Faint Praise

"Rowland examines Marvell's political poetry and Dryden's Annus Mirabilis, showing how panegyrical writing developed into mock-panegyric and satire, increasingly as much in response to versions of events as to the events themselves. The author then describes how Marvell exploits panegyrical strategies to subvert its conventional deliberative function, as his equal virtuosity at praise and blame actually undermines his ethos and separates his advice from any clear authority capable of implementing it. Moreover, in Marvell the addressee of conventional panegyric, while remaining ostensibly Charles II, is internalized in a series of grotesques resembling, in various ways, the megalomaniacal "Bayes" (Samuel Parker, Bishop of Oxford). Marvell uses variations on the abuse of the conventional panegyrical arrangement of people, poet, and prince as a metaphor for the abuse of the proper relationship between all signifieds and their signifiers." "Writing a generation later, Swift borrows many of the themes and motifs of The Rehearsal Transpros'd for his satire in A Tale of a Tub, in particular the association of the preface with panegyric, as a metaphor of the reversal that occurs between praiser and praised, vehicle and tenor, when proper relationships are abused. Rowland also explores how Swift moves from the unsatisfactory use of analogy in his panegyrical "Odes," to more satisfactory use of it in the Tale and then concentrates on the prefaces of the Tale as "Panegyrical paratext.""--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

"Pool's behind-the-scenes look at the institution of book reviewing analyzes how it works and why it often fails, describes how editors choose books for review and assign them to reviewers, examines the additional roles played by publishers, authors, and readers and contrasts traditional reviewing with newer, alternative book coverage"--Provided by publisher.

"Toward the end of World War II, newspapers revealed what American soldiers had discovered months before - when Sherman tanks tried to slug it out with the heavier German Panzers, they came out second best. Historical argument has it that the hidebound conservatives of the Army effectively blocked the introduction of superior fighting vehicles based on their tactical dogmas that tank destroyers - not tanks - should fight German armor. "Faint Praise" disagrees with this notion, and instead reveals that problems in tank development resulted from a complicated and often confusing melange of technology, doctrine, combat experience, intelligence, and personalities. Further, it dispels the myth that soldiers were pleading for a better armed Sherman throughout the war. The demand for big guns did not start until mid-1944, leaving little time for a technological solution to Panzer-killing. Using new, fascinating sources and a fresh look at some old ones, "Faint Praise" considers the full spectrum of historically relevent facts, from technological capabilities to operational history, to provide a new answer to the tank question of World War II."

In the seventy years that have passed since the tank first appeared, antitank combat has presented one of the greatest challenges in land warfare. Dramatic improvements in tank technology and doctrine over the years have precipitated equally innovative developments in the antitank field. One cycle in this ongoing arms race occurred during the early years of World War II when the U.S. Army sought desperately to find an antidote to the vaunted German blitzkrieg. This Leavenworth Paper analyzes the origins of the tank destroyer concept, evaluates the doctrine and equipment with which tank destroyer units fought, and assesses the effectiveness of the tank destroyer in battle.

Jane Lawless and her friend Cordelia Thorn investigate the suspicious death of a well-known TV personality who fell from the famous Foshay Tower in Minneapolis.

Much philosophical work on pop culture apologises for its use; using popular culture is a necessary evil, something merely useful for reaching the masses with important philosophical arguments. But works of pop culture are important in their own right--they shape worldviews, inspire ideas, change minds. We wouldn't baulk at a book dedicated to examining the philosophy of The Great Gatsby or 1984--why aren't Star Trek and Superman fair game as well? After all, when produced, the former were considered pop culture just as much as the latter. This will be the first major reference work to right that wrong, gathering together entries on film, television, games, graphic novels and comedy, and officially recognizing the importance of the field. It will be the go-to resource for students and researchers in philosophy, culture, media and communications, English and history and will act as a springboard to introduce the reader to the other key literature in the field.

This is a classical text of a dictionary of English idioms and phrases. This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.