Analyzes pure scientific research in the Dutch East Indies during the 19th and 20th centuries in the context of imperialist and colonial ideologies. The focus is on relations between the projects undertaken on the periphery and the institutions in the home country. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Preliminary Material -- 1 Imperious Metropolitan Knowledge -- 2 Stars of the Southern Heavens -- 3 Islands of Earthly Wonders -- 4 Knowledge Radiant and Resplendent -- 5 Tenebrous Colonial Visions -- Index.

*Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award* *A New York Times Notable Book* *Winner of the Texas Book Award and the Oklahoma Book Award* This New York Times bestseller and stunning historical account of the forty-year battle between Comanche Indians and white settlers for control of the American West “is nothing short of a revelation…will leave dust and blood on your jeans” (The New York Times Book Review). Empire of the Summer Moon spans two astonishing stories. The first traces the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. The second entails one of the most remarkable narratives ever to come out of the Old West: the epic saga of the pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker and her mixed-blood son Quanah, who became the last and greatest chief of the Comanches. Although readers may be more familiar with the tribal names Apache and Sioux, it was in fact the legendary fighting ability of the Comanches that determined when the American West opened up. Comanche boys became adept bareback riders by age six; full Comanche braves were considered the best horsemen who ever rode. They were so masterful at war and so skillful with their arrows and lances that they stopped the northern drive of colonial Spain from Mexico and halted the French expansion westward from Louisiana. White settlers arriving in Texas from the eastern United States were surprised to find the frontier being rolled backward by Comanches incensed by the invasion of their tribal lands. The war with the Comanches lasted four decades, in effect holding up the development of the new American nation. Gwynne’s exhilarating account delivers a sweeping narrative that encompasses Spanish colonialism, the Civil War, the destruction of the buffalo herds, and the arrival of the railroads, and the amazing story of Cynthia Ann Parker and her son Quanah—a historical feast for anyone interested in how the United States came into being. Hailed by critics, S. C. Gwynne’s account of these events is meticulously researched, intellectually provocative, and, above all, thrillingly told. Empire of the Summer Moon announces him as a major new writer of American history.

This history of the RAND Corporation, written with full access to its archives, is a page-turning chronicle of the rise of the secretive think tank that has been the driving force behind the American government for 60 years.

Rather than treating the Great Awakening and the Enlightenment as defining opposites in 18th century American culture, this study argues that the imperatives of the great revival actually shaped the pursuit of enlightened science. Reid-Maroney traces the interwoven histories of the two movements by reconstructing the intellectual world of the Philadelphia circle. Prophets of the Enlightenment had long tried to resolve pressing questions about the limitations of human reason and the sources of our knowledge about the created order of things. The leaders of the Awakening addressed those questions with a new urgency and, in the process, determined the character of the Enlightenment emerging in Philadelphia's celebrated culture of science. Tracing the influence of evangelical sensibility and the development of a Calvinist parallel to the philosophical skepticism of enlightened Scots, Reid-Maroney finds that the Philadelphians' love of science rested on a radical critique of human reason, even while it acknowledged that reason was the dignifying and distinguishing property of human nature. Benjamin Rush alluded to an enlightenment wrought by grace in his image of the Kingdom of Christ and the Empire of Reason. In the post-Revolutionary period, the redemptive Enlightenment of the Philadelphia circle reached its greatest cultural power as a vision for scientific progress in the new republic.

This teacher's guide accompanies the film An Empire of Reason, which was produced in conjunction with the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution.

Pulitzer prize–winner Chris Hedges charts the dramatic and disturbing rise of a post-literate society that craves fantasy, ecstasy and illusion. Chris Hedges argues that we now live in two societies: One, the minority, functions in a print-based, literate world, that can cope with complexity and can separate illusion from truth. The other, a growing majority, is retreating from a reality-based world into one of false certainty and magic. In this “other society,” serious film and theatre, as well as newspapers and books, are being pushed to the margins. In the tradition of Christopher Lasch’s The Culture of Narcissism and Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death, Hedges navigates this culture — attending WWF contests as well as Ivy League graduation ceremonies — exposing an age of terrifying decline and heightened self-delusion.

"A devastating critique of Madison's political thought". -- Gordon S. Wood in The New York Review of Books. "If Matthews is right -- that Madison and Jefferson 'were, from an ideological perspective, worlds apart' -- then we must reassess just about everything we think we know about ideology and politics in the early republic". -- Journal of American History. "The most provocative recent book on Madison". -- New York Times Book Review.

The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki occurred before the attack on Pearl Harbor, right? Well believe it or not there were two Americans walking around who actually believed just that. The author knows he talked to them, young people who, at the time, had just graduated from the local high school! It is just another example showcasing the swelling indifference and poverty of interest to history and geography in this country. And this spurred the author to write this book. In so doing, the author refers to events in history that have a distinct and sometimes controversial contemporary impact. On History: A Treatise is meant to be a lightning rod to challenge the status quo. To stir the reader to think, to inquire, to learn. On History: A Treatise then, is not geared to those willing to succumb to the numbing conformity of political correctness; but rather those who are eager to question what they read and challenge what theyre told. For the unfettered exchange of ideas is a prerequisite to the survival of a free society.