(Dis)Entangling Darwin

(Dis)Entangling Darwin
Author: Jorge Bastos da Silva
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2012-03-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1443838233

Charles Darwin’s curiosity had a remarkable childlike enthusiasm driven by an almost compulsive appetite for a constant process of discovery, which he never satiated despite his many voyages. He would puzzle about the smallest things, from the wonders of barnacles to the different shapes, colours and textures of the beetles which he obsessively collected, from flowers and stems to birds, music and language, and would dedicate years to understanding the potential significance of everything he saw. Darwin’s findings and theories relied heavily on that same curiosity, on seeking and answering questions, however long these would take to clarify. His son Francis Darwin often recalls how “he would ask himself ‘now what do you want to say’ and his answer written down would often disentangle the confusion”. In fact, “disentangling confusions” seems to have been the driving force behind Darwin’s scientific pursuits, as he was struck with bewilderment when contemplating the luxuriousness of life. It was also the impetus for this book. The true implications of Darwin’s legacy remain as controversial to the critics of our time as they were to his contemporaries. Darwin’s impact within and beyond the biological sciences is both daunting and exhilarating, and attests to the need for an interdisciplinary approach by remaining a challenge to many scholars in the most diverse fields. The recent revival of his theories has opened a Pandora’s box of different theoretical studies that are particularly receptive to exploring new and exciting angles of research.

Honest John Williams

Honest John Williams
Author: Carol E. Hoffecker
Publisher:
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2000
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

"Williams had deep roots in Sussex Country, the most southern, most rural, and most socially conservative part of Delaware. The book examines Williams's involvement in the country's poultry industry from its beginnings during the 1920s through the turbulent World War II years when Sussex poultry producers tangled with federal government officials from the Office of Price Administration and the U.S. Army. The war years coincided with the maturation of poultry production in Sussex that brought the county's people into more complex and wide-ranging economic, social, and political interactions. It was in reaction to these events that John Williams decided to run for the U.S. Senate."--BOOK JACKET.

Texas Divided

Texas Divided
Author: James Marten
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2014-07-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 0813148030

The Civil War hardly scratched the Confederate state of Texas. Thousands of Texans died on battlefields hundreds of miles to the east, of course, but the war did not destroy Texas's farms or plantations or her few miles of railroads. Although unchallenged from without, Confederate Texans faced challenges from within—from fellow Texans who opposed their cause. Dissension sprang from a multitude of seeds. It emerged from prewar political and ethnic differences; it surfaced after wartime hardships and potential danger wore down the resistance of less-than-enthusiastic rebels; it flourished, as some reaped huge profits from the bizarre war economy of Texas. Texas Divided is neither the history of the Civil War in Texas, nor of secession or Reconstruction. Rather, it is the history of men dealing with the sometimes fragmented southern society in which they lived—some fighting to change it, others to preserve it—and an examination of the lines that divided Texas and Texans during the sectional conflict of the nineteenth century.

Wine Culture in Iran and Beyond

Wine Culture in Iran and Beyond
Author: Bert G. Fragner
Publisher: Austrian Academy of Sciences Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2014
Genre: Iran
ISBN: 9783700175544

Ausgehend von wichtigen neuen archaologischen Befunden und Erkenntnissen, die zu einer Neubewertung der Geschichte des Weinbaus in Iran und seinem asiatischen Kontext gefuhrt haben, untersucht dieser Band kulturelle, soziale und politische Aspekte der Weinkultur in der iranischen Welt. Die hier versammelten Fallstudien und Essays reichen von der Frage nach den Anfangen des Weinbaus und -handels zwischen dem iranischen Hochland und China bis zur Weinkultur im Kafiristan des 20. Jahrhunderts. Sie schliessen Themen wie die Rolle von Rauschgetranken im Hadith und die Bedeutung und Funktion von Wein in der klassischen persischen Dichtung und in der iranischen Architektur ebenso ein wie die Vieldeutigkeiten von Alkohol im vormodernen Iran und angesichts der Herausforderungen von Moderne und kolonialen Begegnungen.