Alienated Minority

This narrative history surveying one thousand years of Jewish life integrates the Jewish experience into the context of the overall culture and society of medieval Europe. It presents a new picture of the interaction between Christians and Jews in this tumultuous era. Alienated Minority shows us what it meant to be a Jew in Europe in the Middle Ages. The story begins in the fifth century, when autonomous Jewish rule in Palestine came to a close, and when the papacy, led by Gregory the Great, established enduring principles regarding Christian policy toward Jews. Kenneth Stow examines the structures of self-government in the European Jewish community and the centrality of emerging concepts of representation. He studies economic enterprise, especially banking; constructs a clear image of the medieval Jewish family; and portrays in detail the very rich Jewish intellectual life. Analyzing policies of Church and State in the Middle Ages, Stow argues that a firmly defined legal and constitutional position of the Jewish minority in the earlier period gave way to a legal status created expressly for Jews, who in the later period were seen as inimical to the common good. It was this special status that paved the way for the royal expulsions of Jews that began at the end of the thirteenth century.

Constance Hoffman Berman presents an indispensable collection of the most influential and revisionist work to be done on religion in the Middle Ages in the last two decades. Bringing together an authoritative list of scholars from around the world, this book is a comprehensive compilation of the most important work in this field. Medieval Religion provides a valuable service for all those who study the Middle Ages, church history or religion.

Nearly all research devoted to policing focuses on public uniformed police and their legal use of force. An overwhelming amount of this work draws on evidence from Anglo-American police forces. These twin emphases have led to a limited view. Agencies such as criminal investigation units, intelligence services, private security companies, and military policing organizations have almost entirely escaped scholarly attention. In The Policing Web, Jean-Paul Brodeur looks at policing as a whole. He illuminates its full diversity, showing how it extends far beyond the confines of public police working in uniform and visible to all. Brodeur considers military policing, both when it complements the values of democracy and when it does not. He also discusses criminal individuals acting as police informants, and criminal organizations enforcing their own rules in urban zones deserted by the police. Brodeur argues that the diverse strands of the policing web are united by a common definition that emphasizes the license granted to policing agencies-legally or with impunity- to use means otherwise forbidden to the rest of the population. Employing an international and comparative approach, Brodeur establishes a comprehensive model that links all the components of policing. The policing web, however, is not a neat and well-integrated structure. There is not just one policing web. There are several, depending on the country, police history and culture, and the various public images of policing. These often overlooked factors are essential components of the context of policing. Wide-ranging and authoritative, The Policing Web expands the very idea of what policing is and how it works, and presents a novel yet fundamental understanding of law enforcement.

"Acephalous societies live in the rainforest or on prairies as nomadic pastoralists. The covenantal societies are acephalous; however, they inhabit the sedentary civilized world. This collection of up-to-date research focuses on the sociology, politics, justice administration, relations with hierarchies, successes, and failures of these societies"--

The movement of Han Chinese into minority regions has been a long-standing pattern in China. However, China's minorities have taken longer to start moving in significant numbers and have now become part of a social change phenomenon, motivated by economic, social, and political factors. This book looks at how current changes in China are affecting the minority population. The case studies focus on how population shifts and the movement of China's minorities impact such issues as education, ethnic identity, the environment, local economy, labor, and regional development. Han-minority interactions within a number of regions are also examined.

The Panel on Undergraduate Engineering Education prepared this report as part of the overall effort of the National Research Council's Committee on the Education and Utilization of the Engineer. The panel studied the academic preparation of engineers for practicing their profession. This document provides an analysis of the research done by the panel. Its findings and recommendations deal with: (1) "The Goals of Undergraduate Engineering Education"; (2) "Undergraduate Students"; (3) "Faculty"; (4) "The Curriculum"; (5) "The Role of Laboratory Instruction"; and (6) "The Two-Tiered System." The major conclusions of the study are described in the executive summary. (TW)