Burning And Building

"Soon after overthrowing the Tokugawa government in 1868, the new Meiji leaders devised ambitious plans to build a modern nation-state. Among the earliest and most radical of the Meiji reforms was a plan for a centralized, compulsory educational system modeled after those in Europe and America. Meiji leaders hoped that schools would curb mounting social disorder and mobilize the Japanese people against the threat of Western imperialism. The sweeping tone of this revolutionary plan obscured the fact that the Japanese were already quite literate and had clear ideas about what a school should be. In the century preceding the Meiji restoration, commoners throughout Japan had established 50,000 schools with almost no guidance or support from the government. Consequently, the Ministry of Education’s new code of 1872 met with resistance, as local officials, teachers, and citizens sought compromises and pursued alternative educational visions. Their efforts ultimately led to the growth and consolidation of a new educational system, one with the imprint of local demands and expectations. This book traces the unfolding of this process in Nagano prefecture and explores how local people negotiated the formation of the new order in their own communities. "

1. General collapse information 2. Terms of construction and building design 3. Building construction: firefighting problems and structural hazards 4. Masonry wall collapse 5. Collapse dangers of parapet walls 6. Wood floor collapse 7. Sloping peak roof collapse 8. Timber truss roof collapse 9. Flat roof collapse 10. Lightweight steel roof and floor collapse 11. Lightweight wood truss collapse 12. Ceiling collapse 13. Stairway collapse 14. Fire escape dangers 15. Wood-frame building collapse 16. Collapse hazards of buildings under construction 17. Collapse caused by master stream operations 18. Search-and-rescue at a building collapse 19. Safety precautions prior to collapse 20. Why the World Trade Center Towers collapsed 21. High-rise building collapse 22. Post-fire analysis 23. Early floor collapse EPILOGUE: Are architects, engineers, and code-writing officials friends of the firefighters?

Describes building construction features and how to recognize collapse dangers for all types of buildings and construction methods. Includes : key elements that warn of imminent fire-induced collapse; how to prevent injuries to operating personnel; adapting risk/benefit techniques to manage firefighting personnel on the fireground; how building codes affect fire-induced building collapses.

Describes the experiences of a newcomer to the Yukon when he attempts to hike through the snow to reach a mining claim.

How did the Democratic Party--party of JFK, LBJ, and civil rights--fall from glory? How did Texas become Bush territory? What do politicians on either side need to do today to get our country back on track? Ben Barnes has the answers. Barnes had a front-row seat through it all. He won a seat in the Texas Legislature in 1960, at the age of 22, and four years later became the youngest Speaker of the House since the Civil War. In 1968, he helped Congressman George H. W. Bush get his son into the National Guard. How did his party lose its place in Texas, and the nation? Here, Barnes takes readers inside the rise and fall of the party he loves. He uses lessons learned in the Texas trenches as a guiding light for a new generation of lawmakers and political hopefuls, and calls for a return to bipartisan consensus building.--From publisher description.

Pulitzer Prize Finalist and Anisfield-Wolf Award Winner In New York Burning, Bancroft Prize-winning historian Jill Lepore recounts these dramatic events of 1741, when ten fires blazed across Manhattan and panicked whites suspecting it to be the work a slave uprising went on a rampage. In the end, thirteen black men were burned at the stake, seventeen were hanged and more than one hundred black men and women were thrown into a dungeon beneath City Hall. Even back in the seventeenth century, the city was a rich mosaic of cultures, communities and colors, with slaves making up a full one-fifth of the population. Exploring the political and social climate of the times, Lepore dramatically shows how, in a city rife with state intrigue and terror, the threat of black rebellion united the white political pluralities in a frenzy of racial fear and violence.

" ... Tells the stories of the buildings inhabitants as they fight, evade and panic over a fire that's consuming their home."--Publisher's website.

" ... Tells the stories of the buildings inhabitants as they fight, evade and panic over a fire that's consuming their home."--Publisher's website.