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""In 1964, the New York Yankees were the undisputed champions of Major League Baseball. This book presents in all its context the story of the upstart St. Louis Cardinals, improbable champions of the National League, taking the Bronx Bombers to game seven in a harrowing World Series that ended with the toppling of an MLB dynasty and the ascension of an exciting new St. Louis Cardinals. Herein is the story of Bob Gibson, Tim McCarver, Mickey Mantle, Bobby Richardson, and numerous others who made baseball history and captivated the public during that exciting Fall Classic."-Provided by publisher"--

After struggling through a challenging childhood afflicted with asthma, overcoming dyslexia, and dealing with an abusive father, Frederick "Skip" Burkle was determined to become a physician. Despite the odds, he achieved that goal and then entered the Navy as a draftee. His first assignment was deployment to a combat base in South Vietnam close to the DMZ, one of the most violently contested areas in that war-torn country. Besides treating combat casualties, Dr. Burkle provided humanitarian medical care to local civilians, many of whom were suffering from the wounds of war plus living with a host of tropical diseases. That deployment not only introduced him to Vietnamese culture but also to the type of medicine he would continue to practice for the rest of his career. In this memoir, Burkle shares his story as a pioneer in global disaster medicine. He served in three major wars and multiple country conflicts, and escaped assassination attempts during his position as the Interim Health Minister of Iraq. Burkle's story reveals the challenges of practicing medicine in war-torn areas; he dealt with complex political and power struggles, negotiations, and the poverty-stricken aftermath of conflict. He also shared his skills with health care professionals around the world, earning him a legacy as the "father of disaster medicine."

Jane Austen's heroines respond to the power of the natural world, seeking comfort in nature's calm or referencing trees and "verdure"--meaning fresh greenness and fertility--in relation to their awakening self-knowledge and, in most, their sexuality. This book focuses on interactions between Austen's heroines and uncontrollable forces of nature. Gender and nature are interwoven; some upper-class, usually male characters exploit nature as they exploit women. In the fragment Sanditon, Austen satirizes resort developers who commodify both nature and women. This work demonstrates how Austen transformed the Regency novel through pastoral language and structures, illuminating themes of greed, the inequality of institutions and cultural norms, and the emotional development of young women in the early nineteenth century.

""Joe Hill emigrated to the United States in 1902 where he joined the Industrial Workers of the World and became the most celebrated labor songwriter in the country. In 1915, he was executed for a crime that is widely believed he did not commit, and in the 1930s, the song "Joe Hill" was created to honor this legendary labor martyr. This book, the first to tell the story of the song "Joe Hill," follows the song's national and international diaspora as it developed from a labor union ballad into an international anti-war anthem and rallying cry for all people to rise up against their oppressors. The story is told in the historical contexts of the times through which it traveled and includes the champions of the song who ensured its continued relevance, including Paul Robeson, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, and Utah Phillips."-Provided by publisher"--

Altered states of consciousness (ASCs)--including dreams, hypnosis, spirit possession and brainwashing--have long captivated contemporary culture. In the 20th century, Hollywood integrated ASCs into an array of films, reflecting society's fascination with the subject. After early cinematic portrayals laid the groundwork, the depiction of ASCs on the silver screen surged with the advent of special effects in the 1960s and are abundant in the present day. This book traces the rise and proliferation of ASCs within American cinema, focusing on major studio releases from the 1940s onward. By examining various aspects of altered consciousness, from weaponized hypnosis to spiritual encounters, the text sheds light on the cultural reception of these films, recent research on ASCs and discrepancies between scientific knowledge and cinematic representation.

We are witnessing the collapse of the postwar consensus, the implosion of the caring society. In times of social, economic, and political insecurity, egotism spreads. Many popular videogames follow a logic of consumerist self-gratification and self-empowerment. Deeply political, videogames contribute to the transformation of players, causing a need for change in what game designers do and how and why they do it. Awareness of the socio-political and cultural contexts can be promoted by the mainstream videogame market for critical active participation. This book focuses on the need for individual self-realization in Western societies and how it manifests in the various dimensions of videogames. Videogames remind us that we can never be isolated in a world defined by complexity and interlaced systems. Connecting videogames and new Neo-Kantian virtual ethics builds upon notions of agency, mutual respect, and obligation. This addresses humans in their entirety as thinking, acting, and feeling agents through engagement, immersion, and involvement.

"This book brings together essays written by a number of well-known writers of cozy mysteries, including Sherry Harris, Amanda Flower, Leslie Budewitz, and Edith Maxwell, among others, who provide insight into their approaches to writing. Topics covered include how they work with the form, develop characters and settings, and utilize the particular hook, skill or business that establishes the protagonist's ability to solve crimes. In addition to discussing these traditional aspects of writing, several authors focus on how they have expanded the direction the contemporary cozy mystery has taken with the inclusion of more diverse characters and social issues"--

"In this uplifting memoir, Lee Wilson shares stories from her four decades of dancing on Broadway, with anecdotes about theatre legends including Agnes de Mille, Richard Rodgers, Michael Bennett, Donna McKechnie, and Bernadette Peters. She details the economic, political, and social events that led from the Golden Age to the slump of the early 1970s to the rejuvenation of Broadway with the huge success of A Chorus Line. Wilson's feminist viewpoint gives readers new insight into well-known musicals and examines why Golden Age musicals are still relevant to Broadway audiences today. This book is for musical theatre students in high schools and colleges, performers in community and regional theatre, professionals on and off-Broadway, dance moms, lovers of musical theatre, and readers who want to peek into the rehearsal rooms, dressing rooms, and hearts of Broadway dancers."--

"From top hats to top secrets, this book is a celebration of illusion technology and mechanisms of trickery through a genre-crossing selection of films. Heroes, villains, spies, con-men, and madmen, magicians all, have utilized complex constructs and trickery in thrilling cinematic adventures from the earliest days of cinema to the present. Current blockbusters such as Spider-Man: Far from Home and the Mission: Impossible series feature amazing acts of deception, often appearing far-fetched, that are in fact surprisingly close to today's technology. Along with the James Bond saga, classics such as The Wizard of Oz, Nightmare Alley, and The Sting are joined by a host of other movies superficially seeming to be very different, yet proving there is more than meets the eye"--

"With three railroads and a canal passing through the city, Lynchburg, Virginia, was a major hospital center during the Civil War, far from the remote battlefields. Thus, it was chosen as the site of a transit camp where Union soldiers remained before being paroled or transferred to another prison, opening in June 1862 at the Fair Ground, just outside the city limits. Upon arrival, the sick and wounded were assigned to one of the 32 hospitals regardless of the uniform they wore. Union POWs who died were buried in the City Cemetery by the local funeral service which also carefully recorded their personal data. Local ministers daily performed burial services for all soldiers, regardless of their race or the color of their uniforms, and all their expenses were paid by the Confederate government. This book presents the complete history of this Union POW camp in Lynchburg: the context of its founding, its operations, and its ultimate fate after the war. Two appendices present burial records for the POWs and Lynchburg Campaign casualties." --

Between 1881 and 1914, more than two million Jews came to America. Most were poor, from the stultifying shtetls of the Pale of Settlements of the Russian Empire, steeped in Jewish tradition and religion, and Yiddish-speaking. In New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago they formed overcrowded Jewish ghettoes, living in cramped walk-up apartments and finding low-pay work in the clothing sweatshops or tobacco and cigarette factories. The children of the American Jewish ghetto had higher aspirations. From neighborhood elementary schools, the most academically gifted kids gained admission to elite high schools and acceptance into the nation's leading universities. Combining original thought with hard work, many reached the top levels in their chosen fields: in the sciences, the arts, academia, entertainment, Hollywood and in business. Despite anti-Semitism, more than 40 of them went on to become Nobel laureates, and many others were Pulitzer, Academy, Emmy and Tony award winners. This book shares the stories of many American-educated children of Jewish immigrants who emerged from American Jewish ghettoes.

"A high-stakes wager placed on a woman's virtue; men who spy on bathing women; tell-tale birthmarks; cross-dressing; dragons; tournaments; and aristocrats bursting into song--these features and more appear in the three stories translated here, all versions of the folktale known as 'the wager tale.' Such stories were especially popular in thirteenth-century France, when noblemen fulfilled their feudal duties far from home. Did their women remain faithful? A pressing question, for only female chastity guaranteed the legitimacy of heirs. This collection offers the first translations into English of The Romance of the Violet and The Count of Poitiers, along with a new version of The Tale of King Flore and the Fair Joan. The first paints a vivid portrait of thirteenth-century courtly life. The second, set in the eighth-century court of King Pepin, includes both a wager tale and a bride quest, the latter involving a shocking scene of female group nudity. Flore and Joan takes a different tack, presenting a clear-eyed heroine who overcomes daunting odds by posing as a man. These medieval tales portray strong women who gainsay social control of their bodies, thereby winning the respect of men--a scenario that resonates even today"--