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Forgotten Places - Thomas A. Lyson - Bog - University Press of Kansas - Plusbog.dk

Forgotten Places - Thomas A. Lyson - Bog - University Press of Kansas - Plusbog.dk

On the surface they look very different--rugged northern New England with its primarily White population, the arid Lower Rio Grande Valley inhabited mainly by Hispanics, the green and humid Mississippi Delta with a mix of Black and White residents. But when it comes to economics, they have much in common--fortune passed them by.Along with other predominantly rural regions, these areas have fallen behind the rest of the United States in many ways, from job opportunity and education to health care and living conditions. In Forgotten Places, Thomas Lyson and William Falk have brought together works by regional experts on some of the major forgotten places throughout the country: northern New England, the Lower Rio Grande Valley, the Delta, Appalachia, the southern Black belt, the "flannel shirt frontier" of Oregon, the Ozarks, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and rural California.In these essays, the authors focus on problems that keep the regions below the national average in income and standard-of-living surveys. Although the dilemmas vary--a pre-abolition caste system retained in the Mississippi Delta; expendable resources from lumber to lead that have been nearly expended in such places as Ontonagon, Michigan and Oakridge, Oregon; and large farming operations that utilize low-paid, immigrant labor in California--the predicaments are often the same. High illiteracy, dead-end jobs, lack of adequate health care, poor housing conditions, lack of industry and capital, and inability to influence government policy have too often perpetuated a vicious circle of poverty for many people in forgotten places.Each chapter, focusing on a different region, examines why the area languished during an era of economic growth; what social, economic, and political forces contributed to uneven development and poverty; what government has done to alleviate uneven development and lack of opportunity; current social and economic conditions; and locally based attempts to enhance economic development. And after delving into the past and present, the causes and the consequences, the authors speculate on what the future may bear.

DKK 298.00
1

Peacekeepers and Conquerors - Samuel J. Watson - Bog - University Press of Kansas - Plusbog.dk

Peacekeepers and Conquerors - Samuel J. Watson - Bog - University Press of Kansas - Plusbog.dk

In Jackson’s Sword, Samuel Watson showed how the U.S. Army officer corps played a crucial role in stabilising the frontiers of a rapidly expanding nation. In this sequel volume, he chronicles how the corps’ responsibilities and leadership along the young nation’s borders continued to grow. In the process, he shows, officers reflected an increasing commitment to professionalism, insulation from partisanship, and deference to civilian authority—all tempered in the forge of frustrating, politically complex operations and diplomacy along the nation’s frontiers. Watson now focuses on the quarter-century between the Army’s reduction in force in 1821 and the Mexican War. He examines a broad swath of military activity beginning with campaigns against southeastern Indians, notably the dispossession of the Creeks remaining in Georgia and Alabama from 1825 to 1834; the expropriation of the Cherokee between 1836 and 1838; and the Second Seminole War. He also explores peacekeeping on the Canadian border, which exploded in rebellion against British rule at the end of 1837, prompting British officials to applaud the U.S. Army for calming tensions and demonstrating its government’s support for the international state system. He then follows the gradual extension of U.S. sovereignty in the Southwest through military operations west of the Missouri River and along the Louisiana-Texas border from 1821 to 1838 and through dragoon expeditions onto the central and southern Plains between 1834 and 1845. Throughout his account, Watson shows how military professionalism did not develop independent of civilian society, nor was it simply a matter of growing expertise in the art of conventional warfare. Indeed, the government trusted career army officers to serve as federal, international, and interethnic mediators, national law enforcers, and de facto intercultural and international peacekeepers. He also explores officers’ attitudes toward Britain, Oregon, Texas, and Mexico to assess their values and priorities on the eve of the first conventional war the United States had fought in more than three decades. Watson’s detailed study delves deeply into sources that reveal what officers actually thought, wrote, and did in the frontier and border regions. By examining the range of operations over the course of this quarter-century, he shows that the processes of peacekeeping, coercive diplomacy, and conquest were intricately and inextricably woven together.

DKK 692.00
1

Democratic Delusions - Richard J. Ellis - Bog - University Press of Kansas - Plusbog.dk

Democratic Delusions - Richard J. Ellis - Bog - University Press of Kansas - Plusbog.dk

It is becoming common in many states: the opportunity to reclaim government from politicians by simply signing a petition to put an initiative on the ballot and then voting for it. Isn''t this what America ought to be about? Proposition 13 in California''s 1978 election paved the way; the past decade saw more than 450 such actions; now in many states direct legislation dominates the political agenda and defines political-and public-opinion. While this may appear to be democracy in action, Richard Ellis warns us that the initiative process may be putting democracy at risk. In Democratic Delusions he offers a critical analysis of the statewide initiative process in the United States, challenging readers to look beyond populist rhetoric and face political reality.Through engaging prose and illuminating (and often amusing) anecdotes, Ellis shows readers the "dark side" of direct democracy-specifically the undemocratic consequences that result from relying too heavily on the initiative process. He provides historic context to the development of initiatives-from their Populist and Progress roots to their accelerated use in recent decades-and shows the differences between initiative processes in the states that use them. Most important, while acknowledging the positive contribution of initiatives, Ellis shows that there are reasons to use them carefully and sparingly: ill-considered initiatives can subvert normal legislative checks and balances, undermine the deliberative process, and even threaten the rights of minority groups through state-sanctioned measures.Today''s initiative process, Ellis warns, is dominated not by ordinary citizens but by politicians, perennial activists, wealthy interests, and well-oiled machines. Deliberately misleading language on the ballot confuses voters and influences election results. And because many initiatives are challenged in the courts, these ostensiblydemocratic procedures have now put legislation in the hands of the judiciary. Throughout his book he cites examples drawn from states in which initiatives are used intensively-Oregon, California, Colorado, Washington, and Arizona-as well as others in which their use has increased in recent years.Undoing mistakes enacted by initiative can be more difficult than correcting errors of legislatures. As voters prepare to consider the host of initiatives that will be offered in the 2002 elections, this book can help put those efforts in a clearer light. Democratic Delusions urges moderation, attempting to teach citizens to be at least as skeptical of the initiative process as they are of the legislative process-and to appreciate the enduring value of the representative institutions they seek to circumvent.

DKK 298.00
1