front cover of Hamlet's Castle
Hamlet's Castle
The Study of Literature as a Social Experience
By Gordon Mills
University of Texas Press, 1976

Hamlet's Castle is both a theoretical and a practical examination of the interactions that take place in a literary classroom. The book traces the source of literature's power to the relationship between its illusional quality and its abstract meaning and relates these elements to the process by which a group, typically an academic class, forms a judgment about a literary work. In focusing on the importance of the exchange of ideas by readers, Gordon Mills reveals a new way of looking at literature as well as a different concept of the social function of the literary classroom and the possible application of this model to other human activities.

The three fundamental elements that constitute Mills's schema are the relationship between a reader and the illusional quality of literature, the relationship between a reader and the meaning of a text, and the concept of social experience within the environment of a text. The roles of illusion and meaning in a text are explored in detail and are associated with areas outside literature, including science and jurisprudence. There is an examination of the way in which decisions are forced by peers upon one another during discussion of a literary work-an exchange of opinion which is commonly a source of pleasure and insight, sought for its own sake. In the course of his study, Mills shows that the act of apprehending a literary structure resembles that of apprehending a social structure. From this relationship, he derives the social function of the literary classroom.

In combining a theoretical analysis with the practical objective of determining what value can be found in the study of literature by groups of people, Mills has produced a critical study of great significance. Hamlet's Castle will change concepts about the purpose of teaching literature, affect the way in which literature is taught, and become involved in the continuing discussion of the relationship of literary studies to other disciplines.

[more]

front cover of Hand Trembling, Frenzy Witchcraft, and Moth Madness
Hand Trembling, Frenzy Witchcraft, and Moth Madness
A Study of Navajo Seizure Disorders
Jerrold E. Levy
University of Arizona Press, 1987
According to traditional Navajo belief, seizures are the result of sibling incest, sexual witchcraft, or possession by a supernatural spirit—associations that have kept such disorders from being known outside Navajo families. This new study is concerned with discovering why the Navajos have accorded seizures such importance and determining their meaning in the larger context of Navajo culture. The book is based on a 14-year study of some 40 Navajo patients and on an epidemiological survey among the Navajos and among three Pueblo tribes.
[more]

front cover of Heeding the Call
Heeding the Call
A Study of Denise Giardina's Novels
William Jolliff
West Virginia University Press, 2020
In Heeding the Call, William Jolliff offers the first book-length discussion of West Virginia writer and activist Denise Giardina, perhaps best known for her novel Storming Heaven, which helped spark renewed interest in the turn-of-the-century Mine Wars. Jolliff proposes that Giardina’s fiction be considered under three thematic complexes: regional, political, and theological. Though addressing all three, Heeding the Call foregrounds the theological because it is the least accessible to most readers and critics.
 
In chapters devoted to each of Giardina’s novels, Jolliff attends to her uses of history, her formal techniques, and the central themes that make each work significant. What becomes clear is that while the author’s religious beliefs inform her fiction, she never offers easy answers. Her narratives consistently push her characters—and her readers—into more challenging and meaningful questions. Jolliff concludes by arguing that although Giardina’s initial fame has been tied to her significance as an Appalachian novelist, future studies must look beyond the regional to the deeply human questions her novels so persistently engage.
[more]

front cover of Heredity, Environment, and Personality
Heredity, Environment, and Personality
A Study of 850 Sets of Twins
By John C. Loehlin and Robert C. Nichols
University of Texas Press, 1976

This volume reports on a study of 850 pairs of twins who were tested to determine the influence of heredity and environment on individual differences in personality, ability, and interests. It presents the background, research design, and procedures of the study, a complete tabulation of the test results, and the authors’ extensive analysis of their findings. Based on one of the largest studies of twin behavior conducted in the twentieth century, the book challenges a number of traditional beliefs about genetic and environmental contributions to personality development.

The subjects were chosen from participants in the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test of 1962 and were mailed a battery of personality and interest questionnaires. In addition, parents of the twins were sent questionnaires asking about the twins’ early experiences. A similar sample of nontwin students who had taken the merit exam provided a comparison group. The questions investigated included how twins are similar to or different from nontwins, how identical twins are similar to or different from fraternal twins, how the personalities and interests of twins reflect genetic factors, how the personalities and interests of twins reflect early environmental factors, and what implications these questions have for the general issue of how heredity and environment influence the development of psychological characteristics. In attempting to answer these questions, the authors shed light on the importance of both genes and environment and form the basis for different approaches in behavior genetic research.

[more]

front cover of Heredity under the Microscope
Heredity under the Microscope
Chromosomes and the Study of the Human Genome
Soraya de Chadarevian
University of Chicago Press, 2020
By focusing on chromosomes, Heredity under the Microscope offers a new history of postwar human genetics. Today chromosomes are understood as macromolecular assemblies and are analyzed with a variety of molecular techniques. Yet for much of the twentieth century, researchers studied chromosomes by looking through a microscope. Unlike any other technique, chromosome analysis offered a direct glimpse of the complete human genome, opening up seemingly endless possibilities for observation and intervention. Critics, however, countered that visual evidence was not enough and pointed to the need to understand the molecular mechanisms.
 
Telling this history in full for the first time, Soraya de Chadarevian argues that the often bewildering variety of observations made under the microscope were central to the study of human genetics. Making space for microscope-based practices alongside molecular approaches, de Chadarevian analyzes the close connections between genetics and an array of scientific, medical, ethical, legal, and policy concerns in the atomic age. By exploring the visual evidence provided by chromosome research in the context of postwar biology and medicine, Heredity under the Microscope sheds new light on the cultural history of the human genome.
[more]

front cover of The Hibernensis
The Hibernensis
Book 1: A Study and Edition
Roy Flechner
Catholic University of America Press, 2019
The Hibernensis is the longest and most comprehensive canon-law text to have circulated in Carolingian Europe. Compiled in Ireland in the late seventh or early eighth century, it exerted a strong and long-lasting influence on the development of European canon law. The present edition offers—for the first time—a complete text of the Hibernensis combining the two main branches of its manuscript transmission. This is accompanied by an English translation and a commentary that is both historical and philological. The Hibernensis is an invaluable source for those interested in church history, the history of canon law, social-economic history, as well as intellectual history, and the history of the book.

Widely recognized as the single most important source for the history of the church in early medieval Ireland, the Hibernensis is also our best index for knowing what books were available in Ireland at the time of its compilation: it consists of excerpted material from the Bible, Church Fathers and doctors, hagiography, church histories, chronicles, wisdom texts, and insular normative material unattested elsewhere. This in addition to the staple sources of canonical collections, comprising the acta of church councils and papal letters. Altogether there are forty-two cited authors and 135 cited texts. But unlike previous canonical collections, the contents of the Hibernensis are not simply derivative: they have been modified and systematically organised, offering an important insight into the manner in which contemporary clerical scholars attempted to define, interpret, and codify law for the use of a growing Christian society.
[more]

front cover of The History of the Fujiwara House
The History of the Fujiwara House
A Study and Annotated Translation of the Toshi Kaden
Mikaël Bauer
Amsterdam University Press, 2020
With the addition of a contextualized introduction, here is the first annotated translation of the eighth- century clan history T?shi Kaden or the History of the Fujiwara House. Hitherto, scholars have focused on the more famous eighth-century imperial histories Nihon Shoki and Kojiki, but other sources such as the History of the Fujiwara House provide a narrative that complements or deviates from the official histories. The book was written to provide students and researchers with additional material to reconsider the political and intellectual currents of seventh- and eighth-century Japan and, in addition, reveal further insight into the career and motivations of its controversial author, the courtier Fujiwara no Nakamaro.
[more]

front cover of Hobbes's Kingdom of Light
Hobbes's Kingdom of Light
A Study of the Foundations of Modern Political Philosophy
Devin Stauffer
University of Chicago Press, 2018
Was Hobbes the first great architect of modern political philosophy? Highly critical of the classical tradition in philosophy, particularly Aristotle, Hobbes thought that he had established a new science of morality and politics. Devin Stauffer here delves into Hobbes’s critique of the classical tradition, making this oft-neglected aspect of the philosopher’s thought the basis of a new, comprehensive interpretation of his political philosophy.

In Hobbes’s Kingdom of Light, Stauffer argues that Hobbes was engaged in a struggle on multiple fronts against forces, both philosophic and religious, that he thought had long distorted philosophy and destroyed the prospects of a lasting peace in politics. By exploring the twists and turns of Hobbes’s arguments, not only in his famous Leviathan but throughout his corpus, Stauffer uncovers the details of Hobbes’s critique of an older outlook, rooted in classical philosophy and Christian theology, and reveals the complexity of Hobbes’s war against the “Kingdom of Darkness.” He also describes the key features of the new outlook—the “Kingdom of Light”—that Hobbes sought to put in its place. Hobbes’s venture helped to prepare the way for the later emergence of modern liberalism and modern secularism. Hobbes’s Kingdom of Light is a wide-ranging and ambitious exploration of Hobbes’s thought.
 
[more]

front cover of Homosexuality, Transidentity, and Islam
Homosexuality, Transidentity, and Islam
A Study of Scripture Confronting the Politics of Gender and Sexuality
Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed
Amsterdam University Press, 2020
-- With a foreword from Jan Jaap de Ruiter. Translation and Afterword by Adi S. Bharat. --In Homosexuality, Transidentity, and Islam: A Study of Scripture Confronting the Politics of Gender and Sexuality, Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed systematically analyses the entirety of Islamic scriptural sources that relate to the question of gender and sexuality in relation to their historical contexts. Through an approach that is certainly more politically engaged than that of most Islamic thinkers of our time, he clarifies key theological concepts that may seem esoteric to the uninitiated. In doing so, he makes a compelling case for the compatibility of sexual and gender diversity within Islam. Zahed also examines the historical and contemporary socio-political impacts of inclusive and exclusive (or, quite simply, homophobic, transphobic, and misogynistic) interpretations of scripture. This important study dynamically examines the connections between scripture, interpretation, and the politics of gender and sexuality.
[more]

front cover of A House Divided
A House Divided
A Study of Statehood Politics and the Copperhead Movement in West Virginia
Richard Orr Curry
University of Pittsburgh Press, 1964

In A House Divided, Richard Orr Curry investigates the political realities that led to the breakup of the Old Dominion and the emergence of a new state during the Civil War. Orr's analysis of the intra-state conflicts over political, economic, and social issues, party factions of Unionism and Secessionism and multiple layers of division within those factions, offer fascinating and original insights into the long debate that would lead to the ratification of the West Virginia state constitution in 1863.

[more]

front cover of How Philosophy Became Socratic
How Philosophy Became Socratic
A Study of Plato's "Protagoras," "Charmides," and "Republic"
Laurence Lampert
University of Chicago Press, 2010
Plato’s dialogues show Socrates at different ages, beginning when he was about nineteen and already deeply immersed in philosophy and ending with his execution five decades later. By presenting his model philosopher across a fifty-year span of his life, Plato leads his readers to wonder: does that time period correspond to the development of Socrates’ thought? In this magisterial investigation of the evolution of Socrates’ philosophy, Laurence Lampert answers in the affirmative.

The chronological route that Plato maps for us, Lampert argues, reveals the enduring record of philosophy as it gradually took the form that came to dominate the life of the mind in the West. The reader accompanies Socrates as he breaks with the century-old tradition of philosophy, turns to his own path, gradually enters into a deeper understanding of nature and human nature, and discovers the successful way to transmit his wisdom to the wider world. Focusing on the final and most prominent step in that process and offering detailed textual analysis of Plato’s Protagoras, Charmides, and Republic, How Philosophy Became Socratic charts Socrates’ gradual discovery of a proper politics to shelter and advance philosophy.
[more]

front cover of How Socrates Became Socrates
How Socrates Became Socrates
A Study of Plato’s “Phaedo,” “Parmenides,” and “Symposium”
Laurence Lampert
University of Chicago Press, 2021
Plato dispersed his account of how Socrates became Socrates across three dialogues. Thus, Plato rendered his becoming discoverable only to readers truly invested. In How Socrates Became Socrates, Laurence Lampert recognizes the path of Plato’s strides and guides us through the true account of Socrates’ becoming. He divulges how and why Plato ordered his Phaedo, Parmenides, and Symposium chronologically to give readers access to Socrates’ development on philosophy’s fundamental questions of being and knowing.
 
In addition to a careful and precise analysis of Plato’s Phaedo,Parmenides, and Symposium, Lampert shows that properly entwined, Plato’s three dialogues fuse to portray a young thinker entering philosophy’s true radical power. Lampert reveals why this radicality needed to be guarded and places this discussion within the greater scheme of the politics of philosophy.
 
[more]

front cover of How to Study
How to Study
Suggestions for High-School and College Students
Arthur W. Kornhauser
University of Chicago Press, 1993
A complete guide for successful studying, How to Study is concise, practical, time-tested, and free of gimmicks. Designed originally for freshmen at the University of Chicago, this smart book has helped generations of students throughout the country improve their skills in learning quickly and effectively. It offers a no-nonsense plan of action filled with techniques, strategies, exercises, and advice for:

*Mastering rather than just memorizing material

*Learning the secrets of mental preparation before tackling difficult assignments or exams

*Strengthening skills for better reading, note taking, and listening

*Improving use of time in the classroom, the library, and at home

It offers a wealth of advice, from the commonsensical ("Never begin study immediately after eating" and "Check every tendency to daydream") to the more psychological ("Use your knowledge by thinking, talking, and writing about the things you are learning").

Thoroughly revised and updated, this powerful little book can help any motivated and capable student work smarter, not just harder, from high school through college.

When he wrote How to Study Arthur W. Kornhauser (1896-1990) was associate professor of business psychology at the University of Chicago.
[more]

logo for University of Chicago Press
Human Nature and History
A Study of the Development of Liberal Political Thought
Robert Denoon Cumming
University of Chicago Press, 1969
What is the subject-matter of political theory and how does it relate to other subject-matters, such as that of moral theory? What is the relation between political theory and political practice—between the kind of solution that a theory offers to the political problems and the kind of solution that is sought in practice through the operation of political institutions? What is the relation between scientific political theory and practical political arguments?

Human Nature and History, a monumental work in two volumes, is an attempt to analyze these relations. It is a work in meta-theory or the theory of political theory.

At the most general level, Cumming is concerned with the question of what is involved in the enterprise of political theory or political philosophy and how different conceptions of that enterprise have developed historically. More specifically, he is concerned with the format imposed on the historical development of political thought by Anglo-American liberalism, especially as represented by John Stuart Mill.

Since Cumming traces the development of political theory by reference to the relation between its subject-matter and other subject-matters, his study should be of interest to historians of thought and culture, as well as to political theorists and philosophers.
[more]

logo for University of Minnesota Press
Human Relations in Interracial Housing
A Study of the Contact Hypothesis
Daniel M. Wilner, Rosabelle Price Walkley, and Stuart W. Cook
University of Minnesota Press, 1955

Human Relations in Interracial Housing was first published in 1955. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.

No phase of this country's domestic or foreign relations holds greater potential power for harmony or conflict than our racial attitudes. Yet there is probably no area of social relations in which we have had fewer facts and more assumptions on which to base our thinking and our efforts at constructive action. This sociopsychological study adds considerably to our knowledge of actual racial attitudes in the United States and some of the factors that affect them.

The study examines the racial attitudes of people living in public, interracial housing projects in four cities: Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Hartford, and Springfield, Massachusetts. Based on interviews with more than 1000 white and Negro residents, it sought information that would help answer such questions as these: What is the effect of Negro-white residential proximity on race relations? Does living nearby reduce or intensify any already existing prejudices? What is the nature of the contacts that develop among members of the two races?

The findings show in great detail the effects of residential proximity and suggest the underlying reasons for the role that such proximity plays. They reveal, further, the effects of the contact experience itself and the perception of the social climate in the community regarding such contact.

The research forms an important sequel to the investigation reported in the book, Interracial Housing, by Deutsch and Collins, confirming some of the basic findings in the earlier study as well as providing new insights.

Psychologists, sociologists, social workers, housing officials, and community leaders will find solid evidence here on a subject that has been sparsely documented up to now.

[more]


Send via email Share on Facebook Share on Twitter