion is the story of Jews in far-flung, often surprising places. Despite efforts by Israel to bring these scattered people home to Zion, they have chosen to remain in the lands of their birth: a shopkeeper selling Jewish trinkets in Iran, a caretaker keeping watch over an all-but-forgotten synagogue in Rangoon, revelers at a Hanukkah celebration in an Arkansas bowling alley, a Cuban engineering professor, proud of his Jewish heritage and prouder still of his Communist ideals. It is through their stories and many others that London examines his own identity, as he, too, struggles to come to terms with his connection to Zion.

What's the difference between a weanling and a yearling, or a farrow and a barrow? Country and city mice alike will delight in Julia... Rothman's charming illustrated guide to the curious parts and pieces of rural living. Dissecting everything from tractors and pigs to fences, hay bales, crop rotation patterns, and farm tools, Rothman gives a richly entertaining tour of the quirky details of country life. From the shapes of squash varieties to the parts of a goat; from how a barn is constructed to what makes up a beehive, every corner of the barnyard is uncovered and celebrated. A perfect gift for gardeners, locavores, homesteaders, and country-living enthusiasts alike.  

Animals born with bones and muscles are meant to move. In modern systems of intensive agriculture, however, many animals -- notably, swine, veal calves,... and poultry -- are rigorously confined. In this book Professor Bernard E. Rollin describes problems of animal welfare in today's agriculture, discusses the research that exists for improving these systems, and proposes topics for further study.Rollin urges animal producers and agricultural scientists to begin now to address welfare problems. He cites the biomedical research community, which ignored issues of pain control and animal welfare until public concern led to federal legislation. Promising work has already been done in Europe, where the public has demanded that livestock not suffer. A new social ethic in the United States calls for humane agricultural systems that meet the needs and natures of the animals we use. Striking a balanced and rational approach, Rollin's thoughtful text is valuable reading for animal producers, agricultural scientists, veterinarians, animal advocates, and the general public.

A useful balance of theory, applications, and real-world examplesThe Finite Element Method for Engineers, Fourth Edition presents a clear,... easy-to-understand explanation of finite element fundamentals and enables readers to use the method in research and in solving practical, real-life problems. It develops the basic finite element method mathematical formulation, beginning with physical considerations, proceeding to the well-established variation approach, and placing a strong emphasis on the versatile method of weighted residuals, which has shown itself to be important in nonstructural applications.The authors demonstrate the tremendous power of the finite element method to solve problems that classical methods cannot handle, including elasticity problems, general field problems, heat transfer problems, and fluid mechanics problems. They supply practical information on boundary conditions and mesh generation, and they offer a fresh perspective on finite element analysis with an overview of the current state of finite element optimal design.Supplemented with numerous real-world problems and examples taken directly from the authors' experience in industry and research, The Finite Element Method for Engineers, Fourth Edition gives readers the real insight needed to apply the method to challenging problems and to reason out solutions that cannot be found in any textbook.

“One of New York Times Top 10 Books of 2009” (Dwight Garner) "Captivating... By turns edgy, moving, and hilarious, Farm City marks the debut of a... striking new voice in American writing." --Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma and Food Rules When Novella Carpenter--captivated by the idea of backyard self-sufficiency as the daughter of two back-to-the-earth hippies--moves to a ramshackle house in inner-city Oakland and discovers a weed-choked, garbage-strewn abandoned lot next door, she closes her eyes and pictures heirloom tomatoes, a beehive, and a chicken coop. What starts out as a few egg-laying chickens leads to turkeys, geese, and ducks. And not long after, along came two 300-pound pigs. And no, these charming and eccentric animals aren’t pets. Novella is raising these animals for dinner. An unforgettably charming memoir, full of hilarious moments, fascinating farmer’s tips, and a great deal of heart, Farm City offers a beautiful mediation on what we give up to live the way we do today.

P>Farmer Jane profiles thirty women in the sustainable food industry, describing their agriculture and business models and illustrating the amazing... changes they are making in how we connect with food. These advocates for creating a more holistic and nurturing food and agriculture system also answer questions on starting a community-supported agriculture (CSA) program, how to get involved in policy at local and national levels, and how to address the different types of renewable energy and finance them. Temra Costa has been working with the Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF) in California for the past five years through the programs of Farm to School and Buy Fresh Buy Local in the Sacramento Valley and Bay Area. She is currently director of Buy Fresh Buy Local and lives in Sacramento. A hands-on guide for getting involved in the sustainable food movement.

It is easy to feel overwhelmed and depressed by all the threats facing modern agriculture - threats to the environment, to the health and safety of our... food, to the economic and cultural viability of farmers and rural communities. Hundreds of thousands of farmers leave their farms every year as the juggernaut of "big agriculture" plows across our rural landscape. But there are viable alternatives to big agriculture, as many farmers and others involved in agriculture, including consumers, are discovering. In Farming for Us All, Michael Mayerfeld Bell offers crucial insight into the future of a viable sustainable agriculture movement in the United States. Based on interviews and years of close interaction with more than sixty Iowa farm families, Bell answers two critical questions concerning sustainable agriculture: why some farmers are becoming sustainable farmers and why, as yet, most are not. The first part of the book describes how the structure of agriculture - that nexus of markets, regulations, subsidies, and technology - has created a situation in which farmers are paid to undermine their own economic and social security as well as the security of the land. The second part explores why most Iowa farmers carry on with these destructive practices. Farming is a pressured endeavor, and farmers find themselves relying on recipes of knowledge to get them through the latest crisis, with little opportunity to explore some other way - even if they think what they know how to do isn't likely to work very well for them. And yet some farmers resist the tide of big agriculture. In the third part of the book, Bell examines Iowa's largest sustainable agriculture group, Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI), and he finds a new model of social relations at work. Members of PFI seek to create an agriculture that engages others - farmers, university researchers, government officials, and consumers alike - in a common conversation about what agriculture might look like, without insisting that a common conversation requires a common vision. Instead, PFI members come to relish their differences as sources of learning and new ideas. Through dialogue, these PFI members seek to cross-breed knowledge, to create pragmatic knowledge that gets the crops to grow in ways that sustain families, communities, societies, economies, and environments. Herein lies the heart of the cultivation of practical agriculture, an agriculture that roots action in dialogue and dialogue in action and thereby sustains them both. In an increasingly fractured and untrusting world, this is a cultivation worthy of all our interests. Farming for Us All gives us the opportunity to explore the possibilities for social, environmental, and economic change that practical, dialogic agriculture presents. It therefore represents an important step forward in our search for a viable sustainable agriculture in the United States.

An invaluable resource for farmers and educators alike who are looking for an informative text to serve as a springboard for discussions about... sustainable agriculture and how to gear up for a successful future. Why have so many farmers in sustainable agriculture had to take day jobs to support their farms and families? What can they do to create a more successful future? Rhonda R. Janke has traveled to the farms themselves in search of the answers. Through interviews with more than fifteen farmers we learn what challenges they face and the tools needed to build a successful model for the future. Students of sustainable agriculture will benefit from Janke's honest look at the successes and failures of the sustainable agriculture movement over the last twenty years. Her interviews with farmers and other key players in the movement will provide invaluable insight to students and educators alike. Janke offers us an honest critique of the sustainable agricultural movement at just the right time - when heightened public awareness and interest in food production and the environment promises to provide new opportunities and enthusiasm for the sustainable and organic agriculture industry. Dr. Rhonda R. Janke has over 25 years experience in sustainable agriculture research and extension work in sustainable cropping systems. A graduate of Cornell University, she worked at the Rodale Institute for eight years overseeing cropping experiments and later as Research Director. Dr. Janke is currently teaching sustainable and organic agriculture at Kansas State University. She continues to farm her own ten acres with her husband, where they raise vegetables, sheep, and chickens.