A World Of Their Own

Tracing the history of intercultural struggle and cooperation in the citrus belt of Greater Los Angeles, Matt Garcia explores the social and cultural forces that helped make the city the expansive and diverse metropolis that it is today. As the citrus-growing regions of the San Gabriel and Pomona Valleys in eastern Los Angeles County expanded during the early twentieth century, the agricultural industry there developed along segregated lines, primarily between white landowners and Mexican and Asian laborers. Initially, these communities were sharply divided. But Los Angeles, unlike other agricultural regions, saw important opportunities for intercultural exchange develop around the arts and within multiethnic community groups. Whether fostered in such informal settings as dance halls and theaters or in such formal organizations as the Intercultural Council of Claremont or the Southern California Unity Leagues, these interethnic encounters formed the basis for political cooperation to address labor discrimination and solve problems of residential and educational segregation. Though intercultural collaborations were not always successful, Garcia argues that they constitute an important chapter not only in Southern California's social and cultural development but also in the larger history of American race relations.

A beautiful picture book for children 4+ taking the reader on a journey through Laura Carlin’s own colorful and imaginative visual world.

Discusses ritual events we regard as family traditions and how they must be open to perpetual revision so we can satisfy our human needs and changing circumstances.

A World of Her Own profiles 24 fascinating women from as the 1800s through today who have lived lives of exploration and adventure. These daring women represent various eras, cultures, races, and economic backgrounds but all overcome many obstacles to satisfy their curiosity, passions, and, often, drive to protect nature and cultures. Readers will meet women who face deadly weather conditions and endure leeches, days on end without showers, and questionable cuisine in the pursuit of discovery—women such as Eleanor Creesy, who lived a life at sea as a ship’s navigator in the 1800s; Kate Jackson, an insatiable investigator of venomous snakes whose work has led her to remote Africa and Latin America; and Constanza Ceruti, the world’s only female high-elevation archeologist, who carries out important excavations on some of the Earth’s highest peaks in dangerously thin air and subzero temperatures. These and 21 other remarkable women are introduced through profiles informed by not only historical research but also original interviews with many intriguing modern explorers who provide inspiration to any young woman today interested in nature, animals, science, adventure, the environment, and physical challenge. Michael Elsohn Ross is a naturalist, science educator, and award-winning author of over 40 books for children, including Salvador Dali and the Surrealists, Sandbox Scientist, and Snug As a Bug. He lives and works in Yosemite National Park.

The politics of black education has long been a key issue in southern African studies, but despite rich debates on the racial and class dimensions of schooling, historians have neglected their distinctive gendered dynamics. A World of Their Own is the first book to explore the meanings of black women’s education in the making of modern South Africa. Its lens is a social history of the first high school for black South African women, Inanda Seminary, from its 1869 founding outside of Durban through the recent past. Employing diverse archival and oral historical sources, Meghan Healy-Clancy reveals how educated black South African women developed a tradition of social leadership, by both working within and pushing at the boundaries of state power. She demonstrates that although colonial and apartheid governance marginalized women politically, it also valorized the social contributions of small cohorts of educated black women. This made space for growing numbers of black women to pursue careers as teachers and health workers over the course of the twentieth century. After the student uprisings of 1976, as young black men increasingly rejected formal education for exile and street politics, young black women increasingly stayed in school and cultivated an alternative form of student politics. Inanda Seminary students’ experiences vividly show how their academic achievements challenged the narrow conceptions of black women’s social roles harbored by both officials and black male activists. By the transition to democracy in the early 1990s, black women outnumbered black men at every level of education—introducing both new opportunities for women and gendered conflicts that remain acute today.

"Following the fate of a small Daoist community temple, the Wengongci in the town of Hanzhong, Shaanxi, the author examines the structure of the temple, the monastics living in it, its surrounding lay community, and the gods worshiped in its confines. Ina second part, she outlines the individual's path as a Daoist monastic today, from the choice of the religious life through the various forms of training to advanced ordinations and activities in the society. Her third part discusses the greater community of the Dao in terms of pseudo-kinship structures and gender issues. The book is full of amazing detail and reliable, on-the-ground information on the actual practice of Daoism in China today. It speaks both with the voices of the monastics and lay followers themselves as well as from the analytical perspective of the anthropologist. A must for anyone interested in the true face of religiosity and spiritual practice in China today."--Pub. desc.

Space explorers returning to an unrecognizable Earth after five millennia away find themselves caught up in a deadly political power game on a planet racing toward intergalactic war Five thousand years have passed since the interstellar spacecraft Explorer left Earth, and now Edward Langley and his two crewmates are returning home. The faster-than-light mission that took only a year for Langley, Matsumoto, and Blaustein has cost them the only world they ever knew. This future Earth is unrecognizable, its global society ruled by a benevolent, all-powerful computer and divided into a strict class structure of masters and slaves. Though war has been eradicated for generations, tensions between the powers on Earth and colonists on Centaurus over mineral mining are rapidly reaching a violent breaking point. The homecoming of three astronauts from the distant past should have no bearing on the present political situation. But the crewmembers did not come back alone—and the alien visitor who accompanied them holds the key to victory or total defeat. One of the most acclaimed of the Golden Age science fiction masters, Poul Anderson has written a provocative and enthralling tale of the future that incorporates his trademark blend of hard science, sociology, and humanism. At once thrilling and thought provoking, No World of Their Own is classic speculative fiction at its page-turning best, as only the incomparable Anderson could imagine it.

A World of Our Own is a mother’s account of how autism challenged her family and changed her life. Young mother Aileen McCallan is filled with love and joy at the birth of her second son, Cian. Now she feels she can settle into motherhood and a comfortable life. But it is not to be. From the age of about eighteen months, Cian’s behaviour grows increasingly strange: his language fails to develop; he shows little emotional or social connection; he doesn’t play with his older brother Christopher; and he screams and writhes at night, wearing down his parents. They face an endless series of assessments and tests as the truth gradually dawns: Cian has autism. Shocked to discover the lack of support or treatments available for those suffering from autism, Aileen determines to hold onto Cian, to stop her son from slipping away from her. She spends her waking hours working with him and searching for therapists who can connect with him using Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA). It is an uphill battle that strains Aileen’s sanity, her marriage, her world. She feels caught in a world where there is only Cian and her. A World of Our Own is a heart-breaking, uncompromising glimpse into a family affected by autism. Ultimately, though, it is a story of the triumph of the human spirit, and of the victory of love over despair.