First Taste Of Freedom

The bicycle has long been a part of American culture but few would describe it as an essential element of American identity in the same way that it is fundamental to European and Asian cultures. Instead, American culture has had a more turbulent relationship with the bicycle. First introduced in the United States in the 1830s, the bicycle reached its height of popularity in the 1890s as it evolved to become a popular form of locomotion for adults. Two decades later, ridership in the United States collapsed. As automobile consumption grew, bicycles were seen as backward and unbecoming—particularly for the white middle class. Turpin chronicles the story of how the bicycle’s image changed dramatically, shedding light on how American consumer patterns are shaped over time. Turpin identifies the creation and development of childhood consumerism as a key factor in the bicycle’s evolution. In an attempt to resurrect dwindling sales, sports marketers reimagined the bicycle as a child’s toy. By the 1950s, it had been firmly established as a symbol of boyhood adolescence, further accelerating the declining number of adult consumers. Tracing the ways in which cycling suffered such a loss in popularity among adults is fundamental to understanding why the United States would be considered a “car” culture from the 1950s to today. As a lens for viewing American history, the story of the bicycle deepens our understanding of our national culture and the forces that influence it.

The bicycle has long been a part of American culture but few would describe it as an essential element of American identity in the same way that it is fundamental to European and Asian cultures. Instead, American culture has had a more turbulent relationship with the bicycle. First introduced in the United States in the 1830s, the bicycle reached its height of popularity in the 1890s as it evolved to become a popular form of locomotion for adults. Two decades later, ridership in the United States collapsed. As automobile consumption grew, bicycles were seen as backward and unbecoming—particularly for the white middle class. Turpin chronicles the story of how the bicycle’s image changed dramatically, shedding light on how American consumer patterns are shaped over time. Turpin identifies the creation and development of childhood consumerism as a key factor in the bicycle’s evolution. In an attempt to resurrect dwindling sales, sports marketers reimagined the bicycle as a child’s toy. By the 1950s, it had been firmly established as a symbol of boyhood adolescence, further accelerating the declining number of adult consumers. Tracing the ways in which cycling suffered such a loss in popularity among adults is fundamental to understanding why the United States would be considered a “car” culture from the 1950s to today. As a lens for viewing American history, the story of the bicycle deepens our understanding of our national culture and the forces that influence it.

At the start of Americas Civil War, southern slaves were faced with a monumental decision. A TASTE OF FREEDOM tells the remarkable story of loyal, well treated slaves who fought for the South and the life they knew, rather than leave their beloved plantation homes to seek the freedom promised by the Northern invaders. Two men, one a humane plantation owner, the other a slave, who experienced a unique freedom, stand as one. Emotions run high as both don Confederate uniforms, willing to fight and die for what they believe is a just cause.

In this long-term community study of the freedom movement in rural, majority-black Claiborne County, Mississippi, Emilye Crosby explores the impact of the African American freedom struggle on small communities in general and questions common assumptions that are based on the national movement. The legal successes at the national level in the mid 1960s did not end the movement, Crosby contends, but rather emboldened people across the South to initiate waves of new actions around local issues. Escalating assertiveness and demands of African Americans--including the reality of armed self-defense--were critical to ensuring meaningful local change to a remarkably resilient system of white supremacy. In Claiborne County, a highly effective boycott eventually led the Supreme Court to affirm the legality of economic boycotts for political protest. NAACP leader Charles Evers (brother of Medgar) managed to earn seemingly contradictory support from the national NAACP, the segregationist Sovereignty Commission, and white liberals. Studying both black activists and the white opposition, Crosby employs traditional sources and more than 100 oral histories to analyze the political and economic issues in the postmovement period, the impact of the movement and the resilience of white supremacy, and the ways these issues are closely connected to competing histories of the community.

This book contains ten Dhamma talks given by the renowned Thai meditation master Venerable Ajahn Chah.

This book contains thirty numbers of the renowned Bodhi Leaf Publication series, dealing with various aspects of the Buddha’s teaching. 61 : The Law of Karma and Mindfulness—Dr. Karel Werner; 62 : Drugs or Meditation?—Lama Govinda; 63 : The Buddha—a Unique Teacher—Francis Story; 64 : Arahantship—Jacqueline Dunnington; 65 : When the Ego Meets Buddhism—Carlo Gragnani; 66 : The Twin Pillars and Other Essays—John Andrew Storey; 67 : The Buddha's Teachings—Soma Thera; 68 : The Elimination of Anger—K. Piyatissa Thera; 69 : The Search For Buddhist Economics—Padmasiri De Silva; 70 : The Buddhist Layman's Code of Discipline—Soma Thera; 71 : Taste of Freedom—Bhikkhu Bodhi; 72 : Development of the Will—Wladislaw Misiewicz; 73 : Emancipation From the World—Bhikkhu Buddhadasa; 74 : What Meditation Implies—Acharya Buddharakkhita; 75 : Perfections of Buddhahood—Nina Van Gorkom; 76 : The Population Crisis & Conservation—Douglas M. Burns; 77 : Coming to Terms With One's Shadow—Ruth Walshe; 78 : The Concept of Peace—O.H. de A. Wijesekera; 79 : Words Leading to Disenchanment—Soma Thera; 80 : The Buddhist Essays—Bhikkhu Silacara; 81 : The Path to Purity—M.B. Werapitiya; 82 : New Age Relating Religions—Bhikkhu Khantipalo; 83 : Heredity Beyond Materiality—D.D.P. Nanayakkara; 84 : Insight Meditation in the Forest—Ron Ohayv; 85 : Beginning Insight Meditation—Dorothy Figen; 86 : Buddhism in Daily Life—M.O.C. Walshe; 87 : Buddhism as a Practical Teaching—H.L. Seneviratne; 88 : Buddhist Tales From Sanskrit Sources—Ratna Handurukande; 89 : Anatta & Responsibility—A.D. Jayasundere; 90 : Your Best Friend—M.B. Werapitiya;

Given the extensive influence of the 'transport revolution' on the past two centuries (a time when trains, trams, omnibuses, bicycles, cars, airplanes, and so forth were invented), and given science fiction's overall obsession with machines and technologies of all kinds, it is surprising that scholars have not paid more attention to transportation in this increasingly popular genre. Futuristic Cars and Space Bicycles is the first book to examine the history of representations of road transport machines in nineteenth-, twentieth-, and twenty-first-century American science fiction. The focus of this study is on two machines of the road that have been locked in a constant, often bitter, struggle with one another: the automobile and the bicycle. With chapters ranging from the early science fiction of the pulp magazine era in the 1920s and 1930s, to the postcyberpunk of the 1990s and more recent media of the 2000s such as web television, zines, and comics, this book argues that science fiction by and large perceives the car as anything but a marvelous invention of modernity. Rather, the genre often scorns and ridicules the automobile and instead promotes more sustainable, more benign, more restrained technologies of movement such as the bicycle.