Renaissance In The Tropics

Between 1839 and 1879, some thirty American artists--including Frederic Church, Titian Peale, Norton Bush, James M. Whistler, and Martin Heade--trekked through Central and South America. Manthorne (art history, U. of Illinois) outlines the particular circumstances in the 19th-century US that turned national attention southward. With eight color and 100 bandw illustrations. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

GAVIOTAS, For the recovery of Earth’s skin There is a new start towards the world. One age that Mario Calderon Rivera, outstanding thinker and humanist, called Renaissance in the sense of both the Italian Renaissance as a change of mind of man to himself, and the contemporary one as a change of mind from man towards nature. The Renaissance, led by this brilliant saying of Leonardo da Vinci: "Everything comes from everything, and everything is made out of everything, and everything returns into everything" especially in a round planet. This also comes to be true in Centro "Las Gaviotas" where they achieved, among other things, the reawakening of the Amazon rainforest in the Colombian savannas of Orinoco. There they join the community welfare with the wealth generated by the sustainable use of tropical biodiversity, which, being located in the equatorial zone, has one of the highest rates of biological productivity. Within this context, Mario Calderon, travels through the last 60 years showing the ideas of the human being when he began to reflect on the effects of his action on Earth. They consist of a new attitude towards nature, seeing himself as being part of one system, with it he can coexist without destroying, understanding their connections, i.e. its complexity. Gaviotas age is this way of thinking. The author in honor of Gaviotas and its founder, Paolo Lugari, sets the theoretical foundations of the progress mankind has made in this respect since the last half century. Gaviotas is an example, a path, but at the same time an outpost of a bioculture that makes its way to protect both human life as well as that from others, which ultimately are subjected to the recovery of the vegetable skin of Earth, by the increase in biomass, as this determines the dynamic stability of the composition of the atmosphere of 99%, of nitrogen and oxygen If this composition would be disturbed by the continuing decline in biomass it would make impossible for human life to exist, something much more serious than global warming. Just warming is only a reductionist analysis of the issue. Development is seen now in productive harmony with nature, without undermining the very foundations of civilization. With an extensive knowledge of the authors who have made the ecological thinking trends of our time, Calderón contextualizes Gaviotas in the present world highlighting its conceptual contributions and its innovative achievements, always pointing to a decent lifestyle without denying the modernity.

A study of the artists who traveled, studied, and painted in Latin America, showing examples of their work, and interpreting and commenting on the artists' achievements

Offers a new interpretation of the history of colonial India and a critical contribution to the understanding of environmental history and the tropical world. Arnold considers the ways in which India’s material environment became increasingly subject to the colonial understanding of landscape and nature, and to the scientific scrutiny of itinerant naturalists.

The African Renaissance and the Afro-Arab Spring addresses the often unspoken connection between the powerful call for a political-cultural renaissance that emerged with the end of South African apartheid and the popular revolts of 2011 that dramatically remade the landscape in Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia. Looking between southern and northern Africa, the transcontinental line from Cape to Cairo that for so long supported colonialism, its chapters explore the deep roots of these two decisive events and demonstrate how they are linked by shared opposition to legacies of political, economic, and cultural subjugation. As they work from African, Islamic, and Western perspectives, the book’s contributors shed important light on a continent’s difficult history and undertake a critical conversation about whether and how the desire for radical change holds the possibility of a new beginning for Africa, a beginning that may well reshape the contours of global affairs.

This Asian interior design and architecture book showcases the best luxury homes and interior spaces of the Pacific region. Asia has emerged in the last couple of decades as the global leader in tropical villa design. With innovative indoor/outdoor architecture engineered to facilitate relaxed, al fresco lifestyles, there are myriad solutions to suit every taste and pocket. Featuring hundreds of homes, garden estates, hotels, restaurants and more from India to Indochina, Indonesia to Sri Lanka, the design book gives a tantalizing glimpse of the latest trends for tropical wannabe decorators. Full-color photography of interiors and exteriors, garden features, pools and pavilions, as well as decorative details and fashion forward furniture, is accompanied by insightful text that traces past history and present trends, and predicts what is to come, design wise, in the future.

A unique look at Shakespeare's works' influence on South African writing In this book Natasha Distiller explores historic and contemporary uses of Shakespeare in South African society which illustrate the complexities of colonial and post-colonial realities as they relate to iconic Englishness. Beginning with Solomon Plaatje, the author looks at the development of an elite group educated in English and able to use Shakespeare to formulate South African works and South African identities. Refusing simple or easy answers, Distiller then explores the South African Shakespearian tradition postapartheid. Touching on the work of, amongst others, Can Themba, Bloke Modisane, Antony Sher, Stephen Francis, Rico Schacherl and Kopano Matlwa, and including the popular media as well as school textbooks, Shakespeare and the Coconuts engages with aspects of South Africa's complicated, painful, fascinating political and cultural worlds, and their intersections. Written in an accessible style to explain current cultural theory, Shakespeare and the Coconuts will be of interest to students, academics and the general interested reader.