Buckeye Battleground: Ohio, Campaigns, and Elections in the Twenty-First Century
Daniel J. Coffey

Price: $18.99

Buckeye Battleground is the result of a decade's worth of research at the Bliss Institute on elections in Ohio, with special emphasis on the 2004 and 2008 presidential campaigns, and the 2006 gubernatorial campaign. This book seeks to explain why Ohio is, and has been, at the center of American elections.Using historical analysis, demographic data, and public opinion surveys, the authors demonstrate Ohio's role as the quintessential "battleground" state in American elections. This title is unique in its approach and coverage.

The Cultural Context of Biodiversity:
Seen and Unseen Dimensions of Indigenous Knowledge among Q'eqchi' Communities in Guatemala
Petra Maass

Price: $35.99

How are biological diversity, protected areas, indigenous knowledge and religious worldviews related? From an anthropological perspective, this book provides an introduction into the complex subject of conservation policies that cannot be addressed without recognising the encompassing relationship between discursive, political, economic, social and ecological facets. By facing these interdependencies across global, national and local dynamics, it draws on an ethnographic case study among Maya-Q'eqchi' communities living in the margins of protected areas in Guatemala. In documenting the cultural aspects of landscape, the study explores the coherence of diverse expressions of indigenous knowledge. It intends to remind of cultural values and beliefs closely tied to subsistence activities and ritual practices that define local perceptions of the natural environment. The basic idea is to illustrate that there are different ways of knowing and reasoning, seeing and endowing the world with meaning, which include visible material and invisible interpretative understandings. These tend to be underestimated issues in international debates and may provide an alternative approach upon which conservation initiatives responsive to the needs of the humans involved should be based on.

European Capital, British Iron, and an American Dream:
The Story of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad
William Reynolds

Price: $14.99

The Atlantic & Great Western Railroad was one of the earliest and largest east-west railroad projects in the United States. It was the dream of American builders William Reynolds of Pennsylvania and Marvin Kent of Ohio. By using the non-standard six-foot gauge, these men helped construct a trunk line connecting the Atlantic tidewater with the Mississippi River "without break of gauge."

Money for the construction came principally from European investors, like Don Jose de Salamanca of Spain, while Great Britain furnished the iron. A strong English support group included James McHenry, Sir Samuel Morton Peto, and the brilliant engineer, Thomas Kennard. This American-European enterprise represented a unique example of intercontinental cooperation in railroad history.

Reynolds was the first president of the Pennsylvania and New York divisions of the A&GW. This published history is the first published source on this important railroad.

With a memorable talent for detail and authority, Reynolds demonstrates how difficult it was to build a railroad against a backdrop of the Civil War. The lack of capital and resources, the scarcity of labor, the control of the oil market, and the endless struggle against hostile public opinion and fierce competitors like the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central posed challenges that were not easily overcome. Yet, as Reynolds states, "in the face of all these formidable obstacles, the enterprise was crowned with success."

The Good Kiss
George Bilgere

Price: $9.99

The Good Kiss is a collection of poems dealing loosely with the subjects of divorce, sexuality, and American culture from the 1950s to today.The poems vary in tone from the fairly serious to the reflective and meditative, to the wryly comic. Perhaps it is fair to say that this range of tones exists within many of the individual poems, and is their defining characteristic. Poems like "What I Want," and "The Good Kiss" are good examples of these quirky, rather unexpected tonal shifts and blendings.

A History of Jonathan Alder
His Captivity and Life with the Indians
Larry L. Nelson

Price: $10.99

A History of Jonathan Alder: His Captivity and Life with the Indians is one of the most extensive first person accounts to survive from Ohio’s pioneer and early settlement eras. Nine year-old Alder was captured and taken to Ohio by Indians in 1782. Adopted by a Mingo warrior and his Shawnee wife, Alder lived as an Indian until 1805. After he left the Indians, Alder became one of the first European settlers to live in central Ohio. Alder composed his memoirs in the 1840s. His account chronicles his life for fifty years, from the time of his capture to 1832. The narrative, therefore, provides a unique perspective on frontier Ohio and its transformation from wilderness to statehood and the continuing evolution in the relationship between Ohio’s Indians and whites from the Revolutionary War-era to a time when many of the state’s Native peoples had been removed. Alder’s recollection provides an exceptional look at early Ohio. His portrait of his captors is revealing, complex, and sympathetic. The latter part of his narrative in which he describes his experiences in central Ohio is an extraordinary rich account of early pioneer life. Further, Alder was fortunate in that he encountered many of the persons and took part in many of the events that have become touchstones in Ohio’s pioneer history, including Simon Kenton, Simon Girty, and Col. William Crawford. He participated in the Battles of Fort Recovery and Fallen Timbers, and his recollection of these actions are among the few extant accounts that describe these events from a Native American perspective.

Lake Erie Rehabilitated
Controlling Cultural Eutophication 1960s-1990s
William McGucken

Price: $14.99

During the 1960s, inland bodies of water in North America and Europe experienced a dangerous transformation. Nutrients were dumped into the lakes, causing chain reactions which severely impacted on lake environments. The excessive increase into inland waters through human activity, known as cultural eutrofication, emerged as a dominant problem. Massive algae blooms drifted in overnourished lakes, depleting oxygen, damaging fish stocks, and transforming the water's ecosystem. In Lake Erie Rehabilitated, historian William McGucken presents a comprehensive account of the most notorious international incident of cultural eutrophication---Lake Erie. With the assistance of the International Joint Commission, Canada and the United States diagnosed phosphorous as the primary cause of the problem and, in a unique cooperative effort, reduced input to the lake from municipal and industrial wastewater plants and agricultural lands. Public pressure and government regulation encouraged the reluctant detergent industry to produce alternative detergents and, finally, reduced the input of phosphorous to targeted levels. Lake Erie is now rehabilitated, but its history over the last three decades demonstrates the importance of maintaining an environmental balance. Meticulously researched and documented, this book will appeal to environmentalists, historians, and readers who seek to understand the Great Lakes ecosystem, environmental issues, and environmental regulation.

Modern Solar Facilities: Advanced Solar Science, Proceedings of a Workshop held at Göttingen, September 27-29, 2006
Franz Kneer, Klaus G. Puschmann, and Axel D. Wittman, Editors

Price: $35.99

An international workshop entitled: Modern Solar Facilities Advanced Solar Science was held in Göttingen from September 27 until September 29, 2006. The workshop, which was attended by 88 participants from 24 different countries, gave a broad overview of the current state of solar research, with emphasis on modern telescopes and techniques, advanced observational methods and results, and on modern theoretical methods of modelling, computation, and data reduction in solar physics. This book collects written versions of contributions that were presented at the workshop as invited or contributed talks, and as poster contributions.

The Monkey and the Wrench: Essays into Contemporary Poetics
Mary Biddinger

Price: $9.99

The Monkey and the Wrench: Essays into Contemporary Poetics takes a snapshot of a moving target: the ever-shifting conversation about today's poetry. The ten essays in this collection offer reflections and insights, practical advice for craft matters, and provocative points of departure for those who read and write poetry. This series seeks to further the discussion of poetics in America and beyond, and to showcase the ideas of writers and critics with varied sensibilities. The first volume in the Akron Series in Contemporary Poetics, The Monkey & the Wrench, explores the debate over hybrid aesthetics, confronts the topic of contemporary rhyme, and ventures into the realm of persona and the mystical poem. This volume is ideal for both the classroom and the nightstand, for the poet's desk and the critic's bookshelf. Series editors Mary Biddinger and John Gallaher have assembled an eclectic collection that welcomes the reader into the conversation, while documenting the seismic activity of today's poetry world.

Murder, Culture, and Injustice: Four Sensational Cases in American History
Walter L. Hixson

Price: $9.99

Walter Hixson's pithy narrative account of four sensational national murder cases - the Lizzie Borden, Lindbergh baby, Sam Sheppard, and O. J. Simpson trials offers interesting observations into the greater cultural and political forces that shaped their verdicts.

His step-by-step analysis of the details of each case provides not only insight by skillful synthesis of the existing literature but also a solid overview of the events surrounding these four cases, each of which became a national obsession as well as a miscarriage of justice.

Taking a fresh look at the criminal justice system and the role of the media in the larger American milieu, Hixson delves into sociocultural impacts of crime that are both thought-provoking and fascinating reading.

Mysteries of the Hopewell:
Astronomers, Geometers, and Magicians of the Eastern Woodlands
William F. Romain

Price: $9.99

Buried beneath today's Midwestern towns, under several layers of earth and the accumulated debris of two thousand years, are the clues to an ancient mystery. A Native American people, now known as the Hopewell, lived and worked these lands, building earthworks which in some instances dwarf the ruins at Stonehenge. More significantly, these mammoth earthworks were built in different geometric shapes, using a standard unit of measure and aligned to the cycles of the sun and the moon.

Using the foundation of existing scholarship, Mysteries of the Hopewell presents new discoveries showing the accomplishments of the Mound Builders in astronomy, geometry, measurement, and counting. William Romain then goes one step further to theorize why generations of people toiled to move millions of tons of earth to form these precise structures, joining the ranks of the Egyptians, Mayans, Greeks, Chinese, and other advanced ancient cultures.

William Romain's Mysteries of the Hopewell will appeal to many readers, including anthropologists, mathematicians, and historians, but perhaps especially to readers curious about ancient cultures and seeking explanations for these magnificent earthen structures.

Poems at the Edge of Differences
Mothering in New English Poetry by Women
Renate Papke

Price: $19.99

This study consists of two parts. The first part offers an overview of feminism’s theory of differences. The second part deals with the textual analysis of poems about “mothering” by women from India, the Caribbean and Africa. Literary criticism has dealt with the representation of “mothering” in prose texts. The exploration of lyrical texts has not yet come. Since the late 1970s, the acknowledgement of and the commitment to difference has been foundational for feminist theory and activism. This investigation promotes a differentiated, “locational” feminism (Friedman). The comprehensive theoretical discussion of feminism’s different concepts of gender, race, ethnicity and mothering builds the foundation for the main part: the presentation and analysis of the poems. The issue of “mothering” foregrounds the communicative aspect of women’s experience and wants to bridge the gap between theory and practice. This study, however, does not intend to specify “mothering” as a universal and unique feminine characteristic. It underlines a metaphorical use and discusses the concepts of nurturing, maternal practice and social parenthood. Regarding the extensive material, this study understands itself as an explorative not concluding investigation placed at the intersections of gender studies, postcolonial and classical literary studies. Most of all, it aims at initiating a dialogue and interchange between scholars and students in the Western and the Third World.

Protection of Maize Under the Mexican Biosafety Law
Alicia Gutiérrez González

Price: $28.99

This book analyzes the importance of maize worldwide and the special importance for Mexico as a center of origin and diversity (COD). By adopting a comparative approach, the analysis focuses on how developed and developing countries handle imports of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO’s). The book also analyzes the impact that GMO maize imports from the USA might have in Mexico as a COD of maize. This book illustrates the process of economic liberalization in Mexico from the 1980s until the inception of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994, and provides a descriptive and analytical insight into the Mexican legal framework of biotechnology and biosafety, including complying with both international environmental and trade commitments.

Redefining Efficiency
Pollution Concerns, Regulatory Mechanisms, and Technological Change in the U.S. Petroleum Industry
Hugh S. Gorman

Price: $16.99

Today, pollution control regulations define how complex technological systems interact with natural ecosystems and competing human uses of the environment. Redefining Efficiency examines the evolution of this industrial ecology in the United States by tracing numerous pollution concerns associated with the production, transportation, and refining of petroleum over the course of the twentieth century. In doing so, this book demonstrates that a pollution control ethic based on the efficient use of resources emerged early in the century and met with enough success to undermine the first calls for strict government-enforced regulations. Redefining Efficiency also chronicles the failure of this efficiency-based pollution control ethic and its replacement by another. This second ethic required society first to define its environmental objectives and then to institute policies to achieve those objectives. The resulting regulations, by restructuring the economics of pollution control, have since redefined the notion of industrial efficiency.

Requiem for the Orchard
Oliver de la Paz

Price: $9.99

These are vivid, visceral poems about coming of age in a place "where the Ferris Wheel/ was the tallest thing in the valley," where a boy would learn "to fire a shotgun at nine and wring a chicken's neck/ with one hand by twirling the bird and whipping it straight like a towel." Looking back, the poet wrestles with the meaning of labor in the apple orchards and "the filthy dollars we'd wad into our pockets," or the rites of passage that included sinking a knife into the flank of a dead chestnut horse. In spite of such hardscrabble cruelties-or because of them-there is also a real tenderness in these poems, the revelations of bliss driving along an empty highway "like opening a heavy book, / letting the pages feather themselves and finding a dried flower." In line after line, poem after poem, there is an immersion in the realm of the senses. The poet has a gift for rendering his world in cinematic images: a ten-gallon hat on his head in the second grade is "an upside down chandelier;" carnival workers "snarl into the darkness on their borrowed Harleys." In short, these poems are the stuff of life itself, ugly and beautiful, wherever or whenever we happen to live it. -Mart Espada

The Search for the Ultimate Sink: Urban Pollution in Historical Perspective
Mary Biddinger

Price: $14.99

Whether it comes by air, by land, or by water, pollution has long plagued the American city. And for just as long, the question of how to deal with urban wastes has taxed the minds of scientists, engineers, and public officials - and the pocketbooks of ordinary citizens. For more than twenty years, Joel A. Tarr has written about the issues of urban pollution. In this collection of his essays, Professor Tarr surveys what technology has done to, and for, the environment of the American city since 1850. In studies ranging from the horse to the railroad, from infrastructure development to industrial and domestic pollution, from the Hudson River to the smokestacks of Pittsburgh, his constant theme is the tension between the production of wastes and the attempts to dispose of them or control them with minimal costs. The Search for the Ultimate Sink: Urban Pollution in Historical Perspective stands alone in its scholarly depth and scope. These essays explore not only the technical solutions to waste disposal, but also the policy issues involved in the trade-offs among public health, environmental quality, and the difficulties and costs of pollution control, and all this against the broader background of changes in civic and professional values. Any reader concerned with the interactive history of technology, the environment, and the American city will find in The Search for the Ultimate Sink an informative and compelling account of pollution problems from the past and a serious guide to urban policies for the future

The Sunday Game
At the Dawn of Professional Football
Keith McClellan

Price: $11.99

In the most complete and compelling account of the origins of professional football, The Sunday Game tells the stories of all the teams that played independent football in the small towns and industrial cities of the Midwest, from early in the twentieth century to the beginning of the National Football League shortly after the end of World War I. The foundations of what is now the most popular professional sport in America were laid by such teams as the Canton Bulldogs and the Hammond Clabbys, teams born out of civic pride and the enthusiasm of the blue-collar crowds who found, in the rough pleasure of the football field, the gritty equivalent of their own lives, a game they could cheer on Sunday afternoons, their only day free from work.

Thick Description and Fine Texture
Studies in the History of Psychology
Edited by David B. Baker

Price: $11.99

The essays contained in this volume offer a unique and personal perspective on the archival research process in the history of psychology. Celebrating the achievements of John A. Popplestone and Marion White McPherson, founders of the Archives of the History of American Psychology at The University of Akron in 1965, nine leading scholars describe the value, frustration, and satisfaction inherent in the archival process in the history of psychology. The essays provide valuable information on modern historiography in the history of psychology and the construction of historical narrative based on archival resources.

Towns and Communication
Communication in Towns

Price: $19.99

The advent of email and texting has dramatically changed the way we communicate. In essence, we have lost "touch" in our dealings with each other. This change may have been speeded by newer technologies, but telegraphs and telephones had a great impact in our perceptions of time and place. Before mass communication, the way we ordered and embedded knowledge and the possibilities of social interaction were defined by the extended human experience of living in towns. Can this experience be replicated with new technologies?

Tropical Mountain Forest: Patterns and Processes in a Biodiversity Hotspot
S. Robert Gradstein

Price: $35.99

Tropical mountain forests are very rich in species and are generally considered as hotspots of biodiversity. They are also of great ecological importance as sources of water and other ecosystem services for millions of people living in the tropics. However, these valuable forest ecosystems are now increasingly being fragmented, reduced and disturbed by human interventions. This book originated from a lecture series on the tropical mountain forest organized by the Göttingen Centre of Biodiversity and Ecology and held at the University of Göttingen, Germany during the summer term of 2007. The volume presents a synthesis of current ecological research in Germany on the tropical mountain forest, from an interdisciplinary perspective.