This unique guide to the herbaceous wildflowers and ferns of Kentucky's fields and forests contains 500 full-color plates accompanied by descriptive captions. Each species has been photographed to show its distinctive features for easy identification. The accompanying text gives a concise description of the plant, including distinguishing features, variations sometimes found, similar and related species, habitat, frequency, distribution, and flowering time. A simple-to-follow key enables the layman to identify nearly 700 wildflowers and ferns with minimal effort. Reliable and authoritative, A Guide to the Wildflowers and Ferns of Kentucky will provide the user with many hours of pleasure in the field or at home.

Many artists have fought in wars, and renowned painters have recorded heroic scenes of great battles, but those works were usually done long after the battles were waged. Artists have also been commissioned to visit, briefly, war-torn areas and make notes of the devastation and horror. Yet few artists who were members of any armed services have drawn or painted daily while they fought alongside their comrades. Edward Reep, as an official combat artist in World War II, painted and sketched while the battles of the Italian campaign raged around him. He was shelled, mortared, and strafed. At Monte Cassino, the earth trembled as he attempted to paint the historic bombing of that magnificent abbey. Later, racing into Milan with armed partisans on the fenders of his Jeep, he saw the bodies of Mussolini and his beautiful mistress cut down from the gas station where they had been hanged by their heels. That same day he witnessed at first hand the spectacle of a large German army force holed up in a high-rise office tower, waiting for the chance to surrender to the proper American brass for fear of falling into the hands of the vengeful partisans.Reep's recollections of such desperate days are made more memorable in Combat Artist by the many painfully vivid paintings and drawings that accompany the text. Reep's battlefield drawings show us, with unrelenting honesty, the horrors and griefs -- and the bitter comedy -- of that war fought to end wars that only spawned more.

Here is a virtually complete list of persons identifiable as Jews in America by 1800, the result of a thorough search of manuscript materials and published literature for the names of Jews who lived in America (including Canada up to 1783) during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. No other study provides comparable information for such an ethnic group in this country.Each entry in this dictionary is accompanied by birth and death dates and places and other biographical data so far as they are available. The biographies vary from two lines recording the birth of an unnamed stillborn child or the presence of a transient in New York City to half-column summaries of the careers of well-known persons. Included are converts to Christianity and, in some instances, their children. Persons whose names or associations have resulted in their being incorporated into earlier lists of "Jews" are noted also, with an attempt to ascertain their identity.Especially noteworthy is the small number of Jews in America during the two centuries before 1800. Only about 4,000 Jews, of whom 1,500 were native-born, have been identified in this dictionary -- and not all of these positively. Perhaps another 800 have been omitted, Rosenbloom points out, because their names are not included in extant records. Even so, it would appear that the percentage of Jews in the total colonial population (less than three million in 1783) was infinitesimal.Students of the American colonial period will find this book a useful tool for ascertaining the national origins of American Jews, their occupations, their part in the Revolution, their places of settlement, and other historical and sociological data.

"So wise were our elders!" Thus exclaims Mariano Chicunque, himself an elder, expressing in a single phrase the thrust of the mythic narrative tradition he simultaneously presents and represents in his storytelling.A remarkable body of mythology is documented for the first time in this volume. John Homes McDowell's study revolves around thirty-two mythic narratives of the Kamsá Indians who live in the Sibundoy Valley of the Colombian Andes, collected by the author from several renowned Kamsá storytellers. Each myth is given in the native language with parallel English translations that seek to capture the flavor of the original performances. Textual annotation and commentary assess the grounding of the myths in the language and culture of the Kamsá indigenous community.Introductory chapters describe the process of transcription and translation and highlight important characteristics of the collection. McDowell stresses the collaborative nature of the enterprise, which benefits from the shared vision of the ethnographer and of indigenous consultants who were involved in every step of the process. The narratives are portrayed as a residual mythology in transit toward folktale but still evocative of a traditional cosmos. The myths are much more than inert "literary" objects, and under McDowell's scrupulous analysis they emerge as a storehouse of narrative potential whose performances still have meaning in Kamsá society and culture today."So Wise Were Our Elders" is a companion volume to McDowell's Sayings of the Ancestors: The Spiritual Life of the Subundoy Indians (1989).

Is the United States seriously overcommitted in its worldwide relationships? This book provides the answers to that question. It will be essential reading for makers of American foreign and national security policy, for journalists reporting on international affairs, for scholars seeking better ways to analyze United States foreign policy objectives, and for informed citizens who ask why the United States is involved militarily in all parts of the world.

In this biography of Algie Martin Simons, a major figure in the Socialist party of America, Kent and Gretchen Kreuter show the widely ranging social activities that brought Simons into touch with many of the movements and personalities of his time. As a propagandist and historian, Simons wrote the first thoroughgoing Marxist account of American history. As a journalist, he furnished Upton Sinclair with much of the material that he used in The Jungle, and as a party politician, Simons was a significant force in unifying the party, in establishing the International Workers of the World (IWW), and in trying to make socialism an acceptable alternative for the American voter. Although he broke with the party in 1917, Simons, as a teacher and a writer on industrial relations, continually struggled with the major problems that faced industrial society in the twentieth century.

Edmund Burke in recent years has assumed extraordinary stature in American political thinking as the father of neoconservatism. In this book, the first of a two-volume biography of this eighteenth-century English statesman, Mr. Cone brings important new evidence to his thesis that during the age of the American Revolution Burke was significant more as the politician and the party man than as a systematic political philosopher. This volume deals with Burke's career to 1782, when the Marquis of Rockingham, to whom Burke had attached himself seventeen years earlier, stood once again on the threshold of the prime ministership. In this period Burke was the voice -- and frequently the behind-the-scenes leader -- of the parliamentary opposition to George III, Lord North, and the "King's Friends." Ever since the repeal of the Stamp Act in 1766, he and his colleagues had struggled against the government over the great imperial questions of America, India, and Ireland and over the "influence" of the crown in domestic affairs through the patronage of the royal household offices.Mr. Cone stresses the importance of Burke's practical contributions to the art of government. By his partisan activities, his leadership in parliament, and his political writings, Burke gave expression to new ideas about the nature of English politics and emphasized the value of political parties as necessary instruments of free government. Indeed, Mr. Cone states, in so far as Burke the conservative championed the cause of party government, he did more than the political radical to change the nature of the cabinet, of parliament, of their relationship to one another, of the monarchy and its relationship to the cabinet and parliament -- in short, to revolutionize the practical working of the political and constitutional system of England.Based upon manuscript sources which were not opened to general scholarship until 1949, this book contains much new information about Burke's private life and provides a provocative reevaluation of his political career in the age of the American Revolution.

Although there has been a general revival of interest in Ben Jonson's dramatic work in the past twenty years, little critical effort has been directed to his late plays -- dismissed by John Dryden as the "dotages" of an aging mind. Through a close reading of The Devil Is an Ass, The Staple of News, The New Inn, and The Magnetic Lady in light of Jonson's own theories of comedy, author Larry S. Champion demonstrates that they reveal the same precise construction and dramatic control found in his acclaimed masterpieces. Furthermore, these works reflect Jonson's continued emphasis upon realism and satiric attack, though they may not be equal in quality or dramatic effectiveness.The brief and undistinguished stage runs of the late plays are not an accurate gauge of their dramatic merit. Rather than indicating an enfeebled mind, these late plays reveal Jonson to be a continuing innovator -- adapting the forms of the pastoral, the romance, and the morality play to the purposes of comic satire. Previous critics have charged that Jonson was merely desirous of regaining public favor at the expense of his artistic integrity. The present study suggests, however, that Jonson in these plays was in reality burlesqueing the popular fad of exaggerated romantic comedy, which he considered a degradation of the dramatic art.

Louis D. Brandeis is a figure of perennial significance in American history. Brilliant lawyer, innovative reformer, seminal thinker, and judicial giant, he left few significant issues in American society untouched during the course of his long and productive career. The last several decades have been particularly rich in Brandeis historiography, creating the need for a work surveying current scholarship and addressing critical issues. Brandeis and America more than meets this need.Six distinguished Brandeis scholars -- David J. Danelski, Nelson L. Dawson, Allon Gal, David W. Levy, Philippa Strum, and Melvin I. Urofsky -- offer richly analytical essays illuminating key aspects of Brandeis's impact on American life: his relationship to the Progressive movement, his involvement in Zionism, his role as a New Deal advisor, and his significance in constitutional law.In addition, the book contains a comprehensive survey of Brandeis historiography, a reference chronology of his life, and an exploration of the deeply controversial issue of judicial propriety. It should prove a powerful stimulus to future Brandeis research. These essays not only contribute to an understanding of Brandeis himself but also cast light on vital political, social, and economic issues in twentieth-century America, issues that are sure to be with us well into the next century.

The Nouvelles Récréations et Joyeaux Devis of Bonaventure des Périers are here translated for the first time into modern English. The translators have been successful in retaining the vitality of this important French Renaissance satirist, turning his colloquial sixteenth-century French into equally colloquial and lively American. The translation of the 129 tales is prefaced by a biographical study of des Périers both as man and artist, and a critical bibliography is also included.

The Inner Bluegrass Region of Kentucky is a shining jewel of geography -- synonymous in the minds of many with the state of Kentucky. It is unique in many respects: the character of its land, its native vegetation, and its indigenous animal life. The way of life developed by its human inhabitants over the past two hundred years, especially its focus on the Thoroughbred horse, is also unique. The interaction of these two forces -- natural and human -- is the focus for this important work.The book includes color plates of representative plant and animal species and typical habitats. The annotated lists of 474 animal and nearly 1,200 plant species describe habitat, frequency, and distribution.Bluegrass Land and Life is a book that will delight all who share an interest in the Bluegrass region's past and present and a concern for its future.

Ebenezer Hiram Stedman, whose lively reminiscences of antebellum Kentucky were written as a series of letters to his daughter, was one of the pioneer papermakers of the state. Stedman paints a vivid picture of the life of the numerous and thriving middle class who sought opportunity in the expanding economy of the new West. The vivid detail of Stedman's personal experiences is supplemented by a more formal account of early Kentucky papermaking.

Tracing the evolution of the Ashland Oil & Refining Company whose growth was phenomenal even in a rapidly expanding industry, author Joseph L. Massie attributes the success of the company to the flexible management policies of Paul G. Blazer.

What was the role of the black church in the rise of militancy that marked the sixties? Was it a calming influence that slowed that rise? Or did it contribute a sense of moral purpose and thus help inspire a wider participation in the civil rights movement? In Black Church in the Sixties the Nelsens attack the view that the church tended to inhibit civil rights militancy. The Nelsens reach their conclusions through the examination of thirty data sets derived from published surveys and from their own research conducted in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The data, subjected to Multiple Classification Analysis, reflect the attitudes of many different population groups and span the decade of the 1960s. The many tables make possible the presentation of an impressive amount of hard evidence.

In this compact, yet comprehensive exploration of Shakespeare's romances, Robert W. Uphaus suggests that the romances bring us to a realm of human and dramatic experience that is "beyond tragedy." The inexorable movement of tragedy toward death and a final close is absorbed in romance by a further movement in which death can lead to renewed life, characters can experience a second time of joy and peace, and the audience's conventional expectations about reality and literature are challenged and enlarged. In the late tragedies of King Lear and Antony and Cleopatra, Uphaus finds the tragic structure augmented by elements that will later contribute to the form of the romances. Turning then to the romances themselves, he sees these plays as forming a profession in which Pericles is a brilliant outline of the conventions of romance and Cymbeline is romance taken to its dramatic limits, in fact to the point of parody. Through his fresh and provocative readings of the plays we experience anew the delight of Shakespearean romance and glimpse the world of renewal at its heart.

The term metafiction invaded the vocabulary of literary criticism around 1970, yet the textual strategies involved in turning fiction back onto itself can be traced through several centuries. In this theoretical/critical study Robert C. Spires examines the nature of metafiction and chronicles its evolution in Spain from the time of Cervantes to the 1970s, when the obsession with novelistic self-commentary culminated in an important literary movement. The critical portions of this study focus primarily on twentieth-century works. Included are analyses of Unamuno's Niebla, Jarnés's Locura y muerte de nadie and La novia del viento, Torrente Ballester's Don Juan, Cunquiero's Un hombre que se parecía a Orestes, and three novels from the "self-referential" movement of the 1970s, Juan Goytisolo's Juan sin Tierra, Luis Goytisolo's La colera de Aquiles, and Martín Gaite's El cuarto de atrás.Seeking a stronger theoretical basis for his critical readings, Spires offers a sharpened definition of the term metafiction. The mode arises, he declares, through an intentional violation of the boundaries that normally separate the worlds of the author, the fiction, and the reader. Building on theoretical foundations laid by Frye, Scholes, Genette, and others, Spires also proposes a literary paradigm that places metafiction in a position intermediate between fiction and literary theory.These theoretical formulations place Spires's book in the forefront of critical thought. At the same time, his full-scale analyses of Spanish metafictional works will be welcomed by Hispanists and other students of world literature.