Between Rhetoric And Reality

This book is an account of how a disillusioned minister, Frederick D’Aeth came to Liverpool and ended up making a unique contribution to the social welfare of the city. It is both a personal and a political story of this previously uncelebrated man, whose interests and gifts contributed greatly to the transformation of social welfare in the early part of the 20th century. Margaret Simey charts how in 1905 D’Aeth came to this city, becoming the first paid lecturer in newly formed social science department in Liverpool University and later in 1909, became the Director of Reports for the newly formed Liverpool Council for Voluntary Aid. This was also one of the first of such coordinating councils, emerging from the Report on the Royal Commission on Poor Laws, with D’Aeth responding to this challenge with vigour and a wealth of ideas. Although it is part biography, the book is also an important journey into past and present debates over social welfare. D’Aeth represents a particularly interesting figure, as his work clearly bridged the period of transition between victorian philanthropism, and the growing influence of the welfare state. The author reveals the talent D’Aeth developed in the as yet undefined field of Social Administration and his particular verve for co-ordination. Such a focus was crucial with a tide of diverse and fairly uncoordinated charitable organisations. Margaret Simey concludes that D’Aeth largely succeeded in harnessing these diverse groups in Liverpool and from further afield and, in doing so, demonstrated the structural value of truly independent voluntary sector effort within society and the potential of the active ‘citizenship’, as a essential balance to government provision.

Many nations affirm the principle of gender equality. As women continue to advance in most walks of life, the impression that equality has been reached and that gender issues no longer pose real problems has naturally gained ground. Yet, many cultural, economic, and social barriers remain. Although as many women as men possess the skills necessary to shape social and economic development, women are still prevented from fully participating in decision-making processes. The papers collected in this volume focus on universities as one of the key institutions providing women with the education and leadership skills necessary for their advancement. Equally important is the role universities play in the shaping of a society's cultural fabric and, consequently, of attitudes towards women and their place in society. Both aspects are examined in this volume on the basis of a number of case studies carried out in western and non-western societies.

"Felix Meritis, the remarkable 'Temple of Enlightenment', adorns the Amsterdam canals since 1788. The building accommodated the most ambitious attempt in the Netherlands for the integration of activities regarding literature, music, the visual arts, commerce, and the sciences. What so far went unnoticed is that, from the very start, Felix Meritis was also equipped with an astronomical and meteorological observatory. In fact, it was the first scientific observatory in the Netherlands designed from the drawing board. This book describes the history of the observatory (which functioned until 1889), with a special focus on the tensions between the objectives formulated by its founding fathers and the ultimate difficult practice of scientific research. The Felix Meritis-Observatory was crucial for the training and early careers of various eighteenth- and nineteenth-century astronomers, among which Nieuwland, Van Beeck Calkoen, Moll, Keijser, Uylenbroek, and Kaiser (the father of modern Dutch astronomy)."--Cover.

The Unfinished Business of the Civil Rights Movement: Failure of America's Public Schools to Properly Educate its African American Student Populations by Frank Simpkins The Unfinished Business of the Civil Rights Movement: Failure of America's Public Schools to Properly Educate its African American Student Population vividly describes the current crisis of America's inability to properly educate its African American students. Many of the details and cited statistics indicate alarming illiteracy rates and high dropout rates for disadvantaged Black and Latino students across the country. These rates stand in sharp contrast to those of their White peers and the Black/White academic achievement gap continues to widen. The author mentions other problems that afflict the Black community, including the horrendous incarceration rates of young Black males, the shocking rates of Black abortions, and the "precarious and implosive" condition of the Black family in America. He contends that the core of these problems lay with America's failure to properly educate its Black students. These alarming figures are more than just statistics; they have widespread consequences upon American society. The author highlights a proven and scientifically tested dialect reading program that showed promising results for Black functionally illiterate inner-city students in grades 7-12. He urges that a Second Civil Rights movement is needed to gain equal quality educational opportunities for all of America's children. We cannot deny these rights to some children without disparaging all children and the nation. About the Author Frank Simpkins co-authored the book Between the Rhetoric and Reality with his brother, Gary Simpkins. He has served a number of years in the K-12 system and as Director of Educational Opportunities, Programs, and Services at Barstow Community College District.

Intended for teachers of college composition, this history of major and minor developments in the teaching of writing in twentieth-century American colleges employs a taxonomy of theories based on the three epistemological categories (objective, subjective, and transactional) dominating rhetorical theory and practice. The first section of the book provides an overview of the three theories, specifically their assumptions and rhetorics. The main chapters cover the following topics: (1) the nineteenth-century background, on the formation of the English department and the subsequent relationship of rhetoric and poetic; (2) the growth of the discipline (1900-1920), including the formation of the National Council of Teachers of English, the appearance of the major schools of rhetoric, the efficiency movement, graduate education in rhetoric, undergraduate courses and the Great War; (3) the influence of progressive education (1920-1940), including the writing program and current-traditional rhetoric, liberal culture, and expressionistic and social rhetoric; (4) the communication emphasis (1940-1960), including the communications course, the founding of the Conference on College Composition and Communication, literature and composition, linguistics and composition, and the revival of rhetoric; and (5) the renaissance of rhetoric and major rhetorical approaches (1960-1975), including contemporary theories based on the three epistemic categories. A final chapter briefly surveys developments through 1987. (JG)

One of the most pressing issues for scholars of religion concerns the role of persuasion in early Christianities and other religions in Greco-Roman antiquity. The essays in Rhetoric and Reality in Early Christianities explore questions about persuasion and its relationship to early Christianities. The contributors theorize about persuasion as the effect of verbal performances, such as argumentation in accordance with rules of rhetoric, or as a result of other types of performance: ritual, behavioural, or imagistic. They discuss the relationship between the verbal performance of rhetoric and other performative modes in generating, sustaining, and transmitting a persuasive form of religiosity. The essays in this book cover a wide chronological range (from the first century to late antiquity) and diverse topical examples contribute to the collection’s thematic centre: the relations among formalized and technical verbal performances (rhetoric, texts) and other forms of persuasive performances (ritual, practices), the social agendas that early Christians pursued by means of verbal, rhetorical performances, and the larger social context in which Christians and other religious groups competitively jockeyed to attract the minds and bodies of audiences in the Greco-Roman world.

`This is an admirable book which can be recommended to students with confidence, and is likely also to become an indispensable source of reference for those researching fact construction' - Discourse & Society How is reality manufactured? The idea of social construction has become a commonplace of much social research, yet precisely what is constructed, and how, and even what constructionism means, is often unclear or taken for granted. In this major work, Jonathan Potter offers a fascinating tour of the central themes raised by these questions. Representing Reality overviews the different traditions in constructionist thought. Points are illustrated throughout with