Contested Ground

The Spanish empire in the Americas spanned two continents and a vast diversity of peoples and landscapes. Yet intriguing parallels characterized conquest, colonization, and indigenous resistance along its northern and southern frontiers, from the role played by Jesuit missions in the subjugation of native peoples to the emergence of livestock industries, with their attendant cowboys and gauchos and threats of Indian raids. In this book, nine historians, three anthropologists, and one sociologist compare and contrast these fringes of New Spain between 1500 and 1880, showing that in each region the frontier represented contested ground where different cultures and polities clashed in ways heretofore little understood. The contributors reveal similarities in Indian-white relations, military policy, economic development, and social structure; and they show differences in instances such as the emergence of a major urban center in the south and the activities of rival powers. The authors also show how ecological and historical differences between the northern and southern frontiers produced intellectual differences as well. In North America, the frontier came to be viewed as a land of opportunity and a crucible of democracy; in the south, it was considered a spawning ground of barbarism and despotism. By exploring issues of ethnicity and gender as well as the different facets of indigenous resistance, both violent and nonviolent, these essays point up both the vitality and the volatility of the frontier as a place where power was constantly being contested and negotiated.

In Common and Contested Ground, Theodore Binnema provides a sweeping and innovative interpretation of the history of the northwestern plains and its peoples from prehistoric times to the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The real history of the northwestern plains between a.d. 200 and 1806 was far more complex, nuanced, and paradoxical than often imagined. Drawn by vast herds of buffalo and abundant resources, Native peoples, fur traders, and settlers moved across the region establishing intricate patterns of trade, diplomacy, and warfare. In the process, the northwestern plains became a common and contested ground. Drawing on a wide range of sources, Binnema examines the impact of technology on the peoples of the plains, beginning with the bow and arrow and continuing through the arrival of the horse, European weapons, Old World diseases, and Euroamerican traders. His focus on the environment and its effect on patterns of behaviour and settlement brings a unique perspective to the history of the region.

"Presidential power is hotly disputed these days - as it has been many times in recent decades. Yet the same rules must apply to all presidents, those whose abuses of power we fear as well as those whose exercises of power we applaud. This book is about what constitutional law tells us about presidential power and its limits. It is very difficult to strike the right balance between limiting abuse of power and authorizing its exercise when needed. This book advocates a balanced, pragmatic approach to these issues, rooted in history and Supreme Court rulings"--

One of the most striking characteristics of urban protest and social conflict in the United States, Britain, and other nations of the West over the last three decades is the frequency with which these political events have been organized not where people work, but where they live. The residential communities in which people have their homes, raise their children, and relate to each other more as neighbors than as co-workers have become veritable seedbeds of collective action. Contested Ground provides a new approach to understanding how and why such community-based action occurs. Drawing critically and selectively from Marxian theories of conflict and neo-Weberian theories of "housing classes," John Emmeus Davis argues that the political life of residential communities can be explained largely in terms of the competing interests that groups possess by virtue of different and distinctive ways of relating to their community's "domestic property"land and buildings that are used for shelter. In Part I of his book he proposes domestic property interests as the cornerstone of a theoretical framework for exploring the appearance and disappearance, the development and decline, and the cooperation and conflict of the organized groups of the "homeplace." In Part II he tests the plausibility of this framework against the social and political realities of an inner-city neighborhood known as the West End in Cincinnati, Ohio. A neighborhood shaped by successive waves of priyate investment and disinvestment, city neglect and city planning, urban renewal and gentrification, the domestic property of the West End has been the contested ground from which many community organizations have grown. Using archival records, oral histories, and organizational documents, Davis unfolds the story of the rise and fall of these grassroots groups. Davis's concluding chapters evaluate the theoretical and practical implications of his approach. He believes that his analysis may complement neo-Marxian theories of urban development and capitalist reproduction and also provide new insight into ways in which planners, activists, and policy makers can influence the internal politics of the urban neighborhood.

In 1962, an innovative documentary on a Berlin Wall tunnel escape brought condemnation from both sides of the Iron Curtain during one of the most volatile periods of the Cold War. The Tunnel, produced by NBC's Reuven Frank, clocked in at ninety minutes and prompted a range of strong reactions. While the television industry ultimately awarded the program three Emmys, the U.S. Department of State pressured NBC to cancel the program, and print journalists criticized the network for what they considered to be a blatant disregard of journalistic ethics. It was not just The Tunnel's subject matter that sparked controversy, but the medium itself. The surprisingly fast ascendance of television news as the country's top choice for information threatened the self-defined supremacy of print journalism and the de facto cooperation of government officials and reporters on Cold War issues. In Contested Ground, Mike Conway argues that the production and reception of television news and documentaries during this period reveals a major upheaval in American news communications.

Contested Ground provides a comprehensive and up to date account of the processes and experiences which shaped the lives of Aboriginal Australians from 1788 to the present. It integrates eye-witness accounts, oral histories and historical research to present the first colony-by-colony, state by state history of Aboriginal-white relations. Contested Ground tells a story of dispossession and denial but it is also a positive account, revealing the persistent struggles of Aboriginal communities for a better future. Clearly written and generously illustrated, this book demonstrates why Australian Aboriginal history, like the very land itself, remains contested ground. 'Both indigenous and non-indigenous Australians have a lot to learn about each other before reconciliation between the two peoples can be realised. This book will go a long way towards achieving that end.' - Paul Behrendt.

Though popular opinion would have us see Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There as whimsical, nonsensical, and thoroughly enjoyable stories told mostly for children; contemporary research has shown us there is a vastly greater depth to the stories than would been seen at first glance. Building on the now popular idea amongst Alice enthusiasts, that the Alice books - at heart - were intended for adults as well as children, Laura White takes current research in a new, fascinating direction. During the Victorian era of the book’s original publication, ideas about nature and our relation to nature were changing drastically. The Alice Books and the Contested Ground of the Natural World argues that Lewis Carroll used the book’s charm, wit, and often puzzling conclusions to counter the emerging tendencies of the time which favored Darwinism and theories of evolution and challenged the then-conventional thinking of the relationship between mankind and nature. Though a scientist and ardent student of nature himself, Carroll used his famously playful language, fantastic worlds and brilliant, often impossible characters to support more the traditional, Christian ideology of the time in which mankind holds absolute sovereignty over animals and nature.

One of the most striking characteristics of urban protest and social conflict in the United States, Britain, and other nations of the West over the last three decades is the frequency with which these political events have been organized not where people work, but where they live. The residential communities in which people have their homes, raise their children, and relate to each other more as neighbors than as co-workers have become veritable seedbeds of collective action. Contested Ground provides a new approach to understanding how and why such community-based action occurs. Drawing critically and selectively from Marxian theories of conflict and neo-Weberian theories of "housing classes," John Emmeus Davis argues that the political life of residential communities can be explained largely in terms of the competing interests that groups possess by virtue of different and distinctive ways of relating to their community's "domestic property"land and buildings that are used for shelter. In Part I of his book he proposes domestic property interests as the cornerstone of a theoretical framework for exploring the appearance and disappearance, the development and decline, and the cooperation and conflict of the organized groups of the "homeplace." In Part II he tests the plausibility of this framework against the social and political realities of an inner-city neighborhood known as the West End in Cincinnati, Ohio. A neighborhood shaped by successive waves of priyate investment and disinvestment, city neglect and city planning, urban renewal and gentrification, the domestic property of the West End has been the contested ground from which many community organizations have grown. Using archival records, oral histories, and organizational documents, Davis unfolds the story of the rise and fall of these grassroots groups. Davis's concluding chapters evaluate the theoretical and practical implications of his approach. He believes that his analysis may complement neo-Marxian theories of urban development and capitalist reproduction and also provide new insight into ways in which planners, activists, and policy makers can influence the internal politics of the urban neighborhood.