1017 books match the query 'Reference' and 24 start with b

cover of Back Stages: Essays across Art, Performance, and Public Life

Back Stages

Essays across Art, Performance, and Public Life

Shannon Jackson

Northwestern University Press, 2022

Shannon Jackson explores a range of disciplinary, institutional, and political puzzles that engage the social and aesthetic practice of performance in this collection of twenty essential essays spanning her career. Back Stages starts by considering the historical connection between performance practice and movements of social reform, while later writings analyze disciplinary debates on the place of performance in higher education and within the contemporary field of socially engaged art, tracking fraught and allied relationships to literary studies, art history, visual culture, theater, social theory, and critical theory.
 
At a time of increased aesthetic experimentation and political debate within the art world, these essays alight on artists, groups, and cultural organizations whose experiments have challenged conventions of curation and critique, including Theaster Gates, Paul Ramírez Jonas, Harrell Fletcher, and My Barbarian. Throughout, Jackson navigates the political ambivalences of performance, from the late nineteenth to the twenty-first century, tracking shifts in participatory art that seek to resist capitalism, even as such performance work paradoxically risks neoliberal appropriation by a post-Fordist experience economy.
 
Back Stages surfaces unexpected cross-disciplinary connections and provides new opportunities for mutual engagement within a wide network of educational, artistic, and civic sectors. A substantial introduction excavates the critical links between the essays and a variety of disciplines and movements.
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cover of Bakhtin/ Bakhtin: The Archives and Beyond, Volume 97

Bakhtin/ Bakhtin

The Archives and Beyond, Volume 97

Peter Hitchcock

Duke University Press, 0

Offering original research on Mikhail Bakhtin by leading scholars in the field, this special issue of SAQ both celebrates the recent centennial of Bakhtin’s birth and elaborates significant new strains in Bakhtinian thinking. The distinction between Bakhtin and “Bakhtin” is a measure of the incommensurable space between the biographically verifiable figure and the one who emerges from contemporary critical applications of his work. While the inevitability of this space must be acknowledged, so too must its implications for a politics of culture where theory is concerned. Can there be a real Bakhtin, and can this one simply be the relevant Bakhtin? Is the deified Bakhtin just a reified Bakhtin?
Exploring both the dynamism of Bakhtin versus “Bakhtin” and the dynamics of “possible Bakhtins,” the contributors tackle this theorist’s range of shifting shapes, from the carnival-messianistic and the chronotopic, through the philosophic and the ideologic, to the “applied Bakhtin” of the social sciences. Bakhtin’s texts are examined in the context of work by such disparate figures as Ernst Cassirer and Rudolph Rocker, while various aspects of the academic “Bakhtin industry” are examined, including the “will to mythology by anthology” and the inequities of a world market in ideas exemplified by the resource gap between Russian and Western scholarship. The “state of the archive” is assessed by both UK Bakhtin Centre Director David Shepherd and Russian Bakhtin Archivist Nikolai Pan’kov. Throughout the issue, which is framed by Peter Hitchcock’s introductory polemics and Michael Holquist’s afterword, author and archive are continually deconstructed and reconstructed.

Contributors. Robert Barsky, Rachel Falconer, Maroussia Hadjukowski-Ahmed, Ken Hirschkop, Peter Hitchcock, Michael Holquist, Vitaly Makhlin, Nikolai Pan’kov, Brian Poole, David Shepherd, Galin Tihanov, Anthony Wall

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cover of Barrelhouse Words: A Blues Dialect Dictionary

Barrelhouse Words

A Blues Dialect Dictionary

Stephen Calt

University of Illinois Press, 2009

This fascinating compendium explains the most unusual, obscure, and curious words and expressions from vintage blues music. Utilizing both documentary evidence and invaluable interviews with a number of now-deceased musicians from the 1920s and '30s, blues scholar Stephen Calt unravels the nuances of more than twelve hundred idioms and proper or place names found on oft-overlooked "race records" recorded between 1923 and 1949. From "aggravatin' papa" to "yas-yas-yas" and everything in between, this truly unique, racy, and compelling resource decodes a neglected speech for general readers and researchers alike, offering invaluable information about black language and American slang.
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cover of Becoming a Psychotherapist: A Clinical Primer

Becoming a Psychotherapist

A Clinical Primer

Rosemary Marshall Balsam and Alan Balsam

University of Chicago Press, 1984

This well-respected guide to psychoanalytic psychotherapy addresses key issues for both beginning and practicing therapists, from the rhythm of the initial, middle, and final stages of therapy to the setting up of an office and the handling of fees and insurance. The book also deals with the management of borderline and potentially suicidal or homocidal patients in an out-patient setting. Unique in their direct approach to problems in a therapist's own life, the authors also discuss transference and contertransference issues that arise with pregnancy, changes in the therapist's love attachments, age, illness and a death in the practitioner's family. New in this second edition is a chapter on women therapists and women patients.
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cover of Behind the Academic Curtain: How to Find Success and Happiness with a PhD

Behind the Academic Curtain

How to Find Success and Happiness with a PhD

Frank F. Furstenberg

University of Chicago Press, 2013

More people than ever are going to graduate school to seek a PhD these days. When they get there, they discover a bewildering environment: a rapid immersion in their discipline, a keen competition for resources, and uncertain options for their future, whether inside or outside of academia. Life with a PhD can begin to resemble an unsolvable maze. In Behind the Academic Curtain, Frank F. Furstenberg offers a clear and user-friendly map to this maze. Drawing on decades of experience in academia, he provides a comprehensive, empirically grounded, and, most important of all, practical guide to academic life.

While the greatest anxieties for PhD candidates and postgrads are often centered on getting that tenure-track dream job, each stage of an academic career poses a series of distinctive problems. Furstenberg divides these stages into five chapters that cover the entire trajectory of an academic life, including how to make use of a PhD outside of academia. From finding the right job to earning tenure, from managing teaching loads to conducting research, from working on committees to easing into retirement, he illuminates all the challenges and opportunities an academic can expect to encounter. Each chapter is designed for easy consultation, with copious signposts, helpful suggestions, and a bevy of questions that all academics should ask themselves throughout their career, whether at a major university, junior college, or a nonacademic organization. An honest and up-to-date portrayal of how this life really works, Behind the Academic Curtain is an essential companion for any scholar, at any stage of his or her career.
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cover of Behind the Book: Eleven Authors on Their Path to Publication

Behind the Book

Eleven Authors on Their Path to Publication

Chris Mackenzie Jones

University of Chicago Press, 2018

Every book has a story of its own, a path leading from the initial idea that sparked it to its emergence into the world in published form. No two books follow quite the same path, but all are shaped by a similar array of market forces and writing craft concerns as well as by a cast of characters stretching beyond the author.
Behind the Book explores how eleven contemporary first-time authors, in genres ranging from post-apocalyptic fiction to young adult fantasy to travel memoir, navigated these pathways with their debut works. Based on extensive interviews with the authors, it covers the process of writing and publishing a book from beginning to end, including idea generation, developing a process, building a support network, revising the manuscript, finding the right approach to publication, building awareness, and ultimately moving on to the next project. It also includes insights from editors, agents, publishers, and others who helped to bring these projects to life.
Unlike other books on writing craft, Behind the Book looks at the larger picture of how an author’s work and choices can affect the outcome of a project. The authors profiled in each story open up about their challenges, mistakes, and successes. While their paths to publication may be unique, together they offer important lessons that authors of all types can apply to their own writing journeys.
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cover of Beijing Film Academy Yearbook 2018

Beijing Film Academy Yearbook 2018

Edited by The Journal of Beijing Film Academy

Intellect Books, 2020

The annual Beijing Film Academy Yearbook continues to showcase the best academic debates, discussions, and research published in the prestigious Journal of Beijing Film Academy from the previous year. This volume brings together specially selected articles, covering the most up-to-date topics in Chinese cinema studies appearing for the first time in English, in order to bridge the gap in cross-cultural research in cinema and media studies, as well as to encourage new conversations. 

This book is the latest offering in Intellect China Library series, which publishes work by Chinese scholars that have not previously been available to English-language academia. Covering the subjects of film studies, visual arts, performing arts, media, and cultural studies, the series aims to foster intellectual debate and to promote closer cross-cultural intellectual exchanges by introducing important works of Chinese scholarship to readers.

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cover of Beijing Film Academy Yearbook 2021

Beijing Film Academy Yearbook 2021

Edited by the Journal of Beijing Film Academy

Intellect Books, 2024

A collection of publications from the Journal of Beijing Film Academy.

The annual Beijing Film Academy Yearbook highlights the best academic debates, discussions, and research from the previous year, as previously published in the highly prestigious Journal of Beijing Film Academy. This volume brings together specially selected articles, appearing for the first time in English, to bridge the gap in cross-cultural research in cinema and media studies.

The book is the latest in the Intellect China Library series to produce work by Chinese scholars that have not previously been available to English-language academia. Covering the subjects of film studies, visual arts, performing arts, and media and cultural studies, the series aims to foster intellectual debate and to promote closer cross-cultural intellectual exchanges by introducing important works of Chinese scholarship to readers.
 
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cover of Beliefs and Rituals in Archaic Eastern North America: An Interpretive Guide

Beliefs and Rituals in Archaic Eastern North America

An Interpretive Guide

Cheryl Claassen

University of Alabama Press, 2015

A comprehensive and essential field reference, Beliefs and Rituals in Archaic Eastern North America reveals the spiritual landscape in the American Archaic period.

Beliefs and Rituals in Archaic Eastern North America describes, illustrates, and offers nondogmatic interpretations of rituals and beliefs in Archaic America. In compiling a wealth of detailed entries, author Cheryl Claassen has created both an exhaustive reference as well as an opening into new archaeological taxonomies, connections, and understandings of Native American culture.

The material is presented in an introductory essay about Archaic rituals followed by two sections of entries that incorporate reports and articles discussing archaeological sites; studies of relevant practices of ritual and belief; data related to geologic features, artifact attributes, and burial settings; ethnographies; and pilgrimages to specific sites. Claassen’s work focuses on the American Archaic period (marked by the end of the Ice Age approximately 11,000 years ago) and a geographic area bounded by the edge of the Great Plains, Newfoundland, and southern Florida. This period and region share specific beliefs and practices such as human sacrifice, dirt mound burial, and oyster shell middens.

This interpretive guide serves as a platform for new interpretations and theories on this period. For example, Claassen connects rituals to topographic features and posits the Pleistocene-Holocene transition as a major stimulus to Archaic beliefs. She also expands the interpretation of existing data previously understood in economic or environmental terms to include how this same data may also reveal spiritual and symbolic practices. Similarly, Claassen interprets Archaic culture in terms of human agency and social constraint, bringing ritual acts into focus as drivers of social transformation and ethnogenesis.
 
Richly annotated and cross-referenced for ease of use, Beliefs and Rituals in Archaic Eastern North America will benefit scholars and students of archaeology and Native American culture. Claassen’s overview of the archaeological record should encourage the development of original archaeological and historical connections and patterns. Such an approach, Claassen suggests, may reveal patterns of influence extending from early eastern Americans to the Aztec and Maya.

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cover of Beyond Homelessness: Frames Of Reference

Beyond Homelessness

Frames Of Reference

Benedict Giamo

University of Iowa Press, 1992

Homelessness is a haunting social problem that has, by all definitions, outgrown society's conventional solutions. Through their interviews with nine knowledgeable observers who range across the humanities, social and medical sciences, and human services, Giamo and Grunberg examines the nature and conditions of this ongoing crisis. No longer contained by traditional urban skid rows or state mental hospitals, homeless individuals now confront "normal" society face to face—and this "normal" society is at a loss for how to respond. The enormity of the problem has resulted in a stagnation of viable ideas, creating an industry with an endless litany of root cause and quick fix. But as these dialogues point out, there is no one root cause for the fact of homelessness. These timely, penetrating exhanges challenge established misconceptions of this problem.

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cover of Beyond Plagiarism: Transforming Pedagogy to Help Students Write with Sources

Beyond Plagiarism

Transforming Pedagogy to Help Students Write with Sources

Kenny Harsch and Betsy Gilliland

University of Michigan Press, 2025

When academia treats plagiarism as a right-or-wrong issue, university students are expected to already understand how to avoid this act of academic dishonesty. However, source use is filled with complexities, and student plagiarism is often connected to student struggles with the subtleties of academic writing. Scholarly work that involves incorporation of sources is, in fact, a complex network of processes. Beyond Plagiarism offers a pedagogical approach to plagiarism that is intended to help instructors, administrators, and advisors address plagiarism and mentor students’ understanding of these processes and their development as academic writers and scholars. 

Starting with an overview of the complexities underlying plagiarism and source use, the book offers practical tools that teachers can integrate in their classes. These tools include examples of modifications to syllabi; integrating processes into assignment design, classroom support, and feedback and grading; meta-texts to guide student reflection on their use of sources; explanations of why source use is important in academic writing; guiding students through learning how to read for writing, analyze genres to better understand expectations, and practice paraphrasing, summarizing, and quoting in their own assignments; approaching AI tools strategically; and modeling successful strategies for each step of the scholarly process. By taking a pedagogical approach, expert members of the academic community can help students understand how academic writing builds on and incorporates sources, provide support for students to learn to do these things through a process approach, and respond to situations of plagiarism with nuance, compassion, and a growth mindset.
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cover of Bibliographical Guide to the Study of the Literature of the USA, 5th ed., revised and enlarged

Bibliographical Guide to the Study of the Literature of the USA, 5th ed., revised and enlarged

Clarence Gohdes and Sanford Marovitz

Duke University Press, 1984

The Bibliographical Guide remains the most useful handbook of its kind now available to scholars for research in the field. The fifth revised edition includes updating and considerable but highly selective expansion as well as a section on Women's Studies. This edition includes over 100 new editions as well as more than 750 additional studies and reference works for a total of approximately 1,900 reference items, all annotated with the exception of a few with explanatory subtitles.
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cover of Biotic Communities: Southwestern United States and Northwestern Mexico

Biotic Communities

Southwestern United States and Northwestern Mexico

David E. Brown

University of Utah Press, 1994

Biotic Communities catalogs and defines by biome, or biotic community, the region centered on Arizona, New Mexico, Sonora, Chihuahua, and Baja California Norte, plus California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Texas, Coahuila, Sinaloa, and Baja California Sur. Originally published in 1982 by the Boyce Thompson Southwestern Arboretum, this ambitious book is still a "must-have" for those working in natural resources management and ecological research, as well as non-specialists who wish to know more about a particular locale.

Biotic Communities is arranged by climatic formation with a short chapter for each biome describing climate, physiognomy, distribution, dominant and common plant species, and characteristic vertebrates. Subsequent chapters contain careful descriptions of zonal subdivisions. The text is supplemented with over one hundred black and white photographs illustrating almost every community type.


 

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cover of Black Designers in Chicago: Culture and Community in the Twentieth Century

Black Designers in Chicago

Culture and Community in the Twentieth Century

Edited by Chris Dingwall, David Hartt, and Daniel Schulman

University of Chicago Press, 2026

A richly illustrated book focused on Black designers, how they shaped the history of modern design, and how their designs in turn influenced modern Black life.
 
In twentieth-century Chicago, generations of Black artisans, craftspeople, art educators, clothing makers, commercial illustrators, sign painters, furniture makers, beauticians, graphic designers, art directors, and screen printers made and remade the city into an energetic center for modern design. Ambitious, enterprising, and resolutely modern, these Black designers were workers and intellectuals, activists and entrepreneurs. They created works for commercial and everyday use and helped to build community institutions such as the South Side Community Art Center and businesses like the Johnson Publishing Company. Their works ranged from branding and housewares for major corporations to pamphlets and posters made in the name of civil rights and Black Power. Together, they made Black Chicago into a dynamic design scene, working against racism in their professions while embracing the possibilities of design as a medium of social change.
 
This book is the first to chronicle their collective history while also celebrating their influence on design as well as African American culture more broadly. Based on extensive archival research and building on a major 2018 exhibition, Black Designers in Chicago presents essays by experts in African American history and design. The book features illustrations of a stunning variety of works—from graphic design to screenprints to textiles and household wares—placing African Americans at the center of modern design history, while highlighting the role of design in the cultural history of Black Chicago.
 
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cover of Black and White Cinema: A Short History

Black and White Cinema

A Short History

Wheeler Winston Dixon

Rutgers University Press, 2015

From the glossy monochrome of the classic Hollywood romance, to the gritty greyscale of the gangster picture, to film noir’s moody interplay of light and shadow, black-and-white cinematography has been used to create a remarkably wide array of tones. Yet today, with black-and-white film stock nearly impossible to find, these cinematographic techniques are virtually extinct, and filmgoers’ appreciation of them is similarly waning.  
 
Black and White Cinema is the first study to consider the use of black-and-white as an art form in its own right, providing a comprehensive and global overview of the era when it flourished, from the 1900s to the 1960s. Acclaimed film scholar Wheeler Winston Dixon introduces us to the masters of this art, discussing the signature styles and technical innovations of award-winning cinematographers like James Wong Howe, Gregg Toland, Freddie Francis, and Sven Nykvist. Giving us a unique glimpse behind the scenes, Dixon also reveals the creative teams—from lighting technicians to matte painters—whose work profoundly shaped the look of black-and-white cinema.  
 
More than just a study of film history, this book is a rallying cry, meant to inspire a love for the artistry of black-and-white film, so that we might work to preserve this important part of our cinematic heritage. Lavishly illustrated with more than forty on-the-set stills, Black and White Cinema provides a vivid and illuminating look at a creatively vital era.
 
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cover of Blood Bowl: Fictions, Rules, Players

Blood Bowl

Fictions, Rules, Players

Paul Wake

University of Michigan Press, 2027

Blood Bowl, Jervis Johnson’s game of fantasy football, has been captivating players worldwide for nearly forty years. But what makes this game—with its painted miniatures, intricate rules, and passionate global community—so enduring? In Blood Bowl: Fictions, Rules, Players, Paul Wake traces the game’s history from its origins to the present day, situating the game within the broader contexts of Games Workshop’s manufacturing and commercial history. Wake draws on interviews with the game’s designers, players, artists, and sculptors alongside archival materials to give a comprehensive account of the game’s rich satirical storytelling, the risk management and spatial puzzles at the heart of its rules, and the psychology that makes Blood Bowl one of the most compelling games ever designed.

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cover of Boredom: The Literary History of a State of Mind

Boredom

The Literary History of a State of Mind

Patricia Meyer Spacks

University of Chicago Press, 1994

This book offers a witty explanation of why boredom both haunts and motivates the literary imagination. Moving from Samuel Johnson to Donald Barthelme, from Jane Austen to Anita Brookner, Spacks shows us at last how we arrived in a postmodern world where boredom is the all-encompassing name we give our discontent. Her book, anything but boring, gives us new insight into the cultural usefulness—and deep interest—of boredom as a state of mind.
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cover of Bound by Law?: Tales from the Public Domain, New Expanded Edition

Bound by Law?

Tales from the Public Domain, New Expanded Edition

Keith Aoki, James Boyle, and Jennifer Jenkins

Duke University Press, 2008

A documentary is being filmed. A cell phone rings, playing the Rocky theme song. The filmmaker is told she must pay $10,000 to clear the rights to the song. Can this be true? Eyes on the Prize, the great civil rights documentary, was pulled from circulation because the filmmakers’ rights to music and footage had expired. What’s going on here? It’s the collision of documentary filmmaking and intellectual property law, and it’s the inspiration for this comic book. Follow its heroine Akiko as she films her documentary and navigates the twists and turns of intellectual property. Why do we have copyrights? What’s “fair use”? Bound by Law? reaches beyond documentary film to provide a commentary on the most pressing issues facing law, art, property, and an increasingly digital world of remixed culture.
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cover of Breve historia de la lengua española: Segunda edición revisada

Breve historia de la lengua española

Segunda edición revisada

David A. Pharies

University of Chicago Press, 2015

Publicada inicialmente en 2007, esta Breve historia de la lengua española se ha convertido en la introducción más difundida a una de las lenguas más importantes del mundo por la extensión de su dominio y el número de hablantes. Este libro ofrece al lector un relato conciso que se propone profundizar en la evolución de la lengua desde sus raíces latinas hasta el presente, prestando especial atención a los cambios históricos y culturales que contribuyeron a su evolución y propagación por el mundo.
La Breve historia de la lengua española se concentra en los cambios más importantes de la evolución de la lengua, evitando la jerga académica ininteligible y favoreciendo la claridad en las explicaciones. Por el camino, intenta dar respuesta a muchas de las preguntas que con frecuencia desconciertan a los hablantes nativos y no nativos: ¿Por qué se utiliza tú en algunos lugares y vos en otros? ¿Cómo surgió la pronunciación como fricativa interdental de la zeta castellana? ¿Por qué se dice la mesa pero el agua con un artículo que parece masculino?
            David A. Pharies es un experto en el estudio de la historia y evolución del español, que goza de un reconocido prestigio en la escena internacional. Para actualizar esta segunda edición ha revisado en profundidad todos los aspectos de la evolución del español, incluido su desarrollo demográfico. El libro va dirigido a quienes tienen un conocimiento básico del español y desean aprender más sobre sus orígenes. También constituye una base ideal para emprender el estudio de cualquier aspecto de la lingüística histórica española y de la literatura medieval. Entretenida y accesible, la Breve historia de la lengua española es un gran viaje de descubrimiento en una presentación amena y sucinta.

Since its publication in 2007, A Brief History of the Spanish Language has become the leading introduction to the history of one of the world’s most widely spoken languages. Moving from the language’s Latin roots to its present-day forms, this concise book offers readers insights into the origin and evolution of Spanish, the historical and cultural changes that shaped it, and its spread around the world.
A Brief History of the Spanish Language focuses on the most important aspects of the development of the Spanish language, eschewing technical jargon in favor of straightforward explanations. Along the way, it answers many of the common questions that puzzle native and nonnative speakers alike, such as: Why do some regions use tú while others use vos? How did the th sound develop in Castilian? And why is it la mesa but el agua?
David A. Pharies, an internationally recognized expert on the history and development of Spanish, has updated this edition with new research on all aspects of the evolution of Spanish while adding current demographic information as well. This book is perfect for anyone with a basic understanding of Spanish and a desire to further explore its roots. It also provides an ideal foundation for further study in any area of historical Spanish linguistics and early Spanish literature. Both absorbing and accessible, A Brief History of the Spanish Language is a grand journey of discovery in a beautifully compact format.
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cover of Bridges to Knowledge: Foreign Students in Comparative Perspective

Bridges to Knowledge

Foreign Students in Comparative Perspective

Elinor G. Barber, Philip G. Altbach, and Robert G. Myers

University of Chicago Press, 1984

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cover of Burnham of Chicago: Architect and Planner

Burnham of Chicago

Architect and Planner

Thomas S. Hines

University of Chicago Press, 1979

By the time he died in 1912, Daniel H. Burnham was one of the most famous architects in America as well as an internationally renowned city planner. A contemporary of Louis Sullivan and his student, Frank Lloyd Wright, Burnham has often been characterized as a betrayer of the Chicago school of architecture that Sullivan and Wright were instrumental in defining. Thomas Hines's book gives long-due emphasis to the artistry of Burnham and places his accomplishments in a new perspective.

"Professor Hines has written what may prove to be an epoch-making book in the study of American civilization."—Reyner Banham, Times Literary Supplement

"Indeed, the book as a whole is a model of the balanced portrait, sure of Burnham's importance but always conscious of his failings."—Paul Goldberger, New York Times Book Review

"In every sense this is the definitive biography, and it is long overdue."—Harry Weese, Chicago Tribune

"This is a many-faceted book. Even if one were not interested in architecture or city planning, nor especially in Burnham the man, one would likely find the book rewarding because of the window it provides on a significant period of American history. . . . Hines brings alive many of the forces that were beating upon Burnham and his contemporaries, and which are shaping our lives today."—Edmund M. Bacon, Architectural Record

"Hines has provided an intelligently organized, well-written, and fascinating account of Burnham's entire career. The analysis [is] a model of scholarship, good judgment, and literary grace that satisfies a long felt need."—Kenneth T. Jackson, American Historical Review
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cover of Business Plans for Filmmakers

Business Plans for Filmmakers

John W. Cones

Southern Illinois University Press, 2010

The practical and legal aspects of writing a business plan for a film venture can be daunting to  navigate without a firm grasp of know-how. With this in mind, John W. Cones's Business Plans for Filmmakers arms independent movie-makers and students with everything they need to successfully tackle the confusing intersection of law, business, and art when creating a business plan for a movie. This pragmatic volume offers plenty of examples and strategies for success, sharing straightforward insight into some of the toughest challenges independent filmmakers face when encountering these documents.

With simple yet thorough detail and clarity, Cones outlines the legal requirements affecting movie proposals, including ways to evaluate the necessity for a business plan or a securities disclosure document, as well as the legal definition of "an active investor." Also addressed are the numerous subjects filmmakers and students must consider before a film offering, including the efficacy of a business plan to fund the development, production, and distribution phases of a film; common elements of fraud of which fledgling filmmakers should beware; the intricacies of revenue sharing; and how to render financial projections. Cones also imparts useful distinctions between such industry terms as "company financing" versus "project financing," along with many others.

This bookalso includes in-depth guidance through the murky paths of investor analysis and key strategies to find and attract parties interested in financing film. Drawing upon his many years as a securities and entertainment attorney, and his experiences advising independent film producers, Cones offers the tools necessary not only to understand investors' motivations but also to use that knowledge to the filmmaker's advantage. Also provided are perceptive studies of the investment vehicles commonly used in business plans seeking investors, with analysis of each method's pros and cons. Throughout the volume, Cones uses sample plans to offer a real-world grasp of the intricacies of the business.

In the business of this art, knowledge is power. Business Plans for Filmmakers dispels the myths and misinformation circulating among filmmakers to provide accurate and useful advice.

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cover of But Can I Start a Sentence with "But"?: Advice from the Chicago Style Q&A

But Can I Start a Sentence with "But"?

Advice from the Chicago Style Q&A

The University of Chicago Press Editorial Staff

University of Chicago Press, 2016

Q. Is it “happy medium” or “happy median”? My author writes: “We would all be much better served as stewards of finite public funds if we could find that happy median where trust reigns supreme.” Thanks!
A. The idiom is “happy medium,” but I like the image of commuters taking refuge from road rage on the happy median.
Q. How do I write a title of a song in the body of the work (caps, bold, underline, italics, etc.)? Example: The Zombies’ “She’s Not There” looped in his head.
A. Noooo! Now that song is looping in my head (“but it’s too late to say you’re sorry . . .”). Use quotation marks. Thanks a lot.
 
Every month, tens of thousands of self-declared word nerds converge upon a single site: The Chicago Manual of Style Online's Q&A. There the Manual’s editors open the mailbag and tackle readers’ questions on topics ranging from abbreviation to word division to how to reform that coworker who still insists on two spaces between sentences. Champions of common sense, the editors offer smart, direct, and occasionally tongue-in-cheek responses that have guided writers and settled arguments for more than fifteen years.

But Can I Start a Sentence with “But”? brings together the best of the Chicago Style Q&A. Curated from years of entries, it features some of the most popular—and hotly debated—rulings and also recovers old favorites long buried in the archives.

Questions touch on myriad matters of editorial style—capitalization, punctuation, alphabetizing, special characters—as well as grammar, usage, and beyond (“How do I spell out the sound of a scream?”). A foreword by Carol Fisher Saller, the Q&A’s longtime editor, takes readers through the history of the Q&A and addresses its reputation for mischief. (“It’s not that we set out to be cheeky,” she writes.)

Taken together, the questions and answers offer insights into some of the most common issues that face anyone who works with words. They’re also a comforting reminder that even the best writer or editor needs a little help—and humor—sometimes.
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cover of Butterflies of Illinois: A Field Guide

Butterflies of Illinois

A Field Guide

Michael R. Jeffords, Susan L. Post, and James R. Wiker

University of Illinois Press, 2019

Prairie spaces and abundant wildflowers make Illinois an amateur lepidopterist's delight. Butterflies of Illinois offers a portable, easy-to-use guide rich with descriptions, field photography, and life-sized specimen photos of all the state's native species. It also includes:
 
  • identification quick guides depicting the tops and undersides of all butterfly species
  • scientific information and photos that explain life cycles, habitats, and ecology
  • range maps
  • flight period charts
  • key characteristics relevant to field identification
  • descriptions of rarely seen butterflies and irregular visitors from nearby states
  • supplemental information on various species, including collection records and unusual sightings 
Geared toward enthusiasts and experts alike, Butterflies of Illinois is a must-have companion for any nature hike or garden walk.
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