Coming To Terms

Coming to Terms: The Collected Works of Jane Blankenship, an edited collection from Jane Blankenship and Janette Kenner Muir, is the story of one academic journey through self-discovery, intellectual development, and mentorship. It is a conversation that illustrates how, in Mary Catherine Bateson’s terms, one composes a life that has meaning and makes a significant difference in other lives as well. Jane Blankenship was an active member of the speech communication discipline, starting with her first job teaching in the Rhetoric and Composition program at Mount Holyoke College and finishing with the great distinction of Professor Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. As a noted rhetorical scholar in both criticism and theory, Jane Blankenship was a long-time leader within the National Communication Association (including one of a handful of women who served as president in the 20th Century), and an award winner of numerous teaching and scholarship awards. Throughout her academic career, Blankenship made important contributions to the understanding of language and form, specific literary critics such as Kenneth Burke and Samuel Coleridge, and the role of women in politics. Most importantly, she worked with and inspired a cadre of graduate students who continue to reflect her ideas and perspectives in their own work, particularly in the area of political communication. Through her writing and mentoring, she impacted and changed thousands of lives. Coming to Terms brings together some of the significant pieces that marked Jane Blankenship’s career and also shows the process wherein one makes choices in writing and publishing that underscore the interrelationship between scholarship and teaching—an important element throughout her academic life.

Addiction is a beast that weaves through generations, wounding innocent children despite their parents’ love. Victoria’s parents’ alcoholism affected her throughout her childhood, and she perpetuated many of the same experiences and patterns in her own adult life, and later, in her parenting. Coming to Terms is the true story of Victoria’s journey through addiction and recovery, including her positive experience with Twelve Step programs, her husband’s cancer diagnosis, and her son’s death by overdose. Told in a series of flashbacks to both her childhood and her days as a young parent, Victoria’s sensitive spirit and tender hope are sure to evoke strong emotion, encouraging readers to continue to break free of their own generational cycles of trauma and strive for a better future. Recovery is possible for everyone, and can help even those deeply struggling with addiction to come to terms with the often tragic and traumatic events that may have occurred in their past.

When William Safire delineates the difference between misinformation and disinformation or “distances himself” from clichés, people sit up and take notice. Which is not to say that Safire’s readers always take the punning pundit at his word: they don’t, and he’s got the letters to prove it. Among the entries in Coming to Terms, this all-new collection of Safire’s “On Language” columns, you’ll read the repartee of Lexicographic Irregulars great and small. John Haim of New York sets in concrete what properly to call a cement truck, while Charlton Heston challenges an interpretation of Hamlet’s “to take arms against a sea of troubles” and Gene Shalit passes along his favorite Yogi Berra-ism. Bringing them all together are dozens of Safire’s most illuminating and witty columns, from “Right Stuffing” to “Getting Whom.” When William Safire comes to terms, there’s never a dull moment.

For over a decade, feminist studies have occupied an extraordinary position in the United States. On the one hand, they have contributed to the development of a strong 'identity' politics; on the other, they have been part of the post-structuralist critique of the unified subject - its experience, truth and presence - and of the massive challenge to Western metaphysics and humanism. Along with race and ethnic studies, feminist enquiry has moved beyond the fiction of a unitary feminism to address the differences within the study of difference. The essays in this volume all address feminism's relationships to theory and politics at the level of the criticism and production of knowledge. Readers and students of politics, history, literature, philosophy, sociology and the sciences - anyone with a stake in theory and politics - will benefit from this powerful book.

Clorinda, Lady Bexbury's intimates observe her to be in a strange unwonted mood: like Patience on a monument, she is concealing her unexpected fall into love towards her protegée Leda Hacker. While Olverham and Plumwell have fled abroad in disgrace, the repercussions of their machinations are still felt. The Season has begun, placing exceeding pressures on that most fashionable of modistes, Mamzelle Bridgette. Geoffrey Merrett, well-contented with his somewhat unconventional marriage, is briefed for the defence in a high-profile murder case. Nat Barron finds that his reputation for getting the job done is extending further than he knew. Leda, and Matt Johnson's other inquiry agents, have a deal of work upon hand.

A reflection of lessons in life and love, Justice Rae recounts a journey of self-discovery, as he tries to balance a delinquent brother, estranged parents, and a troublesome love life. Exploring the dynamics of family and friendship, Justice must learn for himself that all things, good and bad, happen for a reason.