Presents the fundamental principles of microwave materials based on electrical engineering terminologies or background, and then connects it to... well-known physical concepts or solid state. The text then discusses a systematic procedure for describing the microwave properties of materials.

Before 1973, the Loud family of Santa Barbara, California, lived in the privacy of their own home. With the airing of the documentary An American... Family, that "privacy" extended to every American home that had a television in it-and there was no going back to the happy land of Beaver, Donna Reed, and Father Knows Best. This book is the first to offer a close, sustained look at An American Family-the documentary that blurred conventions, stirred passions among viewers and reviewers, revised impressions of family life and definitions of private and public, and began the breakdown of distinctions between reality and spectacle that culminated in cultural phenomena from The Oprah Winfrey Show to Survivor. While placing Craig Gilbert's innovative series in the context of 1970s nonfiction film and television, Jeffrey Ruoff tells the story behind An American Family from conception to broadcast, from reception to long-term impact. He reintroduces us to the Louds as intimate details of their daily lives, from one child's dance recital to another's gay lifestyle to the parents' divorce proceedings, unfold first before the camera and then before American viewers, challenging audiences to think seriously about family, marital relations, sexuality, affluence, and the American dream. In the documentary's immediate impact-on both producers and viewers of media-Ruoff uncovers the roots of new nonfiction forms including confessional talk shows like Oprah, first-person documentary films like Ross McElwee's acclaimed Sherman's March, and reality TV programs such as The Real World, Survivor, and Big Brother. A comprehensive production and reception study, Ruoff's work restores An American Family to its rightful, pioneering place in the history of American television. Jeffrey Ruoff is a film historian, documentary filmmaker, and assistant professor of film and television studies at Dartmouth College. He is co-author (with Kenneth Ruoff) of The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (1998). Visible Evidence Series, volume 11

The second volume of Peter Straub's pathbreaking anthology American Fantastic Tales picks up the story in 1940 and provides persuasive evidence that the... decades since then have seen an extraordinary flowering. While continuing to explore the classic themes of horror and fantasy, successive generations of writers- including Shirley Jackson, Ray Bradbury, Charles Beaumont, Stephen King, Steven Millhauser, and Thomas Ligotti-have opened up the field to new subjects, new styles, and daringly fresh expansions of the genre's emotional and philosophical underpinnings. For many of these writers, the fantastic is simply the best available tool for describing the dislocations and newly hatched terrors of the modern era, from the nightmarish post- apocalyptic savagery of Harlan Ellison's "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" to proliferating identities set deliriously adrift in Tim Powers' "Pat Moore." "At its core," writes editor Peter Straub, "the fantastic is a way of seeing." In place of gothic trappings, the post-war masters of the fantastic often substitute an air of apparent normality. The surfaces of American life-department store displays in John Collier's "Evening Primrose," tar-paper roofs seen from an el train in Fritz Leiber's "Smoke Ghost," the balcony of a dilapidated movie theater in Tennessee Williams' "The Mysteries of the Joy Rio"-become invested with haunting presences. The sphere of family life is transformed, in Davis Grubb's "Where the Woodbine Twineth" or Richard Matheson's "Prey," into an arena of eerie menace. Dramas of madness, malevolent temptation, and vampiristic appropriation play themselves out against the backdrop of modern urban life in John Cheever's "Torch Song" and Shirley Jackson's unforgettable "The Daemon Lover." Nearly half the stories collected in this volume were published in the last two decades, including work by Michael Chabon, M. Rickert, Brian Evenson, Kelly Link, and Benjamin Percy: writers for whom traditional genre boundaries have ceased to exist, and who have brought the fantastic into the mainstream of contemporary writing. The 42 stories in this second volume of American Fantastic Tales provide an irresistible journey into the phantasmagoric underside of the American imagination. "An encompassing and essential voyage to the dark side of the moon of American literature." -Jonathan Lethem

This is a study of the ways in which the federal, state, and local governments share responsibility for policies, producing a system that combines... uniformity and diversity. While numerous empirical studies in recent years have detailed particular examples of reforms in federalism, there has been no widely accepted theory by which to evaluate the significance of those details. Thomas Anton synthesizes the particulars to discover what is true in general about the state of American Federalism. He uses a 'benefits coalition' conceptual framework on which to organize his discussion. The author sees the purpose of American government as the creation and distribution of benefits to designated populations. He identifies three main types of benefits, which are directed toward individuals both outside and within government: economic the improvement of economic well-being; juridical assigning rights and obligations, as in determining eligibility to vote; and, symbolic for example, in designating holidays and in fostering public activities that promote pride in and support for the system. Because of their profound affect on the quality of our lives as well as their increasing cost, the policies and programs jointly pursued by American governments are the focus of reform proposals that now occupy a prominent position on the national agenda. For these and other reasons, Anton's analytical and broadly defined discussion of American Federalism is especially timely. Thomas Anton is Professor of Political Science and Director of the A. Alfred Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions at Brown University.

In this outstanding collection of essays, contributed by some of America's leading feminist writers, the current terrain of American feminism is charted... as never before. Covering a broad range of subjects and a diversity of approaches, this volume demonstrates just how far American feminism has come in developing distinctive and sophisticated strategies for combining theory and practice.While many of the writers represented have made their careers within the academy, their interests are never exclusively academic. Indeed, at the heart of this book lies a broad concern with the key social issues of our day. Thus, Catherine MacKinnon writes on sex equality under the law, Cynthia Enloe on international politics, bell hooks on cinematic representation of blackness, and Donna Haraway on the biopolitics of postmodern bodies.The selection also includes important essays by Gayle Rubin, Tania Modleski, Rey Chow, Trinh Minh-ha, Sandra Harding, Judith Stacey and Barrie Thorne, Evelyn Fox Keller, Joan Wallach Scott, Linda S. Kauffman, Paula Treicher, Angela Davis, Gloria Anzaldua and Jean Bethke Elshtain.

Written by a top scholar in the field, American Film: A History gives students a thorough understanding of the fascinating intersection of artistry... and economics in Hollywood cinema from the beginning of film history to the present.A beautiful book and a brisk read, American Film is the most enjoyable and interesting overview of the history of American filmmaking available. Focused on aspects of the film business that are of perennial interest to undergraduates, this book will engage students from beginning to end.

In this most recent update to American Film and Society since 1945, the authors expand upon earlier editions by adding films previously neglected, and... broaden their analysis of a number of films by discussing how these works capture the mood and values of American society in a particular decade. Interpretation of films can involve direct connections with social and political issues, but often deal with the important subtext of dreams, desires, and displacements that the American public feels. Recent films that present gay relationships and politics, such as Brokeback Mountain and Milk, and that address race relations and urban life like Crash and Precious are examined. This fourth edition also addresses changes in the modern film industry such as convergence and the digital revolution.

Although films rarely act as mirror reflections of everyday reality, they are, nevertheless, powerful cultural expressions of the dreams and desires of... the American public. In the third edition of their seminal work, Leonard Quart and Albert Auster provide a complete post-World War II survey of American cinema and its often complex and contradictory values. From the self-confident affirmations of the immediate postwar era, through the social and cinematic turbulence of the sixties and seventies, to the darker, more pessimistic works of the nineties, America cinema has reflected and refracted American concerns.While adhering to the chronological structure and critical premises of the previous editions, American Film and Society Since 1945, Third Edition, adds key analyses of post-Cold War and Clinton-era cinema. While films of the nineties evoked no single political or cultural current, their diversity provides a panoramic view of this most complicated time. Movies that reaffirmed American patriotism (Saving Private Ryan) and debunked its politics (Bulworth), explored life in the inner city (Boyz N the Hood), dealt with homosexuality (Philadelphia), women's issues (Thelma & Louise), suburbia (American Beauty), and sexuality (Eyes Wide Shut) add up to a decade as multifaceted as any that Quart and Auster have considered. No other work provides such an exhaustive and rigorous account of this parallel history of the United States. The breadth and depth of this latest edition will hold appeal for scholars, students, and general readers alike.

While the anti-establishment rebels of 1969's Easy Rider were morphing into the nostalgic yuppies of 1983's The Big Chill, Seventies movies brought us... everything from killer sharks, blaxploitation, and disco musicals to a loving look at General George S. Patton. Indeed, as Peter Lev persuasively argues in this book, the films of the 1970s constitute a kind of conversation about what American society is and should be--open, diverse, and egalitarian, or stubbornly resistant to change.Examining forty films thematically, Lev explores the conflicting visions presented in films with the following kinds of subject matter:Hippies (Easy Rider, Alice's Restaurant)Cops (The French Connection, Dirty Harry)Disasters and conspiracies (Jaws, Chinatown) End of the Sixties (Nashville, The Big Chill)Art, Sex, and Hollywood (Last Tango in Paris)Teens (American Graffiti, Animal House)War (Patton, Apocalypse Now)African-Americans (Shaft, Superfly)Feminisms (An Unmarried Woman, The China Syndrome)Future visions (Star Wars, Blade Runner)As accessible to ordinary moviegoers as to film scholars, Lev's book is an essential companion to these familiar, well-loved movies.

A beloved folk performer gathers uninhibited tales and ballads from the Appalachians. Full of lively stories, jokes, and games for performance, the... folklore in this book reflects the hardships, humor, and creative instincts of the robust men and women from the hills of Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky. The 40 songs features melody and guitar chords. Includes 44 illustrations.

In a groundbreaking new anthology, celebrated food writer Molly O'Neill gathers the very best from over 250 years of American culinary history. This... literary feast includes classic accounts of iconic American foods: Henry David Thoreau on the delights of watermelon; Herman Melville, with a mouth-watering chapter on clam chowder; H. L. Mencken on the hot dog; M.F.K. Fisher in praise of the oyster; Ralph Ellison on the irresistible appeal of baked yam; William Styron on Southern fried chicken. American writers abroad, like A. J. Liebling, Waverly Root, and Craig Claiborne, describe the revelations they found in foreign restaurants; travellers to America, including the legendary French gourmet J. A. Brillat-Savarin, discover such native delicacies as turkey, Virginia barbecue, and pumpkin pie. Great chefs and noted critics discuss their culinary philosophies and offer advice on the finer points of technique; home cooks recount disasters and triumphs. A host of eminent American writers, from Nathaniel Hawthorne, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Walt Whitman to Thomas Wolfe, Willa Cather, and Langston Hughes, add their distinctive viewpoints to the mix. American Food Writing celebrates the astonishing variety of American foodways, with accounts from almost every corner of the country and a host of ethnic traditions: Dutch, Cuban, French, Italian, Jewish, Chinese, Irish, Indian, Scandinavian, Native American, African, English, Japanese, and Mexican. A surprising range of subjects and perspectives emerge, as writers address such topics as fast food, hunger, dieting, and the relationship between food and sex. James Villas offers a behind-the-scenes look at gourmet dining through a waiter's eyes; Anthony Bourdain recalls his days at the Culinary Institute of America; Julia Child remembers the humble beginnings of her much-loved television series; Nora Ephron chronicles internecine warfare among members of the "food establishment;" Michael Pollan explores what the label "organic" really means. Throughout the anthology are more than 50 classic recipes, selected after extensive research from cookbooks both vintage and modern, and certain to instruct, delight, and inspire home chefs.

Containing thought-provoking essays collected from scholarly journals, this highly respected reader provides an overview of the critical topics that... shape U.S. foreign policy.

Emphasizing critical thinking rather than encyclopedic detail, American Foreign Policy helps students understand and evaluate what international... issues face the United States and how it responds.   This truly brief text focuses on the foreign policymaking process and its outcomes to build a solid and practical foundation of knowledge. Encouraging the application of lessons learned from case studies of historical and current problems, American Foreign Policy is a clear and succinct introduction to the field and a compelling way to prepare students to think about America’s changing role in the world.

Updated it its 9th edition, American Foreign Policy helps readers understand and evaluate what international issues face the United States and how it... responds by emphasizing critical thinking rather than encyclopedic detail.This truly brief text focuses on the foreign policymaking process and its outcomes to build a solid and practical foundation of knowledge. Encouraging the application of lessons learned from case studies of historical and current problems, American Foreign Policy is a clear and succinct introduction to the field and a compelling way to prepare readers to think about America's changing role in the world.