Anglo-Saxon prose and poetry is, without question, the major literary achievement of the early Middle Ages (c. 700-1100). In no other vernacular... language does such a vast store of verbal treasures exist for so extended a period of time. For twenty years the definitive guide to that literature has been Stanley B. Greenfield's 1965 Critical History of Old English Literature. Now this classic has been extensively revised and updated to make it more valuable than ever to both the student and scholar.

The twenty-first century is a world in constant change.  In A New Culture of Learning, Doug Thomas and John Seely Brown pursue an understanding of... how the forces of change, and emerging waves of interest associated with these forces, inspire and invite us to imagine a future of learning that is as powerful as it is optimistic. Typically, when we think of culture, we think of an existing, stable entity that changes and evolves over long periods of time. In A New Culture, Thomas and Brown explore a second sense of culture, one that responds to its surroundings organically. It not only adapts, it integrates change into its process as one of its environmental variables. By exploring play, innovation, and the cultivation of the imagination as cornerstones of learning, the authors create a vision of learning for the future that is achievable, scalable and one that grows along with the technology that fosters it and the people who engage with it. The result is a new form of culture in which knowledge is seen as fluid and evolving, the personal is both enhanced and refined in relation to the collective, and the ability to manage, negotiate and participate in the world is governed by the play of the imagination. Replete with stories, this is a book that looks at the challenges that our education and learning environments face in a fresh way.   PRAISE FOR A NEW CULTURE OF LEARNING “A provocative and extremely important new paradigm of a ‘culture of learning’, appropriate for a world characterized by continual change. This is a must read for anyone interested in the future of education.” James J. Duderstadt, President Emeritus, University of Michigan   “Thomas and Brown are the John Dewey of the digital age.” Cathy Davidson, Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, Duke University   “A New Culture of Learning may provide for the digital media and learning movement what Thomas Paine’s Common Sense did for the colonists during the American Revolution— a straightforward, direct explanation of what we are fighting for and what we are fighting against.” Henry Jenkins, Provost’s Professor, USC   “A New Culture of Learning is at once persuasive and optimistic — a combination that is all too rare, but that flows directly from its authors’ insights about learning in the digital age. Pearls of wisdom leap from almost every page.” Paul Courant, Dean of Libraries, University of Michigan   “Brilliant. Insightful. Revolutionary.” Marcia Conner, author of The New Social Learning   “Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown portray the new world of learning gracefully, vividly, and convincingly.” Howard Gardner, Professor, Harvard Graduate School of Education   “Thomas and Brown make it clear that education is too often a mechanistic, solo activity delivered to the young. It doesn’t have to be that way—learning can be a messy, social, playful, embedded, constant activity. We would do well to listen to their message.” Clay Shirky, author of Cognitive Surplus   “Anyone who fears, as I do, that today’s public schools are dangerously close to being irrelevant must read this book. The authors provide a road map—and a lifeline—showing how schools can prosper under the most difficult conditions. It is a welcome departure from all the school bashing.” John Merrow, Education Correspondent, PBS NewsHour   “American education is at a crossroads. By illuminating how play helps to transform both information networks and experimentation, and how collective inquiry unleashes the power of imagination, A New Culture of Learning provides an irresistible path to the future.” Joel Myerson, Director, Forum for the Future of Higher Education  

A watershed decade in U.S. history, the 1930s witnessed a struggle on various fronts--fought by many different Americans--that raised the country's... awareness of the inequalities and injustices suffered by African Americans. Featuring a new preface and an expansive, up-to-date bibliography, this 30th Anniversary Edition of Harvard Sitkoff's A New Deal for Blacks presents a comprehensive account of the changes--substantive and symbolic--that eventually led to the emergence of civil rights as a national issue and helped make a successful quest for racial justice possible. It emphasizes a wide variety of individuals and organizations that contributed to the coming-of-age of civil rights, and highlights the role of New Dealers, organized labor, the Left, Southern women opposed to lynching, biological and social scientists, black lawyers, and, especially, African American organizations that planted the seeds of racial progress. This unique text is an ideal resource for undergraduate courses in African American history.

A watershed decade in U.S. history, the 1930s witnessed a struggle on various fronts--fought by many different Americans--that raised the country's... awareness of the inequalities and injustices suffered by African Americans. Featuring a new preface and an expansive, up-to-date bibliography, this 30th Anniversary Edition of Harvard Sitkoff's A New Deal for Blacks presents a comprehensive account of the changes--substantive and symbolic--that eventually led to the emergence of civil rights as a national issue and helped make a successful quest for racial justice possible. It emphasizes a wide variety of individuals and organizations that contributed to the coming-of-age of civil rights, and highlights the role of New Dealers, organized labor, the Left, Southern women opposed to lynching, biological and social scientists, black lawyers, and, especially, African American organizations that planted the seeds of racial progress. This unique text is an ideal resource for undergraduate courses in African American history.

In a work of sweeping scope and luminous detail, Elizabeth Borgwardt describes how a cadre of World War II American planners inaugurated the ideas and... institutions that underlie our modern international human rights regime. Borgwardt finds the key in the 1941 Atlantic Charter and its Anglo-American vision of "war and peace aims." In attempting to globalize what U.S. planners heralded as domestic New Deal ideas about security, the ideology of the Atlantic Charter--buttressed by FDR's "Four Freedoms" and the legacies of World War I--redefined human rights and America's vision for the world. Three sets of international negotiations brought the Atlantic Charter blueprint to life--Bretton Woods, the United Nations, and the Nuremberg trials. These new institutions set up mechanisms to stabilize the international economy, promote collective security, and implement new thinking about international justice. The design of these institutions served as a concrete articulation of U.S. national interests, even as they emphasized the importance of working with allies to achieve common goals. The American architects of these charters were attempting to redefine the idea of security in the international sphere. To varying degrees, these institutions and the debates surrounding them set the foundations for the world we know today. By analyzing the interaction of ideas, individuals, and institutions that transformed American foreign policy--and Americans' view of themselves--Borgwardt illuminates the broader history of modern human rights, trade and the global economy, collective security, and international law. This book captures a lost vision of the American role in the world.

With his bestselling spiritual guide The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle inspired millions of readers to discover the freedom and joy of a life lived "in... the now." In A New Earth, Tolle expands on these powerful ideas to show how transcending our ego-based state of consciousness is not only essential to personal happiness, but also the key to ending conflict and suffering throughout the world. Tolle describes how our attachment to the ego creates the dysfunction that leads to anger, jealousy, and unhappiness, and shows readers how to awaken to a new state of consciousness and follow the path to a truly fulfilling existence.

Building on the astonishing success of The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle presents readers with an honest look at the current state of humanity: He... implores us to see and accept that this state, which is based on an erroneous identification with the egoic mind, is one of dangerous insanity. Tolle tells us there is good news, however. There is an alternative to this potentially dire situation. Humanity now, perhaps more than in any previous time, has an opportunity to create a new, saner, more loving world. This will involve a radical inner leap from the current egoic consciousness to an entirely new one. In illuminating the nature of this shift in consciousness, Tolle describes in detail how our current ego-based state of consciousness operates. Then gently, and in very practical terms, he leads us into this new consciousness. We will come to experience who we truly are—which is something infinitely greater than anything we currently think we are—and learn to live and breathe freely.

New sources of data, together with advances in theory, offer the opportunity for a fresh look at old and new questions.This book asks such questions as:... did mercantilism cause the American Revolution?; was slavery profitable?; and what were the causes of the Great Depression? Illustrated

In searching for answers as to why young people differ vastly from their parents and grandparents when it comes to turning out the vote, A New... Engagement challenges the conventional wisdom that today's youth is plagued by a severe case of political apathy. In order to understand the current nature of citizen engagement, it is critical to separate political from civic engagement. Using the results from an original set of surveys and the authors' own primary research, they conclude that while older citizens participate by voting, young people engage by volunteering and being active in their communities.

Arriving in Lowell, Massachusetts, in the 1830s after the death of her shipmaster father, the eleven-year-old Lucy Larcom went to work in a textile mill... to help her family make ends meet. Originally published in 1889, her autobiography offers glimpses of the early years of the American factory system as well as of the social influences on her development. It remains an important and illuminating document of the Industrial Revolution and nineteenth-century cultural history.

Considered a "regionalist" writer, like Kate Chopin and fellow New Englander Sarah Orne Jewett, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman began writing at a time in... America's history when literature was becoming the first "culture industry", and she found a growing market for her work in popular magazines. This collection shows Freeman's many modes -- romantic, gothic, and psychologically symbolic -- as well as her use of pathos and sentimentality, of dry reserve, and of humor, satire, and irony. These last are most vividly expressed in The Jamesons, a series of sketches about village life reprinted for the first time since the turn of the century. Also included here are stories that center on questions of women's integrity, courage, and, often, privation; that explore cultural constructions of masculinity; and that dramatize the interconnection of rural New England with modern culture and commerce.

The Early American Women Writers series offers rare works of fiction by eighteenth- and nineteenth-century women, each reprinted in its entirety, each... with a foreword by General Editor Cathy N. Davidson, who places the novel in a historical and literary perspective. Written in 1822, A New-England Tale is the first of the many novels, tales, and short magazine pieces Catharine Sedgwick published during her lifetime. The story of an orphan girl in rural New England and the moral trials she faces as she grows up, this early example of the popular nineteenth-century women's novel provides a unique look at the religious and social climate at this crucial period in America's national development. Addressing many of the complex religious, political, and philosophical issues of the time, as well as concerns of the woman writer, A New-England Tale is a classic story of a young woman's moral and material triumphs.

Jane Elton, orphaned as a young girl, goes to live with her aunt Mrs. Wilson, a selfish and overbearing woman who practices a repressive Calvinism. In... their rural New England village, Jane grows up yearning to break free from Mrs. Wilson's tyranny and find her place as a citizen of the evolving American Republic. She is helped by her encounters with characters who embody various shadings of moral, religious, and civic virtue: the affectionate servant Mary Hull, a pious Methodist; Mr. Lloyd, a kind Quaker; Crazy Bet, emotional, sympathetic, but deeply unstable; and Old John, bereaved but wise. Ultimately, A New-England Tale is about the connection between parenting and governing, and the key role women play in shaping a fledgling nation.

In his highly original and controversial study. Professor Lockridge traces the origins of Dedham, Massachusetts, carefully examining its establishment... as a utopia in 1636, the changes that occurred during the first four generations of its settlement, and the kind of community it had become by the mid-eighteenth century.The colonial New England Town is one of the myths of American history, along with such others as George Washington and the Cherry Tree and The Frontier. They are difficult to shatter, for they perpetuate the popular belief that the nation has always enjoyed universal democracy, honesty, and opportunity. The New England Town, however, deserves more than a mythical place in American history. In this industrial village society, the unique American experience had its beginnings.In his highly original and controversial study. Professor Lockridge traces the origins of Dedham, Massachusetts, carefully examining its establishment as a utopia in 1636, the changes that occurred during the first four generations of its settlement, and the kind of community it had become by the mid-eighteenth century. In bringing to life this peculiarly American town he creates a view of all New England towns, so vital to an understanding of how the American character and society were shaped. He also gives answers to the basic questions shrouded by the myths: Was the New England Town democratic? Was it equalitarian? Was opportunity great? was society mobile? was it static or dynamic? Who had power, and who wanted it? In examining these questions Professor Lockridge has gone to the heart of the controversy surrounding the New England Town experience, finding some truth, and not a little irony, in the myth.This enlarged edition includes an updated bibliography and an afterword in which Lockridge addresses two questions about the story of Dedham: What does it tell us about the impulses that led to American independence? The answers to these questions suggest the connections between the "new" social history and the broad political themes of the revolutionary period.

No one looking ahead at the middle of the last century could have foreseen the extent and the importance of the ensuing environmental crises. Now, more... than a decade into the next century, no one can ignore it. A New Environmental Ethics: the Next Millennium for Life on Earth offers clear, powerful, and oftentimes moving thoughts from one of the first and most respected philosophers to write on the environment. Rolston, an early and leading pioneer in studying the moral relationship between humans and the earth, surveys the full spectrum of approaches in the field of environmental ethics. This book, however, is not simply a judicious overview. Instead, it offers critical assessments of contemporary academic accounts and draws on a lifetime of research and experience to suggest an outlook for the future. As a result, this focused, forward-looking analysis will be a necessary complement to any balanced textbook or anthology in environmental ethics, and will teach its readers to be responsible global citizens, and residents of their landscape, helping ensure that the future we have will be the one we wish for.