Dreams Of Gold

Burma is one of the largest countries in Southeast Asia and was once one of its richest. Under successive military regimes, however, the country eventually ended up as one of the poorest countries in Asia, a byword for repression and ethnic violence. Richard Cockett spent years in the region as a correspondent for The Economist and witnessed firsthand the vicious sectarian politics of the Burmese government, and later, also, its surprising attempts at political and social reform. Cockett’s enlightening history, from the colonial era on, explains how Burma descended into decades of civil war and authoritarian government. Taking advantage of the opening up of the country since 2011, Cockett has interviewed hundreds of former political prisoners, guerilla fighters, ministers, monks, and others to give a vivid account of life under one of the most brutal regimes in the world. In many cases, this is the first time that they have been able to tell their stories to the outside world. Cockett also explains why the regime has started to reform, and why these reforms will not go as far as many people had hoped. This is the most rounded survey to date of this volatile Asian nation.

"All that time, life kept putting its face around the door, but never came into the room." When Angel learnt her days were numbered, she viewed a frosted landscape that chilled more than blood and bone. To tell Jude would put a false complexion on their life together. Immersed in the precarious expansion of his business, he little suspected the true cause of her failing health and changed outlook. Events were only too ready to conspire in her silence. The dilemma swiftly wove its web of misunderstanding which prompted Jude's infidelity and Angel's poignant rapport with 'the bookseller of Glenfinnie', reaching a crisis where Jude's own life was imperilled. She was to make an inner journey of discovery, seeing in her condition some analogy with the global unrest of our times. This is a story which prompts haunting reflection on the mystical nature of human 'presence'. Were Life and Death two sides of the same coin?

One of the most persistent legends in the annals of New World exploration is that of the Land of Gold. This mythical site was located over vast areas of South America (and later, North America); the search for it drove some men mad with greed and, as often as not, to their untimely deaths. In this history of quest and adventure, Robert Silverberg traces the fate of Old World explorers lured westward by the myth of El Dorado. From the German conquistadores licensed by the Spanish king to operate out of Venezuela, to the journeys of Gonzalo Pizarro in the Amazon basin, and to the nearly miraculous voyage of Francisco Orellana to the mouth of the Amazon River, encountering the warlike women who gave the river its name, violence and bloodshed accompanied the determined adventurers. Sir Walter Raleigh and a host of other explorers spent small fortunes and many lives trying to locate Manoa, a city that was rumored to be El Dorado—City of Gold. Celebrated science fiction author Robert Silverberg recreates these legendary quests in The Golden Dream: Seekers of El Dorado.

A narrative tour de force that combines wide-ranging scholarship with captivating prose, Kevin Starr's acclaimed multi-volume Americans and the California Dream is an unparalleled work of cultural history. In this volume, Starr covers the crucial postwar period--1950 to 1963--when the California we know today first burst into prominence. Starr brilliantly illuminates the dominant economic, social, and cultural forces in California in these pivotal years. In a powerful blend of telling events, colorful personalities, and insightful analyses, Starr examines such issues as the overnight creation of the postwar California suburb, the rise of Los Angeles as Super City, the reluctant emergence of San Diego as one of the largest cities in the nation, and the decline of political centrism. He explores the Silent Generation and the emergent Boomer youth cult, the Beats and the Hollywood "Rat Pack," the pervasive influence of Zen Buddhism and other Asian traditions in art and design, the rise of the University of California and the emergence of California itself as a utopia of higher education, the cooling of West Coast jazz, freeway and water projects of heroic magnitude, outdoor life and the beginnings of the environmental movement. More broadly, he shows how California not only became the most populous state in the Union, but in fact evolved into a mega-state en route to becoming the global commonwealth it is today. Golden Dreams continues an epic series that has been widely recognized for its signal contribution to the history of American culture in California. It is a book that transcends its stated subject to offer a wealth of insight into the growth of the Sun Belt and the West and indeed the dramatic transformation of America itself in these pivotal years following the Second World War.

When gold was found in Northern California, news of it spread like a wildfire during the spring and summer of 1848. At first, most people thought the reports were too good to be true, but as weeks and months flew by, they heard about more people striking it rich – and imaginations started to run wild. Tens of thousands of people started to dream about gold, and some of them left everything they knew to make the journey to California. It didn’t matter if you were black, white or brown – anyone could go. Even people in Central and South America, Australia, China, and Western Europe heard about the gold and made the journey. By 1855, hundreds of thousands of people had converged on California. In this study, the author shares diary entries from gold seekers, painting a detailed portrait of the frenzy that overtook the world, the lives of the miners, and how the move West changed the fabric of a nation. Without the dreams, hard work, and dedication of the miners who moved West, the United States of America would not be what it is today.

The American Dream and Dreams Deferred: A Dialectical Fairy Tale shows how rival interpretations of the Dream reveal the dialectical tensions therein. Exploring often neglected voices, literatures, and histories, Carlton D. Floyd and Thomas Ehrlich Reifer highlight moments when the American Dream appears both simultaneously possible and out of reach. In so doing, the authors invite readers to make a new collective dream of a better future, on socially just, multicultural, and ecologically sustainable foundations.

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "The Golden Wheel Dream-book and Fortune-teller" by Felix Fontaine. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

The novel, Golden Streams, Dangerous Dreams, is the same story Shawn Swanky, and the Dragon Heart Pictures production team, made into a feature length movie in the summer of 2002. After hearing about the GSDD project, or after seeing the movie, so many people found the underlying story so entertaining, enoyable and interesting, that they began asking for copies of the script to read. Screenwriter/director Shawn Swanky responded with this fascinating short novel. Fast moving and easy to read, it features all the personal conflicts, the vivid sketching of competing visions, and the escalating drama that left people enjoying, and thinking about, the movie for days after leaving the theatre. Rarely ever has a young author packed so much story and wisdom into such a short space. Will the Anderson brothers discover Jim Richmond's buried treasure, and emerge from the gold rush rich as princes? Will the innocent Thomas be pulled along as his older brother takes ever bigger, and increasingly more questionable, risks? Will Paul realize his dream, or will he go mad from hurried hope and hot desire? Will the constable arrive in time to save Claire, Jim's fianc;eacute;e, from becoming another gold rush casualty at Paul's hand? And, then, among all these characters competing for the gold, there is also an ever deepening conflict between different visions of what makes a human being rich, truly rich, and about "...what it takes" to become rich. In the end, it is this conflict that might see Thomas either dead, or emerging from Devil's Canyon a rich man. GSDD is about the hope of living one's life as one who is rich. It is about trying too hard to realize a dream, and it explores what it means to be a "rich" human being. Although set in gold rush Barkerville, it is a universal story, one re-enacted in many settings, in many times, and even in our own time. The digital revolution, and the advent of the Internet, is only the most recent example of a major gold rush. In such an event, being first, having dumb luck, making a fortunate choice, or any combination of these, rather than hard work, diligence, discipline or knowledge, are most important in determining who has the chance to become disproportionately rich. These riches flow first to those there to seize them, not to those who would earn them, deserve them or know best how to use them. And, then, it seems most of those who grabbed the gold begin to loose it. Thus, the legacy of a gold rush is equally as well measured in the grotesque distortion of lives endured by so many participants, and their families, as it is in terms of the wealth created. "A story teller's first job is to entertain," Swanky says. "It has been gratifying to have so many people tell me Golden Streams, Dangerous Dreams made them both laugh and cry in the two hours it takes to read the book or watch the movie."