BiblioVault - Books by Nichols, John

After Collapse

The Regeneration of Complex Societies

Edited by Glenn M. Schwartz and John J. Nichols

University of Arizona Press, 2006

From the Euphrates Valley to the southern Peruvian Andes, early complex societies have risen and fallen, but in some cases they have also been reborn. Prior archaeological investigation of these societies has focused primarily on emergence and collapse. This is the first book-length work to examine the question of how and why early complex urban societies have reappeared after periods of decentralization and collapse.

Ranging widely across the Near East, the Aegean, East Asia, Mesoamerica, and the Andes, these cross-cultural studies expand our understanding of social evolution by examining how societies were transformed during the period of radical change now termed “collapse.” They seek to discover how societal complexity reemerged, how second-generation states formed, and how these re-emergent states resembled or differed from the complex societies that preceded them.

The contributors draw on material culture as well as textual and ethnohistoric data to consider such factors as preexistent institutions, structures, and ideologies that are influential in regeneration; economic and political resilience; the role of social mobility, marginal groups, and peripheries; and ethnic change. In addition to presenting a number of theoretical viewpoints, the contributors also propose reasons why regeneration sometimes does not occur after collapse. A concluding contribution by Norman Yoffee provides a critical exegesis of “collapse” and highlights important patterns found in the case histories related to peripheral regions and secondary elites, and to the ideology of statecraft.

After Collapse blazes new research trails in both archaeology and the study of social change, demonstrating that the archaeological record often offers more clues to the “dark ages” that precede regeneration than do text-based studies. It opens up a new window on the past by shifting the focus away from the rise and fall of ancient civilizations to their often more telling fall and rise.

CONTRIBUTORS

Bennet Bronson
Arlen F. Chase
Diane Z. Chase
Christina A. Conlee
Lisa Cooper
Timothy S. Hare
Alan L. Kolata
Marilyn A. Masson
Gordon F. McEwan
Ellen Morris
Ian Morris
Carlos Peraza Lope
Kenny Sims
Miriam T. Stark
Jill A. Weber
Norman Yoffee

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The Capital Times

A Proudly Radical Newspaper’s Century Long Fight for Justice and for Peace

John Nichols

Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2017

As Madison’s Capital Times marks its 100th anniversary in 2017, editors Dave Zweifel and John Nichols recall the remarkable history of a newspaper that served as the tribune of Robert M. La Follette and the progressive movement, earned the praise of Franklin Delano Roosevelt for its stalwart opposition to fascism, battled Joe McCarthy during the "Red Scare," championed civil rights, women’s rights, and LGBTQ rights, opposed the Vietnam War and the invasion of Iraq, and stood with Russ Feingold when he cast the only US Senate vote against the Patriot Act. The Capital Times did not do this from New York or Washington but from the middle of America, with a readership of farmers, factory workers, teachers, and shopkeepers who stood by The Cap Times when the newspaper was boycotted, investigated, and attacked for its determination.

At a point when journalism is under assault, when newspapers struggle to survive, and "old media" struggles to find its way in a digital age, The Capital Times remains unbowed—still living up to the description Lord Francis Williams, the British newspaper editor, wrote 50 years ago: "The vast majority of American papers are as dull as weed-covered ditch-water; vast Saharas of cheap advertising with occasional oases of editorial matter written to bring happiness to the Chamber of Commerce and pain and irritation to none; the bland leading the bland.… Just here and there are a few relics of the old fighting muckraking tradition of American journalism, like The Capital Times of Madison."

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Concise Dictionary of Minnesota Ojibwe

John Nichols

University of Minnesota Press, 1994

Sample entries: bawa'iganaak na rice knocker (stick for wild rice harvesting); pl bawa'iganaakoog; loc bawa'iganaakong; dim bawa'iganaakoons AIRPLANE AIRPLANE: bemisemagak, -in ni-pt The most up-to-date resource for those interested in the linguistic and cultural heritage of the Anishinaabe, A Concise Dictionary of Minnesota Ojibwe contains more than 7,000 of the most frequently used Ojibwe words. Presented in Ojibwe-English and English-Ojibwe sections, this dictionary spells words to reflect their actual pronunciation with a direct match between the letters used and the speech sounds of Ojibwe. It contains many ancient words and meanings as well as language added in the twentieth century. Most entries give several sample inflected forms such as the plural, diminutive, and locative forms of nouns and first person and participle forms of verbs. The basic patterns of Ojibwe word structure and the organization of the dictionary entries are clearly explained in the introduction. The most widely used modern standard writing system for Ojibwe is used throughout, and some of the key objects of Ojibwe life are authentically illustrated by coauthor and artist Earl Nyholm. Acknowledged as one of the three largest Native American languages, Ojibwe is spoken in many local varieties in the Upper Midwest and across Central and Eastern Canada. Minnesota Ojibwe is spoken in Central and Northern Minnesota, and is very similar to the Ojibwe spoken in the Ontario-Minnesota border region, Wisconsin, and Michigan's Upper Peninsula. A Concise Dictionary of Minnesota Ojibwe is an essential reference for all students of Ojibwe culture, history, language, and literature. "This dictionary is an essential addition to the study and preservation of the Ojbwe language." Lorie Roy, American Indian Libraries Newsletter Winner of a 1995 Minnesota Book Award John D. Nichols is professor of Native studies and linguistics at the University of Manitoba. He is the editor of several volumes of Ojibwe language texts.

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The Dog's Children

Anishinaabe Texts told by Angeline Williams

Leonard Bloomfield

University of Manitoba Press, 1991

These are a collection of 20 stories, dictated in 1941 to Bloomfield's linguistics class, edited from manuscripts now in the National Anthropological Archives at the Smithsonian Institution, and published for the first time. In Ojibwe, with English translations by Bloomfield. Ojibwe-English glossary and other linguistic study aids.

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Fish in the Lakes, Wild Rice, and Game in Abundance

Testimony on Behalf of Mille Lacs Ojibwe Hunting and Fishing Rights

Edited by James M. McClurken

Michigan State University Press, 2000

On 13 August 1990 members of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe filed a lawsuit against the State of Minnesota for interfering with the hunting, fishing, and gathering rights that had been guaranteed to them in an 1837 treaty with the United States. In order to interpret the treaty the courts had to consider historical circumstances, the intentions of the parties, and the treaty's implementation. The Mille Lacs Band faced a mammoth challenge. How does one argue the Native side of the case when all historical documentation was written by non- Natives? The Mille Lacs selected six scholars to testify for them. Published here for the first time, Charles Cleland, James McClurken, Helen Tanner, John Nichols, Thomas Lund, and Bruce White discuss the circumstances under which the treaty was written, the personalities involved in the negotiations and the legal rhetoric of the times, as well as analyze related legal conflicts between Natives and non- Natives. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor delivered the 1999 Opinion of the [United States Supreme] Court.

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