Böcker utgivna av McFarland and Company, Inc.

Service dogs play an important role in society, assisting their handlers in leading independent, fulfilling lives. These amazing dogs are trained to work with a wide range of disabilities, from visual impairments to PTSD, and come from a variety of breeds and backgrounds. Some service dogs are custom bred and trained by large charities, while others are rescue dogs of indeterminate breed, trained entirely by their owners. Disability knows no bounds and can strike anyone, at any time, leaving us alone, scared and confused, with many of us wondering how feasible it would be to integrate a service dog into our lives. This is a practical guide, written from the perspective of an ordinary dog owner turned service dog trainer, following her own need for a service dog. It covers everything from service dog breeding and selection, how to acquire a service dog, basic training, and public access work, to your dog's eventual retirement. Chapters also detail the day-to-day realities of living with and loving a service dog.

On November 4, 1980, American voters gave Ronald Reagan a 41-state Electoral College landslide. The man this mandate carried into the White House was largely compounded of mythology. Like most compelling mythologies, Reagan's was a synthesis of celebrity as well as emotional, intellectual, and cultural streams. Throughout his eight years in the oval office, the ""Great Communicator"" was largely successful in shaping the soul of America to reflect his durable mantra that ""government is the problem."" That same American soul later embraced Donald Trump--a president who, the authors argue, would have appalled Reagan. Reagan's myth persists, and by understanding his time in office in the context of American history and of the American presidency, we can understand how a transformative president created more than policy by also shaping culture with the instrumental force of mythology. This book attempts to neither praise nor bury Reagan but to explain him in non-partisan terms of contemporary popular mythology. The authors examine his legacy in his war on ""big government,"" which still drives politics, economic policy, and culture, even in Trump's era. They make the case that understanding the mythology at work is a necessary step toward healing American politics and saving American democracy.

Raising a glass to toast someone at a wedding or birthday is a familiar and usually informal occurrence, but at one time it was a carefully orchestrated ritual. They were planned, revised, given at an event, and then printed in newspapers. Americans learned who was or was not toasted for early national celebrations: King George III, George Washington, the Fourth of July, Washington's birthday, Jefferson's election, or military victories. During the tumultuous years of partisan fighting, toasts were used to spread or attack certain ideologies. The toasts became glimpses into what Americans honored at specific moments in the years from the beginning of the American Revolution to the end of the War of 1812. This book is a history of the early American republic viewed through its many toasts, which were raised and published throughout the new nation. As one of the earliest forms of social media, they offer a unique lens to view American history and early popular opinion.

Much is made of the test scores, earning power, and innovative contributions of highly intelligent kids, but we rarely ask what it's actually like to be ""gifted."" In a culture obsessed with exceptionalism, sorting by intelligence has become an educational norm, leading thousands of American students to be ushered through (or noticeably left out of) advanced academic programs. Stereotypes and generalizations about these students--from the socially inept genius to the high-strung overachiever-have filled the gap in data about who they are apart from what they achieve. At a time of educational upheaval and rapidly declining youth mental health, former gifted kids--particularly women and nonbinary people also wrestling with questions of identity, inequality, and parenthood--are reckoning with the ""gifted"" label. This work offers personal accounts from diverse voices, each one considered a ""gifted kid"" in their youth, and considers questions of identity, inequality, poverty, racism, and more. Essays address the dangers of praising achievements over efforts, imposter syndrome, intelligence as identity, and why even the smartest among us often feel like failures, among many other topics.

Babylon 5 revolutionized genre television. First aired in 1993, the space opera series is highly respected for everything it was trying to achieve on television at a time when Star Trek was king. Its use of story arcs and long-form storytelling in science fiction can be felt in everything from Battlestar Galactica to Lost and The Expanse. Much of its legacy has been about its struggle to survive. From the rivalry with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, to the collapse of the Prime Time Entertainment Network, the cancellation of spin-off series, and the failed big screen attempts--the behind-the-scenes details on Babylon 5 are as fascinating as anything we have on screen. This work explores the complex history of Babylon 5, the career of showrunner J. Michael Straczynski, and the behind-the-scenes drama to stay on the air, with many attempts to continue the franchise. Featuring interviews with cast members from the podcast A Dream Given Form, a lengthy two-part interview with Peter Jurasik (Londo) and a chat with Patricia Tallman (Lyta) and others, this book gives insights into what it was like to be part of Babylon 5, chronicling the show's highs and lows and examining the legacy it left behind in genre television.

Rebellion was recurrent in the Highlands because the Gaels (Scoti) were an often-oppressed indigenous minority in the nation, Scotland, to which they gave their name. They spoke a language, Gaelic, few outsiders would learn, and had their own family and social system, the clans. Warfare was bloody, culminating in the catastrophe of Culloden Moor during the doomed quest to restore the Stuart kingship to all of Britain. Economic hardship, including the near-genocidal Clearances, in which tenant farmers were replaced with sheep, drove the Gaels from the glens and islands, so that most today live in the diaspora, including millions in North America. Although the Gaels lack a single genetic identity, they clearly draw from distinct roots in the Irish, Norse and Picts. Despite their hardship, the Gaels are also presented in romantic portrayals by the artistic elite of other nations. This book offers ways in which the reader might find roots and ancestry in unfamiliar terrain. Chapters discuss the landscape and language of the Highlanders, the rise of clans, feuds and invasions, and eventual emigration.

The Hittites, one of the most powerful peoples of the ancient Near East, successfully challenged all other nations, including almighty Egypt, from their Anatolian stronghold. Then, their empire collapsed, was consigned to oblivion, and lay forgotten. Three thousand years later, a motley group of scholars, archaeologists, and adventurers rediscovered the Hittites in an enterprise spanning a century and weaving through the worlds of German kaisers, Turkish sultans, and even the Nazis. This is the history of the rediscovery of the Hittites, a story packed with intrigue and played out against a compelling historical backdrop. It involves colorful characters like an explorer fluent in 29 languages and an archaeologist who slept in royal tombs, along with Victorian historians, cuneiform experts, code-crackers, and grave robbers. These unlikely sleuths uncovered the very roots of the Hittite Empire.

The United States government is one of the world's largest publishers, printing and distributing a wealth of information including resources on American history, crime and justice data, contextualized government images, census data, genealogy research and much more. To serve patrons, library personnel must remain knowledgeable about U.S. government resources, agencies, departments, and websites. Aimed at librarians and library personnel from all types of libraries, and at researchers, this practical, hands-on volume is a useful resource for learning how to find and apply information from the wealth of U.S. government resources. It aids in answering various types of patron questions, performing community outreach, engaging in civic activities, serving business patrons, and providing classroom instruction. Readers will learn to discover the government's ""hidden"" information treasures and how to implement and adapt these resources in any library environment.

How are the Crusades portrayed in popular culture today? Have the medieval images of chivalric and military heroes survived the eras of Orientalism and decolonization? The first of its kind, this comparative study examines representations of the Crusades in both European and Arab medieval texts and in 20th and 21st century transmedia recreations. It follows the cartography and illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages through modern, hybridized narratives in novels, film, comics and gaming. The shifting literary tastes, political agendas and cultural exchanges of audiences on both sides of the Mediterranean reflect their anxieties and ideals.

This work focuses on humanity's first technology--language--by placing the views of two of the greatest philosophers of the 20th century in direct confrontation on the topic of language/sign communication. It addresses the dominant role of language by the unexpected means of exposing the limits of words and signs for conveying meaning. Identifying these limits leads to the surprising realization that such limits are also precisely what make communication possible. Wittgenstein strives to shore up the foundation of meaning through a deeper understanding of the tension between rules and practice in the use of signs--while Derrida strives to expose the tension in the nature of the sign itself. This tension underscores the presence of the sign as intimately bound up with its absence. As a result, these two approaches feature contrasting roles for interpretation between a sign and its meaning. Highlighting the differences between these approaches reveals the play of hazards and benefits for language users when faced with alternative ways of understanding and accessing the power and potential of language.

The body is the canvas upon which women paint their secrets, their hopes and dreams, pain and disappointments. Hair has long played a role in the struggles for power, self-determination and autonomy--serving as a nonverbal language that represents women's lives. However, pain, anxiety, racism, sexism and rigid beauty standards can too often underlie these stories. Modern events like the Black Lives Matter movement and the COVID-19 pandemic have exposed societal barriers that prevent the free and equitable expression of hair. Although countless books and articles address body image, the personal psychology and the meaning of hair have been missing. This work empowers women to understand complex hair-head-heart connections, and pressures. Above all, the text emphasizes that hair is never just hair.

The games of Mikhail Botvinnik, world chess champion from 1948 to 1963, have been studied by players around the world for decades. But little has been written about Botvinnik himself. This book explores his unusual dual career--as a highly regarded scientist as well as the first truly professional chess player--as well as his complex relations with Soviet leaders, including Josef Stalin, his bitter rivalries, and his doomed effort to create the perfect chess-playing computer program. The book has more than 85 games, 127 diagrams, twelve photographs, a chronology of his life and career, a bibliography, an index of openings, an index of opponents, and a general index.

The Confederacy had a great opportunity to turn the Civil War in its favor in 1864, but squandered this chance when it failed to finish off a Union army cornered in Louisiana because of concerns about another Union army coming south from Arkansas. The Confederates were so confused that they could not agree on a course of action to contend with both threats, thus the Union offensive advancing from Arkansas saved the one in Louisiana and became known to history as the Camden Expedition. The Camden Expedition is intriguing because of the "might-have-beens" had the key players made different decisions. The author contends that if Frederick Steele, commander of the Federal VII Army Corps, had not received a direct order from General Ulysses S. Grant to move south, disaster would have befallen not only the Army of the Gulf in Louisiana but the entire Union cause, and possibly would have prevented Abraham Lincoln from winning reelection.

This is a comprehensive journey through the long career of auteur Hollywood filmmaker Walter Hill, director of The Driver, The Warriors, Southern Comfort, 48 Hrs., Streets of Fire and many more. The book covers every motion picture that Hill directed, with historical detail and critical commentary on each, and discusses Hill's overall cultural relevance and industrial impact. It includes candid conversations with Hill; producer Larry Gordon; actors Nicholas Guest, William Sadler and Michael Pare; cinematographers Lloyd Ahern and Matthew Leonetti; composers Van Dyke Parks and David Mansfield; screenwriter Larry Gross, and others who worked with Hill throughout his prolific career.

Formula One has long maintained a glitzy aura that masks dark and strange goings-on in the background. But with the 2019 season came a force louder than Formula One could dream of muffling: William Storey, the founder of British energy drink startup Rich Energy. Storey became a multimillion-dollar sponsor of the Haas Formula One team a year after records showed Rich Energy having a mere $770 in the bank. He equated his doubters to moon-landing truthers and publicly mocked both the Haas team and the entities winning legal disputes against him. But where were actual cans of Rich Energy, and did the supposed sponsorship funds exist? In the six months between Storey's first race as a Formula One sponsor and his very public exit, he stole the spotlight with a loud mouth and an active Twitter account. Haas team boss Guenther Steiner once described the Rich Energy news cycle as: "I'm getting sick of answering these stupid fucking questions on a race weekend. I've never seen any fucking thing like this." No one else had, either. This book uncovers the complete, bizarre story.

Adopted as a child from the Masonic Home for Children at Oxford, Tommy Malboeuf grew up in Troutman, North Carolina before enlisting in the Navy in the early 1950s. After his military service, Tommy found occasional work surveying and operating heavy equipment, and he also found a personal passion in bluegrass fiddling. He performed and recorded with A.L. Wood and the Smokey Ridge Boys, Roy McMillan's High Country Boys, the Border Mountain Boys, L.W. Lambert and the Blue River Boys, C.E. Ward and his band, Garland Shuping, and Wild Country, among others. In the late 1990s, Tommy began teaching fiddle, maintaining a steady stream of students until at least the early 2000s. He continued to perform as a fiddler, filling in for a variety of local bands and recording cuts on records for bands such as Big Country Bluegrass. This text documents Tommy's life, from his humble beginnings to his lengthy fiddle career. Contextualizing Tommy's work within the Statesville-Troutman bluegrass "scene," chapters also explore the local bluegrass culture of the time. Tommy's extensive repertoire is also listed, including his spectacular fiddle contest wins, band recordings, local jam field recordings, and songs recorded for students, all of which highlight his talent and expertise as a fiddler.

Since its debut manga RG Veda, CLAMP has steadily asserted itself as one of the most widely renowned teams of manga artists, leaving a durable imprint in every established genre while also devising novel formulas along the way. Endowed not only with stylistic distinctiveness but also comprehensive cultural structure, CLAMP's output is distinguished by unique worldbuilding ¿air and visual vitality. Exploring a selection of CLAMP manga as well as anime it inspired, this volume examines CLAMP's broader philosophical underpinnings, its dedication to the invention of elaborate narrative constructs, its legendary passion for multilayered universes, and its symbolic interpretation of human identity. Throughout, the work highlights the team's incremental creation of a graphic constellation of unparalleled appeal.