In the first full-length scholarly synthesis of the African American Churches of Christ, Edward J. Robinson provides a comprehensive look at the church’s improbable development against a backdrop of African American oppression. The journey begins with a lesser known preacher, F. F. Carson, in many ways a forerunner in the struggles and triumphs awaiting the preachers and lay people in the congregations to come. Robinson then builds on scholarship treating well-known figures, including Marshall Keeble and G. P. Bowser, to present a wide-ranging history of African American Churches of Christ from their beginnings—when enslaved people embraced the nascent Stone-Campbell Christian Movement even though founder Alexander Campbell himself favored slavery. The author moves on to examine how the churches grew under the leadership of S. R. Cassius, even as Jim Crow restrictions put extreme pressure on organizations of any kind among African Americans.
 
Robinson’s well-researched narrative treats not only the black male leaders of the church, but also women leaders, such as Annie C. Tuggle, as well as notable activities of the church, including music, education, and global evangelism, thus painting a complete picture of African American Churches of Christ. Through scholarship and compelling storytelling, Robinson tells the two-hundred-year tale of how “black believers survived and thrived on the discarded ‘scraps’ of America, forging their own identity, fashioning their own lofty ecclesiology and ‘hard’ theology, and creating their own papers, lectureships, liturgy, and congregations.” A groundbreaking exploration by a seasoned scholar in American religion, Hard-Fighting Soldiers is sure to become the standard text for anyone researching the African American Churches of Christ.
 

Heath Robinson (1872–1944) is Britain’s “Gadget King”—master of the art of creating madcap contraptions that made use of ropes, weights, and pulleys to perform relatively simple tasks, from wart removal to peeling potatoes. Although he trained as a painter and also worked as a book illustrator, Robinson developed his forte with drawings of gadgets that parodied the absurdities of modern life. A true cartoonist, Robinson had a way of getting at the heart of the matter while simultaneously satirizing it mercilessly. He became a household name in Britain, and his popularity continues today with plans to build a museum in London to share with a new generation the story of his life and work.

For the car enthusiast, How to Be a Motorist offers a compendium of Robinson’s wonderfully inventive car-based contraptions, with innovations like a handy “zip-opening bonnet,” a rear wheel to turn the car around with one movement, and a fork attachment to help rural motorists to avoid the occasional chicken on the roadway. The days of unsolicited driving advice could be over with the realization of Robinson’s “duo car for the incompatible,” and the book also includes a parody of a production line demonstrating how cars are made.

A side-splittingly funny collection from the man whose “absurd, beautiful drawings” H. G. Wells claimed “give me a peculiar pleasure of the mind like nothing else in the world,” this book make a perfect gift for anyone looking to have a laugh at our complicated and increasingly mechanical modern life.

Heath Robinson (1872–1944) is Britain’s “Gadget King”—master of the art of creating madcap contraptions that made use of ropes, weights, and pulleys to perform relatively simple tasks. Although he trained as a painter and also worked as a book illustrator, Robinson developed his forte with drawings of gadgets that parodied the absurdities of modern life. A true cartoonist, Robinson had a way of getting at the heart of the matter while simultaneously satirizing it mercilessly. He became a household name in Britain, and his popularity continues today.

The cartoons in Heath Robinson: How to be a Perfect Husband provide sage advice for how to succeed in almost all aspects of married life—and, of course, it often features a complicated Robinsonian gadget. The perfect husband, for example, will take advantage of two simple attachments to the garden roller to tend the lawn and entertain the baby simultaneously. Likewise, he can peel onions with no fear of tears using a mirror and construct a cost-effective vacuum cleaner using items found around the house. Most importantly, he will devise a device to help him climb the stairs silently after a late night out with the boys.

A gently satirical collection, this book make a perfect gift for anyone looking to have a laugh at our complicated and increasingly mechanical modern life.
 

Heath Robinson (1872–1944) is Britain’s “Gadget King”—master of the art of creating madcap contraptions that made use of ropes, weights, and pulleys to perform relatively simple tasks, from wart removal to peeling potatoes. Although he trained as a painter and also worked as a book illustrator, Robinson developed his forte with drawings of gadgets that parodied the absurdities of modern life. A true cartoonist, Robinson had a way of getting at the heart of the matter while simultaneously satirizing it mercilessly. He became a household name in Britain, and his popularity continues today with plans to build a museum in London to share with a new generation the story of his life and work.

How to Live in a Flat brings together a series of patently Robinsonesque space-saving solutions for city dwellers looking to make the most of modest square footage. Some of the solutions involve furniture made to serve multiple—and often opposing—purposes, like a combination bath-and-writing desk for businessmen. Others reimagine the workings of entire apartment complexes, including one cutaway explaining the use of the communal bath.

A side-splittingly funny collection from the man whose “absurd, beautiful drawings” H. G. Wells claimed “give me a peculiar pleasure of the mind like nothing else in the world,” this book make a perfect gift for anyone looking to have a laugh at our complicated and increasingly mechanical modern life.

Heath Robinson (1872–1944) is Britain’s “Gadget King”—master of the art of creating madcap contraptions that made use of ropes, weights, and pulleys to perform relatively simple tasks, from wart removal to peeling potatoes. Although he trained as a painter and also worked as a book illustrator, Robinson developed his forte with drawings of gadgets that parodied the absurdities of modern life. A true cartoonist, Robinson had a way of getting at the heart of the matter while simultaneously satirizing it mercilessly. He became a household name in Britain, and his popularity continues today with plans to build a museum in London to share with a new generation the story of his life and work.

Heath Robinson’s Golf establishes Robinson as one of the great humorists of the “gentleman’s game.” From the origin of those peculiar shortened pants called “plus-fours” to the multiple meanings of an “awkward lie,” Robinson pokes fun at this popular sport. Among the cartoons in Golf are mechanisms like a machine for testing golf drivers or the “waterproof mashie” for keeping one’s clothes dry. And, while Robinson primarily focuses on the antics of a portly golfer and his long-suffering caddie, few will avoid the feeling that Robinson is at times speaking directly to them with contraptions like a putter fitted with a patented ball guide or a “movable bunker” to block an opponent’s progress down the fairway.

A side-splittingly funny collection from the man whose “absurd, beautiful drawings” H. G. Wells claimed “give me a peculiar pleasure of the mind like nothing else in the world,” this book make a perfect gift for anyone looking to have a laugh at our complicated and increasingly mechanical modern life.

Heath Robinson (1872–1944) is Britain’s “Gadget King”—master of the art of creating madcap contraptions that made use of ropes, weights, and pulleys to perform relatively simple tasks, from wart removal to peeling potatoes. Although he trained as a painter and also worked as a book illustrator, Robinson developed his forte with drawings of gadgets that parodied the absurdities of modern life. A true cartoonist, Robinson had a way of getting at the heart of the matter while simultaneously satirizing it mercilessly. He became a household name in Britain, and his popularity continues today with plans to build a museum in London to share with a new generation the story of his life and work.

With Heath Robinson’s Great War, the cartoonist lampoons the German army and the hardships of war. What better antidote to the threat of popular German propaganda than drawings of the “Huns” disabling the British army not with mustard gas but laughing gas? In high demand among British civilians, Robinson’s WWI panels also provided respite to thousands of troops—many of whom sent the cartoonist letters suggesting future subjects or simply expressing their appreciation. 

A side-splittingly funny collection from the man whose “absurd, beautiful drawings” H. G. Wells claimed “give me a peculiar pleasure of the mind like nothing else in the world,” this book make a perfect gift for anyone looking to have a laugh at our complicated and increasingly mechanical modern life.

Heath Robinson’s Home Front sees the well-loved cartoonist working in collaboration with the writer and humorist Cecil Hunt. Together, they offer hopelessly impractical solutions to some of the most perplexing problems of the day. Pity the poor Briton advised to play his weekly bridge tournament while wearing a gas mask, the gardener who substitutes a complex configuration of magnets in the shortage of simple pea-sticks, or the motorist who must find a way to power her vehicle without gasoline. The result is an amusingly idiosyncratic celebration of the British population’s remarkable ability to “make do and mend.”

Heath Robinson was a household name in Britain, and millions of readers around the world continue to thoroughly enjoy his cartoons today. A classic military-themed compendium, Heath Robinson’s Home Front will be a favorite with fans of the cartoonist’s complicated, fanciful contraptions.

With Heath Robinson’s Second World War, Britain’s “Gadget King” uses his characteristic madcap contraptions to poke good-natured fun at the war. From a series of cork bath mats strung together to enable soldiers to cross a treacherous stream to a tank complete with piano attachment for campsite concertos, the cartoons found here are uproariously funny while also forming a cheerful critique of some of the absurdities of war.

Heath Robinson was a household name in Britain, and millions of readers around the world continue to thoroughly enjoy his cartoons today. This classic military-themed compendium will be a favorite with fans of the cartoonist’s complicated, fanciful contraptions.

WInner of the Best First Book from the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association
Winner of the Labriola Center American Indian National Book Award
Winner of the Ann Saddlemyer Award from the Canadian Association for Theatre Research

Reimagining how we understand and write about the Indigenous listening experience​

Hungry Listening is the first book to consider listening from both Indigenous and settler colonial perspectives. A critical response to what has been called the “whiteness of sound studies,” Dylan Robinson evaluates how decolonial practices of listening emerge from increasing awareness of our listening positionality. This, he argues, involves identifying habits of settler colonial perception and contending with settler colonialism’s “tin ear” that renders silent the epistemic foundations of Indigenous song as history, law, and medicine. 

With case studies on Indigenous participation in classical music, musicals, and popular music, Hungry Listening examines structures of inclusion that reinforce Western musical values. Alongside this inquiry on the unmarked terms of inclusion in performing arts organizations and compositional practice, Hungry Listening offers examples of “doing sovereignty” in Indigenous performance art, museum exhibition, and gatherings that support an Indigenous listening resurgence.

Throughout the book, Robinson shows how decolonial and resurgent forms of listening might be affirmed by writing otherwise about musical experience. Through event scores, dialogic improvisation, and forms of poetic response and refusal, he demands a reorientation toward the act of reading as a way of listening. Indigenous relationships to the life of song are here sustained in writing that finds resonance in the intersubjective experience between listener, sound, and space.