Stetson University was founded in 1883 in historic DeLand, Florida, and has been educating students for over a century. The passionate vision of the town's early promoter Henry Addison DeLand contributed in a large way to the success of the university. DeLand, a New Yorker with a dream, wanted his newly adopted town to be distinctive in rural Central Florida. Since the state had no four-year college, his foresight brought to fruition the excellent educational facility we have today.

This book tells the fascinating story of the founding, development, and growth of Florida''s first law school, one that has achieved national and international recognition. The story begins in 1898, the year Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders boarded ships in Tampa Harbor for Cuba to fight in America''s short war with Spain. That same year, officials of the young John B. Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, considered starting a law program. With encouragement from lawyers and jurists, they did so, and the school''s doors opened in the fall of 1900 with five white male students. One-hundred and six years later, more than 1,000 law students--women, men, African and Island Americans, Hispanics, Asians, and Native Indians--were enrolled at the Stetson University College of Law, with campuses in Gulfport and Tampa. This engaging, readable book covers the 106-year ongoing history of Stetson''s law school from its strong beginnings in the early decades of the twentieth century through its mid-life crises--the Great Depression, closure during World War II, and threatened loss of accreditation in the early 1950s. Through it all, the school survived. Its march upward accelerated in 1954 after the school relocated to a new home (a luxurious 1920s resort hotel) on a spacious and beautiful campus in Gulfport, Florida. There, Harold Sebring, a former chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court (and a judge at the Nuremberg War Trials) became dean. He revamped the program, hired a strong faculty, and renewed morale. He, in turn, was followed by Dean Richard Dillon, who raised academic standards and brought in significant gifts for the school. Subsequent deans have continued to push the school forward. In recent decades its national and international reputation has risen in part due to an acclaimed program in trial and appellate advocacy. Over the past dozen years, the school''s advocacy program has been ranked first in the nation eight times, and second three times. On the international front, Stetson University College of Law initiated and maintains several programs throughout the world. This supremely researched book describes and analyzes the rise in prominence of Stetson University College of Law. It is a history about people--administrators, faculty, students, friends, and alumni--and how their personalities and visions meshed to propel a small, poor law school into the dynamic, secure law center it is today. It is a story unlike any other in the chronicles of American legal education. "This history is a truly monumental work--a monumental to the progress of Florida''s oldest law school, a monument to those who labored to insure that progress, and a monument to its authors, two of Stetson''s most distinguished faculty members." -- Wm. Reece Smith, Jr., former president of the International, American and Florida Bar Associations, Rhodes Scholar, and Distinguished Professorial Lecturer at Stetson University College of Law "[M]ust-reading for anyone interested in the evolution of American law schools." -- James W. Ely, Jr., Underwood Professor of Law and Professor of History at Vanderbilt University "This is a vivid, detailed chronicle of the hundred-year-long history of Stetson University College of Law--step-by-step, year-by-year. Stetson law graduates will relish every word of it. Others, too, will learn from it what it takes to make an outstanding educational institution." -- Harold J. Berman, Rober W. Woodruff Professor of Law at Emory University and James Barr Ames Professor of Law Emeritus at Harvard University "Filled with people and personalities, this book nicely situates the College''s history within the broader contexts of the history of the state of Florida and the development of American legal education." -- Walter F. Pratt, Jr., Dean and Educational Foundation Distinguished Professor of Law at The University of South Carolina School of Law "This book may be the most comprehensive history of a law school ever written. It tells a rich story of the ups and downs of Florida''s oldest law school, and in the process nicely chronicles not only one hundred years of law teaching in Florida, but also the transformation in the character of law students." -- Stephen B. Presser, Director of American Society of Legal History and Raoul Berger Professor of legal History and Professor of Business Law at Northwestern University

Haunting ancient cemeteries and primitive landmarks as well as modern apartment complexes and highway sides, ghosts and restless spirits abound. This volume of Florida's Ghostly Legends and Haunted Folklore offers a delightful—and somewhat spooky—look into the darker side of the south and central areas of the Sunshine State. Explore fortress ruins in New Smyrna Beach, and keep an eye out for mysterious shadows and dark figures in the nearby forest; visit the island of Islamorada, where the ghostly remains of Flagler's railway rumble over tracks destroyed in the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane; and, if you're especially brave, walk through the eerie corridors of the mausoleum in Myrtle Hill Cemetery near Tampa, where you are sure to hear whispers from the dead or the muffled echoes of a music box. Delve into the unknown with Greg Jenkins as he examines the history, legend, and paranormal rationale behind strange occurrences in many of south and central Florida's haunted locations. Get a fresh look at some of the state's most famous ghost stories and learn never-before-heard tales of the strange and the supernatural as you take a trip through Haunted Florida. The second volume of Florida's Ghostly Legends and Haunted Folklore, covering north Florida and St. Augustine, is also available. Next in series > > See all of the books in this series

"Our Best 357 Colleges is the best-selling college guide on the market because it is the voice of the students. Now we let graduate students speak for themselves, too, in these brand-new guides for selecting the ideal business, law, medical, or arts and humanities graduate school. It includes detailed profiles; rankings based on student surveys, like those made popular by our Best 357 Colleges guide; as well as student quotes about classes, professors, the social scene, and more. Plus we cover the ins and outs of admissions and financial aid. Each guide also includes an index of all schools with the most pertinent facts, such as contact information. And we've topped it all off with our school-says section where participating schools can talk back by providing their own profiles. It's a whole new way to find the perfect match in a graduate school."

In family rooms across America, millions of children and teenagers are playing video games, such as Call of Duty, Halo, and Grand Theft Auto, roaming violent virtual worlds—with virtual guns in their hands. In what sometimes seems like an increasingly violent world, it's only natural to worry about the effects of all this pixelated gore. But is that concern misplaced? Authors and psychologists Patrick M. Markey and Christopher J. Ferguson say it is. The media and politicians have been sounding the alarm for years, and with every fresh tragedy involving a young perpetrator comes another flurry of articles about the dangers of violent media. The problem is this: Their fear isn't supported by the evidence. In fact, unlike the video game–trained murder machines depicted in the press, school shooters are actually less likely to be interested in violent games than their peers. In reality, most well-adjusted children and teenagers play violent video games, all without ever exhibiting violent behavior in real life. What's more, spikes in sales of violent games actually correspond to decreased rates of violent crime. If that surprises you, you're not alone—the national dialogue on games and violence has been hopelessly biased. But that's beginning to change. Scholars are finding that not only are violent games not one of society's great evils, they may even be a force for good. In Moral Combat, Markey and Ferguson explore how video games—even the bloodiest—can have a positive impact on everything from social skills to stress, and may even make us more morally sensitive. Tracing the rise of violent games from arcades to online deathmatches, they have spent years on the front lines of the video game debate and now offer a comprehensive overview of the scientific research on gaming. With humor, complete honesty, and extensive research, they separate the myth from the medium. Moral Combat is an irreverent and informative guide to the worries—and wonders—of our violent virtual world.

In a critical intervention into the bioethics debate over human enhancement, philosopher Melinda Hall tackles the claim that the expansion and development of human capacities is a moral obligation. Hall draws on French philosopher Michel Foucault to reveal and challenge the ways disability is central to the conversation. The Bioethics of Enhancement includes a close reading and analysis of the last century of enhancement thinking and contemporary transhumanist thinkers, the strongest promoters of the obligation to pursue enhancement technology. With specific attention to the work of bioethicists Nick Bostrom and Julian Savulescu, the book challenges the rhetoric and strategies of enhancement thinking. These include the desire to transcend the body and decide who should live in future generations through emerging technologies such as genetic selection. Hall provides new analyses rethinking both the philosophy of enhancement and disability, arguing that enhancement should be a matter of social and political interventions, not genetic and biological interventions. Hall concludes that human vulnerability and difference should be cherished rather than extinguished. This book will be of interest to academics working in bioethics and disability studies, along with those working in Continental philosophy (especially on Foucault).

Seventeen-year-old Stetson hasn't seen his mother in years and tries to keep a good distance from his alcoholic father, but when his father introduces him to a sister who recently appeared at their home, Stetson finds himself being concerned with his

In 1842, a group of radical abolitionists and social reformers established the Northampton Association of Education and Industry, a utopian community in western Massachusetts organized around a collectively owned and operated silk mill. Members sought to challenge the prevailing social attitudes of their day by creating a society in which "the rights of all are equal without distinction of sex, color or condition, sect or religion." This volume brings together a remarkable set of seventy-five letters written by the members of the Stetson family, who belonged to the Association for almost four years. Discovered recently by a family descendant, the correspondence documents the thoughts and experiences of ordinary people struggling to uphold common ideals in challenging circumstances. The letters re-create an extended family conversation in which news was shared, stories were told, hopes and fears expressed, and ideas discussed. We meet James Stetson, an ambivalent family patriarch with a wry sense of humor. There is Almira, his eldest child, who strove earnestly to work for her family and wrote movingly of her dreams of a career in service to her principles. And there is Dolly Witter Stetson, James's wife and the central figure in this collection, whom we first meet as she was about to give birth for the ninth time and whose relish for community life was shaped by a lively intelligence, a commitment to exploring reform ideals, and a down-to-earth view of family duties and household burdens.