When the Europeans first arrived in America, they had a number of preconceptions, prejudices, expectations and hopes about what life in the New World would be like. This book examines the different visions and representations of America conveyed in the writings of Spanish conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and the Pilgrim leader William Bradford, taking both writers within their respective literary and historical contexts. Anthologies of American literature have consistently ignored Spanish-language achievements on the grounds of a restrictive interpretation of American literature based on linguistic boundaries. Consequently, Spanish-language texts such as Cabeza de Vaca's or the account by the Hidalgo de Elvas, to name but two examples, have been marginalized in the narrative of American literary history. In seeking to redress this neglect, Galisteo contributes to scholarship which seeks to analyze Early America as a whole, including not only Anglo American perspectives but also the Spanish American aspect of the colonization process.

The common theme of these essays is the evolution of American cultural identities from a diverse colonial inheritance. Changing representations of what it means to be 'American' are assumed to be the consequence of shifting cross-cultural or transatlantic pressures. Since 1492 the experience of America has continually been interpreted both for and by Europeans; the colonial past constituting the prime source of introspective energies and self-conscious representations for all Americans. The collection is divided into two sections, juxtaposing colonial negotiations with 'native' Americans and the modern self-perceptions of 'native-born' Americans. The focus of the early part of the book is the vision of America that was formed through the process of colonization - with its attendant impact upon wildlife, landscapes and indigenous peoples - a vision registered in visual images and written records, as well as Western philosophical, ethnographical and aesthetic ideals.

"Published with the assistance of the Getty Foundation."

"A collection of essays that discuss representative eighteenth- and nineteenth-century French and English views of American democracy and society, and offer a critical assessment of various narrative constructions of American life, society, and culture"--Provided by publisher.

This fascinating multivolume set provides a unique resource for learning about early American history, including thematic essays, topical entries, and an invaluable collection of primary source documents. In 1783, just months after the United States achieved independence from Great Britain, General George Washington was compelled to convince his officers not to undertake a military coup of the Congress of Confederation. Had the planned mutinous coup of the Newburgh Conspiracy gone forward, the American experiment may have ended before it even began. The pre-colonial and colonial periods of early American history are filled with accounts of key events that established the course of our nation's development. This expansive three-volume set provides entries on a wide variety of topics and themes in early American history to elucidate how the United States came to be. Written in straightforward language, the encyclopedic entries on social, political, cultural, and military subjects from the pre-Columbian period through the creation of the Constitution (roughly 1400–1790) will be useful for anyone wishing to deeply investigate the who, what, where, when, and why of early America. Additionally, the breadth of primary documents—including personal diaries, letters, poems, images, treaties, and other legal documents—provides readers with firsthand sources written by the men and women who shaped American history, both the famous and the less well known. Each of the three volumes also presents thematic essays on highlighted topics to fully place the individual entries within their proper historical context and heighten readers' comprehension.

This book examines how women candidates, voters, and office holders shape U.S. political processes and institutions, lending their perspectives to gradually evolve American life and values. This book provides an encyclopedic sourcebook on the evolution of women's involvement in American politics from the colonial era to the present, covering all of the individuals, organizations, cultural forces, political issues, and legal decisions that have collectively served to elevate the role of women at the ballot box, on the campaign trail, in Washington, and in state- and city-level political offices across the country. The in-depth essays document and examine the rising prominence of women as voters, candidates, public officials, and lawmakers, enabling readers to understand how U.S. political processes and institutions have been—and will continue to be—shaped by women and their perspectives on American life and values. The entries cover a range of women politicians and officials; female activists and media figures; relevant organizations and interest groups, such as Emily's List, League of Women Voters, and National Right to Life; key laws, court cases, and events, such as the Nineteenth Amendment, the Equal Rights Amendment, the Seneca Falls Convention, the passage of Title IX, and Roe v. Wade; and other topics, like media coverage of appearance, women's roles as campaign strategists/fundraisers, gender differences in policy priorities, and the gender gap in political ambitions. The text is supplemented by sidebars that highlight selected landmarks in women's political history in the United States, such as the 2012 election of Tammy Baldwin, the first openly gay U.S. senator.

Focuses on one of the most attractive features of late medieval manuscript illumination: the portrait of the book owner at prayer within the pages of her prayer-book.

This multicultural project examines fictional and non-fictional accounts of travel in the Early Republic and antebellum periods. Connecting literary representations of geographic spaces within and outside of U.S. borders to evolving definitions of national American identity, the book explores divergent visions of contested spaces. Through an examination of depictions of the land and travel in fiction and non-fiction, the study uncovers the spatial and legal conceptions of national identity. The study argues that imagined geographies in American literature dramatize a linguistic contest among dominant and marginal voices. Blending interpretations of canonical authors, such as James Fenimore Cooper, Frederick Douglass, Richard Henry Dana, Jr., and Herman Melville, with readings of less well -known writers like Gilbert Imlay, Elizabeth House Trist, Sauk Chief Black Hawk, William Grimes, and Moses Roper, the book interprets diverse authors' impressions of significant spaces migrations. The movements and regions covered include the Anglo-American migration to the Trans-Appalachian Valley after the Revolutionary War; the 1803 Louisiana Purchase and Anglo-American travel west of the Mississippi; the Underground Railroad as depicted in the fugitive slave narrative and novel; and the extension of American interests in maritime endeavors off the California coast and in the South Pacific.

This book documents the scientific outcome of the International NSF-ARPA Workshop on Object Representation in Computer Vision, held in New York City in December 1994 with invited participants chosen among the recognized experts in the field. The volume presents the complete set of papers in revised full-length versions. In addition, the first paper is a report on the workshop in which the panel discussions as well as the conclusions and recommendations reached by the workshop participants are summarized. Altogether the volume provides an excellent, in-depth view of the state of the art in this active area of research and applications.

The Middle East played a critical role in the development of photography as a new technology and an art form. Likewise, photography was instrumental in cultivating and maintaining Europe’s distinctively Orientalist vision of the Middle East. As new advances enhanced the versatility of the medium, nineteenth-century photographers were able to mass-produce images to incite and satisfy the demands of the region’s burgeoning tourist industry and the appetites of armchair travelers in Europe. In this way, the evolution of modern photography fueled an interest in visual contact with the rest of the world. Photography’s Orientalism offers the first in-depth cultural study of the works of European and non- European photographers active in the Middle East and India, focusing on the relationship between photographic, literary, and historical representations of this region and beyond. The essays explore the relationship between art and politics by considering the connection between the European presence there and aesthetic representations produced by traveling and resident photographers, thereby contributing to how the history of photography is understood.